Scrivener

That's right. The awesome MTV computer-animated series is now on DVD. Too bad it didnt last longer than it did. Check it out at Amazon Ignore the first two reviews, don't know how they got up top when their ramblings contribute nothing. The third and fourth reviews are the ones that count. Highly recommend this DVD myself, cant wait for it to arrive tomorrow

Heh. Take a look at This Thread.

Garaunteed to inspire dropped jaws and nervous laughter... Kill Mel FYI, I completely support Mel Gibson in this and can't wait to see the movie. Still, that trailer is bloody hilarious.

Santa got me... bills. Yay! Actually, I got a few bucks here and there. Ordered myself some Airsoft guns from RedwolfAirsoft.com about three weeks ago (17th) and I only *just* got word that they were in Customs. I had planned on using my Chrismas cash to pick up some Airsoft accessories like a HiCap clip for my AK47 and camo BDUs. Too bad my Christmas break is now over. Yeah, I start school again on Monday - only two weeks between quarters - its pretty spartan. So I wont have time to play with them at all for at least another 11 weeks! So much for my Christmas. Well, thats that again

Yeah, I still think all MOH games suck (At least all those which have been released so far). The reason is that all things measure against Operation Flashpoint and, to a much lesser degree, Delta Force (Including BHD). I hate being led around by the nose. I hate shooting bad guys and not knowing conclusively whether I hit them due to lack of blood (Actually, I don't care if they bleed flowers... so long as its in there). I hate scripted missions that play out exactly the same every time. I hate being the only character worth a damn. I'm a simulation guy through and through. That's what you become after years and years of seeing the same garbage repackaged and resold with the latest greatest game engine. That's what makes BC so endearing to me. A WW2 game done by the Op Flashpoint crew would be a dream come true. BF1942 just dosnt do it for me. It's come a long way since it's release, but it still plays like an arcade game... the dumb man's wargame, imo. I want realism. I want realism bar no expense. That means options, freedom, and atmosphere... and I don't want the oft-unreliable ESRB to even be a consideration. For example, look at Vietcong. The US version comes across as crap. There's minor ammounts of blood and gore and the language is as tame as a saturday morning episode of Power Rangers. It's unconvincing, unrealistic... goofy. Then look at the original european version (Which I went way out of my way to get a hold of)... it's like a game version of Full Metal Jacket or Platoon. It does a fantastic job of recreating Vietnam. The mission designers even saw ft to throw in lots of side paths and optional objectives to keep missions from being too linear. Take a look at the European Vietcong and you'll see everything that MOH, COD, etc needs to be. It's not perfect, but it's really damn good. It's really sad that virtually all of the best stuff is coming from European countries. The US has become as bad as Japan in recycling the same old trash over and over. And yes, just as I had always predicted, consoles are killing the game industry. Games get dumber and dumber and ever more simlified (They call it 'streamlined') since game publishers try to sell their stuff to massive throng of human idiots living in this country and abroad. No more do they appeal to the creative, intellectual, or mature audience that grew up with and helped create interactive media. Gaming has become a type of entertainment made by dimwits for dimwits. Now I don't remember what it was we were talking about. Ah well - End of Rant.

Just tackled a slew of games (which I tend to plow through at a rate of several per non-working day) and figured I'd post my quick reviews of all of them: 1) Deus Ex 2 - Another Eidos disaster, it's unplayable on any system... unless you can live with 800x600, and on a 21" monitor - I can't. Of course, there's only minor performance issues on an XBox. Apparently some people, after massive tweaking, have been able to get the game up to 30fps at 1024x768. I don't care how good the game potentially is if it runs like junk... and boy does it run like junk. Undeserved of a rating. Stay away. 2) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - Wow. Just wow. It's a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll... that is to say, a little old school and a little new and innovative. The controls are a tad on the clunky side for PC (mostly due to the camera) but after about an hour of futsing around it's not so bad. The game rewards those who are observant and quick-thinking. Combat is fun as well with all the fluid animation and assortment of moves that Enter the Matrix lacked. Toss in an interesting story full of action, adventure, and romance and you get a true video game masterpiece. 10/10 3) Uru - Unfortunately the much-flaunted multiplayer aspect is yet to fully launch. While they are opening it up to players, the multiplayer component really acts as a fancy shmancy chat room at the moment. That aside, the single player is brilliant... if somewhat madening at times. Uru really pays off for those who are extremely observant and take notes (Notetaking is a time honored adventure game tradition). Of course, having read the MYST books helps tremendously. Every symbol, heiroglyph, and notebook in the game is an important clue. Unfortunately the ending is a little weak as it just leads right into the multiplayer. 8/10 4) UFO: Aftermath - It's not quite XCom but close enough for me. I just wish there were a little more grand/epic strategy involved... like base building, building interiors, etc. Back when this was still Dreamland Chronicles it was to have fully destructable terrian among a host of other features. Still it's a decent squad-based XCom-esque tactical strategy game in it's own right. 7/10 5) Echelon: Wind Warriors - Still not available in the US, and it's a damned shame. E:WW is one of the best sci-fi simulations since Mechwarrior 2. These things really feel like they're some kind of real aircraft and when a system gets damaged it affects the ship in very noticeable ways. Feels more like a training simulator or the real deal than just a game, and thats worth big kudos on my list. 9/10 6) Civilization 3: Conquests - The expansion that PtW should have been. The new scenarios are fantastic and harken back to the days of Civ2. Sure I was never a huge fan of Civ3 (Still feel that Alpha Centauri is the pinnacle of world-building grand strategy... that is, unless Medieval Total War can be considered such) but the Mesoamerica and WW2 scenarios themselves are worth the price of admission as games unto themselves. 8/10 7) Medal of Honor: Rising Sun - I'm mostly a PC fanatic by blood, but since I work at a video game store I have all the systems anyway. Admitedly, I didn't like the other Medal of Honors... any of them. But this one I hate... yes, it sucks and it sucks hard. The portrayal (cutscenes) of Pearl Harbor border on offensive in their stupidity and irreverence. The gameplay is a combination of walking down invisible-wall barricaded coridors and hopping on a turret to shoot endless waves of mindless aircraft/japanese who don't fire back. 1/10 8) X2: The Threat - It could be great, but the supersensitive joystick controls keep it from being any fun. This seems to be a problem with the game's deadzone settings so I'm sure it will be fixed soon (if it isn't already). Sure I could use the mouse, but why would I want to? Mostly a trading/empire building strategy-like game than a combat space simulator... which is why it baffles me that you have to defend yourself from attack every [seemingly] 30 seconds. X2 really is more about strategy and economics than exploration or space combat, so take that into account. As far as graphics are concerned, X2 sure looks purty but I still think I-War 2 captured the look & feel of deep space more accurately than any other game before or since (We're talking graphically, people - BCM is an infinately more superior simulation). 7/10 9) Gothic 2 - For me this is old, old news... but since it only had its formal US debut last month, it's worth noting here. G2 is, quite simply, one of the best CRPGs out there, period. IMO, it joins the likes of Fallout, Daggerfall, Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Ultima Underworld, Bard's Tale, and Wizardry 8. Yeah, it's really that good. Of course you'll be happier if you've played the first one but you can start with 2 without being lost (You start from square 1 anyway). The controls take some getting used to at first, but ultimately turn out to be superbly designed. 10/10

Yeah, you should never want to see movies like I do. It's part of being an ex-english major+film/graphic arts student who reads too many books and sees too many movies. I can't help but focus on the technical aspects... it's all I do day in and day out. I can also predict most stories with unnatural clairvoyant accuracy. A side effect of reading a book a week since age 7. This has made me bitter and elitist. *shrug* Yeah, I'm jaded and I hate everything, so take my reviews with that grain of salt.

Yeah, Last Samurai was really good. Like Dances with Wolves in old Japan. Great, great, great cinematography and Tom Cruise really plays the part well, from drunken undisciplined westerner to honorable skilled warrior. 9/10

quote: I donÔÇÖt remember seeing any "Glue",It's where Aragorn kisses Arwen at the very end during his coronation. As soon as he turns his head the light reflects off of the glue for his mustache. No, it's not sweat, it's latex and has a very hard edge to it. quote:I donÔÇÖt remember seeing a scene "where the make up showed". He was really dirty through most of the flick in the fist place. At the end when Frodo is hugging the other hobbits, you can see up his shirt sleeve. The pale white makeup ends and the rest of his arm is rosy-pink. quote: Gollum is the most fantastic CGI character ever created. I wasn't debating about Gollum. The fighting with the army of undead was pretty lame... rather than Orcs fighting invincible undead ghosts they just kind of swept over everything like a stream sweeps over grains of sand. That was the easy solution. The scene where Legolas is climbing the Oliphaunt was quite fake... the animation was just too stiff (Biggest problem with CGI - as animation is hella hard). As they obviously couldn't motion cap Orlando Bloom climbing a giant war-elephaunt-thing they have to animate based 100% on their own skills... which were subpar, should have got some help from Pixar. As for best of the three... it's still my opinion that Fellowship was best. Appreciate the journey more than it's conclusion... that's what I always say.

PJ is now realizing his lifelong dream of remaking King Kong. Currently there are no plans to make a Hobbit movie. IMO, I hope it dosn't happen, since I doubt PJ will have anything to do it - it would be a disaster. As for ROTK - I don't understand why people keep calling this the best in the trilogy. I would have to strongly disagree... I think Fellowship was, far and away, the best of the three... in Extended form, Fellowship just blows TT and ROTK out of the water. Much like the last two theatrical releases I felt ROTK was just too darn punctuated to really tell the story. The movie drags in places - a result of the pacing being way off (There was obviously a lot of content cut to keep the movie to a watchable theatrical length). I have the utmost faith that the Extended Edition will fix all those problems... as the others have. My biggest quibbles are technical (MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD): Being able to see the latex glue holding on Aragorn's beard, a scene where you see down Frodos shirt at the end and you can see bright as day where the makeup on his arm stops, some bits where CG was used to such an extent that the scene seemed almost cartoonish (Legolas on the Oliphaunt)... and the devestation on Pelenor fields after the battle. Not one spot of blood despite bodies littering the ground everywhere. There are multiple scenes where midgets were used as stand-ins for the hobbits and the tricks are done so cheaply that it's obvious. This is especially bad with Bilbo at the end, where you only see the back of his giant, oversized, latex head as he waddles onto the boat (although he never waddled when he walked a second ago)... and he never looks back (to say goodbye or anything), he just stands with his back facing the camera. That's sloppy. Then there are the multiple false endings. After two, the audience was afraid to clap for fear it wasn't actually over... and it wasn't. But all in all it was a pretty good blockbuster-quality movie. I've just been spoiled by the EE DVDs and was expecting something more... complete. But as I've said before, I've given the same story for each movie. IMO, this one was a little more rough and sloppy than the last two. Methinks PJ may have been getting sick and tired of LOTR and lost the passion necessary to impart that extra bit of polish and emotion. IMO, this is actually the weakest of the trilogy... with the first being the best and the second being the second best. It also seems that with each new movie the number of technical flaws grows exponentially. Just my thoughts. 7/10

Sorry, was trying to be melodramatic Nevertheless, Interplay really *is* a terrorist organization. They do seem enjoy laying off QA with alarming frequency. Aparently their stupidity only grows with time.

I just got the worst news... Interplay has shut down Black Isle Studios and laid off most of it's employees. I'm doing my best to maintain composure but I'm honest-to-god in tears right now. This may sound heartless, but this is nearly as devastating to me as the 9-11 attack. I used to work at Interplay QA during BIS glory days. I can't imagine a world without BIS. What's worse, as a result Fallout 3 has also been given the axe. This is perhaps the darkest day for the game industry since the closing of Looking Glass. Interplay is now permanently on my high-vendeta list - higher even than WalMart and Hasbro. This is terrible, just terrible.

quote:LMAO, I feel like choking the daylights out of the EB clerks almost everytime I call or go down there Derek. I know just how you feel. Freakin console kids, they don't know a thing about PC games.Hey, hey, now... I work with those 'console kids.' Only, I don't really care all that much for console games. Yeah, it sometimes seems like I'm the only PC gamer in the company... and it's always frustrating when they try to shrink my PC section to make room for more pre-owned games. This new CEO (Mr. Firestone, our founder, resigned a couple years ago) is turning the company into a giant friggin swapmeet... not to mention that he's taken away almost all of our benefits during his short fascist reign.

Yeah, I have a problem. I wonder if there's a 12-step program for addicts? -"Hi, my name is Scrivener, and I buy too many games."

Well, I got my copy of X2 yesterday but won't be able to play it for another two weeks... school and all In fact, I just bought a 6 pack of Rockstar Energy drink to help keep me up when I get off work tonight. Going to be a long, long night. I'm starting to wonder how one can be creative when these graphic arts schools bury you under so much work that you no longer have time for *fun.* Sitting on my desk, unopened, are copies of: X2, KOTOR, Armed and Dangerous, Prince of Persia, UFO Aftermath, Deus Ex 2, NWN Hordes of Underdark, Echelon 2, Lock-On, Korsun Pocket, and Temple of Elemental Evil (Open but havnt played since the week it was released). Instead of playing games, all my time has been spent on school projects like this and this (illustrator and photography, respectively). *sigh* Man I can't wait to take my HOTAS Cougar out of dusty retirement and dog into X2, Lock-on, UC, and company. Need-gameage-so-badly.

quote: 'Justified' you say? as in downloading the game illigely? just because you already paid for it doesn't give you the right to download it off the net.Considering that I already bought my copy (And that other people who already bought their copies are playing it already)... yeah, it kinda does.

Dont know why on earth the retail release was delayed. Mine is pre-ordered and fully paid, *snip* [ 11-30-2003, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

If I have time after the game's release I'll put together a detailed newbie friendly online tutorial. Probably during Christmas break.

The DRC (D'ni Restoration Council) has ongoing restoration efforts in some specific ages. There are a few journals (some are extensive) scattered in certain places detailing the 'restoration efforts' from as early as 1998. There is wildlife in a few of the ages as well, but for the most part no other characters [in person] after the first bit. Journals and story bits are offered almost exclusively as rewards for completing an age in full. Tackle Teladahn (Aka the Mushroom Age) first... it's the most straightforward and obvious of the ages (Ie - easiest to solve). Kadish is among the most difficult.

I'll admit it up front, I'm a long-time Myst fan. Nevertheless, Uru is more of an experience than a game. The ages are unbelievably detailed and you constantly find yourself sitting back and taking in the scenery. Furthermore, this is no slide show like it's ancestors - Uru is 100% full real-time 3D... and it takes a very powerful machine to see it at its best. It is undisputably the best looking 3D game to be released to date and is the new holder the 'best looking water in a game' award. Puzzles are logical and reasonable (So long as you keep a detailed journal and take the time to sit back and think). I've always found the Myst games intellectually stimulating, and reading the books improves anybodys appreciation of the source material as well. But Uru just breaks new ground all over the place. The single player game offers you frequent peeks at the massively multiplayer adventure to come and is ingeniously framed - drawing you into the world like so few games achieve these days. The game also has a detailed character creation system that allows you to render yourself in meticulous detail. Just take a look at me (I swear, it looks just like me, too)! Uru should appeal to several different kinds of people: 1) Those just looking for something to try out their beefy new hardware (Uru can use all the latest audio/video technology). 2) Those looking for some serious mental stimulation. 3) Those looking for a friendly, dedicated, non-violent community. 4) Those who have always dreamed of being the adventurous explorer-archaeologist. Score: 10/10 and a place on my list of the top 10 games of all time.

&$#(@*$!!! Just like I predicted, TTCE didn't show up at my work. The ONLY preorder we had for TT and we only get two copies of the normal EE. Just got off the phone with customer service... I think I spend more time yelling at them now as an employee than any other normal digruntled customer. They assured me that they would look into what happened to our shipment. Nevertheless, I'm just going to pick my copy up at Best Buy now and use my store credit for something else... like UC, X2, or KOTOR for PC.

Today's the big day. I should (barring an act of God) get my Two Towers Collectors Box today. Normally we get DVDs in a week early, but so far my store only got two regular Extended Editions late last night! Can't wait to see it and I'm going to be furious if my Collector's Set dosnt show up today as it wasnt in the shipping manifest in the computers (Which also happens to be the only TT:EE preorder we have... let alone a fully paid preorder). Hulk-want-movie-now!

Start closer to surface and work your way out. Here's a 30 second TV-commercial-length commercial: 1) 3 secs - High angled shot of a solitary soldier is running through a forrest. He is positioned in the center of the screen, the point of focus. Laser fire flies by. Epic style music begins low volume 2 seconds after the start of this scene. The music will continue to build to the videos climax. 2) 3 secs - Using the same angle as above, the point of focus is no longer a soldier, but the scene cuts to a speeding jeep. The signs of battle continue as lasers flash by the jeep. 3) 3 secs - Using the same angle as above, the point of focus is no longer a jeep, but the scene cuts to a shot of an aircraft carrier. Small aircrafts are taking off from the deck. 4) 2 secs - Using the same angle as above, the point of focus is no longer an aircraft carrier but the same type of aircraft as we saw taking off in the last scene. 5) 4 secs - The aircraft remains the focal point but the camera now changes angles to follow the craft. Enemies fly by and some shots are exchanged. 6) 3 secs - Camera changes to a frontal shot of the craft, showing that there is an enemy on his six. The craft angles upward pushing the horizon out of view. All we see is ocean and earth. 7) 1 sec - The aircraft flys past the camera and the camera whips around to another chase shot. 8) 3 secs - The scene cuts to another shot of the same ship but in space. Enemy and friendly ships fly past. 9) 4 secs - The ship turns around revealing the planet from space and a massive space battle. Two or more capital ships and dozens of fighters. 10) 2 secs - In a flash of light several half-second scenes are flashed in front of our faces showing massive battles on land, sea, air, and space. 11) 2 secs - Finally the Universal Combat logo appears giving us reprieve as the music dies off. Basically, stringing together some 3-rd person gameplay clips starting with the lowest common denomenator and build toward the grand and epic.

quote:That's nuttin, what about the IRISH? Same thing there. From the Vikings to the English damn people just won't leave the Irish alone. The only thing is that at least the Vikings left (but not genetically). However, the English refuse to budge! lol! My point is, however, that we didn't sign treaties with any indians living today. The only thing that links those of native american heritage to any kind of treaty is the fact that they are constantly told by their parents that the white folk owe them the world. My great grandparents did the same thing to my grandfather, but he was resonable enough to see that what was done between people hundreds of years ago has nothing to do with him in the here and now. I'm totally for an indian sovereign nation, but the point is that if they rely on *our* commerce then they should be held as accountable as any other local buisnessness. They don't operate as a seperate country or geopolitical entity as, say, Canada... they operate like a local buisness. If the government wants to take the hands-off stance then, heck... maybe I should be exempt from taxation as well since I'm one-quarter Sioux.

In centuries past an unfathomable number of people have been wronged. When you think about it, all land was stolen from someone else at one point. The point is, a group of people does not equal one person who has lived hundreds/thousands of years. My grandfather was Sioux and always felt that you were never owed anything as a result of birth. The way he saw it (And I wholeheartedly agree) is that if you are doing buisness almost exclusively with other americans, you should be responsible for all the same laws and regulations. The problem is that these indian interest groups think that they can have all the benefits of american citizenry without any of the drawbacks... and still call themselves a sovereign nation. They can't sustain themselves on their own economy, and since they draw exclusively from another economy, they are indebted to that economy (and thus, government) like anyone else.