Blogs - SCΛRECROW

Let me start off by saying that this review is entirely subjective and all opinions my own. That said, any and all comments are welcome for discussion. Be warned, some spoilers ahead. A fair while has passed I started playing WATCH_DOGS (which will be referred to as Watch Dogs from now on) and now that I've finished the campaign and a rather large number of side missions, I feel that it's time for a review/reflection/retrospective (maybe?).

It was E3 2012, Ubisoft premiered the Watch Dogs teaser trailer and had many gaming sites in a buzz. Wow, a game about a hacker with information about the environment at his finger tips and control over things in the area to offer creative solutions to combat situations. Look, you can invade someone else's game and steal their money. Damn, the visuals look pretty sweet. Man, this game looks so different to what is currently around. Can't wait!

I had pre-ordered the game like many others who got caught up in the hype, time to play the waiting game. The game was released in 2014, after a delay in 2013, which left me somewhat disappointed, but more hopeful for the final quality of the game. Launch day, and I was excited! Watch Dogs was downloaded and installed, then played. It was laggy and stuttering for no reason at all, it's not like my machine was old, and I had turned the graphics settings down. Pretty disappointed to have issues that should have been caught in testing.

There is a lot to do in Watch Dogs, plenty of side missions with different styles which makes the open world quite rich. I really enjoyed this variety in gameplay, you can go around stopping crimes, solving mysteries or leading the cops on car chases. Driving in Watch Dogs is a mixed bag, at first it was like driving a car on ice, but eventually you can control the car for some good fun. The loose physics make for some spectacular crashes but it makes accidentally running over civilians during a car chase an all too common occurrence. The inability to shoot from vehicles is a let down, as it removes a lot of combat options.

To me, the hacking mechanics of the game were a bit hit and miss. On one hand, you have the ability to gather intelligence, manipulate the environment to your advantage and even kill enemies. The blackout ability is very powerful, letting the player sneak into or out of areas unseen. On the other hand, hacking is useless in some situations where only firepower will suffice and it was used as a kind of puzzle feature. In short, it seemed that hacking was kind of a secondary element added onto the game, sure using the hacking ability made some missions a lot easier, but there wasn't really anything stopping me from running in guns blazing. I think the game was missing consequences for morally questionable decisions made while hacking.

One of my biggest gripes is the gameplay breaking weapons. When I first started playing Watch Dogs, I attempted some criminal convoy side missions, where you have to eliminate a target travelling with number of hostiles. Since you only have a pistol, you have to think carefully about where to set up an ambush and use hacking to your advantage, it was difficult. But then I thought "there must be a better way" and went around hacking every NPC's bank account to buy a pump-action grenade launcher. Armed with the newly acquired weapon, I blocked off the road with a truck, waited for the target to pull up, climbed on top of the truck and pop-pop-pop: mission complete. Missions became really easy now especially with assault rifles and machine guns at your disposal. I think I would have enjoyed the game a bit more if the player had to rely on hacking a bit more than weapons.

Another criticism I have is the multiplayer. Sure it's fun to drop into a random person's game and hack them, but it's more fun to play with friends. But what can you play with friends? Just some races and open world. I would have really liked to have been able to play side missions with friends.

TL;DR: Not all bad but it's not all good. Lots of potential, but it's basically GTA with hacking on the side. 6.5/10.

- SCΛRECROW

Just uploaded the Lancer II model to the 3D warehouse. It's been a WIP for about 5 years or so, with it getting some attention a few times a year when I don't have anything else to do. Over 117 changes were made, most of which are documented in the previous post, which was changed to be the change log (linked because I didn't want a wall of text...)

Check it out at the 3D warehouse: 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com

The video tour will be uploaded when I can be bothered to make it. :P

- Fixed MAJOR structural problems on left side of ship
- Extended side pods to 600m from 588.753m (MAJOR WORK)
- Required remount of forward pod turrets
- Required adjustment of armour plating on sides and front
- Extended side pod main armour plate by 5m
- Added armour plating and detail
- Tweaked existing armour plating
- Extended side pod-hull joint "pipes"
- Fixed issue with turret emplacements along pods
- Stretched upper main superstructure to 340m from 305.545m (MAJOR WORK)
- Required MAJOR modifications to surrounding structure
- Extended and redesigned side armour plating (5 plates, from 6)
- Extended side pod frontal structure
- Rebuilt superstructure glacis
- Required turret remount
- Realigned top front armour (misaligned by 0.017m)
- Remounted side pod forward main assault turrets
- Added more 2 more missile launcher arrays
- Modified armour plating and superstructure header structure
- MAJOR overhaul of main engines to fix consistency and geometry issues
- Required MAJOR modifications to surrounding structure
- Total redesign/rebuild of engine body
- Redesigned engine header structure
- Added armour to engine header structure
- Modified depth of main engine nozzle
- Added extra detail to engines and surrounding area
- Fixed main engine nozzle ring geometry issues
- Required repositioning of pod/hull reinforcement brackets
- MAJOR overhaul and redesign of "catfish" canards
- Hull extension changed to 30m
- Extended canard length to 260m
- Changed angles of leading edges
- Redesigned forward turret mount
- Added Asgard beam turret to rear of canards
- Redesigned armour plating
- Repositioned and shortened conduit/heatsink + Asgard forward beam turret
- Added armour plating to top surface of hull extension
- Added various detailing around area
- MAJOR overhaul of superstructure top surface
- Adjusted size of bridge structure
- Repositioned bridge (misaligned)
- Adjusted position of main missile launcher array
- Adjusted position of turrets
- Redesigned and rebuilt armour to fix consistency issues
- Redesigned and rebuilt central "stripe" conduit to fix consistency issues
- Built internal hangar bays
- Redesigned hangar doors
- Redesigned/added detail to area around hangar
- Revised angle of hangar entrance wedge (~25.6 degrees from ~28 degrees)
- "Blunted" hangar entrance wedge
- Fixed alignment issue on hangar entrance wedge conduit (off centre by 0.038m)
- Redesigned Medium Dual Triple Turrets to Mark II version (better firing arc and other design changes)
- Redesigned Light turret mounts for better firing arc: standardised to 1m depth, 4m radius
- Adjusted armour plating around redesigned turret mounts
- Redesigned and standardised Medium Turret mount: 12m radius from 14m
- Required adjustment of surrounding armour plating
- Redesigned bow ball cannon
- Improved firing elevation arc to -60/+8
- Barrel and muzzle redesign
- Grouped ball cannon
- Redesigned secondary engines
- Redesigned tertiary engines
- Repositioned secondary and tertiary engines
- Repositioned 2 Light turrets for hangar defence (underside of hangar entrance wedge)
- Retrofitted "Sabre" Class Battlecruiser style bridge windows
- Reduced area of "glass" by ~24% (33.78 m^2 to 25.32 m^2)
- Replaced a number of medium dual triple turrets with medium dual twin plasma bolt turrets
- Replaced Heavy Triple Turrets with Mark II version (better firing elevation arc)
- Removed Heavy Triple Turrets from front of side pods
- Replaced sensor dish with phased array
- Adjusted rear conduit
- Adjusted position of other antennae
- Revised design of Asgard Beam Turret (reduced number of edges by 384 and faces by 180 per instance)
- Revised size and design of ventral cargo bay doors
- Added armour plating in area
- Revised forward ventral area
- Revised design and size for forward ventral hull extrusions
- Added armour plating around area
- Modified spacing of turrets and various elements in that area
- Revised rear top heatsink design
- Fixed inconsistent rear top heatsink size
- Added heatsink to middle section
- Refurbished bridge
- Revised design of bridge doors
- Revised bridge wall-ceiling joint
- Adjusted position of rear displays
- Revised design of battlespace hologram platform
- Add battlespace hologram to bridge
- Adjusted armour plating around redesigned turret mounts
- Adjusted forward hull conduit size to 0.8 x 3.0m
- Adjusted size of various armour plates
- Adjusted top armour plate separation to 2m from edge of surface
- Adjusted position of forward top missile launcher array
- Added structures to underside of aft hull near engines
- Added 2 medium dual twin plasma bolt turrets to side pods (ventral mount)
- Required turret spacing adjustment
- Added detail and armour to bridge area
- Added detail to bottom of front "wedge" structure
- Added detail to pod secondary and tertiary engine bays
- Added detail/armour to sides of side pods
- Added detail/armour plating to undersides of side pods
- Added armour plating/detailing to cutting laser mount
- Added armour plating to front glacis of superstructure
- Added detail to ventral surfaces
- Added armour plating to other various locations
- Added navigation lights
- Added extra elements to communication and sensor array
- Added landing gear
- Fixed top armour plating thickness inconsistency
- Fixed many broken line issues
- Fixed many duplicate line issues
- Fixed line softness/visibility issues
- Fixed minor colouration errors
- Fixed several duplicate colour issues
- Fixed aft armour plating spacing errors: now consistent @ 5m
- Fixed top light turret mount issues (duplicate line dependencies/intersects)
- Removed many, many, many stray lines

Just a list of games I'm hoping for, might add some comments and stuff after E3.

• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Patriots (Damn it!) Siege
  • So it looks like they scrapped Patriots
  • Watched the multiplayer gameplay trailer, looks good
  • Not sure about the campaign story line, probably won't be as intriguing as Patriots
  • Demo was probably played on a console....they can't aim :P
• Star Wars Battlefront (EA Reboot)
  • Early footage looks good
  • Kind of a let down not seeing actual gameplay footage though
  • I think I can trust DICE now
• Mass Effect (4?)
  • Didn't really see much to get me excited
  • But it's nice to know they are working on it
• Tom Clancy's The Division (Really looking forward to this one)
  • Looks really good
  • Might need to play with friends considering the teamwork involved
  • Will definitely be playing this one
• Destiny (Even though it's not on PC)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (Wishful thinking?)
• Project CARS
  • Looks as good as it did last time I saw it
  • Release the damn game already!
• Battlefield Hardline
  • So in a nutshell, it's a civilian version of Battlefield 4?
  • Not sure the cops would be willing to blow up half the city to catch the robbers
  • Interesting spin on the Battlefield franchise, but I'll probably pass on this one

Side note: playing WATCH_DOGS at the moment....bit of a let down. GTA+Hacking, wasn't quite what I expected.

Gaming Stuff:

It has been ages since I wrote a blog post, but I thought to list and write a bit about some games I played for the first time in 2013. Without further ado, here's the list in alphabetical order:

- Ace Combat Assault Horizon
In two words: frustratingly bad. I'm not sure I've played another game with controls so poorly thought out. Additionally, the repetitive combat was boring. I gave up on it after an hour and a half. The planes looked nice enough though.

- Batman: Arkham Asylum
Enjoyed it, looked great. One my gripes about this game is that it tries to be open world, but it really isn't, you get funneled into an area and don't really have much of a choice when you enter combat. Speaking of combat, I thought it was a mouse clicking fest and boss battles - especially the Scarecrow dream sequences - got pretty tedious and boring after the second one....dodge, attack, repeat.

- Batman: Arkham City
Haven't finished this one yet, but it is visually impressive and combat has been slightly refined. Oh, and it's open world!

- Battlefield 4 (Multiplayer Beta)
I played the public multiplayer beta for a week. While it had plenty of eye candy and the destructible environments were nice, I felt that it didn't offer much over Battlefield 3.

- Castle Crashers
Fun, but you really do need friends to play with you to have fun.

- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
Also good fun, especially with friends. Can be quite buggy at times. Watch out for that back swing!

- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Not sure why I didn't play this one earlier. Enjoyed this one immensely, with it's excellent storyline. The combat system wasn't the best and boss battles felt a bit out of place, since the game encourages a lot of stealth. It does take a while to get into, but it's worth it.

- Dishonored
Another title I enjoyed, there's a lot of freedom within each mission with choices affecting the story and later missions. Combat was well done and the powers had the right balance as to not feel OP. The storyline was quite good too.

- FTL: Faster Than Light
Possibly my favourite game of 2013. The game is quite easy to pick up and start playing, but it is difficult to master. Lots of depth, since each playthrough is unique and you have a whole lot of ships you can use. It can be frustratingly random at times, with ship crippling events, but that's why you have to play it smart. More risk, more reward, but expect to die...a lot.

- GRID 2
Not a bad sequel, updated visuals made the game look very nice and car handling was a bit on the arcade-y side. The career mode was a bit short, but still good, I would have liked to see a perpetual career mode similar to GRID 1. Additionally, the racing AI wasn't really as good as NFS:SHIFT2. The variety of game modes is a plus for multiplayer, but I was annoyed at the stack of DLC that you had to buy if you wanted to drive a certain car or on a certain track.

- Strike Suit Zero
Not sure what to make of this one, it looks nice and is fun, but can be frustrating at times. The checkpoint save system can be improved, I think I played one part of the game where some captial ship had to be destroyed (or something) about 9 times before I fluked it and progressed.

- Takedown: Red Sabre
I had high hopes for this game, being a fan of tactical shooters and all that. But the quality of the game was much lower than I expected. Didn't play it very much, co-operative missions are fun, but once you are dead, you stay dead. I would probably say this game is a less polished version of R6: Raven Shield.

- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
For the 30 minutes I've played, it looks good and feels a lot like SC: Conviction. Why haven't I played more you ask? Because the bloody game launcher keeps crashing on me...come on Ubisoft support, I'm waiting for your response.

Non-gaming Stuff:

Well, I continued to work full-time, been doing some 3D modelling, taking some photos. Got some new "toys": a Nikon D610 DSLR, Corsair Vengeance K70 keyboard and some other stuff.
Speaking of keyboards, I want to follow up on the last blog where I complained about the new ThinkPad keyboard. After using an X230 for a year, I'll admit that I was wrong on the "it will feel horrible" part. But if you would kindly take a look at the keyboard of the new X1 Carbon (2014), I think it's really screwed up this time.Happy 2014...see you next year! :P
SCΛRECROW

First of all, this is a rant about Lenovo's decision to use chiclet/island type (i.e. Apple style) keyboards on their new ThinkPads, so feel free to go back to whatever you were reading if you're not interested. This issue probably won't bother many people, but having owned several models of ThinkPads (R31, R61, R500, SL410, X201, X220t) it is something I feel rather strongly about.

I have used ThinkPads since primary school, but if you have ever used a ThinkPad, you probably will have noticed the excellent tactile feedback and comfort that the classic keyboard delivers. Typing on the keyboard for long periods of time doesn't make my hands fatigued and I can touch type flawlessly on it, I suspect that many ThinkPad customers will also agree.

Recently, Lenovo refreshed their ThinkPad line with the new Intel "Ivy Bridge" CPUs, a welcome upgrade, however they also went ahead and replaced the "classic" keyboard that many users have grown to love with a new keyboard they call AccuType.

Lenovo already uses the AccuType keyboard on their consumer orientated IdeaPad laptops and on the ThinkPad Edge line, but to mess with the core ThinkPad line - which has been around for 20 odd years - is playing with fire.

In my view, three things are wrong with the keyboard. They have moved some of they keys around, due to a new 6-row layout, the island type keyboard looks too spaced out and the keys have a 2.0 mm stroke. The new layout is a little annoying, but the increased key spacing and decreased stroke from 2.5 mm is what worries me. You may think 0.5 mm, so what? But you will notice if you have been typing on a ThinkPad for years.

Now I ask, why do this? Why mess with a formula that makes ThinkPads different? To me it's a marketing initiative to make it look like a Mac, because isn't that what all the other laptop manufacturers are doing these days? I don't want a damn Mac clone! I want a bona fide laptop. You know, one with a real keyboard.

Change is good, maybe the new keyboard is better. But do you want to alienate customers that have been using the keyboard for almost two decades? At least give customers a choice.

Admittedly, I have not typed on one of the new keyboards, but I have used two of their current ThinkPad Edge laptops which use the island type keyboards. I can tell you that while the feel is similar, it's not the same.

I will be making my last ThinkPad purchase very soon, a T420 with a classic keyboard. For me, there is no more reason to buy ThinkPads other than any other laptop, they're all Mac clones now.

SCΛRECROW

P.S. I typed this blog on an SL410 with the classic keyboard, which is still a joy to type on. :)

It's about 1:30AM and I can't get to sleep, so what better to do than write a blog post that you've been meaning to write for the past month or three...

First thing's first: Stargate Universe. Yes, it's already been a while since the end of SGU, and its cancellation is old news. But I'm just going to write an opinion piece on it anyway. If you remember, after the first half of season one, I was still on the fence, however I thought the rest of season one and two managed to strike the balance between old-school Stargate episodes and the new style they were aiming for. I really enjoyed most, if not all of the episodes following the first mid-season break. But alas, it was cancelled. Firstly, I want to acknowledge the SciFi channel for their contribution to the longevity of the Stargate franchise. However, after their new vision and renaming to SyFy, I think things have gone downhill for good science fiction television, if it sounds like SyFy it's not SciFi.

I think that they were too impatient with SGU and messing with the TV scheduling did not help at all, I respect that they are running a business, but more risk, more reward. Ending SGU on a cliffhanger was a big mistake, SGU's third season would have been EPIC, that's right EPIC, but the flawed ratings system along with SyFy's insistence to air WWE, tacky reality TV shows and cheap TV movies ultimately led to SGU's demise. Now that SGU is gone, the hopes for an SGU movie and the SG-1 and SGA movies have also been dashed, sure there's always hope, but the reality is that these movies may never be made. I fear that Sanctuary will also suffer the same fate as SGU. What we witnessed was the untimely end of a legendary franchise and the death knell of good science fiction television.

So, in other news: Portal 2. Overall, it's a great game, it's quite impressive to see what they can do with the aging Source engine. The new gameplay elements such as the excursion funnels, hard light, and various gels do make things more interesting, but it mostly remains the same. I felt that the singleplayer campaign could have done with another level or two, but the co-op multiplayer certainly made up for it. Although the voice acting, sound and graphics cannot be faulted, level design could be better, by better I mean make it less obvious where to put portals. Having a small white wall panel against a big brown wall is way too obvious. As a side note, while I was listening to developer commentary (yes, I listen to commentary, sue me), they mentioned that most players said they didn't know want an emancipation grid was from Portal, so they had to modify a puzzle to make it easier on players. The most annoying thing were those damn loading screens, they just cause too much disruption in the flow of the game, especially during the first part of the game. The first DLC pack will be out pretty soon, and it will be interesting to see what Valve has to add.

Also, I'm planning to build a new PC within the next month or two. Proposed specs are: Core i7 2600K, ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe, Corsair 8GB Dominator 1600 RAM, OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD, ASUS GTX570 DC2 GPU, Corsair HX750 PSU, Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced and other components from my existing computer. It should come to a total of around $1.8K AUD. Any suggestions or comments on these parts are welcome.

E3 is coming up, I'll be keeping tabs on it as usual. Battlefield 3 looks really, really good, hence why I'm getting a new PC. Although, GR:FS was delayed. Again. And there's this Ghost Recon Online shooter coming soon...not sure what to make of that. Either way with or without more delays, I've got a stack of games on my "to play list".

Mid year exams are coming up, so it's going to get quite busy. And on that note, I'm going to stop rambling and get some sleep now.

SCΛRECROW

P.S.: if I'm incoherent, or if you spot any grammatical or spelling errors, forgive me, late night blogging isn't something I do on a regular basis.

So the holidays are nearly up, didn't get as much done as I wanted to. I start work again this week and will start my final year of university in about a month, it feels weird saying that. So after this year, I'm supposed to have a full-time job; Are there jobs out there? Am I ready to work?...or should I say on and do post-grad? Just a few of the questions weighing on my mind. Yeah, I think too much.

Moving on....to regular programming. New year means new games, right? A lot of sequels are being released this year...bloody CoD MW3 is coming in November, it seems like they are milking the franchise, so to speak. I'll be on the look out for Portal 2, NFS: Shift 2, GR: Future Soldier and OF: Red River. I'm hoping for some "innovations" in game play, but I don't expect much difference with Shift 2 and Red River. SW: The Old Republic has sort of dropped off my radar, it just seems like another MMO with a "Star Wars" sticker on it, we'll see.

A whole bunch of films are scheduled to be released this year...quality not quantity, people! My line up of movies to watch includes Sucker Punch and Battle: LA. Both look quite good, especially Battle: LA. Not so sure about Real Steel, Mission Impossible 4 and Transformers 3. I really liked MI:3 and J.J. Abrams' directing style. For Transformers 3, I predict that lots of crap will be blown up with a slow motion running shot of the hero(es).

As for TV, most of my regular viewing has been renewed, except SGU. You may remember that I was still on the fence about the first season of SGU, the first half of season 2 has really impressed me. So as a TV show is improving the brain-dead PTB cancel it. I am extremely irritated that a lot of the "smart" shows with good writing and complex yet elegant storylines don't get much of a chance. If only some one created a "true sci-fi" channel....WTF is WWE doing on SyFy anyway?

Also coming up, the Air Show in early March. I'm especially excited this year, because the F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit, E-3D Sentry and a Wedgetail AEW&C will be there, probably because it's the RAAF's 90^th anniversary. Not sure if they will just be a static display or a flight demonstration, I'm hoping for flight demo. Hopefully it doesn't rain, fingers crossed! I'm also heading to an ice hockey match in Melbourne (yes, we have ice rinks here) for the 2011 World Championship (Div II, Grp. A). I'll be at Australia vs. Serbia, I was hoping to get seats for Australia vs. New Zealand, because we beat them 58 - 0 in 1987, but alas it was sold out.

End Blog.
SCΛRECROW

It's been quite a while since the last blog, but what can I say? I've been busy. University has been over for about a month now, so I'm well into the holidays now; the time for relaxing, and as you can see, I've designed another model for the star fleet. The Razor - Class Strike Fighter was built over 2 months, with the cockpit taking the longest to perfect, I went though about 18 cockpit canopy variations and 6 cockpit layouts. The other parts of the model were relatively easy to get "right". You may notice that the forward section was inspired by the one from the Y-Wing Bomber in Star Wars. The single seater version is 12.2m long, the 2-seater is 13.5m long, the wingspan is 8.4m and it is 1.85m high (2m with landing gear). Armed with 4 plasma cannons, 2 proton torpedo launchers (5x torpedoes each) and various missiles. I might get around to texturing and rendering it.

Okay, so that's that, I really haven't been doing much else, besides working on a video project. It's just the usual gaming and working. Speaking of gaming...for me, 2010 was the year of video game disappointments (although there were a few really good games): Medal of Honor wasn't great, CoD Black Ops seemed rushed, SW TFU2 and HAWX2 looked nice, but were more or less the same as the first, F1 2010 took a major shortcut in AI design and Supreme Commander 2 has made me lazy (when I went back to SupCom Forged Alliance, I was getting owned). Hopefully 2011, with Portal 2, Homefront and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be much better. The Blue Portals: UP mod is pretty good, although frustrating at times.

Stargate Universe is getting better, although some of the plot twists were very transparent. It will be interesting to see how the Destiny will get out of the sticky situation, I can't wait for the couple of cross-over episodes in the 2nd half of season 2.

Anyway, enough mumbling from me. Talk later.
SCΛRECROW

Well, today more or less marks the half way point of the year, not that I'm counting. I'm in mid-year holidays, so there is much gaming on the horizon. I think I'll play Half-Life 2 again because they brought out all these new achievements, this will also be a good time to play Flight Simulator X (finally). More G Mod, Portal, SupCom2, SWBF2, SoaSE and EaW, among other games are also on the cards. With and without mods, of course. Oh, and I recently bought a Logitech G110 gaming keyboard...I tried it for a while, didn't like it, I just found that the G110 keys were a little too tacky and that they were too high. I went back to my trusty Microsoft Sidewinder X6; detachable numpad FTW!

Stargate Universe season 1 is over, I must say that it got better over time. My favourite episode is still "Time", you just can't beat a classic time travel-parallel universe story. "Pain" is a close second. It was quite a let-down when Matt, Chloe and Eli just show up on Destiny, with little explanation after getting stranded in another galaxy, it seems like the writers just hit the "reset" button. I foresee that the Lucian Alliance will get their collective asses kicked in the near future, but I hate these cliffhanger endings. Also, Rob Cooper is leaving Stargate, it's hard to underestimate his work in shaping the Stargate franchise as we know it today. Best wishes on his future endeavours.

The absence of Stargate Universe for 6 months leaves a large gaping hole where the sci-fi used to be. I might hold a Stargate marathon of sorts, hmm, 3 movies and 15 seasons of Stargate will take a while to watch... and yes, I'm still working on my star fleet, although not so much nowadays. But rest assured, the Lancer Mark II will be finished sooner or later, I mean I've already made 86 modifications, so it would be crazy to abandon it now.

Going to be overhauling some servers at work too, it should be fun. Speaking of work, next semester's university timetable looks pretty good, only 2-3 days a week (to be confirmed), I've just got to make sure I use the extra time at home wisely...

That's it for this blog. The wait for exam results can't be too healthy. Talk later.
[SCΛRECROW]

It's been quite a while since the last blog, but now seems like a good time as any to post a new blog...well, not really. My first exam is in 3 days, which happens to be a public holiday and the first day of E3. WHY?!

So, I will be looking out for these games (in no particular order) at E3:

• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Medal of Honor (E3 HD trailer| E3 MP HD trailer)
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (E3 HD trailer)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic (E3 HD trailer)
• Portal 2 (delayed till 2011) (E3 HD trailer)
• Half Life 3 or Half Life 2: Episode 3 (both rumoured)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Meh...
• Crysis 2
• SOCOM 4 (more for the music than the game)
• Halo: Reach (also for the music) (E3 HD trailer)
• Metal Gear Soild: Rising (E3 HD trailer) <--- Lets hope this gets past the OFLC first.

In other events, I went to the Digital Life photography expo last week. Got to use a lot of expensive cameras a lenses. My favourite camera and lens combo was the Nikon D3S ($7,500AUD) and the 600mm f/4 VR ($17,000AUD), it amazing telephoto reach. Also, 9 FPS is crazy, somehow it felt like using an automatic weapon. I also got to use other various Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic and Samsung cameras and lenses. So, now I'm tempted to buy a 105mm f/2.8 macro lens and a new full frame DSLR.

Going to attempt to study now. Talk later.
[SCΛRECROW]