Best of 2010

Came into a bunch of spare parts, and here's what I threw together:

• Core i7 930
• ASUS P6X58D Premium
• 6x2GB PC3-10666 (triple-channel)
• 2x ATi FirePro 3D V8800
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
• Plextor PX-880SA 24x DVD+/-RW
• Antec TP-650
• A Lian Li brushed-aluminum mid-tower... Can't recall the model.

Had to order a CrossFire Pro bridge from China, and that might not arrive 'til October... But still pretty neat :)

Drop-Top

Scored a free Certified Refurbished Surface Book (i5, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD) with a docking station! That's ~$1500, after taxes! Got one of these for it, too - for 30%-off! Good times.

So the Surface Book is just... Wonderful :) I mean, I still love my 1440p touchscreen X1 Carbon, but this convertible is so nice! Tablet mode in Windows 10 (1903) is slick, the dual-battery configuration is really clever, the 3000x2000 screen is still gorgeous... I think this is my favourite laptop design out there. I've worked with one before but it'd been abused, and even demoing them in the store with all the security alarms attached just doesn't do the device justice. I still think they're awfully pricey and I've never been able to justify the cost of even a tablet for myself, but I am not upset about this at all.

Otherwise, John Romero released SIGIL and it's pretty good, Senua's Sacrifice is incredible, and I'm trying 2013's Rise of The Triad again with a little more patience this time.

Happy Mother's Day!

Built my mom a new computer out of spare parts:

• i5-2500
• ASUS P8Z68V-LX
• 4x2GB PC3-10666
• Radeon HD 5450
• 64GB SSD
• Corsair TX650
• Windows 10 Pro x64

Coincidence

Home PC: i7-3930K on an ASUS P9X79 with 32GB of PC3-12800 RAM in quad-channel and a GTX 780.

Work PC: i7-3820 on an ASUS P9X79 with 32GB of PC3-10600 in quad-channel and a FirePro V8800.

Feels Wrong

Started a new job that requires more time with Linux than I've been used to in recent years, so to get back into the groove I'm installing Debian 9 on Hyper-V... Not sure how I feel about that.

Lost my A5, someone seems to have found it, and then they turned it off immediately... Which sucks 'cause it's encrypted and FRP-locked. So enjoy your brick while I spend $450 I didn't want to spend! At least the first one was essentially free :\

My Marvel Puzzle Quest account disappeared with my old phone, which was weird 'cause I'd backed it up. Thankfully D3 Go! was able to restore it without issue, so that was pretty sweet. Thanks, D3 Go!

...And finally, I caught a Killer Instinct sale! Got the Definitive Edition on Windows 10 for ~$12! That game is still so much fun :)

Make it Stinky!

Finished Quake II: Ground Zero. The ending was silly. The rest was ambitious and mostly successful, but Xatrix made the overall-better Mission Pack - it was just a tighter package that was more fun to play. Ground Zero looked better, felt more organic, and was a bigger undertaking, but it all felt so cumbersome by the end and then just sputtered-out.

Played a few minutes Unreal 'cause it's free on GOG.com right now... S'alright... Which is kinda sad 'cause it absolutely blew my mind when it first came out.

While on GOG.com, I also grabbed American McGee's Grimm 'cause I keep meaning to finally play past the first episode, and yeah... It's simple and kinda fun, I guess. The gameplay's not exactly challenging, the story's pretty juvenile, and the exploration is rudimentary... The presentation is the highlight, but I dunno if it's enough to keep me going.

Don't call it a reboot...

Wrapped-up Strider (2014), and I loved it. A little on the easy side, but I think that's also why it worked so well; all that fast-paced badassery I mentioned in the previous post. So which Metroid clone should I tackle next? Headlander? Ori? Momodora? Outland? ITSP? Other M? I've fallen behind :(

Otherwise, it occurred to me that I can now run higan comfortably, plus the added hard drive space coupled with the ability to download Windows Store purchases to any drive meant it was time to grab Forza 6: Apex, Halo 5: Forge, Killer Instinct, and Phantom Dust again :)

Strider returns! ...No, no that one.

So what've I been doing with my "new" X-Series i7? Playing Strider (2014) and wondering why I let it sit for so long :\ Seriously, this is a unique take on the Metroid formula with all kinds of fast-paced badassery through a sweet eastern-European setting that's just way too much fun. I got it when it was released, played through the first few areas, put it on hold for something else, and then it sat for four years... My bad.

Cheap Upgrade!

Local guy posted an ad selling a computer for $250... It was an i7-3930K cooled by a Zalman CNPS12X on an ASUS P9X79 with 4x4GB of PC3-12800 RAM in quad-channel, a Cooler Master G750M, and a Plextor PX-L890SA, all in an iStarUSA D-400 rackmount case... Yeah, for $250.

It also included a passively-cooled 1GB Gigabyte Radeon 5450, two 7200RPM hard drives (500GB and 1TB), PCIe FireWire 800 and 802.11n cards, and a Windows 7 Pro license, but those are less exciting.

Parting that stuff out on eBay adds-up to around $1000 right now; the case alone is selling for almost $250, and that motherboard is averaging over $300... Like, holy shit.

I don't have a rack system, so I moved just about everything into one of my Lian Li cases added my SSD and GTX 780; left-out the 5450, PCIe cards, and the 500GB HDD, and then... Yeah, at worst it's a cheap upgrade, and at best I'm gonna make money on this :)

Finally found a good use for crates in an FPS...

The Reckoning looks bland throughout; like, so very, very brown... And yet it's a tight single-player campaign with a solid climax! The crate-jumping puzzles especially stand-out as a neat sort of minigame throughout, too... Weird. Ground Zero makes way better use of colour and the level design is labyrinthine in a good way, but the new weapons're kinda meh and the wall-mounted lasers're waaay too powerful. The whole thing feels a bit like a slog next to the Reckoning, but I'm still glad I went back and played through both.

Otherwise, I'm getting in the core of Ys VIII, ReCore: Definitive Edition is up next, and I've been spending way too much time fixing people's failing computers this past week like something cosmic :\

Rogue-like :)

Dissolution of Eternity was probably the better experience over Scourge of Armagon, but both felt kinda sloppy next to Dimension of the Past... It was much more cohesive and coherent; like MachineGames made the most of the original games' limitations whereas Hipnotic and Rogue might've aimed a little too high... I get that they were learning though; Hipnotic went on to do some really cool stuff with id Tech 2 and 3, as well as Source. Rogue, however, brings me to my next point: I'm currently getting into the Quake II mission packs using the quake2xp mod. Curious to see what Rogue's Ground Zero is like and if it lives-up to what they did with Strife, but so far Xatrix's The Reckoning is pretty neat; got a bit of a Half-Life feel to it, structure-wise (big levels broken-up in to smaller sections), and the puzzles're pretty clever... The graphics're blaaannnd though, even with the graphics mod.

Talk to people about it.

So Night in the Woods was everything I'd hoped for. Veered toward a cliché or two as major plot points, but then veered right off-path in the best way possible. First time in a long time I immediately jumped-into another playthrough to see what I had missed - you can't help but miss stuff because of the choices presented. It's just... Special. Play it. Savour it. Talk to people about it.

Wrapped-up Scourge of Armagon; was decent fun! Just over halfway through Dissolution of Eternity now... Feels slicker. Prolly gonna tackle the Quake II mission packs next, though I have been tempted to go hunt-down the rest of the secrets in Titanfall 2.

Still plugging-away at Ys VIII before bed, and the new translation really does help. Still grinding at Marvel Puzzle Quest on my commutes, too... Still fun.

Streamlined, I guess?

Burned-through Titanfall 2's single-player campaign in about five hours, and it was even better than I'd heard! Some truly inventive mechanics and setpieces in there, but so much of it only ever appeared once. Similarly, there were the beginnings of some great worldbuilding and character development, but there was absolutely zero padding so everything was over so quickly that it didn't really have time to coalesce. Thankfully, it was all so good that suspending my disbelief and enjoying those five hours immensely was no challenge at all. Might go back and look for the rest of the collectibles... Might even dive into multiplayer for a little bit. Regardless, well worth the $13 :)

Anyway, Night in the Woods is next; wanna cleanse the palate a bit more before tackling Arkham Episodes.

My bad!

Figured-out why I couldn't log-in to Origin after resetting my password, and did it in time to get-in on the Titanfall 2 sale! I'd mismanaged my password manager; was totally my fault. Crisis averted, I purchased and downloaded the Standard Edition of the game, tweaked the recommended video settings 'cause they were insultingly low, and promptly watched the video freeze randomly during gameplay... Though the audio and the rest of the PC kept on working just fine. My own troubleshooting proved useless, the suggestions on support forums were worse, and in the end I was able to play the game smoothly at 1080p with absolutely all video setting maxed-out... As long as ambient occlusion is turned off. Cool game! The first one was kinda disappointing 'cause even though it was awesome and I experienced some downright magical moments with it, the multiplayer-only design resulted in me missing content and experiencing things in weird orders. I was there for the world, not the grind :(

Also, re: Arkham Knight, while I finished all of Most Wanted (save for The Riddler) and Season of Infamy, I completely forgot about Arkham Episodes; so far, I'm almost done A Matter of Family, and it's pretty neat.

My credentials have expired!?

I think I'm done with Arkham Knight. Super-slick, suitably epic, and some killer moments; but also just felt kinda stale well before I was finished - à la Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Too much to do, all padded-out... Like, I spent a solid 30 hours with the game and the DLC and completed all but the final few missions and I'm not unhappy about it, but I doubt I'll ever be going back to it. Asylum was something special with a stupid ending, City was ridiculous but fun, Origins was a cool story but all kinds of bland, and Knight is really well-made but ultimately kinda forgettable. Huh.

...Now to see why I can no longer log-in to my Origin account before the $13 Titanfall 2 sale ends.

Twice

Two more freezes. Dang.

Do I wait-out 1709, hope it stabilises like 1703 did, and cross my fingers this doesn't happen with every new version? Go back to 1609 because LTS? Give-up altogether and stay officially-supported with 7? Just build a whole new desktop?

Argh.

Also bought a bunch of LED light bulbs for my place... Non-dimmable, non-RGB, non-programmable, non-WiFi-enabled LED bulbs, but still :) 60W 5000K for the bathroom and a combination of 60W and 40W 2700K for the living room. Was not feeling the one 60W 3000K bulb I got though. I have no idea why I'm documenting this.

"They like to roll the dice"

Some recent update to Windows 10 1703 seemed to fix the stability issues I was experiencing, so I was confident about performing a clean installation of 1709 on my officially-unsupported-since-Windows-7 X58-based desktop... Three hard freezes in the first six hours, and I'm feeling kind of annoyed. Granted, the first one happened before applying a few remaining Windows updates, and the latter two happened while updating the still-buggy Street Fighter V, so... We'll see. Still can't justify a new build.

Also, Cuphead is a masterpiece, and I recently got to meet some of the artists and see a bunch of the original sketches and models and everything was awesome :)

Making chemicals at the chemical plant, of all places...

Arkham Origins was weak. Nice graphics, but so bland; solid gameplay, but woefully repetitive; cool story, but weak dialogue; and it goes on like that throughout... Glad I finished it, but not interested in 100%.

Jumped right in to Arkham Knight though, and wow! So slick! Great production value, though the dialogue's still a little weird at times and the Riddler stuff is kind of awkward, but yeah, just... Wow.

...All over again.

Wrapped-up Final DOOM, forgot to mention Master Levels for DOOM II in my last post, but yeah, I went and blew through those as well... Some cool setpieces, but not quite up to Final DOOM standards. Moved-on to Quake Epsilon and DOPA, remembered that I'd never finished either of the Quake Mission Packs, and so I'm onto those now. Didn't realise the first one was made by what would eventually become the studio responsible for the SiN series, and that the second one was made by the studio responsible for Strife! This's been a lot of consecutive id FPSes though, so I re-installed Arkham Origins (never finished it; about halfway through now), and of course I'm still plugging away at Ys VIII on my Vita... Also considering ordering the Asia-exclusive physical release of Ys Origin for Vita.

Speaking of Arkham Origins, I'm having way more fun with it now that I've taken some time away from the series, but it's still just not as polished as its two predecessors. The intro missions were all so drab, Electrocutioner was pretty forgettable, Deathstroke was kinda frustrating, Copperhead felt like a budget Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter mission was really cool but anti-climactic, the Deadshot mission can become tediously unfair, and the collectibles... Oh god, so many collectibles. Still looking forward to getting into Arkham Knight, but may just take a little more time before then.

Funny thing though; I went through my old posts, and it looks like the last time I was playing Arkham Origins, I was also playing Ys (Memories of Celceta) on Vita and Quake Epsilon :)

Day One

Got the Galaxy A5, updated it to Android 7.0, switched over to the Google Now Launcher, disabled every Samsung app I could (though I'm stuck with the phone and the camera), and it's solid... Especially since I got it for free; $200 promo discount, $180 in credit, and $120 saved over two years because my new plan is $5 cheaper per month. The camera's alright, but does some weird image processing that doesn't look as good as what the Android 7.1.1 Google Camera did on the Nexus 5X. The screen displays some very rich colours, but seems kinda dark... I'm sure I'll get used to it though. Everything else feels nice except for the physical home button/fingerprint scanner; I really wish the bottom buttons were more like the Nexus line and that the fingerprint scanner was on the back of the phone. It's a clear step up from everything cheaper, but I still think I'd rather have a OnePlus or an Essential... They weren't, however, available for $500 off.

Anyway, I've almost finished Final DOOM. Wrapped-up Evilution and felt pretty good about myself, then started The Plutonia Experiment and immediately realised that I had accomplished nothing. I'm on the final level now though, and it's been fantastic throughout; real challenge without necessitating savescumming or mind-numbing repetition. I still think the first three episodes of the original DOOM are the only collection of levels that really works cohesively in that engine, and I avoided Final DOOM back in the day because it was fan-made, but there is some truly inspired level design in there that holds-up incredibly well today. This also means I'll've completed The Ultimate DOOM, DOOM II + No Rest for the Living, DOOM 3 + Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission, and DOOM (2016), which really only leaves DOOM (2016)'s Arcade Mode... Which is punishing even at lower difficulty levels... Wheee!