日常生活

Since Gears of War didn't turn out to be the awesome "board game that we play every weekend" I've kept searching for another game to play. (Really, I've been pushing to play GoW again, to at least beat that first annoying level, but the others won't comply. What do?)

I noticed Ad Astra was on sale and figured we should give it a try. I didn't really know what the game was about and after having seen a quick review on the game on Youtube - after I had ordered it - I didn't think it would be very good. (But hey, it was on sale..)

My brother, a friend and I tested the game yesterday and as it turns out, Ad Astra is actually a lot of fun to play! There's a lot more strategy in this game compared to many of my other games (which are mostly just all about killing stuff). Travel to various planets, gather as many resources as possible to score more than the others and eventually win the game. For some reason that setup worked out just fine with us. Maybe we're getting too old for mindless mayhem? Grah, the horror!

The tokens, or pawns, are all pretty neat. A few of them look a bit fragile and the ships are a little skimpy for my liking, but all in all, they're very nice looking.

Both my brother and the friend commented that it would've been interesting if there were a way to attack the planets in an "intergalactic war kinda way" somehow.

I suppose there's still room for some mindless mayhem, after all. :-)

First impression: "WTF Steam?"

I got home from work and started installing the game. Six hours later, it's just about ready to launch. Six hours. What. The. Fuck. It feels like the DVD didn't contain anything else than an initial pre-install program asking for the key which, once entered, turned over to Steam and downloaded the game. Seriously yeah, I think I downloaded the fucking game and the DVD was just a facade...

*clicks PLAY*

(A.k.a. To be continued)..

Edit 11.30am: I accidentally attacked a man instead of talking to him and the entire village of Riverwood came out to get me. Fuck this - restart from previous save..

Edit 1.00pm: Experiencing a lot of glitches, a lot of them to do with either my character's model or lightning of the world around me. I fell through the floor in a cave, and the screen went haywire, flickering. Loading a previous save didn't fix the flickering so I closed the game.. Hopefully when I restart the game will be back to "normal".

Edit 5.15pm: I could continue (thankfully) without too much trouble, even though glitches appear here and there all the time. A few screenshots:

A lot of these glitches happen when I tab in and out of the game, but they also randomly happen when stepping through doors to new areas/buildings. It has also started crashing, kicking me out of the game, forcing a restart which is quite annoying.

Despite all the bugs I'm facing, I think it's an alright game but there's just too much to take in. There are so many things to pick up, and you can only carry so much, and I have no idea what things are useful. Do I need a cooking pot? A broom? (I actually got 2 of those). And all the clothes that I strip of the dead bodies I leave behind me...

I haven't really figured out how to use magic yet, but I'm getting quite skilled with a bow, so I'm thinking I won't be needing it. Yet...

I got StarCraft II a while back and it's really rather sweet. The single-player campaign is pretty interesting; I'm currently on my second playthrough (started on casual and are now working on normal).

Rather than campaigning though, my focus have mostly been on custom games, such as tower defence or tug of war. Having a blast playing with my brothers and some friends. Heaps of fun!

We've played a few 2v2 and 3v3 matches but I suck pretty bad at those so I generally avoid them. (It's no fun losing all the time..)

Everytime we start playing a new game there are always some rules that we miss. Rather, that I miss - I'm usually the first one to glance through them. GoW:tBG was no exception.

Three of us started out on Friday, gathering up all the pieces from the box, setting up the first stage and taking the first plunge through the Locust swarms. After a few unlucky turns, near-dead and hardly off the first map-piece, I realized that we had missed a couple of rules that would have made it easier on us. After some yelling at me we decided to start over.

The next time we set off things turned out better for us, but we still faced a lot of resistance as we pushed forward through the swarms. We got up to about halfway through the map when one of us had to break up early on account of work on Saturday morning. We decided to leave the table overnight and come back the next day.

When we came back on Saturday we still faced a lot of resistance, and my brother started to lose his patience when we realised that there were more rules we had missed. Come on, this is the first level, it can't be this bloody hard...

Turns out no, it's not really - we (ok, me) are just stupid and very unlucky with the rolls. We decided to restart once more, but my brother had had enough, so our friend took over the role of both their characters, while I grabbed the last char we hadn't played before then, meaning we were now 4 "players" instead of 3. That ought to even the scores some, right? Right? Nope. Still hard as all hell.

We went at it for little over an hour (or maybe two) when my brother returned to the table announcing he wanted to play Magic: The Gathering. I groanded a bit, but agreed - it had taken us too long time to get nowhere on the first level. It's a hard ass game...

Come Sunday, I decided to try play it solo. The amount of starting monsters on the map changes depending on how many players there are which made it pretty easy to get through each room; either killing the Locust or skipping by them, rushing to the end objective of the map. It took me less than half an hour to kill the last of the Locust and beat the level. For serious and like a baus.

I actually think it's a great game and having played Gears of War I & II on the 360 I think the transition from digital media to a board game captures the feel of those games pretty well. It's just very luck-based with the dice, but there are ways to turn them in your favour.

I like how your life is slowly regenerating over time (like in most modern day shooters), instead of as in say, Castle Ravenloft, where your life pretty much just drops all the time. ;)

I'm insisting on another round next weekend to get through the first level, hopefully further than that, because I know we can do it....we have the technology...

Edit October 9: No.

I recently beat Super Metroid on the SNES (via emulator on the HTPC....with cheats...) and when I found out that Other M picks up where Super Metroid ended I decided I'd take a peek.

It starts out a bit cut-scene-heavy, but they are soon replaced with all the more action as Samus blasts her way through the levels of a "Bottle Ship" (whatever that may be).

I haven't really played any of the "Prime" titles, so controlling Samus in 3D is a new concept for me. The controls were a little odd at first but the transition from 2D to 3D works really well and it doesn't take very long getting used to.

Samus will auto-aim most of the time, as long as she's somewhat facing the foe, which makes it much easier to deal with enemies. I also like how, instead of enemies dropping items, Samus utilizes a Concentration technique to replenish health and ammunition. It's a bitch to use when you're in a tight spot, but you don't have to go out of your way to collect a few extra missiles, should you need them.

I've played around two hours and so far it's been a pleasant experience. :3

It's been a few months since we took on the behemoth that is Dungeons & Dragons. We finished off the starter-set campaign and I bought a few of the books and boxes from the Essentials line. We then started out on a new journey to save the land.

But we didn't get very far. The roleplaying aspect of D&D turned out to be a little rough on all of us; too much were said and not enough got done, so to speak. And we found the character sheets and spells a bit hard to read out. All of us enjoy a good fight, but it got more complicated than it probably had to.

And that's where the D&D board game Castle Ravenloft comes into the picture -- It is a slimmed down version of D&D with the main focus on exploring the dungeons (in this case a castle) and fighting monsters. What makes it great is that no one is locked down playing the DM (which would always be my peril); everyone gets to control the monsters they reveal, which in my opinion is ingenious. I like that a lot, because now I can be part of the group of adventurers instead of hiding behind a DM screen.

I got the game a few days ago and my brother and I have played a couple of rounds to test it out. We both enjoy it immensely and I think Castle Ravenloft will be the favourite among my games for a long time to come. :-)

I'm planning on buying the "sequel", Wrath of Ashardalon which was released mid-Februari, as well as The Legend of Drizzt due for release in October.

I'm late to the party as always -- I got FFXIII a little while back. So far I've played about 14 hours. A lot of people are complaining about the game, but I quite like it.

I'm not a huge FF-nerd; I haven't played a lot of the older games, like really played them. The only ones I can think of are FFIV, V and VI on the SNES. And I used an emulator. And I cheated...

Compared to the older games, FFXIII is very linear, or at least have been for most of my 14 hours. Some of the enviroments can get a little boring because of it, but so far, for the most of it, that hasn't been a huge problem. I actually kind of like knowing where I'm going for a change.

Another thing I like a lot compared to the older games is how when you die, instead of being returned to the title screen (which pisses me off to no end) you're prompted with a dialogue asking if you want to retry the battle. It brings you back to the very moment before engaging in the battle, meaning you can adjust your gear or spend Crystarium Points or whatever before attempting the fight again. Very nice.

It supposedly takes 50+ hours to beat the game. Knowing me - and I do know me - that's probably closer to 70+ hours... So far so good though. :)

I recently started watching NCIS, which supposedly is America's favourite TV show. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but the Yank's got this one right; NCIS is really good.

I mean really, really good. I really like the chemistry between the characters. Gibbs is a really cool but mysterious "father figure", the fights between "brother and sister" Tony and Kate are fun to watch and Abby....Sweet delicious Abby, she blows me away.

The one thing that's sometimes bugging me is how fast they solve a case. But hey, with shy over 40 minutes I guess there's only so much time for questions. :-)

Not really knowing what to expect, I decided to buy season one of Battlestar Galactica (2004).

I just finished the 3-hour-long miniseries/prequel and I quite liked it. The story and the characters are both interesting and the cgi is wonderful. There's really not a whole lot to complain about.

The twist at the end left me with big hopes for the series, can't wait to watch the rest of it. :-)

I haven't touched the Wii much lately, dunno why. Console games aren't as fun when played alone, I suppose. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to Mega Man 9, which are to be released as Wiiware, meaning you pay a few quid and download it straight to the Wii. In other words, no huge arse games. Mega Man 9 will feature graphics and sound resembling the games released on the Nes. But I'm rambling..

I decided to have a look around the Wiiware shop, just to get a feel for what they're currently offering, and found a platformer that looked promising -- LostWinds. This won't be a proper review, I've only just tried the game for 10 minutes...

Once you start the game and decide which save-file to play you're immediately thrown into the game. Litteraly. You play as a little fella called Toku, and after a little stroll in the woods, the ground crumbles and he falls into a cave. While trying to get out he encounters the wind spirit, Enril, who lends the power of Gust, a power that will Toku fly to platforms that are otherwise out of reach. Using Gust you can also interact with various objects, such as fruit and torches. Also, just about anything will blow around a bit if you move the cursor over it, the wind blowing through bushes makes a pretty realistic sound.

The graphics are really cute with warm colours and controlling Toku is heaps of fun. I'll sit down at some stage and play through LostWinds and write a perhaps more proper review (or edit this one, who knows)...