I like to play games. I want to play a lot of games. But playing games takes a lot of time. And I don’t have much time. Thus begins a vicious circle of money-spending and frustration some of you might be familiar with.

First I have no time to play games and when I do, I often end up being drawn to hardcore titles (Monster Hunter Tri) that take a lot of time. To make matters worse, I like to explore those games very thoroughly, so I spend even more time on each title. I end up having games that I set aside to play later, after I finish the current one – the infamous “backlog”. As I see my backlog grow, I get frustrated because I can’t seem to make any progress at reducing it. I get the impression that I’m doing the same thing over and over again. So I end up buying new games because that doesn’t take time. That way, I get cool, new stuff I can look forward to. However, those new games only add up to my already big “backlog”. After the initial high wears off I get even more frustrated and so on…

Having all current gaming systems made matters even worse since in my mind, each system has a separate backlog. DLC is yet another problem – invisible backlog is so much easier to forget… until it suddenly comes back to you. But recently even that doesn’t work anymore. My backlog got so huge I fear I won’t be able to play all those games.. EVER! I consider some drastic measures like a videogame-cation: taking a couple of weeks off to finally get some solid play time in. But for now this is impossible, of course. At least not until TRAUMA is done.

Collections: Methadone for videogame backloggers?

Recently I discovered I took a different, not necessarily better strategy. I started getting games I already played. I just got the Metroid Prime Trilogy. I already played trough all 3 parts and I own them independently. My rationale was that I enjoy the series a lot and the trilogy would be a nice addition to my collection. I can try them briefly and I won’t feel bad if I never get around playing them seriously. My Dreamcast collection also has some potential because a lot of the titles I played were bootleg copies. But doing that feels very wasteful and won’t work for long anyway. I may have a problem

Do you also have a Backlog? What do you do about it?

I just saw the a live coverage of the WWDC presentation. Interesting to see the new iPhone. As always Apple makes a big fuzz about mundane improvements. I especially enjoyed little details like giving names to new technology. “Retina Display” seems emotionally so much more engaging than “960×640px 326ppi display”. It’s actually a well-known method (“It’s Toasted!”) in advertising. Apple doesn’t do it particularly well, actually. The competition is just so horribly bad at it. So in my book, they certainly deserve the attention they get for it. And I completely agree – a high resolution display makes a huge difference. The Nexus one already blew me away. It’s nice to see Apple catch up. I’m quite eager to take a look at it.

Sadly, the other features of the new iPhone don’t seem too revolutionary to me. Apple claims “This changes everything”. Looking at what they presented this seems more like a wish than a statement. I find the videophone feature particularly dumb. You know, because it was so revolutionary on the computer, right? Oh wait, it wasn’t really I guess. You try it once or twice, you get bored of it. You get into situations where it doesn’t work or where it’s inconvenient, you stop even trying using it. The fact that it works only over Wi-fi and apparently requires both parties to use an iPhone 4 are big show-stoppers right there. I’ll stick to the telephone, but thanks for trying.

“Yes I know, you can’t see me. No, I’m fine, I’m just not in the mood, please understand that. Yes, I will turn it on the next time, I promise. No, I don’t know when that will be.”

I was watching the coverage because I’m actually currently looking for an external display for my Notebook. Cutting some HD footage for TRAUMA I realized that this screen is really getting too small for me. I was hoping Apple would drop a bigger LED Cinema Display. Sadly they didn’t. But I was considering alternatives anyway. I heard that the Apple displays were seriously over-priced. But does anybody have specific recommendations for me? I’m looking for something around 27″ and upwards. Yeah I know, I’m hardcore.

Space geekout time. You might have seen this most disturbing video. Cape Canaveral has been attacked by a giant mutant insect (00:06). Luckily, a company called SpaceX was able to launch an escape vehicle. The rocket safely reached orbit. The insects are no longer a threat

But jokes aside, the launch was something special. First of all, it was extremely exciting. The first attempt failed spectacularly in the very last second. For a while, Twitter was full of anticipating space enthusiasts waiting for a word from mission control. It worked out in the end and we are now in the unique position where a private company is capable of delivering some serious payload into orbit. This is the stuff Sci-Fi is made of. I can’t want to see what’s next.

But for space geeks, there is more. As you might know, we have one the most advanced space probes ever orbiting the planet Saturn right now. Turns out the probe found some evidence that would support a theory that there is life on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. It’s exciting news no doubt but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So far this is only a bunch of chemical scans that show values we didn’t expect. Those results just so happen to match one model for life on Titan. Even if this theory were true, it would be probably quite primitive life – bacteria and such stuff. Remember that we actually landed a probe on Titan and it didn’t find any alien dinosaurs or anything.

BUT I already wrote that I think Titan may be one of the most exciting places in the entire Solar System. This new discovery is just another reason to go there and find out.

So if I have been counting correctly, we have 3-4 places in the Solar System to search life for:

• Mars: We have just recently found some strange methane readings on Mars that might be explained by alien life. We have also confirmed the presence of water, even liquid water on the surface. Good old Mars is just as interesting as ever.
• Europa: There is good evidence for the existence of a liquid ocean beneath the surface of the icy Jupiter moon Europa. So far there is no evidence suggesting that this ocean would harbor life. However there is a hypothetical chance considering how life started in oceans here on Earth. Getting to that ocean is one hell of a technical challenge. A probe would need to travel millions of kilometers, land, drill 100 kilometers though ice while being blasted by Jupiter’s intense radiation only to transform into a submarine at the end. But nobody said it would be easy, right?

• Enceladus: We have found water plumes coming off the tiny, icy Saturnian moon Enceladus. Enceladus is actually Titan’s neighbor. Again, as with Europa there is no evidence for life yet. However there is clear evidence for water and it is even on the surface. The whole water on Enceladus is quite a mystery anyway, so there are good reasons to check it out.
• Titan: Yes and now we have Titan. But again, this was quite a remarkable place anyway.

So there is a lot to do out there. I’m glad everything worked out with SpaceX. Maybe if private companies take care of the rockets now, the governments might be able to spend more money on probes to answer all those exciting questions. I can’t wait to find out. Sorry, for geeking out. This blog will now return to the scheduled program.

I’m using the computer a lot. My requirements for computer hardware are extreme because I will probably use them everyday. This is especially true for pieces of hardware that have contact with my hands. This hardware will receive a lot of abuse from various biochemical agents in the sweat from my hands. I don’t think I especially aggressive hands. It’s just the prolonged exposure that makes material age very quickly.

There are also other considerations. Wireless products are useless for me. I would go bankrupt paying for the batteries. If the batteries are recharchable, I end up recharging them constantly anyway. I also have quite large hands so I can’t use any “portable” products.

Finding solutions that work well for me is quite difficult. It’s weird how computer hardware is rarely designed to survive excessive use. I would gladly pay more for a premium product catered towards my needs.

Some time ago I was looking for a good mouse. I ended up buying a Razer Pro. Razer is a company well-known among gamers. It seemed like this new line of products would be exactly what I was looking for – computer hardware made with professional needs in mind. Even though I used it a long time, it was quite a disappointment.

Yeah, I know. It looks horrible. I can explain.

I was a bit skeptical from the beginning. Mostly because the mouse is white. Anybody who used a mouse for a long time knows that white is a quite unfortunate choice for a product that has constant contact with skin. No matter how much you clean it, after some time there will be permanent visible discoloration. But the first problems came up much sooner than I have expected and because of an entirely different reason.

First the Razer Logo in the top simply rubbed of. This was a first bad omen but it actually made the mouse look better. It got much worse very quickly. The buttons of the Razer Pro had a rubbery feel to them. It felt quite nice but it wasn’t a couple of weeks since purchase when I found out the reason for this detail. The buttons were covered with a thin layer of rubbery material. To my surprise, this layer turned out to be also ill-suited for the job. It started rub off at the spots where my fingers touched the buttons. The mouse started to look ugly very quickly. It felt odd too as the plastic underneath was smooth. At some point it got so bad that I decided to simply remove the remains of the rubbery layer entirely. I ended up having a mouse with smooth buttons. However, some residue from the rubbery layer still got stuck in some difficult-to-reach places on the buttons. This is all the gunk around the mouse wheel you see on the photos now. It is very sticky, not unlike glue residue. I could never fully get rid of it and as you can see, it looks terrible.

Things went well for a while. But after over a year or so, the discoloration I was afraid of started to show. Today, the top of the mouse has a visible yellowish tint. That tint is especially prominent because the bottom of the mouse retained it’s original white color. As you can see on the picture, there are also yellowish spots on the buttons right where my fingers were. Again, this is no Dorrito residue that you could wipe off with the cloth. The actual discoloration of the material.

I continued using the mouse because is mechanically quite capable. It is also well-suited for my huge hands. I got used to it. But it looked horrible and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t want to buy a Razer mouse again becaouse expect the same problems with the rubbery layer on the buttons. I went with Intellimouse Explorer 3.0. I used the first one ages ago and it was actually a very good mouse. It was perfect for my huge hands and it was one of the first optical mice back then. I just got the new one recently and I’m torn on this one.

It may be not white but unlike on the photos, it is made of silvery plastic. It looks incredibly cheap and I’m sure it will look even worse as the silvery effect gets dull after some time. Another thing I can’t get used to is the cursor speed. The Razer was incredibly fast. I got used to be able to move all the way across the screen with only a tiny flinch of the mouse. With the IntelliMouse Explorer I need to crank up the mouse speed all the way up and it still feels slower than the Razer. To make things worse, having the mouse settings this high, I have visibly worse precision. I can actually see that the cursor moving several pixels at a time. I had to turn on mouse acceleration but that takes getting used to.

I curious. Does any of you have any advices on which mice to use instead? Maybe there is even some kind of software I can use to improve cursor speed without losing precision?

The Lagiacrus is a very special monster in Monster Hunter Tri. It is the “flagship monster”. The Lagiacrus is featured on the box art of the game and on the cover of pretty much any book on Monster Hunter Tri. The über-special-edition of Monster Hunter Tri even includes a small statue of the Lagiacrus.

Aaaaw, you’re a cute little Lagia…ARHGH! You bastard! I’m going to kill you!

The Lagiacrus is also the MacGuffin for the thin story in Monster Hunter Tri. In the single player mode you arrive in a village apparently under threat from the Lagiacrus. Even though you can’t fight it right away, it remains as a goal you work towards. Before you can fight it “for real” you even encounter it twice in teaser quests. Even Yahtzee favorably mentioned the teaser encounter with Lagiacrus in his otherwise negative review of Monster Hunter Tri.

The Lagiacrus also showcases two important new features in the franchise. It is a “Leviathan” – a brand new class of a monsters in Monster Hunter Tri. Leviathans are long, lizzard-like monsters. But that bit is only interesting for the die-hard Monster Hunter geeks. For the more mainstream player, it’s more interesting that the Lagiacrus can swim, so the fight against him takes place underwater. Underwater combat is one of the big new features in Monster Hunter Tri and the Lagiacrus does a great job at demonstrating that feature.

With so much build-up, the battle against Lagiacrus came with a great deal of gravitas for me. I was expecting an encounter of epic proportions. Luckily, Monster Hunter Tri delivered. I did in in a second try but remember that fights in Monster Hunter can take up to an hour. At my first attempt, I was defeated quickly. In a typical Monster Hunter fashion I changed my strategy. I played more defensively and attacked more carefully – not unlike the strategy I used for the Barroth. However, the Lagiacrus is huge and agile. It jumped out of the water a couple of times. I had to constantly adapt to new environments and use different tactics. As the battle grew longer and my supply of healing potions ran out, each successful hit against the monster was accompanied by a rush of adrenaline. And indeed, Lagiacrus grew visibly exhausted as well. It escaped to rest in a nearby cavern. I followed him, delivered the final blow and released a big sigh of relief.

But in an ingenious dramatic twist, the game is not over yet. Even though it is the flagship monster, the Lagiacrus is actually not the final boss. This becomes evident even before you the battle. The battle becomes available before you unlock the final trier of missions. It’s an effective trick to create an aura of mystery around the final boss with little effort. It also enhances the monster’s effectiveness as a showcase. Because it appears earlier, it can be encountered by a larger portion of the audience. And because there are follow-up missions that include it (like a mission where you need to capture it), you fight it several times.

Games are often weird in that sense. The final boss in a game is often the climax of the story. But that’s not how a dramatic arc unfolds. In theater and literature, the story continues after the climax in the Falling action and Dénouement. It those two parts of the story that emphasize the climax and make it stand out more. Games often forget that. There is rarely any game-play after the climax. As a result, it’s often not the final boss which we remember most vividly about a game.

Monster Hunter Tri seems to break that tendency. Lagiacrus is certainly a remarkable monster and killing it was a thrilling adventure. I’m looking forward to find out what the final stretch of the game has to offer.