One month of craziness

Good grief! Its been a month since my last blog. I really am bad at this, eh? Anyway, one of the reasons I'm not blogging religiously is that I'm a lazy SOB (this has already been stated in previous blogs). But work has been crazy the last couple of weeks and DarkThrone keeps me really busy and happy. So, without further ado, let the avalanche of links commence!

GS Resident Cynic comments on closure of Troika - yep, the people behind game Vampires: The Masquerade game (using the brand-spankingly new Half-Life 2 engine) has gone under. Seems that although there were an abundance of talent, the games were too rough to sell in big numbers and funding from publishers dried up. Shame really.

The exquisite madness of Game Developers Conference (GDC) starts here!

GameSpy's GDC 2005 home page

The GirlSpy and GDC - Zoë Flower comments on GDC and the fact that although she wants women to empower themselves in the gaming industry, she also doesn't want women role-models to become bigger than the games they create and thus stunting the industry with long, boring gender issues.

The XBox Xenon/360/Next - While Microsoft plays the name-game, checkout these links for details about their next console.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Spore: a new way of game content design - Sim-god Sid Meier went to the "underground" demo scene in Europe, took the best coders there and blew away the crowd with the dynamic game they came up with.

Annual GDC 10 min design challenge - Take a concept for a game, give it to three differenct prominent game designers and stand back... Very interesting as always.

Game developers rant about the difficulties in the development of games today and the current evil publishing model - An inspiring read!

Greg Costikyan' weblog - this guy is a firm advocate of change in the current publishing model.

Non-GDC links

The Resident Cynic clears his inbox!

Lumines for the PSP - Tetris for the 22nd century

A technical discussion on the CELL (PS3) processor: the principles behind the design. If you don't know at least what goes on inside a processor, this might be a little incomprehensible.

PCIe Platforms Compared : Opteron / nForce4 vs. Xeon / E7525

A cheap nForce 4 Ultra motherboard gets benched by ExtremeTech. Where can I buy one?

Big Security Guns Should Aim Carefully at Adware, Spyware - a columnist give his opinion on what the big anti-virus software houses should work on, but also not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Ten Not-So-Simple Rules for Using the Internet - Derived from Microsoft's own in-house principles.

ExtremeTech updates their uber-gaming machine. This will set you back about $4 000. Ouch!

Read manga on your PSP! Here's how...

Electricity through the motion of the ocean - Turbines embedded on the ocean floor harnessing the constant wave action of the ocean can generate a lot of electricity. Apparently there will be test-systems in the water off of the US-East Coast as early as June 2005!

Mueller Tournament - Each year this site hosts a contest where anyone (women included) can vote for their favourite, most desirable woman (if she is in the list). You whittle your choices down through at tournament style interface. Quite fun and very difficult.

Space Quest 1 in Doom 3 Design Documentation - read the documentation of one man's vision of re-creating the original Space Quest inside the Doom 3 Engine. Unfortunately, it seems he's struggling under the workload and needs a few hands...

Nintendo DS docking station built out of Legos - Crazy, but true...

ExtremeTech tests a bunch of 3D cards and determines the best card for your hard-earned cash.

Media Guide for the PSP by ExtremeTech - PSP goodness all-round. Give it a whirl.

Australians download their favourite American TV shows via BitTorrent - Why? Because it takes their public broadcasting companies four months to air the episodes. They shouldn't emigrate to South Africa then. Here it takes a few years for quality TV shows to appear on our screens.

Which Online Music Service is best? ExtremeTech finds out.

10 Features Longhorn needs - a user gives his essential list for Microsoft's upcoming OS.

Bioware's Jade Empire - GameSpy's archive on all things Jade Emipre. Please, Bioware! Made a PC version as well!!!

Converting DVDs to PSP Video format - Wonderfully done site and the software is free!

PlanetFargo World of Warcraft humor

MUST READ LINKS

Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound on Stereo headphones - You'll sh*t yourself when you do the flash application with normal crappy headphones. Its that unbelievable. Magic at its best! I want it on the PSP!

Midi-Chlorians: Physiology, Physics, and the Force - one Star Wars fan' extremely well thought-out opinion.

FBI IT Upgrade Failure - if you ever want to be at the head of an massive firm/company/government agency's IT department, read this to find out how NOT to screw up a big project.

Hand-made lightsabers - until the real thing exists someday, these babies are the nearest and best substitutes. The hilts are hand-made from aircraft-class steel with "near unbreakable" plastic blades. The site urges that buyers must use these blades in fake combat situations. Just imagine... 20 people dressed as Jedi and Sith costumes walking down a street at night with these lit swords... and then fighting each other! We will all call them crazy nuts, but secretly we want to wield the blades as well!

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This is where some trendy or ironic pop culture or literature reference would go, if I wasn't so @#$% lazy

Knighthood To the King of Software

Yep, the last three weeks couldn't have ended on a stranger note.  The "King of Software" (TM pending) Bill Gates received an honorary knighthood from the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II.  This was presented to him on Thursday.  Buckingham Palace claims the reasons for bestowing such a title on our favourite we-love-to-hate guy is because of his business success and the multi-million dollar donations to charity he and his wife give each year.  Does this mean that if I make a billion rands a year and give away 10% of that that I will also get a knighthood?  Seems so. 

Anyway, congrats to old Bill. Now he can emblemize his golden toilet paper with the cross he received.  And the M$ haters out there must now add "Sir" to whatever they want to call old William this week.

 

Many events I want to comment on happen during the weeks I don't blog.  'Cause I'm such a lazy SOB I even forget the interesting stuff.  That's why I keep a link repository for you fine folks who read this column (all 2 of you)!  Here we go:

 

GS' Resident Cynic on Rushed Games - I've recently finished my light side play-through of KotOR2 and found it better than the first in most departments and downright horrible in a miniscule few.  But according to my favourite columnist there would have been some in-game cut-scenes at the end for all the characters involved.  Unfortunately LucasArts rushed the development and we have to be satisfied with text-only expositions.  I love this game to bits and would still play it till 3 each morning if I didn't have to work the next day. 

Matrix Online Lead Designer Interview - GameSpy interviews the lead designer of MxO.  A very interesting read about this MMO.

Auto Assault Interview - another interview about this Mad Max-style car battling MMO.  I've always wanted to charge down a mutant on my way to work in the far future!  Yeah!

Tekken 5 Review - the grand-daddy of 3D fighters just got a new installment and its the bees knees according to GS.  Check it out!

Will Wright Interview - The father of simulation games talks to GS about the history of the Sims.  Quite insightful.  There are many game ideas that could follow similarly history paths but don't make it because of lack of will and courage to see it through.

Gran Tourismo 4 Review - At last, PS2 owners and GT gearheads can rejoice.  The best of the GT series is out.  Scored highly.  I played the BMW 1 Series disk that BMW sent out to all of their valued customers.  I really liked it, but the simulation is ultra-realistic and will put off many a casual gamer.  Shame, really.

Dynasty Warriors on the PSP - this is going to be sooo sweet, it'll be unreal!!  I love the DW series on the PS2.  Its fun on a bun and can't be beat for the arcade feeling it oozes whilst you pummel hundreds of chinamen.  On the PSP you'll be able to play one single massive battle in 10 minute chunks.  Anyone who has played DW on the PS2 knows that a single battle can take upwards of 1 hour to complete at a reasonable pace.

Call of Cthulhu Preview - this game is based on the HP Lovecraft universe of insanity and scary monsters.  Read the preview to find out how far along they are to scaring us silly at the end of this year.

The Elderscrolls IV:  Oblivion Screens - a few more screens have been released by Bethesda.  I'm so getting this game and destroying my PC in the process.  Love the smell of fried silicon in the morning...

 

The last 2 PlanetFargo's where hilarious to the extreme.  Brian 'Fargo' Kosak is one funny man.  First he pilots a submarine into the middle of a battle fleet and surfaces and follows it up by taking Sony to court... and winning!

 

Finally the column On-Life had a very interesting article about the selling of pizza through EverQuest 2.  Yes, you read right, pizza.  Apparently you type in "/pizza" in the chat box and a new browser window is opened and the Pizza Hut site opens.  You can then order pizzas from the site direct to your home.  Very nifty... and very scary.  Since billboards and normal advertising won't work in fantasy or sci-fi style games other means of encroaching on our game time must be taken.  I agree that ordering a pizza and a Coke through my game client is kinky in the extreme, but that means that I'm allowing the real world that I'm trying to escape from for a few hours to come rushing back in.  I that is precisely why I play games:  to live in another world and to do stuff that would get me jailed or killed otherwise.  Comments about this would be greatly appreciated.

 

ExtremeTech was also busy the last few weeks.  Check it out:

Fatal1ty Mobo - become a computer gaming superstar and design your own motherboard.  Is your mother proud of you now?

Notebook super GPUs tested head to head - ET has a sweet test review of the ATI X800 Mobility Radeon vs. the nVidia 6800 Go.

Dual-core Intel CPUs - Intel finally let some of the veil drop on their upcoming CPUs.  They are currently trying to catch op to AMD who had dual-core CPU details available for the last 6 months and working CPUs the last 3.

ZigBee - there's a new WiFi protocol and its named ZigBee.  Here's a starter preview.  Be sure to follow the link at the bottom of the page. 

iPod Eye for the Linux Guy - remeber the Linux Guy with the secret wish to own a Mac and then went out and bought it?  Well, he just bought the iPod Mini and can't help gibbering like a loon.  Makes me wanna go out and buy one...

 

Finally I've been playing with BitTorrent for the last month.  I love it to bits, but would marry it and have its children if I had cheap, affordable ADSL.  Here's a good overview of the the protocol.  P2P just got a whole lot better.  Guess I'd better start saving for the modem and 500GB HDD....

 

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Do, Do not, or Delegate to someone else: there is no try.

When 900 pound gorillas call the shots

In all departments our national (and only!) telecoms company, Telkom, sucks majorly. Without question. And more and more people are coming round to that fact. There is already a steady decline in the amount of fixed-line users for the last 3 years now but Telkom still managed to make a profit of R4,5 billion ($750 million) for the 2004 financial year. But in an interview with a local TV actuality program, Carte Blanche, they state that the high prices that residential consumers pay wasn't a significant part of that revenue and needed to raise the tariffs even more.

There are already 3 SA sites that were created entirely out of the need to point this monopoly out: www.hellkom.co.za, www.telkomsucks.co.za and MyADSL. Each site has been developed by normal Joes and hosted on the cheapest service available. Here's a spot of irony for you: each site has received so much traffic that the owners had to move the sites to international servers (where hosting is much, much cheaper) to avoid the high bandwith costs needed to receive a million hits a year.

Telkom is partially owned by the government and as such humungous profits means a very large amount of dividends at the end of the day. Unfortunately the government doesn't see that Telkom is killing this country economically as well as educationally. Big international companies that otherwise would happily invest in our businesses or open their own offices, won't because of the high telecommunications costs of Telkom.

Plans are already in motion to introduce a second telecoms operator to try and shift this imbalance back (rumour has it that they'll become operational in September this year), but it'll still take atleast 2 years for them to create their own infrastructure. Until then they are as dependent on Telkom as the rest of us. I'm sure Telkom will give them access at a reduced rate, but the charge to the consumer would be more that Telkom tariffs (which Telkom will lower to keep business away from the SNO) in order to gain capital to create that infrastructure with.

Until then we'll still pay 4 times more for our ADSL than similar developed nations in the rest of the global village.

Sites to see and read

• LegionHardware tested a bunch of nVidia 6600 GT graphics cards. I'd say that these cards are now the best value for money until the next generation. Remeber to get the 256 MB variants (128 MB is so 2004)
• ExtremeTech did a roundup of IE replacements. I downloaded Firefox just the other day. It was a hate/hate relationship untill I found a usefulle extention to stop the displaying of Flash ads. Since then its a 75/25 love/hate relationship.
  
• Another article on ExtremeTech featured a strategy for personal data storage now that 200 GB SATA drives, Flash sticks and MP3 players are in abundance.
  
• The newest version of Windows Blinds has been reviewed. Seems to be a worthwhile app to get.
  
• How to ask smart questions on forums (and get the results you want). This is a great read if you want to get the nerds and geeks to snap to attention when you ask a question in a support forum. However, as with everything in life, you have to do some work yourself.
• Half-Life 2 and your CPU. At last someone got a semi-technical article out on HL2 performance on todays CPUs. GameSpy would have had something similar, but they conveniently "forgot" about that feature and still remains to be seen.
• One of the resident Linux geeks at ExtremeTech gave in to his urge to buy a Mac. This is his first-hand experience with the machine and the OS. Quite funny.
• The PC review of Knights of the Old Republic 2 is finally out. Seems the marvelous story and production values is intact, but that the AI is pedestrian and some levels felt rushed. Also a few critical bugs. Hopefully Obsidian will have a patch ready by the time I get my copy. Read the chronicals as well. Facinating history (albeit very concise)!
• The full technical specs for the PS3 has been released. Very technical, although I understood about 70% of it. This looks to be one sweet machine.
• The PC review of Demon Stone has also (finally) arrived. Looks to be severily linear, but a great looking game.
• Fargo outdid himself once again with this week's PlanetFargo. Although the n00b behaviour seems exaggerated, I do think he makes a good point of the stupid things one does when one plays a new unfamiliar game.

Finally, I've been playing an MMOG by the name of DarkThrone for last 2 weeks. They claim it to be an MMORPG, but the only RPG part is the choice in fantasy character (human, elf, orc or goblin). From there you have to role-play yourself. Of which 99.9% of the registered users don't do. If you feel charitable, click here to give me one free citizen and 250 gold. If you sign up from the same link I get a bit more moolah and workers.

Hot-blooded men unite!
Here is the reason why I will never marry: I love looking at beautiful women too much. A prime example would be the babes of DOA and these babes from the new Champions of Norrath game. Go to the Media section and feast to your hart's content. GameSpy also collaborated with Sony to get these pics. Enjoy while they are searingly hot!
Lastly, on this very blogging service an industrious blogger started with a "Hottie of the Day" blog. Go here to see it. Here's to a sustained supply of good quality pictures.

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Do, Do not, or Delegate to someone else: there is no try.

World o' Links

Man, have I got links up the gazoo! Two months' worth, so without further ado:

Valve closes 20 000 HL2 accounts. Seems there are a lot of bad boys/girls out there. Don't get caught, people! Buy the game! It's that damn good!
PlanetFargo HL2 Sign Carnage
GirlSpy on HL2 addiction - Love this woman!
Budget card shoot-out! 6600GT vs X700XT Just make sure you get the 256 MB versions.
ExtremeTech HL2 Benching
Can free Internet survive? Security concerns says no.
Satyrical look an a local headline. Our SA reporters aren't up to snuff when it comes to hyping celebs and their actions.
Top 15 World o' WarCraft tips
A few smartphones compared. I've got the Motorola MPx200 with Windows SmartPhone 2002. I'm going to download the SDK and write me a stopwatch! Yeah!
KOTOR2 (Xbox) review. I can't wait for Feb 11 when the PC version becomes available.
World of Warcraft Review by GameSpy
A hillarious Fargo skit
WoW vs. EQ2
FF7 Advent Children pics. I think the actual movie is out in Asia. Wonder when the West will get a glimps of this drool-inducing movie.
GameSpy GOTY 2004. Halo 2 won. HL2 was second. Boo!
nForce 4 Onboard SLI - Expensive.
Display types compared (CRT, LCD, PLasma, DLP) Part 1. Very technical. Read at your own peril.
P2P goes to supreme court
WoW Christmas Carol
ExtremeTech: State of the Industry 2004
WoW PlanetFargo comic - Funny!
nVidia Chief Scientist Q&A. Very interesing. There's an ATI Q&A as well, but the VP of marketing answered. Boring.
Fargo: Lord of the Ringers
MPEG4 discussion. Seems this technology will finally go big this year. Great Article.

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What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software 'releases'. Our software 'escapes' leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.

Anti-Climax extraordinare!

Well, we've finished Half Life 2 (at last!).  Now we can be counted amongst the millions and millions of the Freeman's fans who've trekked through a second journey in his not-his-own-anymore life.  Buya!

 

But spare a thought for our beloved Gordon.  Being at the beck and call of the mysterious G-Man and his even more mysterious government (who says he works for an Earthly organization?) must be severely frustrating and agonizing at the same time.  Being put into stasis again "for when you are needed again" also sucks major over-time.  Unfortunately, as with all brainy types who believe in hard work to deliver exceptional results, Gordon became a victim of his own success.

 

The end was anti-climactic to say the least.  I presume Dr. Breen is either dead (what with the teleporter being destroyed around him) or was transported just in time but will be unable to teleport back.  The rest of the Combine in City 17 should be relatively easy to round up, but after seeing the base of operations I'd say the task seems hard to impossible.  Also, the G-Man had the ability to either stop time or phase-shift Gordon into another time-space continuum where he (the G-Man) could safely ground Gordon.  Advance technology either way.

 

So what can we expect for Half Life 3?  I guess Valve will play the next version as close to their chests as they did with HL2.  Even more so because of the security breaches at their offices.  But here's hoping it doesn't take them another 6 years to create their next masterpiece. 

My (un-asked for) recommendation to Valve:  Use the current engine, tweak it for the next 2 years while you work on the content for HL3 and release November 2007.  But don't let us download from Steam again!!!  Release everything on DVD and only require Steam access to get a decryption code when one is installing the game.  There is still way too much variables in the Steam equation as it stands now. 

 

Favourite parts: 

Water Hazard - Great water GFX + speading along at 60 Km/h + mad moves aboard a steel roll-over cage = gaming nirvana.

Strider battles - this was equally intense but for other reasons.  I can see why everyone out there quips this as their favourite part.

Environment - The environs and level design is simply amazing.  Doom 3, eat your heart out!

Gravity gun end games -  simply stunning and jaw-dropping.  Catching my first enemy-fired energy ball was a total surprise and I loved it to bits.  Physically wrenching Combine off of their feet and then hurling them at their mates is strangely, sadistically satisfying.  Only staking in Painkiller surpasses this feeling.

Comparison = The end of the World?

"Don't judge lest ye be judged." That's a well-know proverb either man-made or from the Bible somewhere... and then morphed the last two millenia. So what has that got to do with today's blog? The reviewing/comparing of objects is my beef today.

This blog's seed was planted a long time ago. As always it started with a 3D card review. The review was about the nVidia TNT2, the newest and best 3D card yet. Up and until that point the Voodoo 2 ruled the roost, but it was prohibitavely expensive. The prices the top cards fetch today? Exactly the same. Then nVidia dared to release a card that was much cheaper than the Voodoo but had trumped it in every way and feature possible. And I had a semi-grudge against Voodoo for being so expensive and after reading the review I felt a sense of relief, because there was finally a card to 'whoop that Voodoo's ass!' Below the relief was the sheen of pure jealosy and the strut of a braggard but being still in my teens I didn't notice it.

Now, a few years later, after reading the review of yet another video card review I came to a much deeper understanding of the human psyche. The review was posted on an rarely visited (by me) website and wasn't up the usual standard that I've become accustomed to (I read GameSpy, ExtremeTech and HardOCP regularly). Again, the process of comparing entities jumped up and this time it displayed itself loud and pride.
It got me wondering: will we ever stop comparing? Will there ever come a point where the whole human conscience as a whole come to the same age-old conclusion? That we are, trivially, the same. That only a gene that changed 5, 10, 20 millenia ago brought on the skin-colour change but that we are still fundamentally the same. Driving in the winelands of France and then in the Western Cape has the same "feeling". The savanna of Namibia and the Northen Cape has the same "feeling".

To come back to which I'm more familiar (not to mention comfortable) with is the reviewing of anything computer related. Games and hardware in particular. GameSpy changed their rating system earlier this year from statistical percentages to five stars. I'm against the change. In one fell swoop they gave mediocre games an opening to be counted among the best in their star-category. Twenty percent is a lot of open ground for a mediocre game to sneak into. Thus a 40% game has as much chance to be perceived as a 59% game and, being the Scrooge that I am, I don't believe this to be a good thing. There is less control for the reader to decide (albeit subjectively) whether spending his/her hard-earned cash on this three-star game actually worth it.

The previous paragraph leads to this statement: the process of comparison results in the loss/gain of control for one of the entities in the comparison. The TNT2 gained more control over the money in the consumer's pockets because it compared more favourably than the Voodoo 2. This control-change was so massive that the makers of Voodoo-cards doesn't exist anymore. The stars-rating system took control away from the user thus making a purchasing decision more difficult. And we humans are nothing if not control-freaks deep down. And we hate loosing control over any situation (even if we can't actively change the reasons that led to the loss of control).

In the end, loss of control (not necessarily through comparison, but it will play a critical part) will result in the destruction of this planet and its inhabitants. And I so wanted to see space travel happen...

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"Its the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine!" R.E.M.

Heaven in a box

That's my description for Half-Life 2. "Life changing" is a bit strong but this game is The One. I feel very sorry for all developers that are not Valve-related. Everyone who is developing an FPS in the vein of Half-Life needs to go back to the drawingboard. The bar just got raised... exceedingling high. I guess this means that Duke Nukem Forever will be delayed for another 7 years!

The interactivity of the whole game is beyond cool. Nearly everything you see is an object that can be picked up and moved through the world. Throwing beer cans and wine bottles at guards are so cool! (Penny Arcade already picked up on this). Of course you have to run like hell to avoid them hitting you too much.

Another amazing quality of the game is the emotions that NPCs can display. Everything from annoyance to fear to compassion is clearly displayed on their faces and I truly care for these NPCs like I've never cared for an NPC before. Doom 3 has the same facial tech but the demo I've played didn't show any emotions on those NPCs faces. HL2 feels more alive for it.

I've only completed the first 3 set pieces and already I'm overwhelmed by the sheer greatness. The enemy AI is unbelieveable. Relentless even. Those damn guards just won't let up. Kill one and three others suprise you when you turn your back. I'm still waiting to see if HL2 will best FarCry in this department, though. FarCry's guards would radio ahead for backup.

For all the best coverage on Half-Life 2 there is only one place: GameSpy!

In other events today...

I've been away for nearly two weeks and this show in the amount of links I have garnered while away. Here we go!

The $800 Gaming PC - pretty sweet PC. Too bad my existing mobo can't take an Athlon 64 chip.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - Holy #*$@! The motherload for 2006! Check the screenshots! If you still have a copy of MadOnion's 3DMark2001, run the Nature benchmark. This is what TES4 will look and run like. Knowing Bethesda you'll need a 6Ghz CPU with a 2Ghz vid card just to run it at 30 FPS in 1600x1200! (Seriously, guys, you rock!)

DOA Online Review - Finally the best looking fighter on all consoles has arrived! Online play sounds to be rocking if you can get on a decent server.

The Bard's Tale Review - This is a fun action-RPG that spoofs all serious RPG conventions. Unfortunately it looks like the combat system is a bit weak. I wonder how well the controls will translate to the PC, though.

BloodRayne 2 Review - Ah, everyone's favourite sexy half-vampire is back. She's got bigger assets, sharper blades and with a few pole moves to boot. I didn't buy the first one due to a not-so-good review by GS, but second time round looks to be the charm.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - the next installment of the GTA-franchise has landed. Check it out. I haven't played any of the previous GTAs but this one sounds like the one to get.

GirlSpy column - Zoe Flower is da bomb! This cutie went to the Tokyo Game Show and it was through her blog that I came to know her. Check it out!

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords Interview - The game is looking fine and this interview only excited me more. I want this game this Christmas, not next year!

Halo 2 - This stellar Xbox game has finally arrived and is sure to be the top console game of the year. I hope HL2 will beat it to Game of the Year, though.

Resident Cynic - The cynic laments the lack of quality games for the PC. GTA:SA, Halo 2, Jade Empire and StarCraft Ghost are all console games with no plans of porting them to the PC. Well, maybe Halo 2 one year from now. I really feel the Cynic on this one and hope to drop him a line telling him so.

Top 10 Melee Weapons - another excellent list. UT's impact hammer is numero uno, but I feel that the crowbar of Half Life is a bit more iconic. At least its number 2.

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Do, Do not, or Delegate to someone else: there is no try.