Snap Judgment: Combat Arms (PC)

A while back, Kotaku ran a brief piece on Combat Arms, and I vowed to give it a try for three reasons: a) it’s free, b) it’s a first person shooter, and c) three million people can’t be wrong, right?  So I did.  Hit the jump for some thoughts, screenshots, and a video.

Minima is Back (in Black)

Hey folks; just writing to let you know I’ve gone a little less adventurous with this next iteration of the False Travels template. Some widgets are gone, some are new, and others are fixed. I’ve been futzing with the column widths too, to alleviate some widget/content issues I was having. I’m about to launch into an ODST marathon soon, so expect a review in the next couple days (or don’t, whichever will make you less irked when I fail to deliver until next week…). In the meantime, comment on this post and let me know what your thoughts are for this look. Too boring? Shockingly elegant? Let me know.

Oh, and while I’m on the topic of comments, apologies to anyone who tried to comment on the Grungy theme. Turns out it wasn’t playing nice with Blogger comments, and I didn’t even notice thanks to the usual echo around here. Lesson learned: test features you’re specifically asking your users to try before you go live with them.

A story from the other side

If you're following me on Twitter (and there's no reason you shouldn't be!), you probably noticed a little tweet about me playing ODST's Firefight with my wife last night, a rather momentous event. Well naturally, I was telling my coworkers the story, about how she even wanted me to mention it in my blog, when I got to thinking...maybe she should mention it in my blog. So without further ado, I give you our first guest writer...ABlogger'sWife!

In the grand scheme of life, there are many things I’m good at. I'm a good listener, creative cook, and usually pretty funny. However, I somehow lack the ability to reconcile what my eyes are seeing and where my thumbs are moving. To appease my husband, I took up the Xbox 360 controller last night. All he asked of me was to do some skillful button-mashing (which I'm usually pretty successful with: I even beat my brother-in-law at Mortal Combat once by pushing various buttons as fast as I could, much to his 15-year-old dismay). Apparently last night, for the first time in my life, I felt the urge to be successful at a video game. I wanted to kill anything that crossed my path, and impress the husband who was expecting very little, and reasonably so. Perhaps a long day as a social work intern can do that to you (but don't tell my supervisor that).

ABlogger'sWife ends a Brute (with some help)

Anyway, back to the whole eyes and thumbs thing. No matter what I did or how focused I was, I always ended up facing a wall, shooting my own shadow, or being attacked by some Brute behind me. Every time I try to look up, I end up facing the ground. Every time I try to turn left, the sensitivity of the buttons leaves me spinning, or again facing a wall for some reason. I guess I'm good at that...to look at the bright side.

So here's a story from the other side, from the perspective of a wife who does want to spend time with her husband and who knows that will sometimes mean engaging in video game play with him. Gamers, you've had a lifetime of thumb sprains to reach the level you're at today. We wives, girlfriends, etc. just want to spend some time with you. Resolution? Someone needs to create a voice controlled video game that's virtually hands free. When I say "look behind you and shoot!" the game should do it for me. Or maybe we can make a compromise - the voice activation allows you to tell the game where to look, but then your thumbs can do the shooting. That sounds fair, doesn't it? Then husbands, maybe it won't be such a chore to get us to spend some quality time playing video games with you.

Visual Exploration (Grungy)

If you've been following my tweets lately, you know that I'm exploring some different looks (and hosting services) for False Travels. So if you're a regular reader (please?), stick around over the next few days; you'll be treated to a barrage of different site designs culled from various places on the web. I really need some feedback from you guys here; comment on what you like or don't like on a given day, and I'll figure out how to put together a poll

Today (tonight, really), I yanked Grungy from Eblogtemplates.com, drawn to the messy but organic look of it. It's a little less modular looking than the Blogger template I was looking, and just more visually interesting, in my opinion. Not quite sure if it catches the feel of a gaming/tech/whatever blog. Let me know your take in the comments.

Live Action Trailer for Halo 3: ODST

Do you like Halo?  Are you chomping at the bit for a chance to jump into the boots of an Orbital Shock Drop Trooper, or ODST, the fellas who hang out on the rung beneath Master Chief on the ladder of ultra badassery?  What do you mean no?!  Well, it doesn’t matter.  This short film (commercial, my ass) reveals the path of one such Trooper, and there’s something for everyone here.  A painful military funeral, a crazy military training montage that jumps (literally) into an exhilarating orbital drop, and blows out (again, literally) into an awesome battle scene.  The final scene shows the cycle beginning anew as the now grizzled and scarred leader locks eyes with the fresh-faced but haunted rookie, just before he disappears behind the iconic ODST helmet.

Watch it for yourself below, or click the link to find it at YouTube.  Let me tell you, I’m just about drooling…

Check out the full version on Youtube, with a minute of extra goodness.

False Travels DNA Revealed! (Surprise, it’s not that complex.)

So much to write about, so little time to write about it!  School is upon me; I’m continuing my pursuit of an I-O Psychology masters (never heard of it?  Look it up.).  So time to put together blog posts, and to play/tinker with their source material, is scarce.  Don’t worry, I’ve still got a few ideas in my back pocket…

That said, I came across this nifty little tool/toy as I was blazing through my lunchtime reading list.  i09 pointed me at the WEB2DNA Art Project, which essentially analyzes whatever site you point it at and returns, through one level of tech magic or another, a visual representation of that website.  It also let’s you choose a background color of your (limited) choice.  The WEB2DNA site explains it better than I have here (the word “magic” is notably absent), but the results are pretty cool, and sobering if you happen to be running a sad little blog.  By clicking below, you can see the thin, dry genetic material of False Travels, along with two of my favorite haunts for comparison.  I took the liberty of choosing backgrounds for each site that best reflect the general color scheme.

False Travels

The Dancing Hotdogs

Smarterware