SimCity: Totally Not SimCity Edition

Posted by BlackWidower on

So as I said before, I like looking for cool games at discounted prices in bins. Last week I got lucky and found SimCity Societies for under five bucks.

SimCity is a game I have always held in my heart. I never got into the original but I recently played my old copy of SimCity 2000 in DOSBox because 64-bit Windows is too good for legacy games…elitist. Anyway, I had a fun time with it. SimCity 2000 has a depth to it that as a child I was never able to grasp. Plopping down buildings was not the only game mechanic. You also had to manage your city’s budget by adjusting the taxes to promote growth while still earning enough money to support police, hospitals, fire service, transportation and education. You would receive information through mini maps and various stat windows and could adjust your actions in response.

In SimCity Societies you get none of that. All you do is plop down buildings, but if you just look at that mechanic alone it has a unique depth that can be quite intriguing. It features a resource management mechanic that comes in the form of (what I call) social engineering credits. These credits can represent one of six social attributes: productivity, prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority, and knowledge. Some buildings produce credits and some consume them. It forces one to ensure they create a sort of balance between buildings that require knowledge to operate and those that promote knowledge. So the city doesn’t suck the life out of it’s citizens. Continue reading →

Freedom ’90…to Upgrade

Posted by BlackWidower on

So Apple has these new ads, featuring news of the Windows 7 release and people saying they are switching to Mac because: “If we have to move all our stuff why not move to the computer that’s number one in customer satisfaction.” Which is a perfect demonstration of Apple’s new marketing strategy: Make shit up.

Now why do I say that? The ad itself makes a good point, if you have to upgrade, the effort is the same whether you go to Windows 7 or Mac OS X. Well kind of, except they fail to mention you also need to repurchase all your software for the Mac platform. But my problem is where they say: “have to”…you don’t have to do anything.

People sometimes forget: upgrading is an option. You don’t have to upgrade your system, and you need to realize if you do decide to upgrade, it’s not something you do during your lunch break, it’s something you devote a weekend to, and if your not good with computers, it’s not a bad idea to let a friend help, and generally, it’s not a good idea to upgrade at all.

This isn’t indicative of Windows, if you decide to upgrade your system you need to ask why. Why upgrade unless you need to? Especially considering these things cost money. Continue reading →

Aooooo! Vampires of London-Wait!

Posted by BlackWidower on

-that doesn’t fit. Who cares I need something! Anyway, I think it’s safe to say I love the vampire mythos. Why? Vampires are a general cornucopia of drama. They combine the fear of zombies with the intelligence of the modern man. Imagine you are a zombie but you are fully aware of it and in complete control of your body, not a mindless automaton, oh and your body is not decaying so you can “live” forever. This makes them, in a way, tortured souls and more importantly, victims. They were once human, often forcibly turned vampire by another vampire (making them victims), but often times they become perpetrators out of necessity because of their dependence on human blood. Continue reading →

Im A Riter

Posted by BlackWidower on

It’s funny, I have always had ideas for stories but only recently have my ideas been not based on something else. I had many ideas about stupid fan-fictions for my favourite books and TV shows (and in one case a movie) all based on my desire to reach into the page and bitch-slap the characters so they stop acting like idiots. I guess they weren’t bad ideas per say, but they were self-indulgent ideas that held little interest to anyone other than myself. Thank god I didn’t waste my time writing them. Well I did write a Stargate/Harry Potter crossover but I never published it because the computer I wrote it on was stolen.

Anyway, now, for pretty much the first time, I have ideas that are original…sort of. I mentioned before the sitcom idea based around teen pregnancy. Most TV shows devote “a very special episode” to the topic of teen pregnancy, I want to revolve a whole show around it, that’s awesome. But I have more ideas, like a serial drama about six people working for a newspaper all trying to solve the murder of a colleague and in the process discover a string of massively epic corruption in city hall. So epic the only appropriate word to describe it would be conspiracy. Continue reading →

Left 2 Spend Eternity In Development Hell

Posted by BlackWidower on

So in a little more than a week Left 4 Dead 2 is being released. Left 4 Dead 2 is a sequel to Left 4 Dead, a game developed by Valve that was released a year ago next week. So assuming Valve immediately saw how successful the first Left 4 Dead was and started development of Left 4 Dead almost immediately, Left 4 Dead 2 took one year to design, develop, test and tweak before it’s final release. So keeping that in mind lets look at Valves other major franchise, oh who am I kidding, their only major franchise, Half-Life.

A while ago…I can’t remember when exactly, probably about a year ago, I bought The Orange Box and for the first time got a chance to play through Half-Life 2 and it’s two episodic follow ups, as well as Portal and all three games are fun and worth the $50 I spent. Oh and Team Fortress 2 is in that set but who gives a shit especially when the sniper gets you before you can take two steps? Continue reading →

FlashBackwards And Make Up Your Own Ending

Posted by BlackWidower on

So I finished the book FlashForward last night and a new episode of the TV series is airing tonight, so I figured it’s appropriate to make a critical review of the book. I am not one to write a review for the hell of it, I figure there needs to be a point. As Ben Croshaw once said, I need to be interested to do a review. Something that’s really good or really bad is easy to get worked up about. I’ll give you two guesses where FlashForward falls. I am also going to use a spoiler tag for the first time on this particular blog. Hope it works. But there are quite a few spoilers here so unless you don’t mind getting minor spoils from the beginning of the book I don’t suggest reading it. All other spoilers from late in the book are redacted with spoiler tags. Now, the review proper:

Time travel is like having a pet rattlesnake, yes it’s kinda cool and it seems like a good idea, but if you’re not careful there’s a good chance it could bite you in the ass. Continue reading →

The Future of D’ni

Posted by BlackWidower on

So my Myst Online piece got a record amount of feedback, mostly positive, thanks to a fanboy who hated it and decided to post it on the Myst Online forums. So thank you DerCerbr…wait, is that right…Cerberus?

Anyway, because of this I learned if I insult something sufficiently enough it will get more hits then normal, so I will begin by saying World of Warcraft is a complete load of crap and deserves to die! Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about the Myst franchise. Continue reading →

So I am Wrong

Posted by BlackWidower on

Ah, succinct and to the point.

With my recent post saying the basic theory of Myst Online was a bad idea, I got a lot of traffic and a lot of corresponding feedback, and all I have to say is they are right.

Apparently in Myst Online, for many ages when you visit them you are the only one there. You visit your own instance of that age. So in that case, Myst Online: Uru Live is a good idea. Now here is where people will get to hate me. Continue reading →