TheChrisD - Rant Central

Under the Influence

Before I begin, let me emphasise that this is not about being drunk. Rather the title is to signify that I am writing this while currently at a Wednesday night STOCS meeting. For those of you not in DCU or not too new to DCU, STOCS is was the traditional gaming society. (OK, officially STOCS is to amalgamated into Games Soc and become the Traditional Gaming branch as of the 1st of July, but for the sake of this post being "up to date" in the future, I may as well act as if it is the future ). Why I’m here when technically I’ve never joined STOCS as a member, is mainly because they meet in the Seminar Room directly after Games Soc on Wednesday, so it’s just a case of staying in the room until STOCS finish. Which normally is sometime early in the morning, which makes for the nice scenario of having to use my student card to open the door of the Sports Center to get through to the residences since the gate is closed.

Wow, long paragraph…

So earlier today Games Soc held their EGM to ratify the changes to the constitution which effectively implemented the STOCS merger (Officially, it was dependant on STOCS ratifying the changes as well, which they happened to do later on in the day around 7pm. Which I was in the room as the meeting took place, unknowing that the meeting was going to take place. I sat in a corner playing Hyps. and made remarks ). During console gaming, one thing was made a good  bit clearer to me that it was made at the team tournament last week: I have a lot of skill playing Halo 3 IN COMPARISON TO THE REST OF GAMES SOC. It probably also applies to the fact that it is split-screen system link and not over Live.

It appears that no matter what game type or what game settings, I always seem to win. Whether it be default vanilla FFA Slayer to 25, or a 150% speed-150% gravity-rockets only-team game to 50, or a 2v2-neutral bomb-bomb carrier 100% speed to 3, I will end up winning or being on the winning team. Maybe I should stay away from the Xbox 360 every week in future, although that might be more difficult if I run for Console Ents. for next year.

That also brings something else to light. The Games Soc AGM is in a couple of weeks and there the committee for next year will be elected. Right now a lot of people have been talking with me and suggest I run for certain positions. I actually find this quite helpful - seeing where other people see me as being good does help me to decide about what position(s) to run for. The Console Ents. position may be hotly contested, but I think it might be my best shot for a position. However, it also all depends on other positions. Webmaster may seem like a "cheap" position, but it can be quite important, as those of you reading this would know
All depends on whether anyone else more skilled is running for it. At one point, I was also suggested to go run for PRO (Public Relations Officer), however when it came up that I am a Photoshop n00b, it was suggested maybe not to run for it. I acknowledge that PRO does involve a lot of poster making, and probably isn’t something I’d be too good with. Heck, if you noticed the lame attempt at Baby Bear peeking out of the side of the home page, you’d understand how bad I am at picture editing.

To get to more "normal" discussion, I was playing CoD4 with a Kinetic and a few CS lads the other night. Alright, so it started off with me joining the party via Kinetic when a spot opened up. After a few games and the other lads had backed out, Kinetic sent an invite, and we had a good few games together. I probably didn’t play my best (although in fairness I don’t play the best anyway), but while under the influence of Gais(?) prestiging for the 5th(?) time, I decided to do prestige mode as well. There are three things I can definitely say from this:

1. The starter guns are quite under-rated. M16 can be very effective if you aim for the head easily. The big thins for me though is M40A3 + Stopping Power. 90% of the time, it’s a one-shot kill whether it be to the head or body. Although head is preferred if only for the challenge
2. Challenges take a LONG time to unlock. I never realised how long it took before the challenges started unlocking, and then again how slow it is to unlock each successive set. And obviously it’s annoying that the match before you unlock the first set, you go 23 and 5 and get the UAV, air strike and chopper - and then it takes about 15-20 games before you get your next chopper for the challenge. At least this time I managed to get Flyswatter quite quickly - took an RPD to a chopper in Hardcore TDM
3. It IS very fun going through all the challenges again. When you think back to how long it took the first time round, at least this time now you know how to do them. I was probably at Level 38 before I figured out how to get Goodbye (fall 30 feet or more to your death). This time round, as soon as I unlocked it, the first game I had on Backlot(?), I jumped off the top floor of the construction building to the basement and up popped 250 XP

I think that I need to make a little "sortie" home sometime soon. It’s come to the point where Aoife herself is ringing me asking when I’m going to be home next. Yes, I think it has been a long time. Probably too long. If my 360Voice is telling me my current streak is at 34 days, then it’s probably been too long. Apparently next week Aoife’s off, so these next couple of weekends should be good times to head back. Especially as next weekend is the Patrick’s Day weekend, so I get Monday off. And the week after, the college is closed Friday and Monday! Woo, 4-day weekend!

Soon, I also need to go sort out my finances. Not really because I’m running short, but more because I want to go buy a new computer. And it’s actually going to be a proper desktop computer built by hand from parts. Right now, I have a nice shopping list on Komplett, totaling about €1700 (not including monitor). Hopefully, I can either get a loan off the parents, or apply online at my bank and see if I can get a decent repayment rate for 24 or 36 months. Yes, it’s a long-term investment, but if I get it, it should be nicely future-proofed

If you’re interested at all, here’s my shopping list:

• Asus Striker II Formula, nForce-780i SLI ,Socket-775, DDR2, 3xPCI-Ex(2.0)16
• Crucial DDR2 PC6400 4096MB CL6, Kit w/two matched DDR2 PC6400 2GB CL6
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
• LG DVD±RW burner, GSA-H55LRB, 20x, LightScribe, SecureDisc, Black and White
• Logitech G5 Laser Mouse 2007, USB
• Logitech Media Keyboard 600, UK-layout
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate English OEM DVD 64bit
• SteelSeries QCK heavy mouse mat, Professional gaming
• Thermaltake Armor Black, Aluminium Front , 25 cm Fan, Super tower (Without PSU)
• Thermaltake Toughpower 850W, Modular, 8xSATA, ATX/EPS, 4xPCI-E, 20/24pin
• Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
• XFX GeForce 8800GTX 600M 768MB XT GDDR3 ,PCI-Express,2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP,600/1900Mhz