I was thinking about doing a write-up of my favorite games from 2009, but as I was going over most of the games I played last year, many of my favorites turned out to be from 2008 or earlier. I got a few of 2009′s finest for Christmas, but so far, I’ve only had time to play through one of them – Assassin’s Creed 2. Luckily, it turned out to be one of my favorite games in a good while, so instead of doing a list I thought I’d just write a game review instead. Read on for tales of free running, theft, death-defying acrobatics, and of course, assassination.
After being barraged by a flurry of game announcements on Steam the other day, I decided I’d try out the demo for one of the more interesting looking titles, Torchlight. I was pleasantly surprised with the game, however — what initially looked to be merely a poor man’s Diablo 3 turned out to be a fun and addictive, if somewhat simple, dungeon crawler. After playing the demo for an hour or two, I purchased the full version, and have since descended into the mines many levels below the village of Torchlight, in search of fame, experience, and of course, fantastic piles of loot. Read on for my quick review!
I haven’t been able to update the blog as much as I’d like over the last few weeks, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about things to write about. Instead of letting all of my random thoughts go to waste, I thought I’d present them here as a collection. If you’re just looking for a few moments of entertainment, you like reading the musings of the slightly insane, or you’re looking for something to spark your pent-up rage, the following list is probably for you!
Never Too Zune
Each time I plug my iPod (5th generation) into my computer and it freezes up, I secretly hope that it won’t come back on, so I have an excuse to buy a Zune HD. From everything I’ve seen online, these things look pretty nice, and I’d like to try something different than iPod for a while. I have absolutely no interest in the iPod Touch or an iPhone; the 32gb Touch is $110 more than the 32gb Zune HD, and being tethered to AT&T again just makes me feel sick.
But I digress; the Zune HD looks slick in its own right. Wireless streaming capabilities and built-in HD radio are great, and I also like the idea of being able to output HD video and, of course, web browsing. If Microsoft opens up the Zune to user-created applications, it would become an even great alternative to the iPod. They seem to be making an effort to get developers to consider their other mobile devices, so I don’t think this is too far-fetched. So far, however, they’ve been pretty tight-lipped about it. Continue reading →
Man, I go away for a small vacation and I miss the next big TF2 announcement from Valve! Not a big deal, really – I did have quite a good time on my trip, so a TF2 update kinda takes a back seat in terms of awesomeness… but more on that later. Valve’s got a new update page set up for the next TF2 update, and it looks like it’s going to be another sweet addition to the game.
So far, they’ve announced The Huntsman, a bow and arrow for the Sniper that can stick enemies to walls, Payload Race, a new game mode that’s kind of like a two-way Gold Rush, and another item for the Sniper, The Razorback; a back-mounted shield that keeps the Spy from stabbing him. Oh, and speaking of the Spy, he’s also snuck in for some update goodness; he’ll be getting The “Dead Ringer” Spy Watch and The “Cloak and Dagger” Spy Watch, which will let him fake death and stay cloaked forever respectively.
Like the other updates Valve has brought to TF2, these will change play considerably, but also seem very well thought out, so hope fully balance will not be hurt too much. I haven’t played TF2 in a month or two and I’m pretty excited about all this… hopefully this will be the push I need to come back to the game, as it is one of the more fun experiences I’ve had in online gaming.
Anyway, maybe I’ll see you there – and hopefully I’ll see you back here soon as well, as I write a bit about my recent vacation. Thanks for reading!
