grillcheese || It's All Good.

Posted on 3.28.2006

Call of Cthulhu Review

Call of Cthulhu is a survival game that attempts to also be a FPS shooter. The first couple of hours of the game are somewhat boring as you are without a weapon and run around talking to people and solving puzzles. Once you finally do get your weapons, the game gets incredibly difficult. For me, the weapons just dont seem to respond very well. I reloaded so many times and so many areas that I finally gave up cause the aiming system is crap. I was aimed point blank with a shotgun and would at times completely miss the target. The AI was also pitiful at times, which actually allowed me to live for a few more minutes. The enemies would walk right past me or stand still right in front of me. It was almost as if I had to trigger something before they would react.

The environments are interesting but the game just seems unfinished to me. The menu screens appear as though they were thrown in as an afterthought. There was no time spent on the interface within the game. It was not intuitive. I found myself clicking on things and not knowing whether or not I had done anything.

What else was annoying? Well the save game system sucks. In order to save the game, you have to find these pentagram/eye images located on walls. The problem with this, and many other games that use this sort of system, is that you may have to spend hours getting through difficult areas and much further to locate a save game point. It's very annoying, EXTREMELY annoying, to make it through a difficult level only to die in a new unexplored area and have to go back, and do it all over again.

The game has some interesting graphic effects and I did like the eerie sounds and quick flashes with the fish eye point of view. However, at times during gameplay the screen will blur (reminding you of your mental state) to the point that it is very difficult to maneuver yourself. I found it was just better to stand still and let the effect run its course and then continue with the game. This gets old after a while.

So..

Invisible barriers, characters partially walking into walls, a subpar aiming system, and the fact that you cant skip the movies leaves much to be desired. G4 gave this game 3/5 stars. I think that's being a little too nice.

Final Thoughts: Skip this.
I hope the next game based on the world of HP Lovecraft is much better than this. There is so much they can do in his world. It's a shame they didn't spend more time polishing this game to perfection.

Call of Cthulhu

posted by grillcheese at 3:04 PM 0 comments

Posted on 3.27.2006

MS Vista delay that big of a deal?

I'm noticing a lot of articles poping up on google news regarding the delay of Microsoft Vista. I ran across this article that describes how some of the employees feel.

Seems like not too long ago my friend was telling me about a book he read that explained how Microsoft became such a successful company. I wonder what the author of that book is saying now. Is the media blowing this out of proportion? Maybe.

Having been a project manager myself I found all of these articles interesting. How do you manage such a huge project and what happens when things go wrong, as in this case. If we could only hear what they employees are saying...

articles:
San Jose Mercury News: Langberg: Windows Vista delay is explained in 1975 book: too much manpower

PC Pro: News: Microsoft employees call for Ballmer to go

posted by grillcheese at 3:08 PM 0 comments

Posted on 3.26.2006

Sandy Frank Entertainment, Inc.

As a child in the late 70s I can remember watching Battle of the Planets. There is now a box set available of all the episodes that aired plus extras.

I remember the show aired here in Dallas on channel 11 right around the time of the Banana Splits show and The Three Stooges I believe. This was around 1978-1980(?). Why am I telling you this? I just finished watching one of the episodes. I remember parts of it. It's strange to see something so old that was once was cool to me.

Cast:
Alan Young - 7-Zark-7
Keye Luke - Zoltar
Ronnie Schell -
Janet Waldo - Princess
Casey Kasem - Mark
Alan Dinehart - Tiny, Chief Anderson

SANDY FRANK ENTERTAINMENT INC.
954 Lexington Avenue, Suite 255
New York, NY 10021
Tel: 212-772-1889
Fax: 212-772-2297
Email: filmsfe@aol.com

Sandy Frank Entertainment, Inc.

posted by grillcheese at 10:50 PM 0 comments

Posted on 3.16.2006

CSS Tweak ~ Web Based CSS Tweaker!

CSS Tweak ~ Web Based CSS Tweaker! Cleans up your css file.

posted by grillcheese at 10:38 PM 0 comments

T-Mobile Free Wi-Fi Weekends, Awareness

T-Mobile Free Wi-Fi Weekends, Awareness

Step 1
Visit any of our 6,500 T-Mobile HotSpot locations on the weekend and launch your Web browser.

Step 2
Visit http://freeweekends.hotspot.t-mobile.com and enter your T-Mobile phone number.

Step 3
Within moments you'll receive a free text message on your T-Mobile Phone with a pass code. Enter the pass code and you'll be surfing for free!

posted by grillcheese at 4:16 PM 0 comments

Posted on 3.02.2006

NufsNuf : Actor from 70's H.R. Pufnstuf, dead at 52.

Anyone else remember the show from the 70s called H.R. PufnStuf? The actor who played the kid on the show has died from mouth cancer.....




Then...


Who's gonna tell Freddie?

posted by grillcheese at 4:46 PM 0 comments

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