The first slow day since I started

Today I can breathe a bit

I've been in the new job about a month and for most of that time I've been way too busy to post anything here. The first week or so I was learning how the software was organized, then it was straight into fixing one of the simpler of the known bugs.

Having taken care of that one, I was thrown into the deep end when I was assigned a far more complicated bug fix - one that involved changes all the way from the JSPs at the front end to the JDBC at the back. The back end wasn't a problem - that's where I'm used to working - but it's been a while since I had to mess with HTML and Javascript. Still, the job was estimated at five days and it took me maybe seven altogether - not too bad considering I'm still feeling my way around the system.

In any case I'm now in limbo waiting for the next batch of bug reports to come through. The most challenging thing I've done today is think of a list of possible codenames for the new source branch that we'll be creating for those fixes.

And so, being at something of a loose end, I can write something to post. I don't feel like getting into anything heavy and since I've been working hard I think it's time to play hard for a bit...

Game news 1 - Half-Life² episode 2

The release date for HL2.2 has been pushed back yet again. It was originally supposed to be on the shelves late last year, then the word was it would appear around March '07 (i.e. about now). The latest word is that we won't see it until the third quarter of this year. Bah.

Game news 2 - Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

It looks like this one has been pushed back too - although it's difficult if not impossible to find anything specific on the official website, a note on Wikipedia says that the release date is now Q1 2008. Double bah.

There are a few interesting snippets available; for example it seems that you can choose to play your character on either the good or bad side, that there will be six character classes, the graphics will be exceptionally good, and the game is actually a prequel rather than a sequel, set about two thousand years before the storyline of the original Sacred.

Well, I suppose there is one good thing about the delayed release dates on both games: more time to buy faster computers and better graphics cards. Kate's machine and mine were high-spec when we got them, and the graphics cards were and still are pretty hot, but games are already out that expect faster CPUs than we have. I expect Sacred 2 in particular to be very demanding on the graphics.

Game news 3 - Titan Quest

A couple of months ago Gametrailers.com posted a video review of Titan Quest (click here to see the video review, if you have the bandwidth). They didn't give it particularly high marks for originality but all the same it looked interesting, and a few days ago Kate and I bought it to see how we liked it.

It's damn good. If you like swords-and-sorcery games like Diablo, Diablo II, Sacred etc., then I can recommend Titan Quest. It's the same kind of thing, this time set in the world of ancient Greek myths.

I'd recommend getting hold of the Immortal Throne expansion - it gives you ten extra player levels, another Mastery (which in combination with the existing masteries adds eight new character classes to the original 36), a complete new region/quest, extra storage for valuable items and a whole lot more.

There are some things I don't like and I wish they'd fix:

• The gameplay can get a little jerky at times; I'm going to try disabling my network connection and antivirus software to see if that helps.


• Only one camera angle - you can zoom in and out, but you can't pan around. Mostly it's not a problem but there have been times when the view is obscured by tree branches or overhanging rocks during a fight and it would be nice to be able to see who I'm fighting.


• When you save your game and restore it always restarts you at the last "Rebirth Fountain" - there isn't a genuine save/restore feature. This means that if you want to quit playing you have two choices - wait until you find the next fountain, or put up with having to go over a whole bunch of ground you already covered. Diablo II does pretty much the same thing, and I detested it. At least in Titan Quest the fountains don't seem to be as far apart as the save points in Diablo II, so it doesn't seem so bad - but what are the developers thinking with this? There's no need for it.


• Day/night cycles are something that no doubt the game designers think is a really cool idea - Diablo II has them, Sacred has them, no doubt a bunch of other games have them. Personally I wish there was an option to switch this off - I hate having to squint to see what I'm fighting at "night".


• The game could really use a whole stack more side-quests.

Despite all that the game is highly addictive, great to look at and lots of fun.

Until next time...

I suspect this little break isn't going to last long and it could well be another month before I get time to write again. We'll see...