Bastion

Just making a quick post to say that Bastion was one of the most memorable, touching and unique game experiences I've had in such a long time. I feel truly blessed to have had a chance to play it and the soundtrack will probably haunt me for months. Such a simple game and yet so much more soul than anything that has come out recently.

it's like the creepers know I nerfed their block damage on my server! I swear to god the little fuckers are waiting around every corner trying to kill me now in revenge.

Edit: Y'know, now that I've made them damage blocks again and started a new hard survival server they don't seem nearly as troublesome.  Maybe it's just because I'm always on the lookout for them.

Fresh new heat pipes!

Note to system builders: The thermaltake frio CPU cooler is a hellish monstrosity, but it does its job amazingly well. So much better than the stock cooler my CPU came with that it's almost as if I wasn't using anything before by comparison.

I've gone from 30 degrees C idling to anywhere from 50-60 at full load to 24 idling and 35 full load. Literally the best I could get was 24 in a room with windows open to the winter air, now it hovers at that while I type this in a pleasantly heated room.

I think I may have applied the thermal grease improperly however, as it was literally cemented to the CPU when I disassembled my system, scared the shit out of me when I pulled the heat sink up and the CPU came with it. I'm assuming my Arctic silver went bad, because a little google searching suggests that they have a shelf life of 18 months before it begins to settle, and mine was...shit...five or more years old? The thermaltake grease will do fine for now, not really concerned about that, just glad my new girl is up and running much cooler now.

That and the stock cooler was just...god awful. But they always are, they're meant to do just enough to get by under the best of conditions.

Oh, also, on full load it runs quieter than my case fans, which isn't saying much because those things are hellish monstrosities as well.

Seriously, measure your case before you buy this thing, it's literally the size of a chihuahua.

Hal

Fresh new pipes!

My first post on a new internet connection. Well my first post in a long time. I've only had AT&T DSL running for a few hours now, but already I've noticed an amazing connection quality difference. Considering the bandwidth is technically much lower than my former Broadstripe connection I'm not even sure how that is possible. My only regret so far is not switching way back when Millenium first decided to change to Broadstripe and "upgrade" their systems. My connection has gotten worse and worse since that day. The icing on the cake is that by the time my promotional pricing is over, the savings over Broadstripe will pay for the modem cost a hundred times over. Well not really, but $65 with broadstripe versus $25 with AT&T is still $480 dollars in savings in that first promotional year, and then $240 every year after that when AT&T goes back up to the standard $45 for the elite dsl without phone service.

And despite what I've heard, the customer service is way better. Hell the fact that they didn't just drill a fucking hole into my wall to pipe in the cable line is a huge step in the right direction, but I had all my connection issues sorted out in 15 minutes over the phone, which is amazing. After dealing with Microsoft over the phone earlier in the year I expected the worst.

I say that the bandwidth is lower, but you can never really be sure with cable, I could range anywhere from 10-4 mb/s down 0.1-1 mb/s up over a day, with DSL it's a constant 5 down-0.7 up, and I sort of appreciate that.

But enough with the add campaign, I'm sorry about that. I'm just really happy to not only have an internet provider that doesn't blow chunks, but a cheaper provider to boot.

I'm trying to get myself back on track after some trying issues, will report more frequently in the future.

Hal

:::Edit 3/30/2015::: I can't believe I ever used 5mb dsl.  I can barely stand the 16mb I have now!

Windows performance index?

See, this is why WPI is kind of silly. If my computer could score a 5.5 out of 7.9 with two gigs of first generation DDR, something must be seriously wrong with the grading scale. I mean honestly, what could be worse that could actually run windows 7?

I'm a little surprised that my processor scored the worst honestly. I expected my ancient tiny hard drives would be the deal breaker.

Windows 7 is both awesome and bittersweet, it's beautiful and all but it marks the retirement of good old AzureShadow. I'll post the new one when I get it put together, and y'know, think of a name for it. hahaha.

Edit: Not bad

pfft

Price hike for xbox live? A service which literally does nothing that isn't available for free everywhere else? No thanks. I think I'll start putting my money back into my computer instead.

sigh..

Gotta love wikis. Nothing like two paragraphs that fucking contradict each other right next to one another.

That's the problem with opinions, generally they're STUPID. It's amazing how long tribal wars has been running, how simple it is, how much time is devoted to it, and how much money it makes, along with HOW LITTLE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ABOUT IT.

For one, you should never ever ever have more offensive villages than defensive, but on the other hand, 3-1 is ridiculous overkill. 2-1 is fine.

Hal

Fuck consumers!

So apparently I guess I'm a pirate now because I rent the vast majority of the games I play?

Rental is why I am a console gamer over a PC gamer for the most part. If rental wasn't an option I would most likely simply not be that much of a gamer. I can't drop $60 for a product I know literally nothing about.

What developers don't understand about the whole one use online code bullshit, is that buying a game used already comes with an implied penalty that is almost exactly the same. The longer a game ages, the fewer people continue to play it, with very few exceptions. A legitimately good game, like halo might have a claim to something like this, but that's where they take the smart route and sell map packs.

My mom used to say that you catch more flies with honey that with vinegar, and that's very true. Take something away from people, even something they don't really care about, and there's a huge backlash. Give people an incentive to buy new, and no one cares. Dragon age origins for instance, had a one use code with its new copies too, but for extra content, the first DLC as a matter of fact.

Isn't that WHY we pay money for xbox live anyways? To support multiplayer matchmaking? Actual gameplay is all hosted client side. I sure as hell don't pay $4 a month for goddamn major nelson.

Right now, it's just shitty sports games, no one REALLY cares that much, but it's a slippery slope. Digital distribution is an option on the PC because publishers already fucked over customers with DRM due to rampant piracy, and look where the gaming market on the PC has gone. It's basically dead now, most of the "games" that come out now are just tech demos for what the next generation of consoles will look like.

There's a reason the phantom was a joke, and when all the consoles become modified versions of it, I will go back to the super nintendo.

Hal

Poor little guy.

Bye Scruffy. We'll Miss you. We're sorry we didn't make it in time this time.

Not like they need my money.

So doom 2 comes out to xbox live recently, and I'm super stoked. I go to buy that shit the moment I find out, and since I've done this a thousand times before I figure it'll be super easy and I can get right to downloading right? WRONG.

THE CREDIT CARD YOU ARE TRYING TO USE COULD NOT BE AUTHORIZED, PLEASE TRY ANOTHER CARD.

Yes, the very same card that I have not only used multiple other places on the internet within the week, but across town within the day, Microsoft has some sort of problem taking. Never mind the fact that I've been a gold subscriber for over a year and purchased god knows how much shit from them.

So I call my bank, hoping they could sort it out, so I don't have to deal with Microsoft's worthless customer support, "Nope, problem is on their end, charges are coming through fine, they're just not coming through for any amount."

So I call the BARELY English speaking customer support and what answer do I get after a 20 minute run around and hold? USE ANOTHER CARD OR BUY A PREPAID POINTS CARD.

NO! FUCK YOU! IF I WANTED TO DO THAT SHIT I WOULD HAVE ALREADY GODDAMNIT.

I guess if you dipshits have some sort of problem taking my money I can just fucking give it to someone else!

Hal

Got a starcraft 2 beta invite in the mail today.

Just thought I would share :)

So close to perfection....don't burn your wings on the sun.

So I'm playing a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 named "Out of Hell." Fantastic free mod, absolutely brick shitting.

I'm positively blown away by how much detail can be stuffed into a six year old engine, of course running such loving detail in such a dated engine causes performance to suffer exponentially, but I thought it was a pretty good trade off for slightly slower framerate.

Keyword being thought.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself, scared out of my mind, reading up on some of the most fascinating zombie mythos I've ever read within anything, let alone a game, when I come to the end of the third level exit and BAM

GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT: CRASH TO DESKTOP

Normally I wouldn't have minded the jarring removal of my immersion, but when I loaded back up I found that the game hadn't saved prior to crash, as the author opted to remove mid level saves and checkpoints in favor of a between level save system.

Which while creating a much better atmosphere, if your game crashes between levels, that creates a pretty big fucking flaw.

I realize it was the work of just one guy, and amazingly well done at that, but that's still a pretty big fucking flaw. Sure these things take forever to make, but take a little longer and get it done right. If you're going to make an admittedly awesome atmosphere enhancing save restriction like this, it's best to have it save from within the game before any loading occurs, rather than in the middle of two states. Then just have the save file automatically skip to the next level when loading.

I loved what I played, but I wont be slogging through the 15 minute long level again anytime soon just to roll the dice and see whether the program will CTD instead of save. The CTD I can deal with, redoing the level from scratch? Not so much.

Hal

Edit: possibly a problem with multi-core support....did they have multicores in 2004? I doubt it....I'll try it out tomorrow night maybe.

When you make up almost 30% of character population, you're bound to attract idiots.

So I'm running UK right? Retardedly easy right? Yeah if your dps isn't fucking retarded. For some reason I ended up with a boomkin that thought that an eclipse proc was a good reason to make an additional un-necessary pull.

We get to the point at the stairs where you can walk around a bunch of mobs if you're not a stupid ass, so what does he do? pull that set of mobs after I've already engaged the next. Ret pally dies, no big deal. We res him and go on and I emote:

"Benison has a bad feeling about GnarTokes"

To which he replies:

"You fucking suck."

To which I reply: "Have fun assholes." After I pull three or four groups and lead them back to gnartokes. Group wipes, except for me of course, I'm smart enough to bubble and /leave group.

I make a character on his realm and tell him the following: "Enjoy the repair bill stupid ass. Next time let the tank make the pulls and keep your worthless dps mouth shut."

Hal

Numbers aren't everything.

So I'm out in zul'drak trying to inch out the last sliver of exp between my lock and level 79 just flying around, and this upstart lock starts dotting me up from a distance, so I /lol at him and fly off. A few minutes later him and his death knight friend jump me and start laying in to me.

So I'm thinking ugh...really? For a second I actually stop and try to bubble hearth, 'cuz of spending so long on my paladin. Then I decide fuck it, I can at least kill one of them before I drop.

Much to my surprise, I ended up killing them both fairly effortlessly. The lock and his death knight pet.

And the best part? With the faction restriction on pvp servers lifted, I can roll an alliance toon just to taunt them! Absolutley made my night.





Morale of the story? If you're new to the game, don't fuck with someone who has been around since the server was 2 weeks old, back in vanilla content, he's liable to ruin your shit.

I hope they feel the sting of shame for some time to come.

Hal

RIP Mooville,VillaDeMoo and Mootopia on world 46.

:(

Does this sort of thing count as identity theft?

So after getting an email telling me it'll take 8 days for Blizzard to decide if they want to reactivate my account I get an email asking me to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. My response is as follows:

"Overall I'm just kind of pissed that it took blizzard not even hours to permanently disable my account without so much as a glance at my account history, and it's projected to take them 8 days to figure out if they want to reactivate it? Is that really a good way to treat a customer that had your service taken from him via a malicious 3rd party? The item restoration notwithstanding, would it be that much to unban the person? Doesn't it strike anyone as funny that a customer that has played for three+ years off and on would suddenly change his password and sell everything he took god knows how long to earn and promote some random goldfarmer? Not to mention if he changes his password back and then writes a GM ticket about getting hacked? Why couldn't I have gotten banned while I was being robbed?

I know the in game economy is important, but I would think you would have at least some consideration for real world economy and value your paying customers.

Nothing against the service rep though, he was great."

Hal

Legendary Blizzard Customer support at work!

I wake up this morning to find an email in my inbox telling me my battlenet password had been changed. So I'm thinking "Aw sheeit" as I go ahead and change it back and log in.

Basically all my characters are naked and their money is gone, but as some consolation it looks like I interrupted them halfway because a few of my bags and items are still there. Oddly enough my paladin was actually floating beneath the main landmass of Dragonblight. How he got down there I have no idea.

So I'm a little sad, but I figure blizzard might be able to fix it, so I open up a ticket, but then a couple minutes later I get disconnected from the server with a notice that my account had been closed, and I get an email in my inbox moments later.

"Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy."

Fucking wonderful. Not so much as a question, a look through my account history...nothing...just an immediate ban ON AN ACTIVE SUBSCRIPTION. I guess all the money and time I've given blizzard since warcraft 2 isn't enough for the goddamn benefit of the doubt.

Hal

Wolfen-Baww

I have no idea how one of my favorite companies of all time started with a game like Wolfenstein 3D. I know they made commander keen beforehand, and earlier wolfen games, but this is where they really became recognized.

And for what? One of the most godawful games I can remember playing.

It's not that I am biased against it because it's so retro, I still play and enjoy DOOM and that game is over 16 years old. But wolfenstein is one of those painful middle children between the arcade genres and what we know today.

And you can tell that just by looking at the "points" and "lives" system. You run around killing nazis and collecting treasure to collect points, and every so many points you get an extra life and the all so precious high score, but what's the point? Even on the leaderboards that the xbox live arcade has now, there's only so high your score can go for each level, and what's the point of extra lives?

I could see if you started off where you died, like most arcade games with this sort of system, but no, you start at the beginning of the level, with all enemies respawned, no ammo, no weapons, and 1 less life!

Why the fuck would you want to do that? Especially when you could just, I dunno, fucking save the game?

Speaking of saving, you end up doing that a lot, because they like to hide bad guys behind corners, and just one slip up could have even the weakest enemy doing anywhere between 1 and 50 points of damage with a single shot, and when you only have 100 health, that's a pretty big deal.

Yeah I know, 1 and 50, really random isn't it? The same is true for enemies as well, it could take anywhere from one to five or six shots to kill any of the standard badguys, with no rhyme or reason to it whatsoever. Remember, this is back before you could aim for the head.

And when every badguy takes more hits to kill than you it can get really fucking frustrating and tedious really fucking fast.

You remember that old windows screensaver that made a random maze for the screen to navigate its way through? That's what this entire game is like, only chopped up every 10 minutes for a reload. All the floors and ceilings are one boring ass color, and the walls are just tiles repeated over and over. Add that in to the random maze design of some of the levels, and you can get wicked lost very easily, with the only thing to lead you being bodies from badguys.

And the moment you let your guard down you'll walk past a corner you thought you checked and "SHUTZSTAFFEL!" BRAKA BRAKA DEAD-RELOAD.

Seriously, maybe if this BJ BLAZKAWHATEVER was running around in combat armor instead of his...tattered prison pajamas, maybe the game would be more fun.

And you can tell the developers thought the blind corners thing was just awesome, because one of the last levels consists of nothing but. Moving up a few feet so you can kill the guy hidden in a little alcove, and then turn around and do the same to his buddy before he kills you, is not fun.

But then I can't help but wonder, when this game came out, did we even realize what WAS fun?

I started PC gaming with DOOM, so I may never know. DOOM is so vastly superior in every way maybe I'm just not capable of looking back at Wolfenstein 3D without bias.

Hal

Hmm

So I was just kind of wondering....why do the Xbox 360, Wii, and just about every game system since the dawn of time come with games, and yet, the PS3 comes with a movie.

It's like the goddamn creators forgot it was a video game console!

Robot Zombies

So maybe it's just because I've been unfortunate enough to work retail, but if there's anything more cathartic than plowing through hordes of zombies in a sports car that you just stole I haven't found it yet. Seriously. You have to kill fifty three thousand of the bastards to get the last in a chain of kill achievements, and I was entertained the entire way there. Of course it might have had to do with the fact that at any given moment my car could break down and I could end up in a poorly lit maintenance tunnel surrounded by the undead with only a baseball bat and my own two feet to get me to another parked car.

On an unrelated note: I've been playing a lot of kid friendly movie tie in games lately, partly because I'm a whore, and partly because I wanted something whimsical and entertaining that was as far away from mainstream gaming as possible. While I did find it with Kung Fu Panda, I very much did not with Wall-e, which is ironic because as movies go I very much found Wall-e to be vastly superior.

Wall-e fails as a game for one reason, its intended audience (kids) would never touch the game because it's so goddamn buggy and unlikeable that it actually makes you wonder what you could be better doing with your life until you shut the console off and wander outside.

My point can no better be summed up than level 7, "100% unsanitary," and while I heard on the internet that the last level would fill me with hair pulling frustration I found that untrue, and instead got bogged down on this one for the "finish it without dying" achievement.

The platforming isn't what's wrong with it, even though the control is terribly loose and slippery, it's that this level was designed by some sort of malicious prick that apparently hates children. It's based on the part of the movie where Wall-e ends up in the garbage dump of the axiom, and any strayance off of the narrow platforms results in instant death. The ground is slippery, Mo is beserk and shoving you around, there are rotating cannisters that you have to traverse with goddamn pinball bumpers in them that immediately catapult you into instant death soup, and then there's the assembly belt at the end of the level.

Earlier in the game you're told that red floors = instant death and purple floors = mild irritation, but here that goes out the fucking window. If you touch a purple floor even for a moment the game basically throws an unseen die to see if you're going to explode into a shower of kid friendly robot parts. That and if you so much as touch a wall or barrier it's game over instantly.

Why can't the buggy part be at the beginning? Why does it have to be at the very end of the level! I died so many goddamn times in this level I will have my route forever burned into my memory.

AND THEY MADE AN ACHIEVEMENT FOR NOT GETTING KILLED IN THE LEVEL.

It's a shame too, because free flying in the eve levels was actually somewhat unique and entertaining, but even they were long and tedious with glitchy instant deaths.

But in hindsight, it has made me look back more fondly on my time spent trying to beat call of duty 4 on veteran. In fact I may rent it again.

Hal