I was playing WoW the other day, when my PC decided that it would be a good idea to turn the screen mostly purple, and freeze.
Naturally, I was annoyed about this, but I rebooted and decided to load up WoW again and continue. 10 minutes later, the same thing happened again.
I reoobted again, and was greeted with funny coloured lines across the BIOS screen, then a's with the ' mark above it all across another loadup screen, and when it reached the Windows loading screen, it was in a much lower resolution than my regular 1900 x 1200. Oh, and it refused to get any further than that - I could not open Windows.
Safe mode loaded for me, and looked fairly odd with purply blue lines through the screen. Apparently Windows decided I had not done anything on the computer since I got it that was worth creating a restore point for, so there were no points for me to try and restore the computer to, so I let it try to auto-repair... which failed.
Taking a photo of the issue and passing it to my girlfriend, who then posted it on the omni-present Madboards in an attempt to get help yielded the diagnosis which had crossed my mind, though I had fervently hoped it was untrue - my video card was fragged and I needed a new one.
Having planned a full computer upgrade early next year, I took it upon myself to simply move said upgrade to now. I asked some friends for help (since I know very little about hardware. Sure, I know theories behind how a lot of stuff works, and when some of the newer stuff is explained to me I can make sense of it, but I am a programmer, not a hardware junkie), and placed an order with MWave - a computer store not too far away from my home, that offers reasonable prices, and quite quick delivery. Seriously, I ordered a G15 keyboard from them one day, and it arrived the next. Scary fast!
Escept that I had missed the ordering cutoff for delivery before they closed down for the Christmas Holidays by about 5 minutes. So here I am without a working computer for about 2 weeks (they don't reopen until January 5th - which means that for my entire 2 week holiday, I am without a computer since on the 5th I'll be down the south coast!)
So, posts will be much less frequent during the next couple of weeks until I get my computer repaired/upgraded/replaced and working again.
Merry Christmas (for yesterday) and Happy New Year, catch yas all when I can :P
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Why Steam whyyyyyy?!?!?
Steam is having sales again. I regard this as simultaneously a blessing and a curse. The reason for this is timing.
As you would likely know, it is practically Christmas. This means that, for most people in Western countries, that they have spent copious amounts of money on presents for people. I know I have!
In addition to this, I have spent a large chunk of money within the last two days for doctors and dieticians. While I would hardly call myself penniless, I am in a state where I am very careful about what I buy in terms of leisure items, since I want to actually save some money for holidays next year (Melbourne and Japan are the planned ones).
So of course, this means that Steam must have a sale. Its always the same pattern - Steam has a crazy multiple day sale where most games have hefty discounts when I either have no money at all, or am unwilling to spend much.
Why do they do this? They seem to have an uncanny ability to make games stupidly cheap, stupidly easy to acquire (I mean cme on, just download the thing once you've paid!), and stupidly tempting, at times when buying games is the last thing you should be doing!
Despite this, I bought Deus Ex collection yesterday for $3, and Super Meat Boy for about the same price.
Damn you Steam!
As you would likely know, it is practically Christmas. This means that, for most people in Western countries, that they have spent copious amounts of money on presents for people. I know I have!
In addition to this, I have spent a large chunk of money within the last two days for doctors and dieticians. While I would hardly call myself penniless, I am in a state where I am very careful about what I buy in terms of leisure items, since I want to actually save some money for holidays next year (Melbourne and Japan are the planned ones).
So of course, this means that Steam must have a sale. Its always the same pattern - Steam has a crazy multiple day sale where most games have hefty discounts when I either have no money at all, or am unwilling to spend much.
Why do they do this? They seem to have an uncanny ability to make games stupidly cheap, stupidly easy to acquire (I mean cme on, just download the thing once you've paid!), and stupidly tempting, at times when buying games is the last thing you should be doing!
Despite this, I bought Deus Ex collection yesterday for $3, and Super Meat Boy for about the same price.
Damn you Steam!
Test results are in... Meoo part 2?
So, today I left work a bit early to see a gastroenterologist. A post from this here blog a couple of weeks back explains that I had a test to determine if I am Celiac - and today was result day.
I was quietly freaking out in the reception area for an hour or so (freaking out mainly because I fully expected to be told I need another blood test - the last time I had one I was unconscious on the floor within 5 minutes of the deed being done due to my natural aversion to and failure at stomaching anything even remotely medical) until I was eventually called in by the doctor. I was the last patient there, and the doctor seemed kinda glad that the day was almost over!
So I enter his (quite large) office, sit down, and expect to be told I need moar blood tests because, at first glance, I was told I did not have Coeliac Disease.
Well, first impressions are often completely wrong - and in this case, it was indeed. I have been diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, and need to have a gluten free diet for (most likely) the rest of my days.
This means that anything containing gluten (ie, anything with wheat, oats, barley, malt, or rye in it) is off limits. This means bread. This means donuts. This means biscuits, cake, and cookies. And pancakes.
However, there is a surprising amount of things that are perfectly fine! Many a place sell gluten-free versions of their products (gluten free pizzas! gluten free pasta!), rice is fine, as is corn.
This means that plain flavour Doritoes are fine (other flavours are not due to the flavourings containing flour and such). This means popcorn is fine.
But most importantly, this means BACON, the staple food of geeks, is perfectly safe. In fact, all meat is, as long as it isn't contaminated with gluten by say, crumbing it, or covering it in a sauce (sauce is always questionable). This means there will be much eating of steaks, as well as BACON.
Ahh bacon, saviour of my very existence yet again.
I was quietly freaking out in the reception area for an hour or so (freaking out mainly because I fully expected to be told I need another blood test - the last time I had one I was unconscious on the floor within 5 minutes of the deed being done due to my natural aversion to and failure at stomaching anything even remotely medical) until I was eventually called in by the doctor. I was the last patient there, and the doctor seemed kinda glad that the day was almost over!
So I enter his (quite large) office, sit down, and expect to be told I need moar blood tests because, at first glance, I was told I did not have Coeliac Disease.
Well, first impressions are often completely wrong - and in this case, it was indeed. I have been diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, and need to have a gluten free diet for (most likely) the rest of my days.
This means that anything containing gluten (ie, anything with wheat, oats, barley, malt, or rye in it) is off limits. This means bread. This means donuts. This means biscuits, cake, and cookies. And pancakes.
However, there is a surprising amount of things that are perfectly fine! Many a place sell gluten-free versions of their products (gluten free pizzas! gluten free pasta!), rice is fine, as is corn.
This means that plain flavour Doritoes are fine (other flavours are not due to the flavourings containing flour and such). This means popcorn is fine.
But most importantly, this means BACON, the staple food of geeks, is perfectly safe. In fact, all meat is, as long as it isn't contaminated with gluten by say, crumbing it, or covering it in a sauce (sauce is always questionable). This means there will be much eating of steaks, as well as BACON.
Ahh bacon, saviour of my very existence yet again.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Pathfinder - The Sixfold Trial
Yesterday marked another session of the Pathfinder campaign that I am running - The Council of Thieves Adventure Path.
Yesterday, our intrepid group (Azelia played by Sarah, Dorn played by Mark, and Kynan of the Grove played by Andrew) had to perform in an uncensored version of "The Six Trials of Larazod" - a play which none of the main cast (with the exception of the part of Haanderthal - but more on that later) have ever survived performing.
The reason for this, is that the trials in the uncut version are real. Or at least emulate the goings on in the play.
The plot follows Larazod - a tiefling in the service of Asmodeus (an evil deity), undergoing a trial for apparent misdeeds done against Haanderthal - a judge. In reality, Haanderthal is a traitor attempting to cover up his own actions. The trial forces Larazod and his two friends to undergo six trials to prove their honesty and loyalty to Asmodeus.
The first trial involved the trio being whipped by a torturer, as well as Larazod being strapped to a "device" - which in this case was a typical "stretch them til they hurt lots, probably die" rack. After enduring this trial, the torturer actually joins the group - he has a change of heart, knowing that his whips have never failed to extract the truth, and as a result of their unbreakable will, believe that they are telling the truth. haanderthal, being a bastard and all, makes him undergo the trials alongside Larazod.
This fourth character was played by an important NPC by the name of Arael. He is the leader of the city rebels, and came along for this since the play demanded at least four player characters - and having a cleric along to heal the group up between acts would be useful. In fact, they never would have survived without him - despite his ridiculously horrible act rolls during the game!
The second trial would be the trial by pleasure. They had "Flukes of Asmodeus" inserted into them, and had to resist them. These "flukes" were, as per the plot, supposedly capable of delivering orgasmic pleasure beyond that of what a thousand succubi could. In the play, however, they emulated this by using ROT GRUBS (since Asmodean flukes don't actually exist).
Unsurprsingly true to their name, rot grubs cause disease - and dealt two points of Constitution damage per round, and also made it quite difficult to pretend to be in ecstasy while they are busy damaging the players.
For the uninitiated, Constitution determines how much endurance a character has, so a lowered constitution results in the player having less health to work with. Hitting zero hit points causes unconsciousness, and hitting a negative number of hit points equal to their constitution score causes death.
Kynan, playing the main role as Larazod, suffered greatly here.
The third trial is known as the Trial in the Belly of the Beast - where the group is eaten by a beast, and claws themselves out of it. This was emulated by a device which looked like a serpent, that they had to climb into. Then the "beast" was moved into a position where the only escape was climbing up the throat, and they had to get out. The "belly" was full of acid, as well. Also, because this wasn't deadly enough, they had an extra character from here on to deal with (a noncombatant by the name of Ilsandra), and there were spikes n the throat - which both served as handholds, but threatened to cut anyone climbing up.
They survived this without *too* much trouble, though Dorn did take a fair bit of damage.
The fourth trial is where things turn potentially dangerous for the crowd, as well as the actors. The Birthing trial involved the characters eating eggs, which then causes demons born of their own power to escape through their mouths. These demons would then attack them. This resulted in 5 lemures to deal with. While not particularly tough creatures, the act of vomiting the eggs up caused all sorts of trouble for the group, since they were weakened. (To be clear, they did not actually give birth to the creatures - the creatures were summoned into the egg leftovers by a hidden cleric)
Once that was dealt with, the Trial by Combat and Love began. This was essentially a boss fight, with two large troll skeletons for the group to fight (the love came from the group's solidarity, as well as Ilsandra and Larazod forming a relationship).
This is where there were difficulties, since both charge Larazod and attack him until either they die, or he does. And coupled with a fairly hefty constitution penalty from the rot grubs earlier, Kynan simply did not have the health to deal with two of these creatures at once - they hit hard, and they hit often.
He was bitten in half by a troll skeleton.
He may have not been, had Dorn not critically failed in the turn just prior - and had his sword stick in the stage.
After the death, combat continued, and due to two awesome critical crossbow shots by Arael, the skeletons fell without any more deaths. Of course, Arael was not allowed to heal in combat, in order to stay in character as the torturer!
The final trial was "Trial by His Own Dark Hand" - safe for the actors. Asmodeus himself (which was performed by the director of the play!) speaks to the party members (Kynan at this point being replaced by an illusion of himself so that the show can go on), and judges them himself. haanderthal is found out as the traitor, and dragged to hell, as the others are set free.
Luckily, the aftermath of the show left the mayor of the city in such awe that he paid for the resurrection of Kynan - and with some convincing, he also paid for the restoration spell that was required to undo the negative level penalty that the resurrection spell imparts. (This actually wasn't fudged by me - this is actually stated in the book as part of the story flow. It was the Mayor's idea to havethis particular play be performed in the first place, and the point of the play was to get invited to a celebration party of his in order to infiltrate his corrupt government).
So all was well in the end. Even if Kynan was dead for about 45 minutes.
Yesterday, our intrepid group (Azelia played by Sarah, Dorn played by Mark, and Kynan of the Grove played by Andrew) had to perform in an uncensored version of "The Six Trials of Larazod" - a play which none of the main cast (with the exception of the part of Haanderthal - but more on that later) have ever survived performing.
The reason for this, is that the trials in the uncut version are real. Or at least emulate the goings on in the play.
The plot follows Larazod - a tiefling in the service of Asmodeus (an evil deity), undergoing a trial for apparent misdeeds done against Haanderthal - a judge. In reality, Haanderthal is a traitor attempting to cover up his own actions. The trial forces Larazod and his two friends to undergo six trials to prove their honesty and loyalty to Asmodeus.
The first trial involved the trio being whipped by a torturer, as well as Larazod being strapped to a "device" - which in this case was a typical "stretch them til they hurt lots, probably die" rack. After enduring this trial, the torturer actually joins the group - he has a change of heart, knowing that his whips have never failed to extract the truth, and as a result of their unbreakable will, believe that they are telling the truth. haanderthal, being a bastard and all, makes him undergo the trials alongside Larazod.
This fourth character was played by an important NPC by the name of Arael. He is the leader of the city rebels, and came along for this since the play demanded at least four player characters - and having a cleric along to heal the group up between acts would be useful. In fact, they never would have survived without him - despite his ridiculously horrible act rolls during the game!
The second trial would be the trial by pleasure. They had "Flukes of Asmodeus" inserted into them, and had to resist them. These "flukes" were, as per the plot, supposedly capable of delivering orgasmic pleasure beyond that of what a thousand succubi could. In the play, however, they emulated this by using ROT GRUBS (since Asmodean flukes don't actually exist).
Unsurprsingly true to their name, rot grubs cause disease - and dealt two points of Constitution damage per round, and also made it quite difficult to pretend to be in ecstasy while they are busy damaging the players.
For the uninitiated, Constitution determines how much endurance a character has, so a lowered constitution results in the player having less health to work with. Hitting zero hit points causes unconsciousness, and hitting a negative number of hit points equal to their constitution score causes death.
Kynan, playing the main role as Larazod, suffered greatly here.
The third trial is known as the Trial in the Belly of the Beast - where the group is eaten by a beast, and claws themselves out of it. This was emulated by a device which looked like a serpent, that they had to climb into. Then the "beast" was moved into a position where the only escape was climbing up the throat, and they had to get out. The "belly" was full of acid, as well. Also, because this wasn't deadly enough, they had an extra character from here on to deal with (a noncombatant by the name of Ilsandra), and there were spikes n the throat - which both served as handholds, but threatened to cut anyone climbing up.
They survived this without *too* much trouble, though Dorn did take a fair bit of damage.
The fourth trial is where things turn potentially dangerous for the crowd, as well as the actors. The Birthing trial involved the characters eating eggs, which then causes demons born of their own power to escape through their mouths. These demons would then attack them. This resulted in 5 lemures to deal with. While not particularly tough creatures, the act of vomiting the eggs up caused all sorts of trouble for the group, since they were weakened. (To be clear, they did not actually give birth to the creatures - the creatures were summoned into the egg leftovers by a hidden cleric)
Once that was dealt with, the Trial by Combat and Love began. This was essentially a boss fight, with two large troll skeletons for the group to fight (the love came from the group's solidarity, as well as Ilsandra and Larazod forming a relationship).
This is where there were difficulties, since both charge Larazod and attack him until either they die, or he does. And coupled with a fairly hefty constitution penalty from the rot grubs earlier, Kynan simply did not have the health to deal with two of these creatures at once - they hit hard, and they hit often.
He was bitten in half by a troll skeleton.
He may have not been, had Dorn not critically failed in the turn just prior - and had his sword stick in the stage.
After the death, combat continued, and due to two awesome critical crossbow shots by Arael, the skeletons fell without any more deaths. Of course, Arael was not allowed to heal in combat, in order to stay in character as the torturer!
The final trial was "Trial by His Own Dark Hand" - safe for the actors. Asmodeus himself (which was performed by the director of the play!) speaks to the party members (Kynan at this point being replaced by an illusion of himself so that the show can go on), and judges them himself. haanderthal is found out as the traitor, and dragged to hell, as the others are set free.
Luckily, the aftermath of the show left the mayor of the city in such awe that he paid for the resurrection of Kynan - and with some convincing, he also paid for the restoration spell that was required to undo the negative level penalty that the resurrection spell imparts. (This actually wasn't fudged by me - this is actually stated in the book as part of the story flow. It was the Mayor's idea to havethis particular play be performed in the first place, and the point of the play was to get invited to a celebration party of his in order to infiltrate his corrupt government).
So all was well in the end. Even if Kynan was dead for about 45 minutes.
Parties in the City
Apologies for the lack of posting lately, I have been quite, quite busy with things like work, as well as other events.
Friday night, I attended my girlfriend's japanese class' Christmas party. There was an official one held by the actual college (I also attend the same college, a class ahead of her), however, her class had to run one week late due to their teacher visiting home, and their management's inability to replace the teacher for said week. Therefore, he class was actually in class while the party was going on.
To compensate for this, her class organised their own get together, for the following night. I and my class were also invited - probably due to my link to their class. The rest of my class were unable to attend due to varying work, lack of funds and "being busy" (whatever that means).
I attended, however, it was made quite difficult by my current gluten-free diet. You see, we went to a restaurant called Wagaya - Japanese food. Quite nice. However, ordering is done via touch screens - which makes it quite difficult to get hold of a waiter and ask annoying questions about the gluten content - particularly since there were over 300 items on the menu.
Luckily enough, Miwa-sensei (the other class' teacher) was able to assist me greatly with this, due to her being Japanese, and having known people with gluten-intolrances before. She was able to point out to me that soy sauce is a VERY bad thing to have in terms of gluten content, and steered me towards things that I could have.
Which included Ox-tongue. Which was very *interesting*, to say the least.
Following an epic meal (which also included sushi roulette - being a game where you get 6 sushi, one being utterly loaded to the brim with wasabi. Pick a sushi, eat it and hope... I was one of the fortunate survivors), we went to Passionflower for dessert.
Depressing as all hell.
Allow me to elaborate - 95% of the menu items at Passionflower contain gluten. Even the regular ice cream had cookies in it, or was served in a waffle basket and all. And the just regular ice cream in a glass had flavours that were vague and uninteresting. In fact, all I was allowed was a regular ice cream flavour, or a strawberries and plain chocolate fondue dip thing - which I can have any time any where, for cheaper!
It ended in me not ordering anything at all, and instead taking a walk for the majority of that trip in an effort to not lose my ind watching people eat epic waffles and such.
In the end, we had to get a taxi home. This was fun - Christmas parties everywhere, in the city, with lots of drunk people. It took catching a bus to Circular Quay, finding the cab rank nearby, and waiting around 40 minutes to get a taxi home! Gah!
All in all, it was a good night out. Much sake was drunk, a fair few bourbon and cokes were had, and probably too much ox-tongue and scampi was consumed :P
Friday night, I attended my girlfriend's japanese class' Christmas party. There was an official one held by the actual college (I also attend the same college, a class ahead of her), however, her class had to run one week late due to their teacher visiting home, and their management's inability to replace the teacher for said week. Therefore, he class was actually in class while the party was going on.
To compensate for this, her class organised their own get together, for the following night. I and my class were also invited - probably due to my link to their class. The rest of my class were unable to attend due to varying work, lack of funds and "being busy" (whatever that means).
I attended, however, it was made quite difficult by my current gluten-free diet. You see, we went to a restaurant called Wagaya - Japanese food. Quite nice. However, ordering is done via touch screens - which makes it quite difficult to get hold of a waiter and ask annoying questions about the gluten content - particularly since there were over 300 items on the menu.
Luckily enough, Miwa-sensei (the other class' teacher) was able to assist me greatly with this, due to her being Japanese, and having known people with gluten-intolrances before. She was able to point out to me that soy sauce is a VERY bad thing to have in terms of gluten content, and steered me towards things that I could have.
Which included Ox-tongue. Which was very *interesting*, to say the least.
Following an epic meal (which also included sushi roulette - being a game where you get 6 sushi, one being utterly loaded to the brim with wasabi. Pick a sushi, eat it and hope... I was one of the fortunate survivors), we went to Passionflower for dessert.
Depressing as all hell.
Allow me to elaborate - 95% of the menu items at Passionflower contain gluten. Even the regular ice cream had cookies in it, or was served in a waffle basket and all. And the just regular ice cream in a glass had flavours that were vague and uninteresting. In fact, all I was allowed was a regular ice cream flavour, or a strawberries and plain chocolate fondue dip thing - which I can have any time any where, for cheaper!
It ended in me not ordering anything at all, and instead taking a walk for the majority of that trip in an effort to not lose my ind watching people eat epic waffles and such.
In the end, we had to get a taxi home. This was fun - Christmas parties everywhere, in the city, with lots of drunk people. It took catching a bus to Circular Quay, finding the cab rank nearby, and waiting around 40 minutes to get a taxi home! Gah!
All in all, it was a good night out. Much sake was drunk, a fair few bourbon and cokes were had, and probably too much ox-tongue and scampi was consumed :P
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Programs and Users, now in 3D
I saw Tron:Legacy last night. I was given 2 premiere double passes by my boss, mainly because he wasn't able to use them due to a work call which would land smack bang in the middle of the movie. I was able to scrounge together a group of 4 (including myself) to get to Fox Studios to watch the movie, on incredibly short notice.
It was really lucky that a bunch of my friends were in the city yesterday, and that my girlfriend also works in the city.
So, we got to the cinema, and entered (after the guards relieved us of our phones and iPods... paranoid much?) and got our seats. And our 3D goggles.
I hate 3D goggles. They go over the top of my glasses, the ones they had there were "return them when the movie's over", so they had fingerprints on them (because, clearly, what people do first when given glasses is to stick their filthy fingers all over it in an effort to make it impossible to see through them), and were quite flimsy. Despite this, they didn't fall apart mid-movie.
However, Tron is also one of those movies which wasn't made with 3D in mind - it was shoehorned in afterwards. How do I know this? Because the movie gave a WARNING at the start, stating that some scenes will be in 2D because that's how they were intended to be seen.
In fact, the 3D scenes were at the start, before Sam goes into the grid. Yes, the only 3D I really noticed in Tron was n the real world. A missed opportunity, I feel. Even though I am quite vocal in my views of 3D as a gimmick, if there was ever a chance to convince me otherwise, that was it.
(For the record, I have NOT seen Avatar)
So, the movie was quite fun. I haven't seen the original Tron either, in fact, all I know about the original movie came from the level in Kingdom Hearts 2, and I played that at least a year ago and forgot most of it!
Happily, Tron:Legacy stands alone enough that people who haven't seen Tron won't be totally lost. This is a good thing too, since the first movie is close to 30 years old if I recall correctly.
I won't spoil anyone on the plot, but I will mention two moments that I found hilarious.
At one stage in the movie, a "program" (they ARE inside a computer, after all) gets injured. So they mess with the data circle on its back - you know, look at the code to fix it up. Programming is SO much cooler in Tron than it is in real life. A digital sphere pops up, and the guy starts manipulating it, looking for bugs in the code. He eventually finds the bug. He pulls out a physical bug, which flies away. The program then starts to regenerate. Awesome.
Also, Daft Punk (who did most of, if not all of the soundtrack, which in itself is cause for seeing the movie) cameo. This made me so, so happy. There is a scene in a club, and you can quite clearly see them playing the music. You know, doing their usual jobs. Wearing their usual outfit - the skin-tight suit and the helmet visor with flashing lights. Their regular performance outfit looks so much like it was from Tron in the first place that they likely didn't need to be fitted or costumed at all!
All in all, I enjoyed the movie. Don't expect it to be accurate on the technical side (though I clearly saw someone using a grep command early in the movie), but it never claims to be either. Its just a load of fun.
And I'm totally gonna buy the blu-ray - but not a 3D version.
It was really lucky that a bunch of my friends were in the city yesterday, and that my girlfriend also works in the city.
So, we got to the cinema, and entered (after the guards relieved us of our phones and iPods... paranoid much?) and got our seats. And our 3D goggles.
I hate 3D goggles. They go over the top of my glasses, the ones they had there were "return them when the movie's over", so they had fingerprints on them (because, clearly, what people do first when given glasses is to stick their filthy fingers all over it in an effort to make it impossible to see through them), and were quite flimsy. Despite this, they didn't fall apart mid-movie.
However, Tron is also one of those movies which wasn't made with 3D in mind - it was shoehorned in afterwards. How do I know this? Because the movie gave a WARNING at the start, stating that some scenes will be in 2D because that's how they were intended to be seen.
In fact, the 3D scenes were at the start, before Sam goes into the grid. Yes, the only 3D I really noticed in Tron was n the real world. A missed opportunity, I feel. Even though I am quite vocal in my views of 3D as a gimmick, if there was ever a chance to convince me otherwise, that was it.
(For the record, I have NOT seen Avatar)
So, the movie was quite fun. I haven't seen the original Tron either, in fact, all I know about the original movie came from the level in Kingdom Hearts 2, and I played that at least a year ago and forgot most of it!
Happily, Tron:Legacy stands alone enough that people who haven't seen Tron won't be totally lost. This is a good thing too, since the first movie is close to 30 years old if I recall correctly.
I won't spoil anyone on the plot, but I will mention two moments that I found hilarious.
At one stage in the movie, a "program" (they ARE inside a computer, after all) gets injured. So they mess with the data circle on its back - you know, look at the code to fix it up. Programming is SO much cooler in Tron than it is in real life. A digital sphere pops up, and the guy starts manipulating it, looking for bugs in the code. He eventually finds the bug. He pulls out a physical bug, which flies away. The program then starts to regenerate. Awesome.
Also, Daft Punk (who did most of, if not all of the soundtrack, which in itself is cause for seeing the movie) cameo. This made me so, so happy. There is a scene in a club, and you can quite clearly see them playing the music. You know, doing their usual jobs. Wearing their usual outfit - the skin-tight suit and the helmet visor with flashing lights. Their regular performance outfit looks so much like it was from Tron in the first place that they likely didn't need to be fitted or costumed at all!
All in all, I enjoyed the movie. Don't expect it to be accurate on the technical side (though I clearly saw someone using a grep command early in the movie), but it never claims to be either. Its just a load of fun.
And I'm totally gonna buy the blu-ray - but not a 3D version.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Randomness
Not much has happened the last couple of days, hence the random nature of the last few posts. Today was no exception. I believe a large part of this is spending 8 hours or so at work, then returning home, eating dinner and gaming most nights. The weekends are when things happen. Or when I catch up on sleep from the exhaustion of the rest of the week.
So this post will be about a buncha random things that pop into my head.
It occurs to me that I am quite horrible at wrapping Christmas presents. After finally "finishing" the Chrissy shopping last weekend (I am still on the lookout for an extra for my sister's boyfriend, since he kinda got screwed :P), I finally started wrapping some of the stuff this evening. Or trying to, at least.
Most of it looks like it was wrapped by a 5 year old. It looks horrible! (No photos of them, its embarassing) Hopefully they'll hold until it gts into the hands of the people who are tasked with ripping it to shreads!
Today, I opened up registrations for a new forum RP I'm starting on the Madman forum. I have run a game there before, which was quite successful until stresses from multiple sources caused me to ragequit it.
After some break, and finding out that I'm not likely to be GMing my group's real-life Pathfinder all too often (at least, not consistently for a while), I decided to open a new one - this time based off the Pathfinder ruleset, so that it gives me a chance to learn the ruleset properly, as well as it simply being a ruleset that I enjoy. I do need to figure out how to er... "lighten it up" a little, so that it can be run on a forum. I found no resources on such on the interwebs at all! Once I figure out how I'm adapting things, I'll post that stuff here (feel free to make suggestions!)
Today, we found that we had run out of gluten free ingredients at home. (I'm trialling a gluten-free diet until I get to see the doctor again for confirmation of anything. I feel marginally better so far - a week later) Normally, not a huge deal. Except that I needed some for work.
So I went to work, figuring that when it came time for food, I would find something around that's gluten free. There's a fair bit of choice near the new offices.
Unfortunately, none of it seemed to be suitable for someone on a gluten free diet. Either that or I just don't know about things that seem bad, but are actually ok for me, I mean I've only done this thing for a week!
In the end, I bought a couple of prawn sushi rolls (in rice paper), with cabbage and lettuce from a little place called Kaizoku (that would be Japanese for PIRATE - this makes me happy). It turned out that I didn't particularly enjoy these particular rolls, but I ate them anyway because I was hungry.
And I remained hungry. So, so hungry.
Om nom nom nom nom nom nom.
Anyway, dinner's very soon, so time to wrap this up. Ciaos!
So this post will be about a buncha random things that pop into my head.
It occurs to me that I am quite horrible at wrapping Christmas presents. After finally "finishing" the Chrissy shopping last weekend (I am still on the lookout for an extra for my sister's boyfriend, since he kinda got screwed :P), I finally started wrapping some of the stuff this evening. Or trying to, at least.
Most of it looks like it was wrapped by a 5 year old. It looks horrible! (No photos of them, its embarassing) Hopefully they'll hold until it gts into the hands of the people who are tasked with ripping it to shreads!
Today, I opened up registrations for a new forum RP I'm starting on the Madman forum. I have run a game there before, which was quite successful until stresses from multiple sources caused me to ragequit it.
After some break, and finding out that I'm not likely to be GMing my group's real-life Pathfinder all too often (at least, not consistently for a while), I decided to open a new one - this time based off the Pathfinder ruleset, so that it gives me a chance to learn the ruleset properly, as well as it simply being a ruleset that I enjoy. I do need to figure out how to er... "lighten it up" a little, so that it can be run on a forum. I found no resources on such on the interwebs at all! Once I figure out how I'm adapting things, I'll post that stuff here (feel free to make suggestions!)
Today, we found that we had run out of gluten free ingredients at home. (I'm trialling a gluten-free diet until I get to see the doctor again for confirmation of anything. I feel marginally better so far - a week later) Normally, not a huge deal. Except that I needed some for work.
So I went to work, figuring that when it came time for food, I would find something around that's gluten free. There's a fair bit of choice near the new offices.
Unfortunately, none of it seemed to be suitable for someone on a gluten free diet. Either that or I just don't know about things that seem bad, but are actually ok for me, I mean I've only done this thing for a week!
In the end, I bought a couple of prawn sushi rolls (in rice paper), with cabbage and lettuce from a little place called Kaizoku (that would be Japanese for PIRATE - this makes me happy). It turned out that I didn't particularly enjoy these particular rolls, but I ate them anyway because I was hungry.
And I remained hungry. So, so hungry.
Om nom nom nom nom nom nom.
Anyway, dinner's very soon, so time to wrap this up. Ciaos!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
WoW...
So, I restarted on WoW last week. This would be after 2 years of hiatus, and so I fell behind just a little bit, and am stuck in Wrath of the Lich King content, when I really should be enjoying the Cataclysm with the others.
This is entirely Blizzard's fault.
Allow me to elaborate. I tried to rejoin the game a full month ago. Plenty of time to catch up to everyone, reach level 80, and then join the Cataclysm alongside everyone else, albeit less well geared than they - which really wouldn't matter since by level 85 that gear would be obsolete anyway.
I log into Account Management, and find that I cannot actually log into Account Management. Blizzard had removed my access to my account.
An email, and 3 days later (yes, it really did take them that long to get back to me), I get told to fill out a form, scan my driver's license for ID, and email that stuff to them. I oblige, and get an email back a few days later announcing that my account was returned to me.
So I log into the Battle.net website, to find that while I could log into account management, the actual WoW account was locked and I could not add WotLK, and Cataclysm to my account.
Another email, and this time a week in between replies, and I receive a message saying that the form was not received, and that I needed to resubmit it. This thoroughly confused me, since I had actually forwarded the email that had told me they received it and fixed me account to them! I reply to this email, and a few days later, they tell me that somebody else's account was compromised.
I find this utterly bizarre. I ask about my account (beginning with the letter D) and they reply to me about an account beginning with the letter B. This is not my account. I do not care about somebody else's account. /golfclap Blizzard
In between all of this, Paul, a good friend of mine, offers to speak to a GM in game for me, since his account was working (and he was one of the big reasons I was returning). After speaking to the GM, all they could tell him was to tell me to call their billing services line. He suggested resubmitting the form.
I resubmit the form (I'll be damned if I'm going to spend money on an international phone call over this), to receive an email a few days later, saying something along the lines of "we checked your account, there's nothing wrong with it you dummy!".
I log into Account Management, and sure enough, they had unlocked it somewhere along the lines there. Without actually bothering to tell me. Bastards.
So I log in, and find that all the old gear I had fought to recover my account for was gone! My full Dragonstalker gear! Most of the Zandalar equipment I had won from Zul Gurub back in the days of ye olde WoW! The Bloodsail Admiral equipment that I had spent months killing goblins in Booty Bay for!
Upon sending a ticket to the GMs about this, I get a quick reply, amounting to "You can't tell us when it happened because you stopped playing for two years. Too bad. Sucks to be you". So after a month of arguing with those beaureaucratic buggers to get my account back, I find it mostly cleaned out. Gah!
At least my Netherdrake, and rare Zul Gurub Raptor mount are still there.
And this is why, almost a week after Cataclysm is released, I am still only level 72.
This is entirely Blizzard's fault.
Allow me to elaborate. I tried to rejoin the game a full month ago. Plenty of time to catch up to everyone, reach level 80, and then join the Cataclysm alongside everyone else, albeit less well geared than they - which really wouldn't matter since by level 85 that gear would be obsolete anyway.
I log into Account Management, and find that I cannot actually log into Account Management. Blizzard had removed my access to my account.
An email, and 3 days later (yes, it really did take them that long to get back to me), I get told to fill out a form, scan my driver's license for ID, and email that stuff to them. I oblige, and get an email back a few days later announcing that my account was returned to me.
So I log into the Battle.net website, to find that while I could log into account management, the actual WoW account was locked and I could not add WotLK, and Cataclysm to my account.
Another email, and this time a week in between replies, and I receive a message saying that the form was not received, and that I needed to resubmit it. This thoroughly confused me, since I had actually forwarded the email that had told me they received it and fixed me account to them! I reply to this email, and a few days later, they tell me that somebody else's account was compromised.
I find this utterly bizarre. I ask about my account (beginning with the letter D) and they reply to me about an account beginning with the letter B. This is not my account. I do not care about somebody else's account. /golfclap Blizzard
In between all of this, Paul, a good friend of mine, offers to speak to a GM in game for me, since his account was working (and he was one of the big reasons I was returning). After speaking to the GM, all they could tell him was to tell me to call their billing services line. He suggested resubmitting the form.
I resubmit the form (I'll be damned if I'm going to spend money on an international phone call over this), to receive an email a few days later, saying something along the lines of "we checked your account, there's nothing wrong with it you dummy!".
I log into Account Management, and sure enough, they had unlocked it somewhere along the lines there. Without actually bothering to tell me. Bastards.
So I log in, and find that all the old gear I had fought to recover my account for was gone! My full Dragonstalker gear! Most of the Zandalar equipment I had won from Zul Gurub back in the days of ye olde WoW! The Bloodsail Admiral equipment that I had spent months killing goblins in Booty Bay for!
Upon sending a ticket to the GMs about this, I get a quick reply, amounting to "You can't tell us when it happened because you stopped playing for two years. Too bad. Sucks to be you". So after a month of arguing with those beaureaucratic buggers to get my account back, I find it mostly cleaned out. Gah!
At least my Netherdrake, and rare Zul Gurub Raptor mount are still there.
And this is why, almost a week after Cataclysm is released, I am still only level 72.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
I will have no fingers by the age of 30
I want Rock Band 3. However, I will likely not get the version of Rock Band 3 that I want. If I do, then I will destroy my fingers playing it!
Today, after completing my Christmas shopping with my girlfriend, I stopped off at the local EBGames store, having heard that they "exclusively" stocked the Rock Band 3 pro instruments. These instruments are utterly insane - a drumkit with a couple of extra pads (meh), a keyboard/keytar (cool), and a pro guitar, with approximately 140 buttons, and the ability to be plugged into a MIDI converter and be used as an actual freakin' guitar!
I want this guitar.
So I stopped off at EB, dodged the people who were asking what the difference was between Starcraft and Warcraft (Really? Can't you people read the box like a creature with some sort of intellect instead of wasting the serving peoples' time like some kind of zombie?). When I finally got to ask the attendant, she asked me if that was the "fancy controller". After I nod, she proceeds to inform me that they were on "special order" only.
I ask to put in one of these so called "special orders". She said that they don't do it any more.
Um... why tell me it was special order only if you don't actually do it anymore? This seems rather redundant, but whatever. So EBGames has failed me yet again. Remembering that I had seen a GamesMen brochure advertising the controller in question, I made a mad dash over to Hurstville on the way home to try and acquire it.
Due to getting lost on the way (I rarely drive around the Northern beaches, it's completely foreign to me), and then being caught behind an accident on the main road back (seriously, don't people know how to drive anymore?), I found the shop... closed.
Upon reaching home, I did some research. Turns out the shop closed at 4pm (so I would have NEVER made it, leaving the Northern Beaches at around 3.30pm). So I turned to the typical online shopping options.
PlayAsia has none in stock. The GamesMen has the controller on its own for $250. That's a LOT of money just for a controller. Even if it doubles as an actual guitar. Which it does.
Ebay has about the same prices. Amazon has it for $150 US. Considering the current state of the Aussie dollar compared to the US one, I figured that's the way to go.
Except that Amazon are being racist and not actually shipping these controller to Australia, for some inexplicable reason. I would be perfectly fine to pay extra shipping charges due to it being a large item, and that was the only real caveat I could find about shipping to Australia.
So my options appear to be to spend half a week's pay on a game and the corresponding epic controller for it (which, to be completely honest, I find a little difficult to justify right now), not bother and hope somebody reads this and gets me it for Christmas (highly doubtful, since the people who would spend such ludicrous amounts of money on me have already finished their Christmas shopping), or give up entirely.
It appears I am unlikely to be able to destroy my fingers and self-esteem on a pro-guitar after all.
Today, after completing my Christmas shopping with my girlfriend, I stopped off at the local EBGames store, having heard that they "exclusively" stocked the Rock Band 3 pro instruments. These instruments are utterly insane - a drumkit with a couple of extra pads (meh), a keyboard/keytar (cool), and a pro guitar, with approximately 140 buttons, and the ability to be plugged into a MIDI converter and be used as an actual freakin' guitar!
I want this guitar.
So I stopped off at EB, dodged the people who were asking what the difference was between Starcraft and Warcraft (Really? Can't you people read the box like a creature with some sort of intellect instead of wasting the serving peoples' time like some kind of zombie?). When I finally got to ask the attendant, she asked me if that was the "fancy controller". After I nod, she proceeds to inform me that they were on "special order" only.
I ask to put in one of these so called "special orders". She said that they don't do it any more.
Um... why tell me it was special order only if you don't actually do it anymore? This seems rather redundant, but whatever. So EBGames has failed me yet again. Remembering that I had seen a GamesMen brochure advertising the controller in question, I made a mad dash over to Hurstville on the way home to try and acquire it.
Due to getting lost on the way (I rarely drive around the Northern beaches, it's completely foreign to me), and then being caught behind an accident on the main road back (seriously, don't people know how to drive anymore?), I found the shop... closed.
Upon reaching home, I did some research. Turns out the shop closed at 4pm (so I would have NEVER made it, leaving the Northern Beaches at around 3.30pm). So I turned to the typical online shopping options.
PlayAsia has none in stock. The GamesMen has the controller on its own for $250. That's a LOT of money just for a controller. Even if it doubles as an actual guitar. Which it does.
Ebay has about the same prices. Amazon has it for $150 US. Considering the current state of the Aussie dollar compared to the US one, I figured that's the way to go.
Except that Amazon are being racist and not actually shipping these controller to Australia, for some inexplicable reason. I would be perfectly fine to pay extra shipping charges due to it being a large item, and that was the only real caveat I could find about shipping to Australia.
So my options appear to be to spend half a week's pay on a game and the corresponding epic controller for it (which, to be completely honest, I find a little difficult to justify right now), not bother and hope somebody reads this and gets me it for Christmas (highly doubtful, since the people who would spend such ludicrous amounts of money on me have already finished their Christmas shopping), or give up entirely.
It appears I am unlikely to be able to destroy my fingers and self-esteem on a pro-guitar after all.
Picnics, children and Oprah Winfrey
So, had a picnic in the city with my girlfriend, and a few friends from the omnipresent Madboards (the Madman anime forum) today. Was entertaining in general.
Though Oprah was trying to steal the Botannical Gardens - the venue we had selected for the picnic, which had begun planning at least a month ago... if I recall correctly. (I'm not allowed to plan things because I'm just generally bad at it - as I am at a lot of things)
So, after meeting up with Oni-5, her daughter Isis, Soul Master Kaze, KBZ and her children Beth and Zac, we walked over to the Botannical Gardens.
Well, we would have. However, with Oprah around, one cannot simply walk into the Botannical Gardens. Instead, we had to walk to the Opera House (and no, I refuse to call it the Oprah house since it existed before she did, and really, it was not built for her. Anyone who calls it the Oprah House in honour of Oprah Winfrey should be shot. In the face. With something that stings).
Then, after dodging the construction for the talk show stuff, we proceeded into the park, and ate foods.
Oni-5 made some really cute sushi. They had faces and things!
Unfortunately, my meal wasn't particularly heavy, due to trialling a gluten-free diet until I can see the specislist again, but I digress.
After food was eaten, there was a slight... disturbance in the force between SMK and Beth, which resulted in one storming off, the other looking for the first one, the first one returning, and the other being missing for a while, still looking. Yes, I'm being vague. No, this was not particularly fun.
After all was resolved, we walked around the gardens for a little while and then got ice cream, and parted ways. Quite a good day apart from the slight disturbance in the force right after lunch.
On another note, I don't see why people are so happy about Oprah being here. She was paid to come here, and she brought her own audience! Aren't Australians good enough for her show? Yes, I understand that some tickets were released to Australians, but seriously - she has her show in America ALL THE TIME. She goes on a tour, which would, theoretically, allow a different demographic to show up. And she brings her own audience. Clearly she doesn't want a different demographic. I wonder why... scared? This confuses me greatly.
Most of her audience probably didn't even know where Australia was anyway.
Though Oprah was trying to steal the Botannical Gardens - the venue we had selected for the picnic, which had begun planning at least a month ago... if I recall correctly. (I'm not allowed to plan things because I'm just generally bad at it - as I am at a lot of things)
So, after meeting up with Oni-5, her daughter Isis, Soul Master Kaze, KBZ and her children Beth and Zac, we walked over to the Botannical Gardens.
Well, we would have. However, with Oprah around, one cannot simply walk into the Botannical Gardens. Instead, we had to walk to the Opera House (and no, I refuse to call it the Oprah house since it existed before she did, and really, it was not built for her. Anyone who calls it the Oprah House in honour of Oprah Winfrey should be shot. In the face. With something that stings).
Then, after dodging the construction for the talk show stuff, we proceeded into the park, and ate foods.
Oni-5 made some really cute sushi. They had faces and things!
Unfortunately, my meal wasn't particularly heavy, due to trialling a gluten-free diet until I can see the specislist again, but I digress.
After food was eaten, there was a slight... disturbance in the force between SMK and Beth, which resulted in one storming off, the other looking for the first one, the first one returning, and the other being missing for a while, still looking. Yes, I'm being vague. No, this was not particularly fun.
After all was resolved, we walked around the gardens for a little while and then got ice cream, and parted ways. Quite a good day apart from the slight disturbance in the force right after lunch.
On another note, I don't see why people are so happy about Oprah being here. She was paid to come here, and she brought her own audience! Aren't Australians good enough for her show? Yes, I understand that some tickets were released to Australians, but seriously - she has her show in America ALL THE TIME. She goes on a tour, which would, theoretically, allow a different demographic to show up. And she brings her own audience. Clearly she doesn't want a different demographic. I wonder why... scared? This confuses me greatly.
Most of her audience probably didn't even know where Australia was anyway.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Office Move
So, yesterday, myself and the rest of the good people at The Project Factory moved offices. We moved a massive distance from Surry Hills to somewhere else in Surry Hills. Good times...
Now we have an office of our own - the previous one being a shared affair with a couple of other small companies. Our expansion has apparently raised a need for more space, and so we moved to a bigger, shinier place.
This has unsettled me quite a bit.
The new office is in what appears to be a slightly more "swanky" part of town. There are at least three cafes within 5 minutes walk from our office - including one that we don't even have to leave the building for.
The other offices in this building are populated by people who actually dress up for work! Anyone who knows me knows that I am averse to being more dressed up than a T-shirt and pair of pants at the best of times. Now that I am seemingly surrounded by the trendy crowd, I feel out of place.
Well, until I get into the office itself and find multiple coworkers dressed similarly to me. It's a beautiful thing being the code monkey - rarely, if ever, having to talk to clients :P
Its not without its perks though. The new office is located near places that sell food. Unlike the old place, where if I wanted to get a burger I had to walk a good 10 minutes to my old college, to the nice little place next door. Now I can walk about 5 minutes and get a burger.
Except that now I'm trialling a gluten-free diet due to the events of last week. Which makes most easily obtainable takeaway food not suitable for my consumption. Frustrating!
I have quite a good spot in the office though. A good 5 or 10 metres from the big window. Facing said window, so I'm not blinded by glare from the screen. Next to a wall which is amazing for leaning on.
So now that the work day has ended, it is time to head off to Japanese class. Woo Thursday!
Now we have an office of our own - the previous one being a shared affair with a couple of other small companies. Our expansion has apparently raised a need for more space, and so we moved to a bigger, shinier place.
This has unsettled me quite a bit.
The new office is in what appears to be a slightly more "swanky" part of town. There are at least three cafes within 5 minutes walk from our office - including one that we don't even have to leave the building for.
The other offices in this building are populated by people who actually dress up for work! Anyone who knows me knows that I am averse to being more dressed up than a T-shirt and pair of pants at the best of times. Now that I am seemingly surrounded by the trendy crowd, I feel out of place.
Well, until I get into the office itself and find multiple coworkers dressed similarly to me. It's a beautiful thing being the code monkey - rarely, if ever, having to talk to clients :P
Its not without its perks though. The new office is located near places that sell food. Unlike the old place, where if I wanted to get a burger I had to walk a good 10 minutes to my old college, to the nice little place next door. Now I can walk about 5 minutes and get a burger.
Except that now I'm trialling a gluten-free diet due to the events of last week. Which makes most easily obtainable takeaway food not suitable for my consumption. Frustrating!
I have quite a good spot in the office though. A good 5 or 10 metres from the big window. Facing said window, so I'm not blinded by glare from the screen. Next to a wall which is amazing for leaning on.
So now that the work day has ended, it is time to head off to Japanese class. Woo Thursday!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Game Rant - Darksiders
Today, I moved offices. I would write about that, but I haven't yet had time to collect my thoughts about the new office and such just yet, so I shall save that one for tomorrow.
Instead, I'll be making the first of (probably) many rants about videogames - starting with one I finished about a month or two ago - Darksiders.
I realise it's quite late (after the release of the game anyways), but meh. I bought it when it was around $50, and then played it a few months after due to trying to catch up on my (admittedly ridiculously huge) backlog.
Most people liken it to God of War. Apparently if you like God of War, you'll like Darksiders. I don't mind a bit of God of War. Admittedly it can get a little tiresome (particularly if you make the same mistake I did, and play all 3 games in a row), but its a generally enjoyable series, if you can deal with the fact that no matter how they try to sugar coat, Kratos is an evil, psychotic bastard and you are out to destroy the world under a vague pretext of revenge.
I didn't enjoy Darksiders.
Oh sure, it was fun for the first few minutes. Before I got into my first battle, and learned that the battle system consisted of "Mash square. Mash square some more. Mash square a lot. Eventually, things will die. Don't touch any other button, they won't attack. Quick, mash square!"
After a while, you gain the ability to use secondary weapons. The battle system then becomes "Mash square. Mash triangle a few times to try your new weapon. Oh, your new weapon sucks? Mash square! Mash square a lot! Quick, hold triangle to charge up a useless attack, purely because you can't continue until you use this weapon to destroy the thing that's in your way! Now slam square a few times so you don't die!"
I thought I was being a bit unfair to it. What was I missing? So I continued the game. Besides, I have a backlog to complete, and Darksiders was on it.
So, I was tasked with killing four super powerful demons and bringing their hearts to the demon Samael in return for passage to some huge tower, which I needed to get to in order to gain vengeance against somebody for starting the final war between Heaven and Hell too soon, which got the main dude War (as in, the Horseman of the freakin' Apocalypse War) into trouble from some seemingly all-powerful Council.
Confused yet? I sure as hell was. I also didn't care.
And wasn't Samael the demon responsible for ALL the crazy stuff going on in Silent Hill? Somehow, helping him get more powerful seems like a bad idea...
*WARNING - Spoilers ahead - read the following at your own risk*
So I returned these hearts to him. He then tells me that the tower was never locked, that the four guardians were never actually preventing me from just walking over to the tower and opening the door. 75% of the game is arbitrary, boring questing for no reason other than somebody thought it was a good idea.
This angered me.
Eventually, I finished the game, to an ending which, apart from being ridiculously unsatisfying, reeked of "there's a sequel coming!". A sequel which I hope never poisons any of my consoles.
Also, the God of War comparison is grossly inaccurate. Sure, it has brutality, and square is an attack button, but thats where the similarities end. IMO, the game is closer to a Legend of Zelda game than anything. Though it replaces the typically semi-interesting plot with this Heaven and Hell stuff, and the hero with something overly intricate, and no personality apart from generic rage.
Sure, he's supposed to be War, but surely he can be at least more than a paper cutout personality? No? Okay, fine, be like that.
I rarely trash the story of an action game. They're not the point of an action game. Hell, look at the Devil May Cry series (conveniently ignoring the nonexistent DMC2), Bayonetta, Painkiller, Serious Sam etc. Ridiculous stories, which are utterly disposable, but fun gameplay.
It's a shame that Darksiders couldn't deliver on the "fun" part.
As for my backlog, it keeps increasing quicker than I can decrease it. Resubscribing to WoW for Cataclysm was probably a really, really bad idea.
Instead, I'll be making the first of (probably) many rants about videogames - starting with one I finished about a month or two ago - Darksiders.
I realise it's quite late (after the release of the game anyways), but meh. I bought it when it was around $50, and then played it a few months after due to trying to catch up on my (admittedly ridiculously huge) backlog.
Most people liken it to God of War. Apparently if you like God of War, you'll like Darksiders. I don't mind a bit of God of War. Admittedly it can get a little tiresome (particularly if you make the same mistake I did, and play all 3 games in a row), but its a generally enjoyable series, if you can deal with the fact that no matter how they try to sugar coat, Kratos is an evil, psychotic bastard and you are out to destroy the world under a vague pretext of revenge.
I didn't enjoy Darksiders.
Oh sure, it was fun for the first few minutes. Before I got into my first battle, and learned that the battle system consisted of "Mash square. Mash square some more. Mash square a lot. Eventually, things will die. Don't touch any other button, they won't attack. Quick, mash square!"
After a while, you gain the ability to use secondary weapons. The battle system then becomes "Mash square. Mash triangle a few times to try your new weapon. Oh, your new weapon sucks? Mash square! Mash square a lot! Quick, hold triangle to charge up a useless attack, purely because you can't continue until you use this weapon to destroy the thing that's in your way! Now slam square a few times so you don't die!"
I thought I was being a bit unfair to it. What was I missing? So I continued the game. Besides, I have a backlog to complete, and Darksiders was on it.
So, I was tasked with killing four super powerful demons and bringing their hearts to the demon Samael in return for passage to some huge tower, which I needed to get to in order to gain vengeance against somebody for starting the final war between Heaven and Hell too soon, which got the main dude War (as in, the Horseman of the freakin' Apocalypse War) into trouble from some seemingly all-powerful Council.
Confused yet? I sure as hell was. I also didn't care.
And wasn't Samael the demon responsible for ALL the crazy stuff going on in Silent Hill? Somehow, helping him get more powerful seems like a bad idea...
*WARNING - Spoilers ahead - read the following at your own risk*
So I returned these hearts to him. He then tells me that the tower was never locked, that the four guardians were never actually preventing me from just walking over to the tower and opening the door. 75% of the game is arbitrary, boring questing for no reason other than somebody thought it was a good idea.
This angered me.
Eventually, I finished the game, to an ending which, apart from being ridiculously unsatisfying, reeked of "there's a sequel coming!". A sequel which I hope never poisons any of my consoles.
Also, the God of War comparison is grossly inaccurate. Sure, it has brutality, and square is an attack button, but thats where the similarities end. IMO, the game is closer to a Legend of Zelda game than anything. Though it replaces the typically semi-interesting plot with this Heaven and Hell stuff, and the hero with something overly intricate, and no personality apart from generic rage.
Sure, he's supposed to be War, but surely he can be at least more than a paper cutout personality? No? Okay, fine, be like that.
I rarely trash the story of an action game. They're not the point of an action game. Hell, look at the Devil May Cry series (conveniently ignoring the nonexistent DMC2), Bayonetta, Painkiller, Serious Sam etc. Ridiculous stories, which are utterly disposable, but fun gameplay.
It's a shame that Darksiders couldn't deliver on the "fun" part.
As for my backlog, it keeps increasing quicker than I can decrease it. Resubscribing to WoW for Cataclysm was probably a really, really bad idea.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Working from Home - not as easy as it sounds
So, today I work from home, due to some failures in the office that render their phone and internet connection nonexistent.
This doesn't seem to be a huge issue since we're moving offices tomorrow, but it does making coding in an unfamiliar language hard enough to warrant taking the laptop home and working on it.
I never realised how difficult it would be to work from home! I have family members bugging me (thankfully gone shopping at the moment but due back in an hour or so), pets running around barking me as if to ask what I'm doing home, and if they could have some food, and the other major distractions of home.
I refer, of course, to the Internet, and games.
Yes, the Internet, which I need for work, is more of a distraction than a help when I am at home. I believe this may be because I'm sitting at my desk at home, on which more often than not I'm flipping through Facebook, blogs and gaming sites, and playing games!
And restarting on WoW last night doesn't particularly help matters.
I've managed to keep gaming out of the equation. Well, apart from testing the game I'm working on, but that counts as work anyway. However, the Internet has been a tougher cookie to crack.
I did find an article about RESTful development, which explains it to me in a manner I understand better, and I believe my future Rails code will improve for it.
So, if I ever have the choice to work from home or the office, then the office it is, for the sheer value of being out of my home, and thus removing most of the distractions/comforts of home :)
This doesn't seem to be a huge issue since we're moving offices tomorrow, but it does making coding in an unfamiliar language hard enough to warrant taking the laptop home and working on it.
I never realised how difficult it would be to work from home! I have family members bugging me (thankfully gone shopping at the moment but due back in an hour or so), pets running around barking me as if to ask what I'm doing home, and if they could have some food, and the other major distractions of home.
I refer, of course, to the Internet, and games.
Yes, the Internet, which I need for work, is more of a distraction than a help when I am at home. I believe this may be because I'm sitting at my desk at home, on which more often than not I'm flipping through Facebook, blogs and gaming sites, and playing games!
And restarting on WoW last night doesn't particularly help matters.
I've managed to keep gaming out of the equation. Well, apart from testing the game I'm working on, but that counts as work anyway. However, the Internet has been a tougher cookie to crack.
I did find an article about RESTful development, which explains it to me in a manner I understand better, and I believe my future Rails code will improve for it.
So, if I ever have the choice to work from home or the office, then the office it is, for the sheer value of being out of my home, and thus removing most of the distractions/comforts of home :)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Pathfinder - The Bastards of Erebus
So, today I Gmed the much anticipated end of the first part of our Pathfinder campaign.
For those who don't know, Pathfinder is essentially Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, refined. I prefer it over D&D 4 for a few reasons, for example the simplifications in Pathfinder make more sense than the DnD4 ones. I particularly like keeping the 9 tiered alignment system (all combinations of Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic, Good and Evil, as opposed to DnD 4 removing Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil)
I've GMed a couple of sessions of this now, and the "party" (3 players, consisting of Mark, Andrew and Sarah) have successfully completed the first part of our Adventure Path, titles "Council of Thieves"
This first book had the heroes meet with some rebels who have the goal of attempting to make the doomed city of Westcrown a nier place to live, rescuing their leader, and then destroying the bandit group known as the Bastards of Erebus, a group of Tiefling thieves who have been causing trouble in Westcrown lately.
All seemed to go fairly smoothly, although we had a few rough patches, such as a surprise attack on the party while in the Bastards' lair which almost resulted in Dorn (a Ranger who acts more like a Barbarian) having some speed holes added to him via crossbow bolts.
Dorn did, however, see fit to eat a bolt of linen cloth which was being attacked by moths.
I awarded him 200 bonus experience for this. After all, it was amazing, and he even rolled a 20 on it :)
So now our heroes have stamped out the Bastards of Erebus, discovered there was a connection between them and the well hidden Council of Thieves, and have agreed to audition for parts in a play entitled "The Six Trials of Larazod" - a play where noone has survived playing the main characters in the uncut version.
They're in a play as part of a larger plot to infiltrate nobel and government buildings in an attempt to find a way to put an end to the shadow beasts that lurk the streets at night.
Yes, it seems odd. It also seems damn hilarious, and I can hardly wait the two weeks to see Dorn die a horrible death on stage - possibly literally :P
The other characters in the party are slightly less insane, being a druid who calls himself Kynan of the Grove, and a Sorceress with a draconic heritage known as Azerlia.
Fun stuff :)
For those who don't know, Pathfinder is essentially Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, refined. I prefer it over D&D 4 for a few reasons, for example the simplifications in Pathfinder make more sense than the DnD4 ones. I particularly like keeping the 9 tiered alignment system (all combinations of Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic, Good and Evil, as opposed to DnD 4 removing Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil)
I've GMed a couple of sessions of this now, and the "party" (3 players, consisting of Mark, Andrew and Sarah) have successfully completed the first part of our Adventure Path, titles "Council of Thieves"
This first book had the heroes meet with some rebels who have the goal of attempting to make the doomed city of Westcrown a nier place to live, rescuing their leader, and then destroying the bandit group known as the Bastards of Erebus, a group of Tiefling thieves who have been causing trouble in Westcrown lately.
All seemed to go fairly smoothly, although we had a few rough patches, such as a surprise attack on the party while in the Bastards' lair which almost resulted in Dorn (a Ranger who acts more like a Barbarian) having some speed holes added to him via crossbow bolts.
Dorn did, however, see fit to eat a bolt of linen cloth which was being attacked by moths.
I awarded him 200 bonus experience for this. After all, it was amazing, and he even rolled a 20 on it :)
So now our heroes have stamped out the Bastards of Erebus, discovered there was a connection between them and the well hidden Council of Thieves, and have agreed to audition for parts in a play entitled "The Six Trials of Larazod" - a play where noone has survived playing the main characters in the uncut version.
They're in a play as part of a larger plot to infiltrate nobel and government buildings in an attempt to find a way to put an end to the shadow beasts that lurk the streets at night.
Yes, it seems odd. It also seems damn hilarious, and I can hardly wait the two weeks to see Dorn die a horrible death on stage - possibly literally :P
The other characters in the party are slightly less insane, being a druid who calls himself Kynan of the Grove, and a Sorceress with a draconic heritage known as Azerlia.
Fun stuff :)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Meoo
So, today I had off work, for a little bit of day surgery.
A gastroscopy to be exact. I had a blood test a few weeks ago and was deemed as potentially having Coeliac Disease, and so was sent off to a specialist to get this test booked.
To be honest, I was freaking out before the op. I'd never been under sedation before, and I HATE needles of any sort. In fact, I tend to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach with anything medical.
The aforementioned blood test had actually caused me to pass out shortly after.
Anyway, so there I am, in a day surgery center, awaiting my turn to go in with my mother hanging around (someone had to drive me home) and my girlfriend (she was worried), desperately trying to avoid torture via tickling (from both parties) when an older lady comes and "saves" me from death via laughter.
I am then interrogated about when the last time I ate and drank were, told to get changed (into one of those stupid backless robes, weird feet bags and a shower cap), and wait for the anaesthesist to show up and talk to me.
So I sit in this cold room, wearing very little apart from a robe with a slit in the back, idly staring at a tv. It was then that I realised the tv was showing some hospital show, so I immediately changed it to the least offensive / boring material I could find.
Which was cricket.
I hate cricket.
2 excruciating hours later, I'm taken into the room where they do things to people, and am quite quickly interrogated (again), and made to inspect my signature on the form. Without my glasses on. I could barely see the form, let alone the signature!
So, I slept, woke up, and have been informed that at first glance, I am not showing signs of Coeliac. The samples they took still need to be analysed, but it seems a little odd to me.
Then the question hits... if its not Coeliac, then what in the hell is causing my guts to hate me? But who cares? At the time, I had a cheese sandwich and orange juice, and all was well with the world.
:P
A gastroscopy to be exact. I had a blood test a few weeks ago and was deemed as potentially having Coeliac Disease, and so was sent off to a specialist to get this test booked.
To be honest, I was freaking out before the op. I'd never been under sedation before, and I HATE needles of any sort. In fact, I tend to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach with anything medical.
The aforementioned blood test had actually caused me to pass out shortly after.
Anyway, so there I am, in a day surgery center, awaiting my turn to go in with my mother hanging around (someone had to drive me home) and my girlfriend (she was worried), desperately trying to avoid torture via tickling (from both parties) when an older lady comes and "saves" me from death via laughter.
I am then interrogated about when the last time I ate and drank were, told to get changed (into one of those stupid backless robes, weird feet bags and a shower cap), and wait for the anaesthesist to show up and talk to me.
So I sit in this cold room, wearing very little apart from a robe with a slit in the back, idly staring at a tv. It was then that I realised the tv was showing some hospital show, so I immediately changed it to the least offensive / boring material I could find.
Which was cricket.
I hate cricket.
2 excruciating hours later, I'm taken into the room where they do things to people, and am quite quickly interrogated (again), and made to inspect my signature on the form. Without my glasses on. I could barely see the form, let alone the signature!
So, I slept, woke up, and have been informed that at first glance, I am not showing signs of Coeliac. The samples they took still need to be analysed, but it seems a little odd to me.
Then the question hits... if its not Coeliac, then what in the hell is causing my guts to hate me? But who cares? At the time, I had a cheese sandwich and orange juice, and all was well with the world.
:P
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
First Post
Greetings and salutations, poor fool who dared to venture to my blog.
I don't know why you're here. In fact, I don't even know why I'm doing this, apart from having had multiple people tell me I should write a blog. I'm looking at you Amir and Dwaine.
Well, not really, because if I was looking at you that would be creepy.
So, my name is Andrew, and I'm a geek. I'm into programming, video games, Japanese anime, and Pathfinder.
Pathfinder would be an offshoot of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, since I found DnD 4.0 was too simplistic.
Speaking of DnD, I really want one of those cool D20 that glows when you roll a critical hit... would be perfect for when I finally wipe out my pesky player party... muahahahaha!
I spend a lot of time nowadays programming for the iPhone. Possibly because I enjoy it, but more likely because its my job.
I do enjoy it though. Enough to have recently purchased a cheap mac (well, cheap for a mac anyway) against my regular human instincts, and have begun development on my own app. More on that another time methinks.
So in this corner of the intertubes, I will occasionally be posting things. A lot of the time, it'd just be opinions on games, anime, etc. Whatever catches my mind at the time. It'll also probably be very rambling. Like this post.
Sometimes though, it may get serious. Even technical at times.
But usually geeky :)
I also *may* forget about this thing altogether. We shall see.
Ciao for now!
~ Kalgar
I don't know why you're here. In fact, I don't even know why I'm doing this, apart from having had multiple people tell me I should write a blog. I'm looking at you Amir and Dwaine.
Well, not really, because if I was looking at you that would be creepy.
So, my name is Andrew, and I'm a geek. I'm into programming, video games, Japanese anime, and Pathfinder.
Pathfinder would be an offshoot of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, since I found DnD 4.0 was too simplistic.
Speaking of DnD, I really want one of those cool D20 that glows when you roll a critical hit... would be perfect for when I finally wipe out my pesky player party... muahahahaha!
I spend a lot of time nowadays programming for the iPhone. Possibly because I enjoy it, but more likely because its my job.
I do enjoy it though. Enough to have recently purchased a cheap mac (well, cheap for a mac anyway) against my regular human instincts, and have begun development on my own app. More on that another time methinks.
So in this corner of the intertubes, I will occasionally be posting things. A lot of the time, it'd just be opinions on games, anime, etc. Whatever catches my mind at the time. It'll also probably be very rambling. Like this post.
Sometimes though, it may get serious. Even technical at times.
But usually geeky :)
I also *may* forget about this thing altogether. We shall see.
Ciao for now!
~ Kalgar
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