Malik
(3/14/11)
This was a pretty dull
weekend for myself. I was aiming to play some more Dragon Quest VI,
but just couldn't find the time or the energy. Instead, I did play a
bit of Color Cross, and handle some more real world of chores.
While I started off
really enjoying Color Cross, I think I'm seeing now that the later
levels in each theme/subject/world are somewhat annoying. That's a
nice way to say the later stages are pains in the ass. It's like the
later stages are all based around too many colors being in too small
of chunks.
This would be bad on its
own, but it gets worse when you have a lot of different colors that
don't seem to work well in the game. When you clear a row or column,
the number hints turn from the color of the blocks you're filling in
to grey. Not too bad of a feature to help you know when you're done
without having to make a lot of mental notes to yourself. At least
that's the idea. It isn't so good when the color you're filling in
is the same exact shade of grey that the hints turn when you've
cleared them. It's not that much fun to see that you finished a row
but the hints change from grey to grey...not even a different shade.
This, however, is
nothing compared to when you have two similar colors that show up to
be the same on the DS screen on the same puzzle. If you have, for
example, black, a very dark blue, and a very deep grey in one
puzzle, you end up with a lot of problems on counting how many
blocks you've used from each color choice. While the game offers a
way to convert the background color from blue to green, so you don't
confuse a blue unfilled square with a blue you've filled in, it
would be nice to have a similar feature to turn your current color
or all other colors not currently selected to a different temporary
choice to help alleviate the color palette limitations of the DS
screen.
Anyway, I'm still
enjoying the entire idea behind Color Cross. Picross style games are
limited in the US, and it's good to have this title. Still, it's
obvious that the game designers must have skipped some of the basic
QA aspects of the game if they let some of these annoyances slip.
Malik |
Malik
(3/16/11)
I'm sad to see the MLS
season start with the Sounders FC in last place. However, when you
have the first game of the season with LA versus Seattle, it doesn't
matter that the game is in Seattle. The Sounders are a team that
will make the post-season once again this year, assuming injuries
are not a major factor...but LA will continue to be a force to be
reckoned with. This was the team with the best record in 2010 and
that will not change anytime this year (or at least their winning
ways will not change).
Still, Seattle put
up a solid attack despite playing in weather that seems unfit for a
sport played mostly during dry months. The field was wet, and
probably pretty damned slick. This made for a low scoring game with
less action than one would expect from two amazing powerhouse teams
like LA and Seattle. Still, if it's only a 0-1 defeat against a team
that beat Seattle, in Seattle, 0-4 last season, I can live with that
result.
I just hope
whatever secretive crap went on between the Sounders organization
and Nkufo doesn't repeat in the future anymore. I don't want
another case like last year with Ljundberg to make a mess of the
season. It's not good for the team, and it's not good for the league
in general to have any sort of prima donna behavior issues between a
player of high caliber and a team. It's sad to see Nkufo go, since
he played like a man possessed at times (like with his hat trick),
but if he cannot work in the organization than it's better to see
the situation end before turning into some mess like last season
saw.
On a different
note, Internet Explorer 9 is out now. I have not tried it. I'm a bit
afraid of the thought. However, despite loving Chrome, I do use IE8.
It's not a choice I love as much as it's a case that some web pages
work better in IE than Chrome or Firefox, and some web pages just
don't work at all with Chrome or Firefox (like my work employee web
sites). Due to this, with a touch of me being lazy from time to
time, IE8 has a home on my PC.
While I dread
adding another security leak on my PC, which is how I think of IE
upgrades, I am tempted to try out IE9. I don't like the look of the
streamlined interface, I don't like how new Microsoft upgrades on
their software seem to become more and more vulnerable and less
useful for intermediate or advanced users, and I don't like the way
IE9 has been reviewed online...but IE8 is my least favorite web
browser I've used. It's less useful than IE7 was (which I would get,
but downgrading from IE8 to IE7 on Windows 7 is a pain in the ass
not worth the effort). However, IE8 has the largest memory leak
issues I've seen with a software application that should not be a
resource hog. If I open Gmail in IE8, on my PC that can run Fallout:
New Vegas at max settings, and leave the window open for about 24
hours, I will be lucky to have memory enough to play Super Meat Boy.
I'm hoping that maybe IE9 has fixed some of these memory devouring
flaws. Then again, IE6 had a minor memory leak, IE7 had a moderate
one, and IE8 ate memory like Homer Simpson eats doughnuts. If the
trend continues, I'll need about 20GB more RAM to keep an IE9 window
open for more than five minutes.
Malik |