Edward's February 2012 Mix

This has been a most interesting month to say the least. I finally finished King’s Dark Tower series. Like I’ve said before, I didn’t harbor much love for the characters with their dark moody mean ways, but had to find out what happened in the end. And I must admit the last 100 pages of the book made it all worth it. I also finished Dirt 2 this month. It only took me 90 hours total. Codemasters does it right, great game and highly recommended. Well, no, scratch that. They’ve since released Dirt 3. That’s the one I’d pick up. I tackled the original Fallout this month, but it crashed on my laptop and wouldn’t reload. I’ll try it again at a later time (probably when I finish Oblivion) on my desktop.

 

1. Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour ’08:

I’m still working my way through. Moving right along now, though. I’m dominating in the amateur tour and mowing down the professionals like crabgrass with a Bush Hog. I have the feeling Tiger will not be such a pushover, however. Still looks like I’m on solid course to finish the game this year. 

2. Battlestations: Pacific:

An RTS played with an Xbox controller. HUH? Whoever heard of such a thing, but guess what? It works! This is a strange hybrid of a game, really. It has all the elements of an intense war game, but also the excitement of a real time strategy game with a blend of simulation. You can command, calling all the shots from a standard satellite like view and you can jump into any plane, submarine, ship, or AA station at any time. The game is brutal, but doable. I’m struggling in some missions, but the payoff makes me feel like king of the world. Good stuff. 

3. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick:

The year is 1962. Japan and Germany kicked our asses in World War II. Jews live in hiding with assumed names and changed faces. And slavery is legal. The continent of Africa has been used to continue the Nazi’s human experimentation to the point of near genocide. Probably the most controversial science fiction novel I’ve read in a long time. Philip K. Dick won a Hugo for this work. It’s a good story, but Dick is not my favorite writer by any stretch. His most famous Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which was turned into the beautifully done film, BladeRunner is testament that a movie really can transcend the book that spawned it.  

4. Alien Quadrilogy on DVD:

Just finished the second movie, Aliens. It’s definitely an adventure movie more than a straight horror flick like the first one directed by Ridley Scott. James Cameron created this one, and after having watched it along with the “behind the scenes” disk it makes me wonder just how fun it would be to work 14-16 hour days with Sundays off (but not all Sundays) for 10 months straight. And to top it off, Cameron was like the worst boss in the world. I thought Scott was bad, but looks like Cameron was much more the perfectionist. The end result paid out though. Aliens was a great film.

5. The Wizard of Oz Omnibus on Amazon’s Kindle:

I recently picked up a Kindle, and I’m loving it. My first purchase was The Wizard of OZ The Complete Series by L. Frank Baum. I started these books when I was a kid but never got to finish them, and now not only can I enjoy them discretely (without looking like a weird old geezer reading a children’s book) but I got the entire collection for a mere 95 cents on Amazon. The book is already a 180 degree difference than the movie which obviously saccharined over everything. So far, sad and depressing. Yay! Just my kind of book!

6. Syberia: 

I haven’t played an adventure game in years, a lot of years. Hmmm . . .actually 2005, I think with Funcom’s venerable The Longest Journey. Great game, but I never finished it. Now I’m tackling another adventure game on my laptop since it seems to run it just fine. The game involves an American attorney who ventures to Europe to execute a will involving the takeover of a toy company that manufactures clocks and “automatons.” When she arrives she discovers much more than meets the eye. So far, the game has one of the most odd and memorable opening scenes I’ve seen in a game in some time. The sole heir to the toy company’s funeral coach somberly ambulating to the cemetery with an entourage of automatons and wind up toys leading the procession.

7. Napoleon: Total War:

Still whittling away in the European campaign. It seems each turn pisses another country off and causes them to declare war on us. But Napoleon Bonaparte shall prevail! Well, I hope he will. I still have much to do to own the whole of Europe, and time is passing. We shall see.

8. WarCraft III:

I thought I was done with this after finally finishing the Orc campaign. Nope. Now I’m faced with the plight of the Night Elves. Looking forward to getting it over with. One definitely gets his or her money with this game; it has so much to offer. I’ve not even tackled multiplayer (and I won’t.) Unfortunately, I had to utilize a cheat code for two missions in the Orc campaign. Hopefully I won't have to resort to such henious methods in the Night Elf campaign.