Archive for 2005
12.12.05
Posted in General at 12:57 pm by jw
Psychonauts was a fun diversion. I definitely enjoyed the twisted sense of humor the developers put into it, but as is usual for a PC port of what is essentially a console platform game it ignored the fact I had a controller that I was happily using and instead kept prompting me to press “F” (or some other key) to perform moves. Having to figure out all the time which controller button “F” meant wasn’t a great way to start off with the game but once I had the controls memorized and remapped to something a little more intuitive than the standard mess PC games make of controller buttons the whole thing flowed very well.
As far as platform games go, I’m not a huge fan and tend to get bored pretty quickly so this game definitely stood out of the crowd in that it kept me hooked to the end. It was easy enough to follow that I think I only got stuck at one point (how to kill the first incarnation of the butcher in the meat circus) but challenging enough that I certainly couldn’t just waltz through it without thinking about how I was going to make my way through stuff. Using the controller made life a lot easier than a keyboard/mouse would have been – most notably the ability to move the camera and run independantly with the two analog sticks.
Far Cry I bought specifically because it was the first 64 bit native game to come out – something I thought deserved supporting. Being able to play the native 64 bit version was also great, especially the increased graphic resolution and depth of view over the original 32 bit programming. It really was a visually spectacular game and one that kept me enjoying the scenery and environments right up to the very end.
I have to say I enjoyed Far Cry a lot, right up until the final missions which really got a bit silly in the number of bad guys and rockets that were headed in your direction (it just gets tedious picking them off and dodging incoming fire). The combination of stealth and frontal assault options really made the game more than a simple first person shooter and the idea of crawling through undergrowth that is thick and properlly modelled in 3d to sneak up on bad guys was a lot of fun. Definitely a good game to play if you have a 64 bit machine running the x64 version of XP.
I also have the DVD version of F.E.A.R. that I’ve yet to play, mainly because the atmosphere really didn’t go well with my wife playing Demonstone on the PC next door. With my new headphones though, I should be able to work on this when I get some spare time. Of course, now I’m a little behind in questing in EQ2 which I also have to catch up on so this one may take me a while to get through. I’ve played up to the point of the room that explodes in fire, which was a brilliant piece of game cinematography and definitely want to see more!
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11.29.05
Posted in General at 7:16 pm by jw
My wife got tired of having her adventure games (like Myst etc.) ruined by me playing some FPS or other noisy thing in the background so has been making me wear a set of headphones when I play the PC lately. Well, the crappy headphones I had just don’t cut it after a while because they were giving me headaches and sore ears so I went out and got a new pair from Best Buy. I decided to go wireless mainly because I was tired of getting tangled up in the cords.
Overall the headphones worked out ok – great sound, almost no interference (though an extreme audiophile wouldn’t be happy) and they definitely don’t hurt or give me headaches any more – even with my stupidly big oversized head. The real star though in my opinion was the AAA batteries I got from Radio Shack the next day – 15 minutes of charge time for over 7 hours of headphone operation is just insanely good. Those batteries really make the whole thing worthwhile!
It was good to have a wireless device work properly for once – I was really disappointed in the Saitek wireless controller I got because it just doesn’t seem to work properly or the batteries run down incredibly fast. Definitely have to get rid of that one on eBay to someone who needs a wireless controller more than I do. Now to convince the wife that I really need their new X52 joystick…
Lastly, I’m still amused by Sony’s troubles over their DRM software. Maybe the execs will finally figure out that pissing off your customers isn’t good business?
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11.18.05
Posted in Opinion at 3:20 am by jw
While it was kicked off by Murtha, both sides on the “pull out of Iraq” debate continue to annoy me. This was probably spawned by some talkback radio idiocy on KDKA this afternoon, but it’s been bouncing around in the back of my mind for a while.
On the right, we have the dumbasses who can’t tell the difference between a withdrawal and surrender. Surrender implies meeting some sort of terms and actually being defeated – neither of which is the case. Withdrawal is a slow and staged process of removing yourself in a calm and coordinated manner. After all, we managed to withdraw after Desert Storm and I’ve yet to see anyone suggest that we surrendered to Saddam in ’91.
On the left, we have dipshits who still persist in the “Bush lied, people died” bullshit. That’s been done to death so many times it’s just stupid to hear it over again. While I happen to disagree with his reaction to the intel, the fact is the intel was flawed. Seriously flawed.
Then we have the retards on the right who claim that criticism of a President is anti-American. Sorry – but that’s plain wrong. Exercising freedom of speech is absolutely American and should be cherished, even if they are being idiots in their suggestions. Questioning someone’s patriotism when they simply have alternate political views is about as anti-American as you can get.
And lastly we have the numbnuts on the left who think “withdrawal” means “get the hell out tomorrow”. Sorry – but that really is a stupid idea. Power vacuums lead to bad governments. You *have* to pull out in an organized and gradual fashion.
Yes, it’s time to leave. Yes, Iraqis don’t want Americans there any more. No, we can’t and shouldn’t do it quickly.
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11.09.05
Posted in General at 5:16 am by jw
Comment spam started to get me down after receiving 20 notifications of comments to moderate all in the space of an hour, so now there’s two choices – either create an account and log in or read the twisted images it puts up!
Hopefully this will cut down on my maintenance time, and no thanks to tor which is effectively removing my ability to block the spammers with IP based filters. (Yeah, I understand the point of tor, it’s just frustrating to have it used against you).
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11.04.05
Posted in General at 4:54 am by jw
Looks like Sony has turned to rootkits (an advanced technique used in virus writing) to infect people’s computers when you play some of their CDs. The full story is over on the Sysinternals blog but to summarize, Sony secretly installs code on your computer then hacks the kernel to prevent you detecting that they’ve actually done anything. If you try to remove the problem by deleting the files (no uninstall is provided) then your CD drive vanishes!
You have to love DRM, don’t you?
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