It's been a bit of a dry month for me in blog updates, or any updates really. The past couple of weeks in particular has been occupied by incredibly bad Dell service for my notebook.

So in lieu of inspiration for new content, here are some new reviews.

Civilization V - Gods and Kings

Surprisingly packed expansion. Religion makes a huge difference. Better diplomacy. Makes the game much longer overall. Better than first release.

Minecraft for Xbox

So I caved in to my kids. Not too bad actually. More accessible than PC version.Warning: major time sink.

Dwarf Fortress 0.34.11

The 2012 release keeps getting better. A surprisingly solid bugfix release. Clearing kill orders after completion is a definite win.

I occasionally get new games, and try to review them, but often don't get around to it. With this in mind, I wondered if it was the burden of writing so much about a given game, knowing that people will have their own differing views and opinions. There's also the challenge of knowing when to stop playing and write it - finish the game first, or get some way in and then write about the experience? And since I'm buying the games, I get the joy of reflecting upon the fact that I blew near $100 on a turkey, or that I don't get paid to review games.

So enough with that idea. I figure that most game reviews are far too long, and this kind of annoys me. I figure that if a game really is great, okay, maybe that justifies a long review, but the bulk of games just don't justify it. So I've decided to go with a new game review format, until I change my mind or get bored with the idea. I figure everything I think about a given game should fit into twenty words. Not "or less", and not "give or take a couple". ...

Dwarf Fortress is a game.

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What? You want more?

Dwarf Fortress is a dwarven life simulation written by Toady One of Bay 12 Games.
If you have enjoyed this review, why not check out ...

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What? Still not enough? Sigh … okay. Here goes.

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Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress is a horrendously bug-laden, incredibly inaccessible, and incomprehensible game that's still only in Alpha after many years of development, and with no end in sight to development. At the same time, it's also possibly the single most fun game ever written, and purportedly the inspiration for Minecraft. It's certainly given me plenty of enjoyment.

Like many others, I stumbled on Dwarf Fortress via Something Awful and their Let's Play Forums. One of the most well-regarded Let's Play threads around, Boatmurdered, is often the first introduction anyone has to the game. Boatmurdered was a succession game ...

Portal 2, the sequel to the Orange Box smash Portal, was released last Tuesday, to an overwhelmingly positive reception. Let's take a look at why this positive reaction is somewhat justified! 

I must start with a disclaimer - while I will try and avoid spoilers wherever possible, its certainly possible for me to give away parts of the plot that might not be common knowledge. It's certainly nothing that you can't find out by going to the Wikipedia page! But if you haven't played it, don't be disappointed if I give anything away.

Portal 2 Cover (Valve, inc. Retrieved from Wikipedia under WikiMedia Creative Commons License)

Portal 2 starts with a rude awakening from stasis, by a personality core called Wheatley, brilliantly voiced by Stephen Merchant (The Office, Extras, The Tooth Fairy). He leads you through the Aperture Laboratory facility, which is overgrown and dilapidated after ...

I have really been trying to get my thoughts together to review Fable III. Or, you know, actually play it to completion.

I'm failing at it. See, I'd like to focus on at least some positives in my review, even if I dislike the game.  I've found one that I can clearly identify, and here it is:

You can sometimes finish off enemies in a cool way.

That's it. What it means, is for example, you might have a Hobbe swallow your arm up to the shoulder while holding a gun. So you pull the trigger. I have to admit to liking that quite a bit, but it doesn't go far enough to quash my frustration at this heap of steaming crap.

This is Fable. The game that's meant to be engaging, not too serious, but engrossing and with a sense of humour. I love Fable The Lost Chapters. I was thrilled at the way Fable II somehow managed to draw you in even further. The secret of the game's success, in my opinion, was that they put some effort into emotionally connecting you to the char ...

Ever since its release, I'd been excited about the new model Xbox 360 S - the S standing for Slim or Small, although @themolk likes to call it the Stealthbox. I really wanted one, primarily to take advantage of the quieter running in our lounge room, but also to make use of the larger 250Gb drive and the 802.11n wireless. There's still nothing wrong with my original launch-day Xbox 360 - still works perfectly, and the 100Gb upgrade I gave it a while back has helped in extending its lifetime, especially with the ability to copy games to the HDD.

Although I was keen to get hold of a 360 S, money has been tight, so I had resorted to trying to trade an unused drive for it. Through the generosity of a few AuTechHeads members, though, I was lucky enough to get an offer of a steeply discounted brand-new 360 S - part of a Kinect bundle, where the owner already had a 360 S and didn't want a 2nd one - and the cash to pay for it! It's sometimes overwhelming to see how generous people can be - thank you, you h ...