Games
by ilonaandrews on Oct.02, 2009, under Ann Aguirre and Ilona Andrews
So this week is a release week for me, and I want a computer game. What I would really like is a computer game like Caesar IV, because I can have absolute power over the world and if I want to spend five minutes deciding how to arrange my aqueduct, I can. Muhahaha.
Except I played Caesar to death.
My choices are, at the moment, Mass Effect, yet another run through Oblivion, latest Fire Emblem (which ever installment that it, I can’t keep them straight) or something else that I don’t know about.
I’ve gone through Oblivion about three times; my main issue with Mass Effect is that I can’t make a cool looking female Shepard - why are all the women in the game look like they had too much Botox? - and playing Fire Emblem requires the children to actually give up TV time from their Spectrobs. Chance of that happening? Slim to none.
I miss the old games. I really like Arcanum, probably the first steampunk game I’ve ever played. That was fun. But what I miss most is games like Might and Magic V, where you have an off screen party and battles are turn-based. I suppose that makes me old fashioned, but I really miss that set-up. Of course they hammered the Might and Magic RPG side of the franchise into the ground with cringe-worthy MMIX. Most of that stuff won’t even run on Vista, and replaying Wizardry 8 with its endless look-alike enemies isn’t exactly satisfying.
So what games are you looking forward to? What’s your addiction?
Related posts:
- The Geekiest Game Debate I’m afraid I have to disagree with Ilona. She likes turn-based games? And stuff where you build empires? Boooooooooring. OMG. I bet she played Civ! No. Way. I tried Arcanum, and I never finished it. I wanted to love it. I didn’t. I did finish Oblivion. It wasn’t one of...
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:23 am
*waves from Twitter* I’m not a huge gamer. I was never good at games growing up (but I blame my brothers…they hogged the consoles), but I always wanted to be.
And when I was 13, I dabbled at Magic the Gathering. *hangs head*
My husband and I started playing WoW together May 2008, and we’ve been hooked since. I’ve realized, recently, that I’m actually pretty good at it, especially when we raid.
However, I really want a Nintendo DS. I want mind puzzle games, and Sudoku, etc.
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:24 am
Have you tried Spore?
And did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon? I still get that out and play it now and then.
I’d suggest World of Warcraft, but I’d like you and Gordon to keep writing….
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:28 am
Personally I’m a fan of the old school RPGs. I’m currently going through Neverwinter Nights 2. Only reason it’s taken me this long is that I am somewhat compulsive about restarting a game to try something new before I ever finish it. One of these days though…
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:28 am
Hi Ilona
The last game I played was Resident Evil 4 for PS2.
I used to play Baldur’s Gate on the computer.
I have to say I’ve given up on the gaming, though it’s hard when I see the great games coming out!
Congratulations on ON THE EDGE.
All the best,
RKCharron
xoxo
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:41 am
@ Jade. WOW is verbotten. I am so addicted to that game, that’s not even funny, so we canceled the accounts. BUt cab I just say that I *hate* the fact that they dangled that new cool werewolf trailer in front of us and the expansion doesn’t even comes out for 2 years. What gives?
@ Laura I liked spore but I can’t figure out the space colonization part. Also all my critters look really odd.
@ Alok I loved NWN1, but I just can’t get into 2. Maybe I’ll give it another try.
@RKCharron Ahhhh, why giving up? You’re can’t leave the dark side!
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:44 am
I hear you on the Worgen, I’m totally bummed that I have to wait forever. Not to mention the vanity pets….*whimper*
I’m sorry that it’s not allowed…I think now, I remember that from one of your blog posts. But the first step is admitting you have a problem.
I used to play Neopets, before WoW. I don’t recommend it if you’re not allowed to play WoW. Similarly addictive.
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:49 am
I’ve been playing WoW for over 4 years now, and I have to say it’s lost quite a bit of its “oohh shiney!” for me. But it took a while.
I want to see what the feral forms are for worgen before I make up my mind about them, but I think I’ll race change my druid when they hit, since I hate that the nelf bear form looks like a badger, and something about kitty form’s head and shoulders isn’t right.
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:51 am
Laura, I’ve been getting bored, but that’s mostly because we belong to a small guild and Wed. night was my first night in Ulduar, reg. 10-man. :/ I’m tired of doing heroics, Naxx, etc. But, if I could change my Nelf hunter to a Worgen, I can have an entire worg/worgen theme going with my pet and vanity pet.
Anyway, I’d hate to find out we’re torturing Ilona here, so…how about kittens? Or puppies? I like both.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:01 am
I really enjoyed Mass Effect… watching over my husband’s shoulder. I’m pretty sad at hand-eye coordination for games, but I love watching them unfold if they’re story-based. So we played through ME together, consulting on all the responses and decisions, and then he was the “hands” of the game. I can see what you mean about the look of the women, but if you can get past that, I found the story VERY compelling.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:01 am
@ Laura
I never understood why we weren’t allowed to customize the animal forms. I mean people in LOTRO can dye their clothes, how hard would it be for us to dye our feral forms. I thought that sucked.
And Blizzard keeps screwing with class balance. I remember there was a period where they overpowered the feral druids and nobody wanted warriors to tank. Now I’m all about druid power and all, and since I prefer to play a priest, it makes no difference to me, but a lot of my friends were warriors and they couldn’t get a PUG, let alone a spot in Guild Raid.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:06 am
I’ve been playing Crisis Core on my son’s PSP. The graphics are shiny but the battle system is a tad boring.
Have you played Fate? They have a new version out.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:07 am
My son loves Spore.
I had to quite MMOs because they’re such a timesuck. That said, I’ll still try the Star Wars one.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:10 am
Well I am pretty much game ignorant :(. I used to do the trash talk when my friends played Doom and I enjoyed watching the different civilization games. Sorry I am not much help here.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:13 am
Clearly we need to addict you, Ericka!
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:21 am
Sadly, when bear tanks became FOTM and everyone had one, there were a lot of crap tanks, because they didn’t bother to understand the theory behind bears was very different than that of warriors and pallys. And threat is still an issue for bears, as always.
But yeah, I don’t see why we can’t have a “public” armor set that people see, and a private one. Or just the ability to turn off those awful shoulder graphics.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:23 am
Ilona, you should try Sins of a Solar Empire. It’s kinda like Risk in space, but if you’re into colonization and development, it’s your game (also, Stardock games is a no DRM shop, so they get my dollars any time they have something interesting). Mr. Xandra and the spawn and I can play LAN, which makes it doubly interesting, or you can play against other networked players.
And I still play Children of the Nile and Pharaoh/Cleopatra. I love seeing those little Egyptian people walking around.
I can’t wait for the SWTOR MMO to come out. I don’t play WOW (refuse to pay a monthly fee for it) but I play Guild Wars and have way too much fun raising dead minions.
Congrats on the release, as well.
October 2nd, 2009 on 11:32 am
@ XandraG
Ooooooh! Oh! I wonder if they have it on Steam so I can demo it…
October 2nd, 2009 on 12:32 pm
I played WoW for a little while but I didn’t like it either. I hate running around a big map slowly, don’t love the messenger quests and I hate raiding.
October 2nd, 2009 on 12:51 pm
I’m afraid I can’t help you. I only play puzzle games. RPGs are too stressful for me! My favorite puzzle game is Fishdom which you would find beyond lame.
Even my game addiction is lame - I can play minesweeper until the wee hours. 
October 2nd, 2009 on 1:03 pm
@ Mary K
How about Puzzle Quest? RPG and Bejeweled rolled into one.
October 2nd, 2009 on 4:05 pm
That could be cool. I’ll have to try it. I liked Cradle of Rome which is a solve-the-puzzle-to-build-the-city game.
October 2nd, 2009 on 5:11 pm
Oblivion (but you’ve done it three times already!), or for some oldies, there’s the two SW: KotOR RPGs….
October 2nd, 2009 on 6:58 pm
I have to second what Ericka said. I’m sadly game ignorant. Ilona keeps getting me hooked to games and then I wander through the game not knowing up from down and yet I can’t drag myself away from it. ::sigh::
Hubby and kids know more about games than I do.
October 2nd, 2009 on 10:04 pm
The Total War series is my favorite. I spent about two years of my life playing Rome, and I’m getting back into Medieval a bit now, too.