It feels like an eternity since I last submitted anything. I'm considering starting to submit my alternative work. You know, my short stories, my music. I might even throw some of my more visible webcam shots of pictures into scraps. Anything to feel like I'm still an active member of the community, you know? I'm just starting to feel like a worthless little speck on site who takes in and gives nothing back. I know it's not my fault, but it still feels awful.
... On a related note, I've noticed that the submission policy for music is that it can only be your own creations. Makes sense, but do GarageBand loops assorted into a creation all my own count as original by composure, or do they count as another's work because the loops are not one's own? :/

Anywho, still surviving here at collage. Got a nice package from my folks yesterday. It was full of tea~! <3
... I fear I may be a tea addict at this point...

Oh, and I got two new games that need reviewing:

Spore:
If you don't know what Spore is supposed to be, you're living under a rock. If you don't know what it is, you haven't played it. If you don't know how such a great concept could have gone so horribly unpolished and fine-tuned, even after making the public wait for a number of years, you've obviously never dealt with EA before.
Maybe I'm exaggerating, it's still not a bad game, per say. Though, I have to say, it could have been a fantastic classic that would have gone down in the history books as a game that everyone should know, like its creator's other brainchild, The Sims. Just a little more polish could have made it that good, but leave it up to EA to take a concept game that everyone's hoping will be great and put in minimal effort because they're already making loads of cash off the name alone. What we get instead, is a mediocre game that will probably be forgotten by most in a number of months. Like three. Or perhaps two, if the later September/early October line-up is as good as it was looking.
The first four stages seem, really, like a very detailed introduction to the game. Each should have been longer and more in depth, so that they actually seem like portions of the game and not portions of a prologue. I mean, one of the achievements (because every game seems to need those things these days... <<; ) is "Beat the cell stage in under eight minutes". It's a little tricky to do, but even the fact that an entire phase is doable in under eight minutes minutes should be a sign that something's wrong. They're fun little add-ons, yes, but they should feel like a part of the game, not a mini-game before the end.
And yes, the end is a bastardization of Star Control II. Don't even try to deny it, because I will destroy your logic. I guess there's nothing really wrong with this, though. Star Control II was a great game, one of the best ever, even. I was in the mood for something with the same flavour, too, so it was kind of nice. You know what would have been nicer, though? MORE POLISH!
Once you're in the space phase, which is by far the most detailed phase (and most of the game, really, so it should be), you will begin to need alliences, even if you're a warmonger, because you'll get wrecked by all the other surrounding warmongers if you don't. Not many, though. In fact, the prime ally number in the space phase in one. Yes one. Because, if you have more than one, your allies will keep waring with each other and expecting you to help. if you side with one, the other gets mad, breaks the alliance, and raises hell on your planets (which your allies do surprisingly little to help you with, despite everything you do for them.). If you choose not to help either, and let them fight their own wars, both of them slowly get angry at you for not helping, and eventually you end up at war with both. Fun, right? And, what's more, everything needs constant, constant, constant attention. So, yes, there is an entire HUGE universe to explore in the game, but if you go and try to explore it, don't expect the better part of your empire to be there when you finally make it back.
The building system, what is really the selling point of the game, is pretty interesting. (And yes, I did make an igwulf.) It does, however, get tedious. Yes, the selling point gets tedious. Mostly because they make you build everything. And by everything I mean EVERYTHING. It gets to the point where you're pretty much thinking "Just build the damn theater for me, I'd like to get around to playing the actual game some time today!" Luckily, you do only have to build EVERYTHING your first time around. After that, you can just reselect your creations. Which is good, because I would have gone insane if they actually made me build all new buildings for each colony, like it seems to expect you to.
All in all. I give it a 7/10. Shame really, if could have been so much fun, and it ended up only okay. And again, screw you, EA. Screw you for botching up game with potential, and give me my money back. If it were as good as it could have been, I might have dealt with paying twice, but there's no way in hell I'm paying more than once for what I got.

Lock's Quest:
I'm not sure if I really have grounds to judge this one yet. I've only played a small way into it, after all. It could still go way downhill. As of right now, though, I love it. It's sort of like a new take on the traditional Tower Defense game. Rather than the slow, "I'll just leave my computer for a bit and bulk up my defenses when I get back and need it" sort of game-play, your character actually plays a pretty big role, running around. The walls make things interesting in the sense that you can actually block enemy paths, instead of just set up on the sides. There are a ton of different kinds of turrets and enemies, too.
Admittedly, the scrap building mini-thing to get new turrets is kind of a bad idea. It could have been a fun way to make new and unique turrets, but it turns out to just be a "copy this picture and we'll let you have your new gun" sort of thing. Really, just let us have the gun. It just wastes a few seconds of our time to do this. And it's not even time on the clock where you're racing to do it before the enemies come up and destroy you, it's paused time. So that portion's just a total waste of effort.
The characters kind of bug me, but that's kind of a minor flaw. Gameplay isn't really effected by it.
As of now, I give it an 8.5/10. We'll see if it goes downhill.

Ah, darn, class stared about three minutes ago. Gotta bolt. Later.
-Reed