Well, after CCJAD kept freezing Firefox, I've not posted for a bit. However, I return to find out that a magic duck as arrived and blessed our webpage. It doesn't freeze anymore. Good job, little duck! Try not to shoot him too much, visitors.
What's the banter, peeps? I feel awful about life.
Catchya around,
- Ally.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Let us try this again.
Hello. My name is Alistair. I am the "A" in "CCJAD". I started this blog with 5 friends in Oct 2006. Here is 2009, and this poor blog is neglected and dying. Who's fault is it? To be honest, it's no-ones. The mentality of "If he doesn't update, why should I?" got the better of some of us, it seems. The rest don't know how to even extract .rar files so that's fair enough.
So yeah, instead of giving my usual bi-annual update of "Nothing is new", I'm actually going to discuss things. Make sure your seat is comfy, kids. Oh and by the we way, since my internet connect fails so hard, I can't actually upload files/pictures that are larger that 15KB to show you, so you are gonna have to make do.
Let's go back to August, 2008. Here, I started my "future career" by leaving College and attending University. In University, I'm taking Computer Games Design. Sounds like a piece of piss, right? Ah hah haha. No. If you want to design and make games, you better be damn ready for it. My class is made up for around 99% people who have the mentality of "I LIKE VIDYA GAMES, SO IF I LIKE DA VIDYA, I CAN MAKE THE GAMES". This results in people coming in once a semester, skipping classes to buy the newest releases, going home, finishing them and then totally disregarding any course work what so ever. This is a no-no.
In my first semester, I had to make a board game. Now, to be honest, I thought this was a pretty smart move. Think about it, your average Halo-tard isn't going to jizz his pants at the prospect of making a BOARD GAME.
"HOW DO I SHOT MAH GUN" "IT'S A BOARD GAME YOU BUM-PILOT" "WHAT? I CAN'T FIND THE CONTROLLER"
Okay so the convo above never actually happened, but I digress - a board game. Not just a board game, but a board game suitable for a German family. Through the use of personae, "research" and me raging and smacking my group around for the whole semester, we managed to make our board game "Hunters and Wolves".
I can't be arsed to go into massive detail on the game play, but basically the game is for 3-5 players. 1 of these players will be the Wolf, the rest will be a Hunter. The main objective of the game is the collect the most "meat" overall. However, the sub objective is for the Wolf to escape, and the Hunters to prevent this. It's a pretty fun prospect cause eventually the Hunters give up working in a team and begin screwing each other over. I basically made all the imagery in the board game. These delightful works of art can be seen here.
This is the box top. It was bloody difficult to actually glue this onto the box. (We basically bought a copy of Cludeo, and harvested elements such as the dice, board, box, etc)
This is the box bottom. You can't see it in these bad resolution pictures, but at the bottom it actually says "(c) 2008 To LAT Graffix. This is small print to make the board game appear authentic and actually adds no value what so ever." Who says you need to be serious all the time at Uni? Also, that weird square thing on the right is actually the game board. Delightful fun fun.
So yeah, that was pretty much semester 1. Learning that everyone in my course is a pretty much a PC gamer and a 4channer. I detest it when people are like "LULZ I GO ON 4CHAN THAT MAKES ME INSTANTLY AWESOME FEAR MY INTERNET WANG SIZE". Congrats, you like a site. I quite like Google you know? But I don't fucking go on and on about it.
Semester 2 was more of less the same shit, but we had to take our game from its Board game roots and make it into a PC application version, and all I can say is that it sucked HARD. I basically gave up because my team were bickering kids who wanted to do it in PowerPoint. YOU CAN'T PROGRAM A BOARD GAME IN POWERPOINT GOD DAMMIT. I basically had to do the whole project in GameMaker, but I probably killed off my inner child in the processes. I mean, I'm doing Computer Games Design, no Computer Games Programming. My course is fail at times.
At least in semester 2 I got to do some 3D modelling. That was probably the highlight. After using XSI in College, I grew to hate it. Using it at Uni, I grew to love it. I don't know how or why, but I did. My task for 3D modelling was to make a scene with a table, vase, PC monitor and chess board. We were allowed to add our own objects for extra marks, so I really took the piss with this one. I added wires to EVERYTHING and made an N64, tissue box, hell, I'll just show you the pictures.
This is the scene! Looks lovely, huh? Notice the VGcats drawing of CCJA in the frame? Yeah, I'm that awesome.
FIRE HAZARD EGADS MAN
Hell, we had to make a chess board, why not make chess pieces too?
N64 with my most favourite game evarrr in it.
So yeah, that was fun considering I went slightly Over the top with it.
Lets see now...
Way back in November 2008, CCJAC (Last C being Chan, cause David has screwed us over) went to the 2nd Anime convention in Scotland, Auchinawa. After the enjoyment of Auchinawa 2006, we looked forward to this one cause we were actually going to be staying for more than 1 day. 3 days at the con, with our own hotel rooms, that was probably the highlight. Compared to 06, I felt it was rather rushed, not much to do, unorganized as all hell and just as generally not as enjoyable. The venue was smaller too, and the games room really lacked compared to the previous. Masquerade was a joke. It in general was just not as good.
Here is the only group photo I managed to get, and I'm not even in it.
Us doing the "Imran". By us, I mean CCJC, I was the camera man.
Here is me putting my rape face on, to an unexpecting James' fortune.
So yeah, Auchi 08 didn't feel as great as 06.
Back in March, I had quite a surprise. What was that surprise? Well, let's recap a bit. Back in 2003, my family was blessed with a kitten. We called this kitten "Felix" (Original, huh?) and he was the best pet ever. As he grew, he started slaughtering every little animal that crossed his path, and also chewed the hands off anyone trying the pet him. One fateful day in October 2007, he went missing without a trace. We were quite gutted when he never re-appeared. Obviously, we sent out "Lost cat" posters and told the neighbours. For a week or so, there was no news. While people had assumed he had been ran over or whatever, I didn't actually feel like he was dead. Of course, I didn't have any idea on his true fate, but the idea of him being dead didn't fit.
So, around November 2007 we finally got a tip about a black cat that had been found wandering around, eating at some person's garage. We had our hopes high, but it turned out this homeless cat was not ours. However, we decided to adopt her until her rightful owners came forward. This cat was called "Meg". Actually, she still is called Meg, cause her owners never claimed her. She lives with us happily, leaving hairs everywhere and purring at the sight of you. She is a nice kitty cat, probably around 9 years old now.
Anyway, in March 2009, around 2 years after Felix vanished, we got a phone call about 9/10am in the morning. Not expecting anything important, my parents answered. The phone call was from a Vet in Perth (About 40 miles north), and some family had brought in a cat. This cat had a microchip, which gave the vet the contact details for us. While slightly confused, it turned out that Felix was still alive. He had been living in Perth for a few months now. I can't tell you how much of a random surprise this was. It was totally out of the blue.
So yeah, we went to Perth, thanked the family and brought him home. Felix - who had been going under the name Wilson for several months - was finally returned, and was about twice the size of when he left. Big fat blob. Below is a picture comparing the cats. Meg is the top cat, Felix is the blob on the bottom.
Meg refuses to look at the camera, Felix has fallen and can't get up.
Felix had only been living with the Perth family for a few months, so that means before-hand he was freelance, so who knows how many people he met and how many names he had? One thing for certain is that he learned the value of food and how to eat his fill when given the opportunity. Sadly, him and Meg don't get on. When they first met, it was hissy-meow fits. Now it's just evil stares, wishing for the other cat to die.
I had so much more to talk about, but I've been writing this post for about 2 hours now, and I've got other stuff to do. So, in a nutshell:
-Buy Punch-out Wii
-I'm replaying Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Fantastic game.
-I became a staff member of Goemon International
-My last.fm account is here if you are interested
That's all I can write for now. I leave you with this smexy image of me Hotel Duskified:
Catch you!
P.S - There are probably typos, but this post is too long to check XD.
So yeah, instead of giving my usual bi-annual update of "Nothing is new", I'm actually going to discuss things. Make sure your seat is comfy, kids. Oh and by the we way, since my internet connect fails so hard, I can't actually upload files/pictures that are larger that 15KB to show you, so you are gonna have to make do.
Let's go back to August, 2008. Here, I started my "future career" by leaving College and attending University. In University, I'm taking Computer Games Design. Sounds like a piece of piss, right? Ah hah haha. No. If you want to design and make games, you better be damn ready for it. My class is made up for around 99% people who have the mentality of "I LIKE VIDYA GAMES, SO IF I LIKE DA VIDYA, I CAN MAKE THE GAMES". This results in people coming in once a semester, skipping classes to buy the newest releases, going home, finishing them and then totally disregarding any course work what so ever. This is a no-no.
In my first semester, I had to make a board game. Now, to be honest, I thought this was a pretty smart move. Think about it, your average Halo-tard isn't going to jizz his pants at the prospect of making a BOARD GAME.
"HOW DO I SHOT MAH GUN" "IT'S A BOARD GAME YOU BUM-PILOT" "WHAT? I CAN'T FIND THE CONTROLLER"
Okay so the convo above never actually happened, but I digress - a board game. Not just a board game, but a board game suitable for a German family. Through the use of personae, "research" and me raging and smacking my group around for the whole semester, we managed to make our board game "Hunters and Wolves".
I can't be arsed to go into massive detail on the game play, but basically the game is for 3-5 players. 1 of these players will be the Wolf, the rest will be a Hunter. The main objective of the game is the collect the most "meat" overall. However, the sub objective is for the Wolf to escape, and the Hunters to prevent this. It's a pretty fun prospect cause eventually the Hunters give up working in a team and begin screwing each other over. I basically made all the imagery in the board game. These delightful works of art can be seen here.
This is the box top. It was bloody difficult to actually glue this onto the box. (We basically bought a copy of Cludeo, and harvested elements such as the dice, board, box, etc)
This is the box bottom. You can't see it in these bad resolution pictures, but at the bottom it actually says "(c) 2008 To LAT Graffix. This is small print to make the board game appear authentic and actually adds no value what so ever." Who says you need to be serious all the time at Uni? Also, that weird square thing on the right is actually the game board. Delightful fun fun.
So yeah, that was pretty much semester 1. Learning that everyone in my course is a pretty much a PC gamer and a 4channer. I detest it when people are like "LULZ I GO ON 4CHAN THAT MAKES ME INSTANTLY AWESOME FEAR MY INTERNET WANG SIZE". Congrats, you like a site. I quite like Google you know? But I don't fucking go on and on about it.
Semester 2 was more of less the same shit, but we had to take our game from its Board game roots and make it into a PC application version, and all I can say is that it sucked HARD. I basically gave up because my team were bickering kids who wanted to do it in PowerPoint. YOU CAN'T PROGRAM A BOARD GAME IN POWERPOINT GOD DAMMIT. I basically had to do the whole project in GameMaker, but I probably killed off my inner child in the processes. I mean, I'm doing Computer Games Design, no Computer Games Programming. My course is fail at times.
At least in semester 2 I got to do some 3D modelling. That was probably the highlight. After using XSI in College, I grew to hate it. Using it at Uni, I grew to love it. I don't know how or why, but I did. My task for 3D modelling was to make a scene with a table, vase, PC monitor and chess board. We were allowed to add our own objects for extra marks, so I really took the piss with this one. I added wires to EVERYTHING and made an N64, tissue box, hell, I'll just show you the pictures.
This is the scene! Looks lovely, huh? Notice the VGcats drawing of CCJA in the frame? Yeah, I'm that awesome.
FIRE HAZARD EGADS MAN
Hell, we had to make a chess board, why not make chess pieces too?
N64 with my most favourite game evarrr in it.
So yeah, that was fun considering I went slightly Over the top with it.
Lets see now...
Way back in November 2008, CCJAC (Last C being Chan, cause David has screwed us over) went to the 2nd Anime convention in Scotland, Auchinawa. After the enjoyment of Auchinawa 2006, we looked forward to this one cause we were actually going to be staying for more than 1 day. 3 days at the con, with our own hotel rooms, that was probably the highlight. Compared to 06, I felt it was rather rushed, not much to do, unorganized as all hell and just as generally not as enjoyable. The venue was smaller too, and the games room really lacked compared to the previous. Masquerade was a joke. It in general was just not as good.
Here is the only group photo I managed to get, and I'm not even in it.
Us doing the "Imran". By us, I mean CCJC, I was the camera man.
Here is me putting my rape face on, to an unexpecting James' fortune.
So yeah, Auchi 08 didn't feel as great as 06.
Back in March, I had quite a surprise. What was that surprise? Well, let's recap a bit. Back in 2003, my family was blessed with a kitten. We called this kitten "Felix" (Original, huh?) and he was the best pet ever. As he grew, he started slaughtering every little animal that crossed his path, and also chewed the hands off anyone trying the pet him. One fateful day in October 2007, he went missing without a trace. We were quite gutted when he never re-appeared. Obviously, we sent out "Lost cat" posters and told the neighbours. For a week or so, there was no news. While people had assumed he had been ran over or whatever, I didn't actually feel like he was dead. Of course, I didn't have any idea on his true fate, but the idea of him being dead didn't fit.
So, around November 2007 we finally got a tip about a black cat that had been found wandering around, eating at some person's garage. We had our hopes high, but it turned out this homeless cat was not ours. However, we decided to adopt her until her rightful owners came forward. This cat was called "Meg". Actually, she still is called Meg, cause her owners never claimed her. She lives with us happily, leaving hairs everywhere and purring at the sight of you. She is a nice kitty cat, probably around 9 years old now.
Anyway, in March 2009, around 2 years after Felix vanished, we got a phone call about 9/10am in the morning. Not expecting anything important, my parents answered. The phone call was from a Vet in Perth (About 40 miles north), and some family had brought in a cat. This cat had a microchip, which gave the vet the contact details for us. While slightly confused, it turned out that Felix was still alive. He had been living in Perth for a few months now. I can't tell you how much of a random surprise this was. It was totally out of the blue.
So yeah, we went to Perth, thanked the family and brought him home. Felix - who had been going under the name Wilson for several months - was finally returned, and was about twice the size of when he left. Big fat blob. Below is a picture comparing the cats. Meg is the top cat, Felix is the blob on the bottom.
Meg refuses to look at the camera, Felix has fallen and can't get up.
Felix had only been living with the Perth family for a few months, so that means before-hand he was freelance, so who knows how many people he met and how many names he had? One thing for certain is that he learned the value of food and how to eat his fill when given the opportunity. Sadly, him and Meg don't get on. When they first met, it was hissy-meow fits. Now it's just evil stares, wishing for the other cat to die.
I had so much more to talk about, but I've been writing this post for about 2 hours now, and I've got other stuff to do. So, in a nutshell:
-Buy Punch-out Wii
-I'm replaying Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Fantastic game.
-I became a staff member of Goemon International
-My last.fm account is here if you are interested
That's all I can write for now. I leave you with this smexy image of me Hotel Duskified:
Catch you!
P.S - There are probably typos, but this post is too long to check XD.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Chris' Top Albums - 5: Death On The Road
Okay, so writing this on a train that's not moved in a while in an attempt to stop me freaking out, so appologies for any logic leaps or terrible incoherency.
I was talking to a friend earlier, the writer of Thoughts from a Moogle, about our top 5 favourite albums of all time, and was thinking I should write brief reviews on all of mine. So, here comes the first in a series of 5:
Album 5: Iron Maiden's Death on the Road.
This could be considered cheating a bit, since it is after all a live album, and technically a compilation, but that doesn't stop it being absolutely fantasatic.
From the famous Maiden latin opening to the closing notes of the iconic Run to the Hills, every song on this album (with the probable exception of Journeyman, which all things considered seems an odd choice) is utterly anthemic.
As far as musical technique goes, I hardly need to comment on this one. It's Iron Fucking Maiden. They practically pioneered british metal single handedly, and Bruce 'Air Siren' Dickinson's voice isn't losing any power with age.
Now, as this is a recording of the tour for the Dance of Death album, which I'd personally consider one of their best, it's a glorious mix of classic Maiden (Wrathchild, The Trooper, and of course Run to the Hills) and the cream of the crop from that - Paschendale and the titular Dance of Death are the two that spring to mind, making for an eclectic mix to satisfy any Maiden fan, and a fantastic album even if you're not an avid follower of Eddie and the boys.
Sadly the crowd still lack the ability to keep in time. Oh well.
AFTER-POST EDIT: added bonus feature!
Chris' Favourite Track - Wildest Dreams
So! Next time, I'll be reviewing album number 4... what will it be? Who knows? Well, me, obviously.
Catch you next time, hopefully with less insane crazy train fuck-ups,
Chris.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Stream of Consciousness
So, I'm pretty bored, and want to write a blog post. But would you believe it, I've got nothing to write on! So I thought I'd try an experiment. We all love experiments, don't we? At least as long as they blow up at the end, which could well happen! Now, fellow readers, let's take a trip into the verbose caverns of my subconscious mind and see what leaps out.
Recently started playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy on PSP (sadly in japanese), and it is a magnificent fangame. Except it's actually an official fighting game, with combat bearing a striking resemblance to the Kingdom Hearts 2 style of gameplay (read: it's fast paced, simple, and fun). Everything looks fantastic, other than some slight roboticisms with the characters during cutscenes, and the soundtrack is nigh-on heavenly, with some of the finest remixes of classic FF tunes ever created.
Of course, the main problem with the game is it's REALLY BLOODY HARD. Seriously, it's insanity, the computer opponents gladly kick your pathetic meaty arse to hell and out the other side. It could just be that my understanding of moonspeak isn't sufficient to get the intricacies of the levelling and item systems, but seriously, it's really, really hard. What.
Animal Crossing: City Folk came out on Wii a couple of weeks back. I refuse to be dragged back into my addiction, and really wasn't interested till I was shown a shot of the Majora's Mask item proudly displayed in someone's room. Of course, my internal raging fanboy went nuts, since Majora's Mask is clearly one of the finest games ever to be created - a rant for a later post, perhaps - and now I'm severely tempted.
I need help.
Right, getting slightly long here, but I think we've got time for one last rant! Seems I need to practice keeping things short, don't I? Well, might as well end on a different note. For once, it's not a game! Yes, I do have other hobbies too, shocking as that may sound. I even have a social life every few weeks, you heard it here first, folks. No, this time, I'm going to briefly mention my favourite band on the planet ever.
And that band is Coheed & Cambria.
...you know what, let's leave that rant for later. It'll be rather long.
Say, that's TWO rants to look forward to! Lucky you. But for now, it's time to bring this experiment to a fairly unimpressive end. A bit like when the fuse fizzled out on the dynamite in old western films. Catch y'all soon,
Chris.
Recently started playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy on PSP (sadly in japanese), and it is a magnificent fangame. Except it's actually an official fighting game, with combat bearing a striking resemblance to the Kingdom Hearts 2 style of gameplay (read: it's fast paced, simple, and fun). Everything looks fantastic, other than some slight roboticisms with the characters during cutscenes, and the soundtrack is nigh-on heavenly, with some of the finest remixes of classic FF tunes ever created.
Of course, the main problem with the game is it's REALLY BLOODY HARD. Seriously, it's insanity, the computer opponents gladly kick your pathetic meaty arse to hell and out the other side. It could just be that my understanding of moonspeak isn't sufficient to get the intricacies of the levelling and item systems, but seriously, it's really, really hard. What.
Animal Crossing: City Folk came out on Wii a couple of weeks back. I refuse to be dragged back into my addiction, and really wasn't interested till I was shown a shot of the Majora's Mask item proudly displayed in someone's room. Of course, my internal raging fanboy went nuts, since Majora's Mask is clearly one of the finest games ever to be created - a rant for a later post, perhaps - and now I'm severely tempted.
I need help.
Right, getting slightly long here, but I think we've got time for one last rant! Seems I need to practice keeping things short, don't I? Well, might as well end on a different note. For once, it's not a game! Yes, I do have other hobbies too, shocking as that may sound. I even have a social life every few weeks, you heard it here first, folks. No, this time, I'm going to briefly mention my favourite band on the planet ever.
And that band is Coheed & Cambria.
...you know what, let's leave that rant for later. It'll be rather long.
Say, that's TWO rants to look forward to! Lucky you. But for now, it's time to bring this experiment to a fairly unimpressive end. A bit like when the fuse fizzled out on the dynamite in old western films. Catch y'all soon,
Chris.
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