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Archives for 2011

Weekend Gaming

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Right now I have three Triple-A titles vying for my time: the aged Fallout: New Vegas, the surprisingly engaging Dark Souls and the heavy hitter with everything going for it, Batman Arkham City.

When I made the ill-fated decision to play three games at once I had initially planned on a daily rotation. I usually get 1-2 hours a night so i figured I’d play Fallout one night, Batman the next and so-on. Great plan, right?

Well, after an hour with Dark Souls it became apparent that it was going to require my undivided attention. I’m setting that aside, dropping it out of the rotation. We’ll get back to Dark Souls later. I’ve been anxious to get back to FNV because I was really enjoying my time there but Batman has its hooks (bat hooks, you might say) in me deep and I don’t know if I want to play anything else right now.

So yeah, Batman Arkham City — it’s pretty good. I’ll be spending the bulk of my gaming time with it this weekend. What will you be playing?

Computer Upgrading Time!

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Definitely dead nowI’ve been putting off upgrading my main PC for a while now (I’m still running Windows XP!) but I don’t think I can hold off any longer. I’ve done three “major upgrades” including new CPUs and memory by myself. I’ve also had four different video cards in there, too. The last upgrade was last year when I doubled the RAM. But it’s been on its last leg for a while. It’s time to take this poor dog out behind the shed and put it out of its misery. I’ve always prided myself on building my own rigs, but I’m just tired of the hassle. I just want it to work out of the box and have someone else deal with issues if it stops working. So I’m going for something out-of-the-box.

But, for the first time since I’ve owned with a computer, I’m thinking of making my main machine a laptop. For a while I was considering dropping two large on a 27″ iMac, but now I think I might opt for a above average gaming laptop, the gaming monitor systems for laptops have really improved (I’m torn between the cheaper M11x, the beefier M17x and the Asus ). Couple that with a nice 24-27″ monitor and I’ll be golden (this Samsung 27 incher would do nicely).

I think I want a new keyboard/mouse combo, too. My Logitech M700 is getting a little long in the tooth and my keyboard is most certainly breeding all manner of bacteria and fungi, all feasting on a buffet of organic… You know what, I don’t even want to think about it.

Thing is, part of me thinks I’ll be missing something by not having a screaming, brand new desktop.

Any advice or suggestions?

In (both of) My Hands

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Guys! What is wrong with me? I don’t have time to play all these games! What happens when Skyrim comes out? Help me!

So what game do I start with? I’m thinking Dark Souls. You don’t eat the main course before the soul-crushing appetizer, right?

It all makes sense

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This is a like a video game version of The DaVinci Code. The more you read, the more it makes sense. And the sadder you’ll become.

Then read this and get really sad. (Note that there are multiple chapters):

The idea, here, is that The Sims Social is rife with sticky walls and mental fly-paper, trying to keep you staring at the world until you become so accustomed to its face it’s the same as being in love: you’re staring at your guy making nachos, or writing blog posts, because the game has attached this mammoth importance to making more money, to moving up in the world, to buying new furniture, and here it is giving you a fifty-percent bonus. You’re trapped, whether you’re actively “enjoying” yourself or not. You’re “doing it correctly”, and the game is rewarding you, and it’s easier than pressing the right buttons with the right timing in Rock Band, and all it required was a little sleight-of-brain. You feel good about yourself. You look at this cartoon world long enough, and something of an Inverse Pavlov happens. Your brain begins to know that you are “enjoying” yourself, even if you hate this insipid thing. In spite of a love-shaped hole in the center of your spirit re: this electronic monster, you will not turn away.

The game is a Chinese finger trap of the mind: soon you realize that inspiration is free, which, in economics terms, means that the inflated value of single-energy-point actions when “inspired” is not a “bonus” or a “maximum” value — it’s the baseline; it’s the “minimum”. Once you grasp that your character can be made inspired with a little flick of the game’s mechanics, you’ll never want to do money-earning actions without being inspired — and if you do (and this is the important part!) you’ll feel lazy.

Weekend Gaming

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So there are literally a dozen great games I could be playing right now. Of course, Gamefly didn’t help out. Instead of sending something new, I get stuck with Tiger Woods. I’d rather be playing Rage or Forza 4. But truth is, I’m knee deep in Fallout New Vegas, and it’s all I really care to play at the moment. Things have really interesting really quickly in this game. I’ve got tons of quests and I’m playing this completely different than how I play Fallout 3. I’m really enjoying the year old Fallout New Vegas. So I think I’ll be playing a lot of that this weekend. And maybe a round or two of Tiger Woods 12.

What are you playing?

Pixel Art

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I think because of a combination of Nostalgia, vague memories and really vivid ones, the Super Nintendo will always be my favorite console system ever. This short document about Pixel Art will explain, in part at least, why some of us loved it so much.