Stumbleupon

Stumbleupon is an addon for firefox that brings you to webpages that you'll like.

Really like. I promise it's great.

It's here.

Guess what? Now you're an insomniac.

Our first follower!

That's right! I have a follower! Yay!

Edit: Whoah, another one! I'm rolling! I better get that review written up!

SPORE review

Spore. Made by the creator of The Sims. This game was supposed to be fantastic, but when I played it, I had quite a different opinion.

I’ll split up.

Who: EA.
What: A game where you lead a species from a cellular level to an intergalactic level.
When: All time periods in which life existed.
Where: Across millions of galaxies.
Why: Because it’s a genre’ never explored before.

I’ll split my review in to a few separate parts, judging each part on all of the five stages: cellular, animal, tribal, civilization, and galactic. The categories will be freedom, fun, graphics, and a conclusion.


Cellular: The premise of this stage is that you’re a cell. It plays like an arcade game, and you simply go around and try to collect food for
yourself to progress to the next stage.

Freedom: Not too much freedom. It’s like an arcade game.

Fun: Very fun and refreshing. I quite enjoyed this part. You avoid enemies and collect food in a 2-D environment. It’s simple, yet effective.

Graphics: The graphics are great. Everything looks novel and beautiful. Very colorful. This game in general has a distinctive, interesting style of
graphics.

Conclusion: This section, although, short, is quite refreshing, and reminds you that something simple, if well done, can still be a great experience. Just look at the thousands of flash games out there that, although simple, are loads of fun.

Animal: This section is rather boring. It consists of you going around as an animal, and either killing or making friends with other tribes.

Freedom: You have two options: friend or foe. Foe will get you ass raped instantly, so you have to resort to singing and dancing in front of other creatures. Not only is this boring, stupid, and repetitive, but embarrassing. There is an element of being able to create your own creature, which is fun, but quickly becomes boring.

Fun: This section is not fun. I believe I’ve already covered the reasons for that.

Graphics: Graphics are fine, but not great. Nothing really new and inventive.

Conclusion: This section is both boring and terribly done. It scores low in all categories.

Tribal: This section plays a bit like a RTS. You command a small tribe of creatures from the previous stage to make friends with or attack enemies. One side note: it’s impossible on all difficulties save the easiest. Utterly impossible. I fancy myself as a average Starcraft player, able to multitask, prioritize, and strategize well, but I found it to be completely overwhelming. Being attacked by six enemy tribes randomly while trying to give a peace gift to your allies DOES NOT WORK.

Freedom: You’re pretty much railroaded with two choices. Friend or foe. This time, with some extreme strategy, destroying an enemy is actually possible. You’re given a little choice with your tribal garb, but that doesn’t really matter. In general, you have some freedom, but not much.

Fun: This mode is relatively fun. You’re engaged in combat constantly, so trying to fend that off while doing other important tasks such as gathering food, helping allies, and actually making progress in the game.

Graphics: Graphics are… meh. ‘Bout same as the animal section.

Conclusion: This section is… meh. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. I found it mildly enjoyable.

Civilization: In civilization, you command multiple cities of your species that you established in the animal phase. There are three goals: to collect “spice” from mines, to take over cities through economic means, and destroy enemy cities.

Freedom: You’re limited to competing the three goals mentioned above. You can have some fun creating buildings, ships, airplanes, and cars, but other than that, you’re not given too much freedom.

Fun: This part of the game is pretty fun, but lasts a very short amount of time. I enjoyed commanding my cities and making the dozens of various buildings and vehicles mentioned above.

Graphics: Graphics are pretty good in this part of the game. It’s the first part that you actually get a large overview of a large perspective of the planet that you inhabit.

Conclusion: This mode is enjoyable, but short.

Galactic: This phase is where you command a space ship through the universe as we know it. You can see millions of user created species, interact with enemies and allies, and slowly build up your abilities, allowing you do more and more things.

Freedom: This is the most free stage of the game. You’re given an entire universe to explore, and intergalactic race to manage, enemies to crush with proton missiles.

Fun: This mode is pretty fun. It gets overwhelming quickly if you try to attack enemies, as you’ll be managing dozens of enemy attacks on your planets. It’s frustrating, as you have to do countless dumb errands.

Graphics: The graphics are absolutely amazing in this part. You explore vast galaxies, solar systems, and planets, with beautiful landscapes.

Conclusion: This mode is plenty of fun. It’s huge, too. You go from barely being able to destroy a single enemy to having powers to destroy entire worlds. I enjoyed this mode plenty.

Final say: 87%. It has its problems, but it’s a good game very inventive.

NWN2 part, II

This is a review for the PC game, Neverwinternights 2.
Let’s take it through the steps:

Who: Atari
What: An RPG sequel based on the Pen and Dice game, Dungeons and Dragons.
When: Medieval times, came out a few years back
Where: A land infested with, trolls, dragons, orcs, evil people, and hundreds of NPC.
Why: It got reviews from 8.5/10 to 9.5/10, so I considered it worth my hand.

The first thing you need to understand is that it’s a natural sequel to the first one. It’s a sequel. You’ve seen them before, and you know how they work. This one pretty much follows the rules.

I’d better do a short review on the first one.

Neverwinter nights:

Who: Bioware
What: A game based on the Pen and Dice game, Dungeons and Dragons.
When: Medieval times, came out a bunch of years ago
Where: A land infested with, trolls, dragons, orcs, evil people, and hundreds of NPC.
Why: It got reviews from 8.5/10 to 10/10, so I considered it worth my hand.

First of all, I gotta hand it to them. Bioware did a feaking awesome job. At first this game looks like a basic point and click game like Diablo, but this isn’t the case. This is a complex game with dozens upon dozens of sidequests, more freedom than you’ve seen in any game since Oblivion, and an amazing combat system. I really like to break things down, so let’s do so. In five catagories: Freedom, combat, social interaction, plot, and a conclusion.

Freedom: This. Game. Is. Wonderful. There are gigantic cities. Huge ones. Every single door opens, and inside is a tasty little side quest for you. These aren’t dumb little errands, these are plot points where you’re hacking and slashing through tribes of orcs, and finding the little boy timmy. In every part of the game, it lays out choices on what you want to do first. The moment you leave the training level, you get to choose between fighting zombies, escapes convicts, mercenaries, and random thieves, all of which you’ll have to do eventually. You’re given the choice to be good or evil, chaotic or lawful, but this doesn’t impact too much in the game. It still allows for fun roleplaying.

Combat: D&D is set up as a turn based game, but this defiantly doesn’t play as a turn based game. The entire thing is completely real time. You have dozen of fighting abilities, and over 100 spells to choose from. You and your henchmen can do some seriously fun stuff with the combat.

Social interaction: This comes back to the freedom aspect of the game. You’re given dozens of choices in every conversation, which allow you to say what you want at every possible turn. Talking is constant, tool. It’s not just a hack and slash game, and this defiantly adds to it.

Plot: The plot is great. I can’t say too much to ruin it, but the basic premise is that you’re trying to save a city. This is a little awkward if you’re playing an evil character, but you don’t have a choice. Eventually, you do save the city, but a long line of events lead you back into an epic battle with a key character. In the final parts of the story, you go through a very difficult, yet rewarding ending which leaves you happy and ready for a sequel.

Conclusion: This game is great. A 9.5/10. It scored great in all categories, and has fantastic replayability.

Now, let’s do the same for NWN2.

Freedom: Meh. You’re pretty much railroaded most of the game. Remember those doors I mentioned in the gigantic cities? They’re locked. And the sidequests, you ask? Gone. It tries, but fails to give you a sense of freedom.

Combat: Combat isn’t too different, as it still relies on the same principles. There is one huge difference. In NWN, you had a single henchman, a character of equal level of a chosen class that accompanies you as you see fit. This allows you to compliment your character nicely. If you’re a spellcaster, choose the fighter. If you’re a fighter, choose the spellcaster. In NWN2, they took this to a whole new level. They made an entire party of charters. You’re allowed to choose up to four people to accompany you and help you. This makes combat a little bland, as instead of worrying about killing the enemy, you’re worrying about your allies. It does eliminate all those annoying “134 fire damage” traps they had in NWN. I hate walking up to a door, and spontaneously combusting and dying.

Social interaction: What social interaction? Seriously, you now can barely talk to anyone. Sure, you talk to your annoying bosses that you have to report to, but beyond that, it’s almost null. They tried to add an element of talking to your party members, but failed.

Plot: The plot is totally railroading, and not very riveting at all. I’m not totally done yet, so I can’t give a full review in this aspect yet.

Conclusion: 5/10. A pretty crappy game. No replayability, and scores low in all catagories.

The new over 9000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz3nWY_fegw&watch_response

It's a giant worm!

134 pages of gold

 Check out this link.

Ah.... Human stpidity at its best.  Reminds me of:

     A customer enters a pet shop.
     Mr. Praline: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
     (The owner does not respond.)
     Mr. Praline: 'Ello, Miss?
     Owner: What do you mean "miss"?
     Mr. Praline: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
     Owner: We're closin' for lunch.
     Mr. Praline: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
     Owner: Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?
     Mr. Praline: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!
     Owner: No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.
     Mr. Praline: Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
     Owner: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
     Mr. Praline: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.
     Owner: Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!
     Mr. Praline: All right then, if he's restin', I'll wake him up! (shouting at the cage) 'Ello, Mister Polly Parrot! I've got a lovely fresh cuttle fish for you if you
     show...
     (owner hits the cage)
     Owner: There, he moved!
     Mr. Praline: No, he didn't, that was you hitting the cage!
     Owner: I never!!
     Mr. Praline: Yes, you did!
     Owner: I never, never did anything...
     Mr. Praline: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) 'ELLO POLLY!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o'clock alarm call!
     (Takes parrot out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
     Mr. Praline: Now that's what I call a dead parrot.
     Owner: No, no.....No, 'e's stunned!
     Mr. Praline: STUNNED?!?
     Owner: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.
     Mr. Praline: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf an hour
     ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.
     Owner: Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.
     Mr. Praline: PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home?
     Owner: The Norwegian Blue prefers keepin' on it's back! Remarkable bird, id'nit, squire? Lovely plumage!
     Mr. Praline: Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the
     first place was that it had been NAILED there.
     (pause)
     Owner: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and
     VOOM! Feeweeweewee!
     Mr. Praline: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!
     Owner: No no! 'E's pining!
     Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
     rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the
     bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
     (pause)
     Owner: Well, I'd better replace it, then. (he takes a quick peek behind the counter) Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the back of the shop, and uh,
     we're right out of parrots.
     Mr. Praline: I see. I see, I get the picture.
     Owner: I got a slug.
     (pause)
     Mr. Praline: Pray, does it talk?
     Owner: Nnnnot really.
     Mr. Praline: WELL IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?
     Owner: N-no, I guess not. (gets ashamed, looks at his feet)
     Mr. Praline: Well.
     (pause)
     Owner: (quietly) D'you.... d'you want to come back to my place?
     Mr. Praline: (looks around) Yeah, all right, sure.

Democracy is dead

Damn.

linuix

Well, I'm runing linuix through ubuntu on one of my computers now.  I get to learn how to use a totally new operating system!  Don't quite know how I'll manage it, but I think I'll be fine. 

A song.

My friend made a song.  Do check it out.  It's good stuff.