The Walking Dead Episode 5

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/the-walking-dead-episode-5-ba4eb7921307



If you missed my reviews of the previous episodes, check them out here and here.

Wow. Just wow. I've experienced quite a few season finales in my time, and this one certainly ranks up there in epicness and emotional intensity.
In comparison to the previous episodes of The Walking Dead, this one felt more linear; it had way fewer puzzles than the previous episodes, and the ones that were present were much less complicated (I was perfectly fine with this changeup); the decisions I had to make also felt like they carried less weight, but that was mostly because they had less than two hours to make any difference to the story.

The decisions you made earlier in the series mostly affected who was with you during this final adventure, and I am sorely tempted to play through the series again to see how this would play out with different people.

I think that it was a plus to focus entirely on wrapping up the plot during this episode. After each chapter I found myself thinking come on, just one more even though it was 4 in the morning and I was really tired.

The quicktime events also felt more meaningful because it was possible to fail them and not have a game-over on your hands. After a couple of them I wondered what would have happened if I had succeeded; would the outcome have been better? Was it even possible to succeed? I love it when the game makes me uncertain about the internal mechanics of the game.

 There were LOTS of memorable  moments in this episode, more than any other episode in the series. Many characters including Lee and Clementine had badass moments that elevated my respect for them even more.

Telltale did a really good job of keeping the atmosphere consistently tense; I found myself hyperventilating during portions of the game where I was in no danger whatsoever.

That's about all I can say without spoiling it for you, so here are a few more screenshots:

If you want to see all of my screenshots from this game, check them out on Steam. Some of them will give away plot points though.

EDIT: You can now read my review of the 400 Days DLC.

Windows 8 Developer Preview: 14 Months Later

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/windows-8-developer-preview-14-months-later-da98f8d31790

One year and two months ago we were introduced to what Windows 8 would look, feel, and perform like. I just stumbled across the chat log of Matthew Linder and I while we were watching the first keynote of the BUILD conference. 14 months is a long time, and I look back at that chat log and think "man, I was so young and stupid!" I find it fascinating to look back on this type of event and remember what we thought the future was going to be like, what emotions we were feeling while being introduced to this brand-new, unknown thing called Metro. For your viewing and reading pleasure: the keynote and the chat log. 11:06 AM Snuffy: yo
me: there you are!
Snuffy: they like touch I guess
11:07 AM
me: no kidding
Snuffy: and tablets
will i have to buy a touch monitor?
me: not necessarily
Snuffy: but will i want to
me: I still like my dual-monitor and touchpad on the desk idea
11:08 AM Snuffy: i could probably get something like that set up
me: "the chipset?"
11:09 AM Snuffy: they mean the cpu/gpu
me: ok
Snuffy: but they just said mouse and keyboard is still just as good
whew
me: they dont want to alienate anyone at this point
Snuffy: yea good point
11:10 AM ill have to leane a tlike 12:15
leave*
11:11 AM me: oh god, windows live
Snuffy: cloud
me: does it rain in the cloud?
11:12 AM Snuffy: lol bnetbook
me: i hate it when people use those
Snuffy: yay optimization!
me: nice
11:14 AM that is one of the biggest barriers to using a modern OS- you have to have a good computer to run it
Snuffy: its kind of like snow leopard, the next gen OS has lower system requirements than its predecessor
11:15 AM lol password ridiculus
me: I was about to say what she said
"over te camera shoulder" lol
Snuffy: those arent windows! those are tiles
11:16 AM me: "games" sure
Snuffy: i know lol
11:17 AM thats what i was thinking
11:18 AM me: so she has an email preview tile, but what about people who use gmail
Snuffy: it will probably integrate
me: eventually
11:19 AM Snuffy: onscreen keyboard..
 me: ugh, touchscreen typing is still too slow
Snuffy: what angle was she typing at?
me: not sure
11:20 AM Snuffy: that guy just pops in: all with touch too
me: throws her off
Snuffy: Word Hunt.... my favorite!
me: maybe they need to move downstage
11:21 AM right patches?
11:22 AM Snuffy: lololololol
11:23 AM me: lolfail
or I could get two monitors and see everything at once
11:24 AM Snuffy: wtf!!!!!!
me: "chromeless" lol
Snuffy: did he just say that
me: yep
Snuffy: lol
me: and then he plays dumb
11:25 AM Snuffy: fail
me: product placement!
11:26 AM they're after me luck charms!
11:27 AM Snuffy: there is going to be a big boom in touchscreen monitors
me: hell yeah
nice
11:28 AM Snuffy: auto-spell checking is not new....
me: ah, but it used to be program-specific now it is system wide
Snuffy: only on windows
me: yeah
11:29 AM Snuffy: not for: linux, mac, android, ios, etc
cheapest touchscreen on newegg is $250
11:30 AM me: I wonder why nobody made a program that spellchecks everything
11:31 AM Snuffy: though sometimes spell check is annoying, when your trying to type certain things
me: "metro-style" what do they mean by that?
Snuffy: ot sure
not sure
11:32 AM settings syncing... I like
me: they are so awkward
11:33 AM Snuffy: very akward
i can't build apps =(
me: microsoft seems very bad at doing presentations like this
11:34 AM Snuffy: i have seen microsoft do better ones
me: remember the whole deal with the kinect party at E3?
Snuffy: oh yea lol
11:35 AM me: "web" of apps
Snuffy: like they all work together
me: they really want everyone to use 8 on everything
11:36 AM Snuffy: seems like a bad program, could really screw up this web
11:37 AM unix kernel is way more rebust and reliable
me: knew you would say that
Snuffy: lol
11:38 AM i am like excited about this interface, but also scared
me: I am really lost now
Snuffy: yea this part will probably be boring... since it is for the devs
11:39 AM me: goddammit, they are calling it an app store
Snuffy: apple tried to sue them when they called it that a couple months back
me: I am so tired of that phrase
Snuffy: but apple lost obviously
11:40 AM why sick of it?
me: this guy's voice
oh, its just that everyone seems to want to call their programs "apps" now
11:41 AM Snuffy: yea I guess so, is that bad?
me: its just obnoxcious, I like calling them programs
11:42 AM I hope he doesn't forget to check-expect
Snuffy: I think an "application" is a bunch of individual programs and an GUI
lol
11:44 AM me: I wonder how easy it will be to upgrade seamlessly from 7 to 8
11:45 AM Snuffy: I wonder too
10pm tonight out time, they will be releasing the ISO for devs
11:46 AM me: International Socialist Organization?
11:47 AM Snuffy: disk image file http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_image
11:48 AM me: will he swoop the woop?
11:49 AM Snuffy: huh?
I have to leave in like 20 min but I want to see the later part of this
me: he said swoop, and it made me think of swooping the woop
11:50 AM Snuffy: now touch on a monitor or laptop, is ergonomically horrible, arms get too tires
me: yep
11:51 AM Snuffy: what they are talking about now sounds really good, but doesn't really apply to me
cux i dont make apps
me: you could
why are we taking CSci, after all?
11:52 AM Snuffy: eventually yep
me: hey look, that web browser has a chrome!
horrible
Snuffy: tthats the web browser i have
me: horrible joke
Snuffy: on my beta
11:53 AM me: dude, that is just IE 9
looks like it anyway
Snuffy: a couple of things behaved differently
11:54 AM me: dude, I wont have to get office on a disc
just realized that
Snuffy: yep you wont need a disc drive!
me: also, what are the installation options going to be if I don't have a isc drive
Snuffy: and just like with steam, applications on the app store will be cheaper
me: FUCK YEAH
11:55 AM Snuffy: isc drive?
me: *disc
Snuffy: maybe they will have install from within 7
and usb install too
11:56 AM me: ok, but what if I build myself a tower that does not have a disc drive
ah, usb
11:57 AM Snuffy: those arent games
me: there was one that had garden gnomes
Snuffy: oh didn't see
11:58 AM me: I remember quicken
Snuffy: my mom uses that a lot
me: that is good
11:59 AM the apple app store is very closed, isnt it?
Snuffy: you mean the mac app store
me: well, I was thinking of iPod apps but yeah mac apps now as well
12:00 PM Snuffy: closed in the sense meaning you cant sell apps with malware or ones that don't work
me: I have read a lot of frustrated stories from developers trying to get stuff out to people on the iPod app store
Snuffy: myth
12:01 PM me: suuuure
Snuffy: 99.9% apps get approved in 24 hours, the ones that don't either: the description doesnt match there app, or the app doesnt work, or there is porn
me: I WANT MY PRON APP
12:02 PM Snuffy: pron?
me: Porn duh
Snuffy: k lol
me: pron is an intentional misspelling
Snuffy: oh
12:03 PM i didn't know
12:04 PM me: "wow!"
Snuffy: I want to see the how the average user reacts to this metro web of apps
I am sure some will love it some will prolly be scared to death
me: and then there is my mother
12:05 PM who will still be using XP
Snuffy: lol thats like 10 years old now
11 years
me: next year is its 10 year anniversary
12:06 PM wait, never mind
october 25
this year
Snuffy: oh ok
me: I should have my family throw their computers a party
12:07 PM Snuffy: yea lol
me: I want to see them plays some friggin games on thos machine
*machines
Snuffy: games will probably work the same
12:08 PM run in full screen and take full ocntrol
me: what happens if I try to run a FPS on a touchscreen win8?
Snuffy: oh they cant
12:09 PM me: I like DOS text
Snuffy: i love fast boot
12:10 PM me: "defender"?
I thought their product was security essentials
12:11 PM Snuffy: they have multiple security thing s built in
12:12 PM windows 8 is looking really nice
me: that could be good for my computer's battery life issues
12:13 PM this part of the presentation is better
Snuffy: yes
nice 22nm
choosing intel over AMD nice
me: yess
12:14 PM BOOM USB 3.0
Snuffy: intel dont support usb 3.....
me: orly
Snuffy: oh nice these are special drives
12:15 PM me: wtf
Snuffy: fuck i got to go to work
me: cya
Snuffy: that system there is better than mine =(
me: no shit
i hope he plays a game
Snuffy: g2g cya
me: bye

On Mobile Computing

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/on-mobile-computing-45907e0a5f63

I think that tablets are going to supersede laptops. There, I said it. Two years ago when I bought my laptop I wouldn't have imagined that I would be replacing it with a 10-inch block that doesn't even have any USB ports, but it looks like that is what is going to happen very soon.

Obviously at the time buying a laptop was the only thing that made any sense; I couldn't get a desktop because the internet at my house was atrocious and tablets really weren't a thing yet. Buying a nice gaming laptop (a Sony Vaio rocking an i7 processor and an Nvidia GT 425M) was perfect, and Vera has served me quite well for these two years. Until recently I wouldn't have thought that I would be thinking about replacing her so quickly.

Several things happened that have made me reconsider my position.
It started last May when Max Payne 3 came out. The combination of the game's awesomeness and the heat of the newly arrived summer caused Vera to overheat in about 20 minutes. I started resorting to placing ice packs under her to get as much gaming time as I could.
In September I finished acquiring components for my new desktop and since then I have stopped wanting to do most things with Vera. All I really use her for is taking notes in class and watching things on the TV lounge with everyone. At this point I started thinking that I might want to replace Vera with an Ultrabook (maybe even a Chromebook), as that would certainly have a better battery life and be quite a bit lighter.
A friend of mine here in Morris had an Asus Transformer that he was trying to sell. After I researched it I realized that it would actually make sense to buy it and sell Vera. However, the bidding went higher than I could at the time.

Then Windows 8 released and Google announced the Nexus 10.
I really like the direction Microsoft took the Surface in terms of hardware; it is a very slick device, and the way that the cover doubles as a keyboard and it has a kickstand makes it clear that they want the user to be able to get actual work done on it.
On the other hand, Google is my favorite company and I use tons of their services. This coupled with the strides the Android operating system has taken in the last year mean that I am definitely going to get an Android tablet. And the one that I can be sure will have continued support in the future is the Nexus.

I think that laptops occupied a weird time in our technological journey. They were the first successful attempt at making personal computing portable, but there are inherent problems in the system. Basically, manufacturers took smaller versions of desktop parts and smooshed them into a tiny package and installed an operating system that wasn't designed for that kind of form factor.
Everything about it- spinning hard drives, disc drives, big old CPUs and GPUs- create lots of heat that a fan has to eject from the system and all of this eats up battery power like no other. They are also rather large and not usable while walking around.

Tablets solve all of these issues. ARM chipsets use less power and create less heat, flash memory uses no moving parts, and operating systems built with tablets in mind have much less overhead because they do less multitasking.
For a while you could have argued that the operating systems on tablets just didn't have the functionality necessary for them to be viable, but they are definitely fine now. Windows 8 in particular is blurring the lines between PC and tablet, and I have seen some intriguing commercials for Ultrabooks that easily double as tablets (I'm not sure if they use ARM chipsets or not).

As for the things that I can do with a tablet that I can't with my laptop, it mostly has to do with the touch interface. There are some intriguing games that are coming out with touchscreens in mind, and the ones that integrate themselves with other games (like Mass Effect Infiltrator) are very enticing. Also simple things like being able to listen to music while walking around campus and not having to worry about battery life all day would be nice.

So there you have it, that is my reasoning behind the decision to replace my laptop with a tablet. I guess it would be more accurate to say that I am replacing my laptop with a desktop and a tablet, but details.

Dishonored Review

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dishonored-review-953887a12108

Let me get the most important thing out of the way: if you came here already knowing a few things about Dishonored and you are just wondering if it is worth purchasing, I would tell you "Yes!" I'll even understand if you don't read the rest of this post so you can start playing it as soon as possible.


For the rest of you, here are the essentials that you should know about the game: It is a first-person stealth action game set in a steampunk industrial city infested with a plague (except that everything runs on whale oil instead of steam. The city inherits the city-on-a-coast that is slowly falling apart while a ruling class harasses the citizens vibe from City 17 (Half-Life 2) mixed with the steady unveiling of stories and details through books and audio recordings from Rapture (Bioshock). So the setting is already off to a good start, as I enjoyed both of those games immensely.

As was revealed to us before the game came out, you play as Corvo Attano, the Empress' body guard. In the first scene the empress is assassinated, her daughter is kidnapped, and you are framed for it. Not the most original plot, I know, but you really do get caught up in it. Before they can execute you of course you escape with the help of a group loyal to the true heir and the rest of the game is the story of your revenge.

Something tells me I shouldn't trust these guys.

But man, am I handsome or what??

Of course, the way that you go about exacting your revenge is entirely up to you. It is entirely possible for you to go in guns blazing and murder everyone in your path; it is also possible for you to kill almost no one throughout the whole game. You can even deal with most of the main targets in a nonlethal manner. The way you play affects several things in the game: the more people you kill, the more rats and plague victims there will be, and the ending of the game will be darker. This concept of giving you a moral choice within a linear framework reminds me once again of Bioshock.
I opted to try to kill as few people as I could, partly because it is a refreshing change of pace from most video games, and partly because I knew that the guards that I was encountering didn't know the truth and were just following orders.

Corvo has some pretty nifty gadgets at his disposal, including a folding blade, a crossbow, a pistol, rewiring tools, razor mines, and grenades. Oh, and of course his mask.

The guards in this game aren't completely clueless, so sneaking around them undetected is actually pretty challenging until you start getting awesome supernatural powers from The Outsider.

This guy lives in The Void, which is the otherworldly realm where everything magical comes from. He apparently seeks out interesting people to give powers to in order to see what they will do with their powers.  He kind of reminds me of the G-Man (Half-Life) but he manages to be creepy in a whole different way.
The powers he gives you include things like short-range teleportation, seeing things through walls, stopping time, possessing animals, and creating a giant swarm of rats that will devour people.

Both your gear and powers are upgradeable; for gear you collect money and supplies during your missions and bring them back to Piero to have him give you new goodies; for powers you collect whale bone runes and you can select a power to acquire as soon as you have enough runes.

Being that you are the Empress' body guard and her daughter was abducted, one of your main goals is to ensure Emily's safety. I am noticing that this is a rapidly emerging theme in video games: The Walking Dead, Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, and The Last of Us all have grown men as the player character with a young girl they must protect. Of course, the degree of usefulness the girl provides varies, but they are quite similar. Also, in both The Walking Dead and Dishonored she draws pictures of things that have happened throughout the game.

There are a few things that I have to complain about, but they are relatively minor notes:

• The game isn't quite as long as I was expecting. I was almost expecting another plot twist that would keep the game going because I only had 16 hours of game time, but it really was the end.
• It isn't the most graphically impressive game I've seen. It makes up for it with a unique art style.
• When I first heard about the focus on player choice, I thought it was going to be an awesome open-world experience. This was not the case at all. While there were multiple paths to take to your final goal, I felt almost guided by the level designers to take certain routes.
• The $60 seems like too much; I would say that $40 would be more reasonable. Publishers really need to get away from their strict $60 price-point, especially with games like this that are good, but aren't huge AAA blockbusters.

After you have completed a mission you can revisit it and try it out a different way, in the spirit of player choice. If you are an achievement hunter you will be using that to go back and do things differently for several of the targets.

Take a look at all of my screenshots from Dishonored here but be aware that I took a few that may give away important plot points.

EDIT: you can now read my review of the Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches DLCs.

Birthday Goodies

Have you ever noticed that as you get older, you want less of the toys-in-general and more of the this-thing-in-particular? Or is it just me? Oh well.

Anyway, I had a really good haul this year.

Caleb and Jonas got me Dishonored (great game, we reviewed it) and I have been enjoying it a ton.
Ian got me XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which I have not had an opportunity to play yet. Don't worry Ian, I'll get around to it!
Katie made me an origami X-wing.
A great time hanging out with fellow Gay 1-1 residents while eating ice cream cake.
The most fun game of Yahtzee I've ever had, which I lost to Nana by two points.
Getting Skittles from Auntie Dawn never gets old, but Jonas asking for Skittles gets old really fast.
A bunch of cash from the rest of my relatives.
Mom and Dad surprised me by giving me full access to the car. Even though I don't get the title (that would be too complicated, insurance and all) I still get to call it my car. Now I get to start paying for gas.
And the best gift of all was, of course, Kaelyn's bottle of ranch dressing.

The Walking Dead Episode 4

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/the-walking-dead-episode-4-6fdf0b783862

I was going to play this episode on Sasha and let you all know how it looked in 3D, but it turns out that The Walking Dead does not synchronize save files (I thought everybody did that nowadays) so I am back on Vera the laptop. Which is fine, as this isn't a graphically intensive game. I played a little of the beginning of the game on Sasha just to see how it looked in 3D; while it looks good and everything renders at the proper depth, 3D really doesn't add much to the experience. I almost prefer it without 3D because it feels more like a graphic novel that way.

I talked about the gameplay aspects in my review of the first three episodes, so I won't go into that here.

This episode really notched up the suspense and intrigue. As usual they had plenty of heart-wrenching moments, and a few others that seemed like they were going to be heart-wrenching, but turned out to be good in the end. Here are a few, and I won't tell you which is which:

One of my favorite things about this episode was the character Molly. Instead of trying to tell you why, I will show you:

She's a badass, is what it boils down to. And who can't help liking a character who named their ice pick Hilda? Seriously.
Alright, I admit it; I have the hots for her. Kind of the same way I had the hots for Carter back when I was watching Stargate for the first time.

Unfortunately that is all I can tell you without giving away spoilers. Episode 4 is all the more reason to buy The Walking Dead; of course Halloween is coming up and I can't see Steam not putting this game on sale. So I would recommend waiting until then.

See all of my screenshots here. I can't guarantee that there won't be any spoilers there.

EDIT: You can now read my review of Episode 5.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/assassin-s-creed-brotherhood-68857c8d36d9

I started the Assassin's Creed series last spring, and it just keeps getting better and better. The first game was a solid start, but the missions got repetitive after a while. AC II blew me away with the number of things they added; a compelling plot and characters that felt authentic, interesting platforming sequences, and a real sense of humor!

I just finished the story campaign of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and I can't decide whether I liked it better than Assassin's Creed II or not.

Graphically Brotherhood is obviously better, but it is not as big a difference as the change from AC to AC II.  Here are some screenshots for you to compare.

Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Also keep in mind that the AC II screenshots were taken on my laptop, and the Brotherhood screenshots were taken on my desktop, so that makes a significant difference. Also, 3D gaming is really useful while freerunning around Renaissance Italy because depth perception helps me to know whether I can make a jump or not.

I think I preferred the story of AC II because it was an epic narrative of Ezio's journey over several decades to train and grow from a rather self-centered lady-killer young adult to a mature assassin (still a lady-killer). AC Brotherhood was much more limited in scope, as it takes place over the course of a few years in the city of Rome. Don't get me wrong, it was epic, but I liked the tangible progression that Ezio went through in AC II.

However, I definitely preferred the gameplay of Brotherhood. They improved on a few of the things that had been iffy in the previous games (like horses!) and they added some really great things as well. The big one of course is recruiting assassins to help you out. I felt like a total badass whenever I walked by a group of guards, raised my hand and whistled, and a moment later they were dead. I also became rather attached to the recruits, and it made me very proud when they gained enough experience to become full-fledged assassins. Losing recruits didn't have quite as big an emotional impact as losing people in The Walking Dead did, but when I accidentally killed one it came pretty close.

The endings of these games keep getting more and more mind-blowing; I have heard that Revelations raises the bar once again, and I can't wait to get there. One thing that definitely gave me the chills was the date that the finale takes place on. Ubisoft has intentionally been converging all events on December 21, 2012 and the final scenes of Brotherhood take place 72 days before that. Guess what day that is; it's October 10, my 20th birthday! Creepy, right?


So if you were to ask me which Assassin's Creed games you should play, I would say all of them. If you are short on time/money skipping the first one is excusable. AC II, Brotherhood, and Revelations make a nice little trilogy, so don't start after AC II. I have heard that Ubisoft is making AC III easy to just jump into, so you can also wait and jump in at the end if you want.

I'll leave you with a few more screenshots from Brotherhood. You can also see the full collection here.

EDIT: You can see all of my screenshots here.

Biphasic Sleep Cycle

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/biphasic-sleep-cycle-1885dbc9ceda

Last weekend I stayed up until about 3 in the morning two nights in a row (not entirely on purpose). Because we have Cross Country at 9 in the morning on weekends, I wasn't able to sleep in so I ended up collapsing for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

I recalled that my friend Snuffy had tried to get himself into a polyphasic sleep cycle last year, and I wondered if what I had ended up doing was close at all. I found this lovely Wikipedia article on the subject and one section popped out in particular:

According to that chart I was very close already to being on a biphasic sleep cycle with 6 hours of sleep a day. So I decided to keep it up; with my weekly schedule it makes the most sense to sleep from 2 or 2:30 to 7 in the morning, and 1.5 hours right before or after Cross Country practice, which goes from 4 to about 6 on weekdays.

So far it hasn't worked out too badly. I feel awake and alert for most of the day except for right before and right after my sleep times. My body is definitely still expecting to be getting more sleep at once because I always feel groggy right after I wake up. I have been pretty strict about maintaining the schedule because I know that I will lapse back into 8 hours a night if I let myself.

I think I will experiment a bit with different lengths of sleep (maybe a little more sleep during the major sleep block and less during the nap?) and see what feels the most natural. For example, I will get an extra hour of sleep tonight because we have a Cross Country meet tomorrow.

In a week I will let you know if I have successfully adjusted to biphasic sleeping; if it still doesn't feel natural by that time I will go back to my normal sleep cycle. I'm in college, I'm supposed to try out new things, right?

New Desktop: Sasha!

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/new-desktop-sasha-4c868bfd3ef8

For the last two years the only computer I had was my laptop, a Sony VAIO VPCF1. I call it Vera. She has served me well, but lately she has started to overheat very quickly while playing games like Max Payne 3 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. This is likely a combination of the hot summer air, her aging Geforce 425M, and the fact that she has never had the best cooling system as it was.

So this summer I started keeping my eyes peeled for deals on desktop parts. Last week the final parts came, and I spent a couple of hours with my friend Sean Stockholm building Sasha in my dorm's TV lounge. I also did a live-stream of the whole thing to test out Google+'s streaming system. You can watch the video here, but I understand if you don't want to.

Here is a complete list of the parts and peripherals that I got (in the order that I bought them in) with rounded prices.

• 16GB RAM by G.Skill for $85
• 27" 3D Acer monitor for $550
• Rosewill R5 case for $60
• 650W Corsair power supply for $90
• i5-3570K Intel CPU for $200
• Razer Death Adder 5 button mouse for $50
• 1TB Seagate HDD $68 (x2)
• Cooler Master CPU cooler for $30
• 128GB Samsung SSD for $75
• Logitech webcam for $70
• Razer Lycosa keyboard for $70
• Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard for $150
• Zotac AMP! Geforce 670 for $450
• Total cost: $1941.08

This sounds expensive until you realize that a large portion of that cost was the monitor alone, and the tower itself was under $1300. So it would be very easy to build something similar for about $1500, but without the 3D monitor (more on 3D gaming in another post).

Being that I name all of my electronics after weapons, I have named her Sasha after the Heavy Weapons Guy's mini gun in Team Fortress. For now I have installed the release preview of Windows 8. I am liking it enough to actually get the final version when it comes out on October 26th, especially since it is only going to be $40. And for all you nay-sayers out there who think that Windows 8 is going to be crap, don't worry about it. It is very easy to use it just like Windows 7. The only major difference is that you have the start screen instead of the start menu, and I hardly ever go there because all of my programs are pinned to the taskbar. And Windows 8 brings quite a few features that are very useful, such as Storage Spaces (lets me put files like my music collection, game files, etc in a virtual space that is duplicated across as many drives as I wish) and the ability to open ISOs in Explorer. You may have noticed that I didn't buy any sort of optical drive because I don't believe in them. Seriously, when was the last time you had to install something from a CD? Even if I ever have to do that, it isn't hard to stick the disc into my laptop, make an ISO file in Google Drive, and then open it in Sasha.

There are a few quirks that I have noticed so far. When I am gaming and I have the fans turned all the way up, I hear this annoying little squeaking coming from somewhere in the tower. I still need to look into that. Also, during last weekend's podcast the computer stopped receiving sound from my headset's mic. It was set as the default device and everything, and I know there is nothing wrong with the headset because it was working with my laptop. Since then it has started working again, and I have no idea what was going on.

To wrap up, I am definitely happy with my new computing device, and I hope that I have future-proofed her enough to not have to spend too much on parts for the next 4-5 years.

My Podcast!

I am really excited to announce that Ian Decker and I have officially started our show about gaming news, reviews, and whatever else we feel like talking about. It is called Eight Bit, and you can find it over at the-nexus.tv.

We had a ton of fun recording it, and we are looking forward to next week. Oh, and we are always looking for guests, so if you would like to be on the show, just let me know.

The Walking Dead, Episodes 1-3

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks. Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/the-walking-dead-episodes-1-3-42d97c69e8fc

I picked up The Walking Dead last week when it was on sale for $15. I had been hearing a lot of good things about the game from both Game Informer and PC Gamer, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I'll try to write this review without giving too many spoilers.

The Walking Dead takes place in the same universe as the comics and TV show, but it is an entirely new cast. I think this is probably for the best, because a lot of games that try to recreate a movie exactly fail miserably. It is also being released episodically, which means that you pay once for the game, and when each new episode is ready you get to play it. I think their plan was to release them monthly, but the third was a little late.

You are placed in the role of Lee Everett, who at the beginning of the game is in the back of a police car on his way to prison. Very soon after the zombies start popping up, you meet Clementine, an eight year old whose parents were away in Savannah when the outbreak happened. Obviously her motivation is to find her parents, and Lee's motivation is to protect her at all costs.

A theme that pops up on a fairly regular basis is the effect that all of this apocalypsness can have on the people who are living through it. This is conveyed several times by showing Clementine seeing something awful happen.

The gameplay is driven by quicktime events, puzzles, and choices.
The quicktime events only occur when you have gotten grabbed by zombies or are otherwise in immediate danger. They aren't ridiculous, mostly just mashing Q and then hitting E to finish it off.
Obviously the puzzles take place in between high-action parts of the game, and usually involve figuring out how to open this door to get this item which you need to complete this task. Oftentimes the areas with puzzles also provide a nice opportunity to chat with other members of your group and get to know them better.
Speaking of the characters, they are the ones that drive the story, and almost all of the choices you have to make have some direct effect on the members of your group. Some are blatant "save person A or person B," but others are more subtle ones that depend on dialogue options or how you decide to divvy up the dwindling supplies. The screenshot above is of me deciding to chop off a guy's leg to free him from a bear trap; I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I could have chosen not to do it. I was just doing what I thought was necessary. I tried everything else first, I swear.
The fact that the consequences of your actions are not immediately apparent is what really sells the sense of realism for me. For example, after I lost a certain character, I spent a long time (outside of the game during my real life, mind you) analyzing all of the choices that I had made leading up to their death. I was trying to think of a way to save them, but I'm still not sure if I could have done anything. The fact that I don't know if the event was scripted or happened because of my choices really shows you how well it is doing its job. I am probably not going to go back to try to change that moment, because I feel that that would cheapen the experience.

Here are a few more screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

The game is notorious for little bugs like this one. There should be a kid in her arms.

To see all of the screenshots I have taken, go to my Steam page.

EDIT: See my review of Episode 4 here.