Video Games and Me

This is the first of several posts that are notes I compiled back in Oct 2009 of my thoughts on things that interest me. This was mostly done for my son Riley who had been born pre-mature earlier that year. Somethings might not be accurate anymore, but I'm posting them as they were written.

There are so many different videos games I have played over the years that I not going to do what I did with the roleplaying games and list each one. Instead I will briefly mention the ones that left a lasting impression on me whether for good or ill. I'm going to try and list them into the typical broad categories video games as usually list under: Real Time Strategy (RTS), First Person Shooter (RPS), Adventure, Roleplaying (RPG), Turn-based, and Simulation.

RTS Games

• Age of Empires I and II
• Star Craft/Brood Wars
• Total Annihilation and TA: Kingdoms
• Rise of Nations
• Warcraft I, II, III
• Empire Earth
• Command & Conquer, CC: Red Alert, CC 3: Tiberium Wars
• Settlers I and II
• Majesty
• Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns
• Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and sequels

FPS Games

• Wolfenstein 3D
• Doom 1,2,3
• Quake
• Rainbow Six
• Medal of Honor
• Half-life 1,2
• Unreal and UT
• Starseige
• Mechwarrior games
• Bioshock
• AvP

Adventure Games

• Zork
• Phantasmagoria 1,2
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

RPG Games

• Temple of Apshai
• Ultima
• Alternate Reality: The City
• Bard's Tale 1,2,3
• Autoduel
• Wasteland
• Pool of Radiance
• Eye of the Beholder
• Elder Scrolls: The Arena
• Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
• Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
• Diablo 1,2
• Balder's Gate 1,2
• Planescape: Torment
• Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
• Deus Ex
• System Shock 1,2
• Dungeon Seige 1,2
• Star Seige
• Neverwinter Nights 1,2
• Star Wars: KOTOR 1,2
• Star Wars: Jedi Academy 1,2
• Titan Quest
• Hellgate: London
• Fallout 3
• Fable
• Assassin's Creed
• Mass Effect
• GTA: San Andreas
• GTA 4
• Sid Meier's Pirates

Turn-based Games

• Civilization 1,2,3,4
• Alpha Centauri
• Master of Orion 1,2,3
• Diplomacy
• Europa Universalis 1,2
• Risk
• Stars!
• Master of Magic
• Archon
• Shogun: Total War
• Medieval II: Total War

Simulation Games

• Creatures
• Elite
• Merchant Prince
• Caesar 1,2
• Railroad Tycoon 1,2
• M.U.L.E.
• Little Computer Poeple
• The Sims
• Spore
• Black & White
• Rock Band

Diablo 3

It finally arrives. After having given countless hours to the previous incarnations, I foresee even more time spent trying to figure out the secret of the fallen star. My first real foray into the that new world was during the weekend beta where I played each of the classes all the way through the available levels. It is hard to say which one I enjoyed the most. So when it came time to start the adventure for good, Vasuro stepped forward to take up the challenge.

Vasuro is a tiefling monk from Dtang Ma that worships Nalinivati, the goddess of fertility, nagaji, snakes, and sorcery. And also happens to be my current character running through the Kingmaker Adventure Path. Thanks to Vasuro's selfless offer, she is now running around New Tristram kicking bad guy butt. Although what she didn't know when she chose to go on this new adventure was that a sex change would occur. (Mainly because I liked that male monk look better then the female one.)

After many hours of playing, Blizzard decided to bring down the servers. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I eventually gave up and went to bed. Although Vasuro didn't get to confront the Skeleton King, he did manage to make it to his house. The way to the fallen star continues tonight.

Return

Today I reenter the land the the mind. Several years ago I had a site called Terra Animi that was mainly a collection of links to sites I found useful or interesting. This was way before the advent of being able to sync your browser data with something like Firefox's Sync. It eventually evolved into a repository for my creative writings, rpg creations and other personal stuff. Of course, even using Sync (or something similiar), you need to sign in to whatever computer you are using; and if you happen to be on a public computer, you run the risk of being compromised. With my site of links, I did not have to worry as much about that. Anyway, Terra Mentis will not be a replacement for Terra Animi but rather more of a personal portal for my thoughts.

Several of my first posts will be ones that I wrote a few years ago that I want to consolidate in one place. They are mainly about some of the various video games (MMOs in particular) that I have played. Over time, I will probably add more musings about old games when I feel the urge. Now I just need to find the USB drive they are on. Sigh.