Strangetimez

Well, I finished Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty the other day.  The game has been in planned / in production since 2003.  There has been lots of hype about it, so understandably, my expectations were very high.  It was good single player game as far as the campaign / story line part went… but I am now rather pissed off and dissapointed with the rest of it.

StarCraft 1 was great – 3 races (Terran, Zerg, and Protos), you can play them all, mix and match races in the skirmishes/one off battles against the computer or your friends, and was good all round game, well balanced etc.

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty on the other hand is, overall, CRAP….  Sure – all 3 are there again, it has cool graphics, good videos / story. BUT, once you finish the Terran campaign… thats it.  They may as well have put a big banner “To Be Continued…” on the box, and at the end of the game.  Plus, Im estimating only about 30-40 hours of play?  Thats not heaps, but its not bad either.  I figured more value would come with being able to play one off skirmishes and enjoy many more hours of play.

To reiterate, there is NO ability to play Zerg or Protos in a storyline / campaign.  Apparently it’s coming later – and people will have to buy both of them to see whole story and to play the rest.  Talk about blatant money making.  All the game mechanics are there, so all they have to do is make some more cutscenes (not a small task, but they are a pretty damn big company) to progress the story, and make a few changes to the interface to match them.  Most of the work is all done from what I can tell.

So, StarCraft 1 ~$90 when it came out which comes down to approximately $30 per race.  StarCraft 2 ~$90 PER RACE.  In other words, $270 to get the full game.  And they wonder why people pirate games?? Stupid fuckers – how much money do they think we have to pay for their shit?  Im betting they spent ages trying to work out how they can sting gamers a monthly fee, like they do with World of Warcraft (WOW for the uninitiated).  At least WOW is better value for money per hour of play.

So, I finished the campaign the other day.  Tonight it was time to start honing my skills in skirmishes.  I decide to try the single map type skirmish game. Firstly you have to fucking log into battlenet (like WOW) to even play single player… which is a completely pointless pain in the arse.  Just to be clear about this to anyone else stupid enough to spend their money, I COULD NOT EVEN PLAY THE GAME SINGLE PLAYER WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION.  Once you log in, it seems the game reloads the map list off the server every fucking time you want to play a single skirmish game (I gave up after about 5 mins of it sitting there “loading” tonight.  That was the last straw.  This rant is the result) .

In StarCraft 1, you could load up  single maps and play them with your friends, or against the computer.  Seems that was too easy for StarCraft 2.  When I finally got into a skirmish type game in StarCraft 2, half of the vehicles / troops / aircraft etc that you spent a fair bit of time using and getting to know in the campaign, arent there. Because (according to comments on various sites) some of those troop types apparently make it too easy when playing the Terrans… in other words, the 3 races are completely unbalanced, and people playing Terrans would whoop ass on the others.  So, skirmish is bullshit.

I havent even bothered to play online.  I tried to play a few of their “training” missions but again, its crap, and all the fun troops and vehicles are taken out.  And these missions are ridiculously hard.  I suppose that when people eventually (after many hours of restarting maps, cursing, and swearing) master them they will fairly crush anyone who hasnt done all of them.

Oh, while Im ranting… the opening cinematic, titled The Deal, while excellently done, does not even show the main characters in the game, or do much to start off the the storyline.  After playing the game through, I showed this video to a friend, and realised that it tells you nothing, only shows a “supporting” character, and is basically a marketing tool to make the game look cool.

Summary:  DO NOT BUY StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty … fuckem.  Blizzard are obviously busy crawling up their own arses so they can better smell their own farts.  Download it or copy it off a friend, and find a crack.  I really feel they didn’t deserve my money….

Okay, something I should explain to anyone who may stumble upon this blog… I mostly use it to vent my frustrations at the world.  If you judge me as a person from this then that’s your problem, not mine

Sniper Gh3y Warrior

Okay, so I gave this game a go…  there was definite potential.   Decent graphics, outside environments, promise of stealth and sneaking around, long distance shooting, and more.  I was ready to get my teeth into something like this for awhile.

Unfortunately potential rarely meets reality.   After overcoming some start up issues due to the game not liking dual monitors, I was in.

The obligatory training mission at the start to familiarise the user with the environment and controls was welcomed, and I was impressed to see that if you show compentence the game suggests skipping the training.  I persevered as I wanted to make sure I knew what the game could do, and what controls do it.  All good so far…

The first time I sniped someone long distance you get rewarded with a cool bullet cam / slow motion view as the baddie is drilled.  Great!  Rather satisfying too.  But the elation was soon shot down…

In some sections you can sneak around, shoot isolated baddies when their mates aren’t looking, or shoot them all if you are quick enough.  Makes sense.  In other sections though, I quickly ran into issues.  There are some stages where you are forced to sneak more than shoot, otherwise the soldiers will be alerted and your main target will get away.  These stages sucked.  No matter where you hide, or how well, one glimpse from a soldier will cause sirens to go off and every gun toting moron to start shooting at you, and usually resulting in a failed mission.  Initially I thought it was my tactics.  I soon realised its just the game.  Ridiculous and so far from anything even remotely realistic, the game gives you a big slap in the face.

I soldiered on regardless (pun intended ).  Repeatedly I would get stuck in these stages.  No matter how quiet, how well hidden, your character must be standing out like a fluro clad teen at a funeral when everyone in the area starts shooting at you. At other times you could have bodies lying all over the place, and when a patrol goes past, they act like nothig has happened.  The AI is all over the place – I could be killed from a sniping nest 200 meters away, but could stand 20 meters away from the same soldiers and they would continue to miss me.  Not to mention the team mates accompanying you on some stages also suffered from similar problems – they couldnt hid the broad side of a barn door most of the time.

There were also a few humerous moments, some intended and others definitely not.  At one point my aim was a little high and instead a satisfying headshot their hat was shot off and they remained fighting fit.  Nice.  Another altercation resulted in a dead soldier but the hat remaining floating in the air.  Other times soldiers would be facing 90 degrees to the left or right of me and firing, but obviously thinking they were shooting at me… which they were ’cause I died.

On two separate occasions I attacked a pair of soldiers who were engaged in a conversation in spanish.  After dispatching them I could still hear the same discussion continuing.  Walking towards the bodies I found they were still engaged in the same conversation.  Lol.

Then,  I got to some stages where you were simply carrying around a standard assult rifle and left to madly hose down any baddies in your path.  WTF?? This isnt sniping, as the title would have suggested?! Not to mention that the gun you were supplied with had an accuracy that was abismal.  Spray and pray was the best way to proceed, and its not like I ever ran out of ammo.  Except when the game didnt want me to have it.  At one point I was sent on a mission as a sniper, and came upon a group of soldiers.  Perfect spot to land a grenade and take out a bunch at once, only to find they neglected to provide me with any.  So, what, did my character forget to pick them up?

It was then that I realised I had missed something fundamental to the game – these were not normal soldiers!  They must be enhanced / psychic super soldiers!  And my character must be wearing fluro pink cammo.  Now the game makes sense… The ability for the opposition to see you no matter how well hidden you are, the ability to instantly notify everyone in the area of your presence, and how they can easily track you down wherever you were hiding.  Even how they could sound the alarm the instant they saw you, before you even have a chance to shoot them.

With this revalation in mind, the game was once more enjoyable… until it abruptly ended with a long distance sniping of the boss from hundreds of meters away.  Not exactly a climactic moment.  I was hoping for some sniper vs sniper action like something from Enemy at the Gates.  But it wasnt to be.

Honestly, I suspect that they got the graphics engine and environments going well, then they ran out of money before building the AI of the game and the testing phase, or their beta testers did a terrible job, or they just thought we wouldnt notice, or maybe they simply relied on the multiplayer aspect to carry them through?

All in all, I was rather dissapointed.  The game had potential but fell well short of the mark… Be warned.

Well – seems that we are well on the way to being a communist country… not that Communism is necessarily a bad thing, but the amount of controls the Australian Government wants to impose on us is getting scary.  Im really dissapointed with “the lucky country”, when these types of controls being put in place say either that the Australian Government believes we cannot make educated decisions for ourselves, or that they believe they should control much more of what we do and say.  Or, maybe they are just stupid and short sighted?

A few of the highlights:

• The Australian Governemnt wants ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to record ALL browsing history.  Basically watch every web site we visit.  The article explains it best, and the problems that should be obvious to most.
• More on the recording of our browsing habits
• Even Time magazine is stepping in to condemn the Australian Government’s plans.
• Google also voices serious concerns over the Australian Government’s plans.
• If that’s not enough, even the US Government is condemning the Australian Government’s plans.

As per my usual run of luck, just when I thought I had finally met someone who I could spend the rest of my life with, and when I really saw a future, the ol’ rug of happiness got yanked out from under me.  I swear Im either trapped in some shitty reality show or soapie, or some god up there is having a lot of fun with my suffering.  I really give up.  Nothing excites me any more, and when I found someone who did, of course life veers completely off course.  Ive tried everything, and nothing works anymore… I mostly feel nothing anymore, and when that changes, its usually more shitty than nothing 

If you are reading this, no I don’t want to talk about it…

I thought I would start recording all the things I have learned about life, maybe in an effort to clear my head a bit.  Maybe as a bit of an experiment… Also a way to vent my frustrations at the world… whatever the reason, here they are.  In no particular order…

1. People are selfish and rude
2. Not everyone is selfish and rude, but most are.  A few will surprise you
3. Ignorance really is bliss
4. No matter how much you try to prepare for something, something you hadn’t thought of will almost always happen
5. People are deluded and do not live in reality
6. Living in reality sucks, and thus why people delude themselves
7. The world isnt as nice and as good as people will have you believe
8. Most people take and dont give
9. When someone strenuously objects to something, its usually because its true
10. People often project their problems onto others (Transference)
11. If you want to see the worst in people, go for a drive when traffic is busiest
12. If you want to see the best in people, look at a disaster, war, or other tragedy.  Difficulty, trouble, and adversity seems to bring people together.
13. People like drama and trouble, and thats why ‘Reality TV’ is popular
14. There is no one path in life, everyone has their own, and some are easier than others
15. Dont judge someone too quickly, but trust your instincts
16. People love to talk about themselves, and don’t want to hear about you very often
17. If you are nice to others, and helpful, you will get used by most people
18. Women are selfish, ambiguous, confusing, have no idea of their emotions
19. Complimenting people just makes them arrogant and self centered, and you will not be appreciated or respected for it.  You will just get used.
20. Everyone lies, even to those that may matter.
21. The few who do not lie do not get respected for it
22. People mostly only care about themselves.  If they care about someone else, its only usually only to pad their own ego
23. Love makes you vulnerable and weak, and you will be exploited for it, or it will be thrown in your face

Ive just been *TRYING* to install PHP 5.3 on IIS 5.1 (Windows XP).  You would think that the installer they provided would work, but nooooo.  Apparently most install guides say not to use it.  Im not surprised.  I think they have tried very hard to make the experience as painful and convoluted as possible in a mistaken attempt to get people to move to Linux, or at least Apache.  Either that, or they are a bunch of inbred morons who never tested their product fully before releasing it.  And they wonder why there isnt more uptake of PHP?? 

I followed a few guides, and I have no fucking idea if its installed properly or not (most guides arent consistent either), but now IIS is chucking a fit and giving me file permission errors (-2147467259 (0×80004005)) when trying to view a test php page that contains one simple line.

 ** UPDATE **

Ive fixed the problem… forget the latest (crappy) version, and go to thier Releases section and download 5.1.0 or another version.  The installer WORKED PERFECTLY and as soon as I ran it, my php pages fired up.  I do reccomend grabbing the installer, and the ZIP.  Install from the installer, then unzip the zipped copy over the place where PHP was installed.  Reason – the installer doesnt have all the extensions etc.

I finally got around to reading the third issue of Black magazine (a good read if you like dark culture, horror movies, etc).  I was flicking through it and came to a page with the following list:

1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence
2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates
5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development”, has become the most vicious animal of all
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification
9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years

I was, to understate, surprised.  I have been searching for a religious aspect to life as I have felt for some time that this important aspect of life has been missing for me.  Indoctrinated in traditional societal rules, I initially dismissed the article, but after giving it an open minded view, I quickly learned that “Satanism” is not at all what the popular media and religions have portrayed.

I have always leaned towards mysticism, the supernatural, and other darker aspects of life, but have been told by the hypocrites that this is bad.  So, I wandered around aimlessly in the spiritual landscape, adrift because I have not found a faith that represents my experiences and understanding of the way the world works.

Out of desperation I read the full article, only to learn that the naysayers have completely misrepresented the views of Satanism.  In fact, they need Satanism in order to justify their own existence (see #9 above).  To me, this seems to be the other side of the same coin.  Both necessary for existence and balance, but one side represents abstinence, piety, control, and faith without evidence.  The other seems to represent hedonism, vital existence, realism, freedom to feel and experience without guilt, and a way of explaining the rocky road of life.  For me, it seems to fit, more accurately than many others would have me believe.

So, I found a copy of The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey.  I have started to read it (and for those worried about my immortal soul, I have also started to read The Quran, and The Christian Bible), and so far I have found some interesting outlooks on life that seem to fit in with today’s society.

It is not an easy religion to adopt in a society ruled so long by Puritan ethics. There is no false altruism or mandatory love-thy-neighbor concept in this religion. Satanism is a blatantly selfish, brutal philosophy. It is based on the belief that human beings are inherently selfish, violent creatures, that life is a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest, that only the strong survive and the earth will be ruled by those who fight to win the ceaseless competition that exists in all jungles – including those of urbanized society. Abhor this brutal outlook if you will; it is based, as it has been for centuries, on real conditions that exist in the world we inhabit rather than the mystical lands of milk and honey depicted in the Christian Bible.

That quote is by Burton H. Wolfe (from the prologue of The Satanic Bible) stands out to me.  I have found myself drawing the same conclusion about life and people, on my own, by my own experiences.  I have always felt that religion should be self evident, the rules spoken clearly by interactions with people and the world in general.  So far, I am quite surprised to say that The Satanic Bible so far has represented the most pragmatic and realistic viewpoint of how to view and deal with life.

I will read on, take on the lessons that I need to learn, and maybe I have found something that I can hang my hat on and fill the void in my life?

I found this really interesting article… its a long read though.  One excerpt that I like is this one:

Vaillant’s confession reminded me of a poignant lesson from his work—that seeing a defense is easier than changing it. Only with patience and tenderness might a person surrender his barbed armor for a softer shield. Perhaps in this, I thought, lies the key to the good life—not rules to follow, nor problems to avoid, but an engaged humility, an earnest acceptance of life’s pains and promises. In his efforts to manifest this spirit, George Vaillant is, if not a model, then certainly a practiced guide. For all his love of science and its conclusions, he returns to stories and their questions. When I asked him if there was a death that had affected him, he mentioned Case No. 47—“Alan Poe”—an inspiring, tragic man, who left many lessons and many mysteries, who earnestly sought to “squeeze that lemon.”