Well I’ve had a complete Saturday of gaming.
It started with Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth for Xbox. Nice, the intro sequence is very neatly put together and the game is VERY dark. So much so I had to change the brightness when I got totally stuck walking around this large house. Atlast I found the doorway. From there it was fairly linear until I activated some ancient alien machine and a portal opened through which some huge ‘things’ came through. Crikey. Year pass and I’ve mostly spent them in an asylum, mostly. Then I’m off to Innsmouth to investigate the disapperance of a shop worker. The inhabitants of Innsmouth don’t like strangers and are about as helpful as a normal stickytape to a Blue Peter presenter. I reached the stage where I need to get into the shop to have a snoop around but this bloody copper keeps catching me. So I turned it off. For now.
Next was Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Ooh.. lovely. I got to be Mace Windu for a bit. Third person blasting, chopping, running, jumping and blasting all on the battlefields of Geonosis. Nice. Straighforward missions (all voiced by the bloke who plays Jango Fett / Clones) and a good pace. The first real mission is fairly tough and I got killed by Droidekkas several times (they’re the rolling robots from Episode 1). Overall, definitely one I’d revisit simply because the heat of Star Wars battle is so cool and it adds something to the whole Clone Wars plot.
Finally… after 11 month away (off doing things like EQ2, Fable, Jade Empire, Morrowind) I return to Star Wars Galaxies. Annoyingly Aishla’s house is gone.. destroyed by the Empire perhaps? Turned to rubble by rampaging Bantha? No. My maintenance on the property had run out and the structured had decayed. More annoyingly it was filled with some nice loot which is all gone now. Nightsister Lances, Tatooine Hero quest rewards.. gone. The biggest change though is to the game mechanics. The last time I played my Master TKA / Master Swordsman could single handedly slaughter Bull Rancors by the dozen (with a nice Doctor buff in place). Now because all missions are set at your own level (I’m level 80 - which is the maximum) I struggle to stay alive fighting two Quenkers. So I’m pretty much resigned to grouping with other people. SWG has become EQ2 in space somewhat. I’m keen to see what some of the new content holds - Trials of Obi-Wan has just launched set on the lava planet of Mustafar.
I’m back on to SWG tonight to spectate in a melee fighters contest. I would have participated but having been away for so long I know nothing of the ’secrets’ of the game anymore and would probably be thrashed. Hopefully I can learn something from my fellow Teras Kasi Monks. (Hmmm I wonder if they have level 80 paralopes now?)