While you may never have played a pen-and-paper role playing game, you would have played something born of its influence no doubt. Zork, Zelda, Ultima, Warcraft… they all share the same origins.

So let’s all send Gary off with our infinite thanks and perhaps poor some mead out for our fallen comrade.

Penny Arcade say it all here.

We had a really great time. Joining our family unit Voltron-style with that of very good friends of ours – we eschewed modern conveniences and entertainments (meaning I didn’t play World of Warcraft) to spend a week in a holiday house at Myola.

A conversation I had half-a-dozen times in the week before we went away:

Somebody: So where are you going?
Me: Myola.
Somebody: Huh?
Me: Jervis Bay.
Somebody: Oh! Nice!

Myola’s great. There’s NOTHING there except a really nice beach and a couple of shops. The lack of stuff forcing you to slooow down and just relax a bit.

I did a fair bit of reading, I’m pleased to say. I managed to finish the book Olympos by Dan Simmons and start two others. The Terror – also by Dan – and Magician by Raymond E. Feist – something I’ve been meaning to read for years.

We went to the beach a few times, which the kids loved and explored the area a bit. The Naval and Air Museum was particularly cool. Also, thanks to the proximity of the Naval firing range, you can lie in bed in the mornings and listen to the distant rumbles of shells exploding. Rather soothing, actually.

The house we stayed in was really nice, but the layout was a problem. It was rather open-plan – particularly upstairs which meant Alanah was sleeping in a bed at the top of the main internal stairs and Sean was in a baby-containment device in our room which had a sloping ceiling that I kept banging my head on.

It was all worth it, though, and as mentioned earlier I’m trying really hard to figure out a way of living like that permanently. So far… nothing.

The landlords of the house we rented lived in the house behind so we talked to them a bit. When I told the owner of my problem she told me that her husband works as a software designer (ooh! similar to me!) and that he leaves the house at 6:15 every morning to get the train to Wollongong (crap!).

Oh well. At least I get to play World of Warcraft, even if I DO have to deal with “real world responsibilities” during the day.

Last Saturday night, Acer Arena had its friggin’ roof virtually blown off by Iron Maiden during their first Sydney show in sixteen years.

I went to the show in 1992 with a bunch of mates and as good as it was, it could have been better. Then, they were touring on a fairly lacklustre album and as venues go, the Hordern Pavillion isn’t exactly the a scale a band like this is used to.

This time, however, everything was different.

The entire theme of the Maiden’s Somewhere Back in Time Tour is the 80′s – their heyday. The era that birthed their seminal album Powerslave, the record breaking World Slavery Tour that followed and what is widely considered to be the finest live album ever recorded – Live After Death.

The latter being the template for the shows the band are playing on this tour. They’re even starting with the same recording of a speech by Winston Churchill they used to start the shows from the World Slavery Tour. Gave me chills, I tells ya.

The show was incredible. Beyond incredible. Completely devoid of credibility in it’s awesomeness. Bruce apologised for the long wait between drinks and promised that it changes now. That they’ll be back sooner and more often. I had earlier heard a rumour in line at the merch tent that they are already planning to tour next year.

The setlist:

Intro – Churchills Speech
1. Aces High
2. 2 minutes to midnight
3. Revelations
4. The Trooper
5. Wasted Years
6. Number of the Beast
7. Can I Play with madness
8. Rime of the ancient mariner
9. Powerslave
10. Heaven can wait
11. Run to the hills
12. Fear of the Dark
13. Iron Maiden
Encore
14. Moonchild
15. Clairvoyant
16. Hallowed be thy name

Over two hours, the band proved that they are in no way beyond their days of hey and they can still kick massive amount of ass while keeping their senses of humour.

Bruce, as always, had the audience in the palm of his hand. So much so, that during a break where, he later explained, he usually has to crap on for a minute or so while the band swaps guitars, the crowd were screaming such an ovation that all he had to do was stand there. Of course, his standing there regarding the crowd just made the cheering louder and longer.

“That”, I turned to my mate and said, “is power.”

Most  people in this part of the world are shuffling off to work today after their breaks, but not me. I’m hitting the Holiday Snooze Button and having another week off. Seeing as I’m pretty crap at taking holidays, I usually take an extra week at Christmas. This year, though, it would have meant going back on the 7th – a day before Alanah’s 4th birthday and that just seemed mean – so I’m back next Wednesday.

So until I go back on the ninth, I’m going to devote my time to my family, sitting around, seeing friends (that haven’t gone back to work), watching movies and playing obscene amounts of World of Warcraft.

WoW Update: Level 38! I hope to hit 40 by tomorrow night.

I’m off to the parents’ place now with the family to help out in the garden and clean the gutters!

I’ve been playing since December 2004, so I’ve been there, on and off, from the start. I let my subscription lapse for a few months, but for most of that time I’ve been playing – very solidly for at least a year and then less and less as other games distracted me and the dislike of grinding the high-level zones wore me out.

Recently, though, thanks to a “friend” of mine, I’m back.

I say “friend” because is it a friend that hands you a cigarette when you quit a year ago? Is it a friend that gets you back on the “good stuff” when you were doing quite well without, thankyou very much?

Yeah, it is.

I’ve been dying to get back into it, but my main toon (that’s character to those that don’t indulge) got stale and my guild was pretty useless as most were in the US and so, not playing at the same time. In fact the realm I was playing on was a US realm so it was a bit of a ghost town at night.

Peter hooked me up with The Older Gamers – a gaming community for people that are not idiots or immature (two requirements for playing on Xbox Live). To join, you merely have to state that you are over 25 and have read the terms and conditions. When you’ve put this in an application post on the forums, you should be approved within a day.

Then you go nuts!

I’ve introduced myself to the site’s Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft forums and have found everyone to be very, very cool indeed.

I’ve joined the “TOG Lootzors” WoW guild on Jubei’Thos – an Oceanic PVP server and I’ve figured out what it took to get me back into it. I’ve changed to playing Horde instead of Alliance. I’m on an Oceanic server with LOTS of people online when I play. I’m on a PVP server now so I have to constantly look over my shoulder and I’m in a great guild with helpful people!

So now I’ve got Varlyn - my Blood Elf Shadow Priest. Right now he’s level 22. Soon, I’ll get started on Khrash, my Orc Warrior.

Ah… it’s good to be back.

Better be off. Pete and I are hitting Shadowfang Keep tonight.

In keeping with the whole “growing old is mandatory – growing up is optional” thing, I’m completely dizzy with joy at all the PC games coming out this month.

Behold GAMEVEMBER – bringer of Crysis this week, Gears of War this week, Call of Duty : Modern Combat in stores last week in stores and on Steam any time now. Probably a bunch of others I can’t remember, I’m sure.

I’m VERY eagerly awaiting the unlock of my paid-for and preloaded copy of Call of Duty 4. This game is incredible. I’ve seen a decent chunk of the single-player campaign and the multi looks as addictive as sugar-coated crack.

There’s been some crap out along with all the goodness, though. Reviews haven’t been kind to either Hellgate London or Clive Barker’s Jericho which kinda sucks as they both looked interesing despite Hellgate London’s LUDICROUS subscription model. Don’t get me started on this. It’s like Diablo, but they’ll promise you better stuff and more content down the track if you pony up a fee every month. This is NOT a MMORPG, mind you. It’s Diablo with guns.

Guitar Hero III has  disappeared off the radar, which I find worrying. EB have no date for the game in their systems which apparantly (or so I’m told) means it’s not likely to be out before next year. Man, if I didn’t have a swag of stuff to play anyway, I’d be pretty pissed about that.

Anyway, I’m going to go and reset Steam every couple of minutes in the hopes CoD4 is unlocked. After an hour or so of that, I guess I’ll play some WoW.

Work has been pretty busy which accounts for some of it. Finishing Bioshock (and starting it all over again on hard) accounts for some more. Lately, though, it’s been the Orange Box – Valve’s disparate collection of gaming gems – that has commanded my leisure hours.

Everything in this collection is a wonder, pure and simple.

Half-Life 2

This, I have previously claimed, was my favourite game of all time until Bioshock came along where it was relegated to second place by the smallest of margins. Having played through Half-Life 2 again since finishing ‘shock, I have to raise it once again to first place, by a similarly tiny margin. There is simply no better made first person shooter in the world.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Episode One continues this. The first of three shorter-than-the-original-game expansions for Half-Life 2. Using essentially, the same game engine, but wearing a sparkly new coat of HDR, the story continues exactly where the main game left off. I haven’t finished this one yet as some of it’s companions have sparkled slightly brighter.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

This looks really amazing with new graphic effects added to the engine as well as some great-looking outdoor environments, but I’m not touching this bad boy til I’m done with One.

Portal

Portal is… is… damn. Portal is a complete bloody triumph. Amazing. Indescribable. If you don’t know it, then you’d best watch this:

You wake up in the Aperture Laboratories. A human rat running through a maze of tasks. Your only company is a stilted, electronic woman’s voice luring you on with promises of cake. I will say no more. Play this. If you like games, then it’s very important you do.

Team Fortress 2

The largest chunk of time lately, however, has been awarded to Team Fortress 2. An incredible new incarnation of the classic Team Fortress Quake mode from way back.

For those that don’t know, Team Fortress is (and was) a team based shooter with several game modes, mainly based around capturing control points (CP’s). There is also a capture the flag mode (intelligence instead of flags in this case) but that is only on one map and stalemates are fairly common so most players tend to prefer the other modes.

Along with the release of the Orange Box, Steam have launched their new Steam Community – an extremly Xbox LIVE-like service with two notable differences: it’s free and you can change your name at any time.

The service provides online profiles (like LIVE) and even lifted the popular achievement system.

I go by the name “Champion of Nothing: in-game. You can see my profile here and my Team Fortress 2 stats here.

Right now it says I have spent 21.1 hours playing in the last two weeks and I’m showing no sign of slowing. I think this one will keep me occupied for a while. But hey, if I get bored, there’s always the other stuff in the Box to keep me busy!

I will post in more detail on this one later as it fully deserves it.

Over the twenty-odd year span of my continuing mis-spent youth, I have played hundreds of games. Many have been good enough that they have earned countless hours of my attention. Only a few, though, give me the warm-and-fuzzies when I remember them, often while gazing wistfully out the window at a rainy sunday afternoon.

Deus Ex, Ultima Underworld, Doom, Quake, Diablo, Half-Life 2 and System Shock 2 are some that come to mind immediately.

System Shock 2 also has the distinction of being the “spiritual predecessor” of my new favourite game of all time – Bioshock.

The world doesn’t need another rambling review of Bioshock – have a look at Metacritic if you don’t believe me. If you do check that link out, have a look at the scores this game is getting. Yep! That’s an average of 96!

I just love it. The graphics are incredible. The atmosphere is dense and engaging. The sound is brilliant and the voice acting, almost flawless.

I’m not going to say anything about the plot. Go in fresh, knowing as little as possible.

I’m currently on my second pass through the game. This time on “Hard”. I game was a bit on the easy side at “Medium” difficulty and I’m not noticing a huge difference this time through. Some bad guys are taking a few more hits before they go down, but they’re not proving too much a problem.

The game isn’t overly long. Maybe 15 hours or so and finishing it is bitter-sweet. Tycho at Penny Arcade described finishing Bioshock like this:

“I put Bioshock to bed last night, and theoretically this should be cause for joy, but I suppose it’s like finishing a pie. There is a whiff of accomplishment, semisweet – but the pie is gone.”

I agree and not wanting to finish my second pie too quickly, I’m going to have some time off from the game. Time spent playing Team Fortress 2 and finishing Half-Life 2 again in anticipation of the full release of Valve’s Orange Box on October 10.

Well, I’ve been busy, you know?

Last tuesday night Sydney had an incredible view of the total lunar eclipse that occured. I had the good fortune to be at my in-laws where my brother-in-law was using his telescope.

This thing has to be seen to be believed. Looks like a hot water heater, it’s so friggin’ big.

Anyway, it turned out that pointing a Canon IXUS 500 down the eyepiece DOES let you take photos of the moon!

Click the image for more proof.