Friday, January 9, 2009

Haven't had much to say.

It is already the 9th and I have been scratching my head wondering why I can't write anything. It hasn't been for a lack of ideas either, just a lack of ambition to say anything. When I haven't been looking after kids, I have been wasting most of my days playing Fallout3. When I have had a small chance to write anything, I just haven't been able to push myself to put it down. So I am just going to start writing and see where it leads.

First the important stuff. Fallout3 has really impressed me. A first person RPG, that allows for a very detailed creation of your avatar/character. The designers did a very good job of making an enjoyable post apocalyptic Washinton DC setting that flows very smoothly and feels almost real. I find the game follows the form very similar to that of the Never Winter Nights series, in that you have a direction of good or evil that you can choose to follow throughout your adventure. The world is absolutely massive for a single player game and a person could spend a significant amount of time completing the varied missions available to them. As far as downfalls to the game, I have only few complaints. The item creation and item repair system is a little convoluted. There are recipes that can be found or bought in the game to make items, however the effort to make vs reward from item is just not there. As well, the repair skill is a little useless since you require a near identical object to be consumed in order to repair an item. However if you find an NPC to repair your items, it simply requires caps (money), but even then the repair is always only partial. So this means if you make a unique item, you would have to make another unique item to repair it, or just be satisfied with the max 60% repair that an NPC can achieve. Finally, you can also gain followers in your missions, but generally the AI for them is useless, and you spend most of your time trying to keep them from dying. Overall though I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the RPG genre.

On to other things. Happy New Year to everyone. 2008 was one for the record books as far as suckage is concerned (in my humble opinion). I am actually having some difficulty coming to terms with the fact that it is already 2009. I suppose I will begin accepting it once September rolls around, only to be equally shocked next January. Maybe even more shocked, considering it will be 2010 and I will be wondering where the fuck my cyber implants are and why we don't have electric cars or affordable clean energy yet. I guess I can summarize by saying that the first decade of the second millennium, up to this point, has been a complete disappointment. Is it just me, or did all the really cool shit happen in the 90's and now we are just kinda getting more of the same in fancier packaging. Big plan for this year: get out of hospital, get out of Calgary.

Calgary continues to impress me with its ability to under impress. It is a city of people who have migrated here in the pursuit of greed. It is a place where nothing gets done unless it is overpriced and then it only gets half ass done. The majority of the people spend 90% of their time driving, but only 10% of those people actually drive in a fashion that isn't completely hazardous to everyone else on the road. The vision of the city seems to be more roads, but no maintenance. This is probably for the best, considering those roads are only to support a sprawl of houses that will empty in 10 years anyway. Besides, if you don't repair or clean the roads, that means people will buy more 4x4's which means more oil consumption, which means more money... I hate this city. It reminds me of a gigantic Lloydminster.

Well that is about it for tonight. I hope to write something more interesting tomorrow. That basically means I will probably write something in another two weeks.

2 comments:

  1. Hey man,

    Have you seen this? I thought you might be interested in it if you haven't. I think it is pretty cool - who knew major scientific research centers could have writers in residence?
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2009/01/08/sawyer.html

    I agree that 2008 was a pretty crappy year. It seems like it was that way for a lot of people (there was a lot of bad news).

    I am not, however, so pessimistic about the first decade of this century. I think of all the advances that have been made in telecommunications and am astounded. In 1999 I bet that less than 10% of the people I knew had email addresses or Internet. Now who doesn't have a facebook account (besides you *grin*)? Also, wireless technology has blown me away.

    Ten years ago it would take, I don't know, half an hour to an hour to download an album? Now, I can download a movie in that time. I hit over 700 kB/s the other day on a unsecured wireless network (we're using the neighbors until we get ours hooked up) and my laptop was showing only two bars on the connectivity.

    So, I wouldn't disagree that what we are seeing today is similar to what we were seeing a decade ago. I would, however, dispute the claim that it is only in "fancier packaging." For me, it is remarkable the innovations that have been made.

    That said, do I wish things would progress even faster? You bet, but I've come to accept that technological change, as fast as it is, still isn't going to satisfy me completely. I think I'll think about what I realistically expect this next decade to bring - I'll blog that when I come up with some ideas.

    Well, thanks for the thought provoking ideas.

    --

    I can't wait to play Fallout 3. I have been excited for it since it was in development, but haven't aloud myself to get into it before school is done. I am loving Left 4 Dead though. I have the official strategy guide pdf. I'll send you a copy. I look forward to the next time we can play.

    Calgary - if it weren't for my friends and the Flames I would positively hate that city.

    Oh yeah, get Skype - I got Keith to install it today, we had a good chat, but guess what the first thing he used his web cam for was? He mooned us.

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  2. I'm in Saskatoon! I'll come and visit some time this week.

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