Monday, January 5, 2009

What have I been up to?

Well Xmas and New Years... obviously, in which I strangely didn't feel like blogging much. Spent my holidays playing games, drinking and going fishing. Sometimes all three at the same time ;)

Steam had a boxing day sale for all their games, which largely caught my eye. Melf thinks I've been putting the kids of the devs at Steam through college with my spending habits lately and I'm almost inclined to agree. I purchased another 5 games games in the Steam sale, which were:
  • Defense Grid: The Awakening - $15
  • Bioshock - $5
  • Ultimate Doom - $1
  • Doom 2 - $1
  • Bejeweled - $1
I probably shouldn't have mentioned the last 3, but meh... I like the old games. Actually the Doom package included the 'Master Levels', which I had never seen before and provided a few good hours of entertainment. It's quite funny playing a game that was designed for 800 * 600 resolution on a 1680 * 1050 monitor in full screen mode. Here's a screen shot I took (click to enlarge):


Luckily my computer was just able to handle it at an acceptable frame rate ;) I must admit, going from TF2 to Doom 2 and then back again was some what of an experience. Put your hand up if you're thankful for video game evolution?

/raisehand

I spent last weekend having a LAN over at Melf's house playing Left 4 Dead, TF2 and Guild Wars. L4D is a bucket load of fun (and zombies). If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. TF2 is the ultimate PvP game, which is right up my alley... if only they could convert it's leetness into an MMORPG somehow...

So all in all it was a good holidays. I'll do a proper review of Defense Grid when I've finished playing it. It's by far the best tower defense game I've ever seen. Don't worry I'll spare you my Doom 2 review... for now ;)

4 comments:

Danshir said...

For that price I can't blame you at all for purchasing some classics. I recently purchased Half Life 1 for 89 cents a few weeks back..seems I'll have to make some more cheap Steam purchases myself =)

Tesh said...

I almost bought Bejeweled. Then I remembered that I have Puzzle Quest and Puzzle Pirates, and came to my senses. Still, for $1, it's hard to complain.

I remember Doom. That was the last FPS that I played with any competence. Quake showed me that I am a FPS scrub, and I've not played multiplayer since. I did thoroughly enjoy Tron 2.0, though.

I do so love cheap games. I keep meaning to pick up Descent at the Good Old Games website...

mbp said...

I tried replaying Doom when Doom 3 came out (even went out and bought a special collectors edition) but I had to stop because the graphics gave me nausea and headaches. The funny thing is I remember getting those headaches back in the days but I just played through them. My wife thought I was completely mad.

Crimson Starfire said...

@Danshir
Yeah I feel like I've played directly into the hands of the Steam marketers, but it's so hard to refuse. Every time I log onto my computer, I check Steam for sales... well played Steam... well played...

@Tesh
I'm not sure who invented Bejeweled, but they have made a killing. Such a simple game and yet so fun...

I used to get my ass handed to me in games of multi-player Quake, which is why I swapped to RPGs. Just recently I've gotten back into the FPS space and am quite enjoying it. Either the rest of the FPS community has gone down a few levels in skill, or I'm actually getting good at the genre. Either way, it works for me :)

I completed Descent and Descent 2 a very long time ago using my MS Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick. Great game.

@mbp
I never actually got headaches or nausea from playing Doom, although I can see where your coming from. Great game, but a little hard on the eyes these days though. Maybe I need to dig up an old 800 * 600 CRT monitor... good times.