Mal

I think Stardew Valley fits into my gaming schedule quite nicely since saves are hardcoded into the end/start of the day so I can easily call it quits then. It helps regiment out my playtime. As for the game, I think it's quite fun in the running a farm or going caving kind of way. So far I haven't even ended one season yet so I have just the barest of a farm. Between splunking and farming, I don't feel like I have time to just go about town to find my in-game SO. Maybe some automated watering will help with that... It's quite impressive that this is the work of one guy. Makes me think that someday maybe I can pull off a game... think Ys.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/01/microsoft-to-unify-pc-and-xbox-one-platforms-ending-fixed-console-hardware Sounds awfully like the upgrade-able console concept I've talked about in the past. There isn't precedent for such a thing for some of earlier Nintendo and I believe Sega consoles. Quick whole console iterations are quite annoying for the consumer, you only have to own a Game Boy and DS' to know the pain. On the other hand, last generation (PS3, 360) was way too long with it getting too close to a decade for comfort. Smaller console upgrades might be the thing. I think the climate for these upgrades is different now than back with the SNES and the like. Can it work? Hell if I know but not everybody is comfortable in owning and maintaining a PC to get the best performance (usually) out of their games. For people who are willing to dish out for a better (?) gaming experience but unwilling to tinker, this should be good. It might be a hassle still? The ease of upgrade-bility and costs are keys... the Steam Machines which is a similar (but closer to PC) concept doesn't leave much hope... Regardless, knowing Microsoft, they might screw this up somehow. Somehow. Or maybe it'll be a slow burner like Steam was... and will have their own problems (#1: CS).

Harvest Moon-like game comes to PC and everything points to this being good so I choose this as a low priced game to get. Beat out Super Hot. So this and Disgaea should keep me occupied for a while. inb4 this game is $25 for FLD. Edit: This game might be a productivity problem...

One of the oddest finds from my foray into Chinese/Cantonese metal. It's the type that you do not expect to find in such a young scene. It's pretty well done in my opinion. Describes my mood pretty well at times...

That is so Metal Slug.

Holy shit, I got my T100 working again. Apparently I can power cycle it a few times or flash the BIOS blind to get it working. It has been a while so I don't recall if things were ever this sluggish but hey, I can read PDFs in bed now. It's my main reason to try to fix it again and well, this time I got the patience to do it. Last time I lost my school computer so I was in a panic to replace it. The T100TA everyone! Shit has problems but it never seem to be truly dead. Figuratively smack it a few times and it just might work again.

That did it and game is snappy as hell. There's my old Disgaea with improvements! There's still a but of screen tearing going on but I think I can troubleshoot that away. Now for NIS/NISA to figure out why it is doing that since I use the beta client to aid and improve streaming to my Link. Then again maybe the official client is up-to-date now to include the streaming fixes. Bizarre problem though... And thanks for the heads up, FLD.

One of the few times I actually like the song for these kind of adverts. Fits pretty well.

If we're talking about these guys: I call them portraits but they are better termed as busts. They existed for a while in a digital media disk they sold. It blew my mind when I stumbled across them since the quality completely trashed what was in the PS2 version. I remember it since it was before wide spread broadband internet adoption and I got a rip of the disk from someone on the internet. I showed interest in all things Takehito Harada and someone asked if I wanted a disk full of the stuff. The above was freaking perfect for pre-1080p wallpaper making days. On a 1024 × 768 screen, they were massive. Hell, I think they come in even larger size not shown in internet galleries now (PNG files maybe?). Might be the 1024 × 768 talking though. Anyhow, I'm going to sit on this release for a week to see if it clears up. If it doesn't, I'm returning it before my two weeks.

One thing I noticed is that it is a 32-bit program. I know that some 32-bit programs don't jive well on a 64-bit machine, hell, some don't even run. I'm on Windows 10 so there might be some issues there as well. Ideally I should return this game but as you said, I would hate this to be the last PC Disgaea game. Anyhow, I should praise the game somewhat... they are using some of the correct art assets that were drawn in insane resolution, like the character portraits. So they got that right in some places. Others... not so much.

Disgaea As I feared, rough port. Graphical issues all over with unstable frame rate. I can recover from it by switching SSAO off or switching to the old map which I kind of prefer. Still cannot get rid of the frame drops though. Like why is there frame drops!? There is also the odd delays in movement and I swear menus. I recall I could storm through the menus but in this port it takes quite a while to get through anything. I'll admit that it has been over ten years since I've played Disgaea so I can misremember my experiences. It just seems far slower than I recall.

I killed the test but I can't appreciate it since it doesn't tell me what kind of settings it is running on. I've read it does change quality settings on the fly to keep frames up but I can't tell with it being on a small window. So I guess I'm ready? I guess I can forego a nicer monitor (1440p at 144 fps with free/G-Sync) and head straight to Vive or Rift? Edit: And they should simulate an Arma 3 VR run. That will test your system really well.

Ideally, yeah? I never tried it with my hub. Main reason I got it was so I can have more than one hub which happens to be USB 3.0. I just don't see why it wouldn't work as designed... My parts are ancient enough that there isn't any notable ones. My mobo doesn't even have Windows 8 drivers or BIOS. Network is from April of last year... I'll sleep while a RAM test is ran.

Speaking of VR... http://gematsu.com/2016/02/ibm-japan-announces-sword-art-online-virtual-reality-project Goodbye world, nice knowing you. Time to join my waifu.

I'm optimistic that VR won't die for another 20 years... at most it'll be 10 years before another foray into the mainstream. For the enthusiast-level, VR is here but it'll be a bumpy road due to adoption by themselves and by developers. Really, on the coverage it got, VR got revived a decade too soon. These prices are assuming you have hardware to run VR at an acceptable settings. So I think besides a 4K screen, I think there isn't much room to expand besides the usual upgrades to the high end but at the 1-2 years time span which I doubt anyone here is at. Through great pains I have a 980ti and that is kind of scratching the surface on what I'll need.

And there was my second BSOD in like a week. I'm hesitant in saying it's Windows 10 that is causing the BSODs since my hardware is getting old. However... ever since I upgraded, I've been noticing quite a few longer than expected startup times. Sometimes it's snappy as it was back on Windows 7. Now the BSODs when doing not much of anything: streaming music, Photoshop and internet. Nothing that should tank my computer. If it was my hardware, I would expect the BSODs to be more consistent.

I needed this break from death/black metal. Wishing things to die all day is tiresome.

Holy shit, it does exist! Cantonese (Hong Kong) death metal band. A decent one too. Got to play at Wacken 2014 after winning the Metal-Battle China if that means anything (Edit: Fourth place in the finals at WOA 2014. That totally works.). Scene there is still small but it grows... someday I will find an Amon Amarth or Sabaton-like Cantonese metal band. There is a Beijing based band that do songs based off of the Spring and Autumn period but it isn't quite what I am looking for... I want Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and other stories from my childhood! Evocation HK kind of fills it though!

Since I actual do run it as background noise at times... I totally forgot they were going to reboot The Powerpuff Girls. No reason to judge it yet but hey, they kept the original designs mostly intact. Maybe some of the differences is due to improved/easier animation since the original series. We'll find out in April if it is any good! I want some adult humor thrown in...

A few pokes and I think I have sources for Hong Kong based music.

So Justice Scalia is dead. Unless there's a massive grid lock the confirmation of a new justice, Obama gets to have another. Edit: The Republicans can lining up for war...

I can't help but feel that it'll be a mixture of self driving and driven cars with drivers being a sizable minority until the end of time. Might be the old person in me talking though. With that said: Are you all saying that I'll eventually have to pay extra for the privilege to drive off road due to the need for manual controls? God, what a weird gripe about the future...