2010/12/07
So As It Turns Out...
...only the video card was dead. In retrospect, I should have tested that first, but I'm super surprised that nothing else was dead.
2010/12/04
This is Why I Hate Putting Gear on the Floor
The scene: my "living" room near the computer desk. The setup: half a bottle of warm diet coke sitting perilously on the computer desk and a very expensive very fast machine on the floor below. The action: bobble the half filled bottle of warm diet coke which, while capped, falls and spews all over the machine. The aftermath: one very dead machine.
So now four hours later I've got my data back off of it and the 500GB drive installed in the old machine and lots of stuff backed up. Nothin' like a tragedy to kick the backup reflex into high gear.
$%&*!%&*!!!
Could have been worse, I suppose. The most expensive part (the solid state drive) is still OK but at the very least, it looks like the motherboard and video card are toasted. The other bad thing is that the CPU and the power supply may also be toasted but it's harder for me to test those. Soooooo....it looks like I'm spending more money at newegg. My hope is that I can get bits and pieces fast enough to get the thing working by the holiday, but I suppose that hinges entirely on how many bits and pieces are broken.
Bleh.
2010/11/23
Friendly Note to New England Drivers...
...if you're following close enough that I could be mistaken for towing you, you may be too close.
That is all.
That is all.
2010/11/06
And Now, a Rant From Our Sponsors
I'd say that few things get me into a ranting mood but that'd be a bald-faced lie. Instead, I'll pick one thing that sent me into a frothy rage last week and go from there.
If you aren't familiar with The Escapist, it's generally a pretty good gaming-oriented site with a bunch of usually-reasonably-well-thought-out articles and home to the terribly amusing Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if half their traffic is directly attributable to ZP.) So last week while waiting for a (terribly long) compile I pop over there to see what's what, and I find this: Open Letter to People Who Make Games as penned by Russ Pitts. It's not a long read, but if you, like me, have ever spent time in the Biz, you'll get good and frothy too. Feel free to read it if you like (I'll wait), but I'll sum it up: the game industry is doomed because game people suck. One particular quote really sent me off the deep end:
Let's start here: No one in the Biz wants to ship a shitty game. I don't care about your hypotheticals about evil execs and pernicious designers, none of the untold hundreds of people I've worked with personally have ever set out to build a game that sucks all ass, ever. It's just not part of the culture which is why I have no issue making such a blanket statement. Most games are released before they're ready which is part of what Russ's rant is about but that's largely decided by execs and money guys; you know, the stuffed suits that make the real money.
Why is that? Well, because it's a business. That business would be making as much money for investors as possible and that means shipping the most things with the most appeal at the most opportune times. Hardcore gamers just looooove to whine about how everything is getting dumbed down. This isn't a coincidence. The economics of the thing is that if you need a budget of $30M (small to middling these days; giant when I started in the Biz) you have to sell about a bajillion copies to break even. Sorry. That's just the way it is if you want your spiffy art at a decent framerate. So the industry as a whole tries to open up any given game to the widest audience possible even if it means knocking off all the gnarly corners that us old-timers really loved. Usually this is stuff like "approachability" and "accessibility" and probably a bunch of other "ibilities" that escape me at the moment.
The "opportune times" bit also comes with baggage. Everyone who's ever worked on software knows that software projects pretty much always run long; sometimes way long if they even ship at all. This is super bad when you start talking about fixed schedules like we almost always have, i.e., we mostly ship around the holidays. How fixed these schedules may actually be tends to never be as fixed as management would make them seem to be which is part of why at most companies people crunch like fucking corn flakes most of the year. The best part? A lot of the time your reward for being a hero is getting laid off at the end of the project!
Software people outside the Biz understand a lot of this. No plan is ever as complete as the Suits would like and no plan ever survives first contact with theenemy schedule. In the greater software world this is generally understood which is why stuff like Agile is such a big deal. If you can't adjust the ship date, then you'd better be able to adjust one or both of { budget | feature set } otherwise, well, in the immortal words of one Adam Savage: "Failure is always an option".
In the Biz, teams which can actually affect quality directly almost never have control over any corner. Our ship date is fixed and most times pushed inward due to certification checks and manufacturing, our feature set is largely fixed because it's part of what the Suits want to market (not that they wouldn't change their minds midway through a project and mandate said changes without adjusting schedules or budgets or anything), and as a kicker, the same Suits who fix the ship date also fix the budget. Each of these things from a business point of view is sensical but it means that there's never enough of anything on a given project and you're usually short two if not all of the three.
Software is a pretty young art (almost certainly not a science despite what my two fancy, expensive pieces of paper say) and the greater industry is still wrestling with its care and nurture. The Games Biz is even younger and seems to be so heads-down that we can't even effectively learn from the larger body of experience that the software biz has. Why is this? Our management tends to be inexperienced. I've had maybe two or three managers that didn't outright suck over a couple dozen of them and I don't think I've ever met a reasonable exec. Real Managers (TM) don't often show up in game dev because pay is so comparatively low and hours are so comparatively crappy. Managers, unlike artists, designers, or programmers, don't grow up wanting to make games--at least, I haven't met any good ones that have at this point in time.
And wouldn't that be just like a disgruntled worker-cog to pin the blame solely on management? Probably, but our worker-cogs tend to be inexperienced too. We turn over something like 20% of our workforce every year. Other than college sports rosters, I don't know of any group that does that and remains competitive. (Maybe we're only competitive because most of our peers are doing it too.) Most people burn out after a few years. It turns out that crappy working environments + long hours + looming layoffs + lower than average pay is way greater than the idealism that drives most people to get into the Biz in the first place. But, as it turns out, this is kind of what drives a lot of studios because for every one of us that falls there are ten bright eyed kids that would do the job for free. Never mind the fact that only a few of these kids will statistically stick around for more than a few years or that exceptionally few of them are actually qualified to do what you need them to do. I've been on more than a few teams that bulked up during the painful phases of a project with a bunch of junior people who made the entire thing generally much harder. It's almost as if we should know better by now. This is part of why studios go through the hire/fire/re-hire cycles and part of why salaries are so comparatively low.
So, OK, Mr. Pitts:
If you aren't familiar with The Escapist, it's generally a pretty good gaming-oriented site with a bunch of usually-reasonably-well-thought-out articles and home to the terribly amusing Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if half their traffic is directly attributable to ZP.) So last week while waiting for a (terribly long) compile I pop over there to see what's what, and I find this: Open Letter to People Who Make Games as penned by Russ Pitts. It's not a long read, but if you, like me, have ever spent time in the Biz, you'll get good and frothy too. Feel free to read it if you like (I'll wait), but I'll sum it up: the game industry is doomed because game people suck. One particular quote really sent me off the deep end:
I know that some of you take this seriously enough to devote your working hours making these games right, making patches and fixes that will resolve your players' issues. I know that some of you work overtime on this. I know you lose money. I know it sucks for you. And yet, I don't care.This is indicative of the kind of entitlement that the general public has that is particularly maddening. If you've heard about the jackasses who did a DOS attack on Minecraft because they weren't happy with Notch's speed of updates then you know exactly what I'm talking about. I could probably link a bunch of other similar things but I won't bore you with that. Instead, I'll bore you with a bunch of my observations across five companies and more than a decade of professional game development.
Let's start here: No one in the Biz wants to ship a shitty game. I don't care about your hypotheticals about evil execs and pernicious designers, none of the untold hundreds of people I've worked with personally have ever set out to build a game that sucks all ass, ever. It's just not part of the culture which is why I have no issue making such a blanket statement. Most games are released before they're ready which is part of what Russ's rant is about but that's largely decided by execs and money guys; you know, the stuffed suits that make the real money.
Why is that? Well, because it's a business. That business would be making as much money for investors as possible and that means shipping the most things with the most appeal at the most opportune times. Hardcore gamers just looooove to whine about how everything is getting dumbed down. This isn't a coincidence. The economics of the thing is that if you need a budget of $30M (small to middling these days; giant when I started in the Biz) you have to sell about a bajillion copies to break even. Sorry. That's just the way it is if you want your spiffy art at a decent framerate. So the industry as a whole tries to open up any given game to the widest audience possible even if it means knocking off all the gnarly corners that us old-timers really loved. Usually this is stuff like "approachability" and "accessibility" and probably a bunch of other "ibilities" that escape me at the moment.
The "opportune times" bit also comes with baggage. Everyone who's ever worked on software knows that software projects pretty much always run long; sometimes way long if they even ship at all. This is super bad when you start talking about fixed schedules like we almost always have, i.e., we mostly ship around the holidays. How fixed these schedules may actually be tends to never be as fixed as management would make them seem to be which is part of why at most companies people crunch like fucking corn flakes most of the year. The best part? A lot of the time your reward for being a hero is getting laid off at the end of the project!
Software people outside the Biz understand a lot of this. No plan is ever as complete as the Suits would like and no plan ever survives first contact with the
In the Biz, teams which can actually affect quality directly almost never have control over any corner. Our ship date is fixed and most times pushed inward due to certification checks and manufacturing, our feature set is largely fixed because it's part of what the Suits want to market (not that they wouldn't change their minds midway through a project and mandate said changes without adjusting schedules or budgets or anything), and as a kicker, the same Suits who fix the ship date also fix the budget. Each of these things from a business point of view is sensical but it means that there's never enough of anything on a given project and you're usually short two if not all of the three.
Software is a pretty young art (almost certainly not a science despite what my two fancy, expensive pieces of paper say) and the greater industry is still wrestling with its care and nurture. The Games Biz is even younger and seems to be so heads-down that we can't even effectively learn from the larger body of experience that the software biz has. Why is this? Our management tends to be inexperienced. I've had maybe two or three managers that didn't outright suck over a couple dozen of them and I don't think I've ever met a reasonable exec. Real Managers (TM) don't often show up in game dev because pay is so comparatively low and hours are so comparatively crappy. Managers, unlike artists, designers, or programmers, don't grow up wanting to make games--at least, I haven't met any good ones that have at this point in time.
And wouldn't that be just like a disgruntled worker-cog to pin the blame solely on management? Probably, but our worker-cogs tend to be inexperienced too. We turn over something like 20% of our workforce every year. Other than college sports rosters, I don't know of any group that does that and remains competitive. (Maybe we're only competitive because most of our peers are doing it too.) Most people burn out after a few years. It turns out that crappy working environments + long hours + looming layoffs + lower than average pay is way greater than the idealism that drives most people to get into the Biz in the first place. But, as it turns out, this is kind of what drives a lot of studios because for every one of us that falls there are ten bright eyed kids that would do the job for free. Never mind the fact that only a few of these kids will statistically stick around for more than a few years or that exceptionally few of them are actually qualified to do what you need them to do. I've been on more than a few teams that bulked up during the painful phases of a project with a bunch of junior people who made the entire thing generally much harder. It's almost as if we should know better by now. This is part of why studios go through the hire/fire/re-hire cycles and part of why salaries are so comparatively low.
So, OK, Mr. Pitts:
When I play a game that you have made, and which is broken, I ask myself the question: Which is it with you? Did you not know that your game had problems, or did you know and decide to ship it anyway? I hope you can understand that either way we have a problem. Actually, the problem is mostly yours.I'm really not sure who he thinks his audience is. I sure as hell don't decide when the thing goes out. I don't think I've shipped a title that I didn't wish I had more time to fix. Maybe Suits read this stuff. Either way, most games don't ship in as broken a state as he seems to imply. All software has bugs. I dislike buggy games as much as the next guy (actually, probably way more than the next guy) but to reiterate: no one wants to ship a shitty game. Want to send a real message, one that will be way more meaningful than a snarky plea? Stop buying games you think are broken. Bonus points if you don't give a broken game a buy recommendation. Tell the Suits that this just isn't good enough and maybe they'll start getting us worker-cogs enough resources to build better games. Seems pretty simple, right?
You will be the one who has made a game that is so bad I can't actually play it. You will have failed at your only job, tomake a game. Worse, you will have contributed to the depression of your industry. You may be putting yourself and people you know out of a job.News flash for you, buddy: I'm probably out of a job either way. Ship a million copies or miss a ship date, it doesn't really matter. The economics just plain don't scale and most companies just plain don't care about the people they employ either way. The typical work agreement is that they can fire me at any time without cause! That's right, kids, you're just a cog and they don't even need a reason to kick your ass out the door. That's just part of the cost of following The Dream. Apparently another part of it is suffering fools who really ought to know better.
2010/08/11
BrickFair 2010
As you might have surmised from my last post, I attended BrickFair 2010 in Chantilly, VA. I was originally just going to visit on one of the public days and hang with some old co-workers, but ended up staying for a number of days and showing some pieces instead. On the right is a very fuzzy picture of the five MOCs I brought. It amuses (and dismays) me that just about every third party picture of my stuff I've seen is far and away better than any picture I've ever taken of them. There may be a new camera in my future.
The Normandy was nominated for two categories and won "Best Sci-Fi" against some very good builds. A very fuzzy picture of the trophy is on the right (also in the center of the above). I certainly didn't expect to win anything but I'm super happy that I did. It sort of legitimizes the last five months of frantic buying/building--not that I need any legitimizing, mind you.It was good times. I met a lot of cool people who I only previously knew from their work and online names. I was very impressed by all the sweet builds many of which were way cooler in person than in photos. It's a good show and run by a bunch of awesome people. With any luck, I'll be back next year.
2010/08/07
A Funny Thing Happened At BrickFair Today...
So picture this. I'm showing off the Normandy in an almost incessant crush of people when I hear a familiar voice...
Flashback to 2003 and I'm leaving my first job. I'm interviewing with the man who would later hire me. It's the dead of winter in a freak Virginia snowstorm. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and is walking around in sandals. "Is it cold enough for you?", was his first question.
Sure enough, it's my old boss standing there with his family who I've never met. I worked for him for two years before parting ways and he had no idea who I was. I told him my name (twice) and it still didn't dawn on him. I told him I worked form him at XXXX company and the lightbulb finally went off.
Filed under "I'm glad I didn't need a reference".
Flashback to 2003 and I'm leaving my first job. I'm interviewing with the man who would later hire me. It's the dead of winter in a freak Virginia snowstorm. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and is walking around in sandals. "Is it cold enough for you?", was his first question.
Sure enough, it's my old boss standing there with his family who I've never met. I worked for him for two years before parting ways and he had no idea who I was. I told him my name (twice) and it still didn't dawn on him. I told him I worked form him at XXXX company and the lightbulb finally went off.
Filed under "I'm glad I didn't need a reference".
2010/05/23
2010/04/19
In Other News
I've finally gotten around to uploading my Champions Online vid. You can find it here. Enjoy the explodey goodness!
2010/04/17
Got Turian?
First year in Massachusetts: sick 4 times in 4 months. Year 2 started out better...until last week when I finally succumbed to the cold that went around the office. Seriously, everyone in my immediate area got sick about two weeks ago. I went all of PAX without getting sick but due to the insanity that is our HR policy of shared PTO and vacation, EVERYONE comes in sick. On the bright side, I took a day off and missed some office drama (yay) and did some building.
This is a Turian frigate from Mass Effect. I've been wanting to build one of these guys for a while but since you only ever see them a couple times in two games, I never had proper reference. A couple hours spelunking in the ME game folder and voila! Viewable models. Hacking does, in fact, sometimes pay.
One of the things that's been keeping me from building a hero-sized SR1 (other than lack of skill and bricks...and laziness) is a complete lack of experience building large models. It didn't seem like a complicated build on the whole when I started, but "50 inches long" didn't seem big either until I got the keel down.
I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out though it didn't seem like it ever would. There are a pile of hacks to make it work but it's fairly solid in spite of them. I wouldn't swoosh it around the room but I'm not dreading transporting it to the kitchen for final photographing either (I mean, come on, it's right in front of the TV).
All told, it's about 50 hours of work but that includes a lot of futzing around with stuff. Every piece that hangs off at an angle (as in: everything but the keel) was rebuilt multiple times to get a) the angles right, and b) the structure such that it wouldn't fall apart if my neighbors upstairs stomp around.
I've probably got two or three Mass Effect related builds left in me before it's run its course. I'll probably finish on the hero-sized SR1 which will hopefully be spectacular.
Edit: glam shots + final adjustments can be found here.
This is a Turian frigate from Mass Effect. I've been wanting to build one of these guys for a while but since you only ever see them a couple times in two games, I never had proper reference. A couple hours spelunking in the ME game folder and voila! Viewable models. Hacking does, in fact, sometimes pay.
One of the things that's been keeping me from building a hero-sized SR1 (other than lack of skill and bricks...and laziness) is a complete lack of experience building large models. It didn't seem like a complicated build on the whole when I started, but "50 inches long" didn't seem big either until I got the keel down.
I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out though it didn't seem like it ever would. There are a pile of hacks to make it work but it's fairly solid in spite of them. I wouldn't swoosh it around the room but I'm not dreading transporting it to the kitchen for final photographing either (I mean, come on, it's right in front of the TV).
All told, it's about 50 hours of work but that includes a lot of futzing around with stuff. Every piece that hangs off at an angle (as in: everything but the keel) was rebuilt multiple times to get a) the angles right, and b) the structure such that it wouldn't fall apart if my neighbors upstairs stomp around.
I've probably got two or three Mass Effect related builds left in me before it's run its course. I'll probably finish on the hero-sized SR1 which will hopefully be spectacular.
Edit: glam shots + final adjustments can be found here.
2010/03/15
2010/03/14
WIP
Been arting again. Hope to continue for a while. In a feeble attempt to post more, here's a WIP.
Alyssa is one of my (many) characters from Mass Effect as seen in ME1.
2010/02/27
Because You Can Never Have Too Much Lego
In preparation for doing bigger and more complicated builds, I've done a couple warmups with (probably) a couple more on the way. This way I can justify my many trips to the Lego store. For whatever reason, blogspot isn't letting me directly link my pictures (lame) so if you want the full effect, hit my Flickr account which is right here. The backgrounds notes for ship classes etc. are for an ongoing project.
When I build these, I generally have a rough idea of what I want but not a lot of details. Sometimes I doodle some rough ideas on notecards, almost always in pen (so I'm not tempted to erase & rework). I try to keep the general idea to a couple of phrases.
Andraghi Jackal class destroyer
An Andraghi destroyer built out of bits of a Terran battlecruiser. Originally I wanted to build the entire battlecruiser but dropped the idea pretty quickly for the Andraghi warship which I thought was way more interesting.
The general idea was a "golden age of space" kind of style with no obvious symmetry. I also wanted to mess more with with n-sided wall constructions (in this case, 5). The engines and con boom didn't really come through in the pictures and the build was a little fragile. I'll probably do another hermit-crab like Andraghi ship in the near future because it was hella fun.
Kestrel class light cruiser
When I think "battlecruiser" the image that my mind conjures up is almost invariably either the Space Battlecruiser Yamato or an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Terran Confederation is the benefactor of those associations for better or worse. For this model, I wanted to work at a smaller scale and since I've always envisioned the Terran Confederation to use tri-turrets, that meant I had to build some teeny-tiny gun batteries. I'd be happier with them if they elevated and were a little less fiddly, but they look OK.
The benefit of building at that scale is that I can take advantage of the nice angled pieces I've been picking up. The down side is that most of the nice angled pieces I've got are now white and maroon which aren't my first choices (grey with blue highlights would be much more appropriate). So, um, it must be ceremonial colors then, right? Riiight....
The conning tower and windowed areas are unconvincing but I didn't have blue or grey transparent slopes. The nose isn't secured properly either, but the overall feel of the ship is what I was after: a symmetric and clean hull with a stark and angular engine section.
When I build these, I generally have a rough idea of what I want but not a lot of details. Sometimes I doodle some rough ideas on notecards, almost always in pen (so I'm not tempted to erase & rework). I try to keep the general idea to a couple of phrases.
Andraghi Jackal class destroyer
An Andraghi destroyer built out of bits of a Terran battlecruiser. Originally I wanted to build the entire battlecruiser but dropped the idea pretty quickly for the Andraghi warship which I thought was way more interesting.
The general idea was a "golden age of space" kind of style with no obvious symmetry. I also wanted to mess more with with n-sided wall constructions (in this case, 5). The engines and con boom didn't really come through in the pictures and the build was a little fragile. I'll probably do another hermit-crab like Andraghi ship in the near future because it was hella fun.
Kestrel class light cruiser
When I think "battlecruiser" the image that my mind conjures up is almost invariably either the Space Battlecruiser Yamato or an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Terran Confederation is the benefactor of those associations for better or worse. For this model, I wanted to work at a smaller scale and since I've always envisioned the Terran Confederation to use tri-turrets, that meant I had to build some teeny-tiny gun batteries. I'd be happier with them if they elevated and were a little less fiddly, but they look OK.
The benefit of building at that scale is that I can take advantage of the nice angled pieces I've been picking up. The down side is that most of the nice angled pieces I've got are now white and maroon which aren't my first choices (grey with blue highlights would be much more appropriate). So, um, it must be ceremonial colors then, right? Riiight....
The conning tower and windowed areas are unconvincing but I didn't have blue or grey transparent slopes. The nose isn't secured properly either, but the overall feel of the ship is what I was after: a symmetric and clean hull with a stark and angular engine section.
2010/02/15
SR1
In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm a big fan of Mass Effect. The jury still seems to be out on whether ME2 is a "real RPG" or not (whatever that means) but I don't think it actually matters despite what the pundits might think. It's a great game with some great storytelling in a universe that's well realized and brought to life in one of the best presentations that this generation of hardware can deliver. Mass Effect isn't just a great not-quite-complete trilogy of games, it's great science fiction and Bioware doesn't shy away from tackling some of the big-ticket themes.
In case you hadn't figured it out, I also love Legos. In fact, I've dropped more than I'd like to consider on them this extended weekend. Massachusetts is, in fact, blessed with not one, but THREE Lego stores, two of which I visited. If you like Legos and don't want to mine them yourself in the hallowed plastic mines of Denmark, I can think of no better pilgrimage than visiting one of their centers of rampant consumerism.
You can probably already see where this is going. If not, turn on your images.
This is a fairly rookie attempt at modelling the SR1 in all of its pre-disintegrated glory. I do like the SR2 (leather seats!) but it lacks the spartan charm of the SR1. I was sad to see it go.
Sadly, I'm not super pleased with this rendition mostly because of the shape of the fuselage but I'm fairly limited in the scope that I can build by the available parts in my collection. My repeated trips to Lego stores this weekend (three trips to two different stores, in case you're wondering) might have something to do with said collection.
Lame excuses aside, it's by far the most technical of the (admittedly small number of) builds I've done. The wings are set at a very un-lego like angle both from front to back, and from top to bottom. The bottom thruster sub-assemblies are pretty sturdily attached to the wings with technic pegs. The (poorly executed) fuselage is a five walled construction. During its construction over the last six days (~40 hours) I've tried tons of different builds for just about every piece before settling on the build that you see pictured here.
Since I started, I've learned that there's an entire set of builders out there that are nothing less than phenomenal. They've gathered a palette of skills that are astounding. I've also learned that there are uses for pieces that I didn't even know existed (both the pieces, and the uses). So now, armed with a Lego VIP card and the ability to hit two separate stores in the same hour, I'm embarking on a quest to hone my Lego building skills to the point that I can build the Normandy in a more proper scale in a way that I'm pleased with.
In case you hadn't figured it out, I also love Legos. In fact, I've dropped more than I'd like to consider on them this extended weekend. Massachusetts is, in fact, blessed with not one, but THREE Lego stores, two of which I visited. If you like Legos and don't want to mine them yourself in the hallowed plastic mines of Denmark, I can think of no better pilgrimage than visiting one of their centers of rampant consumerism.
You can probably already see where this is going. If not, turn on your images.
This is a fairly rookie attempt at modelling the SR1 in all of its pre-disintegrated glory. I do like the SR2 (leather seats!) but it lacks the spartan charm of the SR1. I was sad to see it go.
Sadly, I'm not super pleased with this rendition mostly because of the shape of the fuselage but I'm fairly limited in the scope that I can build by the available parts in my collection. My repeated trips to Lego stores this weekend (three trips to two different stores, in case you're wondering) might have something to do with said collection.
Lame excuses aside, it's by far the most technical of the (admittedly small number of) builds I've done. The wings are set at a very un-lego like angle both from front to back, and from top to bottom. The bottom thruster sub-assemblies are pretty sturdily attached to the wings with technic pegs. The (poorly executed) fuselage is a five walled construction. During its construction over the last six days (~40 hours) I've tried tons of different builds for just about every piece before settling on the build that you see pictured here.
Since I started, I've learned that there's an entire set of builders out there that are nothing less than phenomenal. They've gathered a palette of skills that are astounding. I've also learned that there are uses for pieces that I didn't even know existed (both the pieces, and the uses). So now, armed with a Lego VIP card and the ability to hit two separate stores in the same hour, I'm embarking on a quest to hone my Lego building skills to the point that I can build the Normandy in a more proper scale in a way that I'm pleased with.
2010/01/24
It's a Crazy World We Live In
So I'm watching the New Orleans vs. Minnesota game; one that I'm kind of torn on. On the one hand, I'm a Brett fan, but on the other hand, I wouldn't mind seeing Brees and the Saints in the Big Game (TM). (And yes, I can call him by his first name since I lived in Madison for two years.) Anyway, football isn't what I'm here to talk about, not directly anyway, so feel free to breathe a sigh of relief.
Mass Effect 2 is one of the few games that I've ever really looked forward to (the other one: Supreme Commander). How much? Well, I just got through the game for a fourth time this weekend in preparation to transfer a high level character over. I started on Thursday. I'll probably play through again delaying my ME2 extravaganza in order to hit 60 because apparently you get more awesomeness if you transfer a 60. Since then, I've been watching football and Mass Effect trailers/videos most of the day.
ANYWAY
In the middle of the game there was a Mass Effect 2 commercial. "Wow", I'm thinking. "Is gaming finally mainstream enough that we can advertise during football?" Heavy. I mean, football is usually dominated by unmemorable beer and truck commercials. Imagine my surprise then to hear "the Mass Effect 2 first half stats" as announced by Troy Aikman (maybe Joe Buck?) indicating that EA's marketing campaign is spending big $$$s. That's cool, and not just because I'm excited about the game.
Ya know what? I hate EA. I hate them a LOT, and not just for what they did/are doing to one of my former employers. Even given that, I don't think I can deny that what they're doing helps bring legitimacy to the industry. That, in many ways, is cool.
Mass Effect 2 is one of the few games that I've ever really looked forward to (the other one: Supreme Commander). How much? Well, I just got through the game for a fourth time this weekend in preparation to transfer a high level character over. I started on Thursday. I'll probably play through again delaying my ME2 extravaganza in order to hit 60 because apparently you get more awesomeness if you transfer a 60. Since then, I've been watching football and Mass Effect trailers/videos most of the day.
ANYWAY
In the middle of the game there was a Mass Effect 2 commercial. "Wow", I'm thinking. "Is gaming finally mainstream enough that we can advertise during football?" Heavy. I mean, football is usually dominated by unmemorable beer and truck commercials. Imagine my surprise then to hear "the Mass Effect 2 first half stats" as announced by Troy Aikman (maybe Joe Buck?) indicating that EA's marketing campaign is spending big $$$s. That's cool, and not just because I'm excited about the game.
Ya know what? I hate EA. I hate them a LOT, and not just for what they did/are doing to one of my former employers. Even given that, I don't think I can deny that what they're doing helps bring legitimacy to the industry. That, in many ways, is cool.
2010/01/04
2009 in Review
I'm not really one for "end of the year" type stuffs despite what the record on this blog might attest to, but I figured I'd do a year in review nonetheless. This may or may not have to do with a new machine on the way and my Champions sub ending yesterday. So without further ado, this is my 2009 in review.
New Digs
Probably the biggest change was a change of venue at the very beginning of the year. In fact, exactly one year and two days ago. This came with a 400 mile displacement to the northeast, fewer responsibilities (read: hours), and a hefty increase in pay. These are good things. What's not so good is that MA is terribly expensive and while I like the city of Boston, I'm pretty sure there's a special place in Hell being reserved for the area's drivers. If history is any indication, I'm good here for another year.
Modding
To set the scene: I'm in a new and unfamiliar town poor and tired for the moving experience. Is there a more perfect time to catch up on gaming? I think not! Dungeon Siege 2 + expansion were OK--I was happy enough to finish them anyway. Then a new co-worker recommended a tiny indie game involving swinging swords from horsebacks onto unsuspecting peasants. Well, sign me up! Mount & Blade is an excellent game which can usually be had for a steal. It's got some interesting mechanics, but...well parts of it just don't seem right. The good news is that it can be modded!
Taleworlds built the game with a fairly powerful scripting language and have in fact built most of the game logic in it. To anyone with some time, an interest in fixing/extending the game's features, and a bent to programming, just about anything is possible. I sunk a good three months into it and was fairly pleased with the results. Now retired, I'm hoping that their upcoming multiplayer expansion is cool enough to catch my interest again.
Diet
This is a controversial one, mostly because the conventional "wisdom" has been drummed into us for so long. I've been doing the paleo diet which is mostly the same as Atkins but also shuns the hyper-processed badness which pervades our ubiquitous mega-marts. If you want to know more about it, I'm sure you can find it if your google-fu is righteous.
Atkins worked for me; it worked really well but ultimately I'd get stuck in a crunch or get stressed out about something and that'd be the end of it. There was also the horrible crashes I'd get during the first couple weeks which I couldn't stand. With this diet, whether it be placebo effect or not, I have had none of these issues and the results have been dramatic.
All told, minus (plus?) the holiday inspired overeating that transpired the last couple weeks, I'm still about 45 pounds lighter than I was in April when I started. That's about 215 right now which is lighter than I've been since undergrad. To make it all the more astounding, most of the weight was lost within the first month and I did it specifically without exercising. The lack of exercise had nothing to do with being lazy (nothing at all).
I could go on about how much better I feel or how my health markers have improved across the board, but I'll leave you with the following thoughts:
- I eat 1.2 steaks per week (on average)
- I can eat bacon any time I want
Cruisin'
I was not a fan of Maryland. In fact, I'm on record proclaiming such things as "I couldn't get out of that goddamn state fast enough." While I'm not a huge fan of Massachusetts either, I will say that the area I live in (right around Gilette Stadium) has some great driving roads. Now that I can drive it without the threat of stalling at every light, it's a heck of a lot more fun.
Gaming
I mentioned the gaming briefly but I'll rate some of the highlights. Some of these are a couple years old but I hadn't gotten around to them yet. These are listed more or less in the order I played them.
Dungeon Siege 2: ***
The Good: the same basic gameplay as Dungeon Siege 1. Simple levels, well-written stories, and linear dungeons.
The Bad: kind of repetitive, just like Dungeon Siege 1. For those wondering, I did like DS1, but apparently I've become less patient in my older age.
Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World: **
The Good: some interesting new gear, some interesting new stories
The Bad: kinda threw out the old stories from DS2 which I thought were pretty good. Seems like it was done by a completely different set of people who didn't honor the original material. This was made all the more striking for me by playing one right after the other.
Mount & Blade: ***, **** with modding
The Good: awesome sandbox gameplay and unmatched mounted combat simulation. The melee simulation is OK, but not substantial. Huge array of mods.
The Bad: no real "win" condition; shallow roleplaying depth.
Notes: because the game is so flexible, most of the shortcomings can be modded away.
Mass Effect: ****
The Good: well-realized universe with believable characters. Even the ones you're not supposed to like are awesome (Wrex4tw!)
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve
Notes: ME2 is probably the game I'm most looking forward to this year and it's out in a couple weeks (woot!)
Champions Online: ****
The Good: some of the best combat mechanics in any MMO I've played. Extremely customizable costumes--look awesome from level 1!
The Bad: questionable design direction, facepalm level bugs, extremely hostile community
Notes: If there weren't a great game poking out of the badness, I'd probably be less bitter about Champions. The fact remains that they had a great product and almost completely botched it. It's like a Hail Mary that hits the receiver in the hands but lands on the turf. Maybe in a year it'll be better, but I have very little faith left for Cryptic.
Dragon Age Origins: *****
The Good: probably the most polished game I've ever played. It's exactly what I expected out of the leading RPG house with the hype machine of EA behind it.
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve. No good endings. Gratuitous DLC pandering.
Notes: if you like RPGs and haven't played this one, it's well worth it. I'm not kidding about the "no good endings" bit, either. It's super easy to get attached to the characters in the game and even easier to feel bad when bad things (invariably) happen to them.
New Digs
Probably the biggest change was a change of venue at the very beginning of the year. In fact, exactly one year and two days ago. This came with a 400 mile displacement to the northeast, fewer responsibilities (read: hours), and a hefty increase in pay. These are good things. What's not so good is that MA is terribly expensive and while I like the city of Boston, I'm pretty sure there's a special place in Hell being reserved for the area's drivers. If history is any indication, I'm good here for another year.
Modding
To set the scene: I'm in a new and unfamiliar town poor and tired for the moving experience. Is there a more perfect time to catch up on gaming? I think not! Dungeon Siege 2 + expansion were OK--I was happy enough to finish them anyway. Then a new co-worker recommended a tiny indie game involving swinging swords from horsebacks onto unsuspecting peasants. Well, sign me up! Mount & Blade is an excellent game which can usually be had for a steal. It's got some interesting mechanics, but...well parts of it just don't seem right. The good news is that it can be modded!
Taleworlds built the game with a fairly powerful scripting language and have in fact built most of the game logic in it. To anyone with some time, an interest in fixing/extending the game's features, and a bent to programming, just about anything is possible. I sunk a good three months into it and was fairly pleased with the results. Now retired, I'm hoping that their upcoming multiplayer expansion is cool enough to catch my interest again.
Diet
This is a controversial one, mostly because the conventional "wisdom" has been drummed into us for so long. I've been doing the paleo diet which is mostly the same as Atkins but also shuns the hyper-processed badness which pervades our ubiquitous mega-marts. If you want to know more about it, I'm sure you can find it if your google-fu is righteous.
Atkins worked for me; it worked really well but ultimately I'd get stuck in a crunch or get stressed out about something and that'd be the end of it. There was also the horrible crashes I'd get during the first couple weeks which I couldn't stand. With this diet, whether it be placebo effect or not, I have had none of these issues and the results have been dramatic.
All told, minus (plus?) the holiday inspired overeating that transpired the last couple weeks, I'm still about 45 pounds lighter than I was in April when I started. That's about 215 right now which is lighter than I've been since undergrad. To make it all the more astounding, most of the weight was lost within the first month and I did it specifically without exercising. The lack of exercise had nothing to do with being lazy (nothing at all).
I could go on about how much better I feel or how my health markers have improved across the board, but I'll leave you with the following thoughts:
- I eat 1.2 steaks per week (on average)
- I can eat bacon any time I want
Cruisin'
I was not a fan of Maryland. In fact, I'm on record proclaiming such things as "I couldn't get out of that goddamn state fast enough." While I'm not a huge fan of Massachusetts either, I will say that the area I live in (right around Gilette Stadium) has some great driving roads. Now that I can drive it without the threat of stalling at every light, it's a heck of a lot more fun.
Gaming
I mentioned the gaming briefly but I'll rate some of the highlights. Some of these are a couple years old but I hadn't gotten around to them yet. These are listed more or less in the order I played them.
Dungeon Siege 2: ***
The Good: the same basic gameplay as Dungeon Siege 1. Simple levels, well-written stories, and linear dungeons.
The Bad: kind of repetitive, just like Dungeon Siege 1. For those wondering, I did like DS1, but apparently I've become less patient in my older age.
Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World: **
The Good: some interesting new gear, some interesting new stories
The Bad: kinda threw out the old stories from DS2 which I thought were pretty good. Seems like it was done by a completely different set of people who didn't honor the original material. This was made all the more striking for me by playing one right after the other.
Mount & Blade: ***, **** with modding
The Good: awesome sandbox gameplay and unmatched mounted combat simulation. The melee simulation is OK, but not substantial. Huge array of mods.
The Bad: no real "win" condition; shallow roleplaying depth.
Notes: because the game is so flexible, most of the shortcomings can be modded away.
Mass Effect: ****
The Good: well-realized universe with believable characters. Even the ones you're not supposed to like are awesome (Wrex4tw!)
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve
Notes: ME2 is probably the game I'm most looking forward to this year and it's out in a couple weeks (woot!)
Champions Online: ****
The Good: some of the best combat mechanics in any MMO I've played. Extremely customizable costumes--look awesome from level 1!
The Bad: questionable design direction, facepalm level bugs, extremely hostile community
Notes: If there weren't a great game poking out of the badness, I'd probably be less bitter about Champions. The fact remains that they had a great product and almost completely botched it. It's like a Hail Mary that hits the receiver in the hands but lands on the turf. Maybe in a year it'll be better, but I have very little faith left for Cryptic.
Dragon Age Origins: *****
The Good: probably the most polished game I've ever played. It's exactly what I expected out of the leading RPG house with the hype machine of EA behind it.
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve. No good endings. Gratuitous DLC pandering.
Notes: if you like RPGs and haven't played this one, it's well worth it. I'm not kidding about the "no good endings" bit, either. It's super easy to get attached to the characters in the game and even easier to feel bad when bad things (invariably) happen to them.
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