The Unfortunate Consequence of Trying Out RC's

So I am always up for trying some new things, like food, games, and even software. Well, with Microsoft, it has been hit or miss. With their beta release or RC of Vista, to their Windows Home Server, to lastly their service pack 3 for XP. You never know what your going to get.

With the release candidate for Vista, the usual disappointments were there at 1st. No driver support for most items, I had a hell of a time trying to get certain components detected or working properly. Second was the compatibility of older programs with the newer operating system. Some software worked great for awhile and then just shutdown with exception errors....this proved to eb the biggest problem of them all for me. And lastly, the hardware upgrades that were necessary for the launch of Windows Vista. My current system at the time of the test passed, but not by much and the video card would have worked, but not with the DX10 functionality....which will not suit me when DX10 games come out (at the time).

Windows Home Server was a whole new thing to me. I usually just had a machine running a copy of XP and had it networked as shares for me to use as storage. In the case of the Windows Home Server, it gave you back up software that was easy to use and pretty self explanatory. On top of that, it allowed me to have it for all of my systems with connector software. Anyone on the network could pull or upload to it. making for a great system to have. Currently, I have had no issues in the installation process and or the maintenance of the system, thus proving to be a good solid system so far.

Lastly, is the the dreaded Windows XP Service Pack 3. This little gem, according to Microsoft, was supposed to improve efficiency by upwards of 10%. No so much the case for me and my systems. In fact, during boot-ups, my experience have been much longer and I have not seen any optimization of network processes or hardware detection. This, so far, is not what it has been toted to be and is a flop in my eyes. Only time will tell when the full service pack comes out.

Update on the COD 4: MW 1.4 Patch

So with the new patch out, which, mind you, was a pain in the @55 to get, I have had soemt ime with it now and must say that the Christmas map is actually kind of disturbing and funny at the same time. Being that I am not much for the holiday and not particulary religious to boot, I thin k that when you have a multi-player map that has Christmas presents and Santa saying his traditional "Ho, Ho, Ho!" during an air-strike is both funny and disturbing.


I will say that is does make for a better map for the following reasons....

1) It takes place at night, a better time to be stealth.

2) It provides snow at the same time and creates a distraction for those that are trying to snipe.

3) Lastly, still has the same feel as the rest of the maps, except shipment, which is just horrible.


Well, there you have it. My take on the map.

My Rant on the Orange Box Set

So for the people that see no light of day or have l;ived in a cave for the last ten years, this year, there was the release of the orange box. The orange box, which included games like Counter Strike (a personal fav. of mine), Half Life, Half Life 2, Half Life Episodes 1 & 2, Portal, and the much awaited Team Fortress Classic. The crappy thing is that you had to buy them all in order to play any of the games, right? Well, when you have almost all of them, it seemed like a dumb thing to do, at least in my eyes.


So in order to get my fix of the games, I decided to borrow a buddy's copy for XBox 360 and give it the ole' college try. In doing so, I discovered that I felt that the orange set was a total waste. I didn't like the team fortress classic at all and I had all of the other games except portal. Where my gripe is is that everyone and their grandmother was praising this..... why?!?!?!?!?! I mean, I love the Half Life games, they are a great mixture of FPS and puzzles. But what is the hype over TFC? Seriously? The animation sucks and the I was bored with the game play. Plus, this kind of game seems like it would be better on the PC rather than the console. In the end, I could not justify paying for the almighty orange box. Thanks but no thanks.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas II Coming Soon!!!

So for all of you out there that loved the Latest Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Game, Vegas, you should be happy to see that the game we all loved is going to be releasing its sequel in possibly in March 2008.

Below, I added the trailer. Watch, enjoy, cry if you must.

The New Duke Nukem Trailer Released!

3D Realms, the designers behind the more recent Duke Nukem games, have released a trailer for their newest Duke Nukem project: Duke Nukem: Forever.

Anticipated for a 2008 release, this game is has been seen with mixed reviews. Some thrilled to see the bulky star coming back to make sure that the evils of outer space "get some", but mostly, people think it may be a little too late for the return of the hero.

Despite the criticisms, I was a huge player of the games growing up and loved them. I loved the nudie girls, the bloody carnage and the witty phrases. I would like to see more of the game play in the trailers, but we will see, right? When more detail comes, I will update the post.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Patch 1.4 is Out!

12/20/2007 Activision released patch 1.4 for its newest Call of Duty game. in this patch, the following fixes were made:

"Winter Crash", a holiday version of Multiplayer map "Crash"
Improvements to the server browser
Fixed some rare bullet accuracy issues for all weapons.
For server admins: fixed user ban list not working correctly on servers. Ban.txt will be created in the main or fs_game directory

MOD SUPPORT:
In the connect screen, Mods will be identified as"Mod: [mod name]"
Only official IWD files will be read from the main directory. All custom IWD should be placed in a mod directory.
Fix for reloading several times after connecting to a modded server
Improved mod.ff support to allow adding game types.
Fixed an issue with Http redirect downloads.
"fs_game" will be forced to lower case*

*Information brought to you by Activision.

Download Link (provided by Gamershell)

Devil May Cry 4 Game Coming Soon!

From an informant, there is a new game in the Devil May Cry franchise. According to the informant, the game has a story of betrayal and deceit.

From the preview that the informant talked about, the look and feel is rich with color and vibrancy. Having played the previous games, makes me want to see it and play it. I look forward to it.

Crysis Hardware Requirements

I will say that the game of the year (at least in my opinion) does eat away at your system's resources like a starvin' Marvin, but lets also remember, you still can get great success from your system and the game without having to dish out the 5 Grand to Alienware for a 3 SLI graphics card setup. SLI Zone Gizmodo

There has been a lot of commotion on the inter-web about this issue since the game developers may be in the pockets of companies wanting the consumers to upgrade to their products. We saw this with Tom Clancey's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) and the use of a physx card. From all of the reviews, there have been very few that insist that this is necessary for the ultimate game play. Also, take one of the largest software companies in the world tried to do this with their newest operating system, Microsoft's Windows Vista. The bringing of this new shiny new OS was supposed to help MS get their handle on those thinking of joining the Apple arena. It has caused grief and financial loss for the giant.

With game publishers using their landscape as a advertisement ground, how long before subscriptions are necessary, oh wait, they already are. Take Steam. Steam is a product that allows its users to install their games on their computer and or use them anywhere a internet connection is found. Now, since its inception with the ground breaking Half Life 2, this platform has grown exponentially and now carries almost all of the biggest games. There is also security form game makers when they use Steam. They can be rest assured that the game is not being copied with the key. Each key is specifically connected to the account bearer. And lets say that you do not want to hold on to all of those pesky boxes that collect from the games you buy, you can purchase and download all of the games online. It will keep all of the records for you. Keys and all!

Finally, the point I am trying to get to is that no matter what is said or protested, companies will try to get you to upgrade, advertise, or even adopt security measures. That is the nature of progression in the technology field. With the new inventive ways to get more frames per second (FPS), or optimize virtualization with multi-core processors, the future will change all of the time. Trying to keep up with it is a spendy journey that will result in disappointment if you think you will find the be all to end all.