What year is now the Future?

I'm still waiting for the year 2000 from my 70s/80s childhood. The one with floating cities, O'Neill space stations, flying cars and jet packs. Not the one where we are all eating dog food and fighting for gas, though I wouldn't mind the Max's Interceptor. I feel like we are in 1999v9 instead of 2008.

I remember a book I read in 5th grade or so that had awesome artwork and visions of the future. I've occasionally tried to find it but have had no luck as I just remember bits and pieces of pictures and not the title or author. I want it for nostalgia and for the artwork/inspiration as I get a kick out of the "World of the Future" things from old World's Fairs.

Recently I picked up Mudhoney's 'Under A Billion Suns' CD (Never picked up there last 2 albums for whatever reason even though I have all their older stuff). While I've been having this year 2000 thought long before I heard it, their song 'Where Is The Future' sums it up nicely:

I was born on an Air Force Base
Nineteen sixty two
A rocket launch into outer space
Knocked me out of the womb
I cried and cried and cried
Happy to be alive
Astronauts were orbiting Earth
The Space Age was in sight

Where is the future that was promised us
Where is the future for everyone
Where is the future that was promised us
Where is our future of fun
Where is the future that was promised us
I'm sick to death of this one

I want to live in a floating city
I want to drive a bubble car
I want to fly with my personal jet pack
I want to visit my family on Mars
I want to live in an era of peace,
Of Love and Justice, Wonder and Truth
I want a world run by giant brains
Instead of small-minded arrogant fools

I need to go and watch Mad Max/Road Warrior or A Boy and His Dog to balance out my utopian dreaming with a good post-apocalyptic dystopia.

Fifi: They say people don't believe in heroes anymore. Well damn them! You and me, Max, we're gonna give them back their heroes!
Max: Ah, Fif. Do you really expect me to go for that crap?
Fifi: You gotta admit I sounded good there for a minute, huh?

Born from this space nostalgia was my most recent drawing, which is a tribute to Voyager 1 in my surreal style:


(Goes back to enjoying the fruits of current tech by listening to some Nebula MP3s while surfing the net)

EDIT 2/1/08: Just saw that 1/31/2008 was the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first Earth satellite of the US (Explorer 1). This sat discovered the Van Allen Belts.

Edit 2/6/08: Thanks to a Wired blog I found the book I've been thinking of - 'The Usborne Book of the Future' published in 1979. Some quick google-fu finds me many of the pics I was thinking of and others like me that enjoyed the book. Also found a blog focused on the past's concepts of the future - Paleo-Future.

Brave Captain

"Captain, there are doubts
regarding
your ability
to lead them
the men
lead them
there are doubts in your ability
there's too many blanks in your analogies"

fIREHOSE - Brave Captain video

Haven't listened to fIREHOSE in a while as I don't have the CD and haven't reached for the tape in years. Though I have been listening to the Minutemen as I have Double Nickels on CD. Resigned up for eMusic to get Sasquatch and the latest Red Giant CDs and saw both fIREHOSE and Minutemen stuff is now on there.

I remember seeing this video when I was a young skaterpunk of only 13 years (Think it was on 120 Minutes). I still listen to a lot of the stuff I was into then (Dead Kennedys (w/ Jello Only!), Black Flag, etc.) and still consider NoMeansNo my favorite band even after all these years. For some strange reason, this song and the Ragin' Full On album hit me more than any music has in a while (Probably due to not hearing it in forever unlike my almost daily doses of NMN). Basically compressed the last 21 years of my life into one song where I was reminded of everything even though I wasn't hanging onto a specific thought. And yet it still had a nice groove...or maybe it was just the corndogs.

Now I just have to wait until my downloads refill next month so I can nab me some Post-Mersh Minutemen.

Neverwinter Nights (2002)

While everyone else is already over and done with NWN2 and some even its expansion, I'm just now finishing off NWN Diamond Edition. I have now completed the original game, its 2 expansions (Hordes of the Underdark & Shadows of Undrentide), and its premium modules (Witch's Wake, ShadowGuard and Kingmaker).


Think this is the 2nd most played game of mine. According to xfire I've got 183 hours on it. I know I've played it without xfire so its more than that. Only other game that I've probably played more is Counterstrike, but didn't have xfire at the time to track it (Thankfully :) ).


I still want to try other premium modules such as Pirates of the Sword Coast and Wyvern Crown, but am taking another break from NWN for a bit. Not to mention all the user made modules that I have yet to try. So much content for one game..


..And I'm still occasionally playing on some PWs. At times I'm amazed my characters haven't been archived and no longer active on the servers since its rare that I log in. I still like Lands of Always Autumn and Alboria as my 2 main PWs.

Far Cry (2004)

Had played about 1/4 of Far Cru when I first got it years back but then shelved it for whatever reason. It wasn't due to it being a bad game as I really enjoyed it, just some other shiny game came along. Finally got around to finishing off the rest of it and have now done so.

The island setting was a nice change of pace from most corridor shooters. Levels were mostly open so you could get to your target using multiple paths. Besides the arsenal of hand weapons, there was a good amount of mounted weapons and vehicles to drive. Decent enough AI for the levels too as the enemy would hunt you down if they heard you and would try to use cover.

Even on the island there was a good mix of different settings. From thick jungles to the beaches, rivers to swim or boat in, hidden army camps and underground bases. There was also a good use of altitude as the island has many mountains. At first it was like stumbling into a South Pacific island camp of mercenaries. Then later it became the Island of Dr Moreau.

I preferred the mercenary fights over the mutants but still didn't think the mutant sections were to bad. Think this held me off on playing the game as I heard many people quick at this time, which was where I first stalled at. After finishing it up, the mutant parts were small and more mercenary battles returned later. Only the last 2 maps were full of mutants and these were the 2 maps I didn't like when compared to the rest of the game.

The island and its hidden bases had a nice sense of exploration as I was unsure what was around each corner or behind every tree. Occasionally I'd stumble across ancient ruins on my way to a high tech base buried underground.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl (2007)

"For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing. They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled."

"The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men. On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed."

- "The Road Warrior"

Finally finished up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Due to my PostApoc love (Mad Max, Road Warrior, A Boy & His Dog, etc.), I really dug this game. Felt like Fallout but as an FPS instead of RPG. Hopefully Bethesda can do as well with the true Fallout 3. I never followed the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. so wasn't upset about the map being broken into levels. Even broken up, each level was a good size with tons of stuff in each one to explore (Different towns/villages/bases, abandoned buildings/cars, random clutter, etc.).

I enjoyed that for most maps, there was more than 1 path to your destination as rail FPS bore me now for the most part. Improved armor/guns and the quest log gave it an RPGlite feel too. The game is also very moddable and tons of mods are out there already. I mainly used ones to remove quest time limit, weight limit, weapon/armor degradation and other small adjustments. Can't wait for the sequel - Clear Sky.

"The Nightrider. That is his name... the Nightrider. Remember him when you look at the night sky!"

EDIT: Found a link to Strugatsky's 'RoadSide Picnic' that STALKER is based on.

Some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. links:

Developer Forums
Oblivion Lost
FileFront's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods

Below are the Stalker Mods I've been running on v1.0003 (Not sure how they work with v1.0005/latest patch or if there are updates to them for either patch):

MP5 to Pistol Slot - MP5 now fits in pistol slot so other rifle goes in rifle slot.

Ammo Mod - Traders have all ammo.

Moonstalker minimod - Used the parts that improve carry capacity and npc item usage. Also used trade generic to improve trade with other stalkers.

No time limit on quests - Removes the quest time limit.

Repair mod - Traders repair weapons/armor.

Flashlight range mod - Tweaks range of flashlight.

Endurance Mod - Carry more stuff. Has higher weight limit than the minimod, which I used until I kept having tons of weapons I couldnt carry back for loot.

Low armor degrade - Armor degrades more slowly. This isnt the one I used (cant find it) but it works the same

These remove weapon & armor degradation (I switched from repair mod to nondegrading mod at some point) [All 3 are needed]:
Nondegrading normal weapons
Nondegrading unique weapons
Nondegrading armor

Mods I want to try next game:

Weapon customization mod - allows more customization - silencers, scopes on more weapons, etc. Couldn't get it to work with the MP5slot1 mod but probably could if I picked scouted each mod for the changes needed to combine them.

Trader mod - Traders have more guns.

Some of these mods use the same files so you will have to modify in the change yourself. Most of the ones I used had good readmes explaining what to tweak when there was a file conflict.

Two Worlds (2007)

Based on the demo grabbed this RPG from Reality Pump. Reminds me of Gothic1/2 with some Titan Quest action and item stacking thrown in. While it dragged at times I was always interested in what sites I would see over the next hill. The view distance and sense of height was well done along with a variety of environments and weather, though the starting area was a bit too long and the deserts/other areas under utilized.

While there was limited character choices at the beginning, weapons/armor have tons of variety and all change your appearance. Lots of quests of different depth, some adding tons of backstory. While the main quest was sort of weak and did not force you into doing lots of side quests, I still followed many side quests as I do with RPGs instead of barreling to just the end.

Still prefer Morrowind/Oblivion and the Gothic series, but this was a good try by a smaller dev, especially one not known for RPGs (I have an old RTS from them and unsure of what else they have done.)

Now hoping The Witcher will be good and will run on my old rig since one RPG is done and I can add in a new one to the backlog.

Offical Two Worlds' Site
Inside Two Worlds

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., First Eagles & Oblivion

Still playing NWN (Finished OC, SoU and just starting HoU) and OFP (2 more missions of CWC to do), but also playing Armed Assault (Sequal to OFP).

Also enjoying the post-apocalyptic FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R which reminds me of a FPS Fallout. Little rough on the edges but oozes atmosphere and soul like many small and euro dev games.



Some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. links:

Developer Forums
Oblivion Lost
FileFront's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods

Also enjoying Oblivion (Sequal to Morrowind). Running many mods found from the same sites as MW.

A link to some Oblivion quest mods

For some reason never posted links these mods sites for MW:

Planet Elderscrolls
TES Source
Aelius' List o' mods

As Red Baron 3D is old, had to pick up First Eagles: The Great Air War too. Nice simlite from a very small dev. Highly moddable and fun for quick jump in the seat and fly. Something about WW1 planes gets me as I enjoy it more than WW2 (2nd Fav) or Modern planes (I'm just not into jets).

Thirdwire's Site (Developer)
Combat Ace(User Missions/Mods)
My first impressions posted on OO w links to some mods

Neverwinter Night: Persistant Worlds

I've been playing on a few different NWN PWs that each offer something different:

Soul Forge
Thain
Land of Always Autumn
Aantioch Reborn
Salvation
Alboria Main Site Alboria Forum

A Sampling of My Art

I post most of my stuff on my DeviantArt page but here is a scrap of what I'm currently working on so the one person besides me viewing this page can see it. If you like it voyage off to my deviant page for more images.


This one is called "Ten....Eleven Twelve"

Web based games

Infocom Interactive Fiction
NES, SMS, GG, GB, GBA, TG16, Arcade, Flash
Virtual Apple
Commodore 64
Dark Tower
Fantastic Contraption - Like Incredible Machine

Music

Lately the sound I like is stonerrock/fuzzrock/garagerock. I grew up on punk and then grunge with a dose of classic rock and metal. Most of what I've been listening to lately can be found on Stonerrock.com. They offer a net station called K666.

First liked west coast punk bands like the Dead Kennedy's, Minutemen and Blackflag. Also dug the Canadian band NoMeansNo. SST, Alternative Tentacles and Amphetamine Reptile were the labels of my youth. Then I went for grunge (mostly SubPop stuff), though the more garage variety, of Mudhoney, Melvins and Tad. Now I'm listening to Lowrider, Mushroom River Band and Astroqueen from Sweden along with Nebula and Fu Manchu from the US [Small Stone, Meteor City & Southern Lord]. Lucky for me eMusic.com has the old and new labels I'm digging for way cheaper than other sites and no drm.

Operation Flashpoint: Update

Since EECP has an old version of ECP (As does Y2K3), I switched to the improved DMA Army Pack which is compatible with the latest ECP. I've also got some other mods that change the setting, such as SEBNAMII for Vietnam, Liberation 41-45 and Invasion 44 for WW2 action. I also grabbed Swedish Forces Pack 4. Whenever possible I use them with ECP to help improve the gameplay.

Missionwise, I like the dynamic missions and templates from DMA Group and have added their anims, especially leaning, to all my mod's configs. For campaigns, I've got 1969 Vietnam (SEBNAMII), Blue Storm (FDFMod), Blue Sky, Insurgency, PMC Fury, PMC Heroes, PMC Rangers, Retaliation, Revolt 1988, Revolution 1983, Talvisto, and Delta Ops 1. I've got a lot more SP missions too for each mod. More than enough gaming to keep me busy. Mapfact's Dynamic AI Creator is also a fun mission editor tool that allows for dynamic missions based on user defined combat zones.

EDIT: DMA has also released GRAA Modpack. Still mainly using DMA Army but play some single missions with GRAA. I also like the SLX Mod of which I mainly use the Grouplink 3 mod to improve the AI (I edit my configs to run it with the other mods). DXDLL is also nice to improve the look of OFP but it used to interfere with Xfire's ingame chat so I uninstalled it.

RPGs - Baldurs Gate, Gothic, Morrowind & Neverwinter Nights

RPGDot.com is an excellent source of RPG news, reviews and forum discussion. Subsections of forums include BG series, Morrowind, Gothic, Neverwinter Nights and other RPGs such as Vampire: The Masquerade. RPGPlanet also provides game specific sites.

Baldur's Gate mods (including Tutu to run BG1 in BG2) are at Pocket Plane Group

Gothic 1 & 2:RPGdot's Gothic page

Morrowind:
Elder Scrolls site & main forum
Mod sites include: Mythic Mods, including Telesphoro's List o' Mods, TheLys' Mods and Petrell's MW links.

Neverwinter Nights: Bioware site and recommended mod list on OO. Neverwinter Vault also has tons of content.

Tactical Games - Ghost Recon & Swat3

Ghost Recon:
Here are some links to forums and mods for GR
Ghost Recon.net
GR.net also has a forum section for other tactical games including Raven Shield.

Ghostaholic

I'm currently running GR Gold with HX5:Red Sun & Alpha Mod v2.5. AM came with a Standard Upgrade of models for GR so I use that too. Also have the Frostbie mod for winter combat.


SWAT3:
Good forum and mod site is 10-David.

2 general sim/tactical sites are SimHQ and Tactical Gamer, both of which have game reviews and forums covering many different games.

Operation Flashpoint (2001)

Recently picked up the old game Operation Flashpoint. I skipped it the 1st time around after feeling overwhelmed by the demo. Now that I've cut my teeth on other tactical games like Ghost Recon and Raven Shield, I've really been enjoying it.


I picked it up on Ebay for $2 for the GOTY version. I've been trying different mods by checking out the posts on the Operation Flashpoint forums.

So far I've mainly tried total conversions such as FFUR, EECP (above pic),Y2K3, FDFMod and CSLA. I'm amazed by the amount of mods (unit replacement, gameplay enhancements, missions/campaigns, etc.) that are available. I should have picked this up long ago but at least I know have tons of gaming to look forward to. An updated version, Armed Assault is also due out in a couple months so I'll be checking that out as well as good tactical SP/MP games are hard to find nowadays.

Besides the forums, other good OFP sites are:
OFP.info
Ofpbase.com
OFP Mission Database
Operation Flashpoint Editing Center






1st Post

Decided to try blogging instead of editing my own html site anytime I wanted to post something new. I also wanted a place to store links to sites I visit or have pages/profiles on. Now to tweak it to fit my needs.