On the right you have a character that I don’t talk about as much but who is fairly important to the long term plot. That particular wolf-fellow is Anzel Thane, one of a set of triplets. He has a brother and a sister. His sister, Fiona, happens to end up as Ferrel’s personal bodyguard. He, on the other hand, is usually at odds with Ferrel’s deity and religion. Anzel is a paladin in denial. Despite the wrong-doing he may do his Goddess will not strip him of his powers. He serves an important purpose.

I also realized that I haven’t ever used the full version of this particular picture for anything. This is another one that I really think is impressive even if the character is a bit skimpily dressed. That is alright I suppose! Immortals don’t really need a lot of armor after all. Without giving too much this image is of a servant of the Goddess that Ferrel worships! The sword is incredibly important to the over-arching plot.

This particular picture is also of Anzel. I’m really pleased with how it came out as well. He appears a bit more “cute” than the lawful-evil person he is but I suppose everyone has a good day. If it isn’t clear by now, yes, I love flaming swords. These characters are heroes though! Every hero needs a flaming sword.

After hours of downloading on a slow DSL connection (thank you Bellsouth) I was able to get into StarCraft 2 and see if it lived up to the childhood experiences I had shared with its ancestor. Due to the beta being PvP only I was quite concerned. I’m not a big fan of playing against other players and I know SC2 is super competitive. I was destroyed my first two games but I kept at it. It wasn’t too long before I started putting in wins and getting comfortable with my Protoss.

The more I played the more I realized the game felt like home. I wasn’t really playing something new but more an extension of the original game. To some that might be a sad notion or a slight against Blizzard but in reality it is perfect. They didn’t try to reinvent my memories. They didn’t make drastic changes for the sake of changes. They took the core working formula and added to it and it just works. I immediately felt the love and addiction I did years ago.

That addiction aspect really picked up when I joined a 2v2 team with Khallid. Once it became a team sport I got quite competitive and we started putting up some good wins. We found ourselves in the silver brackets pretty quickly. He is a better player than I am but I’m getting there. We’ve certainly had some close games and some losses but it is a process of improvement. I always look forward to playing with delight and great excitement. I haven’t felt that about a game in a while even if I enjoy the title. In some cases you can go home I suppose. Your developer just has to make sure it feels that way.

If you’d like to be friends on Battle.net I’m Ferrel.Epicslant

Research is the key to success when building your own PC. If you’re like me, you just don’t have the budget to make costly mistakes like mismatched ram or poorly chosen hardware. A little bit really goes a long way and there are key two areas you need to be familiar with. The first one is pretty simple. Visit the sites of the people who do benchmarks and look for the hardware you’re considering. Generally sites like Tom’s Hardware and The Tech Report are my favorite. They do provide overly in depth reviews, though, that are catered to guys like me. For the average user pick the piece of hardware you’re looking at, scroll to the bottom of the first page and use the drop down to go directly to the conclusion. That will get you an answer you can immediately use without confusion.

The second bit of research is a bit more technical. When you’re building a PC you need to understand that these days your mother board and RAM pairing isn’t quite as friendly as it once was. That is why you need to go and find the QVL (Qualified Vender List) of the mother board you want to buy. It will tell you exactly what RAM can be used and in what configuration. Some mother board companies provide worse QVLs than others. In my experience EVGA provides little detail while ASUS is extremely thorough. Regardless of your brand preference, make your life easier and buy RAM based on that QVL.

Once you’ve selected a motherboard and RAM based on the QVL you can move on to processor. Be certain you know what socket your motherboard is. This can be found in the product information and is generally pretty simple. You’re either looking at Intel or AMD and then the specific socket number. The motherboard w/ill indicate the socket and you can buy the processor via that. Choosing your processor can be a tricky thing to do. You’ll want to balance cost versus power. These days you can’t just look at the clock speed when you make your choice. You have to consider cores, threads, and a few other things. The best method to select a processor for me is to find the manufacturors product list and look at the range. I try to purchase the very top mid-range processor. Anything above that will usually double the price for very little reward.

Now that you’ve selected the motherboard, RAM and processor you’ve done all of the heavy labor! The rest is mostly down hill. In my next part I’ll cover picking the other pieces of your PC and, perhaps, a few tips on how to assemble them.

I recently wrote a short piece on whether or not we can be too connected via social networking. It is my opinion that I just might be. In that piece I more or less mention that on my iPhone I have four email accounts, an AIM screen name, text messages, Twitter updates and wireless internet for everything else I can’t reach via an app. From what I understand I can also receive phone calls. I don’t want to rewrite that piece. Instead I intend to embrace my ridiculous amount of connectivity today and take stock of just how many places I can be found at.

To increase my visibility and write about other random things without actually starting a new blog I created a HubPages account. It seemed like a relatively easy way for me to generate some notoriety and branch out without taking Epic Slant away from MMO Design. I don’t have to worry about my domains, hosting, or updates! I just occasionally go and write.

I’ve also been taking a tour of some of the gamer focused social network sites. You can find me on Raptr, MMOCluster, GamerDNA, and Xfire.

If you enjoy Epic Slant you can find the fan page on Facebook! Does Epic Slant need a fan page? Probably not but everyone else seems to be getting into it and it already has a Twitter account. Not that that is a negative thing. Twitter is a great way to get out information.

It really makes me wonder which of these services, if any, I actually need! I generally enjoy looking around these kind of sites in the hopes that I might find some long lost and beloved guild mates but I’m not sure I need to register for every single one. I do anyway of course and why not! I might even meet Mrs. Ferrel there (or not). Am I the only one who is on pretty much every possible website or do you guys do that too? Next time you blow through send me an invite so we can share in our affection for things that destroy our privacy!

StarCraft was probably the game I played more than any other non-MMO PC title ever designed. It was also a game that I rarely, if ever, played alone. Most of my games were played on a LAN at Dresden’s house. If not there than somewhere else with friends. We sat together, laughed together and played together. In all honesty those are some of my fondest memories my nerdy childhood. That LAN saw home to basically every Blizzard title and now it is apparently not good enough. I am truly disappointed.

Now, before I get too misty eyed or cranky, I realize that I can do the exact same thing with “the new Battle.net.” The point is pretty simple though: Why should I have to? To play with my friends I now have to be sure that my internet connection is indeed running and that the service on the distant end is functioning? If either is in a state of disarray I will sit powerless, staring at my friends as we poke our computers like a primate might a monolith. Does anyone else see a problem here?

Blizzard is trying to try to sell this to us as a good thing of course. To quote them on the subject:

“While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft 2 and safeguard against piracy.”

I can respect the piracy argument as I truly believe you should have to pay for your entertainment. At the same time though Blizzard did invent the idea of the “spawn install” and won a lot of credibility with gamers because of it. The rest of that statement is all just PR spin I’m afraid. You will never have a higher quality multi-player experience than a LAN game. How do I know? I do this for a living (and it is pretty simply logic). A few hosts connected to a single network device in a single locality will always have a faster connection than hosts that have to go through a network device, out to the internet, hit some sort of authentication server (and a bunch of network equipment on their end) and then return to another device. It might not add a lot of latency but I can assure you, it is not a quality multi-player experience when compared to the LAN. We know what this is really about, advertising and money. I can assure you that Battle.net will feature advertising and now they have a captivated audience. It was brought up not to long ago and I will have to find the articles over at Ars about it. I still don’t even have a problem with that and least I didn’t! I thought there would be an option. There is no altruistic goal here to create something better for the customer. This is just a big company doing what they do and I actually feel shame for Blizzard.

This “tough decision” by Blizzard just shows their slow transformation from a player focused company to just your standard company. Another step in the wrong direction since they were purchased. I will be buying the title regardless. I won’t let this stand in the way of recapturing some of the magic that this serious had but I do so with a bit of sadness. While it may not put one dent in their pocket one way or the other I feel like the reputation of a once great titan has been tarnished and, at least to me, reputation is what is most important. You can’t buy it. It must be earned.

Not quite two years ago I decided I would try out the smart phone market. I wanted an iPhone but back then the price was outrageously high. My corporation also receives an exceptional discount with Sprint so I went there. I purchased and got a discount on a Palm Centro. This is, in no way, a bad phone but anyone in the know recognizes that it was dated then and is massively so now. The OS on it is ancient, has few features when compared to the competition and is not supported by Palm. Knowing this, I bought one to test the waters.

When I saw advertisements for the Palm Pre I thought, “You know, it is about time I upgraded my phone. I love the smart phone concept and I’m ready to step up to a real one.” This should be easy enough. Especially since iPhones are now $199 or less. I went to the Sprint store to check my upgrade status. Since it had not been two years I was only due for $75 off. I figured that wasn’t a big deal, how much could the Pre be? The Palm Pre, if you don’t know, is $549.00. The sales woman was very helpful but I told her no deal for now. She suggested I call customer service since they can often do things that in store associates can’t. That was around May 26th, prior to the release. I figured, what the heck, nothing ventured nothing gained.

In the store I noted that the Premiere Customer program allowed an upgrade after only 12 months. I asked how I could join that program. They told me I would have to have had one of their “Simply Everything” plans for a year first. It was based on the price of the package, not so much the plan. The sad part? I had had the “Simply Everything” plan under a different name for over a year. I paid the same amount for the exact same services but mine were split into separate data and voice. Neither by itself qualified me but both together were over the amount. No one ever cut me over from my expired plan.

I called Sprint customer service and explained the situation. I basically told the gentleman on the phone that I could cancel my contract and go to AT&T and get an iPhone for less than the cost of a Palm Pre. I won’t get into any Pre vs iPhone arguments here but lets just say I didn’t value the Pre as $150+ better. The associate was helpful, put me on hold, checked with someone and then told me he could get me a Pre for the new customer price. Awesome! He finished the paperwork and transferred me to sales.

The sales guy had no clue what was going on. He didn’t know who I was or what had happened. I explained everything again and he said, “We don’t know how much that phone is, it isn’t out.” I mentioned that I had seen the price all over the internet and it was $300 with a mail in $100 rebate. At any rate he could not pre-sell the phone to me. I understood and he agreed he would call me back when the phone released and complete the transaction.

When June 6th rolled around I received no such call. Nor did I on the 7th or 8th. At that point I called customer service again. I, once more, received a very helpful gentleman. He looked at the notes, agreed with them and said, “The only thing is we can’t do phone sales of the Palm Pre. Do you mind going to a store?” I told him, “That is fine, as long as the original agreement is still good there.” He said, “It is, but it will be slightly strange. The store will charge you the full price but they will give you the rebate and we’ll credit you the difference. Is that a problem?” I said, “No problem.” He then put me on hold to put all of that on my account notes. It took a while but he said he wanted to be sure it was right. He even called my local store, explained it to them, and put me on the waiting list.

On Friday, June 12th I called the store and they mentioned they did have one Pre available. I thought, “Awesome, sooner than expected.” After work I went there and yet another helpful associate looked at my account and said, “Wow, ok. These are some detailed notes. He read them all, nodded and said, “No problem. We just have to call during the transaction for them to do the credit.” I, once more, said, “No sweat. Lets do this.” That is when it got ugly

When the associate called, the agent on the other end said, “No, we’re not doing this.” The store associate said, “Yes, you are. It has already been agreed to.” He then put me on and I pretty much said the same thing, “I’m sorry you don’t want to do this, but I’ve already had this approved, twice, prior to today.” The agent on the other end would not relent. He said, “that was before we got the terms and conditions.” Be that as it may, I said, “Well, I’m sorry. You’ve already committed to this.” At that point, the store associate took over once more.

He went to his manager, she talked to the agent and they tried to work things out. I have to point out that I was literally in the store about 70+ minutes at this point. Finally they all return to me and say, “Ok, we think it will work out but you have to talk to customer retention” (for the third time). As soon as they put me on the retention guy said, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this. Let me get it to my manager.” Then, I waited.

Twenty five minutes later I get a manager who says, “This is about you not being eligible for an upgrade right?” I said, “Not at all. We’re past that. That was the original issue but your retention department has already agreed to wave that. This is about you saying you’re going to do something and then backing out at the last minute.” The manager kept saying, “No, we’re not doing it, you’re not eligible.” I kept explaining that that was irrelevant. The agreement was already made. At no time did she offer compromises or solutions. Nothing at all actually. She just kept treating me like I was trying to pull some sort of scam and saying I wasn’t eligible. She even made a comment about how she now had to go and do write ups on everyone that had agreed to this. Basically speaking, I had made work for her and she was complaining about it. It was some how my fault that Sprint had agreed to this.

To say the least, I was surprised. I’ve previously worked in customer service and I sort of do in a round about way now. When I tell a customer I’m going to do something, I do it. If one of my employees says they’re going to do it, even if it is wrong, I’m going to do it. I’ll deal with that employee later. Never do I blame the customer and outright tell them no and suggest it is their fault. I was literally floored by that. I recognized I wasn’t going to get anywhere. I was transferred to her to get the “no.” There was no other option or offered suggestion. It seemed to me like she didn’t care what I did at that point. I simply told her it was “unfortunate.” She said she would note my account and I smiled. I said, “Why? It isn’t like you’re going to have my business.” I thanked her for her time and hug up. The store associates and managers (who are awesome by the way) turned to me and asked, “Well?” I felt bad, but said, “Sorry guys. Going to AT&T.” They were honestly as surprised as I was. They didn’t get how Sprint could agree and then not agree. It isn’t like I was a problem account. I pay on time every month. I’ve never missed a payment and I don’t hassle them. I simply don’t want to pay $549 for a phone that is not the iPhone I really want because I’ve been a member for 18 months instead of 22 (or however many).

That all said, the iPhone 3G S releases this coming Friday and is a mere $199 for a new customer like myself. Even with the Sprint cancellation fee and that phone purchase I come out hundreds of dollars ahead with the phone I actually wanted to begin with. Am I the only one who thinks that is insane? Would you really lose a customer in good standing over $350? Sprint would. If they have never said yes I’d simply suck it up and wait the time out. The point is though, I was told yes by two different people at two different times. I don’t appreciate being lied to. Who does? At any rate, I appreciate the read. Sometimes you just have to get up and squawk to feel better. Who knows, Sprint might even come through before next Friday. I doubt it though.

Update: I received a call from a polite Sprint agent today who was responding to my email that included a link to this story. He basically stated that he had advocated for me (which was nice) but that even higher management wouldn’t budge. Essentially, nothing was going to be done. There was no way they could honor their agreement or come up with a compromise. The humorous part of the call was when I asked if he was responding to my email or Better Business Bureau complaint. He seemed surprised and said he wasn’t aware that a complaint had be filed. He was calling based on the email from last week. I may hear back from the BBB but today is Friday. The iPhone 3G S has released and looks amazing. Assuming I can find one today or tomorrow I’m probably just going to do that. My new mission is to end my contract without paying the cancellation fee.

On the other side of things, AT&T is reducing restrictions on customers that want to upgrade to the 3G S at a subsidized cost. This, after all, is something that Sprint says they cannot do. Analysts are projecting iPhon3 3G S sales to be around 500,000 this weekend alone. The Palm Pre (which is a pretty cool phone) has sold only about 100,000 units thus far.

Update 2: While I was on vacation I received an email from a Sprint exec about my Better Business Bureau complaint. She was pretty nice but suggested that it was “unclear” what I had been offered. I think I’d disagree there. That said, she did offer me what I thought I was offered if I would sign another 2 year contract. So, the BBB does work. Sprint did honor their agreement. I got an iPhone anyway, but still! They’re not all villains.

The first thing to note is that Fallout 3 was designed by Bethesda Studios who are well known for the Elder Scrolls franchise. They are not, however, the original designers of the series. This has, understandably, a lot of fans quite concerned due to the fact that both franchises are role-playing games. I’ve seen a lot of “is this just Oblivion with guns” questions around the internet. Allow me to allay your fears.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that Fallout 3 feels like Oblivion. In fact, to begin with, it feels exactly the same. This is both good and bad. Oblivion uses a good graphical system and user interface which Fallout 3 could benefit from it. At the same time, Fallout has always had a very unique atmosphere to it. It is almost legendary. Initially I was concerned that that image would be lost in the wasteland that can be modern PC games. A couple hours into the game, however, and my concerns vanished.

Fallout 3 feels very much like the games of old with a new polish. The dark humor and quirkiness survives just as we recall it. The environment is stunning and holds true to the gritty feel from the first and second game. Life among the inhabitants of the wasteland just feels like it should to any veteran player. I’d say the only real change is the modern graphics and the combat system.

Fallout historically had a modified turn based combat system. You would have a certain amount of action points and could spend them accordingly on moving, shooting and other activities. Fallout 3 does not totally retain this system. As an upgrade to the standard Oblivion hack and slash Bethesda has presented the user with a hybrid system that mates the old with the new. You get the twitch of an FPS (like Oblivion) but also the V.A.T.S. (Vault Assisted Targeting System) by pressing V. This freezes time and allows you to pick targets. You may use either but I feel most users will take a little of both depending on the situation. It is delightful to occasionally go out and shoot from the hip and pull off a stellar shot (for instance, a feral ghoul jumped out at me last night in a dark tunnel and a quick shot tore its head clean off). It is also good to let the VATS help you out in a tough fight. The system does well to capture the combat system of old, however, and quickly sweeps you away in nostalgia.

Leveling up and advancing your character also follows the same unique and interesting path that it did in the previous games. The “perks” system yields some of the strange effects we all know and love and really helps you individualize your character. Through the skills system you’re offered more ways than ever to progress through the game. Do you want to kill your way through everything? You can do that. How about being a thief? You can do that too! I chose to be a super intelligent computer hacker (shocking right?) and I’ve been having a blast. I can already see a few different ways I could have played, however, to change things up. Next time I might be a charismatic chap with sticky fingers.

In short, the game is worth your money. I’d go so far as saying it is worth playing through a couple times or playing through really carefully. I’ve seen a few sites giving a perfect score for the game and I can’t say I disagree! Most of all, I’d like to point out that the game has literally scared me multiple times. It keeps the heart racing when you realize you’ve set off a trap or a ghoul jumps out at you. I simply have not had a game in so long that I had to force myself to put down.

I give Fallout 3 10 out of 10 gnolls. This game is worth your money!