TallGuyCalif's Computer Gaming and Entertainment Site

Author: TallGuyCalif

  • Enjoying the story quests in Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO)

    I’ve really been enjoying the story missions in LOTRO recently. I had neglected them for a while, because I was having so much fun in skirmishes and generally exploring Middle Earth. I had completed the missions in Lone Lands and North Downs (Esteldin), so was sent to Rivendell for more.

    Elrond had me running all over the place talking to his sons and such, but that led to some really cool fellowship missions that could be done solo because I got a buff that gave me thousands to HP (Morale in LOTRO). Killed a bunch of trolls! All of this was to look for a Nazgul that escaped the flood at the Ford of Bruinen.

    Two days a go, I got to take a long, boring walk with Frodo, at Gandalf’s urging. Not very exciting, but nifty nonetheless.

    Yesterday, however, I got some fun missions! In one, I chased Gollum and nearly caught him (and killed an orc escort). In another, I went with Legolas to hunt forest trolls and their minions. In the end, we ran into the Nazgul commanding a boss troll, which we quickly dispatched. The Nazgul escaped, however, so I’m sure he will be back to cause us trouble.

    I also completed a Legendary Trait that allows me to use a sword as well as my Lore Master staff. This trait, based on Gandalf’s sword usage, makes me slightly tougher up close, though I can still die too easily. I’m also discovering that my Lynx pet seems to show more threat that the Bear that I had been using as a tank. The Bear (BigGrowly) is slightly tougher than the Lynx (Slynxy), but the Lynx keeps the enemies at a distance for longer. Plus the Lynx has the awesome sneak attack that can take down some enemies in one shot!

  • Logitech G15 Keyboard Spill and Cleaning

    I managed to spill less than a mouthful of Coke on my fabulous Logitech G15 gaming keyboard yesterday. I immediately unplugged it to avoid electrical damage, but then I did exactly the wrong thing: I turned it over to try to drain the Coke out.

    It turns out my beloved keyboard has raised mounts on which each keycap sits, and while the initial spill couldn’t penetrate them, by turning it over, Coke went into the keycaps, then down the mounts when I turned it upright again.

    After the initial drying, all the keys worked fine, so I thought I had dodged the bullet. But later, as I was playing LOTRO, I noticed that the “I” key was hard to press and slow to come back up. Of course, “I” is inventory, so it is used all the time. Then I noticed, as I was chatting with my kinship members, the period key was even worse than the I key!

    This morning, I looked at all sorts of resources that involved taking the keyboard apart and removing the circuits and LEDs and such and putting some pieces in the dishwasher. While that sounded awful, I was resigning myself that I should at least take the darn thing apart and take a look.

    Then I saw a post that said the keycaps are easy to take off and quite robust and hard to damage. This is a change from the old days when my wife would spill her soup into her Apple Extended Keyboard and I really did have to take it apart to clean bits of carrot out of there.

    So I took a picture of it to make sure I put all the symbol keys back in the right places:

    and started prying a wedge of keys off between the Alt below the period up to the I key. I used a small flat screwdriver and it was pretty easy, though I was very careful.

    The area between the key posts was disgusting so I used slightly damp Q-Tips to clean the area. I also cleaned the inside of the key wells for the I and period keys using very little water. Once I was done, I put it back together and checked that all the keys popped up well again.

    I plugged it back in and it lit up and works:

    I am now using the keyboard to type this. The I key is back to about 95% of its old feel, but the period has been getting stickier as I type. Maybe it needs to come off yet again…………………….

  • Why I like LOTRO so much

    Note: as I write this, LOTRO is down. There is big activity on Twitter where everyone is telling which server they’re on. Look for the #Servername hashtag. I posted mine.

    I have been enjoying Lord of the Rings Online a lot recently. I have 4 characters (the natives call them “toons”) on the Gladden server, one a mid-level Lore Master, a lower-level Hunter, a similarly low-level Minstrel, and a very low-level Rune Keeper. There are several more classes that I have yet to try. Each class is so different that it really makes the game very interesting and not boring to replay the missions (mostly). For example, the Hunter is quite the badass at low level, and has only died about twice, and then only when mobbed. The Lore Master can reach out and touch the enemy and has a pet to help, but dies pretty easily when approached. The Minstrel can play music that does damage and heals, but can also use weapons. I haven’t played the Rune Keeper long enough to be able to comment on him.

    The crafting system in LOTRO is very good (and much better than in Star Trek Online, though that has improved a lot). To craft, you need materials and recipes, which you either need to gather or otherwise get. Being in a Kinship is great help here, because your kin will send materials and recipes to you (as well as give you other goodies). Then, when you make something nice, you can send it to appropriate kin. Essentially, you don’t need to be self reliant. One of my characters is a jeweler and a cook, while another is a farmer and woodworker, and a third is a scholar (potions and scrolls) and weaponcrafter. With crafting, you can often make better stuff than what drops from your kills.

    If you this sounds like fun to you, check out LOTRO, create characters on the Gladden server, and, when you decide you want to stay, look for members of the “Thirst for Power” kinship and join up!

  • Sony PS3 updates stink

    I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been very busy with work. I haven’t not been playing games, however. In fact, LOTRO has been taking my all my minuscule free time. But more on that later.

    This weekend, I decided I want to check out Assassins Creed Brotherhood, which I’ve had since about when it came out, but haven’t even put into the PS3. I fired up the old PS3 to play and discovered an update, even though I updated a week or two ago.

    As usual, this stupid update takes ten or fifteen minutes to download (even though I have a very fast cable connection, so surely Sony is throttling or underprovisioned) and then a few more minutes to install.

    These things never happen on the Xbox360. Updates there are quick and painless. Sony has taken more of a Windows approach (big download and reboot), but at least with Windows the download and much of the install can happen in the background.

    Clearly Sony doesn’t get it. We want to play games on the PS3, not have to maintain it, like we do our PCs. Sony makes updates tedious and punishes the user by preventing anything else from happening. C’mon, at least let us play space invaders while the download happens. Can’t the SPEs in the Cell processor do anything other than download? As usual, Sony hardware is great, but their software leaves a lot to be desired.

  • iPad/iPhone Best App voting

    A website called BestAppEver is having votes for the best iOS app in many categories.

    If you have some favorite apps, cast your vote at:
    http://bestappever.com/vote/

    I have cast my votes for outstanding games, such as the amazing Pocket Legends and the delightful Pocket Frogs! If you’re not playing those two, give them a look!

  • Just bought X Superbox on Steam!

    One of Steam’s daily deals is the X Superbox, which contains 5 X Universe (space adventure) games and some bonus goodies. I have already bought X2:The Threat, X3:Reunion, and X3:Terran Conflict on disk and re-bought X3:TC on Steam, but the opportunity to play the earlier games was too good to pass up. Plus I wanted the Superbox goodies. The only bummer is that because I already have X3:TC on Steam, they wouldn’t give me another one. For Half-Life, buyers of the Orange Box that already had some of the games got the extra copies that they could give to a friend, so I am disappointed that Steam didn’t repeat that good business practice here.

    I am looking forward to X gaming sometime soon, in my infinite spare time…

  • Star Trek Online only gets one chance a day

    I’ve been trying to play a bit of Star Trek Online since the Season 3 release, but they’ve had some server troubles and bugs. Today, while I was in the middle of a mission, I was “disconnected from server.” Well, this sort of thing doesn’t seem to happen so often in LOTRO or other games I’ve played, so forget it. I’m only giving STO one chance a day, and if it craps out, then I’ll happily move on to the other games I have to play.

  • Star Trek Online Season 3 First Impressions

    I started a new character in Star Trek Online to see what the Season 3 update is all about. So far, when just starting out, the changes are just cosmetic. Sector space looks a lot better and less cartoonish. I think the developers wanted to make things look more cinematic, so there are small touches when your ship warps into or out of a system. The timing on these touches isn’t quite right, as sometimes there is a short period before or after the cinematic effect when things look odd, but I like the intended effect and think it helps draw players into the Star Trek universe.

    I also joined a fleet called Elite Force, so we’ll see how that goes. Last time I joined a fleet, it was for a day until I figured out what a bunch of weenies the leaders were, but I have a hunch Elite Force is better. I’ll let you know…

  • Got a Kinect

    I’ve been intrigued with the Kinect for the Xbox 360 since it was first announced. I’m less intrigued with it for games than I am for the technology. I think the games will mostly be Wii-style crap, but the technology is cool, as are the open source freenect drivers.

    It seems that Kinect units are as hard to get as Wii units were when they first came out. Apparently everyone has to have one for Christmas, so Amazon is out of them and all the slimy 3rd party sellers are reaming people with prices starting around $220 for a $150 item. Well today I walked into a Microsoft Store (very nice store and helpful sales guy, by the way) and got one right away. I even had a 20% off card, so it ended up being around $130 out the door, so a pretty good deal!

    I will plug it into the Xbox 360 this weekend, I hope, and will write about my experiences with it.

  • Too many games!

    Gosh, it’s a real problem that I have too many games to play and not enough time. Lord of the Rings Online had a recent update that fixed Lore Masters a bit and made positive changes to crafting. I’m really enjoying LOTRO!

    But now, Star Trek Online has put out the Season 3 update, so I need to check that out, perhaps with a new character, as they too claim to have improved crafting, among other things.

    I haven’t even had time to get back to Alan Wake for a week now, let alone Pocket Legends, Pocket Frogs, Dragon Age DLC, and all the other games that appeal to me. And I haven’t turned on either PS3 in over a month! Well, perhaps I’ll get some time over the holidays!