Sono Quest II: High Resolution Mediocrity.

After attempting to play Deadlight and Psychonauts, only to be frustrated by their runtime crashes, I dropped them and subsequently declared the Indie section finished. After that, I returned to the AAA section, expecting to bask in the glory of high-end range of game titles. But instead I ended up being shined on by mediocrity.

Max, dearest of all my friends

maxpayne3painintheass

It’s not a harsh comment at all: the games that I ended up playing within twelve days were not really the most satisfying nor even edifying. It’s like having to sit around in a bar drinking and enjoying the cheap thrill of getting drunk.

And that’s where we find Max Payne in the third installment of the Max Payne series: a washed up drunk that finally fell through the seems and gave up. With Mona Sax, Vladimir Lem, and Alfred Woden all dead. There was no club that Max could go or any sort of people to relate to at all. They were all dead and he was now alone, or so he thought.
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An anecdote to the would-be builder

From left to right: Cooler Master Cosmos 1000, Caselabs T10 (also the same front design of TH10 model).

From left to right: Cooler Master Cosmos 1000, Caselabs T10 (also the same front design of TH10 model).

After four years, and reading recent hardware news, I figure it’s a good time for me to start to investigate and contemplate about what I would like in a future core components upgrade.

But first I’d like to give an anecdote to those out there that are considering to build their very first DIY PC.
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SonoQuest II: Wrapping up the Indie Section

Pretty much how it works with every other SonoQuest II posts.

Pretty much how it works with every other SonoQuest II posts.

Cutting the fat in the Indie section really made things go easier for me and helped in understanding what games were worth my time and those that weren’t. After giving a few tries to some games of the indie section, I’ve ended up cutting down a lot, and what’s left are the gold nuggets among the purchases that I’ve made in the last three years. I’ve learned my lesson in that I really should not buy indie games unless I know what I’m getting myself into. There are some people that tell me that I should never listen, read, or even watch; previews, reviews, or gameplay videos of any game I’m thinking about purchasing because I’ll end up “missing out”.
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SonoQuest II: cutting the fat

*click* *clack* Deleted

"Ugh" is all that needs to be said

“Ugh” is all that needs to be said

So after beating Gundeadligne, and beating most of Gundemonium Recollection, I called it quits. In the past, I would just force myself to play a game that I tried, and didn’t like, until I beat it. But after Gyromancer, I finally came to the acceptance that I’ll end up the owner of some games that I’ll never finish or bother playing. I’m not sure if there’s a Rage Quitters Anonymous office around where I live, but I’d sure be willing to join one by now after this epiphany. But then again who am I kidding ?
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SonoQuest II: Doomed; Owned

So Owned (not Pwned)

Playing Doom I & II are great while listening to The Stone Temple Pilots.

Playing Doom I & II are great while listening to The Stone Temple Pilots.

After replaying one and trying two other id classics for the, almost, first time, I can now really say that I’ve “been there; done that” as far as playing two of the most genre defining titles of the FPS; and, really, it has been a very educational portion of the backlog to go through.
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SonoQuest II : Can’t stop the beat or whatever

Oh no kiddies it's not over yet

Oh no kiddies it’s not over yet

I’m half joking with the pic above because I did finish three games within the last seven days, and enjoyed it as it push myself to the limit to speed through some titles. But I am tired and I’m using the downtime to type this post in the meantime to give the goings on of where I am at in the backlog. Continue reading

SonoQuest II: Just when I thought it was over.

Last time on “SonoQuest”

I'd be looking forward to jumping on this Nexon Project...if it were not for the backlog

I’d be looking forward to jumping on this Nexon project…if it were not for the backlog

The last time I mentioned in typing up a backlog list in XML, I took the endeavor in a very loose manner of just mixing and messing with XML, XSLT, and CSS 3, (link). I showed the results to some people and the common complaint was, and this was my fault for not further pushing the design to emphasize the 3D perspectives in the CSS file, that the appearance was too confusing to follow and  hard to read.

So this time I made the effort to go ahead and make an entire new backlog list, with a more straightforward design using HTML tables (which is fine and totally appropriate for the kind of data that the backlog contains). The only things that I wanted experiment with this time, some things of which are overdue for me to try, was the use of CSS image repeat of raster images for obtaining a pattern background. Another thing was on the use of typography – because the practice in being able to choose the best applicable fonts for a web design, as far as for display and reading goes, are very important. Although I think the design of the tables, the texture pattern choice, and font could have been better, I think it’s good enough for being presentable for now as I’ll make changes to the design of the table and overall design once browser engines (specifically Presto, Webkit, and Gecko) get better at following standard CSS 3 styling rules. And as for table styling, which is something completely new to me, I’ll definitely work on as dark colored web page designs are often the most difficult.

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Fallout 3 Review (kind of)

After many hours put into this game, and finally finishing it with some degree of success and satisfaction, the impressions on this game are mixed but not generally negative and I’d like to indulge myself a bit in pointing out a few things that were on my mind before, during, and after gameplay.

Discovery of The Fallout Zone

Fallout3

At the time of its release, Fallout 3 was everywhere and touted around as one of the major heavyweights of the series of “triple A” titles that were set to dominate for a while the consumer gaming market. The only thing that was looked upon this game at immediate glance, after all the trailers and presentations at the expositions were finished, is that this game felt, played, and sounded,  something similar to that the last major title that Bethesda, the developer and publisher of Fallout 3, had released: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
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