9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

When bleeding edge was the best place to be. I could spend hours and hours troubleshooting a silly issue from my 1-week-old-from-worldwide-release super high powered ass kicking video card and it’s seemingly random crashes from the 1-month-old-yadda-yadda-yadda motherboard.

I enjoy shit like that.

No more.

I spent probably 2 hours today trying to get my SLI setup to stop crashing during a certain event. After new drivers, checking the net, and updating everything I could think of that may be related, I ended up turning off the SLI feature altogether just to get the damn event to pass at least once.

I get passed the event, and turn everything back on (ie back to normal) and wouldn’t you know it… it happened again.

I wish I could just sit here and enjoy the game. But instead, I am spending my time trying to figure out why it keeps crashing with SLI enabled. My guess is it is actually the game… because this is the only game I have ever had a problem with with this rig.

I am glad the bleeding edge is on ahead of me now. I couldn’t deal with this crap on a regular basis. It is frustrating enough to fix crap at work, much less fix crap at work and then come home, only to fix more crap.

It is like that old joke about the Gynecologist coming home to his wife… “If I see one more… If I see one more, I might just snap.”

Started poking about in Valve’s Portal last night.

Way too cool.

Having a gun that can create a portal in virtual space/time makes for an immersive environment. I can’t imagine the kind of multiplayer chaos a portal “gun” could create.

Create booby traps, launch a portal at your enemy, have another player shooting a gun to cause a diversion. And WHAMMY, trapped n00b in a box.

Be an interesting iteration of “cops and robbers”. Or even class-based gaming like Team Fortress 2. Be interesting to see capture the flag with a portal system. Especially if you could booby trap enemy portals.

The gameplay options are endless.

I inadvertently created a new game on Friday when I tossed a patch cable across the office and hit our office cart dead on. My mind sparked and the proverbial light come on well above my balding scalp.

Get this: imagine Horseshoes in the office with looped network cable. Yet another dork game from yours kindly.

Take a couple looped 10 – 14 foot patch cables, a box with a ruler pointing straight, mark a toe line and your set. Scoring is a point on the box, 5 for a ringer, play to ten. If you knock another players loop off the box, the point still counts. Easy peasy.

Since network patch cords are under the Cat5/Cat6 moniker, then it obviously should be called Catshoes.

An entertaining diversion for a Friday afternoon. Not as entertaining as trap shooting with a nerf gun and old CDs, but still pretty fun.

For the first time in my life, I have made a single player game last 6 weeks. 6 weeks! Way better than the typical weekend it used to take. Life is full of other (better) things nowadays. The gamer’s regret isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be.

Overall, Bioshock was a good game. I liked the decision making aspect of the combat system – using weapons vs using powers on different types of baddies. The storyline was entertaining too. Although I wish there was more free will and choice built into it.

The game was touted has having deep morale decisions driving gameplay. As I count it, there was only 1 decision at the very beginning of the game. One. Not the “deep” morale discussion everyone was touting before the game release.

To kill or not to kill, is the question. I chose not to kill, and I got the “happy” ending. I suspect the “not-so-happy” ending is on youtube somewhere. I suppose I will go watch it as I get time.

The ending felt a little abrupt. Like the fourth act was cut a tad short.

I understand it takes a lot of money to make a game, and it takes a lot of money to make a good game longer without making it tedious or boring, but still… just a bit short.

I would have liked a world to backtrack through after the main conclusion. But since I pretty much aced it through the first time, I didn’t need to go look for anything that I may have missed. I would have liked to go back through the world of Rapture and bust a few more heads for some side quests or right-the-wrongs of the world.

Oh well. I spent the remainder of my time playing Team Fortress Beta. That is still very enjoyable.