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After watching just a little bit of previews of the new Prince of Persia game (X-Box 360/Playstation 3), I have to say this: I am simply dying to get this game. I have always been enchanted by the Prince of Persia series, but the storyline, gameplay, and sheer beauty of this December release has just won my heart.

In 2008, we have a new Prince (who isn’t a prince at all, simply a vagabond), a new female ally (who fights with Prince the entire game and prevents him from dying), and an amazing mystical storyline woven from deeper myths than the original game. Not only that, but the game is non-linear. Watching trailers, it feels like a rebirth of Shadows of the Colossus.

As GamingToday recently shared, the gaming classic Prince of Persia had humble origins. Inspired by The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, the original story was based on rescuing a princess. As time progressed, so did the storyline. By creating a new prince, PoP is venturing to recreate the classic and captivate our hearts once more.

Take a look at the music trailer for this beautiful game, and tell me you don’t want this game.

On Thursday, October 30, GameTap will launch the first episode of the second season of American McGee’s Grimm. The first tale is “The Master Thief,” which you can find a version of to read online here. Each week will release another tale: The Singing Bone (11/6), King Midas (11/13), Cinderella (11/20), The Golden Goose (11/27), Iron John (12/4), The Pied Piper (12/11), and A Christmas Carol (12/18). A lot more mainstream tales this time around - I wonder how many will be lured in for the Christmas episode.

Is it funny that a girl plays the Grimm series? I don’t think so. I admit; when I first started up “A Boy Learns What Fear Is,” and saw the little tutorial screen blips about jumping where your pee stream lands (what happens if Grimm goes multi-player and people cross the streams?), and about using Grimm’s hairy ass to “Buttstomp” objectives, I grimaced. I’m not a delicate lady by any means, though grandma tried, but I’m no fan of bathroom humor. Then I played the game, and realized how brilliantly fun Grimm really is. Snarky, sarcastic, and mean commentary toward the goody-two-shoes of lore; simple game play in a 3D environment; and a solid gaming concept meant I soon forgot about pissing and hairy cracks. Neither are a major part of the game play; in fact, those two concepts are the lowest brow of humor that Grimm offers.

Besides, like Grimm, I’m sick of the sweet-tooth principle, the application of sugar to things to make them easier to swallow and more pleasant to the eye. I appreciate horror, the macabre, the cut of the veil that lets you see into the darker side of the world. So in a way, Grimm is a little mini anti-hero for me. And I’ll hug him for it, as soon as he takes a shower.

After yesterday’s chatter about LoudCrowd, I realized today would be a perfect opportunity to point out some smaller web games that prove excellent time wasters: either by amusement or by frustration. Here’s the first five.

Reaction (Sheep) : A simple little game to test your reaction time. Which, of course, means a way to see if you can improve your reaction time. Shoot five tranquilizers into five run away sheep (who knew sheep could run that fast?) My current record: an average time of 0.2232 seconds.

Maze Frenzy: This is one of those ones that I can’t play for long, because ARGH THE RED DOT! It’s a combination of an arcade “move through the maze,” and one of those “don’t touch the walls or you’ll die.” Kind of like IWTBTG, in maze form. At least, that’s how it is for me. . .

Fulfillment: Kind of a Tetris/Tanagram hybrid, the goal of the game is to put all the blocks together to fit the shape of the puzzle. Within a time limit. And no hints to let you know if you’re doing it wrong. The first few will be simple, but as the size and number of pieces increase, well - good luck. (I wish it had more color themes, though.)

Throw Paper : I got a giggle out of this one. Any office worker - heck, you probably do it at home, too - has tried to make a “basket” at least once. Paper balls are the norm (although at my work, usually it’s a ball of tortilla dough). Here, though, not only do you have to make baskets, you must account for wind speed (a fan). Seems boring, but quickly becomes fun.

Kagi nochi tobira : My final frustration for the night. The premise of the game is simple: find a key, open the door. But as you progress, the puzzles become increasingly more taxing on your logic skills, patience, and pixel-point accuracy. If you get stuck, there’s a walkthrough video on Youtube here .

Whatever your poison, have fun clicking away countless minutes hours days!

LoudCrowd, the newest “dance with your fingers” web game, officially transitioned into beta today. Beta improvements include more character customization, private chat, reduced latency, and more music. So far, it’s looking good.

Loudcrowd, for those not familiar with the game, is a rhythm game played with arrow keys in a web browser. Unlike most rhythm games though, Loudcrowd takes a few twists:

•  DJs. That’s right, you don’t have to flip through pages of songs to find what you want to play. Instead, DJs choose the music for you, live or through playlists. None of the music is created for the game. That means it’s like being on a real dance floor.
• Avatar customization. You choose who you are in the LoudCrowd world.  Not only do you pick how your body looks, but as you play, you unlock clothes to customize your avatar. And believe me, you’ll want to: you’ll be looking at him/her a lot.
• Dance styles. This doesn’t bear any play on the buttons you press, but your character can learn and improve three dance styles: flirt, fancy, and funny.
•  Play with others. Everyone dances to the same song, and you get more points for dancing successfully for others.

When I first started playing in Alpha, I had two major complaints: lag and a short track list. Things are looking better already in beta though; I think this might be a legitimate time waster for rhythm junkies.

Last night, Blizzard launched a new Scourge event in all capital cities (including Shattrath). Scourged crates can be found all around the cities. It seems Arthas is eager to spread his influence early. Players who use these crates become infected with a disease that, if not cured (by another player, or by Argent Dawn representatives), will turn them into a zombie after 10 minutes.

So what’s cool about being a zombie, besides the look and the chance to yell “Braaaaaaaaains”? Zombies get their own abilities ala WotLK, and can attack any player or NPC regardless of faction. Doing so will spread the disease, making even more zombies for the good old Lich King.

Since the event’s launch, there has been a ton of QQ’ing on both sides of the fence. Zombie players are, for obvious reasons, having a fun time being free to chase, attack, and infect anyone they want. I don’t blame them. So when noble players come by and cure them of their disease, freeing them from the zombie curse, the zombie players cry foul. They’re being griefed.

But on the other hand, players who aren’t tossing their hats in with Arthas are annoyed. Flight masters, Battle Masters, vendors, trainers, and quest NPCs are all being destroyed intentionally by the zombies, and respawns on some of these are long. Not only that, some zombies have been chasing down lower-leveled players who cry foul at the interruption of their questing. And (on PvE servers at least), zombies cannot be attacked until they have ‘flagged’ themselves by engaging in combat first. Players only defense is to cure them (if they have the proper abilities) before they become a zombie, or to kill them after they’ve already caused some damage. Oh, and dying to a zombie causes durability damage.

In short, it’s PvP mayhem in the cities.

Arguably, the one to blame for the griefing on both sides is Blizzard, who designed the event poorly. They should know (from countless wailing from RP servers) that PvE’rs don’t like having their quest givers et al. slain in PvP, and should have instituted protection against certain NPCs from being killed. They should also let people deal with disease on their own - if they want to be cured, they’ll go to an Argent Dawn representative. And durability loss for PvP should never come into play (especially when the PvP is forced on a party who would otherwise be safe.)

I give Blizzard kudos for the idea. It’s a lot more fun than the last Scourge invasion, pre-Naxxramas. But please, fix the growing concerns, lest we come to hate our fellow zombies.

The 3.0.3 Patch notes made it onto Blizzard’s site today (see here ).  Here they are:

General

• Removed “A Mask for All Occassions” as criteria for the “Hallowed Be thy Name” meta achievement.
• Replenishment: Players below level 50 can now benefit from this effect.

Racial

• Blood Fury: No longer triggers global cooldown.
• Shadowmeld: The cooldown will now start on use instead of on break.

Druids

• Druid talents points have been refunded. Players will need to visit a class trainer to relearn spells and abilities.
• The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned.
• Bash: The interrupt from this ability will now work on targets who are immune to the stun.
• Berserk: Now clears the cooldown on Mangle Bear.
• Earth and Moon and Moonfury (Balance) reduced from 5 ranks each to 3 ranks each.
• Eclipse: Buff duration extended to 15 sec and bonuses doubled. The cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
• Growl: Cooldown changed to 8 sec.
• Insect Swarm: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does not affect hit chance with spells.
• Nature’s Swiftness: This ability will no longer give chances to trigger Omen of Clarity.
• Omen of Clarity: Will no longer be triggered by the Honorless Target buff gained when entering the world.
• Survival Instincts will no longer be on the Global Cooldown.
• Swiftmend: now benefits correctly from Genesis talent.

Hunters

• Aimed Shot: Added to Barrage and Improved Barrage talent.
• Animal Handler: Now increases your pet’s expertise by 5/10. (No longer increases the pet’s chance to hit.)
• Aspects now have a shared cooldown category of 1 sec and no longer have a start cooldown.
• Aspect of the Dragonhawk: New aspect added that combines the benefit of Aspect of the Monkey and Aspect of the Hawk, available at level 75 and 80.
• Aspect of the Monkey: The Dodge chance has been increased from 8% to 18%.
• Aspect of the Viper: The per attack mana regeneration has been reduced by 50% but this ability now generates 4% of maximum mana every 3 sec. In addition, the per attack regeneration now also works on melee attacks.
• Disengage now fails if you’re rooted and is no longer on the global cooldown.
• Hunter vs. Wild: The attack power bonus from this talent now applies properly to Hunter pets. In addition, the bonus attack power will now be recalculated properly from equipping items.
• Improved Aspect of the Hawk: This talent no longer causes incorrect mana costs when interacting with the Rapid Recuperation and Improved Steady Shot talents.
• Mana cost of Disengage has been lowered to 5% of base mana, down from 14%.
• Pets
  • Rake (Cat), Scorpid Poison (Scorpid): Lowered damage of all ranks.
  • Stampede (Rhino): Lowered the knockback to 10 yards.
  • Raised the damage of exotic attacks: Spirit Strike, Lava Breath, Froststorm Breath, Acid Spit, and Stampede.
  • Lowered the cost of pet specials from 25 to 20.

  • Thrill of the Hunt: The mana gained from using this talent with Explosive Shot is now 1/3 of the normal amount per critical strike (but gets 3 opportunities per cast.) • T.N.T.: Explosive Shot can now only trigger this talent when it is initially fired.

Mages

• Arcane Potency: The additional crit bonus is now consumed immediately on cast of a travel time spell, so it is no longer possible to make two spells benefit from one charge. (Ex. Fireball followed by Fireblast.)
• Blast Wave: no longer receives double the intended critical strike bonus from Combustion.
• Burnout: Now consumes extra mana as intended when livming Bomb gets a critical strike.
• Deep Freeze: Now consumes a charge of Fingers of Frost when used.
• Focus Magic: Now works properly when mages with this talent use the ability on each other.
• Frostfire Bolt: The periodic damage effect from Rank 2 of this spell now benefits from spell power gans.
• Living Bomb: Mana cost reduced to be the same as Arcane Explosion.. It no longer causes the caster to stand up when the final explosion occurs and it is now possible for each mage to have Living Bomb active on a target.
• Master of Elements: Now works with Living Bomb.
• Molten Fury: This talent no longer prevents Ice Lance ranks 2 and 3 from dealing triple damage against frozen targets.
• Reduced the mana cost of Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion.
• Torment the Weak: Now works correctly when the Mage also knows the Molten Fury Talent.

Paladins

• Art of War: No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm, instead increases all damage done by those abilities by a smaller amount.
• The Avenger’s Shield bounce distance has been reduced to 10 yards (from 15).
• The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.
• Blessing of Might: Rank 8 points increased slightly to prevent from being overwritten by BattleShout 8 that has a shorter duration (also applies to Greater Blessing of Might 3.)
• Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have both Blessing of Sanctuary and Greater Blessing of Sanctuary active on a target at the same time.
• Crusade: No longer applies damage bonus twice to critical strikes.
• Divine Plea: This spell’s duration is no longer affected by haste.
• Divine Purpose: Rank 1 of this ability will now correctly determine its chance of remove stun.
• Enlightened Judgments now increases range by 15/30 (was 10/20).
• Eye for an Eye: No longer breaks crowd control effects.
• Hammer of Justice: The interrupt from this ability will also be redirected when the stun is redirected. In addition, the interrupt will now work on targets immune to stun.
• Hammer of the Righteous: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does 4 times weapon dps instead of 3.
• Infusion of Light (Holy) now affects Flash of Light too, reducing its cast time down to zero and can be used while moving.
• Judgements: The debuffs from Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice will no longer be applied if the Judgement spell itself misses.
• Judgements of the Pure: Haste increased to 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Repentance PvP duration reduced to 6 sec.
• Righteous Defense cooldown has been lowered to 8 sec (was 15 sec).
• Righteous Vengeance: No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements and Divine Storm, instead applies a DoT effect similar to Deep Wounds.
• Seal of the Martyr: Tooltip for Judgement damage was incorrect and has been fixed.
• Sheath of Light: Now correctly benefits Judgements of Command, Blood, and The Martyr.
• Shield of the Templar now also reduces all damage taken by 1/2/3%.

Priests

• Binding Heal: Now only consumes one charge of Holy Concentration per cast.
• Borrowed Time: Charge no longer consumed by spells with a base cast time that is instant.
• Devouring Plague: The bonus coefficient has been increased to be on par with other DoT spells. Base damage on ranks 7,8, and 9 decreased to partially compensate for better scaling.
• Divine Providence: This talent now also reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending spell by 6/12/18/24/30%. With 5 points applied, it takes Prayer of Mending’s cooldown from 10 sec to 7 sec.
• Divine Spirit: Now can be refreshed properly on self after logging in and out or zoning. (Also applies to Prayer of Spirit.)
• Guardian Spirit: A target may now have only one Guardian Spirit active.
• Healing Focus: Now works properly with Penance.
• Improved Divine Spirit: No longer improves Divine Spirit after untalenting sometimes.
• Inner Focus: Now works properly with Mind Flay, Mind Sear, and Penance.
• Prayer of Spirit: Will no longer stack with other raid spell power buffs.
• Shadowform: Devouring Plague, Shadow Word:Pain, and Vampiric Touch cast in Shadowform deal increased damage percentage equal to the player’s chance to get a spell crit on their target.
• Shadow Word:Death: The self-damage from this spell can no longer be reflected or redirected.
• Vampiric Touch: The Spell power coefficient has been doubled and no longer triggers Replenishment when other priests cast Mind Blast.

Rogues

• Combat Potency: Now only works with autoattacks (no more Shiv.)
• Fan of Knives changed to be castable with no targets, further improved the visual affect and it no longer plays an impact on the caster. Now benefits correctly from the Find Weakness talent.
• Killing Spree: The rogue is now untargetable during the duration of the spree. In addition, no longer sometimes selects dead targets and no longer breaks stealth on nearby targets.
• Riposte: Duration of this effect no longer reduced by other effects that reduce disarm duration.
• Shadow Dance: The cooldowns on Sap, Garrotte, Ambush, Cheap Shot, Premeditation, Pickpocket, and Disarm Trap are no longer increased while this ability is activated.

Shaman

• Flurry: Now grants the proper number of charges when it triggers.
• Improved Fire Nova Totem: Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova Totem by 10/20% and your Fire Nova totem has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets damaged by your Fire nova Totem for 2 sec.
• Lava Burst: The base damage has been increased by approx. 10%.
• Maelstrom Weapon: Tooltips corrected to correctly describe the chance for this talent to be triggered.
• Riptide: The initial heal amount has been increased on ranks 3 and 4 and periodic healing has been increased on all ranks.
• Stormstrike: Other shamans can no longer consume charges of your Stormstrike, and each shaman can have their own stormstrike on the victim.
• Storm Reach is now called “Elemental Reach” and now includes Lava Burst.
• Thunderstorm: Mana gain has been increased to 8%.
• Tidal Mastery: Now correctly applies its critical strike bonus to Earth Shield.
• Tidal Waves will now also proc with Riptide.

Warlocks

• The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.
• Demonic Sacrifice: The buffs from this ability will now be retained properly when logging out or zoning.
• Demonic Empowerment: This talent no longer gives excessive threat to the Warlock’s Voidwalker.
• Destructive Reach: Now properly reduces threat on Chaos Bolt and Shadowflame.
• Drain Soul: Rank 6 now properly deals additional damage ot targets below 25% health.
• Haunt: The cooldown has been changed to 8 sec, and refreshing the Haunt will trigger the heal from the existing Haunt.This ability will no longer heal for incorrect amounts or fail to heal when the Huaunt damage was the killing blow.
• Inferno: The Infernal is now useable indoors and the tooltip has been updated.
• Master Demonologist (Felhunter) will now also reduce damage taken by Holy.
• Ritual of Doom: Now works correctly even when the Warlock already has a pet (dismissed the existing pet.)
• Shadowflame: Damaged increased approx. 75%. Coefficients unchanged.
• Shadow Embrace: Now works on ranks 1-4 and stacks properly with multiple applications.
• Soul Link (Demonology): Increased from 15% to 20%.

Warriors

• Armored to the Teeth: Grants only attack power( as intended) and recalculates the bonus immediately upon learning any rank of the talent.
• Bladestorm: Now breaks all snares and roots on the warrior when activated.
• Bloodthirst: Cooldown reduced to 5 sec.
• Deep Wounds: Now works properly with Heroic Throw.
• Heroic Throw: No longer gains increased damage from the warrior’s agility.
• Improved Rend changed to 10/20%.
• Rampage: Can now be triggered by off-hand Whirlwind damage.
• Rend: Damage has been adjusted to be less base and more weapon based.
• Rend: Ranks 9 and 10 now do 35% more damage when the target is above 75% health instead of 4 times damage when the target is enraged. Sudden Death: Now has 3/6/9% chance on hit instead of 10/20/30% chance on crit.
• Titan’s Grip: Changed to 12% penalty instead of 15%.
• Vigilance: Now properly transfers threat generated by heals.

Professions

• The level requirements required to train gathering skills have been removed.
• Alchemy
  • Reduced the effect of Elixir of Mongoose and Elixir of Major Agility.
• Inscription
  • Glyph of Crusader Strike: Now reduces mana cost by 20% instead of increase damage on stunned and incapacitated targets.
  • Glyph of Flame Shock: Now extends duration by 6 sec and prevents Flame Shock from being consumed by Lava Burst.
  • Glyph of Lava: Glyph of Earth Elemental removed and replaced with this glyph. This glyph increases coefficient on Lava Burst by 0.1.
  • Glyph of Mind Flay: Now sets snare to 10% instead of removing it.
  • Glyph of Rejuvenation: Now works correctly when the target is not self.
  • Glyph of Shiv: Replaced with Glyph of Vigor, which increases maximum energy by an additional 10 for those with the Vigor talent.
  • Glyph of Shadow: Glyph of Mind Soothe removed and replaced with this glyph. This glyph increases spell power by 10% of spirit for 10 sec after critting while in Shadowform.
  • Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain: Increases damage done by Mind Flay when SW:P is present by 10%.
  • Glyph of Sinister Strike: Chance increased to 50%.
  • Glyph of Souls no longer removes soul shard cost. It instead reduces the mana cost of your Ritual of Souls spell by 70%.
  • Glyph of Spirit of Redemption: Tooltip corrected to 4 sec. extra when the glyph triggers.
  • Glyph of Strength of Earth: Replaced with Glyph of Lava Lash which increases the bonus from having Flametongue Weapon by 10%.
  • Glyph of Trueshot Aura: Now increases Aimed Shot crit chance instead of increasing attack power bonus.
  • Glyph of Totem of Wrath: Replaced with Glyph of Elemental Mastery, which decreases the cooldown on Elemental Mastery by 30 sec.

User Interface

• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Items

• The war against spelling errors continues: many items have had typos removed or their functionality clarified.
• The item quality on several quest rewards was incorrect and has been altered.
• The phoenix summoned by Ashes of Al’ar has had his flame trains restored.
• Guardian’s Band of Subjugation now correctly grants universal haste.
• Girdle of the Warrior Magi now has a socket bonus.
• Some one-hand spell power weapons are now main hand only.
• Heart of the Dragon should now provide a consistent amount of Ranged Attack Power.
• Loatheb’s Shadow should now provide a consistent amount of Ranged Attack Power.
• Spirit-World Glass now correctly has a cooldown.
• Discerning Eye of the Besat procs should now be more obvious.
• Focusing Lenses now have a cooldown.
• The Horseman’s Reings should again function in Dalaran.
• Haute Club Membership Card no longer prompts players to open it.
• The buff granted by Frenzyheart Insingia of Fury now has a correct tooltip.
• Harness of Carnal Instinct no longer has bonus armor.
• Boots of the Protector have been brought in line with protection paladin itemization changes.
• A tootip error in the Glyph of Spint has been corrected.
• Grilled Sculpin now correctly grants Ranged Attack Power.
• Libram of Souls Redeemed should now only affect Holy Light.
• Legacy items that had both melee and spell critical strike rating have been integrated to the unified rating.
• Held in hand books created by Inscription are now Bind on Equip rather than Bind on Pickup.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that was affecting terrain rendering on GeForce 3 and 4 Ti cards. Those that added the command Set fixedfunction 1 to their config.wtf file should remove it to avoid a decrease in performance.

Glyph of Rupture: The tooltip has been corrected.

Hunter: Ferocious Inspiration will now apply raid-wide, as intended.

Hunter Pets

• Sonic Blast (Bat): Will no longer ignore LoS.
• Bad Attitude (Croc): Will no longer ignore the Longevity buff.
• Thunderstomp (Gorilla): Will no longer have a physical coefficient instead of a magical one.
• Gore (Bore): Fixed an issue where a wrong value was being applied.
• Savage Rend: Corrected typos in the tooltip.

Mage: Burning Determination will now work properly.

Mage: Living Bomb’s “explosion effect” will now be properly classified.

Priest: Holy Reach (Rank 2) will now increase the radius of Divine Hymn properly.

Priest: Inner Focus will now properly increase the critical strike chance of the talent Penance.

Shaman: Totem of Wrath tooltip updated to reflect that it affects all crit chance and indicate that it increases Spell Power (instead of just damage).

Of note:

“The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned.” No more epic flight form quest? Bah. Maybe I’m a softy for quests at heart, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who was disappointed when they went to the trainer at level 20 and learned Cat Form without a quest. The only reason my druid doesn’t have epic flight form right now is because I’d been spending the money on tanking gear, enchantments, and consumables instead of saving it for epic flying. I was actually looking forward to that quest.

“Aspect of the Viper: The per attack mana regeneration has been reduced by 50% but this ability now generates 4% of maximum mana every 3 sec. In addition, the per attack regeneration now also works on melee attacks.” Stop messing around with Viper already. Look at feedback, find a single way to implement it, and do so. I swear Viper’s been through a serious change at least 6 times through WotLK beta.

“Improved Fire Nova Totem: Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova Totem by 10/20% and your Fire Nova totem has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets damaged by your Fire nova Totem for 2 sec” Delicious. Now if only I could keep FN from being destroyed.

” Riptide: The initial heal amount has been increased on ranks 3 and 4 and periodic healing has been increased on all ranks.” Definitely needed. I’ve been loving Riptide’s effectiveness.

“Bladestorm: Now breaks all snares and roots on the warrior when activated.” Oh shi-

I’m betting we’ll see this on live next Tuesday. I wonder if they’ve yet fixed the bug with Replenishment breaking you out of stealth . . .

I admit; as much as I can be on top of gaming news, I can be just as equally behind. It was only recently that I got a subscription to GameTap, and so it’s only been recently that I’ve played through the first season of the new Sam and Max games. Having grown up in the original Sam and Max era, I must now ask - why was I never exposed to them?!

To say that Sam and Max is a funny game is an understatement. Hilarity is at every click and every conversation; but don’t expect simple bathroom humor. Take for instance, this little quip from the beginning of the first episode:

ANNOUNCER: Life troubling your digestion? Reality blocking your passages? Expel your troubles with “Emetics,” the handbook for multi-colored happiness, and “seperate your bliss”!

MAX: Hey, it’s that personal color spectrum book!

SAM: Self-help for the helplessly selfish.

MAX: Perfect! I’ll take two.

Of course, S&M isn’t completely about the humor. It’s still a classic point and click adventure game. Now I know, point and clicks may feel a little old in today’s hyper gaming world, but I still love them. I like the mental challenges puzzle games present while staying relaxed, and Sam and Max turn the game solving sometimes into a Rube Goldberg device. There are times I catch myself saying, “I didn’t know this could do that!”

Needless to say, I’m already rolling into Sam and Max: Season Two, and I highly recommend Sam and Max to any readers who care for some gentle (and sometimes ungentle) humor and a classic styled video game.

I grew up as a PC gamer. From the little green and black version of Oregon Trail I played on a 3″ TV-Radio screen, to Commodore 64s and Amigas, up to the modern computer. So I’ve had a lot of experience with dying computers, and yesterday, it was my husbands. Now I’ve seen the stages of grief associated with computer death, and they go something like this:

1. “Oh shi-”. This is when the computer, in its dying throes, does something clearly not good.  Maybe it doesn’t boot up; maybe it gets stuck in a reboot cycle; or, in the case of many gaming computer failures, the graphics go completely on the blitz.

2. “Maybe I can fix it.” Common to the denial phase in the grief of a living being, this is when the user, although clearly presented with an unfixable situation, begins to rationalize a way they can mend the computer. The case comes apart, and here comes the unplugging and replugging of cards and cables, the compressed air, the scrambling for spare parts. As the do-it-yourself work fails, it leads into stage three.

3. Violent anger. Every curse word in the book comes out during this phase. Now, of course, everyone handles anger differently: some swear and throw things around, like my father; some swear and cry, like me; but there’s always some swearing involved. Look, us gamers take our computers very seriously.

4. “I need a new computer.” This is the acceptance phase, when all the credit cards, bank accounts, and hidden savings get reviewed for the possibility of purchasing a new computer. This often also involves the begging of family and friends for spare computers - and in my family, this usually works quite well (we all know the horrors of being computerless.) I’ve only had to pay for a single computer so far - and it’s a laptop for school and work, that I paid for with retroactive financial aid payments. In our case, my husband is being given a hurrah from his mother: a new computer for Christmas. A good thing too; his computer somehow managed to last two years despite its lack of any decent hardware.

So when your computer decides to flop, don’t despair. Look at it as a new beginning, a chance to renew your gaming experience with new hardware.

Today, World of Warcraft’s Patch 3.0.2, “The Echoes of Doom,” was released. Patch notes can be found on the official page , but as it’s been having problems (likely due to the high load on their servers), you can also review some of the changes at WoW Insider. You can download the patch without having an active subscription, but be prepared: it’s a 1.2 gig patch followed by about a 400 mg patch.

Please make note: not all class and talent changes have made it to the live servers, due to concerns about balancing pre-80.  Naturally, this patch also does not include Death Knights or Northrend. However, the patch does include the barber shop, the achievement system, and the infamous changes to hit rating, crit rating, haste rating, and spellpower.

Although many changes are, I’m sure, quite welcomed by the live gaming community, I’m sure many beta testers can agree with me: we’re still waiting for Wrath of the Lich King to actually release. Both in PvE and PvP scales, Northrend is incredibly epic, a living novel rather than just a world environment to quest in. I’m rather enjoying my free taste of WotLK, and not because it’s free; it’s because I can’t even find WoW worth playing until WotLK is released. It’s just that good.

Nevertheless, have fun with the chaos that ensues with the Echoes of Doom!

During the weekend’s Blizzcon -beneath the rumbling shock of the tri-force split of StarCraft II - another announcement was released: the wizard class for Diablo III. Previews, screen shots, and trailers can be found on the official Blizzard page. Fans of casters can rejoice (and ladies, look: a female character that doesn’t look like a whore!); and no, this is not a rehashed version of Diablo II’s Sorceress.

Previewed on the page are five spells. Disintegrate is pretty much an aimed laser beam that crosses the entire screen and, well, disintegrates anything that it crosses paths with. Electrocute is another version of chain lightning (although, in the preview, it appears to have a small target limit.) Teleport is as it says: think a WoW mage’s Blink spell, only working; magic missile is a single target missle that turns your foes purple as they die. Slow Time creates a magic bubble in which attacks are slowed to a fraction of their regular speed (the video demonstrates the wizard using the shield to slow magic projectiles to better slay her enemies.)

 The cinematic trailer gives us more teasers of the wizard’s spells; not only does she have point blank and channeled AoE spells, she also has Corpse Explosion and Mirror Image in her arsenel. Also demonstrated are some very frosty looking spells.

I have to admit; I thought Witch Doctor was pretty much the epitome of cool when it came to Diablo III classes. And that may not have changed, but my heart’s being won over by the sass and spellbook of the wizard.  I’m only hoping now that the ranged class has as much charm or power, and not as much clunk, as the Amazon.

Cheers, Blizzard. At least you did one thing right this Blizzcon.