Ugh… So such to write about. First an apology to my faithful readers, I have not abandoned you and I now return to you like a victorious crusader on his homeward journey. As you can guess, my laborious duties take much of my free time and I pass these “savings” on to you. I know, it’s a cruel world.
I miss my family and my friends, and even though I’m making new friends here, I can’t really make new family. Well, I guess I could, but my mom would probably have a heart attack if I told her she was going to be a grandmother. The apartment is coming along very nicely, though we still have tons and tons of boxes. 70+ boxes came in. Most of them have been cleaned out but there’s still quite a few. My goal is to make the apartment look very well lived in by Thanksgiving when my brother will hopefully come to visit. That is something I’m very much looking forward to. I miss that jerk.
This Halloween I’m going to a friend’s costume party, I’ll be dressed as the daring Lupin III and Rachel will be the ravishing Lulu from Final Fantasy X, yes I tried to stop her, but I am a weak, weak man. I’ll take picture and post them (yeah, you’ve heard that before, wanna fight about it?)
On a personal level, I’ve started programming again, woo hoo! I’ve been tackling a map editor for my tile based engine and since I’m using C# at work, decided to beef up my skill by making it in C#… I’ve been converted. Wow. Not knowing the language or it’s nuances I’ve made a functional (but not yet complete) editor in 24 hours. It would have taken me three or four times that using C++. I’m simply amazed. My bro and I have big plans when this all comes together, he just doesn’t know it yet. Marco, if you are reading this “Next time I slap you, you will take it and you will like it!”
If you play City of Heroes, you can sometimes find me as Dr. MacCormick and Outcast Chiller on the Virtue server or Steam Knight and Berreck on the Liberty server. The game rocks, get it.
I finally played the demo of Doom 3, and I was damn disappointed. Graphics aside, the gameplay blows. For the love of all that’s holy, IS THERE NO FREAKING DUCT TAPE ANYWHERE ON THAT GOD FORSAKEN PLANET? You can hold a gun, or your flashlight, but not both. No flashlight, no seeing anything. Maybe that’s how they beef up the framerate. You can and should play the game walking backwards, that way you will never be taken by surprise. It seems that randomly spawning monsters behind you makes a game scary and unpredictable. Yeah, maybe the fist 800 times. But when everything spawns behind you it gets old. Probably the wisest thing I’ve ever heard online is: Doom 3’s a great engine, can’t wait until someone makes a game with it.
I’ve also played the Prince of Persia: Warrior Within demo. Being a huge fan of Sands of Time, I was titillated to find out a new installment was not only in the works but is coming out soonish. Based on what I’ve seen, don’t get the game on the PC. Jumping Jesus on a pogostick! The game is beautiful but the PC gameplay is horrendous. I’ll definitely get it on Xbox or PS2. This game has no business being on a PC unless it’s a ploy to get you to buy a console system.
More games! Woo! The Bard’s Tale remake is out and it’s most excellent. It has many many songs, most of the them catchy, lots of bawdy humor, biting sarcasm, lots of things to explore, Cary Elwes as the voice of the main character… I don’t know where to begin. It’s just a really good game. It uses the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance engine and it is top notch. For some reason they allow you jump even though it’s not required anywhere and boy, you jump like gimp. I mean a leprous, legless gimp with scurvy that has been keelhauled three times but refuses to die instead hanging to a dreary life with his last shred of poisonous spite. So, if you don’t press the jump key, the game is near perfect. It even has dementedly evil Oompa Loompas that sing for you! Get the game; you can thank me later with generous PayPal donations.
Trust me when I say I could have made a post for each of these paragraphs, but I decided that the Reader’s Digest version was a much better idea 
Until next time…