Friday, January 30, 2009

Curb Stomp!


My free time in the last week has been consumed by Dead Space. I began following the development of this title after it was first announced. I assumed incorrectly that it was a FPS title and was intrigued by the notion of a new IP from EA, who is not known for their creativity. I eventually discovered it was not, in fact, 1st person...but the dreaded 3rd person perspective. I'm generally not a fan of 3rd person, but the story was pretty awesome up to that point and I kept my eye on the game. I finished it up on Sunday and I'll post a review of it sometime soon, for now I will simply state that DS takes everything that has ever frustrated me about Resident Evil and Silent Hill and makes it work. (No, I haven't played RE4 yet, backlog remember?)

Of course time was still made for Left 4 Dead. There is a zero chance of anything pulling me away from the game at this point. Nightly versus matches have become a habit for me. Like a teeth brushing habit. The game is that good. I liked the Smoker infected class early on, but the update has doubled my enjoyment. Pulling a hapless survivor from a just-boomed group, allowing infected to curb stomp like it's 1999...never gets old.

Like a flaming hunter to a limping survivor's life total, my play time in Middle Earth has diminished significantly and quickly. It's not that I dislike LotRO either. I think it's time to break out of our Noobvillage and advance the story before my interest is completely incapped.

My resolution holds firm in the face of a true challenge: Steam had Dawn of War Soulstorm for $8 last week AND it included a beta key. The regular weekend deal had Mount & Blade at about the same price. Having resisted the siren's call and eliminating a game from the backlog at the same time, I'm feeling secure in my decision to hold off on new purchases. I can't imagine another deal being able to alter the course I have set in for myself. With the completion of DS where do I go next? Age of Empires 3 was interrupted and I'll likely continue my campaign there. Now that EA has opened my eyes to 3rd person possibilities though, this copy of Assassin's Creed on my desk is looking interesting. Hmmm.....

Vander out

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Mighty, mighty backlog

The quest to finish the backlog began this week. Many worthy titles inhabit the list of recently played, but thoroughly unfinished. The most recent game on this 'sad-face' list is Age of Empires 3. I am fortunately not too far removed from playing AOE3's campaign that I don't remember where the storyline is. I also particularly enjoy the naval warfare in this game. Jumping back into this pre-colonial world should be no problem.

But there is a problem.

Two big ones to be exact: the undead horde....and Tolkien. Killing infected has turned into a nightly obsession. I've added more friends and made more acquaintances while in the sweet embrace of this game than any who have come before it. There's something about killing zombies together that inspires brotherhood. And if a brother sends out a call to arms...who am I to deny? Now that I'm paying to play in Middle Earth, I feel compelled to play in Middle Earth and justify my cost. Here's hoping that a schedule of some sort can be worked out. I don't like feeling guilty for playing other games while I have LOTRO on subscription.

I should probably go kill some infected now. Cures all ailments.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Resolutions, Layouts, and Undead

So far so good on my resolution. I have not spent money on any new games to add to my collection. Unfortunately, I've also got a long way to go in diminishing my backlog. Two missions into my Age of Empires 3 campaign (well, 1.5 really) does not a lot of progress make. I also wonder what will happen once Steam or GoGamer has a good deal on a decent game, for that will be the real test of my resolve. So far, nothing worth mentioning has gone on sale, making my promise a little easier to keep for the moment. I suppose I should take victories where I find them.

My lack of single player gaming has brought on some interesting side-effects. Specifically, I am now mapping again. Not just casual set pieces either, I'm constructing a full-blown (pun intended) bomb defusal map for CSS. I took my previous efforts and reworked the layout a bit. As such, layout testing dominates my mapping time now. Trying to get distances and setup times perfected before adding too much detail is my main objective. My clan mates have been great for small, focused playtests and have contributed much to my list of fixes that need to be implemented. I'm calling it de_oasis at the present and just setup a work in progress thread on my clan's website, pictures included.

Left 4 Dead is still taking up a considerable amount of my gaming time. It doesn't matter what game starts my nightime play sessions, it always ends with L4D. A quick glance at Xfire shows I've dropped just under 100 hours of playtime into this game. I see no signs of slowing down either. I'm content in my zombie slaying, bring on the apocalypse I say!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Shoved kicking and screaming into Middle Earth


I was talked into trying out World of Warcraft once upon a time and installed the 10 day trial. My first two quests were killing different varieties of boars and tigers. I didn't make it to a third quest.

A friend recently decided he wanted to give Lord of the Rings Online a go. He had never shown a desire for MMO gaming. In fact, I tried to get him into Guild Wars previously and was not successful. He played for a while, but lost interest. Much to my surprise, I received a Christmas gift from him of not only LotRO, but enough dough to pony up for a 3 month subscription.

Damnation, now I have to play. I read that LotRO is similar to WOW and if I have to kill 5 of whatever foul creature inhabits Middle Earth as my first quest...this is going to be a long 3 months. Steeled, however, by the enthusiasm shown by my comrade, I have dove in and setup my first MMO subscription. After all, it's always more fun to game with friends. Why not give it a try? Well, lots of reasons, but I choose to ignore them.

I created a character and my first quest was escaping jail and helping some hobbits. Ok, no "kill 5 of X monster" quests yet. I escape with the help of a ranger and get the hobbits to safety. There are multiple quests to be found around the starting area, and while some of them are killing 5 boars, etc... they are enough different ones to break it up and make the game bearable. It seems to get better as I go.

I'm still getting used to the menus and the inventory system is not as robust and easy to use as I'd like, but so far so good. We just finished up the first instanced quest to open up the rest of Middle Earth to us and I'm looking forward to the next session.

How did I do?

The college football season is officially over and Florida has been crowned national champion. Let's see how my BCS bowl picks stacked up to the actual results shall we?

BCS National Championship: Oklahoma #1 vs. Florida #2
my pick: Oklahoma keeps it close for awhile, but Florida pulls away in the 2nd half.

Right on target!

Rose Bowl: #5 USC vs. #8 Penn State
my pick: Nobody wants to play USC right now. Sorry JoePa.

Another winner!

Orange Bowl: #12 Cincinatti vs. #21 Virginia Tech
my pick: Cincinatti wins in a close one.

Wrong! *yawn* how many watched this snore fest?

Fiesta Bowl: #3 Texas vs. #10 Ohio State
my pick: Ohio State gets embarrassed on a national stage yet again.

This game was my motivation for the first blog entry. I had it wrong on Ohio State, they played well enough to win this game. I still don't like them, but they earned my respect for this performance. Thanks Ohio State, for not laying an egg.

Sugar Bowl: #4 Alabama vs. #6 Utah
my pick: Alabama takes out their frustration and wins big. Am I the only one who thinks Bama vs. Texas would be a lot more fun to watch in the Fiesta Bowl. Having said that, Boise State vs. Utah would be enjoyable as well.

Thanks Alabama. You made me wrong and embarrassed the SEC on a national stage. Good job Utah.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Making the selfish choice

I could tell you I resolved this new year to begin losing weight, spend more time with my family, or get my life organized. I could decide to say I will do all sorts of noble things to better my family and self.

But I won't.

I know these sorts of ill-advised declarations are destined to fail. Major lifestyle changes akin to the aforementioned are not brought about by waiting til the 1st of a new year to proclaim one's willingness to change. I equate new years resolutions with Halloween costumes: You pick something ridiculous out because it looks cool, dress up for a day, and then you're done with it until called upon to do the same again in 12 months. For the vast majority of us, this is more true than you may care to admit.

My resolution is far from earth shattering, and not nearly life changing. I just want to get through my backlog of games before buying anything else. That's it. I have a friend who get's me a game every year for Christmas and for my birthday. The last 4 games he gifted me are still in plastic wrap...and not from lack of interest in playing on my part.

From my desk I can see:

Crysis and the Warhead standalone expansion
Bioshock
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky
Age of Empires 3 the Asian Dynasties
Supreme Commander
Warcraft 3
Dead Space

and the list goes on. I have no business buying or downloading any new titles until I have had time to make a significant dent in my unplayed pile. Well, I am first in line for Red Alert 3 on Goozex, after that I'm done. So, here it is:

I resolve to not purchase any video game title until the release of Diablo 3 or until I have completed 75% of my backlog.