Something to lose sleep over

Edit: Unfortunately, the images originally included in this post are gone, because of hosting problems in late 2009. My apologies.

It’s been a long time since I lost sleep to a game, and I’m almost ashamed that it’s something so simple that cost me an hour’s rest last night. Gridwars 2, a clone of the Geometry Wars sequel for the XBox 360, stole that time from me.

Not that I’m complaining. I don’t game as much as I used to — I admit that, but with the corollary that I’m glad for the fact. I get a lot more done these days, and I’m learning a lot more than when I spent hours staring down KotOR2.

But this one had me hooked from the instant I started it up. I played Geometry Wars 2 at a friends house a few months ago, but didn’t think to chase down a Linux clone — shame on me, because this one’s worth it.

Game play is very close to the original, for what I remember. I prefer mouse control over the XBox controllers, and the buttons are easy to manage. It’s almost too easy, really: I got well over 650,000 points before I died the first time last night. And that was about 30 minutes of play, too.

This one will need accelerated graphics, and to be honest, my 1Ghz machine is grinding a bit when the battles get frenzied. You’ll want something with a little muscle in the video department, before you try it out.

I downloaded this from the GetDeb.net page, and I’ll have to get to work on a Crux port for it; I want to slim down my machine before I get serious. 😈

But I suppose I should close with a warning — don’t start it up before a job interview or a wedding rehearsal or the first day of school. You’ll be late, I can guarantee it. 😀