8.00 imorse klev jag ut igenom ytterdörren hos mig o Lisa för att ta min morgonpromenad. Jag försöker få det till en vana att ta en promenad på morgonen för att vakna till liv och för att inte bli sittandes framför internet till lunch utan att göra något vettigt. Vi bor i närheten av ett naturreservat som heter Tinnerö Eklandskap där det går en del grusvägar och även en del vandringsleder och här brukar jag traska runt på morgonkvisten. Det är rätt trevligt och jag tänkte väll utforska området lite mer senare någon gång då jag bara håller mig på dess norra kant för att inte behöva gå allt för långt när jag ska hem igen. I Tinnerö finns det två vandringsleder, Tinneröleden samt Östgötaleden där Östgötaleden fortsätter vidare efter Tinnerö medans Tinneröleden går runt i området.
Jag var på spa i helgen med några gamla kompisar från Eskilstuna, vi hyrde en Ryokan på Hasseludden där vi hade egen pool och balkong med utsikt över Stockholms skärgård. Vi fick även en fyra rätters middag serverad på rummet som bestod av en massa japansk mat och till det beställde vi varsitt dryckespaket med öl, vin, saké samt dessertvin. En väldigt trevlig helg måste jag säga men nu är jag väldigt sugen på att fara till japan men det blir säkert av någon gång.
Jag passade på att köpa Bionic Commando i fredags då Discshop sålde det för 149 riksdaler. Svenska Grins sista spel tror jag bestämt och jag är ungefär 25-30 procent in i spelet och tycker väll såhär långt att det är ganska mediokert. Bandesignen är härlig då de har byggt nivåerna i flera plan vilket passar spelets mekanik väldigt bra men annars känns det inte som ett superspel. Något som verkligen stör mig i spelet är hur huvudpersonen Nathan aldrig kan hålla tyst. När man besegrar fiender eller tar sig någonstans så slänger han ofta ur sig någon kommentar som låter väldigt krystad och i början trodde jag att det var fienderna men efter ett tag insåg jag ju att de är ju döda så de kan ju inte säga något. Det blir lite för mycket efter ett tag tycker jag och det hade verkligen behövt tonas ner lite. Men tänkte väll spela igenom det en gång för att sedan, beroende på vad jag tycker om det i slutet, byta in det alternativt behålla det.
Jag ska upp till Stockholm imorgon igen, den här gången på utbildning i två dagar. Jag bor på samma ställa som senast men jag ska tydligen vara på ett helt annat ställe dit man endast kommer med buss. Ska leta reda på hur jag ska åka för att komma dit redan idag tänkte jag och kolla upp det hela imorgon när jag kommer till hotellet så jag slipper oroa mig på torsdag morgon när jag väll ska dit. Dock lär jag inte vara ensam att bo på hotellet som ska dit så hittar säkert någon att åka dit med men det är skönt att vara förberedd.
Jag var och kollade på hockey här om dagen, Linköping HC mot St. Louis Blues. En match som slutade med storförlust för hemmalaget och jag tror att siffrorna slutade på 0-6.
Men när jag satt där och kollade och försökte heja fram LHC så blev jag sugen på att spela ett hockeyspel hemma på teven. Jag sade det till min flickvän som tyckte att jag var allt för lättpåverkad av saker jag ser eller upplever och det kan ligga någonting i det. Jag vet av personliga erfarenheter att jag har svårt för sportspel, inte det att de är tråkiga utan att jag är bara väldigt dålig på dem. Men när man sitter och kollar på hockey live så blir man ju sugen på att spela det på teven då det ser skoj ut.
Samma sak brukar hända när jag kollar på fotboll, speciellt om det är EM eller VM då jag brukar kunna sitta och kolla på en massa udda matcher. Då brukar det resultera i att jag blir sugen på att införskaffa ett fotbollsspel och spela men jag har än så länge lyckats undanröja alla sådana frestelser och insett min egen begränsning.
Jag testade Fifa 10 för några veckor sedan och jag förstod inte ens hur man sköt ett ordentligt skott på mål, alla skott flög utanför åt antingen det ena eller det andra hållet. Jag spelade en halvlek av en match och fick förstås inte in ett mål under den korta tiden trots att jag spelade på lättaste.
Motorsport brukar även den ha samma effekt på mig. Kollar jag på rally på SVT så brukar jag bli sugen på att köra runt på små slingringa bergsvägar någonstans och hålla mig så nära väggen som möjligt för att inte åka av och störta mot en säker död. Dock är just bilspel en av mina bättre genrer så här brukar jag faktiskt göra bra ifrån mig och äger även ett par spel där jag kan tömma mitt sug efter liknande upplevelser.
Är det någon mer än jag som är lättpåverkad? Brukar ni bli sugna på spel som reflekterar över det ni upplever eller ser, hockey – hockeyspel, rally – bilspel osv.?
Sommar blir höst, trädens blad går från gröna till gula för att sedan falla ner till marken och det blir allt mörkare på kvällarna. Förändring är bra sägs det och mycket håller på att ändras i mitt liv just. Den största förändringen är att jag ska flytta ifrån Skellefteå och bosätta mig i Linköping istället. Jag har gjort mitt i Skellefteå nu i och med att skolan är slut och sommarjobbet har övergått till enstaka pass per månad.
Jag tänkte också börja blogga på svenska igen. Att jag övergår till att skriva på svenska beror på att jag behöver förbättra på mina skrivkunskaper, att inse att särskrivningar tillhör engelskan och inte svenskan. Dessutom så behöver jag bli bättre på att skriva renare och inte så krångligt som det oftast blir när jag skriver ur huvudet direkt. Vad som har fått mig att inse detta är att jag har sökt som spelskribent på en svensk spelsida där chefsredaktör Erik sa vad han tyckte om mitt sätt att skriva. Jag är tacksam för det och har bestämt mig för att förbättra mig.
Anledningen till att jag flyttar till Linköping är för att jag har min flickvän där. Det är egentligen den enda anledningen, jag har utöver henne inga kopplingar till staden men Linköping är en fin stad och jag kommer nog att trivas bra där. Jobb kommer troligen att lösa sig snart, det ser åtminstone positivt ut på den fronten. Bostad har jag redan då Lisa har fixat en lägenhet där vi ska bo så det är bara att flytta ner för mig.
Jag har även bytt webbläsare då Firefox började krångla och hänga sig väldigt mycket. Jag kör numera Google Chrome och gillar det skarpt. Det känns snabbt och simpelt, man får upp länkar till de populäraste sidorna vid uppstart om man vill och det känns rent då Chrome helt saknar menyrader och består endast utav en adressrad.
Vi får se hur förändringarna artar sig med tiden men just nu känns det rätt och det är det viktigaste.
I haven’t posted anything here for a while so I thought I might update with the past weeks experiences. Three weeks ago I got my degree in Game Design and with that the end of my school career on such a high level at least. I spend the rest of that week with playing games and taking it easy before traveling down to Stockholm where I went to a Security course to be prepared for my work during the summer.
The course was nice and the people I read it with was even nicer, we had so much fun so it will be nine day I’ll remember for a while. It all was a mistake since my company gave me papers to the wrong address but my teacher fixed it so I could stay where I was which I’m happy about. We were a really small group compared to the other groups that took the same course but we all connected during the course and it was like you had know them for a long time pretty much.
I also realized how much I have grown as a person the last couple of years; I have taken the course earlier, about four years ago and at that time I was only 20 years old and didn’t like to speak in front of people, a bit nervous the first day and such. This time I traveled to Stockholm and took a cab to my hotel on Sunday, the day before the course began. I only received to papers from my company with no map or instruction on how to get to the place and I had no internet. Four years ago I would have freaked out but this time I took it chill and told myself that it will solve itself out which it did in the end. I met three people at the breakfast that looked as lost as I was so I asked them if they were going to the same place which they were so I joined up with them on the way to Kista. Now a days I speak up in class and not only speak when asked too which feels great, if I’m wrong doesn’t matter, I’m there to learn and if I knew everything I would need to be there.
I have also always been nervous about traveling, my stomach goes into overdrive but with this trip I’ve known that it will all solve itself, if I can’t find a place then I just have to ask someone. I took the train from Eskilstuna where I spent the weekend to Arlanda Airport where I flew home and I feared the worst as it was the first time I would do the trip by train, usually my dad drive me to the airport since he works in Stockholm. I was a little nervous before but when I was on traveling foot it felt great and six hours later I was home in my apartment in Skellefteå. Traveling by train is quite nice, I took the train from Eskilstuna to Stockholm and then further on to Arlanda Airport.
Before I traveled down to Stockholm two weeks ago I ordered a couple of books, one of them were Hiram Bingham’s Lost City of the Incas which I picked up today at the kiosk where my package was sent. I’ve only checked it through but it seems to be a nice book for someone like me who have the interest about Machu Picchu.
The midsummer weekend was nice, Lisa came up to Eskilstuna to celebrate my 24th birthday and spend the weekend together since she’s home in Linköping over the summer. It was a nice weekend and a nice birthday/midsummer evening. Love you darling!
And if somebody wonder, I haven’t really played a lot of games the last couple of weeks more then Plants vs. Zombies but more about that some other time maybe.
It is now the last week of school pretty much, next Tuesday I’m going to present my thesis in front o a bunch of people and after that it’s over, my two years in school to become a Game Designer. I’m one week away from being an educated game designer on paper.
I have spent this week with fixing the last pieces on my thesis but also to read and look at pictures at a dream I have had for a long time. The dream is to visit Machu Picchu in Peru and last Sunday I found a traveling agent who had a 14 day long trip to Peru where you should walk the Inca trail up to Machu Picchu but you would also visit another old Inca place which haven’t been commercialized yet which means that there is a lot less people there. The name of this other place is Choquequirao and is only available by foot; it’s a two day trekking trip to get there and two more days to get back. I want to go so much; I really like everything that has to do with South- and Central American history with Inca’s and Maya’s. I spent the whole morning reading about the Inca trail and later I ordered a book that Hiram Bingham has written who discovered Machu Picchu around 1911, the book is about the discovery and I’m looking forward to read it.
History is something that always has interested me, if there is a documentary on the television about some findings in Israel or the Egyptian pyramids I usually end up watching it as I find most stuff fascinating. I think it is impressive that people find stuff that has been hidden for 100’s of years like pieces of jewellery or a tomb. It isn’t South and Central America history that interest me and I would like to see a game sometime where you can plan your own expedition in hope to find a lost city and making it the goal, not defeat an enemy and especially not putting in a third part that usually is abnormal as in Uncharted. No, it should be about exploring the jungle, take in the views and feel the atmosphere, maybe you meet a native tribe that you ask for help or just spend a night at. When you finally find what you have been looking for you should get a wow feeling and get a dumb smile on your face.
The problem with such a game is that people want a goal, there should be things to shoot and it should be free roaming but they then complain about the world being too big and that it is hard to find stuff and to know where you should go. Maybe I should write all this down in my idea folder as it evolves more and more into a game synopsis. I know one thing for sure and that is that the gaming world /community aren’t ready for such a game yet. They still has to shoot down a lot more stuff before it would sell.
I’m also thinking of getting a new hobby or interest, trekking. Trekking is walking with a fancier word, but it is not a word to use when walking down town, it is used when walking great distances in the nature. I think that if I am going to be able to walk the Inca trail I have to train and trekking seems nice, see the nature and get some fresh air. Tomorrow me and Lisa will try a walking route we found up on the mountain yesterday and hopefully it’s nice and not too long because then I will miss my appointment at the barber. But yeah, trekking could be something for me and it would be nice to “fjällvandra” /walk in the mountains in Sälen.
Here are some links for info about Machu Picchu and Choquequirao as well as a slideshow of pictures from the latter.
I have changed my blog a little, I changed the theme to a lighter one and I have created a new page called Documents where I will post a lot of my school projects, at the moment I have only posted four documents from my specialization project.
During this week the weather have been wonderful with the sun shining most of the days. It’s been really nice and hot. I have recieved two new games this week aswell, The Worlds End with You for Nintendo DS and Midnight Club Los Angeles for the Xbox 360. I shall try post some impressions of them early next week but they seems to be two pretty good games. Handheld games are really nice during the summer since you can sit anywhere playing them, it is harder to move the television out to the balcony and play with the stationary video game systems there.
Have a nice weekend and I will start blogging next week with some first impressions of the two new games and a little of everything as usuall.
Some time have passed since my latest post here so I think it is time for a new one. The last week I have found an interest for Halo Wars, I have applied for some jobs in different places and I am dying to move away from Skellefteå to see something new and exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I like Skellefteå as a town to study with its cozy nature and closeness to the other students but it doesn’t offer a lot of stuff to do. I’m missing the sound of traffic going past my window, the crowds of people you have to pass when down town to being in a city where people are who they want to be but with style and no track suit bottoms which is common here now in the spring. Track suits should be worn at home or when training.
Halo Wars, the RTS game from Ensamble Studio, which has shut down, brings the Halo franchise back to its roots. I am usually not a huge RTS fan but I really like Halo Wars and I believe it is because the pace is a bit lower than in a PC equivalent and with only two factions to play, it is easier to learn how they work. They have solved the control method in a good way as long as the action is in one place and you easily jump between bases with a single click on the pad.
I have played one third of the campaign but so far I have focused my attention on the skirmish mode which I think is great fun. It contains a lot of interesting maps with some bonus buildings and a huge variety on the environment with everything from deserts and cities to snowfield. The graphics are well made and the game looks pretty. On the downside is that there is only a human campaign and no campaign for the covenants. Also the voices can be a bit frustrating when you for each finished building, research or unit get an announcement told to you that tells you it is done. It gets a bit repetitive when you have built or upgraded six factories for money making. Even if the control works well as long as the action is taking place in a single place, it gets problematic when it is on more than one place with you often strafing through the map instead of pulling up and clicking on the spot on a mini map as it usually works on PC.
I am thinking about selling a couple of my games, titles that pretty much only take up places in my shelf such as Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia and Lost Planet. I am thinking about putting them up on sale on a gaming forum to maybe get them traded for other titles or else I bring them to the local game store and change them there. I am just not sure of what titles I am interested in… Lately there have been some handheld titles released that is of interest; Henry Hatsworth, Loco Roco 2 and of course GTA4 China Wars. I ordered The World Ends with You yesterday from Videogame plus as I have heard a lot of good stuff about it and I need to dust of my DS since I haven’t played anything on it for some time. Handheld games are great to play during the summer since you can play them outside in the grass or when traveling between towns.
In a bit more than a month, Nordic Game opens its doors in Malmö for a 2 day conference event and I have thoughts of going there. I think it would be interesting and a great experience, coming closer to the industry that I want to work in. Keiji Inafune and Suda 51 are two of the guests who will attend the conference and it would be a great experience to hear them speak. The down side is that I have to go there by myself since no one in my vicinity think it’s worth that much money to go there for two days and sure I can understand them, it isn’t free and the end note will end pretty high but it might be a way to get into the industry which I think could be worth trying. I might return on this subject due to the length of this text.
That have to do for today, sleep tight and have a nice future!
I just turned out all the lights in the appartment and I have 5 candels burning on my table now. I also switch of all day to day electricity like computers, teves and such but I am sitting here with my computer without power so I let it go on the battery.
I think that the 60 Earth Hour is a good thing to do and to participate in. Some people say that it won’t be any drastic changes but I think that if the same amount of people as last year participate something sure has to change and last year there where 50 million people who joined in and they count on the number to have grown up to a 100 million participants this year so sure it will be noticable.
I look out of the appartment and it is actually more lights on than off which isn’t so nice but it is up to each and every person.
Another week have past, this week I received my new bed and I got a place to do my thesis in game design at. The thesis will be written for Ted, my mentor in my specialistation project. Feels nice to have something to do during that period of time, it seems that a lot of people haven’t got anywhere to be.
Tomorrow I am going to an interview at Securitas to see wether or not I will end up there during the summer. I have worked as a security guard earlier and know what it is about but I don’t want to get stuck with it for the rest of my life which happens easier then you might think. When I worked in Göteborg I really liked it, the collegues I had was great and the job easy enough to have for a couple of years and I made enough money to live as I wanted. Ahh well, it is just a work over the summer at the beginning and I might not get it, who knows. But it would be nice to get a real income again, I’m missing it after have been study for 1½ year.
I bought World of Goo yesterday or so, it has a reduced price on Steam during the weekend so I bought it and it’s a lot of fun. It’s made by a couple of guys, one guy is behind most of the stuff like the gameplay, design, music and art and then he have had a couple of other guys do what he can’t do for him self I would guess like the coding. When playing it starts the mind and I start to think of what I could create if I took care of the art and design stuff and let someone else code it and create music for it. I am actually thinking of starting a project in Adventure games studio since it is a really easy tool for creating point and click games and I have a odd idea for something that might work, atleast get some peoples eye to pop.
Well, going to make some food now but see you later.
I just played the Killzone 2 demo on my PS3 and I’m usually not that impresed with high polygon counts, but this game was jaw dropping seriously. Best looking game on console easily but it might get boring with all the grey and brown textures thruout the whole game. But the demo was really nice, I just got a little excite about it and might end up buying it later on. I also downloaded the latest FF7AC trailer from the japanese PSN and even that one was jaw dropping, they have made a good job piffing it up to high resolution and I can see why it have taken so long time for them. An instant buy even though I have the dvd version at home.
Me and Lisa celebrated Valentines day yesterday and I had bought her the first season of Ugly Betty and she got me Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga which was a nice thing since we have finished Lego Indiana Jones and both enjoyed it so now we have another game to play thru together. We also watched Madagascar 2 which was a funny movie I think.
We have soon lived together for 3 weeks I think and we have started to get stuff where they are supposed to be, we moved my computer table to the living room since we’re getting a new bed next week and now I have fixed so I can watch movies on the telly from my PC and with sound, have had problems with the sound since my stereo broke but now we have Lisas stereo so now I put it up again.
I’m not blogging that much on this blog anymore but I’m writing even more on my project blog over at lgdsp.wordpress.com where you all can follow my progress with the project.
