So if you'd been reading my Twitter in the last week, you probably saw me talking about getting an Xbox 360 controller to use as a gamepad on my computer. Microsoft has two options for exactly this: a wired USB controller, and a wireless one that comes with a receiver. The beauty of it all is that these are full-fledged Xbox 360 controllers. Microsoft controller + Microsoft OS = should work, right? Well, right.
I did indeed order the wireless controller, as well as the play and charge pack that comes with a cable and rechargeable battery. Rather than ordering from Microsoft, I ordered from Amazon and saved some money. Go me. The controller arrived yesterday.
Initially I had an issue, being that none of the games I had that preferred Xinput controllers would actually see it. I googled around for a while looking for solutions, but it wasn't until about an hour ago I happened on a forum post that said that the Xbox 360 Controller Emulator would conflict with it and prevent the controller from being properly recognized. Well, a while before the whole OS reinstall thing, I had indeed used Xbox 360 Controller Emulator to make Xinput games recognize my DirectInput-only PS2 controller as an Xinput controller. So I went through and deleted the x360ce Xinput DLL files and restored the backups of the originals that I made should I ever need them (yay forethought). Now I can use it properly in Beat Hazard, The Maw, and anything else I should ever own that looks for an Xinput controller.
If you have an older DirectInput controller and don't want to buy an Xinput one, I do recommend Xbox 360 Controller Emulator. Download link at a Google search result near you. You'll need a copy of x360ce.exe in the directory of every game you want to configure, and given the above story I do recommend making backups of the original Xinput DLLs from the game, if any, just in case. It's pretty simple how it works. You configure your controller so everything maps correctly, then it generates modified Xinput DLLs that wrap the relevant DirectInput calls inside each Xinput call. So the game calls an Xinput function, ends up with results adapted from DirectInput, and everything works.
Anyway.
One of the nice things about getting the wireless receiver is that now if I need another controller (for some local multiplayer action!) I can just go buy an Xbox 360 controller from wherever and it'll work. The reverse is also true, should I ever get an Xbox 360, I'll have another controller for it.
The weird thing I noticed is that the Xbox guide button doesn't register as an actual input. If I plug in the receiver for one of my GH5 guitar controllers, the PS button registers as an input...
Also, there's no way to turn the wireless controller off, short of disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Given that the software that comes with it will pop up an indicator showing the battery level if you press the guide button, it should be relatively easy to make it turn the controller off if it's held, just like on the Xbox 360.
Another issue is that JoyToKey won't work with it. I searched around and grabbed the last free version of Xpadder (because fuck paying for a tool to do this), which fits the bill and works with my PS2 controllers as well.
I know there are alternate drivers that support things like dead zones on the analog sticks and whatnot, I'll have to look into those. For now, everything's working and I'm happy.
Edit (2014-02-10): So apparently JoyToKey will work with a 360 controller. I don't know what I was doing before, but it works, with the caveat of not being able to use both triggers simultaneously since they're two halves of the same analog axis. I still recommend using Xpadder, as it will properly split that axis and let you use both triggers simultaneously, and it's far more intuitive to set up.
Here's a link to the test config I made for the 360 controller in JoyToKey. To use it, drop it in your JoyToKey directory, run JoyToKey and select it, then run Notepad and press things on the controller to see what's what.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Magicka: The Other Side of the Coin
So, we'd been waiting for this for a while. This new DLC for Magicka stars the vampire Alucart, in his fight against Vlad.
Difficulty-wise, it's about average. Not the hardest thing to beat in Magicka, but not the easiest either. The final boss strategy is actually pretty simple this time around, unlike in The Stars Are Left. You don't have very many magicks to aid you, so for the most part it's you and your elements.
The weapon set you have makes you vulnerable to Life, meaning you can't just self-cast it to heal yourself. Instead, you have to use your "staff" active ability, which refills your health by sucking on the blood of your target. There are no other staves available. There are two other swords available, should you desire to switch. The first one is the Broken Sword, and isn't all that useful (it's the sword you start out with when using the Vanilla Robes). The second one is the Blade of Surt, which is fairly useful since it sets things on fire. I just stuck with the default sword and I was all right.
Since you're vulnerable to Life, having a Life shield can help in a few parts. There are these elves that guard barriers who can cast a healing rain (and Nullify...) that will heal their allies and damage you, so being immune to it is handy. Also, Vlad uses Life on his sword periodically (as well as Nullify...).
One of the achievements is called "Friendship is Magicka". You get it by killing all 11 ponies. Yes. YES. Killing ponies! Yay! Apparently a good portion of the Magicka Steam forums think it's broken, but I got it first try, no glitches or anything, it just worked. I'm proud to be part of 0% of the population!
The DLC comes with a few extra challenge arenas and a robe for regular play (the robe you use in the DLC itself isn't selectable).
Overall, it's fun, and it's slightly challenging, but it's not worth the $4.99 price on Steam. Wait for a sale.
Boss strategy after the break.
Difficulty-wise, it's about average. Not the hardest thing to beat in Magicka, but not the easiest either. The final boss strategy is actually pretty simple this time around, unlike in The Stars Are Left. You don't have very many magicks to aid you, so for the most part it's you and your elements.
The weapon set you have makes you vulnerable to Life, meaning you can't just self-cast it to heal yourself. Instead, you have to use your "staff" active ability, which refills your health by sucking on the blood of your target. There are no other staves available. There are two other swords available, should you desire to switch. The first one is the Broken Sword, and isn't all that useful (it's the sword you start out with when using the Vanilla Robes). The second one is the Blade of Surt, which is fairly useful since it sets things on fire. I just stuck with the default sword and I was all right.
Since you're vulnerable to Life, having a Life shield can help in a few parts. There are these elves that guard barriers who can cast a healing rain (and Nullify...) that will heal their allies and damage you, so being immune to it is handy. Also, Vlad uses Life on his sword periodically (as well as Nullify...).
One of the achievements is called "Friendship is Magicka". You get it by killing all 11 ponies. Yes. YES. Killing ponies! Yay! Apparently a good portion of the Magicka Steam forums think it's broken, but I got it first try, no glitches or anything, it just worked. I'm proud to be part of 0% of the population!
 |
| Screenshot or it didn't happen. |
Overall, it's fun, and it's slightly challenging, but it's not worth the $4.99 price on Steam. Wait for a sale.
Boss strategy after the break.
Space Pirates And Zombies Demo Impressions
I've been watching ArchmageMelek's Let's Play of SPAZ and just last night got around to playing the demo on Steam.
Rather than providing some long-winded explanation of the game, I'm just going to list what I did and didn't like.
The Good:
Rather than providing some long-winded explanation of the game, I'm just going to list what I did and didn't like.
The Good:
- Graphics - everything looks beautiful. As far as graphical functionality goes, everything that needs to stand out so that you'll notice it stands out so that you'll notice it.
- Idle radio chatter - absolutely hilarious, and a nice touch on an already good game. "In space, nobody can hear you scream, unless you're chatting on the right frequency."
- Gameplay - relatively straightforward. Make ships, fly around, shoot stuff, try not to die. Make friends with people and they won't attack you, but if you piss them off, they'll start attacking you again. It works pretty well.
- Narration - story narrated by TotalBiscuit.
- Variety - The galaxy you play in is randomly generated when you start, and you have options. Once you're playing, you have options for how you want to outfit your ships. As you progress you'll get more and more ship parts, and the ability to research them to make them better. Choose a setup that works well for you.
- Controls - It uses WASD for ship movement, which is fine, but it's relative to the direction your ship is facing. I keep trying to use the movement controls as if they work more like the movement stick in a twin-stick shooter, that is, W would make me go to the top of the screen, D to the right, S to the bottom, and A to the left. Instead, W is forward, and you head towards the mouse pointer. Also, this might just be a demo thing, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to drop off goons at my warp beacon. They just kind of stay on my ship until I jump somewhere else.
- Well, normally when one thinks of a phrase beginning with "the good, the bad", it ends with "the ugly". Fortunately, here there is no ugly. The game is good overall. I have issues with its controls, but they only sometimes affect me and I was able to play for a few hours and get a fair amount of action out of the two solar systems you're limited to in the demo. There are many more ways you could use your money, but this is one of the better ones.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Rogue Galaxy session 10
Ever since becoming employed I've had difficulty setting aside time for Rogue Galaxy with my old method, where I'd just randomly start playing. It wasn't until I really sat down and scheduled things out that I found time to do it, and I have all day today, so let's go.
On Juraika, I worked my way through the ruins of the Leo King's castle to find the last key piece. The guy we'd fought at each of the other key pieces was there again, this time referred to as "the masked man" even though previous cutscenes have called him "Seed". After a terribly simple but annoying battle where I kept having to heal every two seconds, I defeated the Mad Witch and got the key piece from the Leo King... who so happened to be an infant. Ooooookay.
Anyway, with my newfound psychic ability to determine where unopened chests reside, I worked my way back through the jungle getting what I'd missed.
Once that was done, I teleported back to the Dorgenark and saved. Which ended up being a good thing. Foreshadowing through cutscenes basically told me that Zegram was going to betray us, and he did. Jaster pursues and fights him on the ship's deck, but after a short battle Zegram hops on a smaller ship and gets away.
Next, there was a cutscene with Zegram about to hand over the key pieces to Daytron. He has a condition though, Daytron is currently "revivifying" his girlfriend, Jane. This and that get discussed, he basically says that the experiments in Zerard prison are for turning humans into monsters, and then Seed shows up.
Next fight is Zegram vs. Seed. Seed is annoying enough when I have a full party, but one on one? I got a game over. Keep in mind there was no save point between the two battles, so now I had to fight Zegram with Jaster all over again.
So I did precisely that. Beat Zegram faster this time around, then beat Seed. Seed wounded Zegram in a cutscene (and we all know that in RPGs the only wounds that matter are ones that happen in cutscenes), and the Dorgengoa arrived. Zegram switched sides again and it was up to him, Jaster, and Kisala to fight Seed. Partway through the fight the tablet started reacting to the key pieces. At this point, Seed stopped taking damage and the only thing I could do was place the key pieces. What followed would be a lengthy cutscene explaining Seed's past and showing him utterly failing at solving the puzzle put forth by the tablet.
After having been told all his life that he was better than everyone else, Seed was unable to cope with both his failure and his creator's disgust for his failure. Apparently some cells from those experiments in Zerard prison were implanted in him, and he turned into a beast. Partway through the battle with Beast Seed, Jaster gets pwnt in the face and becomes surrounded with this red glow. The battle continues with just Jaster available... and Beast Seed pwnt him. Sigh, reload (STILL no opportunity to save, so I had to do the whole sequence of fights all over again).
This time I beat Beast Seed with just Jaster. It was a rhythm of "hit him a bunch, get knocked down, use heal potion, repeat" for quite a while. There were a few times he ran to the other side of the area, so I used my sub-weapon then while I waited for him to come back. After the fight, Daytron GTFOed the area thanks to cone-tit-lady.
Jaster, in red-glow-state, is somehow able to solve the puzzle. The rest of the crew somehow now knows of the existence of a fourth king, the Star King, from a long time ago, and infers that Jaster could be his descendant, and having inherited the Star King's powers was able to solve the puzzle.
Finally, after all that, I was able to save. These words have never been used in a better situation: FUKKEN SAVED.
Progressing on into the ruins that the tablet revealed, shit happens with Kisala, and then we find a robot that seems to know her, but needs repairing so it can communicate with us. The party decides to press on further and see if they can find anything to repair the robot with. After a while, I killed a sand kraken boss and it dropped the piece of equipment the robot needed. Headed back to the robot and... long cutscene time.
Apparently Kisala is a princess. Of the very planet that we're trying to get to, that we call Eden. Its real name is fairly long but shortens to Mariglenn. The robot we found was designed to protect Kisala. At the end of the conversation it gave us a key that we need to open the doors to Eden.
We're just about to use the key when apparently Daytron decided to attack the main city on Rosa. We went to see what was going on, ended up getting saved by Raul, the priest at the church where Jaster grew up, and then Daytron killed Raul. Just before dying (you know, one of those typical "I'm dying but have all the time I need to tell you this" moments) he gave Jaster the Star Pendant, which points out a location in the desert on Rosa. So, now we're headed there to see what's up.
After working our way into the desert and finding several people who we helped and then they promptly faded from view right in front of us, the sandstorm intensified. Kisala then noticed something off in the distance, so we headed towards it and all of a sudden we were in a village. With grass, trees, and windmills. In the middle of the desert. Yes. It's name is Johannasburg.
After walking around a bit getting chests and noticing I didn't have the item necessary for the quarry in the middle of the city, we found the village elder, who so happened to be the very first guy I helped in the desert. Apparently all of that was a test or something and only people who pass the test can find the village. I dunno, I see a choice in the middle of a cutscene and I immediately think, entirely gamer sense, "this choice matters later on" and choose the things that generally will make the best impression. Well, it seems to have paid off here.
The old man spoke of a woman who had the same birthmark as Jaster does, but said she left the village a long time ago. He suggested we ask some of the villagers, so we did exactly that, and found that she used to live in the house up on the hill. Went up there, and she's there (in ghost form) and challenges Jaster to a battle to fully unlock his Star King powers. You know, where he glowed red about five miles up the page.
You know, one thing I really hate about this game is the game overs. Any time you die, you have to see that screen that says "GAME OVER" and then you can't just immediately reload from your last save, you have to go all the way back through the logos and the main menu before you can finally get back into the game. It doesn't add anything worthwhile to the game at all, forcing this large amount of downtime after a death.
Yeah, I died partway through the fight and had to do the whole thing over again. Bosses don't take enough damage, and sometimes I'll hit the button for the sword and Jaster will just charge right past my target before swinging. It makes no sense.
I did eventually win the fight. The next bit of cutscene would see both of Jaster's parents identified. His mother was Johanna, the woman I just fought, and the person that the village is named after. His father, Desert Claw. To be honest, I called Desert Claw being his father long before I reached the village, and as soon as I found out that the person with the birth mark that looked the same as Jaster's was female, I figured she was his mother.
On my way back to the tablet I picked up the quarry in the middle of the desert, which wasn't that hard. With it in the bag I jumped up to 5th overall in the hunter rankings. There's still a few of them that I either haven't found the place where you trigger the fight or haven't figured out which item triggers the fight yet, but you're pretty much dependent on them for point boosts when you're trying to make it through the top 10 ranks.
It was at this point that I remembered I'd gotten the Sun Key in Johannasburg, and I went around to all of the locations where I'd previously encountered Sun Key chests and grabbed my loot.
After that, I went through and cleaned out a bunch more quarries, getting myself up to Hunter rank 2 in the process. It's worth noting for anyone who's trying to hunt these things down that they tend to be slightly mislabelled. The one on Juraika in Path to Burkaqua stands out, go to the Creekside transporter and explore from there to find it.
With all available quarries either complete or requiring an item I don't have to trigger the fight, I decided to continue the story. Remember when I said "long cutscene time" up there? This next one clocked in at around half an hour. Used the key, opened the gate to Eden. Kisala had asked me to keep the fact that she was the princess of Mariglenn a secret, this secret predictably eroded quickly once we set foot on the planet. Apparently, the source of all beasts in the galaxy, Rune, comes from a being called "Mother" on this planet, and only the Star King can stop Mother. So, I ran around the area looting chests and buying stuff at merchants and generally upgrading everyone. Next session, I tackle this area, and ultimately, Mother.
On Juraika, I worked my way through the ruins of the Leo King's castle to find the last key piece. The guy we'd fought at each of the other key pieces was there again, this time referred to as "the masked man" even though previous cutscenes have called him "Seed". After a terribly simple but annoying battle where I kept having to heal every two seconds, I defeated the Mad Witch and got the key piece from the Leo King... who so happened to be an infant. Ooooookay.
Anyway, with my newfound psychic ability to determine where unopened chests reside, I worked my way back through the jungle getting what I'd missed.
Once that was done, I teleported back to the Dorgenark and saved. Which ended up being a good thing. Foreshadowing through cutscenes basically told me that Zegram was going to betray us, and he did. Jaster pursues and fights him on the ship's deck, but after a short battle Zegram hops on a smaller ship and gets away.
Next, there was a cutscene with Zegram about to hand over the key pieces to Daytron. He has a condition though, Daytron is currently "revivifying" his girlfriend, Jane. This and that get discussed, he basically says that the experiments in Zerard prison are for turning humans into monsters, and then Seed shows up.
Next fight is Zegram vs. Seed. Seed is annoying enough when I have a full party, but one on one? I got a game over. Keep in mind there was no save point between the two battles, so now I had to fight Zegram with Jaster all over again.
So I did precisely that. Beat Zegram faster this time around, then beat Seed. Seed wounded Zegram in a cutscene (and we all know that in RPGs the only wounds that matter are ones that happen in cutscenes), and the Dorgengoa arrived. Zegram switched sides again and it was up to him, Jaster, and Kisala to fight Seed. Partway through the fight the tablet started reacting to the key pieces. At this point, Seed stopped taking damage and the only thing I could do was place the key pieces. What followed would be a lengthy cutscene explaining Seed's past and showing him utterly failing at solving the puzzle put forth by the tablet.
After having been told all his life that he was better than everyone else, Seed was unable to cope with both his failure and his creator's disgust for his failure. Apparently some cells from those experiments in Zerard prison were implanted in him, and he turned into a beast. Partway through the battle with Beast Seed, Jaster gets pwnt in the face and becomes surrounded with this red glow. The battle continues with just Jaster available... and Beast Seed pwnt him. Sigh, reload (STILL no opportunity to save, so I had to do the whole sequence of fights all over again).
This time I beat Beast Seed with just Jaster. It was a rhythm of "hit him a bunch, get knocked down, use heal potion, repeat" for quite a while. There were a few times he ran to the other side of the area, so I used my sub-weapon then while I waited for him to come back. After the fight, Daytron GTFOed the area thanks to cone-tit-lady.
Jaster, in red-glow-state, is somehow able to solve the puzzle. The rest of the crew somehow now knows of the existence of a fourth king, the Star King, from a long time ago, and infers that Jaster could be his descendant, and having inherited the Star King's powers was able to solve the puzzle.
Finally, after all that, I was able to save. These words have never been used in a better situation: FUKKEN SAVED.
Progressing on into the ruins that the tablet revealed, shit happens with Kisala, and then we find a robot that seems to know her, but needs repairing so it can communicate with us. The party decides to press on further and see if they can find anything to repair the robot with. After a while, I killed a sand kraken boss and it dropped the piece of equipment the robot needed. Headed back to the robot and... long cutscene time.
Apparently Kisala is a princess. Of the very planet that we're trying to get to, that we call Eden. Its real name is fairly long but shortens to Mariglenn. The robot we found was designed to protect Kisala. At the end of the conversation it gave us a key that we need to open the doors to Eden.
We're just about to use the key when apparently Daytron decided to attack the main city on Rosa. We went to see what was going on, ended up getting saved by Raul, the priest at the church where Jaster grew up, and then Daytron killed Raul. Just before dying (you know, one of those typical "I'm dying but have all the time I need to tell you this" moments) he gave Jaster the Star Pendant, which points out a location in the desert on Rosa. So, now we're headed there to see what's up.
After working our way into the desert and finding several people who we helped and then they promptly faded from view right in front of us, the sandstorm intensified. Kisala then noticed something off in the distance, so we headed towards it and all of a sudden we were in a village. With grass, trees, and windmills. In the middle of the desert. Yes. It's name is Johannasburg.
After walking around a bit getting chests and noticing I didn't have the item necessary for the quarry in the middle of the city, we found the village elder, who so happened to be the very first guy I helped in the desert. Apparently all of that was a test or something and only people who pass the test can find the village. I dunno, I see a choice in the middle of a cutscene and I immediately think, entirely gamer sense, "this choice matters later on" and choose the things that generally will make the best impression. Well, it seems to have paid off here.
The old man spoke of a woman who had the same birthmark as Jaster does, but said she left the village a long time ago. He suggested we ask some of the villagers, so we did exactly that, and found that she used to live in the house up on the hill. Went up there, and she's there (in ghost form) and challenges Jaster to a battle to fully unlock his Star King powers. You know, where he glowed red about five miles up the page.
You know, one thing I really hate about this game is the game overs. Any time you die, you have to see that screen that says "GAME OVER" and then you can't just immediately reload from your last save, you have to go all the way back through the logos and the main menu before you can finally get back into the game. It doesn't add anything worthwhile to the game at all, forcing this large amount of downtime after a death.
Yeah, I died partway through the fight and had to do the whole thing over again. Bosses don't take enough damage, and sometimes I'll hit the button for the sword and Jaster will just charge right past my target before swinging. It makes no sense.
I did eventually win the fight. The next bit of cutscene would see both of Jaster's parents identified. His mother was Johanna, the woman I just fought, and the person that the village is named after. His father, Desert Claw. To be honest, I called Desert Claw being his father long before I reached the village, and as soon as I found out that the person with the birth mark that looked the same as Jaster's was female, I figured she was his mother.
On my way back to the tablet I picked up the quarry in the middle of the desert, which wasn't that hard. With it in the bag I jumped up to 5th overall in the hunter rankings. There's still a few of them that I either haven't found the place where you trigger the fight or haven't figured out which item triggers the fight yet, but you're pretty much dependent on them for point boosts when you're trying to make it through the top 10 ranks.
It was at this point that I remembered I'd gotten the Sun Key in Johannasburg, and I went around to all of the locations where I'd previously encountered Sun Key chests and grabbed my loot.
After that, I went through and cleaned out a bunch more quarries, getting myself up to Hunter rank 2 in the process. It's worth noting for anyone who's trying to hunt these things down that they tend to be slightly mislabelled. The one on Juraika in Path to Burkaqua stands out, go to the Creekside transporter and explore from there to find it.
With all available quarries either complete or requiring an item I don't have to trigger the fight, I decided to continue the story. Remember when I said "long cutscene time" up there? This next one clocked in at around half an hour. Used the key, opened the gate to Eden. Kisala had asked me to keep the fact that she was the princess of Mariglenn a secret, this secret predictably eroded quickly once we set foot on the planet. Apparently, the source of all beasts in the galaxy, Rune, comes from a being called "Mother" on this planet, and only the Star King can stop Mother. So, I ran around the area looting chests and buying stuff at merchants and generally upgrading everyone. Next session, I tackle this area, and ultimately, Mother.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Issues
Ever since reinstalling Windows, I haven't been back at 100% (despite my post titled "Back at 100%"...). The computer is back into a day-to-day operational state, meaning all the stuff I use on a regular basis is installed, configured, and working to my satisfaction, but I don't have everything fully back to the way it was.
One of those outstanding issues is that the line in on my motherboard's integrated sound card has mysteriously stopped working correctly.
My first thought is to attribute this to the rather old drivers I installed, that are on the disc that came with the motherboard when I bought it, eight years ago. Going to Realtek's site yields drivers, but with the notice that I'd probably be better off with drivers from my motherboard manufacturer. Getting those is rather tricky as my motherboard manufacturer (Abit) no longer makes motherboards and their site seems to be down. There are plenty of mirrors, including Softpedia, but it's difficult to sort out which drivers are going to be the latest version available. The thing is, I don't recall ever updating the drivers to begin with, and it worked prior to the reformat/reinstall.
Allow me to more fully describe the issue. Initially, it worked just fine, but was almost inaudible in the right channel. After doing a connector sense in the Abit Sound Effect Manager control panel, the left channel became just as quiet as the right channel. Okay, so all I need to do is crank the volume, right? Wrong. Taking the volume above about two and a half in the Windows mixer causes audio from line in to drop out entirely, as if it were muted. Dragging the slider makes weird scratchy noises come out of my speakers while the slider is between zero and the aforementioned two and a half area. It's probably worth noting that in my operational setup prior to reinstalling I kept the line in volume at about two and a half to keep it reasonably balanced with the rest of the sounds on my computer.
Checking and unchecking the Mute checkbox in the Windows mixer causes an audible popping noise from my speakers, that never used to happen before.
Also, with line in unmuted, my computer's regular sounds are severely distorted. This never used to happen either.
I'd really like to get this working, so I don't have to move my speakers back and forth between my PS2 and my computer.
I know you can get driver updates for Windows via Windows Update, and I've seen updates for my graphics card drivers on there before, but never my sound card.
So, if any of the maybe three people who are reading this have an idea, comment or something. I've been in the sea of zero (0) comments for too long anyway.
One of those outstanding issues is that the line in on my motherboard's integrated sound card has mysteriously stopped working correctly.
My first thought is to attribute this to the rather old drivers I installed, that are on the disc that came with the motherboard when I bought it, eight years ago. Going to Realtek's site yields drivers, but with the notice that I'd probably be better off with drivers from my motherboard manufacturer. Getting those is rather tricky as my motherboard manufacturer (Abit) no longer makes motherboards and their site seems to be down. There are plenty of mirrors, including Softpedia, but it's difficult to sort out which drivers are going to be the latest version available. The thing is, I don't recall ever updating the drivers to begin with, and it worked prior to the reformat/reinstall.
Allow me to more fully describe the issue. Initially, it worked just fine, but was almost inaudible in the right channel. After doing a connector sense in the Abit Sound Effect Manager control panel, the left channel became just as quiet as the right channel. Okay, so all I need to do is crank the volume, right? Wrong. Taking the volume above about two and a half in the Windows mixer causes audio from line in to drop out entirely, as if it were muted. Dragging the slider makes weird scratchy noises come out of my speakers while the slider is between zero and the aforementioned two and a half area. It's probably worth noting that in my operational setup prior to reinstalling I kept the line in volume at about two and a half to keep it reasonably balanced with the rest of the sounds on my computer.
Checking and unchecking the Mute checkbox in the Windows mixer causes an audible popping noise from my speakers, that never used to happen before.
Also, with line in unmuted, my computer's regular sounds are severely distorted. This never used to happen either.
I'd really like to get this working, so I don't have to move my speakers back and forth between my PS2 and my computer.
I know you can get driver updates for Windows via Windows Update, and I've seen updates for my graphics card drivers on there before, but never my sound card.
So, if any of the maybe three people who are reading this have an idea, comment or something. I've been in the sea of zero (0) comments for too long anyway.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Uno Deep Dish Pizza followup
Of course, as soon as I make that post where I say "Giant only has these three varieties, dunno if there's more", the next time I go to Giant I see two more.
They're the small "personal pizza" size, which is I guess why I didn't notice them.
One is simply the Cheese variety. The other, however, is called Pizza Skins. Basically, if you've ever had potato skins, this is that, but in pizza form.
Basically, Pizza Skins is a deep dish pizza crust, mashed potatoes in place of tomato sauce, then cheddar cheese and bacon bits. It was surprisingly good.
The one thing I will note is that the frozen cooking time seems rather long on both of these. In fact, it's longer than the larger pizzas. You can get away with following the thawed directions, but make sure it's warm all the way through before declaring it done. It will probably take some extra time on top of what is listed, but it'll be less time than the frozen directions.
So, there. Now I've mentioned every variety of this that the Giant I shop at carries.
They're the small "personal pizza" size, which is I guess why I didn't notice them.
One is simply the Cheese variety. The other, however, is called Pizza Skins. Basically, if you've ever had potato skins, this is that, but in pizza form.
Basically, Pizza Skins is a deep dish pizza crust, mashed potatoes in place of tomato sauce, then cheddar cheese and bacon bits. It was surprisingly good.
The one thing I will note is that the frozen cooking time seems rather long on both of these. In fact, it's longer than the larger pizzas. You can get away with following the thawed directions, but make sure it's warm all the way through before declaring it done. It will probably take some extra time on top of what is listed, but it'll be less time than the frozen directions.
So, there. Now I've mentioned every variety of this that the Giant I shop at carries.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Why I Love The Guild Wars 2 Elementalist So Much
I touched on it in my post about Guild Wars 2 after BWE2 finished, but I feel that more elaboration is necessary. And to accomplish that, I'm going to relate GW2 elementalists to GW1 elementalists.
In Guild Wars 1, you had a limited number of attribute points to spend. Spread them too thinly and you won't be effective, but specialize in the wrong area and you also won't be effective. This was a balance that was made more difficult to strike if you tried to use more than one element in Guild Wars 1. Yeah, I know, you could go 12 Energy Storage and then put 9 into two elements, but what use was that? There were very few skills that interacted with other elements in useful and relatively inexpensive ways. This led to most elementalists in Guild Wars 1 using just one element alongside Energy Storage. Your chosen element was very powerful, and you had a lot of energy to expend during battle.
Given that in GW1, fire was the element that was most easily understandable since it dealt the simplest, most intuitive damage, that's what a majority of elementalists took. The other elements had their uses, but were less focused on raw damage. Water Magic was pitifully underpowered damage-wise, but it was quite useful to have around because the majority of its spells would slow enemies down, and controlling enemy movement meant that key party members would be able to avoid taking damage. Water Magic's best damage skill, Vapor Blade, had a very counter-intuitive drawback built in: it dealt half damage to a target if it was enchanted. Given that the campaign it was introduced in, Factions, had enchantments on pretty much everything, you were lucky if it dealt full damage at all. Water Magic had a decent damage skill in Winter's Embrace for a while, when they changed it to slow the target and deal a packet of damage every second while they were moving, but then they nerfed it by doubling its energy cost and lengthening its recharge.
In Guild Wars 2, you have real incentive to use all four elements. Due to the lack of attribute points, levelling up as an elementalist simply means you become a better mage, and with that increase in skill comes greater spell effectiveness across the board. Furthermore, the lack of a cost or penalty (other than the amount of time you have to wait to switch back) to switching between elements makes it very easy to switch during battle. So if you're fighting a big battle and you're attuned to water for the support it provides, but you notice a bunch of enemies clumped up and say "hey, a meteor shower would go real nice right there", you can just switch over to fire and drop flaming rocks to your heart's content.
Plus, a fair number of the elementalist utility skills have effects that change depending on the element you're currently attuned to, giving you four options with one skill slot. Ten skills at a time? Pfft. How about forty? This is the key: Elementalists in GW2 are far more versatile than they ever could have hoped to be in GW1. I personally value versatility in a class. If it seems too single-purpose, I lose interest really quickly. In role-playing games, it's typically the ranged support classes that are more versatile, whereas the front-line fighters are all "smashy smashy durr what's a spell" and the healers are all "healy healy durr what's an attack".
This is also why I liked the GW1 Dervish as much as I did. It was a very versatile melee class. It far outshined the warrior and assassin in its versatility. The warrior and assassin both depended on combinations of skills, implied for the warrior (i.e. one skill causes condition -> next skill has extra effect if foe has that condition) or literal for the assassin (they had skills that you could only activate in a certain order, and between foes you had to have the entire chain recharge, which was boring to wait for). Foes in PvE die too quickly for elaborate skill combos to really work. If you can't do it in two skills, you need to rethink your build. Dervishes depended on combinations of skills as well, but those combinations could be set up outside of combat or right at the beginning of combat and then used at will from then on.
Also, since energy costs for skills are a thing of the past in GW2, the elementalist is inherently more powerful. I feel as though they know this and have balanced the skills appropriately, yet I still do a very pleasing amount of damage. While RPGs typically have some form of mana, I never thought it made much sense for a mage to have an artificial limitation on their capabilities. The only limit should be their skill. Magicka did exactly this, and it was both incredibly challenging and incredibly fun, because it forced you to get good at the game really quickly, and because you could experiment with different spells without penalty. I don't know if any of ArenaNet's devs have played Magicka, but if they have, it looks like they learned something from it.
That something would be "versatility is the key to fun". The more versatile you make an RPG character class (i.e. the more stuff it can do and the variety of stuff it can do), the more fun it's going to be for the player as they experiment with what's available to see what works in a given situation. Putting that element of player learning into the class makes people feel like they've gained skill at the game, which is exactly what the Guild Wars series is supposed to be about: skill, rather than gameplay time. Even though GW2 has a level cap four times that of GW1, I've noticed that you still level up pretty quickly, which keeps the focus off of the struggle to gain power and places it squarely on enjoying the content they've put in front of you. Which, as a developer, is all you really want: for people to enjoy your creations.
So, I've gone off on many tangents, but the main point is: Elementalists in GW2 are far more versatile than they were in GW1. That versatility makes for better, more fun gameplay. Which makes me like the class a lot more than I did previously. Which draws me in and keeps me playing the game. Which is exactly what ArenaNet wants.
In Guild Wars 1, you had a limited number of attribute points to spend. Spread them too thinly and you won't be effective, but specialize in the wrong area and you also won't be effective. This was a balance that was made more difficult to strike if you tried to use more than one element in Guild Wars 1. Yeah, I know, you could go 12 Energy Storage and then put 9 into two elements, but what use was that? There were very few skills that interacted with other elements in useful and relatively inexpensive ways. This led to most elementalists in Guild Wars 1 using just one element alongside Energy Storage. Your chosen element was very powerful, and you had a lot of energy to expend during battle.
Given that in GW1, fire was the element that was most easily understandable since it dealt the simplest, most intuitive damage, that's what a majority of elementalists took. The other elements had their uses, but were less focused on raw damage. Water Magic was pitifully underpowered damage-wise, but it was quite useful to have around because the majority of its spells would slow enemies down, and controlling enemy movement meant that key party members would be able to avoid taking damage. Water Magic's best damage skill, Vapor Blade, had a very counter-intuitive drawback built in: it dealt half damage to a target if it was enchanted. Given that the campaign it was introduced in, Factions, had enchantments on pretty much everything, you were lucky if it dealt full damage at all. Water Magic had a decent damage skill in Winter's Embrace for a while, when they changed it to slow the target and deal a packet of damage every second while they were moving, but then they nerfed it by doubling its energy cost and lengthening its recharge.
In Guild Wars 2, you have real incentive to use all four elements. Due to the lack of attribute points, levelling up as an elementalist simply means you become a better mage, and with that increase in skill comes greater spell effectiveness across the board. Furthermore, the lack of a cost or penalty (other than the amount of time you have to wait to switch back) to switching between elements makes it very easy to switch during battle. So if you're fighting a big battle and you're attuned to water for the support it provides, but you notice a bunch of enemies clumped up and say "hey, a meteor shower would go real nice right there", you can just switch over to fire and drop flaming rocks to your heart's content.
Plus, a fair number of the elementalist utility skills have effects that change depending on the element you're currently attuned to, giving you four options with one skill slot. Ten skills at a time? Pfft. How about forty? This is the key: Elementalists in GW2 are far more versatile than they ever could have hoped to be in GW1. I personally value versatility in a class. If it seems too single-purpose, I lose interest really quickly. In role-playing games, it's typically the ranged support classes that are more versatile, whereas the front-line fighters are all "smashy smashy durr what's a spell" and the healers are all "healy healy durr what's an attack".
This is also why I liked the GW1 Dervish as much as I did. It was a very versatile melee class. It far outshined the warrior and assassin in its versatility. The warrior and assassin both depended on combinations of skills, implied for the warrior (i.e. one skill causes condition -> next skill has extra effect if foe has that condition) or literal for the assassin (they had skills that you could only activate in a certain order, and between foes you had to have the entire chain recharge, which was boring to wait for). Foes in PvE die too quickly for elaborate skill combos to really work. If you can't do it in two skills, you need to rethink your build. Dervishes depended on combinations of skills as well, but those combinations could be set up outside of combat or right at the beginning of combat and then used at will from then on.
Also, since energy costs for skills are a thing of the past in GW2, the elementalist is inherently more powerful. I feel as though they know this and have balanced the skills appropriately, yet I still do a very pleasing amount of damage. While RPGs typically have some form of mana, I never thought it made much sense for a mage to have an artificial limitation on their capabilities. The only limit should be their skill. Magicka did exactly this, and it was both incredibly challenging and incredibly fun, because it forced you to get good at the game really quickly, and because you could experiment with different spells without penalty. I don't know if any of ArenaNet's devs have played Magicka, but if they have, it looks like they learned something from it.
That something would be "versatility is the key to fun". The more versatile you make an RPG character class (i.e. the more stuff it can do and the variety of stuff it can do), the more fun it's going to be for the player as they experiment with what's available to see what works in a given situation. Putting that element of player learning into the class makes people feel like they've gained skill at the game, which is exactly what the Guild Wars series is supposed to be about: skill, rather than gameplay time. Even though GW2 has a level cap four times that of GW1, I've noticed that you still level up pretty quickly, which keeps the focus off of the struggle to gain power and places it squarely on enjoying the content they've put in front of you. Which, as a developer, is all you really want: for people to enjoy your creations.
So, I've gone off on many tangents, but the main point is: Elementalists in GW2 are far more versatile than they were in GW1. That versatility makes for better, more fun gameplay. Which makes me like the class a lot more than I did previously. Which draws me in and keeps me playing the game. Which is exactly what ArenaNet wants.
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