Closure...?

While testing out alternate video cards (an AGP GeForce 7800, an AGP GeForce3, and a PCI ATi Mach64) in my Pentium 4 machine, I noticed one bulging capacitor that is normally obscured from view by anything in the AGP slot... I'm going with bad motherboard as the official cause of all of my recent startup problems. I've since mixed 'n matched things around here to end up with the following:

• Athlon XP 3200+
  
• DFI NFII Ultra Infinity
  
• 2GB DDR400 (dual channel)
  
• 512MB Radeon X1950 Pro
  
• 80GB + 320GB SATA
  
• M-Audio FireWire Solo
  
• Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

So it's a bit of a downgrade from my 3.6GHz Pentium 4 + 865PE setup, but it's solid... And, somewhat surprisingly for older hardware, runs Windows Vista without a hitch! Anyway, I have an old Biostar U8668-D motherboard (533MHz FSB) and a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 lying around here; with a gigabyte of RAM and an old GeForce3 (passive cooling), it should make a solid downloading box.

I hate to see a sweet CPU like my Prescott go to waste, but I just can't bring myself to spend any more money on that generation of parts... Though I did just find a listing for an ASUS P4V8X-MX for $15 on criagslist ;)

And now for something completely different...

I found a copy of the Japanese (and only) Dreamcast release of Capcom Vs. SNK 2 for $20, so I picked that up and set up my official Dreamcast arcade stick... Only to notice that the right-direction switch on the stick wasn't registering light movements. After some disassembly and minor cleaning, and all was well again.

Finally got into a groove with Metroid Prime 2. The game started out slowly and got overwhelming with its lack of direction (I explored every area, scanned every item, and read every log, but I still felt pretty clueless); it wasn't until I spent some quality time in the dark world that things strated to coalesce, and now I've really got a handle on things... I'm not sure if this whole experience is masterful or flawed (or both), but I am ultimately having fun with it.

My Leafs are on a horrible losing skid in NHL 07 on PSP; I went from something like 10-3-0 to 11-11-1. Lots of one-goal losses, many strange penalities (by teammates not under my control), and some really horrible defensive lapses (not unlike the real life Maple Leafs).

I played with my probelmatic Pentium 4 machine some more recently. The issue is not with the SATA controller, and I checked the floppy drive as well. I'm leaning toward video card issues again. I could try reverting to an earlier Catalyst driver, but I'm also looking at tossing in a whole other card and seeing what happens. If it does turn out to be the video card, that'll be awfully frustrating, since this all started within a month of the thing going out of warranty :\

In a slightly different area of technology, I recently picked up an Epiphone Thunderbird and an Ashdown MAG C115-300 EVO II Combo :)

Fuuuck!

Sat down and got settled in so that I could get into Rayman on Jaguar this evening. About 10% of the way through the game, I'd stocked up nine lives. I go to save my progress, and suddenly have zero lives. That doesn't seem right... Especially since it remembered how many lives I had (seven) when I saved earlier.

Cheeky Bastards

So the Sonic Unleashed demo has been out on XBOX Live for a little while now, and I finally got some time to sit down with it last night. The demo only offers one level, and it's a regular Sonic level (the only good part of the full game, according to reviews). First and foremost, Sonic Team's Hedgehog Engine is gorgeous! Seriously, this game looks really good, and the sense of speed is great. The controls ain't bad, and branching paths and various control techniques hint at a lot of replay value. Based on the demo, Unleashed looks the kind of game you can either whip through and enjoy, or memorise and practice to explore and achieve more. Sadly, the demo's apparently not completely indicative of the final product, as these fun levels are broken up by mandatory quest and werehog crap... Grrr; I hate bait-and-switch techniques like that. I'm tempted to just stick with the demo, never play the full game, and fantasise about what could have been... But I suspect I'll buy the full game if I ever find it on the cheap.

In far less disappointing news, I picked up copies of Alien Crush (TG16), Bonk 2 (PC Engine), Skate (360), God Hand (PS2), and The Bouncer (PS2) :)

Showing Promise

New Brutal Legend trailer is out, and it looks rad.

Reading up on the new Wolfenstein game, I've noticed that it seems to incorporate aspects of Soul Reaver, Undying, and Return To Castle Wolfenstein... It's like 2001 all over again :)

Awesome

Minotaur China Shop

Great minds...

While certainly more developed than my little recounting of my time with Crisis Core, The Escapist has just published a really good article that visits some of the same issues I brought up. The author explores some very interesting aspects of the series while using Final Fantasy IV and XIII as touchstones... Definitely worth your time ;)

shahir29

I'd like to draw your attention to shahir29, an active member of the GameFAQs community, and architect of some very nice roster updates for NHL 07 on PSP; you can find his work here, and I must say that I'm pretty impressed with it so far. My current lines on the Leafs are as follows: Ponikarovsky-Stajan-Antropov, Blake-Moore-Stempniak, Hagman-Mitchell-Mayers, Kulemuin-Grabovski-Hollweg, Kaberle-Kubina, Van Ryn-Schenn, and Frogren-White... I've got to do some shuffling with the second and fourth forward lines, but it's nice to be away from the likes of Allison, O'Neil, and Lindros ;) The time it takes to navigate the start-up screens and menus is still painful and half of the soundtrack just plain sucks, but this'll tide me over for a while yet.

Moving on, I traded-in my second copy of PaRappa The Rapper for PSX (at a profit), Jak II for PS2 (Greatest Hits edition), as well as Mercenaries and NHL 2K7 for XBOX, and got Gunstar Heroes for Genesis (complete with case and manual; all in great condition).

Now then, I remember wanting to talk more about Crisis Core, but since the dust has settled, I realise that I've already said just about all there is to say. It is worth noting, however, that the grinding in this game goes far beyond reason. Well before I was halfway through the story, I was nearing the halfway mark of the side missions; that means that my item and materia selections were pretty impressive, and thus the results of my materia fusion experiments were powerful, to say the least. By the time I was halfway through the main plot, my basic attacks were inflicting close to 9999 damage points, and boss fights were over after just a few button presses... The thing is, I didn't spend inordinate amounts of time grinding through the side missions; I'd just play though all the ones I could handle at my level and then move on with the plot when things got too tough. While it was kinda nice to be all-powerful for the second half of the game, it definitely took something away from the experience. The really scary thing is that there was still a whole lot more to acheive and unlock! I guess that's good for replay value, or completists, or MMO players who want to grind on the go... But I think I'm done. So it's a gorgeous game with a silly plot (could've been really good, but cultural differences got in the way and things got convoluted), some balance issues, and plenty to do... Definitely worth your time.

Demonstrative

XBOX 360 demo impressions:

• Banjo Kazooie: Nuts 'n Bolts was pretty and fun to toy around with, but ultimately kinda boring. I never did get into the previous games in the series, so as an essentially new experience, this one didn't hold my attention. The vehicle construction bits were cool, but the tutorials were frustratingly not-helpful and I didn't have the patience to see just how deep they went. It's cheaper than most new releases, and the reviews are generally posuitiove though, so it's likely worth checking out if vehicle construction and world exploration are what you're into.
  
• Mirror's Edge is very pretty, and a lot of fun once you get the hang of the controls and the levels. It's all about practicing until you find a way to flow through the level, which is once of the things I loved about Crackdown and Assassin's Creed... Unfortunately, the full game is supposedly pretty underdeveloped in terms of both extending gameplay and fleshing out a cohesive plot. Hopefully the upcoming downloadable content will solidify things without adding too much mor cost to what already seems to be an overpriced game.
  
• Dead Space sure does feel like Resident Evil 4 in space. I didn't like Resident Evil 4, but everyone else seemed to, so you draw your own conclusions for this one.
• Mercenaries 2, like Mercenaries, is a good Grand Theft Auto clone that has been. transplanted into a warzone. I didn't much care for either, though they didn't seem to do anything poorly.
• Fracture was surprisingly enjoyable. Much like TimeShift, it seemed like a generic sci-fi FPS with an impotent gimmick, but a solid game nevertheless; I might actually be tempted to pick this one up, should I find it on the cheap.

Anyway, I'm now spending my portable time with Killzone: Liberation (very enjoyable), NHL 07 (looking into getting roster updates), and Wario Land II (on the second last chapter). Othwerise, I'm getting into Rayman on Jaguar and I've pretty much given up on Jak 3 on PS2;  I'm near the end of Act II, defending Jinx while he destroys the eco grid (or something like that), and I can't help but feel sad about how fun the first game in the series was and how tedious this one is.

Moving on, I found a copy of Gungrave on the cheap, so I picked that up. It's pretty cool, but it keeps bringing up the pause menu mid-gameplay, even though my thumbs are nowhere near the Start button...

HOLY CRAP!

SO GOOD!!!

Oh, and I bought Street Fighter Collection for Saturn, as well as Kirby's Dream Land (I recently found Kirby's Dream Land 2 for $10) and Battletoads (had it when I was a kid, but sold it) for Game Boy.

Trading Post

Traded the GameCube, accessories, and four games (no books) for a Nintendo 64, accessories, and RAM expansion... Why? So that I could give it back to the friend who gave me the GameCube. I had no use for a GameCube, and she'd mentioned wanting an N64 not too long ago, so it seemed like a nice thing to do. I threw in Donkey Kong 64 (she wanted it, I hate it) and Super Mario 64 (got it from another friend who thought it was broken; fixed it. I already have two copies). She's happy.

Traded the seven remaining SEGA CD games for Burnout Paradise and 1400 XBOX Live points (which promptly went toward the purchase of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix). SSF2THDR quickly reminded me that I suck at SSF2T... But I'm getting better! I've unlocked the super finish, 15 second win, and beat arcade mode achievements, and I'm refining combos and strategies while tackling higher difficulty levels. I'm sticking with Ken for the time being, but I think I should rekindle my interest in Dee Jay some day.

Just as Raiden on Jaguar got me back into shoot 'em ups, SSF2THDR got me excited about XBOX Live Aracde and 2D fighting games again. I've recently spent some more time with Braid, Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Prince Of Persia, and Pac-Man C.E. on XBLA (and I'm considering purchasing Space Giraffe), and I picked up a copy of Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO for XBOX, while also getting back into Street Figher Anniversary Collection on XBOX and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 on Dreamcast. Oh, and I'm also prolly gonna pick up a copy of Street Fighter Collection for Saturn (SSF2, SSF2T, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold).

At work, I've recently created a SysPrep-modified image for the Dell Dimension 2400s we have all over the building... Formatting computers just got a lot easier around here :)