eaten by a grue

This is a rant. You're not expected to agree or care.

I bought Left 4 Dead a few weeks ago. Its a good game. Not the best game ever, but enjoyable enough. Nice idea, fun to play, etc. But, as usual, its being ruined by the internet.

I was in the mood for a game tonight so I hopped on and started looking around. I had no success finding anything interesting, just frustration. The first game had four players that based on their names were clearly affiliated with the same clan or whatever. Two of them joined survivors, the other two infected. I was survivors, and me and the other random got jumped within about a minute in while they stood idly by and did nothing. I quit shortly after.

Second game saw me on the infected side. I make some good attacks and finished with the most points, which made me happy. On our turn as survivors they somehow decided without speaking to go in another direction to what's done most commonly. Because I didn't know about it, I got seperated and they had to come back for me. I asked them to let me know if they're planning to run off with out me next time, and they voted to kick me out of the game.

By this time I'm pretty annoyed, but I decided to give it another try. The other players were at least communicative, so I knew that they wanted to rush, and I was ready for that. There's still the number one rule of this game to be remembered though - stick together. The front two rushed a little too fast through the apartments, while me and another got pinned in a place where we couldn't be saved. Leaving us behind was apparently our fault, and we got an earful for it. I just couldn't bothered after this and quit the game.

So here's a good game that I like playing and while I'm not the greatest player in the world I don't think I'm a complete passenger either. So why is so difficult to find a good game? Am I destined to play by myself forever?

So yeah, people have ruined the internet. I'm not telling you anything new. But still, sigh.

I bought a pile of games through Steam a few weeks ago and as part of the deal I was given a guest pass for each of Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2. I don't need them but if I don't give them away soon they'll expire. If you haven't played one or both of these games and you'd like to give them a try, drop me an email and I'll send them your way.

I've had a nice week. Christmas things were awesome, lots of fun and I scored very well - my own copy of Settlers of Catan and the Cities and Knights expansion, some tshirts, IT Crowd and Frontline DVDs and some DS accessories. People are learning my tastes well, it seems :)

Sadly I've managed to break my DS. I put some screen protectors on it a while ago but they've got pretty scratched, so I decided to replace them. When I lifted the one off the bottom screen I managed to bring the touch lens with it, so even though I've put it back on the touch screen doesn't work. I can still play most games and I wasn't playing it much at the moment anyway, so getting it fixed isn't desperately urgent, but its a bit annoying. I'm still looking into repairs. I can get a brand new LCD+touch screen element for about $70, but I'd have to install it myself and I don't know if I really need all that since the LCD works. I'd need to get special screwdrivers too. I'd rather just get someone to fix it for me but since i can get a new one for $190 I'm not sure how much effort it is. I'll probably leave it until it starts to become a problem.

Sunday was game time, mostly Left 4 Dead, Counterstrike and Day of Defeat. We also played Ricochet which is really quite cool if a little simple. All good fun, as usual. Tonight is more games, this time of the board game variety. In reality it'll just be Settlers since everyone knows how to play already.

I watched all of the Boxing Day Test, which was an excellent game even if we did lose. I predicted at the end of day two that we'd lose even though we were in a position where a loss was close to impossible, and so it came to pass. Go seer. Apparently on day two South Africa were at $13 to win; shame I didn't get some of that action.

In between all this I've done the gardening, got hold of a really awesome wooden cubby that I'll put together for the girls in the next couple of days, done a pile of chores, read lots and generally had a nice relaxing time. Gotta go back to work on Monday but I think I'll be pretty flaked by then which is exactly what I needed.