Zombies attacked my weekend. Thank goodness for plants.
The weather was fairly nice for most of the weekend, including Friday when I went with the lady friend up to the outlet mall in Edinburg. It did rain while we were up there, but not until after we got done what needed to get done. That evening, we went out to the Scholar's Inn Gourmet Cafe (as opposed to the bakehouses where I usually go) to take advantage of their BOGO entrees. Even with the discount, it was still pretty expensive, but very good. We both ordered lobster pot pie and split a slice of "turtle" cheesecake. As much as the cost acts as a deterrent, it is something I look forward to doing again; just not in the near future.
The weather held out for disc golf with her on Saturday. The course was still a little weathered from the rain (and debris from earlier storms), but playable. We started a second round, but there were omens. We still met up for the usual Yogi's run the next day.
Yesterday, I got Oblivion installed on the desktop (omitted from last reimage) and started going through that again. The game developed a rather troubling bug and I managed to install the wrong patch. To fix the problem, I have to reinstall the game. I decided not to do that last night. I should be able to keep my saves, but they will be backed up just in case. In the short run so far, I got up to a particular quest that is slightly broken. You are supposed to kill someone, and, like other tasks of this type, a planned killing doesn't put a bounty on your head. For whatever reason, this one still ups your bounty and makes for an annoying dash to fix it.
Much less annoying is Plants vs Zombies which I've been playing thanks to a sale on the iOS versions. The "HD" (iPad) version was $2, versus $7 normally and $10 when it launched alongside the hardware last year, leading me to finally make the plunge. It's, at its core, a tower defense game, with waves of the undead marching towards your home, held at bay only by the various plants and plant-like matter you have available. Adventure mode serves as an apt tutorial, increasing the number of rows you have to defend and introducing new plants one at a time with the next stage usually serving as a crash course for your newest item. Different zombies require different tactics or weapons, such as a pole vaulter who can leap over one obstacle or a zombie suspended by a balloon who can fly over your entire line. You can see a lineup of the foes you'll face before each round so you can select which kinds of seeds you'll need (you start with a max of 6, but you get more as the game progresses) so selecting the proper tools is important. Once you get the hang of it, it turns to night where you no longer get sunlight (currency to build more plants) for free, necessitating building sunflowers to fill the void, with free-to-plant mushrooms proving too weak to stop much beyond vanilla zombies. Then the backyard with it's pool (no dirt to plant) becomes fair game. Then the roof with a limited supply of flower pots which are themselves vulnerable to attack. The depth really caught me off guard with each change to the environment, each new weapon, and each new zombie constantly adding to the difficulty of each stage. A steal for $2 (with proceeds benefiting the Japan relief efforts), it is certainly worth the $7 tag it normally commands. The downside with it, though, is that it is available on several other platforms including Steam, while the iPad version is only playable on the iPad.
The weather held out for disc golf with her on Saturday. The course was still a little weathered from the rain (and debris from earlier storms), but playable. We started a second round, but there were omens. We still met up for the usual Yogi's run the next day.
Yesterday, I got Oblivion installed on the desktop (omitted from last reimage) and started going through that again. The game developed a rather troubling bug and I managed to install the wrong patch. To fix the problem, I have to reinstall the game. I decided not to do that last night. I should be able to keep my saves, but they will be backed up just in case. In the short run so far, I got up to a particular quest that is slightly broken. You are supposed to kill someone, and, like other tasks of this type, a planned killing doesn't put a bounty on your head. For whatever reason, this one still ups your bounty and makes for an annoying dash to fix it.
Much less annoying is Plants vs Zombies which I've been playing thanks to a sale on the iOS versions. The "HD" (iPad) version was $2, versus $7 normally and $10 when it launched alongside the hardware last year, leading me to finally make the plunge. It's, at its core, a tower defense game, with waves of the undead marching towards your home, held at bay only by the various plants and plant-like matter you have available. Adventure mode serves as an apt tutorial, increasing the number of rows you have to defend and introducing new plants one at a time with the next stage usually serving as a crash course for your newest item. Different zombies require different tactics or weapons, such as a pole vaulter who can leap over one obstacle or a zombie suspended by a balloon who can fly over your entire line. You can see a lineup of the foes you'll face before each round so you can select which kinds of seeds you'll need (you start with a max of 6, but you get more as the game progresses) so selecting the proper tools is important. Once you get the hang of it, it turns to night where you no longer get sunlight (currency to build more plants) for free, necessitating building sunflowers to fill the void, with free-to-plant mushrooms proving too weak to stop much beyond vanilla zombies. Then the backyard with it's pool (no dirt to plant) becomes fair game. Then the roof with a limited supply of flower pots which are themselves vulnerable to attack. The depth really caught me off guard with each change to the environment, each new weapon, and each new zombie constantly adding to the difficulty of each stage. A steal for $2 (with proceeds benefiting the Japan relief efforts), it is certainly worth the $7 tag it normally commands. The downside with it, though, is that it is available on several other platforms including Steam, while the iPad version is only playable on the iPad.