I don't get it. No really I don't get why game reviewers find this game so tedious, marking it as fair or average. Maybe at its launch he had a few glitches, which I think is very stupid from arkane studios : the first week is definitely what will make the reputation of a game but then, what is the problem? I've bought the game 10 days later and I had almost no problem at all (just one crash in 6 hours+ of play and not sure it isnt due to my computer). Ok when I installed the game I had to download a fair amount of data from the internet but anyway this game is using steam and as usual with steam once you ve made the effort to accept that you need an internet connection to play a SOLO game (!) at least everything is transparent for the user : if the game has to fix itself then it does it before you run it. That's all.

So ok that was the stupid part of its launch but everything except that is just brilliant. I don't mean "good" I mean awesome.

It looks like people didnt get that this is an action game with a rpg touch. I'm a huge rpg gamer as well and I have no problem at all with a "simple" game sometimes. That's the point : gamers want something new and sometimes do like different kind of game for what it offers you and its specialities. Take Oblivion for example, where's the gameplay is quite "similar" : you grab a sword, a shield, a couple of magic spell etc... So... you want a complex story ? You like complex rpg statistics, hundred skills/spells and freedom in the world you re discovering, this is the one. You want better action ? Great combats and animations ? Some interesting physical possibilities like pushing somebody in the fire, out of a cliff or breaking walls, pushing statues onto your opponents then take dark messiah.

Seriously, this game is I think almost the equivalent of HalfLife II in term of medieval action/FPS. It is a bit dull in term of story I must admit, sometimes looks a bit "cheap" in terms of Video editing and the first levels are not all so interesting + I do think that they give too much and too often magical items in this game but come on ! In term of gameplay we never had anything like that before : the combats are really incredible, you can feel the sword wavering aroung your head, you can feel the blow when you parry with your shield, special attacks use a clever system and at the end of the day, the player has what he wants : a lot of adrenaline and a rush of blood to the head. The 3D for the characters, the way they are animated and how they are able to defend themselves are really impressive. Plus what I do like a lot is that the combat is system is fair and usable : if you re really good you can really beat up several enemies at the same time without taking any blow, and when you take some you usually feel it in your health bar ! Other - still good games - like half life II you cant really avoid taking a couple of bullets but you dont really care as they re not hitting you very badly anyway and sometimes looks like you dont fear much when going into battle. Here, the beginning is quite easy, I was actually a bit disappointed with the "normal difficulty" and couldnt change it without restrting from scratch. But after a couple of missions, it really starts to be more difficult and challenging.

I didnt test the multiplayer game for the moment, it looks like it has its flaws, to be honest I found games like half file II great in solo but quickly boring in multi so that's not the important part for me. I may make another post or update when I'll test.

Think as you want but I do think this game has changed how we can perceive medieval combat and will be a beacon for the next games like the Thief series was. It has some defaults but if you like action, you wont be disappointed...

Weird behaviour from google :

As I am in Switzerland (but it acts the same way in France) if you type www.google.com you're redirected on a "local" version of google.

If you look for : vwware sourceforge look what you get :

Web	Résultats 1 - 10 sur un total d'environ 3'060'000 pour vwware sourceforge. (0,03 secondes)

Conseil : Recherche pour résultats en Français uniquement. Vous pouvez indiquer votre langue de recherche dans Préférences

Ok so ?
Look closer.

If you look for vmware sourceforge you get the same results (with actually the exact same count) but not necessarily in the same order...

This bug doesn't happen on the original google.com. You get the standard "Did you mean ..."

Note: I was really looking for vwware and not vmware .

I've just watched "Saw" yesterday night and "Saw 2" tonight. Well that's not the best movies I ever seen but I must admit it has something quite special. The second is definitely not as good as the first one, but still worth a try. For the first one : this is quite impressive, or did I mean "oh bloody hell what is this ???".
Scary : sure. Intesive : yeah quite. Weird : doh !
The most interesting effect is that you're really continuously seeking "Where are we going ? Is there and end to this ? Could it be more disturbing ?". Atmosfear is very well rendered even with low budget, and there are a lot of twists and tricks you're just busted all the time.
There is a problem though : not sure you should see your girlfriend will enjoy it so prepare for a lonely night

If like me you have sometimes troubles reloading into mysql a big dump made from it. The PhpMyAdmin page crashing, or putting some weird error like 'MySql has gone away' or using another client with the same kind of troubles. You may want to know about this :

A lot of client software are not implementing some unusual errors raised by the server like in this case the 1153 : Packet too large and then are just using another one instead (or crash) like "MySql has gone away".

So if you don't know why you re not able to load a complete database sql file without crashing go to the url above or simply add :

[mysqld] max_allowed_packet=16M to your mysql.ini or my.cnf on the server. It may helps ! ...

SVN is great, yes. CVS was already great actually. Except that I've been struggling with a stupid bug/weird behaviour !

If like me you have the error :

"svn: Not authorized to open root of edit operation"

on a checkout even when you had the right to import your own files (and you are authenticated) ! So basically looks like you had the right to write something but not to read it ! Even if in the authz file you gave yourself all the rights on all the files...

Then praise for the following explanation :

edit the svnserve.cnf

and if like me you just wanted to avoid anonymous users by letting the line : "anon-access = read" commented, you re wrong ! You do have to specify "anon-access = none" and magically you can read your own files (yes even if you were of course authenticated, it has an effect).

I don't even try to understand... 5 Hours to find this.

Who said that swiss are slow ? : I've just been notified to fetch my work permit... after working since the 20th of february ! And all my work colleagues hired since (some of them by me) even those a couple of weeks ago, all have them already.

Vaud state must be really slow.

Funny this, I'm now part of the planet's side of those who need to ask gently if I can work...

That's neat. Have a look, but you may need the latest version of shockwave

http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm

This blog had not even been "deployed" publicly that it had already a long period of inactivity !

Indeed July/August had been quite hectic with some big movings, no internet access (hence the inactivity in this poor blog) and a lot of work (which means not even enough time to blog a little during lunch) and some well earned high speed holidays in the middle.

Now it is official I'm living in Carouge, small town which is part of Geneva (arguably one of the cutest part of Geneva) in Switzerland, I'm kinda swissified I'm afraid. Broadband has just been installed, she's hot. And... believe it, I'll even have soon a computer ! Yes, I tell you, it helps to update a website

This site will soon be properly "launched" (linked and advertized a bit more) and nicely updated now that I'm looking for the computer later on this evening...

C'est bien.

 

 

Bon ok je vais la faire plus longue :

Inside Man c'est spike lee qui se prend tout un coup pour hitchcock avec un thriller / film de gangsters au scénario machiavélique, à la réalisation chiadée, au suspens haletant, avec une fin qu'on-se-demande-bien-comment-elle-va-arriver-nom-d'une-pipe et 2^10 fausses pistes.

Soyons clair comme souvent le réalisme est quelque peu malmené et on peut facilement trouver des points de discussions a mégoter, si on s'en donne la peine, mais force est de constater que le concept du film retombe très bien sur ses pattes et qu'on en reste bluffé par l'intelligence déployée. C'est parfois tellement bien mené que si vous allez faire un tour sur le forum du film du site imdb, un grand nombre de personnes (dont je ne divulguerais pas la nationalité maîtresse du monde) semble perdu par les ressorts de l'intrigue. Il faut donc être un peu attentif mais comme le fim ne souffre pas de longueur malgré finalement ... "peu" d'action, on reste suffisamment accroché pour peu qu'on ait pas à aller chercher des cacahouètes ou de l'eau à sa copine/labrador/rejeton pendant la projection. La réalisation plutôt moderne de spike lee (sans forcément tomber dans de l'intellectualisme pointu d'un film d'auteur : ca reste un film d'action) et des dialogues affûtés et plein d'humour souvent en décalage avec l'action font très bien monter la sauce d'une recette aux ingrédients juteux et choisis avec précision. Il se paye même le luxe et le jouissif délire d'une scène décapatante entre le flic qui finit par être escorté par les preneurs d'otages dans la banque et le chef de la bande avec lequel il devise de philosophie et de "criminalité". Scène quasi culte si vous me demandez mon avis.

Bref, Inside Man c'est du tout bon. Pas le film du siècle non plus mais un bon film d"actions", à mettre au même niveau qu'un "Ocean's 11", assez vite oublié peut être mais quelle agréable façon de passer quelques heures.

Seul détail qui personnellement me choque un peu : le choix de Clive Owen pour le chef de bande. Non pas que je n'aime pas cet acteur - au contraire d'ailleurs - mais il ne va pas du tout dans le rôle. Sans dévoiler d'informations sur le film, la seule bonne raison de l'avoir choisi c'est ... que justement il n'a pas la tête de l'emploi - vu que le ressort du film est de dérouter le flic... et le spectateur.

Inside Man de spike lee avec Denzel Washington (le flic), Clive Owen (le bad guy), Jodie Foster la ... euh femme. (No spoilers)