Games Demand Time

I really wanted to play Left For Dead 2 last night. So coming home I fire up the PC, let Steam do some updating and then, bam!, a blue screen. Not uncommon, so I restart and then try to restart Steam. Then the problems begin…

Steam will not compete its update because the downloaded file is missing. Downloading the latest version from the website fails to repair the existing install so the only option is to uninstall Steam before reloading it.

Now when I uninstall Steam I will obviously be asked if I want to retain my downloaded data files or not. So one uninstall later I am 150Gb lighter in the hard drive but I can install the new version of Steam.

If the games saved their data to my User directory I might even have retained my save games.

Thanks Steam! Thanks Windows!

Now to start downloading those games again…

I decided to return to Champions for a bit on the weekend but found myself dying three times in succession. Combat is really confusing in the game and now the tutorial is a distant memory I am really struggling. I am also at the point where you are having to group and there weren’t that many people around when I logged in.

This puzzle really ruined my enjoyment of the game for a while. Partly the number of locations you have to traverse to get the various bits and pieces is too big but also there is no real logic to winning the game.

As the computer goes first, technically it should never lose. I had to read some advice on a forum about using a chequerboard pattern (basically trying to form a loose grid of x shapes) before I could get past it. Sure enough if you use the pattern and you play long enough and block any three in a row lines it forms the AI starts making some mistakes that allow to get five in a row.

It’s a shame because so much of this game is beautifully formed.

Spent a pleasant hour in the company of this cel-shaded shooter. The different graphical look gives it a different feel to Fallout 3 (which I have singularly failed to return too). The initial missions are straight-forward with only the decision to switch between sights and free shooting offering any real options. The RPG element definitely adds some incentive to just shoot up a few more bandits before giving it up.