I can't believe it took me this long...

Well, in order to cure my disease (Lackofelderscrollsitis), I had to find a game.
Now, this cure has manifested itself in the form of Battle for Middle-Earth II.

As a long time fan of the books, and somewhat of the movies (although they slaughtered the books. Not quite as badly as HP did with Goblet of Fire), I am eager to get into this.
What's more, it couldn't come at a better time. Instead of buying Half Life 2, I'm going to buy BFMEII with my b'day cash. Then, after I get employment later this year, I can buy Half Life, and by then, it's expansion.

So, I can't believe it took me this long to jump on the BFME bandwagon. It surprises me. I actually admit (although somewhat miserably) that I haven't had the fortune of playing the first one. Majorly, because I don't have an Xbox, and up to a point a few weeks back, a decent PC either.
So, now I can afford BFME, and also have great specs for it.

Battle for Middle Earth II sees the introduction of the Create A Hero sequence. Basically, it means you can build a custom hero, with any armour, any weapons of any of the major races in the Middle Earth tales, and also you can set your attributes (speed, strength and the like).
I plan to be a Wizard.
I've been watching a few gameplay videos, and it all looks exciting. The visuals on BFME are spectacular. The best of an RTS I've ever seen. And the unit-structure looks sound. So much variety to choose from, yet just enough to keep track of in the heat of battle.

It seems that it follows a somewhat Rome: Total War formula. In other words, you can select a large (and we're talking larger than the 12 units of WC3 and Starcraft) amount of your soldiers to forge onwards into battle against beings such as Trolls, Uruk-Hai, and goblins. Also, goblins can scale walls along with spiderlings, which have influenced me a little to the dark side. But Wizards! Can't get them on Sauron's side (as far as I know. If you can, I'm so there).
Unless you're playing as Sauron's forces (who I refer to as the Horde, as they remind me ever so much of Blizzard's Horde), in which campaign you march against the likes of dwarves and elves. Turns out the final mission is actually a siege on Rivendell (for the evil side).
Yay for evilness!

Recommended Specs:
System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP
PC with 1.6 Ghz equivalent or higher processor
256 MB of system RAM
512 MB of system RAM for online play with 3 or more players
6.0 GB available hard disk space
16x speed or faster CD-ROM drive
64 MB GeForce3-class video card
We will only officially support cards with ATI and Nvidia chipsets, and the Intel GMA 900 and GMA 950 products. We are not supporting the GeForce 4 MX.
Sound card with speakers or headphones
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
56.6 Kbps or better modem for 1v1 online play
Broadband connection for online play with 3 or more players
DirectX 9.0c or above

So, not too high end, but enough so that most computers these days can run it. My old lappy could probably run it with the visuals set to low with some small amount of success.

It is being released as a Standard Edition, but there is also a Collector's edition being released (for a measly $10 more). I am definitely getting the Collector's Edition.
It includes a "making of" of BFME2, I'm told it's likened to the Halo 2 bonus disk, where they show you what goes on at Bungie Studios with the animators and all the cool geeks etc.
It also has a lot of other bonus content, like tracks of the in-game music. I can admit with geeky pride that I actually listen to the LOTR tracks on occasion. My favourite is Concerning Hobbits actually.

Another large factor that my influence your purchase of Battle for Middle-Earth II is that... wait for it... Tom Bombadil makes an appearance. Everybody's favourite merry super-magic-benevolent-singing-overlord is making an appearance as something like a Super-Hero. He can pretty much destroy anything in his path, all the while singing and dancing. Now that's style.

How now brown cow, that's all it for today. Check back regularly.

~Hey! Come derry-dol, merry dol...

Oblivion is right, 'cos that's where my money's going.

Taken from www.ctrlaltdel-online.com

So we still don't have a concrete date on Oblivion yet, but they have released the system specs, if you haven't seen them already:

Recommended:

• 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
  
• 1 GB System RAM
  
• ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows XP
  
• 512MB System RAM
  
• 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
  
• 128MB Direct3D compatible video card and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
  
• 8x DVD-ROM drive
  
• 4.6 GB free hard disk space
  
• DirectX 9.0c (included)
  
• DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
  
• Keyboard, Mouse

Pretty hefty, so you may want to start gearing up now for the hopeful March release. That is, if you're planning to get the game on the PC like I am.

The way I see it, when you look at Morrowind and the staggering accumulation of player-made content for the PC version, and then realize that Xbox players got none of that, the option is clear. Now of course I realize not everyone has a choice between platforms.

But if you do have that choice, I think in the long run you'll be happier with the open-ended PC platform that can extend your gameplay infinitely. Consoles are catching up in terms of downloadable content, but are still restricted to developer offerings. And I find the fanbases are by far more fervent and diligent when it comes to creating new game content.



So, my PC is so close to the recommended specs, but not quite there. Thus, I won't be purchasing Oblivion. I enjoyed Morrowind enough to have fond memories of it, but not enough to spend thousands on upgrading my PC just for Oblivion.
Maybe when Half Life 3 comes out I will.

Speaking of HL, I've decided to purchase Half Life 2 for my birthday. Now they've got all the "Platinum" packages and crap, so I get like 500 bonus things for half the original price. Dude... excellent...
Mostly I'm looking forward to CS: Source. I've always been a fan of the CS games. The physics engine 'Source' that runs Half Life 2 and the latest addition to the Counter Strik titles is near flawless. I just love the way that Half Life and CS lets you take control of the maximum potential of the engine, and play with it.
I'm also looking forward to the SDK that comes with the kit. SDK stands for Software development kit. I've played around with this on a friend's PC, and man, is it cool.

So suffice it to say I'm pretty psyched.

I've been put onto a new podcast, called Engadget. http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/20/engadget-podcast-064-01-20-06/
You can find the one I'm listening to right now there. Just use your common sense to find the other ones.
Anyway, it's not bad. I still prefer Australian Gamer... probably because it's Australian. I can relate to how they're so pissed about the destruction of Aus gaming companies like Ratbag, because it's a massive dent to Australia's gaming industry. We're a small part of the industry.
Anyway, Matt and Yug are cool (Australian Gamer) however the Engadget guys have some interesting things to say about gadgets, hardware, and what's going on in the IT world in general. It's all good.

Yeah, I still endorse podcasts. Love the cast. Although I don't like iPods. Ironic?


Other than that, not much else happening. Found out I'm working at an IT Service Provider and I'm going to be doing PC maintenance for Work Experience, which is alright. I just hope they're cool guys, I can't take negative people.

EDIT: Oh yeah! RDC Studios coming up soon. More on that later.

Peace

Social or Anti Social?

I was reading an article the other day... or was I talking to someone? I don't know.
Anyway, the point is, the other day I heard that this person's parents think that he spends too much time on the computer.
Oh! Now I remember. I was reading my friend's blog. Moving on.
Now, he brought up an interesting post. Roy (my friend) said that his parents think that the Internet makes him antisocial, and that the belief that people are fat because they sit on the computer all day is true.
So I'm going to address these two issues.

Firstly, being social mandates the act of socializing. Now, I'd say communication with another person counts as socializing. Where else but the Internet can you socialize with thousands of people?
Okay, perhaps if you were the president, but for the Regular Joe's like you and me, yeah, the Internet is virtually (no pun intended) the only place to do it.
So I ask you, wouldn't that make the Internet possibly the most social place on the planet?

Secondly, it's not that people that sit on computers are fat, it's that people that sit on computers generally don't watch what they eat.
Personally, I eat very little during a day of Internet/Gaming. My focus is all on the goals I am trying to achieve whilst connected to the net, not on food.
These stereotypical "Fat Geeks" just don't watch what they eat. All they have to do is eat healthily, combined with some sort of daily exercise (perhaps walking to and from the computer to the fridge to get a salad roll?)

So it's not the computer's fault, it's the user. The computer isn't forcing a person to eat loads and do very little exercise.

There you go, my rant.
If you want to read more about Roy, you can read the quoted passage here: http://roy.outerweb.org/index.php?p=news&pid=6

And the rest of his blog here: http://roy.outerweb.org/index.php?p=news


Enjoy your weekends!