Thursday, August 30, 2007

I haven't posted here in a LONG time. And for that, I'm sorry.

Figured since I don't have time for a full post, I'd do a general briefing of what's new.

#1. Still playing EVE and CoX
I've said before that I was done with EVE, and gone back. I know that the game isn't really what I want, and probably will never be, but for now it's something to play. I've got in a couple beta tests of MMOs I was anticipating, and that's just made me sad. They aren't anything like I'd hoped, and I don't foresee either one being something I'd buy and/or play for any length of time. The one might be cool for the first free month, but after that it would be iffy.

I've probably stuck around in EVE for this long cause my co-worker/friend Kofi is still playing it. And we actually team up and do stuff once and a while. That is, the few times I actually play are when we team up. Otherwise I barely play the game at all. I was actually just considering cancelling my account a few minutes ago. Since I got to Battleships, there's not a lot left for me in the game, aside from the PvP aspects which basically /require/ me to join a PC corporation and move to low-sec/hostile space. Meh.

As for CoX, it's also become a game to play whenever, just for something to do. There are more people online for me to talk to now though, so that is cool. But I can't seem to get past the low teens in levels. The grind starts to set in and I've seen all the low end stuff before (many times, at that), so I get bored. Plus I haven't really got into any of my characters at all. Perhaps because my old one Dex was so cool, it's hard to compare. I've also considered cancelling my CoX account, but at least I find the character creation and combat thoroughly enjoying.

#2. New games
I recently DLed the demo for World In Conflict. It's an RTS game, but instead of the usual resource gathering/base building, it has control points to take and reinforcements are based on your performance, not resources. Also the tactical aids are really cool. Stuff like napalm strikes, air dropped tanks, radar scans, nukes, laser guided bombs, etc. All of them are really nice. And they are also gained through your performance. Kill more enemies, and you get more points.

The multiplayer part of the demo is what has me hooked though. Playing Russians vs. Americans is really cool, and instead of everyone being their own team, it's 8 vs. 8. Usually 2 people per team in each of the 4 roles: Support, Infantry, Armour, and Air. You need to work together to fight the enemy, cause one role isn't good vs certain others.

I have played a lot of the demo, but I'm still not very good, as my RTS background is limited (mostly Starcraft, way back when). But there have been a few times when I've been one of the better players on my team. Never like when I play FPSes though. With those I'm normally the top/2nd best on my team, and in the top 3 on the server.

Bioshock also has me intrigued. Aside from the copy protection, which is somewhat of a rootkit (ie. BAD), it looks good, though I'm not sure how long the gameplay is. I read on Penny Arcade that Tycho is already done it, and it only came out last week. Might wait to see if my one roomie gets a cracked version off the Net first.

#3. Books, Tabletop and Movies
My one roomie, the guy I've referred to as "Inferno" in past entries, has given me a lot of sci-fi novels to read. I've been interested in reading some cyberpunk stuff, cause of the one MMO I'm beta testing, and cause my tabletop friend and I were discussing Cyberpunk. One of the books is a Shadowrun one, and though the cyberpunk references have got me interested, the magic aspect just seems silly to me. They are two genres I think should never be combined, but it will be interesting to see how the story turns out.

In tabletop news, we haven't been able to play for months now, at least before I moved in the beginning of July. I think it was one session at my old place, and before that was eons (Ok, maybe March ). We've tried a couple times to get a gaming session going, but with my one friend having a baby, and everyone working out of town in the summer, it's been impossible. We might play this weekend, but I'm not holding my breath. If we do though, I'm hoping my one friend will run his introduction adventure into Cthulhu. None of us, aside from him, have played it. But what he tells me it's more mystery based, with a lot of looking for clues and solving the mystery than the usual combat heavy games we've played. And I'm all for that, but I think the other guys might not be. Bummer.

As for movies/TV, I watched the 2nd season of Deadwood that my friend lent me and I was hooked. Now I need to watch the 3rd season. It sucks that it got cancelled after the 3rd season though. I know it's going to piss me off and leave me on a cliffhanger, but it's soooo good I can't resist. I also watched An Inconvenient Truth and was blown away. Man, the proof that Gore shows you is pretty hard to argue against. Makes you wake up a little and realize just what kind of a situation we're heading towards.

I also watched Ghost in the Shell for the first time. Soo good. Love it. Made me want to play a cyborg in CoX. I made one, but I'm not sure I like him that much. When I think cyborgs, I think Cyberpunk, and when I think Cyberpunk, I think GUNS. Not superpowers, not fireballs, not radiation. GUNS. It's too bad the only gun based powerset on CoH is crap. And shooting people isn't really "heroic", per se.

I also want to get Space: Above and Beyond, and maybe the entire series of Star Trek: Enterprise. I really liked Enterprise and wished I hadn't missed so many episodes. There's some other movies I want to get, so I guess I should dig out my HMV gift cards and go get them. I think I have like 80 bucks worth too, so there's no real reason I shouldn't.

#4. Teh InterNEts!
We finally figured out what the hell the fucking problem was with our internet. Whenever we would use it, usually when more than one of us was using it at one time, the modem would either reboot, or the router would stop responding. We couldn't figure out what the hell the problem was. We rebooted the router, changed its firmware/settings, tried using only one computer at a time (still rebooted the modem). Finally we figured we'd better call our cable company.

I sent them an email and they told me it sounded like we had a bad connection, and we should get a tech guy out to inspect the lines for us. So I went snooping around and asked my roomie (the guy who owns the house) where the cables were, and if we had a splitter, etc. He showed me and I found the splitter. Then when I traced it back to the cable, I found the one wire had a big ass kink in it. Like someone (fucking idiot!) had caught it in a door. So the cable probably was either broke inside, or half snapped off. So I got out the cable I stole from my old place, changed them, and voila! The internets work again.

Fuck that was annoying. Almost as annoying was trying to explain how a cable shouldn't be closed in a door and bent like that. Only problem is the guy who owns the house doesn't want to put holes in the wall to run the cable, so we're stuck running it under doors and along floors.

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So that's it. I guess this wasn't really a brief summary at all. Oh well, you get all the details instead. Hope you enjoyed.

Until next time,
The Rev.