The Seasons Keep On Going
So, September eh? I could go on about British summers, or the lack thereof, but what’d be the point. You know it and I know it, we had no summer. But that’s not the point of this entry, I just figured I could use that lyric and get away with it. Actually, initially that was going to be the point of this entry; I’d planned it as another emo-thon about how crap summer was in every way, but decided against it. So, read on for some Emo-free ramblings.
Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star
Back in spring I spied the first issue of the Dead Space tie in comic at Travelling Man. A fan of space horror and Ben Templesmith’s work, I decided to give it a go. At that point, I hadn’t read much on the subject of the game, just a couple of small previews in PCZone and EDGE, but thoroughly enjoyed the comic. Alas, the fine gentlemen at TM forgot to add it to my standing order, so I missed the following couple of issues. But no worry, as the nice folks at EA (you know, I never thought I’d see myself say that) had also produced animated versions of the comics, which I took the liberty of watching on my lunch breaks this past week. And I must say, consider my interest well and truly piqued. I’m just praying that the finished game can live up to its System Shock (one section demoed takes place on the Hydroponics Deck of the Ishimura; I wonder if we’ll see any references to Deck 3 of the Von Braun) meets The Thing aspirations laid out in the comics and trailers;
New Header Image
Just a quick post to draw light to my new header image and, more importantly, thank Phil for crafting it out of the aether for me. No longer will I be accused of being a talentless hack who steals ideas off of real games journalists!
Searches
I do so love statistics. Especially when they show worrying trends such as this; a selection of search terms that have returned my blog:
he punched out all my blood – 28 hits
“he punched out all my blood” – 5 hits
punched out all my blood – 5 hits
“punched out all my blood” – 4 hits
my blood! he punched out all my blood! – 3 hits
my blood he punched out all my blood – 2 hits
“my blood, he punched out all my blood” – 2 hits
he punched out all my blood! – 2 hits
he punched out all of my blood – 2 hits
Sick bastards!
Homestar Ruiner – Review
Or to give it it’s full title; Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People: Episode One – Homestar Ruiner. Yes.
Following on from their successful rejuvenation of the Sam & Max series, Telltale have set their sites of Free Country, USA, transferring the world of Homestar Runner into a point and click adventure in the classic Lucas Arts mould. First off, let me make two things clear: I am a big Homestar Runner fan, and I don’t own a single Lucas Arts adventure game. As such, I may be somewhat biased in favour of the writing over the actual gameplay, but let’s see how it goes.
Lost For Words
July’s US PC Charts have been doing the rounds this morning, and below are the Top 10:
* 1. Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
* 2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
* 3. Spore Creature Creator
* 4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
* 5. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
* 6. Diablo Battle Chest
* 7. World of Warcraft
* 8. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
* 9. The Sims 2 FreeTime
* 10. Warcraft III Battle Chest
I know these don’t count sales through digital distribution, but still I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It almost makes me sad to consider myself a “PC Gamer”.
Home is the Most Overused Word
So, the couch has finally arrived, meaning I can at long last take some photos of my flat home and post them for all the world to see. So, follow the cut for said photos. Or don’t. I wont be offended.
Isn’t It Ironic?
When I got back from the Blizzard WWI, one of my thoughts was “what the hell should I do with this Beta Key”. The collector in me wanted to keep it (I mean, new pet!), but the poor graduate in me wanted to sell it for something like £100. However, I never got round to selling it, and the price has since dropped somewhat. But that’s not the point here. The point is; if I was asking myself then what to do with one, how the hell am I supposed to know now what to do with two. This morning I woke up to be greeted by this email:
Wrath of the Lich King™ beta test
You have been selected to participate in the beta test of World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich King™. Welcome!
My account is inactive. I have little desire to play in the beta (fearing that I will burn myself out on it, and not want to play the game once it is released). The irony is certainly not lost on me.
So, the question is: what do I do now?
Edit: On a similiar note, Blizzard debuted the WotLK intro today at G|C:
Initial thoughts? Pretty as ever, but it lacks the excitement and urgency of the Vanilla and TBC intros, while at the same time having little of the spine-tingling nature of some of the War3 ones (Arthas‘ Betrayal, I’m looking at you).
My Blood, He Punched Out All My Blood!
Well, it seems blogging this video is all the rage, but then, who can blame them. Suffice to say, it’s my favourite ‘Meet the Team’ yet (and probably will be till ‘Meet the Pyro’ is finally released). Not only that but, as I’d hoped, this update has given me my game bac; I’m actually looking forward to going home and spending the evening setting people on fire (and in the game). I guess part of that is due to finally getting an RPS server sorted. Even if it is unofficial, it’s nice to have a place that’s ours, so thanks to Dan, Chris and everyone else for getting it sorted. And after a recent post marking the 1000th member of the Steam RPS group we’ve seen a large influx of members coming into the chatroom, certainly there are good times ahead for the RPS Community. Maybe we’ll finally see one of those oft-mentioned organised games!
So He Just Plays On His Computer Games
Or not – it seems that I’ve lost my Game-Fu. This is a rather worrying turn of events, when you consider that gaming is a large part of who I am. It is one of the few things in life that I actually take any more than a passing interest in, something that filled my spare time, allowed me to escape from my hum-drum existence. More importantly, it was my thing; plenty of people in my circle of friends play games, but there are few (one, I’d wager, Rob) who’d I’d consider actual gamers. So, if I lose that, what am I?
I’m hoping it’s just that no game has come along that has managed to pique my interest for longer than an hour or so in recent times. Mass Effect still has yet to drag me in as I’d hoped it would (I blame the terrible Mako sections, and the general derivative nature of the none-story line stuff, which, being a completionist, I can’t skip). I picked up SoulCalibur IV when I first moved in here, but that is more a game to play with others. The single player modes are, frankly, god awful and a waste of £40. And TF2… well, I tried playing it today and didn’t last more than about 15 minutes at a time. Now, this is a game that, in the past, I would happily play for hours on end without getting bored. Maybe the Heavy Update due this week will reignite my feelings towards the game.
There are a couple of games I’m looking at picking up that seem more suited to my current predicament, namely Braid and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People – Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner (more games need ironically long titles), but first I need to sort out my money situation. And by sort out, I do of course mean phone the ‘rents. Roll on pay day when I can start living a life of financial independance (yerright).
