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ARCHIVE - March, 2003
Update 03/29/03: UNREAL 2: THE RETURN
What ever happened to the "Turn Left" and "Turn Right" commands in FPS games? I got Unreal 2 today, and upon installing it, I found the only left and right commands were for strafe. Sure, I like strafing as much as the next guy, but that's not the way I want to go left and right all the time. Why do game companies want me to have to pick up my mouse and move it mid-combat? That seems kind of retarded.
Rather than waste an afternoon trying to figure out how to force it to accept "Turn Left" and "Turn Right" input from my keyboard, I returned it. If Epic Games doesn't care for my business, I won't give it to them. Oh, how the era of FPS games has faltered.
Update 03/24/03: CONSOLE
Someone asked me not long ago which console I would get if I was going to get a console. My response was "I wouldn't."
Before I actually got one, I'd say "Get an XBox. You can install a MOD Chip, then run linux on it and use it as tote computer." Now that I actually have one, I realize how enormous they actually are, which detracts from their toteability significantly. The controllers are terrible, so even if you wanted to use it as an actual gaming console, the number of games viably playable are limited.
I could also say "Get a Playstation 2. You can play Street Fighter games on it. Some people say Final Fantasy is good. And there's DDR." Then I realized, that's really it. Well, there might be a few other games for it. I think I saw Wipeout Fusion once. I liked the other Wipeout games. Ultimately, Playstation has the only usable controllers. You can run Linux on a Modded Playstation 2, but there's no hard drive to back it up. Well, not yet, anyway. If one comes out, I'll say that the PS2 is definately the one to get.
There's also Gamecube. Supposedly, there are games out on it. There's Metroid, and... um... Metroid. I heard that new Metroid game doesn't suck, you just have to pretend your controller is a keyboard and mouse and that you're actually winning instead of getting killed by all the creatures you can't shoot at. I'm sure once you get used to it, an FPS game can be played with a controller. It's not something I'd want to commit to.
There's Gameboy Advance, which you can carry around with you and play when you're bored. I've got a Gameboy Color kicking around somewhere. I've even got Heroes of Might & Magic 2 for it, which is only almost completely unplayable. I can't recall the last time I actually used it, or was anywhere and thought to myself "Man, I wish I had my Gameboy Color with me." I've heard that the new version kind of fits in the pocket, but carrying it around all the time just for those rare moments is also not something I'd want to commit to.
I think I've covered all the viable choices. Really, I'd rather just have a laptop computer with TV-out. I can plug my Playstation controllers into it with those USB adapters (I have one, works fine), then run emulators and play old-skool console and arcade games. I can also use it to browse the internet, play PC games, have all my locally-stored information readily available, and whatever else I'd use a computer for (millions of uses). They even have their own screen, and you can use them in the car when you're not driving. It covers all bases. It also costs about as much as all the previously mentioned consoles combined. Well, I think it would be worth it. It would be hard to find one with a TV-out, though.
Update 03/22/03: COME SEE OUR SMALL PENIS
Why Wizards of the Coast decided to see how many people they could get on their Magic Online servers at once is beyond me. They can barely handle 1500 people. So who didn't think the server was going to go down March 22, the day of the free tournament?
I especially love the way they described their reasoning for it. "Imagine driving around in a high-performance sports car every day in regular traffic. Every once and a while, you just get the urge to put the pedal to the floor." The problem is, the "car" they're driving, is neither a sports car nor high-powered. It's closer to a station wagon. Sure it can hold a couple extra people, but then you won't have any room for the groceries.
While I didn't truly believe their current setup could possibly survive the more than 1500 users, I got online and waited for the tournament with everyone else. 15 minutes before the tournament even started, the server went down. As of me writing this, it's still down. Who didn't see that coming?
It reminds me of that time Microsoft put a Windows 2000 server up on the internet and dared everyone to hack, thinking their security on it would be impregnable, then 4 seconds after they put it online, it was hacked and taken down. It's like advertising a lion, and the show is an old house cat.
Update 03/20/03: STATE OF E-CONOMY
Economy is sustained by the free exchange of money for goods and services. As long as money changes hands frequently, economy is good. However, when money stops changing hands, it usually ends up staying somewhere. Large monetary deposits are bad for the economy. It's said that 95% of the nation's wealth belongs to 5% of its people. This isn't an exact statistic, it's an old saying that got started because, at the time, it was true.
How does one prevent this? Businesses that target the wealthy. The problem with wealthy people is that they like money. They like having it. For many of them, they're biggest hobby is acquiring more money. Obviously, this is a problem for the economy. What they need is something to spend that money on, something they'd want to spend it on. I don't know exactly what that is; I don't have any millionaire friends. Maybe someone should do a study. Someone that's not me.
Most of the time, people think that the way to get money out of the hands of the wealthy is to make a business that competes with said wealthy people. Every years, many companies (hundreds, thousands, I don't know) like that go under because they couldn't contend. There's a limited market and their share wasn't big enough. Sometimes they succeed, though. I guess the ultimate problem with business that targets the rich is that it's a rather expensive business to run.
Still on topic, poor people shouldn't gamble. Casinos make tons of money, quite literally. Rich people will go into a casino and unload thousands of dollars, and still walk out with a smile. Poor people just walk out having contributed to the problem. I don't care what you think, you're not going to win at the roulette wheel.
I'm just sayin'.
Update 03/17/03: YA'LL BEST NOT BE SMOKIN' IN THERE
I got my bill from Verizon on Friday. It said it was mailed on March 17, 2003. My father found it amazing that they sent me the bill after I received it (sadly, I must inform some of you that, yes, he was being sarcastic). So I mailed the check to them on Saturday, thus paying my bill before I received it. Knowing Verizon, they'll probably get it late, and charge me a late fee. They've done it before.
"You boys smoking weed up in here? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Hey, man, we're in HIGH school. Thaz what iss about."
Update 03/14/03: AH, TELEVISION
There's a lot of buzz going around about Farscape right now. It's being cancelled, and no one can really figure out why. A great many people are upset about it.
I've seen about four episodes of the show. One was very recent, over at a friend's house. The other three were just me checking out the show, as I had heard so many good things about it. To be honest, I was never really impressed with the show. The only character that really kept me interested was Chiana, and I don't even know anything about her character other than she's hot.
Well, the other day, I downloaded an old episode of the show. I just wanted to check it out, you know. Took about a day to download it, but I finally got it and watched it last night. You know what? It's one I'd already seen. I've seen four episodes, I download one completely at random, and it's one I've already seen. Maybe TV hates me for abandoning it or something. Chiana was barely in it at all, too.
Update 03/13/03: A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
Magic: The Gathering Online sucks. Don't play it.
Update 03/11/03: TIME
Time moves at different speeds depending on your mindset. It's all a matter of how time is perceived. If you're bored, time seems to move very slowly. If you're having fun, you're not paying attention to time, and it seems to move quickly. If you don't do anything all day, it may feel like the day dragged on, but at the end of the week, it will feel like a short week. If you do something that moves slowly, and that's all you do (ie Civilization 3), time seems to move faster because your brain slows down to synch up with the activity. Then the days also seem short.
If you have a day full of memorable events, things that really stand out amongst your memories, that will seem like a long day. If you want to live a long life, make sure you fill your day with memorable events. Most of your life is lived in retrospect.
I've found that a movie makes two hours seem longer than playing video games. I like video games better, though. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since I graduated high school. Time sure flies.
I wish I could fly.
Update 03/06/03: AND WHILE WE'RE ON THAT TOPIC
Now that I'm sure everyone read my report about Katsucon, that anime convention which I wrote a report about, I thought it was about time I brought up something that was not the report. By the way, if you haven't read my report on Katsucon, you should read it. It's a good report.
Now, what was I going to say? Shit, I forgot. Something about... something. I'm not really sure what. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. The thing? The one with the thing? The thing with the other thing. You know that guy? With the face.
Yeah. See? I knew you knew what I was talking about. Can I ask you a question, though? What is it? I forgot.