...22 and a half foot poooooole!!!1

Lots of stuff has been going on lately. Really, lots–it’s crazy. I haven’t even had time to update my blog all this time, and I know I kept saying I’d update more frequently. I’ll keep saying it again! Ha! Anyway, I have a lot to cover in this post, so bear with me if this turns out to be really long. Even if it does, I assure you it’s well worth the read. Now then, hopefully I can try and tackle this in chronological order without completely screwing up…

First up we have EXGN. Basically, we used to be EXRP (a strictly GMod RP community and server), and now we’ve officially expanded to EXGN (a multi-game community and server network). We used to have a CSS and TF2 server before, but they were always kinda in the background and nobody really paid any attentionn to them. Now it’s official and we have everything flawlessly set up internally to run all the servers at once, so we’re good to go. Since my last post, I got a new server; completely dedicated this time–that server is all mine! Really good specs too, quad core, assload of ram, buncha space, connected to 3 backbones, etc… I’m set for quite some time with that server I think. Then I had to configure all of it, which took a while since the hosting company I’m with didn’t provision the IPs properly, after that I set up the sites again, set up the new EXGN site, and then all the games. Everything’s running suspiciously smoothly now, so I’d say I’m quite proud of myself.

Ubuntu is good for laptop

In order to set up the Garry’s Mod server without using a graphical X environment, using Xvfb, I had to use the -Y argument while connecting to SSH. It took me a while, but I finally figured out that this only worked when connecting to a Linux server from a Linux client. I had dualbooted Ubuntu before on my desktop, but I really have no use for it. However, I’ve gotten a laptop since then, and Vista really doesn’t run too well on it–bam, there’s a good reason to put Ubuntu on it; let’s do it! It took a while to get the partitions planned out so that I could have a primary NTFS partition for Vista, a primary FAT16 for it’s recovery and boot crap, a primary Ext3 for Ubuntu, a logical Ext3 swap, and a logical NTFS “data” partition to share between the two OS’s. Problem was for some reason Vista only wanted two primary partitions as Ubuntu would allow four, but then if I had four Vista wouldn’t allow me to have any logical partitions–it made no sense at all. After about an hour of deep thought and frustration, I finally got it figured out and installed Ubuntu with my carefully devised new partition table. Once Ubuntu was installed, however, the wireless card didn’t work–even after following all of the guides and forum posts online. After a couple days of trying to figure it out, I accidentally installed a module called linux-backports-modules-intrepid that automatically gets the wireless cards working. So, this is to any of you that have AR242x wireless cards out there: Just install that module, don’t do anything with modprobes or blacklists, and everything’ll work out just fine on your first try.

Next up: School. Ah, lovely, lovely school. I’ve been having some problems with my Algebra 2 teacher, such as when she gives us homework on stuff she hasn’t really explained, and that really set me behind–so much so that my final grade was failing and that I had to pull off an 88 on my semester exam toady. I really hope I did, I don’t know how I’d live with myself if I didn’t. The way it works here if you fail a class is you have to take it again the next semester. Then you take what would be the second semester not the first semester of the next year, but the second semester. Since I’m a junior right now, that means I would have only one chance to pass that second semester–if not, I wouldn’t be able to graduate. So yeah, this is really eating away at me and haunting me when I try to go to sleep at night, so I really hope the above situation doesn’t become a reality. I think I did well on the exam; at least an 88 I’m sure. I didn’t struggle with anything, everything seemed completely logical, and I’m positive I didn’t make any stupid mistakes like bubbling in the wrong answer or using the wrong method to answer a question. …Enough talk of this, I really want to get it out of my head so I can enjoy my Christmas and vacation.

FPS-town awaits me

Speaking of Christmas, my parents are surprising me with some new computer hardware I picked out and watched my dad order today. I’m really happy about that, as the hardware is really good. A general rundown: E8400 Core 2 Duo, 8800GT, 2GB DDR2 RAM (my old RAM was DDR, and wouldn’t be compatible with my new mobo), GIGABYTE UD3R motherboard, and an Antec 900 case. Nothing bleeding edge, but still really great and definitely a big upgrade from what I have now. I’m really excited for this, and can’t wait to play games on my new rig and see how amazing my FPS is. I’m taking stuff like the power supply and hard drives from my onw right now of course, and my old parts may go to my mum or dad. Depends if it’s better than my dad’s right now, which I think it is–he’s using a PCI 4x graphics card. Yeah, I didn’t even know they made those anymore either. Well, that settles it I guess.

I went to chop down my own tree last weekend (I think, my concept of time greater than two days is nil) and that was really fun. My parents and I drove up to the mountains of Cloudcroft, NM. There was about two feet of snow in some areas, so that made everything better. I brought my camera to do a kind of mockumentary (of Bear Grylls and Cloverfield if you’re interested), which is downloading right now and so far I think the footage is turning out quite nicely. The majority of it near the end is the epic struggle of dragging a tree up an 8-story hill. I’m glad there was snow, as it would’ve been impossible to drag the tree up to the top with dirt. Even with the snow, it was really tiring. There was really cold winds, and the temperature got somebit below freezing at one point, minus wind chill. As I said, it’s converting and stuff right now so I’ll have to edit it tomorrow. I’ll try to post it real soon, mmkay? It should be quite entertaining. I’ll try for tomorrow.

Last topic to cover, unless I think of something else, is the ol’ dreaded search for the perfect MMORPG. It keeps going. And going. And going… Ashen Empires released a massive update that fixes nearly every problem in the game, as well as adding and tweaking with a bunch of new things like nicer graphics, GUI redesigns, etc… They also released a new expansion pack titled Tides of Fate, which basically adds boats to the game. Pretty cool I think, as it opens up a whole new element to the game which is great, but the boats seem to be rediculously overpriced–the starter boat is around one million gold–I only have 1.5 million, and Son has around 4 or 5 I think, but he’s level 101 (I think) and I’m 34. People say the top-tier galleons cost around 15mil, which is ridiculous.

Above: Lucia Noxnoctis

I tried Guild Wars today from a trial code Lawrence got when he purchased the game. I set my expectations rather low; just expecting it to be another failed WoW clone. However, it’s actually really good. It’s themed just like your generic medieval crap, but it adds some nice quirks and twists that make it unique. Really, it seems like a blend of SRO, SWG, and WoW, which is really nice. One could say Ashen Empires in some cases, but that’s a whole different genre I think. Anyway, F2P is a definite pro, and the combat is quite nice. Questing is also good, as it isn’t just grinding like most RPGs are–like WoW. Yes, I’m aiming that at you, WoW fanboys. Go play a game that’s the least bit fun, mmkay? The biggest con I’ve found so far is that all the male characters are rediculously ripped to the point that they just look really, really unsightly. I’m going to be looking at my character for the whole time I’m playing this game, and more specifically: their ass. I really don’t want to be staring at a ripped guy’s ass all day, so I made a female character. Actually, that’s not much of a con at all. Hmm… Well, the FPS is good given the quality of the graphics, so surely something’s wrong there. Yeah, let’s go with that for cons.

Goo is good.

First up on my list of things to discuss: World of Goo. It’s so great to see a game that breaks all the rules and is actually fun for once. I mean, look at EVE Online; it’s a pretty decent game, but you have to work for two months to get some big omfg super lazor battle ship only to get it destroyed in one small raid. That happened to an acquaintance of mine on Xfire, and he literally was crying when that happened. Really, what part of ‘fun’ is being misinterpreted by game developers nowadays? Back in the day you had new games coming out all the time like Megaman for the NES, Fantasy Zone for the SEGA Master System, hell even Zero Wing was original enough to be called fun. Now all we have is a bunch of crappity crap that’s made exclusively to be monetized, and while it may seem fun in the beta, it’s then raped so “casual gamers” find it enjoyable. For the latter, see Spore. Seriously, what the hell is this shit? Somewhere along the lines, developers completely lost the meaning of the word “fun”.

Random picture ahoy!!

Anyway, enough of my rant; back to Goo. Simply put, it’s an amazingly fun game. I’ve always had a thing for physics games and games that have stories and settings that make no sense. I think Earthbound fits into that category, so that must be why I like that a lot too–minus the physics. World of Goo is a refreshing reminder that games can be fun. It’s also an even more refreshing reminder that games do not need DRM. (Take the hint, EA) I don’t really know how to describe WoG, so just watch this video I made.

Now, tell me that isn’t an amazing game. Come on, do it! Ah, see? You can’t. Overall, I highly recommend World of Goo to anyone that likes games, and most especially developers. This is what a fun game should be like. In fact, lets use it for an example. So, what exactly is World of Goo in terms of development? Well, it’s 2D… It’s a physics-based game… It has nice music… Oh, and of course, it’s very fun to play.

2D physics FTW!

Well now, what do we have here? Oh, I see! It’s my own 2D game! It’s physics based, has nice music, and is v–ah hell, who am I kidding, it isn’t even done yet; how is it going to be fun to play if it isnt anywhere near complete? Basically, I’m eventually going to be turning this into a 2D multiplayer sidescrolling GMod. I discovered a 2D game engine today called LÖVE which uses OpenGL and–get this–Lua. It’s written in C++, but you make your actual games in Lua. You can also compile them to an EXE to make a standalone game, which is great. As for my game, all it is right now is a landscape with barrels that you can spawn by right clicking, move by dragging left click, and explode into particle-y goodness by shift-clicking. For such a simple engine, it has pretty damn good physics. I just hope I can continue to get 60+ FPS with an assload of physics simulations going on at once, like you’d expect in a multiplayer sandbox game. There will be a spawn menu and stuff where you can spawn some premade ‘props’, as well as scripted ones like explosive barrels (which are quite buggy right now), or you can create a custom prop by inputting the width and height of your desired rectangle and it’ll put it there. Physguns will work just by clicking and dragging, and there will be guns and jumping and stuff. Pretty much, anything you’d expect from a 2D sidescrolling multiplayer sandbox game. More on this later, but here are a couple screenshots. Feel free to ask me on Xfire or Steam or something if you’d like a copy to try out.

Very ep- indeed

And about to wind it up… I got my XCM and a buncha cables this weekend. Apparently UPS delivers on Saturdays, so that was nice. I’ve gotten my 360 and Wii working perfectly with it, all I need is my TV tuner card (which arrives tomorrow) so I can record and broadcast. I can still play now, but it’s more fun when other people can laugh at you over the internet. Meh, just a theory. That’s just about it, then. I’ll keep you posted on the sandbox game, as long as you keep giving me suggestions. Now, back to testing Son’s epic GMod map. And when I mean epic, I really mean EP-

This time my payment was a bunch of cables. I know you’re thinking that I’m lame, but hear me out: These cables are so I can play and record console games on my computer. I plug the console into a splitter, and basically one end goes to the monitor and another goes to a tv tuner card to record/broadcast. Pretty neat, I think. Took me a while to figure out the best way to do it, too. For that reason, I have provided you an expertly-made diagram. Yes, it’s Paint.

All in all: I bought an XCM composite to VGA adapter, component coupler, and two component cables. I also needed to get an s-video cable so I could record/broadcast my PC without lag by plugging the GPU directly into the tv tuner, but I forgot. I also forgot the RCA audio y-splitter, but I can just pick these up at any Radioshack anytime. Total, this hit me about $130; but I had $45 left over from when I returned my original 360 VGA cable, so it actually run me $85. Pretty good investment if you ask me, 1080p on my monitor and the ability to record for machinimas and broadcast for shits a giggles–it’s all good, it’s all good! TV tuner was quite cheap, too; only $30. Component tuner cards usually $60 or more, around $100 if you want to get a good one–so I got a good deal there. I had to order everything from different sites though which really sucked, it’d be nice if I could’ve gotten them all from just one site but oh well, couldn’t find them. Only downside is multiple shipping charges, as well as the fact that everything will arrive in ‘pieces’. Should be coming in late this week or early next week, though, so don’t fret; you’ll be able to watch me play old games on a Justin.TV stream real soon.

Anyway, for the upcoming holiday season and my birthday in February, I’ve compiled a list of games I’d like. I also put in a PS3 since I don’t have one, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting one. And for that reason, none of the games on the list. LittleBigPlanet looks awesome though. The problem is that it’s not worth getting a $400 console just for one game, and nearly all of the other good games for the PS3 are multiplatform with the 360 or aren’t even out yet. Meh. I don’t know about Sonic Unleashed for the 360 though, as most sonic games since SEGA disbanded sucked. Hopefully it’ll break the cycle, though. As for the Wii, I’m really disappointed in Nintendo right now. So much shovelware, so little good games.

360

• Dead Space
• Fable 2
• Gears of War
• Gears of War 2
• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
• Bionic Commando
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Indiana Jones
• Sonic Unleashed
• Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

PC

• Far Cry 2
• Left 4 Dead
• Call of Duty: World at War
• Mirror’s Edge
• Diablo III
• StarCraft II

Wii

• The Conduit

PS3

• a PS3
• LittleBigPlanet
• Infamous
• Velvet Assassin
• Killzone 2
• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Anyway, first up: Synergy. Basically, it’s a HL2 co-op mod that works with HL2, EP1, EP2, Sin: Emergence, and some other game that I’ve never heard of. I’ve only been playing HL2 so far, as not everyone I was playing with had EP1 or EP2 installed, but I must say it’s pretty well done. It’s a lot more stable than other co-op mods that I’ve tried, and the simple game mechanics it uses to keep toe co-op in line are quite nicely done. For instance, when a player dies they spawn near the last player alive. Then when there are vehicles, there’s always a “ghost” of the vehicle where it spawns that anyone can press E on to make it into an actual vehicle to drive away. Overall, Synergy is quite good. There’s nothing too ‘fresh’ about it as it’s just HL2 maps, but it’s nice to play HL2 again with some friends. It does crash on certain maps for me, at least on a listen server.

Next up is Insurgency. I’ve played it before, I think when it first came out. It was nice, but was horribly unbalanced, laggy, and spawning was massively fucked. The spawn points had no shelter, and there were only two spawn entities so everyone got jammed inside each other. I’m happy to say that everything’s been fixed, and I can finally see how awesome a game it is. I guess you can call it a mix between BF2 and CoD4, but a lot more tactical. You can’t just run and gun, you have to do a lot of careful planning to get from point A to B and keep a constant watch on all your surroundings. It’s very realistic, so you have to keep an eye out for friendly fire, especially so since just a couple bullets will kill you. I really liked Insurgency, I’ll definitely be playing more of this. My only problem is how long the spawn time is, it’s amazing.

Age of Chivalry is decent, but gets old fast. The concept is great–somewhat similar to Dark Messiah in terms of game mechanics. It’s a medevail-based sword fighting and archery game. You can build objects and buildings, use catapaults, and combat of course. It’s fun, but the sword fighting is so incredibly slow paced that it gets really boring after a while; archery is a lot more fun, but that gets old too. Honestly though, you swing your sword so incredibly slowly that the animation doesn’t even look the least bit natural. Overall it’s quite decent but the gameplay is so slowly paced that you’ll be bored of it in just a couple plays. It’s pretty interesting, though.

DIPRIP [Warm Up] is… strange. It’s a total conversion mod to where everyone is in a bunch of tank-like vehicles driving around and shooting other players in tanks. It’s really strange though, you have these massive tanks rolling around and the guns are just these puny little pea shooters that sound like a cat meowing. Yeah, they really make you feel threatened when you’re up against them. The aiming for all but one of the weapons is god awful, so everyone’s just whoring the little pea shooters, making it take forever to kill just one guy. It sounds like a good concept, but I don’t really like how it’s executed. It’s impossible to tell where you’re supposed to go, so you’re just rolling around trying to find enemies to poke with your spit wads.

Anyway, that’s about it. I recommend you try all the SourceMods, and hell; I may even try Zombie Panic even though I know L4D will put it in between a rock and a very hard place–just like how TF2 pumbled that TFC SourceMod remake. See, I don’t even remember what it was called! In other news, LittleBigPlanet makes me want to buy a PS3. I wish I had the money to blow $600 to play just one game, I really do. Maybe if Sony had a better lineup with some original, fun-looking games that aren’t multiplatformed with the 360, that might help. As for the 360, I want TFU but I’m saving up for other things (namely, L4D). Nintendo’s been pissing me off with all it’s shovelware and pedometers. The Conduit looks good though, and apparently it makes use of Motion Plus–hopefully that little addon doohickey will save the Wii from the doomed fate of monthly My Little Pony episodic games. Oh wait, we already have that. That PS3 is looking very nice right now…

Aaaaaand for your blogly EXRP banter: I’m trying to fix displacements, I really am. I was told the problem was some missing files that define how friction on different surfaces work, but I’ve been unable to find them. I was told they were in the scripts folder of “some shared GCF for some game”, but after extracting every file from the scripts folders of every game, nothing works! I’m having an even bigger problem finding all the mattypes for all the broken surfaces so I can get my platform fix working on different maps, but then each map conflicts with eachother! I’m thinking of emulating Steam then logging into my account and running a listen server, as it seems this problem only occurs on dedicated servers. We’ll see, we’ll see…

• Got Spore, played that for a long long long time and it pwns
• Tried the TFU demo, liked it but hated the targeting system
• Played GTA IV on XBL for a while with PP, XBL trial expired and I haven’t been arsed to renew it
• Got a new server, it’s amazingly fast, moved everything there
• Played the Battlefield: Heroes beta, enjoyed it
• Drooled over all the awesome new games coming out soon
• Finished EXRP Lite, put EXRP back up
• Redesigned sites (somewhat, still in progress)
• Couldn’t be arsed to reupload all my huge videos via FTP, rehosted them all on Vimeo
• Dropped the 18th century MMO idea for now, going with the sci-fi FPS
• Played a lot of games, enjoyed all of them except the crappy ones
• M3DS broke, using tape to fix it until I can get a new R4.

I’m back on track with EXRP, although it’s on hold for about a week until I get a few last-minute things off my plate. I got that awesome quad core server that I wanted, except there are a few problems. I expected there to be a few problems when I first got it, but this is just rediculous. Apache, Dovecot, and PHP aren’t installed properly (probably because it’s 64bit), and the host insists that I can fix it from my control panel. Well, I probably can fix it from SSH, but that ain’t no control panel. I’m new to the whole dedicated server scene anyway, so it’s beyond my skill. They’re supposed to install it anyway, not me. I may just cancel my control panel subscription with them and get the actual control panel developers to install it for me–at least they’ll do it right without problem. As far as hosting games on it goes, I’ve figured out how to use WINE without a proper X11 server which is great, and CSS/TF2/L4D run natively on Linux so we’re fine with that.

I’ve been starting a couple projects recently, mainly an 18th century online RPG and a sci-fi FPS. I’ve had the latter in the back of my mind for a while, but I’ve finally got the right approach so it’s finally something really original. The 18th century ORPG does have pirates in it, but I’d like to refer to it as an 18th century game instead of pirates–that way people try out different things like merchant, navy, sailor, etc… Instead of just saying “OHMAHGOD PIRATES I WANNA BE ONE PLZPLZPLZ” and completely ignoring any other activities in the game. Yes PotBC, I’m referring to you. Anyway, these things will keep me busy for a while, as well as some friends who’re working on it with me. I’ll talk about this more later.

Last but not least (at least for this blog post… damnit, I said least when I said it wasn’t least) I’m changing around my sites a bit. First off, Dvondrake Studios will become a more company-oriented site as opposed to the personal “hay look at mah stuffz” it is today. I’ll move my blog onto another domain, I’m not sure what yet–probably a .ca, they’re hawt. Since I’ve got that new server, I’ll be creating a gaming network as opposed to one server under one name, one under another, etc… EXRP will be ‘merged’ with this network, so the forums will be moved there. I don’t know whether to keep SMF, go with something more main-stream like vBulletin (only if I can afford it), or make my own forum software. I’ve been meaning to for a while, but I feel like I’m just now ready. Before I wasn’t near experienced enough. So EXRP’s forums will be moving to a new domain, yeah. I have a lot of redesigning to do. New blog, new gaming network site/forums, new design for Dvondrake Studios–gah. I also have a site to do for my dad that helps you keep track of laptops if someone steals it. I’ll be busy for a while, but there will still be time for GTA and TF2–no doubt. I’ll talk about my vacation and Battlefield: Heroes in my next blog posts.

As I said before, EXRP-Script was supposed to be a recode of LightRP with all the EXLRP modifications, with money saving and inventory tacked on. That’s it. And that’s all it will be. I won’t go into detail about what won’t be making it from EXRP-Script to EXRP Classic, but you can read about that in this forum thread. For the basics, we have doors, money, admin system, chat commands, class-based scripted job system, day/night and time. As for the specifics, we have the F1 menu, the F2 “action key”, F3 to holster/unholster, and F4 to drop your weapon. In the F1 menu we have four tabs: Character, Inventory, Jobs, and Store. Under the character tab you can change your character name, model and job description. Inventory is the same as before, except it will be a bit cleaner in terms of the front-end, functionality, and back-end code. Jobs will be a list of scripted jobs you can have such as Mayor, Chef, Police, and Thug. Clicking on these will start a server-wide vote to see if people don’t mind you being in that scripted job. Scripted jobs are lost every map change or disconnect. The store is exactly like the buy menu except with some cleaner VGUI. Since we’re using classes for scripted jobs now, you will no longer be able to buy class-specific things.

Pretty much all the SWEPs will be coming back. Radios, flashlights, papers (although optimized), food, etc… I’m debating whether to bring back the realism guns, as some of them fire too fast and are too strong. If anyone wants to help me fix this, I’ll be more than happy to fork over the code for these so you can fix them for me. Otherwise, I may just go back to all the Night-Eagle SWEPs. I don’t know yet. Also, yes, Chefs will have an extreme discount on food–they will also be able to combine different food SENTs to create bigger and better ones. I’m debating if only chefs should be able to buy food altogether, but we’ll see. Last character name, job description, and model will save in a text file on the server using the player’s SteamID as a reference. This is much more efficient than a MySQL, as the power and capacity is not needed for such a small scale operation–Plus this is a lot easier to code. Money will save to the player’s SteamID as well.

The F2 menu will now be the “action key”. When looking at various types of objects, this key will do various things. While pointing at a door, it will own/unown the door. While pointing at any kind of physics object, it’ll carry is. If you’re carrying something, it’ll drop what you’re carrying. When pointing at the world (or nothing), it will open up the radial menu for character animations. As to the rest of the door actions, these will be commands. Keys will replace the unarmed SWEP, and will function just like before. I think this new “action key” method will make things a lot easier to comprehend and remember.

That’s just about it. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please take a look at the thread I linked to a few paragraphs above, as well as the news thread. This will be a lot easier than EXRP-Script for several reasons: I already have 80% of the code needed, I know exactly what I’m doing this time around (I won’t get side-tracked again), and it’s just a lot simpler than EXRP-Script. I expect this to take a couple weeks.

As for regular blog-type stuff, I got a new monitor the other day. It’s a 22″ flat-screen LCD with a 10000:1 contrast ratio and 2ms response time. I love it. It doesn’t tilt though which kinda sucks because the top 20 pixels or so are slightly darker than the rest of the monitor, but that’s fine. I’ve looked around, and not that many do–especially with these specs. If they do tilt, they don’t tilt enough. Also, I’ve reformatted and reinstalled XP. Everything is so much faster, it’s amazing. I can play CSS and CoD4 on max settings at 1680×1050 (my monitor’s native resolution), it’s great. There’s just so much detail that I haven’t noticed in these games, especially in their textures. I don’t know whether you can say I’m still on mental vacation or not as I’m coding again, but I’m still playing a lot more games than usual–and pwning. It feels good to pwn at games you haven’t played for two years. A physical vacation should be coming soon, probably to Disneyland. I wouldn’t mind going to Toronto to see my grandpa (he was diagnosed with cancer again after not having it for a few years) and friends and stuff. The Pure Pwnage premier is on the 9th, so it’d be pretty cool to see that with PP and possibly other people too. I’m also planning on building a computer sometime soon, probably sometime after Christmas with present money. It’s a wild shot, but I think I’m ready. The only ‘hard’ thing will be the thermal paste, as it gets all goopy and you have to put on the exactly right amount. Then I’ll go all OCD and try to spread it evenly on the thing.

I don’t really have any more to say, unfortunate you. Be sure to let me know what you think about EXRP Classic and give me as much feedback and suggestions as possible. I really appreciate it.

I wanted to see The Dark Knight the other day, but everything was sold out except the latest showing, which I apparently would’ve had to wait 2 hours for to ensure I got a seat. Uh, no thanks. I’ll see it sometime during the week, then. I also went to a really nice sushi place this weekend. I love sushi, but I haven’t been able to find a decent place to eat some here until now. The only other place has the sushi coming in and out of the kitchen on a conveyer belt, which is cool, but you don’t know if anyone’s sneezed on it. Or how long it’s been rotating for. The waiter looked like Batman, which was cool. I didn’t tell him that of course, that would’ve been awkweird. “Do you like Batman? I like Batman.”

A friend of mine got Pirates of the Burning Sea a couple days ago, and he says it’s really good. The patch takes a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong(cat) time to download, but it’s apparently worth it. I played the beta months ago and it was quite fun, but got old after a while. They’ve improved it a lot, except for the sword fighting. People say it’s a bit lame, but in that case I think the developer may change it sooner or later. They seem like the kind that care what their players want, unlike LucasArts and SWG’s combat upgrade. Boy, did everyone get screwed with that or what? Everyone agrees that PotBS suffers from one major thing besides lame sword fighting: It isn’t newbie friendly. People say that it doesn’t explain things very well when you’re new to the game, so you’ll get bored with it easily if you don’t have someone there to tell you what things are and what they do. However, if you can stick through the first couple days of newbness, people say it’s a great game. I think it’s worth a try, as I liked the beta, so I’m thinking I’ll get it sometime this week. Hopefully SOE doesn’t fuck it up like it does everything else.

Speaking of publishing giants that fuck things up, I bought Mass Effect this weekend for the PC. Although I’d just use a crack once this comes up for me, someone at EA thought it was an amazing idea to only let their customers install the game 3 times–then you can’t install or play the game again. A crack can get around this, as I’ve said before, but who’s bright idea was that? How daft do you have to be to think of a scheme as mentally handicapped as that? Oh well, it’s still a good game. I don’t really need to tell you about the game it’s self–everyone’s played it, I’m sure of that. Long cutscenes are long. (Cat? Perhaps not.)

Anyway, that’s all that’s up with me. I’m still in the process of redesigning Dvondrake.com, so don’t think anything is final yet. I like the general theme, I’m just thinking about changing the banner once Roggy sends me the logo he’s making me. Roggy pwns, especially because he hasn’t gone apeshit about us calling him ROJJAYYYYYYYYYY yet. I’m unsure about what to put on the front page, though. Something about what’s new or coming soon would be good, but I’m unsure about how to word it. Oh well, I’ll think of something sooner or later. Right now, I have PotC music to listen to.