Stem Cells

I'm not sure what to think.

I read on a site that they think of stem cells as:

"little seeds that can grow into and be accepted by organ tissue. They are like a blank microchip that can ultimately be programmed to perform any number of specialized tasks.

Most of the body's specialized cells cannot be replaced by natural processes if they are seriously damaged or diseased. Stem cells can be used to generate healthy and functioning specialized cells, which can then replace diseased or dysfunctional cells, so instead of replacing an entire organ, you can repair damaged, vital parts of the body with cells.

This aids people who are on a donor waiting list, and considering there is no federal pressure to get people to donate their organs once they die, people often die while waiting for a donor who is a match to become available. It also aids people who have injured organs that cannot be donated and accepted, such as a spinal chord."

Blimey, that was long. OK, so it's a piece of their article on stem cells. (Link)

Anyway, the big problem with stem cells is that they can only be taken from embryos and fetuses, because they are a lot more versatile and easier to work with.

So, when you hear people talking about 'killing babies to get to stem cells' what they actually mean to say is 'removing the stem cells from the embryo of a developing baby (if you will)'.

There's a difference between an embryo and a fetus. First, the embryo are (I am lead to believe) is a bunch of cells. They have potential to grow into a new life form, but they have not yet. And since they are not really a creature yet, the idea that your killing something lacks weight.

But, I have just run into a bit of a dilemma - your eliminating something that has the potential to be a human.

For example, you have no idea if what you just took stem cells out of was going to be a brilliant film maker or the next president. Or, for that matter, a psychotic serial killer or someone who gets drunk and kills a bunch of people and him/herself in a massive car crash.

I guess my problem is that we aren't entirely sure what we're removing from the gene pool.

Don't get me wrong, stem cells are great. They can help repair organs, cure blindness (they can grow into corneas), cure diseases, spinal cord injury, and just so many other things. I guess it's just my thrice-damned conscience playing up.

Call of Duty 4: Multiplayer Guide (Introduction)

I've been playing Call Of Duty 4 Multiplayer a lot (primarily because MW2 multiplayer won't get past 'fetching playlists') and I believe I have become savvy enough to post a guide on how to survive a COD4 Multiplayer match.

These guides will involve:
- General Tips
- Etiquette
- Communication
- Custom Classes (and how to make them properly)
- Perks and Weapons (kind of adds on the end of Custom Classes)
- Maps (and strategies to go with them)
- How to make the most of your class
- Surviving 'Hardcore mode'
- Surviving 'Old School mode'
- Combat Tips
- Sniping 101
- Stealth 101
...And probably a lot more.
(These sections will appear in no particular order.)

I'll spread all these out over a series of Guides, each one specialising in a certain area.

So, stay tuned for the fist one. Shouldn't be far away.

Joss Whedon

I've just found out he's making a movie called Cabin in the Woods. I thought, 'Oh good, Joss is getting back in the game after the stupid pricks at Fox cancelled Dollhouse'.

But I think Joss Whedon sold his soul. Cabin in the Woods looks like one of those pathetic horrors in which a bunch of college students go to a cabin deep into the forest. You can probably guess that there's some serial murderer out here.

Come on, Joss! You made Buffy, Angel and Firefly! You can't just cop-out to a $h!tty 'bunch of college students get massacred' horror movie!

I can already see the plot, and the characters involved.

- Main guy: The person who 'leads' the group. Probably dies.

- Girl with big tits: Self explanatory. Probably dies.

- Nerdy guy: Frail, weak, but smart. Most Likely dies.

- Whiny kid: That little prick who never shuts up. Dies.

- Secondary female character: Like Uncharacterised Character/s, but always female. Dies.

- Uncharacterised character/s: These are the people who you have no connection too. They could be one person or several. Dies.

It'll probably rely on startling the movie-goer instead of scaring him/her. Really scaring someone is keeping them on the edge of their seat and having them as tense as a cat on water skies, waiting for the jump out horror, while never needing to give it to them. Once you have the watchers attention, you can hold them like that for a good portion of the movie while not having a starting thing jump at them from behind.

Music and ambiance helps set the atmosphere, and so does the environment. Even the most 'Oh, I see where this is going' movie-goer wouldn't know what might happen.
Well, maybe he might. But the point I'm trying to get to is that slasher horror films are predictable and shallow, the characters are almost never likable, and the startling things jumping from behind the screen get old after the hundredth time you've seen them.

Let's hope I'm wrong about Cabin in the Woods, although I don't think I am. They're delaying it until Janurary 2011 so, get this, it can be in 3D.
I'm right. Joss has sold his soul. Let's hope he can get it back.

Core Hound Pups

So, I'm as my banker character on Aman'Thul, and I see this other character with a vanity pet called a 'Core Hound Pup'.

First thing that crossed my mind was "I didn't know Core Hounds had puppies".

But then I watched it for a minute. One of it's idle animations was digging into the ground, picking up a bone, fighting it's other head for it (did I mention it has two heads?) then throwing it up into the air, catching it by the tail, and scoffing it down.

After watching it for a bit more, I thought "this is... so cute! I must have one!"

Turns out you gotta have a Blizzard Authenticator to get one. In case you didn't know what it was, It provides your account with a totally random (although I suspect pseudo-random) 6 digit number in addition to your regular password. Click the button, get your generated key, enter that and your password into your login screen, and you get to enjoy increased security.

Plus an adorable Core Hound Pup, if for no other reason. Bonus is that the pet is account bound, so you can send it to all your characters, just like Mr. Chilly and the Onyxian Whelpling (two recent vanity pets mailed to players).

For New Zealand buyers, it's $6.50. American or our currency, I don't know. But I keep thinking that's a small price to pay for this awesome pet.

Blood Bowl

So, I bought Blood Bowl yesterday. My dad and I specifically checked the scores online, and after we decided it was all good we bought it.

So, installation went fine, a bit slow but that's neither here nor there.

After a bit of faffing around I get to the 'input player key here' bit. And, naturally, I guess that the activation key is the same as the player key.

It's not.

So, here I am, trying to put the activation key into the player key box. Now, you may say 'Oh jee, how stupid of you. I would hate to see your children', and that's all very well, but you would make the same mistake if you never actually got the fucking player key.

My game box doesn't have it anywhere, and when I bought it I noticed the lack on manual. It's all very well that the manuals on the disk, but the manual lacks the player key where it usually is (on the back of the manual). In fact, if you look at the on-disk manual, it has the blank section for the key, but not the key itself.

So, I'm going to go back to the store and demand my cd key, politely but firmly. And if they say they never got the manual/player key for the game, then I'll ask for my money back.

I was going to blame the company that made this for having excrement in their heads because they didn't package the cd key (or player key) with the game, but it's most likely the stores fault.

I would write my first impressions of it, but as you can plainly tell I can't.

Halo 2

The Halo franchise seems to sell on one thing and one thing only - the Master Chief, the iconic game character that, to me, isn't all that great.

He has no health, just a 'shield' that takes about five seconds to recharge after you get hit.

I'm just wondering whether it was Halo that introduced what I like to call 'Threshold health', where you don't have a health bar per se but you can tell your in danger, usually by something flaching on your screen or, in the case of MW2, blood all over your face.

Anyway, back to Halo 2.
I noticed that there isn't the usual "This game is awesome" quotes from gaming websites, and I imagine Microsoft pays for all the 'reviews' anyway, so why not include them?

I actually don't know. Maybe because everybody thought the same wahy I do about Halo 2 and said they wouldn't defile themselves by taking a bribe, or more likely Microsoft/Bungie knew that this game would sell like hotcakes wrapped around a stripper regardless of internet reviews, so they just didn't bother.

Oh, the game? It's shit.
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to sugar coat this just so I won't hurt some ten year olds feelings or enrage a rabid Halo fan - This. Game. Is. F%#king. Terrible.

Right off the bat, I'm beset by hidious textures covering the walls around me. And I'm insulted that they included a tutorial that, no jokes, makes you look up and down three times. That's it. Considering that they think we're that stupid, why not explain to us in that greater detail how to press the forward key or how not to break your keyboard trying to figure out where the hell to go next.

So, got past the tutorial bit, and there's a sort of playable cutscene, than a not playable cutscene, then another, then they actually let me play the game.
Finally.

So, after finding out that Bungie forget the Sprint button and coming to the horrifying realization that I had to literally walk everywhere, I plunged myself head first into the combat, firing on all cylinders with my Battle Rifle.

At first, I was alomost impressed by the Dual Weild capability, until I figured out that you drop your secondary weapon if you do one of the following;
- Switch to your other weapon
- Throw a grenade
- Attack with melee
I thought that was pretty damn bad. And I thought the worst thing that I could possible think - "How could this possible get any worse?"

Well, can you say 'No clear objectives?', because I certainly can.
In MW2, your given a decent UAV minimap to mark the floor plan of the map, including the edges, and tells you where the next waypoint is so you can get to those objectives easier.

In Halo 2, you get no radar. You get this sensor thing that pings every three or so seconds to tell you where the good and bad guys are, but it only effects the direction your facing, so you can't make sure your corners are safe. And don't worry about telling me where the enemies are right in front of me Halo 2, because the sensor's range is roughly 15 feet in front of you, so it's of bugger all use and should either be severely improved or removed altogether.

Then I get out of the space ship. Up until now, I assumed that Master Chief did that slow, bouncy kind of jump because he was in space. Makes sense, right? I even went out of my way to not notice the fact that artificial gravity had clearly been used inside the ship.

But then we get onto Earth where miraculaously, a bunch of marines walked out of the crashed Pelican dropship unscathed. Now, I watched Black Hawk Down the previous night and that helicopter want down a lot lighter than the Pelican did and everybody early died, apart from the pilot (I think). That thing flipped and buried itself in the ground, and people made it out of there. Hell, you can tell the crash was bad because Master Chief was shaken up.

The town thing I've crashed into... how do I describe it? Doom II pisses over the textures here.
It's like they didn't even try. Fallout 3 had pretty bad textures and some of it was a little blocky (on a machine that's roughly four years old), but at least you knew that it looked great on a proper computer.

Halo 2 looks like the texture artist did everything in Paint. Bland, blocky, and wears the 'no effort here' label like a f&@ing crown.
The street I was fighting in was a sandy colour all around, and the buildings were simple boxes fitted into the square city blocks. There was no colour, apart from the bodies of the marines and covenent starting a sprinkle the ground.

But the excremental graphics wasn't the worst part of the game for me, although it did come very close.
The fact that there's no clear path or objectives pretty much killed it for me. You could argue that Halo 2's levels are pretty linear, but at one point I was fighting off a group of covenent, trying despratly to figure ou whether I was supposed to do something or if this was how it played out.

Since there isn't any Ghost or Soap on the other end of the line talling you what the deal is, I just sat there, confused, waiting for someone to communicate to me.

I've gotten up to the beach bit where you got into the Warthog and are driving around everywhere, until your team mates inevitibly die, and your forced to procede on foot. I do remember a concrete tower with no cover inside the walls or on top, and I kept getting attacked by Elites in Ghosts. At that point, I gave up. Maybe I'll try the multiplayer, but I'm not holding my breath.

So that's my take on Halo 2, quite possibly, and I'm pre-quoting this so you can rant about it on forums with minimal effort;

"Halo 2 is the worst game I've ever played of any genre. Ever."

Overall, I'd give Halo 2 two stupid Dev Teams and level designers out of ten. Just save your money - don't even buy it to see how bad it is, because that way your giving Microsoft more money to make even more terrible Halo games.

Ladyhawke 'Magic'

I've been listening to Ladyhawke's song Magic, courtesy of Youtube.

First time I listened to the song, I likes the beat. And the chorus was alright.

But listening to the song on Youtube and not over the radio, I can really pick out the lyrics.

And they don't make much sense.

Let's go through the song, shall we?
(kovideo.net supplied the lyrics, with little formatting but thankfully no god awful 'send this song to your cellphone' ads. Also, they didn't capital the I's.)

(We start off with a great intro. The music and beat is awesome.)
You came to my show, and I saw you in the crowd (Ok, not bad so far)
I didn`t know your name, I didn`t know your name (Hmm. Well, it's still ok.)
I asked all my friends who you were and your story (Good rythum with the words,)
They told me the same, they told me the same (Ehh, she did this again.)

I`ve left my heart to you, but it`s not fair (The last four words sound like they're a little off, but nevermind)
Coz you`re taking me for granted baby (Bonus points for adding 'Baby' in there)
I made a start with you, but it`s not fair (Again, the last four words...)
Coz you`re over the atlantic baby (Wait, Atlantic?)

One journey for you but it`s worth it (Seriously, what does the Atlantic have to do with anything?)
One life here with me and it`s magic (Are they over the Atlantic somewhere? Like, in a plane?)
One journey for you, but it`s worth it (Is the objct she seeks at the Atlantic?)
One life here with me and it`s magic (Aargh I'm so confused.)

You stayed in my head where I saw you all the time (Dreams, I'm sure.)
I didn`t think you care, I didn`t think you care (Or nightmares.)
I found you one day with a mouth full of attitude (Yep, teens will do that.)
And you stole me away, you stole me away (Why would she repeat the last four words twice? It butchers the rythem for me.)

I`ve left my heart to you, but it`s not fair (Fankly, this is a pretty good verse.)
Coz you`re taking me for granted baby (I guess you could call it the Pre-chorus.)
I made a start with you, but it`s not fair (Or, I suppose, a Post-verse.)
Coz you`re over the atlantic baby (Although that doesn't carry nearly as much punch as the former.)

One journey for you but it`s worth it (When she says 'you', does she mean the listener, or someone else?)
One life here with me and it`s magic (Is it someone else, fine.)
One journey for you, but it`s worth it (If not, how could she possibly know it's worth it? she doesn't know me.)
One life here with me and it`s magic (At least I hope she doesn't.)

Coz your over the atlantic baby (Cue wierd techno mix.)
And you`re taking me for granted baby (And odd voice remix.)
Coz you`re over the atlantic baby (For all three lines, they each have 'Baby' as a suffix. That has to be a top score.)

One journey for you but it`s worth it (How could there be multiple journeys?)
One life here with me and it`s magic (Define 'magic'.)
One journey for you, but it`s worth it (Is it, like, great sex?)
One life here with me and it`s magic (Or more of a romantic, blissful living thing?)
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (Wait, haven't we been here before?)
One life here with me and it`s magic (Like, four lines ago?)
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (I'm so deep I can't see the light at the top.)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic (It's just a tiny white spec.)
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic (I can't see the bottom; it's just so dark.)
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic (I can no longer see the top. I'm begining to worry.)
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic (Oh god.)
One journey for you but it`s worth it (Was that my cable snapping?)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic (Yes.)
One journey for you but it`s worth it (Yes, it was.)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic (Sh*t.)
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (OH GOD OH GOD I'M GONNA DIE DOWN HERE!)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (*cries*)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (*more hysteric crying*)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (*even more hysteric crying*)
One life here with me and it`s magic
One journey for you but it`s worth it (AAAAAA)
One life here with me and it`s magic (AAAAAAA)
One journey for you but it`s worth it (AAAAAAHHHH)
One life here with me and it`s magic (HHHHHHH)
One journey for you but it`s worth it (HHHHH-)
One life here with me and it`s magic (*SMACK*)
Bedrock--Bedrock--Bedrock--Bedrock--Bedrock--Bedrock--Bedrock

(Note: the song doesn't go on for that long. I'm just making it bigger than it really is.)

Most artists I know only repeat the same line (sometimes lines) about three or four times, max. That's the same two lines six times.

So that's 'Magic'. More proof that the subject matter doesn't exist and never will.

And I'm not too sure were I was going with that last statement, but I'm not going to cast it away because I spent five minutes on it.

Exhaustion

I'm just so sleep deprived.

I haven't done much in the way of 'work' this week (christ I loathe that word) and please excuse any punctuation problems in this post. I haven't got a decent night's sleep in just under a week.

I've really been enjoying COD4 Multiplayer, primarily for one reason;

The 'Kill Cam'
I have no idea why nobody else thought of this. It shows the last five seconds of the other player's movement before he (or she) killed you.

It's ingenious, fankly. It's easy to say "Aww, what a fu***n' aimbotter", but the Kill Cam, 85% of the time, shows the other guy is just as frantic as you are (were, sorry).

10% of the time, the bastard knows where you are and is waiting for you, and 5% is an aimbotter (usually, servers with hackers usually lack Punkbuster, Kill Cams, and fun of any sort).

And anyway, you can usually spot an aimbotter. They carry a LMG and always get headshots.

Music #2

Man, I'm weird.
(And I wouldn't have it any other way, thank you.)

So, my music preferences are all over the place. I only like a certain number of bands or artists, but some bands/artists made a piece of music I really like.

I like Bach Tacotta and Fugue in D Minor.
And I quite like Inside the Fire by Disturbed.

They're, like, at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

I really like instrumentals, though. The music from Modern Warfare 2 is still awesome. The Transformers score is awesome, and anything that Hans Zimmer does is awesome (Dark Knight and MW2 just to name a few.)

Ahh, video game violence...

Where would we be without you.

So... Modern Warfare 2 again comes under my blogs spotlight.

I don't know how old this is, but Fox came out with a segment of news that states, and I quote, 'Lets you play as a terrorist, and kill people'.

And I'm hearing this, and my mind is screaming 'MASS EFFECT SYNDROME! MASS EFFECT SYNDROME!!!'

For those who don't know, Mass Effect Syndrome is when a very stupid number of people (mostly the population demographic I like to call 'Concerned mothers') gather together to slander a perfectly good game.

Mass Effect was target because of a thirty (or less) second sex scene which showed about 3 seconds of ass and was put in a very dark room.
Worst still, it wasn't even a part of the game; the sex scene was completely optional.

So, anyway.

The best part about this video was the line 'A fair and balanced debate'. That made me vomit a little in my mouth, because I knew he was lying through his teeth.

He had never played the game, the stupid prick that said it's so violent and evil never played the game, and the poor bastard that stood up against these two asshats was eventually shouted down.

Halfway through explaining the deal with the mission, he starts loosing it. Now, the two bastards against the gamer start ripping him apart.

I love how they can just ignore any number of people, whether it's one person or (and I'm pulling numbers out of nowhere here,) six million gamers that bought the game and know the real story, and be totally convinced that they are right and nothings changed about their previous opinions.

I suppose Infinity Ward should have been prepared for this sort of thing. That mission, entitled 'No Russian', was just a little disturbing for me to play. I mean, mowing down a full airport of civilians with a LMG isn't what I'd call fun.

But even then, it's nothing terrible. Eventually you get out of the terminal and out into the light, where you take out armed police carrying riot shields and one gets sucked into a airplane engine.

Anyways,
The accusation that it allows you to be a terrorist couldn't be farther from the truth.

In actual fact, you are an undercover CIA agent, trying to get close to a very nasty man by the name of Makarov. The best way to do it is to help him mow down a airport, but he know's your american and betrays you by shooting you with a pistol, and you get blamed for everything, which is the major cause of the conflict in MW2.

Oh, right. ^ SPOILER ^

Seriously, how could they call this 'too violent'? Prototype had you viciously ripping, shredding, maiming and absorbing various members of the military, plus Blackwatch, and lets not forget civilians and the many infected that appear as you get through the game.

Why wasn't there a media sh!tstorm about that? No, Prototype wasn't nearly as anticipated or advertised as well as MW2, but still.

I'm not saying Prototype isn't fun - it is. Hugely. And so is MW2 (if I hadn't already made myself clear).

Stupid Game Advert

So... I just saw this.

It's so short, it just skims over my mind. It has no effect on me whatsoever.

Apparently, both the girls are porn stars (or at least one of them is, I can't remember) and the one who dressed up as red riding hood is pissed because she thought it was something for a movie.

Anyway.
The reason it has very little impact for me is due to many reasons.

1. It's way too damn short; 40 seconds length, including the criminally short gameplay footage and the ERSB rating at the start.

2. Disappointingly politically correct, but I guess this is a trailer for a game, after all. That kids are likely to play.
Oh wait.

3. Because of it's PC rating, they have to cut the kiss thing short. And it was a damn shame, too.

4. It doesn't even have the Evony syndrome, because both woman aren't showing much - if any - cleavage or parts of their body.
There's... nothing to look at.

5. There's a fat guy in the background and he does all the talking.
Pretty much a 50. cal round to the head instantly for attracting your male audience, on top of everything else mentioned.

Terrible ad. At least Evony had a shred of dignity left. A shred so thin it would make a strand of hair look fat, yes, but still.

For an ad that starts off the way it did, it failed spectacularly.

COD: MW2 Multiplayer

A lot of criticism has been raised against Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, making it out as terrible (on PC).

Now, I would check the multiplayer out, because I was honestly surprised by COD4's multiplayer being astoundingly good, and I figured MW2's would be similar.

BUT, the server list won't load (it's stuck on the 'finding playlists' thing) so I can't. I waited ten minutes and nothing changed, so I just left it alone.

Let us go through some of the criticisms for the MW2 multiplayer for PC.


1. NO DEDICATED SERVERS

This is actually a real bastard.
Essentially, from what I've gathered, Dedicated Servers are servers that a hosted on the host's computer. This gives the host full control of who gets kicked, banned, whatever, and since it's the hosts computer, he gets to decide the server rules.

Either that, or it's a server that is located within the company's data centers, which is specifically kitted out for dealing with a bunch of players playing on it simultaneously.

I could be wrong about both, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.
Anyway, not having Dedicated Servers means it forces people that want to host a game have to host it on their own server, and since the host probably won't have much in the way of anti-cheater software as a Dedicated Server would, there's going to be a lot of wallhacks and aimbots.

At least, that's what everyone is saying.

2. SMALL TEAMS

The maximum players you can have in MW2 is a 9v9 fight. Some people say this is too little.
Most of these people are stupid.

For one, 9v9 is a pretty good size for a fight. For two, most of these people that say it's too small a fight are people migrating from things like Halo and the Battlefield series, which are used to huge fights with over fifty players, where most maps stretch on for ages.

Maps in COD4 wern't all that big, so they where made for a smaller group of players. I imagine the ones in MW2 are roughly the same size.

Unless, of course, consoles get a bigger team size, in which case Infinity Ward has truly left us PC gamers in the lurch.


...I think that's it. There's only two real problems with MW2 I've seen so far.
Frankly, the single player is amazing, and if you aren't interested in multiplayer there's no real problems with the gameplay or experiance.

Today is a special day

For today is Friday the Thirteenth!

You know what that means; superstition is abound. People on the streets of Wellington will be yelling 'the end is nigh!' and 'repent your sins, for today is the day of the black cat!'

To be honest, I'm not sure where this Friday the 13th business actually comes from.

I imagine it has something to do with all these things related to Twelve (apostles, zodiac, tribes of Israel, gods of Olympus etc) and that thirteen was a very irregular number.

Friday's have usually been hailed as bad luck days. Black Friday has something to do with stock market crashes and other bad events.
Probably doesn't help that Jesus was crucified on Friday (hence, Easter Friday, one of the many, many days that have been commercialized by big, heartless corporations to fatten our children).

That last sentance was a little histerical, yes, but it needed to be said.

MW2 Music

I've been siphoning and listening to the MW2 soundtrack that Hanz Zimmer (and some other guy, german I think) composed.

Amazing. Each, while somewhat similar, carries a unique sound that goes perfectly with the mission. Most have middle-eastern sort of sounds to them, which I quite like.

Some of the music seems to have been stiched together by the poster, as in a few sound like they have two seperate tracks in them. But overall, it's brilliantly composed and performed.

Here's the channel.

EDIT
Wait, don't do that, because on Rapidshare there is all the music for each individual mission in three parts with muuuuuch better quality.
All three can be found here. Well, not there, but links to all three.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I've just spent from 11:30 to 2:30 playing COD4: Modern Warfare 2.

I can't think of anything to say that would do the game justice. This game is just so damn awesome.

It is intense, balls-to-the-wall action from start to finish. Infinity Ward have outdone themselves in almost every area.
It's like they went to their local movie store, bought a bunch of movies like Die-hard, Black Hawk Down etc, and thought 'Ok, how can we turn these into a game'.

And they have succeeded. Let's go through the various aspects of MW2.

COMBAT
The combat in COD4 is hectic, brutal and fast paced, with enemies shooting at you and red filling your screen when you get hit.
I imagine, similar to real combat ('cept the red screen bit), although nothing can really emulate a real firefight.

If you want to shoot someone in COD4, they go down. There's no enemy health bar to worry about. Head shots are instant kills, like they should be, and with the right weapon, one or two bullets will take someone down.
LIKE IT SHOULD BE. Not the Crysis combat, where the Korean bastards have the same armour and health that you have but are a lot more hidden, and since the scenery doesn't do sh!t to conceal you, your pretty much screwed right from the get-go.

The combat also forces you to think, primarily about cover and weapon loadout. Three shots is sometimes all it takes to kill you, grenades are pretty deadly too. Figuring ou and planning where you're going to run to if you get 'red screened' is essential, and weapon loadout for different situations in important, too. You need not a sniper rifle if your running around inside a Gulag, and you don't need a pistol if your up against a lot of infantry as well as helicopters/vehicles.

Sometimes heavy weapons are useful too, if your fighting through a thicket of infantry, as in one mission.

ENVIRONMENT
...Looks very realistic.
Buildings, interiors, plants, bullet shells, and your enemies/allies all look very well made.

Streets, city blocks, slums and building layouts all look very real. The last three look like they where drawn up by an architect who's quite good at his job, and the overall feel of each 'level' or 'mission' puts you in the perfect mindset.

Speaking of which, each 'level' or 'mission' is almost always set in a totally different place than the last one, which removes the issue of repetitiveness.

STORY
Very interesting story. It seems 'betrayal' runs thick in Modern Warfare 2's story, with your supposed friends turning on you. Not your actual friends, but the guys at the top.


It seems you're a pawn, being used in a very big game of chess.


MUSIC
The music goes really well with the gameplay. Each 'level' or 'mission' has it's own music score, which really helps to lull you into immersion.

'LEVELS' or 'MISSIONS'
Before I begin, I might as well come out and say it's a bit of a rail shooter. There's a bit of leeway (such as go left, right, take that path up the hill or stick with the road, etc), but otherwise there's only one true progression path.

And frankly, that's OK. It means you can focus on where you need to go and what you need to shoot instead of worrying about the multiple paths of entry/exit.
In theory, anyway.

The (let's just call them) missions vary depending on what team your with. You switch between the US Rangers and Task Force 141 almost every mission, except in a few cases.

With the Rangers, most of the missions drink from the same trough, as in 'You're in a place crawling with enemies. Welcome to hell.'
One Ranger mission has you recapturing the White House from Russian infantry which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The TF-141 missions thankfully have a lot more variety. At one point, your in an intense snowmobile chase, and another your rescuing hostages on an oil rig after you Swimmer Delivery Vehicle your way up to it from a submarine.

Not all missions are like that, obviously, but that's how MD2, for me, escaped the shackles of 'every mission is a slight variation of the last'.

MULTIPLAYER
Yeah.
Infinity Ward decided to take away ALL dedicated servers for MW2 for PC, so I hear multiplayer for the PC is a bit screwed, which dissapoints me.

Hackers, cheaters, aimbotters and other wretched scum and villans have probably infested the servers availible.

Infinity Ward have raised their riot sheild by saying that Valve's anti cheater software will protect against all those pricks who aimbot and wallhack their way to the top. But remember, grenades can take down riot shield carrying men if thrown properly, and I can't remember where I was going with that metaphor.

Apparently, there's a petition that has been drawn to Infinity Ward's attention that essentially says 'Give us our dedicated servers you ponces'. Not in those exact words obviously, but they say that, and I quote form the Wikipedia page,
'When asked for comment on the petition, Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling said, “Definitely made a big wave, and the response will not be ignored. I’ll ensure everyone at IW sees the petitions and responds to it,”[92] though no further response has been made.'

Hmm.

So that's COD4: MW2.
For people unwilling to read through all that or still can't decide whether or not I like it, I think MW2 is one of the best games I've played in a while.
Would definently reccomend it. Four stars (-1 for Infinity Ward not caring about PC gamers and screwing our Multiplayer).

Perfect Game

A friend asked me this morning what my perfect game would be.

I couldn't answer him.

I know what makes a bad game, from the player's point of view, and I'm not just talking strictly gameplay. The look and feel, the writing, whether or not it's set in World War f*@%ing II...

Take Batman: Arkham Asylum. For all the gush filled reviews and 10/10 scores, it has some serious problems. The final boss fight with the Joker is completely pathetic, the Scarecrow platforming sections are about as enjoyable as a shivving yourself with a rusty nail, and the Ivy fight has to be done twice after you kill her the first time. I thought we learned from the mistake Prototype made of fighting Elizabeth Greene over and over again until she FINALLY dies, but apparently not.

COD4 came appealingly close to one of my favourite games, up until the end mission I was having a blast.

[SPOILERS ARE FUN!]
The one where it's a race against time to disarm the missiles heading for the coast of America. That's intense and fun, but the fun soon gets rubbed away by you getting shot at by three different directions. Then, when the final cutscene happens, Gaz gets shot, Price dies and you shoot the evil Russian bastard. Closure, yes, but it's still a massive kick in the balls.
[Spoilers end.]

I have a lot of fun with MDK. Every mission is widely varied in environment, and thus it's never the same level repeated six or seven times. And the concepts they come up with are pretty cool. I would list them, but that would take up a lot of the page.

I like Dawn of War, and Company of Heroes is pretty good, too. Both RTS's, both uses an interesting resource system and both have squads instead of individual units.

I honestly can't answer the question of what my perfect game is. I have a bunch of ideas of games I would really like to play, but most are heavy modifications of game that already exist.

For example, Vampire: the Masquerade (probably the only real PC RPG), plus an open world, plus more places to visit and people to meet, plus a slightly bigger char sheet, plus the ability to eventually have a fourth Discipline, plus a slightly improved combat system (B:AA had a pretty good one) would come appealingly close, if not outright, to my vision of a perfect game.

But since Troika games shut down because of low sales of one of my favourite games ever (VTM), I can't see that happening in the near future.
(HINT HINT GAME STUDIOS, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE)

Windows 7

Microsoft, once again, has missed the fucking point.

At least XP has some degree of usability in it. I'm imagining that Windows 7 once again has different sounding names for everything, different locations, and it still has the same stupid 'start' button.

It... it boggles the mind. Why make it so awkward for XP users to transfer over to Vista, in terms of GUI? And lets not forget they screwed around with the names of the Properties tab.

It's now Preferences. Starts with a P, yes, but there's no need to change something like that. Especially if you've gone with that since, what, 1985 or thereabouts?

Why do I say that they've missed the point? They made the same mistake Vista did by slaughtering the GUI in favour of making it prettier, thus taking up more memory to run the damn thing.

The start button recives particular ire from me. It's not really a start button, it's a button with the windows logo on it. For people used to the 'press the Start button to do shit' demographic, i.e most windows users, the new Start button installment just comes across as pretentious.

And it is. And so is it's GUI.

I loved Aero and the Aero interface, or should I say Aqua.
I'm sure most of you have heard the argument that Aero is ripped off totally from Aqua.

I'm getting in over my head here. Aqua and Aero make things translucent, like the very fine borders on the edge of the window (which you hardly ever see anyway) and the top bar with the Minimize/Restore/Close buttons.

Not that I care about that stuff. In fact, I'd rather it not do it, but some people obsessed with making everything look nice and sparkling and don't have a Mac most likely use Aero, which makes their computer run that bit slower.

Looking at screenshots for both Mac Snow Leopard and Win7, I see that Microsoft have taken the translucent taskbar idea. Not that the translucent taskbar idea is copyrighted by Apple or anything, just saying.

I'd have to say, Win7 looks very nice, like Vista, but I'm unconvinced that there's anything inside that empty little OS that would make me want to upgrade from my beloved XP.

I've actually grown a little attached to XP, due to the fact that it's been cast out.
Like a leper.
You see, their morals, their... 'code'... it's a bad joke.
Dropped at the first sign of trouble.

*Ahem*

There's no support for it anymore (at least, I don't think there is) and they don't package it with any computers anymore. Soon, Vista will be shunted, and Xp isn't going to help it off it's feet, because it will remember all the times Vista laughed at XP, and said that daddy (Microsoft) loved him more.

'Hate' and Stupid Emails

You know what I mean.

The 'send this to X people and you'll get lukcy in one way or another'.

I fn#*ing hate those emails.

When most people say they hate something, they don't really hate it. They dislike it.

It seems the word hate is thrown around a lot these days, and people seems to have forgotten their meaning.

Let me give you an example. Yahtzee (and most if not all gamers in austrailia) hate Michael Atkinson and his censorship crusade thing. That's hate.

Another good example of true hate is the Klu Klux Klan and people that aren't white and rich.

If you say you hate, say... vegetables, you don't really hate them. You just prefer not eating them.

As I mentioned before, 'hate' is a word that has had it's meaning dulled. I say we should stop using hate as a everyword and use it for what it actually means.

Hate actually means you dislike it so much you're prepared to go to great lengths to ensure it either dies or have some other atrocity befall it.

I'd like to run through the stupid prick who came up with those damn emails. With a rusty spork. A reeeealy rusty spork. That's how much I hate those emails.

They are the bane of Emailhood.

Music

I got some really good tracks of the Newgrounds audio portal the other day. This just goes to show how messed up my music preferences are.

~Burden~ (reminds me a little of Evanescence)
MAC6 TANKMEN Theme (by Arbiter)
On Patrol (reminds me a little of Team Fortress 2)
CKC - In The Night

Not from Newgrounds;

Impact Event by Hamster Alliance
Ain't no rest for the wicked (Borderlands intro music)

Reset, part 4

Now to start the long, arduous process of installing MS Office, yaaaaay...

PS, Wasn't the MSDN disks, we actually have a copy of Office.
PPS, Note to self: stop using Blogger like Twitter.

Reset, part 3

Not having MS Office installed sucks.

Not being able to use Word is the worst part. That means I can't really do anything work related until I find the bastard MSDN disks, and naturally I need to hire Sherpa guides to help me traverse our cupboard to look for the damn things.

Overlord, Part 3

So,, I'm up to the first moral choice. The options are put the food supply on the platform so the villagers can take it to Spree, the village.

Problem is, I can't seem to get the minions to go that little bit further to put the food supply onto the platform, so it seems the only way to finish the stage is to take the food supply.

Why not just tell me to do that, Overlord? Why must you make it so difficult?

EDIT

Oooohhh, I get it, I'm supposed to literally drop the food onto the platform.

Would have been nice to have that in a little more detail.

Overlord, Part 2

For Christ sakes.

I'm supposed to be some evil conquering Overlord, not a fricking errand boy for a couple of farmers.

And I shouldn't have to prove myself to these bastards; why can't I just order my imps to kill the two farmers and burn down the palisade wall they've erected in front of the village?

Another gripe I have is you - the 'Overlord', if you could even call yourself that. You're slower than the sheep in the beginning of the game, and you can't attack very fast, so you have to have your imps do everything.

Problem is, the method for controling your imps feels about as smooth and seemless as a cadaver going through a woodchipper.

To control your minions - every one of them - you must hold down both mouse buttons and move the cursor around (which has helpfully dissapeared) and the minions don't really take your mouse moving as a direct command.

It's a stupid, stupid way to do it.

More later...

First Impressions: Overlord

(It was something to do with the DNS server, which was easily fixed. Thanks for your concern.)

Sooooo... Overlord.

Originally, I thought I was going to play a little game of 'King Arthas and his Scourge minions' or something of that nature, something kind of like an RTS and only controlling the 'Overlord' when I want to or when some idiot hero decides to take me on.

Not doing all the bloody work myself. Where's my legion of demonic minions? Where's the towering infernals, the huge dreadlords? the thousands of imps and lesser demonkin?

Right now, it's just me and a bunch of goblin-like imps with qeustionable intelligence.

Who knows. Maybe I'll grow to like it, but I'm just dissapointed that I'm a 'hero' in my own right, and not King Arthas.

More later...

Reset, part 2

So, it happened.

Kind of dissapointed, though. It's going to take a while for me to get everything back up and to reconfigure everything.

Plus I can't get through to The Escapist website. Something to do with our DNS, possibly.

Reset

Today I bid farewell to someone special.

He has been there, comforting me in times of need, making me laugh, cry, and sometimes enraging me to the point of murder.

But I forgive that. I forgive him for being a bit slow, because we're convinced he has a nasty infection, brought on by taking something he shouldn't have.

I blink back tears as I write this. It isn't easy for me to say goodbye to a friend so special as this one.

I'll hold his funeral in silence before he goes.

I'll miss him. He wasn't the brightest, but he was a good- no, great friend.

I'll miss you, laptop.

... *clears throat*

In all seriousness, there's something on my laptop my old school put on there (something to do with networking) and it's screwing with OUR networking at home, so we're nuking him (uninstalling the operating system).

We only just found the Dell box the laptop came in, so when we nuke him we can reinstall him with everything he came with when he started.

So, little work done today - mostly copying files, music, and other crap onto flash disks. I'll probably do something 'work' related. I'm getting my head into accouting, at the moment.

MDK

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have found out something amazing.

MDK runs on my computer.

That might not sound like much until you hear that Zdoom won't.
Then it sounds pretty amazing.

First thing's first; mess around with the keyboard controls. Arrow keys? Gone. Now runs with WASD controls. Also messing around with the controls for the sniper helm, jump, and a few other things... done.

Leap into the first level; didn't crash. Good sign. I have to remind myself that the level hasn't actually started yet, but I'm too busy being amazed to worry about it.

Jump into the start of the level, grab the health boost and set off to kill some evil robot things, or at least i would if the mouse didn't come up.

Like most PC FPS gamers, I'm used to handling the mouse. I basically grew up on Half-Life (the first one), so the whole WASD to move/space for jump, C for crouch/mouse to aim and fire has been drilled into my mind, and like Nazi propaganda you can't ever get that sort of thing out.

So the notion of playing MDK without the mouse at all was a bit disturbing, especially since I knew the mouse could be reconfigured for today's FPS gamers.

I was planning to do 'work' today (I dread the word; 'Work' is something you'd rather not be doing but have to anyway, and that's no way to live) but I just can't get my mind of it and how incredibly amazing it is.

Speaking of amazing, it's amazing how many people bicker/ed over the title.
MDK.
It could stand for a bunch of things. Shiny wasn't telling, the bastards, so everybody had to make up their own assumptions.

I, personally, choose to believe its
Mission: Deliver Kindness (which is the most hinted)
But there are many other names for it;

Murder Death Kill
Max, Doctor, Kurt (the three main characters)
Mother's Day Kisses (since the game was released on Mother's Day)
And many more...

I'll probably write some sort of review for MDK in the not so distant future. Don't be surprised if it's a little gushy - I loved that game since I was a child, and it's right up there with HOMAM3 as my favourite nostalgic game ever.

WoW Gas Mask

Anybody who's been around the Howling Fjord as a Horde character would have probably noticed all these Forsaken running around wearing gas masks.

Gas. Masks.
With fricken' spikes on the filters, and translucent green bulbous eye pieces.

And I know what went through your mind when you saw those gas masks:
'I needs to get me one of them'.

Problem is, you can't buy it. It's not even a drop, as far as I can tell. And if it is, it's probably so low [00000000000.01% drop rate] that nobody's ever found it.

No problem, you say to yourself. I'll just look it up on the WMV.
but it isn't there.
You try everything - Gas, Mask, Forsaken, Plague... nothing yields any desired results.

Even worse, you can actually find it inside WMV [Item > Objectcomponents > head > helm_mask_plague_???, last three is race and gender], but you can't equip it to a character!

It's tragic - I know somehow the guys at WoW did it, so wouldn't it make sense that WMV can do it? I thought so, but apparently not!

Geocities!

Well, Geocities is shutting down. Yesterday, actually.
And thank christ, too.

Geocities was nothing more than a place for people with limited intelligence to post their opinions on things they didn't understand.
If not, it was a file hoster, or perhaps a propaganda site. I'm sure when Yahoo! made Geocities they didn't realise it would become such a cesspool of arrogance and unintelligence.

Unless they did, and that was their evil plan all along.

XKCD has a Geocity style layout to commemorate it shutting down (or something like that). The worst part is that it isn't trying to take it out of proportion - that's exactly what the sites looked like.

The missing links, the terrible background, the f&@%ing BLINK tag, blue links on black, missing images... someone who knew what the hell they were doing when it came to web design would take one look at a Geocities page and want to kill themselves.

Yahtzee's Travel Logs and Egoraptor

If you haven't read this, you must do so now. If not for me, than for Yahtzee.

yes, I know I'm about three years behind the date it was posted, but read it anyway.
Now.

EDIT
Also, Egoraptor.

Down with the Sickness

(I wrote this about a week ago and only now got around to posting it.)

So... I've been feeling like crap (a nice way of putting it) for the past week and a bit. So, in light of my situation, I have decided to finally reveal my tricks of the trade.

Illness and how to use it: A ROAHSG Special

Let's face it; any illness of any description usually isn't fun. The flu, common cold, whatever, is especially aggravating.

I've had a bunch of these 'colds', and thus, I've racked up much experience in the field of being sick, that is, having a cold.

So, let me share with you how you too can properly take advantage of this double-edged sword that is the Flu.

First things first: Getting It.
(Haha he said 'getting it' GROW UP)

Some of you may think that it's easy getting a cold. But I spend a lot of time wearing very little in the way of a second layer of clothing, even during winter, so you can't just wear a t-shirt and shorts and expect anything, except odd looks from people in the street.

I can't give you much advice on this. The best way to get a cold is to wait for a cold snap (that is, a cold period overnight) or get it from a co-worker/school student.

The 'Cold Snap' business generally happens over winter. In fact, I guarantee it to happen over winter.
When you go to sleep, wear something light and turn electric blankets off.

Making Sure It Doesn't Get Away

So, I assume you woke up with some sort of throat problem or nose problem.
GREAT.
Now, I hope you've got something you can do in a secluded part of the house that's sometimes cold because if you don't do something now, that bastard's gonna slip away. I recommend a computer, because the Internet can keep one entertained for a while.

Arguably, once you have the cold, you've got it. But I like to make sure.
Once that's over with, time to move on to:

The Early Game

The 'Early Game' is the first day or so. Usually, you (or your parents) are trying to get yourself better. Generally, this is futile.
You're already sick, and no amount of anti-cold drops or liquid is going to make that go away.

So, you're screwed. But don't panic; this can work for you if you play your cards right.

The Mid Game

The 'Mid Game' is everything up to a few days before it goes away completely. And this is where you can really put my strategies to work.

STRAT #1: You're going to be mentally unable to do much except menial tasks, due to your fatigue. So, that gives you a chance to a) get others to do your work and b) not do anything (even play games!). But this is OK. Your family/flatmates/whatever probably won't mind/care, just as long as they don't catch your filthy disease.

STRAT #2: Keeping your cold isn't that hard. Simply don't wear too many layers of clothing and keep your chest cold (or un-warm).

STRAT #3: Your nose will, and this can't be avoided, block up. You may be trying to fix it with something from Vicks.

Let me tell you a story.

While I was in bed, I thought about why a nose would be blocked in the first place. Well, I chanced across nose hairs. Makes sense, right? Snot gets caught up in the nose and blocks the entire thing up. Well, I, in my infinite wisdom, to try to pull a few out. (THIS IS STUPID AND EXTREMELY PAINFUL)

Well, I could breathe through my nose, at least once the small concentrated dose of pain had finished (usually 3 to 4 seconds for the initial, six or seven seconds for it to go), if only for a few moments before it closed over again. Still, this can be seen as an acceptable sacrifice.

STRAT #4: Coughing will happen eventually, usually around the 'pre End Game' phase.
You can get the most out of coughing by standing (or lying) straight up (this includes your neck). Doing this will give your cough a gravely sound to it, the kind people take one listen to and go 'that can't be good'.
And that's exactly what you want.

The Pre-End Game

Around this time you'll notice yourself loosing your 'crap' feeling, plus you'll be blowing your nose less often. Nothing I can help you with now, except to use Strat #2 and #4 as often as possible to get the most out of it.

The End Game

That's it. The End Game is the period of time it takes to completely get over the sick period without any attempt to extend it. Once you hit the Pre-End Game mark, it's time to give it up.


So, that's it. After the End Game, you should be ready to start work or school again.
Yaaaaay.
On the plus side, I get to play B: AA again on the good computer (which dad uses for work), and install a few other games (Rainbow 6: Vegas, Timeshift and Halo 2 are on my list. Stay tuned.)

Ressurection Sickness

Seriously.

Rezo-F&(*!ng-rection Sickness.

It makes you unable to actually play the game (75% reduction to all stats), gives your armour a big helping of durability damage, and it's incurable. Can't get rid of it until it's time is up, which is 1 minute for each level after ten and caps at ten minutes, so level 20+ is going to have ten minutes of not playing the game.

Which is fine. I can deal with that. What I CAN'T deal with is when, even at a tavern, you can't sleep it off. Come on, Blizzard! You usually get these things right, why can't you do the same with this? You are forced to not play the character for ten minutes while the frickin' Rez Sickness goes away. THe only class that could possibly go up against a creature their level and still walk away while afflicted with the cursed Rez Sickness is a blood spec Death Knight.

Seriously, though. Must we be forced to not play the game for ten minutes? We can't go onto another character and play while we wait, because when we get back it hasn't gone away, lingering on your character's body like a bad smell.

Slaughter!

Just got my @$% handed to me on a saronite platter when this ragtag party and I ventured into the Nexus. Of course, I signed up because I WANTSTED MY TUNDRA PAULDRONS.

But it was not to be. We kept getting wiped at the first boss (some Blood Elf mage thing) and our leader eventually disbanded the party.

Naturally, they blamed it on me, which was a bi unfair. If we had had a competent healer, nay, a healer AT ALL it would have been fine but NOOOOOO.

Death Knights and Music-sountracks

First things first, the frickin' Horse quest for the Death Knights.

Today just wasn't my day, I guess. I kept getting 'roped' by the stable keeper and forced off my horse and melee'd by him, and of course he had to be elite. Of course, you can't do it unless you've been spotted, so you have to do it juuuust in range and then sprint out and hope to god there are no Scarlet Infantry or Captians ready to give you a nice helping of Dazed (50% movement reduction).
I can't help thinking that Blizzard just made it unnecessarily difficult, unless I'm wrong and you can, in fact, evade that elite horse riding bastard.

And while I'm on the subject, what the hell is up with the outrageously high prices of the epic riding training? I understand that it was priced when Burning Crusade came out, and it was a pretty good guess that all those level 70's were brimming with gold, it those days are now over. I imagine most players will never see themselves riding their epic flying mounts, 'specially not in Northrend. Let's look at how much it costs, counting honoured reputation, to get the whole flying mount package.

assuming you have both previous levels of riding;
Expert: lvl 60, 225 gold. (remember, with honoured rep)
Artisan (epic): lvl 70, 4500 gold.
Cold Weather Flying (flying in Northrend): 1000 gold (cannot be reduced by rep prices).
The epic mount itself: 95 gold.
Total: 5820 gold.

That is a lot of gold, even for someone who works the auction house (not counting those people who are so good it at that they make thousands every day). The worst part is that Blizzard recently reduced the level requirement and price for ground mounts, but seemed to ignore the expert and artisan levels. Just seems like a bit much.

On a lighter note, I've been thoroughly enjoying the World of Goo Soundtrack, availible for download here. Well, not there exactly, obviously.
There are various flavours that accompany the WOG Soundtrack. Sometimes it's cheery upbeat music like 'Brave Adventurers' or 'Tumbler', sometimes it has a far darker, even sinister, feel to it like 'Screamer' or 'Cog on the Machine', the latter reminding me a lot of Pink Floyd. Sometimes it's slow, like 'Are you coming home, love MOM' or 'Threadcutter', and sometimes it's fast and extremely annoying, such as 'My Vurtual World of Goo Corperation'.
You also have tracks like 'Best of Times', which slowly morphs from slow song into the kind of music you hear at the end of a fantasy action movie, when the bad guy gets killed at the last minute by the broken and battered protaganist.

In addition to World of Goo

I love it when people say they don't want to play World of Warcraft because 'They might get addicted'. I I thinks to meself, 'Dear god, you have never played a casual game, have you?'
World of Goo is far, far harder to tear away from than WOW. Lets look at a little something I've concocted for you.

ADDICTIVENESS
1: Want to burn game disk at stake (Anti-addictiveness)
2: Really don't want to play game (Anti-addictiveness)
3: Don't want to play game (Anti-addictiveness)
4: Meh
5: Want to play game
6: Really want to play game (Over-addictiveness)
7: Want to play game for hours and hours on end (Over-addictiveness, this doesn't count raids)
8: Only leave chair for restroom and food (Dangerously over-addictiveness)
9: Chair now acts as toilet, have food delivered directly to chair (Dangerously over-addictiveness)
10: Die at chair (Fatal-addictiveness)

World of Warcraft flits randomly from 4 through to 6. I understand a few people would have it higher, but generally it's around there for most players. World of Goo, however, changes from a 7 to a 1 to maybe a 6 and back again randomly. I can see myself endlessly striving for the highest tower in the WOG corporation... minigame thing, and I can see myself rotting away at the chair wondering why the puzzle designers made Fisty in the first place.
I swear, that frog (later an undead frog) is the bane of the freakin' earth, clearly sent by the overlord of hell to ruin the lives of all who try to beat him at his own sick, twisted game, a never ending vinyl record of defeat after crushing defeat at the hands of that insidious zombie. His eyes, orbs of molten black, staring into my soul, corrupting what little good bits remain until I'm nothing more than a blot of darkness on the face of the earth, doomed to watch him destroy my self esteem piece by piece until nothing but soot and a cynical 15-something year old remains, a blight upon the world and nothing more, crushing me into the very blobs you use to build your way to another pointless victory, THAT'S RIGHT, I'm one of the little grey ones, watching you place me in a strategic place so that my many fallen brothers can be shafted through to the ever corrupt WOG Corporation to be used for thier own evil purposes.
(it helps to imagine I'm saying everything from 'i swear', getting more and more hysterical as I get into talking about Fisty. Also, playing Screamer from the WOG soundtrack helps.)

World of Goo

Now, before I start, let me clarify that World of Goo is actually a pretty good game. The puzzles are well put together and often have reasonably easy solutions, the soundtrack is brilliant, and it's got a charming feeling to it.
Having said that...

World of Goo: A review
So, I've been playing with World of Goo for a while, and I have to say first impressions where good. The puzzles where easy enough to understand, and the ever mysterious and (in my mind, anyway) morally ambiguous Sign Painter was a joy to read. His signs, that is.
But then I got to Fisty's Bog, and I discovered the true meaning of skill.
The idea behind Fisty's Bog is you have to build a bridge out of, you guessed it, Goo, to get across to the pipe to suck your remaining goo balls into. The fatal problem with this is that the floor is covered in spikes. No problem, you say to yourself, I'll just put these handy balloons to keep it from doing that, which would be fine if the ceiling wasn't covered with spikes as well. It's an uphill battle of balance, trying to make the bridge heavy enough so that the balloons can lift juuuuuust enough so that the bridge doesn't fall onto the spikes below, or the balloons don't fly into the spiky ceiling. I was nearly ready to give up when I finally got the bastard to work. Strangely the levels after it, even until the factory stage, are all pretty easy.
I say 'until the factory stage', because Mr. Fisty makes his debue again, only this time it seems the Scourge got him and now he's undead. The level is annoyingly tedious, and I ended up skipping it, so a little scaling back in difficulty would have been nice.

That's about the only criticism I could find for World of Goo. Obnoxiously difficult levels, and they're all few and far between. It's hard to find problems with a deceptively simple indie developed puzzle/platformer game, because there's really not a lot you can say about it. There's no dreadful voice acting, unless you count the goo balls themselves which sound like a bunch of extremely verbose mice huffing helium, there's no unnecessary RPG elements, and the soundtrack is brilliant, so you can't attack that.

Speaking of which, the soundtrack is probably my favourite part of the game. Masterfully composed, and some tracks remind me of Hanz Zimmer's works, Pink Floyd, the Toys movie soundtrack, and a few other's which I can't place.

Unfortunately, in some places, it's all let down by the occasional god awful level that makes you want to go to 2D BOY and ram the game disk up their @$#, but if you can look past that it's a charmingly creative game and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid of change from all the mainstream FPS games we see clogging the market.

Oh, isn't it ironic

The Alanis Morissette song Ironic is probably the funniest song I've heard in a long time, simply because it doesn't know it's making itself look like an idiot.
Here's the first verse and a bit of the courus:

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think

It's like rai-aaaain on your wedding day
It's a free ri-iiiide when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures

Now, that isn't ironic. That's just plain bad luck. Arguably, it gets worse:

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
'Well isn't this nice...'
And isn't it ironic ... don't you think

No, not really. There's a sub-courus that I want to take the piss out of, too:

It's a traffic jam when you're already late
It's a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

The last line is brilliant. For those who have seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the solution to this would seem simple. For all of those who haven't seen it, the solution would be to 'dig the person who brought all the spoons heart with, funilly enough, a spoon'. Why a spoon? Why not an axe? Because it's dull, you twit. It'll hurt more.

The song should instead be called 'Really bad luck', but I suspect it didn't have as good a ring to it.
The funniest part of the entire song is the song istelf, because the only ironic part is the fact that the song isn't ironic at all, and that's what makes it so deliciously tragic.

Heroes of Might and Magic

Hold onto your hats, folks, because it's time for me to post my first real review.

=================

Lets get one thing straight: I fnc&ing loved Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
I loved it as a child, and it's still on my top 5 games of all time list despite it's age. It was my first real exposure to turn based games, and I regret (ever so slightly) not being with the series from HOMAM 1. I loved every inch #3, from the various different towns to the combat to the map editor. And, as time went by, I lost the disk and haven't seen it since, which saddened me greatly. The graphics were (I think) cell-shaded, and the music, especially the combat music, was great. And the map editor was extremely easy to use, even the 'programming' for campaigns and missions were easy enough to understand.

So, after I lost the disk I sort of lost the Heroes series. 3DO and New World Computing kind of broke apart like a piece of soggy toast drifting on a river, and 3DO gave the rights to none other than Ubisoft. I didn't know at the time, but I saw HOMAM 4 on sale in a bargain bin sort of thing at, if memory serves me right, a Dick Smith Electronics store.

I was estatic. A new Heroes game. Ok, it was made by a different company, but it can't be that different to the original games. Surely. I mean, the core gameplay of HOMAM worked well, wo why fix what isn't broke, right?
I was naive and stupid back then. I was about... 10? 11?

So, I slammed it into the disk drive, installed the game (and the two expansion packs since it was the gold edition) and set down to feel a nice wave of nostalgia.
I can't decribe what I felt when I first played through one of the campaigns for it. It was like playing a game you love and then watching a movie about it (take Max Payne or Farcry[no jokes, Farcry the movie]) and thinking 'This is the biggest piece of $#!t I've ever seen. It does no justice to it's predecessors. I feel like vomiting blood.'

So, I still hold it today as one of the worst games to have ever been released, at least for PC. Lets go through the many, many reasons why.

1. The towns changed a lot. Instead of the normal 7 creatures a tow, it has 2 creature hovels to start with and three others, and you can only choose one of the two. This means you have a small army to begin with, and a patheticly small army further on in the game. The reason for this is...

2. ...The hero system drasticly changed. Instead of having one hero, you can now have multiple heroes which act a lot like the units themselves, except that the heroes can level up, use items, cast spells, etc. The more heroes you have the slower they get XP, so the whole 'just hire more heroes to fill the void of having flak-all creatures' argument is tragicly shot down like a WWII aircraft carrying brave soldiers into the thick of battle. It also means you can have an entire hero based army, but doing so will mean your heroes reach level 2 by the time the enemy has a level 7 hero and a full sized army, or you just screw the whole hero business and make a creature based army, although the creatures will find it difficult to stand against a hero'd army, and it just hangs a big fat question mark over whyy you would even bother to change the original concept. This also means your heroes are subject to die just like creatures, and you control them just like a normal creature too, adding to the question mark.

3. As I may have already mentioned, the whole creature system changed too. Instead of the usual 7 creature based army, you have 2 creatures to start with and you must choose your future creatures because you can't have both, it's one or the other, which means you have to put unnecessary thinking into how you go about making your force, and since you usually don't know what your opponent's going to use you have no idea what to get, and you can't take any choices back.

4. Another gripe with the heroes is they never truely die. Their 'tombstone' if you will is left on the ground where they died and you have to fetch it before the enemy does, becuase if the enemies get it they through them inside their town prison and you have to buy the hero back. I can't remember whether or not there is a 'You know what, hero? You cocked up and now I'm removing you from existance' button, because i really couldn't care less about the hero unless he was especially high level.

5. Assaulting an enemy castle was different, too. If I remember correctly, you attack the walls head on with your units or wait for the enemy to step out of their castle. Because of the terrible camera position all the enemies directly behind the wall are invisible, and you can't select them becuase they're behind a wall, which is bad for both you and the person defending. No problem for the computer player though, the bastard.

6. Yet another problem with the heroes is the fact that there are might oriented heroes and magic oriented heroes. It's a pretty petty complaint, but surely it can't be that hard to just have a universal hero like every other HOMAM game, but apparently for Ubisoft that would be too much to ask. (No need to point out that HOMAM games had Death Knights and Necromancers too, but at least there was only one of them as your primary hero.)

7. All the creatures are tossed about randomly and thrown into different towns whoch is especially annoying because it means getting used to a whole different unit set. Remember how the Griffin almost always used to belong with the humans? No longer, because the griffins in #4 belong with the nature guys, which wouldn't have been so bad if they had not totally screwed up the graphics on it which made it look like some four year old put it together in Spore. Speaking of which,

8. The graphics for HOMAM 3, while cell-shaded, looked pretty good. HOMAM 4 has shoddy graphics that some fresh-out-of-university 3D graphics design major built, and look like they were constructed using clay and jelly. I don't know why they made the graphics look so goddamn awful, maybe it was because their budget was spent on making the game a total failure with all the previous HOMAM fans. The dragon/s, the griffin, the archdevil, the centaur, the behemoth, the harpy, the archangel, every elemental, the satyr, the tiger, the unicorn (a rainbow mane for god sake?), the dwarves, the naga, and the orcs (I can forgive these guys) all looked like absolute $#!t, and this isn't including the terrain and towns that look like crap as well. (I suppose I shouldn't be too mean, the way they made the units look different in #3 was by altering the model of the original unit slightly. But remembering that that's the same way they handled the units in #5, by re-skinning them, I suppose I can't complain much.)

9. I'm running out of things to rag on, but there was one last complaint I was saving until now, and thats the- wait, damnit. Lost it.

I suppose #4 must have received some reviews that were less than kind, and so Ubisoft pulled their head out of their oversized ass and made Heroes 5, but that's another post.

DAZ 3D

I've been playing around with, as the name implies, DAZ 3D. Now, I know it's supposed to be difficult when you start, but most things (like the Warcraft III Map Editor) are picked up relitivly easily by some people, but 3D art programs are the toughest and DAZ is no exception. Although it wouldn't be so bad if the tutorials they gave you actually helped. Clearly, they didn't take into account the fact that the person watching this video might not know how to, for example, load or find a model, because we have to assume that the person looking at this is a complete beginner that should be walked through every aspect of the easy stuff.

The tutorials for DAZ 3D wern't very well thought out. For example, the first tutorial I watched started off with a background, the figure already there, and just launched right into it and I wanted to say 'That's great guys, but how do I load the models and scenes?', but couldn't get a word in edgeways. As usual, I start off like a lost baby in a forest full of dingos, and I have to fight my way out tooth and claw. Turns out, with enough searching, I found the files in question, but the thing that infuriates me is I shouldn't have to search. You don't give a man a gun, tell him how to reload it and send him off without explaining the trigger. You have to assume he's never seen a gun before, and has no idea how to use it. And you can't just go, 'Oh, well, he'll figure it out', because 80% of the time he won't figure it out and yell 'FV{K IT', toss his gun to the side and get shot.
Ok, the analogys I used may have been a little bit over the top but it was nessesary to prove a point.

Death Knights

So, I've been playing my brand new Death Knight, and before sending him to Outland I'm taking him up to sixty in Silithus.

So, level 58 with 5008 health, and it feels as though the Stonelasher Scorpids are lightly armoured civilian cars and I'm a fucking Mammoth Tank from C&C. I mean, I'm steamrolling my way through the various flavoures of insect (not counting the Silithid themselves) and racking up plenty of XP for half the work. Not to say that's a bad thing, being a absolute brute would definitly come in handy in Outland.

What i love about the Death Knight so far, apart from his massive damage output and invulnerability versus the denizens of Silithus is his Death Grip ability. I ran him through Arathi Basin just to test him out PVP wise. Death Grip is the ability that lets Death Knights, for no cost, pull a unit/character into melee range.

Now, I can't imagine anything more annoying than being the designated healer for the group and being constantly drawn away and killed by the big armoured tank with the wacking great sword. Feel free to use that tactic.
Another thing I'm impressed by in the Blood talent tree. It seems that whenever I slay an innocent... well, anything, I get 300 health back. Plus, health regeneration is boosted (or at least it is with Blood Presence). I keep seeing all these Death Knights with the Unholy talent tree maxed out. Sure, the zombie following you around is kind of cool, but now I go 'Dude! You're missing out on being vurtually unstopable here!'

And like a rampaging bull, nothing will stop me

Come hellfire or high water, I will get a Death Knight today. Level 54, two bars from halfway, in Silithus. Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE, 7:36
I'm 6 bars away from Death Knight already. I'll have one by 9:00 at the latest, I imagine.

UPDATE, 1:19
F#(& YEAH!

Ahem.

I opologise for my Momentary Lapse of Reason. I know i said I'd have one by 9:00, but I got... sidetracked.

Black Holes and Revelations

Just been listening to the latest Muse album. And I have to say, it's really good. As is the style with muse, they focus on the sound and music more than the lyrics, which is a refreshing change from todays music. Although, a few songs surprised me a bit.

- Take a bow: Yeah, this was the biggest surprise. The lyrics are... interesting. I wouldn't reccomend it if you have low self esteem.

- Starlight: Starts off well, then has that crhistmas-y sounding music which put me off a bit. It's the most 'today music' sounding track on the album. Personnaly, I would be very surprised if this isn't in New Moon (Twilight movie).

- Supermassive Black Hole: I'm sure we all heard this one when Twilight came out. Still, if you haven't, it's a pretty good track. Good beat, interesting lyrics and a strange music video.

- Map of the Problematique: Arguably the best song on the album. Great beat and starts off brilliantly.

- Soldier's Poem: Another surprising track. Very unlike Muse to have a song with a lot of lyrics. It's still an interesting song, one that I imagine several people can relate too.

- Invincible: Saying this song is a bit slow is kind of an understatment. Once I realized what it was, I flipped to the next track.

- Assassin: Ah, here we go. Starts off well, very well in fact, and the lyrics are good too. The corus is a bit odd, but it's not like 'Odd' is a stranger to Muse music.

- Eco-Politics: Arguably the best song on the album, starting off with a great beat. I'm seeing a pattern in Muse's lyrics, and I'm not sure if it's just this album or not, but many of their lyrics seem to say, essentially and extremely boild down, "Screw the government". Now, that might sound a bit hysterical, but I think I might
be onto something here.

- City of Delusion: Starts off slowly, which initally turned me off the song, but I forced myself to listen to the whole thing. Once you get about one minute into the song, Muse lets you hear the actual song. It hits you like a sledgehammer, leaving you emotionally and physically drained.

- Hoodoo: Another one I was dubious about at first. It starts off really slowly, and it feels like it shoudln't actually be on this album at all. Then you get halfway through the song, it finally gets off it's @$$ and gives you something to listen too. This hits you like a sledgehammer, but unlike the last song you aren't expecting it, and instead of a regular sledgehammer it's a sledgehammer on fire.

- Knights of Cydonia: My all time favourite Muse song. It's just... Awesome.

Movie Review Time!

So, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Well, it's a prequal, meaning it doesn't have much of a stroy to tell. Rise of the Lycans (ROTL) details the story of how Lucian met... that, um, vampire girl, Whatsherface and knocked her up. It also details the Rise of the Lycans as a society/race which came as a huge surpise to me and the rest of the theatre, because we honestly didn't see it coming. I'll tell you another thing it details: Gore.
There's so much blood on screen you feel like your playing Gears of War or Painkiller, and I swear they spent half the budget on what I like to call 'Blood Physics', essentially how blood reacts when it's gushing out of a severed neck or, for example, cleaved head, or maybe a ruptured torso.

And it seems they spent so much money on the blood effects that they completly forgot to hire a script writer and instead got one of the producers children to write it. All the characters come across as wooden, mainly due to the atrocious diliverance of the lines. And clearly the actors weren't exactly 'in the zone', because the only real performance for me was from Bill Nighy, and even that's arguable. Oh sure, Michael Sheen was good and Rhona Mitra was tolerable but everyone else could have easily been replaced with CGI or a cardboard cutout with blood gushing out of it.
(Note: THis was written at 10:30 and posted now.)

Music

You know, a lot of people stop me on the street. A vast majority of those people are cops wanting to know where I got the shiny new Volvo or asking about the sealed plastic bags full if white powder I follishly tried to peddle to children. But sometimes I get asked about my favourite music.

I have something to say about the bands of recent years: they suck. 85% of all bands formed around the year 200 and onwards are terrible. The sad thing is, that kids (5 to late teens) today are growing up with this, as I like to call, 'Pissmusic', and not even paying a shred of attention to bands such as:
- Queen
- ACDC
- Pink Floyd
- The Who
- Dire Straits
And dozens of other bands which I have failed to list. It breaks my heart to hear... rap... over tinny earphones loudly while on the bus, or, god forbid, bands like Linken Park or Green Day on the train through the same pathetic earpieces.

So, what bands do I like? Well, I don't really like many 'Bands', per se. Songs from certain groups, yes, but not usually into every bit of music on the album. In fact, i almost never buy an album, I just grab the song off Youtube with the miricle of Download Helper (An honest to god Firefox addon) so long as the quality is good.

What I do like is intrumental stuff. The singing, I find, is what kills some songs. Just the other day I brought the Fast and Furious 4 Score Soundtrack and the Transformers: ROTF Soundtrack from Amazon. I'm not putting in links because I fear some sort of retribution.
I also love the Painkiller soundtrack (Can be found on the game disk if you look hard enough). Mediastudio, the guys responsible for all the Fight music, did a great job. Don't worry about buying the 'Painkiller Soundtrack' or whatever they called it, with such titles ad 'The Painkiller', 'Lokhi (I think anyway)', 'Banshee' etc because there all on the disk anyway. And I'm sure if you ask nicely, Old Man Youtube will cough up some decent quality tracks for you.

TIME VORTEEEEEEEEEX

It's the ninth of the ninth, '09. It's one of the 12 days a century that you can get all the numbers of the day/month/year the same. So, I have decided to take this day as kind of a day off, think of it as the 'The day all the numbers on the day/month/year date setting are the same' holiday.

On another note, Machinima! I've been writing a few scripts for the WOW Machinima slice of the pie, but you could easily branch off into other games, such as Bioshock, Crysis, Red Alert 3, etc. It's just easier (arguably) with WOW because you have the technology there, plus all the turotials for cameras and puppetering, and so on.

And the second I either understand how to modify my PHP based site OR get a new one, I'll have those stories up.

UPDATE
Sh!t, almost forgot. DDO Unlimited. Yes, somehow the DDO team are still clinging on to life, and in an attept to reel in past customers, they've made their new service or whatever free. All you need to do is reinstall DDO and log into your old account. Here's the forum post/FAQ thing.

Power outage

At time of writing, (11:07 AM) the power just got cut out. I'm fine, thanks to my SUPER DUPER LAPTOP BATTERY, but everything else is screwed. And I can't post at the present time because the internet is out.

Actually this is not the first wierd occurance this week. First Splicers, then leaks, bloody Ghosts, and now a power outage. Ain't life in Rapture grand.

::ATTENTION::
All RAPTURE CITIZENS
All bathospheres are currently out of order. You will have to swim.
- Andrew Ryan

Atheism destroyed? We shall see...

Some of you may want to take a gander at the little Warning note on the side of the page. Done? Good. Now you can't get mad at me because you were duely warned, although I am aware that it probably won't stop some of you.

I was cruising through the sea of vidoes on YouTube and came across a collection of pro-christian material the size of a small continent. Lets call this continent Biblesia.

I've just watched this video, entitled 'ATHEISM DESTROYED IN UNDER 4 MIN !!!'. You can tell by the shamless use of the Caps Lock button, the use of the word Min and the three exclamation marks at the end that this person is A, probably young and B, put the video together in a hurry. I almost thought "Not gonna bother with this", then decided I needed a jolly good laugh.

So, lets go over the little facade of intelligence and wisdom this person has put together with Windows Movie Maker in about five minutes.

First, lets take a few minutes to discuss the begining of the video.
The one thing I already don't like about this guy is he hasn't listed what he's trying to debate against. How the universe was formed? Is there a god? The intelligence of Aithiests? Or a sickingly grotesque combination of the three? It's still unclear even towards the end of the video, something I find quite annoying.

Onto the Theories!
Theory 1: Life is an Illusion.
I really like this theory. The idea that life is nothing more than a dream in the subconsious of... something has always appealed to me in a weird sort of way.
Whoa, whoa! Big red bold writing! Wait, go back a few seconds.
The whole 'I dreamed I was a butterfly, and I did not know etc' thing is interesting, but I'm finding it difficult trying to pinpoint what this has to do with anything.
Oh I see. So it was simply thrown in to prove your little point. I get it, I get the picture. And apparently he 'Analysed' it, and came to the conclusion that it is 'UNTESTABLE, IMPRACTICABLE, and IRRATIONAL'. So kind of like your belief in your so called goNO BAD SPECTRE. I will not resort to that level of lowness.
And anyway, who says it's Untestable? You could juust have someone enter a trance-like state and think about being a butterfly. And Irrational? Look whos talkiNO DAMNIT. Arg, onto the next Theory.

Theory 2: The Universe Always Existed As It Does Now
You know, it's not such a bad argument. One could simply say that the universe has indeed been around since the dawn of time, but then we start delving deep into our minds, wrapping our heads around such questions as 'Well, if it was around the dawn of time, then how did the dawn of time start?' Then we go into a tailspin trying to explain THAT so we won't think about it anymore.
Ho boy, another 'Analysis'. According to the 'Law of Entropy', A universe would have dissolved by now. And he- sorry, it makes the argument that it has A, not cooled down; B, Dissipated; and C, stopped moving, so it can't be eternal. Man, I would love to know how this guy gets his 'Facts'. I very, very highly doubt this guy is any sort of intellectual, let alone a physicist, so how he can make these observations I cannot fathom. And, this seems to be a re-occuring pattern, he decides that every theory is 'not scientific', and discards them like one would a candy bar wrapper.
Here's the Wikipedia link if you want to do some actual research into the Second Law of Thermodynamics, otherwise known as the Law of Entropy.

Theory 3: The Universe Suddenly Appeared Out of Nothing
I don't agree with this. As he states in his big, bold red letters that 'NOTHING CAN COME FROM NOTHING', which is totally true.
This cracks me up. 'Physicists race to solve the matter-mystery of the Big Bang', Oct 12, 2003. 'Teams of Scientists racing to solve the biggest mystery of our physical world: WHY THE UNIVERSE CONTAINS MATTER.' And, apparently, this is a quote from a physicist: 'We are on the verge of a major breakthrough in our understanding of the very ORIGIN OF MATTER on the universe.'
Then he has the cheek to say '[Update: we're still waiting!]'. I mean for christs sake, like it takes us, the human race, seven years to understand such a outrageously huge and probably unanswerable question. But hey, it must be pretty easy for you christians to answer these kind of questions 'cause you just say god diARG DAMNIT a nearly lost it again.

Oh, here we go - Theory 4: God Created The Universe
He resorts to using quotes from the bible, which is like me using quotes from a Dr Suese book. No, no, no, the cannons are coming out. Time to end this charade. So, let me just quickly run you over the Bible; They say god wrote it, but he didn't. There is no way a non-coporeal eternal all powerful being wrote on a physical piece of paper, or in this case, a book. I'm pretty sure it didn't even start out as a book, but anyway. Then some blank space, then I imagine a bunch of people got together and wrote their versions of the bible into the one book (Oh yes, didn't you know? The whole XXXXXX ?:? thing is somebody's own recolection or thinking or whatever of the bible), and it was written by people in a very, very different age then the one we live in today, and trying to cram it into our lives is like cramming a extremely obese sewerage worker down a manhole.
I love the, 'This is the only thoery that doesn't violate the laws of physics' piece. Let me qualify for you;
1. No, it doesn't violate any laws of physics, apart from the whole "god decided it was time a universe happened and did it", which, come to think of it, is really similar to the 'The Universe Was Created From Nothing' theory.
2. It sure doesn't violate the laws of physics, at least not in your head, but it does violate the laws of... oh, I don't know, rationality? Logic? Take your pick.
'The only theory science cannot disprove'? Aww, for the love of god. You can't disprove something that
A, doesn't have any grounding in reality (Take a long, hard think about the whole 'religion' idea and it's ideas. You'll see) and
B, Can't be proven anyway. So we've established that that statment is flawed at best.
'By deduction, this is the only valid theory'. Hang on, I need to scream.
...
...
...
...
Done. Let me explain in three simple ways why that statment is total horses***.
1. Just because you say something doesn't make it so (a very important lesson to learn),
2. All of those theories are valid, thats why they're called theories, because it's a speculation so anything could happen, etc, and
3. I'm just looking at the "By deduction" part. Who's deduction, the video makers? Certainly not mine or yours, so we must logicly agree that it's hi-sorry, IT'S, which brings us to the end of the video, with even more pieces from the bible, something about fools and 'hath hearth'. I closed the video after that. I just didn't want anything more to do with it. And I'm very dubious of the uploader, a mr. Random331.

So, that's the rant for this week, kids! I'll be back next week! Stay tune for my small review of Bioshock, and to find out where to read the full review.

Survival Mode!

Yes, I've just been playing around with the Beta for Minecraft: Survival Mode. And i have to say, it's pretty good. It's a slightly different experiance to Minecraft, but not hugely. Zombies and Skeletons have made their apperance, and they hurt you quite a bit. Falling damages you, so I wouldn't recommend doing it. You can eat mushrooms (and probably a few other things) to replenish health, but you may experiance side effects. (Large pink elephants, anyone?)

.efil sih htiw od ot retteb gnihton sah ohw dratsab diputs a am I

That was for my good buddy, you know who you are.

I really don't have much to put here. I was expecting to have Supreme Commander by now, but I guess not. Maybe sometime friday, WINK WINK TONY. Either that or I get it for a shockingly low price of just $19.95 at [STORE NAME CENSORED]. Unfortunatly it's one of those cheap-ass game boxes, similar to the What's Hot! game boxes you see in the price bin or on the bottom shelf where most of them belong.

UPDATE
Ok, this Evony ad crap is really starting to get to me. Everywhere I look there seems to be another section of website featuring soft core pornography with the intention of getting people to play a game that really isn't that good. I'm sorry, but the advertisments are far too agressive and far too.. whats the word, pandering for a game that's essentially a really basic RTS with the corners, and indeed most of the content, cut off. It seems unnecessary.