Half-Life 2

So after a lot of egging on from a gaming friend and after watching all 28 episodes of Freeman's Mind and after Steam released the title on the Mac platform I finally got around to playing Half-Life 2.  Half-Life (the original) was as well downloaded but I'm still on the extended introductory tram ride through the Mesa Research Facility.

In any case Half-Life 2 is a standalone first person shooter which in my books (and a whole lot of hardcore gamers) is a definite "must have" in the repertoire.  The game is still a technological advancement in the gaming experience offering a smooth 3D rendered experience in various indoor and outdoor environments, a great alien infestation/survival story, and a realistically rendered cast of "intelligent" computer controlled characters.

The game play can be set to a low difficulty which means the enemy characters are not impossibly hard to kill but you still have to deal with the puzzle like challenges presented through out the progress of the game.  Even more so, it's not a time dependent game leaving you to explore the beautiful environments the game has to offer and at times (almost surprisingly) rewarding your exploring nature with secret caches of am-munitions and health reviving items.  Certain levels of the game have you commandeer vehicles which thankfully is not too difficult but I find detracts from exploring every corner of the large outdoor environments of the game.

As for the story, the game is a mash of typical alien infestation movies and big brother like scenarios; though nothing original it is still well thought out and at times pokes fun at the genres.  I do not understand, however, why everyone thinks Gordon Freeman (the playable character) is such a god send when all he has done (with reference to the first game) is literally climb out of a hole and live to tell about it.  It is still quite amusing to be heralded by the non-playable characters and have the array of weapons at hand to show for it (where does Gordon keep all those guns on him?).

Half-Life 2 is fun.  I like that the game play and progress is not dependent on trigger skills and armchair reflexes.  The game is (to me) more focused on being an interactive fiction that you can pick up every now and then and blow away some aliens.  The game as well is highly re-playable and I often find myself re-playing a scenario in game when I figure a way to get through a situation with less liberal use of my ammo.  You can get Half-Life 2 on Steam for about 10$ USD.

Freeman's Mind

Freeman's Mind is specific type of webshow known as "machinima".  It is essentially using a video game's control and displays along side a scripted dialogue to act out a story or music video.  Some games are more suited for this type of animation - mostly, games that give you enough freedom on your playable character to act out a story line that's not in the game essentially.  First person shooters such as Half-Life are perfect since there is not a lot of cutscenes and a lot of non player character interaction is done through the intelligent AI of the Valve's Half-Life engine.  Characters aren't scripted to interact with you but will interact with you when the opportunity arises (like being with in the immediate vicinity of them or toggling them for dialogue).

Freeman's Mind could more or less be a walk through of Valve's award winning game, Half-Life; however, the effort put into coordinating some entertaining monologues along side playing Half-Life itself is quite hilarious and (in my books) classify this as a machinima well worth watching all its 28 episodes (so far).  Each episode go for about 10 minutes and is suppose to be the mind of the playable character Gordon Freeman as he tears through the labyrinth of the Black Mesa complex and its collection of dimensional aliens and military operatives sent to eliminate indiscriminately the alien infestation as well as the Black Mesa researchers (including Freeman himself).  Contrary to the Freeman who is heroically performing this super-human task of surviving his way out of the Black Mesa complex the monologue plays Freeman to an obtuse, self serving asshole, put into this survival situation by his oppressive employers and incompetent work mates.  To the actor's (or script writer's) credit the dialogue seems totally ad-lib but believable and never once through all 28 episodes does the actor break character except for one, episode 27, where the actor decided to perform the whole 10 minute dialogue as a plundering pirate.

Freeman's Mind is quite entertaining and puts a humorous spin to the story behind Half-Life for any one who has or has not played Half-Life.  You can check out all 28 episodes at www.acursedfarms.com or on YouTube searching for "Freeman's Mind".

Steam on Mac

I have waited a couple of weeks before writing this one up.  I wanted the hype to die down a bit and give an objective view of this topic.  Overall all Steam coming to the Mac platform is a good move for everyone since gone (again) are the days of shopping the latest PC titles at your local tech store.  Steam is my one stop shop for a large selection of gaming titles.  The system as a distribution center for gaming purchases is successful on both platforms since they provide an easy web experience to review, select, purchase, and install game titles in one app.  Their selection at least on the windows platform is quite varied and have a large selection of not only popular titles but titles which got looked over in the shadow of big companies and big franchise releases.  Steam also carries quite a few titles under the independent category and provides a venue where for a very reasonable percentage of sales provide a storefront for the independent software providers.

As for the distribution on Mac the titles are not up to the hype they've lead me to believe which I should not be really surprised since Mac is definitely a productivity machine.  What I am hoping though is that game developers will push more Mac releases with now a cheaper means to distribute Mac compiled software where as before having to publish Mac titles (box and all) would have meant sure losses.  I am also hoping that at least more adventure titles become available and the full catalog of Valve games (the makers of Steam) becomes properly ported to the Mac platform as they promised.  The Valve titles alone on Mac would make my Mac gaming experience worth while.

Prism - My Own Custom Browser App (Well, Almost)

I have been researching some ideas to create a simple no-frills (actually no controls) browser window with out reinventing the wheel.  I want to basically open a URL in a window and have what ever appears at the URL to be rendered in a window with none of your typical browser controls and simply rely on the site's navigation to get around.  It so happens to also coincide with some issues I have encountered at work since I work on Flex applications that have no use for the native browser navigation buttons.

I seem to have found a solution in a Firefox development called Prism which can be installed either as a plugin to Firefox or as a standalone application.  Prism allows you to convert a URL into a standalone application on your desktop.  Essentially what it does is that it takes the URL and wraps it in a package that allows you to view the URL in a "no-distractions" browser upon a click of a shortcut.  This is becoming more recently desired since more and more web applications are now having a more "self-contained" look about them and no longer require back/forward buttons or a URL field to navigate around them.  In fact, the use of the native browser navigation often causes problems for web developers since this can lead to security issues regarding form scripting.

I was hoping there would be a command line creation script to create the packages Prism needs to run the URL but I suppose its nothing a scripter like me can not figure out.  In the meanwhile I have setup some webmail sites my mail browser can not connect to at work and left them as stand alone apps on my desktop.  I have also setup my work test server as well as a Prism app.

Google Pacman

Hat's off to Google's banner that commemorated one of video game's innovations by embedding a playable applet of Pacman in celebration of its 30th birthday.  Should give it a try before searching the latest in government conspiracies and of furry costume porn.  My hi-score is 9034 and I had completed one level before I realized that you can use the cursor keys instead of the mouse - GG.

24 Hour Party People (OST)

Perhaps (IMO) to be renamed "The History of Factory", the album to its movie namesake is perhaps a good cross-selection of Factory's best productions.  I have never experienced a soundtrack that is as enjoyable with out its movie references.  This soundtrack has a good selection of performances of Factory's bands, a couple of modern renditions and live performances of their more recognizable hits, and a couple of hits that the movie claims to have inspired Tony Wilson to create Factory.  On the performance list are names such as Joy Division, the Buzzcocks, New Order, Happy Mondays, and the Sex Pistols.  Even if you haven not seen the movie if you are looking for some retro-alternative compilation look up this soundtrack.

The Wire

The Wire is an epic police drama that spans 5 seasons.  It follows the careers of a group of detectives from the narcotics and homicide divisions of the Baltimore Police Department as well as the lives of the criminals and city officials that their investigations touches.  What probably makes this a unique series is the raw honesty each episode is told in and how it focuses on the problems of maintaining law and order all stemming from the apathy and corruption that is deep seated in the running of a major North American city.

The story of The Wire begins with Jimmy McNulty, a hotshot career detective played by Dominic West.  After watching another drug thug get off from a routine murder conviction he is called in by a concerned judge on his thoughts on what should have been a routine conviction.  Jimmy explains to the judge how an up and coming drug gang that the accuse had been connected to had control of most of the drug distribution in the city and were able to buy off witnesses and supply their man with a top notch mob lawyer.  Appalled by how narcotics did not even have knowledge of the drug ring the judge sets in motion the events which lead to a combined department task force of homicide and narcotics detectives to investigate the Barksdale drug ring.

This uncomfortable marriage of the already under-resourced departments bring together a motley group of detectives comprising a mix of overlooked talents and disgraced cops with Jimmy being the obvious rogue.  Heading the task force is Cedric Daniels - the straight shooting narcotics commander with a few skeletons in his career closet.  His right hand girl is Shakima Greggs - a tough narcotics investigator with a hunger for the thrill of the hunt and a taste for fast women.  Lester Freamon is an older talented investigator who previous tenacity put him on the sidelines for going after politically protected targets.  Ellis Carter is a young career hungry cop who is in constant struggle between looking for his big break that would land him a prestigious promotion and being a compassionate "do-right" cop.  Carter is often accompanied by Thomas "Herc" Hauk a bumbling tough guy cop whose constant bad career decisions (in contrast to Carter) push him further from the respect he looks for from his colleagues.  Rolland "Prez" Pryzbylewski is an intellect forced into service by his father in law who is a prominent commanding officer in the Baltimore Police Department.  Jimmy also often drags into the picture his homicide drinking buddy Detective William "Bunk" Moreland whose admirable dedication to his job is offset by his infidelity to his wife.   The series also bring in and out of view other characters who help, hinder, or are the targets of the main detectives of the series. 

Most of the series follow the investigations of the drug gangs that plague the city of Baltimore and the corruption which blights any successful attempt to unroot their influence on the decaying city.  With great acting and a no-pulled-punches look at the lives of this intricately connected cast of characters America comes close to providing a thought provoking series that was mostly being delivered by BBC imports.