Trick or Treat

So more than a month has past and I had nothing to show for it. Having gotten over the initial surge of playing Guild Wars' Eye of the North expansion, I have since then been playing other games. Namely, titles like World in Conflict, Half-Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 have all contributed to the lack of postings here. Yet trying to squeeze what little blurb I can spew forth onto this little blog here is proving to be a tad difficult.

In the midst of all the games that I have installed, a few come with extra perks that keep me tuned into the game - awards and achievements. Like before, my affinity to gaining achievements kept me coming back to play some more, even though my dedication is rather spread across several titles now. Both Portal and Team Fortress 2 come with their own series of achievements, with TF2 providing players with player statistics that are both built into the game and hosted by Steam themselves. Their recent debut of the Steam Community made it possible for any player on Steam to create their own profile page using the ID (or nick) of choice. And it should come as no surprise as to what I use as a SteamID.

On the other hand, World in Conflict comes in as a completely different type of game altogether, but not any different by those who have kept up with the gaming scene. World in Conflict is a Real-Time Strategy game akin to the likes of Warcraft and Starcraft. And one of the interesting things about the game is the clean implementation of player profiles, buddy/friend list, server browsing, clan management, and profile browsing. These qualities are something that I had longed for in a multiplayer game. Having one's performance being recorded, tallied, and ranked amongst other players in the world is an added bonus. Sadly, as a first-person shooter type of player, my profile isn't very spectactular compared to the top 10 ranked players in a variety of categories.

On the flip side, some animation titles have come and gone. One of my favorite, Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi, has recently ended. The well-written story of Seirei no Moribito came to a close. Romance came to a strange end in sola. And a re-encode re-release of Machine Robo Rescue just finished. With all these titles, it becomes imperative that I off-load these large files onto a DVD disc for archival purposes. One or more of these titles will never see the light of day in America. But perhaps someday I will have the grand opportunity of collecting an entire series episodes to keep.

Oh, and before I forget... Red Sox are World Series 2007 champions, yet again! It was unexpected that the Red Sox would blow the Rockies away in a 4-game sweep. But I suppose it goes to show just how bad the match-up was. While it was great seeing the Sox outplay the Rockies in every shape and form, the majority of the insanity was during the ALCS where they faced the Cleveland Indians. Well, now that baseball season is over, all of the focus is on the New England Patriots. After that, the Celtics... Boston? City of sports? It will be when Celtics get the NBA title. Until then, it'll just be a good year for both Patriots and Sox.