Hey, you got chocolate in my peanut butter!
by AC - permalink
I've switched to a different old monitor while I work up the guts to throw down a few hundred dollars for a new one. This one has much better color and brightness than that last piece of shit, but even at 15 inches, its max resolution is just 1024x768 at a depressing 60Hz. But that's not so bad, really. I've discovered that just about every game I own runs so well at 1024 that I can jack up the anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering as high as my vidcard can go without dropping the framerate below the refresh rate (I always enable v-sync). 6x AA with temporal enabled does a very good job of eliminating those 1024 jaggies in games like Half-Life 2 and GTA San Andreas.
So anyway, I started playing Doom 3 again, and I think I really do like this game, overall. It's still just a lot of, "walk into that room, shoot those teleporting baddies, walk into the next room, shoot some more," but it's so fucking pretty I still like to play it. I started over from the beginning with a duct tape mod, but I ditched it early on. I really think it works better in the dark. And with a radio playing in the background; this weekend 93X decided to go back to an old gimmick they had years and years ago. They're playing every Metallica song ever recorded in alphabetical order. They call it Metallica A to Z, and it's really cheesy, but it's still awesome. How often do you hear "Disposable Heroes" or "Of Wolf and Man" or "Trapped Under Ice" on the radio? The last time I heard "Trapped Under Ice" it was on a cassette I used to have, and I'd taped it from a Metallica A to Z weekend in like 1996, when we were still playing Doom 1.
I managed to download the Rag Doll Kung Fu demo via Steam this week, and it's weird. Definitely unique, but I don't know about the fun. I'll keep toying with it anyway. I don't think I'm going to try to buy Half-Life Episode 1 over Steam. I'll just look for a retail copy. I'm working on downloading the Shadowgrounds demo now, but God knows when that will finish.
Which reminds me, I'm reading God Knows by Joseph Heller now. It's fucked up, but that's what we love about Heller, isn't it? You only have to read Catch-22 once to love him. He invented a character called Major Major Major Major and we bought it. After God Knows, I think I'll finally get around to tackling this whole Kurt Vonnegut shelf I have but have never gotten around to reading: Jailbird, Galapagos, Deadeye Dick, and Bluebeard. Vonnegut is tough for me to get into. I always liked Slaughterhouse-Five, but then a good friend of mine found out about that and told me it was bullshit. And I suddenly realized that she might be right. You either totally buy into what he's saying or you can't fucking stand it. But then that's the mark of great fiction, isn't it? It's why I love Chuck Palahniuk's books. Because I get it. But Vonnegut? I'm still working on it.
by AC - permalink
I've switched to a different old monitor while I work up the guts to throw down a few hundred dollars for a new one. This one has much better color and brightness than that last piece of shit, but even at 15 inches, its max resolution is just 1024x768 at a depressing 60Hz. But that's not so bad, really. I've discovered that just about every game I own runs so well at 1024 that I can jack up the anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering as high as my vidcard can go without dropping the framerate below the refresh rate (I always enable v-sync). 6x AA with temporal enabled does a very good job of eliminating those 1024 jaggies in games like Half-Life 2 and GTA San Andreas.
So anyway, I started playing Doom 3 again, and I think I really do like this game, overall. It's still just a lot of, "walk into that room, shoot those teleporting baddies, walk into the next room, shoot some more," but it's so fucking pretty I still like to play it. I started over from the beginning with a duct tape mod, but I ditched it early on. I really think it works better in the dark. And with a radio playing in the background; this weekend 93X decided to go back to an old gimmick they had years and years ago. They're playing every Metallica song ever recorded in alphabetical order. They call it Metallica A to Z, and it's really cheesy, but it's still awesome. How often do you hear "Disposable Heroes" or "Of Wolf and Man" or "Trapped Under Ice" on the radio? The last time I heard "Trapped Under Ice" it was on a cassette I used to have, and I'd taped it from a Metallica A to Z weekend in like 1996, when we were still playing Doom 1.
I managed to download the Rag Doll Kung Fu demo via Steam this week, and it's weird. Definitely unique, but I don't know about the fun. I'll keep toying with it anyway. I don't think I'm going to try to buy Half-Life Episode 1 over Steam. I'll just look for a retail copy. I'm working on downloading the Shadowgrounds demo now, but God knows when that will finish.
Which reminds me, I'm reading God Knows by Joseph Heller now. It's fucked up, but that's what we love about Heller, isn't it? You only have to read Catch-22 once to love him. He invented a character called Major Major Major Major and we bought it. After God Knows, I think I'll finally get around to tackling this whole Kurt Vonnegut shelf I have but have never gotten around to reading: Jailbird, Galapagos, Deadeye Dick, and Bluebeard. Vonnegut is tough for me to get into. I always liked Slaughterhouse-Five, but then a good friend of mine found out about that and told me it was bullshit. And I suddenly realized that she might be right. You either totally buy into what he's saying or you can't fucking stand it. But then that's the mark of great fiction, isn't it? It's why I love Chuck Palahniuk's books. Because I get it. But Vonnegut? I'm still working on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment