About four weeks ago I was considering what games I wanted to spend my gaming time on. Here is what I ended up playing:
* FF XIII for the PS3
- Bought it, didn't finish it
- Played about 30 hours of it, got to near the end, game got hard, fingers got tired
* Battlfield: Bad Company 2 (PC)
- Bought it, finished single player campaign, didn't try multiplayer
* Dawn of War II: Chaos expansion
- Bought it, waiting for Matt to free up time to play the co-op with me
* Resonance of Fate for the 360
- Bought it, 50 hours in to single player campaign (there apparently may be another 30 hours to go)
- Probably not going to finish it
* Red Steel 2 for the Wii
- Bought it, played about 10 hours of it, was amused by the combat
- Not amused by the frequent door opening scenes that hide the levels loading
- Also, it's hard. I needed like the "global slowdown" feature that makes everything in the game run about 80% as fast in fights.
New "on deck" titles:
* Sakura Wars (JRPG)
* Monster Hunter Tri (Action RPG)
* Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement (tacticl RPG)
* Star Ocean: The last hope international (JRPG)
* Shiren the Wanderer (dungeon bash JRPG)
* Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (JRPG)
In denial titles:
I'd love to play these games but realistically I'll probably never get around to picking them up
* God of War Collection (never played them)
* God of War III
* Bayonetta
* Uncharted 2
* Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (unlikely since I don't like the DS)
* 3D Dot Game Heroes (unlikely but looks cool)
* Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
No chance of me buying soon (caveat is amazing price discounts)
* Supreme Commander 2
* Stalker Pripyat
* Assassin's Creed 1/2
* Heavy Rain
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Books from (somewhat) long ago...
It seems to me that great books from the past decades often get buried. I realized that in talking to the new gen of college grads the odds of them coming across any of the below series was mighty slim, so I figured I'd post a list of classic sci-fi/fantasy that really shouldn't be missed that might escape other "greatest of all time" lists. Most of these are not necessarily great literature, but really fun and interesting reads none the less.
Lensmen series- Starts with Triplanetary by EE "Doc" Smith
OMG, this is a crazy awesome space opera. This series was started in 1934. That's pre-WW2. The series blows away Star Wars in every aspect. Cooler tech, cooler psionics, way better plot, way better characters. Did I mention it was written in 1934-1948???
I don't reread series, but I've reread this series at least 3 times...
Chronicles of the Lensmen, Volume 1 (Triplanetary, First Lensman, Galactic Patrol )
Amber series- Starts with Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
Amber is a mind-blowing universe of interesting worlds, magic, intrigue and action.
The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber)
Elric series- Starts with Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock
Elric was goth before it was a cool. Super good swords and sorcery series. At least two Blue Oyster Cult songs are based off this fiction.
Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Vol. 1)
Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Vol. 2)
Vlad Taltos series- Starts with Jhereg from 1983 (series) by Steven Brust
This one is still ongoing, and it's awesome... but you might have missed it since it started so long ago.
The Book of Jhereg
Black Company series- Starts with The Black Company from 1984 by Glen Cook
Again another long running series that you might have missed since it started before you might have been born.
Super awesome tale told from the perspective a mercenary company caught in the middle of a sword and sorcery epic.
Dark, gritty, and magic.
The Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company #1)
Xanth series (Don't read past the third!)- Starts with a Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
Ok, it's pretty embarrassing to put this up here... but the early Piers Anthony had a certain silly charm. It's probably too juvenile for most people but
Three Complete Xanth Novels: A Spell for Chameleon; The Source of Magic; Castle Roogna
I'm sure I'll think of more...
Lensmen series- Starts with Triplanetary by EE "Doc" Smith
OMG, this is a crazy awesome space opera. This series was started in 1934. That's pre-WW2. The series blows away Star Wars in every aspect. Cooler tech, cooler psionics, way better plot, way better characters. Did I mention it was written in 1934-1948???
I don't reread series, but I've reread this series at least 3 times...
Chronicles of the Lensmen, Volume 1 (Triplanetary, First Lensman, Galactic Patrol )
Amber series- Starts with Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
Amber is a mind-blowing universe of interesting worlds, magic, intrigue and action.
The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber)
Elric series- Starts with Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock
Elric was goth before it was a cool. Super good swords and sorcery series. At least two Blue Oyster Cult songs are based off this fiction.
Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Vol. 1)
Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Vol. 2)
Vlad Taltos series- Starts with Jhereg from 1983 (series) by Steven Brust
This one is still ongoing, and it's awesome... but you might have missed it since it started so long ago.
The Book of Jhereg
Black Company series- Starts with The Black Company from 1984 by Glen Cook
Again another long running series that you might have missed since it started before you might have been born.
Super awesome tale told from the perspective a mercenary company caught in the middle of a sword and sorcery epic.
Dark, gritty, and magic.
The Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company #1)
Xanth series (Don't read past the third!)- Starts with a Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
Ok, it's pretty embarrassing to put this up here... but the early Piers Anthony had a certain silly charm. It's probably too juvenile for most people but
Three Complete Xanth Novels: A Spell for Chameleon; The Source of Magic; Castle Roogna
I'm sure I'll think of more...
Monday, March 22, 2010
Borderlands: DLC
I've Been playing Borderlands DLC with Liz. I loved Borderlands. I love the DLC.
General Knox got really good reviews so I talked Liz in to trying it with me. Had a great opening movie, looked a lot of fun, but it was apparently for level 50+. Our highest characters were 38, so we took those characters and went and did the other DLC we had.
We started with "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned." It was fun, but a bit grindy. There are LOTs of zombies and they take awhile to kill. Near the end we ended up blitzing the missions instead of stopping to kill all the waves.
After (mostly) doing Dr. Ned (250 brains will have to wait) and getting to level 47 we had to choose between the single player campaign to get the last couple of levels to do General Knox or do Mad Moxxi. The reviews for Mad Moxxi were terrible, getting a ~50ish on MetaCritic.
Liz talked me in to risking the $10, mostly because it has a bank you can store stuff in.
We both ended up really liking Mad Moxxi. It's not for the faint of heart though, it took us like 3 hours to "conquer" one area. It was like 5 rounds of 5 waves each. It was long enough we had to take breaks while holed up in a corner or hard to reach spot while the enemies roamed looking for us.
The loot in Mad Moxxi was pretty kicking, but no exp (which was fine.) The map was really, really cool and you didn't understand the neatness until you really had been playing on it for an hour. The music is awesome and Mad Moxxi's voice is great to.
Mad Moxxi also requires tactics. You can lose and have to restart if all players die... and dead players only come back at the end of a wave. The neat thing is that dead players can still help... they get put in a crows nest sort of "penalty box" that you can shoot out but you can't leave.
I'm looking forward to trying the next maps/rounds. I'm wondering if it saves any of your progress though. Those rounds were long.
I think I would have rated Mad Moxxi a lot higher. I think what people were frustrated by is that they wanted a full campaign like Dr. Ned, and overlooked the interesting bits of Mad Moxxi. I suspect if they had released Mad Moxxi after General Knox people would have been more interested having been sated in their appetite for more campaign content.
General Knox got really good reviews so I talked Liz in to trying it with me. Had a great opening movie, looked a lot of fun, but it was apparently for level 50+. Our highest characters were 38, so we took those characters and went and did the other DLC we had.
We started with "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned." It was fun, but a bit grindy. There are LOTs of zombies and they take awhile to kill. Near the end we ended up blitzing the missions instead of stopping to kill all the waves.
After (mostly) doing Dr. Ned (250 brains will have to wait) and getting to level 47 we had to choose between the single player campaign to get the last couple of levels to do General Knox or do Mad Moxxi. The reviews for Mad Moxxi were terrible, getting a ~50ish on MetaCritic.
Liz talked me in to risking the $10, mostly because it has a bank you can store stuff in.
We both ended up really liking Mad Moxxi. It's not for the faint of heart though, it took us like 3 hours to "conquer" one area. It was like 5 rounds of 5 waves each. It was long enough we had to take breaks while holed up in a corner or hard to reach spot while the enemies roamed looking for us.
The loot in Mad Moxxi was pretty kicking, but no exp (which was fine.) The map was really, really cool and you didn't understand the neatness until you really had been playing on it for an hour. The music is awesome and Mad Moxxi's voice is great to.
Mad Moxxi also requires tactics. You can lose and have to restart if all players die... and dead players only come back at the end of a wave. The neat thing is that dead players can still help... they get put in a crows nest sort of "penalty box" that you can shoot out but you can't leave.
I'm looking forward to trying the next maps/rounds. I'm wondering if it saves any of your progress though. Those rounds were long.
I think I would have rated Mad Moxxi a lot higher. I think what people were frustrated by is that they wanted a full campaign like Dr. Ned, and overlooked the interesting bits of Mad Moxxi. I suspect if they had released Mad Moxxi after General Knox people would have been more interested having been sated in their appetite for more campaign content.
The evil Speck
"Since I was small I had heard tales of the mysterious and elusive Specks, the dappled people who could only live happily in the shadows of their native forest."
"The very name of the people had crept in to our language as a synonym for inattentive: to do a Speck's day of work meant to do almost nothing at all. If I was caught day dreaming over my books, my tutor might ask if I was Speck-touched."
The above passages unchanged from Robin Hobb's book Shaman's Crossing. This goes on and on talking about the evil Speck threat. Who payed her to pick that name?
"The very name of the people had crept in to our language as a synonym for inattentive: to do a Speck's day of work meant to do almost nothing at all. If I was caught day dreaming over my books, my tutor might ask if I was Speck-touched."
The above passages unchanged from Robin Hobb's book Shaman's Crossing. This goes on and on talking about the evil Speck threat. Who payed her to pick that name?
Finished- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 single player campaign started strong and ended in mediocrity. I never touched the multiplayer (which I hear is awesome) since I got my fill of being circle/jump/porpoise strafed about a decade ago.
The story was pretty interesting until the very, very end where the MacGuffin is shown. It had a lot of potential as a mercs + lost tv show story. They would have been better off with a cliff hanger and maybe pick it up in a future expansion then ending it how they did.
The story was pretty interesting until the very, very end where the MacGuffin is shown. It had a lot of potential as a mercs + lost tv show story. They would have been better off with a cliff hanger and maybe pick it up in a future expansion then ending it how they did.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
I bought BC2 on Steam.
So far about 2 hours in to it I like it... it's a generic shooter, but so far the story is cool. It's obviously heavily influenced by Lost, but I like Lost. It also reminds me of the Shaftoe stuff from Cryptonomicon ever so slightly.
So far about 2 hours in to it I like it... it's a generic shooter, but so far the story is cool. It's obviously heavily influenced by Lost, but I like Lost. It also reminds me of the Shaftoe stuff from Cryptonomicon ever so slightly.
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