~Le Geek, C'Est Chic~

So it’s that time of week again where, because of my New Year’s Resolution, I am inclined to write a blog to keep you up to date with the fascinating playground that is my life. It was an excellent idea in theory, and yes, in most weeks of my life there is generally something exciting or existential to talk about that Friends, Romans or even Countrymen may be interested in.
But not really this week.

So instead I am going to release my inner geek and talk about computer games. After all, it’s what I spend most of my time doing when I’m not reading books, painting, writing my own book, or having career/relationship crises.

I have no issues with geeks/nerds. As far as I’m concerned, many of them are very cool. I’m one of the cool ones. Not one of the weird ones that believe themselves to be Lord Drakulownzor of Clan Urmom. Though now I’ve made that name up on the spot, I wonder if I shouldn’t use it in some game or other as some kind of ironic, post-modernist statement.

I digress.

I currently have a small stockpile of games next to the PC. Some of the boxes are closed, indicating they are not played as often as the open cases. Here is a list of open and closed boxes.

Closed Boxes

1) Lord of the Rings Online: I like LotRO in many ways. It is rather pretty, has a decent enough game system, and features the /smoke emote and a full on musical instrument system which earn it bonus geek points. I bought it way back at release, played it for a month or so, but never quite got into it. While I am a Tolkien fan, I’m not a fanboy, and I just didn’t quite find the game accessible enough, even though it took a lot from WoW. I installed it again recently to give it another go, but once again I just can’t quite take to it. The box will stay closed, and I’ll probably uninstall it soon.

2) American McGee’s Alice: I think I talked about this in a previous blog in one context, but I fancied giving the game ago as I never did finish it, or even get very far. Sadly it runs like crap on my PC, as it’s a pretty old game and requires much less sophisticated technology. I may blitz my way through it with some console commands at some point in time, just to see the plot through to the end, but until then, the box stays closed.

3) Gears of War: Not entirely sure *why* this box is even down here. I’ve finished the game, and have little interest in the multiplayer aspect. Will stick it on one of my Shelves o’ Games upstairs shortly.

4) Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: I got this cheap in a sale in GAME. I’ve not even opened the box yet. I may never play it, actually, now I have CoD4. Still, it cost me under a tenner. Box stays closed.

5) Crysis: I was really enthusiastic about Crysis after playing through the demo. Unfortunately the full game couldn’t quite hold my attention, and the copy protection on the disc almost screwed up my PC. The disc now won’t read, and I can’t quite be bothered to exchange it. I have a NoCD patch for the .exe, but just haven’t quite bothered to boot it up when I have so many better “open box” options next to me.

6) Dawn of War: I bought this in Macclesfield when I visited Tom & Rick. It’s a good game. Very pretty. Lots of strategy. Started playing through the Necron campaign, but I’ve never been very good at strat games, so haven’t really played it in a while. I’ll go back to it though, as I *do* love the Necrons.

7) Call of Duty 4: Ummm… the box is only closed ‘cos the multiplayer doesn’t need the disc in the drive. Not really played the single player much. In fact, I’ve only played it once.

Open Boxes

Some of these don’t actually have boxes. This should be more a “Games Wot I Is Playin’” section I guess. Deal with my eccentricities!

1) Call of Duty 4 (Multiplayer): Rick, bless his little cotton socks, demanded that I play CoD4, despite my general moanings about me being awful at FPS games (and most games, but shush!) to the extent that he sent me his spare copy. And yes, I suck at CoD4 multiplayer. Slowing working my work up the ranks, getting shot an awful lot, but generally enjoying it, though it can be frustrating at times as I’m not exactly Mr Twitch Reactions and sometimes I can’t tell friends from enemies >_< But it’s fairly deep for a multiplayer FPS game so I expect to get some use out of it.

2) Assassin’s Creed: Been looking forwards to this little gem since they released it on the XBOX360 and PS3. I must confess that Spence has had the game much less time than I have, and yet is considerably further on. I’ve just been exploring and collecting flags and assassinating random members of the public for shits and giggles. The pace is a tad slower than Prince of Persia, from which it takes a liberal dose of free-running inspiration, but it has a strong plot so far, and I’m looking forwards to where it ends up, even if it is a horrible system hog that I can’t do owt else on the PC while running it.

3) Age of Conan (Open Beta): Must admit, I know about as much about Robert E. Howard’s “Conan” books as the average movie-goer who has seen the Arnie film versions (which I am reliably informed are about as accurate to the books as “Gladiator” is to historical fact — repeater crossbows my ass! Anyways!) So when Spence informed me that there was going to be a Conan MMORPG, and what’s more that I *HAD* to get onto the Beta so he could come round my house and play it, I got interested. After all, Spence is a busy busy PhD man, and little in the world of MMOs gets his blood pumping anymore. So anyways, I did finally get into a beta of it, and I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen so far, despite the glaring bugs and slightly dodgy animation in places. Hopefully it’ll all be ironed out for release. I’ll likely buy it and give it a month, as it’s a considerable change of pace and tone from WoW, which is a good thing.

4) Another MMO beta: That is currently under a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so I’m not allowed to talk about it. ~_~;

5) World of Warcraft: Yes, I’m still playing it. With six characters at the level cap now, but with absolutely zero desire (well okay, maybe 5% desire) to level another one, I’m starting to run out of things to do these days. WoW’s pvp system has never really grabbed me, and I don’t do 25-man raiding anymore as it’s a huge time hog and it’s not even particularly fun. I play it for the fun stuff I do sometimes get to do with the guild, as well as just generally “socialising”, as much as any online interaction can earn that monicker.

So yeah. That’s my gaming life (and, arguably, foreseeable future) in a nutshell. The only change I am thinking of making to the Open Box list is Mario Kart for the Wii, which for some reason was sold out across our local shopping centre when I asked my sis to buy it for me (I gave her the money, don’t look at me like that!) the other day. Odd. Apart from that, I don’t *think* there’s anything I’m likely to want to spend my money on any time soon.

Le Geek, c’est Chic

~J