#trashdate

Still chipping into this project. Mysteriously bulky packages have been arriving in the mail. Enshrouded in static-free pink bubble wrap: an EVGA 680i motherboard, a GTX8800 graphics card, an Intel Q6600 processor. Premium stuff (in 2007), still in primo shape, bought for pennies on the dollar on Ebay.

While I cobbled together all the pieces of this decade-old PC, I’ve been playing... well, mostly Medieval 2. My resistance to that games turn-based grand strategy siren song lasted all of, ohh, a week? In fact my resolve break broke *a day* before it went on sale for 75% off this week, which stings, but I’m sure I’ll get $25 of amusement from the probably 100+ hours I’ll pour into moving silly knights around a digital 12th-century Europe.

Blues News also reminded me that the first Galactic Civilizations II expansion came out in February 2007 and... uh oh, oh no, GalCiv2 is also marked down to $5 on Steam right now?

Shadowgrounds (2005ish?)

Play the Steam demo of this sometime. B-tier then, obscure now; an ambitious top-down thing that doesn’t hold up at all. The shooting gets repetitive fast, the boss fight’s poorly designed, the characters and story tack on every available cliche, and the stealth bits are entirely unwelcome. Plus, the camera-movement is a little headache-y. I said no thanks & bounced before I even reached the demo’s end.

Trashdate: February 4th, 2007. Here’s what we’re up against.

I’d write an intro piece for this blog, but nobody’s reading it yet anyway, so what’s the point? Let’s just dive in.

Hey, remember when one page of Steam releases comprised multiple months of release dates, instead of less than 24 hours?

Tempted to pick up Jade Empire SE while it’s on bargain-bin discount. I played & enjoyed it on the o.g. Xbox, back in the ancient of days, but I’m not much interested in kick-punching my way though it again.

I played that Painkiller demo dutifully last week, knowing full well it probably wasn’t going to be my thing. That stake gun is neat for awhile, admittedly, but the level design in the demo is boring & confusing. The last gasp of the Quake-style shooter, before Modern Warfare came along and washed that all away. (But in 4 Feb 2007, CoD4 is still 9 months off.)