Ok, last post for sometime...
Tomorrow my phone line and internet cease to exist. The phone is moving to my new flat in Ipswich, and hopefully soon after, my new broadband supplier will start working.
So, I'll be lost in the ether for a while, hopefully not too long (maybe end of this week if I'm lucky, or next week).
Adios till then.... hopefully when I'm back I'd received my new stuff so I can blog a bit faster :p
I've just ordered an upgrade. I'm going to sell my amd fx 64 + the abit fatality mobo + 4gig ddr400 ram on ebay (they've held a good price till now and I don't really need them)
I was going to get a geforce 7950 gx2 but I thought that would be silly cos it's the last of the current generation and is NOT a directx 10 card, so what's the point... instead I opted to change back to Intel...
My new stuff should arrive early next week, and are:
Abit AB9-Pro motherboard
Intel Conroe Core 2 Duo e6700
4x1gig Corsair paired DDR2 800 (PC6400) RAM
I'll update Good Delicious when the stuff is here and when I've installed it.
SoB out
PS: I go and watch Superman Returns with Kelly in the imax tomorrow, can't wait!
PS2: I am moving jobs to Ipswich, so I'll be offline from Tuesday cos I've moved my phone line and broadband internet to there, and I'll be reconnected end of next week I hope.
Well sort of...
First a clarification, turns out that the trailer I posted a few days ago of the Portal Gun will NOT be used in Half Life 2 or any other Valve FPS as yet, it will actually ship as a stand-alone source powered puzzle game with Episode 2. The puzzle game will use lots of Portal trickery to confuse you even more... and is appropriately called Portal :)
So, my dream of people abusing the Portal Gun in FPS has been shattered :(
But more importantly, Portal was initially concieved by a group of students at the Digipen Institute of Technology, and they programmed a full puzzle game called Nabacular Drop. In full 3D this game replicates exactly what you saw in the trailer a few days ago. Valve saw the game and employed the students to create Portal. Who said games don't make money :)
Luckily, Nabacular Drop is still available for download here.
So go grab it, and as the Prodigy put it... Walk through mind fields and watch your head rock. Cos this one will sure spin your head and world around. Great fun though :)
Ok, this is another video post I'm afraid. Youtube.com is so easy to use and embed in a blog that it would be criminal not to share these classics with all you people :)
Now, back to Daigo. Daigo is the Japanese and World number one street fighter player.
This video is taken from the EVO 2004 Street Fighter III finals, where he's struggling to beat the American Justin Wong. Daido is Ken and Justin is Chun Lee. With just a fraction of health left, Ken is keeping his distance from Chun, when she launches a devastating super attack.
What follows is history.... pure gaming classic :)
Note: I've played Street Fighter 2 very briefly, and was more a Mortal Kombat 2/3 fan. But, I take it what Daigo did was incredibly difficult to do. It's called Parrying (ie blocking) and I think it takes alot of skill to perform, especially the last jump/parry.... just watch for yourselves and if anything this video is worth watching for the crowd reaction alone......
Ok this is semi-unique.
Anyone who's played Prey (what?! you haven't?! get it now!) will know all about those funny dimension-shifting portals they introduced.
So, not to be beaten, Valve have released a trailer for what they call a Portal Gun, which might be used in future Half Life 2 Episodes. The gun does exactly what it says on the tin, ie lets you create portals anywhere you want!
The consequences (and physics-related exploitations) are unimaginable.
If people could trick-jump with humble Quake 3, imagine what they could come up with using this one!
Valve have released an interesting trailer of the gun, in a safety-at-work style video. Enjoy.
id Software's revealed that it's "making great strides in tuning and tweaking the.. multiplayer gaming experience" for Quake 4 in the next point release - 1.3.
Changes are being made in response to fan feedback on the sequel and features requested by the Quake 4 community, with the developer stating that multiplayer alterations introduced in the 1.3 point release "will provide a faster, smoother, and more highly competitive experience". In addition, id says that it hopes the alterations will make the game "even more fun for new players"
It continues: "You can expect increased mobility and control, improved performance with ambient lighting options, and weapon alterations that advance playability and challenge competitive players."
Plus, id has let slip that it's also introducing a new gametype, new weapons and "several professionally made maps" in the 1.3 point release. The update is currently undergoing beta testing and the developer hopes to release it into the public domain "sometime before QuakeCon" - QuakeCon runs from August 3 to August 6.
Story from C&VG
So, are they finally going to create the multiplayer experience they promised us, ie a better Quake 3 Arena. The Q4 servers remain empty most of the time, and it's hard to find a populated server these days. As compared to the Q3A servers that are always full and it's easy to just jump in without having to hunt around for ages.
I think id outshone themselves when they created Q3A, it was the inital shell-shock for the PC fragging community that we still can't get over. A great, fluid, no frills games. Problem with Q4 is that it tried to replicate all of that using the Doom3 engine, which is more geared towards graphical bells and whistles, rather than deathmatch physics.
Anyhow, let's hope they sort it out this time and get those servers full again. Maybe this update will finally convince a certain german friend of mine who still refuses to play anything but Q3A, and just recently discovered that Windows XP was actually released by Microsoft 5 years ago :p
Watch Dan Castellanata and Harry Shearer play the various characters that they do in The Simpsons :o)
"Dr Hebert, I ate all of your tongue depressors!"
I don't really remember the last time I was truely addicted to a game. Perhaps the last one was Exit on the PSP... or maybe Half Life 2, or Kameo. Not sure.
What I do know now though is that I am well and truely (and hopelessly ) addicted to Titan Quest, by Iron Lore. A PC action RPG game, built exactly like Diablo, but instead of fantasy dwarves and elves, Titan Quest is based on Greek Mythology.
The game is very easy to play, the interface is well designed and clutter-free, and all you need to do to play is click your mouse to move, or to attack. That's about it. There is a degree of character customisation, but nothing way to complicated like Oblivion, it's just a matter of picking a primary and secondary mastery. Each mastery has set of skills that you can choose to learn.
But all that RPG stuff falls to the side of the main game factor: combat. As anyone who's played Diablo will know, the game is all about finding monsters and killing them. Lots of them. There's loads of loot to pick up and gold to collect.
Also, the game is no where near open-ended or open-formed or whatever they call them. It's extremely linear, so you can't really get lost, and you're never stuck with what to do next. Which is what I love, as you might know by now :)
The graphics are absolutely AWESOME. Even though you're playing from a high up camera view, and it doesn't rotate, but still the care and detail put into the graphics is great. Enemies and environment are gorgeous to look at. Most people criticised the sound, but I think the ambience and music now and then are quite good.
So, if you haven't gotten the point by now - GET TITAN QUEST. It's fun and easy to play, is very long, and looks great. You can play with just one hand on the mouse, or use all the keyboard shortcuts, it's that intuitive and well-designed. Oh and there's a whole chapter in Egypt :)
SoBtarius of Sparta signing out.
PS: I reached this Oracle lady in the game and decided to take a snap cos it looked so cool. That big scary monster on the right is my pet Core Dweller. He kicks ass.
The 6th of July was my birthday. I'm 29. Sucks.
Now that's out the way :p Kelly came over that day and brought me a million and one things!
First off, was of course a nice card.
Then, she gave me a bag full of goodies!
3 T-Shirts, some converse All Star shoes (you know the ones that basketball players used to wear and emos still wear!), a VERY BIG bottle of martini bianco, but... the shocker came in the little box at the bottom of the bag..
It was something I had mentioned aeons ago, it was something that me and Ziad had looked longingly at but never bought it cos we were too cheap :) I have no clue where she found it and how the hell she even remembered that I wanted a VICTORINOX Cybertool 34!
The Swiss Army Knife for geeks, this one has everything you'd need to dismantle any computer, for your old spectrum to the supercray. The best gift I've had ever!
And what did I get her for her birthday. Erm, a nurses watch that looked like a heart and had a little Eeyore on it. That's it, nothing else. HOW SAD.
Oh, and she took me out for dinner and baked me a cake!
So THANK YOU SO MUCH Kelly. Now I go dismantle my PC just for fun :)
Finally! Finally Sony has knocked some senses back into it's strategy with the PSP.
On paper, the PSP is a sexy piece of hardware, lots of great features. What really let's it down is the games. All it turn out to be is exactly what it's name is, a portable PlayStation.
By that I mean 90% of the games on the machine are just smaller versions of their PSX/PS2 big brothers, with graphics between the two. You get the GTAs, the Ridge Racers, the WipeOuts, and the Metal Gears. And because of this I can only really recommend 2 PSP "killer apps", Lumines and Exit. Katamari Damacy is also good but it's a PS2 conversion.
And this is where Nintendo know what they're doing, cos not only do they flog their life-long franchises (mario, zelda, metroid etc), but they also come up with some really new and interesting things, eg Chibi Robo, bit Generations, WarioWare etc etc.
But the other day I bought LocoRoco. A PSP exclusive, the game is exactly what handhelds were made for - simple, innovative fun. The game features basic graphics with primary colours, and has one of the easiest control/gameplay methods you'll find (left/right triggers to roll, and one button!). All you gotta do is roll the very cheerful LocoRocos around the world to collect berries, while navigating the cool world which can include things like swings, gears, wind pipes, traps and even the inside of a big frog!
The gameplay is really easy to get into, and it has a killer soundtrack which you can't help humming to, featuring the Locos themselves singing along (and not always in time with each other!). No screenshot nor rant from me can do the game justice, so I've posted the official trailer too!
And that's what Sony need to do more of, make new fun games to play, not just another Tekken for PSP. At least Lumines 2 and Exit 2 have been announced...
SoB - A not-so-happy-PSP-owner-that's-now-much-happier :o)
There seems to be a trend today for websites to create the top 10 list of everything, from "manly" games to goriest game scenes to best levels etc etc etc. I guess it's just the damn summer games drought that's left them with nothing else to do.
Anyhow, non of the top 10 lists I've seen recently have caught my attention, but recently gametrailers.com have compiled an admittedly good video of the top 10 video game weapons. Although I disagree with their choice/order (comeone? BFG not at number 1????), the video is still worth watching, so here it is. Have fun...
