Games, games, games...

When I was on disability because of my broken foot, I had alot of free time to spend playing games. Unfortunately I did not accomplish what I had hoped, and that was to use the time to complete some of the titles that have been collecting dust on my shelf.

At the start of my vacation, I was very much into playing WoW, with a sprinkle of LOTRO. But about two weeks in, I became somewhat dis-interested with WoW. Some would argue that I was just burnt out, but it was a bit more than that. I was tired of sucking at PvP, and did not want to invest the time to grind gear, and I was burnt out.

About a week later I hit the wall in LOTRO as well. When I came back, I decided to try out the new Warden class, and I was having more fun than I did before. That was until I got to a point while questing in the Lonelands where all my remaining quests were fellowship quests. That is a big turnoff for me because I do not like being forced to group in order to complete quests to the extent that LOTRO does.

What didn't help either was that I ended up having some free play time with a few MMO's on top of subbing to a few more, and installing practically every game I own. The last two weeks of my vacation saw me spending alot of time just sitting at my computer staring at the monitor trying to decide what game I was interested in playing.

But a few good things have come of all that mess; I finally played some Sins of a Solar Empire like I have wanted to for so long, I now have only two MMO subs active, Age of Conan which I am really enjoying and LOTRO mainly because I forgot to cancel my account, and now I have another three months of play time to try and connect with the game again.

Since returning to work I have completed Conan for the Xbox 360, a week long bout of frustration, nearly finished Mass Effect for the PC, as well as Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox. I have also played some other stuff here and there, including trying to gain a level every play session with Age of Conan, but these are the games I have invested alot of time to in the last three weeks.

I continue to log into Age of Conan, did I mention I like that game, but I have been also playing a good bit of Titan Quest: Immortal Throne as well as Left 4 Dead on the PC. I hope to have Mass Effect finished in the next few days because East India Company releases tomorrow, and the week after I will have Hearts of Iron III as well. Looks to be a busy end of the summer with an even busier holiday season!!

Well the end of July is nearly upon us and I have yet to update the blog nor post on a regular basis. NOTE TO SELF: LEARN TO USE TIME MORE WISELY!!

Four months ago I had a stress fracture on my fifth metatarsal. Was not very surprised because I have broken two other bones in the same foot, and after the second one the doctor made a comment that it will eventually happen again. Four years ago I saw the doctor for tendinitis in my foot, came away with orthotics and that was when my foot problems began.

The reason why I have broken the same foot three times has to do with weight distribution and being a fat guy. As a bone broke, the other bones would suffer stress from having to bear more weight.

So I fractured my foot, and was given an air cast that I wore for just over two months. The doctor does a strength test and I pass and am given the green light to go back to normal shoes. For the next few days my foot continued to bother me, but I figured it was because I needed to get better footwear.

Then comes Saturday, I'm on a ride-along with a cop friend of mine, and I began to noticed that my foot is really bothering me. For that night I had to wear a black pair of boots because you have to look nice when out on patrol, and the boots were the only thing I had that would look nice. So about 0230 after relaxing for a bit, my foot really started hurting.

The next day is Mother's Day, and me and the family go out and the whole time I am walking and my foot is killing me, badly. A couple days later I go to a different doctor, and the x-rays show that I have now broken the bone completely and it's now what is called a non-linear heal. Meaning the two bones are separated and the bone did not heal the first time and the doctor wants me to have surgery.

I elected to go with the natural healing first, and lucky enough it is working. The bone itself is nearly healed completely, and I am able to go back to work with an air cast again.

If breaking three bones in the same foot has taught me anything, it's that you should take care of your feet and lay off the double whoppers!!!!

Well, it's the 4th of July, the time for bbq's, drinks and fireworks, all in the celebration of our independence. Thank you to those who have and continue to serve our country in order that we can still have our independence, and everyone have a happy and safe 4th!!!

On a gaming front, I was able to get an invite to the Aion beta so I will try to post some of my thoughts after the weekend. I've also had one of my freakout modes where I sub to multiple MMO's in order to find one that I really want to play. It seems this episode was sparked once I realised that I was becoming bored with WoW's endgame.

First up was EQ2, then I noticed I had free play time in SWG, I also bought PotBS for five dollars so I have a free month of play time there, then I decided to revisit AoC, all the while still having a sub to LOTRO. The main issue I have with MMO's is the feeling that I must play them because I am paying for them, and when you have that many to choose from, I tend to stare at the monitor trying to decide which one to play.

I have decided that I can only have a max of two MMO's at one time. See, I have other games that I really want to play, games like Team Fortress 2 which I played for the first time in ages the other day, and had a blast. But some games I've owned for awhile that I want to play like Mass Effect or Empire: Total War, something I can't do if I have multiple MMO's calling me to play.

Another rinkle in the equasion is the sudden interest now in playing on my Xbox 360 as well, which never bodes well for my PC gaming time. My alter ego Jai Dredd is leading the NHL in scoring for the Buffalo Sabres in NHL 09, and I am addicted to the stealth gameplay of Splinter Cell.

But one thing good has come out of this month long vacation gaming wise, I was able to finish the original campaign in Neverwinter Nights 2. It took me almost a week and just over 50 hours, but I was able to complete possibly one of the best rpg's for a second time. I generally spend a large amount of time creating different classes and playing them for a few hours to see how they work and if I am going to like them. But I finally stuck with a druid/tank, and it was awesome. Druids get some really good spells later on, and with my prestige class the warpriest and my druid buffs, I was almost unstoppable. I've been thinking how much fun it would be to play through as an evil cleric....

Well this post is long and all over the place, so I will end it with well wishes to everyone and there families this holiday weekend, especially Stargrace, I hope you feel better soon!!

Alive, or just barley breathing...

I haven't posted much on over the last four or five months, mostly out of laziness I guess. But also out of a touch of burnout too. I have a blogger account that I was posting to on a somewhat regular basis, and I would forget to copy that over to this blog, but I was starting to read more and more blogs. And I found that I was spending a great deal of time blog reading and trying to come up with something to post and giving myself little time for anything else, mainly game wise.

I also haven't written a game review for a few months which I am not happy about as I really want to do more, and I need the practice. But I have been out of work for the past month with a broken foot, so funds are a bit tight. At this time I have to purchase the games that I want to review, so I am picky on what I review because I don't want to waste my money on something that I feel is not going to be good or that I know that I won't like.

I have been helping out a friend posting articles on his website, and he has many contacts and receives alot of review copies of games for the consoles, but I have yet to see any come my way let alone a pc review copy. I am really hoping that review copy of Street Fighter IV will show up for me!!Most of the articles I have posted are from emails sent to me and some are reposts of articles from other sites, with credit given of course. That's not my favorite way to post content, but I want to be consistent with adding content. Sometimes it feels like a second job.....

I really can't wait to get back to work next week.