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Turner Networks Upfront

October 12th, 2012 · Stuntwork


Rose Theater photo by Rob Lee on flickr

Just finished work for a stage act to kick off an executive summit for Turner Networks that took place in the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center Jazz in New York City. It was a ton of action packed into a time span of less than 3 minutes for which we had a week and a half to put together and rehearse, first offsite and then for three days on location prior to the show on the third night. We had bikes jumping onto stage from the wings, a burning man running across the stage, evil doctors, a hot nurse, SWAT rappelling in from the ceiling… it was the first time motorized vehicles had been allowed into this theater at Lincoln Center, let alone jumping them, and the first time for a human burn as well.

We had an excellent crew assembled by Stunts911, which was the outfit hired to put this piece together. Our offsite location provided the means to mock-up the stage environment we would be experiencing at the location so we could accurately block things out and have complete rehearsals without needing to book up valuable time onsite. After basic walk through and blocking was complete and we all had an idea of where we needed to be and what we needed to do at any given time the actual fight choreography came next, which was largely handled by all of us doing the fighting ourselves and then tweaked by the directors since they know better what the client wants.

One of my friends said it best: “This is Drew in his natural state of being”

Being a member of the (evil) SWAT team, myself and three others were tasked with rappelling down from the ceiling, looking like we were clearing the room, and then engaging with the (equally evil) doctors already on stage. For the off-site rehearsals we had rafters at the top of the warehouse where we set up our ropes and gear. It was about 30 feet up or so. We started with figure 8s for the rappels but soon just used only the carabiner so when we pulled the rope out after landing we didn’t have gear swinging around as we fought. Once down on the ground it was me and the SWAT guy to my right (Peter) who had to engage with a single doctor (Josiah). As much as I like fighting sequences, as a gymnast more than a martial artist I like falls way better – so I choreographed the fight to open with Josiah sweeping my rifle barrel and decking me in the face. POW!! At first I took it spinning to a knee but once I got my full SWAT wardrobe with a riot vest that was just as good as a back pad I began doing full spins to my back. Once Peter and Josiah worked through what their fight would entail while I got back on my feet, I added a rifle butt to Josiah’s face to put him down, followed by a stomach kick from Peter to keep him down. We tweaked some small things here and there over time but from inception to showtime that was the choreography.


Ceiling rappel practicing at the offsite location

During the week at the offsite location we gradually built up to run throughs in full wardrobe. Doing things in your own clothes is comfortable, doing things in costume is different. For example, the riot vests we wore for our SWAT gear were so big we had to go back to using figure 8’s for rappelling because otherwise the vest would overlap both the ‘biner and some of the rope when we were sitting back to rappell down to the ground. It was also a bit more cumbersome handling the weapons with the vests so there was getting used to that as well. And we had goggles that needed to be worn on the helmet and then placed down over our eyes less than a minute before we dropped so they wouldn’t fog up because it’s always hotter when you’re geared up, let alone above the ground where all the hot air goes! This is just why we spend a lot of time practicing though.


Takedown time

By the time we arrived at Lincoln Center the action was all well rehearsed and smooth. Similar to how performing in costume is always different than performing in your own clothes, performing on location is always different in some ways than performing offsite. For example the area the SWAT team would drop in was more stage left than center where we had been practicing on our mock-up stage, so we had to make some slight adjustments there. Another difference for us SWAT guys was how we were going to rappel down. The offsite location had convenient rafters for us, but the Rose Theater stage goes clear straight up about 90 feet – all you can do is hang stuff like trusses for lights and drop curtains. Therefore they had a truss rigged for us from which hung four seats for us to sit in. Thankfully the seats were swings and not slings, so it was like sitting on a swing set and just as easy to slip out of. We hooked in, sat down and were slowly lifted about 35 feet up and out of sight behind drop curtains. Then we would coil up our rope and just sit and wait for our turn to make an appearance. Oh yes, we had laser sights on our guns too now that we had to manage, making the deployment sequence (for me, at least) laser on, goggles down, rope down, slip out of chair, drop. All in a span of about 15-20 seconds. Then I also had to further make sure when I dropped rope the rope didn’t wrap around the barrel of my gun or atop any of the hanging lights below and just behind us, or down between my legs (I kept them crossed to avoid this, which also made sitting in the chair a bit more comfortable) and also that my arms were inside the swing so when I slipped out I didn’t have an arm wrapped around the chair. Finally my gun needed to be positioned right so the magazine or pistol grip wouldn’t hang on the swing as I slid out. Then there were also the aforementioned lights right behind us as we dropped, both hanging and on the floor, so we had to make sure we didn’t swing much as we came down. However we all knew all this and a lot of verbal and visual cross-checking went on up there to ensure everyone had a safe drop and so there were no issues.

Well, almost. I still don’t know exactly what happened but I guess I had a bad grip on my brake line for some reason as I slid out of the chair one time during onsite rehearsal. You can’t really reposition your brake hand as you descend so when I realized my brake hand wasn’t slowing me I had to use my left hand on the rope above my figure 8, which wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t wearing fingerless gloves. Although I managed to take most of the friction on my palm, a lot more is needed to slow you on this part of the rope so I had to curl my whole hand around it. I managed to strike a good balance between burning my fingers off and decreasing my speed so although I landed probably as hard as I would ever want to land I didn’t break anything. I did walk away with tender feet and legs and some blisters and smooth skin on my left hand though.


One of the green rooms at the Rose Theater

Like all theaters, the Rose Theater is on a tight schedule of shows, so we’re having the stage literally assembled around us as we squeezed in rehearsals. The day of the show was an all-day affair so we could be on hand to rehearse when the stage was available, do a full-show run through and then get prepped for the real deal that night. Since we were released for lunch I took the subway down to Chinatown for some good Chinese eatin’ and found a new restaurant to replace my favorite one that closed down last year.

Showtime rolled around and it was back to the swings. The production crew did a great job getting us up there as close as possible to opening the house, so we were only sitting there for about 20 minutes. I was able to slowly swing my legs back and forth without causing the whole truss to swing and that kept the blood flowing in my legs. It would have sucked to drop with legs that were asleep! All 4 of us managed to stay close together on the drop and from there things unfolded as they should. Prior to our drop everything was going smoothly as well. We ended our short act on time – so much so our director said the production crew was calling our cues perfect. Most of the cast headed straight out after that but I had some carabiners being used to hook up the swings so I had to wait until the show wrapped about an hour and a half later so they could bring the truss back down and I could grab my stuff. After that, celebratory drinks at a nearby bar with some of the cast and then catching the last train home.

In addition to meeting many new great people on this job was the fun of being able to work once again with my friends Greg and Airon who I met on the Batman Show way back when. Crap that was a long time ago now.

Time to relax, recoup and see what’s next…

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Flight Log – Diversion

September 10th, 2012 · Gaming

I recently took a second look at Plan-G, which is a freeware VFR flight planning tool built for FSX. I had checked it out originally a year or so ago but felt it was too much extra trouble to learn and use when I really didn’t need any complex flight planning tools – I mean I’ve been using simple plain text files for the last two years! But I figured as I started to branch out more from NJ now that I’m running out of airports to model I would need some extra help plotting longer flights and using a more complete aviation mapping system as SkyVector only shows you one chart at a time. At least, it did until recently when in the last month or so it began allowing you to pan around seamless aviation charts across the entire globe. Figures 😛

Anyway I decided to stick with learning how to utilize Plan-G and still use SkyVector for backup navigation due to the fact that it uses actual navigation charts and Plan-G simply uses navigation data it draws over a street map. The benefit to Plan-G over drawing my routes on the SkyVector site is that I have a better means of saving them in a visual format that’s easier to recall than deciphering a text file plan I wrote. The one downside to Plan-G that came with the most recent release is that you can’t take an existing route line and redirect part of it without creating a custom waypoint in the process. This means I’m creating a lot of waypoints that get saved to the Plan-G database that I’m only going to use once for a specific flight plan.

Other than that annoyance, I’ve found Plan-G easy to pick up and suitable for even my simple needs.

Here’s the Plan-G flight plan for this flight. (Right-click Save As)

For this flight I wanted to check out the new freeware KPHL scenery from SunSkyJet. I decided to hop back into the Bonanza, which I had left at my last airport project, Lakewood (N12). It was a morning flight, and I knew the weather wasn’t going to be great but it would be doable. I planned to fly south along the coast, intercept the ACY VOR on the 120° radial at 12nm out and then arc around ACY until the 300° radial. I originally planned to head straight from there on a bearing for KPHL but decided instead to change that and stick to visual aids and instead picked up the Atlantic City Expressway and followed that west to Philly. I had also planned to step climb during my DME arc for extra challenge but unfortunately the weather prevented me as the cloud cover was around 3200′ and I wanted to go as high as 4500′ by the time I turned towards Philly.

After making it down the coast okay I climbed from 1500′ to 2500′ just before intercepting the 120° radial since visibility was dropping, I hadn’t enabled any flight following and was getting apprehensive of passing low over Ocean City (26N) as I arced around the VOR. The climb threw my trim off and the winds were picking up too so getting established on the arc took me a while longer than I would have liked and put me at 11.1nm, which is outside the +/- 0.5nm buffer I like to keep myself within. Eventually I smoothed out and was able to drift closer to 12nm out as I turned, but I was also distracted by an inconsistent rumbling/banging noise and since I don’t fly in many thunderstorms in FSX it took me a while to realize it was thunder I was hearing – the lighting flashes in the distance became visible as I continued to turn westward.

By the time I passed over Ocean City I could see clear out west where there was nothing but low cloud and lighting, so I made the call and swung around to make an approach at Ocean City. I called out for Runway 6 and brought her down as quickly as I could – probably a bit too quickly as I went through an abbreviated mental landing checklist. I landed okay though still, if quite long down the not so long runway. Looking at the weather didn’t show any breaks anytime soon so I left the plane parked at Ocean City.

Two days later I came back during the day to attempt the rest of the flight. Weather was still overcast and even lower than before with a 1500′ ceiling but visibility was 10nm and there were no showers or t-storms in the area so up I went. After slotting in between arriving traffic I departed down Runway 6 and turned right to circle back over the airport and establish my DME arc the rest of the way around. I flew at 1000′ to give me proper vertical clearance from the clouds and that was sufficient for the entire flight thankfully since this part of NJ is barely a few dozen feet above sea level. Once 12nm from the VOR I simply set my NAV2 CDI to 300° and then judged my turn by looking at my approach speed to the DME, which I kept as close to 0 as possible. I find this much simpler than the original method I learned, which is useful if you don’t have approach speed instrumentation available.

Once I turned over the Atlantic City Expressway to follow it west I contacted KPHL for landing and was told to make straight-in for Runway 35. I was still way too far out to line up with any runways so I continued until I was near the Delaware River and then turned to follow it south until I was abeam the airport and could make a right turn for final approach. It was pretty busy when I arrived, and I even had to slow my approach to make sure an airliner landing on intersecting 27R was past my runway before I landed. In fact ATC instructed me to go around but they did so practically as my wheels were coming into contact with the ground, so I slowed and taxied off ASAP but still not before ATC reproached me with a “you were not cleared to land!”. Oh well, they still gave me Ground hand off so I contacted Ground and asked for east parking, since that’s where the GA aircraft go but unfortunately I hadn’t bothered to take a close look at the airport diagram and realize that east parking is actually overflow airline parking, which was already overflowed so they ended up directing me to a gate. Then in the process of getting lost taxiing I got into a traffic jam with three airliners.

In the end I gave up and reloaded my aircraft at a GA parking spot at KPHL and saved the flight from there. As I’ve found is true with most airports that feature realistic parking, having your commercial AI turned up to max can overwhelm the airport since in real life they park out of service planes away from gates while in the sim they just sit there for a long while before either departing later or timing out. So eventually aircraft run out of gate parking and overflow where possible into GA parking. I will have to do some tweaking to find a good setting for KPHL, but at least the scenery itself was great and I look forward to departing out of it next time.

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Magnus Rex – Full Disclosure

July 21st, 2012 · Stuntwork

Way back in November I posted a partial disclosure of the work I had done for the film Magnus Rex. If you didn’t read it then know that I’m not going to repeat things I said then now except to provide more context and background information so I suggest checking it out first.

Now then on to the big news: Magnus Rex is really The Dark Knight Rises!! Okay, so this isn’t actually big news as this fact has been known on the internet since before I ever became involved with the movie, but it’s not something I could say online earlier thanks to my contract. So yes, I’m in the third Christopher Nolan Batman movie. Yes, I saw Christopher Nolan on set. Yes, Christian Bale was there as Batman. Yes, Tom Hardy was there as Bane. Yes, Matthew Modine was there as the police commissioner. Yes, I saw the tumblers. Yes, I saw the Batpod. Yes, it was all awesome.

Rehearsals Day One

The scene we are filmed in is the big climactic battle sequence between Bane’s army of thugs and mercenaries and the Gotham City law enforcement, which has been hiding underground for months and has finally returned to retake the city. At rehearsals we were all paired thug/merc and cop/SWAT so that we could each engage in one-on-one combat after an initial charge and clash – the common description was the big battle scene in Braveheart (“without the ‘Freeeeedom!’ crap,” said the film’s fight coordinator) where the two armies just meet together and slam into each other. We started rehearsing this as a long line about 2-3 people deep and eventually had to work it closer together to fit us all in a NYC street about 30 feet wide – which put us several dozen people deep.

Obviously the main problem is that there was no “layering” of the people in the two groups. So for example if everyone in the front of one group happened to have their partner in the front of the other group, they would meet, start fighting and everyone else would have to move around them – this caused things to either spill out to the side or just cause everyone to get crushed together in the middle so much that I and others were actually getting picked up off our feet and getting carried around by the crowd – I won’t lie it was a bit scary. Fortunately no one ever got trampled or anything like that. But it did create a problem and I guess the logistics of arranging us so that we would clash evenly (and not make it look like we were specifically placed to do so) was just not possible for the number of extras they were using.

The majority of the day was spent working fight sequences with your partner. The stunt team people had 4 sequences of fist-fighting for us to go through, all the type of fighting you would see in what’s commonly referred to as “barroom brawl” style. This is the same type of fighting style we used in the Batman Show – no fancy kung-fu or Hong Kong-style action, just head and gut punches. My partner Chris and I decided to stick with the most basic sequence – left jab, right cross, left hook. We also added that we would both start in a grapple hold and he would knee me in the stomach before I broke us apart and started the punch sequence. Very simple, very basic. This made it easy for Chris and I to work on the nuances – like starting with your guard up but gradually dropping it with each hit reaction. Slacking the facial muscles when taking a punch. Little stuff to help sell the hit more. Meanwhile a lot of other pairs were still trying to remember all the fancy moves they made up.

Rehearsals Day Two

My partner and I were both invited back for the second day of rehearsals, which had about half as many people participating. We ran through some more clash sequences and some people were given training in shooting and dieing. Again though the majority of the time it was one-on-one with your partner rehearsing the fight sequence you were going to loop in the shot. “Looping” a fight sequence is basically you just keep throwing the punch combo back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until cut. Chris and I had the grapple and knee sequence to use whenever we wanted to move around a bit to find some clear space or just exchange some words. This was also a general piece of advice the stunt crew gave us.

One point during the day the stunt crew had some groups run clash sequences to film on their iPhones to see how things looked. They didn’t let us use our partners so I stayed off to the side and just watched. With the majority of the extras being rather excitable during this sequence I wasn’t about to engage in mock battle with someone who didn’t know what they were doing (with me, I mean). There were a few punches thrown into each other’s fists, my partner got head butted a bit – nothing serious but I wasn’t interested in getting knocked around in the slightest. Within our group we also did some clashes with our partners for the stunt guys to record and let us look over.

By this time a lot of the people in our group and others had worked up some rather elaborate fight sequences – and many were not that good. In fact we spent a little while just standing around watching the other groups since we could see them all from various angles and taking note of how and why some punches and kicks just didn’t look good or sell well. Chris and I continued to stick with the simple grapple and 3-punch combo since even during clash rehearsals we had found ourselves getting caught up in the action and making mistakes like I would throw a sequence and Chris would go back into the grapple without responding or I’d throw a hook instead of a cross, etc. It was important for our safety I knew that we be able to do the fight sequence but also have part of our awareness watching what was going on around us.

Shoot Day One

Where’s Drew? Look for the guy with shades. I wore them because they could go quickly into my pocket before “action!” and were sturdy enough for me not to worry about them getting smashed

We filed out of holding by group onto Wall Street in downtown New York City, where the action was to take place. I was in the “Tiger” group, which was the group that attended both days of rehearsal. We were put up front to be closest to the camera on all occasions. The only people ever in front of us were the principal stunt actors (one of whom was a friend of mine and fellow Joker Henchman from season 1 of the Batman Show, along with his wife. They were both cops though). As in rehearsal, we started off with the big clash scene which was broken down into multiple shots with multiple takes for each. So sometimes we were charging and other times we were simply marching forward to yell and scream at the cops way down on the other end of the street. We were lead by a camouflaged tumbler with two more pulling up from side streets.


Tumbler leads us on. I’m wearing a blue jacket with a green vest on top

A problem that evidenced itself early on was communication. It was very difficult for the stunt guys and various crew to address the mass of people and make everyone understand what was going to happen in an upcoming shot. Eventually some on the crowd would take to yelling back instructions that were passed on down the throng but it was usually a paraphrase so for example “Don’t bunch up, keep your spacing so that people can come through” would get passed on as “Don’t bunch up!” It was unfortunate they didn’t set up some sort of PA system they could use to address us effectively but to be honest now that I think about it that may still not have worked as people tend to do what they want, not as they’re told – especially when everyone there wants to be on camera. Yes, including me. I’ll admit I couldn’t fully restrain myself all the time.


The clash – note the cluster fuck in the middle!

So the clash scene – once again the main problem with the scene was that people would meet up in the middle and get stuck. However the problem this time wasn’t so much to do with people stopping to fight, since they instructed us to just push through, but more with the people behind us catching up before we have a chance to squeeze through the gauntlet created by the two tumblers that come out of the side streets. Look at how bunched up we are at the start of the clip. They tried moving the tumblers back a few feet to give us more space, but the result was the same – too many people would try to squeeze through at once and we’d all get stuck. Once again you would get picked up off your feet and carried a few inches every now and then as the crowd just moved you. I can’t imagine what it was like for some of the smaller female extras – I was personally trying not to accidentally grope any.

So the solution was to get us to space out more – of course this was a problem since the farther back people went the less they considered themselves to be in the action – and of course since everyone wanted to be in the action getting everyone to back up and stay back was problematic. They would get us spaced arms-length out but then when we marched forward I would have people from behind me march up past me – so by the time we got to the stand-off position everyone was bunched up again! Or, if they had to make an announcement while we were waiting for the shot people would cluster up to hear and then not quite space back out as much afterwards. I won’t deny that I myself was guilty of this – I had to mentally force myself to move back in the column while my brain screamed “but the camera is way up there!” When we returned “back to one” for reset after each take some people would also casually not go back quite as far as when they first started.


People being told to back up. One of the stunt actors needs to stand atop a tumbler to address us – note some people already moving forward again by this time

Still it helped a little. We had extra spacing right from the start, and another thing they did to help make sure the cops made it through the mass of Bane’s army (which was a story point) is that we didn’t charge, the cops charged towards us which limited the movement of the spaced-out thugs to prevent bunching up prior to meeting the cops at the intersection clash point. The mass of cops formed a knot for a little while but then that broke up and started flowing again a bit better. Again, we were instructed not to engage but to pass through – on this take or one similar to it I did actually make it all the way through and enacted some mock battles with some cops before the air horns sounded cut.

The majority of the morning was spent working on this scene. Snow lining the street was really ground up paper-like material strewn around and the snow being blown through the air was a soapy-like material that evaporates once it lands and is blown by a large fan after being ejected from the separate machine making it. My partner said it crackles as it evaporates when it lands in your ear. It can get annoying when it lands on your eyelash or something but otherwise non-caustic and harmless. In between takes could take upwards of 10-15 minutes or longer where you’re just standing around – my lower back started to kill me about halfway through the day. Sometimes you could sit on a curb or one of the vehicle passage blockers that were in the street, often I was crouching or standing straddled to get weight off my lower back and legs a bit. My feet weren’t so bad, mainly a little achy so I would walk around a bit.

Another reason this scene took so long to get right was because a lot of people were forgetting that there is some acting that goes along with this job besides throwing and taking punches. Specifically, we’re all supposed to be completely pissed off at one another. So the problem was that most of the background extras were grinning or smiling as they ran past the camera or stood off exchanging blows with one another. I may have been one of them, I could never remember afterwards if I smiled or not but I would think back to my henchman role in the Batman Show before each take so I don’t think I ever smiled. I may have grinned after smacking around my cop partner though. An “evil grin” to be sure but we’re not seen well enough for the context of the grin to be apparent – so none of that was allowed.


we’re all so HAPPY to be here!!

Just check the clip above for perfect examples that probably had Christopher Nolan face palming. They actually threatened to pull people out of the shot so we wouldn’t have to keep doing takes over and over again. Finally though we got what was needed and moved on to the next scene, which took place further down the street behind us – in the picture above you’ll see a statue to the back right, this is the Federal Hall National Memorial, and it’s where Batman and Bane meet up and fight. This was the first time Batman came on set and we realized that it was actually Christian Bale doing the fight sequence, which was pretty awesome. My partner and I happened to be positioned in the right place for the stunt team to instruct us to be part of the corridor that Batman would use to access the principal stunt actors and then Bane himself. So Batman began the shot standing literally 5 feet to my right, and he shoved past me on his way towards the stunt team. It was the job of me and my partner to close up behind him and prevent anyone else from pushing into the “bubble” of space the stunt team, Batman and Bane needed to carry our their sequence. Several other background Tiger pairs also formed the corridor.


Batman pushing me around…. once again.

We did several takes of this shot, which was filmed from overhead with the camera crane. Eventually we moved on to other shots with Batman and Bane continuing the fight further up towards the steps of the building although my partner and I largely stayed where we were – there was no way we were going to risk winding up in a later shot and maybe having to be cut from the Batman entrance scene because of continuity.

Once we were done filming at the Federal Hall equipment and us were moved back to the intersection for more shots of the big street brawl – these were post-clash so we were all spread out and paired up with out partners and fully engaged in mock battle. Chris and I were next to a telephone booth behind which was one of the liquid smoke machines. I dealt with these a lot during my time at Six Flags but the kind they were using on set weren’t quite the same as I do not recall ever having my throat feel so scorched after gulping a lungful of dense smoke. Ow, my throat was already hoarse from yelling so much earlier in the day during the clash scene and now it was getting irritated – however the crew was good about bringing out water between takes so that helped.


Look straight under the camera for me and my partner duking it out

I should mention here, since you can clearly see our fight sequence again like the last video, how glad I am we decided to stick with a basic sequence. We were still messing up during some takes, because again we had a good portion of our attention focused outwards to avoid tripping over someone’s feet or reacting to a hit and turning into a punch from another pair of background extras. Other than stuff we couldn’t see happening directly behind us (Chris caught something in the back and I got kicked or kneed or something behind the legs) neither of us got knocked around much and our routine was tight enough we didn’t need a big space. It annoyed me how some people were constructing these elaborate kung-fu-ish fight sequences that didn’t look like they belonged in a brawl but it wasn’t my place to say anything so I kept it to myself. Chris and I wound up on the far right side of the phone booth (relative to that clip above) and were also throwing each other against it at times to mix things up a little bit.


The very end of this clip you can see me getting flung against the phone booth

We wrapped day one with this scene. No injuries to me and my partner thankfully other than the jostling around I mentioned earlier during some of the fight scenes. During the initial clash scene I did end up feeling some tenderness in my elbows thanks to a lot of hard weapons on people’s backs and equipment they are wearing getting shoved into me as the mass of people closed up and compressed at the center. Also during one take I actually made it through into clear space and grappled with a few cops – I tripped over someone down on the street and clanged my forehead into a standing metal pipe – didn’t bruise up or bother me later on though. However the set medics did complain about numerous people getting banged up – no surprise there. As I mentioned the majority of these people have had no formal training and are really excited to be in this movie – I know I saw one guy just barelling through cops like a steam roller! No one on set was seriously injured, however.

Shoot Day Two

Day two ran much the same as day one to start, and also much like day two of rehearsals in that not everyone was called back. We started with some additional shots of the clash scene to get some shots of the tumbler driving up through the Bane army to lead us up at the front where it was positioned the day before. Although there were less people the same issue persisted with people wanting to clump up towards the front of the line. These shots were mainly for the build-up to the clash scene we shot yesterday so there was no charging but even in marching up following the tumbler people were walking from behind me up against the people towards the front of the crowd. We’d start spaced out and then bunch up again. I finally gave up dealing with it and walked all the way to the back of the column to just fill it out – no one was doing any serious fighting up front anyways and in case they were I didn’t feel like getting sardined again. At one point they passed out earplugs for an explosion they were shooting – I didn’t take any since I was way in the back and it was more of a white star mine that went off, not a gasoline explosion or anything seriously concussive. We did eventually shoot some clashes as they had a camera on a track running parallel up the middle of the street to capture the action but I stayed to the rear and only ever charged up as far as the tumbler.

Once that scene was done, we moved back over to the Federal Hall to get some additional shots of Batman (once again Christian Bale himself) making his entrance to the brawl. This time, they had smoke through which Batman walked through and they had the corridor opened up a bit wider so he didn’t have to shove me aside but instead strode by. Chris and I didn’t want to be in the middle of a punch combo when Batman came walking past and swing/react into him so we stayed in a grapple and I threw a head butt and a knee – by then Batman was past and Chris maneuvered us into the space behind him, threw a knee at me and we started our fight loop, keeping other pairs of extras from meandering into the area being used by the stunt actors. Again, several takes of this with a steady-cam operator and his guide starting directly behind us, with his hand on my back to make sure I didn’t bump the camera. Again the scene eventually moved on to Batman and Bane and the rest of the action taking place closer to the steps of the building.

However this time some of the crew actually pulled our group around to the opposite side of the fight to fill in an area by the stairs that was being used for more of the stunt actors. So the action began to our left then panned around to our area – Chris and I actually had to wait a few seconds after “action!” for the clap board guy to scamper past us before we started our fight loop. Once they were done with this scene they announced it complete – and that it had taken three cities to do so! (New York, Oakland and Pittsburgh). That’s pretty amazing. A couple of extras were from the Pittsburgh shoot as well and it will be interesting to see how it all looks in the final film knowing that it wasn’t all shot in the same location.

Besides the clash and Federal Hall scenes, later in the day they did the aftermath shots – which had cops and thugs strewn out in the street. They had no problem getting volunteers to lie down! In fact I’m sure several actually fell asleep lying there on the ground or propped up against stuff. I had actually lost track of Chris by this point – so when they needed people to be fighting in between all the bodies I paired up with a random cop who also didn’t have a partner. He seemed a bit disappointed when I told him we were just doing the most basic fight sequence but thankfully he didn’t argue. Since it was the end of the fight I had us both swinging sloppier and reacting bigger to the hits – also because we had way more room to do so anyways. We shot the first few takes on Wall Street and then they pulled us over to fill out the background for shots looking down Broad Street.


My new partner and I rehearsing our fight sequence (under the T in Trump)

At the end of the day they had all background up on the sidewalks to clear up room for the stunt actors to work some shots – in fact I’m surprised that they let us stay out there and didn’t just send us all back to holding. Granted they still needed a couple extras for shots here and there but for the most part we were all just up on the sidewalk watching and trying to stay out of the way. It was now that they brought out the Batpod and parked it right next to where I was standing with a throng of others. Like the tumblers, it was pretty impressive to see up close. Two tumblers were filmed peeling out from the Federal Hall down Broad Street, and then they had a bunch of us cops and thugs line Wall Street for the Batpod to make its run down with the stunt driver at the controls dressed up as Catwoman.


Two of Bane’s tumblers peel out down Broad Street
 


A continuation of the previous shot
 


Jack up the resolution and look under the arch of the lamp post to spot me up against the wall, arrested

The above shot was actually done in one take, and that wrapped the day of shooting and the end of my extra work on Magnus… errr Batman: The Dark Knight Rising! Unfortunately, while my name was on a list of 9 other thugs/mercs to get shot and die, they never needed us to. Probably afraid we would be trampled in the charge – don’t blame them I would too! Same as yesterday we went back to holding and were processed out after the crew announced that they were all extremely happy with the performance and it’s something that will look great on the big screen – the really big screen as this is an IMAX film.

The Final Result (no spoilers)

Well I finally was able to see the movie today and it’s amazing to see how it all comes together to form such an epic story. As a whole the move and the trilogy is masterful – the last few minutes moved me as close to tears as I’ve ever come from watching a movie.

There’s a chance, a small chance, that on the blu-ray with some freeze framing I could spot myself fighting in the crowd behind Batman when he begins his fight with Bane on the streets of Gotham. The pacing was so fast at that point in the movie they cut his entrance to a mere fraction of what they actually shot. From the video above where he shoves past me and begins fighting the principal stunt members, they showed maybe one quick cut of him dropping a thug or two before engaging with Bane, as even a few extra seconds of him entering through the throng was too slow to keep the action moving.

But that’s okay, I’m happy to have been a grain of dust in the world of Batman that Christopher Nolan created. It was nice seeing the battle scene on the big screen and knowing that all those people were real people, not CGI characters – and that I was one of them.

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Flight Log – World Trade Center 2

July 13th, 2012 · Gaming

As I mentioned in my last flight log, this morning I hopped into the Dodosim Bell 206B and took off from the Downtown Wall Street Heliport (KJRB) to circle closer around the World Trade Center. No problems there – the wind was calm and conditions were clear around the city so after circling the WTC I headed off up north to retrace an earlier helicopter flight up to Haverstraw, NY to land at the public pad there (H43). I passed the Intrepid Air & Space museum along the way and I wonder if they will be adding the Enterprise exhibit to it at a later date, perhaps when they update with a completed WTC.

There were a few small bumps flying up the Hudson river but nothing major – weather continued to hold clear and calm until I was about 5 miles out from Haverstraw when some low clouds hit and dropped my visibility down to around 10sm – no doubt some morning fog that had yet to burn away from the day’s building heat. The fog wasn’t over Haverstraw though so visibility was not further reduced and I had no trouble spotting the aerial tower landmark next to the heliport and crossing over the river on approach. Coming around to land I was definitely sloppy on the controls but thought I had a decent rate of descent going as I transitioned into a hover. I thought I felt my skids touch the ground as I started to rotate to the right but it might have just been uncompensated rotor torque rotation because when I cut the throttle to settle the skids I dropped a couple feet and crashed instead.

Man, just not having any luck with the helicopter landings lately 🙁

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Flight Log – World Trade Center

July 12th, 2012 · Gaming

Aerosoft released an update to their Manhattan X product that added the latest construction progress of the new World Trade Center and I released a new airport down in central Jersey by the shore. Since the Bonanza V-tail was still parked up at Greenwood Lake (4N1) I decided to take a VFR flight down the Hudson to cruise past the new WTC buildings and then continue down the NJ coast to visit the newly-designed Lakewood Airport (N12).

Flight Log

Things got right off to a rough start as I couldn’t seem to start the Bonanza on the ramp at 4N1. I went through the checklist twice and double checked my controls and instruments twice as well, but when I switched the key on the engine would turn over but refuse to catch. It may be because I think my last flight in the Bonanza used a freeware wear and tear mod, and I had since uninstalled it so there may have been something the mod set that I couldn’t change to get the engine to catch. So I switched aircraft to the Cessna 172, it fired up just fine then I switched back over to the V-tail and the engine kept running, which is why I think it was that damage mod I uninstalled.

Taxi and departure were routine, and I was in a turning climb up to my cruising altitude in no time. I leveled off smoothly at 2500′ and turned southeast to intercept the Hudson River at the Tappan Zee Bridge. I was flying completely VFR but I couldn’t help glancing down at the REX moving map every now and then. I normally don’t zoom in close so I can’t use it effectively to tell me where I am but this time I had and when I looked at it I realized I must not have turned south enough because I was over the border into NY! As I went to bank further south I looked out my left window and saw the Tappan Zee, which meant I had been on track and the REX map was a few miles off. I should just trust my own navigation better 😛

Once I had the Tappan Zee in sight I began to descend and slow down to prepare to penetrate the Hudson VFR corridor that allows me to travel through NYC airspace unmolested by ATC. I ran through my entry checklist and was right on the numbers, trimmed out steady as I cruised past the first mandatory report point. I made it all the way to mid town Manhattan before I hit a bit of chop and was too slow cutting back the throttle – it bounced me up to 1300′ which is 101′ higher than I’m allowed to be. I wonder if ATC would have squawked at me in real life but probably not, I wasn’t there for long although to get back down I had to cut throttle way back since I also have to remain under 140kts. I throttled back so far in fact the gear warning light and tone came on as I was below 1500′ and the plane thought I was trying to land with my gear up! I realized afterwards though I needn’t have had to throttle back so drastically – I was trying to keep the needle under 140 but I was looking at the MPH reading not the KTS reading! Geeez.

Now, since it took me a while to get off the ground and I had to be at work in under an hour, once I cleared the SFRA by passing over the Verrazano Bridge I throttled up to full and began to climb up over 2000′ so I could fly straight over Sandy Hook’s wildlife protection zone and make a beeline down the coast for my destination. Of course I was nearly to 2000′ before I remembered the reason I like to go around Sandy Hook rather than over is because climbing above the wildlife protection zone also puts me in NYC airspace, whose floor is 1500′ in this area. So I radioed NY Approach for Bravo airspace transition and continued on my merry way. Man that’s two potential times I could have pissed off ATC in real life.

Descent and approach to Lakewood was uneventful. I tuned to KBLM for a weather report as I passed by and noted the wind, selected my landing runway, checked the pattern and set up to fly over the airport so I could double-check the sock before turning on my approach. There was no other traffic on approach so I lined up, intercepted the PAPI glide slope and brought her down. I flew a pretty sloppy pattern but ended up aligned alright. I flared a bit early and coasted down the runway a bit before finally landing and bounced once as well. Had to stand on the brakes a bit to exit the runway but didn’t flip the airplane at least. I have Accu-Feel installed and boy did those brakes let me know I was abusing them, haha.

The WTC update is quite comprehensive and a fly-by only showed off the buildings. I’m thinking tomorrow I’ll take a helicopter up and explore it a bit more fully.

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Music at Moorland

June 23rd, 2012 · Grucci

Morning at Moorland

Just got off a 3-day show that took place about an hour away in Far Hills, NJ. It was a benefit event for the Somerset Medical Center Foundation that featured dinner with an orchestra performance followed by a fireworks display. For other entertainment article on how to increase viewers for your videos online you can go to this blog. Unfortunately for us, the show coincided with the start of a heat wave that was sweeping the eastern seaboard as the summer equinox arrived. The entire week before was pleasantly cool in the high 60’s and 70’s but on 6/20 when we showed up to begin putting the show together the mercury spiked up into the high 90’s with a heat index of over 100°F! Over the next two days the temperature remained that high and humidity rose steadily as well, so that by the time we were breaking down the show on Fri you were sweating at 9am and a bit of light rain was falling from the hazy sky as if it was just too saturated to hold it anymore. The first day I thought it was pretty rough, but then as we were ending the day I remembered it was way, way worse back in 2010 when I was on a show in Leonia around 4th of July. Same temperature/heat index but there was no breeze, no shade and no clouds – the only thing was the humidity was relatively low. I remember we finished early and I got in my car and just drove around so I could use the A/C without overheating the engine. Here, at least, we had a fairly steady breeze of about 5-7mph that wasn’t cool but stirred up the air like a fan on a hot day and the occasional cloud would block out the sun for a bit. There was also a large tree just far enough from the main body of the display for us to park under and use for shade. We would move our cars throughout the day to follow the shadow.

Our savior tree

Given the heat and sun exposure it was important to stay sun-screened and hydrated. Fortunately a lot of the crew brings large coolers that everyone shares and the event people would come by every now and again with their own water coolers to make sure we had some H20 – which was nice because when you’re out in the field away from the cars and the coolers it’s tough to break from what you’re doing and take the time to trek 100 yards or more back up for some more liquidation. I mainly chugged Gatorade but always tried to keep a bottle of water holstered in my tool belt to pour out some over my head. I would have to do this about every 30-60 minutes since by then I would be dry and feeling a bit of heat exhaustion. I forgot to bring a small towel to keep around my neck/shoulders on the first day but since I was only an hour away I went home the first night instead of staying in the hotel so I was able to grab one and a few more stuff (like full-fingered work gloves for moving equipment. I use lighter gloves with the pointer/middle fingers cut out for wiring).

Rockin the glove tan

As the sun dipped lower in the sky on show day we completed loading/wiring and spent a little while troubleshooting a few issues before getting a clear board and settling in to wait for the sun to set and the sponsor to give us the go for show. Being a software engineer at heart, I enjoy the “debugging process” of figuring out why we’re not getting a good signal from some product. Sometimes the answer is more obvious than you thought. Keeps you on your toes. Anyway, the show itself was a little over 19 minutes and large enough to warrant computer control. As in Taipei, I sat on backup fire control in case we had a failure on the primary, but show rehearsal went smooth as butter and when showtime finally came around at 9:30pm we were primed and ready. Although it’s cool to be at the computer during the show it’s also a bit of a bummer that you need to be paying very close attention to it and the systems so you can’t really watch the show itself. I stole glances up and to the side every now and again to watch a burst overhead or check out the ground cake displays shooting off, but that’s about it. I hope someone posts a YouTube video of it. We had the 4″ shells wired to double-fire so we had two lifting at once – some of them made larger thumps than the 8 inchers! I was sitting on an empty plastic container and the WHUMPS of the lifting shells vibrated from the ground up my body for 19+ minutes – eat your heart out, subwoofers. At one point early in the show we had all 20 outlying posts shoot off product in succession down the line – boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom… didn’t miss a hit that was awesome. We wrapped with a concussive finale followed by the sounds of cheering and applause drifting towards us on the miniscule breeze that had thankfully kicked back up after dying just before show to move the smoke away.

Photo of our audience just before nightfall

The next morning it was back out into the oppressive heat and humidity to break the show down. We had a portion of the crew stripping the main body while myself and others took apart the 20 outlying posts and stacked everything to be loaded into the trucks as they came by to pick them up. The sun hadn’t even risen all the way up into the sky before we were all packed up and ready to depart. Thankfully we still had the park ground crew around to lend extra hands – those guys were excellent workers when we had to move stuff around – and the event people were still there to make sure we had water out in the field, they took great care of us and I’m glad we were able to give them a great show, as the sponsor praised us over the radio the previous night after the display. Despite the heat we all made it out okay – I’m sure some are more burnt than others but thankfully I only feel a minor burn on my shoulders and upper arms. FIREWORKS!!

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Flight Log – Stay Awake

June 11th, 2012 · Gaming

With a couple of early mornings coming up and being on a schedule of falling asleep around 3-4am I needed to reboot my sleep period and the way I do that is to simply stay up through to the next day as long as possible. Since as I start getting more and more tired my brain isn’t so good at handling working on the computer so I sacked out in bed and started watching season one of Flying Wild: Alaska on Netflix. Wow, what a great show. Of course, I’m annoyed that they have to edit a lot of things in a way to make stuff look a bit more dangerous and thrilling than it actually is but that’s reality TV for you right there. Still, despite the “tension” editing the family and pilots of Era Alaska are all such great characters and get along so well with the camera it’s very enjoyable to watch them do their jobs. I remember being young and wanting to live in Alaska and be a bush pilot. I’ve moved on from that dream but a small part of me still holds on to it and it’s nice to be able to satisfy that small part in a small way.

Anyways despite being tired, watching the pilots at work made me want to fly so I did a bit of pre-flight planning and hopped into the sim for a real flight the first time since I reformatted my computer at the beginning of May. I originally planned several stops at small private turf airfields to get as close to the “bush” as I could but realized I was really too tired for much and decided to just visit one of my favorite small airfields, 2NJ3. I like this field because it’s small, provides a challenging approach from both ends over trees and power lines and is fenced in for most of its length meaning you don’t have much room for error when landing.

Because of the short runway length I hopped into the Cessna 172S, which I had left sitting up at KFWN. Weather from up there in northern NJ down to 2NJ3 in central NJ was pretty clear, with a slight chance of precipitation on the way but high cloud cover and light winds. This was also my first complete flight using the brand new release version of the REX Essentials weather engine I helped to beta test these last few months. While I had a slight drop in visibility passing over Aeroflex-Andover there was no precipitation and winds were smooth, giving me a bit of a push in the tail to speed me on but no bumps. I was feeling pretty good about myself handling the plane so well while trying to not fall asleep at the controls until I made my mistake.

Approaching 2NJ3 I tuned to Trenton-Mercer, which is only 4nm away from the field, to get an updated weather report. Winds had shifted a bit, but it was in my favor as they were blowing almost straight down one of the runways, which is great because fighting a crosswind when you have fences to either side of you isn’t fun (although it is a challenge). Knowing my runway, I decided to pass right of the airport so I could turn over the field into the left pattern to check landing conditions. As I hit the DME mark telling me I was over the field I looked out my left window but didn’t see anything. In normal scenery with lots of Autogen trees and buildings it can be sometimes hard to spot a small airfield, but with my satellite scenery having no such objects, the ones I added around the airport should be sticking out like a beacon. I flew in circles for a few minutes trying to locate the field before thinking to start circling KTTN figuring I was in the wrong location altogether.

Well I was correct – I was nowhere near to the right side of the airport like I had expected to be because I screwed up my reading of the NAV2 CDI needle. I had placed it to the right of center thinking to pass the field on the right but I had it backwards in my head – the CDI needle to the right meant I was left of the radial that was leading me straight to the airport, which meant I arrived left of the field and was looking out the wrong window!! I don’t know whether it was because I hadn’t flown in a good while or I was sleepy – but probably a little bit of both led to the error. Once I located the airport though I was able to circle and land without any problems, turn around and take off again. Once in the air I headed northeast following visual aids and up the Raritan River to KLDJ where I left the plane tied down on the ramp.

Well, I was still awake so I decided to make the short trip over to NYC where I had left one of my Bell 206s at the KJRB heliport in downtown. I figured it was a nice enough day to cruise up the Hudson and pay a visit to a small public heliport up in Haverstraw, NY – H43. Well I hadn’t even made it to the GWB before I started to literally pass out at the controls. One second I’d be flying along fine and then I’d realize I was climbing, or had eased off stick pressure and had slowed down, or had nosed over too far… but I was determined to make it so I buckled down and managed as best I could not to crash into the ground. Finally I was on approach to Haverstraw and was descending to hover over the small clearing when I nosed back too far and flew backwards into a tree.

So close.. and yet…

Oh well, maybe on my next trip I’ll be more awake!

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Flight Log – Unplanned Excursion

March 26th, 2012 · Gaming

Here is the flight plan for this trip.

Today I woke up early – way way early. Like, before the sun had risen early. Bleh. So to make up for it I decided to boot up the sim and hop into a plane and fly somewhere. No idea what or where I just loaded things up and looked at where my aircraft were. I decided to go with the Cessna 172 parked at Red Lion (N73), fly out to the coast and then up into the hill country of northern NJ to the northern-most airfield in the state, Sussex (KFWN). I knew the weather was decent and figured if I hit a point in my flight where low ceiling blocked me I would just divert to the nearest airport, no harm no foul. The plan for the flight was tossed – I did it all seat of the pants and wrote up the plan attached to this entry afterwards. Worked out fine, this time. Don’t plan to make it a habit just wanted to get in the cockpit and flying before the sun got too high and spoiled my dawn light.

Taxi and takeoff was uneventful although I forgot I still need to tweak the Shockwave3D lights put on the default 172 when they first install – the beacon is too bright and flashes in the cockpit and I have to add a taxi light. Again though – must get flying! I’ll tweak them for my next flight. I’ve also decided to start sticking with the safety suggestion by the FAA that landing lights be kept on below 10,000′ – in the past I’ve only had them on while in the pattern or departing.

Heading out for the coast I had to weave around some low clouds, hanging 5-700 feet over the ground. I dropped down to 250′ so I could buzz the Barnegat Bay lighthouse (which is an accurate model I downloaded off AVSIM then placed properly over the satellite scenery) but I belatedly realized I probably should have waited until I was over the water to fly that low so as not to disturb sleeping residents in the houses below me! Oh well, it’s Monday they should be up getting ready for work anyways.

Up the coast and turning back inland I was once again weaving around clouds – plenty of lateral clearance. Things cleared up for a bit as I left the morning sea mist behind but hazed in again a short while later as I approached the higher elevations. The haze burned off though by the time I was getting ready to enter the pattern for Sussex.

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a flight and it doesn’t take long for me to lose my ability to fly properly in some aspects. Two stupid mistakes I made this flight were 1) forgetting to listen to VOR station idents and 2) approaching my landing runway from the wrong end. I love that second one. It was almost an epic fail because as I lined up for a straight-in approach an aircraft announced it was taking off. Had I not realized my idiotic mistake we might have had a collision. Luckily I realized my error almost instantly – it’s the fact that I was even thinking of lining up opposite the runway heading which is embarrassing. So I swung around in a tight left pattern and was coming in for my landing way too hot – the runway at Sussex has been shortened considerably due to age (they keep moving the thresholds towards the center) so I needed a nice slow approach. To that end, I announced a go around and flew the pattern again – which was okay since I obviously needed the practice. I turned early for my final because I lost sight of the airport rolling out onto my base leg – damn hills. Other than that it was a nice smooth approach and touchdown with full flaps.

I have a new aircraft to review so I’ll be busy with that but I’ll be making at least one cross-country flight in it during testing so once that review’s posted I’ll add the flight log here as well.

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Game Notes – Deus Ex: Human Revolution

February 13th, 2012 · Gaming

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What are Game Notes?

While playing a game I have found it somewhat cathartic at times, thoughtful at others to tweet my experiences. Twitter is a great medium for condensing your thoughts – if I can’t figure out how to say what I want to say in 140 characters or less then I don’t feel it’s worth saying. I very rarely link tweets or post tweets in quick succession to complete a single thought unless I feel very strongly about what I want to say. What people get out of these tweets is varied – some just like following me as I play through the game (in some cases re-living their own past play through), some respond to discuss the more insightful thoughts revolving around design and function, and others just get a kick out of the pictures I post with weird instances and bugs I come across while playing. Thanks to the back up service Backupify that stores all my old tweets, once I’m done playing a game I can compile all my tweets together as a sort of gameplay journal for whatever reference anyone would want.

Some of the tweets below are edited for context (in brackets) as I do not have copies of tweets I replied to. Also, thank you to c9bet Malaysia for your contributions.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I came into playing DXHR with a long history from multiple play throughs of the first Deus Ex as well as a very close relationship to many of the people at the game’s studio Eidos Montreal. So not only was I happy to see the result of many years hard work by friends, but also to be able to immerse myself back into what made the original game such a great experience for me, and that was mostly the numerous options available to you to carry out missions. I spent so much time in the first game first taking out every guard that’s possible to kill without them seeing me. Then I would back-track my ingress route to find all the alternative ways to enter or achieve mission objectives. Deus Ex was the first game to teach me to always complete secondary objectives first. In my time spent with DXHR I did the exact same thing, and that pleased me. Added to that were the amazing amount of inside jokes and references made to not only the original Deus Ex but popular sci-fi culture as well. All-in-all the experience was well worth waiting 11 years for.

2011-08-22  21:07:38 (EDT) god dammit, none of the Best Buys are doing a midnight launch #SADFACE  #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  10:38:19 (EDT) it’s #DXHRLAUNCH day! Got  my  Hive  t-shirt on  (subtle, yes) and picking up the game after coaching a private

2011-08-23  12:47:21 (EDT) *sigh* @bestbuy preorder #epicfail. Only  the store down in Brick got PC Augmented Ed.  They have to drive it up. Going back ~4pm #dxhrlaunch

2011-08-23  12:48:00 (EDT) My only minor consolation is that I wouldn’t be able to play it before then anyways today

2011-08-23  16:56:30 (EDT) Sry @eidosmontreal, just missed snapping a pic of DX:HR trailer playin on  ALL the displays in the store when I picked up my  copy #dxhrlaunch

2011-08-23  20:43:35 (EDT) Adam Jensen has been staring at me for  hours. My willpower is waning. Must… finish… work… http://t.co/JgEsBIe #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  21:25:20 (EDT) To @CorvusE y’know, I’ve never really noticed how most ppl  call  it DX:HR instead of DE:HR. Phonetics just work better I guess

2011-08-23  21:45:28 (EDT) glad I got an external DVD drive w/ my  last laptop so I could use it to install DX:HR since my  desktop drive seems to have crapped out #phew

2011-08-23  21:47:36 (EDT) DX:HR is the first retail game I’ve bought since Sim3 – and I only got that retail cause I couldn’t initially find  the digital version

2011-08-23  21:48:43 (EDT) I bought it retail because I have PLANS for  this nice, black box surface. (Hint: it involves a silver pen)

2011-08-23  21:59:21 (EDT) did  anyone else get totally freaked out when the game wouldn’t accept your Steam code & u realized u were using the wrong one? #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  22:26:03 (EDT) looks like pre-order bonuses got mixed. Mine  from Best Buy  came w/ Explosive Pack instead of Tactical.  http://t.co/cw62Mn0 #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  23:08:18 (EDT) alright no  one seems to be very #dxhr chatty so I’m  just gonna shut up too and play the game since that’s likely what everyone is doing 😉

2011-08-24  03:32:54 (EDT) almost 4 hrs into #dxhr & ~halfway thru warehouse. Leaving all bad guys down. No firefights. Only  haven’t shot cause no  silenced weapon yet

2011-08-24  16:53:29 (EDT) did  any of my  friends playing DX:HR pre-order from Best Buy?? Please let me know if you got the Tactical Pack DLC like you were supposed to

[several people discuss stacking boxes around cops]

2011-08-24  17:07:13 (EDT) To @MrWasteland, @tinysubversions I thought it would be funny to throw a box at [the cops]. They didn’t think it was funny #deadintwoseconds #dxhr

2011-08-24  18:42:15 (EDT) From @dhw Did not pre-order, just got it straight from Best Buy. Box included the code for  the tactical pack. Now  if only there were ammo…

2011-08-24  20:12:47 (EDT) To @dhw wow. That’s just…. what the fuck. You just got the normal game at launch and it came with a pre-order DLC exclusive?

2011-08-24  20:17:19 (EDT) From @dhw Bought it online on  8/23 for  in-store pickup, online showed the preorder DLC, which was in the box.

2011-08-24  20:17:55 (EDT) To @dhw this is the normal or augmented edition?

2011-08-24  20:25:49 (EDT) From @dhw Normal edition, 360 version

2011-08-24  20:26:34 (EDT) To @dhw k thx for  the report will add it to my  thread over at the Eidos forum… i just want my  damn sniper rifle!! 😛

2011-08-24  21:08:14 (EDT) From @dhw I want ammo for  my  damned sniper rifle. Ran out early, haven’t been able to buy more.

2011-08-24  21:09:29 (EDT) To @dhw sounds like you’re still  in the warehouse. S’ok you can take em all down no  shots fired. Once back you’ll be able to see the gun seller

2011-08-24  21:10:59 (EDT) From @dhw Oh,  I’m  a few  missions in.  Still not finding sniper ammo.

2011-08-24  21:12:03 (EDT) To @dhw kinda odd they give it to you so early. Bet you can’t even find  a regular sniper rifle  yet either?

2011-08-25  00:49:25 (EDT) finally getting back to #dxhr – back from warehouse looking forward to checking out the hub world

2011-08-25  01:03:46 (EDT) wow  nice, the guards are commenting on  how many terrs I sent to the hospital with injuries (non-lethal takedowns) #theliitlethings #dxhr

2011-08-25  01:05:36 (EDT) is a functioning escalator so hard to put in games today? At least a “closed for  repairs” sign? #dxhr

2011-08-25  02:24:07 (EDT) hack record so far  – 0.33 left on  the clock when I broke through a lvl3  #dxhr

2011-08-25  03:18:19 (EDT) I miss my  Kbar. How  am I supposed to chop up trash bags? # dxhr

2011-08-25  04:35:24 (EDT) “dogmentation?” “yea! Copyright that shit!” #dxhr

2011-08-25  04:55:03 (EDT) quicksave is quick. quickload? Notsomuch. Just  greater incentive not to die… #dxhr

2011-08-25  05:37:58 (EDT) I found the basketball court! 🙂 #dxhr

2011-08-25  06:03:26 (EDT) and then of course there’s the second-story fire escape window… loving all the homages #dxhr

2011-08-25  07:23:05 (EDT) To @dhw I’ve found 9 rounds (3  packs) in Detroit hub so far  🙂 And  a rifle! Can’t attach a silencer on  this one tho 🙁

2011-08-25  07:25:52 (EDT) oh  hey there random valve behind a crate. What do  you do? *turns valve, chokes on  poison gas* #curiositykilledthecat

2011-08-25  10:30:17 (EDT) OMG Ton’s dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Ray’s dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Lee’s dead! (runs over) *chuff* http://t.co/cGZiQei #dxhr

2011-08-25  10:33:03 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Haha, was that while sneaking into the gang compound to do  the antenna/O’Malley quest stuff?

2011-08-25  10:33:44 (EDT) To @tinysubversions yep. took me three tries to get em all without being nailed but when I did… I did  it good hahaha

2011-08-25  10:35:37 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Heh. I snuck by  most of them (except in that hallway with the wall  explosives, I had to detonate them to get by,  drew attention)

2011-08-25  10:36:54 (EDT) To @tinysubversions woah hey slow down there 🙂 #eyesnowpeeled

2011-08-25  10:42:00 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Don’t worry, they’re big  flashy red things, can’t miss ’em 😛

2011-08-25  10:44:25 (EDT) To @tinysubversions oh  right. I had to deal with them in an apartment already I hacked in to. I’m  lvl5  hack with full stealth aug.

2011-08-25  10:45:19 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Nice. I’m  lvl3  hack, some stealth hack, plus some arm augs and social, and the high jump

2011-08-25  10:46:48 (EDT) To @tinysubversions yea, I’m  working to max my  inventory next. More stuff to collect and sell. 14,527 credits right now

2011-08-25  11:28:35 (EDT) From @g_shonk @tinysubversions Damn, I have no  money haha, I spend it too fast. Also  being able to punch through walls is awesome.

2011-08-25  12:31:57 (EDT) To @g_shonk excuses excuses!! And  I’ll have to do  the wall  aug when I’m  in a more offensive playthru

2011-08-25  23:43:46 (EDT) oh  yes. MUCH better load times with the new patch. Quickload is quick! (~30-45s now) #happyjoy #dxhr

2011-08-25  23:56:01 (EDT) have to be careful opening doors – open a locked one from inside and you can’t hack it #dxhr

2011-08-26  00:16:51 (EDT) “I got to pee” “u should hold it” “yea don’t wanna get caught w/ my pants down” he couldn’t hold it. Caught: http://t.co/QZDKxdi #dxhr

2011-08-26  02:22:03 (EDT) in earlier exploring, hit  an apartment I had to take down later w/more ppl  inside – good thing I hid  bodies 1st time thru!! #dxhr

2011-08-26  03:31:55 (EDT) after Mead, was wondering when Manderly’s name would pop up. Interesting to see where these guys came from! # dxhr

2011-08-26  20:01:24 (EDT) stockpiling Nuke and Stop viruses in #dxhr like I stockpile multitools and lockpicks in #dx1

2011-08-26  20:42:01 (EDT) sux the arms dealer outside the merc compound doesn’t buy stuff from you. I could be making bank!! Maybe that’s why 😛 #dxhr

2011-08-26  20:47:04 (EDT) From @rickdog141 do  yu  have the pc  version?

2011-08-26  20:48:32 (EDT) To @rickdog141 yup! I can’t play it on  console it just feels… wrong 😛 Want it to be as much like DX1 as possible. So  far  going good!

2011-08-26  20:52:20 (EDT) Don’t be insurgent, yo  http://t.co/la71lPR #dxhr

2011-08-26  21:47:25 (EDT) I also appreciate how a silenced weapon can take someone down silently and not always with a “YEEEEEAAAAUUUGGHHH!!!” #dxhr

2011-08-27  00:12:45 (EDT) when I paused the cinematic and saw Skip, I was really hoping it would let me skip that stupid boss fight #dxhr

2011-08-27  00:30:44 (EDT) awesome seeing my  earlier Detroit exploits making headlines in the paper #dxhr

2011-08-27  00:50:20 (EDT) wow  talking to ppl  has made me realize all I’ve done so far  has occurred in *one eve/nite* game time – tho IRL hrs it’s more like 34 😛 # dxhr

2011-08-27  01:07:37 (EDT) Redhead wigged lady. What was so bad about being blonde, babe? #dxhr

2011-08-27  01:08:43 (EDT) oops forgot pic  http://t.co/v3YClsi #dxhr

2011-08-27  01:36:08 (EDT) ooh ooh credit chip behind high fence! No jump aug #muststackcrates #dxhr

2011-08-27  01:57:09 (EDT) after I break into people’s apartments, I turn their sinks on  #wetbandit #dxhr

2011-08-27  02:22:27 (EDT) man only now just realized the out of order elevator in your apartment is yet another dx1 homage… #dxhr

2011-08-27  03:17:22 (EDT) oooh good to know a rocket will suffice when you don’t have the Bust Thru Walls aug 🙂 #dxhr

2011-08-27  05:33:22 (EDT) young medical student in Hengshaw talking to a street pimp. Somehow I think she’s having the wrong interview #dxhr

2011-08-27  05:48:28 (EDT) O yea, this Dutchman, he’s a badass hacker alright. So  caught up in his  l337 skillz  he forgets his  pwn security & don’t lock  his  comp! #dxhr

2011-08-28  05:49:14 (EDT) that hengsha subway station looks mighty familiar 🙂 also, a shame you can rifle  thru sleeping ppls pockets #dxhr

2011-08-28  06:27:02 (EDT) I had a feeling fertility drugs and Nigerian scam email spam wouldn’t be gone in 2027 #dxhr

2011-08-28  08:57:45 (EDT) If I ever get shot & live, whoever gets to me first will prob hear me deliriously mumbling “quickload… gotta… quickload… try  again…”

2011-08-28  09:23:45 (EDT) a little disappointed I couldn’t break into any of the closed shops in hengsha. Also  found a Lebedev mention! #dxhr

2011-08-28  10:42:09 (EDT) From @sdastous // I like to follow your play-by-play description of your DXHR experience … How  many hours up to now?

2011-08-28  15:28:02 (EDT) To @sdastous thx for  listenin in!  Game has me at 15:23:56, can’t check “actual” time on  Steam until I get Internet back, know it’s much more 🙂

2011-08-28  15:31:04 (EDT) Ok at least Dutchie remembered to lock  his  home comp, but only a lvl 1 hack? #gamedesign wins here, need access for  story progression #dxhr

2011-08-28  15:32:31 (EDT) Hahahah Invisible War strikes it big  at the box office. Hope this doesn’t mean the #dxhr movie will tank!

2011-08-28  17:00:54 (EDT) new hacking record – 0.26s on  the clock. I had to watch it count down from ~2.5s as I captured the last node. Tense as hell!! # dxhr

2011-08-28  17:02:17 (EDT) suuure I coulda used one of my  51 stop worms but, were’s the excitement in that? #dxhr

2011-08-28  17:26:07 (EDT) Whoooo 0.12 left on  the clock. How  low  can you go? http://t.co/mmkQXaW #dxhr

2011-08-28  17:46:42 (EDT) one of the small port issues I have problems with is the mouse cursor not centering in the screen when a button selection comes up #dxhr

2011-08-28  18:03:24 (EDT) Damn you TYM! I want this guy’s walk thru wall  aug! Way cooler than punching. Where’s the upgrade?  http://t.co/4KA9mU2 #dxhr

2011-08-28  18:56:42 (EDT) ahhh good ol’  crate steppin’ #dxhr

2011-08-28  20:37:42 (EDT) can’t seem to find  a panel for  this one laser alarm system. I mean yea you can get around it but strange not to have option to disable #dxhr

2011-08-28  20:41:38 (EDT) why am I clicking to open a door clearly advertised as being automatic? #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:01:34 (EDT) finally above Pangu. Wow  stunning views. Looking down on  Lower City  was awesome too #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:07:07 (EDT) Lol “death by  vending machine” “how pointlessly tragic” #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:39:30 (EDT) WTF. In a room. No one can see me. Soon as I hack into the sec hub an alarm gets triggered. The  hell? Creative solution time #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:48:55 (EDT) I took out the guard that obviously has the same see thru walls aug that I do. Well,  obvious now anyways. Sec hub hacked ok  now # dxhr

2011-08-28  22:20:04 (EDT) it’s really hard to tell  from a distance if you’ve hacked an alarm panel or not. Why  couldn’t they have just gone dark when inactive? #dxhr

2011-08-28  22:27:31 (EDT) wow  it never occurred to me until now that I can takedown *anyone* because I was only ever prompted to do  so for  red reticule targets #dxhr

2011-08-28  23:17:05 (EDT) just figured out a third way to bust through walls, tho it def takes the longest amount of time #dxhr

2011-08-28  23:28:28 (EDT) holy shit this actually just happened http://t.co/TyzTXqY was not even trying to run down the clock this time #epicwin #dxhr

2011-08-29  01:09:17 (EDT) oh  yea, you guys just stand in a nice big  circle now *fwiishhhhhh* BOOOOM!!! Only  two left? I like those odds # dxhr

2011-08-29  01:31:36 (EDT) breathtaking view of Montreal from the helipad. Just  don’t jump at the rail  😉 #dxhr

2011-08-29  01:57:09 (EDT) From @ravuya It is truly remarkable how many problems you can solve with gas mines and the ability to lift and drop unconscious bodies.

2011-08-29  02:07:45 (EDT) another major dx1 player found, this one running a global news conglomerate #dxhr

2011-08-29  02:09:18 (EDT) To @ravuya interesting playstyle. I’ve not made use of mines at all, just chucked a few  frags, emps and concs here and there for  kicks

2011-08-29  02:14:48 (EDT) folded up the stun gun reminds me of one of those grip workout devices that you squeeze #dxhr

2011-08-29  02:17:40 (EDT) From @ravuya I treat mines mostly as an insurance policy for  when I screw up being stealthy. “Hey, I think I heard something” *PSSSHT*  *thud*

2011-08-29  02:41:45 (EDT) To @ravuya quickload is my  insurance policy 😉 I’m  not the type that plays w/ consequences. I have a defined way I want things to go

2011-08-29  03:21:52 (EDT) [referencing this tweet] oooh I know why now. It’s  to trick the bad guys too! So they stand there & keep tryin to activate it while you shoot them #dxhr

2011-08-29  03:36:48 (EDT) it’s no  wonder it takes me forever to play this game as I’ll spend 15 minutes busting down a wall  to save me a rocket and power cell! #dxhr

2011-08-29  04:53:08 (EDT) really, dx1 fans if you’re not reading *all* the computer emails you’re missing out on  *a lot*  of tie-ins to the original #dxhr

2011-08-29  04:59:49 (EDT) Big Bang Theory reference in one of the Picus employee names! Awesome 🙂 go  read emails people #dxhr

2011-08-29  06:22:31 (EDT) cleaning up evil  secret bases is like cleaning up dust. You work from the top down #dxhr

2011-08-29  06:34:10 (EDT) it’s a bit  disappointing to see security cameras in #dxhr mostly reduced to obstacles and no  longer also useful for  intel gathering

2011-08-29 06:40:59 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Curse you @dsikora, I give in.  Just  spent £35 on  DXHR. Probably take a day to Steam update with my  internet dongle but better be good. # dxhr

2011-08-29  09:33:07 (EDT) To @Aardvajk did  you play the original?

2011-08-29 10:17:56 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Yeah, was big  fan of DX1.  Looks like Steam update for  #dxhr is going to be an overnight job  though 🙁

2011-08-29 19:49:43 (EDT) From @sdastous // still  playing DXHR Drew? you know i’m  monitoring you…

2011-08-29  20:08:11 (EDT) To @sdastous long as no  one manages to steal my  generator [post-hurricane Irene] (no worries, I got guns & shit) I’ll be back to it later tonight… can’t stay away!

2011-08-29  23:14:33 (EDT) for  some reason I enjoyed the 2nd boss fight a little bit. Dunno why. I think it was just cause she was hot #dxhr

2011-08-29  23:16:28 (EDT) To @sdastous I’m  at “chapter 11” according to the game load briefing

2011-08-29  23:22:46 (EDT) To @ravuya I just realized you can stack mines. I now stock them instead of grenades. 9 mines saves me 3 slots compared to 9 grenades #dxhr

2011-08-29  23:30:21 (EDT) hahaha just spent a min making Adam dance. Awesome. (look on YouTube) #getdown #boogie #dxhr

2011-08-29 23:33:55 (EDT) From @AdamJensenSI that was you, huh? Just  you wait, “buddy”.

2011-08-29  23:36:53 (EDT) you wanna speak to me, Serif? That’s nice but I’m  still  pissed. Re-exploring Detroit. Ppl locked their doors again. I’ll fix that #dxhr

2011-08-29  23:40:57 (EDT) To @AdamJensenSI hahaha no  that wasn’t me 🙂 go  infiltrate @Kotaku HQ and they’ll lead you to the video author I’m  sure

2011-08-30  00:10:49 (EDT) the weapons dealer in the Downtown Apartments did  not take kindly to me chucking his  fridge around the kitchen #dxhr

2011-08-30  00:36:26 (EDT) [referencing this tweet] finally a “closed for  repair” escalator in Conv Center. Janitor says “damn budget cuts” IRL allusion? Very possible #dxhr

2011-08-30  00:59:46 (EDT) sry  bout this, guys http://t.co/851xAsL if I’m  wrong I’ll buy you all beers when you wake up. #dxhr

2011-08-30  01:05:23 (EDT) Oh  man – original dx1 soundtrack music coming over the radio! NYC street ambiance. Awesome #dxhr

2011-08-30  01:06:42 (EDT) actually, standing around a bit  listening more there are a couple audio tracks from the original game #dxhr

2011-08-30  01:17:19 (EDT) also, it seems the radio DJ is called Lazarus – he does sound a lot like Lazlow Jones from GTA… # dxhr

2011-08-30  01:25:37 (EDT) got sick of this guy’s anti-aug soap boxing so I dropped a dumpster on  him #hihothewarlockisdead #dxhr

2011-08-30 01:26:55 (EDT) From @the_met lol that’s awesome

2011-08-30  02:04:41 (EDT) thought approaching Radford’s storage unit from the rear would be a smart move. Apparently not designed to be sneaky from this angle #dxhr

2011-08-30  03:12:41 (EDT) “Did  he have the shirt too?” “What?” lulz  #dxhr

2011-08-30  03:21:32 (EDT) oh  fucking #fail I forgot the pic  http://t.co/sye6X7Q even more awesome now right @the_met?

2011-08-30  03:29:23 (EDT) SMASHTHESTATE!! # dxhr

2011-08-30  04:49:53 (EDT) there’s no  way I actually need this many credits, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try  to collect as much as possible… #dxhr

2011-08-30  05:09:34 (EDT) “gunshots!! … You have to come! You have to save me!!” I never even fired my  weapon. Nor  did  any guards #dxhr

2011-08-30  05:10:44 (EDT) I guess that would file  under one of the (minor) disadvantages to using pre-rendered cutscenes in a game like this # dxhr

2011-08-30  06:56:41 (EDT) now thinking my  0.00 hack time remaining was a glitch. Just  had a hack trace completely stop w/o  using any virus/worms. Never resumed #dxhr

2011-08-30  07:01:56 (EDT) woah Sarif didn’t have just *any* illuminati banging on  his  doors. They wanted him on  board bad it seems. #dxhr

2011-08-30  07:11:19 (EDT) oh  hells yea! I knew I was hauling around this un-silenced mostly- useless sniper rifle  for  *something*. You’re welcome, flygirl! #dxhr

[missing tweet from @g_shonk asking if I saved Malik]

2011-08-30  12:27:46 (EDT) To @g_shonk on  the second try, yes. She’s way too cute to let die, after all.  It felt a bit  like saving Paul

[missing response from @g_shonk]

2011-08-30  12:34:40 (EDT) To @g_shonk yea, just like I had always thought u couldn’t save Paul in DX1 until I really tried. Sniper rifle  + rocket launcher = win

[@Aardvajk tweets about thinking mustard bottles are selectable]

2011-08-30  19:11:06 (EDT) To @Aardvajk there are indeed a couple yellowish objects that trick you at first

2011-08-30  22:23:08 (EDT) loving how the emails reveal various connections to characters. Was wondering whether Tong was being used as a common name or not #dxhr

2011-08-30  23:48:04 (EDT) Dayum!! Just  took out 4 guys w/ 2 dbl  takedowns in less than 5 seconds. Cloak, takedown, re-cloak, takedown. That was cool as hell  #dxhr

2011-08-31  01:18:33 (EDT) if you’ve been playing primarily w/o  a silenced weapon, the plasma rifle  will give u that option if you want it #dxhr

2011-08-31  01:24:05 (EDT) the lack of purchasable consumables (namely nutrient bars/packs) is getting annoying #dxhr

2011-08-31  02:11:45 (EDT) takedown PUNCH!!  #dxhr

2011-08-31  04:18:23 (EDT) just busted past 100,000 credits. Yea I’m  still  buying up a lotta stuff too. Baaahahahha I’m  rich!! #personalachievement #dxhr

2011-08-31  04:39:07 (EDT) I’m  on  a boat, motherfucker #dxhr

2011-08-31  07:06:42 (EDT) I wish you had cover takedown options as well. That would be all kinds of extra rad #dxhr

2011-08-31  07:26:00 (EDT) “in other words, stop breaking shit with your fat asses” lulz  #email #dxhr

2011-08-31  08:33:04 (EDT) aaahh the M12  church music. Nice inclusion! #dxhr

2011-08-31  09:47:39 (EDT) how the hell  did  I get up on  this helipad?? #dxhr

2011-08-31  09:52:16 (EDT) this game does such a great job  of “look and you shall find” just like the original. Stuff to discover *everywhere* #dxhr

2011-08-31  11:27:41 (EDT) “Hey, JC…” #email #dxhr

2011-08-31  11:42:34 (EDT) oh  yea. I am SO ready *hefts heavy rifle*  BRING ON THE CRAZIES!!! *laughs maniacally, mows people down in hail  of lead* #dxhr

2011-08-31  13:03:01 (EDT) as soon as I walked on  that big  ass elevator I thought TMNT & similar side scrollers (Castle Crashers). No baddies here tho #dxhr

2011-08-31  22:00:24 (EDT) From @Griggs3d @g_shonk damn!! I had a sniper rifle  and enough ammo but didn’t think to try. That sucks…

2011-08-31  22:15:56 (EDT) To @Griggs3d, @g_shonk eh, like I told Grant – you’re gonna play thru again *anyways* 😉

2011-08-31  22:27:48 (EDT) To @Aardvajk I was too busy exploring early & ignored David #consequences #dxhr also, you *have* to fight bosses. (kinda sucks) Stock up!!

2011-09-01  00:49:23 (EDT) I think Hyron coulda done with more crazies. My heavy rifle  wanted to get used more, hahah. Maybe on  Deus Ex difficulty next time #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:18:27 (EDT) aftr all the side questing, email reading & character interaction to uncover the whole truth, there was really only 1 choice @ the end #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:20:42 (EDT) “but please, call  me Bob” 🙂 also great music selection to end with the beginning #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:21:52 (EDT) they say in the load screen tips you can’t fully  aug – but you can get pretty damn close http://t.co/eFjiNjR

2011-09-01  01:33:28 (EDT) ok  restarting on  Deus Ex difficulty. Straight up action playthrough. I hate what’s been done to me by  Sarif. Spoiler: everybody dies #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:33:52 (EDT) *sigh* ok  I’ll admit I didn’t realize who the guy in the opening cinematic was until just now. Epic. Fail.  #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:35:58 (EDT) or maybe I did  just didn’t fully  realize it. Either way, I now know who the other 3 speakers are too. #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:38:01 (EDT) From @zaoo I might have to unfollow you if I’m  going to get *any* enjoyment out of this game I just bought. #DXHR

2011-09-01  02:22:56 (EDT) my  frontal assaults need a healthier dose of cover #dxhr

2011-09-01  02:26:58 (EDT) To @zaoo hahaha too much teasing?

2011-09-01  02:31:51 (EDT) From @zaoo Nah, more like a steady stream of maybe-spoilers, having to avert my  eyes all the time. 🙂

2011-09-01  02:39:00 (EDT) when you restart the game it’s important to remember you don’t have certain augs anymore. Like Icarus landing system. Owch. My legs… #dxhr

2011-09-01  02:39:59 (EDT) To @zaoo ah well, you know I’ve already played thru so I know what u know therefore I know how to tease but not spoil. No spoilers, promise

2011-09-01  02:40:46 (EDT) To @zaoo but at some point you’ll get to a place in the game and be like “ah so *that’s* what he was talking about” (if u remember)

2011-09-01  02:42:21 (EDT) To @zaoo actually you may have seen one spoiler if you follow the right people as someone replied to a tweet & I was like “yes you can do that”

2011-09-01  02:45:30 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Yeah, forewarned about bosses, thanks. Playing obsessively and searching every body, every room, etc so should be good for  a scrap.

2011-09-01  03:11:16 (EDT) To @Aardvajk, @zaoo will admit I’ve done “soft” spoilers – like watching the “making of video” I realized I’d be interacting with Eliza  later on

2011-09-01  03:43:03 (EDT) so this is all going a lot  faster now that I’m  just killing people, lol #dxhr

2011-09-01  03:53:36 (EDT) wait lemme amend that: now that I’m  just shooting people #dxhr

2011-09-01  05:14:01 (EDT) ROFL. After being called a piece of shit it was so satisfying to immediately punch him in the FACE. Take *that*, bitch #dxhr

2011-09-10  23:17:11 (EDT) wow. didn’t even bother talking down Zeke and still  capped him w/o losing the hostage #winning #dxhr

2011-09-10  23:27:45 (EDT) #deusexforme is quicksaving whenever someone insults me then using the melee knockout to punch them in the FACE. Then reloading

2011-09-10  23:32:56 (EDT) leave no  box unturned #dxhr

2011-09-11  17:28:40 (EDT) had to share my  own brand of Adam Jensen bad assedness. Call  me a piece of shit will you? Take THIS  http://t.co/ToAP2Ao #dxhr

2011-09-14  01:24:55 (EDT) #deusexforme is taking out every DPD officer in the streets so I can have more assault rifle  ammo. I swear that’s the only reason. Really

2011-09-14  01:44:44 (EDT) From @zaoo Did you know that dragging an unconcious character across an autosave line  supposedly kills  them?

2011-09-14  01:55:32 (EDT) there’s a computer with the login BGUM at DPD – I wonder if that’s a ref  to a gumshoe detective? #dxhr

2011-09-14  01:58:56 (EDT) To @zaoo for  reals? Interesting! Thx,  will have to remember on  my  no- kills  playthru. Prob just disable AS since I quicksave like a mofo anyways

2011-09-14  02:02:47 (EDT) just sucked down a beer and a vodka and hacked a computer all hazy-eyed #thatshowiroll #dxhr

2011-09-14  02:28:02 (EDT) OMFG the crossbow is amazing. I shot the dude in the head and he flew  back 5 feet and got pinned up to the wall  #dxhr

2011-09-14  02:30:33 (EDT) what up dawg. I’m  just chillin’…. with an arrow through my  neck http://t.co/rurP5Pz #dxhr

2011-09-14  02:32:12 (EDT) on  this note, I am a bit  disappointed that you can’t go  rogue on Undercover Jenny & decide to work with O’Malley instead #dxhr

2011-09-15  12:24:35 (EDT) well  well  well  what have we  here? It appears to be #dxhr load screen advertising. Interesting http://t.co/47XbW56E

2011-09-15  12:26:15 (EDT) From @JaiKrika What.. What version you playing? PC, 360 or PS3?

2011-09-15  12:27:33 (EDT) To @JaiKrika PC build 1.1.622.0

2011-09-15  12:37:22 (EDT) From @JaiKrika That’s not possible.  I’ve loaded up half a dozen save files. Entered new areas with loading screens and I’ve not seen these adverts

2011-09-15  12:42:42 (EDT) To @JaiKrika are you in the US?

2011-09-15  12:46:03 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Im not no. Im in the UK. Are they really, In US versions of DXHR they are advertising the new Star Wars during load screens?

2011-09-15  12:48:33 (EDT) Ok I’m  noticing some other slight changes too. Hey  @eidosmontreal is there a change log  somewhere?? Steam is of no  help here #dxhr

2011-09-15  12:50:25 (EDT) To @JaiKrika that’s probably it. Marketing stuff like this tends to be region specific. I could care less, just made me aware game was updated

2011-09-15  12:56:01 (EDT) From @JaiKrika How  very weird. Unless Steam has the game in its download section from being updated it must of been quietly added.

2011-09-15  13:18:42 (EDT) To @JaiKrika http://t.co/sPWzUeXk

2011-09-15  13:24:36 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Wonder if it will eventually be added to Euro versions. I noticed they mentioned “real” advertisements, something didn’t see ingame

2011-09-15  13:25:04 (EDT) To @JaiKrika me neither. Or at least, didn’t notice them

2011-09-15  13:31:54 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Same. Saw nothing in Detroit or Hengsha. Loaded an old save in Hengsha to see if anything changed but its still  the same.

2011-09-21  20:56:29 (EDT) the mines in #dxhr give you just enough time to say “oh  fuck” in your head & resign yourself to death before they blow up

2011-09-21  21:27:22 (EDT) anybody can put a ball  through a net, but how about a body? http://t.co/YkDm9LYg  prob been done already tho right @eidosmontreal? # dxhr

2011-09-21  21:53:31 (EDT) From @TorontoJoe @eidosmontreal lol nice shot! =)

2011-09-21  21:54:25 (EDT) To @TorontoJoe, @eidosmontreal I had him going in feet first once but they don’t stay in so I wasn’t fast enough to snap a shot

2011-09-22  02:28:42 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Excellent shot, but is it technically a point if he doesn’t fall  all the way through? Not  a basketball fan, sorry.

2011-09-22  03:12:30 (EDT) To @Aardvajk he fell  thru. I had 2 more “baskets” (1  legs first!) but both went thru before I could snap a shot. He  got hung up for  a few  secs

[tweet by @JaiKrika about massacre at Detroit PD in newspaper]

2011-09-23  19:48:00 (EDT) To @JaiKrika that was my  paper too! #everyonedies #DXHR

2011-09-23  20:13:21 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Heh 😀 This  is my  “asshole” playthrough. Jensen is currently being the most unlikeable, psychopathic person that Detroit has seen.

2011-09-23  20:14:17 (EDT) To @JaiKrika ditto. He  hates what has been done to him. Already know which ending I’ll pick this time thru. Been dead since the break-in

2011-09-23  20:25:23 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Adam snapped after he found out what the PD did  to cover the Sarif incident so he killed them all.  No remorse, no  regret.

2011-09-23  20:27:05 (EDT) To @JaiKrika my  Adam just considered the cops an obstacle. And removed them. No need to talk to Hass. Dead men don’t talk, after all.

2011-09-23  20:38:16 (EDT) From @JaiKrika He  walked in the front door looking for  answers and left via  the fire escape with answers and blood. Death swept through the PD.

2011-09-28  10:34:42 (EDT) I am Adam Jensen, an unwillingly augmented man who just lost a woman I cared for. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! #dxhr

2011-10-02  08:11:05 (EDT) the prob with leaving a game like #dxhr & coming back to it, even for  a week, is all the little side stuff u can’t remember if u did  or not

End Timeline

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Flight Log – Windy Days

January 15th, 2012 · Gaming

Here is the flight plan for this trip.

Leg 1: KVAY – NJ84

It was a blustery day yesterday according to the weather reports, so the first thing I did after finishing my pre-flight checklist on the tarmac of KVAY in the Cessna 172S was taxi on over to the pump to top off the tanks. Whenever you’re dealing with turbulent weather the heavier you are the better off you will be as the wind won’t be able to knock you around as much. So, that done I taxied over to hold short for Runway 26 as a Piper Archer made its approach. I probably didn’t have to wait for it but it does take a bit extra to taxi onto this runway because you have to turn around at the end to line up. So I waited for the Piper to land then taxied out into position and took off – the wind was strong enough from the right that I didn’t have to compensate for propeller torque on my takeoff roll. Once up in the air I set the controls to cruise at 1400′ – although I had it in the plan for 1500′ I realized that was the floor of Philly Bravo airspace and decided to stay 100′ under and clear. I still tuned into Philly Approach for flight following however, and stayed with them until I passed over the VOR before tuning back into local traffic, although NJ84 doesn’t have a frequency of its own. I also realized I had compensated for FSX’s late DST switch the wrong way, setting the game clock an hour behind real world when it should be an hour ahead. Fixing that, I made my approach to Hidden Acres without issue – the flight had been bumpy all along but nothing serious just a few shakes here and there not requiring any serious control input to correct. My first approach to Hidden Acres didn’t go so well, I was expecting the 16-17kts heavy winds to slow me down a bit more than they did and I ended up long on final and had to go around. Second approach I put down 10 degrees of flaps and came down right on the runway after crabbing in slightly to stay aligned against the wind.

Leg 2: NJ84 – N73

I started this leg right after the previous, taxiing back and departing NJ84 – but once in the air since it was getting darker I decided to adjust my ENB settings and when I resized the window to put them into effect the sim continued to run but I could no longer get it to render anything. So I was forced to quit and decided to postpone the flight until the next day.

So today I hopped back into the Cessna around mid-morning and started a flight at NJ84 to pick up where I left off. It was still windy today, and on takeoff I had to be careful no to let the wind blow me into the trees off to the side of the runway. I didn’t have far to climb for cruise so I was shortly en route direct to the Atlantic City VOR where I intended to arc around at a 10nm distance before turning towards N73. It’s been a few months since my last DME arc so I wanted to keep up my technique. Turbulence was minor but persistent along the way and during the arc but never enough to seriously disturb my aircraft attitude. I started the arc fine but halfway through I let myself drift inwards and ended up 9.2nm from ACY at my closest approach before turning out towards N73. In retrospect I didn’t remember to account for the wind blowing out of the northeast pushing me off course. Live and learn! I finally remembered to pull up a track of my flight after I landed so I could see my arc:

You can see how as I turned out of the wind, which was coming from just west of north, I started to get blown inside the ACY 10nm radius. After a short flight out from ACY I reached Red Lion and entered the pattern for Runway 05. Great pattern, rounding out on final on slope and aligned with the runway, although I got a bit sloppy just before touchdown and had a scary left skid that almost took me off the runway thanks to the wind coming from the left making my torque-induced weather cocking worse than I anticipated. After finding a parking space and shutting down I also realized I never pulled an ident on the VOR. I’m very inconsistent with that still…

Leg 3: N73 – KMMU

A few spots over was my V35B from last weekend, and after pre-flight I taxied to Runway 08 and was able to take off right away as no traffic was inbound. I forgot three things in short order though on my climb to cruise altitude. One was that in setting my instruments to take off I had neglected the altimeter. Two, I didn’t circle-climb on departure but immediately flew direct for COL which caused me to skim over McGiure’s airspace. Three, I forgot to complete my after takeoff checklists. So when I was finally leveled off at 3500′ I tuned to KWRI for a weather check (shouldn’t I have done that before departure?) and reset my altitude to find I was really closer to 4000′ – d’oh! By the time I crossed over COL I was back to cruising 3500′ and began to descend again to duck under the NYC Bravo shelf and prepare for entry into the Hudson SVFR corridor. As if it’s not hard enough keeping this aircraft at 1200′ while not exceeding 140kts things started getting real bumpy as I cruised past the city. Like, attitude-changing where all the sudden I would find the aircraft starting to roll to one side. Steady hand on the yoke and smooth corrections though kept me on course without too much of an altitude or speed adjustment. Once clear of the SVFR corridor I climbed back up to 3000′ to head over the north Jersey hill country towards the Sparta VOR. I waited until I was over the VOR before tuning to KMMU for a weather report and then contacting the tower, which told me to make left downwind for Runway 05. This was great because the radial I was tracking outbound from the VOR set me up for a perfect 45° pattern entry. I received my landing clearance as #2 behind a Cessna on approach but the problem was I couldn’t spot him and there was another aircraft waiting to land behind me. So I turned base when I figured the Cessna had passed me by but then his landing light came into view in the distance. I stuck in my turn for final thinking I could cut him off but the tower told me to go around, no surprise. So I went around and slotted in behind the Cessna I was supposed to follow – when I heard the tower tell him to go to ground I turned base and final, rolling out right of the runway on final but I made it down okay. I had to taxi in partway on an inactive runway to get around some traffic taxiing out and shut down in the main tie down area to the west.

Good times. Where to next?

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