Blessed be Your name Tuesday, Jan 20 2009

Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in Lord still I will say “Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be Your name.”

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Littlebigplanet: Annoying! Thursday, Jan 8 2009

This review is very very biased because I have only played the single player, (and the bulk of the game is multiplayer which sucks for me because I’m using wireless router and the connection is uber-slow), and I haven’t mentioned the good points, and there sure are many good points, but if you want to read them, go to game review sites.

Now I know this game is the loved by many, except xbox360 fanboys, and I am by no means an xbox360 fanboy. But, I can’t believe I actually say this, I hate this game. The game doesn’t suck, the idea is truly novel, the graphics are cute, and sackboy is adorable. But there are just so many things about the single player that is preventing me from enjoying the game as much as the others do.

- Clunky controls. The controls are seriously bad. For those who are used to the super mario style of movement, you press right he will move right you let go he will stop, they will have to get used to the sackboy way of movement. You move right and he will accelerate, you let go, he will decelerate before stopping. If you judge poorly he will just fall off a canyon or something and one life is gone.

- Bad jumps. What else can I say? Somehow each jump produces a different result, depending on how you pressed the jump button. WTH RIGHT! The jumps have to be carefully timed. If they are timed badly, again, sackboy falls off a ledge and dies. And too many times does the game have segments involving jumping across small platforms, which is extremely … urgh…

- Bad level estimator. What does this mean? As littlebigplanet is a 3D game in a super-mario-ish environment sometimes a particular area has levels, for example, a level that is further from the screen and a level that is nearer from the screen. Of course one can move between the levels by moving the analog up and down. But what if you are at a far level, and you want to jump onto a ledge at a nearer level? The game tries to predict what level you will reach and about 50% of the time it guessed right. The other 50% of the time you will miss, and possibly fall off a ledge and die.

- Over-sensitive physics. Littlebigplanet prides itself for the realistic physics. Unfortunately the realism is also a contributory factor to the annoyance of the game. Things supposed to drop but get stuck – due to friction. Things supposed to face one way but landed on another way due to unstable equilibrium, totally stopping the game progression altogether and you will have to restart the level.

- Awkward camera angle. Yes, and there are times which makes it even more difficult to move from point A to point B, simply because the camera angle is so baaaaad.

- Single difficulty level. Some levels are way too easy. Yet others are way too difficult for the above-mentioned reasons. First, there was a level that requires sackboy to carry explosives from one end to the other to blow up some styrofoam obstruction. The challenge? He has to pass through three spikes. They are rather near each other. You don’t stop at the space between the spikes properly? You get struck by the spikes and die. You stop properly but the explosives swing slightly and get touched by the spikes? It blows up and you die. You try to move but somehow you just slightly bang into a spike as it is moving up? The explosive blows up and you die. You try to move but there is a damn elevated wood that makes you stuck for 0.1 second? The spike moves down and hits the explosive which blows up and you die. You grab the explosive too fast and it drags the other explosive along? You guessed it, both blow up and you die. C’mon man this is for ages 7 and up what’s with this difficulty?

I managed to pass that level. However, after I get stuck in the very next level, this superbly irritating mine zone where you have to hold on to spinning wheels to avoid the fire, and die so many times, (and just when I have passed through one such segment alive, I am greeted with YET ANOTHER spinning wheel segment), I decided this is it. I’m giving the game break for now. It’s too irritating I can’t even bring myself to like sackboy. Hell I can’t bring myself to like the game. Maybe I expected too much of the game. I have equally frustration levels playing grand theft auto, but somehow I have never really hated grand theft auto as much as I hate littlebigplanet now. Definitely not best game of the year.

(And yup I think after I’ve cooled down, and in the event that I passed those levels, I will join the crowd in hailing littlebigplanet as cool and awesome. If I ever pass those levels.)

 

——————————

Anyway, on a side note, it seems EVERYONE, or at least, everyone’s brothers, are playing left 4 dead.

And I have concrete evidence!

8/1/2009		12:47:45 AM		TuitionBay || Edvocation || Thanks to my complaints, they finally installed the Urine Detection Device!		stan.		hey
8/1/2009		12:47:46 AM		TuitionBay || Edvocation || Thanks to my complaints, they finally installed the Urine Detection Device!		stan.		****
8/1/2009		12:47:50 AM		TuitionBay || Edvocation || Thanks to my complaints, they finally installed the Urine Detection Device!		stan.		i played left 4 dead today!
8/1/2009		12:47:53 AM		TuitionBay || Edvocation || Thanks to my complaints, they finally installed the Urine Detection Device!		stan.		DAMN FUN

 

8/1/2009

12:16:01 AM

shiqing

stan.

my bro addicted to left 4 dead

 

1/1/2009		11:13:34 PM		R and MC.		stan., zeft, KOFplayer™ – jh [19]		hon is playing
1/1/2009		11:13:40 PM		R and MC.		stan., zeft, KOFplayer™ – jh [19]		the same game as my brother

1/1/2009		11:14:20 PM		stan.		zeft, KOFplayer™ – jh [19], R and MC.		lol
1/1/2009		11:14:20 PM		stan.		zeft, KOFplayer™ – jh [19], R and MC.		what game?
1/1/2009		11:14:33 PM		stan.		zeft, KOFplayer™ – jh [19], R and MC.		hello gusy
1/1/2009		11:14:34 PM		R and MC.		stan., zeft, KOFplayer™ – jh [19]		left 4 dead

 

3/1/2009		4:14:50 PM		qx		stan.		lol
3/1/2009		4:14:53 PM		qx		stan.		my brother playing l4d now

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To die and to live Sunday, Jan 4 2009

Some food for thought which came to my mind during today’s Sunday School.

All along I have prepared a politically-correct answer when people ask me (though none has asked me yet), hey if you are a Christian does that mean you are willing to die for Christ?

Erm, yea, I guess. Oh! But it must not be a painful death… I’m damn scared of pain. (Maybe can throw in a comfortable bed to lie on, time to say goodbye to my loved ones, bury my parents, and a delicious last meal to go with it.)

Ok, of course the latter part is an exaggeration. But the real, and possibly bigger challenge, rather, is are we willing to spend our whole lives to live for Christ?

Something to seriously consider hur.

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Fallout 3: Thoughts Saturday, Jan 3 2009

I have just completed the currently most popular video game: Fallout 3. It has been an experience, so here are my thoughts on the game. I tend to compare Fallout 3 with Oblivion a lot though.

[may have minor spoilers]

Fallout 3 takes place in post-apocalyptic era in America. During the 1950s, a nuclear war between USA and China destroyed much of the world. The world after that war was a hell to live in, with total lack of resources to rebuild what has been bombed down, hence the civilization has been stuck in the 50s ever since. Water is irradiated, and people suffer from radiation problems and die. Mutated monsters lurk the wastelands, as well as cold-blooded people not hestitating to shoot on sight. Economy was in shambles and the  ideal new currency is “bottle caps”, since they are available in some abundance throughout the places, yet are limited in numbers because the technology to synthesize bottle caps has been lost.

So the story begins in an enclosed safe haven amidst the perilous world known as the Vault 101. (By the way vaults are built by government to “supposedly” provide safe shelters for its citizens and allowing them to start rebuilding the society from scratch). The main player lived all his teenaged life in the Vault, with dangers limiting to bullies and abject boredom. Then suddenly his father escaped from the Vault, his father’s friend was gunned down by the Overseer in charge of the Vault, and the game truly begins with the player leaving the vault in search for his father, and figuring out why he left the vault in the first place.

Having played some Fallout 2 before, I can see the efforts done to make Fallout 3 faithful to its predecessors, more will be elaborated in detail later. The system of Action Points used in Combat, the “SPECIAL” character creation system, skills, perks, Karma system from the previous Fallout have been retained in Fallout 3. Some minor things like Traits have been removed though. You even encounter memorable weapons and NPCs from the previous game. Guilds like Brotherhood of Steel etc. also play important roles in the main quest line. Deathclaws remain the most fearsome creatures one encounters in the wasteland, and you can still gain skill points by reading unique books.

That aside, there are also many aspects of Fallout 3 that do not resemble Fallout 2 at all. Being made by Bethesda softworks, it is not surprising that Fallout 3 resembles a lot like Oblivion too. Ghouls sound like Argonians, conversation with some characters end with “xxx be with you.” , most urgent quests can be delayed for years while you take your time to explore the wasteland to do the side quests. Thankfully the annoying features of Oblivion such as forced leveling of only useful skills, and level-dependent random creatures, have been removed. As such, I love Fallout 3 as much as I like Oblivion.

While the main quest line is a linear story, at any point in time (unless the main quest involved something urgent like leading a group of scientist to escape a building) the player is able to leave whatever he is doing and venture into the world, exploring, finding new places to visit and helping / hurting other people in the process. The world is vast, with lots and lots of locations scattered, many are not involved in the main quest at all. Hence exploration is incredibly fun and engaging. You will chance upon supermarkets, cinemas, schools, hotels, hospitals, other vaults etc. in their apocalyptic state, and unlike Oblivion and its generic places (think Mushy Cave, Woody Cave, Sandy Cave), every location has been intricately designed to mimic the real thing. American monumental ruins look just like the actual buildings you see now. You will find stretchers and blood bags in hospitals, as well as bars and dining tables in restaurants. And almost every place has its own story / side quest to do, some of which are pretty sinister and creepy. There is a town with overly-friendly residents harbouring a deadly secret, a vault where gross experiments were performed on its residents, a cave overridden by some of the scariest monsters you’ll encounter, and a Chulthu Mythos-inspired dungeon. And part of the fun in the game is piecing the info together to find out what really happened in this place, by hacking terminals, reading diarys and journals, or talking to nearby wastelanders etc.

The main quest line is also pretty engaging, though spoilt by the final ending. I was rather peeved when Bethesda advertised Fallout 3 as having multiple endings, each depending on the choices the character makes. This is a blatant lie because firstly the “multiple” endings are almost the same, and secondly they so do not depend on the choices made by the character until the very last quest. And speaking of the ending, it’s really rather lame and anti-climax. Another fairly annoying issue is that you cannot continue playing the game after the last main quest. The game ends there. Hence, one may feel that all the training, ammo stockpiling etc. and stuff are in vain.

That said, while the ending is quite frankly speaking, rubbish effort on Bethesda’s part, the gameplay itself is deeply affected by the choices of the player. This is mainly due to the Karma system adopted from previous Fallout series. A kind deed such as feeding a homeless man will result in positive Karma, while blowing up a town unnecessarily will result in negative Karma. Depending on your karma NPCs will react / and reward differently. Note that negative karma doesn’t mean inconvenience in every way, since many NPCs will only join you as a companion if you are evil. And being an open game, one can imagine how good, or how evil a person can be. You can go all lengths to help a person, some of whom may reward you periodically in the future, or steal money from a person whenever you become broke, or even resort to cannibalism to replenish hit points. You can take a stand against the slavers in the game by killing them, resulting in positive karma, or get a slave yourself, earning a negative karma.

Apart from karma, there are several things the player has to look out for when playing the game. Probably the most important thing besides health and ammo, is the radiation level. Much of the waters and food that you encounter are severely radiated, even though they do replenish health. There are also radiation zones scattered throughout the map, hence it seems inevitable that you will at some point in time get radiation sickness. One has to take radiation lowering pills, or radiation enhancing pills, or wear radiation suits, to counter such effects. Another thing to note is the issue of item decay, where the player needs to repair his weapons and apparel every once in a while. So don’t throw away any extra weapons you find, because they are the ingredients for repair!

Just like its predecessors, Fallout 3 is not without its questionable elements. One can take several forms of drugs and alcohol to boost stats temporarily, but taking too much will result in addiction. The drug Med X was initially named Morphine, until the Australian censors threatened to ban the game altogether. Violence is usually very gory, made even more so by the Bloody Mess perk (you’ll see for yourself), just like the previous Fallout.  Other features of the game include pickpocketing, lockpicking, disabling of robots, and hacking of terminals. These features are really simply fun mini games which are not essential in the game but good to know, and quite a lot of fun to play. I have completed all the main quests and all but one of the side quests without hacking a single terminal (because I was lazy to figure out how), hence hacking / lockpicking etc. is really not that essential. But ever since I learnt how to hack, I do it everytime I have the opportunity, simply for the fun of it. Oh, one can also listen to various radio stations while moving about, although the songs very quickly repeat themselves – well you can’t expect a GTA in this one.

The abilities of a player depends on his skill level, as well as perks. For example, the Science skill affects the option of hacking a terminal. Perks are some beneficial boost to a player, awarded after every level up. The player is able to choose from a wide range of perks each time. Some are pretty useless, such as Gun Nut, which increases Small Guns by 5, because that can be easily achieved by reading books. Others are cool, such as the Bloody Mess perk which results in a, well, bloody mess, after owning an enemy unit. Yet others are superbly useful, such as getting a 50% increase in critical damage. This perk system is incentive enough to motivate the player to level up.

Combat wise, the game does quite a good job. While a person can play Fallout 3 like an FPS, to keep the integrity of “action points” in the previous Fallout games, Fallout 3 uses a V.A.T.S. system, which allows the user to freeze time and assess the body parts of the monsters, calculating the percentage he would actually hit the enemy. Of course using this system will cost Action points, and when they are running low the player has the option to shoot the enemy like a normal FPS game, consume AP-increasing items or simply wait for the AP to regenerate. Most of us will end up using the V.A.T.S. system a lot because it makes it easy for head shots. Once in a while you will score a critical shot. Almost nothing else in Fallout 3 beats the satisfaction of watching you successfully executing a slow-mo sequence of a critical head shot, resulting usually in an over-the-top bloody mess. Because enemies are not levelled, things get easier as you get higher level (which is somewhat balanced by the level 20 ceiling). At low levels one may have difficulty maintaining his stock of ammunition, but the advice is to not give up and fight on. Several weapons are available in the game, including a number of rare / unique ones obtainable only as a quest reward, or by extensive exploration. However for my case I tend to use a wide range of weapons. For the lower-levelled animals I switched over to melee, while for the high-end enemies I whip out one of the most powerful weapons in the game, obtained from a dead alien. Furthermore, recipes for weapons which are otherwise not found in the game, involving the use of everyday structures, known as schematics, are available. Who would have thought a lawnmower blade, and parts of a motorcycle and an oven can be combined to make a flaming sword?

Another aspect of combat is having a following companion. There are several NPCs in fallout 3 which the player can “hire” as an accomplice. Unlike the paper-HP Oblivion helpers (i.e. Mage guild apprentice), the helpers in Fallout 3 really pack a punch. Because their HP reverts back to full after every battle, and their ammo is unlimited, I usually depend on my sidekicks to kill all the random enemy encounters in the wasteland. Of course there are some drawbacks, such as sidekicks being too big to follow the player via a small tunnel, or getting stuck in stairs, or even blocking your way. Sometimes they get lost behind you, because you moved too fast, or because you moved away while they are helping you killing enemies. But they will usually return to your side miraculously whenever you enter a new map.  All in all, they are pretty useful as a sidekick.

Now for the lows of combat. V.A.T.S. can be rather tricky to use. While 99% of the time the percentage of hit display is rather accurate, in a few occasions, I can see a 75% chance of hitting the head of the enemy, for example, only to keep missing due to a small obstruction in the form of a tree branch which keeps deflecting my shots. Usually such deflections are taken into account when calculating the percentage, but sometimes they aren’t. The selection of body parts with V.A.T.S. turned on is also annoying at times. I had the most problems with giant ants, where the left analog in the controller to switch body parts do not reach the “head”, the most vulnerable part, until many many random tries. Finally, V.A.T.S did freeze on me in a couple of occasions.

Moving on to realism of the game. Most named characters have a rather wide range of speech lines, which probably explains why there are many more unnamed characters (i.e. characters simply named Town Settler) due to much effort placed in the named characters. Gone is the unrealistic Oblivion feature where you can bribe a person from hating you to adoring you in a matter of seconds. While the person is still given several dialogue lines to choose, each one resulting in a different outcome, in many situations the player is given a speech game, where he has a choice of choosing a pivotal line which will somehow convince the opposing party to agree with the player, or grant the player access to town, or perform something beneficial to the player etc. The percentage of success is related to his Speech skills, and once the player fails the test he can’t repeat it anymore, and will have to resort to other methods to get his way. Still there are some incidents where I felt that the NPC being convinced simply by one line the player said is pretty far-fetched.

If I am correct there are over 250 side quests in Oblivion (including expansion pack), while the number of named side quests in Fallout 3 are a miserable 17. However this is easily made up by the high level of intricacy in the side quests. While one can complete many side quests in Oblivion in say 10 minutes, the side quests in Fallout 3 can take up to hours to complete. Furthermore, there are many many more unmarked side quests, meaning quests that don’t reflect in your quest journal, which usually involves helping a resident in some small way, collecting a rare item in exchange for a powerful weapon, or simply reading journals and notes to find out more about a place / person’s past. Hence doing the side quests alone will take up several hours. And they are quite fun to play. Some side quests even have multiple endings depending on the choice you take, although this has not been properly tested and several bugs are present.

Graphics wise, Fallout 3 is awesome. It beats Oblivion hands down. The post-nuclear environment is eerily realistic, with dry dead trees littering around the sandy cliffs, bushes being a hiding place for dangerous scorpions, and fallen debris and ruins making frequent appearances. Characters look more realistic and monsters are frighteningly detailed in their body structures.

A couple of weeks ago saw the first patch of Fallout 3 for the PS version. This patch enables a trophy system, as well as some bug fixes. A player is awarded trophies for certain achievements he has done, ranging from collecting all the Bobblehead dolls, to successfully hacked 50 computers etc. This kind of makes the PS3 version of Fallout 3 on par with its xbox360 and PC counterparts………. For now.

Anyway, fallout 3 is not without its issues / complaints. Here are some of them.

1)       While the game advertises that the player can choose between first person and third person mode, I cannot imagine one playing as third person by default. A third person view is only useful when it comes to looking the environment from a bigger viewpoint, searching for a pathway out of the line of fallen debris. Due to the game makers not wanting us to “cut” through structures like buildings and trees, whenever a player moves in enclosed areas or areas with lots of debris, the camera rapidly zooms in and out, so as to prevent us from viewing the debris/ trees that are above the player, and this is really annoying when the person is running. Another thing about viewing as third person: the movements are seriously very awkward. The character’s transition from running to walking or from running to stopping, or jumping, is obviously a disjointed sequence of actions. Much can be improved in this aspect.

2)       This is a personal complaint of my part. There are some continents in which there is a whole stretch of debris preventing the player from moving simply from place A to place B, but have to use the eerie ghoul-infested underground metro station to reach. I wasn’t aware of this, and spent 2 hours finding a specific place only to realise I’m going in circles around a line of debris.

3)       Several bugs in the game can totally destroy any chances of game progression. Hence, reading walkthrough is quite necessary, especially for some side quests where one can stray into paths less travelled, such as killing person A when halfway through the quest you are required to, say, retrieve a password from him. However, the game thinks that person A is still alive and the game is stuck with person B keep urging you for the password. This is just an example of what could have happened in the game. Of course there is an infamous example of a glitch at the beginning of the game where the player is supposed to sit for an exam but the exam never begins.

4)       Fallout 3 freezes. A LOT. Up till now, due to Bethesda’s refusal to give any explicit replies, we are still wondering the cause of the freezing issues. Could it be a memory leak? Or a manufacture defect? Or a coding problem? Regardless, here are some of the freezes I encountered.

a.       Walking around in the wasteland

b.       Using the V.A.T.S.

c.        Doing the last mission

d.       5 second temporarily freezes occurring with increased frequency after playing for too long without cooling the PS3 system

While I believe many PS3 users have no problems with the game, the number of people who have had these freezing bugs are pretty significant, to make it an issue of concern. Let’s just hope a patch will arrive soon.

In conclusion, Fallout 3 is an enjoyable game, ruined by its mediocre ending and numerous freezing issues. Once the latter is settled by hopefully a patch, I will agree with conviction that it deserves to be one of the best games of the year alongside GTA IV, MGS4, LBP and Team Fortress 2.

Left 4 Dead:

 

 

  

Been playing this game for a couple of times this week. And it’s really quite an awesome game, if you play with your friends that is. It seeks to replicate those zombie movies like 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead, where you play one of the 4 survivors trapped in an area infested with zombies. (You can also choose to play the zombies if you want). And cheesy dialogue aside, I’m quite impressed with how the game turns out. Fleeing from the zombies is really quite an unnerving experience, and having to shoot the hundreds of zombies down with your weapons instead of just a few people makes it different from the other FPS.  Each game usually lasts about 45 minutes to an hour, usually involving the 4 survivors moving along a fairly linear map, fending off zombies, and powerful zombies like Boomer and Witches, occasionally stopping by a safe room, and then with the players finding a room with a radio and can ask for help from helicopter. This is usually followed by several waves of attacks, before a helicopter finally arrives and the players can hop on to (permanent) safety.

Left 4 Dead also relies a lot on team playing. Health packs are quite limited, and a rate-determining player like me will end up having my teammates feeling obliged to waste their health pack on me since I’m always on the low side of health. There is also friendly fire, which can do considerable damage to your teammates on the Advanced difficultly mode. When a player is attacked by special zombies like Hunter, Smoker, Boomer etc. it is up to the teammates to help rescue the player. Hence, the players MUST stick close together. I learnt that the hard way by taking my time to find the ammo with the other players far ahead of me. And when I was pinned down by some 50 zombies, it was too late for them to come and rescue me. Of course, players must also face different direction, especially when anticipating a horde attack, since zombies can climb amazingly fast and can approach you in all directions.

Unfortunately, as of now there are only 4 maps to play. Hence while the game is fun while you are playing, I somehow feel that it would be better worth the money with more maps, or more gameplay options. But knowing Valve, there will be free updates in time to come. Then we will assess whether the game is worth its buck all over again.

(photos taken from gamesradar.com)

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2009 Friday, Jan 2 2009

Just came back from a 3-day-2-night trip in Genting last night. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the trip a lot, but there were some memorable moments.

1) Spend the last few moments of 2008, and the first few moments of 2009, free-falling from the sky. Well, kind of, because my cousins and I were in the “Space Shot” theme park ride, when the countdown started and the fireworks were set up. This ride takes you to a very high point, let’s you stay there, and then suddenly it drops down at blazing speed, such that your body leaves the seat and you are kind of falling under the force of gravity. Pretty exciting stuff haha. Even more so when you are doing it at night!

2) Heard the malay version of “Xiao Wei”, which is translated as “Fatimah”. WTH right LOL

3) Watched two movies of “opposing” qualities. Ip man was a totally awesome show, while The Spirit seriously sucked.

Yea, that’s about it. Didn’t set foot in the casino, which is quite ironic because I actually went to the casinos during my last trip to Genting, when I was only 19. Genting is one place that is only worth going once, if you’re not the casino kind of person I mean.

I actually wanted to write about this paintball event I had a couple of weeks ago but since so much time has passed I think I’d just summarize the experience. Paintball is very fun, if you are playing with a big group of friends. However, it is also very expensive, costing $50 for 3 rounds of 5-minute game. It is ALSO very tiring. After the first 5-minute match I felt like I just ran a 2.4 click run. After the second match I seriously thought I was going to die of heat stroke and gouged myself with isotonic drinks. I barely ran during the final match because I didn’t want to die. Lol.

I think this month I have been spending more than the past 4 months combined. Firstly, it is Christmas season, and you always spend a lot more during Christmas seasons. Then, there are several people’s birthdays coming up, paintball, dinner, movie events, etc. To make things worse, I lost my precious scientific calculator during my final exam, and I have to buy it again. That’s almost $30 gone. Then my DVD drive spoilt, followed by my Nokia connectivity cable, totalling about $40. Oh, and I am signing up for a 42 km cycling event, that’s another ~$60 gone. The new semester will mean new textbooks, which means another $150. And finally I have to shop for new clothes. I am broke!

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