Eccentric Flower:199812/confessions of an addict

eight twelve eleven

confessions of an addict

I was bad last night.

I had received my new issue of my computer game magazine, and armed with a certain amount of mad money, I walked to the mall to buy some of the new computer games that had gotten favorable reviews.

I don't mention this often here, but I am absolutely mad for certain types of computer games, which annoys all my relatives immensely, because it's one of the few things they know they can buy me ... except they can't, because if I want the title, I've already purchased it. (CDs and books are almost as bad. That pretty much covers my leisure purchases.)

I like "urban planning" simulations, such as Sim City and its ilk, Caesar III (which is devilishly hard, because they have a new AI and your citizens are consequently quite fickle), and Afterlife, which is the same sort of thing except you're running Heaven and Hell, meting out rewards and/or punishments - heh.

I like "exploration" style sims too. Anything from Sid Meier (Civilization, Colonization, Railroad Tycoon) is a good bet. His game Alpha Centauri has been pushed to the beginning of next year - alas.

On the other hand, maybe that's a blessing in disguise. I don't play sims as much as I used to, because of the time investment. Civilization II, the best non-twitch computer game ever made, is so good that even after several years the game has not exhausted its possibilities for me. I can still sit down, start a new game, and look up from the computer in surprise six hours later, wondering where that time went. Which is why I don't play sims as much as I used to. I have played exactly two games of Ascendancy, which is a really good game, because once I start I have to finish, and the game isn't designed to be played in a single session - you are literally exploring an entire galaxy, meeting and interacting with other races, and it can take many, many hours. That isn't healthy.

I do not like strategy or exploration games which take place in real-time, with a clock ticking while the enemy is also building up forces. Forget it. If I thought thinking under pressure was fun, I'd enjoy work more. I try these occasionally, and they're fun until the real battles begin. Then I can't keep up.

The only one I've managed to get anywhere in is Dungeon Keeper, and that's because you can dig your dungeon in isolation and get it running smoothly, build up forces, et cetera, before you open a tunnel to your opponent and start the combat part. Nothing is worse, for me, than being focused on resource management - digging enough barracks, worrying about what I'm going to feed the critters - and then suddenly having to defend myself against an attack. One thing at a time, please.

I think this is a gender thing. It means I have a boy brain. I continue to maintain that men think serially - one task at a time - and women think in parallel. Or maybe I just think that because I envy that ability.

I am a sucker for certain kinds of adventure/exploration games, where you have to wander around and figure out what to do next. I like them if there's a consistent plot and not just a series of senseless "give the waffle to the rhino" puzzles. Most people writing games in this genre stole from Infocom. They stole the puzzles, but forgot about the plots and the sense of humor.

The one I'm playing right now is absolutely fantastic. (Not surprising; it is from Lucasarts, the one game company which does not release games until they are nit-picky perfect.) It's called Grim Fandango and it's like a film noir detective story set in the Mexican Land of the Dead. Honest. Really. It works. It's a very long game, though, and I have stopped temporarily, leaving poor Manny Calavera stranded, because sometimes you just want to dodge and hide in the shadows and shoot things.

It's not true that I like every run-and-shoot game ever made - again, I like there to be some sense of, not necessarily plot, but a goal you're working toward. I like the occasional "how do I cross that chasm?" or "how do I get into that room?" puzzle. I like situations where the player can't just barge in and shoot everything that moves, but must snipe, pick people off ninja-style from the shadows, et cetera.

I realize that for some people, shooters are indefensible. What can I say? Lest you think this is also a gender thing, I should note that Nonelvis played Tomb Raider 1 and 2 compulsively, and is about a third of the way through number 3 now. And Lara Croft does a lot of shooting, although admittedly Tomb Raider is mostly jumping and movement puzzles, which is why it's one of the shooters I don't play. I can't time jumps to save my life.

Also Tomb Raider is "third-person" - you can see yourself, specifically your backside - which I don't like as much as the "first-person" ones where all you see is maybe your arm. On the other hand, two of the games I bought last night are third-person - they're becoming more and more common. I suspect that the amazing success of Tomb Raider is partially responsible, but there may be other reasons. Jumping is easier when you can see yourself. Shooting is not.

babble babble babble

Anyway last night I bought three games. I have to return one game in three usually. I have a fantastic computer in all but one respect - it has a built-in, non-replaceable, non-standard sound card. So games tend to skip like broken records and lock up. (Forsaken, a beautiful, brain-melting game, sits in my closet. I can't play it, and I bought it - for once - from a store with a no returns policy.) So I bought three, because I wanted two and I figured that I'd have to bring one back. I know, I know.

The gent at the software store looked at the three games I'd bought - one of them, Half-Life, which people are calling the best game of the year, is absolutely enormous - and said, "Not planning to come out of your house for a while?" I laughed. "We'll be seeing your face on the back of a milk carton in a few weeks."

"You don't know the half of it," I said. "I'm only a quarter of the way through Grim Fandango."

"We'll see you next year, then," he said.

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