Monday, May 28, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Crystal Wars Reloaded
It was a good thing that I kept a save file before completing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. After getting all of the new Gear from the Teeth of Naros, I definitely wanted to replay the end of the game with them. Also, when I completed the game the first time around, it was way too easy. So this time around, I didn't equip Alyssa in the custom crafted armor that made her invincible. Previously, the prismere armor gave her and AC of over 2000. This time around I used the better looking armor sets, but their AC fell around 1000-1300 and don't have regen components. It made the cutscenes look better!
The game is still pretty easy though. Armor strength doesn't make a big difference once you get used to timing blocks and evasions. In this playthrough, I equipped Alyssa with my 4 favorite armor sets in this order:
1) Armor of Fury for Klurikon - This is the red and black rogue set from the Teeth of Naros DLC.
2) Bolgan's Bane for Alabastra - This is the set that looks like the gear that my character, Shadow Dragon wears.
3) Warsworn for House of Vengeance - The red Warsworn set is the strongest non-crafted suit up to this point in the game. After completing the House of Vengeance, you get the Vengeance armor set which is stronger.
4) Nightstone for Bhaile - This is the black, blue and gold warrior set from Teeth of Naros DLC.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Lake Pavillion
Location: 60-15 Main St., Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 7
Service: 3
Value: 6
Environment: 9
Frequency: Unique
I got home at around 4:30 and then rested a little bit before heading out again. This time it was a family dinner and our first one out in ages. We heard that the restaurant that took over the Palace Diner space opened this week and wanted to see it for ourselves.
They did a great job of renovating the space. While then outside looks the same, the interior is completely different. The old kitchen area because part of the dining hall, creating a single huge open space. There are also private rooms all around. The decor is an improvement over Palace Diner, which never really did any major renovations.
I thought the food was OK overall. It was just another Chinese place... nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible. The problem is that it's priced higher than downtown Flushing. So it's Main St. prices, but not Main St. quality food.
It was their first week and easy to tell as the staff was confused most of the time. It didn't seem like they had a system for serving food. All of the waiters would bring stuff out of the kitchen and not know which table it was for. During our dinner there, there were 2 dropped dishes (luckily empty). This place isn't really ready to be reviewed. I recommend that you give it a few months before eating here. I just wanted to see it out of curiosity.
Cuisine: Chinese
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 7
Service: 3
Value: 6
Environment: 9
Frequency: Unique
I got home at around 4:30 and then rested a little bit before heading out again. This time it was a family dinner and our first one out in ages. We heard that the restaurant that took over the Palace Diner space opened this week and wanted to see it for ourselves.
They did a great job of renovating the space. While then outside looks the same, the interior is completely different. The old kitchen area because part of the dining hall, creating a single huge open space. There are also private rooms all around. The decor is an improvement over Palace Diner, which never really did any major renovations.
I thought the food was OK overall. It was just another Chinese place... nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible. The problem is that it's priced higher than downtown Flushing. So it's Main St. prices, but not Main St. quality food.
It was their first week and easy to tell as the staff was confused most of the time. It didn't seem like they had a system for serving food. All of the waiters would bring stuff out of the kitchen and not know which table it was for. During our dinner there, there were 2 dropped dishes (luckily empty). This place isn't really ready to be reviewed. I recommend that you give it a few months before eating here. I just wanted to see it out of curiosity.
Momofuku Milk Bar
Location: 15 W. 56th St., New York, NY 10019
Cuisine: Japanese
Hours: DAILY (8am-11pm)
Website: www.momofuku..com
Prices: $8/person
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 10
Frequency: Common
Today was really my first vacation day away from the Faelands of Amalur. I spent the day in the city on a food tour that started out with brunch at La Bonne Soupe. I met up with Kelly, who was also the last person I ate out with at the end of my Holiday Food Fest. So I took it easy for a month and then shortly after that, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came out.
After La Bonne Soupe, we were looking for a non-Starbucks coffee place. Several of them are closed on Sundays, but I came across Momofuku, which I didn't realize had a Midtown West location. It was right by La Bonne Soupe. I've been here a few times, but all in the Lower Manhattan one. It's pretty much the same items though. In general, this place has very original desserts, but lacks in drink variety. I had a cinnamon bun pie today, which is a cheesecake crossed with a cinnamon bun.
What's great about the Midtown location is that it's inside Chambers Hotel. While the milk bar itself doesn't have seating, they let you into the hotel lobby and mezzanine area. On a Sunday afternoon, the place was empty and peaceful. It might have been the quietest place off of the crazy tourist saturated 5th Avenue!
Cuisine: Japanese
Hours: DAILY (8am-11pm)
Website: www.momofuku..com
Prices: $8/person
Credit Cards: All major
Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 10
Frequency: Common
Today was really my first vacation day away from the Faelands of Amalur. I spent the day in the city on a food tour that started out with brunch at La Bonne Soupe. I met up with Kelly, who was also the last person I ate out with at the end of my Holiday Food Fest. So I took it easy for a month and then shortly after that, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came out.
What's great about the Midtown location is that it's inside Chambers Hotel. While the milk bar itself doesn't have seating, they let you into the hotel lobby and mezzanine area. On a Sunday afternoon, the place was empty and peaceful. It might have been the quietest place off of the crazy tourist saturated 5th Avenue!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The Teeth of Naros
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came out in February and already had 2 DLCs. Just a couple of weeks ago, they released a 3rd called The Teeth of Naros (ToN). So they've been doing a good job of keeping their new fans entertained. I worked from a previous save actually... the one before I completed the game. I heard that there were new blacksmithing materials to make more powerful weapons, so I wanted to play through the DLC before winning the game. So there will be a "Crystal Wars Reloaded" post sometime in the future!
The Teeth of Naros is a location South of the main map and it's a hidden land of giants called Kollossae. The theme is very much Greco-Roman as the Kollossae are into philosophy, theatre and warfare. Their appearance is even based on the classical statues. The garb they wear is colored in bright primaries like the Greek statues of the real world were once painted. ToN claimed to be a 20-hour adventure. The previous DLC, Legend of Dead Kel was advertised as 10-hour, but I felt like ToN was shorter for some reason.
I was more into the new weapons and armor of course. The DLC featured 9 new armor sets (3 for warriors, 3 for rogues and 3 for wizards). They also added 2 weapons of each type and a bunch of magic rings. Then there's a new material called "primal," which unleashes a special magic that overrides opponents' resistance to elemental attacks. It's a ton of more powerful stuff to use on the main quest when the time comes!
Friday, April 27, 2012
Enterprise Hudson River Flyby
I've seen space shuttles before in museums and of course on TV, but it's really something else to see a live one actually in the sky. With NASA retiring the shuttle program, the Enterprise made its way to NYC today. It conveniently flew piggyback down the Hudson River, by my office. It landed in JFK afterwards and will later be transported to the Intrepid Museum.
Photos
Entry
Exit
Photos
Entry
Exit
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Tax Day Dinner
The end of the tax season this year will actually be April 17 with the 15th falling on a weekend, but my parents are at a good pace with their work, so we finally had a family dinner.
End of the Crystal Wars
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
OK... I've delayed winning this game long enough. I planned to do it this weekend and blocked out Saturday for it. The thing is, it came quicker than I thought it would. I was expecting a big fight with King Gadflow and maybe a break with more side quests... then another epic battle with Tirnoch. But it happens very quickly. Immediately after the House of Vengeance is a fast paced walk to Gadflow with lots of Tuatha soldiers on the way. After "Gadflow," there's a short dungeon with fate-powered clones of Alyssa. Then it's the final fight with Tirnoch.
I don't think I've ever put off winning a game before because I didn't want it to end, but I delayed this one purposely for weeks. It still has some life though. I have a couple more armor sets to complete and they're releasing a 3rd DLC this week... The Teeth of Naros, a Greco-Roman themed adventure dealing with titans and floating cities. I'll be in it for the weapons and armor though!
OK... I've delayed winning this game long enough. I planned to do it this weekend and blocked out Saturday for it. The thing is, it came quicker than I thought it would. I was expecting a big fight with King Gadflow and maybe a break with more side quests... then another epic battle with Tirnoch. But it happens very quickly. Immediately after the House of Vengeance is a fast paced walk to Gadflow with lots of Tuatha soldiers on the way. After "Gadflow," there's a short dungeon with fate-powered clones of Alyssa. Then it's the final fight with Tirnoch.
I don't think I've ever put off winning a game before because I didn't want it to end, but I delayed this one purposely for weeks. It still has some life though. I have a couple more armor sets to complete and they're releasing a 3rd DLC this week... The Teeth of Naros, a Greco-Roman themed adventure dealing with titans and floating cities. I'll be in it for the weapons and armor though!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
All About Armor
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has quickly built up a large cult following. There are message boards, wikis and walkthroughs all over the place. If you read up on a lot of message boards, most people are playing the game for the armor sets. It's the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the game. Generally, the quests and battles are pretty easy. But collecting armor is hard! So it feels great to complete a set or find unique weapons. Here are my completed sets so far:
Tips for completing armor sets:
1. Unlike the outside regions, dungeon treasures are determined as you walk in. So you can have some control over the random looting. Just save the game before you go in. If you don't like what you get after completing the dungeon, just reload the save and try again. You can speed this up in a dungeon that has a chest(s) right in the beginning. Just reload if you don't get a rare one in the beginning.
2. Certain enemies have a high chance of giving you uniques:
- Bansheens
- Leanashes
- Trolls
- Crudoks
- Bolgans
- Threshes
- Root Golems (Dead Kel DLC)
- Niskaru Tyrants
2. If you have the Dead Kel DLC, you'll have a much easier time. Rare loot seems to drop more often. I think the chests even respawn more often. Also, the player housing includes a scout (Zefwyn Lan) that will check wreckage for gear. What you do is send him out and save the game before you talk to him upon return. I've gotten full armor sets just from this guy.
3. You can also do the reloading on one of the enemies in #2 if you know when they will appear. The treasure is randomized after the kill.
4. Make note of areas that respawn the enemies in #2. For example, there's an area between the Hollowlands and Menetyre that has 2 crudoks. I almost always get a rare item just fighting off those 2. Right after that, I head off to Skoria Mines where there's an army of small Niskaru and a tyrant. The Dead Kel DLC has several dungeons with respawning large enemies.
Tips for completing armor sets:
1. Unlike the outside regions, dungeon treasures are determined as you walk in. So you can have some control over the random looting. Just save the game before you go in. If you don't like what you get after completing the dungeon, just reload the save and try again. You can speed this up in a dungeon that has a chest(s) right in the beginning. Just reload if you don't get a rare one in the beginning.
2. Certain enemies have a high chance of giving you uniques:
- Bansheens
- Leanashes
- Trolls
- Crudoks
- Bolgans
- Threshes
- Root Golems (Dead Kel DLC)
- Niskaru Tyrants
2. If you have the Dead Kel DLC, you'll have a much easier time. Rare loot seems to drop more often. I think the chests even respawn more often. Also, the player housing includes a scout (Zefwyn Lan) that will check wreckage for gear. What you do is send him out and save the game before you talk to him upon return. I've gotten full armor sets just from this guy.
3. You can also do the reloading on one of the enemies in #2 if you know when they will appear. The treasure is randomized after the kill.
4. Make note of areas that respawn the enemies in #2. For example, there's an area between the Hollowlands and Menetyre that has 2 crudoks. I almost always get a rare item just fighting off those 2. Right after that, I head off to Skoria Mines where there's an army of small Niskaru and a tyrant. The Dead Kel DLC has several dungeons with respawning large enemies.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Kingdoms of Amalur: Inventory Tips
One of the major issues with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a bunch of well-known bugs with the in-game inventory. Here are the known issues:
1) Some quest items will get stuck in you character's carry-on inventory, namely... House of Ballads Armor (which takes up 4 precious spots), Shine & Shadow and Helm of Hideous Visage. This happens after you stash them and take them out again. After that, you won't be able to sell, stash or destroy them. That's 6 spots total gone.
Unfortunately, there's no remedy for this if you've already got these stuck. Just be sure to get rid of these items once you get them on your 2nd playthrough. Hopefully they release a patch for this.
2) Placing items in the stash that you've added gems to will make the gems disappear.
Be sure to unsocket them before stashing. The bad thing about this is your item will end up taking more than one slot. When your blacksmithing is high enough, you'll be able to create armor pieces better than the socketed ones. Then you won't have to deal with this issue.
3) Sometimes storing a blacksmithed item will cause it to lose its elemental power.
Just stash it and pull it out again to fix.
4) The game is filled with so many cool items that it becomes a problem to keep them all. You get 120 slots (by the end of the game) to carry and 155 at your home. If you have the PC version, I believe both of these can be hacked in the config files, but if you're on a console, you have to deal with it. Here are a few tips to keep things to a minimum.
- Items like potions are stored in batches of 10. 10 of one kind of potion will take up one slot. So don't store more than 10 of a potion. If your alchemy skill is high enough, don't store the potions you can create.
- If you have a lot of potions, just keep the highest level. If you have 10 greater healing potions... stop storing minor healing ones.
- If you find cool weapons that you won't be using right away, salvage them for parts first. Blacksmithing components don't count against your inventory. Craft the weapons later when you need them. I picked up a lot of prismere items on my quests, but salvaged them all until recently. I crafted a full suit, 2 swords, longbow and faeblades... all very powerful end-game items.
- Don't store anything you won't use. You're going to get a lot of nice armor pieces, but if you have a full warrior, you won't have a need for a mage's robe set. There will be plenty of warrior armor to find and fill up your inventory.
- There's often a high level and low level version of each armor set. If you're deep into the game, don't keep the low level items. They look nice, but you'll never use them.
1) Some quest items will get stuck in you character's carry-on inventory, namely... House of Ballads Armor (which takes up 4 precious spots), Shine & Shadow and Helm of Hideous Visage. This happens after you stash them and take them out again. After that, you won't be able to sell, stash or destroy them. That's 6 spots total gone.
Unfortunately, there's no remedy for this if you've already got these stuck. Just be sure to get rid of these items once you get them on your 2nd playthrough. Hopefully they release a patch for this.
2) Placing items in the stash that you've added gems to will make the gems disappear.
Be sure to unsocket them before stashing. The bad thing about this is your item will end up taking more than one slot. When your blacksmithing is high enough, you'll be able to create armor pieces better than the socketed ones. Then you won't have to deal with this issue.
3) Sometimes storing a blacksmithed item will cause it to lose its elemental power.
Just stash it and pull it out again to fix.
4) The game is filled with so many cool items that it becomes a problem to keep them all. You get 120 slots (by the end of the game) to carry and 155 at your home. If you have the PC version, I believe both of these can be hacked in the config files, but if you're on a console, you have to deal with it. Here are a few tips to keep things to a minimum.
- Items like potions are stored in batches of 10. 10 of one kind of potion will take up one slot. So don't store more than 10 of a potion. If your alchemy skill is high enough, don't store the potions you can create.
- If you have a lot of potions, just keep the highest level. If you have 10 greater healing potions... stop storing minor healing ones.
- If you find cool weapons that you won't be using right away, salvage them for parts first. Blacksmithing components don't count against your inventory. Craft the weapons later when you need them. I picked up a lot of prismere items on my quests, but salvaged them all until recently. I crafted a full suit, 2 swords, longbow and faeblades... all very powerful end-game items.
- Don't store anything you won't use. You're going to get a lot of nice armor pieces, but if you have a full warrior, you won't have a need for a mage's robe set. There will be plenty of warrior armor to find and fill up your inventory.
- There's often a high level and low level version of each armor set. If you're deep into the game, don't keep the low level items. They look nice, but you'll never use them.
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