New Year

I haven't really blogged all that much, because I have slowly become addicted to EVE Online again. The worse thing though is that at the end of the year a new game is being released that I will HAVE to get. I have no say in the matter. None at all.

That game is Skyrim, and from what I have seen in the trailers, it's quiet shiny (except for the water, but hopefully that'll get fixed).

My other addiction is Minecraft. And I am always frustrated when it crashes and I haven't saved it; inevitably I get suffocated. It's no fun at all when that happens. When it does I just change worlds for a while to forget the painful experience. Until it happens again :(

The recent update kinda made me freak out. The shadows are just ... egh. I hope I get use to them but I don't know.

So now I'm going to try to control these addictions, by doing some work and then rewarding myself with an hour of a game.

This may take some time.

Bathroom Pondering

I was just having my shower, when it occurred to me that Christmas is fast approaching. Only 55 days to go! I was thinking of the gifts I would have to get for all my family and friends, some of which aren't in the same state as me anymore. Some are difficult to buy for, while others are really easy.

My brother, for instance, doesn't care much what I get him. I asked him what he would like, a game? some hardware? or money? He doesn't know what he wants. I will probably end up getting him a gift card to Sanity (other audio/visual shops are available) or the local hardware store. Or a book about cars.

My mind wandered to the people around me, and then I remembered the nice Samaritan that helped me get home several months back. One of her sons was interested in a train game, so that is one gift I can give.

I will document from beginning to end how I create the models, textures, gameworld and programming. The first three are easy, the hardest is getting it all together and programming it with no errors. I will use Unity for that because I have had the most positive experience with it as a game engine. It will still be very hard, but worthwhile as a learning exercise.

More to come!

Great Escape

Well last night was the first of a monthful, where my parents are no longer in the country. It felt like any other day, except now I have to clean, cook and take out the garbage.

I'm not sure how they are doing. I've only gotten two text messages. One from mum about landing in LA, the other from my father about my work. Since I don't want to get in debt from replying, I emailed back (my mum has a blackberry). Hopefully they are having a blast.

Today I have an assignment due, which I confess I have done absolutely nothing on. Except for a few things. So I have to beaver done and get working. It will be hard because I got a new game yesterday (Bioshock) and am chronicling my adventure as I go along. I did it with TES: Oblivion, which had a lot of pages of my experiences, though I'm not sure where I put the massive amount of pages. I'm post my adventure of Bioshock later.

Early Rising, Late Falling

Well now it is the third day back at uni, and as I said before I am really tired. I have to wake up at 5am (just like the sun) and trudge off to classes at 8am. Some days I don't get home till 8pm (a new shift at work, hurray).
It also looks like this whole year will be very work intensive. Eight assignments and a test for the first semester, and who knows for the second half of the year.
I don't think I will be able to keep up with everything (like games), or have as much fun (with games), and I won't stay up to date with the interweb (Penny Arcade and LFG ftw).

This year is starting to look as bad as the economic downturn (or recession for those in the UK and US).

One can only hope the holiday period will help rejuvenate my will to game and other fun related activities.

Accidental Deletion

Well this is fun. I was trying to put a new mod
on Oblivion for PC, when I accidently erased
all the textures and another key folder.
Nice
Its lucky that when I tried to play Oblivion,
it didn't just crash straight up. It did however,
take a very long time to load up.
It could have been worse.

This is a key mistake that I have, hopefully,
learnt from (ie. Back Ups are leet, and be
mindful of what I'm doing)

Counter-Strike:Source

One of the most engaging games I have
played, but it can be quiet monotonous.
That's why I enjoy the several mods
available, especially the gungame mod.

Of course its not for the faint of heart,
or the newb, as you're likely to get no
frags in this hyper-competition format.

My favourite map while playing this mod
is dust and playground_x_s (I don't know
where you get that map though).
Why?
Because I like to win, or at least get to
level 18 when playing. Still, its great
fun.