July 2007

Well Australia’s Asian cup campaign has been rocky so far. Their first few games were terrible. Embarrassing even. Yet somehow they managed to scrape through into the finals. Thailand really had a good case for progressing.

Now they’re in for a showdown with Japan, who they kicked out of the World cup last year. Hopefully they can make a game of it. Japan are looking pretty good.

It’s amazing how quickly the media can turn on a team. The moment they aren’t playing well, they disown them. Being a fan means you have to stick with them even when they aren’t doing too good.

The world game really does some bizarre things to your health. Apparently every world cup there is a major spike in heart attacks. There was talk that FIFA should be making health warnings. The Asian cup hasn’t generated that kind of excitement here yet, the Japan game might though. If we get past them things will really get interesting. Hopefully Australia has it’s form back.

I really don’t know why I care so much about Football (soccer), I don’t give a shit about any other football code (or most sport). In fact I actively hate some of them and the meat heads that surround them. I think it’s the fault of my Dad and his West Ham heritage.

Kotaku has a short piece on their time with the upcoming game The Witcher. It’s looking good. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long long time. Since before I began following NWN2, which is years ago.

When I was eagerly awaiting NWN2, I remember deluding myself into thinking that they had more then enough time for development. That building a new rendering engine from scratch with only 2 short years was plenty of time. That tacking on a prettier interface would be all that was required to turn NWN into a modern slick game. Ah well, it didn’t turn out. NWN2 is plagued by some of the worst load times I’ve encountered. It runs like a sick dog on my system, while other more graphically impressive games run like a dream. Oh and the much lauded toolset needs at least 2 gig free memory to not crash repeatedly, and it will still be cumbersome and horrible.

Anyway, luckily CDProjekt have been making the game I’ve been dreaming would exist for years. And they have been spending the years required to do it. Browsing a few major sites will show you how pretty it looks. The official site has a very impressive trailer. Beautiful even.

But I think the aspect most interesting to me is that there will be no ridiculous alignment system. Good and evil is all a matter of perspective. I’ve always been shitted off by the DnD alignment system that every rpg seems to emulate to some degree (either that or you can only be ‘good’). In fact I once mathematically proved that such an alignment system is fundamentally inadequate for describing a moral system, it was very hand wavy.

I’ve dreamed of an rpg that does away with it all together. Why should we have a conversation choice that is essentially good, neutral or evil? They aren’t literally that choice, but they stand out like obelisks. How often would a person make a choice like that in the real world? Almost never. Not to mention systems based on that always enforce upon the player predefined ideas of what good and evil is. (Fallout 3 has been talked up alot with exactly that mechanic and it makes me have no faith in it. Having played Oblivion I’m not convinced they know what a story really is).

The Witcher breaks this tradition. I know I’m getting my hopes up, but it just sounds so good! The story sounds captivating and unconventional. The fighting even sounds fun in it’s own right, which is unusual for an rpg.

My PC is aching in anticipation.

I’ve been meaning to rant about how crap the season finale of Doctor Who was.

Russell T Davies is a shockingly bad writer, I’m hoping he sticks to being the boss next season and lets the talent do the scripts. That is after we are inflicted with his christmas special starring Kylie Minogue trying to act.

I’m not really good at coherent rants however so I direct this post towards this blog. I’m so happy to see that there are people don’t rate the finale as the “best who eva!”

My hopes for next season are that RTD stops writing, let him inflict his scripts on Torchwood. I love Torchwood, but it seems a far more suitable medium for his sensationalist over the top stories. The other hopes are that they deal with Martha’s character intelligently, and that they get Steven Moffat (who wrote the episode Blink) to write a few.

Blink was by far the best episode of the series and that says a lot for the writer when the Doctor and Martha were barely in it, yet great when they were. Steven Moffat, I am your fan!

Okay big spoiler rant follows:
Read the rest of this entry »

I have one semester of study left. At last.

I’ve one class left and a thesis to write. The class will be on group representations. It should be hard. Good luck me.

Ahh Jade how I miss you.

Women Who Changed Gaming: Part 5 - Jade