Which are you, Circle or Square?

 

I'm a square myself.

Some Fresh Starcraft II Videos

Still no release date :(

TwoThree

This is a cute math game I'd recommend to anyone learning addition, and in general :)
You shoot two's and three's at numbers trying to subtract from them and get exactly zero.

Grid is a Superb Game

At least that's how I feel after I played a single time at it.



It's a combination of 16 more and less familiar games, which are time-slotted - just try it. Most games are very easy, but the rapid changing of games makes it challenging. Another bit of coolness is that it analyzes your different game skills:

Mario's Evil Japanese Twin

Link.
Not "the hardest game ever", but the game looks really evil.

Duke Nukem Lives

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/19/1945235&from=rss

Future of Real Time Strategy

I think RTS games are currently wrong. What do I mean by that?

Current RTS games do test strategy and tactics, but they also require a high degree of micro-management. Top Starcraft players are measured by their APM, and a player with high thinking skills but a less than agile hand is at a disadvantage. The anticipatd Starcraft 2 doesn't seem to hold great promise to change this.

What I want is this: In addition to the point-and-click action we all know (and love), I want RTS games to offer me strategy/tactics menus. I want to be able to order the computer AI things like:

• "build the base, 10 drones, and the entire tech tree up to Guardian
. Then build 10 of these and 25 Mutalisks and send them after the nearest Terran opponent.

• "Organize all my troups into battle formations while leaving 10% on defense and go search & destroy all opponents"


• "Build up to 3 overlords and scout for Vespene gas. Once found, take a drone there to build a base. Once the base nears completions, send other drones there to mine the gas".
  

Such commands should be easily programmable in the game as it ships. Special player-made commands could be added before and during a game. The player's major role should be to select and define strategies, not to gather up individual drones to build structures or to micro-manage an attack. Of course, as I said, the micromanagement can stay, but it must not be how you spend the better part of a game.

Note that most of the "strategy commands" I want are probably already present at some form inside the computer's native AI player. As a player, I want to have access to this AI and parts of it. Once this is developed enough, I can imagine different Starcraft tournaments where players are only allowed to pre-program the strategy.

Now I wonder how long till these ideas become reality and how difficult it would be to program a extension for the existing Starcraft that accomplishes something like this.

Portal

Fun fun fun game :)

It's been a while since I laughed like this:

"The Enrichment Center is required to remind you that you will be baked, and then there will be cake."

BTW, finishing it is worth it just for the end song alone. More on wikiquote.

WoW Birth Control

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbU1EBYh0ZQ

I solved the problem by hooking my gf to WoW :)

Weirdest Game

Weirdest game ever, thanks to Gabel for the reference.

Stolen Software

Beware of the yellow midget!

n-Dimentioanl Minesweeper

I find it horrible, but interesting enough to share.

Minesweeper that can be played in 2-6 dimensions.

World of Warcraft

I just realized I haven't checked my RSS feeds all week. This reason for this is not a 4 day hike or lack of internet connection (though I have been having trouble with the latter).

I finally found some time to play World of Warcraft. I've been wanting to do this for several years now, and finally I got the time.

It's very addictive - I'm especially impressed with the graphical design and the sheer size of the world. You have a town, inside a country, inside a continent, inside a world, inside a multiverse. Lots of space to explore. The capital cities are also very impressive. I would attach some pictures, but they don't really represent the 3D experience.

Playing alone would get old after a while, luckily I have Aya that enjoys playing with me. If any of you have some time to kill and wanna try this out and play together, let me know :)

BTW, I'm still on the 10 days free account, but the ways things look I'm going to purchase an account, and possibly Aya as well.

Starcraft Board Game

Money milking, 79$ Starcraft board game.

Minesweeper: The Movie

http://www.destructoid.com/minesweeper-the-movie-37770.phtml

Extended Birthday Week!

Yay, I'm getting a super birthday this year!

This week started with my Kung Fu team moving to a fresh new dojo and celebrating it with a 2.5 hour practice.
Yesterday we played some 2 headed giant Magic: The Gathering game.
Today I'm having a Release Drink (שתיית שחרור)!
Tomorrow there's another practice.
Thursday I'm doing an "Out Trip Form" (טופס טיולים יוצא - לפעמים אנגלית זה נוראי). Aya is organizing some secret game. She won't tell anyone the details, but I managed to guess it :) You're all invited, by the way.
Friday I think I'll celebrate with my family
Sauterday, we'll christen our new surfing half-board (בוגי).
Sunday, I'm getting reassigned to the Kirya, then vacation for 2 months, then I'm a true civillian!

That's all folks

Poker Night

After playing some poker one on one versus Aya on the train today, we played some Texas Holdem tonight. Since we're not playing for money, I keep an imaginary balance of my wins/losses. If I pay 10 imaginary dollars per game, I'm currently at -30$ total :(

Shimi and Aya won the Holdem games, and it was, as poker nights are usuelly, as very funny night. My personal favorite activity during poker games is trying to guess other players' cards, telling them what I think they have, and advising (commanding :) them on how to proceed. For some reason, it seems to convince the other players I actually know what I'm talking about. If I did, I wouldn't be at a -30$ balance, wouldn't I?

Starcraft Cancelled

Sad but predictable.

This always happens with Starcraft, even at lan parties.

1. Everybody has a different starcraft version, some might not play nice with others.
2. We tried playing over the internet with hamachi (lan simulator). I think this failed because Starcraft doesn't let you configure the network interface to listen on, so it probably chose the real NIC and not the fake one hamachi created.
3. While 2 of us have real Battlenet keys, the others could not connect to BN. Spawnning the game didn't help (and why would it, actually?)

At least in lan parties you can give everybody the same copy of the game and this usually works at the end (after an hour of hard labor).

Bummer.

Checkers Solved

I always said the game is not interesting, compared to chess and Go.

This Slashdot post confirms it - someone solved Checkers (שש בש), by creating a big ass database containing all possible positions...

Live Starcraft

I'm planning to play some Starcraft with friends this weekend. This prompted me to look at Starcraft vids on Youtube, and found this amusing one.