To this day I don't understand why Canada has to be bilingual. We English speakers make up most of the population of this country. Francophones are just the vocal minority.
Course, I'm probably just a wee bit pissed because I'm thoroughly mono-linguistic (although I admit I have designs on being fluent in Sindarin, not that that's particularly widely spoken) and I just had to make a warranty call to somewhere in Quebec. It irritates me when I'm clearly speaking accent-free English and I can hear the lady I'm talking to speaking in French to her co-worker without shame. Dude. I'm right here. I can hear you - and I can't understand you. It's incredibly rude, in my opinion.
Last night I hung out with some friends. We had tacos on the porch and played darts and pool, and the six-pack of Lonetree cider I brought disappeared very quickly, most of it not down my throat. I failed epically at darts, but actually did surprisingly well at pool - it was girls vs guys, and we would have won except I accidentally potted the white while trying to get the eight-ball out. At the end of the night, I grabbed three cans and a bottle, two things in each hand, to carry upstairs. At that moment, a pool cue fell, so I caught it. Picture this: left hand, a can held by my thumb and index, and a bottle between my index and middle fingers; and right hand, from thumb to ring finger, similarly holding two cans and a pool cue. So far so good. So I went to put the pool cue back in the stand, and just as I managed to get it to clip into the bit at the top, one of the cans fell out of my right hand and bounced smack off the top of my head. Moral of the story: put down the bottle and cans before you try to do anything involving hand-eye-coordination. Although, it was pretty funny timing.
Also, because you care so much, this is the end of the Saga of the Haggis: I ate the last of it for lunch today.
I just have to laugh at all the people who get all grossed out by the fact that I'm eating haggis. It's really not as gross as you'd think, I swear!
I have a laptop at work today that I'm supposed to image with a specific image - and it refuses to take it. Dammit Toshiba why?! I've tried at least five different ways of getting it to image, and it just refuses. At the moment I've got it on my lap instead of the desk behind me, so I can keep a closer eye on it, and hopefully see what it is that's breaking so badly. Aaaaand nope. It still broke. WHY.
On the subject of laptops, I installed Steam on mine this morning before work, and started it downloading Portal. Hell yeah. It was about 40% when I left. I have yet to upgrade the RAM in it, but that will happen before I start playing. And on the subject of gaming, I'm definitely going to go out and get an HDMI adaptor for the monitor I bought so that I can use my OUYA with it. Who needs a TV?
Happy Friday, everyone.
Toodles.
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
12.7.13
3.6.13
Thoughts on the OUYA.
This weekend I catsat for a friend. This friend was generous enough to let me bring my OUYA over and use her tv to try it out - because she does have a nice big tv. As a result, I got several hours to mess around and figure out how it worked and all, and these are my initial thoughts.
_________________
Pairing the controller: fairly easy, though not particularly intuitive, because the button you use isn't obviously a button. It usually reconnects without problem at successive bootups.
Attaching to wifi: not too bad. But the UI for switching from the keyboard to wifi popup is less intuitive than pairing the controller was. Also, it got confused after I logged in as myself, and decided it was no longer attached to the wifi, and wouldn't scan properly. Fortunately, it's Android. All I had to do was turn wifi off and back on again in the settings, and voila. Wifi restored.
The UI in general takes some getting used to, and there's a funny little touchpad in the controller itself, between the left analog stick and the four buttons which, when you put your finger on it, shows up as a mouse on the screen. The GUI is not the greatest - not a fan of the colour scheme, mostly - but the labels and menus are not too hard to understand, though some of the game categories aren't clearly indicative of what they mean. I do wish there was an option in the games menu for "Newest games".
Indeed, most of any beef I have with the OUYA is with the games themselves. Not even with the quality (which, I have to admit, isn't the most amazing ever, but it's definitely tolerable) but with the button mapping and the fact that it's near impossible to properly exit a handful of them.
The button mapping is the biggest problem - in most cases they make sense, but one or two games use the buttons completely differently than any other game, or even the OUYA menu itself. In an OUYA context, usually the A button means "go back". In a few of the games I tried, it does no such thing. If you want to go back you have to press some other button. It's frustrating, but that's just one example.
As far as exiting games, sometimes the only thing you can do is press the center button (the same semi-hidden one I mentioned, for pairing controllers) - similarly to the Home button on an Android phone. As far as I'm aware, that is just like minimising the game, and it's still in the background. I could be wrong. But if that is the case, that's really impractical and simply takes up memory.
I did have a fun time messing around with Final Fantasy III - first time I've played FF of any kind. Yes, I was a sheltered child. But now I have joined the ranks of gamers everywhere. Or something like that, I think.
I also found a puzzle game vaguely reminiscent of Portal, called Polarity; I'm quite looking forward to playing that one through, it looks promising.
Overall game quality was not quite up to playstation/xbox standards, particularly in the graphics department, but I don't find that particularly offputting. I rather found it endearing more than anything. Although some of the games available were in a highly unfinished state, which I found frustrating. The other frustrating thing is the low number of currently available games, but I'm sure more will come.
In summary, I feel like the OUYA is for adult gamers what the Wii is for kids; a fun toy. I don't mean that in a condescending way, what I mean is that it doesn't look like it'll have big shiny expensive games, but it doesn't need those either. It has its share of darker games already, but it still feels much more light-hearted and relaxed. If that even makes sense. It doesn't have any delusions of grandeur - it's got a swingset and hopscotch to play with, and it's happy there.
Also, as someone who hasn't really played video games til now, it was fairly easy to get the hang of, which says they did something right.
And I enjoyed it, too.
So that's my initial impression. I can't wait til I have a proper screen to attach it to, so I can play through Polarity properly.
Toodles!
_________________
Pairing the controller: fairly easy, though not particularly intuitive, because the button you use isn't obviously a button. It usually reconnects without problem at successive bootups.
Attaching to wifi: not too bad. But the UI for switching from the keyboard to wifi popup is less intuitive than pairing the controller was. Also, it got confused after I logged in as myself, and decided it was no longer attached to the wifi, and wouldn't scan properly. Fortunately, it's Android. All I had to do was turn wifi off and back on again in the settings, and voila. Wifi restored.
The UI in general takes some getting used to, and there's a funny little touchpad in the controller itself, between the left analog stick and the four buttons which, when you put your finger on it, shows up as a mouse on the screen. The GUI is not the greatest - not a fan of the colour scheme, mostly - but the labels and menus are not too hard to understand, though some of the game categories aren't clearly indicative of what they mean. I do wish there was an option in the games menu for "Newest games".
Indeed, most of any beef I have with the OUYA is with the games themselves. Not even with the quality (which, I have to admit, isn't the most amazing ever, but it's definitely tolerable) but with the button mapping and the fact that it's near impossible to properly exit a handful of them.
The button mapping is the biggest problem - in most cases they make sense, but one or two games use the buttons completely differently than any other game, or even the OUYA menu itself. In an OUYA context, usually the A button means "go back". In a few of the games I tried, it does no such thing. If you want to go back you have to press some other button. It's frustrating, but that's just one example.
As far as exiting games, sometimes the only thing you can do is press the center button (the same semi-hidden one I mentioned, for pairing controllers) - similarly to the Home button on an Android phone. As far as I'm aware, that is just like minimising the game, and it's still in the background. I could be wrong. But if that is the case, that's really impractical and simply takes up memory.
I did have a fun time messing around with Final Fantasy III - first time I've played FF of any kind. Yes, I was a sheltered child. But now I have joined the ranks of gamers everywhere. Or something like that, I think.
I also found a puzzle game vaguely reminiscent of Portal, called Polarity; I'm quite looking forward to playing that one through, it looks promising.
Overall game quality was not quite up to playstation/xbox standards, particularly in the graphics department, but I don't find that particularly offputting. I rather found it endearing more than anything. Although some of the games available were in a highly unfinished state, which I found frustrating. The other frustrating thing is the low number of currently available games, but I'm sure more will come.
In summary, I feel like the OUYA is for adult gamers what the Wii is for kids; a fun toy. I don't mean that in a condescending way, what I mean is that it doesn't look like it'll have big shiny expensive games, but it doesn't need those either. It has its share of darker games already, but it still feels much more light-hearted and relaxed. If that even makes sense. It doesn't have any delusions of grandeur - it's got a swingset and hopscotch to play with, and it's happy there.
Also, as someone who hasn't really played video games til now, it was fairly easy to get the hang of, which says they did something right.
And I enjoyed it, too.
So that's my initial impression. I can't wait til I have a proper screen to attach it to, so I can play through Polarity properly.
Toodles!
30.5.13
TL;DR: I got stuff, went places, did things, ate food, went to work, lifted stuff, and have an opinion.
The last couple of days has been mildly interesting.
Some news that any of you readery types who aren't friends with me on facebook won't have seen: my OUYA arrived on Tuesday. It's a teeny tiny game console built on Android. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to try it out, because I don't have a TV. I do have a computer monitor coming, eventually (i.e. when I can pay for it), so that's what I'll be hooking it up to, but in the meantime I might go over to the parental carbon units' place of residence and see if they have an appropriate screen I can try it out on. Because gaming. And when not gaming, the monitor will be attached to my laptop. Because dual monitors. I have dual monitors at work and it's glorious; I need this in my house.
Tuesday I also went for a walk in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver with my friend and her sister. The park was so beautiful, even in the rain. Plus, just for kicks I piggybacked my friend for a good long distance, and due to her height she has several pounds on me, so I felt strong after that. Was fun.
Yesterday I was in a regional IT staff meeting from 8.30 am til 3.ish pm. My boss was there too, and he actually told me not to bother coming in to work after that, since I get off work at 4, so there was no point in even starting work. It was kind of odd - but they ordered pizza for everyone, so hey, free food is free; I'm not going to object.
The other thing yesterday was the whole my-phone-is-on-crack-let's-take-it-apart thing. I'm so glad that got sorted out (even though I have no idea how).
Today I got in to work to find that a bunch of ceiling tiles had taken a holiday away from my office due to flooding. As far as I know, they were the only things that really took a hit, happily. Then I got summoned to set up a computer - yay for crawling around unceremoniously on the floor. My boss and I also muscled around a Xerox colour laser printer, and he asked me afterwards if my back was okay - "Yeah," I said, "I've deadlifted more than that before." And I have. I've lifted over my own bodyweight in deadlifts before. Damn, I love deadlifts, and they even come in handy in the real world. HAH.
In closing: I think that Comic Sans is really not appropriate for work emails, and I don't understand the users who choose to make it their default.
Toodles!
Some news that any of you readery types who aren't friends with me on facebook won't have seen: my OUYA arrived on Tuesday. It's a teeny tiny game console built on Android. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to try it out, because I don't have a TV. I do have a computer monitor coming, eventually (i.e. when I can pay for it), so that's what I'll be hooking it up to, but in the meantime I might go over to the parental carbon units' place of residence and see if they have an appropriate screen I can try it out on. Because gaming. And when not gaming, the monitor will be attached to my laptop. Because dual monitors. I have dual monitors at work and it's glorious; I need this in my house.
Tuesday I also went for a walk in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver with my friend and her sister. The park was so beautiful, even in the rain. Plus, just for kicks I piggybacked my friend for a good long distance, and due to her height she has several pounds on me, so I felt strong after that. Was fun.
Yesterday I was in a regional IT staff meeting from 8.30 am til 3.ish pm. My boss was there too, and he actually told me not to bother coming in to work after that, since I get off work at 4, so there was no point in even starting work. It was kind of odd - but they ordered pizza for everyone, so hey, free food is free; I'm not going to object.
The other thing yesterday was the whole my-phone-is-on-crack-let's-take-it-apart thing. I'm so glad that got sorted out (even though I have no idea how).
Today I got in to work to find that a bunch of ceiling tiles had taken a holiday away from my office due to flooding. As far as I know, they were the only things that really took a hit, happily. Then I got summoned to set up a computer - yay for crawling around unceremoniously on the floor. My boss and I also muscled around a Xerox colour laser printer, and he asked me afterwards if my back was okay - "Yeah," I said, "I've deadlifted more than that before." And I have. I've lifted over my own bodyweight in deadlifts before. Damn, I love deadlifts, and they even come in handy in the real world. HAH.
In closing: I think that Comic Sans is really not appropriate for work emails, and I don't understand the users who choose to make it their default.
Toodles!
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