Tourettes Machine. Not safe for work - but who wants to play safe?
Do you lock your machine when you go to lunch? Mwahahahahaha!
Strap Schneier into a chair in a room with my two girls attempting I Try on SingStar and he'd hand over his private key in minutes.
I'd post a recording, only there's the Geneva Convention...
The other game I got for my PS3 was Oblivion, Game of the Year Edition.
If The Orange Box is big, Oblivion is gargantuan. Steve Yegge's post on Oblivion indicates just how big it feels - and I have the two expansion packs. This'll last me all year.
One problem I've often had with complex computer RPGs in the past has been with awkward control systems. No such trouble here, after a bit of slow start.
It's pretty, too, if not quite so graphically stunning as Half-Life 2. You can spend time just wandering around looking at stuff.
Still very early days - I've only just started the main quest, and I'm still mainly exploring - but it's fun so far.
I have a couple of PS3 game so far. And with all the cash I've spent over Christmas, and what with a move coming up, they'll probably be the last for a while. ;-) Luckily, they are both fab.
First up, I got the five-in-one Orange Box. So far, I've only got to Half-Life 2 and Portal out of the five.
The original Half-Life was one of my favorite FPSes of all time, along with Doom, Quake and XIII. So naturally I was really looking forward to Half-Life 2, and I've not been disappointed. It's superb. The graphics are like nothing I've ever seen. On my new telly, the picture quality is better than I get from DVDs, and far better than from TV signal. On the whole, the levels are challenging and satisfying, just as with the original. (The vehicle levels are a bit of a chore, though. Or is that just me?) I'm less than a third of the way through (with one visit to a walkthrough required so far) - and given that both the sequels are in the Orange Box too, there's plenty of gameplay here.
Portal is great - turning a 3rd person shooter with pretty realistic physics into a puzzle game was a stroke of genius. It's funny, too - very Alpha Complex. Criminally short - only 19 levels, the first dozen or so of which are pretty much tutorials. But then, I'm utterly stuck halfway through level 18 anyway, so it makes little difference to me how short it is. ;-)
So, I got myself a new telly. It's a Sharp Aquos LC-26AD5E 26" LCD. A bit bigger than I was planning on, but it was in the sales for £350, and it was very pretty.
It's got a very nice picture when watching DVDs or playing on the PS3. The downside of a big telly, though, is that non-HD TV looks really rubbish close up - there's just too much screen and not enough signal to go around. What it might look like on one of those 50" jobs I can only imagine.
And I can turn it off. ;-)
Bah - my shiny new PS3 won't work with my (admittedly antediluvian) TV. The TV just can't see the PS3 at all. Once you start upgrading...
Rant time. My TV probably could see the PS3 if I were able to fiddle with the settings, but since the remote died, 90% of the functionality has become unavailable to me. I know we live in a throw-away society, but not being able to use a TV 'cos the remote has died - what's that all about?
Hitherto that hadn't really been a big problem; I could turn it on and off, and turn the sound up and down, and that was all that I needed. Everything else was done via the DVD player or Digital TV tuner. But now...
Then again, perhaps it is time for a new TV. I say I can turn my current one on and off - in fact, the switch is broken, and I can only put it on standby. I'd been struggling with this for a while. On the one hand, leaving a TV in standby mode is a terrible waste of energy, but on the other, so is buying a new TV. Where does the balance lie there?
But now the Gordian Knot has been cut - I need a new telly. Tom recommends this. I don't watch a lot of TV, so I don't want anything too big or too expensive. Think I'll look for one of these in the new year.
I won a shiny new 60GB PS3 at the ThoughtWorks Christmas party last night. Class - well worth the hangover. Whether it's worth the memory of all that nerd-dancing, well, I'm not so sure.
Anyway, not really being much of a gamer, I need some advice. Which games should I get, and which should I avoid? I'm into FPSs, strategy games and RPGs, and I'm not into platformers or sport sims.
I've already spent £200 on games and accessories in my head...
I spotted Jim running the Fracture screen saver on his MacBook the other day. Beautiful - worth £5 of anyone's money.
"As you can rely on with Stick Software products, it has a suitably overengineered configuration panel that lets you control many details of its operation." Outstanding.
It joins my ever growing collection. I love Skyrocket and Hyperspace, (I've mentioned Skyrocket before) and Euphoria, Solar Winds, Flux & Fireflies. (These also offer config screens with all the frobbing and tweaking opportunities that you could ever want.)
For traditions' sake I also have Red Pill and PongSaver. Oh yes, and a couple of Life savers that I can't seem to find links for any more.
That's a lot of screen savers. I don't want to be fiddling with them all too much. Fun screen savers are enough of a productivity sink as it is - I don't want to be changing my mind as to what to run all the time. And I don't want to use the Macs built-in screen saver randomiser, 'cos it's an all or nothing thing. Though I do like the iTunes Artwork & RSS Visualiser savers, there are a lot of the built in savers that I don't want to see.
Luckily, there's RandomExtra. Like the built in randomiser, it picks a screen saver at random, but it also allows you to select which of your installed savers you want it to pick from. What's more, you can weight the savers - so I can choose to see Fracture twice as often as PongSaver, for example.
Naturally, I just spend ages fiddling with RandomExtra, instead. Sigh.
Sigh. I remember Barbarian Prince. Takes me back - I must have been twelve or thirteen. Before I had access to a computer, this is the sort of thing I used to play
Skyrocket is nothing short of superb. Problem is, if you're like me, you'll spend too much time watching it when you should be working.
A version for the inferior OS available here.
3D-SFCave. Click to go up, release to go down, don't crash. It's that simple.
Well, as I said, El Presidente is away. ;-)
Via Boing Boing.
I don't know what I need one of these for, but I need one. I just do.
Question is, what should it do? I mean, kicking off a build just doesn't seem significant enough. Bringing down the live systems perhaps?
Whatever it triggers needs to be acompanied by a klaxon, a red flashing light, and a voice counting calmly but loudly down from ten minutes, like the starship destruction sequence from Alien. Dry ice optional.
Monkey Island on your phone? Now that's worth getting a good phone for.
What with this and Python for Series 60, I've got to get myself a 7610. Can you get one pay-as-you-go?
Update: Course you can...
A couple of great games via DiVERSiONZ - Tail Gunner and Thrust. (Beware nasty pop-ups on that 2nd one.) And another via Spod - Road Blocks.
Amazing news from the forty-second parallel - Civilization IV will use Python as its scripting language!
My favourite game and my favourite language, together at last. This is just so cool...
Speaking of Cthulhu - there's got to be an excellent Delta Green scenario lurking in this story, hasn't there?
The Leatherman Squirt is nice, but it doesn't have everything. The Swiss Champ XXLT, now that has everything...
Via The Old New Thing.
Just because I'm pointing out how lovely the Leatherman Squirt P4 is a mere three weeks before my birthday, you shouldn't assume that I'm hinting or anything. ;-)
Ah, Total Annihilation, RTS of kings. Matt Croydon points out a nice K5 article about TA: Total Annihilation Redux. Lots of links to resources there, but I've always been satisfied with TA, The Core Contingency and ÜberHack.
On Saturday, I picked up a copy of XIII so cheaply that I suspect that it had been marked up incorrectly.
It's really good. The comic style graphics seem to allow me to suspend my disbelief better than the nearly-but-not-quite photo-realistic approach that most other FPSs use. Besides, it looks great. It's pretty hard, too - you aren't overwhelmed with bad guys, but they are pretty smart. Two or three enemies who know where you are can take you out pretty easily, and even one can do you serious damage if you give them the slightest chance.
The checkpoint saving system is a little irritating, though. I can see that they want to discourage the save after every room approach, but sometimes the save points are a little too far apart. It's not become too frustrating, though. I'm still playing. ;-)
Mark hasn't even started at his new job yet, but already he's spending his ill gotten burger flipping wages; he was showing off his new GeForce FX 5900 XT last night.
Not that it looked that impressive - a box is a box, after all. You have to plug the thing in before it's impresive.
So, Mark, how was it for you?
Kevin points out EarthClock. Makes a nice companion to Sun Clock, my current favorite screen saver.
A damn shame we are running NT 4.0 at work. NT 4.0 doesn't support USB, which means I can't use an iDuck to carry data around.
Zip disks are just so last century, don't you think?
Via iamcal.
Via As Above, I find the wonderful Low-Tech Game Systems.
This article lists loads of games you can play with voices, hands, pens, paper, and coins. You need never be bored on a train again!
From this excellent starting point, I discovered (or rediscovered) some fabulous gaming related places:
- Critical Miss, the funniest gaming site on the net. Particularly good: Nuke The Crap Out Of Europe, Pimp: The Free Collectible Card Game, Gaming With Nothing, The RPG Cliche List, and, oh, most of the rest of them.
- The Window - an RPG for grown ups.
- Cheapass Games, including Fight!
- The World of Abstract Games
- Game Systems, Card Game Systems and Board Game Systems, other articles in the same series, are also worth a look.
Masters of their universe: "Most video games stipulated the experience the player was going to have. They said: you stand here and we'll throw aliens/dragons/humorous frogs at you. Bell and Braben's sequence of inventions amounted to a gradual refusal to do anything of the kind. They were arriving at a game that left what to do and where to go entirely up to the player."
I remember playing Elite for weeks and weeks, for hours at a time. Brilliant. Rarely equalled as a gaming experience, and never surpassed.
(One thing missing from the article - Elite's trading system was clearly heavily influenced by that of the Traveller RPG (1977), which I also played around that time.)
There are a few modern Elitealikes floating around at the moment. X-Tension is one good one, which I played for a good while. Independence War II - Edge of Chaos, which I'm playing at the moment, is even better, if a bit less open ended. I hear good things about Freelancer, too, but I've not tried it. This month's spare cash is going on Christmas presents, so I won't get the chance for a while.
Via little things.
I daresay Tactics Arena Online will keep us amused.
Via The Ultimate Insult.
Normally, I despise jingoism. But there is a place for "my country, right or wrong", and that place is the rugby field.
Update: The Auzzies display grace in defeat.
The world's smallest flying robot, controlled wirelessly via Bluetooth. How much fun could you have with this?
Update: BBC coverage - Mini-copter stars at robot show. It's got a camera, too!
Lots of new stuff in the Diablo II 1.10 patch. Groovy.
Now, where can I find out what the new rune words are?
Update: Blizzard Chess, via Crummy.
Games at work are good for productivity.
So, anyone for a game of I-War 2 (my game du jour)?
The new PSP looks delectable.
But I've always thought that Nintendo consoles have the best software, so I'll probably stick with my GBA SP.
(As if I have the choice with my finances. ;-)
I'd not heard about the Game Programming With Python book, but it seems that it's out. Blinding.
Another cool screen saver to add to my randomiser - the Sun Clock. It'll show a world map with current daylight displayed, or a sky map showing stars and planets. Plenty of knobs to twiddle. Too cool for words.
Via vsbabu.org.
My other favourite screen savers:
- Electric!
- MVR 3D's various savers
- jpgsaver (along with a bunch of images from Celebrity Gallery)
- GLT Life & GLT Chaos
Animal lovers won't like Kitty Bash, but I do. Thanks, Steve.
Oooh! Oooh! Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is going to be released in early October! This is a must-have for GBA owners - the original Advance Wars is fantastic - I still play it regularly, and reviews of Advance Wars 2 look good.
Update: Wing Commander: Prophecy looks pretty sexy, too, and that's out already...
Update 9th September: It seems the Yanks have had Advance Wars 2 since June. Bah!
The Real Underground shows the iconic contemporary London Underground map, Harry Beck's original 1933 version, and a geographically correct version, with a very pleasing morph between the three. Cool toy.
Via Halfway House.
iGlassware, a wireless beer glass that signals your waiter when you need a refill.
Via Slashdot.
Ow!
Via Neurotech.
ZMatrix is a Windows active desktop, displaying Matrix stype streaming characters replacing your wallpaper. Totally useless, totally cool.
Via Ned Batchelder.
My only question - where (oh where) is Carol Vorderman? The deck just isn't complete without her.
Via b3ta
Cal's The Paint Game - good for wasting a few minutes...
Me - I got 2/10. As a proper bloke should - a bloke recognises red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, grey and white. Possibly British Racing Green, too. And that's it.
Hmmm - I got a rather scary 4/10 the 2nd time through...
Greyblog pointed me at RC Rally. This is basically a prettied up version of Super R.C. Pro-Am, an old Gameboy game I used to love.
Update: And some lovely Java games, via The Ultimate Insult.
What a great idea! Ubi Soft's upcoming shooter, XIII, seeks to look like a comic, rather than than trying to look photo-realistic. It looks fantastic.
MVR 3D have some incredible screensavers for download.
Naturally, the Matrix Reloaded screensaver is the one which jumps out at you, but on balance, I think that I prefer the other three. Whack on a Jimmy Giuffre MP3 or two on at the same time, and this is just about as mellow as you can get without chemical assistance.
Beware, though - you'll need a monster PC to run this lot. I've got one. ;-)
I couldn't resist getting a Game Boy Advance SP. Cool as fuck, I tell you.
Games? I have Advance Wars, Golden Sun and Doom.
I can recommend Advance Wars. Incredible game. Golden Sun is pretty good too, if you don't mind inscrutable Japanese-style RPGs. Doom is a little on the retro side. I love it, but if you don't remember if from the first time around, it may well not do it for you.
Anyone else got a GBA? Which are the unmissable games?
Got a fat pipe? (Easy.) If so, get GTA (the original) here, for free. All 300+ MB of it.
Fab game, much better than GTA2. I've not played III or Vice City, so no comment there.
If Esher were still alive, he'd be doing stuff like this.
Via Simon Willison.
I'm off-line at home at the moment. I guess I'd better stay that way, or else I'll never get any work done. Sudden Strike is already doing enough damage.
Showing my age here - I remember The Atari Adventure!
Via Slashdot.
I really don't know which category to put these physics applets under.
Science and Technology 'cos they are for science education, Toys 'cos they are fun, or Java 'cos that's what they are written in? Bah, who cares, just enjoy!
Via FARK.
Shoot Things.com. Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Via The Ultimate Insult.
Tellie-Targets - therapy for those whose children make them watch kid's TV.
Via FARK.
Via The Ultimate Insult. He made me do it. Honest.
Don't visit JunkBot, and certainly don't try playing it. Not if you want to get any work done.
Via Ned Batchelder.
Also found at his site - Letterscapes, in pure Java would you believe. Cool. Totally pointless, but cool.
Via The Ultimate Insult.
Via iamcal.
Urbanoids - you wern't planning on working this afternoon, were you?
Acno's Energizer and friends.
I'm not sure that War on Terrorisn 2 is in good taste. But Paintball, Flashman and Alien Attack are nice.
A very cool online Lunar Lander game.
Via The Ultimate Insult.
Another good one - Crazy Cars.
Update 26th July: And another one - Trackwars.
All these online Flash games remind me of old Speckie games - basic, but fun.
A couple of interesting Cellular Automata sites:
Just in case I'm not the only one who finds this stuff interesting.
Also interesting: Generation5. Lots of AI stuff here.
Strategic Commander 1.1 for Palm is in beta.
It's a fab game. It's one of two games which I play a lot (along with Space Trader).
The new stuff in version 1.1 consists of:
- Colour support. I don't have a colour Palm, so this makes no difference to me.
- Speed improvements. I must say, the difference here is radical - the computer turns are very much faster.
There are some other changes which I would very much like to see:
- On the planet screen, 'next planet' and 'prev planet' buttons would be nice. Once you have a large number of planets under your control, the 'your planets' drop-down gets a bit clumsy to use.
- On the battle report screen, I'd like to be able to skip to the end of a single battle to see the result, rather than just being able to skip to the next battle.
- On the map screen, when moving ships from one planet to another, I'd like to be able to specify the number of ships to move using graffiti, rather than just the '+' and '-' buttons. If you want to send 100 out of 200 ships, it takes a while!
- A screen listing all your planets, showing name, class, number of factories, research facilities, free slots, and orbiting ships would be very useful, especially if you could sort by any column, and go straight to any planet from there.
That's it in terms of UI enhancements. As for gameplay enhancements, well...:
- There could be multiple tech levels, for speed, range, and combat. The player could split their research between these as they see fit. Perhaps there could be a 4th tech level for factory effectiveness, also?
- As well as factories and research facilities, the player could be able to build ground defenses also. More powerful than ships (worth 10 ships each, perhaps?), but expensive, and would take up slots.
Not too much to ask for version 1.2, is it? ;-)
Oh, one other thing. I don't have a hi-res palm, so I wouldn't benefit, but Strategic Commander is crying out for a hi-res mode.
At Hexatron.
Bored by the World Cup? I know I am. Get your own back.
Other funny sites - Shake your Tic Taks and Where's Waldo?
Hawkin's Bazaar is a superb looking online shop for toys and games.
Great stuff for kids!
So you have made yourself as a South Park character? Now make yourself as a Superhero!
If you are a gamer, Board Game Geek is another site worth the occasional visit.
I'm not real a gamer. Not any more - I can't seem to find the time. But I dad a lot of fun gaming in the old days, and I'm still interested in what goes on.
Via Off On A Tangent.
Offend all your friends and family with South Park Studio!
You can also do this in Lego.
Update June 14th: Between us, we've done the Evo team!
Update March 18th, 2003: Main link updated - the buggers moved it! It's also had stuff added to it, though, so I'll let them off.
You've heard of The Sims? Now play The Osbournes!
The Straight Dope has, uh, the straight dope on the significance of the Monopoly playing pieces.
I usually play the battleship.
Uncle Bear runs a cool free game of the day site.
In fact, if you are into RPGs, (the games, that is, not the iSeries programming language, nor the big gun things) then his whole site is worth a look.
MetaFilter has a good set of Conway's Game of Life links.
The Legend of Zelda. The GameCube's killer app?
I'll be keeping an eye on it, that's for sure. The Zelda games on the Gameboy Color [sic] were incredible.