Welcome to Light-fire.net!

This website is focused on comics, science fiction, and video games. There are blog-like news posts further down this page, and several separate sections to this site, including my portfolio and gameblog.

You can use the links near the header to explore the rest of my main site. Just click around and see what you find.

Random Thoughts

Space itself isn't very interesting, being vastly filled with "nothing". Instead, it's what could be within the confines of what we call "space", that makes it so exciting.

Ancient unexplored planets, fantastic displays of particles dancing, the birth and death of entire worlds, and other things we can only imagine. All waiting to be explored.

11/24/11 - Thursday: "Best Thanksgiving Day Video Game Deals for 2011"

Some of the best game sales today are:

Listed in this order: "Game title/abbreviation, Digital Download Store, Price, Metacritic Rating" starting with best rating.

>>> Read More / Comment

11/24/11 - Thursday: "10 Old PC games that desperately need a sequel"

Every once in a while there's a really great PC game, the kind that is unique and makes you want more. And yet for many of these games there's still no good remake after many years. Then there's the not-so-good games that had a great concept, but could have been so much more. Here's ten great ideas for follow-ups that would probably make good sales, at least if they're done properly...

1. Freelancer (With: Freelancer 2, or Freelancer Online)
   
   
2. Escape Velocity Nova [EV Nova] (With: EV Nova Online)
   
   
3. Command & Conquer: Renegade (With: Command & Conquer: Warzone)
   
   
4. Star Control II (With: Star Control "X", or Star Control Online)
   
   
5. Star Trek: Klingon Academy (With: Star Trek: "X")
   
   
6. Freespace 2 (With: Freespace 3)
   
   
7. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. (With: Alpha Centauri 2)
   
   
8. Anarchy Online (With: Anarchy Online 2)
   
   
9. Balder's Gate 1 & 2 (With: Balder's Gate 3)
   
   
10. Descent 3 (With: Descent 4)
    

It doesn't end here! For more great ideas on improving these games for said remakes, click on:

>>> Read More / Comment

11/24/11 - Thursday: "Vocals in Trance & Electronica"

It seems that the vast majority of vocals in trance and electronica make the music sound roughly 10x worse. I mean you have an amazing mix and suddenly a random voice comes in talking about something totally unrelated, it doesn't help the music in any way. They usually have such contrast to the actual music so as to nearly inspire a seizure.

I know there are plenty of exceptions and some of my favorite tracks have vocals, but again I'm saying the *majority* of voices that show up in electronica only bring the music down.

On a side note, a lot of the sessions I've heard on Digitally Imported tend to shift from epic-sounding music to completely awful all within the same session (and all-too-often, even within the same track/mix). You'd think there would be at least a little more consistency.

>>> Read More / Comment

8/13/11 - Saturday: "Video Games: More on Sale"

Digital download game stores continue sales with a few more popular titles for reasonable prices.

Some games currently on sale (as of this post) are...

From Impulse:

Section 8 Prejudice $7.49
Baldur's Gate Complete $4.99

From Direct2Drive:

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood $15.95
Dead Space 2 $11.95
Need for Speed SHIFT 2 $14.95

Origin has also updated prices since their last sale, with many games from $9.99 to $19.99 (after being on sale for $4.99 last week).

>>> Read More / Comment

8/06/11 - Saturday: "Game Specials + Brink F2P Weekend"

A number of digital download game stores are having sales this weekend, including Origin, Steam, Impulse, and Direct2Drive. Electronic Arts' Origin website is selling a good number of titles for $4.99 for "this weekend only". Valve's Steam website advertises they are having a free-to-play weekend for Brink "now through Sunday at 1pm Pacific time". Steam also currently has some games on sale. Impulse, now run by GameStop (formerly Stardock), is having a THQ special with "new deals announced every day", as well as their other specials. And Direct2Drive, now run by Gamefly (formerly IGN), has some games on sale as well (see weekly sales here and value sales here).

Some of the games currently available (as of this post) include...

From Steam:

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition $22.49
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe $12.49
Fallout: New Vegas $14.99
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind® Game of the Year Edition $9.99

From Origin:

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars™ $4.99
SPORE™ $4.99
Mirror’s Edge™ $4.99
Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™ 3 $4.99
SimCity™ 4 Deluxe Edition $4.99
Need for Speed™ Undercover $4.99
Battlefield: Bad Company™ 2 $4.99
Battlefield 2142™ Deluxe Edition $4.99

From Impulse:

Metro 2033 $9.99
THQ Ultimate Bundle $99.99
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Retribution (stand-alone expansion) $14.99

From Direct2Drive:

PlanetSide®: Aftershock $9.95
Section 8: Prejudice $5.95
Supreme Commander Gold $6.79
Borderlands Game of the Year Edition $11.95
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition $6.78 (although this is currently cheaper on Origin)

I found an odd thing about a number of Impulse games. Some of their system requirements state "Requires Steam to Install & Play". I haven't tried Impulse since they switched from Stardock to GameStop, so has anyone tried a game like this? Is it a hassle?

>>> Read More / Comment

8/02/11 - Tuesday: "I Got a Prize!"

About a month ago I was surprised to find that I got a Hotwheels car in my cereal. (I usually avoid reading the marketing materials on the box.) It was fun to put the stickers on, but... that was just a normal prize. A lot of people expect something like that.

Well, I didn't know that they put prizes in spaghetti boxes, but I got one about a week ago when I was about to make some pasta for dinner. It was a live beetle. Needless to say, I don't think I want another surprise in my food. For those interested, I did check the box, and it has no advertisements about bugs in my s'ghetti.

I think I'll be buying the slightly more expensive brands of pasta from now on... and hope for less surprises.

>>> Read More / Comment

8/24/10 - Tuesday: "This is Not Fan-Art"

I found a website called iScribble.net a couple days ago while searching for a multi-user drawing program. The site is a flash-based art tool and chat tool in one. After checking it out as a guest, I promptly signed up. There's just too many cool things about this site.

Featured in this post is a picture by the user jadona (from iScribble.net), who was kind enough to sketch my original character Lightfire for me. Apparently this is a fairly regular event, where users gather together to share their characters and draw each others' characters.

It's not a place to get free art, though, it's about the community and the fun. Keep in mind you must always ask an artist if you can use their image(s) for whatever purposes you have. The artist gave me permission to feature this image on my site. Thanks again, jadona.

>>> Read More / Comment

12/22/09 - Tuesday: "Space Wallpaper"

Free wallpaper "Mysterious Space" is now available on the downloads page. You can also find it in my deviantART gallery. Multiple resolutions available.

>>> Read More / Comment

10/08/09 - Thursday: "Why I Didn't Comment"

I realize that some websites require users to register/login because they actally need more information to process orders, to protect themselves legally against damages, or simply to weed out spammers and other undesireables. But your blog is probably not one of those websites. (You know who you are.)

Right about now, you are wishing I left a comment on your blog. But I didn't. Do you know why? Because I'd have to register... to another... website... again... just to leave... my comment.

Oh great, now I can't even remember what I was going to comment about in the first place. I assure you, however, it was going to be awesome. Read More / Comment

10/07/09 - Wednesday: "Nutrition: Let's Be Reasonable"

While surfing the web, I came across this article that claims "billions of people (are) expected to die" because of something called "Codex Alimentarius", which coincidentally seemed to have the ring of a name of a cult of the damned. But upon further reading it was clearly just an inflated article about what seems to be a very minor problem, if a problem at all.

I know that health supplements (AKA vitamin pills) might be really valuable to some people, but I hardly believe that the inability to purchase a few excessive pills would just happen to result in the loss of billions of lives. Even if food standards became insanely strict due to something like this, it isn't like they can keep you from growing your own food, which provides what you need, and has done so since the dawn of civilization.

I honestly don't see how someone could actually be convinced that supplements are necessary for life, when they weren't even around for our ancestors... Read More / Comment

10/05/09 - Monday: "Dear Aion"

Do something about the Kinah spammers.

Okay, at least Aion is fun. I mean, you can *FLY*. You have wings... or do you?

You can in fact "fly" in some parts of the game world... Read More / Comment

7/22/09 - Wednesday: "Ninja Wallpaper"

New wallpaper available on the downloads page. It's called "NinjaBladez" and he does, in fact, have two "bladez". It's also up on my deviantART gallery. Sorry, only one size available (1280x1024).

>>> Read More / Comment

6/15/09 - Monday: "And something else"

I've added some of my portfolio work to my deviantArt page, as well as some exclusive artwork. There may be more coming there, too, as time goes on and I continue my attempts to draw something that looks like something. I've also got some more stable internet for the time being.

And as the title suggested, there is something else I've got to share... Read More / Comment

5/14/09 - Thursday: "Yeah... That... Stuff"

Once again my internet connection is barely working. I had to try for about half an hour to upload a single page. Wait, it's working better now. Oh nope, it was just playing a sick joke on me. Now it's back again. No wait, nevermind. Hey! I think it might work...

In other news, I'm considering making a new template for my website... Read More / Comment

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