Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Electric Football board has arrived

This week I embark on a journey to make my own rules system and use Electric Football to simulate football games. This will not be an easy task and I have a lot of work ahead of me but it should be fun.

Along with the Tudor Deluxe Electric Football board below I have ordered some passing sticks and better looking player models from Buzzball. They specialize in these sort of things. I should also have enough bases coming to tweak entire sets of offense and defense setups the way I like.

Ideally you want to have bases that turn, go straight and some that even backup to simulate a QB drop back.

I will be using a variety of rules to play the games. My goal eventually is to have a near board game type of football system going on with the random factor of the Electric Football board.

Below is a YouTube video I made of a set of Rookie bases (designed to go straight) right out of the package. They actually worked fairly well.







Saturday, February 23, 2013

Action PC Football Fantasy League 2012


It is not a hidden fact that I am a football fanatic. I have scoured the web and tried many football games but few have held my attention. Until Action PC Football. Forget that shitty Madden 2013 and the other lame ass twitch oriented football games...this is the read deal.

Using Action PC Football:

http://www.dksports.com/football.htm

I am going to release all players from the Projected 2012 disk (the official one is not released until Stats Inc compiles this year's NFL stats) into a draft pool. Then randomly draft everyone mixing up the teams. I can assign the draft order randomly with in game tools and then tell the computer to draft all 50 rounds.

To keep things fair I will only play 3 games a scheduled week, and the teams will always be different so that I dont learn to dominate with one team.

For example Bradshaw may end up on the Saints or something weird like that. Then I will play a full season and see how it pans out in reference to the actual year. I want to start in 1970 but the season disks are a little pricey so I may have to do 80's-90's and then 2012. I already own the 1986 season and the projected 2012 season as well as 2011.

The game allows all that to happen and more. I have recently done this with this past seasons players and gotten some unusual draft results (using a random order):

The first 10 picks for a new 2012 season were as follows:

Washington - Gronkowski, TE
New Orleans - Rodgers, QB
Kansas City - Brees, QB
Denver - Graham, TE
Buffalo - Charles, RB
Atlanta - Brady , QB
Miami - Stafford, QB
Carolina - Romo , QB
Indianapolis - Ryan, QB
Green Bay - Manning, QB

You can find the results of week one and all the weeks after on my league HTML page which is actually created IN game with a menu option. Action PC Football is pretty complete and the best football simulation game I have seen so far on the market.

http://www.thewarrealm.org/Football2012/Index.htm

Keep an on that page for results as I complete games. Week one is under way!

I play with horizontal fields which have in game animations and use fields and player photos from this site:

http://www.pcballpark.com/football.html


Friday, February 15, 2013

The Prometheus movie post

With the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines I feel the need to once AGAIN back up the movie Prometheus.

While not some awesome cinematic experience it was still a great go round for Alien fans. True Alien fans. Just to reiterate I am a Alien(s) nerd. So don't expect me to hate on Prometheus and the contributions of Ridley Scott to the sci fi genre.

Prometheus was, for us Alien fans, exactly what we needed. It showed the origin of the things we have latched onto and also provided more mysteries. So, one last time, I will post this to get it off my chest and to preserve the wording since it has been lost on many forums and Facebook arguments.


The main theme from the start of the movie is "Sacrifice". The way the Weyland corp deliberately send in complete idiots (mercenaries not scientists) while they sit on a lifeboat safe and sound screams sacrifice.

Nothing can be achieved without it. It's the main premise of the movie as the intro to the film also demonstrates. Earth was to be used as a seeding point for the engineers parasitic biotech. That's why they created us. The goal is to produce perfect life.We were to be used as hosts.

Look at the opening scene. The ship in the background IS LEAVING. Watch the credits. The DNA makes a new lifeform. From what? The engineer that killed himself by drinking the liquid. IS that Earth? Who knows. But it shows how it is done.

Ridley Scott has this to say about the scene:
'That could be a planet anywhere. All he’s doing is acting as a gardener in space. And the plant life, in fact, is the disintegration of himself. If you parallel that idea with other sacrificial elements in history – which are clearly illustrated with the Mayans and the Incas – he would live for one year as a prince, and at the end of that year, he would be taken and donated to the gods in hopes of improving what might happen next year, be it with crops or weather, etcetera.'



My evidence??

Look at the sculpture on the wall. It's the deacon protomorph rising from the primordial goo. But look below that to the left and right at the bottom. What do we see? Yes two humans or engineers with facehuggers injecting eggs into them. Go and check again if you didn't see it in the movie.

What is the Deacon you ask? Look it up: http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/Deacon

Also the biologist mentions that one of the space jockeys bodies they find has had something explode out its chest. Yes they had an outbreak before they got all the cargo on board. We were to be used as the hosts for the perfect lifeform. So our gods created us to be mere cattle. So all your theories about LV 426 are not correct. The derelict on LV 426 predates the weapons lab on the moon by many thousands of years or more and that's why he was fossilized.

If you are in any doubt of anything I've said, watch the movie again. Also listen to the dialog when they are in the pyramid very carefully. Including the part about how the water isn't frozen although its 12 below as its actually nanite goo. The whole place is made of the stuff as liquid nanite fluid appears to be the basis for the engineers technology. Its also how David figures out how to work the holo emitters. Remember "David" has an IQ supposedly of 360 or more. He has been given instructions to look out for the bio technologies the company wish to acquire this is the hidden agenda of the Weyland Corporation and the reason they are on the mission in the first place as its certainly not down to cave paintings.

After David opened the chamber door, he atmospherically compromised the room’s air which had been sealed for around 2000 years (we know this because they carbon dated the headless body by about 2000 years). Fresh air caused the murals on the wall to degrade and the temperature difference of the fresh air caused the canisters to sweat, like when you put ice in a glass of water. This also had an effect on the biological liquids in the canisters, causing them to start expanding (liquids can expand when the temperature radically changes).

The initial team sent in are nothing more than an experiment or sacrifice with David pulling the strings.Why do you think David is running about pushing things and opening doors like a maniac? He wants at least one of them infected and when it doesn't happen first time round through inhalation he's told to "try harder".

As is explained later in the movie Vickers "the suit" wants the company and whatever she can salvage from the bio tech they hope to smuggle back. Of course her father wants immortality or the technology to achieve it. So we also see there is a conflict of interests between family members of Weyland Corporation. As I've said before I cannot find any plots holes within Prometheus. Only that people misunderstood the film.

The tomb sculpture with facehuggers


The Black nanite goo and its function

Results of integration and DNA tests



Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Firefall beta

Firefall, the MMO FPS by Red 5 Studios, allowed me in at last to the beta. You can also pay a minimum of 20 dollars to get in and at the moment that gives you 5 invites for other people.

Getting invited also gives you 5 invites. And so on and so on and so on.

At first when I heard about it a few months back I passed it off as a weak Tribes clone. My insatiable quest to find a replacement for Tabula Rasa and Star Wars Galaxies has led me to sign up however and the following video did a lot to bolster my entusiasm:




I gotta admit Firefall is super fun. I like the way you can change classes just by getting a new Battleframe. The tech trees are cool too. I went Sniper (Recon) and leveled up and now I have cryo bullets that freeze my targets.

Gunfights at night are awesome especially when you dont turn on your flashlight and bullets are whizzing all around. I have a few beta invites left as well

Its nice and open world so we disregarded the tutorial and just took off into the hills and were in a heap a trouble pretty soon. Events are dynamic a lot like RIFT where you can free towns and stuff and then use their shops and such.

Events take place all the time and I do like that XP is money to level in this game. There are no levels so you just go out and explore and don't worry about anything but survival and completing missions. Overall good fun. Will it last? No idea. But it is free to play so that works for me at launch (along with Neverwinter).

My "MMO" dryspell may be  over.

In case anyone is worried about the PVP aspect overtaking the PVE aspect:

http://www.firefallthegame.com/community/threads/red-5-is-making-a-mistake-focusing-on-pvp-over-pve.51670/page-2#post-1290775










Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Aliens: Colonial Marines launches today so why am I not excited?


NOT TRUE to my online gamer namesake Pvt Hudson (I know I am a shame to all Marines) before anyone asks I have not pulled the pulse rifle trigger on a Aliens: Colonial Marines purchase. Waiting for reviews Gearbox Software so do me proud. 

I actually used my money to get my woman Neverwinter beta access. 

Reviews will start pouring in today. I generally do not trust Aliens titles to deliver though. Of course this wont stop me from making Hudson references all day on Twitter (@gamer_hudson) so I got something to look forward to. 

Early reviews I have are "it's good", it's a 5/10 or it's REALLY BAD. Actually most reviews claim it to be bad. This is why you don't pre order an Aliens game


"Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines," he wrote in May 2012. "I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck, going on what, 6 years now?"Gearbox isn’t even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past. I hope it proves me wrong, as I still have a lot of friends still working at Gearbox, but I am expecting it to be average at best."
"If Aliens: Colonial Marines were a Hadley's Hope-style space colony, I'd want to visit for one very specific reason. I'd arrive early, standing at the edge of a cliff on its lifeless surface, holding up red flares as I see the legendary USS Sulaco break the atmosphere, full of eager fanboys ready to play a game with tons of promise andyears of troubled development behind it. Then, I would toggle my radio transmitter to a wide-space broadcast and shout to the heavens, “Do not land! Everything here is dead! Game over, man!”

Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/02/12/review-aliens-colonial-marines/

XBOX Magazine:

http://www.x360magazine.com/reviews/aliens-colonial-marines-review/

PC World:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027860/review-aliens-colonial-marines-is-a-bad-movie-reference.html


Monday, February 11, 2013

Neverwinter Beta


So I tried the user created adventure in Neverwinter that focused on Goblins and then led to the "Tomb of Doom". This was a three part mission and I only made it to the second part. The first was a long outdoor adventure with plenty of fighting but a good amount of fun.

You can take user created missions by using the job board in the center of town and then proceeding to the quest location.

Zombie Hulks are very nasty. I rated the adventure a 4 because it had good flavor and a great end boss named Gurtzrag Big Tummy. Which cracked me up and was the perfect name for a Goblin Warlord. Hard too. Even blocking the Zombie Hulks knocked me down and I had to use a lot of strateeegery when attacking them. Blocking, charging, moving in and out and even throwing down portable altars to heal were just some of the moves I had use.

It was primarily an outdoor map for the first of the 3 parts. 

Neverwinter to me = a 3D Diablo 3 or Torchlight. That's why I like it. Get in, get out and get your stuff done. There are events going off at different times of the day (Champions Online players will recognize this) and there are always things to do. The game plays a lot like City of Steam does currently if you want another game to compare it to (or BETA I should say). I love the fact that I can "roll" my stats on a new character and disarm traps or find secrets in the dungeons. I am sure Cryptic will expand upon this as the game goes on. While full of flavor I do like the dungeon crawls in DDO a little better right now but lets let this game get out of beta and see how it expands.

User created content and fun combat make this game pretty enjoyable. I can latch onto this more than a traditional MMO right now because I find most of them boring at this point. Jumping puzzles and trying to get 100% completion on a map is not my idea of fun at end game. It should not be yours either. People need to ask for real content. At least WoW has dungeons that work. That is another topic for another day I guess.

I can easily see myself running a lot of user created adventures (made with the Foundry in game) and then rating them and making some of my own as well. Heck you could level off of just those and not even do the real quests in the game.

I got to about level 7 or 8 then split time with the girlfriend (I only prepaid on one account no rush really). The beta is on weekends only but sadly is still full of the same morons that most other betas have. Overall however my douchebag encounter factor was low and I proceeded to meet mostly decent people and have a good time solo or grouped.

I tried all three classes and liked the rogue and warrior the best. The cleric was ok but seemed way over powered. I can just see it now as leagues of clerics join groups and don't heal while just standing in back chucking light lances at mobs all dungeon. Yiippeeee.







Monday, February 4, 2013

Joel Billings of SSI fame interview

There was a time growing up when ALL I PLAYED were SSI games. Especially the RPG's but lets not forget about their classic wargames.

SSI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Simulations,_Inc.



Matt Chat Episode 181 (Matt Barton) has done a two part interview with him. Below is part one: