Tears of Joy

I had not previously tested my new graphics card to its full potential, not before Saturday night. I can't think of a scenario when I've previously stayed up all night playing one computer game until the break of day. Let alone a computer game demo. That's right, I played the single player Crysis demo. Good golly Miss Molly.

I'm sure I don't have to mention the incredible graphics that the Cryengine 2 powered game dishes out (they're out of this world) since if you have stayed even remotely up to date with computer games then you'll know they're state-of-the-art. I know a lot of people went on and on about the graphics in Bioshock but really the Crytek team takes the gold no questions asked.

It was the game play that kept me hooked until five in the morning though. Until I played the demo (which was more of an on-the-spot whim than anything else) I thought Crysis was just going to be a big ol' tech demo with guns in it. Was I wrong? Yes. At least that's what I can tell from the demo. The things I liked about the game included the free form levels (much like Crytek's Far Cry), the gun customisation (iron sights/reflex sights, silencer, torch, tactical launcher, laser dot sight, etc., all configurable on-the-spot with very cool HUD elements), the abilities granted by your battle suit and the need to choose each one tactically for the appropriate situation (greatly enhanced strength, speed, and armour, as well as the ability to cloak and become nigh-invisible), the difficulty settings (on the hardest mode the North Korean troops actually speak Korean rather than Engrish), and the physics (grenade + shack = shack demolished realistically into its component parts).

There aren't many games which allow you to leap atop the roof of a ramshackle corrugated iron hut before punching a hole in the roof, throwing a grenade onto the lap of a soldier inside, and then run off at fifty miles an hour into a dynamically lit jungle at dawn... with fiddler crabs running around your feet near the beach... and awesome motion blur... and then the hut blowing up in such a spectacular fashion that you only wish the entire world could experience your elation while you play this game... and I really must get the full version.

In other news I got to painting my mob, or at least starting to paint my mob. I'm thinking that everyone's Nob (ork leaders are called Nobs, grow up and stop giggling like a prepubescent school girl) will have the same bosspole... I have a bosspole which is essentially a spear with three space marine helmets skewered on it but since there are no Adeptus Astartes forces on Gorkamorka/Angelis it would be silly to use it. I suppose it's just more of a reason for the various mobs to fight: battling for the right to carry a certain design of bosspole into combat. I would customise mine but right now I don't have enough bitz in my bitz box (having only just returned to the hobby). As the campaign progresses I'll be adding to the bosspole with every victory/spectacular defeat so at least in that way it will differ from the others. And it's nothing a striking colour scheme can't really handle.

Of course I'm torn between painting these orks and getting my D&D notes written up. I suppose I can write my D&D campaign up in shorthand since the players always find a way around my immaculately designed plots anyway. At some point I will also have to start modelling a fort for my ork mob, and get some rocks together for scenery. Also, scrap counters! In my previous Gorkamorka days my scrap counters were made from swarm/monster bases and stuff from my bitz box... this time I think we'll have to settle for actual counters.