Posts by twiz

Quote from Zacker

A 4 year old kid could have come up with a significantly less pathetic excuse.

The dog ate my dev tools?

Quote from Taylor

I’ve heard Sonic the Hedgehog Unleashed is pretty good, as it merges the extremes of what people think Sonic was like (just hold right and do loop the loops) and what Sonic was actually like (stopping for slow-paced platforming sections) using the weird werewolf shtick. I, personally, haven’t played it though...

I played it/watched my friend play through it, I think it is one of the worst games I've ever seen. Its button mashy, awkward to control, play every level 100 times just to memorize every way to not die. Just in general frustrating. The camera sucks. Several times they actually intentionally used bad camera angles to make it difficult, which was the point at which I said "fuck this game" and let my friend finish it(which took forever since you have to play each level a zillion times just to pass it). There is a point where you have to walk along a beam, balancing so you don't plummet to your death, with the camera fixed straight behind you.. which is great, thats where you want it to be. Until they put a 90* turn in the beam for 4 feet and then turn it back the way it was. You have near non-existant depth perception from the camera angle they give you, its even difficult to tell which direction he's leaning when you're close to falling. Combine that with the already fidgety controls and it is just plain annoying. Not to mention the hundreds of times in the game when sonic is whipping along rails half as wide at 400 miles an hour, doing flips from one rail to another.

Every time I watched him play, he was cursing and yelling and dying over and over again. He finished the game and said 'that was an alright game'. x1000.

I also would not call it a platformer. In the day sections you zip around uncontrollably at a thousand miles an hour, hoping that you won't die by some upcoming obstacle(of course your camera is fixed in side view so unless you're fucking Neo theres no way you could react fast enough). in the night sections you mash attack until everything is dead, then move on. All the puzzles I saw were 'put a box on the button to hold the door open' shit. Sure you run and jump a bit, but thankfully its kept to a bare minimum, its frustrating enough that I'm glad there isnt more. then throw in some quicktime events just to round out the package.

habby pirthday

Quote from dux

Jesus. No film has made me feel so depressed and hope ridden since... since... ever!

Ever seen Requiem for a Dream?

Me too, bic. Me too. In fact, I have my final project for the semester to complete(due yesterday ) and instead I am sitting in my pyjamas and reading this epic long thread. Go me!

I think I have been spoiled my whole life because I am very smart(toot toot horn). I can learn, and especially teach myself, anything I've ever tried to learn in a few hours. I never(zero.) pay attention in class. Sometimes I'll try to make myself, but since I never study or do homework, I always have no idea what the hell the professor is talking about so I just space out and play on my iphone for the rest of class. I really only go to class so I know when the next test or quiz is. The night before the test, usually starting at around 11pm, I'll look up what chapters are going to be on the test, open up the book and a highly caffienated beverage, and learn the material. I've done this since highschool, everything from trigonometry to chemistry to calculus 1 through 3, physics 1 & 2, all my engineering courses(statics, solids, etc), everything. I have *never* consistently studied over an extended period of time for anything, always night-before-the-test cramming. I have a 3.89 gpa, halfway through the mechanical engineering program. My roommate says it does get harder, we'll see.

I always wonder where I would be right now if I actually spent a reasonable amount of time focused on school, as in doing all my homework and studying a bit every night. I know I'd certainly have a 4.0 and would probably be a lot further along in school than I am right now. I'm sure if I spent a few hours each night doing schoolwork I could handle an 18+ hour courseload and maintain a 4.0. But when I can spend 6 or 8 hours studying every month or so and still hold a high-3 gpa, what's the point?

However, when I do find something that interests me(anything truly creative, designing and building anything fascinates me), I can sit and work for hours upon hours until I perfect it. Here's an example, the final project I'm supposed to be doing right now.. a bass guitar tuner:

Pro/E model:

[Blocked Image: http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/1324/tunerpc8.jpg]

finished prototype:

[Blocked Image: http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8115/froghead5lb1.jpg]

that took 16 hours in the machine shop and probably more than that in Pro/E, designing and redesigning. Only need to make four more now

Okay, now I really need to go finish my project

Quote from dux

Why post bits of BoB? It was all totally amazing

I know, i was sitting here thinking about all the memorable scenes.. its amazing. I just posted two of my favorites... but seriously.. i could go through a hundred of my favorite scenes, and it'd probably be the whole series ahhaa.

More BOB: Breaking Point/Foy:

Not technically a movie... Band of Brothers, Carentan Raid

Quote

":3dxztkgc]Hey twiz, I guess you should visit this link before you try to attach anymore youtube videos:viewtopic.php?f=44&t=11692

yeah i'm a dumbass, dont worry about it.

Cinema Paradiso (WARNING nsfw, very brief tits!!!)

My personal favorite movie.

The Pianist(warning spoilerrrr)

Quote from Cybbe

I don't see your point

He looks kinda gay in the second picture btw.

I think that was his point

Quote from Sentura

and then there's alot of things that reminded me of oblivion.

I think I benefitted from having never played oblivion, my experience was not distracted by similarities.

johnny q. ballantyne:

[Blocked Image: http://jordanolsen.org/media/ben/johnnyswap.jpg]

lol, great photoshop work on the tank firing the laser :roll:

Lets see some videos of things getting zapped already!

Sentura is dead inside.

Up looks good

My fallout 3 retrospective:

Quote

Well, I finished the game today. The ending(s) were kinda blah, although I did enjoy the last big battle with the giant robot(although he really didn't need me there, I coulda just ran along next to him, it didn't seem like he could die...). I still enjoyed running around killing all the enclave soldiers.

I guess my biggest complaint about the game would be its difficulty, I played it on 'normal' and it was really, really easy, especially towards the end. Once I got the Tesla armor and plasma rifle, it was pretty much impossible for me be at risk of dying from damn near anything. I'd strap on the Deathclaw gauntlet or shishkebab and just tear through enclave soldiers. Deathclaws and Yao Guai still required firearms, because they do an absurd ammount of damage, so going toe-to-toe with them was a deathwish. And on top of that, Fawkes is just a complete beast, once I got him I could have made it through the rest of the game without firing a shot, provided he could actually follow me properly. After I finished the game, I reloaded it and tried to kill him with various weapons, and my god he takes twice as much to kill than anything else in the game, by FAR. More than the behemoths. I shot him four times in the head with the Alien pistol, and it barely took him below half health. A toe-shot from that gun is insta-death to any other creature in the game, except maybe the behemoths(never tried). I tried mauling him to death with the deathclaw gauntlet, again maybe three hits to kill anything in the game, and I barely got him to 3/4 health before he wasted me. Pair that kind of absurd health with a gatling laser, and you have an unstoppable killing machine. All your companions auto-heal to 100% health after any battle, so I really can't imagine Fawkes dying(unless you decide to push his fat ass off a satellite dish.... ). Jericho died on me a couple times, but that was when we traveled to a location and were greeted by a who's-who of Fallout 3 baddies; raiders, enclave soldiers, giant radscorpians, seemed like damn near everyone showed up to whoop my ass in unison. We both died pretty hastily... That was pre-power armor though, I doubt it would have even been a challenge at the end of the game.

As if it wasn't easy enough, stimpaks are in no short supply in the capitol wastes. I finished the game with 212 stimpaks in reserve, which is fifty MORE than I used in the entire game! I didn't need to use a single one in the final battle/robot escort.

Yes theres a handful of annoying glitches in the game, some of the animation and dialog isn't the greatest(although overall I think the dialog was pretty well done), but I don't think any of that takes away too much from the game. It was still a whole lot of fun to run about and explore. I wish the game didn't get so easy at the end.. I mean its cool to be just a complete badass, running around with tesla armor and a flaming sword, shredding anything in your path, but I would have liked a few truly tough battles. When I get the urge to play it again, I'll go for 'hard' for sure.

I loved this game. It has some minor issues, I know this 'review' sounds pretty negative but really I truly had fun the whole game. I have no problem calling it 'fallout', I think bethesda nailed it.

Quote from Sindwiller

Well, it's not that it's a particularly bad thing to have only two major parties, it's just that there remain only two or three candidates that can be voted for in the end. Parties usually choose one candidate for the race and then you should talk about variety [Blocked Image: https://migrationtest.mapcore.org/public/style_emoticons/default/mapcore_smilies/emot_shakehead.gif]

Thats why we have primarys.. A bunch of people(usually like 5- from each party campaign for the opportunity to be on that party's ticket.. registered members of each party vote on who they want to be on the ticket.

Kokos, thats a large part of why I voted for him.. I mean I expect him to make some changes, obviously he won't be able to do everything he'd like to. But you're right, its the people who change the country and I think Obama really inspires people to move in the right direction. He's an extremely intelligent, well-spoken black man and I think he's already helped change/reduce the stereotypes some people hold. And I'm not just talking about race, I'm talking about his policy and political stance, I think he can convince a lot of people that being liberal is not a bad thing.

And changing the way the rest of the world views us, thats another huge reason why I voted for him. I'm sick of seeing Bush making a fool of all Americans day after day after day. I knew Obama was going to win, I just wanted to see by how much. I think the margin of victory(and the ammount of Senate seats the dems took as well) showed the whole world that we know our leadership is completely fucked and we desperately need someone with a new line of thinking in power.

Live election results:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Lots of interesting stats/polls/pie charts :

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Get out and vote, Americans. I was at my polling place at 5:30 this morning waiting in line, there was a ton of people there. At 6:30 when the polls opened I'd guess about 250 or so people were there. Parking lots were packed full, it was excellent to see that kind of turnout.

Quote from arhurt

I've been having a hell of a lot of fun with the game and I think its very good despite what you say. And the game never crashed and I don't see that many floating NPCs or half of the bugs you guys describe.The only think I'll agree is to that annoying Moira character. God was I happy to blow her head with a shotgun!

Aahhh aa yeah Moira is annoying as shit, but thats what she's supposed to be.

I think the dialog is pretty solid, you have the same array of options as FO2, plus everything is voice acted and animated. It is certainly on-par with FO2 with sheer size and quests, there is just a huuge ammount of stuff to explore. I've got stuck in the landscape twice and had issues with a gun not firing a couple times, and once after I slept, there was some crazy black hole/tear in the space time continuum, but after I ran out of sight of it and came back, it was gone, so no real harm done. But other than that everything has worked fine, no crashing, no bugs, nothing.

It definately feels like Fallout to me. I think the landscape and characters are spot-on. I mean, damn near everything is taken straight from the originals. I applaud Bethedsa for the time and dedication it took to so carefully emulate FO1/2 in 3d.