Nostalgia

You've gotta love it... prompted by a conversation with a friend earlier today, I took a look at my old blog. The last entry was back in May last year and was talking about the Boogie Knights (my EQ2 guild) and it being a small, friendly bunch... well it's funny how things change. Small no more! We are now the 5th largest guild on the sever and seem to be growing every week. Although the open invite policy has been tweaked a little, we are still a bunch of friendly so-and-so's so my previous offer still stands... should you find yourself wandering the wastes of MMO land and looking for somewhere to settle, pop into EQ2 on the Splitpaw server and send me a /tell. We're still mad... but happily so.

Crysis? Yeah, but only if you're quick.

I knew it would happen... despite my love for Hellgate, my fling with it was cut tragically short (though I will return... one day soon) by the arrival of an entirely different beast. That's right, the behemoth that is Crysis arrived at the end of last week, was installed and then completed by Saturday morning.

Eh?

Yup... fraid so. It is very short for such a big title... though I'm not sure it was such a bad thing. Let me throw your mind (carefully) back to Far Cry... a fantastic game, to be sure, ruined by the last few levels and, if what I've read in the gaming press is to be believed, lots of people just didn't bother completing it. So, to be fair to Crytek, they have made the game shorter and by doing so have avoided repeating themselves to much and kept the alien section of the game relatively 'lite'. Of course, for people like me that did play Far Cry through to the end there is a simple solution... start Crysis again on a harder level. Having started (as you do) on 'Normal' level, I am now in the process of playing through on 'Delta' level (I decided to skip the 'Hard' level setting and go straight for the higher level to ensure I got a decent challenge).

At least I would be... if I hadn't finally received my copy of Rise of Kunark (no thanks to Play.com delaying my order despite having ordered it a month ago). The new expansion seems, so far, fantastic. The areas are more open and larger, they have moved the emphasis back to questing for XP (which I love) rather than the constant slaughter of ever spawning monsters. No doubt there will be a future post on the joys (or horrors) of RoK once I've spent more time adventuring and less time 'grinding' my Sage up the levels to be able to supply my guildies with the spells they require... till then.

Enjoy!

Hell YES!

So... installed and working (no thanks to M$)... IT ROCKS!

Don't expect to get much in the way of coherent communication out of me for a little while.

Mine you... that said, it is CRYSIS DAY today! But I'm not too worried... my copy won't be arriving for a little while yet.

I am, however, more than a little annoyed about the latest EQ2 expansion, Rise of Kunark. Despite the fact it was released on Tuesday, my boxed copy has still not arrived from Play.com which means that, thanks to Play, I have no chance of getting any new server discoveries and I can't join any groups or raids that are adventuring in the new zones (which is pretty much everyone).

Ah well... I'll just have to 'make do' with yet more time on Hellgate :P

!£%^$&*£%*(@ Micosoft!

So... I final receive my copy of Hellgate (thanks C-man... you're a star as always)... and (in my usual post-work tradition where new games are concerned) I get in, turn on my PC and start the game installing. Rather than sit there and watch the veeeery length (and quite boring) installation process, I create my online account and then wander off to do something else... cup of tea, get changed, check what's on TV etc...


When I come back, my PC is at the login prompt... puzzling. A quick check of the logs and it turns out that a Microsoft update has decided to reboot my PC... IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HELLGATE INSTALLATION!

(if I was in the habit of swearing in my blog, I would insert some REALLY quite offensive words about Microsoft here)

What kind of half-arse, monkey-brained, marshmallow-head forces an update to re-boot your machine in the middle of an installation?!? It's not even hard to detect... is the installer running? Yes... therefore I shouldn't reboot. Duh.

So now I've got to uninstall and re-install the software... both very lengthy processes wasting yet another hour of my evening! Thanks a bunch Billy... may your Mother's armpits be infested with the fleas of a thousand camels!

Ok... chill pill taken... I'm off to watch my PC intently for the next 30 minutes in-case they try to something else equally exasperating.

In other news...

I'd just like to say 'Congratulations' to my little sister and her new husband Anthony (aka Troy) who got married last Saturday (27th October). Well done little sis... and good luck Troy :P

Where to begin?!?

I installed 'The Orange Box' last night...

...and then proceeded to play Portal almost non-stop for several hours!

Crazy, crazy game and I love it. Now I've just got to resist the lure of TF2 long enough to finish HL2 Episode 2! There is, (un)fortunately yet another imminent distraction.... HELLGATE LONDON WAS RELEASED TODAY!



It hasn't got the best reviews in the PC gaming press but I've played the demo and I love it... it's Diablo, in 3D, in London... what's not to love!

There is, however, yet another problem... Crysis!

Having played the single player in glorious DirectX10 I can safely say it rocks! The DirectX9 version is great... but the DX10 version blows it away! At last, someone is releasing a game that may, just, prove that DirectX10 has some worth... nice one Crytek/EA. Mind you... was there ever any doubt :P

And, as if dealing with that little lot wasn't enough (I'm deliberately ignoring loads of the other AAA titles... they're on my wish list and I'll deal with them after Christmas :P), the new Everquest 2 expansion is released this month... I may have to quit work just to keep up!

So if you don't hear from me for a while... you know why!

Enjoy!