My cold, or whatever it was, is finally getting better. Still have a cough, though.

Today I had a massive fit of OCD and cleaned my entire room. Actually, "scourged" might be a better word for it. I vaccumed the floor about 4 times, then my futon, desk, and curtains. Which is a feat of oddity since the vaccum has no attachments. Luckily my arms have developed a bit more strength since I arrived here. My cleaning spree spilled out into the common area until I decided to eat. And then I decided to pull that drawer back out from under the bed (it somehow got pushed back there the first night I was here, but I was never motivated to lift the bed and pull it back out.) Basically a lot of stuff that maybe I was putting off or wouldn't normally do with my free time.

So, enough about me. Let's talk fun stuff. I, for one, like videogames, so let's talk about the next installment of the Elderscroll RPG series: Oblivion. This is probably the first time I've actually anticipated the release of a game. And if you're looking for a timetable, you can see in the article that he says "since starting this project two years ago;" and this was a statement released more than a year ago. They're investing over three years of effort into this, and in the trailers you can see it (let's face it: the screenshots don't do it justice). I downloaded them and was exponentially impressed by the freedom movement, the level of interation with the environment, real-time landscape generation and animation, and most especially the Radient AI.
Here's a quote to fill you in on this feature: "Radient AI... gives non-player characters (NPCs) the ability to make their own choices based on the world around them. They'll decide where to eat or who to talk to and what they'll say. They'll sleep, go to church, and even steal items, all based on their individual characteristics. Full facial animations and lip-synching, combined with full speech for all dialog, allows NPCs to come to life like never before."
Combine that with the fractal coding for the generation of realistic forests and landscapes, the physics engine that calculates how hard you've hit a log and whether it will roll down a hill, and all that other good stuff; can you image the sort of processing power this is going to take? I doubt that my laptop will be able to take it. Which is ironic, since their last game, Morrowind, was too much for my last PC to handle.
The good news is that dear ol' Eris meets the spec requirements for Guild Wars, which is, according to a little birdie, patiently awaiting my return back in San Antonio. Yay!

And yes, I am a geek. Thank you, and goodnight.




Love,
-the Photoshop CG-whore.




(I know, the hair could use a little work...)