Wow armory update and 3d model Viewer

looks like Blizzard have been working hard giving the armory new fetchers Flash 3d model of your toon on your blog anyone? want to show off your new gear?

3D Model Viewer
Every character profile now has a 3D model viewer that displays the character in his or her currently equipped gear, and accurately displays the character's physical features, hairstyle, and helm/cloak display as they appear in-game. Mousing over the character model window brings up a control panel with the following controls :

* Camera controls: To rotate the camera around a character, click and hold the left mouse button while moving the mouse left and right, or click the arrow buttons in the top left of the window. To zoom in and out, use the mouse wheel while hovering over the character window, or click the zoom buttons in the top left of the window. To move the character within the frame, right-click and drag the character in the window (or on the small square in the bottom left corner of the window).
* Animations: Each character has a selection of animations that they can perform. Use the arrows next to the animation's name to cycle through them. The available animations are determined by the character's class and currently equipped weapons.
* Capture pose: If you are logged in, you can set the default pose of any character on your account. Use the camera and animation controls to create a pose, then click the save icon to set it as the default. All visitors to the character's profile will then see the character in that pose.

* Play controls: The rewind, pause, and fast forward buttons allow you to fine-tune a pose for a character.

* Fullscreen mode: You can view the character in a fullscreen display against a selection of backgrounds. All controls will continue to function in fullscreen mode.

* Embed: You can embed a standalone, interactive version of the character's model viewer in a compatible website, such as a social networking site, guild website, or forum.

* Options: Extra options include selecting a background in fullscreen mode and toggling the display of a character's helm, cloak, or tabard.

(At this time it looks to be bugged in some browsers like Google chrome but is working fine in IE and Fire Fox.)

Character and Calendar Feeds
You can export your character information and calendar events to other websites and applications using the Armory's new customization tools. These features can be accessed through a logged-in character profile or through the Armory's main navigation menu.

* Character Activity Feeds: ( Check me out )

Each character's activity feed shows the most recent in-game actions of the character that can be recorded by the Armory. These include achievements, boss kills, item acquisitions, and more. Character feeds can be customized using our customization tool, then exported as RSS feeds to your RSS reader of choice. Refer to the Character Feed FAQ for more details.

* Player Calendar Feeds: Another new Armory tool allows you to export in-game player calendar data to online calendars such as Google Calendar. The tool can aggregate up to five characters on your account in a single feed, and is automatically synched with the characters' in-game player calendars. Refer to the Calendar Feed FAQ for more details.

Blizzard authenticator the newest hacking tool!

Over the last weeks, two of my guild members have been hacked. Neither of them had an authenticator. The players were online and got booted off by the hacker. They then got an email saying their account password had been changed but when they went to login to change their password back they got a message asking them to put in their authenticator code! The hacker attached the authenticator to their account, preventing them from changing their password. NP just call Blizzard right? Wrong ...

The hacking happened, in both instances, 15 min after Blizzard tech support closed down for the day, giving the hacker 12 hours to clean out the account. Putting an ingame ticket in is a waste of time as you get no reply for over 24 hours.

Do we not pay Blizzard enough? What will it take to get support during prime time gaming hours? How can a hacker attach an authenticator to an account so easily? Why are you not required to confirm this action by email or even have a window of 12/24 hours that would give the user time to secure their account?

There are lots of things Blizzard could do to stop this but do they want to stop it? Getting hacked is a sure way to convince a player to get an authenticator! If you don’t have an authenticator by now and you play WoW, you are mad, you will be hacked, it’s just a matter of time!

WoW 25 man ICC Raid Lord Marrowgar Guide

After breaching the fortress, players will face a legion of undead guards directed to repel any invaders. Commanding the defenders is Lord Marrowgar, a monstrosity fused together from the bones of the undead. This is our 25 man raid guide video for the fight.

Single core CPU PCs are obsolete!

"The Force Unleashed requires a dual core processor with a Radeon HD 2900 or GeForce 8600 or better. Please check system requirements before purchasing."

I know dual and quad core CPUs are faster in a lot of things but this is the first time I have noticed a game that "requires a dual core processor". I'm in the middle of fixing my kids' PC that has a 2.66GHz AMD FX-55. For most games it is still fine; it will play all the cool FPS games but it is 5 years old! It's good to see games taking advantage of multi core processors and not holding us back because people want to still use PCs that are 5 years old! Time to upgrade kids! When this game first came out on the PS3 I was pissed off because it was another game us PC gamers missed out on. Now don't get me wrong, I have a PS3 and I love it, it's just that I cannot stand playing FPS style games on it. FPS is still far superior on the PC than any console. Give me a mouse and keyboard any day! The Force Unleashed was the first Star Wars game that I have never bothered to finish (apart from that Rebellion game years ago-did anyone play that?) and this game was about the Rebel logo I have tattooed on my right arm! Now it's on PC, I know I'll finish it and I wont have to fight with a dumb interface on a bad controller that is fine for racing games and arcade games, but SUX for FPS!

   

Avatar - a unique experience

So I just got home from taking my kids to the movies to see the new James Cameron movie, Avatar. It's not often you get to experience the cinematic brilliance that I had the pleasure of enjoying this afternoon. Cameron definitely shows us what can be done with CG. Gone are the restrictions that we once had. With the technology used in this film, the only limitation we now have is our imagination. I don't want to give away any plot lines what so ever, apart from telling you that this is the best movie I have seen in ten years - plus. This is a must see for anybody who likes adventure, action, romance, or just breathtaking scenery. It has a very strong moral message as well. Although locally it was classified as rated M, I'd have no problems taking any aged child to see it. This movie is a must see.

WoW, week one of 3.3

So we're coming to the end of the first week of the new patch. I've had a lot of time to play around with the dungeon system and see all the new Boss that are available in Ice Crown. Unfortunately, the first week of a patch is always chaotic. People are having lag issues, unable to get their mods working, and the servers are constantly being retsrated. We were only able to get tow uninterupted days this past week where we could actually raid. Due to the fact that we're working on totally news bosses, by the time you get through explanations of the fights to 25 people and everybody knows that they're doing, you really don't have a lot of time to kill stuff!

The guild I'm in was able to kill the first boss on 25 man and didn't get an uninterrupted chance on the second boss all week. What we ended up having to do was to run a 10 man a little bit later after Blizzard had solved their server crashing issues. Out 10 man group was able to easily kill 3 of the 4 bosses in Ice Crown and I must say, the gunship battle is brilliant.

The pug system in this patch, with the cross server looking for group, seems to be working really well. I've managed to at least get one dungeon in a day to ensure that I get my two emblems of frost. You get a strange mix of people in this cross server looking group. Some people just don't say a word, they just jump straight into killing stuff. It's kind of an eerie atmosphere to be in. My hunter has crazy dps and is able to pull most undergeared pugs through things really quick. I ended up pet tanking most of VH today due to the tank having full blues and no chance in holding threat off me, even just auto-shotting. If you're not using the looking for group pug system, you should be. Yes, you will get a couple of idiots in there and yes, there is some fine tuning to be done, but it's a great way to get your alts or even mains, geared up with 245 gear thanks to the emblems of triumph that drop off every boss.

Fix your WOW Lag NOW

I know some people hate going to sites like wowinterface but this is a must have script for all WoW gamers!

 Download the script!

What does it do?



Leatrix Latency Fix will reduce your World of Warcraft latency significantly by increasing the frequency of TCP acknowledgements sent to the game server. For the technically minded, this is a script which will modify TCPAckFrequency.



You will also see reduced latency in other online games such as Aion, Warhammer and Lord of the Rings. The average reduction in latency (based on feedback from comments) is 66%. Click the Change Log tab above to see a summary of player feedback.



System Requirements



Leatrix Latency Fix is supported on these operating systems only.

• Windows XP (SP2 or higher)
• Windows Vista (SP1 or higher)
• Windows 7

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows are supported.

Macintosh users should read the relevant section in the FAQ below.

Blizzard makes it hard for hardcore players - thanks!

After playing WoW for a few years, you get to realize that you can't have grand plans on patch day, especially when it comes to raids. People become reliant on mods and patch day always seems to be a lot more laggy than any other day. Not to mention the bugs you have to overcome.

One of the first things I did in game was to check out the new 5 man dungeon. I didn't even bother with normal mode and went straight to heroic. The new 5 man drops 232 loot in heroic and 219 in normal mode. But heroic is not for the feint of heart. If you're a fresh 80 you're not going in there on heroic mode any time soon. I was surprised and pleased at the same time at the difficulty of heroic mode of this dungeon. It provided a challenge, even to players in 245 gear. Something I hadn't seen in a 5 man in a long time.

This place is big. To overcome the size and the time it takes, Blizzard separated it into 3 different wings, so you don't need to spend hours clearing the whole place out, you can just choose a wing and go for it, although you will need to unlock every wing initially. When it came to raiding Ice Crown last night, I was not surprised to find several of our main raiders having problems logging in or having add-on issues. With all the issues last night, we only managed to get 2 tries in on the first boss and called the raid for some 5 man fun to allow people to sort out the issues they were having.

Fall of the Lich King ... when the servers are up!

I was happy to log right in this morning when I got up. I went and got my new ring Runed Band of the Kirin Tor. I then went and got 4 Portable Hole's from Haris Pilton. The extra slots will help a lot and I ran out of stuff to spend gold on months ago.

Since I had all my new swag I thought I would give the random hero a go. It took about 4 minutes to get a full group and the ready check popped up. I was ported into Hero Violet Halls, whoot! Violet Halls is one of the easiest and quickest heroes out there. The pug blasted through it. We all had a lot of 245 gear so it was super easy! We got our 2 badges of frost and zoned out. I noticed that I didn't have my add-ons turned on and I wanted to get right into the new 5 man and check it out! So I logged out, checked all my add-ons were up to date and I logged back in ...

Disconnected from server...

And I logged back in...

Disconected from server...

And I logged back in...

Disconnected from server...

And I logged back in...

Disconnected from server...

And I logged back in...

Disconnected from server...

And I logged back in...

Disconnected from server...

So I checked the WoW forums only find 1000s having the same problem. Seems I got lucky the first time I logged in.

It's 2 hours later, the servers are still offline, the official WoW site is going up and down and there is no sign of when the servers will be back. Let's hope they get it fixed soon. We know they are doing what they can so just hang in there people!

Downloading now World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.0: Fall of the Lich King

WH00T now I have something to do in WoW!


Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls

Looming over the stark wastes of Northrend, Icecrown Citadel awaits those who would see the Lich King and his Scourge brought low and the threat they pose wiped from the face of Azeroth. The heroes who venture within will face some of the greatest horrors yet seen. But before you burst into the front gate of the citadel, an alternate means of entry beckons. Journey through three separate wings of the new five-player dungeon, Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls, and follow Jaina Proudmoore or Sylvanas Windrunner into the Lich King's domain.

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Throne

All across Northrend, many battles have been fought against the vile Scourge. Countless lives have been lost since the Alliance and the Horde first reached these frozen wastes, but the champions of Azeroth continue to march forward -- and Icecrown Citadel, the cornerstone of the Scourge's power and the home base of the Lich King, is their final target. Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade have forged an accord with Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict. This coalition's strongest combatants, along with the champions of the Alliance and the Horde, will lead the charge against the citadel. In the new Icecrown Citadel raid dungeon, Azeroth's mightiest will face terrifying challenges before ascending to the Frozen Throne, where the Lich King and his runeblade, Frostmourne, await to deliver the heroes to their deaths....

Cross-Realm Dungeon Finder

The Dungeon Finder is now available, providing players with quick and easy access to five-player parties. This feature connects all realms within a battlegroup using an advanced matchmaking system, making it easier for players of all levels to find a dungeon group. In addition, players can reap additional rewards through the Dungeon Finder by choosing the Random option, which is available to both pick-up and pre-formed groups. Check out the User Interface section for more details.