Category Archives: Thought

The Ideal Hardware for SSM2

Posted on January 12, 2012
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It’s been two years and some odd months since I put together my gaming rig: the SSM1 (Sonokamome System Model 1) and I’ve decided that it would be fun to think about the specs for the next rig, SSM2. Now, given that the economy is really bad in most parts of the world, and that due to calamities in the weather that have affected the production of some hardware components in key manufacturing plants in the world, I can’t really enact in being active with purchasing hardware. Plus, I’ve already spent enough on the current rig for hardware and software (the former lately being hardware).

In the last two years since putting together SSM1, I’ve upgraded the video graphics card: first started the build off with a Nvidia GTX 260, followed by a year later with an upgrade to a GTX 460, and then a year later with the current GTX 570. Each card as relatively set me back a bit during the time that they were purchased, I’ve learned that for upgrading something important like a video graphics card, it’s best to go back to budgeting and planning ahead…sort of.
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D.I.Y PC – The Budget

Posted on January 9, 2012
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Assuming you have finally figured out what you want out of your custom computer and you want to  figure out a system to keep track of the cost as you go around shopping, I’d like to move on to the topic of budgeting.

Usually this is where most people window shop, make a list, and then sum up the grand total (subtotal + applicable taxes + shipping and handling + misc costs for purchase). But this usually ends up being a waste of time, or rather, the time that could have been allocated to carefully check the parts and price is now shifted to the time now used to “restart” the window shopping, listing, and re summing the grand total again. In other words: if you simply have a list of parts that you would like to buy without the researching the prices and taking a second look at comparable products of similar or same performance, purchase costs, cost of purchase from particular retailer, then costs could go quickly up past the initial estimated budget cost as you purchase your parts as you go along.
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A few words on F.E.A.R…

Posted on December 23, 2011
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After finishing F.E.A.R 3, which presumably ends the entire story of the Point Man’s quest to end the horror that his two other family relatives, his mother Alma and his brother Paxton Fettle, have brought upon the people of the city and district of Auburn, I can’t help but get the impression that this series has had a progression with each installment in the following manner: Good, Bad, and Worse.

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If we go back to 2005, when the first F.E.A.R game came out, you have essentially a game that had some very memorable moments and really focused on making sure that your experience as the main character of the story was as seamless as possible. The point of the designers and developers of the first F.E.A.R game was to have the player be the action star of a movie. So instead of being the passive watcher of the action and dialog when progression in most first person shooters, you’re the active participant. It’s simple as that and it’s for that logos that drove many that developed the first F.E.A.R to make sure that the story, the controls, the music, the sound effects, and graphical environment, to be as top notch to make the experience be, again, as seamless as possible. Today it’s considered to being one of the best first person shooters as many comment that the game really makes very good focus at first person shooter game play that is convincingly challenging and immersive.

But unfortunately, after some business related troubles, Monolith had to delay the development of the second game. The original development team was not around by the time that the second game was ready for development and what resulted was a game that, although feeling familiar with the first game, really did not seem to have that atmospheric quality of the first game. The controls seemed familiar but a little off, the graphics, although great, really were a major design departure from the first one, and with certain game inclusions such as mecha-armor battles, it really made F.E.A.R no longer so much a first person shooter as it was more of a first person action game. So it was a major departure from many aspects of the first game but it still did not manage to completely alienate the fans of the first game…

…Until F.E.A.R 3. When Monolith decided to have the developer that helped port the first F.E.A.R game to the consoles, Day 1 Studios, what resulted was the complete abandonment of many things that made the firs two, especially the first one, a major success. For one, you have no longer the use of Monolith’s Lithitech Jupiter Engine used and instead you have Day 1 Studio’s Despair Engine. This caused many things such as the controls, the graphics (this includes the methods of lighting, texturing, and graphical detailing), the character modeling to change and take very radical departure from the first game’s design. Also the manner that weapons worked in this game also changed: for every weapon you had collected has maximum limit of how much ammunition you can collect. This, along with some very tough and dirty playing enemies with achievement pop-ups for almost every little thing you do in the game, and you have a first person shooter with arcade level difficulty and design. The bottom line is that you get essentially a console game with all the frills of most modern shooters such as in-game achievements, a score tally, individual mission objectives, and finally regenerating health (good bye med-packs and Hello Call of Duty style health regeneration).

The story, with each game installment, escalates from a small and relatively contained situation to a full scale disaster scenario that, although the origins deal with the supernatural and the fantastic, starts to feel more like an action game splashed with cliched horror. Thus arresting the tension and mood that the first F.E.A.R game manage to bring upon the player as they were going through the game (and with almost little to no surprise scares). And because of it, it really leaves many fans preferring either the first game or the first two games produced by Monolith but never the third.

Speaking for myself, the first F.E.A.R game will be the definitive, and really, the only game that is worth playing in the entire F.E.A.R series.

So for anyone that is thinking about buying F.E.A.R 3 and has not yet checked out the first game, I would definitely reconsider and stick with the first F.E.A.R game.

Debarge – I like it

Posted on November 21, 2011

It’s hard to say really much about Debarge without mentioning that they were one of the few definitive R&B acts of the 1980′s. Debarge is not so much about the hits they had as much as it was about the the sensibilities that they had tried to project: the shy honest guy wanting the girl, the wholesome fun that supposedly would be found just around the corner, that love could still be real and romantic, and so on. The sounds that Debarge had in their songs really capture a portion of the charms of 1980′s American pop music and also reflect the ideals, and I’m willing to dare say even fantasies, that were part of the zeitgeist of the times.

Although the thing that I find a bit annoying, and maybe even tragic, is the ongoing nature of the songs themselves and the way it conveys that there is supposed possibility to find warmth in some shiny and cold world. This can be immediately seen reflected in the very instrumentality of the music: the sounds of the synthesizers and over slicked production being taken on by the organic melodies of the voices of the lead and chorus; quite like the feeling of a warm zephyr midst a cold winter night near the ocean side.

Take a break. No really take a break.

Posted on October 9, 2011

Once every few times, every gamer needs to take a break.It’s not simply a matter of making sure that you don’t ruin your sight by straining your eyes fixed in one position all the time, it’s also a way to have your mind take a break. Sometimes with the constant flow of information that goes in and out of your mind, things can be quite hectic in the mind, you have to remember that your machine has an off button. It’s there to turn it off whenever you need it to be off (^_^);

The fact is, that if you spend too much time in front of the computer, doing nothing that would call for the critical need of a computer to be used proactively, then it’s best to take a few breaks if the usage is going to be purely recreational.

There is the argument that there is nothing to be done offline or that the people around you are not exactly the kind of characters you want to obligate yourself with. And that its easier to conduct certain types of relationships casually online since your friends are always “on call” for whenever you want to contact them (that is if they are available).

But although this is true to a certain extent, it is good to turn your machine off. Have a walk, don’t answer the phone or give text messages needlessly (unless it’s an emergency) and enjoy some time being by yourself to rest, to contemplate, to enjoy the stillness that can be found still in hectic times, within time. For despite the fast paced and short-tempered world we live in today, I think that there is time to save for just being alone to yourself and enjoy some silence from the hum.

So if you are a hard core gamer and you find yourself in a moment where you just have to turn off your machine to rest, then by all means…press the button.

When it’s over: Another look at RPG gaming.

Posted on September 8, 2011

After finishing the main quest line of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I’m finding that the game is not exactly what I’m used to as far as role playing games are concerned as far as format. Usually, given my history of playing Japanese RPGs, I’m used to having a story for which I’m to work my way to finish the game to get to the ending; to follow a simple story structure where you have your introduction, conflict, climax, and finally ending. Such as is the usual way of telling a story in other game genres such as in first person shooters (another genre of games that I’m more used to playing).
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Pink Floyd – Breath In The Air

Posted on September 6, 2011

And so we sat there in the morning fog just eating our breakfast.

I had no idea what tomorrow would bring. I did not care anymore. I just wanted to sit there and have my bacon and eggs.

I just wanted to have my cup of orange juice. I wanted to just stare into the gray sky and just observe the movements of the clouds while my food was slowing going through me. I wanted to feel that wonderful feeling of listlessness and of being lost again. Because the entropy that comes with conformity had really numbed me to bits so I just had to, tomorrow, run into the open arms of that beautiful feeling called “the unfamiliar”.

I really wanted to see her again at the edge…she was always beautiful to me.

The Ambassadors of Funk – Super Mario Land

Posted on September 3, 2011

If there was one song that was found played by any hip-hop station in the Bay Area that was only reserved for moments where they remixes took to the program’s center stage, this one is it.
It was a very exciting time for any kid at the time that was listening to this in the U.S. as it was during several months before the Nintendo 64 (Ultra 64) would be released. So many people were just ready to start playing Mario 64 and all the other games that were given the guarantee that the games featured on the system were going to be as close to what is seen in some game titles on the arcades.

In hindsight, although most were already with the knowledge that the technology of the time would only allow for so much to be possible to deliver graphically to what was found in arcades (as arcade boxes were really just personal computers program to run application programs with motherboards dedicated specifically for particular graphics card platforms). So the whole paradigm where consoles could never reach the level of PCs when it comes to gaming in general can be traced back in it’s clearest back then than today where, although the debate has ended with the admittance that consoles would never be able to catch up, yes, but it would be ultimately the software itself that would determine the worth of the console platform for gaming over the PC. And that debate is still going to this very day.