Straight Jacket Type Fun
11/27/2004
Sign up for an AMEX card, blow a lot of cash, then blame your own mental instability and it and sue AMEX. Just goes to show you can't make anything idiot proof since the idiots are too creative.
They give us new unit looks for Rome:Total War but still no patch for the stupid squalor in that game!! GAH!
They stunned the kid for not putting down his game at school. I hope he saved before they did or else he lost a lot of work.
So I'm still hammering away on D2 and I have made a level 23 Necromancer since he's about as pale as I am in real life. I'm starting to dump tons of points into the poison skills since I read that the Corpse Explosion was nerfed for the 1.10 patch. Poison Explosion along with a blood golem is making Act III the easiest I've every played it. Those little munchkin fetish creatures were a hassle as a Paladin but now it's just sit back and enjoy the show. Damn I hope my buddies I can LAN it up tomorrow. I want to make a heavy Necro and slice and dice with poison daggers.
11/25/2004
A turning point in the CPU battle between AMD and Intel? Slashdot reported this today:
The rumors reported earlier at /. are confirmed. The latest offerings in the Pentium 4 family now support AMD's x86-64 architecture, even though Intel is not willing to admit it very openly, by using cryptic names like EM64T and (gasp) IA-32e.
Now of course we all know that Microsoft has happily bent over for the MPAA and the recording industry by trying to enforce digital rights management. So please Microsoft please explain this.
Members of a former software cracking group have discovered that audio files created with one of its cracked programs are distributed with each copy of the Windows XP operating system, possibly exposing Microsoft to a large-scale copyright infringement lawsuit.
The content in question can be found on every computer with Windows XP as operating system installed. Nine WAV audio files located in the folder " "Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\Wav" in the Windows installation directory include a signature of "Deepz0ne", a member of former cracking group "Radium". If the files are opened not with an audio player, but with a HEX editor or simply in Windows' own text editor Notepad, the last line displays as "000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5".
So, are they going to sue themselves?
11/24/2004
Computer violence is bad, but sending 18 year olds to Iraq with no clear mission except chasing down the dumbest resistance fighters in urban terrain is good, right? But that's ok, we're smacking down the little brown people but good! weee haw!! G'damn Iraq, let's go back and bomb Afghanistan again. Maybe some of the new warlords just for the hell of it. Yes, despite my violent game choices I don't like wars especially when they make no sense and were conceived in a half-ass measure. Damn hell they need the Powell doctrine and not Rumsfeld's stupidity.
Painkiller expansion already out and being reviewed?
Golden age of gaming? I think this is the third one I've heard of and I don't buy it. Half-Life 2, besides being gorgeous and having greated scripted sequences is just that: Scripted and linear. More open ended games like GTA are probably the start of the future but you still have to do things in it to get anywhere or else you get bored.
11/23/2004
Half-Life 2 stuttering on you? Apparently a fix will be out in a few days for that and the sound bumps as you start a new load.
Sid Meier's Pirates shipped today. Last Sid Meier game I played was Gettysburg which, I argue, contained the most intuitive interface I ever used in a game. Plus the flanking of Confederate forces was the pinnacle of fun. Cannon buckshot down the hill from the flank, watch the lines crumble.
Well they certainly have the manpower for this. But I guess India won't be the first to send a cow in space. Heck, why build rockets? Just get all the people from the lowest caste system of untouchables, put them on each other's shoulder and bingo, India has a low cost space tether to launch satellites.
Speaking of space exploration, Russia worked on space battlestations! Damn they always think big! Bookmark this page. Looks great!
I saw the headline for this and thought: "Geesh another porn article."
11/22/2004
Look at this pic. I think those are the new controls for the next generation Xbox.
11/20/2004
Wow, HL2 went from fun shoot 'em up to bizarro world Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror show in less than one level. Plus I ran out of ammo. Time for Mr. Crowbar.
Two notes of interest: The Diablo II Battlechest is at Best Buy for about $35 bucks this week. This is everything from Diablo including the original, D2, and the expansion. Plus a nice little strategy guide. Also there I saw Knights of Old Republic for $20. If you still haven't bought that game this would be a great time to do it. $20 is a steal for that game.
11/18/2004
Welcome to Half-Life 2, the perpetual level loading game. Please board your swamp boat thing and wait for load... Thank you, please drive 30 meters and wait for next load. Please shoot a few guys and wait some more. Thanks.
Cripes, I'm running SATA in RAID-0 and these load times still take a while. I feel sorry for anyone running 7200 RPM IDE. If you're 5400, please find a hobby to take up while the game loads, like watching paint dry or teaching a fish to sing.
And to reiterate a point from yesterday, Steam sucks. Yes, that will be a continual reminder.
11/17/2004
A chum bucket on another forum was complaining about the lack of directions in Half-Life 2. What directions are needed? You move up, left, back, and right. You shoot stuff till it dies and then you try (please please try you sickos) to not fap your man meat to death looking at Gordon Freeman's girlfriend. Perverts, all of ya!
Sadly, my favorite online community is downsizing due to costs reasons and the fact that not as many people are playing RtCW or ET. But go visit www.nd80usa.net anyway and say hello. ET is still a free game and you can't get much better than that. In fact, let's go down memory lane and re-read the interview they gave me last year.
11/16/2004
So I take a small break and come back to this Half-Life 2 game (whose look reminds me of Painkiller in some ways) and I get this stupid message again. Well, actually, this was the second message. The first was "Would you like to participate in a survey for Steam?" No I don't want to participate in any stupid ass surveys. WTF is this Half-Life 2 or AOL? G'dammit when I click on a shortcut on my own desktop for a game just gimme the damn game!
This was the second question. While I appreciate them wanting me to have the latest and greatest drivers I'd rather just use what works. Since the game looks down right gorgeous with these drivers I choose NOT TO UPDATE. No SHUT UP AND LOAD THE DAMN GAME STEAM!!
Unlocking, waiting, unlocking. I buy the game and they still won't give it to me. BAH! I've heard it's worth this stupid wait though from three people now though. I bet I'll be like Barney when the prohibited beer in Springfield. "That'll be $50 Barney." "What?! This better be the best beer in the world.... ah, you got lucky!"
It's also time for the industry to start embracing DVD-ROM only release. Five discs for Half-Life 2? This is getting as bad as the last days of 3.5" disks.
11/15/2004
JudoHobo rules! Find the link at the bottom of that site, right click and save. You shant be disappointed!
11/14/2004
Life getting you down? Sure it happens to everyone. Girl breaks your heart, boss gets mad at you, job is unfulfilling or even your shoe lace breaks. But cheer up kids! You don't work for EA. Read those stories and you'll realize life isn't too bad.
11/13/2004
Damn military folks will now have uber pings. No fair
11/12/2004
You must see this movie and right the hell now! My goodness the graphics are incredible and the story is top notch. Get your family, get your friends, get your boss. Get anyone! Go! GO!
Delay in Painkiller expansion.
More KoTOR 2 news? Sure you betcha! The best part being they drop any other pretenses and make one of your first missions to acquire a lightsaber. Thank goodness no more running around with blasters. Hopefully.
Despite the hype, I still think Halo sucks. First it's a console shooter. Second, it's a console shooter, and third, it's a console shooter. Get the hint? WASD+mouse for life. Got a problem with this? Allow me to retort:
Hey, who DOESN'T like ribs?
11/11/2004
Day off tomorrow from my real job and so I'm drunk. Deal with it.
The team I'm part of (merc|) in Wolfenstein lost their TWL match last night which is a bummer. Apparently, they had a dynamite plant in about 2 minutes on base which is pretty much about as good as it gets. But, the server crashed and f'ed their world up pretty heavily. Sorry guys ;(
An actual online game that I might be interested in trying is based on the Matrix series. Here's more info.
Woo hoo!! More porn on one DVD! Oh come on, don't act innocent about it.
11/8/2004
Just in time to pull out of the head smashing frustration that is Rome Total War (Stupid f'in Squalor!! G'dammit I hate you, gimme a patch!) there's an announcement that Painkiller is to have an expansion. While Doom 3 is leaps and bounds in terms of graphics over Painkiller, Painkiller gives you bunches of more bad guys and some super sweet weapons.
Chipsets with PCI Express graphics integrated? The next phase in thin clients and small footprint desktops?
What happens when your most well known developer leaves? I'm guessing it will be lots more Tomb Raider expansions and other fluffer material. As if Deus Ex 2 wasn't bad enough.
11/7/2004
A digital political party of nerds? So, there's the elephant, the donkey, and now the.. pocket protector?
Name me one game in the past two years better than Knights of the Old Republic? You can't and if you try I'm not listening. With that in mind, look and read something about the next one.
Microsoft warns of security flaws. Well let me tell you about a new security flaw, it's called the patch MS04-037. Yeah install that patch on your Exchange 5.5 server and watch your server's GUI die. Nothing like working with Microsoft support for 6+ hours on a Saturday fixing that. WOO HOO! Yes I'm bitter. How the hell can a patch not know to install the WinNT4 version of the shell32.dll and instead put the Active Directory one on my server. Are you kidding me?!? In fact, why are there two DLLs in the patch in the first place? Wasn't it supposed to be a Win NT 4.0 patch only? Cripes.
11/5/2004
In a previous life I was an economics geek. It was a good life and I enjoyed studying it. So, articles like this, despite not being related to games, still make my blood boil. Balancing a budget has to be done, or at least minimizing deficits. But continually dropping taxes then raising spending? No way, it doesn't make sense and it will be okay short-term but blow up in your face in 10-15 years. [/rant off]
E*Bay not an auction site? What to the who now?
11/04/2004
WOOKIES g'dammit! Yeah Episode 3 trailer. Get to it!
In an example of just how low developers will sink to make a buck, I give you "Terrorist Takedown." I can see some 3 tooth hick in Mississippi. "Hey ma!! Let's get down to the Piggly Wiggly and buy that new shiny wheel thingie called 'T'rrist Takedown.' I want to kick some ass for some cheap gas!"
Shot by people dressed like Counter-Strike? Aimbot hackers. And by 'dressed as counter-strike' players would mean what.. they had on camouflage? OH MY GOD it's computer games fault!
There is a hell. It will be this game.
11/02/2004
I don't think this what what Dion Warwick meant when she sang "That's what friends are for."
More Painkiller expansion information and screenshots. It'd be very nice if this is as fun as the first one.
That's it AMD, slow and steady.
11/01/2004
Virtual Memory or is it a pagefile? Or is it both? More importantly, how do I optimize it? Read here!
Update Ad-Aware since Ad-Aware 6 is going away.