Now I guess there's no way I could know what everyone's doing this year...

(Hint hint, New Year Resolutions)

Though what I do know for sure is that I haven't even made my Resolution either. Not because it's my faux resolution to not make a resolution, or that I've suddenly turned into an all-knowing guru and I no longer need one.

No, the real reason is that I've started to see the pointless nature of "New Year Resolutions", and also that I'm lazy with making them, except for last year.

Now last year was a bit of a hit and a miss with a few different things, probably to do with the start of the HSC journey, booyah. There was my first, then second LAN party, my first time driving manual (eek! Asian drivers!) and much more.

I did miss a few opportunities and ended up almost doubting myself for some of my exams, though I was still pretty pleased with how they turned out (1st in Software Design ftw) with a fair spread of excellent results all around.

But enough about last year, and back to my point: There's some kind of social pressure on people around New Years time to make a Resolution, which often results in the most demotivational and plagiarised mantras known to society. What I can't honestly believe is how anyone could follow such a distant and not to mention, cliched tradition for an entire year.

What I do agree with though, is when people do take the time to create their own motivations personally and without external 'help', so that it stays true with them for that year and actually has some depth to the written or typed words.

The best kind of motivations don't have a time-expiry like New Year Resolutions, even though every year marks the start of a new one. These exceptional ones stay on forever and even help those who make them through some very trialling times!

So the next time you ever make a New Years Resolution if you've made one already for this year, try sitting with yourself, sipping your favourite drink and listening to your most inspirational music: and simply create your true motivation for your life in the future, no matter how insignificant the thing is.

See you next time,

Razor Blayde (or Atamarashi)

Hey-lo friendly blog-associates!

I know it's been awhile. Too long I suppose.

But at least, once again, we shall meet once more. That's hoping that I don't miraculously fall asleep at the end of this post for fear of my brain being unable to complete a thought about blogging and such.

The way that I seem to blog (after reading over my archive, which as you would know, is pretty random and sporadic), post, etc is uniquely... Irrelevant.

But at the same time, it's more or less a thought stream from my head turned real.

(I secretly love how I type as fast as I'm thinking this stream through, it's amazing! You should try it out sometime and see how far you get.)

In that case, I've typed about random stuff without prior thought before and yeah, it didn't really make sense. I have also trimmed a few of the more, "emotional" sort of posts, which didn't really suit the theme of this blog.

They were important events in my life, no doubt, and I appreciate all the help and comments; though I need to move and get into more involving and more self-productive things...

Like, finishing projects, ie. Left 4 Dead mapping projects! And from there, CryEngine and stuff! All the fancy game engine tech people shall be, so to speak, "jelly" of my "talents" and "skills".

Although, I feel sometimes that I need to finish things like these and maintain more things (like this blog) more often and definitely frequently if I can, without upsetting the balance of my other hobbies, interests, activities, social gatho's (got a LAN party, city trip, friend's dinner and other outings planned for next week).

That's a whole lot more than I usually would have expected or planned if you'd remember how I used to be...

But anyway, there's more to come in the following weeks while my holidays and high school journey continues... Awww, blogging, how I've missed you.

And you, my readership of course.

'specially you. *Winking face* ;)

Peace to the world and Fly On,

Razor Blayde

30 Day Song Challenge

Just something that I thought I might try doing. I'll add links to the songs later.

day 01 - your favorite song

Ok Go - Last Leaf

day 02 - your least favorite song

Cascada - Every Time we Touch

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

The Temper Trap - Science of Fear

day 04 - a song that makes you sad

Final Fantasy - You Are Not Alone

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

Thirsty Merc - Hey Jacinta

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

Jason Mraz - A Beautiful Mess

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

Linkin Park - Somewhere Where I Belong

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

Groove Coverage - Moonlight Shadow

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

Angus & Julia Stone - Mango Tree

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Yellowcard - How I Go

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

Curse of Monkey Island - A Pirate I was Meant to Be

day 15 - a song that describes you

Ok Go - Do What You Want

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

Linkin Park - New Divide

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

LMFAO - Every Day I'm Shufflin'

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Scandal - Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku Story

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

Yellowcard - Fighting

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

The Offspring - The Kids Aren't Alright

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

Stratovarius - Eagleheart

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

Rise Against - Like the Angel

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

Parachute - Be Here

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

Pete Murray - Opportunity

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

Disney - Gummi Bears (Opening Theme)

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand

C.P.E. Bach - Solfeggio (C Minor)

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

The Fray - Hundred (Singing and Playing it)

Billy Joel - Piano Man (Singing and Playing it)

day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

Avenged Sevenfold - Blinded in Chains

day 29 - a song from your childhood

Do As Infinity - Tookumade

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

Daft Punk - One More Time

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)

Intro

This is the latest offering from Criterion Games studio, in partnership with Electronic Arts and DICE, formerly known for their work with the Battlefield series, is served up as the spiritual adaptation of the elder Hot Pursuit games of the classic Need for Speed series, complete with high-definition graphics, sounds, and most importantly; gameplay. A compelling take on the older NFS's sees Hot Pursuit drop players into the fastest of sports cars, exotics and their police counterparts, all in various different scenarios, races, and other high-octane challenges. What is truly unique about this newcomer's version of the “Cops and Racers” formula previously exhibited in Most Wanted as well as the older Hot Pursuit, is the socially focussed networking system referred to as Autolog.

Autolog in Brief

Autolog is all about how every achievement, every race and every time trial that each player earns throughout the game is able to be recorded, broadcasted and even make way for a system of online player challenges to further extend gameplay possibilities. Friends battle each other for the fastest time in a challenge, or the highest score and much more. This is all tracked by Autolog and players are free to comment on these records and even upload photos taken ingame and post it on their Wall.

It is a unique system never-before-seen in the racing genre, a social platform that could potentially bring more players to easily hop into a challenge that their friend had posted to them, in the hope of beating them and adding motivation to the social competition of the game in its online aspects.

Gameplay

Hot Pursuit offers a traditional arcade racing experience, with the added thrill of police versus racers in the eternal struggle for justice of the law against pure speeding freedom. Various modes allow players to select if they are to compete in a race to the finish line on various winding routes throughout the game's setting, Seacrest County, or to participate in a “Hot Pursuit”, where police fight the racers and vice versa, where the racers are trying to race each other to the finish and keep the race alive, while the cops make it their mission to shutdown the entire race before the racers escape. Players may experience their racing career from both sides of the law, starting as a Cadet in the SCPD ranks, with only limited access to cop vehicles and equipment and a Speeder in the Racer hierarchy, again with limited access to racer vehicles and equipment.

Players progress by earning Bounty, which accumulates to give them rewards of exciting new cars or equipment to give them the upper hand on the opposition or even the police, with separate Bounty totals for the player's Racer and Cop career. Further events are also unlocked as the player gains Bounty, with events in both careers to drive some of the fastest and albeit dangerous vehicles known to the motoring world.

Graphics

At first look, Hot Pursuit is visually stunning, with glorious motion blur effects, sparks, light coronas and dynamic weather/sunlight cycle, and often brings oneself to reel back and wonder how such graphics were made possible. It is a part of the game that does not necessarily demand full attention, yet rather complements the gameplay, as opposed to detracting from it.

However the extreme lack of any advanced graphics options to finely tune performance on PC's is a downright shame on Criterion Games' part. Players looking to tweak their gaming performance to optimum levels for their system will be plainly faced by 3 basic options of high resolution textures, motion blur and shadow quality. This is a relatively wide step taken by the developers, whose previous installment of the Burnout series, Burnout Paradise, had a decent approach to graphics options on its PC version, including shadow settings, SSAO, multi-sample anti-aliasing, environment mapping and much more.

At the time of writing, enthusiasts will immediately notice the complete lack of anti-aliasing or any mention thereof within the game, forcing Nvidia users to wait for a future driver update to be able to override the games deficiency, while ATI/AMD users sit with a hotfix driver release that only applies anti-aliasing to the car model, rather than to the car and the environment.

Controls

Hot Pursuit offers support for all widely known gamepads and controllers to date, except that it does not actually offer any kind of support for control tweaking or any possibility of custom control configurations. Nor is there any advanced settings for existing configurations, with deadzones, sensitivities and other issues plaguing some gamepads and most steering wheel controllers, which leaves those users in the dark.

For the controllers that do work well and are supported, the game experience is quite acceptable. I reviewed this game using the Microsoft Xbox 360 Wired Controller, using Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller for Windows drivers available via Windows Update or manual download by the Microsoft support website. This controller is fully supported and controls feel tactile and responsive, provided that graphical settings are set accordingly as to not cause havoc in the gaming experience.

The mostly arcade feel of the game may present a strange learning curve to previous Need for Speed fans, as braking and accelerating appear to be exaggerated at times and softened up at others. Steering works well in most cases, with precise, smooth steering needed to win most race style events. Vibration force feedback is enabled in this game and it feels quite accurate and immersive.

With that in mind, Hot Pursuit appears to work well with a gamepad/controller that is well supported.

Finer Details and Conclusion

The game feels quite incomplete in a sense, with areas that seems to reek of rushed development and Q&A testing sessions that barely scratched the surface of the bugs that emerged after release. Fixes and important game-improving changes need to be made, and quickly by the developers at Criterion Games. Their talent has been shown time and time again with their most successful Burnout series, and tiny, yet revelatory details such as full driver animations in cars or even the well written and voiced descriptions of each car show the creativity and ingenuity potential of this game. But for the most part, it has the framework of 2010's most outrageous arcade social racing experience. It has well deserved its declaration as the spiritual successor to the elder Hot Pursuit games of the Need for Speed series, and it may one day, earn its rightful badge at the top of the ranks as the Hot Pursuit we've all been waiting for.

There is nothing more annoying when you are reading something good, but it takes so long to get to the point. How ironic that statement was, is quite...well...ironic. In light of that, I've decided to cut off the "fat" of my posts from here on in, and just talk about my topic and such, rather than moseying along and talking nonsense.

Effectively, I am going back to my normal posting roots, of talking without all the extra unnecessary words, phrases and other literary junk that passes through to be posted, like that last post. I feel that it is better this way, so that I can clearly express whatever I want to express and so that the whole process goes smoothly.

Which brings me to my next point; my blog is easy enough to read, yet hard to interpret. I know and acknowledge that, it's a part of my personality in fact. I tell things in a wordy and verbose fashion that it ends up confusing those who are listening. I have found time and time again that this is an inefficient way of going about things, so I'm getting, "back to basics."

I think that is most of what I had wanted to say for the evening, and I hope to eliminate all future "fat" from my blogposts, however much they sound good in my head, yet confusing on my blog.

Peace to the world and Fly On,

Razor Blayde

Well hey there lurkers,

I wish you and every one of you could hold it in your hearts of hearts to forgive that last late night rambling. That's the kind of post you can expect if you let my subconscious out of its cage and in control of my blog. Now that I have let it roam free for a single blog post, I instantly regret it.

It is kinda intriguing and a bit fast at the same time, kind of like a certain fast talker on a busy, gridlocked street. Say that the talker was on his/her mobile phone, and you were only a bystander, casually just listening in on the juicy gossip that just eschews from the talkers mouth and into the phone's microphone, sending it thousands of kilometers away to its receiver on the other end of the call.

Another win for the legendary imagery of my own brain/mind. The illusive challenge of describing and over-describing my little anecdotes is none too unattainable for my liking.

So anyway, back to business: The agenda tonight was mainly to hope that my readers would forgive me for that last wall of self-deluded subconscious rambling. If that is done, then I best be off to the land of Nod.

Peace out to the world and Fly On,

Razor Blayde

I do believe I there is something, or some other concept that I haven't quite dealt with yet.

Not that I do have to cover every single topic known possible to man, however it is in good practice of a blogger to cover mostly what their subject area is. As you know, my subject area has been stretched far beyond reaches.

So, I can pretty much cover a wide range of things.

And yes, I have something on my mind to blog about...(for once, my mind is not occupied by the culinary delight of a certain dairy product with both delectable flavour and smooth texture - cheese)...Something or other often referred to as the ideology of "looking for the light at the end of the tunnel" or so to speak.

I do welcome it wholeheartedly; it is often a catalyst for positive emotions or beneficial feelings such as hope, longing and the mixed, wild child of desire. Now, those three things may seem negative in some lights, however they are but the simple and delicate natures of the human persona, in terms of progression.

There are people I know - and to effect, myself at times - which struggle to contain these natures or themes in their lives, or rather contain a miniscule quantity of aimless self-direction on the multitude of the process of what we refer to as "life". As the title says, "I'm not a dreamer, I'm just somebody tired of being stuck at the bottom of the epitome of boredom and monotony."

However paradoxial this statement appears to be, it perfectly describes what my view is on this concept of natures of the human persona.

I've always thought of looking forward or thinking optimistically as a sign for progression, and for positive re-encouragement. I'm not ashamed to say that it is not a daft nor pointless direction in "life" or whatever is associated with such.

Having ideas can arguably make you seem to be a dreamer. Wishing for what comes next can make you seem to be a dreamer. Hesitating before taking the final step on a staircase journey can make you seem to be a dreamer.

All of these things and more are just a fragment of what has been really going on in some of my thought processes. That's not to say that I wish to be a dreamer, I'm simply just stating that those tiny little details can matter so much in a situation where oneself can do nothing but self ponder and gaze out into the vast expanse of thoughtspace and pine for something, anything to occur.

I know that I usually resort to some sort of leisure, creation, assembly or other as means of "passing the time" or "entertaining myself" and even "providing a goal for myself to achieve". That is undisputed, and yet, I have remembered my loyal readers and I choose to update you with the ongoings of my ever changing lifestyle and so on and so forth.

Would I blog that an emergency is occurring? I would not know. Possibly I may give you guys and gals an update in the coming week, or maybe I won't.

The truth is, that a matter of priorities is on our hands. Do I need to update my readers on the "down-low"? Yes, obviously, or had I not have this blog of mine, I would not consider it.

At the same time, I don't hope to live on an equilibrium, nor anything of that bland, life-less and cynical vegitative state: questioning everything with a sharp tongue in cheek, a moral obligation to bring oneself to the upmost false precedence and whatnot. I do wish to find events, dramas, catastrophic tales and the uncovering of secrets and mystery that plagues much of our society and the neighbourhood in which I have known for so long, not just limited to my local area, but as a handly collective term for the friends, 'bros', wingmen, close friends, mates, supportive people, adversaries, family, friends that are practically family, locations and much more I know well.

I do believe I shall rest my case for the evening.

Good Day/Night and Sunset Eve,

Razor Blayde