News - January 2004

They've got you wrong. You're not a coward. Stupid, maybe, but not a coward.

So I've been playing Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for the past couple days, I think I'm nearing the end at this point I'm sure there is nothing that can salvage it from being a disgrace to the series. I'll have my full impressions once I finish it, but this post is mainly for Theron, who seems to the be the last to hear about Black Isle closing down and may be taking it the hardest. I decided to post the scant few screenshots of Fallout 3 that surfaced not too long ago.

There is no empty room when the soul is full... You learn that in a prison cell.

Okay, I whipped up the first and, given the quality, hopefully last So Long, Sanity wallpaper. You can check out a low quality preview to the right. The shoddy presentation is actually a style choice, you know.

It comes in four different flavors!

640x480
800x600
1024x764
1152x864

If this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I'd be very unhappy.

I figured it was time for an update since it's almost been a week.
Firstly, a single-player demo of the game I've been testing, Far Cry, has surfaced. While I've been testing the multi-player portion, which is excellent, it would be safe to say that based on the demo, the single-player may very well be even more exceptional when it comes to release time. You can get it off of FileShack, but be warned, this bad boy weighs in at nearly 500MB. While the voice acting from the main character leaves something to be desired all other aspects of the game are superb. The engine the boys at CryTek created can produce some mind-bogglingly huge, beautiful, detailed landscapes while still being able to maintain decent performance, and they've even managed to wrap a fun game around it. With maps these big (and vehicles to navigate them), there are several different paths to your objectives, making for a little replayability that goes a long way. Sniping someone from nearly a kilometer away is pretty fun, and I think that sums it up.
So, Jak II. I'm a little late on talking about it, but I just exchanged NFL Street for it. Since the Crash Bandicoot series platformers and I haven't really been on good terms. Most produced these days are below average cut-and-dry, make-a-furry-animal-and-have-it-jump-on-things sort of affairs, lacking any sort of innovation. That's fine for casual gamers who don't know any better, but what happened to the good stuff? God bless Naughty Dog for creating Jak II and repenting on their marginally entertaining Crash series and the previous Jak title. While Jak II lacks original ideas, it brilliantly combines concepts from other games to create something superior and magnificent, much like the fusion of bacon, eggs, cheese and biscuit. There are traditional platforming elements, an effective weapon system, a Grand Theft Auto-like non-linear mission structure and hijack-able vehicles to boot, a Tony Hawk-ish (Or Back to the Future Part 2-ish, if you'd like) hoverboard that's actually useful, all in a world that has enough plot, characters, and locations that are interesting enough to keep you playing. In short, 0 Adam Sesslers out of 5. It's been an unusually kind time for platformers, with the release of Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando and Maximo vs. The Army of Zin, as well as the highly underrated (And at this time, very cheap, as in $10 cheap) Beyond Good and Evil, though it might be a little unfair to label it simply as a platformer.
Don't ask me how to draw a correlation between the two, but for some reason since I've connected my video card to my TV I've gotten back into Knights of the Old Republic, and while the picture isn't as sharp (Anyone know of any cheap, small HDTV's with S-Video out?) it's bigger... I know that doesn't make any sense, maybe I'm just tired of my small monitor. However, now that I've finally completed the first world in the game and moved on, as well as collected my lightsaber, the game has taken an even more addicting and fun turn. If you have yet to check it out, I recommend you do so.

On the movie side of things, I went to go see Tokyo Godfathers and it just may have replaced Die Hard as my favorite Christmas film (I know, I'm a softy). It's a very sweet, endearing comedy that thankfully never takes itself too seriously and has what I'd say is one of the most exciting climaxes I've seen in a film in a while. It's the most fun you can have at the movies with an alcoholic, a drag queen, a teenage runaway and a baby. I think tonight is the last night it's playing at the Tivoli, so I'm guessing by the time you've read this you'll have missed your chance. Sorry for building it up like that.

Is that everything? I think it is.

-K.

If you look around the table and you can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.

I finally made the trip back to Blockbuster to return the copy of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, which, since I've signed up for the Games Freedom Pass, has been left unplayed for weeks. It is easily the worst entry of the series, though I'd be hard pressed to decide what was the worst aspect of the game. It could be the uninteresting, confusing maps, the hackneyed online play, the terrible controls, the subpar graphics, the ridiculous AI (The enemies will more likely run around in circles or stare at you blankly rather than shoot at you), or maybe it's just because I don't get as excited about killing Japanese as I do about killing Nazis. I think it was around the time that one of my squadmates got snatched by an alligator that I decided it wasn't for me.
So, I traded it in for NFL Street and I can safely say it's only gone from bad to worse. We need to stop EA (or EA BIG as they refer to themselves in this particular line) with their bastardizing every sport with its hip-hop, eXtreme versions. I can usually tolerate rap for a short period, but when they try to apply the sounds of RZA to golf, something is wrong. Now, I'm not one for sports, or care for the video games which attempt to emulate the experience, but when a game features an item like the +3 Gloves of Grabbing it makes me want to contact, of all people, John Madden, to see if he'll help me take these guys down. There's also a "style" button which helps you do "no look" passes and taunt the other team, they also increase the meter for your "GameBreaker" which promises to make your players unstoppable for the possession, but it's really just a feature that adds dramatic music to the game and is so marginal in its advantage that it leaves the player frustrated, angry, and confused. NFL Street gets five piles of Adam Sessler out of five.
Anyway, I've finally polished off Splinter Cell after all this time and it really is the finest stealth-action game ever made. I know I'm coming in really late with the recommendation but if you haven't tried it yet I suggest you do, as it contains some of the greatest moments in gaming history ever. I can't get enough of the "blackout" scene near the end. My return to it was sparked by viewing the brand new trailer to the sequel, Pandora Tomorrow, which looks to surpass the original in every aspect. The footage of the train scene makes me do things to myself that I'm not proud of and shall not be discussed further.

01-15-04, 5:59 AM

Maybe poker's just not your game. I know! Let's have a spelling contest!

So, I've thoroughly screwed up my sleeping hours... Again. And it's all thanks to spending all morning and early afternoon playing Texas Hold 'Em online at Poker Room, and finally my game is back, when I'm playing with fake money. You start with $1000 and so far I'm at $2400 now, just playing the $5-$10 tables, where the hell was my luck before?
And I can't stop. I wish I could. Anyway, if you're looking for time to kill, there's the place to go.
Bluffing is hard when you can't really see your opponent, though it's not impossible. I also don't care too much for the 10 player games, if it starts to get crowded I like to leave and find a less populated table.
And this was mostly inspired by that damned Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo, too bad David Cross didn't come out a winner, because I think his charity for orphans is a bit more important than that woman's charity for stray cats. Oh well, I hope he comes back for next season, he was easily the most entertaining player of the series. I wouldn't mind seeing Scott Stapp again just because every time he opens his mouth he sets a brand new paradigm for stupidity.

I've also included another screenshot of that mystery game I'm testing, which if they tighten up the netcode and get their Adam Sessler together, this could be the new champion of our LAN parties. I went ahead and linked them so you can see the enlarged versions of the shots.

Sadly, both these newfound time-killers have completely impeded my TADS progress, but I'm not abandoning it yet. I'll get back to it, I promise... But just one more hand...

-K.

Your trip sevens mean nothing against my flush with ace kicker!

01-13-04, 11:23 PM

I can't sleep any more. It's too much like death.

You know, I learned today as I got up today at 9 PM after waking up from a seven hour "nap" that nothing really determines my sleeping schedule. With no job and odd class hours I can simply just go to bed whenever I'm tired and get up when I can sleep no longer. I think this is due to having no sort of stabilizing force, something which is important enough to adjust myself to. The problem is very simple: I have no religion. I do think it's very important for man to have a ritual, though, and I don't think I've had one since the sixth grade when I would watch Red Dwarf followed by Doctor Who on Sundays on PBS and then that would usually result in sleep. However, PBS has since abandoned their sci-fi programming and rendered itself useless. CSI used to act in the same position, but I started getting tired of it as the writing just seemed to be getting lazier.

The included picture isn't funny but it's a screenshot I took of a game I'm beta testing, and I think you guys are going to love it once it's released.

If you would like to discuss tonight's post, please send me an e-mail with "What was the point?" in the subject line, good night!

-K.

she'll drive the big car

01-12-04, 4:27 AM

"The Statue of Liberty is kaput..." That's disconcerting.

Alright, I splurged and I'm now a Tripod Pro member, and I'm passing the savings on to you! No more ads!

This also lets me expand my bandwidth and storage space, so yay for that, but I still won't be able to see any traffic details for a day.

I haven't made much progress with teaching myself how to code for TADS, but I'll pick it up again soon, considering how many days I'll be off during the week.
All four of my classes are at least three hours long, but I only have them once a week, and two of the classes are half-semester with one ending just as another is starting, so I'll have four days off a week to work on it. Trust me, I'll keep working on it.

Update: I just touched up the site a little, including the main page and added a new archive, and I didn't feel like making another full update for that.

-K.

it's made out of people! PEEEEEEOPLE!

01-11-04, 4:57 AM

You know, there's a lesson here, which is never try to make life or death decisions when you're feeling suicidal.

"PAGE VIEWS
Your site had 190 page views yesterday.
Total page views this month: 815"

Great Caesar's Ghost, what the fuck?!
Who are you people? Do I know all of you? Why are you wasting time here? Why aren't more of you posting on my Tagboard, damn it?!
That's it, I'm digging deep and shelling out the five bucks so I can start seeing the traffic details.

And to answer your question, yes, that's Chow Yun-Fat.

-K.

That chocolate milk better be so jumbo that I say "damn, that's jumbo"

01-10-04, 3:53 AM

I've come to create a new country called chaos, and a new government called anarchy.

Who would've thunk it? Coming in just shy of 24 hours, I have already produced something somewhat playable. It's really a test "game" where I'm applying everything I'm learning about coding with the engine so far, so there's no real story or objective. You'll notice some obvious things missing, which are likely some things I intend to add eventually but haven't learned yet. This is more complicated than you think. Creating a mirror takes at least ten lines of code. So, yeah, things like talking to NPCs or attacking things obviously doesn't work, and there's a sequence that you can repeat that you shouldn't be able to, but hey, there's a fair amount of things to do for 24 hours worth of work. There are three different ways to kill yourself and a hidden key laying about, so that's fun by itself, right?

Anyway, since I am enjoying myself a little too much in coding an IF game, I've decided to open up a section for it on my site, because I find it much more exciting (Yes, exciting... To quote someone else.) than plain, vanilla, no fudge or nuts writing. I'm dumping the link to my first, very incomplete attempt in there, so grab it from that area.

Once I'm confident in my IF coding I'll start working on a real game with a different story. If I keep this up then it's time to get more webspace.

-K.

look under the seat

01-09-04, 4:56 AM

Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Alright, figured it's time for an update.

So, out of nowhere I've decided to start working on an interactive fiction (IF) game. Y'know, text adventures, with no graphics or sound, just words.. THE GRAMMAR IS MADE FROM EXCITEMENT!

Actually, it may take a while before I have something presentable, because there is some programming involved, and that includes learning. I'll also need to come up with a story good enough for a game. So, yeah, expect me to give up in a week or two.

-K.

laughing at Jay Mohr makes you a bad person

01-01-04, 12:58 AM