Nukes
Here a chart of all the known nuclear explosions on the earth. It is pretty cool to see, but they have dropped off in recent years.
posted by Gadianton @ 4/22/2008
2 comments
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Here a chart of all the known nuclear explosions on the earth. It is pretty cool to see, but they have dropped off in recent years.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Video Game Reviews
Well, I've decided to do a quick review of some of the computer games I've played recently. I am mostly going to write about what I think about the game. If you want more info on 'em just check out wikipedia.
Portal 10/10
Portal is part of the Orange Box. I bought the game when it came out in Octoberish 2007. I got the game mostly to play the Half Life 2 Episode 2 game that came with it. However, I knew I didn't have the time to finish the game so I thought I'd play portal first and save HL2:EP2 for Thanksgiving. Well, I got totally sucked in. It is the most original and enjoyable game I've played in years. To be honest, Portal has made other games seem so much more drab in comparison. Definately a 10 out of 10.
Half Life 2:Episode 2 9/10
HL2:EP2 continues the adventures of Gordon Freeman. This was a great game. Some reviewers didn't like the antlion portions of the game, but I found them fun. The storyline is, of course, very engaging. I can't wait for the final episode of the game and hopefully a satisfactory ending to a great story. One part I did not enjoy was the touted open environment level at the end. It was just a pain driving all around in the buggy taking out the combine. HL2 does a great job with making linear levels seem expansive and enjoyable. The open environment just didn't match the fun of the other elements of the game. However, in any case HL2 and the sequels are definitely some of the best games I've played.
Bioshock 9/10
I must admit, I am not finished with Bioshock yet. I am probably only a third of the way through. However, I really have enjoyed the storyline and game mechanics so far. Part of the reason I have been so long in finishing is that I want to save it until I have a good replacement. Very fun and original.
World of Warcraft 6/10
I started WoW about a year ago. Since then I've taken a 6 month break and have recently restarted. WoW can be a blast or it can be a chore. The most fun is doing instances with buddies. However, you have to spend a lot of time making sure that your toons don't level too fast or you will leave your buddies behind. I wish WoW would let me clone a character so that I can keep one to play with the group and level up the other to enjoy the end game content. I've had a lot of fun working on secondary skills. I've started a few lower level alts, but recently I just haven't been motivated to play the game much. I've been paying more attention to the quest texts and roleplaying a bit which enriches the game. However, there are just too many kill X of Y quests and etc that it feels like you are doing the same thing over and over. To be honest, I am considering another break, but we'll see. I kinda wish I could buy hours instead of having a monthly subscription. I'll probably stick it through until I get at least one toon to level 70 and try out more of the instances, but if it weren't for the fun group I play with, I'd probably stop playing.
Civilization 4 7/10
Civ 4 has been out for a while, but I've recently reinstalled it and played a few rounds. I've tried out some of the mods and they can be a lot of fun. Civ, but in the galaxy. The game is just as addictive as when I played previous versions. You keep on thinking just one more turn, and then look up and hours have gone by. It is a time machine for sure. However, it seems like once you have played it a bit there is not much more to do... I mean, just how many times can you take over the world before you get bored. I'll probably get rid of it and focus on finishing Bioshock soon.
Supreme Commander 6/10
I've tried out Supreme Command recently. So far I have just done a couple of missions. To be honest, it is very similar to Starcraft, with few more modern features. I've found that once you get far enough into the battle you pretty much end up zoomed out to the strategy map where units are represented by icons. This pretty much means all the eye candy is gone. So far the storyline seems to be pretty standard. There are just no real new or original elements to make me want to keep playing. I'll probably delete it soon.
Unreal Tournament 3 5/10
UT2004 was one of my favorite games. I've only tried the demo of the sequel UT3 and I must say it probably would be one of my favorite games, if it weren't for one flaw -- none of my old UT2004 buddies are playing UT anymore. The best part of UT was getting a team of guys you knew together to play and frag people. Even one other buddy made the game a blast. And UT3 is beautiful... it really looked like an improvement to UT2004. If I could get at least one UT buddy to play every now and then it would be at least an 8/10. That being said I may buy the game once I've finished Bioshock even if I can't get any buddies to join.
Team Fortress 2 6/10
Team Fortress, also part of the orange box, is a fun game that suffers from the same problem as UT3, no buddies playing it. That being said, I still play it every now and again when I want I quick fragfest... not as fragilious as UT3, but I didn't have to pay extra for it. The character classes are nice, in that they force teamwork, however there is a learning curve that I frankly haven't had the time to even get mildly proficient with the classes.
Man after writing the last few posts, I am starting to think I need to make some more geek friends to open up my gaming possibilities.
Free Cell 8/10
I used to play free cell a bunch about 10 years ago. I was really good too. I probably would get in the high 80s percentage wise. However, I pretty much stopped playing free cell about 5 years ago. Well, now that I have Vista, I've picked it up again. The Vista version of Freecell looks great. Plus they have changed the undo so that it is more than just 1 undo like the previous version. I'm not quite as good as I used to be, but it is fun time killer while listening to music
Well that is all I have time for now. Maybe I'll add more games to another post later.
Portal 10/10
Portal is part of the Orange Box. I bought the game when it came out in Octoberish 2007. I got the game mostly to play the Half Life 2 Episode 2 game that came with it. However, I knew I didn't have the time to finish the game so I thought I'd play portal first and save HL2:EP2 for Thanksgiving. Well, I got totally sucked in. It is the most original and enjoyable game I've played in years. To be honest, Portal has made other games seem so much more drab in comparison. Definately a 10 out of 10.
Half Life 2:Episode 2 9/10
HL2:EP2 continues the adventures of Gordon Freeman. This was a great game. Some reviewers didn't like the antlion portions of the game, but I found them fun. The storyline is, of course, very engaging. I can't wait for the final episode of the game and hopefully a satisfactory ending to a great story. One part I did not enjoy was the touted open environment level at the end. It was just a pain driving all around in the buggy taking out the combine. HL2 does a great job with making linear levels seem expansive and enjoyable. The open environment just didn't match the fun of the other elements of the game. However, in any case HL2 and the sequels are definitely some of the best games I've played.
Bioshock 9/10
I must admit, I am not finished with Bioshock yet. I am probably only a third of the way through. However, I really have enjoyed the storyline and game mechanics so far. Part of the reason I have been so long in finishing is that I want to save it until I have a good replacement. Very fun and original.
World of Warcraft 6/10
I started WoW about a year ago. Since then I've taken a 6 month break and have recently restarted. WoW can be a blast or it can be a chore. The most fun is doing instances with buddies. However, you have to spend a lot of time making sure that your toons don't level too fast or you will leave your buddies behind. I wish WoW would let me clone a character so that I can keep one to play with the group and level up the other to enjoy the end game content. I've had a lot of fun working on secondary skills. I've started a few lower level alts, but recently I just haven't been motivated to play the game much. I've been paying more attention to the quest texts and roleplaying a bit which enriches the game. However, there are just too many kill X of Y quests and etc that it feels like you are doing the same thing over and over. To be honest, I am considering another break, but we'll see. I kinda wish I could buy hours instead of having a monthly subscription. I'll probably stick it through until I get at least one toon to level 70 and try out more of the instances, but if it weren't for the fun group I play with, I'd probably stop playing.
Civilization 4 7/10
Civ 4 has been out for a while, but I've recently reinstalled it and played a few rounds. I've tried out some of the mods and they can be a lot of fun. Civ, but in the galaxy. The game is just as addictive as when I played previous versions. You keep on thinking just one more turn, and then look up and hours have gone by. It is a time machine for sure. However, it seems like once you have played it a bit there is not much more to do... I mean, just how many times can you take over the world before you get bored. I'll probably get rid of it and focus on finishing Bioshock soon.
Supreme Commander 6/10
I've tried out Supreme Command recently. So far I have just done a couple of missions. To be honest, it is very similar to Starcraft, with few more modern features. I've found that once you get far enough into the battle you pretty much end up zoomed out to the strategy map where units are represented by icons. This pretty much means all the eye candy is gone. So far the storyline seems to be pretty standard. There are just no real new or original elements to make me want to keep playing. I'll probably delete it soon.
Unreal Tournament 3 5/10
UT2004 was one of my favorite games. I've only tried the demo of the sequel UT3 and I must say it probably would be one of my favorite games, if it weren't for one flaw -- none of my old UT2004 buddies are playing UT anymore. The best part of UT was getting a team of guys you knew together to play and frag people. Even one other buddy made the game a blast. And UT3 is beautiful... it really looked like an improvement to UT2004. If I could get at least one UT buddy to play every now and then it would be at least an 8/10. That being said I may buy the game once I've finished Bioshock even if I can't get any buddies to join.
Team Fortress 2 6/10
Team Fortress, also part of the orange box, is a fun game that suffers from the same problem as UT3, no buddies playing it. That being said, I still play it every now and again when I want I quick fragfest... not as fragilious as UT3, but I didn't have to pay extra for it. The character classes are nice, in that they force teamwork, however there is a learning curve that I frankly haven't had the time to even get mildly proficient with the classes.
Man after writing the last few posts, I am starting to think I need to make some more geek friends to open up my gaming possibilities.
Free Cell 8/10
I used to play free cell a bunch about 10 years ago. I was really good too. I probably would get in the high 80s percentage wise. However, I pretty much stopped playing free cell about 5 years ago. Well, now that I have Vista, I've picked it up again. The Vista version of Freecell looks great. Plus they have changed the undo so that it is more than just 1 undo like the previous version. I'm not quite as good as I used to be, but it is fun time killer while listening to music
Well that is all I have time for now. Maybe I'll add more games to another post later.
posted by Gadianton @ 4/20/2008
1 comments
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Probability of dying from any cause: 1 -- here are some others
posted by Gadianton @ 4/08/2008
1 comments
