right. written two and a half scenes today and my inspiration is running out. so i decided to post about the latest game i'm playing.
and no, it's not bayonetta. lordkilljoy hijacked the xbox, so i started trine on the pc. it is the best game i've played in a very, very long time. i love the idea, the setting, the graphics, the level design. i have not played a game that has kept me in the "flow" zone for so long. last night i played from 8 to 11pm and i thought it was about 20 minutes. to me, that is a sign of masterful game design. and each of the levels is short enough that you don't have time to get bored. i'm sort of playing going, "ahh, no. i don't want this game to end, ever."
the idea behind the game is that you have three characters who are stuck in a magical device called a trine and you can swap which character you play at will. they each have different abilities and you need all of them to solve the puzzles in each level.
the levels themselves are well laid out, side-scroller style. you can only go forward or back (and jump) and you have to use the terrain and your powers to get from one side to the other, collecting as many treasures as you can get to. and some of the treasures are hidden away in very nooky places that take a while to figure out a route to.
so yea. it's good. i don't have much else newsworthy. it snowed yesterday for a bit. no longer exciting. just cold. because it was miserable wet snow.
ah well. we cooked chicken tikka last night, using shan spices. shan make the best spice packets ever. and marinating chicken does amazing things to it.
right so. bye then.
p.s - we also have the new borderlands dlc to play. i'm kind of excited about that too.
24 February 2010
22 February 2010
metroid prime and other news
i may or may not have mentioned that i'm playing metroid prime at the moment. and i also may or may not have mentioned that it is the hardest adventure game i have ever played in my entire life. so this is the official announcement that i am giving up on it and am going to play bayonetta instead.
after 17 hours of play i was only half way through metroid. i definitley don't think the designers had intended it to be that long. i just kept getting lost and falling off ledges when i was almost at the top of a room, and being annoyed by the constantly respawning monsters. when you go the wrong way as often as i did you get really annoyed having to kill the same guys over and over again.
so yea. i might go back to it at some stage, but i've had enough of ending the night in a sort of post-rage-quit haze.
also, this weekend, i tried playing rock band drums on hard. it was hard. but i think i managed to get 70% once on one song. or was that bass on hard. yea - i think that was bass. bass on hard is actually somewhat easy. except for when you have to slide you whole hand down one to hit the orange notes. then it just gets confusing.
ooh, yea. i have officially been unemployed for a whole year now. that's kind of mad. i'll be finished draft 2 in about 2 weeks and will start looking for work then. one whole year to get from draft one-point-five to draft two. that seems like a very long time. admittedly, it took me six months to realize i actually had to rewrite the entirety of chapter one. once i figured that out it was smooth sailing.
after 17 hours of play i was only half way through metroid. i definitley don't think the designers had intended it to be that long. i just kept getting lost and falling off ledges when i was almost at the top of a room, and being annoyed by the constantly respawning monsters. when you go the wrong way as often as i did you get really annoyed having to kill the same guys over and over again.
so yea. i might go back to it at some stage, but i've had enough of ending the night in a sort of post-rage-quit haze.
also, this weekend, i tried playing rock band drums on hard. it was hard. but i think i managed to get 70% once on one song. or was that bass on hard. yea - i think that was bass. bass on hard is actually somewhat easy. except for when you have to slide you whole hand down one to hit the orange notes. then it just gets confusing.
ooh, yea. i have officially been unemployed for a whole year now. that's kind of mad. i'll be finished draft 2 in about 2 weeks and will start looking for work then. one whole year to get from draft one-point-five to draft two. that seems like a very long time. admittedly, it took me six months to realize i actually had to rewrite the entirety of chapter one. once i figured that out it was smooth sailing.
18 February 2010
fainting from cold?
does cold affect anyone else like electricity? if i put my hand into cold water, the shock travels up and arm and attacks my heart and lungs. i was cleaning out nymph's tank today and the water was so cold and so much of my arm was submerged for so long that i almost fainted. just kind of wondering if i'm alone in this?
15 February 2010
a slow day
kind of a slow day today - i think i only wrote about 300 words. but it's better than nothing. i've been suffering apathy all day - i just can't make any decisions. i even went for a walk (on the advisement of lordkilljoy) and i couldn't decide where i wanted to go. haaaaaaa (that's a sigh). i ended up walking to the meath border (6km round trip - i made it to within a quarter km of the border, wasn't sure how far it was).
then i had lunch, settled down to write, got a little done, got annoyed at the vagaries of my internet connection (it's still misbehaving) and decided to clean up my background processes. so i cut out about 5 processes that i wasn't using and timed my bootup. it takes 30 seconds to the login screen and another 30 to load up programs. and this is a 7 and a half year old computer. i think i'm doing well. (my god, my computer is old.) 7 and a half years of love - it's no wonder lordkilljoy can't get me to buy a new one. it would be like putting down a beloved pet who is in the nick of health (is that even a proper phrase?).
anyway.
i'm playing metroid prime at the moment (on the wii - it's the first time i've invested a significant amount of hours on a game for this console). it's good, but annoying in places. i think if i was playing with hints off i'd have given up in utter frustration by now. modern games have made me soft - i want everything to be easy and laid out for me. but saying all that - i am enjoying it.
right. i don't really have anything else to say.
then i had lunch, settled down to write, got a little done, got annoyed at the vagaries of my internet connection (it's still misbehaving) and decided to clean up my background processes. so i cut out about 5 processes that i wasn't using and timed my bootup. it takes 30 seconds to the login screen and another 30 to load up programs. and this is a 7 and a half year old computer. i think i'm doing well. (my god, my computer is old.) 7 and a half years of love - it's no wonder lordkilljoy can't get me to buy a new one. it would be like putting down a beloved pet who is in the nick of health (is that even a proper phrase?).
anyway.
i'm playing metroid prime at the moment (on the wii - it's the first time i've invested a significant amount of hours on a game for this console). it's good, but annoying in places. i think if i was playing with hints off i'd have given up in utter frustration by now. modern games have made me soft - i want everything to be easy and laid out for me. but saying all that - i am enjoying it.
right. i don't really have anything else to say.
10 February 2010
more net connection troubles
so, my internet has been on and off all day. i know it's not the drivers or any programs clashing because i sorted all that back in november (or whenever it was). that's leaves one thing in my mind and that's the flow of data over the air itself. the dongle thingy that gives my computer wireless access is down the back of my computer, 3 or 4 walls, me and the hunk of metal that is the computer away from the router. the connection was coming up as very good, rather than the usual excellent. so i got a little usb extender thingy and now the dongle is on top of my computer and the signal strenght is excellent :)
hopefully it won't crash out any more.
hopefully it won't crash out any more.
diane duane
i came back in here after having lunch in the kitchen and i said to myself, "it's warm and it smells nice in here." what more could i want. it's so warm, in fact, that i've taken my jumper off. but now that it is off i'm wondering should i put it back on. i'll give it ten minutes and see. (edit ten minutes later - i put it back on.)
i had some other big news that i meant to say yesterday. warpcon was the weekend before last and diane duane and peter morwood were special guests. i may have mentioned diane duane on here before. i first read high wizardry when i was 10 or something and i loved it. it was the third book in a series so i went back and read the other 2. then on our world travels i picked up the rest of the series (to book 7) in a borders somewhere (malaysia, i think) and enjoyed them. i also loved her series about a group of cat wizards who guard the inter-dimensional portals in the new york subways. in fact, those books made me fall in love with new york without ever having been there.
so anyway. on saturday i went in to warpcon specifically to meet diane and ask her about getting published. i spoke to both her and peter and we could have chatted for hours (but i had to go). she had so much to say, from the use of a dictaphone and speech software (dragon) to peter showing me how he uses five different coloured pens for the five different novels he's writing at the moment. it was brilliant.
i love my new space. the sun shone in the window for the whole morning (it's clouded over a little now).
penelope_stone and liam are up on friday, just for the night. then they are off to scotland.
and we might be going to galway on saturday. that would be good. i like visiting catherine. thier house is very home-y.
i had some other big news that i meant to say yesterday. warpcon was the weekend before last and diane duane and peter morwood were special guests. i may have mentioned diane duane on here before. i first read high wizardry when i was 10 or something and i loved it. it was the third book in a series so i went back and read the other 2. then on our world travels i picked up the rest of the series (to book 7) in a borders somewhere (malaysia, i think) and enjoyed them. i also loved her series about a group of cat wizards who guard the inter-dimensional portals in the new york subways. in fact, those books made me fall in love with new york without ever having been there.
so anyway. on saturday i went in to warpcon specifically to meet diane and ask her about getting published. i spoke to both her and peter and we could have chatted for hours (but i had to go). she had so much to say, from the use of a dictaphone and speech software (dragon) to peter showing me how he uses five different coloured pens for the five different novels he's writing at the moment. it was brilliant.
i love my new space. the sun shone in the window for the whole morning (it's clouded over a little now).
penelope_stone and liam are up on friday, just for the night. then they are off to scotland.
and we might be going to galway on saturday. that would be good. i like visiting catherine. thier house is very home-y.
09 February 2010
the news of the last week and a half
right, i have heaps of news, starting with the cutest.
we bought a bird feeder thing in tesco about a month ago - a coconut shell filled with seeds and a kind of lard mixture. we had it out the front and in 3 weeks no bird touched it. last week i moved it to the back and i just checked it there and it's completely eaten. that's kinda cool. clearly the back of the apartment is superior to the front and that's where i live now :)
which moves me nicely on to my next bit of news - my computer is now in the spare room :) i have my old computer desk, liam's chair and a rad beside me. the only things i miss are the arms from my old chair. but i'm sure i'll get used to things. i even had to close down the blind a little because the sun was shining in my eyes. wooo.
now on to the not so cute and happy news. the reason i stayed down in cork for almost a week and a half (when it was only meant to be a weekend) is because joan (my aunt) died on saturday night (early sunday morning). it came as a bit of a shock but everyone knew the day would come at some stage. and now no one needs to worry any more because she's better of where she is, i imagine.
so we had the funeral and the cremation on thursday and then i decided to stay the weekend and got the train back today. in one way it was good, because i got to see aunts i'd not seen in years.
yea, so. i'm going to go now - i need to bring the rest of my stuff out of the kitchen. it's all the finickity (sic) stuff that i have so much of and that i have to try to re-home on this desk somewhere.
right - bye.
we bought a bird feeder thing in tesco about a month ago - a coconut shell filled with seeds and a kind of lard mixture. we had it out the front and in 3 weeks no bird touched it. last week i moved it to the back and i just checked it there and it's completely eaten. that's kinda cool. clearly the back of the apartment is superior to the front and that's where i live now :)
which moves me nicely on to my next bit of news - my computer is now in the spare room :) i have my old computer desk, liam's chair and a rad beside me. the only things i miss are the arms from my old chair. but i'm sure i'll get used to things. i even had to close down the blind a little because the sun was shining in my eyes. wooo.
now on to the not so cute and happy news. the reason i stayed down in cork for almost a week and a half (when it was only meant to be a weekend) is because joan (my aunt) died on saturday night (early sunday morning). it came as a bit of a shock but everyone knew the day would come at some stage. and now no one needs to worry any more because she's better of where she is, i imagine.
so we had the funeral and the cremation on thursday and then i decided to stay the weekend and got the train back today. in one way it was good, because i got to see aunts i'd not seen in years.
yea, so. i'm going to go now - i need to bring the rest of my stuff out of the kitchen. it's all the finickity (sic) stuff that i have so much of and that i have to try to re-home on this desk somewhere.
right - bye.
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