Minimum Requirements Podcast

Introducing cool new pop culture podcast Minimum Requirements! Please join Boots, Brendan, Yianna and myself for a rollicking good time listening to whatever geek thing that’s got our attention. Discussing things like videogames, books, movies, tv shows and cheese!

You can find our podcast by searching “Minimum Requirements” (say that five times!) on iTunes or go straight to our official website here at http://www.floorislava.com.au/minreq. Also follow Minimum Requirements on Twitter @MinReqShow  

Haiku Halo

About a month or so ago I played Halo (Halo: Reach to be specific) for the first time on my brand new Xbox. Below are a bunch of haikus that were inspired by my first Halo: Reach experiences. And I really should go back and play more! Also, I should do some DayZ Haikus... maybe.

Have rocket launcher
Tip of the Spear, dead at start
Noob has lost the war.

So useless is Six.
Thirty seconds of combat.
Dead again, now dead.

Nothing like the high.
Hunters evaded or killed
Achievements unlocked.

Hunters! Oh shit! Shit!
Please don’t notice me Hunters!
Why don’t you just die!

Okay, going good.
What! Dead! What killed me now!?
Bloody suicides…

Yeah! Bang! Bang! Got ya!
Oops. Where did that cliff come from?
That’s right, dead again.

Dreadful at driving?
Don’t let random AI drive.
They are even worse.

A Little Minecraft: Because it's a little too long for Twitter

Wouldn’t it be funny if I described recent Minecraft experiences to people at work.

“I was on my friend’s Minecraft server, out gathering wood in the jungle, as you do, happily chopping away. When I decided to go back to my hidey hole I realized I did not know which direction I came from! And every side of this overgrown jungle looked the same! So I wandered off in a direction in the hopes it was the right one, but I just got more lost. Eventually I got my friend who was in “GOD” mode to come rescue me. He teleported me right to my house, it was weird his face filled up the entire screen for a second.”

I’m pretty sure I’d get some odd looks.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 6: Where I ride an old bicycle...

Those are my beans!

Had some company in DayZ last night… sort of, was on Skype with friends while playing, we all made it to the same server, but we never actually found each other on the map. But it was fun listening to a friend experience the game for the first time. I hear after I logged off, they managed to find each other on the map, just as it got dark.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary…

A day in DayZ like every other day, a new beginning. I arrived somewhere on the coast, but I have no idea where, I forgot to pay attention at arrival. I ran in a random direction for a minute, and saw a lighthouse, but it was not the same lighthouse I’d seen on previous days.

Coming upon the lighthouse it was to discover something delightful! Leaning against the lighthouse, on both sides, were two old pastel green bicycles. I couldn’t resist, I sat on one, and rode it around the hill, up and down that hill for a few minutes, worked quite well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to take it with me, and now I’m kicking myself, I should have just rode along with it, instead of leaving it on the hill. I guess I didn’t want the hassle of going back for it if I had to travel prone for any extended time. Oh who cares! I should have kept it with me as long as I possibly could. Lesson learned.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 5: Welcome to Elektrozavodsk...

Monday night, chose a US server, yet got night time… ok. This is going to be a short one.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary…

Once again I’m a new survivor, finding myself on the beach, at Elektrozavodsk. This was my first time anywhere near this location, I was worried. It was night time, and I’d heard rumours about the dreaded Elektro being a bandit mecca.

Being that it was dark, I guess the one advantage was that the zeds couldn’t see me, the disadvantage, I couldn’t see them. But I kept on the move, trying to discover anything useful. Got chased by some zeds, but lost them quick, didn’t get a scratch on me.

After wondering around for a little while, I got tailed again, I ran, right into a building, there was a stairwell, and a very loud sound of flies buzzing, disturbing, I ran up it, to one floor, there was loot, I picked it up, and then ran up to the next floor, where there were a few more items to pick up. I now had a gun, an AK, it was loaded, I turned around and faced the stairs, ready for those zeds to appear. They didn’t, but I could hear them, loud and growly. I took a look around where I was, it was a small space, surrounded by windows and nothing else, no doors, no more stairs up.

So I waited, expecting zeds to come charging up the stairs. It was dark, those flies were buzzing, the zeds were growling. And then I heard it, gunshots below, the zeds were quiet. But the flies buzzing seemed even louder. More waiting, nobody came up.

After a while, I figured it might be safe to venture down, so started down those stairs, when I got there, there was someone at the bottom of the stairwell. They had a crowbar, I ran past them, announcing that I’m friendly. I was unharmed when I went past, but I did hear a suspicious ‘swish’. Then I ran into the ground floor room, I was almost out of the building, then I saw another survivor in a door way. Crouched, gun pointed at me. Before I even got a chance to say anything… a brief flash, and I was dead.

Note: Geez... where were these guys on Sunday when I wanted a quick death.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 4: Where I get a gun! And fail to have a quick death…

He had a hatchet, I had a gun. We were ready for those zeds.

Sunday, an entire day I get to devote to DayZ. And it’s “day”, this has significance, because within DayZ, day and night time match the location of the server. Most of my playtime is a short time in the evening after I get home from work, so I’ve often resorted to playing on a US server so it’s usually daylight in the game. Probably not the best idea because of ‘ping’ reasons, but I’ve not found any big lag issues, and I’m too new to this game deal with night time yet. Though I heard that one can go into 'Options' and adjust brightness and gamma to make night time like day, I think I may try that some night.

The other reason I was playing on the US server was because I’m still new to the game, trying to just learn the ropes, I’d chose a low population server, as I didn’t feel ready to encounter other people in the game yet. Other various reasons are, I’d try for a server marked “Recruit”, because really, if I was to give a label to my skill level, that’s it. And it can be hard to get onto an AU/NZ server during peek times. This time because it's Sunday morning, I choose one of those AU/NZ servers.

So I start my session, bringing up a DayZ map in a browser, so I can tab/alt to it, so I can see if I can get an idea of location when I login, and spawn as a brand new helpless survivor.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary…

A new day, alone on the beach, nothing but that backpack, torch, bandages and painkillers, I could see the lighthouse not far off, it was starting to be a familiar sight, I checked the map. I think I was close to Kamenka. So at a quick jog I started to make my way to what I think was Kamenka, the closest town on the coast.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 3: Where desperation rules my choices... (part 2)

[Continied from Here: Day 3 - first life] 

Second Life

On the coast, daylight, not a clue to my location. Heard rumours that it was wise to head north, but I have an awful sense of direction, and don't know how to tell north from south. With my back to the coast, I wandered off to my left. Thinking again to stay away from any towns, I seemed to forget the part where I really need supplies. And that should be first on my to-do list. I followed some train tracks that were nearby, and then I saw it! It looked like a lighthouse, I bet it was the same lighthouse I came across on my first “Day” of this DayZ world. The one that I’d stumbled into on that dark night, and quite cleverly broken a leg when I climbed out of it.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 3: Where desperation rules my choices... (part 1)



I don't think that zed can see me... it would be running right?

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary...

First Life

I can’t remember the details of the start of last night’s first life, other than the obvious… spawn at coast, bla bla bla. Ok, some of it’s coming back to me. I was close to some town, I didn’t go in, thought this time I’d avoid civilization as much as I could, maybe I could wander into the wilderness and find smaller places to loot for survival supplies. There was a rundown service station right outside of town, while I was exploring the service station it started to rain, making it cold and damp. And my search of the service station proved to be a waste of time, nothing was found.

Wait… I did venture towards the town! Just on the edge, by the water, there was a barn. I made my way to it, carefully. There were zombies to avoid, saw two of them as I belly crawled around a fence. I stayed down low, still for half a minute, as I waited for a zombie to wander away from the barn I was planning to explore. And then I made it into the barn, I closed the doors, but there were wide open doors on the other side of the barn, and I’m pretty sure the other zombie was on that side. Unfortunately my explorations of the barn came up with nothing, there was no loot to be found. And to make matters worse, a zombie noticed me!

DayZ Quickie

Tonight's DayZ time not worth recording as a "Zombie Apocalypse Diary", as when I finally logged in after massive house work and some time spent in ArmA II Bootcamp to familiarize myself with some basic controls I realized it was way too late in the evening for it. So I thought, what the hell, I might as well suicide.

When I logged in this evening I had nothing saved from last nights adventures, I was back at start point anyway. So I had nothing to lose. 

There was one item of interest in my very brief DayZ session, when I was walking towards civilization I heard some gunshots, and saw a building in the distance go up in flames. I was quite curious about that, so I ran towards that direction, didn't find anything other than zombies, which chased me. I just kept running and running. No matter where I ran, I couldn't shake the zombies off... Eventually they just ran me down, and I died. Took awhile though, I was running around like a complete loon.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 2: Where I fail to pick up a gun...

[Day 1 of DayZ Diary Here]

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary…

A new day, and new life in the world of DayZ, thankfully it was daylight when I found myself on the coast. I dropped down to a prone position, and crawled in a random direction from there, still following the coast. It’s wise to keep low, and try to make as little sound as possible as I didn’t want to attract the attention of any zombies that might be nearby. On the right of the screen there are “eye” and “ear” icons, they indicate with bars how much sound you are making, and how visible you are to the surroundings.

Also under those icons on the right of your screen, is what I believe is a temperature icon, a drink bottle icon, a blood drop icon and a meal icon. When you have a need related to these icons, they change colour. I believe it is possible to starve to death in this game, if you don’t take sustenance. The icons indicate when you are thirsty, hungry, or losing mass amounts of blood.

Eventually I could see some buildings in the distance, what looked like a small town, and near the water some industrial buildings. Keeping closer to the water, I continued to crawl in the direction of the buildings. When I got closer, I could see a zombie ambling around a house. So I veered off in the direction of the industrial building, a warehouse I think, that was facing the ocean, suspecting there was less of a chance of zombies being there.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 1: Where I fail to survive more than 31 minutes…

According to the official DayZ website the average lifespan of survivors (players) is 31 minutes.

I found out about DayZ while I was watching the TV show Good Game, the host’s (Bajo and Hex) adventures in game looked like a combo of fun and scary that immediately captured my imagination, which made me keen to give it a go.

DayZ created by New Zealander Dean "Rocket" Hall, is a mod in its alpha stage, created for Arma II, a simulation FPS game. What it does is drop you in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, with nothing but bandages, painkillers and a torch. From there on, it’s up to you to try and survive. If you die, you are DEAD. It’s back to being dropped on some random place on the coast, with nothing but those bandages, painkillers and a torch. What follows below, is my so far brief adventures in DayZ…

Dear Zombie Apocalypse diary…

Bought Arma II Combined Operations on Steam on Saturday, looked like it was going to take overnight to download, while I was at it I also set SWTOR and Rift to update. I think I then went off and played some Halo: Reach and other random stuff. Some SWTOR time happened as well.

The next day I figured out how to add the DayZ mod to Arma II, wasn’t too hard. And then I dived into the game, and didn’t last long.

Was dropped in a random place on the coast and I couldn’t figure out how to use the controls. Had looked up the options menu, to have a peek at those controls, helped a little bit, but it was also a bit inadequate. In my first attempt at the game I’d come to a ladder I wanted climb, I knew it was possible because when I stood near it there was a little green arrow up that appeared on screen. There was no clue in the options/controls that indicated how to use a ladder.