Hello there. This is my blog. That's not a picture of me, but it's what I aspire to look like in my later years.
It's a blog touching on technology - APIs, Games, hardware; really if anything comes under my scrutiny I'll write about it ad nauseum.
I like goats, sleep and the banjo, although not always in that order.
I'm in MTV today (which isn't, as you might expect, the Music Television Studios) but rather how we refer to Mountain View at Google. At least, I do. Others may not. Whatever.
Basically, if you get a gtalk message with a TinyURL link, and you end up on a ViddyHo page, DO NOT ENTER YOUR PASSWORD.
If you have already entered your password, don't despair.
Just log into Gmail, and change it, as soon as possible. Also, remember to change it to something difficult to guess. If you have a pet dog called 'Ernie', don't make 'Ernie' your password.
As a general rule, avoid entering your gmail password on any site which isn't gmail. There's rarely a compelling need.
The Chinese have invaded Alaska! Not really, that's just Fallout, and where I choose to locate my post today.
So, 2 slightly sad things to report. 1) Over 200 hours clocked on fallout. That's, like, 8 days of my life. Worth it though. The game really is awesome.
2) Fallout music. LOVE IT. Going to try and find somewhere I can buy it now.
So, as you likely know, I've been playing Fallout 3.
I had downloaded the DLC, but been studiously ignoring it.
At level 14, I felt I was probably ready for it.
It's still pretty easy.
I think I reloaded a couple of times to approach in different ways, but basically, once you've got 75+ small guns skill, it's a breeze (which for some people may be quite early on).
For a challenge, I'd recommend going in around level 5-6.
The graphics, though, are lovely.
It's a sad case of affairs, but I came to a realisation at around 2am last night, when I finally unplugged it.
I don't really look at video games.
Let me explain. It was 1.50, and I was thinking 'must crash soon, but just one more fight' (as you do). Then, for the first time since playing, Fallout 3 crashed. The framerate dropped for about 3 seconds, and then it just hung.
And that's when I looked around the screen at everything that was there.
And it was stunning.
Now, it might just be the Operation Anchorage graphics are "better" (and wow, they're beautiful), or it may be that the blues and whites are just nicer to look at than the browns and greys of the devasted DC area, but, well, whatever it was, it was a real stop-and-gape moment.
I mean, I'm generally scouring the near-middle distance for things to interact with, but (apart from Gears of War) I rarely stop and look around. I'm moving, see the screen in motion.
So, now, I'm going to try and spend some time looking at these things, and enjoying what's been created.
I caught up on Penny Arcade over the weekend, and came across this article. It talks about the fact that maybe, after all, Fallout 3 wasn't the game of the year.
It's funny, actually, because I was of the same opinion, only in reverse. I bought Fallout last year, I guess when it came out (it was one of the massive pre-order list I created last year), and played it for about 3 hours. Then went to play other stuff, like Fable2, Gow2, Mirror's Edge, Lego Batman, Bioshock, and even Assassin's Creed. I picked it back up a couple of weekends back, and I have to say, I am LOVING it. As previously mentioned, I have a bad habit of looking at guides too much, so I'm actively trying to avoid them. But Fallout has a great, great Wiki
It's hard not to look at that every time I hit a new area, especially with all the lovely books to pick up. Damn it.
This might be really really obvious to everyone else, but it wasn't obvious to me.
In order to access your SD card from your Android phone on your computer, there are a couple of things you need to do.
1) Attach the phone using a USB cable.
2) Open the Notifications bar,
3) Click the USB one
4) Select 'mount' when it asks you if you want to see the files on your PC.
I only put this here because I'd spent a fruitless 30 minutes mucking around in the settings, trying to do this, but nothing seemed to work.
Well, it's been a while since I wrote about games, so what's up?
I finally got around to finishing Assassin's creed, and getting the last few flags in a couple of districts. I was going to duff up all the Templars, sort of like this
But I got bored looking for them all.
Also, the quality of that video is bad. Apologies, but I also got bored looking for a decent one - it's an old game, and pre-HD on YouTube, so, well, that's all.
Also, if you're here, you probably know I created the Goatmaps for AC. Well, I never finished them, but there are a few similar sites up now.
I then put Mirror's Edge back in, and had a quick crack at that. Good times. I must get the DLC , though.
I haven't embedded that video, since it's in HD over on YT, and you want to see it in HD. Trust me.
(Too many acronyms?)
Then, on to Fallout 3.
Now, my biggest problem has always been that I start looking at guides way too early on, although not because I want to scream through the game, but because I was the in-game help, and it mentioned running.
There's no run button in the game, though,
So, I was trying some stuff out, like wearing no armour, holstering my weapon, and so on.
As far as I could tell, it made no difference (and in fact, holstering my weapon seemed to make me run slower, but that could have been my imagination).
So, I went online, looking for answers. And it turns out that no, there's no run - running is what you do when you're not crouching. Of course.
Some forums have said wearing different clothes (no heavy armour) can increase running speed, too, but I'm dubious.
Anyway, of course I found this on a fallout Wiki, which I left open. I then got confused about a quest, and looked at the same Wiki to find out what I should be doing next, and before I knew it, I was reading about stuff I hadn't even discovered yet. So I stopped immediately.
Last night, I left my computer at work (*gasp*) and just played the game.
It was much nicer without the distraction of looking at the computer all the time to make sure I was doing stuff right, but the voice in the back of my head kept saying "I bet there was a way to get more out of that quest".
Probably there was, but you know what? I'm going to save the guide for my second playthrough, when I'll aggressively mini-max everything (and probably also max big guns. wO_ot).
That is all.
Oh, except that I also had a great time with Fable 2. You should get it now.
