prog | Stuff I've been eating.

JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL was my train-riding book today because I had no other, and I found that the very next chapter addressed the continuing fates of the characters I had taken for forgotten. I stand by my earlier criticism, because there is a very real difference between a reader anticipating missing characters' return, and wondering if the author's simply misplaced them.

LOST continues to be a soup of delightful and spicy meatballs floating in a broth of stale television cliches. Usually I have no palate for it, and sometimes I just have to have five bowls of it. I slurped down a good half-dozen episodes over the last 24 hours, and have three more to go before I know what half my flist is so happy about.

PSYCHONAUTS is wonderful, and is currently a $15 download for XBox 360 users. (I understand PC users can enjoy it via Steam, as well.) I have a lengthy post about it that I may actually finish someday. Suffice to say it's certainly the best written platformer-genre game I've ever played.

RACE FOR THE GALAXY is an amazing card game and I wish to play it again right now. I will almost certainly be purchasing a copy soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Race certainly has a signifcant random element (hurray card games) but it's well balanced and falls together into a very rich meal, offering lots of room for a variety of strategies. It's basically about finding the best combination of actions you can perform using the cards you have, and calculating the cost of getting better cards, combined with trying to second-guess what your opponents will do (which is among my very favorite kinds of game mechanics).

Apparently its first printing is sold out already! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy, after they make some more. I look forward to playing it with you then!

Stuff I've been eating.

RftG