Straight Jacket Type Fun
11/30/2003
A patch for the American Idol computer game? Which makes me ask: "There's an American Idol game?" They'll put anything on a CD anymore won't they?
11/28/2003
Well, for some reason I sent Bluesnews a link to my Simpsons Hit and Run review but he didn't post it. I'm thoroughly confused about this. I don't recall doing anything bad to warrant this but maybe I'm mistaken. Well, no sense in whining. I know this isn't Penny Arcade or anything.
Let the stupid thieves reproduce and get on the news.
Sadly, it sounds like the next Deus Ex has become consolized. However, given that my entire being has been consumed by Knights of the Old Republic, perhaps all these whiners are just too picky?
Speaking of KOTOR, here's a guide to that game.
Finally, Bush goes to Iraq. Good for the troops and some are calling it a brave gesture. I think I'd call it brave if he geared up in desert camo, strapped on an M16 and said, "I'm going out on patrol. Maybe burn a mosque down. Who's coming with me?" Then I'd agree that he has two big 10 pound brass ones. I mean, if you're going to get the world to hate you, just drop all pretenses.
11/27/2003
Doom movie news and it looks like it might have some teeth behind it. Finally.
Bizarre project by a grad student dealing with those Bass fish things.
Game ratings may or may not work? Why not the parents say yes or no? Durrr...
11/26/2003
Black & White 2 chat? The pain!!! It burrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnns!!
Penny Arcade is trying to raise money for helping kids by showing gamers such as you and I aren't complete jerk wads that want to blow up stuff. Go there. Donate.
11/25/2003
Site issues but fixed now hopefully.
From the "whatever" department. I'm sorry but when I read about master/slave in terms of PC stuff I do not think about human oppression/denial of basic human rights.
Anti-spam legislation not enough?
"Another demonstration of who really called the shots on the Act is that it's even weaker than the weak opt-out state laws that require an "ADV" label on unsolicited commercial e-mail. The Can-Spam Act says spam must be identified as an advertisement, but it doesn't mandate how. In fact, it very specifically precludes the FTC from making any regulations in that regard. Obviously, those who are actually responsible for this law don't want to make it easy for any of us to filter out spam."
It solves nothing. Well, at least MailWasher works still.
11/23/2003
Finished Simpsons Hit & Run. Here's my review.
Call of Duty patch for all you ATI users using the 3.8 or 3.9 Catalyst drivers.
Senators ask P2P to police themselves. I'm sure they'll get right on that. After lunch.
11/22/2003
Good morning. Deus Ex Invisible War demo here.
11/21/2003
Patch out for Knights of Old Republic dealing with a sound issue on Intel i845 and i850 chipsets. There, I did a little bit of community service. Patch your client you will.
Anyone else watching the Clone War chapters? Chapters 7-10 are a lot of fun to watch.
And in another applause to a glowing global market, Intel has lost it's Flash memory lead. Good or bad for our (the U.S.) economy? Whose to say.
11/20/2003
Am I going to have to replace my DVD player with an EVD player??
First, the T3:War of the Machines demo is out then it's pulled? Honest mistake or they found a problem and pulled it and are now playing C.Y.A.?
I officially submit the dumbest friggin messageboard thread I've ever read. An article about AMD possibly opening another fab plant in Dresden and the thread starts ranting about the WWII firebombing of Dresden. Welcome to stupidville.
11/19/2003
Well, my game purchasing binge continues. I'm attributing it to pre-holiday depression. Yeah, let's just leave it at that. Any rate, I think purchasing Knights of the Old Republic for the PC will now officially end my purchasing for this year. Here's some info regarding new stuff about the game on the PC compared to the HAXBox.
Congrats to Penny-Arcade on the five years.
A tax on email to stop spam showing on slashdot. Now, as an economics major, taxes are sometimes necessary but ideally they are better not to have. However, as the threads suggest it's just a flat out bad idea. What about hacked email accounts sent from an ISP to it's own clients? What type of email to tax, internal corporate, external, both? How to tax overseas accounts? At least at our work we're looking at some anti-spam filtering software since the thin version in place with TrendMicro just doesn't cut it. The best bet would be to follow the money (as I believe is suggested in the article). Don't shoot the messenger, shoot the supplier of that message.
11/18/2003
I didn't see much of interest in the news today until I saw this. If you're an Enemy Territory fan, then you probably played Return to Castle Wolfenstein. If you played that game, then you know the holy of all holy maps mp_assault. Well, there's a variation of it for Enemy Territory here! Beta though so caveat emptor
11/17/2003
If you need this guide for Call of Duty, you really need to crank down the difficulty. How hard is it to walk through the doors you're told to walk through?
Microsoft wants to control stuff? I'm shocked! Shocked!!!
11/15/2003
So, after getting stood up on a date Friday night I was really pissed this whole weekend but Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory just didn't cut it. So, I did an impulse buy and purchased Simpsons Hit and Run. This is a lot of fun for sure. If you're a Simpsons fan (and who isn't, ok?) this game is for you. Think Grand Theft Auto 3 in Springfield. For once, the marketing tactics of a game worked and I bought it. But anyone know how to take screenshots? I can't figure it out.
11/14/2003
I like the Matrix. A lot. I know others have been let down by the previous two movies. I really wasn't. Now, the Matrix Online gamesite is online.
And is Google sure they want to go public? This row with ad content is junior varsity compared to what would happen if they don't meet their probably over-inflated stock expectations.
11/13/2003
XIII gone gold. More government conspiracy games? Yeah.. umm.. ok. I think I'll go for Knights and get this one later.
Hackers beat the N-Gage code and started posting it? Y'know, this would be important if anybody had bought an N-Gage.
And just cause I enjoy the site so much, here's Dan's Data Letters #73
11/12/2003
Admittedly, I'm not the biggest RPG fan. I seriously did try to play Baldur's Gate II a year ago but after getting into so many side quests and so much dialogue that I lost track of damn near everything I needed to do, I had to give up in frustration. Now, however, with Knights of the Old Republic going gold, I think this would be a good time to at least try again. The game's out on the 18th of Novemeber so I'll be in line to get it. At the very least, it should be longer than Call of Duty.
Right now, there's apparently a bit of a row regarding whether or not the folks at Infinity Ward will be adding in Punkbuster support. Over on CoDAdmin, a thread has brought this up and my two cents are thrown into this whole thing. Here's some of their argument:
"To all the folks out there who are saying they will return CoD if it doesn't get PB, did you know that only 6 games have PB in it (and that 4 of them are Activision games?) Games not supporting it include CS, BF1942, and MOHAA. Btw, threatening us in our forums is not cool."
Good point. There is no need to bad mouth them on their forums. Plus, one can't argue the fact that CS, BF, and MoHAA do not have PB. But they should.
The entire notion that PB is a big burden is rubbish as well. It requires maybe 10-15 lines of code in your config file and downloading a patch.
11/11/2003
Blues has posted about a contest from a group called Hidden Agenda. The purpose of the game is to: "to add "stealth" middle school teaching to video games, with a $25,000 prize for the top entry in their competition." Look, why go to all that trouble. Hack the Sims game engine and you only get two career choices, either working the fryer at McDonald's or landscaping. Either way, you lose if you don't get some sort of higher education.
11/10/2003
I never played Sid Meier's Pirates! game but after playing the Gettysburg game and seeing some of his other work talked about, I'm pretty sure that anything he makes is fun. Now there's a new version of Pirates! coming out.
Computers within computers? Great idea. But for now, just mostly vapor. Heck, I can barely get emulators to work for my old DOS games.
11/8/2003
Well no duh!
The fellow that does Samurai Jacks is animating the Clone Wars cartoon series on Cartoon Network.
The logs from the Call of Duty Chat are up. No definite answer given about Punkbuster. Please please please do it.
Banning of cloning shelved? Excellent. Back to my secret lair!
11/6/2003
Call of Duty chat tomorrow. Someone ask them about Punkbuster please. I'm going to the movies.
11/5/2003
ATI Drivers. Version 3.9. Didn't use 3.8 but stayed with 3.7.
Bounty hunters for hackers? Does that mean I can drive a big bad ass brown truck?
11/4/2003
There are two types of creativity. That which comes from hard work, dedication, and burning desire to be the best. The other type is spontaneous, unexpected, and completely eureka-ish. The new tagline at the top of this site qualifies as the latter. Thank you kind sir for that ingenious comment!
Into stats and graphs? Well, read this anyway regarding three popular game sites and the theory about scoring bias. But why no inclusion of the PC games?
Interesting to say the least!
The current Xbox is based on a Pentium 3 processor running at 800 MHz or less. One problem Microsoft has faced is the conversion of Xbox systems into personal computers. By buying a heavily subsidized $200 game machine from Microsoft, and then adding a pirated disk drive, the Xbox can be used as a "poor man's PC, turning a $200 game machine into a $600 personal computer, which Microsoft doesn't like at all," Doherty said.
I for one welcome our new hacker overlords...
Video. Steve Ballmer. Need I say anymore? Sweatin' to the remix!!
11/3/2003
Google rebuffed Microsoft's buy out. Now they can probably never go public or it might be a hostile takeover time. Ah, just like the good old 80's.
IBM and Microsoft working together on Xbox? Wait, is this 2003 or 1993 and the days of OS/2? Competition makes for strange bedfellows indeed.
Yeah, it's the controllers on games causing wrist damage. Riiiiiiiiiight. wink wink nudge nudge say no more.
Oh lookie here!! People hate my Call of Duty review. Ah, hatred in a forum thread. Could it get any better?
11/2/2003
And today, Call of Duty review.
11/1/2003
Now, I'm not the biggest fan of RPGs, but I do like Star Wars. So, purchasing Knights of the Old Republic when it comes out is definitely a possibility. That interview did have one interesting piece of information: no mod tools for the community?
Someone yapped it up with Carmack about Doom3. Nothing much new in it. Standard shooter fair. Then it goes into Q&A at which point everyone will stop reading sine Carmack is too damn smart for us.
While of course there are blemishes with Call of Duty, but I just liked these screenshots too much!
BattleTech Mod for Homeworld 2? Interesting.