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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Month: April 2002

  • Heroes of Might and Magic IV

    There are three computer game styles I love. Shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament help me unwind after a stressful day. Realtime Strategy games like Age of Empires give me that wonderful experience of building an army and obliterating my enemies. And there are turn-based games like the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

    The long-awaited fourth installment of “HoMM” makes a few significant changes to the gameplay that made the previous titles so successful, but keeps intact the best parts of the series. Anyone who has played either Heroes 2 or Heroes 3 will spend a fairly short time adjusting to the changes in the new game.

    The most significant gameplay changes are the new skill system and the fact that heroes and creatures truly work together interchangeably now. You can have more than one hero in a group, or you can have a group without heroes at all. These creature-only groups are limited, but they make great decoys. Having heroes take active part in combat takes getting used to, but after a while you realize that this is how it should have been done all along. Your opinion may differ if you’re a longtime Heroes player, but for my money this is the way to go.

    What takes more mental adjustment for veteran Heroes players is the new skill system. It’s complex. A hero that starts out with one title can be built to wear another with the proper progression of skills. Take my advice: If you buy this game, also buy a copy of the Prima guide just so you have a handy set of detailed charts.

    Other changes include a totally new visual style, wandering creature stacks, caravans for creature transport, daily creature generation and a few new types of map structures. Oh, and as of this writing the game has no networked multiplayer capability. Hotseat is an option, however, so our household is okay.

    Heroes IV is a splendid game overall. The only minor quibbles I have right now are the disabled multiplayer mode due to be fixed in a future patch release and a seemingly slow and difficult “early” game. In other words, when you’re starting out it takes forever to move around and you tend to have difficulty patrolling your area effectively. I haven’t completed any of the campaigns or larger maps yet so this may not turn out to be an issue in the long run.

    If you want a game that looks great, is mentally stimulating and terribly addictive, pick up Heroes of Might and Magic IV. I highly recommend it.

  • What To Do With A Tax Refund

    So we got our big wad of cash from the Feds on Friday. The plan is to pay off a lot of those overdue bills and whatnot that have been hanging over our collective head. We hate getting phone calls from collection agencies, man.

    We did, however, do a bit of shopping. I needed shoes, Wendi needed shoes, Wendi’s dad needed shoes. So we trekked out to the Troutdale outlet mall for some shoes.

    I’m sure you all really wanted to know about the fact that we went shoe shopping. Yep.

    Ah yes, before we made that trek we stopped off at the local NoHo’s for some teriyaki chicken. Mmmmm, the best teriyaki chicken dish known to mankind can be found at NoHo’s Hawaiian restaurants. What, you don’t have one in your area? Your loss, neighbor.

    On the way home we stopped off to pick up Heroes of Might and Magic IV. I’ll post a full review in a couple of days, but suffice to say that it’s just like the previous Heroes games, only prettier and more complex. This is a good thing.

    We also picked up a Carmen Sandiego game for the kids, Final Fantasy VII (which won’t @#$%ing play on our computers since all of our machines have modern video cards installed, dammit), and 4×4 Evolution. I talked Wendi into that one based on the idea that Alex would want to play it with me. Turns out he’s beyond indifferent to the idea. Oh well.

    Maybe I should have dropped the 4×4 and FF7 in favor of Might And Magic IX. 3DO hasn’t let us down yet, anyway.

  • Every Other Friday Five

    Okay, so last Friday was a little bit too hectic for me to spend time doing the Friday Five. Bite me. (Gently, though, I’m averse to pain.)

    • What is your favorite restaurant and why? – The Original Hot Cake and Steak House, right next to the Ross Island bridge. Sure it’s a greasy spoon, but it’s the best damned greasy spoon known to mankind. I dare you to prove me wrong.
    • What fast food restaurant are you partial to? – Arby’s. Roast beef sandwiches. Chicken, bacon and swiss sandwiches. Rawr.
    • What are your standards and rules for tipping? – If the service failed to suck, there’s a tip. Otherwise there isn’t. *shrug*
    • Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert? – If we’re out at a place that has appetizers, usually I’ll get some cheese sticks or chicken strips or something. I’m usually too stuffed by the end of the meal for dessert, though. All things considered, that’s probably a good thing.
    • What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant? – Citrus juices, mostly. Orange juice, lemonade, that sort of thing. Sometimes I’ll have root beer, but only if it’s Henry’s or Thomas Kemper. I will have iced tea on occasion. I’m trying to stay away from carbonated sodas as much as I can.

  • Warning, warning! Don’t be stupid!

    Once again thanks to the great Captain Rooba we find a list of stupid product warnings and instructions. I think my personal favorite is the container of salt that’s labelled as being high in sodium…

  • Oh drat, back to the drawing board

    Make your own evil plan! (Thanks to the 3 Bruces for the link.)

    Congratulations on being the creator of a new Evil Plan ™!

    Your objective is simple: World Domination

    Your motive is a little bit more complex: Power

    Stage One:

    To begin your plan, you must first Expose a Rich and Powerful CEO. This will cause the world to sit up and take notice, stunned by your arrival. Who is this Evil Genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good in Classic Black?

    Stage Two:

    Next, you will Seize control of Fort Knox. This will cause countless hordes of Stormtroopers to flock to you, begging to do your every bidding. Your name will become synonymous with Rage, as lesser men whisper your name in terror.

    Stage Three:

    Finally, you will Unleash your Great Supernatural Forces, bringing about the End of All Things. This will all be done from a Fake Mountain, an excellent choice if we might say. These three deeds will herald the end, and the citizens of this planet will have no choice but to elect you their new god.

    Trust us, it’ll all come together in the end.

  • The power of rhetoric

    Via the Smirking Chimp comes this great statement by Arianna Huffington in an article ‘The new Bush doctrine: ‘See you next week”:

    Yet the president’s approval rating shows that he is not being held accountable for his actions, he’s simply being given credit for his words.

    I recommend reading the full article, of course, for the sake of context.

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