So I’ve decided to make a to do list (todolist) of the different games I want to burn through.  I’m looking primarily at single-player games, and games on all different platforms and from all different timeframes, old school included.  I don’t have the list done for anything right now because my Xbox 360 red ringed…AGAIN.  So it’s off to M$ in its coffin right now, which kind of sucks because the wife and I were jamming on Rock Band 2 for the last couple of weekends.  Plus, the wife is off for the summer and she was getting into the arcade games again.  That’s the amazing thing about that crap box is that it failed while she was playing Feeding Frenzy…not exactly a graphic intense game.  Oh well, just hurry up and send me a new Xbox please…

Mainly, I’m looking to play completely through games…something that has been a challenge in the past.  I can’t remember the last game I truly made it through, oh well that’s a lie, I did beat Fallout 3 a couple of weeks ago, but with the new patch, there really is no end to that game.  Currently, I got a couple different games going.  First on the PC, I’ve got a co-op game of Dawn of War 2 with Mike and I’m playing through a Swedish campaign in Empire: Total War.  In DoW2, Mike and I have had some serious trouble with the difficultly level we picked.  We just can’t seem to get through missions without losing a squad, which hurts our scores at the end of the mission.  The boss fights have been the worst too…we just can’t get things going, or the boss will drop some crazy ability that will wipe out a squad before you have a chance to react.  It’s frustrating because the game seems to have ramped up the difficultly curved by making your squads paper thin.  In my campaign, at a lower campaign difficultly my squads seem stronger and more solid.  Oh well, hopefully we can get back to the campaign after a weekend off.

On the Empire: Total War side, I’ve decided to do a long campaign as the Swedes.  I’ve tried a lot of different nations but I just couldn’t stick with one, so I kinda forced myself to pick one and stick with it.  So far, I’ve made some aggressive moves.  Russia declared won on me to take St. Petersburg and it’s warm water port but I have defend it from waves of attacks.  In the meantime, I turned my hammer on the Danes, taking Norway and Denmark.  This has given me a large amount of trade routes, which has increased my trade income greatly, most by trading with the Indians.   With my western flank secure, and my industrial base in Sweden working overtime, I’ve moved my main force to the east.  I have two army groups in the theater right now.  One is moving on Moscow (Army Group A), and the other is curving through Poland (Army Group B).  My goal was for Army Group A to capture Moscow and then shift to the south and take most of the Black Sea regions, and have Army Group B move through Poland and take Kiev.  All was going good for Army Group B until the Prussian decided I was a threat and attacked my Polish lands, so I’ve had to turn Army Group B around and move them against the Prussians, which should be a good fight.  I’ve also decided to split Army Group A after they capture Moscow.  One part will head south and take Kiev and the other will get reinforcements and head into the heart land of Russia.  I’ve also decided to reinforce Army Group B with new troops from Sweden.  While they are green (inexperienced) they should help fill the gaps in my defenses as I hit the Prussians hard.  While the game is a blast to play, the bugs, the poor AI, and the other nagging problems really make it hard to play the game in long stretches because it gets me so worked up sometimes.  Again, increasing the difficultly doesn’t make that the game AI smarter, it just makes the AI cheat.  I have 2 star cannons that can’t hit the broadside of a freaking barn, but a raw Prussian Demi-cannon crew can hit my troops EVERY SHOT at extreme range…so frustrating.

On the non-PC front, I’ve been playing a lot of Assassins Creed on the Xbox 360 (on hold currently), Final Fantasy VII: Core Crisis on the PSP, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on the DS.  Yes, yes, I know how many Final Fantasy games can one person possible play.  It’s not that I’m gay for FF games but rather they are some of the best RPGs out there and for whatever reason I’ve been wanting to play a good RPG lately.  So on the todolist expect to see a lot of RPG games, and probably some OLD school RPGs, because I just need my fix.  FF VII: Core Crisis is just a good looking game, but the combat model is not great…it’s just not that fun.  I like the material fusion ability but it doesn’t make up for a complete lack of character customization.  So I’ve decided to burn my old PSX (yes I actually own the PSX version of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX and Tactics) version of Final Fantasy VII and move it down to the PSP.  It should be a blast to play it again, and it’s a game I actually never beat, I got to the last boss, but I could never beat him.

So the plan for the week is get a todolist for games I want to play through and get that on the site.  And in the future I want to get some sort of currently playing plug-in going.  What do you think of the new videogame centric focus?

*****************************

A quick personal update, the last one for a while, since I last posted in March, I got laid off from my job which actually was a godsend.  If you want to know what the worst place to work for looks like, come talk to me, I can tell you some stories.  After a 6 week job search, I landed a new job for a great company with a great group of developers.  It’s almost a perfect fit, it’s in the job sector I want to get experience in and I’m learning a TON of new stuff.   Life is going great right now.  Thanks for all of your prayers, thoughts, notes, and encouragement…it really helped.

Currently: 218

So last night was filled with Empire: Total War.  I completely ignored everything else and just sat down played, and I can tell you that if the days continue like this I’m going to need as much de-stressing as possible.  As many of you know, I’m a complete history junkie, so it was really fun to just talk history and play Empire with Mike and Firethorn.

But about the game…its buggy but it’s really fun.  First about the bugs, the forums are filled with comments on bugs that I’m experiencing and it seems that many are explaining some crazy things.  It’s not surprising because it’s a Total War game, which are known to be EXTERMELY buggy at release.  But I feel good about because CA is talking about the bugs in their forums and have stated that because of the Steam platform, they will be releasing frequent patches with the first one dropping next week to fix the major problems.  This is really good news and combined with the work arounds mentioned on the forums “makes my eyes happy”.

The game in itself is a blast.  I’m playing the Road to Independence right now, where you can learn the ropes and get comfortable with the underlying campaign mechanics.  While the RtI starts slow, it really opens up with the battle of Bunker Hill.  Its funny how streamlined everything is, I had to restart last night because I forgot you could just contact other nations without sending a gentleman.  Poor Paul Revere died at sea…I can’t wait for the weekend, that’s the sign you have a good game on your hands.

Make sure to jump on Vent and we can talk about history.  Maybe alittle War of Spanish Succession or we can get back into more loopsided military victories.  Mike…the Battle of New Orleans, the second day…British dead = 385 (including several commanders) Total Casualties = 2055, American dead = 13 Total Casualties = 101.  And that’s with a combined army of pure militia, pirates and indians versus the core of the British Expeditionary Force.  It might not beat your battle during the Texas Revolution but it’s impressive.

So let me start off with some drama…work has decided, I should say upper management has decided to go back to UNIX and ditch the Windows-based application we have been developing and using for 2 months.  This is bad, I mean really bad.  I really don’t know what is what right now, work is kinda on edge, several people have either quit or been asked to take some time off.  I don’t know my long-term position, so yeah, anxiety levels are high right now.  But keeping with the theme of the title let me skip ahead to the good.

My home life and social life is going great.  Everything seems to be settling in nicely this year, the wife and I are doing great, we are killing our budget which is helping us save a ton of money and gaming hasn’t been better in a while.  Firethorn, Mike, and I have been playing a game called Defense Grid which is a freaking blast.   I got a chance to talk with Mike about how he keeps making incredible high scores, and I think I’ve got a better understanding of how to play the game.  My strategy was to build tons of high-powered towers and just blow the aliens out of the water.  But Mike pointed out the effects of interest and resources, which dictates a different strategy.  The idea is build a small number of towers, in the right place, create a kill zone and keep your resources on hand high to earn more off the interest.  The other great news is that Empire: Total War is downloading off Steam as we speak and barring any internet troubles at the house, it should be finished by the time I get home.  And there is a silver lining to the problems at work.  I’ve never saw this as a long term solution, now it’s become clear that I need to get off my butt and find a company I want to work for, something I build on, something I can grow in, something for the long-term.  On to the bad…

This crazy UNIX guy who they have hired to get the UNIX system running again is a liar.  He lied to me in a meeting, he’s lied to several other people.  I know a couple of the people that work in the main building through outside friends, and they have told me straight up that they have never said the things he says they have said.  Also, I can look at the logs of the application and see that some of the things he is claiming happen…DONT HAPPEN.  I don’t mind a shift in direction, I don’t mind a new boss, I don’t have control over those things, but I don’t like being lied to.   Also, during the meeting yesterday, I felt like he was trying to get me to quit and that seems to be his attitude going forward.  Ok, so the ugly…

He has hinted in re-writing the new system in Visual FoxPro because that’s what he knows.  He doesn’t know SourceSafe, he says he never needed to use a source control program.  He thinks it’s a bad idea to use integer ID fields as primary keys in a database table.  I have no freaking clue what I’m doing, right now I’m just sitting here, chilling out, figuring out what the fuck I’m doing.  The economy is just plain bad, so finding a great job is going to be tough…right now I feel like I’m walking on egg shells.  And a giant part of my life, my work like is just come crashing down.  A place where I spend most of my time is completely in ruins.  That’s the ugly.

Hopefully I can get an evening piece going that will cover my adventures in Empire.  I really am torn on what country I should start with first.  I would love to try out the Austrian or the French…but the 13 Colonies are just calling my name.

So this past weekend was pretty good.  It can always be hit and miss when we travel south to visit family.  Normally, we are pulled in too many directions to enjoy the two days we are there.  But this time, like last visit, we both took off Friday to give us an extra day to see everyone.  It really seems to make the trip easier, as we can leave on Sunday early enough to get home and spend a relaxing afternoon before we have to get back to work.

My grandfather seems to be improving, which is very positive.  Both of my grandparents are getting up there in years and it’s difficult to see them in pain or slowing down.  He had to have his pacemaker replaced, not a minor surgery but nothing major.  The good thing about the replacement is that his heartbeat is back to normal.  I was glad that I could get over there and see both of them.

Other than that, this week brings us the greatness that is Empire: Total War.  The reviews are starting to come in and the fears for me are being calmed.  They seem to indicate that the loading times are improved and the political system of the campaign map sounds simply amazing.  It sounds just fantastic…and I’m really looking forward to it. A developer has been talking about his experiences in a campaign report, and he was playing as Prussia. Well his king died, and the Dutch declared their king to be the rightful heir to the throne, starting a “War of Succession”. I’ll tell you the truth, even if that works only partially, what a freaking COOL feature.

I installed Call of Duty: World at War on Sunday and played through a couple levels of the campaign.  Oh my…I guess I’m losing it, but I find that game to be pure shit, it is absolutely horrible.  I can’t tell you how many times I got stuck INSIDE my teammates.  I would be using cover and all of sudden my teammate would decide to use the same spot and he would a. push me out of the way right into the open and the enemies fire or b. clip inside me and we would be both stuck until he moved.  I wonder sometimes if reviewers are playing the same game I am.  This is why I listen more and more to the shack chat threads to see what people are saying about new games.  Speaking of which, everyone seems to be really enjoying Dawn of War 2 and because Firethorn is against playing the best game of all time and expanding his historical and cultural knowledge, I might talk him into getting DoW 2 so we can play the campaign in co-op mode.

There is going to be no post on Friday, as I am traveling down to St. Pete.

The overall selling point of Empire: Total War, besides being another Total War game, is that it’s setting is in the Age of Sail and Musket.  So you would expect the demo the showcase these features and it does a great job at that.  The graphics of the combat are fantastic, and the sound of the gun fire and drums is thrilling.  The units and formations seem to be spot on, you can fire and flank just like armies of the era.  The combat feels great, going toe to toe with the enemies’ line infantry was great.  And the AI wasn’t completely dumb, though heavily scripted, it wouldn’t let you just surround and kick the crap out of it.  All and all, the demo was a good preview of things to come.

I read a couple of threads about how to mod and remove the scripts from the AI, and how to make it so you can play as the Americans.  You can also turn up the difficulty of the AI, which seems to be set on normal.  Also, people have figured out how to unpack all the XML files and have discovered most of the features of the game.  Everything is seems to be on track for the game to be special.  The demo has really peaked my interest in the 18th century world…I might have to head over to the local bookstore and see what I can find.

Now, I hate to continue to bitch and moan about work while some of my friends don’t have jobs, but fucking hell.  If you are a boss, don’t make your employees feel guilty for taking personal days.  Instead you should make sure to take the effort to make the work environment comfortable.  Nothing like coming into your office and it’s colder inside the office then it is outside, because I know I love programming with your fingers frozen.  Also, make an effort to make sure that shit doesn’t continue roll down hill and cover your employees. I don’t want to hear about continuing personality conflicts you are having with others…just tell me what to fix and I’ll fix it.

I’m taking Friday off to go visit some family, who are not doing too well.  My Grandfather had a tumor removed from his bladder and hasn’t recovered as they had expected.  Also, my wife’s Grandmother is worse off, she is suffering from several different things, all of them had left her weak and disoriented.  While, we expect to have fun and enjoy seeing our family, this trip is going to be more somber than usual.

The Empire: Total War demo is going to be ready for me to play tonight, so I know what I’m doing tonight.  My expection for a realistic 18th century warfare game are low, I don’t expect the computer to be able to playlike Napolean.  But I do expect the game to be more than Medieval 2 with guns.

I jumped on vent last night and the only people on when I joined were the jokers who still play WoW.  Even though I was intrigued to hear their conversation about a game that I game a large chunk of my time to, I had no desire at all to reinstall that game.  I think I’m finally over that drug, there’s nothing left in that game for me.  And in an instant I feel completely ok with that.

Other than those quick notes, I got nothing, the sleeping pills I take still haven’t worn off yet which is making for a thrilling morning of trying to stay awake at my keyboard.  Also, the chimp isn’t a pet, it isn’t a human, but it will eat your face if you give it Xanax, good to know.