Niahak's Place

…barely. Driving from WA to Indianapolis took about 3 days, and now I’m all moved into my apartment and (nearly) everything is put in its place. I get to start work tomorrow, lucky me! At least then I will know some people around here. But for now I shall briefly mention Lords of the Realm 3 and some books.

Thanks to the wonders of a cell phone camera, I have wonderful low-res pictures to show off. As an aside, this is actually my first cell phone ever. I don’t know whether to feel like a caveman recently unfrozen or what…

These are even more lo-res than I thought they’d be… but here’s what I have with me gaming-wise.

So here’s what I’ve got.  My TV (with nonworking RCA – so only coax-quality for me), SNES and many games (one copy of Der Langrisser is easily visible, another more blurrily visible… yeah I have two… more about DL soon),  my PS2 (with some game cases and more in CD cases) and a couple PC and Saturn games.  Saturn is not pictured because I don’t want to set it up yet.

I’m considering spending part of my first paycheck on a better TV… stupid student loan grace periods corrupting my values.

Due to driving and getting all those wonderful necessities of individual survival, I haven’t had a whole lot of free time lately. This changes today, which I have almost entirely free.

Yesterday, I got the chance to try Lords of the Realm 3. It was $5, and I figured I couldn’t lose. I was mostly wrong, because aside from one very minor aspect of the game that isn’t even very well handled, everything the game has been done better elsewhere. The interface is iffy, the system is too hands-off, the manual is lacking and there are no tooltips… and the battle system was done better more than 5 years ago in other games.  I wouldn’t recommend it; Lords 2 is a much better game (and was selling for $20 at the same store).  Lords 3 advertises itself as being something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX: Set and forget stuff with officers.  In actuality, officers largely function as buildings with stats, except knights, who are armies with stats.

I’ve been reading a couple books, too.  Lots of time in the car and all that.  I read through Mickey Zucker Reichert’s  The Last Renshai.  I have to say I expected less, mostly because the cover showed a guy on horseback with two swords.  It has less depth than, say, Wheel of Time, but I found it a fairly enjoyable read.  The Last Renshai vaguely reminded me of Salvatore’s works (Drizzt etc), but lacks the happy-go-lucky cheesiness.  Both good and bad, I suppose, depending on what mood you’re in.

I’m now reading Alastair Reynolds’s (apparently that is the correct possessive?) Revelation Space.  Similar to Chasm City, it actually unfolds a bit like a mystery book.  It’s a bit grittier than I usually prefer, but it’s still good stuff.

Maybe now I can start Suikoden Tactics.

Oh yeah, anyone know where I should shop for a pre-assembled desktop?  Windows packaged with it and a cheap pricetag would definitely be bonuses too.  Mostly looking for something I’d be able to play newer games on, however poorly.  I know this is just asking for spambot comments but I may be picking one up sooner or later and any advice would help.