Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Yeah yeah, I know… it hasn’t been six months, blah blah blah.

Whatever.

Games: In the “all that & a bag of chips” department, Culdcept Saga is indeed every bit as an awesome as I had hoped. I’m still in the very early stages, but I just completed Coliseum Three and I’m undefeated (so far, anyway… we’ll see how long that lasts.)


Effectively, this is the exact same game that was released on PS2 way back in ’03, but since I gave that version a 9.5 and called it nearly perfect, I’m not complaining. The only reason I held back that extra .5 was because it didn’t have online multiplayer, which is an issue that the Xbox 360 handily solves. However, although I haven’t checked it out for myself, I’ve heard that it’s not possible to trade cards with friends online… if it proves to be true, that will be a bit of a bummer.

…Probably bummer enough to keep it from earning that same .5 again, but we’ll see.

In other news, it was announced recently that my top game of 2007, Mass Effect, will have an all-new adventure available for download via Microsoft’s Live network. Allegedly titled “Bring Down the Sky”, this new segment will be approximately 2 hours long and sell for about 400 points if the information I heard was correct. Couldn’t be more excited.

SIFT2: Everything was put completely on hiatus while the mother-in-law was here, but we dropped her off at the airport today and I’ll have about five weeks (give or take) of relatively uninterrupted daily routine.

(::knocks on wood::)

I’m planning to get back on track and start moving full steam ahead starting tomorrow, probably.

Books: Finished the Nymphos of Rocky Flats and was completely unimpressed. I don’t mean any disrespect towards the author, Mario Acevedo, but there were a number of issues I had with the book and to be perfectly frank, I’m a little bit surprised that certain aspects weren’t tightened up or polished.

For example, the “rules” of vampirism weren’t handled consistently to my satisfaction, and the main character who is supposed to be a private detective pretty much bumbles his way through the events of the book, and I don’t mean that in a “sly fox” Columbo-ish sort of way… I mean "bumbles" as in inept and nonsensical.

There were a few other things that dissatisfied like certain thin characterizations and weak justifications for some events, but I’m not going to go into full nitpick mode. It may sound obscenely egotistical of me to say this, but books like Nymphos are the sort of thing that gives me hope. My own work is far from perfect, but if books like this one (and hundreds more which aren’t even as good as this) get published, then so can I.

HeroScape: My Soulborg-themed army was no match for Gina's Irregulars. The wife kicked my ass again. Twice… and I love her for it. (By the way, this is SO not a picture of us, but it gives you an idea of what our current 'Scape map looks like.)

And now… Back to ‘Cepting.