Battleangel

Since Knights Online entered open beta yesterday I thought I would give it a try. Unfortunately, the servers have been clogged up so gameplay is difficult to assess.

First off I think the web based login system is a little lame. As is the fact that you have to restart the game when you are disconnected. And due to the recent server situation gameplay became difficult at best. By far the most annoying thing was picking up dropped items. They should do that in the background instead of waiting for the player connection. Too much of the interaction was going on server-side and that really slowed everything down. I guess they are aiming for some sort of cheat protection scheme (like the feature of logging in over and over again). Plus I don’t understand why you have to pick up money at all. Shouldn’t that be automatic? Who would leave a pile of gold after having painstakingly killed a pesky Werewolf for example? Maybe they should have an option to set at least .. “auto-acquire gold”.

Furthermore, like many MMORPGs, it is difficult to keep up interest. First you kill Worms to be able to upgrade your weapons and armor, then you kill Bandicoots to be able to upgrade your weapons and armor, and so it goes on and on. All I ever interacted with was NPCs. Apparently you can also enter into “teams” but as for fighting other player or doing anything but hunting overgrown bunnies … who knows.
And killing bunnies is like playing the lottery. If you’re lucky you might get a 100k ruby. But that only happened once. I don’t see why it should take so long to level up since fighting basically consists of pointing and clicking anyway. It’s not like it requires any skill. Chances are you will just get bored in the process and toss the game. Hmm. Perhaps I have missed something fundamental about role-playing games.

<Edit> And another thing. After having played the game some more I find it just as flat. Plus the team thing was no fun at all. Unless the members are hyperactive you will be better off killing monsters yourself. Unless there is a really large one that you cannot handle. But one of the points in killing monsters is gaining items and since you share them at random with your team, the feature is a little situational. Hell, it happened twice when I was in a team that I (myself) killed a pesky creature and it contained crystals or rubies. First time around accidentally grabbed it and “gave” it to someone else. The other time around I knew better and quit the team before picking it up. It’s good to know one’s price. </edit>

Anyway, since it is a beta after all and since the developers are promising “ongoing development” the verdict will have to wait. At least until the connection issue is out of the way.
Another interesting thing to note is that they jumped on BitTorrent to distribute the beta client. One of the first demo or beta releases that I have seen do that.

This I mean. It so happens I had declared the table width to be 99% twice via style sheets. Changing that and fixing the broken code (had an extra <tr><td> for some reason) and a couple of validation issues seemed to have cleared it all up. For a while that is what I believed at least. Now I see the problem does in fact persist. To a lesser degree perhaps, but still.

Usually I find Metacritic most helpful but in the case of Passion of the Christ, The the results are inconclusive. It’s one of those movies you can either love or hate I guess.

Chicago Sun-Times / Roger Ebert — It is a film about an idea. An idea that it is necessary to fully comprehend the Passion if Christianity is to make any sense. Gibson has communicated his idea with a singleminded urgency. Many will disagree. Some will agree, but be horrified by the graphic treatment. I myself am no longer religious in the sense that a long-ago altar boy thought he should be, but I can respond to the power of belief whether I agree or not, and when I find it in a film, I must respect it.

ReelViews / James Berardinelli — A gripping, powerful motion picture — arguably the most forceful depiction of Jesus’ death ever to be committed to film. It leaves an indelible imprint on the psyche; viewers of this movie may never look at a crucifix in quite the same way.

.. but everyone is not so cheerful …

Slate / David Edelstein — This is a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie — The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre — that thinks it’s an act of faith.

New York Magazine / Peter Rainer — It isn’t just the violence that is overplayed. There is so much creepy-Gothic Sturm und Drang in The Passion that at times it seems as if Clive Barker should get credit for the story along with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Hmm. Looks like I’ll be waiting for the DVD RIP.

Some people sure take the passion pretty seriously though: Woman Dies During Screening Of ‘Passion Of The Christ’.

Better late than never. I just realized that the first Tintin comic was published 75 years ago. 10th of January 1929 to be precise.

Since I also recently acquired ALL comic books (scanned of course) this was a real blast from the past.

I can still remember running down to the local library as a kid, trying to grab the elusive and immensely popular series. I grew up reading this stuff and I loved it. I still think that the stories are very well written and not kids’ stuff per se. Overall, the comics make up one of the fondest memories from my childhood, together with reading ghost stories at night and having no concept of time. Too bad some things cannot last a lifetime.

Perhaps the most memorable thing about Tintin is the colorful characters, and among them Captain Haddock. Especially so for the numerous and vivid curses (Swedish) (English) that constantly pour out of him. Blithering bombardier! Baboon! Thundering son of a sea-gherkin! Invertebrate!