I have some interesting ideas of stuff to post. One such idea might get me thrown into a vat of tar or burning oil, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. The reason I have not been posting is because I finished up Psych Midterm II (out of four) last week. And it usually follows that in the aftermath, I am lazy as hell. So, on the weekend, I played through the entirety of Half-Life 2. During this playthrough, I discovered that I had never beaten the game completely before. Since my brother and I played at the same time, my save files were typically overridden by his. So…I would just load a new game from the “section” or “level” of the game where I thought I had left off. As a result, I actually skipped two sections of the game en route to completing it. Boy do I feel stupid.

As a result of this, I felt the game was even MORE fantastic than I had ever thought before. I have downloaded Half-Life Episode One. I started playing it yesterday, but some textures were missing so I had to download an update. All of the steel walls in the citadel appeared without a skin at all (it was a purple-black checkerboard pattern underneath) and certain types of debris were invisible. This made navigating a narrow walkway on a ridge impossible. I kept hitting something and falling off the edge.

Anyway, Episode One and Two should be complete when I get home from work tonight. If they both work, I will post it up here and let everyone know. That way, if you need a copy, I can hook you up. Fo’ sho’.

To conclude, I just want to leave you with this peculilar thought that struck me once while watching Heroes.

If Claire can regenerate any part of her body after it has been damaged or removed, doesn’t that mean that - biologically - she will always be a virgin? Think about it.

Last Friday, I got out of work an hour early because the Associate Dean of Co-operative Studies had a retirement party. So, prior to leaving work, I looked up Andrew’s schedule on Quest and found the room number for his last Friday class. Unfortunately, class got out ten minutes before I even left. Instead of going to the Davis Centre, I walked over to Waterloo Court to see if Andrew wanted to hang out and get reimbursed the 20 bucks I owe him. I walked along in my traditional “I am walking alone so I am in a daze” walk. Along the way, I passed Wolfgang (who greeted me) and some girl (Tingles, perhaps?), and I was so firmly entrenched in my daze that I gave a delayed greeting and only realized who it was afterwards. Pretty stupid…I know.

But back to finding Andrew.

His stylish loft apartment was vacant when I arrived. I waited around the entrance to see if he would come back, but he did not show. I thought about throwing my copy of Imprint at his window (a more suitable use than reading it), but I did not want to break anything or get in trouble for throwing shit at stuff. So, I started to trace the route between Waterloo Court and the Davis Centre. I circled the Davis Centre library and found a whole lot of nothing. Not a single Andrew to be found.

Change of subject following in 3…2…1…

I got home and browsed the selection of articles in the Stratford Gazette. I was please to see an article by Tori Sutton that pointed out to the citizens of Stratford how having MMP in the past election would have changed things dramatically. It was - in essence - the same as the blog post that I made on the issue. Except it was edited better and there weren’t any comments. :P  All in all, this is probably the one good article I have ever read in the Gazette. Everything else was about the Wal-Mart. The citizens still claim Wal-Mart will destroy the downtown core, even though analysts and consultants have detailed the contrary in various reports. And so, I have to wonder, why do people hate Wal-Mart so much?

People are talking about the future.

And - to be honest - I cannot figure out why they are saying what they are saying.

Developers and publishing companies are gazing into the bright lights of the future and seeing a single gaming system atop a Grecian pedastal. From a developer standpoint, this desire actually makes a lot of sense. Multiple consoles tend to restrict both the advancement of technology and creativity.

Video games are costing more and more to make and they are requiring larger and larger teams of developers, designers, and artists to make them. In order to get a decent return on their investment, more and more game developing houses are breaking away from the shackles of exclusivity agreements and going multi-platform. However, this “software polygamy” brings with it another problem. Developers must always cater to the lowest denominator when it comes to system specs. A game that is intended to be released on the Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 will have to cater to the graphical capabilities of the Wii because it is the ‘weakest’ of the three. As a result, developers hands are frequently tied when it comes to trying out interesting new features in gameplay.

Take - for example - Portal. This is a game that would have never functioned on the Wii. The processing power just is not present. However, the XBox 360 could handle it (as could the PS3 and PC). So, they catered (roughly) to the lowest common denominator (the 360) and went from there. Portal could have likely done a lot more if they had designed it for an extremely high-end PC. But then the return on that product would have been low (because who has the money to own and operate a supercomputer these days).

In addition to these technological restrictions, multi-platform can reduce creativity. You can not explore the stories, atmopsheres, and types of gameplay on multiple systems that you would have the freedom for on a single powerful system. Not to mention the fact that some consoles cater to the lowest common denominator of age (kiddies beg parents to buy games). As a result, some developers may get stuck working in a developing house that is constantly making the next ‘Donald Duck’ game for the Nintendo DS, or the next movie tie-in. Now, this is unavoidable. Someone has to make these games. Developers should be thankful that they actually have a job.

And - for publishers - I can obviously understand the desire to consolidate. Look at EA. It struts around like Kirby and enhales everything. EA is slowly engulfing more and more of the individual developers and publishers that comprise the gaming industry. Soon it is going to be something like EA-Consolidated Publishing that produces every game in existence.

But that is neither here nor there.

The group that a single console future affects is, obviously, the consumer. Imagine if the Sony PS3 was the only console on the market right now. Then we would have to deal with this. And that is just bad news. Plus, they do not even have to try anymore. Why would anyone make quality video games if the consumer has no alternative? Why would they provided their products at a reasonable price if there is no alternative? If the PS3 was the only system on the market, smaller developers would die out (they would not have the operating to create a Playstation 3 game).

And - eventually - the gaming development industry would become this “old boys club” where an unenthusiastic developer community would recycle the same engine over and over and make uncreative games. It would be a monopoly. And I think gaming would suffer from that more than it does from developers having to develop from the lowest common denominator or (if they’re ballsy enough) choose which system to get behind.

Where do you think the future will take us on this issue?

Thursday and Friday at work were chaotic. The first-year math students had their enrolment appointments (meaning they could enrol in their classes) and there was a horrible scheduling error. Essentially, there was not enough room in the core math courses to accomodate all of these students. Anyone with a late enrolment appointment got completely shafted, and had to come into the MC to be enrolled into their classes.

As a consequence, students arrived in herds to get assistance. I am quite sure that I have not met 50% or more of the first-year mathematics students. And there are still more who are not in their classes (hurray for Mondays…) I have been told the whole situation will work itself out because - apparently - this happens every year. Apparently, the entirety of scheduling relies on the fact that students will - invariably - fail their first-year courses. Since it would cost more to schedule an additional section, they rely on the shortcomings of students to assist in scheduling and budgeting. This is a depressing fact, but it is true.

This weekend, my brother came home for ‘Reading Week’ (the biggest bullshit University practice ever), and - since my ride home from Waterloo was somewhere between Peterborough and the Homeland - I was forced to spend the night in Waterloo. So, I made arrangements to crash at the home of Jacob (The Hair) and Dan (The Korean). Ian (The Money) was also in town. So, it was a regular ol’ reunion. The only people from the North 3 crew that were missing were Mark (Friar Lawrence) and Margueritte (The Baker of Pi).

Since I will be living with the Hair, the Money and Friar Lawrence next term, this was an interesting experience. There are 10 people crammed into this two story house, and the entire place - being student housing - is in a horrible state of disrepair. There is no doubt in my mind that the entire building violates a dozen or more safety guidelines and local by-laws. Thankfully, when the four of us are rooming, we will actually be living in the Cliv (aka CLV).

Anyway, the Hair works until the ungodly hour of 8 in the evening, so he is absent from the start of the story. I met up with the Money and the Korean, and we made the incredibly lengthy journey to the dilapidated shack that the Korean calls home. We got there. Played some Double Dash and SSBM. The Hair popped in to eat his lunch. And then he was gone. We all agreed that we were thoroughly famished as well, and (with Merc onboard) departed for the Plaza to get some pitas (which seems to be the most popular form of nourishment amongst university types). I grabbed my usual - something crammed full of bacon - and consumed it frantically.

During our meal, I told the lovely story about my youngest sister being asked at school about Portuguese Breakfast. She had no idea what that meant…and was told to look it up on Urban Dictionary. Check it out yourself. I can assure you that there is nothing Portuguese about it. And if I ever meet the little prick who brought this up with Tori, I will kick his ass. Damn high school punks.

Anyway, we left Pita Factory and made the same incredibly long journey back to the dilapidated shack. Merc abandoned us to retreat to his room and play Portal (and I did not blame him). The Hair arrived home shortly after we did, and we all settled down to play an intense game of Risk. Unfortunately, we played with the rules of “place your shit wherever”, and so the game started off with Asia and Australia already heavily fortified by the forces of the Money (who we began to refer to as ‘The Sun God’ because of the devestation that lay in his wake. I was trapped between Europe and North America. The Hair was in South America and Europe. And the Korean was scattered between all of Africa and the Middle East. Needless to say, the Money conquered the planet. I attempted to mount an offensive from Alaska to Kamchatka…but thirty of my guys were horrible slaughtered by his twelve. It was embarassing. And - since his turn followed mine - he reinforced the Alaskan-Kamchatkan front.

After Risk, we went back to playing video games the old fashioned way. We started playing Age of Wonders on the Hair’s computer, but we all found ourselves hungry again. It was 1:30 in the morning. And we decided to go to Mel’s. For those who do not know…Mel’s Diner is a nice little place in the plaza that has 24 hour breakfast on weekends. When you go inside, you will feel as if you stepped into a combination of Jack Rabbit Slim’s and Lou’s Diner. I was tempted to order a Five Dollar Shake and ‘something without any sugar’.

Instead, I ordered some eggs, ham, home fries, toast, and a bowl of onion rings (I fucking love onion rings). After downing our meals, we hit the road for our third incredibly long journey to the dilapidated shack. After we returned, we were all so fucking tired that we all passed out. The Money (who was spending the whole weekend there) had a sleeping bag. He got all the cushions in the house and made a bed on the floor. I slept on a partially uncushioned couch with my jacket as a pillow. No complaints. If I am tired enough, I could sleep through a nuclear holocaust. I woke up at 10:00 in the morning, and delved back into Melee again. The sound of me playing awoke some other residents who were drawn forth to play. And - up until 2 o’clock, we played Melee. Pokeball fights (I kept getting useless as shit Pokemon), Giant melees with DKs on Fourside, and all sorts of fun stuff. Eventually, I stopped playing to examine the iPod Touch that the Money had acquired since we parted ways in August. It was awesome. I watched some Portal videos on Youtube (I’m obsessed), and browsed the web on Safari. It is brilliant. Leave it to Apple to make the best interface available.

The only suitable way to describe it is to reference Minority Report. Do you know how Tom Cruise just moves his hands to zoom in, zoom out, rewind, fast forward or rotate objects. It is exactly like that. It was unbelievable. I sat there for ten minutes enlarging and shrinking the focus on a news article. It was awesome. If I had the money, I would totally invest in one of those. However, I have aversions to spending.

I was supposed to call for a ride, but I was swept up in the excitement. Somehow, my dad showed up to pick me up at the house without prompting. It was very strange. Anyway, I beat it the hell out of there and came home to study for Psychology. Three weeks of reading in one and a half days. Boo yah. Wish me luck.

It is beginning to look like acquiring Half-Life 2 through a retailer would be the most effective way of playing the game. Despite this, I cannot justify the purchase. How do I hate purchasing computer games? Let me count the ways:

1. My personal computer is a piece of shit laptop that is good for typing, listening to music, watching videos, and playing games that are equivalent in requirements to Half-Life. Yes. The original. Purchasing a new game that will not even run on the system I am shackled to for two-thirds of the year does not seem to be a sensible purchase. The only reason I was able to play Portal was because of my desktop at home.

2. I need to save all of my co-op money for school. Yeah. Between what I make on my co-op term and what I have to spend for school, I usually end up breaking even. Which - of course - means that I have absolutely not dispensible income. And that sucks balls. It is also what has forced me to delve into the pirate underground to get a taste of television shows, movies, and computer games that would  be unavailable to me in a perfect capitalist society.

3. Our dollar is currently equivalent to or better than the American dollar. However, prices in Canada have yet to adjust for the difference. So, in Canada, we are literally paying 10 or 20 dollars more for the same games available in the United States. And - to be quite frank - this is bullshit. I have abstained from purchasing anything but the necessities until this situation resolves itself. That’s right. No Phantom Hourglass. No Half-Life 2. No Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles. No fuckin’ Super Smash Bros. Brawl if it comes right down to it.

I do not like to spend money if I can avoid it. It is one of the reasons that I generally prefer to do nothing. Doing something tends to cost money. And I do not like to lose money. I did not have an allowance or anything when I was little. So I always had to budget the Christmas money that I received from my relatives to last throughout the whole of the year (and sometimes into the next year). And because of this, I try to avoid spending money on as much as I can. And anything I do end up getting, I usually spend an absurd amount of time obsessing over.

I hate this pricing bullshit. It is really pissing me off. I hope that if any of you are buying anything while our dollars are 1:1, you should order it from the states. Our dollar has been slightly better off, which means we get a touch more for our dollar down there. And, since the prices are cheaper in the US already (due to a lack of an adjustment), you save even more. A lot of big online retailers have shipping == free when you order a purchase over a certain dollar value. And if you are buying electronics, you usually surpass that threshold easily.

Alas, alas.

This is the first of my Brawl predictions to effectively and completely get disproven.

Little Mac will be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl…but only as an Assist Trophy.

He looks really cool in 3D. Cooler than I thought he’d look. He definitely should have been a playable character…and when I saw his name this morning my heart skipped a beat. But, alas, Little Mac is lost to us.