And The Heavens Shall Tremble

Diablo IIIThis weekend saw yet another announcement from Blizzard. It would have seemed that with StarCraft II and WoW: Wrath of the Lich King under development, Blizzard would be up to their shoulders in deadlines. Ah, but we’ve known this for quite some time now. It wasn’t long after the announcement of StarCraft II that Rob Pardo let slip some details about Blizzard having a “Team Three”, working on “Project Hydra”. Now we know what Project Hydra was. Diablo III.

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Review mania

I’ve made a few purchases lately of things that are probably worth providing a review for, for any others out there intending to buy similar products. I’ll get right into it.

The first thing I’ll review is the PC I recently built which, if you missed it, was described right here.

Assembly was fairly smooth and I guess should be attributed to the quality of the case, even though there’s a few odd things about the case that annoyed me, like the door opening on the (in my opinion) wrong side, and the USB and HDD/Power LEDs being on the wrong side, as well. Nothing was of any dramatic concern. The motherboard was mounted in a Read more »

Quote Of The Month - March

The power of accurate observation is often referred to as cynicism by those who do not have it.
George Bernard Shaw

I originally heard this quote from Daniel and it really made me laugh. I don’t think I really need to explain it so I’ll just leave it at that.

*Growl* … *Snarl* …

*Growl* … *Snarl* …

That is the intimidating sound that will come from the following once it’s all put together (click image):

gear So Sean and I (I’d link to Sean’s blog if he actually had one, *glares at Sean*) bought some stuff over the weekend. Quite a bit, really. We’re both building new computers comprised of exactly the same components. So all the parts you see in that photo, there’s a duplicate of them in my lounge. You can probably figure out the specs for yourself, but for the craven (and also because I’m psyched about it) I’ll spell it out for you:

  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
    (2.40Ghz/Kentsfield/4MBx2/1066FSB/EMT64/XD/Quad Core) Read more »

Quote Of The Month - February

Where the primitive mind met the challenge of completeness by imaginative invention and was then faced with the problem of fitting all these imaginings together, the medieval mind was fettered by its respect for existing books and authorities. It regarded the inherited written words of the ancient philosophers with the same ultimate authority that modern physicists attach to experimental evidence. But the sheer volume of these written authorities ensured that any unification of their philosophical thinking was a vast enterprise. The twentieth century is not immune to such desires either. We have only to look at the problems that had to be faced over the definition and meaning of mathematics near the turn of the century. The formalists wished to protect mathematics from paradox by making it a closed shop: they defined it to be the sum Read more »

Introducing ‘Quote Of The Month’

I’ve decided there has to be a way for me to ensure that I keep my blog active. After a bit of brainstorming I came up with the idea of a monthly quote. The quote might be famous, or rather unknown, from philosophical mind benders to simply hilarious things said between friends and I. Either way it will be of some kind of meaning and I’ll try to make sure I give a good explanation each time. Of course, I haven’t forgotten about my new years’ resolution, and I’ll try to combine it into the quotes, by choosing quotes that may support a rather dangerous or controversial opinion, hopefully making the monthly quotes entertaining enough to be worth your bandwidth.
Stay tuned.

New Year’s Resolution

Everybody seems to have a new year’s resolution. I’ve never really done that. I think if there’s something you know you should do, it shouldn’t require the beginning of a new year to do it. Nevertheless, since I have decided I want to do it, and it does happen to be early in the year, I will call this a new year’s resolution.

My new year’s resolution is to write more opinionated blogs. Possibly controversial ones. I think this blog has turned into nothing but an academic/software/starcraft blog, and I’d like to make it a little more personal. I hope readers (if you exist) don’t mind me doing so.

I will write more blogs about my personal, more passionate opinions that may hit people hard at home. It might turn out to be a good or bad thing, I don’t know. But if anything, it should be interesting.

I decided this when one of my best friends Peter started up a blog consisting of material I have just described.

I hope any readers can enjoy my upcoming blogs.

Community too harsh on StarCraft 2?

Tychus FindlayI’d be the first person to complain if I thought Blizzard were on the path to ruining the StarCraft name. Seriously, check my ‘Good Games’ list. Having been a fan and hardcore player of the game since its release, I believe I’m among the most anxious of people on this planet when it comes to this game, so I’ve got no reason to give Blizzard more leg-room than necessary. For example: I was a huge supporter of giving the Soul Hunter the boot. That thing was about as StarCraft as Pikachu.

My problem, and the reason I’m making this post, is that I think the hardcore community are getting way ahead of themselves. Obviously it’s great that the community are expressing their concerns with the game, and without that kind of feed-back, who knows what StarCraft 2 might actually end up like? But a line has to be drawn between helpful criticism, and the other comments motivated by biased, zealous attachment to the original game, that can only Read more »

Many new units. Many Blizzard responses.

LogoIt’s been a couple of months now since Blizzard announced Starcraft 2 at their World-Wide Invitational event in South Korea. As expected, Blizzard have been slowly introducing some new concepts to the community. Whether it be through magazines or short question/answer bullets released by community manager ‘Karune’, of Battle.net forums.

I must say, the experience of seeing the way Blizzard are handling the development of Starcraft’s little sister is quite up-and-down. Read more »

Hell, it’s about time

Tychus FindlayThis post is way overdue. In fact, it’s been in my drafts for over a month. Time to finish it up and hit the “Publish” button. So here it is, old and overdue.

Starcraft II was announced some time ago at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (WWI) in Seoul, South Korea. After months of solid, potentially true rumours (as opposed to the rumours which have floated around for years) have circulated the many Starcraft communities and gaming communities a-like, not to mention the series of teaser-like splash images that have displayed on the front page of blizzard’s sites five days prior to the announcement. Finally, after 9 years since the release of the original, we are brought the long-awaited sequel to the greatest game of all time. I’ve been playing Starcraft since 2000, so naturally this is one of the most exciting times for me. For years I’ve followed the Korean pro-gaming scene which Starcraft spawned and I can’t wait to see how Starcraft II can further enhance it. Read more »

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