Why I'll go back to Dragon Age Inquisition at least one more time.

Dragon Age Inquisition and I had some rough moments.

There were the times where it would stick somewhere in a conversation and I'd swivel the stick and press on any imaginary dialogue line hoping that 1. the game would continue and 2. I didn't tell a potentially powerful ally to stick something particularly painful up his arse.

Or the time where I went through all the pain and effort of having my character try and woo someone just to have that person turn around and tell me "Sorry, you're not my type." Didn't help that I didn't think any other character was really worth woo-ing and that, by that time, no one wanted my poor, lonely Inquisitor.

There was also the tedious waiting times, including the real-time periods before missions you sent other people on got completed.

With that being said, I'm definitely going to replay the game.

For those who have followed the Dragon Age thread at least casually, there are many delightful twists. I was quite pleased to see some threads of Origins weave itself in even though I was playing in the default world. I think for those who can create different worlds (which is something one can do here apparently), the game's replayability value shoots up exponentially. From what I've seen on youtube, a number of characters can make a comeback in one way or another. It was especially interesting to see how things with Morrigan changes. Youtube ftw.

But even if you can't change things beyond your default start off, there are still many possibilities and many different options in terms of the story line that may make you curious enough to play again if only to see how things change.

So wait, am I now for or against the game? In my recent post on the game, I wasn't altogether positive about it. Looking at the game now... I'd give it a 7.5/10, maybe even an 8. Pretty high, right?

I think they sort of got more of the ingredients working towards the end. I dare say I felt some of the Bioware magic begin to flow into the narrative. I again loved the interaction between the companions.

There was a bit more going on and I found myself intrigued if not altogether ready to gush. Is that because of my bias? I dunno. There were still things that frustrated me. Things where I felt that it was more a slog than anything else, but I also recognize that it is a really good game. It's better than DA2 and I'll love Origins more, but it is definitely a very strong improvement on so many levels.

And Fantasy Commander Shepard definitely is in there. I remember playing a particular part, looking at the scenery and thinking "This feels familiar. All I need is a gun in my hand and I'm back to fighting the Reapers." I can't fault them for that, but there's no doubt that that particular element is there.

So what will I do in the next play through? Well, I'll send my minions off to do something and just leave my game running more while I do things like cook, clean and administer some hygiene. It'll do wonders for my patience and I'm sure I'll get a bigger reward for it. I'll also make a lot of different choices in terms of the game. It has a big sense of consequence in it - much like Mass Effect 2 had. I wondered at one point whether your level of approval in the eyes of your fellow companions would change something radically, but I haven't seen anything of the kind. At least there are some major choices that do.

And then naturally play a different character. I don't know what yet. I'm not terribly fond of rogues - though these guys have certainly buffed up the close combat even if the archery is still bleh. I might end up playing a dude. Hm... human? Elf? Ve shall zee.

A tad more than mild babble: Year of Indie Games Part 2

Based on the list of games I've assembled, I'm starting to wonder whether I shouldn't have split it into another post. However, it IS the last day of the year so let's just be about it.

There is one game I'd like to mention that I played endlessly on my phone. It's gotten me through times that I didn't want to think this year and was a delightful distraction. And that game was 2048. The idea is relatively simple. You're given a board divided into squares.You proceed to match the same numbers together by sliding one into the other - 2 to 2 making 4; 4 to 4 making 8 and so on - until you manage to match the blocks to make up 2048. I know there's an online version of it somewhere, but that kept making me motion sick for some reason. I also have a ton of respect for the creator who refuses to charge for the game seeing as he built it up from a similar game called Threes. Not a lot of people would have the scruples these days.

- - - - -

Mount & Blade gets a mention because I spent so much time on it this year, but it is a game, the first that I purchased online without receiving a disc and at that stage I was horribly worried by the thought. The game was simply too good to pass up, however. Now to see if I can describe it...

In Mount & Blade, you create a character by answering some questions on its background. These determine the initial stats you are given. Then you start off in a large country with four nations that're duking it out for domination. You're given a mount and a blade and are left to your own devices. Will you recruit an army to carve out your own little area by besieging castles in your own name? Will you work for one of the nations as a mercenary or perhaps become a lord yourself?

The answers might sometimes start off as the selection of text in a conversation, but ultimately it is determined on the battlefield. Being on a horse in their particular third-person view was a very novel experience for me and I won't deny that I pulled up my legs more than once while my mount barely scraped past a tree, or rock, or charging opponent. Simply gorgeous.

- - - - -

GoG.com is the devil. It is the main reason why I suddenly have a ton of games that need playing. Another culprit is Humble Bundle, but GoG started it and Humble merely finished my demise (and that of my credit card). And in one of the evil sales GoG brought forth, I purchased Don't Starve on a complete and utter whim.

It wasn't a game I was truly convinced that I would play, but it had enough elements to have me

rather intrigued. There was the twisted Adams Family/Tim Burton-esque look and feel to the game. The fact that it got rave reviews and was a "cheap indie" also drew at me. That sounds terribly, doesn't it? But what I mean is that, at that point, my curiousity for indie games and whether I would risk my money on it was very much dependent on the price of the investment. It was very much worth it.

Still, it wasn't until my usually non-badgering friend began chucking whatsapp lines at me such as "So you'll be playing Don't Starve this afternoon, right?", "Have you played Don't Starve, yet?" that I decided to download it from my account and give it a try. That was a mistake.

In Don't Starve, you play a character (which you select beforehand and each has their own particular

perks) who wakes up in a massive island with a dude looming over you and telling you that you better get something to eat, it'll be dark soon. And that's all that's said. The rest you figure out on your own. As you explore the different biomes, you find ingredients that enable you to craft items that become crucial to your survival. It sounds terribly like Minecraft, doesn't it? Only it isn't. You actually have a goal - which is to get out of where you're stuck in - and you don't need to read a ton of stuff outside (or inside) the game to figure out what to do. It's delightfully quirky and time consuming and just wonderful... Okay now I want to go play it....

- - - - -

Picture this: You're sitting in your garage. It's kind of cool, but not quite nippy with nothing but the sound of your old PC's fan whirring away and perhaps the dusty smell of concrete touches your nose every now and then. There aren't any games on that PC of yours. At least not yet. Because you haven't made them yet.

And that's where Game Dev Tycoon begins. You're pulled back about 35 years when games were only really beginning to kick off and you're ready to break into the gaming scene with your own snazzy company. It's up to you to decide which consoles you're going to focus on and what games you're going to make.

The game is quite simple in a way, but nostalgia and amusement plays a role throughout. It follows the history of games and so, while no brand is used exactly, it is something of a walk down memory lane for those who might have followed the development of games in general. I'm honestly not giving it half the justice it deserves. It was quite a lot of fun.

- - - - -

From creating games, how about running your own prison? Prison Architect is an early-access indie that allows you to do just that. Get those inmates a place to stay, feed them, give them stuff to do, allow family to visit, and try to keep the riots down to a minimum. This game has taken up a great deal of my gaming time this year and threatens to do the same next year too.

- - - - -

And then finally, the newest, greatest evil ever since Don't Starve was started up for the first time...

The Long Dark.

You are a survivor of a plane crash, dropped off in north Canada somewhere to try and survive with whatever you can find and manage to hunt. This game is also early access and puts you in a sandbox map (for the time being. Story mode to follow) after a natural disaster that wipes out everyone else within the vicinity. Beyond that you don't know. It's a first person survival game that pits you against the elements. You have to make sure you get clothes that are warm enough to deal with the cold, get enough food into your system, keep hydrated and explore the small fishing settlement you've been chucked into. 

So far I've lasted 8 days max. And I absolutely love it.

Well, that's that for the year. Less than 12 hours to go for me. Let's see what the next year holds. 

Babble: Skyrim by Bioware

I avoided the Dragon Age: Inquisition hype as best I could and I did so for multiple reasons. One of them being that Bioware has to hype this game and make it all nice and pretty and tell everyone how pretty it is. I believe they've mucked up enough in the past to have a lot riding on DA:I. And frankly, I wasn't interested in following that.

Another reason was that Dragon Age 2, while having a few profoundly bright lights, was actually quite terrible. Now there HAVE been games that picked up their standards at the third iteration of it - Far Cry 3 (although I was quite partial to the second one even though a few people weren't), Bioshock Infinite, and so on - but that doesn't necessarily make me inclined to spend money on them until I've been sufficiently convinced that things are looking up. Assassin's Creed 3 (which I avoided) was apparently an utter train smash and I hadn't liked the second one. Only massive the hype after the release of Blackflag brought me back to the franchise. And I wasn't disappointed at all.

Anyway, I'm digressing. Point is, I avoided DA:I because 'meh'. But Yahtzee's review of the game pulled my attention to it (warning, he's crude as all hell, so if you are going to watch his review, beware). It was mostly getting favourable reviews, but the thing that got me about what Yahtzee said was that he liked it more than the first Origins. Now, I can't say I am in sync with his tastes, but his feel of games isn't altogether off and so it made me turn my head a little. And so, against my stingy judgement, I purchased the newly released game and gave it a try.

And... it's okay... ish.

Let me say first that my review is mostly spoiler free, but I'm going to say that there are portals in the sky only you can plug because you have a glowy green thing stuck to your hand. That's the main thrust of the game.

I think my main problem of the game is that it doesn't feel like a Bioware game. I know Yahtzee called the protagonist 'Fantasy Commander Shepard' and I can see what he means, but if anything, it reminds me more of an the Elder Scrolls game (from now on referred to as TES) than anything else - and in particular of Skyrim.

You start off as a prisoner - like in TES.

You run around picking up ingredients every three steps - like in TES.

You fight randomly generated animals and foes - like in TES.

There are massive blue-ish giants - like in Skyrim. I haven't gotten close enough to them to see whether they could club me like a golf ball as is the case in Skyrim - which is a personal favourite feature of them, I have to admit.

There are random portals you need to close - like in TES: Oblivion.

There are massive dragons - like in... well, it is Dragon Age, so maybe I shouldn't harp on this one being like Skyrim.

And I am not really going to comment much on the story because... I've yet to discover exactly what it is even after having spent quite a few days on it. Kind of like Skyrim. I do have one nitpick. You don't take a prisoner and say 'Okay, you have the glowy thing on your hand so we'll let you make the decisions' within an hour of meeting him/her. That's a bit of a stretch, but anyhoo. I guess it would take too much time to have that progression of earning trust and naturally flowing into the leadership role.

Now none of these things are bad (with the exception of my previously mentioned nitpick). Just because I'm reminded of a completely different game, doesn't mean I'm against it or that Dragon Age hasn't done these things well. In fact, the game looks really good. The dragons are amazing and even more impressive in my opinion than in Skyrim. You don't go "Aha! A dragon! Let's go slay it!". You're reaction is more "Oh shhhhtttt!! Run!! Owww, oww, fireball, fireball, oww!"

The combat is good. They've brought back some of the elements they had chucked out in DA 2. I think the classes are reasonable. I love that they have given the player the option of playing a qunari - with or without horns. In terms of party AI, I think they've done a pretty good job. They've simplified tactics a bit. I would have liked to have more options pre-set, but you do have some options that enable you to strategise on the fly.

Dialogue is well done. They don't give you the introductory back story, which I sulked about, but they still have the interaction between party members that was one of the bright spots in DA 2. They've taken the 'if it's not broken then don't fix it' approach with the dialogue bar and kept the middle picture icons that give you an idea of the tone a particular dialogue option will be in. They have a ton of different party members to interact with - each with their own flavour and values. Your choices can affect their opinion of you, just like the previous DA games. Hawke has a cameo... he looks terrible. Spoiler perhaps, but yeah, unimpressive.

The scenery is delightful. The game LOOKS good and you can see they've spent a lot of time and attention on detail.

They've brought back customisation of weapons and armour and they've done it rather well. I can't say one really feels any need to use it seeing as you pick up a lot of excellent gear along the way. Unfortunately a lot of the great gear ends up being several levels above what you're allowed to use which can be a bit of a bummer. Maybe there's chest somewhere you can stick it into for future use, but I've yet to find something like that.

They now also have camps you can set up on your map. Going to these camps enables you to rest and heal up and replenish your healing potions for free (which the entire group shares... both positive and negative I think).

So I guess one can say all the elements are there and many will be quite satisfied with the game. I can't say that it is better than the first DA, but that's because I loved the story of the first. Was that not the case, then yes, DA:I is remarkably well done.

For some reason, however, those great elements just hasn't linked up for me. I'm still waiting for the moment where I'm going to be sucked in. After a week, I have yet to have it. I'm now at a point where I want to play the game merely to finish it (because it's bloody expensive as a new release) and I don't think that's ever the state you want your player to be in.

The game is also buggy - which makes me angry. Don't tell me there are patches. I am playing it on console and I don't have the kind of internet to stick onto it to get said patch. And don't tell me 'these things slip in'. Not when you have a glaring problem in your introductory scene. Random bandits, animals and the occasional plant you encounter while you're running through the country side have the odd tendency to disappear every now and then right before you reach them. It's an old argument, but don't put your product out there and then spend time fixing it. That's like selling someone a brand new car and telling them you'll fix up the engine later - and then shrug when they can't bring the bloody thing back to you to get fixed.

Let's be honest, I am biased against Bioware. I'm not going to deny it. There's this big dark black hole in my mind that I've gleefully chucked them into from time to time when it looks like they're miraculously managing to crawl back out, but I really still wanted to like this game. And I still really do.

And it's not that I don't exactly. It's just that it's average. There's no glue that makes me want to come back to it (except that Morrigan is apparently in it somewhere... hmm). It's just that the game is... 'meh'. At least to me. Maybe it's because I've always been one for story and I'm just not picking up on that element which is a core ingredient for me.

Love it or hate it, I don't think it's the hit Bioware was hoping for, but for a Skyrim model, it's not all that bad.

Mild babble: Year of Indie Games - Part 1

I don't know about anyone else, but this year has been a complete and utter bear - and not the Teddy Roosevelt kind. And I really hope 2015 won't be SSDY, because I might then just consider (for a second or two) chewing my wrists or something equally stupid.

This has really been the year of indie gaming for me. I have to admit that, with the exception of Alien: Isolation, I haven't really been blown away by any of the top releases. Okay, granted, I haven't played Farcry 4 and I am curious about Assassin's Creed: Rogue. But other than those... meh. It took me a while to realise that my very enthusiastic gaming streak was completely flooded with indies. And I have to say, I find that rather delightful.

I might spend more time on some of the games I'm going to list in the future, but I figured just to give a nod and a quick description of each.

One thing I've realised about the games I like to play is that they're time killers. Black holes that I somehow manage to escape only when I have to go to bed to function properly the next day or when my stomach is almost done consuming itself.

Triple Town is a terrible example of this. What makes the game even worse is that I can't say that I like it. It gives me no satisfaction and yet it allows me to switch my mind off for a bit. It doesn't help that I can sit and listen to audio books while playing it. Nor does it help that it is a small window on my PC and that I can sit and play it in between tasks (like sending work emails, ahem). The fact that I've discovered that it's also available as a mobile game is most distressing. I'm doing my utmost to forget this fact.

The concept is painfully simple. Match a minimum of three things together so it makes a bigger thing. Then match the bigger things together. And so on, and so on, and so on... Simple. Addictive. A pain in the ass. *resists temptation to play it*    *fails*

*some time later*

I've always loved the idea of being able to see inside large structures - looking at simple schematics or architectural layouts. I can't say exactly why. Perhaps it is the idea of possibility. Whatever the reason, I was definitely the dollhouse type person - only I hated dolls and my GI Joes looked a little awkward sitting around in their surroundings.

Games like FTL thus appeal to me quite a bit. You play a ship captain of a message courier boat who needs to travel from one point of the galaxy to another to let the goodies know that the baddies are coming. Only the baddies are always right on your tail and it takes quite a lot of effort evading them while jumping around from system to system gathering resources, upgrading your armour and doing whatever random event is generated from time to time.

You have a top-down view of your ship with certain rooms that can/should be occupied by a crew member to operate optimally. Enemy attacks can cause damage to the operations of a room, create hull breaches or set a room on fire. Dealing with that, the attacking ship and the occasional unpleasant boarders can be quite a challenge. But a fun challenge. An advanced edition of the game has been released which adds more ships, races, weapons and other things to the game.

Papers, Please has an insanely simple concept and it is very difficult to explain the element of entertainment that's involved in this game when talking about it. You play an immigration officer at a border of the imaginary country of Arstotzka. It is for you to decide whether a person gains entry to the country or not. As the game progresses, the required documents become progressively more complex and you're thrown into a balance of making ends meet, showing compassion and keeping your head down so as to avoid garnering the attention of your superiors.

The game allows for twenty possible endings. I have encountered three thus far, but have given the game (and myself) a bit of a rest. I'll probably pick it back up again later. It's one of those, I don't ever see really casting aside.

Banished is a different kind of city builder that can be both relaxing and maddening at the same time. For whatever reason, your people have been banished to make a new home for themselves in a randomly generated area. Based on what settings you choose, you're given an x-number of resources and buildings and it's up to you to make something of it by first dealing with the immediate needs of your people - food, heat, clothing, and tools - and then working forward to create a thriving settlement.

The game is constantly being tweaked and has seen some delightful updates come up to deal with some of the pesky issues a player might encounter. Overall, the game is something one can play and have running in the background while other tasks are being dealt with. It's interesting to watch the minions at work.

Going Home is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game. It doesn't have a great amount of replay value, but there's something about it that makes me want to return to it and capture some of what I felt when I played it for the first time. The game is very strongly reliant of its narrative and puts you in the shoes of Katie, the eldest daughter of a small family who has returned after a year of touring Europe. In the time you've been gone, the family has moved to a new town and into a large house. You arrive at the house to find that your parents and younger sister aren't at home and set about exploring your surroundings to see what's happened in the year you've been gone.

I found the game to be quite profound - to the point where I've had to wipe away the occasional tear as I played it. I love the idea and the story really struck deeply for some reason, but that's both the blessing and the curse of the game. It's an exploration of what has already come to past and so might be boring to some. The story is also somewhat unconventional and might end up being abhorrent to the more traditional minds. Still, I would love to see other games like it.

I managed to grab the audio of the letters read to you throughout the game and listen to it every now and again. The voice acting is superb, in my opinion and I think that's also one of the reasons I keep listening to it. My heartstrings get thoroughly plucked every time.

Seeing as it's past midnight, I'm going to stop this here for now. I promised this post to a friend of mine and will be putting down another post before New Year which will conclude with the list of indies I've been playing - or at least the indies I can think of. I played a LOT of different games this year.

For now, all the best in this season of family feuds, overindulgence, tourists, screaming children, and the delightful knowledge that, in the next couple of days/weeks, you'll be expected to take on a new year as if you couldn't be more rested out.

I'm sure we're all looking forward to it.

Stepping in for a brief moment

Reader, let me tell you. The world is a dangerous place. One day you're still thinking of all the things you should be posting about and then some devil rears it's head and says "You have to earn for a living, puny human! Mwahaha." and then you have to work like a crazy person.

I've had a few escapes this year, but they were brief moments where I could breathe and go "ooohhh, I can use the keyboard of my laptop for things other than work..." But usually by that time, my brain is so fried that all sense of comprehension flies out the window and I end up staring dumbly at the computer screen with, maybe, a little bit of drool dripping off my chin.

Then I drag my carcass to the xbox and play games that I don't have to think in all that much. Like Brink. I'm probably the only person who likes it even if its AI drives me insane. Or Far Cry 3 - South African villain, ftw! Ahem. Well, not really. We don't like villains. Refer to the 'some devil' reference above. But at least the accent is there... Or I stay at my laptop and play Evil Genius and lose hours upon hours. Or Seven Kingdoms - same thing. Or Harvest Moon - I have that wench's heart going pink but I'm more worried about my crop than feeding her rice cakes the whole friggin time!

 Ahem... now where was I? Ah yes, the moments of clarity that turns into gooey brains and pointless gaming. But is gaming really pointless, do I ask you? Especially when games ask questions about life, or asks us specifically how far is too far gone to return? Is it pointless when you know you want the good ending, but for things to make sense, it just really can't? What a conundrum!

 Brain dead living also sometimes means staring blankly at a screen that is showing moving pictures with people talking and not acting like the fourth wall exists. Through this means I've seen Khan be seriously creepy and the actor playing Kirk (a character I loathe) giving such an amazing performance that I was ready to cry with him (I shall neither confirm nor deny whether I actually succumbed to this notion). And Spock being awesome... And I saw Superman cause a ton of collateral damage and the people of the Daily Planet just having the worst luck with falling concrete and an amazing-looking Clark Kent. No muscle padding needed in the blue suit, no sir. He reminds me terribly of Christopher Reeve...

And what else... hm. Agends of Shield. Walking dead. A little bit of Downton Abbey. Game of Thrones - Rains of Castamere pops into my head the MOMENT I thought of the title. Uhm.

So I have been keeping my mind topped up even if I haven't emptied it on anything bloggish.

But I felt that now, two days away from NaNoWriMo - yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again - I should show my face. To remind people that this notion of writing like a crazy person for a month - come hell or high water - exists to give one the opportunity to feel like you've emptied yourself, wrote something that might be utter garbage in the end, but hell now you can't say "one day I would like to write a story". You sat down and you sunk your teeth into it.

So as a recap, what is NaNoWriMo?

Well, first it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Only now it's an international thing where over two-hundred thousand (it has hit over three-hundred thousand at least once) people all over the world, from all walks of life, make the commitment to start writing a story, starting on the 1st of November and hitting fifty-thousand words at the end of the month. The stories written - on paper, laptop, phone, typewriter, whatever - aren't open to the public to read. Your story is your story and you're the only one who has you're story. Only when you're writing with a 50 000 word count, some might not be inclined to write you're but rather 'you are' seeing as that makes two words instead of one.

But back to the point. It's (it is) your story and it doesn't (does not) get taken from you because listing your number of words on the site is all about your own honesty. So that golden piece of writing can be anything you want it to be and can become anything you want it to be. There are quite a few books that have been published by authors who used nanowrimo as a place to write their first draft. It's helped people write dissertations, non-fiction, fanfiction and stuff hardly worthy of using as toilet paper. The point is that you're writing. You're actually writing. And fifty-thousand words? That's three pages a day. One-thousand six hundred and sixty-six words a day. You'd be surprised how surprisingly easy it can be to chuck out that many words.

You'll notice that we're talking about words. Not content. Quantity. Not quality. The reason for this is we don't want there to be any evil editors standing in the way telling you your writing is shite. Frankly, it's SUPPOSED to be. One thing people don't always understand is that the good story you might read somewhere didn't start the way it ended up. The words that it took to get to that final published strips of tree were infinitely more than what the ink on the page suggests. It is the proverbial block of marble from which a statue is chiseled. No marble; no statue. No copious amounts of writing, no book.

That's what nanowrimo provides its participants: the place to write up a storm of words that make up the proverbial marble. What you make of that is later's worry. Here you can write your space opera, your self-insert into Lord of the Rings where you tell Gandalf that flying is much faster than walking, your crime novel full of the type of gore that would make others cringe, or your romance novel with scenes that would make EL James blush. It's the opportunity just to have silly fun with a group of people who're probably just as high on life (but more likely caffeine and sugar) as you are.

This is my eighth time participating in nanowrimo. I did not "win" every year. I've gotten stuck at ten thousand the one year and that was after I had managed to make the target the year before. But it's not about winning or losing even. Sure a person can make it about that, but mostly it's about being creative and changing a 'one day' into a 'right now'.

Novembers are usually terrible on me. In my part of the world, nearing the end of the year isn't a 'halfway' mark. It really is the end of the year. And that means all the tons of things you were trying to finish throughout the year actually has to get finished immediately. And oddly, ever single deadline manages to find its way to November. It is in that month where I come in early and leave late, where I sit and buckle. Where the test isn't to see whether I manage to get everything done, but how long it'll be until I crawl underneath my desk with my box of tissues. November is NOT the month of creativity.

But I take part in Nanowrimo anyway. Because under that desk, I have my little world where characters are fighting my battles for me or drawing my frustration from me or commenting on the fact that I am probably insane given the fact that the conversations that go through my mind tend to be between people who don't exist. It is in nano where I give my characters names of people I can't throttle and then have things happen to them. Like a falling piano or a travelling shovel or a disease that makes them a zombie which then obviously justifies decapitation.

I'm actually a pacifist. All bunnies and things. Really. Ahem.

At the end of November, I look at my work and feel that the rat race has been a rat race. I have run myself to death just to end up at EXACTLY the same place. My pages have simply moved from right to left on my desk and somehow that makes the world happy for a month before January starts the race again.

But also at the end of November, I look at nanowrimo and find that I actually achieved something. I've written something and learnt things. I communicated with fellow participants from different places - local and international - and we went through something together. There's something. Not just a race. Next year my story won't be the same. I will feel different in many ways and the only similarity will be my excitement for trying this crazy thing that makes no sense but, at the same time, makes all the sense in the world.

That's what NaNoWriMo gives me. It might give you something completely different.

If you are a blogger, a fiction writer, a person keeping a journal or someone random who suddenly stopped and felt writing a few lines would be kind of neat: I would really and truly recommend giving this a shot. It doesn't cost you anything, but it can give you a lot. It can give you a little confidence in your writing because you learn to build a rhythm. You find a pace that works for you, a time of day, a particular setting. You begin to discover how you think and how to put those words across. You begin to unlock something in yourself that you might be quite used to unlocking or have rarely dared.

And then finally. Remember how I said that nano basically requires you to write one thousand six hundred and sixty-six words? Well, here I present to you a word count of approximately 1690.

Simple as that.

Proof of Life (again) and the XBox One

I am alive!!

No really. I checked my pulse and everything and I'm happy to report I'm still kicking and making a concerted effort to miss the bucket.

After the craziness that was April, I continued my quest to write myself into the ground by doing a Murder Mystery. I'm not going to go through how much I wrote. And I won't go into the amount of hours I lost sleep over it. But it was done, and... well it was done. There was survival and death and food and people - have to have those - and it turned out to be a really enjoyable evening even if it took three days to come to that conclusion and a week to shake it all off.

Well, most of it.

For the rest of the time, I've been gaming like crazy. I haven't had the opportunity since March to do that. I'm still thinking of what I'm going to play as I write this.

But first... XBox One.

Let me first make this absolutely clear: I understand. I really do. I understand that this machine is the 'next-generation'. I know that technology is an amazing thing and that the possibilities for consoles are spectacular. I understand that taking everything to the cloud enables developers to do extra awesome stuff. So don't think I don't understand any of that. What can be done with it is really great. The possibilities are endless (at least until the next console comes out).

Glad that's cleared up. On with the show.

Yes, the whole announcement was disappointing. I'm not going to go into that so much. What can be said has been said, I think. There is a greater disappointment brewing in me. 

I've been listening to podcasts and reading articles and looking at tweets about the whole XBox thing and here are some of the comments that come up a lot:

• Come on! Are you really telling me that people will fork out half a grand (USD) only to play games?? 
• It's just PlayStation fanboys that are knocking the system. Seriously, if you hate it so much, don't buy it! Go buy the PS4.
• There seems to be a generation of haters. Just look at the whole Bioware thing. They seem to be only content on hating whatever is put out there. 

So in short, and pardon the language, the message I seem to picking up is:

FUCK YOU!

Thanks guys. Really appreciate it.

Here's my response to it. I know I'm in the minority, but none of these comments completely fit me or I think the people making them are missing the point. But here's my pitiful story. Haul out the tissues now.

I've always been a PC gamer at heart. Gameranx shared this one pic on Facebook about finger placements

on a keyboard. When I looked down at my left hand, guess where my fingers were at? But I just can't win the upgrade battle. It seems like every game out there expects a better machine. Thus, while PC games are a lot cheaper, I always ended up paying more to build up my computer. For that I also needed techies since my scope of hardware knowledge only spans that far. Plus then I have to open up my machine - every time exposing it to the risk of something getting damaged along the way - just so I can do it all over again the moment the next game hits the scene. I'd have to install it onto my computer with a myriad of other small programmes to somehow make sure that the disc I stuck into my computer will end up working. And then you have the fun where one of those mini-programmes end up not being compatible with some other programme and there ends up being one major turf war right there on my PC.

People fork out thousands for a gaming rig and you're surprised that people would do any different for a gaming console?

The PC battle was why I caved and went to console gaming. Yes, I'd pay more but I didn't have to worry about hardware save for my controller's batteries - and the red ring of death... okay that WAS a pain. But yeah, okay, console gaming... okay, I'll go with that.

Also note that these machines are called gaming consoles - as in primary reason they exist. Yes, the media experience and whatnot are all awesome features. TV and Skype and watching movies that either aren't available in my country or the services promoted by the system simply don't exist. My television (which I need to replace because it's old and decrepit) is solely there so I can play games on it. I haven't connected it to an antenna in over 6 years. Why? Because I don't care to watch television. Simple as that. The tv shows you can rent in box sets at the video store where I can sit and watch as many episodes as pleases me without having to endure commercials for products that I couldn't care about.

Anyway, back to choosing to switch to consoles. 

My arch nemesis

Truth of the matter is, while I love some of the games available only to PlayStation, I absolutely hate the controller. I hate the fact that on the PlayStation consoles I am limited in playing games by the amount of pain and discomfort I can stand rather than the amount of time I have available to play. So I went with the XBox360 and, save for the South African version of Microsoft Service during my red-ring fiasco, I haven't ever regretted going for it. 

So I'm not a PS fangirl. 

And I'm in general not a hater - though those who know my obsession with Mass Effect would know why the Bioware statement was a particular low blow, but anyhoo.

I am also a single-player kind of girl. The only time I want to connect with others about games, is around a cup of coffee or on the internet talking to them about it. My game is my game. I don't play well with others and I don't care to. I don't have to. Why? For what? If someone else wants to go for that, awesome, but why should I? It's called being introverted. Gaming is my hobby. I draw energy from being by myself and not from having to try and not be frustrated at friends or worse random asswipes messing up my game. That's not a relaxing activity at all.

With that in mind, why should I then have to buy a yearly subscription? More money in your pocket just to have my console be touched once a day, y'know, just to make sure that I actually exist, that my games are my own. Oh and HEY! Since you've already invaded my sanctuary, my cave, my fortress of solitude, how about adding some other nonsense that pulls from the bandwith I pay for and which I so jealously guard? 

Seriously dude, keep your fingers off my machine. I don't want your features, you can shove them somewhere. I just want to game. Why is that so hard to understand?

Finally. Let's talk about the internet issue.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, are the devices through which I connect to the internet when not at work:

 






I have no telephone line or DSL or whatnot because my need for internet connection is limited. I use it for communicating and reading and writing. As such, I don't need to pay our crappy service providers more for a bigger cap. Again, why should I have to? And let's not get onto the reliability of said service or signal or all that jazz.

I would want for nothing more than to stick with XBox and a part of me would really like to believe that the press conference was as inaccurate in the few statements it made as Microsoft claims - though if that's the case, it doesn't say much for them now does it? 

Someone stated that, just because Sony omitted it, doesn't mean that they might not have similar requirements. If that's the case then I wouldn't buy their new console either. Because it wouldn't change the problems I have with it.

So my current gaming plan of action is the following:

• Get a better TV.
• Buy a PS3.
• Play everything I can play on it.
• See whether Microsoft and Sony really are going to cut my console gaming career short.
• Buy a gaming rig.
• Bat my eyes at techies and try to catch up and learn as much as I can so I can upgrade my PC myself.
• Scowl about the injustice of it all.

Because, y'know. That's what we haters do.

Again, let me make this clear. I know you're offering me the sun and the moon and the stars. Problem is, I just kinda want this patch of dirt over here called Earth. Think you can manage that? Not too big for you, is it?

Proof of Life - Post Camp Nanowrimo

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that I'm still very much alive after what was an INSANELY hectic April both personally as well as with regards to Camp Nanowrimo.

The gorgeous muse of inspiration came to visit me - even if it was to at least fart a little in my direction - and I ended up making my initial fifty-thousand word count just after two weeks. Bolstered by this, I attempted another twenty-five.

Good grief, I almost didn't make it. But I did, and I made it and like the smells of the gases the muse graced me with, what I wrote will probably end up to be a steaming pile. However it's a seventy-five thousand word steaming pile so I'm chuffed.

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. Naturally, my life has all but halted and I need to realise that, yes, there is actually more geeky stuff I could be doing and sorta have done and I can probably comment on them. I'm also going to be taking an awesome break next week, so who knows? Maybe the little wench sends some more gas my way and you might end up with a little more than this...

I is crazy please shoot me now

What was I thinking?

What am I thinking?

My frenzied, maniacal charge through Nanowrimo last year was done with the backing of a full six months' worth of planning (yeah, I double checked my notes and chats, it had actually been that long). And although I didn't work through all of the notes, hadn't finished and can probably consider the story only 65% complete, what remains is hardly as detailed. That was supposed to have come later.

So why, oh why, was it that a brief twitter conversation that started with someone saying this...

Ola!! You doing Camp Nano with us? We have coffee! And cookies ;-)

...ended with me saying:

 *laughs* Fine! But you better be bribing me with awesome cookies, madam :D

Please someone kill me now.

The worst part of it is that the evil woman who tweeted her accursed offer of cookies at me lives on the other side of the country. I've never met her and most likely won't. *mutters* Probably poisonous cookies.

So what is it?

Well, as you can guess from the name, Camp Nanowrimo an offshoot of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month... although it's interNational now, but anyhoo). There are some distinct differences, but the idea of it is the same. You sit and write a story from scratch aiming to reach a specific wordcount by the end of the month. One of the differences to Nano being that you can actually set your own target. Camp Nano also allows you to choose between one of two months (or both) to participate - namely April and July. It makes use of the Nanowrimo forums as a means for participants to communicate. Camp Nano also allows them to be grouped into 'cabins'. These cabins can be a group of strangers who have a similar interest or friends who try and be grouped together. My suspicion is that, due to the participation of Camp Nano being considerably less, municipal liaisons aren't really there to fire up the local group. The cabins are there to push up morale so that you don't feel like you're the only one participating.

Camp Nano is essentially there for those who couldn't get enough of Nanowrimo or those whose Novembers are far too busy to participate.

There are of course as always some Nano Rebels. People who use the time and deadline for their own nefarious schemes such as writing screen plays, writing 30 poems instead writing fiction to satisfy a word count, writing non-fiction, writing a collection of short stories instead of a novel, continuing old work rather than starting something new. (I don't really consider the last one that much of a rebellion, but I'll be falling into that category this month.)

So what's my target?

I'll be aiming for 50k again. Yes, I know. I'm going to hate myself, but I know I can make it. I'm not aiming for higher and frankly babbling 1667 words a day - not really a challenge for me. That is, if I have a storeroom filled with ideas.

So I have 6.5 days left before the April craze begins. What I will be doing until then?

Such a silly question. Of course I will be PLANNING!!!!!!!!!

I'm not a pantser.




Those better be bloody good fictitious cookies...

Game Babble: Tomb Raider Reboot

Lara Croft. Strong. Smart. Sexy. 

Ask a gamer what comes to mind when they think of her and the common thread would be that she is appealing. In just about every way possible, she's managed to capture the attention of a majority of the gaming community who have followed her into tombs since 1996. She has been to just about every part of the globe, driven just about every vehicle, fired just about every weapon, has died, has returned and now she's reborn as something we have not yet seen Lara Croft as.

A human being.

Lara has always managed to be something of a symbol. She carries a power within her that inspires women. No longer are we the damsels in distress, the ones fawning over the genius of a man, carrying their equipment while they set out to explore and discover. Lara blazed ahead as someone who could take care of herself and achieve success in whatever she put her mind to. She could overcome the odds and still manage to do so without having to butch up.

But the British explorer has always been perfect. She may struggle, but she never really gets any grit underneath her fingernails. As awesome as it is to have a woman represented as something more than a submissive sex toy, she's always seemed a little out of reach for me.

Cue the reboot.

The latest Tomb Raider sets out to show us what shaped Laura into being the all-but-fearless badass we have grown up with. She's on her very first expedition and along with the crew of the Endurance is off to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. While Laura is not the lead archaeologist, the crew knows her well and trusts her judgement and so when she points them into the worst possible direction on instinct, they follow.

And the boat sinks. Nice one Laura.

And that's where the game starts off. Laura is separated from her crew and they need to all get together and leave the island they wash up on. Of course things are never that easy.

So how does one became "fearless"? You overcome your fears. How do you do that? By being immersed in them and having to find your way out. The game goes to just about every level to shake Laura - and by extension you. Laura is terrified and with good reason. She has to fend for herself and, like anyone of us may be in that situation, she doesn't truly believe that she can do it.

In one of the earliest cutscenes the player watches Laura begging someone to come get her; to find her and save her. The idea of surviving on her own, of trudging off into the unknown, hips swinging, doesn't come into her mind at all. I think this in particular is something that I admired. Laura does have some advantages, some survival training, but she is forced into trying circumstances simply because there isn't any other option. There isn't anyone else able or available to perform whatever task needs to be performed at that particular time.

Laura grows through the game much like a blade gets sharpened on a whetstone. Painfully.

I was really scared to buy this game without hearing from anyone else how it was. Not being as deep into the Tomb Raider series, I was already not completely sold on the idea that this game was going to be worth R600 (and tthat's with a pre-order discount). It's a lot of money. I'm still waiting for Far Cry 3 to come down on its price and I've been itching to get my hands on it.

Stinginess aside. The biggest reason for my hesitance was this:

Those of you who have been following the build up to the game's release may instantly know what my reluctance was about. In one of the trailers, it shows Mister Baddie shown in the screenshot above seemingly very interested in his young, beautiful, female captive. Laura fights him off, grabs his gun and shoots him. He becomes her very first kill and she understandably freaks out about it.

The problem being that it brought up a rather painful question: Should rape be portrayed in games? The reason for that question was naturally the interest Mister Baddie showed. Even from the picture above, it hardly seems as if he's just about to stop with his hand on her shoulder

It caused an uproar. The idea that Laura would have to fight off this dude from raping and then killing her. It's stomach turning. It's revolting. Bring the pitchforks. I'll take the lead.

Fortunately, the trailer was incredibly misleading.

I've played past this point. Let me give you a spoiler. You see Mister Baddie's hand? That hand has a massive fascination with squeezing the life out of Laura, and not slipping any lower as the trailer implied. I've purposefully missed the fighting cues to see what would happen. The furthest he goes is to trail his hand down her arm, then he grabs her throat - just like he does when you miss any of the cues . In no instant is there an idea that he's going to take her. The only explanation I can give for the 'tenderness' in his touch is his love for killing.

So if you're like me and were willing to tear things apart with your bare hands. Stay calm and rest assured. There are no dodgy scenes besides the occasional strangling, being shot, knifed, falling to one’s death or being crushed by boulders. Oh and a lot of corpses, skulls and body parts.

Hope that puts you at ease. ;)

I have to say, I'm impressed. I didn't think I was going to be. I was hoping for a good game, but was cautious to get too excited about it. Naturally I failed. Thankfully the game didn't let me down. The scenery is breathtaking. The music is good.

The acting... oh my word, the acting! These actors are making magic in a room that gives them virtually nothing to go on. They're utterly brilliant. The script is also superb. I haven't had a moment where I felt like asking what the writers had been smoking when they cooked up the dialogues. Everything is relevant, whether you take the time to listen to it or not. Nothing is trite. Nothing is cliche. The creators really did good on this one.

I'm about halfway into the game according to the percentage of completion the game gives me, but I think I'm a little further in terms of story. And it has been a hell of a ride. I've cringed and freaked out (I don't like heights), I've gasped and snarled (softly, the dogs were sleeping), I've laughed as Laura did some snarling of her own.

I'm enjoying every bit of this game.

From a story side, I'm extremely curious to see where it's going to end off. I love the character progression thus far, I love themes that get seeded into the story. I'll admit it. I'm hooked. I'm not devoted. But I'm hooked.

I'm not going to go into gameplay and what not. I might do that in a later post... maybe. I can tell you the only problem I've had with the game is finding a flaw worth mentioning. Yes. I'm having trouble finding fault. Imagine that.

Tentatively Excited

So my past self left my present self a surprise.

I pre-ordered Tomb Raider and forgot about it.

Now this was back in the beginning of 2012 when the release date was still somewhere around November. So after all that jazz and the craziness that was last year - seriously, crazy doesn't actually come near to describing it - I eventually ended up forgetting about the whole thing.

That is until last week when I got a text message reminding me of it.

I wasn't really planning on getting it immediately. I figured I'd go the same route as I'm going with Far Cry 3 which I actually really want to play. That route being to wait it out until the crazy price drops to something more manageable. But seeing as I did pre-ordered and since I haven't bought any games in several months... Hell, why not?

I'm hoping that it's going to be worth the money. I'm hoping there aren't any rape scenes or any nonsense in there (you'll hear me ranting about it if there are, believe you me). These are things that had me thinking that if I heard so much as a whisper of it, I wasn't going to touch the game at all. So I'm taking a leap of faith. I'm excited because from what I've seen, it's going to be good.

I'm planning on blogging about it this weekend regardless. Here's hoping it's going to be a gush and not a whine. Or a meh. Tired of meh.