Archive for March, 2008

Sierra vs. Virgo 1:0

March 31, 2008 at 21:51 · Filed under games, virtual-life ·Tagged , , ,

Shit happens really. There is a magazine about games in Czech republic (popular in Slovakia too) called Score. It’s a good one – you can find like 3 or 4 full games in every issue and a lot of demos, etc. I like it. And I don’t think my “tragedy” is their fault. What happened? Well – one of those games was Caesar III. And because I’m fan of economic strategies I decided to play it (I played Caesar II like 12 years ago :-) ). Why the hell that game needs to be installed with Siearra Utilities? And why it must have “sierra” directory as a parent for the game?! Whatever… 1999 was a long time ago.

So I started to play but after a mere day I was frustrated by prefects going far from their home building what results in a fire in buildings around that should be guarded by that prefect. Why someone invent “citizens that moves around” when it affects game so bad? I lost my patience and decided to uninstall. Sierra Utils asked me if I want to remove some files (%s – hard to know what it had meant) and I clicked Yes. What a surprise that I lost most of my games directory (but why not all of it? what was the key?). Files left behind were just a torso of my game dir.

Screw the Sierra (and I said it nicely) – later I found various references via google – this one probably says it all.

So avoid Sierra Utilities. And in case you fail like I did (too much trust in games with otherwise good reputation) I can only recommend this NTFS Undelete tool. Today it was actually second time it saved my… well not life really. ;-) But you know what I mean. And this one I can recommend – which I hardly can say about anything with Sierra on it. Sierra screwed big time today. And maybe that’s the reason why I don’t see them in the business – at least I can’t recall anything with their logo in last… many years. That’s good.

I wish you nice evening and no data losses!

Leave a Comment

Top 10 things I love and hate about UT3

March 25, 2008 at 23:53 · Filed under games ·Tagged , ,

I’ve bought Unreal Tournament III quite soon after it was released. Maybe I wouldn’t do the same now – but I’ve already done it and because I don’t buy games too often I should play the games I have. It’s not that hard to play game that has Unreal Tournament in the title because I love UT games. Yet I have a lot of troubles with this one. Not only because expectations were high. They were high because it’s another instalment as well as because they (Epic) promised us finished game. On my box there stands: Unsurpassed. Unprecedented. Unrivaled. Well… I really expected more from the game that looks so good and from the game that acts like one of the top games around here for the time being.

So what are these top hate & love things? I’ll start with things I like and then I finish with the hate part. It’s bad strategy if I want to serve UT3 well – but the truth is that I don’t want to make it look that good because – really – even after second patch this game simply lacks many important things. Game is playable, game is fine, but it still lacks something. Maybe details, but even details are important. After all… next-gen shooter emphasize focus on details besides the other things. :-)

Things I love (no particular order):

1. Fast-paced, grounded gameplay. This game simply sounds heavy when you compare it with UT2004. I don’t particularly prefer this – I just like it. It’s the change towards first UT (UT99, or UT GOTY if you want) and it feels good. Your movement is fast, not so floaty and you can’t fly around like before. Trick jumpers might be probably a bit sad, but I saw nice jumps in this game as well.

2. Idea of single player story. I don’t like the execution and story-line though, but I like matinees, their quality… the idea. I hope the next UT will bring something that’s better than “forgettable”. I don’t have anything previous tournament campaigns – they were straight – but these days require solid story. This was the first try and it was the step into right direction. Just work more on story itself, guys. ;-)

3. I really like visuals. Sure – post-processing is overdone here and there, but visuals are nice and rich. Maps are really detailed – even those big battlefields are highly detailed – and there’s a lot of work in it. I like this.

4. I like player visibility in team-based games. Too sad I can’t say the same about free for all deathmatch, here default skins are really hard to spot. And please don’t call me blind. I can see that there is something moving over there but it’s hard to recognize player itself. Team games bring nice glow effect for player skins which is much more adequate than glow-sticks from UTComp. Funny thing is that you can sometimes see players better when they are further from you (they glow more). Akasha on dark Necris map “right to your face” should definitely glow more even from close distance. Still step into right direction.

5. Bio-rifle death delay. It’s a nice touch – you know that you’re probably gonna die when you have that green mess on you but that duration effect is nice. I like it more than instant death from previous UT.

6. Lorem Ipsum on some screens that are not supposed to be seen. Ok, not really a thing I like but it made me smile. :-)

7. I love the content in packages you can use in your maps. Packages are sorted out much better than in UT2004 and it finally makes sense to find garbage in a package called so. Also the volume of assets is good. I like this.

8. Another UnrealEd feature I have to praise – Sync Generic Browser. That’s just cool thing. UnrealEd in general has some very nice touches and it went its way since UT2004. Very good. Not that it’s solely UT3 related thing – but hey – it’s in the package! :-)

9. CTF-Vertebrae! You can think whatever you want – but this map is great. Maybe not pr0, but it’s cool, it’s crazily vertical, you just need some time to navigate it. But it’s worth it. This map is something fresh in CTF.

10. It’s UT! It’s fast, crazy, brutal, unreal and however I keep distance I still like it because it’s UT.

Ok, I know – things I like were accompanied with some irony in some cases. But it was really hard to find real big things I like on this game except few gameplay shifts which have their drawbacks as well.

Things I don’t like:

1. Small and fast moving targets. This game is not that hit-scan oriented like before, but to hit with sniper or shock now it’s really hard. Even bots above average levels are moving like crazy and it’s nearly impossible to hit them. This – of course – relates to thing I like – fast movement. But bodies could be a bit bigger and maybe the movement could be just a bit slower. If you mix this up with (again) poor visibility of skins in non team-based gametypes – it really sucks.

2. Spam and splash damage weapons dominance. You can still find good snipers here – of course – but in general you’ll do good with rockets (faster than in UT2004), flak and similar weapons. Rockets are extremely annoying when you’re playing with bots – and especially if it’s arena like map. Not to mention overpowered stinger.

3. Bot’s precision. It just sucks as always. But this time they are much better aimbots from distance. And with stinger – they are unbearable. I can’t play lower difficulties because bots are clearly stupid there. But playing higher ones is very frustrating because they let you sense that they are bots. Also if you just appear from behind some wall and they hit you with sniper – well, that’s… inhuman? :-)

4. Add bot’s taunt every time they kill you. No, you can’t turn this off (at least not in the UI). Unbelievably stupid feature that is probably seemed funny in Epic. I can’t explain it otherwise. Retarded. Maybe it’s intended as a nerves training.

5. Client-side demos. They are broken, buggy and instead of repairing them Epic’s stance is “not supported”. Well, what the heck? Game is out for over four months and I can hardly find one file with 1on1 demos? It’s also hard for movie-makers.

6. UI forgets settings when you get back to Main menu. If you want just to change player count you have to check and select your map again! That’s pathetic. Bot level and count is not preserved between runs of the game like it was before.

7. You can’t spectate instant action. You might think it’s stupid idea but it’s actually quite usable feature especially for mappers.

8. If you’re in ghost mode and you get into solid matter screen starts to jitter. Funny – not with behind view. Being partially in wall is good for some snapshots so this shaky cam is very disturbing.

9. Hm, I’m running out of list! Ugly sounds if you use mouse wheel fast in lists (map list, server list). They probably tested it only with PS3 controller. You also can’t copy&paste into console (for instance server IP), you can’t even set any server as your favourite. Because you have to visit the server first to appear in History tab from where you can move it to Favorites. But if you connect to server using “open <ip>” command it’s not added to History. What a mess. I don’t care Gamespy integration – but I care that Friends system is messy and very badly integrated and all is billions of clicks away.

10. Last point is general – unfulfilled promises. A lot of them. Broken. And when you read (otherwise nice) art book delivered with Collector’s edition with bullshits about “we’re the company that can deliver things when they are done” and you have to interact with half-baked product… that’s sad.

As months goes by guys from Epic tries to blame (weak) PC market, piracy or whatever else. But there are some good points. They finally admitted some flaws and there are already two patches released that makes UT3 better deal. Anyway – all my points are still valid after second patch and I have to wait for third (and next). :-)

So that’s it. It’s VERY personal and I bet you can agree with a lot and disagree with many points as well. I’d probably adjust this list later after much more playing of UT3, now it’s just the list of a player who did his best to overcome that second list (things I don’t like) and play another game from his favourite franchise. And yes – Unreal is my favourite game series. Yet shortly after UT3 is out I expect the next one. But maybe one more patch and more players on servers… and we’re there – and we have our good UT we wanted. We’ll see.

Comments (2)

The Swell Season, the rice season

March 8, 2008 at 11:06 · Filed under music ·Tagged , , , , ,

I don’t like critics because sometimes they care too much about things they don’t like. I understand when they criticize things they care – but sometimes they only care because they don’t like. I rather write about things I like. So happened with the album The Swell Season by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. I’m from Slovakia, 15 years ago I lived in Czechoslovakia and many of these years in Czech republic. So I enjoy successes of Czech persons nearly as much as successes of our (Slovak) ones. Markéta with her Irish partner Glen (leader of The Frames, BTW) are the case. Oscar for the Best Original Song (Falling Slowly) is success without a doubt. I still plan to see their movie Once but I’ve already heard the original album where most of the songs come from.

First time I’ve heard Falling Slowly it was on YouTube – their Oscar show performance. And – like it or not – first word that came to my mind was “rice”. As of Damien Rice, of course. Now – don’t get me wrong. I don’t care that their songs remind me Damien Rice a lot. I like his song and so I like The Swell Season. Sometimes I go way too deep into analysis what is common but maybe I should go deeper and find out what’s not as well. But I don’t care because I like it all. I didn’t need to analyze it really. Just compare Delicate (first song of Damien’s O album) with This Low (first song from The Swell Season).

Skip this paragraph if you want to avoid unnecessary cold-blooded analysis. But… it’s probably just an accident – both songs are in 3/4 rhythm. But what really stroke me is very similar way how they both play the guitar – I can’t describe it well in (for me) foreign language. 3/4 rhythm is characteristic with its waving flow. And the first wave (first time) is always a bit more emphasized. That’s why on waltz lessons you can hear often count 1-2-3, 2-2-3. There’s a reason for this. Back to those guitars. They both sort of take a breath in the second time for a first note in the another first time. Now it sounds like I had to think a lot about it, but no. Those guitar swirls there just hit my ear. When I played both songs one after another I found them not so alike – because Damien used more female vocal and cello along with guitar and piano in other songs – maybe the closest mix to what you can hear in This Low is in Damien’s Cold Water (except those low male choirs). Anyway, piano, guitar, female second voice, cello or violin – this all mixed together into intimate songs. You can’t deny this is their common ground.

First I was afraid The Swell Season would miss something like Damien’s I Remember – I mean the second part grading really high that the sound is even purportedly distorted in that noise. But When Your Minds Made Up delivered this (to some extent ;-) ). And as you’re getting closer to the end of the album you find more and more distinct features. Title The Swell Season instrumental with violin lines is far from “Damienish“, voice performance in Leave brings something else as well. And final Alone Apart may be “just as intimate as Damien’s songs”, but the overall sound is kinda different, isn’t it?

To wrap it up: I enjoy both albums and I welcome something new in a style I like. Gosh, I know it’s from 2006 and now it’s 2008, but whatever. ;-) And don’t think I’ve never heard about Lou Reed or Leonard Cohen – I just like this more. This wasn’t article about who was first after all. It was only first of (maybe more) posts about music I like.

Leave a Comment

Utopia (14): With a little help from my friend

March 8, 2008 at 9:36 · Filed under fiction ·Tagged

I wasn’t with Caren in private too often. She has her own partner after all. Still… I see her here and there and it’s always fun. Not only fun, but let’s stay with this word. Knowing that it sounds nearly paradox that she was the one introducing me to the woman I’ve fallen to love with. You generally don’t expect that from a woman you … ok, let’s not be rude ;-) – from a woman you sleep with.

We were programming together in pair again that day. I started to be a little unfocused at the end of working hours and Caren tried to finish her idea – and after she scored and was satisfied she asked: “Coffee or…?” and she denoted the end of the working day moving her hand. “Ok,” I replied, “rather that…” and I repeated the move of her hand. As we had a plan to go to my apartment we both used mass transport today. Actually it was the first time we did it this way because wherever we went before we went there by a car. This time Caren wanted to “experience it again after years… with you” as she said.

- “So you say that you like to watch people?” Caren is smiling at me while we’re both standing in the joint section of the bendy bus.
- “Exactly,” I’m saying. Strange thing is that while I feel here “at home” during every way home or to work I’m feeling very strange now with her. However I like her it’s sort of intrusive now. It’s not her fault at all – it’s really strange that suddenly I don’t feel so confident when I’m with someone so close to me in an environment that’s well-known to me as well. Maybe it’s because…
- “So tell me, is she here now?” Caren is asking about a girl I’ve mentioned before. During one of our countless coffee breaks she asked me how I enjoyed (or maybe why I still enjoyed) their mass transport. I said that I like to watch people and – by accident – I also mentioned one girl I liked most.
- “Yes, she is,” I can’t resist to smile. I noticed her immediately after I’ve got on and – well, let’s admit that that girl noticed my occasionally staring sights after all those days – she have smiled at me in return.
- “And?” Caren is waiting I’ll tell her.
- “And?” I’m playing dumb.
- “C’mon… I’m dying of curiosity!”
- “Caren…, just because I don’t want to let you die. :-) She’s the… that blond one on your four o’clock in the black coat and the red thing… on the… neck, you know.”
Even during my last sentence Caren looked at her more directly than I’d like to – they even smiled at each other. I was prepared to decamp in that very moment.
- “Scarf,” Caren is saying when she looks at me.
- “What?”
- “Scarf… that … red thing… on the… neck, you know.” She somehow imitated the tail of my sentence. Normally I’d be angry (a little ;-) ) to her to “teach” me English in this way but this time I don’t care. And I’m pretty much sure she’s realizing that I have other things in my head than to snub her for this.

- “Scarf – whatever.”
- “Ok,” Caren is looking at me very carefully, “for how long you’ve been taking this bus?”
- “Like two months?”
- “And how many times have you seen her already?”
- “Maaan… I don’t know! Twenty?”
- “And you just smile at her and she just smiles at you…”
- “Yes.”
- “Ok, Gavin, can you tell me if you want that girl? Just before I start to kiss you here, you know… because not everyone is that liberal, you know.” Caren was pro when it came to provocations. Well, I like it after all. ;-)
- “Caren, … yes, I like her, but I don’t know her, understand that.”
- “And what you’ve done to change it?”
- “You’re torturing me!” I was smiling but I felt really cornered. It was easy to take this bus every day and smile at that girl. It was much harder – for me – to address her. I know that this wasn’t the problem of “our” culture vs. theirs. It was my problem. I wasn’t that type. I was extrovert, I was open, but I had always troubles to cross the first border.
Caren is looking at me with those sparks in her eyes for a while and then: “Wait here… or, you know, join us whenever you want.” And she turned away before I was able to tell her anything and stepped to that girl.

Girl… well, she was around 25 I guess – I became pretty bad in guessing age of women after I passed 20, really. :-) She had nice long blond (sort of ;-) ) curling hair, probably blue eyes (I wasn’t sure, but I thought so and yes, she has blue eyes as it would turn out later) and – well, kill me, but I’m far from good in descriptions. I don’t like that b*s* about “character reflecting in lines on one’s face” and similar thing. She wasn’t exactly Miss World – but I never cared. I liked her, liked that countenance, her smile, her walk, her everything. Probably her smile in the first place – because she liked to look at me and I liked it as well. It wasn’t like we stared at each other all time long – but we looked at each other and smiled like we greeted ourselves when we met. I really can’t describe it better – neither I can’t explain why I’ve never got to talk to that girl. Maybe because until I talk to her I know there is still chance. I know it’s… pathetic not to talk to someone just to have the idea of a chance – sometimes I’m among those slower guys (although it’s hard to explain later ;-) ).

Caren successfully started conversation with her and they both looked at me from time to time – and this took like an … hard to judge, maybe minute? You can’t imagine how long a minute can be in a situation like this. But maybe even more. I waited for something at the start, but later I realized there is no immediate intention to bring me in – unless I do it. And because bus line wasn’t infinite and I suddenly saw I have like 5 minutes I decided to do something. I resigned and walked towards them.

- “Hi,” I said.
- “Gavin!” Caren smiled at me. “This is Susan.”
- “Hi,” I smiled at Susan. “I’m Gavin, obviously.”
- “Hi, Gavin,” she shook my hand.
- “I’m not sure if I’m not interrupting you while you analyze… ‘hesitating men’ behavior patterns.”
- “Oh no,” Caren was in a very good mood. “Interruptions are allowed – plus don’t think you’re the center of our interest.”
- “Fair enough,” I replied, “I’m that egocentric self-confident beast.”
- “Yeah,” Susan chuckled. “I definitely noticed that.” :-)
- “Just for the record,” Caren said. “I’m not here to arrange your dates, you know. So we were talking about ourselves. After all I need to know her before I start that arrangment stuff, you know.” ;-) Last sentence was said to me but Caren took care that it was heard by Susan as well.

Sometimes it’s easier to fall into something headlong. And mostly it’s better to fall into something with a little help. And Caren was more than a little help in this case.

Leave a Comment

Moving In

March 1, 2008 at 11:29 · Filed under virtual-life ·Tagged , , , , ,

This is actually copy of post from Blogspot after I migrated all posts here. Only the title there is “Moving Out”. :-)

When my wife wanted to create blog with recipes I suggested Blogspot because I like it and it’s Google corporate. I like Google products. But Blogspot is first case when I decided to move out. Continuation of this blog can be found here:

http://virgo47.wordpress.com/

Now – of course – it’s time to explain why. Well, the reason is very silly. ;-) It’s impossible to print properly blog posts from here without some effort. I don’t care about my blog – but recipes are likely to be printed out. In Firefox you get first page nearly empty (only title) and second contains your post – but only what fits there. Anything else is not printed at all. Not to mention that sidebar is standing in the way narrowing print area. IE works a bit better but there are reported problems with it as well.

You can probably solve this with some custom styles, but whatever I tried it didn’t work for me. HTML template consists of various blogger tags and I can’t limit default style to be media=screen only which makes my media=print style to be effectively ignored. This makes a lot of advices (to be found in various Blogspot posts) from 2005 invalid because they worked with more plain HTML template.

Long story short: There is no easy solution to print and I decided not to continue on blog site that works in this status for at least three years now.

I work with many SW products and normally I just address authors and tell them. However Blogger is for free and I can’t expect fix very soon when it’s like this for many years. To contact Google (I mean normal written text) is not that easy because all those forms lead you in circles to various helps – which obviously can’t help me now. And Blogger Google Group? You can find the same problem there – unsolved. I tried different layouts – that’s also why I don’t have my previous style anymore (and I don’t plan to change it back because it’s pointless now).

I’m staying with Google – but I’m leaving Blogspot. I’ll leave this blog here and maybe sometimes I post here just a summary pointing out to my new blog. But I’m blogging elsewhere now. So does my wife with her recipes (Slovak language). :-)

Final note: Of course here I have to pay $15 per year for custom CSS, but even without that it:
* works in the first place (whole post is printed);
* side bar is printed after the article, so you can just set last page(s) not to be printed.

Leave a Comment