Luckily, I was able to get my column in on time for Locus, which at least was that off my plate. And the time in Rochester (Minnesota) was, while not exactly...relaxing, was at least away from most things. It's going to be a busy end of the year, as it always is, but I'm trying. It's swinging into year-end things, and I'm starting to work on that in earnest. And, perhaps most importantly, it's almost Suikovember. Suikovember! The month of Suikoden fan-works, including fan fiction. I probably won't be able to write as much as last year, where I managed 30k words, but hey, anything is better than nothing.
And in my relative downtime, I was trying to relax a little, which meant I splurged and spent the $14 on the King's Quest Collection on Steam, which has the first seven games in it. This is a highly nostalgic purchase for me, as I played these games a lot as a kid. We had King's Quest II on one of our first computer's, and I got to play some of King's Quest V early, too. Later on, we got the whole collection as well, which came bundled with some other Sierra games. However, as a kid, they really weren't games that I could beat. We eventually found out about walkthroughs, and with those we were able to beat a few of the games.
So I sort of set myself the mission of beating them all while on "vacation." First up was KQ7, which is the one with the "best" animation, though it's more cartoonish than the earlier games, and in some ways one of the easier ones. I then went back and played them in order from the first. It's a fascinating progression of games, and I do appreciate that the series sort of gets more and more into its own history and backstory. Especially starting with the third game and the introduction of Graham's family, the games have a wider mythology and connection (I do like how the third game even briefly returned to the screens of the first game). And of course the third, fifth, and sixth games all have very strong ties to each other while the fourth and seventh are also nicely built on each other.
I think the sixth game is my favorite of the bunch, because it's one of the more complicated and because it brings together the parts of Alexander's gameplay (especially the spells that were first introduced in the third game) while maintaining a pretty high difficulty (timed tasks, plenty of ways to die, etc) but a nice sense of variety, weirdness, and fun. The fifth game is well done but a little too serious (it makes sense given the situation but it borders on taking itself too seriously). The fourth game is probably my second favorite of the bunch for similar reasons as six (it's fun and has some nice variety without being silly), though it's not quite as hard or long as the sixth. The seventh gets a little silly (the art style plays into it too). The first two games are just a bit too simple, and the third game is way too hard (without a guide, dare I say, it's close to impossible). But as a whole it still holds up as a series, and it was great to go through them.
In watching, we've moved through a few mystery shows, though nothing super memorable. I wish there were some better shows that had two women leads, as the ones we've been watching have been rather...not that great, even as they're probably better than the worst of the British mysteries that I haven't even bothered to try (Morse, or whatever, and some of the others).
Anyway, haha, I should probably be concentrating on things that aren't old adventure games, but here we are. I swear I'm working on getting caught up on things, I'm just...still a mess. Thank you for your patience! I hope all is well with you! Cheers
And in my relative downtime, I was trying to relax a little, which meant I splurged and spent the $14 on the King's Quest Collection on Steam, which has the first seven games in it. This is a highly nostalgic purchase for me, as I played these games a lot as a kid. We had King's Quest II on one of our first computer's, and I got to play some of King's Quest V early, too. Later on, we got the whole collection as well, which came bundled with some other Sierra games. However, as a kid, they really weren't games that I could beat. We eventually found out about walkthroughs, and with those we were able to beat a few of the games.
So I sort of set myself the mission of beating them all while on "vacation." First up was KQ7, which is the one with the "best" animation, though it's more cartoonish than the earlier games, and in some ways one of the easier ones. I then went back and played them in order from the first. It's a fascinating progression of games, and I do appreciate that the series sort of gets more and more into its own history and backstory. Especially starting with the third game and the introduction of Graham's family, the games have a wider mythology and connection (I do like how the third game even briefly returned to the screens of the first game). And of course the third, fifth, and sixth games all have very strong ties to each other while the fourth and seventh are also nicely built on each other.
I think the sixth game is my favorite of the bunch, because it's one of the more complicated and because it brings together the parts of Alexander's gameplay (especially the spells that were first introduced in the third game) while maintaining a pretty high difficulty (timed tasks, plenty of ways to die, etc) but a nice sense of variety, weirdness, and fun. The fifth game is well done but a little too serious (it makes sense given the situation but it borders on taking itself too seriously). The fourth game is probably my second favorite of the bunch for similar reasons as six (it's fun and has some nice variety without being silly), though it's not quite as hard or long as the sixth. The seventh gets a little silly (the art style plays into it too). The first two games are just a bit too simple, and the third game is way too hard (without a guide, dare I say, it's close to impossible). But as a whole it still holds up as a series, and it was great to go through them.
In watching, we've moved through a few mystery shows, though nothing super memorable. I wish there were some better shows that had two women leads, as the ones we've been watching have been rather...not that great, even as they're probably better than the worst of the British mysteries that I haven't even bothered to try (Morse, or whatever, and some of the others).
Anyway, haha, I should probably be concentrating on things that aren't old adventure games, but here we are. I swear I'm working on getting caught up on things, I'm just...still a mess. Thank you for your patience! I hope all is well with you! Cheers
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