LadyCrimson

Since I was a teen Duranie for a couple years, that made me giggle. The last theater movie we saw was "Taken." I mostly wanted to see Liam Neeson kick some arse, which is basically what it offered. It was a mediocre-to-ok action movie, but I love Angry Liam. Edit:typo

Well, ep3 didn't impress me. Echo's progression of seeming to remember itty-bitty memory/feelings despite mind programming/wiping could be interesting, but unless the show becomes consistently better fast, probably won't last long enough for us to care to watch it. The FBI guy is a complete waste of space.

Ring around the castle, besieging is such a hassle. You'd think a King would be worth more than that. Spellcheck, please.

The 21kt won't cover my city, but a 140kt would obliterate my city and several of it's popular surrounding cities (including some of the richest, like Atherton...) as well. Our Mid-Peninsula area is one of those places where you have many small-medium towns/cities clustered together that most people think of as a large whole.

64. Jonty Barnes ...Anyone w/a large role in making Dungeon Keeper gets my vote. I still have a 1999 PC-Gamer mag that had a list of the "Greatest 25 Game Makers" where they got them all in one room for a photo shoot. For fun and the sense of passing time, when I see new lists like these, I like to compare who from that particular old one is still in the new one. The 1999 article was refreshingly not in a numbered best-to-least-best format, but the people mentioned were: Peter Molyneux, Chris Roberts, Sid Meier, Erik Yeo, Will Wright, Ron Gilbert, John Carmack, Warren Spector, Brian Reynolds, Bruce Shelley, Andy Hollis, Larry Holland, Bruce Carver, Gabe Newell, Brett Sperry, Roberta Williams, Jordan Mechner, Mike O' Brien, Tim Schafer, Hal Barwood, Steve Meretzky, Richard Garriott, Chris Taylor, Norm Kodger, and Justin Chin

Chaotic Evil. Today I'm backing up a bunch of stuff on the 1-TB external HD I bought. DVD-rom backups don't cut it anymore. Beef brisket cooked in a crockpot makes awesome meat for sandwiches and it's cheap. My 18y.o. cat with CRF is sometimes exhausting? exasperating? messy? to care for. Same with husbands, even when they don't have CRF. My mother's heart is weakening and it's making her tired. Makes me (and her) sad. But she's mentally as wonderful as ever, which makes me happy. I remind myself daily that it's the little things that keep us sane and truckin' on. Like the bowl of chocolate ice cream that I'm about to go eat.

I know the graphics are uber-dated - I had to use a mod to help with washed out colors, even - but there's still something marvelously fun about charging up a hill with your calvary. Best horse combat I've seen/done..not that I've seen/done a lot.

I've never minded other people's outdoor cats before. When we first moved in there were a few that would use our fences as highways etc. Normal, no biggie. But the new renters next door ... they like cats, so they're cool, but 4+ right next door is something you notice. Especially when they poop all the time in the dirt/tanbark around the edges of the yard and under the windows...

I'm an internet senior! I personally had plenty of idle time but I didn't get really into pc games until late 90's, so there's a lot of games I've heard of but never bought. And a combat system based on insults does sound pretty funny.

I downloaded it, but it isn't very clear how it changes the game. Is it mostly cosmetic or is there a new map etc? I haven't joined a faction yet ... I'm having too much fun with the trading/independent aspect at the moment. Right now I'm trying to figure out if trying to keep all 16 Companions is worth the headache. The two who dislike "too much fighting" are difficult...the rest not so much. The map travel/battles remind me a lot of Lord of the Realms2 ... there's even the aspect that letting the computer resolve battles for you means much higher losses than you watching your troops while sitting on your horse doing nothing. The more I play the less it feels like a RPG(action or otherwise) and more like a light strategy game w/minions who level up/have stats. The horse combat is awesome. I want a huge army of nothing but calvary charging around. Too bad you can only see 100 units or so at a time, without mods anyway.

I've heard of Monkey Islands, but the games never appealed to me so I didn't try them. Haven't heard of the others. Older style adventure games was one genre I never got into. I'm not all that into plot/stories in games (I read books/watch movies instead), and they generally don't have any meticulous "tinker" value for me to obsess over.

I don't use the internet too much anymore, but without it, how would I check game walkthrus and such? And hubby must have it for work. It's amazing how fast the internet became a "must have" (either in reality or psychologically) in so short a time. 10-12 years or something?

I'm annoyed with our neighbor's 4 outdoor cats, since they've all decided our yard is litterbox when I'm not looking. In the city/suburbs, indoor-only cats, yes, that's the ticket. At least dogs can't jump fences. And if you can't afford to spay/neuter your cat(s), don't get one.

Whether it works depends on what you look for in 'humorous." I loved Dungeon Keeper as well. But a lot of what I find funny in a game isn't about plot, canned jokes, or whatever. It's more a visual/action amusement thing, for me. For example, in DK I'd dig out winding paths and force the warlocks to walk it in order to get to a library...while making a hatchery very far away...to the point they'd almost starve to death constantly walking back and forth. If you like DK, it was hilarious, trust me. Of course, I did appreciate the parody of the Avatar and such, too, but that isn't what made me laugh. In Overlord I found the minions so amusing as they rode sheep and cried "Yes Master" over and over that I often laughed more than I played. I also liked, in Sacred1, things like the silly media references on tombstones, or WoW's constant in-joke references, things like that. In terms of a game that tries to be a "serious comedy" ... I'm not sure that would work so well, since everyone has a different sense of humor. Hard to reach across to a wide audience? I agree that Evil Genius didn't have it. It tried hard, but part of the problem w/that game, imo, is that it's hard to be amused if the actual gameplay isn't fun for very long. I honestly can't think of many (good) games, whatever the genre, where humor was a vital aspect of the game, tho ...

Woke up, fed cat, fed some squirrels, showered. Was going to catch up on things here but hubby just came in and I guess we're going to the techie store to buy goodies.

I hope things get better for you quickly and that you'll return one day. Luck!

I didn't see the pilot but I caught the 2nd one last night, and thought it was ok. I thought the bow-guy was fine (maybe it helped he was cute? haha) for what the role called for. I mean, it wasn't a complicated role he had there, or anything. Echo's handler is the character that interested me right off. In a series where the main character (Echo) constantly changes or is a 'blank slate', one needs a constant chr. to gain sympathy/focus. I think the handler would be that, for me. He can kick arse in an efficient, impersonal way when he has to but obviously has potential moral dilemmas and emotional bonding with Echo. But it wasn't the type of show that makes you love it first sight. If it sticks around, I have the feeling it'd be the kind of series where everything would grow on you and by the end of a season you'd like it. Of course, the trick is to keep people watching for that whole season...

After another long break from gaming, someone directed me to Mount and Blade. It's a completely free-form/non-linear ... hmm ... RPG-strategy? game. You can download the whole thing to try it out (lvl 8ish max) then if you like it buy the key to unlock the whole game. Or buy the DVD at the store, either way. There's absolutely no plot/story/main questline, so if you must have that, you won't like it. There's no magic, no healing potions, no non-human enemies. The graphics work but are not special/pretty. You can ride and combat on horseback. Combat isn't just l-click button mashing, but it is very battle oriented. It's supposedly moddable but haven't tried that yet. The world/travel map reminds me of a strategy game map (think of The Summoner map traveling concept, only better/more involved). I like it. It's like a big rpg-sandbox environment where you can ride around, trade, fight, join Kingdom factions, build rep/fortune/fiefdom unencumbered by 'save the world' stuff. RPG mechanics with strategy/group combat tactics. Not perfect, but fun.

Thanks for all the great input/info, and the screenies! Sounds like I'd still want an XP system for now, but that the KDE Ubuntu/Wine combo would work for many things/a 2nd rig (I don't like partitions...), and in the process I'd get used to using it in case Microbrain becomes completely untenable to me. I know in the end one has to just try something oneself, but I like to try to get as much opinion as possible before I take the time/effort for that. Hubby wants "his" more modern pc - the one I've been using for games - so I'm going to have to build a new (cheapish) rig or two anyway ... prime time to try some stuff like this out.

With the release of the Win7 beta and the seeming confirmation that it's mostly "Vista as it should have been", I long for another option besides Microsoft. Not because I "hate" Vista (never used it, can't say) but because...well, operating systems seem to become more and more about an operating environment, when what I want is an operating system. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but...well, yea, not important. Anyway, Linux has always been a not-option for me (hubby uses/has a lot of different Linux servers and one lone Windows machine) because of the games/software issue. Someone recently told me about Wine, a program loader capable of running Windows applications. It's been worked on for a long long time and is still not "finished" - it's probably one of those things that is never "finished" - but it can run a lot of the supposedly newer pc games w/out a hitch, and will work with Steam, Photoshop, and so on. Any Linux geeks here who use it? Is it as useful/good as some say? Could it currently be a replacement for the Microsoft-dominant software environment? It sounds interesting, but I wonder about older or less popular games, as well as non-game software such as, say, the photo software that comes with your SLR camera, which is going to be a MS/pc thing, if you know what I mean. Also, I worry whether a non-tech-geek could utilize it very well...ie, if software doesn't work with WINE initially, I picture Linux geeks sitting around and doing stuff/tweaks to make it work, and that's just not me. WINE's website, if anyone's curious. http://www.winehq.org/

That was going to be the thing I suggested next for Giftd...a dvdrom hardware/driver/compatibility issue. Sometimes it's a good idea to swap out the hardware to see if that's it, before going to too much other diagnostic trouble.

I ran out of peanuts so today I learned that squirrels are hilarious fun whilst they eat the oily, all-natural peanut butter spooned onto a little dish. I learned I'm allergic to london plane maple tree (skin itch and sneezing), which our street is completely lined with. And I discovered (an hour ago) that my car battery died so I guess that's what hubby and I are doing tonight. Over the weekend we took a quickie "we wish" look at a very run down but foundation/structurally sound/still crudely livable home in a more valuable housing area that was going for half of its potential value (if fixed up). It's basically being sold for land value only. Would be a crazy good investment or longer-term flip, the kind only contractors would normally risk, but we already bought this house and I don't think 2 mortgages would work. Why do these kind of deals never show up when you're looking/not yet committed? Heh. Maybe my parents would like to go in as partners. Har.

Our 50" is starting to feel too small. And now to pretend to stay on topic, two old pics of the 'certificate' for winning MM7 and MM8 back when I was trying to win the first with all lvl 1's (using only skill points from shrines in the game etc) and the latter for time-speed (game days). The speed one isn't a very great score but was ok for a first try. I don't think I'd even remember how to do it now.

The only problem I had w/games on the TV was sometimes things like inventory and text were harder to read. But graphically playing the game looked fine and fun to be so big (well, compared to a 19" monitor anyway...)

I turned on Casear3 the other day and played through Lugdunum, which is a mid-campaign map that drives a lot of people crazy. I find it challenging fun. Still playing DungeonSiege2 now and then, slowly going through the harder difficulties to see what kind of uber loot drops there, harhar.