yeah, so last weekend i recopied my Kumatanchi save onto my cycloDS.  i booted up and got the lecture about kumatan running away and all that, and then i was dropped back at the house.  kumatan was very hungry, had no energy and hated me.  over the next few days i spent a lot of time with her and got her mood and feelings back up.  last night i hit the end of the game, and kept on going afterwards for the fun of it.

well, apparently in my efforts to bring her mood back up i have spoiled her rotten.  all it takes is one meal and one pet on the head and she gets that look on her face and her mood changes.  when that happens she doesn't take her shows seriously and it's overall a big buzzkill.

i might keep going for a bit longer, but the game is loosing appeal with me at a rather steady clip, and at this rate it won't make it to march.

today was a rather productive and somewhat sad day!

i went out to Fry's to buy a new cooler for my graphics card.  i bought it, i brought it home, and i installed it.  turns out the directions could not have been more wrong for my card: the holes it told me to use were too spread out, and the screws i was told to use were too tall, so it wouldn't install correctly.

after fixing that and raging over the VRAM heatsinks continually falling off, i finally get everything set up and working.  my temps didn't fall as dramatically as they did with the cooler i installed on my old x1950 pro, but they dropped a fair amount when idle and dropped somewhat when in use.  my idle temps are around 43 C, and under max load (F@H) it sits at 74 C.  not TOO shabby, considering i used to idle at ~60 C and would hit 78 C under load, with the fan cranking away at more than 60% duty cycle.

i also am going to vacuum my car later and put in new floormats.

the sadness?  after booting up i heard a very rhythmic CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK.  i started unplugging things, and found out it was my anime drive.  i did some tests on it, and from what i can hear the motor is dying, along with the control circuitry. 

so my anime is all gone.  ;_;

i've been playing a fair amount of fallout 3 lately.  i had to work through some crashing issues, and after finding a decent workaround i started putting in some major hours.  as i encounter more of what the game has to offer, i enjoy it more and more.  it seems to run smoother and prettier on Vista as well.  there was one point, though, that the immersion was completely lost.

i was near the end of a quest chain, and was watching a scripted scene between some NPCs.  the events in the scene were rather pivotal to the game's plot, as well as to your character.  but since i was watching the scene from third person, i saw my character just stand there looking uninterested as the scene unfolded.  and like a brick through a window, the immersion in that scene was completely shattered.

i can imagine how ridiculous it would have been for bethesda to put in a decision at that point - "Look shocked" "Look amused" "Look disinterested".  but in other games where events like this transpire, control is usually taken away from you somehow, either through some action in the game world or just because it's a cinematic.

i suppose bethesda wanted to maintain consistency with the rest of the game world, and how it all hinges on personal choices.  but regardless, i still think that scene would have had more impact if the game had transitioned to first person, letting you imagine how your character is reacting to it.