I've been playing some computer games this week, which I don't often do. I finally tried a modern version of this Wesnoth game that everyone in Debian was playing a while ago, and have been enjoying working through the stories in it. I played glest for a few hours, and really enjoyed the 3d graphics, especially when it rained. I'm no good at real time strategy games though, and ordering units around contantly becomes wearisome. Globulation 2 might partially manage to avoid that problem, I'll have to try it a bit more sometime.

Transcend is an amazing thing. After finishing a level, I found myself avoiding going on to the next level for a long time so I could spend time messing around with the thing I constructed while playing the game -- and wished there was a way to save my creation. The graphics are reminiscent of kalidoscopes and flowers. It subverts tradition, it has the trappings of a spacewar descendent, but instead of Star Control, the game turns out to be about music growing. Like tetris, it's abstract enough that I can zone out while playing it and get into a different mental state; and I can even pick which kind by making different kinds of music as I play. Wow, wow, wow.