My gaming rig just died, motherboard or processor croaked, can't tell which. Anyway, despite not really intending to update my system for a while, I just ordered a new six-core AMD processor, eight gigs of RAM, and a new motherboard. Now to get it all here, put together, and then make the groveling call to Microsoft asking them to re-authorize my copy of Windows, which assuredly won't recognize the computer anymore after I swap motherboards.

Saturday was entirely devoted to a game of Civ V. Standard map, standard length. I think it clocked in around nine hours to play out all the way. I was Egypt, actually trying to go for a cultural victory, but Elizabeth and Alexander were my nearest neighbors, and both of them declared war on me before we'd gotten too far. The game seems a bit more ruthless about kicking you when you're down now. Alexander tried to wipe me out first, and Elizabeth just sat there, not declaring war, but positioning units in Alexander's territory around his cities so that I couldn't make full-scale assaults. Once I'd finally gotten Alexander down, Elizabeth attacked, and once she'd captured about three of my cities, Siam decided to attack, as well. I guess they were just going after me since I was losing ground to the English. Once I'd finally ground the English out of existence, I was so far off course for a cultural victory that it wasn't even worth it to try, so I went tech, because I knew I hadn't met two empires yet. I found them later, each having spawned on it's own continent, and just prospering away with no one around to harass them. Sometimes the game does infuriate me like that. 
 
Anyway, I did win it on points, but only just. I wish the game would be a little more fair about where it spawns each power, since two of the civs had basically been able to do whatever they wanted without worrying about military, while my continent had six civilizations spawn on it initially, two of them being very aggresive and making everyone fight to survive. Oh well, that's the game. Maybe next time for the cultural victory. I actually did set the game to the easiest difficulty on a small map and short game time to get the feel for how a cultural victory should go, and I liked the play style. It's just harder to get going on higher difficulties and larger maps.

When sitting zazen, thoughts invariably come up, like all the time. This is the first time that I've caught myself planning what to do next in a game. Namely planning my next foray into the dungeon in Etrian Odyssey III.

My girlfriend gave me a copy of Halo: Reach. Played through the campaign. Good story, but a bit of a downer. Then I decided to try the multiplayer. Less than a minute after the first match started, I'd already been called a pussy.

More grinding, although I finally figured out how to make a (small) amount of money from sailing. Changed my party to include a farmer and a prince. The farmer has a skill that can give extra XP, which is nice, since the amount of experience seems fairly paltry, and the prince, who has skills that can heal the whole party passively. Those additions, while taking away some of my damage capability, have really helped my overall ability to stay alive in the dungeon. Now that I actually have some positive cash flow, I may actually be ready to make some progress in the game. 
 
I didn't play the first two Etrian Odyssey games, so I came in fairly unprepared. It does, though, kind of remind me of Demon's Souls, at least in spirit. I floundered on that one for a while before I figured out how to play it and then really started to get into it.

Had lots of time to kill while waiting on people at work to write their end of a publication. So I started Etrian Odyssey III last night. Two TPK's off the bat. I guess it's been a while since I've played a game that straight up required a level grind. Level 2 of the dungeon with party members at level 4 and mediocre equipment represents an amazingly efficient mode of removing your ass and handing it back to you.

I heard Anthony Gallegos on Rebel FM describe the Civ games as 'storytelling games'. I think he's right, as I had as much fun telling my girlfriend about my previous evening's game in which Ghandi decided I was a warmonger and didn't like me anymore, forcing me to line his borders two deep with giant death robots while he was still fielding spearmen, then annihilating his civilization in seven turns, as actually playing it. 
 
There's something really great about the civ games for being able to have your civ behave any (bizarre) way you want and turn that into the story. Stonehenge built in Boise, right along side the Eiffel Tower, all ruled over by a megolomaniacal fascist? We can do that here.