game of the century

I think even non-chess players can appreciate the genius behind this game. It's a walkthrough with commentary of the match between Bobby Fisher and Donald Byrne; referred to as the Game of the Century. Of note,

1. Bobby Fisher was 13 years old.
2. Byrne is no slouch.
3. The first noteworthy move in my mind is right at 8:00. Pause and try to figure it out. I didn't. It's a mind bogglingly creative move. Stunning forethought which the commentary will lead you through.
4. The second one is at 15:40.

After that it's hard not to feel the frustration that Byrne must have felt. He must have been pretty sure in his head that he was going to win and yet it turns into an utter slaughter.

Did I mention he was 13? WTF.

thank you

every limbo boy and girl

Video games can never be art.

That's the title of a piece by Roger Ebert.  Among the gamers of the world it caused quite a stir.  Having read the piece it is not his best writing.  He doesn't quite answer the question about 'what is art?' and so the piece relies a little on the same definition of porn ("I know it when I see it.").

At face value it is a stupid assertion which he points out, since never is a very very long time.  But up until recently I'm apt to agree with him.  I don't think any video games have appealed to the senses the way art can.

That is until I played 'Limbo'. An arcade game on the Xbox.

Limbo is the first game I have ever played that appealed to my senses less as a video game and more as a work of art. The premise is quite simple. The protagonist, a small boy, wakes up in the forest and encounters a series obstacles that he must overcome in order to 'win the game.' Apparently a preview video or interview hinted that you are trying to find your sister but I could not verify that.

The puzzles are clever and become increasingly difficult as you progress through the game.  But it isn't anything we haven't seen before.  Puzzle video games have been around since Fool's Errand in 1987.

But that is just one layer of the game.  At first it seems like the primary layer.  But as you get farther through and when you finally finish the game you realize there has been another layer lurking beneath.  One that is difficult to describe in words.  I'll try to give you some idea of it.  There may be too much in the way of spoilers but I'll avoid anything purposefully direct.

The ending is unusual. It is slightly jarring in its suddenness. And it is remarkably ambiguous for a game. It's an awkward scene.  Something about it isn't quite right.  It would be as if two long enemies finally reconnect for a final battle and instead they embrace.  But this ending has a wonderful effect of making you reflect on the game.  "What just happened?" you ask yourself. Just before the ending is a slow motion sequence that just holds your attention like any good movie would. It is pure art.  The credits roll and the 'lobby' of the game is displayed at which point you realize something else when you look closely. Something you'll have to see for your own eyes. Puzzles in puzzles.

Then there is the name, Limbo.  In Catholicism Limbo is the edge of Hell.  You aren't quite bad enough to have been assigned a post in Hell.  So you stay in Limbo.  It's not purgatory.  It's worse.  A state of oblivion.  Or it can be the place for those who are unbaptized but are innocent.  And there is another intriguing definition; a place for neglected, forgotten or misplaced things.

Make no mistake the world of Limbo is disturbing.  The small boy can quickly die a gruesome death at the hands of gears, giant spiders, spike filled booby traps, bear traps, horrible machinery.  And to complete all the puzzles you must jump lakes by using other dead floating kids as stepping stones.  When initially playing you are focused on the game play and kind of mentally 'shush'-ing these disturbing elements away.  When you really examine the world though it is utterly horrifying.

In addition the cinematic effort put forth on the look and sound of the game is what I would consider to be beyond what anyone has done in video games to date and clearly approaches some top notch movies.  While horrifying, it is a beautifully crafted world. Wonderful and impactful cinematic effects are used. The video is black and white, depth of field is played with to vary focus, the scenes have vignetting, there is a flicker to the game like an old movie would have, and more subtly the panning and zooming of the viewpoint is often masterful.  These effects all work to really create an ominous feeling.  The 'soundtrack', if you can call it that, is also perfect.  There's a droning quality to the work, and just like in suspenseful movies, the music can increase in volume or melodic intensity to highlight particular moments of the game. I'm dying to get my hands on the soundtrack and there are some rumors it may become available.  All in all, the game's cinematography and music kept reminding me over and over of Eraserhead. Eraserhead was the first movie by David Lynch and in my mind it is still his best movie; thoroughly an art house movie if there ever was one.

And I think the similarities go farther than that.  Eraserhead is really the embodiment of a man's fear of his first child.  And in some way I can't help but feel Limbo is the embodiment of something similar.  It has something to do with fears.

There are many interesting themes presented throughout the game.  To touch on one, and perhaps the most haunting is the giant spider.  The spider is relentless like a fear or a bad dream.  Even after you kill it you realize you haven't.  It keeps coming and coming.  And the way the spider is eventually killed is by removing all his legs one by one; a common and gruesome childhood event.  But one perhaps symbolizing you've overcome that fear.  The giant spider at one point captures you and spins you into a cocoon; bringing up fears of claustrophobia and becoming someone else's dinner.  There are many themes like this that play out through the game.  Bullies, large dangerous machinery, world's turning upside down, laws of physics bending.  It has a psychological effect on you.

So the question remains what does it all mean?  And on that one I'm still not sure.  Nor do I want to give away any specific points as spoilers.  There are lots of theories out there if you read the forums.  Limbo forums are interesting places with lots of chatter about what all this means.  It's definitely something I'd like to chat about over a beer with friends...

cnn asteroids

Turn any website into an Asteroids battlefield. Pretty incredible.

skinner xbox

Fascinating article in the humor publication Cracked about the psychology applied to gaming - Linkie. It's scary and hilarious at the same time. It's a summary of Microsoft's John Hopson's article in Gamasutra - Linkie.

As a bonus there is a great video of a dolphin playing a 'game' near the end.

BF Skinner knew. He called that training process "shaping." Little rewards, step by step, like links in a chain. In WoW you decide you want the super cool Tier 10 armor. You need five separate pieces. To get the full set, you need more than 400 Frost Emblems, which are earned a couple at a time, from certain enemies. Then you need to upgrade each piece of armor with Marks of Sanctification. Then again with Heroic Marks of Sanctification. To get all that you must re-run repetitive missions and sit, clicking your mouse, for days and days and days. Boobies be damned.  Once it gets to that point, can you even call that activity a "game" anymore? It's more like scratching a rash. And it gets worse...

"it makes no sense to your brain"

The Project Natal stuff Microsoft showed is friggin magic. People are way too jaded in this world. A lot of the commentary on the tech websites is along the lines of "looks cool". Come on! This is Minority Report-level pixie dust. Just stand back in amazement at the technical accomplishment here. I love it. Check out 2:30/2:51 near the end of the video below. The guy's playing Burnout Paradise with no modification to the game code. Just the Xbox sensors converting the guy's motion into an emulation of a controller's output. Wild.

GTA IV

Having been an Xbox and Sega console owner over the last 7 years or so I’ve never actually played Grand Theft Auto. And that wasn’t a big problem for me because the concept of GTA – gangsters, carjacking, rap, etc – are of little interest to me. And even though the game garnered a lot of praise I just couldn’t fathom the interest in the game.

The row of offices on my side of the building is lined with ex-PS2 owners and rabid GTA fanatics. I generally think of GTA fans as being more of a college group but this group of well educated professionals demanded I buy GTA IV when it came out.

So I bought the game. Initially my reservations were confirmed. It was a little slow and uninteresting. But after about 1 hour of game play it was clear that GTA is a wholly unique gaming experience. By the end I was so sucked in that marital strife was becoming an issue.

GTA is a thoroughly absorbing and unique game that has a reputation that doesn’t do it justice. GTA has very little to do with the gangsters, drug running, and rap. It has everything to do with social commentary on America – both positive and negative. It’s not coincidental that this kind insightful commentary could only be pulled off by a foreigner. The two main brothers in charge of GTA are both English. I think it requires someone with an outside eye to pull this kind of feat off.

Having not understood the attraction to the game, let me try to explain it for others who were as skeptical as me.

1. The vastness of Liberty City. In most video games you ‘live’ in a big world, but you don’t experience that vastness. You live in compartmentalized spot of the universe at any give time. In GTA you can literally see the entire gaming world before you (especially if you are up in a helicopter). This creates an immersion and reality that I’ve not felt in other games. And it’s hard to explain. When you first fire up the chopper and lift off it is an overwhelming experience.
2. Freedom. The vastness coupled with the nonlinearity of much of the game makes it feel like real life. You have options. You can do this or that. You can go here or there. This is a sort of ‘second life’ except you aren’t interacting with real people. You can go eat. You can change clothes. You can call people on your cell phone. You can change the radio station in your car. You can go on dates. You can go see a comedy show…
3. Storyline. Granted it’s not Academy Award material but you care or exhibit interest in almost all the characters. They are multidimensional flawed characters. They are well acted. Especially Niko, the protagonist you play. You want to know a little bit more about each person as the game goes on.
4. New York. If you live in or have often visited New York, then Liberty City will feel like home. But it’s not an exact replica and that’s important because it makes the city familiar but unique. DUMBO, where I live, is BOABO. The layout is different but it’s unmistakably DUMBO. Manhattan is Algonquin. The Empire State building is there but called Rotterdam Tower. There’s something appealing about tooling around a city you live in or know.
5. Graphics. A lot of people complain about GTA graphics. In one sense they are weak compared to games like Gears of War. But in another sense they are better. In the same way that Georgia O’Keefe has captured the essence of the Brooklyn Bridge better than a photo can, GTA captures the essence of New York better than a hyper realistic version of New York would. Liberty City is beautiful. At times I will stop driving to see the sun go down over the Brooklyn Bridge (er, Broker Bridge). With less intense graphics comes an increase in variability. The imperfections in the city are everywhere. Each block looks like it’s designed by a separate designer. Trash cans, advertisements, imperfections in the sidewalks and roads. The way the road glistens when it rains. All these little design flourishes make the graphics more real than if they just added pixel resolution.
6. Humor – It’s everywhere in the game and yet subtle like a Spinal Tap movie. Unless you are consciously observant you’ll not notice the the Statue of Happiness (Liberty) is actually holding a coffee cup rather than a torch. One of the characters, Little Jacob, has such a deep Caribbean accent peppered with so much street lingo that he is simply incomprehensible. Niko, to make you feel better, is equally baffled by his dialogue. And there are some inside jokes too. Entry into the Holland Tunnel equivalent from the Jersey side is a nightmare. As you approach the entrance 20 cars beat you to it and jam up the whole road. Just like in real life.
7. Attention to Detail. Sometimes it is ridiculous. A really bad car will backfire. Not once per minute as if driven by some algorithm. Once per your whole time playing the game. Airplanes occasionally show up in the sky. The cabbie in front of you will toss something out of his window. People are muttering funny things as you walk by them. It all adds to the immersive quality of the game.
8. Music. There are tons of radio stations as you drive around. And for the most part they are all good. I’ve found about 20-30 artists/songs that I need to check out. There is something so wonderful about cruising up the West Side Highway in a convertible with Global Communication blasting out of the radio.

What is perhaps most perplexing about GTA is that there aren’t more copycats of this setup. I don’t mean copying the gangster theme. This platform lends itself to many different types of games. I could see an “Indiana Jones” version where you are immersed in a world based on Cairo or a sci-fi version where you are immersed in some futuristic city. I don’t know why Take Two or other gaming companies haven’t explored these ideas.

At any rate I’m eagerly awaiting the downloadable content for the Xbox and for the next version many years from now.

social networking v0.1

Gary Gygax passed away this week.  I was a card carrying D&D player back in high school.  I even attended the D&D convention, Gencon, twice.  Some people road trip to Fort Lauderdale.  I road tripped to Wisconsin to play fantasy games.

There have been a lot of obits and opinion pieces (a NY Times piece here).  I think most of them have missed the point.  D&D was less about the fantasy aspect and its influence on gaming in general, than it was about a common ground for smart, well read, techy types (read 'outcasts') to get together the way a high school football team bonded or the cool kids at a booze-filled party had fun.  It was a social lubricant for people who needed it. 

I'll always fondly remember all night sessions over at the house of friends.  Usually around 4AM with pizza boxes, mountain dew, copious DM notes, and gobs of dice strewn around the room, we'd hit the sack.  It was our version of a knock down party.  And I loved it.

i actually suck at tennis

Posting for posterity. I didn't realize you could score higher than 2000 on Wii tennis. You need to win every game of the match for a few matches to get there.

 

nim

This game is ripe for winning drinks at bars and parties. You play against a computer removing balls from 4 rows. The rows have 3, 4, 5, and 6 balls in them. When it is your turn you can take any number balls away from a single row. Then it is the computers turn. The player who takes the last ball is the loser. The reason it is fun is that it seems impossible to beat the guy. Go ahead and try. If you don't make all the right moves it is impossible. The computer makes no mistakes in strategy and this is a game where once someone has the upper hand they technically cannot lose it.

The generic name of the game is nim. There can be any number of rows or number of balls within a row. Of course Wikipedia has some information on the game including how to beat the game. However the explanation is quite cryptic since it deals with binary numbers and "nim-summing" rather than heuristics. Here's a more straight forward explanation on how to beat it with a few heuristics.

The first thing you need is a list of the binary numbers for all the possible numbers of balls in the rows:

1 ball = 001
2 balls = 010
3 balls = 011
4 balls = 100
5 balls = 101
6 balls = 110

Now treat these binary numbers as base 10 numbers. For example, 5 balls = "one-hundred and one" rather than true binary numbers.

When it is your turn add up the numbers that remain. At the start of the game this (011 + 100 + 101 + 110) = 322.

The first heuristic is to always remove balls so that the remaining number only contains "2"s and "0"s. No "3"s and no "1"s.

This is a little harder than it seems at first. You need to look at all 4 numbers at the beginning to figure out how to do this. The obvious first move is to remove all the balls in the 4 ball row. This removes 100 from our sum which leaves us with a sum of (322 - 100) = 222.

Keep doing this until the very 'end'. And when I say 'end', I don't really have a good description of what I mean. The second heuristic is that near the end you need to just use your brain on how to make sure the computer has to take the last ball. If you keep leaving "2"s and "0"s all the way through then you will eventually lose. You need to flip to odd at the 'end'. This is best illustrated as an example,

3 4 5 6 (game start; sum = 322)
3 0 5 6 (I remove the 4 ball row; sum = 222)
1 0 5 6 (computer remove 2 balls from the 3 ball row; sum = 212)
1 0 5 4 (my move leaves 202)
1 0 5 2 (computer leaves 112)
1 0 3 2 (my move leaves 22)
0 0 3 2 (computer leaves 21)

At this point I'm starting to see what the remaining moves are and if I can force an ending to the game. There are still too many permutations left so I keep on strategy.

0 0 2 2 (my move leaves 20)
0 0 2 1 (computer leaves 11)

Now at this point there are very few permutations of moves left. If I stuck to my "2"s and "0"s strategy my next move would be to leave (0 0 1 1). But clearly the computer will take one ball and I'll be stuck with the last losing ball. So at this point I make a different move to end the game.

0 0 0 1 (sum = 1 but the computer is left with last loser ball)

I wish I had a better way to describe when to move off the first heuristic but I don't. For example if you are left with 1 0 0 6 you again would want to go off strategy to leave 1 0 0 0. Play around and you'll get the hang of it.

define franchise?

This is a funny post I remember reading 6 years ago by Tero Kuittinen on thestreet.com about Microsoft. The guy hates Microsoft. The money quote from his discussion of why the Xbox would be a failure,

Microsoft's early lineup of titles has a curiously tepid, washed-out vibe: "Halo" and "Oddworld" don't exactly sound like instant franchises.

I remembered this story because I knew Halo was being developed by Bungie and I consistently love Bungie games (Marathon, Myth). I had a feeling it would do well. Oddworld was a great game by the way.

My wife snagged a free version of Halo yesterday and I can confirm it looks good.

bioshock

To get to the point, Bioshock is probably the best game I've ever played. You can read the superlative reviews all over the web. There is very little to criticize in this game. 10 out of 10 and 100% reviews are in the majority. My only point of reference for this game is Blade Runner. That was a movie where everything came together. Acting, music, casting, special effects, creativity, cinematography, directing, themes, and story were perfect. Bioshock is the Blade Runner of games.

I loved Marathan. Halo was incredible. Gears of War was loads of fun. But Bioshock penetrates more deeply than any of those games. It overwhelms the senses at times. Why exactly is it so good?

Rendering. Probably the least important aspect of any game. But when it's done well it can really help gel together the other aspects of the game. It is so well done that when the first cut-scene ended I didn't realize I was actually in player mode. I sat staring at the fire and the reflections of the moon off the water. Oh wait, I can move.

Design. I have a soft spot in my heart for 1940s design. Art deco and in particular the graphic design of that time for advertisements. It's not that far from fascist Russian propaganda. And it fits with the storyline. Beyond that the attention to detail is insane at times. Much of the world is interactive. When a hail of bullets rains down on you while you crouch behind a bar, the bottles explode and fall. This added level of interactivity really helps immerse you into the game. The walls are adorned with elaborate advertisements and small filigree embosses every manner of infrastructure around you. Plush rooms with deep hues and textured surfaces envelop the entire landscape.

Story. I'm not done with the game yet but what little I've seen has already impressed. It's definitely got some Ayn Rand Objectivism themes at its core. But they are taken to a sci-fi extreme. As you walk through the game you pick up clues as to what has happened. You are a stranger in a strange land initially. Piecing together where you are and how it operates is both part of the fun but also necessary to understand how to move through the game. One of the main themes is ambiguity. It's not clear who is good and who is bad. The infamous Big Daddy doesn't really attack you if you don't threaten him. Who is good in this world? Your MC through the game seems slightly suspect on some level even though he's done nothing wrong yet or led me astray. The story has it's onion layers peeled away slowly.

Nonlinearity. On 3 levels you are left with many choices to make. Moral choices, geographic choices, and tactical choices. I have no idea how much this changes the outcome. The moral choices I would guess cause significant changes in outcomes. There are clues that this is the case. The geographic choices are ultimately linear. You are a task based protagonist. You need to get from A to B. But getting there seems much more nonlinear than most games. I kept backtracking through areas I had already gone through making me feel much more disoriented (in a good way). Areas that were cleaned of enemies had strays wandering through them here and there. And because the number of weapons and 'enhancements' are seemingly endless, how you attack a particular situation or enemy requires some strategic thinking. What to do? What to do?

Music. Amazingly even the music is fantastic. How often do you hear Billy Holliday in a video game? And in paranoid situations it works very well. Lots of great period pieces from the 40s in this game.

Terror. Not since Marathon have I been so wigged out by a game. The way Marathon achieved this is the same way Bioshock does it. Use of lighting and use of sounds. An example. In once sequence where you are trying to locate and kill a mad doctor, you can see his shadow on the wall suggesting he is just around the corner. You have to wade through water so your sloshing could make your presence known. So you slow down and gently move forward. You never see the doctor, just his shadow while he is doing something nasty to a person or corpse. As you get to the point where you think you are about to see him the lights go out. Then after a few seconds they flicker on. But not at full brightness. It's still too dark to really get your bearings initially. Creepy!

Weapons. while there are the usual guns and crowbar weapons (all used on the right hand), the left hand is something new. I won't get into the details but there are a huge array of paranormal weapons available. Freezing things, electricuting things, incinerating things, levitating things, etc. Apparently there are tons of them. And they are deeply woven into the game. Electrocute a group of 'splicers' in the water and they all will die. Freeze a splicer and then shoot him with the pistol and he explodes into ice fragments. Levitation (telekinesis in the game) is used to pick up items and throw them at enemies. But at times you need to levitate things you can't reach which adds to the puzzle nature of the game. Incineration will burn enemies but it is also used to melt ice which blocks you path. Then beyond that there are tonics which improve your abilities. Sustain more damage, increase your hacking skills, slow down the environment, etc. And they all seem to fit within the context of the game. Everything seems to fit.

Embellishments. Beyond the primary components of the game there are lots of great little additons. Safes that contain things you need that have to be hacked open. Hacking itself leads to a little mini-game. The security systems which create loads of grief by releasing bots that attack you. The bots themselves are creative sputtering out little diesel fumes. They remind me of little ornithopters in the Dune movie. Then there are vending machines and other supply depots that are cleverly woven into the story rather than placed oddly into the landscape. All require some type of special currency. Apparently there's even some way to invent your own weapons at the U-Invent kiosk.

Characters. The enemies are generally creepy. But there's more than just enemies here. There are a lot of supporting characters that create the backstory. And there is Little Sister and Big Daddy. One is a little mutated girl with dead eyes. Hard to kill when you have a little girl of your own. And Big Daddy which looks like a giant deep sea diver from the 40s. Just the rumble of his feet hitting the ground fills me with fear.

One last endorsement. I can't recall the last time where I really took my time to explore the environment in a game. I may have done it because I need to find bullets but not because I wanted to. I explore everything in this game. And that takes a lot of time. But because it is fun you really lose track of time. Many people have written about how they thought they played for a few hours but had really played for many hours. I thought it was 10PM when I put the game down last night. It was past midnight.

Remarkable game. I couldn't recommend it more.

marathon: durandal up tomorrow

8/1/07 release date. I will be busy tomorrow night in case anyone plans on calling me :).

marathon

Marathon: Durandal coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Huge news for me. Marathon in many ways was the precursor to Halo. And on a personal level I found myself more emotionally attached to the game than I do with Halo. While the game is ancient history in video game terms, the hours wasted on that game while I was completing my PhD helped me keep my sanity. The game was so well designed it would scare the willies out of me. And I recall friends standing around watching it like a movie while I played. Doom was the game that stormed the video game scene around that time but I never understood the attraction. I even played it on a Mac. Now that is a long time ago.

crayon physics

Very cool little physics game. Requires a download and install.

Solutions here.

The music in the game is from ccMixter, a creative commons source for samples and music.

how many headshots does it take?

Only those incompetent at Gears of War will get this one.


via (this was a joke by the way, there is no achievement said asskicking)

gears of war

Amazing trailer for Gears of War. They could make a movie with the engine on this game.

As a side note I guess you know you are getting old when bands are doing covers of songs you liked when you were young.

space invaders

Very cool stop-motion video of the space invaders game re-enacted with people in a theater. Requires QuickTime.

360

Well that was weird. Somehow I managed to snag myself a free Xbox 360. Nothing illegal mind you. Just incredibly lucky. I was planning on picking one up when they became a little more available. But free will do nicely.

I think most of the reviews of the 360 have focused on it being evolutionary from the original Xbox. But for me at least it really is a revolutionary piece of equipment. And get this. I haven't even bought a game yet. How so?

First the setup is simple. No screwing around with anything. The worst of it was really finding a spot behind the TV for the humongous powerbrick and punching in those God awful long keys for the wireless WEP security.

The hardware is nice. The controllers truly are perfection. They just feel tight in your hands. And the fact that they are wireless gives you so much more freedom. Some have mentioned that the console design is nice (Apple-like), but it doesn't do much for me. On the other hand I really don't care as it gets slotted into my paltry media shelf and I never see it again. The wireless adapter, while pricey, is so tiny and works so well it's totally worth the 99 bones I paid. Configuring for my wireless signal was amazingly easy. And then connecting the Media Connect to the Xbox (more later) was seamless.

The bootup screen is actually kind of lame considering all the things they could have done. But again that's picking nits. The dashboard however is just perfection. From the screenshots I saw I was prepared to be underwhelmed. But they really thought outside the box on the organization of the elements and how you move around. It works well and is really intuitive. The transitions and responsiveness really ice it for me though. It's hard to describe, but it is just really well designed. And the dashboard upgrade was made with minimal effort.

There really are two things though that make the 360 the bee's knees for me. Downloadable content and media streaming.

The possibilities for content delivery are huge. I hooked the system up and went into the marketplace. Thankfully they don't aggregate the downloadable content. Otherwise it would be just too hard to navigate through so much stuff. But there's enough to keep you entertained. I tried out a Scanner Darkly preview, Cars preview, Red vs. Blue short film, an Avengers cartoon, and a Matisyahu music video. It's effortless, runs in the background, and is quite fast. They also capture the best aspect of PC gaming - downloadable demos. How huge is that? I can try out a game before I waste any money. And then there are the downloadable mini-games. Geometry Wars really is the most incredible game I've played in years. Kameo and Battlefield 2 are cued up next. I presume they are smart enough to charge for advertising fees for this.

If they could rent movies or TV shows I'd probably cancel my Netflix account. If they could do an Amazon and figure out what else I'd like to watch or play the system would be perfect. The small hard disk represents the only real problem here as it limits the number of movies you could store. Note there's a nice RSS feed of new Marketplace stuff here.

The internal media delivery is seamless as well. I downloaded Media Connect on my PC, pointed it to a set of media files (luckily I'm anal about filing), let my 360 connect and presto I have all my music and pictures available on my TV screen. No waiting around to scan the folders. It was all just sitting there on my TV screen waiting for me to pick something. Most people pooh pooh this feature but for me it's probably the best feature. I have tons of pictures that I actually like to look through (those with babies will understand) but sitting in front of the computer just isn't that much fun. And my music collection is all ripped with CDs sitting in storage so playing music has also been relegated to my computer. Sitting back on my couch watching a slideshow of our vacation while playing my favorite album in the background is just pure bliss.

The only downside is that now I'm contemplating upgrading my shitty 10 year old CRT standard definition TV to something new. And I'm kind of proud of the fact that I have a shitty old TV.

why don't video games have rag dolls like this

Iron Yuppie spots an incredible piece of coding. The rag doll effects seem so spot on. And the disturbing nature of what you're seeing adds a surreal feeling to it all. The bangs on the noggin are particularly painful to watch. Notice also that you can grab the doll with your cursor to move her around.