SETTLERS 7 is okay. Exceedingly complicated, I think. Plus the DRM (digital Rights Management sucks ass, every time I go into the game to try and play it tells me either it can't find my profile, or the servers are unavailable. If I was easily discouraged, I would have yet to the play the game, because as I said, it's EVERY TIME, at least, the first time I try. If I actually believed the error message, I would just quit and try back later, at which point it would probably tell me the servers were unavailable again. Luckily, I am stubborn, dense, and otherwise thick as a brick, so when it tells me the servers are unavailable, I tell it WELL FUCKIN TRY IT AGAIN, DUMBASS!!! I usually yell this at the monitor while reconnecting to the game. Maybe it's the yelling that actually does it, because after the second or third try, it usually lets me play the game.
Without a manual to refer to (because I bought the game via download), I have made a lot of starting mistakes that experienced players might not have made. Like for instance, in this one skirmish map, you start out with just a town, no arable land. So I built my city, and conquered the surrounding territories that had fertile ground so I could have some food for my peasants. They get all grumpy when they don't have food, you see. However, I separated my grain production into one territory, and my sheep and pig farming into another. unfortunately, pigs and sheep require grain, and without grain being handy in that territory, production is very slow on the whole meat and wool thing. This caused me to whine like a little girl, and I am suing Ubisoft for emotional distress for 17 billion dollars. But, while I am waiting for that big payoff, I decided to restart my game. But before I did that, I went into the nice castle editor. You can edit your WHOLE CASTLE there! It was AWESOME! So I spent about a day creating and editing various castle designs. Honestly, I think I should have been an architect, I had a lot of fun with it. I haven't yet got back to the skirmishing. I get sidetracked easily.
I have only played through part of the campaign, and it seems a bit... screwy. You get one or two additional bits of technology per map, and the lead in to where you finally get the chance to win by victory points doesn't really prepare you for the first map where you need to use them. Plus, and I may have mentioned this before but it bears repeating, you don't actually have to crush your enemy, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women to win. You can win by out-researching your opponent, out-trading him, or by building your city so prettily that he is just outclassed. Each of these alternate ways to succeed earn you a victory point, and sufficient points allows you to win without all out war. Which, is just plain boring in my opinion. Anyway, I would certainly have lost my first map with victory points enabled if I hadn't been cheating like a crack whore. So all in all, eh, Settlers 7 is an okay time-waster.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE has been out for a while now, and I just saw it this weekend on cable. Because I don't go to the movies hardly ever, and I wouldn't have spent money on it at the theaters anyway. I guess the movie wasn't bad? I can't really say hugh jackman was that entertaining, to be honest. However, switching sabertooth to liev shreiber (or however you spell his name) was a wise move, I think. He brought some character to the part of an otherwise uninteresting villain. However, the jumping around sequences and saving the main supervillain's appearance til the last few moments of the movie seemed to kill any feeling of victory I might otherwise have felt. As a movie, it was disappointing, but I don't begrudge watching it once if you are a comic/superhero/wolverine fan. OR, just like monster movies, as this kind of qualifies.
It's supposed to be 75 degrees here like this whole weekend. I can't wait, I haven't seen 75 degrees since september of last year, that's almost 8 months. Horribly long winters here in western NY. I like snow and christmas and all, but man, the 8 months of winter is a real drain on anyone's energy levels. I saw this commercial for a type of charcoal recently where there's a backyard Barbecue going on and this furry fellow wanders in wearing a winter coat, boots and hat and the barbecuers rush over to him in shorts and t shirts, asking him where he's been, helping him to sit down next to a tree. He's like "I was inside... there was no yard, no grill... it was all white..." sounding like he's in shock. They griller says "That was winter." And then another man yells "GET THIS MAN A BURGER!!!!" Yea, that's just how I feel after 8 months stuck inside. Like I need a burger! :-D
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