Games and Music

No big bird info today, though that bird mentioned in the last post is still around and happy to say hi when she sees me. She's always with the same small group of birds. (This post is a wall of text with no pictures.)

Planetside 2
I've been looking forward to Planetside 2 ever since the first one sadly died. Seeing the second go free to play was quite a nifty thing, so I picked it up for Steam. I started the game and dropped in immediately, took 3 steps, and was shot to death. Planetside 2 is an amazing game and I really think you should play it.

There's no sarcasm there, the game is actually tons of fun. There's a bit of a learning curve I found, even knowing the first game. My first hour was full of mistakes and deaths, but each time, I learned something that I should do, and usually, something I shouldn't do. The best way to learn the ins and outs is just to jump in and see how it all plays out. It's rough at first, but the end result is worth it... even if my KDR is always 0.6 or lower.

Out of my many deaths, I've found that I can be my own worst enemy. I decided to try a vehicle out after about an hour of running about and sniping... usually failing to do so. (3 headshots out of 7 deaths isn't TOO bad right?) So I spawned one and was immediately teleported in where it was already in flight. I realized I hadn't reviewed the controls at all. The mouse and WASD all seemed to be doing various things. By the time I figured out what I was actually doing, I was upside down and heading straight into a mountain. Lesson learned, review the flight controls before getting into aircraft.
I skimmed over them afterwards, then tried my hand at it again. This time, I was able to kinda sorta fly. I came out of an aerial battle alive and they didn't so I think I did something right. I did take some damage during the struggle however. I started to think what would happen if the vehicle hull was almost destroyed and I would need to bail out. I realized I hadn't looked at the controls closely. So I tried a button to see if I would jump out with landing gear. My assumption was correct as I dived face first from my craft, but I quickly realized I was missing something. I quickly pressed P, but all that did was bring up a menu that had nothing to do with parachutes. Lesson learned, don't jump out of vehicles that are 100+ meters in the air.
Running in the game is kinda weird and I wish it was like Borderlands. We're stuck with either hold to run, or toggle run on and off. I go with toggle. This sometimes leads to problems though. I ran up to an edge and saw that I could snipe. I thought I had turned run off when I wanted to get a bit closer to the edge, instead, I sprinted right off. Another lesson learned, press buttons better. On that same note, and different occasion, don't run off bridges when your health is low. Also look both ways...

Despite my bad playing, I've had a lot of fun with the game. I'm usually playing as an Infiltrator. The server I play on is Soldeck and I'm with the New Conglomerate. You know the name I go by. (ZephyrBurst) My roommates also play it on occasion. All of us are playing on the same server on different factions. (I shot Jerry at one point.) There's a lot to the game and it doesn't have a tutorial before throwing you in the game. The first hour of it can feel daunting, but if you look at it from an angle of you're learning how the game works, it goes much better. Take it slow, check the menu out when you get the chance, and see where everything is located. The site does have videos that may help you out if needed though.

Music from People
I like to browse the newgrounds audio portal from time to time. Stay there long enough and you'll come across some very skilled people. I recently came across one by the name of Fictionalhead. His music is a blend of instrumental and electronic and I think he's hit that very well. Out of the 29 tracks he has on his bandcamp, it was maybe 2 that I didn't really care for, but the rest were great. Check him out and give him some support if you can. I've been trying to keep in the habit of contacting everyone whose music I use, which I haven't been doing well on. I haven't used any of Fictionalhead's music, but I have contacted him about possibly using one of his tracks later. He said it would be fine and would like it if I did. That goes into the other reason I want to keep up with contacting the music creators is if they would rather their stuff not be used. Usually I try to go for the tracks that have 'Can be used in freeware' in the info.