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Feb 1.2010 - Global Agenda
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Getting pumped about Global Agenda. Planetscape didn't work out and Huxley never showed up which disapointed me greatly. Hoping that Global Agenda will be a great MMO/Shooter Hybrid. We'll find out tomorrow night.
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Jan 31.2010 - The Great Gianna Sisters Return!
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One of my favorite games from the C64 and Amiga was The Great Gianna Sisters. Fun little Mario clone and amazing music. It didn't last long as Nintendo took umbrage to it, but it became a cult classic. Check out Gianna's Return here on Betanews. Thanks for the linkage Proto!
UV has a very good name for 2010. Due to the many games coming out that are the second in the series, 2010 shall be known as "The Year of the Sequel".
Check it out:
mass effect 2
assassins creed 2
star craft 2
modern warfare 2
bio shock 2
supreme commander 2
mafia 2
crysis 2
And I'm sure there's others as well. |
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Jan 27.2010 - Dragon Age: Origins Again and Apple's new thing
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If you're not playing Dragon Age: Origins you're STILL a bad person. Just so you know.
Lots of hype today about Apple's new iPad. I'm contractually obligated to make mock it, just because it'll make the Apple people upset but there's so many people doing it for me online that I don't think I'll bother this time around. It sounds like an interesting device but I'll have to wait until I see and play with one to really pass judgement on it. Unlike everyone else on the internet I like to touch something and see how it is before the mocking comences. Xan sent over the live stream from Twit.tv, they're covering the launch.
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Jan 23.2010 - Dragon Age: Origins
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If you're not playing Dragon Age: Origins you're a bad person. Just so you know.
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Jan 5.2010 - Dreamweaver MX and Windows 7 God Mode
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Not sure I'm liking this new Dreamweaver. I had to buy it as the old 2000 version I had won't work properly under Windows 7. It was pointed out to me that I COULD just run it in an XP emulated window, but that's a pain in the ass.
Speaking of Windows 7, if you'd like to create a super handy "show all control panel" options shortcut on your desktop, check this out. Thanks for the link Killer.
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Jan 1.2010 - Happy New Years Everyone!
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Happy New Year, and may it be a happy and healthy one.
So many Steam games on sale. :( So cheap... Must.. buy...
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Dec
26.2009 - Star Wars Facebook
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Good read here about the death of 3D Realms. Learn
to let go, how sucess killed Duke Nukem.
Thanks Rune.
Picked up Serious
Sam HD on Steam today on sale. Couldn't
pass it up. I've got my disk around here somewhere but having
it at my fingertips on Steam? Can't pass that up. Definately
gotta get some co-op going on. Sooo many fond LAN party memories.
SkeezixLAN back in.. shesh.. 2004? Owning it up with Rune,
Skeezix, Pappy, Shortcut, and a few other people. Still an
amazing game after all these years and still worth playing
to the end for the best end boss ever in a game. The website
is also worth reading. Croteam cracks me up. Nice guys too.
Been looking at some of the videos for Star Wars: The Force
Unleashed 2 and I see that the first one is cheap on Steam.
Anyone played it? I do love my Star Wars games.... And some
of them are even worth playing. Is this one? Lemme know.
I forgot to post this on for Halloween. If you're a gamer
you have to admit that this
Bioshock costume is the best thing ever.
Wanna get fat? Follow
this link and eat one of each item on it.
Make sure that you modify your will before hand and leave
me as your sole heir.
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Dec
26.2009 - Star Wars Facebook
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lol. That is some nerdy
funny stuff. Sadly I see no posts by the
Fett man, so it fails to achieve total win. Thanks Fainney!
|
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Dec
24.2009 - Merry Christmas!
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A very Merry Fraggin' Christmas everyone!
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Dec
20.2009 - Speed Jumping Mod
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I'll have to check out Kreedz
Climing mod. It reminds me a lot of the
old Quake 3 speed jumping demos that were so popular back
in the day.
Many thanks to R-Khan for Dragon
Age: Origin! I look forward to trying it
out.
Half way across the living room floor and I've used over 300
scews and just over 1,500 nails. (No, that's not a typo. And
I'm putting it all down with hand tools, no power nailer.)
Not quite sure how many times the Lord's name was used in
vain but it's got to be up there as well.
|
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Dec
19.2009 - No more elves!
|
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Hirez Studios wonders just how well an Elf Mage would do against
a modern combat soldier. You can find
out here. Thanks R-Khan.
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Dec
15.2009 - Guns and computers don't mix.
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Just how
bullet-proof is your server? Bet it won't
stop a .50BMG! :) Thanks Orville.
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The eternal battle between soldier and demoman is ratcheting
up and the teams are pretty well neck and neck. Get
the details here. Thanks Gosh.
I've started playing a
little Starscape again, as I never did beat
that game and it's one of the best I've ever played. If you
haven't played it you're a godless game-heathen and must be
delt with appropriately. You know, with fire. Avoid this fate.
Buy Starscape from Moonpod
directly or on Steam for $10. You won't
regret it and there'll be less burning and screaming.
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Dec
11.2009 - Enjoy your breakfast.
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The next time you eat an egg, remember
this picture.
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Dec
10.2009 - Wal-Mart Caskets?
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Hah.
Thanks Xan. :)
|
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Dec
9.2009 - Dead Space Continues
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Still playing a bit of Dead Space. The controls are POV are
still annoying but it's none the less quite a good game. Really
enjoying the story and the freaky enemies. If you're looking
for a good horror shooter I'd highly recomend it.
|
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Dec
3.2009 - Ten Years of FRAGtopia
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I'll have to write up a little article to celebrate. I forgot
to post on the day of but it's been 10 years! On
November 26th 1999 I posted our first article
on the FRAGtopia.com website. At that time it was FRAGstock,
but that changed shortly thereafter. Hard to believe I've
been posting on here for a third of my life. Again, how time
flies. Seems like just yesterday I was writing up the fifth
anniversary article, which I finished off
with "Thanks for reading the site, and see you all soon
for the tenth anniversary write up. ;)"
Thanks
to everyone I've met through the site and the LAN parties
over the years. Some great times and great people. |
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Dec
3.2009 - World of Warcraft Anniversary.
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Wow. I can't believe it's been over five years since I started
playing World of Warcraft and fifteen since I first played Orcs
Vs. Humans (Ex. Warcraft 1). Amazing how time flies. Shesh.
Anyhow, the folks over at Blizzard have put up a little "mini-site"
to celebrate and they're going to have some nifty stuff up.
Check
it out by clicking here. CLICK NOW!
Finally got around to playing a bit of Dead
Space. I bought it on Steam a while back when
it was on sale and never got around to playing. I have to admit
it's really, really good for the most part. It's a console port
so of course it's got save points. Why oh why is it that game
developers have not figured out after all these years that no
one. NO ONE likes save points. I don't care who you are. You
hate them. It'd be just lovely have a quick save feature wouldn't
it? Just one? Shesh. It's also got an annoying over the shoulder
POV and sluggish, console type controls. Those negative points
out of the way it's also got great action, graphics, sound and
freaky as hell enemies. It's like Doom 3 on a spaceship, but
good. |
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Dec
2.2009 - Helicopter Stunts
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This guy
is freakin' crazy. Cool stunts though. Thanks
Xan! :) |
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Nov
28.2009 - Thermaltake Slays Me
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I love asian computer manufacturers. They come up with the greatest
slogans. ASUS' "Rock Solid, Heart Touching" was right
up there for me but it's finally been topped. Behold the new
slogan for ThermalTake,
taken right from their website. Apparently they're channeling
the ghost of Bob
Marley. Yeah mon. Wid dee new hardware we
be jammin'. |
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|
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| The
reason I was poking around the TT website is because I finally
retired my poor, bent Thermaltake matrix case and replaced it
with the reasonably priced and very sweet Element. Review soon
to come. It's been a while since I've done any reviews, much
less a hardware review. This whole having a life makes it difficult
to find the time to do much of anything. |
| |
Still pretty happy with Windows 7 overall, but I am going to
have to purchase some new software. My Cyberlink Power Director
wasn't acting quite right, and I've found a few things wrong
with my ancient Photoshop 6. Today I discovered that my Dreamweaver
MX (2004) has a few functions that just ain't functioning. Boo.
$120 OS, $500 software upgrades. Ahhh well, I supose it was
about time that I upgraded some of the more prehistoric items
in my stable. I've gotten a lot of years out of them but like
Old Yeller, sometimes it's just time to go behind the woodshed
with your old friend and get yourself a new dog. |
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I see that Steam has the Lucasart's Premier Pack on for $50
(just search for it) and zomg it includes some of my all time
favorite games like The Dig and Loom. If you haven't played
those classics I'd go spend the money. Well worth it. I still
remember the days of sitting in my basement on my old XT in
DOS playing those ones. They've got some newers ones in there
as well for those who aren't as mired in video game nostalgia
as I. |
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Nov
23.2009 - Google Chrome OS
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Some interesting reading about Google's
Chrome OS security here. Have to give it
a try when it comes out, although like all non-Microsoft/Apple
OSs I have a feeling it's not going to go too far unless they
can introduce some really sweet emulation to get Windows software
running easily and smoothly. That's the real holy grail for
alternative operating system developers in my opinion.
|
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Nov
23.2009 - THIS IS COLGATE!!!!!
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Ever wonder how spartans brush their teeth? Thanks
to the sublime Goshwin you need wonder no
more and can send both the Cavity Creeps and Persians fleeing
before the might of your magnficent smile.
Coming home this morning after a very long drive I came across
a box with a smurf in it sitting on a chair. On that box was
a sticker declaring that the
Smurfs have been around for 50 years. Damn.
I can't believe it's been that long. I remember watching that
show when I was a kid and singing along to the records. Heck,
I even used the Smurf
tune as an intro to my gaming clan's website
years ago. It's just that awesome. Of course it was funnier
at the time, given the gamer lingo "smurf" term
at the time.
Back
to the TV show. I always felt bad for Gargamel and his cat
and I always hoped secretly that he'd realise he should boil
the caldron full of water BEFORE putting the smurfs in. Some
people never learn. |
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Nov
19.2009 - Modern Warfare 3
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Seems that Modern
Warfare 3 is coming along nicely.
Onion News Network (As usual) has the breaking news.
|
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Nov
18.2009 - Modern Warfare 2
|
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Well, I beat Modern Warfare 2 single player on campaign mode
last night. Five hours total playtime. Very short even by
modern standards. That being said, it was five hours of complete
madness and crazy massive battles. Well worth the price of
admission. Now to start on the special ops missions and the
multiplayer. When I have time of course. :)
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Countries
prepare for cyberwarfare. Damn.
|
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Nov
17.2009 - Pew pew it's Left4Dead 2!
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Noticed
that Left4Dead went live on my Steam games list last night
around 1:30 EST. Sweet. Now to find time to play it.
Forgot
to give our resident mad scientist Goshwin credit for tipping
me off to Osmos in my post yesterday. Thanks bud.
Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is amazing and
complete madness. Buy it. Play it. Wolverines!
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As
I mention here on a frequent basis I love indie games.
There's true inovation there which is something that's often
lacking in "main stream" gaming. Just picked up
Osmos and interesting little indie game that sees you as a
mote of life, trying to complete certain goals and to consume
motes around you to grow. Simple concept but it gets pretty
darned hard as you unlock levels. It's avaliable on Steam
and you can check out Hemisphere
Games' website here. Well worth the $10
USD.
|
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Nov
11.2009 - In Flander's Fields
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Thank
you to everyone who's served and is serving.
In
Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are
the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take
up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
—
Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918) |
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Nov
10.2009 - More Torchlight, Mysto and Pizzi, Steam is teh
wins.
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Mysto
and Pizzi are so freaking awesome. Great
remixes, great videos and great "making of" videos.
Nice to see guys who obviously enjoy what they're doing having
a great time doing it.
Still
playing a bit of Torchlight,
and it looks like I've gotten some more people addicted to
it. Proto's all hooked and it's really not his genre. Whahah!
My evergrowing army of the undead grows.
What's up with all the nazi references on forums. I know it's
nothing new, but it's really getting on my nerves lately.
If you use a nazi or Hilter reference in a forum post you
instantly lose.
On the subject of the Myans calling for the end of the world
in 2012 (as was mentioned in my last post) I've had a few
people writing me and telling me that it's true. The world
will end most likely.
No
problems. I invite everyone who believes that the world will
end in 2012 to send me a cheque for $1,000 wriiten for January
1st 2013. If you're SO very sure that things are going to
end, what have you got to loose? Email me at marauder@fragtopia.com
and I'll send you the info for the cheque.
Steam has Battlestations: Pacific on sale tonight I see. For
$14.99 USD that seems like a good deal considering how good
Midway was. Picked up Mass Effect as well, that's one I've
been meaning to play for a long time and it was on sale for
$9.99. Heck of a good price for something that's supposed
to be one of the best RPGs ever made. I talked our good friend
Doc Brian into it as well. Time for him to expand his gaming
horizons, since all he plays is Counter Strike. Not that there's
anything wrong with that.
I really need to find more time to write. I really do enjoy
it.
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Nov
6.2009 - Silly Myans, Torchlight
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Dec 21, 2012. The
Myans apparently predicited that the world will end.
I'm sorry, I'm not going to get into a panic. The world will
end, or it won't. I'm guessing on the later, and if I'm wrong...
Well, the fallout bunker in the basement will be handy, as
will my Left4Dead training sessions.
Torchlight
is fun. I've been playing it a bit and for
$20.00 you can't go wrong. If you liked Diablo you'll like
it. Certainly not an especially deep game thus far but for
an action RPG there's tons of killing things and getting loot
it's a hell of a lot of fun. And isn't it really all about
the clicking and the looting? Oh and of course the carnage.
And the great music. And the pretty graphics. And the cool
spells. Did I mention it's also a lot of fun? Single player
only, but I never played much Diablo multiplayer anyhows.
That being said, they're currently working on an MMO
action-RPG as well. Interesting.
|
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Oct
28.2009 - Windows 7, Left for Dead 2 Demo
|
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Well the Windows 7 install went rather smoothly. I hadn't
had time to write much about it yet as it's been insanely
busy with work and weekends spent away from computer contact
working on the house. So far no real problems with the new
operating system. Well there are a few little wierd things
such as a file error when trying to save multiple files into
a location with IE and an inability to drag a shortcut from
IE directly to my second desktop. Nothing that's been a deal
breaker though. I'm working on an article about my first impressions.
Played a bit of the Left
4 Dead 2 demo with Proto yesterday. The
Steam servers were of course swamped with the release and
my client went wierd, but a reset seems to have sorted it
out. The demo is quite good. Lots of changes from the intial
game, but they kept the good stuff. There's melee weapons,
(Frying pan for teh win! Clang!) new special zombies, lots
of new guns and new toys (such as boomer bile and adreneline
boost) and lots more gore. Shooting zombies to little bits
has never been more fun. The demo is very short as it seems
to be only part of the first campaign. Certainly wets one's
appetite for the full game though which is due out in a few
weeks.
Pretty
funny talking to Proto about the delays on the release of
the demo. I was at work late as usual so I wasn't exactly
sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it to come out.
I guess he was though. Didn't keep a log of the conversation,
but to say he was upset would be putting it mildly. He was
quite upset. |
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For the first time in almost 8 years I'm installing a new
operating system. Ghosting my drive in preperation for a Windows
7 install. If I never log in again you'll all know what happened.
Avenge my death.
|
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Oct
8.2009 - Punkbuster Issues
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I've been having issues with Punkbuster kicking me out of
any protected game every few minutes with various errors including
"disallowed program/driver. (125120)" Turns out
the issue is FRAPS. If I have FRAPS loaded Punkbuster freaks
out. Not happy about this, hopefully the Even Balance and
FRAPS guys can work something out. Boooo.
|
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Oct
8.2009 - Dark Days Are Coming.
|
| |
I've posted before that I'm very interested in The
Secret World, an upcoming MMO from Funcom.
The interest continues. They've got a new trailer on their
website, and a beta contest. Go. Apply. Choose a faction.
|
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Sept
29.2009 - Microsoft Free Antivirus
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Microsoft has releasted Security Essentials, a free antivirus.
Haven't had a chance to try it yet and I've never been a big
fan of MS's security efforts in the past, but I guess I'll
try and it see how it is. Considering how big their vested
interested in increasing the publics confidence in the security
of Microsoft's operating systems it should be decent. Again,
we'll see. Anyhows,
get the details here. Thanks to Killer for
the link, which I already had. He's getting old and slow.
;)
|
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Sept
26.2009 - Sony gets Chromed, Radeon 5800 Series
|
| |
VA-Viller sent over a link from PC
Games Hardware. They've got (alleged) info
and pics on the upcoming ATI Radeon 5800 series cards.
Meant to post this one a few weeks ago. Sony has announced
they'll be installing
Google Chrome on their computers. Good on
Google. I've been playing with Chrome a bit and it's pretty
decent. Some sites show some odd glitches but they're in the
minority.
Tried Heros
of Newerth last night. The hud looks good
but I get a blank screen where my battlefield should on. Didn't
have time to play with it much, but I'm suspecting it's due
to my dual monitor setup. Some games really don't seem to
like it much. I'll try it single after the weekend.
|
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Sept
25.2009 - Heros of Newerth
|
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The guys over at S2 Games, developers of the incredibly fun
Savage and Savage 2 just emailed me a beta key for Heros
of Newerth, their upcoming DOTA type game.
The NDA is lifted as well, so I'll report back on what I think
of it.
|
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Sept
24.2009 - Finished Ghostbusters.
|
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Well I finally got around to beating Ghostbusters tonight
after a very long day at work. Turned out that I was only
a level from the end of the game. Protocal didn't like the
game but I've got to say that I really enjoyed it. It really
was like being in the movies. Nice that they had the original
cast as well, and that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote
the thing. If you're a Ghostbusters fan or just like a good
game I highly recomend it.
|
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Sept
21.2009 - Love your floppy? Happy Birthday HG!
|
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Thanks to VA_Killer we now know that some people like their
floppy drives just a little too much. Take the cat, just
return the floppy you sick bastard!
So we finally know why Google's been adding UFO
stuff to their Doodle for the past few weeks.
Happy birthday HG
Wells! (My favorite one was definately the
crop circles.)
|
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Sept
18.2009 - Free Monkey Island
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Yarrrrr mateys! Do yea seek to sail the high seas in search
of plunder and adventure? Get yer scurvy hide over
to Telltale Games on the 19th and get the
first episode of Tales of Monkey Island for free! Yaaarrrrrr!!!!
Thank yea Bryan!
|
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Sept
16.2009 - Norton is crap.
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| |
Despite the respect I have for our good buddy and overlord
Pappy-R the Magnificent (Long may he reign!) I've just never
shared his liking for the evil that is Norton Antivirus. Actually
I guess that's not exactly true. I liked Norton's products
before 2004. In 2004 Norton totally rewrote their software
and it's interface and year after year it became more bloated,
system performance crippling and problematic. I've lost track
of how many computers I've fixed over the years that Norton
has damaged and or killed. Norton 2009 seemed like it was
pretty decent, but it doesn't offer the same level of protection
as Eset NOD32 IMHO. Anyhows, Symantec has finally done something
good.... Or at least midly amusing. Check out this
Norton Dokken vs. Chicken ad and this
Kimbo Slice vs. Caterpiller ad. Thanks Belthwing.
|
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Sept
12.2009 - Glossy Laptops for the loss.
|
| |
Working on a lot of notebooks lately and I'm starting to really,
REALLY dislike the glossy finishes they've started putting
on laptops lately. The Acer One I'm working on right now is
so glossy that I can hardly see the screen under my florecent
lights and the Toshiba on the other desk has a super high
gloss keyboard that makes the actual keys invisible is there's
much light shining on them. The casings are a nice shiney
black as well. Doubtless it looks great sitting on the shelf,
but once you touch them they look horrible. All covered in
sticky fingerprints. Blah. Give me a flat black LCD and computer.
|
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Sept
11.2009 - Futurama Box Set
|
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Rkhan just sent in the news that a Futurama
box set is being release... Hmmmmm. Futurama.
That's one sexy collectors edition. Our buddy Praetorian would
definately be all over that one.
Haven't been home long enough to try the Aion beta out. Maybe
get a chance to fire it up tonight.
LOL. Got a bunch of emails about Combat
Arms. The general consensus seems to be
that it's a terrible game. Ahhh well. I'll stick with COD4
for the moment I guess. Hmmm... Speaking of which I have to
finish Ghost Busters and Braid.
|
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Sept
2.2009 - Aion Open Beta
|
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First MMO I've run into where aerial combat (well, other than
Planetside) is a normal thing. If you have a Fileplanet Account,
you
can sign up for the beta here.
I found this
to be fascinating. A real life Divinci Code
sort of thing. Music unheard for 500 years redisovered on
an old carving.
|
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Aug
31.2009 - Serious Sam HD Commercial
|
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lol. Thanks
Chisel.
Anyone been playing Combat
Arms? Haven't had a chance to download it
and try it out yet. Apparently they now have zombies. Hmmm.
Zombies.
|
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Aug
27.2009 - Rubber Ninjas
|
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That's right. Rubber
Ninjas. From Rag
Doll Software.
Bryan reminded me about the upcoming WoW
Expansion pack tonight. A reason to start
playing again perhaps! The trailer is here. Man I love Blizzard's
videos. Looks great. They're finally opening the Greymane
wall. Been wanting to get into that zone for years.
|
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Aug
27.2009 - We have help!
|
| |
Well maybe. After reading my impassioned plea a few days ago
VA_Killer and Bryan have announced their interest in helping
out with the site. Nice. Everyone who reads this thing will
have more than just me talking to myself to read.
A few quick links for today. First off, from the Old Skool
Filez, watch the Enigma demo from way back in 1991 on the
Amiga here.
It's a true classic. Now download the listen to the demo tune
(one of the best ever made) remix by Virgil here.
Now check
out this sweet remix and download
the music disk here. I've gotta admit I
loves my chiptunes. They still sound great years later, and
some of the remixes people are doing of the old gaming stuff
is really amazing. Even people who've never heard the original
tunes like some of the remixes.
Don't have a girlfiend? Shy? Can't figure out what's wrong?
Bullshot has nailed the problem down for you. Please check
out this piechart for all the details. (Hmmm.
Pie.)
Xan sent over this
cool little video. I don't know what the
japanese lettering says, but then again I'm more interested
in the rest of the video. Wow.
That's
2 14 hour days and I have to be back at work in a few short
hours. Out for now. |
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Aug
19.2009 - Wikipedia and why we don't fly around on bombs
anymore.
|
| |
Wikipedia is right up there as the world's greatest wastes
of time, only surpased by Youtube and arguing with people
on internet forums. However unlike arguing with idiots it's
actually usefull and informative. While reading about the
Zeppelins,
the Hindenburg disaster and how unwise it is to fly around
the world under a balloon filled with tens of thousands of
cubic feet of extremely flamable gasses I found a link to
this video of the disaster. I've read and heard about the
disaster for years, and seen still footage, but to actually
see the video gives the story new impact.
Wow. As a side note to the above, I love the Internet
Archive. Amazing project. Glad that someone's
trying to keep a record of our digital heritage. |
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Aug
18.2009 - Wasaga Black Reign, Wolfenstein, Three Finger
Salute and Razer Orochi.
|
| |
A huge thanks to everyone who came out to Wasaga
Paintball's Black Reign big game this year.
We had 1692 players on the field saturday, and yours truly
was leading the W.A.R. (red) team as the nefarious Rinehart
Vaugnhousin along with the valiant Sargent Tyler. The W.A.R.
team had a narrow victory, ahead by 2 liters of water at the
end of the game. I'll post a link to the photos and write
up once I have a chance to get it done. Great event by the
folks at Wasaga
Paintball as always. If you're in southern
Ontario and you haven't played paintball there, you haven't
really played paintball at all.
Been busy buying a house and crazy busy with work. Just haven't
had the time or energy lately to work much on the site or
to do much in the way of gaming. Funny when I think about
how much time and money I used to spend on gaming and computer
equipment and these days I'm running a 2 year old PC and not
having much time for gaming at all. Mostly six day work weeks
and by the time I get home I just don't feel much like gaming.
Once work starts on the house I doubt I'm going to have time
to write much at all. Sort of a shame that I've never been
able to get anyone else really interested in writing on the
site. Have to work on that sometime I guess, in all my copious
spare time. Ahhh well, I'll have to just make time where I
can as I've always enjoyed it once I get the creative energies
flowing and start on it. Keep thinking it's time for a site
redesign as well, as the site has had the same look for years.
However it'd be one hell of a lot of work and frankly I like
blue. I remember when I came up with this design. It was a
definate "Eureka!" moment. I was so proud of it.
lol. This news from Nov 10, 2001. "Everyone who's seen
the new site likes it, other than Kingpin. He informs me he
doesn't like it. I informed him he could go to hell. It's
all good. :)"
On the note of writing for this site, I just realised that
we're rapidly coming up on the 10th anniversary of FRAGtopia.com
and the 15th anniversary of VAM Computers. November 26th,
1999 was the first time I made a post on this site. February
2nd 1996 was the date that the computer store started. Shesh.
I feel old some days. I really do. It's a night for nostalgia
I guess.
Gaming on your notebook? Need something mobile? The folks
at Razer (Sponsors of the first FRAGtopia LAN party back in
2000) have the Orochi,
a bluetooth gaming mouse. Why do I have the feeling that "Orochi"
means something obscene in Japanese?
While cleaning out my closet on the weekend I happened to
come across one of the famous Razer Boomslang Tshirts. Shesh.
I remember when we got a box full of the original Boomslang
mice in their funky metal boxes, mousepads and those very,
very cool tshirts. Praetorian and Dillinger then imortalised
that shirt in the webcomic Three Finger Salute. I have to
try and get a hold of Praetorian and get those back online
in an archive. He moved out to Alberta a few years ago, left
his computer behind and I haven't heard anything of him since.
ROBBIE D!! If you're reading this email me or call darn it.
We miss you bud.
Well well, I got a link today from Blutsauger that the new
Wolfenstien is out. Man, I'm completely out of it. I see from
Planet
Wolfenstein that the news is indeed true.
Like all good people I don't believe anything I read until
it's been confirmed by the mighty news machine that is Pappy-R.
I'll have to pick this one up, can't miss a Wolfenstein game.
There's nothing like killing super powered nazis.
I'm a moron and accidentally entered 1970 into the stupid
age verification thingie on the Wolfenstein site and therefore
got locked out until I dumped my cache. Sigh. |
| |
Aug
8.2009 - Star Wars: The Old Republic
|
| |
Pretty excited about Star
Wars: The Old Republic. Been following it
for a while and it's looking increasingly good. Star Wars:
Galaxies I really wasn't that big on, but I think they're
on to something this time around. I'm especially excited that
it's Bioware working on it. Tingles. Going to be interesting
to see how it turns out, I'll definately be playing this one.
Story Based MMO? Oh yeah. Bioware?
Oh yeah. Star Wars universe? Double oh yeah.
Watch
this
And
this.
I
liked Age Of Conan for the first 20 levels, then the story
telling died out and it just became yet another in the long
list of sword and sorcery MMOs that have failed to knock out
World of Warcraft. It's nice to see an MMO going in another
direction and a new genre rather than just trying to hop on
WoW's bandwagon and failing. |
| |
Aug
6.2009 - Large Hadron Collider fail.
|
| |
After it's dismal failure to completely destroy life, the
universe and everything the first time around, the LHC is
going
to get fired up again in a few months. Hopefully
a better showing this time around, although it'll only be
running at 50%. Booooo. Thanks Asini.
Rkhan will doubtlessly find this highly amuzing. Zomg,
our social network went down for a bit.
What do we do?
|
| |
July
29.2009 - Gay Vampires, Unite!
|
| |
Super, I'll
be able to play a gay vampire in an MMO.
Just super.
If you haven't checked out the Overlord
2 official webpage now's the time to do
it. They've got a new episode of "The Overlord Show"
for your evil viewing pleasure. They've also released an expansion
pack, but it's only avaliable on console. Le Sigh.
|
| |
July
27.2009 - The Hunter
|
| |
I normally consider hunting games to be complete crap, on
par with the lowest budget garbage that one could possibly
come across in the deepest darkest depths of the local Wallymart's
software bargain bin. Just when I'm all comfortable in my
hunting game bigotry like some sort of nerdy Archie Bunker,
along comes The
Hunter. It's actually a very satisfying
game and best of all it's free for basic play. Take a look,
I was pleasantly surprised.
Gotta finish off the last bit of Ghostbusters. I have a feeling
I'm near the end of the game but I seem to be stuck on a very,
very difficult part. Damned demons, why they gotta try to
keep a brother down?
I just noticed that back in the firehouse Vigo
the Carpathian is sitting against the wall
and has quite an extensive repetoir of nasty sayings when
you spend the time to click on his painting. He just goes
on and on. Neat little nod to the movies.
|
| |
July
23.2009 - How time flies.
|
| |
Well well, Windows
7 has gone gold. Can't wait to see the final
thing running on my PC. First time I've actually been sort
of excited about a new OS since Windows XP came out. Thanks
for the link Proto.
UV came in to work this morning complaining about Bell throttling
his peer to peer file transfers. In the afternoon Xan sends
me a link to a CRTC inquiry into just that.
Nothing like having your download speeds choked during prime
hours. X(
|
| |
July
18.2009 - Googlevideo = no more uploads.
|
| |
I guess it's been a while since I've tried to upload anything
to Google Video and it seems they're no
longer accepting videos, but rather direct
you to Youtube. I'm actually surprised they didn't do that
as soon as they bought out Youtube for that unGodly sum.
|
| |
July
15.2009 - Wasaga Paintball Big Game, Kefren's Desert Dream
|
| |
If you're a paintball fan you're not going to want to miss
out on Canada's biggest big paintball game at Wasaga Paintball.
The annual game is coming up, a month from today. Last year
we had over 1,700 people come out to play. Check
out all the details here.
When I was running off the list of classic demos the other
day I forgot to mention:
Desert Deam from Kefrens. Part
1 and Part
2.
Wild
Copper. This one's a real classic. Love
those funky chiptunes. Long, but worth watching.
Who
could forget Megademo by Rebels. This
was my favorite part, with the subway cars.
The scroller and logo on Nabob
was good as well. I always liked these guys,
they really seemed to be having a lot of fun making this stuff.
Maybe not the most technically advanced, but fun and well
put together.
Oh
yeah and Mental
Hangover by Scoopex. I remember watching
this for the first time at a Network23 copy party in Orangeville,
Ontario. So so very blown away by this one.
Truly
amazing what you could do with an Amiga
back in the day. 15 years later and I still find these demos
to be stunning pieces of computer generated art. |
| |
July
14.2009 - Club Chicks Dig WC3 mods.
|
| |
After commenting on Basshunter
DOTA a while back, I've been hearing it
on a few dance stations up here lately. I find it very, very
funny that a song about a Warcraft III mod (Defence
of the Ancients) is being played on mainstream
radio. Also, apparently hot club chicks dig WC3 mods. No wait.
They're bored, but happy when said LAN party turns into a
rave. That's good to know. It's a great dance tune, but I
wonder how many people know what it's about. I do believe
this is the first time ever I've seen a LAN party in a music
video. Dreamhack?
In other news, don't plug your computer into a wall outlet.
Hackers
could be listening in on your Facebook posts
about your dog! This is interesting, I heard about this sort
of stuff many years ago from a fellow who worked with the
government trying to find ways of covertly monitoring what
people are typing on computers but they were experimenting
with some way of basically reproducing what was on the persons
monitor. Ahh those crazy hackers. Soon we'll all be back to
using invisible ink and passing notes around.
|
| |
July
10.2009 - Mechwarrior 5 excitement, it's not just me.
|
| |
Check out the comments on
this link from the Rune. It's not just me
that's worked up about the thought of a new Mechwarrior game.
Also from Rune (He's quite the little link monkey tonight)
DICE explains the reason for the BF1943
delay on PC. I'd rather they waited and
got it right personally.
From the EA Forums:
Dear
PC Gamer(s),
I know
you might feel disappointed about the PC release being in
September rather than June, but you should be very happy to
know this is to give us the proper development time to create
a proper PC version of Battlefield 1943 and not a console
port. To the contrary of some less informed fans out there
this is in no means an intentional ploy to punish our PC fans.
And is in fact quite the opposite, we want to make the best
damn PC version we can for our PC fans!
Not to
bore your eyes out with endless text about the how's and do's
I will say to make this a proper PC version we need a completed
core game to develop over and remember we already released
Battlefield Bad Company with the Frostbite Engine on the consoles,
so this will be first PC game ever released using Frostbite!
PCs are an open platform requiring additional features, support,
technical consideration, and can't just be thrown out there
using copy/paste. We have thought very carefully about this
decision and in the long run felt it was the right choice
even though we knew we'd catch some flak for it, but we feel
once you play the first Frostbite PC game ever from DICE you'll
see why we put this extra time and care in on the development
making all right again in the universe. I hope this helps
clear things up better and answers your concern(s).
Sincerely,
Gordon
Van **** (The company that I work for thinks my last name
is naughty!)
Battlefield 1943 Producer
Killer wants us to all know about the Chiaobama?
Can you grow it? Yes you can! Only in America.
|
| |
July
9.2009 - Mechwarrior 5, Free Mechwarrior 4
|
| |
As I mentioned a few days ago, there might be a new Mechwarrior
game coming out. Smith
and Tinker picked the IP up a while ago
and I was hoping they were going to do something with it.
Looks
like they are.
(Thanks Rune.) They're also going to be giving Mechwarrior
4 (meh) away for free, along
with the expansion packs. /happymarauder
Teaser
trailer is here. |
| |
July
8.2009 - LOOM and Monkey Island on Steam!
|
| |
Zomg. Now this is exciting news! One of my favorite adventure
games (LOOM)
of all time is now on Steam for $5.00, along with a host of
other classic
LucasArts games. Definately a true piece
of computer gaming art, if you haven't experianced the magic
(And it's seldom that I've ever described a computer game
as magic) of LOOM, go buy it now. Best five bucks you'll ever
spend. I love Steam.
Speaking of Steam and classic gaming, I see that Chapter
1 of the new Monkey Island game is up as
of today. That's exciting as well. I've talked to a few people
who've played it and heard nothing but rave reviews. Chisel
seems enamoured with it as does Guybrush from Northern
Dragons. (He might be biased though, eh?)
Nice that the episodes are coming out a month apart as well
so you won't have to wait long between fixes of zany pirate
adventure and humor.
Still working my way through Ghostbusters (slowly, I was at
work for 14 hours yesterday) and I've got to admit the save
points are starting to piss me off a bit, especially since
they generally get made just before the cut scene before a
hard part. At least you can skip the cut scenes, but that's
just bad design.
|
| |
July
7.2009 - Second Reality IRL, Mechwarrior 5 ?
|
| |
If you were around back in the day you know who Future Crew
is.
The
Future Crew Second Reality demo is a true demo scene classic.
It and I go way back. I have no idea how many times I've watch
it over the years, but it was Second Reality that inspired
me to drop my entire college tax refund on a 386 dx40 with
a Soundblaster Pro soundcard and a color VGA monitor so that
I could run it. Dman just sent me a rather excellent real
life remake of said demo. These guys actually did a really
good job of remaking it. The vector balls are awesome, and
the tissue paper sea is great.
First
off, watch the original here.
Then
watch Real Reality here.
Nice
work guys, brought back some good memories. Really amazing
what people could manage to do with (by today's standards)
very minimal hardware.
Speaking
of demos, here's a few of my favs from the years: (The Amiga
of course being the ultimate demo platform.)
Deus
Ex Machina (C64)
Seven Sins by Scoopex (Amiga)
Cebit'90 by Red Sector (Amiga)
Red Sector Mega Demo (Amiga) (Four Part demo)
Wonder by Sunflower (PC) - Great demo, but the scene started
to get more into this wierd drum and bass sounding music that
I've never liked much.
Dead
Ringer by Fairlight (PC) - One of my favorite
64k demos. That's right, it's 64 kilobytes.
Breakpoint
2008 Invite by Rebels (PC)
Various
demos from Northern Dragons, Canadian Homeboys.
(PC, also the only demo group I've been a member of, if only
for a brief time.)
Of course any demo from Farbrausch is just amazing. Check
out Debris
and The
Popular Demo.
Are we finally going to get another Mechwarrior game? Take
a look at these tantilizing videos over
at Voodoo Extreme. (Thanks Brian!) |
| |
July
7.2009 - AMD 6ghz Processor, Veloiraptor FTW.
|
| |
Well not often you hear about a processor being overclocked
to 6ghz, but Killer sent in a link today for just that. Damn.
That's one fast CPU.
Installed a Western
Digital Velociraptor 150gb into my system
last week and I've got to admit I'm quite impressed. That's
the largest performance boost I've seen in my system in a
very very long time. Boot times are about half, software loads
insanely fast and the system overall is much zippier. Definately
going to include a VR in all my computers going forward. Incredible
difference.
|
| |
July
5.2009 - Nothing to do today.
|
| |
I can't remember the last time I didn't have to set my alarm
clock in the morning to be somewhere on time. This is sort
of nice, have to do this more often.
Been playing Ghostbusters: The Game a fair amount the last
few days and I've got to admit it's really, really good. I've
been hearing mixed reviews from some friends, but I'm thoroughly
enjoying it. The writing, graphics, music, humor and ambiance
are all very well done. It's well worth playing. Once I'm
done with the game I'll get a review up and I've got to tell
you I'm really looking forward to kicking Gozer's world destroying
ass in person.
|
| |
July
4.2009 - Happy Fourth
|
| |
Happy Independence day to all you americans out there.
|
| |
July
1.2009 - Happy Canada Day!
|
| |
Happy Canada day my canukistan chums!
|
| |
June
26.2009 - Get Windows 7 for 1/2 price!
|
| |
Limited time off, getcherself pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium
or Pro for 1/2 price. Details
are here. Doesn't appear to apply to us
Canucks. Yay.
Wondering about this Bing thing that suddenly and rather alarmingly
appeared on my IE search tab when I upgraded to 8. It's
harmless, just more schenanigans from M$.
Uv points out that "Bing" is a really stupid name
for a search engine and I find myself agreeing.
|
| |
June
25.2009 - Two celebrity deaths in one day.
|
| |
Always a little odd when a famous celebrity passes away, but
how often do two die in one day? RIP Farrah
Fawcett and Michael
Jackson.
|
| |
June
24.2009 - iD Sells to ZeniMax
|
| |
Wow. Never thought I'd see iD Software get sold to anyone,
but I see on
Planet Quake this morning that it is indeed
true. Damn. Rune sent over an article from Kotaku
about why the sale was done. Interesting
days in the gaming industry.
lol. The
Overlord Show. Love it. Nothing like a little
seal clubbing. This offically wins for best FAQ ever.
|
| |
June
20.2009 - Mac eject issues.
|
| |
So I got myself an iMac G4 at Christmas time, and I've never
had a chance to really do much with it. A little slow at work
today so I decided to load up Mac OS X and play with it a
bit. CD stuck in the drive, no manual eject, eject on keyboard
no worky. Sigh. Luckily I found a helpful forum post. Hold
the mouse button in on power up and lo! The thing ejects.
Apple, you suck.
|
| |
June
20.2009 - Fallen Earth Closed Beta, The Secret World
|
| |
So many MMOs, so little time.
The Fallen Earth MMO closed beta is on. Go
sign yourself up. Zombie MMO!
The more I use Windows Vista, the less I like it. It's sort
of funny since for my job I'm required to sometimes sell people
computers with Vista on them. I highly recomend NOT getting
it, and the vast majority of systems I've sold for the past
two and a bit years since Vista came out have had Windows
XP on them. I still run Windows XP myself. It's comforting
and I know it well. It still does everything I need it to
do. On the other hand it is starting to show it's age a little
bit. Vista however for me at least, is not the answer. It's
slower than XP, it's awkward and other than being pretty and
offering marginal gaming benefits from DX10, there's no reason
to get it. Very disapointing. Eagerly awaiting the release
of Windows 7. Microsoft had better not screw it up or I'm
going to be majoryly pissed.
Darkdaysarecoming.com.
Ohhh. Creepy. |
| |
June
18.2009 - Speedball 2 Tournament, Ghostbusters and Overlord
2 demo
|
| |
Ahhh good ol' fashioned games. Was doing a little reading
about the classics the other day and stumbled across Speedball
2 Tournament. Speedball was such a great
game back in the day. The Speedball website is great, doesn't
look like the game is downloadable anymore, but it is avaliable
on Fileplanet.
Gotta download it and check it out.
Nice!! Overlord was one of my favorite little games a few
years ago, and Overlord 2 is looking truly diabolical. Download
the demo and unleash your inner villian
now!
Yay for Atari for publishing Ghostbusters
the Game, and yay to them for alliviating
my fears and putting it out for my precious PC!
|
| |
June
17.2009 - World
1 War Gas Attacks
|
| |
I've
lately been watching quite a number of World War 1 and 2 videos
posted on Youtube by Sonicbomb.
Some great videos, and man, this is one
hell of a crappy way to fight a war. Like
the trenches weren't miserable enough.
|
| |
June
17.2009 - Doodling
helps you pay attention.
|
| |
Or
so this study shows. Interesting.
|
| |
June
16.2009 - Yay
for no DRM!
|
| |
Just got a press release from the folks over at Dreamspike
Studios, and I've got to say that they should be applauded
for their decision to release a DRM free version of their
strategy game, Space War Commander. Hopefully people don't
take advantage of their kind and trusting nature. If you do,
you're a bastard.
Space
War Commander Going Completely DRM-Free!
June
16, 2009 – Space War Commander made a splash earlier
this year as a unique strategic experience. It drew critical
and popular praise as “One of the most original and
challenging games ever made.”
Now,
Dreamspike Studios, the indie developers of Space War Commander,
are announcing a DRM-free version of the game available at
their website www.dreamspike.com. As a result, fans of the
game will be able to enjoy it on as many computers as they
like and for as long as they want.
Space
War Commander is also available at other popular online venues,
including Direct2Drive and GamersGate. Players will experience
a depth of strategy unavailable in other games: run blockades,
lure enemies into traps, and defeat enemy forces using hundreds
of other cunning tactics!
Last
but not least, stay tuned for the upcoming announcement of
Dreamspike Studios’ secret new project!
Alex
Kutsenok
Dreamspike Studios
www.dreamspike.com |
| |
June
15.2009 - Oliver
Schroer and more.
|
| |
Went to a performance at Hugh's Room in Toronto on Saturday
evening called "Oliver's Cake Parade", to celebrate
the life and work of Oliver Schroer, who passed away almost
a year ago. Gotta say, that was a truly amazing evening. So
much love and passion in the room. It's not the sort of music
I normally listen to (being more of a metal/electronic sort)
but Oliver's music has given me a real appreciation for folk
and fiddle music. His stuff is quite often playing on my computer
these days. If you've never heard of this guy, check out this,
this,
and my personal favorite, this.
Many thanks to Xan for taking me to the show. :)
It's a musical sort of day and Uv sent along a link
to this crazy guy. Lookit him go. That's
some very cool music, and I could see it as a game soundtrack.
|
| |
June
10.2009 - Tom
Clancy's H.A.W.X.
|
| |
Played a bit of the Tom
Clancy's H.A.W.X. demo. (For some reason
I want to call it "Tony Hawks Clancy". I have no
idea why.) It's... Not bad... Very, very arcadey. It's fun,
but it would be nice to have the ability to be just a little
more simy. I guess when compared to something that really
hit a good balance between sim and fun like Jane's
USAF it just doesn't match up. If you're
just looking for an Afterburner type air based shooter, with
a touch more realism than the arcade games, it's good. I really
like a few features such as the A.I. guidence for when you're
trying to get on someone's tail, or doing a ground attack
on a shrouded target. That's very cool, and I'd love to see
it in a full blown simulator. It's a fun little game, but
I was just looking for a bit more. Boo.
|
| |
June
9.2009 - Art Bell was right!
|
| |
Art Bell was right! Aliens
on Mars! No wait... it's a rock. Crap.
|
| |
| |
| |
Killer wonders "What
happened to you China? You used to be so
cool."
|
| |
June
5.2009 - Huxley & America's Army Betas, Space.
|
| |
Not much to talk about today, other than a little game called
Huxley..
It's an MMO first person shooter and I've been anticipating
it for quite some time. The File Planet subscriber beta is
open, I'm signed up, got the software downloaded and I've
been too busy to even run the software. Argh. The America's
Army 3 beta is open as well, Proto say it's pretty darned
awesome thus far.
Like space? Yeah, me too. Check out these sweet photos from
CNN's Space
Spotlight.
|
| |
June
2.2009 - Nothing says power like a 4gb video card.
|
| |
Nothing says "Bow down and worship me, o' lowly nerds"
like having a 4gb Dual GTX 285 video card. Check
this Asus out. Man. They make that into
a production card and you buy it you'd better get practising
your aussie accent so you can say "Thah's not a video
card! THIS is a video card!" Thanks Killer.
More on our old skool computer theme we've had going for the
last day or so, I consider Karsten Obarski to be one of the
fathers of modern computers music. You can read all about
the reasons
behind my logic here. I'm busy downloading
a wack ton of remixes
from Amiga Remix based on his original Amiga
classics. Some really nice stuff here. I think that my favorite
is the Firefox remix of Sleepwalk, which along with Crystal
Hammer are my favorite Obarski tracks.
|
| |
June
1.2009 - Monkey Island is back!
|
| |
Oh yeah, almost forgot what got me all nostagic today in the
first place. Chisel dropped by today for a visit and mentioned
that they're making another Monkey
Island game! Guybrush is back, baby! Hmmm..
Monkey Island Episodic goodness.
|
| |
June
1.2009 - Where does the time go?
|
| |
Where the heck does the time go? I just spent a little time
reading up on some of the old Amiga and C64 game developers
and publishers that I remember from back in the day.Companies
and indivduals that made some truly phenominal games. Heck,
I even watched a few gameplay videos on Youtube and download
a few new Karsten Obarski remixes to add to my old skool music
library. Games like Jumpman, Frantic Freddy. Druid. The Last
Ninja. The Last V8. Cystal Hammer. Lemmings. The Killing Game
Show. Awesome. Maniac Mansion, Blood Money. Demo from The
Crusaders, Razer 1911, TRSI, The Silents, Fairlight, Future
Crew... The list just goes on and on.
Where the heck does the time go? I can still remember sitting
in the AV room at high school with Intuitracker running on
the school's Amiga 2000 rocking out to Karsten Obarski tracks
and playing around in Deluxe Paint. Those were some of the
happiest moments of my younger years. A quiet room, a great
computer, amazing music and great graphics. The was 17 years
ago and I can still remember it clear as day. I've still got
quite a bit of my art work that I did back in the day on my
modern PC. A PC capable of feats that the humble Amiga, C64
and XT never imagined... And yet I have a sense of nostalgia
for those days. I think it's the same sort of whistfullness
we all get when we talk about times past. It's not just me
either. I have a few other nerd friends (Goshwin, I'm lookin'
at you, grampa) that I can sit and talk about the good ol'
days with for hours on end. My dad gets the same way talking
about old cars that he owned when he was younger.
I
think we're all just getting old. One day we'll be sitting
on the porch in rocking chairs. "Why I remember when
PCs only had 16kbs of RAM!" etc.
Ahhh
well, time moves forward and so must we all... But it's really
nice to go back and look at some of the C64 and Amiga game
play videos and listen to the music and remixes of the music
and realise with a certain sense of sadness that we're not
likely to ever have a time like that in the computer world
we've come to take for granted.
P.S. Going to be working on getting the FRAGtopia site a little
bit overhauled and perhaps into a WordPress format so that
it'll be easier to get other people posting news and reviews
on here. It's been a many many moons since anyone also has
had anything to say other than sending me links and news articles.
(This means you, RUNE.) And I really should get around to
posting up some more ICQ/IRC madness posts, I've got dozens
and dozens of humorous texty thingies just waint to get used.
Dating back several years at this point. |
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June
1.2009 - Arma 2 Video, stupid people tricks.
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UV just sent me over a video from ARMA2. Damn. That's
one fine looking game.
Messed around with the Braid
Demo last night some more.. So far it's
looking like that game is (for a puzzle game) sheer genius.
Brilliant music, graphics and design.
Some people are just plain
stupid. Incredibly stupid. Thanks Proto.
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May
29.2009 - Hmmmm.. SATA3
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Hmmmm.. The
SATA 3.0 Spec is out. It looks deliciously
fast. Interesting they're planning on new connectors. Hopefully
they make a retaining lock a standard on both the power and
data cables. And maybe make them a little less delicate. I
see an awfull lot of broken SATA cables and connectors. Thanks
for the linky VA_Killer.
Netterick wonders, is there anything an iPhone can't do??
Check out this iWoW
Project video. Impressive. Jam a Geforce
8800 into that bad boy and away you go.
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May
28.2009 - Tom Clancy's HAWX.
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Well, working away on a little article entitled "How
to protect yourself on the internet" which I'm really
debating subtitling "because you're dumb" but it's
mostly a work project, so I guess I'd better not.
Sort of looking forward to Tom
Clancy's HAWX. Downloading the demo now,
looks like we might actually have a fun little arcade style
flight sim with a bit of a story on our PCs. Can't remember
the last time that happened.... USAF maybe? This looks more
arcadey than that, but still looks good.
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May
27.2009 - Intel Fined 1.45 Billion
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That's right, Intel gets fined 1.45 billion by the EU. Uh,
ouch. That's gotta hurt. Damned anti-trusters.
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May
27.2009 - Go PETA. Modern Warfare 2 Trailer relink.
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I find PETA quite annoying most of the time. I'm sure their
hearts are in the right place but everytime anyone mentions
them I find myself wishing that they'd all go fall off a cliff
into a vat filled with razerwire and pickle brine. Mind you,
a maple
syrup ban in Vermont would be fine with
me. More delcious syrup for the rest of us. Thanks Proto.
Before anyone sends me any hate mail, I'm not in favour of
animal cruelty (duh) but I've got nothing against hunting
and the fur trade in general.
Thanks to Bryan for pointing out I'd mislinked the Modern
Warefare 2 trailer. This
link works. I blame Rune.
Watch yourselves out there kiddies. Facebook virus = bad.
There, "Facebook Virus" should get some Google hits.
:P We've had a few calls this morning from people who have
either a compromised account or some sort of nasty on their
PC. It's sending messages to everyone on their friends list
with a "check out this video" link. The link is
to a page that attempts to trick you into installing "Macromedia
Flash.". Needless to say it's a
virus or some sort of malware. IE users beware.
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Just downloaded the Braid
demo. I'm intruiged. Must try it out and
see how it is. Anyone else noticing the quality and quantity
of indie games lately? It's refreshing.
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May
26.2009 - Hmmmm.. Modern Warfare 2.... *drool*
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Modern Warfare 2 trailer. Damn.
Thanks Rune.
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May
25.2009 - New TF2 Video
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The "Meet The" videos just keep gettin' better.
The latest? Meet
the Spy. lawl. So so very, very many James
Bond jokes.
"He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles,
lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery,
Alaska, and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! but it is too late. You're
dead. For he is the Spy—globetrotting rogue, lady killer
(metaphorically) and mankiller (for real). "
Now this is very neat. Christin Engelberth , a 12 year old
girl from San Antonio won out against 28,000 other entries
for first prize in Google's
Doodle contest this year. Sweet.
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May
22.2009 - Left 4 Dead Thriller Menu Mod
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lol. From UV comes the Thriller
Menu Mod. Awesome. Just awesome. Haven't
actually tried it yet, but to me nothing says Left 4 Dead
and Zombies like Michael Jackson. There's instructions in
the download, seems pretty basic.
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May
21.2009 - Malware writers are bastards.
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Just reading more security stuff today. We've heard rumors
that some of the new DNS redirecting malware will actually
log into your router and modify it's DNS settings. Turns
out that it's actually true. Bastards. Make
sure you've changed your router's default password.
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May
20.2009 - Some music is far too catchy, Battlestations,
more Cortex Command.
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Some music is far too catchy. I've been listening to Electro
Gypsy from Savlonic and watching Weebl's
video for said catchy tune for a good part of the day today.
Yahma yahma ha!
Thanks to Sinister Sniper I now know that Battlestations:
Pacific is out. I never did do a review
on Battlestations:Midway, but I played the heck out of that
game and it was amazing. I'll have to try the new one, but
I really don't have the time to play much in the way of games
these days. Life gets busy and there's better things to spend
one's time doing much of the time. Must be getting old, I
never thought I'd hear myself say something like "There's
more to life than playing video games."
Thanks to everyone who joined my Brute's
Dojo. 31 students. Eeeeehhhcccellent!
I spent some time last night reading up on Botnets and various
security issues that are related to work things and man, there's
some really, really nasty stuff going on out there. The
Storm botnet is a good example, and these
fellows are another example.
Played a wee bit of the Cortex
Command 23 build at lunch today (one of
the advantages to taking your gaming machine in to work everyday!)
and I'm impressed. Definately a big difference between 23
and the last build. More weapons and units, including some
real doozies. (Laaaaaazer beams!)
They've
completed some more campaign maps and two of them are quite
fun. There's still no real campaign mode but it's fun to mess
around with the AI. I just tunneled all the way into an enemy's
base, made a little hole in his brain room and took out his
controlling brain with a single shot from a heavy sniper rifle
through that hole. It took a while, but it was delicious when
it all worked out.
I'm
actually very excited about CC. No idea when/if they'll actually
get the game done, but it's showing a lot of potential for
greatness. Now to see if it actually comes to fruition. |
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May
19.2009 - Cortex Command Update
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The fellows over at Data Realms have released their much
anticipated 23 build of Cortex Command.
It adds some new missions, go download it.
Spammers never give up. Now they're harvesting
valid email addresses from Twitter. It's
be nice to see an end to these nasty little parasites of the
internet wouldn't it?
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May
17.2009 - Automated Cartoon Combat.
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Hai! I challenge you all to automatic cartoon Brute
combat! Accept or forever hang your head
in shame. Amazing how adictive such a simple little game can
be.
Happy Victoria Day my Canuk buds.
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May
16.2009 - Wolfram/Alpha - The future of searching / chicken
related queries.
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Red Leader sent me a link a while ago to Wolfram/Alpha.
They're working on infastructure issues and preparing
to declare themselves operational on monday
if all goes well.. It's an interesting concept, not so much
a search engine, they describe it as a knowledge engine. It
knows things like the answer to "Why
did the chicken cross the road?". Oddly
enough, it doesn't know "Would a rose by any other name
smell as sweet?" Poor Bill.
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May
16.2009 - Internet Explorer 8 Upgrade Issues
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If anyone happens to do their Windows update to IE8 and you
get a sudden internet slow down (yes Firefox users, insert
joke here) or an error along the lines of "A program
installed on your computer has corrupted your default search
provider." the solution is to uninstall IE8. I'm working
on a fix for the search provider error, seems that it's quite
common with IE8, but nothing I've found or tried so far has
fixed it.The issue only seems to be occuring on systems that
have been running for a while. Fresh XP installs never seem
to encounter the probem. Nothing on Vista systems but I just
don't work on the same number of Vista machines, so I'll probably
start seeing it on Vista boxes sooner or later.
DO NOT
DO A SYSTEM RESTORE AT THIS POINT. I've had a number of customers
panic, and rather than just installing the software, they
do a system restore... Which then really breaks things. Just
use add/remove programs to pull IE8 out, do your windows updates,
uncheck the IE8 update and select "Do not show this to
me again". Use IE7 for the moment or go download Firefox.
www.firefox.com.
Go Microsoft. |
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May
14.2009 - US Military - Cyberattack = kick your ass.
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Wow. Killer wanted us to know that attacking the US military's
computers could get you a cruise missile upside your head.
Hooah!
Who the heck does a dance video with hot chicks dancing, all
about a Warcraft III mod? Nordic
people, that's who. Hmmm. It actually has
a pretty good beat, if you're into Euro.
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May
9.2009 - World of Warcraft Pod.
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PC World has an interesting
little article that I've been meaning to
post for a while. It confirms what any good computer tech
could tell you: Your computer's onboard diagnostics probably
aren't going to tell you that your hard drive is about to
go china syndrome on you. Give it a read, it's worth it.
Goshwin sent over a link to Festo. These guys make some
freakin' cool robotics stuff. Hmmmm... Fluidic
Muscle. Fascinating, Captain.
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May
8.2009 - World of Warcraft Pod.
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Wow. Thanks to Ariak we have a link to the oddest thing of
all. WTF. Seriously, this
is wierd. At least it's small enough to
double as a coffin.
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May
6.2009 - R.I.P. 3D Realms?
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Ahhhh man. Looks like another long time game developer bites
it. Hard to believe that a company whose games I started playing
in the early '90s is done. R.I.P.
3D Realms. Such a bummer. After they finally
got Prey out my hopes were pretty high for DNF. I really hope
that someone else gets the project and finishes it. The 2007
Christmas trailer was looking pretty sweet. The end of an
era indeed. Soooo
many games that I remember playing since
1996.
Beyond
the Titanic
Block Five
Diamond Digger
Maze Machine
Maze Runner
Kroz
Supernova
Night Bomber
The Thing
Trek Trivia
Word Whiz
Meteors
Phrase Master
Arctic Adventure
Crystal Caves
Duke Nukem
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
Secret Agent
Bio Menace
Duke Nukem II
Major Stryker
Monster Bash
Rise of the Triad
Realms of Chaos
Stargunner
Duke Nukem 3D
Shadow Warrior
I feel really badly for their employees, they don't seem to
have had any clue or warning what was coming. I see they were
still posting news updates on
their website as of yesterday.
Thanks
Rune, for the horrible news. |
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May
6.2009 - New MSI Products
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MSI's got themselves some funky new products, including some
comps that look suspiciously
like a Mac. The niftiest new toy they've
got though is the Windbox. This is just completely
awesome. Rkhan points out that it's not
exactly a L4D powerhouse but for what most people do (Internet,
solitaire, photos, email, music) or a point of sale system
it's be perfect.
In worse news, Sony's
going to be publishing Ghostbusters? I hope
like heck this doesn't mean that we're not going to see it
on PC.
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R.I.P. Dom
DeLuise. Can't believe he was 75. Man. Makes
me feel old.
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May
2.2009 - More Demigod, Cortex Command, Faceart and Music!
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Got
a raft of stuff to talk about today. I really need to spend
more time writing news and things for FRAGtopia. Once I get
into it I always enjoy myself. Stupid work, stupid hobbies.
I'm going to lobby for getting some large rocket built and
moving the Earth just a little further away from the sun in
it's orbit. I need more time. Goshwin's a mad scientist sort,
I wonder if he could come up with anything.
First off I just stumbled across a nifty little indy game:
Cortex Command. As a disembodied brain you're in control of
an army (Well, a small army, but probably more troops than
say, Lithuania has.) of robots. The physics are great, and
I've got a weakness for chiptunes and 2D side scrollers. The
game isn't nearly complete, but it's still a riot to mess
around with. Looking forward to seeing the finished products,
innovation and fun are good. You can grab the
demo
here.
Our good buddy Dman has a new preview tune out. Darren's a
heck a musician if you like your electronica, I've been listening
to his stuff since the days of .mod files. Anyhows, you can
check out the new tune (Alive) by
clicking here. Unlike the movie, everyone
goes home and no one gets cooked.
Just helping the GF out with her website the other night.
Not our regular news item, but what the heck, we'll give her
a plug just because she's so awesome as a person and with
what she does. Know anyone in the Toronto area who needs some
really great Facepainting done for an event or party? Consider
Xan
@ Faceart.ca. She's also participating in
Yoga
in Motion, a fundraiser for Breast Cancer
at Mount Sinai hospital this sunday. Nice work Xan, have fun.
Think World of Warcraft isn't adictive enough? The guys at
Popcap games have apparently made themselves a little mod
so you
can play Bejeweled and Peggle in WoW. You
bastards. If you're really bored they've also got a little
game that allows you to make
your own zombie. Sweet, it's like college
biology class all over again.
Before I go out the door, I'd just like to say that I miss
the Amiga.
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April
30.2009 - Demigod update.
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Hmmmmm.. So far Demigod isn't bad, but it's certainly not
the best game evar. I'm enjoying it, but it's fairly obvious
that the folks at Gas Powered envision it to be a multiplayer
only game. The single player isn't bad, but it's somewhat
lacking in depth and story. More laster.
Ever wonder how big the universe is? There's
some HUGE stuff out there. Even larger than
Tom Cruises' ego. Thanks Runez0r.
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April
28.2009 - Demigod is out!
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Well, my copy of Demigod
arrived in the mail a few days ago after many many months
of waiting for it. I can't recall when I ordered it, but it
was a looong ass time ago. Haven't had a chance to play it
much, but I'll letchyall know what I think soon hopefully.
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April
9.2009 - The Japanese are wierd.
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I've often commented that the Japanese are wierd. Here's
some more evidence. I'm sorry, Obama seems
like a good sort, but able to take on Darth Vader? I don't
think so. Thanks for the linkage Zyzyx.
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April
8.2009 - Darned Beetles.
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I blame their days in India. Darned
hippies.
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April
8.2009 - Demigod release date announced.
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Just got an email
from Gas Powered Games, Demigod has gone
gold, and should be on the streets April 14th. I've been beta
testing this one for a while now, and it's a lot of fun. Can't
wait to get my hot little hands on the final
product and give it a go.
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