Got a friend's G4 iBook fixed, and for payment I swapped my SNES with hers. She doesn't own any cartridges that use the extra connectors, so she'll never notice the difference. Wheee! Now I can play StarFox!
I also picked-up Perfect Dark (N64), Beyond Oasis (Genesis), and Skies Of Arcadia (Dreamcast). Perfect Dark's kinda cool so far, but I've only played the first level; I still need to see how it plays in 16:9 high-resolution with surround sound and two analog controllers. Beyond Oasis is one of my favourite action-RPGs (alongside it's Saturn sequel, Legend Of Oasis), and the best competition SEGA's ever had for Zelda. Skies Of Arcadia is kinda hard to find (and impossible to properly back-up) while apparently being one of the best RPGs in recent memory, so it seemed like a smart buy. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work. It froze during the second battle the first time I played it, and wouldn't even load after restarting. There are some strange markings on the disc's surface, which leads me to believe that the previous owner tried to buff-out the scratches with a CD resurfacer. That's really a shame because Dreamcast GD-ROMs are a touch more sensitive than regular CD-ROMs. Time to see if I can get a refund, or find someone with a Game Doctor (I have a set of Dreamcast-specific resurfacing wheels).
Hey, here's a fun one: I just finished fixing a Windows 2000 machine that had somehow been compromised. The computer itself was set as a restricted site, and because Explorer is used to access the file system as well as the Control Panel, the computer was kinda useless. All scans came-up clean, and I had access to some functions in Safe Mode, but things were pretty far gone. Long story short, I was able to back-up the important data and perform a clean OS installation. Fun.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Burgers and a View
I walked into a Burger King on my way home yesterday and bought three XBOX/XBOX 360 games; no food though. $12.99 + tax later (or $4.99 + tax each), I had copies of Sneak King, PocketBike Racer, and Big Bumpin'. Yeah, Burger King is currently offering cheap XBOX games with the purchase of a value meal. Here's the crazy thing: These games are actually a lot of fun! Sneak King is sort of a stealth action game where players must achieve specific goals that involve sneaking-up on hungry people as that freaky Burger King mascot and giving them food. PocketBike Racer (featuring Brooke Burke) is Mario Kart-esque title that is surprisingly deep, very solid, and a hell of a lot of fun to play. Finally Big Bumpin' is a really creative bumper car game that offers a number of different gameplay styles and challenges. If you have an XBOX or an XBOX 360 the games are definitely worth your time and money.
Also, I'm glad to finally see something like this. It's nice to see a succinct chart that tells me everything I need to know about the different versions of Windows Vista. No longer do I have to trudge through the marketing speak on Microsoft's site, or the over-analytical bullshit on all the other tech sites. From the looks of things, anything under Home Premium is kinda pointless from anything other than a compatibility standpoint, and Business looks to be the best value (especially considering this little tidbit of information). I may have access to a copy of Enterprise in the near future, but that may also include an Ultimate license, so I guess we'll wait and see. I figure I'll be upgrading by summer, at the latest.
Also, I'm glad to finally see something like this. It's nice to see a succinct chart that tells me everything I need to know about the different versions of Windows Vista. No longer do I have to trudge through the marketing speak on Microsoft's site, or the over-analytical bullshit on all the other tech sites. From the looks of things, anything under Home Premium is kinda pointless from anything other than a compatibility standpoint, and Business looks to be the best value (especially considering this little tidbit of information). I may have access to a copy of Enterprise in the near future, but that may also include an Ultimate license, so I guess we'll wait and see. I figure I'll be upgrading by summer, at the latest.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Fucking Grrr...
Looks like the problem is with my SNES. I talked to the guy from the shop who tested my Starfox cartridge, and he had no problems with it. Upon closer inspection, after getting home, one of the connectors in my system is missing. The upside is that it's one of the connectors for the extra set of leads used only by cartridges that employ enhancement chips, so most games will work just fine. The downside is that this means I potentially can't play titles such as Starfox, Yoshi's Island, Pilotwings, Super Mario Kart, Star Ocean, Mega Man X2 and X3, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dreamland 3, and Super Mario RPG! I'm not sure which of these cartridges use the extra leads, but they all use enhancement chips, so they're potentially unplayable! Gah!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
How I roll...
Things are starting to settle in the PC software department for me...
Windows XP (operating system)
AVG Free Edition (antivirus)
Spybot (antispyware)
Firefox 2.0 (web browsing)
Thunderbird (e-mail)
OpenOffice (desktop publishing)
GIMP (image manipulation)
WinRAR (archive management)
BitTorrent (BitTorrent client)
FrostWire (P2P client)
foobar2000 (audio playback)
VLC (video playback)
GEAR PRO (audio and data burning)
Alcohol 120% (disc copying, image burning)
CloneDVD (DVD back-up)
ConvertXtoDVD (DVD creation)
Nine of those programs are completely free, most of them are simple, lightweight, and unobtrusive, and the default configurations for most are more than adequate for the casual user's purposes. Alcohol made the list because it supports a number of formats and options that GEAR does not.
I would, however, like to point-out something about Firefox's default configuration. I've noticed a number of concerns regarding the browser's memory usage since version 1.5 was released. It seems to use an awful lot of RAM for a web browser (I've seen it go over 150MB and stay there on my main PC), especially when considered alongside Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9. People have made accusations of memory leaks and sloppy code, but the fact of the matter is that it's a design decision intended to help smooth-out the browsing experience. By default, Firefox stores copies of viewed pages for each tab in the system's memory. This practice allows for quicker page-rendering, for example, when you click the 'forward' and 'back' buttons and switch between tabs, but at the cost of requiring more RAM. Thankfully, the Firefox team has made efforts to keep this memory usage from getting out of hand. Firefox bases its overall memory usage for these cached pages on the total amount of physical RAM in the system so that the browser never really bogs-down your system performance. If, however, you're neurotic like I am, and want your Firefox experience to leave a smaller footprint on your system, read this page. Following those instructions, you can reduce (or increase) the amount of RAM used to store the aforementioned data (or just turn off the feature altogether), and even have the browser free large amounts of RAM when minimized. Based on my experience, the performance gains from this memory usage are insignificant, and I appreciate being able to minimize the browser to free resources instead of having to close it. Memory usage after these tweaks now tends to hang around 20~40MB; 2~6MB when minimized.
From the Games department: NHL2K7 was proving to be just too easy on the "Pro" level, so I've restarted my season on "All-Star". I picked-up F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point and Need For Speed: Carbon Collector's Edition. Still working on Project: Snowblind and Need For Speed: Most Wanted though, so they'll have to wait. Picked-up The Legend Of Zelda and Link's Adventure re-issues for GBA on the cheap; about half-way through the first one so far. Finished Astro Boy the first time through (it needs to be played through twice to be finished), but I'm setting it aside to get into Gunstar Super Heroes for now. Found a sealed copy of Rez for PS2 (only domestic version ever released). While it is 'jaggier' than the Dreamcast version, it's not an issue; the game is still a work of art. The increased framerate over the Dreamcast version is also nice, and the slowdown is negligible. If you ever find this game, for either platform, buy it. Also, I heard back from the video game store, and they say Starfox works just fine... Looks like there's a problem with my SNES... Rats.
Oh, hey, I thought these were clever: http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/
Windows XP (operating system)
AVG Free Edition (antivirus)
Spybot (antispyware)
Firefox 2.0 (web browsing)
Thunderbird (e-mail)
OpenOffice (desktop publishing)
GIMP (image manipulation)
WinRAR (archive management)
BitTorrent (BitTorrent client)
FrostWire (P2P client)
foobar2000 (audio playback)
VLC (video playback)
GEAR PRO (audio and data burning)
Alcohol 120% (disc copying, image burning)
CloneDVD (DVD back-up)
ConvertXtoDVD (DVD creation)
Nine of those programs are completely free, most of them are simple, lightweight, and unobtrusive, and the default configurations for most are more than adequate for the casual user's purposes. Alcohol made the list because it supports a number of formats and options that GEAR does not.
I would, however, like to point-out something about Firefox's default configuration. I've noticed a number of concerns regarding the browser's memory usage since version 1.5 was released. It seems to use an awful lot of RAM for a web browser (I've seen it go over 150MB and stay there on my main PC), especially when considered alongside Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9. People have made accusations of memory leaks and sloppy code, but the fact of the matter is that it's a design decision intended to help smooth-out the browsing experience. By default, Firefox stores copies of viewed pages for each tab in the system's memory. This practice allows for quicker page-rendering, for example, when you click the 'forward' and 'back' buttons and switch between tabs, but at the cost of requiring more RAM. Thankfully, the Firefox team has made efforts to keep this memory usage from getting out of hand. Firefox bases its overall memory usage for these cached pages on the total amount of physical RAM in the system so that the browser never really bogs-down your system performance. If, however, you're neurotic like I am, and want your Firefox experience to leave a smaller footprint on your system, read this page. Following those instructions, you can reduce (or increase) the amount of RAM used to store the aforementioned data (or just turn off the feature altogether), and even have the browser free large amounts of RAM when minimized. Based on my experience, the performance gains from this memory usage are insignificant, and I appreciate being able to minimize the browser to free resources instead of having to close it. Memory usage after these tweaks now tends to hang around 20~40MB; 2~6MB when minimized.
From the Games department: NHL2K7 was proving to be just too easy on the "Pro" level, so I've restarted my season on "All-Star". I picked-up F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point and Need For Speed: Carbon Collector's Edition. Still working on Project: Snowblind and Need For Speed: Most Wanted though, so they'll have to wait. Picked-up The Legend Of Zelda and Link's Adventure re-issues for GBA on the cheap; about half-way through the first one so far. Finished Astro Boy the first time through (it needs to be played through twice to be finished), but I'm setting it aside to get into Gunstar Super Heroes for now. Found a sealed copy of Rez for PS2 (only domestic version ever released). While it is 'jaggier' than the Dreamcast version, it's not an issue; the game is still a work of art. The increased framerate over the Dreamcast version is also nice, and the slowdown is negligible. If you ever find this game, for either platform, buy it. Also, I heard back from the video game store, and they say Starfox works just fine... Looks like there's a problem with my SNES... Rats.
Oh, hey, I thought these were clever: http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Well then, that takes care of that...
I found a used XBOX with a Samsung DVD drive and a three-month warranty for $109 yesterday. It's a little noisy at times (both the DVD drive and the HDD, but they're normal noises based on my PC experience), but all of the disc read errors are gone! It's so nice to enjoy my XBOX games with consistent loading times, audio that doesn't cut-out while the drive makes ominous seek noises, and (so far) no fear of random, progress-threatening crashes! I also picked-up Otogi 2 (XBOX) and NHL '97 (Genesis; classic!) while I was out, as well as Starfox and Starfox 64 the day before. Turns-out the SNES Starfox cartridge doesn't work, so we'll see if they give me a refund, or let me exchange it.
I must make note of just how excited I am about this. The idea of an Oddworld movie just works a little too well in my head. If you've never played through any of the Oddworld games, then all you need to do is a read a synopsis of one and check-out some of the artwork, and you'll start to get the idea. If you'd like to see exactly how well this could work, watch the intro movie to Stranger's Wrath and feel the anticipation :) Speaking of, I'm nearing the end of Stranger's Wrath, and I've throughly enjoyed the experience (especially once I discovered the quicksave feature). This game constantly impresses me with its graphics, gameplay, and storyline/humour. The only knock I have against it is that it can get repetitive if played for too long all at once. It works fantastically, however, as a game you can pick-up for an hour or two a few times a week.
Oh, heh, before I go, my Leafs in NHL2K7 are 20-0-0 this season :) Yes, I'm playing it at the "Pro" level, and no, I'm not using any funny cheats or settings... A number of games have been quite close, production has been spread-out well across the roster, and Raycroft has not been stellar. I've been winning by playing a very physical game (defending Raycroft at all costs) while being exceedingly aggressive on offense (like 40+ SOG per game). The price has been a number of injuries (usually a few days or a couple of weeks at a time; Kubina's out for a few months), but my rookies (Ondrus, White) have really been able to step-up. Also, the shenanigans of those Florida games I mentioned earlier seem to have subsided; it's not perfect, and I guess I'll have to accept that injured players stay in until the end of the game, but it's been a lot of fun for the most part.
I must make note of just how excited I am about this. The idea of an Oddworld movie just works a little too well in my head. If you've never played through any of the Oddworld games, then all you need to do is a read a synopsis of one and check-out some of the artwork, and you'll start to get the idea. If you'd like to see exactly how well this could work, watch the intro movie to Stranger's Wrath and feel the anticipation :) Speaking of, I'm nearing the end of Stranger's Wrath, and I've throughly enjoyed the experience (especially once I discovered the quicksave feature). This game constantly impresses me with its graphics, gameplay, and storyline/humour. The only knock I have against it is that it can get repetitive if played for too long all at once. It works fantastically, however, as a game you can pick-up for an hour or two a few times a week.
Oh, heh, before I go, my Leafs in NHL2K7 are 20-0-0 this season :) Yes, I'm playing it at the "Pro" level, and no, I'm not using any funny cheats or settings... A number of games have been quite close, production has been spread-out well across the roster, and Raycroft has not been stellar. I've been winning by playing a very physical game (defending Raycroft at all costs) while being exceedingly aggressive on offense (like 40+ SOG per game). The price has been a number of injuries (usually a few days or a couple of weeks at a time; Kubina's out for a few months), but my rookies (Ondrus, White) have really been able to step-up. Also, the shenanigans of those Florida games I mentioned earlier seem to have subsided; it's not perfect, and I guess I'll have to accept that injured players stay in until the end of the game, but it's been a lot of fun for the most part.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
"They say she's the same, but she's not the same..."
I really don't like it when developers release different versions of the "same" game on multiple platforms. More often than not, at least one version stands-out from its other-platformed bretheren, and not in an encouraging way. I hate the idea that one might unknowingly buy the shitty version, be denied the better version because they don't own the right platform, or have to play two different games to get the full experience. Prime examples include Need For Speed, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2, and Splinter Cell Double Agent.
The original Need For Speed was a relatively (to its contemporaries) reality-based racing game on the 3DO and PC. The PSOne and Saturn versions were altered to make them more arcade-like, but retained the exact same name and cover art. Misleading? Uhm, yeah. Hot Pursuit 2 was developed primarily as a PS2 title, and it turned out to be a fantastic one on that platform. It was not, however, quite as fantastic on the PC, XBOX, or GameCube. An entirely different development team made a very different game for the other platforms, which is sad because the PS2 version was so much better. Finally, Double Agent on the 360 is a completely different experience on the XBOX 360 than it is on the XBOX/PS2/GC (I'm not sure about the PC version). The older consoles offer a more fleshed-out storyline, entirely different co-op and competitive multiplayer, and only night missions. Weird, eh?
Anyway, on a brighter note, Clive Barker's back!!! Clive Barker's Undying is easily one of my favourite video games. Period. So the news that he's working on a new project called Jericho has made me quite happy :)
The original Need For Speed was a relatively (to its contemporaries) reality-based racing game on the 3DO and PC. The PSOne and Saturn versions were altered to make them more arcade-like, but retained the exact same name and cover art. Misleading? Uhm, yeah. Hot Pursuit 2 was developed primarily as a PS2 title, and it turned out to be a fantastic one on that platform. It was not, however, quite as fantastic on the PC, XBOX, or GameCube. An entirely different development team made a very different game for the other platforms, which is sad because the PS2 version was so much better. Finally, Double Agent on the 360 is a completely different experience on the XBOX 360 than it is on the XBOX/PS2/GC (I'm not sure about the PC version). The older consoles offer a more fleshed-out storyline, entirely different co-op and competitive multiplayer, and only night missions. Weird, eh?
Anyway, on a brighter note, Clive Barker's back!!! Clive Barker's Undying is easily one of my favourite video games. Period. So the news that he's working on a new project called Jericho has made me quite happy :)
Monday, October 30, 2006
Grrr...
NHL2K7 does not remove injured players until after the game is over. Perhaps this is common knowledge for hockey video game enthusiasts, but I'm a few years out of the loop and somewhat surprised (though it does make sense when one considers such factors as player-specific stats, textures, and audio clips being loaded per game rather than manipulated in real-time). Also, I no longer trust my XBOX; it crashed with another dirty/damaged disc error as I was saving my profile, and corrupted the file in the process. I lost all of my settings and achievements... Luckily, the season data is stored in a separate file. Since I'd rather not risk my season data or (potentially?) the integrity of my hard drive, nor would I enjoy resorting to saving everything twice (once to a memory card, just in case), a new XBOX is in order.
On a brighter note, I'd had my fun with Windows Vista RC2, so I replaced it with Ubuntu 6.10. It was very nice, very fast, and seemed to do everything right... So where's the fun in that? :) I'm back on Debian (3.1 rev3) here, and I think I'll keep it this way for a while. The "Desktop Environment" option in tasksel does what I need without too much bloat, and all I had to do afterwards was add Gaim and BitTorrent, edit XFree86 to allow higher resolutions, and set-up a static IP. Anyway, here're a couple of interesting things I've discovered over the past couple of days: The "ati" driver that comes with most Linux distributions performs a hell of a lot better with my Radeon 8500 than the final ATi-distributed "fglrx" driver that supported it, and the full ISO image of Debian 3.1 rev3 didn't seem to include "Desktop Environment" in tasksel. Annoying, eh? Yeah, I swapped the Radeon 8500 (AGP4x) from my Athlon XP 2200+ machine (AGP8x board) for the GeForce 6200 (AGP8x) in this one (AGP4x board).
One more thing, about the CD/DVD suites: GEAR PRO is very nice, but I've still got a few small gripes. I did, however, remember one suite that I'd forgotten about before: SlySoft's "Clone" products. It's been a while since I've used them, but I remember good things. More on this next time...
On a brighter note, I'd had my fun with Windows Vista RC2, so I replaced it with Ubuntu 6.10. It was very nice, very fast, and seemed to do everything right... So where's the fun in that? :) I'm back on Debian (3.1 rev3) here, and I think I'll keep it this way for a while. The "Desktop Environment" option in tasksel does what I need without too much bloat, and all I had to do afterwards was add Gaim and BitTorrent, edit XFree86 to allow higher resolutions, and set-up a static IP. Anyway, here're a couple of interesting things I've discovered over the past couple of days: The "ati" driver that comes with most Linux distributions performs a hell of a lot better with my Radeon 8500 than the final ATi-distributed "fglrx" driver that supported it, and the full ISO image of Debian 3.1 rev3 didn't seem to include "Desktop Environment" in tasksel. Annoying, eh? Yeah, I swapped the Radeon 8500 (AGP4x) from my Athlon XP 2200+ machine (AGP8x board) for the GeForce 6200 (AGP8x) in this one (AGP4x board).
One more thing, about the CD/DVD suites: GEAR PRO is very nice, but I've still got a few small gripes. I did, however, remember one suite that I'd forgotten about before: SlySoft's "Clone" products. It's been a while since I've used them, but I remember good things. More on this next time...
Friday, October 27, 2006
If I may...
Allow me to bitch for a moment.
Nero. Yeah, the CD/DVD creation suite. Remember when it was good? When it wasn't horribly bloated, infectious, and broken? Yeah, me too... Man, those were good days. What used to be a full-featured, clean, and very effective piece of software now tries to do everything at once, integrate itself into Windows, and quite simply doesn't work on many systems. I could've dealt with the bloat and the integration because I was able to cut them out and focus on the core application, but then my audio CDs started acting-up. If it wasn't skipping tracks (even when previewed in Nero, before being written to CD; this was fixed by manually reverting to an older mp3pro.dll), it was including huge chunks of silence at the ends of certain tracks (no other application had this issue, using the same source material). So I started looking into my alternatives. Roxio? Still bitter from their past pieces of trash; they've got some explaining to do :) Alcohol? Nice, but does some really strange things to the registry, and doesn't do audio anyway. CDBurnerXP Pro? Definitely a favourite, but doesn't support DAO burning on a number of newer drives, and still has some annoying bugs (reporting that the disc is full before anything has been added; having to force it to burn). Cheetah? Now we're getting warmer, but the feature set is a little sparse. Well, I'm currently trying GEAR PRO, as it looks like the product with most comparable feature set to Nero (the good one). I'll keep you posted about how it goes. Oh, and don't bother suggesting iTunes for burning audio CDs; the ones it burns are always really touchy and seem to randomly skip.
Next on the block is NHL2K7. I was off to a great start (3-0-0) with my Leafs, but then came Florida. The first time I played them, as my goalie was holding the puck to freeze it, one of their players poke-checked him well after play had stopped (but just before the whistle), took the puck, and scored while my goalie just kinda stood there... Obviously, Raycroft was as shocked as I was. So I reloaded my season and restarted the Florida game. This time, play was stopped, Bouwmeester suffered a major injury and was to be out for a few days... And then somehow scored on me later in the game!? I won in a shootout, but still, what the hell? Oh, and just to add insult to injury, at one point Jokinen skated from beside the net, around Raycroft, and scored. Here's the thing: RAYCROFT DIDN'T MOVE! HE JUST STOOD THERE AT THE SIDE OF THE NET!?!?!? Seriously, I'm starting to have doubts about this game... Maybe the dev team were Panthers fans.
Nero. Yeah, the CD/DVD creation suite. Remember when it was good? When it wasn't horribly bloated, infectious, and broken? Yeah, me too... Man, those were good days. What used to be a full-featured, clean, and very effective piece of software now tries to do everything at once, integrate itself into Windows, and quite simply doesn't work on many systems. I could've dealt with the bloat and the integration because I was able to cut them out and focus on the core application, but then my audio CDs started acting-up. If it wasn't skipping tracks (even when previewed in Nero, before being written to CD; this was fixed by manually reverting to an older mp3pro.dll), it was including huge chunks of silence at the ends of certain tracks (no other application had this issue, using the same source material). So I started looking into my alternatives. Roxio? Still bitter from their past pieces of trash; they've got some explaining to do :) Alcohol? Nice, but does some really strange things to the registry, and doesn't do audio anyway. CDBurnerXP Pro? Definitely a favourite, but doesn't support DAO burning on a number of newer drives, and still has some annoying bugs (reporting that the disc is full before anything has been added; having to force it to burn). Cheetah? Now we're getting warmer, but the feature set is a little sparse. Well, I'm currently trying GEAR PRO, as it looks like the product with most comparable feature set to Nero (the good one). I'll keep you posted about how it goes. Oh, and don't bother suggesting iTunes for burning audio CDs; the ones it burns are always really touchy and seem to randomly skip.
Next on the block is NHL2K7. I was off to a great start (3-0-0) with my Leafs, but then came Florida. The first time I played them, as my goalie was holding the puck to freeze it, one of their players poke-checked him well after play had stopped (but just before the whistle), took the puck, and scored while my goalie just kinda stood there... Obviously, Raycroft was as shocked as I was. So I reloaded my season and restarted the Florida game. This time, play was stopped, Bouwmeester suffered a major injury and was to be out for a few days... And then somehow scored on me later in the game!? I won in a shootout, but still, what the hell? Oh, and just to add insult to injury, at one point Jokinen skated from beside the net, around Raycroft, and scored. Here's the thing: RAYCROFT DIDN'T MOVE! HE JUST STOOD THERE AT THE SIDE OF THE NET!?!?!? Seriously, I'm starting to have doubts about this game... Maybe the dev team were Panthers fans.
If I were to build a computer today...
Every now and again I get to wondering what I'd buy if I were to do a major system upgrade right then and there. This time, I've decided to share:
65W AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ ($300)
ASUS M2R32-MVP ($180)
256MB ATi Radeon 1900 GT or XT ($270 vs $310)
...And the rest would probably remain pretty close to what I've already got. The 4600+ has similar performance to a Core 2 Duo 6400 for about the same price, so there's no need to jump on the Intel bandwagon there. The M2R32-MVP is based on ATi's Xpress 3200 chipset and offers fast and reliable performance, right up there with any Intel- or nVidia-based board. The video cards, while lagging ever so slightly behind comparable nVidia products in terms of FPS, offer a higher overall image quality. Also, if I ever want to try a CrossFire setup, the ATi-based motherboard will come in handy, but that's just even more wishful thinking. Besides, this setup keeps in line with the recent AMD-ATi buyout :)
Otherwise, I'd just keep what I have and buy a Mac Mini to play with; it'd cost about the same.
P.S. I love the spell-checker in Firefox 2.0!
65W AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ ($300)
ASUS M2R32-MVP ($180)
256MB ATi Radeon 1900 GT or XT ($270 vs $310)
...And the rest would probably remain pretty close to what I've already got. The 4600+ has similar performance to a Core 2 Duo 6400 for about the same price, so there's no need to jump on the Intel bandwagon there. The M2R32-MVP is based on ATi's Xpress 3200 chipset and offers fast and reliable performance, right up there with any Intel- or nVidia-based board. The video cards, while lagging ever so slightly behind comparable nVidia products in terms of FPS, offer a higher overall image quality. Also, if I ever want to try a CrossFire setup, the ATi-based motherboard will come in handy, but that's just even more wishful thinking. Besides, this setup keeps in line with the recent AMD-ATi buyout :)
Otherwise, I'd just keep what I have and buy a Mac Mini to play with; it'd cost about the same.
P.S. I love the spell-checker in Firefox 2.0!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
I'm right pissed-off...
Silly me, I bought a game on a whim while out with a friend today. The details of this shopping trip aren't important, but rest assured, I want my money back. Unfortunately, there are generally no returns on opened software, plus my friend had the receipt... and threw it out. Fuck.
The game in question is Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition for Windows, and boy, did QA fuck-up on this one. The price was right (under $20), the packaging was nice, the game installed without issue (barring the fact that it came on five CDs), and things looked really sharp at 1152x864; better than they ever did on the game's native PS2 platform.
Here's the problem: The controls are painful. No, they quite literally hurt one's body. The game automatically maps the player movement to the right analog stick. Yes, the one on the right, which is, in fact, the wrong analog stick. Oh, and no, there's no way to change it. I did some research on the issue, and it is apparently not uncommon at all. It's so not uncommon that either Capcom or Ubisoft (I'm not sure which, as I can't find it on either company's site) quietly released a patch that addresses this, as well as other issues. Unfortunately, the patch still doesn't support a number of popular controllers from major manufacturers, including my XBOX 360 controller. So my options are to either map the keyboard movement keys to the left analog stick using third-party software, or play with the keyboard. The latter would seem to be the simplest solution, but a fast-paced brawler simply does not translate well to a keyboard. Apparently there are other issues of crashes, slowdown, and missing effects... Wheee!!!
I really wish I'd checked-out the reviews for the PC version before buying it, but I just figured that since the PS2 version was so universally loved, I couldn't lose! Maybe I can get a good trade-in value or something... Guh.
The game in question is Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition for Windows, and boy, did QA fuck-up on this one. The price was right (under $20), the packaging was nice, the game installed without issue (barring the fact that it came on five CDs), and things looked really sharp at 1152x864; better than they ever did on the game's native PS2 platform.
Here's the problem: The controls are painful. No, they quite literally hurt one's body. The game automatically maps the player movement to the right analog stick. Yes, the one on the right, which is, in fact, the wrong analog stick. Oh, and no, there's no way to change it. I did some research on the issue, and it is apparently not uncommon at all. It's so not uncommon that either Capcom or Ubisoft (I'm not sure which, as I can't find it on either company's site) quietly released a patch that addresses this, as well as other issues. Unfortunately, the patch still doesn't support a number of popular controllers from major manufacturers, including my XBOX 360 controller. So my options are to either map the keyboard movement keys to the left analog stick using third-party software, or play with the keyboard. The latter would seem to be the simplest solution, but a fast-paced brawler simply does not translate well to a keyboard. Apparently there are other issues of crashes, slowdown, and missing effects... Wheee!!!
I really wish I'd checked-out the reviews for the PC version before buying it, but I just figured that since the PS2 version was so universally loved, I couldn't lose! Maybe I can get a good trade-in value or something... Guh.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
I only have time for a quickie...
IE7's out. I like it. Give it a try if you're on Windows XP or 2003. Hey, did anyone notice that the IE7 version number in XP (7.0.5730.11) is earlier than the one in Vista RC2 (7.0.5744.16384)? Exciting, no? No, not really.
I was doing some shopping for a friend's upcoming baby shower, and made a few stops while I was out. I came home with a McDonald's Cripsy Chicken Sandwich (had a coupon for a free large sandwich; decided to try the most expensive thing they had), a humidifier (for the babies; she's having twins), The Warriors (XBOX; it was cheap), and DooM 64. The sandwich was okay, the humidifer was on the registry, The Warriors doesn't like my XBOX (what else is new), and DooM 64 is a whole lot of fun. It would be nice if DooM 64 saved your control and brightness settings (you thought DooM 3 was dark? Hell, they don't even give you a flashlight in this one!), but it's a minor annoyance.
Before I go, a quick update on my Zelda progress: I finished Ocarina Of Time the other day, and it was a lot of fun. Not as much fun as I've ever had with a game, or even a Zelda game (Link's Awakening is still my favourite), but definitely a solid title worth anyone's time. I'm now getting into Majora's Mask. If the introductory chapter is any indication, this is definitely going to be my kind of video game. For anyone who hasn't played the game, the entire story takes place over three days, and time passes pretty quickly; the time travel aspects of the previous Zelda game return in Majora's Mask, however, so things promise to be interesting. It seems as though the more original gameplay aspects of Ocarina Of Time (music, masks, time) have been streamlined and augmented to have a greater effect on the core gameplay and not just the plot and sidequests. What really stands-out above all else, though, is the presentation. This game requires the N64 RAM expansion, but doesn't just toss in more and higher-quality textures to the same old game engine; instead, we're treated to some really creative cinematography, characterization, visual effects, and sounds. The result of this more ambitious approach is a very effective visual and aural storytelling component of the game. They're all ultimately little things, as the game still remains true to the Zelda franchise, but they definitely make a very welcome difference. So, I still need to pick up Ages, Seasons, Minish Cap, and Wind Waker, as well as replay Zelda and Link (I'm thinking the GBA re-issues), but I'm making progress ;) By the time I'm done with those, Wii, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass should all be readily available.
I was doing some shopping for a friend's upcoming baby shower, and made a few stops while I was out. I came home with a McDonald's Cripsy Chicken Sandwich (had a coupon for a free large sandwich; decided to try the most expensive thing they had), a humidifier (for the babies; she's having twins), The Warriors (XBOX; it was cheap), and DooM 64. The sandwich was okay, the humidifer was on the registry, The Warriors doesn't like my XBOX (what else is new), and DooM 64 is a whole lot of fun. It would be nice if DooM 64 saved your control and brightness settings (you thought DooM 3 was dark? Hell, they don't even give you a flashlight in this one!), but it's a minor annoyance.
Before I go, a quick update on my Zelda progress: I finished Ocarina Of Time the other day, and it was a lot of fun. Not as much fun as I've ever had with a game, or even a Zelda game (Link's Awakening is still my favourite), but definitely a solid title worth anyone's time. I'm now getting into Majora's Mask. If the introductory chapter is any indication, this is definitely going to be my kind of video game. For anyone who hasn't played the game, the entire story takes place over three days, and time passes pretty quickly; the time travel aspects of the previous Zelda game return in Majora's Mask, however, so things promise to be interesting. It seems as though the more original gameplay aspects of Ocarina Of Time (music, masks, time) have been streamlined and augmented to have a greater effect on the core gameplay and not just the plot and sidequests. What really stands-out above all else, though, is the presentation. This game requires the N64 RAM expansion, but doesn't just toss in more and higher-quality textures to the same old game engine; instead, we're treated to some really creative cinematography, characterization, visual effects, and sounds. The result of this more ambitious approach is a very effective visual and aural storytelling component of the game. They're all ultimately little things, as the game still remains true to the Zelda franchise, but they definitely make a very welcome difference. So, I still need to pick up Ages, Seasons, Minish Cap, and Wind Waker, as well as replay Zelda and Link (I'm thinking the GBA re-issues), but I'm making progress ;) By the time I'm done with those, Wii, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass should all be readily available.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Sorry...
...Can't talk; busy with Yakuza, Zelda, Katamari, and the Guitar Hero II demo.
What? IE7 and Firefox 2.0? Google and YouTube? Responsibility? Real life in general? Bah, it can wait...
What? IE7 and Firefox 2.0? Google and YouTube? Responsibility? Real life in general? Bah, it can wait...
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Volcanoless?
Decided I'd had my fun with Vista RC1 Update, and finally got around to snagging a copy of SymphonyOS. SymphonyOS is a Linux distribution based on Debian with touches of Mozilla that aims to streamline the whole desktop computing experience. From the Orchestra development environment, through the Mezzo desktop environment (very cool; check it out), to the OneClick package installation "store", the result (still in BETA at this point) is very promising for general Linux desktop computing. I had no problems with the bootable CD version of the OS, but I couldn't get it to install properly on my hard drive. Luckily, Vista RC2 was released shortly thereafter, so I put Symphony and any associated frustrations on hold. RC2 (Build 5744) doesn't seem particularly different from RC1 Update (Build 5728); still runs just fine, looks very pretty, and Internet Explorer 7 has the same rendering issues (specifically with Google sites and Slashdot). I assume that the onus of driver support at this point is on the hardware manufacturers, so we'll see if Creative and SiS decide to let me use my existing hardware in Vista.
I've got a few service contracts in progress at the moment, but not enough time to get into them all at the moment, so I'll save that for my next update.
Oh, and I picked-up a 10dBi directional wireless antenna today... The wireless signal on my main machine is much more consistent now.
On the video game front, I picked-up the two N64 Zelda games (Ocarina Of Time, Majora's Mask) along with the RAM upgrade cart for a pretty reasonable price. I'd been meaning to do this for years now, but with the prices they were going for coupled with what I already had on my plate, the whole endeavour just didn't make sense. I also happened across a sealed copy of the original Katamari Damacy for PS2 for under $30... Had to pick that up :)
I've got a few service contracts in progress at the moment, but not enough time to get into them all at the moment, so I'll save that for my next update.
Oh, and I picked-up a 10dBi directional wireless antenna today... The wireless signal on my main machine is much more consistent now.
On the video game front, I picked-up the two N64 Zelda games (Ocarina Of Time, Majora's Mask) along with the RAM upgrade cart for a pretty reasonable price. I'd been meaning to do this for years now, but with the prices they were going for coupled with what I already had on my plate, the whole endeavour just didn't make sense. I also happened across a sealed copy of the original Katamari Damacy for PS2 for under $30... Had to pick that up :)
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Hosed! :)
My time spent with Linux seems to go in cycles... I grab either a new version of something I'm familiar with or try a new distro, figure out how to get things running smoothly, then worry about the niceties (browser plug-ins, DVD playback, CD burning, etc...), then focus on smooth 3D gaming. After that goal is achieved, I tend to start over or revert to some form of Windows for a while. I gave-up on Ubuntu 6.06 last night, after it mangled a basic data burn to a CD-RW. It worked fine sometimes, and came-out unreadable others... Not good enough to keep me interested any longer (plus Flash for Linux is still stuck at version 7), but good enough to prompt me to hose-down the system and install Build 5728 ("RC1 Update") of Windows Vista.
I haven't noticed any huge differences since BETA 2, but then I haven't spent much quality time with either release. I did discover a few new things by installing Vista on my P4 2.4B system though: Vista doesn't (yet?) support SoundBlaster Live!s or SiS products particularly well. The SB Live! is simply unrecognized and unsupported, and the onboard AC'97 audio hardware, while recognized and supported, produces no sound and seems to make the system crawl; SiS' website offers no Vista software. So, no audio! Wheee! Also, the 256MB AGP 4x (8x bottlenecked by mobo) GeForce 6200 gets a performance rating of only 2.2 for "Desktop performance for Windows Aero", which is strange, since it gets a score of 3.0 for "3D business and gaming graphics performance". It's sad when your video card can run something like UT2004 without effort, but can't handle your OS's GUI ;) Okay, no, that's not true; the card can handle Vista's "Aero" GUI just fine, but the new performance rating system rates your system by its lowest-scoring component... Kinda sucks when your entire system's rating is brought down so low just because there're faster cards out there; or at least that seems to be the case when you consider the adequate performance of my current setup.
I haven't noticed any huge differences since BETA 2, but then I haven't spent much quality time with either release. I did discover a few new things by installing Vista on my P4 2.4B system though: Vista doesn't (yet?) support SoundBlaster Live!s or SiS products particularly well. The SB Live! is simply unrecognized and unsupported, and the onboard AC'97 audio hardware, while recognized and supported, produces no sound and seems to make the system crawl; SiS' website offers no Vista software. So, no audio! Wheee! Also, the 256MB AGP 4x (8x bottlenecked by mobo) GeForce 6200 gets a performance rating of only 2.2 for "Desktop performance for Windows Aero", which is strange, since it gets a score of 3.0 for "3D business and gaming graphics performance". It's sad when your video card can run something like UT2004 without effort, but can't handle your OS's GUI ;) Okay, no, that's not true; the card can handle Vista's "Aero" GUI just fine, but the new performance rating system rates your system by its lowest-scoring component... Kinda sucks when your entire system's rating is brought down so low just because there're faster cards out there; or at least that seems to be the case when you consider the adequate performance of my current setup.
I Need A New XBOX
I wanted to start this season off right, so I did my research and checked-out what the sports companies have to offer in terms of hockey games this year (the last hockey game I played was NHL2003 on my PC). It looks like EA neutered all but the XBOX360 release of NHL07, and they're charging nearly twice the price of the competition on current-gen systems. Considering these two important factors along with the fact that 2K Games' offerings have been getting slightly higher reviews, the logical choice was (at a mere $20 CDN) NHL 2K7 for XBOX.
I've been having an absolute blast with it for the most part (I could live without the over-reliance on one-timers), but my Thomson-drive XBOX isn't cooperating with the disc. It's kind of annoying to have an awesome game and unlock some of the tougher acheivements just to have the game crash with a dirty disc error before it can save your progress... *sigh*
I've been having an absolute blast with it for the most part (I could live without the over-reliance on one-timers), but my Thomson-drive XBOX isn't cooperating with the disc. It's kind of annoying to have an awesome game and unlock some of the tougher acheivements just to have the game crash with a dirty disc error before it can save your progress... *sigh*
Monday, September 25, 2006
"God, I miss pants."
I took Sunday to sit down and finish Jak II. It was fun, funny, a good story, and just the right kind of challenge/frustration. I must say that even though I had a great time with this game, I preferred the first game in the series. Perhaps it was the GTA-inspired mission system, but something just felt a little off after having so much fun with the original. D'ah well, now I have to decide what to play next on my PS2. Shall I continue the series and dive into Jak 3, or finally get around to finishing Ico? What about God Of War? Yakuza? Okami?
Oh yeah, I broke-down and bought Yakuza and Okami :) Yakuza has been great fun so far; it's a story-driven brawler with a very Shenmue-like presentation (same character design team, apparently); I understand it's a spiritual successor to SEGA's SpikeOut. Okami is just beautiful. Think Nintendo 64 Zelda gameplay, but done entirely in a style of cel-shading that is made to resemble Japanese painting on papyrus; yeah, the game pretty much paints itself right before your eyes as you play it, and some of your attacks and puzzle-solving techniques entail painting on the screen yourself!
I also happened across cheap copies of Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA), and Metal Slug 3 (XBOX; my favourite game in the series, it'll be a nice present for someone).
And before I go, I should mention that I got back into playing Stranger's Wrath. I had left it alone a while back because I was finding this one part, about two thirds in, to be extremely frustrating. I remember wishing there was a checkpoint or something so that I didn't have to repeat so much work just to die again and again... Well, today, I realized that the game has a quicksave feature, and that I could've made a checkpoint of sorts anywhere I wanted. Gah. Such a great game, and I've seen it for $13 CDN brand new at Best Buy!
Oh yeah, I broke-down and bought Yakuza and Okami :) Yakuza has been great fun so far; it's a story-driven brawler with a very Shenmue-like presentation (same character design team, apparently); I understand it's a spiritual successor to SEGA's SpikeOut. Okami is just beautiful. Think Nintendo 64 Zelda gameplay, but done entirely in a style of cel-shading that is made to resemble Japanese painting on papyrus; yeah, the game pretty much paints itself right before your eyes as you play it, and some of your attacks and puzzle-solving techniques entail painting on the screen yourself!
I also happened across cheap copies of Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA), and Metal Slug 3 (XBOX; my favourite game in the series, it'll be a nice present for someone).
And before I go, I should mention that I got back into playing Stranger's Wrath. I had left it alone a while back because I was finding this one part, about two thirds in, to be extremely frustrating. I remember wishing there was a checkpoint or something so that I didn't have to repeat so much work just to die again and again... Well, today, I realized that the game has a quicksave feature, and that I could've made a checkpoint of sorts anywhere I wanted. Gah. Such a great game, and I've seen it for $13 CDN brand new at Best Buy!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Bah! I give up...
iTunes 7 would've been bearable if not for the skipping music, so I decided to try a nightly build of Songbird; it was nice, but there was a serious memory leak (MP3 playback software should not use 650MB of RAM). I switched back to Winamp, and I like it, as it's definitely a comparable product to iTunes. It has, however, always had weird issues with the "always on top" function... Even when that option is turned off, my auto-hidden Start menu (which is set to "always on top") is no longer "always on top", and therefore inaccessible whenever another window is maximized. Gah! So now I'm using foobar2000, and it's fantastic. It just works out of the box, it's light-weight, and it's pretty customizable.
Yeah, I considered downgrading to iTunes 6.0.5.20 (too much work) and playing with Windows Media Player 10 (not a fan of the interface; waiting for 11 to leave BETA), but foobar2000 spared me the trouble.
Before I go, I finally got the SNES my brother picked-up for me for $20 at a garage sale. It came with two controllers, the stereo composite cables, and Super Mario World. Wheee! ;)
Yeah, I considered downgrading to iTunes 6.0.5.20 (too much work) and playing with Windows Media Player 10 (not a fan of the interface; waiting for 11 to leave BETA), but foobar2000 spared me the trouble.
Before I go, I finally got the SNES my brother picked-up for me for $20 at a garage sale. It came with two controllers, the stereo composite cables, and Super Mario World. Wheee! ;)
Friday, September 15, 2006
iTunes 7! Wheee!!!
I like the new interface, and I don't mind the unification of the iPod drivers, Quicktime, and iTunes into one neat package.
I do not, however, like that my MP3s now skip when I play them in iTunes, or how the stand-alone Quicktime's update feature wouldn't find the 7.1 to 7.1.3 update (prior to installing the new version of iTunes), or how if the "iTunes" folder isn't in the the "All Programs" folder of the "Start" menu, iTunes assumes that it isn't installed properly and automatically attempts to re-install itself.
Finally, I prefer the green over the blue tied eighth notes icon.
That is all.
I do not, however, like that my MP3s now skip when I play them in iTunes, or how the stand-alone Quicktime's update feature wouldn't find the 7.1 to 7.1.3 update (prior to installing the new version of iTunes), or how if the "iTunes" folder isn't in the the "All Programs" folder of the "Start" menu, iTunes assumes that it isn't installed properly and automatically attempts to re-install itself.
Finally, I prefer the green over the blue tied eighth notes icon.
That is all.
Just a follow-up...
More good Steam/Vivendi/Majesco/Double Fine news! Read the press release here!
I mean, really, if it turns-out to be $20 for Psychonauts, then that's a steal!
I mean, really, if it turns-out to be $20 for Psychonauts, then that's a steal!
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