Demo Weekend

Well, after finally getting around to upgrading my card from an ATI 7500 to a GForce 5700 I have to say I'm happy with the results.

What I wasn't happy with is that for some reason the ABIT motherboards don't seem to always get along with the ATI cards. Just a little FYI for those in my situation.

Anyway, an evening of frustration and twice cutting my fingers on a spinning CPU fan (don't ask, it's as stupid as you think), I got to try out some new games with my new card. Here's a quick rundown of each:


Thief III
First off, I finally got to try the Thief III demo. While the graphics are much improved, I did get stuck twice in the training mission on the terrain, and the controls seemed sluggish. Of course, so did the far cry demo the first time I replayed it with my new video card, so it may be that. All in all, they tweaked what was Thief and made it a little more interesting. Picking locks is actually something you have to do with the mouse (it's not hard, but it adds some flavor to the game). If you played through the first one and are looking for more, you might want to give the demo a try. But just from the demo I don't see this as a must have.

UT2004
Tried the demo out this weekend as well. Fun FPS, it's interesting that they give you some different vehicles to run around in, and they all handle differently while being balanced. Some even need two players to operate all the pieces at the same time. The demo only provides one level though, and considering that it bosts over a hundred levels for the full game, you think another 2 or so wouldn't have killed them. I, personally, have stopped liking the UT type of game play. While it's a fast paced deathmatch game, the health powerups etc have gotten old for me. I prefer the Counterstrike style of game play.

America's Army
I'd really like to tell you more about this one. The shooting range is nice, but the login server has been down for maintenance for 4 days, so I have no idea what the actual game is like. Pass until it's up and running.

Battlefield 1942
Came with the video card. Nice, all video cards should give you something to help show off your new eye candy. Anyway, AI is poor, I've seen the bots just standing there while I walk past them, getting stuck on buildings, or repeatedly jumping in and out of their tanks. The multiple vehicles are nice, but I find the planes useless as you can't really see any of the controls working to know your altitude etc. Am I close to the ground? Or am I ok... boom. Nope. Close to the ground. It is interesting that even the first person has the feel of an online game, and that while you go through several battles of WWII, it's not actually a 'story' mode. It's just different settings. Different beautiful settings. I'll do a full review later, even though those who are going to buy it already have it, and the rest of us, just won't care.

That's my wrap up for the weekend.

Pirates!

I'm moving this week and part of moving is going through your stuff. My Special Lady and I were in the basement pouring over our belongings. The air in the basement is dank and musty and everything smells like old cardboard. The Goodwill pile was growing and it was growing painfully. My collection of the worlds crappiest Pez dispensers - in the pile. I was trying to take a zen buddhist approach to giving away all my belongings (my cherished crap I stuffed in the storage locker two years ago and forgot about) but it still hurt.

"What about this?" she asked. There was no malice in her voice but when I looked up I snapped into fight or flight mode. It was my origional copy of Sid Meier's Pirates. It was complete and unmolested. The map was in the box and nearly flawless. Both the 3.5 and the 5.25 disks were included. This was a thing of beauty, a rare find from the golden age of Goodwill when we bought Atari games and pong machines on an almost weekly basis. You don't just GIVE AWAY an origional copy of Sid Meier's Pirates.

Right now I'm listening to the Pixies at work and writing this article. I had my Internet access shut off yesterday at home for the move. Behind the music I can hear the periodic crashing of waves and the creeking of planks. The sounds are coming from here.

It's the website for the upcoming re-release of Sid Meier's Pirates. Sid Meier is one of the best known names in gaming and rightly so. He's the super-genius behind the Civilization series. Sid Meier has claimed more hours of my life than drinking and huffing airplane glue combined. Some company called Firaxis or something is also involved. SID MEIER, PEOPLE!

Pirates was always one of my favorite games. Pirates main attraction for me was the variety in game play. You had exploration, ship to ship combat, international intrigue, sword fights, looting, everything that makes pirates so awesome it hurts. Things like wind direction, nationality, fleet size, and your natural abilities all came into play.

The re-release of Pirates hopes to maintain and expand upon the things that made the origional so bad-ass. Ship combat and dueling have been greatly improved. The dueling in the origional was especially simplistic. I routinely trounced almost every captain I encountered by mashing attack over and over again as fast as I could. The developers also said they wanted to maintain the open-ended story of the origional, allowing players to choose their own destiny and story.

From what I've seen, graphics look great. They're the perfect blend of historical accuracy and sylistic embellishment. Here's what Sid Meier had to say about improvements to the origional Pirates:

"We have added many new story elements and quests, and have significantly upgraded the dueling and ship battle sequences - including the ability for players to use nearby objects when dueling opponents. Players will have access to many different weapons and types of cannon-shots, giving them even more options and control. Land battles are also being revisited and enhanced. The addition of more units for the player to fight with and against will certainly provide even more strategic elements and depth. All-new action sequences have also been created. Players will now be able to sneak in and out of town and can even try to charm the Governor’s daughter in dancing sequences!"

I'm all for being able to throw stuff at people (throwing stuff at people has been a gaming tradition since Donkey Kong) but the jury is still out on the dancing sequences. I hope this isn't one of those "press the buttons to the rhythm" mini-games that make me want to punch people in the face untill my arm gets tired. Personally I would rather kidnap the Governor's daughter, tie her to the mast and throw bottles at her, but that's just me.

There isn't a lot of information available now about Pirates and I doubt I'm #1 on the Atari/Firaxis preview list but I'll keep an eye out for exciting developments.