More Sight Seeing

Ahh, yes.  Guild Wars 2.  It feels like I had been away for so long.  It’s probably been a couple months actually since I had sat down and made any meaningful progress in the game.  And this weekend I probably got a solid 6 hours in.

The game never ceases to blow my mind with the amount of detail and care that goes into the world.  And according to my stats I’ve only seen 20% of it.  I’m really taking my time with this one.  It’s not that I rushed through the first Guild Wars by any stretch, but you only get this opportunity once… to play a game for the first time.

Here’s some more screenshots from today’s adventures.  I picked up where I left of yesterday, and then made my way to the Asura home city, a much more technologically centered race.

Another frothy ale. I love the Norn. Yes, you occasionally see characters passed out in the snow. Parents, check the ESRB rating!

A misty valley.

One of the tasks asked of me was to feed fish to the bear cubs.

Subterranean cave. Isn’t that the only kind?

Looking up out of the valley this time.

 

Some kind of mining operation going on here.

I love the lighting in this game. The way the snow glistens, the rugged shadows on the rocks. It’s a little surreal, but not over the top.

Peering down into a ravine.

Statues of the Norn Spirits.

Just another mountain skyline. They’re pretty much all amazing in every direction.

Passing through Lion’s Arch on my way to Rata Sum. If you play the game, this is a scene you’ll see a hundred times, but it deserves to be appreciated just the same. Love the way the city rises into the distance.  All of course you can go explore up close!

Enjoying a stranger’s balcony.

 

Now in Rata Sum.  Asura specialize in technology, everywhere you look there’s something sufficiently advanced enough to be considered magic.

 

Looking towards the city center, with two Asura chatting it up next to me.

From city center looking back to where I was standing in the previous picture.

Crafting stations. One part of the game I’ve barely scratched the surface in.

 

Asura dock and more fantastic lighting.

 

Finished up my day by swimming with the whales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side Project

I mentioned in my last post a project I’ve been working on in Minecraft.  Since my quarry is always working when I’m away, I’m able to gather enough resources to build this thing.  You might recognize it.

Each block represents 1 pixel of the BIG castle you find at the end of Worlds X-3 in the original Super Mario Bros.  I originally planned on scaling this down, but it wasn’t looking right, so I just built it to its highest fidelity.  Though I didn’t quite expect it to get this big.  I also originally planned to translate this into 3-D.  But I quickly realized how daunting it was going to be to create it in 2-D form.  This castle has around 16,000 blocks.  All placed by hand.  Math that I should have done BEFORE I started building….

Super Mario Beads – A Stop Motion Movie

This had to have taken some work!  Watch this fun little video.  Very clever!

Wow. OSU Marching Band plays video games

Super Fun Weekend

After all the stress lately, this past weekend was exactly what was needed.  Some family came up and we went out to the Great Bend Airfest.  I was really worried that I would be dissapointed by what showed up, but it was completely awesome.  There were several vintage planes out there from the 1940’s, mostly WWII trainers and such, but the really cool ones were the B-25, and the P-51, both beautiful planes.

I took a bunch of pictures, but here’s some of the highlights:

Whoops… didn’t see that until later.

I have to say the P-51 is one of the most beautiful planes ever made.

 

There’s a lot more pictures, so click through to see them, or check out my gallery to see A LOT more.

Willed Into Reality

Context shot so you get a sense for how friggin’ massive this thing is.

Guild Wars 2 was announced 5 years ago.  To put that in perspective, when this game was announced, the Wii and PS3 were brand new.

Then shortly after the game was announced… nothing.  Years of nothing.  To the point where you wondered if the game still existed.  Arenanet would be asked when the game would come out and they just would say, “When it’s ready.”  And then a couple years ago information really started to flow.

When it was finally announced that you could buy the game, it STILL didn’t even have a release date.  Nevertheless I pre-purchased… in full… the Collector’s Edition (which you see above).  I never in my life have spent so much money on a game, let alone a game that will come out… “someday”.  Luckily today is that day.

I’ve written extensively on my early Guild Wars 2 experiences and if you follow this blog I’m sure you will hear a great deal more in the months and years to come.  What you’ll find here are some detailed pictures of the Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition.  There are ALOT of pictures so be sure to click the link to continue reading if you want to see all of them.  Otherwise it would take up the whole front page!

The Box

Looking through the window.

You’re next!

Keep reading to find out what’s inside this lovely treasure chest.

I can finally talk about it

We just launched a new radio station at work on Wednesday.  I’ve been working on it for quite a while, but haven’t been able to say anything.  It’s pretty cool because they kinda just left it up to me to go make a radio station.  Not that I’m really qualified to do such things, but I gave it a shot, and it’s at least a radio station by definition.  Whether it’s a good radio station will remain to be seen.

I had a lot of freedom.  Infact I designed the logo for the station myself.  I hope I don’t come across as much of a bragger on here, but I am pretty proud of it.  The logo, and the station itself.  And for probably the second time ever, my artwork is on display somewhere in real life, not just the interwebs!  I designed the the banner for the electronic billboard we’re leasing for the next few months.

I have a show on the station 3pm – 8pm Monday through Saturday, so feel free to tune in if you are around.  We aren’t streaming yet, but we will be next month.

Playing with the camera

We got a fun new toy.  Wanted to play around with all the different settings.  We went out in the backyard and took some pictures of the sky.  They aren’t perfect, but we’re just learning.  Should have set a timer, and need to focus better.

Big Dipper

Scorpio

Beta is Over

I wish I could stay up for the finalie, but that’s going to be at 1AM.  I don’t think I can handle that.

I’ve had a ton of fun this weekend.  This game is seriously as good as I would have hoped and more.  It’s fun to play, and the sheer scale of it, from size to the number of things there are to do, it’s just amazing.

It wasn’t without its flaws.  It was a little tough to play together with Biebs as we’d end up in different instances of the same world.  Something the development team says they’re working.

I really want to keep playing, but sleep, work and the impending end of the Beta weekend keep that from happening.  But there’s supposed to be one weekend per month until release… when I can then quit my job, ignore my family, and forego bathing to play this game without end.

At the very end, Andrea showed me how to enable hi-res screenshots.  I wish I had this the entire time!  The pictures it renders from the game are absolutely jaw dropping!  The amount of detail in this game is ridiculous!

I’m posting scaled down versions here, but CLICK HERE for an example of one of the screenshots in its full 5656×3308 glory!

Dead bears. It was us or them. They started it.

This is my kind of monastery. They brew ale!

Divinity's Reach in the distance. It IS as epic as it looks.

That same city, from the inside.

More Divinity's Reach...

And more Divinity's Reach. Seriously this place is gigantic, so from here on out it's all the same city in these screenshots.

This is the picture in full res above. I recommend making it your desktop wallpaper!

The upper city. The palace and senate are located on this level of the city. Along with this incredible garden.

What's the one thing this city doesn't have? A huge aquarium? Actually.. no. It already has one.

Dwayna Highroad. Everywhere you go the city feels alive.

Highroad looking across the city.

Crafting stations.

Durmand Priory. A guild that focuses on researching and preserving history.

Just another part of the city I found pleasant.

Undertaker's cart near a cemetery. I just can't get over the detail put into this game!

Another highroad. Look at the man to the left of my character for scale. The banners you see hanging wave majestically in the breeze. The screenshots only do half justice. In motion it's even more gorgeous.

Steps to the Senate.

Inside the Senate. I'm surprised they let me bring this big ass sword in.

Probably an attendance book of some kind.

Beautiful stained glass. In most games you are left to imagine what is inside a building like this.

In Guild Wars 2 you can go in that building and see for yourself! Behind each of those stained glass windows is a statue of one of the six gods. Beautiful artwork!

More inside the same temple. Notice the water pouring down the wall on the left. Again, you've got to see it in motion!

There are six highroads in Divinity's Reach, each named after one of the gods. At the end of each road is a beautiful sculpture like the ones seen in the temple above. This is a statue of Lyssa.

And that’s just one small part of the small part of the game I was able to play.

 

Tech Music