I had forgotten this blog existed when someone on a forum mentioned the great Lesbian Stripper Ninja. I should probably write something about games, huh?

I loaded up Oblivion on the PC, downloaded a dozen mods to 'fix' the game, and it was still barely tolerable. The game feels lifeless, soulless, and meaningless.

The landscape is good looking, I'll give it that. The people, the cities, the armor, the ruins, and the caves range from ugly to boring. Fallout 3 had lots of ugly but it also had some character.

Yet, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is on my 'to buy' list for 2011. Why? Morrowind.

I loved Morrowind. When I first got the game, it required too much RAM for my system to handle and I still managed to chug through the first part at about 2 FPS. I'd never played, or imagined, a game like that. The concept of open-world gameplay was completely new to me. I recall the first time it rained and I called my mother over to the computer to look at it. I'd never seen weather effects in a game before.

I played through the entire game and I enjoyed it. I played through parts of Fallout 3 and enjoyed them as well. This is all I ask. I believe Bethesda can do it again.

Speaking of Morrowind, the Morrowind 2011 Graphical Update has been released.



As soon as I saw it, I uninstalled Oblivion and downloaded it. I'll probably start with vanilla Morrowind as installing Tribunal means an assassin attacks you as soon as you sleep. I also need to find that 'less hostile creatures' mod. I'm don't want mudcrabs, rats, and raptors chasing me across Vvardenfell.
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For those of you who like casual, flash games, I have two:

Every Day The Same Dream - Very simple. Listen to the woman in the elevator. You only need to play it once but I played it three times. Also, a bit depressing.

Bloxorz - A puzzle game in 33 stages where you manipulate a rectangular cube and attempt to put it in a square hole. I am currently stuck on stage 11.

Happy holidays to whomever reads this blog. All two of you.

I've caught a bit of a cold and it's almost freezing in Las Vegas, which means I'm miserable, cold, and disinclined to game. However, it's hard not to be excited about the Christmas after Christmas when I opened my spreadsheet, list all the games I hope to buy this year, what date they're coming out, and how much this will cost me.

2011 looks to be a ridiculously awesome year for gaming. 15 games I want, 5 games I might be interested in, and who knows how many titles that I'm not aware of yet because they're not a sequel.

Want:

Q1 2011
Dead Space 2 (January)
Crysis 2 (March)
Dragon Age 2 (March)

Q2 2011
Portal 2 (April)
Witcher 2 (May)
Torchlight II (TBA)

Q3 2011
Batman: Arkham City (TBA)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (TBA)

Q4 2011
Elder Scrolls V (November)
Mass Effect 3 ("Holidays")
Dungeon Siege 3 (TBA)
Risen 2 (TBA)
Guild Wars 2 (TBA)
XCOM (TBA)
Diablo 3 (Maybe)

Interested in:

Rage (September)
I Am Alive (TBA)
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm (TBA)
Defense of the Ancients 2 <- Valve has made the popular Warcraft III mod into a game.
The Old Republic (Q2/Q3)

R18+ Rating For Computer Games Close

The Gillard Government appears to be ready to embrace the notion of an R18+ rating for adult computer games, after a review found there was little evidence of a strong link between violent computer games and violent crime or aggressive behavior.

The Minister for Home Affairs and Justice, Brendan O'Connor, released the review yesterday.

It comes shortly before a standing committee of attorneys-general from across Australia discuss the issue at a meeting in Canberra on Friday December 10.
Under consideration is a proposal to introduce the R18+ classification, restricting sales and viewing of adult games to people aged 18 and over. At present, since they are refused classification, such games cannot be sold in Australia.

O'Connor appeared to be amenable to the new category in his remarks yesterday.

"We need a classification system that protects young minds from any possible adverse affect, while also ensuring that adults are free to make their own decisions about what they play, within the bounds of the law," he said, adding: "I'm keen to proceed with making this important decision, based on solid and robust evidence."

From the linkosphere: An Extremely Interesting History of Game Packaging. That's the name of the article. I only found it somewhat interesting.

I've finished with Flame of Vengeance and ought to have the review up tomorrow.

You may recall that last year I picked up Divinity 2: Ego Draconis and considered it 'one-third of an awesome game.' I was thrilled to read about the Flames of Vengeance expansion that would supposedly finish the story of the Dragon Knight.

Flame of Vengeance was to arrive in August but got pushed to November. It then came out as part of the Dragon Knight Saga, which is a graphically enhanced version of Ego Draconis and the expansion bundled together. As far as I can tell, there's no way for owners of the original game to simply buy the expansion pack, but Dragon Knight Saga is only $39.99.

After instillation, I attempted to load up my last save so I could jump into Flames of Vengeance, but the game says my old saves are all 'wrong version.' I can create a fresh, high-level character for FoV, but I might as well replay the original game. It's been almost a year but I do recall I wanted to try out something other than the basic melee build I originally used.

Unfortunately, the 'enhanced graphical engine' still gives me a black screen when I pick my PC's native 1680x1050 resolution and attempts to reset to 640x400. My video card doesn't even support that. Why in the world would a modern game even acknowledge the existence of such a screen resolution?

I do what I had to do in the first game and open: C:/Users/LSN/AppData/Local/Divinity2/Profile/graphicoptions.xml

And manually set my resolution.

The game doesn't support screen capture, so it's FRAPS time.

Despite my issues, I will say that the game itself is already faster. In the original, the main menu would appear and then I'd have to wait 15-30 seconds before I could interact with it. The time to load the character creation screen is also faster.

Dragon Age II Items

If you sign up for the BioWare/Dragon Age newsletter, BioWare will give you codes for two DLC items in Dragon Age II, the Staff of Parthalan and Hindsight, a magical belt. You need to have a BSN or EA account.

To get the Staff, click here and sign-up for the newsletter. They'll mail you a code but it's taking a month for some reason.

To get Hindsight, click here, click Get Your DAII Penny Arcade Belt, and sign up to the newsletter *again*. This item will automatically appear in your game promotions.

Comments: I signed up and immediately was sent 2 DA II newsletters + EA newletter. Others have not gotten any newsletters. I don't know why they didn't automatically add the Staff of Parthalan to your promotions. I guess Hindsight is 20/20?

The Hindsight belt promotion shows for the X-Box 360 and PC, but not the PS3. That does make me wonder if they're having problems with PS3 accounts.

BioWare Loot

It occurred to me while writing my Fallout: New Vegas review that BioWare sent my current video card. I won it in the community event they had in April, but it seems like something a game review should mention, yes?

Sadly, though I've only had it for five months, light grays have started to turn pink. Whites, blues, reds, yellows, blacks – fine. Light gray? Slightly pink. It's an ATI Radeon HD 5770.

Blog Update

You might have noticed, but I went incognito in the spring and have just resurfaced like a terrible sea creature rising from the irradiated depths to devour the scrumptious inhabitants of New Tokyo.

If you see this as a good thing, thank
1) swirlwind, a woman at the BSN who was kind enough to say she would like to read a review of New Vegas from me,
2) Monster Import, which I devoured an entire can of while I wrote the review, and
3) The Myst Series soundtrack.