Straight Jacket Type Fun
2/28/2005
EA knows how to sell stuff to the standard computer user. Why do I know this? Because they offer an expansion to the Sims 2 which caters to things the standard gamer couldn't do: score with sorority chicks.
Your computer have antivirus software on it? It better because Sober rolling along again.
Why was Paris' phone hacked? Because of poor patching of course. And everyone thought it was just Microsoft causing all the problems.
2/27/2005
Get all the new dirt and skinny about the Doom 3 expansion here.
World of Warcraft continues to outstrip EQ2 in terms of total subscribers. I have heard WoW's addiction level sits somewhere between Internet porn and crack cocaine. Probably best if I steer clear of it.
2/24/2005
Where have I been? In FTP hell but fortunately it's all fixed now.
Do you like games where you must maintain strict silence, watch gauges for hours on end, and the only view of the world in the game comes through a small periscope? Well neither do I but for you crazy folks, Silent Hunter III will be out soon.
AMD continues to lead the way by introducing an affordable dual core processor. The most interesting part to me pertains to the fact that current -939 socket owners (I'm not one of those.. curses I have the -754) will easily be able to put one of these monster chips in their machine after a simple BIOS flash. Two cores, one processor, and all for a little bit more than the cost of the current Athlon-64 single core chips. Who loves AMD? Damn right kids, all of us.
Invested in Activision? Well you're a little more vested now. A 4-for-3 stock split. Instant 33% increase in your ownership stake and all you had to do was sit there playing their games.
The former company Gator now tries to be on the side of the good guys:
The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a "parasite," to a federal privacy advisory board.
An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday.
"This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement.
Claria bundles its pop-up advertising software with ad-supported networks such as Kazaa. Recently, the privately held company has been trying to seek credibility by following stricter privacy guidelines and offering behavioral profiling services to its partners.
2/19/2005
If you're playing KoTOR 2 -- which you should be -- then you might come across a graphical problem on the game when you get to the planet of Datoonie. It's a large outdoor environment and often the graphic framerate goes to hell and you can't move around at all. The LucasArts Forums have an answer to this though. Open up the "swkotor2.ini" file in your root game directory and add the following line to the [graphics] subsection:
Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1
That fixed it for me.
There are some annoying as hell bugs with this game but the story remains top notch.
2/18/2005
Freedom Force versus the Third Reich demo available. Surprisingly, the demo is only 150Megs. Compare that to Republic Commando which came in at 500 Megs.
The newest version of Internet Explorer is obviously a reaction to Firefox and will be separated from Windows which seems like a misnomer since Microsoft said in Federal Court that this was not possible during all it's antitrust litigation. This will not be available to all us Windows 2000 users for some reason that I can't comprehend since I'm pretty sure Microsoft was still supporting Windows 2000. In fact, yes I'm right.
2/15/2005
Another expansion for Everquest 1? Wasn't there a new Everquest 2 out also? oh that's right there is because I'm PAYING for it.
How popular are iPods? Even celebrities can't get them. Here's the best quote from a salesperson:
"She then proceeded to get pissed off at me personally because we didn't have any in stock," the associate said. "She said we have a special stock of iPods for people like her.... I hadn't seen any celebrities there up until then, so at first I was like, 'Oh wow, cool, Melanie Griffith.' But then she opened her mouth and used me as a doormat, and I was like, 'What the fuck is this shit? Milk Money sucked.'"
Online game sales are up in China but the cafe' is getting shut down. Because in a country of 1.2 billion you need to cram as many people into as few places as possible. I mean what could possibly go wrong? Oh.
2/13/2005
Did I play some Knights of Old Republic 2 this weekend? Definitely. It was good to see the old bird again.
2/12/2005
Because the Federal Government continues to show that their level of stupid appears to be buffed with extra helpings of idiocy, instead of making President's Day coincide with the 14th of February (which would make sense rather than have the holiday on the 21st), my girl and I have to work on Monday so we had our Valentine's Friday night. You know you got a keeper when the girl gives you tech swag! Thanks babe! Hot woman with brains and an eye for tech toys. Stay back, she's mine!
Greatest movie series of all time? The Godfather. Disagree? I'm sending Lucca to see ya. Now there's a game for this classic movie coming out and while it looks impressive, we of course are not impressed by screenshots. "I'm SMAHT!! Not DUMB like people say!" What's impressive to me is the screen capturing of Brando and Duvall's character. The possibility of hearing the Godfather theme coming from my computer speakers could be exciting.
Aw, some Google employee is crying cause he got fired for blogging. Well suck it up pal! It's called a non-disclosure agreement for a reason. Crybaby. Google is big business and they have a right to protect what's going on inside their company. Or did you forget that Google has some big competition from Microsoft coming out pretty soon.
Note to all Mac users, don't waste your time on this game. Star Wars Battlefront was not that entertaining and the server setup rather sucked.
2/10/2005
KoTOR 2? Got it yesterday and plan on playing it all weekend long.
Gran Turismo is the only console game I've ever really enjoyed for long periods of time. Now there is fourth iteration and it looks fantastic. I think Subaru should personally kiss Sony's butt for making the Impreza so popular.
Talented gamers aren't the best game reviewers. Fortunately, that would make me the best game reviewer in the history of the world. Where's my Pulitzer?
Atari continues its normal streak of being a bunch of losers and reports more loses. Take the Phantom console with you guys.
Doom 3 expansion in early April. People were hating on this game but I sure wasn't
2/7/2005
Um, anyone see where EvenBalance went? Their Punkbuster site is gone. Did their own software kick them off the Internet?
Knights of Old Republic II shipped today and so I gingerly hopped down to the computer store to get a copy. The same computer store that had Doom 3 a day early and Half-Life 2 the exact day it was to ship. But I was foiled!! No KoTOR2 even after some prodding if the software was sitting in a box in the back! Curses!! Now I know how Lex Luthor must feel sometimes.
So you say you miss a ton of cheating slip shoddy graphics in your first person shooter game? Fear not for Battlefield 2 will be hitting the shelves in May or thereabouts.
Pebble-bed nuclear reactors are something China is attempting to make a viable energy alternative and I really hope it catches on and can be brought here. Scalable, efficient, and it minimizes the toxic waste levels. Hopefully it can catch on and supply some of their energy needs. Heck we could use them here too.
2/6/2005
I swear officer that all the Asian girls in my place are tutoring me in math and not part of an elaborate MMORPG sweatshop!
All right, the Pats won which I believe makes the world still posses a certain level of logic. But there exists no need to put so much drama and emotion into the game as if we just liberated Berlin again. It's a damn game and an excuse to drink beer with your buddies and gamble so the guys at Fox and ESPN need to chill out for a bit.
2/5/2005
HALO is going to be made into a movie. I understand they will be able to use the same set over and over again to keep it true to the source materialthus making it the cheapest action movie ever made.
A company is challenging the notion that going into space must be expensive. Personally if I was wanting to launch multi-million dollar satellites into space I'd prefer that the parts didn't come off E-Bay.
A grandmother is being sued by the RIAA for distributing MP3s. Her catalog included dead artists like Jerry Garcia, Hendrix, Joplin, and 2Pac. Apparently she received the files directly from the source since she too is dead.
2/4/2005
Normally I'm a weekday type of guy. Monday through Friday there's always something to do either at work or outside of work. Then Saturday and Sunday come around and I'm sitting around bored wondering why time has suddenly stopped in some sort of Matrix camera slow motion. But not this weekend. I want the weekend here NOW. Why? Because there's finally a patch for Rome: Total War! Here's the full information on what is fixed. But let's review the two most important considering they were my biggest complaints about the game.
Reinforcement AI – AI Generals are now less suicidal
Limited the effect of squalor on public order to 100% max
The second one alone is enough to make me run up and down the street kissing stray puppies.
2/3/2005
I was right the first time. Enterprise is canceled. That goes to prove never question myself, I'm always right. Please make sure my girl doesn't see that. On the plus side does this mean Berman is out of a job? Take the good with the bad I suppose.
So Ubisoft was given money by the Canadian government? Subsidized computer programming is the new Internet fun. Which means Ubisoft's newest games will be even crappier.
2/2/2005
Damn you COBRA Commander!!
Yes, it's late, screw you all, no updates.
