Chinese New Year is coming. Of course, it's nice to keep updating every day, but Chinese New Year is a busy time, so I don't expect to have time to post anything beside short rants like this one at the most. The blog will be taking off for a week. Update: My copy of Devil May Cry 4 and Lost Odyssey just arrived today. Woo hoo!
Guitar Hero 3 PC Impressions
I managed to finally, after some wrangling around, get a copy of Guitar Hero 3 for PC. What do I have to report? For one, the XBox 360 controller works perfectly fine with the game - yes, this includes the new GH3 wireless one. Problems? I've finally come to see what all the reviews that complain talk about. The lag. Not really so much the lag, more the unstable frame rate. The game doesn't actually lag, but the frame rate is unstable. Why? Because the camera moves around so much. When you are at a spot with little bling-bling to render, it plays real smooth (exactly like the console versions). When the camera zooms out, then suddenly the frame rate lowers a little - and your notes start going slightly out of sync.
If the only version you've played is the PC version, then there's a very high likelihood you won't notice. On my dated computer, it took me a while to actually pinpoint the problem. The frame rate is unstable - and the video lag calibration doesn't help. When I do a video lag calibration on the PC, I get 40-70ms, of which the correct correction is zero - which points out to me, the frame rate is somehow unstable - even on the calibration screen. When I do a similar calibration on the XBox 360, it will always return me 0ms. (I use a computer monitor as my HD display, so no surprise there.)
And if you've played the console version, you'll find yourself missing some strange notes at different times in random places. That being said, once you get used to it, it's not really a problem - it still is Guitar Hero. Of course, if you plan on hitting all of those hammer-on sequences in Through the Fire and Flames, then it's probably time to get a new computer.
The only way I can think of that Aspyr can fix it, is to add an option to fix the viewpoint. Sure, it'll be boring, but it'll get rid of the annoying unstable frame rate that can really screw with your eyes.
Since I have no way to be sure whether or not it runs smoothly on a newer far more powerful computer, I'd have to recommend against buying it, and sticking to one of the numerous console versions. If you don't have a console, then chances are, you shouldn't be playing Guitar Hero anyway.
Devil May Cry
I'm still playing the demo. Sad, isn't it? I hope my copy of DMC4 doesn't take too long to come.
In Retrospect
Heh, now I kind of regret posting that dream description up. I'll leave it up anyway, otherwise I'll keep stuff items into private.
A Strange Dream of Hell
Last week, I had a rather peculiar dream. Why did it take this long for me to blog about it? I was wondering. Would it be sane to talk about the stranger dreams I have? Well, I rarely describe my dreams in such detail, but I suppose. It began with sort of a prologue. I was somehow given/sold to a demon/devil for some strange reason. Oddly enough, this resulted in me having to board a train on sorts. The train station itself seemed ordinary. A train station that seemed perfectly ordinary. There are the usual newsagents around, the ticketing counters, the open space, the platforms.
A train came. A group of us, about twenty people got on this train. We got on this train, and before we knew it, the world outside it had changed. The doors opened, and we walked out. The place we got out onto was strange. It looked exactly like the train station we had left, but it was deserted. The stalls were closed. The station was run down and old. The devil/demon huddled us up to a corner.
We got somewhat of a briefing. The details were vague, but it was obvious that we weren't brought to hell or any kind of place like that. He/she/it told us that we would be called upon when needed, but until then, we were free to wander this world. It was a strange world. It was practically a copy of the real world - but with very much less people.
We soon found that most of the things we needed were lying around. Communication, transport, and lodging were all taken care of. What was probably among the more alarming things was that we found that there was a way back. It was temporary, and purely allowed for simple visits to the real world for a short period of time, it was interesting to say the least. Of course, it was something you could just get on, with certain things that needed to be done.
The world used a peculiar currency. We know it exists. We know it's there. However, it doesn't seem to have a physical form, or even method of transfer, but we could transfer it. While we never ever seemed to deal with the devil/demon, it became apparent that the world had a strange way of working.
To earn currency on which to spend on certain things, like visits to the real world and other 'privileges', we found ourselves doing jobs and playing some degree of politics. To this extent, the world was vicious, from a human sense, but going there itself had already entailed losing an amount of humanity and morality, if anything was left, it was merely our memories. Everyone there was merely a semblance of themselves in the real world.
Why was this dream weird? This is among the few vivid dreams I've had where there are no discernable identities. The dream itself cuts off soon after I find out about the bus. Other strange details were somehow there. There's no explaining it, but it's something that's just known. Of course, it could just be my mind adding details to the dream. One would never know.
An oddball thing that I've somehow connected with it is that there is some semblance of strength that is gradually gained while being in that world. Either way, the dream was just plain disturbing in its own way.