The circle is now complete

I've been waiting almost 18 months for this day! LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy Game has finally been released. We all knew it was inevidable after playing the first game. Other than Bubble Bobble, Bejeweled, and Minesweeper, I don't play computer games. At all. (Computer solitaire doesn't count; it's just easier than cards.) But I adored the first LEGO Star Wars game, and I've been dying for this one.

We ran into one small glitch. Since we're not really gamers, we skimped on the graphics card when we bought the computer. 2.5 years ago. So yeah, it is really straining with some of the graphics, especially the cut scenes. (This card is listed in the "low end" category on most of the websites we found; joy.) We had to turn off all of the graphics effects (like plastic reflections, blooms, and bump mapping) just to get the game play to run smoothly (it would run, but with an awful frame rate, and it's not a refresh rate problem on our monitor). Very sad. But we can't really afford a new computer right now (certainly not one of that calibur), so we'll just have to make it through. At least we finally got smooth game play! Some of the cut scenes are still choppy and/or slow, but we'll live.

We've completed Chapter 1 of Episode IV so far (would have done more, but it took us 90 minutes of tinkering to get it to run correctly, and by then it was *late* (and it's even later now, sheesh)). The camera angles are not as good in this one as in the other one, which can make it difficult to see what you're supposed to be shooting at (no Jedi yet). Maybe it's just while we're on the ship? It seemed better in the Cantina and outside. We'll see. It's mostly the same, but just enough different in the way it does things to be frustrating. And it does seem they have ramped up the difficulty a bit. Lots of people may think that is a good thing (and I think there is a progressively harder optional component, but I don't think we have that on right now), but I don't want to get frustrated and quit. The other one was just enough of a challenge for *me* to keep me interested and challenged, but not to make me give up. I hope this one is the same. I'll keep you updated! And I forsee many late nights in my future.

Currently feeling: happily obsessed