I no longer hear the sound of marching, charging feet boy Or How the King of Iron Fist lay down his crown

I was going to start off with a bit about growing old (in general I dont mind it, though I’m also not super pushed on it). But to be honest I dont think thats entirely the cause of it, it is possibly an element. But only a personal one rather than a generally applicable one. After all, it has a lot more to do with a changing schedules and priorities which are generally unattached to aging. It could possibly be argued that the issue is with people I know growing up, but again thats rather inaccurate (and again changing priorities, schedules and locations are to blame). I suppose I could blame my general refusal to engage in the online element – but again I dont think thats the issue, after all I have no real problem with MMO’s and my objection is based on objective facts (lag is simply unavoidable and changes the game drastically) rather than personal preference. I suppose ultimately I would have to cite “Unreconcilable differences” and leave it at that. What am I babbling about you (justifiably) ask? As the title (somewhat obtusely) implies, I am done with fighting games. Continue reading…

(Upcoming) Games of 2012 – My anticipation should be yours

Well its been a year since I posted about my anticipated games of 2011. I still havent managed to figure out how to be excited about things again. Actually its probably worse now. But wangsty whinging aside. I ended up playing most of the games on last years list, even those I thought I wouldnt. Overall there were a lot more pleasant surprises than expected disappointments. Which was nice. Looking forward to 2012 it looks like its going to be a pretty awesome year for gaming. Though I probably wont have a lot of time to play them until I finish up college, which is bad. On the other hand I’ll be unemployed shortly which leaves me with free weekends, which is good. Continue reading…

[WIP] Solium Infernum – The Greatest Game – Turn 11 – 20 – Purple lady Diplomacy

During the first ten turns or so we had no real idea how to play the game. Entering the double digit turns we began to grasp how the game was played, some more than others (Ha, ha, I read the manual fools!). Though my increased knowledge did little to help me gain prestige or slow Simon’s meteoric rise to the top. However, after ten turns of scraping and scrimping I was finally ready to make use of my praetor and thanks to reading the manual I had a solid idea of how to go about doing so. Continue reading…

[WIP] Solium Infernum – The Greatest Game – Turn 01 – 10 – Dipping a toe in damnation

Well my first every multiplayer game of Solium Infernum has just hit Turn 20 and in the parlance of the streets (where I grew up, yo!) – Shit just got real. Everything has kicked off as all the potential demonic rulers turn on one another. So now that decisions have been made, and because I posses as much skill in long term planning as an Anglo Irish Bank manager, I feel it’s safe to reveal the comedy of errors that were my initial ten turns (also Simon’s so far in the lead I cant imagine revealing this will do much damage). Continue reading…

Best of 2011 – Games

I summed up video gaming in 2010 in one word, disappointment. For 2011 I’ll bump it up to two words, excellent and disappointing. There were a large number of releases I was looking forward to and thankfully the majority of them delivered, though not always as well as I was hoping. As always this list is a composite of things I’ve played in the year in question, not just what was released in the year, it probably doesn’t matter in the long run. As well as the Top 10 list itself I’ve also included an appendix of sorts where I give a line or two (and the first implementation of my new rating system, ooh the excitement) to all the game’s I’ve completed this year (and perhaps the ones I’ve played enough off to be comfortable making a judgement on). Also returning to education, in tandem with commuting, has eaten up a lot of prime game playing time, as such I’m a bit behind with the games I’ve played. I may get some of the backlog finished by the end of the month (currently December 6th). Continue reading…

[WIP] Solium Infernum – The Greatest Game – Turn 0 – Prelude to Naughtiness

Well as anyone who is lucky enough to read my facebook status updates knows I became rather enamored with the idea of indulging in a multiplayer game of Solium Infernum after reading the excellent series of play diaries on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. With hope in hand I sought out willing partners among my friends, but all my friends are bastards and crushed my fragile dreams. “Oh I’m too busy to even say no Mick I’ll just leave you sitting alone in your dark room sobbing and waiting for some kind of response”, bunch of cunts, almost makes me feel glad that I’ve been slipping infected blood into their food for months. Anyhow, my righteous retribution aside, I finally managed to ensnare two of my siblings and thus the game was, as Holmes would say, afoot! I bet he said stuff like that because he was out of his tits on smack all the time. Continue reading…

Schedules of the idle poor

I think that everyone who plays even a moderate amount of computer games has a backlog of games that they have yet to play or complete. Some of these will never be completed, they were rented for an evening or borrowed from a friend (or GOD FORBID, pirated) – they didn’t grab you and youre not going back. Other’s though are quality games that came out during a particular glut of such and didn’t get played or completed. Or perhaps you’re a fan of particular genre’s that tend to have massive playtimes (Strategy titles, RPG’s, etc.) and thus exacerbate the problem of an ever growing backlog. If you are reading this wondering what the fuck I’m talking about then you should a) rejoice in not being shouldered with a similar Sisyphean load and b) tip on (or read on, “whatevs” as the cool kids say). Continue reading…

End of the Metaverse campaign and role-playing in general

*Cross-posted from the forum* Well it looks like this has wrapped up. Still we got four or five enjoyable sessions out of it so it wasnt entirely wasted. I suppose we started at a poor time of year, after illness, false starts and holidays delayed the game we ended up too close to the end of the year and 1/4 of the player base leaving. Which sort of killed my interest, so I suppose its really my fault the game fell through. A pity I suppose. I did learn a few things though. Continue reading…

Mick’s Mighty Mutated Marvel Draft – Origins Part 2

Esteban Corazón de Ablo was born on May 1st 1500 AD. He lost his parents to disease at an early age. Despite being nobles, living in the lands outside the city of Zaragoza in the kingdom of Aragon, modern medicine was simply unable to cure their condition. Left to the care of his uncle Pedro Esteban spent his youth learning both the skills required of a noble and everything he could find about medicine. Esteban planned to become a doctor in order to try and save people from the same fate as his parents. Leaving his home in Zaragoza Esteban traveled to Switzerland to study in the famous University of Basel. It was here that a young Esteban met the eccentric and somewhat infamous Paracelsus. Esteban’s quick wit soon caught the attention of Paracelsus and a friendship quickly formed between the two young men. Continue reading…

Mick’s Mighty Mutated Marvel Draft – Origins

Well a whopping total of zero people were interested in this. I HATE YOU ALL! Perhaps because my previous post wasnt entirely clear. Oh well, I think I’ll forge ahead and give it a go myself. Unfortunately a one man draft lacks the questionable excitement of having your potential picks nabbed before you get to them. In order to try and emulate that I’m going to add four “phantom” draftee’s. Basically I’ll be going to the Marvel wiki after I make my own picks and using the random function to make four random picks. I’ll be going for one pick a day. Day’s 1-7 will be hero picks, Day 8 team names, Day 9 villain pick, Day 10, “Wildcard” picks. Then I’ll throw together a summary of my first “six issue” story arc.
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