You may remember certain posts in which my friends and I seemed to enter a different world. There, we were ‘associates,’ we were ‘colleagues,’ and we were scientists. There, we worked with sober enthusiasm on projects which can only be described as utter madness. The three of us ventured to the inky depths of an endless sea, over impossibly flat plains, beneath surreal mountains, into the equally inky – nay, inkier – depths of deep space, experimented with mind-bending, reason-defying devices and, in all of these pursuits, died. We died quite frequently, but that never slowed us down.

This world is Garry’s Mod – the physics sandbox in which the imaginations of nerds such as myself can run absolutely wild. The community has suported this mod so strongly that there is almost nothing conceivable that one cannot build. The only limitation besides one’s own talent, patience, skill and vision is the power of one’s PC. So many adventures have been had in Gmod that I consider it a facet of my own life.

Well, I abandoned it a little while ago. Thoughts of thruster calibration and weight adjustment on hovercrafts were taking up brain-time which I ought to have been devoting to schoolwork. I set Gmod aside, I forgot about it, and thankfully was able to invest my interest in school. Well, finals week is creeping up, and for the first time in a long time I cracked Steam open and loaded it up. You see, I’d known that when my friends and I got together this summer, Gmod would be on the agenda. I also knew that Gmod 11, using the improved Source engine packaged in Orange Box games, would vastly improve my performance as a host. I decided to get my hands on that engine ahead of time, and so I did.

What I didn’t expect was that, in the process of simply installing and ‘testing’ this game, I’d get sucked in with such incredible force. I’ve only put a few hours total into Gmod since the long hiatus, but have already discovered how to import VMF files from Hammer. (Suffice it to say, I’d spent months last semester trying to figure that out.) I’ve also begun taking a serious interest in airships and creating custom props (for use in airships). Here’s my first VMF import:

Lads and ladies, I am going to need to break this habit now, and for two weeks. There’s so much left to explore in Gmod that I am truly ashamed for feeling as if the life was running out of it – but I can’t focus on that right now. I’ve got all of my finals right in front of me. Come on, self, you need to stop thinking about the ideal design for an airship propeller and start writing that term paper…

I was wondering earlier today about why many of my web projects tend to die. I think ‘die’ is a very appropriate word for their abandonment because, the more I consider it, the more they seem to be living creatures. They hatch full of vigor and develop quickly, then feel a brief adulthood as they suck up every creative resource I can throw at them, then become old, shrivel and die a natural dealth as my attention moves elsewhere.

Maybe it’s all the Nietzsche I’m getting in 19th Century Philosophy, but this firefly-lifespan seems somehow natural and appropriate. I am a constantly changing guy with shifting interests and commitments. Though I can understand if this blog dries up like its predecessors, I am more fond of it than I am of most of my projects. This Summer will see it either live or die. Of course, I’m far more liable to keep this blog kickin’ if other people are getting some enjoyment out of it.

If you occasionally check this site, like what I write, and want it to live, let me know by commenting! A simple anonymous “yay” would be all I need to know. (Of course, if you have more to say, please do.)

This weekend has been full of sequel fun for me and mine. We kicked it off by watching Delta Force 2, lured in by the promise of terrible acting, cheesey 80’s explosions and a bounty of awful one-liners. Of course, we’d never seen Delta Force 1, which was alright as the sequel seemed to have no relevance to any film predecessor, any interesting moral stance, reality, or rational thought at all. What it was good for was straight up American entertainment, and we were entertained. (Beverage of Freedom in hand. (Not really, that stuff is poison.))

But that wasn’t the last of the sequels. Master P brought over Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, to scratch his horrible itch of curiosity. Now, I was skeptical. Vegas was good, its graphics still impressed me, its gameplay was solid. I was, however, done with it. So they added more weapons in Vegas 2? More armor and camouflage? So there’s a little graphical upgrade? Is that really worth sixty dollars?

Well, apparently it was, because after seeing Master P play it for twenty minute’s I’d resolved to have it for my own, and afterwards went down to Gamestop and shelled out the better part of my precious ducats for a copy. Now, I must justify myself. First off, the graphical update isn’t necessarily an overhaul, but it pushes the bar up from noticeably next-gen to downright impressive. I have created an example:

There, you see? Vegas the original in-game on the left, Vegas 2 in-game on the right. What I found especially nice was the detail put into the character and weapon models, though I’m sure a closer look at the environment would affirm that this game is better-looking all around. Also, point of personal interest, the C4 explosions are now almost illegally fancy. Makes me wish I could carry around more than a pair.

Now, more maps, more weapons, more camo: all good. Of course, there’s nothing especially interesting here. Nothing that I wouldn’t have argued for release as DLC. What I do consent to shelling sixty shillings for is the way in which these things are presented to you. First of all, if you’ve played Vegas 1, Vegas 2 recognizes your rank and gives you all of the gear you already earned. So that’s nice. Secondly, there is now a system for gaining experience–which adds to rank–in terrorist hunt and story modes offline or on a LAN. That’s right, all of those times you try to run a high-density map on Realistic will count for something! In fact, I’ve recently discovered that exp. gained on Realistic is double that of normal, so being an average, bullet-wound-susceptible human actually makes ranking-up go faster.

Furthermore, for each kill, points are added to one of three categories: either Marksman, CQB or Assault. Killing enemies from a distance add to marksman, at close range to CQB, and shooting them through cover to Assault (which is kind of strange, really). You can rank up in each of these categories individually and, in what I consider a brilliant move, Vegas 2 awards weapons based on ranks in each school. You won’t get the more specialized sniper rifles by rushing in and shotgunning fellas. (Interesting note here: My spell check is not at all concerned with ’shotgunning.’ Apparently, it’s a common English word. I’ve got to look that up at the WRC on Monday.) Anyway, this system of rewarding play-styles with weapons reinforcing each style is, in my humble opinion, awesome.

Though I could go on and on, I hear the crackling fuse of my hypothetical readers reaching its end, so I’ll wrap it up. Why did I just pay sixty guineas for a game I already had? For the incentive of an ranking system, for pretty graphics, and for the fresh breath of air. Let’s just say that it was worth it.

I have a blog, which makes me (at least by some stretch) a blogger. Now, while this is a gaming-oriented blog and I haven’t been gaming at all lately due to school pressures, I think a scarcity of new content is permissible. On the other hand, being a ‘blogger,’ I am compelled to keep throwing things out into that endless night of the Internet for digestion by my friends and Mr. Anonymous. The problem is that I don’t have much to say relevant to gaming, so it’ll have to be personal.

Life right now consists of straining myself to accomplish one project, breathing, straining to accomplish the next and breathing again. It’s a lot like being violently sick: a gasp of air before each stomach-wrenching attempt to vomit. Well, it’s really not that bad. I’m just a generally lazy person who likes his free time and lately I’ve been whipping out my ducat-pouch and purchasing every precious second. Yesterday and today have turned out to be breathers. I’ve had a chance to sweep myself into a pile in the middle of the floor and marvel that I’ve actually been able to accomplish things.

I have a feeling that my breather ends tonight. I’ve got work next week which is going to demand this weekend of me. I could complain that this is going to wrench me from spending adequate time with my friends, but that’s a pail of crap and I know it. I can throw that blame boomerang at any kind of obligation I want, but it’s always going to… well, you know.

Oh, on the subject of school, I’m using the time I have between more intense projects to resume work on my Remnant Universe wiki. Sadly, I squeezed my wondersponge dry with efforts at getting the mechanics in place first, so it’s been taking a while to soak up enough inspiration and finding enough free time to start drumming out the interesting bits – the stuff about the universe itself. I want to draw a map. I think a map will help a lot.

My casual interest has been really focused on Penny Arcade lately. I’ve been downloading and listening to their podcasts in, and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, in an attempt to stave off melancholy by listening to human voices. I mean, moving out of the dorms is like suddenly being air-dropped into Siberia. There’s nobody there, and you couldn’t hear them if they were because you’re wearing a huge hat made out of a walrus. Anyway, about the PA podcasts: they’re hilarious. I don’t know about you folks, but I get off (figuratively) on listening to other people have intensely imaginative discussions backed by a professional instinct for humor. If you want to listen to a creative process go down as well as some really insightful video game criticism, then grab a few of these and have a listen.

Well, having produced very many letters, I feel that I can safely call this a post and go see if Java City’s still open. I crave muffins.

Well, it looks like the site tools for WordPress got quite an upgrade sometime between now and 1932, the time of my last posting. They got rid of that bold blue theme and replaced it with lighter colors and darker grays. I am all thumbs-up about it.

Anyway, this post is one of my apologies. I haven’t been keeping up with this or the other thing lately. This is mostly because of 1) my move out of the dorms, 2) rediculously back-to-front demands from other classes. I am drooling not because I am looking at delicious food but because I am simply too wiped out to close my damned mouth. I have to write a philosophy final now.

Hey, by the way, it’s a snow day everywhere but here.

I played some Call of Duty 4 today. Now, this doesn’t seem like it should make the news. After all, it’s not the first time I’ve unwound from my writing-intensive current project in order to shoot some things and maybe blow something up. What’s special about today was that I only played two matches and I didn’t particularly enjoy either! While I used to literally count the minutes in order to squeeze in a match before class, I have gone weeks without touching the game. It’s finally, finally gotten old.

What am I on to now? Well, nothing, really. I’ll play Halo or Vegas with my little brother when he’s bored, or World in Conflict, which so far holds the top rung.

Why am I over CoD so suddenly? If I were forced to reckon, I’d say it has to do with my increased attention to Bad Company. I mean, remember when I was rolling on the ground, drooling with nostalgia over Battlefield 1942? Is it any surprise that, even with EA’s evil aura surrounding the title, my thoughts are summer-bound? On the bright side, not desiring to jump into a CoD4 match at every possible 10 minute interval is refreshing and very conducive to the whole ‘do homework’ thing.

Apologies to all, the bastardization of that particular title’s been done to death. Also, it’s not entirely accurate, as I’m really focuing more on August.

I was looking at Battlefield: Bad Company some more today and am seriously impressed by the game. My impression was a good time of running around in ghost-towns and blowing them to pieces with a tank. No sir, this is a Battlefield game, heart and soul. From what I’ve seen in videos, they’ve really rounded off a lot of the sharp edges and, though I’m sure EA will still probe every available orifice during, Bad Company’s multiplayer looks like it could become one of our big games. It might just stand alongside Halo 3 and Starcraft. I’m even somewhat willing to become sentimentally engaged by the singleplayer!

There are three things which deter me. Firstly, will it go the lonely road of Battlefield 2142, with inept bots making online gaming virtually the only way to play? Secondly, and quite importantly, do I look for this for PC or 360? Granted, I have a PC which might do it justice, though I can already watched it struggle to render World in Conflict at reasonable fps on high settings. Though we all have different machines, I’m sure at least a few of ours are capable of running it more beautifully than it would appear on the 360. (I’ve compared CoD4 on the 360 with CoD4 on my PC, and there is certainly a little more dazzle with the latter.) Also, as a point for the PC, it’s a mouse-and-keyboard kind of FPS! I can’t bear to play CoD4 on the 360, and come on… Look at the similarity!

That’s Bad Company, believe it or not. Okay, so a simple screenshot in which the game resembles CoD doesn’t mean too much in terms of how it will play on thumbsticks, but it does tantalize me. What did I want with BF2? Immersion. What did I want with the immersive CoD4? The scope of BF2. This game is whispering to me that it has what I want; it has exactly what I want. So, back to the question of PC/360. I’m not going to steal this game (good job, EA, I guess you’ve won.) I’m going to pay sixty of my crumpled dollars for it either way. I would insist on playing it on the 360 and PC separately before deciding, and might be able to if demos are forthcoming, but that really leads me to my third deterrent: Its release date.

It comes out at the end of June. Taking a look at Matt’s schedule and my own bondage, my thralldom to Concordia, I’ve determined that we propably won’t get a chance to get a big LAN together until fucking August. Though I suppose we’ll work out scheduling three to five months from now when we come to it, my impressions of this coming summer as a season of freedom and impulsive gaming is but a dream.

As I may have mentioned, I sneaked downtown and retrieved my Xbox 360 from my brother’s room in the waning days of spring break. Well, I have something to confess: I shelled out eight dollars for a month of Gold and have been playing Halo with my floor. I know, I don’t like admitting it, but the third installment of the game is actually a lot of fun. The persistent element online has drawn me in, just as CoD’s did. Still, to play Halo online is to dip oneself into a sea of screaming, racist, prepubescent boys. Even some of folk I’m partied with–people from my floor–are the kind of gamers I try to avoid: the ones who throw open the testosterone valve. Of course, I’d rather game with guys who get a little pumped-up than sociopathic thirteen-year-olds.

Well, it’s been a little while, so I suppose an update is in order. Last night, I got back from a two-night stay in Saint Cloud. On the way back, I stopped over at my dad’s and reclaimed by Xbox 360, which I’d left with my brother since Fall finals. Anyway, I wrestled cables for about an hour last night and now have that sleek white box snugly nestled in my dorm room’s shelves, right above the PC. This 360, I realize now, is actually kind of a project that I (thankfully) have a little time for.

Step 1: Fix the controller.

Sometime last semester, my ladyfriend dropped one of my wireless controllers off of the bed in a fit of glee while playing Viva Pinata. Now, I can’t lay the blame–It’s only a guess–but after that fall the right bumper stopped working and I suspect the events to be related.  Anyway, it went unfixed for the longest time. It was shortly after ‘the incident’ that I lent the whole kit and caboodle to my brother.

Yesterday, I rediscovered the broken controller while packing my 360 into its custom-made transport suitcase. Furrowing my brow (I must have, really) I vowed that the controller would work entirely tonight, or be broken entirely forever! The first step was trying to get it open. I’m not going to get too deep into this, but I’ll say that in order to get into a 360 controller you need a few things: A Torx T8 screwdriver (you can borrow mine), a long, narrow Phillips, a blunt object and some violence. Either that, or a Torx Security T8, but those are harder to find and more expensive. You see, the difference between the Torx T8 and the Torx Security T8 is a little pin right at the center of the screw preventing normal Torx screwdrivers access. This is where the Phillip’s, blunt object and violence come in: Just jam the screwdriver against the pin and bang on it with something heavy, grinding about like you’re trying to squish Jujganie, Lord of the Ticks. Sooner or later, the pin will be gone and your perfectly normal Torx T8 (or mine) will do the job.

The second trial was finding the hidden screw. Now, I know Microsoft is devious, but I suppose I was lulled into a false sense of security after discovering that a person could purchase a Torx Security T8. See, I’d figured that Microsoft had come up with a whole new type of screw in order to make it damn near impossible for anyone else to open their controllers up. I was a little impressed that they made it so cheap ($5.00 at the local Ace) and easy. So, long story short, it took me 3/4 of Across the Universe to discover that, beneath the battery pack, behind the bar code sticker sat the devious center screw. After finding and destroying him, the controller came apart easy as can be.

Well, I found that the plastic bit beneath the right bumper that presses a button on the mainboard didn’t quite touch, so I superglued the tip of one of those plastic floss-picks to it to give it some extra reach. When the glue dried, I screwed it all back together, fired up the 360 and played Chromehounds. Lo! I could switch weapons now. In fact, with that extra reach, the right bumper is now quite a bit more sensitive than before. The first of my problems has been solved. Now, the next most pressing.

Step 2: Let there be sound.

This bit is my current undertaking. You see, in order to get my 360 to connect to my 21″ widescreen LCD, I needed an adapter. To keep from paying $60 for that adapter in town, I ordered it from China for $10. The adapter outputs decent resolutions via VGA, but sadly still puts out component audio. The task before me now is to get a dual RCA to 3.5mm TRS adapter, then find a way to get the 3.5mm male from my PC and the 3.5mm male from my 360 to both output to the 3.5mm male of my speakers. I think I’m going to Radio Shack, with my diagram.

Step 3: Where the hell are all of my Cat5 cables?

I’m going to have to scour the hall and find two more Cat5’s in order to hook my 360 and PC up to my little router. I’d like to be able to poke around Xbox live again, one of these days. Ah, right. I also need money in order to buy Gold. *shakes fist at Microsoft*

Step4: Forget about the 360 entirely, as Spring Break slipped through my fingers and my belated midterms are knocking at the door.

While dusting away a spare fifteen minutes today, I happened over to IGN and found what, apparently, is DotA-meets-Supreme Commander. What caught my eye? The enormous, castle-shaped titans pummeling each other over a sea of minotaurs, trolls, what appear to be dinosaurs. Investigating, I read:

The game’s setup is rather simple. On one edge are a row of bases you need to protect. On the map’s opposite side are the enemy’s encampments. Separating the two are the walkways, which are book ended with large portals. Through the gates regularly spawn soldiers who’ll fight for you. Left untouched, these NPC fighters, who by the way cannot be controlled by you, will launch themselves at the constantly spawning enemy forces and engage in a sort of stalemate, roughly around the halfway point between friendly and enemy bases. With your demigod, your job is to tip the ever-raging battle in your favor to bypass enemy forces and ideally smash their structures.

[Read the full story at IGN]

Is that, or is that not DotA to a ‘t?’ It sounds remarkably fun, though the ‘demigod’ selection appears to be somewhat limited, at least at this point. I can’t wait to try it out, if for no other reason than to drool at the impressively designed cast of creatures that will be wreaking havoc in an equally impressive setting.