Edward's January 2012 Mix

1. Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour ’08: 

After two years of playing this I’m ready to beat it. I’m still only in the amateur tour, but making good headway. I’ve beat 4 pros, and have 7 more until I take on Tiger himself. This has to be one of the longest sport simulation games out there. Just maybe I’ll finish it this year.

2. Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna: 

I finished the original game last year. It was good, but got a bit monotonous at times. Orientation got a bit convoluted, but I stayed the course and finished the game despite a pretty tough last boss fight. Legends of Aranna is the expansion and seems to be an almost Siamese twin to the original game with some noticeable improvements: much easier navigation, armor set loot drops (yay!) and smarter AI characters. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it and it’s been a most enjoyable romp.

3. The Dark Tower: Book VII by Stephen King: 

I’ve been reading this series the past few years. I’m glad it’s over after this. Furthermore, this will be the last King book I ever read. I simply haven’t got the thrill for his stuff anymore. Christine, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Dead Zone, Pet Cemetery and The Shining were his great works. And nothing he’s written since has captivated me like those did. The Dark Tower has held my interest, but in actuality I don’t like the characters at all. They’re all assholes with no redeeming qualities. Okay, Oy, the small coatimundi like creature that accompanies the main characters has captured my affections, but the rest of the party: meh. I am somewhat anxious to see how the plot goes though. It’s interesting how King introduces himself and his RL mishap with the van that almost ended his life as elements of the story. It’s just too melodramatic and over the top for me. I once knew a guy, an over the road truck driver, who read this series over and over. To each his own, I suppose. Reportedly, King has announced on his website another addition to this series sometime this year. I think I’ll pass. 

4. Alien Quadrilogy on DVD: 

This DVD set is a masterpiece, no doubt. It’s composed of 9 disks of the four movies and tons of special features. I’m a big fan of Ridley Scott, and oddly I had never seen the first movie. I was impressed to say the least. Released in 1979 this movie was advanced. I’m looking forward to watching the other movies in the series, though I’m told none compare to the first two.  

5. Inception on Blu-Ray: 

The family got a Blu-Ray player from Christmas from Mrs. Claus. I knew the upgrade from DVD was an eventuality, but I wasn’t quite prepared for this—WiFi with the ability to stream Netflix movies, whoa! The first Blu-Ray disc I watched was Christopher Nolan’s Inception with Leonardo Dicaprio. I don’t see how these screenplay writers do it. I’d think you’d need a Master’s degree in mathematics or logic just to create such a movie as this. Imagine having the ability to enter into peoples’ dreams and alter and influence them through their subconscious which ramifies into RL decisions. Now imagine being able to do that to politicians and CEO’s. If you like the Matrix movies you’ll find this movie especially entertaining. 

6. Manny’s Search by Edward C. Burton:

Amazon has the manuscript. I thought it was ready. Amazon sent it back with some formatting issues. The old 8.5 x 11 format typed up in MS Word just doesn’t cut it. I have to resize everything and save it as a .pdf file. What I really need is a crash course in desktop publishing. Amazon will take care of all this for me for a lofty fee, or I need to get off my lazy butt and learn the craft and do it myself. I do have the cover completed though thanks to my friend, Michael Tran.

7. Oblivion:

I panned this game back in 2006 because I was too busy with Second Life and World of Warcraft. Boy, what a fool I was. I’ve played some pretty deep RPGs, The Witcher, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect. And I must say this one delves even deeper yet it’s amazingly transparent. I recently quit Icewind Dale because of a game crashing bug and the fact that the mechanics were so hard. This game is the easiest RPG I’ve played. It’s depth is nothing short of incredible, like a reviewer in PC Gamer this month said about Skyrim, Bethesda put a whole freakin’ country in a box—likewise with Oblivion. What a way to spend the winter!