Look At You Hacker…
So, after a bit of struggling on Monday night, I managed to get System Shock running under Vista. I’d picked it up off eBay many a year ago now, after loving System Shock 2. SS2 really does rank as one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, and SHODAN is certainly my favourite game character/villain/love interest (what, just me?). But I never got around to finishing the first, finding the interface just too obtuse to deal with. For people who’ve played SS2, imagine playing with the mouse in permanent Use Mode. That’s System Shock. Not to mention, WSAD has been replaced by SXZC. R, F and V are used for looking, and I’ll be damned if I know how to crouch.
But yes, spurred by a desire to one up Steve (who had installed SS2 on Vista), I decided to attempt to get SS working. Took a while, but I managed after some faffing with cmd.exe and DOSBox. And then I started playing it properly. Once I got past the interface, I found that sense of isolation and suppression that I loved so much in its sequel. Playing it in a 3”x5” window is rather painful, though, and it takes a bit away from the immersion factor. But still, I shall persevere. Mainly because I don’t have the money to buy any new games, and I need something to write about for the next next edition of the paper. I figure I might be able to get away with a retrospective article. Will ask Matt at the meeting tonight.
Oh and on the topic of the paper, my Devil May Cry 4 review was published today. Apparently, after getting 3 reviews published I can run for the Guardian Reviewer of the Year award, or somesuch. Chances of getting shortlisted/winning are nil, but can still put “Long listed for the Reviewer of the Year award” on my CV, which is better than a slap in the face with a wet annelid.
Today’s rant was bought to you by the letter T. Thinking about it, I could murder a cup *cue geddup noise*.
REGEX Will Be the Death of Me
Or rather, my FYP will be the death of my, and REGEX will be its weapon of choice. Today I was in uni from 9am till 11:59pm. Here is an example of something that took me around 2 hours to complete (Steve, you may want to look away now):
quoteFirstRe = re.compile(‘((\”[A-Za-z0-9\.!\?\(\)]+\”)(\s+and\s+\”[A-Za-z0-9\.!\?\(\)]+\”)*)((\s+and\s+(((\d+\.\d+|\d+|[a-zA-Z]\w*))(\s*((\+|/|\-|\*))\s*((\d+\.\d+|\d+|[a-zA-Z]\w*)))*))+(\s+and\s+\”[A-Za-z0-9\.!\?\(\)]+\”)*)*’)
varFirstRe = re.compile(varOrNum+’((\s+and\s+(\d+\.\d+|\d+|[a-zA-Z]\w*)|\s*(\+|/|\-|\*)\s*(\d+\.\d+|\d+|[a-zA-Z]\w*))*(\s+and\s+\”[A-Za-z0-9\.!\?\(\)]+\”)*(\s+and\s+(\d+\.\d+|\d+|[a-zA-Z]\w*))*)*’ )
Fun!
Devil May Cry 4 – Review
Title: Devil May Cry 4
Format: Xbox 360 (Version Reviews)/Playstation 3/PC
Price: £34.99
Release Date: Out Now
Published: Leeds Student, 29/2/08
Devil May Cry has always been about one thing: stylish action. However, in recent years the series has been marginalised by the increased accessibility of the God of War games. Devil May Cry 4 is Capcom’s response to this threat, and presents at first glance a more casual, laid back game. But look a little closer, and you’ll see all the combo chaining, button mashing and high-score chasing that its die hard fan base cherish.
Alongside a reduced difficulty curve, Capcom have introduced new character Nero, who the player controls for the first half of the game. Initially he plays very much like Dante did in the earlier games, until you get to grips with his Devil Bringer; Nero’s demonic arm that allows you to grab enemies and pull them towards you. This helps the combat flow and makes stringing together long combos a breeze, so much that the return to Dante for the latter half of the game is somewhat jarring at first. However, by this point DMC virgins will be well versed in the games mechanics, so should quickly take to the real Devil Hunter.
Cut scenes are as tongue in cheek as ever, and the plot makes little real sense (but then, who plays these games for the narrative?). The graphics are crisp, the levels are varied and look sumptuous, but the game does suffer from repetition in the second act. Here Dante fights his way through the levels already cleared by Nero, and goes up against the same bosses. This is remedied somewhat by various twists, such as time limits or altered layouts.
Even with this retreading, there is still plenty to keep fans of the series occupied and entertained. Initial play through will take around 10 hours, but as with most games in this genre, the first completion is only the beginning. There is more fun to be had replaying it at higher difficulties, or in the new Bloody Palace mode (a series of timed gauntlets against all manner of enemies). Assuming, that is, your idea of fun involves a sweaty controller and a bad case of RSI.
Burnout Paradise – Review
Title: Burnout Paradise
Format: Xbox 360 (Version Reviewed)/PS3
Price: £39.99
Release Date: Out Now
Published: Leeds Student, 22/2/08
The Burnout series has always been a law unto itself; its own subsection of the racing game genre. Getting to the finish line is important, but not as important as how much carnage you cause along the way.
Plenty has changed in this iteration. Gone is the standard trickle of events and locales present in most racing games, replaced instead with just one city. And it really is a city; it feels vibrant, alive and most importantly, real. Every set of lights is the starting line for an event, which consist of Races and Burning Routes, the trick based Stunt Run and the vicious Road Rage and Marked Man modes. Most importantly, every event is available from the off, so you can carve your own path through the world, but the sheer amount of events can be overwhelming at first.
The freeform nature of the city really comes into its own in the events. Events may start anywhere, but finish lines are in one of eight fixed locations. It’s up to you to find the best route from start to end. The in-game compass points you along the suggested route, but if you think you know a better one, there is nothing to stop you taking it.
Taking the game online couldn’t be easier, and there is plenty of fun to be had ‘freeburning’ around Paradise with some friends. You can take part in custom races, engage in various challenges or just compete with each other to get high scores in various categories.
Overall, opinion will be divided on the direction Criterion has taken the series, but I believe that this is the greatest Burnout to date, and it’s hard to see how Criterion will top it for the next instalment.
Humble Beginnings
Me. In Print!, originally uploaded by Seniath.
So here it is. My first review in print. May this be the start of a long and illustrious career. Going to speak to the editor tonight to see if I can post the review on here to be read, or if it’ll be posted on their site so I can link to it from here. Best get working on the next one I guess.
Being Human
I love the iPlayer, I really do. I haven’t owned a TV for the last two years, and even when I did have one, I was usually too busy to just crash in front of it and watch some random gubbins. So being able to just browse through the last 7 days worth of TV (well, TV produced by the beeb) has been a godsend. There are the regulars, yes, like Torchwood, Top Gear and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, but then there are things I wouldn’t normally watch, such as Life in Cold Blood or last nights Being Human. It was the latter that prompted me to make this post. Watched it on a whim, liking the concept (a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire living together, how novel), and was rather impressed. Turns out, however, it was only a pilot, so fingers crossed it gets picked up for a full run. I do wonder, though, if the beeb will be including iPlayer viewings/downloads in their evaluation of whether such pilots should be picked up. Fingers crossed they do.
Elsewhere, still haven’t heard back from Matt, the features editor for the Leeds Student. I emailed him my review on Friday. I think I may give up with the paper after this week. The problem then becomes, however, spending the time to find somewhere else to publish them in between my constantly mounting work. FYP deliverable should be finished in 3 weeks, and I’ve 3 pieces of coursework that also need doing…
Audiosurf and Miscellanea
It’s times like these that I recall why exactly I’ve never managed to keep a blog down in the past. Outside of seeing Kara, going to Uni and playing games, I actually do very little. I mean, I could write an entry about what I’ve done today, but it wouldn’t be very interesting now would it. I could discuss things that have happened today, but it’s a Saturday, and not much has happened.
Actually, that’s a lie. There was another school shooting in the US the other day. The sad thing was, the first thought that popped into my head wasn’t “oh god, those poor people/families” but rather “oh no, half an hour from now Jack Thompson will be on Fox spouting his rhetoric”. And what do you know, he was. I would go on ranting about it, but plenty has already been said. Suffice to say, the day he gets disbarred must be fast approaching by now.
On a slightly cheerier note, I strongly recommend that all (5?) of you go and try Audiosurf. There’s a demo available on Steam and, well, if you don’t have Steam then you’re not living in The Future and really need to get with the times (a rant for another day I feel). It’s a mere £5 to buy, that’s what, one meal? Trust me, play this and you’ll be so absorbed that you won’t care about missing dinner. Or breakfast. I’ll probably get my ass in gear at some point and write something approaching a review. I still need to finish that DMC one. And by finish, I mean start…
Right, I’ve started rambling, so will cut it short there. So ends another episode of “Wasting Time with Sen”.
The Second Meeting
Tonight’s newspaper meeting was slightly less stellar than last weeks. I was told that there was no room in Arts this week, nor next. Also, the woman who I presume to be the co Arts Editor was there (I hadn’t seen her last week) and she didn’t seem to keen on the idea of me even being in Arts ever. So, I got palmed off onto the writer of the iPage. He said that should he get a full page (normally he only gets half a page, but every now and then he gets a full one) he might be able to print about 300 words. But even then, didn’t sound overly optimistic. Getting 483 down to 300 wasn’t actually that hard, so now I just have to hope there’s space…
In closing, a note to self: don’t get your hopes up. No better time to learn this than right at the start I guess.
Good Intentions
Best laid plans and all that. Thought to myself I’d have a couple of games of Magic and then be home for 11. Yerright. Spent the last 5 hours sat in Norms basement chatting with him, Sarann and Michelle. And Chris, until he went to bed and threw up. Fun night in all, the topic of conversation tended to waver between sex (blame Sarann) and religion (blame Michelle) with lots of Furry bashing to boot. So, thank you to my gracious hosts, much more fun than a night of drunken debauchery (imho).
EVE Online
Oh. A note. Shocking. Well, bit bored tbh, need something to occupy my time, so thought I’d warble on about my experiences so far in EVE Online.
I’ve always had a niggling voice in my head, telling me to try EVE out, but it wasn’t till I re-watched Firefly with Kara a month or so ago that I finally caved, and dragged Rob down with me. The original plan was to wait until the Christmas holidays, and try out the 14 day free trial then. However, we caved in and started a few weeks ago. Here are my thoughts so far:
The Good
- It’s very pretty. Even more so with the new Trinity graphics engine. The ships and stations are incredibly detailed, and the backdrops are sumptuous.
- It’s incredibly complex and deep, especially compared to WoW. This could be seen as a negative point, but if anything it just shows how simple WoW really is. In WoW, there was very much a ‘best’ set of gear and a ‘best’ spec for any given class. There’s nothing like that in EVE. One can literally do anything. Take out contracts, run mining cartels, engage in wars with enemy corporations. There’s so much to do. And that’s not even touching on the market (CCP have hired an economist to monitor the market and compile quarterly reports on it).
- When it works, it’s really fun. Rob and I tried a Complex (lit. a dungeon) the other night. It was hard, but enjoyable and really got the pulse racing.
The Bad
- Lack of mission variety. This could be said about any MMO, but it’s especially evident in EVE. WoW has maybe 10 mission templates (Kill X of Y, Bring A of B to C, etc), but they’re so varied in their enemies and locations that you don’t really notice. EVE, likewise, has 10 regular mission types. But they don’t make aims to hide it. Literally, you will be given a mission, complete it and there’s a chance you’ll get the exact same mission again. Also, space is well, pretty empty. The locations you do the missions in aren’t overly varied, and nor are the enemies.
- Looting is a pain in the arse. Often, you’re looking at distances of 5-10km between you and your target, and once they’re dead you have to be 1.5km away to loot the wreck. When you’ve just completed a mission that involved killing 50 enemies, looting the remains can be so incredibly annoying and tedious. Tractor beams alleviate this, yes, but they’re expensive.
- It’s far too harsh, even on simple mistakes. Rob took out a contract that it turned out he was unable to complete. He lost 10,000,000 ISK (the in game currency) in collateral. I accidentally hit Rob with a Smart bomb (a PBAoE weapon, deals damage to everyone within 2km of my ship) whilst we were doing a mission in High Security space. CONCORD (the ’space police’) perceived this as a hostile act, and instantly warped in and destroyed my ship. So that cost me 10,000,000 ISK in insurance and new fittings. Because I’d dealt a piddly amount of damage to one of my group members!
- Twats. Low Security space in EVE is full of gankers. Except, unlike WoW, ganking in EVE is encouraged, and it costs the victim a lot LOT more. Today, Rob and I were doing some mining in a zone with a Security Rating of 0.4 (CONCORD don’t patrol in zones with a Sec Rating of less than 0.5). He’d docked into a station to drop the loot, and I was milling about in the asteroid belt. Until, low and behold, a pirate warps in, traps me and ganks me. And then pod kills me too. Another 10,000,000 ISK down the drain. Woo, and indeed, hoo.
- Following on from the above, there’s not really much to do in High Sec space. You can mission run (gets boring), you can do contracts (most are scams or un-doable by people who don’t have freighters) or you can mine (the ore in High Sec space tends to be of lower quality). But you really don’t want to go to Low Sec till you have a properly pimped out ship. So what do you do? Who knows, I’ve yet to figure it out.
This may, on the whole, sound incredibly negative. But tbh, I think most of my vitriol is directed at losing 20 million ISK in the last 48 hours. I’ll still carry on playing, because when it’s good, it’s really good. And pretty.
