World of Warcraft: Classes

Character creation screen

There are ten difference classes to choose from in World of Warcraft but some classes are unavailable to some races. The class determines what gear you can wear and what role you have when in a group. Some classes can be multiple roles depending on their talents. Each class has it's advantages and disadvantages to partially balance the game.

Druid: A druid is a versatile class that can become any of the four roles through shape shifting. In Cat Form, a druid is takes the role of melee damage and has skills similar to a rogue. In bear form, the druid can take the role as a tank as it has increased health and armor. In Moonkin form, a druid can take the role of ranged damage as it uses spells instead of melee attacks. Druids have the unique ability to resurrect people even while in combat through the spell Rebirth. Druids can wear leather armor and primarily use two handed weapons.

Death Knight: Currently, death knights are the only hero class in the game meaning they start off at level 55 instead of level 1 and come with gear. They also have their own specialized starting area regardless of race. Also, any race can become a death knight as long as they have at least one other character over level 55. Death knights can either deal damage or tank depending on their talents. Death knights wear plate armor and can wield two one-handed weapons or a two handed weapon.

Hunter: Hunters are the only class that focuses on ranged weapon as a primary source of damage. They can use all sorts of ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows and guns. They are also able to tame a pet which allows them to solo group quests easier than other classes. Hunters can tame different types of pets which have different abilities. Hunters can wear mail armor and use just about every weapon.

Mage: Mages are ranged damage dealers that focus on casting spells. There are three types of mages depending on your talent build and they are Fire, Frost and Arcane. They deal lots of damage and are very good at escaping with spells like blink which teleports them a short distance. They are also good at dealing damage in an area allowing them to kill multiple monsters at once. They wear cloth armor and can either use a main hand and off-hand or a staff.

Paladin: Paladins are holy crusaders who can either deal melee damage, tank or heal depending on their talent build. They have many holy spells which deal extra damage to undead or unholy units. They have special auras with different purposes that benefit everyone in the group. They wear plate armor and can use a main hand and a shield or a two handed weapon. This class used to be exclusive to the alliance but they are available to the horde since Burning Crusade.

Priest: Priests are arguably the best healing class in the game as they have many spells that either heal one specific person or the whole group. They have many useful spells such as Mind Control which controls an enemy unit or player and dispels which remove negative buffs like diseases and spells. They can also cast shields to protect players from damage. Priests can also deal damage in shadow spec but in shadowform, they lose the ability to heal. Priests wear the same items as a mage.

Rogue: Rogues are a stealth class that deal lots of damage but do not have much health. They are good at incapacitating their foes with skills like sap and kidney shot. They are also able to turn invisible until they attack something making them able to ambush their enemies. Rogues can dual wield one-handed weapons and use leather armor.

Shaman: Shaman are a versatile class that can either use melee weapons, heal or deal spell damage. They can drop down four totems that benefits the group as kong as they're in the radius. They are considered one of the best classes as they can adapt to different roles making them useful in groups. They wear mail armor and can use just about every weapon.

Warlock:  Warlocks are dark casters using dark magic and curses and have the ability to tame demons. These demons are combat pets meaning they fight for the warlock. They can either their talents to strengthen their pet, deal damage over time or deal burst damage. They wear cloth armor and main hand and an of-hand or a staff.

Warrior: Warriors are close ranged attackers that fill the role of dealing melee damage or  tanking. They are the only class capable of holding two two-handed weapons They are known for inflicting big amounts of physical damage as they have a lot of spells that reduce healing. Warriors wear plate armor and mainly use two handed weapons or a one handed weapon and a shield for tanking.

World of Warcraft: Introduction

World of Warcraft is a popular MMORPG which stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game which currently has over twelve million subscribers. This game has three expansions which are Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm. In Burning Crusade, the level cap was raised to level 70 from level 60, Wrath of the Lich King raised it to 80 and Cataclysm raised it to 85. Other limitations were increased such as professions. Like most MMORPGs, you create a character and you level him through completing quests. While questing, you will probably meet others as some quests will require teamwork rather than soloing. There is also pvp (player versus player) where you can fight other players instead of computer generated enemies. This game has two factions to choose from and they are Alliance and Horde. Alliance has six races that consist of Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Draenei and Worgen. Horde also consists of six races which includes Orc, Troll, Tauren, Undead, Blood Elf and Goblin. There are three types of servers: RP (Role Playing), PVE (Player versus environment) and PVP (Player versus player). RP and PVE focus mainly on killing computer generated enemies whereas PVP focuses on killing other players.

Most of the things in the game require more than one player so teamwork is essential. There are guilds which is basically a clan where people can chat or organize events such as completing dungeons and raids. Most of the challenges in the game are designed for groups especially end-game tasks. While questing, players earn money and experience. Money is used for regents for professions or items such as weapons and armor although high end weapons and armor cannot be obtained through money. This is because high end items are "bind on pickup" which means the item cannot be given to other players when it is looted. Most items of uncommon quality and lower are usually "bind on equip" which means the item cannot be traded or given to other players only if you equip it. When a character dies, it's spirit teleports to the nearest graveyard and must walk back to their corpse in order to resurrect.

Forza 3: Features II

Storefront

The two features that will be explained in this blog are the Auction House and the Storefront. These two are often used by players to sell cars or designs they make through the decal editor. Like a real auction, cars are put up for bidding and they player who has the highest bid gets the car. The car may also have an optional buyout price which is the price it can be bought outright for. There are many different filters like car year and make to help you find the car you want. Some cars will be sold with a design which allows the purchaser to own the design and change it however he/she wishes which I'll explain why this is important later. The auction house mostly contains cars that are gifted to you when you level as people can sell cars they dislike for much more in the auction house instead of selling them for 100 credits in-game. The auction house can be accessed in-game or online here http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/game/auction/default.htm

Aston Martin One-77

The storefront is a place where people can share photos, videos and designs online. You can also access your photos online which makes it convenient for you to upload them to your computer. Photos are picked every week and showcased on the main page by Turn10 which is the company that makes Forza. The most popular and highest rated photos and videos are also displayed on the front page of their respective categories. The main purpose of the storefront is to sell user created designs. With a 5000 layers limit, users can create anything they want. Designs can be sold for between 1000 credits to 50000 credits or shared for free. When a design is bought, the design is locked so the buyer cannot modify or sell the design themselves. This is a useful feature as it prevents designs from being stolen.

Forza 3: Gameplay Modes

Ferrari 458 Italia

Forza 3 has a variety of gameplay modes to keep you playing for a long time. The first one is career mode which is basically going through the same career as a professional racer and gradually moves up to higher leagues. The second mode is event list where it lets you play every single event in the game but some are locked depending on your level. These events have car restrictions like "muscle cars only" or "cars must have less than 600 horsepower" which ensures you drive new cars for each event making it seem less repetitive. This also means you have to purchase specific cars for each event which may cost a lot of money especially with some cars like the Porsche Carrera GT costing over $300,000 in-game. Each event has more than one race so it takes quite long before you complete the whole game.

Audi R8 LMS Race Car

The next mode is free play which basically allows you to race with any car you want in any track. This is a great mode as you can drive cars even if you didn't buy them and you can also test drive them first if you're thinking about purchasing a car. There is a mode called quick race within free play which allows you to race against computers but unfortunately this mode is very limited as you cannot choose what cars the computers drive, the number of laps or the computer difficulty. A better way to face computers is to set up a private race online which allows you to change almost every aspect to customize your race. Private race is also useful when you want to race with friends as other people cannot join. The next mode is Multiplayer which is where you play with other people online with a variety of game modes. Some of these modes include circuit, drag, drift, stock car racing and road racing.

Forza 3: Progress III

Ferrari FXX

This is an update on my progress on Forza 3 for the Xbox 360. I have made it past Season Four and I am currently on Season Five which start getting difficult without any assists. For some of the races, I started using traction control which reduces throttle to maintain traction. This was because it was hard to keep the wheels from spinning due to the power of R3 cars and it was especially difficult launching the car at the start of the race. The car I mainly stuck with in Season four was the Ferrari FXX as it was one of the fastest cars in that class and faster than the competition. This car was given to me for free at level 35 which I achieved before season four. I didn't need to upgrade the car at all which helped me save money for other cars projects. Season four was still relatively short and it took me about a week to finish.

Koenigsegg CCGT

Season five uses cars from R2 and I am still currently on this season. Now I'm using a lot more assists such as stability control, medium computer difficulty and ABS because these cars require a lot of skill to drive without assists. Even with traction control, it's hard to get a good launch off the line and I usually end up having a hard time catching up. The good thing about Forza 3 is that you'll still get money and experience no matter what place you finish as long as you finish the race. The Koenigsegg CCGT was my car of choice for this season because it was one of the fastest albeit it was hard to handle. Although the races are a lot longer now, you make a lot more money which motivates me to keep playing. I also noticed that season play is getting pretty repetitive despite playing different events. The good thing about this game is that if you get bored of season play, you could always practice painting cars, selling cars on the auction house for a profit or race online with a plethora of game modes.

Starcraft 2: Map Editor

The map editor in Starcraft 2 allows you to create a map how ever you like with almost no boundaries. Every aspect of the game can be changed allowing users to create different game types. This tool is very complex and not very beginner friendly. There is a lot of data involved and different strings and values which is very confusing if you don't know what you're doing. Different game types can be created with this editor such as RPGs (Role Playing Games), tower defenses and many more. You can change every aspect of every unit such as the damage, in-game model, attack range, unit size and you can even create your own models to replace in-game ones. You can share your maps by uploading to battle.net which allows other people to play your map. The more people play your map, the more popular it will be which puts it higher up on the list of maps. Battle.Net will also feature maps which put them on the very top to help map creators gain some publicity.

Here is an example of a classic "Tetris" being recreated in Starcraft 2

Starcraft 2: Races (Protoss)

Protoss Dark Templar

Protoss is the races that specializes in psionic technology and is considered the most advanced race. Their units have a futuristic theme often plated in gold armor. Protoss units are very expensive compared to other races but they are more powerful so the focus is quality of units instead of quantity. This requires a bit more skill because you have to try your best to keep each unit alive as losing each unit will affect you greatly. Units are warped from the planet Aiur which is the homeland of the Protoss. All Protoss untis have shields as well as health but their shields regenerate when the unit is out of combat which can help preserve your army. All buildings must be built around a Pylon which is the supply building for the Protoss that gives off psionic energy which buildings need to operate.

Carrier

The worker unit for the Protoss is the probe which warps buildings so one probe can make another building before the previous one finishes which other workers cannot do. The following units are warped in by the Gateway. The zealot is a melee unit that is most often used for taking damage as they have a lot of health for their cost. Stalkers are ranged units that are very versatile when blink is upgraded which allows them to teleport. The sentry is a spell casting unit that can cast force field which blocks units, hallucination which creates a clone of a unit and guardian shield which reduces damage around the sentry. High Templar are casting units that can cast AOE spells like Psionic storm which is useful against groups of units. Dark Templar are invisible and deal a lot of damage but does not have a lot of health. The following units are warped in by the Robotics Facility. The immortal is a powerful ground unit that deals a lot of damage but can only attack ground units. The observer is an invisible unit used for spying on enemies. The warp prism allows ground units to be transported by air. The Colossus is a huge mechanical unit that can attack multiple units and climb over cliffs. The following units are warped in the Stargate. The Phoenix is a fast agile air unit that can only attack other air units and lift ground units into the air. The Void Ray can be a powerful unit when utilized correctly as it's attack becomes more powerful the longer it attacks a unit. When fully charged, the Void Ray can be a devastating unit. The Carrier is the flagship unit for the Protoss and it has multiple little ships called interceptors that attack.

Starcraft 2: Races (Terran)

Terran Marine

Terran is a race full of humans have many different colonies, some against each other. This race is known for their mobility as some of their buildings can lift off and move. This race evolves through technology from marines which are small infantry units to battlecruisers which are big war ships. Rather than mutation, units are upgraded through technological upgrades. Terran is often to be said as the easiest race to play for a beginner as their units are quite strong and there isn't a lot of things to focus on like Zerg.

Thor

The worker unit for Terran is the SCV and they are able to repair buildings and mechanical units as well which is unique to this race. The next unit is the marine which are small infantry units that are trained at the barracks. Next is the Marauder which is a powerful ranged unit with a lot of health for it's cost but it can only attack ground units. The reaper is also trained at the barracks and it specializes against buildings and can leap over cliffs making them very versatile. The Hellion is build at the Factory which is a light armored vehicle that shoots a straight flame making it very strong for harassing enemy worker units making them unable to mine. The siege tank is also built at the Factory and can learn Siege Mode through a tech lab which makes it stationary but gives it a lot of range and AOE(Area of Effect) damage. The Thor is a massive ground unit that is commonly used for taking out large amounts of air units with javelin missiles. The Viking is an air unit built at the Startport and can only attack air and the Banshee is an air unit that can only attack ground. A medivac is an air unit that can heal biological units and carry units as well. The raven is a unit that has a lot of special abilities like heat seeking missiles but it is unable to attack. The battlecruiser is the most powerful unit in the Terran arsenal and it's an all around unit but costs a lot.