DarqByte

So I’ve got another irritated video games post to write, in-part as a followup to my post about a certain missions in NFS being difficult. I should also mention Jenner Cauton’s F9 blog, where he rants and raves about video games on a semi-daily basis. There are some good ones in there.

So last night I played some Mario Kart Wii and some more Need For Speed: Undercover. All-in-all, tons of fun, especially MKW. That game is pretty fun and I’m looking forward to unlocking most of the stuff so when party-goers come over we can choose from anything in the game to play.

But today is a day for ranting about video game AI, especially these two racing games. Let’s start with MKW.

Mario Kart has, and probably always will be, a really fun game because it can help level the playing field. The game does a really good job in keeping all of the racers in the game provided that the racers aren’t falling off the track every two seconds. This is good for competitive reasons and to keep the players interested in the game, but it’s not good for people that are truly dominating the game, especially when said player is playing alone.

Whatever do I mean? Well, for example, last night I was dominating the computer AI racers. Just annihilating them. Consistently in first , finished most of the races in first place too. But not all of them.

The items in MKW can really level the playing field. Racers in the back of the pack, by percentage, have a high rate of getting items that can really tip the balance of the race. Turning into Bullet Bill, for example, can get you ahead of half of the pack. Getting the blue shell will annihilate the race leader for a decent amount of time, allowing others to catch up. Red shells are homing shells, etc.

Well, a few times last night I experienced stretches where the computer AI players were throwing the book at me. There was one time in particular that I was surprised I even ended up in first. I had red shells and blue shells galore connecting with me, yet I still ended up in first by about 4-5 seconds. Imagine if I hadn’t had an inordinately large amount of items hit me. Another race I had about a half-lap lead on the AI going into the last lap. I ended 4th and did not totally fuck up during the race.

Overcompensating AI is irritating at times, especially if it can have a drastic impact in the game, much like MKW. But it’s not too bad there because MKW levels the field. It’s easy to get crushed but make a comeback because the very devices that can bring you down from first can put you back there.

Now, NFS is another story… NFS does have some balancing features in the AI, and it’s usually features designed to keep the AI racers somewhat competitive. The game is really pretty easy, but there are times when it’s overboard on how obviously it’s trying to keep the race close or get you into second place.

One thing I’ve noticed about the game is its placement of traffic. Oftentimes, you can see traffic coming up ahead and adjust accordingly. Although the faster you go, the tougher this is, especially around curves and hills… And hills are bitches to get through.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been worried about what’s coming up over the hill. And I can’t tell you how many of those times there was a car waiting for me to smack it dead center because I just absolutely could not see it coming. Or around a bend, for that matter.

And the problem with this? The computer AI acts too well in these situations. Obviously, the AI knows the car is there.  But does the AI take into account that a real driver wouldn’t be able to see the obstacle on the other side? No. Aside from the random factor the game throws in to simulate mistakes, AI racers almost always miss obstacles around curves or over hills.

This wouldn’t be so much of a problem, much like MKW, if mistakes such as these weren’t so crippling. If you’re trying to achieve Domination status for a race, you can’t really make many mistakes. And mistakes like this can absolutely kill your chances for winning certain race types, such as the one where the winning racer is the one that puts 1000 feet between themselves and their singular opponent.

On a side note, I’ve also noticed in NFS that opponent AI is really good at not spinning out. Too good. Countless times have I had encounters with AI racers, hitting from all sides and angles and different formations, and the only car to spin out, should one of us spin out, is me. Irritating.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the blog post title. Firkin is indeed not a word. But I’m making it one. See, the word frickin’ is a “clean” version for the word fucking. I’m taking it one step further, transposing and making it sound more fun, by using firkin. It reads as “fur-kin.” Have fun with that one!

So the DarqFlare Enterprises server is back up. I flubbed a software upgrade in the middle of the day that caused the server to not boot up. I couldn’t get to the server physically for 4 hours.

But it’s up again. Yay.

Ever feel like you’ve had a lost weekend? That’s what this weekend felt like… And if you’re wondering what I mean by a lost weekend, it’s a weekend where you felt like you were going to get quite a lot done in some form or other, but it just didn’t happen for some other reason.

For example, this weekend Laura was sick, so we didn’t get as much done around the house as I’d anticipated… Well, I shouldn’t say that. We did get a little bit done around the house. Did some small cleaning here and there. I also ran by my Dad’s place to get some things squared away that he and I have been needing to work on.

Also, progressed further towards HD satellite, hurrah! Hopefully we’ll be running HD satellite in time for the Super Bowl, which will be totally awesome. Unfortunately, the Titans won’t be playing in it, but I’ll survive.

So yeah, had a lost weekend… Now I get to do other crap during the week, like continue to f**k around with Findlay Toyota… The longer this goes on, the longer my letter to them becomes.

As you may have read on Laura’s blog… We gots ourselves some iPhones this last weekend. We’d been a bit stumped for what to do for Christmas and we’ve both really been wanting iPhones, so we decided we’d pony up the dough (and monthly dough, too) and get them. We were up on our contract and we’d saved a decent amount of money through side jobs from myself, etc.

They’re totally absolutely awesome! Man, I’m already addicted to my iPhone. I’ve downloaded some apps here and there and customized my home screens (and I’ve got a little bit more to go). I’ve been trying to get my contacts list all setup and in-order as well.

It’s just such a neat device, and I think the App Store that you can use with the phone really makes it a viable portable computing platform. It’s also a good gaming machine, as I’ve downloaded Fieldrunners and love it. One of the better tower defense games I’ve played, and I’ve played quite a few. The App Store just makes the iPhone so usable and I think this is the beginning of true mobile computing somewhat in the same manner that older sci-fi shows and movies thought it would be like.

Good times! [goes back to his iPhone now]

Sorry I haven’t written in awhile. My Mom was in town for a little over a week and my Linux computer’s been disabled, so I’ve been busy. But here I am!

So in reference to my Mom being in town, it was awesome. I haven’t gotten to see her as much as I’d have liked, so it was really nice to spend some time with her. Thanks to her, chaos did erupt in our household. She suggested for us to get a new water softener the weekend she was here, and we also got a new addition to our family: our new black fluffy cat Samantha. I’ll get to her in a later post.

We ate out, we hung out and watched movies, it was really great. It sucked having to take her to the airport on Wednesday morning, where her flight left at 6am no less. I slept in my car at my work’s parking lot from 4:30-6:45 because it wasn’t viable to go home. 1/2 hour each way whereas work is about 5-10 minutes from the airport. You do the math: more sleep.

I promise I’ll get to the Halloween pics sometime soon, really.

Oh, a couple more things. I’m finally on Twitter, but I have my account configured to only alloy people I know to follow my updates. Hop on there and look for me! That, and I heard Wal-Mart is having some huge, absolutely huge Black Friday deals. Two of them that I’d love to do: a 50″ Samsung plasma HDTV for under $800 and a Magnavox Blu-Ray player for under $130. Crazy! An HD setup for less than $1,000? The only thing missing from that combination, really, is an audio receiver that can handle HD signals. Oy! I want $1K now.

I’m going to see if I can integrate a Twitter updater here into WP…

And I want to post about Obama soon…

And my Linux computer woes… Man… I’ve got a lot to talk about soon.

[Update]

Scratch that, my Twitter is publicly viewable instead… And you’ll see my tweets on the side of my blog now.