Speaking of Immigration...

I just got around to watching the official Papers, Please short film.

I'm just blown away. It so perfectly encapsulates the feel of the film. The quality of the props. The quality of the acting – Igor Savochkin is utterly masterful in the main role. The sheer attention to detail. How it captures the gameplay aspects in an unforced manner. How it communicates the bleakness, the weariness, the hope – and the utter despair.

I can perfectly empathise with the unfortunate souls trying to enter Arstotzka – matters pertaining to immigration and citizenship fill me with dread – but also with the checkpoint inspector. How often have I wanted to do the right thing, only to be held back by the rules? How often have I thought, this time I'll let it pass, only for the other person to shamelessly take advantage? In real life, we can never know when mercy or intolerance is the better choice. The film captures that uncertainty, even better than the game did.

The only missing aspects are the expenses management – reduced to a lone photograph – and the fact that allowing someone through without the proper paperwork immediately ends in a citation. The latter is unrealistic, of course, but without these gameplay aspects, a lot of the tension is lost. My other issue is the ending. It's...unemotional? It's startling, but it seemed to lack impact, somehow. It doesn't stay with me, the way the beginning and middle of the film did. I think an ambiguous ending would have worked better to preserve that bleak, desperate feeling.

Nevertheless, for a ten-minute film, it is genuinely excellent. I love the fact that more and more independent works, including the original Papers, Please, are being produced with such excellent quality. These works only prove that creativity is far from dead.

Culture, Cuisine and the Occult

Aww man, it's already November, where did the year go? Also, apparently I've only posted here five times previously this year, this is a new low.

I watched The Martian in the cinema shortly after it came out. It was a thoroughly brilliant and enjoyable film. I don't think 3D viewing added much (I have yet to view a film where it did), but it was not terribly distracting, either. I am also stupidly proud to have known of Andy Weir before he became famous (I have been a longtime fan of Casey and Andy).

I think its slightly less meaningful to be stupidly proud of any Homestuck alumni, since Homestuck was a force of nature, but I do remember when Toby "Radiation" Fox was relatively nobody. If video games cannot be art, then what is Undertale? For example, without Undertale, this cinnamon butterscotch tart would not have existed.

(Recipe available here - all I changed was to cut the amount of whipped cream topping in half, and use sweet potato flour instead of cornstarch. Also, I suggest allowing the tart to sit in the refrigerator overnight before consuming.)

Contrastingly, spaghetti recipes (for that animate skeleton in your life) are not difficult to find, but this one for Tagliatelle al Ragu Bolognese is my favourite.

Overall, this has been a good year for independent artists. Scott Cawthorn's Five Night's at Freddy's survival horror series, which I have been following vicariously through Let's Plays since I am a huge coward, will be getting a film adaptation from Warner Bros. Pictures. I'm ...not sure if I will overcome my fear long enough to watch the film. Or even the trailer. I enjoy horror prose, as embodied by the SCP Foundation, but visual elements are...harder to ignore.

On the subject of prose, I recently came across the satirical works of Saki, which are freely available via Project Gutenberg. The style rather reminds me of Jane Austen's, but with a mostly masculine viewpoint and greater usage of biting social commentary. Saki's heroes are witty and intelligent, contrasting with their dull, greedy, self-centered antagonists, although over-cleverness is not rewarded either.

My recent readings have included Charles Stross's works. I loved the Laundry Series from about a page into the The Concrete Jungle. The protagonist works for "The Laundry", an organisation very much like the SCP Foundation in function and scope, but with a distinctly British flavour to contrast with the Foundation's faintly North American air. The stories read like detective fiction, in which the protagonist has to figure out what new supernatural creature is involved in the latest case and how to defeat the creature, and any humans who might be assisting it. However, the sheer delight of these stories is how the paranormal is described in terms which allows it to fit into the known scientific world. Equoid is particularly wonderful in this regard. (Note that Equoid is mildly unsafe for work, and very much unsafe for sleep if read immediately prior.) The novella's explanation for the appearance and behaviour of a certain mythical being is fleshed out with gradual, creeping horror, small details inexorably building a final, sickening picture. At the tale's conclusion, I felt both ill and enlightened.

Returning to video games, I think A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky is another strong contender for the video-games-can-be-art argument. It's a thoughtful game, deconstructing some video game tropes while playing into some others. It's also, frankly, underrated. Perhaps the long title, somewhat subpar graphics and plodding pace put off some players. It is a long game, and it takes a while for its true brilliance to be apparent, but it is very much worth playing until the end.

This was another edited stream-of-consciousness post. It's almost the only type of post I write. Also, I'm not good at closing paragraphs, possibly for the same reason. My mind certainly doesn't stop, not just yet, so how should this prose end?

Another Quick Post

It has been too long, yes!

I've been writing my PhD thesis. It seems that there is a critical limit to the amount of writing I can endure in a single day. So, a high thesis output means a low blog output. Even though blogging is significantly less boring.

So! What have I been doing recently? Well... writing I suppose. Where do the days go?

I did spend some time the other day watching the following video multiple times. It's an excellent parody of the video game, the style of music, and the style of music video. Also, it contains the second-most deftly-executed "Your Mom" joke I have seen (the first, of course, is from Meet the Spy).

Canonically, Ratonhnhaké:ton is supposed to be a serious, driven, unquestioned badass. Much of the humour of this video derives from a weedier version of the character engaging in slapstick antics, casual psychopathy, and constant, overwrought, failed attempts at being cool. (George Washington is the opposite - he still appears as a tough, admirable character, just not quite in the way one might expect).

As an aside, I am consistently impressed with level of effort fans expend when making tribute to their favourite media. Regarding the above video, if you take into account the costumes, the actors and actresses, the sets, the props, the stunts, green-screen effects, script writing, lyric writing, sound recording, editing... that's a lot of work for less than four minutes of payoff. Hats off to the Smosh team, and to others like them.

As a further aside, how proud would you be, if you were a creator and someone spent so much time and effort to celebrate your work? Creators who attempt to shut down fansites and delete fanworks on grounds of copyright infringement only confuse me. Copying others' work and trying to take credit for it is unethical, make no mistake, but creating what amounts to a love letter has an entirely different intent behind it.

Now You're Thinking With...

I would love to watch a full-length version of this. This is what a video game film adaptation should be like.

Time-Wasters: Traitor

I enjoyed Traitor very much. It's a shoot 'em up, with all the usual elements of typical games in its genre. You are a pilot, and you have a ship. You fight waves of enemies in ships bigger than your own. You are able to defeat these enemies even though you are outnumbered one-hundred to one. Killing enemies gives you credits to spend on various upgrades. There are final bosses who are bigger and uglier than the usual mooks.

The difference is in the storytelling. After the first few missions, the game becomes non-linear, and releases you into a map which you can use to visit various sectors, in any order you prefer. In each region, you can purchase upgrades or take on missions to earn cash. However, you can't just pop in wherever you like. Some places won't hire or sell to you unless you have a certain degree of reputation, which you can acquire by performing more missions.

The game's universe is rich with details. There are more well-off sectors, which charge more for upgrades and won't admit suspicious characters. There are the poorer regions which don't pay too well, but will ignore the fact that your ship is clearly stolen. There are the dirt-poor sectors which border on desperation. There are geographical differences - some places cannot be accessed without special equipment, and types of enemies encountered in battle vary from place to place, some looking more alien and organic, others more mechanical. Even the people are different - there are miners, farmers, pirates, officials and aliens who live in hives and refer to you ship shields as "skin"; there are people who are excited to help you, people who are cautious, people who are simply tired. Half the fun - the fun that's not blowing things up with overpowered weaponry - is exploring all these details, uncovering the story bit by bit through various conversations and briefings.

The writing is also excellent. While the particular story - your employers turn out to be power-hungry jerks, so you turn against them - isn't at all uncommon among shoot 'em ups, it is handled carefully. You aren't told that there is something wrong with what they are doing - you see it. And when you turn traitor, you end up having to work for a lower pay than you are accustomed, making you feel that your choice had consequences. Little things like that. 

There is an early decision you have to make, between a cruel and a pacifist course of action. I chose to be good and finished the game, then came back to try the evil option. It was hard. With a few well-chosen lines, the game managed to make me feel guilty over harming some innocent pixels - so guilty, that my conscience would not shut up until I had to restarted the game and taken the good option again. Within only a few missions, I was so drawn into the game's universe that the morality of my character mattered to me.

Traitor is not a very big game, nor is it very difficult. The missions are very forgiving - you can quit at any time and restart them, and there is no penalty for being killed. It's a pleasant game, encouraging you to take your time to explore and read through each conversation slowly, and not worry too much about losing. All in all, it's an intelligent, thoughtful distraction to spare a few hours on.

Geek Graffiti

Dear Esther is a gripping Half Life 2 mod which is really more akin to a film which you can walk through. If you don't have Half Life 2, I recommend, at the very least, watching a playthrough video on Youtube. It takes away some of the subtle horror when watching someone else play it, but you do get a feel of the atmosphere.

What I'm really here to talk about, however, is the cave graffiti. Specifically, the one that appears at 7:52 on this video, and which is visible at multiple areas.

It is probably a bad thing that I immediately recognised it as this image of a Helicobacter pylori cell.

Yup, I'm doomed.

Google Pac-Man!

This is the greatest Google Doodle I have ever seen. Or the greatest anything, really.

Go to the Google homepage (now permenantly archived here) and play it, now! Click on "Insert Coin" to play, arrow keys or mouse clicks control Pac-Man, and click on "Insert Coin" again to load a two-player game with Mrs. Pac-Man, who can be controlled with the WSAD keys. (I had a ton of fun controlling both Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man at the same time with both hands. It's also great for playing co-op with  a friend, especially since the Google maze is a little larger than the regular one.) It has sound effects and everything - so completely cool!

Thanks for making this, Google! And happy 30th birthday to Pac-Man!

Flat Major

Or, the apparent result of dropping a piano on a military base. The complementary riddle concerning the release of a piano down a mineshaft (flat minor) is a little more subtle, but requires the first to aid its setup.

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned MS Paint Adventures. If I haven't, it is a grave injustice because it deserves to be mentioned. Repeatedly. I have never seen another webcomic - I use the term loosely, because "webcomic" does not properly describe MS Paint Adventures - create such a sense of epic scale so successfully. Part of it may be that readers are able to influence the story by making suggestions for character actions, so there is a very real investment in characters. The other part consists of the grand-scale animations, which are staggering in their length and complexity. Things happen in this story, and they are BIG.

Now if I haven't mentioned Alice is Dead before, this is because I didn't know of it previously. This is also a grave injustice, though an unintentional one. There are currently two episodes of the game, and while the puzzles aren't too hard, the writing is riveting and the art, beautifully detailed. The world of Alice is Dead is twisted version of Wonderland, and one can't help but want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes. So to speak.

I've been cleaning up the corners in my life, quite literally. There comes a time when one must sit down and go through the belongings which were once valued, now not so much. I have twenty years worth of collected material, most of it junk, to sort through. It is inevitable when pursuing such an occupation that there are a few surprises. For one, I discovered a large number of fancy pens, most of them still working well, including a lovely Sheaffer. I also found some old, old things I've forgotten about - photographs, papers, drawings, even cash - hidden away like a squirrel might hide its nuts. With the same effect.

One of the interesting surprises came when I was searching through a folder of art constructed by myself primarily between the ages of one and five, and which proved very difficult to prune down. I found an old, old drawing of a bird by myself at around the age of four, with the wobbly lines and patchy colours typical of a hand lacking dexterity. It was recognisably a Kakapo.

Clearly the drawing had been copied from a photograph - I doubt that at that age I could even pronounce "Kakapo" properly. But the main features had been preserved, so that my twenty-one-year-old self was capable of recognising it at a glance. There is a lesson here somewhere.

My father is finally retiring his seven-year-old IBM ThinkPad, a model which I maintain was the best work laptop ever made. I remember playing Lego Robohunter on that thing, and taking my first wobbly steps into the Internet. I remember using it as a backup computer when mine failed repeatedly, and then again when mine failed for good. I remember the day when it finally could no longer function without a constant power supply, its battery not nearly as durable as the computer itself.

I think I will miss it. When something has been nearby for so long - especially something with so intimate an association as a laptop - it leaves a mark. Suddenly the things you thought would always be there clearly and firmly demonstrate that all things are tentative.

Change is inevitable.

Except from vending machines.

Update XXII: Point Form

• I'm back in the city of lions!
• Figuratively. I mean, we've never actually had lions and-
• I saw WALL-E on the plane. It was fantastic. Fluffy, but not in the utterly clichéd way most family movies seem to steer towards. And the underlying serious message elevated this movie from family fun to something truly great.
• Seven-hour flights suck. I woke up this morning feeling as if I had been rolling in gravel the previous night, instead of sitting in a cushioned chair for an extended period of time as was the case.
• I came back and found my room entirely cleaned up, the doing of my hardworking mother. I think I'll leave it that way. I'm not going to be here for long anyway.
• I managed to find a copy of the 2007 Transformers movie on DVD at half price before leaving Australian soil. I think Kmart was just trying to get rid of them.
• The trailer for the ambitious Black Mesa mod of Half-Life came out recently. Watch it on fullscreen mode, it feels like playing the game.
• So there's this one sculptor who uses Lego bricks for art. Magnificent.
• I love Auditorium. It's like being some sort of composer, in colour as well as sound.
• I ate large amounts of fish today.
• That is all.

Update XX: Cool, Useful or Plain Funny

So, one of my friends recently picked up a 1 terabyte hard drive for about $200. That's 20 cents per gigabyte, people. And to think that a few years ago, a 1GB hard drive would have cost $100. Meanwhile, Seagate promises over thirty thousand times that capacity in a mere two years.
Computers are moving altogether too fast these days.

I've been trying to figure out for some time what makes things funny...It's sometimes incomprehensible, how some things make us go "ha-ha" while others get nothing more than a bored stare...
Anyway, today's xkcd was undeniably funny, though if it was because of the entirely everyday manner in which the character failed to escape, or because of the subversion of what I expected would happen, I cannot say.

Something which does seem to be almost universally funny are mistakes. Other people's mistakes. CakeWrecks is dedicated to the professionally-made cakes which follow instructions too closely, are incredibly creepy, do not look remotely edible, or are simply... beyond words.
I spent a few days browsing the archives. I don't think I've laughed so many times in my life.

This amused me. Not the vehicles themselves - they are clearly M3G mobile bridges - but rather the various suggestions concerning Decepticons (that one navy gunboat was getting lonely, apparently), Allied Troop Carriers, Universal Soldiers, aliens...

It's been a while since I found a nice time-waster... Cursor10 is a neat little game. You have 650... well, they're clearly not seconds, so I'll call them "units of time." You have 650 time-units to reach the sixteenth floor, and ten cursors to help you accomplish this. If you run out of time, you control the next cursor out of your ten while the previous one simultaneously copies every single action you made it do when you had control of it. In essence, you have to "programme" the ten cursors to reach the end. A very original idea for a game, and fun to play too.

Trapped 5 is a vastly superior puzzle game to its predecessors, and well-crafted. The best part is that it is not possible to get a Game Over, which removes a lot of potential frustration. Other puzzle-game creators, take note.

And finally, something useful. If you've never checked that your desktop clock was synchronising correctly with an Internet time server, it may not actually have been doing so... Recently, I checked mine and found, to my utter horror, that it was four minutes slow. To think I had considered it accurate.
Anyway, I was unable to fix the synchronisation by changing the server or opening a port through my firewall, so I got hold of this nifty piece of software. It's a very small program, and can be set to automatically synchronise the desktop clock with any Internet time server. Worth the minuscule bandwidth cost required to download it.

And now, have a pretty picture. Ta and later.

(Edited on 21 October 2008 for a broken link.)

MORE FORMS

For the record, applying for a visa with a third-world country's passport sucks. I can't wait to become a Singapore citizen so I don't have to deal with all this paperwork.

I finished wading through the last of the visa application forms, but it's not over yet - I still have to get a medical examination, X-ray and take an IELTS test. Yes, apparently studying in Singapore all my life and getting A1 for O' Level English are inadequate indications of sufficient English proficiency to survive in Australia.

Oh, and of course the agent only saw fit to inform me about this English language requirement now.

... Sorry. Tight deadlines make the Wintershark cranky.

On a more optimistic note, as part of my effort to gain some cooking skills before heading off to live on my own, I made chicken curry today. It turned out... surprisingly good. Though I'll probably substitute the coconut milk with regular milk next time - you can practically see the unhealthiness floating around in it.

I guess I'm finally getting my cooking skills under control - last week I made chocolate fudge for the class, and it was quite popular. It'll be nice if I finally overcome all my cooking handicaps. Especially those relating to potatoes. I am terrible at preparing potatoes.

Last thing - Indestruc2Tank, the sequel to IndestructoTank, came out a short while ago. Surprisingly enough, this sequel is even better than the original, and proves to be the superior timewaster. Go check it out.

Til next time.

Bang and Bounce

On the subject of time-wasting, IndestructoTank! is one of the more unusual of such games out there. The premise is simple: you, the player, control an indestructable tank. Your aim is to destroy as many enemies as possible by ramming into them and gain experience points; you must obtain a certain amount of experience points before your steadily-decreasing fuel runs out. Fail, and the tank blows up. (Not so indestructable after all.) There are five enemies encountered in the game, all with varying point values, weapons and movement speeds.

The game has several unique features. One is the controls; the player can only move the tank left or right, using either keyboard arrow keys or a Wiimote. In order to launch the tank upwards, the tank must run into either an enemy missile or the enemy itself, creating a blast which propels the tank into the air. It is possible to perpetually keep the tank in the air, "juggling" from enemy to enemy, though points are obtained only if the tank lands on the ground.

Another feature is the "store" concept, where players can spend points accumulated during the game. The difference here is instead of purchasing weapons or upgrades, the points are used to buy enemies. That's right - you spend points to ensure that the next level will have more enemies for you to blow up in new and interesting combinations. (As a matter of fact, winning the game requires buying out the maximum possible frequency of all five enemies.) The strategy element comes from deciding what enemies to increase in number. The standard slow-firing Bomber? The aptly-named Bouncer with the rebounding missiles? Or perhaps the Miner, which can only travel on the ground? All enemy types have their own advantages and annoyances, and picking the right mix of enemies is necessary in order to clear each successive level.

Special features aside, even the more conventional aspects of the game do not disappoint. The graphics, while not overwhelmingly eye-catching, are actually fairly complex, and allow various enemies and missiles to be distinguised from each other at a glance. The mountainous backdrop is sufficiently varied, using fluctuating mountain heights and cloud patterns to avoid monotony. There is only one music track for all the levels, but it is suitably low-key and does not detract from the action.

Something I've noticed with many independantly-created timewasters is that they have great graphics, a great premise, superb graphics... and terrible game physics. IndestructoTank! suffers from no such problems. The movements of the tank are fluid, responding easily to the controls, and act in a reasonably realistic manner. Even slight control manipulations can make a big difference, allowing for precise actions in-game.

One of the few drawbacks of the game is that every time it is loaded afresh, the player must go through a forced tutorial. While commendable in getting new players to understand what they are playing before they try it out, it gets annoying for repeat players.

Also, the high scores lists don't work anymore thanks to some hackers, curse them.

Nevertheless, this is a great timewaster, perfect for those moments when you have lots of work to do and don't want to get on it just then. Simple, addictive and with just a little thinking required - one of the best games of its genre.

Update XI: Too Much to Do

That sums out my situation right now. Final Year Project concerns have all but pushed aside everything else, including that art contest entry I really ought to be working on.

Perhaps then it's fortunate that I finished Transformers: The Game before all this stuff came falling down. In spite of the poor reviews, I found myself enjoying the game thoroughly (probably because it incorporates two of my passions - treasure-hunting and driving). Although the controls, particularly of the camera, were rather iffy, I discovered that there are a surprising number of special moves. For instance, Blackout performs a powerful type of ground attack if you hit the melee attack button immediately after dropping from guard mode, Barricade can switch on his police lights causing other cars to move faster and out of the way, and in Hoover Dam there's a way to make Bumblebee flip up to the first level of the generator towers...

Even with the regular controls, it's all good fun. I might try playing it all over again just for the sake of doing it all better the second time. Not to mention searching for more tricks.

In other news, the Gmail collaborative video is out! Watch it here. It's quite funny, and reflects not only the efforts of those who submitted videos, but also the editors who managed to string them together coherently.

On the home front, I can't say this surprises me. Particularly in primary school, I met several teachers who were so obsessed with rules they forgot why those rules were implemented in the first place. Of course their attitude only got them hated by their charges, and earned them absolutely no respect.

There are just so many problems in education, not just at home but worldwide. Sometimes I think of becoming a teacher for the sake of making a difference, and then I stop and wonder if it ever would.

Escape the White Chamber

I'd first like to say that the opening date of At World's End is a clear sign from the powers that be that I should buy tickets to watch it, as opposed to waiting for it to come to Star Movies.

My classmates introduced me to the brilliant White Chamber, a point-and-click puzzle game in which you must escape an isolated chamber McGyver-style, using whatever items that may have been carelessly left in the room. Whoever set up the White Chamber must have been particularly careless, because among other things the player can find a crowbar, a mysterious remote control, a manual (with pictures!) and a Yamaha motorcycle.

Part of the challenge with the game is learning the rules. In a real situation if someone were locked in such a room, their first action would be to pick up the table and pitch it through the garage window. Naturally, that is not an option here, and certain items can only interact with each other in certain ways and under certain conditions. The game also contains an element of the supernatural (or perhaps really advanced technology), so there really isn't any way to define what is possible or impossible.

That is not to say that there is no help for the player. Other than the opening scene, the game is marked by almost complete silence, broken only by sounds triggered by certain actions and snatches of an eerie tune which plays only when an important item is present in the scene. Once an item is in the inventory, it can be examined for a short sentence describing it; examining certain areas in the room will also trigger the display of messages, supposedly from the player talking to themselves, which serve as useful hints.

The creator of White Chamber, Toshimitsu Takagi, also created a number of other rooms, including the original Crimson Room, the creepy, grostly Viridian Room, and the simplistic - but no less challenging - Blue Chamber. However, in spite of being the most recent, White Chamber is possibly the easiest - the items which can be picked up interact in the most predictable ways, and there are no items hidden in obscure, hard-to-reach locations as in the Crimson Room. The greatest challenge is in learning how to perform certain actions, but once this is achieved it is merely a matter of putting things together. Perhaps this is what makes this game more successful as a logic puzzle - there is less emphasis on blind luck, and more on thinking things through.

As a whole it's a great game, especially for the puzzle-minded. I'd recommend it to anyone with a few free days to burn - and you'll need those few days, because once you're immersed in the White Chamber, its mysteries will haunt you until you figure the way out.

White Chamber requires the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to run. Get it here.

I'm a Sinimmortal!

Oh - my - goodness.

I just topped the hi-score list of the Sinistar arcade game (online java applet version).

See for yourself. (I'm "←XX".)

This is so completely awesome because I usually suck at this sort of game. (I used to hate that Asteroids game - I could never do anything with the little ship.) Of course not many play Sinistar with any level of seriousness now, meaning that I have little competition, but... dude.

I'm going to remember this day forever.

Hoj-Os!

It's Mako-licious!

Bet it causes horrible mutations too. Ahahaha... ahaha... ha.

Nuclear War and Flying Carrots

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has some sound advice.

Now that I've fulfilled the nuclear war requirement, I'd like to add on that Tyrian is possibly the greatest game ever. It's got a solid storyline, upgradable weapons, colourful characters, funny advertisements, enemy ships which drop beer when destroyed and a ship known as the Super Carrot which looks exactly what it sounds like. Also, it's a fun scroll-shooter, great for working off stress. What more could one want?

Oh, and it's freeware now.

Stalker!

So I was playing C&C Generals (USA side), the second last mission where you have to fight a rogue Chinese general helping the GLA. So I snuck Col. Burton into their base, blew up a few things and was on the point of leaving when I found that an Overlord tank was following Burton around.

The thing about Overlord tanks is that they're really nasty. They're huge, at least three times bigger than anything else on the field, double-barreled, heavily-armoured, the only tank able to squish other tanks (as opposed to normal tanks, which can only run over infantry). They've got an evil voice ("They will be... crushed"). They're the pride of the Chinese side. The absolute last thing you want is one of them following any one of your troops, but especially an expensive Hero like Burton.

So naturally I was freaked out when I found an Overlord on Burton's tail, but what freaked me out more was that the tank wasn't doing anything at all. It just came close to Burton and sat there, but would start moving whenever Burton moved. Really creepy. I finally sent Burton climbing over a cliff and out of the base, well out of the Overlord's range of view - he could outpace the tank easily, they're highly ponderous. And so I left Burton far from the base, but in a good place to pick off infantry rushes.

And after about five minutes - guess what?

That tank turned up again! It obviously had to have travelled some distance, all the way round the front of the base (since tanks can't cross mountains) and it can't have been able to see Burton at all for a good part of its journey, but there it was, like a faithful puppy. It didn't so much as fire a shot.

Endearing as that was, the tank was becoming a nuisance. I sent Burton into my base, simultaneously luring the tank in, and used six Tomahawk Missile Launchers and an equivalent number of Paladin tanks to dispose of it.

But, gee... talk about having obsessed fans.