Starwars

As much as I love Obsidian, it's hard for me to get excited by the prospects of a "next-gen" (so I guess we can finally leave calling PS3 and Xbox360 next-gen now?) game. It's just like... I can look forward to a new Obsidian game but then there will be new hardware to learn I guess, lots of new things and blablablabla... Most of which will ultimately probably mean one thing, fancier graphics. The "kickstarter era" of games feel a lot more exciting, even if the outcome of many of those is still very uncertain. As far as Deus Ex goes, I really hope Eidos Montreal gets to continue developing that. Human Revolution, flaws and all, was overall a really good game and with a lot of potential to be even better. Hopefully upcoming chapters won't go down the "further streamlining" mode of thinking.

Good stuff!

More of mah junk

My newest recording:

I had a pretty unusual Valentine's Day. There's this woman who I am very interested in, who is in the process of separating from her current boyfriend. Nothing's really happened between us on that level though. Well... I spent the day at her house and whaddyaknow... Spent most of it making out rather passionately with her and only just managed to stop it from progressing even further. Now I'm both glad and frustrated about what happened (we obviously should've waited until she was "officially" broken up, moved out and so forth).

A few quick tips for Chris if he reads this: 1) You will need to use the "fast travel" system (though it's more like the system of the old Fallouts), you won't be able to manually walk between locations. The map is important in this game. The local map also allows you to set waypoints which your character will run through (useful when you're backtracking or going through the bigger areas) When your map icon becomes the Blue globe icon, it means that you have ventured outside a "local map", and generally (there are some exceptions) it means that there is nothing much of interest and that it is time to use the "fast travel". 2) When the icons in the upper left field are red, it means something "new" has happened in them. For example, if your character sheet button is red (it is for you now), it means you have skill points to use. 3) The sound and blue flash is Virgil healing you with his healing magic. 4) There is a small cave you missed in the blimp area that has some interesting stuff in it.

As long as a quest has multiple ways to solve it, it has a good chance of winning me over. But I do tend to favor quests that have an investigative quality to them I suppose. Especially if it allows you to sort of "fail" in some ways, even if the game doesn't necessarily tell you this. I also like it when quests have research implemented into them. It wasn't some huge complex thing, but I loved it in Arcanum that you had could look up people at the Hall of Records, dig up old newspapers, or have to investigate old books to uncover information. The dossiers in Alpha Protocol was also a fun exploration of this sort of thing. But really, just meaty quests always have a good chance of being memorable. When they have multiple layers, when they possibly "bleed" into others aspects of the game, and when it feels like you're given the reins on how to tackle it.

Been working this weekend and it's been stressful as all hell. Just have to make it through today also and then... freedom and sleep tomorrow.

I only tried the first Dead Space but I wasn't too impressed with it. I think most of all, I was disappointed in how they failed to live up some of the gorgeously lit areas with the scariness factor. I know people say that the series is veering into "Space Marine" territory but I think the first game was already too "action-y" and sorta... I dunno, loud and obnoxious to be really scary. And it's a shame because like I said, some of the environs were really well done I think. That said, the game was still kinda fun on its own. But it never really grabbed me. Personally, playing more Civ V + expansion. Currently playing a game as Napoleon where I'm really stomping the others, aiming for a cultural victory. Not even sure why it's going so well this time around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff1DjBe3LOM Such a great little piece of music. Not only does it give the area in the game a wonderful character, but it's just a great track to zone out to.

I think some of the NWN2 characters were quite bland. Which would not necessarily be terrible (well, some just lack... depth or the means to explore it in-game) but there are a few things that just take them to really annoying places. Most notably that you have to accept them into your party. I could like Bishop for my chaotic evil characters. But the fact that the game forces you to take on this obviously evil character (with an obvious twist) just makes me rage. Secondly, the voice direction for a lot of the characters to have been "push it to 110%". Most of the actors are alright (Elanee was pretty bad though) but it's just too much... Grobnar is a good example, Bishop with his overdone evil persona another. Carth Onasi is the worst "whiny" character I can think of. Why would I want this guy along?

The latest of my recordings

Very cool!

Fantastic performance of a fantastic song.

I don't mind too much whichever way, something video-based would be fun for at least parts of the game though. Kind of a tough cookie since, while I love Arcanum a lot, there are a lot of parts that won't necessarily be mindblowing fun to watch, especially when a new player plays it. Perhaps Tim can give some good pointers to smooth the experience a bit.

One of the prettiest things you'll ever hear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r11tEv1PYZs&list=LL8r0vkp0AKA7r1W-ZqPOGuw

Latest of my songs... Weird little thing this.

I haven't watched any of the director's commentary stuff. Should do that sometime. The Wire is goddamn amazing. Was pretty sad when I finished it because... well, no more The Wire! At the same time, really happy that they got to finish it up properly.

Still holding off to see The Hobbit since I wanna see it with a particular person, but I re-watched the Lord of the Rings extended edition trilogy these last few days. Basically I'm not too hot on the Two Towers, but really love Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King. Two Towers just feels messy to me, and with plenty of changes from the books that I have quite the hard time with. It just doesn't strike that chord for me that the other two do. And it's kinda weird since, if I remember correctly, they were all shot at once. But it's still somehow a palpable change for me in the second movie. Ah well. But yeah, man do I get weepy at the end of RotK. While there is understandably so much cut, it's really wonderful to see how much time Peter Jackson could give scenes like the final farewell at the Grey Harbor and so forth. So many scenes in these movies should be horribly sentimental yet he makes them work most of the time and that is certainly something.

Each episode has ending credits as well as a "next time on the Walking Dead!" segment when it ends. When she loads up the game and checks the game save slot the next time she plays, it should automatically move on to the next episode. It should be noted that I had some save game problems though, where the game wouldn't always recognize the progress I'd made. This could be saved by a simple file swap though but if it happens to your mom, you might have to help her with that if she's not too into computer.

Just finished up The Walking Dead. Jesus Christ what a tearjerker that game was. It's been a very long time since a game has managed to touch a nerve with me like this one did. Very, very impressed with the realtionship between Lee and Clementine. Again, the QTE type of gameplay was not exactly engrossing and the "puzzles" were... well, not really puzzles at all. But if you like interactive story-telling, I can't say enough good things about this game.

For some strange reason, I watched Spielberg's adaption of War of the Worlds. I saw it in theaters, don't know why I got the hankering to see it again. Anyways, it's a sorta... OK flick that just tends to be a bit forgettable. The most succesful bits in the film are the darker moments, focusing more on the frenzy and panic of people fleeing from this incredible and seemingly unstoppable force. I also really like how the film looks overall, it's beautifully shot. The grainy effect doesn't do much for me though. Anyways, it kinda loses steam about halfway through (when they take shelter in the crazy dudes basement). I think the tension goes away a bit there, and I think showing the aliens off (as well as that telescope thingamajig they send down) was a mistake. It'd be better if they just stayed "faceless" as it were, up in the giant war machines. The way the movie wraps up also feels wrong somehow. It's one movie I would've liked to be way more of a downer all in all.

Played through the first episode of the Walking Dead. Pretty impressed all in all. Not so much with the actual out-of-conversation gameplay, I don't much like the QTE-like events (I really have a hard time with some of the mouse targetting at times). But the conversation and choice stuff works quite well and is engaging. Looking forward to playing more.

Thanks for the hard work! Was it possible to really piece together the droid planet from cut content or were there a lot of things that the modders had to come up with themselves? Great job!

Gonna have dinner with my parents, then I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna go to a party at a friend's house. I know it's gonna be one of those blow-out parties that will be discussed for many years to come, with lots of people etc. But, working tomorrow, though I don't have to be up early. So I may just take it easy.