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Fable
I'm not easy to shop for.
Most of the things I want are rare, highly obscure, or expensive. Often they're all three.
"I hate giving you computer games," she said, "because I know that I won't see you for months."
She was exaggerating, of course. But there's an element of truth in her words, too; when I have a new game, I'm an addict. I steal what time I can to play. I stay up late at night, on far too many nights, playing.
So I was more than a little surprised when I saw the Fable game for the PC inside the wrapping of one of the Christmas presents she gave me.
It cost $50. No, we can't afford it. But she got it for me.
I wanted to install it right away. She wanted me to wait. I agreed, reluctantly.
Christmas night came, and she and Sebastian went to sleep. I went to my computer and installed Fable. It took a while - there are four disks. Once I was done, I double-clicked on the Fable icon.
There was a pause, and then a message informed me that my video hardware was totally inadequate to play Fable. When I tried to proceed in Safe mode, the game terminated. I tried again, and again, and each time the game terminated before it could begin.
It was hard not to feel bitter. This was yet another legacy of the screwing I got from a sleazy local computer store owner - he'd lied to me and built my computer with the cheapest components available. Then he went out of business and disappeared.
It's possible that in two or three years I'll be able to afford a new, cheap computer that will be able to play Fable, but there's certainly no guarantee of that.
But she knew that this game would take me away from her and Sebastian. She hated that...and she bought it for me anyway.
I thought about that, looked over in the mirror, and smiled.
And it wasn't a bitter smile at all.
Merry Christmas.
Most of the things I want are rare, highly obscure, or expensive. Often they're all three.
"I hate giving you computer games," she said, "because I know that I won't see you for months."
She was exaggerating, of course. But there's an element of truth in her words, too; when I have a new game, I'm an addict. I steal what time I can to play. I stay up late at night, on far too many nights, playing.
So I was more than a little surprised when I saw the Fable game for the PC inside the wrapping of one of the Christmas presents she gave me.
It cost $50. No, we can't afford it. But she got it for me.
I wanted to install it right away. She wanted me to wait. I agreed, reluctantly.
Christmas night came, and she and Sebastian went to sleep. I went to my computer and installed Fable. It took a while - there are four disks. Once I was done, I double-clicked on the Fable icon.
There was a pause, and then a message informed me that my video hardware was totally inadequate to play Fable. When I tried to proceed in Safe mode, the game terminated. I tried again, and again, and each time the game terminated before it could begin.
It was hard not to feel bitter. This was yet another legacy of the screwing I got from a sleazy local computer store owner - he'd lied to me and built my computer with the cheapest components available. Then he went out of business and disappeared.
It's possible that in two or three years I'll be able to afford a new, cheap computer that will be able to play Fable, but there's certainly no guarantee of that.
But she knew that this game would take me away from her and Sebastian. She hated that...and she bought it for me anyway.
I thought about that, looked over in the mirror, and smiled.
And it wasn't a bitter smile at all.
Merry Christmas.
no subject
I have enough trouble on my notebook running Morrowind (which came out two years before I bought my machine). It reguarly crashes the video card after a few hours of use. It's my grand annoyance that the newer games are unlikely to run on my machines since I buy notebooks and not game-specific machines (which generally is what you need for high end games).
We've had a few games that were bought as gifts over the years and discarded when they failed to run on various machines over the years, so we understand your dilema.