Games of Late

After two weeks abroad and a month of getting settled in across the country, I'm not back to trying out some video games. It feels like I'm still in 2007, as I've been playing game slike Bioshock and Crysis, though I've also tried some newer titles, including the wonderfully simple Osmos and the frighteningly addicting Torchlight. I upgraded my computer with a second ATI 4850 card to run crossfire, allowing me to keep gaming at high quality settings for a while longer. I also signed up for Gamefly, as I decided there have been too many greate console titles that I never purchased, and would like to at least try. Over the next few weeks I'll be writing about all of these games and more. I will try to avoid review-type write-ups, as there's no need for games as old as the ones I'll be playing. Rather I'll try to look into what makes them captivating, what makes them game-changing, and why, even 2 years after release, I'm playing them and enjoying them.

Today I'd like to touch a bit on Crysis. I waited to buy it until I had the graphics power to be able to at least run it on decent settings. It's amazing that 2 full years after release, it is still used as a metric for testing graphics cards and requires the best equipment currently available in order to be run at the highest settings. Unfortunately I've had numerous issues with the game freezing during play. It runs great for 20-30 minutes, and then freezes. I'm not sure the casue of this problem - it could be driver related, it's not heat, but it could have something to do with crossfiring. Last week I even got a BSOD while playing, which was disturbing. It's especially frustrating because of how enjoyable I've foung the gameplay. While I'm not great with first-person shooters and generally don't prefer them, I was having a blast with the diversity of play that the power suit provides and especially enjoyed the opportunity to try out different strategies. I'll write more on this in the future, hopefully after being able to play longer. In that post I'll also talk about my frustration with the game crashing and what I think that says about game development and how ease-of-use connects directly to sales.