Freespace: The Greatest Space Sim No One's Heard Of

Freespace, a space simulator game by the good folks at Interplay and Volition, was arguably the best space simulator ever made. It had everything: an epic, moving story, more fighter ships to pilot than one ever had to, a menacing enemy that was absolutely despicable, and fantastic graphics and gameplay.

I was lucky enough to play both Freespace 1 and 2 when they came out and they blew everything else out of the water. Interestingly, the game was also decidedly bleak in its outlook, the climactic battle of Freespace 2 was not for absoulte victory, but for survival against a vastly superior opponent. The good guys don't win, they squeak through.

Beautiful... except you're running for your life from it.

Freespace was not campy, at least not as horribly campy as, say Wing Commander. Instead, it was a gripping, grim tale of warfare. The missions were often carried out on hauntingly beautiful backgrounds. The ships themselves were masterpieces. And well, as you can see in the picture above, the graphics were stunning.

It also made you feel small. On purpose. You were a fighter pilot forced to duck and dodge ships literally thousands of times larger than you. It brought the feeling of really being there to a whole new level. You were the hero of the game, but you were also just one of many heroes, all taking their part in these gigantic battles for the survival of your race. Great geeky fun!

It was also a truly gripping story, one worth playing through just to get through the story.

It has also been modded by a whole bunch of people, turning it into Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 simulators. But, if you ask me, the original story could stand up to these and then some.

If you can, find it in the bargain bins. It's truly, truly worth the search.

A Magazine For Thinking Men

I never thought there would be a time when I would get tired of looking at semi-naked, seductively posed women in magazines. Earlier, when FHM first came out, I bought the magazine just for the fun of being able to legally, with no shame, go up to the counter and buy a magazine with a semi-naked celebrity on the cover. No more skulking about dark malls, moving to the back of some obscure magazine store, where, ahem, "male" magazines were at the back shelf, behind old copies of Good Housekeeping and Home and Garden.

We had arrived, I thought, at a new phase in periodicals, where men could get everything they wanted, including some titillation, in one magazine! It took me a few more issues to realize that, well, no, we didn't get everything we wanted.

The pictures were all well and good, but, moving beyond that, I found the articles forgettable and, at times, just outright wastes of reading time. Eventually, I stopped.

However, finally, there is a magazine that is worth reading. Rogue magazine was a surprise when I finally picked an issue up. My first thoughts were, well, here's another magazine with pretty women on it, though the pictures seem to be more artful than those other ones. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually paid more attention to the articles than the pictures. The articles were intelligent, the (non-female anatomy) pictures beautiful. It was a good, no, a great read.

Their current issue has two available covers. I like the one on top more.

There are quibbles. I sometimes feel like a gatecrasher in some posh party, especially in the fashion and society sections, where society's elite do, well, what they do. The items on their fashion sections are all cool, beautiful, and...beyond my reach, at least for now. But then, what's life without a little aspiration, right?

Interestingly enough, it seems like you have to be firmly entrenched in society to be called a rogue. I love irony.

The images are from the Facebook site of Rogue magazine.

All Hail Lego!

I can't get to Christmas without having at least one Lego memory.

My first Lego arrived as a Christmas gift from my parents. It was a large, flattish box that rattled loudly when I shook the wrapped package. It was the first gift that I actually could not figure out, since it was in a flat box and it was intriguingly noisy. (Pieces weren't in plastic bags yet then) My curiosity eventually got the better of me and I started trying to see into the wrapper, which only revealed the red and white LEGO logo.

Lego? What in the world was that? That mysterious logo would torment me for three weeks.

I had a set just like this one.

I was to find out only on Christmas Day, which finally led me to open the said box to find a cool picture of a moonbase (it was a Lego Space set). Wow! And then, opening it, I found not a cool moonbase, but hundreds of tiny plastic pieces. No wonder it rattled, it was broken! Rising despair became rabid curiosity when my father showed me the instruction booklet. I was supposed to build the moonbase myself! And, if I wanted, I could actually build other things! Way cool!

That began a love affair with making things with my hands. Aside from my own toys, I played with my sister's Legos (she got the City sets), and mixed and matched bricks to make my own space ships and cars. I've had not only other Lego sets, but models, Erector sets (which I hand-carried home from the US, never mind that it weight nearly as much as my luggage), and video games like Sim City, which play a lot like a software version of Lego.

Needless to say, I've been a fan ever since.

I was sad for a while when Lego seemed to fade from the scene here, but I'm glad they're back! My five-year-old son now enjoys building his own toys (and very well, too, considering he's building sets supposedly for nine-year-olds) and I can't help but feel jealous. They've gotten very creative with those little blocks, to say the least. (My jaw dropped when I saw the Death Star set.)

I mean, just look at the thing!

I still get the need to build once in a while, especially with how exciting looking the new products are. However, with my son already collecting sets at a rapid pace, I wonder if I'll ever get the chance. Maybe I'll have to do it outside of the house, like some kind of plastic, blocky mistress.

Sad, I know. Just goes to show how much of a fan (and a geek) I am.

Images from Lego.com