Kallisto's Diary III - Brindol

Brindol was a small city, but bigger than most of the other settlements the caravan crossed since I left my city. I can imagine around 7000 people living there. The majority of people living inside the city walls, and some fraction scattered around, living in farms. We arrived through one of the main gates, through a bridge crossing the Elsir River. It was night, and I was uncomfortably dirt, and very tired. I was too anxious to arrive there, and finally there I was...

Map of Brindol

I heard that the Silk and Spoon Inn was the best inn in the city. Ian decided to stay there with me, and later we found out that Zoltan was also there. Some of the other merchants in the caravan also got a room there. The Silk and Spoon is sponsored by the Ghallanda House, and that was a good sign. I got a single room, near Ian's room. The room was very clean, containing everything necessary for a very comfortable stay. The first thing I got after getting the room was a good and refreshing bath. Then I went to the tavern in the first floor to eat something, and then to bed...

Just the usual dreams... No sign of anything at all...

The next day I left the inn to walk around the city. I had to buy new clothes. The ones I had brought with me were already totally worn out. It took me all the morning, and part of the afternoon, to find something that suited me. I could not buy too many things, as I had just my backpack to carry my clothes. I like to wear blue and black, sometimes green or red, and black, too. I had bought with me three sets of clothes, and I had these three sets replaced in Brindol. A fancier set of clothes for the nights, mostly covered in blue and black, with some green details. And two sets of a more utilitarian nature to be used during the daytime, together with my leather armor, one black with red details, and the other one almost all covered in dark blue. If I had a horse of my own, I could buy many more clothes, and I would not have to worry about how to carry them in my backpack myself. As soon as I got the money I would buy a horse for me. I spent the rest of that day walking around the city. Nothing really exceptional. I started to wonder why I had to come to Brindol. It seemed just the usual small city. I spent the night at the Silk and Spoon's Tavern, having some fun. Ian was also there, but I have not seen Zoltan.

The people in Brindol was not so amazed to see a tiefling, so I really had no real problems while dealing with them. And most of them were really nice to me. The first impression was always an expression of awe, but after a while it was just normal. Just the usual expression of someone who have not seen a tiefling in a while, or was not expecting to see a tiefling...

The next day was just another day. Nothing worth of note happened. I spent the day walking though the city, looking for anything interesting, or a sign, something that would make my trip here have some sense, but there was nothing. I was starting to wonder about that dream, and if it was really an omen after all, or just a weird dream... I decided that if nothing happened before the caravan's departure date, I would follow the road with them, to whatever destination they have. I went to another tavern that night, the Marooned Schooner. I was not really excited that night, actually I was bored. I had the usual drinking in the tavern, while some bolder guys were trying to approach me... None of them really interesting... I was starting to miss home. I left the tavern and went back to the inn sooner than usual, much sooner, to spend some time alone with myself in my room. I slept, and I had no dreams that night.

Then came the third day in Brindol, and it was the same as the first two. Nothing really happened. I walked through the city again. Boredom was starting to fill me. I was anxious for something to happen, but I had the feeling that nothing was really supposed to happen here. The next day would be my last day in Brindol, and then I would follow the caravan again. That night I decided to have some real fun, at some other tavern. I called Ian, and he came with me to the Blue Parrot. We got a table near one of the walls. There was a group of patrons playing cards. That table would be a good place to make some money to myself, later... A while later, Zoltan entered the inn, and he sat at the bar desk. I have not seen him since the day we arrived here. I went to the bar to get some drinks, and to finally talk to Zoltan. I was decided to find out if he was really sent by my father do look after me. I asked him, if he would like to join me and Ian at our table, and he came with me to the table. I was finally starting to talk with him, when suddenly someone called Josh entered the Inn, psyched, thinking himself as the heart of the place, and just after that, the long expected sign finally came...

Coelhinho do Coração

Como comentei na minha postagem anterior, estou jogando Spore. Em Spore você começa jogando com uma criatura unicelular no meio do oceano, a criatura vai evoluindo a medida que você adquire partes de DNA de outras criaturas, até ela adquirir patas e sair finalmente dos oceanos. Logo após, sua criatura continua na sua busca pela perfeição, continua evoluindo, até que ela tenha a capacidade mental pra se tornar um ser vivo consciente, e formar uma tribo. A tribo eventualmente se desenvolve numa civilização, e esta por sua vez um dia chega ao espaço e então você tem que conquistar a Galáxia.

No meu jogo mais avançado, eu já cheguei a fase da civilização. A minha criatura mais avançada é o Coelhinho, que vive no planeta Coração. É uma criaturinha singela, fofinha, como vocês podem ver abaixo nas imagens:




Bem graciosa, não é verdade? Os Coelhinhos são uma espécie carnívora, predadora e altamente agressiva, que durante o seu processo de evolução acabou exterminando várias espécies inferiores. E assim que eles saírem do Planeta Coração, farão da Galáxia o melhor lugar do Universo, onde a única espécie permitida serão Coelhinhos...

Caso haja alguma dúvida, na face dos Coelhinhos existem tentáculos, e não chifres. Os chifres se encontram apenas no alto de suas cabeças. E aquelas coisas nos ombros são espinhos venenosos que podem ser lançados a distância. =)

Cliquem nas imagens para ampliá-las, caso assim desejem. :P

Games for the Future (?)

Here is the list of games that I have to buy and play in my near future:

• Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
  
• Mass Effect (PC)
• Bioshock (PC or PS3)
• Little Big Planet (PS3)
• Rock Band 2 (PS3)
• Fallout 3 (PS3 or PC)
• The Witcher (PC)
  

That is the list of games already released that I do not have. I still have to finish Assassin's Creed for my PS3, and I am kind of playing Spore for the PC too.

My first priority in that list is Fallout 3, and I guess I will give me that as a birthday present next month. :)

Of course, I will probably not be able to play all those games soon, as I have a PhD to finish, but I will use some of my almost ephemeral spare time to play something.

Actually, I also have a huge line of books to read, too...

Estagnação mental e um talvez qualquer

Um mês sem escrever aqui, e o mundo está acabando. Economia mundial em crise, na próxima terça começa a invasão alienígena, e meu doutorado estagnado. O LHC está parado, e parou antes da primeira colisão. Muito sem graça. Nenhum buraco-negro foi criado para destruir o planeta, agora só no início do ano que vem. Vamos ver se a economia colapsa de vez, e logo, porque aí não precisamos esperar mais 6 meses para o fim do mundo. Ou que esses aliens apareçam mesmo e cheguem pra criar Caos no planeta.

Como podem notar, estou perdendo a paciência pra chegada do Apocalipse! :P

Jogando Half-Life 2 - Episode 2, ainda lendo Grande Sertão: Veredas.

Amanhã tenho uma prova didática para professor substituto no CEFET. Salário baixo, três matérias da matemática (Cálculo I, Cálculo III e Equações Diferenciais A), pra começar semana que vem, dando de 3 a 4 aulas por dia. Resumindo, ou me mato preparando e dando aulas, ganhando quase nada, ou continuo meu doutorado. A escolha é meio óbvia. Acho que nem vou aparecer lá amanhã pra perder meu tempo. E teria que apresentar uma aula de uns 20 minutos sobre Séries de Taylor. Prefiro dar prioridade pro meu programa que não funciona, e esperar um cataclisma...

Está na hora do mundo ficar cyberpunk de verdade.

Diablo III

It is saturday, 9:20AM, and I am already awake. For a week I have been following some unknown evolution at Blizzard Website. I knew today we would have a bombastic announcement about some unknown game already in development.

I went to their website, and for my surprise, I finally found out what game was the secret all about.


...and there you will find even the first cinematic teaser trailer, and what a tease is that! Also a gameplay trailer, and some scattered information about the game. I can not hold my excitation! But I will need to wait, until 2010, maybe sooner, maybe later, to play this game... But this bombastic information already made my day!!

Portal

This weekend instead of preparing a seminar I have to present next friday, among other things I played a game called Portal. Portal is a game that came inside a bundle of games called The Orange Box. It is a first-person puzzle game, and it is an amazing game. One of the best, and terrifically funny games I ever played.

In this game you play a female character, who is a test subject inside a science facility runned by a AI called GlaDOS. During the game, the character learns how to use portals to cross various test chambers, and while this happens, GlaDOS makes various comments trying to "help" you with each chamber. The first test chambers are very straightforward, and exist only to teach you the basics of using portals. But they get trickier and trickier until the end of the game. To generate portals you have a Aperture Science Hand-held Portal Device, that can create blue portals or orange portals. Blue and orange portals represent each side of a portal, so if you enter the blue side, you will leave in the orange side, and by placing both portals throughout the chamber you can solve the puzzles. You also have to use some basic laws of physics like momentum conservation to solve some of the puzzles. It took me around 5 or 6 hours to finish the game. It was a very fast game, but an excellent one, and hilarious to say the least.

Here is the game trailer to give you an idea about the game.

The Aperture Science Computer, also known as GlaDOS, is one of the best and funniest characters in any game in my humble opinion, and the Weighted Companion Cube will never be forgotten! If you plan to play this game in the near future and do not like spoilers, DO NOT watch the next video. It is the ending song and might spoil your game play. If you do not care, just watch it, and have fun listening to that. It is fun, but will be funnier if you have already played the game. The song is called Still Alive.

What D&D Character are You?

I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Fighter/Sorcerer (2nd/1st Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-12

Dexterity-11

Constitution-13

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-17

Charisma-10


Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn't strive to protect others' freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it. Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society's restrictions and a do-gooder's zeal. However, chaotic neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all authority, harmony, and order in society.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Fighters can be many things, from soldiers to criminal enforcers. Some see adventure as a way to get rich, while others use their skills to protect the innocent. Fighters have the best all-around fighting capabilities of the PC classes, and they are trained to use all standard weapons and armor. A fighter's rigorous martial training grants him many bonus feats as he progresses, and high-level fighters have access to special melee maneuvers and exotic weapons not available to any other character.


Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

P.S.: As you can see, my path was totally wrongly chosen!! Damn it!! I will have to start from scratch! :P

P.S.S.: Looking at the result in a more detailed way, I have noticed that I have the same score in the fighter, sorcerer and wizard classes (4 points in each). Due to my ability scores, I guess I would be a better mage/fighter, instead of a fighter/sorcerer. But I did not change the test results. :P


Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXX (8)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (25)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (27)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXX (5)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XX (2)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Chaos --- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXX (6)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Evil ---- XXX (3)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXX (4)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Half-Orc - XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-4)
Bard ------ (-2)
Cleric ---- (-4)
Druid ----- XX (2)
Fighter --- XXXX (4)
Monk ------ (-21)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- XX (2)
Rogue ----- (-6)
Sorcerer -- XXXX (4)
Wizard ---- XXXX (4)

Random Swimming and Playing...

Life in Brasil is almost as before I left the country last year. I am back to the swimming classes, and how I missed that while I was in the US. Every muscle of my body is in pain at this very moment, but I love this kind of pain... Yesterday I swam 450 m, and just before the end of the class I had a cramp. I was barely able to walk after that, I had to stop and the stretch my calfs until the pain passed... Today I swam 650 m, and no cramps, but I was dead after the class. It is just the beginning...

Sometimes I feel a void inside of me, and I don't know why I feel like that, because there is really no reason for it to be like that.

I am almost beating Rock Band, playing the guitar, in the hard mode, and I even started to play some songs in the expert mode. I am stuck in "Enter Sandman" by Metallica at this time. Each time I play this game, I have the feeling that I really should start playing something like electric guitars or bass.

Finally, the weather seems to be getting cooler.

I am having this crazy idea about letting my hair grow again to the point of a green-power hair, as I am green and not black. I hope this idea leaves my mind soon...

I did not forget about "The Day to Talk Like a Physicist", it was two weeks ago, but as I do not care about this temporal conventions, I still have time to talk like a physicist and post something about it in the near or far future... It all depends on my inspiration.

And, yes, I am back...

What is in my jukebox right now!? Superbeast by Rob Zombie...

I need to go home, and maybe find a new cell phone for me... I am back using my pre-cambrian communication device... Maybe another day, or yesterday in another life, but not today in this life... The music is over, so the post is done...

Dungeons & Dragons - 4a. Edição

A nova edição de Dungeons & Dragons está pra sair em junho. As notícias sobre a 4a. edição começaram a surgir em agosto do ano passado, logo após o seu anúncio oficial na GenCon 2007.

Quando fiquei sabendo sobre a 4a. edição, não gostei muito da novidade. Afinal já estou acostumado com a versão atual, a famosa edição 3.5, que pode ser considerada a versão final da 3a. edição. A 3a. edição na minha opinião não passou da versão beta da 3.5. Claro que na época que a edição 3.5 saiu, eu também não fiquei nada feliz. Não foi uma mudança grande em relação a 3a. edição, mas ocorreram mudanças em várias regras, e caso se decida mudar como ocorreu após um tempo com meu grupo, temos que nos readaptar às novas regras, e isso demora algum tempo. Foi bem mais fácil no caso da edição 3.5, pois o núcleo do jogo continuou o mesmo, a maiores mudanças foram mudanças para manter um jogo equilibrado para as diferentes classes e raças, em algumas regras de combate que eram desnecessariamente complicadas na edição anterior, e várias mudanças em relação às magias. Após um tempo do lançamento da edição 3.5, nosso grupo resolveu testar a nova edição, e logo depois a adotamos como a versão oficial dos nossos jogos de D&D. Eu tive que desembolsar mais uma grana quando resolvemos adotar a versão nova pra comprar os novos livros da edição nova, e perder o dinheiro gasto nos livros da edição anterior foi a parte mais chata da transição.

Voltando a falar da 4a. edição. A idéia de ter que me desfazer de todo o material que possuo sobre a edição atual, quando a nova edição sair, me deixou um pouco "chateado", e acabei resolvendo que não procuraria informações sobre a nova edição até que houvesse coisas mais concretas disponíveis sobre as novas regras. O tempo passou, e claro, não consegui me isolar totalmente das notícias sobre a futura edição. Acabei lendo uma ou outra coisa que apareceu na minha frente, e lendo alguns poucos comentários, a maioria falando mal.

Uns dois meses atrás acabei lendo uma novidade que não me agradou muito. Os tieflings foram padronizados como uma raça na nova edição. Nunca vi tieflings como uma raça separada, e muito menos como criaturas com um padrão físico definido. Tieflings são humanos que têm descendência infernal ou abissal, e portanto possuem alguns traços e características "demoníacas". Algumas vezes características bem aparentes como uma cauda, ou chifres, ou pele escamada, mas outras vezes características bem discretas, como olhos de tom avermelhado, 4 dedos nos pés ao invés dos 5 normais, caninos um pouco maiores que o normal. Você nunca espera um tiefling igual ao outro, e isso era uma das coisas legais de ser tiefling. Padronizando, você perde toda a criatividade na hora de criar as características físicas do seu tiefling, e perde o fator surpresa ao sempre reconhecê-los como criaturas com sangue infernal (ou abissal). Eu não gostei dessa padronização, principalmente, porque eu adoro jogar com tieflings, e sempre me diverti dando características bizarras pros meus personagens tieflings, algumas vezes conseguindo esconder totalmente a descendência infernal deles, e outras vezes tendo características tão discaradas que todos pensavam que eu era um demônio de verdade. E ter que enfrentar o preconceito dos outros PCs ou NPCs sempre deu um tempero ao jogar com tieflings. Transformando os tieflings numa raça e a padronizando acaba com grande parte do jogo que é ser um tiefling.

Na mesma época descobri também que gnomos agora deixam de fazer parte das raças básicas, e passa a ser uma raça do livro de monstros. Eu nunca joguei com gnomos, e se fiz parte duas vezes de um grupo do qual um dos jogadores jogava com gnomo, foi muito. Mas eu acho que os gnomos deveriam continuar como uma raça básica, a não ser que tenha havido uma reformulação completa do que é um gnomo na nova edição. Eu acho menos pior terem feito essa mudança no gnomo, do que a mudança em relação aos tieflings, e eu também não gostei.

Fiquei um tempo sem pensar nessas coisas, mas nesses últimos dias eu resolvi procurar mais informações sobre a nova edição. Meu objetivo inicial era achar mais defeitos que me fizessem desgostar mais ainda da 4a. edição, pra que eu não precisasse me preocupar mais com uma nova mudança de edição num futuro próximo. Principalmente após ler comentários de pessoas achando que a 4a. edição não passa apenas de uma jogada de marketing da Wizards pra ganhar mais dinheiro, e que a maioria das mudanças são pra deixar o jogo pior, e mais simples pras novas gerações de jogadores.

Comecei a ler, e qual não foi minha surpresa ao me ver cada vez mais interessado na 4a. edição. Vendo que o objetivo é sim deixar o jogo mais simples, mas ao mesmo tempo melhorando vários dos defeitos das duas últimas edições. É claro que os livros ainda não saíram, e as informações ainda são escassas, mas algumas coisas da mecânica do jogo me deixaram bem satisfeito.

As raças agora se diferenciam realmente uma das outras, não apenas no aspecto físico. A medida que seu personagem sobre de nível, além dele ganhar nível de classe, ele pode também evoluir suas características raciais. E da mesma forma que cada classe evolui de uma maneira diferente das outras, cada uma das raças também vai evoluir de maneira diferente, deixando um guerreiro humano, totalmente diferente de um guerreiro anão, coisa que geralmente não acontecia nas últimas edições. Eu gostei muito disso, mas infelizmente as informações sobre isso ainda são bem superficiais.

Acontece o mesmo com as classes. Dois personagens de mesma classe podem evoluir de maneiras totalmente diferentes. Por exemplo um guerreiro que escolhe uma espada longa como arma principal, vai se desenvolver e ter habilidades totalmente diferentes de um guerreiro que escolhe um machado de guerra. Algo como os diferentes modos de ataque, que apareceram a primeira vez no "Complete Warrior Handbook". Outra coisa em relação às classes, é que a progressão básica que ia apenas até o 20o. nível nas edições anteriores, agora chega até o 30o. nível. O que ocorre na edição 3.5 e também ocorria na 3a. edição, é que todos os guerreiros escolhem geralmente a mesma progressão de "feats", de modo a otimizar o ataque e o dano, a não ser que ele quisesse escolher uma classe de prestígio que requer um outro "feat" diferente do habitual. O mesmo ocorria nas outras classes. Apesar da lista gigantes de "feats" pra se escolher, se escolhiam sempre os mesmos, com uma pequena variação. A diferença entre os personagens de mesma classe não é muito grande na edição atual, apesar de ter potencial de serem bem diferentes (já é MUITO melhor que em relação a 2a. edição, onde cada personagem era praticamente igual a outros de mesma classe, só mudando o nome, a raça, e atributos principais :P). A impressão que eu tive, é que na 4a. edição a diferenciação entre os personagens de mesma classe sera muito maior, e isso na minha opinião é ótimo.

A mecânica do jogo continua baseada no d20, mas algumas coisas mudaram. Não existem mais os "saving throws", até onde eu sei. O que existe agora são diferentes tipos de defesa. O AC (armor class) continua existindo, mas não existem mais os diferentes tipos de AC ("flat-footed" e "touch"). Ao invés das jogadas de proteção de reflexo, fortitude e força de vontade, os personagens agora tem um valor fixo de reflexo, fortitude e força de vontade. Por exemplo, se um dragão resolver usar sua baforada no grupo, ele é quem deve rolar o d20, e ultrapassar o valor de reflexo dos jogadores, com uma rolada de ataque (que está sujeito a erro crítico, ou acerto crítico), se quiser acertá-los. O mesmo em efeitos que antes necessitavam de "saves" de fortitude e força-de-vontade. Na nova edição, me parece, que existe a possibilidade de se tirar acertos críticos (e erros) com todas as magias. Mas o sistema de críticos mudou. Não é necessário mais se confirmar o crítico, com uma segunda rolagem. Rolou 20 no dado, é crítico e pronto. Ao mesmo tempo, os danos não dobram (nem triplicam ou quadruplicam) mais, o que ocorre quando se tira um acerto crítico, é que o dano é maximizado, e dependendo da arma, você ainda pode adicionar um dado extra ao dano. Outra coisa interessante é que não existe mais morte quando seus pontos de vida chegam aos -10. Esse limite varia com a classe, e com seu nível. E nada mais de regras esdrúxulas pra quando se está com zero ponto de vida.

Só pra finalizar, ao mesmo tempo que a nova edição sair, uma ferramenta será lançada que permitira que se jogue online, com as mesmas facilidades de se jogar numa mesa. Claro que eu ainda prefiro jogar numa mesa, com todo mundo perto, e falando bobagem, mas caso alguém não possa estar presente no local físico do jogo, mas tenha acesso a internet, e estiver querendo jogar, vai ficar bem mais fácil, e será quase tão dinâmico quanto na mesa real de jogo.

Apesar de serem detalhes bem superficiais ainda, ficar sabendo dessas poucas mudanças me animou em relação a 4a. edição, e eu estou ficando muito curioso pra ver o produto final, e todas as suas evoluções em relação às edições antigas, e claro, os defeitos. E se ficar realmente bom, e valer a pena, eu não penso duas vezes em mudar novamente de edição, e deixar a edição 3.5 pra trás.

Day of the Smarm

Yesterday I decided to create "The Day of the Smarm". So I wish a very "Happy Day of the Smarm" to each one of my readers.

Who is Smarm? One day I will clarify everything for you. What matters now is that The Day of the Smarm is commemorated at each 367 days, as there is a slightly temporal variation in the Smarm dimension. And there might be some random variations in the 367 days period, and maybe next time will be at each 37 days... Who knows!? But be right that the next one will be only in February 10th of 2009.

What should you do in this special day? Well... Do whatever you want, eat whatever you want, destroy whatever crosses your path, it does not matter! Smarm does not care at all... Just praise the concepts of Chaos and Entropy, and you will be fine.

By the way, what I did today was to beat Rock Band with the guitar in the medium setting! Next step hard setting... And play with the guitar instead of the controller is way MUCH better, and cooler!!!

Carnaval nos EEUU, Playstation 3 e Logística

Carnaval no Brasil. Não sou fã de Carnaval já faz muito tempo, e a única coisa que sempre me animou no Carnaval é o feriado. Nos últimos anos, eu e meus amigos nos reunimos no Carnaval para fazer o churrasco "Eu Odeio Carnaval", sempre na tranquilidade de BH, cidade que é um paraíso nesta época. A regra do churrasco sempre foi esquecer o lixo musical que toma conta do país nesta época, e só ouvir o bom e velho Rock'n'Roll. Este ano, devido a minha ausência, parece que não ocorreu o churrasco, que costumava ser sempre na minha casa, mas espero que assim que eu voltar a situação possa ser remediada com um churrasco de retorno pra compensar a falta do "Eu Odeio Carnaval", e claro, com muito Rock'n'Roll e cachaça. Oh Yeah!

Ainda me lembro do último Carnaval, que foi um dos mais divertidos da minha vida, que terminou com uma mega-ressaca e meus óculos novos quebrado (ou seria óculos novos quebrados?). Apesar de ter sido ótimo, eu não estava num momento muito bom. Havia criado este blog a pouco tempo, e ainda nem sabia se viria ou não para os Estados Unidos. Bom... Sobre essas coisas, eu escrevo outra hora. Foi durante o último Carnaval, que eu descobri um dos jogos mais divertidos de todos os tempos: Guitar Hero! E fiquei viciado muito rápido nesse jogo.

Por coincidência, ontem, eu comprei meu tão sonhado Playstation 3. Estava pensando em comprá-lo já havia um tempo, e só estava esperando o momento certo, e o momento certo foi ontem. Ao mesmo tempo, comprei o meu primeiro jogo pro PS3, que é fácil de deduzir caso tenham lido um dos textos postados aqui recentemente. O jogo foi Rock Band, um dos derivados do Guitar Hero. Ainda, não dei atenção suficiente para o meu PS3, e nem para o Rock Band, mas tenho certeza que isso vá mudar um pouco nos próximos dias. O jogo bem com um conjunto de acessórios: uma guitarra, uma pequena bateria, e um microfone. Todos usados para se jogar. Sempre joguei o Guitar Hero com o controle normal do PS2, e nunca tinha nem tocado na guitarra que é um dos acessórios que se usa para jogá-lo. Ontem, pela primeira vez usei a guitarra num jogo deste tipo, e é totalmente diferente de se jogar com o controle. Ainda vou demorar um tempo pra me acostumar a jogar com a guitarra, mas realmente, é muito mais divertido. Ainda não montei a bateria, e nem tive coragem de usar o microfone e sair cantando durante o jogo. Apesar de saber que este jogo vai ser viciante, eu sei também que vai ser ótimo jogar isso com meus amigos quando voltar pro Brasil, melhor só se estivermos já bêbados. Aí, até eu saio cantando! Mas existe um problema muito mais sério com esse jogo, um fator logístico! A caixa do jogo é gigantesca, maior que minha mala gigante que eu trouxe quando me mudei pros EEUU, e vai ser realmente um problema eu levá-la de volta pro Brasil, mas é claro que eu vou dar um jeito de fazê-lo. Devido a este fator logístico, acabei decidindo não montar a bateria, e deixá-la quietinha na caixa, por enquanto. Enquanto isso, fico treinando só na guitarra. É provável que a melhor maneira que eu encontre para transportá-lo seja na própria caixa original do jogo.



A logística da minha volta já anda me preocupando, e já andei empacotando algumas coisas. Estou pensando em mandar alguns livros, e roupas pelo correio. Ficar só com as roupas de inverno, e despachar as roupas de verão pra que elas cheguem antes de mim, e já estejam acostumadas com o calor quando eu chegar. Pouco mais de um mês pra volta.

Texto em Português pra quebrar a monotonia linguística do blog! E claro, preparem-se para os testes da minha banda, que começarão assim que eu voltar! E este é o ducentésimo texto do meu blog! =D

Bad Role Players

I started to play real role playing games in 1994, and since then it is one of my favorite hobbies. In these almost 14 years, I have played it in some different groups. Each group has it is own characteristics of playing. I am sure that my first group, in the ancient times of the 90s was not a good group of players. Everyone was just starting playing, and even the Game Master was just beginning, but I had a lot of fun playing that first adventure, so much fun that I have never stopped playing since that time. Since I started to play, I have played with a lot of different people, and in different groups, and I have always been lucky and it has always been funny, but once!

My RPG companions have not change too much in the last seven years. Some of them have moved to other cities, but there is still a core that remains, and the people who had moved, eventually, come back for a game session or two. I am already accustumed to my group, and the fact that all the players have a lot of experience in RPG, some of them even started to play before me, makes the game to flow with a good pace and they know how to play without being stupid. The amount of game we usually have is enough to feed my addiction, and I never had the need to look for another group since we started to play together. But...

Two years ago, I had a girlfriend who also played RPG, and I met her when she asked to play a D&D adventure I was, and I am still, running. So she started to play with us, and, well... Lets say that she had done a lot of stupid thing during the game sessions, and most of my players got really annoyed with some of her actions sometimes... One day, I was with her in her house, and her other RPG fellows were going there for a RPG game session. Then she asked me if I would not like to join and play with them... I was planning just to stay there with her, watching their game, but as it is much better to play than watch, I decided to make a character to play with them... WHAT A MISTAKE!!!

First of all, they were a bunch of "kids", there were two under 20 years old, but most of them were in their early 20's. But while playing they all seemed to be a bunch of 15 years old. Then, there is the fact that they still play AD&D (2nd Edition)! If they were old schoolers I would accept that without any prejudice, but no, I am sure most of them started to play after the D&D 3rd Edition was released. And in my official group we were already playing D&D 3.5 Edition for 2 years already by that time, so I had to remember a lot of old and outdated stuff from the time when I played AD&D (2n Edition) in the late-90s. Another thing is that in my official group we played with the official English rulebooks, so we use the English terminology while playing, but these kids used all the Portuguese books, and everything was translated. I had to translate to myself a lot of the terms that they used during gameplay. Albeit (new word) Portuguese is my native language, it is weird, for me, to hear the Portuguese terms while playing RPG. Anyway... So I had to re-adapt myself not only to the "young" group, as also to the old system and the language.

The re-adaptation was not the problem, actually it was the easiest part. The greatest problem was in their game style. When you are playing in a group, the point of the game, most of the time, is for each of the characters of the group to join and to cooperate among themselves, but that was not the case there. Each of the players wanted to be more powerful than the others, wanted to have more attention from the DM than the others, wanted all the treasure to his or her character, and things like that. And every time they had to create a new character they looked for the most obscure and exotic race and/or class to play to be the most powerful inside the group. Here is the list of the bizarre characters in that group:

• The Knight of the Zodiac: There was this guy, the second or third most annoying in the group, totally addicted to anime/manga, that decided to create a Knight of the Zodiac character (remember that this is an AD&D game?). He found that in one of the worst Role-Playing Games magazine ever to be edited anywhere else in the world, called "Dragão Brasil". It was a totally unbalanced class, full of loopholes, which can make a 3rd level character more powerful than a 10th level one. Ridiculous to say the least! But the guy was already playing with that for sometime, and when I started to play he was already somewhere around 3rd or 4th level. But that is not all... The player decided to create a kid Knight of the Zodiac, his character was a 12 year old boy, but in all the sessions I participated he never interpreted a kid. He interpreted a kid, only when that would be advantageous to him. Every other time he was just a plain and raw character with the main interest to fight and show every other players how powerful he was. I have no problems with someone wanting to play a 12 years old boy in a game, since some of the rules for children in the game apply. For example, when you are 12 years old and human, your body is not fully grown yet, nor your mind is fully developed, so the PC should have some noticeable penalties in its attributes and skills. Regarding that class, I would NEVER allow such an unbalanced class to any of my players. The player was a guy in his early 20's, called Kelson, and wow... It was almost unbearable to play with him. He just paid attention to the game when he was playing, at all other times he was disrupting the other people's gameplay, making fun of everyone else, or just messing up with things and people around him.



• The Dinosaur Man: This was the character of a player that I do not remember the name anymore. But he was as annoying as Kelson, but sometimes he was able to be the most annoying in the group. He found a dinosaur manlike race in that same magazine that should be burned for the good sake of all serious role players in Brazil, showed that to the DM and then decided to use that in the game. Nobody was able to hit him, even when he was a first level character, due to its huge natural armor, and that made him the most reckless PC in the group, always looking for trouble anywhere he went knowing that almost no one would be able to hit him. During treasure sharing, sometimes he was the character that simply got everything he want just to see if someone else in the group would try to fight him. The weirdest part is that he did not knew how to communicate with anyone else in the group, he was the most annoying and troublesome character in the group, no one else liked him, and still one day he just joined the group for no reason at all, and people just let him there for no reason either. (You can see how those players interpreted their characters roles so well.) He was a dinosaur man cleric of Chaos, another class he found in that same magazine, also a totally unbalanced class. That race was surely not a race for a first level character, and the reasons why the PCs allowed him to remain on the group still eludes me.
  



• The Half-Illithid Half-Drow Elf: That for itself is just enough to make everyone wonder in what kind of AD&D Zoo I had placed myself. That was old 2nd edition, with all those drow and illithid almost invincible magic resistance, and also those powerful psionic powers (mind blast) and all that. The guy who was playing this character could be the most powerful character I have ever seen, wasn't him so lame and inexperienced - he was 16 and a first-time gamer. I have no idea why a DM would let a 1st level character of an inexperienced player, play as this powerful aberration. This guy died in the first or second game session after I started to play. I can not recall exactly how that happened, but it was a lame death anyway. The only think worth of notice he ever done, was the most weird, disgusting, and unexpected thing I have ever seen in a game so far. Instead of using its inate powerful psionic powers to attack some pirate, he decided to stop in the middle of the combat to make some of its physiological necessities inside a bucket and then throw it over the poor pirates. Maybe in that bizarre reality drow elves and illithids can mate and even love each other. I don't know, but I am sure that the story behind this PC was raw and totally faulty too. That is so lame that it gives me the creeps every time I think about that.



• The "Angel": There was also this guy, who had an angel as a character, but I only played with him in the table once, before he quit. I wonder why! HAUhAUhAUhUAhuAHa... What a zoo!!
  



• The Highlander: This was the character of my ex-girlfriend. In the middle of all that mess she was one of the most normal characters. She was a highlander, someone that can only die if he or she is beheaded. During the time that I played, she has not died nor even once, so her PC did not know that she herself was a highlander, and could not die. She played most of the time as a normal female fighter character, making her stupid mistakes sometimes, but being the wisest and the best role player amongst their fellow friends most of the time.



• The Bladesinger/Mage/Thief: This one was the epitome of the power player. He at least have not used that magazine while looking for race or character classes, he knew the system so thoroughly that he was able to create a master combo with all the official rules. Actually, that was not an unknown combo, but at least he used the official rules in his favor. He created a 10-page background story for his character, and all that. He was a good role player, eccentric, but a good player. The greatest problem was that this guy was totally full of himself, and acted like he was the best in the game table. (Actually, playing with a group like that, it is not difficult to think in this way, when you know the rules, and is a more experienced player that most of those pesky players.)
  



• The normal players: My character was the most usual one, just a plain human mage, with normal attribute scores, that was afraid of rabbits. There were two other players, a female druid, played by the DM's girlfriend, and a female necromancer, played by another female player, both of them first-timers.
  

As you can see, the group was more than 8 players. The story the DM was running seemed to be an interesting one, but they way he used to run the game was very problematic. He let players create whatever they wanted, without any control at all regarding character creation. I would have no problems letting my players creating exotic characters, but if you want to keep a level of fun you have to think about balance issues inside the group. He was not able to create any kind of real tension during the game, as none of the encounters were a match for those overpower characters. Actually, my 1st level mage was very tense in most of the encounters, but I was an exception, as every other character had something special about themselves, everyone but me. The real problem was not the lack of power of the encounters the group had to overcome, it was the lack of strategy of the DM. He did not know how to use a spellcaster properly, nor even the other classes, so it was impossible for him to create a real challenge to the overpower characters in the group. I am sure that if he knew how to properly use the characters and had a minimum knowledge of tactics and strategy he would be able to destroy that group easily with a basic group of 4 or 5 characters of the same level.

When it was time to share the treasure found, it was like a war. The treasure was not divided in a roleplaying way, it had to be divided outside the game with some rules, if not they would start to fight and kill each other just for a +1 ring of protection. The group was a bunch a lame and inexperienced characters, that did not know how to interpret properly their roles in the game, and just wanted to show the other PCs how powerful was his or her character. The DM was also a lame DM who did not know, and I don't think he has learned so far, how to give a real challenge to their PCs, and lacked knowledge about rules and balancing issues inside the game. And that was the most improbable, mixed and bizarre group ever, I would not be surprised if there was a lawful good paladin fighting side-by-side with chaotic evil assassin, and they were best friends in that group. My ex-girlfriend was the one who role played best among these guys, and after playing with them for a while I found out why she made so many stupid mistakes in my game. She was just roleplaying in my game the way she would do in her official group.

I did not play with them a long time, it was just too much torment for myself. I played because of my ex-girlfriend, but after a while not even that was enough to make me go to their game willingly. The worst RPG experience ever in my life!

Campanha de RPG - O Complexo

Este texto é direcionado principalmente aos jogadores da minha aventura de RPG, mas fiquem à vontade para lê-lo, se assim desejarem. =D

Como já tem MUITO tempo que eu escrevi a última atualização, e eu não me recordo detalhadamente dos acontecimentos das últimas sessões do jogo (que ocorreram em abril e maio), e que não foram relatadas aqui, resolvi falar sobre a situação atual do local, e sobre as descobertas do grupo. Espero que até o jogo recomeçar, todos os detalhes mais importantes sejam esclarecidos, e correções serão feitas caso haja alguma contradição com o que foi escrito aqui neste período pré jogo e as lembraças de cada um dos jogadores. Portanto, meus prezados jogadores, manifestem-se caso algum fato tenha ficado nebuloso ou contraditório com as lembranças de cada um.

Eu não me lembro exatamente da contagem dos dias, mas isto eu tenho certeza que está anotado, e quando eu chegar em casa, eu terei certeza do dia em o jogo parou. A última atualização do jogo foi sobre o dia 67, e se eu me lembro bem, no máximo, se passaram mais 7 dias (tempo do jogo) até o dia da última sessão. Vocês estão, no máximo, no dia 74.

Não devo escrever tudo neste texto. Pretendo começar falando sobre as ruínas, onde os personagens se encontram, depois escrever mais detalhademente sobre o primeiro nível como um todo, e sobre cada uma das comunidades locais, e finalmente sobre onde o jogo parou. Tudo isto, descrevendo somente o que já foi descoberto pelos personagens sobre o local. Espero não falar demais, e contar sobre coisas que eles - os personagens de cada um de vocês - ainda não sabem, ou, no caso de se lembrarem de algo que eu não contei, me avisem que eu atualizo aqui.

As Ruínas do Complexo Subterrâneo:

O complexo subterrâneo, num passado já esquecido, era uma base avançada de uma raça de criaturas reptilianas. Ainda não se tem pistas sobre os objetivos destes seres, se são criaturas nativas do mundo ou se vieram de algum outro lugar, e nem sobre o destino final delas. Apesar dos vários "hieróglifos" encontrados em vários pontos do local, e depois de várias tentativas frustradas, a escrita e a língua das criaturas ainda se mostra indecifrável, mesmo com a ajuda de métodos mágicos. Sabe-se apenas que esta raça de criaturas tinha um alto grau do conhecimento mágico, e conseguiu desenvolver uma sociedade tecno-mágica muito desenvolvida, e alguns indícios parecem indicar que elas possuiam atributos mentais muito elevados. Observando as estátuas espalhadas pelo primeiro nível das ruínas, é possível distinguir dois tipos de criaturas, um grupo de criaturas com apenas um par de braços, e outro grupo com dois pares de braços, sendo que as estátuas com um par de braço são sempre menores que as estátuas com 2 pares de braço. E ambos os grupos ultrapassam em muito o tamanho médio dos humanóides atuais, o grupo mais baixo com altura mínima de 3m, e o grupo mais alto chegando a 4,5m de altura.

O complexo possui 8 níveis ou andares. Esse é um fato que a grande maioria dos habitantes do primeiro nível desconhece, e quando resolvem falar sobre os outros níveis, falam sempre como uma se fosse uma lenda, ou algo inalcansável, mesmo havendo indícios da existência dos outros andares.

Pelas lembraças fragmentadas do grupo, a entrada do Complexo é no topo de uma montanha, que se encontra numa ilha desolada, totalmente desabitada e coberta por névoas e árvores mortas. Não se sabe exatamente o que acontece depois de se passar pelo enorme portal de entrada no topo da montanha, mas após atravessá-lo se chega ao "Lago do Oblívio", que drena todas as memórias de qualquer pessoa que apenas toque em suas águas. Como todas as pessoas encontradas, que não nasceram dentro das Ruínas, não se lembram de nada do mundo exterior, imagina-se que todos que atravessam o portal, caem no lago, perdendo assim todas as memórias de sua vida anterior. Um grande corredor de quilômetros e quilômetros de extensão, totalmente escuro não fossem algumas pequenas salas luminosas em alguns pontos, leva até uma grande escadaria, onde no topo se encontra outra porta gigantesca, a porta de entrada para o primeiro nível.

Segundo Koka, e Dalamar, existem comunidades humanóides espalhadas por cada um dos 6 primeiros níveis. O esconderijo secreto de Koka, onde Dalamar passou um tempo, se encontra no 7o. nível, mas nada se sabe sobre o 8o. nível, apenas que ele existe, de acordo com informações de Koka e do Avatar.

Segundo Kurnfallud (o Grande "Demônio" Negro que apareceu no primeiro nível a poucos dias), os quatro primeiros níveis do complexo fazem parte de seu território. Sabe-se que no 2o. nível existe uma comunidade de anãos, e também uma grande comunidade de kobolds. Existe um certo tratado de não-agressão entre kobolds e anões, apesar dos dois grupos se odiarem. Aparentemente, Kurnfallud garante a paz dos anões, caso eles deixem os seus kobolds em paz, e paguem tributos períodicos a ele. Os anões controlam uma grande mina no segundo nível, e que é a fonte de toda a sua riqueza. Eventualmente, aparecem relatos de homens-lagarto no segundo nível, e sabe-se que eles tem grandes comunidades no terceiro nível, e todos eles prestam tributo ao "demônio". Os homens-lagarto do terceiro nível estão divididos em quatro grupos, de acordo com a cor das escamas: pretos, cinzas, verdes e vermelhos. E existe uma certa cooperação entre os grupos, e se sabe que Kurnfallud é mais influente entre os de escamas negras. Anões e homens-lagarto mantêm contatos ao mínimo, mas geralmente não há hostilidades, e o contato é geralmente comercial. Os anões, de modo geral, sabem da existência do primeiro e terceiro níveis, mas ou não sabem nada dos níveis a partir do quarto, ou realmente não comentam nada sobre isto. Os anões de forma geral, demonstram um certo desprezo pelos habitantes humanos do primeiro nível, mas sempre mantêm agentes infiltrados neste nível. Da mesma forma, os homens-lagarto do terceiro nível também mantém agentes infiltrados entre os humanos do primeiro nível. Os homens-lagarto apesar de saberem da existência do quarto nível, não comentam de forma alguma sobre este fato, e é praticamente tabu dentro de sua sociedade comentar sobre a existência dos níveis a partir do quinto.

Segundo informações de Koka para Dalamar, no quarto nível existe uma comunidade de humanos, uma comunidade de ogros, e o nível é um grande campo de batalhas. Informações sobre quem batalha contra quem não foram fornecidas. No quinto nível existe um grande cemitério, e no sexto nível existe um grupo de estudiosos e usuários de magia mais poderosos. No sétimo como já foi dito, é onde se encontra a base secreto de Koka, que segundo Dalamar, desapareceu, sem deixar vestígios. O sétimo nível foi descrito como apenas muito perigoso por Koka, e é um local extremamente quente, diferente do frio atual no primeiro nível. Dalamar notou uma certa estranheza na passagem de tempo, durante período em que ficou no 7o. nível.

Todas estas informações foram obtidas com o Avatar, Koka, com o "Lore Book" encontrado no corpo da halfling channeler, e com Kurnfallud. Nenhuma das fontes menciona nenhum Nexus de Magia, nenhum local mágico, e nenhuma das passagens que leva de um nível para o outro.

Continua...

Be quick or...

Sometimes I have the feeling that I am spending too much of my time writing in this blog... Is that a waste of time? I really don't know... I just know that most of the time, I have fun writing these senseless things that no one cares about! :P

By the way, I did not write about it, but I beat "Doom 3" around a week ago. I also watched "Silent Hill", and I loved this movie... That is a movie I can call psychedelic terror! And sometime in the future I am going to write a medicine-astrophysics paper, but first I have to meet a friend in Brazil, and then we will get drunk, and while drunk we will start to discuss about the ideas for this article. (And I'm quite sure she was not kidding when she told me that... That will be fun! HAuHAuHAuHAuHAuHAuHAUha... )

Rock Band - Run to the Hills

After I watched this video, I realized that I NEED to play this game. I don't care if I am loser who does not know how to play any kind of instrument, unless if it is in a video game (and not a good player even in a video-game). But I NEED to have a Playstation 3 just to play this game. And I am almost doing that... Very near indeed, after I have watched this video...

This is a Full Expert Band playing "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden \m/,

By the way... Who wants to be part of my band when I get this game? =D

P.S.: You might have noticed that the voice is not exactly Bruce Dickinson's voice, and it is true. One of the players is the singer, and he did a excellent job in my humble opinion! The game is awesome!!!

Doom 3

I have been playing Doom 3 for sometime already. I have not finished the game yet, but I am almost there. It is an old game, released in 2004, and it is basically a remake of the classic Doom from 1993, with improved graphics (and what a improvement) and a more detailed storyline.

The game is just a First-Person Shooter, with somewhat of a background story behind it, and the graphics are really impressive. The year is 2145. You are a marine that works for the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) and is transfered to the UAC Martian Base Complex. You arrive in the place totally clueless, and you just know that the UAC has a huge research complex in Mars, and you are going to replace some other marine in that place. Together, in the same spaceship, came two high-profile guys for some unknown reasons.

When you start to walk around the base, just in the beginning, you have the feeling that everything in that place is almost real. People talking to each other, seemingly real news on the TV, people working around the base. You have to register yourself in the base, get your equipment (a pistol, some ammunition, a lantern, a body armor and your personal data assistant - PDA), and look for your commander to present yourself to him and receive your first assignment. You have to look for a missing scientist that seems to be somewhere in the old communications building. The marine (you) went after him, walking through the base and eventually meeting other people around the base and talking to them (some lame talking). After you took this long walk around the base, you find the hidden scientist. He was trying to send a message out to the UAC Board on Earth telling about some hideous experiments taking place in the Martian soil.

When the scientist was almost done uploading the message, the computers started to act weird, power surges happening all over the place, strange noises coming out of nowhere. Something hit the scientist and he turned into a mindless zombie. You start to hear marines screaming through the comlink, a lot of shooting, people dying everywhere. The zombie-scientist in this moment decided that he is hungry and want to eat your brains at that very moment, and attacked you. You shot him dead, and then the fun starts...

Your sergeant in command is alive somewhere, and he gave you an order to go back to the barracks. You start to backtrack your way until the barracks, just to find that there seems to be no survivals after all. All that survived are now mindless zombies, and they are after everything that moves and is still alive, and that means you. Weird... Eventually you discover that the base was overrun by demons, and that they are hiding everywhere, and they want you dead...

The base scenario of the game is: your character walking alone in the base, the lights are not working properly, and when it is dark, it is REALLY dark, sometimes out of nowhere you hear noises, other times you see bodies being dragged away by some hidden creature, or being thrown around by an unknown force. And when you least expect, from the darkness some creatures jump at you... Most of the time you can hear the creatures, but other times, they just appear out of nowhere to attack you. The worst is when you are walking and then suddenly you hear cries, wails, and even babies crying, and nothing is around you... The game atmosphere is perfectly creepy, it really makes you tense and scared sometimes. If you are playing alone in your house, in the dark, I can assure you, you will be afraid, and you might even start to hear weird noises in the house... But it is fun to shoot at zombies and demons!! :P

To help develop the storyline, you find around bodies other people's PDAs, and you can hear some saved logs, and their e-mails. That helps to give you the feeling that the bodies you see scattered around are from "real" people, and not just a body. And you can read or listen to their views about the things that were happening around the base in the past few months. That is very interesting....

The game is basically that, but now I am gonna start to talk about some inconsistencies I found while playing the game. Ok, I know I should not look for these kind of things in a game like Doom, but anyway, the game designers should had thought better about some details in the game.

First, you have a lantern, but every time you use it, you have to lower your guard. You can not hold the lantern at the same time your are holding your weapon. It is 2145, and every gun should have a place to fix some light source in its body. Maybe, in the Doom Universe, the concept of a light sources fixed in weapons is far too advanced for the weapon designers compared with spaceships, terraforming, planetary colonies, plasma guns, interplanetary travel, teleportation devices, gravity generators and all those other basic and primitive technological concepts. It is a totally different Universe where there are gates to Hell hidden inside ancient ruins on Mars. Who knows!? But anyway, it would mess a little bit with the dark atmosphere, but I don't think that it would destroy the frightening scenario. It is just lame to have to change lantern and weapons almost all the time.

The game takes place on Mars, so I guess it would be very fun if we could feel how is to be in Mars, in an ambient with a lower gravity than Earth, where you can jump much higher with less effort. That won't spoil nothing in the game play. Oh... well... The marine seems to be carrying at least 300 kg of equipment whenever he goes, huge guns, countless amounts of ammunition for every kind of guns he has, a body armor, dozens of grenades and rockets... Wow... Yeah... Thats is the reason why he can't jump as high as I would think he would do on Mars, he is heavy burdened pack mule!

I still have not understood yet why my character is the only one who was not turned into a mindless marine zombie. Every other marine was turned into a zombie, but mine... Is the Force stronger with this marine? Or has he demon blood running through his veins? Well... Whatever...

Why, in blazes, do people leave pieces of armor, medkits and ammunition hidden in dark corners all over the base?? And why those stupid demons don't destroy all the medkits they found?? I guess they never thought a lone marine would be their Doom!! ]-]

Another problem is that the game is totally linear, you have only one path though the game and that is it. You just have to shoot and kill demons, go always ahead, and then you finish it... It is a long game, there is only the straightforward way to beat it, I probably won't play it again, but it is VERY funny... Sometimes I miss these mindless-shoot-at-all-you-can-see type of game. If you want some fun without thinking to much, you don't have any heart problems and do not start to cry whenever something scares you, Doom 3 is for you!! =D

Pré-Natal

Estava pensando em escrever algo aqui hoje, tenho até algumas idéias, mas está tarde, e é o melhor momento pra se jogar Doom 3! Então, após assistir "I Am Legend", que diga-se de passagem é excelente, pra quem gosta de filmes tensos e de terror psicológico, é hora de jogar um jogo mais tenso ainda, antes de dormir. Afinal, nada melhor que esta combinação pra se ter uma ótima noite de sono. E os dois tem tudo a ver com o espírito Natalino (matar demônios e se esconder de "zumbis").

The Settlement of Xaos

I loved so much this MyMiniCity idea, that now I created a permanent section in the right sidebar of the blog. For now the only option I have to make my city evolve is to increase its population, but as soon as I got other option I will start to link these options in the "Help to build Xaos" section. Only one click per visitor per day is considered by the site, but if you go there once everyday the city will start to grow in a steadily way.

The section is just plain HTML, so it will not update itself automatically. But I will try to update the image showing Xaos in that section at every few days, and I will try to update the population daily.

I know that I don't have a lot of visitors here, but if my few visitors click there, the city will start to grow, slowly, but grow. And I just want to see it being built with your help right now! =D

Just for you to have an idea about how many visitors I got daily here, today I got a record number of visitors, a huge amount of 14 visitors. I guess my city will grow very slooooowly... :P

My Mini City - Xaos

Now I have a virtual city, and of course my city is called Xaos. Xaos, actually, is a fabled city in the outer rim of The Concordant Domain of the Outlands, and is the city gate that has a portal leading to The Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. My city is named after that fabled place, that, in my opinion, is one of the most awesome places in the whole Multiverse. And Xaos is a name that can reflect with great precision the reality of my home country, Brasil (as it is written in Portuguese).

Anyway, this is one of the coolest ideas I have seen so far. It is like a online version of the old, and classic of classics, game Sim City. And with each visit, the city gains one more inhabitant, and as the city starts to develop, you can add industries, increase security, improve transportation networks, etc, and everything is done just by having people visiting your city!

Welcome do Xaos!

I just created my city, so Xaos's current population is 2. Help me developing my city, by just visiting it. I promise I will be a good mayor! =D

The idea came from this Brazilian blog: Quarentedois.

A Supernatural War

So the War did start. At this very moment I am fighting a supernatural war on Facebook. Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, Slayers all fighting among themselves... What started as some random attacks now is turning into a much broader conflict of greater proportions. The saddest is to know that behind all the attacks were some so-called friends. We can trust no one in a war! There are hideous people even throwing some friends to serve as food to the other enemies minions, just to gain a small tactical advantage over other enemies. War is so sad! But even that being true, I would never retreat, I will fight to the end, even if I have to sacrifice some friends to a zombie, a vampire or a werewolf, as a way to have my revenge! And I am vengeful one, I will avenge all the attacks my minions suffered in this war, being it caused by friend or foe. Beware, my Facebook friends, for this war is far from over, and I won't be in the losing side!

That is just a small game that is happening in the Facebook right now. We can create zombies, vampires, werewolves, slayers, and then fight other friends' creatures. We gain points when our creature creates another creature to join its army, when we fight and win, of course, or when we simply start biting people in our friends lists. And with more points, more powerful become your creature. So everybody is attacking everybody randomly just to become more powerful, and it is starting to get a little large, but only few of my friends are yet infected. But it is fun, anyway!! I started as a zombie, then decided to create a vampire, and just stick with that. But then I was recruited as a slayer, and now I joined the army of a werewolf friend. As I would say in portuguese: Virou putaria! :P