Robert Khuu Presents

Boardgame: Settlers of Catan

After some trying and doing, I finally got the chance to play Settlers of Catan. I know, I know. It’s an old game and everybody and their brother has been playing it for years. I just haven’t been around a circle of friends that had/played the game until recently. Hit the jump for my thoughts. More »

Unassigned Reading

On the topic of books, I’ve recently started reading Iain M. Banks‘ much acclaimed “Culture” series of books. None of the books are related in terms of plot, but all take place in the same massive universe. The Culture is a pan-humanoid post-singularity socialist utopian intergalactic civilization. It’s sort of a serious version of Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As it is with most science fiction, the books provide ample social commentary about the context they’re written. For example, “Consider Phlebas” was written during the 80′s at the height of the Cold War and the story involves a long-standing war between the socialist Culture and the religion and competition driven Idarian civilization.

I’m about two books in and am thoroughly enjoying the stories. It’s a bit slower paced than, say, William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy, but the pacing isn’t really an issue. Most of the books are written from the viewpoint of Culture-based characters, thus, concepts that are normal for us (like rank and hierarchy) are completely foreign to them. I really like this aspect of the books. It’s social commentary of our value system done from the perspective of a completely detached 3rd party.

On top of the social commentary, Banks does a really good job on the actual writing of the book. There are some plot twists and some of them appear very obvious. The great thing about Banks is that he creates such a flexible enough universe so that the plot twists can easily go in any number of directions. He creates a very complex story in a very complex universe, but he writes in a very straightforward manner.The reader is very rarely left confused.

I just started the third book in the series. So far, so good.

Playing with flowers

Recently, the same company that made “flOw” released a new game on the PS3 entitled “Flower.” Here’s a video of the game in action:

The “characters” that you play aren’t so much a “characters” so much as they are a flowers in a city apartment that are dreaming of a dead gray field. The object of the game is to collect enough flower petals in an effort to reinvigorate those grayed out grassy fields. Control is handled through the PS3 Controller’s motion sensor. Turn the controller left (like a steering wheel) and the petals will turn left. Tilt the controller backwards and the petals will fly into the air. Overall, motion control is pretty well implemented. I am sure this game will re-open the question of whether video games can be art, but, regardless of whether that issues is settled or not, this game is still pretty fun in the mean time. The tagline, if it isn’t already, for this game should be “play and relax.” The gameplay is so soothing that when I started playing this game, I didn’t know 2-3 hours had passed. It’s a little like a good book. I wouldn’t necessarily schedule time to sit there and read a book, but if I’m between things, I’ll read the book. Same applies here.

There isn’t much variety in terms of gameplay. Some of the levels try to mix it up by having you “paint” the grass with colorful lights, but it’s just more of the same. I think the game tends to accomplish what a lot of games are missing: it finds 30 seconds of pure, rewarding fun and repeats it as often as possible without becoming repetitive.

Car hide and go seek

I recently bought a 2009 Toyota Yaris after my previous car decided to do $3000 worth of damage to itself. So far, I really do like the Yaris. I haven’t really encountered any deal-breaker problems. The only “problem” I have is the Yars’ size. Not because of it’s actual size, but it’s size in relation to other cars. It’s so small that it’s usually dwarfed by other cars and I tend to have a tough time finding it once I’ve parked it in a full lot. Usually, it’s some SUV soccer mom vehicle that’s blocking my view of the car, but even a regular sedan can block my view. I already had enough trouble looking for my old car in the parking lot. Now, it usually takes a moment of panic in addition to 2-3 minutes of looking for my car. I didn’t realize how big American cars really were until I started driving the Yaris. Since practically everyone out in the Midwest drives an American car, I’m usually outmatched 99% of the time. I’m just glad this is my last snowy winter so that I don’t have to play this game in the snow.