Hello, fellow Bombers. I have an admission to make. I have a problem. I am an addict. I am addicted... to buying games on Steam.
 
I'm sure I'm not the only person suffering from this horrible affliction. I am one of many. The unfortunate thing is that many people who have this problem don't know it until it's too late. This morning I woke up and decided to check my bank statements online, and boy was I surprised when I looked at my credit card balance. My wallet is starting to hurt from all these downloadable games on Steam and XBOX Live. 
 
In the past week or so of Steam Sale shopping, I've bought a few games, but the two that I'm most excited about are Dragon Age: Origins (Deluxe Edition, including the expansion Awakening) and Red Faction Guerrilla. Add these atop the already long list of other downloadable games I've yet to complete (including Perfect Dark XBLA, 'Splosion Man, Left 4 Dead 2 PC, Torchlight PC), and I've accrued a lot of downloads to play through.
 
Let me start with Dragon Age. I'm in love with it. When it first came out, I never really had any interest in it. I suppose Mass Effect 2 had me completely enthralled (and still does every few days) at the time. But last week I saw it on sale on Steam bundled with the expansion for around $56, and I couldn't help myself. I've been playing non-stop for the past few days. I've got a level six elven rogue. I've also thought about starting again to try an archer or mage class, and also to see one of the other starting stories. I think one of the reasons I love Dragon Age so much is because I love the Knights of the Old Republic games so much, and this is basically the same game in a different setting. I especially enjoy the conversations in Dragon Age, because they've gotten rid of the clunky Good/Evil dialogue choice system. It's still fairly obvious which response is the encouraging one and which is the violent one, but it makes it easier to explore a less black and white morality for the character. I've been playing on Normal difficulty, and I find some battles really easy, and some brutally hard. But I suppose I just need to pay better attention and work on my micromanaging a bit more.
 
The only thing I can say bad about the game is that my laptop can only run it well on low settings. I suppose this also adds to the difficulty when the FPS drops during large skirmishes. The game still looks good enough that the quality isn't distracting, but I'm sure the game looks brilliant on a more powerful machine. This leads me to my next project: getting the desktop back up and running. Since I bought this laptop, I've left my tower at home, simply because this thing has a better graphics card. Now that my laptop can't really keep up anymore, it's time to seek new options. Another reason why I haven't used my tower is because it got a virus and my OS died. So if I can re-install XP on it and get it up and running, I'd consider upgrading the graphics card. Right now, that thing has an ATI Radeon X1600 in it, which was excellent back in the day, but I'm not sure how it'll stand up right now. I could run WoW at max settings though, so I should be able to run Dragon Age at a similar setting. I also know it already has more RAM. P.S. I haven't started Red Faction Guerrilla yet, but I did get as far as watching the opening cinematic. I had to leave as soon as control was handed to me, but from what I saw in the opening cinematic, I'm pretty damn excited. It also looks like it'll run pretty well on my laptop.
 
I've also been spending quite a bit of time on my 360 as well. As I mentioned, I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect 2. I beat it first on my imported Vanguard on Veteran. Now I'm playing through it on Hardcore with an Infiltrator. I'm actually finding it a lot easier though the difficulty is harder. The Operative skill that slows down time when you scope in on a sniper is so key. Get yourself a +10% headshot damage visor from Omega, and you're set. The other disc I've been swapping with that is my Red Dead Redemption disc. But I've already spent an entire blog post talking about that game... not that I couldn't talk more. That game's gooooood.
 
Last (I hope), but not least, me and my good friend and fellow GiantBomber Scheds have been playing through The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena together. We're about 5 or so hours into it, and I really like it so far. I'm a huge fan of the Riddick universe and I think that's where Vin Diesel fits best.
 
Okay, I lied. One more thing. World Cup. I've been going football crazy for the past month, and right now I'm watching the Netherlands/Uruguay game. What a first half! Van Bronckhorst's early goal is definitely the strike of the tournament. A close second goes to Maicon in Brasil's first game. I'm cheering for Uruguay in this one. Netherlands definitely deserves to win the Cup once, but they knocked out Brasil so I refuse to support them this time. There's a cool article on Fifa's website talking about their luck so far, and I definitely agree (actually, it seems that article has been taken down. I can't seem to find it. Curious...) They were definitely an even match for the Selection, but it wasn't a very good win.
 
 
 
I need to stop talking about games and start actually playing some.
 
 
Thanks to anybody who read all that.
Lungford out.