I’m not the type to try to advocate products or companies, normally.  I’m not sure why, I just don’t do it.  I’ll make an exception this time.  Anyone who is in the market for a new gaming rig has only ONE place they need to visit.

www.doghousesystems.com

I just received my new desktop machine from them last week.  I got the Armor VS model.  Tossed 8 Gigs of RAM in that baby and she was still under $1,200.  Having just had a baby recently, I drooled over getting an awesome gaming PC for that price.  But I figured hey, its entry level price, the PC will probably be middle of the line at best.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  This thing flies.  I mean flies.  In WoW at peak times, in Dalaran, maxed settings, I get over 60 FPS.  Over 60 in 25 man raids, as well, again with everything maxed out.  I get almost 75 in maxed settings Left 4 Dead.  I is a happy panda!  I don’t have any of the super high end games like Crysis to test it with, but I can only assume I would find similarly pleasing results there, as well.

Again, I can not describe with how happy I am with the performance of this machine.  No “Optional” trial software, no crap running in the backround I don’t need, these guys at DogHouse ARE gamers.  They know how we want our PCs to arrive.  It came with WoW Pre-installed and Pre-Patched.

If my pleasure level with the machine itself was a 10/10, then my review of DogHouse’s customer service would be about a 12/10.  It started early, too.  When I ordered the machine, I had to call their sales department to ask if 8G of RAM was possible in an Armor VS, since the choices on the order form were 2G and 4G.  After a moment, they came back and not only told me 8G was possible, but to reload my browser.  I reloaded my browser, and lo and behold, in that moment, they ADDED a choice for 8G.  If that isn’t prompt shit, I don’t know what would be.

The excellent service continued throughout the next 2 weeks.  They emailed me, letting me know the PC’s status, asking a few setup questions so that upon arrival, I could simply uncrate my glorious machine and get to pwning n00bz.  So it is roughly 2 weeks after I placed me order that FedEx arrives with my big box of joy.  Now, if I love DogHouse Systems, I fucking hate FedEx.  I watched the dude carry it from his truck to my door, dropping it once and hitting the door I opened for him with it.  Twice.

I get it to my little Nerd Lair, set it up – Which by the way, if you’re computer retarded, DogHouse sends a full color, lamens terms, very well labeled instruction binder on how to set it up – to find out that the bumbling idiot from FedEx managed to bend the housing on the top case exhaust fan.  What the fuck, FedEx?  So I call DogHouse, let them know my problem, and while I am far from computer illiterate, I’m not confident enough to go digging around in my new PC trying to fix this, so a gentleman named Sina walked me through getting the fan unhooked until they could ship me a new one.  Thats right.  FedEx fucked up, and DHS is fixing the problem.

These guys have my future business for all PC purchases and I can not stress enough how pleased people will be ordering from them.  If you need a new gaming rig, whether you’re looking to spend $1,000 or get the absolute top end shit, this is the place to go, geeks.  Keep up the good work DHS.  You guys rock.

This video was what most people at WoWcon– erm.. Blizzcon were waiting for.  The confirmation of all the rampant rumors about the word “Cataclysm.”  At Blizzcon, everyone was treated to the debut trailer by Blizzard’s cinematics team.

If you’re a WoW fan and not drooling over this, well. Then you’re not really a WoW fan. Enjoy the video. And clean yourself up when you’re done watching it.

Well, not really.  But I think this is as close to the end of this world as you’ll ever see in this game.  Yes, on Friday, the opening day of Blizzcon 2009, they finally confirmed all the rumors were true.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is reality!

Well, not yet.  But it will be.  It seems we have finally pissed off and pissed on enough of the Old Gods that they’ve seen fit to unleash DeathWing into our world, forever shattering it’s geography, playing experience and allowing for a whole slew of jokes about DeathWing’s chin being a Jay Leno pop culture reference.  But seriously, I couldn’t have a bigger bag of mixed feelings about this.  Not mixed in the sense of what it will mean to gameplay and the WoW experience.  Oh, no.  Those will remain as polished and intense as we’re all used to, perhaps more-so.

My mixed feelings come in as more of a nerdy sadness.  This is our world, WoWers! Am I the only one who remembers looking at screenshots of this beautiful environment since 2001?  Of logging in for the first time in beta (Or release if you weren’t as lucky as me!) and just being stunned at the world we’d been given to take as our own?  I’m sort of sad to see it all blown to bits, or in some cases, being given life where there was none before.  I’ve spent a large chunk of my time most nights for the past 4+ years in this iteration of Azeroth.  The concept of it being shattered is only slightly less shocking than if I woke up to a river of lava destroying the corner store that has provided me with way too many Mt.Dew and Ruffles over the years – Sorry, I don’t do Cheetos.

I suppose, though, that I’m more excited than anything.  Because unlike a *real* river of lava outside my dwelling, the ones in WoW will prove to be fertile grounds for adventure, misadventure and aerial ganking! I can’t wait to explore all my previous environs, now shattered and destroyed.  I can’t wait to see these new areas I’ve been waiting to loregasm over for years now.  And most importantly, I cannot wait to see all the emo bastards leave the Horde, and go play their lycan… I mean, Worgen on the Alliance.

But how will I even worry about all these things with the sweeping changes to actual gameplay going on!  So much is changing, so much of it for the better.  A quick rundown… And I mean as quick as possible, because the new information could go on for pages and pages.

• Level cap raised to 85
• Two new races: Goblin for Horde, Worgen for Alliance
• Lots of new race/class combos.  Gnome Priest… Tauren Paladin! Join the Argent Mooooosade today, kids!
• Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor utterly changed forever
• ^ Flying Mounts in these new areas.  Woot. ^
• Mastery System put in place to remove bloat and un-fun from talent trees
• Removal of bloat stats on items, further streamlining boss loot tables.  Defense, Spellpower and Attack Power all being removed as “Straight” stats and will all be derived from base stats now
• Hunters no longer use mana, but instead get an improved version of their pet’s Focus mechanic. (Think Rogue Energy)
• Rated Battlegrounds for Arena points.  I bid a personal farewell to the Arena, one of the only features ever put into this game that I abhor.
• Tol Barad.  WinterGrasp 2.0
• Guild Advancement.  Take that, WarHammer Online!  We stole your only fun feature
• Path of the Titans.  Further character advancement at level 85
• New Secondary Profession: Archaeology
• Heroic Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep
• 100% brand new leveling experience from 1 – 60
• Countless other new Raids, 5 Mans and profession material, too much to list

Phew.  Did I miss anything?  I probably missed some things, but that’s bound to happen with the sheer amount of stuff included therein.  This seems like more of a game overhaul than an expansion.  I mean hell, in EQ, when they broke THEIR world it became EQ2: Terribad Adventures in MMORPG Making.  In the coming weeks, I will without a doubt review a lot of this more in depth.  Probably from a Lore and Raider perspective, mostly.  That’s just how I roll.  Perhaps I should have introduced myself at the beginning of the post.  Meh.

Tzeriel, level 80 T8.5 Blood Elf Mage on the Earthen Ring server. Few 80 alts.  WoW player since the dawn of the game.  I’ve been a Warcraft fanatic since I was 12 years old and received Orcs vs Humans as a gift.  Love Diablo and StarCraft as well, but not even close to the level of my Warcraft love.

TLDR: I cannot freaking wait for Cataclysm.  World shattering events?  Check.  Radical gameplay overhaul? Check.  Emo kids switching from their Blood Elves to their Lycans – I mean Worgen? Check, I hope.  Watch this space for continued expansion updates, rants, raves, thoughts, hot dogs, murloc noises and other WoW related junk.

I can already see the Worgen newbie area now…

~Tzeriel

I seriously think there should be a support group for the girlfriend’s of WoW players. Am I right?

November 23, 2004 marked the beginning of the end for many girlfriends (and boyfriends) out there. The end of a social life, the end to a size 28 waist, and the end of a sex life!

My boyfriend and I had only been dating for almost 5 months and he had continuously been telling me about this game called World of Warcraft. You know, being a guy and everything, I thought this was just a typical video game where he would play for a month, beat it, and be done with it. But oh no, was I so fucking wrong. Read On

All the things that were leaked in the past, were all confirmed.  With one thing extra that we didn’t hear about before Blizzcon.  The new professional, Archeology.

Things that were confirmed:

• Level cap raised to 85
• Goblins join the Horde
• Worgens join the Alliance.
• Worgens can change from Human to Worgen and back.
• Both old continents, Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, have been completely changed.
• You can fly around in the old continents
• New profession: Archeology
• More raids, quests and weapons, of course.
• 7 new zones.
• Maelstrom in the center of the world is now a sunken city

After getting some great tasting burgers at Tony Romos, Dan and I headed out to check out the WoWinsider meetup/blizzcon pre-party.  Here is what we saw when we got there “fashionably” late.  But I think we were out of “style” getting there at 9:50pm which seemed super late.  But the people that were there seemed very fun.  We also got to rub elbows with the whole cast of The Guild! Including the actress that plays the “tall hot bitch”, Riley.

Thanks WoWinsider for a great party… and the free booze.

I remember when this intro was the greatest and most realistic graphics I have ever seen on a computer.  It sucked though that my 25Mhz computer (with TURBO button on!) couldn’t handle this intro.  So, I had to watch it at my neighbors house.  Boy was I jealous.

When I finally got a computer that could run Warcraft 2, I immediately started playing and fell in love with my first RTS game.  I also remember my first days of Battle.net.  They consisted of a 28.8Kbps modem over the Prodigy ISP, my dads cell phone, and my friend from middle school.  We played 2v2 matches until our bedtimes. Boy did my dad get mad and ground me off the computer when he noticed his cell phone bill the month after.

See, my friend from middle school had it good.  He already had 2 phone lines.  One for his computer, the other for regular phone calls.  I didn’t.  So, I used my dads cell phone as my walkie-talkie or VoIP as we would call it today. I would be yelling out:

“He’s spotted me!”
“Do you need help?”
“GO GO GO!”

At that time, my dad didn’t know what I was yelling about. But I was a good boy and wasn’t doing drugs. So, he let me play my computer games.  this is the game that got me into the Blizzard franchise.  It was like my gateway Blizzpill.  Cause right after that was Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood Wars, Diablo, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, then finally, the World of Warcraft.

Thank you Blizzard for making such great games.  I can’t wait to cover Blizzcon Friday.

Contrary to what WoW.com is spectulating, SoundBlaster.com has released a press release that they will be demoing their first World of Warcraft headset.  They will have both an Alliance version and a Horde version.  SoundBlaster isn’t confirming anything about a Catclysm expansion.  Just their headsets.  That is all.

Full press release after the break.

Read On

While browsing our site to make sure all links are and things are looking good, I noticed a gold farming banner at the top of site form Google’s Adsense.  Now, I usually don’t click on ads, but this one got my attention.

Earn up to 600+ gold and hour legally and without cheats.

The “legally and without cheats” part caught my eye.  After clicking the banner, I watched a video that is supposedly proving that the site is legit. Well, after scrolling down and seeing this:

I knew the site was another lame, get rich quick scheme.

Thanks to the wonderful people at MMO-Champion, we might have new and leaked info on the heavily rumored World of Warcraft expansion called Cataclysm.  Now these are labeled leaked rumors for now.  But we’ll be at Blizzcon next week to give you the definite news.

New Races and Class Combinations:

• Goblins
• Worgens
• Human Hunter
• Orc Mage
• Night Elf Mage
• Dwarf Mage
• Blood Elf Warrior
• Dwarf Shaman
• Undead Hunter
• Tauren Paladin
• Tauren Priest
• Gnome Priest
• Troll Druid

Leveling Experience

• Level Cap raised to 85
• Azshara becomes a low level starting zone
• Barrens split up into two separate zones

Other Updates

• Azeroth will be entirely revamped.
• Flying is allowed in parts of old Azeroth.
• Unreleased zones and dungeons, including Hyjal, Gilneas, and Uldum will become part of WoW.
• Deathwing and Azshara will be playing a major role in the Cataclysm that will happen.

For the full post, go past the break.

Read On