Ornithological Genocide

Thanksgiving has come and gone for another year. It's my Mom's Favorite holiday, and she desires the whole fmaily there on that day. It was a good day. It underlined the many things for which I am thankful. In no order whatsoever, here is an incomplete compendium.

• I am thankful to have my lovely Dr. Girlfriend in my life. She makes the whole fucking "Let's get to the grindstone" lifestyle more than worth it. After the dust settles at the end of the day, she's there, making everything better.
• I am thankful that somehow, in the middle of a wage freeze, my new boss saw fit to push for my raise, which went through. I think it is probably because the new kid they just hired was probably working for more money than me. Whatever. I feel less like an ant than I did before.
• I am thankful for all my friends who continue to show their support to me, and all they ask in return is that I be who I am. What wonderful fun!
• I am thankful for the fact that I, for the time being, have a metabolism that allows me to get away with eating anything I damn well please and not gain an ounce. (Side note: I don't work out enough)
• I am thankful for the fact that my computer can and does act as a space heater in what is certain to be a cold and expensive winter.
• I am thankful that my beloved Rammstein put out another album for us fans. Great stuff.
• I am thankful for the new album and new season of Dethklok and Metalocalypse. Brutal.
• I am thankful for Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend. It's always been this way in my mind, and now I can show others what I've been seeing when listening to the aforemention material.
• I am thankful for all the holiday sales that have made my holiday shopping that much easier on my budget.
• I am thankful of course for the entirity of my family. Who am I without all of you?
• I am thankful that my truck is still hauling ass when I need to do so.
• I am thankful that the band is getting back together.
• I am thankful for the Internet and all its wonders.
• I am thankful for Steam. Period.
• I am thankful for Firearms, Tobacco, and Alcohol.
• I am thankful that I can consider this post finished.

This was a little more arduous than it should have been. Eh. Still not complete. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

-The0

Left 4 Dead 2: Electric Boogaloo

So, I have put in a good number of hours into the new Left 4 Dead, and I have a serious conclusion regarding its performance.

This game kicks ASS!!!

Now don't get me wrong, it can be damn annoying to try and get and get onto a car ferry and dying 3 times after a minute, and it can be much more difficult to simply reach the end zone, but VALVe has done a magnificent job of mixing things up and keeping a good idea fresh. With the new infected, you have to stay on your toes, and monitor your teammates a lot more. The level design is fantastic as well, and you never feel like you're simply running around in a system of arbitrary tubes.

My least favorite of the new infected is the Spitter. Here I am, I've just healed up, and we're progressing nicely, when all of a sudden I'm swimming in this green goo, and I'm losing health like I just fucked a lawnmower. It's almost as bad as startling a Witch, and it's especially bad when you're trying to get out of the goo and you're surrounded by zombies. I guess they're finally getting back at me for all those molotovs.

Of the levels, my new favorite is Hard Rain. For this level, you're running to get more fuel for an escape from your previous campaign. All these linear based maps actually link up, and it's very impressive how they segue into each other. Hard Rain isn't linear though. It's circular and dynamic! You have to run to the end, grab the fuel, and run back, only this time, the whole place is flooded from the rain. During the 4th chapter, the weather changes a lot, going from heavy rain to torrential flood. This summons the horde, and makes it impossible to hear your teammates. Awesome.

The characters are easily attached to as well. Of course, everyone went clamoring for the George Clooney-esque Nick character, and following my tradition, I tried to stick with a female character, Rochelle (I have my reasons.) Coach reminds me of Hank Hill in a weird way. My current favorite is Ellis. His ability to yammer on in a situation of extreme duress is a metaphor of how I think I interact with new people.

I usually get frustrated at new games, but this one is growing on me nicely. The replay value is astounding, and there are all these new game modes that I have yet to try. A great step forward for VALVe. That stated:

LET'S SEE SOME DAMN HALF-LIFE ALREADY!!! (please.)

-The0

It's not the Zombies that kill you...

So, like the rest of the Steam-nation, I am right now sitting here, waiting for Left 4 Dead 2 to release. I preloaded everything, it just needs to be told to "Go." A bit like me, actually. A little disappointing, but not unexpected. I'm certain it will be out before the sun comes up again.

And verily it is! A decryption ensues this sentence. Not to do a stream-of-consciousness post, but this is going to be exciting. I was going to shoot for a "Well isn't that the way it goes?" post, but now it looks like a pre-game excitement post in in order.

L4D2 is looking to be huge. New Special Infected, 5 campaigns out of the box, and new gameplay modes. This is going to be a nice long couple of days off. A review in my hackneyed style is going to be in the works, be assured.

And now, I have been made aware of a Woot-Off!!! I'm not sure if that should be capitalized or not, but it's a significant enough occurrence to break my train of thought. Maybe this time around, I'll be able to snag a couple of items, and stock some holiday gifts for friends.

The waiting is over. Now let's see if the zombies can kill me.

-The0

Impulse 101: Lessons in Self-Control

A thought occurred while I was supposed to be working tonight, one about which I've actually already thought. Access to cheat codes for games is far too easy. You look them up in the strategy guide, you find them on GameFAQs, and all of a sudden the game becomes a pointless delve into violence, a timesink. The difficulty, the fear, the thinking, it all vanishes. You know what it is to be like Dr. Manhattan.

Now granted, I spent the first half of my gaming life doing precisely that. When I got Quake installed on my first PC, I played for about 5 minutes before I decided to cheat and hack it. I was God in a brightly lit dungeon, with ammo being the farthest concern from my mind. In retrospect, this revolutionary game was slighted by my laziness and bloodlust. Game programmers put a LOT of work into making games challenging, and that challenge is what makes the game fun, not necessarily the slaughter. To just mindlessly kill things via cheats is to voluntarily vote against thinking, as far as I am concerned.

However, it somewhat begs the question, why even include the cheats in the first place? It's beyond me, but it's still very fun to play with them. To run amuck and just turn enemies into red paste is a grand stress reliever, and slightly less sociopathic than shooting real people. It's an escape to an alternate world anyway, why should I have to be bound by its rules too?

My final thought is, at what point should you consider using cheats? At what point is it fair to you and the game designers to start playing around? Where have you explored all that needs to be explored, and had time to enjoy and embrace all the subtleties of their work, their sold gift? I think it's either after you've played through the entire story on hard mode, or at least twice on regular. Then, feel free to hack, cheat, and rob the AI of their opportunity to make you feel weak and outsmart you.

4 days until L4D2, everyone! Happy gaming!

-The0

Wheat among the the Chaff

Or something.

It so happens that one of my best friends bought a rifle recently. But it wasn't just any rifle, not to me, not to him. He bought a Springfield M-1903 A1. After some serial number research, We found that it is roughly 98 years old. It's in excellent condition for a nearly century old weapon. Fantastic.

Now, for the reader's edification, I am a bit of a gun buff. I can figure out how to take apart most any firearm. I also spent 5 of the the most influential years of my life at a military school. It was a hell for me. This is the the very make of rifle with which I drilled at that academy. To touch it again brought on many memories.

I was a very confused, angry, ostracized individual back then. I was wierd, I was lovesick, I was violent, yet profoundly restrained. These things stayed bottled inside for a very long time, not many of them got out, well, ever. Bad times, then. Darkening times they were. I hate that place.

I used to work the armory at that school, repairing broken rifle stocks and replacing worn parts. Those were times where I found joy, to work on a finely made, though deactivated, piece of metal. I worked with my filthy hands and made each rifle I could get said hands on perfect as it could be, from the blade-style front sight to the butt plate. Those were the happy moments, that kept me sane. The S-type stock, tapering into the top sling collar, and the solid heft of it were all attributes I enjoyed. Needless to say, I put as many miniature modifications as I could onto my rifle. That was my drill rifle, and none were like it.

To hold one again was like meeting a long lost friend.

Congratulations Korenav!

-The0