Not cut, just like your mom likes it...
It's Friday an the last thing I feel like doing is work. So instead, a catch-up style LJ entry for your reading pleasure.
First, a bit of an explanation of last night's rage-induced entry. After we at dinner, I decided to download a few new demos from the X-Box Marketplace. First up, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (also called GRAW). This game is being touted as the best looking 360 game to date. I'm not sure that I found it to be that exactly, but it does have a certain eye-candy appeal that some other games have lacked. I played a single-player (aka a multi-player map with bots) for a few rounds before deciding to take my lackluster efforts online. Unfortunately, that seemed to be asking a little too much from this multiplayer demo. The game merely hung at "searching for game" and I had to eventually cancel out. It was the same story no matter what type of game I searched for. It was all suck all the time.
Daunted but not willing to give up, I moved on. I hit the Marketplace again and downloaded the demo for a game that has a certain degree of bias in my mind. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is the console version of what has to be my favorite PC shooter right now (and high in the running for favorite overall). I was enthusiastic about seeing the 360 port for a few reasons. First, the 360 has a lot polygon-pushing power than my current PC. Second, I'm always a bit fascinated by the methods that developers use to port a control scheme from keyboard/mouse to the console controller. In the past, I have spoken out loudly about my dislike of FPS's on console systems. But since my love affair with the 360's controller has not abated even a bit since it's launch, I'm actually willing to give it a shot. So I downloaded the multiplayer demo of Battlefield 2: MC.
Now, from my point of view, the only reason a game studio or publisher decides to put out a demo is to get people excited about playing the game. It's a tease. Sorta like when your mom plays footsies with me under the dinner table.
But what if your mom is old and wrinkled, more hag than woman? It's not a tease then, is it? It's something else. That's what this BF2:MC demo was. I loaded it up and enjoyed the intro movies (there weren't any) and the load screens (there was some nifty music playing) and went to join a game. I waited a few heartbeats (plus or minus three minutes) and was given a "joining game"message followed immediately by "the server is full" at which point I was dumped unceremoniously back to the main menu.
My opinion might not be worth much since I haven't really done any programming since high-school, and even there it could barely be considered real coding. But I do know a thing or two about computers and how a program is developed. The only question that boiled through the red mist of rage that enveloped my brain as I was told repeatedly that "the server is full" was why the fuck did you even try to join me to it then?! How hard is it to write a server browser that knows, when the user chooses "Quick Game" that they probably don't ever want to try to join a full fucking server? And it's not like this is a one-off glitch. The PC version of Battlefield 2 is just as bad. What the fuck DICE? Did you decide that you wanted to be an equal opportunity employer and hire a bunch of retards to write your server browser?
So, instead of teasing me into wanting to actually purchase this game, DICE and EA have manage to disintegrate any desire to every play it ever ever! They practically had me in the bag since I was a BF2 player already, and they fucked it up.
On to greener pastures. The Microsoft Office 12 Beta is extremely sweet. I haven't been this impressed with a Microsoft product since I first laid eyes on Windows XP. It's a new approach at a suite that can only be described as okay up until now. Version 12 (also being referred to as '2007') is a pleasure to use and a joy to look at. I imagine that it fits with the Longhorn/Vista look and feel and, from where I'm sitting, it's all good. If you can get your hands on a copy of the beta, it's worth the install.
Back to video games. The Rise of Legends demo will be available at noon PST today. This is really quite shocking since the game isn't due to hit shelves until May 9th. I'm pumped.
Over to other gaming topics. The Game of Thrones PbP is moving along nicely. We're just entering turn 4 and another muster has come up. This puts me in an excellent position (7 muster points? oh yeah baby, I'm so excited I think I'll go do my sister). After last turn's Stark/Greyjoy/Lannister drama, things will undoubtedly heat up even more this turn.
We (read Mole) have come a long way on the 9 player PbP map. We will undoubtedly be ready to give it a go once we're done this game. Finding 9 reliable players who are willing to check the board daily will probably end up being the hardest part of getting the 9 player version off the ground. So anyone (waiwode, this means you) who was interested in perhaps playing but wasn't sure before should definitely sign up now.
Alright. I'm about as spent as I was last night with your mom. I'm going to go get more coffee and then wander around to see if anyone needs any random computer problem solved.