Archive for category Life
Snow and tanks!
Posted by Sam in Development, Life on 7 January 2010
Apologies for not keeping up with daily posts on the blog recently, Christmas must have made me lazy or something. To make it up to you, I’ll show you what I’ve been working on for the last 3 days almost solidly. This is a 3D model of a German Tiger Tank made in 3D Studio Max for my modeling course at Portsmouth Uni. I think it turned out quite well considering it’s my first model with the software.
One thing I’ve noticed is that modeling takes A LONG TIME. Seriously. The turret and barrel took me about 5 hours and it’s not even that complex. The details on the back must have taken at least 8-10 hours because of how many times I redid parts after figuring out what I did before was horribly messy (it still is messy by professional standards). I’m sure once I get a handle on the UI things will speed up however, half the time I spend on trying to find the button that does what I want to do. Anyway, here are some high-res renders (click them!).
It’s also apparently been snowing a lot in the rest of England, reportedly up to eight inches (!) back at my house in Witney, unfortunately only a pitiful two down in Pompey. Why couldn’t it have snowed OVER CHRISTMAS, you know… like it’s meant to. Anyway, walking down to the cinema last night was fun, considering the pavements are like ice rinks. I also saw a car wheel spin for about 10 seconds at a crossroad, by the time he got moving the lights had gone back to red and the car behind had to wait again, which was amusing to say the least.
Oh yeah, and Happy New Year.
Christmas is over
I hope everyone had a good one, received some nice presents yada yada… We still have New Year this Friday, but after that it’s back to university on the 3rd for a hectic couple of weeks while I finish off my coursework and prepare for exams.
A review on the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard which I received for Christmas is coming, all I can say right now is that it’s totally fantastic, but not perfect due to a few pretty major issues. I’ve been playing a lot on my iPod Touch, as many recent games got reduced in price over the holiday including N.O.V.A, a Halo-like first person shooter which plays surprisingly well in spite of being incredibly un-original.
I also saw Avatar in 3D, and I’ll just say it’s the only film that’s ever made me want to see it again in the cinema, quite simply staggering and you can’t help but fall in love with the Na’vi. The Steam Holiday Sale is continuing through the holiday until January 3rd, however the deals have been mediocre at best as the only good games on sale are ones I already own. GTA IV for £5 has been worth it on it’s own however, but I’m still holding for some good deals near the end of the sale.
Weekly micro update
Lots of exciting things have been happening these last few days what with it being the week before christmas and all. Games are going on sale all over the place (for example, Battlefield 2142 for £3.75, and Medal Of Honor for free), games are being updated with festive themes (Heroes Of Newerth and Quake Live), and I’m participating in more trials and betas this week than I have in all 2009 (Allods Online, Crysis Wars, Age Of Conan), while those of you who still haven’t played Heroes Of Newerth now have access via an open beta. In other news, that’s probably the most hotlinks i’ve written in a paragraph EVER.
One of the good things about writing a blog is that I find myself constantly searching for things to write about, which means I’m a lot more up to date with gaming news than before I started. Be sure to constantly check the Twitter bot at the top of the sidebar, or even follow me on Twitter if you use it yourself. I’ll always post about things I may not think important enough to make a full blog post on (aka, when I can’t be bothered to make a full blog post on). Here are some Twitter updates from the last few days (newest first).
- Age Of Conan free trial now lets you play up to level 20 with no time limits. Register before January 1st! http://bit.ly/53zbTw
- Heroes Of Newerth open beta registration available, 85 hours left! http://bit.ly/4MLEJp
- Wired article on the downfall of Duke Nukem Forever. http://bit.ly/8hxgwX
- Battlefield 2142 only £3.75 with voucher code ‘VoucherCodes.com25%’. http://bit.ly/6uWFna
- Very interesting Half Life 2 climbing/jumping/surfing mod, called Kreedz Climbing. http://bit.ly/4JQ9pG
- Some rumoured information about Battlefield: Bad Company 2, from a BFBC2 Review post. http://bit.ly/6mOOku
- “Boundaries Between Genres Annihilated” | Rock, Paper, Shotgun: http://bit.ly/4UN8lV
- PCGamer’s top 100 games ever, 2009 edition. http://bit.ly/4UaKsE
- Final Fantasy XIV Beta test sign up, takes 5 minutes but hell, why not. http://bit.ly/71x4Hr
Christmas is upon us
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Life, Technology on 11 December 2009
The time where you start to look through piles of hardware (you don’t all have piles of hardware in your room?) that needs replacing has come again! This time I think my keyboard need some special attention. By ‘special attention’, I mean throwing it away and buying a brand new one. Much research had to be done as always before deciding on the right purchase for me, and I have settled on the Logitech Illuminated Kayboard as an apt replacement for my withering Microsoft Ergonomic 4000.
As you can see (or conversely, can’t see), the W S and D keys have been rubbed off, and the E key now looks like an F, not so useful when you’re yelling at somebody to, “Press F to chain this attack or you’re going to DIE!”.
I chose the Illuminated Keyboard because I have never been interested in gaming keyboards that boast ’50 additional programmable macro keys! Store up to 5 thousand key-strokes on a single button!’, because I just wouldn’t need them, and they take up precious desk space (don’t underestimate how valuable desk space is). Plus the fact that it is undeniably incredibly pretty.
Expect a full review once it arrives on christmas day.
Recent Comments