Starwars

Definetely. It's funny, before I saw it I always thought it would be a kind of very low-budget, experimental film since noone seems to know of it. But it's pretty damn grand in its vision, pretty easy to follow and of coruse (as with all of Scotts films) incredibly beautiful to look at. Strange that it isn't talked about more, though I believe it did win some prize at Cannes.

Watched American Gangster and thought it was tremendous. Kinda cool to see how Ridley Scott has changed as a director, never could really imagine him doing a gangster picture after seeing films like the Duellists, Blade Runner or Alien way back, and was rather skeptical about this one. But American Gangster is really good, his best film in what seems like forever. Both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe (normally not a huge fan of him) were great.

Vangelis (Blade Runner soundtrack) - Love theme. Great.

I think it's a fair point to argue realism or plausability within the context of the gameworld itself. I always disliked the idea of a Fat Man, but was slightly encouraged when Beth said in some interview that ammo would be scarce for it. But that wasn't really true as I found like 9 mini-nukes on my first playthrough, scattered in the wasteland/DC. And then I found out that a guy in Rivet City also sells them. So much for that. It's also interesting to me how I feel that the actual gameworld is both Bethesdas strength and weakness. On one hand, you have a gameworld which often looks very nice and is impressive to walk around in. On the other hand, there seems to be no internal logic or consistancy to it whatsoever. It truly feels like "hey, we thought up some cool stuff, let's throw it into the game". It's kind jarring as you can run into a quest like the one about the android, which seems to me fit pretty well into the Fallout world, despite that it's also a new theme (at least from what I can remember) and have a nice quest path to it (where you feel rewarded if you choose to really pursue it until the end). And then on the next step, you run into something so incredibly stupid like the comic book hero/villain settlement.

Karl Sanders - Rapture of the Empty Spaces Karl Sanders is one of the guys from Death Metal band Nile. He has released two solo records, Saurian Meditation and Saurian Excorcisms. This track is from the latter CD, which is a fairly recent release. The style is sort of ambient, mixed with... well, how can one describe it? Dark ritualistic music. It's a great CD (as is the first one) and excellent to get your imagination flowing.

Watched Francis Ford Coppolas film Youth Without Youth the other day. Liked it quite a bit, and it also felt rather different than what he has done before. Quite a bit more unusual, almost Lynch:ish in some places. Think it dragged slightly at around the middle or so, but it picked up quickly again and finished strong. One of the best films (aside from re-watching films I like that is) I've seen in quite a while.

I'm looking forward to this. Judging from interviews as well as some trailer stuff shown, I think the guys have a pretty good grip on the design of the game. It feels like they've really thought stuff through which is more than I can say for most game developers. Still, two things. While it will still be there in some respect, I don't like that they're toning down some of the "realistic" aspects. I think having to control your speed limit, not driving against red lights and stuff like that worked excellently in Mafia 1. Normally I'll take gameplay over realism any day of the week, but I really feel the realism of Mafia 1 really contributed greatly to the games great feel and atmosphere. And secondly, I must say I'm not crazy about having it set in the 40s and 50s. That's subjective though, I've just always really adored the 20s and 30s, and again... Mafia 1 brought that to life via great music (Django like someone mentioned above) as well as the cars. I loved the driving in Mafia 1 where you had these classic, rather slow car chases and stuff. It does look great though. I think it has all the potential in the world to become a classic.

The various incarnations of the X-wing/Tie-Fighter games are my favourites. I seem to have a soft spot for X-Wing Alliance especially, great game.

After finishing a playthrough of the Purgatorio beta test, I found myself wanting to play more NWN2, but also had less time to do it because of work, studies and moving to a new apartment. So decided to replay a mod called Harp & Crysanthemum, which is a really lovely little adventure. Probably my favourite mod of NWN2. It's not enormously ambitious, but it does what it sets out to do extremely well. I also really like the area design in this mod, the author really nailed the feeling of nature. When moving through the mod, there is a great sense of a slightly chilly autumn. It's pretty impressive what someone skilled can do with the NWN2 engine. The mod takes starts in a small village called Drawn Swords. Didn't actually take any screenies of the actual village for some reason, but the views around it are nice: The rather barren Backlands: A nice view in Northdark Wood (the northern part), which is also probably my favourite area in the mod: Another one of Northdark Wood, north: Forest meeting in the evening: An Elven tomb: Wandering through the southern part of Northdark Wood:

Today I re-watched Monty Pythons The Life of Brian for the first time in a very long while, and I loved it. I really think it's easily the best of Pythons movies. I love both The Holy Grail and the Meaning of Life, but whereas I love the sheer insanity present in those films, there is always a patch in the middle of it where the film slows down... The momentum is not there anymore. Life of Brian is still insane, but it works much better as a film on its own as well. It has a good message and the plot seems to have some pacing and coherence to it. The ending shows how wonderful good comedy can be. The scene on the crosses is just so marvellous, and actually quite touching which is such a strange thing to experience since Python humor is often pretty ruthless. Hilarious stuff. Probably the best comedy movie that I know.

Today I finished painting the apartment I'm moving into soon, and thank god for that. I don't have anything against physical work at all, but unfortunately it's just something I really suck at. I'm always approaching things from the right angle it seems, and then a more able person comes along and say "er, shouldn't you do it like *this*?". Then I get very embarrassed and feel very stupid. Still, a great success all in all. It's actually quite a nice place and a huge step up from the craphole I'm currently living in. Main problem is that it's quite close to the local church, which likely means that I'll be awoken by church bells on those hung-over Sunday mornings... Tried to get some work done on my NWN2 mod, but it didn't work well today. To many other things going for me to focus on it at the moment.

Hey, it's Zebranky! I don't have any published work, but for the NWN2 mod I'm working on, the idea of the setting came first. I didn't develop it right away, but the general idea of it. It also wasn't something I sat down and thought about actively, more just thinking about it before I went to sleep and so on. After I had that, and decided that I was actually gonna try and make a mod out of it, I thought out just what kind of design I would apply to this. Would I make storybased, linear/non-linear, dialogue-heavy, combat-heavy etc. And how would these different things apply to the setting I had in mind. After that, I looked at the setting and re-shaped where I felt it would fit better in with the gameplay design I was going for. So yeah, the general idea of the setting came first. But it's the gameplay design that I decided on that kinda dictated and changed where the setting went finally.

The doggy is a companion called Hide. He seems pretty cool, though the companions aren't quite working right in the beta. Here are the final screenshots I took. There's lots more to see in the module, but I don't want to spoil it all. Baator. This turned out a bit dark, but rest assured that the atmosphere in this area is hellish enough: Githzerai Monastery interior: The shifting plane of Limbo. I'm not sure whether it was worth it to take screenshots of this place since, well... You can't really get a good feel of the place in a picture since there is a fair bit of movement going on. It's extremely impressive in-game: And another one of Limbo for good measure:

I was actually just visiting Limbo. I can post some screenshots (will be the final ones I think, don't want to give it all away) later on, but I don't think the screenshots do it justice. It's pretty... uh, well. There is a fair bit of motion in it, heh. Definetely one of the coolest areas in the mod.

I thought that was one of the better thing about the main quest (maybe the only one actually). It's just a shame that the writing somewhere (I think it might be in Vault 112) assumes that you went to Rivet City beforehand.

Heya, I'm just beta testing it for now. Last batch of screens for now. The Lady watches over the interiors of the Mortuary: Speaking with a Xaositect: Admiring the Xaositects interior design skills: Looking out over the polluted waters of the Ditch: Visiting the Lawful plane of Mechanus. The cogs, gears and the huge fan in the floor all spin around:

Remember the Baatezu army recruitment poster? Someone didn't like it I guess. Tales of Tanar'ri Terrors! The Baatezu army put this poster up. Enjoying the scenery in the savage but oh-so-beautiful Beastlands. More Beastlands: And one more: The Mortuary awaits beyond the gates: A view from the base of the Mortuary:

It's mostly Sigil, divided into several districts of a fair size. Plus an enormous amounts of interiors. I'm not sure which planes are in there, but at the start of the mod we see a bit of the Outlands and we get to walk through the town of Hopeless. Then there is Mechanus (where Modrons originate from) which looks quite awesome. The Plane of Infinite Portals as showcased, though as it is now it's only built, and not filled with content. I know that there's also the Beastlands, Baator and Limbo. It's a bit disjointed now though, and you can tell it's gone through different teams of people working on it. There is still a lot of work to be done before it will be a great game though. To connect everything properly, flesh out dialogues and re-evaluate the writing (definetely needed) and crush bugs etc. And in some areas (like Plane of Infinite Portals) fill it up with content. What definetely is there though is the general atmosphere. Sigil is quite close to how I envisioned it when I first read the sourcebooks. I'm quite amazed at how they managed this in the NWN2 engine. But yeah, lots and lots and lots of work to still be done on the project. I think it was a good move to release what they have now though, to sort of "deflate the bubble" that's been growing around the project, and not breathe in some new air. I hope they can get some more people onboard as well to speed up the process. I'll post more screens if I come across any good stuff.

Playing the Purgatorio beta/demo a bit: Join the Blood War? The Plane of Infinite Portals: Marble District, home of the Guvners: Tea Street: Tea Street, the fancy building ahead is a Sensate building called the Love Hotel: Hiverunners Road: Hiverunners Road again: Gatehouse district, with the Gatehouse straight ahead. The scale of this is very impressive in-game: Another view of the Gatehouse District: Barmys waiting to gain entrance to the Gatehouse:

That's it, I'm revoking your license to play guitar right now mister.

A Squier is a fine entry level guitar. Still, once you get the urge to buy guitars on your own after becoming more comfortable playing, make sure to try out many different ones at a guitar shop. You can listen to experts blabber on all day about which ones are good and which ones are not (it can be worth listening to in terms of how the guitar holds up throughout the years though), but always go for the ones which you *like* to play. Sometimes, this can mean even old, used, beat up pieces of crap. Always choose the ones that make you feel good about playing them. Glad to hear things are progressing!

One thing I actually like about the dialogue system (though I'm still definetely a bigger fan of classic system) is that the choices seems to be fairly abstracted. In Mass Effect, there was a sort of "middle-ground" where it kinda tried to describe the content of what Shepard would say, but it often failed in my mind. Just having the option say "Sarcastic" or whatever works better for me. Especially if it provides additional options. Like, I think I read in a previous preview that we'd get a pop-up option to shoot someone in the knee-cap. Other than that... I will also say that I will never be able to understand how people can say that this game looks bad (which I've read on other forums) technically. I just can't understand how graphics whore heavy the gaming industry is if someone can honestly that the game looks bad technically. It's sad. Sure, I can understand that it isn't Crysis 2, but seriously... How can anyone say that the graphics are so bad that it's an area where someone would pan it or let it be a deciding factor in whether one should purchase it or not? I just can't wrap my head around that. That said, I do wish the heads were a bit more alive. I think they definetely look to have plenty of personality which is good, but they feel a bit stiff. Perhaps something to do with the Unreal engine as I felt the same about Mass Effect. And, like I said before, I hope the framerate is smoother in the final build (or that we get very customizable graphics on the PC).

I think it looks pretty good actually. What's more, I think it actually looks fairly fun which is not something I tend to think about most action-RPGs. I just hope the action and encounters won't become mindnumbingly boring and repetitious after the first few fights or so. That definetely happened with Mass Effect for me. The system there works pretty good, but my god does it get boring quick. Hopefully the additional skills like stealth, sabotage and so on will spice things up. Main bad vibe I get is that the framerate really seems to slow down at some points, I hope it won't be that bad in the final version. EDIT: Also, what on earth was up with the giddy "wink wink" excitement from the interview guy over being able to romance the women? Avellone shoulda punched that fool right there.

Am I understanding this right? Does one actually have to pay money to watch this? If so, blahahahaha... The other stuff will be free (on gametrailers).

Eric Clapton - Sinner's Prayer