*twitch* *twitch*

Ugh, my addiction may be rousing again. I have come to realize the depths of it, many moons ago I was stagnant, trapped in a cave, bartering until my blood shot eyes could not stay open any longer. I slept dreaming of deals I passed on, wondering if I had purchased that magnificent cloak would I have been able to turn around a profit. I was the first, by my estimations, to be so young, yet in my bags have such a treasure, a Froglok Bonecaster Robe. I could not wear it, not seasoned enough, pfft, but my hard times earned me such esteem for owning it.

There were more similar moments, hiding near the smelting pits just outside Minoc, waiting for some unsuspecting fool to bring his hard earned goods too near, *click* * click*, his ore gone in a flash, my bag now too heavy to move with all the now stolen ingots weighing me down.

So last weekend as the thunder erupted in maddening roars, I sat, and sat, and hours later realized I had completed a binge much greater then any I had been on previously, 20 thousand honor later, no small feat I tell you, I had finally had a rogue dressed correctly. No more cackles and sneers in the background, surely at my red pants and black chestguard. Lucky I can hide in plain site, and I surely did, often.

My escape is just not much of one lately ... those long hours are just such a waste, a good time killing mechanism, like some magical jewel that just absorbs the time away, no recollection of what happened, a period of time devoid of existence. At least I have my books, and more drive around Manhattan with D. Work, sleep, game, TV, read ... I need an outlet, gaming is not a hobby, its a time sink ... Perhaps because everyone who made it more then a time sink has moved on, Jedi, Lucky and MBeast in Ultima; Dennis, my father and uncle in Warcraft ... *scratches head* I really have no clue now that I think about it on why I played EQ so long ... Where ever some of my long gone, but surely not forgotten fellow travelers have ended up, in the real or virtual, I hope you all are enjoying your days, and hopefully those past memories.

Armageddon Empires

My monthly Games for Windows magazine arrives, squished as normal into the mailbox, I hate the post office! They had a an interesting few pages dedicated to a game, Armageddon Empires (AE), by the indie studio Cryptic Comet. I checked out the demo, about 64MB total download. The game was interesting, a mix of CCG elements in a turn based strategy war game. At this point I absolutely sucked at the title, lost my first two games, didn't read the manual, but I seen the potential if I could get the game mechanics down, more on that later.

My turn based strategy addiction goes back to Nobunaga's Ambition, a SNES title I would play for hours on end. I always felt there was something more competitive when you have more time to think and plan, like chess, given time, you will see more angles of attack. The CCG addiction comes from my early years in High School and the tons of money I dropped on Magic the Gathering cards, of which I dominated the local crew of players. They may say otherwise, but we all know the truth, right?

The problem so far for me has been cards, I am having trouble finding interesting combinations, which is typically what keeps me interested in CCG games. I have Yu-Gi-Oh titles for my DS, my PSP, and had them for my PC for sometime, MtG games for the desktop and a mountain of physical cards. In MtG I managed to win matches throwing my largest creatures at my opponent, turn a bunch of tiny elves into a behemoth and smash the front lines. AE unfortunately does not offer such creative options, or perhaps I am just not seeing them.

The other point I am a bit irked over is the apparent lack of multiplayer ... you pay for what you get right? I am just confused, I could have sworn, after reading the January edition of Games for Windows, that AE supported multiplayer? Was I mislead or did I just not read well enough. I have posted a screenshot of the first page of what I read through. Tom and Bruce, who are reviewing the game, pick separate teams, they report what happened during their turn, however the turns are never the same, so it seems to alternate as if they were playing each other. Only in the end are you given a glimpse they may not have been playing each other, and that is they both won, with different point scores ... Without fully knowing the game mechanics, should I have known it wasn't possible, perhaps they both mercilessly beat the AI? Perhaps they both accomplished a set goal, just at different points in time?

Truth? In all honesty, I do not have anyone I would have played multiplayer against, however the review that pulled me toward the game in the first place, now seems like it was a tad bit misleading. The section of the article is after all "Tom vs. Bruce: Two gamers enter, One gamer wins" If that does not sound like they are playing each other, I do not know what does.

All in all however the game is great and the company, who obviously didn't write the review should not be faulted for Tom and Bruce not being clear. I have even read on the web that a free expansion should be coming soon to those paid for the game. It is to include 10 new cards, not much there, however they focus on making the independent units in the field, more dangerous, currently they are a bit stagnant, waiting to be pounced on by my marauding Thrall hordes. Just as an extended sell point, the full title is only 70MB, making it very portable to bring to friends, play on laptops, etc.