Game Update, Updated
I gave up on Okami after some more play. The art style is fresh and new, and the story was somewhat interesting, but the gameplay itself is dull and repetitive. How much "Hit square repeatedly" is fun? See I have media for marveling over the art and linear storytelling. I call them "DVD's". Okami ends up being an anime that makes you push X after every two lines of dialog. No thanks.
Gamefly redeemed itself partially by shipping me the first two titles on my list (Dead Rising (finally) and Lego Star Wars II). Interestingly, both titles showed as "Short Wait" and "Not for sale" until they actually shipped and suddenly had sale prices. Why they are selling titles that they haven't had in stock for weeks is beyond me, but OK, whatever.
If you had trouble with the Gamertag display over the last couple of days - blame Microsoft. They had Xbox.com down for 24 hours of maintenance on Tuesday and then did something as yet unexplained which messed up certain areas over Wednesday. It's Thursday morning and I STILL can't access my Friends List from the web. Nice "upgrade" MS, glad to see you're still maintaining high quality standards!
technorati tags:gaming, Gamefly
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I gave up on Okami after some more play. The art style is fresh and new, and the story was somewhat interesting, but the gameplay itself is dull and repetitive. How much "Hit square repeatedly" is fun? See I have media for marveling over the art and linear storytelling. I call them "DVD's". Okami ends up being an anime that makes you push X after every two lines of dialog. No thanks.
Gamefly redeemed itself partially by shipping me the first two titles on my list (Dead Rising (finally) and Lego Star Wars II). Interestingly, both titles showed as "Short Wait" and "Not for sale" until they actually shipped and suddenly had sale prices. Why they are selling titles that they haven't had in stock for weeks is beyond me, but OK, whatever.
If you had trouble with the Gamertag display over the last couple of days - blame Microsoft. They had Xbox.com down for 24 hours of maintenance on Tuesday and then did something as yet unexplained which messed up certain areas over Wednesday. It's Thursday morning and I STILL can't access my Friends List from the web. Nice "upgrade" MS, glad to see you're still maintaining high quality standards!
technorati tags:gaming, Gamefly
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From the "About Freakin' Time" File
Coming this Monday: Free This American Life podcasts! We're thrilled to announce that starting this Monday, October 16, we'll begin a free weekly podcast of This American Life. Each week's show will also be available as a free individual download.
From WBEZ in Chicago | This American Life
I really enjoy listening to This American Life - enough so that for a while I actually had an Audible account in order to get them. But Audible is so DRM-ified that it all eventually broke down and I gave up on caring. Now, two years after I starting getting more programming than I can handle via podcasts, TAL is finally catching up. Starting next week, I'll listen again.technorati tags:This_American_Life, podcasts
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Coming this Monday: Free This American Life podcasts!
We're thrilled to announce that starting this Monday, October 16, we'll begin a free weekly podcast of This American Life. Each week's show will also be available as a free individual download.
From WBEZ in Chicago | This American Life
I really enjoy listening to This American Life - enough so that for a while I actually had an Audible account in order to get them. But Audible is so DRM-ified that it all eventually broke down and I gave up on caring. Now, two years after I starting getting more programming than I can handle via podcasts, TAL is finally catching up. Starting next week, I'll listen again.
technorati tags:This_American_Life, podcasts
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Game Update
Been some new games since the last time I posted about what I was playing. Figured it would be worth running down what's sitting in the various machines.
Saints Row (Xbox 360) - Yeah, yeah it's a GTA clone. I'm not entirely sure why the gaming public reacted so poorly to this. Like 83.72% of the market isn't clones of Castle Wolfenstein or Pole Position. If we were getting a GTA this year then maybe I'd feel we don't need two, but the only GTA flowing this year is Vice City Stories, which is ITSELF a clone of Vice City, which is basically a clone of GTA III, so I don't see the problem. And it fact out GTA's GTA in a few things. The combat model is WAY better - the right stick controls look/aim while the left stick controls motion. So suddenly you can do things like drive-bys reasonably. The gang interfaces make sense and are integrated into the game much better than GTA: San Andreas where all the gang stuff was pretty half-baked. The map shows a route to your waypoint so you can focus on your driving instead of constantly pausing to bring up the map screen and plot your course. If you fail a mission it asks you if you want to restart it, skipping the whole painful reload, return to the start of the mission gameflow that GTA always has. Short form: it's a fun carjacking, sandbox sort of thing. And since it actually competes with GTA and extends the form in some ways I'm hopeful we'll see GTA fix some of it's most glaring problems (c'mon nobody could figure out using the right stick for aiming over three titles?). Competition is good, so I'm happy to see someone step up to the plate and take GTA on.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong II (Nintendo DS) - I enjoyed the first one and this one got good reviews, so I picked it up. I like it, and surprise! after all my DS bashing it's the first game where I can say "Yes, this is a good game and it requires the touch screen to play." So Nintendo finally found a game with more than 5 minutes of content that uses the touchscreen effectively and the console isn't even two years old yet! Wahoo! However, there is a downside - you also have to use the dpad (to scroll the camera) and it turns out that even with my DS Lite I can only play for 10 - 15 minutes before the DS Hand Cramp(tm) comes back. Luckily the gametype is such that it's best in small doses. I'm on world 5 of 10, and that means I've played through ~40 levels so it's doing something right, even if I do sometimes have to stop because of the poor form factor.
Okami (PS2) - I just got this from Gamefly yesterday, so I don't have a firm opinion on it yet. I wasn't bowled over by the gameplay at the 2005 E3, and that assessment still stands so far. The art style is neat, but the gameplay so far is ho-hum. And it's talky as hell, which is aggravated by the fact that everyone talks in Charlie-Brown-Teacher voices. And there's no hurry-up button. The first save occurred after about two minutes of gameplay - but that was 19 minutes after hitting "New Game" - that's a lot of talking. Oh, and the second save point? at 1 hour 15 minutes. So if you want to play more than 20 minutes but less than 75 this may not be the game for you.
Gamefly (Motto: Dead Rising Doesn't Really Exist) is still annoying the crap out of me. I cut the living crap out of my rental queue - as of right now it has 7 titles, 2 of which are future releases. Dead Rising is still not available - today is actually the first day I've seen Lego Star Wars II list as being in stock. Okami was 5 on my list when they sent it. Right now they are still worth their monthly fee, but they are really pushing it.
technorati tags:gaming, Saints_Row, Mario_V_Donkey_Kong_2, Okami, Gamefly
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Been some new games since the last time I posted about what I was playing. Figured it would be worth running down what's sitting in the various machines.
Saints Row (Xbox 360) - Yeah, yeah it's a GTA clone. I'm not entirely sure why the gaming public reacted so poorly to this. Like 83.72% of the market isn't clones of Castle Wolfenstein or Pole Position. If we were getting a GTA this year then maybe I'd feel we don't need two, but the only GTA flowing this year is Vice City Stories, which is ITSELF a clone of Vice City, which is basically a clone of GTA III, so I don't see the problem. And it fact out GTA's GTA in a few things. The combat model is WAY better - the right stick controls look/aim while the left stick controls motion. So suddenly you can do things like drive-bys reasonably. The gang interfaces make sense and are integrated into the game much better than GTA: San Andreas where all the gang stuff was pretty half-baked. The map shows a route to your waypoint so you can focus on your driving instead of constantly pausing to bring up the map screen and plot your course. If you fail a mission it asks you if you want to restart it, skipping the whole painful reload, return to the start of the mission gameflow that GTA always has. Short form: it's a fun carjacking, sandbox sort of thing. And since it actually competes with GTA and extends the form in some ways I'm hopeful we'll see GTA fix some of it's most glaring problems (c'mon nobody could figure out using the right stick for aiming over three titles?). Competition is good, so I'm happy to see someone step up to the plate and take GTA on.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong II (Nintendo DS) - I enjoyed the first one and this one got good reviews, so I picked it up. I like it, and surprise! after all my DS bashing it's the first game where I can say "Yes, this is a good game and it requires the touch screen to play." So Nintendo finally found a game with more than 5 minutes of content that uses the touchscreen effectively and the console isn't even two years old yet! Wahoo! However, there is a downside - you also have to use the dpad (to scroll the camera) and it turns out that even with my DS Lite I can only play for 10 - 15 minutes before the DS Hand Cramp(tm) comes back. Luckily the gametype is such that it's best in small doses. I'm on world 5 of 10, and that means I've played through ~40 levels so it's doing something right, even if I do sometimes have to stop because of the poor form factor.
Okami (PS2) - I just got this from Gamefly yesterday, so I don't have a firm opinion on it yet. I wasn't bowled over by the gameplay at the 2005 E3, and that assessment still stands so far. The art style is neat, but the gameplay so far is ho-hum. And it's talky as hell, which is aggravated by the fact that everyone talks in Charlie-Brown-Teacher voices. And there's no hurry-up button. The first save occurred after about two minutes of gameplay - but that was 19 minutes after hitting "New Game" - that's a lot of talking. Oh, and the second save point? at 1 hour 15 minutes. So if you want to play more than 20 minutes but less than 75 this may not be the game for you.
Gamefly (Motto: Dead Rising Doesn't Really Exist) is still annoying the crap out of me. I cut the living crap out of my rental queue - as of right now it has 7 titles, 2 of which are future releases. Dead Rising is still not available - today is actually the first day I've seen Lego Star Wars II list as being in stock. Okami was 5 on my list when they sent it. Right now they are still worth their monthly fee, but they are really pushing it.
technorati tags:gaming, Saints_Row, Mario_V_Donkey_Kong_2, Okami, Gamefly
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New Monitors
At one point in time I had two CRT monitors hooked up at home and things were good. But that took up an awful lot of desk space, and so at some point in time I ditched the second monitor. My thinking was that I would shortly thereafter replace the single monitor with twin LCD's. But life intervenes and it's been a long time - I never ran the dual CRT's at our current house and we lived here for two years. But finally a little over a week ago I acquired two new Dell widescreen 20" LCD's. Here's some before and and after pics of my desk setup. (oooh, how exciting!)
BEFORE:
So before I had my 20" CRT on the left, tucked into the corner below the Penny Arcade print. (There was a light behind the monitor - that's not some fancy Photoshop glow.) The monitor, keyboard, and mouse all went through a 4-way switchbox so I could flip between my Windows box, my Linux box, and the Powerbook. In these pictures they are hooked up to the Powerbook and I'm using it as a second monitor for the Mac. This worked pretty well unless I needed to access the Windows and Mac desktops simultaneously. Then I had to either move the laptop to the right or type on the keyboard way back there. I was just stuck in single-monitor land when using the Windows box. This is frustrating for programming. Once you get used to two monitors it's difficult to go back.
AFTER:
Much better! The left monitor is hooked up to the switchbox again, and the right monitor connects directly to my Windows PC. The left monitor can swivel left and get connected to my Mac - it has multiple inputs so it can flip between the Windows box and the Mac. If I want to use both desktops I set the Windows box to only use the right monitor and then get two screens on the Mac, and the rightmost screen on Windows. As a extra bonus I now get to look directly out my window.
As for the monitors themselves - Dell was having a 15% sale on LCD's so the pair of them cost just over $800 which is nice. I priced the the Apple LCD's but the 20" is almost as expensive as a pair of Dell's and they support the same resolution (1680 x 1050).
I've been using this setup for a week now, and I'm really happy with the change. Two monitors rock!
technorati tags:office, monitors, LCD, desk
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At one point in time I had two CRT monitors hooked up at home and things were good. But that took up an awful lot of desk space, and so at some point in time I ditched the second monitor. My thinking was that I would shortly thereafter replace the single monitor with twin LCD's. But life intervenes and it's been a long time - I never ran the dual CRT's at our current house and we lived here for two years. But finally a little over a week ago I acquired two new Dell widescreen 20" LCD's. Here's some before and and after pics of my desk setup. (oooh, how exciting!)
BEFORE:
So before I had my 20" CRT on the left, tucked into the corner below the Penny Arcade print. (There was a light behind the monitor - that's not some fancy Photoshop glow.) The monitor, keyboard, and mouse all went through a 4-way switchbox so I could flip between my Windows box, my Linux box, and the Powerbook. In these pictures they are hooked up to the Powerbook and I'm using it as a second monitor for the Mac. This worked pretty well unless I needed to access the Windows and Mac desktops simultaneously. Then I had to either move the laptop to the right or type on the keyboard way back there. I was just stuck in single-monitor land when using the Windows box. This is frustrating for programming. Once you get used to two monitors it's difficult to go back.
AFTER:
Much better! The left monitor is hooked up to the switchbox again, and the right monitor connects directly to my Windows PC. The left monitor can swivel left and get connected to my Mac - it has multiple inputs so it can flip between the Windows box and the Mac. If I want to use both desktops I set the Windows box to only use the right monitor and then get two screens on the Mac, and the rightmost screen on Windows. As a extra bonus I now get to look directly out my window.
As for the monitors themselves - Dell was having a 15% sale on LCD's so the pair of them cost just over $800 which is nice. I priced the the Apple LCD's but the 20" is almost as expensive as a pair of Dell's and they support the same resolution (1680 x 1050).
I've been using this setup for a week now, and I'm really happy with the change. Two monitors rock!
technorati tags:office, monitors, LCD, desk
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Minor trivia bit
As an ongoing thing I always see a few 404's for "index.rdf" in the logs. I've never paid much attention - that part of my system logs is a cesspool of various probes to see if some sort of botnet exploit thingie is on my system. I just assumed that index.rdf was one of those.
But lately I've been doing some web development stuff, so I have some fairly high-powered JavaScript debuggers and DOM Inspectors installed. And I noticed that THEY were complaining about index.rdf when I visited my own damn site. Oops. So I looked at it in some more detail. Turns out there are alternate links for the site in RSS, Atom, and RSD (whatever the last is) formats. Only the RSS file is named index.xml, not index.rdf. So if you've ever tried to subscribe to a RSS feed here and had some problems, I apologize. Try it again and let me know if it works. And next time my site gives you a glitch, drop me an email wouldja?
(And for all of you saying "But I've been using a RSS feed for a long time now" - the sidebar links on the right that said "Syndicate" pointed at the right file. This would be if you had some application that directly read the metadata from the header.)
technorati tags:administration, web, RSS
Blogged with Flock
As an ongoing thing I always see a few 404's for "index.rdf" in the logs. I've never paid much attention - that part of my system logs is a cesspool of various probes to see if some sort of botnet exploit thingie is on my system. I just assumed that index.rdf was one of those.
But lately I've been doing some web development stuff, so I have some fairly high-powered JavaScript debuggers and DOM Inspectors installed. And I noticed that THEY were complaining about index.rdf when I visited my own damn site. Oops. So I looked at it in some more detail. Turns out there are alternate links for the site in RSS, Atom, and RSD (whatever the last is) formats. Only the RSS file is named index.xml, not index.rdf. So if you've ever tried to subscribe to a RSS feed here and had some problems, I apologize. Try it again and let me know if it works. And next time my site gives you a glitch, drop me an email wouldja?
(And for all of you saying "But I've been using a RSS feed for a long time now" - the sidebar links on the right that said "Syndicate" pointed at the right file. This would be if you had some application that directly read the metadata from the header.)
technorati tags:administration, web, RSS
Blogged with Flock