emptying my brain onto the internet since 1998…
Resident Evil: Afterlife:
I loved the first film. Â I liked the second one a lot. Â The third one was fun, but I had some issues with it. Â I’d make a comment about downward trends, but who would I be fooling? Â No one. Â Of course I’m going to go see this movie. Â It’s zombies, it’s action, and it’s in 3D – and that’s all I need to know. Â Now, the only question is who will I go see this with?
One of the things I’ve always dreamed of in an MMO was playing in a truly enormous world. Â For example, if I were to play (or make) an MMO for a zombie apocalypse setting, I would want the world to be so large that even if I had millions of players, it could be as sparsely populated as you might expect a horror themed zombie game to be. Â Of course, players could choose to cluster, for safety and companionship, but the possibility to walk for miles and miles and find no one else needs to exist.
The problem is that taking the time to build that world would be too much. Â And that is why this has me very excited.
The CityEngine by the people over at Procedural just floors me. Â Lots of people will tell you that hand crafted games will always be better than a procedurally generated one, and in one aspect they are right. Â If your goal as a game maker is to tell a story, a narrative, like a Halo game, or Dead Rising, or any other traditional PC or console game, then yes, hand crafted content is the way to go. Â Your story demands it. Â But in an MMO or other Virtual World type game, where the players and their interactions are the real story, and your setting and lore are just a sandbox for them to play in, procedurally generated content done well is, in my opinion, the far better choice.
Thanks to Critical Distance for the link.
Normally I am not one to believe in signs. Â Every time in my life I have thought I have seen something that indicated I should make one choice over another, the only thing I can say is that nothing fantastic has ever come of it. Â I’ve never won the lottery using numbers sent to me by cosmic alignment, nor on any day where I bought a ticket because something said I should. Â Of course, I also can’t say these supposed signs didn’t steer me away from danger. Â As far as I know, I’ve never decided not to get on a particular bus and that bus ended up exploding, or missed a flight that crashed, or avoided any other disaster by listening to signs.
However, it has come to my attention that this week, the one which signifies the end of my current contract job leaving me unemployed, is the forty second week of the year. Â 42. Â The answer to life, the universe and everything.
Should this mean something?
for not deviating from the course
Four years ago, Harold and Kumar went to White Castle. Now, in the sequel that picks up right where the original left off (they are heading to Amsterdam so that Harold can hook up with Maria), they escape from Guantanamo Bay.
I’m not going to spend alot of effort reviewing this as trying to explain anything is just going to ruin jokes. But if you enjoyed the first film, you are bound to enjoy this one as well. I know I did. Its hilarious.
Or perhaps it isn’t.
I can’t help but think that something is missing this year. Of course, as with every year since her passing, I miss my mother. She really enjoyed Christmas time. And I have lamented before about the lack of Christmas TV programming, specifically It’s A Wonderful Life being shown nine million times on seventy channels.
But this year, there is something else missing… It seems that even though people dislike thinking of Christmas as a commercial holiday full of spending money, they’ve also managed to suck everything but the commerce out of it. I was at a mall last week and they weren’t playing holiday music, not even the old classical stuff, and they didn’t have much in the way of decorations at all. A few stores had up some bows or snowflakes, but the mall itself was clear of holiday cheer. The grocery stores all look the same as they do any other day of the year, as do the Target’s and Wal-Marts. Best Buy has adopted a gift logo for general use, so even though it might appear they’ve got “present” decorations up, it is really just their every day stuff. At restaurants, nothing indicates that any celebration might be going on, except maybe the occasional wreath.
Luckily, many of my neighbors, myself included, put out lights and other decorations… but many is less than half, and once I leave the neighborhood it becomes a rare occurrence to see anything in the spirit of the season that isn’t directly selling something.
Lots of people I know say they are having trouble getting into the spirit, and to me at least its easy to see why.
I suppose it might be considered insensitive to want to see more celebration of my chosen holiday… but isn’t it also insensitive to want to see less celebration of someone else’s chosen holiday? I really don’t care… I want to see more of everyone celebrating however they choose to celebrate it.
Anyway… I’m off to observe my holiday traditions… a bunch of nothing today, followed by a late night snacky supper (sandwiches with all the fixin’s), a fitful sleep, breakfast and presents over at Dad’s house in the morning, and a misfits family Christmas dinner at night.
So here’s to you, in all that you do, whatever you are up to. Merry Christmas!
Enjoy!
In an effort to move forward on my little game idea, I’ve downloaded (once again) the tools from Multiverse to see if I can make heads or tails of building my own game world. I make no promises, of course, but any motion is good motion at this point.
Bring on the Zombies.