Raithe

Heh, if anyones been paying attention to the "Ask JJB" youtube clips, have you noticed how much he compares elements from Human Revolution to the original Deus Ex.. He tends to skip DX:IW when people ask questions about level design and such.. City hubs are going to be in the style of the original. You travel between cities as part of the storyline, but once in a city you can move back and forth between locations pretty much as you want.. And at later points in the story you'll return to previously visited cities that will have effects from choices you made earlier... Hm, and apparently his favourite level from Deus Ex was Versalife, for its level design and multi-path style which is what he pushed for in the design of Human Revolution.

I picked up a Kindle for my mother about a year back, joint problems in her hands means she has trouble holding books of any significant size..but the kindle is something she can hold and finds really easy to read. I've swiped it a couple of times and found it not too bad. If you've already got electronic books on your computer it isn't usually too hard to put them in a format the kindle can read as well. The thing is, the ipad and a lot of those multifunction items will let you read e-books passably but aren't that great for it. The kindle is geared around the one thing..reading books. and it's pretty good at that. Personally I feel that being able to feel/smell the pages of a book as you read is an important aspect of a good book. If I have a choice, I'll take a "real" dead-tree book over an electronic one to read. But in a lot of situations these days its a pain to have access to a book in certain places. I know if I sit down to read I can get through a normal 400 page paperback in couple of hours, which means if I'm travelling anywhere and I know I'll have time to read.. I've got to take a bunch of books and find space.. or just end up re-reading the same book. (Also, if you're partially addicted to an authors series, publishers like Baen do things where they release pre-edited versions of the latest work on e-format half a year or so in advance of the actual book being published..) I don't think we'll loose real books. There's that balance of effect, creating enough "ebook readers" and keeping them powered constantly isn't going to be totally economical and ecological to replace books worldwide...

Pushing through the morning after one of those nights with only a few hours sleep.. Plentiful bleary-eyed drinking of fresh tea has ensured.

Put on the 3d anime version of Appleseed they redid a couple of years back over the weekend. Not bad, it cleaned up nicely for the new generation of anime. I think they even put more effort into building up the characters and backstory besides just having large mecha-type battles... Followed it with Appleseed Ex Machina which was a nice addition...

Or maybe, just maybe, they are still Legion and Garrus, just like they have been since the game came out. (So yeah, hint: those spots aren't "new"). There are bugs in ME2 that need fixing? And those that are, should and could only be fixed by character artists? Dang it..I could have sworn I'd double checked that.. my minds going.. oh woe is me..

Although one thing I noticed just glancing at the Mass Effect site, if you look at the Universe section they've put two new "Classified" spots on the squad list. So does this possibly give rise to new dlc for even more squad before ME3 comes out?

Tried to pace out the evening and got assaulted by a manic cat. Luckily it didn't spill my drink too badly. Was catching one of the Andre Rieu Live in Maastricht performances which was quite entertaining in its way.

And Star Wars The Old Republic to be delayed until September at the earliest apparently. Now who out there is surprised by that?

Although I do think. for the maximum scare effect.. Aliens Vs Predators 2, played with all lights in the room switched off..and the surround sound system on.. When you play as a Marine and you get that "skitter-skitter" sound from behind you...

Pottering through the day getting small things done, but not getting any real feelings of achievment out of them. Made time to read the last few chapters of a book I was reading to try to help clear my mind. Then having the whole realisation that next week is the first week of February , which is a bad anniversary. Makes me wonder on how much emotion would kick in if I didn't realise the date and have that "oh crap, its that time agian, I always feel crappy because of it". It's that random chicken and egg question, how much do I feel bad over that date because I have felt bad on that date.. reinforcement or actual.. Ah well. Bugger it. That's wandering into philosophy and psychology. Time for a fresh cup of tea and another attempt at kicking my mind back into order.

I really need to re-think the way I'm approaching this. It kind of feels I'm in a continual spiral of exam cramming. The way I'm learning stuff, knowing how to do it for a night or two..then its not getting reinforced and it's all floating away to understanding the general gist but all specifics have disapeared within a few days... Hm which also seems weird in that I can go from feeling confident and successful because I know and can use those programming skills...and then when my mind goes fizzle it rebounds to feeling quite depressing and frustrated. ... Oh the humanity. A fresh cup of tea in a moment I think before the evening grinds down too hard.

Simple. Learn sanskrit. Dammit, I thought I had. At least passably. What's bugging me most is that I seemed to have a fair grasp of understanding one night and then the next it all just ...went shazaam. And I have no freaking clue what happened to throw that switch.

Been trying to work on some programming with a guy who's been helping me brush up on it. Unfortunately it's just making me feel really, really crappy. It's that whole we work through stuff, I understand it. I'm all "yes, I can see how that works, I can apply it in this other way." Then a couple of hours later I have absolutely no freaking clue. I look back at the code and its like I'm trying to read sanskrit. I think I'm having a problem seeing it in parts. I'm getting lost in the whole thing and my mind's just not wanting to figure out any specific bits. So my mind blanks and chokes instead. That kind of makes it hard to ask for any specific help when your mind decides to go "blurugh" Which is both frustrating the hell out of me and depressing me. Maybe I'll have a cup of tea and try hitting the books again, see if something gives a mental jolt and knocks things free again.

Technically I've got my first run throughs of Fear 2, Dead Space and Borderlands on the go... Although for some reason I just haven't felt in the mood to play any for about 4 or 5 days now.

Well my main point was meant to be more that everyone has their own view for how much enjoyment they get out of time spent playing. While I can understand the challenge of trying to finish a game under x time.. Personally, I really couldn't count that as a fun way to play it. But that's just me.

Everyone has their own view of that balance sheet.. Expenditure of money on game balanced against the mixture of "enjoyment of gameplay/story/whatever" and length of time played. I might have really enjoyed that hour long game, but if I finished it in that really short time frame I probably wouldn't be as overjoyed at having spent 30 quid on it.. One of the good things about computer games is that for the expense you spend, you normally get a fairly decent amount of gameplay and length of enjoyment out of them.. Heh, it's like balancing out "I can go grab a meal with friends, then a few drinks, and that costs x amount and gives me about 4 hours enjoyment" or "I can spend x amount, and get 20-30 hours of enjoyment from a game." Note: That's not to say time with friends doesn't count higher, but was purely given in that example sort of way.

Something a few months old.. but still kind of interestingly funky. Marine Architecture wise... The guy has some fun ideas. Be interesting to see if any of them ever got built... The Physalia

music from Clint Mansell's score for The Fountain... damn good, but seriously tugs on the soul. Really not a good idea when you're in the wrong mood. Death is the Road to Awe First Snow Finish It

Stardust. A darn good film. A Neil Gaiman story, De Niro dancing to can-can music.. some highly amusing ghosts .. and plenty of general good natured fantasy fun.

Plenty of refined English courtesy going around...

Hm, and another couple of studios close up shop.. Bizarre Creations announce their imminent closure.. and Disney decide to shut down Propaganda Games.

Well.. you can get them quite big....

Tried to take an evening to have a total chilldown and not really think. Had picked up on dvd a copy of the old series Oddysey 5, so watched some episodes from that. Some entertaining insights from the commentaries by the main writer and peter weller.

Well I had noticed a tendency lately for arguments to seem a little more personal .. mostly it was just a random article of interest. Wasn't expecting it to kick off any huge discussion. How many key points of netiquette are there? Does everyone share the same view of netiquette? How many people here do push their viewpoints and use attitudes they never would if we were sitting across from a table from each other?

An interesting little article I stumbled across.. that seems perfectly valid for the amount of personal tide in arguments on the forum of late. Is the WWW poised to be a WMD?