I don’t like Marauders. Conceptually, it doesn’t make sense to me how Terran were suddenly able to outfit armour which was twice as strong and just as mobile as regular Marine armour. It means there’s no reason why they couldn’t strap Hellfire missiles to the same chassis to make an insane anti-air infantry. Concussive Shells make them really obnoxious to go up against — I don’t like how risky it makes poking. Remember when it used to slow down Archons… those hovering, spell-resistant embodiments of pure rage? That’s basically why I thought they were dumb.

Maybe if it was an active spell (perhaps single use?) that worked more like an actual anti-gravity grenade and dragged units together/backwards? I like the idea that it would only be effective in the hands of skilled/attentive Terrans, even if the snare effect was worse, or it destroyed Force Fields.

My favourite unit, by contrast, is the Immortal. If fulfills the anti-Roach role in the same way, but the idea of the old Dragoons being outfitted with better AI, a heavy weapon and extra shields, and having Stalkers act as a lighter skirmisher just seems more plausible to me.

I know that lore should always take second place to gameplay, but that’s just how I feel about them. In-game, they’re both just dull units that you mix in response to Armored units. I probably overmake both regardless, especially after the realisation that Immortals are as cheap as two Stalkers. (That and the range buff.)

My next post will be better.

I played the pre-order preview for Cinders, a beautiful visual novel based on the Cinderella fairytale. It’s a well refined game, distinctly built on a unique engine rather than the standard Ren’Py engine, but it’s the quality of the writing, with a huge number of delayed choice consequences and heavy content pruning, that really makes it for me.

My problem… is that I’ll probably prefer this demo to the real game. I probably won’t find all of its hidden gems, and on future plays I might even just start to see it as a tree traversal exercise than the compelling story it tells. And also, my expectations are really damn high right now.

I could neither recommend it, nor avoid talking about it at this point.

My next post will be better.

What comes first, being able to enjoy stuff like these guys do, or having people to discuss it with? I found their picks fascinating reading, and I wish I had the creativity and style to be able to produce this sort of journalistic prose.

My next post will be better.

The Spirit Engine 2 is a top quality action RPG. I remember playing this one when it went free, but I’ve only just got around to replaying it properly. Playing with two Musketeers and a Priest this time around (screenshot irrelevant).

What’s interesting is how well the three characters are written. There’s so much inter-character dialogue that you wouldn’t believe a script’s been written for all combination of characters (27 possible parties). I like the setting of knights in an age of gunpowder, too.

The battle system is unique and very clever, but I don’t think it’s always possible to win all fights, so I had to reduce the difficulty in some areas where you can’t level up. I would play on absurd, but at that point it becomes more about timing than strategy.

My next post will be better.

It’s been a long time since I’ve stayed up thinking about a game. Starcraft brings that kind of ‘did I do things right?’ experience and it’s no surprise there’s so much crossover, but nothing compares to having live competition. I definitely need more of this in my life.

I… went all-in pre-flop with AK suited. I think it was the right decision with a dwindling stack, but it still feels like the wrong one. Aside from being ‘that guy’ who acted out of turn on the first hand, I think I played some good poker but to say I was just unlucky does injustice to the game.

Las Vegas is not a city I’m ready for yet. I’m not rich enough to play, mature enough to enjoy cocktail bars and burlesque shows, or trendy enough to shop. Onwards to LA.

My next post will be better.

This game occupied me for much longer than it should have, especially at such a late point in the semester. Generally, these life simulations, anything from Kudos, to The Sims to a 15 minute demo of New York Nights, always seem to have this effect on me.

I guess I’m just fascinated by the idea of modelling life on a bunch of numbers, even though it’s way more fine-grained than that. Still, Alter Ego’s intrinsic traits seem to work really well (though whether you could max out intellect in your teenage years is to question). That it’s still relevant 30 years later is an obvious indicator of its accuracy.

I really do look at talented people in terms of Gladwell’s hours of deliberate practice and relationships in terms of Covey’s trust bank, but I dunno… is it really right to base things like love and friendships in any sort of numerical form?

But that’s me being evasive and thinking about game systems, avoiding writing about my actual life. And the overall feeling about life that I get from Alter Ego is regret…

My next post will be better.

It’s been a full month since I last played. I can easily find an hour of time every day to fit some games in… a lot of my days end with me wishing I’d played Starcraft instead of pool or whatever (there’s no part of his brain that wished he’d been working, though).

There’s no point in doing individual game summaries, especially with the volume that I intend to play. Essentially, games are won depending on who made more workers, and usually it’s not me.

I won my first game with a FFE opening. The opponent was obviously following some build order, since he never made Ghosts after his initial push. I barely held it (because of a late Probe pull) and the rest of the game was spent messing around with Warp Prisms and expansion denial. It’s good to know how easy it is to defend a FFE on Shakuras Plateau.

I don’t really want my play to be map dependent, but I’ll let this one slide. At the moment, I’m leaning a lot towards early Stalker pressure (pictured), but after that I don’t know… I used to like the options from a fast Twilight Council, but Immortals (and Warp Prisms) are really, really effective now.

My next post will be better.

There’s that idea that I’ll never be good at anything. That I probably would make more of a difference having studied crop sciences rather than become a underskilled computer scientist. Once in a while something comes along that reinforces this idea, like a procedurally generated city.

Also, some murmur about the bundle, although I paid my entire $5 to Introversion. Not sure if they’re actually good business for everyone, and more games is the last thing that I need.

My next post will be better.