Well, not much playing games today either. I wanted to finish Bioshock, nice and simple, but the god damn SecuRom software screwed me over - I had to restart the computer several times, reinstall my anti-virus program and reinstall the game. Not to mention install the patch and look up several topics on SecuRom problems on the net. Funny thing is - none of that helped, but the game worked anyway for some reason, after I gave it time. Strange stuff, I tell you.
Important thing is - I've got another review to write, but this one is probably going to be shorter than the Mass Effect one I'm preparing. After all, Bioshock is much shorter and isn't as complex.
Tomorrow may or may not be Dead Space day. I've still got to finish Red Alert 3. I also have to work on some other, non-gaming stuff.
piątek, 2 lipca 2010
Gaming Diary, Day 8/9 (30.06. / 1.07.)
No Diary yesterday or the day before that, and here's why.
On Wednesday, I was out for half the day, and later met with my friends, which means I haven't really played anything - I've only showed them the Red Alert 3 intro cinematics.
Then, yesterday, the same friends stayed around until 1pm, but I managed to show the a bit of Portal and some Mass Effect. After they left, I started finishing Mass Effect, and managed to do so before 10pm. A review is going to appear here quite soon I think, though I've also been thinking about talking about the game on-videom, but that probably won't work. I rated the game 8/10, as an enjoyable experience, but rich in some tedious moments and having a lot of small drawbacks. Plotwise, it was ok (great at times), but it smelled a lot of KOTOR, and wasn't very surprising (apart from a few twists). Ok, I have to stop, or else I'm going to write the review today, and I don't have time for that...
So yeah, Linda comes over today, so I would imagine I'm going to finish Bioshock later on. Then only Red Alert 3 remains of the "first batch". Since Linda was pretty excited about Dead Space, I'll probably uninstall Mass Effect today, and install DS to play with her.
On Wednesday, I was out for half the day, and later met with my friends, which means I haven't really played anything - I've only showed them the Red Alert 3 intro cinematics.
Then, yesterday, the same friends stayed around until 1pm, but I managed to show the a bit of Portal and some Mass Effect. After they left, I started finishing Mass Effect, and managed to do so before 10pm. A review is going to appear here quite soon I think, though I've also been thinking about talking about the game on-videom, but that probably won't work. I rated the game 8/10, as an enjoyable experience, but rich in some tedious moments and having a lot of small drawbacks. Plotwise, it was ok (great at times), but it smelled a lot of KOTOR, and wasn't very surprising (apart from a few twists). Ok, I have to stop, or else I'm going to write the review today, and I don't have time for that...
So yeah, Linda comes over today, so I would imagine I'm going to finish Bioshock later on. Then only Red Alert 3 remains of the "first batch". Since Linda was pretty excited about Dead Space, I'll probably uninstall Mass Effect today, and install DS to play with her.
wtorek, 29 czerwca 2010
Gaming Diary, Day 7
It's been a whole week since I started playing my new purchases here. The fact that I'm still playing all three of my initial picks only shows that you can't only play games all the time, and even if you can, you usually have to play a bit of this, and then a bit of that. Anyway, I was away for most of the day today, so I've only managed to play 4-5 hours of Mass Effect. I have to say, the game is growing on me - the longer I play, the more I like it. Some stuff which I thought uninspired sinked in and now I accept it without problems, but some other stuff keeps reminding me that ME is not the perfect cRPG as some people seem to think. At least not for me. As of now, I decided to write a big review of the game, so I'm not telling you yet what bugs me the most. At any rate, it is unlikely that I'm going to rate it under 8.0 on a 1-10 scale. But, unless it blows me away in the upcoming part, it's equally unlikely to receive a note higher than 9/10.
So, to recap.
I've been playing Bioshock, Mass Effect and Red Alert 3. The first one I almost finished, and given the fact I only played it for three days, I could have easily closed it up yesterday or the day before that - but my arrangement with Linda allows me to have more fun with the game, so that's alright.
Mass Effect, hard to say. I'm about 16 hours into the game, so I'm either at the half, or nearing the half - depending on how many subquests and additional stuff I've got left. I'm beginning to get tired with ME, but on the other hand it sucked me in, so I shouldn't have trouble completing it.
As for Red Alert 3, I'm nearing half of the last campaign, but I am still unsure whether or not to keep the game installed. On the one hand, I'd like to play some skirmish games. On the other, I'm not sure if the novelty is going to keep me interested for long enough. And the game does take up several Gigabytes of space on the hard drive, with some other 'space heavy' games awaiting installation...
So, to recap.
I've been playing Bioshock, Mass Effect and Red Alert 3. The first one I almost finished, and given the fact I only played it for three days, I could have easily closed it up yesterday or the day before that - but my arrangement with Linda allows me to have more fun with the game, so that's alright.
Mass Effect, hard to say. I'm about 16 hours into the game, so I'm either at the half, or nearing the half - depending on how many subquests and additional stuff I've got left. I'm beginning to get tired with ME, but on the other hand it sucked me in, so I shouldn't have trouble completing it.
As for Red Alert 3, I'm nearing half of the last campaign, but I am still unsure whether or not to keep the game installed. On the one hand, I'd like to play some skirmish games. On the other, I'm not sure if the novelty is going to keep me interested for long enough. And the game does take up several Gigabytes of space on the hard drive, with some other 'space heavy' games awaiting installation...
poniedziałek, 28 czerwca 2010
Gaming Diary, Day 6
Today passed under the sign of Bioshock. I've played around 6 or 7 hours of the game and almost reached the finale. The plot of the game is one of those where you get seemingly unrelated bits and pieces of info, after which, nearing the end, the plot tells you what's it all about and then you can see how those pieces fall together to create a whole, great, story. It's pretty rare, I only seen it done (well) in the first KOTOR, and here. Anyway, I'll finish the game on Thursday when I meet with Linda again. Next in line is Doom 3, but I'll probably take a day or two off playing shooters so I won't get bored.
Other than that, I finished two mission in Red Alert 3 just some minutes ago, after which the game crashed at the beginning of another mission. Huh. Didn't happen the first time, either - a single skirmish game I wanted to play ended the same way. I hope it's only a matter of some program upsetting the background work of the computer, and not with the game, although I don't see myself playing RA3 skirmishes to much after I finish this last campaign. I have to get to C&C3 after all.
Other than that, I finished two mission in Red Alert 3 just some minutes ago, after which the game crashed at the beginning of another mission. Huh. Didn't happen the first time, either - a single skirmish game I wanted to play ended the same way. I hope it's only a matter of some program upsetting the background work of the computer, and not with the game, although I don't see myself playing RA3 skirmishes to much after I finish this last campaign. I have to get to C&C3 after all.
niedziela, 27 czerwca 2010
Gaming Diary, Day 5
I've played some Titan Quest in the morning, while listening to new music I got - check out Omnia, it's a really nice pagan folk band.
Other than that, got through the last Allied mission in Red Alert, though it wasn't exactly easy (quite irritating in fact). Started the Empire's campaign, seems interesting, but I can't shake off the feeling that everyone in the Red Alert 3 is a raving lunatic who doesn't care how many lives the operation is going to cost, or who will die in the process. The Allies kill the president of the USA - a thing which perhaps could happen with the Soviets, but don't the Allies, like, have war trials or something, instead of just disposing of their leaders when they do something stupid (also, Hasselhoff has a cameo in the end movie, yay!)? And the Empire's first strategic attack is against a helpless Soviet village which happens to have an important port. Those great and honourable warriors attack a village on New Year's Eve... and the briefing for the mission is like "Yeah, you should totally level the town, who cares, we're superior to them, let's just get rid of everyone in our way..." Seems a bit odd, don't you think?
Anyway, haven't played anything other than that, as we played Chaos in the Old World twice and then finished off with Senji. CitOW proved once again to be an unpredictable game, and one which surprises you all the time, while Senji showed off some of it's great features, as well as some considerable flaws. A very enjoyable afternoon/evening nonetheless!
Other than that, got through the last Allied mission in Red Alert, though it wasn't exactly easy (quite irritating in fact). Started the Empire's campaign, seems interesting, but I can't shake off the feeling that everyone in the Red Alert 3 is a raving lunatic who doesn't care how many lives the operation is going to cost, or who will die in the process. The Allies kill the president of the USA - a thing which perhaps could happen with the Soviets, but don't the Allies, like, have war trials or something, instead of just disposing of their leaders when they do something stupid (also, Hasselhoff has a cameo in the end movie, yay!)? And the Empire's first strategic attack is against a helpless Soviet village which happens to have an important port. Those great and honourable warriors attack a village on New Year's Eve... and the briefing for the mission is like "Yeah, you should totally level the town, who cares, we're superior to them, let's just get rid of everyone in our way..." Seems a bit odd, don't you think?
Anyway, haven't played anything other than that, as we played Chaos in the Old World twice and then finished off with Senji. CitOW proved once again to be an unpredictable game, and one which surprises you all the time, while Senji showed off some of it's great features, as well as some considerable flaws. A very enjoyable afternoon/evening nonetheless!
sobota, 26 czerwca 2010
Gaming Diary, Day 4
Closing notes for today.
Played through most of the Allied campaign in Red Alert 3. I have the last mission (or so I think) to go through, and then it's time for the Empire. I found the writing a bit weak, as the Allied campaign is almost an exact copy of the Soviet one, plot wise. There is the additional theme of a temporary alliance between the two factions, which is nice, but besides that, most of the stuff is strangely similar... Also, according to my regular preferences, I liked the soviet strategies more, although the powerful Allied aircraft are quite a nice addition. I also like the Athena cannon a lot, but I found the Mirage tanks irritating - they don't attack automatically when ordered to hold position, which renders them pretty much useless as cover for the Athenas...
Anyway, also had my dose of Mass Effect. I'm nearing to 11 hours of play, and I'm enjoying myself quite a lot. Now that I have an understanding on how the game plays (although some things are still a bit unclear to me), and having played in this setting a while, I think I'm slowly putting aside whatever gripes I have with ME and I'm starting to see all the good stuff. Mind you, I will still have a few complaints about the game when I finish it, but I leave that for my Short Review, whenever I finish the game.
That's it for now. I'm playing Chaos in the Old World (a board game) tomorrow with my friends and Linda, but I'll definitely play some Red Alert 3 in the morning and Bioshock in the evening.
Played through most of the Allied campaign in Red Alert 3. I have the last mission (or so I think) to go through, and then it's time for the Empire. I found the writing a bit weak, as the Allied campaign is almost an exact copy of the Soviet one, plot wise. There is the additional theme of a temporary alliance between the two factions, which is nice, but besides that, most of the stuff is strangely similar... Also, according to my regular preferences, I liked the soviet strategies more, although the powerful Allied aircraft are quite a nice addition. I also like the Athena cannon a lot, but I found the Mirage tanks irritating - they don't attack automatically when ordered to hold position, which renders them pretty much useless as cover for the Athenas...
Anyway, also had my dose of Mass Effect. I'm nearing to 11 hours of play, and I'm enjoying myself quite a lot. Now that I have an understanding on how the game plays (although some things are still a bit unclear to me), and having played in this setting a while, I think I'm slowly putting aside whatever gripes I have with ME and I'm starting to see all the good stuff. Mind you, I will still have a few complaints about the game when I finish it, but I leave that for my Short Review, whenever I finish the game.
That's it for now. I'm playing Chaos in the Old World (a board game) tomorrow with my friends and Linda, but I'll definitely play some Red Alert 3 in the morning and Bioshock in the evening.
Gaming Diary, Day 3 (25.06)
I haven't updated yesterday as I was quite tired, so though this appears today, it's about Friday. A second entry will probably show up later today to sum up today's play.
Yesterday was Bioshock day. I've played through about 4 hours of the game, which I think is close to one third of the whole thing. It's great fun, and it's becoming increasingly creepy with the introduction of some enemies which are really hard to pin down. I'm playing on the easy difficulty, and it seems to me that I played on medium the first time I had the game (which was a few years ago), because it's just so much easier than how I remember it. Mind you, that doesn't bug me much because I'm into this for the story, but I would advise anyone who's had any experience at all with FPS' to play on the Medium difficulty. Easy is simply not challenging at all, even the Big Daddy's and boss fights are simple, to say the least.
I also managed to play a match of UT3, and I decided to make a blog entry which is going to be a comparison of weapons from UT, UT2004 and UT3. I'm not sure when that's going to be made, but I'm pretty sure I will have to break my "Max 15 games installed" rule to install UT and UT2004. But since that's for "science", I think I can let it slide.
Today's plan is Red Alert 3 and Mass Effect. Maybe some other additions, we'll see.
Yesterday was Bioshock day. I've played through about 4 hours of the game, which I think is close to one third of the whole thing. It's great fun, and it's becoming increasingly creepy with the introduction of some enemies which are really hard to pin down. I'm playing on the easy difficulty, and it seems to me that I played on medium the first time I had the game (which was a few years ago), because it's just so much easier than how I remember it. Mind you, that doesn't bug me much because I'm into this for the story, but I would advise anyone who's had any experience at all with FPS' to play on the Medium difficulty. Easy is simply not challenging at all, even the Big Daddy's and boss fights are simple, to say the least.
I also managed to play a match of UT3, and I decided to make a blog entry which is going to be a comparison of weapons from UT, UT2004 and UT3. I'm not sure when that's going to be made, but I'm pretty sure I will have to break my "Max 15 games installed" rule to install UT and UT2004. But since that's for "science", I think I can let it slide.
Today's plan is Red Alert 3 and Mass Effect. Maybe some other additions, we'll see.
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