I've stared into Oblivion...

...and was amazed.


Oblivion, as I have discovered, is basically Hell. It's a different dimension, and the only way to get there is through portals. I know this because the bad guys opened up a HUGE one in the middle of a city I was trying to get to. The only way to close the portal? Oh yeah, you guessed it.........jumping INTO it and closing it from the other side. Nice. Oblivion is not inhabited by the Care Bears, let me tell you -- there were some freaking COOL creatures in there. And they carried even COOLER loot for me to pillage.

There's my character thus far. Like the cool armor? Yeah, it disintegrated. =( Stupid limited time conjured armor.




And this has to be the coolest sword EVER.

All in all, the game is coming along nicely. I'm thoroughly addicted -- all day long at work, I just kept telling myself "Only 3 more hours until Oblivion.......". I know a game is good when I start doing that. (Or it might just be that work is making me nuttier than a snickers, resulting in me needing to slaughter fantastical monsters. Either works.)

Oblivious because of Oblivion

I had heard about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion way back in November, and how everyone was predicting it would set a new standard for action role-playing games. At the time, I didn't think very much of it, and went about my merry way playing F.E.A.R. and the expansion pack to Doom 3.

On Monday, I got my issue of PC Gamer, and they had a 4-page review of the game. By this point, I had forgotten all about it, and didn't even know it had been released. I read the review, and looked at the screenshots, and realized that I needed to be playing this game immediately.

The norm for RPG games is that the graphics are always a little bit inferior to first-person shooter games, because in an RPG you need to detail EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the world, because your character needs to be able to pick up EVERYTHING. That's not necessarily true in a shooter, since all you really need to pick up is ammo and healthpacks, with occasional other items. In an RPG, you can pick up ANYTHING in the world, whether to use it or to just sell it for gold. Because of that, if an RPG had graphics like Half-Life 2, it would rape your computer.

As such, this game rapes your computer, because the graphics rival that of today's high-tech shooters. It's GORGEOUS.

Now, the game isn't just another pretty face either. The actual gameplay is top-notch -- I love delving down into dungeons and catacombs, because it's like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. There are booby traps everywhere, along with zombies and walking skeletons, all obstructing your path to the treasure. I haven't even completed my first main mission yet, because I keep getting distracted by all the side missions.

Another aspect of the game that I'm really enjoying is the sound effects. The sound my arrows make as they leave my bow remind me of how Legolas' arrows sounded in LOTR -- the snap followed by the cool whistle.

I've played the game for several hours already, and as I said, I haven't even completed the first main mission yet. DE-LOVELY. It took me an hour to walk to this one city, the world is HUGE.

Please pay your bill so we can send you a check...

What the hell is going on?

Okay, so before Christmas I switched my cell phone account all around. I used to be with AT&T, and they were, of course, bought out by Cingular. So, when I was ready to mess around with my account, I of course had to go full-Cingular now that AT&T Wireless really doesn't exist anymore. This basically meant I had to redo my whole plan, but that was fine with me. Cingular's rates are better anyway.

So I do this. And all is well. The only problem I had was that I kept getting this statement for my OLD account -- for the amount of $6.54. I ignored this for the first few months, because I figured they would just add the amount onto the bill of my NEW account, since that would make sense. (I don't know why I thought they would do what makes sense. Silly me.)

Anyway, the charge wouldn't go away, and I kept getting a bill for it. So, last month I just paid the damn thing, since I was tired of seeing it.

Then, today, I got a check in the mail for $6.54 for a credit balance on my old account.

*sigh*

Dungeon Doom

I bow before the genius of the person or persons who made this modification for Doom 3. They turned Doom 3 into an RPG. Oh...yes!

So you have the prettiest looking graphics engine rendering an RPG world. Brilliant! You start out in this city, with NOTHING of course, since that's how all RPG's start. You go outside and kill some creatures, which gives you experience, points, and gold. You then go back to the city, put your experience points on things like dexterity, intelligence, and strength. Then, you spend your gold on ammo, additional weapons, and yes, even spells and potions!

I was out in the wilderness, and suddenly some text flashed across my screen that said, "Night breaks." Then, I was plunged into darkness. I couldn't see ANYTHING. So there I was, out in the wilderness, very far from the city, and I can't even see the weapon I'm holding. And then, I can hear the growls of creatures coming at me. Woo!

So I went into my inventory, activated a torch, and made my way back to the safety of the city as fast as I could.

I developed one cool power already, where I can catch incoming projectiles and launched them back at the enemy....using my bare hands. Very cool.

Blarney!

St. Pattys Day, and I'm well into my fifth pint at the moment. It's a very good thing.

While my heritage is not a majority Irish, I do have some Irish in me somewhere along the line. Irish and German, actually. What a fucking combination that is. I'm surprised my body isn't constantly arguing with itself.

In honor of St. Patty's Day, I'm drinking like I'm Irish. What does this mean, you ask? Well, a lot of Irish-Americans get pissed off because when the fools that aren't Irish celebrate St. Patty's Day, they go to a bar and consume enough alcohol to stun an alcohol-immune sumo wrestler, and end up drunk 14 minutes after they sit down. That's not how it's done. Irish people take their time, and while they do end up drunk by the time the night is over, their barstool isn't still cold when it happens. Remember kids -- it's Erin Go Bragh, not Erin Go Barf.

Cheers!

Overlay and Cloning

No, I'm not talking about the controversial scientific studies involving replicating DNA. This is for all you peeps out there that have issues playing video files on your TV when cloning your PC's display to both your monitor and your television. (Or even another monitor, if you so hold the desire to do so.)

If you notice, when you play a video file on your PC (whether it be avi, mp4, mkv, ogm, or whatever), the video will play just fine on your monitor, but the cloned display will only show a black screen in the video player window. This is because of something called "overlay".

Solution #1: If your media player has an option to disable overlay, use it and your problems are over. Windows Media Player has it. MPC and Zoomplayer do not. This is the only way to get the video to display on BOTH display devices simultaneously.

Solution #2: Chances are, you don't need the video to display on BOTH devices. So whichever on you DO want the video, just ensure that one is the TOP display device in your clone settings, and it will be the one that displays the video. (You can have either or on top. That's what she said.)

Thus endeth the lesson. Now go! Display!