Just thought I’d post up a few more photos from the trip! People seemed to like them the last time, so I’ll keep putting ’em up as long as people keep asking for them!
Taken at the Harbour Bar in Dublin, Ireland
Taken in Paris, France
What a joy it was to have my new camera while travelling!
If you’re anything like me, and feel an undeiable sense of nostalgia for those countless hours poured into computer games back in your younger days, then Good Old Games just might be the best news you’ve heard all year.
Put together by the guys behind The Witcher (which is based on a series of novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski), Good Old Games was put together with the intentions of getting old, classic PC games out of the gutter and reworking them so that anyone can play them. For Cheap. On top of that, they hook you up with a lot of cool swag like Wallpapers, Artbooks, Soundtracks and Avatars all for free with the purchase of a game.
The games cost $5.99 or $9.99. Not a bad deal considering their catalogue includes Fallout, Fallout 2 (two of the greatest PC games of all time), Arx Fatalis and Freespace 2.
Here’s what they have to say about their project:
1. We’ve got games your 10-year-old won’t be better at.
GOG.com offers you critically acclaimed games from major publishers in every genre. Don’t let your kids mock the graphics; remind them that the classics never go out of style, unlike their totally wicked haircut.
2. So you’re cheap. It’s okay – we are, too.
For less than the cost of a lunch at some lousy diner you can own some of the greatest games of all time. No matter how big the file is and how successful the game was, you’ll leave the table satisfied that you got a great deal for your money. As an added bonus, our house specialities won’t make you sick.
3. You buy it, you keep it.
Don’t let your DRMs turn into nightmares (clever, no?). You won’t find any intrusive copy protection in our games; we hate draconian DRM schemes just as much as you do, so at GOG.com you don’t just buy the game, you actually own it. Once you download a game, you can install it on any PC and re-download it whenever you want, as many times as you need, and you can play it without an internet connection.
4. All games are Vista and XP compatible.
Thanks to our handsome programming team, the classics are now Windows Vista and Windows XP compatible. Now you can use your lightning-fast PC to unleash the full potential of those games you just couldn’t play properly on that busted old 386.
5. Extend the experience with tons of cool and exclusive add-ons.
Buying the game is just the beginning. With the purchase of any game at GOG.com you’ll also get some great additional materials for free, including game guides, walkthroughs, MP3 game soundtracks, wallpapers and more. No joke.
6. We’re bringing together classic games and a classy community.
Dive into the GOG.com community, share your love for the games and meet other gamers with the same passion for classic games as you. Rate and review every single game, discuss your favorite titles on message boards, get support for your games and help others. Who knows, maybe you’ll find that special someone.
7. It’s so easy, your gramma’s probably already playing.
GOG.com is so easy to use. We have an easy account setup, game installers as user friendly as can be and simple, fast and hassle-free downloads. Thanks to these features, you’ll need just a few clicks to get you on your way to playing some of the best PC games of all time.
Who are you guys?
Everyone at GOG.com is a gamer, just like you. We’ve combined our real-life love for classic games with the amazing virtual world of the intarnets to bring some of our favorite games to your PC, with nothing – except maybe our budget – holding us back from conquering the world through gaming.
Why do you sell old games? Are you stupid or something?
Well, it looks like you haven’t played the PC classics much. Maybe it’s some sentimental attachment or maybe the games back then were different? Maybe a little bit of both; regardless, the truth is that the all-time classics never go out of style and we know that. So don’t criticize; play the game like it’s 1995.
So get on over there and support the cause. If you run Windows XP or Vista, the games are sure to work on your computer, so you have no excuses. Fallout 2 for $5.99 is the deal of the year, if you ask me!
The LA Times, not exactly known as a bastion of news concerning the world of speculative fiction, has posted an interesting, if not exactly informative (at least for fans of the series who have been closely following Sanderson’s involvement), article about Jordan’s death and the subsequent decision to hand over the reins to a relative unknown author in Sanderson.
“I’m relatively unknown as an author; I’ve only been published for a couple of years,” Sanderson said. “I did not know I was being considered.”
Indeed, the most prominent question on fan sites such as seemed to be: Who is Brandon Sanderson?
That question was met head-on by Sanderson as he began interacting with “Wheel of Time” fans both live and on the Web, and taking the time to introduce himself to those who were still new to his work.
“Overall, I’m absolutely thrilled that Brandon is the man for the job,” exclaimed Jason Denzel, site founder of Dragonmount.com. “It’s as if they picked the most talented fan they could find and handed him the series to finish.”
As confident as Denzel and the rest of the fans on his website have become in Sanderson, they admit that there remains a trickle of skepticism.
“The thing that we haven’t seen yet, and whether or not it can be pulled off, is if this book is going to feel like someone else wrote it or as if Robert Jordan wrote it himself,” said Denzel. “Our biggest worry is whether or not it’s going to have the feel of the rest of the series.”
Sanderson empathizes with the fans.
“I can’t do a better job than Robert Jordan. I can’t even do as good a job as Robert Jordan, I don’t think,” remarked Sanderson. “He’s the only one that could’ve done it the right way.”
Fortunately for fans, the author wanted to give them the ending they deserved, one written by him. During his last days, the writer began dictating onto a recorder how the prologue for the final book would play out, and feverishly scribbling down the ending he had kept stored away in his mind for the past 17 years.
You can read the whole article HERE. Of more note, though, may be Sanderson’s own blog where he keeps a continuous flow of news and anecdotes on the process behind finishing not only someone else’s story, but a story that has millions of people enraptured worldwide.
Pat (man, two posts about the bugger in one day, what’s the world coming to?), from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, has posted a pretty cool excerpt of The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.
You can check out the excerpt HERE.
Pat also has a snippet of news on the progress of the novel:
This should tell the author’s detractors that a) Rothfuss is writing it and b) that Rothfuss has some portions of the manuscript polished enough that they can actually be shown. Having said that, it’s obvious that the book is nowhere near close to being published. But this excerpt demonstrates that Patrick Rothfuss is working on it, and that things are moving (seemingly) in the right direction.
While it’s frustrating that the novel’s still far from publication, it’s good to know that progress is being made. I won’t be reading the excerpt, but hopefully it’ll whet your appetite enough to buy Rothfuss another few months!
Tia, the woman behind Fantasy Debut, has put together an absolutely fantastic article about how to successfully pull together a blog. She mostly focuses on how authors, but having read the advice, it’s information that’s priceless to anyone looking to start a blog or just bump up their traffic!
The most important part, in my opinion, is the section she has on publicizing:
Publicizing Your Blog
You can set all that up and still get no traffic. Here’s how to help drive traffic to your site for free. Well, there is a cost, but that cost is time, rather than money. The closer you get to 40, the more you realize how very valuable time is.
* Comment on other blogs. People know you exist this way. I still check out every new commenter.
* Answer your comments. You want to appear accessible. Plus, when you answer comments, you encourage conversation.
* Thank reviewers. Even thank reviewers for bad reviews. We feel all special when authors thank us. We may not be special at all, but it is in your best interest to encourage such feelings anyway. Don’t kiss our ass; we can see right through that. Just thank us. We’re more likely to remember you and to blog about you when we have warm and fuzzy feelings about you.
* Consider blogging about bad reviews as well as good ones. This makes you look uber-cool, like nothing can touch you. You may be crying your eyes red, but we don’t know that. We’re just marveling at how awesome you are. Of course, if you’re only getting bad reviews, this will simply make you look pathetic, so use some balance here.
* Shout-out other blogs that you admire, and include a link to that blog, or the particular post that caught your eye. We’ll most likely notice (see below for how) and we’ll appreciate it.
* Consider using Twitter. I have not taken the plunge yet. Try it and see if it’s for you. If you like it, include your Twitter feed on your sidebar. Twitter should have instructions on how to do this.
* Join science fiction and fantasy forums and participate. Yeah, I know. I need to take this advice, myself.
* Ask! Email the blogger/site owner and make a request. Offer to trade links, or to do an article or guest post, or to send a review copy. The worst they can do is say no, but most of the time, bloggers are happy (read: giddy) to help authors out.
I strongly advise anyone with an interest in blogging to check out the entire article HERE. You’re sure to learn something. I certainly did!
