Hearts of Iron III Fallout
I’ve always been a huge fan of strategy games and actually prefer them to action games and shooters. So when my old buddy Plexis from my modding days got me playing Hearts of Iron the better part of a decade ago, I fell in love. When Paradox Interactive says that HoI is a grand strategy title, they do mean grand. In all three iterations of the games (not including expansions) you can play as virtually any country that existed between 1936 and 1948 and either follow the annals of history or rewrite it. Research technologies, manage your industries and production, ensure your population has what they need to survive, and wage war or, if you’d rather, stay completely neutral and watch the world destroy itself. Sounds fun, huh? Well, that’s because it is.
When Hearts of Iron III was announced and more and more media came flowing on to the Internet, I was tickled pink and I simply couldn’t wait to get my greedy little paws on it. Hell, I even pre-ordered it so I could get the bonus Sprite Packs (German and American specific unit icons). But when it was released, as with virtually all Paradox Interactive titles, it was riddled with bugs. Every game upon launch essentially since 1998 will have bugs due to the complex nature of modern games (especially so with Hearts of Iron), but in this case it was a little extreme.
I’m not one to call out developers on releasing bugs with their games as a huge majority of release day bugs are either hardware specific or wouldn’t have been immediately noticable during the beta testing phase. In the case of HoI3 though, there were performance issues beyond belief, numerous and common crashes, glitches, memory leaks, poorly programmed A.I., and other issues. I’m always the first to defend developers and bugs as it comes with the territory when you work in the gaming industry, but I find it hard to defend these bugs and the release of this game. Paradox Interactive has a very bad reputation for releasing games far too early, so this is very much their fault and it’s very clear why there are so many people who are very upset with the company and the game.
But there’s another side to this. Paradox isn’t a money hungry company that ignores their community and conducts business as they see fit, it’s actually quite the opposite in their case. The company head is very active on the community forums and interacts almost daily, and he and the company itself are known for giving support where support is needed. Even before the game was in the hands of the mass public there was a patch released followed by a hot fix followed by a slightly larger patch. Even as we speak (and for the next two weeks) Paradox is programming a comprehensive patch based on the feedback from their community. There’s nothing bad you can say about that, this is really a company that cares about the people that keep them in business.
Sad & Lonely People Need Lives
I always thought I was safe here at The Parade from the headaches caused at work (i.e. the Planet Half-Life Forums), but it’s the Internet, you’re not safe anywhere. I’m all for people disagreeing with my opinions, this is a free society (unless you’re visiting from China or something), so by all means, disagree and state your points. But people that find it necessary to get into fights over the Internet, let alone on some obscure personal blog found by some obscure RSS feed or something, are just sad.
Now I’ll admit, once upon a time I was like that. I was an angry little 14 year old once too, and I’d get into fights with text on the screen coming from some other anti-social little 14 year old. But then something happened… I grew up. No longer do I find it necessary to go to forums, IRC channels, or today’s new blogs to fight with people. That’s why I started The Parade. It was simply to be able to rant, post my opinions, or whatever and not have some little piss ant tell me how wrong I am, that I should grow up, and that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Here, of all places. At most I’ll get 2 or 3 dozen people visiting the site a day, most of whom are either coming from Wikipedia links or people I know clicking it off of my MSN status or Facebook page, so it’s exceedingly rare, but I guess it was bound to happen.
Lately, I’ve been trying to get rid of “john,” someone who made up a fake name and an obviously fake e-mail address (really, who could have been lucky enough out of millions of people to register “john@hotmail.com,” unless he [or she] is really that old) simply to tell me I was wrong about Michael Jackson. Time after time I’d respond to his grammatically incorrect comments, and time after time he’d come up with something else he’d call “proof” to show me how wrong I really was. So I told him (or her, I know one or two girls who wouldn’t be above going this far to argue with me for ‘ole time sake) that I was “fucking sick and tired of hearing about MJ,” and amongst other things I didn’t care. Guess what. “john” replied! He or she told me that “you seem to be getting agitated, you don’t see me getting that way. Grow up.” This person who comes to a scantly updated website who claims not to be a Michael Jackson fan daily to post arguments supporting him thinks someone else needs to grow up?
Well, “john,” and to everyone else who spends more time at a computer fighting with people then they do interacting with people outside of their basement, I have grown up. The only reason I replied to “john” is because, well, this is my site, it’s my duty to interact here. I don’t sit at my computer hitting the refresh button for “john” to respond, I go about my day at work, or spending time with my beautiful girl friend, or going out with my buddies for whatever activities seem fun at the time. If I want to get into a debate, I’ll do it face to face with someone, because people aren’t made out of electronic components with an LCD monitor for a face. The sooner people like “john” realize that, the sooner the obesity rate in North America will go down and people like me who work on the Internet can go to work without dreading what idiotic petty arguments people are going to engage in. So “john,” grow up. Go outside, I’m sure it’s a beautiful day! If you don’t have any friends to go have fun with, then go talk to your parents or siblings at least. Computers aren’t analogs for human beings. I learned that, why can’t you?
His War: One Man’s Journey
I’ve been doing some research into the Italian campaign of the Second World War as of late for a project I’m drafting, and it got me thinking about something a little more personal. My grandfather, Elmer Ernest Mahar, was a soldier of the Second World War and he fought in Italy, recieving a shrapnel wounds on May 19, 1944 in the Liri Valley, Italy.
So I thought I’d write down what I discovered about this quiet, unassuming, but patriotic and brave man. My latest full-length article, His War: One Man’s Journey traces my grandfathers steps from recruitment to garrison duty in Newfoundland to the landings at Sicily, Reggio, and through the Ortona campaign and to the Adolf Hitler Line.
My grandfather wasn’t some super-soldier that they’re going to make a movie about, he was just a rifleman who wanted to do his duty. He was two years under aged when he enlisted, and he sacrificed his hearing and suffered wounds to his right arm. He was a soldier, and why he may not have been a Sergeant Major who won a Victoria Cross, he was still a hero, just like all other soldiers who fought beside him.
So if you want to experience a story about a soldier, someone similar to your own father or grandfather, then you should read the full article by clicking right here. The article is as accurate as my research allows, based on a handful of books, websites, and documentation and war diary entries from his combat unit, The Carleton & York Regiment. If you’re interested in learning more or would like assistance in tracking down some war history pertinent to your family, don’t hesitate to contact me for some help.
He’s Dead, Get Over It
If you use Facebook, you’ve by now noticed that four out of five of your friends mentioned Michael Jackson in one way or another, most of which are respectful of his death. He touched children, and that deserved respect? When did we as a society get to the point where if you’re a pop singer you can molest little boys and still have the love of the entire world?
It sickens me, it really does. Yeah, he had a great musical career and has millions of fans (I’m not one of them, his music sucks to me), but that’s not reason enough to overlook the deeds he did. Apparently it was enough for courts to overlook, because “oh my God, Michael Jackson is in my court room!” or “wow, I can’t believe I’m on the jury of my idol, he’s innocent for sure!”
A good example of how idiotic these fans are is Hitler. I’m not saying that this pedantic little jackass killed nine million people in mass genocide, but both men did something horrible to defenceless people who had nobody there to protect them. Hitler was a brilliant industrial leader who took Germany (democratically, mind you) from essentially a third world country after post WW1 hyper-inflation and the Great Depression and turned it into a world power in only six years. So we can overlook mass genocide because Hitler helped out Germany and effectively the entire world with his technological programs? No, he tried to wipe out an entire race of people and killed or enslaved anyone that didn’t fit his ideal view of what a person should be.
So why Michael Jackson? If you do anything to a child, you’re sub-human in my book. These kids don’t know what goes on when an adult touches their special areas and are taken advantage of in the worst of ways. If you can overlook that fact and cry over his death, then please stay away from my children and from all play grounds and elementary schools, because that’s the kind of mentality that he had. Jackson is now paying for his sins for all eternity, and I take solace in that.
Mount & Blade Review
Every once in a while, I come across a game that just stops me in my tracks and makes me really wonder how all previous games were even fun. Mount and Blade, an independent game by TaleWorlds Interactive and published by Paradox Interactive (a favourite of mine) is a stunningly realistic medieval combat and trade RPG that is completely open.
I love melee combat and archery, but the problem with this is I don’t love (in fact, I hate) magic, and thus is incredibly hard to find a medieval first or third person game that doesn’t include spells and potions. A good example of this, and a good comparison for Mount & Blade, is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion is a big-budget massive open world where you can explore and do what you please (there’s a main plot, but you can put that on the back burner if you’d like). I love it, but the magic crap bugs the hell out of me, so I get bored of it easily and I get bored of fighting little gremlins that shoot fireballs and weird ogres and fantasy creatures. They never existed, and to me that should be left to the childhood imagination.
Mount & Blade takes that open world feel with lots of melee and archery weapons (which can be used on horseback, unlike Oblivion) and puts it into a free-play game. There’s no big main plot where you become a hero of the lands, but instead you just do whatever you want. Ride from village to village and do quests for them (training their peasants, herding cattle, protection, etc.) or roam the lands looking for adventure and fun. It’s not as easy as Oblivion where you come across pairs of bandits that can be hacked ‘n slashed to death in 60 seconds or less, but instead is done far more realistically with roving bands of mercenaries that go into the dozens and would be exceedingly difficult to take on alone.
Left 4 Dead 2 Impressions
I haven’t done much posting here at The Soft Parade lately since I’ve been so damn busy with Planet Half-Life. Why the sudden increase in work, you might ask? Left 4 Dead 2, that’s why. At this year’s E3 Conference in California, Valve announced the development and release date (November 17, 2009) of Left 4 Dead 2, a full-blown sequel to last year’s co-op hit Left 4 Dead.
For those of you who may not know what the game is all about, Left 4 Dead puts you and three other survivors in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. The goal of each campaign (a 45-75 minute series of five maps) is simply to survive and make it out of the area. You must fight your way through thousands of zombies who want nothing more than to eat you, and they certainly will try to do just that. Left 4 Dead 2 builds off of the successes that Left 4 Dead had and improves on them. That’s a good thing, right?
Well, not according to 30,000 pissed off Left 4 Dead fans. No less than a day after the game was released, a group was created to boycott the sequel for a myriad of reasons. The Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Group feels as though Valve didn’t deliver what they promised with Left 4 Dead and are simply abandoning the game for a sequel. I can understand somewhat why some may feel this way initially as Valve has stated numerous times that they will be releasing free downloadable content for the game as they have with Team Fortress 2, something Valve has come to be known for. Valve kept their word and released “The Survival Pack,” a gameplay mode with a new map and changes a few months back and stated that additional content is still in production. That isn’t good enough for the Group. Below is a part of the groups manifesto which was created by one of the groups member (which is good, as the original was nothing but ranting immature jibberish).
Free Website, Advertisement Banner, & More!
If you’re looking for some freebies to help promote your business or non-profit organization, then you’re in luck. Over at Gravista Graphics, we’re offering a limited time survey competition to win a fully-featured website, customized with your business logo (which can be designed by us) and all content that you’ll need including contact information (with custom-designed forms), service and rate information, and pertinent images which can also be provided by us.
All you need to do to be eligible is to complete this simple survey. All applicants will receive a complimentary animated web banner to help spread the word of your business (.gif format), standard rack card design, and two logo designs for you to choose from.Yes, that’s right, just for submitting a survey, your business can receive a free logo for any use you see fit (business cards, t-shirt design, etc.), a free rack card design, and a free advertisement banner for your web affiliates.
Along with these gratuities, you’ll also be eligible for limited-time savings on many of our services as well. The survey itself is 100% confidential, we’ll never share your contact or business information with anyone, so what do you have to lose? Just head to www.gravistagraphics.com/survey.html and fill our all necessary fields to get this great offer. The deadline is June 15, 2009, so hurry before the offer ends!
Why Gamers Destroy Lives
When I was thirteen years old I bought Half-Life, a game that effectively changed my life. I began playing Half-Life and its modifications, namely (at the time) Counter-Strike and began into the world of modding myself. I did that for several years and I loved it, I loved the people and the interactions on forums and IRC, it was great. As I got older I became professionally involved when I first began volunteering at IGN’s Planet Half-Life and eventually came on as the full-time Site Director, the proverbial dream come true for a Half-Life fan, right?
That was 2005, it’s now 2009, and while I do love games still and I love writing and reporting, I generally dislike my job. Why? Because I have to interact with the very people that I came from when I was thirteen; immature self-entitled gamers. Most of these gamers are either young and immature, as I was at the time, or are older and never grew up. You know the types, the ones that lie to get attention and who must always compare their e-penis with yours, and it’s these types of people, and I use this term loosely, that make me want to hit my face against a brick wall until I vomit from the pain.
A few days ago I published a story about a Counter-Strike player in Russia who was beaten to death by his younger rival. Essentially two Russian boys, one seventeen and one fourteen, were playing the game in a gamer’s café while drinking alcohol. The older boy was a superior player and had kept beating the younger, and as such angered him beyond belief. When the older boy left for the night, the younger (with a friend) ambushed him outside and beat him to death with a brick. It’s a sad story and even more sad when a fourteen year old is allowed to drink, stay out until 3am, and then get four years for killing someone with a brick over a video game. As a journalist it’s my job to find these related stories and publish them to their target demographic, but posting anything serious with gamers is a huge mistake.
Many of the comments for the news story are absolutely horrible. Here are a few of the gems:
RabidBrains: Do you think that he made the melon head shot noise?
Bishopzs: HEADSHOT
[SA]Hauptmann: Wow, what a petty bugger that dude was…oh well…ULTRAKILL!
GlennyBoi2008: WICKED SICK!
Bishopzs (again): HEADSHOT!
killertowfoo: Terrorists win!
I don’t even think I need to keep writing for you to get the point I’m putting out here. It’s sick and disrespectful. Oh, just because it was in Russia it doesn’t really matter, so we can all just mock the death of someone who’s probably exactly like all of these people? It would seem so.
Planet Overlord Launches
I’ve been busy working on a new gaming site these last few weeks for IGN Entertainment, and yesterday marks its official launch to the web. Planet Overlord covers the Triumph Studios/Codemasters game series Overlord, placing you in the shoes of a powerful being set to do evil to the world and obtain total control. My co-worker Alex and I spent weeks adding in content to the site’s wiki (all new Planet sites are wiki-driven) and making the site look the way it does. It was a lot of work, but Overlord fans need a place to go to learn more about the ever-expanding series.
Planet Overlord offers wiki pages for virtually every Overlord-related topic, a discussion board (not ForumPlanet, but a single forum on the IGN Boards, sorry about that), up-to-date news, videos and screen shots, polls, articles, and upcoming guides. So add it to your book marks and check daily for the latest news on Overlord, Overlord 2, Overlord: Dark Legend, and Overlord: Minions. No matter what system you play, whether it’s the PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or even the Nintendo DS, there’s an Overlord game for you!
Enjoy!
Blomidon Provincial Park
I was born and raised in Northern Ontario, and as such mother nature has been an integral part of my life since before I could remember. Any opportunity I have to spend time outdoors I’ll take, and if it’s an extended trip into the woods, then I’m even happier. Recently my buddy Danny G and I went for a day hike up the Blomidon Provincial Park trail system, a 12km journey up snow and ice covered hills that changes thousands of feet in elevation on the coast of Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy. I loved it.
Every region of Canada is vastly different then the last, from the East coast to the West, North to South, you’ll never find the same scenery twice in a row. Even within a few square kilometers in the Maritimes, the scenery and weather can be completely different. We started from sea level, we actually parked our car beside a beach, and we began the steep trek up the mountain face. Once we hit the treeline we began punching through waist-deep snow on what normally are well-groomed trails. When it came time to start climbing, we were doing so on, at times, a 30+ degree slope that was covered in ice from the spring thaw, so needless to say this leg of the journey was treacherous and challenging, but that’s exactly what we were looking for.
The trails at Blomidon are well-marked, though be it a little worse in the winter with the added dead fall and the lack of park staff. There are over 12 kilometres of trails in the park that offer coastal scenery (there are also several look-off points for such picturesque views) to marsh lands, mountainous terrain, and Canadian boreal forest and are beautiful year-round for hiking. I do caution, with this recent trip in mind, that if you plan on starting from the bottom of the trails and work your way up in the winter or spring, make sure you go with an experienced hiker with emergency materials. It was more than once when Danny G and I had a few slips and could have easily hurt ourselves.
