Rants of Two Old Dudes: Episode 4
I think this was our best show yet. Curiosity is on Mars! Mr. Carver joins us once again as we talk too much about Zombies, not enough about games, and just the right amount about beer.
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Guild Wars 2 – World vs World
I was trying to explain this in my last post about the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend. This video does a far better job of explaining what WvW is….. awesome.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnOhMeYxhRM]
08.1.12A Perfect N64 Thumbstick: The Holy Grail
It’s been expressed before that if I have any fatal weaknesses, it is my obsession with game controllers. I’d probably walk right into any trap if you baited it with a new and unused N64 controller. In their prime the N64 controllers were known to wear quickly. Especially with games that required intense and repeated movement. (Isn’t that every game?) So back in the day I would wear them out, then go to the store to reluctantly buy new controllers. Today that’s simply not an option.
Prices on new controllers for the N64 have really gone up. I’ve been seeing far fewer on eBay. And the ones that are there are usually listed with a lofty buy it now price. This means the only real viable option is to find a quality facsimile. There is finally a new aftermarket thumbstick in the original style, but it’s still not quite perfect.
Pictured above is this new stick. It is extremely similar in appearance to the original thumbstick. The most obvious differences are that the dark gray plastic bezel is not quite the same color as the original. The replacement is a bit lighter. The thumbstick itself has more of a flat finish, whereas the original is somewhat glossy. And finally, the movement of the stick just isn’t quite as smooth as the original, and as such feels a bit cheap. With that said, after playing GoldenEye for an hour or so with the new one, it feels very accurate, and after a few minutes, you really forget that it’s not the original thumbstick.
For comparison, pictured above is a lightly to moderately used original controller. The joystick is still very tight, but notice how you can already see some of the trademark “chalk dust” that plagues these sticks. This is the “newest” controller I still feel comfortable playing with. But I refuse to play Mario Kart with it. That is the game that by and large has destroyed most of my past controllers! Haha.
There is also another variant of the N64 thumbstick available from aftermarket sources. This joystick is often called a “GameCube” style joystick. But this is far from anything as glorious and refined as the GameCube stick. Although feeling solid and smooth, this joystick is anything but. Small movements are simply too sensitive. It is almost impossible to make fine movement with this stick, like aiming a sniper rifle, or making Mario just barely creep along. Though it is decent for arcade style racers and generally more forgiving games. It’s better than a completely worn thumbstick, but that’s about it.
So there ya go. This new thumbstick, while not perfect, is the best replacement so far. It may look slightly different, but only to someone who notices such subtleties. The accuracy is good and if the movement was just a little smoother, I would say the feel would be almost indistinguishable. Never the less, for $10 on eBay it is an outstanding option to refresh some of your old controllers.
07.29.12The Rants of Two Old Dudes – Episode 3
This power strip will hack your computer. Listen to the show to find out how!
Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this posted. Recorded almost a week ago! That’s how busy this week has been I guess with Luke’s swim lessons, big promotions at work, and birthday parties. It was a good one though as M.Carver joins us as a fellow old dude. I get interrupted a few times for baby stuff, but all in all, it was a fun show!
Andrea Builds a Yoshi Kart
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZd2PVB0Fu0&hd=1]
I’m trying to get better at video editing. So I’ll probably be using more mundane clips like this in the future to figure out what I’m doing. Nevertheless, enjoy this short video of Andrea building a Yoshi Mario Kart out of K’nex (look like Legos to me)!
07.23.12Guild Wars 2 – Final Pre-Release Impressions
Guild Wars 2 could be the worst thing to happen to my real world social life. Or the best thing. Depends on how you look at it.
I spent as much time as I could playing the beta this past weekend. It started off with a race to get onto the server we wanted. A process which included remotely logging into the home computer from work and enduring the slideshow of setting up a character and choosing a server. It’s a good thing we did though, otherwise the server would have been full by the time I got home from work. I say “good thing” though the people who I was trying to play with on that server never ended up getting on… Hope you had fun doing less fun, more lame things.
I created an Asura elementalist. I chose both a race and profession I don’t intend to play as my main character when the game is released. But it turned out to be fantastically fun. I’ve never particularly enjoyed the spellcaster role in games, but this just feels so much different. You aren’t standing in one place spamming spells. You’re constantly dodging attacks and trying to get position so your onslaught has the greatest effect. It had a lot more similarities to the Mesmer I played last beta weekend, but I really enjoyed the zipping back and forth between close and ranged attacks that the Mesmer had.
I played a fair amount of PvE; just general exploring and questing along with the multitude of dynamic events that pop up as your wandering around. The Asura starting area is very cool. But not as mind blowing as the human area. It’s hard to compare to Divinity’s Reach, though Rata Sum, the Asura city, does have a very techy sci-fi feel to it that fits their personality to a tee.
But by and large what consumed most of time time was World vs. World. This is multiplayer PvP on a massive scale. Literally hundreds of players on a single map battling for stratigic locations. Supply camps generate supply and allow you to reinforce your castles or build siege weapons to bring down opposing structures or players. They are relatively defenseless but are often near the edges of the map behind castles or keeps making them somewhat secure by geography. Towers and keeps are heavily fortified and a battle to take down a keep can take literally hours depending on how well defended it is.
Supply can be carried by players and used to repair the damage that the attacking force, sometimes 50 or more players, are doing. Or it can be used to build weapons to repel the mass of attackers. The result is battles for a single map position that can last hours and require some loose strategic thinking. I use the term loose, because there are really not clear “commanders” on your team. The result is more like a large flock of birds that moves as a process greater any one individual in that flock. I’m sure as the community matures more effective strategy will become common place. For now it’s fun just being a part of this “force” that crashes against walls like waves against a cliff until that wall finally gives way. When the walls on a castle come down and your group pours through, it really feels like what you see in the movies when the gates fall and the hordes go rushing in. Except less pillaging.
Though the rewards are still compelling in WvW. You get experience for everything you do. Whether its straight forward attacking, or just escorting supply packs from A to B. You can really play at your own pace and make a meaningful contribution to your team’s objective.
I was excited to play WvW, but I certianly didn’t expect to get sucked in like I did. But that pretty much sums up everything about this game I’ve played so far. Everything I’ve tried has been fun and engaging. But most of all, it all just feels so natural. Now just 4 long weeks until I get to play again. But I won’t feel required to play as intensely during these beta weekends, because I’ll know at that time, I can log on whenever I want… no subscription fees. Hells yeah. This game is going to rock. Now just to find a good guild.
07.17.12The Rants of Two Old Dudes – Episode 2
Biebs and I cranked out another podcast. Hopefully this continues to be a weekly feature. Head on over to joshbieber.com to see what his site is all about.
This week we talked about copyright law, Valve supporting Linux, Lots of Guild Wars 2 info for the upcoming Beta weekend.
If you are going to be playing GW2 we’ll be playing on the Vasburg server. So come find us!
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07.13.12The box is always more fun than the toy…
A 20 Minute Project
This is gonna be fun!
I’ve had these cards from Club Nintendo for a while. I wanted to display them in some way but they really would look best with frames. Frames are so expensive though… except at the Dollar Tree! $1 per frame. Much better than the $3 or $4 I was finding elsewhere. Thanks to my officemate Kate for revealing to me this awesome deal!
And I’ve got a helper! These cards show every portable game system Nintendo has released to date. And with the recent announcement of the 3DS XL, these cards are already out of date. Haha.
I think it looks good. I’m debating putting them on the wall behind Andrea, or setting them up in the soon to be “studio” room. I’m afraid the glass in the frames will create some reflection problems, but never will know until I try.
Meanwhile, Luke was having some mischevous fun of his own.
A Pair of Podcasts
Well two new things here. First off, I’ve joined with Biebs for a new weekly podcast we’re dubbing “The Rants of Two Old Dudes”. We’re going to discuss tech and gaming both modern and retro.
Here’s Episode 1 of The Rants of Two Old Dudes! Enjoy!
Secondly I tried something new with my own personal podcast. It has a lot of refinement left to go. Infact I don’t even have any intro artwork, and had no idea what to use for video during the Mystery Song, but here it is. I had to just go ahead and post it, or else it was just going to sit around forever. As I get more proficient in video production, I’ll be able to crank them out and make them more polished. But for now here’s a very rough video podcast.
Only one topic: Digital Distribution of games vs. Physical Copies
Previous Mystery Song was from Super Mario Bros 2
No podcast Music
New Mystery Song
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkV8rGqEq0k]