Sam and Amy had a lovely afternoon, hanging in the front yard with some of his friends. Dad had to grab the camera to get this shot of him exploring the pathway among the monkey grass. Gallery is here on Flickr.
Daily Archives: May 23, 2006
MiniReview: Everything is Illuminated
I’m trying to make it a policy that I’ll post at least a short review on anything we are watching from Netflix, mostly for the greater good my own recollection. Anyway, I’d seen a preview for Everything is Illuminated sometime last year when Amy and I had actually managed to see a movie, the I Heart Huckabees indie flick. Anyway, I recall being charmed by the visuals and the storyline of an American Jewish writer going back to Russia to find the people involved in his grandfather’s life and his escape from the Germans in WWII. The film was charming at times, disturbing at others, and in my opinion a must-see for anyone who traces their ancestry through Eastern Europe and the Holocaust. A great performance by Elijah Wood, the grandfather (who at times reminded me in mannerisms of my dad), and the goofy rapping Russian guide. I’m putting the book by Jonathan Safran Foer on my ‘to read’ list. Four stars.
Addicted
Not since playing the original Wizardry, the seminal adventure game for the Apple II back in the early 80s have I found an adventure-type game to be so engrossing – The Elder Scrolls Oblivion on the Xbox 360. Seriously, this game has everything – amazing graphics, an intriguing script, and superb gameplay. It’s so open-ended, I’ve been playing for a total of some 60+ hours and haven’t gone beyond 20% game completion. Oh – and Sam loves to watch me riding the horse through the forests! I keep trying to convince Amy that watching the gameplay is at least as good as most of what’s on tv these days, but she’s not buying it, sadly.
I’m playing a sneaky-magic-thieving character, and it’s tons of fun to lurk about, trying to save the land – while making a nice income as well. Also fascinating about this game is the approach of offering downloadable ‘extras’ for the game. After a mistart with a lame piece of horse armor (yawn), I’ve been jazzed about their add-ons for mages (the Wizard’s Tower) and now, just released, the Thieves Den. Obviously for your sneaky types, this add-on offers a Captain Jack-style cave/ghost pirate ship hideaway, and allows you to hire a band of thieves, fences and other experts to support your Dark Brotherhood/Thieves Guild lifestyle.
It’s an interesting model where an already massive game with hundreds of individual missions can sell small add-ons like this for $2 a pop to extend the life and playability of a game just a few weeks after release. It’s likely the shape of things to come where big ‘point’ releases may come around, but the games themselves become more of a structure for future add-ons. It’s certainly all the rage in Korea where some cartoon-esque racing games have huge sales around car customizations, as well as for the burgeoning e-economy of Second Life. Micro-payments are in some areas already changing the nature of gaming. Let’s just hope companies don’t publish cripple-ware, hoping that users will be suckered into buying content that should have shipped with the title in the first place.
The game has gone so far as to spawn a fascinating podcast about the game, the Rough Guide to Cyrodill. Recorded by two amusing Brits, the ‘cast takes users through the nooks and crannies of the game. It was a helpful ‘fix’ last week when I was on a road trip and couldn’t get my daily dose. Sigh. The intervention for myself and poolagah can’t be far off….