Dungeons and Dragons June 22, 2008

A friend of ours recently asked if we’d be interested in trying out the fourth edition D&D. As we’d never tried any edition (never played once), we waffled at first but we were curious. It’s always seemed like fun but I kept thinking it was too “nerdy”. I thought on it some more and realized the multitude of even nerdier things I’ve done before:

• Waiting eight hours in line for a Star Wars movie (probably for all six, now that I think about it)
• Waiting eight hours in line for a Wii
• Driving three hours to a convention to meet my favorite Star Trek actors

I’m probably forgetting about eight other things. There seems to be a theme of “many hours” in that list… anyway, I decided I’ve done worse, so it’s not like someone who heard I played D&D would say, “My, she seemed so normal, too…”

So yesterday afternoon, we got some pizza and chips, and settled in for a D&D session. A TEN HOUR session. I didn’t expect that but hey, it fits in with the theme above.

We really had a good time but I was too shy to speak up, even though I’ve known everyone we played with for years. I would whisper to someone, “Ask him about the mirror we found!” instead of saying, “Hey, dude, we found a mirror.”

I remember thinking how similar the game was to an MMO, which is my only other experience with role-playing. Coincidentally, MMORPG.com just released an article comparing D&D 4th edition to MMOs — it’s a good read.

All in all we had a good time and I’m not embarrassed that we played. I just don’t know if I could sit still for another ten hours any time soon!

Mmmm Cookies June 1, 2008

This is the first weekend we’ve been home in a while; we’ve been out of town every weekend for a month or so. I decided to log in my Fury in EverQuest II to see what was going on. My sister, a level 80 Provisioner, told me she was working on her Earring of the Solstice, which brought back a ton of memories from my EverQuest days. I loved crafting in EQ and I was proud to get my Earring of the Solstice and Thurgadin shawls back then. Even though I had originally logged in to EQ2 to try to get level 72, I decided to work on cooking instead!

As an extra bonus, this was a double experience weekend, so I ended up reaching my goal for the weekend of level 40 provisioner (I started at 34). I was so inspired that I baked some real cookies this afternoon. They look terrible — par for the course with my real life cooking skills — but they taste pretty good!

How It’s Made May 30, 2008

I recently discovered the show “How It’s Made” on the Science Channel and I was instantly hooked. I’ve been watching how all sorts of things are made in factories — things I never really thought about before. Some I’ve always wondered about, like chicken wings; in that episode they showed workers cutting up the chickens by hand. I would never last! All ten fingers would be gone in less than an hour.

I was watching one episode when they announced the next segment: how video games are made! I thought it would be fascinating to see how another company does it, and sure enough, it was pretty interesting. I’ve only worked on PC games so I was curious about any differences with a console game. You can check it out on YouTube if you’re curious, too!

Oblivious May 18, 2008

The other night we went about our business as usual, making dinner and then firing up the Grand Theft Auto IV. I finally took over and started playing and despite my previous concerns, I’m having a fun time playing! I don’t go on killing sprees or anything like that, so I think I’m being a good bad guy.

Anyway, I was concentrating on stealing a car (dang you, Brucie) when B said behind me, “Ummm… we’re under a tornado warning. Or we were.”

It turns out that while I was enjoying stealing cars, our friends and family were taking cover in their interior rooms and listening closely to the weather alerts!

Although I wouldn’t have enjoyed worrying about a tornado, I can’t believe that we didn’t know about it until B sat down to surf on the Internet. Eesh!

Liberty City April 30, 2008

Monday night we stood in line at midnight for the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. B loves the hype around game releases; we stood in line 8 hours for the Wii and about 2 hours for Rock Band. The people in line for GTAIV were an interesting bunch… but thankfully the line went quickly.

B has been playing while I’ve been backseat driving. “Turn left or you’ll lose him! Don’t shoot the stripper!” I would play myself but I actually have a really hard time being “evil” in a game. I couldn’t play dark side in Knights of the Old Republic, went Paragon all the way in Mass Effect, and reset the 360 anytime I accidentally did something bad in Oblivion. (Granted, in Mass Effect you’re not evil, you’re just a jerk.) I just feel too guilty.

So I’m interested to see what happens if I do try to play GTAIV myself. Would I obey traffic signals? Never get into fights unless I had to? I think if I don’t have a real choice in the matter — it’s not like I can be a good guy — maybe I won’t feel so bad. I have the same theory for The Force Unleashed when it’s time to pop that bad boy in. Unleash the Kelly!

Bring Down the Sky April 5, 2008

I’d downloaded the first downloadable content for Mass Effect a while ago, but because I had already completed the game, I wasn’t really motivated to play it. Since I just finished Lost Odyssey, and I had some time to kill (my computer is being persnickety), so I started Mass Effect again.

I had to play a little while from the beginning to get to a point where I could take on the new Bring Down the Sky mission. I can understand why the content takes place in the middle of the story rather than after; most players are still working on the story and not finished. I still hope that some of the later downloadable content takes place after, though! But playing from the beginning again wasn’t too bad, since your items, skills, and levels carry over after you complete it.

The new mission was definitely worth the time and points, so if you don’t mind playing through the beginning again, I would recommend it. And it has its own achievement, which never hurts!

Lost Odyssey April 4, 2008

I finally finished Lost Odyssey last night, after 70 hours! It is very similar to a Final Fantasy game, especially considering that it was produced by the creator of the original Final Fantasy. It was also scored by Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. Just those two facts alone convinced us to buy the game, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The similarities to a Final Fantasy made it very easy to play, and the skill learning system added a nice twist. The most original part of the game is the 1000 Years of Dreams. I’ve seen most game reviews focus on the dreams as a negative, but I thought the dreams were a beautiful addition. They were completely text with just music in the background, but the tales were moving… quite a few made me cry.

If you’re a fan of Japanese RPGs, I highly recommend Lost Odyssey — if you have 100 hours or so to spare!

Rock March 16, 2008

Last night we went to a friend’s house for dinner. We were asked to bring along a Rock Band guitar as we were planning on rocking out a little after dinner. On the way we were talking about which instrument we would play, as neither B or I have ever tried the drums. (And we’ve had Rock Band since it came out!)

When it was time to play, it turned out that the other couple didn’t play the guitars, so to our delight our rock band was created perfectly. I wonder if that’s a new sign of compatibility with new friends?

“So, which instrument do you play?”

“Bass guitar.”

“Sorry, we already have a bass guitar player… if only you sang, we might have been good friends.”

I also completed my first song on Expert last night. But I do play the bass, and it was just the song Creep, so I don’t know if that counts!