It's getting to the point now where I'm really struggling to keep this up to date. I either have too much or too little to write about; the too little comes from not actually wanting to take the time to type up the too much. I'll do my best, though.
In the last few weeks, I've been playing the Beta, then the Early Access, and now (as of about an hour ago) the Full Retail Version of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. At first, I thought it was crap; DDO's gaming engine wrapped up in some shiny new graphics along with the LotR lore. This passed after a bit, and I could only really whine about the gameplay - this may sound tired to non-WoW-players, but LOTRO really doesn't come close to the standard set by World of Warcraft. Having said that, though, it's one of four (yes, four, argh) MMORPGs that I'm actively subscribing to.
World of Warcraft
City of Heroes / City of Villains
Final Fantasy XI
Lord of the Rings: Online
Lots of money. However, I pre-ordered the Special Edition of LOTRO, which (among other things) allows me to have a cheaper subscription for the entire duration of my stay in Middle-earth... works out to be about £5 or £6 a month, which is not to be sniffed at. I'll still try and play the others (CoH / CoV when the next Issue comes out, FFXI when I can get my hand on that blasted third expansion, and WoW any time I feel like it).
In other news, I've bought some more games. Dungeon Siege II arrived, or did I say that already? I also decided to by the original Dungeon Siege, because it is a superior game. Which is sad, really. I've also gone ahead and bought "Hotel Dusk: Room 215" for the Nintendo DS - so far, nothing special, but it looks as though it could be a really good game once I've gotten into it.
I ordered Theme Hospital again - seriously, this must be the fifth time I've bought that game... not just for the PC, either. My copies keep disappearing, but they're only £5 a pop, so nothing to lose any sleep over. I've been trying to keep playing Dark Messiah and/or start playing NWN2 again, but am currently failing to do both (when faced with LOTRO / Theme Hospital / Hotel Dusk, this could perhaps be seen as understandable).
On the console side of things, I've been playing a lot of Xbox Live Arcade as of late; specifically Boom Boom Rocket. This game is amazing; it's clearly meant to be a clone of DDR (hence the name and the gameplay), but instead of dancing, you detonate fireworks of different colours in time to one of ten tracks. One colour for each of the A, B, X and Y buttons on the controller. It sounds really simple (and it is, I suppose) but it's addictive and fun. I'm in the Top 50 in the world for some of the songs, which I'm really proud of. It's not like I'll stay there for any decent length of time, but it's the fact that I was there that matters to me.
In news that is not game related, I've watched all of the Harry Potter movies again, up to The Goblet of Fire. I've never properly watched the first two, I remember liking the third and I had never seen the fourth. They're all a lot better than I remember / expected them to be, with particular reference to the fourth - I actually sat up in bed for the Harry / Voldemort wand-battle-thing. Frankly can't wait for the next one to come out. Oh, and add Spider-Man 3 to that "can't wait to see" list, too.
Hmm... think that's about it covered. As you can see, I really don't do much else apart from gaming. Some LOTRO-related news that may be interesting to my non-existent reader base is that I've joined a guild; The Red Band of Cardolan (will link the homepage at some point). We're based on the Laurelin server, which is the first of the RP servers for LOTRO. I thought I'd try something different, considering that I never really got into RP with WoW. I've also made some videos of LOTRO, specifically bugs and one particular guild event which we're all very proud of.
I'm aware that I'm beginning to ramble, so I think I'll end this post here. Again, this may be updated with links to the items mentioned at some point, but this is best done when daylight has not so long passed. More sporadic updates to come.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Monday, 9 April 2007
Buying Too Much
Yes, as the title suggests, I am currently spending far too much money on things. I've mentioned this before, but I keep doing it. Not on RPGs this time, though, which is a step in the right direction. I seem to have focused mainly on bargains or things I really feel I require. Granted, I regularly feel that I require a Wii and a PS3, but I have managed to resist thus far.
Nothing spectacular has happened so far in April, with March coming to a fairly uneventful conclusion as well. My friend Dante came back from Uni for the Easter Holidays, so there was some playing of Battle for Middle-earth II at Jaszon's house. I brought a couple of my new purchases (Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe, for example... only £7!), but we didn't end up playing anything else. Aside from WoW, of course, but I consider that more of a life choice than a game nowadays.
I've also decided to order a new keyboard and mouse. I've chosen the same models, however; you can't go far wrong with the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard and the Logitech G7 Gaming Mouse. They're the epitome of current PC gaming input and I love my current ones... except that they're either broken or breaking. My keyboard suffered a shower of Stella Artois and the keys are now sticky as hell. Add to that the strange fact that the 'O' key seems to switch between not working and typing the ¬ symbol, plus some freaky fault with the backlights, and I thought that buying a new one was the best plan. As for my mouse... I think the little sensor underneath the left mouse button that tells the PC you've clicked it has given up the ghost. Or just gone a bit wonky. You click once, you've clicked anywhere between 3 and 8 times. Makes dragging and dropping, or any other task where clicking the left mouse button is important, very difficult.
My new keyboard arrived a couple of days ago, and I'm waiting for delivery of my mouse. I hope the battery life on the new one is a bit better, too; my current ones only last a day or two, depending on how heavy my usage is.
I've pre-ordered the Special Edition of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. FilePlanet offered subscribers the chance to play in the Beta, so I snapped up the offer, having missed previous Codemasters Stress-Test opportunities. After initial impressions of WoW-Clone-Done-Badly-Wrapped-Up-In-Prettier-DDO-Engine, the game began to grow on me. Laggy and spammy as the Beta was, I really think that it has the potential to be a big MMO... the lore alone will see it in good stead for a long time. Because I've pre-ordered the game, I'll get 10 days' early access to the live version and some special bonus items. Jaszon ordered it, too, and seems to be very happy that it includes a hard-back manual. I'll be sure to post my future impressions of the game once it arrives.
Let's see, what else... ah, I've joined the Pure Pwnage Gamer Army. I've got the dog tags and Special Ops access and everything. I've a feeling that I'll wear these dog tags a lot more than I ever did my Griever Ring or NWN2 Ring (though both of those are still cool). I'll eventually post a picture of them, along with a new Phoenix Wright-themed T-Shirt I bought as well.
I'm sure there's more that I haven't mentioned. On retrospect, it might be that March / April was an eventful period, but I was simply too distracted by parcels arriving every morning to take any notice. I'll likely come back and edit this post to have links to important items, but I'd rather get something posted, just to keep reassuring myself that I've maintained my committment to keeping this blog updated. I mean... not that it matters or anything, since nobody reads it, but it's nice to look back and be able to read something and think "I remember doing that".
... I think I may have already said that, though. Hmm.
Nothing spectacular has happened so far in April, with March coming to a fairly uneventful conclusion as well. My friend Dante came back from Uni for the Easter Holidays, so there was some playing of Battle for Middle-earth II at Jaszon's house. I brought a couple of my new purchases (Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe, for example... only £7!), but we didn't end up playing anything else. Aside from WoW, of course, but I consider that more of a life choice than a game nowadays.
I've also decided to order a new keyboard and mouse. I've chosen the same models, however; you can't go far wrong with the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard and the Logitech G7 Gaming Mouse. They're the epitome of current PC gaming input and I love my current ones... except that they're either broken or breaking. My keyboard suffered a shower of Stella Artois and the keys are now sticky as hell. Add to that the strange fact that the 'O' key seems to switch between not working and typing the ¬ symbol, plus some freaky fault with the backlights, and I thought that buying a new one was the best plan. As for my mouse... I think the little sensor underneath the left mouse button that tells the PC you've clicked it has given up the ghost. Or just gone a bit wonky. You click once, you've clicked anywhere between 3 and 8 times. Makes dragging and dropping, or any other task where clicking the left mouse button is important, very difficult.
My new keyboard arrived a couple of days ago, and I'm waiting for delivery of my mouse. I hope the battery life on the new one is a bit better, too; my current ones only last a day or two, depending on how heavy my usage is.
I've pre-ordered the Special Edition of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. FilePlanet offered subscribers the chance to play in the Beta, so I snapped up the offer, having missed previous Codemasters Stress-Test opportunities. After initial impressions of WoW-Clone-Done-Badly-Wrapped-Up-In-Prettier-DDO-Engine, the game began to grow on me. Laggy and spammy as the Beta was, I really think that it has the potential to be a big MMO... the lore alone will see it in good stead for a long time. Because I've pre-ordered the game, I'll get 10 days' early access to the live version and some special bonus items. Jaszon ordered it, too, and seems to be very happy that it includes a hard-back manual. I'll be sure to post my future impressions of the game once it arrives.
Let's see, what else... ah, I've joined the Pure Pwnage Gamer Army. I've got the dog tags and Special Ops access and everything. I've a feeling that I'll wear these dog tags a lot more than I ever did my Griever Ring or NWN2 Ring (though both of those are still cool). I'll eventually post a picture of them, along with a new Phoenix Wright-themed T-Shirt I bought as well.
I'm sure there's more that I haven't mentioned. On retrospect, it might be that March / April was an eventful period, but I was simply too distracted by parcels arriving every morning to take any notice. I'll likely come back and edit this post to have links to important items, but I'd rather get something posted, just to keep reassuring myself that I've maintained my committment to keeping this blog updated. I mean... not that it matters or anything, since nobody reads it, but it's nice to look back and be able to read something and think "I remember doing that".
... I think I may have already said that, though. Hmm.
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