Those small things

     I am an avid tech user and as such I like to make my experience as comfortable as possible. One thing that I have found essential to this is a good mouse. For years I used a Microsoft brand optical mouse and I loved it but the became to loose to use in games so I went on a search for the best budget mouse. I spent days on amazon and forums looking for the best. Eventually I found the Anker 2000 dpi Gaming mouse. This mouse is phenomenal, the rise on the palm rest was perfect, it had cool lights, and even had an option for on the fly sensitivity switching. The best thing was that it was only 25$. Unfortunately the wheel went out after a couple of months, I couldn't find anything on it so I assumed it was just my unit.

     Soon after I was on the hunt again. This time I found the Perixx 5000 dpi dual mode mouse, and to be honest I liked it. It was wireless to a degree but it also cost 55$. Not bad but it left something to be desired. The drivers were glitchy and ugly and often didn't take effect, not to mention the mouse is low to the desk, poor rise and was generally uncomfortable. I soon returned that for my current mouse.

     I recently used the return funds to purchase the Anker 8000 dpi laser gaming mouse and to be honest. I love it! The rise on the palm rest is perfect it has great color control, on the fly macro recording and playback(a macro is a string of keys, e.g. If I want to be able to press 5 keys on a keyboard with one press i can make a macro to activate all those keys.), 9 buttons and that on the fly sensitivity switch. It has served me well for a 40$ mouse. Well worth the value.

    What I am getting at here is that the right mouse can completely change how you use your computer, and it might take a couple of tries but when you find the "one", it will be well worth the wait.

The Stanley Parable

Back in 2011 a mod for the game Half Life 2 was released known as The Stanley Parable. The experience lasts about 30 - 40 minutes but it is a solid 30 - 40 minutes. 6 Endings each with full dialogue and a new take on first person narrative at the end, it is diffidently worth your time.

             The game possesses great charm, while graphics and things of that nature may seem primitive the narration is the superb, it surpasses all games that i have played with flying colors. After playing i can still hear the narrators voice, it is hauntingly soothing. It also won Smartest mod of 2011.

            The reason I bring it up is because the developers(Galactic Cafe) have pulled together and have made a standalone game. This release will be different, deeper and with a lot more dialogue. If you are interested the demo is available on steam right now. Full release is in 1 day! now none of my friends are excited as me about this but they don't get to rain on my parade. Speculated price is below 20 but no price has been announced officially.

           The demo, contrary to other demos, isn't the first 10 minutes of the game, not just the tutorial but a full voiced fully mapped narrative experience that contains nothing from the full game, no spoilers here! In total the demo is about 20-35 minutes depending on how you play it and how many secrets you find.




Link Dump
Galactic Cafe Developers
The Stanley Parable mod for Half-Life 2 - Mod DB
My steam name: mlp_midnaspet


         

Oldies but goodies.

Im going to start off this little segment with a little 9 year old game called Half Life 2. HL2 is a story driven action-shooter that tells a deep story with characters full of more humanity than most people you will encounter on the street. For some people amazing gameplay and story isn't enough so Here's a screenshot of the game. Pretty good but.


Down here on the bottom is what is called the cinematic mod. The mod completely changes what the game looks like, for 2004 Half Life 2 looks awesome but with Fake Factories Cinematic mod the game has a whole new breath flowing through it. The mod allows you to use an amazing custom soundtrack as well as change out  all the models for every characters .

Here are some links to the games site and the mod
http://orange.half-life2.com/ (its 5 bucks, just buy it!)
http://cinematicmod.com/ (its free, just get it)