SpaceRodent

I am about two hours into the game. It is still fun but not as fun as I hoped. There is a lot of repeat play such as:

• Avoid these guards by sneaking (over and over again)
• Keep seeing monsters but the narrative keeps saying “Something strange is going on…” – Yeah like your seeing monsters
• Have about 100 rounds of various ammunition but no gun
• Hear the AI speak it’s three or four phrases (over and over again)

The atmosphere is very dark and creepy but I think the Gamecube’s Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem was better.

I finally got Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth but not from EB Games. The game was supposed to be release March 27th. Then March 31st. It is now pushed back to April 17th and there are rumors of it being pushed back again until May. Since the developer is basically going out of business I personally think it might not be released in the US at all.

When I saw it got pushed back to April 17th I started hanging out on the forums and reading about people playing the game already – seems it was released in the UK earlier this month for the PC (the developer is in the UK).

So I decided to order from a UK game site, game.net, and got it last night.

The game looks fantastic.  I just started so I can’t comment on the play as of yet but will in the future.

I went to the ComicCon on Sunday instead of Saturday. It was a lot of fun. It was my first time going to one. I thought it was going to be like the Con featured in Chasing Amy and it was.

I saw two very cool things:

• SoftWire (Rings of Orbis)
  
  

  In the future a ring system in controlled by a massive computer. A boy has been born that can link with computer using only his mind. This represents a problem for the five or so alien races vying for control of the Rings of Orbis.

  What is really cool about this is the author has teamed up with a software developer to create a free MMORPG to promote his books! Very cool.

• The Looking Glass Wars
  
  

  Alyss is fighting against her aunt, Red. She finds a portal to our world and meets up with Lewis Carroll who is fascinated by the girl’s tale. Soon Alyss will have to go back.

  I got a signed copy of the book and will blog about it when I am finished with Digital Fortress

The one other thing that was strange was the amount of copyrighted material for sale. I couldn’t believe it. Movies, TV Shows, Cartoons, Porn. There were at least four booths selling this stuff. I can understand if the shows are not readily available and in fact support that but they were selling stuff that was available. Of course I didn’t let that feeling get in the way of buying the entire Seaquest DSV series on 12 DVD’s for $45 dollars:) I had just season one in my Amazon wishlist alone that alone was $44.99. Now this set was basically burned to DVD from SciFi channel but that’s okay. I wanted Seaquest but not enough to pay a premium for it and have the nice transfer and sound.

Based on how much fun I had I am going to try to go to Norwescon 29 April 13-16. One of my favorite authors, Robert J. Sawyer, is the “Toastmaster” (not sure what that means).

I also got The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from Direct2Drive this weekend as well. On a side note Direct2Drive is great if you have a fast internet connection. I have 7Mbits down and download the 4.3GB oblivion in about 90 minutes. I then burn it to DVD and its mine. No going to the store. Price is the same but the instant gratification factor too awesome to pass up.

Anyway back to Oblivion. I never got into Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind but I wanted too. I think it was the clumsy graphics. I am probably too superficial when it comes to gaming but if it looks good it helps me enjoy the game more.

Oblivion looks fantastic. The engine uses HDR lighting and it is well used. The game feels faster pace and right off the bat there is a lot to do. I felt in Morrorwind, at least in the beginning, you wandered around too much just talking to people. Within 15 minutes of starting Oblivion I was fighting baddies and getting better equipment.

Earlier I blogged about the great Nintendo Gamecube game Eternal Darkness. I am happy to say I finished it! I didn’t get the uber sword so it was a lot harder at the end – took me three days.

Sixth day of exercising and 7th day waking up at 7:00am (didn’t exercise on Sunday). Today is the first day where after I was done I didn’t feel like collapsing so I think it might be getting a bit easier.

My arms and legs feel a lot better too (though still sore) since I moved to the 20 pound weights.

If you like H.P. Lovecraft you have got to play Eternal Darkness for the Nintendo Gamecube. It is in the bargain bin now and I picked up my copy for ~$15. A very creepy game with a unique spell system. I am about 11 hours into the game I have three chapters left.

First/Third person horror games are few and far between. The last great one for the PC was Clive Barker’s Undying. It seems these types of games are mostly the fair of consoles.

You can’t mention horror game without talking about the Silent Hill series – of which I think Silent Hill 2 was the best. Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4 seem all to eager too gross you out and lost the spooky atmosphere.

Gamecube has another great one in Resident Evil 4 which recently won Gamespot’s 2005 Game of the Year.

I am also very excited for Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth to be released at the end of the month. This is supposed a very hard game. For instance if you want to know how much ammunition you have left you actually have to unload the gun and check – can’t wait!