Dirk's Blog Thing

I signed up for the Jagged Alliance Online (JAO) Beta a few days ago, and played a few missions. It's one of them browser-based freemium games (as it turns out "freemium" is not a word I made up while half asleep last night - it's a real thing.)
Quite naturally you start comparing it to both the just released Jagged Alliance - Back in Action (JABIA) and the classic fan-favourite Jagged Alliance 2 (JA2), released in 1999.
JABIA, in short, would've been considered a decent game if it hadn't been advertised as a modern remake of JA2. As it is, too much from the original is missing, resulting in only average reviews.
Now, JAO actually does a few things right that JABIA did wrong: Most notably, you have your own merc, though the creation process is a lot less funny than it was in JA2. They've also kept a lot of the speech for the other mercs, so you actually recognise them.
Other than that though, JAO is very limiting in what you can do. Maps are small, not a lot of tactical options. It's permanently turn-based which I guess the creators deemed neccessary for multiplayer, but in single player it's annoying. Interaction between mercs isn't possible it seems, interaction with the environment is limited to shooting barrels to make them explode. And the designers are pretty blunt about their use.
Of course, the worst thing about JAO is that it keeps trying to get you to spend real money on in-game currency.

Wanna do something cool? Sure no prob. Enter your credit card details here please ...

So, which one am I going to play? I recommend going here and installing that over the original JA2 which still is by far the best of the three options, even after 13 years.

Machinae Supremacy have released a video of their recent live show today (in case you're wondering: yes, they're releasing through TPB. I'm surprised their label allowed it.).

When I first started listening to them in ... 2004 I think it was (last.fm's timeline tool doesn't go that far back) I enjoyed their music a lot. It was a fun mix of happy metal and nostalgia inducing SID sounds that reminded me of all my favourite computer games I played as a kid (Gianna Sisters, Bubble Bobble etc).
Since then they've released several albums, evolving their music more and more away from those SID sounds, and more towards main stream metal.
And now I'm watching that show of theirs from earlier this year, and nostalgia strikes me again. This time the music doesn't remind me of those games I played as a child, but of the joy I felt when I used to listen to it several years ago.
What makes me a little sad is that they don't have a keyboarder on stage. It's two guitars, bass, and drums. Those nostalgia sounds, in those cases that they play these older songs at all, come from a tape. They're playback. Which to me suggests that "pure metal" is the direction they've decided to take, and to stick with.

Oh well. On a positive note, they're doing several of my all time favourites on that show: Gianna Sisters, Player One, Attack Music, Winterstorm. And though the SID stuff is coming from tape, at least you can hear it loud and clear. The mixing is just right.

[edit] Oh right, not a single JNG song, wtf?!

After several attempts and re-setting the difficulty to easy I finally managed to defeat the first boss in Deus Ex.

And that's the first serious flaw (IMO) I found in the game: Even though the game let's you sneak around, hack terminals and turrets, and bluff your way past opponents, every now and then you're locked in a small room with an enemy and just have to shoot him lots. And according to several message boards that doesn't change for the other bosses either, so no matter how sneaky you want to be, you better carry a big gun and plenty of ammo at all times.

The developers have actually commented on this criticism and pointed out that when trying to tell a compelling story you just can't avoid certain plot items. You have to fight that big guy, you have to win, you have to kill him. Otherwise the story breaks.

All true I'm sure, but! Does anyone remember that one boss fight in the first Deus Ex? The one where, instead of shooting the bad guy, you could discuss the existence of kill switches and point out to him that you'd found his? You could then have him blow up by muttering two words.
I didn't expect the exact same thing here, but they should've included some sort of concession for the sneaky/talky/hacky player.

Some quick notes on Neverwinder Nights 2:

I've been playing for a few hours, and I'm still not quite convinced of it.

Some of the quests are buggy. I guess this sort of thing just happens with RPGs, but one of the earliest quests? Where you're being told that one of you companions has died? And she's standing a few meters away, clearly not dead?

The graphics glitches that annoyed me are gone now. I think I updated my graphics drivers to accomplish that.

Pathfinding sucks pretty bad. Characters get stuck way too often.

I have yet to master my companions' behaviour. They never seem to do what I want them to do. That includes doing nothing, which I thought the "AI off" button was for. They still do follow me around though. Well, sometimes. Some of them. I don't see any consistency in their behaviour though.

The camera is pretty aweful too. Things that are in the way should be transparent. Sometimes they are; sometimes they aren't and block your view. Also obstacles occasionally force the camera closer to the character it's focussing on. Annoying. And don't even get me started on the exploration vs. tactical view. I realise both views have their advantage, but switching between them should not disorient you in the way it does. There's really two things that would be acceptable for the camera: either it should change position as little as possible when changing modes, or it should pan from the original position to the new one.
Right now it's as if you had two independent cams in entirely different positions, facing different directions, having different angles, and being a different distance from the object (i.e. currently selected character). And on changing modes you'd switch one off and the other on.


There was another topic I wanted to post on ... But that was several days ago, Livejournal was down, and I never made a note on what it was ...

Turns out the first chamber in chapter 8 of Portal 2 is not the first *test* chamber in chapter 8.

The achievement says "Refuse to solve the first test in chapter 8". I just spent an hour refusing to do the first chamber, because the AI said I've got an hour to solve it.

Yeah, an hour later, nothing happens, because this wasn't the *test* chamber. That's the next one, and all you've got to do is not solve it within a minute or two.

Because I've been playing Portal 2 these past few days.

Verdict, lots of fun. Well-made sequel.

I had to peek at a walkthrough for one puzzle. Solution was easy actually, I guess I hadn't quite got into it. Other than that, all the other ones were between "easy" and "just right", with the game never getting frustratingly difficult.
The only two things that did irk me just a little were the sheer size of some of the levels, it wasn't always clear where you were supposed to go next. Also some "puzzles" involved finding the one smallish spot to place a portal. The combination of these two issues resulted in some mild annoyance.

Loved the characters btw. All of them.

More DA2 stuff, sorry ...
Encountered Huon, he's sort of a tough opponent. First attempt everyone but Aveline died, and she was almost out of hit points too. Then the game crashed (probably due to me watching TV at the same time, on the other screen). So I had to redo Huon, this time I ran off. Huon was slow to follow, while the shades he'd summoned were quicker. So I stopped, did them first, then concentrated on Huon last. Result, nobody died.
Reminds me a little of The Order of the Stick's recurring tactical retreat theme (aka "running away").

Btw, I managed to kill the high dragon during the Mine Massacre quest this time around. Was still tough, but I managed on normal difficulty. Dunno if this is me getting a better hang of the game, or the developers changing the difficulty for this quest with the latest patch.
[edit] Doesn't seem like the patch changed anything here, so it's my 1337ness apparently.

I'm not entirely sure why but my second playthrough of Dragon Age II is going a lot better than the first one did. Maybe it's because I could use the extra items from the start this time, or maybe it's because I'm actually editing and optimising tactics. Maybe I'm also upgrading the abilities better.
Anyway, I'm just done with the Deep Roads expedition, I'm playing as a mage, and my brother has just become a Templar (wtf Carver?!).

I also learned a few things I wasn't quite aware of during my first time playing:

• If a quest involves Qunari, it's probably a good idea to take Fenris.
• Same goes for anything involving killing mages. Better not take Anders though.
• If you're helping mages, take Anders, don't take Fenris.
• Isabela's friendship means not only a passive bonus for herself, but for your character as well (I didn't use Isabela much during the first playthrough because my own character was a dual weapon wielding rogue. Don't need two of those).
• If it's legal, take Aveline, if it's not, take Isabela.
• Always take Varric (I mean seriously, is it even possible to gain rivalry with him?)

Favourite characters: Varric, Sandal ("How did you do that?" - "Enchantment." - "And how did you do *that*?!" - "Not enchantment" *hands you frost weapon*). Tehehe!