SWEEDISH MEET BALES

According to a recent google search this is the first time these words (Sweedish Meet Bales) have been used together in the history of the internet.

Meatballs seem so crude as a concept, while they are quite delicious. Bales of meat, however, would be a much more elegant solution. If it works for hay why not meat?

Image this as a bale of meat

Swedish meatballs I would say are the epitome of meatbally goodness, so Swedish Meat Bales would naturally take this to a WHOLE different level.

So to this i say, try some SWEEDISH MEET BALES!!!!!!111111111111111

mmm, tasty

Design a game month conlusion

Yeah, so everyone lost on that design a game month thing. I drew a lot of art for my ongoing project, but basically what I learned was....

GAME DESIGN IS HARD!!!!

DESIGN A GAME MONTH

Inspired by Tom Francis' announcement that he is making a game, using the free tool called Game Maker which claims to make it possible for you to make games without knowing how to write code. In light of this development I've decided to declare this the first annual Half-Life Jew presents the Official Jew Approved Design a Game Month.

The Task: 1). During the month of May, create the game of your dreams.
2). Its ok if you don't get finished (I probably won't)
3). Have Fun
4). At the end of the month the entries will be shared
5). There will be a prize of little consequence to the winner




.

This Blog's NOT DEAD!

Yay! isn't that great news. I suppose I've been a bit busy recently but now I'm back. But did Marty make the trip (remember him?)? Probably not I think he got eaten by a molerat...he might have lived though. Anyhoo just wanted to let you know that I have some contests and new posts to post soon. So if you stuck around thanks.

Happy Hanukkah (or is it Chanukah)

Oy! is it Hanukkah already? Yes it is, Yay! To celebrate I have written a Hanukkah poem for you all.

The light from the Menorah
creates oh such an aura
so lets read from the torah
while on latkes we dine
and drink Manischewitz wine
"Save a glass for me!"
cried Judah Maccabee
as he saved Jerusalem for all time


We can spin our dreidel
all over the table
while we hear of the fables
of that long burning oil
When "gimmel" was shouted
Nobody doubted
that to the victor goes the spoils
I did oblige and
gave you my chocolate in the gold foil

Happy Hanukkah!!!

The Demo Fan

Dear Loyal readers, thank you for sticking with me. I have been fairly busy of late with both work and job hunting... and you know the whole laziness thing. But I'm back so don't worry.

No I haven't forgotten about Marty Stinestein. I realized that Fallout 3 gives the player a great world to play in, but the quests themselves don't thrill me as much as just exploring that world. So Marty has taken on the role of a photojournalist, telling stories about the wasteland with his pictures. Right now he is en route to Tenpenny Towers with a brief stop at the Robco museum. I should have a post about his latest adventure up soon (if you still care about him).

As for the title of this post, I have been played some great demos recently that are worth mentioning. The first is the obvious choice to discuss... Left 4 Dead Too (also known as Left 4 Dead 2 or Left 5 Dead). The demo, which only features the campaign mode versions of the first 2 maps of The Parish campaign, feels similar to Left 4 Dead (which is a good thing in my opinion). The new boss infected seem interesting (though I'd love to know how they handle themselves in a finale), some of the melee weapons like the guitar and machete are a lot of fun to handle, and the magnum pistol is fantastic. But ultimately this demo leaves me wanting more (like the rest of the campaign). I trust Valve so I don't doubt that the new game will be better than the first Left 4 Dead, but we'll need to wait until the full version of the game is out to see exactly how different the Left 4 Dead too Experience will be.

The second demo I want to talk about is for a little game called Torchlight. The game is essentially a remake of Diablo (or so I'm told as I've never actually played Diablo). It lets you chose a character that can either be an alchemist (wizard), destroyer(fighter), or vanquisher (ranger). I created an alchemist named Niels Bohr and began by going into a mine with my pet cat, and we began killing the baddies by furiously clicking on them. It is a simple game but seems to be a lot of fun. Screenshots are below, the free demo is at the very least worth playing, the full game is $20 and provides over 30 levels (dungeons) of clicking on enemies and watching numbers pop up over their heads.

Well, I guess this leather armor will have to do instead of a labcoat

Some screenshot of Niels Bohr (left) attacking a boss (right)

Why I'm Not Playing Fallout 3 Right Now

As you will probably notice "The Continued Story of Marty Stinestein" has not been updated in a while. The reason for this is simply that I have not been playing Fallout 3. Below I've made a list (in no particular order) of the reasons why I haven't been playing Fallout 3. Please note that this list is in no way meant to discredit Bethesda Softworks who made an excellent game and my problems with the game are merely my own personal hang-ups.

1) Fallout 3 is Huge- there is a lot that you can do in Fallout 3 and the thought that I could easily spend 80-100 hours exploring the wasteland , and also that fact that I will probably miss something (or several things) that are really cool makes me hesitant to play it.

2) Orienteering- While questing I focus on my compass and map and arriving at the next spot on a quest line more than the actual purpose for my travels. This makes quests seem trivial and takes a lot of the emotion out of playing.

3) Metro Stations- In a similar vein to point number 2, navigating the metro stations is difficult (due to the large population of ghouls) but also the number of caverns and hallways that lead away from where I'm trying to go. While its true that I'm not great at navigating I tend to end up back where I started a lot more often than I would want.

4) Lack of Ammo- Ammo is not that plentiful in the world and traders are few and far between. Though this is not bad in and of itself, it is complicated by the high cost of ammo from the traders and the number of hits required to kill an enemy (which can be quite a lot). The VATS system also thinks that you are made of bullets and will fire a burst from a semi-automatic or automatic weapon when you choose to shoot an enemy once.

5) Weight in Pack- While I think that a weight limit in your inventory is reasonable and helps to make the experience more realistic, I often find myself becoming over encumbered because I wary to get rid of something that may be useful later. I also suppose that part of the problem is that I don't know what is useful/ worth money.

6) Broken Housebot- My housebot in Megaton, Wadsworth, is as far as I'm concerned broken. The joke emitter takes a fairly long time to recharge, and I fear that his condensation emitter will be recharging infinitely, dashing my hopes for free purified water.

8) NPCs Don't Acknowledge My Fashion Sense- Marty has an impeccable fashion sense and loves to wear fancy suits in business districts and his lab coat in the various laboratories. He tries really hard to look good (and in my opinion succeeds) yet the other characters don't seem to notice or give him complements.

Ok, that last one was kind of a joke. Some of these issues are fixable with mods and Fallout 3 is not a lost cause for me as I will return to this game sometime soon. I am also occupied with several other games including: Opposing Force, Shadow Complex (Xbox 360), and Trine.