Friday, December 20, 2002
Sweet Mother of Jesus.
The Two Towers is incredibly awesome.
As if there was any doubt.
I got killed in dungeon hack by myself. Stupid wand of frost.
I've had Sluggy Freelance suggested to me several times. I finally checked it out. Wow. It is in fact the greatest comic to ever exist. This clinches it.
The Two Towers is incredibly awesome.
As if there was any doubt.
I got killed in dungeon hack by myself. Stupid wand of frost.
I've had Sluggy Freelance suggested to me several times. I finally checked it out. Wow. It is in fact the greatest comic to ever exist. This clinches it.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Yes, it's been a long long while. Finals does that to you. But they're over, and break has begun. After reading a few books, I decided to turn my attention to something that I hadn't done in a long time. This is the game Dungeon Hack. We got it about 8 years ago or so, and it's one of the best dungeon crawl games I've played in a long time. With over 4 BILLION possible dungeons, you can play this over and over again.
Right, so now that I am no longer an advertisement...this game is soooo good. I played the end of my last character again, and tore right through it. I believe I was a fighter/cleric on the 25th and final level of the dungeon. I came across to the end creature and annihilated it with one fire storm. How very anti climactic. That is SUCH a great spell. Anyway, I am at the top of the hall of fame at some 6 million xp, with second place being somewhere around 2 million. I can't be touched. For now. So I decided to make a bard, because I thought it would be fun being able to do a little bit of everything except healing. It was fun going through as the cleric and not being able to ID stuff, but boy am I glad that's over. Alright, so my bard. I get a good roll, but I still reroll a couple of times and get a good stat selection. Without tinkering thank you very much. So level 4. I start off, and it becomes highly apparent that I am getting my ass kicked. My only two spells are magic missile and burning hands, and I can't even use them with my armor(as my dexterity is something like 12 I get no bonuses there for defense). So this is bad. I quickly ifnd a shield and a sword +1, so I can sort of stand up in a fight without dying. Still bloody hurts. I'm resting for a LONG time, and food is becoming a problem. Then I find a ring. Keep in mind this is still on the first floor. I ID it, and I cannot believe it. A ring of regeneration. All my healing problems are solved. I just have to wear this when I sleep and I am fine in a couple of hours, instead of having to wait 90 hours and starve to death. So that is fabulous. I am less afraid about fighting toe to toe now, as I can heal fairly fast. I then come across some bracers +2. now we're cooking. I've got a 5 AC, not bad for a bard still on the first floor. I can last long enough in a fight without having to rest afterwards. So I am progressing at a goodly rate. I find a couple of wands, and use them when I am in a real jam. I also figure out burning hands awesome potential. I was all of a sudden facing 4 orcs and very little hit points, so I fired off a burning hands spell. And they died. ALL of them.
Cool.
New strategy now. If there's more than two of them, burning hands is used once I get them together. Otherwise I'll just hack away with my sword, retreating in between blows, and once i'm down to one I'll just sit and wait it out. Works well. Then I get another pair of bracers and some gauntlets. The bracers are bracers of archery, not much use for them. But the gauntlets. Damn. Gauntlets of fire ginat strength. This jumps my strength from a measely 10 to 22! I'm going to try them out. Sure enough, I go from doing an average of 3 or 4 damage and hitting once every 5 times to an average of 14 and hitting about every other time. And killing things in one shot. I have just become lethal. I keep the rbacers, but stow them in my bag. I figure once my spells become more and mroe powerful I am going to be using those more and more and defense will matter more than physical strength. But damn I like those gauntlets. I also found a robe, but it wasn't magical. Which sucks, but that's okay. Things are progressing nicely. My bard is smiting major monster ass with her short sword +1 and gauntlets of godly giantess strength. I won't even have to use my spells unless I'm swamped by monsters. I also founbd a couple of wands that will be very useful. Frost and distance. Distance will definitely come into play later on when I am shooting off spells left and right. Woo hoo! So I stopped at the stairs to the second level, with my bardess still at level 4, but with her eyes set on level 5. And between my ring and my gloves, I foree very few problems for quite some time. Woo hoo!
Right, so now that I am no longer an advertisement...this game is soooo good. I played the end of my last character again, and tore right through it. I believe I was a fighter/cleric on the 25th and final level of the dungeon. I came across to the end creature and annihilated it with one fire storm. How very anti climactic. That is SUCH a great spell. Anyway, I am at the top of the hall of fame at some 6 million xp, with second place being somewhere around 2 million. I can't be touched. For now. So I decided to make a bard, because I thought it would be fun being able to do a little bit of everything except healing. It was fun going through as the cleric and not being able to ID stuff, but boy am I glad that's over. Alright, so my bard. I get a good roll, but I still reroll a couple of times and get a good stat selection. Without tinkering thank you very much. So level 4. I start off, and it becomes highly apparent that I am getting my ass kicked. My only two spells are magic missile and burning hands, and I can't even use them with my armor(as my dexterity is something like 12 I get no bonuses there for defense). So this is bad. I quickly ifnd a shield and a sword +1, so I can sort of stand up in a fight without dying. Still bloody hurts. I'm resting for a LONG time, and food is becoming a problem. Then I find a ring. Keep in mind this is still on the first floor. I ID it, and I cannot believe it. A ring of regeneration. All my healing problems are solved. I just have to wear this when I sleep and I am fine in a couple of hours, instead of having to wait 90 hours and starve to death. So that is fabulous. I am less afraid about fighting toe to toe now, as I can heal fairly fast. I then come across some bracers +2. now we're cooking. I've got a 5 AC, not bad for a bard still on the first floor. I can last long enough in a fight without having to rest afterwards. So I am progressing at a goodly rate. I find a couple of wands, and use them when I am in a real jam. I also figure out burning hands awesome potential. I was all of a sudden facing 4 orcs and very little hit points, so I fired off a burning hands spell. And they died. ALL of them.
Cool.
New strategy now. If there's more than two of them, burning hands is used once I get them together. Otherwise I'll just hack away with my sword, retreating in between blows, and once i'm down to one I'll just sit and wait it out. Works well. Then I get another pair of bracers and some gauntlets. The bracers are bracers of archery, not much use for them. But the gauntlets. Damn. Gauntlets of fire ginat strength. This jumps my strength from a measely 10 to 22! I'm going to try them out. Sure enough, I go from doing an average of 3 or 4 damage and hitting once every 5 times to an average of 14 and hitting about every other time. And killing things in one shot. I have just become lethal. I keep the rbacers, but stow them in my bag. I figure once my spells become more and mroe powerful I am going to be using those more and more and defense will matter more than physical strength. But damn I like those gauntlets. I also found a robe, but it wasn't magical. Which sucks, but that's okay. Things are progressing nicely. My bard is smiting major monster ass with her short sword +1 and gauntlets of godly giantess strength. I won't even have to use my spells unless I'm swamped by monsters. I also founbd a couple of wands that will be very useful. Frost and distance. Distance will definitely come into play later on when I am shooting off spells left and right. Woo hoo! So I stopped at the stairs to the second level, with my bardess still at level 4, but with her eyes set on level 5. And between my ring and my gloves, I foree very few problems for quite some time. Woo hoo!
Friday, December 06, 2002
And now for your moment of Zen.
Wow. The world is still here. Sarah (aka Luci) turned 18 two days ago. And the world is still here. Amazing!
No school yesterday! Woo hoo! Very glorious day of sleeping in and slacking. Yes, I know, I should have used it to do work. Oh well. I enjoyed my bed, thank you very much. Last night was poker night, and I came away with a few dollars. Evan was the big winner of the night. Fun was had by all. Look for more poker games to take place next semester.
I got two take home midterms today. Woo hoo, stuff to do! And the GREs are tomorrow. That should be loads of fun. Eh.
In other news, we have two more resignations from the White House. Stuff is going down there, let me tell you.
A single-engine plane crashed in the Federal Reserve Building. Sketchy.
The President of the University of Massachusetts takes the fifth about his mobster brother. And I thought all the mafia was in New Jersey.
Don't take the last beer from the fridge. You might get shot in the head by your best friend. If you live in Texas.
And the coolest news item of the day: Pi has been calculated to 1.2411 trillion places. That's the coolest thing I've ever heard. Indiana's legislature can suck it.
I got two take home midterms today. Woo hoo, stuff to do! And the GREs are tomorrow. That should be loads of fun. Eh.
In other news, we have two more resignations from the White House. Stuff is going down there, let me tell you.
A single-engine plane crashed in the Federal Reserve Building. Sketchy.
The President of the University of Massachusetts takes the fifth about his mobster brother. And I thought all the mafia was in New Jersey.
Don't take the last beer from the fridge. You might get shot in the head by your best friend. If you live in Texas.
And the coolest news item of the day: Pi has been calculated to 1.2411 trillion places. That's the coolest thing I've ever heard. Indiana's legislature can suck it.
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
Yet again, a long break from updates. But I'm back. Woo! Hoo!
Okay, so here's what's been happening over the last week. I went home for Thanksgiving break. Big surprise there. A few things happened that I took note of. First off, the word "shit" was said in an episode of NYPD Blue on ABC. Censors are slacking off it seems. Don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Second, I saw Harry Potter again, this time with mom. Lucious Malfoy was indeed halfway through the Avada Kedava curse when Dobby blasted him down the hallway. So he was going to kill Harry. Interesting, that. Well, we all knew he was bad anyway. And the scene after the credits was kind of cool. A nice neat little wrap up for Gilderoy's fate. On to Bong Water Bowl V.
In a last minute trade, I played for the Commonwealth Commies instead of the Pimpskinz. We had a large size disadvantage, especially considering Jason Northrop (he's 280), and we had continual quarter back problems. We just could not pass. Of the 6 touchdowns, 5 were rushing (I had three TDs: two rushes and one short pass). The Pimpskinz prevailed, 10-6. The biggest factor by far, however, were turnovers. We had 5 turnovers, not counting those due to running out of downs. FIVE. The Pimpskinz capitalized on this (damn capitalists) and they themselves had only one turnover. But all in all, it was good fun. Though I was extremely sore for several days afterwards.
We are nearing the end of the semester now. Two more days of classes left before exams. If we even HAVE class tomorrow. That remains to be seen. Chorus concert tonight, 8pm, Wilson Hall. It'll rock, so come.
Ahhh, I have forgotten something. On the Sunday before break, I picked up a computer game on a whim from Wal-Mart. It's Dracula: The Last Sanctuary. Apparently it's the sequel to Dracula: Ressurection, but not having played that I am still going along fine in this one. The graphics are amazing. Very good setting, with eerie background effects. The interface is a 3D first person, where you can rotate 360ยบ. And the cursor changes when you can interact with your evnironment. The only problem with this is that sometimes those areas are REALLY small. There have been several times when I knew what I had to do but for the life of me could not find the stupid "hot spot." Sometimes it seems like they're only one pixel in size. So that's annoying. The cut scenes and dialogues are very impressive. Except in one small case. The scene where one character dies is really cool, but they way they have blood coming out of her mouth afterwards is really poorly done. It looks lame and fake. Otherwise, it's awesome. It is rated M for Mature, containing blood, violence, and mature sexual themes. I have seen only two real scenes of blood and violence, but they were appropriately gorey. I have seen nothing warranting the mature sexual themes. And I'm almost done with the game. Maybe there's something in the end. As far as Dracula goes, he's somewhat cool. He looks more like a wrinkled old man than a vampire, and his voice isn't exactly reminiscent of the Lord of Darkness. However, in the opening scene he has some very nice transformation into mist scenes that are pretty cool. Some of the puzzles seem pretty pointless, as if they are there simply to fill space. And as far as death scenes go, they are lame. At least your death scenes. If a monster is going to eat you, its face will show up, and then you go to a game over screen. Sometimes you just go to the screen without even knowing what happened. Like thge stupid room with the staircases I am in right now. Apparently I just die if I don't step on the stairs in the right order. But there is no indication as to what that order might be. Whatever.
As far as the plot goes, you are Jonathon Hawker from Brahm Stoker's Dracula), and you have just freed your wife from Dracula's castle and returned to London. You are now trying to free her from Dracula's curse, and will have to finally confront the Vampire and destroy him for all eternity! w00t. It picks up seven years after the book ends, and a week after the first game ends. All in all, it's pretty cool. But there seems to be no playability factor. Once you beat the game, you know all there is to do. It would be cooler if there were several different paths you could take to victory, but whatever. If I can get past the stupid rooms with the staircases I might be able to finish it.
And now for your moment of Zen.
(why should he be allowed to meet with his attorneys? Oh yeah, you know, that thing called THE CONSTITUTION)
Okay, so here's what's been happening over the last week. I went home for Thanksgiving break. Big surprise there. A few things happened that I took note of. First off, the word "shit" was said in an episode of NYPD Blue on ABC. Censors are slacking off it seems. Don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Second, I saw Harry Potter again, this time with mom. Lucious Malfoy was indeed halfway through the Avada Kedava curse when Dobby blasted him down the hallway. So he was going to kill Harry. Interesting, that. Well, we all knew he was bad anyway. And the scene after the credits was kind of cool. A nice neat little wrap up for Gilderoy's fate. On to Bong Water Bowl V.
In a last minute trade, I played for the Commonwealth Commies instead of the Pimpskinz. We had a large size disadvantage, especially considering Jason Northrop (he's 280), and we had continual quarter back problems. We just could not pass. Of the 6 touchdowns, 5 were rushing (I had three TDs: two rushes and one short pass). The Pimpskinz prevailed, 10-6. The biggest factor by far, however, were turnovers. We had 5 turnovers, not counting those due to running out of downs. FIVE. The Pimpskinz capitalized on this (damn capitalists) and they themselves had only one turnover. But all in all, it was good fun. Though I was extremely sore for several days afterwards.
We are nearing the end of the semester now. Two more days of classes left before exams. If we even HAVE class tomorrow. That remains to be seen. Chorus concert tonight, 8pm, Wilson Hall. It'll rock, so come.
Ahhh, I have forgotten something. On the Sunday before break, I picked up a computer game on a whim from Wal-Mart. It's Dracula: The Last Sanctuary. Apparently it's the sequel to Dracula: Ressurection, but not having played that I am still going along fine in this one. The graphics are amazing. Very good setting, with eerie background effects. The interface is a 3D first person, where you can rotate 360ยบ. And the cursor changes when you can interact with your evnironment. The only problem with this is that sometimes those areas are REALLY small. There have been several times when I knew what I had to do but for the life of me could not find the stupid "hot spot." Sometimes it seems like they're only one pixel in size. So that's annoying. The cut scenes and dialogues are very impressive. Except in one small case. The scene where one character dies is really cool, but they way they have blood coming out of her mouth afterwards is really poorly done. It looks lame and fake. Otherwise, it's awesome. It is rated M for Mature, containing blood, violence, and mature sexual themes. I have seen only two real scenes of blood and violence, but they were appropriately gorey. I have seen nothing warranting the mature sexual themes. And I'm almost done with the game. Maybe there's something in the end. As far as Dracula goes, he's somewhat cool. He looks more like a wrinkled old man than a vampire, and his voice isn't exactly reminiscent of the Lord of Darkness. However, in the opening scene he has some very nice transformation into mist scenes that are pretty cool. Some of the puzzles seem pretty pointless, as if they are there simply to fill space. And as far as death scenes go, they are lame. At least your death scenes. If a monster is going to eat you, its face will show up, and then you go to a game over screen. Sometimes you just go to the screen without even knowing what happened. Like thge stupid room with the staircases I am in right now. Apparently I just die if I don't step on the stairs in the right order. But there is no indication as to what that order might be. Whatever.
As far as the plot goes, you are Jonathon Hawker from Brahm Stoker's Dracula), and you have just freed your wife from Dracula's castle and returned to London. You are now trying to free her from Dracula's curse, and will have to finally confront the Vampire and destroy him for all eternity! w00t. It picks up seven years after the book ends, and a week after the first game ends. All in all, it's pretty cool. But there seems to be no playability factor. Once you beat the game, you know all there is to do. It would be cooler if there were several different paths you could take to victory, but whatever. If I can get past the stupid rooms with the staircases I might be able to finish it.
And now for your moment of Zen.
(why should he be allowed to meet with his attorneys? Oh yeah, you know, that thing called THE CONSTITUTION)
