A Week in Gaming

Week Three - Test One

2011-06-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Summer courses always go by too fast. The amount of work and material is compressed so tightly that it's a little hard to keep up with it as well as a job and the semblance of a social life. This week we had our first test in the course and while it wasn't quite what I expected, overall it wasn't too bad.

The test focused on mostly lecture topics with one problem that related to our first project. However, I was expecting at least one question on the assigned reading. See, for the day of the test we had at that point been assigned part of the introduction of our text, two sections on limits and an entire chapter (100 or so pages) on streams. Being the diligent student I am, I read all of that for the test, the last two parts the night before. Unfortunately the test didn't have a single question regarding the reading, or at least nothing that wasn't covered in the lecture. To be honest I was a little relieved, because my reading comprehension is not so great between 10 and 12 on the night before a test. It's just frustrating that I spent a significant time reading something I didn't need to, when I could have spent that time preparing differently for the test. Though in the end, this is a small gripe because I feel I did rather well on the test, so I probably shouldn't complain too much.

This does bring up an interesting debate I've noticed recently in college. The decision between using a text and not seems to be becoming a bigger issue with teachers, administration and students. Probably because the price of these books keep skyrocketing and are contributing to the increase in student debt and back problems. I've had teachers that didn't require a text and taught the whole course from their own notes and materials. And I can see how this could be very difficult for every professor to accomplish due to the time it would require to prepare all the material. Though I will say I feel like I have gotten more out of any lecture than out of any text I've every had to read. Not to say that I can't see the appeal of a text book. A centralized collection of information on a course is nice to have when you can't contact the teacher or a fellow student and you have a pressing question. I don't see this issue disappearing though, there's big money in text books and it's simply easier to teach out of one than not, but maybe someday the lug of weight I have/had to carry around will be a thing of the past.

It Takes Two For Summer Learning

2011-06-19T00:08:00.001-07:00

Another week and another project. This time the problem of choice is the Stable Marriage algorithm. For those interested in it, please go here.

Perhaps more interesting is this was the first time I did pair programming for a project. Unlike the group project hell of grade/high school, pair programming has multiple benefits. After reading a couple of papers on it, one of which had dubious conclusions, I was slightly sold on the idea. With the addition of extra credit and an able partner with a similar schedule I decided to take the plunge. Here are my personal results.

Overall, I'd say the experience was pleasant. It took us about 7 hours of working, but we did the whole assignment in one run. Another person helped to do all the extraneous 'paperwork', i.e. setting up wikis, repositories, etc., in a shorter amount of time. Also having a second person to bounce ideas against helped wrap my head around implementing a working algorithm from the basic structure in my head. And probably most beneficial was another set of eyes to catch any errors in writing or syntax, and honestly this probably saved us the most amount of time. At one point or another we both mentioned that the other saved us several hours of beating our heads against a wall by finding an all to obvious but elusive bug.

However, the whole process wasn't painless. Given adequate time two different minds can come up with two wildly different solutions to a problem. Trying to combine those solutions into one program can be quite tricky. I fear our final solution was more complicated than it needed to be due to the cobbled style of our writing. We attempted to allow each other to write what we had in our heads, and did our best to make the two ideas work together. On the whole it was very successful and we found a working and optimal solution that met the project guidelines. Though I do think though that this led to more time spent coding and debugging than if we had each wholly implemented our own solution.

Saying all of this I still believe that pair programming to be a positive exercise in coding and I intend to attempt to do the rest of the projects in a pair. If only because those extra points make it such an easy choice.

A New Semester, New Self Taught Unix

2011-06-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

In an effort to score some extra credit for my summer class at UT, I return to this blog. The topics will probably be much more Computer Science-y than previous posts, so you are warned if you're not a visitor from my class.

I am taking CS378, which is a course on the Standard Template Library (STL) and Generic Programming in C++. The class is taught by Professor Downing, who I've not had the pleasure of having yet at UT, and so far it's a pretty interesting course. Fortuitously I took a course on C++ last semester, so a lot the intro of the course is familiar ground. (Though I am now dreading returning to Java since it's been almost a year since I had to use it...).

For this week's post I'm going to talk about the first assignment for the class, which I finished up on Sunday. The task was to write a program to solve a variation of the Collatz problem. That part of the assignment was a breeze, even the added component of inserting some variation of a cache to speed up the computation. The more difficult part of the assignment was learning (teaching myself) how to use the infrastructure required for the course. In particular, this class requires a project host (with issue tracker and wiki) and a source control repository. And as I am learning is a recurring theme in CS courses at UT, I had to develop a slightly deeper skill set of Unix commands.

Having completed the Biochemistry program at UT it's very interesting comparing the styles of teaching in that program to the ones in the CS department. Biochem tended to be very hand holding on the practical aspects and intensely rigorous on the theory, while CS appears to do the opposite. I don't mean to say that theory courses or tests in CS are easy, but in my experience they're easier than my previous studies. However the amount of skill I've been required to develop either on my own or with fellow students is staggering in CS as compared to Biochem. The funny thing is I think I might like the CS style more, but then again I'm a bit of a masochist.

New Year, New Promises

2011-01-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

So... how is everyone? I'm doing great myself, just thought I'd stop by and maybe write a few things. Only if it's cool with you. Is it? It is? Good, well let's begin then.

After a quick perusal of my last post it appears I was writing about Mass Effect 2. Well you'll be glad to know I beat the shit out of it not long after I posted. I finally chose Tali in the end, and got a huge punch in the balls when I STILL didn't get to see her face. Though it was still pretty cool I guess... Anyway I lost one character in the suicide mission, I forget his name it was the scaly guy. At some point I plan on beating it with everyone alive, but I'm going to keep my first save and play Mass Effect 3 with it cause I like consequences.

Now what has happened in the almost year since I posted? A lot. Not an alot mind you, just quite a bit. Most of it is inconsequnetial to a gaming blog, but I did beat a few games and have started to focus on beating more. I'll try to do some write-ups over the next few posts on the specifics.

Also I might be taking this blog in a slightly different direction. I plan to continue the gaming updates, but I've found my lack of income has forced me to eat at home more and that has led to me cooking more. I'm not great, I'm not even that good, but I plan on trying new things. And if any of those things end up being interesting, I'll be sure to fill you all in. With pictures too! Excited aren't ya?

Anyway, I should be able to go home soon, so I'll see ya round.

No Excuse

2010-03-15T21:52:00.001-07:00

Frankly I'm lazy and I got distracted and I'm sorry. Can't say it won't happen again, because it will. I will say I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

The past three weeks have been rather interesting gaming wise. I finally beat Mass Effect and immediately jumped into the sequel. I sat down for some controller passing Bioshock 2 multiplayer, and I jumped into the changes in Portal.

Mass Effect, I will leave to next week. I'm going to try my hand at an actual review, not this stream of consciousness bullshit. On the whole I really liked the game, but it did have a few flaws. Stay tuned!

I haven't started Bioshock 2 proper, but I sat down with some friends and we fired up the online multiplayer and passed around the controller after each game. There's nothing too new or great about this game's multiplayer, but it sure is fun and more so with friends. It did make me want to play the single player much more and I look forward to jumping into it.

This past week Valve introduced some new things into Portal in anticipation of the announcement of Portal 2. A radio is hidden in each level and it must be taken to specific place to retrieve a certain signal. It adds another puzzle to each level and it actually very fun. I've only done about 10-12 of them, but I have to say it was a great idea on Valve's part.

Mass Effect 2 is in a word fucking-amazing. They clearly took the majority of the complaints from the first one and did something about it, generally for the better. Gone are the over used set pieces and annoying as balls mako portions. Each area has an unique look and feel, and even the side missions have more in depth and interesting story elements. The resource mining is interesting at first, but then boring as hell. At least it looks like you can stop well short of draining all the planets and be set for the whole game. As a game, the best way I can describe ME2 is to compare it to a sci-fi tv show. Each mission, story or secondary, has its own story and area and they feel unique and different while sticking to the main idea of the game very similar to the episodic format of many sci-fi shows (the onboard relationship stuff reminds me of filler/characterization episodes). The combat is really fun, but pretty different. I like it, but I could understand disagreement if a person wasn't keen on third person cover shooter mechanics.

My recent play time with ME2 has brought about a rather humorous story. Before I had played any of it, I had heard that the relationship storyline with Jack was pretty deep and very interesting. So far I've been 'pursuing' Jack, but I've just discovered that Shepard can have a relationship with Tali (my favorite character from ME1) and I've reached a dilemma. Neither character will allow two-timing and I find each fascinating and I'm at a loss at who to pick.

Now right about now I'm sure you're saying, "Hey, just save at the decision point and do both." Well, concerned listener, that's a good idea if I hadn't decided to play the game straight, at least my first time through. In the first one I never went back to change a decision and lived with all the consequences, and I plan to do so for ME2 as well. The story is infinitely more interesting when the choices I make for Shepard have real consequences.

So I wallow in agony over which fictional woman I want to bang. The homicidal super powered merc or the super cute mechanic alien. Decision, decisions...

Late!

2010-02-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

I must apologize on the late update, I know how important this is to all of you. Fear not, for I am mere hours late and not days.

Anyway...
Another week, another clusterfuck of work and school. Who would have thought one class could produce as much work as 3? Well I did get in some more Mass Effect play time and I near the end. I plan to jump right into Mass Effect 2 right as I finish to keep the story going.

This week I'd like to talk about moral choices. Morality has become a more common theme in gaming recently. Though the first game I can think of that sported some sort of risk/reward system would be Ultima IV. While it may not have been THE first, it was the first for the Ultima series. Activities that had been encouraged in the past(stealing from homes, etc.) were frowned upon or punished. Sure it was simple, but it added such depth to gameplay, and yet it was an idea most developers ignored until recently.

Bioware started a good/evil trend in Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR); the mechanic has made an appearance of some form in all their games since. I'm going to talk about Mass Effect since it's the game I've been playing lately.

In ME most of the choices available in the game fall in one of three categories: Paragon, Renegade and neutral. (I'm not quite sure why a neutral option is even available, there's no reward for following that choice style and most of the neutral conversation options put you in the worst position.)

Being a paragon or renegade gives you specialized dialog options based on that status's bonus skill(charm for paragon and intimidate for renegade.) Paragons tend to be the goody two shoes of the universe, they believe any wrong can be righted. While renegades do what they have to to get the job done. It's a slight twist on the typical good/evil, the paragon options are almost universally good, but not all the renegade options are evil. A good amount are rude and insensitive or close minded, but some remind me of hard decisions that have to be made for the greater good.

What do moral choices bring to gaming?
They provide more immersion in a good story. I realize 'immersion' is one of those gaming buzzword, but when I can change how a story develops (even when it's a small change or simply cosmetic) I grow more attached to my characters. Also choices can lead to more exciting stories. Most heroes I grew up with had to make hard choices; who to save, whether to kill the bad guy, etc. And these choices are a great deal of what make heroes heroic. Being able to make those same choices, whether they are right or wrong, gives me some sense of being that hero or villain. It's a feeling that can't be recreated in prose or video.

Maybe that's why I can't help but be the sickly sweet good guy in all these games...

Vday Exhaustion

2010-02-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

Hate to say it, but it's gonna be a short one this week. Due to an extremely busy work weekend and the excessive alcohol consumption required to forget said weekend I didn't get much time with Mass Effect this week.

Mass Effect:
Much the same as last week. I've been exploring all the side worlds and doing secondary quests. I do think this game really needs a proper autosave, exploring a planet for half an hour only to die at the last part of it and getting sent back to planet drop is a tad annoying.
I did progress the main story by going to Noveria and got to play with conversation trees again. Though dealing with cut throat business people tends to make me choose renegade choices. I'm enjoying the progressing story and I hope to get more into it during this week.

Well that's all I gotta say for now.
THREEPEAT!

And then there was one...

2010-02-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

So this past week had been light on gaming due to school and work. I also expect this coming week to be even more bare, but I'm sure I'll get something done to talk about.

Mass Effect:
I've been continuing my delve into Bioware's non-Star Wars space IP, and so far been continuing to enjoy it. Though I did finally get to use the Mako (it's an ATV for planet exploration) and it kinda sucks. The controls are too loose for my taste and it seems to randomly decided when to switch between reverse and forward when I'm trying to get unstuck from a wall. Plus the machine gun sucks, and since it doesn't tell you there's a cannon, I wasted a few hours pot-shotting enemies to little effect.

I am really enjoying the story so far, as well as the lore of the world. Bioware has done a splendid job creating a living world to explore and I find myself constantly checking the codex to see what new piece of history I've discovered. As both a history and sci-fi nut this excites all sort of pleasure nodes in my brain.

In this game Bioware introduced a new type of talk interface, something slightly different from previous rpgs of the same type. Instead of showing you exactly what your character can say, you are given several more general options. They tend to be simple ideas that your character can ask after and the actual words aren't presented until after you've chosen. So far I think it makes for a more immersive experience, since I can be more in tune with how the character will react instead of having to break down each line of dialogue for tone or hidden meaning. Only once or twice have I run into a choice that had my character saying something different than I expected.

Beatles Rock Band:

The other day I got a chance to play the newest Rock Band at a friend's place. All in all it's the same general gameplay, but with a rather focused music set. The only new thing I seemed to see were the ability to sing harmonies (which I stayed away from in an effort to keep people from killing me) and the very psychedelic backgrounds for each song, which looked very cool, but very grainy when not in HD. All in all it's a solid game, though I would suggest only Beatles diehards would truly enjoy it to its fullest.

Well that's all for me for this week, hope you enjoyed it.

A New Beginning

2010-02-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

A new year brings new possibilities and fresh insights. After my previous blogging stint took a dark and broody (read emo) turn I decided to stop. At the beginning of the year I felt an urge to write again, but I wasn't sure what to post. I found that talking about my life tended to be boring and angst ridden, not something I'd figure anyone to enjoy especially myself. So I decided to take my favorite hobby and see if I couldn't create something interesting for my family, friends and associates (no promises).

Since I'm a bit late in starting I figured I'd recap January and start my weekly reports next Monday to keep dates somewhat accurate. At the end of last year I found myself with an unhealthy amount of new and unplayed games, from family, friends and what little I had left after Christmas shopping. I also realized that my WoW (World of Warcraft for those not in the know) playtime had gotten tedious. In a part resolution, part change I decided to ease out of WoW and try to sit down and get through that backlog.

Borderlands:
Late last year I found a game that actually grabbed me, a first in a while. Borderlands was fun and funny, but near the end it got repetitive and stale. However, the first DLC, Dr. Ned's Zombie Island, invigorated the game and really focused on the things that make this game great: storytelling and fast gameplay. The story of Borderlands is simple and without much meat, but it's the light and humorous writing that keeps it entertaining and Dr. Ned's was funny and silly and just long enough for drawing on (like the main plot). The zombies were fun to kill and there was just enough variety of enemies to keep things interesting and spontaneous. The beginning of the year brought to about as far as I plan to go with Borderlands, I cleaned up all the achievements that aren't impossible (4 which I don't even care to try) and I realized that completing a game doesn't mean getting everything, it means playing it to the point where I'm done, whether due to the end of the story or I've played it out.

Overlord:
Which brings me to Overlord. I know it's an old game, but I started it mid last year, and decided I should finish things that I start. Then 2 hours later I quit out and put in Assassin's Creed 2. While Overlord has very fresh ideas and interesting story elements, it seriously lacks in capable gameplay. When I'm unable to do what I want, and by that I mean keep my minions out of water and to walk up a hill, I'm done. It's not fun fighting with control issues and frankly it's not worth my time.

Assassin's Creed 2:
The big hit of late last year is a very entertaining and fun game, and while it improves on its predecessor it fails to remove all the faults of the original. I'm not going to lie I was hooked by this game, and I beat the hell out of it, something that can't be said for the first. (I loved it too, but it got boring fast.) The open gameplay and free running make the world vibrant and fun to play in, two very essential things in any sandbox game. I particularly enjoyed the disconnect of the mini games from the assassinations and felt that it allowed both activities to be fun because they can played on their own at my pleasure. However, the same problem I had with the first game appeared in the second about 60% the way through (just around Venice.) Other than the locales, it's all the same; the gameplay, the story, the weapons. Everything may look different, but I'm doing all the same things I did 15 hours into the game that I did 30 minutes in (aside from one new climbing technique that is required for two areas and then is almost never used again.) Whether I'm running along rootops in Florence or crashing through merchant stalls in Venice, there's no real difference, my cool Spanish sword has all the same functionality as my wicked Franco hammer. Not that it's not fun, it's plenty fun, but variety is the spice of life. Which is why I loved the hidden symbols and the truly bizarre puzzles and story bits they provided. The sharp change in play was a good contrast that kept me involved and the puzzles were generally fun and thought provoking without being too hard (except for one fucking ridiculous puzzle.) The story was the same bland bullshit that couldn't keep a 6 year old interested, but it wasn't too terribly outlandish and I could buy it enough to keep going.

On the whole I enjoyed my time with AC2, but I was glad when I was done. Sandboxes are at their best when the variety of activities is numerous and well spread out throughout the length of the game. AC2 gave away too much too early, and everything they kept back was either not worth the time or used only once, never to be accessed again. I wholly recommend the game, especially if you liked the first, and I think AC2 could turn those that didn't like AC.

Mass Effect:
After my completion of AC2, I felt I needed a break from sandboxes, medieval, action games, so I decided to start a sci-fi, Bioware, rpg (the impending sequel also may have helped this decision.) I've been a fan of Bioware games for a long time, and for the most part loved them. So I knew I was probably in for some fun when I put in the disc (all the great press from a few years back didn't hurt.) And I gotta say I was not disappointed. I was instantly engaged by the story (fantastic voice acting!) and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. The gameplay is a little new for Bioware, but they've always experimented in their rpg's with new things and so far I like it a lot. I'm still early into the game, so look forward to continuing coverage.

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
To round up my January gaming, I have the third in the line of handheld Mario rpgs. I really enjoyed the first two, and this one is fantastic. Nintendo has done a great job coming up with new ways of using the Mario Bros in new and innovative ways while keeping to their jumping roots. Also the ability to play as Bowser in this one is too awesome, it brings back fond Super Mario RPG memories. I'd say I'm about half way through and I look forward to the rest.

Wow, that's longer than I thought it'd be, but I was making up for laziness, I mean lost time. The posts should be shorted in the future, assuming I can keep up with a weekly schedule. I hope this is somewhat interesting to someone, if it is please leave comments. If it becomes a hit, I may use audience participation to choose my next game.

"Have a week" -Kevin Smith