Catching up...

So I haven't been updating.
Just too much to be doing these days.
Here is the quick version:
I found out how to make Oblivion stable, so I have started playing it again (post on it later)
Vista is... not happy with games like DMC3, so those have kinda been put to the side.
I am playing CounterStrike Source CAL-o Season 7. This will be taking large amounts of my time as I am the weakest member of the team (free money watches | f$w) by far. Should be a blast though. To help with that I have bought my first monthly cost gaming related thing. ESEA. $6 a month for access to their CS servers, and worth every penny.

Another high point was the updates to PCSX2 (a PS2 emu) It seems it can now run commercial FMVs with no trouble, sadly, framerates are still unacceptable on most games for actual play. MAJOR advances though, they deserve praise for this release.

PS: Go watch ALL videos of Crysis you can find, looks to be a real winner for DX10.

Almost forgot, GS2 is nearing an end... gotta love power leveling.

Saturday, December 23rd

So I really haven't been playing games almost at all... I dunno why, other things are just taking my interest.

However, LAN last night. Was supposed to be for HoMM3, and WAS for most, but because of some random stuff, I only got in a little of one game. HoMM3 is amazing though; very very complex strategies you can pull. I got in a little CSS and HL2:DM, but the real highlight for me was playing the new Garry's Mod 10. Talk about an improvement. The UI/menus are totally overhauled, and the tools are way more stable. Also, from looking at the site, it seems new stuff is always coming out.

Since The Ship is having a free weekend, I checked it out. Nifty game, nifty ideas, mostly good execution, and playing it is a problem. The problem is that identifying players/AI/random people is FAR too easy. Also, the lack of any sort of built in communication with other players ignores an entire possible part of the game; selling information.

GS2 is nearing an end, I got the second party in it, and combat actually requires a lot of thinking now. With 8 characters and 4 actions per round, you really have to choose carefully.

The lack of updating should be gone this week, no work and lots of LANs!

Friday, December 8th

Well, this week (and weekend) are going to end up being very game light, which is too bad.
I played WC3 TDs with people tonight, Maffa TD is interesting, it is hard, but as you figure out build sequences, levels become very easy. Then you loose on the next one, modify the build a little, win easily, and loose on the next one. Most TDs have some level that always makes you loose, or some build that always wins... Maffa changes that a little.

Also, more GS2, as usual.

Wednesday, December 7th

I finally played some more of Oblivion. I got in about an hour, and had some great dungeon delving, but also discovered an interesting bug between Vista and Oblivion. After about 45 min, the screen goes black and refuses to render the world anymore. One can still see their inventory and such, but nothing else. Upon quitting I noticed that an error message had come up, saying it was out of video memory.... Really puts a cramp on marathon sessions :P

Oh, and I spent 30min trying to get another spirit ring in GS2.... the forging system is REALLY aggravating.

Tuesday, December 5th

So I forgot to post for a few days... mainly because I didn't actually play anything besides a few rounds of a WC3 TD. (tough one too...)

Today however, I gave in and installed Oblivion on my Vista install. And then proceeded to take more than an hour getting mods. The last time I tried to play Oblivion, I spent 3-4x as much time on GETTING MODS as playing the game. This game is so heavily improved by mods, that its actually BAD, simply because you spend too much time imagining the game, and too little playing.
To be fair, I did play some. My current set (I'll list next time I play) looks great, and plays great. As usual with Vista, some graphical problems (though not unplayebly bad)

GS2 includes one feature (that many RPGs do) that annoys me greatly. Random item forging. You give some guy an ore, and he forges one of a few random items out of it. Why is this annoying? Because I have to spend 30 minutes loading my save game before I give him the ore, and repeatedly forging it until I get the item I want. Seriously, if the item is not dictated by earlier events, just let the player choose, and save time. Otherwise they 'break' the system, and get bored doing it.

Friday, December 1st

As usual, played some GS2- nothing to report on that

WC3 is a wonderful game. This is really just because of the engine. The sheer number of maps people make is staggering, and the variety moreso. Someday, I will write a detailed analysis of the capabilities of the WC3 editor, but for now, lets just leave it at the fact that I played a TBS game in a RTS engine...

Thursday, November 30th

Again, a game light day.
Golden Sun was more of the same, and I am still trying to nail down what about their combination of simplicity and variety of puzzles makes it good.

I finished CoD2 today.
CoD2 was a very varied game. The first campaign (Russians) made me remember CoD1. Wide open areas, lots of comrades, and every building a fight to the death. A great piece of work. It is one of the few games that I had to play in chunks, simply because of how intense it was. After twenty minutes, one does not feel excited or accomplished; they feel as if they went through a war zone.
Sadly, this does not carry to the British campaign. Much of the combat took place in trenches, and becomes quickly monotonous. The tank missions were fun, but far too easy, and far too short.
The American campaign has its moments. The D-day missions are exhilarating and well paced (the falling back mission especially comes to mind.) Unfortunately, the town capture missions are all very similar, and again, monotonous by the third.
Strange note: The credits have a 'video' that plays in the background, a bizarre story of a botched rescue of a British soldier by American soldiers...

I attempted to play some BF2, but something is, and has been, wrong with my connection, and I CANNOT hold a connection to any server for a BF game. Major flaw if you ask me.

Wednesday, November 29th

Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age

GS2 is a bit of an oddity for me; the puzzles feel unnecessary, yet are enjoyable.

For example, one puzzle came up twice where you enter a room and it is partially filled with sand (which you can walk on). On one side of the room is a locked door, the switch to open it is midway through it. At some points in the sand there are invisible buttons that raise the sand level. If it gets to high it covers the door switch.

There is virtually no way know WHERE the sand raising buttons are before you step on them. But even on the second time I was not annoyed or bored by such luck and memory based puzzle.
Why?

I think it is because of two factors: First, ease of dealing with the puzzle. It is a very simple puzzle to understand, and especially important, to interact with. The player never is confused about what is going on. Second, it takes two minutes max. GS(2) is filled with these micro puzzles. They don't take huge amounts of thinking or time, but they give an instant reward that pushes the player forward.

Later posts on the same games will probably be much shorter.
Also, later posts will probably be better.