Back from the Void

More has changed in my life over the past month then any other time during my existence. Starting "real life" turned out to be enjoyable, but filled with administrivia and deadlines.

I am now sitting in my first apartment on the first internet connection I have ever paid for. The connection was long in coming- about 1 month from when I moved in- but is very fast (Verizon Fios).

As for Wrimo: I crashed and burned. I did well at the beginning of the month, and wrote more then I have ever written about one thing, but I didn't even make it to the half-way point. I attribute this to the changes in my life and lack of experience. The focus of the story was on the characters, rather then the interactions between them. I discovered too late that describing characters by playing them off one another is far more enjoyable and efficient then describing them as individuals.

This last month was still filled with consumption. While my internet was down I read three books, for a total of ~2500 pages. The first, World Without Us, was interesting, but a little too sensational for my taste. The other two, The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End were both amazing, and taught me how good stories should be written. I also defeated Assassin's Creed. Although the gameplay became repetitive at times, the story was very good and more then made up for it.

Anyway, I know this post is a mish-mash of random facts that are probably uninteresting and without note, but I am trying to get back to blogging and I needed to start somewhere. For those of you who read this far and did not receive a punch line, forgive me.

Life is Starting Sooner than Expected

Today I got a call from my future employer. We only spoke loosely about start dates before this, but my impression was that I would start in late January. Apparently, the reality is completely different- November 19th or December 2nd...

Let me give you the run down. I have never had my own car (or insurance, just leeched off parents and friends), I have never had my own apartment (with electricity/bills etc.), it is in a different state, and I have no money. If that weren't enough- I am dead set on doing NanoWriMo.

There is a logical reason I am not panicking. At this point in life, I feel it is safe to say I am at least average at pretty much everything. With that said, thousands of people who span the entire spectrum of intelligence and ability are able to maintain an apartment and car every month for tens of years without making too many mistakes. I figure if I just focus I should be able to handle it without making any.

The task is slightly more complex however, because it involves moving, to a different state, for a new job, while writing a book.

But moving should only occupy a day or two of intense labor, followed by months of buying "this and that". A different state is just newness, and probably won't make a difference. A new job is OK, because the company is awesome and I have been trained in the things I am expected to do. Finally, writing a book over 30 days is only about 1 or 2 hours each day.

I love how rationalization works, I feel so much better.

Extreme Bordem

I am in a very weird situation right now. I just graduated from college, and I have secured a career, but it doesn't start until January. I have been trying to find temporary work, but that isn't panning out as nicely as I would like it to. Consequently, I have a lot of free time on my hands. I know NanoWriMo will eliminate all my free time shortly, but that doesn't relieve the surplus I have now.

Earlier this week I was doing a lot of wandering. However it was very restricted "I don't have a car" wandering. I was pacing around my house and occasionally playing video games. I did discover The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion which killed quite a number of hours, but it still wasn't enough to keep me completely occupied.

During my pacing I found myself in my parents kitchen. On the kitchen table was a bag of Nestle Chocolate Kisses. I walked over and ate a few, and found them very tasty. For some reason I thought of Pixar's Ratatouille and all of a sudden wanted to cook.

So I looked on the back of the bag and found a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I followed the recipe, and baked my first batch of anything ever. I thought it was interesting that I could make something that made my family so happy with so little effort, so the next day I made sugar cookies. They also made everyone very happy. The day after that I made a Vanilla Cake, which everyone liked, but I didn't find as satisfying as the cookies from scratch. I had made it from cake mix, which felt kinda lame. My brother had a birthday on Saturday, so the day before I made him a birthday cake and more sugar cookies. I still used cake mix, but I improved on the design slightly. Here is a couple pictures of the birthday cake:

It was really easy to make, and tasted pretty good. So I figured I'd share my experience. Follow the recipe provided with the cake mix, except add a packet of instant pudding mix of matching flavor to the batter. This makes the cake have more of a pound cake consistency then a fluffy wedding cake consistency. You will notice when you are trying to get the batter out of the mixing bowl into the pan that it is much more sticky then normal cake batter and will fight to stay inside the mixing bowl, this is how it should be. Also, buy some canned icing, and melt it down in a pan, then use that to drizzle the cake. It is more effective time wise and looks nicer then trying to spread it with a knife. It has been two days and I haven't baked anything. I think this random phase of my life is over (baking). If you haven't baked anything before, I suggest you try it. You will be surprised how easy it is and how happy it makes others who live with you.

Milk + Coco Mix = Awesome

The title says it all. I had some hot coco this weekend but instead of using water I used milk. It tasted like melted chocolate. I highly recommend it.

UT3 Demo Impressions

I imagine a zen monk speaking to me, "The wise man shoots not at his opponent, but rather, where he will be." Quake and Unreal Tournament have always had a special place in my heart. Among the sea of realistic shooters, these two franchises have provided me with two services. First, they provide fresh visuals which are interesting and imaginative. The same can be said for the character design and the weapon design. Secondly, they provide a skill curve which is unseen in most games today.

The visuals of the new UT3 demo are fantastic. The textures are rich, and the geometry complex. Weapon design is great. All of the weapons look different from their predecessors. The link gun is of particular note- it now takes on a sleek futuristic appearance, somewhat similar to the portal gun from Halflife 2: Portal. The ooze from the ooze gun is also well done, and a piece of ooze already attached to a wall will interact with an incoming piece as you would expect. All of the ooze throbs and steams, which makes it feel a lot more deadly then it did in previous games. The level I have been playing the most, ShangriLa, also has very well done visuals. It is stylized to look like a Japanese temple, and has a lot of the items that characterize such an environment: bamboo stalks, water wheels, fortress like roofing, and large open windows. The entire map is surrounded by water, and some docks are accessible. The other DM map, HeatRay, is fashioned after an inner-city. It is dirty- very much a ghetto in appearance.

The gameplay is also refreshingly deep and has a learning curve which doesn't seem to cap out. On the twitch level, skill in Unreal Tournament relies just as much on actively dodging projectiles fired at you, as predicting where your opponent is going to be. In games like Counter-Strike, all the weapons (except the grenade) are instant hit, which makes prediction almost a moot point. In Unreal Tournament, the majority of projectiles take time to get to their target, so it becomes important to try and understand how your opponent is moving, and where they might be headed. On the tactical level, it is important to remain mindful of escape routes, whether or not you have the high ground, and what sort of pickups are nearby. Admittedly, the gameplay in Unreal Tournament is not for everybody. It is extremely fast, and is not what most people are used to in the current cycle of 3d shooters. For many, it may be so overwhelming that they immediately give up. I can say from experience though, that getting good at a game like Unreal Tournament, Quake, Painkiller, or Tribes is a very rewarding experience and will improve your play across all other 3d Shooters. I would encourage anyone looking for a higher then normal yield of satisfaction to give Unreal Tournament a shot.

As a demo, UT3 has alot of content, and should give you a fairly good idea of what you can expect from the retail game. I do have a few complaints though. First, the server browser sucks. Second, there should be a place in the interface where it says what everyone's ping to the server is. Thirdly, there shouldn't be keys which cannot have their configuration changed from within the interface. The console key of "~" and the mini-console on "tab" are of particular note. Lastly, there should be documentation on the dedicated server, especially for people who need to launch it from the command line because their machine doesn't have a 3d graphics card. Other then that, everything seems to be in order, and I am confident that Epic will deliver the expected UT experience when UT3 comes out next month.

The Legend of Zelda: Looking Forward

I really enjoy the Legend of Zelda series. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the first game I ever genuinely wanted to own and single-handedly introduced me to console gaming. Ocarina- amazing, Wind Waker- less intuitive then I would have liked, and Twilight Princess- a work of art. The series has always been great. I just finished playing Wind Waker, which in my opinion was the most unique of the series, and even despite my complaints, which I will keep private, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to revisit Twilight Princess- and have begun a second play through. I could hear this same story told over and over again until the end of my days. The quintessential story of good versus evil.



Link, Zelda, and Ganon. The three parts of the Tri-Force. They will always be present in the Zelda series, that much is certain. But what of the franchises future? I haven't played Phantom Hourglass, but I have actually heard reviewers saying the formula is getting dull. I will never get sick of the formula- in fact it makes me sick to hear other people saying they are getting tired of it, but I do want one of my favorite franchises to always succeed. So I started thinking about where the Zelda series could be headed. It is safe to say that at least one more Zelda game will appear on the Wii, and the gimmick will probably have something to do with the Wii's motion controls. I also hope that The Legend of Zelda series will always remain a serious one (as far as gaming goes), and will never fall into the "casual" genre. With that in mind, I tried to think of some ideas the Zelda series could explore. Here they are in no particular order.

Crossing Final Fantasy and Zelda- and spinning the idea from Wind Waker- Hyrule is located among the clouds, where airships, giant birds, and dragons are the primary modes of transportation. Everyone lives on giant islands that float through the air, some of which can change location. You could have another 2D map similar to Wind Waker, or a 3D map. Make one of the items an oxygen tank that allows Link to explore higher altitudes.

Rather then having Zelda take place during a medieval age, translate it to a modern or futuristic setting. Think along the lines of the film Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann. Link runs around with a gun made by "Master Sword Ltd." He drives around on a motorcycle. He heads into a diner to hear the latest gossip and find the newest side quests. Ganon owns a giant corporate conglomerate hellbent on destroying the environment.

Make Link African, female, or an old man. Do something to change the demographic Link is associated with. If you made Link African and built the story around African culture, you could have a really interesting game. You could do the same for Spanish, Native American, South American, Inuit, or any other number of cultures.

Make another side-scroller Zelda similar to Metroid or Castlevania. Give it graphics similar to Odin Sphere, but gameplay typical of the Zelda series (aka: awesome).

Song Suggestion

If you are in the mood to hear something beautiful, then listen to "Nude" off the new Radiohead album In Rainbows.

Team Fortress 2 Review

Team Fortress 2 is the final new part of The Orange Box. Although I have been playing it for awhile, I still can't say I am done exploring all the elements it brings to the table. When I reviewed Episode 2 and Portal, I had beaten both games. I will never beat Team Fortress 2. For this, I am a glad.


This multi-player masterpiece is made up of 3 game modes, 6 maps, 9 classes, 22 weapons, 8 pieces of equipment, a multitude of abilities, and a countless number of good design decisions. When it comes to core gameplay, Team Fortress 2 hits it out of the park. It also accounts for every detail as well as it can, and radiates personality unseen in anything but the most finely crafted role-playing or adventure game.

The core gameplay of Team Fortress 2 is a beautiful thing. The battles take place across symmetrical and asymmetrical maps, with varying objectives, and against varying opponents. Although there are 6 maps, 4 of them are a game type called cp, which stands for capture. The cp gametype is itself, broken down into sub-games. Sometimes the map will call for an attack and defend dynamic. Other times the teams will be responsible for both attacking and defending. There may be 2 points, 3 points, or 4 points. As you can see, there is a lot of variety. Ironically, despite all of these cp options, ctf, one of the other gametypes, is the most popular on the internet. ctf_2fort is by far the most popular map in Team Fortress 2, just as ctf_2fort was the most popular map in every other edition of Team Fortress, no matter which engine it was implemented on. The last gametype is tc, territorial control, and is basically a campaign version of cp, where the winner of the match is determined over many maps, and which maps are played is determined by who wins the previous round. On all these different map types, dwell 9 classes, which are balanced and fun to play. They all have differing play styles. One class, the scout, is based around fast movement. Another class, the pyro, is based around close-quarters combat and ambush tactics. Yet another class, the sniper, is based around long distance support. It doesn't stop there, but I will spare you from a summary of each class. If you take one thing away from this review though: all the classes are fun to play as and they are all beautifully balanced. You will see heavies killing soldiers, soldiers killing medics, medics killing heavies, and every other permutation of every class killing or otherwise dominating every other class. It is truly a site to behold.

The designers of Team Fortress 2 did more then dwell on the core gameplay and make it amazing, they also added little details to the entire gameplay experience. When you load a map, you will be shown your all-time playtime of each class, as well as your best moments and who they were with. For instance, you may have an all time record of 10 kills with a soldier, but did the most damage (lets say 2000) with a Heavy. Also, you will be given tips which tune you into the more subtle parts of the gameplay. A demoman can charge his shot to make his projectiles fly farther. Soldiers can rocket jump. Medics have an uber-charge that renders them and the person they are healing invincible. Engineers can harvest metal from fallen enemies by gathering their weapons. The list goes on. After every time you die, you will also be clued in on how well you did that particular round. For instance, "You were close to breaking your record for kills with this class: this round 8, your best 10". There are more details then can be listed here, but you will be noticing new ones for a very long time after purchasing the game.

The personality is really what makes this game. If you have seen screenshots or movies, which of course all of you have, you know the game looks very much like Toy Story in its rendering style. This really works in the games favor, and if you listen to the included commentaries you will hear the designers rational behind their choices. Each character feels like their own person, from the Australian sniper, to the German medic. When the spy disguises as an enemy, he wears a paper cut-out over his own face, that the friendly team will see. When the heavy shoots for a prolonged period of time, he begins screaming maniacally at the top of his lungs. When you are blown apart by enemy ordinance, the game happily points out where your head, lungs, heart, and other body parts are currently located. Everything comes together perfectly, and has to be played to be fully understood.

Of all the parts of The Orange Box, Team Fortress 2 is the best. Previously, I said I enjoyed Portal more then Episode 2, but they were both in the same ball park. Team Fortress 2 is in another ballpark, and is better then both Portal and Episode 2.

HL2: Episode 2 Review

Halflife 2: Episode 2 is the second game I played in the recently released Orange Box. As far as quality goes, Episode 2 is similar to Portal: it is very well done.


The game consists of 7 chapters which span 7 or 8 environments. I want to avoid spoiling anything for fans out there, but I will list a few more features ambiguously: 1 new vehicle (with 3 levels of upgrades), 1 new pseudo-weapon, a variety of mini-games, increased visual fidelity, and the continued narrative of the HL2 story.

HL2: Episode 2 has a variety of mini-games sprinkled through-out the story. What I mean by mini is a game within a game, but not defined explicity. HL2: Episode 2 still has the same traditional gameplay: You still solve puzzles, shoot bad guys, and avoid enemy fire. Usually, in a 3d shooter you have many goals throughout the campaign, but they all boil down to killing enemies. HL2 changes this slightly by having you kill enemies while doing other things, like collecting. Also, they may have you kill enemies while defending a location- like assault mode from Unreal Tournament. It adds interesting variety to the gameplay.

The visual fidelity has also been increased from previous HL2 iterations, but mostly from a "bells and whistles" perspective. The polygon counts and texture resolutions have not increased. Some things that have been done are dynamic shadows (at least from the flashlight), more apparent specularity across textures (see cave level), and much more intricate displays of physics at work. In HL2 you will literally see entire buildings you were previously standing in blown apart, every floorboard and support beam careening through the air and interacting with the terrain.

The narrative is also good, but like the previous episode, a tease. When you first start, you are shown a very abstract montage of past events. The montage is enough to make those who have played past games remember what happened, but not enough to give anything away if you haven't completed the previous two titles. The game lasts for ~5 hours and only becomes truly challenging in the last chapter, although that doesn't mean the rest of the game isn't enjoyable. On the one hand, it is great that Valve has advertised this game as an "episode" and thus short. I like it when companies are honest like that. On the other hand, it would have been nice if it were longer. It kind of makes you appreciate the length of the original Halflife 2. Within the first five minutes of the game I had already said "holy sh*t" involuntarily- so you can expect many WOW moments in HL2. Chills were also served up in ample supply, in particular the situation with you, 4 tunnels, and antlions. The voice acting is also superb.

All in all Halflife 2: Episode 2 was a good game, and more polished then most games out there. I found Portal more enjoyable then Halflife 2: Episode 2, but would rank them in the same order of awesomeness.