Too long

No, I'm not referring to- nevermind. But seriously; two weeks in between posts? That's crazy-talk! What kind of blog is this where I go two weeks without posting?!? Well, I suppose it's one where not much happens in my life over the course of two weeks (that I'm willing to write about on here, anyway.... Some things are better left un-typed).

What's new? I'm addicted to Tetris again. Fucking game. I swear to god, I deleted it off my laptop so I wouldn't consistently play it for 3 hours before bed, and after a few weeks I thought I'd kicked the habit, but upon reinstalling it I found out I'm just as weak as ever. ... I need an intervention. (Although, I'm proud to say that, despite playing for shit over the past few days, my scores typically get in the 200,000 range, and I've peaked around 350,000. So I'm fairly pleased with that.)

Um... OH YEAH! I was gonna write about X-com on here! X-Com is a computer game that came out back in '94 (no comments from my younger readers, please), and was voted game of the year. The basic premise is that aliens are attacking earth, and you have to stop them. Same ol' same ol', right? But no! X-com took it in a totally different direction. Sure, you have missions where you have to explore an alien crash site, or a terrorized city, and you move your troups in turn-based combat. But they did it well, adding various types of terrain, various types of weaponry, different personnel attributes (such as marksmanship (which determined how good of a chance a guy had to hit his target), speed (which determined how much a guy could do in a given turn), and morale (which affect the other attributes positively or negatively, depending; a character with minimal morale (maybe the commander was killed during the mission) would panic, drop his gun, and run).) Your guys could duck, take aimed shots or rapid fire shots, peek around corners... it was incredibly well-done.

BUT THAT'S ONLY HALF THE GAME!!! The OTHER half is the business portion, kind of like civilizations. The company is funded by various governments, and they'll increase or decrease funding based on your ability to counter the alien threat in their borders. With their funding, you have to build additions to your base (alien containment facilities for sustaining/interrogating captured aliens, storage places, barracks, labratories, hangars, etc), build new bases, buy equipment (planes, weapons, ammo), hire staff (soldiers, scientists, engineers), and pay for base upkeep (including the salaries of your staff; you don't just pay once for them, it's a continued expense and too many can very quickly drive you bankrupt). The scientists research alien technology, allowing you to understand and use it. (For example, they might comprehend an alien gun, but not yet an alien ammo-clip. So if your troups find a gun in combat they can use it, but they can't reload it.) Engineers can replicate the technology and start building you supplies. And, of course, if you're in a pinch for money, you can always sell off the alien artifacts for a nice profit. (NEVER sell the Elerium-115. You must trust me on this; you'll need it later in the game, because your engineers never learn how to make it.)

So, yeah, I re-bought X-com on ebay, and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival! (I paid $23 for it; that's pretty high for a game over 10 years old, which indicates how great it is.) My only concern is that the last time I tried to play the game (probably why I got rid of it) the sound didn't work on the newer computer and the game moved a little too quickly ('cause computers are much faster than they were in '94). I've found a mod online that slows the game down some, but the sound is crucial too, because in battle, sometimes the only clue to where an alien is hiding is the fact that you hear a door open and close on one of their turns.

LOL... what does it say about me, that the most exciting thing that I (am willing to) write about for two weeks is a video game?