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Udon kicks ass
0324 June. 29
Here's the proof.
I haven't done one of these yet
1924 June. 28
I have yet to commit to paper ( or file, or whatever ) a "Top Five favorites" list of my own about anything.
I guess I should change that starting today, so here's my top five favorite games of all time:
- #5 - Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (PS1) - I've been playing flight sims since I was about two feet tall,
and since I grew up on various air bases for most of my life, its just a matter of course that at least one
flight sim shows up on this list. What I really like about this particular game is the variety of craft you get
to pilot and the fact that all those mundane, fun-killing details that you find in other sims ( like blackouts/redouts,
fuel consumption ) get thrown out the window. What you're left with is a game that give players complete
freedom in a full 360°, 6 mile-wide, 3 mile-high environment.
- #4 - Starsiege (PC) - I don't think too many people really know about this game, though I'm sure everyone's
heard about Starsiege: Tribes. To this day, I haven't come across a mech combat game anywhere
near as fun or engrossing. The game had the right balance of complexity and simplisity; it wasn't something
you could jump right into, but after a five-minute walkthrough you were more than prepared for the game's
50+ missions. The thing that really made the game for me was the story, which I still think is of Oscar-winning
caliber. To give you some idea of its scope, the game came with two manuals: one was for gameplay, the
other explained the setting of the game.
- #3 - Tenchu 3 (PS2) - I don't think I really need to say anything here, do I?
- #2 - Armored Core 3 (PS2) - It was Stef who turned me onto the Armored Core franchise, and I've
been a die-hard fan ever since. The game has a cult following here in the states, so it gets kinda tough to
find people to play against. The big draw of this game is the wide variety of options available when
customizing your AC ( A.rmored C.ore, get it? ). With over 400 parts to choose from, freeform paint schemes,
and USB mouse support for the creation of your own symbol, every AC is as individual as its pilot. The gameplay
is spot-on, giving players the feeling of actually piloting a forty-foot tall robot bristling with weaponry.
- #1 - Half-Life (PC) - I could type for days and still not do this game justice. This was the game that defined what
a FPS shooter should be. Half-Life set the standard for storytelling, with a 60,000 word script fueling a
scif-fi action movie that you were a part of. At the time of its release, the game also sported some
of the most advanced AI ever seen in a game ( beaten only recently by Black & White and
Splinter Cell ), with enemy characters that truly worked in teams. They even had a set of fuzzy logic emotions,
like fear, pain, and bloodlust ( if you were hurt bad, they'd try even harder ). My fondest memories of the game
came from fighting the human marines you come across and losing. Yes, my happiest memory is of losing. That's
because every time a marine killed me, it was after a very hard-fought battle, and in the end, it was always
because I underestimated them. It was like fighting actual people, and while there was multiplayer support,
I enjoyed fighting those intelligent machines far more.
Okay, now I understand
0124 June. 25
After reading this,
I now get why Agent Smith still can't fly even after being "freed" from the system. Still, one question still bugs me: what happens
when a woman concieves a child in the Matrix?
Obviously, she'll give birth roughly nine months later ( assuming eveything
goes well ), but wouldn't that give rise to the creation of another mind? Wouldn't that child also have to be plugged into
the Matrix? If not, if the kid were just a program, then wouldn't anyone born in the Matrix just be a program? Assuming the child is real for agument's sake,
how then is this child born in reality? Say two people, each floating in a vat within two seperate "crops" have a child in the
Matrix, how could that same child be concieved in reality? The only efficient and workable solution I could come up with is one
in which the mother is impregnated by whatever semen is available, regardless of whether or not it represents the same person
in the Matrix.
The only trouble with that is it opens the door for some weird-ass probabilities. I can imagine this solution going very wrong.
If an Irish couple concieved a child within the Matrix, and were located within two "crops" seperated by a great distance, then
the possibility exists for the mother to be inseminated by say an African-American in reality because it was all that was at hand at
the time. Assuming Morpheus was right when he alluded to the idea that the Matrix form of a person reflects how they honestly
believe they look, then this black-irishman of the real world would appear as red-headed, fair-skinned man within the Matrix.
And what would happen if this man were freed into the real world? He'd probably go nuts. After all, he'd be waking up into a
completely foreign body; he'd look in the mirror and see only a stranger.
Bah. Whatever...its just a movie. It doesn't have to stand up to close scrutiny.
Observation # 5707k
2024 June. 24
I'm gonna be the one to kill Bill O'Reilly. This motherfucker is quite possibly the most annoying,
most transparent walking penis ever to work in journalism.
Excellent...
1900 June. 24
Every man's dream come true, right here.
I didn't say it was over...
0500 June. 23
My RPG may be on haitus, but that doesn't mean its dead in the water. Here's
a pic of the male character, Abel. Yes, its the Abel you're thinking of. The female character's here.
She's pretty integral to the story. Come to think of it, I never really explained the premise of the game's story, have I?
To begin with, I should make it clear that like Reign: the Conquerer this story is ( barely ) historically accurate,
but does not take place in our world as we know it. It takes place during the 16th century, a generation after Cain,
son of Adam, returned from hell to the world of the living. His legions of demons are sweeping across
the world, burning all they find, the armies of man doing little to stand in their way. One after another, nations
fall, and the earth stands on the cusp of destruction.
Abel, son of Eve, watching this cycle of carnage unfold, sacrifices his place in heaven and ascends to earth to
kill his brother and destroy his immortal soul forever. However, because he has died once, Abel does not possess a body,
and must create it with living flesh and strength of will. As the game progresses, his body will rot away into dust
unless the player feeds on the blood of his enemies, but every time he does this he takes a bit of that demon's essence
and falls further from grace. This will affect not only the events that unfold during gameplay, but the outcome
of the final battle between Cain and Abel as well.
I'm releasing the game in chapters -- five in all -- because the scope of what I have planned would require endless hours
of coding, but I'm not even sure anyone would appreciate it. So as I've mentioned before, if people like it and
want to see more than the first chapter, then so be it, I'll make more. If it turns out that no one really cares, then at
least I wouldn't have wasted my oh-so-valuable time. Its win-win, really. Anyway, I'm shooting for a Q4 2003 release for
the Journey of Blood: the Thousand Deaths Chapter 1 beta, and I'm pretty damn sure I'll make that.
In the meantime, work still progresses on my summer project Wind, Waves, and Ai ( see? I didn't forget ), and
I've got the first page completely finished. Why isn't it up on the site? Because I'm going to release it in batches of four.
The story is too complex and too manga-like ( as in it reads quickly ) to go up one at a time like the stuff for the 'Diner.
These next few weeks should be great for getting back on the drawing board for me, since I won't be working too
much, and that's a good thing. I really love drawing, but I don't get to do it nearly as much as I would like. If only I
worked in the comic industry...
I win
0110 June. 21
This
is a shirt I would wear proudly everyday, without hesitation. Its that great.
Fixed it
2004 June. 19
I've put in some code that redirects your browser to a version of the page that will appear properly
automatically. The only thing is that this only works coming off the splash page, so you might need
to re-do your bookmark.
25 Dumbest moments in gaming history
1438 June. 18
Clicky-Clicky
I'm talking, but does anyone hear me?
1425 June. 18
Claude and I stopped by Sid's the other day, and since he was off work, so did JP. We're playing
some games and shooting the shit, but then I go and do what I remembered I wasn't supposed
to do in this crowd: say something negative about Goldeneye for the '64. I say I wasn't
supposed to do that because I know how these kids think, and saying anything bad about that
game ( or its sister Perfect Dark ) was akin to eating a hamburger on the streets of Calcutta.
I was immediately greeted with a number of responses, all of which really boiled down into "wtf?!"
Being the sort of person I am, I held my ground and didn't back down, and eventually it became
a matter of PCs versus consoles. This kind of debate has gone on and on for years on UseNet and IRC,
predating even the modern-day internet, and will probably continue until the next gaming crash
( I get the feeling it'll happen again eventually ), so I already knew we wern't going to get anywhere
that night. Again though, I am who I am, so I stuck to my guns.
The first point I remember hearing was Claude's. He said the quality of games available on consoles
far surpassed that of PCs. I'm thinking he meant playability, because that's about the only thing I
can halfway understand him saying. If that's indeed what he meant, then point taken, because
that's really a matter of taste. I don't really want to go into the full-on analysis of the psychological
factors behind it all, but for the most part people who want twitch-games go for consoles, and
people who are more cerebral go for PC. I definitely see Claude as a twitch-gamer.
Sid made a value claim in his argument, saying that there are more "big-name" games available on
console than PC. This I wonder about, because I'm not too clear on what he meant by "big-name."
Well, no, let me rephrase that: I'm not too clear on what he considers a "big-name" game.
He couldn't have meant coverage or hype-wise, because PC games are by and far the most hyped
products in the consumer entertainment industry. For proof you need only whisper the title "Doom 3"
in a crowd, and I think most of us remember that whole Ion Storm/John Romero fiasco.
IMHO, I think Sid made his claim because, innocently enough, he didn't know any better. He's definitely
not a PC kid by any stretch ( he'll be the first to tell you ) so it doesn't surprize me that he doesn't know
about the goings on in the world beyond Nintendo.
And JP? Well...that was shocking. You'd think that being at Tech and all, he'd know a lot more about
PCs. He said a couple things in support of Sid and Claude, but his personal claim was that consoles had
the advantage of sheer numbers; there are more console gamers than PC. Hmm. That's actually a lot
harder to pin down than you'd think, but sure I'll agree with that. Exact counts and statistics are damned
hard to get, but it'd be a safe bet to assume he's right on that. Then again, I don't know anyone who
doesn't have at least one PC in their house.
I gave up pretty quickly that night, since I knew from the start there'd be no getting through to any of them.
I've been down this road before; different faces, same words, so I didn't really bother giving up counterpoints.
The way I see it, it'd be like explaining the color red to a blind man. You can try and try, but he's just
incapable of understanding, and nothing you say will ever change that. I just let it go, even though I feel
kinda bad about how the strictly console crowd is missing out, because when all is said and done games
are there so we can have fun. It shouldn't be a battle over what format is superior or what company is
more 1337, the bottom line -- the question you should really be asking -- is "am I having fun?" If your answer
is yes, then it doesn't matter if the game you're playing is on PC, console, or the Real World™.
If you'd like to see John Carmack's thoughts on the matter, click here.
Good ol' American comic industry...
1755 June. 13
I was really looking forward to Michael Turner's new line of comics, but it seems like
those projects will never see the light of day. Why? Because someone got greedy.
Was it Turner or his ex-employer TopCow? Only you and the California judicial system
can decide.
Read this for Turner's side.
Read this for TopCow's side.
*Big ups to Claude for providing the links.
Stupid Female 2
0025 June. 13
I won't lie: I'm not a very nice person. I try really hard to be otherwise, and for the
most part I do. Every so often though, someone does something that makes me drop
that mask for a time and act as my nature dictates. My fucking sister has done just
that.
There's just something about the way women act when they've done wrong, a certain
way they carry themselves; a certain way they look at you, that serves to do nothing
more than piss me off even further than I'd have been otherwise. This happens in a lot
of circumstances; the woman that nearly ran me off the road into a telephone pole, the
woman who misfiled my financial aid papers at Tech, they all raised my ire to a such a
point that, were they within reach, I would have slapped the holy hell out of them until
my hand was blue and black.
So anyway that's my attitude toward incompetant bitches. Now then, my stupid shit
sister found herself in the line of fire just this evening. I'm pretty sure everyone knows
just how much I love Tenchu, and I'm sure its also common knowledge that I've
accomplished everything that can be done in said game. Imagine then, how I would
feel if someone deleted my save file. Imagine then if someone deleted my save file
by TURNING OFF THE CONSOLE during an auto-save, when the screen reads: Now saving,
DO NOT TURN OFF THE CONSOLE.
Imagine how I would feel if I were the one to find out my data was gone. Ok, stop
imagining; it really happened.
I had decided to do the magnanimous thing and bring my PS2 downstairs, so my sister could
play Tenchu 3, since she's such a big fan of the series and all. In less than 3 days,
she manages to corrupt my save; the file now reads as though I had never played the game
even once. I don't think she'll ever realize just how close she came to a broken jaw tonight.
I'd already given her a run-through of how to take care of my baby, in fact I'd given her
serveral run-throughs. And even if I hadn't, the game itself tells you not to turn the power
off during a save.
I know she turned it off during a save because that is one of only 2 ways data can be corrupted
on a PS2 memory card ( interruption of file access ), the other being close proximity to a
powerful magnetic or electrical field. Since we don't have an MRI in our house, I immediately
deduced it was the fomer and gave the stupid bitch a single option to avoid being hurt: complete
as much of the game as I had, unlocking everything I did and achieving the same rank on every
level I did with every character I did. Now.
And so that's what she's doing. She knows I don't fuck around, and that what I say will
happen. She better play that game as though her life depends on it, because oddly enough, it
does.
Observation #3067n
2345 June. 11
The American comic industry is about as dry, stale, and unimaginative as the
American animation industry. Want proof? The highest-selling comic as of last
month was the latest issue of Transformers Generation One, vol. 2. Sure, its
produced by an American company, but who do you think created it?
* ed: According to Claude, TF is an American made franchise, and its only
the designs of some of the orginal G1 cast that drew inspiration from overseas.
Stupid female
2225 June. 05
While my laptop is off in Wherethehellever, America, getting repaired, I'm forced to use the PC I
built downstairs. This really isn't a bad thing, because I've got a Radeon 7500 in it, which makes
for some pretty decent WarCraft-ing, but the problem comes in when my dumb-ass sister uses it.
Like most women, this broad has absolutely no clue whatsoever about the damn thing except that
it uses "magic" to show her webpages and instant message people ( which is another topic I have many
things to say about, but that's for another day ).
Anyway, I'm forced to share this PC with her, and that I'm not too worried about. She's too busy
camping out in the kitchen and eating all day to really get in my way, so whatever, you know? The
issue arises when she starts installing shit that really, really doesn't belong on this box, or on any
computer for that matter. Like I said, she only uses this box ( despite the fact that its only half a
generation away from being the current top-of-the-line setup ) for instant messaging, but do you
realize just how much communism comes with fucking Yahoo! messanger? It took a good two days
for me to search and destroy all the damn spyware it carries.
And the browser plug-ins...let me tell you about the browser plug-ins...
I'm convinced some monkey at some keyboard at Yahoo! central came up with this crap because
it is by and far the most unstable piece of software I've seen since Windows ME. When its not
fuX0ring your browser, it busy getting in your damn face every minute you're online.
Visit Yahoo!.com! Use our search engine! Buy from our affilliates! Give us your soul!
That blonde of a sibling I have is content to let this shit keep popping up in her face every few
seconds, but not me. I killed it all with maximum prejudice, and then something stupid happened.
Internet Explorer just...stopped...working. It froze and crashed every time thereafter. I'm not
going to tell you everything I did to try and fix that, but the gist of it is that since IE is so tightly
intertwined with the operating system, the only thing that can be done to fix it is a full format and
re-installation. I'm not doing that, no way, no how. Especially not if the cause of it all is some dumb
bitch. This is why I can't work as a repair technician. I've got the know-how, but not the tolerance.
So anyway, I've switched over to Netscape, which I honestly don't feel is as powerful a browser,
but at least it works. It doesn't support as much of the cutting-edge stuff, and there are
a few bugs, but I can say its much more stable than any incarnation of IE ever was. Case in point:
this webpage. If you're viewing it through IE, you might see some alignment issues with the frames
that make up this page. Well, that's actually caused by a bug in IE, but if you look at it through
Netscape, everything's fine and dandy. If I had a better host than Angelfire ( not that they're really
too bad ), then the page would appear the same in either browser. Oh well.
It makes me proud...
1725 June. 02
Some uber-1337 h4x0rs broke into the main servers of the MMORPG Shadowbane on May 30
and unleashed hell on everyone there. If you've never played a M.assively M.ultiplayer O.nline RPG
before, just imagine being one character in a virtual world of tens of thousands, where the rules of
a typical Final Fantasy or Grandia game apply. Basically, its like going into the matrix, because just
about everyone you see in the game is another player just like you. There are, however, the equivalent
of "agents" in the game as well, enemy characters that exist for no reason other than to be killed by
players for experience points and items.
Anyway, hacks for a game like this are typically done to give someone additional experience points or
rare items, but this hack was very, very different. As one player put it, "...somehow an insane god had
taken control of our world and was out to kill us all." The full story is at Wired.com
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