Journals
The quickest way to lose your passion for something is to make a career out of it. That's my opinion anyway.
I used to mess around with HTML and CSS from time to time and I used to genuinely enjoy it. The thing is, that was the occasional 3 hour session at most. When it comes down to "You WILL do this between 9am and 5:30pm!" it is a totally different story.
I think that is why I wouldn't go into game design full time. I usually map for a couple of hours at a time and I enjoy it. If I was told to build levels for 9 hours straight, I would rapidly get fed up with the processes involved and the quality of the work would suffer. Job security is another issue of course. If I make a bad website I spend a few hours fixing it up. If you make a bad game, you stop making games.
Another factor about doing design as a hobby is that if you're not sure how to approach a problem or if you simply get tired of working on a project, you can have a break, maybe leave it for a day or 2 and come back to it. At work, I have the option to say "I don't know what to do with this" but all that happens is the site moves down the list 1 place and I am given ANOTHER site to work on. It's draining. In the end of course, you HAVE to come back to the project within a reasonable amount of time or the client gets pissed off.
urgh...
Sorry for the wall of text.
I used to mess around with HTML and CSS from time to time and I used to genuinely enjoy it. The thing is, that was the occasional 3 hour session at most. When it comes down to "You WILL do this between 9am and 5:30pm!" it is a totally different story.
I think that is why I wouldn't go into game design full time. I usually map for a couple of hours at a time and I enjoy it. If I was told to build levels for 9 hours straight, I would rapidly get fed up with the processes involved and the quality of the work would suffer. Job security is another issue of course. If I make a bad website I spend a few hours fixing it up. If you make a bad game, you stop making games.
Another factor about doing design as a hobby is that if you're not sure how to approach a problem or if you simply get tired of working on a project, you can have a break, maybe leave it for a day or 2 and come back to it. At work, I have the option to say "I don't know what to do with this" but all that happens is the site moves down the list 1 place and I am given ANOTHER site to work on. It's draining. In the end of course, you HAVE to come back to the project within a reasonable amount of time or the client gets pissed off.
urgh...
Sorry for the wall of text.
I'm getting a cat!
His name is Nahmbo, I'll be picking him up at the end of the month.
SQUEEEEE!!!...
SQUEEEEE!!!...
Today I had to make a little walk at night between a local and my home. I was alone, and a bit frightened as the road that lead to the main one passed through a bit of swamp-like vegetation(trees and such), so it was quite dark there. I saw bats and heard frogs...
When I got to the main road though I felt relieved. I have to say that I was outside all day in hot sun at 32C(unusual for this time period), and the night air felt comforting and very breathable... it was a calming sensation.
I noticed the beautiful, almost full moon shining with an intense halo on the almost clear sky. I always admire celestial objects, especially the moon. We have a very popular poet(the last great romantic of Europe), Mihai Eminescu, that says in one of his poems(I'm not good at translating poetry though):
(you can skip the poem if you like, it's anyway a bit tl;dr already for some, the conclusion is the last sentence actually...)
"Moon, lord of the seas, you slide on the world's arch(sky)
And giving life to thoughts, you darken the grief
Thousands of deserts sparkle under your light
And how many forests hide in shadow the shining of springs!
On how many waves your reign extends
When you float on the moving loneliness of the seas!
How many blossomed shores, what palaces and strongholds
Crossed by your charm you show them to yourself!
And in how many homes you entered gently through the windows
How many heads full of thought, thoughtful you observe!
You see a king that plans the globe for centuries
When at the next day a poor hardly thinks of
Though remarkable steps have been given to them from the urn of fate
They're ruled alike by your light and the genial of death
To the same path of passions are alike subjected slaves,
The weak and the powerful, the genius and the foolish [...]"
I am not really entitled to translate such a piece of art, I assure you the the poem is actually a masterpiece( it is studied at school). I feel sorry I can't display it in its original perfection.
It is useless to re-explain what I felt when watching it, the poem displays my thought exactly.
At a point, a few moments after I looked at the moon, I thought again about this calming effect of the night air, and looked around me. Ah, the grace of the subtle shadows being cast from the trees, the grass carpet of the fields that would tickle and massage my feet, the still rocks that inspire eternal patience, the pacifying sounds of the splashing waves... I thought as if I could rip my clothes off right there and integrate myself in the surrounding nature. I just felt like I wanted something more than simple admiration for the nature. It was a wonderful feeling of calm, of freedom, as if peace has finally settled around me and I could hardly give a damn about stressful problems of the future...
It was a feeling that disappeared once I started walking around people again. It is very hard to live that feeling again, it can only happen in special circumstances, like the ones that happened today.
I feel relaxed.
When I got to the main road though I felt relieved. I have to say that I was outside all day in hot sun at 32C(unusual for this time period), and the night air felt comforting and very breathable... it was a calming sensation.
I noticed the beautiful, almost full moon shining with an intense halo on the almost clear sky. I always admire celestial objects, especially the moon. We have a very popular poet(the last great romantic of Europe), Mihai Eminescu, that says in one of his poems(I'm not good at translating poetry though):
(you can skip the poem if you like, it's anyway a bit tl;dr already for some, the conclusion is the last sentence actually...)
"Moon, lord of the seas, you slide on the world's arch(sky)
And giving life to thoughts, you darken the grief
Thousands of deserts sparkle under your light
And how many forests hide in shadow the shining of springs!
On how many waves your reign extends
When you float on the moving loneliness of the seas!
How many blossomed shores, what palaces and strongholds
Crossed by your charm you show them to yourself!
And in how many homes you entered gently through the windows
How many heads full of thought, thoughtful you observe!
You see a king that plans the globe for centuries
When at the next day a poor hardly thinks of
Though remarkable steps have been given to them from the urn of fate
They're ruled alike by your light and the genial of death
To the same path of passions are alike subjected slaves,
The weak and the powerful, the genius and the foolish [...]"
I am not really entitled to translate such a piece of art, I assure you the the poem is actually a masterpiece( it is studied at school). I feel sorry I can't display it in its original perfection.
It is useless to re-explain what I felt when watching it, the poem displays my thought exactly.
At a point, a few moments after I looked at the moon, I thought again about this calming effect of the night air, and looked around me. Ah, the grace of the subtle shadows being cast from the trees, the grass carpet of the fields that would tickle and massage my feet, the still rocks that inspire eternal patience, the pacifying sounds of the splashing waves... I thought as if I could rip my clothes off right there and integrate myself in the surrounding nature. I just felt like I wanted something more than simple admiration for the nature. It was a wonderful feeling of calm, of freedom, as if peace has finally settled around me and I could hardly give a damn about stressful problems of the future...
It was a feeling that disappeared once I started walking around people again. It is very hard to live that feeling again, it can only happen in special circumstances, like the ones that happened today.
I feel relaxed.
First journal 
Today i played Half Life 2 Episode Two and damn i was more scared of this guy
then the other monsters
http://i.imgur.com/DRc9S.png
He looks kind of evil :<
btw first journal :FacePalm:
Today i played Half Life 2 Episode Two and damn i was more scared of this guy
then the other monsters
http://i.imgur.com/DRc9S.png
He looks kind of evil :<
btw first journal :FacePalm:
I just posted this on the BMS forum, but I think it's worth bringing up.
What is with the Gordon Freeman vs. Adrian Shephard debates. People who say they are a fan of Shephard's character and would like to see him return... what!? What fucking character? He's a mute protagonist, just like freeman. The only thing that differentiates the 2 in game is their gloves.
Ugh... people!
What is with the Gordon Freeman vs. Adrian Shephard debates. People who say they are a fan of Shephard's character and would like to see him return... what!? What fucking character? He's a mute protagonist, just like freeman. The only thing that differentiates the 2 in game is their gloves.
Ugh... people!
My first PHP page! I am so happy I succeeded in making a simple, but functional comment system using php and mysql :).
Here's the page
Leave a comment!
(also, try telling me here too that you left a comment, somebody is playing with it...)
[EDIT] As my website uses the co.cc domain, some stupid antivirus software might tag it as a potentially dangerous website. Yeah sure, like some basic php code can do any harm. You can safely ignore your antivirus warning.
[EDIT2] Added time and date!
[EDIT3] Thank you Daubster for the <div style="clear: both;"></div> tip!
Here's the page
Leave a comment!
(also, try telling me here too that you left a comment, somebody is playing with it...)[EDIT] As my website uses the co.cc domain, some stupid antivirus software might tag it as a potentially dangerous website. Yeah sure, like some basic php code can do any harm. You can safely ignore your antivirus warning.
[EDIT2] Added time and date!
[EDIT3] Thank you Daubster for the <div style="clear: both;"></div> tip!
People were complaining about my last journal being too long, so I'll try to keep this concise and point driven.
So I played this black mesa themed French mod called Destination Black Mesa. You reprise your role as the orange & nerdy penguin monkeyboy known as Gordon Freeman. The G man has sent Gordon back into Black Mesa to find and extract a key science team member known as the Eli Vance. Recall that in vanilla, Eli is indistinguishable from other scientists so... you know, good luck trying to find him.
It took me about 10 tries to successfully complete the training level. You start in a room with about 10 of the 14 weapons while on-screen instructions in French tell you something I don't know. It looked like a typical target range room, so I was just waiting for the targets to start up, and then SUDDENLY POISON GAS FILLED THE ROOM, and A DOOR OPENED TO REVEAL TWO SOLDIERS SHOOTING at me. WTF KINDA TRAINING IS THIS!? I rushed past the two soldiers and then this hatch on the ceiling opened and this dumbass dropped a satchel on my face. Boom. Gordon's training comes to a swift conclusion. Now that he's a pile of gibs on the floor, he is ready to return to Black Mesa.
After a month's worth of stitches, Gordon is dropped by helicopter into the very same helipad from the "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES" chapter in vanilla. Speaking of which, this mod allows you to revisit a good number of areas that you've seen before. Sure to please the long-time games such as ourselves.
Anyway, not gonna bore you with my unrecorded gameplay footage. Here are two main points to know:
1. Early on, I went thru a duct to end up in front of the Silo D door (the very beginning of "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES", you know, where that one guy says FOR GODS SAKE OPEN THE SILO DOOR!) So I went and opened the Silo D door, and guess what? 5 Soldiers came out, and the game faded with Gordon being banged offscreen.
Turns out you are supposed to go in a completely different duct (very well hidden) in order to actually get thru the mod.
2. The ending. I'm not saying it's bad; it's a kinda cool cutscene of the G-man's interpersonal skills. However (spoiler) you never get to the Eli Vance. You go towards this elevator, get bonked, and that's all there is to it. Break a leg.
This mod may be a bit hard, so I wouldn't recommend it to players new to half life. If you are going to play it though, just don't be expecting a good ending (or any ending, for that matter.)
So I played this black mesa themed French mod called Destination Black Mesa. You reprise your role as the orange & nerdy penguin monkeyboy known as Gordon Freeman. The G man has sent Gordon back into Black Mesa to find and extract a key science team member known as the Eli Vance. Recall that in vanilla, Eli is indistinguishable from other scientists so... you know, good luck trying to find him.
It took me about 10 tries to successfully complete the training level. You start in a room with about 10 of the 14 weapons while on-screen instructions in French tell you something I don't know. It looked like a typical target range room, so I was just waiting for the targets to start up, and then SUDDENLY POISON GAS FILLED THE ROOM, and A DOOR OPENED TO REVEAL TWO SOLDIERS SHOOTING at me. WTF KINDA TRAINING IS THIS!? I rushed past the two soldiers and then this hatch on the ceiling opened and this dumbass dropped a satchel on my face. Boom. Gordon's training comes to a swift conclusion. Now that he's a pile of gibs on the floor, he is ready to return to Black Mesa.
After a month's worth of stitches, Gordon is dropped by helicopter into the very same helipad from the "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES" chapter in vanilla. Speaking of which, this mod allows you to revisit a good number of areas that you've seen before. Sure to please the long-time games such as ourselves.
Anyway, not gonna bore you with my unrecorded gameplay footage. Here are two main points to know:
1. Early on, I went thru a duct to end up in front of the Silo D door (the very beginning of "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES", you know, where that one guy says FOR GODS SAKE OPEN THE SILO DOOR!) So I went and opened the Silo D door, and guess what? 5 Soldiers came out, and the game faded with Gordon being banged offscreen.
Turns out you are supposed to go in a completely different duct (very well hidden) in order to actually get thru the mod.
2. The ending. I'm not saying it's bad; it's a kinda cool cutscene of the G-man's interpersonal skills. However (spoiler) you never get to the Eli Vance. You go towards this elevator, get bonked, and that's all there is to it. Break a leg.
This mod may be a bit hard, so I wouldn't recommend it to players new to half life. If you are going to play it though, just don't be expecting a good ending (or any ending, for that matter.)
Hi TWHL. I'm having a bath right now. Yeah. You're reading the insane typings of a nude guy. Like, totally nude. Modern technology at it's finest, eh?
[i]HAPPY ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS DAY![/i]
I like to give a shout out to the admins of TWHL. Always being there when shit hits the fan. Especially PenguinBoy who has devoted quite an effort to maintain and develop this site into a place for mapping and friendship.
Cheers!
I like to give a shout out to the admins of TWHL. Always being there when shit hits the fan. Especially PenguinBoy who has devoted quite an effort to maintain and develop this site into a place for mapping and friendship.
Cheers!
Anyone tried out the Sniper Elite V2 demo yet? The games promotion has been focused on the brutal kill cams you get for good shots. Full anatomical modelling of enemies combined with realistic bullet simulation etc.
Anyway, here's me playing through the demo with a commentary of my thoughts over the job, in case you haven't tried it or even heard of it yet.
I've tried to keep it interesting and skipped some of the wandering around parts.
Anyway, here's me playing through the demo with a commentary of my thoughts over the job, in case you haven't tried it or even heard of it yet.
I've tried to keep it interesting and skipped some of the wandering around parts.
Anyone else know that feeling when you're told to do problems from previous exam papers to practice for an upcoming exam?
And then you start doing them in order of least recent to most recent?
And you're doing some of the older ones and you think "These questions are pretty awesome, they're challenging enough but they work out nicely in the end and they're not overly difficult"?
And then when you get to the recent exams you realise that for the past few years the lecturer has replaced these questions with ones that don't work out nicely at all and you end up covering pages and pages with numbers and ridiculous fractions and decimals?
And you realise it will be like that in your exam and it's going to suck balls?
I know that feeling.
And it is bad.
I just wanted to let off some steam in a rant. I hate it when they do this, the exam becomes less of an actual test of your knowledge of the subject at hand and more a game to see if they can make you forget or misplace one of the numbers somewhere and end up screwing the whole thing up.
And then you start doing them in order of least recent to most recent?
And you're doing some of the older ones and you think "These questions are pretty awesome, they're challenging enough but they work out nicely in the end and they're not overly difficult"?
And then when you get to the recent exams you realise that for the past few years the lecturer has replaced these questions with ones that don't work out nicely at all and you end up covering pages and pages with numbers and ridiculous fractions and decimals?
And you realise it will be like that in your exam and it's going to suck balls?
I know that feeling.
And it is bad.
I just wanted to let off some steam in a rant. I hate it when they do this, the exam becomes less of an actual test of your knowledge of the subject at hand and more a game to see if they can make you forget or misplace one of the numbers somewhere and end up screwing the whole thing up.
I like making videos, mostly blogs on the main snc channel and goofing around in games on the games channel.
I'm aware however that my blogs consist of me moaning about life which few people would be interested in. I'll be doing another one tonight but I'm considering piling in comedy stuff wherever I can.
I read somewhere that if you need to ask how to make a good video then you're not doing it right, which I fully understand. However, from a vlog point of view, what WOULD you guys like to watch? Do you even like vlogs or should I try and focus more on video game related stuff?
Anyway, any responses before around 7pm GMT will be greatly appreciated and will probably be mentioned in the video tonight... should you watch it I mean...
I'm aware however that my blogs consist of me moaning about life which few people would be interested in. I'll be doing another one tonight but I'm considering piling in comedy stuff wherever I can.
I read somewhere that if you need to ask how to make a good video then you're not doing it right, which I fully understand. However, from a vlog point of view, what WOULD you guys like to watch? Do you even like vlogs or should I try and focus more on video game related stuff?
Anyway, any responses before around 7pm GMT will be greatly appreciated and will probably be mentioned in the video tonight... should you watch it I mean...
Aside from being sick, the next two weeks are gonna be great.
We've got Protoype 2 released on the 24th, I will say, the original was very good, it had its flaws but it was enjoyable.
Avengers comes out on the 25th and I love the Avengers series on Cartoon Network so I really hope they live up the the series. Also, it has Iron Man and Hulk, I missed hulk but I'm disappointed it's not played by Edward Norton.
Then my birthday on the 27th is meh. I don't like my birthday much.
Then I finally managed to get time off to head the 26 hour Red Flag lan in the city. It's bit of a drive but how I've missed it so. I'll have to brush up on my CoD and CS:S skills
And after that I get to drop round a friend's house who I havn't seen is a while since he left town for Uni. If I'm still awake we'll probably LAN Alien Swarm or Dead Island for the rest of the day. Good times
It's nice to have a week to look forward to sometimes.
We've got Protoype 2 released on the 24th, I will say, the original was very good, it had its flaws but it was enjoyable.
Avengers comes out on the 25th and I love the Avengers series on Cartoon Network so I really hope they live up the the series. Also, it has Iron Man and Hulk, I missed hulk but I'm disappointed it's not played by Edward Norton.
Then my birthday on the 27th is meh. I don't like my birthday much.
Then I finally managed to get time off to head the 26 hour Red Flag lan in the city. It's bit of a drive but how I've missed it so. I'll have to brush up on my CoD and CS:S skills
And after that I get to drop round a friend's house who I havn't seen is a while since he left town for Uni. If I'm still awake we'll probably LAN Alien Swarm or Dead Island for the rest of the day. Good times
It's nice to have a week to look forward to sometimes.
AMD Quad Core Processor A8-3500M
AMD Radeon HD 6620g, 512 MB Graphics Memory
640 GB HDD
6 GB DDR3 RAM
Blu-Ray Disc Drive
1.3 MP HD Webcam
17.3" 16:9 HD+ LED LCD display
HDMI Compatible
I have some mapping to make up for.