[thumb=games/sniper.png]Well it looks like TF2 is finally going to come out, after all this time. It will be shipped with Half-Life 2: Episode 2 late this year or early next year (release date keeps jumping around). They’ve gone in a whole new direction with the graphics this time, making it look like something out of a Pixar movie. Personally, I love it. I think the cartoony characters will bring more fun to the game as each character class has been designed stereotypically. The trailer itself made me chuckle a few times. I can’t wait for it to come out… I’ve been waiting since Y2K Anyways, if you haven’t seen the trailer yet go check it out (apparently it’s on steam but I haven’t checked since I’m on my linux laptop at the moment.

[thumb=games/portal.jpg]Another game that is getting shipped with Episode Two is Valve’s Portal. Originally this was thought to be a new weapon in your arsenal for Episode Two but has been clarified to be a completely seperate game/mod. From the trailer it appears as a puzzle game where your only weapon is this gun that can tear a hole in 2 surfaces and link them together. You will use these portals to get from room to room, bypassing obstacles and eliminating sentries. The cool thing about the Portal trailer is that it looks as if you can make more than 1 portal at a time, I’m not quite sure how it would work but I think each time u create an extra portal the old of the 3 will dissappear leaving a new portal link. This is demonstrated in the trailer where the player makes a portal on the roof and then on the floor and falls through them repeatedly picking up speed, then makes a portal halfway up a wall, the fall momentum is carried through into the new portal and the player is fired like a bullet from the portal on the wall. Very cool. I think, this game will go down extremely well, bringing a new genre to the same engine. Plus I always loved playing with portal effects, especially in the UT engine

Anyway, can’t wait for either of these games to come out… gonna be awesome

…a horse walks into a bar, the bartender says “Why the long face?”.

Finally after all this time I actually found some english versions of the “Hot Shots” films. Would appear they are quite rare on the internet, especially in english (found some in spanish a while back but didn’t realise till download was complete). I love these films, always made me laugh everytime. But my favourite scene out of both films is the beginning of Hot Shots 2, where Topper and some other random guy are fighting in a barn with loads of people betting on them. They just cause so much damage to everything else except each other until the end, walls being smashed down, spectators getting punched in the face and even decapitated, but the best bit; the guy taking the bets repeatedly gets knocked around until he deleriously gets up and gets his head mushed from both sides

[thumb=funny/hotshots.png]

Anyways still at home being completely bored and a bit gutted that I’m missing mike and grif’s 21sts, but am making some much needed money, so not all bad. Finished watching Prison Break season 1, getting better and better every episode and they leave it in such a nasty cliffhanger… the bastards.

Internet is ridiculously laggy here as well so online gaming is like swimming through treacle. I just have SkyTV to keep me sane… ACK! Just as I say that mum switches over to “Just Jade” the dumb bitch that looks like a pig from one of the previous Big Brother seasons *cries* SHE CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH FOR FUCKS SAKE!!! *sigh* Only reason shes got any credibility is that she has mahoosive knockers :/

*sighs again*

Ahhh, another Summer stuck at my parents house… well only for a couple weeks but still, there is not much entertainment here. Therefore, perfect opportunity to get up to date with my blogging

Luckily, I won’t be home for long, couple weeks and I will try trying to get back into Cardiff for birthdays. Only took some clothes and my laptop home with me (and all my films and games). Also got WoW and Tiberian Sun working on my linux laptop so at least I can play a decent MMORPG (and it runs really well too).

I love linux. I don’t understand why games developers don’t release binaries for the linux platform for their games. Okay, I understand that the amount of extra support that will be needed may not be worth it (due to all the different distributions of linux), but the average linux user is a lot smarter when it comes to computers and a large majority can get most things working themslves (I guess thats where wine came from), would be nicer to have a headstart though.

Saying all this, I still use Windows primarily because of games. Most of my favourite games run on linux nowadays, Wine has got that good. However, say there’s this supposed potential freelancer replacement coming out soon, suppose 14th of August and suppose I have played the demo, suppose that it is infact REALLY good and suppose I know for a fact it has no chance in hell that wine could support it; would I convert 100% to linux and miss out on this supposedly god-like game? NO! But, I am also weighing the scales, also thinking about moving over to linux… I could leave a small Windows partition, but that doesn’t count. If I am going to convert to linux, it will be all the way :S

Anyway enough ranting about Windows and Linux, let’s get back on topic. I went through the whole graduation ceremony yesterday, it was pretty awesome (although some of my friends hated it). I am now officially Mr Jargon BSc. (Hons). WOOT! And now I’m home, back in my shitty little village (heh, not that bad but it feels like an OAP retirement home here, as there is NOTHING to do) to do some work I had lined up after I graduated. A couple of jobs, the big one being sorting out my old boss’ website that I developed a while back and the welcomed offer of working for an international transport company to sort out their website also (I should be able to charge them quite a bit )

Anyways, I’m probably gonna go play a game now… or try get another game working (heh).

Toodles