Snowulf - Entertainment

I hate modern TV schedules

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Let's take a quick look back at TV in the mid 90s. When a show started for the season, you were safe in assuming that the show would be 24 to 26 episodes in length and that it would be on essentially contiguously. Sure, nothing was on TV during the week of Thanksgiving or Christmas, but who cares? It was the holidays, specials were on and generally you were busy with other things. If a show came on in September, it was on at the same time every single week until it went off the air in February or March. Times were good...

Nowadays, modern TV scheduling is stupid, plain and simple. I don't particularly mind the "summer" shows which tend to be half seasons (roughly 13 episodes) though most of those that I watch are, I feel, better than the regular TV seasons and should be on full length. The scheduling though, who thought of this bull? A show can be on for 2 weeks, off for 3, back on for a week, off for another 2. Even the half season shows aren't immune to this. The TV executives blame the fall of TV viewership on DVRs (like TiVo), streaming (Hulu) or illegal downloads (Torrents). Sure, those might help, but the reality is that people TiVo their shows because THEY CAN'T FIND THEM.

Let's look at a few examples: Chuck Season 3 took a 2 week break in February. The start of Human Target was just all over the place. FlashForward started at the end of September and ran to November, then took a few week break to come back for ONE more episode. It is supposed to FINALLY come back on the air next week. A 3 month break? V (2009) ran 4 episodes in November and won't be back till the end of March. Castle (Season 2) started in September and ran until the beginning of December (didn't skip Thanksgiving) but then took a month off for the "Holidays". It returned only to take another 3 weeks off in February/March.

I could keep going, but you get the point. If TV execs want to save TV from being completely destroyed by the internet, give us a damn schedule we can follow.

Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0800

As you may well know (perhaps from our earlier entry), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 came out last week. I've devoted most of my game playing time since then to playing the game and thought it was about time to do a review. Now some of this review of Bad Company 2 (BC2) will be a comparison to how it stands up against Modern Warfare 2 (MW2). It isn't that I believe the games are in anyway the exact same kettle of fish, but MW2 is the undeniable "big shooter" of the moment, so it is that which all other new shooters will be compared against (until something undeniably better comes out).

Let me give you the ultra short version: It is definitely an improvement over Bad Company 1. My major complaints for BC1 single player were addressed in BC2. The single player campaign of BC2 isn't long, but it is enjoyable and longer than MW2 was. The online multiplayer is also quite enjoyable and mostly major bug free (so far that I've seen). BC2's multiplayer is much different than MW2 and personally I prefer BC2. If you enjoy shooters in general and haven't bought BC2, you're missing out.

Now we get on to the long version of the review. First I'm going to cover the single player game and then I'll get into the online play.
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Why we bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Both John and myself have gone ahead and pre-ordered Battlefield: Bad Company 2 even though we originally had no intention of doing so. I've been seeing advertisements for the game for the last month and said "meh" to it. I had enough games to play, not enough free time, and Modern Warfare 2 has been satisfying my multiplayer needs (not that I normally multiplayer much). This was up until we actually got around to playing the demo the last week before it was shut down.

So what changed? Well first off in my research on BF:BC2, I saw a video which was showing off PC dedicated servers and game play, but more importantly their test server was named "Server of DOOM and cake". This is a server name I fully approve of. I mean, who doesn't love doom and cake? I know I do. Beyond devs with a good sense of humor, there was a demo that was enjoyable to play.

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Review: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

nospam@example.com (John) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

I went into this film knowing nothing more than it was based on a book and by the title had some affiliation with Greek Mythology, a topic on which I did quite a bit of reading in my youth (and yes that means I also watched Hercules and Xena - minor sidenote Lucy Lawless is doing an amazing job in Spartacus).

This will be rife with spoilers, so if you don't want to know, don't read.

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Thank you Apple for cleaning up the AppStore

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

# of Apps removed from App Store by AppShopper.com

In case you haven't heard, Apple recently decided to ban most "sexy" applications from the iTunes app store, nearly 6,000 in total. In brief, they removed anything that had any implied sexuality up to anything showing skin at all. CNN Money put forth the theory that they are doing this because of the upcoming iPad release (ah, the biggest flop we all know and love).
So I titled my post "Thank You Apple", and you might be wondering: why? Because this is fantastic news. The more stupid stuff Apple pulls like this, the more disillusioned developers will become. The more people that become publicly jaded by Apple's bible thumping antics, the less likely they will want to develop for it and the quicker Apple will die a slow, painful death.

No Bikini's, except if you're name is "Sports Illustrated"

Let's look at it realistically. Here are nearly 6,000 applications which were previously allowed, that no longer are, through no fault of the developers of these applications. Even if the application was nothing but gratuitous tits and ass, it cost money to make. Someone had to put in the time writing the code and compiling the application. Someone had to take or license the media used in these applications. Someone had to take the time to go through the app submission and approval process. It may not have been a lot of time to program; it may have been a lot of money to license the images, but it did cost actual time and money. Money these developers can no longer recoup, just because Apple woke up one morning and decided that's the way it is. Hell, even if you're marketing is a bit risque (and by risque I mean risque as used by the Islamic militants, or maybe the puritanical Amish) like in the case of Wobble, you get delisted.

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Mass Effect 2 on first playthrough - Part 2

nospam@example.com (John) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently beat Mass Effect 2. Today I wanted to talk about a few things, what I liked/disliked, my end game team, guns, and lastly what the "bonus" was for beating Mass Effect Galaxy (the iPod Touch/iPhone game).

Liked:

The improved combat system
The upgrade system - no more pausing mid-fight to adjust ammo types as necessary, or installing an upgrade for one weapon and moving your upgrade into another, etc, etc
The planet scanning instead of taking the Mako down to run around the planet
The heavy weapons
Three different versions of Barrier: Fortification (for more Armor), Geth Shield (for more Shield), and Barrier (for more... biotic Barrier).
No achievement/bonus/incentive for having one particular squadmate(s) for most of the game. This encouraged me to try out everyone.

Disliked:

New weapons weren't always better than the old ones. Specifically, I went from the semi-automatic sniper rifle to a bolt action (that looked like an M107). It did more damage, but the constant reload was annoying. More on this below.
Only being able to use one "power" at a time. In the previous game, I enjoyed being a biotic because I could fire off multiple abilities at a time.
This one comes from Jon: no measure of what your squad is composed of; in the previous game, you had 3 bars letting you know how much Tech, Combat, and Biotic prowess your chosen squad had. This goes inline with your squadmates not really having classes in this game (thought it was fairly obvious what they were in most cases).

End Game Team:
When you begin your assault on the collector ship you need to pick a Tech Specialist and a leader for the second team (Fire Team).
I used Tali as my Tech Specialist (though I've heard Legion works as well).
Miranda as my Fire Team Leader (heard that Jacob or Garrus also work).
For the next section you need a Biotic to shield you, a Diversion team leader, and an escort for the survivors.
I used Samara as my biotic (I've heard Jack works as well).
Miranda once more headed up my second team.
I used Jacob to get everyone back to the boat.

Since everyone in my party was loyal, I suffered no deaths.

Guns, guns, guns! Someone over on the bioware forums had this to say about the effects of guns on resistances/armor/shields/barriers: Mass Effect 2 Gameplay Data. Useful bit (of course I didn't find it till AFTER I finished playing). Basically, if an ammo/gun type says it is good at something it does at least full damage to that (usually 1.5x damage though).
Now, far and away this is the most useful bit I have found, a Weapon Chart by Arthelinus which shows weapon stats for... EVERY weapon in the game, including the guns that came in other editions (Collector's and Digital Deluxe). It also points out the gun that is only available if you are playing on Hardcore or Insane difficulty.

Last, but not least... Did you play and beat Mass Effect Galaxy? Wondering what the bonus is? I finally found the answer via a post on the IGN Forums:

Not too far from the entrance to Afterlife in Omega, you bump into a Salarian named Ish who asks for some help finding a pair of datapads. If you have Jacob and/or Miranda with you, you get some dialogue that references their dealings with Ish in Mass Effect Galaxy.

I didn't realize this was the "reward" before because I never had Jacob or Miranda with me while completing his mission.

That's right, the bonus is some random conversation about an NPC. Congratulations.
So yeah, it happens toward the beginning of the game, after you have gotten Archangel and/or Mordin, you see him outside Afterlife and he asks you to find him some datapads. If you have both Miranda and Jacob they will talk about it. Seems pretty darn lame to me, but such is life.

Mass Effect 2 on first playthrough - Part 1

nospam@example.com (John) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Beat Mass Effect 2 recently and managed to get all but 3 achievements: Insanity - Beat the game on Insanity difficulty; Overload Specialist - Use Overload to destroy a shield 25 times (only did this 22 times); Warp Specialist - Use Warp to destroy a Barrier 25 times (only did this a few times). I probably could have gotten Overload and Warp, but didn't realize that you actually had to finish off the Shield/Barrier with Overload/Warp in order for it to count. That and not many enemies had Barrier.

I ended up putting in just over 40 hours in my first playthrough.

At the end it tells you that you can keep playing and will now have the option to use this character for your next playthrough (basically New Game +). I had already done well... everything so I just ran around listened to the conversations and then decided to start a new game to see what carries over.

What carries over:

Level/Experience
Guns - both Heavy and Regular
Skills - Your skills look exactly the same as how you left them on the save before you imported, minus your bonus skill (Tip: Use Retrain Powers before you save and import, that way you can reallocate everything when you start).
Armor - All the armor pieces and sets you have are still there
Bonus Skills - Each of the squadmates that were loyal to you had a bonus skill that you could use, you get to pick which you want when start a new game

What doesn't carry over:

Paragon/Renegade Points - This was the biggest disappointment to me
Upgrades - Anything you researched will need to be researched again
Money/Resources - I finished the game with over 50k Element Zero, 300k Iridium, 250k Platinum and Palladium, and 44k Credits - all gone. However, you do start with 50k of each mineral and 200k credits.
Squadmates/Loyalties - Not surprising that you don't get your buddies as getting them was a large part of the game, or that they aren't still loyal

Since I beat the game at Level 30 (which is the level cap), I don't know if I'll do another playthrough as that character. Yeah, I still need to beat the game on Insane mode and having a fully leveled character will help with that, but I'd rather try out a different character class. I was an Infiltrator and rarely used my Class Ability (Cloak), though the time slowdown when zooming in with the Sniper Rifle was great. I'm thinking of being a Sentinel next, that way I have both Overload and Warp on my character.

Any readers played/playing/beaten Mass Effect 2? What class did you choose and did you like it?

Tomorrow's post will contain some more thoughts on Mass Effect 2, specifically, the composition of my End Game Team and how I kept everyone alive!

Bafflingly stupid programming & error reporting

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Last night I was playing Star Trek Online for the first time in a few days. I played a good couple of hours before the game took a dump on me. After they got over the initial hurdles of the launch, the game has been relatively smooth to play so I've been happy. Plus the problem occurred during a load from one zone to another after a quest was completed, so I didn't "lose" anything. I got a message saying that I was "Disconnected From Server", but it doesn't give me any options to do anything about it (like quit, or reconnect). Being the good little QA minion that I am, I like to report these type of issues to the developers so they can fix them. I knew there was a tool that came with STO for this exact purpose. It wasn't widely published, that I know of, but I ran across the EXE once. So I dug into the folder, found and launched "crypticError.exe" and then it started to crumble.

The first screen is fairly simple, you select the running process name and explain what you did/what went wrong. Simple enough; I did so then it started collecting data. Great, after about 10 minutes I came back to find it still uploading a dump. I thought this was a little odd so I looked closer. The "dump" was over 1 GIGABYTE in size, which corresponded directly to the exact size in RAM the game was taking up. It was uploading the ENTIRE game's RAM state. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand how that can be useful... but this is a VIDEO GAME on a CONSUMER'S machine. You launch the thing and it is taking up over 300MB of RAM. Even on my go go speedy DSL line, it was going to take about an hour and a half to upload the entire dump. My DSL is also fast, and uncapped. What about those people who have 1.5meg lines, and have bandwidth limits.

Seeing things like this just blow my mind. It wasn't like I clicked some checkbox that said "Upload over 1GB of RAM state", because you don't have any checkboxes to hit. Plus, I hate to say this, but there is no damn reason for the error reporter to upload the entire RAM state. Why does one need to upload all the texture data? Report the file names loaded into memory and the checksums. If a checksum doesn't match, then that could have been the culprit.

It is safe to say that shitty design like this is why some error reporting tools never get used. I wouldn't be surprised if the devs were actually shocked the first time anyone let this tool run it's full course (provided anyone has been that dumb).

Wishlist for a "Kindle 3"

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

There have been a number of rumors recently as to what the Kindle 3 is going to be and when it is going to be out. This time last year there was a bunch of rumors about the "Kindle 3", most of which involved a larger screen. As it turns out, that was the Kindle DX, and that came out. As of late the rumor mill seems to have started up again with new talk of a Kindle 3 being released/announced at some point this month. The Kindle 2 was released in February of 2009, so if Amazon plays by the Apple rules and releases a new version around the same time each year, we're looking to have the Kindle 3 here shortly.

I was surfing about looking at Kindle 3 rumors, most of which were from last year (and for what turned out to be the DX). I have combined these along with some thinking of my own and put together what I'd like from the Kindle 3. I kept it to the "big" items, meaning I'm not bitching about the desire for a new browser, enhanced MP3 player or other software tweaks. Yes, I do desire all those "niceties", but they can be firmwared at anytime. If I'm gonna wish for something, I'll wish big(ish), and hope that it is still reasonable.

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Mass Effect 2 - The First Hour

nospam@example.com (John) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Mass Effect 2 came out yesterday.

Jon and I both preordered long ago and were quite happy to receive our release day deliveries from Amazon (Prime, FTW).

I have only played an hour or two thus far but here's what I think, and yes there will be spoilers.
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Lifetime game subscription - Is it worth it?

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Recently, I've been playing the Star Trek Online open beta. During this time they announced the availability of 12 month subscriptions and "lifetime subscriptions". I understand why they do this from a business perspective, after all developing an MMO costs a lot of money and if you can recoup $240 a person now instead of 18 months down the line, all the better. But what about from the player's point of view, is it worth it?

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Human Target: Pilot

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

I happened to tune into Hulu last night looking for some entertainment and their top scrolled landed on a a pilot for a new TV series titled "Human Target" (which is based on a comic, which I knew nothing about till I checked Wikipedia). I vaguely remember seeing a commercial for it that was interesting, so I gave it a shot.

The first thing I noticed is that the main character, a "Christopher Chance" looked very familiar. Turns out the actor, Mark Valley, was also on Fringe as Olivia's boyfriend/partner. Amusing how many bit part players become main players on their own shows these days. The second thing that caught my attention was during the client 'interview', before she was even shown on screen, was that sexy Cylon voice we all love... Tricia Helfer. I know she had some notches in her belt before Battlestar Galactica, but damn that really launched her. She's seems to be everywhere these days. She was in C&C3, Burn Notice, Chuck, Warehouse 13, Halo 3: ODST, Mass Effect 2 and StarCraft 2. Props to the casting people at 'Human Target', if you're gonna start with style, go big.

I found it of great amusement that they decided to use the "Monterey Line", a high speed rail line from San Fran to LA, as their backdrop for a majority of the first episode. Now the California High-Speed Rail project was approved by us voters to the tune of $10 billion, but they haven't even STARTED it let alone get anywhere close to it being finished. Plus if CalTrans is anyway involved with the project, the sun with grow cold and die before the rail line is done. I guess Human Target just wants to stay slightly ahead of current? Hey, they even properly inflated the cost of the project to standard post-CalTrans specs... $82 billion.

The show definitely has a sense of humor, and I enjoy that. Just enough to take the edge off of the serious overtones. I'm not sure how I feel about the show yet, it was good, not great. There wasn't nearly enough comedy to carry it on that. I felt that from an action perspective the show was a little bit too slow in a lot of portions. From a thriller perspective, there just wasn't enough... thrill. I'm more than willing to watch more, but I think the show needs to find its feet, and pick a style.
Lastly, to kick a show while it is down... the intro sequence leaves a lot to be desired. It is... forgettable.

P.S. Danny Glover, that is definitely going big!

Completed Army of Two: The 40th Day

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Last night I finished AoT:TFD for the first time. I know, it is shocking that a gamer like me would take almost a week to beat the game, but I've got a few good reasons. #1 I was only playing online with a friend when we both had the time. #2 STO took precedence. #3 It is kinda hard to go to another shooter after MW2.

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Review: StarCraft Ghost: Nova

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Before you start, No, this is not the video game. I read StarCraft Ghost: Nova the book. It is supposed to give you some back story on the character "Nova" who was to be the heroine of StarCraft: Ghost (the video game). The book release was supposed to coincide with the game, but alas the game never materialized. Fortunately for us, the book was still written so they still went ahead and published it (way back in 2006). I realize this review is a wee bit late, but I read it and enjoyed it and thought it was worth sharing.

So the first thing that I must say is that this is not the first video game series gone book that I've read. I've read and enjoyed all of the Halo books, when I started with Halo: Contact Harvest which I've previously blogged about. This was my first book in the StarCraft realm though, and it was most definitely enjoyable.

(No Plot Spoilers)
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MMO's in 2010

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

The waterfalls at Bastok("best" screen shot I could find)

I'm a big fan of MMOs in general, though for somewhat of an usual reason. See, as a general rule of thumb, I don't like people (Editor's note: indeed). That extends into video games doubly so because people tend to (if nothing else) act like idiots. I like playing with my friends, or if I can find them, the rare group of intelligent and skillful players. Of course, the problem with playing with your friends is that in many games, that isn't enough for a full party. Guild Wars fixed this fantastically with "henchmen", which is probably why we played it so much.

That all being said, the major reason I enjoy playing MMOs is to explore. I love them because there is just so much more to the games than regular single player editions. The content designers have so much more work to do, but tend to shine with small, but especially pleasing sights. My all time favorite sight was from the waterfall just south of (and on the way to) Bastok in FFXI. Ah, good times.

So on to the topic at hand, what MMOs are coming out that I think will be interesting, or worth playing this year:

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