I spent another 'gaming lunch' ... and finished two games. (ok, it ended up ~1.5 hours, but I'm good for it ;) )

Restricted Area: I predict that this game will win an award - worst voice acting for whoever did Victoria ... she should just shut up and kill stuff. A cool looking and sounding game that turned quickly into a real yawner.

Postal 2 Apocalypse Weekend: The first game wasn't highly reviewed, but many found it a fun 'guilty pleasure'. I fall into that pack - worth playing once, try out the 'napalm urination', never played again. The expansion took ~4-6 hours, was completely inane and not fun.

Mike

GamerDad has put my Fate review on the main page today. It is really a fun game, but I have personally run into the 'unlock limit' issue already - I installed on my main gaming laptop (1), and then tried but failed on my work machine due to firewall (2), then installed the low-res version on my little Dell Latitude D400 just to check (3). I went to install on the Dell Inspiron 8500 at home for the kids to keep playing, but got the 'invalid key' error. Oh well ... email to tech support.

I'm playing Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend right now. Two words - lame and tame. The first one at least put some choices in your hands in the midst of being an idiotic and uninspired shooter that tried to distinguish itself by being completely offensive to everyone. The expansion shows no sense of style or focus, and the graphics still look the same. It reminds me of being a kid and seeing things that were controversial back in the early 60's and having a chuckle ...

My review for Dungeon Lords is up at GamerDad. (Thanks Dhruin!) I scored it as a 3/5 (60%) and it was a very difficult review to write because:
- I had very high hopes for the game as my next Gothic II
- I got to know some of the people involved and they are all wonderful
- I actually had a blast playing it for >100 hours!

But in the end, there were so many glaring problems and deficiencies that the amount of fun I had actually went to 'tilt' the score from 50% to 60%.

I'm playing Restricted Area, and have gotten my 'Victoria' pretty powerful. It is a decent game, but while I'm going around accomplishing goals, I really can't say I'm having any fun.

As opposed to Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, which is just a joy. I am anguishing over turns early in battles, then relishing in my strategy as I see the tide of battle turn in my favor.

I've also been on an eBay buying spree ... picked up DarkStone, Revenant, Wizardry 8, Postal 2 (I traded Unreal II with a friend to play it originally, then we traded back) - so I can grab the expansion, and Boiling Point. Boiling Point is supposed to be a bit of a mess, but I got it for cheap ...

Another day, and some more new games.

Restricted Area is a post-apocolyptic isometric action-RPG, which looks pretty nice, but has been giving me fits on the very first mission! I have started four games - two as Mr. Johnson and two as Victoria - and had to dump all of them. My Victoria missions failed because I died trying to conserve medkits. One Johnson ended the same way, the other I got stuck in a wall (i.e. BUG!) The CD is taking a rest right now ...

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is a RTS/RPG for the GBA. It is very well done, I'm playing on 'easy' so I get the full tutorial, and it is going pretty well. I have lost one of my people, whose name I can't forget, it was a minor fighter, and it is interesting how death is *final* in this game.

Dungeon Lords continues to get pummelled in reviews ... to the point where people can get away with barely playing any of the game, having a tough time and blaming the game ...

Last week I played a nice little RPG called 'Nox', from 2000. It was a decent game, with reasonable graphics and questing. It was a fun play, about 30 hours in total, with good increase in difficulty as the game goes on. The music and spell effects were well done - it is a game that keeps you playing.

I am still torn over the review I submitted for Dungeon Lords. I had some conflicting ideas on scoring the game, as I have very conflicted feelings about the game itself. Ultimately I tried to be as objective as possible in describing the good and bad without it turning into a large volume.

I have been unable to get to see Episode III again ... just too busy. I'd love to get to see it again in the theaters ... may have to take time off of work to do it ;)