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.

The Continued Story of Marty Stinestein- Part 2: Its Business Time

Note: This post does not contain any plot spoilers from any side quests or main quests. Though throughout this series some of the consequences of stupid actions in Fallout 3 will be revealed.

After a week of exploring the wasteland, Marty has become a successful businessman owning TWO fancy suits, a fedora hat, a nice multilevel home (with no toilet), and... his own ROBOT BUTLER. Unfortunately, his new employers did not like the rugged adventure look. To please his boss, he got a slick new haircut and shaved his beard (he kept his mustache). Now, lets see a snapshot of Marty's life and learn what happens when you piss off your robot butler (Spoiler Alert: it doesn't end well).

Marty wakes after a restful night's sleep and is almost ready to face the world.

Marty heads downstairs and asks his robot butler, Wadsworth, to tell him a joke so he can start his day off on the right foot. Wadsworth responds that his joke emitters need to recharge which angers Marty.

Next Marty heads to his locker so he can get dressed for work.

Look how stylish Marty looks in his suit and hat.

Marty draws his assault rifle to take care of some unfinished business. "What do you mean your joke emitter needs to recharge, how hard is it to tell a joke?... Oy!"

It doesn't end well.

So, this week we learned that it is not a good idea to attack your robot butler (even if you think he deserved it).

Shalom, and tune in next week for... The Continued Story of Marty Stinestein- Part 3 where we will find out what happens when you, uh?... do something. I'll tell you what, if you have any ideas for what Marty should explore next submit it in the comments.

Video Game Violence and the Link to Actual Violence with "Scientific Evidence"

Via Kotaku I just watched an episode of Penn & Teller's BullSh*t outlining the problem of video game violence and discussing the link to real violence. Now (as it is easy to tell by reading this blog) I am a gamer and do tend to play violent video games so I don't think there is much of a link between fantasy violence and real violence (at least among emotionally stable adults). Yet some individuals that I know have big problems with this stating that a) Violent video games will make an individual more violent and b) gaming is a socially isolating experience. If you know anyone like this I recommend that they watch this show.

I will concede that playing too many video games violent or otherwise is bad (after all too much of anything is bad). Playing too many games can lead to repetitive motion injuries (ie. Carpal tunnel syndrome), eye strain, and in the long run the sedentary lifestyle associated with gaming can lead to obesity. But gaming alone does not make kids more violent. Most (not all) kids learn the difference between right and wrong, and fantasy and reality at an early age. If they can make this distinction, acts of "simulated violence" shouldn't lead to real violence.

The program feaures Jack Thompson and other anti-video game activists who give there two cents as to why they feel that video games are destroying today's youth (which is fairly entertaining on its own merit because of how ill informed these people are), but also features the views of gamers, researchers, and others that don't feel that video games are infecting today's youth. Oh, and they also let a 9 year-old gamer fire an AR-15 assault rifle (can you guess what happens?). So I encourage you to watch this show which has been embedded in three parts below. Though I feel that I need to mention (and I know I'm not the first to say this but...) that it is up to parents to pay attention to there kids (and the games/ amount of time they play), not government regulations.

Also, as a scientist I feel obligated to point out that correlation doesn't equal causality. No Jack Thompson there is not a "CAUSAL LINK" between "teens playing violent video games and increased aggression by teens" (the word you may be looking for is "correlation" assuming that a "substantial body of...evidence" actually exists).

PART 1



PART 2



PART 3

Introducing Marty Stinestein

I bought Fallout 3 during Steam's half-off sale and began playing with my character Marty Stinestein last night (the first name Gordan goes over the character limit).

He specializes in barter, science, and energy weapons. I'm really bad a picking skills for this type of game so I'm sort of going to have to learn as I go. I have a feeling this game will be quite fun, though I don't like how your personal vendettas against livestock get the whole town on your case...sheesh who would have thought cows were sacred in post apocalyptic Washington DC. Anyway...without further adeu.... here's Marty!

Marty sits and ponders something

Marty may have a big nose but hes got a heart of gold...wait, what?

Marty bonds with his new friend who proceeds to call him a wanker and walks away...how rude!

News! Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead DLC, and USB Microwaves!

1.) Steam's Weekend deal is Fallout 3! Originally priced at $50, it will be $25 until midday Monday July 6. I've heard that this is a great game and this may be a great opportunity to purchase it if you (like me) are a little on the fence about buying Fallout 3. See Chris Livingston's 1fort.com and Pentadact's "Fallout Girl" for some great storytelling in Fallout 3.

2.) In a recent interview with Computer and Video Games. com Doug Lombardi of VALVe (best Games Developer EVAR FTW) announced plans to announce(confusing right) a new DLC pack for Left 4 Dead by the end of the summer. Lombardi's world are below:

"We plan to keep supporting Left 4 Dead 1. There will be some announcements coming before summer's out about what's coming there, and then we haven't shown everything that's in Left 4 Dead 2 yet."


Hopefully the new DLC includes some of the features announced in Left 4 Dead Too (melee combat for example). Though I really do believe that L4D Too is offering a great new experience (after all, the second half of that quote mentions that there are still plenty of new features in L4D Too that haven't been announced). (Story seen via Kotaku)

3.) This last story as seen on Gizmodo.com (follow the link to see the Beanzawave in action) Heinz is currently developing a small desktop microwave called the Beanzawave. It is powered by rechargable batteries and presumably will also be powered via USB. I can image this being used as an excuse by large corporations to cut lunch breaks ("What do you need a break for, you can make Beanz at your desk?" MI rite) or for some gamers simply too busy to go to their kitchen to make their beans and hotpockets. This invention is sure to revolutionize desktop eating for years to come.

Happy Fourth of July ol chaps!

Shalom