Red Mage Needs Food Badly

Please tell us you’re serious this time, Duke

WillyFourEyes — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:33:33 +0000

It looks like the story that won’t die about the game that nobody thought would ever get released is finally going to get some closure. Between twelve years in and out of development, the apparent dissolution of developer 3D Realms, and a lot of legal wrangling with publisher Take-Two Interactive, Duke Nukem Forever is preparing to really-definitely-we-mean-it-this-time going to come out – not “when it’s done”, like the case has been for so many years, but “soon”.

For weeks, rumors had swirled around that Gearbox Software (the developer of such hit third-person shooter series as Borderlands and Brothers in Arms) was going to take up development rights. Initial reaction was mixed – there were those who were glad that the game was going to be put in the hands of a developer who knew what the hell it was doing, and the eternal skeptics who’re still not sure whether or not it’s ever going to get finished. At PAX 2010, many pants were soiled when – shock of shocks – a playable demo was shown, along with the announcement that gamers can expect a release of the game “sometime in 2011″, confirming the rumors and putting an end to perhaps the longest development cycle in video game history.

Considering Duke Nukem Forever‘s checkered history, there’s still a significant chance that this could all turn out to be one big hoax. With 2K Games’ marketing muscle and Gearbox actually working on the project (according to this Kotaku article, it now owns the rights to any and all future Duke Nukem properties), it’s good to see that this project is now actually going to be in capable hands. I’m still reluctant about purchasing the game for myself; I haven’t played any Duke games after or before Duke Nukem 3D. I will still play it if it does get released, but I’m going to hold out for a month or two until I hear whether or not it’s “crazy-sick-awesome” as Duke 3D was back in its day.

CD Kiwi? (Hey, look! I made a rhyme!)

WillyFourEyes — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:06:54 +0000

I should have known that buying the Titan Quest Gold bundle pak from Direct2Drive for $6 was going to be too good to be true. I bought the game along with Warlords: Battlecry III late last night ‘cuz I’d played them on GameTap and liked them enough to keep them for good. Warlords installed with no problems, but I now have one activation code for IGN, which doesn’t fit the CD-key scheme used by THQ and Iron Lore for their game (the CD key only has room for 20 characters, while the codes from IGN usually have about 32 or 36). Some gamers may say that this is one of the big reasons that copy protection schemes and digital-rights management are doomed to fail. I’m inclined to disagree with them, since things like this have been around for years, when CDs were in much wider use on computer programs. All I’m really asking for in this case in consistency between what I’m given, and what the game is asking for so that I can get started and playing right away.

In less depressing and frustrating news, next week I’m going to get a chance to try out an odd game called Ivy the Kiwi? (question mark intentional). It’s a platform game designed by Yuji Naka, creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, though the gameplay itself reminds me more of Kirby: Canvas Curse, where you have to draw platforms for Ivy to walk on as she tries to get to the end of the level without getting hurt. It’s definitely not going to be a monster system-mover like Sonic was back in the day, but it looks like a near idea. I wish I could have received Metroid: Other M from GameFly, though, as it was at the top of my queue at the time I returned my last game.

Oh, one last thing: starting on September 15th (coinciding with the 3rd anniversary of the first real post on this blog), I’ll return to the daily updating schedule I had in place for a while. I should probably get to work on writing my review for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (the video game, not the movie or the comic series), because it’s been asking for it.

Things I should probably do before 2010 ends

WillyFourEyes — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:31:51 +0000

Four months left to go in the year, and I still have lots of free time on my hands. It’s high time I knocked some of these things off my “to-do” list:

Purchase a replacement PlayStation 2 to fill the void left by the one I gave to my sister (done).
Finish watching Ah! My Goddess (22 episodes done), Soul Eater (four episodes), Spice and Wolf (5 episodes), and Clannad (6 episodes done).
Start watching Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (missed the Adult Swim run) and The Boondocks Season 3 (one episode).
Read Volume 8 of Yotsuba&!, volume 7 of Negima!, volume 3 of Fairy Tail, and volume 5 of Chibi Vampire.
Start playing both Valkyria Chronicles games (I bought the second one last night), Castle Crashers, and one or two of the PlayStation 2 games I haven’t yet given away.
Try to finish The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, Rune Factory Frontier, Overlord: Raising Hell, and Makai Kingdom (again).
Rearrange my room and turn it into a true mini-entertainment center.
Finish at least three more chapters of my web serial, The Delta Drifters (I published chapter 1 last week).

Last, and most importantly,

GET A JOB!

School is in session again, and…

WillyFourEyes — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:18:30 +0000

…my sister officially begins her first day of college at West Chester University today. We helped her move all of her stuff into her dorm on Friday, and it took our minivan and my dad’s friend’s truck to haul it all over. Everything got set up smoothly, but Dad and I had to go back up there to deliver a book that she wasn’t able to pick up at the bookstore. I’m sure she’ll be scared at first, but she should at least be able to get through freshman year.

Of course, I’m feeling a bit silly now, because I’d given her all of the first three Guitar Heroes to play while she was away, but forgot to send the guitar controllers with me. I could probably take SEPTA to go up there one day and deliver the guitar controllers myself.

Delta Drifters sub-site is live!

WillyFourEyes — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:47:39 +0000

So yeah…I started writing this book last week – a story which I’ve decides to call The Delta Drifters. As it is right now, it’s your basic “woman-goes-on-adventure, woman-runs-into-bad-guys, woman-assembles-crew-to-challenge-or-escape-from-the-bad-guys” fantasy yarn, but I’m hoping that over time, as I get some new ideas, it’ll evolve into something a lot cooler and more compelling. I spent hours yesterday trying to find a different CMS to use for posting it, but ultimately settled with WordPress again because I’ve been using it for years and it’s simple enough for me to use and install (I ran into problems getting Joomla to work). The DD site also has information on a few of the characters in the story, as well as help with some terms that may not be fully familiar to first-time readers.

As far as updating does, I’m shooting for a new chapter no later than

GiveAwayStation 2

WillyFourEyes — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:10:33 +0000

After some pontification, a bout of post-teen angst and the realization that I’ve been way too selfish with my belongings over the course of…forever, I’ve decided to give away all of my old PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games. One of my friends suggested that I try selling them on Amazon.com and recoup some cash for them, but it’s too troublesome to go through all that. Some will be split between my sister and her beau, others will be given to my brother and his girlfriend, and the rest are going up for grabs to whichever of my friends wants them. I’m not interested in making any money from this; it would be too much of a hassle to send out so many packages, and would probably cost me more money in shipping than what I would make through sales. My initial plan was to put my entire collection (PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, etc.) on the “out” pile, but since those still have games being made for them, I’m going to hold on to them…for now. I won’t make such a drastic liquidation move when the next generation of handhelds and consoles (Nintendo 3DS, etc.) comes out, but at least there’ll be less of a temptation to expand on a collection of games I know I’m not going to use.

Didn’t make the cut

WillyFourEyes — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:22:10 +0000

I’ve taken down the Let’s Play and Red Mage Radio sections from the website. The first section got removed because my work with Rune Factory Frontier and Overlord: Raising Hell is still in development, while RMR, my attempt at creating a weekly podcast, was a resounding flop and only lasted for three very short episodes. There is a possibility I may bring the first two back once one of them is finished, but it’s both tiring and pointless to try and update them here and on the TV Tropes forum (where I started them) at the same time.

Scott Pilgrim the big spender

WillyFourEyes — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:44:11 +0000

It looks like I’m almost done bashing my way through Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (not the movie), but I’ve obtained enough information to build a mini-guide for it…more specifically, what you can get in the shops. If you’re familiar at all with River City Ransom, you’ll probably remember the shops scattered around town where you could buy things like food, CDs and stuff to boost your characters’ energy. The SP game has shops like that too, which show up around the first five stages. There weren’t any in the sixth or seventh, probably because you can always go back to the other shops by selecting them on the World Map if you have enough money. The first version of the guide is ready in the Game Guides section, and I’m not waiting for it to be approved or rejected by the GameFAQs staff.

The best items to be found in the game are sold in a hidden shop by the underpass in the first stage. If you go to where the star is, you’ll enter a secret shop that sells items that boost your stats by ridiculous amounts. You probably won’t be able to afford them once you start playing the game, but once you get $100 or so, remember that shop. If you want to stand any chance against the final boss, you ought to pick up at least one of the “Bionic Arm“, “Never-ending Fantasy” or “Speedy the Porcupine” items. Some other good places to stop in the game are Flatirons Books (their books give great XP and single-stat boosts), Dee’s Tex-Men (for health recovery), and The Frying Tengu (a good mix of everything).

Farve from over…or is it?

WillyFourEyes — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:25:31 +0000

We can finally shut up about the speculation over whether or not Brett Favre will play for the Minnesota Vikings this season. He came to practice today, and in a press conference that I didn’t watch because I was busy getting started on Ys VII, he says that after this season is over, he’s done-diddly-doodly-done for. This will be Favre’s 20th season in the NFL, and he seems to agree that that would be a good place to stop. He probably won’t get that last Super Bowl ring to end his career like John Elway did, but at least he’ll be able to retire knowing that he’s going into the Hall of Fame, and that he’s going to be the sole holder of several different passing records.

Character transformations: sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t

WillyFourEyes — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:28:51 +0000

In an effort to keep my programming cred (because this computer science degree has to be good for something), I’ve gone through the trouble of trying to keep my game catalog data in XML, and styling it up to look like regular HTML. I got the idea from the WOW Armory, which, like the main site, uses XML sheets to display just about everything. In fact, I’ve been using XML instead of standard databases for three reasons:

As I mentioned before, I’m trying to hone my code-fu, and need to continue practing by scripting things by hand.
XML seems to take up less space than traditional databases, and I can use it to nest items.
Being able to actually see my data in a format where it can be useful is always a plus.

I’ve tested the results of my XML + XSLT combo in Internet Explorer 8, Forefix 3.6 and Opera 10.6, and it all seems to work fine under those three browsers. For reasons unknown, I get a completely blank page when viewing it in Chrome. The one fix I tried applying to get it to display properly (Javascript) hasn’t helped at all. I wouldn’t want to leave any potential Mac browsers in the dark, but I’m weary of reinstalling Safari on my computer because I know I’m going to get that nag screen every week to install other Apple produce I don’t use all that often, like Quicktime and iTunes. Until Google comes up with a fix that allows me to show XSLT content without any kind of hacks, I’ll have to abandon it being fully cross-browser compatible for now.