So Busy

I've been absolutely swamped lately... Mostly with sysadmin work (we're quickly outgrowing our current infrastructure here) and recording sessions with one of my bands.

I did, however, manage to clean-up the following computers:

• Inspiron 1150 (sound and USB don't work... Click the link... No, seriously) for a friend so she could do Photoshop work while her main laptop is in repair.
• Inspiron 8600 (1.5GHz Pentium M, 1.2GB DDR333, GeForce FX Go5200) that I got for free.
• A killer custom desktop: ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP, Core 2 Duo E6750, 2GB 800MHz DDR2, 320MB BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC; three SATA hard drives totaling 800GB; a sweet Lian-Li mid-tower chassis. This one was also free; not sure what to install on it though... Seems like a good opportunity to revisit Linux or BSD.

Oh, and I'm on the last battle in Ys III, which is good because Ys I&II ships today :)

Kinected

Looks like I'm getting a Kinect... Damn you, Tim Schafer.

Anyway, I'm about half-way through Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and it's amazing, and overwhelming, and holy crap.

REAL

Having a nice little conversation with a supposed former 3DO employee right over here.

Oooh, I like it when they squeal!

I finished Epic Mickey last night... It's a good game, and I might even play through it again some day to see everything I missed, but it's just disappointing to see so much potential wasted.

Fans of Disney, 3D platformers, and exploration will find a lot to like there, and the game does tell one of the best Mickey Mouse stories I've seen since Runaway Brain, but there's also a lot to criticise in terms of gameplay design and consistency.

It's sad to see so many elements done right, only to be slapped together into a lacklustre final product.

Anyway, on to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood...

Mindless?

I keep reading about how much mindless fun Bulletstorm is... Mindless? Really? The demo presented something more akin to a combination of The Club and MadWorld than a DOOM clone like Painkiller (Bulletstorm's predecessor) or Serious Sam... Or Will Rock ;) The latter games are mindless; the only real strategy there comes in the form of surviving vast hordes of enemies by employing twitch reflexes and simple resource management. Games like The Club, MadWorld, and presumably Bulletstorm are more about creatively stringing-together fast-paced and original combos while being keenly aware of your environment and how you interact with it.

Anyway, the Bulletstorm demo was a lot of fun, Killzone 3 is very pretty, and Epic Mickey is almost done... I can't say I'm really stoked about any of them though.

Christmas II

Stacking comes out this week... Which reminds me that I forgot to mention playing through Costume Quest: Grubbins On Ice over Christmas! It was wonderful! Stoked for Stacking!

Speaking of Christmas I finally got an OtterBox for my XT720 as well as Ninja Golf for my 7800... Yeah, both had to be imported from the States, and it took about a month longer than expected.

Wait, what? Oh, yeah, I did say Ninja Golf... A BRAND-NEW, SEALED COPY OF NINJA GOLF!!!

Gee, thanks...

Remember this computer? That client contacted me the other day looking to upgrade. We went with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD; the two Raptors became a RAID 0 scratch disk.

All was working beautifully until he plugged-in his LaCie 526; Windows wouldn't let him set it above 1280x720. Restarting, installing LaCie's monitor drivers, and even forcing the native resolution wouldn't work... I had him double-check every driver, setting, and OSD option, but we couldn't figure it out. I suspected Windows was treating the monitor as a TV, and instructed him to check the EDID setting while I was on the phone with him, but he couldn't find it.

I had him contact LaCie, and they promptly responded with a horribly written e-mail instructing him to contact Microsoft and download some nondescript patch for Windows 7 (yeah, just "download a patch to fix the issue") and let them know if he found a solution.

So I did some more reading and noticed that the EDID setting only appears if the monitor is receiving a digital signal. Since the client couldn't find the setting, I'm guessing the monitor was defaulting to DVI-A. I had him force it to DVI-D in the OSD, the EDID setting appeared, and when he changed it appropriately, Windows allowed the monitor's native 1920x1200 resolution.

LaCie should've been aware of such a possibility, especially for a customer who bought a $1500+ monitor.

Ys, Ys, Ys... And a Birthday

Ys VI is pretty good, but is a definite step backward in just about every regard after playing Ys Seven... And it really shows how little work Konami put into the PSP port when immediately followed by Ys III; it's easy to forget that they're running on the same engine! Ys III is very slick, and the gameplay mechanics keep things moving briskly. I don't think I've ever played an action RPG so fast-paced... I like it. A lot.

I bought a copy of the Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack for Dreamcast, today... It's a pretty sweet package, plus I didn't own a copy of Sonic Adventure 2.

Oh, and the Bulletstorm demo's been sitting on my PS3 (Silver XBL at the moment) since it came out... No time to play :(