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The Return to New Eden.

Posted 22:58 CET Sunday July 4th, 2010 (61 days ago). 163 views. No comments. Tagged with Computer Games, EVE Online, Personal.

Well, I’ve gone and done it again. It’s at least one and a half years since I last did it, but now I’ve fallen off the wagon: I’ve re-subscribed to EVE Online.

To everyone with any knowledge of EVE Online, this probably sounds like a bad idea, and to some extent I agree. The game can be an annoying little bitch who continuously nag you for attention and when you finally give in she sucks you in and refuse to let you go. I’ve just…got to…clear…another…asteroid field. Much like the just-one-more-turn-syndrome most of the Civilization players suffer from. Continue reading "The Return to New Eden." →

All Your Monies are Belongs to us Again.

Posted 22:06 CET Wednesday June 30th, 2010 (65 days ago). 115 views. No comments. Tagged with Computer Games.

Bloody Steam is at it again with their sales and mission to empty everyone’s bank accounts. I still remember the Christmas sale last year, which set me back quite a few hard earned euros and to outlook for the outcome of their one and a half week summer sale is not better.

So far (which is yesterday when this entry is published – I decided to write a few entries and schedule them when I finally had the time to sit down and write a little) they’ve tricked me into buying the Hearths of Iron III expansion Semper Fi, loads and loads of downloadable content (seven to be precise) for the same game, Left 4 Dead 2 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. All this for; wait for it… €26. Will I ever get time to play all these games now? No, I won’t. But they are so cheap! I need them! And even if I don’t have the time to play Hearths of Iron III now, I will some day and of course then I need all the DLC and expansions to really enjoy the game¹⁾.

The best thing about how Steam works is not their insane sales (well, yes, it is), but that my games will always be available for download on any computer, at least as long as Steam is in business. Since they’re not drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, they will probably be around for a while still. Knock on wood.

Today the Steam sale might also trick me into getting a game: ARMA II. But it’s quite “expensive” at €14,99 (50% off the retail price). I’m really not a fan of the run-around-and-shot-everything-that-moves-FPS-genre because I suck so hard at those games, so games like ARMA II and Operation Flashpoint are more up my alley. The game has received good reviews with a few complains about serious scripting bugs, but those might have been sorted out in the version on Steam. I’m download the demo now, we’ll see how it turns out.

*Someone compared the Steam sales craze to women and their shoes and I do see that it’s a valid comparison.

Margot.

Posted 19:32 CET Monday March 15th, 2010 (172 days ago). 366 views. 2 comments. Tagged with Computer Games, Global Happiness, Xbox 360.

I have a confession to make. It might look like the Global Happiness project turns out to be another one of my half-assed efforts. I’ve been reading about Python – and must admit it looks like a very interesting programming language – but have yet to implemented anything because I’ve been otherwise occupied. I’m also stuck with below-average exciting assignments at work, and this more or less sucks me dry of post-work programming motivation. But not to worry, if it’s meant to happen, it will eventually happen one day.

So what have I been up to? Nothing exciting, really. Beside a few social happenings, I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, Yes, I’m not that many days away from turning 32 and I can still play a video game for an entire evening without getting bored. Rumors have it I should enjoy it while I can, though, because some day that Xbox will suddenly turn into an expensive dust collector. I’m now fighting my way through The Ballad of Gay Tony, and I’m starting to see the first few actual signs that I’m turning old and grumpy – I find some parts of the game a little too violent!

Who would’ve thunk it? Margot might have been a psychotic stalker, but I still think there should have been an option to save her. Maybe RockStar did something ingenious and made me somewhat emotionally attached to the characters.

Am I starting to become emotional now as well!? Where will this end?

Oh, man!

Posted 15:17 CET Saturday February 6th, 2010 (209 days ago). 330 views. No comments. Tagged with Computer Games, Xbox 360.

I finally decided to unwrap my copy of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. I bought it back in November when Anniken came down with a cold and had to stay home from work for a couple of days. I was sure I’d get ill, too, so I prepared for a few days at home by getting the latest addition to the Grand Theft Auto series. As it turned out, however, I didn’t get ill. The game has been sitting in its plastic wrap together with the rest of my Xbox 360 games since then – until today, when I decided I wanted to give it a go. I wasn’t ill, but I was at home. That’s one out of two, not too bad.

I’d forgotten all about how much noise the Xbox 360 makes. Compared to my PS3, it’s like sitting next to a jet engine. Fighting fire with fire, I turned up the volume of my amplifier, effectively drowning the Xbox noise in the sounds of screeching tyres, gun shots and police sirens. That worked out nicely for about twenty minutes, when this happened: Continue reading "Oh, man!" →

Weekend Waster.

Posted 21:13 CET Sunday January 24th, 2010 (222 days ago). 347 views. No comments. Tagged with Computer Games, Exercise, Personal.

For most of you it’s still Sunday, which means that it’s still weekend. For those of you who has entered “Monday” or “the working week”* as it’s also called: Good luck with that. You consolation should be that you’ll hit the next weekend before the rest of us. And how did you spend the precious weekend? Personally, I wasted most of it, and to be honest, it actually feels a like a bit of a waste, too. I used to be able to waste an entire weekend without even thinking about it, but not anymore, it seems.

I did manage to drag my ass to the gym today, though, and had a great workout, too. On the first weekend of the new year, the NRK gym was totally crammed with people starting a new life. The weekends after that have been rather quiet and today I turned on the lights in the men’s locker room and the gym when I arrived and turned everything off when I left. Didn’t see single soul anywhere. I was supposed to go to the gym yesterday, but somehow managed to leave one of my jogging shoes at home. When I waited for the bus, it struck me that I might have left one of them at home, but shrugged it off and got on the bus to the gym. Bad move. Well, at least I got to ride the bus a lot and I usually enjoy riding the bus.

Among other things I’ve done this weekend is to play a little Company of Heroes, a great strategy game that I picked up at one of the many Steam sales last year. If you like WWII strategy games, it comes highly recommended; the single player campaigns, multiplayer and skirmish, which I prefer since I really can’t stand loosing at strategy games. Beat me in any other type of game, not a problem, but don’t beat me in RTS games! I have no idea why it is like this.

And that’s about it! Next week is crammed with social activities, it feels like I really need it.

*Or, as it’s also known, “the workweek”. Now even the yanks should be satisfied.