Geek Feed   The latest news from all over the Geek World.

If you are a geek you probably know more about computers than the average person. Which means that family and friends will usually consult you first when making computer purchase decisions. And if these premises hold true, you’re probably used to having people that ask for advice not only thinking they know better than you, but ignoring your advice altogether.

Now, imagine the same situation, but working with customers like Will does. I think Hell is pretty much like that.

Working with computers, fixing them and tuning them up is one of the greatest geek pleasures. Even when things aren’t really going well, you can deal with it.

However, the problem with working with humans is that you can’t smack people in the CPU when they are not booting up properly.

Believe me, I’ve tried.

Lemme start this review of Wrath of the Lich King by saying a couple of things. First, even though I’ve played WoW for a couple of years, I’m more of a casual player than hardcore. Second, I haven’t even gotten the full WotLK experience yet, as I have yet to reach the new continent of Northrend.

But there is a very specific reason for that, I’m having waaay too much fun with my new Death Knight.

The first thing I did when I installed the game (well, the second…first I had to wait until the latest patches reinstalled themselves…Oh, how I love patches…) was to start a Death Knight. I’ve loved DKs since the days of Warcraft II, I mean this suckers could raise people from the dead! (Which you could then use as kamikazes to attack the enemy! How much fun is THAT!) So, I was really excited when this hero class was announced. And, lemme tell you, I haven’t had this much fun in WoW for a long, long time.

When you start a DK, you are sent to a special instanced version of the Eastern Plaguelands where only you and all other starting DKs hang around. Since I started my DK the same day the expansion was release, it was full of other players, which actually made it a lot more fun. The way Blizzard has implemented quest progression is pure genius. As you progress in your quest chain, the instanced world you are playing in changes around you, which means that the world itself reflects your quest’s progression.

I don’t want to spoil the story too much, but the whole thing deals with a Scourge attack on a Scarlet Crusade town and keep. As your character progresses, so does the attack, which moves deeper and deeper into enemy territory. The whole shebang ends with an epic battle, which reminded me of the the Battle for Minas Tirith during The Return of the King and then a fun assault to a heavily guarded church. I won’t say exactly why I was reminded of Minas Tirith, but once you play it, you’ll go “aaahh, yeah, I see what he means.”

The quest progression is smartly tuned so you can both learn the ropes of the class and spec up your DK to your liking. I decided to go through the Unholy talent tree and was rewarded with fun things, such as an Undead zombie to call my pet. The story is well done and really pulls you in. For the first time in WoW I felt like I truly was part of the story, not another dude watching the happenings from afar.

In conclusion, the expansion is worth it. You’ll experience WoW in a whole different way. And even if you, like I was, are getting tired of WoW, WotLK is designed to pull you right in.

This one is going on a separate shelf.

Ok, where to begin… Let me start by saying, I like the design and if this is a reboot of the franchise, then fine. However we were promised continuity, and this ain’t it. I’m a technical Trekkie, so I’m well acquainted with most of the little design details of Federation ships.

I understand you have to update a bit for the new effects, but there are limits. I know the casual viewer won’t be able to tell the difference, but to me this is a night and day thing.  Still going to see the movie, but I’m considering this a different continuity, Star Trek: Enterprise continuity I guess.

Personally I liked Gabe Koerner’s interpretation better. It has a better proportions and keeps more hints of the original, yet updates the design with a modern touch inspired by the more recent show, Star Trek: Enterprise. We’ll see how it looks on the big screen I guess…

Yes, yes, I admit it. I am a recovering WoWholic. However, this week’s release of Wrath of the Lich King will make me go back to Azeroth. My hunter is ready to reach level 80 and I’m eager to snag one of those new exotic pets from the new continent.

And I thought that I had left my need for a WoW fix in the past…

Sigh…

I guess that once you get a taste of grinding…you always want to go back for more. And more…and more…

Which is why I continue to pay $14.95 a month.

But hear me now, World of Warcraft, I shall not be yours for eternity. I shall break free of your shackles and your seductive, and skimpily clad, Blood Elf vixens. I shall, once again, devote my bandwidth to endeavors other than ganking n00bs. Just you wait, just you wait…until Star Trek Online comes out!

Writer Michael Crichton has passed away unexpectedly. It is with great, great sadness that I write this. I was not only a huge fan of Crichton as a writer, he was also one of my personal heroes. As an aspiring writer myself, I greatly admired the man for leaving a successful career as a physician and embarking on a long, ardous quest to become a writer. That is not an easy decision to make. He was my role model and my goal as a writer.

I remember my first Crichton book, it was a Spanish copy of Jurassic Park. Rick and I were so excited about the book and the movie, we were giggling like idiots at just the thought of all those dinosaurs eating people. Little did we know that Jurassic Park would only be the gateway to a lifelong addiction to his works. From A Case of Need to Prey, we both devoured his works with great gusto. One of my favorite all time books is Crichton’s Sphere, which is now even more special since, when I met my wife, we discovered we shared a great love for it.

Even in my career as a literature scholar, I found myself reading Crichton. My final undergraduate research proyect was a comparison between the main characters in sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and Crichton’s version of the story, a paper that got rave reviews from my professors, which I later expanded to a seminar paper as a graduate student, and which I planned to further expand as my M.A. dissertation before the possibility of a creative writing proyect came about.

Godspeed Michael Crichton, Thank you for all those awesome stories and all those hours of unabashed pleasure you gave us through your imagination and your pen. You will be greatly missed.