Tag: en

Essen Spiel 2016 – Most interesting games [LT-EN]

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[LT] Essen mugėj įsibėgėjus nusprendžiau pateikti sąrašiuką žaidimų, kurie labiausiai patraukė mano dėmesį peržvelgus labai ilgą sąrašą naujų žaidimų. Tikriausiai nei vieno iš jų nepirksiu, o gal net ir neteiks pažaist. Taip pat neseku jų specialiai, bet tiesiog jie kažkuo patraukė mano dėmesį.

[EN] As the Essen fair is starting it course i have decided to present my little list of games, which has drawn my attention and look interesting. I probably won’t buy or even play them ever and i don’t follow them specifically, but something about them has spiked my interest.

Adrenaline

[LT] Apie šį žaidimą daug kas kalba. Tai lyg ir turėtų būti žaidimas atkartojantis FPS tipo video žaidimus, bet tuo pačiu ir turintis euro žaidimų mechanikas. Intriguoja.

[EN] Many are talking about this game. It tries to mimic a video game of FPS genre, but also has euro game mechanisms. Intriguing.

Chromosome

[LT] Tai gali būti paprastas vietovės kontrolės žaidimas su kubelių stumdymu, bet žaidimo tematika skamba labai įdomiai. Ateivių virusas bandantis išgyventi laboratorijoje.

[EN] This might be a simple area control game with cube pushing, but the theme of this game sure sounds interesting. An alien virus trying to survive in the laboratory environment.

Fold-it

[LT] Apie šį žaidimą papasakojo Zee Garcia iš Dice Tower portalo. Ir jis tikrai atrodo unikalus. Žaidėjai turės atkartoti paveikslą parodytą ištrauktoje kortoje. Bet tai jie turi padaryti turint didelį medžiagos gabalą su paveiksliukais lankstant jį taip, kad  matytųsi kortoje parodyta paveiksliukų kombinacija.

[EN] Zee Garcia from the Dice Tower told about this game. This game is really unique. Players will have to match the pattern shown on the card. But they will have to do this by folding a big cloth of material which has same pictures on it to match the pattern on the card.

Bios: Genesis

[LT] Kažkuo primenantis Chromosome. Šiame žaidime teks valdyti ir tobulinti pirmuosius Žemės mikroorganizmus. Žaidimą galima bus žaist ir kooperaciname režime ir konkuruojant tarpusavyje. Taip pat bus ir solo variantas.

[EN] This game reminds Chromosome a bit. In this game the task will be to manage and improve first micro organisms of Earth. There will be a cooperative mode as well as competitive. And also a solo variant.

[LT] Ir dar kažkiek žaidimų, kurie mane sudomino.

[EN] And some other games that draw my attention.

Targi Expansion
Camel Up Cards
Kanagawa
Taluva Deluxe
The Daedalus Sentence
Pandemic Iberia

XenServer cleanup [EN]

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Speaking about XenServer again. Recently i had to fix its certificates because of the recent Windows update. This also reminded me about a long standing issue with Control Domain disk running out of space. XenCenter was showing alert messages for some time stating that this storage was already at 96, 97 and last time at 98%. It’s annoying that it doesn’t show this storage details anywhere in the XenCenter GUI (or i haven’t found). Because this is an internal XenServer’s disk, used for configuration, logs, etc. I’ve read that space may be occupied by logs. So i went out on a hunt. Here’s how to deal with this:

Control Domain disk can run out of space after running XenServer for a long time. Our server is in duty for 5-6 years and we never cleaned it up.

First you need to connect to its local shell. Either directly (if monitor is connected) or via SSH. Login with root.
Go to /var/log/
Run command: du -sh (it will show how much space does your log folder take; it was 1.7 GB in our case)
Additionally ls -lh will list all files in that folder with a readable size values (MB or GB)
Then delete logs with a force switch (you may want to leave some logs, but i just wiped them all as this is just a testing box):
rm SMlog* -f
rm xensource.log* -f
rm messages* -f
rm xenstored-access* -f
Run du -sh to see how much space have you freed. In my case it was around 1.5 GB.

Fixing SSL error when accessing XenServer after KB3175024 update [EN]

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We’ve been using Citrix’s XenServer at work for probably 6 years now (originally Citrix, now it is Open Source and not run by them). But we were too lazy to upgrade to the newest version. Because it is time consuming and would take lots of effort to migrate current machines. But mostly, we were lazy 🙂 So, we are still on 5.6 version (i think). This month Microsoft has released a Windows update KB3175024, which probably made all certificates using less than 1024 bits of encryption not secure and made apps trying to access services, which were still using such certificates, go bonkers. So, trying to access our XenServer from a Windows application XenCenter resulted in a TLS\SSL error. Windows Event Log also was collecting useless Schannel errors (yeah, errors just giving some random numbers are very useful). XenServer is using 512 bits keys by default (and from what i have gathered browsing Xen forums, even newest versions are affected by this). Combining tips from several sources i have compiled a little guide to overcome this issue. On a plus side, this made me use SSH (to access our XenServer) and refresh my Linux cmd skills a bit 🙂 Read More

1 year blog summary [LT-EN]

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blog-1year-sm-2

[LT] Lygiai prieš metus pradėjau šį blogą, paskelbiau pirmą įrašą. Per tuos metus iš viso paskelbta 78 įrašai. Sulaukta 4 komentarų (na gera, gudrauju, du iš jų buvo mano atsakymai 🙂 ). Tiesa, kol įdiegiau anti-spamo įskiepį sulaukdavau nemažai spam komentarų kasdien. Šiuo metu blokuota 1347 spam komentarų 🙂

[EN] Exactly one year ago i have started this blog, posted my first entry. During this year 78 entries have been posted. I’ve received 4 comments (ok ok, i’m cheating, two of them were my replies 🙂 ). Although, until i have installed anti-spam plugin i was getting lots of spam comments daily. 1347 spam comments have been blocked by now 🙂

[LT-EN] Paskelbti įrašai pagal kategorijas/Posted entries by categories:

Board Games (43)
Technology (19)
Next game (14)
Movies (12)
Top10 (10)
Yes-No (5)
Artwork (2)
General (3)
Live session (2)
Books (1)

Board Game Review – Camel Up [EN]

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Camel Up

A neat little game, which can be fun with the right crowd (non-gamers or casual gamers). It even works fine with 8 players (and more with the expansion). Granted, i haven’t tried it with less players. All my 3 plays of it were with 8 players. It probably can be more strategic with less players and you can probably have more options on your turn and plan ahead a bit more. But it is still very light, very random and swingy. Which is part of its charm and which makes people scream of joy or sadness when a die comes out of the pyramid 🙂 But this is not a game for those liking a bit of thought process, heavier mechanisms. Though heavy gamers can appreciate this as an evening closing game to relax. I’m glad i own it and this is a strong 7/10.

Board Game Review – Automobiles [EN]

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Automobiles

A deck building game with a bag of cubes instead that you pull from to move you car in a race. This sounded like a perfect mix of one of my favorite mechanisms (deck building) with some unique theme like racing. The game is not bad, but after playing it 5-6 times i failed to find much to like in it. First of all it is too much random and “swingy”. You can crawl a few spaces for a few turns and then jump half a track ahead. Yes, you have to manage your pull of cubes and improve the selection, but this just doesn’t work. Hard to explain. There is too much trash in your bag from the start and you get even more of it during the race. There are some cubes that help you cull bad cubes, but those cubes on their own will clutter you selection. Also this is hard to foresee which regular racing cubes you will need the most, because every track twist needs different ones and you can pull completely useless ones from the bag. The game provides a lot of variability with different setups (every cube color has a few cards with different abilities, which can be used in a game). But that creates another problem of constantly checking what a particular cube does in a particular game. Yes, you will probably memorize it after a few turns, but this memory won’t stay with you, because next time you will have to memorize different abilities. This gets especially frustrating when playing online and doing a few moves per day (i know, this is not fair, as this game is not designed to be played this way, but that’s how i play the most). So, i admit this is a unique and clever design with a bag building mechanism and interesting racing theme, but only 7/10 for me.

Yucata implementation: as with many new games it uses 2.0 framework and it works fine. The only problem is the cards that i have mentioned above, they are too small and you have to click on them to zoom and be able to read the ability. I guess nothing can be done about this. 9/10

Box full of cats [LT-EN]

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[LT] Cat Box tai berods antras stalo/kortų žaidimas, kurį pirkau Kickstarter platformoje. Nesu pernelyg didelis kačių mėgėjas, bet pagalvojau, kad toks mielai atrodantis žaidimukas galėtų turėti pasisekimą darbe suformuotoje žaidimo grupėje (moteriškoje jos dalyje), ar ne? 🙂 Gaila, kad siuntos dar teks palaukt iki lapkričio.

[EN] Cat Box is probably my second board/card game bought through the Kickstarter platform. I’m not a huge fan of cats, but i thought such a cute looking game should be a success in a game group i have at work (among its women part), shouldn’t it? 🙂 It’s a pity it won’t arrive until November though.

Latest purchase – Camel Up [LT-EN]

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camel up_sm[LT] Seniai galvojau, kad šį žaidimą būtų gerai turėti linksmam vakarui su didele kompanija. Kadangi kitą savaitę planuojamas žaidimų vakaras, kuriame galbūt dalyvaus 6-8 žaidėjai ir kadangi nesinori dalintis į grupeles, o vien Saboteur žaist neįdomu ir kadangi šiam žaidimui buvo nuolaida parduotuvėj. Žodžiu dabar jau jį turiu. Visi komponentai išlukštenti, piramidė surinkta – laukiama žaidimo vakaro. Tiesa, nespėjau pasinaudoti 28% nuolaida, bet viename iš parduotuvės filialų man visgi suteikė bent 10% nuolaidą 🙂 Štai kas vadinama FLGS (friendly local gaming store). Beje – Hobbyshop. Paskutiniai 3 iš 5 pirkimų buvo būtent šioje parduotuvėje. Camel Up (taip taip, aš iš stovyklos vadinančios jį būtent Up, o ne Cup :P) – tai linksmas kupranugarių lenktynių žaidimas, kurio metu jie gali užlipti vienas kitam ant kupros ir taip važinėtis. Žaidėjai lažinasi kuris kupriukas laimės lenktynes, kuris pralaimės ir pan. Žaidime yra vietos taktikai ir matematiniams apskaičiavimams, bet taip pat jame ir gana didelis sėkmės faktorius. Todėl laimėti jame gali bet kas, o pagrindinis jo pliusas – tiesiog smagus laiko praleidimas sergant už pasirinktą kupriuką ir keikiant piramidę už ne tos spalvos iškritusį kauliuką 🙂

[EN] I was thinking that having this game would be great for a long time. And as next week a game night is planned which can be with 6-8 players and as i don’t like to split into groups and as it is boring to only play Saboteur and as there was a discount for this game in a shop. Well, now i have it. All components punched out, the pyramid constructed – awaits the gaming night. Although, i didn’t managed to use the 28% discount, but one of the shop’s stores gave me at least a 10% off 🙂 That’s what is called FLGS (friendly local gaming store). By the way – Hobbyshop store. Last 3 out of 5 purchases were in that store. Camel Up (yes, yes, i’m in the camp calling it Up, not Cup :P) – it’s a fun camel racing game, in which they can ride on the backs of each other. Players bet on which camel will win or lose. There is a place for some tactics and mathematic calculations in this game, but luck is a huge factor in it. So, anyone can win here and the main advantage of this game is just the fun time spent with that game cheering for a camel of your choice and cursing the pyramid for rolling a wrong die 🙂

Top 10 Board Games Mechanisms [LT]

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bgames-popuri-smKaip tęsinys sąrašo pateikto Family Showdown kanale, sudariau savo Top 10 sąrašą stalo žaidimų mechanizmų. Kiekvieną mechanizmą papildysiu keliais žaidimais, kurie mano manymu geriausiai atitinka kategoriją (aišku iš tų kuriuos žaidžiau). Beje, aš nesirėmiau jokių oficialių sąrašu mechanizmų. Kai kuriuos sugalvojau pats 🙂

 

10. Set Collection (Rinkinys)

Viena pirmųjų mechanikų kurias sutinki pradedant žaist modernius stalo žaidimus (ir dažnai tradicinius kortų žaidimus). Tai taip pat dažnai yra papildoma mechanika stalo žaidime. Kaip Ticket to Ride, kur turi rinkti vienos spalvos kortų rinkinius, kad galėtum pastatyti kelius. Tokaido žaidime renki paveikslų kortas, kad sukurtum nuostabią panoramą (ir gautum krūvą taškų). Yra ir maži žaidimai, kur kortų rinkinio mechanika yra kertinė, kaip Jaipur ar Coloretto.

 

9. Dice Allocation (Kauliukų paskirstymas)

Ne tik kauliukų ridenimas, bet ir gautų rezultatų paskirstymas įvairiems veiksmams. Tai šiek tiek primena darbininkų paskirstymo mechaniką, bet šiuo atveju skaičius ant kauliuko irgi svarbus ir įtakoja rezultatą. Mano mėgstamiausias šiame žanre taipogi mano žaidžiamiausias – Zooloretto: The Dice Game. Iš esmės tai “aš paskirstau – tu renkiesi” tipo žaidimas. Kai tu meti kauliukus ir renkiesi kaip juos paskirstyt tarp sunkvežimių. Ir tada tavo oponentas renkasi ar imti kauliukus ar rident papildomus. The Voyages of Marco Polo žaidime dedami kauliukai su jų skaičiais įvairiose vietose ir gaunami resursai atsižvelgiant į skaičius. Dice Town irgi leidžia pasirinkti kaip panaudoti savo kauliukų “ranką”. O Nations: The Dice žaidimas leidžia sujungti kelių kauliukų reikšmes kartu perkant kortas.

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