Good News for Alliance Members!

If you play Alliance, you’ve probably noticed that there’s no graceful way to get to the northern bit of Stranglethorn Vale. Do you fly to Darkshire and ride down, or fly to Booty Bay and run up? Patch 2.3 will solve that by putting an Alliance flightpoint in Rebel Camp.

I’ve complained about STV before, and I don’t think a new flight point will make this my new favorite haunt. It won’t stop a ?? Horde from killing you when you leave Rebel Camp, but it will be nice not to hike up from Booty Bay to visit Galvan, the blacksmith who unaccountably lives in the troll-infested jungle!

Change Your WoW Name!

I just saw this about WoW character name changes.

We’re happy to announce that through the wonders of modern gnomish engineering, you are now able to change your characters’ names. Finally, you can turn the moniker that seemed like a good idea at the time into something more befitting your true standing in World of Warcraft.

Visit Account Management to begin the paid character-name-change process. The fee is $10 per name change.

At $10 a change, it’s a little steep for a casual player, but maybe some of those ubiquitious LeroyJenkins and LeeroyJenkinss will change their names to, um, anything else. (besides ChuckNorris, of course) It reminds of a buddy of mine who made a warlock called Katrina just a few weeks before New Orleans. He stopped playing her because everyone thought her destructive powers were an unfunny joke.

Patch 2.3 Brings Guild Bank Accounts

WarCraft’s Patch 2.3 will see the creation of guild bank accounts. Now, instead of a creating guild bank avatar to hold and pass items, your Guild leader will be able to give guildies access to the bank to deposit and withdraw items and even money.

Seems pretty good, although WoW Obsessed points out that a guild leader can raid the group’s account and skip town. I don’t know if possible guild leader abuse would keep me from using a guild bank, but I may think twice about putting, say, my Sword Of A Thousand Truths in one.

WarCraft Halloween

I’m a little sad that Brewfest had to end, but World Of WarCraft’s Hallow’s End celebration is the best ever. There are some holiday-specific quests, and bobbing for apples in the cities, but most importantly, your character can trick-or-treat at all the innkeepers in Azeroth! You can get halloween costumes (the female ninja is my favorite, but the undead pirate is pretty sweet too), masks, wands and special candy. Just watch out for some of the tricks!

Like all the WoW holidays, this is short term, so get on and start trick-or-treating!

Casual Game Watch: Lotso Deluxe!

One casual game that is currently at the top of my playing list is Lotso Deluxe! It’s a simple game but is very fun to play. Although it’s single player, it still packs a good time in a small amount of playing time.

In Lotso Deluxe, your goal is to take the Losto balls and place them onto your scratch cards. Some cards will have wild spots while some Lotso balls can be any number. When you have place all of the lotso balls on a card, it flips over and you play the mini game. Some are scratch until you match two numbers while others are scratch until you uncover the stopper.

Through the game, you play through eight casino-like venues. You clear a level or place when you have met the goals. You will have to score so many points, play so many charity cards, etc. Each game consists of 10 rounds. Lotso balls are shaken pretty much like Bingo with six balls falling into the playing area. If you can place all six balls then you receive a 50 point bonus. There are also lotso balls you can use to gain an advantage over one of your opponents like the amnesia ball that prevents a player from placing any more balls that round.

Lotso Deluxe is a fun casual game. It’s easy to learn, and you can play each round in under 10 minutes. It has all the elements of a great casual game including an hour long free demo.

Wii Play GameCube

Nintendo’s newest console could be reviving the games for the system that it replaced. It seems the Wii owners I know are playing more GameCube games than ever before. With the backward compatibility of the Wii, the gamut of games available to play is huge.

A trip to the local video game store will reveal that GameCube games are more affordable than ever. The same games on the PS2 are usually at least twice as much. So, with Wii games retailing from $50-$60, Wii owners can buy 6 or more GameCube games for the same price. Best of all, Wii owners do not have to use the Wii controller but can use their old GameCube controller, too.

I find it interesting that so many of the Wii owners I know are playing so many GameCube games, games that are thought be more for kids than adults. These same people never owned a GameCube but now have learned that there are some great titles for the game system.

While there won’t be any new games for the GameCube, it’s nice to see the games for the what is considered a kid’s console getting respect from adult Wii owners.