RKNet Blog... Thing

I didn’t read yesterday’s Penny Arcade until this morning, and I was hard pressed to hold back an actual outloud chuckle. (Not that they haven’t made me laugh right out loud before, mind you.) The companion article from Tycho is also very enjoyable, as usual.

The reason it struck me is I was over at a friend’s house last night (against my better judgement as I felt like crap yesterday and still do) and what did I end up playing on his PS3? Yup. flOw! I played it back in the flash game days, although I’m not 100% sure where I heard about it. The grape vine for these things has many strong branches and tendrils, and there are a few really established ones that always seem to bear fruit for me.

Like Jay is Games, for example. If you enjoy flash games, that’s definitely a good site to hit. The favorites option is great there, also. You can quick bookmark 18 flash games from everything they ever covered. I myself have great games bookmarked like flOw, Nanaca Crash, Poom!, and Samarost 2. But as LeVar Burton used to always say: “You don’t hafta take my word for it!”

All fandom of JiG aside, flOw on the PS3 really is mind-blowing. As a fan of the original flash offering I really have to say that I found the PS3 version even more immersive and addicting. The controller took a minute or two to figure out, the up-down axis didn’t work the way I expected it to so I had to keep correcting myself on that. Still it didn’t detract from the game play at all. I took over for my friend who had already turned into this crazy swirling triangular thing, and I manged to turn it into a fish shaped thing. The music is just as ambiently lovely in the console version as it is in the original flash. I really can’t say enough good things about flOw as an experience and as a game. Edit: Check out my totally bitchin screenshot from the flash edition!

The other game I got to see last night was a demo version of a racer called GripShift. I tried to play for a couple minutes but the steering is so delicate that I fell off the sides too easily. I found it was a lot easier with the D-pad rather than the analog stick. It’s got elements of Marble Madness, Super Monkey Ball, and any number of high-speed fantasy racing games. The game play per area was short and goal-oriented like Marble Madness, the sound effects were adorably cartoony like Super Monkey Ball. Some of the physics behaved in a Monkey Ball-esque way also, since if you played your cards right you could launch yourself off an edge and fly over large distances with super human (sapien?) speeds and angles. The soundtrack was upbeat and highly entertaining, and I personally think it’s just dying to be OCremixed. (It would certainly add a few more unique tracks to even out the glut of Final Fantasy[192] and Chrono Trigger/Cross[93] mixes!)

Seeing as I’m in a self-referential mood today, I’m going to refer to my earlier post yet again.

Another reason I like Opera is because it’s got the coolest Moe anthropomorphic characters for a browser to date. They call that category of anthropomorphs “Moezilla“. Get it?

Granted, no one has settled on a specific design for her yet, but the general theme for Opera-tan is pretty boss. Check out this little gallery. It’s today’s second moonspeak link!

Opera: Simply the cuter choice.

Earlier I mentioned my thorough enjoyment of Wired blogs. Well, through Monkey Bites by way of Game|Life, I came across the following announcement: Google has released a yearly subscription version of Google Apps for domains.

Being intrigued, and finding out that there’s a free trial until my birthday (April 30th), I signed up. I am currently awaiting verification that I own my domain, after that I’ll be able to potentially issue some really neat little tools onto RKNet.

I’m not a total Googlephile but I’ve always appreciated the uncluttered home page (”HI! I’m a search engine! search for stuff!”), and I really like Google Talk for the same reason (”HI! I’m a chat program! Chat with people!”).

I’ll give further updates when I know more about this development. Of course I may not be able to add services and such to RKNet because my hosting level (free) doesn’t support things like PHP and the like.

So here are a couple of interesting links:
Opera Equivalents to Firefox Extensions Part 1
And
Opera Equivalents to Firefox Extensions Part 2
Both articles are pretty interesting if you are a Firefox user or an Opera user. I have come to the conclusion that as IE alternative browsers go I prefer Opera over FireFox for a couple of reasons. Namely that it’s got a bunch of neat stuff built right in (translation: too lazy to find extensions) and I really like the GUI layout they have going for them. Granted: I have mine augmented like whoa at this point, but out of the (virtual) box it’s got a lot of neat tools. No browser is perfect by a long shot, but I’m rather fond of this one.

My most diligently read blog has tipped me off that it has a new baby brother. In true nerd style, they have named their new military tech blog “Danger Room“. Ten points to whomever says the reference first. [Points not redeemable in all locations, or at any time. The Mgt.]

Speaking of ToM and Opera… I typically read the blog in RSS format, because quite frankly it’s the only way for me to stay up to date. However, they recently posted about their new look. It’s pretty awful. It’s one of the few corporate redesigns I can think of to date that has succeeded in further obfuscating their navigation while making the site look uglier at the same time. Typically when these kinds of things happen, form is sacrificed for function, or function brutally maimed for form. It’s as though a vile cabal was formed for the sole purpose of getting together and saying “How can we thoroughly spoil the user experience for visitors so they are driven to our banner ads in hopes of viewing a site that’s less of an eyesore?” Best of luck, you brave four bloggers. Content, in my mind at least, is still king in your virtual lands, and you’re all valiant knights of the realm to me!
Speaking of my unnatural loyalty to ToM, I drummed up a couple banner ideas yesterday. I’m not terribly happy with the first one so I won’t bother posting it here. The second concept turned out a lot better, click the mini version below to get the full effect, it opens in a new window by default. Let me know what you all think, and maybe how we can make it better.

Last Tuesday, Next Generation released a list of the top 100 selling video games of 2006. It is an interesting read. Especially if you don't just skim through for the games you bought yourself. Take a moment to read some of the review snippets next to each game, and then reflect on how many they actually sold. It only goes to prove that name recognition often means a great deal more than playability when it comes to actual game sales. I myself found the top 10 games very shocking indeed.

On a slightly more personal note, apologies for my conspicious lack of posts! I've been downright swamped with projects, both work and personal. Tonight or tomorrow I'll be bringing the kitty (I may or may not have mentioned previously) and I'm pretty excited about it. I will of course innundate you with pictures of cats. As if the internet didn't have enough already.