It has been a solid two weeks. As you might have guessed by my last blog post, I am not in the best of mood these days. Dealing with my personal life has left me flat a bit but we know what they say about what doesn’t kill you, don’t we? “Yeah, we should have used a shovel?” Now, that’s not very nice. But highly appropriate. Well, this week’s blog is going to be a little more of what I have traditionally put up here. However, I might be lying if it did not include some random one-off comments about the inevitable. Okay, I’ll try to keep those to the minimum.
Shadowrun Returns
For those who don’t know the history on this one, I backed this game last year through Kickstarter. I am still awaiting my physical awards (which should arrive in a week or two) but they released the game through Steam as well as DRM-free copy. I went ahead with the DRM-Free copy off their website (have three steam keys I don’t know what to do with, but I’ll figure out that one eventually) and after a couple of tries (my provider is not always the best) got it to download. That was Friday, I decided to try it out on Saturday and I got through a good ninety minute session. If I have time (my time is a bit weak these days), I would love to write up a review and throw it up on here. I really do want to give this game all of the good press I can.
Anyway, the game is very reminiscent of the old SNES/Genesis Shadowrun games where we are dealing with a old school type game. Your character walks from place to place, interacts with people and objects. The combat is turned based and 100% out of the X-Com catalog. Yeah, I said X-Com as in the recent X-Com game for the 360 and formerly PC. Everything from cover shields to reloading your weapon to freaking overwatch. Heck, on some level you could say they copied the darn thing. It’s a lot of fun but it also can be frustrating.
The story is also very strong for the included campaign, I have not played with the editor yet, but I fully plan to after another couple of play sessions with what’s already there. Since I have not created anything on this level since I am thinking like Unlimited Adventures(PC)/RPG Maker (PS2), I will probably start with something ridiculously easy. “Walk to the corner, buy a soykaf and doughnut, walk back and frag your neighbor. Go to sleep, you win!” But part of the reason I am holding off on that is that I am trying to understand a couple of things that fit under the cons.
Now the game does have a couple of minuses. There is no loot in the included campaign. Sure, you can pick up items when just walking around, but you can’t gain weapons or ammunition or any other goodies from a battle. Now supposedly, you can create loot when you create your own campaign but I have a feeling there are catches to this. Also, no on the point save system. Instead the game auto-saves when you enter a new area. If you ran through 4 battles in a single area and then die in the fifth one, welp go back to the first battle. This has the potential to be hugely frustrating. This could also be worked around in the editor I believe. If it auto-saves every time you enter a new area, then have the levels be worked around frequent area manipulation. 1-2 battles at the most and then boom go somewhere else.
As you can see, I am sort of playing the game from the standpoint that the included campaign is just a building block. Is the campaign a lot of fun so far? Sure, but I am seeing the potential of this sucker in spades. I do see a few fixes on the horizon though (or some heavy modding). But this game will live and die by its community. If there are only a handful of us making scenarios then even if they are all awesome, this thing will die quicker than my first marriage. I am anxious however to see my physical goodies including my shirt and boxed copy. So far very happy with how this kickstarter is turning out.
Lego Lord of the Rings
I have officially 100% the game and the achievements. Huzzah! I kept waiting for a glitch at every turn and thankfully never walked into one. Everything went by the book, I only had to look up a few things (I could probably count them on a little over than a hand which is not too bad) and it all fell into place. Heck, as suggested on a few forums, I didn’t even have to go back to the shire to get all of the 100%. As soon as I made my last mithril piece, the blacksmith character popped, then 100%, then the Lurtz newborn (which is the last character to unlock) and I was done. Now I did go back to the Shire anyway for the end scene (since I was already in Bree), but I did not have to.
The hardest parts of the game probably had to do with some odd jumping requirements where you had to scale a building, it was quite tedious and a pain in the butt. I’m looking at you Isengard. Oh yeah, those timed races through flags too, yeah how many fragging times can I run around an area on a horse, sheep, bear, etc. The game does repeat itself on certain challenges, just moved to a different area. I guess when you have so much to do (the game probably took me around 40 hours roughly), things get repeated.
Even though I could take on Lego Batman 2 next, as with every time I play a Lego game, I am burned out on those kind of games for at least a couple of months. I want something different now but I am not sure what I want to be honest. I have thought of going back to Skyrim or maybe an adventure game or even something completely different like a racing game (like Burnout Paradise). But this actually bridges the gap into a new topic.
Games Left Behind
Arkham Asylum. Most people know that game very well and I have played some of the more difficult sequences when my wife basically just wanted to fight guys and solve Riddler puzzles. However, I have routinely jabbed her about the game off and on (nice, never mean) that she should finish the game. The problem is that she is leaving now and has no desire or time to finish it. But, I feel compelled to finish it. It’s not like it just got too hard or I could not beat the last boss. I am pretty sure I can figure it out.
Maybe what I should do is just start a new game and play through it. But a slight problem with that is that I think she has like maybe an hour of gametime to finish it. It’s the whole going through what 10-15 hours of gametime only to basically finish an hour? There is a deeper reason actually though why I want to finish up Asylum. To get to Arkham City.
Arkham City, the game of the year edition in fact has sat on my shelf for I’m guessing a year now? Unplayed. Yeah, before you blast me (because there a few dozen other unopened games you could blast me for), it mainly has to do with the fact that my wife did not finish Asylum. Heck, I just want to play Arkham City for the Robin stuff. My one chance to play one of my favorite characters in comics and I have to sit on my hands and wait it out, hoping she would finish. I have always been a kind individual and I did not want to rob her of her glory (because I know how I would feel given the same situation just reversed). But the rules kinda change when you leave them behind. Feel free to comment below about that whether you think I should start a new game, play them from her saved game and or do something else entirely.
Quick Hits
So, I have rewatched 2 of the three Lord of the Rings movies (extended edition blu-ray) with the Two Towers over this past weekend. Two things, its a shame that Legolas and Gimli did not have more adventures together and it is really amazing how close the Lego games get to the source. Being able to point out the level and the scene without even hearing a word spoken. Now I had watched the Lord of the Rings about two or three times for each movie but it had been at least 3 or 4 years since I’ve seen it last. So, I had forgotten some of it, but the instantaneous recognition is amazing. I am sort of dreading watching the third one only because I know they spend like an hour in the extended edition of doing nothing more than saying goodbye to each other. It’s ridiculous and the only part of the three movies that I dread at all.
Speaking of good movies, I do have another one to recommend and that is “The Call” with Halle Berry. It was surprisingly decent and had a few nice turns. It’s far from perfect but when you spend a majority of the movie really into it (and not just feel like a casual passer by like so many films), you know that it is a keeper. However, I do want to warn people…if you are squeamish about harm to women or don’t care for demented gore, then you might want to skip this one. It’s not completely awful (there is not any weird sex or anything), but it is pretty messed up. Let’s just say that Michael Eklund does an excellent job as a serial killer.
I also watched the remake of Miami Vice with Colin Farrell and Jaime Foxx. The only thing Miami Vice about this movie was Crockett, Tubbs, and the fact at least part of it was in Miami. Oh and somebody did do a cover of “In the Air Tonight” which was used on the show for sure. However, the time period wasn’t right (but for some reason, Crockett’s haircut was) and it just felt like another Michael Mann movie. Now that’s not a bad thing, I love Collateral, I enjoy Heat, and I even enjoyed this movie. But it is not Miami Vice except in name only, plain and simple.
A little side note on the movies, I recently acquired the two Timothy Dalton 007 Bond movies. I had those suggested to me after I bought the Daniel Craig ones and liked them quite a bit (I am a huge Daniel Craig fan). I have not watched them yet, but I did take the opportunity to create a custom blu cover for the two movies. It came out decent, it could be better but there were a couple of nice things I did with it. Is the reading audience interested in my custom blu-covers? Most of them are simple creations but I do like making some customs when appropriate. I have done a Warrior blu, Poison Ivy collection dvd (4 in 1), Hollow Man 2 blu, and a few other odds and ends. Weird stuff, but somebody might like them. I am also concerned about rights and such but I’m more than willing to give them away if desired. After all, I am not a fan of the custom cover sites out there that want to charge for something they technically do not own. I’m just doing this out of love (or guilty pleasure) for these films.
I have started to read Stranger Souls by Jak Koke, it’s another Shadowrun novel. I imagine I will fly through this one, I am already on page 112 and its only 260, 270 pages. It’s actually a trilogy and I acquired all three of the paperbacks on the cheap cheap either from Half Price Books or Amazon third party.
On to real life stuff, my wife will be officially leaving in a little over a week for good. We already have everything worked out, we just have to put it down on paper. Naturally, I really do not want to see her go. I think she is honestly making a mistake, but in the same breath I understand why she’s going. Next week I have planned to have off from work to get a few things done around the house (back door replaced, porch posts replaced, some electrical fixup, car maintenance) but I imagine part of the time will be finally coming to grips that the woman I love is going away. Possibly never to come back. Sure, I will see her on D-Day and occasionally probably to say hi but those will not be the same. Lately, I don’t even go out on the weekend, I might do some errands around town on Friday and go grocery shopping on Sunday morning (8:00am sunday morning is THE best time to grocery shop) but that’s it. I usually buy 2 or 3 cheap movies and kinda space out until I have to go to work on Monday.
That should change slowly. I am so used to her being there and we usually have something interesting to do together and I have not really replaced that yet. It might be a while, it might be a very long while.
Final Thoughts
It has not sunk in yet that I am actually taking off next week. It was originally going to be a real vacation, but that is when everything happened and so it became let’s get some rest but also let’s hire a few people to come fix my house a bit. Trust me, you really don’t want me putting in a door, replacing posts that support a porch or messing with electricity. Not a bright idea. However, I probably will be cleaning up the place and re-arranging some minor things here and there after she leaves. Mostly so I don’t think about what is going on too much. Like I said everything is already settled, it’s just the leaving that absolutely sucks. I guess I will keep myself busy, and then move on to long term goals. Yeah, like that writing thing. *sigh*, that writing thing. Until next week kids, enjoy life.
