Sacred 2: Update

Well, then.

Could it have taken me any longer to get around to this? Especially considering I actually finished the game several months ago?

Well, here I am anyway, with a final review of the Light Campaign version of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. (Dark Side review is still in-processing, as my Shadow characters have yet to leave the High Elf zone.

1.) My apologies to Blind Guardian. Their inclusion was more than appropriate, and their contribution was one of the most interesting and awesome parts of the game. I wish more games did something like that, and I miss Ascaron already.

2.) My apologies to Ascaron; turns out Sacred 2 is a PREQUEL to Sacred 1. Heh, shows what I know. On the other hand, that lends credence to an older Sgt. Flavius…maybe he got his ears domed, after the events of Sacred 1? And you *can* find references between the games–you just have to know what you’re going for.

3.) Camera was actually pretty easy to figure out–the patches fixed a wide variety of the original problems (including having to S&E for option-tweaking and fixing the journal interface to look like an actual journal instead of a higher-tech-looking menu–though that certainly *would* be appropriate for Temple Guardians.)

4.) More Easter eggs, more inside jokes, and more fun abound in Sacred 2’s Ancaria.

5.) While there are a great deal of mobs one can take at ranged, the boss fights in particular seem primarily melee-oriented (though I’ve seen a video of a dryad taking out the last four bosses. Not to be attempted if you have arthritis and/or don’t believe in hotkeys. Actually, if you don’t believe in hotkeys, don’t do ranged. Trust me.)

6.) New feature: multi-character chest! No more creating mule toons and dual-boxing! Now, when you access your player chest, just click on the second tab and make any gear you find available to any other character you create, new and existing! If you like gearing alts through one character’s hard work, this is a Gods-send.

7.) The leveling process is very much more streamlined than I seem to recall from Sacred 1, and only minimal grinding may be required to get a level or two to take mobs near a region boss fight. That said, there was a very notable level jump from the mobs in the second-to-last zone (Dryad islands) to the last zone (Forgotten or Wasted lands, can’t remember–either way, it’s definitely a fight to the top–bring your XP and Healing potions, and lots of both!). The increase in the number of portals also made getting around (and completing some quests) significantly easier. The resurrection monolith is also a lovely little teleportation mechanic, but you can only have one active monolith at a time (sensible, that), so using it involves a bit of strategy–much like using the Mark/Recall combination in Morrowind.

8.) Ending cinematic was certainly interesting. Through the far-seeing power of the almighty YouTube, I have seen the end-campaign cinematics for both the Light and Shadow campaigns, though I have to admit I was much more fond of the Light version–as it led quite smoothly into Sacred 1’s setup.

9.) Want Sacred 2 Soundtrack. That is all. (No, really, particularly the Seraphim combat music, which was used in the original Fallen Angel trailer. The Shadow Warrior also has good music, but the Seraphim’s combat music sold me.)

I believe that’s all, for this round.

Holy Crap, it’s been a while!

New year, new changes.  And boy, have there been changes.

Like the Ipod.  And the Itouch.  (Now with Bejeweled!  Gogo addiction!)  But perhaps the best change of them all was the new vaccum I got for Valentine’s.

Yes, I got a vaccum for Valentine’s Day, and I see it as a good thing.

We needed one, and since the last one decided to fall apart on me, I decided to drop hints to Mr. Civarnis.  Well, he didn’t want to go shopping for it on his own, so we went on Valentine’s Day.  After about twenty minutes of dithering, we finally got something I think will work for both of us.  It’s certainly working wonders for me.

World of Warcraft: Horde vs. Alliance

I might as well come right out and say it, to spare any possible suspicion upon further reading: I am, wholeheartedly, an Alliance toady. I’d back King Varian Wrynn any day of the week, and I’m proud of that little lion head. And yes, as much as I like red and black, and don’t really like blue and gold as a color combination (now, blue and silver would get me sold), I’d wear that tabard with pride…if I could PvP worth a damn.

Now, that said, I play both sides, in order to try to keep a balanced perspective. I’m not blind, and I’m not stupid–the Alliance has its faults. Constant gnome jokes (to which the humans seem oddly immune, or I haven’t heard them all), obsession with the past, prejudice, the Scarlet Crazies (wait, that’s everybody’s problem, never mind) …I’m sure there’s more, but I just got up, so I’ll list them later, should the need arise. However, my problems with the Horde are bigger and more notable–and, some would argue, superficial. Perhaps, but they’re sticking points all the same.

-The Alliance struck a truce with the Horde to fight the Burning Legion, and they stuck to it all through and after. Well done. The Horde stuck to it through the combat…but not so much afterward, as there are several quests up to at least the level 30’s (and some beyond) that involve distinctly anti-Alliance activities. If Thrall’s not looking for a fight, he’s certainly chosen a strange way to go about it. (While the Alliance *does* have a few anti-Horde quests, the majority are PvP specific, available to either faction–applying for the opposite, naturally–and leave the civilians alone. This is not the case for the Horde.)

-Speaking of Thrall, he’s kept two major liabilities to the Horde close. That might be strategy talking, but they’ve already proven to be weak points. Sylvanas and the Forsaken should have been completely purged from the Horde on the resolution of the Wrathgate event. (While I recognize there are those who do not follow her ideal, it’s not hard to fake such innocence and still prove to be a threat. He should’ve stuck with his original gut instinct and left ’em out–going to have to go with Truthseeker Sage, here.) Garrosh’s mind is definitely more in tune with the Old Horde than with the new–he should’ve stuck with the Mag’har in Outlands. Once he pulled his head out of his ass, he would’ve made an excellent leader…and wouldn’t be meddling in Azerothi politics. It’s definitely not his place.

Not that Northrend is much better, but I can see why Thrall sent him. It’d be nice if it cooled him off any, but no dice. If only it was his soul Frostmourne had eaten and not Saurfang the Younger’s.

Of course, people that are strongly anti-Alliance (and there are many–I think I can count on one hand all the Alliance fans out there, if the fan pages are anything to go on) will point out several different flaws with the Alliance. The biggest one is King Wrynn.

Well, let’s review: Dad gets killed by orc he thought he could trust. Check. Undead take over the city he was essentially raised in, who eventually swear fealty to the Horde–which is run by orcs. Check. One-time allies High Elves (now Blood Elves) abandon the Alliance during a time of war and join the Horde. Check–but the real traitor was Garithos, whose prejudice screwed the Alliance in a big way and he should’ve dangled over it. Continued acts of aggression by the Horde against the Alliance, in spite of the truce? Check. Pleas for peace, despite all this, coming from Princess Whackjob of Theramore? Check. (Note: I actually don’t have a huge problem with Jaina, but I’m not sure if she should’ve been there when Thrall and Varian met in Dalaran.) Undead bomb the hell out of both parties using biological weapons at a major strategic battle? Check. And Thrall keeps them in the Horde anyway? Check.

But what the hell, right? Varian’s got no reason to be a whiny bitch at all! /sarcasm When you lose more guys in one day than you lost fighting the Scourge for years, and it’s because of the guys you supposedly had a truce with, I’d be done with the damned Horde, too. Nevermind this nonsense about “betrayal from within”–Sylvanas picked a Dreadlord as her majordomo, instead of banishing him. She’s been acting against anything that lives and breathes for years, which pretty much plays right into his hands. Betrayal is a convenient excuse to hide behind, because if she didn’t, she knows that both sides would annihilate her and her “people” joyfully and with great pomp. And fire. Lots and lots of fire. Lordaeron would burn for months, and probably look more like the Ghostlands afterwards. Not that it looks much better, now.

But Blizzard can’t get rid of the Forsaken, because it’s a player faction. And there are a lot of Undead players. It would significantly ding their player base if they ditched a faction out of story reasons. So the bullshit betrayal story stands. Now, to wait for the ultimate act of betrayal, where Thrall’s Horde is collapsing all around him and the only fool he has to blame is himself for letting it get this far.

Wow. I need to organize my thoughts better.

Review: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

Keeping in mind that I haven’t tried the expansion yet (though I’m wildly curious), and I haven’t finished either the Light or the Shadow campaigns yet, this will probably be redone at some point. This is just going off what I’ve seen so far.

Right off the bat, though, I’m not sure whose idea Blind Guardian was, but it was an interesting touch. Not sure if I’d go so far as to call it nice, but I’ll take a bard in the middle of town working for his dinner for atmosphere any day. The lyrics leave a bit to be desired, but German-to-English translations don’t always go so well. Neither does Bulgarian. (See Malina.) Nor Ukrainian. (See Ruslana.)

No, really, go to YouTube and look those two up. Malina can be a bit interesting, but if you like pop, she’s good. Ruslana’s good, too, and the team-up with T-pain was a pleasant surprise.

But ANYWAY, we’re not here about that. We’re here about Sacred 2, which is surprisingly very good. I only say it’s surprisingly good, because there were so many new hurdles to work around, it was difficult to enjoy at first. It’s very easy to get distracted by the pretty 3D graphics, magnificently rendered (though, as another reviewer said, it really *is* windy all the time in Ancaria!), but that distraction can get you easily lost–and the floating, yet oddly inflexible camera can be quite disorienting. You *can* fix this, but not with the base release on its own–you have to download the most recent patches to do that. Same for accessing an options menu while in-game, as opposed to saving and exiting to twiddle with the functions.

Adjusting to the new minimap keys is also a challenge, but at least this carried over from the original Sacred–something I couldn’t be more thankful for. One advantage Sacred 2 has over the original is the underground map. Not only can I figure out where the hell I’m going when I’m underground, and see what enemies may lie in wait, but it gives me a reference point for when my camera is stuck in the Black Wall. Nothing says love like fighting blind.

There are currently six character classes in the game (with a seventh coming up in the as-yet-unreleased expansion): Dryad, High Elf (think Mage), Inquisitor, Seraphim (making a comeback from S1), Shadow Warrior (WoW players will recognize a Death Knight in this one), and the Temple Guardian (Anubian cyborgs with a gun arm. Yeah, I’m not sure what’s going on there, either.) Having started one of each of the classes, I found that the easiest start I had was with the Shadow Warrior, then the Seraphim, Dryad, Temple Guardian, Inquisitor, and High Elf–a battle-mage this girl is not. Ascaron wasn’t kidding when they suggested in the manual that the High Elf was better for experienced players.

Now, in the player’s defense: Ranged DPS is something I have experience with. Two years of playing a hunter and mage on WoW, with previous time playing an Amazon in Diablo 2, gives me a little something to go on, I think. But those two generally have something in the way of stopping enemies before they reach melee range, or defending themselves once they get there and have no other choice. The High Elf, so far as I can tell, has absolutely none of these. Your best defense is to zoom the camera until you’re a little reddish speck on the map and hope for the best.

They also suggested the Dryad was best for experienced players, but again–hunters and amazon players will probably fall right into line with this one. The Dryad, however, does have a limited amount of melee capability…ish (she stabs people with arrows via her nail-gun bow…or blowgun She gets either one to work with.), so she’s a little easier to survive with.

The Shadow Warrior is pure tank. All melee, all the time, and he’s pretty tough. If you played the Barbarian in Diablo 2, a Warrior or Death Knight (particularly DK roleplayers would like this) on WoW, or a Gladiator in the original Sacred, then this guy’s a breeze to slip into. He’s actually the recommended class for new players, and I can see why.

The Inquisitor…is best described as a WoW Warlock and a Diablo 2 Necromancer meet the Spanish Inquisition. No pun really intended, there. Cloth-wearing, mace-wielding eternal curmudgeon out to damn the world of Ancaria. No, really, this guy is *completely* incapable of a truly non-selfish act. (He can’t play the Light-side Campaign, just like Seraphim–being Paladins–can’t play the Dark Side. Breaks the roleplay options a little, but it’s not really surprising.)

The Seraphim is Ancaria’s female answer to the Paladins of other universes…only it’s a sorority. That’s right, no male Seraphim. Strikes me as odd, but they *are* Ascaron’s trademark Sacred fanservice, so I’m not the least surprised. They’ve made them much more playable in the early levels, which is good–they needed to. Trying to level a Sacred 1 Seraphim in a Sacred 2 zone would send the poor girl running screaming back to the Monastery. Some of the armor actually looks like it might be mildly protective, as well as attractive. However, she still has a chest about as big as her head on each side (Remember: fanservice) and those incredibly annoying pigtails that have always been my one real aesthetic problem with playing the race. Having at least seen some different hair colors in the various trailers, I had hoped for some customization options–maybe even something along the line of Fable’s style cards. Nope, though it looks like my progress through the Light campaign has changed her from platinum blonde to a sort of blondish-brown. Loss of faith, maybe?

The Story

Sure, why not? I would be, too. Having seen the opening cut-scene (with the rushed dialogue), I had to wonder just how far Ascaron had to dig to get Sacred 2’s story. I’m not even sure how much of a time jump has been involved, but it must be pretty massive.

When we last left our noble heroes (presumably at the end of the Underworld campaign), Ancaria’s regent ruler had died at the hands of the demonologist and necromancer Anducar. On the other hand, the gate to the Underworld behind the royal castle in Braverock was shut down, so everything was good–except for being leaderless. When Sacred 2 starts, we figure out that some of the things hinted at throughout Sacred 1 were right: the Seraphim were servants of the Gods, but the power of the Gods was “T-energy” (whatever the hell that is), and they had sole control over it. Well, at some point, they decided to hand that job over to the High Elves–a race hitherto unheard of in Ancaria, so far as I can tell. (But they had Wood Elves and Dark Elves, so I’m guessing High Elves are possible.) Three guesses what happened from there.

Yep, yep, and yep. The High Elves basically became the Blood Elves of Ancaria. Addicted to power, they used and abused T-energy to whatever whim they thought they needed to fulfill at the time. Naturally, this got everybody else nervous, and they all banded together to stand up to the crazy people. No dice, no love–they crushed the resistance, and made them all slaves. Of course, the old empire was destroyed in the process, so they just built a new one. And then pipelines for pure, undiluted T-energy were built to pipe it into the city so no one would have to get their feet dirty adventuring.

Well, pipes leak. The pipeline sprung some major leaks, and now the countryside is contaminated with this stuff, changing the landscape and the critters living there into monstrous things or worse.

Way to cheese Ancaria, Seraphim. I have to wonder how often they’ve regretted that decision since? Either way, the land is now at *another* vital crossroads, and you get to decide this time: Save Ancaria or Screw Ancaria.

This is also not your daddy’s Ancaria–anyone looking for the old towns won’t find them. Anywhere. Must be visiting a new section of the country. Glad to see they brought Sgt. Flavius back, but I admit I was irritated to find him a High Elf.

More when I’ve had more of a chance to see the rest of the game. So far, this is pretty good.

Review: Twilight (The Movie)

Yes, this is going in the Books area, because it’s about a book. Well, that, and since I was just talking about the book, I figured I’d throw it on there while I was thinking about it.

I saw it the week it came out, at one of the newer theaters in town. Naturally, I was joined by about as many teens, preteens, tweens, and other crazy psychotic hormonal women they could cram into that tiny theater. (And I do mean women–I think my husband and the theater manager were the only males in the theater the whole time!) By now, I’d resigned myself to audible sighs, the occasional squeal, and cell phones going off.

Then the movie started.

Once it was over, I wanted to invest in eye bleach. And maybe a bit of ear bleach, too.

The movie itself wasn’t horrible–I’d buy it on Itunes. (I’d get the actual DVD if the husband would support carrying it, but he was less than thrilled. Not that I exactly blame him, but it’s differences in tastes.) The people I went to see did the jobs I expected them to do with the quality I expected of them, so I got what I paid for. However, despite my rising irritation with the Caffeinated Hypercrowd, there was one thing that really ruined the show for me.

Before the film was released, there was much speculation and concern about how they would handle the scene with Edward in a sunny field, showing off his glaring inconvenience. (See my post about “Twilight”, the book, if you don’t know what that is by this point.) Many were convinced that it would take incredibly-talented CGI to make it work, and were worried they would just paint his skin with glitter and call it even.

Well, the nay-sayers were right. Oh, how horribly right! They even had the damn Sparkly.MP3 start playing at the Grand Reveal! SPARKLY DOT FRIGGIN’ MP3! What the hells is that?!

I think (and a friend agreed with me) my review in one of my previous blogs said it best: (to Robert Pattinson, the guy behind Edward) “Wash off your face or turn in your balls. You are hereby banned from glitter until further notice.” Whatever it was they did to him, I’m sure it wasn’t comfortable. Even looking at it in the film, he looked unsure and edgy.

Okay, I also had a problem with the shameless appearance of Mrs. Meyers in the film. It’s not really the fact that the cameo happened–there were rumors Mrs. Rowling did that, too, though those rumors turned out to be false–it’s the way the camera kind of rested on her, and it showed her looking around and smiling as if everything was going exactly as she intended. It was probably excitement that this was really happening, and boy was this her lucky year, but it just came across as smarmy to me.

Okay, shameless isn’t the right word. It stays until I can find a better one, at which point I’ll edit to fix.

I’ve heard many complaints that most of the actors seemed awkward throughout the entire production. I actually blame the director for that one, and was glad to hear she was not on board for the second one. Might have to see if I can sneak in to see how New Moon pans out, as they kept a bunch of the original cast. Not a huge fan of the book, personally, but sometimes the movie is better than the book. Rare, but it happens. (And I’ll review the book later.)

Review: Twilight (Twilight Series) – The Book

Before getting started, I just want to say that I have read all the books. With the notable exception of the last, I liked (or could at least tolerate) what I read. I think it’s an interesting take on the vampire mythos, and it has promise. Yes, it really does. This will probably make my next few reviews sound awfully strange, but–well, there you go.

Twilight is basically a Romeo-and-Juliet sort of situation, only Romeo is a vampire. A vampire with a conscience, and a human(e?) soul. Shades of Buffy? Maybe, but I didn’t think it was too bad. It was believable, at least. Stephenie Meyers wrote a fairly believable heroine (well, main character, at least) in how she interacts with the world around her and how she reacts to the things and people she finds within it. There’s a bit of Mary-Sue glitter, but it hasn’t reached offensive levels here. That happens later in the series, but I digress.

On basic personality analysis, Edward is a creepy stalker who could probably use some psychological help. But then again, so could Alex from “Tale of a Vampire”. (Real movie, swear to Gods. Look it up on Itunes.) Obsession and protection from an immortal creature toward a mortal one? Not actually that strange, just not something that a lot of people not reading fantasy books would likely encounter. Well, not the kind I’m accustomed to reading, anyway, but I have a pretty weird taste in books. Overall, he’s out there, and wonky, but still believable.

Well, right up until the whole Day-Glo thing. I have to agree with those who have serious issues with the book on this point. Glitter is an inconvenience. Glitter is not Kryptonite to your Superman, or circuit-shortage to Iron-Man (or whatever his weakness is–admittedly not a follower of the comic. ANYWAY!), but an eye-searing inconvenience. Now, maybe the choice of diet renders him more resistant to sunlight, and he starts out with a mild sunburn that worsens to frying flesh with extremely extended exposure–that I could get. But shimmer-skin? What the hell are you, a snake?

Thankfully, it’s not just Edward, but all of her vampires that have that problem. Sadly, it’s not one that’s really a glaring inconvenience, more than a placeholder plot device.

This book ended well enough that it could happily stand on its own…and at first, I thought it did. The “guilty pleasure” balance was about an even 50/50, despite it basically being romantic fanfiction. But I can be partial to romantic fanfiction, if it piques my interest. This did. When I found out there were more, I was intrigued. Probably more than I should’ve been, as it turns out, but that’s for another time.

Review: Marked (House of Night series)

As previously mentioned, I’m a lazy bookworm. Here, the emphasis lies in bookworm. If I even attempted a list of the books I own-let alone the ones I’ve read–I would probably exceed page listings seven times over. I haven’t updated my Shelfari listings in months, and even then I don’t have everything listed because I couldn’t remember them all offhand. So I figured I would start with a personal review, instead.

Cheap, I know, but I didn’t tell you this was going to be a quality blog, did I?

We’ll talk more about quality in a second. First off, we’ll talk about the book in the title: “Marked”, the first in the House of Night series by mother-daughter team P.C. and Kristin Cast. After having read the “Twilight” series (more on that later), I expected this to be something of a similar vein, but different enough to stand on its own.

Boy, was I wrong.

I picked up a different book, “Generation Dead” (more on that later, too) that flat-out said on the cover that there were clear comparisons with Stephenie Meyers’ work. I think the House of Night series is a much better fit for this bit…I’d even go so far as to say this is basically OC Twilight fan fiction. (That’s “Original Character”, for the curious.)

No, really, it is. It’s Twilight fan fiction with some basic Wicca and a smattering of (I guess?) Cherokee native beliefs.

A vampire finishing school is an idea I’d like to see fleshed out, don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen it done in manga, so why not try a Western variant? But the school itself is about the only thing the book seems interesting for. What’s wrong with it? Oh, where do I begin?

-Vampire. Not that hard to remember. Yes, there are some older spellings with “Vampyre” or variations thereof, but seriously…no. If you want to be taken seriously, spell it correctly.

-School is basically a parochial school, but doesn’t seem to have any of the restrictions or noted benefits of a parochial school. Not to mention, it’s nice to have Wicca be a recognized religion in your universe, but really? Be realistic. If you’re going to paint a better world, make it believable, or it’s just a fantasy.*

-Mixing Cherokee with Wicca and a Greek goddess. No. Even if the research was done on Cherokee beliefs, to blend them together is not cool. Even in a fiction sense, I think it would be highly disrespectful to the Cherokee to mix in their beliefs with other belief systems. At the very least, they don’t worship Nyx. I don’t know if they do actually have an equivalent–I admit, I haven’t gone poking my nose in their business. However, Greece and this land we call America =/= same continent, and therefore similar beliefs.**

-On the other hand, I’m guessing the “People of Faith” is some kind of mega-church? I’m no Christian myself, and I’ve seen what many who claim the Christian faith do, so I’m not saying the portrayal is incredibly far off the mark. However, to set them all up as this massively evil organization out to break down everything because it’s different has a whiff of “I’m so persecuted!” about it. That could just be the way it’s written here, though.

-Most famous or successful people in the universe happen to be “vampyres”. Ya-huh. Fairly typical way to say that something is well-known and accepted in a culture, is to suddenly make many well-recognized cultural icons part of the new race/religion/fashion trend.

-The “Vampyre Tracker”…I don’t get the concept. Even though it might be explained in one of the later books, I’m not sure I want to keep reading to find out. Most of all, if the Change doesn’t happen unless you get Marked, and the Tracker doesn’t show up to mark you…does it mean the line of “Vampyres” ends? If so, why not just kill every Tracker that shows up? Then kill the vamps and have done with it? Humanity does not do so well cohabiting with parasites. Bubonic Plague, anyone? Locust-storms in the Dust Bowl? Cricket invasions in California (and Georgia, IIRC? Maybe Texas?)

There were some redeeming qualities about this book…but not enough for me to continue reading the series. Definitely not enough to balance the “guilty pleasure” scale beyond “guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt maximum sentence PLEASE!”. It was an interesting read, but it could be done better.

It’s not the only one, though. I’ll review the Twilight series next…yes, including the movie.

You can run screaming, now.

Asterisks! Yay!

* = I get that it’s a story. It’s fiction. In a fantasy world. Not real, part of the writer’s imagination. I get that. Really, I do. But given how many people of the ages these books are written for that can’t distinguish fact from fiction all that well, I find it kind of dangerous to mix something like that and have it shown as something that works and is acceptable.

** = Eclectic Paganism is one thing, and I respect it as a valid path…but that’s a personal practice. Emphasis on “Personal.” See above note for mixing it up and making it widespread. All the same, the bit with the Cherokee recognizing a Greek goddess struck a *really* bad chord with me.

Games I play…

Well, if you took two seconds to read the About page, then:

1.) It’s more than I expected.
2.) Thank you.
3.) Woot!
4.) You know I play games. Whether or not that makes me a gamer depends on how strictly you define the term. I didn’t think it mattered that much, but to some folks, this is apparently “serious business”. Since when did games become work?

I’m more for PC than console games, because I’m an inveterate button-masher. I would probably be much better by now if our one console with more than six buttons (counting the trigger and three numbered buttons on the Wii-mote, in case you wondered where my tally came from) was working as intended. It isn’t. But anyway, here’s what I’ve played and what I’ve played it on:

8-bit Nintendo:
Super Mario Bros.
Duck Hunt
Paper Boy (Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds.)
one of the Yoshi titles–can’t remember which. Only played it once, and we’re talking *decades* ago while on a family vacation.

SNES:
Donkey Kong Country
Mortal Kombat
Sonic something-or-other (had a friend in junior high who was obsessed with Sonic. Very nice person, wish I’d got off my ass and tried to keep in touch. I hope she’s got better friends now.)
Crash Bandicoot (?) Fairly certain that was the SNESsy, but it might’ve been the N64…

Nintendo64:
Crash Bandicoot (?) Double-listing just in case I’m wrong.
Mario Kart
Mario 64 (Another good friend in junior high. Another I should’ve tried harder to keep in touch with. Good Gods I’m lousy.)

PS2:
FF8
FF7
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
Prince of Persia: Two Thrones
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Katamari Damacy
We ❤ Katamari

Wii:
WiiSports (Screw you, it counts)
Super Mario Galaxy
The Godfather
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

PC: (Dear Gods, here comes the text-wall!)
Doom 2
Blood (anyone remember that?)
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Castle of Dr. Brain
Island of Dr. Brain
Math Bears (Screw you people, I was FOUR!)
Warcraft 2
Starcraft (with Brood Wars expansion)
Diablo
Diablo 2 (with Lord of Destruction expansion)
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (much easier to play on PC than on PS2, in my opinion)
Morrowind (Game of the Year Edition, though I started with Vanilla. And yes, I am a hopeless mod-fiend.)
Oblivion (with Shivering Isles expansion and a few official mods.)
World of Warcraft (technically an MMO, but it's still a PC game, so it totally counts.)
Darkstone
Dungeon Siege
Dungeon Keeper 2
Black & White
Black & White 2
The Sims–and a couple of expansions.
The Sims 2–all expansions currently released and about three different Stuff packs
The Sims 3 (bit early for expansions yet, though I did pick up the freebie town. Seems…a little boring.)
Age of Mythology
Neverwinter Nights
Sacred (with Underworld and all relevant bits. It’s a shameless Diablo clone…but in a way, maybe a little more fun and/or challenging?)

Currently in the process of trying out Supreme Commander at the recommendation of a friend. RTS and I have not been good friends, traditionally, but I think that I should be much more open to the idea now that my primary play experience hasn’t been something along the lines of a Diablo-like clickfest, but we’ll see. Also looking into trying Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. With Ascaron in bankruptcy, I’ll be lucky if that happens–finding it locally kind of sucks–but we’ll see.

I believe Supreme Commander will play on my system, which is nice. Not sure about Sacred 2, which makes me a bit of a sad panda; I couldn’t get the first one to work, which was very disappointing. (Thankfully, I still have a computer that will run it…it’s just not one I have access to after about six in the evening. Husband and his raid group. /sigh)

I think that about sums it up. Next object lesson in WordPress: How to use a cut-tag. Seriously. I don’t think LJ-cut works here, and this list could use a cut-tag.

Not really sure…

Still kind of leery about posting on a blog…which is kind of curious, considering I spent much of two years devoted to both Livejournal and Greatestjournal (before GJ went down…though, with the state it was in, it really was a blessing over a curse. I’m surprised LJ’s lasted as long as it has). One would think that, after such extensive practice, I’d be perfectly fine with it.

The problem lies in that, to be completely free in a blog, you either have to be naive or bitter…maybe even both, if that’s even humanly possible. (It’s out there, but I wouldn’t naysay it entirely.) And I’m not nearly as naive as I once was, and certainly not bitter enough to not be at all paranoid. Stupid people in large groups–and you can’t get much larger than the Internet, for large groups–tend to do very dangerous things, and I’m a really big fan of not being a statistic. Well, not one related to crime, anyway. I’m a statistic by sheer virtue of living, breathing, and doing all the other things most humanoid-type critters do.

But on the other hand, I’m really liking this theme. Green isn’t a color I usually go for, but I’ve been finding myself drawn to it lately, and the girl on the side is a nice touch. I also liked the “Connections” theme, and there was a bit of juggling between the two, but this one was a pretty handy win. It seems like something I would do, if I were checking something out. And if I’m checking myself out…well, what’s a little vanity, now and then?

A guaranteed audience of one…well, one plus whoever else stumbles across this. Probably from Octad. *waves* Hi, guys!

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

So, there it is. Me and WordPress, taking a tango. Not sure how this is going to work, but the worst part about the whole thing is just trying, right?

This shouldn’t be hugely publicly accessible, so chances are good that if you stumbled across this blog at all, it’s because you know me. If so, hey there! I wouldn’t expect anything fancy here, but maybe I’ll give it a go.

If you’ve found this page by randomly coming across it through things like StumbleUpon (love that, great for random surfing) or the like equivalent, or you happened to mistype the actual address you were looking for…well…

1.) I’m sorry, this isn’t the page you’re looking for.
2.) Nothin’ to see here, move along.
3.) On the other hand, at least it’s not a porn site. Nothing like mistyping an address and having *that* show up to ruin your day.

I should give a shoutout to my friends and associates over at Octad Gaming, though–if you’re looking for them, then I’d be glad to help you out. They’re kind of new, still, but it looks like it could be interesting.