Straight Jacket Type Fun
8/30/03
Anyone ever given a thought as to why First Person Shooters are just greater than any other game genre? I did and figured it out. In a lot of FPSes you get to shoot Nazis.
RTS: No Nazis to shoot. Ever. WTF?
Turn based strategy: Improvment but you only get to beat them in the abstract battalion/brigade scale. You don't get to see them up close and personal. Plus it takes a lot of thought and a lot of time.
Sports Games: No Nazis again. Unless they re-created the 1936 Olympics and you could control the US Team. Extra points for letting you do a victory dance and victory lap as Jesse Owens.
RPGs: About the closest you can get with those real time tactical games like Close Combat or Commandos.
8/29/03
Well, Gamespy's plan to attempt to dominate the world of game demo releases has failed. I can hear them now cursing those meddling kids! I wasn't asked to participate in this website uprising. Sorta like the Illuminati is never asked to get directly involved in things but everyone knows they're really controlling the world. Not that I control anything though. Heck I can barely control my aim in Wolfenstein.
And now that I've finished playing it, WTF!! Just one level! At least they had two at Quakecon. Whatever!
Picture shows Gamespy types cowering behind car to hide from fan backlash
8/28/03
Do you like GI Joe? Do you remeber those "Knowing is Half the Battle" messages? Someone tweaked them. Laugh I say!
Matrix trailer anyone? Of course!
Does anyone else use this new Google toolbar in their browser? I do. It blocks pop ups. That's reason enough for me.
8/26/2003
Mmmm.. Homeworld 2 gone Gold. 9/16/2003 is the target date
8/24/2003
Whoa, when you take a chance sometimes it pays off. Check out what I wrote to Todd H. and his (I must say rapid) response:
I asked:
Todd,
Hi there, first thanks for the good showing at Quakecon. I'm sorry to have missed the round table for id that you and many of the other id team members were at on Friday. The schedule on the quakecon site was messed up for some reason. Any rate, I run an enthusasit site called www.sphinx-sanitarium.com where I post gaming news that I find of interest. Much of it deals with first person shooters or tech in general. I also used to play a lot on id's Wolf servers that were hosted by Xian. My question, that I was hoping I could post your or your teams answer to is as follows: With AMD planning to release a 64 bit CPU and Microsoft planning on a 64 Bit version of XP in the next year, would there be any possiblity of a 64 bit optimized version of Doom3 in the future? Would that even be feasible or possible or do programming limitations built into the existing code-base make such an idea not possible.
His reponse:
Last time I spoke with John on the subject, he didn't have any plans to write any 64bit specific code. It's not particularly relevant for what we're doing technically with DOOM 3.
8/23/2003
Well, after having my eyes zapped like Missle Command I'm back and in focus. IntraLasik rocks. Thank you Dr. Tylocke!
Ok, so I don't really understand the roll-out plans for Athlon 64 bit processors. Do I want the hybrid 32/64, the full on 64, or just the scaled down Victoria model? The Register tries to clear this up but I'm still not clear. I guess it's all moot until there's an actual 64 Bit OS which doesn't seem possible for a while though I have heard about a 64 WinXP which would be nice.
8/21/2003
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Many sites are asking: Is there a Madden Curse now that Michael Vick has gone down for a few months. Here's the answer. Yes. Now move on with your damn lives! Consoles stink anyway. Move along. Better still put Madden on the front so his voicebox breaks and I can enjoy a football game on TV.
8/20/2003
Microsoft's talking about making updates mandatory. Why not instead make them voluntary and mandatory? By that I mean let the user decide if they want Windows to automatically be updated or let the user turn that feature off? That way users, such as tech heads like me, can do it when they want to do it and everyone else can have Microsoft take care of them? That'd make the most sense. But the only concern is that Microsoft has been known to release faulty patches. I know I know.. <gasp><shock></shock></gasp>
So I finally, after much harping from my friends, picked up Raven Shield and setup a dedicated server on my box. It's quite the fun romp in multiplayer. Single player though. Eh...
8/17/2003
AMD announced only limited shipments of Athlon64 processor chips. So, I suppose if you're looking to upgrade for Doom3 or Half-Life 2 it might be best to wait a while. Especially since Windows XP for 64 bit processors will ships early next year as well.
More Quakecon coverage (as in interview with the Carmack) at Gamespy. At least Gamespy had the schedule figured out for Quakecon unlike yours truly.
8/16/2003
No Quakecon for today. They changed up the schedlue online again. Sorry folks. I feel like crap for not getting info to you.
8/15/2003
8/14/2003
ATI confirmed today that they won the contract to develop chips for the Xbox, which previously had been won by Nvidia. Full story here.
8/13/2003
Nothing much else matters for the next few days except Quakecon. What am I, the head patient at the Sanitarium going to do? Well, Day 1 is simlply check in time and things like that so I probably won't go. Friday (Day 2) though I will do my best to attend and report what's what in the world of Quakecon.
8/12/2003
What the heck are you doing here?!?! There's more Half-Life 2 videos out. Go get 'em! And Quakecon is just two days away. Get the lead out and get down to Dallas!
8/11/2003
Do you need more stuff to accumulate and gather and explore? Sure ya do, you live in America (probably). Consumerism is king. Fortunately, the people who make Never Winter Nights realize your need and are providing you the chance to get more stuff out of their RPG stuff as well. Greed is good.
8/10/2003
Bright and early update. First, the movie S.W.A.T was a damn good fun movie. What's refreshing is that there's plenty of shooting though not too over the top, the swearing is a minimal (a surprise for something Colin Farrel is in), plus it has some pretty good wit. While it's serious it doesn't get too serious.
Secondly, let's just be up front here. I am a simple simple man. If I was a big time record producer, I'd want to be Jay-Z. Why? Simple:
Gawd damn Beyonce is .. I mean.. whoa..
And for some gaming news. A bunch of people who still insist on playing BattleField 1942 are being a bunch of crybabies about cheaters and have started a petition. I have a better idea. Go play Wolfenstein instead. No brainer folks.
Ok, that's all. Carry on gents and ladies. Have a good day!
8/9/2003
XIII is out for a demo download. Get to it. I'm impressed with it so far. Not very often where in the first two minutes of the demo, a Baywatch bimbo gets shot up. Nice.
8/6/2003
Sphinx here. Shut up and listen!! Dave Attell and Lewis Black in Dallas. Together. September 10th!! My two favorite comedians. Here. In Dallas! Woot!
Sorry, no game news of interest. Carry on!!
8/5/2003
So, good day all. A preview of XIII is out on Gamespy. It's a cel-shaded game. Apparently this is supposed to be noire and cool and all that stuff. My basic question, "How's it play and is it fun." Demo coming out this month I think.
Let's also talk about Quakecon. A while back it was announced that Quakecon would accept submissions for seminars to be held at the convention. Well, it's two weeks to go on the conference and I still don't see any definite announcements or anything substantial on the Quakecon schedule regarding who's talking and what times. If anyone knows different, email me. I intend to be there and would like to report to all of those that can't attend.
8/3/2003
Now this is what I like to see. Developers throwing the gauntlet down to challenge the masses. Hah:
Have you got the DOOM II GBA DM skills to pay the bills? Caryn 'Hellchick' Law and I [Rick Johnson] have decided to throw down at this year's QuakeCon. We're bringing our Gameboy Advances, DOOM II on the GBA, and link cables, and we're challenging QuakeCon gamers to take us on in an old-school DOOM 2 deathmatch...but on the GBA.