Now, the problem with most gaming blogs is simply that they either focus on the business of games (which game has just released, what the sales figures are) or one a particular subset of the genre (i.e. the various WoW fansites out there, Massively for MMOGs, etc). Offworld is attempting to cover the "indie" scene but yet they have a post about Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, two titles, which I would not classify as being indie, but rather mainstream. Fallout 3 is a licensed sequel bought from the failed Interplay, and Left 4 Dead comes from Valve, which is indie in the sense that they are not owned by EA, Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony, but mainstream in that everyone knows who they are. Indie to me, lies more along the axis of developing offbeat independent games with a small team of developers that mainstream audiences tend to find little interest in because they are unpolished and raw, yet subtly quirky enough to attract the interests of the everyday gamer. Three Rings, for instance, is the perfect example of an indie game developer -- they develop and publish quirky casual games that appeal to a limited audience, and aren't on any of the major game consoles; their games' appeal spread by word of mouth, and by the creativity of their game design.

For Offworld to become successful, it needs to echo the Boing Boing formula of linking to interesting content, and I think in the current game blog universe, especially in the field of indie games that it will be a struggle to not turn into all the rest. ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/dividing-the-mainstream-from-t.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/dividing-the-mainstream-from-t.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:03:24 -0800

When I was a kid, we had chickens and we had rabbits, although I never knew that chickens could perform this kind of interspecies intervention.

(via boing boing)]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/dont-peck-me-bro.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/dont-peck-me-bro.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:53:34 -0800 Super Mario Kart, and we've been playing on Sunday mornings. This week, however, try as we might, we could not manage after an hour and a half manage to ever connect up with our friends. My running theory is that with the larger availability of the Nintendo Wii, that the network architecture of Nintendo's WFC (WiFi Connection) isn't built to handle all the new users who have recently bought Wii systems. I've seen game companies massively underestimate the number of network players who are on simultaneously -- Sony has never been immune to this mistake, and I suspect Nintendo isn't either.

Interestingly enough, up until this past month, Nintendo had statistics on nintendowifi.com which showed was live; however the site has been shutdown and now simply refers to a product page for the service.]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/wii-are-displeased.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/wii-are-displeased.html Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:00:56 -0800 San Jose Mercury News reports that 1 in 7 homes in Santa Clara County are underwater. ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/glub-glub.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/glub-glub.html Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:56:12 -0800 The Death Knight character, while new and interesting seems to fill the area between a Warlock and a Warrior Hybrid; while not as ineffectual as a Paladin in dealing damage, the Death Knight does not have the heavy physical defense rating of a Paladin, but rather heavy magical defense so that they can tank spellcasters in a raid group. I think this should prove interesting, as the hardest fights in the game are usually against spellcasting bosses, which do incredible amounts of damage quickly.

The talents and skills of a Death Knight are interesting, as they range from being able to summon Ghouls to being able to Death Coil (fire a bolt of energy which steals life from the enemy and replenishes the Death Knight's).The game play is very similar to a warrior or rogue, in which the player must build up runic energy in order to execute special attacks. ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/first-impressions-wrath-of-the.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/first-impressions-wrath-of-the.html Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:24:44 -0800 World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, which meant that last night was the midnight launch of the game; Europeans had a head start on the Americans, and as a result, those realms are likely to already have some level 80s running about.

In the Bay Area, the official event was in San Francisco's Powell Street Gamestop, which had about 200 gamers showing up; in my opinion, the real crowd was at the Fry's in Sunnyvale further down the peninsula, which by all estimates numbered well into the eight hundred plus mark.

The game is estimated to sell approximately 5 million in the first month of release, a phenomenal number of copies, given that most PC games are lucky to sell even a quarter of that number in the first year of release.

My own experience with the game has been one of installing and patching -- after installing from the DVD, a process which took for me about an hour, one must download a 390 MB patch to update from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2, and then one smaller 20MB patch to go from 3.0.2 to 3.0.3. Those with the patches can supposedly jump right in after filling out their account keys.

The Collector's Edition of the expansion set includes an art book, which while nice, isn't as nice as their previous Art books included with the Collector's Edition. As always, the CE comes with a special in-game pet, a CD and a behind the scenes DVD. ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/wow-wrath-of-the-lich-king.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/wow-wrath-of-the-lich-king.html Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:48:34 -0800 Baconnaise, which is, you guessed it -- bacon plus mayo. While I haven't tried it yet, I can only guess that this will likely find it's way into my kitchen at some point. ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/mmmm-baconnaise.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/mmmm-baconnaise.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:30:39 -0800 Nintendo Wii was released, and throughout those 3 years, I've never been able to order one through Amazon, that is, until today. I was finally able to place an order through Amazon and received a shipping confirmation for the Wii. This Wii is not for myself, or for friends or family, but rather destined for Child's Play.

Lately I've been finding Wiis at Target, but with the Nintendo Wii being readily available on many online retailers now (such as Amazon, Gamestop, and Best Buy), could it mean that the 3 year drought of Wii consoles is over? ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/finally.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/finally.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:24:12 -0800

The Climate Project, an organization which trains people to talk about climate change, and how our everyday actions can lessen the impact of climate change. For those of you who still wish to send physical items, this is the right Michael Huang Amazon wish list to use. ]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/hello-my-friends-its-time.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/11/hello-my-friends-its-time.html 2008 charity childsplay civil climate eff lgbt rights Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:14:42 -0800

Every year, Halloween seems to sneak up on me, and while I have a ton of ideas, choosing one is always so hard. It really does make me wish there were more holidays which involve dressing in costume.]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/halloween-2008.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/halloween-2008.html 2008 costume halloween Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:36:39 -0800 mydadisafob.com
mymomisafob.com

Here's a choice selection that is re-enacted every time I go home:

Mom: Keep play basketball. You will grow taller!
Charles: I'm 29 years old. I think I've stopped growing by now.
Mom: No you can growing! Everyone growing all the time!
Charles: ...
Mom: Also, keep jumping!

]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/my-mom-and-dad-are-fobs.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/my-mom-and-dad-are-fobs.html Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:30:56 -0800 Chrono Trigger:

]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/the-chrono-trigger-proposal.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/the-chrono-trigger-proposal.html chronotrigger ds enix psone snes squareenix squaresoft videogame videogames Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:20:43 -0800 With the release of the new laptops this Tuesday by Apple, I have been thinking about the rest of Apple's product line, and how so far, the design trend is actually following the example set about by the MacBook Air. Although Apple didn't announce it at the time, the MacBook Air serves as a template for all other products announced since January of '08 with a unibody design, and black bordered glass. The iPhone 3G follows this design almost to a tee, as does the new black-backed iMac and the new laptops. I would expect the new Apple Cinema Displays and the Mac Pro to also follow the trend. http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/apples-unibody-philosophy.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/apples-unibody-philosophy.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:33:48 -0800 Apple also released a 24 inch LED monitor for use for their laptops, with a multi-adapter cord which features MagSafe (for charging your laptop), 3 USB ports, and a DisplayPort connector. Also included in the specs is a built-in iSight camera, microphone and stereo speakers.

What I find particularly interesting about the feature set of this monitor is that it is equipped explicitly for these new laptops released today, indicating the direction for future product development along this line of laptops. While the glossy screen of the monitor is a detractor for professionals, it is also likely that for the majority of the audience who would be purchasing these monitors the glossiness is not likely to be of much concern to them.

Apple made a minor refresh of the 17 inch MacBook Pro and the models of the MacBook Air in the area of drive capacity, but do not incorporate the new designs revealed today. Today's announcements also lay the groundwork for the announcements to be made at MacWorld SF in January, which are likely to be announcements of new MacPros, Mac mini, AppleTV and iLife.

Intel's Nehalem chipset is due to be released in the first few weeks of November (the 17th, if the series of tubes is to be trusted), leading some to speculate that Apple may hold another event next month to announce the release of new Xserves and MacPros with this new CPU. I find this rumor to be highly unlikely, as historically, Apple has only ever announced new products in November twice in recent history -- in 2002 and 2003, when Apple was still utilizing the PowerPC architecture. I strongly believe that Nehalem-powered XServes and MacPros will be announced at MacWorld SF in January, and not before, as traditionally, while Intel has made their chips available in November, it is in the 1st quarter of the following year that the OEMs are able to release products that utilize these chips.

At the beginning of this year, Steve Jobs made the claim that 2008 would see more product launches than any in Apple history. Here's a short checklist of items released, which number twelve in total: 1/2008: MacPro
1/2008: MacBook Air
1/2008: Xserve
2/2008: iPod Shuffle (new colors, does that count?)
4/2008: iMac
7/2008: iPhone 3G
9/2008: iPod classic (120GB)
9/2008: 2nd Gen iPod Touch
9/2008: 3rd Gen iPod Nano
10/2008: Aluminum MacBook
10/2008: Aluminum MacBook Pro
10/2008: Apple LED Cinema Display

AppleTV, Apple's Cinema Displays, and the Mac mini are all in dire need of updating in addition to the iPod shuffle -- which was introduced in January 2005, and has retained the same appearance since September 2006. The Mac mini, likewise was introduced in January 2005, and has undergone slight revisions in the 3 years following. The last update was in August of 2007, which leads me to believe that if announced, a January 2009 Mac mini would sport the updated Nvidia chips instead of the Intel GMA 950.]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/apple-announces-new-aluminum-l.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/apple-announces-new-aluminum-l.html apple laptop macbookair macbookpro macpro rumors Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:42:27 -0800 The Elegant Ballet Galaxy at the Performing Arts Center in San Jose. This is not a traditional classical Ballet, but rather a Ballet anthology which showcases the different talents of the company. As the audience for this show is predominantly Chinese, the show announcements of the pieces are in Mandarin and English.

If you're wondering if the show is any good, it is fantastic -- some pieces bear a combination of Chinese traditions with Ballet, while other pieces are the more traditionally performed. The showcase piece for me during this performance was the visually stunning "The Moon Reflection in Two Ponds", which will be touring the U.S. in 2009.]]> http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/liaoning-ballet.html http://www.mikehuang.com/blog/2008/10/liaoning-ballet.html Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:51:40 -0800