Robert A. Heinlein wrote:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Poignant.
Tags: human
It arrived!
Which is nice considering it’s not released till tomorrow. I managed to pick up the Game exclusive limited edition with the 12″ statue of Altair. Amusingly enough, there’s a little note saying “Includes Altair resin figurine” right next to the transparent plastic panel SHOWING the figure.
The description on the Game website did not mention the figure at all, the only hint that it WAS in the box was a small image and a high price. I emailed them asking, and got the reply:
As long as you have pre-ordered the collectors edition online you should receive the statue.
Then later i checked my account with them, and the product was listed as Unavailable. But it’s turned up now, a day early, and i am pleased.
Forgive the lousy photographs. This K850i isn’t exactly the exciting camera that i was looking forward to. If i can drag myself away from CoD4 tonight i’ll take some real photographs.
Well, i’m disappointed.
The Altair figure IS just the same one you can buy retails. There’s nothing special bundled with the game either. No music, art cards, developer interviews, nothing. Plus the box has the lovely “NOT FOR RESALE” branding that i do so enjoy seeing on my shelf.
I was expecting something on par with the Bioshock limited edition. Stunning, unique figure. Not something i could’ve just bought later. Depressing.
Tags: xboxIn my last entry i told you about how much i’ve been enjoying Orange Box. A glorious game indeed. However… It’s on the backburner thanks to my new passion.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
To make a gaming generalisation… It’s rare to find a game that is as much fun single player as it is multiplayer or vice versa, but Call of Duty 4 is the exception to the rule. It’s tremendous in both regards. I have no idea which i’m enjoying more. Compare this to Half Life 2 on the PC, fabulous single player but i barely touched Half Life 2 Deathmatch. Or Halo 3, enjoyable (but stale) multiplayer with disappointing single player (i’m well aware that people won’t agree with me there, but i was really unimpressed with it).
The fourth iteration of the Call of Duty franchise, just like Call of Duty 3 before it, is a fantastic example of storytelling. Playing most first person shooters is much akin to Being John Malkovich. The silent-protagonist concept is useful in some games, helping support the players delusion that it could well be them in the game. But it never feels as immersive. CoD4, as i said, is a bit different. Little things like the way the camera moves when you slump onto the ground really put you there, and as a result CoD4 is very possibly the most realistic portrayal of warfare that we’ve experienced on a games console.
Multiplayer you say? Magnificent.
Some time ago myself and Shaun were discussing a game that he was working on. A multiplayer combat game in a similar vein to Worms. I suggested complicating it a little by allowing users to select a “Skill” for themselves. Skills would be things like running slightly faster, or reloading slightly faster. I come from a background of roleplaying games, so no character feels complete without personally selected skills, and it’s something that’s rarely implemented in shooters.
But they beat me to it, and to a far superior degree. Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer has an experience system. You gain points for killing your enemies (and rightly so), and gain levels. Proceeding up the ladder unlocks new weapons and gametypes. After a few quick initial level-ups you unlock the “Create a class” setting. This allows you to pick three skills for your character, they’re referred to as “Perks”. Perks can give you new equipment (C4, RPG7s), physical skills (increased health, faster reloading) and advantages (not appearing on the enemy’s radar is nice).
By allowing players to select their own perks they’ve effectively levelled the playing field. It’s easy to look at the situation and say “well all they’re doing there is making the good players even better - that’s not levelling the playing field”, but think about it this way - you might encounter an enemy who is a ridiculously good shot.. but if he can’t spot you coming up behind him you might win. You might encounter an enemy who has unlocked himself a great weapon.. but if you have more health than him you might win. They’ve given players a way to find their own skill. In games like Halo 3 online, if you’re not an accurate shot you’ll suffer. Not so in CoD4, you just find your own niche.
But it’s not just the perks that help with this. They haven’t just level it at experience and levels, they’ve added “Challenges”. The first challenge people will likely complete is killing a certain number of enemies with their favourite weapon. This unlocks a Red dot sight for the weapon, making it more effective. The next one is a bit more difficult, getting a certain number of headshots which gives you an ACOG scope. Basically they’re rewarding you, and at the same time making you more effective. They’re actually helping you play the game the way that you play the game. A character who loves the heavier weapons but still shoots accurately might love to unlock himself a stabiliser and scope for it.. But someone who just tends to spray and pray won’t unlock those features anytime soon, he’ll probably prefer to use his perks for other purposes.
You really feel comfortable playing CoD4, you can sculpt your character to a nearly unheard of degree for an FPS. Which is great.. but it’s not the best thing. The best thing is the replayability. You can keep changing things around, try new weapons or perks. You can even set up five classes, specifically designed for different types of gameplay.
I don’t see myself getting bored of this game anytime soon.
Tags: fps, game, xboxI’m one of those people who always feels a little bit happier when i’ve bought myself something shiny, and so a new toy is always just over the horizon. But it’s a fact that i’m not very good at looking forward to things. I don’t really do excitement for example. When i tell people that i’m “really looking forward” to something, it’s just a turn of phrase. If i know that something good is coming in the future that’s enough for me. It’s a fact, i understand it, simple logic, it’s in the future. I’m okay with that. I don’t giggle in excitement, i don’t have trouble sleeping the night before, i don’t really talk incessantly about it unless it’s appropriate and fitting for the conversation.
Excitement is just another in the long list of emotions that don’t work for me.
There’s a good reason for bringing this up. As you may know, i’m fairly passionate about video games - and this month is a good one for games:
I’ve been “looking forward” to each of them for a long long while. Sitting in my bag right now is the collectors edition of Call of Duty 4. I played the multiplayer beta and absolutely loved it. I loved all of the previous iterations. Call of Duty 3 was a marvel of storytelling. It’s safe to say that i want to play this game very much. But i still can’t get excited about it. I know that i want to play it, and i know that once i get home i will be able to. I know it, i believe it, i don’t need to feel anything else about it. It’s just logic and faith.
Lets talk about games, because that’s way more interesting than i am. I’ll tell you about the first game in that list, because i’ve already completed all of it - so it doesn’t really fit into the whole “looking forward to” theme! Later, once i’ve played more of Call of Duty 4, i’ll blog about that, then onwards through the list.
Orange Box
Half Life 2 finally comes to the Xbox 360.
I have to say that the Half Life franchise is one of my absolute gaming highlights. I can’t name many franchises that have been the recurring success that Half Life has been. Even Zelda, my precious Zelda, has had ups and downs. The fan base was shocked by Majoras Mask, and split in half by Wind Waker. After the blazing success of Twilight Princess they were slammed back down by Phantom Hourglass. Sure it’s innovative (i’ve marvelled at the DS control integration, it’s a joy) but it’s also annoying and a step back to the world of Wind Waker - not everyone‘s favourite. But yes, back to my point. The Half-Life franchise has been a success on nearly every step of the way. Half-Life 1 was an absolute god. The story telling was amazing, and still has one of the greatest introductions known to man. The scripted events added atmosphere and drama to the exciting setting. There were two short follow-ups, Blue Shift and Opposing Force followed different people in the same storyline. This is a genius idea as you witness key events in the plot line from other peoples perspective, and see more of the story than you did originally. Blue Shift also introduced a fan-favourite character who appears in Half-Life 2 onwards.
Half-Life 2 is, in my opinion, one of the greatest sequels of all time. It retains all of the well liked elements in Half-Life and expands on them. As well as having a superlative engine which blue the FPS genre wide open. The advanced capabilities of the engine (buoyancy and weight for example) were well harnessed in puzzles throughout the game, and graphically spectacular scenes appeared throughout.
Also in Orange Box appears the two sequels to Half-Life 2, “Episode One” and “Episode Two”. These are shorter games, which took less time to develop and could be released quickly. The focus has been on strong storylines rather than new engine features or in-game assets, which makes me happy.
But that’s not all, dun dun duuuuun, Orange Box contains two more games. Which are both amazing, but i think i’ll hold off talking about them for now, because i’m actively playing both and will no doubt want to talk about them again.
Tags: xbox half-life gamesIn my entire life there have only been two people who have properly hurt me.
A lot of people have caused damage, upset me, made me angry, or disappointed me.. But i’m talking about real, significant, lasting pain. The kind of pain you can’t just leave to evaporate, this pain needs proactive work to shed.
The latter of those two is a person who gave up on me, just gave up and walked away.
I never heard from that person again, and for all i knew death had occurred. Of course i could’ve found out, but i didn’t. I didn’t really want to face it, better to have a shield of uncertainty +3 to protect me, and it has.
Till about ten minutes ago, when i saw a familiar name arrive in the top left corner of my monitor. Just text on a screen. Just 13 point antialiased LucidaGrand. Just pixels on a screen that caused my jaw to drop a little, the way you read about in books but never truly believe happens in real life. By the time i could mouse over my hidden contact list window, that name was gone.
Not dead. Just hiding.
And that kind of sucks because really, i’m not that scary.
Tags: friend, meToday was supposed to be a quiet day. Instead..
So yeah. It’s not been great. My head still hurts.
Edit:
Just incase today wasn’t bad enough.. I just bit my lip really badly, blood and everything. Go me!
Tags: blood, headache, leopard, me, osx, phone, rantGenerally speaking i can only remember events if i’ve previously considered them, or spoken about them. Which is awkward since i only have a very small window to perform those actions before i forget all about it.
I remember events like a narrator, i don’t visualise them, i don’t see flashing pictures. The edge of my vision doesn’t go wavy or black and white like it does in the movies. I remember things as if i was told about them. And i was.. i told myself.
I don’t remember dates. I honestly have no idea what day of the year Christmas lies on. I know it’s December, i know it’s in the mid 20’s of the days. Either the 25th or the 26th i believe. After 24 years of life (Okay, the first three don’t count because i wasn’t really self aware, but give me a break) i still have to use logic to work out which day Christmas is.
I only know that much about Christmas because it’s hard to miss. I have no idea when Halloween is, or Easter, or even Pancake day.
When i was in school i couldn’t remember how long classes were, let alone which order mine were in. It was okay in the first few years when you could follow everyone else and be fine, but when everyone’s timetables were different.. I must’ve been the only 17 year old who had to write a cheatsheet to help discern which class he was in next!
What’s the bet that the Google Ads i end up getting on single page view for this end up being about memory improvement treatment or something.
It’s not just events and numbers either. I can’t remember names. Despite my love for Christopher Walken i usually have to refer to him as “uhhh… what’s his name.. looks like a lizard.. he was in Deerhunter! he’s got a superb portrait in that photographers book i have, what’s his name!?”.
“Events” are the big one though. It’s generally safe to say that i don’t remember last week, but sometimes i can’t even recall yesterday. I don’t remember a thing about my early childhood. I don’t remember much about being in school. I don’t really remember getting my degree. But i can still remember the THAC0 rules from Dungeons and Dragons.
For the most part i remember conversations very well. I’m often narcing on friends because they forget things i say. I guess it’s a big deal to me because it’s the one part of my memory that i can rely on. But i think there’s a lot more to it than that.
I remember sound extremely well. Thinking about a song i know will result in the music flowing through my mind like an Mp3. It’s not like listening to music though, it’s a mental operation. It’s like seeing the code and knowing what it means. Confusing, but basically i can just remember the way sound sounds. It’s not something enjoyable really, and it’s no replacement for actually listening to music in any way, but it does lead to a lot of skipping when i have my ipod on. I listen to the first 3 seconds of a song, and i’ve already considered the rest of the track. No surprises left, so i skip it.
Intro -> [skip] -> Intro -> [skip] -> Intro -> [skip] -> Intro -> [skip] -> ad infinitum.
These memory problems don’t really cause me too many problems in life. I don’t remember my past.. i’m sure that probably sounds sucky to you, but i’ve never known any different. It’s just the way life works from my perspective.
The only element that’s ever really caused me problems is remembering birthdays. I can’t do it. The closest i can get is the month, and that’s only for my dad (because i know it’s right after New Year, my most loathed time of year) and for one of my friends whose birthday is a few days before mine. Most of the time it doesn’t matter, i’ll either find out before hand from other people, or i’ll forget and deal with it. But some people (read: some girls) really hate it. I get the whole “you should know!”, why should i know!? What did i do to deserve these presuppositions, apart from being vaguely human?
Give me a break, seriously.
Tags: me, memory
Rep: