The list grows ever longer...

I don't know whether to scream with joy, or weep for the state of my credit card. I pick up one issue of Australian 360, and the list of games I want just explodes.

Top of the list is Mafia II, due out sometime in 2009 from 2K Games and 2K Czech. I am a huge fan of the original Mafia: City of Lost Heaven, easily spending hours in Freeride mode, just driving around and enjoying the immersion: it really feels like 1930s America (not that I know what 1930s America feels like, I'm just sayin'...). Mafia II looks just as immersive, though set in post-War America.

Next on my list is Fable II from Lionhead. I enjoyed Fable: The Lost Chapters on the PC, and as a completely unrepentent Peter Molyneux fanboy (I've never met a Molyneux game I didn't like), I'm slavering for Fable II.

There are plenty of other games on the list: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Call of Duty: World at War (back to World War II and the Pacific theatre), Diablo III, Far Cry 2, The Force Unleashed, Fracture, Ghostbusters, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (Everton nil), Jet Thunder, The Sims 3, and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X..

That's 14 games... at roughly NZ$100 a pop... yikes....

Update: As of 27 March 2010, I have Fable II, Ace Combat 6, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, The Force Unleashed for the Xbox (which just died), and The Sims 3 and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. for the PC (which is also a bit green about the gills these days); Mafia II, Diablo III, Half-life 2: Episode 3 and Jet Thunder have yet to be released; Fracture and Ghostbusters have been disappointments, so I haven't bothered to get them; and Far Cry 2 and Call of Duty: World at War are no longer on my wish list.

Okay, I admit it,....

I caved. I surrendered to the Dark Side. I can no longer sneer at console owners. I am one.

I've bought an Xbox 360.

But there was a reason (not temporary insanity): too many good games either out already, or coming out soon, that are console only: GTA IV (and yes, I know there's a PC version coming in the next few months -- I didn't know that when I ordered the Xbox), Force Unleashed, Fable II, and Fracture, just to name a few.

And I really like being able to go into EB Games, and look at two walls of the shop :-P

Do I think PC gaming is dying? No. The PC is too versatile, and my experience with Perfect Dark Zero leads me to the conclusion that first-person shooters are still better on a PC (mouse and WASD beats analog joysticks). And games like Spore and "proper" flight sims are still PC-only.

4th Edition

Had a chance to play with Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition today. I admit, I was a little apprehensive -- I've been playing D&D since 1st edition (the original AD&D) -- and while I'd liked the changes made for 3rd Ed, 4th Ed looked "too different".

Still, open-mind and all that: got together with a couple of friends, and ran through the adventure in the back of the DMG. Constant referrals to the rulebooks followed through three combat encounters, but that was to be expected. And we thoroughly enjoyed it. There seems to be more emphasis on teamwork now, with powers that smash enemies and heal allies (the paladin's divine judgement was well appreciated).

And it's tougher! Our party of six 1st-level characters (as this was testing the rules, we each had two characters and shared the DMing load -- not something we'd ever think of do if we were playing "for real", as it were) had real trouble with kobolds. Kobolds!

Only gripe really, was that it was sometimes tricky to find where in the rulebook a particular rule was: the index, particularly in the PHB needs overhauling.

"Jar Jar, you're a genius"

Go to Google, and search for the phrase "Jar Jar, you're a genius" (including the quotes). This phrase -- that hadn't existed anywhere on the Interweb before 3 July, for some strange reason -- first appeared in Darths & Droids episode 122. It's now on Google's hot trends list.

Feed the frenzy! Search for the phrase, and blog about it!

Woohoo!

Diablo III!