Mirror's Edge A.K.A. Caveat Emptor ... for software

As the Good Google teaches us, "Beta" is the new "Release".

Nowhere is this clearer than in the new EA release, Mirror's Edge.

It works like this: you buy the game (for a mere 50EUR :(), wait for it to download and after a day and a half of waiting, it doesn't start.

You have to browse the forums (Google search: Mirror's Edge stuck at splash screen, Mirror's Edge crashes, etc.), then start playing with your settings:

• update drivers a couple of times
• read the forums again
• try a couple of hacks (rename a DLL, set the antialiasing manually in some config files to a low value, etc)

The game finally takes of and it's all good.

Except it's not.

It's crashed twice on me, and at some difficult parts in the game (usually where you are most immersed in the game) it started crawling, drawing the frames at one-two frames per second, and mainly became unusable.

Come on guys!

I know you had a deadline to keep, but what you did here is BETA QUALITY.

The game-play is great and looks polished-enough, but all that can't be enjoyed if you have to fight it to play it.

These are the kind of problems that should have gone away after beta testing, so it's either a problem with the testing, or with the bug-fixing, or it's a problem with management sticking their tails where they don't belong and forcing the deadlines.

I hope I don't offend anyone when I say that the only way I'll buy another EA game is if I download it first from torrents, and decide it's streamlined enough to be worth the money (as this one definitely wasn't).

For other potential buyers: if you want to buy the game, wait a few months until they get some patches out (if they do at all). Otherwise, only buy the game if you don't mind a few hours making it run.

Edit: It seems the game actually works after all. Just, not for Windows Vista.

History of the Internet

some more pictures

The weekend is over. I arrived back from Moldova on Friday night, and spend most of Saturday outside. Today I got my rest.

I don't have anything interesting to say right now, except that I finally took the time to process four more holidays pictures.

Enjoy:

11:23 in Chisinau Airport

I'm a busy bunny today - places to go and (no) people to see.

I'll be flying out of here by 12:25, to Istanbul. Then, I'll be on my way to Athens, then from Athens to Larnaca. I could have taken a more direct flight, but where's the fun in that?

Actually the "more direct flight" would have made miss the weekend, but fun sounds ... well ... funnier.

Instead, I'll be flying for close to twelve hours today (not really, but the breaks will be spent in airports, so there's no difference really).

I think I'll have enough fun today to get stuffed with it.

Moldova is ...

.. a bit of a culture shock, and familiar at the same time.

I've been here since Monday, so here are a few minute impressions:

• the food is great(like the good Romanian food I've been missing, though there are differences).


• Grigore Vieru (respected poet) died, and there was a national mourning day, declared by the president. It was a huge event and everybody kept talking about it for a few days.


• the hotel is nice (I remembered that since last visit, but that doesn't make it less nice)

That's it for now (or were you expecting something meaningful?).

about rebirth

I was reading a Buddhist discussion on rebirth (How do Buddhists deal with the idea of rebirth?) and found a comment I really liked (not quoting):
You don't survive death because the "you" that you think you are doesn't really exist. Why would a construct in your mind survive death?

Another good point in the discussion: the "rebirth" concept is mainly metaphoric - to really live every moment, you have to die every moment, and be reborn.

Icicles in the Sun, Red Mountain, Romania

Palinkopf Peak, Ischgl, Austria

lone tree, red mountain forrest trail, Romania

Back on Earth

I'm back in office, working.

We arrived at five in the morning and it was a pleasant change to walk outside in temperatures over the freezing point.

I'm in office now, muscles still aching from the skiing, tired and busy.
I'll post some pictures over the week, and try to answer my mail backlog.

back to work ...