Journals

Edit: So I passed my university second year. Respectable marks ranging from 48-70 and the max is 100 so yeah. I knew I'd pass but I wasn't sure if my essays would get a decent mark so yeah. Woo me etc.

Original Post:

So I get an email.

Hi William,



I was looking through your blog and was wondering if you would be interested in covering the launch event for DICE?s (an Electronic Arts Inc. studio) upcoming release of ?Battlefield 1943? ? a FPS available through Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network (out on the PC later this year)



The event takes place this Thursday in Covent Garden. If you are interested in coming down and reviewing the game, please drop me an email as soon as you can, so we can book you a place (fairly limited at this stage). You will find more information on the game below.



Please let me know if you would any further information.



Have a good evening,

YASIR
FROM BRANDO SOCIAL

YASIR ALANI
BRANDO SOCIAL
57 JAMESTOWN ROAD, CAMDEN, LONDON, NW1 7DB, UK
T 020 7419 8622 /F 020 7419 6963 / www.brandosocial.com
PEOPLE FROM COSSETTE

What do you think?

So I was looking through the SWTOR forums for any news on Fridays update etc and came across a thread that linked to the engine that the game is using.

Eventually I found a video on the website that shows off a level editor that lets you design levels with other people at the same time.

http://www.heroengine.com/world-building

Quite interesting and something I wish Hammer would have. I mean let me ask you programmers out there, is it possible for a third party to program some sort of online tool that would allow people to join your hammer? Logic says that since something hasn't been made in all the time Hammer has been out, I'd say it isn't possible without Hammer's Source code? I'm just guessing since I have no real coding knowledge.

I like how one guy was working on the environmental lighting while the other two worked on landscaping and adding foliage

I wrote this a few hours ago but the oldies came home and asked me to do house work so Axel's driving test doesn't apply anymore cause he failed but here it is:

It's been a while since I updated the "Journal".

Just thought I'd wish Livewire good luck with his driving test today. You'd think I'd be driving since I'm older but I never really had a desire to learn and I stopped after my 13th lesson.

Livey told me he is more determined because he wants to get away from his hometown. You should see the pictures of his old school

In other news, I've been enjoying my summer off so far and have been learning the tricks and trades of 3D modelling. Some of you may know that I modelled some props for Hunter's Glasgow map which by the way looks really good and needs to be released soon.

I've also been helping Livewire with his COD4 Wetworks recreation for L4D by coverting some brushwork rails into models so he can flip the boat. It's looking great from all the webcam feeds I saw despite the gay glare.

At the moment I've gone back to my horror map for EP2 because my third year university project requires me to write a dissertation and I chose to analyse how sound effects affect the players actions and psychological aspects in the horror genre so I'm using my old map as a base. I managed to find my gut wrenching sound effects which I got off freesounds.

Lastly I "was" going to attempt a TF2 map involving water elements where the players would have to make the water rise and change direction in order to get to the next capture point. Think Water Temple from Zelda: TP with the water slides. I managed to get water to scroll and faked it by flipping a water brush upside down. It worked pretty well but I lack the skills to create a TF2 map so meh. I owe Kasperg for the texture anyway since I ripped it from his BSP and made my own with his VMT. Mwuaha.

Happy B'Day to me. (There seems to be a lot of Birthdays in April.)

Anyway just following TWHL tradition and making a journal. I'm now 20.

As a present I ordered the entire series of Red Drawf in one giant box. I am going to be locked up for a long time

The best part about my birthday is I get to go to Uni tommorow! I so look forward to getting up at 6:45 and then getting an hour and a half train just to discuss my teams game

Anyway good night. @_@

Results day today for the rest of the assignments that I did before Christmas and technically after slightly. (Deadlines were sort of in the middle so I worked through Christmas)

Anyway my tasks were to make an interactive Christmas card and I got a 90 for it which is out of 100.

Link: http://www.habboi.co.uk/Santa_Grab_FINAL.swf

My other task was working on a story and each week we'd do tasks to give us ideas such as adding a new character who can only communicate using actions. It got 78 and after we did the weekly tasks, we had to do one more revision which got 75.

Lastly I had to model a 3D scene set in the 1930's with the theme of escape. I showed you the pics in my last journal. It got 85 which I'm happy with although I'd love to have a 90

So overall very good results = Happy Habboi

(See blog for better post: www.habboi.co.uk)

edit

In other news, Little Big Planet is still fun.

Liek "Skals", I'mma going to discuss the terrible Snow Day and how our country became third world lolz.

No, not really.

Couple of pics of the snow:

YesterdayTodaySnow Woman ;O

I can safely say I've broken up for Christmas. Whut?

Yeah I had university work due after Christmas and I had to finish it all after the big holiday.

I just got back from the oh so boring 1 hour and 30 minutes train journey + delays and jams.

Anyway so far I've done an interactive greetings card with flash, two model projects (model a lamp and a 1930's scene with the theme of escape (no prisons))

Here's the final pics I submitted along with a nice 76 page report:I wasn't allowed to use VRAY sadly or the lighting would have looked a lot nicer.

So I have roughly a month off, I'll probably play a few games like Zelda OoT, Prince of Persia and I'm tempted to try Megaman as I hang around ScrewAttack a lot who idolise the game series.

Also Hunter I'll model you some props when I can.

So what is everyone else up to?

P.S. I would upload more L4D videos but a certain someone fucked a horse instead.

It's late and I'm tired and I realised I may not be online on Christmas day ala I am going to see the family (yay >_>) and so on.

So Merry Christmas, hope you have a good day and pop some zombies (sorry 'infected'.)

Oh and you may have seen Hunters YT video by now...Pretty sexy I might say Give him some love so he can finish it.

Lastly if you don't know I've been uploading L4D videos for my YT audience. Here are the 4 uploaded so far. There'd be more but each vid took 5 hours to upload

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5H4SJhIz_Y&feature=channel_page

Merry Christmas for tommorow.

I finished my first Little Big Planet level last night. I was amazed that 40 people played it as soon as it was published.

It's quite short and really was my way of learning stuff.

It's called Treeble's Request for those interested.

Zimbabwe Money Troubles...

Hah I just came across this on a forum and I figured it was worth sharing. Christ imagine carrying that amount of cash around to go shopping.

What a waste of paper

http://humorland.wordmess.net/20081025/what-the-real-crisis-is-like/(This amount is worth ?50 roughly...)

In other news...

Only 3 days till Fallout 3 comes out, the first of four games I am waiting for. Americans already have it and have shared their views, surprisingly a lot are moaning that it sucks and the animations are clunky.

Well I don't know about you readers but I don't play a game to OOGLE at animations, I play games for the story, for the atmosphere and for the fun. And I have no doubt Fallout 3 will meet these standards.

Yes the fighting animations look a bit clunky but each game has a charm and I think the good points outweigh the bad.

I would have Little Big Planet by now but as per usual my silly country suffers because of a certain group of people. I'm not going to walk down that road, seeing as I walk in their terrirtory 3 days a week.

Also my mother warned me not to wear a Remembrance Day poppy when I go to East London Uni...Well I say to hell with that, I won't cower to the extremists who come here, to the UK and live a good life thanks to us.

What truly pissed me off was I read they were targeting people wearing the poppies because they don't want us to support soldiers even from that time period...I flew into a RAGE because if it wasn't for our men there wouldn't be a country for them to say all this bullshit.

Well I haven't said who I am talking about but by now I think you can tell...We bend over for them and they give nothing back...

That's enough ranting...I got an essay to write!

(Source of content: "http://humorland.wordmess.net/20081025/what-the-real-crisis-is-like/" - Date Accessed - 28 October 08)

Copied from Blog

It's sad to say but yet again another of my cats has died.

Well, she is being put down now or so I heard...

We noticed she was getting bigger around the belly area and assumed we were just over feeding her but she had some disease which she most likely got from the shelter we got her from.

It's called Feline Infectious Peritonitis.

Her kidney was filled up with calcium or proteins...I'm not too sure and well she would have died a painful death. In other words she had a disease and there is no cure.

At least she had a happy 3 months, the only part that hurts is she had to spend her last day at the vet for examination and we left her there as she cried.

At least her other sister is still here with us but they said it is contagious.

She was the smaller cat anyway...She was small most likely because she wasn't getting any protein etc so...Oh well...

Her name was Tia and she was 2 years old we think. She had such lovely eyes...

EDIT: http://www.habboi.co.uk/emailforme.jpg

Looks like I'm popular

International Talk Like a Pirate Day - Almost Here!That's right! It's International Talk like a Pirate Day in just 3 more days. I started celebrating it 2 years ago when somehow I came across this site:

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

Seems all you gotta do it talk like a pirate all day and if you want you can dress up too! I usually just talk pirate on MSN and at home ;D

So me matey's while we be waiting for the special day I present thee with booooooty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLsJyfN0ICU

WEIGH ANCHOR

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Male Gamers Playing as Female Game CharactersI've been meaning to write about this for a while because while playing a mod called 'Killing Floor' for Unreal Tournament 2004 I decided to play as a female character for a change. Among all the other players I was the only female character.

I joined the only server that came up because the mod had obviously lost interest and half way through amongst all the French someone asked me why I was playing as a female character and then rudely remarked "it was kinda gay".

First of all what led this person to assume I was a guy playing as a female and second of all what makes it gay? I mean I am a male, yes but I guess he hasn't seen many females play games.

I didn't really say much to him because I just thought what a stupid thing to say. So I just asked what makes it gay and he never replied...

But this goes back to my topic...Is it wrong to play as a female character?

It started a while back when I installed Elder Scrolls Oblivion for the thirteenth time and decided for a change to play as a female. It certainly made the game different because of the fact the NPC's addressed me as ma'm or miss and the new sounds when I attacked were refreshing. Although my mother came in and watched me play for a while so I explained to her what it was about etc and when I switched to third person I recall her saying..."You're a girl? That's kinda weird." (Thanks mum)

So ever since I've been playing as female character because it's refreshing and because there aren't enough of them in games.

This is partly why I am looking forward to Mirror's Edge which follows the role of Faith, a female character.

I suppose this topic is kind of steering towards Feminism which is a topic I'm not too knowledgeable about. I even have a friend who has a female avatar in Guild Wars and I remember saying it was kind of weird (this was before I tried playing as a female character)...So perhaps before people say it's weird, they should try it themselves.

But yeah, is it geeky for a male player to select a female avatar or do you think it's perfectly fine? I'm interested in what you have to say if you're reading this.

*While surfing for a picture to post at the top I found this interesting topic which is similar to mine:

http://news.filefront.com/chinese-mmo-bans-males-from-playing-female-characters/

Do give it a read.

I thought I'd add that just now I completed the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion using my female character and I realised how playing as a female helped me make decisions. For example I was pleased to see they added choices to the game and there is a point where you are forced to kill either the duke or the duchess. Playing as the female I chose to kill the duchess and take her role. Therefore if given the choice to be male or female, it does alter the experience from what I've seen. I could even replay it and see the different bits I missed not playing as a male for example... (Yes I did install it the same day I completed it...It's short! only took like 5-6+ hours I think...)

(Content used: http://www.sexysprite.com/images/UUWOVAIBBMHK.jpg - 05 September 2008)

It just occurred to me that I haven't checked the 'They Hunger: Lost Souls' mod in a while and it seems they aren't dead...

Check it:

http://www.blackwidowgames.com/

Looking sharp.

Well I did say to Muzz that I'd upload some pictures of my cats so here they are...They are starting to settle in but Tia prefers to be outdoors and we hardly see her. The other, Roxy, prefers indoors and catawauls almost all the time when we leave her alone XD

In other news I got back into mapping a little and decided to enter the Interlopers 26th compo. The theme is underground and my WIP so far is this:

I thought I'd post a small WIP myself. It's meant to be a mole's home but I haven't modelled the mole and a few props yet. I got the idea from Banjo Tooie and most of the ideas came from that very game and some Russian cartoon featuring a mole...

Using the time to model as well. Trying to make a mole character which will most likely be a static that I'll just pose in Hammer and hide using lighting tricks.

Oh by the way that purple box in the second pic is a giant match box. I found some awesome old style matchbox references.