snakemeister
Shared on Mon, 11/20/2006 - 09:07Bored at work. Tired from watching the first two episodes of Lost on Sky One last night (just aired here in the UK). I will admit that the opening sequence tickled my fancy for a few moments before the WTF hit me. Still, we sat and watched both episodes, discussing at each ad break wether or not to continue.
Without really vocalising it, we seem to have agreed that we've gone too far now to turn back, that the point of no return has truly come and gone. I may be wrong, and my girlfriend will simply refuse to watch it next week and get feedback from me, but I think the concept of her never clapping eyes on Sayyid again might be too much for her to bear.
Time will tell.
Still, Lost is not what I wanted to talk about, I mention it because it's the cause of my tiredness today, so the blame for any mistakes, cock-ups or inane ramblings can be laid squarely at the door of J.J. Abrams et al. Also, not being able to tear myself away from something ties into my main topic.
Without really vocalising it, we seem to have agreed that we've gone too far now to turn back, that the point of no return has truly come and gone. I may be wrong, and my girlfriend will simply refuse to watch it next week and get feedback from me, but I think the concept of her never clapping eyes on Sayyid again might be too much for her to bear.
Time will tell.
Still, Lost is not what I wanted to talk about, I mention it because it's the cause of my tiredness today, so the blame for any mistakes, cock-ups or inane ramblings can be laid squarely at the door of J.J. Abrams et al. Also, not being able to tear myself away from something ties into my main topic.
I've been playing Medieval 2: Total War a lot recently. I think I took a break from it last Thursday evening, but apart from that, I've played every day or night since it came out. It's good, not perfect, but it's still damned good. There are complaints, of course - The Pope wields far too much power (historically accurate I know), excommunicating you should you attack other factions to make early-game expansions, yet seems ignorant of other factions doing the same to you.
While excommunication may not sound like such a bad idea, not only does this anger your populace, making them unruly, dissatisfied and less prone to paying taxes, it leaves your opponents free to attack you as and when they wish. Diplomacy seems to be next to useless, the only way to actually accomplish anything with it is by offering money or map information to other factions as gifts, even attempting to set up trade rights (surely a mutually beneficial arrangement) can be enough to cause a faction to stop speaking to you altogether. The AI still seems to occasionally suffer from the passive AI bug, where it will line an army up in front of you in battle, and leave it standing still while your missile troops massacre them, one unit at a time. While this does make for an easy win, particularly as the English (more on that shortly), it does leave a bad taste in the mouth.
I'm not going to go on about how much I've conquered, or how advanced my faction is in the game, I could, indeed I have had to edit such comments out, instead I'll try to use the game to illustrate a point of sorts. Try to stay with me.
When you start a gamge of MTW2, there are only a few factions unlocked, you pick one, then choose to play a 'short' campaign (usually conquer 15 provinces and eliminate 1 or 2 specified factions) or a 'long' campaign (eliminate everyone and conquer everything). Once you finish a short campaign, you unlock the extra factions, but you also get to continue on. When I started, I chose the English and went for a Short Campaign, which I completed the next evening. I knew this would unlock other factions, but chose to push on with my current campaign, rather than choose a different faction. Only a few days later did I actually discover that one of the unlocked factions are the Scots. I find myself, a Scot, playing a game as an English king, on control of most of the known world, I can continue and 'win' in a day or two, or I can go back, start over as the Scots, and give up yet another fortnight of gameplay.
I've chosen to continue. I've invested to much time and effort in this campaign to go back now. My victory, when it comes, will be a little less enjoyable, will taste a little more bitter, than I expected it to be.
It's symptomatic of my own personality; I tend to be quite closed off and quiet. I don't have a large circle of friends, and I've always been a bit of a loner. I don't spend my time active in a lot of online communities, and I don't chat to people I hardly know. I keep my opinions to my self, but I frequently find myself judging other people, and thinking I know best. I'm smart and kind enough to keep my mouth shut about those opinions and judgements though, so the only person it's hurt until now is myself.
It may not seem like much of a 'hurt', picking the wrong faction in a computer game, but I know that at some stage, I'm going to have to go back and conquer the world all over again, this time as the Scots, or I won't be happy. The annoying thing is that I won't really enjoy it as much; it'll be work. All because I didn't take time out to read over some of the guides and tips at totalwar.org, because I didn't think I needed them.
A bitter pill to swallow indeed.
While excommunication may not sound like such a bad idea, not only does this anger your populace, making them unruly, dissatisfied and less prone to paying taxes, it leaves your opponents free to attack you as and when they wish. Diplomacy seems to be next to useless, the only way to actually accomplish anything with it is by offering money or map information to other factions as gifts, even attempting to set up trade rights (surely a mutually beneficial arrangement) can be enough to cause a faction to stop speaking to you altogether. The AI still seems to occasionally suffer from the passive AI bug, where it will line an army up in front of you in battle, and leave it standing still while your missile troops massacre them, one unit at a time. While this does make for an easy win, particularly as the English (more on that shortly), it does leave a bad taste in the mouth.
I'm not going to go on about how much I've conquered, or how advanced my faction is in the game, I could, indeed I have had to edit such comments out, instead I'll try to use the game to illustrate a point of sorts. Try to stay with me.
When you start a gamge of MTW2, there are only a few factions unlocked, you pick one, then choose to play a 'short' campaign (usually conquer 15 provinces and eliminate 1 or 2 specified factions) or a 'long' campaign (eliminate everyone and conquer everything). Once you finish a short campaign, you unlock the extra factions, but you also get to continue on. When I started, I chose the English and went for a Short Campaign, which I completed the next evening. I knew this would unlock other factions, but chose to push on with my current campaign, rather than choose a different faction. Only a few days later did I actually discover that one of the unlocked factions are the Scots. I find myself, a Scot, playing a game as an English king, on control of most of the known world, I can continue and 'win' in a day or two, or I can go back, start over as the Scots, and give up yet another fortnight of gameplay.
I've chosen to continue. I've invested to much time and effort in this campaign to go back now. My victory, when it comes, will be a little less enjoyable, will taste a little more bitter, than I expected it to be.
It's symptomatic of my own personality; I tend to be quite closed off and quiet. I don't have a large circle of friends, and I've always been a bit of a loner. I don't spend my time active in a lot of online communities, and I don't chat to people I hardly know. I keep my opinions to my self, but I frequently find myself judging other people, and thinking I know best. I'm smart and kind enough to keep my mouth shut about those opinions and judgements though, so the only person it's hurt until now is myself.
It may not seem like much of a 'hurt', picking the wrong faction in a computer game, but I know that at some stage, I'm going to have to go back and conquer the world all over again, this time as the Scots, or I won't be happy. The annoying thing is that I won't really enjoy it as much; it'll be work. All because I didn't take time out to read over some of the guides and tips at totalwar.org, because I didn't think I needed them.
A bitter pill to swallow indeed.
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