I’ve been distracted a lot lately, but it doesn’t look like that’ll be happening again for a while..
Yeah, i know. :(
Oh no.
Premature Assassinations
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.
Update:
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: xboxHave-a-go Hero
In 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, xboxGaming in the military
I watched an episode of the superb documentary series Future Weapons last night, which was showcasing some technology from the American Military’s Future Combat Systems program.
The whole series is really just an extension of the Shock and Awe principal, also known as Rapid Dominance (which, by the way, has a lot of parallels with my own personality). Showing technology to the masses is an obvious show of strength, it increases Americans faith in their military and instils fear in the enemy - look how potent our weapons are!!.
Future Combat Systems is the “future of warfare”, basically stocking out the battlefield with “intelligent” systems which can communicate with each other. No reason why the battlefield shouldn’t also enjoy the advent of ubiquitous computing. Gamers especially will be familiar with elements of the FCS program, such as the currently cancelled/suspended Land Warrior concept. Which is basically a soldier jacked into an intelligent battlefield.
As i’ve discussed with some of you in the past, the military actively pursues gamers. Evidenced by the America’s Army video game, and the recruitment of young gamers as pilots. Young people who already manifest some of the basic skills and training necessary. Who clearly demonstrate the ambition and interest. But that’s really a given, i’m interested in a slight aside.
I read an article some time ago about the development of an automated weapon system. When soldiers were asked their opinions on a control method - they responded that they’d most prefer a console joypad. I can’t entirely remember which particular brand but i believe it was a dual shock pad.
It makes sense because it’s a control medium that they’re very familiar with. Both from experiences before joining the forces, and their barracks/backhome game time. Aiming a missile remotely with a video monitor? Sure! I’ve done that loads of times on my Xbox.
You can see from the screengrab that this is exactly what i observed being used by the military. Specifically it’s a wired Xbox 360 controller.
It’s being used to control an iRobot FCS SUGV. The SUGV is a reconnaissance robot, which is controlled remotely by a soldier (with a joypad, apparently) and used to explore and investigate locations that may be unsafe for the soldier and his group to enter. It’s a tracked vehicle with a camera platform that can be raised and lowered.
I wonder if they’ll still be using the 360 pad when it’s deployed in the field, or if it was simply being used as an early test. Although it’s a superb controller, i’d hardly call it rugged.
In the same episode they cover a vehicle called the Crusher which is an all terrain vehicle (for want of a stronger term). It too is controlled by a remote soldier, and also uses hardware familiar to the gamer.
A steering wheel, complete with pedals. Now that may well be a piece of bespoke hardware, i’m not familiar with steering wheel controllers, but the size and colour scheme say video game peripheral to me.
I can imagine that it’s difficult for the average Joe to wrap his head around controlling something that isn’t there. Using only a tiny screen for display, and relying on controls that always feel like there’s something missing (where’s the rest of the car gone??). But that’s everyday play to a gamer.
We’re used to taking a concept, and applying a physical control to it. Making a skateboarder move his feet by using the motion of a pair of small joysticks, or flying a plane using a few keys on a keyboard. For a gamer the relationship between physical action and desired result is a strong one, so no wonder the military wants us.
Now as soon as they apply the hack-and-slash game mechanic to real warfare, i’m in!
Tags: gamers, military, weapons, xboxBioshock’s “sick” ending
First off, apologies for the badly written entry a previous to this one. I was barely conscious at the time, just eager to get it written so i could play some more. I figured it was necessary in case my observations had merit. Apparently this time i was wrong.
Ah well.
Yesterday i completed Bioshock - so my blog goes back to regularly scheduled programming. I’m not sure what game i’ll play next, but i doubt it’ll captivate me as much. We’ll get back to that in a while.
You’re wondering why i’ve referred to the ending of Bioshock as “sick”, well i’m not referring to the games ending.. i’m referring to the pathetic state i’ve been in for the last couple of days. I took a one way train to Phlegmsville, and they made me the mayor.
The nice thing about taking some sick time was that i got some stuff done. I built a new bed (which will hopefully help with my aching back), completed Bioshock, tidied up, cooked, and watched some movies/tv shows i had been saving.
The bad thing about taking sick time is that it’s even more quiet boring moments to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. I think the worst part of having a cold is tearing your nose to pieces with all the tissues you go through. That, and everything seems to aggravate you more than usual.
There was a period of time not too long ago where my health was constantly on the rocks. Every time someone i knew caught something i was guaranteed to get it. I ended up taking loads of time off work because of it, and just generally felt like crap. So i did some research into immune system problems. As well as switching my diet around (which i’ve been doing quite a lot of this year) i decided to cut out caffeine and cut out sugar. I also decided to drink a cup of Rooibos tea with lemon every morning. The difference was quite evident, i didn’t get sick at all.
But, there was a problem. See.. i love coffee, and i need caffeine. Sure i could handle not having it, but it didn’t mean i wasn’t depressed when i thought about my plight. To make it harder, people at work started drinking more and more. I didn’t mind so much when they would nip down to McDonalds and buy a cup of their coffee imitation drinks, but after a while they came back to the cafetiere and better than usual coffee. It didn’t take long before i broke. Ordered some fresh grounds from my favourite supplier. Ordered a bag for home too.. It wasn’t long till i was buying myself a can of Red Bull on Monday mornings.. It wasn’t long till i was giving up on my morning tea. Of course, the first illness i encountered hit home, and now i’m lying in bed blogging about it because i feel hellish - as well as stupid.
Ah well, onto happier things. A couple of days ago i was forced to buy something i’ve wanted to buy for a while, but never really needed to. A couple of 500gig hard drives. The 500gig Seagate Freeagent external drive that i’ve been using as an archive is full now, and it’s about time i got a real media server running in here. So i have my old Windows machine sitting gutted on the floor. I think it’s a 2.4Ghz AMD processor with 768MB of RAM and a couple of 80gig Western Digital drives. The plan is to take everything important off one of the 80gigs, and install Ubuntu on it. Then stick the two 500gigs in there, followed by a third next month. That’ll hold me over for a while.
As i mentioned before, now that i’ve finished bioshock i have nothing else to play. Out of the 13 xbox 360 games i own, there are only 3 i haven’t finished.
- Kameo - The underwater control mechanic really annoyed me, so i gave up.
- Test Drive Unlimited - The only way to “finish” it is to achieve everything, and i’m not that much of a driving game fan.
- Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - I liked it at first, but the missions became frustrating because of the complex controls and the game failed to capture me. Playing Rainbow Six Vegas really put me off continuing GRAW because it’s nowhere near as enjoyable.
Blue Dragon is out now. I downloaded the demo hoping for an exciting new RPG. I was immediately put off by the graphics, and put off even further by the strange dragon combat mechanic. But boredom brought me back to it, and i was a little more patient with it. I guess i could probably enjoy it if i play it from the beginning. I’ll buy it, but i don’t think i’ll buy it for it’s current £39.99 price.
John Woos Stranglehold is out soon. The demo is exciting. It’s like a next gen Max Payne in Japan, which is such a good thing. I can’t imagine it’ll be very captivating (though even if it was, i doubt it could’ve been close to Bioshock of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, so does it really matter?). But it might be fun for a while.
Two Worlds is out now, and i don’t know much about it other than it looks like a cheesy Oblivion clone that belongs on a PC.
It’s tempting to just buy C&C3.
Oh, but i get my CoD4 beta invite on Friday…
Tags: bioshock, caffeine, coffee, game, health, home, linux, mac, rant, server, ubuntu, windows, xboxMore Bioshock
So i’m kind of glad i wrote the previous entry. If nothing else, i got to read over my assumptions after progressing further in the game. It’s always fun to see how close you were.
The plan was to avoid the game until the weekend struck again, i have too much to do and can’t really afford to obsess over games. I intended to write another entry with further observations and assumptions, and i wasn’t really in a hurry to do it… But it turns out that i’m sick. It’s just a cold, but it feels like it’s going to put me out of action for a while. If i end up having to take tomorrow off work i know i’ll find myself entering Rapture for some more action. Which means i need to get this entry penned, no point writing about my assumptions when i’m tainted by hindsight.
In the last entry i discussed Atlas. I have nothing further to say about him, so i’ll go with the character that’s currently preying on my mind. As before, i’ll try to leave out any plot spoilers but i will talk about characters and basic events so skip this entry if you don’t want to know.
<SPOILERS>
Tenenbaum: Different person, or different personality
Your first “encounter” with Tenenbaum isn’t through conversation with her, you find mention of her in peoples audio diaries as well as locating her own personal recordings.
Her accent appears to be German, and it seems that she spent time in a Nazi Concentration Camp during the war. One of her diaries mentions her willingness to help the German scientists, much to their disbelief. This alludes that she is actually Jewish, and a prisoner of the camp. Tenenbaum states that despite her situation, she believed that the “techniques” should be carried out correctly. This haunting notion gives us an immediate feel of her character. Dark, disjointed, disloyal and dangerous are all words beginning with D that might describe her. We immediately label Tenenbaum as being sociopathic, and barely human. The Germans on the other hand refer to her as ‘Das Wunderkind’. Heh.
Our first real contact with Tenenbaum comes when we are first presented with an unprotected Little Sister. She implores you not to kill the child. Instead giving you a Plasmid which you can use to save her. She is honest about the fact that doing so will not allow you to reap the benefits of harvesting Adam, but to make up for it she offers to help you in any way she can.
Tenenbaums apparent protectiveness of the Little Sister would be an easy concept to accept. If nothing else her maternal instincts make it a fairly natural assumption. But, intrepid explorers can locate a diary (if memory serves, recorded by Suchong - the third person self referencing geneticist) which presents the player with the notion that Tenenbaum has absolutely no problem harvesting (effectively killing) the Little Sisters.
So what happened? It’s hard to get a feel for the passage of time in Bioshock. I’m not sure of the period covering this apparent personality change in Tenenbaum, but i’m fairly sure it’s h not long. So what caused her to turn around? It seems that she helped execute her people during the war.. then apparently invented the Little Sisters, had no problem killing them.. But suddenly she wants them to be kept alive?
Later in the game you get to “meet” with Tenenbaum, before she sends you off on your mission. Much like Atlas her instructions seem to benefit you. It seems that she wants to help, and if you play the game in a similar way to me it’s fairly easy to accept. You help her - she helps you. Unlike Atlas she is rather rude at times.
That is, until she gives you a ridiculous sounding plan. You’re stuck in an area you can’t leave. The door you want to pass through can only be opened by a Little Sister. Tenenbaum informs you that the only way to proceed is to be a Big Daddy. Only then will the Little Sister listen to you.
Okay. Sure. But she’s been having the Little Sisters do things for me in the past.. why can’t she just ask one to help you now?
Again, like Atlas, she does not give the player a choice. She gives the player an order. Become a Big Daddy. It is not explained whether or not the process is reversible. The vocal cord alteration machine i used certainly didn’t LOOK reversible.
The quesiton is.. what’s in it for her if i turn into a Big Daddy? Does she think the added power will help me defeat my enemy? Does she think that it will turn me into her slave (perhaps controlling the Little Sisters will enable her, in turn, to control me?)? Or does she think that as a Big Daddy i will stay with her children, protect them?
Who knows.
My most pressing question is on a slightly different vibe though. I found a diary by Suchong which infers that Tenenbaum is dead. Did she die? Did she fake her death? If it’s the former.. who exactly is this person “helping” me?
Tags: bioshock, game, xboxBioshock
I’ve been relaxing for the last few days, and i think my body is thankful for it. Last night i considered going to sleep at about 8:30pm because i was just that devastated. But today i feel pretty normal so i guess i caught up on some necessary sleep.
But putting body aside, i’ll tell you what’s been going on in my mind lately. Specifically, Bioshock!
I’m not sure how far i am through the game. It felt like three quarters till a friend hinted it was more like a third of the way, if that. Throughout the game you find weapon upgrade stations. The list of achievements on the xbox live website suggests that it is possible to upgrade all of your weapons. Which would mean a lot more upgrade stations, and a lot more to the game that i haven’t discovered. On the other hand, the achievement might be intended for multiple runs through the game. Who knows.
Anyway.
I’m going to tell you some of my thoughts about the game so far, i’ll try to leave out any plot spoilers but i will talk about characters and basic events so skip this entry if you don’t want to know.
<SPOILERS>
The most important part of Bioshock: Atlas
The first character you “meet” in the game is Atlas. Atlas is an Irish male who communicates to you via shortwave radio. He does not explain where in the city (Rapture) he is, but you are led to believe that he’s in some kind of control area - able to view your progress through security cameras and control certain elements of the city’s technology (namely sentry bots and doors). his awareness of the plane crash suggests that his ability to observe extends to the surface itself, and it also suggests that he has some kind of training or experience in the technology of Rapture.
Atlas makes his apparent plight clear to you at the beginning of the game. Explaining that he has a family somewhere in Rapture and wants your help rescuing them. Of course the player is left with the questions:
- What happened to Rapture to leave it in this state?
- Who is this guy Atlas, and why does he seem like the only “human” left here?
- Why does he need MY help rescuing his family when he seems quite capable and knowledgeable?
- Where is he in relation to his family, am i closer to them than he is.. or does he want me to go simply because he isn’t a fighter?
My first significant worry about Atlas emerged moments after finding the first Plasmid. Atlas does not comment on it until AFTER i’ve injected myself.. Why didn’t he explain it beforehand? Why didn’t he give me the choice to inject it or not? It is very possible that Plasmids are such a common part of life to Atlas, that he doesn’t realise they would need explanation. But my assumption is a much simpler one - he wants to use me. He needs me to fill myself with Plasmids so that he himself a little warrior in his pocket. So he waits until after i used it to explain that they are part of the reason Rapture fell apart.
My warning flag went up even higher when he first had me kill a big daddy. He was adamant that i should do away with the Little Sister, and harvest the Adam for myself. Why? To make me even more powerful.. An even stronger little warrior..
I had suspected for a while that Atlas had more to do with the downfall of Rapture than he let on, and then my suspicions were confirmed in part.. Listening to one of the audio “diaries” that are scattered throughout the game i heard “Atlas’ Raiders” referred to. Atlas had a band of raiders? So he’s used to being a leader of men, and he’s a rebel. Were the Raiders as pepped up on Plasmids as he encourages me to be? Did this lead to the opposition advancing their own bodies and minds in competition? Eventually leading to the broken splicers that oppose me at every turn?
At a point later in the game, i witnessed posters with “Who is Atlas?” written on them. Atlas comments that he was interested in politics in the past, but has found that politics always ends with men being killed. Men being killed you say? Sure, if you’re the leader of a band of raiders.. The question raised to me by the posters was, why didn’t his followers know who he was? Was it because he has always been behind the scenes, speaking his mind and enthralling the populous like a young Christian Slater in Pump up the Volume? Am I his new band of raiders?
Later, Andrew Ryan refers to Atlas as a problem he has never been able to eradicate. Perhaps Atlas has never stepped out from the shadows?
I haven’t touched on my thoughts regarding Andrew Ryan, and his evident conflict with Frank Fontaine (a smuggler, who appears to have taken over various industries like oxygen production, and stood in opposition of Andrew Ryan), at the moment i’m finding Atlas to be a far more interesting character. I don’t trust him enough yet and i’m not sure i’m comfortable doing his bidding for much longer. But we’ll see how it goes, and we’ll see how much choice i’m actually left with.
Tags: bioshock, game, xboxAWOL
I haven’t written in a couple of days because i’ve been pretty busy.
This administration system i’m developing is due for a demo on Sunday morning, so i’m polishing it and sorting out a few additions.
You know you’re working too hard when you start having an existential crisis over variable variables while sitting in the first class section while zooming across the country in a train, and complaining that your code has become “way too abstract”.
Yeah.
The good news is that i have my collectors edition of Bioshock. Though there was some drama getting it. Since i had the day off work today i asked a friend to collect my copy. The shop enthused to me a few days ago that there would be absolutely no problem with that. But, you’ve guessed it, there was. Some employee didn’t want to hand it over, because my friend did not have a receipt. I had to call them from home to explain that i was the first pre-order. The line started with me, and that in the front of his ringbound pre-order folder he’d find a hand written slip with my name on it (which he did). So, long story short, i got my copy. Six inch big daddy statue and everything.
I haven’t played it yet, because i’ve been forcing myself to work. How’s that for willpower?
In other news, i’m really enjoying a show on The History Channel called Human Weapon and the latest episode airs tonight. Sadly that’s “tonight” in America. It’s already “tomorrow” (01:46) here in Scotland and i’m shattered. I don’t think i can stay up till it hits the torrent sites. Bleh. As you can discover by clicking the link i’ve provided, it’s a martial arts show - a subject i have much interest in.
Oh! My new connection got enabled today. Brand spanking new ADSL2. It’s rated for “up to 24mb” but at the moment i’m getting just over 16.
I spent ages staring at:
Till finally i got desperate and called up and asked for an ETA. I was told “sometime before 9pm”, which was lovely to hear except that i called at mid day, so i had anything up to 9 bloody hours to wait. Thankfully it kicked in just after lunch, and it wasn’t long before i saw:
That’s one point six MEGABYTES a second.
We’ve always suffered from slow connections here in the UK, because we were dominated by one telecoms company. In America there has always been a lot of competition to drive prices down, so people have been used to things like “free local calls” for as long as they can remember. We on the other hand got to enjoy extortionate prices and dial-up internet for wayyy too long. It all began to change when Ofcom (or possibly Oftel at the time) forced British Telecom to give other companies access to it’s telephone exchanges. Other companies could step in and install their own equipment. Offer their customers new exciting things. Provide some much needed competition.
The horror of dial up still lingers in my mind during dark and stormy nights, no matter how much i try to suppress the memories. When MP3s became popular, and we were all stuck on 32kbps or 56kbps modems it was a luxury to download a couple of them. We were so used to the speeds that it was common parlance for us to refer to 1 megabyte of data as “five minutes”, seeing as that was how much time it would take to download. A three megabyte MP3 would have taken fifteen minutes to download. Though i shaved off quite a bit of time because i insisted on using external modems (because internal “software” modems shared your CPU, and could cause a fair bit of slowdown.. or be affected themselves if you were doing something resource intensive like.. playing tomb raider 1) and had a high end ISP.
The point i’m struggling to make is that these recollections are ingrained in me, and it still boggles my mind to think that i can now download in two seconds, something that would’ve taken fifteen when i was in school.
Sick.
When we first had access to DSL in my area i signed us up to an ISP who happily stuck with their unlimited use policy. This was important to me because now that i had ultra fast broadband (512kbps.. yeah) i planned to download everything i had ever desired. We stuck with this company for years, slowly upgrading as the tech was available. Eventually we got to a claimed speed of 8mbps (though in actuality we weren’t getting nearly that much bandwidth), and with that speed bump i learned that the company had changed some things around. Most importantly their policy regarding usage. No longer did you have the luxury of “unlimited”, now things were very much limited. 13 gigabytes of downloads a month before they’d start imposing limits on your account. Thirteen gigabytes a month!! To put that into perspective i just checked my modem stats: The modem has been running for pretty much dead on 12 hours, and in that time i’ve downloaded just over 12 gigabytes.
So we’ve established that my monthly limit was lousy. But that wasn’t the only problem. The ISP also implemented strict traffic shaping. Traffic shaping is the notion of detecting and categorising different types of network use (like web surfing, video use, peer to peer downloads, gaming, etc) and allowing them certain percentages of bandwidth use. Web traffic for example would be given the largest percentage of the network traffic because it’s the most important, but peer to peer downloading would be given the smallest because it’s disruptive to other users and potentially criminal. It’s all well and good on paper, but it is absolutely disgusting to fire up a torrent and discover you’re getting something like 800 BYTES per second. Not megabytes, not even kilobytes.. just bytes. I could fax the data and get a better transfer rate.
To contrast that, here’s the transfer rate i got in bittorrent earlier today:
Yeah. It’s a big difference.
I’m rediscovering what it’s like to have a bit of freedom on the internet. I can download new game demos on my Xbox 360 without feeling guilty. I can watch streaming videos. I can download linux distributions. Freedom.
I got a bit carried away with my ranting here, it’s 02:21 and i really should be sleeping, this was only going to be a tiny quick post. Heh.
Goodnight.
Tags: abstract, administration, bioshock, broadband, busy, demo, dial up, game, martial arts, peer to peer, rant, traffic shaping, variables, xbox
