His latest thing which he likes doing, is playing "That train game". Yep, he gets dressed in his finest "Train driver's Gear" (wrapping himself in blankets) and we fire up TRS2006 (Screenshot from my system, here).
Why did I buy that game? Am I a train spotter? No way! However, there's no way I'm gonna look at a machine like the Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive, with its 6,290 Horsepower designed to pull over 3300 tons (over 600 of which are the locomotive and tender!), at speeds of up to 80mph, and not be impressed.
My nephew loves the game - whether at the controls of Big Boy (which we still haven't learned how to do "Hill Starts" in yet) or at the controls of an ICE train, my nephew is determined to (in his own words) "Set the world record!", but also stop the passengers from "getting angry". It's incredibly cute.
It's thanks to my awesomely incredible new graphics card that I've been able to reinstall graphics intensive games like this (okay, so trainz's graphics aren't that incredible - it's a 3 year old game though). From the games I've played so far, the card is incredible, and will easily take anything that the games industry can throw at it.
Like Crysis for example. (Game trailer here)
Crysis was released all the way back in 2007, to widespread criticism. It wasn't a bad game, far from it. But it was one of the first games designed for DirectX 10, if memory serves, and at the time, none but the very latest - and most expensive - graphics cards, would run it well. Gamers complained that their systems weren't up to the task. Only a monster computer could play it.
Lucky for me that I've got an 8800GTS.
Crysis, without a word of exaggeration, is a breathtakingly beautiful, absolutely incredible beast of a game. It makes games like Doom 3 and Prey look outdated and ugly (not surprising - both games share the same engine).
The game looks absolutely incredible. Plants wave in the breeze, water ripples gently, flocks of seabirds make their slow way across the beach, leaving only footprints. Even when the weather turns bad, the game is still beautiful, as tornados tear buildings to pieces, flinging wreckage through the air.
Spot an enemy soldier, and he opens fire. Return fire, and he'll take cover behind a tree. Not a problem, as the tree will splinter and collapse as you empty more and more ammo into it. If you're lucky, you can even catch him underneath it, as it collapses.
His friends come to aid him, screaming towards you in a pickup truck. No problem. Shoot out one or two tyres, and watch as the vehicle loses control, cartwheeling off the road and through the air, before hitting the ground and bursting into flames.
Out of ammo but still feeling destructive? Pick up anything and everything, from laptop computers, to watermelons to beer bottles, and throw them through the air, watching as they smash against the wall. Who needs to crowbar a crate open when you can smash it against the ground?
Pick up a chickens, even a couple of chickens, for crying out loud, and they will carry on clucking and looking around, while you walk about holding the damn things.
Fight the enemy with rifles, grenades, even with vehicle mounted machine guns, or tanks. Run across a picture perfect tropical beach, over the deck of an aircraft carrier, or through a dead and frozen wilderness. Fly through zero gravity alien environments, fighting all manner of enemies, both human, and alien, from the size of a soldier, to the size of a warship!
This game is incredible, incredible, incredible. I cannot overstate that enough. If you have what you consider to be a modern powerful system, put it to the test - for crysis' sake, go out and buy this game!
Another game I've bought is Sins of a Solar Empire, this time a 4X RTS game.
Pick an empire, and lead it to dominance, through a beautifully realised 3d universe, filled with planets, black holes, stars, wormholes, asteroids and plasma storms.
It didn't make as big an impression on me as Crysis, because it's not as beautiful.
But, it's still a pretty damn good game. Field dozens of ships, from small fighters, to immense battlecruisers as you take over the galaxy.
Put simply, the game is kinda a cross between C&C, Homeworld 2 and Master of Orion 3.
Back to my nephew - this week has featured the lil guy's 5th birthday. Yep, he's getting old now.
My sis and I took the opportunity to decorate his bedroom with a new sparkly shiny ceiling covered in glow in the dark stars. The family visited, my nephew went through his presents, and all was well and nice :).
Today was the day of his party. We rented the local church hall - a surprisingly modern building despite the medieval mindset that gave it its original purpose, and decorated the place with balloons and suchlike.
My sis spent a ton of money she didn't have on food, and also on hiring an entertainer.
Billy Bodkins, a local children's entertainer, turned up and got set up, and the kids started arriving.
And everyone had an awesome time. Billy did a fantastic job of keeping the kids entertained, even some of the adults (no, not me, hehehe) got involved, and my nephew seemed thoroughly happy with his party. He got even more cool gifts, and he got to hang out with his friends.
Even I had a pretty good time, what with the nice food and everyone having a nice time. Despite my batteries playing silly buggers, leading to me juggling a dozen batteries between my little camera and my flashgun, I managed to get a nice record of the events too.
So yeah, it's been a pretty good week. For everyone.
I'm now off to get pissed and play Prostreet. Have fun folks!
And here is a rather sparkly picture of my awesome computeryness, complete with new graphics card.
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