Game: Oblivion

I've been playing quite a lot of Oblivion the last few weeks. And I must say I'm quite pleased with it. There are some problems however, like crashes or graphical glitches, but overall the game is running smoothly.

I'm quickly finishing the main quest so I can explore all the other lands/cities/dungeons/... afterwards.

In short (very quick because I want to go back to the game):
Pros:

• Beautiful graphics! Really.
• Huge map. Some people are whining about the fact Morrowind was bigger, but in Morrowind you had to look at the same textureset for ages.
• Radiant AI: it's not fantastic like the marketers said, but it's good enough and offers some surprising situations from time to time.
• Story. I love the fact that there is a main quest (which you can ignore). It allows me to get to know the game a bit before exploring totally on my own. (I was completely lost in Oblivion).
• Having a horse is cool.
• Still a lot of classes and stats.

Cons:

• Physics are great, but you can't perfectly drop your items where you want them anymore.
• You need a fat-ass machine.
• Occasional bug from time to time.
• There could've been more enemies.
• I don't like the Oblivion-plane.
• I want dual-wielding classes...
• Xbox 360 lamers. The community is quite friendly, but the Xbox owners are a pain in the ass (most of them). It has to do a lot with the fact that most of them are under 12, and that they have to constantly lie to themselves about the fact that "their system is better and has no crashes". Well let me tell you something: a PC can be better, and in a few years most of the PC's will. We have a construction set (beat that). (Less important) we have cheats. And the Xbox crashes too. So there.*

Now: it's back to the game.

*: If any Xbox owner feels offended here. I'm sorry. I'm only targeting the whiners among you.

Technorati Tags: Games, Oblivion, review, RPG.

DeviantART leeching

A few days ago I talked about a Flickr background switcher and how it gave me an idea for a little script.

I present you: the DeviantART leech script. Able to quickly show (and store) the newest additions.

Why? You might ask. Well, I like Flickr very much, but for my wallpapers, I like the DeviantART 3D wallpapers more. However, it's an annoying work to check every week for cool backgrounds, click on every one of them, download them, etc... (having more than 30 tabs open in Firefox).

You can see the script in action here. It is set up to only show a few pictures. If you download the script, you can uncomment some lines in the img.php file, so it will store the pictures on your harddrive locally.

Warning: be advised that using this script puts quite the load on the DeviantART servers. I would strongly advise against setting the script up to download all 8000 1600x1200 wallpapers. If you do, I am of course not responsible at all.

Technorati Tags: DeviantART, script, php, wallpapers, programming.

CeBIT 2006

I've uploaded my pictures. There are more on my mobile phone, which I will have to upload some later time. (When I have a cradle or a Bluetooth receiver.)

Enjoy them. You're of course free to give out the link/photos, but I'd appreciate it if you mention my name/blog with them.

Technorati Tags: CeBIT 2006, software, photos, technology, travel.

Back Home

I'm back from CeBIT, Hannover! It was - like all the previous years - quite the experience. I've enjoyed it very much!

Sorry for not keeping you all updated but the hotel I was staying in didn't have an internet connection, so there.

I will place the photographs I've taken online soon enough. First I'm going to rest a little.

See you soon.

Technorati Tags: CeBIT 2006, software, technology, travel.

Game: Crashday

I've been playing a little bit of Crashday lately. Crashday is a racing game that will make you remember Destruction Derby. (Anyone still remember that game? I've played it for weeks when I was younger.) If you don't know that game: it will make you remember the much more recent game Flatout. If you don't know that game... well, then you're just not into racing games I suppose.

Crashday starts like any other racing game out there: create a profile, choose a car, start earning money and upgrade your car, then start over again. However, there are some very cool and aggresive updates (missile launcher) and play modes (pass the bomb, deathmatch) which will start pumping adrenaline once you see them in action. Crashday is not a racing simulation game, it is a racing action game, so if you expect ultra-realism, go choose another title.

The graphics however, are quite realistic, trees and cars are nicely modeled, the explosions are a joy to look at, and the tracks are well designed (the stunt tracks are supercool, but not many in number).

The gameplay itself however can become boring in career mode, I would advise everyone to download the completed save game from Gamecopyworld (search for Crashday: it's the Unbiasedgoats unlocker; and yes - it is safe) and just start playing quickies (stunt and deathmatch for the win).

And it really gets cool if you have friends! Actually, the only single reason why you should pick up this game is: multiplayer action. You get a huge kick out of blowing up your opponents while landing from a 300 m. jump (extra points for smashed headlights).

I could rant on and on but instead I'm just going to give a quick summary:

Pro (or: why buy):
- Cool gaming modes.
- Weapons!
- Nice looking graphics.
- Fun tracks.
- Multiplayer action.

Contra (or: why walk past it):
- You need a powerful rig to run it at full detail.
- Not a whole lot of tracks.
- You could consider getting Trackmania (also excellent, but no weapons) or Flatout (also stunning, but no deathmatch) instead.
- You have no friends.
- Career mode is boring.

Technorati Tags: games, software, racing.

Cool Flickr Tool

A perfect way to start a blog: write about some little handy tools, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Previously featured on Digg and Slashdot, and now happily living in my taskbar: John's Background Switcher. Basically, it just replaces your desktop background every x hours. (Wait, there's more.)

This tool can operate in three modes:
(1) Select a set of pictures to rotate. (Yawn.)
(2) Select a whole folder.
(3) Now comes the cool part: use Flickr to randomly download a picture! (You can even specify a tag to search for!) If you don't like the picture returned, just double click the icon.

Really cool stuff! I've seen really nice and beautiful pictures already, a pity that you can't specify more options though (popularity, size, category). But oh well...

Actually, this little tool has made me think about a piece of code I could write. I will publish it shortly (a day or so - keeps the visitors coming back).

Technorati Tags: tools, software, freeware, cool.

Starting Off...

Again a new blog...

Indeed, I hope that I'll be able to update this one a bit more than my previous attempts.
'Why the strange title?', I hear you ask. Well, I don't know really. It just sounds special I guess, and it wasn't taken already.

I will start with a few silent simple postings, before replacing my old blog (Macuyiko's Mindcube), when this place is getting filled with content, I will post a notice on the old pages. So if you've found this blog already, you're in luck ;).

About the theme... It's dark, and it's black, I know. I think there are enough white-web2.0-"ooh, we're so ajaxy/CSS/XHTML/..." designs already. Besides, black will be in again, watch my words. (E.g.: using it as a background in a powerpoint presenation while using clear white Arial text is very classy.)

Ugh, what a rant, I really suck at writing introductions/first posts.

What Do You Do When It's Rainy?

Playing games of course! I've finished Quake 4 recently (which was done really fast, since I used cheats).

Before going insane and 'you ***ing loser'-like, please let me explain why I used cheats.

The game is boring... there, I've said it. Of course it's a nice game if you want to blast a few grunts real quick, but still I think that Quake 1 was much more entertaining (by the way: in Quake 1 all the doors could open, in Q4 most of them are "locked").

Of course the graphics are all bumpy and crispy and whatnot, fighting against 2 enemies at once which will vanish after two seconds was never so much fun. Not.

And thus I've spent the last two days on completing Call Of Duty 2, which was much more entertaining! The absence of a physics engine (and a health bar) is a good thing. I only have one remark though:
Direct X9: 1024 x 768 everything on high and running quite smooth (except D-Day was a bit jumpy).
Direct X7: 1600 x 1200 (!), also everything on high and running ultrasmooth, you don't see shadows on clothes and such, but I think DX7 still looks good enough, so I'm playing Singleplayer with 9, and multi with 7.

You know, graphics aren't everything, if you must choose between CoD 2, F.E.A.R. or Q4, take CoD 2, and if you haven't played the first one plus expansion, pick them up too, both are as chaotic and compelling as the second one. The first ones also have more stealthier missions and more indoor environments (which I don't like so much, so I prefer CoD 2).

One negative remark though: still no German/Japanese/Italian campaign, why not? It would give some interesting new stories and settings... Oh well, maybe for the expansion pack.

I've also been playing Civ 4 a little... I am still too dumb to fully understand it, but I quite like it.

[µ]

P.S.: again a game rant, I have to start talking about something else. Next time.

Autumn's Start

Woohoow! Autumn is in town, I really like this season (well, actually I like all seasons). I've given my blog a new theme (which I found somewhere on the internet, credits to the maker because I suck at making themes myself) to accompany this nice time of the year.

Going really fast to the holidays now (I like Christmas even more). Can't wait...

More updates later.

[µ]

Tempus Fugit

And I just can't find the time to make a post...

I've been busy with various things, starting university for example, which has been quite fun so far.

I've also been playing various games (what did you expect), Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US), and Total Overdose.

I haven't found the time to play Dragonshard yet.

Fahrenheit is a wonderful cool game with the best action sequences I've seen in an adventure game! I don't play adventure games that much (especially not the recent ones, I've played Broken Sword 1 and 2 though), but Fahrenheit was really fun. A bit disappointed that it was so short and so rushed at the end, hopefully the possible sequel will improve on that part.

Total Overdose is a complete no-brainer action game, a mix of GTA and Max Payne. It takes the style of GTA and the slowmo and bullettime of Payne, multiply that with a lot of explosion and you've got Total Overdose.

It's fun for a while, now if only GTA had these kind of moves and explosions, it would be super!

Oh well, I forgot all the rest I wanted to tell, so that'll have to wait for later...

P.S.: having problems viewing the special characters, like the Mu (µ), refreshing this page should do the trick, it's a blogspot problem probably.

[µ]

First Point

We're back on track, well, sort of.

I've been revisiting some of my projects and have (finally) a new structure.

This blog, µacuyiko's Mindcube. An English blog about my life, thoughts, code, etc... Why "Mindcube"? A Mindcube is a cube in which you put your thoughts.

Mindpoint would have not enough dimensions, Mindline would be too linear, Mindsquare is already too often used. Mindcube is already used as well, so it's not my trademark.

Maybe I change it later to Mindhypercube or Mindwhatacubewouldbeiftherewerereallyelevendimensions.

I already have another blog, a Dutch one. It's not live yet and I will not post a link when it is.

I had plans for an online magazine, also Dutch, but that'll have to wait a bit.

All these (and other side-) projects are supervised by the Muzeron brand.
This blog is available at www.macuyiko.tk, the Muzeron main page at www.muzeron.tk.

This was a boring post. More interesting stuff coming later...

[µ]

Long Time, No See

First of all I want to apologize for not updating you for over a month. But I've been thinking about some things lately (both personal- as project-based), and this blog (and other Muzeron projects) will be reincarnated soon.

So stay tuned...

[µ]

MSN Versus Google, The War Is On

MSN Virtual Earth has gone live today.

It seems that this is basically a complete ripoff of Google Maps... Sigh. Oh well, what'd you expect? So, Google Maps or MSN VE, what'll it be?

Google has my support on this one, it's a company with a good policy which I can trust (although they did close my Adsense account for no reasons I could understand, I mean: can I help it that the same person keeps floodclicking my ads?).

Speaking of Google Earth, why not try Google Moon, or the Hybrid interface of Google Maps, which is rumored to use transparent .pngs, but since when can Internet Explorer render transparent png images?

[µ]

MSN Messenger

For all you people who are using MSN Messenger and wanting to try the latest (7.5) beta out: here is a nice list of mirrors.

Be sure to download the 0160 build, so you can apply the Messpatch, it's on Mess.be (browse around the site to find it, Mess does not permit hotlinking), so you can remove all the unwanted garbage.

And why does Microshit keep putting their shortcuts, homepage, toolbars, and other stupid stuff in their Messenger installer file, making it unnecessary large, and why does it enable all those 'helpful options' by default so I must uncheck those boxes every time I install. Grrrr.

[µ]

London

I've been following various news streams across the internet. Yesterday London was shook up by various explosions, and today, another terroristic attempt.

I find the people of London very brave, and they should definitely continue living their lives as normal as possible. I will not engage in a political discussion, but I find the 'zero-tolerance'/'shoot-to-kill' behavior the London police is using right now a good thing! Terroristic attempts like these and the people who organize them should be wiped out. Since 2001 countries around the globe live in fear of terrorists, and the terr'ists themselves are feeling proud because they're 'in the news again'.

Of course, there are people who say that 'they like the attention, so we should just ignore them'. I find this a very fatalistic view on the matter, if you ignore them, you also ignore their acts which cannot remain unpunished.

P.S.: I wish my English was better so I could phrase my thoughts better, but news like this makes me sad and angry. I have a feeling we're degrading into the Middle Ages again, so maybe we should use medieval ways of dealing with gangsters again, if it's the only way which gives results.

People of London, you have my sympathy!

[µ]

Monday Again

It's been a while since my last post.

I've been watching stuff, mainly. First The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy, which was quite nice. Of course it is extremely difficult to make a movie out of Adams' books without embarrassing yourself, but they sure have tried, and actually made quite a good movie out of it. Actually, I hope they make a sequel (they still have enough books left). And since I watched it, I've been feeling an uncontrollable urge to wear a towel...

Second: Invader Zim complete. Yes it's the famous, spread over-the-whole-internet-cartoon, something everyone who calls himself an internet geek should've watched. I've laughed a few times, especially with the amazing Gir, and Ms. Bitters who reminds me of an old teacher I once had.

In China they are currently struggling to find a new title for Hаrrу Роttеr аnd thе Hаlf-Вlооd Рrincе, since Half-Blood can't be translated to Chinese without breaking the meaning (half-blood equals half-human equals half-beast there), they may chose another title.

Update: officials probably found out. Link is broken, no free book for you. (Just open your P2P app for godsakes.)

[µ]

Nostalgia 2005

A few days ago I was digging in the gigantic archive of old floppy disks in the house, between which I found a really old game I used to play on my 386 when I was younger, and oh how fast did it run when we got that 486dx.

The game itself is a Boulderdash clone and is called Supaplex. Of course, I couldn't be bothered to install the game, since I do not have a 5¼ inch drive in my box anymore (who does?), and I do have Windows XP, which is extremely stubborn when it comes to playing old DOS games.

So I just queried the name on Google, and it came up with a lot of results. Of course, there are a lot of other and newer and better looking Boulderdash clones around, but the first result wasimmediatelyy on the spot: download it here, the game is still being maintained and updated so that even Windows XP users can play it.

An even better choice to download is Megaplex, which runs in a window, which plays sound! (Still no music though, which is not bad, because the music was terrible annoying ;).)

Controls are easy: arrow keys to move, press space with an arrow key to 'grab without moving' (try it), and hold space a long time to use a red disk (if you have any), which will explode, so get away quickly.

If you can't be bothered to do all that, you can go play a nice simple but challenging Planarity Flash Game.

[µ]

Memo List

Because I was bored and my memory is having problems remembering things lately, I've put together a list for me with all the games I should keep an eye on. Please only read this if you're interested in my gaming needs, otherwise just ignore ;).

• Call of Duty 2: it should be clear why, looks stunning and story will be immense again, too!
• Brothers in Arms 2: maybe...
• Bet on Soldier: again maybe, if I'm bored at the time of release.
• F.E.A.R.: graphics looks amaaaazing!
• Half Life 2 Aftermath: just one to have to complete the collection.
• Quake 4: grew up with Quake 1, so... (Actually, that's a lie, I grew up with Jill of the Jungle and later Duke Nukem. That's Duke Nukem 1, mind you.)
• Unreal Tournament 2007: woot, more killin'.
• Star Wars Battlefront 2: maybe.
• Commandos Strike Force: maybe.
• Hellgate London: this is a weird one, could be interesting.
• Prince of Persia 3: definitely!
• Battlestations Midway: could be fun.
• Star Wars Empire at War: must... Have... This! This is what Force commander should've been!
• Age of Empires 3: also really necessary.
• Paraworld: looks nice.
• Outfront 2: the sequel to the extremely hard Soldiers, which I loved!
• Fable: yes yes yes yes yes! A must-have in my opinion.
• The Elder Scrolls 4: yes, that's Oblivion, said 'nuff.
• Dungeon Siege 2: oh well, make it quick.
• X3 Reunion: I hope this one will be better, because I still love space games.
• Black and White 2: yup, also a must-have.
• Spore: now this is a weird game, I must definitely try this one out.

This nice long list really fills the page :p. Of course I could make this list go on and on and on and... you get the point.

So, I'm not bored anymore, see y'all.

[µ]

Project Gizmo

Project Gizmo is a new piece of software just like Skype. Add contact, make a profile, start talking.

I've used it for some time now, I must say it looks very clean and crisp, and is as easy to use as Skype (which seems to have updated it's website). The best of the two? I can't really say, Skype will become the MSN Messenger of VOIP: used by everyone, corporate, blah blah. Gizmo will then become the ICQ and others: trying to get a share and used by people who actually want and dare to try something new instead of following the horde.

So I leave them both installed. Now I just have to wait for my friends using any of the two, because the 'horde' I call my contacts are still using MSN Messenger...
It might take a few years before VOIP will become mainstream (especially in Belgium).
I wonder if there are other countries where people are already using lots of VOIP applications (apart from America and Japan and all those other high-tech countries).

[µ]

Whoops

Oh God! Custom badly written img tags messing up the template aaaaah!
It's fixed now.

Too bad I had to resize the Sloganizer banner... Oh well.

Since I was on a Microsoft-rant in my previous post, I'm currently downloading the latest Lonhorn built (checks) 5048. Just to look if it's any nicer (and runs better than the previous built in VMware).
I will keep you updated.

[µ]