Games I'm Playing (Far Cry 2) Part Deux

Well, I'm now about 60% into the game and on the second map. The game has definitely gotten harder. There are now guys with grenade launchers on their jeeps which is tough, right up until I take it away from them...

They also have guys with full on mortars, and one of these guys (with x-ray vision apparently) gave me a heck of a time driving along the road on the south side of the big lake. Eventually, I tracked him down, took his mortar and shelled the brewery, so in the end good times.

The weapon set up is still a bit strange. I can't have both a sniper rifle and an assault rifle at the same time, which complicates things, but it is still fun.

Speaking of Long Gaps

I'm a big fan of the 'Song of Ice and Fire' series from George R. R. Martin, but the fifth book (or a projected seven) has now passed the 3 year point since the publication of the fourth book.

The strange thing about this is that when the fourth book (A Feast for Crows) was being written, it was originally described as having to be split into two separate books because it had become so large.

I'm not sure what's going one, but it is kind of frustrating, because back in November of 2005, the way the author was talking about the fifth book, it sounded as though it was basically done and just needed tweaking.

At any rate, I guess the wait will be worth it? I guess I'll know when the wait ends.

Games I'm Playing (Far Cry 2)

Without question this is one of the most visually stunning games I've ever seen. I actually bought a whole new box from Dell so this would look as pretty as possible, and it does. The fire effects are exceptional, and it will be very interesting to see what could happen with engine licensees.

That said, again, like Fallout 3, the game suffers from consolization. Someone seriously needs to spend some time tweaking the PC interfaces of these games. Extremely minor things would make a big improvement in these games (Hi, could I have a NORTH arrow on my GPS?)

There have also been a lot of complaints about the respawning guard posts in the game and the complaints are totally valid (if a bit over-stated).

Ironically, this game actually seems geared toward taking things a little bit slowly. The (also) oft-complained about necessity for travel becomes much less of an annoyance if you just plan to go in and complete a mission or two (an hour or play or so) rather than try to chew off big chunks of the game.

I am very thankful that on the PC the ability to save anywhere exists and I do think the game would be much more frustrating without that. Though even there, at least one doesn't appear to be restricted to saving only when *not* on a mission (I'm looking at you GTA!)

Personally, I also love the fact that weapons jam. And if you pick up a weapon out of the dirt it's not going to be very reliable. It always annoyed me that you could run around in most games, grabbing guns off the ground and just going with them. Seriously, if the gun was just 'dropped' by a guy who was sent flying through the air courtesy of Grenade Airlines, or was just burned to death by a raging savannah fire, would his weapon work like it had just rolled off the assembly line? I don't think so. It would be nice to see more of a gradation in weapon quality, like those which received a baptism of fire being much less reliable than one that was dropped by a guy sniped from 500 yards away onto a clean platform, but that might be asking too much.

I haven't finished it yet, but so far, a pretty strong game once you get to the point of looking at the game as what it is rather than what you want it to be.

Games I'm Playing (Fallout 3)

Well, I finished Fallout 3 late last week and generally, I quite enjoyed it. The atmosphere of the game is exceptional and really has that post-apocatyptic feel.

The game is definitely a Bethesda game (good and ill) but I'm concerned about the direction that things are trending. Specifically, the consolization of their games. I have no problem with releasing games on as many platforms as possible. I believe that the more copies of a game a company sells, the more likely they are to make more games. So good games begets good games. However, it should be a point for a company to ensure that the strengths of the various platforms are exploited. This is particularily true for single-player games like Fallout 3.

1) Interface: For example, PC users should not be forced into using a crappy interface, simply because they need to suffer along with their console-playing counterparts. I have a keyboard with 100+ keys on it! Don't give me an interface that thinks I only have 8. Have one of the programmers spend an afternoon setting up a proper interface that makes use of the buttons that I have.

2) Inventory: Don't treat me like I have no screen real estate. I have it, I want to use it. How about showing me the condition of an item without me having to click on it. How about showing me the weight of an item without me having to click on it. How about allowing me to see if an item is bound to a key without me having to click on it. Do you see a pattern here?

3) Text: Why can I only have three lines of text on my screen? Shrink it, seriously.

Beyond these sorts of complaints is also the actual main quest. I'm afraid it blows. Really, not at all up to snuff. Setting aside continuity errors (watch the Colonel...), it really doesn't end with a bang, but with a whimper. It felt rushed and half-completed.

Overall I did enjoy it, as I said, but it's disappointing because it could have been so much more.

Games I'm Playing (Left 4 Dead)

So far, I've only played the demo. The full game will release on the 18th of November.

I'm going to go with a reserved "Not blown away." And I confess a weakness for things zombie. Maybe I haven't given it it's full chance (and it is a demo, so almost certainly true), but it's not quite what I was looking for, still quite arcade-y and I was hoping for something a little more 'realistic'.

For example, I've never felt that I was desparate for ammo, never to the point where I felt I needed to conserve. I just blaze away and never even feel like I'm close to running out. I wonder if the Dungeon Master function of the full version will help with this?

Also, the game feels extremely linear. Yes, yes, it 'plays differently every time', but I haven't seen a single indication that there are alternate routes to get to the end of the level. Time will tell, and I'll try and give it a fair shake.

Another long gap

The gaps between posts are now equivalent to the gestation time of a new child... I'll have to see if I can do something about that. I'll try and make a post a day and see how that goes, I'll also probably cheat and write the posts and not put them up so that I can write in boluses (boli?)

Nina is indeed walking and has been for oh... about five months. I took her to get some vaccinations today and she was not happy about it. She is generally a trooper though and was quite happy to see a dog through the window of the doctor's office.

Wow, that was a long gap

The baby is now over nine months old and just adorable. She can crawl and loves the mobility. She moves very quickly now to, and gets her whole body into it. She'll now follow M and I around the house (and so does the dog) so we get to have a little entourage as we move around.

She loves to stand up next to things and will probably be walking sooner rather than later.