At The Fountains Of Sadness

Urgh I need to write a blogpost.

Tomorrow, no wait, actually on Saturday, I'm going home on vacation. According to Pope that is too often, but this is how it works to live in a socialist state. So I just wanted to put some words here on this page of mine, to give an illusion of life.

I've got two levels I've been working on, one is one I need to finish because I promised, but I think I made it kinda crap so I've been trying to rework it as good as possible. The other is some other dumb project I've started and restarted and restarted so many times and so long ago I keep losing track of what I meant to do with it.
Also I had this idea for doing a level like this:
You play through an empty landscape, then exit.
First repeat, the landscape is filled with ancient buildings.
Second repeat, the buildings are ruined, nature has reclaimed a lot of it.
Third repeat, modern structures fill out the ruins, push back nature again.
So the point is you play through the same yet different level from A to B four times. (Though not like that freakin insane speedmap some crazy insane dude (was it speedy?) made.)
Anyway my idea was to keep it small and simple and let the iterations add details. I haven't done anything with this but I would like to try. Mostly because I've got a hateboner for old stuff merging with new tech. BUT NOT STEAMPUNK! STEAMPUNK IS THE DUMBEST SHIT EVER! Like Metroid Prime instead.

This Opera Unite thing.
It's a feature of Opera that lets users host services on their personal computers that are accessible to the WAN through Opera's proxies. I took a look at the documentation, and the actual services are essentially web servers written in javascript with some magic host objects to handle connections and file IO.
I've got this idea (COPYWRITE DONT STEAL!!!!1) that you could make a turn based roguelike/diablo/D&D using this. The DM is the person hosting the Unite service, he's got access to some dungeon editing tools, and during the game he can use his 'Evil Points' to spawn monsters and generally make things miserable for the players. The players connect to the DM's service and can then be selected by the DM to join the game (otherwise they'll just spectate) where they'll get to select a class and maybe some stats. (All very simple though.).
I think this would be a fun project to work on, but I'm not sure what would be the best way to implement the actual interface.
Client/server interaction would be done via AJAX. Would it be best to implement the visuals in google.maps-like tiles/javascript or in flash? You can really do a lot with layering transparent PNGs using javascript these days.
This is another thing I'd like to do.

I need to learn how to use Maya. OK, I kinda know how to use Maya in the most basic way, but I need to get good at it. I've been running it for a bit at work and a warezed version at home, but I'm lacking motivation for it. Besides the whole job security bit.

I've been meaning to cock up a way to make Ogier able to make levels for Source engine games. Some things like displacements can't be supported of course and would ultimately have to be done in Hammer, but just being able to do basic editing in Ogier would really improve my morale for making a TF2 L4D level. (Which would then be another project to do I guess! SIGH!)
What it would be is some app that scans the Source game's files and extracts all the textures and entity definitions and converts them to Ogier format, and then another app for exporting xmp to vmf.
I'm not sure if all that hassle is worth it for just being able to make more levels I'll never finish though.

I bought an iPod (classic, 120 gigs, black). Woe unto me.

The weather is hot. Dreadfully hot. I hate it.

Ah yes, music.
Lately I've been again into italo disco, which owns. Then I got my hands on all of Thomas Bangalter's stuff, because I've been meaning to do that, and that owns too. Then for some reason I have been dismissing what Guy-Man had been doing on Crydamoure, which was dumb of me because all of that owns too! Entire fucking label owns! It's insane! (Something unrelated I found just now) Then I started listening to Phoenix which is mostly ok but they've got a few songs that totally own too. Also I got SND's Atavism, which owns. Can't find any actual tracks from the album on youtube though, but here's something else that totally fucking owns anyway. And I caught up with some older Fennesz albums now that they were up on bleep, which also (surprise!) own. Clark's got a new album out too but I haven't had a chance to listen properly yet.

Ok. That's it. Peace. Soldiers are cute.

Lately I've been playing:

• Tomb Raider Underworld: Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. So pretty. Gameplay is just like old new tomb raiders, except the camera kinda sucks a bit more this time. I bet most people would find the whole game annoying but I love it.
  
• Mirror's Edge: I can not believe that it was possible to make a game that was so sickly stylish as this. The shiny bright overexposed surfaces and ultra-saturated primary colors are just incredible. And as if just the purely graphical style wasn't awesome enough, the actual designs of areas are jawdropping too. Like the storm drains. Also check out the insane DLC map pack they've got going! Tons of kudos to Dice/EA for this.
  
• Left 4 Dead: Is so fun to play. I prefer versus mode, because if you do get overwhelmed as survivors, you don't have to go on with the hassle of playing the level over and over again until you get through. Also getting to grope all over Francis (nsfw) is awesome too.
  

Haven't bought this one yet but I'm going to:

• Prince of Persia: People say this is a bad game becasuse it's so easy, but if it really is then I'm going to be so happy because I don't appreciate challenges in games. It looks so pretty too.
  

Other than that, still fat, gay, lonely, in love.

Again there's more TF2 porn around. This time a theoretically good drawing of the engy riding the spy. It's actually rather nice, except for a few things.

1. I can ignore the huge feet and hands. No problem with that, maybe the person who drew it has a foot fetish.
   
2. A bit more annoying is the inset of a closeup of their mouths, kissing. Annoying because 1) Why is it there we can already see they're kissing. 2) What is that goo? Is it saliva or semen? 3) If it is semen it's kinda gross imho, and where did the it from when there's not a penis anywhere near there? 4) It makes the spy look like batman!
   
3. BUT SUDDENLY!
   Another inset! Of a crossection of the engy's rectum. With the spy's disembodied penis inside. Why, why, why!
   What the hell people?! Yes, the dick goes inside the butt, that's pretty much the basics of buttsex. Why does this have to be shown in such great detail? It's not like anyone looks at a picture of anal sex and goes "hmm I wonder where the penis is?". And why is there a reddish, wobbly, shiny line where the penis ends? It looks like it's been cut off! Not exactly sexy! Nobody wants to see this!
   

Such a waste of potential.

Also I've called out a severe lack of Gears of War porn many times in the past and it still hasn't gotten any better.

Anyway, I'm back and it's nice to be home with your own stuff again and being able to do some creative activities instead of just being lazy in front of the TV with your parents.
^{*sits idle for three hours while reading FYAD*}

I bought some Games.

• Metroid Prime 3: Good, fun, proper metroid stuff. I still don't enjoy the combat, and I think the decision to have Samus be among fellow bounty hunters and with other humans and shit is a bad one.
  Have I finished it? No.
  
• Assassin's Creed: I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. On one hand I'm loving it, with it's laid back exploration gameplay, briefly punctuated with some very exciting chases. On the other hand I can see that it might end up being a bit repetetive after a while. I'm not sure if there is a story I should be paying attention to besides the future story. I only listen with half an ear during all the dialogue in the holy lands, so I'm not sure if I'm missing anything important here besides Altaïr having second thoughts about killing his targets.
  Have I finished it? No.
  
• Super Mario Galaxy:Played about three hours or something so far (Finished the second observatory) and it's pretty fun. I've been trying to get all the stars, except the stupid prankster comet ones, and overall it is a good challenge. The controls are nice and simple. I can imagine getting tired of watching that Luma pop out of Mario's hat after every level though. And fuck that garbage cleaning level.
  Have I finished it? No.
  

Overall I've been finding myself less and less interested with games. I don't know why.
I've been finding myself less interested in everything actually. I must admit, it's kinda depressing.

Oh well. I got a Daim chocolate in the fridge. I might eat it.