Divinity Original Sin Review

Now I must admit, I wasn't part of the original Kickstarter on this one. As it was launched around the time I was suffering from a now common affliction called Kickstarter fatigue. 

In hindsight, that was a mistake. 

I'm about 12 hours in and enjoying myself immensely. The game is a breath of fresh air in a genre that seems to be obsessed with chasing wide open world and often forgetting to put anything interesting in them. In Divinity every part of the gameplay map servers some kind of purpose. From providing place to find a secret to an interesting spot for one of the games tactical turn based encounters.

And it are these encounters that are the highlight of the game for me. Taking the rich tactical options of games like Baldurs Gate and more recently the original Dragon Age and putting them in a X-Com like framework with actions costing a set number of points. Unspent points carry over to the next round adding an even deeper level of strategy where some spells and abilities require you to save some points from the previous turn. That's on top of an already very varied menu of tactical options.

I'm playing as a Ranger and Cleric. Which gives me access to a number of archery abilities, tens of special arrow heads from standard exploding and poisoning to steam and smoke screens. On the Cleric I get healing, buffs and the ability to cast a number of offensive spells. You're never at a loss for options.

Apart from the two "main" characters you can swap additional characters in and out of your party. Supplementing your two mains. Just for the combat, Divinity: Original Sin is worth the price of admission.

That doesn't mean other areas are underdeveloped, graphically the game looks better than most most higher budget commercial games and those graphics are backed up by some great sound effects, okay voice acting and the usual suite of fantasy music. Again, the battle music is the standout here which is good because some of the battles tend to last in the tens of minutes.

The story so far has been a bit slow going, taking me through a traditional murder investigation plot while funnelling me from area to area. While the game is essentially non-linear it's the enemies levels which in practice gate you from certain areas. There is simply no way your level 3 guys will be taking out that mob of level 5 Orcs without either a lot of luck or patience. Better try again when you've levelled up a bit. But the setup of the story is promising and I will certainly be playing more of it to see where it goes.

All in all, I recommend you pick this one up if you're a fan of classic RPG's and tactical battles. Those of you looking for an open world RPG or a more MMO like experience will not find what you're looking for here.

Shiny Chromebook?

So I bought a Chromebook...

I'm actually posting this from my Chromebook.

Now granted, I didn't pay as much for this Chromebook as most of my countrymen. The model I got, a series 3 Samsung pictured here still goes for near 300 euros in the Netherlands, which is borderline robbery! But on a recent trip to the USA I picked one up at the local Best Buy for what translates to a mere 180 euros. That's about 1/3rd of what I paid for my iPad.
And so far, I'm pretty happy with my purchase. I was planning to upgrade my Google storage for a long time already anyway and the Chromebook came with a free 100GB for two years which is great value.

If you're like me and have a grandfathered Google drive account (20GB for $5/year) then I can hereby tell you that you will keep this deal when you add the 100GB package, it just adds it on top of the total and you will NOT lose your legacy account status. For those like me this is probably the only way to do this without losing that status, short of getting a Pixel which..well...

For what it is, the Chromebook is a great bargain, it's exactly as advertised, a small, light, fast enough little laptop that runs the Chrome browser as its OS. Anything you do today inside Chrome save for hardcore gaming you can do on the Chromebook. And that is important to note that the more core games like for example Bastion do not currently function on the Chromebook. So if you're heavily into portable gaming you should look elsewhere.

Getting Internet on the go is also a piece of cake, the Nexus 4 I use can tether with the Chromebook through  WiFi, Bluetooth and even direct USB connection. The latter having the added benefit that it keeps the Nexus charged and doesn't add the battery strain of running two radios at the same time on it. Without the Nexus attached I got about 6 hours out of the Chromebook. With the Nexus providing 3G the whole setup lasted about 4.5 hours. With the Nexus 4 still being fully charged at the end of it.

After having used tablets exclusively while mobile for the past two years it's great to have a real keyboard and mousepad again. I would never have typed up this piece of text otherwise. The keyboard is actually better than that of most laptops three times the cost. And on par with that of the MacBook Pro I use for work (well, on par....close enough, the keys are a bit looser but in day to day use you don't notice the difference.)

For the price, it's a great buy if you understand what it is and isn't going in.

Oblivion Review

Watched this in the Amsterdam ArenA IMAX cinema yesterday (sidenote: Wednesday is the best day to go here.)

First off, if you haven't watched the trailer for this yet and are planning to go see it in the cinema, don't watch that trailer! As with most trailers these days it pretty much spoils the majority of the movie. Also don't think that anybody besides Tom Cruise plays any major role in this. Yes, Morgan Freeman is in it but for only a few minutes total and him being Morgan Freeman is in no way integral to the plot. Could have been anybody. Doesn't matter as Mr. Cruise carries the film just fine and proves that he is indeed the right choice when it comes to these sci-fi movies. Probably because he's the only Hollywood star with a true love for the genre.

If you did see the trailer, the major plot-twist has been spoiled for you already and the sad thing about that is that it detracts from the second major twist that you didn't see coming. Which was obviously designed to be a great one-two punch. This has the effect that for the first half hour you are simply waiting for the plot twist you already know about to occur which will detract from your enjoyment.

Either way, what you have here is a pretty good post apoc sci-fi movie that has all the ingredients that fans of the genre crave. And if you are in any way a fan of the genre you really do need to go see it. 

P.s.

Speaking of, they showed the Iron Man trailer before this movie. So now I don't have to go see that anymore... If you want a prime example of trailers that spoil their movies, look no further than the Iron Man 3 cinematic trailer.