First Fantasy Hockey Draft of the Year!

Well it’s that time of year again.  The start of the hockey season is just around the corner!  I just did my first point fantasy hockey draft with some people from work.  There was a decent turn out of 22 people so we broke up into to groups.  I lucked out and pulled 4th to draft, and think my team turned out pretty well.

1. D. Sedin (VAN)

2. A. Kopitar (LA)

3. P. Datsyuk (DET)

4. M. Green (WAS)

5. M. Richards (PHI)

6. N. Antropov (ATL)

7. C. Giroux (PHI)

8. N. Zherdev (PHI)

9. T. Conolly (BUF)

10. M. Raymond (VAN)

I tried to stay away from a lot of risk but though taking the upside of Zherdev and Conolly were worth the risk very later in the draft. If you have the time let me know what you think, and good luck to everyone drafting in the next week.

Mouse in the House

Well it turns out that we have a mouse living in out laundry room.  If it was just my Wife and I here I would not really be that concerned but with our little one its time to take action.  We are picking up a live release trap and hoping to catch the sucker asap!  I have only seen it once and its a little brown field mouse that is stealing our cats food and pooping on our washing machine.

If the live release trap does not work my sister has already offered me one of the more permanent kind, lets hope it doesn’t come to that.

Note to our cats: EPIC FAIL!

A New World to Explore….

Well after all the hype and waiting Final Fantasy XIV finally launched for the people who bought the collector’s edition on Wednesday!  I personally picked up my collector’s edition from EB Games around 10:30am and quickly installed it once I got home.  I was very impressed that the patch downloads only took 90 minutes to complete (I feared the worst).

Once I logged in and created my character Xanadu Virtue, I lucked out by managing to get a spot on the Mysidia server (over the next couple of days this turned out to be hard to do).  I decided to start off as a Thaumaturge to try my hand at magic before I start leveling Lancer which is to be my main focus.  I started in Ul’Dah and really enjoyed the opening cinematic and the ‘Court of the Sands’ quest chain that introduces you to the game and city.  It actually gets you interested in the characters you are working with and trying to help out, which surprised me and was very addicting.

After getting my bearings in the city I decided to pick up a Weathered Hatchet (never too early to start harvesting) and grabbed some Guildleves and headed out to Camp Black Brush.  Over the next couple of hours I managed to finish all the guildleves I picked up and did some general exploring/harvesting in the wilds around the Ul’dah.  I really enjoy the combat system, it’s a little slower than some of the more recent MMO’s I have played but it gives you time to think and plan your actions.  I could see how this might put some people off but for me it’s a very nice aspect of the game.  The second thing I really like is the harvesting mechanic which is not just find a node and harvest but turns it into a mini game.

Overall during the first couple day I managed to spend about 10 and a half hours in game and had a great time.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with my Linkshell and just killing time talking while wandering this new and exciting world.  By the end of it all I had managed to level Botanist and Mining to 7, Thaumaturge to 5 and played around with Carpentry getting it up to level 4.

I appreciate the fact that my Wife was kind enough to let me spend so much time in game, I kind of had to binge just after launch since I work midnights all weekend long. I would like to thank everyone in Seraphim for making the first couple of days a blast.

Hurry up and wait….

Well I got up this morning, had a good breakfast and headed out to EB Games to pick up my copy of Final Fantasy XIV CE Edition.  I brought the game straight home and started installing it and registering my copy of the game and put in the code to get my Onion Helm. Unfortunately here come the waiting part, after installing the game like all MMO’s we have to patch and update for all the changes.  I started patching and the client says I have only between 40 minutes and 8 hours to wait before I can log in.

I expected this so it’s not really that big of a surprise. In the mean time I plan to spend some time with my ladies and chatting with my LS Seraphim.  My only hope now is when my little one goes to bed tonight everything will be ready to go so I can start exploring Eorzea.

Edit: Well the patched only took about 90 minutes to update 🙂  See you all in game!

Count Down… 5…. 4…. 3…. 2….

The time is almost at hand, only 2 more days to go until the release of Final Fantasy XIV!

I am looking forward to beginning my journey through Eorzea.  I only managed to get about 10 hours playing around with the Beta version of Final Fantasy XIV and wish I could have done more.  I did enjoy doing a little exploring and trying out the guildleve system.  The experience overall has helped build my excitement for launch.

Like a lot of fan boys I do see this game through rose coloured glasses, but I am logical enough to realize this game will not be for everyone.  Just like Final Fantasy XI this game has a feel of its own that I know one member of my Linkshell has decided is not for him after Beta.  I respect that and appreciate that he did not trash the game on his way out, he just realized that its style was not what he was looking for at this time.

Do I think this will be the a great MMO that keeps me addicted for years? I don’t know but I am looking forward to finding out!

FFXIV: Understanding the Fatigue System

I happen to come across this video killing time while the servers were down for maintenance.  If you are looking for more information about the FFXIV fatigue system I though this video was a great way to explain how the system works.

I really like how it talks about how to improve your character by diversifying your skill set with other jobs.  I for one am thinking of leveling a few classes (Lancer, Conjurer, Botanist and Carpenter) so I have a feeling the Fatigue System will not be that big of concern for me. 

I understand how the system can seem harsh to some power gamers forcing them to change jobs.  It’s my belief to get the best skill combinations you have to use more than one job, so it’s in their best interest for character development to spend time with other jobs. 

But that is just how I think, if you have another opinion please let me know.  See you all online very soon!

Just my luck!

Well its just been one of those days.  I got up early and took care of my little girl while my wife had a shower and some time to herself.  After breakfast I drove our car to the shop and dropped it off because the engine light came on and I could faintly smell gas.  All in all the morning was actually going pretty good, the car needed only a little work (new gas line) and the day out side was beautiful.

After lunch my luck changed 🙂  We have been trying to find a humidifier for our room to help out daughter sleep easier and have yet to find one we like.  We went out to Toy’s R Us and grabbed a cute looking Duck humidifier for a nice price and brought it home.  Once we took it out of the box and set it up we notice a nice crack in the base of the unit above the fan, so back to the store we go!  The second one we brought home actually was in great shape and has been working wonderfully.

The second sign of my poor luck happened when bedtime came for our little girl. At that time she decided to get a little fussy on her Mom and me.  It took us a little while to get her to settle down and finally to sleep, this was mostly my wife work as our little lady does not take well to Daddy when she is tired.

Lastly, having to stay up for late to help my transition to work  nights I figured to get a good 4 or 5 hours playing Final Fantasy XIV Beta.  Everything happens in threes right, about 15 minutes after I log in I get the news flash that the servers are going down for scheduled maintenance, nice.

As days go it was not terrible, but luck seemed to have abandoned me after lunch.   So instead if chopping down trees with my Botanist and trying to do some carpentry, I am writing this blog and watching Constantine.  Not a bad trade-off, but I would still rather be gaming!

10 days and counting…..

I never realized until a Linkshell mate posted that its only 10 more days until the CE launch of Final Fantasy XIV!

Its been a crazy summer for me with the birth of my Daughter, it seems that time has just flown by.  Now is a great time to have this game come out for me, the weather is getting cooler, my little one is 3 months old and sleeping through the night better.  All this adds to my free time to relax and play Final Fantasy XIV, and I am looking forward to it.

I hope to see you all online!

FFXIV Open Beta… Yes Please!

Well it took me a few days but I managed to get myself an open beta code for Final Fantasy XIV!  To be honest the download was a pain, but once it was completed I had no problems getting into the game.  Since my plan at launch is to create a Miqo’te Lancer I had to make one for my first beta character, everyone say hello to Xanadu Palavvi of the Mysidia server.

So far I have only played for a few hours and its been a lot of fun.  Even on my older system the game still looks amazing with most of the visual setting set to low.  I have been mostly playing with a gamepad which I hear is currently the smoothest way to play.

I have played through the first story cut scene and thought it was a great way to get introduced to the game.  After that I did a little exploring and then headed out to the camp (I forget the name, sorry) to do my first guildleve.  The combat at the lower levels is slower than most of the MMO’s I have recently played, but I like it.  I can envision when I reach higher levels that this system will have lots of strategic advantages over quick twitch MMO’s.

Overall its been great finally getting to see the game in action.  Now just to spend a little time exploring and trying out the different classes before launch.  Hopefully see you all online soon!