I realise I haven't posted on my blog in ages, so I thought I would take the plunge and write something!
There are a few things I would like to get up over the next couple of weeks... I've got some a new games I want to post up my thoughts on, including a board game I've been playing recently. I'd also like to put up my experiences (brief through they are) of running a Roleplaying Game on Google Wave and maybe offer some tips to anyone else thinking of doing the same.
Friday, 23 April 2010
Friday, 1 January 2010
More X-COM
First things first, I managed to limit myself to only a further two games on Steam: Medieval: Total War and Street Fighter IV. No more. Honest.
I played a bit more X-COM: UFO Defense over the past couple of days. The game is just as good as I remember it... For anyone who's not played it, it's a turn based, squad level strategy game. You spend a lot of the game looking at a view of the planet (the Geoscape), managing bases and budgets, manufacturing weapons for your troops, attacking UFOs wth your fighter jets, all that jazz.
When a detected UFO lands or you manage to force one to crash, you can intercept it with your troop transporter and the game switches to an isometric turn-based form. Here, you stomp your troops about killing aliens (or, more likely, have aliens kill your troops).
There are a bunch of nice touches in the game; for instance, you have to keep your funding countries happy or they withdraw funding from the project and, if you don't monitor the skies above their countries, they may eventually be infiltrated by alien spies and sign a pact with the invaders. In fact, advanced scanners can reveal what mission a UFO is on before you attack it; terror ships land in civilian population centres and scare the bejesus out of everyone, scout ships look for your bases so the aliens can attack you directly and supply ships resupply secret alien bases (so they can be followed to locate those bases or simply ambushed to replenish your stocks).
The other thing that works well is how you research alien technology. Just about all of the alien artefacts in the game can be researched and put to use against their inventors. While you feel completely outmatched in the early stages of the game (especially as your troops' standard armour only provides minimal project against a violent sneeze directed against you), you eventually learn to use the alien weapons and armours and even combine alien and earth technologies to make your own spacecraft.
Anyway, my favourite part of the game is its atmosphere. The music still sends shivers down my spine, and heightens the tension you feel while waiting for your turn; the game only shows you aliens that are visible to at least one of your troops, so you often spend the alien turn staring at a screen saying 'HIDDEN MOVEMENT', listening to doors slamming around the map, desparately trying to work out where the aliens are hiding. I maintain that UFO Defense and its sequel Terror from the Deep are pretty much the only scary strategy games (and turn-based strategy, at that) ever made. I would even go so far as to say they would rank quite high on my list of Scariest Games of All Time.
Right, I'll be back to write more about my new games when I get back home to my PC. Hope everyone had a happy new year!
I played a bit more X-COM: UFO Defense over the past couple of days. The game is just as good as I remember it... For anyone who's not played it, it's a turn based, squad level strategy game. You spend a lot of the game looking at a view of the planet (the Geoscape), managing bases and budgets, manufacturing weapons for your troops, attacking UFOs wth your fighter jets, all that jazz.
When a detected UFO lands or you manage to force one to crash, you can intercept it with your troop transporter and the game switches to an isometric turn-based form. Here, you stomp your troops about killing aliens (or, more likely, have aliens kill your troops).
There are a bunch of nice touches in the game; for instance, you have to keep your funding countries happy or they withdraw funding from the project and, if you don't monitor the skies above their countries, they may eventually be infiltrated by alien spies and sign a pact with the invaders. In fact, advanced scanners can reveal what mission a UFO is on before you attack it; terror ships land in civilian population centres and scare the bejesus out of everyone, scout ships look for your bases so the aliens can attack you directly and supply ships resupply secret alien bases (so they can be followed to locate those bases or simply ambushed to replenish your stocks).
The other thing that works well is how you research alien technology. Just about all of the alien artefacts in the game can be researched and put to use against their inventors. While you feel completely outmatched in the early stages of the game (especially as your troops' standard armour only provides minimal project against a violent sneeze directed against you), you eventually learn to use the alien weapons and armours and even combine alien and earth technologies to make your own spacecraft.
Anyway, my favourite part of the game is its atmosphere. The music still sends shivers down my spine, and heightens the tension you feel while waiting for your turn; the game only shows you aliens that are visible to at least one of your troops, so you often spend the alien turn staring at a screen saying 'HIDDEN MOVEMENT', listening to doors slamming around the map, desparately trying to work out where the aliens are hiding. I maintain that UFO Defense and its sequel Terror from the Deep are pretty much the only scary strategy games (and turn-based strategy, at that) ever made. I would even go so far as to say they would rank quite high on my list of Scariest Games of All Time.
Right, I'll be back to write more about my new games when I get back home to my PC. Hope everyone had a happy new year!
Thursday, 31 December 2009
This organization was named the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit...
I've been playing XCOM today... Man, that game is just as I remember it. As in, double bastard hard.
I'm doing okay with my current playthrough, no Governments have yet signed secret pacts with the aliens so I must be doing something right. I'm just afraid the aliens are going to escalate hostilities before I get all my advanced technologies together.
Anyway, I might do a more detailed post about it tomorrow, otherwise I'll be posting at the weekend when I'm back with my PC and all my other new games :)
Monday, 28 December 2009
New Year's Games
Hello everyone! I haven't posted in ages... I hope to put some new stuff up in the near future, just wanted to put a quick post up in the meantime.
I went a little mad in the Steam Sale and managed to buy enough games to keep me entertained up until about April 2010. I only (only! ha) spent around £70, but got some games I'm really looking forward to playing.
In particular it'll be really good to get Left 4 Dead 2 up and running, I know a load of people I know have already got it, so it'll be good to get some multiplayer gaming up and running (I even bought a headset to play it with!). Also, I'd love to go back and play a bit of X-COM, the first two especially: Terror from the Deep is, without a doubt, the scariest turn-based strategy game I've ever played.
Anyway, here's a full list of what I got:
- Penumbra Collectors Pack
- Call of Cthulhu
- AI War: Fleet Command
- Dead Space
- Audiosurf
- X-Com Complete Pack
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death
- Rogue Trooper
- Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
- Rome: Total War Gold
I also got Dragon Age: Origins for Christmas, and I'm still playing a few games of Blood Bowl, especially now I have a couple of friends with the game (and one especially with a new PC!). I hope to post up some match reports in the future once we get a league going, something I saw done well over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
I hope everyone has had a happy festive season and is looking forward to some game-filled antics in the new year!
EDIT: Also, some new photos I took on Boxing Day with my Dad's new camera. I'm going to have to start saving up...
Friday, 9 October 2009
Cockatoo Island
I took a few pictures while we were on Cockatoo Island the other day... We camped overnight there, and had an explore on Thursday evening. The island is bizarre; it's an abandoned shipyard in the middle of Sydney harbour and is almost completely deserted.
There were three other groups camping on the island, so we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves. It wasn't quite what we were expecting when we booked it, but very impressive none-the-less!
There were three other groups camping on the island, so we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves. It wasn't quite what we were expecting when we booked it, but very impressive none-the-less!
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