Homeworld, we salute ye

... So then the Vicar says "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't realise you said 'Organist' Ha ha ha". We all stared at him in horror, before calling the police to have him arrested.

• 3. I am of the firm belief we need to find some VERY commerically exploitable mineral on another planet, it's the only way we'll ever end up developing the technology to get there. Government's don't want to put too much money into space travel since there's no real benefit other then putting up satelites.

Something I haven't written much about, which is surprising considering the nature of the blog, is gaming. In the future I imagine I'll write a post or two about how orgasmic Mass Effect is, but for now I'll talk about a topic near and dear to my heart. PC game modding.

Modding is one of the few things PC games do that consoles can't hope to match. Mods are, without doubt, one of the greatest things around. A easily moddable game can have it's lifespan enhanced by YEARS. I still occasionally dust off the original Homeworld game simply because it had good gameplay and an incredible collection of Mods.

Although in recent years, Mods are becoming less and less prevelent. And those that are announced are rarely finished. This is predominantly because of the heavy advances in games, such as graphics requirements. Modern games have such stringent requirements on graphics in order for them to be noticed that the home-made-modder really can't keep up, and no one wants to release a mod with OBVIOUSLY worse graphics then the original game.

In order to model all the meshes they need takes ages compared to how long it would take a comparable modeler to create models five years ago. This delays the mod so long that it's not uncommon for the mod-team-members to simply lose interest and drop out, effectively killing the mod. Or, in some horrible cases, the mod doesn't make it out before the game's sequal comes out, which can sometimes result in a whole new modding language needed.

So, we salute the prematurely dying mod with honour. It had so much potential, that is now gone. Due to the complex nature of modern games we shall not see 'Mechs march the land in Supreme Commander. It is a day for sadness.

Please, support your favourite mod makers. Keep their forums active so people joining up can see it's still going, and encourage the mod-makers as they toil. So often a good mod can double the lifespan of a game.

On a related topic, I just need to say this.

Why, of the few mods that do exist out there, is EVERYONE so obsessed with REALISM? Medieval 2: Total War is one of the few current games (aside from things like Halflife) in which the modding community is heavily active, yet if you look at the mods that exist, around 90% of them are geared towards "Making the game more realistic" or presenting a period of history as "realistically a possible".

I only have one thing to say to those people.

REALISTIC SUCKS. There are no Dragons in 'real'! In the real world there is no green skinned woman with two tentacles sticking out of her head standing around ready to service me sexually! In the real world we don't even have space ships with guns on them! The real world possesses no four meter tall battle suits that possess the movement and agility capacity of a normal person!

In short, move on. The real world sucks. Fantasy and Sci-Fi kicks it's arse.