5/31/2005

It's good to see that some companies still have the nuts to try and make a tank simulator game even if their game deals with some pitiful piece of crap tanks like the T-72, T-55, and T-34. Come on world, gimme another M1A2 simulator and while you're at it throw in some A-10 simulator too would ya?

As a shock to no one the demos for the Playstation 3 at E3 are as fake as the DaVinci Code. 

5/30/2005

Video card giveaway. No, I'm not sponsoring it but I do want it!

5/29/2005

Pretty bad when the teacher fails their own test.  Nice job Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Video games sales reached $2.2 billion dollars. Turns out though that about 20% of that was the price of Doom 3 by itself. 

5/26/2005

So, a Playstation 3 has controllers, an output to a TV, and it sits near your TV, but it's not a console?

New video card down the pipe for me so time to start hitting the tech nerdy sites.

QWERTY keyboards suck. The keyboard layout design manifested itself when typewriters used long spindly arms to mash metal stamps against hemp paper.  Now while there are more efficient keyboard layouts. But now show your elite mentality for even QWERTY by using a keyboard with no key markings.

Ok, so if you have nothing better to do, make domino's mods in Half-Life 2. 

5/23/2005

British game makers being bailed out by Sony.  And here I thought the Brits still held a grudge for Singapore. 

Bluesnews put it best, "Time to get out the boomstick" as the Feds fight zombies. 

So, Time buys AOL but now might spin it off again. This was a smart business move by  Time, how?

Dear scientists: make your damn minds.  Sunlight is now good for us?

5/20/2005

Seen Age of Empires 3?  Well you need to get to it.

5/19/2005

More screenshots for Quake Wars!!

Asus announced the integration of something called the Ageia PhysX processor into their motherboards.  Curious, I hit their site and found a description about their Physics Processing Unit (PPU) which provides acceleration for physics in games just like a Radeon card provides acceleration for graphics by off-loading work from the CPU.  Some highlights include better animation and rendering for hair, clothing, and most importantly collision detection (the reduction of objects moving through walls and such).  

So the question becomes will the integrated on-board engine give way to dedicated PCI cards, will it be moved to the video card and thus you don't have a GPU but a G/PPU?  

I guess it just depends on how detailed you want your virtual sex.

ATI released some new drivers. Normally that's not a big deal to me unless a game I play is screwed up but if you notice about these newest drivers they support x64 which means the possibility of upgrading to Windows XP 64 provides a distinct possibility. 

5/18/2005

And I thought my previous link regarding a Star Trek Flash music video was bizarre.  Nope, this Star Wars Galaxies one beats it down hardcore.

I've been reading reviews for Revenge of the Sith and most have been positive.  Rolling Stone didn't like it saying that anyone who likes it is just a fanboy who is forcing themselves to like it.  Well, the Force is with me you arrogant prick cause I'm stoked, STOKED for Thursday.  Sure the first two chapters are slower but y'know what, it's a six part story which requires, in my opinion, some build up towards the thrilling climax.  And apparently Sith presents the apogee of the story arc for Anakin Skywalker.  Everyone clamors to be satisfied every single time they get something with no sense of patience.  Now after six years we will get a payoff which I'm reading is on the magnitude of Empire Strikes Back goodness. 

What's a better combination than highly caffeinated drinks and games? Nothing. Too bad it's dealing with the Crap Box and not a PC though. Oh well, there's always Bawls. Does anyone still drink that stuff?

A new Driver game? Wasn't Driv3r bad enough based just on the games name?

5/16/2005

Doom 3 undoubtedly is the best looking game out on the market (when you can see stuff but that's beside the point).  But while the game possessed stunning visuals the entire multiplayer experience felt like slimy green bacon between your toes.  

Fortunately, the crazy bastards at Splash Damage hope to change all that with "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars."  Of course we all know that Splash Damage created Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, undoubtedly one of the best first person team based shooters ever so when visual pleasures like this screenshot (massive so be warned) it undoubtedly will make for many quick runs to the store for resupplies of now soiled drawers.  There's also a mention of vehicles but I want to hold judgment on that since I guess I'm just a first person shooter snob purist who likes to maintain the notion of "run-and-gun."

Blizzard decided that if a company can't get a game developed fast enough, buy 'em.  This makes for an interesting and almost lucrative pyramid scheme. 

 5/14/2005

Call of Cthulu now has two games announced for it. The first (Dark Corners of the Earth) can't seem to get out of the dark corners of development for whatever reason as it continually becomes more and more delayed.  At first it was to be out in 2004 then it was pushed to early 2005 and now it's probably going to be late 2005 if we're lucky.  

So, rather than finish the first project the publisher has announced a SECOND Cthulu game called Destiny's End.  Now don't get excited, it doesn't deal with the backsides of Destiny's Child (which at last count was 3.5 since Beyonce's counts as 1.5).  Anyway, here's some screenshots of Destiny's End.

Admittedly I too am extremely excited about the Star Wars movie coming out Thursday, I'd even say giddy, but you people at the Grauman's Chinese Theater might want to book tickets elsewhere.

Ghost Recon isn't my favorite shooter but a third version (actually 2nd for the PC since the real second one was cancelled) will suffice until something better comes along (namely Quake 4!)

5/10/2005

Been wanting to see what all the hype about 64-bit technology means to your PC? Well, if you have the 64-bit version of Windows XP and a fat processor, get on over to AMDs site and download the 64-bit patch for Far Cry. I have the processor but not the OS.  Poor me!

Use the Chewbacca defense Jesus!

5/9/2005

It appears purchasing Evil Genius panned out to not be the no-brainer I thought it would be. The game will not run on my machine for some reason. I think the intro movie is in BINK format but for whatever reason my machine just hard locks trying to start those and play them.  I sometimes have the same problem with Macromedia Flash objects. Don't ask me why, I don't know and I've tried everything I can think of to fix the issue. 

5/8/2005

Was out of town. 

Hell hath no fury like MMORPG players scorned.  But, if you're talking about Star Wars geeks as well as MMORPG well then you know it's going to be a world of hurt.  

What drives a person to search for six plus years for a more than assuredly dead Mars probe? I dunno, but that hard work seems to have paid off for this guy.

5/3/2005

Elixir Studios recently closed their doors but the upside of that pertains to the fact that the game Evil Genius may be purchased for $20 at more game outlets.  Not a bad price at all.  I think this would be the first rule of becoming an evil genius: Never pay retail when you can buy at discount and/or blackmail your enemies for the rewards.  

5/2/2005

You do more running in EQ2 than probably one of those skinny Kenyan people do getting ready for a marathon. It's incredibly dull and I think a waste of time. Which is why I'm interested in what was said on Penny Arcade regarding Guild Wars:

Any city you have been to, "cities" being social hubs, can be teleported to instantly - and as a person who has run from this end to that of almost every retail MMO let me tell you that I was keenly interested in this feature. If you use it, though - who wouldn't? - it breaks your team up, which will then need to be reformed. After a few days of play, that process is completely automatic for me. But it gives me the impression I'm playing the game in some way that is out of accordance with their wishes when all I've done is utilize game features.

If this is true, I'm deeply impressed with the concept of being able to zone quickly and efficiently since running around in plate mail armor becomes about as much fun as commutting to work without the very real possibility of being killed in an auto accident.