This Geek

Admittedly, the graphics are brilliant (on my 6800 at least), however the install process is NOT worth the agony. I sure as shit will not buy another game that uses so-called “Steam”.

If any of your buddies are looking to buy the game, warn them.

The install process is AGONY, especially if you only have a modem. — I’m not sure that my 64k ISDN would have been much better, if it had been working.

So you have your nice DVD-sized box (If you didn’t buy the collector’s edition). I took the one with the face of that scary looking dude on it. Open the box… Just a crappy little cardboard tray with 5 CDs in paper sleeves, and 1 crappy “reference card”. Hmm. Another useless box, like the Doom 3 box, that can’t be stored with my other regular DVD-case games.

Install off 5x CDs takes awhile… bout half an hour(+?) or so. First it installs the “Steam” client, and then it installs the game proper.

Ready to play the game? Nope!

Steam updates itself. This took about half an hour (analogue connection at “48k”).

Ready to play? Nope!

Steam “decrypts” Half-life 2. This took a long time. But then it also said something about downloading content for “Codename: Gordon” - which really made me happy, considering I was connected at 48k(!), and had already been connected for around 2 hours (Note to self: Don’t mess around with other stuff in Steam while bored). Set Codename:Gordon to Never update. It didn’t stop the download. Killed Steam (had to kill the task as well), and restarted it. Half-life 2 properties shows that it has 99% updated.

Check Steam monitor. No updates in progress. Right, how the hell do I force an update? Can’t find any info. Screw it. Launch game.

Please wait… Half-life 2 will be ready in…. 86 minutes.

Wha-fuck?

More waiting. Eventually the wait time dropped… until it showed ready. I cancelled the launch. Stuff that. I wanted to see if so-called “Offline” mode worked. I disconnected the modem, and then quit Steam.

Relaunch Steam, and after awhile, it bitched about not being able to connect. Do you want to go offline? Yes, damnit.

Finally. Launch Half-life 2. It runs. About fucking time.

One thing I can say, is that I’ve definitely been put off Steam. Reading various form posts reaffirms my conviction. I will NOT buy another Steam game. (I probably will, but right at this point, I will not! I won’t! So there!)

I’ve read a couple of books the past few months that have been quite good. Have to thank my supplier for that, heh.

“Psst… Wanna read some books?” He looks around nervously, “try it, you’ll like it, I promise.” “Uh, I’m not really in to that stuff, but if you say I’ll like it, I suppose I’ll give it a try. It’s not like once is gonna get me addicted…”

After reading the Area 51 series (except for the 2 new ones), I started on The Killing Kind by John Connolly. My supplier insisted. He actually wanted me to read it before the Area 51’s, but I never do what I’m told.

All I can say is, “Wow!” What a fantastic read. I think it’s Connolly’s third book, at least in this series, and it’s brilliant. The story may not necessarily appeal to some, but the writing is brilliant. I highly recommend this one, or at least, picking up any of his books.

I’m as much of a sucker for a good story as anyone, but I can read utter trash, and still like the book, as long as it is written well. Take Dreamcatcher by Stephen King for example. The book is a whole lot of utter incoherent shite for the most part, but I’m a sucker for his writing style. Hell, I’ll prolly enjoy reading his freaking grocery list for goodness sake (Did I mention he’s my favorite author?).

After further breathless recommendations from a friend of mine, I picked up 3 Dean Koontz books in one shot:

• Odd Thomas
• The Face
• The Taking

– I surprised myself by getting these. I never thought I would pick up another Dean Koontz book after reading One door away from heaven. You thought Stephen King could get incoherent? Damn, at least he does it with style. That book was such a dissapointment to me, that I decided to give further Dean Koontz novels a miss.

I read Odd Thomas in a week, which for me, is brilliant going these days, considering I only read at night in bed and when I’m relaxing on the bog. I was dubious about reading it, considering my bias about the previous one I read, but it didn’t take me long to realise that I can take Dean Koontz off my personal shit list. Odd Thomas is awesome.

I have since started on The Face — I’m only a third of the way in, but I’m hooked. I’m looking forward to starting the last one.

The Accidental Spy is an HK Jackie Chan film, meaning it is made in Hong Kong.

If you can get your mind around the dubbing, the movie is actually quite good, though some of the action scenes (the climactic action scene at the end of the movie particularly comes to mind) border on the ridiculous.

I can highly recommend this movie if you’re a Jackie Chan fan, however if you can’t handle dubbed movies, skip this one. I found the dubbing particularly distracting at first, but I got used to it after awhile, and since the movie is set in Istanbul for the most part, I kept having the refrain “Istanbul, it’s Constantinople” echoing through the recesses of my mind for the whole movie (Gah!).

An interesting bit: I looked up the movie entry in IMDB, and it says Jackie Chan’s character was called Buck Yeun, but I could swear he introduces himself to one of the characters as Jackie Chan. It was for that reason that I assumed his character in the movie was also named “Jackie Chan”, a bit unusual, but not impossible. Can someone confirm this?

In conclusion, there’s something to be said about Jackie Chan movies. They’re always worth watching, particulary for his trademark action sequences, and I especially love watching the outtakes in the end-credits.