GameLog 25 & 26

Still madly busy at work, doesn't put you in the best of moods to do a writeup of games you hardly got to play in the first place ...

TF2 (10h) - I've sat out a couple of [QGL] matches, but have had some alternate fun with GU fun maps and 2Fort bashups.

Mythos (8h) - After hearing about this before christmas from DJ Wheat as the successor to Diablo II, I signed up for the beta. It took a while to get in, plus I missed the email that got junkmailed.Plays pretty well and I'd agree with the sentiment that it's a lot more like D2 than others like Hellgate London. Servers are up and down a bit though, and it's laggy from Australia.

Football Manager 08 (5h) - Been mulling over the Gateshead issue and tested a couple of other scenarios to take over the club. It seems unlikely and a waste of good playing time to rush through to the end of a season playing a team I no longer cared about.The optimiser in me couldn't bare to put up with the thumb twiddling. One night I dream-thought about restarting from the beginning of the season. Just ignore the work put into Barrow and move over to Gateshead for a fresh start. As it turned out it was a real fresh start as there was NO-ONE at the club apart from youth players and greys. Not even a coach. After giving Barrow the flick they accepted my offer to coach immediately.

First up, an assistant manager. Without an AM it's really hard to weed through the chaff when looking for players and coaches. you either get useless people clogging up the lists or people that simply won't sign no matter what you throw at them. I found a couple of likely AM's, but nothing like the Wunderkind from Sweden they had under their wings in the mid-season save. The AM that eventually signed had been on my shortlist from my Barrow days. Good judgement all round and a 6 star defensive once all the other coaches take the burden off him.

With the 'interested players' filter back in place the next order of business was to find another couple of specialty coaches. I eventually picked up another 4, but no real standouts as they struggle to teach at 6 stars. Might need a couple more by the time the season is through, but there isn't anything out there that is interested in the position.

Next up is to get a team together. At least I don't have any useless players on the books soaking up a weekly wage, but without any real comparisons every potential player is seen as a 'must buy' by the scouts. I ended up bringing a lot on trial so the coaches could give me some more relevant feedback. After paying heavy for some solid players in key positions it at least gave the scouts something to compare to.
The team looks shakey, but we haven't even made it to the first warmup match so there's time to keep digging ...

I've also considered writing this stage of the game up as a blog akin to the Andy Preece one. Since Sandy's family came from that area I could write it up as a fake, yet autobiographical log from the perspective of myself in the game as well as Sandy's ventures into antiquity. With the lack of effort I'm showing on this blog it's not looking like a sustainable idea :( ..

Crusader Kings (4h) - I've been trying a couple of strategies out from the save after holding Spain. Most revolve around bumping off my son's wife as she seems barren, and at 31 time's a-wastin'.

Trackmania Nations (3h) - Cameron's Fave. St Luke's CCG getting closer ..