So I haven't taken much time to play any games, though I did pick-up Tomb Raider Anniversary and Jade Empire Special Edition for Windows. I've been busy fixing people's computer problems all weekend, and I've got some stories and a new toy to show for it (well, those and some cash). First up is that 3.0GHz Pentium 4 I mentioned in my last post; It was hurting bad from the spyware and such, so I backed-up their important stuff and started fresh. Whoever built that thing must've been out cold, 'cause I was half asleep and noticed that the power fan was plugged into the chassis fan connector, the power LED was plugged-in as a two-pin connector instead of the three-pin connector the motherboard takes, and the RAM was installed in single-channel mode. I fixed those issues, installed a PCI fax modem, dusted everything, updated the BIOS, and from there it was smooth sailing. While I was delivering the finished product, I was offered one of these. I wasn't intimately familiar with the Dell Digital Audio Receiver, but I figured it was some sort of PC-to-stereo streaming apparatus, judging by the ethernet port on the back. Well, as it turns-out, I was right, but wasn't getting the whole story. You can actually use your home phone network to stream music to any room with a phone jack (or an ethernet hub/switch/router)! Pretty cool feature, but I'm currently using it in my bedroom (through an old router) to listen to my MP3s from my bed with a remote. It's a fun little toy, and was pretty expensive in its day (over $300 CDN after taxes!), so I'm happy to add it to my collection of random tech crap :) Now if only it ordered albums by track number instead of alphabetically :\ Making your own playlists using the device's interface is just a bitch.
The other stories are far less interesting. They involve troubleshooting one person's home network via text messages and installing a wireless router for another person. Wheee!
Monday, June 04, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Stay tuned...
The revamped draft-saving function of Blogger doesn't seem to, y'know... Work :)
Anyway, I've picked-up the last three episodes of the first season of the new Sam & Max games, Unreal Championship 2 for XBOX ($5 new; Best Buy's marking-down their XBOX titles; looks awesome on the 360), as well as Burnout Dominator, Carol Vorderman's Sudoku, Chili Con Carnage, Crush, and MLB '07 The Show for PSP. They're all pretty much what one would expect from their pedigree; a solid racing game, a challenging puzzle game, a mindless yet fun action game, and a very pretty baseball sim. Then there's Crush... What a fucking cool concept... The gameplay, not the story. It's an action-puzzle game with a really cool twist that involves "crushing" the world from 3D to 2D and back again to overcome obstacles. It's difficult to adequately explain in a short space, but you'll get it immediately upon seeing it for yourself. Definitely worth looking-into that one.
I also just finished work on a horribly misconceived Pentium 4 2.4B system. Solid CPU on an Intel-based ASUS board, plenty of storage space (over 120GB), and a nice 17" Samsung LCD... But that's where the good news ends. I suspect the system started-out as a Pentium III-based box (judging by the Pentium III sticker on the front of the case), and was later subjected to a half-assed overhaul. They left Windows on the original 13GB 5400RPM drive and just slapped-in an arbitrarily partitioned 120GB 7200RPM drive (both Maxtor brand, both very noisy), and only installed 256MB of DDR RAM (8MB of which was shared with the integrated Intel 845 GPU). It was a mess, and Windows' integrity had been seriously compromised. I backed-up the important stuff, took out the 13GB HDD altogether, repartitioned the 120GB 40/80 for programs and data respectively, and installed another 256MB of RAM and a 128MB AGP4x Sapphire Radeon 8500LE. After getting a fresh Windows installation on there, things started crashing... Turns-out there were bad sectors galore on the 120GB. I tried "regenerating" the drive, but one (from the thousands found originally) bad sector popped-up again the next day. I wasn't sold on its reliability, so I got them a near-silent 160GB Seagate drive.
I'll be back with more once I finish the Sam & Max games (I'm really looking forward to Episode 5), and get to work on a 3.0GHz P4 system with 1GB of RAM that was brought to its knees by spyware.
Anyway, I've picked-up the last three episodes of the first season of the new Sam & Max games, Unreal Championship 2 for XBOX ($5 new; Best Buy's marking-down their XBOX titles; looks awesome on the 360), as well as Burnout Dominator, Carol Vorderman's Sudoku, Chili Con Carnage, Crush, and MLB '07 The Show for PSP. They're all pretty much what one would expect from their pedigree; a solid racing game, a challenging puzzle game, a mindless yet fun action game, and a very pretty baseball sim. Then there's Crush... What a fucking cool concept... The gameplay, not the story. It's an action-puzzle game with a really cool twist that involves "crushing" the world from 3D to 2D and back again to overcome obstacles. It's difficult to adequately explain in a short space, but you'll get it immediately upon seeing it for yourself. Definitely worth looking-into that one.
I also just finished work on a horribly misconceived Pentium 4 2.4B system. Solid CPU on an Intel-based ASUS board, plenty of storage space (over 120GB), and a nice 17" Samsung LCD... But that's where the good news ends. I suspect the system started-out as a Pentium III-based box (judging by the Pentium III sticker on the front of the case), and was later subjected to a half-assed overhaul. They left Windows on the original 13GB 5400RPM drive and just slapped-in an arbitrarily partitioned 120GB 7200RPM drive (both Maxtor brand, both very noisy), and only installed 256MB of DDR RAM (8MB of which was shared with the integrated Intel 845 GPU). It was a mess, and Windows' integrity had been seriously compromised. I backed-up the important stuff, took out the 13GB HDD altogether, repartitioned the 120GB 40/80 for programs and data respectively, and installed another 256MB of RAM and a 128MB AGP4x Sapphire Radeon 8500LE. After getting a fresh Windows installation on there, things started crashing... Turns-out there were bad sectors galore on the 120GB. I tried "regenerating" the drive, but one (from the thousands found originally) bad sector popped-up again the next day. I wasn't sold on its reliability, so I got them a near-silent 160GB Seagate drive.
I'll be back with more once I finish the Sam & Max games (I'm really looking forward to Episode 5), and get to work on a 3.0GHz P4 system with 1GB of RAM that was brought to its knees by spyware.
Monday, May 21, 2007
"There are times when cake is not available, and instead we are destroyed. This is the deep poetry of the universe."
Why do I suddenly have the urge to spend in excess of $50 buying the same magazine five times?
Friday, May 18, 2007
Spluuurrrge!!!
It all started two days ago, while I was out wandering a mall to kill some time. It'd been a while since I'd had any significant amount of time to kill and a long time since I'd been in a mall, so I gave it a shot. I found myself in a Wal-Mart, watching some guy with a list of games dig through the new batch of $20 video game two-packs. Turned-out he was looking for a specific few that had trade-in values at EBGames of over $20 :) I ended-up stumbling across a copy of The Red Star for PS2 for $20. I've yet to see that game anywhere else for any price, so I'm glad I picked it up. This is a game that almost didn't get made, and it's sad to think so. It's an interesting new twist on the side-scrolling beat-'em-up genre (Final Fight, Streets Of Rage) with graphics and controls that are reminiscent of 2D shooters (R-Type, Ikaruga). The fact that it's based on a popular graphic novel just means there's even more to potentially enjoy. Definitely worth a look.
I found myself back out in the land of rampant consumerism yesterday to check back on a few good deals I'd seen the day before, and ended-up with Ninety-Nine Nights for XBOX 360, Mercenaries and Breakdown for XBOX (both backwards compatible on the 360), and Metal Slug Anthology and Killer 7 for PS2. These are just some titles I'd been meaning to pick-up if I ever saw them cheap, and the really nice thing was that none of them were over $20, save for Metal Slug which was $40 (regularly $45~$50). N3's kind of a boring game to actually play for more than 30 minutes at a time, but it is very pretty and has some beautiful cutscenes :) Mercenaries is just something I'd kept hearing good things about (Grand Theft Auto in a modern warfare setting), and it is a lot of fun. Breakdown, similarly, is another game I'd heard good things about, and they were right; boring graphics, convoluted controls (reminiscent of Trespasser, another game that aimed for realistic first-person immersion), yet wholly endearing gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. Metal Slug means I get to play Metal Slug 6 at home; that's all that really matters :) I'm not sure how I feel about the new backgrounds, but as long as it's better than 4 and at least as good as 5, I'm happy. Finally, Killer 7 is just weird. Very, very weird... And engrossing. I have no idea what's I'm doing or what's going on, and I barely understand the control system, but I get the feeling this is gonna be one of those games that's rewarding in the long run. Oh yeah, if you're on XBOX Live, download Aegis Wing! It's Free!
Ooh, I also picked-up The Fountain on HD DVD, and Firefly on DVD (it was $25; I had to). With the latest XBOX 360 HD DVD update, it's gonna be nice to be able to use my DTS decoder :)
Luckily, I found some work this past week that'll help pay for all of this! ;) I neglected to mention that the system upgrade I did last week only had one IDE controller but four IDE devices, so I picked-up a PCI IDE controller for them. Then I took a job that involved picking-out the best parts from three systems (300MHz Pentium II, 350MHz Pentium II, 500Mhz K6-2) and building the best possible system; he ended-up with the 350MHz PII, an Intel 440BX-based motherboard, 192MB of RAM, and a 32MB AGP TNT M64, all running Windows 2000 Pro. Finally, I did a clean installation of Windows XP on an AMD Athlon 3200+ system (nForce2 Ultra, 1GB DDR400, 128MB AGP8X BFG GeForce 6600GT OC); it was nice to work on a faster system again :)
I found myself back out in the land of rampant consumerism yesterday to check back on a few good deals I'd seen the day before, and ended-up with Ninety-Nine Nights for XBOX 360, Mercenaries and Breakdown for XBOX (both backwards compatible on the 360), and Metal Slug Anthology and Killer 7 for PS2. These are just some titles I'd been meaning to pick-up if I ever saw them cheap, and the really nice thing was that none of them were over $20, save for Metal Slug which was $40 (regularly $45~$50). N3's kind of a boring game to actually play for more than 30 minutes at a time, but it is very pretty and has some beautiful cutscenes :) Mercenaries is just something I'd kept hearing good things about (Grand Theft Auto in a modern warfare setting), and it is a lot of fun. Breakdown, similarly, is another game I'd heard good things about, and they were right; boring graphics, convoluted controls (reminiscent of Trespasser, another game that aimed for realistic first-person immersion), yet wholly endearing gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. Metal Slug means I get to play Metal Slug 6 at home; that's all that really matters :) I'm not sure how I feel about the new backgrounds, but as long as it's better than 4 and at least as good as 5, I'm happy. Finally, Killer 7 is just weird. Very, very weird... And engrossing. I have no idea what's I'm doing or what's going on, and I barely understand the control system, but I get the feeling this is gonna be one of those games that's rewarding in the long run. Oh yeah, if you're on XBOX Live, download Aegis Wing! It's Free!
Ooh, I also picked-up The Fountain on HD DVD, and Firefly on DVD (it was $25; I had to). With the latest XBOX 360 HD DVD update, it's gonna be nice to be able to use my DTS decoder :)
Luckily, I found some work this past week that'll help pay for all of this! ;) I neglected to mention that the system upgrade I did last week only had one IDE controller but four IDE devices, so I picked-up a PCI IDE controller for them. Then I took a job that involved picking-out the best parts from three systems (300MHz Pentium II, 350MHz Pentium II, 500Mhz K6-2) and building the best possible system; he ended-up with the 350MHz PII, an Intel 440BX-based motherboard, 192MB of RAM, and a 32MB AGP TNT M64, all running Windows 2000 Pro. Finally, I did a clean installation of Windows XP on an AMD Athlon 3200+ system (nForce2 Ultra, 1GB DDR400, 128MB AGP8X BFG GeForce 6600GT OC); it was nice to work on a faster system again :)
Sunday, May 13, 2007
...And I'm back!
I was off in the wilds of Northwestern British Columbia for a week, and while I did have Internet access at most times, I didn't have much to post here. My PSP kept me busy during my downtime on the trip (Puzzle Quest and Daxter, for the most part), and my IBM ThinkPad X22 running Debian 4.0 "testing" worked without a hitch. Stealing WiFi using the default network settings GUI wasn't particularly fun though.
Anyway, I've recently been devoting the majority of my console gaming time to Jak 3 on PS2, and I'm happy to say it's thankfully less like the misconceived Grand Theft Auto-inspired design of Jak II, and more linear like Jak And Daxter. I also downloaded the Monster Madness and Forza Motorsport 2 demos from XBOX Live; the former seemed a little shallow for what is supposed to be a full-fledged game, whereas the latter was a surprisingly deep and full-featured demo. I'm still a SEGA GT fan when it somes to more realistic racing games, but Forza 2 seems to be a very solid contender.
I performed a system rebuild (Athlon 1800+ to Athlon X2 3600+, new motherboard, RAM, video card, and power supply) and subsequent Windows XP repair installation on Wednesday. It was nice to get back into the swing of things now that my schedule has cleared-up, especially since everything went so smoothly.
Finally, I've been using Google Talk to make 'calls' to Australia, and I'm very impressed by the the quality and reliability. I couldn't get Windows Live Messenger's call function to work at all, though "voice clips" worked fine. Google Talk really strikes me as an instant messaging client that I'd like to use, but nobody else is ever online :\
Anyway, I've recently been devoting the majority of my console gaming time to Jak 3 on PS2, and I'm happy to say it's thankfully less like the misconceived Grand Theft Auto-inspired design of Jak II, and more linear like Jak And Daxter. I also downloaded the Monster Madness and Forza Motorsport 2 demos from XBOX Live; the former seemed a little shallow for what is supposed to be a full-fledged game, whereas the latter was a surprisingly deep and full-featured demo. I'm still a SEGA GT fan when it somes to more realistic racing games, but Forza 2 seems to be a very solid contender.
I performed a system rebuild (Athlon 1800+ to Athlon X2 3600+, new motherboard, RAM, video card, and power supply) and subsequent Windows XP repair installation on Wednesday. It was nice to get back into the swing of things now that my schedule has cleared-up, especially since everything went so smoothly.
Finally, I've been using Google Talk to make 'calls' to Australia, and I'm very impressed by the the quality and reliability. I couldn't get Windows Live Messenger's call function to work at all, though "voice clips" worked fine. Google Talk really strikes me as an instant messaging client that I'd like to use, but nobody else is ever online :\
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Addiction
I picked-up Bust-A-Move for PSP... Should've known better. It's just so hard to put down.
Anyway, so I've compiled a bit of a shopping list:
Oh, and that Linux future hard drive business I was babbling about earlier? Yeah, it was referring to my Windows drive and is no longer forcing checks... So... Whatever :)
Anyway, so I've compiled a bit of a shopping list:
- Odin Sphere
- Red Star
- Metal Slug Anthology
- God Of War II
- Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando
- Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
- Sly Cooper
- Sly 2: Band Of Thieves
- Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Oh, and that Linux future hard drive business I was babbling about earlier? Yeah, it was referring to my Windows drive and is no longer forcing checks... So... Whatever :)
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Explosion de Baies
As one might glean from my XBOX Live gamer card thingie over to the right of this page, I've recently picked-up Viva Pinata and Rockstar's Table Tennis; both solid games that I got new for about $20 each. Viva Pinata promises to be a lot of fun, especially considering the wonderful graphics. I realize that it's pretty much The Sims, but I find it far less annoying. Table Tennis is friggin' hard, but I suspect that I may just suck.
On the PSP front, I've been spending the majority of my time with it playing Daxter, LocoRoco, Puzzle Quest, and Virtua Tennis 3. Daxter's just plain gorgeous and plays a lot like the Jak And Daxter PS2 games, so I'm happy there. LocoRoco is easily one of the most stylish, original, and endearing games I've played in a long while, plus there're plenty of reasons to play levels over again. Puzzle Quest is basically a turn-based RPG with an expanded Bejeweled game for a battle system, and it works well. Finally, Virtua Tennis 3 is more Virtua Tennis, and as any good Dreamcast fan knows, that's a good thing.
Oh! Debian keeps telling me my hard drive was last mounted in the future and forcing a check at start-up... But all the clocks are checking-out fine. Any ideas?
On the PSP front, I've been spending the majority of my time with it playing Daxter, LocoRoco, Puzzle Quest, and Virtua Tennis 3. Daxter's just plain gorgeous and plays a lot like the Jak And Daxter PS2 games, so I'm happy there. LocoRoco is easily one of the most stylish, original, and endearing games I've played in a long while, plus there're plenty of reasons to play levels over again. Puzzle Quest is basically a turn-based RPG with an expanded Bejeweled game for a battle system, and it works well. Finally, Virtua Tennis 3 is more Virtua Tennis, and as any good Dreamcast fan knows, that's a good thing.
Oh! Debian keeps telling me my hard drive was last mounted in the future and forcing a check at start-up... But all the clocks are checking-out fine. Any ideas?
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sooo excited!!!
New Clive Barker's Jericho media!!!
Oh, and here's a useful little utility: AoA Media's free audio extractor.
And finally, video game dorks everywhere, prepare to climax!
Oh, and here's a useful little utility: AoA Media's free audio extractor.
And finally, video game dorks everywhere, prepare to climax!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Strike while the iron's hot!
Just a heads-up; now is definitely the time to build...
On a mostly unrelated note, I found Burnout Revenge for XBOX 360 for under $30; despite its new "Platinum Hit" status, nobody seems to be carrying it anymore. Given that Burnout Dominator is supposedly a completely different kind of experience (who wants to focus on dangerous driving instead of mindless destruction!? ;) ), it made sense to grab the best possible version of a fun game. I guess I'll trade-in my XBOX version, or give it to a friend.
- AMD Athlon 5200+ (89W Socket AM2) - $219.99
- ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition - $236.99
- 2x 1024MB PC6400 (800MHz) DDR2 - $171.99
- 256MB DDR3 PCIe BFG GeForce 8600GTS OC - $280.99
On a mostly unrelated note, I found Burnout Revenge for XBOX 360 for under $30; despite its new "Platinum Hit" status, nobody seems to be carrying it anymore. Given that Burnout Dominator is supposedly a completely different kind of experience (who wants to focus on dangerous driving instead of mindless destruction!? ;) ), it made sense to grab the best possible version of a fun game. I guess I'll trade-in my XBOX version, or give it to a friend.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Just because I have nothing better to do at the moment...
Fall 2007!? I could've sworn they were aiming for spring/summer... I can't wait that long :\
Also, how did I miss the PS2 release of the Metal Slug anthology!? It was released on March 26th, and apparently fixes the control issues of the Wii version and noticeably shortens the load-times of the PSP version. Sweeet... I finally get to play Metal Slug 6 :)
Oh, and expect some PSP mini-reviews on here in the near future.
Also, how did I miss the PS2 release of the Metal Slug anthology!? It was released on March 26th, and apparently fixes the control issues of the Wii version and noticeably shortens the load-times of the PSP version. Sweeet... I finally get to play Metal Slug 6 :)
Oh, and expect some PSP mini-reviews on here in the near future.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Exciting!
Java Runtime Environment 6.0 Update 1 crashes Iceweasel 2.0.0.3 on my Debian 4.0 "testing" machine... That is all.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Gah! They got me!
20 new games makes Brent a happy PSP owner :)
So far, I have:
So far, I have:
- Bomberman
- Daxter
- Every Extend Extra
- Exit
- Killzone Liberation
- LocoRoco
- Lumines
- Lumines II
- Me And My Katamari
- Metal Gear Ac!d
- Metal Gear Ac!d 2
- Mind Quiz
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2007
- Puzzle Quest
- Ridge Racer
- Sonic Rivals
- Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins
- Virtua Tennis
- Virtua Tennis 3
- Wipeout Pure
Monday, April 09, 2007
Well I'll be...
Remember that iMac I posted about, like two posts down? Sure you do :) Well, that little bugger tore a hole in my home network's MAC filter! My brother was over yesterday and tried to connect wirelessly with his Archos video player, and got in just fine... What the hell!? I went to check the router settings to see if I'd messed anything up as I had been updating the list of accepted MAC addresses for my PSP. Nope, all was well. I'm not sure of exactly what happened, but it turns-out that the iMac was never released from the MAC filter (even though I had deleted it) or the DHCP pool (I leave two IP addresses available with half-hour lease times for visitors that have been added to the MAC filter), and the Archos device was able to access the network without a hitch. I had to perform a soft-reset on the router to fix the issue. I don't know if this was because of the iMac, Mac OS 9, the SMC router, or the Archos device, but still... Interesting.
So the PSP is pretty sweet. Memory Stick Duos are expensive (the cheapest 4GB I've found is like $118 CDN), Mind Quiz, Loco Roco, Puzzle Quest, Lumines, and both Virtua Tennis games are all pretty great, the web browser and cell-phone-like text entry aren't that bad, and video playback is nice... But man, looking back at old prices, firmware, and software selection, I would've been pissed as an early adopter.
So the PSP is pretty sweet. Memory Stick Duos are expensive (the cheapest 4GB I've found is like $118 CDN), Mind Quiz, Loco Roco, Puzzle Quest, Lumines, and both Virtua Tennis games are all pretty great, the web browser and cell-phone-like text entry aren't that bad, and video playback is nice... But man, looking back at old prices, firmware, and software selection, I would've been pissed as an early adopter.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
"My name..." "Starts with a D!" "...Is Razputin!"
Earlier today, I took advantage of a one-day sale at Zellers: Buy any Ubisoft or selected PSP game and get a PSP core system for $149.99. I picked Mind Quiz for $19.99, which I may just try to return for something else :) Oh, and I guess the PSP system I grabbed had been sitting on the shelf for some time, as the firmware revision was 2.60. Yeah, so now I can run *ahem* "homebrew" software on my PSP using the 1GB Memory Stick Duo my little brother had left over from when Rogers sent him a free 4GB Memory Stick Duo with his new cell phone ;) It's kinda funny seeing the PSP next to the Nomad on my desk...
Oh! While I was out, I stopped by an EBGames that was in the same mall, and they had a used copy of Psychonauts for XBOX!!! I couldn't resist, and playing it on my 360 is a joy. If anyone's curious, Game Shack at Yonge and Dundas still had a few new copies for Windows in stock the last time I was there, and the Sunrise Records in Erin Mills Town Centre had a few new copies for Windows for $4.97!
Oh! While I was out, I stopped by an EBGames that was in the same mall, and they had a used copy of Psychonauts for XBOX!!! I couldn't resist, and playing it on my 360 is a joy. If anyone's curious, Game Shack at Yonge and Dundas still had a few new copies for Windows in stock the last time I was there, and the Sunrise Records in Erin Mills Town Centre had a few new copies for Windows for $4.97!
Friday, April 06, 2007
Fucking hell...
So I thought I'd be clever and make this post from the iMac I just finished working on... I was able to type the post and everything before the web browser decided to eat everything I'd written :\ Anyway, my friend was given an old iMac (Rev. A 233MHz G3, 96MB of RAM) and didn't even know if it worked, so I offered to have a look at it. A clean installation of Mac OS 9.2.2 later, and the thing was actually running alright! Unfortunately, the latest compatible version of a Mozilla-based web browser is 1.2.1 (from 2002), and the only OS 9 web browser that's still maintained is iCab. Neither is particularly awesome in conjunction with the new Blogger interface, it seems. Anyway, all said and done, the iMac is an almost-competent web browser, desktop publisher, and CD burning machine... With a dim display. It was a fun little learning experience (my first pre-OS X Apple installation) that kept me occupied this morning.
In other, much more exciting news, I bought a SEGA Nomad!!! Finally! I'd wanted one since they first came out, and I just happened to see one in a shop yesterday. It was a little over-priced and had a few minor scratches on it, but I didn't care; I had to have it. This acquisition inspired me to go and pick-up the over-priced SEGA CDX I saw at another shop a few weeks earlier, but when I got there it'd been sold... Prolly for the best ;) They did, however, have a whole new selection of Saturn accessories and games! I bought an analog controller (new, but not sealed, in box), Fighting Vipers, a mis-priced Virtua Cop 2 ($6.99 CDN!), Dark Savior (sequel to the Genesis sleeper hit Landstalker), and... EARTHWORM JIM 2!!! My love for the first two EWJ games runs deep, but I've always held-off on getting them in hopes of finding the best versions of each... Which would be EWJ Special Edition on SEGA CD and EWJ2 on Saturn. Well, that's one down.
Finally, I was just playing Texas Hold 'em on XBOX Live, and I was down a little over $100 when the table started to clear-out... Which was strange because one guy had just gone all-in with almost $1500. I'm confused... Were they being nice to me? Did I get disconnected? Regardless, my system saw me as the last player still at the table, so I got the pot :)
In other, much more exciting news, I bought a SEGA Nomad!!! Finally! I'd wanted one since they first came out, and I just happened to see one in a shop yesterday. It was a little over-priced and had a few minor scratches on it, but I didn't care; I had to have it. This acquisition inspired me to go and pick-up the over-priced SEGA CDX I saw at another shop a few weeks earlier, but when I got there it'd been sold... Prolly for the best ;) They did, however, have a whole new selection of Saturn accessories and games! I bought an analog controller (new, but not sealed, in box), Fighting Vipers, a mis-priced Virtua Cop 2 ($6.99 CDN!), Dark Savior (sequel to the Genesis sleeper hit Landstalker), and... EARTHWORM JIM 2!!! My love for the first two EWJ games runs deep, but I've always held-off on getting them in hopes of finding the best versions of each... Which would be EWJ Special Edition on SEGA CD and EWJ2 on Saturn. Well, that's one down.
Finally, I was just playing Texas Hold 'em on XBOX Live, and I was down a little over $100 when the table started to clear-out... Which was strange because one guy had just gone all-in with almost $1500. I'm confused... Were they being nice to me? Did I get disconnected? Regardless, my system saw me as the last player still at the table, so I got the pot :)
Friday, March 30, 2007
Nuclear fallout for the win!
Late last night (or early this morning), I finished the single-player campaign of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow Of Chernobyl. Immediately after the credits rolled, I started playing it again. Yeah, it's good :) Most of the reviews of it that I've read are pretty spot-on with their assessments; that the graphics are about on-par with Half-Life 2, the gameplay is most similar to Oblivion, and it's full of bugs. The graphics are indeed a little dated, but still look quite nice (especially with dynamic lighting enabled); the gameplay is more of an action-oriented FPS-with-RPG-elements than Oblivion's RPG-with-FPS-elements, but the similarities (mission structure, resource management, exploration) are undeniable; the bugs though... Oh man. While I didn't run-into any real show-stoppers, the ones I did see were glaringly bad. Everything from bodies disappearing before they hit the ground to infinite armour, the glitches were ever-present. They didn't, however, detract too much from the overall experience. The other common thread throughout the major reviews is their praise of the game's atmosphere; this game is immersive like few others, and so the bugs are ultimately excusable. Vast (though not as open as Oblivion's) landscapes and buildings to explore, plenty of side-missions to complete (or ignore), in-game politics to consider, a good variety of weapons and enemies, and an interesting (albeit somewhat perplexing) story with (I've heard) seven potential endings make for a particuarly good game.
I have only a few real gripes about the game, and they won't even affect most players anyway. First, as pretty as the dynamic lighting is, it kills my GPU (over-clocked AGP GeForce 6800). I can run the game with all settings at maximum using static lighting and it's very nice, but dynamic lighting brings it to its knees at anything over 1024x768 and "medium" detail settings. Second, a patch was released shortly after the game's release, and while it's nice to see so many issues addressed (and sad to see a broken game shipped), it was painful to learn that it breaks your saved games! Gah! Finally, there's the script. While the voice acting is superb, some of the bits of text are a little off... Like when the middle-aged Ukrainian guy refers to his "homies", and when the military commander calls an opposing force "the shit", and when your new armour is called "inefficient" when it's pretty safe to assume that they meant to write "efficient". Still, it's a rock-solid game that will draw you into its world, plus it's only $40.
Oh, and while I was out this afternoon, I noticed that Best Buy has Viva Pinata marked-down to $20! The two locations I checked were out of stock though :\ They did, however, have the Guitar Hero II XBOX 360 demo unit running. The graphics weren't a huge improvement over the PS2 version and the controller felt small and cheap; I was not impressed. Then I tripped (but didn't fall) over the cord connecting the controller to the demo unit, taking the 360 to the floor. The noises coming out of that thing didn't sound very healthy at all, but the salesperson was cool about it :)
I have only a few real gripes about the game, and they won't even affect most players anyway. First, as pretty as the dynamic lighting is, it kills my GPU (over-clocked AGP GeForce 6800). I can run the game with all settings at maximum using static lighting and it's very nice, but dynamic lighting brings it to its knees at anything over 1024x768 and "medium" detail settings. Second, a patch was released shortly after the game's release, and while it's nice to see so many issues addressed (and sad to see a broken game shipped), it was painful to learn that it breaks your saved games! Gah! Finally, there's the script. While the voice acting is superb, some of the bits of text are a little off... Like when the middle-aged Ukrainian guy refers to his "homies", and when the military commander calls an opposing force "the shit", and when your new armour is called "inefficient" when it's pretty safe to assume that they meant to write "efficient". Still, it's a rock-solid game that will draw you into its world, plus it's only $40.
Oh, and while I was out this afternoon, I noticed that Best Buy has Viva Pinata marked-down to $20! The two locations I checked were out of stock though :\ They did, however, have the Guitar Hero II XBOX 360 demo unit running. The graphics weren't a huge improvement over the PS2 version and the controller felt small and cheap; I was not impressed. Then I tripped (but didn't fall) over the cord connecting the controller to the demo unit, taking the 360 to the floor. The noises coming out of that thing didn't sound very healthy at all, but the salesperson was cool about it :)
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Changes...
Just a quick one before I head out for the evening... I finally got around to playing with the default template of this space, as I'm sure you've noticed. This is the result of a first run-through of the default code, so I'll soon fix the rough edges near the top and continue to tweak the text colours.
Getting back to the usual stuff, I *shudder* traded-in some old PS2 and Windows games that I had lying around; various titles that were either given to me or I picked-up for about $10. As expected, the resale value of not-exactly-rare software still sucks, and I'm sure the mark-up will exceed 100%. I was, however, glad to finally be rid of them (stuff like Devil May Cry 3 for Windows and Tekken 4 for PS2), and used the store credit towards a new copy of the Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection for PS2. This collection includes Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, and Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition. As expected of any Capcom game, the translation sucks, the design is weird, and the controls are awkward, but the graphics are killer, the gameplay is rewarding, and it's generally a fun experience by the end... Or at least that's how things are shaping-up so far; I'm only about a quarter of the way through the first game :)
Getting back to the usual stuff, I *shudder* traded-in some old PS2 and Windows games that I had lying around; various titles that were either given to me or I picked-up for about $10. As expected, the resale value of not-exactly-rare software still sucks, and I'm sure the mark-up will exceed 100%. I was, however, glad to finally be rid of them (stuff like Devil May Cry 3 for Windows and Tekken 4 for PS2), and used the store credit towards a new copy of the Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection for PS2. This collection includes Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, and Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition. As expected of any Capcom game, the translation sucks, the design is weird, and the controls are awkward, but the graphics are killer, the gameplay is rewarding, and it's generally a fun experience by the end... Or at least that's how things are shaping-up so far; I'm only about a quarter of the way through the first game :)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I was gonna make some crack about a mirage, but...
Beyond Oasis is apparently now available on the Wii Virtual Console service! If you've ever wondered where SEGA's answer to Zelda was, here it is! It was originally a Genesis game, and there is a sequel (Legend Of Oasis) for the Saturn. Both are spectacular games that definitely hold their own against the Zelda franchise. Definitely worth a download if you have a Wii.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Upon further review...
Shortly after my last post, I had another go at the first boss of Link and promptly kicked his ass on the first attempt. I'm still not sure why I had so much trouble before, but oh well, moving on... The game still hasn't done much to hold my attention, but it is nice to be making progress. My only real gripe at this point is having to start at the beginning of the game each time I load a saved game; repeating the journey to get back to where I left-off ad nauseam isn't exactly the most fun I've had in this title. I suspect this will get more bearable once I get the hammer from Death Mountain and open up some alternate routes, but still, not a great way to start a game.
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