With all the warhammer excitement I forgot to post about the new podcast. Just so you guys know the podcast is up which recorded on thursday as well as one from the week before. You can find us on itunes as Up Down Left Right A B Start. And the blog can be found here.

So I haven't been posting any blogs lately. Not that I do regularly anyways, but whos countin'?

Well one of the things concerning my little absence this past week is a little beta I managed to get into known as Warhammer Age of Reckoning. In case I haven't mentioned it before I am a complete warhammer nut. Although im mostly into 40k, the science fiction counterpart, I love the dark gritty world of warhammer. Its a great contrast to most high fantasy novels and universes. Although i quit the tabletop game about a year ago, I ahve continued to read the fiction for the past six years. Over the years I have read a total of roughly 29 novels based ont he fiction, only 6 of which were fantasy, and im sure im missing a couple on my list.

So when Warhammer online was announced I was just a little bit excited and immediatly signed up for the beta. When I finally ogt in I have to say, this is one of the most enjoyable MMO's I have ever played. War is truly everywhere. From the orcs and their shoddy warcamps and broken english. To the Dwarven halls and mines of reciulously exagerated size (giant mountain cannon FTW). Warcraft has nothing on the backstory and setting of warhammer. The PvP is awesome. The Public Quests are awesome. The races and classes are awesome. Everything about this game is awesome. I ahven't loved an MMO this much since pre cu SWG Emu. Which says a lot for me.

Sadly beause of the open beta coming up my chracters ahve been wiped. Now the servers are back open and I must go back and "Crush me sum Stunties."

Grab ya choppas boyz. 'Iz time to start da Waagh!

For fun I decided to post all the book sI have read. Before I do I ahve to note I strongly reccomend the Blackhearts fantasy series to anyway who enjoys fantasy reading. It is probably my favorite of the whole bunch. You can probably find the omnibus in your localbarnes and noble.

40K

Angels of darkness
space wolf
wolfblade
grey hunter
Nightbringer
Warriors of Ultramar
Dead Sky Black Sun
Caves of Ice
Death or Glory
Duty Calls
For the Emperor
Sabbat Martyr
Necropolis
First and Only
Ghostmaker
What Price Victory
Armageddon
Draco
Harlequin
Chaos Child
13th Legion
Kill Team
Annihilation Squad

Fantasy

Vlanir's Bane (Blackhearts)
The Broken Lance(Blackhearts)
Tainted Blood (Blackhearts)
Skaven Slayer
Daemon Slayer
Blood of the Dragon

SO I mentioned in an earlier blog that I had been playing ET: Quake Wars and how fascinating and all that crap. WAs planning to do a review on the game and talk about what made it so great. The usual stuff. However, as I really thought about all the things I loved about the game, I started to realize a couple things. Although the game itself is awesome, what really was making it shine game after game after game was one simple thing, the community. With such a small and tight knit community I regularly see the same guys on the three heavily used ranked servers, all of them using there mics, all of them working together to achieve a goal.

That was it. That is what makes me love games like this so much. Sure the gameplay is smooth and the mission system makes finding somehting usefull to do easy, but what makes me come back game after game was the teamplay. Getting ont he micropone and coordinating with your teamates to smash the enemy into a pulp, and doing it succesfully, is a feeling like no other. It is the same reason I loved Battelfield 1942, the same reason I loved BF2, the sae reason I loved Chromehounds, and the same reason I loved planetside. Some people jsut don't understand the allure of the common everyday shooter. Sure games like your average CTF game of Halo and Domination in COD4 can benefit from a little teamwor. But it doesn't compare to running clan matches calling in your tank support to help clear out the units blocking your entry to the control point. Your not taking orders from your platoon leader to lead your squad through the backdoor to attempt to hack into their computer and take the base for the gloty of the Vanu Sovereignty.

Nothing beats running a game of BF2142 with your mates and simply because of your joint efforts you completely smash the other team. I feel sorry for the guys who never getto experience something like this, its truly awesome.