Fishing level 71

So I finally get around to updating my blog, and next thing you know I get another Fishing level. Fishing monks at Piscatoris, as I ran out of my previous stash and had started using spuds with tuna and cheese - which I wanted to save for Dream Mentor. Only 5 more levels and I can catch sharks for the Seers Village activity diary.

Ten months later ...

... and I haven't played Ape Escape yet to try that new level. Getting a Wii for Xmas contributed to that in a major way, as we spent several months mastering Mario Karts, and now we are working on Rock Band 2.

Runescape continues to drag on - several new quests which need high skill levels, so I'm working on Farming, Fishing and Crafting for long periods of time.

Gaming update

For a while now, we have been thinking of upgrading from our old PS/2 to either a PS/3 or a Wii. I prefer the PS/3, as it will integrate with our PSPs to allow audio streaming, and it has more of my kind of shooter games. Linda prefers the Wii for more family oriented games that we can play together. After spending a couple of weeks searching for a Wii, we finally ordered one from Amazon last week, and that will be our Xmas gift to each other. Nathan was pleased, as he will also be getting one for Xmas, and we may be able to play games against each other. I got him the Mario Kart game with a Wii Wheel, so we will have to go get one for us once they are back in stock in the area.

On the PS/2 side, I decided to try and finish the two main games that I have been playing - Ape Escape 2 and Medal Of Honor: Europe Assault. I have been stuck on the Code C.H.I.M.P. level of Ape Escape for about two years, on a tricky part where my character has to jump over a series of cogs that rotate in different directions at different speeds. I warmed up by grabbing the one ape that I had missed on Pirate Island - he was on the top of the ship's mast, and I had always had trouble grabbing him. I was encouraged by the fact that I caught him really quickly, so I pushed on with the Code C.H.I.M.P. level. This time, I managed to crack the cog section at the second attempt, and went on to complete the level - finally! I couldn't get my head around the Giant Yellow Monkey Battle level that followed, so I went back and finished the Skyscraper City level. If I can get past the Giant Yellow Monkey Battle this week, I can go on to the last regular level and then the final battle against Specter.

Let it snow ...

After surviving a week of -20F temperatures in Minneapolis, I flew back home to Portland to find that it was cold and snowing. After dumping a couple of inches of snow, it rained for a few hours which added a crispy ice coating. Another foot of snow later, our back yard is deeply covered, which is making it interesting for Maya and Logan to go potty. The roads are a little slick, so we have decided to hunker down and wait for the weather to improve - no sense on trying to drive anywhere until the roads are clear.

One nice thing about our little neighborhood is the neighbors. When I returned from my last trip, we had received two deliveries of holiday goodies - cookies and fudge, and cinnamon rolls. We had another delivery the next day, so we did our part and cooked orange and cranberry muffins which we delivered to all of our neighbors yesterday.

MOH:Heroes

Still stuck on MOH:Heroes 2, so I decided to pick up MOH:Heroes and see how it compares. The graphics are not quite as sharp as Heroes 2, and there are a few strange changes between the games.

In Heroes 2, you usually start out with a Thompson machine gun, Colt pistol and grenades. When a weapon becomes available, you can select the Thompson or Colt and swap for the new weapon, so it is possible to carry a machine gun and sniper rifle at the same time. In Heroes 1, the only weapon that can be swapped is the machine gun, so you can't swap the pistol for something more useful.

In Heroes 2, you have a set of objectives that are revealed throughout the level, and you can't finish the level until you complete all of the objectives. There can be many sub-objectives on a level, but if you don't find them as you go around, you won't know about them until you finish the level and are told which ones you missed. In Heroes 1, you know all the objectives and sub-objectives up front, and have little arrows in the overview map to show you where to go. This takes away some of the frustration of not knowing about the sub-objectives, but it does make things a little too easy sometimes.

Heroes 1 also has a lot of timed, "capture the flag" type levels, where the objective is to turn flags from German to American by holding a position for a number of seconds. So far I have gone through five or six of these, and I've only just wrapped up the second campaign.

Overall, Heroes 1 is OK, but not the best of the games in the series.

Defender Of Varrock

Just finished the Defender of Varrock quest, after getting my hunter up a level by trapping Horned Grakhs on Karamja. The quest was pretty straightforward, involving a long walk around the wilderness, tracking a zombie army, luckily with no revenants in sight. The underground sequence and battle in Varrock were pretty easy in comparison, so it looks like this is just a teaser for a much larger and harder quest to be announced soon.

Runescape Halloween

This year, Runescape doubled up on the Halloween fun with an event and a quest. Both started just north of Rimmington, and involved traveling around Rimmington, Port Sarim and Draynor Village. The event involved trick-or-treating the NPCs in those towns, and the quest involved visiting the witches in each town to solve a puzzle. The puzzles were quiet clever, and needed a bit of logical thought rather than just bashing things over the head.

Having completed both, I am now the owner of a rather smart mage outfit and a new scare emote. Plus several thousand smithing XP which bring me a little closer to the levels required for Rocking Out.