Digisparks and a Taipan

Kickstarter continues to be a source of some truly unique items. Whether they be campaigns for products, software or real-life events, it has been an enjoyable experience for this Kickstarter fan. While some of the projects I have backed have encountered delays, regular updates from the creators have kept me well informed as to the reasons why. An example of this is the Oculus Rift. During one of the first updates it was revealed that the intended displays for the dev-kits was recently discontinued. This led to sourcing a more modern (and better) display and allowed the team to develop their own 6DOF sensor. While I can hardly wait until I get to strap on my very own dev-kit, a delay of around three months is perfectly acceptable (considering the free upgrades), especially when you factor in cultural issues related to manufacture.

Several hardware based Kickstarter campaigns have also arrived - I recently received my digisparks and assorted shields as well as the Multiplo all ready for assembly (when i have the time to build and program it). I already have a few projects in mind for these Digisparks - starting with automating a bore-water pump and a few other automation projects.  I would also be remiss if I didn't at least mention a mate's Kickstarter campaign - Mage's Initiation - which is definately worth checking out (and i am not saying that just because it's a friends project), so head on over to it <here> to check it out.
 

digisparks +shields

Its been roughly two months since HAWKEN went open beta, so I thought I would take a break from the battlefield and review my impressions of this game. Generally speaking, I have enjoyed my time with HAWKEN. Its been a solid few months of play time and I have surprised even myself by pouring much of my free time into this free-to-play first person shooter.

Yet despite all the praise I keep heaping on this game, there has been some contentious issues surrounding changes and balance adjustments to the game. I won't go into specific details here, nor mention which ones garner the most amount of debate, instead I will simply tip my hats to the dev's for continuing to plow through the seemingly endless mountain of fixes and bugs to squash. I must admit though, I am looking forward to trying out the new-and-improved Hellfires on my Rocketeer... bring on the QQ'ing post patch day ;)

There is a multitude of fixes listed in the patch notes and it has been about a month of solid play since the last patch was released. Whilst it's encouraging to receive official word from the dev's that they hope to now maintain some kind of semi-regular patch schedule - it is frustrating that some of the bugs that have been present since closed beta remain. An example of this is the heal charge/orb not working as intended (edit: now fixed during a recent patch). During a battle, these play into a strategic element and can make the difference between living or dying from said encounter. Unfortunately, due to a bug, not all heal charges/orbs work and because of this - the strategic element is reduced to a game of chance.

There have been improvements made to matchmaker and while I still feel it needs more tweaking, I am just happy to be able to find fairly evenly balanced games, especially on Oceanic. Siege mode still takes a while to form a game and have not played Missle Assault, so cannot comment on whether or not that game mode has players. It is disappointing that many of the promised updates (such as clan support, graphics options and other improvements) have not been forthcoming, yet I am still having a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately though, population issues on non-US servers continue to plague local players. With the introduction of a server browser and rating system, the population is being further divided and, removing the "all regions" options on matchmaker now means that it takes longer for local matches to populate.

Lastly, another hardware upgrade for the rig - I recently purchased a Razer Taipan mouse. This was more out of the need for a higher DPI rating so that I wasn't "fighting" with the mouse to control sharper turns/accurate aiming in a FPS environment. When you play mostly MMORPG's,  DPI doesn't really factor into game play, macro's and such however, are things some players can't live without. After a bit of digging around, I narrowed it down to two mice - the death-adder 2013 or the taipan. While the death adder is cheaper (around $50), for me the Taipan ($75), won out due to its ambidextrous nature. There are plenty of choices in gaming peripherals available today and some hardly resemble the traditional mouse, MMO players can have their macro-mice and keyboard too. I've still got the Logitech MX and that will likely end up chilling out the rest of its days as a HTPC coffee-table accessory.

On a final note, I will be checking out some "mad march" releases - a slew of titles that I have had my eye on for a while -  launch this month. In order of appearance they are SimCity (7th), StarCraft 2 - Heart of the Swarm (12th) and BioShock Infinite (26th). Also already out is the Tomb Raider prequel, which from initial reviews looks to be a game that is worth the investment in time, however, with so many titles already headed my way, I might wait a bit before digging into this one. As far as SimCity's launch woe's - both the US release on the fifth and the AU release on the 7th have appeared to have caused massive heamoraging of servers - are continuing, leading further credence to the whole "persistant-online-DRM" debate. As a token acknowledgement, EA have promised a free game DLC for those who purchase (and activate) before the 18th of this month. Sadly though, it should be something that EA/Maxis should have seen coming and no free-software can offset such a negative launch. Lastly, here's a screenshot of the new white-box test map HAWKEN released along with a new mech and balance changes in their latest patch...

low-res screen cap of new test map (whitebox)