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Daeval

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Posts posted by Daeval

  1. Yeah, the machine Solaris was on was a SPARC box, but the OS didn't seem TOO far from it's unix roots.

     

    I ended up trying to decide between Debian and FreeBSD. FreeBSD won by a coin toss, though I still have both sets of ISOs in case I decide to switch. Now I get to try and configure everything, starting with the *cue dramatic music* wireless NIC. It recognized it at least, I just have to figure out how to get it to play nice with my router.

     

    Thanks for the tips!

  2. Work, the Girlfriend, hanging out with friends (which usually involves games, of the video or board/card variety). Anime, but I'm VERY picky about it, and there are only a handful of titles I like enough to own. Also home-study in a variety of computery topics, usually involving the web, hacking up games, or programming. I did judo for several years, but have been out of it for at least a year now, since I transferred schools. I'm looking to find someplace near my new school to continue practicing.

  3. I used to be assistant admin for a solaris server for an ISP, but it's been years since I played with anything even remotely unix-like. Well, I finally put together enough spare pc parts to build a little server to play around on, and I want to install some flavor of ?-nix on it to re-learn what I used to know (and learn the stuff I never knew).

     

    So now, I'm looking for a place to start. Primarily, I'm looking for learning resources and recommendations on which flavor of unix/linux/whatever to play with. The machine's primary role will be a webserver, LAN fileserver (other machines are WinXP), and general host to various internet and network services. I'm hearing a lot about unbuntu, but it sounds kind of "user-friendly" and I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. ;P

     

    Any suggestions?

  4. Wow, this actually works! Sweet!

     

    Although I'm not sure the Virtual On controls maps have actually been "fixed".. It uses two sticks in the arcade, but the d-pad moves you around in the emulator? This is kind of cool, but it also means you can't jump or duck, as this was done by pulling the sticks away from or towards each other.

  5. WOuld you all consider jap girls the hottest? I personally would prefer foriegn chick becuz she would be more interesting. I find myself more attracted to spanish chicks just becuz thier of a diff origin.

     

    Depends on where you live I guess. I've lived too close to mexico all my life to consider latin-looking women exotic, but they're still really pretty. Dark haired, just-slightly-tan skinned girls are my favorite, wherever they're from.

  6. Having played this game all last weekend, I've got to throw my two cents in here. I'd have given it a lower score. Parts of it were a lot of fun, but there were just too many things holding this game back.

     

    Don't get me wrong, beating on zombies is a ton of fun, and the sheer number of them, combined with their accurate zombie-mob-like AI creates a real feeling of tension. The main story is told rather well, with the voice acting and dialog, at least for the main characters, being top notch and just a little bit campy, as is only appropriate, most of the time. The ability to replay the game with your existing stats adds quite a bit to it, and takes the pressure off of the optional scoop missions. There are also some interesting twists near the end of your 72 hours that I won't spoil for you.

     

    But Smilee's done a pretty good job of expounding its virtues, so I'll focus on what I didn't like.

     

    Variety. Yes, there are a TON of different things you can pick up and swing at zombies. However, only a very small number of weapons are you ever really going to want to use. The attack animations for many objects leave you horribly vulnerable, while others take too long to swing or just don't do enough damage. For 90% of the actual gameplay, you will end up using or hunting for a small subset of weapons consisting largely of the typical shotguns, smgs, knives, nightsticks, and baseball-bat shaped bludgeons and blades.

     

    Heavily armed, non-zombie enemies. These wouldn't be a big deal if the game's controls and weapons weren't obviously intended for battling hordes of slow moving zombies. Most of the boss fights, and the (not really) optional psychopath fights require fast manuevering and lots of guns. The gun-aiming controls are not up to par for this kind of first-person antics, and when you're hit, you are taken back to third person mode and lose any shot you may have lined up. Eventually, you will end up fighting armed and armored human opponents as regular enemies as well. This leads to plenty of frustration, and ultimately, most of the major fights are best won by stocking up on shotguns and getting the enemy AI stuck on a corner. In short, these many human fights don't play to the game's strengths, and will be frustrating breaks in the zombie-bashing fun.

     

    Inventory handling. As Smilee pointed out, your cellphone (transciever? whatever..) will quickly get extremely obnoxious. That thing rings it's shrill tone CONSTANTLY, and answering it means you are completely helpless for however long it takes for Otis to get his message across. This mechanic could have easily been much better handled.

     

    Also, when a weapon breaks or runs out of ammo, you quickly and automatically switch to the next item in your inventory. This wouldn't be so bad if your healing items and books weren't stored in the same inventory. It will happen often that you will be merrily bashing through a horde of zombies when suddenly you will break to swig from a jug of orange juice, or to thumb through a magazine amidst the hungry mob. This is even worse in a boss fight, where health-item managment is often crucial and you must constantly be dodging to avoid fire.

     

    Friendly AI. My biggest gripe by far, and really the deal-breaker for me. Many of the game's missions involve rescuing survivors, which means leading them back accross the sea of zombies to your safe haven. Some of them you can grab by the hand, ICO-style, or carry on your back, and those are the easiest to deal with. Some of them, however, you just have to hope will follow you. You can arm them, but shotguns and submachine guns are the only really safe bets, as giving them melee weapons will usually get them killed. If they do decide to stop, you can run back to beat the zombies off of them, but the zombies often just keep coming, and the AI won't be smart enough to move out of the growing horde. It's also pretty easy to end up beating your own survivor to death while you're trying to peel the zombies off of him.

     

    Finally, and this one doesn't hurt the gameplay but really bothered everyone in my house, the save system. In general, it's not too bad once you figure it out. The only really bad part is the screen you get upon death, which gives you the option to load your save or to save your progress and quit. These seem perfectly reasonable options, until you realize after the fact that the game only saved whatever the hell it pleased and threw the rest out the window. Let me clarify: The game will save your character levels, achievements, kill count, etc, but it will NOT save your position along the game's plot. In fact, it will DELETE your existing save and leave you with none, your only option being to restart the game from square one, albiet with your existing character stats. ALWAYS save in bathrooms, NEVER on the "you died" screen.

     

    Basically, I had fun with it, but it's not something I would rush out and buy. I'd nab it when it comes down a bit in price, about $35 feels like the right price point for this one.

  7. Cool that you got to see them, they're kind of a rare show as I understand.

     

    I loved radiohead up to and including OK Computer. The stuff after that has not provided sufficiency bouyancy to my boat. Care to recommend anything that might redeem their recent efforts?

  8. I'm down for the stirlization with drugs.

    Yeah, as long as it was advertized that they'd nueter you before you snorted your first line, I think this would be fitting.

     

    However, this probably wouldn't get rid of the illegal drug trade, as it's kind of hard to make sure illegal drug manufacturers are putting in the sterilizing component.

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