CyberKN Weekly Update (Off-Topic)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, August 29, 2022, 10:16 (605 days ago) @ CyberKN

Oh hi.

Is this a blog post? It’s an amalgamation of mostly off-topic things that I mostly don’t feel like making individual posts for, so... maybe?

Marcus Fenix is an immaculately-written character.

I never really gave Gears of War the time of day. In an era where Halo gave me basically everything I wanted in a shooter, the handful of times I tried gears at a friend’s house left me dispirited by how slow and immobile you were.

I was setting up my 360 in my new place the other day, and noticed that at some point I’d downloaded Gears 2 and 3 to my external drive, after getting them through Games with Gold.

Out of curiosity, I played both campaigns over the course of about a week. Turns out they're not terrible? The stories aren’t all that interesting or memorable, but I really like the absurd banter between the characters. I would say Marcus is a caricature of mid 00’s angsty grunge, except I’m pretty sure I remember some people in high school who acted exactly like him. The way he starts cursing relentlessly whenever I’d fail an active reload prompt was oddly endearing.

Also, chainsaw bayonets are cool and fit the tone of the fiction perfectly.

I resisted Gears for a while, but once you let yourself get into the headspace, it's a good series that's fun to play--especially co-op.

Taking flight

I bought myself a cheap, $180 camera drone in January. I couldn’t believe how little it weighed when I got it out of the box, it was just so small and compact. The price tag meant it had just the barest of essentials; no internal storage, a 15-30 metre wi-fi range, 10 minutes of fly-time, and 720p non-gimballed camera embedded on the nose. It was also barely able to withstand a 10 km/h wind without getting whisked away.

But it was fun as heck.

I got it stuck in a tree a couple of times, but fortunately the fact that it was so light meant actually damaging the thing was hard.

When I left my last job in June, my friends and coworkers got me a parting gift; a much more capable DJI Mavic Mini. It wasn’t the latest and greatest, but it was a HUGE step up in terms of the quality and scope of the shots I could get.

Last weekend I sat down and edited my favourite shots that I’ve taken around my town into a 1.5 minute montage:

New Job!

Very nice!

I’m currently working remotely for an Australian developer named Playside, and we’re finishing up a survival RTS that’s going to (hopefully) be released outside of early access in the near future. It’s a nice change after spending three years on the same project at my last gig.

Not sure exactly when the new content I’ve been responsible for will be added, but stay tuned!

I also remembered I’m bad at RTS games (despite loving them) because I can never survive the first wave of aggression.

Look forward to hearing updates.