Call of Duty 4

Gaming

I picked up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the newest installment in the franchise, last week after hearing many great things about it. I’m not exactly a fan of war shooters, and just about had my fix of WWII games after Call of Duty 2, so it was nice that this game took place in a contemporary setting. The game is fantastic; it gives a great impression of space and location, and there is a ton of variety to be had during gameplay.

I have not tried the multiplayer yet, but from what I hear, it is exceptional as well. This game is a serious contender for 2007’s Game of the Year award for me, and may actually have it, in my opinion. (It’ll have to compete with BioShock, for one.)

Short Work Week

School

I’m totally excited for the short work week this week, thanks to Thanksgiving.

Except, I have a midterm tomorrow in my CS class which will probably be a royal pain, like the last one.

Orange Box Impressions

Half-Life, , , , , , ,

This past week The Orange Box was released on Steam, containing every single-player Half-Life 2 game released to date as well as Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Always excited to play some more HL2, I had the fortunate coincidence that this week is fall break and I managed to find the time to play all three showcase titles.

I don’t wish to be particularly wordy here, so I am going to make my comments short. But I must say that Episode 2 is just about the finest execution of a first person shooter in history. Just about everything was perfect, and even the inclusion of Xbox 360-style achievements was nice, at least to give players a reason to play the game again.

TF2 I have already talked about, and it is awesome. Also, it’s glad to see the bugs and exploits being fixed quickly.

That just leaves Portal, which is simply remarkable. Secretly this is the title I was most anticipating out of all three, and it exceeded my expectations. How they managed to pull it off so flawlessly is something I would like to know. The only complaint I have is that it really is too short, but community-made maps and additional content in the future (multiplayer, anyone?) will make up for that in time. Also I’d like to concur that this is bar none the best ending credits sequence in a video game ever.

Considering all the other games that come bundled in the Orange Box, this is a crazy deal for $50 (on the PC—console players get shafted the extra $10 for console tax).

2007 Upgrade Cycle… of DOOM

General,

Well, it looks like the time has come to finally upgrade my desktop machine. It is getting a bit long in the tooth, and with all the games that have either come out in just the past month or are coming out in the next couple months, it looks like it’s about time to bring the ol’ computer up to date.

It’s actually a hefty upgrade, since every single component in the computer will have to be upgraded. I’ll keep my SoundBlaster X-Fi around for good measure, though. Oh, and I won’t be able to afford to upgrade my monitor just yet. Oh, well.

  • Antec P182 case
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 GHz
  • ASUS P5K3 Deluxe ABit IP35 Pro
  • 2 GB Crucial DDR2-800 RAM
  • 320 GB Seagate Hard Drive
  • DVD-RW
  • Dell 2007WFP

I’m pretty psyched!

TMBG in Boise

Music

I did something totally crazy this weekend: I drove to Boise, ID to go to a They Might Be Giants concert. Five hours one way, the trip was pretty boring. Still, the concert was awesome (if my count is correct, this is the fifth performance I have been to), and I stayed with my sister and brother-in-law overnight. I also picked up a signed vinyl copy of The Else, which is neat, even if useless 😉