We might not see some of you again until after the holidays, so if that’s the case, do have a Merry Christmas or a Happy-Whatever-You-Celebrate!
For some people this weekend will entail good food, good friends, and good times spent with family, but for others this weekend means something much more important: video games, of course! If you fall into that category, what do you plan on playing this weekend?
Myself, well– I’ve still been on a Paradox kick and I’m playing all sorts of EU3 and the Kaiserreich mod for Darkest Hour, but unfortunately my computer is giving me fits and making it difficult to continue with this course of action, so I’m thinking I’ll settle down with some console games. I’ve got a lot of Skyrim to play, and I’ve also fallen woefully behind on my quest to play all the Final Fantasies, so I’ve really got to catch back up with that. Especially because I’ve already got a new quest planned, and that is to play every single game I have on Steam. Seeing as I have about 160 of them and I keep adding more (Curse you Gaben and your sales!), that’s going to be even more exciting than playing the dozen or so FF games that I’ve got.
My face, should I win Steam's newest giveaway and suddenly own every single game on Steam.
I’ve had a tremendously poor Internet quality these last couple of weeks and it just kept getting worse – it took me several minutes to check my email for example – but fortunately it is fixed now so we can get back to our regular scheduling! Many thanks also to Rilgon for his excellent post yesterday, giving us a little look into a genre that Pike and myself don’t pay quite enough attention to (Largely because the genre will never equal what Treasure made in my eyes).
I have recently finished a World Conquest in the KR mod for Darkest Hour, playing as an enlightened, democratic Japan. That flung dozens of nukes around and killed tens if not hundreds of millions in her global conquest. Enlightened!
And now Pike and myself have settled down for a wonderful evening of Civilization IV, where we face the famous Confucian Egyptians, among others!
Tell us, dear readers, both what you will be playing this weekend and of your favorite alternate history situations in videogames, either as settings or ones you have yourself created!
I don’t really have a lot to report today– a particularly interesting round of Europa Universalis 3 has been eating up most of my free time– so I’m here to make one of the posts that our dear Mister Adequate usually makes around these parts and ask: what will you be playing this weekend?
As for myself, well– the Paradox bug has bit me nice and deep and I keep having to scratch the resulting itch, so I’m guessing there will continue to be a lot of EU3 and possibly some Darkest Hour as well. I’m also still slowly but surely working on Final Fantasy 2– although I keep getting sidelined from it by delicious strategy games– and there are a couple of indie games I’ve been having fun messing with, as well (The Binding of Isaac and Aquaria, in this case.)
Speaking of indie games, I’d also like to bring your attention to a new indie-bundle-type site that has popped up, called The Indie Gala. I’ve refrained from buying the package there yet– although I’m a sucker for cheap games so that may change quickly once my latest paycheck is direct deposited– but I figured I’d get the word out!
Thanks in no small part to the beneficence of Gaben, I’m currently drowning under a cavalcade of games. I’ve finished Saints Row The Third, and by finished I mean done one ending without getting close to 100% so I’ve not finished it at all (Hypershort review: Exceptional game filled with awesomeness and hilarity but what happened to the great cutscenes you did in SR2 this is a disjointed mess Volition?), there’s Skyrim, which is just stupidly huge, and now I’ve gone and picked up Star Ruler, Space Empires IV, and Portal 2, and I’m hungrily eying the new Legends expansion for Distant Worlds.
And this isn’t even counting the games I’ve not got around to yet, such as twenty years of classics that GoG insist on foisting upon me, or Arkham City for example, NOR does it count the games I have but that I’ve not yet managed to give sufficient time to like Jagged Alliance 2 or Master of Orion 2, or SMAC, though the latter is here mostly because it is literally not possible to give enough time to SMAC. I’ve still not finished Human Revolution.
Plus of course there’s all the regular stuff I play that demands time and attention; Darkest Hour, SMAC, SimCity 4, GalCiv 2, Baldur’s Gate, EU3, Vicky 2, Dorf Fort, Open TTD, Project Zomboid, the list goes on and on! Thank Talos that I’ve shaken the WoW bug for the time being.
Ouch, my wallet
Busy weekend! What about you all, do you ever get overwhelmed by all the games that need to be played? How do you deal with it? What are you playing this Thanksgiving weekend?
Finally I am taking altogether too much enjoyment in watching Notch act like a petulant child. I’m not even a fan of the Yogscast, it’s not my thing, but dang if one side in this debacle isn’t being a lot classier than the other. Which is double amusing because the classy side is a couple of lads who mess around doing silly voices and getting into vidya hi-jinx on YouTube whilst the one being an entitled imbecile has a multi-million Euro business!
Hello folks if you’re wondering where we are, well, there’s a lot of videogame to be played! Not a large number, but the ones which are there are HUGE!
First up is http://sjfiremuseum.org/members/harry-vaughn/ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which I wrote about last Friday! It’s still awesome. I’m still barely anywhere in it because there is just so much to do. I’m not sure it is possible to finish Skyrim, you just sort of reach a point where you feel that it’s enough.
Forget Tigh, Ivanova's in the game too!
Second is, of course, nebulously Saints Row The Third, which is both completely demented and completely AWESOME! I paradropped out of a helicopter into a penthouse and killed everyone until I owned the place then a helicopter chase across the city ensued and oh man you guys seriously need to play this game. Then I stole a street cleaner and pimped it right out so it reps the Row. I’m actually a little lost in this as well because it’s just SO HUGE and there is SO MUCH to do.
Also the Specialists are serious business holy crap that Deckers shock hammer is amazing.
And then there's these assholes!
What about you guys? What are y’all playing this weekend?
We do apologize for the paucity of updates this week; Pike has had various matters of consequence to attend to (more here) whilst my Internet decided to be nonfunctional for almost a full 24 hours, then I came back online and just watched Saints Row The Third trailers until I remembered we have a blog that should probably be attended to!
Honestly I’ve not been doing much special in videogaming terms lately. I’m playing Baldur’s Gate, playing Saints Row 2, and messing around with my usual array of 4x/grand strat games. There are a couple of things that might be worth relating though!
First is that I still can’t wrap my head around how great Master of Orion 2 is. I mean I’ve heard all the hype and stuff for years, and I finally got around to playing it, and it lives up to every word. It really is that good. And it has an amazing soundtrack as well!
You may or may not have heard that Sword of the Stars 2 came out this weekend, and that the release was the very definition of a clusterfuck. Kerberos not only uploaded a beta version to Steam but, once they fixed that and had a real version up… it was no better! They’re working hard on getting it up to par, and I’m sure they will given the gulf between SotS at release and SotS today, but Kerberos + Paradox making a game was a pretty amazing recipe for disaster. I think they’re trying to top that time CCP deleted everyone’s boot.ini. Kerberos' Face When
As I said I would I’ve spent some time with Hearts of Iron 3, and I can safely say it’s really not my cup of tea. I’m not a fan at all and I feel that I have given it a fair shake now; I can see what they were aiming for but it just didn’t work out that way, sadly. Oh well, it’s not like HoI2 has gone anywhere!
But we’re moving into the busy season now, so hopefully we’ll have plenty to say over the coming weeks! And of course what we’re going to talk about is old strategy games. Funny story, when Pike and me first planned this we considered making a strategy gaming blog, but considered it too limiting. And now look at us!
Oh yes, and there was the GTAV trailer, wasn’t there? I’m blown away by the graphics and San Andreas is a great setting. I’m actually not too worried if they’re taking a serious route with it; that’s a perfectly legitimate thing for them to want to do, and R* do it very well. But I have to admit, I’m more excited for Saints Row nevertheless.
(66% of consoles have 100% of the games; #OccupyMS+Ninty)
…a new episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
In which Twilight puts on her robe and wizard hat.
What’s that? There’s something video game related going on, as well? You know what, YOU’RE RIGHT! All the Grand Theft Auto games are on a massive sale on Steam and Gamersgate!
…what? Blizzard? What about a blizzard? I mean I know we’ve got snow in the forecast here in Montana, but that’s because it’s, you know, Montana.
…OH! Right. BlizzCon. That thing. Well, we all know that there’s a new WoW expansion coming up, so expect some commentary on that next week. Neither myself nor Mister Adequate is a huge WoW junkie at this point, but we both have fond memories of the game and I’m sure we’ll come up with something to say. As for me, I’m going to continue playing Final Fantasy I. I think I’m over halfway done at this point. What are you guys doing this weekend?
Okay kids, it’s that time again, when I categorically fail to come up with a post topic and so resort to something pretty mundane! What are YOU going to be playing this weekend?
Dead Island
I only use violence as a last resort
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I'd explain what these do for me, but then the blog would need the new .xxx TLD
DORF FORT You will NEVER kill this many Elves.
Suikoden V
In a game filled with waifus, she still stands out.
ALSO!!!!!
Tomorrow is the premiere of Season 2 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. So… yeah, if you thought the blog overdid it on Pony pics before now…
... then you may want to bail, because it's only going to get worse.
So what about you, dear readers? What entertainments shall be occupying your precious free time this weekend?
