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13 juni Just so we all know...That's the university I went to: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/is-this-for-real%3F/playing-with-augmented-reality-268144.php 14 mei Aegis WingSo there's a neat sounding game coming out for XBLA, and guess what? It's going to be free for everyone... that can get it. It's US only. Yet again Australia gets the shaft, but this time it's not just us, but everywhere but the US. You know, I thought Microsoft really had the community thing right and they were going well, despite making us wait an extra half a year to get the 360. But now with the Video Marketplace being US (and Canada?) only, and now a whole bunch of XBLA games not coming out in Australia (and with Aegis Wing, everywhere else!) Microsoft are really starting to erode all the fondness I had built up for them. And don't even get me started on them not allowing content to be free (like GWRE and the second Gears map-pack). Finally, while I'm on negative things, I was a little disappointed in Major Nelson's podcast last time, and how he mocked gamers for wanting the Gears map-pack for free. Sure, always wanting something for nothing is not possible. But when Epic continually hinted that content packs would be free, and then they're not, that's something else. Then MN and 'e' had a go at Epic for wanting to release it free, pointing out that they'd cost MS a billion dollars for dictating extra system RAM, saying they're hypocrites. Well, I'm sorry, but if the 360 didn't have that extra RAM, MS wouldn't be in as solid position as they are now. Microsoft, what are you doing to the international Xbox fanbase? Pull your head in or we'll go back to Sony. 24 april One of These Things is Not Like the OthersSo I got a new piece of guitar gear today...
Blends in doesn't it? I've started playing it (the game, GHII, that is), and I'm still having a hard time getting over the size of the controller. I know it's a fake, plastic guitar, and I probably wouldn't want it bigger for storage purposes but... maybe I would? Anyway, I'll let you know how I go. I couldn't help but think, when forking over the cash "Hmmm. This could get me a nice pedal, or some more leads, and the 335 (that you see in that pic) has a problem with it's pickup 3-way switch that needs repairing...". I'm sure I'll enjoy the game anyway, despite what real-world guitar benefits the money could have brought! 11 april Finally Some More Bizarre Creations Action But...Finally! Some more Bizarre Creations action but... not for Australia? That sucks. Royally (and we are still a monarchy after all. I'm sure the Queen isn't impressed, especially seeing as Bizarre are an English company - Hey! That ended up being really clever didn't it!). Here's the link to the post on Gamerscore Blog. Note the comments. Do you see how many Australians are commenting? There are a lot. We are no small voice here. Australia is one of the biggest (per capita I think it's the biggest) and most loyal Xbox install bases there is, yet time and time again we get the shaft. Now I don't know what's going on here, but I think we deserve an explanation. You see, most time delays like this happen when a country's ratings board has some reason for not giving a rating to a game, or they need futher time to come to a decision. This normally happens with mature titles (like Rockstar's GTA3 or Manhunt). However, there are plenty of arcade titles on the arcade that have mature ratings. For instance, I have Alien Hominid HD (M) and Doom (MA15). Both of these titles were released here at the same time as everywhere else. I see no reason why Doom could pass through our OFLC (our equivalent of the US ESRB) and reach the XBLA at the same time as everywhere else, and a completely mild game like Boom Boom Rocket can't. There has to be another reason. Normally the secondary reason would be finding an Australian distributor (that woefully happened with the glorious Psychonauts here) but this is online distribution, that level is bypassed here isn't it? Let's see if they do post a reason, or just expect us to take it. So sad. Microsoft better do something flippin' sweet for the Aussie (and maybe New Zealand) communities soon, or we'll really start to feel unloved. 26 maart The Frenzy!I really should write a proper post soon. You know, one of my 3,000 word epics that nobody actually read except maybe my sister... Anyway, I finally got around to making the commenting rounds tonight, which I should really do more often. Problem is, I do most of my blog reading at work on my break time, and that's normally done through Google Reader, and if I do attempt to go comment on people's spaces things normally go haywire. So it ends up taking a concerted effort to do it at home, which I just did! Pat on the back for me! This one's a quickie though. What am I digging at the moment? The idea of a new Wing Commander game! Wing Commander Arena on XBLA? I want it right now. Though I'm not sure about the new view though, and the "Arena" type gameplay. I'd love to see a redone WC or WCII. Don't get me wrong, I'd kill for remakes of all the WCs, but WC and WCII came out when I was really young, we never had a computer good enough to run WC, but we did for WCII, for which I had (and the Secret Ops 1 & 2... or was that Special Ops, I get mixed up with the Prophecy Episodic content). The thing is, I barely remember anything about WCII, except that I loved it, and WC is also held in similar high regard. At any rate, I'll be happy for any Wing Commander fix - it's been far too long. Do you know what would have been really cool though? A remake of Wing Commander Armada - that had action and strategy, and it's blend would have been awesome on Live. I have so many other little things I should post on, but that's all I've got time for at the moment. Oh, and I also cracked the 10,000 gamerscore, which was sort of just a byproduct of me actually having time to play some games (and I've finished 3 in 3 weeks thanks to Vellan lending me some). 07 maart C&C3's Unbelievable CastYes, it's been a while since my last post - I've been flat out, that's for sure. Anyway, I wanted to write a massive post, but I just don't have the time at the moment, so I'd just like to share a quick thing I noticed for you all. I downloaded the C&C3 demo (being a big C&C/RTS fan) and I fired it up (this is for PC mind you). I was watching the intro movie when I went... (in order)
Maybe there are some others I've missed, but I just sat there in shock at all the awesome actors that have signed up for a game. Especially Jennifer Morrison and the Battlestar Galactica's - those are two shows that are doing amazingly well, it's not like those actors would have been in dire need of extra work! It's great to see more good actors fronting up for the Hollywood-underestimated games industry. The link to the page on IMDB is here. And if you want to watch it (it's not so good in low res though) watch it on YouTube here. You'll note not only the actors, but the great CG bits as well. Looks like this isn't going to just be an awesome RTS, but a complete entertainment experience! 19 februari I Always Believed In FuturesSo my connection seems to be stable now, and I think my 360 is liking the router - though I haven't played any multiplayer yet. Back when I was having huge troubles I ran a diagnostic on the 360, and it said everything was cool except I had "Moderate" NAT. Moderate NAT is supposed to be bad, as when you go "More Info" it says "If you get a Moderate or Extreme (I can't remember if that was the word) result for the NAT test, replace your router with another one". Oh, okay, just buy another $300 router, why didn't I think of that? Anyway, once I set the routers DMZ equal to that IP/MAC of the 360 I got a perfect "Open" result. But I'd really like it if I could have people come over and everyone be on Xbox Live without having troubles caused by the NAT (which mainly affects multiplayer as it screws with Peer to Peer stuff), and the problem is that a router can only have one DMZ. Anyway, this isn't what I was going to post about, and I only have a few spare moments.
I'm at work, and work is crazy. I have so much of it, and so many resposibilities. Then on top of that, I have about 50 other personal things all screaming for immediate attention, and they are all deserving of it. I was totally stressing out at my desk, when my music playlist hit Jimmy Eat World's Futures - which is my favourite album, don't even get me started on it. As soon heard it start I felt immediate relief and calm. I then thought, "How do people who don't get in to music cope? And/or does music have this sort of effect on everyone?".
Well? 16 februari Is It *Finally* Working Again?Well, it appears that my broadband is working again (though I've been out and about all night). I got home, and as I foretold to my sister, although Telstra had come and gone, things still weren't working. So I called up Internode again, and they said that Telstra should have contacted them to let them know what their learnings/fixes were. So basically the long and the short of it was, Telstra didn't actually do anything. But an upside was that this Internode guy had some extra ideas on how to fix it, he said he'd probably be on the phone to Telstra for about an hour getting it done though, so I wished him luck. Anyway, about an hour later, it started working again. He called me up and said "Yup, Telstra hadn't done obvious things a, b, and flippin' c". Now to get the 360 working properly with this stupidly over-the-top router. Wish me luck. 15 februari And Why Have You Not Posted?So after my collosal previous post - where's the follow-up one?
Well, last Friday, my already sketchy broadband just decided to not work. My ISP couldn't work it out, so it's something Telstra did. Telstra came out today (I'm at work though) and they say they've fixed it. I'll be the judge of that though.
Fingers crossed for when I get home - if it's working when I get there I'll try to post again, and I'll definitely make some comments (finally!). 06 februari Finally An Actual Post!Well, I say it's an actual post, but I really do need to go get some sleep. So this will be one of my patented blitzkrieg-bulleted posts that cover far too many topics without going deep enough to satisfy anyone.
There are so many other things I haven't covered or could be way expanded upon. But I think this'll do for now. I've been reading everybody's blogs (I couldn't work out whether that was everybodies, or everybody's with an apostrophe given it's possessive state - bless English) so although I've been silent, I'm still up with everyone. And now that I've got the web at home now, I should be able to comment and stuff. I'd comment at work, but half the time that doesn't work coz of the weird Internet setup at work. There's a tonne of congrats I need to get out there, but I can't think of them at the moment. Maybe for the next post. 17 januari The Appeasement PostSo I'm not actually "Back" as I would call it. I'm now back at work, which gives me a small window of internet usage, even if it's limited (in both time and accessible sites). My sister is bugging me to post once again. And that's coming from Miss "I'll go MIA for 6 months". So this is my post to both appease her, and let you all know I'm not dead.
I hear on Xbox Live that it says I was last online 25 days ago. That hurts me, that hurts me alot. You may have read my sister's post about how Telstra, after saying they'd connect my line on the 29th of December managed to waste a whole day of my time and then tell me they might connect me in April. They have now experience angry Striek. My line should have been connected today, but now the string line to pull the Telstra cable into my house's telephone box thing is stuck, and that my builder's electrician is supposed to come out and sort it out. If it's not one thing it's another.
I have had no end of trouble with the new house - but that's a topic for another post, and everyone knows that's how "new" houses go anyway.
How much gameplay have I had since my last post I hear you ask? That's an interesting question, and the more interesting answer is: about 10 hours. One word for that - weak. I did pull off the amazing feat of holding a LAN at your house within 24 hours of getting it. That's gotta be worth some kudos. But since the craziness of Christmas and New Years, I haven't had a whole heck of a lot of time, and then in the time I have had - i haven't felt like it.
You see, I've lived in the same room my whole life. When I was brought home from the hospital my room was the room that I've just left. It was of course, important for me finally get out of that closet of a room and have my own house (I'm 25 for pete's sake!). And I am pretty go with the flow, but I still feel weird. I don't feel myself, and so, coz I've been a bit loneley being in a house all by myself (not even with neighbours yet! Or street lights, or even street signs for that matter - and not having a telephone only adds to that) I've basically been watching TV instead of gaming. TV makes me feel less "alone" I guess, even if it is no more real than playing a game. It's weird to explain, but I think I'm getting back on the road to gaming recovery. I'll post on all that again soon.
I've got to go in a minute, so I haven't got time for formatting and hyperlinking. So that's the update for now. 21 december I'm Guessing It'll Be A WhileThank you all for you concern and condolences on both my lack of connectivity and returning safely from my tour across the Eyre Peninsula.
The trip went well, aside from me getting sick on Thursday and having no where decent in that town to stay - so we stayed in a semi-permanent caravan. That really sucked. I didn't take my 360 either, because I didn't want it to get thrown on to the plane. So all I took was the PSP and the DS, and then even then, most days I was so zonked, throughout the whole trip not one of them got them ever powered up. It was also a weird trip because of my lack of a phone too. Once I got out of Port Lincoln (I love Port Lincoln) I had no mobile phone coverage. So after I left Port Lincoln on the Monday, and then on my approach back in on the Friday, my phone started being and going off like crazy.
Anyway, I'm off topic and I must be quick. I only have a futher spare 6 minutes before I have to go to a meeting and I won't have another chance to post for quite some time. So here's the bullets:
I'm tormented, stressed and I've got about 5 million-thousand things going on at once. I've gotta go, but I'll do what I can to somehow post again from somewhere. And If I don't get a chance to comment on anyone's space or write a final post before Christmas, but, Merry Christmas everyone, thanks for stopping by, commenting, playing with me on live, and generally being great people. I love you all! 07 december Life Without XBL or Internet AccessYes, I know that my title contradicts the very existence of this post, but forget your human logic and just keep reading.
As many of you would no doubt be aware of, you won't have seen the little "Striek is Online" logo popping up on your Xbox 360's for a few days now. And as I mentioned in my previous post, you won't see that little icon for maybe even 2 months. That's not one of my happy thoughts, that's a thought I try not to think of as much as possible. So thanks very much for making me think of it, you readers are so mean...
So what else of significance could be brought about by this? Well, I think that during this period it is quite likely that my sister will finally attain the prize she so lusts for - Supreme GBVY Gamer (based on Gamerscore of course, we still know that, all things considered, I can't be beat). Without being able to compare and view my sister's score at will whilst using my 360, I can't see myself being as competitive. So when I finally get broadband back, I'm guessing I'll have some catching up to do. At the moment though, my sister is sportingly still asking me my gamerscore each morning to add it to her super-graph. So at least my gamerscore will be inching up a little, and I shouldn't completely flatline in history's pages. But maybe that's what she wants. Maybe she knows I'll become less competitive without Live, but at the same time, she doesn't want her graph to look like I just died and she surpassed a dead persons score. She wants it to look like she passed a truly worthy opponents score fair and square. I'm off topic now, but you are now up to date on what I think the future holds.
I played a quick bit of Rainbox Six Vegas, and it seems really good. I can't really comment on it too much though at this early stage (I'm not even out of Mexico, and from what I've heard, that's the weak part of the game).
I finished Gears and it was awesome. I won't spoil anything for anyone, but when you get to the final boss on Hardcore, and you just can't seem to kill him, and you think there's some trick involved (like how you kill the Corpser) - there isn't. It's just really hard. I've since gotten through the first 3 acts in coop on the Insane level. And for that, I've actually got to say that it's easy, we're definitely not talking Halo 2 Legendary difficulty, but I guess that's the tactical nature of the game. If you're doing everything right - you shouldn't die, there isn't as much chance involved as there is in a straight FPS. Don't get me wrong, Insane is more difficult than Hardcore, it's just not the frustratingly difficult level I've come to expect from games like Halo 2 and COD 2 (in places).
Viva Pinata's good, I haven't played too much of that one though. Vellan, the master of that title (980 points, only one more achievement to go!) can probably comment on my flawed playing technique when she writes her final thoughts on that game if she likes.
Finally, my reason for posting now is because it's nearly the end of the day, I won't be in at work tomorrow (which means I have no internet) and then I'll be galavanting across the Eyre Peninsula for work, and I doubt that I'll be able to post during that time. So that means you both won't see me on Live or Live Spaces. I'll take my 360 with me, but last time I barely played it coz the other guy that went with always wanted to do the social thing and hang out or whatever. Maybe I should fully offend him at the start of the trip and I could get some quality 360 time at the end of the days... No, I'm really not like that. And come to think of it, I'm getting a plane over there and I'm not sure I want my 360 in my luggage, getting thrown around. Now that I really think about it, it might end up just being a PSP and DS/GBA affair. 30 november Cue A Wayne & Garth "No Way!"Is it really that easy to get 500 points out of Viva Pinata? I say as I note that my sister is now only 203 points behind me? And whatever did happen to her "I won't really be able to play through November because of my writing thing". Seems to me that she blogged prolifically and played constantly. Oh well, if she passes me, well done to her. It's good to see a competitive girl gamer (Not to say they aren't all competitive, just that they are rare). The title? Well, as I have previously conveyed, I'm building a house. What I hadn't conveyed is that I currently live with my parents (Hey! Yeah I'm talking to you. You can stop judging me right now! I'd planned to meet the right girl a long time before now, and it's never eventuated, so at the start of this year I finally bit the bullet and went out to build a pad of my own.). Okay, those brackets are too long to continue the sentence they interrupted; I'll start that one again. What I hadn't conveyed is that I currently live with my parents, and they too are building a house. Theirs is pretty much done as I'm led to believe. So I think they're moving in next week (the 5th maybe?). They still haven't sold this house though (they have been trying), so I can still stay here until my house is ready at the end of December. The problem is, that they're having the telephone disconnected here. Why is that a problem? Because the broadband here is ADSL! No telephone line no ADSL = No Xbox Live! *Sigh*. It's not the end of the world, but after having Xbox Live become so integral with the 360, not having it is going to be very... odd. Not in a good way though, more in a "suffocation is bad because I like oxygen" way.
Now all I have to do is wait for a US webcast which will start at 2:30am here. I guess I'll just have to bring myself to play some Gears. 21 november I'd Like To Know Just How They Are SmallYou may have noticed from my achievements that I lied in my last post. I said I was going to play through Gears of War on the normal (Casual) difficulty level first. This was before I started the game. When I went to start a new campaign and it said "Casual: You enjoy the occasional shooter". I don't think that's me. You could say that I'm somewhat of a shooter/FPS aficionado, I played through Wolfenstein 3D when it came out. And come to think of it, I was probably only 11 years at the time. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? So without getting further off topic, I don't think that the Casual setting was for me. The hardcore setting? "Hardcore: You know how to pull off a headshot", yes, that's much closer to the mark. So far I'm not regretting it either, it's simply challenging, but I wouldn't call it Hard, most of the time when I die, it really is my fault. So I'm not getting frustrated, if I find a section really hard, it's probably because I'm trying to get through it too fast and taking too many risks. But really, what do I think of Gears so far? I just sat here for minutes trying to think of a word that befit it's greatness, and I can't think of one. Let's just say it's really, really good, on all fronts. I haven't tried the game on standard definition yet (that's what my TV is) because I know one of the major drawcards with Gears is the phenomenal graphics. So for now, I've got my 360 hooked into my old 19" CRT via the VGA cable, and it looks awesome. In other news, I did pass Cluskevird's score. This was sort of unintentional. I was looking forward to it, but it wasn't really competition driven. It was mainly a side effect of me trying to stay one step ahead of my sister. Which isn't to say I'm desperate to keep ahead, I am trying, but if she really put her foot down I'm sure she could pass me, and that's cool. She'll get Viva Pinata when it comes out, and maybe I'll grab that one too, seeing as I'm hearing great things about it. But even if I don't, I still have that time-sucker Oblivion to finish, and of course, Splinter Cell: Double Agent. I'd still also like to pick up Dead Rising, Rainbow Six Vegas, and maybe Call of Duty 3 (for the right price). But building a house is binding my hands a little. As for the post title, Small Arms comes out for Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow! I've watched most of the videos for this on GameVideos.com and it looks fantastic. It'll be 800 points, and if it plays as well as it looks, it'll be much better value than my previous XBLA title (being Lumines Live, which is still great though, don't get me started on it again). Small Arms looks like a great Super Smash Brothers Melee or Kung Fu Chaos style of game. These are generally great party games in their own right, but should be great online. It's nice to see a good, new indie title on the XBLA. 20 november Hell Yes!If you want a real post, read yesterdays. I'm only posting because I got Gears of War today. I haven't even put it in the drive and yet I feel somehow relieved. I've heard that the game makes you want to play through it multiple times (a la Halo), so I'm thinking I might play it through on normal first before going onto the harder modes. As lately I generally just dive straight into the harder (or hardest) difficulty setting. 19 november Yes, He's Alive, and in Perfect HibernationYes, my post title refers to my Xbox 360, and it's prolonged inactivity. This is however, about to change. I did just get back from re-hiring Need For Speed Most Wanted, and also hiring King Kong. I shouldn't have to defend my hire of King Kong, but for my sister's sake, I will. You see, here at Game Rankings, it gets an average review of 81% on the 360. Which is pretty decent, especially considering I loved Ridge Racer 6 and that got an average of 75%. From all I read about it during the 360 launch in the US, it was one of the best available launch games. And all up, it really is an entertaining play. It's just that it only entertains for about 8 hours max (the time taken to complete the game) and then you probably won't want to play it again. This makes it a perfect rental I think, I'll let you know what I think of it once it's done. I don't know if the fact that I've never seen either the original King Kong, or the remake will hurt my experience, but we'll see. I said I'd write up the U2 concert, but I really don't think I need to. I'm sure all those of you with an interest in U2 would know their reputation for putting on an amazing show. Well Thursday night was no exception, they were great. Bono even did his thing where he changed the words of the bridge to Beautiful Day to fit the city (mentioning things about Adelaide, like the Glenelg etc.). I actually thought that the crowd was really good, cheering every song and clapping to everything, singing along... you know the kind of things you'd expect at a U2 concert. But I've read some Adelaide blogs, and they say that the crowd is flat and bored, maybe it was just where I was sitting, or maybe I haven't been to enough Crows games to hear what 50,000+ people cheering can sound like. Probably one of the most "wow" parts of the night was everyone leaving. People lined up all day to get in, and 60,000 people coming into a stadium over the course of a day is nothing too amazing. But 60,000 people all leaving at once is something completely different. It's something you just have to see. I joked around with my friends saying that it was like seeing the entire population of Mount Gambier all exiting a building at the same time. And then I found out that the population of Mount Gambier is only about half that. Back onto topic of the U2 concert however, I got my ticket for $100, which is the most I've ever paid to goto a show. But after that performance I realised, I would've paid more. If you'd like to see the setlist and some other people's reviews (which are actual reviews, unlike mine) go here. I also heard from my friends that you weren't allowed to bring cameras in, but I weren't sure if they were right. So I brought it in stealthily anyway. So I took some photos, but I wasn't exactly snap-happy. I even signed up for flickr so I could share them with you properly. They're all 1024x768, but you have to dig around with the flickr interface to get the full-res versions (like this one). You'll find the set here. I was in a wedding yesterday, as in, part of the bridal party. I'm mentioning it in case you wondered about my sister's comment about me "doing well at the wedding" was perplexing. I might put some pictures from that up on flickr later too. But for now you'll just have to enjoy this picture of my sister, who I thought looked more like a disguised assassin when looking out onto the crowd for the wedding (very Pulp Fiction). Unfortunately she's smiling in the picture and doesn't look very threatening though, she'll have to work on that. 18 november No Post Today...So I said I was going to try and write that post about the concert, hopefully today. Well, that was a silly idea because I simply had no spare time today. So you'll get it when it's written, which might be this weekend. Then again, it might not be - but again, hopefully. I'm sure you can get, from those fragmented sentences above that I'm really tired, and I shouldn't be posting right now. So I'll keep this short. I played guitar at that state rally tonight, and it was awesome - in all aspects. On the guitar front though, I played very above my average, you might even say I played really well. And this is in no small part due to my favourite new friend - the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay. It's not often that I get a new pedal... well, at all. But that wasn't what I was going to say. It's not often I get a new pedal, and then have it just do exactly what I want and make me sound awesome so effortlessly. It's a beautiful thing, maybe I'll post on it, itself more properly soon, it's a bit of a long story as to how I procured it. The reason I thought I'd post tonight was because I've been so flat out, I haven't really had a chance to comment on other people's weblogs of late. And I'd like to bring to attention two things that are just not right. Cluskevird has been doing it tough on a whole heap of things at the moment, he should live in South Australia, that way I could go over there and cheer him up. Also, Noble's Xbox 360 kicked the bucket (I wanted to say, "cark-ed it", but I couldn't find the proper spelling for that Australian slang). That's just not on either, as if it's not bad enough trying to find time to play the thing! Let alone having it inoperable. He should live in South Australia too, that way he could just use mine (seeing as it hasn't seen any action in a week). Sorry to hear about your troubles guys, it's just no good. And finally, Echohammer419 passed 20,000 gamerpoints and I didn't even congratulate him. Congrats mate! I was waiting on congratulating Noble on getting to the very milestone-esque 10,000 points (5 figures!), he's so close, but now... so far. I was also gonna rub it in to Cluskevird that I passed his gamerscore the other day. But then when I looked again, he'd milked a bunch of points from Viva Pinata and gotten back in front of me again. How mean is that? Passing someone else's score with a game they can't even get their hands on yet? At least it wasn't Gears I guess. 17 november Next Post, Coming Soon To A Symposium Near YouI fully intended to post when I got home tonight, but now that the time has come, I'm really way too tired to author the post I intended.
I just got home from the U2 concert in Adelaide - flipping AWESOME. And I'll write the proper post for it, hopefully tomorrow.
In other news, work sucks - it's a shock, yes I know. But what I mean is that it really sucks (as in, alot more than usual). So much so that's it's almost unbearable for me to be in the building. I didn't even say bye to anyone when I left today (and I've got tomorrow off), because if I had it would have gone something like "Seeya everyone, I hope something catastrophic happens with the building tomorrow and you're all tragically... well... not dead, but... no longer bothering me". I opted for silence, I think that was wise.
You would have noticed an extreme inactivity on my gamercard/score/360voice. Well that's because I really haven't been playing at all. I'm sure my sister is suspicious that maybe I've unplugged my 360 and am secretly running my score up. This is unfortunately not the case. I've been helping a friend with a major uni assignment (something like an honours year assignment, but not quite that much), something I'm somewhat of an expert in. I did my GIS Major Project back in 2003. Gozznut is also doing his, and he's unfortunately hit the "Oh my freaking son of a corn chip" stage where he's realised just how daunting the whole thing is, with very little time left to complete it. I'm experiencing this sympathetically this year, which is almost as bad as the real thing. The girl I'm helping is really starting to flip out, coz it really is a stressful undertaking, but I'll do my best to help her out (and Gozz too! If he needs it.)
Anyway it's off to bed for me. I've got a final suit fitting for a wedding I'm in on Saturday, I've got to pick up my mountain bike which has been in for repairs for two weeks, and I've got to practice a bunch of songs for a state youth rally that I'm playing guitar for tomorrow night. Oh and did I mention my camera got busted the other day? Yeah, well... I don't want to talk about it, but I'm never lending a camera again...
Oh, and there's a new GBVY leaderboard - it's right here. (Behold my localised greatness!) 09 november Let There Be Light - No MoreSo from some of my previous posts you might have noticed that I have a certain fondness for Command & Conquer Generals. So I had been looking forward to a certain mod for it for quite a while. In fact, I think it was from Bungie's very own site that I first came across the mod. I am of course, speaking of the now more understandably, ill-fated Halogen mod. You almost needn't bother following that hyperlink because there's basically nothing there. Some of you may already know this whole story, so you can totally skip the post and I won't mind, honestly. But basically it goes like this. The Derelict Studios/Halogen mod team worked for... well, ever since C&C Generals came out in 2003. So nearly 3 years I'm guessing. They appeared to be doing a marvelous job, almost too good a job for a mod team. You can see this from a few early model (a couple that haven't mysteriously disappeared from the internet) shots here and here. The total conversion was going so well they made a very spiffy trailer, which I'll try to include here from YouTube:...um. I can't seem to get that to work, so here's the hyperlink. Then all of a sudden they were ordered by Microsoft and Bungie to cease & desist and to remove all of their material from publication. This was quite prior to the announcement of Halo Wars (I think it was back in April). So obviously they Microsoft just wanted it canned because they wanted no opposition to Halo Wars - but would even an extremely well executed mod/TC based on a 4 year old engine really impact the sales of a professionally developed RTS for a completely different (and next generation) platform? I really don't think so. Which is why I think it's still pretty harsh of Microsoft. I think considering that Derelict Studios aren't charging for the mod, and that they could easily argue that it wouldn't hurt Halo Wars' sales that they could have taken Microsoft to court and been allowed to continue. But really, does a mod team, working for free, to produce a free total conversion want to pay money for a court battle with the world's biggest software company just to continue on a free mod? I didn't think so. And so you have the current state of affairs. Why are so many people implicating Bungie as well in all of this? Well, apparently the guys at Bungie thought Derelict Studio's work on Halogen was great. And they themselves were fans of it. So when Bungie learned of Microsoft's plans to shut them down, the guys at Bungie asked if they could be the ones to break the unfortunate news to them, soften the blow as it were (I learned that here). I think that was pretty good of them, even if it did create some anti-Bungie backlash. But really how could anyone ever stay mad at Bungie? It's just not possible. It's interesting now to do searches on it and see forum posts, and blog results about it. Some reveal some unnervingly accurate predictions, like this scary one from Joystiq. Only thing that worries me about that one is that it was posted on September 13th, Halogen was discontinued in April, and Halo Wars was announced September 27th. Why wait 5 months to make a Bungie-RTS-Ensemble studios prediction that's so disconcertingly accurate, but only manage to mysteriously post it 2 weeks before the secret and undisclosed Halo Wars announcement. It's almost like they knew something they weren't supposed to know but just had to put it out there some how in some form. Anyway, I'm off topic. So there you go. While you're waiting for Halo Wars, just think, you could have been playing a very slick TC for C&C Generals to whet your appetite, but no, Microsoft just had to go and be mean for pretty much no reason. |
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