Planes

2003.10.31

That's Chris and I standing under one of the engines of a C-5 Galaxy, the US air force's largest transport aircraft. They can put tanks inside it, which may not seem like a huge deal, except that a single M1A1 weights about sixty tons. Not too shabby.

I really do with there was more than one airshow a year. I suppose there technically is, but it involves traveling. Every six months would be perfect. I never get tired of watching fighter jets. The way they slide through their turns, the sound of the engines, the vapor that streaks off the wings when they pass through a cloud.

Too cool!

Hockey

2003.10.30

I went out yesterday and bought the rest of the hockey gear I needed to play out, instead of in goal. Half of the cost was skates, which is to be expected. All of this most likely means that I'll be playing hockey at least three times a week now, which is quite a bit, I suppose.

In other news, I've been trying to recreate my DVD using DVD Architect, which is another DVD authoring program. I haven't had much success so far. The program isn't nearly as powerful as Encore, and it doesn't integrate with Photoshop at all. I'm still trying to use all of the same custom menus, but it's proving difficult. Things would be so simple if Encore would just work.

Halloween is tomorrow. I don't know if I'm doing anything. Maybe another one of my friends will drink too much and do something stupid. It seems to happen on a regular basis.

Bugs

2003.10.29

There's nothing worse than a buggy piece of software. I downloaded the trial version of "Adobe Encore" to produce my DVD demo reel, and I've completed the entire project, but cannot burn it to disk. There's a bug in the program apparently, which has to do with animated menus, loop points, and transcoding. It doesn't really matter what the specifics of the bug are, just that they bug stops Encore from burning a DVD. An error message pops up, and the program stops.

I searched the forums on Adobe's website and found plenty of threads about this particular error. Some people seem to have found ways to solve it, others not. A lot of people seem to have run into the problem, however. If a lot of people are experiencing the same bug, it usually means that the quality control department didn't do a very good job. One post on the forums mentioned something along the lines of "I didn't pay $600 to be a beta tester!" Dammed straight. Adobe clearly released Encore before it was ready, most likely because some sniveling prick in marketing decided they couldn't miss the "holiday season", which seems to extend from September through to January.

The worst part about all of this is that it's an Adobe product. Adobe is notorious for not listening to user comments, not acknowledging bugs, and not fixing problems. Encore has been out for over two months, and after countless posts and questions on the forums about this particular bug and many others, not so much as a word from Adobe. No "we realize some users are experiencing errors and we're working to fix them", let alone releasing a patch. If Encore were a game, it would have been crucified in the gaming press before being released, people wouldn't have bought it, and those that did would have stopped playing it by now. If only Adobe had to face those kind of consequences.

Personal Responsibility

2003.10.28

Another day, another article about young kids getting fatter. I'm sick to death of quotes from doctors who blame fast food restaurants, or even worse, "society", for the personal health problems of teenagers or anyone else. There's a key word in there. Did you catch it?

Personal.

It's no one's fault but your own if you're a horribly grotesque blob of a human specimen. True, obesity can be blamed on genetics in some cases, but I don't think that describes the type of obese teenager these articles are talking about. These kids are choosing to eat fast food every day. They're choosing to eat chocolate bars or candy for dinner. They're choosing not to play sports, work out, or go outside. These are all conscious choices that can't be blamed on anyone but the person making them.

I don't particularly think that I eat any better or worse than most people out there. Hell, a few months ago I could go through 2 or 3 chocolate bars a day while I was at work. I don't seem to remember my joints disappearing into rolls of stretched skin and fat cells. I don't eat any better these days, and my stomach isn't pouring over my belt like a million litres of water over Niagara Falls. Maybe I have a fast metabolism? Maybe I'm just "lucky"? Maybe it's because I play hockey at least twice a week, have a martial arts class three times a week, and work out at least a little bit every day on top of that?

Take the fucking hint people! If you want to eat crap but stay thin, you're going to have to get some fucking exercise!

Blarny Stone

2003.10.27

A message for anyone who works at the Blarny Stone: get new speakers. Instead of simply turning that volume dial until it can't turn clockwise anymore, invest in some nice speakers that can produce loud noises without destroying people's ears. Several clubs feature fancy speakers like this, ask them about it!

Oh yeah. Evan, don't drink so much next time!

Stargate SG-1

2003.10.24

Chris and I have started watching Stargate SG-1 on Thursday nights as part of our "gaming" night. The pilot still holds up, which is more than I can say for any of the Star Trek pilots. The best Star Trek pilot is probably still "Where No Man Has Gone Before" from the original series. That's not saying much. I can't wait to watch some of the early Stargate episodes again, and see how they are. At least they'll be better than Enterprise.

Still working on this DVD. I'm hoping to have it finished today. Wish me luck.

Backup

2003.10.23

I've got eleven gigs free on my work drive. My work drive is a one hundred and twenty gig drive. It's extremely sobering to think that I'm going to have to back all of that up sooner or later. Sooner is probably a better idea.

At the moment, most of the space is being taken up by the numerous uncompressed AVI files I'm using to make this DVD demo reel. The demo itself is almost five gigs uncompressed. I've got another five gig background menu video. I've got all of the individual shots rendered out as either background menu videos or full screen videos. Those things are between two hundred and five hundred megs each. That's a lot of space to use up.

Once I do get to backing up this whole thing, it's going to take twenty two DVDs to do it. That's going to cost about one hundred and fifty bucks. Of course, a large amount of that cost is going towards Canada's levy on recordable media, since I could only ever use a blank DVD for stealing....uh...music. Right.

Peacenicks

2003.10.22

Peace March - System of a Down video

While it was impressive to see so many people march against war all over the world on the same day, it really didn't change anything, did it? No, it didn't.

I'm sure most of the people in that march had at least some degree of logical argument against the war, but as always, it's the extreme left who get the screen time and pollute everyone else's message. People who say thinks like "we've never gotten justice through war" and "I don't see how dropping bombs on babies is going to solve anything". Well bravo! Which history classes did you graduate from? Somehow, I don't think the world's Jewish population would say "we've never gotten justice through war". I don't think that, 20 years from now, young Iraqi's are going to wish they could go back and be raped and tortured by Saddam's totalitarian police forces.

On second thought, maybe that's a price victims of dictatorships should pay so that the rest of us can live in a world without war. Maintain the peace at any cost, right?

Blank

2003.10.21

I'm drawing a real blank today. I've been busy working on this DVD version of my demo reel. It's becoming more work than I was expecting, but that is a good thing, because it should look pretty cool. I haven't decided if I'm going to do animated menu transitions yet, but it's a possibility. I suppose it's also good that I'm having to use After Effects quite a bit, which I don't really know.

I think this is definitely a gaming break though. There isn't a huge amount of interesting gaming material at the moment anyway, so I suppose it works out.

DVD

2003.10.20

I bought a DVD writer on Saturday. So far I haven't burned anything, I've been exploring the DVD creation software. It became apparent very quickly that the bundled software isn't very powerful, so I've been searching online for an alternative.

Submitting demo reels in DVD format should be a lot easier once it's all running smoothly. I can burn as many reels as I want, the image and sound quality of obviously a hell of a lot better, and I can fit shot breakdowns and explanations right on the DVD instead of on separate pieces of paper. Demo reels aside, it will be nice to be able to backup my computer 4.7 gigs at a time.

On another note: I always find it funny when people ask me why I don't drink, then proceed to get completely wasted and do things that they regret, like flashing an entire bar full of people. Right Monkey?

That's reason number one.

iTunes

2003.10.17

At last, Apple has released iTunes for Windows. I installed it last night and it seems to work just fine. It's certainly a lot easier to use when it comes to transferring music to my iPod than Musicmatch ever was. Thankfully Apple has outgrown the "computer interfaces should look like they're made of Jello" phase. If only all of the third party PC developers would join them.

Be careful when you install iTunes however, it does try to hijack most of your media file associations. You have to dig into the options to turn that stuff off, assuming you want to.

Now if they would just hurry up and get that music store working outside of the US!

Kill Bill

2003.10.16

Volume 1

HOLY SHIT!!! It's like a live action version of Ninja Scroll. It's awesome! Great cliffhanger! I can't wait for volume 2.

Go see it RIGHT NOW!!!

Big Ticket

2003.10.15

I had a strong urge to make a big ticket purchase yesterday. While I was at Staples getting some cardboard mailing folders, I figured I should go next door to Future Shop and at least look at some digital cameras. I've already decided which one I want to get, so it was the only one I looked at. I think if I were working right now I would have bought it on the spot, but since I'm not, I thought that $900 after tax and an extra memory card would be a bit excessive.

Next stop was A-Power computers, where I asked about Wacom tablets. They don't carry them in stock of course, and I didn't feel like ordering one, so I didn't get that either. I also considered buying a DVD writer. I figured it would be good to be able to start sending out DVD demo reels instead of VHS tapes, as well as be able to back up a lot more of my data. I think that idea was a little too practical for my mood however, so I passed again.

The only money I did end up spending was $5 for the cardboard mailers, and another $45 sending a couple of reels to Toronto.

BORING!!!

All Systems Go

2003.10.14

China is supposed to launch their first manned space flight tomorrow. Assuming everything goes well, they will become only the third country to put a human into space. As it stands, the Chinese government is probably the only one in the world who thinks it's actually a good idea to put people into space. The US and Russian governments seem to be looking for an excuse to stop.

All we can hope for is that China's presence in space will light a bit of a fire under the Americans. The cold war may be over, but I think communist China gaining a significant foothold in orbit will rub a lot of Americans the wrong way. It will be especially insulting if China manages to leap frog past the US in terms of space flight capabilities. We'll see what happens over the next few years.

Thanksgiving

2003.10.13

It's been a bit of a difficult weekend, spending most of it by myself with nothing but a bunch of thoughts I don't want to be having. There's nothing worse than not being able to get things out of your mind. Video games can only help so much. Today looks like it will be more of the same.

Chris Wren is back from his two week hiatus of sorts, and he's got a great "editorial" up in that particular section of his site.

I'll try and come up with something more interesting tomorrow.

Yay!

2003.10.11

The rain has finally come! I'm so pleased I'm actually doing a Saturday post, if you can believe that. After such a dry, sun filled summer, rain is a welcome sight. Even when we go through a normal summer in Vancouver, I find that when September rolls around, I start missing the rain. It's nice to be able to stay indoors all day without feeling guilty. It's nice to be able to work on my computer without having to shut the blinds because of the bright sky. It's nice that the temperature is finally back down to a comfortable level.

Hopefully we won't have too much more sun until the spring comes.

Fighting it!

2003.10.10

I've been completely unable to work on my own projects recently, other than my demo reel and looking for work. I would love nothing more than to be inspired to the point where I want to stay at home all day with Maya open, working away feverishly on something cool. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get myself into that particular groove. Something also happened last night, that I won't get in to, which most certainly will not end up helping the situation.

So my plan is to focus my free, non-job hunting time at games and friends. I still feel like I have it in me to pass Ikaruga, despite its unholy demands on the player's reaction time and concentration. I've also been thinking of going back and playing Soldier of Fortune II, which I finally recovered from my friend Jeremy, who had been borrowing it for what seems like several millennia. No big deal, I completely forgot he had it.

Chris and I started a new game of Secret of Mana for the SNES yesterday, which he seems to be in to. Chris is legendary for his distaste of role playing games, so I wasn't sure he would like it. The good thing about SOM is that it's not a menu crazy game like Final Fantasy, and all the fighting happens in real time instead of with a turn based menu system. I think as far as Chris is concerned, SOM is more of an adventure game than an RPG.

Night of the Living Vulcans

2003.10.09

Seriously! A ship full of Vulcans loosing their minds because of a toxic substance and becoming what are essentially zombies? Please shoot me in the face, now.

Instead of spending all sorts of money on very well done visual effects shots, spend it on paying the writing and producing staff's severance packages. We don't need any more "Vulcans loosing control" episodes in Star Trek. Most of the series have done one or two of these episodes in their entire run. Enterprise has already done at least three of them, and we're only at the beginning of the third season. The quota is full guys! Give it up!

As expected, the feminist who runs Trek Today enjoyed the episode simply because Jolene Blalock did a good job portraying T'Pol's descent into madness, again. Anytime there's a strong female role in an episode Trek Today comes up with a good review. "It's always good to see strong female performances..." WHY!?!?!? We've seen plenty of them for years. There was a strong female captain for an ENTIRE series! It's NOT a big deal anymore!!!

Cancel Enterprise please!

Camera

2003.10.08

I've been thinking about getting a digital camera recently. I'm obviously not about to go spend huge amounts of money on a camera when I'm not working, but I think I'd like to get one once I find work. Nothing fancy, and certainly nothing huge. I want to be able to have it with me most of the time, just in case. I'm one of those people who likes to have pictures of things but never does, so maybe I can change that.

The other plus side of getting a digital camera is not having film to develop. You also don't end up with bad pictures, since you can check them right away. I'll stick it on the list.

Wrote a review of Eternal Darkness last night. Check it out below.

Eternal Darkness Review

2003.10.08

Canadian developer Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness was an impulse buy for me over a year ago. I finally got around to playing it over the last few weeks. When the game was first released, I remember it scoring quite well with most of the game review sites out there. Turns out there's a good reason for that; it's a great game.

The story of Eternal Darkness is one of the game's strongest aspects. You start the game as Alexandra Roivas, a twenty something woman who's Grandfather was recently murdered. As Alexandra is her Grandfather's only remaining family, the local police call her with the bad news. Alexandra travels to her Grandfather's mansion in Maine, which is where the game begins. It turns out that Alex's Grandfather was killed quite gruesomely, and the police can't figure out what happened. Frustrated, Alex decides to start her own investigation inside the mansion. It isn't long before you discover a secret office in the mansion which your Grandfather used to do research on some very strange subjects. Soon after that you find the Tome of Eternal Darkness, a book covered in human skin and bones, containing knowledge of evil forces which are working to destroy Humanity.

This is where the other 13 characters of the game come into play. As you explore the mansion as Alex, you discover different chapters from the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Upon reading the chapters, you are transported back in time to live the story as if it were happening for the first time. You'll go back more than two thousand years and play as a Roman soldier, a Franciscan monk, an 18th century American, a 20th century archeologist and even a post Gulf War Canadian firefighter. Each of these characters helps to tell a different part of the story as an evil enemy called the Ancients works for over two thousand years to bring an evil God into our dimension where it can destroy the world. It is also up to each of these characters to contribute towards gaining enough knowledge and power so that eventually Alex can win the final battle against the Ancients in the present.

Most of the enemies in the game are zombie like creatures which move rather slowly and claw at you with their arms. However, you'll also face off against smaller bug creatures, giant three headed humanoids, and enormous armoured spiders and crab creatures. The weapons available to you will vary depending on the time period. Various swords populate the ancient times, crossbows and other primitive projectiles in the Middle Ages, all the way up to full automatic assault rifles, elephant guns, shotguns and grenades in the more modern chapters. You'll also be able to make use of various magic spells that you discover over the course of the story. The spells range from recovery spells to magical attacks and shields. Some of the tougher boss battles require you to win using only magic, which can be hard considering spells take time to cast and you cannot move while casting a spell. While Eternal Darkness was initially being called a "Survival Horror" game, it's really more of an adventure game along the lines of Tomb Raider or Zelda.

Another interesting feature of the game is the sanity metre. As your character encounters more evil and disgusting foes, your sanity begins to drop, causing various things to happen. The camera tilts awkwardly, blood drips from walls, you start to hear sounds that don't really exist, see enemies that aren't really there. Some of the more interesting sanity effects include walking into a room and fighting a slew of enemies, only to realize later that you haven't even entered the room yet. The game produces a convincing effect where it seems like your television has turned off. The sanity effects are targeted directly at the game player, not the game character, so keeping your sanity metre full is always a good idea.

Eternal Darkness is still a good looking game, despite its age. I don't mean to say that the age doesn't show through at some points, but overall the graphics are well done. I think some of the magic effects could have been improved, as well as the God awful lens flares and some questionable texturing. More often than not however, the graphics do their job well. Sound is where this game truly excels. While the music isn't always top notch, the sound effects are well done and the voice acting is excellent. I wish more games would go out and find real voice actors; these days, we shouldn't have to put up with bad voice acting in games, unless it's done intentionally.

It took me about 15 hours to complete Eternal Darkness, and I didn't even collect all the items. I'd say it was a good amount of time for a game like this. Any longer and the game probably would have felt long. I was sort of surprised that Nintendo didn't commission some kind of sequel to Eternal Darkness, considering the success the game has appeared to enjoy. Maybe they're saving it for the next generation, who knows. In any case, if you're looking for something to play, give this one a shot, it's decent.

NASA is Fucked

2003.10.07

Within an almost two week span, NASA's estimate for a return to flight has shifted from early next year, to the middle of next year, and now to September 2004. NASA is so unbelievably bureaucratic than even their massive reorganization is bogged down in so much bureaucracy that the guy fixing thermal tile number 2045 doesn't know what the guy fixing tile 368 is doing.

Most branches of most governments are more capable of solving internal problems than NASA is. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say that NASA is probably one of the most bureaucratic organizations in the US. I'm afraid to say it, but maybe manned space flight should be put back under the control of the military. I'm sure that one of NASA's main problems is that it's run by civilian managers and government employees who are more used to running the local DMV than a space agency. Military people generally don't fuck around as much, or have so many committees, or worry about hurting people's feelings.

Of course, the military also kills more people. In any case, it doesn't seem to me that anything at NASA is changing, and even if it is, it won't last. Hopefully China will have a guy up by the end of the year as they've been promising. That would be fucking awesome!

Oh yeah, Ikaruga kicks ass!

Tinkering

2003.10.06

I've been tinkering with my demo reel over the past few days. I've tried changing the music a couple of times, but I always end up coming back to the Explorers theme. I think I'll stick with it for a while. I have done a bit of a reedit however, mostly removing shots I'm not 100% happy with, while letting others run longer. I think it's an improvement.

I've posted the lasted version, so go check it out if you like. I would still like to change a couple of things, but I don't have the material to do it. Maybe I'll get back to work on a couple of my projects to get some new stuff. We'll see.

I've also been experimenting with Quicktime. It still doesn't look as good as Divx, and the file size is much bigger, but Quicktime is more of a standard. I'm still fooling around with it however, so the new version of the reel will be Divx for at least a few days.

Metroid Fusion, Again

2003.10.02

I've uploaded a full review of Metroid Fusion. I think it might actually be my longest game review to date. Check it out below if you like.

I'm still working on a review of Eternal Darkness, and should have that up sometime this week or maybe on Monday. Did anyone manage to see Enterprise last night? I saw the preview, featuring Captain Archer falling for some alien sex slave, or was she a prostitute? Anyway, it doesn't matter, my martial arts class is infinitely more important. If anyone saw it, drop me and a line and let me know how it was.

Metroid Fusion Review

2003.10.02

I picked up Metroid Fusion yesterday at Future Shop because I wanted a new game to play and it was the only one that jumped off of the shelf and into my hands. I had read some good things about this original Metroid Game Boy Advance game which was released along side the Gamecube's Metroid Prime last year. Armed with that knowledge, and the fact that it's a Metroid game, I was reasonably certain that it would turn out to be a good impulse purchase. I was right.

First, a little back story. Chronologically, this is the latest game in the Metroid saga. On a mission back to SR388, the Metroids' home planet, Samus becomes infected with a deadly alien parasite dubbed "X". Since the Metroids were the natural predators of X, they kept the parasite in check until Samus eradicated the Metroid species in Metroid II: The Return of Samus on the original Game Boy. Without the Metroids around, X quickly became the dominant organism on SR388 and started to evolve. Samus is nearly killed by the infection, which bonds her body and her power suit together making the suit's removal impossible. After doctors remove what parts of the mechanical suit that they can, they inject Samus with a new anti-X vaccine made up of Metroid DNA from a salvaged cell culture. The vaccine saves Samus' life, but cannot reverse the damage. As Samus recovers, an explosion is detected on a high tech research station where the pieces of Samus' power suit were sent. Samus quickly moves to investigate.

Once you start exploring the station, you quickly discover that the X can mimic any form it comes in contact with, absorbing its powers and knowledge. The parasite begins to attack the creatures in the station's various artificial bio habitats, mimicking them and creating enemies for you to defeat. Of course, the X also infected your power suit, and before long you discover that a "copy" of yourself is running around the station, equipped with all of the weaponry and power that your suit contained. You don't start the game with any of these weapons however, since they were incorporated into the outer layers of your suit, which were removed to save your life.

Luckily for you however, you are now immune to the X parasite. In fact, touching the parasite after killing an enemy will absorb it into your system and replenish health and weapons. On the down side, thanks to the new Metroid DNA running through your system and suit, you are now very vulnerable to cold. The X quickly realize this and begin attacking with freezing weapons, including your "copy". In fact, running into the "SA-X" as it's called early in the game is almost guaranteed to kill you. One or two hits from either it's Ice Beam or Screw Attack will mean your death, and the only option is to run. As you explore the station, you are guided by the station computer. It gives you missions and keeps track of enemy activity. In fact, this game isn't nearly as free-roaming as other Metroid games. Large bosses, power failures, and the SA-X itself often block access to areas you've already been to or destroy passages, making it impossible to return and collect items later. This kills some of the Metroid flavour in the game, but also helps the game move along quickly. You'll never be stuck wondering where to go or what to do, well, most of the time.

Graphically, Metroid Fusion looks great for a GBA game. I don't think it's quite as good looking as Super Metroid, but it's close. Sprite animations are well done and the enemy and environment design is great. This Metroid game uses a much brighter colour palette that others to help with visibility on the GBA screen. I played the game using a Game Boy Player, so I was looking on a television, but I imagine the game shows up quite well even on the old non-illuminated GBA. One area where this game disappointed me was in the music department. I would almost rather hear redone versions of old Metroid tunes, as opposed to original stuff, if the original stuff is going to sound like this. It's not all bad all the time, but it's certainly not as memorable, moody, or exciting as either Metroid, Super Metroid, or Metroid Prime. Too bad. Thankfully, the sound effects are quite nice and serve the game well. Nothing to complain about there.

I found Metroid Fusion to be quite challenging. Some of the boss battles are quite tough, and took me more than a few attempts. The game also instills you with a good amount of fear, for a Game Boy game, when the station computers tells you that the SA-X is multiplying and that there are ten of them running around the station hunting you, or when you discover that the Galactic Federation is cloning Metroids "for the good of civilization only, of course". One thing that Metroid Fusion does very well is tell a story. Only Metroid Prime has done a better job of in-game story telling in the series, and it's nice to get a bit of story once and a while.

If you like Metroid and have a Game Boy Advance, I would definitely recommend picking up Metroid Fusion. I managed to finish the game in only one day, with a total play time of just under five hours. If you were actually playing this on a GBA on the go, it would be a perfect amount of time. Just remember to keep track of where that closest save point is, you'll need it!

Metroid Fusion

2003.10.01

I picked up Metroid Fusion yesterday at Future Shop. Being a Game Boy Advance game, it didn't cost too much money, and it's satisfying my need for a new game to play. I'm still working on Ikaruga of course, but I'm reaching the limit of my physical ability with that game. It feels like it takes something out of you, since it's such an assault on the senses.

Back to Metroid Fusion. It's very much like Super Metroid for the SNES obviously, although the way the game is setup is quite different. You're given objectives by a computer, which guides you on your mission to eliminate a deadly alien parasite from a space station. The parasite is capable of mimicking any life form, and one of them starts off by mimicking Samus herself. As you move about the station, the mimic moves to counter you, destroying areas and cutting off routes to items. It's all very scripted, but it works well on the first play through.

The music isn't as good in this game, which sucks, but it's still Metroid. There hasn't been a bad Metroid game yet, and Fusion isn't going to change that pattern.