I'm playing this roguelike I discovered recently. It's Japanese made (with English translation), very cute and fun to play! It doesn't have ascii graphics but uses tiles and sprites (you can customize the sprite and a portrait at chargen), but the movements are still roguelike-ish.

Elona - Eternal League of Nefia

I'm trying this out with a wizard character and am amazed so far at how awesome and complex this game is. It has some traits of all the major roguelikes I've played and liked (Nethack, ADOM, ToME...) with some extra interesting stuff, like being able to hire and marry companions (and eventually have their children), being able to offer your monetary support to town businesses. Unique races, complex plot and setting details are a plus!

The game seems a bit more friendly than a typical roguelike i.e. you can actually revive rather than die permanently, and you get to keep and renovate a home that's a safe spot for you. I'm not ruling out the game will be a challenge though (died trying to clean out a bandit hideout, eep!)

I decided to download this while suffering writer's block and more depression... hopefully playing it a bit will get me in the mood to write tonight.

I bought stuff, too. with money I should have saved but eh.

music
- Metallica Death Magnetic
- Keane Perfect Symmetry

(heh I actually went for popular albums :P)

game
- From the Abyss (Nintendo DS game, it's a roguelike adventure thingy so I'm excited to try it. not to be mixed up with Tales of the Abyss for PS2)

these things will cheer me up, though as usual it will be fleeting. that's pretty much the extent of happiness I have in my life.

p.s. Outcastes is still going fine so far... I hope I will be able to keep it up...

Yessss~ Etrian 2 website in English! I AM SO STOKED.

The release date is June 17th. *droooool* I want this game so bad. I don't even think I'll finish the first Etrian Odyssey before I can buy it, but I don't give a crap. XD

Also, someone at Into the Labyrinth (an Etrian Odyssey fansite w/forum) recommended Mystic Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer. Ohgod, everything I'm reading about this game says BUY ME. A roguelike for the DS? I am SO THERE. I read some comparisons to Orcs and Elves, which I've also played (and I learned from the same forum it was originally a cellphone game, which explains its shortness. Huh!) but the general consensus is that Shiren is MUCH better. "Longer and harder", in fact. Ahaha.

Darnit all, now I'm convinced I've got to get myself a copy of Shiren the Wanderer, too.

The new Dwarf Fortress adds some interesting complications to the gameplay. One of the biggest features is multiple level maps, and how water dynamics have been adapted towards this.

Specifically, concerning wells: you actually have to divert a water source on the level beneath where you want your well to sit before you actually build it. This takes a lot more work than previously required, because first you need to find a suitable water source on the map, then figure out how to arrange the floodgates and levers to make a reservoir, then dig a well shaft down several levels.

Well, technically you don't NEED to dig down, but I did it because that way I could potentially divert water to lower levels of the map in the future. Except I'm probably going to end up starting my current game over again. Digging well shafts can be dangerous... there was a fall at one point and I lost one dwarf and severely injured another. It was a four or five story fall, ouch.

1) Back in November there was a new Dwarf Fortress made! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay. It's an alpha, but I don't care. :D I'm probably going to end up flooding my mine again by hitting a water source and forgetting to make the far end of my caves water tight. But I got up to accepting nobles at my fortress before! And so I will again. :D

2) Apparently, Clarissa is very particular about her furniture -- the Sims 2 version, anyway. I've been working on the design for her new house for days, including quitting out of the game EVERY time I needed a new piece of furniture or build part (and believe me, it takes a long time to load up again ;.;) I finally found a set of purple Victorian-inspired furniture for her... the whole set! Before I only had a sofa, and that made me sad. D:

3) Jon's been playing Phantasy Star 4 a bit lately and we were marveling at how many of the characters and their respective abilities could be translated into PSU.