My Interest in PC Games is Waning

As time passes, I find my interest in computer games is weakening. I spend less time playing computer games than I've used to. Stuff like Counter-Strike: Source and DotA no longer hold much interest for me. I find this a rather disturbing change. When I sit at the computer, I no longer with to play some game, I intend more to sit there, lurk in a few forums and boards, lurk in MSN, then  I decide to just go to sleep. Of course, there's me blogging and fooling around programming (be it a game or some arbitrary stupidity). I don't even post as often anymore. I know there was a time I posted every day, but that lasted about like two weeks. It's not that I couldn't sustain it, I could - but I didn't. The reason wasn't because I thought what I was posting was junk (in fact the part I thought my posting was horrible was somewhere last August). It was probably the beginning of me losing interest in blogging. Ever since then, I've been blogging in a more erratic manner, with a schedule closer to something like once in ten days. Although it never really is around there, and I am making up a schedule that doesn't exist, I'd say I'm close enough.

However, that being said, my interest in gaming hasn't changed. Either its because this year less good PC games came out, or I've actually switched sides. My vote is on the latter. I find myself more longing for my PSP when I feel like a good gaming session. I bought two 6th generation consoles when the first of the 7th generation came out. I am no sucker for punishment - I certainly bought the consoles because they were dead - but they were good consoles. They had good games on them that I wanted to play and in addition - I found them highly sufficient at filling my need for gaming. I now have both portable consoles - both a PSP and a DS.

Funnily, I bought a PSP more out of impulse - and the DS less so. Apparently, my impulse was right. If I had a DS, I would not have been gaming as much. I have no love of the killer app known as Nintendogs - and the touch screen is nothing new to me. There have been too many mediocre games being called sensational for use of the touch screen. They fail utterly to me. The best game on the DS I've played? Phoenix Wright - guess what? I don't need the touch screen. Best use of the touch screen? Most certainly Metroid Prime Hunters.

I believe my gaming tendencies have changed massively in the last year or two. I find myself moving away from PC games towards consoles and suddenly, software modding my gaming consoles is quite fun too. I find myself more fond of my PSP than my DS - funnily for games, not for the console since I actually game exclusively on the PSP - the media features I don't need. I suppose my mind is maturing and changing - and it's possible there will come a time when I stop PC gaming completely. Which now begs the question - should I buy a Wii or a PS3 first?

Boredom Overwhelming

I have reached the point where I regret not bringing back my XBox and GameCube back from Australia. I am now officially deathly bored. I have gotten so bored that I've:

1. Replayed Halo.
2. Replayed Star Trek Armada II.
3. Updated my copy of Vista.
4. Made an early alpha version of my Warcraft III map.
5. Replayed Generals and its expansion Zero hour.
6. Stopped playing Dark Crusade and Warcraft III.
7. Begun programming useless arbitrary stuff again.
8. Completed my research on the Wii and PS3.
9. Learned how to unlock a HTC Hermes.
10. Thought about getting a HTC Hermes.
11. Been to Plaza Low Yat last weekend.
12. Tried out Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express.
13. Gotten bored of DotA.
14. Update my PSP's firmware.
15. Reorganised my hard drives and my storage system.
16. Built a few more Magic decks. (IRL, of course, digital version coming soon if I manage to test it.)
17. Slept 12 hours in a day for several days.
18. Gotten sick of CS: Source.
19. Been planning to bomb tmnet streamyx's office for not removing their traffic throttling despite 'restoration' of the undersea cables.
20. Been posting plenty of shit on the blog. (be it private or public)

My Pick for the Best Video Game of 2006

My pick is simple. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade. Nothing else released this year has attracted the same amount of attention from me as that. The single player campaign is awesome. The multiplayer is awesome. The two new races are awesome. If you don't have the original 2 games, you still get to play the two new races (in multiplayer, you still get all in single player, I think), which is plenty.

I really don't have much to say besides that it's an awesome real-time strategy game, regardless of whether or not it's based on a real-life tabletop game. The unit quotes are excellent - entertaining at worst. The campaign is simple, yet quite fun. All you have to do is conquer a limited set of regions. All of them give you some kind of bonus - be it when you begin a mission, or which missions you get to pick from. After eliminating the other six races also on Kronus - you win.

The skirmish mode is excellent with the AI able to give you some sort of challenge. The only gripe people might have is the relatively low cap on squads and vehicles which really limits the amount of crazy things you can do. The game compensates by having each race have one relic unit (which is a really powerful unit or vehicle) to help with the game. :D

"I command the dark powers." - Chaos Sorceror, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War

(I have updated to another version of Wordpress, 2.1, so watch out for the bugs, and report any if you find them, if not for me, For the Dark Gods. :D )

Why Windows Vista Sucks

Now, as much as I'd like to include pictures of this one, most of my gripes have nothing to do with anything you can take a picture of. 1. User Account Control is VERY annoying. It pops up everywhere. I think the simple rule is it pops up everywhere, all the time, any time, even while you are using the computer normally. I'm not sure if a normal user would find it annoying or not, but me, being a power user (even if it is diluted across several OSes now) cannot stand the bloody annoyance that is User Account Control. Every damn little thing - and the bloody annoying window pops up and tells you. The worst? A Windows Firewall popup entails another UAC dialog. So every time, Windows Firewall feels like it should protect you, two dialogs pop up.

2. Drivers for Vista suck at this point. This is obviously not Microsoft's fault, but in my opinion, Microsoft should have tried to arrange for at least a few basic Creative drivers to be included in Vista. At least in Malaysia, the Creative customer base is rather of the majority, and lack of built-in support is rather weak - although I'd have to say neither Microsoft nor Creative are to be blamed absolutely. The changes in DirectX 10 and Windows Vista are rather drastic to the driver model. However, drivers unrelated to graphics and sound mostly work anyway without modification (which is REALLY convenient).

3. Vista feels safer, but overall more annoying. The biggest problem I have is probably having to deal with permissions. I'm used to dealing with the simple UNIX form of permissions. Somehow, the overwhelming options in Vista feel a little like overkill. After all, most of us simple users will just use several presets (mostly although we'll be using this thing called Full Control).

4. Alt+Tab still beats WinKey+Tab. Most people would have seen it as obvious - but I'm going to state it here anyway. Unlike Expose which is functional and practical, Flip3D is just something that looks nice. The new Alt+Tab is faster, more convenient, and of course way ahead of WinKey+Tab. That being said, it was probably included because they could include it with the new window management model.

5. Updates come REALLY often. Most people will tout this as a plus point, but it came too many times too often, in my opinion. What were the updates for? Malicious software removal and Windows Defender. I don't mind these getting updated often, but if you've seen how naggy Windows Update can be, you'd know what I mean. And speaking of that, I heard Service Pack 1 is due in the second half of the year. I hope that means we'll have many Service Packs, not one early one, and then it is unheard of for 3 years, and then another 3 years after that. However, I hate updating too often, especially since the most secure version of Windows yet has its Windows Defender getting updates which I have no clue as to the purpose, especially since if you accidentally click one that needs you to restart and stuff, Windows Update nags you to hell about it.

6. Explorer crashes really strangely. And doesn't restart properly either. Thankfully, in Windows Vista, there appears to be some degree of separation between Explorer windows and other windows (including the Start Menu), so you don't get the my file transfer to my flash drive hung, and now I can't do anything except in my web browser and instant messaging client. However, it does crash - and when it does, it crashes in the weirdest of ways for reasons I am completely oblivious too. All I know is that at the end of it, restarting Explorer.EXE doesn't help. Why? The restarted Explorer behaves just as strange, then it begins to act weird, eventually forcing it to crash.

7. Infinite Internet Explorer Tabs/Windows bug. I don't know if anyone else has experienced it, but I experience it like 3 times in 2 weeks. Someone without similar know-how would've already been cursing. I have no idea what causes the bug, but it doesn't happen in Windows XP. It takes specifically Windows Vista to do it. Somehow, Windows Live Messenger fails to open Windows Live Mail in Internet Explorer 7 (or you close Windows Live Mail in IE7). Then, instead of trying again and waiting, there will be some moment of silence - about a few minutes or so. Regardless of whether Live Messenger is open or not, Internet Explorer will suddenly pop up, and start opening an arbitrary number of tabs. Any attempt to close the window will result in IE7 opening yet ANOTHER window - and continue the infinite tabbing process. While this is happening, all access to Ctrl+Shift+Esc (Task Manager shortcut for Windows Vista Ultimate) is blocked off, nothing else will run, including the Run command dialog. The only way I know of that works (and it doesn't always work) is attempt to close it off at the Taskbar. If you are too late, your computer would have gone into a state of irrecoverable infinite tabbing in IE7. All this just by a combination of Internet Explorer 7, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail and Windows Vista. It doesn't take a genius to tell you Microsoft screwed this up big time. 4 integral parts of Microsoft, put together, will fail horribly.

8. Why haven't I made an error report? Because I have no idea how. Now do you see the problems with Vista?

Why Windows Vista Rocks Part 2

I'd like to point your attention to the nice bars telling you how much space you have left. In addition, the most important addition would be those favourite links. They aren't as space consuming as they used to be, and they show up in My Computer too. The same convenience in CommonDialog right there in Explorer! Isn't that great?

Then, we have the Network and Sharing Centre, which I would say speaks for itself.

Then, we have Windows Sidebar. It can be full of stuff and it looks really good. Then, we have the system tray at the bottom. Notice the small gap between the DAEMON Tools icon and the network icon. Now, the network icon and sound icon stay there without being hidden - permanently. Some of you may find this convenient, and some of you may find them cluttering up space. I'm with the former - I use them pretty often, and having them in the same place all the time is kinda nice.

Stuff in the sidebar tend to look nicer outside the sidebar though. :P

And before I end my really short explanation of why you should upgrade to Windows Vista, here's the new Connect To screen!

(Yes, my screenshots suck. They look a lot better in real life - so give Vista a try. Hopefully within the week, you'll see my new post on Vista, which I assure you, is not about why it rocks.)