Definitely. The characters, graphics, story - anything involving dudes talking on screen is the most engaging it has ever been in a game. The decisions you make effect how your companions treat you and even extend to which of your companions survive to see the end of the game. The combat is outstanding - it’s an action packed 3rd person shooter with RPG stylings and just the right amount of squad control. Watching some of the early trailers it came off kind of clunky positioning guys exactly where you wanted them and even taking control of them directly if you needed to. Thankfully you don’t need to do that and can rely on AI performing effectively in most situations while you worry about who is shooting at you.
Disappointments. Texture pop in when scenes change - it’s something we have seen in Gears of War and UT3 so I guess we can blame it solely on Epic’s Unreal Engine. It’s not a major deal when the end result is so amazingly detailed but it would be nice if Epic could iron it out. Also the side missions are rather lackluster after you have done a few. Bombing around on barren worlds in your buggy and going into prefabricated structures to shoot guys is pretty much the extent of it. Maybe they would have been better served randomly generating these planets to give some variety? I’d be surprised if any significant DLC packs are released like they planed.
Overall verdict - go buy it now! I am already planning how I can play through it differently next time. I’m thinking evil female combat and biotic specialist who always chooses the dark path rather than the goody two shoes I played the first time round. Should be fun kicking arse across the galaxy one more time.
The thing that surprised me the most since getting the MacBook has been the wealth of quality software available. I had been content using the same cross platform software and online apps that I had on Windows to do my day to day stuff but have found myself using superior native applications more and more. So without further ado here are some of my favourites.
CSSEdit - Holy cow this is good. I have always found CSS a bit of a chore especially when dealing with multiple stylesheets but this makes it crystal clear. X-ray mode and the selector builder are lifesavers that actually make me think I can go for more extravagant designs for my sites. Awesome.
Textmate - Hands down the best text/script editor I have used. Great bundles for every language under the sun with appropriate shortcuts and text styling for each make it really powerful. It’s not an IDE but even without code completion I find myself getting stuff done quicker.
CocoaMySQL - Fast and simple MySQL database GUI. Have been looking for something to replace phpMySQL for a while now and this is it.
Adium - Multi network IM client featuring a big green duck that squawks in my dock - whats not to love about that. Also uses growl which I had never heard about before but find incredibly useful.
Transmit - Great FTP client supporting all encryption standards I use.
FlickrExport for iPhoto - Does exactly what it says on the tin. Makes the already stupidly easy to use iPhoto even more useful by removing the gap between it and Flickr.
Thanks to Matt over at 3mobilebuzz for sending over some of the new 3 Skypephones to try out. The unboxing photos are below, I’ll post my thoughts when I have had a little longer to try them out.
That is a pen.
Stuck in my washing machine.
I only just found it.
It has been there since before I moved in.
Now I know why some of clothes look funny. Gulp.
After a mild screw up with UPS yesterday (they wouldn’t deliver to the concierge unless I gave them the ok) I finally got the new black Apple MacBook. I’ve been looking for a laptop for a few months now and being stuck with three PCs isn’t exactly useful if you can’t take them with you when you travel. The MacBook seemed like an obvious choice for me so I’ll break it down. I needed a small portable system (12″/13″) that wouldn’t be too heavy to lug around and be decent for coding and movie playback.
Having used Windows Vista since January made it very hard to find a system I would actually like to purchase. It’s a terrible situation for these PC manufacturers to be in when the software is affecting sales of the hardware. Vista is a dog of an OS and the only reason I use it on my powerful rig is because I paid for it and like playing the latest games. So my choice was either the Mac I am typing on now or getting a crippled Vista laptop, clearing it out and installing Ubuntu on it. Wanting a low maintenance system that “just works” meant going for the Mac.
Since I posted the previous entry on the blog a few people were very understanding of my Vista plight and my need to get a different OS while a couple of others couldn’t believe I was doing it. There is only one reason and one reason alone I maintain my Window box. Games. If someone could please tell me what the hell else I need it for then I would like to know. I can do everything I need to do be it programming, watching video, email, web, IM, music or whatever on any of the big three platforms. I was never buying a laptop for games, it needed to be portable and therefore not powerful for my gaming needs. Games and laptops are a no no for me, that’s what my DS is for.
I am happy running Leopard, it meets my needs. But don’t forget if the walls come crashing in and the sky falls I can still install Ubuntu and Windows on this thing. It’s one of the biggest no brainier purchases I’ve made in a while.
In case you needed reminding this is what November has in store (for me at least):
9th
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Gears of War PC
16th
23rd
- Guitar Hero III
- Mass Effect
- Kane and Lynch
- Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
30th
- Unreal Tournament III
- Advance Wars 2
I missed out a few there and if you are a Wii owner Mario Galaxy can be added to the list. There is no way anyone is getting through all these this month and I am definitely going to have to start prioritising. Obviously Mass Effect is the most important one there (collectors edition preordered) followed by Crysis and Assassin’s Creed dependant on reviews.
My wallet is already feeling the strain.
![Futurama - Bender's Big Score (with Limited Edition Lenticular Sleeve) [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61THJCbOxwL._SL75_.jpg "Futurama - Bender's Big Score (with Limited Edition Lenticular Sleeve) [2008]")
![Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511PW90lDhL._SL75_.jpg "Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs [2008]")
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