Journals
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.
Well, today I got Rage. Although I am only a small bit into the game (about to start the sponsorship race) I gotta say, it's a bloody brilliant game. Story wise it seems more or less to be that of Fallout 3. Just replace Enclave with "The Authority" and Megaton with Wellspring. Oh, and no grand water purifying project (that I've yet to see).
What it lacks in story it more then makes up for in combat and animations. The enemies are fantastically done, challenging (assuming you put it at hard at the very least) and very smooth. In particular, the ducking, dodging and fast movements of bandits and mutants make for some very fun, sometimes intense battles. I'd say the vehicle combat is a little less entertaining then fighting on foot, but still great nonetheless.
My only real criticism so far is that the audio seems a little out of sync with the speaking animations of the characters ingame. Anyone else noticed that? Or is it just me?
What it lacks in story it more then makes up for in combat and animations. The enemies are fantastically done, challenging (assuming you put it at hard at the very least) and very smooth. In particular, the ducking, dodging and fast movements of bandits and mutants make for some very fun, sometimes intense battles. I'd say the vehicle combat is a little less entertaining then fighting on foot, but still great nonetheless.
My only real criticism so far is that the audio seems a little out of sync with the speaking animations of the characters ingame. Anyone else noticed that? Or is it just me?
ell thi i a pain in the are. My cat pilled coke all over my keyboard and no ome of the key have topped orking.
Baically, I'm not going to be around much until unday. Look like I'll have to make the mot of my ii or P3 until then. igh
Oh ell, catch you guy later.
(Bonu point to anyone ho can tell hich column of key aren't orking. )
Baically, I'm not going to be around much until unday. Look like I'll have to make the mot of my ii or P3 until then. igh
Oh ell, catch you guy later.
(Bonu point to anyone ho can tell hich column of key aren't orking.
)
Finished Mass Effect 2
You guys were right, it was awesome! And they kept the story interesting, which is more than you can say about most sequels. Looking forward to ME3.
Just as when I played ME1 I found the game quite boring the first hour, but once you got in to it it was great. I think I ended up spending 26 hours playing ME2 in total, which is 7 more hours than the first game.
I liked how my decitions from ME1 actually had an impact in ME2, even though it didn't matter as much as I wanted it to, but I hear that the choices you make in ME1 (and ME2) will have an even bigger impact in ME3.
I think it's a shame that they removed the inventory system, and that they removed the infinite ammo feature. I often ran out of ammo, and as far as I know you couldn't buy ammo between the missions so sometimes I had to let my teammates do all the work. Luckily the AI was better and more controllable than it was in ME1.
Also I've been playing the BF3 Beta. It's fucking awesome, but quite buggy so far. Love the intensive firefights, they really feel vivid. I really enjoy the new suppressing feature. When you're getting shot at, you feel the danger even though you are behind cover. Feels like I'm playing Company of Heroes from a first person perspective. I'll probably end up wasting even more time on this than I did on Battlefield 2.
You guys were right, it was awesome! And they kept the story interesting, which is more than you can say about most sequels. Looking forward to ME3.
Just as when I played ME1 I found the game quite boring the first hour, but once you got in to it it was great. I think I ended up spending 26 hours playing ME2 in total, which is 7 more hours than the first game.
I liked how my decitions from ME1 actually had an impact in ME2, even though it didn't matter as much as I wanted it to, but I hear that the choices you make in ME1 (and ME2) will have an even bigger impact in ME3.
I think it's a shame that they removed the inventory system, and that they removed the infinite ammo feature. I often ran out of ammo, and as far as I know you couldn't buy ammo between the missions so sometimes I had to let my teammates do all the work. Luckily the AI was better and more controllable than it was in ME1.
Also I've been playing the BF3 Beta. It's fucking awesome, but quite buggy so far. Love the intensive firefights, they really feel vivid. I really enjoy the new suppressing feature. When you're getting shot at, you feel the danger even though you are behind cover. Feels like I'm playing Company of Heroes from a first person perspective. I'll probably end up wasting even more time on this than I did on Battlefield 2.
Publishing on Kindle has never been easier.
In less than 30 minutes, I published the handbook I wrote for kids with ADHD last night.
In less than 30 minutes, I published the handbook I wrote for kids with ADHD last night.
Arrested Development is coming back for a 10 episode mini-season leading up to the movie.
Futurama and AD returning from the dead? Is it too late for Firefly?
Last night, I got off my computer at a reasonable time (11PM) for work tomorrow. I go to set my alarm, and it's an hour behind!
"What's wrong with this thing?", I thought to myself. I must have knocked the time set button or something last time I hit snooze on it for the tenth time in a row.
I thought little of it, and grabbed my phone to confirm the time - it was indeed 11PM. Stupid alarm must be playing up.
So I woke up this morning at 6:45, half an hour before I needed to leave. I flicked on the news while I was eating breakfast - the news says that it's 5:45AM. That's an HOUR AND A HALF before I need to leave! I check my phone and it is still an hour late. I check my trusty analogue wall clock and it is showing 5:45!
At this point I was really confused. Do I need to go to work yet, or not? I messed with the date settings on the phone, turning off automatic time setting. The time went back exactly one hour.
Suddenly, a little light bulb switched on in my head. Daylight savings time switched over yesterday morning, and, of course, being in Queensland, Australia, I don't need to worry about all of that crap.
BUT, it turns out that somehow, BOTH my phone and computer had their time zones set to Sydney and had automatically switched to daylight savings time yesterday.
And this is why I hate daylight savings time.
Moral: Don't trust devices that know about time zones!
Also, daylight savings time sucks!
"What's wrong with this thing?", I thought to myself. I must have knocked the time set button or something last time I hit snooze on it for the tenth time in a row.
I thought little of it, and grabbed my phone to confirm the time - it was indeed 11PM. Stupid alarm must be playing up.
So I woke up this morning at 6:45, half an hour before I needed to leave. I flicked on the news while I was eating breakfast - the news says that it's 5:45AM. That's an HOUR AND A HALF before I need to leave! I check my phone and it is still an hour late. I check my trusty analogue wall clock and it is showing 5:45!
At this point I was really confused. Do I need to go to work yet, or not? I messed with the date settings on the phone, turning off automatic time setting. The time went back exactly one hour.
Suddenly, a little light bulb switched on in my head. Daylight savings time switched over yesterday morning, and, of course, being in Queensland, Australia, I don't need to worry about all of that crap.
BUT, it turns out that somehow, BOTH my phone and computer had their time zones set to Sydney and had automatically switched to daylight savings time yesterday.
And this is why I hate daylight savings time.
Moral: Don't trust devices that know about time zones!
Also, daylight savings time sucks!
This is quite funny:
23rd year on this earth is today.
Lots of birthdays around this time.
I said there were going to be pictures but i haven't uploaded any yet.
Party was chill. nothing crazy. so there's normal pictures. But there WAS a cake fight. It was great fun.
Got a few CD's (Blink-182, RHCP, STP) and a Petco Giftcard. Got some shrimp and a plant for my fish tank at work.
I joined this site when i was 16. Wow I've been around for a while....
Lots of birthdays around this time.
I said there were going to be pictures but i haven't uploaded any yet.
Party was chill. nothing crazy. so there's normal pictures. But there WAS a cake fight. It was great fun.
Got a few CD's (Blink-182, RHCP, STP) and a Petco Giftcard. Got some shrimp and a plant for my fish tank at work.
I joined this site when i was 16. Wow I've been around for a while....
I am happy with my triathlon run today. I ran a 8:15 mile split.
It was our third year doing the triathlon together--Kenny, Brad, and I. We are all full-time pediatricians at South Bay, but each of us train in our specific event on a regular basis.
The hills did not faze me today. In fact, I took advantage of the hills (both uphill and downhill) to pass many other runners.
What made it more interesting was that a film crew was shooting "Batman Rises" on the actual running course (the film set was in the middle of the road), and we all ran past it while they were shooting. Fake snow was drifting down from above. It was simply surreal.
It was our third year doing the triathlon together--Kenny, Brad, and I. We are all full-time pediatricians at South Bay, but each of us train in our specific event on a regular basis.
The hills did not faze me today. In fact, I took advantage of the hills (both uphill and downhill) to pass many other runners.
What made it more interesting was that a film crew was shooting "Batman Rises" on the actual running course (the film set was in the middle of the road), and we all ran past it while they were shooting. Fake snow was drifting down from above. It was simply surreal.
Flashmob canceled due to unforseen consequnces.
I was at the Euro-gamer expo today, I got to play Skyrim, Mw3, Battlefield 3, Star wars old republic, Final Fantasy XIII-2, CS:GO, Rage, Ninja Gaiden 3 and Mass effect 3.
It was great fun, got a lot of free stuff too.
(Incoming game-play spoilers on those games, no story spoilers though.)
I think the best game there was Skyrim, Trust me when I say it lives up to expectation. Mw3 was surprisingly fun to play with my friend, CS:GO was like CSS basically but with new stuff, I played it on PS3 for a short time so I can't say much about it, same formula really.
One game I was surprised with was Rage, it was actually really cool. Ninja Gaiden was hard as always. FF XIII-2 was basically like a 2x better FF XIII, everything about it was just better, no slow cinematic waiting as paradigms switch "yay!".
Battle field 3 was meh, Star wars old republic I played for like 20 mins in a big PvP match, we didn't get to choose our classes though so I didn't enjoy it that much, well that and the fact that my team got raped. Who knew I should have went with the Jedai nerds not the Sith ppl D: . Mass Effect 3 looked exactly the same as Mass Effect 2. The level I played looked really repetitive which disappointed me, combat was exactly the same as Mass effect 2.
What else can I say? Well, MW3 has dogs strapped with suicide bombs that explode when the dogs die. Yeah...
It was great fun, got a lot of free stuff too.
(Incoming game-play spoilers on those games, no story spoilers though.)
I think the best game there was Skyrim, Trust me when I say it lives up to expectation. Mw3 was surprisingly fun to play with my friend, CS:GO was like CSS basically but with new stuff, I played it on PS3 for a short time so I can't say much about it, same formula really.
One game I was surprised with was Rage, it was actually really cool. Ninja Gaiden was hard as always. FF XIII-2 was basically like a 2x better FF XIII, everything about it was just better, no slow cinematic waiting as paradigms switch "yay!".
Battle field 3 was meh, Star wars old republic I played for like 20 mins in a big PvP match, we didn't get to choose our classes though so I didn't enjoy it that much, well that and the fact that my team got raped. Who knew I should have went with the Jedai nerds not the Sith ppl D: . Mass Effect 3 looked exactly the same as Mass Effect 2. The level I played looked really repetitive which disappointed me, combat was exactly the same as Mass effect 2.
What else can I say? Well, MW3 has dogs strapped with suicide bombs that explode when the dogs die. Yeah...
Edit: Absolutely enjoyed it. Here's my experiences.
http://blog.habboi.co.uk/2011/09/eurogamer-expo-2011.html
Going to Eurogamer Expo in London tomorrow and I just found out my friend bought us early tickets so we'll get to play all the good games before it gets busy. Can't wait
Also gonna check out the indie games, developer sessions and visit the career advisers.
Anyone else going?
http://blog.habboi.co.uk/2011/09/eurogamer-expo-2011.html
Going to Eurogamer Expo in London tomorrow and I just found out my friend bought us early tickets so we'll get to play all the good games before it gets busy. Can't wait
Also gonna check out the indie games, developer sessions and visit the career advisers.
Anyone else going?
Alright, so I need a new graphics card. It has to have the following minimum:
Goes up to 1920x1080, gets good performance in modern games at half that (the only other 16:9 resolution available in both games and my monitor)
*DirectX 9 compatible
*Pixel Shader 2.0b
*512MB card
*PCI Express 2.0 support
Now here comes the bad part: I have a maximum budget of $140, including added tax. And paying the full $140 would leave me broke. I also can't buy online.
Any suggestions? And has ATI gotten their stuff together with OpenGL so I could run Hammer 3.5 with one of their cards?
Goes up to 1920x1080, gets good performance in modern games at half that (the only other 16:9 resolution available in both games and my monitor)
*DirectX 9 compatible
*Pixel Shader 2.0b
*512MB card
*PCI Express 2.0 support
Now here comes the bad part: I have a maximum budget of $140, including added tax. And paying the full $140 would leave me broke. I also can't buy online.
Any suggestions? And has ATI gotten their stuff together with OpenGL so I could run Hammer 3.5 with one of their cards?