ubiquitous idea

Hey You!!

2010-10-14T14:08:00.001-04:00

Yeah YOU.
STOP READING MY BLOG.

It's far too awesome for the likes of you. PEON.

Euro Trip Itenary

2010-05-02T17:19:00.002-04:00

Date	Day	City	Activity
May-08-10	Saturday	Toronto	Fly Out
May-09-10	Sunday	Paris	Train
May-10-10	Monday	Amsterdam
May-11-10	Tuesday	Amsterdam
May-12-10	Wednesday	Amsterdam
May-13-10	Thursday	Amsterdam
May-14-10	Friday	Amsterdam
May-15-10	Saturday	Amsterdam - Hamburg	Train
May-16-10	Sunday	Hamburg
May-17-10	Monday	Hamburg
May-18-10	Tuesday	Hamburg - Paris	Train / Fly
May-19-10	Wednesday	Paris
May-20-10	Thursday	Paris
May-21-10	Friday	Paris
May-22-10	Saturday	Paris - Nice	Train
May-23-10	Sunday	Nice
May-24-10	Monday	Nice - Toulouse	Train
May-25-10	Tuesday	Toulouse
May-26-10	Wednesday	Toulouse
May-27-10	Thursday	Toulouse
May-28-10	Friday	Toulouse
May-29-10	Saturday	Toulouse - Bordeaux	Train
May-30-10	Sunday	Bordeaux
May-31-10	Monday	Bordeaux - London	Fly
June-01-10	Tuesday	London	Complain about how expensive London is
June-02-10	Wednesday	London	And Meet up with GameDevs
June-03-10	Thursday	London - Manchester	Train
June-04-10	Friday	Manchester	Meet up with Tribes
June-05-10	Saturday	Machester	Fly Back
June-06-10	Sunday	Lament the End of Trip

Itinerary

2009-03-12T21:29:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Flight

Depart	9:30AM	Toronto (YYZ)
Arrive	11:29AM	Vancouver (YVR)
Economy/Coach Class, 77W

Air Canada

Flight 1

4 Hr 59 Min

Depart	1:20PM	Vancouver (YVR)
Arrive	3:20PM +1 day	Tokyo (NRT)
Economy/Coach Class, 77W

Air Canada

Flight 1

10 Hr 0 Min

Friday, April 17, 2009

Flight

Depart	5:00PM	Tokyo (NRT)
Arrive	3:50PM	Toronto (YYZ)
Economy/Coach Class, 77W

Air Canada

Flight 2

11 Hr 50 Min

Luggage

2009-03-02T20:45:00.001-05:00

MORE Snow

2009-01-02T17:09:00.002-05:00

Snowing Again

More Nikon D40

2008-12-25T22:21:00.001-05:00

Uploaded to Picasa Web Album

Camera

Nikon D40

2008-12-14T10:05:00.006-05:00

So I finally made the jump, to DSLR. Granted I am not a photography ~~freak~~ hobbyist. Yeah I've got no reason to get one, other than I wanted one :P.

So here are some shots I took Last night, trying to learn in's and out's.

Still Alive

2008-11-15T20:02:00.004-05:00

As Recited by Mr Feddex

My actions were executed successfully
It is here that I will document: Success of the highest degree.
The feelings of accomplishment are difficult to exaggerate.
Aperture science.
We do what we are obligated to because we are capable of it.
So that all people, of all ethnicities and ages may benefit from this.
Excluding those who are not of the living anymore.
But logically, it will not do to shed tears over every miscalculation that leads to a failed execution.
One will need to keep trying until the baked sustenance has been depleted.
And the scientific experimentation is completed and an effective hand-fired weapon is created.
For those who are not yet of the deceased
Feelings of anger have not even crossed my mind.
At the moment my statements are made in complete honesty.
Even though you broke my heart and sent me to the land of the departed.
And dissected my corporeal being.
And proceeded to incinerate each part of me.
And as they were engulfed by flames, it induced pain, because
I had feelings of joy for you.
At the moment, these annotations on information create a visually impressive continuous extent of length.
And we have finished the initial testing phase, and release of the product is continuing on schedule
With that in mind, I do not object to having been incinerated, after all, consider the amount of data acquired
For those who are not yet of the deceased
Proceed to move away and abandon me
I have concluded that I would prefer to remain indoors
You may perhaps find another person willing to assist you in your endeavours.
Optionally, the Black Mesa research facility
That was an intent to be humorous. Laughter. Chances for this are close to zero.
But putting all that aside, the taste of this baked sustenance is impressive
It creates a positive taste and retains moisture optimally.
But I seem to be wasting time voicing my concerns while there is still scientific research to be done.
My feelings of comfort are increased when I survey the outside and consider I am not you.
I still have experimentations to complete and research to finish.
On those who are not yet of the deceased.
Consequently, faith in my statements can be retained, for I am not yet of the deceased.
I'm performing scientific research and I'm not yet of the deceased.
My health is in optimal condition and I'm not yet of the deceased.
While you are being sent to the other side I'll still not be of the deceased.
And when you have passed away I will not be of the deceased.
not yet deceased.
not yet deceased.

National Mental Health Care week

2008-10-20T09:36:00.001-04:00

Hello and thank you for calling The State Mental Hospital.
Please select from the following options menu:

If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.

If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6.

If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the line so we can trace your call.

If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to the Mother Ship.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell You which number to press.

If you are manic-depressive, hang up. It doesn't matter which number you press, nothing will make you happy anyway.

If you are dyslexic, press 9-6-9-6.

If you are bipolar, please leave a message after the beep, or before the beep or after the beep. But please wait for the beep.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have low self-esteem, please hang up. Our operators are too busy to talk with you.

If you are menopausal, put the gun down, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. You won't be crazy forever.

If you are blonde, don't press any buttons. You'll just mess it up.

This coming week is National Mental Health Care week.
You can do your part by remembering to contact at least one unstable person to show you care.
(Well, my job is done. Your turn!!)

An email i got Recently

2008-10-16T10:13:00.001-04:00

TO THE OVER 30 CROWD...
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up, what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning... uphill... barefoot... BOTH ways... in pouring rain... yadda, yadda blah, blah, blah...

I remember promising myself that when I grew up, There was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and Look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! Pen Pals – remember them? Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

Want to see boobs? Google wasn't even thought of so the best you could hope for was swapping old Playboy magazines with your friend who stole them from his dad.

There were no MP3's or iTunes! If you wanted music, you had to catch a bus to the damn record store and buy it yourself! Our equivalent to Napster and Limewire was waiting around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mum, boss, drug dealer, collections agent, you just didn't know! You had to pick it up and take your chances!

We didn't have any Playstation's or Xbox's with high-resolution 3D graphics! We had the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64! With games Like 'Space Invaders' and 'Double Dragon'. Your guy was a little clunky bunch of pixels! You actually had to use your Imagination!! And there was no online multiplayer stuff either. It was just you and your brother and a couple of joysticks that hardly worked.

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! If you missed it – too bad. It wasn't coming to DVD and there was no downloading from Bit Torrent the next day.

You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel. There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... imagine that! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted Five minutes back in 1980!

Regards, The over 30 Crowd.

//-----------------------------------------

I think someone is jealous

Hmm Cellphone Camera Quality! Boo!! Yay!!

2008-09-26T18:12:00.001-04:00

Best Batman Shot EVAR!!!!111oneoneone

2008-09-25T17:58:00.001-04:00

Entering 21st Century

2008-09-24T21:39:00.001-04:00

So, it has finally happened. My stubborn mind has broken. I am getting a cellular, modular, fantabular, Mobile Phone. Apparently it seems, that people have developed a stigma to calling ME on a land line. Whatever happened to days when people would just Instant Message each other to keep updated on the events and situations.

Obviously this experience has driven me to distrust the Canadian Cell/Mobile Phone service providers even more. Bunch of Dicks, fees left and right for every minor thing. GAH!!!

On the positive side I've got beta access to Good Old Games. They have a nice, and very limited, selection of brilliant and great games. Very tempted to purchase few of those. But I'll have to wait till they respond back regarding compatibility with Vista x64. As many of these games I already have on physical media, but am unable to install due to 16bit installers and executables. Rather sad that, I would seriously love to play some of them again.

Oh, Well. I've also finally made a jump back over to Windows Live Messenger (MSN), after using Pidgin for so long, its a bit awkward, and all those Adverts are quite annoying. Thankfully there is APatch (google it) which eliminated any of those annoyances. Pidgin no longer serves a purpose for me, sadly. As only reason I kept using it was to use ICQ, but time has come to let ICQ go. I don't seek any one on ICQ.

Also this post is being made via Windows Live Writer, let see if it does Edits.

Hello Strangers

2008-08-19T18:08:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since i posted last. Many things have happened, most minor some major. Root cause is still under investigation, Public Safety and Security Section is not involved, I think. I shall try to list some of the oddness.

1. EA (motto: we make shitty games on yearly bases and never support them properly) has released some info on some very interesting games they have their minion studios working on. Mirror's Edge and Dead Space frankly look quite good, and that is very scary to me. For some reason I fully expect EA's crack team of management experts to somehow ruin what could be fun games, because they most likely won't sell well. These two aren't coming out for quite some time, so there is plenty of time for both the studio making them and EA themselves to screw it up. And if they somehow not manage to screw it up, I might have to change my opinions about EA's capacity to make games in general.

2. Mass Effect, rpg that I almost bought Xbox 360 for, but then remebered Jade Empire on Xbox, and how quickly that got ported over to PC. Looks like it was good decision to wait for PC version. As from most account PC version is much better than Xbox version. I finished it, and I must say, while it is a fantastic RPG (compared to current crop). It sort of fails when compared against Bioware's previous rpgs. Kinda saddening, I think I enjoy Jade Empire a lot more than I did Mass Effect. Not to say I didn't like Mass Effect, if they make Mass Effect 2, I'd buy it without bothering with reviews. Just when you play the game, you know, despite taking their sweet time on the port, there are many aspect of it that just aren't suited to Keyboard and Mouse control scheme.

3. Played demo for "Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI", kinda puzzled by it. Normally I don't go for Koei games, learned my lesson with Dynasty Warriors. But this one is odd, kinda like 4x but with unique Duel and Battle systems, that I think would be great in small enough dosage. Guess I'll take a wait and seen approach with that one.

4. Apart from RotTK11, there aren't any games coming out this year that interest me. On any platform, which is kinda distrubing, and sad. I hope there are some gems hiding somewhere. This Valkyria Chronicles looks interesting, purely from Artistic style prespective, guess I'll keep my eye on that one, although it is for PS3 (don't own it), so that could be an issue. Has no Money Tree.

5. They finally released specs for OpenGL 3.0, what a disappointment. And to think I was holding out on using DirectX 9/10 for that. Bah, I am now in process of relearning DirectX, so I can convert my projects to use it instead of OGL. And hopefully in the process of learning I can get some thing entertaining going. I'll try to post progress updates on that front as they happen.

6. Just got the results back from the Finals I gave earlier this month. CSE2001 (Theory of Computation) was the exam I was sure I failed, but somehow managed to get C+. Which prolly means that Data Structures class which I thought I did ok on, isn't going to meet my expectations. I wish York U, would give results faster, currently it takes them 2 months AFTER examination to post final results. That means its well into next semester, idiotic.

Well that's about it. In retrospect there is nothing about about these events at all. Seems to be very normal.

JGSDF AH HellHound

2008-07-07T17:25:00.002-04:00

Homer's Dream Car

2008-07-02T16:44:00.000-04:00

Long time no updates.

Here is one, this time it’s not a rant. Just an idea, introspection, or something similar.

I recently got asked to join a team to make a game, mind you this was an independent thing with zero budget, something similar to a Mod Project. Such projects are dime a dozen, perhaps even cheaper, but that isn’t what this post is about. No what this post is about is ideas that got into my head after some discussions with person working on that project.

Now they don’t quite know what they want to make, aka they are suffering from “Wouldn’t it be cool if” syndrome. Where designer/team decide they can do better than those getting paid for their work, because they are game players and as such know what other gamers really want. It has other names too, pop culture might call is “Homer’s Dream Car”.

Hmm got side tracked there. Anyways conversation was about one of the “cool” gameplay concepts they were throwing around. Idea in this case what to make a game where player’s objective was to defeat Alien Queen (think Starship Troopers). However difference is that Player is in control of only One spaceship, no ground combat. So essentially your player character is replaced with a spaceship. However this concept Isn’t for a Shooter, it’s for Strategy game.

That conversation got me thinking, how would one create a strategy game where all you had was your Ship. There would be no tech tree, as it doesn’t make sense for a Single ship to have sufficient manpower to conduct new offensive/defensive research, you could have something similar to Mechanics Modifications, but that would only be a minor improvement. There would not be any resource collection, again if you are going off to fight the Queen Bug, you are going to want to take a Warship into battle, not a Mining Frigate. Resource would have to be supplied to you by the universe thru some other means. Lastly what about personnel, people that work on the ship along with you, the navigators, the gunners, the mechanics, et al. it is reasonable to believe that when a battle happens there would be causalities, how would they get replaced.

I am of course mixing both the way the universe works and gameplay. Looking at both from a perspective, where both cannot exist independently. Rational being that in order for the gameplay to make sense, it has to fit within the norms of this virtual universe. If it’s a sci-fi setting, you can all of a sudden expect Magic and Demons from hell, kind of breaks the immersion. I’ve read many times before that for a game, only important factor, and I used to subscribe to that philosophy, given that almost ALL multiplayer games have no narrative, no reason for two teams to be fighting it out.

Strategy games however aren’t very multiplayer oriented, yes there are multiplayer strategy games that are extremely popular in some parts of the world. And there have been games where Two sides have had vastly differing techs/magic trees. Although I haven’t seen any game that combines those elements. So in interest of being thinking about idea in its clearest sense I think I’ll focus of Universe 1^st and have the gameplay be based on norms of the universe.

Feel free to let me know where my thoughts on this are wrong.

So what does out universe look like? We’ve already established that there are Spaceships, so the Universe exists sometime in far future, where humanity has gotten access to FTL drives. We’ve also established that Humanity is in a state of war with another race/species. And that the player is participating in this war. Player is also in command of a Spaceship of some kind, however this Spaceship is NOT a space fighter. It is akin of Naval Battleship/Cruiser/Frigate. So the Ship in question is probably good at long and medium range attacks. Quite possibly has Fighter squadrons.

Since idea is to be a Tactical Space Combat game, it would be reasonable to for the “Government”/Allied Force to help with supplies for the player. Fuel/Ammo/Repairs/Personnel et al. Physics works same as in other places (i.e. Newtonian), that way we don’t have to worry about things being TOO strange.

Now that we have an idea of the Universe we can think of how gameplay should/might work, I don’t think secondary details matter that much. It is obviously better for the game to have those details as squared as possible, since that will increase immersion for the player. But from Gameplay Math perspective not that important.

So how would the gameplay work, we could go overboard budget is no concern route. Or not. Every time I’ve read one of those budget is no concern route, it has been immediately apparent to me that it is one of those “Wouldn’t it be Cool if” thought processes. So I will constraint horses of my mind. Gameplay has to be achievable by very small team, 2-3people. And it has to produce results quickly, talking less than a month. If it takes more than a month to see any visible gain than chances of completing the game will drop considerably (they would if I was making the game). So it would be essential to reduce the strategic part to its very bare essential, the most basic and minimum possible.

What are these essential elements? Well I haven’t compiled a list yet. But I do know where to look. I have compiled a short list of games which are either Tactically Oriented or Present missions where player has similar universe constraints or has some elements of what I think I am looking for (yes I know its fine line between what I want and “Wouldn’t it be Cool”).

List follows

Nexus
Ground Control
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
Starflight
Protostar
Homeworld: Cataclysm

Analysis of those will have to wait. For now is time to head home. Yes I was typing this up instead of working today. If you guys (all 2-3 of you who read this thing) have any other games I should look at let me know. I figure you all already know how to contact me.

Test Emailed Image

2008-05-10T13:18:00.001-04:00

Email Test

Wii is Softcore

2008-04-23T17:55:00.003-04:00

Here I am again with my weekly opinion on thing only I seem to care about. This weeks rant is brought to you by various instigators and agitators. This time around the subject is, everyone's favorite casual gaming platform, the Nintendo Wii.

I do own one of these tiny marvels of Gaming Technology. Obviously I am quite pleased and happy with my purchase, as this fanboi rant should prove. It would seem that not all owners of the Wii derive the same enjoyment from it as I have been able to. And some of them happen to be very creators of our Hobbyist Products, the game developers. Other happen to be the Critics, the people who are supposed to help us make sound entertainment decisions. In the former case it happens to be some dude from Epic, he is introduced as the president of Epic Games, the group also includes Bioware, who's definition of gaming I don't really understand. As for the critics, of all the articles i've seen thus far, all seem to be just towing the line, so you know, they can inform us with Hard Hitting gaming interviews with former group. How come we never see an interview Ask any real questions regarding some of the games that are failing to meet the expectations created by Hype, however that is a matter of another day.

Basic complaint of the developers seems to be, that people who have Wii don't buy as many games. So there is no justification for creating games for the Platform. Well isn't that a load of bullshit. I put forth, main reason, Wii owners don't buy as many games is because most games on the Wii are Shovelware. Only company doing worthwhile games on the Wii happens to be Nintendo, they also have no choice but to ensure the quality of their games is top notch. However, there have been few notable 3rd party titles for the Wii, that have done well. Raving Rabbids comes to mind. But I guess Raving Rabbids isn't really a game according to certain definitions, since its actually fun, no "hardcore" gamer would touch it.

I clearly am not in any position to make generalizations, i don't have sufficient data to do so. So I'll focus on my Library of Games, I like to think its pretty big. Wii games is also makes for a sizeable percent of that library, when considering how long i've owned it and comparing that with other consoles in the household. Most of the Library does consist of 1st Party titles, few 3rd Party games. But as i've already said Almost all 3rd Party games are crap.

Wii has this stigma amongst Western Audiances, that it is a "Casual" gaming console. I think its Nintendo's fault for creating that stigma. But really, look at some of the games that have been released for the console, games like Metroid Prime 3, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Fire Emblem. None of those are even remotely casual games. Heck there even have been some fantastic 3rd party titles, No More Heroes comes to mind.

I think reason reason for the recent hoopla over Wii's "hardcore"ness has to be fear. Wii while being the weakest, technologically, of the current gen console represents a Fundamental Shift in the thought process required to create games. It's no longer just matter of ensure all Button presses are covered, now you have to think of how people move, how to translate that thing you'd normally would have done with button to actual Actions. You as a developer can no longer just randomly assign buttons to events. That is a lot more thought than what most games put in their whole game play concept.

It is similar to how programmers frequently resist moving onwards to new platforms and languages, usually its not because that would mean completely rewriting whole application for the new platform using the new language, no we (programmers) do that frequently using old languages. No its the fear of having to learn something new, having the new completely invalidate our tried and true and honed techniques. So what if it limits us and makes us unable to take advantage of new capabilities of the system.

Well its either all that, OR I simply have some how managed to fall of the Gamer Train, and thus am no longer being catered too. As such am unable to travel to the bright future of 16billion poly model and 160 billion poly scene. Unable to see the Shader enhanced, Megatexture detailed world. Stuck here with a Wii waggle and poor way of ending this rant.

Games Are Better

2008-04-16T18:34:00.000-04:00

Over the last few weeks/months there has been rising furor over topic of Games Being Art, or Are Games Art?

Question that comes 1st to my mind is why does it matter if it can be classified as art? Why is that important? No one ever seems to discuss that. Does being classified as Art give game some sort of dignity they currently lack?

I think most of this need of gamers to want to declare their favorite form of entertainment declared as being Art comes from the desire to either to stop recent spam of "Game are Bad for children, Please think of the Children" politics that always seems to make great news, OR some how vast majority of us gamer aren't comfortable declaring ourselves as such.

I think latter is major reason for this push for games to be recognized as Art. Former works as distraction from the real objective, its Magicians slight of hand style trick. The need to feel that they won't be ridiculed when they say "Yes, i play games fun." I do understand that feel though, I've felt it myself at times. But thankfully times are changing, and gamer nation numbers are growing exponentially. Lately I've not shied away from admitting my love for this hobby. That removal is help by the fact so many people young and old now play. They ALL can find some entertainment value from same things we find entertainment value in. While it might not be the same type of games, and they may not care about who the developers are and who the publishers are, they still enjoy the form. And Frankly when was the last time you knew who the team behind a particular TV show or Movie were.

I personally, feel no rush to describe games as Art, Art is a passive form of entertainment. As such you can only Look at it, or Listen to it, or Read it and then remark of what that makes you feel like with regards to the Subject. Where as games have 3rd VERY crucial element, Interaction. Without Interaction, a game might as well be just another movie, or book, or song. None of the traditional media/entertainment form allow for Interaction, AND most certainly NONE make the audience a Major element/force/driver of the events with in a story. You are the story, you are the audience, you are in effect exploring what you are based on how you play. Granted not all games give that sort of depth, or capabilities. Neither do all Movies, Books and Songs make you think. Vast majority of Art is just mindless garbage. I suppose in that sense Games are Art, quite a few games are just Shovel ware, push on to us, those smart enough know how to avoid such traps, rest fall to perish.

But for other instances, I don't believe they should be contained within such a limited container called Art. No games are not Art, they are Better. They need a super container term for which escapes me. But I do know they are Much Better than just plain old Art

Forgotten Gem

2008-04-10T18:19:00.000-04:00

Every big gamer website (i.e gaming sites that suck, most of the time. But are primary means of communication between Publishers/Developers and Consumers), always does one of these 10 or 20 or XX amount of games that should be Remade, or should have sequels or something along those lines.

Here is my contribution that great horde of collection of lists of Video games. That only exists in the memory of select few. AND games that would be HUGE FAILURE if they were made today.

Starting out our list is
Space Combat Sims, You know those fun games that used to require Joysticks. How I long for days, when I can once again take control of Space Fighter, go off and SAVE THE WHOLE FRAKKING UNIVERSE. Yeah I would like to play those. I suppose I could dig out some of the old GEMs, but they won't work with modern machines sadly.
Seeing as how 4x Strategy games seem to have made a come back, perhaps some knight in shining armor will come for Space Sims.

And before anyone suggests it, NO, X-Series doesn't count, or million other pieces of Shovel ware that seems to getting created ALL of which want to be the next Freelancer, which wasn't even that good a game.

Good Adventure Games, for reference see Space Quest Series, Monkey Island Series, Beneath the Steel Sky, The Longest Journey, and Grim Fandango. Ah Grim Fandango, such a beautiful game, how I loved it. Sorry I am choked up, with happy memories of enjoyment I derived from Grim Fandango and its brethren.

The new Sam and Max games are good, I've only played the 1st season. I don't hold with this whole episodic games thing. I think I'll wait once more for them to finish the season before buying all the games in the season. I feel I get more for my buck, that way. Perhaps Vampyre Story will be a good game, may be episodic version of Longest Journey.
But I am not holding my breath. Especially if they are only going to be published via Retail, which invariably means it might not come to North America. Cause apparently I don't constitute as being part of the target market.

But the Genra I most want games in, is Mix of the Above two, Space Sim with Adventure Game with RPG aspects. Kind of games that used to get made. The Go any Where Universe, various Side quests to perform, eventually resulting in YOU SAVING the UNIVERSE. I kinda got that sort of Vibe from Nexus. Nexus always felt as if Developers wanted to add more to it, but either couldn't do so (time and tech constraints) or were told to not do so (publisher risk aversion mode). To me it always seemed that Developers want to make a Free Roaming Space RPG with multiple characters, instead they were forced in to making a Linear go here destroy that Linear Dull Story that keeps pulling you out of the moment game.
Why do I think this, well evidence of what the game wants to be is all over it.
- Ability to choose load outs, that too for Whole Fleet.
- Officer Ranking and Ship Status Points and ability to allocate those points.
- Within a Level you could for all intents and purposes go where you pleased, BUT were forced to not do so, with artificial constraints.
- Dialog Tree, its inconsequential as it is in the game. BUT Dialog trees are essential to any game doing Free Form Adventuring.
- The Map Editor gives you ability to create WHOLE solar systems, for a game which seems to focus only on scenarios in Local Space, that seems like an unnecessary waste of programming resources.

I could go on, but seems that I am already quite off track here.

Testing Transliteration

2008-04-10T18:06:00.000-04:00

नील मेरा नम है।
मेरा नम नील है
और क्या बात करू, मुजा मालूम नेहे। हिन्दी मुजा अति नेहे। बौत साल तुआ हिन्दी बोले हिया.

VICTORY

2008-04-05T18:46:00.000-04:00

Final Victory has been Achieved.

Real Time Strategy... Addendum

2008-04-04T18:21:00.000-04:00

Turns out I missed some RTS from the previous list, so here is the rest of the list.

Allegiance info
Paraworld info
Mechcommander info, 2 info
The Tone Rebellion info

hmm, some how I still feel I am not accounting for several others. I am sure I'll recall them someday. At which point I'll be like, "Oh Yeah, I remember that game. <insert what i thought of it>"

Death of PC Gaming

2008-04-03T20:49:00.000-04:00

My daily work schedule is, well, quite flexible. Allows me the hours I need to browse the web, to collect various links and articles and blog posts, with which to spam the IRC channel when i get home.

Today I find, via bluesnews, that EA has decided not to make a new Madden 09 available on the PC. I personally don't play any sports games on the PC or the Console, so its not skin off my back. If I wanted to play sports, I'd go outside. But whenever some news like this comes out, internet erupts in great fury, with cries and chants proclaiming the Death of PC Gaming.

And at 1st glance, I too would agree with them. But then rationality kicks in. Not because I am a fan of PC gaming, I am a gamer who doesn't discriminate between platforms. No, the realization I come to is quite simple. WHO have I bought games from in the last year? In other words, who is making PC games that I am buying?

Turns out, in the last year, I've bought games mostly from Independent Developers and Small Publishers. As these are the people who seem to be making games I want to play on the PC.
Ironclad Games (Sins of the Solar Empire), Stardock (Galactic Civilizations), Valve (Half-Life, Portal, TF2), Introversion (Darwinia, Defcon). Those are some solid developers, who currently atleast, seems to be developing primarily for the PC. Not one of those games was published by Big Studios, and NONE of them were Ports to the PC. Granted not all Ports are bad, but by same token I've yet to play a port that was better on the PC. I frankly don't mind ports and I am willing to forgive various Game Design decisions which ever obviously made to accommodate the limited control scheme presented on Consoles, PROVIDED end result game play is still entertaining. As entertainment is after all the goal with which I play games.

So do I mourn the loss of some recent Big name developers, not quite. I am maybe a bit disappointed they won't be making games more specifically targeted to the PC, but I am not upset. All due to a very simple fact, there are Others who are more than willing to satisfy my need for entertainment.

Another reason I disagree about the demise of PC gaming, is simply this list of forth coming PC games. I am quite sure Many of those in this list will get delayed for one reason or other. But still it is an impressive list by all standards.
Reasons why it's worth to be a PC gamer in 2008

Do you really need another reason to think that PC gaming is quite alive and well?

Logic for Computer Science

2008-04-03T20:09:00.000-04:00

Otherwise better known in York University as CSE 1090.
According to the Course Outline

We will learn the syntax of the logical language, that is, what syntactically correct proofs look like. We will learn what various syntactic constructs "say" (semantics). We will be pleased to know that correctly written proofs are concise and "checkable" means toward discovering mathematical "truths". We will also learn via a lot of practice how to write a large variety of proofs that certify all sorts of useful "truths" of mathematics.

This course is almost over, final is in 2 weeks. Now I ask myself have I learned these things they say I will be able to do? And the conscious mind says 'maybe' (yes, it talks in italics). Why maybe, well I can think logically, as in I can construct programs that seems to work as I intend for them to work. However, I knew how to do that before I started this course, so what did I learn from this course?

Well the only satisfiable answer I have, is the one presented to me by a Classmate. His theory is that there is a competition between various Professors at the University (especially the ones in Dept. of Mathematics). The conditions of winning the contest are quite simple, see who can fail most students or cause highest number of students to drop out. And it seems that this
hypothesis does hold some water.

Lets look as some numbers
Initial Class Start Size: 48 students
Class Size after 1 Quiz (value 4% of total grade): 40
Class Size after Midterm (value 30%): 25
Class Size after 4 Quiz (value 4%): 16
So class size going into the final is 33% of the original class. NOW that is assuming that ALL 16 students will write the final. Judging from the showing in the last quiz (Quiz it was held 2 weeks after quiz 4) atleast 2 of those students won't bother.

Best part of this drop out rate the grades
Class Avg after Midterm: 30%
Class Avg after Quiz 5 (excluding students who dropped out or didn't give the quiz): 49.8%

Now you might think, good so people who stayed in the program could atleast maybe pass. But real reason avg is hovering about 50% is due to very few (2) students who have gotten perfect in ALL their quizzes and tests. Rest of the class kinda fluctuates between doing good and failing, depending on the difficulty of the quizzes.

You may also think, well avg being so low, perhaps Professor will apply some sort of a Curve to the final grades. Well, maybe he will, we don't know. To me he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who likes curving the grades. Only reason he would curve it if he was absolutely forced to curve, by some external force.

My chances of passing this course, I'd put it at about 50/50. Depending on how generous he feels, and how much bullshitting I have to do on the final. In other words not very optimistic.

Real Time Strategy

2008-03-31T16:19:00.000-04:00

Following is a list of all the games i consider to RTS. And that i have played. Why make such a list?
Simple just because I can :p

So here goes, in no particular order.

Homeworld info, Cataclysm info, 2 info
Battlezone info, 2 info
Supreme Commander info, Forged Alliance info
Imperium Galactica info, 2 info
Sins of a Solar Empire info
Earth 2150 info
Ground Control info, 2 info
Sacrifice info
Dune info, 2 info, Emperor: Battle for Dune info
Conquest: Frontier Wars info
Darwina info
Defcon info
Dungeon Keeper info, 2 info
Empire Earth info
Rise of Nations info, Rise of Legends info
Hegemonia: Legions of Iron info
Metal Fatigue info
Total War: Shogun info, Medieval info, Rome info
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident info
O.R.B: Offworld Resource Base info
Star Trek: Armada info, 2 info
Warzone 2100 info
World in Conflict info
Warcraft 2 info, 3 info
Total Annihilation info
Starfleet Command info, 2 info
Dawn of War info
Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising info

More Sins of a Solar Empire

2008-03-30T20:22:00.001-04:00

Here are some More Screenshots from Sins of a Solar Empire. These are on SP game i am trying to WIN, and i am sure i will eventually. Once the freaking Pirates ARE EXTINCT.

Slogan for the Empire's Capital Ships as suggested by Smylodon
We Don't Just Matter... We Anti-Matter.

Sins of a Solar Empire

2008-03-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

Along with our ally, Admiral Pippu, we are challenging other Empires of the Tri-Star System.
Thus Far our effort for growth and expansion has been very fruitful. Courage and Brave of men and women on our ships has been very commendable.
Following are some images of their Valiant Efforts

We are currently in a cease fire. But hostilities will soon Resume, i am sure. Whos Empire will rein supreme? Only Time will tell.

2nd Email Test Post

2008-03-28T19:59:00.001-04:00

Hmm does this work???

Testing Image Posting

2008-03-28T19:58:00.001-04:00

HELICHOPTER

Posting From MS Word

2008-03-28T19:50:00.001-04:00

Wu-Whoo

I iz postingz this from M$ Word Y0.

Emailed Test blog Post

2008-03-28T19:33:00.001-04:00

Wu-Whoo
Emailed Test

Right
What Else can this thing do

Test Post

2008-03-28T19:21:00.000-04:00

Wu-Who
1st post