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| Friday, November 19, 2004 11:07 AM |
| On Fire |
 by Fëanor |
You must watch the entire "How to Kill a Mocking Bird" flash movie book review (much thanks to Sarcasmo for the link). It is totally awesome. It starts a little slow, but when the shark caught fire, I was hooked.
And here's a link to a page on Amazon with an essay on one of my favorite philosophers by a guy who writes one of my favorite comics. A weird mix of elements, but it's a pretty good chunk of writing.
Something local folks might be interested in: part of the way down this page you'll find mention of the Reading Terminal Holiday Railroad. I've been walking past this display for the past few days, but never when it was open. From what I can see, it looks really cool (I have a soft spot in my heart for model train sets, from when I was a kid), so I'm hoping I can go check it out today after work--I've even brought my digital camera along for this purpose.
Also after work today, I hope to buy Yagathai a drink in celebration of his birthday. Many happy returns, my friend! Iä, iä, Cthulhu fhtagn, and so forth!
And what have I been doing lately, you ask? Well, Peccable let me play his copy of Half Life 2, for one thing, and I was totally freaking blown away. It's an FPS, and I swore those off recently because they scare me and they end up being obligations rather than things with which I have fun, which is the point, but this one might change my mind. It's one of the most immersive, realistic games I've ever played. The people in it have actually real-looking human faces--the realest I've ever seen rendered by a computer, and I'm including CG characters in movies when I say that. You get to see a close-up of a guy's face at the very beginning of the game, and it works--it looks real. Part of why it does is because his face is not perfectly symmetrical. It has the unevenness and blemishes of a real human face.
Pretty much everything else about the game is fantastic, too--the graphics, the sound, the voice acting, the story, the controls. Everything is intuitive and real and pulls you deeper into the game. And almost everything laying around in the environment can be manipulated. You can pick up boxes and cans and throw them or drop them. You can talk to people, you can break things. If you hit a wall or a piece of metal with a gun or a crowbar, it will chip and dent like a real object.
Anyway, I'll stop gushing. Believe it or not, even though I sound totally in love with the game, I probably won't end up buying it. I'm impressed by the experience of it and by the expertise of its designers, but it's still kind of scary and hard and I might not want to invest the time and the mental and physical effort to actually finish it.
But we'll see.
In other gaming news, I just read about The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, and that one I might have to get. I am obsessed with all things Tolkien ("Really, Feanor?" you say, "I had no idea!"), and I've been looking for the right real-time strategy game to purchase, so this might be just the thing for me.
In yet more gaming-related news, as most of you know already, I'm hosting another game day on the 28th, in honor of National Games Week (a day late, but whatever). This one isn't going to have forms to fill out and a schedule and stuff. Just show up and we'll play some games. Let me know if you can make it. |
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