Jump to content

Section_Ei8ht

Members
  • Posts

    1,645
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Section_Ei8ht

  1. An older picture, but not much has changed. This is me at Quakecon last year sporting the Black Mesa lab coat. I met up with a few of the Black Mesa devs and we all wore lab coasts with Black Mesa silkscreend on
  2. Saw it Saturday in 3D. Overall: Awesome movie. Sure, the story's not original and blah blah blah, but that doesn't stop it from being a damn good movie. My only complaint would have to be with the 3D. This was the first feature film I've watched in 3D and while it was cool in parts, it still just felt too wonky at times. I understand that modern 3D cinema is still relatively new and they can't do drastic overhauls to theaters and whatnot, but here's me nitpicking about the 3D: - The Framing: probably impossible to do 100% correctly, but there's a lot of problems with the framing of shots. The fact that many of the things in 3D are cut off by the edge of the screen drastically pulls you out of the 3D experience. Either more careful considerations need to be taken to the framing of 3D elements to avoid this, or the screen side would have to be increased to help build the illusion of peripheral vision, rather than looking through a window - The Focus: it's obvious that the movie was meant for 2D because of depth-of-field inconsistencies. For the most part it was so subtle I didn't notice it, but there was a section where we have a top-down shot and we see a seed floating in the air. The seed is completely in frame, however the seed was completely out of focus. When watching in 3D, this seed should have been in focus (along with the rest of the image), but in 2D it would have not been in focus (as it was). Now obviously this is nit picking and this would mean a 3D print and a 2D print etc etc, but just saying. - Element Juttering: I think this is actually an artifact of having the left eye and the right eye seeing two separate images, but certain elements in motion stutter across the screen. My description of how it looks to me would be like if the background was running at 30fps and the object in motion was moving at 24fps. I'm not sure what this issue is or if it's even fixable. Like I said, nitpicking. Granted, at least Cameron didn't put in any of those cliched moments that are always so-obviously FOR 3D, but there were just little things about it that makes me think that it will be a better movie if seen in 2D. Anyway, nitpicks aside, absolutely stunning movie. Definitely going to see it again and get a bluray when it comes out. My recommendation: If you want to see Avatar for the experience, see it in 3D. If you want to see Avatar to WATCH Avatar, see it in 2D.
  3. This. I don't even think it looks all that great. I know space is kinda bland, but still...
  4. That is quite possibly the most awesome movie trailer in existence.
  5. Second. Dear God, second. I can't freakin' wait for this to come out.
  6. Well, I do... but that's probably because I'm a Christian.
  7. For me it's all about getting into the zone; where time pretty much has no meaning and my entire world just becomes me and whatever I'm working on. All of my best work has been done while in the zone, but lately it's been difficult to get into that mindset. When I'm in a position where I'm about to work on something I'm passionate about, I have at least four hours of uninterruptable time, and a steady supply of snacks/drinks, I crack open a Red Bull (seriously, I think I've conditioned myself to the point where the act of cracking open a Red Bull triggers me into alright-it's-time-to-get-shit-done mode), and go to town. [i think I developed this work method during college when I was pulling 4-10 hour all-night coding marathons... damn I miss those] If I'm in a situation where I don't know what's going to happen in the next 30 minutes, or how much uniterruptable time I have, or I'm not motivated to work on whatever I have to work on (like my current job ever since my job of programmer was altered to include both general PC help desk support and sysadmining), I have to do what Frie suggested and break it down into smaller tasks and start working on a small part of a project that can be done in 15 minutes and let the work snowball from there. I think I'm weird in the fact that I can't get into the zone if I know I'm going to be interrupted within the next hour, because when I'm in the zone and get train-wrecked out, it's tough to get back in unless I do the smaller-part-snowball method. Seriously, when I get train-wrecked out of the zone, it's physically exhausting for me.
  8. http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/guitars/acoustic/ Cash or check? Nice! I've got an Ibanez 6 string with a floating trem (the S320) and it's my favorite guitar. The feel of the entire guitar and the range of sounds I can get out of it make it awesome easily the best guitar I've ever played. The 7 string feels and sounds the same way. If I needed a 7 string, no questions asked.
  9. yeah, if i ever get a guitar i'll get a 7-string for sure. change of seasons = <3 http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=519787 Highly recommended. My buddy has this, and I get some great sounds out of this in a stock config. Great quality for the price. I'd pick one up for myself, but I have a Washburn that I detune to C-Standard and Drop B, so I don't really need a 7 string just yet.
  10. What twiz said. For an acoustic guitar you'll want to head down to the music store and try it out first hand. There's just too much that goes into an acoustic guitar to give it a unique sound that you just can't tell offhand. I personally think my $300 Fender T-Bucket sounds better than my friend's $1200 Taylor. Electric guitars are much more open to modability and changing the sound (pickups, differnt pots, pickup configs, positions... wood kinda matters but not really. On an electric you just have to worry about body weight and natural sustain of the wood and the feel of the fretboard) so you don't have to worry too much. With an acoustic, I would never buy one without playing it first. Only reason I bought the T-Bucket online was because I played one at a local music store and it sounded great, but was able to get it cheaper online.
  11. http://pc.ign.com/articles/105/1050461p1.html um... horray...? :-|
  12. Started playing it a few days ago and just can't put it down. Fantastic improvement over the first game in just about every way. Some of the free running movements and controls seem a bit wiggy at times, but nothing to write home about, and, at first, the texture/shadow pop-in on the PS3 was mighty annoying, but I barely notice it anymore (first one had the same problem on 360) Other than that, I really have no complaints at all. Now dammit, Furyo! You and your Ubi crew stop celebrating and get crackin' on the third one already!
  13. Section_Ei8ht

    VGA 2009

    It got my vote for just about all the categories it was in
  14. Section_Ei8ht

    Chrome OS

    Correct. This OS is for netbooks only. That's what it's designed for. A netbook's sole purpose is to go on the internet and that's it, hence why this is perfect for it. It's not meant to replace windows or mac osx in any way shape or form. With google being a web company and having stateless web applications that act as alternatives for just about every common business/home application (outlook becomes gmail/calendar; office becomes docs; etc...) it really is the perfect companion to that business strategy. With Google now offering cloud computing services for businesses to run google web based produces instead of things like ms office or open office, this is the perfect addendum to that strategy (netbooks work great for the traveling salesman role if your company intranet is a web application an vpn/internet accessible. Where I work, all of our inventory management and business logic applications are web-based. Right now we have slab tablet PC's that the warehouse workers keep handy to do inventory management. Netbooks are perfect for situations like that. We have one or two attached to lift trucks with barcode scanners to make their lives easier.
  15. Was looking for another guitar to do lower tunings with. Was all ready to get a nice brand new Les Paul, but on a whim I stopped by the local music trade store and saw this gem in the back. Got it hella cheap. Plays and sounds excellent after some minor adjustments The only thing I don't like about it are the keyhole inlays. One of these days I'll carve out the keyholes and put in cooler looking inlays, but for now I'll live with it.
  16. Valve as ever, on the bugs. what does that even mean? are you disappointed they are fixing bugs? are you suggesting that valve are the only company to release a game that contains a bug? I'm saying they actually fixed it and got it out fairly soon after the problem arouse. Unlike the SDK which was broken for weeks. Valve's always really good about releasing patches that fix zero-day bugs and glitches. I imagine with a crowd as big as L4D2 has, they'd be pretty pissed if Valve didn't hustle ass to fix a bug that can potentially prevent your game from even launching. SDK doesn't have nearly the userbase that the game does. Not saying the SDK shouldn't get the same level of treatment, but anybody that's worked somewhere that manages multiple projects knows you gotta have priorities.
  17. why is it that for the last week or so I've found myself agreeing with just about everything Rick says?... wait... why is it so cold in here...
  18. Section_Ei8ht

    VGA 2009

    I don't understand (well, I guess I understand, I just don't agree with) how the voice acting/best cast categories are filled mostly with movie games. Best cast and best fe/male lead; imho all three should go to Uncharted 2, with the exception of maybe Mark Hammill as the Joker in Arkham Asylum. Can't vote my opinion on GOTY just yet because I haven't played AC2 or Dragon Age to its full potential.
  19. This. I wanted so bad to like the game, but so many things were just terribly executed (dated graphics, choppy animation, bugs/glitches galore, no facial expressions, and a horrible cover system). I'm very iffy on the idea of a sequel. If it turns out to be excellent, I might just plow through the first one just for the sake of the story.
  20. Wait 'till you get to the Juggernauts in Delta and Echo...
  21. stayed up all night playing it (doped up on Red Bull to get me through the work day). Great fun. It definitely feels more complete than the first game. I can now see and completely understand why the made it a sequel. Everything also just moves more seamlessly. The character interacts are increased, the campaigns are genuine fun. All around excellent game. Also, congrats to Valve for there only being a 1.5 hour delay
  22. I'll be picking it up later today
  23. When has there ever been a demand to pay for anything?
  24. The patch for adding the console looks like a dll hook, which I thought VAC bans for. As much as I want to try this, I don't want to risk a VAC ban. The readme says that it shouldn't trigger a VAC ban, but... still...
×
×
  • Create New...