I just fixed problem on Gamingstats that affected all of the users. This time invalid username was filtered to empty string, causing updating process to halt. Problematic user is now removed from the system, but the bug is still there. I try to fix it tomorrow or something.

I am not sure if I continue to support this project. It has way too many problems. First is that changes to Steamcommunity usually breaks up my system and I have to find out the changes and it takes lot of time. (this time the problem was my fault, but yeah). Another thing that kills my motivation is that I don’t use this site anymore myself. So it isn’t anymore so fun to work with it. It is more like a job that I don’t get money for.

Most likely I am going to close the application, release it under GPL license and move forward. There is only couple of users that uses the service and I think that the system is way too buggy. I had to rewrite the parser because my webhost didn’t had all the plugins and stuff that I used when I coded on local development server. Because of that, the updater doesn’t have the best stability with bad input…

I was going to sleep one hour ago, but because the system didn’t work as I expected I wasted one hour trying to fix it. And my website also went down once when I tried to fix it, so I am not very happy with this project currently.

So yeah back to sleep now… ->

Time to list up all projects that I am working on!

Recently finished projects:

• Gamingstats (minor patches in future)

Currently working on:

• Map for ep2 (my entry to the voiceville competition)

Project ideas:

• Game in c++
• File sync system in php/c++
• Game in php
• New theme to this blog…

And then main reason to slow developing speed… Games. And those damn sales on steam… Here is what games I am currently playing.

Multiplayer games:

• Bc2
• Starcraft 2
• Worms: reloaded

Singleplayer games:

• Starcraft 2
• Doom3
• Doom3:roe
• Mass effect 1 x2
• Mass effect 2 x2 +dlc

So far I have been very satisfied with Starcraft 2. I am going to write review about it later when I have finished it. Usually I don’t like rts games, but Starcraft is just so great fun to play.

So, sometime ago I got bit annoyed by my site. Mainly because the domain/name I have used on this site. It is old, I have always used it, but it is also bit lame. Because of this I started to find ways to improve/recreate my site.

First I made list of reasons why I want to have website. I want to have blog to post random rants. I want somekind of site where I can place all of my projects for everybody.

Then I started to make new name for my website… Well I didn’t got any good ideas for new name/domain. So the process of updating my site became slow.

After giving up on the new domain idea, I just wanted to recreate the layout, but I bought Starcraft 2… It and couple of other games killed my productivity. I also wanted to continue other projects that I had more fun with. Example Gamingstats is now on very stable state. I am also soon finishing my next map to EP2.

After month of “under development” status, I gave up creating new site/recreating this site. In that one month I got nothing done towards the new site. So yeah…

I may update the main site (www.pelikoira.net) little to point users to content I want them to go, but mostly I am going to keep this site as it is. Maybe new theme to my blog? Maybe…

I found couple of good videos from the UDK wiki. I decided to download the UDK and try to make something with it. As I have used hammer before and I have experience on compiling source sdk, it wasn’t hard to learn with the videos.

Comparing to the hammer editor, UDK can be harder for first, but after while the UDK has many advantages over the Hammer editor.

Hammer editor is much easier to start with, because on UDK you need to use one special box to insert every brush. It is bit confusing at first.

But after I realized how the brush stuff worked, UDK became much easier. Inserting materials is awesome. Content browser is much better and faster than the Hammer browser. And lining materials automatically is just so useful feature.

Kismet is also much better way to create scripts/events to levels than the Hammers own I/O system. It is also very easy to make animations with Kismet+Matinee.

Only problems that I have with the Unreal editor is mostly just the amount of features. There is just so many options to setup

The play in editor feature is also nice, but it is not so awesome as it could be. It makes developing faster, but it won’t remove compiling…

On the code/mod side. UDK is MUCH easier to start with. With Source SDK you need to install Visual C++, extract the source, configure it and compile. With UDK you can code with unrealscript and compile that. Unrealscript is much easier than c++ and it won’t explode the whole game if you forget one variable somewhere.

Valve has to make some serious upgrades to Source to get more developers to use it. Unreal engine is very popular engine and there is only couple of non-valve source games.

I am going to play with the UDK some more. Maybe make my own mod or something. But only problem with UDK is that I don’t want to make maps for UT3 only I have to use Hammer if I want to make maps for my favorite games.

I got the free beta key for the Medal of Honor. Now I know for sure that I don’t want to buy this game.

Let’s get some good things to the start. Menu graphics are nice, game looks nice and runs smoothly. Sounds are also good. And well, it is kinda fun deathmatch game.

And then to the bad things… Yes, it is beta, but there is way too much problems for me to even think about wasting 50$ on this.

It is a goddamn console port. There is a screen to “adjust my television”! Is developers that lazy that they can’t remove one damn menu? The whole ui is also not designed for mouse. And the server browser is even worse than the first browser on bc2 beta. I don’t even known if it joins to the server. It does nothing for 2-5secs and then it joins or not. And why I cant see pings of players? Is it so hard to display the numbers? Sigh… The text chat also bugs on the beta. If I press talk key, the input field is stuck on the field and I cant do anything with it. Developers, please, dont do shitty console ports.

Gameplay is not bad, but I have already enough games like this. This is some kind of bf/bc game that tries to be cod… It just feels too much like a MW2 mod to bc2. They have just changed some skins and maps, etc. Some of the animations are taken from bc2!

Some of the ingame icons are also from the bc2. There is also lots of models also copied… This game just feels like quick clone to make easy money…

And the gameplay? Yes, it is mostly ok random deathmatch… Gameplay is mostly ok, expect that I already have 3 games that are similar to this. Levels are just way too static. After bc2 destructible environment, this game has annoying feeling… I can see that somebody can have fun with this for sure, but I don’t see reason to spend money on this game.

It can’t be so hard to support custom maps. Looks like EA just wants to sell DLC rather than having community making custom maps…

And for competitive gaming, this isn’t going to work. REAL dedicated servers are necessary. Not these restricted shitty “rent-only” things. Also, where is the record functions? Every modern game-engine has record-functionality build in! Source,goldsource, unreal, quake(Id tech), Call of Duty(custom)…. And why I can’t spectate from first person??

And looks like all game companies have started to ruin competitive gaming. Dedicated servers most likely only for rent… No custom maps… No console…. And after couple of months we get a freaking dlc for 10$. And then couple of moths and they are selling next big game for 50$… No thanks.

I can see that somebody would like this game. But for me this isn’t worth of wasting money. I already have MW1 and MW2 for fast deathmatch. (And quake for REAL deathmatch) And I already have BC2 for more team-based battles. So yeah… I am not very happy about this game or where the gaming industry is going with this kind of games.