October 13, 2009
Rising from the grave...
So what have I been up to, aside from slogging though Churchill?
- Red Faction: Guerrilla. Picked it up off Steam. The multiplayer game is fairly lousy - some major graphics bugs are keeping people out of it, which means that it's almost deserted, and the bugs themselves make it annoying. But the single player game is fun, in a Grand Theft Auto meets Blast Corps kind of way. There's something viscerally appealing about taking a sledgehammer to large constructs, then (hopefully) getting out of the way before the whole thing comes crashing down. I've also had some appallingly funny deaths - my favorite was from bailing out from a moving car, just before it smashed into a giant lamp pole outside a cemetery, only to have the light fixture dislodge from the shock and land directly on the space that my character was occupying. Squish, whoops. Fortunately there's not much of a death penalty...
- Katamari Forever. Odd and funny as ever, but much sharper in HD. Which is a good thing, because a lot of the levels were cribbed off old Katamari games, so you've literally rolled 'em up before. Still, not too bad if you're a fan of the concept or have a tremendously high tolerance for weirdness.
- Eureka 7. Mood just took me, so I've watched through most of it rather than launch into new shows. Occasionally tough to take at the beginning, as Renton has a bad case of Shinji Syndrome to start with, but he eventually gets his head out. Great conceptual "other planet" story, which takes what could have been a thin excuse for "they have flying surfboards" and builds it into a fairly good plot.
- Yotsubato vol. 6. I've only been waiting what, five, six years for this thing?
- Demon's Souls. Or not, actually, as my attempt tonight to obtain this amazingly-well-rated and hurt-me-difficult game were stymied by everyone around here being totally sold out. But my travels were rewarded, as I did obtain a copy of...
- Brutal Legend. Metal as advertised, except where it is more metal. Brilliant Ozzy cameo. I haven't exactly been inculcated into the great secrets of metal, but when a level is a giant capstan pushed by head-bangers suspended over a lake of lava, it's hard to go wrong. (And that's the FIRST level...) It's hard to write self-aware humor without going too far into the Bruce Campbell zone, but so far it's doing a good job. Doubtless I'll expand on it later.
- Gobs and gobs of overtime. The recession hasn't hit law firms, at least not so long as there's suits about all those obscure investment vehicles that were involved with the real estate collapse... Good thing, because contracting is dead at the moment, with virtually everybody who uses contractors on life support or fleeing the market altogether.
- Red Faction: Guerrilla. Picked it up off Steam. The multiplayer game is fairly lousy - some major graphics bugs are keeping people out of it, which means that it's almost deserted, and the bugs themselves make it annoying. But the single player game is fun, in a Grand Theft Auto meets Blast Corps kind of way. There's something viscerally appealing about taking a sledgehammer to large constructs, then (hopefully) getting out of the way before the whole thing comes crashing down. I've also had some appallingly funny deaths - my favorite was from bailing out from a moving car, just before it smashed into a giant lamp pole outside a cemetery, only to have the light fixture dislodge from the shock and land directly on the space that my character was occupying. Squish, whoops. Fortunately there's not much of a death penalty...
- Katamari Forever. Odd and funny as ever, but much sharper in HD. Which is a good thing, because a lot of the levels were cribbed off old Katamari games, so you've literally rolled 'em up before. Still, not too bad if you're a fan of the concept or have a tremendously high tolerance for weirdness.
- Eureka 7. Mood just took me, so I've watched through most of it rather than launch into new shows. Occasionally tough to take at the beginning, as Renton has a bad case of Shinji Syndrome to start with, but he eventually gets his head out. Great conceptual "other planet" story, which takes what could have been a thin excuse for "they have flying surfboards" and builds it into a fairly good plot.
- Yotsubato vol. 6. I've only been waiting what, five, six years for this thing?
- Demon's Souls. Or not, actually, as my attempt tonight to obtain this amazingly-well-rated and hurt-me-difficult game were stymied by everyone around here being totally sold out. But my travels were rewarded, as I did obtain a copy of...
- Brutal Legend. Metal as advertised, except where it is more metal. Brilliant Ozzy cameo. I haven't exactly been inculcated into the great secrets of metal, but when a level is a giant capstan pushed by head-bangers suspended over a lake of lava, it's hard to go wrong. (And that's the FIRST level...) It's hard to write self-aware humor without going too far into the Bruce Campbell zone, but so far it's doing a good job. Doubtless I'll expand on it later.
- Gobs and gobs of overtime. The recession hasn't hit law firms, at least not so long as there's suits about all those obscure investment vehicles that were involved with the real estate collapse... Good thing, because contracting is dead at the moment, with virtually everybody who uses contractors on life support or fleeing the market altogether.
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September 13, 2009
Now reading: "The Gathering Storm", Winston Churchill
I'd always wanted to read Churchill's own account of WWII; finding that it was available as an e-book spurred me to actually do it.
The first volume is... it's interesting, but not enthralling. There's a dreadful sameness to it, really. Some action is taken by the German government, the British government responds in pusillanimous fashion, Churchill gives a speech in Parliament that was 100% correct but went unheeded, and so on. There's no issues with the writing, and reading the text of these speeches, it's difficult to believe that they could have failed to carry the day... but they did.
And the failure is where Churchill is at his most interesting. He bemoans that he wasn't more effective (a little), but simultaneously gives thanks that his opinions made him such an outsider - that he was ready where and when he was ready, having been proved a visionary by events, not tarred with the brush of having been responsible for the crisis. But he's very... polite? It's more than politeness, really. It's easy to say terrible things about Chamberlain, and about the ministers who proceeded him, but Churchill doesn't do so; he's careful to make it plain that at all stages he enjoyed cordial relations with everyone involved, and instead of saying "Chamberlain made a terrible policy decision", he'll phrase it in general terms - "It is scarcely to be believed that such a policy decision could have been taken," if I can paraphrase a little.
(As an aside, one of the disadvantages of e-books is that they're hell to browse through for quotes!)
Of course, he's still criticizing here, and he doesn't pretend otherwise. There's an interesting passage where he talks about French decision-making in '35, and stops short of that conclusion, saying that the area was ripe for research if the French were interested in pointing fingers at responsible parties. By extension, he's acknowledging that he's doing that for the English, even if it's in a very genteel fashion.
But it's not just his writing style, because Hitler doesn't get the same benefits. Without descending into outright name-calling, Churchill makes it clear that Hitler isn't entitled to any of the politeness, or benefit of the doubt, that he would extend to his domestic political opponents. Of course, that's the advantage of the distinction between "genocidal maniac" and "person who let the genocidal maniac get started, out of good intentions"...
The first volume is... it's interesting, but not enthralling. There's a dreadful sameness to it, really. Some action is taken by the German government, the British government responds in pusillanimous fashion, Churchill gives a speech in Parliament that was 100% correct but went unheeded, and so on. There's no issues with the writing, and reading the text of these speeches, it's difficult to believe that they could have failed to carry the day... but they did.
And the failure is where Churchill is at his most interesting. He bemoans that he wasn't more effective (a little), but simultaneously gives thanks that his opinions made him such an outsider - that he was ready where and when he was ready, having been proved a visionary by events, not tarred with the brush of having been responsible for the crisis. But he's very... polite? It's more than politeness, really. It's easy to say terrible things about Chamberlain, and about the ministers who proceeded him, but Churchill doesn't do so; he's careful to make it plain that at all stages he enjoyed cordial relations with everyone involved, and instead of saying "Chamberlain made a terrible policy decision", he'll phrase it in general terms - "It is scarcely to be believed that such a policy decision could have been taken," if I can paraphrase a little.
(As an aside, one of the disadvantages of e-books is that they're hell to browse through for quotes!)
Of course, he's still criticizing here, and he doesn't pretend otherwise. There's an interesting passage where he talks about French decision-making in '35, and stops short of that conclusion, saying that the area was ripe for research if the French were interested in pointing fingers at responsible parties. By extension, he's acknowledging that he's doing that for the English, even if it's in a very genteel fashion.
But it's not just his writing style, because Hitler doesn't get the same benefits. Without descending into outright name-calling, Churchill makes it clear that Hitler isn't entitled to any of the politeness, or benefit of the doubt, that he would extend to his domestic political opponents. Of course, that's the advantage of the distinction between "genocidal maniac" and "person who let the genocidal maniac get started, out of good intentions"...
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September 05, 2009
Going for broke
BvS madness continues. A long description of an Out On Top attempt follows behind the cut.
more...
more...
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August 27, 2009
So I still look at Saimoe occasionally
The first round will be over in a few days. Here's a chart of the voting so far (part two here). Interesting comments:
Lucky Star's getting slaughtered - Konata out, Kagami out. The Kagami round was interesting, because it was the highest vote total so far. Kagami lost narrowly to Mikuru (kind of a rip, because this is Mikuru from the shorts, but oh well.) The same round had Maria from Hayate winning in a close match over Touka from Saki (why was that even close? Touka's not moe!) I suspect we're seeing even more of the "knock out any moe girl who isn't my favorite" voting that's already caused a lot of eyeball-rolling this season, but it might have cancelled itself out between the two rounds.
Strike Witches is doing pretty well - the only major characters who've lost a round were Yeager (up against Hisa from Saki), Ella (up against Rika from Higurashi), and Bishop (quite a respectable vote total, but up against Taiga from Toradora...)
On the topic of Higurashi, why... won't... it... die?
K-On advanced Yui, Azusa, and... Nodoka. How does Nodoka advance (by five votes against a minor Saki character) and Mio doesn't? It's like the fabric of reality is about to rip apart and show that something's gone fundamentally wrong with the order of the universe.
The list of characters advancing from Index is interesting - Misaka (no shock, she's getting her own show), the loli teacher, and Last Order/Misaka (another loli, but with a fun speech quirk). But not Index, who lost to Azusa.
Saki's been storming through so far, though it's also heavily concentrated in the last few matches (eh, that's what happens when you have 20 entrants). No main cast losses yet, though Nodoka, Saki, and Mako haven't come up yet (only Mako's really in doubt, up against Sanya). Hisa advanced, as did Saki's sister, rabbit-ear Koromo and cat-ear Kana, stealth-mode Momoko (over Mugi-chan from K-On, and yeah, I can buy that), plus Taco. Surprisingly, bondage-theme-loli Hajime lost out to Ayumu from Hayate...
Hayate (four advancing, plus likely Nagi) and Clannad (seven advancing) are the other big Round 1 winners. No shock there.
Off to what promises to be a full day at the office. I'll probably comment a little more in a few days, when Round 1 wraps up.
Lucky Star's getting slaughtered - Konata out, Kagami out. The Kagami round was interesting, because it was the highest vote total so far. Kagami lost narrowly to Mikuru (kind of a rip, because this is Mikuru from the shorts, but oh well.) The same round had Maria from Hayate winning in a close match over Touka from Saki (why was that even close? Touka's not moe!) I suspect we're seeing even more of the "knock out any moe girl who isn't my favorite" voting that's already caused a lot of eyeball-rolling this season, but it might have cancelled itself out between the two rounds.
Strike Witches is doing pretty well - the only major characters who've lost a round were Yeager (up against Hisa from Saki), Ella (up against Rika from Higurashi), and Bishop (quite a respectable vote total, but up against Taiga from Toradora...)
On the topic of Higurashi, why... won't... it... die?
K-On advanced Yui, Azusa, and... Nodoka. How does Nodoka advance (by five votes against a minor Saki character) and Mio doesn't? It's like the fabric of reality is about to rip apart and show that something's gone fundamentally wrong with the order of the universe.
The list of characters advancing from Index is interesting - Misaka (no shock, she's getting her own show), the loli teacher, and Last Order/Misaka (another loli, but with a fun speech quirk). But not Index, who lost to Azusa.
Saki's been storming through so far, though it's also heavily concentrated in the last few matches (eh, that's what happens when you have 20 entrants). No main cast losses yet, though Nodoka, Saki, and Mako haven't come up yet (only Mako's really in doubt, up against Sanya). Hisa advanced, as did Saki's sister, rabbit-ear Koromo and cat-ear Kana, stealth-mode Momoko (over Mugi-chan from K-On, and yeah, I can buy that), plus Taco. Surprisingly, bondage-theme-loli Hajime lost out to Ayumu from Hayate...
Hayate (four advancing, plus likely Nagi) and Clannad (seven advancing) are the other big Round 1 winners. No shock there.
Off to what promises to be a full day at the office. I'll probably comment a little more in a few days, when Round 1 wraps up.
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August 23, 2009
Wait, this is an anime blog
Even if I'm not posting much about anime...
Decided to catch up on Saki today. Up through episode 15, and enjoying it thoroughly, though I'm not so sure about the new opening and ending. Definitely a show that's less hung up on the arcane rules of the game and more on the mystical aspect. Not really unexpected, though, since we're really talking about a sports anime that's also a fan-service vehicle. I'll put a few more hours into catching up and update then, I think.
And updated after watching through 20. Steven spent a lot of time looking at the last hand of the tournament, and Kana's good hand that she had to throw away because it wouldn't win the tourney. It's worth noting that we get to see the dealer's hand after the victory, and SHE was one tile away from a yakuman hand too; if Koromo had tossed a north instead of a one, a different victor walks out of that room. (Of course, Koromo didn't have a north. And if she'd played defensively, she'd have won it easily. Heh.)
I think one of the reasons that Nodoka's bustiness sticks out, as it were, is that none of the other girls in the show are well-endowed. In fact, a little bit more padding would have been appreciated; too many "loli with shirt hanging off" fanservice shots for me, and this is a veteran of Nanoha saying this.
Looking forward to the wrap-up of the first season.
Decided to catch up on Saki today. Up through episode 15, and enjoying it thoroughly, though I'm not so sure about the new opening and ending. Definitely a show that's less hung up on the arcane rules of the game and more on the mystical aspect. Not really unexpected, though, since we're really talking about a sports anime that's also a fan-service vehicle. I'll put a few more hours into catching up and update then, I think.
And updated after watching through 20. Steven spent a lot of time looking at the last hand of the tournament, and Kana's good hand that she had to throw away because it wouldn't win the tourney. It's worth noting that we get to see the dealer's hand after the victory, and SHE was one tile away from a yakuman hand too; if Koromo had tossed a north instead of a one, a different victor walks out of that room. (Of course, Koromo didn't have a north. And if she'd played defensively, she'd have won it easily. Heh.)
I think one of the reasons that Nodoka's bustiness sticks out, as it were, is that none of the other girls in the show are well-endowed. In fact, a little bit more padding would have been appreciated; too many "loli with shirt hanging off" fanservice shots for me, and this is a veteran of Nanoha saying this.
Looking forward to the wrap-up of the first season.
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August 14, 2009
Loop the loop
One of the biggest problems that you run into with relatively simple web MMOs is that you run out of new, interesting content fairly quickly. The game spends a couple weeks or a month unfolding, and then it turns into a huge grind... perform task A, attack person B, get resource C, and try to catch up to people who've been playing for a year and could crush you utterly if you had anything worth their time, or just because they want to.
BvS gets around that with a kind of game mechanic borrowed from other games not in the genre. The first time I saw this mechanic was in Disgaea, where you could "transmigrate" a powerful character into a wimp. Your levels were consumed, so your level 500 character is suddenly a level 1 character. Why would you do this? Because the 500 levels were transformed into potential for the character; after gaining experience back (which goes quick in Disgaea, heh), the again-level 500 character would be considerably stronger than he was the first time around.
BvS has something a little like that. When your character is approaching his maximum level, you get the opportunity to "loop". This sets your level to the minimum, removes most of your progress in the game, almost all of your allies and your techniques (but NOT most of your items, heh)... and increments your "season" counter. It's not a reset, it's the next season of the show! And what always happens when you get a new season? New theme songs!
Your character gets access to a few theme songs, plus additional ones if certain conditions were met in the previous season. These provide bonuses, but usually not straight attribute bonuses in the way that items or allies do. Some give you more stamina (actions per day), some give you experience bonuses, make you immune to Death Notes (!)... There's even a set of "filler themes" that give you penalties, but unlock seasonal content out of season (in case you want fireworks in October or Ninja-mas in February). Generally they make your climb back up to the top a little easier. (It's worth mentioning that there is also new content that you can't do until you get to season 2, or 3, or 4, and the .hack parody stuff requires you to loop like crazy...)
There are two hitches. First, each theme is either "opening", "battle", or "ending", and you can only get the benefit of one of each kind at a time, so occasionally you'll have to decide whether tomorrow you want more xp or more Drunken Fist bonuses or automatic ally-finding. Additionally, the theme changes lag a day, so you've got to decide what you want and then get the benefits tomorrow.
It's a good conceit, and it adds to the flavor of the game a lot more than "you incremented the loop counter, receive a shiny object here" would have.
BvS gets around that with a kind of game mechanic borrowed from other games not in the genre. The first time I saw this mechanic was in Disgaea, where you could "transmigrate" a powerful character into a wimp. Your levels were consumed, so your level 500 character is suddenly a level 1 character. Why would you do this? Because the 500 levels were transformed into potential for the character; after gaining experience back (which goes quick in Disgaea, heh), the again-level 500 character would be considerably stronger than he was the first time around.
BvS has something a little like that. When your character is approaching his maximum level, you get the opportunity to "loop". This sets your level to the minimum, removes most of your progress in the game, almost all of your allies and your techniques (but NOT most of your items, heh)... and increments your "season" counter. It's not a reset, it's the next season of the show! And what always happens when you get a new season? New theme songs!
Your character gets access to a few theme songs, plus additional ones if certain conditions were met in the previous season. These provide bonuses, but usually not straight attribute bonuses in the way that items or allies do. Some give you more stamina (actions per day), some give you experience bonuses, make you immune to Death Notes (!)... There's even a set of "filler themes" that give you penalties, but unlock seasonal content out of season (in case you want fireworks in October or Ninja-mas in February). Generally they make your climb back up to the top a little easier. (It's worth mentioning that there is also new content that you can't do until you get to season 2, or 3, or 4, and the .hack parody stuff requires you to loop like crazy...)
There are two hitches. First, each theme is either "opening", "battle", or "ending", and you can only get the benefit of one of each kind at a time, so occasionally you'll have to decide whether tomorrow you want more xp or more Drunken Fist bonuses or automatic ally-finding. Additionally, the theme changes lag a day, so you've got to decide what you want and then get the benefits tomorrow.
It's a good conceit, and it adds to the flavor of the game a lot more than "you incremented the loop counter, receive a shiny object here" would have.
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August 13, 2009
You're kidding, right?
I just had to write a document on how to open a PDF. A small part of my soul shriveled and died...
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August 08, 2009
Saimoe is dead
Mio lost in the first round. To Kana from Minami-ke. No definition of moe which is allowed in my -universe- can accommodate that result!
This sort of thing is why I'm not going to cover it anymore...
This sort of thing is why I'm not going to cover it anymore...
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Fun with unusual probability
Still playing Billy vs SNAKEMAN, still enjoying it. One of the reasons is that the method of determining failure or success is unusually complicated and appeals to the math-loving side of me.
The basic mechanism isn't that different from a World of Darkness RPG. You've got a certain number of ten-sided dice to roll, you have a target number to reach, and you need a certain number of successes in order to pass. Say you have four dice, the target number is six, and you need two successes. Of the four ten-sided dice that you roll, you'll succeed if two of the dice come up 6-10.
Where Billy shines is by the number and type of bonuses that can effect your rolls. As you increase in level, you get additional dice to roll (or, if you put it the other way, you increase in level BY earning enough experience to increase one of your three statistics, which are how many dice you roll for a challenge that corresponds to that statistic.) That's simple enough, but you can also get bonuses to the "strength" of the roll, where the number that comes up on the die gets your strength bonus added to it (though not exceeding the maximum possible roll). So if you had a challenge with 9 difficulty and requiring 9 successes, rolling 10 dice, ordinarily it would be quite difficult and you'd expect to fail it. But with +5 strength, each of the dice would come up as a 10 on a roll of 5-10 (and a roll of 4 would come up as a 9, still succeeding), giving you an honest shot at victory. And if you had +8 strength, then every roll you made would come up as 9 or 10, guaranteeing success.
But it doesn't end there. You can also increase the size of the die with "range" bonuses. +2 range means that, instead of rolling 10-sided dice, you're rolling 12-sided dice. You can see how larger dice improve your chances (in point of fact, many of the higher challenges of the game have difficulties well over 10, so without a range bonus they're utterly impossible). A lot of the complication in the math comes in because of your range bonus - it's easy to calculate probabilities when everything's based on a RND(1-10), but when it's RND(1-17) instead, the numbers change a little. Each individual point of strength has less of a percentage chance of success with a larger range (though not such that more range is bad, because your chances of the base roll actually being high enough are increasing at the same time...)
What's interesting is calculating probabilities with various strength bonuses and various ranges and various levels - it's never "bad" to have more of any of them, but you have choices (between various allies you can take along, what potions you want to imbibe that day, how much of a Soul Reaper you feel like at the moment, etc, etc) that often mean boosting one bonus at the expense of another. Is it a good idea to take a -2 to your levels (two fewer dice to roll) in order to gain +2 on your strength? Or is it better to take -1 to your strength and get 5 extra rolls? Do you need to take a team with more of a range bonus, or can you concentrate on strength and levels and use your abilities to get the range high enough?
The flavor of the game is silly, but the math gives me enough meat to keep me interested.
The basic mechanism isn't that different from a World of Darkness RPG. You've got a certain number of ten-sided dice to roll, you have a target number to reach, and you need a certain number of successes in order to pass. Say you have four dice, the target number is six, and you need two successes. Of the four ten-sided dice that you roll, you'll succeed if two of the dice come up 6-10.
Where Billy shines is by the number and type of bonuses that can effect your rolls. As you increase in level, you get additional dice to roll (or, if you put it the other way, you increase in level BY earning enough experience to increase one of your three statistics, which are how many dice you roll for a challenge that corresponds to that statistic.) That's simple enough, but you can also get bonuses to the "strength" of the roll, where the number that comes up on the die gets your strength bonus added to it (though not exceeding the maximum possible roll). So if you had a challenge with 9 difficulty and requiring 9 successes, rolling 10 dice, ordinarily it would be quite difficult and you'd expect to fail it. But with +5 strength, each of the dice would come up as a 10 on a roll of 5-10 (and a roll of 4 would come up as a 9, still succeeding), giving you an honest shot at victory. And if you had +8 strength, then every roll you made would come up as 9 or 10, guaranteeing success.
But it doesn't end there. You can also increase the size of the die with "range" bonuses. +2 range means that, instead of rolling 10-sided dice, you're rolling 12-sided dice. You can see how larger dice improve your chances (in point of fact, many of the higher challenges of the game have difficulties well over 10, so without a range bonus they're utterly impossible). A lot of the complication in the math comes in because of your range bonus - it's easy to calculate probabilities when everything's based on a RND(1-10), but when it's RND(1-17) instead, the numbers change a little. Each individual point of strength has less of a percentage chance of success with a larger range (though not such that more range is bad, because your chances of the base roll actually being high enough are increasing at the same time...)
What's interesting is calculating probabilities with various strength bonuses and various ranges and various levels - it's never "bad" to have more of any of them, but you have choices (between various allies you can take along, what potions you want to imbibe that day, how much of a Soul Reaper you feel like at the moment, etc, etc) that often mean boosting one bonus at the expense of another. Is it a good idea to take a -2 to your levels (two fewer dice to roll) in order to gain +2 on your strength? Or is it better to take -1 to your strength and get 5 extra rolls? Do you need to take a team with more of a range bonus, or can you concentrate on strength and levels and use your abilities to get the range high enough?
The flavor of the game is silly, but the math gives me enough meat to keep me interested.
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August 03, 2009
Oh lord, it's that time again
Saimoe 2009 is starting shortly...
I'm definitely not up for regular color commentary this year, folks. I'll hack a link to the charts in the sidebar, might comment here and there (good gravy, did the whole cast of Saki qualify?), but daily updates probably won't happen unless I get really, really bored.
Besides, Mio is gonna win anyway, right? ;p
I'm definitely not up for regular color commentary this year, folks. I'll hack a link to the charts in the sidebar, might comment here and there (good gravy, did the whole cast of Saki qualify?), but daily updates probably won't happen unless I get really, really bored.
Besides, Mio is gonna win anyway, right? ;p
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August 02, 2009
A fine day
I spent almost all of the day eating delicious food, playing new video games, and reading new manga. (RACS shipment came in yesterday, while I was at work. Ordered Sunday night, shipped Tuesday, here Friday with free shipping, not too shabby!)
The only downside is my one emerging wisdom tooth, which looks like it's coming in at a funny angle; I'm going to go have to have it cut out, mos' likely...
Dawn of War II turns out to be quite enjoyable, assuming you're not bothered by the W40k ethos ("The enemy of my enemy is also my enemy and must be purged in the Emperor's name, along with anyone who disagrees with this statement", more or less.) Squad-level tactical rather than pure RTS, and your Space Marines are pretty beefy in a fight; my commander unit doesn't do much more than charge into crowds and start laying out with a power axe, more or less. Tactical options are a little flexible, but not THAT flexible - trying to level up evenly across the board will mean that you stink at everything, and specializing gives you some nifty features (commander unit plus enough points in melee weapons for "instant kill practically anything", "do AOE damage", and "gain health on kills" is quite broken in how powerful it is.) Levels are short and sweet, usually ending in some kind of "boss" kill, ranging from Orc warbosses (easy) to Eldar warp-wielders (not easy) to every beastie in the Tyranid arsenal (medium to ultra-nightmare mode).
The only downside is my one emerging wisdom tooth, which looks like it's coming in at a funny angle; I'm going to go have to have it cut out, mos' likely...
Dawn of War II turns out to be quite enjoyable, assuming you're not bothered by the W40k ethos ("The enemy of my enemy is also my enemy and must be purged in the Emperor's name, along with anyone who disagrees with this statement", more or less.) Squad-level tactical rather than pure RTS, and your Space Marines are pretty beefy in a fight; my commander unit doesn't do much more than charge into crowds and start laying out with a power axe, more or less. Tactical options are a little flexible, but not THAT flexible - trying to level up evenly across the board will mean that you stink at everything, and specializing gives you some nifty features (commander unit plus enough points in melee weapons for "instant kill practically anything", "do AOE damage", and "gain health on kills" is quite broken in how powerful it is.) Levels are short and sweet, usually ending in some kind of "boss" kill, ranging from Orc warbosses (easy) to Eldar warp-wielders (not easy) to every beastie in the Tyranid arsenal (medium to ultra-nightmare mode).
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July 31, 2009
Even a bad ending would have been better
Video game rant here. I finished Assassin's Creed last night, and was disappointed with the ending. (Yeah yeah, I know, not exactly the newest game. It's been sitting here for months...) Rant below the fold for spoiler purposes.
more...
more...
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July 28, 2009
My first RACS order
I decided to try them out, since Steven thinks the world of 'em. I'm momentarily prosperous, I'm behind on the Naruto and Bleach manga by about two years, so I ordered some goofy quantity of graphic novels to catch up. Free shipping option (not fast, but I'm in no rush, and 30+ graphic novels are NOT cheap to ship FedEx!) We'll see how long they take to come in.
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July 25, 2009
Week rolls to an end
Kannagi's finished, so the timing gets hung up for the moment and I'm back to one job. (Which, fortunately, is going quite well...)
Still having fun with the Naruto parody game. Nicely deep, but tongue-in-cheek enough that it doesn't clash when, say, your ninja suddenly spends a day fighting Hollows. There's an interesting multiplayer mechanic - you're (usually) a member of a village, which serves something of the same role of a guild or clan or what have you (item exchanges, building structures that give you bonuses, and what not). The villages are definitely unfriendly, and fight all the time, to the point where the only way to build up your village is to seize resources you can't produce yourself. You get cooperative monster fighting, but a surprisingly gentle form of PVP - the worst thing that can happen to you is that you're locked out of helping your village for a day, even if someone uses a Death Note on you (and oh yes, it happens - even I have a page!)
It sounds like a formula for endless predation of the largest villages upon the smallest, but in practice there's a continual cycle of villages, because of an ingenious mechanic. The ruler of a village (a "kage"... this is a Naruto parody, after all) can decide, upon reaching a certain exalted height, to trigger a series of events that -completely annihilates their own village-. And everything in it. Said ruler gets access to more content, in exchange for being locked out of ever running a village again, and everybody else gets a (quite nifty) bonus and has to find some other place to hang out from now on.
There's another mechanic that allows the game to have a quick and snappy pace of advancement without having everyone immediately max everything out in a couple of weeks. Once your character progresses beyond a certain point, you get the opportunity to move to another "season". You essentially reset in stats (though most of your neat items are retained, including practically anything valuable), and on additional run-throughs, you can access more content. You also get "theme songs" (essentially you can equip an "opening", an "ending", and a "battle" theme for certain bonuses). You can even get a "filler episode" set of themes.
It's goofy, I have to admit, but it's also fun.
Still having fun with the Naruto parody game. Nicely deep, but tongue-in-cheek enough that it doesn't clash when, say, your ninja suddenly spends a day fighting Hollows. There's an interesting multiplayer mechanic - you're (usually) a member of a village, which serves something of the same role of a guild or clan or what have you (item exchanges, building structures that give you bonuses, and what not). The villages are definitely unfriendly, and fight all the time, to the point where the only way to build up your village is to seize resources you can't produce yourself. You get cooperative monster fighting, but a surprisingly gentle form of PVP - the worst thing that can happen to you is that you're locked out of helping your village for a day, even if someone uses a Death Note on you (and oh yes, it happens - even I have a page!)
It sounds like a formula for endless predation of the largest villages upon the smallest, but in practice there's a continual cycle of villages, because of an ingenious mechanic. The ruler of a village (a "kage"... this is a Naruto parody, after all) can decide, upon reaching a certain exalted height, to trigger a series of events that -completely annihilates their own village-. And everything in it. Said ruler gets access to more content, in exchange for being locked out of ever running a village again, and everybody else gets a (quite nifty) bonus and has to find some other place to hang out from now on.
There's another mechanic that allows the game to have a quick and snappy pace of advancement without having everyone immediately max everything out in a couple of weeks. Once your character progresses beyond a certain point, you get the opportunity to move to another "season". You essentially reset in stats (though most of your neat items are retained, including practically anything valuable), and on additional run-throughs, you can access more content. You also get "theme songs" (essentially you can equip an "opening", an "ending", and a "battle" theme for certain bonuses). You can even get a "filler episode" set of themes.
It's goofy, I have to admit, but it's also fun.
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July 19, 2009
Knocked it out
Finished timing the last episode of Kannagi today. The plot reminded me of Nagi Sanzenin's manga...
Pixy has been playing Billy vs. SNAKEMAN lately. Odd humorous send-up of Naruto in a fairly standard web MMO format. Yeah, yeah, we've all seen a few of these, right? This one gets a lot of credit for throwing in everything and the kitchen sink. "Hey, why don't we do Bleach too? ...And Death Note! ...and giant monsters! And a fast food parody that is also a Code Geass parody!" And there's probably a bunch of other stuff I haven't even found yet. The banner below's mine, but if you wanna check it out, use the link above so you hit Pixy's referral - he gets stuff in-game if you join with his link. Not a bad way to waste 10-15 minutes a day...
(I know, I know. Ten-character limit on names and "Avatar" was taken...)
Here's Pixy's banner:
Pixy has been playing Billy vs. SNAKEMAN lately. Odd humorous send-up of Naruto in a fairly standard web MMO format. Yeah, yeah, we've all seen a few of these, right? This one gets a lot of credit for throwing in everything and the kitchen sink. "Hey, why don't we do Bleach too? ...And Death Note! ...and giant monsters! And a fast food parody that is also a Code Geass parody!" And there's probably a bunch of other stuff I haven't even found yet. The banner below's mine, but if you wanna check it out, use the link above so you hit Pixy's referral - he gets stuff in-game if you join with his link. Not a bad way to waste 10-15 minutes a day...
(I know, I know. Ten-character limit on names and "Avatar" was taken...)
Here's Pixy's banner:
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July 17, 2009
Sneaky of Bandai, wasn't it
You just can't get away from Lucky Star, can you?
I'm actually quite surprised that Bandai went with the, well... ambush sale, I guess you could call it.
For anyone who hasn't heard, Bandai licensed Kannagi, which is the show I've been subbing for the last couple of months and am almost finished with. They announced it today and the DVDs come out... tomorrow, though not a whole lot of places have them right away. Interesting sales tactic...
You just can't get away from Lucky Star, can you?
I'm actually quite surprised that Bandai went with the, well... ambush sale, I guess you could call it.
For anyone who hasn't heard, Bandai licensed Kannagi, which is the show I've been subbing for the last couple of months and am almost finished with. They announced it today and the DVDs come out... tomorrow, though not a whole lot of places have them right away. Interesting sales tactic...
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July 15, 2009
Keeping busy
Spent a good chunk of this week struggling with video issues; the client sent me some MP4s which vdubmod was mangling, probably because of faulty metadata making vdubmod think they were 25 FPS video. Eventually I fired up my copy of Super C and just brute-force re-encoded everything...
One more episode to finish timing. Hopefully I'll have a nice, stress-free weekend.
Work runneth over at the day job. We've got so much rendering to do that our Indian staff is starting to quit in protest at too many hours... definitely a better problem to have than too little work, especially these days. I guess all the lawyers woke up?
Biggest disadvantage of having lots of day job and timing work is that I've fallen well behind on new anime. Should be plenty of time to catch up when this series is over, I hope. (Or if there isn't, that's good too, in its own way.)
One more episode to finish timing. Hopefully I'll have a nice, stress-free weekend.
Work runneth over at the day job. We've got so much rendering to do that our Indian staff is starting to quit in protest at too many hours... definitely a better problem to have than too little work, especially these days. I guess all the lawyers woke up?
Biggest disadvantage of having lots of day job and timing work is that I've fallen well behind on new anime. Should be plenty of time to catch up when this series is over, I hope. (Or if there isn't, that's good too, in its own way.)
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July 10, 2009
Once more into the breach
Back in Dallas and well-rested, thanks to a 24-hour period in which I spent 17 hours asleep.
And I'm immediately busy - not only is the office as busy as it's ever been, except with only half the personnel, but also I'm going to have to see if I can time six episodes this weekend in order to make a deadline.
(It's been done. It's been done on this very show, actually, which gives me some hope that I can pull it off again...)
And I'm immediately busy - not only is the office as busy as it's ever been, except with only half the personnel, but also I'm going to have to see if I can time six episodes this weekend in order to make a deadline.
(It's been done. It's been done on this very show, actually, which gives me some hope that I can pull it off again...)
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July 07, 2009
Honolulu mode (not as whimsical as Nekomimi Mode)
Spent the last week in Maui for my brother's wedding. The actual wedding was quite nice - crashing waves on the rocks, short service by a minister who delivered the most ecumenical service I've ever seen. Tons of great food! Also a good chance to see some of the extended family, many of whom I haven't seen in some years.
Didn't actually get up to that much as far as traditional "you are in Hawaii!" activities. The only thing I surf is the net, thanks. Still, though, I managed to break my personal altitude-not-in-vehicle record at the peak of Mt. Haleakala, at 10,023 feet, and got some great pictures from up there. We did about 2/3 of the road to Hana, essentially until we got sick of "oh, what, ANOTHER waterfall?"
Most of the guests flew out yesterday, and today we decamped from Maui, in favor of an extended day in Honolulu. Went straight from the airport to Pearl, where we took the Arizona tour (very sober experience, that; I might write more about it.) Left to my own devices, I'd have probably spent the rest of the day wandering around inside the Bowfin, or maybe taking the Big Mo tour. Unfortunately, while Dad would probably have been happy to do it, Mom and her sister were unlikely to (and the youngest brother is highly unlikely to approve of any activity that doesn't allow him to chat incessantly on his cell phone with his partner about their Highlander-sword-replica business venture and/or trying to score.) Rest of the day was spent on some shopping in Waikiki and relaxing some. Honestly, we've got a bad split as far as time spent in town - another day would have let us do something ambitious.
Can't really complain, though - seeing the Arizona Memorial was definitely on my "do it someday" list, and so that's one less thing to worry about.
We're flying out late tomorrow night, and between the travel and the time shift, we won't be back in Houston until tomorrow afternoon, and THEN I've got to drive back to Dallas sometime. And, of course, the back half of the contract work came in, so I'll go straight from vacation to over-employed... not that that's a terrible thing, mind.
I'll process pics when I get home and have some spare time. Definitely don't want to overdo it (and, frankly, I'm not that great a photographer...)
Didn't actually get up to that much as far as traditional "you are in Hawaii!" activities. The only thing I surf is the net, thanks. Still, though, I managed to break my personal altitude-not-in-vehicle record at the peak of Mt. Haleakala, at 10,023 feet, and got some great pictures from up there. We did about 2/3 of the road to Hana, essentially until we got sick of "oh, what, ANOTHER waterfall?"
Most of the guests flew out yesterday, and today we decamped from Maui, in favor of an extended day in Honolulu. Went straight from the airport to Pearl, where we took the Arizona tour (very sober experience, that; I might write more about it.) Left to my own devices, I'd have probably spent the rest of the day wandering around inside the Bowfin, or maybe taking the Big Mo tour. Unfortunately, while Dad would probably have been happy to do it, Mom and her sister were unlikely to (and the youngest brother is highly unlikely to approve of any activity that doesn't allow him to chat incessantly on his cell phone with his partner about their Highlander-sword-replica business venture and/or trying to score.) Rest of the day was spent on some shopping in Waikiki and relaxing some. Honestly, we've got a bad split as far as time spent in town - another day would have let us do something ambitious.
Can't really complain, though - seeing the Arizona Memorial was definitely on my "do it someday" list, and so that's one less thing to worry about.
We're flying out late tomorrow night, and between the travel and the time shift, we won't be back in Houston until tomorrow afternoon, and THEN I've got to drive back to Dallas sometime. And, of course, the back half of the contract work came in, so I'll go straight from vacation to over-employed... not that that's a terrible thing, mind.
I'll process pics when I get home and have some spare time. Definitely don't want to overdo it (and, frankly, I'm not that great a photographer...)
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June 26, 2009
Goin' on a jet plane
Actually, the flight's not until Monday. Tomorrow I'll drive down to Houston and spend a day with the folks. Then everyone flies out to Maui, the wedding is on Friday the 3rd, and we'll spend a day in Honolulu before flying home on the Wednesday after.
So now all I have to do is laundry, pack, and load up the portable drive. Gotta charge the laptop and make sure I bring USB cables and the cell charger. Definitely need to remember the Reader. The DS is already in Houston.
The Blackberry will NOT be traveling with us. The bacon jellybeans WILL be traveling with us.
Nothing left but to decide what to load onto the drive. Don't want to get too crazy, since it's a family trip.
As far as Maui goes, I'm definitely looking forward to doing some hiking while I'm there. The guide book has a lot of good things to say about the crater hike, though I don't think the whole thing will be happening (37 miles? Heh, no.) Overall it's not like I'm a tremendous beach bum, so I don't actually know what I'll be doing most of the time. On the good side, the whole island is pretty small, so it won't be a pain to go to any particular place on it. (It's not THAT small, really, but if you're from Texas, "it's a half hour away by car" is nothing.)
Almost wish we had more time in Honolulu, because I'd definitely like to go see the memorial, and I would enjoy seeing an active volcano, I think. ;p
So now all I have to do is laundry, pack, and load up the portable drive. Gotta charge the laptop and make sure I bring USB cables and the cell charger. Definitely need to remember the Reader. The DS is already in Houston.
The Blackberry will NOT be traveling with us. The bacon jellybeans WILL be traveling with us.
Nothing left but to decide what to load onto the drive. Don't want to get too crazy, since it's a family trip.
As far as Maui goes, I'm definitely looking forward to doing some hiking while I'm there. The guide book has a lot of good things to say about the crater hike, though I don't think the whole thing will be happening (37 miles? Heh, no.) Overall it's not like I'm a tremendous beach bum, so I don't actually know what I'll be doing most of the time. On the good side, the whole island is pretty small, so it won't be a pain to go to any particular place on it. (It's not THAT small, really, but if you're from Texas, "it's a half hour away by car" is nothing.)
Almost wish we had more time in Honolulu, because I'd definitely like to go see the memorial, and I would enjoy seeing an active volcano, I think. ;p
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