The Greathoj's Blog

Another year goes by

2008-04-08T18:18:00.003-05:00

Hmmm... it seems to have been almost a full year since I last made a post here. I had actually forgotten that this had even existed.

So I'm no longer doing the consulting thing. I got tired of that pretty quickly and actually went back to my previous employer, except this time I'm not coding in VB6! It's all Java and some C/C++, so I'm happy.

My wife and I moved to Missouri and purchased a house. I never realized how much work owning a house could be. It's been a constant struggle to give this house a "high end" feeling after the previous owners let it get away from them. We've done some very minor remodeling and painting, we're getting all new windows in May, we've had a new dishwasher installed, and we'll be doing more painting and upgrading over the course of the year.

And then there's the yard...

A new direction

2007-04-14T14:05:00.001-05:00

Well, it's only been six months, but I already wish that I'd just stuck with the longer commute and lower pay of my previous job. My current job has been much less enjoyable than the embedded development I had been doing last summer. I was under the assumption that I was being hired on as a .Net developer, but the last six months have been nothing but VB6 development.

Oh well. The grass is always greener on the other side, eh?

Anyway, I will be leaving my current employer as of 4/20, and beginning a new career as a consultant. Yes, I will be a contracted software developer. This will give me the opportunity to get quite a bit of varied experience under my belt, as well as more easily allowing me to jump from company to company as I seem to already be doing. Hopefully it will work out, and be a bit more exciting, too.

I'm currently addicted to EVE Online. It's a spectacular game, and I highly recommend you check it out. The other big game that I've been enjoying this past week is the oft-delayed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The best way to describe it is "Morrowind, with guns, in modern-day Chernobyl."

It's been how long since my last post?

2006-10-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

Wow, I start playing WoW back in August, and the next thing I know it's October and I haven't made a single blog entry since the World of Warcraft addiction began. That game is definitely addictive.

Lots of news. I've decided to cancel the WoW subscription for now. There's just too many exciting games coming in the next few months to be distracted by WarCrack. I am really looking forward to the new Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six games for the XBox 360, as well as Gears of War and the launch of the Nintendo Wii.

My fiancee and I now have two DS Lites in our apartment, one for each of us. I bought a black model for myself a few weeks ago just for games like Metroid Prime Hunters and Castlevania. My big new toy is a brand new Apple MacBook. I picked this up on one of my lunch breaks last week since the motherboard in my desktop system (the only computer in the apartment up until now) is being RMA'ed. It's also nice to have a second machine, and a portable one at that. Plus, it'll come in very handy when I start my *new* job! That's right, NEW! Woohoo!

I'm going to work as a Software Engineer for a different company starting next week. Why did I leave my current position, you might be asking? Well, I was offered a position with a much shorter commute (20 minues, as opposed to my current 40-90 minutes), more money, tuition reimbursement, and more time off. That was definitely a deal I could not refuse.

Giving in

2006-08-18T10:17:00.000-05:00

I finally went and did it. I caved and bought World of Warcraft. I had a 14-day trial almost exactly one year ago and have had the desire to continue playing ever since. So I did it. I picked it up for $30 at EBGames on my way home from work one night and have been playing it non-stop ever since (except when I'm playing Diablo - just had the urge to play through that game again).

If you want, you can find me on the Greymane server. I've got a few characters, but my primary is an Undead Warrior named Riddance, with my main alternate being a Human Warlock named Bruud (I was staring at my copy of Brood War when I came up with the name).

I'd also like to recommend that everyone give Dark Messiah of Might and Magic a try. The demo is fantastic. It's made by the same company that created Arx Fatalis, which is another awesome RPG. It very well could have been the sequel to that game, and it feels like it should be, except the title doesn't reflect it. Anyway, they're a great game company, and I would buy this game just to continue supporting their efforts.

Oh, and - "Go Horde!"

Prey completed

2006-07-24T21:59:00.000-05:00

I finished Prey. It wasn't a very long game, but if you finish it in under 10 hours, you didn't take the time to appreciate it's graphic splendor. If you expected it to last for more than that, you don't have realistic expectations of what a traditional FPS game is all about. I'll be playing it again, this time on the "Cherokee" difficulty so I can get some more GamerPoints! If you want some good FPS action, but were disappointed with Quake 4, go get Prey now! I think it'll be holding the King of the Old-School FPS title for a long while (as in, whenever Duke Nukem Forever is released).

I've picked up my Guild Wars habit again. Played it for quite some time on Sunday and still haven't gotten anywhere near completing it. I need to hurry up and finish it and Factions so I'll be ready for the Nightfall expansion this fall.

If you've never played an MMORPG before, pick up Guild Wars and give it a shot. It's a one time purchase, no monthly fee, so if you decide you don't like it after eight months, then you didn't just waste ($50 + 7*$15) on a game. If, after playing for a while, you decide you want more from an online RPG, try World of Warcraft. But if you're already playing WoW and are happy with it, I wouldn't bother with Guild Wars. GW is great, but WoW beats it in many, many ways. I'll stick with GW for the time being though, I kind of like not having to pay a monthly fee.

Here it is

2006-07-13T15:42:00.000-05:00

And now, for the report on Prey's awesomeness: It's awesome! :)

Seriously, it's a great "old-school" FPS game. It uses the Doom 3 engine for some great (albeit a bit dark) visuals. It's like a cross between Doom 3 (very pretty, very dark), Duke Nukem 3D (main character spouts humorous one-liners, very 3D-Realms-ish), and Quake 2/4 (enemies are strange mixtures of various creatures with machines or other creatures). They've also thrown in some very nifty gravity tricks, like walking on walls/ceilings and spherical gravity, and the portal effects are great. I can't think of a single game that's used portals to this effect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the original Unreal had portals in one of its multiplayer maps, but it wasn't anywhere near as cool as Prey.

After I finish Prey, it's back to Oblivion to continue raking in the achievements. After that, hopefully the BFME 2 demo will be up on XBL so I can try it before spending my hard-earned cash.

Can't wait to get home

2006-07-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

I went to the local EBGames during my lunch break and picked up my Prey pre-order. Got the Collector's Edition, too. The case is a LOT bigger than I had expected. It's the same height and width as a normal DVD case, but it's about three times thicker.

It's also somewhat of a challenge to get the disc out without damaging it. Perhaps the case I got was just a fluke, but when I try to open the side containing the disc, the disc itself gets caught on the edge of the case and starts to bend. I'm worried about it breaking or scratching. The other method of getting it out is to pull all the extra crap out (which is also not too easy, it's wedged in there pretty tightly) and get to the disc that way. Maybe I'll just put the disc in its own slim DVD case and store it that way.

Will report on awesomeness of Prey at a later time...

eVB development comes to a close (hopefully)

2006-07-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Woohoo! The my stint of eVB development is done! Onwards, to some other non-crappy development environment!

It's great to be done with that project. We'll be rolling out the new product (a newer Windows Mobile 5 device with an older eVB application installed to it) within the next couple weeks. In case you're wondering, yes, we will definitely be rewriting our application at some point in the near future. Whether it will be a C# client-side application, or an ASP .Net web app running in a browser from the WM 5 devices is currently unknown, but I look forward to vastly improving the application just by rewriting it in a different language.

Anyway, I am back off the Elder Scrolls wagon, and have started playing Oblivion again. I've finished the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves' Guild, and Arena quest lines. I'm probably midway through the Fighters' and Mages' Guild quests, and I'm definitely nearing the end of the main story. I may actually finish an Elder Scrolls game in a somewhat reasonable period of time after its release!

I'll be picking up Prey for the 360 tomorrow. The demo was great: old school Doom-style FPS action with some nifty gravity tricks and some nice art direction. I'm also considering getting BFME2 for the 360. It looks pretty good, I like RTS's, and the reviews have been very positive from most web sites and players.

Internet!

2006-06-15T16:29:00.000-05:00

The broadband connection at my apartment went out on 06/06/06 (OMG! DEVIL!). So, I called the cable provider and scheduled an appointment to get a technician out there and fix it ASAP. Well, ASAP apparently meant 06/13/06, 7 whole days later. Ridiculous! Anyway, I had to take a day off work to sit around and wait for the cable guy to call and confirm the appointment and then get out there to fix the problem. I waited for a couple hours, then decided to take the trash out. When I got back inside, the caller-ID said that I missed a call. Upon calling the cable company to verify that it was them calling to confirm the appointment, I was told that since I hadn't answered that ONE call, the appointment was cancelled. WTF?!?

So now it's 06/15/06, and my broadband connection has been active since about 11:00am (9 days for service to be restored). I am now happy in my environment, though I am still very upset with my cable company. If only Verizon would put their FttP service in my area. Their service may not be any better than what I'm currently getting, but the extra bandwidth for a similar price would be well worth it.

Of Warhammer and Men, or something like that...

2006-06-14T15:09:00.001-05:00

I just finished Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War and the Winter Assault expansion. If you're a fan of RTS games, you owe it to yourself to buy this game! It's the most enjoyable RTS I have played since the days of WarCraft 2 and the original Command & Conquer. I would even go so far as to say it's probably the best RTS game I have ever played. I cannot wait for the Dark Crusade expansion!

So, having finished that, I'm going to attempt to finish an old RPG favorite: Arx Fatalis. I don't know why I never finished it, I still have a backup of my old saved game, and I was pretty far into it. Arx Fatalis is another great game and, along with Eternal Darkness, is probably one of the most underrated games of all time. And after Arx is finished, what's next? Well, perhaps I'll stick with the RPG's and start on Baldur's Gate or finish Oblivion, or perhaps I'll go back to RTS and play Dragonshard...

Games

2006-06-06T14:04:00.000-05:00

Another weekend, another fun-filled video-game-a-thon. I gave D&D Online a shot (7-day free trial available at http://www.ddo.com) on Saturday. I started playing around 8:30am, I uninstalled the game around 9:30am. I'm sure it is a good game, but it was pretty dull compared to WoW or Guild Wars. Damn those games for raising my expectations of what a MMO should be!

Still working my way through the original Guild Wars story (now called Prophecies), and also enjoying some of the Factions content. I bought the collector's edition, so I get one of those cool, but ultimately useless, dragon pets.

Oblivion has been put on the back-burner for now. I'll probably never actually finish the game, it took me 4 years to actually sit down and finish Morrowind's storyline, but the non-story quests have always been the most fun in the Elder Scrolls series.

I also just finished Warhammer 40K: DoW, time to move on to the Winter Assault expansion (after I try playing Auto Assault with my 2-week trial)...

Stuff

2006-05-03T13:23:00.000-05:00

Well, after four whole years, my fiancé graduates with her BS in Biology this Saturday. Very exciting. Meanwhile, I'm still trudging through graduate school.

Still enjoying Oblivion. I'm now at level 18, and have joined all four of the guilds (Fighters, Mages, Thieves, and the Dark Brotherhood). I'm still not too far into the main quest line, though, perhaps I should start on it again.

I picked up Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter recently, too. That game is beautiful, and a lot of fun. The direction that the Ghost Recon series took with Ghost Recon 2 was a bit of a shock to me, having been a fan of the original, but it did grow on me, and GRAW continues the more action-oriented pace of Ghost Recon 2. All that spiffy HDR lighting looks pretty good on my Sharp, too!

I'm considering pre-ordering Prey. I remember seeing it in PC Gamer way back in 1996 or 1997, so I have to play it just to see what became of it. Hopefully it won't be as dull as Quake 4 was (not that Q4 was terrible, it just got a little boring).

Morning commute

2006-04-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

You know what I don't like? I can leave for work at about 7:30am and have a 40 minute drive to work. I can leave at 7:45am or 8:00am and have 60 minutes of driving, or I can leave at 8:15am and have a 40 minute drive.

For two months I would scramble to get out the door before 7:45, but rarely made it, and always got stuck in that hour-long commute. Now, I just don't worry about it. I'm sleeping in a little longer and not leaving until shortly after 8:00am, and I'm getting there at about the same time as I would by leaving 20 minutes earlier.

Maybe I should change my working hours to be from 10:00am-6:00pm, then I'd probably have a pretty quick drive to AND from work every day.

The weekend is almost upon us

2006-04-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

It's FINALLY Thursday! I don't know why that excites me, but it does.

I had a test on Monday, though the professor still hasn't returned it. I've got to get my research project done, but I don't have any motivation to do so. This class is just too boring to care about.
Plus, I've got Oblivion constantly tempting me away from my work with its siren song of great role-playing goodness.

I'm actually not working with VBScript today. C# this time, and I am really enjoying it. It's almost like a treat after the constant VBScript and eVB of the last few weeks. But tomorrow it's back to the eVB :(

I should put together a nice tribute to the Elder Scrolls somewhere on my website. Just some info about it, screenshots, links, maybe I can show off my collection of "Elder Crack" games.

Into Oblivion

2006-04-04T12:41:00.000-05:00

Oblivion is spectacular. I just can't get over this game. While I wish they would bring back a few things from Daggerfall (banks, boats, MUCH larger area to explore), I would say that Oblivion is the best RPG I have ever played (a title I previously gave to Daggerfall), even in the face of some great classics such as Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, and Final Fantasy VII.

I played this game for nine hours last Sunday. It was great. I haven't played a game in a single, uninterrupted block of time like that since Morrowind :)

Downloaded the horse armor mod last night. I don't know what to think about this mod. I understand that it does add protection for the horse, which is great, but is there a difference in the quality of the armor? Is Elven armor better than iron armor, or is the difference purely cosmetic? The price of both is exactly the same, 500 septims, so I would assume that the two types are the same and should be chosen based solely on aesthetic appeal.

Oh, and I still dislike VBScript.

New TV!

2006-03-31T12:00:00.000-06:00

XBox 360 - check.

New LCD TV - check.
Component cables for the 360 - check.
Awesome game for the 360 (TES 4: Oblivion) - double check.

First off, yes, there was much XBox-ing last night :)

Secondly, Oblivion is a spectacular game.

I've been an Elder Scrolls fan since the days of Arena and Daggerfall, so my opinion may be a bit biased. If you, like me, loved Daggerfall or Arena, but thought that Morrowind was a little disappointing in some ways, give Oblivion a shot. It returns to some of the Daggerfall/Arena gameplay mechanics (NPCs actually go to sleep rather than wandering about town 24 hours per day). But that is to be expected since the game also returns to the same area where Arena took place, Cyrodiil (no more of that strange Vvardenfell place with its government-sanctioned assassination guild, long live the Dark Brotherhood!).

It's also a bit nostalgic in that sense. I feel much more as if I am playing one of the first two games with a new graphics engine. You don't just waltz into an assassin's guild and ask to join, you do it the old-fashioned way: kill an innocent and then receive an invitation.

And to top it all off, Oblivion is the most beautiful game I have ever played. I remember thinking that Morrowind was jaw-dropping, but Oblivion blows it away (in terms of graphics, presentation, and gameplay). It's also a much more streamlined and accessible experience. There is no longer a separate specialization for short blades and long blades; there's just one specialization called "Blades" (this applies to other skills as well, though the schools of magic are still separated).

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the TV is one of the new Sharp Aquos 37" models (LC-37d40u).

Hate may be a strong word

2006-03-30T15:34:00.000-06:00

But that is exactly the way I feel about VBScript. Yes. I am working in VBScript. I've got to maintain some old ASP pages (as well as some embedded Visual Basic). The maintenance is fine, and playing with the embedded devices is fine, but the VBScript is driving me INSANE.

On the bright side of things for today - I got my new TV!! There's gonna be a whole lot o' XBox-in' goin' on tonight!

Setting up...

2006-03-29T13:27:00.000-06:00

At work now. Can't write much. Just setting stuff up during my lunch break...

Also playing with Flock/Flickr, and reading up on the Flickr API. I'm pretty new at all this Web 2.0 crap, but I figured that it's going to take over whether I like it or not so I may as well start getting used to it.