Today I was out, and I came across a rack of cheap, $1 DVDs labeled “Christmas Fireplace”. The concept’s not unknown to me; basically, it’s just two hours of a camera focused on a fireplace. I didn’t buy one, thinking I had no need for it…
…and then, when I got home, I saw that one of the newest additions to the Xbox Marketplace was a $5 applet called, appropriately enough, “Fireplace” that does the exact same thing, only worse: it’s only five minutes looping. I did not buy that, either.
Of course now I want to go back and get the $1 DVD. What does that say about me, I wonder?
Had a blast at the concert last night; little short but then again it was still worth it. Not much else to say except that Bang Camaro sure know how to put on a show. I don’t think I’ll be willing to miss them the next time they swing by Pittsburgh, whenever that may be.
When I reviewed the original Meteos way, WAY back in 2005, I said that it was quite possibly the DS’s first killer app. It was a clever and inventive puzzle game that used the stylus controls to great effect. It still is a good game, but in transitioning to the big screen and a traditional controller, Meteos Wars loses a great deal of its charm. The core game itself is unchanged: match three blocks vertically or horizontally to launch them skyward and assault your opponents. In concessions to the drawbacks of the controls change, the action is a tad slower and a bit more lopsided (in that stacking blocks to the ceiling can sneak up on you and trigger a loss before you can react to it at all). Overall I think it’s a good try at the game, but unfortunately it’s just not suited for traditional controls. If you don’t have a DS you might be able to enjoy it, but try the demo first for an hour or so. If you do have a DS, hunt down a copy of the original (or if you absolutely can’t find that, the Disney edition works in a pinch too)– it’s worth the extra outlay of cash.
I honestly have nothing terribly good to say about PowerUp Forever. It’s a good try at being a frantic shooter along the lines of Super Stardust or Geometry Wars, but the rules for the special weapons are unclear and unintuitive, and it’s just painfully generic otherwise. Shooter fans should give this a look at least to see if they can figure out what differentiates it from the aforementioned games, but I think I can safely skip this one, too.
So I’m back in Pittsburgh. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving… Really, I’d have more to say but right now I’m just a little tired. The weekend was good, with a few hiccups, but I’m ready for bed already. Oh, and for the record, I did hit my 50K goal for NaNo on Saturday night, so there’s that– I’ll probably spend the rest of the week finishing up the last four chapters before I get even more distracted by Chrono Trigger. I swear, that game is so good it’s bad for me. Anyway, catch you all… eventually. Oh, I have game and anime reports due on the LJ at some point this week… so I suppose I’ll see you there.
(Doing something new, folks: any time a demo strikes my fancy, I’ll write up impressions here. I’ve done it enough for other demos, might as well give it a formal name. Anyway, enjoy.)
RPGamer broke the news about the Neverland Card Battles demo today, and it was almost as an afterthought that I gave it a spin. I kinda wish I hadn’t, though; while the game’s mechanics are sound, and a bit more intuitive than Culdcept’s, the execution is quite a bit lacking– due mostly to the utter uselessness of the online help and the excruciating sound effects. I skipped over the story under the impression that I wouldn’t want it spoiled for me; and I’m not about to go back to find out what I missed.
The game’s mechanism for obtaining mana is based on the number of squares on the playfield colored in with your color; you color squares by walking over them with your units. This brings a strategic element to the combat– or at least that’s the intent. Instead it makes the game entirely a turn-based strategy game hamstrung by a patently ridiculous and severely broken card deployment mechanism. Whereas Culdcept had you winning based on an accumulation of points, NCB requires you to annihilate your opponent’s Dominator unit to win. It’s broken because the enemy can just sit back and flood the field with cheap monsters which you have to hack through agonizing square by square. The only thing stopping you from doing the same is that you will always get crappy cards.
Ordinarily I would give the game the benefit of the doubt given that a demo, without the ability to customize the deck, isn’t a fair assessment of a game like this; but the problem is that I see just so much wrong with this game that I am grateful I had the chance to try it before wasting money or more time on it. The only thing this has produced, really, has been the name for a new feature on the site, and a desire to fire up Culdcept once the writing is done.
I don’t want to obsess over this too much since there’s nothing more that I can do, so I promise you that this is the last you’ll hear about the mouse. Until the situation changes. Or the little bastard shows his face again. Yeah.
Beyond that, the novel writing continued fairly well– I’m only half a chapter behind where I wanted to be (after schedule slip), and I’m sure I can pick up the slack over this week. I was worried that I was going to hurt my hands more, but using the wrist brace helped tremendously to a point where I don’t think I’m going to have any trouble tomorrow. So there’s that.
And yeah. I like Burnout Paradise. I was going to write up a lot about it but I figure that it would mostly just be preaching to the choir right now. A choir of screeching tires, shattering glass, and squealing twisted metal. Fun fun crashy.
Catch you folks tomorrow. Maybe. Don’t count on daily updates just yet, but I’m trying to get back into that habit, I really am.
I had a post for this morning about Burnout Paradise. Then the mouse in my apartment introduced himself. Needless to say I’m not in a good mood right now…
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I’m back to my usual boring existence of writing and not doing much else. So we’re back to boring blog entries for the time being. Deal with it.
