Torchlight - First blood

 Do not mess!

Like I mentioned yesterday, I bought the game Torchlight for my birthday... All I can say about this game is WOW!.. I mean, it is completely awesome... All the non-stop hack 'n slash action your heart desires..

I only have one.. actually two problems with this game..

1) There is no multi-player, and from reading the blogs and forums, there won't ever be a multi-player.

2) It is too bladdy addictive!

When I say addictive I mean :

Here I am trying to muster enough will power to drag  myself away from the pc just so that I can go and studying some discrete maths (some how my will power mustering skills just aren't functioning), instead all I want to do is clear one more level.. Just one more bladdy level and I'll be happy.. Or maybe just one more loot item, just one more pretty little orange item..... Gah!

See, what these guys have done, is take everything addictive about Diablo 1, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft and rolled it into a fast passed Hack 'n Slash (and fixed up some problems along the way).

The game (I don't want to say "steals") borrows a lot from World of Warcraft in terms of character interaction, the experience bar, fame (aka rep), and items taking up single blocks (no more playing Tetris with your loot)!

By far, the most interesting and exciting feature they have added is .... wait for it....SHARED STASH.

In your little town (that smacks of tristram), there are two stash boxes. One of them is for your own private stash, and the other is for all your characters combined. I found this quite a nice touch (especially with set items coming into play).

O, and I did mention that have a gambling system? Yip, just like Gheed and all of the other chops that sold you grey items for 1000 gold and more, they too have a fat little merchant ready take all your gold by allowing you to gamble it on items that you don't need.. (Actually I lie, I got an awesome unique Axe this morning..)

Seriously though, the guys at runic games have really done well with this game, and breathed some much needed life back into the hack 'n slash genre. (Dungeon Siege etc just never really had anything on Diablo 1 or Diablo 2).

Public Health Warning notice!

You will become hooked to this game, and end up spending way to many hours of your time running around the world of Torchlight without even thinking of RL things, like eating, sleeping or doing anything else that most people would consider "productive".

If you haven't played the demo yet.. You better get downloading ASAP! GOGOGO.. No time to waste..

P.S. 

If you ever played Diablo 2 passed normal I suggest starting on hard mode..

Normal could work for those that are rusty, but easy is just way to easy..

Torchlight! Diablo fix in an espresso cup!

The past week and a bit, has been quite the crazy one for me. In between studying for my formal logic exam, practicing for and playing at the Gospel Cabaret, running the VoB 21.1km Graperun and having my birthday I just couldn't find any time to update my blog or even play WoW!.(ag shame - ed)

But now that it has all died down a bit, and with things slowly getting back to normal I had a chance to just add this little update.

Note : slowly is a relative term seeing that I have 3 exams still coming up!

But as hectic as the past week was, It was also an absolute blast!

My wife leveled her cooking skills all the way to grand master chef in a matter of hours as she went about cooking up a storm for my party.

Teddy Cake : +60 to Awesomeness

The party itself was insane.. Food was great, friends where great, and we even had Buffon (aka H) from Juventus making an appearance in our mini soccer tournament!

I was showered with some awesome gifts too...

My wife got us Parlotones tickets, while Team A club together with cash which I wisely went and spent on an awesome new game called "Torchlight".

I'll be posting more info about Torchlight as soon as I've had a chance to actually play the game, but for now all I can tell you to do is to go check out their website : Torchlight.

The game basically takes everything good from Diablo 1 and 2, combines this with Fate, adds in a very nice looking 3D engine and rolls out a spiffy little game that I can't wait to dig my teeth into!

I also got some spiffy running gear from my bro and parents which will definitely help in next years Crazy Store's Mountain Challenge (watch me run a sub 3hrs).

Lastly, I ran the Graperun on sunday and completed it in 2:04.. I was aiming for a sub 2hr, but the race is an absolute killer, and by pushing myself I caused a full body break down with 4km's left to go.. This at least  did help me realize that I'm not 100% ready for a marathon just yet (to the relieve of Zoe and everyone else) and so I'll be giving Winelands marathon a miss, and settle for the half instead..

Wooo hooo.. Northrend beast 10man HC down!

I was just about to start writing a long sob story about how frustrating Heroic mode is in TotC.
We had been sitting on the Northrend Beasts for over an hour, and I was just about to give up when suddenly out of nowhere we pulled this awesome performance out the hat and absolutely destroyed the little buggers.

Okay, so the worms came in as we were downing Gormok, and Icehowl appeared as we landed the final blows on Acidmaw..

But I tell you what, Icehowl had absolutely no chance what so ever..

So awesome job guys .. Big ups to Mianeye ( Raid Leader ), Sephiroths, Droka, Bubbleadin, Uxdragon, Hauk, Arthecon and Erockzorator and Veroxa.


We even went on to go give Lord Jaraxxus a run for his money!
Really enjoyed it (and I got some awesome offspec gear :P)
-Ultra

Location.. Location.. Locat... o wait.. Directions! Directions! Directions!

On Friday night Zoe and myself headed off to an engagement party. To be very honest, I wasn't 100% amped to go, seeing as we were going to rock up there at 8:30pm ( the party itself was starting at 7pm). But, Zoe was very persistent that we go seeing that we had R.S.V.P weeks ago.. (and to be fair, she was right. They had catered for us and everything, it was only fair to go and show our faces).

So, I get this email at 4pm Friday afternoon saying "Please print : Directions to engagement..."
It read as follows :

Take N2 and take the Baden Powell turn off, at the top of Baden Powell take a left towards stellenbosch, at the intersection at the end of the road take a right to go towards stellies, carry on straight until u see the somerset west turn off, take a right at that turn off. Drive straight, go over the robots and you will see the estate on your right (has a black fence around it), carry on until you see the entrance of the estate. Tell security your name and that you here for the engagement party at the Lifestyle Center

Sounded easily enough.. I knew where Baden Powell Rd was, I knew where Baden Powell takes a right towards Stellenbosch. Hey! Was this the easiest directions I had ever received or what!

How the directions read...

Boy was I wrong!!

How it went down :


It's 7:45, we are running a bit late, but it is all good.. We already going to be late, so an extra 5mins won't hurt anyone. In the car we get and off we go heading for the N2.

While driving along the N2 I double check the directions just to make sure I know exactly where we are going. Yes! Everything is good, and we are even a little bit ahead of time.

We get to the Baden Powell turn off with 20mins spare time.. Things are going better than planned.
We follow the directions to the "t". We "carry on straight until u see the somerset west turn off, take a right at that turn off" (to be honest we messed up here, but it was all cool because you land up at the same road).  After some hooting from the locals because Zoe was supposedly driving on the wrong side of the road, we got back onto the right road..

Time to spot that black fence, in the dark! (I should have know at this point that these directions were useless)

Driving very slowly we try spot a black fence.... Suddenly we spot one, then another.. then we notice that all fences are black at night! But we were sure the next turn off would take us to our destination..

Finally! A turn off.. but it takes us to a shopping center :( No worries, on we drive for another 10mins.. Still no turn off or a "black" fence.. We decide to U-Turn and head back thinking that we might have missed something..

We drive all the way back.. Nope haven't missed anything..
By now we are 20mins late.. It is 8:50pm and I haven't eaten since 12 that afternoon...

We decide to try one more time, but this time we drive quite a bit further hoping that maybe the directions forgot to mention the 10km's between the robot and the turn off.. Still nothing.

We decide the next step is to ask some locals... We try asking some local car guards and estate guards, neither of them can even pronounce the place's name, let alone tell me where the hell it is..

So out comes the cellphone and I get to speak to one of the guests there who seems to be a bit confused about our where abouts but gives us directions all the same..

It turns out that we weren't meant to drive Baden Powell out, nope we were only meant to drive it to the intersection and take the next road that got us onto another road that would get us onto the R44 turn off. (yeah, I know.. I should have hung up sooner..)

Next set of directions!

We try follow the directions with great haste (by now it is almost 9:40. We have been driving around for almost 1.5 hrs and I'm really getting hungry!)

To our dissapointment we land up in the middle of wine farm land with no bladdy idea where we are.. We get to a set of robots and take a right hoping to spot a black fence.. Nothing.... Gah..at this point Zoe was so miserable that she just decided to call it a night and drive home..

But first! A stop at a BP for some awesome chips, milo and a pie... (or so I thought!)

1) The Milo was off..

2) NEVER EVER EVER NEVER buy Rib pie.. It is the most revolting thing you will ever put in your mouth..

3) Don't take chilli sauce on your chips when the only liquid you have to wash it down with is off Milo...

Anyways... The next morning I decided to check google maps to see exactly where this place really was..

The correct directions...

How is that anywhere close to

a) The end of Baden Powell

b) On your way to stellies..

c) If you were to follow the imaginery road to somerset west, and cross over the imaginary robots. You would still never see the imaginary black fences on your right hand side because it would be on your LEFT!!

So, if you are ever going to give me directions on how to get somewhere I ask only two things.

1) That you give an actual Street Address and the NAME  of the venue we are going to .. Not some descriptive idea like "black fence with a security guard"

2) That you send me a Google Map link (google.com/maps, not that hard) or at very least send me the name of the roads I should be turning into...

O, and don't buy me any BP  Rib pies, EVER!

Enhancement Shaman... What a blast!

Now before anyone of my fellow healers get a heart attack... No I won't be giving up Resto Shaman as my primary spec (for now) as I have played Resto Shaman since Vanilla WoW and giving it up right now just somehow seems wrong.

I still thoroughly enjoying playing as Resto Shaman, though I do find that blizzard has somehow killed it in recent times. Especially with the stupid focus on Chain Healing, when both Druids and Priests have AoE healing beyond anything we are currently capable of :(

Blizzard are also giving more focus to Healing Wave over Lesser Healing Wave, this I find is killing the shaman as a healer, purely because Healing Wave is generally used for tank healing (not always) and paladins are so imba at single target healing that replacing them with a shaman is just stupid :(

As a healer I've always played raid healer since being able to spam multiple Rip Tides and LHW was almost unbeatable versus over classes trying to do the same thing.

Blizzard have somehow killed this joy in 3.2.2 and many times I've found no joy in healing, and would just watch Top Gear during the fights! (expect the big important ones.. .. o wait.. we don't have any of those at the moment..)

This brings me to my decision to respec to Enhancement! I know that  because of my current gear I should be more suitable for Elemental, but the truth is,  I really don't want another ranged lame ass dps char that I never invest time into.

Going Enhanced forces to me to get new gear, it really puts me in the middle of fight! I just played my new spec for 40mins this morning and I fell in love with WoW all over again (Blizzard had somehow killed this love somewhere between 3.1 and 3.2.2)

For now, I'll stick to Resto Healer as main spec, but once TotC really become farming content (which it almost is), I'll start thinking of getting my enhanced fully up to scratch.

I will never fully give up healing, but I'm really looking forward to taking this Melee DPS role places..

Right! Back to grinding gear.. (on the AH!  Mhuahahahaa)

Top Gear vs Alabama.. It really is true!

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm really not that into cars, and watching car shows is even more of a bore!

But that has all changed, well not really.. I still don't like car shows, but I do like Top Gear :P

It all started one day when I was flipping through some channels and I happened to come accroess the Top Gear guys in Alabama ripping off American's. (Too irresistible not to watch it) I was soon completely engrossed and really started enjoying this rather witty off-the-wall car show that was more of a comedy show than an actual car show.

10mins into my viewing a famous Top Gear incident happened in which the entire Top Gear team were attacked my raging Rednecks! (You can view it here : Video clip on the "Alabama" incident  )

For a couple of months I've been trying to figure out if this was all real, or if they just did it for T.V ratings..
It seems (according to Richard Hammond ) that it is all indeed real : Richard Hammond tells all

How about that!
So there you have it! They really were chased around by crazy gun-wielding Rednecks whose IQ combined is lower than that of our very own Julius Malema!

O! WoW news..
I finally have my very own Conservatory of Life, cleared of all the pesky mobs, but still spawning all those wonderful herbs for me to pick and sell at extraordinary prices! Yippie!
Ta to my guildies for helping me clear it.
We also cleared TotC and most of Uldaur in one week.. This is becoming quite the farming ground for us.. Hard modes here we come!

Yesterday felt like a 28hr day...

Have you ever woke up the next morning and gone... Wow, yesterday was just absolutely crazy and rushed. Sure Bar-One helps you get through a 25hour day, but what do you do when you have a 28hour day?

Well my day started quite "normal". Woke up at 6 to get ready for my first ever mountain bike race. I was quite excited and no idea what to expect. I was going to be doiug the 30km (turned out to be 33km's!) Lourensford Race.

It all started off rather well when we couldn't get the bikes loaded on because no one knew where the bike rack was! After some phone calls to the UK and one miserable dad (it was 4:45am there) we finally able to set off on a journey that would put us out to the max.

The 30k race profile looked challenging, but somehow it just never sunk in exactly how challenging it really was.

As the race started I just couldn't shake off this feeling of "... this was not such a good idea after all!" 5km's into the race (which to me felt like 15km's) I was already completely broken and ready to just crawl into a ball and die. Every little downhill started looking like another easy way out.

By the last 10km's my legs were finished, hands cramping, arms in pain and my water just tasted like mud, but I decided to push on just as temperatures started reaching 30°C!

I completed the entire race in 2:28, which I think is not bad for a guy who has never done a MTB race before and starts off by doing the worst 33k race in the racing calendar!! (Yes, WORST AND HARDEST! So we've been told..)

My brother said he is never riding another mountain bike race after wiping with 3km's to go, and all Zoe could talk about was how she can't wait for our future kids to one day do the same things! (She did the 15km race! and in 1:19 - Nice one).

My wife before the race :)

Myself after the race(picture doesn't really show just how covered in mud I really was)

 

Erock not impressed with life at all.. knees, elbows and hands all now without skin! (and lots of dirt)

So you might be asking what has this got to do with a 28hr day? Well you see, normally when you have gone and pushed your body to max you go home, have a long bath and generally do nothing the entire day.. But that just isn't how us Kooyman's work.

Ben(rockie) went off to play in a soccer tournament (and won!) well Zoe and myself managed to be late TWICE for a single wedding (first the ceremony, and then the reception)

Rest of the day went something like this.

Bike Race -> Eat -> Drive Home -> Unload bikes and shower -> Get to Wedding 15mins late, rush home to open up for Ben who left keys in other car -> Take bikes to folks place -> Rush off to reception and be 20mins late... ><

Luckily for us the Bride and Groom took their time too, so wern't actually ever "late" just last to arrive before the bridal couple! :)

Just a big up to T&J for finally tying the knot! You will not regret it (but it will be hard work!)

The lovely Mr and Mrs Mentor

Terence put all men to shame forever more with his dance moves!

Right, not to go plonk my saddle sore arse into a bucket of ice ><