Tag Archives: Playing

What are you (Wanting) to play?!

Posted by on October 16, 2012 No comments

It’s been awhile since I have done a good “What are you playing” post so I thought it was about time to bring it back.  Now, you may notice the difference in the title, and with good cause.  If you have been listening to the Retro-Nick podcast that we have been doing, you may have a feel for the types of games that I enjoy.  One of those types of games is the Space-Sim.  I have loved the space sim since space sim’s started to get big.  The concept of flying around in open space, exploring, dogfighting, etc. It’s all awesome.

One of the biggest Space Sim’s out there was a series called Wing Commander.  There is something about the story based saga that led me down the career path of Commander Blair that just made me feel like it was my story.  When the Tigers Claw was destroyed, I was devastated. (if you played, you know).

So when I heard that Chris Roberts, the creator of the WC games, was working on a new game, I got excited.  The best part about it is that it’s the game I have always wanted to play!

Wing Commander Cockpit

Let me explain that last bit.  I love space games in general.  the physics, the concept, everything.  I love Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, and nearly every other space adventure show/movie. (still struggling with Babylon 5) The idea that a game could allow me to experience that myself, instead of just watch it, is amazing.  A great example of this was in the early beta of a game called Star Wars Galaxies.  The beta was for the space combat portion of the game where you could pilot ships like the X-wing, and YT-1300 (look it up).  My friends and I were in a YT-1300 and I was piloting.  One friend was navigating, one in the Turret, and one running around the ship repairing damage that was happening in the fight we were in.  The experience was outstanding.

Sadly, the actual game didn’t live up to the initial experience.  Those of you who played SWG, know that Sony Online broke all the best parts of the game while emphasizing all the crap.

Chris Roberts is a gamer.  He knows what we want because that’s what HE wants.  I have faith that this will be the Go-To space sim game.  Go check it out!  http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/

In the meantime, I have been brushing up on my space skills by re-installing Freelancer on the PC, playing Galaxy On Fire on the iPad, and I just picked up Evochron Mercenary, on Steam.  I am waiting for my Saitek X52 Flight Control System to arrive today.

Oh, and a little Borderlands 2 to mix it up.

What are YOU playing?

What I am playing

Posted by on April 4, 2011 No comments

Wanted to toss up a quick “What I am playing” Since I haven’t done one in a long while.  My gaming has been a lot sporadic and varied over the last few months.  With the new job I, of course, lost a little bit of free time with the commute and new taskings so I have had to modify the gaming schedule to fit.  Because of this, my iPad has become very valuable to me as a gaming platform.  So I will break it down via platform….

iPad:

  • Angry Birds Seasons – Who doesn’t play this, really.
  • Carcassone – This is a great little board style game that we love playing while waiting for food at a restaurant or wherever.  The scoring being done by the system is a huge plus.
  • Catan HD – Same as above, we recently wanted to try playing Settlers of Catan and I found the iPad version.  It’s a great translation, but could use some updates.
  • Zombie Dice – It’s an iPad Version of Steve Jackson’s dice game about Zombies!  what’s not to like!  If you enjoy dice games, and playing with statistics, you should check it out.
  • Words With Friends – It’s Scrabble.  Sarah loves playing and keeps getting mad at me because I am beating her.
  • Galactic Empires – GE is a iOS port of the classing O-Game which is a Space Based conquest game.  It’s kind of addicting and fun in a weird project management kind of way.  You get a planet and you mine for resources, but the tasks can take hours to complete.  The draw is the investment that you put into it and climbing the ladders to research the best ships and build a great fleet.  The downside is that it’s kind of an MMO.  All of the other planets in the game are other players and they all can either help you…..or attack you.  As with John Gabriel’s “Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory”, there are internet assholes everywhere.  If you can get past that, it’s a fun game.


Next up, XBOX 360!

  • Dead Space 2 – This is currently in the Tray and being played.  It’s creepy as heck and I am still just starting.  So far…. Love it!
  • Rock Band 3 – Picked this up at launch (of course) and managed to get teh MIDI adapter for the drum kit with it.  No more swapping of cables, my drum brain is wired into the 360 now for real feel of rocking!
  • Kinect, Your Shape Fitness – So when my schedule got re-arranged, I kind of lost my workout time as well.  I get down to use the Your Shape every now and then, When I do, I feel great, but I need to do it more.


Android Phone

  • CyanogenMod – ok, so it’s not a game so much as ROM replacement on my phone.  I recently upgraded my rooted Droid to the latest CyanogenMod running Android’s Gingerbread.  At first I was having all sorts of sluggish problems, then realized that I had some redundancy with SetCPU running.  It was bogging my phone down a lot.  After un-installing it, the phone runs amazingly now.


Lastly, PC.

  • StarCraft II – Working my way slowly through the campaign.  I love the SC games, but only the Single player side of it.  As a friend proved when we teamed up in a match, I suck at Multiplayer.  
  • Civilization V – I haven’t really played many of the Civ games but I picked this one up as a fun game to start on my new laptop.  I was so sucked into the first match that I think I lost a full weekend.
  • World Of Warcraft – Yeah yeah, I guess a lot of people could have seen this one coming.  I have re-joined the collective and re-activated my WoW account.  A number of my friends went back for Cataclysm and I caved to the peer pressure.  I have been impressed in many of the changes.  I like the phasing that happens on some of the quests too.  It really makes you feel like you are doing something in the game and not just grinding out an area.


So there ya go.  Now….what are you playing?