Horizon Zero

125 Years of Gaming Goodness

The following game series are celebrating their 25th Anniversary in 2012:

• Final Fantasy
• Mega Man
• Metal Gear 
• Phantasy Star
• Street Fighter

I can remember when Star Trek celebrated its 20th Anniversary - way back in 1986 - and thinking how 1966 was so impossibly long ago.

 

One Foot On The Throat Of The World

So I've been playing a lot of Skyrim lately.

"Good deal," you say. "Welcome to three months ago."

Well, yeah. But in my defense, I had a lot going on, what with WoW and the imminent release of The Old Republic, and Christmas travel and all the other things I was doing.

Besides, it's a Bethesda game, and while I do enjoy their products I also know that there are inevitably a raft of bugs that need to be squashed, so I figured I'd hold off a bit and save myself from the woes of backwards flying dragons and what-not.

Anyhow, I think I've put in about 50 hours now, and I've barely scratched the surface. I'm playing a Nord, currently level 31 and something of a silver tongued wunderkind smith with a decided lack of aptitude in things magickal. (Seriously, I have 100 Speechcraft and Smithing - only one of which I cheesed my way to with a minor, uncorrected glitch.) Thanks to my Allure perk, I get a 10% discount on transactions with merchants of the opposite sex which I guess is due to my manly Nord physique.

Which hasn't been visible in days since I'm a lvl 100 Smith and I smithed myself up a full set of Daedric armor. So maybe the Nord chicks dig big scary demon dudes or something.

I've avoided going too far into any of the quest chains, be it the main quest or the factional struggles, mostly because I just like wandering around and killing stuff. I think I've killed five dragons so far - enough that the novelty has worn off. They're not as bad as the cliff racers from Morrowind, but they do have an annoying tendency to pop up at inopportune times and fry poor NPCs.

I'll talk about the Civil War storyline more later, but I'd like to point out that Bethesda has done a good job presenting a conflict where there really is no clear cut bad guy - both sides have good reasons for doing what they're doing and the tragedy of the situation is that no matter which side 'wins' in the end, it's the Thalmor and the Aldmeri Dominion that gains the most.

Thalmor. Man, I hate those guys.

Special Circles Of Hell

My work PC got hit by a particularly nasty and pernicious piece of malware yesterday, necessitating a complete reimaging. We're talking nuke it from orbit level.

So I've spent the morning reinstalling software and restoring files. Fun.

Like the title says, there's a special circle of Hell reserved for malware authors.

You Don't Know The Power Of The Bark Side

Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

On This, The Anniversary Of Your Birth

My birth, I mean.

I haven't intentionally been running silent this year, just had a lot of things on my plate.

But I figured I should pop up and say something today, if only to toot my own horn.

So. Consider it tooted.

My Old Republic Experience So Far

I'm two hours into the "SW:TOR Experience" and I'm not particularly enamored yet.

Perhaps because I've yet to actually get to play the game.

It took 45 minutes to install the game. "No big deal," I said to myself. "There are a lot of files, and WoW takes a long time to install from scratch too." So I figured I'd use the time to poke through the manual, get a feel for the character types and controls, maybe soak up some of the lore.

Oh. Manual. Right. Dunno if they included one in the $150.00 CE, but we latecomers get a four page installation guide, most of which is legal disclaimer and warnings about epilepsy.

Anyway, the game finally finishes installing, and I whisk away to the website to set up my account. Now, being a Mass Effect/Dragon Age fan, I already have an EA/Bioware account for DLC. But when I try to log in, it's no go. "Funny," I think to myself, "surely the account information is centrally located and shared for all their titles." But no, apparently not. So I have to register a *second* account with Bioware in order to set up my SW:TOR Experience.

I finally get an account registered (and is it nit picky to point out that if you are going to insist on certain character/numerical constants in your password that you should perhaps point those out BEFORE people hit submit for the first time?) and the site asks me for more money. "Wait a minute," I ask. "Don't I get 30 free days to try this baby out?"

Well, you do, (although technically it tells me I'm already down a day) but not until you give them a way to bill you for next month, either through a credit card or a game time card. Does WoW do this? I honestly have forgotten, although I seem to recall not getting hit up for recurring payment plans immediately after registering.

But fine, I can always cancel my card info if I decide I don't like the game.

So the account hoo-haw is all taken care of, and I can now log in and get to gaming! Yay!

Except not. Opening up the client for the first time, I go to type in my login/pwd info when suddenly the text all goes dark. I put my info in anyway, hit Login, and what do I see but the following ominous message:

"You are attempting to login from a region we do not support."

Now look, I know Missouri isn't the most glamorous location on the planet, but it's not exactly Terra Incognita, you know? Puzzled, I close the client and try to start it back up again. Apparently it takes a few minutes for it to actually close even after the window has closed because Windows keeps telling me I can't have two instances of this program open.

Finally, the client starts back up. This time, it doesn't seem to think I'm trying to access the game from Greater Greater Lesser Trucial Abyssistan or wherever and accepts my login and password. Yay! I can has Game Time now?

Well, of course not. This is a MMO and there's patching to do.

"It just came out," I say to myself. "How bad can it be?"

Reader, NEVER ASK THAT QUESTION.

The patch itself isn't that bad, like 150 mb. No, the trouble begins when it goes to integrate itself with the install and reports back that my installation - which has already consumed 45 minutes of my day - is somehow borked and that it needs to try to "Repair" things.

BY DOWNLOADING 11.6 GIGS OF FILES!

Seriously? Why the hell did I bother to install this thing if it's just going to insist on doing it again, only more slowly?

So anyway, long story short (tl;dr version): I'll see you online tomorrow. Maybe.

One thing for sure - I'm definitely more inclined to go Sith at this point. Force choking people sounds pretty theraputic.

2011 - Taking Stock

Pretty big year, 2011. Changed jobs, changed cities. Did some travelling. Read some new books and reread a ton of old ones.

I didn't get as much writing done as I would have liked, but I did get something completed and entered into a contest. Sure, I lost, but I was kind of expecting to - and getting something from concept to submission was a major improvement.

All in all, I'm pleased with the way things played out - personally, at least.

Of course, 2012 is an election year, with all the associated chaos and drama that seems to bring these days. The economy is still uncertain and I'm still pretty bearish on the long term stability of the whole system. I'm as well prepared as I think I can be, but the truth is we're all just sitting around waiting for Black Swans.

But you pay your money and you take your chances, same as everyone else who's ever lived.

Bring it on, Mayan Calendar Dudes.

 

En Route

Headed to San Antonio to spend X-Mas in Texmas. Hah.

As Relevant As Ever

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."

From Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, fifteen freaking years ago.

15,000 Jedi In The Republic

The Czech Republic, that is.

According to the Republic's census, conducted every ten years, 15,000 people filled in 'Jedi' when they answered the optional question regarding religious affiliation.

No word on whether or not this Republic has a ban on Sith.