Didn’t get home until just about 6:00…  I’m exhausted.  My feet feel like two big bruises.

Spent all day long pulling cable.  One line after another.  Didn’t sit down for even 5 minutes all day long.  No lunch break.

We made good progress, but there’s still more to do.  Which means I’ve got to be back there again tomorrow morning at 8:00.  Not too happy about that.

I think I’m going to go collapse now…

Occasionally we’ll get subcontracted to do work for one of the big chains…  We’ll put in a wireless access point at a McDonald’s, or do some wiring for Sam’s Club, or something like that.  Today, I’m going to spend the day doing an installation for a brand new Tractor Supply Co.

I tried to discourage my boss from taking this job…

I’m very busy right now.  We’ve got a new server that I’m getting ready for installation.  We’ve got another server that needs work on its backup, and then it needs to be returned.  I’ve got a couple workstations on my bench that need some more attention…  And a couple more workstations that I’ve finished up and need to return.

And since there’s a ~50 page booklet we need to follow for this Tractor Supply installation,  I’m the one who has to do the work.  None of my co-workers are capable of following directions accurately.  We’ve sent them out on jobs like this before, but we always wind up having to clean up after them.

But my boss took it anyway.  Which means I’ve got to be on-site and ready to work at 8:00 this morning…  And the job site is about an hour away…  So I’ll be leaving home at about the time I normally wake up.

At least this job should be vaguely interesting.  There’s some normal CAT5 cabling for data…  But there’s also some wiring to do for their phone system and some kind of sound/PA thing.

The substitution of a wired keyboard & mouse for the wireless one I was using has completely eliminated that input lag in the AvP demo.  I am now, generally speaking, able to hit the things I’m shooting at.  But that hasn’t helped my survival rate when playing as a marine.

I think that the main problem isn’t with the marine, exactly, so much as it is with the map.  This map just does not seem to be built to encourage marine survival.  There are different elevations which the aliens and predator can readily access…  But the marine has to run down hallways and up flights of stairs.  Making it far easier for the aliens and predators to choose their fights.

There are lots of dark corners where aliens and predators can lie in wait.  The marine has a flashlight, but it just doesn’t do a very good job of illuminating all the possible hiding places.

The marine’s big advantage, ranged weaponry, isn’t terribly useful in this map.  There are just too many places where something can ambush you, and not enough places where you can see your attacker coming.

I was finally able to figure out how to use the predator’s different weapons…  There’s a separate button – “secondary weapon” – that fires them.  You’ve always got melee weapons bound to your main attack buttons…  And the the secondary weapon button fires whatever you’ve currently got selected.

It actually works pretty well…  You can quickly switch from melee to a plasma blast without actually having to select a different weapon.

The plasma caster and smart disc work pretty much the way you’d expect them to.  The combistick is a little different than previous incarnations…  It does not replace or enhance your melee attacks, it’s thrown as a spear.  In effect, it replaces the speargun from previous games.  The proximity mines work like you’d expect – set them somewhere, and the next thing to step on them gets blown up.  It seems like an odd weapon for a predator, but it works.

I’ve finally gotten the hang of the focus mode for the predator.  It’s very handy for moving around quickly…  But it can also be used for some kind of lunging/leap attack.

I’m not liking the fact that you have to go collect your weaponry.  It isn’t a huge inconvenience, but it does mean that you can’t immediately find some dark corner to stalk your prey from.  First you need to go collect your toys.  This means that the predator, which traditionally has a bag of tricks at his disposal, is only working with a few specific weapons most of the time.

The alien is a lot of fun simply because you’re deadly as soon as you start playing.  You don’t need to go collect any weapons at all.  You don’t need to remember to cloak, or to pick the right vision mode.  You’re ready to start killing.

This is offset, to a certain degree, by the lack of ranged attacks.  But, at least on this map, that isn’t much of a handicap.  Most of the killing is taking place at melee range anyway.

Yet another trailer for the new AvP game…  But I think this might be the best one yet.

I like the juxtaposition of the alien resin structures and the human settlement…  Looks like it might have been a bar at one time, or a cantina, or something like that.  But now it’s being over-run by the aliens.

I like how the aliens seem to be drawn to the flares he’s throwing, might be a handy way to deal with the aliens without getting your face ripped off.

I’m also liking how resilient the aliens are.  They’re taking several nasty shots and they keep crawling towards him.

It looks like the marine campaign is going to be terrific.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game…

I’m definitely seeing some kind of input lag.  It isn’t all that noticeable when playing as the predator or alien because I’m largely fighting in melee range, so I don’t have to be all that accurate.

With the marine, however, it’s obvious.  There’s a delay between moving the mouse and seeing the crosshairs move.  There’s a delay between stopping the mouse and seeing the crosshairs stop.

I’m not sure yet whether this is a software issue or a hardware one.  I’ve got to dig out a wired keyboard an mouse to find out which it is.  I sincerely hope it’s just a hardware thing…

The marine also walks funny.  I thought it might have been some kind of lag or something, but it’s far too consistent for that.

There’s this weird, shuffling gait…  Kind of little hops strung together…  It really feels like I’m constantly tripping over something.  Very awkward and distracting.

CAD had some less-than-favorable things to say about the demo…

The demo for Aliens vs. Predator is out, and it seems to be receiving an overall “meh” sort of reaction. I’ve been playing it myself, and I can understand where this viewpoint is coming from… there’s no real “wow” in the demo. However, I don’t think the shortcoming lies necessarily in the game itself, but more in that deathmatch was chosen to showcase the demo.

Of all the versus modes AvP is shipping with, regular free-for-all deathmatch has got to be the weakest, and doesn’t play to any of the game’s strengths. Who wants to be a marine when you have to worry about getting shot at by other marines, as well as aliens and predators? And aliens should be hunting together, not trying to swipe eachother off the ceiling.

Any other mode, in my opinion, would have provided a better first impression of what AvP multiplayer can offer.

And I’ve got to agree.  I really don’t think a free-for-all deathmatch is a very good way to demonstrate an AvP game.

There’s a kind of instinctive banding-together that happens in an AvP game.  It seems wrong to be shooting at others of your own species.  You’ve got predators stalking you…  Aliens hiding in the shadows…  Your impulse is to band together against the things that go bump in the night.  You don’t want to have to worry about other marines shooting you.

It isn’t so bad as a marine, actually, because it’s vaguely reminiscent of any other FPS ever made – you’re always shooting at other soldier-y guys.  But as a predator or especially an alien it’s downright weird.

I’ll be hanging from the ceiling, waiting to pounce on someone, and just not register the other aliens sneaking around…  And then one of them will rip me a new orifice.

It would have been great if they’d featured a different gameplay mode…  Team Deathmatch probably would have worked well…  A big ol’ three-way fight between the races, instead of just a free-for-all.