Monday, October 31, 2011

Lavey Satanism similar to libertarianism?

LaVeyan Satanism is a religion founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey. Its teachings are based on individualism, social Darwinism, self-indulgence, and “eye for an eye” morality, with influence from Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand, while its rituals and magic draw heavily from occultists such as Aleister Crowley. No wonder I didn’t like Ron Paul, presidential candidate. http://www.socialistphalanx.com/t437p15-laveyan-satanism

D56 All Hallows Houses



Department 56

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Gameplay dumbing down / noobish

Somewhere between handily completing Assassin's Creed and breezing through nearly all of the missions in Grand Theft Auto IV, it struck me. Have games of today become dumber? This is not to suggest that the stories contained in these games are dumb: Assassin's Creed and GTA have both been praised for their incredible storytelling. What I mean is that it increasingly feels as though game designers feel that we the players are dumb, that we need our hands constantly held throughout a game, lest we throw down the controller in frustration.

These two recent console games, while obvious examples, are not the only offenders in this recent trend of dumbing-down the challenge factor in videogames. The recently released Too Human features automatically scaling enemies so that players will never encounter any foe that is way beyond their level of experience. Fable II will include a "Breadcrumb trail" so that adventurers will never get lost while traveling from one objective to the next in its sprawling fantasy world.


Compare these modern examples with titles that - not too long ago - offered considerably more challenge and really tested both the reflexes and intelligence of players. I grew up with graphic adventure games like Kings Quest, The Secret of Monkey Island, all of which are famous for placing taxing levels of difficulty on the player. In a text-based PC adventure game from the 1980s, a typical player interaction might go something like this:

Of course, modern developers have argued strongly that some retro conventions - such as text-only input and broken save systems, deserve to be laid to rest. But even beyond those technical limitations, games from that period placed challenges in the way of the player that are sorely missed in the current crop of adventure games. One of the greatest features of early PC adventures was their ability to make the player feel as though he or she were really exploring a new landscape. There were no overhead maps or radar screens, no invisible walls keeping players from wandering into dangerous territory. Gamers had to feel out the landscape on their own, in some cases even creating pen and paper maps in the real world to keep track of their location in the game. That was one of the reasons why we loved Etrian Odyssey, an RPG for the DS that uses the touch screen for mapmaking. But games like Etrian Odyssey are an increasing rarity in a market that seems to reward simplicity over challenge.

How did this happen? How did game developers arrive at the notion that what we really wanted all along was less of a challenge in our videogames? Part of the answer can probably be found in the massive economic success of the video game industry. As the digital entertainment market approaches the popularity of film, games have come to resemble Hollywood movies in many respects. Publishers seek to create games that will have massive appeal with the public -- a public that increasingly includes new and less experienced gamers, as companies seek to reach out to new consumers. The recent game Spore might not be satisfying to hardcore gamers, but it will undoubtedly sell millions of copies by appealing to more causal PC owners like my father, who has never played a real-time strategy game before. Adventure games have definitely suffered from this phenomenon. They are very expensive to make, because of their extensive use of artwork and voice-acting. Because of that, they must be able to appeal to a large enough audience to recoup the initial cost of development. Consequently, developers are taking less risks and designing their games for the lowest common denominator


All hope is not lost. A small but vocal resistance has formed, made up of hardcore masochists, completists and those who remember what games were like before they became mass-market commodities. These devoted thrill seekers will actually take great care to make their gaming experience as difficult as possible, even in "nerfed" titles like Assassin's Creed. In that game, some hardcore fans decided that playing with the HUD activated was cheating, so they forced themselves to play without a radar map. By forcing themselves to actually hunt for the next objective, these players argue, the experience is improved, and actually approaches the level of difficulty found in earlier adventure games. The hardcore can also be found on YouTube. These are the ones doing speed runs in their favorite 2D platformers, trying to shave a few seconds off of their previous and untouchably fast performance. And of course, multiplayer shooters like Call of Duty 4 offer unlimited challenge, as gamers square off against human opponents that are just as skilled as themselves.

For a real, challenging adventure game, however, options are somewhat slim these days. I hope that some game designers remember the glory days of adventure gaming on the PC, and seek to implement some of the best features from that era in new projects. Give players a sense of control over their destiny, let them make mistakes and suffer the consequences, and let them explore the virtual worlds you create without limitation. Above all, force players to use their brains to interact with your game, rather than simply spoon feeding them cutscenes. Those things are what make gaming great, after all.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Top 10 Horror Games

10. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

9. Dead Space

8. F.E.A.R.

7. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

6. Condemned: Criminal Origins

5. Penumbra: Black Plague

4. Siren: Blood Curse

3. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

2. Amnesia: The Dark Descent

1. Silent Hill 2

Fantasy Football vs. Deathmatch vs. Capture the flag

I think my Uncle is casual about fantasy football. I just told them that people play Madden NFL. It's a clever marketing for their game (inside it you know), but my Uncle is doing it off Yahoo so he's non-hardcore. I watch the Vikings and Packers tomorrow on TV. Say if I had a girlfriend, it wouldn't be fantasy football excuses. I sure hope he knows Fantasy football has become what it’s supposed to be: building a team entirely out of best players, and “guiding” them to victory. There isn't anybody stupid enough to use their original weapon in deathmatch or capture the flag in Unreal Tournament 3? You instead go for the flak cannon or rocket launcher or sniper rifle and who cares about the other weapons. You get fragged more with the other weapons.

Watching the real NFL sport prevents stupidity. Sports games are not necessarily smart either, because I never actually enjoy beating Madden due to everything randomly generated. Gears of War III, or Resistance 3, or Bulletstorm or Unreal Tournament or Team Fortress or Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare are a better option for multiplayer, because you're never stupid when highest on the ladder. In real life, you even have bragging rights. I used to play well on Unreal Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2003 LAN parties in middle school, high school, and 2004 before LAN parties were defunct. All my print screened ladder scores were lost over the years.

Capture the flag is better than deathmatch, because less campers. Deathmatch could be more fun, because its pure skill, yet campers get away with frags they don't deserve like in Afghanistan.

Free Q4Wine for PC-BSD

I found a free Wine frontend for PC-BSD 8.2! Bordeaux is better and it takes $20.

I found a Q4Wine PBI installer mirror #1 mirror #2 mirror #3

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Linux Mint Debian 201109 review

There is something wrong with Ebay, everybody sells Debian 6, but not Linux Mint Debian 201109. What's wrong with those people? Linux Mint 11 just won best Desktop of 2011, but somebody messed up knowing there was a Linux Mint Debian 201012 and decided not to wait.

Linux Mint Debian 201109 is an improvement! It is based on the solid 2.32.2 Gnome that is much more responsive and stable over still buggy Gnome 3.2. The old Linux Mint 11 came with 2.6.38.6. LMDE 201109 comes with kernel 3.0. It's more responsive and uses less memory than Linux Mint 11.

Right now, I updated Firefox 7.0.1 and that runs great. My HP Printer runs great.

Ubuntu 11.10 comes out tomorrow right and Ubuntu is the most popular Linux Distro. Well Linux Mint Debian 201109 is superior version to Ubuntu 11.11. I have mine loaded with Crossover Linux 9.2.1 and it's great. Winamp runs great. LMDE 201109 comes with VLC 1.0.10, LibreOffice 3.4.2, Xchat, Firefox 6.0.2, The Gimp.

It didn't crash on me yet! It only went to sleep twice for 5 seconds (with Firefox 7).






Graphics

GIMP
gThumb
LibreOffice Draw
Simple Scan

Internet

Firefox
Giver
Pidgin IM
Sun Java 6
Thunderbird Mail/News
Transmission
XChat IRC

Multimedia

Banshee
Brasero
GNOME MPlayer
Movie Player
Sound Recorder
VLC Media Player

Office

Dictionary
LibreOffice


I give this OS 9.8/10. Cream of the crop!


Monday, October 10, 2011

US has Type 1 characteristics.

On 2250, the Earth reaches a Type 1 civilization on the Kardashev scale at the current rate. This is achieved by computers with semi-quasi reasoning skills and fusion energy. This is impossible with anything other than fusion power plants. In 2011, Earth's at .72 so hydrogen power plants will make it to .73.

Bottom line, nobody ever needs to be type 1 status with all the spacecraft crashes within 114 years since 1897 Aurora, TX in my opinion. Discovery should be 1000x easier especially with surgical laser instruments on spaceships (Roswell).
Laser Inertial Fusion Energy is supposed to work in 2020 far before any International effort. There is supposed to be a demonstration in 2012.

Newt Gingrich said that our fission reactors are on their last legs and need attention and funding since 2000

All you need is a really, really primitive dyson ring (Dyson swarm) and some lasers for wireless transfer to be Type 1.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

best Science Fiction Authors of all time

15. Larry Niven - (The Mote in God’s Eye)
14. Philip Jose' Farmer (Riverworld series)
13. Robert Silverberg (Majipoor)
12. Ursula K. Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness)
11. Harry Harrison (Make Room! Make Room!)
10. Frederick Pohl (Undersea Trilogy )
09. Frank Herbert (Dune)
08. Harlan Ellison (A Boy and his Dog)
07. Jack Williamson (The Ultimate Earth)
06. E. E. “Doc” Smith (Lensmen and Skylark)
05. Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, We can Remember it for you Wholesale)
04. Ray Bradbury (The Fog Horn, The Meteor)
03. Robert A. Heinlein (Starship Troopers)
02. Isaac Asimov (The Gods Themselves)
01. Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood’s End)

Best horror authors of all time

20. Graham Masterton (The Manitou, Charnel House)
19. Richard Laymon (The Traveling Vampire Show, The Woods of Dark, Funland)
18. F. Paul Wilson (The Keep, The Tomb, Midnight Mass)
17. Robert McCammon ( Baal, Bethany’s Sin, They Thirst, Swan Song, Stinger, and The Wolf’s Hour)
16. Ambrose Bierce (Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge)
15. Algernon Blackwood (The Willows, The Man Who found Out, Ancient Sorceries)
14. John Saul (Suffer the Children, Hellfire, The Blackstone Chronicles)
13. Jack Ketchum (Girl Next Door)
12. Dean Koontz (Whispers, The Funhouse, Hideaway, Demon Seed, Watchers (including sequels, Intensity, and The Servants of Twilight)
11. Brian Lumley (Necroscope series)
10. Joe R. Lansdale (On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks. The Drive in, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road)
09. Peter Straub (Ghost Story, Shadowland, Black House)
08. M.R. James ( Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, More Ghost Stories)
07. Ramsey Campbell (The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, Demons by Daylight (1973), and Told by the Dead (2003)
06. Robert Bloch (Psycho!, Psycho II , Psycho House, The Hell-Bound Train)
05. Clive Barker (The Forbidden (Candyman 1992), The Last Illusion (Lord of Illusions 1995), and Midnight Meat Train (2008)
04. Edgar Allan Poe (The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Premature Burial, and Ligeia)
03. Richard Matheson (Nightmare at 20,000 feet Stir of Echoes, and Hell House, Duel, The Night Stalker & The Night Strangler )
02. Stephen King (Salem’s Lot (1975), I am Legend; The Shining (1977); The Stand (1978); Cujo (1981); Christine (1983); Pet Sematary (1983); The Talisman W/ Peter Straub (1984); It (1986); Misery (1987); The Dark Half (1989); Needful Things (1990); Gerald’s Game (1992); Then there are the collections: Night Shift (1978); Skeleton Crew (1985); Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993); and Everything’s Eventual (2002).
01. H.P. Lovecraft (he Unnamable, The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Dreams in the Witch House, The Shadow out of Time, and The Haunter in the Dark.)

Friday, October 7, 2011

Anticipation list

Released now.

- Dark Souls
- Gears of War III

upcoming


- Super Mario 3DS Land
- Mario Kart 7
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)
- Final Fantasy X HD (PS3)
- Persona 4: The Golden (Vita)
- Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
- Metal Gear Solid Rising
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- Wipeout 2048 (Vita)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Developers should make Wii U beat PS2

Develop these. Last gen is boring with obsolete visuals! Wii is very simlar to Xbox. I cannot get why there isn't more Wii U discussions.

- Banjo and Kazooie HD

- Banjo and Tooie HD

- Battlefield 3

- Beyond Good and Evil 2

- Bioshock

- Bioshock 2

- Bioshock 3

- Blazblue

- Burnout Paradise 2

- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

- Castlevania Bloodlines

- Castlevania Lord of Shadow

- Castlevania Lord of Shadow II

- Castlevania Portrait of Ruin HD

- Castevania Dawn of Sorrow HD

- Castlevania Aria of Sorrow HD

- Castlevania Symphony of the Night

- Castlevania Lament of Innocence

- Cave SHMUPs

- Chrono Cross

- Chrono Trigger

- Civilization V

- Conker's Bad Fur Day 2

- Crysis

- Crysis Warhead

- Crysis 2

- Crysis 3

- Dark Souls

- Dead Space

- Dead Space 2

- Demon's Souls

- Deus Ex HD remake

- Deus Ex Human Revolution

- Diablo 3

- Doom 3

- Doom 4

- Doom II HD

- Dragon Quest VIII HD

- Dreamfall The Longest Journey HD

- Elder scrolls V

- Elderscrolls IV

- Eternal Darkness HD

- Extreme-G 4

- Fallout 3

- Fallout New Vegas

- Final Fantasy Tactics A2

- Final Fantasy Tactics HD

- Final Fantasy VI/III HD

- Final fantasy VII

- Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

- Final Fantasy VIII

- Final Fantasy X

- Final Fantasy XII

- Final Fantasy XIII

- Final Fantasy XIII-2

- fixed Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

- Half-life 3

- Guilty Gear Accent Core 2

- Gradius V HD

- Grand Theft Auto 5

- Grandia HD

- Grandia II HD

- Ikaruga

- Kirby - Nightmare in Dreamland HD

- Panzer Dragoon Saga HD

- Panzer Dragoon Saga 2

- Legend of Zelda 3D

- Legend of Zelda Link to the Past 3D

- Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask HD

- Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time HD

- Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass HD

- Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap 3D

- Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword

- Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD

- Legend of Zelda Wind Waker 3D

- Lunar Dragon Song HD

- Lunar Eternal Blue HD

- Lunar The Silver Star Story HD

- Marvel vs. Capcom vs. Namco

- Mass Effect

- Mass Effect 2

- Mass Effect 3

- Mega Man X Collection HD

- Mega Man X9

- Metal Gear Solid 4

- Metal Gear Solid HD

- Metal Gear Solid HD collection

- Metal Gear Solid Rising

- Metroid Prime 2 HD

- Metroid Prime 3 HD

- Metroid Prime 4

- Metroid Prime 5

- Metroid Prime HD

- Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2

- Nights into Dreams

- Nights into Dreams 3

- Panzer Dragoon Saga HD

- Paper Mario - The Thousand Year Door HD

- Paper Mario HD

- Parasite Eve HD

- Persona 3

- Persona 4

- Prince of Persia HD Collection

- Quake 5

- Quake II HD

- Quake IV

- Quake Wars

- Radiant Silvergun HD

- Radiant Silvergun 2

- Red Dead Redeption

- Red Dead Redeption 2

- Resonance of Fate

- Resonance of Fate 2

- Ridge Racer 8

- San Franciso Rush 2059

- Secret of Mana HD

- Sega GT 2012

- sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

- Skies of Arcadia HD

- Skies of Arcadia II

- Sonic Colors 2

- Sonic Rush

- Sonic Rush Adventure

- Sonic Rush Adventure 2

- Soul Calibur V

- Speed Devils 2

- Star Ocean III - Till the End of Time

- Star Ocean IV - THe Last Hope

- Star Wars The Old Republic

- Street Fighter X Tekken

- Super Mario 3D World

- Super Mario 64 DS HD

- Super Mario Land HD

- Super Mario RPG 2

- Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars 3D

- Super Mario Sunshine HD

- Super Mario World 3D

- Super Metroid 3D HD

- Tales of Vesperia

- Tekken 7

- The Longest Journey remake

- The Orange Box

- The Witcher 2

- The Witcher 3

- Unreal Tournament 3

- Unreal Tournament 4

- Valkryie Profile

- Valkyrie Profile 2

- Wario Land 3 HD

- Xenogears HD

- Xenosaga

- Xenosaga II

- Xenosaga III

Nintendo probably make 2x as much money remaking these games or finding developers who would than to create new games. You know Chrono Trigger is ranked highly on DS and that Super Mario World is highly ranked for GBA. Ocarina of Time is the most wanted game for Gamecube & 3DS on Gamestop.com. It makes perfect sense. Banjo and Kazooie went on Xbox 360 so Wii U works. Rareware developed for DS. Mass Effect for PC was Electronic Arts

Monday, October 3, 2011

Have Xbox 720 beat Xbox 360

Forza Motorsport 5

Halo 5

Kameo 2

Perfect Dark 2

Prince of Persia 3 (newest trilogy)

Tony Hawk Pro Skater /w Tony Hawk

Extreme G 5

Project Snowblind 2

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3

Battlefield 4

Driver 5

Outrun Coast to Coast 2

Neverwinter Nights 3

Rayman platformer

Star Wars The Old Republic

Deus Ex 4

Deus Ex 5

Batman Aklan 3

Assassin's Creed 5/6

Gears of War 4

Gears of War 5

Gears of War 6

Starcraft 2

Mass Effect 4

Mass Effect 5

Mass Effect 6

Dragon Age 3

Conker's Second Bad Fur Day

Fable IV

Condemned 3

F.E.A.R. 4

Phantom Dust 2

Mech Assault 3

Panzer Dragoon 4

Dead or Alive 5

Rallisport Challenge 3

Fatal Frame 4

Wolfenstein 3

Final Fantasy VII

Star Ocean V

Rosnance of Fate 2

Half-life 3

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 3

Crysis 3

Radiant Silvergun 2

Tales series

Unreal Tournament 4

Quake Wars 2

Quake 5

Doom 4

remake Mission Critical

Marvel Vs. Capcom 4

Blazblue 3

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4

Diablo 3

Burnout Paradise 2

Final Fantasy VII-2

Final Fantasy VIII-2

Final Fantasy IX-2

Final Fantasy X-3

Xenogears 2

Alundra 3

Panzer Dragoon Saga 2

Grand Theft Auto 6

Vanquish 2

Red Dead Redemption 2

The Elder Scrolls V

Final Fantasy XIII-3

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Sonic Generations 2

Virtua Fighter 6

Street Fighter X Tekken 2

The Longest Journey 3

Fallout 5

Dungeon Siege IV

Castlevania

Resident Evil 6

World of Warcraft

Saturday, October 1, 2011

PS4 and Xbox 720 specs

Hypothetical Playstation 4 specs

Cell Broadband Engine at 3.2 GHZ 7 SPEs, 1 yield
1 Teraflop


2 GB GDDR5
GF114 gPU Core
1950 transisters
Core: 822 MHZ Shader: 1645 Memory:1 4008
128 GB/sec texture bandwidth
1 Gigaflop...
6x Bluray-ROM
120 GB hard drive
openGL 4.2




Hypothetical Xbox 720 specs

Xenon 2

165 million transistors
Four symmetrical cores, each two way SMT-capable and clocked at 3.2 GHz
4 MB L2 cache
75.2 gigabytes per second of L2 memory bandwidth (256 bit × 1600 MHz)
38.6 GB/s front-side bus
Big endian architecture
2 GB GDDR5

Radeon HD 5850
core 850 MHz Memory: 1200 MHz
128 GB/sec texture bandwidth
DirectX 11 superset