Journals
Review: Star Trek Enterprise
Watching Enterprise finally. Even though i'm a big fan of star trek i just never got around to watching it when it was on tv, but looked forward to the day i could watch the entire series on dvd. Unfortunately i have to say i am severely disappointed.
Visually, the show is amazing, with sets, props, cgi effects, and ship design(particularly the alien ships, which are amazing), which are second to none compared to all the Star Trek tv series, but that's where the compliments end.
These are the voyages of a crew you for the most part, can't be bothered to care about and a captain who is a full-blown douche. Character development for some of the alien races seems way better, and it makes you wonder why more attention wasn't taken to make the crew of the enterprise nx-01 more insteresting.
Implausible, boring storys seem to dominate this beleagured show, though of course there are a few episodes that pull through and are actually ok.
Space battles(my favourite part of the star trek franchise), get better as time goes on, especially when enterprise finally gets photonic torpedoes and phase cannons. Sadly though most altercations seem recycled from every previous one; it's all very formulaic:
1. captain is informed unknown vessel approaching
2. captain askes comms officer to hail
3. enemy charges weapons
4. captain orders hull plating and weapons activated
5. enterprise gets pummeled but somehow survives.
6. enterprise runs away barely escaping destruction
7. "Trip" ordered to make repairs in approx 6 hours
8. repeat
Many times they don't even show the weapons being fired, and you only know the battle is over when the tactical officer says "direct hit captain, their engines are disabled". I mean, really? At 30 million an episode, you'd think they would at least try to throw you a bone.
Seasons 1 and 2 start out ok, and because the season is new you are willing to put up with some crap. Stories are mostly boring, but at least the introduction of the Temporal Cold war is interesting, and Sulliban are intereting alien enemies. Episodes involving crewman daniels explaining the origins of the TCW are particularly interesting.
Season 3 takes the glint of promise from seasons 1 and 2 and flushes them right down the trans-dimensional-temporal-rift toilet, with the ENITRE SEASON focused on the Xindi/sphere-builder crisis. Season 3 is like one, long episode that sucks, and at the end you wonder how the producers allowed this to happen.
THEN, just when noone could possibly think the show could go any farther down the poop shoot, yup, you guessed it: it does. =/
Season 4 boldly nosedives to a low no viewer has seen before, full of poorly-written stories and more recycled garbage from previous seasons, namely, rehashing the whole trans-dimensional/temporal war thing(even though they just got done failing at it the season prior). The producers seem to realize this halfway through the season and appear to try to make changes, with a series of unrelated 2-3 episode "cliffhangers" that all seem to suck almost as bad.
That is all. Dismissed.
:extreme-sadface:
Visually, the show is amazing, with sets, props, cgi effects, and ship design(particularly the alien ships, which are amazing), which are second to none compared to all the Star Trek tv series, but that's where the compliments end.
These are the voyages of a crew you for the most part, can't be bothered to care about and a captain who is a full-blown douche. Character development for some of the alien races seems way better, and it makes you wonder why more attention wasn't taken to make the crew of the enterprise nx-01 more insteresting.
Implausible, boring storys seem to dominate this beleagured show, though of course there are a few episodes that pull through and are actually ok.
Space battles(my favourite part of the star trek franchise), get better as time goes on, especially when enterprise finally gets photonic torpedoes and phase cannons. Sadly though most altercations seem recycled from every previous one; it's all very formulaic:
1. captain is informed unknown vessel approaching
2. captain askes comms officer to hail
3. enemy charges weapons
4. captain orders hull plating and weapons activated
5. enterprise gets pummeled but somehow survives.
6. enterprise runs away barely escaping destruction
7. "Trip" ordered to make repairs in approx 6 hours
8. repeat
Many times they don't even show the weapons being fired, and you only know the battle is over when the tactical officer says "direct hit captain, their engines are disabled". I mean, really? At 30 million an episode, you'd think they would at least try to throw you a bone.
Seasons 1 and 2 start out ok, and because the season is new you are willing to put up with some crap. Stories are mostly boring, but at least the introduction of the Temporal Cold war is interesting, and Sulliban are intereting alien enemies. Episodes involving crewman daniels explaining the origins of the TCW are particularly interesting.
Season 3 takes the glint of promise from seasons 1 and 2 and flushes them right down the trans-dimensional-temporal-rift toilet, with the ENITRE SEASON focused on the Xindi/sphere-builder crisis. Season 3 is like one, long episode that sucks, and at the end you wonder how the producers allowed this to happen.
THEN, just when noone could possibly think the show could go any farther down the poop shoot, yup, you guessed it: it does. =/
Season 4 boldly nosedives to a low no viewer has seen before, full of poorly-written stories and more recycled garbage from previous seasons, namely, rehashing the whole trans-dimensional/temporal war thing(even though they just got done failing at it the season prior). The producers seem to realize this halfway through the season and appear to try to make changes, with a series of unrelated 2-3 episode "cliffhangers" that all seem to suck almost as bad.
That is all. Dismissed.
:extreme-sadface:
[Spoilers for 'The Walking Dead' season 2 episode 1 ahead]
So, I just finished watching the first episode of the new Walking Dead season. A brilliant episode all in all. I'm particularly interested in the direction the show is going in comparison to the comic. Although I haven't read the entire comic series up-to-date, I do know enough to see the variations in the stories of both the comic and TV show. The direction season two is taking is very much different, and I have to admit, much more interesting then the comic series. It'll be interesting to see how things develop now that the group has been split up as well as the fate of the two kids.
So, I just finished watching the first episode of the new Walking Dead season. A brilliant episode all in all. I'm particularly interested in the direction the show is going in comparison to the comic. Although I haven't read the entire comic series up-to-date, I do know enough to see the variations in the stories of both the comic and TV show. The direction season two is taking is very much different, and I have to admit, much more interesting then the comic series. It'll be interesting to see how things develop now that the group has been split up as well as the fate of the two kids.
Don't know which is better:
1. Walking 25km home on rain and high wind trough the woods because the bus driver of the last buss home (00:15) didnt give an F i was on the station. Took me 3 hours.
2. Getting "robed" for 0.3$ by 4 people and an APPLE pealing knife (seriously i laughed my ass off when they walked away) - They were all like: give us money or we will gut you and shit
3. Seeing the exact same driver of the bus that blew me off as i was approaching my home, 3 hours latter. I wanted to hit the driver in the face with a metal pipe.
But in the end i was happy, i took it like a man, and it felt good not to go down their level. Guess i learned a very important lesson today.
1. Walking 25km home on rain and high wind trough the woods because the bus driver of the last buss home (00:15) didnt give an F i was on the station. Took me 3 hours.
2. Getting "robed" for 0.3$ by 4 people and an APPLE pealing knife (seriously i laughed my ass off when they walked away) - They were all like: give us money or we will gut you and shit
3. Seeing the exact same driver of the bus that blew me off as i was approaching my home, 3 hours latter. I wanted to hit the driver in the face with a metal pipe.
But in the end i was happy, i took it like a man, and it felt good not to go down their level. Guess i learned a very important lesson today.
English is a crazy language:
I just watched a playthru of this weirdo japanese homebrew 2D earthbound/mother-like dream fantasy game. Name's yume nikki.
It's about this shut-in who goes to sleep and explore strange worlds all part of a dream. And these tend to get really disturbing. The game's essentially a scavenger hunt which could take a long time to finish, since the items are hidden in strange and inexplicably irrational ways. There's really no good way for me to describe how tripped up this game is unless you see for yourself. Since there are many a dream-curious people here, figured y'all might be interested.
As for the ending...
It's about this shut-in who goes to sleep and explore strange worlds all part of a dream. And these tend to get really disturbing. The game's essentially a scavenger hunt which could take a long time to finish, since the items are hidden in strange and inexplicably irrational ways. There's really no good way for me to describe how tripped up this game is unless you see for yourself. Since there are many a dream-curious people here, figured y'all might be interested.
As for the ending...
Apparently, the person who made Mistake( a HL1 mod), is the leader of a new project about to be released: Grey.
This time the mod is a Source mod, and again will be a total conversion.
Here's a teaser video.
I'm expecting a genuine horror mod.
This time the mod is a Source mod, and again will be a total conversion.
Here's a teaser video.
I'm expecting a genuine horror mod.
Happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me,
something something something,
and the rest.
Yup, 25 today. Half way to 50, a third of the way to 75...
This makes no sense. Didn't I turn 21 like, a week ago? Stupid time. ¬_¬
happy birthday to me,
something something something,
and the rest.
Yup, 25 today. Half way to 50, a third of the way to 75...
This makes no sense. Didn't I turn 21 like, a week ago? Stupid time. ¬_¬
Apparently, there was a BBC documentary which revealed that the Catholic Church has been illegally trafficking newly-born babies. Why? Because they believed their mothers were unfit to have them. According to the documentary, they stole at least 300,000 of them and sold them on for profit via adoptions, no less.
The very fact that the Pope has not been struck by lighting over 9000 times and the Vatican swallowed whole by the Earth is proof that god doesn't exist, In my opinion.
The very fact that the Pope has not been struck by lighting over 9000 times and the Vatican swallowed whole by the Earth is proof that god doesn't exist, In my opinion.
Heh maybe this is old but it cracked me up. What a weird game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67tNwTtH0qE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67tNwTtH0qE
Don't think I'm really going to be in the partying mood for a LONG time..
Last night was a normal party with all my friends....
...and then one of my best friends got molested / raped.
Last night was a normal party with all my friends....
...and then one of my best friends got molested / raped.
I periodically visit the web sites I manage to make sure everything is going well. It's generally always the same and thus a rather boring activity. But yesterday I found one of them had been altered.
An <iframe> to an external site (something like aiowfuhewqifumalwieucfhnalwu.in/something.php) was planted in it. Not only on visible pages, also on test pages that were never linked to. The easiest way to fix them would be to reupload all the files again from my hard drive, so I started FileZilla, and found out a shitton of random asp pages (that linked to more spam) had been also uploaded.
Looked up the internet and the most likely cause was that my ftp password had been stolen. But... how? I've never given it to anyone.
Then I remembered. Assuming it had been this, it was safe to change the password and all would be good again.
Moral of the story: Change all passwords after all your internet traffic has been diverted through someone else's computer.
An <iframe> to an external site (something like aiowfuhewqifumalwieucfhnalwu.in/something.php) was planted in it. Not only on visible pages, also on test pages that were never linked to. The easiest way to fix them would be to reupload all the files again from my hard drive, so I started FileZilla, and found out a shitton of random asp pages (that linked to more spam) had been also uploaded.
Looked up the internet and the most likely cause was that my ftp password had been stolen. But... how? I've never given it to anyone.
Then I remembered. Assuming it had been this, it was safe to change the password and all would be good again.
Moral of the story: Change all passwords after all your internet traffic has been diverted through someone else's computer.
Just bought Half-Life:Blue Shit.
I enjoyed the game although it felt more boring than a free mod available on planetphillip. That, or maybe I'm just 10 years late...
The problem is that there are not a lot of interesting puzzles to solve other than some pushing of buttons. Sometimes it gets frustrating, and I got the impression that instead of putting more effort into the strategy/puzzle aspect, the designers preferred to just throw in hoards of marines...
All in all, I feel I just wasted the money I could have used to buy 10 breads, on a mod that I could've just read the story of on Wikipedia...
I also have to add that I think I'm going to give up getting involved in anything that's related to GoldSource. Even playing mods( well, not entirely, there are still some really good mods out there that still deserve to be played).
It's just that the engine is too old for today's standards, and I'm sick and tired too see the same old textures or low quality textures over and over again. Not mentioning that everything that has to resemble with a physical prop in motion has to be scripted.
Who knows, maybe we're going to be talking about source like this 5 years in the future too. Or maybe Valve will finally release a damn continuation to the half-life story, with an engine upgrade coming along.
I enjoyed the game although it felt more boring than a free mod available on planetphillip. That, or maybe I'm just 10 years late...
The problem is that there are not a lot of interesting puzzles to solve other than some pushing of buttons. Sometimes it gets frustrating, and I got the impression that instead of putting more effort into the strategy/puzzle aspect, the designers preferred to just throw in hoards of marines...
All in all, I feel I just wasted the money I could have used to buy 10 breads, on a mod that I could've just read the story of on Wikipedia...
I also have to add that I think I'm going to give up getting involved in anything that's related to GoldSource. Even playing mods( well, not entirely, there are still some really good mods out there that still deserve to be played).
It's just that the engine is too old for today's standards, and I'm sick and tired too see the same old textures or low quality textures over and over again. Not mentioning that everything that has to resemble with a physical prop in motion has to be scripted.
Who knows, maybe we're going to be talking about source like this 5 years in the future too. Or maybe Valve will finally release a damn continuation to the half-life story, with an engine upgrade coming along.
Some people may notice the new site icon in the sidebar:
invert-x is a little site that our good friend Ant and I have been working on. Basically, we choose one topic per week and each write a short article on it. It should be updated every Sunday (I hope!).
We started off with some opinions on the Battlefield 3 beta. Feel free to subscribe/like/whatever it is the kids are doing these days.
(Sorry for the advertisement, Ant will hurt me if I don't do it!)
invert-x is a little site that our good friend Ant and I have been working on. Basically, we choose one topic per week and each write a short article on it. It should be updated every Sunday (I hope!).
We started off with some opinions on the Battlefield 3 beta. Feel free to subscribe/like/whatever it is the kids are doing these days.
(Sorry for the advertisement, Ant will hurt me if I don't do it!)
So you may recall my journal post about how Cat + Coca-Cola = Duff Keyboard?
Well the day after that, already depressed due to my inability to game, my friend Digital_Ice bought me a copy of RAGE for my upcoming 25th Birthday. When I informed him that I couldn't play it because my keyboard was dying, he also lent me one for the weekend (getting a new one tomorrow)
Yeah, friends are awesome.
Well the day after that, already depressed due to my inability to game, my friend Digital_Ice bought me a copy of RAGE for my upcoming 25th Birthday. When I informed him that I couldn't play it because my keyboard was dying, he also lent me one for the weekend (getting a new one tomorrow)
Yeah, friends are awesome.