My bro bought a new router again from the recent computer hardware expo (never bothered to learn the name). Pretty good so far. 2 days now and only 1 incident, despite me opening both utorrent and Folding@Home and playing online games simultaneously. That incident only involved a small problem with the connection between the router and the Internet. No idea why, but resetting it worked. I think maybe I should start making it a habit to switch off my router when I go to bed.
Then again, my modem sometimes takes up to an hour to connect to the net after rebooting. Risky.
They repeated the famous psychological experiment done in the 60s, this time using TV as theme. In the first experiment they asked the volunteers to apply electric shocks to an actor, a fact the volunteers were ignorant of, in increasing magnitudes. This time they did the same except they were told they were on a TV game show and it was the host who asked them to do it.
These proves that people are born sheeps; leaders are the deviants.
Ok seriously now you can see why people did the things they did in wars.
That thing people call "free will", it's overrated. I don't think most people understands what that is. I don't think they even want it, if they know what they're talking about.
At this point I'd like to question the issue of morality. When you do good, are you really doing it due to a higher authority? If you know absolutely you are the most powerful being in existence, would you still be good? This experiment simply shows that you cannot know for sure because it is not easy to tell if your own wishes are really someone else's.
Just tried Metro 2033 to the part where I've just left the Market. Pretty good game! The complete absence of any HP bar and whatever really helps to get me immersed in the post-apocalyptic Moscow Metro.
1) Background
You're Artyom (getting used to Russian names now), born in Moscow just before the surface was destroyed by nuclear bombs. Growing up in the Metro network, you've only heard tales and seen the pictures of the world before it happened. Only 40,000 survived the blasts in the entire underground system and the dangers of the above has kept them in the tunnels for about twenty years so far, with roughly 50 years more to go before the residual radiation drops to a safer level. Even so, there was no mention of how long the nuclear winter will end.
2) Quest
Some dude instructed you to go find someone somewhere if he didn't return from the recon mission to investigate the increase in attacks from the mutants and demons. Yes, there is no typo. Demons. I don't know how they came to be and even if I do know, I can't type it out without a giant SPOILER ALERT tag.
3) Gameplay (outside of combat)
Linear as can be. There is only one way - all other paths are blocked by NPCs. Maybe further down the road there will be some freedom, but for now I just follow the trail. Pristine 5.45 rounds made before the world ended (aka military grade), the standard currency, can be found in random spots along the way. Bullets made after are 1/3 as powerful but can't be used directly to buy goods. However since all ammunition (including shotgun shells) can be exchanged with military grade 5.45 rounds, you are practically firing money at monsters. Great incentive to shoot properly.
4) Combat
Shooting properly is only one issue. The other issue is health. You don't know how much HP you have because there is no HP. You can tell how close to death you are by listening to your breathing and how hard your screen is flashing red. By the gradual decrease in these two I'm assuming that you regenerate at a relatively inhuman rate.
Kind of ironic that this would be implemented when all other features are so realistic. I mean, when a real person sees his own blood splashed across his gas mask, he does not recover in less than a minute. What am I? The Russian Naruto?
Anyway it really got me worried (yes scared yes) when my screen was flashing red a little at one point since I had no idea what the limit was. I still don't.
Ammo count! You have to buy ammo for your submachine gun! Exchange rate is 1 military grade 5.45cal for 5 custom-made bullets of the same calibre. Maybe I suck and panic too much, but I ran out of ammo pretty quickly, forcing me to use my double-barrel shotgun. I have only a pistol and a knife in addition to those two. If I had run out of shells, let's just say the convenient size of my sidearm doesn't inspire much confidence. And the knife is for extreme desperation only.
Try hitting WASD during scenes that look like cinematic movies. I died 4 times before I finally figured out that I was supposed to run forward in a certain scene. Thank goodness the last checkpoint was very close.
No saving in this game. If you had made a mistake (eg didn't get enough ammo and only realized this halfway through a danger zone), you're screwed as far as I know. Good thing knives don't dull in the game...
Gas mask! So far I've not gone through anywhere that requires more than 15 minutes, which seems to be the limit of each filter. Changing of filter can be done manually or automatically when it stops working. Problem is, 10 bullets per filter. No dilly-dallying in the unbreathable air.
Atmosphere is great. Dead bodies everywhere, bats that you scare when you accidentally get close. Mutants are gross creatures with the body of a werewolf and face of a rat. Demons I'm not too sure. Didn't get a close look at one because I was busy getting immersed in the panic in that opening scene.
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