Finished the System Shock 2. Great ride right up to the end. The end features two relatively un-inspired boss battles, back to back. And, like most people, I have to say relative to the rest of the game, it feels rushed. For the majority of SS2, you creep around, sneaking and shooting, hacking and hunting. These last too confrontations are straight run and gun. And the 'organic' level is just major aggravation.
If you're going to give it a go, at least seek out one of the hi-res texture replacement packs. I may fiddle with one of the model upgrades as well, but now that I've been through once, I'm probably done. Being very story driven, I've seen it, I'm not sure it will have the same impact the second time around.
Bioshock. Fallout 3. Lots of good gaming coming up. And at some point I should play the main story of Oblivion.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
Randomizer
Hey, my profile has had 203 views. About half of those are me checking to see if any one has viewed my profile. That's a guess, not a statistic. But I'll bet it's accurate 9 times out of 10, plus or minus 5.
After over dosing on Tom Chick's column "Shoot Club" (Quarter to Three Archive) (the Escapist), I was inspired by one of them to re-install Doom 3, which I never finished. It took exactly 5 seconds of play to remember why I un-installed it last time. Because of Battlefield, I now always map "zoom" to my primary thumb button on my mouse. This wasn't the way my key map was set in my Doom 3 profile, so I mapped it. And picked up my pistol and zoomed and panned, a quick test.
And then it occurred to me that most of the monsters in the game we're going to lean out of closets and bulkheads, effectively making the game mostly a melee effort. Not to mention in the dark. I down loaded the "Duct Tape" mod. A helmet light would be better (shoulder light? That might actually look more like a Colonial Marine.). Or UV/IR settings for my helmet. Oh, wait I don't have a helmet. You know there are zombies, right? And you know how zombies have the whole "brain" thing, right? So, like, no helmet at all, seems like a bad idea. Just saying is all.
Ooooo! New shoot club! Go!
After over dosing on Tom Chick's column "Shoot Club" (Quarter to Three Archive) (the Escapist), I was inspired by one of them to re-install Doom 3, which I never finished. It took exactly 5 seconds of play to remember why I un-installed it last time. Because of Battlefield, I now always map "zoom" to my primary thumb button on my mouse. This wasn't the way my key map was set in my Doom 3 profile, so I mapped it. And picked up my pistol and zoomed and panned, a quick test.
And then it occurred to me that most of the monsters in the game we're going to lean out of closets and bulkheads, effectively making the game mostly a melee effort. Not to mention in the dark. I down loaded the "Duct Tape" mod. A helmet light would be better (shoulder light? That might actually look more like a Colonial Marine.). Or UV/IR settings for my helmet. Oh, wait I don't have a helmet. You know there are zombies, right? And you know how zombies have the whole "brain" thing, right? So, like, no helmet at all, seems like a bad idea. Just saying is all.
Ooooo! New shoot club! Go!
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
MoM dot Net
Hey if you haven't been by in a while, skip over to MoMDotNet. Justin's been hard at it and got A LOT done recently. I've contributed a bit. Some.
We're still trying to figure out the best way to get models from Blender to the app, but we're diligent and the results are surprising. Yes, we're using MAGENTA as the transparent key, so
No it wont be pink in the game.
This would be one of about 1000 models I need to make. And technically this one isn't done - I still need to create proper textures and map them (that what you see are blender base materials, which are great for rendering but no good for games). Further I may be going overboard as far as model complexity is concerned. It's possible I could get away with a simpler mesh with a nice texture.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Vacation Off
I'm back. Three weeks is about one week too long. My dad says never take more than 2 weeks off, because you forget where you work. Deliberately.
Keycon: Yes, that was a glorious mess. My table ran fine, though I have yet to actually make a profit. Scott, now officially dubbed Henchman #1, was very successful at selling stuff. This will be of great benifit as we move into phase 2 - Portable T-Shirts. We also have begun the planing for a hospitality suite themed around a viking long hall. I've got it half planned in my head.
Gaming: Played out my free month of City of Villians. And hey, it's OK. The client is very stable, the content is well designed, and the characters are fun. I think the secret base is a bit wonky from the design end, at least as a solo player, but it's not a necessary game element, so skip it. If I had $15US just lying around, I would play more. Which evolves nicely into my feelings about MMOs in general at this point. Don't hook up for a long subscription. Yes you can save $0.50 per month by agreeing to pay for 6 months at a time. But what if you want to take a break and pay something else?
Further, all of the games I've played keep your data after your account goes inactive. I can still flip Blizzard $15 and play my same old WoW characters for a month, even though I haven't been on in about 6 months. Along this thinking I've cut my LotR:OL subscription down to monthly (which is still only $10USD because I pre-ordered, thanks Turbine!). Yes if I do cancel I lose my special rate. So what?
Costumes: Kudos to David. I wore my Ghostbusters uni most of Keycon and got at least a dozen comments about how cool it was, and not all of the comments were from attendees. Not my design, so Good on You.
The potential of selling the house and moving has appeared on the horizon. I am apprehensive. There's a lot of effort to go into my shack if I want to get out what I need to move. And you know how I feel about effort.
Keycon: Yes, that was a glorious mess. My table ran fine, though I have yet to actually make a profit. Scott, now officially dubbed Henchman #1, was very successful at selling stuff. This will be of great benifit as we move into phase 2 - Portable T-Shirts. We also have begun the planing for a hospitality suite themed around a viking long hall. I've got it half planned in my head.
Gaming: Played out my free month of City of Villians. And hey, it's OK. The client is very stable, the content is well designed, and the characters are fun. I think the secret base is a bit wonky from the design end, at least as a solo player, but it's not a necessary game element, so skip it. If I had $15US just lying around, I would play more. Which evolves nicely into my feelings about MMOs in general at this point. Don't hook up for a long subscription. Yes you can save $0.50 per month by agreeing to pay for 6 months at a time. But what if you want to take a break and pay something else?
Further, all of the games I've played keep your data after your account goes inactive. I can still flip Blizzard $15 and play my same old WoW characters for a month, even though I haven't been on in about 6 months. Along this thinking I've cut my LotR:OL subscription down to monthly (which is still only $10USD because I pre-ordered, thanks Turbine!). Yes if I do cancel I lose my special rate. So what?
Costumes: Kudos to David. I wore my Ghostbusters uni most of Keycon and got at least a dozen comments about how cool it was, and not all of the comments were from attendees. Not my design, so Good on You.
The potential of selling the house and moving has appeared on the horizon. I am apprehensive. There's a lot of effort to go into my shack if I want to get out what I need to move. And you know how I feel about effort.
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