CS misc

In my current class our required text is written by Robert Sedgewick, a professor at Princeton. I've only owned it for the whole of five days, and already I've learned an incredible amount about c++.

Ironically, the primary catalyst of this learning is due to Sedgewick's style of coding. You can tell by the way he names variables and formats his code that he's a C progammer at heart. That means his code is incredibly compact, names are very short and capital letters are used frequently. He also does many things I have never seen most programmers do (namely if()continue and strange methods of function initialization). Suffice to say I spent a great deal of time simply trying to understand his code. Now I finally see what he's doing, picked up a few neat tricks, and have a much greater appreciation for good comments and format.

Its not just cryptic code however; his programming examples are many, and they are all used to create concise and powerful algorithms that have a wide variety of uses. I also discovered exactly why I was always taught to write classes as header files and implementation files. I always believed headers wee simply for orgainizational sake, not as an interface of functions and variables for a client program to use, nor did I realize that an implementation file could include more functions and variables than what was detailed in the header. I still can't figure out why Sedgewick organizes many of his files the way he does, or how I might use this knowledge in the future, but its still good to know.

We might get some snow tonight. I'm sitting with my favorite lady, my text and a Dreamcast. Let the snow fall.

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

I really disliked the first Splinter Cell game. It seemed to glorify everything that was wrong with the stealth genre, namely cheap AI, shallow techno-babble storytelling, and a reliance on gimmicks in order to mask linear level design. The demo of sequel Pandora Tomorrow proved that the multiplayer portion of that game was to be the crown jewel, as the sp was business as usual.

Chaos Theory on the other hand, just might be a big turaround for the series. Just maybe.

1) Better engine: Not just better in that it looks as good as anything else out there, but better in that it is actually more stable than Pandora Tomorrow. Its nice to actually see a developer take the time to optimize their PC games rather than do a quick and dirty Xbox port and call it a day. And those water effects... wow. I could stare at that one drain for twenty minutes.

2) More ways to kill: The original SC gave you few choices in how you dispatched enemies, and often wouldn't even let you kill them. This time around you can perform various maneuvers from pretty much any position. Chimneying between walls? You can kill 'em. Hanging on a pipe? Grab their neck and kill 'em. Hanging from a ledge? Grab their legs and throw them to their doom (see: kill 'em). Better than any of this however is the inclusion of the knife. Yes, Sam Fisher the super spy had to wait three games to get a simple knife. At least it actually lets you do one shot kills when an enemy rushes you. The demo also gave the impression that using lethal force is encouraged rather than something to try and avoid. Always a good thing, as you can now handle many situations that would cause a quick load in the previous SC games.

3) (Somewhat) better level design: The levels are obviously more detailed, but they also seem to be more... organic. Crates, bridges and other structures work together to create an environment that seems plausible in the real world, and they give you a few different options on how to tackle an area. There are also multiple paths at certain points, but they lead to the same thing and are rather small, meaning they don't make a huge difference.

Overall, I'm a lot less skeptical about this game. I'm still concerned about the poor control while using fireamrs, and I have a feeling the single player could be another quick, 10 hour romp, but it looks as if Ubisoft Montreal really is trying to improve the series' major flaws. It was actually fun to play this demo, and I'm interested in seeing where Chaos Theory stands when the game ships this spring.

The Bookstore

So I had to break down and buy my CS 302 textbook today. Looks like I can't manage to borrow from people all semester. On my way back I noticed the advertisement printed on the bag for eFollet, the company that pretty much owns the bookstore:

Today I Saved:
room for dessert
saliva by using self adhesive stamps
game 7 of the World Series
Lots of money on used books.

What's wrong with this picture? Other than the fact that its attempt at comedy is pretty sad, I have actually payed less for brand new textbooks on the internet, from genuine stores like amazon, than I would have for a used version from the school bookstore. I really want to meet the person they're actually kidding. Who loves false advertising?

Brain Sex Test

Want to know if you have a male or female brain? Take this BBC quiz, that is apparently helping actual scientific research.

Personally I think its broken. I apparently am a male with a female brain. While I certainly am good with helping others with their emotions, as well as listening to people, I'm a stone cold bastard most of the time, serious and analytical. I love math and logic (I code after all), and really dont' have too many personal emotional struggles. On the actual test I aced all the logic/ analytical tests, the things they associated with men, and only aced one test associated with women?

What's the point of my ranting? Am I getting all defensive about being called a "Girly man"? Perhaps. But I sersiously think the test is broken considering my score. During the test there are random survey style questions peppered throughout. You know, the strongly agree/ strongly disagree ones? I never know what to put on those, and I think they caused my score to get screwed up. I sincerely hope that no serious science is being done on the results of survey questions that give little difference between each of the choices.

Now excuse me, I have to go eat a pint of Hagen Daas and watch a Lifetime Original movie. This one's about a woman who is reuinited with her long lost daughter, while her best friend battles cancer... during a rape trial.

Demos

Coupla Demos I tried out today.

Freedom Force VS the Third Reich: The original Freedom Force was a surprisingly enjoyable game, one that deserved far more attention than it got. The sequel seems to be just as good, but not really better. It looks sounds and plays nearly identical, with a few tweeks here and there but barely any extra polish. Newcomers to the series won't notice, but I wonder if the fans expected a little more. What's also interesting about this game is that developer Irrational is actually self publishing it, and offering those who preorder it some nifty bonuses. It takes a lot of guts to stick it to the huge publishing conglomerates and release a title by yourself, and I wish Irrational the best of luck. I may preorder it myself to give them my support

Psychotoxic: FPS with generic levels, enemies and token busty heroine. Who happens to be an angel with magic powers. Sound familiar? I haven't played a game this blatantly uninspired in a long while. Nothing else to report.

Am I the only one who saw the movie Constantine and first thought the film was about the Byzantines?

Finally: Is it true? Will I see Calgary in the playoffs yet again? One can only hope....

mooosic!

Napster to Go cracked. Who didn't see it coming? Now if only I could find a way to break Cdigix, my campus' new music service.

Unreal Tournament 2004

So I just scored yet another great game for dirt cheap.... Unreal Tournament 2004 for 15 bucks new. I've barely scratched it due to my workload, but I can already tell its something I'll be playing all year long.

First Person Shooters are by far my favorite game genre (2D fighters are a close second). RPG fans like deep stories and spiky haired characters. Strategy fans like micromanagement. I like shooting things in the face. Problem is, single player is often finished quickly, and my campus' network is horrid with multiplayer gaming. Ping spikes of up to 900 are not uncommon, and sometimes just connecting to a server is impossible. Doing anything multiplayer ends up being an event, making it impossible to simply drop in for a quick session after a long day.

Enter UT2004. The game is just full of stuff. So many maps, modes, vehicles, its incredible. The best part however is its suite of bots. Its not the same as human opponents, but the bots are still more than playable on the higher difficulty settings. Now its entirely possible to drop in for a few rounds of play and get back to work without any hassle. Did I mention the whole "fast based, respawn instantly" pacing is a refreshing change of pace from the hardcore realism of Counterstrike and America's Army?

Finally, allow me to show you the most useless feature ever from the most useless gaming site out there. Let's take the ten major console releases since the NES, systems everyone knows about, and rank them in some mysterious way. Were they tryingto be smart or clever with this? I could have put more thought into that list in one night's work

whew

You know its been bad when I've gone eight days sans a post. As soon as the first month of class rolled to the finsh line someone walked up to me and hit me in the nuts with the "long, boring, sometimes difficult assignments" bat.

On the plus side, its been very warm here this week. sun + heat = I have energy.

Something constructive here later perhaps....

new reviews

two actual reviews of questionable quality for your reading pleasure.

I got a chance to play that Republic Commando demo today. I'd discuss it in detail but I'm rather not in the proper mind for any type of serious writing right now. I'll give the low down tomorrow.

a b C

Wrote my first computer program of the semester. It was admittedly my first assignment done in pure C, and I learned a lot about the language from it. Despite its somewhat archaic input/output, its suprisingly versatile and powerful despite its age.

I'll see about updating this post tonight, possibly with some impressions on the Star Wars: Republic Commando Demo.