Erkki

I think the default box inserts for games suck in one way or another 98/100 of the time. If I may insert a plug, I have a friend who started making inserts out of plywood, and they are great: http://gameguard.eu/ (he ships internationally, I think). He tries to make all expansions fit into the original game's box if possible. At about 25€, it's too expensive to get this for every game, but I'll probably get them for several of my favourite games as he designs new ones. I have the Cyclades one and it works perfectly, making the setup very easy and enjoyable. I also got the Merchants & Marauders one, but haven't played it yet.

The more I play it, the more baffled I am by the negative reviews that give it 5/10 (e.g. Polygon - and the same guy gave Far Cry 3 9/10). This game is in no way inferior to Far Cry 3, IMHO. The variety of the environments is actually pretty good, considering it all takes place in a wasteland. Every large base you take down is different (even if containing similar elements, but duh!), almost every minor hole someone crawled into and left their scrap behind is different. Only after 25 hours have I seen 2 places where I thought -- I have been to another place with this exact same layout before. Granted, the wrecked ships in the Great White are perhaps a bit overused. The landscape can look a bit samey, but after a while I started recognizing landmarks better and now it feels like I'm getting to know the place. The game also does a few things really well, better than most games The way enemies respawn (well, they do it only as war parties on wheels), or how stuff disappears, is close to perfect. I've never seen a moment when something suddenly pops in or loot disappears while I take a small detour (car bodies and corpses do suddenly disappear, though). Still I'm sure the things don't stay forever. But for an open world game, it's very well done. The weather effects. I think the big storms here are more awesome than the blow-outs in Stalker, or well, they would be if NPCs would also react to them. Sadly NPCs go about their things as if the storm wasn't even there. Car combat -- well, so few games even try to do this, it's obvious that a Mad Max game would, but I think it's really well done especially considering that I didn't like the car physics at all at first. I think this might actually end up being my game of the year (although I've yet to play MGS V, which I think I will.

The more I play this, the more I like it. It's at least better than Far Cry 3, which was a total teenage male power fantasy. At least this is not that, I think. Max is kind of lost again, with a vague goal of crossing the plains of silence, but really he is mostly acting according to Chumbucket's plans. The magnum opus is also more about Chumbucket than Max. Actually, this Max is kind of growing on me. He doesn't speak as much as in the beginning and can grow a beard almost as long as he had in the beginning of Fury Road. And I think the ties of Fury Road are well done -- there are the Warboys with their thundersticks, and a villain who is a son of Immortan Joe. Gastown is always on the horizon for a big part of the game -- we saw just as much of it in Fury Road (in the game you will actually go there, though, I just haven't yet). So it clearly puts this in the proximity of the places and people of Fury Road, but it's still separate. The game looks really good most of the time (except through the binoculars) and occasionally sounds great. There are cool details everywhere, like a letter E from a neon sign hanging from a ceiling, used as an interior light. So far there isn't a lot of the repetition I read mentioned in reviews and truly the comments about the world being too empty are baffling me. My ideal Mad Max would be way emptier than this. Actually the frequency of traffic in the world is 1) annoying, because some of the armored cars are hard to deal with, and they often appear in a trio 2) somewhat ruins the post-apocalypticness of the world, because it appears to be as populated as the modern (tropical island) world in a game like Far Cry 3. If they had the guts to actually make it less populated, maybe it would have been a lot better (and shorter) game. Some reviews complain about the lack of challenge in the combat as well. I don't know, it's kind of enough for me. I have died perhaps about 10 times in total so far, and I prefer it this way because dying often could make you restart from quite a far. A related complaint was that the increase of challenge is mostly from increasing number of enemies. True, but there is variety as well -- I can count at least 10 types of enemies. And even the Batman games, which are lauded for doing combat great and which started this type of combat, I think it was rather the same -- the number of enemies was always escalating. Same in Shadow of Mordor. That said, I would prefer to see fewer enemies, as some camps have a truly ridiculous number of them. So yeah, it's not the ideal Fury Road or even Mad Max game one could hope for, but at the moment it is working quite well for me. I just spent an entire day playing it and Steam tells me I've been playing for 19 hours already. [edit] Besides Far Cry 3, the game kind of gives me vibes of Dead Island and I Am Alive, both of which I liked a lot.

I can totally drink rum and coke an entire night, but I prefer Coke Zero. Some rums also work with Dr. Pepper (Plantation White). With normal coke that would be insane amounts of sugar. I don't currently drink much, but rum is pretty much the only strong liquor that I can stand. Well, vodka shots as well occasionally, if necessary.

I've played a bit more now and I can see myself getting used to it. It's definitely not the Mad Max we need, maybe it's the one we deserve for buying all that Assassin's Creed? Yeah, it's definitely full of those elements, although they don't fill up the hud in this game. I don't even think the Assassin's Creed / Far Cry 3 way is a bad way to structure an open world, but it's a bit obvious in this one when looking at the map. It doesn't even feel that off. I don't know, I heard some say that the world is too little populated, you're just driving too much. I think it's too over-populated with stuff to find, convoys etc. From an interpretation of Mad Max I would expect something that stands more on it's own than follows a set path established by genres. Max occasionally feels more like a Guybrush Threepwood in the "I wanna be a pirate!" sense, rather than someone who is already knowledgeable about the wasteland. But then, I guess he is in a new corner of it he hasn't seen before. The game looks good, sounds good, the visuals are right what I would expect most of the time (map excluded). My sound problems disappeared after reinstall, but one review also mentioned similar problems so they might come back. Max speaks more than I expected. Chumbucket is weird, a cross between gollum, the grave robber from Red Dead Redemption, and someone else I can't recall. I kind of like him as a character, but not the way Max often responds to him. Doesn't feel like the Max from the movies. In general, there's a lack of characterisation in everything. Visually most things look about right, but the overall game-tone is more "Far Cry 3 (clone) in the waste" than Max "Mad Max" Rockatansky. Damn, I almost want to delete this post, I know the above isn't very coherent. Anyway, it isn't a bad game, but probably wait for the Winter sale.

First impressions: it captures the feel of Mad Max in audio and video, being a sort of a mixture of the aesthetics of Mad Max 2, 3 and Fury Road. That's good, but the game is buggy and somewhat crappy. The controls feel weird -- I guess they feel somewhat like Just Cause, in where I also wasn't fond of them. It just feels like they took controls made for the flighty action of Just Cause, whereas Mad Max requires more down-to-earth and heavier controls. The Batmany combat actually works well, though. Car controls are totally fucked. They are so far from what I would expect from a Mad Max game that it makes me want to give up and wait if perhaps people could fix them with a mod. Even id's Rage was better than this. I was kind of hoping the car would handle something like Bugbear's games (FlatOut, Wreckfest), which have awesome physicality to them, but this is so far from physically correct that I just want to write this off. I mean, it's not totally unplayable, just doesn't fit the legacy of Mad Max. Turning is really weird and unrealistic, there's no way to drift. It's too quick so when you need precision you are likely to just overshoot and compensate all the time. Fucked. But just maybe I can forgive this bit and try to enjoy the game anyway. The rest of it seems to be at least somewhat promising. I also have problems with sounds disappearing, some dialogue options seem to be triggered and then untriggered immediately, only showing up as split-second subtitles. Sometimes subtitles disappear along with the sound, leaving only mouth movement. Some sounds will play long past their natural life. etc. I accidentally cut the power while the game was decrypting so I think I'll redownload just to be sure it isn't caused by that.

I don't really see why it's bad that one type beer, even the one I don't like most, is ubiquitous? I mean most supermarket shelves are still full of piss poor mass market beers aren't they? I still manage to find something there usually. And in specialty shops/bars there should still be something for everyone. And at least here it's definitely not all about IPA (yet?)

I currently have a phase of "the bigger IBU the better". I mostly like IPAs and other pale ales, Amber ales. Can't stand lagers now, and some stouts I like a lot. I had a lambic phase before this.

Might be the wrong thread to keep talking about fans, but it's been here two days now and I'm pretty happy with it. I don't hear it at all, and it functions exactly like I imagined, forcing cool air to move through the corner of the living room where no air ever went before, and generally keeping the whole room cooler. I wish I had gotten it just a week earlier though, as the weather outside also cooled down just days before I got the fan installed and I didn't get to see how well it functions on the really hot days. Also I'm happy with the motion sensor as it means I don't have to mess with turning it on and off at all. I turned the timer to 15 minutes and the fan is now working all the time when I'm in the living room, and shuts down 15 minutes after I leave. I still keep the remote close to turn it up/down occasionally though, but maybe it will even learn to do that with the learning smart mode...

I guess I'm the only one here who is mildly excited about playing this tomorrow?

Wow I thought it was a real trailer until the music continued playing past the video. Was just a bit surprised at not seeing anything new and not hearing any dialogue.

I don't know that much about this stuff, but it seemed that Haiku fans are the most efficient. But since they can cost several times the price of other fans (perhaps especially in countries such as mine, where only one seller sells them) I'm not sure the efficiency itself is an argument. But for me it seemed like almost everything about this fan is good or better than others, not least that it looks cool where as most fans I wouldn't want to put in my living room for the looks. Again, I may not have the best clue about this, and I don't/can't have an air conditioner, but as far as I understood so far, the purpose of the fan is not so much to actually cool the room down, but to make it feel more cool than it is (this is what it seems to be doing for me at the moment, although I haven't checked yet if there's any temperature change). So in that sense the senseme makes sense -- if it doesn't really cool the room down it shouldn't be running when I'm not there. I set it to stop 5 minutes after sensing motion and now as I'm sitting in my couch I find that I have to make some random movement occasionally to make it not stop. It defaulted to 10 minutes, maybe should have left it there. Also my logic was that if I'm already getting a very expensive fan, might as well pay a little extra and get the smart version. I expect in the winter it makes more sense to have it running on low constantly to bring the warm air back down.

Yeah, I was thinking that. It does make some rhythmic noise on higher speeds, but that may also just be the noise from air movement, because it can generate quite a lot of movement. There seems to be some slight vibration, but it's mounted on a ball mount so it may be natural that it moves slightly. My projector is currently making way more noise than the fan so it's hard to even hear the fan noise.

Well, I didn't screw up too bad as it seems to be working. Not sure how to tell if it's still properly balanced, though.

I ordered a stupidly expensive but awesome Haiku ceiling fan. Stupidly I decided to do part of the assembly while drunk. Dropped a washer into the DC motor. Got it out but I had to unscrew some parts I shouldn't have. Now I fear that the fan might end up unbalanced. Will see in the morning.

Also I saw Taika Waititi's "Boy" recently and loved that. I know it's already been recommended here, so I'll just second it. Even liked it more than "What We Do in the Shadows" and it's a real step up from "Eagle vs Shark", which I also liked, though.

Watched Mad Max Fury Road in black and white (by turning saturation down). I think Miller may be right that this is actually the best way to view it. Although I loved the original comic-book colors, black and white made things seem more realistic by removing the exaggeration. It was harder to keep track of things in some scenes (although I think it could have been the fault of the rip, as it seemed jittery in a few places, especially the undercranked scenes), but on the other hand it brought out new details that were less noticeable the color version. I wonder if it will ever be possible to see a realistically (or traditional-post-apocalyptically) colored version of this film. I've now seen the movie 4 times and I expect by the end of the year this number will be at least double.

Just watched White God as it's now available on torrent (and probably paid digital channels too). Biggest disappointment of late, even as I was expecting to be a bit disappointed. I don't know, these things can be very subjective, but I didn't find the human acting in this movie to be any good, the camerawork was sloppy, as was the plot with characters who seemed totally unmotivated, just robots following their stereotypes. Only near the end did the characters start to become more-dimensional, but it was too late. There were a few nice shots, but sometimes the dog herds seemed like sloppy CGI. Overall I was just bored and I also thought the music didn't always fit the scenes. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't work for me at all. The canine acting was great, though and I want to see some making-of material. [EDIT]Ok, wow, what do I know -- apparently the film was made without CGI. I was sure they couldn't have actually filmed such a huge herd of dogs, but I guess they did then. I guess I thought it looked fake because I couldn't believe it was real.

I want to see it too! Silly fun.

Just watched A Girl Who Walks Home Alone At Night again, on Blu-Ray I started buying Blu-Rays recently and this is my favourite so far. It includes well-done interviews and making-of, about 50 minutes I think, and some awesome deleted scenes, which I can understand why they were deleted, but they are good and almost combine into another short film. One small gripe I have is that the menu interactivity is bonkers, using the same color for both inactive and active menu items in a few cases (but it only really matters for stereo/5.1 selection screen). Inside the Blu-Ray case is a comic with 2 stories related to the main character, which is a nice touch. I liked the movie itself even more the second time, the only thing I didn't like that much being some music choices. After Mad Max Fury Road, I think this might actually be my favourite movie from the last two or three years.

I'm going to get it for sure. Could it be possible that I saw this even before that the first 2011 teaser on YouTube? I've been remembering a teaser with that yurt for years, but didn't remember which game it was for. Now I know.

I don't remember if I already mentioned this, but one thing is driving me nuts on my work computer: the search just isn't working as fast as it should. It takes about 5 seconds for a search for "Correo" to find the mail app. It also keeps saying that its preparing the search (indexing probably) or something like that. Just one time it worked fast, like it does on my own computer, but then it went back to "preparing the search". It shouldn't be about the language settings as both computers are Spanish w/ region set to Estonia. Although they have different locales for non-unicode apps and the default input language doesn't seem to stick to Estonian in my work computer. Both have Cortana switched off (not allowed for my region), and also the search history setting is turned off.

2014

I watched The Signal but didn't like it that much. Some good ideas but boring implementation. Still, that trailer looks interesting. Maybe trying to be Blade Runner will do them good, but I have reservations for now.

That -1/12th thing smells like BS, but then I don't know if such averaging of infinite series is really used in physics. I would think its not used in pure math at least? Also what if you don't shift the second S in 2S?