Okay, it’s time for grab-bag post!
First, I’ve been playing a fair amount of Team Fortress 2 lately. My take: extremely polished and quite fun, even if you don’t have twitch skills any more. My only two caveats are that a) sudden death sucks – I much prefer maps where it isn’t possible and b) the spy appears to be overpowered. I know, I know, learn to play…except that the game is usually so freakin’ chaotic that trying to pick out which of your teammates might be a traitor at the same time gets really hard. Although it’s quite satisfying when you do. “Hey, why’s one of our scouts just hanging arouKILLKILLKILLKILL!” Overall, it’s the first online FPS I’ve played in years and I’m really glad I preordered it so I could get into the beta.
But I am pleased to report that TF2 has not prevented me from working on Planitia. I’m focusing on the AI right now. My computer players can now intelligently flatten the land around their villages so that their mana production increases…now they just need to be able to use god powers and build armies. I’m hoping to have another demo with rudimentary AI this weekend.
And finally, I usually have to pay for entertainment like this.