Third Review Done
Put my time where my mouth was and reviewed Adventure for the 2600, of all things. Check it out! :)
It includes a link to an interview with the game designer that came out in '07, as well as a few other nostalgia links for those wanting to learn a bit more about humanity's ancient past.
Was fun to play it again, and it'll probably be my go-to online game when I want to kill (or be killed) a few minutes.
Morrowind Is Evil
I've reached a point in Morrowind now where the bugs REALLY start to come in. I got to a point where I couldn't just slurp up every dead body and its loot in order to keep to a minimum the amount of stuff the game is keeping track of, and almost immediately afterward I started running into problems. The crashes, which were mercifully few to start, have increased.
There are also some other goofy bugs that I don't think I noticed before. One group of evildoers (I know they're evil because they attack me) paralyzes and fatigues me simultaneously, which weirdly enough freezes me completely, letting them chip away at me with their chitin daggers until I'm dead, despite my having chugged just about every useful potion I had. Elsewhere I would hit a guy I was trying to beat for a quest, and he'd fall through the floor into oblivion (small o), where I couldn't fight him. Just poof, no more chance to beat the quest. And there was the time where I ran into a guy who started rambling about random stuff, and when I checked my log entry about the encounter, it mentions something completely unrelated to what happened, pertaining to a quest I have never heard of, or the time that I got attacked by a guy who said I took too long to deliver his stuff, but I never took that quest!
Despite all this I still like the game. It's never at the Daggerfall level of buggy, thankfully, but it doesn't mean I wish the thing wasn't a bit more stable.
Re: 4X
I got to play the demo of the latest version of Starships Unlimited last night, and I remember why I never downloaded the upgraded demo: the original demo I played let you play in a crippled version for an unlimited amount of time, at least as far as reality is concerned, but now the demo is timed to 60 minutes, unpaused. I understand now why the designer did this, but I don't know if I'll get enough out of it before it expires.
It's still got the same lovely level of automation that made me fall in love with it way back when (it handles just about as much as you want it to), and one of my favorite features, which I'd forgotten, was the ability to control the maneuvering of individual ships in combat based on the crew's ability to pilot. It's a 4X game for people who hate 4X games, but allows for all kinds of nitty-gritty decisions if you're so inclined. I find it funny that you do battle with every obstacle you find on a world you're exploring (intelligent storms on the surface of that planet? Ready fore rocket batteries, ensign!!), and I like the way it just gives you artifacts as special powers rather than their necessarily invading the tech tree or only being a certain type of thing. They add all kinds of advantages, some just for your ship, others that have global features that your whole species shares in.
It's really fun, despite being a bit overwhelming at the start. Thankfully there's a pretty useful help feature and an OK tutorial that I wish had held my hand just a bit more in places. Exploring the planets isn't terribly involved, though. I'm sort of waiting for a new 4X to deliver on the promise of actually experiencing a new world a bit more fully.
My Personal Deadly Premonition E.R. Strategy
What I've decided to do is to watch Brad and Ryan first, followed by Vinny and Jeff.
Ryan seems to be the one who appreciates the camp the most out of the four, so he's sort of my man in the field on this one. If we're to endure along with them, I think it's best to get someone who enjoys the hell out of the goofy SWERY choices. Brad may be suffering already, but despite his rep I think the guy is a skilled game player. I can tell just by the way he keeps things moving (although I wish he'd get to explore things a bit more thoroughly at times. If Ryan let the reins loose a bit the two endurance runs would feel more different).
The next day, I watch the equivalent for Vinny and Jeff. Jeff's into the camp too, and in true mirror world style he, like Ryan, has seen Twin Peaks and he, like Ryan, is not controlling the game (why can't you all alternate, what's the big deal?). He also brings different jokes to the fore, while Vinny does his little songs and wanders a bit more than Brad does, lending to a different feel. When Vinny distractedly raced around the city, that was one of my personal highlights so far.
But I don't think I would enjoy their side of things as much unless I watched Ryan and Brad's game first. Maybe it's just the novelty of that particular pairing, I dunno. I think having two separate runs, though, was a really cool idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing just how far they diverge.
I'm pretty happy, by the way, that the Deadly Premonition folks actually put the the soundtrack up for download. How often does that happen?
Finally, in the End, It's Love
I think more games should let you explore the ramifications of an AI's madness like beautiful game called Love does: Don't stress out too much this month, folks. See you all later.
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