Nerd Culture Podcast

Podcast – Episode #60

Posted by David On September 29, 2013 ADD COMMENTS

Episode #60 features:

Dust Jacket: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

Our Top 5 Rogues/Anti-Heroes

Game Review: Bioshock Infinite

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The Quantum Thief Glossary at karengill.com

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The Quantum Thief

Bioshock Infinite – Xbox 360

Stepping out into the Wasteland Part 1

Posted by Nikki On September 28, 2013 ADD COMMENTS

Are you familiar with Fallout 3? If not, let me enlighten you!

Fallout 3 is an action RPG takes place in the year 2277 after a nuclear war and is set mainly on the East Coast of an alternate retro-futuristic United States. Examples of this retro-futuristic look are cars that look like something from the 1950’s, music from the 1950’s, etc. You are born in Vault 101, your mom dies in childbirth, your dad opens the vault door, flees and everything goes stinky after that. After you exit the vault, the world is your irradiated oyster!

I grew up in Vault 101, born a girl, with a daddy who ran away to find some bottled water. This morning, I woke up to find myself itching to escape the Vault, which the Overseer forbids. After grabbing some stimpacks and my trusty BB gun, I open the door and leave, but not without a fight. The other vault dwellers tried convincing me to stay by shooting at me, trying to hit me with baseball bats, shouting “you better stop”, it didn’t work. I reached the control room, opened the vault door and ran like a cat after tunafish.

My first thoughts of the outside world are: it’s bright, where are my sunglasses?, & what can I shoot with my BB gun? I first look for a town, which is Megaton. Megaton is full of bloomin’ idiots who worship an atomic bomb that didn’t detonate on impact. These people stand right at the bomb, while they generate extra eyeballs and limbs, but not any brains. Along the way out of Megaton, I run into some caravans, buy a nice hunting rifle with the bottle caps I stole from the vault and go about my way. I’ve got nothing better to than wander about the wasteland and as I am wandering around I spot the Super Duper Mart on my Pip Boy 3000 and decide to do a little grocery shopping. To my chagrin, Super Duper Mart is full of raiders obsessed with CRAM, Pork n Beans and squirrel bits. Partaking in their festivities is not on my agenda, so I wander in the direction of Tenpenny Tower; a tower full of “rich” snobs who can’t even use the bathroom without a red carpet leading to the toilet. I look around, take a few items and head to the top. At the top I find Old Man Tenpenny, who looks a bazillion years old and acts like Hugh Hefner. Old Man Tenpenny is a materialistic kind of man, he wants things to be pretty and neat and he hates the sight of Megaton and wants it gone. He knows that the bomb is just sitting there, waiting to be blown up. His henchman, Mr. Burke, finds me and asks me to blow up Megaton!

My answer is……..If you want to find out what happens to Megaton and what the rest of my journey ensues, come back for the continuation of Stepping out into the Wasteland!

Burn to Ashes 5.4 spec

Posted by Brian On September 21, 2013 ADD COMMENTS

Burn to Ashes is a Fire Mage talent spec designed around encompassing your enemy in fire until they become dust in the wind.

Click here to see the spec on WoWhead!

The main spells used will be Living Bomb, Combustion, and Pyroblast. However, Pyroblast will mainly only be cast when you are either just starting out a fight, or in the cases of PvP whenever you don’t have an enemy up close. These situations call for Dragon’s Fire, so they can be dazed and allow you to move away from your enemy via Blink (utilizing the Glyph of Momentum, which will help you to move backwards while still facing your enemy).

To further help in survivability (as always mentioned first since I like to protect myself while doing damage), Ice Floes can also help buy some time, allowing you to move around while casting your spells. Also, even though Flameglow doesn’t add much to damage mitigation, it is an effect that is on going in helping to protect your character. Ice Ward and Frost Nova help to also keep enemies away from you, freezing your enemies in place allowing you to move away with Blink, or walk away while casting via Ice Floes. There is also healing available to the Mage (sometimes a much needed attribute) via Glyph of Evocation, which can be activated at anytime with the Invocation talent and also gives a good amount of added mana at the same time along with a 15% added damage buff. Also, whenever things get too hairy for the Mage, Greater Invisibility can get enemies off of your back in a flash, as well as give you a better vantage point over your enemy (in the case of PvP). Also, the Armors Glyph will allow your Molten Armor to withstand more damage (especially in conjunction with Flamglow).

Groups are easier to take down due to Inferno Blast and it’s associate Glyph, which allows the player to spread a Pyroblast, Ignite, or Combustion effect to an additional enemy. However before you begin with taking on a group, there will be some precautions that should be taken first. To begin, I recommend casting an Invocation to gain the damage bonus. Then use Living Bomb on up to 3 of your targets and follow up with a Pyroblast and a couple of Scorches until you get a critical hit, causing an Ignite effect. Then, once you have your critical hit, cast Inferno Blast (which is an automatic critical hit) allowing for a free and instant cast of Pyroblast. After this, you can continue to cast either Scorches or Fireballs while using Frost Nova, Ice Ward and Dragon’s Fire to keep your enemies off of you while burning them to the ground.