Jake’s Life

Say what you want, but it’s true. I can admit it.

I have to admit, I’m a fan. Good fancy driving music.

And here’s one for the Bo Jangles.

No, this isn’t a post about my genealogy.

Do you ever have a video or computer game that is not the latest and greatest but still engrossing and fun? I do: The Jedi Knight series, Knights of the Old Republic, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, Myst, Hexen 2, Starfleet Command, among many others. The one I’ve been spending my time on lately is Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. It was the second game in the series after Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, and spans four large cities, with hundreds of quests. If you know anything about the VtM series you know it’s addicting as hell.

In creating your character you choose from different clans–each with their own history and disciplines–and build your character’s stats. Items, weapons, and armor are all available through the game to help supplement your basic stuff when you start. Certain characteristics directly affect others, either by complementing skills or reducing the chance of going into a frenzy. There are also five masquerade violations allowed (using disciplines or feeding in public in the city), but there are quests which regain them. Violate too many and vampire hunters will track you or the game is over.

Here are a few YouTube videos showing the original trailer and some of the disciplines used, followed by some screenshots I took.

Watch this video. If you don’t have a 4 1/2 minute attention span focus on the last 60 seconds.

Holy. Shit.

If you have any doubts as to how much can happen in 60, even 30, seconds this will erase it.

I hate the made-for-midgets default on-screen keyboard that Windows Mobile comes with. What’s the point of having a touch screen if you can’t touch the letters? People with fingers that resemble sausages like myself have an even harder time. I’ve tried a few replacements that are commercial, some that are home-cooked, and some that try to re-invent the entire notion of what a keyboard should be. They’ve all sucked so far.

I found CooTek Touchpal the other day, installed it yesterday, and love it so far. One thing that I miss over my old T-Mobile Dash is one-handed texting. While you can with the Wing, it’s harder. Touchpal keeps the layout of the keyboard intact while making the buttons bigger. It looks like the Blackberry Pearl’s SureType system at first but is a lot better. The “Q” and “W” share the same basic key, but when you press it you swipe to the left for “W” and right for “W”. Check the video out and if you have Windows Mobile it’s a free download here from the CooTek web site until December.