Biweekly Gaming Recap

As I said roughly two weeks ago the plan is for all weekly features to be extended into bi-weekly features, so that there's more time and space for proper articles, reviews, previews and whatnot. As such here's the first 'Biweekly Game Recap', which will be replacing the former 'Game of the Week' feature. Hopefully this will end up a little more compact and easier to read through - as well as a lot more varied than the old format. So by all means, read on!

Week #31 - #32
(26th of July - 9th of August)

This first feature in the new format is certainly varied - as we've got no less than 4 games to cover! So what is it that I've been playing over the past couple of weeks? Perhaps most notable is the World in Conflict beta test, which ended in July. I also spent some time playing the free mmorpg CABAL Online, which I covered in this blog earlier. As of late I've been getting back into my Unreal Tournament 2004 rhythm as well, but most of my gaming time these past two weeks was spent on the various Guild Wars campaigns. Press read more for the full story...



Let's start with the only strategy game in the list - World in Conflict. The beta test ended in July, but I made sure to get some good gaming time in before the servers finally closed up to the public. In the end I think I ranked somewhere in the top 3000 or 2500, not that great, but pretty decent considering I didn't get to participate much and started rather late. WiC proved to be a great game and I'm certain it'll do well upon release - I'm definitely getting a copy! In between some of the World in Conflict matches I was invited to play CABAL Online by a friend... so we did, but it didn't really grip me much (possibly because I had just watched the Eye of the North E3 trailer and was all pumped for Guild Wars again), so I played a couple of hours and that was it.

In Unreal Tournament 2004 my old team - beMEAN - is active again and recruited an armada of new members. So in the last couple of days I've been playing with them, preparing for the upcoming Team Arena Master cup and was assigned to the second team. Our practice matches hadn't really been going well, up until today that is... when we barely lost against iFEAR and tied another first division clan. I used todays matches to up my headshot count, raking in 12 over 4 maps and ranking in first place on 3 of those maps, so my performance was pretty good overall. Now if only I can keep it up for the cup itself! :)

As for Guild Wars... I really played that a lot last week together with my Guild's co-leader, Sagi. We finally finished the Prophecies campaign and we created new Factions characters, my first non-melee: a Monk, and now have them out of Shing Jae Island (newbie area) and on to the mainland, unfortunately. Too bad that Sagi couldn't play anymore since last week, so I played solo for a bit and farmed together enough cash and resources to buy my oldest character, a Warrior/Necromancer from the Prophecies campaign, full 15k sunspear armor in Elona and dye it silver, and it looks great! I also roamed around Elona for a bit and gathered up an armada of heroes for that character. With my Eye of the North pre-order at the ready it's now time to gear up for the upcoming sneak-peak weekend!

Hey, at least I topped the scoreboard! (and scored 4 headies)