Game #148 - Psychonauts.
Posted on June 1, 2010 at 9:50 pm.
I just beat Psychonauts. It is an older game, which I somehow managed to miss initially, along with everyone else. It is also one of the most brilliant games of the past decade. In fact it is one of the best games ever made. I am generally stingy with my compliments, but this here is pure genius on many, many levels. The writing, the dialog, the art style(s), the humor, the puzzles, everything is so remarkably well done that I was completely blown away. The only iffy part is the controls, but you get used to them fast.
If you haven't played it - go and buy it. Right this instant. It is on Steam, but also on gog.com with no DRM. The price is a mere $10, and believe me, it is easily worth $50.
For those of you who follow the gaming press, it is one of the very few games that Yahtzee (of Zero Punctuation) has spoken highly of.
I am extremely glad to add it under number 148 to the list of games that I beat!
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Saving Baily.
Posted on May 30, 2010 at 3:16 pm.
At about 11:50 AM today my former boss (and current friend) called.
"My dog is perishing!"
He was huffing and puffing, and as it turned out he was running home from a forest preserve. He needed to get a spade and an ax. His dog was chasing some animal, entered some hole, and couldn't get out.
My friend is an old man, in his 70s I believe. He is still a man though, as opposed to a grandpa, which at this age is immensely commendable. The situation, however, was more than he could handle by himself, so he asked that I come and help him. I told him I was on my way, but suggested he call the police. If anything I don't want to get get my head ripped off for using an ax in the forest preserve.
By the time I got there, he was still gone, but his wife and his big dog were standing right in the river, calling in vain for the little dog. The big dog was barking and howling and the woman was almost crying. There was nothing I could do so I went back to meet my friend and help him carry the tools. When I found him he was accompanied by two policemen. Together we tried to figure out what to do.
As one of the officers put it, "you would not believe it unless you saw it." The river bank was hanging over the river. There was a stump and a tree. Below was an entrance to some sort of an animal hole. We didn't know where exactly the dog was, and he was quiet for a while now. We started digging.
All the while it was hot and humid. Soon I was completely drenched with sweat. 93 degrees may not seem like a lot to some, but my northern genes find such temperatures most disagreeable. The big, fat river mosquitoes didn't help either. In fact they were doing the opposite of helping. With much vigor. They were soon joined by the equally big black ants.
In about an hour we dug out quite a lot, but it still wan't enough. We didn't know where the dog was, we were afraid of bringing the whole thing down on him, and we were hot, dirty and bitten by every imaginable bug. At that point the officers called the Glenview Fire Department.
30 minutes later, three firemen came. They didn't seem too impressed by our earth-moving efforts, but proceeded with digging out the underground passages. Unlike me, they wore those big, great pants and weren't too afraid of getting dirty or slipping and falling into the river.
In another 20 minutes the trapped dog decided to bark. We figured out the location to the best of our abilities, and the digging took on a less random direction.
Five minutes later, a fireman pulled the god damned animal from the hole...
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Game #147 - Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising.
Posted on May 30, 2010 at 12:13 pm.
Just finished the last mission in Warhammer 40,000 - Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. It's an expansion to Dawn of War II, an has about 12 hours worth of a single player campaign, as well as adding a Chaos faction to multiplayer. Altogether a fairly enjoyable experience.
The most incredibly annoying and offensive thing about this game, is that it (just like DoW-II) installs Games For Windows Live, and forces you to update it, create an account and be online while playing even the single player game. This is completely and utterly unacceptable. I will mention it in my review.
It is my game number 147 in the list of games that I beat. The full list is here.
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Book - Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Posted on May 25, 2010 at 9:45 pm.
I just finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. Somehow I managed to miss it before, but as a part of the readings for my History of 19th Century American Culture class I finally caught up.
It is not a great work of literature, and as an atheist I found that overwhelming religiosity to be bothersome, but overall it was a reasonably enjoyable read and even touching occasionally. I'm glad I have finally read it.
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Rule (digital) Britannia!
Posted on May 24, 2010 at 12:38 pm.
This is easily the best news I have heard all month! Congratulations to all Britons! Looks like your new government is making a whole lot of sense. It's also good for me, since I can stop being so annoyed, and maybe even re-visit one of these days!
Some of the notable policy changes:
Source: here.
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Prophets of iSlam.
Posted on May 23, 2010 at 12:13 pm.
I have a lot to learn about both drawing and making comics. I know. One must start somewhere though. This is a homage to World of Warcraft (and other MMORPGs.) And in case you are wondering why Mustafa is transparent in the end, it is because he was killed.
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Everybody Draw Mohammed Day (Today).
Posted on May 20, 2010 at 10:55 am.
As many of you already know, Pakistan banned Facebook over our Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! group.
Today is the day. Our group has over 84,000 people as of the time of this writing and we are drawing a hell of a lot of Mohammed. (One of my drawings is above.) MSNBC just performed an interview with the leaders of the group. If you haven't seen it, it's probably out there somewhere. CNN, BBC and various radio statios and tv-channels around the globe are lined up.
Some say that "in the process of asserting your freedom we're becoming agents of hate and provocation," and that "this gesture is fundamentally offensive to the majority of Muslims, who are normal, peaceful people."
The truth is, different people find different things offensive. Every single person is doing and being many things that someone finds a grave insult to their sense of propriety. Normal people, however, do not expect to be accommodated on all fronts. When something upsets than they ignore it, or say something and move on.
Freedom of speech is far more important than anyone's personal sentiments.
Now, some of the people in our group (on both sides) are simple trolls or bigots. Some hate all Muslims. Some hate all non-Muslims. Granted, both are revolting. That, however, doesn't make the whole notion of it any less valid.
There should NEVER be any appeasement of those who would violently enforce their culture on you in your own home, while screaming loudly that it is you who disrespect theirs.
Here is some more of what we get there:
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Game #146 - Supreme Commander 2.
Posted on May 19, 2010 at 9:16 pm.
I beat Supreme Commander 2, my game number 146. Woot! I'm not making very good progress this year though. So far this is the fourth game I was able to finish between work and school.
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Supreme Commander 2 review published.
Posted on May 18, 2010 at 3:38 pm.
It's been a while since I wrote anything gaming related, but that is because I am so damn busy with school and work. Today, however, my review of Supreme Commander 2 is published by the Adrenaline Vault. A few months ago my preview went up, and now after playing the full game, I wrote a more in-depth article.
Go read: here.
I am still to finish the game itself though. The last level is all that stands between victory and me.
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Jill asks me questions.
Posted on May 10, 2010 at 5:06 pm.
Another fragment of my conversations with Jill. =)
Jill: ok, then you have to entertain me for 30 more minutes
Alaric: Hmm... I don't know how to entertain you, so I will just answer three questions honestly, and one question dishonestly.
Jill: so, it means that i can ask you four questions?
Alaric: Yes.
Jill: and then i would have to think which one was a dishonest one?
Alaric: Yup.
Jill: ok.. anything?
Alaric: Yea.
Jill: ok
Jill: what are your sexual fantasies which are not vanila ones?
Alaric: You already used up your 4 questions. You are quick.
Jill: no
Alaric: Count them.
Jill: fine, then answer them
Alaric: I did. I said "yes", "yep", and "yea".
Alaric: And as for the 4th question: my sexual fantasies that are not vanilla are strawberry.
Jill: i hate you!
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