The log of the gamer

Well, made a little fun with King’ Bounty over last weeks. As I mentioned in previous post, I chose Paladin and pressed forward.

Right now, I’m level 19 half way to 20. The game is really addictive, so much that I sometimes want to go to bed, but there is still a quest to complete or enemy to beat. Let me write something about the game itself.

The area in game is simply enormous. First there is human kingdom, which consists of four locations (Greenwort, Arlania, Verlon Forest and Marshan Swamps) and two islands (Eastern and Western Island of Freedom). Then you have land of dwarves with also six locations (Creiston Mines, Upper Hadar, Lower Hadar, Taron Mines, Ardan’s Peaks and Mehgard). And then there is elven kingdom, which I haven’t explored fully, so far I know I’ve been to three locations (can’t remember the names right now).

The difficulty increases slowly but steadily, and there are also massive jumps while entering new continent. The troops you have, which own in human lands, like you Sea Dogs/Archmages/Guardsmen combo, suddenly become weak as you approach the dwarves. Similarly, when you meet the elves with Dwarves/Cyclops/Giants/Canoneers it gets really tough. But once you pass the initial step (first few fights with new enemies) it gets really smooth and easy.

There are two method of cast spells - regular magic and Chest of Rage. While magic works just the same way as in every other game, the Chest of Rage contains four creatures capable of inflicting damage upon enemies. Those creatures are heroes themselves - they have their unique abilities (each Spirit of Rage has four spells), which can be developed as the Spirits gain experience and advance levels. It makes the tactical phase really interesting.

The items are also performing rather originally - first of all, some of them are living - they have their own Morale, which, when drops to zero, makes them go out of control and in order to restore control, the player must fight the item. The upgrade of items is done the same way - if you want to upgrade the item, you have to fight its’ Keepers.

You can also have a family - have a wife, who carries your items, thus making possible to take advantage of more bonuses and finally you can have children, which also benefit to you (+4 to spell book capacity or +10% experience growth). Of course, family is not constant (as in real life hehehe) and you can divorce - your wife leaves, takes children, items, and one fifth of gold. Cruel.

There will be more to come, as I am inclined to complete the game. Maybe it will take another month

I found just a little bit of time to sit in front of computer. It’s been a damn long time since I’ve posted for the last time.

In fact, I really had a little time to do something - Christmas, New Year, new duties at work, graduation, but what the heck? That’s things happened and now I will have some more time for myself to what I really like.

As a proof let me just tell I'’m pushing forward in both Fallout 3 and King’s Bounty, so maybe I’ll try to write about it some other time. Now my eyes are set on Starcraft 2 - as you can see on starcraftwire.net the beta keys give-away has begun. I’d like to play SC2 as soon as possible - it’s settled deep in my mind since 19th May 2007 that I have to upgrade to have full pleasure of playing it. As always, time will tell.

My overclocking nightmare is just gone away. The set of memories, that I bought some time ago - G.Skill 4800LA, which I presumed to be failing, is installed and working.

My DFI NF4 for about half a year was unwilling to cooperate with those mems, which was driving me somewhat crazy - the sticks were bought from the second hand, the previous owner assured me about theit correct operation. Still I was not able to stabilize them.

Then I got a diabolous idea - mix them with 2×256 regular Twinmos sticks (I think they have Powerchips onboard). Mixing G.Skills with Patriot LLK kit was unlucky, so I thought “what the heck”. Imagine the smile on my face…

So now I have 1,5 GB of RAM, probably even a bit faster than Patriots before (233 6-3-3-2,5 2T as opposed to 215 6-3-3-2,5 1T) and it made me think - maybe 2 gigs are possible. I have even spotted a 512 A-Data TCCD stick which will make a pair with mine, so it’s now only waiting for payday

I will post some screens later, maybe some benches as well.

Well, I think that new layout would be good. The current, raw one doesn’t suit well the vivid content I’m trying to create. Maybe later this month there will be some update.