Posts by Thrik

  • Borderlands 2

    Brothers in Arms was good. Can't say that I really look at Gearbox as being a bastion of high-quality game development any more, though. They need to pull out something seriously hot to make up for the assault on peoples' goodwill that were Duke and Alien, or their reputation is basically toast.

  • Sharing game screenshots and videos is 100% legal?

    I've never heard of this ever being any kind of legal issue. I'd imagine that if it were tested in court, they'd have to be considered either application screenshots (ie: like taking a screenshot of Microsoft Word) or media excerpts (ie: like taking a still from a movie). I think in both cases it'd be considered fair use, because the purpose wouldn't be commercial and the excerpt of the total work is so small.

  • Sleep

    I wish I could afford to, lol. I am allowed to work from home two/three times a week though, which combined with flexitime makes things feel more like my work life can fit around what I want to do. It's a great approach I wish more companies would take as everyone always feels so happy and motivated.

  • Sleep

    It's a really good point that using some kind of interactive device keeps me awake pretty much until I force myself to go to bed. Whether it's a games console, computer, or even just a phone I get into that cycle we must all be familiar with of 'quickly doing one more thing'. And then another hour or two passes.


    I hadn't realised, but another thing I've been doing during the past year or so is turning my interactive devices off an hour or so before the time I wish to go to bed and instead doing passive things like watching TV, reading a book, or even just drawing. When it's a one-way thing I don't seem to have a problem, in fact it helps me to wind my brain down.


    This might be even more important than all the other stuff, because I have noticed that since getting into certain time sink games (*cough* Skyrim) I've occasionally had nights like my teenage years of gaming until like 3am, lol. Fortunately I can't get away with it when my girlfriend's round so it only happens once or twice a week.


    So that's another thing those struggling to go to sleep should try, especially those who do it because they're working on personal stuff: turn the computer off 30–60 minutes before the time you believe you should go to bed and see if it helps. I know it's hard, but I personally find that with a better sleep cycle I can feel motivated and energised to work on personal stuff at any time of day rather than just the evening.

  • Sleep

    Somehow my sleeping has completely stabilised itself as I've gotten into my mid-20s. As a teenager and for a while afterwards it was truly awful, I'd often go for 30+ hours and then crash into an epic sleep. So many personal projects to work on, so many online games to play. I didn't enjoy the sleep cycle aspect of it though, I don't like getting up in the middle of the day and I don't like not being able to sleep when I want to.


    I don't know why I'm totally fine now. I reliably fall asleep at 11–1am and get up at 7–9am. The only things I can really think of:

    • I don't drink caffeine (That includes Coke!) for a couple of hours before bed
    • I tell myself that I must have seven hours of sleep at least, so if I've got to be up at 8am I'll make sure I go to bed no later than 12am so I've got an hour to fall asleep
    • I give myself an hour to fall asleep so I can spend time winding my overly active mind down and dealing with any shit I still want to think about
    • If something is owning my mind (this goes for any time of day actually) I write a note in my iPhone to think about it properly later so I can move on, or write my thoughts/solution to a work problem/whatever down in full so I feel like I've done all I can

  • Evolution of gaming consoles

    That image is amazing. Very nostalgic just seeing those things, and some nice trivia — had no idea Nintendo funded development of the PS1 and then screwed Sony over LMAO. Major backfire there.


    I was a little saddened to see that the machines that dominated my early childhood aren't included, but they were technically computers I guess. Here's my history:

    • Atari ST
    • Amiga 1200
    • Super Nintendo
    • Game Gear
    • Nintendo 64
    • PlayStation
    • PlayStation 2
    • GameCube
    • PlayStation 3
    • Wii
    • Xbox 360

    Just writing out that list has brought memories flooding back. Playing through games like Monkey Island and Dizzy with my dad on his Atari ST, playing on my Game Gear while living in York for a year (a particularly happy year in my memory) although I had to plug it in constantly because it ran out of batteries in minutes, going through Metal Gear Solid 2 in one epic session because I had no memory card and was shitting myself in case my mum turned it off while I was at school...


    Shit man, the world would be so lame without games. The one thing I hope more than anything is I keep my eyesight, hearing, etc so I can play loads of games when I retire and live in a retirement LAN centre!

  • Sleep

    Quote from PogoP

    Great post, HP.


    Regarding assimilating knowledge whilst you sleep, I totally agree with that. I used to play Piano, and if I practiced a lot the night before and couldn't quite play a song 100% correctly with no mistakes, if I just went to sleep.. The next morning, I could play the song perfectly. The human brain is a weird thing!


    There have been many late nights I've had trying and failing to come up with some programming solution, only to find the next day I have it instantly.

  • GTA V

    Lol. Well I have lots of games to keep me busy, in fact it looks like I'll be playing Skyrim until about 2016 at this rate. I've been waiting so long for GTA5 that the chance of playing able to experience it in full HD with everything smooth as butter is too tempting to wait just a little longer for.

  • GTA V

    Shieeeeet, the new site is great. That kind of thing totally gets me into wanting to explore that shit.


    All the shots on the site are so wonderful that I'm starting to seriously consider waiting until 2014 just to see if a PS4/XBone version gets announced.

  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

    Still bumming the shit out of this game. I've only just met the woman with the secret room yet I've poured countless time into side-quests and DLC. This game is not good for someone with OCD.

    Out of curiosity I was checking out some info about the earlier Elder Scrolls games and was kind of amazed how faithful Skyrim's (and Oblivion's and Morrowind's by the looks of it) maps are to the very first Elder Scrolls 19 years ago. Gotta love that consistency.

    [Blocked Image: http://images.uesp.net/b/b1/Arena-Map.jpg]

    http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Maps

  • Going to the gym is like a korean MMORPG

    Yeah, I think we touched on this in some other thread but I personally have a much 'cleaner' mind when I regularly exercise. Things just somehow stress me out less on a day-to-day basis and the world generally has a better glow.

    It's definitely worth it for that alone. It's easy to see why some people get massively into exercise even when you could argue they don't 'need' to bother. It genuinely makes you feel great, not just at the time but all the time.

  • Going to the gym is like a korean MMORPG

    Yeah I've been told by a whole bunch of fitness dudes that gloves are a good idea. I sometimes use carrying gloves when moving furniture, etc and they make an absolutely huge difference. It's amazing how much 'weight' the feeling that you might lose grip of something adds — suddenly I can lift furniture that's twice as heavy when I have them on like they're fuckin' enchanted gloves of carrying from Skyrim or something.