A Summary Update
Well, I have a few things to write about today, some of which may be interesting to some people. I can pretty much guarantee that nobody will be -interested- in EVERYTHING I write about tonight, but everyone should have something.
First off:
Star Wars: Empire At War
For some reason, I was hoping Lucasarts would come out with something truly innovative and interesting to add to the Star Wars experience. What the hell was I thinking?
Granted, I only played the demo. And maybe the demo is the only part that's sad and anemic. But basically, it's Starcraft / Age of Empires with Star Wars miniatures. You get a limited selection of spacecraft, and a metric assload of land forces that I've never heard of before (on the Rebel side). There's land and space battles, although there's effectively no difference between the two except for the units and the scenery (no 3d battles in space). You control units in groups that depend on the craft (i.e., X-Wings come in 5, Y-Wings come in 3s, T-4B tanks (?!) come in, I think, 5s as well.)
Anyways, the mechanics are really simple and Starcraft-like. You have an arbitrary population cap that depends on how many systems you control. I'd much rather have production facilities that physically limit my capabilities instead of "Whoops! Hoth has no more room for Rebel troops. Yes. Hoth is full." ...but WAIT! I just captured an asteroid field, so I can.. build... more people... on Hoth. *scratches head*. You control units in groups, just like in Starcraft. I wish the space units were actually to scale. For instance, the Victory-class Star Destroyer is 900 meters long. The Nebulon B-class Frigate happens to be 300 meters long. But in the game, they're the same size. I think the Frigate is actually longer than the VSD in-game. This annoys me. I know, I know. It's a made-up universe. But as long as we're making up games about made-up universes, can we at least pretend to have some continuity?
The scale issues would be totally ignorable if the mechanics made the game worth playing. If Starcraft and Age of Empires II had a horrible and bloody car accident outside LucasArts, I think this would've been the result. Plus, I was still able to trash the computer on the hardeste difficulty settings. This is another one of my major pet peeves: when playing a war strategy game on its hardest setting, I want to be playing against freakin' Patton. Or at LEAST an Admiral of the Imperial Navy. Not a predictable AI that I can sweep in one sit-down round, because HEY! I've PLAYED THIS GAME BEFORE! *sigh*
Oh, and did I mention that to do all this, it abuses your processor? I have an Athlon XP 2400+, with 512 MB RAM and a Radeon 9550 video card (256 MB VRAM) and it still chokes occasionally on the lowest graphics settings. Yes, I've updated my drivers, thank you.
In short, don't pay $50 for this. Wait a year, year and a half for it to be $5 or $10, and buy it then. /review
Tallahassee!
Virginia is settled in Tallahassee. I went out today and Thursday; she's got a neat little apartment close to downtown. 'tis good stuff. Three hour drives suck, but are made marginally better when you can sleep through them. There is no shortage of restaurants.
Hurricanes!
I'm personally expecting (I hate to say "predicting", because I really don't know how to 'predict') a hurricane season equal to or more intense than last year. On that note, I think I might be getting Okaloosa County ARES EC. Basically, I'd be coordinating the Amateur Radio response in Okaloosa County to any disasters that require emergency communications, as well as potentially coordinating Okaloosa teams to head out to other counties under Mutual Aid Agreements. Like all ARES positions, it'll be volunteer.
Roommate?
No word yet on whether I'll be moving in with Jamie. Hopefully these things will resolve themselves shortly. Pray, meditate, shake a magic eight ball, punch in happy salts to a RNG - whatever it is you do to influence events for the better, do it for me, eh? This could really help me out.
That's all for now, folks.
First off:
Star Wars: Empire At War
For some reason, I was hoping Lucasarts would come out with something truly innovative and interesting to add to the Star Wars experience. What the hell was I thinking?
Granted, I only played the demo. And maybe the demo is the only part that's sad and anemic. But basically, it's Starcraft / Age of Empires with Star Wars miniatures. You get a limited selection of spacecraft, and a metric assload of land forces that I've never heard of before (on the Rebel side). There's land and space battles, although there's effectively no difference between the two except for the units and the scenery (no 3d battles in space). You control units in groups that depend on the craft (i.e., X-Wings come in 5, Y-Wings come in 3s, T-4B tanks (?!) come in, I think, 5s as well.)
Anyways, the mechanics are really simple and Starcraft-like. You have an arbitrary population cap that depends on how many systems you control. I'd much rather have production facilities that physically limit my capabilities instead of "Whoops! Hoth has no more room for Rebel troops. Yes. Hoth is full." ...but WAIT! I just captured an asteroid field, so I can.. build... more people... on Hoth. *scratches head*. You control units in groups, just like in Starcraft. I wish the space units were actually to scale. For instance, the Victory-class Star Destroyer is 900 meters long. The Nebulon B-class Frigate happens to be 300 meters long. But in the game, they're the same size. I think the Frigate is actually longer than the VSD in-game. This annoys me. I know, I know. It's a made-up universe. But as long as we're making up games about made-up universes, can we at least pretend to have some continuity?
The scale issues would be totally ignorable if the mechanics made the game worth playing. If Starcraft and Age of Empires II had a horrible and bloody car accident outside LucasArts, I think this would've been the result. Plus, I was still able to trash the computer on the hardeste difficulty settings. This is another one of my major pet peeves: when playing a war strategy game on its hardest setting, I want to be playing against freakin' Patton. Or at LEAST an Admiral of the Imperial Navy. Not a predictable AI that I can sweep in one sit-down round, because HEY! I've PLAYED THIS GAME BEFORE! *sigh*
Oh, and did I mention that to do all this, it abuses your processor? I have an Athlon XP 2400+, with 512 MB RAM and a Radeon 9550 video card (256 MB VRAM) and it still chokes occasionally on the lowest graphics settings. Yes, I've updated my drivers, thank you.
In short, don't pay $50 for this. Wait a year, year and a half for it to be $5 or $10, and buy it then. /review
Tallahassee!
Virginia is settled in Tallahassee. I went out today and Thursday; she's got a neat little apartment close to downtown. 'tis good stuff. Three hour drives suck, but are made marginally better when you can sleep through them. There is no shortage of restaurants.
Hurricanes!
I'm personally expecting (I hate to say "predicting", because I really don't know how to 'predict') a hurricane season equal to or more intense than last year. On that note, I think I might be getting Okaloosa County ARES EC. Basically, I'd be coordinating the Amateur Radio response in Okaloosa County to any disasters that require emergency communications, as well as potentially coordinating Okaloosa teams to head out to other counties under Mutual Aid Agreements. Like all ARES positions, it'll be volunteer.
Roommate?
No word yet on whether I'll be moving in with Jamie. Hopefully these things will resolve themselves shortly. Pray, meditate, shake a magic eight ball, punch in happy salts to a RNG - whatever it is you do to influence events for the better, do it for me, eh? This could really help me out.
That's all for now, folks.