Posts by FrieChamp

  • So I finally watched War of the Worlds

    I remember lots of people from crytek coming out of the cinema, screaming in terror "the alien tripods look just like our scouts!!". Certain similarities were indeed quite surprising, but as we all know the Scouts from Crysis don't walk - they fly Still some people were afraid the public would bash us for ripping of war of the worlds, which was definitely not the case. A few more modifications to the character followed and I'm wondering if people even noticed it - but maybe this is exactly why you mention Crysis? I guess the walkers from UT3 are even more similar

  • SCi fires all business people

    Quote

    Inside sources have informed 1UP that Eidos's entire PR, marketing, and sales department has been laid off as part of the deal with Warner Bros.

    Holy crap

    Quote

    (...)in a deal that saw Warner taking over a greater share of the Tomb Raider business and SCi getting the rights to some weird properties like Batman, Looney Tunes and old Hannah Barberra cartoons (including Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Tom and Jerry).

    Good times ahead for you indeed Mazy, I can clearly see it in my mind:

    "From the creators of the "Hitman" series and "Kane & Lynch" comes a new blockbuster game starring an old friend...it's "Yogi the bear - Codename honey pot"

    [Blocked Image: http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4848/jellystonejq6.jpg]

  • where should i go in california?

    LA can be a dangerous place, no doubt about that, especially by foot at night, but that also depends on which part of town you are moving through. I wouldn't want to be on the street in Compton, at any time of day actually. Then again I walked home on sunset and through Hollywood (trust me, both strips aren't as pretty and glamorous as they might sound like) and only encountered 2 persons who even told me "hey, don't be afraid of black dudes!". Maybe because they looked like homeless people and my collegues and me looked like we were in a hurry hehe...we tried to catch some food on the way home by the way, but no fast food joint would serve us, because we were not in a car. I shit you not, the restaurants were closed, except for the drive through counter, but since we were not "sitting in a vehicle" they didn't sell us anything.

    But this is the thing, there are just some things you do not do in the US, or such cities in particular, which might sound unusual for a German. You don't just walk down the hill, through the neighboring quarter and pick up food from the supermarket there! "What - are you nuts? The crazy mexican people live down there!" This might sound paranoid and in some cases it is, but there are simply certain neighbourhoods and streets you want to avoid, which doesn't mean that you can't just as well get robbed in beverly hills by some thug. The risk just might be lower.

    Talking about Mexicans, on our way to the convention center we left the car in a part of town which was completely hispanic. Like from one side of a crossing to the other, every sign, ad, all writings were in Spanish. You didn't even know you were still in the states But that shouldn't be too concerning for you, I just found it funny...

    How will you move in Cali anyway? I take it you will rent a car or..? Will you go on your own or in a group? SF - Phoenix looks like quite a distance but considering you will have a month time, it's definitely possible We went to Vegas for 3 days, drove from LA and back just before E3. It's like 5 hours by car, not bad at all. The town itself is like disney land for adults, but worth seeing I'd say. The casinos are tremendous and the trip itself, through the desert (especially if you drive off the highway) is really cool.

    Anyway it depends on what you want to do on this trip, I'm not sure what you imagined. I'd probably make a list of things I definitely wanna see/go to and then spread the time at each station accordingly. If you want to chill out and walk around in beautiful landscapes - one week in LA would be too long/wasted time. If spending the day at the beach to get a tan or riding rollercoasters in an amusement park and then hit the bars at night to party sounds like a good idea for you (probably my set of priorities), the time would be well spent there or in Vegas (pool instead of beach then). This also depends on the cash you will have at your disposal obviously....all for now, toodles!

  • where should i go in california?

    Well I can tell you where not to go in California:

    San Francisco at night - as soon as darkness begins, bums crawl out of every hole. If you have dinner and it happens to be dark when you leave the restaurant, remember that the cable cars don't run at that time anymore. Oh and don't be a fool and take a shortcut through an area you don't know, because before you know you see gang members everywhere and end up in someone's "hood" (especially avoid this when you are a skinny 15 years old eherm....).

    Don't take just tshirts with you. I can hear you say "But it's San Francisco, it's in California and it's summer LOL :v", well I can tell you I was glad I followed my host dad's advise and took a jacket with me because it was really chilly, wheras in LA it was super hot.

    If you go to LA, do what everyone else does - drive a car. Rent one, it will pay off immediately. Don't be a dumbass and listen to bad advice from UPS van drivers, they misestimate distances easily and you know why? Because nobody ever walks in LA! Everyone drives a car. Public transportation? The underground system is nothing like a European one and if you take the bus make sure you got the exact change with you (and a kevlar vest). The bus driver won't exchange any money and if you don't have the exact amount of coins he won't let you ride the bus. During summer around noon, this kind of shit can cost you a lot of nerves and a lot of sweat. In retrospective I'm still amazed that the friendly artist whose house we passed gave us drinks and drove us home in his car but didn't turn out to be a psycho and skinned us alive in his basement.

    If you go out to a bar/club, go out early. The places close down at 2 (or 3? don't exactly remember, but still quite early).

    On the positive side 'cisco is a pretty cool city, more European than many other American cities. Drive around in a cable car, visit alcatraz, see the golden gate bridge, the docks maybe - but this is the regular tourist program I guess. If I went again I would love to visit that diner just outside SF where venture capitalists meet innovators. Forogt the name sadly...then I'd get a car and drive down to LA, but try to get a nice route somewhere close to the coast instead of getting to LA asap. Drive through Orange County and maybe make a stop in Laguna Beach!

    In LA I liked the mexican food, the hollywood sign and observatory in the hills, Universal Studios....and all the other stuff I did with the group and the host families when I was there, BBQs etc. I think visiting LA when you hang with residents is a completely different thing than when you don't, but I guess that applies to any city.

    Maybe the Americans could give you some insider tips, I was just a tourist the first time anyway and the 2nd time there was little time for sight seeing

    Zaphod probably knows San Diego best, all I remember is a big mall and Sea World

    But maybe cities aren't your thing to begin with and you wanna hike a national park? It's a big state

  • Where should I go in Germany?

    Quote from Steppenwolf

    in Munich you get "Weisswurst"

    This reminds me of my American roommate who mistook Weisswurst for Bratwurst and tried to prepare it like a Bratwurst in a pan, of course WITH the skin

    I'm sure Jon won't make such mistakes after his trip

  • Where should I go in Germany?

    I can only concur. Please note down the items on this list and drink them in this order from top to bottom, bottom to top, repeat. Best advice you can get for a trip through Germany

  • Where should I go in Germany?

    No Steppenwolf and Hessi are WRONG, come to the north-west of Germany it is much nicer here!!

    No seriously, don't go to the North. There is Hamurg and uhh..lemme think Hannover, Bielefeld (hey we got a castle too!), a couple of monuments of big warriors and kings who kicked Roman ass 2500 years ago...but other than that not a whole lot and everything is so spread out it might be better to focus on a few towns in the south and make your way to the east if you depart from Berlin anyway.

    I don't think Frankfurt has soo much to offer for an American tourist, it got skyscrapers which is unusual for a German city, so it is probably more interesting for Germans than Americans. Maybe check out the Römer and some of the old buildings around it, but to be honest, you can get a lot more and better than that in smaller Southern towns.

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    If you head (straight) south to Stuttgart, you might as well make a stop in Heidelberg! I've never been there (sadly), but it looks like a really beautiful town. The oldest German university is there and a whole lot of other pretty stuff to look at.

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    Stuttgart is bigger and bit more industrial again, if you are interested in cars, it's the place to go though. Mercedes Benz got a pretty kick-ass museum there. Interesting from an architectural point alone:

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    Munich is pretty much self explanatory, nice, big, expensive city. Maybe a bit touristy but I think it's worth dropping by the Hofbräuhhaus and just take a look around.

    If you head north, on your way to the east, it might be nice stopping by Coburg. Not sure if it's worth it after seeing Heidelberg, but Coburg is quite nice too. It hasn't been bombed in WW II and everything is rather compact. It literally takes just a few hours to climb up to the castle, through the inner city, check out the squares etc.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/images/coburg/veste-cc-tagteams-bby-300h.jpg]

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    Definitely take yourself one or two days in Berlin to visit some of the museums. If you are interested in German history, this is where you can learn the most.

  • the daily "how was your day?" extravaganza 2008

    Quote from hessi

    reminds me of my trip to Coburg when crytek was still there. 6 hours by train from cologne to coburg. waiting like 30-60 minutes for some folks to interview me. talk with people for like 45 minutes. take the train back to cologne (another 6 hours!)BEAT THAT!

    btw: check out my new avatar

    Been there, done that, except I started a little more north (Bielefeld..). I still find myself telling stories about how I missed the connection train in Würzburg and had to use a slow-ass regional train through the woods. The train kept stopping at "stations" that looked like bus stops (the conductor had to leave the train, to open up a little gate so the passengers could walk across the rails and board the train, i mean wtf?) and I couldn't understand anyone's German.

    : "Woar's de Schoaffna scho doa?"

    :"Hm? Sprechen Sie mit mir?"

    : "Woar's de Schoaffna scho doa??!??!?!?!?!"

    "Waaas??"

    Good that (almost) everyone at Crytek spoke English