Haven't been here in a while, and I'm not really sure why... I just sort of drifted away from gamespot, and only recently "drifted" back! I've done a lot of gaming since, and have pretty much devoted ALL of my play time to AoC and LOTRO, both of which I've been involved with since launch (actually got into beta for LOTRO). Both are great games in great storylines, but I have to say that I really like the grittyness and blood and dirt of Conan over LOTRO. But thats just me. Anyway, likely as not I'll end up dumping more stuff here as things go forward, what with Fallout3 around the corner and all...
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent to blow up the King and the Parliament. Three score barrels of powder below, Poor old England to overthrow: By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match. Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring. Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King! Hip hip hoorah! A penny loaf to feed the Pope. A farthing o' cheese to choke him. A pint of beer to rinse it down. A bundle of sticks to burn him. Burn him in a tub of tar. Burn him like a blazing star. Burn his body from his head. Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead. Hip hip hoorah! Hip hip hoorah!"
5 Friggin Stars! This movie was excellent! Until now, I'd have to say that Sin City was the best "comic to film" adaptation I'd seen since The Crow. But this film does a great job of fighting City for that title! Its a long, laboured, and layered storyline that may very well have some yawning and scratching their heads, but myself, I very much enjoyed every single moment of this film! Well acted by all involved - Hugo Weaving is great as V considering you never once see his face, with an excellent jobs by Steven Rea and John Hurt (in a surprising role as the "Big Brother" of the film) as well. And yes, Natters has a very attractive head. Not that I noticed or anything... :wink:
And as much as I was frustrated with the efforts of the Warchowski Brothers after the first Matrix film (don't get me started on 2 and 3), I'm willing to let that go and give them props for this well-done tale. Oh wait, are they still brothers? Or is it brother and sister now? Wasn't Larry getting gender-reassignment surgery done sometime soon?
I'm getting deeper and deeper into the AA 'verse with the beta, and the more I see of it, the more I like it! Yes, things are pretty restricted right now for the beta, but if you step back and realize that its just a small part of what seems to be a pretty indepth and expansive overall game world... well I'll just say that I for one see all sorts of potential!
And yes, at its very basic core its a pretty simple "drive and shoot" mechanic, but it has the potential to go way beyond that and will likely morph itself into several variants before all is said and done - most MMORPGs well after launch have several tweak stages they go thru where some pretty technical changes are made to the the core mechanics of the system. Thats just how it works.
It's a little wierd to me right now, actually, that one of the things I like about it the most is also one of the things I don't like! The crafting mechanism is essentially a "repair" step - you don't really learn how to ever make an original item! Say I managed to loot a good front-mounted machine gun, one with a +20 accuracy and good damage. I use my Reverse Engineer skill to "break" it, and then when I "repair" it, assuming my Projectile weapons crafting skill is high enough, I have a good chance of memorizing the recipe. Then I can make more. And if I have a good expirementation crafting skill, I can possibly add ingredients to the recipe and risk giving it another ability, say a +3% to its range or something. But I cannot just make a gun without first breaking one. A different take on crafting to be sure!
Man - the patch for Auto Assault's beta that got slotted in last night fixed all sorts of things, and made all sorts of things work so much better! The lag seems to be improving as well, but that might just be attributed to the server loads.
Either way, this weekend event they're doing will be a great way to spend sunday! And saturday too!
Well despite its very quirky beta server, I am way impressed with this game. In fact, I'll go so far as to suggest that this might just be "the one" - THE mmo that I've been waiting for!
Even resource farming is a blast in this game - you're tearing ass across desolate wasteland highways and blowing thru mutant slimepits, guns blazing and collecting all the bits that fall of the destructable environment! If you're a freak for crafting - this is it. If you love intense high-speed combat - this is it. If you're all about rp-ing and meeting folks - this is it.
Now if I can just figure out a way to quit my job and play AA for a living...
Well I went to the cinema this weekend and sat thru Aeon Flux.
Lacking.
Thats all I can really say about it. Yes, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Charlize Theron running around in skin-tight bodysuits kicking butts. But the animated series had something - a stylistic, a theme - that the movie version just doesn't have. Part of the reason the animated one worked was its unusual animation style. The movie had NOTHING like that. I'm not even gonna bother with getting into silly things like "plot" and "story" here... I'll just repeat my review.
And now I've been poking around in linux OSes trying to find an easy to use and setup one that is still free - like freebsd or slackware or something. Xandros - www.xandros.com has crossed my sights a few times and, according to most reports seems to be very simple to use and install. I wonder if its a "prebuilt" kernel... hmm... guess I'll just keep digging.
Oh and I'd be totally remiss if I didn't mention that the Guild Wars halloween event was a BLAST!!
Just started messing around with Face of Mankind - MMO's always seem to get my attention, especially the Sci-Fi ones... This one looks like it may well have all kinds of potential - runs pretty good even if the 3D models are slighty wierd...
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