So Project: Snowblind is officially relegated to the back of the line. Interesting game, but it just wasn't doing it for me and the floaty mouse controls didn't help either. I've moved-on to F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, and, well, it's more of the same things that F.E.A.R. offered only not as tight in the presentation. That's not a terrible thing, but does leave something to be desired... It's still fun, so it'll do for now. I've polished-off episodes 1 and 2 of the new Sam & Max games, and I dug out my old copy of Sam & Max Hit The Road because I had so much fun! Yes, they're short and a little easy, but they're funny as hell and still challenging enough to keep you entertained for an hour or two.
On the consoles, God Of War is in full-swing, and I'm loving it. I'm almost finished, but that just means I get to Resident Evil 4 sooner :) I've reinstated the PS2 as my second progressive scan device (XBOX 360 is number one, and the original XBOX has been bumped down to s-video) because of my console gaming schedule. Speaking of progressive scan devices, my brother got back to me, and Microsoft is indeed sending me the XBOX 360 HD-DVD drive! That includes the remote and an HD-DVD copy of Peter Jackson's King Kong! I'm excited. Ooh, one more thing while I'm on the subject: The trial month of my XBOX Live Gold membership has lapsed. Don't worry, I'll be back in a couple of days, but I did notice that I have to wait a few days before being able to download the new Crackdown demo as a Silver member... Jerks.
Okay, so, Windows Vista is out. Whoop-dee-doo! I'm in no rush to pick it up (Debian 4.0 is fantastic), but I'm sure I will eventually. Anyway, after reading this, I'm just angry. Yeah, installing an upgrade copy of Vista Home Premium or below requires an installation of a previous version of Windows to be on the computer! Seriously, what the fuck!? That's just asinine, and asking for a whole hell of a lot of avoidable support calls. Ugh. So I will now definitely be avoiding any version of Vista below Business. I think that whenever I get around to upgrading my system (something multi-core, 64-bit), I'll just grab an OEM copy of Business and be done with it. What a headache.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Sorry, been busy...
Finished Kameo; that was fun. Very, very pretty, but nothing stupendous. Tried to get into Perfect Dark Zero, but it's just not doing it for me. It's also a very, very pretty game, but I can't find aiming settings that feel good, and some aspects of the game design just don't make a lot of sense. For example, certain parts are just needlessly frustrating, and restarting the whole mission (you can't use checkpoints if you want your stats to be recorded) isn't my idea of fun. I'll finish it eventually, but I think most of my attention will now shift towards my PS2 and God Of War, followed by either Bully or Resident Evil 4... And then maybe Jak 3; I think I'm gonna hold-off on Okami, Enchanted Arms, and Final Fantasy IX for a few months until I have some actual free time to devote to them.
Things have been pretty quiet on the PC gaming front for a while now, but that's mostly because Project: Snowblind is just kinda boring and I've hit a particularly frustrating point right near the end of Most Wanted. I think I just might give-up on the former and start something more interesting. For the time being, however, I picked-up the two new Sam & Max games! I'm only just starting Culture Shock, but so far, so good.
Anyway, moving on, Slackware 11 didn't do it for me. It was nice; most notably, LILO and Xfce were interesting changes. The installer was very helpful with its descriptions, and the whole process was relatively smooth. Perhaps I was just missing something in Xfce, but things seemed to be pretty terminal-oriented, and packages were handled differently. No real complaints though; it seems like a solid distribution of Linux and I can see why so many people like it. After spending some quality time as a slacker, I decided to bite the bullet and grab Debian 4.0 RC1. Oh man, is this ever an upgrade! The new GUI for the installer is slick, the new themes are gorgeous, the packages are much more up-to-date, and so far everything just works! I still had to edit the X.Org configuration file myself to add my monitor's refresh settings, and I installed Flash and Java manually, but everything's great! Flash 9 actually works really well on here too! All I use my Windows machines for now is gaming, audio production, and burning program-specific disc image files :)
Things have been pretty quiet on the PC gaming front for a while now, but that's mostly because Project: Snowblind is just kinda boring and I've hit a particularly frustrating point right near the end of Most Wanted. I think I just might give-up on the former and start something more interesting. For the time being, however, I picked-up the two new Sam & Max games! I'm only just starting Culture Shock, but so far, so good.
Anyway, moving on, Slackware 11 didn't do it for me. It was nice; most notably, LILO and Xfce were interesting changes. The installer was very helpful with its descriptions, and the whole process was relatively smooth. Perhaps I was just missing something in Xfce, but things seemed to be pretty terminal-oriented, and packages were handled differently. No real complaints though; it seems like a solid distribution of Linux and I can see why so many people like it. After spending some quality time as a slacker, I decided to bite the bullet and grab Debian 4.0 RC1. Oh man, is this ever an upgrade! The new GUI for the installer is slick, the new themes are gorgeous, the packages are much more up-to-date, and so far everything just works! I still had to edit the X.Org configuration file myself to add my monitor's refresh settings, and I installed Flash and Java manually, but everything's great! Flash 9 actually works really well on here too! All I use my Windows machines for now is gaming, audio production, and burning program-specific disc image files :)
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Quickly now...
Flash 9 is out for Linux. It's still slower than 7, and sound is still sketchy with some popular distros. Debian 4 is taking forever to come out, so I'm downloading Slackware as I type this. Wheee!
Crimson Skies on XBOX is just as much fun as the PC version, but with better controls. Phantom Dust is pretty weird, but I haven't played much at all, so I'll get back to you on that. Ridge Racer 6 is too much fun for a $20 game; get it.
Ooh! I decided to forego the XBOX 360 chargers and battery packs for a 15-minute Duracell NiMH charger that included four 2400mAh AA NiMH batteries. It was about the same price as an MS quick-charge (two hour) kit and a second battery back.
Also, yes, it's true: I was in a Wal-Mart yesterday, and while the Wii was sold-out, at least two 60GB PS3s were sitting on the shelf.
Crimson Skies on XBOX is just as much fun as the PC version, but with better controls. Phantom Dust is pretty weird, but I haven't played much at all, so I'll get back to you on that. Ridge Racer 6 is too much fun for a $20 game; get it.
Ooh! I decided to forego the XBOX 360 chargers and battery packs for a 15-minute Duracell NiMH charger that included four 2400mAh AA NiMH batteries. It was about the same price as an MS quick-charge (two hour) kit and a second battery back.
Also, yes, it's true: I was in a Wal-Mart yesterday, and while the Wii was sold-out, at least two 60GB PS3s were sitting on the shelf.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Strange Days
Since my last post, I've finished Gears Of War on "Hardcore" and Guitar Hero II on "Hard". Just as everyone maintains, Gears Of War is a fantastic game with amazing graphics, satisfying and varied gameplay, as well as great replay value. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, but all signs point to it kicking ass too. Now for the gripes: The narrative is spotty at best (I can follow the story, but a bit more exposition and character development would make things much more cohesive), and some of the checkpoints are annoyingly placed (watching the same cinematics and listening to the same radio banter over and over at some of the tougher parts is just unnecessary). I've read a lot of complaints about reptitive tasks (flanking troikas, dodging berserkers) in this game, but I found them to be used sparingly enough such that they didn't get stale by the time I was finished. I definitely recommend spending some real quality time with this title. Guitar Hero II is pretty much the first game with different songs, a little more polish, better multiplayer, and a few little tweaks to keep the gameplay interesting. It's a nice refresh to the series, and everyone should give it a go.
Next up is Kameo. I have half of the elementals already, and while it is pretty and entertaining, the game feels a little too easy. I'm still curious to see how the story unfolds, and the gameplay isn't boring... Just be aware that there doesn't seem to be much of a challenge here. That's actually how I felt after playing through the Ridge Racer 6 demo a few times: No challenge. Well, I found the game new for $17.99, and couldn't pass it up; seven races in, and I'm already finding a pretty good challenge in this one. The graphics are sharp, the music is amazing, and the racing style is simplistic without being too easy. For an arcade-style drifting racer, there's a decent amount of depth here. I should also mention that I downloaded every HD episode of Viva Pinata on XBOX Live (they were free). Funny stuff for a kids show. One last thing: I found Phantom Dust and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for $20 altogether on the way home tonight. I haven't played them yet, but I'm excited :)
Okay, now that that stuff's out of the way, I want to mention that I've had to replace no less than three bad hard drives for clients this week! For the volume of work that I do, that's unheard of. Data back-up has gone smoothly though, so nobody's too pissed-off. One of them was a Dell Inspiron 1150 and the guy is looking for an excuse to buy a new laptop, so I'm just going to send him a link to a site detailing the Canadian lawsuit against Dell regarding the quality issues surrounding that model before I go any further with the repairs. I also started repair work on a custom build, and upon poking around inside the chassis, I saw that my work was cut-out for me. It's a pretty nice Socket939 Athlon 64 3200+ SLI (6600GT) system, but the wiring job was atrocious and the the dust bunnies were taking over. Upon cleaning that mess, the system would not longer boot. The culprit turned-out to be one of the video cards going bad on me. Luckily, the guy had noticed video issues previously, so I was off the hook for a replacement.
Finally, I picked-up one of these, and I'm so glad that I did with all these bad hard drives recently. It's basicaly a universal (3.5" and 2.5" IDE, SATA) USB drive enclosure, but without the enclosure part... I guess that makes it a dongle. Whatever... For $29.99, I don't care what it's called.
Next up is Kameo. I have half of the elementals already, and while it is pretty and entertaining, the game feels a little too easy. I'm still curious to see how the story unfolds, and the gameplay isn't boring... Just be aware that there doesn't seem to be much of a challenge here. That's actually how I felt after playing through the Ridge Racer 6 demo a few times: No challenge. Well, I found the game new for $17.99, and couldn't pass it up; seven races in, and I'm already finding a pretty good challenge in this one. The graphics are sharp, the music is amazing, and the racing style is simplistic without being too easy. For an arcade-style drifting racer, there's a decent amount of depth here. I should also mention that I downloaded every HD episode of Viva Pinata on XBOX Live (they were free). Funny stuff for a kids show. One last thing: I found Phantom Dust and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for $20 altogether on the way home tonight. I haven't played them yet, but I'm excited :)
Okay, now that that stuff's out of the way, I want to mention that I've had to replace no less than three bad hard drives for clients this week! For the volume of work that I do, that's unheard of. Data back-up has gone smoothly though, so nobody's too pissed-off. One of them was a Dell Inspiron 1150 and the guy is looking for an excuse to buy a new laptop, so I'm just going to send him a link to a site detailing the Canadian lawsuit against Dell regarding the quality issues surrounding that model before I go any further with the repairs. I also started repair work on a custom build, and upon poking around inside the chassis, I saw that my work was cut-out for me. It's a pretty nice Socket939 Athlon 64 3200+ SLI (6600GT) system, but the wiring job was atrocious and the the dust bunnies were taking over. Upon cleaning that mess, the system would not longer boot. The culprit turned-out to be one of the video cards going bad on me. Luckily, the guy had noticed video issues previously, so I was off the hook for a replacement.
Finally, I picked-up one of these, and I'm so glad that I did with all these bad hard drives recently. It's basicaly a universal (3.5" and 2.5" IDE, SATA) USB drive enclosure, but without the enclosure part... I guess that makes it a dongle. Whatever... For $29.99, I don't care what it's called.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Not too much to report...
Found me a free copy of The Legend Of Zelda Collector's Edition for GameCube; that was pretty cool, albeit slightly frustrating after hunting-down and paying for the N64 originals and GBA ports of all four games included on the disc. Then again, I still don't have a GameCube or a Wii, so whatever... I also picked-up Myst: Uru: Complete Chronicles for $10. I've only played the original single-player game in the package and it was amazing, so this was a nice addition to my collection. I haven't had much time to sit down and actually play many of my games though, so the 'to play' pile just keeps growing. I have made some progress in Oracle Of Seasons (see right), I'm into the third chapter of Gears Of War playing on "Hardcore", and I've pretty much finished Guitar Hero II on Hard, but it's slow-going.
I delivered that 667MHz Celeron system yesterday, performed a clean install on an Acer laptop, and replaced the hard drive on a Dell laptop. The frustrating thing with the Acer laptop was the wireless driver; Acer posts drivers for for two models (TravelMate 3630 and 2420, if I recall correctly) on the same page... The problem is that the wireless drivers they provide are for Atheros and Broadcomm devices. The TravelMate I was working on (2420 series) used an Intel wireless chipset. Similarly, the Dell Inspiron 8600 I was working on potentially used something like four different GPUs, ten different wireless chipsets, and four different modems... As much as I enjoy deciphering vendor and device IDs from the device manager, they really should make the process a little easier for those who may not have original documentation and refuse to use manufacturer's restore CDs :)
I delivered that 667MHz Celeron system yesterday, performed a clean install on an Acer laptop, and replaced the hard drive on a Dell laptop. The frustrating thing with the Acer laptop was the wireless driver; Acer posts drivers for for two models (TravelMate 3630 and 2420, if I recall correctly) on the same page... The problem is that the wireless drivers they provide are for Atheros and Broadcomm devices. The TravelMate I was working on (2420 series) used an Intel wireless chipset. Similarly, the Dell Inspiron 8600 I was working on potentially used something like four different GPUs, ten different wireless chipsets, and four different modems... As much as I enjoy deciphering vendor and device IDs from the device manager, they really should make the process a little easier for those who may not have original documentation and refuse to use manufacturer's restore CDs :)
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