Weekend return to gaming
Well, the weekend started a bit early on Friday. We had Scooters pizza for lunch at work, received end-of-financial-year top-up bonuses and then after work headed to Billy the Bums for drinks and some away-from-the-office socialising.
Paul was working late so I stayed home on Friday evening working till late on my latest Girlz ‘N’ Games comic strip – which you can see above this post. All Friday long I’d been itching to get home and go about scanning and digitally colouring it – I’d sketched and inked it on Thursday evening, my first free night all week. Anyway, I really enjoyed working on the strip. It’s amazing how motivated you are and how quickly you can do things if you’re in the ‘creative zone.’
On Saturday morning I completed some much-needed admin tasks – Internet banking, updating my portfolio website etc. Down at Paul’s, he was stressing over some tech support for a friend, so I used the time to do some much needed gaming ‘research’… watching 2 months worth of gaming trailers and Dev Diaries on the DVDs that come with GEAR Magazine. You can expect a post on my anticipated games soon…
I also finally started playing Condemned: Criminal Origins, the sordid serial killer game which Paul had found for me in the UK back in June last year. Condemned is from the same team (Monolith) responsible for F.E.A.R. and there are certainly enough jump moments in the game to attest to that heritage.
The difference to F.E.A.R. though is that Condemned is more survival-horror than guns-blazing FPS. You can only hold one weapon at a time and you never have more than 9 bullets. Ever. Most of the time you have to rip pipes or 2x4s from walls and engage in a very cleverly realised, melee combat with assorted homicidal maniacs who come at you from the shadows.
The game is incredibly atmospheric. Like the title suggests, your FBI agent character will spend most of his time in dark, condemned buildings. I’m about half-way through the game, I think, and so far, my favourite sequence has involved a run-down, department store still featuring decades-old Christmas decorations… not to mention, unnerving mannequins.
I’m really enjoying Condemned’s mature subject matter – as well as its rather unusual use of evidence-gathering CSI equipment. You’ll look for blood splatters, photograph fingerprints and gather DNA evidence. Condemned makes a very enjoyable, tonal break from months of playing Titan Quest.
On Sunday Paul was working again. As a result we only got to the cinema in the late afternoon to see 300. Taking a glance at the school holiday/end-of-the-month crowds we decided against it. Instead, we’ll be going to see the movie this coming Friday morning.
While we were at the Pavilion, we found a birthday present for Paul’s father, and enjoyed one of the Le Petite Café dinner specials. I also picked up a NAG magazine, largely to play the TMNT demo on the disc. This child-friendly Ninja Turtles game is actually pretty enjoyable, with its Prince of Persia wall-running acrobatics and visually exciting combat. But you have to play the PC version with a gamepad – the key assignment is terrible!
We rounded off Sunday evening by watching the animated Hercules, which I confess I had never actually seen before. Watching it, I’m glad to hear that Disney is returning to its 2D animation roots. Everyone can do 3D now, but 2D is what defined Disney. No one was ever able to touch the Mouse House (well, maybe Dreamworks a few times) in terms of its polished hand-drawn product, and fantastically realised characters. Of course, while watching Hercules, I had to annoy Paul by explaining the film’s mythological meddling.
And that was the weekend. I’m really looking forward to the coming Easter long weekend break. I'd like to spend some quality time with Paul after this weekend's interruptions, and maybe see some friends as well.
Paul was working late so I stayed home on Friday evening working till late on my latest Girlz ‘N’ Games comic strip – which you can see above this post. All Friday long I’d been itching to get home and go about scanning and digitally colouring it – I’d sketched and inked it on Thursday evening, my first free night all week. Anyway, I really enjoyed working on the strip. It’s amazing how motivated you are and how quickly you can do things if you’re in the ‘creative zone.’
On Saturday morning I completed some much-needed admin tasks – Internet banking, updating my portfolio website etc. Down at Paul’s, he was stressing over some tech support for a friend, so I used the time to do some much needed gaming ‘research’… watching 2 months worth of gaming trailers and Dev Diaries on the DVDs that come with GEAR Magazine. You can expect a post on my anticipated games soon…
I also finally started playing Condemned: Criminal Origins, the sordid serial killer game which Paul had found for me in the UK back in June last year. Condemned is from the same team (Monolith) responsible for F.E.A.R. and there are certainly enough jump moments in the game to attest to that heritage.
The difference to F.E.A.R. though is that Condemned is more survival-horror than guns-blazing FPS. You can only hold one weapon at a time and you never have more than 9 bullets. Ever. Most of the time you have to rip pipes or 2x4s from walls and engage in a very cleverly realised, melee combat with assorted homicidal maniacs who come at you from the shadows.
The game is incredibly atmospheric. Like the title suggests, your FBI agent character will spend most of his time in dark, condemned buildings. I’m about half-way through the game, I think, and so far, my favourite sequence has involved a run-down, department store still featuring decades-old Christmas decorations… not to mention, unnerving mannequins.
I’m really enjoying Condemned’s mature subject matter – as well as its rather unusual use of evidence-gathering CSI equipment. You’ll look for blood splatters, photograph fingerprints and gather DNA evidence. Condemned makes a very enjoyable, tonal break from months of playing Titan Quest.
On Sunday Paul was working again. As a result we only got to the cinema in the late afternoon to see 300. Taking a glance at the school holiday/end-of-the-month crowds we decided against it. Instead, we’ll be going to see the movie this coming Friday morning.
While we were at the Pavilion, we found a birthday present for Paul’s father, and enjoyed one of the Le Petite Café dinner specials. I also picked up a NAG magazine, largely to play the TMNT demo on the disc. This child-friendly Ninja Turtles game is actually pretty enjoyable, with its Prince of Persia wall-running acrobatics and visually exciting combat. But you have to play the PC version with a gamepad – the key assignment is terrible!
We rounded off Sunday evening by watching the animated Hercules, which I confess I had never actually seen before. Watching it, I’m glad to hear that Disney is returning to its 2D animation roots. Everyone can do 3D now, but 2D is what defined Disney. No one was ever able to touch the Mouse House (well, maybe Dreamworks a few times) in terms of its polished hand-drawn product, and fantastically realised characters. Of course, while watching Hercules, I had to annoy Paul by explaining the film’s mythological meddling.
And that was the weekend. I’m really looking forward to the coming Easter long weekend break. I'd like to spend some quality time with Paul after this weekend's interruptions, and maybe see some friends as well.
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