Chalk this up to me ranting into the void of the internet. I don't think any of you are big into Left 4 Dead.
So Valve announced Left 4 Dead 2, a sequel to their incredibly well selling team based zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead. How's that for a gob of descriptors?
The internet has its panties in a wad, apparently. Masses of unwashed and rebellious nerds are screaming angry that Valve would have the audacity to be working on a sequel, a mere year after the release of the first one.
This is my note to those screaming masses. Get over it. You're just pissed because you think its "too soon". Don't be a dumbass. You know you'll end up rushing out and buying the damn thing. (Because it will, in all likelihood, be awesome, which is kinda the entire point of Valve creating a sequel. Doing it again, just better.)
That is all.
Showing posts with label computer game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer game. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Oh, Sims 3.
Between changing diapers and playing with Piper and catching season one of The Tudors on DVD with Krissi (its FANTASTIC, btw), and trying to keep up with dishes and such things, and running the occasional Labyrinth Lord game (which I did Sunday, and I'll get a recap up for you soonish), and playing Ogre Battles on the Wii, I try to squeeze in time to play the occasional computer game.
So, Sims 3.
I've been a mild fan of each iteration of The Sims. When the first one came out a bajillion years ago, my brother and I sat on computers side by side and played for like 36 hours. Then, having wrung everything we could from the game, neither of us touched it again. Sims 2 came along and had a bunch more cool features. Krissi and I, and some of our friends played it some, off and on. But again, it was a pretty mild commitment. Now Sims 3 has come out, and I've been playing around with it a little.
Its super neat. Nice graphics. Nice features. There's a laundry list of cool new stuff that you can do in this one, that you could not do in the previous ones. I entertained myself yesterday by starting a game based on a twisted MTV Real World - I made sim people based on Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart, David Beckham, and Jeffrey Dahmer. "Why?", you ask? "Why not!", I answer.
I won't make this into a full review. There's other, better places you could go if you were that interested. But its a lot of fun.
So, Sims 3.
I've been a mild fan of each iteration of The Sims. When the first one came out a bajillion years ago, my brother and I sat on computers side by side and played for like 36 hours. Then, having wrung everything we could from the game, neither of us touched it again. Sims 2 came along and had a bunch more cool features. Krissi and I, and some of our friends played it some, off and on. But again, it was a pretty mild commitment. Now Sims 3 has come out, and I've been playing around with it a little.
Its super neat. Nice graphics. Nice features. There's a laundry list of cool new stuff that you can do in this one, that you could not do in the previous ones. I entertained myself yesterday by starting a game based on a twisted MTV Real World - I made sim people based on Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart, David Beckham, and Jeffrey Dahmer. "Why?", you ask? "Why not!", I answer.
I won't make this into a full review. There's other, better places you could go if you were that interested. But its a lot of fun.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Things that I am up to:
As I've mentioned a few times now, I feel like my blogging here is really falling off. My D&D game is still going, but I have been a huge slacker about typing up session recaps or anything. On the running front, I need to change my blog name to "not running with dice", because I'm not running. Its, well, just too damn cold. Like I do every year, I stop running when it gets cold, even though every year, I swear I'll do better.
But here's what I'm really up to: Obsessing about a computer game. Surprised? You shouldn't be.
Its called "Chaos Gate", its a turn based tactical combat game set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It was released in 1998 (!!!!), and I played the hell out of it and loved it. It was a little crashy even back then, and once I moved from Windows 98 to Windows XP, I never was able to get it really running. All crash and no play. Every year or two I would pull it out and install it, and try for an hour or three to get it to run, and then put it back in its place amongst the other computer games. Well, I decided to pull it out again, and even found some info on some people who had gotten it to work under XP. Woo! Only now I can't find it. Apparently its gone to the same place as my copy of Fallout Tactics- Brotherhood of Steel went. Which is to say that I have no idea where the hell it is. I'm naturally a little bit obsessive, and something like this kicks my obsessive gene right in the balls. I went home for lunch today and tore apart the "computer closet" looking for it. I checked all of the cd cases and everything. Nothing. We purged some of the crap games that I had, and a bunch of empty jewel cases, and I hope that it did not accidentally get thrown out with those. It also could simply be stuck in a drawer somewhere. I mean, my house is not *that* big, but there's tons of out-of-the-way places that it could be. So, meanwhile, I'm downloading the torrent of it. But still, I'm mighty melancholy about not being able to find it. Remember that I'm a huge game nerd. I still have the blue 3.5 inch floppy disk for Civilization on the Amiga (!!!).
Speaking of collecting things, let's talk about my relationship with DVDs for just a moment. Krissi and I have a large-ish collection of DVDs. I have no doubt that there are collections that dwarf ours, but we have a goodly many of them. See, we (I, really, I think that Krissi is probably just my accomplice) like to buy DVDs. Because we like to collect them really. Its not that we don't watch them, because we do, we just don't watch them alot. Like - to be brutally honest, we probably only pop a DVD into the player and watch it like... maybe twice a month, and that's being kindof generous. And yet, I can sit here and think of half a dozen DVDs right off the top of my head that I'd buy if I could. And if you let me think about it longer, I'm sure I could come up with a few dozen. Because they're movies I like, and they're movies that I think that I'd like to own. Because I want to put them on my DVD rack and go, "See? Look at this movie I've got here!" And I'll do the same thing I do at least once every other weekend, and I'll say, "Hey you guys, let's watch one of these great movies that we've got!", and I'll always return to the same set, I'll say, "Let's watch Fight Club, or Seven, or Usual Suspects, or Memento, or Fargo!", or I'll get desperate, and suggest that we pop in Anchorman or SuperTroopers. And in the end, we'll watch The Soup, and flip through some channels, and the weekend will pass, and 99.99% of the DVDs on my shelf will continue to sit, untouched and unloved. Because the more movies I end up buying, the less likely I am to watch any one of them again. I'm not certain of my math, but it feels right. I think we may have a movie or two on the shelves that still are in plastic, because we bought them, eagerly brought them to their new home, pulled them out of the bag, held them aloft in glee, and stuck them in the DVD rack to gather dust with their peers.
What does any of this mean? I don't know either. But I think that I'm going to make an effort to not buy DVDs just because I liked them, anymore. Finances and economy aside, I just don't need to own them as much as I think that I do. Weird, huh?
But here's what I'm really up to: Obsessing about a computer game. Surprised? You shouldn't be.
Its called "Chaos Gate", its a turn based tactical combat game set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It was released in 1998 (!!!!), and I played the hell out of it and loved it. It was a little crashy even back then, and once I moved from Windows 98 to Windows XP, I never was able to get it really running. All crash and no play. Every year or two I would pull it out and install it, and try for an hour or three to get it to run, and then put it back in its place amongst the other computer games. Well, I decided to pull it out again, and even found some info on some people who had gotten it to work under XP. Woo! Only now I can't find it. Apparently its gone to the same place as my copy of Fallout Tactics- Brotherhood of Steel went. Which is to say that I have no idea where the hell it is. I'm naturally a little bit obsessive, and something like this kicks my obsessive gene right in the balls. I went home for lunch today and tore apart the "computer closet" looking for it. I checked all of the cd cases and everything. Nothing. We purged some of the crap games that I had, and a bunch of empty jewel cases, and I hope that it did not accidentally get thrown out with those. It also could simply be stuck in a drawer somewhere. I mean, my house is not *that* big, but there's tons of out-of-the-way places that it could be. So, meanwhile, I'm downloading the torrent of it. But still, I'm mighty melancholy about not being able to find it. Remember that I'm a huge game nerd. I still have the blue 3.5 inch floppy disk for Civilization on the Amiga (!!!).
Speaking of collecting things, let's talk about my relationship with DVDs for just a moment. Krissi and I have a large-ish collection of DVDs. I have no doubt that there are collections that dwarf ours, but we have a goodly many of them. See, we (I, really, I think that Krissi is probably just my accomplice) like to buy DVDs. Because we like to collect them really. Its not that we don't watch them, because we do, we just don't watch them alot. Like - to be brutally honest, we probably only pop a DVD into the player and watch it like... maybe twice a month, and that's being kindof generous. And yet, I can sit here and think of half a dozen DVDs right off the top of my head that I'd buy if I could. And if you let me think about it longer, I'm sure I could come up with a few dozen. Because they're movies I like, and they're movies that I think that I'd like to own. Because I want to put them on my DVD rack and go, "See? Look at this movie I've got here!" And I'll do the same thing I do at least once every other weekend, and I'll say, "Hey you guys, let's watch one of these great movies that we've got!", and I'll always return to the same set, I'll say, "Let's watch Fight Club, or Seven, or Usual Suspects, or Memento, or Fargo!", or I'll get desperate, and suggest that we pop in Anchorman or SuperTroopers. And in the end, we'll watch The Soup, and flip through some channels, and the weekend will pass, and 99.99% of the DVDs on my shelf will continue to sit, untouched and unloved. Because the more movies I end up buying, the less likely I am to watch any one of them again. I'm not certain of my math, but it feels right. I think we may have a movie or two on the shelves that still are in plastic, because we bought them, eagerly brought them to their new home, pulled them out of the bag, held them aloft in glee, and stuck them in the DVD rack to gather dust with their peers.
What does any of this mean? I don't know either. But I think that I'm going to make an effort to not buy DVDs just because I liked them, anymore. Finances and economy aside, I just don't need to own them as much as I think that I do. Weird, huh?
Monday, September 29, 2008
RPG Nostalgia
I don't know why I ended up on this kick, but I am.
Over the weekend I pulled out my old Lone Wolf books. They are "Choose your own adventure" style books written by Joe Dever. These were among my first forays into Role Playing and the Fantasy Genre. I remember getting my hands on them sometime around 1990. They're being republished currently by Mongoose Publishing, and Project Aon is publishing all of the books free online. Go check it out.
Also over the weekend, I dug up some Ultima IV on the intarwebs. Specifically, here, where is it freely available, and updated for modern systems, and with a graphics overhaul. I played this first on my Commodore 64, with a monochrome amber monitor, back in 1987 or 1988 probably. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I never finished the game, instead spending all of my time wandering the world, killing monsters and cheating blind herb salespeople. I barely scratched the surface of the game, really. I'm going to finish it this time.
Over the weekend I pulled out my old Lone Wolf books. They are "Choose your own adventure" style books written by Joe Dever. These were among my first forays into Role Playing and the Fantasy Genre. I remember getting my hands on them sometime around 1990. They're being republished currently by Mongoose Publishing, and Project Aon is publishing all of the books free online. Go check it out.
Also over the weekend, I dug up some Ultima IV on the intarwebs. Specifically, here, where is it freely available, and updated for modern systems, and with a graphics overhaul. I played this first on my Commodore 64, with a monochrome amber monitor, back in 1987 or 1988 probably. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I never finished the game, instead spending all of my time wandering the world, killing monsters and cheating blind herb salespeople. I barely scratched the surface of the game, really. I'm going to finish it this time.
Monday, September 8, 2008
A Few Things That Are Cool
1. Spore
I've had my eye on this for some time now. I think it is pretty cool so far. I know there is some uproar about the draconian DRM licensing stuff, and I hope that EA will fix that. There's also some discussion about it being "boring". I dunno about that. I can only speak for myself, and only time will tell, and other cliche's, but I'm enjoying it so far!
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
I love this album. I'm a big fan of Metallica. I love the old stuff, and I enjoy alot of the "newer" stuff. This album is hard like the old stuff, and I've totally been rocking out to it.
3. True Blood
That's the show on HBO that premiered this past Sunday. I like it alot! I'll stay tuned!
I've had my eye on this for some time now. I think it is pretty cool so far. I know there is some uproar about the draconian DRM licensing stuff, and I hope that EA will fix that. There's also some discussion about it being "boring". I dunno about that. I can only speak for myself, and only time will tell, and other cliche's, but I'm enjoying it so far!
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
I love this album. I'm a big fan of Metallica. I love the old stuff, and I enjoy alot of the "newer" stuff. This album is hard like the old stuff, and I've totally been rocking out to it.
3. True Blood
That's the show on HBO that premiered this past Sunday. I like it alot! I'll stay tuned!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Dwarf Fortress
The other day, I read a post from AttacksofOpportunity in my feed reader, where he talked about Dwarf Fortress. I followed the link, read the review, and downloaded the (free) game. I spent a few minutes playing with it, in the way that a child plays with something that it does not really understand, comprehend, or know what to do with. I read a little on the wiki, and soon, actually got a working Dwarf Fortress going. It's ugly, and the menus alone present a learning curve, but ho-ly cow, I'm so hooked. I've managed to stay up late two nights in a row playing with it. Think "Dwarf Ant Hill (in ASCII)" and you've pretty much got it. I highly recommend giving it a shot.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Half Marathon and other stuff
Did the St. Jude Half Marathon yesterday.
Briefly it went well, I finished, and did it in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Maybe a little less, but results aren't up yet.
edit: 2:10:48
It was cold in the morning, but Maddie and John and I were up early and in Memphis. The weather was turning out great, and there was a huge fantastic crowd. I started in a slower pace group, and moved up, making a good pace, but trying not to overdo it, since I needed distance. The run was fantastic, we wove through downtown memphis, before heading up to the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park. The crowds along the sides were great. The weather just got better and better. I was in shorts and a long sleeve sports shirt, and I wished a little that I'd worn short sleeves instead. The miles flew past, 1, 2 and 3 like blinking, 4, 5 and 6 before I knew it, and soon I was past the 10k mark. At about mile 8 I was certain that a half marathon was all I needed this year, and I'd stamped out any foolish thoughts about taking the corner for the full marathon. By miles 9 and 10 I could feel the ache in my muscles, though I continued to maintain my speed. Shortly before mile 11 it began to get difficult. Half-second muscle spasms started to hit my calves, and my left knee started bothering me. I began to anxiously look ahead for mile markers. I stopped once or twice briefly, to rub my calves, and jumped right back in. The spasms started coming a little more quickly, and I changed my motions a little, trying to keep the muscles from seizing up. Then the muscles in my feet started cramping as well, and the knee pain, which came and went, got worse. This all sounds pretty bleak, and for the record, I dont mean to be so much complaining, as reminding myself for next year so that I'll prepare better. Anyway, right around mile 12 my foot wigged out and completely cramped, and I stopped for a second, since I couldn't really run on curled toes, and as soon as I stopped, my calf muscle cramped as well. I panicked for a half second, afraid that I'd have to walk/hobble the rest of the way. After a moment though, I hopped back in, and kept running. Made it to the finish line, thoroughly spent. My legs were so tired and aching, but my feet hurt. I still have some pain in one foot when I walk on it. I think I may have bruised it, or that the cramping and running made the muscle angry with me.
Anyway, the summary is, in truth, that it was a great race. I needed to train more for it, and it is unfortunate that I am a huge lazy slacker. The weather was fantastic, the runners and crowd was great, and I had a blast.
We all went and saw Krissi's performance with her theater group of A Christmas Carol, which was good. We also went and watched 28 Weeks Later, which was a sequel to one of my favorite zombie flicks. I give it an A for gore and screaming zombiness, a B for creating tension and intensity, an F for story and plot, and an overall grade of C. Then again, I'm of the belief that not every good movie needs to be done again, this time with more blood and explosions and leaps of logic. We also watched Fido, which is a dark comedy about zombies. I completely recommend it. Easy B+. To clarify, when I say A Dark Comedy About Zombies, I don't really mean like Shaun of the Dead, more like Heathers With Zombies. I could go on and on trying to accurately capture it for you, but I'll leave it there.
Further rambling,
I've been itching for a fun multiplayer game to play with my friends. I mean on the computer, really. This is my old World of Warcraft crowd. The itch to WoW keeps coming up, but I'm not particularly interested in getting back into it, both because it costs money, and because I know I'll get bored with it rather quickly. Instead, we've been eyeing some LAN Diablo 2, and I'm still sniffing around for something. I've also decided, since I like lists, and half-baked projects, to go through all of the hundred or three computer games that I have, and catalog them. Why? Well, because I like lists, and half-baked projects, and also because at times like this, when I'm having difficulty with any one computer game scratching my gaming itch, its helpful to look through the titles of old games that I've got stored away. It would be even more helpful to have a resource at my fingertips that I could consult to figure out what I wanted to play today. Anyway.
That's about it. Hope that you are well, dear reader. I'm looking forward to the end of December so that I can post a recap of the year, which seems to have flown by.
Briefly it went well, I finished, and did it in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Maybe a little less, but results aren't up yet.
edit: 2:10:48
It was cold in the morning, but Maddie and John and I were up early and in Memphis. The weather was turning out great, and there was a huge fantastic crowd. I started in a slower pace group, and moved up, making a good pace, but trying not to overdo it, since I needed distance. The run was fantastic, we wove through downtown memphis, before heading up to the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park. The crowds along the sides were great. The weather just got better and better. I was in shorts and a long sleeve sports shirt, and I wished a little that I'd worn short sleeves instead. The miles flew past, 1, 2 and 3 like blinking, 4, 5 and 6 before I knew it, and soon I was past the 10k mark. At about mile 8 I was certain that a half marathon was all I needed this year, and I'd stamped out any foolish thoughts about taking the corner for the full marathon. By miles 9 and 10 I could feel the ache in my muscles, though I continued to maintain my speed. Shortly before mile 11 it began to get difficult. Half-second muscle spasms started to hit my calves, and my left knee started bothering me. I began to anxiously look ahead for mile markers. I stopped once or twice briefly, to rub my calves, and jumped right back in. The spasms started coming a little more quickly, and I changed my motions a little, trying to keep the muscles from seizing up. Then the muscles in my feet started cramping as well, and the knee pain, which came and went, got worse. This all sounds pretty bleak, and for the record, I dont mean to be so much complaining, as reminding myself for next year so that I'll prepare better. Anyway, right around mile 12 my foot wigged out and completely cramped, and I stopped for a second, since I couldn't really run on curled toes, and as soon as I stopped, my calf muscle cramped as well. I panicked for a half second, afraid that I'd have to walk/hobble the rest of the way. After a moment though, I hopped back in, and kept running. Made it to the finish line, thoroughly spent. My legs were so tired and aching, but my feet hurt. I still have some pain in one foot when I walk on it. I think I may have bruised it, or that the cramping and running made the muscle angry with me.
Anyway, the summary is, in truth, that it was a great race. I needed to train more for it, and it is unfortunate that I am a huge lazy slacker. The weather was fantastic, the runners and crowd was great, and I had a blast.
We all went and saw Krissi's performance with her theater group of A Christmas Carol, which was good. We also went and watched 28 Weeks Later, which was a sequel to one of my favorite zombie flicks. I give it an A for gore and screaming zombiness, a B for creating tension and intensity, an F for story and plot, and an overall grade of C. Then again, I'm of the belief that not every good movie needs to be done again, this time with more blood and explosions and leaps of logic. We also watched Fido, which is a dark comedy about zombies. I completely recommend it. Easy B+. To clarify, when I say A Dark Comedy About Zombies, I don't really mean like Shaun of the Dead, more like Heathers With Zombies. I could go on and on trying to accurately capture it for you, but I'll leave it there.
Further rambling,
I've been itching for a fun multiplayer game to play with my friends. I mean on the computer, really. This is my old World of Warcraft crowd. The itch to WoW keeps coming up, but I'm not particularly interested in getting back into it, both because it costs money, and because I know I'll get bored with it rather quickly. Instead, we've been eyeing some LAN Diablo 2, and I'm still sniffing around for something. I've also decided, since I like lists, and half-baked projects, to go through all of the hundred or three computer games that I have, and catalog them. Why? Well, because I like lists, and half-baked projects, and also because at times like this, when I'm having difficulty with any one computer game scratching my gaming itch, its helpful to look through the titles of old games that I've got stored away. It would be even more helpful to have a resource at my fingertips that I could consult to figure out what I wanted to play today. Anyway.
That's about it. Hope that you are well, dear reader. I'm looking forward to the end of December so that I can post a recap of the year, which seems to have flown by.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)