As you've probably noticed, I've changed out the theme for Marty Blog again - but this time I feel like I'm really giving it the proper attention it deserves, with something a little more unique, and a lot better to look at.
The new theme is very loosely based on the excellent PrimePress Wordpress theme by Ravi Varma. It also makes use of QuadGrunged, an awesome set of Photoshop brushes by env1ro.
There are still a few quirks I'm working out, like getting the search page functional again and adding a few of the widgets that I had added manually in the last iteration. I'm also considering changing out the header image, or having it be randomly switched out or something; it's a work in progress, I suppose. Overall, I really like the direction I've taken the theme, and I hope that everyone out there who drops in to read the blog likes it too!
If you encounter any odd problems with it, have questions, praise, or just feel like posting a comment on a website, drop me a line below. Thanks for reading!
After months of reading praise for World of Goo, I finally decided to try it out a few weeks ago. I downloaded the demo, installed it, fired it up... and came away largely impressed. So, I picked up the game on Steam and spent the last week playing – and beating – it. World of Goo is a genuinely fun game that's easy to pick up and challenging just to the right degree. My caveats with it are small and few, especially in light of the fact that it is such an entertaining and unique game.
At its core, World of Goo is a simple physics simulation with a little bit of Lemmings thrown in. Blobs of goo roam around the level, and can be picked up and placed within a certain proximity of other blobs to form connections. Using multiple blobs of goo, you can build towers, bridges, ropes, etc. all in an effort to get the remaining goo (which will climb around your structure as you build it) from one end of the level to the other. The level is complete when a pre-set number of globs have reached safety in this manner.
As you would expect, different types of goo are encountered as you make your way through the game's five worlds. The generic gray goo attached to other goo once and cannot be moved, green goo can be attached and detached at your whim, clear goo can only attach to one piece of the structure at a time (good for ropes), and so on.
There are multiple levels of challenge in World of Goo. For example, in one level you are tasked with constructing a bridge across a pit of spikes. The spikes will destroy any goo that touches it, even if they are part of a structure, so when you build a bridge to cross the gap, care must be taken to avoid having any part of the structure being pulled down into them. One part of the goo-bridge being popped by the spikes can throw off the balance of the entire creation, resulting in a structural failure of catastrophic proportions and (usually) all of your goo falling into the pit. Balloons have been provided however, so your bridge won't collapse after extending too far if they are use correctly.
Even this simple scenario presents many challenges for thought and design. Should the bridge be built at an upward angle to further combat gravity? How many pieces of goo should be used to make the bridge stable? At which points should the balloons be placed to ensure the most stable bridge? These are common dilemmas one faces when traversing the levels in World of Goo.
Fortunately, levels in the game are usually fairly straightforward, so in the circumstance that you need to restart a level, there's usually not too much you'll need to do to get back to where you were when you failed before. The physics in the game are very consistent, so you rarely feel that you are leaving the fate of your goo to luck, and you're also given a handful of chances to undo previous moves.
World of Goo's graphics are both a thrill and a disappointment at the same time. The visuals are bright, colorful, and well animated, and even though the style of graphics make them look almost as if they were thrown together rather quickly, there is a polish in the details that even blockbuster games with million dollar budgets have a hard time achieving. Everything in the game that the player can interact with gives great feedback as the mouse bounces around the screen. Color is used liberally and wonderfully. Physics objects are easy to pick out against the terrain, and animations are smooth and fun. The whole game has a very Worms-like quality to it, if you get what I mean.
The only shortfall in the graphics for Goo is that the game runs at 800 x 600, and that's all the graphics were made for. Sure, the game even expands to look fine on my widescreen monitor, but it is slightly disappointing to me that the artwork couldn't have been rendered at a slightly higher resolution, if only for the PC version. I actually wish the entire game could have been rendered as textured vector graphics, since the underlying physics engine probably uses polygons to define all the shapes anyway, but alas, it is what it is - a beautiful, if slightly pixelly, World of Goo.
The audio end of World of Goo is equally as brilliant as the visuals. The music included in the game is very well done, and suits each level's experience well, and the sound effects are spot-on. You'll grow to love all the little squeals and squelches of the goo globs as you form them into structures and progress through the game. The soundtrack for the game can be downloaded for free at Kyle Gabler's blog.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with World of Goo. The level progression is linear, but there are a few points where you can choose to do one level over another, so if one is initially a bit too challenging, you can come back later. And if you get completely stuck (or just bored) you can always go to the World of Goo Corporation to play around with the extra balls of goo you've saved, to try to build a tower. In this mode, you can see other players' tower heights (represented by clouds) as you get farther and farther into the sky. This is a neat little feature that really just adds to the fun, and challenge, of building a huge tower. And it's little things like this that really push World of Goo beyond the realm of your standard casual game.
Sure, the whole concept of World of Goo sounds a bit strange. It certainly looks a bit strange, I'll give you that. But try out the demo anyway, and if you like it, buy the game (don't contribute to the horrible Goo piracy). The two-man team of 2D Boy has put together a wonderful experience with World of Goo, and their achievement is our opportunity for some fun!
Well, it's about freakin' time! Valve has finally unleashed the details of the upcoming Scout update, and even with only one item revealed at the time of this writing, it looks like it's going to be a good one!
The update page features six items that are to be revealed each weekday from now until next Tuesday. The first item, unlocked today, is the Scout's first achievable weapon: The Sandman. The Sandman is a special bat that allows you to belt baseballs at your opponents that will stun them on contact. The longer the ball flies as it sails towards its target, the longer that enemy will be stunned.
I'm looking forward to seeing what other additions Valve has in store for the Scout over the next seven days, and I'm pretty excited about the Sandman - it should add a whole new element to playing as the Scout and could make him much more useful on offense. Hopefully the achievements required to get the new weapons aren't too bad!
I went home this weekend to check on my dad, and to give my mom my tax papers (she lovingly does them for me). I had fun hanging out with them and my brother, and got to spend a good bit of time finishing up reading Lord of the Rings and exploring DC in Fallout 3. I got back to my apartment late in the afternoon on Sunday, helped my girlfriend clean up the place a bit, and got ready for the week.
When I was home, I noticed that my brother had gotten a piece of mail about attending GDC 2009 (he went with me last year). My mail has been delayed by a couple of days lately because of my change of address a few months ago, so not yet having received this piece of mail, I was curious. The flyer turned out to be a small poster with one side covered by a huge GDC 2009 image, and the other a collection of information on the upcoming conference, with promises of a discount for early registration.
The deadline for this reduction? February 12. Only 4 days away!
So now I find myself waiting for my mail to come in (so I can get my early registration discount code), and trying to decide if I want to attend this year. I had a good time checking out the expo floor last year, so I'd definitely like to do that again. It was fun seeing all the new technology different companies had to offer, as well as seeing all the creative indie games on display.
But do I really want to spend $175, especially since I can only attend one day (I have a job, after all)? Decisions, decisions.
Anyone else planning on going? Know of something (or someone) that'll be at the conference that'll make it totally worth going? Let me know while I decide!
Has it really been over a week since I've posted here? Well, my apologies for the delay – it's been a busy time for me over the last week, and I just haven't been able to find the time to write anything. I've meant to though, so hopefully I'll be getting back on track with this post. In the interest of everyone's time, here's a quick list of everything I've been up to over the last couple of weeks that has contributed, in one way or another, to my lag in blog posts:
Met my brother at a bar and watched my dad play music for a few hours; I also saw a woman drop a cake straight onto the floor of a bar
Took a trip to San Francisco for my work, got halfway there, and then realized my boss had texted me the night before to tell me the trip was off
Worked on a game that you might just see on TV someday (hopefully!)
Took another trip to San Francisco for my work, and was nearly late to the meeting because I followed my own directions wrong
Worked on a redesign for my blog, scrapped it, then started working on it again
Fixed a long-standing server bug in the Reflect system (thanks for the help, Matt!)
Worked on a redesign for Reflect Games, scrapped it, then started working on it again
Watched the two-hour long season premiere for Lost, and the hour-long preview before it
Finished Fallout 3 (goody-two-shoes style)
Went home to see my dad before he had to have a minor procedure done at the hospital (he's doing fine now, thankfully)
Played some quality Team Fortress 2 with Yourself (alltalk servers are basically Skype on steroids, eh?)
Finished Prince of Persia (need to play it again for achievements)
Got my previous landlord to drop a bogus move-out bill after catching their cheating, and exposing it to them
Released a Windows Vista/Windows 7 compatible version of Linked
Began learning Visual Basic all over again
Watched a few classic episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with my mom
Rediscovered my love for Joe Frank (an awesome radio show)
Bought World of Goo on Steam
Almost finished reading Lord of the Rings (I'm on page 947 now!)
And probably a lot more stuff that I can't remember right now, due to the ever-growing fatigue I'm feeling from writing such a long list!
Anyway, you probably get the idea - I've been a bit busy. I'll try to get back on the blog a bit more this week though... I've got a lot of stuff I want to talk about, but which I just haven't had the time to organize into coherent sentences yet.
Thanks to everyone who continues to read my sparse posts - I appreciate it!
I spent part of my weekend fiddling around with the Windows 7 Beta, and though it took a little getting used to, I'm largely impressed with the quality of the product so far.
Saturday morning, I got up around 10:30 AM, realized I had nothing better to do, and so decided I'd try to download the Windows 7 Beta a second time, having failed to get into the initial batch the day before. I was pleased to find out that the limit of 2.5 million downloads had been removed, so I loaded up Firefox, navigated to the Windows 7 website, found the link, went through the registration process, clicked the download link – and nothing. I clicked a few more times just to make sure, and then loaded up Internet Explorer to cover all the bases.
After re-registering and receiving a second (and different, oddly enough) CD Key, I was directed to the download page again. I clicked the button, and instantly understood why Firefox had failed to initiate the download; a warning about installing an ActiveX control popped up at the top of IE.
At this point, I believe I must have sighed audibly. I think it's great that Microsoft is making strides to correct the problems they've had over the years. They've been slowly but surely coming around to accepting web standards with Internet Explorer, and they've been taking cues from other companies like Google to make more user-friendly and fun websites and software. Kudos to them for that. But after all these small steps toward progress, this was a large leap backward. For everything Microsoft is trying to do to fix their image, it seems completely counter-intuitive to not only force users to use their much-maligned browser, but then impose an ActiveX control on them as well. I almost have to wonder if Microsoft is just willfully ignorant of its many criticisms that have rang out over the years. In any case, I pressed on with the download, only slightly deterred.
Windows 7 Beta is currently being distributed as a DVD image, which you can burn and then use just like an ordinary Windows install disc. The download clocks in at 2.4Gb, so once the installation of the ActiveX download manager was finished, I was looking at a 3-hour download, and thus, 3 hours of waiting. I flicked my monitor into its secondary input mode, fired up my Xbox, and spent some time vanquishing foes in Prince of Persia and traversing the wastelands of Fallout 3. Surprisingly, I was even able to download/stream an episode of Venture Bros. (go Team Venture!) over my Xbox during the download. It was a good time.
In between my game-playing and video-watching, I also got my older computer ready for the beta. The Windows 7 Beta expires on August 1, 2009, so I didn't want to overwrite my XP install on my primary computer and then be forced to buy Windows 7 later in the year. I also don't think it's a great idea to use a beta version of an OS for your regular computing. I backed up my data and cleaned up the older machine.
After the download finished, I burned it to disc and popped it into my old computer. A window appeared, asking me if I wanted to install, and I accepted. Installation of the Windows 7 Beta was quick and painless, and though the machine restarted a few times during the process (this is supposed to happen, apparently), there was no weirdness whatsoever. The initial part of the install has the new OS extracting and unpacking files, and this takes quite a bit of time, so I went out to return a video to Blockbuster and grab myself a late lunch. When I returned, Windows 7 was just about done installing, and had a few questions for me to finish the setup. Once completed, Windows 7 fired up for the first time on my older machine.
I always tend to have a slight feeling of "Now what?" every time I get done installing a new OS, and there was no exception for Windows 7. I spent a few moments gathering my bearings, and then went about checking out all the OS's newest features the media has been talking about over the last few months.
New Taskbar
The revised taskbar in Windows 7 isn't quite as alien as other sites have made it seem – put simply, it's the same taskbar you're used to, but a little bit taller, and a little bit abbreviated. The default settings do away with text descriptions in the taskbar, and instead use only icons for Start Button, quick-launch, and running apps. In previous versions of Windows, you've had the option to group similar windows into groups, and Windows 7 takes this a step further - not only does it group windows of the same flavor into one icon, but upon hovering the mouse over this icon, it allows you to view all the grouped windows as thumbnails. You can hover over these to show a full screen preview, and click to restore the window.
Notification icons are also present in their usual place, for security, networking, etc. The system clock retains its position in the lower right corner, but is now next to a special button which will preview the desktop when you hover the mouse over it, and minimize all windows when clicked (the same way the Show Desktop button in Win XP works).
Though I felt that the new taskbar was more visually attractive than previous iterations, I was happy to see that grouping can be disabled and text labels are still available. I might be able to make the jump to the fully new taskbar eventually, but for now I think I'll make it look like my old XP taskbar, just for the sake of familiarity.
Start Menu
The Start Menu is very similar to the new style menu that made its first appearance in Windows XP – a design I'm not entirely sold on yet, but which is growing on me. With Windows 7, recently accessed programs appear in the main list, a button to access all programs is placed below that, and commonly accessed locations, like My Computer, folders for photos and documents, and Control Panel are all accessible from a list on the right column. The menu also expands to show more options for certain items on the list, which is a cool addition for quickly navigating to more specialized areas of the OS. Like the Taskbar, the Start Menu will take some getting used to for users of older versions of Windows, or who have refused to adapt to the newer versions of it (like me). Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience with it, and didn't find it to be too counter-intuitive.
Look 'n Feel
There's no doubt that Windows 7 is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors in terms of eye candy. The glassy look of Vista's Aero theme is applied liberally throughout. Windows cast shadows, buttons glow, and shines of light move dynamically across the surface of windows as you move and size them around the screen. Icons are high resolution and look nice and sharp. A handful of themes are available for customizing the OS, and the colors of Aero can be changed to just about any color you want. I was also happy to see that multiple wallpapers can be set up to automatically change out now and then, and that windows animate as you open, close, minimize, and maximize them.
Overall, Windows 7 is a visual feast; so much so that at times I found myself surprised I was even using Windows. For users of Vista, it may not be a huge step up, but for me, an avid XP user, it was a very new experience, and I came off liking most of the changes. There were a few trifling issues here and there, but I've never used an OS that I haven't found graphical faults with, and this is beta software, so I won't complain much. Windows 7 is much better looking than other versions of Windows, and in my opinion is graphically superior to Mac OS X in some areas. We'll leave it at that.
Software Updates
Since I've not used Windows Vista for more than a few seconds, I don't know how extensive some of the updates to Windows 7 are, however I do believe that the updated versions of the calculator, MSPaint, and other built-in tools are new to 7. Calculator has been given extra 'programmer' and 'statistics' modes, and Paint has received a complete redesign, including a new ribbon-based GUI, like MS Office. I've not used either extensively yet, but the new features are always welcome.
Technical Issues
I've installed Windows 7 on the same computer twice now, once on top of a previous install of Windows XP, and once (after a botched attempt at installing Mac OS X on the same hardware) as a fresh install, and both instances were easy and trouble-free. I've used the OS for a few hours now, and so far I've had only two problems.
The first, which was slightly expected, was that the installation disc didn't contain drivers for some of my hardware. After all the driver problems Vista had, I expected something far worse, but it seems that Microsoft has ironed out most of the kinks this time around. Unfortunately for me, the drivers I was missing were for my motherboard's built-in networking and sound.
The sound drivers weren't all that important, because I have an ancient Soundblaster 16 installed (which strangely, did have drivers). The networking drivers however, were sorely missed, and even after fiddling with drivers downloaded and burned to disc from my primary computer, I could not get the Windows 7 machine connected to my network without installing a newer Ethernet card (a $10 purchase from Fry's). After installing the new card, the machine connected practically on booting up, and within moments I was online – at which point Windows 7 proceeded to download and install the correct drivers for my onboard networking and audio!
The only other issue I've had was one where Internet Explorer began to hang when I tried to open it. I've been submitting all the errors I find to Microsoft, however, so hopefully things will be even more smoothed out by the time they decide to launch Windows 7.
In the coming weeks I hope to try out some games and other applications on Windows 7, to test performance and compatibility. I'll report back on that as I do it.
Altogether, I came away from my initial Windows 7 experience impressed. Sure, there are things that I'm not entirely thrilled about, but I think that even at this early stage, the pros far outweigh the cons. I'll definitely be interested to see what the coming months bring to Microsoft's new OS, and I hope that each change is for the better. If you decide to take part in the beta, be sure to submit bug reports and suggestions as you test things; it'll ensure that we all have a better experience with WIndows 7 in the future!
By the way, I'll post some screenshots of my system when I get home from work!
The inevitable end of my holiday vacation has arrived. Actually, it arrived yesterday, since that was my first day back at work after a New Year's four-day weekend, but I was feeling too lazy to post anything. Technically, I guess my brain was still in holiday mode, so maybe it is right to say that my vacation ended today. In any case, it's the new year, I'm back on the blog, and I've got a lot of gameage to talk about.
I had a great Christmas at home - it was nice to spend an extended amount of time with my family, play (and lose horribly) at Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, and other non-electronic games. We watched movies and sat around talking and joking with each other. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my mom, dad, and brother. And later on, after Christmas was over, I had another fun holiday weekend spent with my girlfriend. This included an awesome birthday (I'm 27 now, yikes!) with a nice dinner with my parents, a lunch the next day with just my girlfriend, a trip to the theater to see Yes Man (which was hilarious), and lots of cake and presents. So maybe you can understand why I've neglected the blog lately!
Like many people out there, I've also been sucked into playing a lot of games lately, since I got a few of them for Christmas. My mom and dad got me Fallout 3 and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and my brother got me Prince of Persia, so I've had my hands full. Of the three, I think my favorite is Banjo-Kazooie, since you can build just about any kind of vehicle you want, and thus, play the game just about any way you want, but I am enjoying all three for their own merits. Fallout 3 is proving to be the time sink that is par the course for Bethesda games, and Prince of Persia has been a surprisingly fresh and fun experience, akin to the Sands of Time game, though with less frustration (so far).I'll write more about each game individually in the coming week as I continue to play through them, but for now I just wanted to drop a note to let everyone know how things are going for me. Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!
Oh, and I'll be raffling off the copy of Half-Life 2 + HL2: Episode 1 again soon - so stay tuned!
Thanks to everyone who entered the raffle to celebrate Marty Blog's 100th 95th post, and congratulations to the winners, listed below! I threw everyone into the mix to receive the special Half-Life 2 + HL2:Ep1 prize - if you won, and you don't want it, let me know and I will raffle it off again.
Third Prize ($5 game via Steam): BenRK
Second Prize ($15 game via Steam): Zeno
Grand Prize (Mass Effect or $30 equivalent via Steam): MischiephX
Special Prize (Half-Life 2 + Half-Life 2: Episode 1): Zakreon
I will be contacting the winners via email. Hope to see you all around the site again soon, and thanks for helping to make this a successful raffle!
I know, I know - this technically isn't my 100th post. Well, no matter - I've been busy with things, and haven't had time to lead up to 100 before my holiday vacation, so I'll make an exception and we'll do the raffle at post 95. It is a good time to be charitable, after all.
I am happy to say that Marty Blog is still going strong into the final weeks of 2008, and I am pleased with the way the year has gone for the blog. I've been able to (semi) consistently post here about things that I care about and find interesting. I've had a great time talking about these things with members of the GMC and Reflect Communities here. And I've even moved past the default theme (and hopefully will move past my current theme with something better in 2009). In short, it's been a fun year, and I look forward to a continuation of that for the next.
Anyway, enough of the formal stuff - you're probably reading this because you want in on the commemorative raffle, and frankly, I don't blame you. So here goes!
To help celebrate the continuation of Marty Blog, and to give back to everyone who's helped make the blog fun for me, I've put together another little raffle - Marty Blog's second Post & Win!
What can you win?
The grand prize for the raffle is a brand new (digital) copy of BioWare's awesomely fun action-RPG, Mass Effect! If you've already got a copy of Mass Effect, or if it's not really your thing, I'll also let you sub in any other single game of equal or lesser value ($30) that's currently on Steam.
Additionally, second and third prize winners will be chosen, and each will be able to choose from any single game currently on Steam for $15 or less and $5 or less respectively. Steam's catalog has grown impressively since the last raffle, and there are some great new games available now, so there should be something for just about everyone there, for each prize value.
Finally, I've got a spare copy of Half-Life 2 + HL2: Episode 1 just sitting in my Steam account, ready to be gifted. If you're interested in that as well, say so in your post, and once the winners have been chosen, I'll take all the losers (you're all winners to me... really) and do one final drawing for this lovely prize. This one is non-negotiable because it's actually just an extra copy I have.
Note: Many of the games on Steam, including Mass Effect and Half-Life 2, are rated Mature by the ESRB, and may contain violence or sex. I have no way of verifying people's age, so I will assume that if you enter the raffle, you are 18 or older, or you have your parent's permission to play games of this nature.
How do you enter?
Simply post a comment below (make sure to enter an email address I can contact you with in the appropriate area of the comment form). Feel free to post suggestions, criticism, long manifestos of support and encouragement, dear John letters, requests for personal advice, announcements about the sentry gun you just built, or whatever else you can think of. Everything is welcome!
Your name will only be entered into the raffle once, no matter how many comments you leave, and registered users of the site who comment will have a slightly higher chance of being chosen.
Entrants must have a Steam account, or must be willing to register for one if they win. Steam is free, it's a great service, and I am happy to promote it. If you win and I am unable to award you your prize within a reasonable amount of time, the item will be re-raffled. Apologies to anyone who lives outside of the U.S. or who doesn't have access to Steam or it's catalog of games.
Attempts at entering your name into the raffle more than once (or any other kind of cheating) will result in your name, and all aliases thought to be associated with you, removed from the drawing. And of course, Marty Blog reserves all rights to make the final decision on the validity of any entry.
Entries close at the end of the holiday weekend - Sunday, December 28th at 11:59 PM PST - so be sure to make your comment before then! Winners will be announced the following day. I wanted to have winners announced before then, but I figured I'd give everyone out there a chance to enter, and of course, I'd also like to give myself some time off over the next few days. Win/win.
Thanks again to everyone out there who reads Marty Blog now and then. I truly appreciate your visits to this site, and I hope that the site remains fun and enjoyable to you as we move into the future! And yes, I know I recycled that from my previous Post & Win, but I think it's still very applicable. I hope you all have happy holidays this season!
While I simply haven't had time to devote to much Team Fortress 2 lately, that doesn't mean I haven't been interested in it. My game is up to date and ready to play, and I've been keeping up on all the sparse bits of official news, which have been released via the Team Fortress 2 Official Blog.
Their latest announcement reveals a few incoming updates for the Engineer and Spy, as follows:
Teleporters will be upgradeable to level 3. As the teleporter is upgraded, the cooldown will decrease.
Dispensers will be upgradeable to level 3. They will heal faster and generate metal faster as they are upgraded.
Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.
We've made a bunch of minor changes by adding particle systems and upgrading the HUD to show things like deaths by critical hits, players that are overhealed, and giving more information to medics when people are calling for them.
The Engineer is my favorite class, so I'm happy to see him getting some love from Valve soon. I'm not particularly good at being a Spy, but it is one of the classes I generally have a lot more fun with, and I am happy to see this change coming, as this is something I have felt you should be able to do from the very beginning. With all other characters able to pick up dropped weapons for ammo, building, etc. it only makes sense to allow the Spy to pick up these lost armaments as well, especially since the cloak ability replenishes so slowly on its own.
I'm also excited to see the minor changes mentioned in the fourth bullet point. Playing as a Medic should be even better, and it'll be nice to see more information listed on the HUD for critical hits, overhealing, etc.
Just talking about these upcoming changes is making me hungry for some TF2. Maybe it's time to stop working on my new blog layout/games and start doing a little PC gaming again?
