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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 4<br>
                November 30, 1999<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Birth 

                  of a Gamer:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Myth II <br>
                  (My First Foray Back Into Gaming)</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Heather &quot;elki&quot; 
                  Haselkorn</p>
              
              

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               First 
                off, I just want to thank you guys for all of the great e-mails 
                last week. I feel so loved! Anyway, let's turn to the real business 
                at hand:</p>
              </p>
              <b>Myth 
                II</b> was the 
                first game I'd played in about two and a half years. It was also 
                the first game in which I've ever had to run a tutorial before 
                playing. Although I consider myself an animal lover (and a former 
                vegetarian), I experienced a sick pleasure at blowing up the chickens 
                in the barnyard. I figured if the rest of the game were like this, 
                I'd have no problems! That's where I made my first mistake. Someone 
                had already told me that the original <b>Myth</b> was hard enough 
                to be unplayable, and that <b>Myth II</b> was only slightly easier. 
                Still, I thought, how hard could it be?</p>
              </p>
              Before 
                I get into that, I just want to give into some childlike awe. 
                I had never seen a game in 3D before, so when I first started 
                playing, I just couldn't figure out what to do. I was so used 
                to games that scrolled either vertically or horizontally that 
                I couldn't get used to the illusion of actually moving <i>forward</i> 
                or <i>backward</i>. It was a little disconcerting. And the graphics 
                stunned me. I could move the camera in, out, around, take an aerial 
                view of my troops or come in close-up right over their heads. 
                And in addition to the main action, there are also leaves falling 
                from trees, and birds and butterflies flitting around. It was 
                breathtaking! </p>
              </p>
              Once I 
                began to play, I immediately learned my first lesson about gaming: 
                Much as I love my PowerBook, a track pad is not an ideal gaming 
                tool. The time it took to run my finger across the pad and then 
                click with my thumb really slowed things down. For example, whenever 
                I was ambushed it would take so long to select my knights and 
                bowmen that I'd inevitably lose quite a few of them. Sometimes 
                it seemed as though I spent more time listening to my computer 
                shout &quot;Casualty! Casualty!&quot; than I did actually playing 
                the game. But anyway, as I expected, the first three maps were 
                fairly easy and I finished them all by the second try. I don't 
                remember much about the first map, other than finishing it very 
                quickly (full disclosure: I played on the easiest setting). The 
                soldiers jumping up and down at the end of a level, shouting &quot;Yay! 
                We did it!&quot; is just the funniest thing in the world. And 
                the monsters and other nasty things that come at you are actually 
                very cute. Maybe they are supposed to strike terror into the hearts 
                of my knights, but I just have to laugh at them.</p>
              </p>
              The second 
                level provides even more visual pleasure. It's dark and gloomy 
                and the rain comes down steadily and my troop has to trudge through 
                streams and muddy forest into an abandoned graveyard to save some 
                prisoners. At this point I was still trying to work the camera 
                and I kept getting lost whenever I tried to look too far beyond 
                where my soldiers were standing. But I managed to finish it, and 
                while my soldiers were shouting &quot;Yay!&quot; at the end, I 
                couldn't help but join them (with my cat staring at me disapprovingly 
                from the other side of the room).</p>
              </p>
              </p>
              <br></p>
              The third 
                map is where I begin to have issues with the game. I mean, come 
                on! All you have to do is lead some ungrateful guy to his village. 
                Big whoop. When he makes sudden turns and you don't follow him 
                immediately, he berates you and tells you you're going the wrong 
                way. Then when the bad guys start coming after him, he cowers 
                and shows you what he's really made of. I kind of wish I could 
                have just left him there and gone on, but alas, you just can't 
                do that. The map is pretty and there are plenty of falling leaves 
                and butterflies and stuff, so I can't complain too much. Here's 
                where I realized something, though: I don't think I've seen a 
                female villager yet. I understand that there aren't going to be 
                any in my fighting ranks, but still, shouldn't there be some in 
                the towns? Or are they all hiding inside somewhere? It's the world 
                without women, and while some might say this is a good thing, 
                I find it kind of odd. Is a tiny woman in a dress too hard to 
                graphically reproduce? Or maybe there were a few and in my excitement 
                I just missed them. I dunno, but whatever, the game must go on.</p>
              </p>
              The fourth 
                map killed me. Over and over and over. I think it's called &quot;Into 
                the Breach,&quot; and I actually started taking notes on it because 
                I just wasn't getting anywhere. I got my soldiers to the fortress 
                and there we were joined by another troop. Uh-oh, I thought, if 
                this is going to be so hard that I'll need backup, and then I'm 
                really in trouble. Sure enough, my screen spins around (rather 
                dizzying, by the way), and the drawbridge closes. Scene shifts 
                to an &quot;invisible dwarf&quot; by the seashore. Of course, 
                the first thing I tried to do was to send a few knights and bowmen 
                over the hills to try to help the little guy out. But of course 
                you can't do that, and by the time I realized that, an enemy knight 
                killed my dwarf and the game ended. So much for his invisibility. 
                Okay, round two, time for a more active dwarf. I was really good 
                about killing all the knights that came my way and I got all the 
                way to the gate. Only to realize that there was no way in. A close-up 
                revealed about five knights crowded behind the gate, but none 
                of them moving to open it. Maybe if I set some charges and blow 
                it up? Nope. I peeked behind the gate to see if maybe I could 
                find a clue, and I decided to listen to the evil knights' conversation. 
                What are they talking about? Ruling the world? Sex? A nice, home-cooked 
                meal? Nope. They want to buy the biggest turnip in the world. 
                Very funny. I restarted the level.</p>
              </p>
              This time 
                I meant business. Third time's the charm, right? I finally remembered 
                that you can pull up hints from a menu, and so I did that. Ah...My 
                dwarf has to follow one of the enemies into the breach. Hence 
                the name of the map! Okay. This time I was so proud of myself. 
                I stuck close behind one of the knights, followed him into the 
                fortress, and started blowing up everything in sight. And I was 
                immediately killed. As I normally do in life, I took the wrong 
                tactic and went charging in when I probably should have just snuck 
                around instead. I gave up. This was just too hard.</p>
              </p>
              I decided 
                to try playing online, so I logged onto bungie.net. 
                The opening screen is a chat room with a scrolling list of games-in-progress. 
                I tried to join someone else's game, but they were all in-progress 
                and no one was starting anything new. Fine. I started my own game 
                of &quot;Body Count.&quot; And was joined by one person. Who decided 
                he wanted to just hide until the timer ran out. Gee. That was 
                fun.</p>
              </p>
              I think 
                I'm done with <b>Myth II</b>. For what it's worth, it's a great 
                game and I give props to the guys at Bungie for releasing it on 
                a hybrid disk for the Mac world to enjoy. But it's just too darned 
                hard. I want to go blow someone up. I want mindless slaughter. 
                Any suggestions?</p>
              <i>-Heather 
                &quot;elki&quot; Haselkorn 
                actually enjoys this.</i></p>
              </p>
              <br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
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