Vinney and I finally saw The Incredibles last night, and we both liked it quite a bit. I honestly really enjoyed the movie, it didn't have me rolling on the floor laughing but it was just entertaining. At the same time, the short movie before it put Half Life 2's image quality into perspective; as great as HL2 and Doom 3 are, we're still far far away from where we need to be.
That being said, I finally got a chance to play Half Life 2 last night. I didn't play very much (just in the few minutes before we had to leave to get to the theater), but ahh I think I will definitely enjoy this game. At first glance I don't think I ruined the game for myself by benchmarking it like crazy over the past several days, the game still looks incredible. I've got it up and running on a nForce4 SLI platform with 2 x 6800 Ultras (overclocked) at 1600 x 1200 with 4X AA and 16X AF, it could not be smoother. I may be a bad reviewer and play the game for a little bit before getting to work this morning... :)
Speaking of movies, for the two of us to buy tickets last night, the total price came out to be: $18.50. To put that in perspective, two people (with student discounts, which don't exist up here) back in Raleigh would set you back a solid $12. That's just nuts, I have a feeling that everything is going to feel infinitely cheaper when we get back to Raleigh...either that or things are going to be just as expensive and we're going to always complain about how expensive things have gotten, just like a good married couple should :)
We ate at a Mexican restaurant last night that was supposed to be the best Mexican place in the area. Previously we had eaten at the second best place and had a decent experience, but this time we were ready to try for the best. The verdict? Holycrapitwashorrible. The food wasn't very good at all and a fly had decided that he was going to finish off my nachos, which I gladly allowed him to do as I wasn't touching any more of them. So we spent the night mostly hungry but it was a wonderful night away from work and spent with the one person I'd like to spend all of my time with.
That's all for now, back to work (or play) I go...
That being said, I finally got a chance to play Half Life 2 last night. I didn't play very much (just in the few minutes before we had to leave to get to the theater), but ahh I think I will definitely enjoy this game. At first glance I don't think I ruined the game for myself by benchmarking it like crazy over the past several days, the game still looks incredible. I've got it up and running on a nForce4 SLI platform with 2 x 6800 Ultras (overclocked) at 1600 x 1200 with 4X AA and 16X AF, it could not be smoother. I may be a bad reviewer and play the game for a little bit before getting to work this morning... :)
Speaking of movies, for the two of us to buy tickets last night, the total price came out to be: $18.50. To put that in perspective, two people (with student discounts, which don't exist up here) back in Raleigh would set you back a solid $12. That's just nuts, I have a feeling that everything is going to feel infinitely cheaper when we get back to Raleigh...either that or things are going to be just as expensive and we're going to always complain about how expensive things have gotten, just like a good married couple should :)
We ate at a Mexican restaurant last night that was supposed to be the best Mexican place in the area. Previously we had eaten at the second best place and had a decent experience, but this time we were ready to try for the best. The verdict? Holycrapitwashorrible. The food wasn't very good at all and a fly had decided that he was going to finish off my nachos, which I gladly allowed him to do as I wasn't touching any more of them. So we spent the night mostly hungry but it was a wonderful night away from work and spent with the one person I'd like to spend all of my time with.
That's all for now, back to work (or play) I go...
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Ashok - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Anand do we get to see a review of the SLI board you have. I'd love to know how it performs. Look forward to some nice results. BTW, which SLI board is it, ASUS or MSI?Voyager - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Well, having watched the Polar Express trailer, it seems to me that Doom III already captured that rubberlike quality to its human beings.What I did notice was that in HL2 I actually felt more compassion towards the pet antlions than I did towards the human squadmates, and a fight with one of the Striders lft me with the distinct feeling that it was horribly angry at me, and rather perplexed as to how I kept hurting it, when it couldn't quite catch me.
Now, Dr. Breen, for some reason, is quite possibly the most convincing animated person I have ever seen. I am not quite sure why, but I do know that some how, Valve got the way a beard moves *right*. Not even the Polar Express trailer has the movements of facial hair down right. Maybe it was the two dark stripes by the corners of his mouth gave me something to visually focus on when he was talking, so I didn't notice the errors.
Come to think of it, Dr. Moosman always put her hand up on her chest when she was talking, and I always seem to end up watching her wving hand, rather than her face, and she was another character that worked well.
Alex, on the otherhand, didn't have anything like that. When she was talking, while facing the player, I always found myself watching her mouth move, and the character just didn't quite come off as well as many of the others in the game.
Perhapse if one includes focal points on a character, particularly around the face, one can overcome the "uncanny valley" effect by focusing the viewer's attention on an area that has been made to perfectly emulate human beings.
Harry Voyagert
Chris - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
Nice, so where do we BUY these SLI boards?Innovato - Saturday, November 20, 2004 - link
Heh, Anand - dunno how far you are from boston or Providence, but you'd be able to score some student discounts in those college towns i bet, granted Boston is so $$$ already! I moved from Boston to Baltimore and feel like i'm getting such a great deal as far as Cost of Living is concerned.ViRGE - Saturday, November 20, 2004 - link
Speaking of the Incredibles, my biggest concern for gaming right now is actually once it's ready to get past that, and move on to something of The Polar Express quality. The problem with that of course is that many people consider TPE to be suffering from the "uncanny valley" effect, which seems to be turning people off from the movie. The concern here is that if games end up in a similar situation, consumers will be turned away from those high-end games, towards lower-quality games that don't suffer the effect. The effect on visual quality in games could really take a hit if this happens.Scott - Saturday, November 20, 2004 - link
So what were the results ... any benchmarks with the dual 6800s??
I have to say to that I am a little disappointed in the two Branford Mexican restaurants also! They are both adequate but nothing special... New Haven must have some better places. You should go explore the neighborhoods around Yale as they have some good eats there!
Demo - Saturday, November 20, 2004 - link
Lucky man! Dual 6800s and Half life 2! :drool: