Thursday, March 19, 2009

School and Distractions

So you may have noticed my blog has been slipping. I blame this squarely on two things:

1) School - It has to be done and has been really really time consuming for the last few weeks. I did manage to finish the website project. You are welcome to check it out at IAmPaladin.com. Its is nothing impressive, and the info is stuff that most of you know. Some of it is a bit off too and needs tweaking/clarification. It also needs to be prettied up a good bit.

I would say though, that for my first actual website, its not completely and utterly horrible :P At least everything seems to work!

2) Other Games - so what have I been doing when not working, going to school, or taking care of the cutest baby ever (ok maybe I am a little biased on that one :P)? I have been playing either Street Fighter 4, Dawn of War 2, or EVE Online.

Street Fighter 4 is just awesome! My Ken is pretty good. They made Zangief usable by the masses (awesome!), and C. Viper is awesome! I like the game bunches and the online play is really fun and easy to get into.

Dawn of War 2 is okay. It is very very fast paced and its really not about building up your base and getting resources. Its about combat and managing your units. To me, that is what RTS games SHOULD be about, not "Look at how cool my buildings are!" So in that respect, DoW2 is great!

The voice acting is really good too, especially the Orks. They crack me up all the time and are my favorite race to play, although I think that I may actually be more effective with the Tyranids.

What the game doesn't do very well, in my opinion, is help you control your troops. For being based around unit management, it doesn't do much to help you manage your units and move from group to group quickly. Either that or I am missing something. If they did include tools to make unit management faster and easier, they certainly don't make it obvious and they do not explain it. It is still fun though!

Lastly is EVE Online. GASP! Okay okay... close your mouths already. I just installed it today. The last two times I tried playing this game I got bored quickly within a month. Then again, I was over whelmed when the first time around. There were really no tutorials in the beginning and the learning curve was really really really steep.

Second time around was winter of 2007. The learning curve was still steep, but only really really instead of really really really. The difference was an enhanced tutorial system. I was very excited about the game the second time around, but that is about when all my friends and my brother were firing up WoW again, and I couldn't resist. So I dumped EVE for WoW and hadn't looked back up to now.

So what is different now? I don't know. I really never got to play the game much and I have always had a thing for space. I also found that I have had more fun in WoW playing the auction house and exploring old dungeons I have never seen. Sounds a lot like what I imagine I would be doing in EVE; buying, selling, and flying around space, with a little combat thrown in for good measure.

I don't think I will be canceling my WoW sub quit yet, but I will give EVE a good shakedown. I think I should give it at least three months of play time due to the ramp up time in EVE.

So we will see what happens. I think there is a good chance I will be bored out of my skull, but I hope I am pleasantly surprised.

And school is also out til the 30th... WOO HOO!!!!