Hop to it

Tomorrow I'll have to start on my INTRA report. It's due in a few weeks time but I'll have to crank out a good 2,000 words on Irdeto. I'm not sure what I'll write but I need to get it done before I leave so my boss can review it for things I can and cannot say. Shouldn't take too long to do. 2,000 words isn't exactly a lot.

I've been playing some games recently, and by some I mean two. I haven't played games in a long time so I decided to check a couple of old ones out. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is an old detective horror game I first played a few years back. You play a PI sent to a small village called Innsmouth to investigate the disappearance of the local general store's manager. As you explore the town you slowly uncover the mysterious goings on and dark secrets of the locals.

I'm not a big fan of horror games, but this game is fun. It had an interesting Sanity system, where every time you see something disturbing or unsettling your character's mental health suffers. Eventually your vision becomes blurred, your movements unsteady and your character begins mumbling to himself as the experience becomes more and more stressful. You also have hallucinations if you see one to many unsavoury sights or unworldly creatures. If your character suffers a nervous breakdown, it's game over.

It was a fun game, but not long. I uncovered Innsmouth's dark history. Journey'd into it's depths and have killed two immortal sea gods. Though I can't finish it as I'm stuck at the very end. On my way to the exit after the last conflict, a rock falls on my head and kills me. It's a little annoying. There were other sections of the game that were simply impassable due to bugs, I had to find save files online to get past them. Either way, it's more than a little irritating so I've just given up.

I also tried Dwarf Fortress, the free indie game which cheerfully exclaims in the manual that "Losing is fun!" I've heard a lot of stories about how entertaining this game is, and it certainly seems like it could be very enjoyable. Unfortunately there is a massive learning curve, and it is extremely unintuitive. Not to mention the awful interface. I'm sure there's fun to be had here, but there would be a lot of learning involved on the way to having that fun, I'm not sure I'm up for that.

I'm considering trying Rome: Total War. I've had this game for years now, it was gotten for my Dad years back, and he certainly loves it and sings it's praises along with my brother. It's very well regarded as a strategy game amongst people who play these kind of things. I've been hearing for years how great it is but I never got around to trying it myself. I might have a few evenings free when I get this report out of the way, so I'm considering giving it a try.

I've booked accommodation for the trip to Croatia. Now we just need to be sure of the bus timetables. I'm looking forward to this trip a lot. Hopefully it'll be enjoyable.