Pool of Radiance continues, more Duke too.

Another week has passed and work hasn't cooperated very well with my off time.  Just not enough time to spend on games lately.  Also, the switch from nights back to days has been rougher to adjust to than I thought it would be.

I did manage to spend a few hours with Pool of Radiance though.  I managed to clear all of the slums except for one fight.  The fight that is supposed to be the coming of age fight to prepare you for the rest of the world... 

Trolls... I hate Trolls...

I must not be old enough yet.  I managed to get some magic weapons, completely map the whole of the slums, and get a few characters to level two in at least one class.  Tried a couple of times and of course got slaughtered every time.  So I decided to head off to Sokal Keep and get a little more experience. 

Sokal Keep is great fun.  An area with a bit of a story, and undead to fight!  For some reason, killing orcs and kobolds is fun and exciting, but killing skeletons and zombies feels so much more epic.  I feel that the undead give a more tangible feeling of evil and doom.  Orcs and such still want to live and do what orcs do, but undead have no other purpose than to serve some vile agenda.  Even if that agenda is their own as is the case of sentient undead.

Either way, I have not ventured that far into Sokal Keep as of yet.  The undead patrols in the main hallway have been a source of experience for my band of adventurers.  The two clerics I have in the group have their turn undead ability and it has been an extremely useful tool in eradicating the patrols.

There was a skeleton near the entrance to the keep that had a note on it.  The words were translated as Lux, Samosud, and Shestni.  After experimenting a little, Shestni will cause the undead patrols to leave you alone.  That's not my intent right now as I want to get a little more experience, and the patrols are an infinite source as long as I leave the island and come back.

I'll continue with Pool of Radiance this weekend and next week.

I also put some time into Duke Nukem Forever.  This game is just more of the same from last week.  Kill monsters, say a cheesy one-liner, kill more monsters...  I'm not saying it isn't fun, but nothing really dramatic has happened. 

Using a 'sorta' stolen jet pack.

I find that the parts of the game where Duke has been shrunk down to about the size of a rat entertaining.  It reminds me of playing Red Faction multiplayer a long time ago with friends with some custom maps that were called Rat's Kitchen, or Rat's Livingroom.  There were a bunch of them.  They were essentially just maps of normal household rooms, but from the perspective of being the size of a rat, or similarly sized animal.  It was great fun to avoid being shot by leaping off the cupboard into a full sink and then running across the stove to dive into an outlet that was just lots of fun. 

The 50' woman!

This kitchen scene was probably the best part of the game so far.  Taking cover behind canned goods on the shelves, using burger buns to avoid the hot flat grill.  All to save this woman from being electrocuted.

Moving further into the game, Duke is deposited out in the desert.  For some reason, we couldn't just fly all the way to Hoover Dam, I had to get dropped at some spot in the desert where a monster truck was conveniently planted to continue.  The driving sequences are OK, nothing like GTA or anything, and are broken up by scripted sequences where you run out of gas and have to find some laying around some not so deserted towns or mines...  funny how aliens just take up residence in the most out of the way locations.

Duke can't be compensating...  can he?

Time to reduce the population even more.

After reaching Hoover Dam, and having the President of the United States pissed off at me, and killing yet another big monster on top of the dam, we move inside.  Here we're greeted with another shrunk down sequence.  This one is not nearly as entertaining as the kitchen, but still fun nonetheless as we have to disable a machine from the inside.

Gears and stuff...  complicated.

We're greeted at the end not with the device to make us big again, but an alien we have to defeat in our minuscule state.  After getting stepped on like a cockroach, I learned to just stay away and hope I can move fast enough to get a few shots in and still move.  Like all the rest though, this alien never really stood a chance.

The bigger they are...

...the harder they fall.

That's it for this week.  Not moving very fast through either of these games.  I expect to be finished with Duke Nukem Forever in the next week.  PoR though will take some time.  I'll continue to move ahead in both as time permits.

I also want to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!  Celebrate, drink, light off explosives, and eat good old American burgers and hot dogs!