Gaming Diary, Day 2

Right, here's my update before going to sleep.

I've played a bit of Portal today, got to about the 11th or 12th stage (where it starts to get more tricky). About the game itself, I'll keep it short. If you haven't played it, do so ASAP. This is one of the best experiences I had in my history of playing games. I finished the game a while back, and got it for free via Steam. You can't do that anymore, but if you happen to find Portal somewhere, do yourself a favour and buy it.

Then I finished the Red Alert 3 Soviet campaign and started the Allied campaign (finished the first mission). The acting hasn't improved much, the plot was ok I guess, and there was some innovation with the missions. What really made my gears work was seeing my co-commander at work. The visual of RA3 are not stunning (quality wise, they are, but I've seen less detailed graphics which left more of an impression, see Supreme Commander), but some scenes are just so much fun to watch it's unbelievable. Pirotechnics are top notch, and I'm beginning to get the hang of how the game ticks. One gripe is that the campaign missions are not very long, but that's also how Red Alert 2 felt at times, so nothing too serious.

I've also played 5 hours of Mass Effect. Apart from the uninspired alien races (stereotypes seen in Star Wars, but with less flavour I would argue - more like a mix between SW and Unreal 2, which was pretty bland) the stereotypical characters (typical of BioWare games), and an overly complicated system (I still don't get some stuff, it's easy to feel lost), things are interesting. Being the "last hope a.k.a. defender of the universe" for the 100th time doesn't help much, but I can cope. Mind you, the game is not as addicting for me as KOTOR was, in fact it has yet to surpass that game in my mind, but I think it's partly due to the fact that I'm not that much drawn to cRPG's anymore. I enjoy the tactical fights though. All in all, this is a good experience, but not as good as I was told it is. At least not yet.

Linda's coming by tomorrow, so I suppose I'll be installing Bioshock (she asked me to wait for her before I start playing). Other than that, I may be able to play a mission or two of RA3, but I'm out and about for most of the day, so I won't be playing as much.