S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Frightens Me

Yes it does indeed... but it's not the idea of the creepy oppressive atmosphere that I so loved in the first three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.
"Wait, three? aren't you talking about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 here?"
Yes I am, I know it makes no real sense, just bare with me here.

No... what really scares me about this is that they announce that this new game will be programmed over a new in-house programmed multi-platform engine.
"Why's that so bad? Doesn't that just mean they'll be able to make the game work on game consoles too, and not just the PC?"
Exactly, and that's precisely what they're going to do. No company wastes money and time developing a game engine that works for multiple platforms without using it, that would just be silly.

"So... isn't this a good thing?"
No... no it isn't.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games have so far been some of the most complex and detailed first person shooter games I've even heard of. And all the really great community made modifications for the games have made them even more complex and more detailed.
This is one of the reasons these games have gained such a solid fan-base on the PC platform. No console controller could ever hope to let you wield the same amount of commands over a game as a keyboard and mouse.

Another thing that has made the first 3 games in the series so popular is the aforementioned atmosphere. You really feel like you are in a world of strange scientific anomalies and alien dangers. The immersion factor of these games is through the roof.
If they change the control scheme to cater to the twelve button+two joystick console controllers, they will have to change the entire feel of the game as well and it will become yet another "invincible-regenerating-gun-toting-space-marine-shooter" a la Gears of War, Killzone and Halo... and we really don't need more of those.

I really don't have anything against consoles or the games they can play, but I don't want every successful PC game series to be consolified.
They did it to Modern Warfare 2, they're doing it to Crysis and now they'll probably do it to my favorite ever PC game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

A Little Morning Revelation

This morning while riding the train to school I just realized why so many webdesigners dislike the idea of software that makes it really easy to make websites.
It's not really that they lack all the extra functions of the full-fledged Adobe Creative Suite line of software or other similar lines.
It's that these easy to use programs allow virtually anyone to start making websites that look professional to the untrained eyes of the masses. This in turn allows companies that would otherwise have hired a professional web-designer or graphic designer to make their logos, websites, signs, et al to just make a logo or website contest, effectively harnessing the power of all these amateurs... all for the price of a promised approximately 50-100 bucks and a little publicity to the one out of hundreds they choose from.
This leaves a couple hundred of the prospective designers unpaid and pretty much unappreciated, while one has essentially given away his or her hours upon hours of work for a pittance.
All the while, this isn't exactly doing wonders for the design industry, as it greatly depreciates the overall value of good design work.
I understand that not all companies in the world have multi million dollar budgets and should still be able to get web-sites and logo designed for them, but these contests are just not the way to go. Pretty much every-one should have some sort of contact with people who know web- or graphic design. May it be a friend, family member, friend of a friend, family member of a colleague... somewhere in your circle of acquaintances is bound to be someone with at least a little education and some experience in these fields.
Look over this person's works so far and decide whether to hire him/her or not and then discuss payment with the person you choose for the job.

Bookstores, a Love-story...

I love bookstores. I don't even consider a town worth being in if there is no bookstore.
It's because I love paper. I love the smell of new paper, and the smooth feeling of it. I love the selection of things I can use with that paper... pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, scissors, glue, paint, rulers, paper-clips, stencils, all of it...
But mostly I love the idea of a clean, new and completely unused notebook/sketchbook and the potential it holds. The idea that a clean page can potentially show anything you want it to with a little work.
That idea actually runs so deep within me that I often can't get myself to leave used pages in otherwise unused notebooks or sketchbooks, I have to tear those pages out, lest I limit the countless possibilities for how to use the rest of the book.
I love paper so much that when I found out I was to start education as a web-designer, I immediately set out to buy a block of huge sheets of graph paper, a brand new hardback notebook, a 24 piece set of graphic pencils and a portfolio case for all of it to fit in. Even though it's actually much easier for me to work with software only.
I would just hate it if I didn't have the possibility to work with paper, not have that tactile feeling of the graphite or ball-point moving over that grainy-smooth surface as my hand tries to keep up with my head.

So yeah, I love bookstores and that may make me a bit weird, but I can live with that.

Friis out...

It's been a while...

Yeah, it certainly has...
Well since my last post I've done more things than I can even remember so let's just start off with some of the ones I do.
I've been on summer holiday to my favorite city in France, where I got myself a tan and a nice new hand-made steer hide hat among many other things.
As you can probably guess, I can't go to France without having a bit of a foodgasm, so I'll just admit right away that I did go to my favorite restaurant there and got my favorite menu.



The entrée was a so-called salade gourmande, and the slice of pasty looking stuff you can see on top of it is foie gras (a specially prepared kind of goose liver).
The main course is called a faux filét au sauce roquefort, which has pretty much been one of my all time top 5 favorite dishes. The rich taste of the garlic roasted potato slices with the roquefort sauce is just pure distilled awesomeness.
For dessert I chose a lemon meringue pie which you can see I couldn't actually wait to sample until after I'd taken the picture.



The other desserts around the table were an île flottante, which is sweetened and beaten egg-whites floating in vanilla creme with caramelised sugar on top as well as a tarte tatin which is a local recipe for apple pie.
The grey-haired man also taking pictures of his food is my dad, so I guess the passion runs in my blood.

If anyone is interested, the restaurant in question is the Saint Germain in the city of Tours, which in turn is in the Loire Valley. I can definitely reccomend this place for anyone interested in seeing the France outside Paris without wanting to leave behind the luxuries of a larger city.

In other news, I'll be starting my education in webdesign and other sorts of multimedia production this coming monday, and I'm extremely excited.
I've already made one website for my mothers small business selling yarn and having a sort of weekly knitting club. If you'd like to see it, I have to warn you that it is in Danish however, and that as this was my first website ever, it was a bit of a learning process for me.
Anyways, it's right here:
www.js-strik.dk

I'm working on a site of my own which will be up either this week or next week, featuring a forum and whichever other neat things I learn to do as I learn them.
The main purpose of my own website will be as a sort of combined testing-ground and project portfolio, as I try to become a professional webdesigner.

Alright I think that's all for now...
Friis out...