Another rough week at work, up to my eyeballs in purchase orders and little end in sight. Honestly, it has been like this since December/January. Then when I get a little bit of rest, its up to work all again. It’s frustrating, because I can’t relax long enough to feel comfortable at a place I am going to write. At least I can say I had a good weekend even if its never long enough. All right, enough of my troubles, let us proceed directly to some happenings in my world that are actually interesting.
Happy Wars
Well, I am officially sick of this game. Yeah, I’ve said it :). I finally beat the single player missions at around level 29 (it opens up at 26), and that had to be the moment where i felt the best about playing the game. 6-1 was such a pain in the butt but after the tenth time, I got everything to fall in place. Two words: Iron Phalanx. 6-2, I finished in one try, and 6-3 took me about 5 times before I figured out what to do, but it was very easy as well.
Then this last night and morning had to be probably the worst I’ve felt about playing the game. Level 50’s running over the game, team skills getting spammed to death, never get in a rhythm until its too late. And the only thing i want to do now before moving on to something else is just finish any 3 quests and get the stupid achievement.
It’s hard to tell which quests will be achievement but I’m guessing ones like 100 wins, 1000 kills are the ones I am closest to. I would like to say 10 wins in the Coral stage, but I always end up with the worst team in that stage and we usually lose. This game is so weird, I can go from near MVP in one match to floating at the bottom in the next. 20+ kills to nearly 20 deaths, its quite uncanny. Hopefully I can move on soon and move on to more rewarding games. I know most people would just quit, but I know the end game and it does have to come soon.
Hitman Trilogy Review
So, I have had the Hitman Trilogy game for about a week now. If work was not absolutely crazy, I probably would have had a review by now. I played Hitman 2 for about 90 minutes. I loved it but the old clunky controls were indeed frustrating. Agent 47 has the grace of a clucking chicken to a beginning player. The first mission in and my final rank was the equivalent of a homicidal maniac. I killed guards, I killed delivery drivers, I killed lawyers (about the only good I did), I killed cooks. I am glad they weren’t any children or animals or they would have went down too. But somehow I completed it.
I am starting to get it and will continue to play (after I replay the first mission a couple of times). Based on the reviews, I would really like to move on to Blood Money because it sounds like that is where things finally get “right”. A balance of good controls and proper difficulty. It is not that I mind the challenge, but I also believe in rewarding gameplay. But I do want to give a good amount of time to both Hitman 2 and Contracts before moving on. I want to understand what I am doing.
However, to get there I decided to go find the strategy guides. I checked Amazon third party, but alas they wanted roughly $50 for Hitman 2 and $10 for the Contracts guide. (I’ll get to Blood Money in a minute). There was no way I was going to spend that kind of money for a guide. The most I have ever spent on a guide was roughly $20 and that was the Skyrim LE guide. Beside it being gorgeous, it was extremely worth it and has helped me immensely. Anyway, so I knew I had seen the Hitman guides at Half Price Books when I wasn’t looking of course.
The first store I went to was up on Westheimer and unfortunately it was a huge strikeout. Oddly enough, I did find a hardcover compilation of the first four books of the Myth Adventure books by Robert Aspirin. $1. I’ll take that any day. Anyway, we visited the one in Webster yesterday. Success! Yep, both the Hitman 2 and Hitman Contracts guide, both at $5 each and I had a 15% off coupon to boot. Quite successful and I’ve already spent some time reading the Hitman 2 guide and yeah I was going about it completely wrong.
As mentioned, I am still looking for a reasonable price on the Hitman Blood Money guide. I am watching an Ebay auction right now, but probably cursing myself by typing it here. Regardless of what happens in the auction, I think I got a path forward. I am not going to set a date for the Hitman Trilogy HD Review, but we’ll get it done in February.
Reading
As usual, I am reading. Whether it is a strategy guide, graphic novel or some fantasy stories, I usually am reading. For the record, I just don’t think I will ever get used to a digital book. Sure I read various articles online but long dedicated reading? A printed book will always be my choice. I picked up House of Serpents by Lisa Smedman from where else, Half Price Books. I started it this weekend and I am already around page 100. It is a tale of three books (originally issued as paperbacks) about Arvin, a human thief working in Hlondeth, a human-serpent(Yuan-Ti) town who comes into contact with the Pox, an evil organization trying to turn all humans into slaves.
The book is super-easy to read. I have good luck traditionally with Forgotten Realms books to begin with, but this one is better than most. I was not sure I would like the idea of serpent men and women or cultists suffering from a self-induced plague but Arvin makes for a great character and carries the story well. I do not see any problem with reading all three of the books contained in this volume. Maybe after that, I will even explore some of her other books. Wait, she wrote a couple of Shadowrun books. I think I know what I am reading next.
Final Word
As you can tell, there is nothing really to say about writing this week. We will try to make this week better than the previous one. At least at work, I know to find my happy place and keep working on the job in front of me. The longer I spend letting myself get stressed, the less I get actual work done. Thankfully, I have a great helper and a very good department that has some concept of the team idea. Anyway, that is it for this week, keep writing in your thoughts for me and hopefully I get some time to deliver.
Oh, the Hitman Blood Money guide auction is about to end. Let’s see here. It includes the PC Game also but I have little need for that when I have the 360 game already. Wow, that one went down to the wire. BUT I WON IT. I did not curse myself after all. Final price with shipping? ~$9. I can live with that. So, does anybody want a copy of Hitman: Blood Money for PC for the price of shipping? Until next time…I am out of here!
