http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:RaoDaoZao&section=today deviantART RSS for by:RaoDaoZao en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:27:42 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/29012004/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/29012004/ Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:24:19 PST Unreal Tournament waiting for me under the tree.

This is funny because that was way back when my parents were all "can’t let that Robbie have those violent shooter games, he’ll grow up to be a very nasty man" — and then they got me one of the bastions of computerised brutality. Also fun to note that I’m a lot less angry now than I ever was, after years of fragging bots. Coincidence?

Spurred on by my returning mouse control skills, I’ve been playing all three installments’ singleplayer campaigns. This is a little unusual; I’d usually spend large spurts on a single title (both on the campaign and randomised Deathmatches) rather than quick-fire slamming through them all.

This puts me in a very good position to objectively compare and contrast all three titles...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28895434/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28895434/ Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:56:57 PST
I never cared about this when I bought it; I was more concerned about it having the ability to switch itself on in the morning, and the ability to switch on at the same volume I last disabled it with (my last hi-fi had neither of these abilities; I had to race to the volume control to damp it down from a horrifying 14 before the digital radio managed to tune in every time I switched it on).

So I didn’t care much for the fact of a card reader’s existence; the rest of the hi-fi satisfied my criteria. But recently, I have found its presence... Rather liberating.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28759797/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28759797/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:57:57 PST
“What has happened to me? Have my wrists grown slack from old age? Have my once razor-fine reflexes been dulled by too much programming? Did I sell my pinpoint accuracy to the devil in exchange for the ability to dance?”

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28622506/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28622506/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:25:13 PST Pleasure Principle tickets had been sitting on my for months. When I get a whiff of a concert, I damn well get my oar in as soon as possible (and in the case of Ultravox’s Return to Eden tour, I placed my order under a minute after they went on sale). Of course this leaves a lot of time for tension to build.

So Gary Numan played The Pleasure Principle at the ABC last night (which has been remodelled, and no longer has a cloakroom?!).

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28481694/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28481694/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:27:37 PST Blog 370: The Elder Drakensang’s Gate Effect Nights: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is a glorious amalgamation of every RPG I’ve ever played. I mean, really — all of them.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28411833/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/28411833/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:05:46 PST
I tried to be loyal. While my blog and even my profile remain as they were in the beginning, my home page control panel was becoming increasingly confusing and alien as more and more Book-esque functionality was shoehorned into the crush of flash adverts that crash the browser, pushing all the familiar controls into most foul and unnatural contortions.

Long story short — goodbye MySpace. I loved you, and I tried to keep loving you, but you’ve blown it this time. Forgive me.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27955923/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27955923/ Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:57:46 PDT
The Falcon is supposedly (we'll get to that) a Next-Generation Games Controller. It's a haptics device, some that attempts to bring touch sensation into games. Despite all the literature hailing it as a revolution in gaming, it's been around for a good two years now and nobody seems to care.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27725582/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27725582/ Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:38:32 PDT
Quake II, oh Quake II and your two mission packs, you are so much shorter than I remember you being. But you are so brown, oh so brown. With the odd splash of grey, when you're feeling a bit racy.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27590709/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27590709/ Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:42:40 PDT Mass Effect yesterday, and with the power of Pinnacle Station managed to reach a curb-stomping level 57.

It's hard to say where a game's "end sequence" really begins. I think the only definition I can apply is "when you realise that shit just got real." It's when you've just uncovered the bad guy's last secret and you're now on the all-out assault on his base. An assault from which you cannot return, naturally.

I love dramatic finales, so I'm going to consider some for this blog. Spoilers for Mass Effect, Unreal II, Deus Ex and Sonic 3 & Knuckles may ensue, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27317408/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27317408/ Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:38:49 PDT Gets its own page on wikipedia, it's that hard core.

Every time I play Deus Ex, I want to mod it. Just like every time I play Unreal II: the Awakening, I want to blog about it. Just like every time I say something, Kilbirnie says the opposite and Jack fuckin' hates that shit.

I've tried to mod Deus Ex before, with varying degrees of success. I did most of my work a considerable number of years ago, back when command prompts were still scary. But now, I've jumped back in with minimal fuss and it is absolutely delightful.

This, then, is the story of my love affair with UnrealEd.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27202852/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27202852/ Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:30:32 PDT Mass Effect's latest downloadable content pack, Pinnacle Station, I feel the right to lambast it horribly.

Well, I can't lambast it horribly; it was all right. It wasn't £3.99 all right, though -- maybe closer to £1.99. Especially since the previous DLC, Bring Down the Sky, came out free for PC users.

Grumble grumble.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27126578/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/27126578/ Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:44:53 PDT
On the subject of not posting, it is summer time and nothing ever happens (except me slowly poking more and more holes in This Wreckage Gamma), so nothing has aroused enough comment. But university does restart soon, and I still haven't picked my courses or finished the placement report...

Anyway, District 9. Spoilers ensue.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26809502/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26809502/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:07:39 PDT
Or maybe there were millions of horrible fanfics; I was hardly paying attention in 1997.

On Monday this week, Jack visited and was kind enough to bring his copy of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. If that's the order the titles go in; it gets confusing.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26603351/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26603351/ Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:28:56 PDT Age of Empires II: the Age of Kings is where my story began, way back in the heady days of 1999 and 2000. I'm talking about our very first computer, the 500Mhz lump that now sits in my cupboard in stasis.

That is where it went horribly, horribly wrong.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26478053/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26478053/ Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:11:19 PDT video blogs. You might remember how many people asked me, "which one do you sleep in?"

Alas, there shall be no more of that. The beds have been dismantled.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26380019/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26380019/ Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:19:02 PDT
Needless to say, Sundays are rubbish for birthdays. Not to mention being the absolute worst night of the week for an outing at the best of times...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26231955/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26231955/ Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:43:56 PDT But We Could Blog By the Foot of a Mountain
YES.

A-ha's new album, Foot of the Mountain, finally hit the shelves in the UK on Monday. Guess who strolled off the train and intercepted an HMV on his way to work? Snagged the album on a stall facing the door and straight to the check-out.

All I can say is... I am fucking disappoint-- that A-ha aren't touring to Scotland with this one. Because this album is fucking AWESOME.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26101945/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26101945/ Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:06:55 PDT
Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26039764/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/26039764/ Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:22:26 PDT The Selfish Gene. Since I'm now onto the two expanded universe chapters that weren't in the original edition, I suspect it's time to reflect on it.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25878804/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25878804/ Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:43:58 PDT Drakensang is fucking awesome. It has very much captured my heart...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25752800/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25752800/ Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:11:36 PDT Loki. It was accompanied by Tomb Raider: the Angel of Darkness and Sonic Heroes, maybe you remember?

I'm kind of grinding to a halt in terms of games these days, because I've seen nary a one that I actually want to buy. They're all £35+ if they're next-gen (stfu, Jack), and I really can't be bothered paying that kind of money for a game that will almost certainly be all normal mapping and no balls.

But then Kilbirnie and I were in town on Saturday (before I went to Jack's house and royally demolished/got demolished by his arse at Mortal Kombat 3) and he was all "want to buy Mass Effect for the PC, it's in two-for-twenty-five, pick a game Rob-nuts".

So after scouring the very small PC section (that moves every time I go to that shop), I settled on Drakensang...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25598667/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25598667/ Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:21:26 PDT that good. I will explain, and plot spoilers may ensue.

Don't get me wrong, it's a game you really should play. Just... Be warned. It has a dark side.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25427865/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25427865/ Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:20:08 PDT
Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25372622/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25372622/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:29:04 PDT
To be fair, my mum did leave everything in portion-controlled packets and with accompanying instructions, and they were all simple things like fried steak and oven-chips...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25125194/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25125194/ Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:52:18 PDT
Needless to say, spoilers may be contained herein... But really, you have played this before -- or you've never lived.

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25027054/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/25027054/ Sat, 30 May 2009 04:41:51 PDT Warcraft III or, wonder of wonders, Age of Empires II.

As my entry to the world of employment, I had to get to grips with C++...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24884049/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24884049/ Fri, 22 May 2009 01:57:49 PDT
What better way to celebrate three years of blog than in glorious 5.1 surround sound? My new speakers arrived yesterday and they are thunderous. The subwoofer fires downwards for "greater air displacement" which apparently gives better bass...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24780083/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24780083/ Sat, 16 May 2009 01:55:59 PDT
For now, alas, you have killed my speakers...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24633941/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24633941/ Thu, 07 May 2009 11:48:49 PDT Unreal Tournament was like riding a bike (okay, not that I've ever done that) -- once you know how, you know how. Sure, you get a bit rusty from lack of practice, but...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24507661/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24507661/ Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:18:27 PDT
And this time is no different!

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24388325/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24388325/ Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:55:08 PDT
Luckily, the monitor was still the original one from five years ago -- so it's sort of okay for it to die, and it most certainly is not still under warranty.

It all started two days ago...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24213394/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24213394/ Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:27:10 PDT
This is a video blog.

Watch it here.

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24145775/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24145775/ Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:45:09 PDT
Of course, to make sure nobody got a hold of any sensitive data (even if it'd only be half of any sensitive file), I had to wipe the drive properly -- "one pass zeroes", as Killdisk put it. After an evening of demolishing the very fabric of Daedalus' being, his case was reverently pulled open and placed aside. The offending Drive 0 was unplugged, unclipped, and its blight carefully remove from his innards.

After some light refreshments, his internals were once more exposed to the world, as a shiny new Samsung hard drive was nestled carefully into the empty bay...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24089629/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/24089629/ Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:23:30 PDT
Luckily, Daedalus still has 17 days of warranty left; so here's hoping a free replacement will come flying over from Dell-land and everything will be fine and dandy.

And to think, I was going to start studying today...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23962056/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23962056/ Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:54:22 PDT
UT3 is a fucking cunt-whore faggot-bitch. Turns out my "award progress" has been disable for the last fuck-knows how long. Why? Because I had a "mod loaded".

Wrong. I had no mods loaded. I got suspicious when I was sure that I'd bullseyed at least 20 people with the Scorpion (I love self-destruction), and yet not got that award for killing people with self-destruction. So I searched the internet, because I value achievements more than starting to study for my exams.

I tracked down some kids that said they poked in the log files and found an "award progress has been disabled message", with details of the reason why...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23832142/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23832142/ Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:15:20 PDT
And assemble his own breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The place didn't burn down, you'll be (un)happy to know. The birds were fed, food was consumed, the doors were locked and unlocked as appropriate...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23660897/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23660897/ Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:29:19 PDT
There is always a plan B, however: I decided to leave my beautiful computer in the capable (eek) hands of my mother, who would shut it down after the download completed the next day (I couldn't leave this thing on all night without boiling myself, let alone getting to sleep from the noise, so the plan was to put it on while I was at uni).

Luckily, my mum was saved by a monstrous download speed in the early morning (over six times what I was getting in the evening) -- and so after a hard friday's databasing, I returned home to begin playing the new content...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23539476/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23539476/ Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:04:34 PST Unreal Tournament 3. It's fast, gritty... But most of the levels are too big (or downright badly designed) and it doesn't look or even sound like Unreal. UT2k4 was as slow as treacle, but at least they retained most of the aesthetic. Neither get close to the jittery nerve-grinding intensity of the original Unreal Tournament, with tight, claustrophobic levels and zero-to-death in ten seconds. The first was fun, the second looked like it should have been fun but descended into a long and boring stalemate more often than not, and the third ramped up the pace again but sold out to the emo next-gen crowd.

And to top it off, they released one patch and dropped right off the radar with it. Until now...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23379433/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23379433/ Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:03:46 PST Quartet, the third album, and Monument (previously Monument - the Soundtrack), the live album.

Quartet sounds delicious; but it sounded pretty delicious before, so there's not much to be said. Definitely all round clearer and sharper, but nothing so conspicuous as, say, Vienna's complete lack of noise on Passionate Reply...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23285835/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23285835/ Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:20:51 PST
My only real experience of Kirby is Kirby's Dream Land, which my sister had on the GameBoy last millenium, and raping him as Pikachu when Jack let his guard down in Super Smash Brothers Melee...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23114160/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/23114160/ Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:41:21 PST
Pockets of actual enjoyment are relatively hard to come by. You know, when you let all the bullshit slip off for five minutes, forget everything, and just smile...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/22960709/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/22960709/ Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:34:34 PST
I was more than a little apprehensive when I woke up this morning to the radio telling us how the entirety of London had been snowed under...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/22878701/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/22878701/ Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:50:39 PST
So Channel Five puts on a lot of cack nowadays, not least of which are action-thrillers -- usually written, directed by, and starring the washed-up and embarrassing Steven Seagal...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/20648496/ http://RaoDaoZao.deviantart.com/journal/20648496/ Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:17:42 PST
Or rather, the best thing since Alphaville's Forever Young, which is the last album I went totally nuts about.

I didn't know it even existed until I went into town to attempt to dispose of my hoard of crimbo cash last Sunday. I didn't even know it existed until I cruised into shutdown-mode Zavvi to see if anything interesting had fallen out of the warehouse...

Read on!

]]> ~RaoDaoZao