Videogame Week

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 9, 2007

Filed under: Random 15 comments

I’m awash in games at this point. The three-day weekend gave me time to gorge myself on my entertainment of choice, and so pretty much everything I put up this week is going to be related to amusing one’s self with the help of a computer.

I apologize to those who are sick of Jade Empire, but I have another week of Jade Empire blather to stuff down your gullet. This will be a difficult time for all of us (except me.) but I’m sure we’ll get through it somehow.

Also, this behavior has even infected the webcomic, so that we can expect videogame-themed DMotR this week. I’m sorry. There’s nothing to be done about this.

 


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15 thoughts on “Videogame Week

  1. Corvus says:

    *eltrohc* Although I was not as taken with Jade Empire as you are, it’s been a pleasure to read your reactions to it. My enjoyment was, I believe, severely tainted by the promotional machine which preceded it and it’s nice to see someone approaching the game taint free.

  2. Matt says:

    You shouldn’t feel as though you ought to have to apologise – some of us actually come here to hear you ramble on about games.

  3. phlux says:

    Damn you Shamus! For 3 long years I managed to escape the undying torment of never-ending PC upgrades. I was happily subsisting on console titles and PC games from 5-10 years ago. Now my PC gaming interests have been renewed, which means upgrades. Can’t just buy a new graphics card, because my motherboard is too old. Gotta have a bigger PSU too. The new motherboard means new RAM too.

    On top of all THAT, my pitiful 140GB striped raid array isn’t cutting it size-wise anymore, so now I need a couple of 250s.

    And the icing on the cake is that if I’m doing all of this I might as well go with a Vista, which will cost me anywhere between 50 and 250 dollars for the ultimate edition, depending on whether I can get a free copy of Vista Business and upgrade it to Ultimate.

    So thanks a lot Shamus…this is gonna cost me at least 1200 bucks!

    p.s. I keeed. Been wanting to upgrade for ages.

  4. Matt` says:

    The only good part of Vista games-wise is DX10, I hear it makes most games run slower because of all the extra CPU-eating crud it does in the background to ensure you’re not trying to break any DRM and/or to make all your windows and menus shiny and transparent and such

  5. jbrandt says:

    Yay! I liked Jade Empire enough that I can totally take more discussion thereof.

    I have moved from that on to Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl, which is a pretty amazing game on a number of levels (and is awesome enough to make up for occasional weird behavior and the weirdly buggy quest system). It’s also one of the first games since, oh… Thief 3’s “Shalebridge Cradle” to scare the hell out of me. And it’s even done so a couple of times so far. There’s nothing like feeling like a total badass for having just taken down a squad of better-equipped soldiers or infiltrated a heavily-guarded bandit base only to have something totally unprecedented show up and remind you that not only are there THINGS in the shadows that are more than you can handle but that you are in a new and terribly broken place and you ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.

    Dunno if you’re into that genre, but think of it as if Half-Life 2 and Fallout hooked up and had a baby which they then adopted out to Russian parents.

  6. Shamus says:

    jbrandt: I’ve never even heard of it before. I must see that game.

  7. Mordaedil says:

    I’ve yet to complete Jade Empire and I can’t wait to go home and complete it, thus so I can read your articles about it xD

    Damn spoilers.

  8. Mrs T says:

    You gave game recommendations to Rebecca a few weeks ago, so I’m going to ask for some now. PC only, and probably some of the older games out there, because the main thing I hate is games where you need reflexes. I want to point at a bad guy and let the computer work out my character’s chances of hitting rather than it depending on how fast I am with the mouse/keyboard/joystick.

    I like role playing games the best, and I’m almost at the end of the Champions/Death Knights/Dark Queen of Krynn trilogy on DOS and enjoyed it very much. But for some reason when I read reviews of games (even old games at http://www.abandonia.com/ ) it’s hard to find out if they are reflex games or not. I know most of them are, but I don’t have a huge gaming appetite, so I only need a few to keep me going some time.

    Cheers to Shamus or anyone else who can help. :)

  9. jbrandt says:

    Here’s the web site for Stalker:

    http://www.stalker-game.com/

    (I guess you could google it yourself…)

    I have no idea why they decided to write it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Maybe it stands for something in Russian?

    Most of the incidental dialog (the “Hey, keep out!” and “He’s over here!” type stuff) is untranslated, too. It just makes it feel more alien, trekking through a wasteland where you can’t even understand the language most of the people speak…

    Plus vodka cures radiation poisoning.

    Man, it’s only noon, and now I want to go home and play it.

  10. SimeSublime says:

    I can live with more talking about Jade Empire. Hell, reading your initial thoughts was what pushed me over the edge to buying it.

  11. Shamus says:

    Blast it. No demo for Stalker. I’m just barely within the system requirements. (I think. It sez I need a DX9c card. I have a GF6600. I THINK that will do it, but I have a strong gambling aversion in these matters.) I hate to get too close to the line, since the game may run poorly.

    It realy does look interesting, though.

  12. wildweasel says:

    I’m waiting on more patches before I get Stalker, as I hear it’s quite buggy and unoptimized at this point.

    Jade Empire is a wonderful game – I bought it through Steam shortly before its release. I just need to knuckle under and figure out what kind of character to play, because I always have problems creating new characters every time I play because I don’t like the way the last guy came out. Oblivion is particularly a problem, as is City of Heroes.

    But yes, Shamus, please keep posting about games, because that’s most of the reason I come here. I actually went out and got XIII, even after hearing all the comments you made about it (and because I never finished playing through it when I had my brother’s copy).

  13. Luke says:

    Damn you Shamus! I haven’t been able to read last few of your posts because of the spoilers. :P

    You totally convinced me to pick it up, and now I’m hooked.

  14. Gothmog says:

    Heheh, Luke- don’t feel so bad, I’m in the same boat as you. I bet we aren’t the only ones either.

  15. Luke says:

    I’m blaming Shamus for a sudden 98% drop in my overall productivity. Now instead of doing useful stuff I’m playing JE. :P

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