Games Day Baltimore Blog + Photos/Video

[-=Beowulf=-]

Note: Open the photobucket link while you are reading this to find out what i am rambling about!

Well we left Friday evening around 3:45 and got to our hotel around... 9PM.

It was an extremely long drive but definitely worth it to meet the crew, talk with them, and get to experience the awesomeness that is WAR.

Waking up Saturday morning from our semi-decent hotel wasn't too bad. It was located about 6 miles from the convention center, but the breakfast was terrible. After getting to the convention center around 7:45 we began the hunt for parking, we ended up lucky and found an empty lot RIGHT NEXT to the convention center that had all day parking for 10$.

We entered the convention center and there was barely anyone there at 8. I would say that for anyone attending the other ones, you really don't need to show up until 9 or 9:30 because registration takes about... 2 minutes.

So leaving the convention center we walked around Baltimore, saw the sights, and finally found a Mcdonalds for 'real' breakfast. Walking back to the convention center was pretty easy, even though we got harassed for some 'change' and saw a lot of sleeping homeless people.

Once we got back to the convention center we kind of lazily waited around for the convention to start. Matt fell asleep a couple times and we were awakened by cries of 'WAAAAAGGH' so loud it was shaking the registration area of the convention hall. (see videos below)

So we lazily got up out of our seats from the top and came down to get in line by the entrance where the EA Mythic booth would be setup.
We were one of the first ones in the door and promptly went straight to the WAR booth and caught a quick picture of jeff hickman as we raced to the front of the line to get our pre-Q&A session game in.

My first thoughts on the game was, WOW the screenshots on the website do no do this game's graphics justice. It was very much improved from what i had seen on the website but not quite up to the level of LOTRO Dx10 on ultra high.

During our first play session we tried out the order side and took control early and dominated one of the few order wins of the day. On our way out they passed us our beta codes and off we went to see the rest of the convention before the Q&A Session started.

My take on the whole Order vs Destruction is that with the realm/server population caps they will have in place it will be whichever side is more skilled and has the most organized alliances/guilds will be the side that will come out victorious. There really isn't a very large or 'overpowering' difference between the classes.

After checking out the convention we rushed up-stairs 30 minutes early so we could get in the front row and it worked . After starting my camera for a second i had to go ask a question that had been on my mind for a while so i passed it off to my little brother (sorry for the break in the action and the soft audio, I used a samsung l210 for video which is actually a photo camera. But nonetheless the video quality is great)

My question was, "I was wondering how you guys were planning on balancing out loot distribution between dps,healers,tanks for the RvR, PQ's, and renown situations." I'm not really sure they understood my question right off the bat but after the Q&A session Josh was standing off to one side and i was able to get my answer.
They are making the loot distrubution 'hate' or 'aggro' based so that everyone has incentive to do their supposive 'job' during the PQ/RvR/Renown situation in order to get rewarded.
Which i thought was the greatest idea i have heard in a LONG time.

Anyways after going back downstairs me and my bro decided to give the destruction a shot and we both played disciples of khaine. Once again it seemed that skill was prevalent and we absolutely crushed the order this time (neither me or my brother died at all). So i truely do believe that the victors of the RvR campaigns will be the side that is most skilled, not the side that is 'zerg'.

After that we decided to head out and get our closed beta keys in the PC's when we got home and we are currently waiting for our status change

Thanks for reading the blog, if you are interested in my guild please apply using the link on the homepage!

Heres the link to the album:
http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc301/beowulfhuntr/Games%20Day%20Baltimore%202008/
Heres the link to the multiple videos:
First Section of Q&A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWLNy6hPkvw
Second Section of Q&A-1.12GB In Total
Download ALL 3 FILES then unpack them for the single video.
http://files.filefront.com/Second+Halfpart1rar/;10647851;/fileinfo.html
http://files.filefront.com/Second+Halfpart2rar/;10646057;/fileinfo.html
http://files.filefront.com/Second+Halfpart3rar/;10644576;/fileinfo.html
PvE Marauder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp19ZjlJmXg
PvP Gameplay-544 MB
http://files.filefront.com/Gameplayzip/;10645371;/fileinfo.html
WAAAAGGGH Shouting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEQ83hitp4

Streaming Video's Found Here
http://warhammeronline.tv/tag/97/baltimore

[OhmarIGW]

OMG I'm jealous! Closed Beta codes! Man that sounded fun, picture look awesome!

Whats the deal with the videos?

[-=Beowulf=-]

im waiting on them to get approved by youtube and I am currently compressing the bejesus out of the 1.17 GB 56 minute, 640x480 30FPS Q&A Video so i can upload it to filefront.
That way you can DL it and watch the Q&A Session

[OhmarIGW]

Still jealous! Slightly filling with hatred from all this jealousy...can't handle...turning a hulkish green!

[-=Beowulf=-]

still waiting on the link from filefront for the 544MB gameplay file....
ARGGG its taking a while!

[inluminous]

Would you have the original file for part 1 of the Q&A ?

Also you can post on www.warhammeronline.tv - up to 200mb, much better quality than youtube.

[inluminous]

I uploaded the gameplay pvp vids you posted above, so if anyone wants to stream them, they can find them here:

http://warhammeronline.tv/tag/97/baltimore

[Alric]

Beowulf, did you play the Archmage or any healer at all? If so what were your impressions on them? Did they die fast, do good healing, do good DPS?

[-=Beowulf=-]

i played the disciple of khaine and it seemed very balanced out. Not too much DPS, not too much healing...

It wasn't like i had burst damage i could do, but i slowly wore down my opponents and killed them

[inluminous]

The FULL Baltimore Games Day 2008 Q&A can be seen here:
http://warhammeronline.tv/video/186/baltimore-games-day-2008-q-a

No need to split youtube or any large torrents, enjoy.

[-=Beowulf=-]

hey thanks for editing the video's and posting them. Great work!

[Alric]

Great info. Glad to hear DoK was used. Hopefully the warrior priest is the same.