Dead Space First Impression

Well, I finally decided it was time to buy myself another game and after no consideration at all decided to get myself Dead Space (The Xbox 360 version). The reason for this is that all of the reviews were extremely positive and I felt like a good scare (to be honest I had also considered Fallout 3, but not really feeling like a sandbox RPG at the moment).

So yesterday during lunch I quickly dashed out to the stores and picked up a copy for R555*. Not too bad if you consider that most other titles nowadays cost between R600 - R700. Anyways, the rest of the day turned into a drag after that until it was finally time to go home and play. After firing up the Xbox and launching the game I realized it was time to finally unpack my 5.1 set of speakers to truly experience the wonder of the game. Getting them set up took some time, but I think it was worth the effort (despite the fact that I'm only running a 3.1 setup at the moment, don't know where to put the rear speakers in my room.)

Well then, on to the game. To be honest it is scary from the moment the disc launches, the eerie intro music and then of course the haunting voice singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" if you just leave the game, intermixed with splashed of Isaac's (the main character) death(s). The game itself (after you start) is creepy from the moment go. The (extremely well detailed) interior of the UGS Ishimura is littered with blood and bodies. Enemies start off easy with one or two attacking at a time but by the time you reach the second stage they are often coming to you in droves and you have your hands full trying to handle them all.

The pace that the game set is quite hectic, yet somehow you feel like sticking around in areas for a while (whether to hide from the Necromorphs or simply to read what people have written on the walls), the sound effects keep you on your toes with pipes and metal constantly clanging in the background (presumably as things walk/shuffle past it), Necomorphs growling in the airducts and so forth. I must say that there were quite a few moments where I looked back, thinking there was something when it was just an empty corridor.

Overall so far the game experience has been what had been promised in the reviews. Lots of pretty corridors to walk through, eerie sound, dismemberment (yes, for those who don't know yet, you need to dismember Necromorphs to kill them even taking off a head often doesn't stop them) and an apparently decent story (haven't gotten far enough to be a good judge of this).

Well, that's about all I have to say for the moment, if you really want to know more go and read about it on Wikipedia (Spoilers!!) or simply do a Google for "Dead Space Reviews" to get a more thorough overlook.

Now I really can't wait for this day to go away so I can go home and slice up some more Necros. If you haven't tried this game yet, go out there and buy it! If horror is not your thing though, I strongly suggest you give it a miss.

*R = ZAR (Currency of South Africa)

Random Ranting

Well I guess it's about time I write something again so let's see where this goes.
It would seem that I am once again trapped in one of those downwards spiral, almost self-destructive moods. Losing interest in a variety of things that had previously been pleasurable (reading manga, loss of the desire to finish my vector [about which I will blog once it's done], playing games and so forth).
Now I must point out that I am, at the least, mildly intrigued by this entire situation. It's not like I've done anything unusual, or asked for this in any way it just seem to happen. I guess that it is, at the core of it, nobody's fault but my own for allowing my mind to wander aimlessly (or not so aimlessly), but then again that is probably not it at least not in it's entirety. Maybe it's due to the fact that I mostly don't really exercise, or that I don't drink milk or that blah blah blah...
I guess the point is that it's not exactly easy to pinpoint why I become like this (else I would have done something about it ages ago). Maybe the truth is as easy as I am lazy (and believe me I am), or that I simply spend to much time pondering things which are no longer relevant.
Truth be told I am a little scared of what should happen this year and the things I must do. Now I know that I shouldn't be scared but I really can't help it, it is simply the way I am. I fear however, that this had cost me dearly in the past due to the fact that I rather run away from a situation instead of standing my ground and simply facing the problem. Maybe this is the reason that... well, never mind now that is a story for another post (if I ever feel like telling.)
Either way, I think this has gone on long enough, I have work to attend to after all.
Oh, I'm enrolling at the university on Thursday, this time round to study Bsc. IT (Going to be strange sitting in a first year class again, but there's no helping it.)
I guess I might regret posting this at some point in the future, but for now it doesn't really matter. Sorry for the complete randomness but that's just the way it is (there I go again, always apologizing )

Windows 7

Ok, let's see. This little rant of mine is probably not going to be as long as I had hoped to make it but oh well. I'm not going to re-iterate all of the things that had already been said about Windows 7 elsewhere on the net (just search for Windows 7 beta review and such and you'll get hundreds of hits), nor am I going to post a million screenshots or anything like that instead I am simply going to give my opinion about it.

When I first heard about Windows 7 I was fairly skeptical, saying all the things that other people said (This is what Vista should have been, should be a service pack, etc etc). Though due to my curiosity and my addiction to updates (and any software that is new) I decided to take the plunge and download the Windows 7 beta (yes, the non-torrent one, I find it worthless to format my computer for 30 days). I was quite disappointed that Microsoft planned to only hand out keys to the first 2.5 million to download and was desperate when the servers went down, but I must say that MS did a spectacular job bringing them back online and then deciding to provide keys until 24 January 09 to anyone interested. (If you haven't already or didn't know find the beta here)

Ok, now that that is out of the way lets get down to the beta. I decided to download the 64bit version as my PC has a 64bit processor and I had always wanted to test out a 64bit OS (my laptop shipped with Vista Home Premium 32bit, personally I think it is stupid to ship a 64bit laptop with a 32bit OS but oh well).

Installation was a breeze after writing the ISO image to a DVD. At a guess I'd say it took about 30 minutes but I didn't really time it so can't be certain. I was truly impressed by the way the installer had been streamlined since Vista, asking for minimal information until it finally present you with the create user option and then after that letting you log in.

I initially had some problems scraping together all of the drivers (Windows 7 didn't have my Bluetooth drivers nor did it have the drivers to handle my built in memory card reader but I found those on Toshiba's site so no-problems there) but all other hardware had drivers and I was ready to go in no time. I was also impressed by the way the new Solution center work, quickly pointing out where I should go to get the drivers.

After this it was time to appreciate the cleaned user interface, I must say that I love the new taskbar (yes, you may not agree with me, but that is your problem). I find it convenient that you can pin icons to it, which makes it easy to launch often used apps and find them quickly. I am crazy about the fact that you can finally rearrange icons on the taskbar (should have been implemented long ago) and the way the new preview thumbnails work. I like it that windows are now transparent whether they are maximized or small. I adore the fact that wallpapers change themselves natively instead of having to do it with some third party add-on. Overall, in the looks department, I must say that MS did a great job. I guess there are some things to nitpick about, but nothing that really bothers me that much (and I can always use the feedback option to complain to MS, beautiful).

The new libraries are awesome (though I always liked to keep my folder neat, but this makes it so much easier) making it a simple task to keep files of the same type grouped together even if they are spread over multiple disks. (I must admit I haven't tried this feature fully, but will do so in the next few days).

Networking was a breeze, easily installing the 3G modem (I had trouble doing this in Vista, but Windows 7 had no problems) and then quickly setting up an Internet share between my own and my aunt's PC.

I must also say that there seems to be no compatibility problems with programs (had an issue with Chrome as it doesn't want to work on a 64bit OS without an added switch, but this is in no way MS's fault and will most likely be fixed by Google soon, apparently it happens on all 64bit OSs).

I did find an interesting problem(?) with the experience index rating which now rates my laptop at 2.0 (due to my hard drive, rather weird but it does seem as if I am not the only one with the problem and I assume it will be fixed).

Overall thus, my impression of Windows 7 is very favorable. I must admit that I had always liked Vista (don't really know what other people's gripe is with it), but I must say that MS seemed to have surpassed themselves with 7, bringing out a beta that is so well polished, I can only imagine what the final product will be. And yes, I know that there will always be people who will complain about it (as they did with Vista, as they did with XP) but to them I say, get a grip and go with the flow, or switch to Linux [then we'll hear the siren song of complaints]. (Anyways if you want to complain, do it better yourself and only then do you really have the right to moan).

Mmm... Seems as if this has run on far longer than I had suspected.

Well, that in a nutshell is my thoughts about Windows 7. Yes, I know some people will hate me for this, but as I said, that is their problem. Each unto his own. To MS I must say, a job well done! My faith in you is definitely renewed! Keep it up!

To blog or not to blog

Ok, well so this is my blog.

I've been considering for a while now whether or not to start a blog and have finally decided to take the plunge.

So, what will I blog about?

To be honest, I am not entirely certain.

I guess I'll mostly complain about things that bother me (work, technology, family, whatever), things that intrest me (technology, manga, anime) or other random whatevers.

If you don't want to read this, that is fine by me too, this is about ME after all.

So smile, smile and let's see where this goes.

Oh, my first (after this) rant will be something about Windows 7.

See ya soon!

CuteD34th