Tyranny of Heaven [ToH]

I'm not really a good blogger since I don't blog regularly. C'est la vie.

The last game I mentioned playing was Dragon Age: Origins. Well, sometime near Christmas, Steam had a massive game sale and I ended up getting many many $10 and sub-$5 games. The notable few of that set of games were Evil Genius and X3: Terran Conflict.

Evil Genius was loads of fun. I finished it (with one of the characters) after some 30-odd hours of playing. I'm glad I picked it up (especially for only $2). It's a relatively old game and I remember reading about it some years ago, but like most things, if I don't write something down, I tend to forget. At some point, I noticed that the wind-blowing traps always blew people back 9 squares... and then it dawned on me to make a whirlwind-like trap. After that, unfortunately, the game became super-easy due to me making so much money from trap combos. But still, while playing, hearing the theme music for Jet Chan or John Steele would often cause me to panic.

X3: Terran Conflict was an obsession of a whole other level. The X series has always intrigued me (I owned X: Beyond the Frontier and even played it some). However, I guess I was always looking for an Elite-like game that was basically just like Elite (or rather Elite II: Frontier, as I never played Elite). My interest in the X games usually waned after a few hours. Maybe it was too hard to start, or maybe the UI was too opaque.

I even tried starting X3: Reunion a year or two ago to no avail. When X3:TC came out, I heard it had a much improved user interface and this intrigued me. However, the draconian copy-protection scheme turned me off it. So I waited... and waited. Until finally, Egosoft, like the good people that they are, removed the copy-protection a year after X3:TC's release with the 2.5 patch. (They did the same for X3:R, which was when I picked that up.)

I'm not sure what kept me glued to the game this time, but all told, I spent over 500 hours playing it. I pretty much accomplished everything I could from the Terran Defender start — finished all plot lines, got my player HQ, even captured myself an illusive Goner Aran from unfocused-jump-space. Unfortunately, my game was modded — extremely so. But I avoided cheats, instead opting more for quality-of-life mods and better automation scripts.

Anyway, I think I finally put down X3:TC sometime at the end of February. Not down for good though, as I still load up the game and play a bit. Though sadly, I usually just hit the SETA button (time acceleration) and let it run. I'm currently building a new Goner Aran and it still has 4 in-game days remaining. (It took just as long to reverse engineer it!)

Sometime during my X3:TC obsession, I managed to play and finish Mass Effect 2. I'm a bit sad that I never got the will to finish the first game (and continue off). The UI and upgrade/mod mechanics in that game were so horrible though. I'm currently in the middle of a second playthrough of ME2 (same character/same class though) using a modded save game file. Not sure if or when I'll finish (ME2 is only about 30 hours though, pretty short), but hopefully I can have it done before Mass Effect 3. :)

Anyway, I think that's it as far as single-player games go. I did pick up Dante's Inferno and Final Fantasy XIII, both for the PS3. However, I haven't been in a console-gaming mood lately, so I haven't started either.

That reminds me, I did play Assassin's Creed 2 right after DA:O. Like Mass Effect, I did it without finishing the first game (which got way too repetitive). Unfortunately, I didn't finish AC2 either — probably due to the aforementioned Steam sale.