Desktop Tower Defense

If you didn't try out the Tower Defense link from the other day, give it a try sometime this weekend. It's quite an addictive and quick game.

They added new creep and a new tower type this week to spice things up a bit. Matt and I have been playing a lot recently and posting our scores to the group "hustheman". I didn't pick that name, Matt did, but regardless, post them there to see how you compare!

I just checked and Keith has apparently come out of nowhere and kicked our asses. I think it's the use of the new bash tower that's making the difference...or rather that's my excuse.

I've only been playing a lot of it this week because my computer crapped out again. So I'm back to "Safe Mode with Networking". Shitty. It worked on Sunday, stopped working Monday and Tuesday, started working again on Wednesday and then crapped out again on Thursday. This means I'm forced to get a new computer this time. I've inquired about video cards already with ATI folk and will look into the other components shortly. Anyone got any computer advice? Probably Intel this time around. Should I wait for DX10 video cards? 1 or 2 gigs of RAM? Vista or XP? Drop some wisdom in the comments.

World Travel

Tsu posted this on his blog. It's a website that highlights the different countries of the world you've been to. Mine is not so impressive :(




Sorry about the formatting. I think my United States travel history is a little better:




If you really wanted to, you could visit all 50 US states include Hawaii and Alaska in just one week!

Cooking Mama/Trauma Center

I only managed to get about a half hour of Wii time in this weekend and it was used to try out Cooking Mama.

I tried making a few basic recipes and also tried a few of the multiplayer recipes. It's fun at first, but I have a feeling the novelty will wear out (I haven't gotten to that point yet though). There's no narrative to the game, and the Iron Chef mode is fairly simplistic. The competition is judged by points determined by how well and quickly you did the tasks for the selected recipe. Points are an abstract concept when dealing with food, even though Iron Chef has to eventually resort to them as well. The difference being Iron Chef's points are based on taste, presentation and creativity; whereas, Cooking Mama's are based on game skill. The food looks the same at the end regardless of how well you did throughout and there's no judge at the end that criticizes the result, which would have been welcome.

One other aspect that annoys me is that the cartoony art style means the food doesn't look realistic and therefore not that appetizing. If the food looked appetizing, it would give a better sense of achievement when finished. I really didn't try it out long enough to give a fair evaluation, so I will reserve any further judgement, but I must say there is a visceral thrill in chopping up those veggies with the wii-mote!

I also tried out Trauma Center earlier in the week, which is another adapted game from the DS system. It's a surprisingly strong title with an engaging storyline and an attractive anime art style that complements an excellent implementation of the controls. Perhaps the strongest indication of its appeal is that my sister sunk 12 hours into this game on the weekend...and she's not a gamer. Dr. Dre has also mentioned that "it's the best game for wii". It really is an unexpectedly thrill to fix up these people and make them better!

So far, from the DS games adapted to the Wii, the one major area that is lacking is sound. There needs to be more variety in background music as well as much more variety in sound effects. Also, voice acting would be welcome. The other area is some of the controls may need a little more polishing, since it was adapted from a stylus game and not built ground up for the Wii. But for $22.80, I have absolutely no regrets!

TSO/Imaid

Before getting to the TSO or I Maid Cafe, on Friday I was at The Old Sod which is a bar/pub in Etobicoke. The time previous to this weekend, the waitress called it "Kinder Fridays", because of the large number of "young" people in the bar. They don't card at the door, and they all seemed underage to me. I don't have a point here other than to say how can something like this continue for so long? Or maybe I'm just that old :(

On Friday, after climbing at TCA, we decided to go to I Maid Cafe. If you haven't heard of it, it's a bbtea place/restaurant, except the waitresses are dressed in French Maid Costumes. I think this sort of thing (themed eateries) is common in Japan, but not so common in North America. The waitresses in costumes differentiate it from a normal place, but I don't think it's that special. At least the prices aren't inflated and apparently the food is decent, although I only had a bbtea. I guess I would go again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go, since it's so far. At least I don't go there every week, like some people ;)

Sunday, was the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall, as part of the TSO Soundcheck program. Kevin already blogged about it, but I'll comment on what I thought. I hadn't been there in years, so it was interesting seeing the building/architecture itself. The first piece, a newly composed piece by a prof at UBC was alright. Nothing spetacular, but not bad either. It was a little repetitive in a bolero type of way, but I also happen to like bolero, so it's not a bad thing. The composer sat directly behind me after the introduction, which was a little discomforting.

The 2nd piece, Beethoven's 4th piano concerto was really good. I enjoyed it a lot, because I think the most interesting pieces while attending symphonies (I haven't been to many though) are piano concertos. My seat was right in the front row by the extreme side where the pianist had her back to us, so I got to see the pianist perform in detail. The bad part about those seats is that we could only see the violins (feet at that) and no one else. One of the violinists got up in the middle of the performance to go cough in the back stage area, which I thought was peculiar. We ended up going upstairs at intermission, because some dude behind us was breathing extremely loudly.

The third piece, by Saint Saens, wasn't that great imo. First of all, I'm not a big fan of Saint Saens, because from the pieces I've heard, most of his stuff pretty bland and forgettable. The performance was an Organ Symphony, which I think is pretty unique in itself. But when the piece was performed, I would say that the organ had a (loud) cameo rather than had a symphony composed around it. I guess it's tough for an organ to be center stage like a piano is when presented as a piano concerto. This contrast was especially obvious when the Organ symphony was performed right after the piano concerto.

In conclusion, I think I would go again, partly because the price is good. Only $12 for a night of entertainment, so that's pretty decent!

Gaming/Game Links

Leading with Cooking Mama again. Luckily after a few attempts, I managed to pick up a copy for $20 today, so yay! I haven't tried it yet, but the consensus seems to say it's not very good. The highest ranked review presented their review in a really creative manner. It was presented like a script of an iron chef episode pitting the DS version against the Wii version. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out this weekend.

Does anyone remember "You Don't Know Jack"? It was a really fun trivia game back in high school that was really creative in it's presentation, voicework and writing. Well, You Don't Know Jack is back....sorta. It used to have a multiplayer option, but now, only Dis or Dat is multiplayer. Anyway, check it out and have fun laughing!

Anyone ever play Mystery of Time and Space? It's one of those clicking games where you have click yourself out of a room. Well there are some new ones out...go nuts.

Anyone play Tower Defense, a single player subtype warcraft 3 game that became pretty popular. Here's a flash version of a Tower Defense game. Upgrade those Squirt towers and create a maze!

There's RPG/RTS (warcraft3) and action/RTS (Battlezone), but FPS/RTS?

And lastly, a "philosophical" Mii video:

Wii Firesale

Anyone ever use Red Flag Deals? I happened to find for myself something that would be typical for RFD. This week there is a flyer misprint that showed 2 Wii games for $40! Incredible! Absolutely INCREDIBLE! That's like a 3 for 1 deal!

Long story short (email me if you want details), I picked up 4 more games to double my collection: WarioWare, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Sonic and the Secret Rings and SSX Blur. At that price I could pick up more and resell them at a profit, but I'm not that cheap...or I'm just lazy. I think I've bought all the worthwhile games, although Tiger Woods, Excite Truck, Elebits or Marvel Alliance may be worth buying. At $20, you can't go wrong...or can you?

But the best part about all this is that Cooking Mama comes out this week! For those that don't know, "YOU COOK DELICIOUS WORLDWIDE DISHES. MAKE FOOD NOT WAR." Originally it was slated to be released in April or May, but it looks like it'll hit sooner (it was a launch title in Japan I think). Unfortunately, it's been rated very low, so I will have to realign my expectations. The biggest complaint is the inelegant controls. They basically ported the DS version and tacked on Wii controls. The article says if they fix up the controls for the next version, it could be a classic. More opportunities to Iron Chef FTW!

Other Wii games coming out this week:
Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII
Cooking Mama: Cook Off
Kororinpa: Marble Mania
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition
TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Wing Island

I'll likely pick up Godfather as my second game if the deal still works. The deal also applies to Gamecube games and I'm considering picking up Super Smash Brothers Melee and Mariokart Double Dash as well. The problem with buying GameCube games is that I'd have to pick up (4) Gamecube controllers as well :(

What games do you think I should pick up?

MULTI-PLAYER MAKE FOR HOT KITCHEN ACTION

One of the biggest things missing from the Wii is the ability to play online. It's one of the biggest advantages of computer games (Exhibit A: WoW). With Microsoft Xbox Live service, they have even made online play with consoles commonplace (and fun, at least so I hear).

Nintendo's approach is different. To become friends, you have to pass a 16 digit number to your friend AND they have to pass their 16 digit code to you. Then you BOTH have to enter it into your machines and approve of the friend. A pain in the ass. I think it's to protect children from predators. I suppose that's a good thing, but what really annoys me is that Nintendo hasn't really emphasized online play, because they haven't allowed any 3rd party developers access to the Wii's online capabilites. I think Nintendo really dropped the ball here. But then again, Nintendo emphasizes the experience of having your friends in the same room and playing alongside each other. I suppose I'm just greedy.

But just this week, Nintendo announced that they have partnered with GameSpy to provide the online experience. They will begin work on this, and eventually 3rd parties will have the capability to build online play into games. I expect it'll take at least a year from before we see online play from 3rd parties :( That means there's no online play for Cooking Mama. Looks like I'll have to be content with Iron Chefing with people in the same room, because, as everyone + this video knows, "MULTI-PLAYER MAKE FOR HOT KITCHEN ACTION."

I've decided to include the video with the post, for your convenient viewing pleasure:


PS You knew it was only a matter of time before I started blogging about the Wii. I did make it through a stretch where I didn't blog about it at all...consider yourself lucky!

Wii Mii Commercials

New Wii Mii commercials have come out and I've included them below. You can get really creative with the Mii's. Kottke ran a contest on celebrity Mii's and some really cool ones came out of it. I especially liked the Godfather, Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars, George Costanza and Charlie Brown. The eventual winner was Zach Braff. I think they should show off some celebrity Mii's in the commercials.

Frustration

Argh. I was looking forward to getting some Warcraft III in tonight after work. I was even the first one on, which is unusual, because I'm usually last. There was the possibility of seeing three new players tonight, Matt, Andrea and Ernest. That is exciting!

But then we started playing some 4v4AT. And we lost 7 in a row. That's 2.5 hours of straight losing. Fuck. That is really frustrating. One team I suspect was hacking, and the rest of the games weren't even that close. Argh. Maybe it's the lost hour of sleep, but it's probably because I am more rusty than I thought. We played really poorly, no teamwork, no aggression, no confidence...well, at the very least I know I didn't play great. I think 7 losses in a row is a record. Bah.

Anyway, put a real damper on the evening, when I was looking forward to it so much. I guess that's the problem with playing online, sometimes you lose. I don't mean to discourage new players, but this losing feeling is not pleasant. Hopefully, this means that the next time we play we'll be matched up with noobs, instead of all the pros. Battle.net is like that - one day it'll keep matching you with higher skilled opponents and the next it'll keep matching you with lower skilled opponents.

Anway, at the very end, at least I got a game of DOTA in and we won, so at least there was some positive. Sorry for the boring post, I feel frustated...and my clicking finger is hurting. I guess what it really means is that I have to sharpen my skills with more practice. Sigh.

It's a Mad World

I've been hearing this song on the radio more and more. It's a good song, but surprisingly I think it's current popularity is due to an ad for Xbox 360's Gears of War (Game of the Year by many critics). The song is called Mad World, a cover by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules of the original song by Tears for Fears. Originally, this song first made it big from the movie Donnie Darko, but now it's getting radio (at least in Canada) play as a single. Anyway, enough talk, watch the video and listen to the song:



And a longer version that includes the whole song here:



Interesting how a song can become popular through a video game ad, eh?

HyperMiling

I have a small confession to make: I'm not really into cars. Lot's of guys are crazy about cars, and it's a trait that is typically associated with masculinity. When I look at a car, I think of it as a way to get from point A to point B in the quickest, most convenient and most economical way possible. When I say economical, I mean the least fuel consumption, not only for my wallet (I spent between $1100-$1400 on gas last year) but also for the environment (a third possible reason would be to not fund terrorism, but that's debatable). If someone were to ask me what my dream car would be, I would actually boringly answer something like an Insight or civic/accord hybrid.

That's why the following article about Hypermilers really caught my attention. Hypermilers are people that have optimized their driving technique to get insane mileage. The results are nothing short of amazing. For example, one of the hypermilers can get 59 mpg out of an Accord. The EPA rated mileage for that car is half of that. He is even able to get the equivalent mileage of a Civic when driving an SUV.

I had no idea that driving techniques could affect your mileage in such a significant way. I knew that jamming on the accelerator and generally going fast affects fuel consumption negatively, but by this much? I do little things like coasting to stop lights to try to time them, using cruise control, not accelerating too quickly, etc. For example, I always try to see how far I can coast on the 401 East offramp to Eglinton, but only if there are no other cars around. This is the catch: to perform some of these fuel saving actions, you have to be willing to not follow the rules of the road - in a legal sense as well as violating driving social norms.

For example, to keep the momentum from highway driving, they'll go through a 270 degree offramp at 80 km/h. At that speed tires are definitely squealing. To start the vehicle, they'll push the car out of the driveway. Drafting, is a common technique, but he turns OFF his engine while doing it. But there are simple and more doable ones as well, such as not driving in the wheel ruts of highways (ridge-riding) when it's wet - energy is wasted kicking up the water needlessly.

Most of the advanced techniques are out of reach for normal people (myself included), but I think if we all paid a bit of attention to the way we drive, we can save some gas. On way to achieve this is mentioned in the article and it's to include a fuel consumption display in all cars, so that people could learn how to drive smarter. I would love this feature in my car, and honestly, I would treat it like a video game and try to maximize my "points". Does equating driving with a video game sound frightening?

So if I admire people like these hypermilers more than sport cars/SUVs, what does it say about me? (and my masculinity?)

Working Out

I have started going to the gym again after a long hiatus. I'm the type that needs someone else to help me keep disciplined, so that's why I usually try to find a workout partner. Plus it makes working out a lot more fun. I almost exclusively work out with a partner and rarely go by myself. You know the term social drinker? You could call me a social excerciser.

Luckily, I've found a workout partner in Waterloo - Chris Erven. He's a good fit in the sense that he likes to do a lot of leg exercises and I like to do a lot of upper body work, so we work both muscle groups out consistently. We're not a good fit in the sense that he's over 6 feet tall and I'm short, which means we have to adjust the equipment all the time. In terms of weight, half the exercises I do more weight and the other half he does more, which is kinda strange. Maybe it has something to do with which exercises we respectively like.

I also went out and got an exercise ball to sit on instead of a chair. I hear it's suppose to be good for your abs or something. I hate doing ab excercises, so maybe this'll help. I didn't expect it, but I find it tiring to sit on it. But recently we've picked up Warcraft III again, and when I play, I don't pay any attention to what I'm sitting on. In fact, I hardly notice anything around me when I'm playing.

The reason we started again is because they reset the Ladder and Blizzard is starting season 5. This mean the rankings are wide open and it's possible to reach a very high standing without too much effort. For instance, we're only 3-1 (win-loss) so far in 4v4AT (4 versus 4 arranged team), and we're already ranked 13th (as of this writing). I think a lot of other people know this as well, because there seems to be a influx of players on battle.net. We use to joke in University that we were the hardest working team on bnet, because the only way we could get a high ranking was by playing a lot of games. Our high ranking is not indicative of our skill, because we're not very good. For example, we almost lost today 4 vs 3 (ie one opponent dropped) TWICE. That is pretty sad.

Anyway, hopefully all that sitting and clicking will burn enough calories so I can eat food worthy enough to post on BiteMe.

BiteMe

I have a second blog! Andrea and I started a photoblog called BiteMe and its theme is food. To quote the site, "BiteMe is a daily photoblog of the food in our lives. No restaurant reviews, no recipes, no fancy photography, just pictures of food." Read more about it here.

If you have gone out to eat with me, you know that I have this annoying habit of taking pictures of food. Why do I do this? I think it's because I really enjoy eating and want something to remember the meals I've had. But now I have another purpose - to share the pics on BiteMe. You might see food that've I've eaten with you at restaurants, fastfood, homemade meals from mom, food that I've made myself or even food that you've gifted to me. There'll be a new photo everyday, so check it out before lunch or dinner to "get in the mood". BTW, that's a quote from Kevin, who helps to host BiteMe and contributes to his own high quality photography blog. Thanks Kev!

If you're interested, add us to your RSS feed here. Enjoy!

Snow Day!

I didn't think that I would ever get another snow day after leaving school, but today was a snow day. They sent everyone home early (~3 PM). I think the weather is worse in Waterloo compared to Toronto (it is usually more extreme). It's suppose to change to freezing rain tonight, then rain, then back to snow.

The most annoying part is shovelling the snow on our driveway. We haven't really shovelled much previous to today, so there's a layer of ice on the bottom. We tried hacking at it a week ago, but it's really packed down, so it's hard to get at. But after that was done, I spent the rest of the day inside with my heater :)