Time Goes

Well it has been over a month and I've been consumed by the Oblivion hole. They owe me a month of my time back. That is all I want. Simple request I think.

Halo 3 Beta was released with multiple class action law suits thrown at them because of it. OK not really, but all the little kids who don't understand the point of a beta and the fact that software gets delayed fairly often. Also the crying that a 14 hour turn around to find, solver, test and release the fix was too long. They just don't get it. Nor will they ever.

For another example of how those not involved in software just don't get it. http://www.ncaastrategies.com/utopia/showthread.php?t=48569

It starts off with an innocent "how much you think it costs too develop this game" question. That leads to SQL server debates and so on. I actually enjoy when we get to this "You are right that I don't know how to code on that level. But I don't think it would be impossible to learn." He doesn't think it would be hard to learn how to code on that level. Really does he just think anyone can do this stuff. Honestly I work with VLT's all day. Now thats basic as the actual possibilities of those games is very basic. HIT PLAY. But give me a break. I haven't seen the code nor do I want to see a football games code. I can only imagine how much bigger a RTS or and RPG looks like. Some people just don't understand. This brings up Old Man Winters saying " the thing about common sense is that it's not very common".

The next thing on the horizon is NCAA 2008. Having to play a high school game should be interesting where I only control one player and have no say in the plays. After that who knows. My guess would be Mass Effect from Bioware.

Other debates. Buy dirt for the lawn (so I can make grass yippy) or a new TV. Hmmmm. This truly is a hard one for me. Lawnmower, dirt, seed, whipper snipper thing is what's needed for the lawn. Plus labor, which I need to pay myself.

Oblivion Finally

I've put this one off long enough. Since my recent XBox 360 purchase I can now play Oblivion. I really couldn't run the game on the crappy PC I have so I had to wait. But no longer.
Chose to be a redguard named Peerquin. The controls are very basic on the 360. The one problem I'm having right now is for the hot key items on the D-Pad. Up/Down Left/Right are easy to get. Its the items that are on the diagnol direction. There not so easy to get. Finding that a little frustrating at this point in time.
My improvement suggestion would be pressing up would scroll through a few items you have stored in that direction. So basically you cycle through items in the up direction that you have preset. Same for the other directions. The angled directions are just to awkward.

I'll have to adjust the brightness to my liking for where I have the TV set up. Night time is kind of hard to see when playing with the way the light is on the TV. So thats just an adjustment I have to make.

I'm on my way now to join the dark brotherhood. But I have to go kill someone to join. So I'll see what happens.

Nerfbat has a discussion right now on dialog presentation. Oblivion doesn't seem to give you much choice other than you can say all the responses and it doesn't make a difference. From what I can tell at least in my short playing time.

2 new Halo 2 maps come out soon. Not really interested in them since the Halo 3 beta will be out soon. But there only doing a beta for the matchmaking. But at least I can see how the game controls are working. Still don't think this is going to be the last game in the series. They'll continue the story somehow.

Battlefield Bad Company

EA has been saying that Bad Company will have an 85% destructible environment. Now I only wonder how this is going to work. Since I'm a marshmallow eating smores camper around the fire with the sniper rifle, this is of great interest to me. Will the game keep all the debris throughout the match or will it keep it for a short period of time and then have it disappear like they do in the other games. Example being a truck destroyed. After a set time the blown up truck disappears. Now will that happen with the portion knocked off the building. I would have to say if the side of the building is on the ground it should not miraculously re-build itself. But what about the debris EA? They need to keep it

The other question is whether or not this is for multiplayer and singleplayer?

If the destructible world is not in the multiplayer, well I'll be playing Bad Company as much as 2142. Now if it is in multiplayer and they don't keep the debris on the ground for the entire match, I'll be less annoyed and play it as much as BF2. But that everlasting debris could keep me on that game for a much longer time. I just want the simple satisfaction that if a building is destroyed that it will stay and I can return to my camping ways. I want the same feeling that I get when I watch the movie "Enemy at the Gates". The sniper used that debris to his advantage as a hiding place. It's a simple request. Now simple to do is another song and dance.

Shame on Konami

Shame on you Konami. Subliminal messages in your VLT games. Tisk tisk. www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/25/video-lottery.html

Its bad enough that these machines are set up to percentages where over time the machine wins out. But adding subliminal messages goes over the line. Don't be blaming it on a bug. That seems intentional. What will Konami do next? Rig it so the payouts are lower than reported.

Pool Money

The NHL regular season is coming to an end shortly. Unfortunately I was unable to get my crown back for the Biggest Fantasy Hockey Pool in Southern New Brunswick. Its been away from me for a few years now. Oh how I miss it. But this year it looks like I'm gonna take home second place. Which is not all that bad since I made zero trades. The money helps with the pain of not winning it all. I'm greedy.

In the 11 years we have been doing the fantasy pool I am still the only person to win the regular and playoff pools in the same year. Its like the 72 Dolphins and there perfect season. Its magical when it happens. That year I just had all the stars aligned for me. I was just perfect that year. I was helped out by the aliens (Daniel and Henrik Sedin) and Useless Huselius who was picked in the second to last round. Guy was a stud this year.

Thanks go out to Newelly for hosting the pool every year. www.officepools.com for having a kick ass cheap site to keep track of it all and to all those who come out and donate money to my habits. DBonds that means you too.

On to other things. Crackdown. That is so fitting. It's "crack" alright. I've been done the actual game for a long time now. But I'm still stuck on 499 of 500 agility orbs. How the hell will I find that. Even using a simple glitch to get under the map doesn't help me. I can swim around and do a grid search easier. But the map is so big. The sense of accomplishment when I find it will be awesome. Followed by "Why didn't I check there before. Gosh. Idiot".

Congrats go out to Mike and Judy Upward for being named as a recipient of the Governor General's Caring Canadian Award. Since my brothers played football for him, as did I, I've known them since I was a little kid. With the dedication to football and the kids over the years, they deserve it.

Slot Junky

It has been a little over 4 years now since I began my plunge into the game industry. Not the conventional games that ones may think. Slot jockey type machines (VLT's). I would have thought I would be working on PC/console games. But its a start and I couldn't have asked for much more I guess. Same province and little over an hour's drive from home. Well I could but that would be greedy of me.

What's next in this little adventure I've been thrown on called life. Something new I hope. Life cycles of these games are very short. From development to release is only a few months. I'm gonna say 3 to 4 months. But theres gaps of nothing in the middle. QA side of things can be as short as 4 to 5 weeks. Now Free Spirits is a totally different story. Thats about 3 - 4 years. But with complete graphic and code changes. Probably 3 years of nothing in the middle. But for the most part very short on the game cycle. Platform is again different. Who knows when that will finish. I suspect it might be a long journey.

Since I've been going to football games on the east coast I've been checking out places in the area. Being closer to the games will be a benefit to all of us. When people come down they would have a place to crash instead of hotels and I get to see games more often. The area also seems to be very similar style to what I'm used to. The big city not so much but the suburb type areas are very nice. On our last trip to Hartford to see UCONN play we stayed in Vernon Connecticut. On the way back to Vernon we got a little lost and did a scenic tour. Cool place and very friendly. 99's food rocked.

I recently found www.nerfbat.com . From initial scanning it seems to be all about MMO and some other none game related info. Some interesting points about MMO and technology.

Trying to get back into NCAA 07 lately. www.ncaastrategies.com has a dynasty section. I had started around december to create a Canadian dynasty. That failed when the XBox died. But recently with someone else's XBox I started up another. This time I borrowed slightly from a book I had read and created a Theological school. All players are monks. Which means I suck. But it can also lead to odd storyline plots. The Holy Roller himself the Pope has already made a visit. So far I've stopped from using last names. Just been calling them Brother X Y and Z. I'm thinking when they go off to be priests I'll give them last names. But who knows. Fielding Blue has a good one going with his EZRA Silverbacks. I'm thinking slushies are back now but he won't reveal too me. Damn him.

Anyways. Thats about it for now.

Shift in progress.

No time, no time, no time. Trying to make the shift to something else. It might be a slow process but I'm going for it. I've been reading some good info on what to do and not to do. We'll see what shiftbeyond.com has to offer in advice from others. That and I'm looking small first. Let's be realistic. I'm not going to dominate the world in a day. Maybe 2 but not 1.

Well lets see. What has happen since July. Hmmm. Completely screwed up my shoulder/neck and spent 2 and 1/2 months doing physio. Won't make that mistake again of flipping over the bike handlebars. That takes us to basically christmas. For those that did the math it might seem wrong. Silly me waited a long time before seeing a doctor. Oooops.

That was followed up by a few months of Battlefield 2 game play.

Bought a new living room set and since I had money left over in the budget, I got myself a XBox 360. Crackdown has been too much fun.
That takes us up to now basically.

Rafting Time

OK so I forgot the password. Bla bla bla.

Its been almost 3 months since the deal. Still nothing on the walls as far as pictures and such. But thats my style or no style. Who needs them anyways. Its just a big waste of money for "features".

Car show was this weekend and some of the old school cars were nice. Other than that it was another typical Friday at Navs downing a couple Clancy's and some Vito's pizza. If your ever there on Friday drop in cause the deal is get a Clancy's and then get pizza for free and a ballot to win a trip to Cuba. Ya can't beat that deal. "IT'S A BUDGIE".

The week off went quick but it was still relaxing for the most part to just turn the brain off for a week and just do nothing. Wait I do that at work as it is right now. Had a "fun" time getting the raft in the water at my parents cottage. Put the cement buckets on top of the raft and floated it out to where it was to go. Push the buckets off and let them hit the bottom. Cool were done. NOPE. Oh thats not far enough they say. Well that means the cement blocks at the bottom of the lake need to be pulled out farther. Like another 15 feet farther. If anyone has ever tried to do this they know the diffuculty. Yes the blocks weighed less under water and all that scientific bull crap. But still moving them is a pain in the ass. Dive down and lift. That moves them what 6 inches. Try that for 15 feet and see how you feel. Putting a rope on them helps so you can drag them, but still it sucks. Oh well. The things out there and the kids can have fun. Although there are rules.

Couple of other notes. The movie "Running Scared" with Paul Walker. SUCKS. Don't even bother with it. Trust me. "Puff Puff Pass" Its a stoner movie and thats all I can say. It was interesting but thats it.

Poker Tourney at Pat's. Finished third. Getting kind of boring now. Same people at the end. This time last 3 were myself (small stack of 20% chips), Xaveir aka Fes (41%), and Yves (39%). I kept stealing the blinds with such crap cards. Of the 5 I stole only one was a legitimate starting hand. A Q suited. Other than that had 3 4 off suit way too many times. Good portion of the night all low cards. Final hand I was dealt K J. Yves put me all in I called and Fes followed. 3 way all in. Fes had us both dominated with A J suited while Yves had A 9. In the end Fes took it down. First time he doesn't finish third. Best win of the night. I've got the big blind. Noel is on the button and he raises it the blind amount. The ppl before him had folded. Yves sitting in small folds. I was chip lead on this table at this point. Such a small raise so I just called with 10 5 off suit. Flop comes 10 5 something else. I check and so does he. Turn has another 10. I've gut the nuts so I push him all in with a small stack. He calls. He was chasing a flush draw. Like it matters with my full house. All Yves had to do on the hand was call Noel and I would have folded. Still good night as I got a profit of 20 bucks. I'll take it and run.

I'm out. Self Proclaimed Row 5 Manager.