Civil Lycans Cry

Far Cry 2
I have only spent just shy of five hours with this game and I am already living and breathing the world in. Farcry's Africa is so well imagined and immersive that I find myself day dreaming about it even as I write this. Not that it would be pleasant to haul ass around the African bush while being constantly under fire from mercenaries and militants in real life. The experience in a video game though can lead to feelings of "bad assery" or if you like "bad assitude". It is all under pinned by the living world they have built or at least what passes for living at 45 mph in a jeep.

I should note that this game shares almost nothing with the first title. You aren't a flower shirted mercenary on a tropical island fighting aliens that is. Or at least not yet, I'm only five hours in.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
With Kaden on the clock we are trying to get some quality date nights in before the big day. We had planned to see Taken last Friday, but dinner at Da Lat (supah tasty) went longer than planned so our only option was Underworld 3. Where we enjoyed the first two films as guilty pleasures the third in the series just made me feel guilty. The first two films were over the top action, bad acting and good special effects. The newest film is over the top action in a period piece, worse acting and mediocre special effects. I should have known my good will for this series sailed when they changed all the actors except for one and got a new director.

Civilization 4
I have never really played a turn based strategy game before. Listening to the GWJ podcast as of late though, has built a foundation in my mind where a TBS game could build a home. I got close with Sins of a Solar Empire last year around this same time, but that was a game that picked the TBS corpse clean and was moving on. Civ 4 is as pure as it gets, no baking soad, just raw turn taking with a basis in strategy. There is an odd thing about this game though, while a full match might take anywhere from 4-24 hours of time played, the tech stages seem to go so quick. Or at least that is what I tell myself when I have to be cut out of my computer chair after an eight our session.