Well, Warhammer finally came out and I picked it up. So far my first impressions are mixed, which unfortunately is not an encouraging sign for me. It's a decently well-made game with some neat concepts and the execution is, for the most part, pretty solid. I like that you can level up through PvP. I like the real feel of "war" that lives throughout the game.
However, the game barely fucking runs on my PC*. OK, I know, I have a shitty computer, but after playing WoW for so long with pretty good performance, I at least expected to be able to run WAR. Well, I can, barely. On all LOW settings, I still lag and hang around 20 FPS. The game often freezes when new enemies appear on screen, and it almost always freezes when something attacks me.
It's very frustrating and has made me not want to log in the last few days, but I did just order some new Memory so I'm hoping that helps with the problem.
If that doesn't work? Unfortunately, I can't upgrade my PC any further than that, and I'm not sure if the game has hooked me in enough to want to put up with bad performance/crashes. I feel bad because I know some people playing it, and I don't want to quit so soon, like I did with Age of Conan. In my defense, AoC was even worse in performance and ran at 10 FPS...
So at this point, I'm not sure. I had some higher expectations for the game's overall fun-factor, I was hoping it would really suck me in and hook me. I haven't been excited over a game's release since Phantasy Star Universe's release was such a big fucking piece of shit.
* = Processor:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory:
1024MB RAM
Hard Drive:
500 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
Sound Card:
SB X-Fi Audio [CF00]
Speakers/Headphones:
Sony USB Media Headset
Keyboard:
Razer Tarantula
Mouse:
Logitech G7
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Been a while
Oh man, it's sad to say but I completely forgot about this blog until now.. I guess I've been busy with other stuff lately.
But it's just a blog, I'll get over it. I guess if I had anything really interesting to write about, I would have.
My summer went by way too quickly. My initial plan was to spend a lot of time working on writing LTTS, playing DDR, and making music. I did get to make some music and play a fair bit of DDR (as well as beatmania and Pop'n), but I'm sad to say that I haven't updated my story since the end of June..
I really wish I could just sit down and crank out chapters like I was doing there for a month. The last few times I have opened the Chapter 9 document, I write maybe one sentence and then just save and close it in frustration.
What really pisses me off is that I know how I want to end the story, but I'm not sure how to get there. I thought my last chapter was pretty good, but now I'm at a complete standstill. I know if I just make myself write, it will come back to me and I'll have some fun with it again. But, for now....
I've also all but given up on my.. spiritual beliefs. I dabbled in Christianity for a few years, but I grew tired of the ramifications that comes with associating myself with that group. There is too much judgment and hatred that exudes from the group of people that praise someone who wanted everyone to love each other.
It just doesn't make any fucking sense.
Anyways, before this becomes a big religious debate, I guess I will move on.
I often find myself going back to old habits, good or bad. I went on habbo-hotel for the first time in a year and said hi to my old friends, and it was good to see them. I used the website at a period in my life when I had virtually no real life friends, bar one who lives hours away. I'm glad to say now that I have some great friends who I enjoy spending time with, but my online friends helped me stay sane after my former best friend all but cut me out of his life.
Sometimes I reminisce back to a few years ago when I'd spend just about every waking moment with my friend, who shall remain nameless (although I'm pretty sure the only person who will likely read this blog already knows who I am talking about.) We played computer games all the time together and I've never laughed so hard in my life. But even then, in high school, my friend had a tendency to prioritize his social life differently than I would have. Basically, if he had a girlfriend I never saw him.
It annoyed and hurt me in high school, but when it started happening again after we graduated (and I was supposed to be an "adult"), I just got resentful and apathetic, to a degree, and I stopped trying to be his friend.
It's been about a year and a half since this happened, and I think we've spoken maybe 4-5 times since then. And when we do speak, it's just bullshit. It usually starts with him asking what's up, me saying nothing, him saying he wants to hang out sometime, me saying that would be nice, and then that's it. Nothing ever happens and I don't expect anything to ever happen.
Was it difficult to adjust from seeing him almost every day to rarely speaking to him? Fuckin' A. It was still hard and it still makes me get a little upset when I think about it.
But as I mentioned in a post months back, I've lost contact with almost everyone who I called a friend growing up. Most people I don't give two shits about, but this one really bothers me.
I may have finally decided, on some level, what I want to do with my life. As my friends will attest, I am a fanatic of music video games, so I think working in that field just makes too much sense to ignore. Now I just have to go about getting a job in that area. For now I'm stuck in community college, taking classes I hate and barely want to attend. I should just drop out and work, but part of me is afraid to make that leap to full time work.
True, I've been there before when I worked at Safeway. And it was fucking miserable. I mean, I would probably enjoy it a lot more if I wasn't doing such physically demanding shit work (who would have thought that pushing shopping carts with 3 layers of black clothing on in 95 degree heat wouldn't be fun!?)
But the other thing I'm worried about is losing my free time. When I worked at Safeway, my schedule was so random, it would have been impossible to make plans with anyone. My schedule was completely different every week. One week I would be working the late afternoons and have the weekends free, but the next week I might be working from mid-day to closing every other day. Good thing I didn't have any friends at that point, because they would have all gotten pissed off at my inability to have a social life, I'm sure.
Sometimes I don't really know why I play MMORPGs. Not only do I normally prefer to solo things, but I mean, in the case of WoW at least, I don't like raiding and I don't really love PVPing much either. So, why do I play? I'd like to say that it's because all my friends play, but everyone is scattered across different servers. Only 2 of my friends play on the same server as I. I could quit if I wanted to, but why don't I? More of that holding on to old habits, I guess. I know the game like the back of my hand. I've been told on more than one occasion that my near-encyclopedic knowledge of the game is sad and amazing at the time. Perhaps I'm too stubborn to learn something new?
I'm worried that I won't be able to give Warhammer a fair chance because of my predisposition. The game looks neat, and one of my best friends is going to be playing it, so there's really no reason for me to not play and enjoy it, but I'm worried the same thing will happen that happened with Phantasy Star Universe. If I have to force myself to like this game, I'm going to uninstall it before I piss anyone off.
But really, I don't know why I even play the genre. When I played Anarchy Online when I was younger, I would often sit in the towns and talk to people and give buffs/assistance in tradeskills. I found that way more fun than mindlessly killing monsters or other players. Perhaps that is why I played it for so long, and maybe that's what I should aim for. The problem is, I don't know how much of a social arc/tradeskill reliance there will be in Warhammer. It seems to be very PVP-centric. But I will give it a chance. I'm real close to just playing Anarchy Online again. I hope they bring out the new graphics engine soon, that will be a good excuse to reinstall the game..
I guess that's all for now.
But it's just a blog, I'll get over it. I guess if I had anything really interesting to write about, I would have.
My summer went by way too quickly. My initial plan was to spend a lot of time working on writing LTTS, playing DDR, and making music. I did get to make some music and play a fair bit of DDR (as well as beatmania and Pop'n), but I'm sad to say that I haven't updated my story since the end of June..
I really wish I could just sit down and crank out chapters like I was doing there for a month. The last few times I have opened the Chapter 9 document, I write maybe one sentence and then just save and close it in frustration.
What really pisses me off is that I know how I want to end the story, but I'm not sure how to get there. I thought my last chapter was pretty good, but now I'm at a complete standstill. I know if I just make myself write, it will come back to me and I'll have some fun with it again. But, for now....
I've also all but given up on my.. spiritual beliefs. I dabbled in Christianity for a few years, but I grew tired of the ramifications that comes with associating myself with that group. There is too much judgment and hatred that exudes from the group of people that praise someone who wanted everyone to love each other.
It just doesn't make any fucking sense.
Anyways, before this becomes a big religious debate, I guess I will move on.
I often find myself going back to old habits, good or bad. I went on habbo-hotel for the first time in a year and said hi to my old friends, and it was good to see them. I used the website at a period in my life when I had virtually no real life friends, bar one who lives hours away. I'm glad to say now that I have some great friends who I enjoy spending time with, but my online friends helped me stay sane after my former best friend all but cut me out of his life.
Sometimes I reminisce back to a few years ago when I'd spend just about every waking moment with my friend, who shall remain nameless (although I'm pretty sure the only person who will likely read this blog already knows who I am talking about.) We played computer games all the time together and I've never laughed so hard in my life. But even then, in high school, my friend had a tendency to prioritize his social life differently than I would have. Basically, if he had a girlfriend I never saw him.
It annoyed and hurt me in high school, but when it started happening again after we graduated (and I was supposed to be an "adult"), I just got resentful and apathetic, to a degree, and I stopped trying to be his friend.
It's been about a year and a half since this happened, and I think we've spoken maybe 4-5 times since then. And when we do speak, it's just bullshit. It usually starts with him asking what's up, me saying nothing, him saying he wants to hang out sometime, me saying that would be nice, and then that's it. Nothing ever happens and I don't expect anything to ever happen.
Was it difficult to adjust from seeing him almost every day to rarely speaking to him? Fuckin' A. It was still hard and it still makes me get a little upset when I think about it.
But as I mentioned in a post months back, I've lost contact with almost everyone who I called a friend growing up. Most people I don't give two shits about, but this one really bothers me.
I may have finally decided, on some level, what I want to do with my life. As my friends will attest, I am a fanatic of music video games, so I think working in that field just makes too much sense to ignore. Now I just have to go about getting a job in that area. For now I'm stuck in community college, taking classes I hate and barely want to attend. I should just drop out and work, but part of me is afraid to make that leap to full time work.
True, I've been there before when I worked at Safeway. And it was fucking miserable. I mean, I would probably enjoy it a lot more if I wasn't doing such physically demanding shit work (who would have thought that pushing shopping carts with 3 layers of black clothing on in 95 degree heat wouldn't be fun!?)
But the other thing I'm worried about is losing my free time. When I worked at Safeway, my schedule was so random, it would have been impossible to make plans with anyone. My schedule was completely different every week. One week I would be working the late afternoons and have the weekends free, but the next week I might be working from mid-day to closing every other day. Good thing I didn't have any friends at that point, because they would have all gotten pissed off at my inability to have a social life, I'm sure.
Sometimes I don't really know why I play MMORPGs. Not only do I normally prefer to solo things, but I mean, in the case of WoW at least, I don't like raiding and I don't really love PVPing much either. So, why do I play? I'd like to say that it's because all my friends play, but everyone is scattered across different servers. Only 2 of my friends play on the same server as I. I could quit if I wanted to, but why don't I? More of that holding on to old habits, I guess. I know the game like the back of my hand. I've been told on more than one occasion that my near-encyclopedic knowledge of the game is sad and amazing at the time. Perhaps I'm too stubborn to learn something new?
I'm worried that I won't be able to give Warhammer a fair chance because of my predisposition. The game looks neat, and one of my best friends is going to be playing it, so there's really no reason for me to not play and enjoy it, but I'm worried the same thing will happen that happened with Phantasy Star Universe. If I have to force myself to like this game, I'm going to uninstall it before I piss anyone off.
But really, I don't know why I even play the genre. When I played Anarchy Online when I was younger, I would often sit in the towns and talk to people and give buffs/assistance in tradeskills. I found that way more fun than mindlessly killing monsters or other players. Perhaps that is why I played it for so long, and maybe that's what I should aim for. The problem is, I don't know how much of a social arc/tradeskill reliance there will be in Warhammer. It seems to be very PVP-centric. But I will give it a chance. I'm real close to just playing Anarchy Online again. I hope they bring out the new graphics engine soon, that will be a good excuse to reinstall the game..
I guess that's all for now.
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