Finished Bioshock Infinite. The last battle was hard and the bottles of Vigors were bugged.
But I managed to finish it in like 6 or 7 tries.
The bottles didn't work! All they did was replenish my Salt level instead of replacing my current Vigor with the one labelled on the bottle. WTF?
And there I thought I was going to finally get Possession once more in the game, even if it's just for the final battle, but no, I got stuck with the Vigor I didn't want.
Same goes for all the Vigors I found past Comstock's house. What the heck? I wanted Shock Jockey, found a bottle of it, but I didn't get it.
That's a really terrible bug but nevertheless I could handle the game using nothing but Return to Sender. TBH I was using Shock Jockey the same way as I used RtS - only when there were enemies nearby.
But RtS had the advantage of defending me against enemies at any range while SJ's advantage was that it did some damage.
Another difficulty was the ammo. Hand Cannon ammo is so hard to find that in many major battles I use up all my secondary gun ammo, whichever gun it may be, and resort to picking up any gun dropped by downed enemies.
Of course, with RtS, range didn't really matter. If all I have is a shotgun vs a Volley Gun guy, I'd just run close to him with the shield on and kill him up close.
Anyway, those are the only complaints I have. Gameplay's great. Guns are ridiculously accurate because the bullets appear to always go straight for the first shots. The story was excellent.
Actually some online troll had already spoilt part of the ending for me by mentioning something about Elizabeth but fortunately, that didn't spoil the entire ending, although it really wasn't that surprising anymore.
And there's only one ending, so I don't think I'll be playing it again for a while.
According to Steam, I've only played this game for 21 hours.
So my Yahoo mail got hijacked. I noticed something was amiss when I got replies telling me things that appeared to be replies to emails I don't remember sending, eg the receiver was on vacation. One email also stood out among the rest because the sender was my own email.
The sender was my email, not my name, which was strange but still bad.
The first thing I did was check my Sent folder. Nothing.
Next, I checked my activities log. Previously, when I got an email like that from myself, nothing was wrong. This time, however, I found 3 logins from India at roughly the same time.
Shit!
I immediately changed my password. Previously, I had mentioned that I added symbols. Now, I'm using a different password with even more symbols and still included everything else that added variety.
At this point, there's really nothing I can do to strengthen my password short of using symbols that aren't available on typical keyboards like letters with umlaut.
Changed the password for all my important emails and did a full scan of my PC.
I am SO tempted to get this RigidBot for S$500 right now. SO tempted.
Not sure if I should sleep on it.
I'd seen this a few days ago but hesitated because I don't think I have the patience to draw stuff out before printing.
But today, I found out that not only is OpenSCAD easy to use (my only programming experience is one semester of C++ in uni and a little project using CAD for a presentation) but there is an entire wiki of stuff already drawn out by other users.
Just check out how easy it is to use OpenSCAD even if you're not a programmer like me in this tutorial made especially for us.
Hence my great interest in this.
US$330 + $90 for shipping equals to US$420 which is roughly S$500.
S$500 for a 19" by 16.5" by 16" 3D printer sounds like a pretty interesting deal.
The only real problem I have is that I still have very little idea where to get more plastic filament.
Heck, I'm sleeping on this for at least 2 days unless the 120+ slots run out quickly tomorrow.
Sunday 31 March 2013
Saturday 30 March 2013
Rant 1121 / Claypot Beef Stew
Shoulders and upper arms aching. Mainly the triceps.
I don't usually train my triceps because they aren't practical; I rarely use them for any work.
During the last IPT session, the instructor gave us two options:
1) spend the half the session cycling on the stationery bikes
2) lift some weights
We always cycle for at least half of every IPT session, so I picked weights to add some variety to the routine. Moreover, I wanted to see what real weights training is supposed to be like, albeit a rather light one.
It turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.
We all used light dumbbells between 4-7.5kg. It was obvious of the guys around me don't use dumbbells so they picked heavy ones thinking they can handle it. I asked if I could use 4kg when he told us to pick from the racks containing 5-10kg dumbbells, but ended up with 5kg even though he said yes.
First exercise was bicep curl mixed with shoulder raise.
Next was the upright row.
Third was the tricep extension.
Last was trunk twist.
15-20 reps per set, 50s rest between sets, only 3 sets.
Harder than I thought.
Bioshock Infinite may be an excellent game but it was nowhere close to the epicness of ME3 (sans ending). This is based on the fact that I can easily quit the game and switch to Chinese Paladin 3 whenever I feel like it.
I'm not saying that it sucks, far from it, but it doesn't have the impact that ME3 had on me.
What's missing?
Compared to DXHR, another great game, I'd say that they're in the same league.
However, I haven't finished the game so whatever I say now might be premature.
Right now I'm at Comstock's home, and I suspect I could be close to the end. If so, I'm going to be disappointed. There better be more to this game than finding Comstock in his home and killing him.
As for the Industrial Revolution minigame, I'm only like 15-20 puzzles in and when I found out that my decisions are permanent, it felt like a bad idea to finish all the puzzles just for the rewards.
I want to finish the game more or less as a neutral character because for all I know, the Vox Populi might be just as bad as their oppressors but in the different way. In that case, I'm not supporting anyone.
As for weapons, the Handcannon is fantastic. It's basically best for short to mid-range and decent at long range. For tougher enemies, I go for the Volley Gun aka Pig but later found the Hail Fire more useful because I can control when the projectiles explode.
But most of the time, I find that the Handcannon is pretty good for most situations. In fact, for lone Mechanized Patriots I just alternate Shock Jockey and this gun to kill them.
The strangest thing in this game is that I'm not allowed to use Possession after the early part of the game. Not only can it never be found after a specific event in the game, no upgrades for it are available as far as I know. It's weird since it's clearly meant to be a legit Vigor and yet there's no way I can use it for most of the game, as if it's overpowered or something.
I don't really get that.
The accuracy of the enemies was kinda lame though. They can hit me as easily when I'm still as when I'm flying around on the rails. I guess that's one way to compensate for bad intelligence.
Made claypot beef stew. It's just beef, and lots of beef tendons. I only used 3 pieces out of the 6 tendons that made up the 1kg of the frozen packet because I didn't want it to overflow nor did I want a stew that had more tendons than stew.
With only 250g of beef in the pot, it quickly became apparent that it would never have enough flavour regardless of how long I boil it.
So I had two choices - add a beef stock cube or experiment with Bovril that I had bought recently.
I tried Bovril with bread a few days ago, not as good as expected, so I've been looking for a way to use it. Here was an excellent opportunity to see what it can do.
Also added a bit of garlic and a lot of ginger, plus flour just before serving to thicken it.
The whole cooking process started at around 11am and ended at 6pm. 7 hours of continuous boiling at low heat. Actually, 4 hours at the lowest heat but it started to rain and I was reluctant to close the kitchen window since it was hot, so I chose to bring the claypot to a larger stove with a stronger flame instead.
The tendons were boiled for at least 5 hours, and I'm so glad they were covered in fats because the stew was kind of lacking in the kind of flavour only beef fats can give. The beef cubes I had inside were all lean meat while Bovril doesn't even seem to contain oil.
Today, I learn that tendons need to be boiled for 5 hours to become perfectly soft.
This stew was serious business, no doubt about it. 7 hours of minimal gaming because I had to keep going back every 30 minutes to check on it and refill the pot with water, not to mention the claypot had to be soaked in a tub of water since yesterday afternoon to prevent cracking today.
Of course it was a success. It would really suck if it had failed. REALLY sucked.
Forgot about potatoes and the salt was minimal, but all that was no issue because the stew was awesome. In fact, it may possibly be the best thing I've ever cooked so far.
It's really stupid but I can't believe it took me so long to link the timer-power-socket with my fan.
My bro's been using it for his terrapin's lamp so that it turns on for a while every so often. The terrapin likes to bask but it doesn't need too much heat.
I've been aware of it for months yet I never really thought about it until a few days ago when he asked me to get another one when I'm at the market.
Then I realized I could be using this with my fan!!
For years, I've been wishing for a fan with a timer for switching on instead of off so that it can automatically switch on at the same time as my air-conditioner switches off by its timer. That would help me save electricity by having the a/c turn off several hours before I wake up.
Since it's cool at night, I don't think it's going to be a problem if the windows are left closed unless I plan to wake up at 12pm or something.
But if I could have a timer for my window, that would be even better.
So anyway, I'm going to buy several of those for my electrical appliances. I could even use it on the light at my bed in conjunction with my morning alarm, if I ever use it.
I don't usually train my triceps because they aren't practical; I rarely use them for any work.
During the last IPT session, the instructor gave us two options:
1) spend the half the session cycling on the stationery bikes
2) lift some weights
We always cycle for at least half of every IPT session, so I picked weights to add some variety to the routine. Moreover, I wanted to see what real weights training is supposed to be like, albeit a rather light one.
It turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.
We all used light dumbbells between 4-7.5kg. It was obvious of the guys around me don't use dumbbells so they picked heavy ones thinking they can handle it. I asked if I could use 4kg when he told us to pick from the racks containing 5-10kg dumbbells, but ended up with 5kg even though he said yes.
First exercise was bicep curl mixed with shoulder raise.
Next was the upright row.
Third was the tricep extension.
Last was trunk twist.
15-20 reps per set, 50s rest between sets, only 3 sets.
Harder than I thought.
Bioshock Infinite may be an excellent game but it was nowhere close to the epicness of ME3 (sans ending). This is based on the fact that I can easily quit the game and switch to Chinese Paladin 3 whenever I feel like it.
I'm not saying that it sucks, far from it, but it doesn't have the impact that ME3 had on me.
What's missing?
Compared to DXHR, another great game, I'd say that they're in the same league.
However, I haven't finished the game so whatever I say now might be premature.
Right now I'm at Comstock's home, and I suspect I could be close to the end. If so, I'm going to be disappointed. There better be more to this game than finding Comstock in his home and killing him.
As for the Industrial Revolution minigame, I'm only like 15-20 puzzles in and when I found out that my decisions are permanent, it felt like a bad idea to finish all the puzzles just for the rewards.
I want to finish the game more or less as a neutral character because for all I know, the Vox Populi might be just as bad as their oppressors but in the different way. In that case, I'm not supporting anyone.
As for weapons, the Handcannon is fantastic. It's basically best for short to mid-range and decent at long range. For tougher enemies, I go for the Volley Gun aka Pig but later found the Hail Fire more useful because I can control when the projectiles explode.
But most of the time, I find that the Handcannon is pretty good for most situations. In fact, for lone Mechanized Patriots I just alternate Shock Jockey and this gun to kill them.
The strangest thing in this game is that I'm not allowed to use Possession after the early part of the game. Not only can it never be found after a specific event in the game, no upgrades for it are available as far as I know. It's weird since it's clearly meant to be a legit Vigor and yet there's no way I can use it for most of the game, as if it's overpowered or something.
I don't really get that.
The accuracy of the enemies was kinda lame though. They can hit me as easily when I'm still as when I'm flying around on the rails. I guess that's one way to compensate for bad intelligence.
Made claypot beef stew. It's just beef, and lots of beef tendons. I only used 3 pieces out of the 6 tendons that made up the 1kg of the frozen packet because I didn't want it to overflow nor did I want a stew that had more tendons than stew.
With only 250g of beef in the pot, it quickly became apparent that it would never have enough flavour regardless of how long I boil it.
So I had two choices - add a beef stock cube or experiment with Bovril that I had bought recently.
I tried Bovril with bread a few days ago, not as good as expected, so I've been looking for a way to use it. Here was an excellent opportunity to see what it can do.
Also added a bit of garlic and a lot of ginger, plus flour just before serving to thicken it.
The whole cooking process started at around 11am and ended at 6pm. 7 hours of continuous boiling at low heat. Actually, 4 hours at the lowest heat but it started to rain and I was reluctant to close the kitchen window since it was hot, so I chose to bring the claypot to a larger stove with a stronger flame instead.
The tendons were boiled for at least 5 hours, and I'm so glad they were covered in fats because the stew was kind of lacking in the kind of flavour only beef fats can give. The beef cubes I had inside were all lean meat while Bovril doesn't even seem to contain oil.
Today, I learn that tendons need to be boiled for 5 hours to become perfectly soft.
This stew was serious business, no doubt about it. 7 hours of minimal gaming because I had to keep going back every 30 minutes to check on it and refill the pot with water, not to mention the claypot had to be soaked in a tub of water since yesterday afternoon to prevent cracking today.
Of course it was a success. It would really suck if it had failed. REALLY sucked.
Forgot about potatoes and the salt was minimal, but all that was no issue because the stew was awesome. In fact, it may possibly be the best thing I've ever cooked so far.
It's really stupid but I can't believe it took me so long to link the timer-power-socket with my fan.
My bro's been using it for his terrapin's lamp so that it turns on for a while every so often. The terrapin likes to bask but it doesn't need too much heat.
I've been aware of it for months yet I never really thought about it until a few days ago when he asked me to get another one when I'm at the market.
Then I realized I could be using this with my fan!!
For years, I've been wishing for a fan with a timer for switching on instead of off so that it can automatically switch on at the same time as my air-conditioner switches off by its timer. That would help me save electricity by having the a/c turn off several hours before I wake up.
Since it's cool at night, I don't think it's going to be a problem if the windows are left closed unless I plan to wake up at 12pm or something.
But if I could have a timer for my window, that would be even better.
So anyway, I'm going to buy several of those for my electrical appliances. I could even use it on the light at my bed in conjunction with my morning alarm, if I ever use it.
Tuesday 26 March 2013
Rant 1120 / Bioshock Infinite Almost Had A FOV Issue
So I'm playing 2 games together, since I haven't finished Chinese Paladin 3 and I bought Bioshock Infinite.
Pre-purchased it on Steam because I like the bundle deal. It's got the first Bioshock, X-Com and some in-game freebies. Didn't get the season pass because I have some doubts about the DLCs. Maybe if they're good I'll get them at a discount.
Maybe it's also because the season pass doesn't come with any interesting freebies. More ingame stuff? No thanks.
I already have some interest in the first Bioshock and I like X-Com. In fact, X-Com is one of the games I planned on buying once it hits 75% off (expected to happen far into the future, of course).
It was also until after I bought it that I realized there was a slightly better deal on Amazon that included all that I got except instead of the first Bioshock, it came with US$30 of credit that can only be spent on other 2K games (except for pre-orders).
Slightly better because I have no interest in buying any 2K games in the foreseeable future.
Can't play Bioshock constantly because despite the largest FOV I can adjust it to, I still get nausea after several hours. Just means I can't do marathons.
...
Fortunately, someone had immediately come up with a solution.
My original value was 15 and after changing to 30, the last 3 hours of non-stop playing did not make me feel nauseous at all.
Fantastic!
Best of all, I haven't played a new and good game in such a long, long time, I can actually feel the difference.
Practically for every game I've played in the last year or two, they were almost always old. I just haven't been catching up with new games much and most of the recent AAA games didn't interest me.
In fact, much of my knowledge of these famous games came from watching streams unless I stated explicitly here that I've played them.
The truth is, a lot of stuff that make games look awesome don't get noticed by the player when he's focusing on the important parts, like the locations of the enemies. Since a long time ago, I've observed that I don't observe much when I'm playing a game.
Speaking of unnoticed features, I just realized my bro's Alienware laptop's keyboard turns red when the game shows a red screen. It normally glows blue but turns red during those moments like it syncs with the bloody screens in games he's playing.
Looks very cool but the fact is that he never sees it. He knows it does that but come on, who on earth looks at his keyboard when playing games? All experienced gamers know exactly where every key is down to his subconscious mind.
Heck, most of my keys no longer display the alphabets but I still know where they are by positioning my fingers on specific keys first. I think that's almost identical to the proper way of typing, except instead of using the F and J keys, I use WASD. Once I get WASD (or just any single one of them) right, I know where every other key is instinctively.
It's normal.
Anyway, nobody looks at his keyboard when he's almost dead in a game. Therefore, that feature is utterly pointless.
Back to the game.
It's awesome. I'm playing on Hard and I've died several times. I'm just not really used to using both magic and guns at the same time.
The biggest mistake I've made, however, was not activating my pre-order bonus before playing, hence missing several items including a golden gun.
:(
Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing this at least one more time, unless the ending turns out to be a disappointment.
Moreover, I don't need the bonus anyway. I feel that I'm handling things pretty well so far; I just need to use magic more often.
So far I've just left the First Lady, and the chase scene before that was absolutely the best I've seen in a while.
As for the performance,
Basically, it's saying that my PC is pretty damn awesome. The lowest FPS happened in a scene change, so that means during gameplay, my computer can always run the game smoothly.
Also, this benchmarking test was done on the highest settings possible on my monitor's native resolution of 1920*1080.
It really doesn't lag.
Speaking of my monitor, I've finally got a solid answer from Philips telling me that replacing the power unit of the old monitor, if indeed it's the power unit's fault, will be S$50. That's excluding the onsite repair fee of S$80, so that adds up to S$130. No idea if that includes GST.
My new monitor, which is larger (I've checked because right now I'm keeping the old monitor just behind the new one on my desk) and brand new with 3 years of warranty again, cost me only S$183 net (I checked the receipt).
In other words, it costs me about $70 more to get a brand new monitor (including return trip cab fare) with another 3 years of warranty.
Why the heck not?
I don't think the warranty is such a big deal since the old one was bought in June 2009 (lasted 3 years and 9 months) but it's just nice to have it.
And speaking of the new monitor, I've finally come to the conclusion that it's not worth it to buy my stuff from the Carnival Sales. The discounts aren't that great anymore.
I'm not sure if it really matters, however, because Philips has just sold away its audio and video department, hence it might stop organizing this sale for all I know.
It's sad. Suddenly two nice companies I know are selling all their stuff away, the other being Creative Technologies. Well, Creative's wasn't exactly unexpected; Philips's was. It's quite shocking how badly its consumer electronics have really been doing - practically everything was making serious losses despite being their core business.
In case it isn't clear, 150 million euros are peanuts for something that big. Philips was probably desperate to wash its hands off it. On the other hand, I wonder how Funai is going to turn around a business that has just made a loss of 355 million euros in merely a quarter.
Pre-purchased it on Steam because I like the bundle deal. It's got the first Bioshock, X-Com and some in-game freebies. Didn't get the season pass because I have some doubts about the DLCs. Maybe if they're good I'll get them at a discount.
Maybe it's also because the season pass doesn't come with any interesting freebies. More ingame stuff? No thanks.
I already have some interest in the first Bioshock and I like X-Com. In fact, X-Com is one of the games I planned on buying once it hits 75% off (expected to happen far into the future, of course).
It was also until after I bought it that I realized there was a slightly better deal on Amazon that included all that I got except instead of the first Bioshock, it came with US$30 of credit that can only be spent on other 2K games (except for pre-orders).
Slightly better because I have no interest in buying any 2K games in the foreseeable future.
Can't play Bioshock constantly because despite the largest FOV I can adjust it to, I still get nausea after several hours. Just means I can't do marathons.
...
Fortunately, someone had immediately come up with a solution.
go to: Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config
Open up "XUserOptions.ini"
Find the line "MaxUserFOVOffsetPercent="
Change it to "MaxUserFOVOffsetPercent=30.000000"
My original value was 15 and after changing to 30, the last 3 hours of non-stop playing did not make me feel nauseous at all.
Fantastic!
Best of all, I haven't played a new and good game in such a long, long time, I can actually feel the difference.
Practically for every game I've played in the last year or two, they were almost always old. I just haven't been catching up with new games much and most of the recent AAA games didn't interest me.
In fact, much of my knowledge of these famous games came from watching streams unless I stated explicitly here that I've played them.
The truth is, a lot of stuff that make games look awesome don't get noticed by the player when he's focusing on the important parts, like the locations of the enemies. Since a long time ago, I've observed that I don't observe much when I'm playing a game.
Speaking of unnoticed features, I just realized my bro's Alienware laptop's keyboard turns red when the game shows a red screen. It normally glows blue but turns red during those moments like it syncs with the bloody screens in games he's playing.
Looks very cool but the fact is that he never sees it. He knows it does that but come on, who on earth looks at his keyboard when playing games? All experienced gamers know exactly where every key is down to his subconscious mind.
Heck, most of my keys no longer display the alphabets but I still know where they are by positioning my fingers on specific keys first. I think that's almost identical to the proper way of typing, except instead of using the F and J keys, I use WASD. Once I get WASD (or just any single one of them) right, I know where every other key is instinctively.
It's normal.
Anyway, nobody looks at his keyboard when he's almost dead in a game. Therefore, that feature is utterly pointless.
Back to the game.
It's awesome. I'm playing on Hard and I've died several times. I'm just not really used to using both magic and guns at the same time.
The biggest mistake I've made, however, was not activating my pre-order bonus before playing, hence missing several items including a golden gun.
:(
Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing this at least one more time, unless the ending turns out to be a disappointment.
Moreover, I don't need the bonus anyway. I feel that I'm handling things pretty well so far; I just need to use magic more often.
So far I've just left the First Lady, and the chase scene before that was absolutely the best I've seen in a while.
As for the performance,
Basically, it's saying that my PC is pretty damn awesome. The lowest FPS happened in a scene change, so that means during gameplay, my computer can always run the game smoothly.
Also, this benchmarking test was done on the highest settings possible on my monitor's native resolution of 1920*1080.
It really doesn't lag.
Speaking of my monitor, I've finally got a solid answer from Philips telling me that replacing the power unit of the old monitor, if indeed it's the power unit's fault, will be S$50. That's excluding the onsite repair fee of S$80, so that adds up to S$130. No idea if that includes GST.
My new monitor, which is larger (I've checked because right now I'm keeping the old monitor just behind the new one on my desk) and brand new with 3 years of warranty again, cost me only S$183 net (I checked the receipt).
In other words, it costs me about $70 more to get a brand new monitor (including return trip cab fare) with another 3 years of warranty.
Why the heck not?
I don't think the warranty is such a big deal since the old one was bought in June 2009 (lasted 3 years and 9 months) but it's just nice to have it.
And speaking of the new monitor, I've finally come to the conclusion that it's not worth it to buy my stuff from the Carnival Sales. The discounts aren't that great anymore.
I'm not sure if it really matters, however, because Philips has just sold away its audio and video department, hence it might stop organizing this sale for all I know.
It's sad. Suddenly two nice companies I know are selling all their stuff away, the other being Creative Technologies. Well, Creative's wasn't exactly unexpected; Philips's was. It's quite shocking how badly its consumer electronics have really been doing - practically everything was making serious losses despite being their core business.
Philips Electronics, once one of the world's biggest manufacturers of television sets, agreed to sell its audio and video business to Japan's Funai Electric Co for 150 million euros (£130 million).
Philips, which will also receive licence fees from Funai, reported a fourth-quarter net loss of 355 million euros - widening from a year-ago loss of 160 million euros - as it cited previously flagged provisions and charges.
In case it isn't clear, 150 million euros are peanuts for something that big. Philips was probably desperate to wash its hands off it. On the other hand, I wonder how Funai is going to turn around a business that has just made a loss of 355 million euros in merely a quarter.
Sunday 24 March 2013
Rant 1119 / Running Green
Fri
My terrapin's getting picky. I throw in leafy vegetables and it eats just the leaves, leaving the stalks cleanly stripped.
It just means I'm feeding it too much because when it's hungry enough, it eats anything I throw in.
I don't like it though; I'm not wealthy enough to let it pick its food because truth to be told, it likes meat more than vegetables. There has been a point where it ignored vegetables because I had been feeding it raw fishballs and squids. It took about 3 days of starving for it to eventually give in to its hunger and accept fresh greens.
Fortunately, turtles can easily handle short periods of starvation, and three days are nothing it can't take. I normally avoid feeding it daily anyway, regardless of how hard it stares.
I just don't want it to end up like my bro's terrapin - it doesn't even eat fresh food! All it accepts are pellets because that's what my bro has been feeding it all these time.
He says it's ok because it's only almost a year old, but how do baby terrapins survive in the wild without pellets?
Anyways, it's his money so whatever, but I'm not letting mine get spoilt.
It's been so long since I ran this hard. During last evening's IPT, I tried to push myself and jogged 2km without stopping.
I've only recently started on a bit of light cardio, and that's 10-20mins of light cycling on my stationary bike per session. Roughly 100kcal burnt each time according to the electronic display.
Running, for someone with my weight, is very different from cycling on the lower resistance levels.
After that jog, no amount of stretching could prevent the ache in my thighs that persists throughout today and probably tomorrow.
Not to mention there's a slight pain in my left ankle when I turn that's been around since the previous IPT session. Now I wear an ankle guard just in case.
仙剑奇侠传3 is going to be a little hard to complete. First thing is that, as I've mentioned before, I can't alt-tab. Really sucks.
Second thing I noticed is that the combat can sometimes be irritating. It tried to use the same kind of combat as Grandia and Ocean Story but ended up with an inferior system.
Basically, units can attack when it's being attack. However, when it's attacking someone, all attacks on it will miss. There have been a lot of times when one or two of my guys have exactly the same speed as the monsters so everytime they attacked the monsters, the monsters were already out attacking someone else.
I can solve that by leaving those monsters to other party members or defend, which makes the turns come again faster. Either way, it means I'll have to watch out for the timing.
...
Suddenly, I'm actually grateful for the auto-combat mode in a RPG. I've almost never used this mode in the RPGs I've played because it usually sucks - they simply attack. In this game, it still suck as expected but I don't have to watch the combat and feel annoyed by all the wasted attacks.
I just have to watch the HP at the end of every combat and then play with my iPad during the fights.
I like the car but I like the suggested system even more. I can imagine having some kind of card reader instead of a keyhole so that users can start the car by sticking their credit card or cashcard into it.
Kind of like our electronic road taxes but the taxi meter linked to the reader would not only display the amount charged but also charge the amount in real time so that the user can easily remove the card at any moment.
However, that would require a steady network connection constantly and I'm not sure if it's possible if there is coverage everywhere.
So it's a terrible idea to deliberately drop down to below 500 trophies in Clash of Clans. That zone turned out to be filled with high level players who are there for a few reasons.
First, there are those who are simply some kind of piñata for other players to farm.
Second, there are the high level players who use that area to protect themselves from similar level players. That's what I tried to do anyway.
In the past, I lose less resources than I make most of the time. For the last two days, I'd been losing almost twice as much as my daily income everyday.
Fortunately, I have been gaining trophies so I'm returning to the safer zone where it isn't some kind of free-for-all for players of all levels.
Sun
So I went to the Philips Carnival Sale this morning. First thing I noticed was that there was no free gift for members.
:(
Second was the significantly smaller crowd. This year, Philips neglected to email me about the sale so I guess a lot of other people also didn't find out about the event. I only knew about it when someone mentioned it.
This time, I've finally found out for certain that the discounts aren't actually that great. I'm not sure if I'll be going back there again for irons in the future.
I also bought a new monitor that feels slightly smaller than my old one, 21.5" vs 22", but the display resolution is now larger at 1920*1080 compared to the old 1680*1050. The moment I switched it on, I could feel that everything feels wider and flatter.
But for S$185, this is ok. Model 226V4L.
As for the old one, I have yet to call them about the cost of repair.
My terrapin's getting picky. I throw in leafy vegetables and it eats just the leaves, leaving the stalks cleanly stripped.
It just means I'm feeding it too much because when it's hungry enough, it eats anything I throw in.
I don't like it though; I'm not wealthy enough to let it pick its food because truth to be told, it likes meat more than vegetables. There has been a point where it ignored vegetables because I had been feeding it raw fishballs and squids. It took about 3 days of starving for it to eventually give in to its hunger and accept fresh greens.
Fortunately, turtles can easily handle short periods of starvation, and three days are nothing it can't take. I normally avoid feeding it daily anyway, regardless of how hard it stares.
I just don't want it to end up like my bro's terrapin - it doesn't even eat fresh food! All it accepts are pellets because that's what my bro has been feeding it all these time.
He says it's ok because it's only almost a year old, but how do baby terrapins survive in the wild without pellets?
Anyways, it's his money so whatever, but I'm not letting mine get spoilt.
It's been so long since I ran this hard. During last evening's IPT, I tried to push myself and jogged 2km without stopping.
I've only recently started on a bit of light cardio, and that's 10-20mins of light cycling on my stationary bike per session. Roughly 100kcal burnt each time according to the electronic display.
Running, for someone with my weight, is very different from cycling on the lower resistance levels.
After that jog, no amount of stretching could prevent the ache in my thighs that persists throughout today and probably tomorrow.
Not to mention there's a slight pain in my left ankle when I turn that's been around since the previous IPT session. Now I wear an ankle guard just in case.
仙剑奇侠传3 is going to be a little hard to complete. First thing is that, as I've mentioned before, I can't alt-tab. Really sucks.
Second thing I noticed is that the combat can sometimes be irritating. It tried to use the same kind of combat as Grandia and Ocean Story but ended up with an inferior system.
Basically, units can attack when it's being attack. However, when it's attacking someone, all attacks on it will miss. There have been a lot of times when one or two of my guys have exactly the same speed as the monsters so everytime they attacked the monsters, the monsters were already out attacking someone else.
I can solve that by leaving those monsters to other party members or defend, which makes the turns come again faster. Either way, it means I'll have to watch out for the timing.
...
Suddenly, I'm actually grateful for the auto-combat mode in a RPG. I've almost never used this mode in the RPGs I've played because it usually sucks - they simply attack. In this game, it still suck as expected but I don't have to watch the combat and feel annoyed by all the wasted attacks.
I just have to watch the HP at the end of every combat and then play with my iPad during the fights.
I like the car but I like the suggested system even more. I can imagine having some kind of card reader instead of a keyhole so that users can start the car by sticking their credit card or cashcard into it.
Kind of like our electronic road taxes but the taxi meter linked to the reader would not only display the amount charged but also charge the amount in real time so that the user can easily remove the card at any moment.
However, that would require a steady network connection constantly and I'm not sure if it's possible if there is coverage everywhere.
So it's a terrible idea to deliberately drop down to below 500 trophies in Clash of Clans. That zone turned out to be filled with high level players who are there for a few reasons.
First, there are those who are simply some kind of piñata for other players to farm.
Second, there are the high level players who use that area to protect themselves from similar level players. That's what I tried to do anyway.
In the past, I lose less resources than I make most of the time. For the last two days, I'd been losing almost twice as much as my daily income everyday.
Fortunately, I have been gaining trophies so I'm returning to the safer zone where it isn't some kind of free-for-all for players of all levels.
Sun
So I went to the Philips Carnival Sale this morning. First thing I noticed was that there was no free gift for members.
:(
Second was the significantly smaller crowd. This year, Philips neglected to email me about the sale so I guess a lot of other people also didn't find out about the event. I only knew about it when someone mentioned it.
This time, I've finally found out for certain that the discounts aren't actually that great. I'm not sure if I'll be going back there again for irons in the future.
I also bought a new monitor that feels slightly smaller than my old one, 21.5" vs 22", but the display resolution is now larger at 1920*1080 compared to the old 1680*1050. The moment I switched it on, I could feel that everything feels wider and flatter.
But for S$185, this is ok. Model 226V4L.
As for the old one, I have yet to call them about the cost of repair.
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Rant 1118 / My First Trip To An OG OP Private Sale
Pope Francis Resigns
仙剑奇侠传3 was a little troublesome. It's the first in the series to require a Chinese locale set through Control panel. Without knowing which version of the Chinese language it used, I had to reset my PC twice before I finally got the right one.
Immediately after the little cut scene in the beginning, I tried to alt-tab out... and found that I can't do so without crashing the game. Good thing I saved but this really really sucks.
On the bright side, I have the iPad, so if I ever need to take a peek at the walkthrough, I could use my tablet.
As for the game itself, I quickly realized it seemed familiar. The conversation of the cut scene too. These first several minutes brought back some very vague memories of gameplay in this game.
I'm now fairly certain I have seriously played this game before, which in turn means that I have indeed finished the second game.
I think it's only been about 2 years since I stopped and I've already forgotten the ending of that game so cleanly. I wonder if this is normal at all or if there is something wrong with my memory. Compared to other possible issues that I may eventually have, this is actually pretty good. At least I won't know what I'm missing since I can't remember what I've forgotten.
EA CEO just got fired. He's "stepping down" and since it's been done so abruptly, he probably was forced to resign.
I'm not sure if the CEO was the problem because their problems had more to do with the execution than their ideas. Like the stupid always-on DRM on SimCity. They wanted a way to stop piracy; they just didn't come up with a proper way to do it without hurting their own customers.
A CEO doesn't deal with crap like this! He's too far up the hierachy to be involved in something as lowly as choosing a form of DRM.
Unless, of course, I'm mistaken and he's the kind of boss who prefers to micromanage.
However, he was probably in charge of picking people for the jobs so that's an issue.
So I decided to go to the OG Orchard Point one-day private sale. I'd only arrived half an hour after opening and this is what I found:
My first time going to this kind of sale (other than warehouse sales) so this caught me offguard.
Now I know I have to go there at least 2 hours before opening to queue up. This time, with the queue this long and everything I want to buy has limited stocks, I just gave up right there.
Not worth queueing up even for the slim chance that they won't run out by the time I can get in because I only wanted a few shirts, bedsheets and a handbag, and none of them are actually urgent.
What is somewhat urgent, however, is my need for a new monitor. I could just repair my current one but:
1) A new monitor will only cost me $100 more than a repair.
2) The repair will not be completed on the same day.
Fortunately, Philips is holding yet another Carnival Sale this weekend, so hopefully they sell those there. I'm using a Philips monitor currently so I have nothing against them.
Sunday 17 March 2013
Rant 1117 / Swords, Frozen Meats And Sequels
THU
I have this suspicion that people tend to think I'm blowing them off when I repeatedly tell them that I'm not at the office on multiple occasions. It's funny because I'm always honest when I use that excuse. In quiet months like this, there's no need for me to go there more than thrice a week.
On Wednesday, I ordered some frozen meats from a local wholesaler online because the bacon there is so much cheaper. The only place in my neighbourhood that sells streaky bacon is the Shop N Save and it's priced at $3.99 for 200g, or $20 per kg.
That wholesaler is selling it at $9.50 per kg.
Most of the other items were actually cheaper than what I can get in the wet market, and the wet market is cheaper than Shop N Save.
So I bought $80 worth of frozen meat, just enough to get free delivery.
Yes I know it's weird to buy my groceries online when I have both a small supermarket and a wet market but the prices are just cheaper there.
Then I got a call at 9.30am today (Thursday) which I ignored due to the fact that I only just got up and was busy playing with my terrapin. Then he called again at 10.30am to confirm the order and inform me that it would delivered today between 2-5pm.
It arrived at around 2.30pm.
The order came in this styrofoam boxed, all taped up.
Removing the tape took some effort.
Translation: chicken vienna sausage, pork sausage, chicken breast, ox tendon, chicken leg, streaky bacon, pork bone, minced pork, sliced cheese, beef ball.
The goodness within.
2 bags of 1kg minced pork, $6 per kg, total $12.
Beef balls, the kind used in pasta instead of the Chinese ones I expected, $12 for this 1kg bag.
Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, $5.50 per kg, $11 for this 2kg bag.
Whole chicken legs, $3.50 per kg, $5.25 for this 1.5kg bag.
And the rest. Sliced cheese at $2.60 per 200g packet; chicken sausage at $8 per 1kg packet, pork sausage at $8 per 1kg packet, streaky bacon at $9.50 per 1kg bag, beef tendon at $12 per 1kg packet, pork bones at $2.20 per 1kg packet.
Took the chicken breasts, half the bacon, 1 bag of minced pork and the chicken sausage out to thaw while the rest filled my empty freezer.
Finally, we have meat.
The only downside to this is that I can't customise the minced pork. Normally I prefer it to contain more fatty meat but I think this minced meat is pretty lean.
Almost everything about this is great. Not only is the bacon cheap but the cheese too. The pork bones are actually rare because they're usually sold out wherever I go since I never go out to shop for groceries in the early morning like 8am.
I should get some beef cubes next time for stew.
Just tried the chicken sausage. Saltier than what I'm used to but longer, like 1.8 times the length of what I normally get. Cheese is thinner than the budget crap my bro got from Shop N Save but it's got better cheese taste than the tasteless budget stuff.
I think I'll get more of these in the future since our home consumes a lot of sausages. It's just such a great convenience food to go with bread and/or eggs.
FRI
The minced pork is a lot finer than what I'm used to. Probably ground thrice or something. Drier too, probably due to being frozen longer.
SUN
Finished 仙剑奇侠传2. Since I have vague memories of the last boss but none of the ending appeared familiar, I probably was at the last boss before my last hard disk died.
Or I might have finished the game but the ending wasn't particularly memorable.
Anyways, now I shall move on to 3.
Now that I've tried the chicken breasts, I'm beginning to see why this wholesaler isn't getting more popular than it should.
They taste a tiny bit gamey or fishy. Not the entire breasts, just one bite or two from each breast.
It's easily solved with marination but this means I can't simply bake them with minimal seasoning like I used to.
I have this suspicion that people tend to think I'm blowing them off when I repeatedly tell them that I'm not at the office on multiple occasions. It's funny because I'm always honest when I use that excuse. In quiet months like this, there's no need for me to go there more than thrice a week.
On Wednesday, I ordered some frozen meats from a local wholesaler online because the bacon there is so much cheaper. The only place in my neighbourhood that sells streaky bacon is the Shop N Save and it's priced at $3.99 for 200g, or $20 per kg.
That wholesaler is selling it at $9.50 per kg.
Most of the other items were actually cheaper than what I can get in the wet market, and the wet market is cheaper than Shop N Save.
So I bought $80 worth of frozen meat, just enough to get free delivery.
Yes I know it's weird to buy my groceries online when I have both a small supermarket and a wet market but the prices are just cheaper there.
Then I got a call at 9.30am today (Thursday) which I ignored due to the fact that I only just got up and was busy playing with my terrapin. Then he called again at 10.30am to confirm the order and inform me that it would delivered today between 2-5pm.
It arrived at around 2.30pm.
The order came in this styrofoam boxed, all taped up.
Removing the tape took some effort.
Translation: chicken vienna sausage, pork sausage, chicken breast, ox tendon, chicken leg, streaky bacon, pork bone, minced pork, sliced cheese, beef ball.
2 bags of 1kg minced pork, $6 per kg, total $12.
Beef balls, the kind used in pasta instead of the Chinese ones I expected, $12 for this 1kg bag.
Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, $5.50 per kg, $11 for this 2kg bag.
Whole chicken legs, $3.50 per kg, $5.25 for this 1.5kg bag.
Took the chicken breasts, half the bacon, 1 bag of minced pork and the chicken sausage out to thaw while the rest filled my empty freezer.
Finally, we have meat.
The only downside to this is that I can't customise the minced pork. Normally I prefer it to contain more fatty meat but I think this minced meat is pretty lean.
Almost everything about this is great. Not only is the bacon cheap but the cheese too. The pork bones are actually rare because they're usually sold out wherever I go since I never go out to shop for groceries in the early morning like 8am.
I should get some beef cubes next time for stew.
Just tried the chicken sausage. Saltier than what I'm used to but longer, like 1.8 times the length of what I normally get. Cheese is thinner than the budget crap my bro got from Shop N Save but it's got better cheese taste than the tasteless budget stuff.
I think I'll get more of these in the future since our home consumes a lot of sausages. It's just such a great convenience food to go with bread and/or eggs.
FRI
The minced pork is a lot finer than what I'm used to. Probably ground thrice or something. Drier too, probably due to being frozen longer.
SUN
Finished 仙剑奇侠传2. Since I have vague memories of the last boss but none of the ending appeared familiar, I probably was at the last boss before my last hard disk died.
Or I might have finished the game but the ending wasn't particularly memorable.
Anyways, now I shall move on to 3.
Now that I've tried the chicken breasts, I'm beginning to see why this wholesaler isn't getting more popular than it should.
They taste a tiny bit gamey or fishy. Not the entire breasts, just one bite or two from each breast.
It's easily solved with marination but this means I can't simply bake them with minimal seasoning like I used to.
Thursday 14 March 2013
Rant 1116 / Of Temples And Footwear
So an English boxer literally tracked down a troll from Twitter.
Check out the hashtags too. Hilarious! I'm sure plenty of people have wanted to do exactly this but never got the opportunity to. This is practically a dream come true.
In Season 2 they've been significantly improving the rap, although too frequently it's still bad.
Anyways I think I can see how electricity could be made free, although electrical appliances will have to cost significantly more. It would be like how Blizzard games have free Battlenet access.
However it might become an additional reason for manufacturers to reduce the lifespans of their products.
No idea why the last rant got that many views. Why don't people link the video's URL instead?
Playing 仙劍奇俠傳2 (Chinese Paladin 2). Not sure why I didn't finish it but my guess is that I found something more interesting halfway through and then my old hard disk died.
Still a great game.
I'll finish it and get on to 3, and then I'll have to find 4 and any sequels beyond that.
Found Knights of Pen and Paper, an RPG that tries to simulate the real pen and paper tabletop RPGs.
I've been waiting for a turn-based RPG for SO LONG! This is fantastic!
But the game wasn't exactly what I expected. For one, it wasn't really story-driven, just mostly grinding.
I've only played this for an hour so far, so this may not be true for the entire game. I don't know.
That was stupid. I went to SAFRA Toa Payoh before I remembered that not all SAFRA clubhouses have eMarts. Needed to get the jogging shoes using my NS credits for my IPT on Thursday and somehow, I thought that all SAFRA clubhouses have eMarts.
Weird. I should have known better.
Anyway I was just across the road (Kim Keat Link) when I suddenly recalled that it wasn't true.
That annoyed me, and with the sun being so hot at noon then, I decided to just take a cab to SAFRA Mount Faber, where I know for sure has an eMart where I can buy what I need.
I had actually taken a bus from work to get there and had even walked some distance. According to my map app, the distance, if I had walked in a perfectly straight line, would have been about half a kilometre.
Under the afternoon sun. Yep.
But it was interesting because I went past this Buddhist temple that I had always noticed on my way to work but never got a chance to visit. Just wanted to take a look.
It's the one along the PIE at Toa Payoh and it seems to be under renovation at some parts.
Even saw a lone monk in a grey monk attire. I wonder if the colour has any significance.
Very quiet and relaxing even though it's next to a highway.
Then at SAFRA Mount Faber I got the boots and shoes. Initially thought about getting socks and stuff but decided I still have some useable ones and I could buy more when I go back to camp some time in the coming months.
The lady asked me if I wanted half-leather or full-leather. Since I have no preference for the type of boots I wear during my in-camp training (ICT), I got the full-leather one instead.
The difference between a half-leather and a full-leather boot in my case is that the half-leather is made of some kind of tough woven fabric above the heels and has two holes just above the sole for rainwater drainage.
The full-leather one is almost like weather-proof so I chose it in case I decide to wear these boots to Korea later this year.
These Asics shoes caused me a bit of confusion. The green ones are meant for normal feet with a higher arch support than the blue ones, yet I feel that the blue ones are closer to what I'm used to. The blue ones are also recommended for people with flat feet.
Maybe it's because I've been wearing nothing but my leather shoes for too long so I've forgotten what normal jogging shoes are supposed to feel like. Anyway, I don't think it really matters if my shoes lack arch support.
These two practically wiped out my credits for this year; it's crazy. I even had to fork out another $7+ worth of advance credits from next year. Now I see why so many people had only one pair of boots during my last ICT.
It's now really important that I keep these boots maintained because I don't want to spend $75 cash on new ones anytime soon. I want to spend some credits on towels and such too.
Check out the hashtags too. Hilarious! I'm sure plenty of people have wanted to do exactly this but never got the opportunity to. This is practically a dream come true.
In Season 2 they've been significantly improving the rap, although too frequently it's still bad.
Anyways I think I can see how electricity could be made free, although electrical appliances will have to cost significantly more. It would be like how Blizzard games have free Battlenet access.
However it might become an additional reason for manufacturers to reduce the lifespans of their products.
No idea why the last rant got that many views. Why don't people link the video's URL instead?
Playing 仙劍奇俠傳2 (Chinese Paladin 2). Not sure why I didn't finish it but my guess is that I found something more interesting halfway through and then my old hard disk died.
Still a great game.
I'll finish it and get on to 3, and then I'll have to find 4 and any sequels beyond that.
Found Knights of Pen and Paper, an RPG that tries to simulate the real pen and paper tabletop RPGs.
I've been waiting for a turn-based RPG for SO LONG! This is fantastic!
But the game wasn't exactly what I expected. For one, it wasn't really story-driven, just mostly grinding.
I've only played this for an hour so far, so this may not be true for the entire game. I don't know.
That was stupid. I went to SAFRA Toa Payoh before I remembered that not all SAFRA clubhouses have eMarts. Needed to get the jogging shoes using my NS credits for my IPT on Thursday and somehow, I thought that all SAFRA clubhouses have eMarts.
Weird. I should have known better.
Anyway I was just across the road (Kim Keat Link) when I suddenly recalled that it wasn't true.
That annoyed me, and with the sun being so hot at noon then, I decided to just take a cab to SAFRA Mount Faber, where I know for sure has an eMart where I can buy what I need.
I had actually taken a bus from work to get there and had even walked some distance. According to my map app, the distance, if I had walked in a perfectly straight line, would have been about half a kilometre.
Under the afternoon sun. Yep.
But it was interesting because I went past this Buddhist temple that I had always noticed on my way to work but never got a chance to visit. Just wanted to take a look.
It's the one along the PIE at Toa Payoh and it seems to be under renovation at some parts.
Even saw a lone monk in a grey monk attire. I wonder if the colour has any significance.
Very quiet and relaxing even though it's next to a highway.
Then at SAFRA Mount Faber I got the boots and shoes. Initially thought about getting socks and stuff but decided I still have some useable ones and I could buy more when I go back to camp some time in the coming months.
The lady asked me if I wanted half-leather or full-leather. Since I have no preference for the type of boots I wear during my in-camp training (ICT), I got the full-leather one instead.
The full-leather one is almost like weather-proof so I chose it in case I decide to wear these boots to Korea later this year.
Maybe it's because I've been wearing nothing but my leather shoes for too long so I've forgotten what normal jogging shoes are supposed to feel like. Anyway, I don't think it really matters if my shoes lack arch support.
These two practically wiped out my credits for this year; it's crazy. I even had to fork out another $7+ worth of advance credits from next year. Now I see why so many people had only one pair of boots during my last ICT.
It's now really important that I keep these boots maintained because I don't want to spend $75 cash on new ones anytime soon. I want to spend some credits on towels and such too.
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