Still enjoying the new mighty machine atop my desk. Just picked up a set of Steelseries Siberia V2 headphones. What an amazing pair of cans! I'm using the onboard Realtek sound chip which is . . . hmmm, okay. But my next acquisition will be a Creative Z board. I'm just too much of an audiophile to not have a discrete sound card. Not being disrespectful to those of you who think sound is sound, to my discerning ears, yes, there is a massive difference. I remember installing an X-Fi card and getting accused of cheating in Battlefield 2. I heard my enemy's footprints in leaves, behind a building. I realized then and there I truly had a legitimate advantage. Finished a few games this past month that tested my tolerance and toyed with my patience. Portal, Mirror's Edge, and Titan Quest. All of these games were more difficult than they had a right to be. But then maybe it's just me. Maybe I really don't have any natural ability to be a gamer. Could I be the victim of a life misspent? Maybe so, but I'll fake it to my last breath. Can't stop now, been doing it too long, since 1989. But I mean, come on, 100 hours into Titan Quest, get to the final boss and he one shots me and my elemental? That's supposed to be fun? That's not even a challenge. That game is going on eBay. I don't even want it in the house anymore. And Mirror's Edge, yes it was fun, but there are some levels I loaded 30 times to get through. I'm either crazy or a masochist. Both? Okay, on to the good stuff for this month:
1. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Last year I read The Road by McCarthy and in my review said it would break your heart. Well, I'm paraphrasing here from my own review on Shelfari, but Blood Meridian has to be the cruelest book I've ever read. And this is no Clive Barker Books of Blood goo, this is harsh black writing that floats down as light as a feather and settles into your stomach like a farrier's anvil. It's a rare thing that I'm so put off by a novel that I stop reading it, but in this book I came close. There are moments I had to close the book and take a look around me as if I was looking around the room laying claim to my own sanity. A band of cowboys ride down to Mexico to loot, pillage, and scalp Apache indians. Sounds like the stuff of a 1950's Saturday serial. Despite McCarthy’s poetic, dark and dismal tone, this book is fatally fascinating. And now I can't help myself. I want to read more of Cormac McCarthy.
2. Homefront on PC
This was a very short romp put out by THQ a few years ago. I picked it up at Half Price Books some time ago, and just got around to playing it. Penned by the same man who wrote the original 90's cult film, Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now, this game had a great storyline. Unfortunately, that may have been its most disconcerting attribute. I never felt like I was playing this game so much as I was being led by the hand to see a great and terrible tour of a North Korean invasion of our American homeland. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; I'm not sure I would want every new title from this point forward to be this kind of game, but it was interesting nonetheless. I have heard that The Walking Dead game is portrayed the same way. Yet it involves a fair amount of soul searching and grave decision making. It's an interesting mechanic and I'll keep my eyes open for more of this type of gameplay.
3. Mirror's Edge on PC
I picked this game up way back in 2009. Running it on my Intel E7200 with its (at the time) uber 9800GT card I couldn't even use PhysX because it turned the game into a slide show. I recently reinstalled it on my new rig and 1080p. The difference was totally remarkable. I get accused of saying every game I play is the most gorgeous game I've ever played up to that point. In that defense I will say this much: this game has the cleanest, brightest, clinically perfect geometry I've seen in any game. Ever. It's a short game that can easily be played over a couple of evenings that involves a girl who uses parkour to send messages and thwart an Orwellian neo government that is way too corporate for its own good. Oddly, this game feels like a blend of Final Fantasy (at least the 2006 movie) and a pinch of Cameron Crowe's excellent Vanilla Sky.
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
I'm about to embark on a great crusade, that is, begin this serial tome that purists say rivals Tolkien's revered Lord of the Rings. We shall see. I have not watched the HBO series, nor will I probably, especially while reading the books. This book had a hand in the story of Bioware's Dragon Age. The first book alone is 800 pages plus. I can't wait to dig in.
5. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho on Blu-Ray
Lauded by many to be the scariest movie ever made, I can see it. And with this perfect transfer to Blu-Ray I can see it at nothing less than perfect. At the expense of sounding almost arrogant, this movie was the original master all horror movies have since been cut from, and sadly, not very well. This movie was the original splatter movie less the blood, sex and gore. Yet, if you watch it you'll swear you saw all of these elements (which have since become worn clichés.) But all of this is trite compared to the real reason this movie is so horrifying. It was so easy to watch a Universal Dracula or Wolfman movie and implement an almost "keystone caper-esque" mindset in how fantastic and unreal these movies were. Psycho shattered that mindset. It ruined us in a sense. Norman Bates could have been any one of our neighbors. A simple shower skewered our imaginations afterwards.
6. Battlefield 3 on PC
On my deathbed when I look back at the hours, days, and minutes I spent on Battlefield 2 I will probably shed one last tear. It's one of the few games I ever preordered. And it was the first game I bought on DVD. It's my 2nd most hours played game on X-fire. Any regrets? Nope. I loved the game. It's one of my top favorite games of all time, and probably always will be. But now, BF3 steps in to take its place on my new rig. The first weekend I played it I hammered out 35 hours. This level of commitment frightens me. Could it surpass my passion for Battlefield 2? I don't know. With EA shoving Battlefield 4 promos and ads down our throats I may be kidding myself trying to max out ranks/achievements in BF3, but then, hey, that's what I get for showing up so late. My old rig just couldn't run it. Well, okay, had I turned the graphics settings down, but you already know I just don't do that. And speaking of, this game in all its glorious muddy, runny, gritty graphics looks amazing at 1080p. Coming back to Wake Island and Karkand was like being the prodigal son showing up at the park pavilion right at the moment the family reunion cleanup commences. But it's okay. I'll be playing for a while, and this time, when Battlefield 4 comes out I'll be the first one in the serving line.
7. Knights of the Old Republic on PC
I tried to play this when it came out years ago, but got bored, misguided, frustrated, etc. Former Computer Gaming World editor, Jeff Green cited this game as the best RPG ever made. I've decided to give it another go on my laptop. Interestingly, it runs great on my i5 processor fitted laptop with integrated graphics. I'm (for once) playing an evil character, a Sith Consular, a dark crust of a man who specializes in chokeholds and mentally throwing victims against walls and ceilings. Ah, good stuff. I'm at level 4 so the fun is just beginning. I have one problem, however. I'm finding it hard as hell to be a bad guy. It just goes against my grain. Who would have known games can bring out our very cores?
8. Computer Games Magazine 2002
Revisiting these great old magazines that kindle a sense of nostalgia in me (unless you count my shelves full of old PC games) quite like nothing else can. 2002 was a great year, Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic, Rome Total War and Blizzard's World of Warcraft were all announced. I was utilizing a Pentium 4 1.8 gHz to ply my craft of murder and mayhem on the virtual fields and halls of my FPS's at this time. And what a glorious time it was.
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