I am in that kind of mood where I really want to play something, but I don't know what to play.
I could play a game (that I can't mention the title of), but it requires a stupid amount of mouse clicking to play, and I just can't be bothered.
My English Grammer book is great (is being the linking verb), but I can't be bothered right now.
There is Counterstrike Source, but the bots are too predictable and playing online is a pain because all the small sized servers are full and the big ones place far too many people on the map for it to be interesting.
I could write some of my placement report, but that isn't due in for ages and all I can do right now is write the section headings. Anyway I wanna have some fun.
I might start reading some of my new Project Management book then.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
My Usage Of Amazon.co.uk
I recieved another large order of books yeasterday, but something I rearlised today was that I buy books from Amazon without questioning wither I am getting a bargain or not. I just assume that the price I pay will be the cheapest I could get them for. Then I wondered wither I should question the ammount I spend there, but then I rearlised that last time I chacked the price of a book on amazon against a shop (my universitiy's book shop) Amazon was £5 cheaper.
Random Accompanying Fact
I am currently reading English Grammer For Dummies.
Random Accompanying Fact
I am currently reading English Grammer For Dummies.
STEAM Login Problems
Most people seem to be having a login problem with STEAM at the mo. STEAM is online, but the problem is with login.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Contract JACK (Completed)
The prequel to No One Lives Forever 2.
Reviewers gave it a meh.
And the gaming community said it was terrible because of it's mindless hoard killing.
I quite liked it.
It is essentially a console FPS on the PC. The auto-aim is so high on easy setting its like playing with an aim-bot, there are hoards and hoards of bad guys to kill. I mean it is so bad it seems as if Zap Branigan has been advising the bad-guys on attack strategy and it almost puts Halo to shame, not quite because the levels are interesting, so at least there is a sense of the 'passage of time' here.
Unfortunately the 'passage of time' thing is an issue. I completed this in one sitting and that sitting was only three hours long. I have played demos that have lasted longer than that. And this is a two disc game!
The comedy element usually present in this franchise is not that funny and there isn't any of those discarded documents to find in any of the levels which usually add more depth to the environment, but I liked most of the levels and the weapon selection is good.
I liked Contract Jack, but the game is shockingly short.
3/5
Reviewers gave it a meh.
And the gaming community said it was terrible because of it's mindless hoard killing.
I quite liked it.
It is essentially a console FPS on the PC. The auto-aim is so high on easy setting its like playing with an aim-bot, there are hoards and hoards of bad guys to kill. I mean it is so bad it seems as if Zap Branigan has been advising the bad-guys on attack strategy and it almost puts Halo to shame, not quite because the levels are interesting, so at least there is a sense of the 'passage of time' here.
Unfortunately the 'passage of time' thing is an issue. I completed this in one sitting and that sitting was only three hours long. I have played demos that have lasted longer than that. And this is a two disc game!
The comedy element usually present in this franchise is not that funny and there isn't any of those discarded documents to find in any of the levels which usually add more depth to the environment, but I liked most of the levels and the weapon selection is good.
I liked Contract Jack, but the game is shockingly short.
3/5
Friday, January 28, 2005
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Darwinia News
Quote:
WOW, so I am like an Anti Virus, cool!
We are aware that a lot of people have been very confused by the demo of Darwinia, with no clear idea of what they're supposed to be doing.THAT is what happens when you don't include an introduction or documentation of any kind.
We have to admit to being slightly suprised by this, but we've obviously misjudged the amount of help that games players need.THAT is what happens when you don't do observational playtesting.
We are working on a new demo that will include a detailed tutorial that explains the concepts of Darwinia.YAY! I mean I managed to compleat the demo, but I still don't understand how anybody could enjoy a game where the levels are so easy.
In the mean time, we've uploaded some basic help of our own which you can read Here.So that's what was going on!
WOW, so I am like an Anti Virus, cool!
Hot Or Not Firefox
Everybody seems to be praising Firefox as a better alternative to Internet Explorer, but I am not so sure.
Firefox has an odd memory leak where after being open for a few hours it will consume system resources like a dog with meat products. Plus the only difference between an updated version of IE and Firefox is that Firefox can do tabbed browsing.
I like Firefox, but IE is more stable and it makes me wonder if people are just being snooty about the whole issue.
Firefox has an odd memory leak where after being open for a few hours it will consume system resources like a dog with meat products. Plus the only difference between an updated version of IE and Firefox is that Firefox can do tabbed browsing.
I like Firefox, but IE is more stable and it makes me wonder if people are just being snooty about the whole issue.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Adrenaline Management
It is not often that I visit gaming forums because they are full of fanboys and people just wanting to argue, but This post on Adrenaline Management is very interesting.
I already understood about the pacing of games and that too much for too long was bad, but to think of it as Adrenaline Management is a different approach for me.
Sheer brings up some excellent examples and I too was one of those people who got terrible annoyed and tired with the flooding Flood in Halo AND Halo2 (I can't believe they did it twice) the Flood isn't so bad in Halo2, but WHY!
This is an interesting subject to consider, but regulated gameplay is boring. So Adrenaline Management isn't about making sure there isn't too much or too little action, or even using that as a gameplay element like in the survival horror genre, but instead making sure a game doesn't do anything stupid like Bungie did in Halo2, or like ID did with Doom3.
I already understood about the pacing of games and that too much for too long was bad, but to think of it as Adrenaline Management is a different approach for me.
Sheer brings up some excellent examples and I too was one of those people who got terrible annoyed and tired with the flooding Flood in Halo AND Halo2 (I can't believe they did it twice) the Flood isn't so bad in Halo2, but WHY!
This is an interesting subject to consider, but regulated gameplay is boring. So Adrenaline Management isn't about making sure there isn't too much or too little action, or even using that as a gameplay element like in the survival horror genre, but instead making sure a game doesn't do anything stupid like Bungie did in Halo2, or like ID did with Doom3.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Blizzard Responds To Penny Arcade
Blizzard Responds To Penny Arcade With A Dignified Response.
Nothing anybody can really say because its a new game and of-course there are going to be problems.
In 1997 Microsoft had similar Problems With It's Website so these things are nothing new.
Nothing anybody can really say because its a new game and of-course there are going to be problems.
In 1997 Microsoft had similar Problems With It's Website so these things are nothing new.
Anatomy for Beginners
I watched it and I agree with These Guys, it was uncomfortable to watch, but I couldn't help myself. As far as anatomy demonstrations go it was very much for beginners. We learn all this stuff in school even before we are supposed to be old enough to watch past the watershed, so the justification for making the series seems fairly shallow.
The Virtual Keyboard Is Here
Tom's Hardware has an article about 2P's Virtual Keyboard.
Effectively it is just a light that projects the image of a keyboard onto a surface, but this is an image you can use to type documents with on your PDA.
This technology has huge potential, even for devices that have no visible interface. Imagine a black box with only this as its interface, it could project not only the keyboard, but the device's output screen onto a flat surface, thus allowing the devise itself to be incredibly small.
The application for this is huge and I am sure we will all be using this in a few years to come in objects from mobile phones to watches or pens with built smart functions.
Effectively it is just a light that projects the image of a keyboard onto a surface, but this is an image you can use to type documents with on your PDA.
This technology has huge potential, even for devices that have no visible interface. Imagine a black box with only this as its interface, it could project not only the keyboard, but the device's output screen onto a flat surface, thus allowing the devise itself to be incredibly small.
The application for this is huge and I am sure we will all be using this in a few years to come in objects from mobile phones to watches or pens with built smart functions.
Nintendo Revolution Rumours
Link
I remember a technology not too long ago called iFeel by Immersion that allowed a feeling sensation. And after digging through their website I found This paper on the technology.
There has been a TON of speculation on Nintendo's upcoming console but little is actually known about it. There are so many different ideas that no one really knows what to think. So here are some supposed "facts" about the Revolution. I can't reveal my source because I've been asked not to. Sorry guys. I would say that this info has at least a 65% chance of being accurate. My source has been right before and he's also been wrong. Here goes......Touching is certainly different to feeling something because when we feel we gain knowledge of it's texture.
Ok first things first. Yes, Nintendo will utilize gyros in it's controllers. I think most people pretty much already took this as fact. Also, the Rev will indeed have dual processors. Also broadband is built in, no modem to buy. Nintendo has an online strategy in development. It will be implemented on the DS first. There are no current plans to connect the DS and the Rev....the GB Evolution on the other hand......
The Rev will have four controller ports. It will have a hard drive which will be used in much the same way as the 64DD was supposed to be used. Things like Dolby Digital 5.1 and high def monitor support are included. There is no type of virtual reality or any kind of headset planned. It is backwards compatible with Gamecube games. It will use the HD-DVD format and not Sony's Blu-Ray. Controllers are not wireless, but wireless controllers are planned. It will launch with an unnamed Mario game and work on Zelda has already begun. Super Smash Brothers is in mid development and will be a launch title.
Ok so what's the Revolutionary part? That's what you all want to know. Well my source wouldn't tell me. He said it would get him into too much trouble, and could give Sony and Microsoft an advantage at this stage in the game. But he did say this; "if you think too hard you'll never guess what it is. It's nothing "new" technically speaking. It's just something that hasn't really been applied to video games yet."
He then said "touching is good but feeling is better". What exactly that means I have no idea. Some sort of force feedback device? We already have rumble packs.
I remember a technology not too long ago called iFeel by Immersion that allowed a feeling sensation. And after digging through their website I found This paper on the technology.
Textures are often assigned to areas on the screen to make an object or background feel scratchy, grooved, grainy, or bumpy.It also goes on to talk about sensations of touching different grades of friction, like sandpaper, but honestly I can't see how this technology would be revolutionary to gaming. It's nice and brings an added experience, but it won't bring people back to Nintendo. If this is the technology hinted at then maybe there could an application I am not seeing. Maybe individual buttons could be textured or maybe an analogue stick could be textured differently to the controller's casing. I don't know, but Nintendo needs to pull something out of the hat soon otherwise they will continue to loose market share. And in that case gamers will only have a choice between the Sony people will buy anything PlayStation and and the Microsoft unleash the dogs of war XBox. And the industry can only move forward through competition so it needs Nintendo.
Napster Might Offer Movies In The Future
Might! What kind of company are they!
I have been waiting for something like this for so long I have made Other Arrangements. There are online solutions for people in the US, but nothing in the UK. Eventually all forms of media will be delivers over the internet, so why companies aren't jumping at the chance to be 'first to market' is beyond me.
I have been waiting for something like this for so long I have made Other Arrangements. There are online solutions for people in the US, but nothing in the UK. Eventually all forms of media will be delivers over the internet, so why companies aren't jumping at the chance to be 'first to market' is beyond me.
Data Exchange
This is the reason why we have the Data Protection Act in the UK.
Unfortunately it is in the US Government's interest to encourage this kind of thing because it allows them to practically simulate the opinions of their greater population and that gives them more control. Fortunately here in the UK we run our own government, and that body understands that this kind of thing can remove an individuals right to privacy.
The only problem with the Data Protection Act is that organisations are obligated to actively dispose of un-useful information. So if say I was to phone one of my old schools and ask about my attendance they wouldn't be able to tell me because the Data Protection Act forces them to dispose of any information that is not necessary for them to record.
The government is now allowing specific bodies like the Department Of Education to archive this data, but future historians will curse the Act for everything its worth, because great records like the Domesday Book provide an important view into our past. Just like the ability to look back over a hundred years of weather data allows us to predict our climate, to see the effects of Global Warming, but even more importantly allows us to discover hidden problems like Global Dimming. So can other archived data be useful in other ways.
Unfortunately it is in the US Government's interest to encourage this kind of thing because it allows them to practically simulate the opinions of their greater population and that gives them more control. Fortunately here in the UK we run our own government, and that body understands that this kind of thing can remove an individuals right to privacy.
The only problem with the Data Protection Act is that organisations are obligated to actively dispose of un-useful information. So if say I was to phone one of my old schools and ask about my attendance they wouldn't be able to tell me because the Data Protection Act forces them to dispose of any information that is not necessary for them to record.
The government is now allowing specific bodies like the Department Of Education to archive this data, but future historians will curse the Act for everything its worth, because great records like the Domesday Book provide an important view into our past. Just like the ability to look back over a hundred years of weather data allows us to predict our climate, to see the effects of Global Warming, but even more importantly allows us to discover hidden problems like Global Dimming. So can other archived data be useful in other ways.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Another WOW Comic
Snafu-Comics
Penny Arcade did a hateful post about how WOW servers are always down, but I can't like to them because they too have server problems.
Penny Arcade did a hateful post about how WOW servers are always down, but I can't like to them because they too have server problems.
CeeBot Teaching Everyone How To Programme
I have been meaning to post this for a while now, but I just haven't gotten round to writing this and anyway there has been plenty of other stuff to talk about.
Before I started my work placement at the primary school I wondered wither anybody would ask me, what the best way to teach their kid programming skills and I wondered this myself because I am sure many programmers spent weeks writing example code without understanding the structure and how things related. I know that doesn't happen with any of the visual languages, but I started with Java.
Anyway the answer seems to be a program called CeeBot. Basically it gives you a robot in a virtual environment that you have to program (so it can complete tasks). To program the robot you have to learn CeeBot's coding language which is similar to C.
It is very simple and even the advanced problems don't require you to program object orientated code, but as an introduction to programming it is excellent because it teaches instruction ordering, syntax, debugging, loops, conditions, veriable declaration, properties and methods. So other than teaching about inheritance, interfaces and input it's almost all there.
The demos are fun and I would recommend CeeBot-4 to all the other versions available, simply because it has plenty of problems, and you are taught everything gradually. Plus it starts off easy, gets harder, ends with a challenge and allows you to be creative.
I have completed all the problems. I did have to read the help text at the start of each section to findout what the problem was and what code it was trying to teach me, but all the problems are solvable. I highly recommend it to anybody who has considered learning to code, but coding is like Kung Fu, the more you practise and the more techniques you learn the better you become.
Before I started my work placement at the primary school I wondered wither anybody would ask me, what the best way to teach their kid programming skills and I wondered this myself because I am sure many programmers spent weeks writing example code without understanding the structure and how things related. I know that doesn't happen with any of the visual languages, but I started with Java.
Anyway the answer seems to be a program called CeeBot. Basically it gives you a robot in a virtual environment that you have to program (so it can complete tasks). To program the robot you have to learn CeeBot's coding language which is similar to C.
It is very simple and even the advanced problems don't require you to program object orientated code, but as an introduction to programming it is excellent because it teaches instruction ordering, syntax, debugging, loops, conditions, veriable declaration, properties and methods. So other than teaching about inheritance, interfaces and input it's almost all there.
The demos are fun and I would recommend CeeBot-4 to all the other versions available, simply because it has plenty of problems, and you are taught everything gradually. Plus it starts off easy, gets harder, ends with a challenge and allows you to be creative.
I have completed all the problems. I did have to read the help text at the start of each section to findout what the problem was and what code it was trying to teach me, but all the problems are solvable. I highly recommend it to anybody who has considered learning to code, but coding is like Kung Fu, the more you practise and the more techniques you learn the better you become.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Random Thought (Games For Girls)
Last Christmas when I was choosing what films to Give My Mum For Christmas. I realised that girl films are very different to guy films. And it just occurred to me that this must go for games too.
I have almost identified what makes a good chick flick, but games are different because girls don't influence game design yet. So I could be onto something original here.
I have this book at home where I write down game concepts, story ideas, characters and stuff in, just banking ideas so they are there when I need them and since I have been doing this for a few years now I can see where my male attitude to gaming has taken me. So I am now wondering whether I could do something very insightful with my knowledge of chick films and apply what I do know to game concepts. Eventually thinking of something truly original.
Something that has been bugging me for ages now is that whenever somebody has asked me what i want to do with my life, I don't know what to say. There are places I want to go, things i want to do, but as far as life work goes I don't know. Most people change job direction three times within their lifetime, but one thing I would love to do, is make a computer game and I have been working towards that goal, but I also have a desire to start some kind of company. I know how hard it is to do, and I know the stress would be horrible, but it's one of those calling desires I have always had. A company to do what I don't know. A computer repair shop would be easy to make a success, but that would require me to micromanage the business until the day I died and I don't want to go down that road because it is the wrong kind of place to be. I am going down the road as a programmer and gaming guru, but looking at the state of the industry and looking at how crowded it is going to become, I don't know if that is where I want to be.
I have almost identified what makes a good chick flick, but games are different because girls don't influence game design yet. So I could be onto something original here.
I have this book at home where I write down game concepts, story ideas, characters and stuff in, just banking ideas so they are there when I need them and since I have been doing this for a few years now I can see where my male attitude to gaming has taken me. So I am now wondering whether I could do something very insightful with my knowledge of chick films and apply what I do know to game concepts. Eventually thinking of something truly original.
Something that has been bugging me for ages now is that whenever somebody has asked me what i want to do with my life, I don't know what to say. There are places I want to go, things i want to do, but as far as life work goes I don't know. Most people change job direction three times within their lifetime, but one thing I would love to do, is make a computer game and I have been working towards that goal, but I also have a desire to start some kind of company. I know how hard it is to do, and I know the stress would be horrible, but it's one of those calling desires I have always had. A company to do what I don't know. A computer repair shop would be easy to make a success, but that would require me to micromanage the business until the day I died and I don't want to go down that road because it is the wrong kind of place to be. I am going down the road as a programmer and gaming guru, but looking at the state of the industry and looking at how crowded it is going to become, I don't know if that is where I want to be.
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