Post: My Cylon Computer

My new computer is a Cylon! I keep expecting to hear the distinctive Cylon scanning sound every time I see the red glowing light out of the corner of my eye. It's vaguely disconcerting and yet nostalgic of my childhood watching the original Battlestar Galactica series. Perhaps it's a Transformer-Cylon hybrid that's lying in wait for the order to wreck havoc on the world...

Post: New Desktop Incoming & Zombies!

Well, my desktop is past its prime. I'm going to be getting a new, much more powerful, one today or tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous because I've now got to prep everything important for the move from the old to the new. I don't want to lose any of my goodies but at some point you've got to clean stuff out. So,I'm attempting to bundle up everything I can't live without but I know there's going to be something I forget to include.

Zombies. I love them. I finally saw Resident Evil: Afterlife this weekend and it was rather enjoyable. There were parts where the grab from other IPs was blatantly obvious but it made up for that with the awesome action scenes. Three instances where the movie obviously grabbed from other IPs:

• Axeman was a grab from Silent Hill and Pyramid Head.
• The emergency broadcast was a grab from I Am Legend.
• The idea to soup up an abandoned Military Armoured Vehicle (specifically an Omni International V-150-S) to drive through the zombie horde is a grab from Dawn of the Dead.

My favorite scene in the movie was when Bennett stole Alice's airplane and flew it off the building. He was able to pull up just inches before he slammed into the ground. This caused the airplane to barrel through a throng of zombies leaving a red smear behind it. That was awesome! It was almost as good as the scene in 28 Weeks Later where a low-flying helicopter's blades decapitate a horde of zombies. Ahhh... Zombies... One reason I can't wait for The Secret World MMO from Funcom!

Gaming: Hellgate - Global Closed Beta

I enjoyed my time in Hellgate: Global this weekend. I created a Marksman, and she kicked ass. I was able to get her to level 11 before the beta ended. It wasn't without its problems, though.

The biggest problem was the fact that they handed out closed beta keys like candy so they could stress test the server. Well, it was stressed all right. The server crashed, which led to a long downtime while the devs attempted to solve the issue. The quick fix didn't completely solve the problem, either, as there were still random disconnects and lagging. Then again, there are random disconnects and lagging in fully released MMOs so perhaps it is fixed!

A very noticeable problem is the game art. The textures for the world objects are blurry and badly rendered. On the other hand, the textures for my character were crisp and nicely rendered. I could understand this if the model detail and texture settings differed, but they didn't. Everything was set as high as it could possibly go, and I restarted the game to make sure all the settings were applied. I hope they redo the textures as the blurriness really detracts from the game's immersiveness.

Another issue I noticed is that for an MMO the game is very solo friendly. I soloed the whole time from level 1 to 11 and that included all the bosses. This was good for me (I didn't have to share any of the filthy lucre) but bodes ill for the game. Too much filthy lucre from players running solo and getting huge boss drops intended for groups will saturate the market and devalue the currency and items. It'll be just as easy to get a Unique item as it'll be one that's simply Enhanced. I hope they adjust the ramping and loot drop rates. Otherwise, there will be no challenge and without a challenge there won't be much reason to play.

The last issue I noticed was the mangled dialogue. It needs a lot of work even though it was originally written in English. That makes me wonder what in the world happened there. It's obvious they translated the game from English to an Asian dialect (the game's been available in Asia since 2008) and then back to English for this relaunch. What happened to the original English dialogue? Why didn't they use it as a guide when they translated the game back to English? It would have made more sense to do that than to hand the dialogue over to a non-native speaker (as they obviously did) for translation.

I look forward to revisiting Hellgate: Global in the future whether that is in another closed beta, an open beta, or at official relaunch. Nothing provides the level of stress relief and fun as kicking zombie ass post-apocalypse does.

(Note: The links in this post are broken as of January,2023.) 

FSU: Grades, Usability, & Zombies!

This blog was started as part of my Analysis Project for my Game Design And Development Analysis class at Full Sail University. I'm very proud to say that I got a 100% on it. It was a lot of work and took a fair bit of time over the last month, but the grade made it all worth while.

Usability is turning into a very interesting class. I don't think I'll ever look at everyday items the same way again. A lot of their functionality is missed because we're so used to the items and think we intuitively know how to use them. What we're missing are the almost invisible clues the designers leave behind to nudge us in the correct direction. For example: a door handle that's placed ever-so-slightly towards the side of the door that opens. We don't immediately perceive the placement, but it silently directs us to the proper side, so we're not stuck pushing on the wrong side thinking the door doesn't work.

Hellgate London is being rebooted by Hanbitsoft (Aika)as simply "Hellgate" later this evening. It's supposed to be a closed beta but they're handing out keys like they're candy. I think it's more of a marketing preview than an actual beta. The game's been live in Asia under a free-to-play model since 2008 so I doubt there are that many bugs or glitches to warrant an actual closed beta. Still, I may pop in to see how the game is since I didn't get a chance to while Namcao Bandai and Flagship were in charge. It definitely holds some interest considering the setting is right up my alley. I love a good apocolypse!

(Note: Some of the links in this post are broken as of January, 2023.)