Author: FyreHaar

Fatherland – Cannonball Read #1

Fatherland by Thomas Harris. Alternate History, Mystery.

I love alternate history novels. Give me some Turtledove any day of the week and I’ll eat it up. So the premise of this novel was extremely attractive. Germany effectively won WWII and has Europe on a leash. The US is led by President Joe Kennedy. There is a guerilla war in the east against what is left of the Soviet Union. Continue reading Fatherland – Cannonball Read #1

Component of the Covenant

To have, to hold, sickness, health, yadda yadda yadda

You know what life partnership is?

A shared Steam account, sharing all the achievements, changing handles as the moment takes us, watching your partner head-shot a heavy, calling next round while you make the coffee. Having a partner who appreciates the fact that you have collectively played pyro for as much time as all the other classes combined. A partner who giggles when you shout out “Yeah bitches! Want some of this you fucking demo fucker?!?!?”  Your partner watching you play, your dog sitting by the chair, flanking all of their snipers and killing them before you get capped by the sentry.

I had a good weekend!

-fh

Notes on Notes: DOW II 1.8 Patch

Sonic Rob: btw, do you have any thoughts on the 1.8 patch notes?
FyreHaar: I don’t think they should have upped the cost of tier III
FyreHaar: I will never get that shit now
Sonic Rob: I mostly don’t anyway
Sonic Rob: it means more time until preds start rolling out
FyreHaar: I fear no armour
Sonic Rob: they buffed lootas in a big way
Sonic Rob: bopped em down to tier 1
FyreHaar: they needed, they were fucking useless
Sonic Rob: for real
FyreHaar: All personal teleport abilities now start on cooldown
FyreHaar: read – eat shit and die WSE
Sonic Rob: read eat shit and die ravener
Sonic Rob: but stikks are even scarier now
Sonic Rob: stikks get stun bombs without an upgrade
Sonic Rob: that explode instantly
Sonic Rob: fuck me
Sonic Rob: that
Sonic Rob: is not good
FyreHaar: Big stomp works on Spore Mines
FyreHaar: thank Christ
Sonic Rob: did it not?
FyreHaar: Spore mines are the most overpowered unit in the game
FyreHaar: it did not
FyreHaar: yeah, but Stikks are now T2
FyreHaar: # Moved Lootas to T1, changed their damage to equal a Space Marine’s Heavy Bolter
FyreHaar: good good, make lootas suppression like they should be
FyreHaar: I don’t think Stikks needed all that
FyreHaar: I’ve seen some people just wreak havoc
FyreHaar: Scout shotgun knock back ability now causes suppression
FyreHaar: good
Sonic Rob: pretty scary
FyreHaar: Plasma gun damage reduced from 90 to 70
FyreHaar: thank christ
Sonic Rob: they upped a lot of costs too
FyreHaar: Plasma gun damage vs infantry reduced to .7 from 1
FyreHaar: ahh
FyreHaar: less tac plasma spam
FyreHaar: Spore Mines are now susceptible to melee attacks
FyreHaar: yes yes yes!!!!
FyreHaar: Added sound cue when a player drops from a match
FyreHaar: very good
FyreHaar: sometimes I miss a drop then wonder why we got fucked
Sonic Rob: ah, nice
Sonic Rob: yeah, plasma needed a nerf
FyreHaar: we will see, but all in all I am feeling pretty good about it
Sonic Rob: yeah, I’m wondering what this will do to the pace of a game

Chat Box

FyreHaar: sigh, a website I used to really like has gone completely to shit
FyreHaar: I checked it out because one of the founders was like, I have absolutely nothing to do with this website any more, nothing at all
FyreHaar: it’s horrible now
Sonic Rob: a crafty site?
FyreHaar: just ads for beauty crap, it used to be about life and style stuff, introspection
FyreHaar: getting a better life, now it’s cellulite cream, etc.
Sonic Rob: man, I hope someday we have fans who can complain about how we sold out
FyreHaar: it’s obviously just been turned into a beauty news aggregator
FyreHaar: no real people writing anymore
Sonic Rob: and I will faintly hear them crying for us to return
Sonic Rob: and then I will sip my margarita and roll over to tan my back
FyreHaar: nice
Sonic Rob: my pale, grublike back
FyreHaar: while I post on my new blog about how I have nothing to do with fns anymore, at all
FyreHaar: and people should check out my new shit
Sonic Rob: exactly
FyreHaar: well, at least we have a goal!
Sonic Rob: now we know what to aim for
Sonic Rob: let’s make something worth bailing on!

Dawn of War II: Last Stand comes out tomorrow!!

The new play mode for Dawn of War II is coming out tomorrow. View the patch notes, in all their glory!

The Fire and Sonic community is super, super juiced about this. I’ve pretty much done what I’m gonna do with the online multiplayer. It’s still fun, but I don’t feel the drive to get online every night, as I had for several months, to level up, to fight everyone I could. I suppose with mastery has come boredom. 3v3 is sort of banal, especially now that I have tasted the pleasures of Team Fortress 2.

Initial impressions of the play mode will be up this weekend, I am sure. A more detailed analysis in the next podcast.

[h/t to Destructoid]

-fyre

Goodbye Old Friend

Today Conde Nast announced that it will be closing down Gourmet magazine. I feel like someone just killed my aunt.

My grandmother subscribed to Gourmet, which started publication in 1941. When my mother got married, my grandmother gifted her a subscription to Gourmet until she died. That’s 1974 to 2000. There are copies of Gourmet from the 1980s that my mother used for Thanksgiving every year. They are still in the house including the one with the three chutneys on the cover that has long since ceased being meaningfully attached to the rest of the magazine. I could draw that cover from memory.

When I got married, my mom started gifting me with Gourmet. I have them piled up with the cookbooks. Some I get rid of if they are super boring or not very applicable (the Italian issue doesn’t hold a lot of appeal for a house that doesn’t eat gluten). But I read them all, cover to cover. Some really great food has come out of those magazines.

Mom and I used to talk about the latest issue. “That risotto looks good!” “Oh, with the radicchio, yeah!” We would talk about which recipes we were definitely going to make and the ones that looked delicious but way too much trouble. We would share our successes and failures in replicating the gorgeous food the magazine presented. And now that mom isn’t there to chat with anymore, I look at recipes and think “Hmmm, mom would have really liked that.”

And now even that little bit will be gone. One more piece of my life with mom taken away by a shite economy and a venal corporation.

Well thanks for nothing Conde Nast. At least we have a new cook book and the website to keep us going.

I think I hear a Saveur subscription calling my name.

-fyre

Real or Imagined: Leveling up in DOW II

I am in the process of leveling all my races up to 30 in DOW on line multi-player.

Space Marines are at level 31, Orks hit 29 last night, Eldar are 13 and Tyrannids are 12.

I have played more than 400 matches of three versus three, slightly more if you include two versus two and one on one.

And I have started to feel like I am good at this. My win ratio is getting better.  I still lose and my overall 3v3 record is 196 – 284 wins to losses.  Lately I feel like I am more in control of the matches, that what I do really matters to the course of the battle.

Last night, I realized that my team mate had gotten caught up fighting in a particular spot and we were losing because of it.  He had tunnel vision and had become obsessed with fighting in one tiny section f the map. In days of yore, I might have followed and kept fighting with him.  But I saw that it was pointless and was, in fact, playing right into the defensive strategy of the other team. We were walking into their guns with no feasible counter, just going off to die for pride.

So I flanked, I left my teammate to his devices and took the fight to another location. I diverted the enemy, destroyed his defensive advantage and turned the tide of the match. I didn’t wait for permission, I didn’t doubt myself, I just did what I judged to be the best tactical decision. This sort of thing is happening more and more.  What I do seems to be critical to the outcome of the match.

At first, I thought it was having a level 30 or thereabouts army. That was what made me “better at it.” But it’s not. The troops aren’t better, they don’t have tougher armour or whatever.  It’s me, I am better. A better general.  I still mess up and get my troops wiped out (n.b. two shootas and two sluggas cannot take out a Force Commander in Terminator Armour). But my decision making is stronger and more decisive. If a tactic doesn’t work, I reevaluate. I don’t hammer the same thing over and over expecting it to work. I am constantly evaluating and adapting to the changing face of the battle.

My micro isn’t better, my troops aren’t better, I have confidence that I know how to do this. And it is making me much better at the game.  I’m fighting smarter, controlling the when and where of the skirmishes, pushing other players to react to me and generally putting my stamp on matches. We’ll see how my record is once I’ve got the Eldar and Nids up to 30 but I really think I’ve turned a corner, from noob, to player, to veteran.

-fyre