Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle

Currently playing Braid the time twisting puzzle game that is cleverly disguised as a marioesque platformer. I have only solved the first two jigsaw puzzles so far but I love the game. Normally I struggle to like break through indie games but Braid is doing it for me. Just don't be put off by all that pseudo intellectual guff. Its a very clever, very pretty puzzle game. Solve it and enjoy it. Available on Steam this weekend for under a fiver.

Apparently organising a boycott of one of Valve's games is the new way to get an all expenses paid trip to Seattle . I herewith announce a boycott of Half Life 2 Episode 3, Portal 2, Half Lives 3 and 4, Team Fortress 3, The Purple box, the Green box, and the Yellow box if it comes to that. All of these games are summarily declared to be objectionable for numerous alleged reasons and Valve's stance with regard to any of these titles is declared to be wholly unacceptable. Sign below to indicate your support of this righteous crusade. (The first 50 signatories will enter a draw to become official boycott committee members who are eligible to accompany me on any forthcoming trip to Valve's offices.)

While tucking in to a tasty lunch I spotted a gentleman on the threshold eyeing the dishes the restaurant had to offer. Greek cuisine is not particularly common in Ireland but the generous display of tasty meat and vegetable dishes certainly looked appetising. His eyes scanned hungrily from the buffet to the large sign proclaiming: "All You Can Eat". He turned expectantly to his girlfriend who waited a few steps behind. "But is is safe to eat?" She said. He did not reply but with one last glance at the sign he turned and disconsolately followed her down the street.

Tobold bemoans the fact that fanboys are so quick to praise EVE or Darkfall or some other niche game while dismissing World of Warcraft and its millions of players. This does happen and it is regrettable although perhaps understandable given human nature and fans' jealousy at the huge imbalance in popularity between WoW and their beloved niche game. What is not so understandable is the touchy fanboyism that comes in the opposite direction. Why do players get so defensive when World of Warcraft is criticised? Why was there such an outpouring of hate towards Darkfall and its players from people who were not the game's target audience and who had no intention of ever playing the game? World of Warcraft is the biggest, most popular, most polished mmorpg on the planet. It is a very good game. You don't need to feel guilty about playing it and you don't need to squash smaller niche games in order to justify your own WoW habit. Be glad that there are niche games. Recognise th...

Breaking news is that a member of EVE Online's elected player representative body has tried to use inside information to make a killing on the markets. A corrupt politician abusing his position in order to screw the people who voted for him: Proof once again that EVE's complex social organisation mirrors real life. Except that in real life he would probably never have been caught and punished. And in real life the public would never have gotten a clear explanation of what actually happened. And of course in real life the perpetrator would never have come out and openly admitted his guilt. Just like real life ... NOT.

After TF2 last night I logged into Lotro and spotted one of the frequent invites for "Bounty Quests" in kin chat. Bounties are a form of daily quest that give lots of item experience and have become a regular routine for Lotro end gamers. I have been focusing on my low level LM alt so I had never done a bounty quest but I decided to sign up with Throg my level 60 to do them at least once before they get nerfed! Doing the bounties turned out to be a pleasant half hour swift traveling around Middle Earth to dispatch a number of bosses. I began to think that joining the regular bounty runs could be an enjoyable and rewarding daily diversion. The item XP from bounties would be very useful for rapidly skilling up legendary weapons. ... but of course it wouldn't make sense to skill up any old crappy weapon so I should probably start grinding instances or farming gold in order to get my hands on a decent legendary weapon. ... and of course I would need to start farming relics in...

I played a few rounds of Team Fortess 2 last night. I try to play on servers that cater for casual players so that I can more or less hold my own. Last night was a bit depressing though because my team was badly beaten in every match. I was playing a scout and was surprised when one soldier on the opposing team killed me several times in a row with direct rocket hits. The scout has low hit points but is very fast and nimble. Hitting a moving scout with a slow moving rocket is difficult and certainly beyond my capabilities. When I noticed the same soldier racking up kills all round I began to wonder if something fishy was going on and queried his apparent dead eye accuracy in team chat. The response was quick "OMFG hes a pro, did you see his tag?" The respondee went on to list a string of accomplishments and titles which meant nothing to me but apparently imply that the soldier was a top player with a top Team Fortess 2 Clan. I don't know why he was playing on a noob serve...