So disappointed with BioShock. It's like iPhone again.

So many rave reviews, then it's actually released and THEN people are finding out bad things.

1) There was this whole big deal about widescreen vs fullscreen (wide FOV vs narrow FOV); and 2K says.. we designed it the way we designed it. that's how it's supposed to be. (Aspect Ratiogate 07: BioShock Widescreen Working as Intended, Says 2K)
But really, I don't think it's that huge a deal.. the demo seemed OK.

2) new SecuROM copy protection requires you to be online to activate your copy. You can only have 2 active copies running. You must be online when you uninstall so that you can deactivate one of these or you will have to call them up. (2K Responds to BioShock SecuROM Issues)
Well, that really stinks. what a hassle. what if my hard drive crashes. what if hardware crashes or i upgrade and i either forget to uninstall first or I don't even get to because hardware failed.

and now:

3) servers went down so you can't activate it anyway! (BioShock PC launch short-circuits)
This really stinks. Sure it's a game, it's not the end of the world, but why should we have to put up with this BS "copy protection" anyway.

AND 4) apparently that whole thing about, oh.. if you uninstall, you'll be OK, isn't true; AND the number to call doesn't work either! (BioShock Uninstall/Reinstall Workaround a Gaffe)
And that is just FOUL. They lied and the number they printed doesn't even fucking work?

I almost bought it. So glad I didn't.

You know you are addicted to World of Warcraft when ...

Where's the fun if you just BUY this? heh Sony's latest PSP promo helps sneak some extra play time

until 2007.06.22 (link)

Demo from the developer's site if you wanna try it first. It's pretty fun i think though.

Double Wire
best so far: 88.67yd

"Frets On Fire is a gmae of musical skill and fast fingers. The aim of the game is to play guitar withthe keyboard as accurately as possible."

hehe, pretty cool. I guess it's like Guitar Hero for PCs (Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows). Unfortunately, the new fancy keyboards aren't that comfortable to hold and play this w/ :P gonna have to find an "old school" keyboard ... w/ USB (which would make it not-so-"old school", but oh well)

Thanks to digg (whose summary doesn't make sense ... "Frets on Fire is a fun, open source clone of Frets on Fire ..." !??)

WoW patch 1.8 came out yesterday.
Druid talents get reset..

And a couple things that caught my eye:   
• You can now repurchase up to 12 items that you have sold to a vendor. There is now a buyback tab on all merchants that you can select to repurchase the last 12 items you sold since you last logged in. When your character leaves the game or zones to a different area, this list of items will be cleared, so if you have accidentally sold something, don?t wait to buy it back. Buy it back immediately.   
• To speed up game loading and reduce memory usage, several portions of the UI have been converted to add-ons. These are completely transparent to the player, but custom add-ons may need to be updated.   
• There is now an option in the interface window to put a translucent pane behind the portraits and health/mana of other party members for easier visibility.   
• Latency upon entering crowded areas, such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar, should be substantially reduced.   

A copy of the patch notes in the extended part ..

World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-11)

Disturbance at the Great Trees

Something is amiss in the Emerald Dream. Immense dragons with the shimmering emerald scales of the Green Dragonflight have been sighted guarding the portals at the Great Trees... but these once-noble creatures crawl with a new, strange menace, not the peace for which Ysera is known. Bring many allies should you dare to confront them; their powers are formidable and they will not hesitate to crush any who draw near.

The Stirring of the Silithid

The arid sands of Silithus are shifting. Something is awakening beyond the wall to the south... Aid the Druids of the Cenarion Circle as they delve into the mysteries of the desert. Seek answers behind the Twilight Hammer's presence. Discover more about the alien creatures known as the Silithid as you explore their hives. Many new endeavors await the high-level adventurer!

Hallow's End

When the decorations of Hallow's End light up Azeroth's cities, you know there's mischief afoot! Seek special vendors in Orgrimmar or Ironforge and get your hands on treats! Aid a sick orphan in a little trick-or-treating! Deathcaller Yanka, attending the Forsaken's Wickerman Festival, and Sergeant Hartman of Southshore are seeking your aid in keeping the enemy out of their holiday affairs -- are you up to the challenge?

General

• Instant Attacks
  The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to improve item balance. Previously, instant melee attacks did damage based on the damage range of the weapon, plus a bonus for the player's attack power. This bonus was then multiplied by the speed of the weapon. As a result, slow weapons did more damage than was intended, and fast weapons were considered inferior by most players. We have changed the way the attack power bonus is calculated for instant attacks. This change does NOT affect attack power calculations for normal melee attacks. Instead of multiplying by the speed of the weapon, the attack power bonus is now multiplied by a fixed number pulled from the following table:
  
  • Two-handed weapons: 3.3
  • Daggers: 1.7
  • All other one-handed weapons: 2.4
  As a direct result of this, many weapons have shifted position in their relative power. In particular, many Epic (purple) quality items are now more powerful than slower Superior (blue) weapons.
  This change was not made to reduce the power of instant attacks, but to correct the relative imbalance of weapon itemization. At a given level requirement, epic quality weapons should always be more powerful than superior quality weapons.
  Please also note that all normal weapon swings will be completely unaffected by this change. The following abilities are affected by the design change: Sinister Strike, Ambush, Backstab, Whirlwind, Mortal Strike, and Overpower.
  
• The cost per point of durability to repair plate, chain, and leather items has been reduced to be equal to the cost of repairing cloth items of the same quality.
• You can now repurchase up to 12 items that you have sold to a vendor. There is now a buyback tab on all merchants that you can select to repurchase the last 12 items you sold since you last logged in. When your character leaves the game or zones to a different area, this list of items will be cleared, so if you have accidentally sold something, don’t wait to buy it back. Buy it back immediately.
• Perception (Human Racial) is now usable while stealthed.
• Guardians and pets in aggressive mode no longer attack civilians.
• There is now a spell effect when you increase your reputation to a new level.
• Channeled spells that are cancelled by movement can no longer be cast while moving.
• Pets no longer break off attacks when their target is affected by Warlock Fear.
• The "Knockout" mechanic has been renamed "Disorient" and all tooltips that referenced this mechanic should be updated.

PvP

• Honor System
  • The percentage of players that may reach ranks 6 through 14 has been increased.
  • Lower-level players should advance in the Honor System more quickly than they had previously (although this change does not affect the highest ranks they can achieve).
• Battlegrounds
  • Each Battleground has an individual turn-in quest associated with its related victory/loss condition. Upon completion of a Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor while the losing side will be awarded one Mark of Honor. Three Marks of Honor may be turned in to the associated questgiver for Honor Points and faction increase. Should players complete this turn-in quest, they will find that the bonus Honor Points for completion are twice that of normal turn-in conditions (individual).
  • Players of levels 10 - 19 will now be able to participate in the battle for Warsong Gulch.
  • Alterac Valley has received an overhaul:
    • In order to keep teams in Alterac Valley more numerically balanced, players will now enter Alterac Valley on a one-for-one basis (i.e. if there are 30 players in the battleground for each side with 10 players in the Alliance queue and 2 players in the Horde queue, only two players from each team will be added, bringing the total to 32 per side).
    • The minimum number of players required to start a battle in Alterac Valley has been lowered to 20 (the maximum is still 40).
    • Points for completing the map and winning have been slightly decreased.
    • Graveyards and graveyard capture points are now at different locations. The banners players must interact with in order to capture a graveyard have been distanced from each other somewhat in order to alleviate "graveyard zerging" and make graveyards more meaningful to both defense and offense.
    • Several terrain changes were made to fix some geometry exploits as well as to adjust for the new graveyard mechanic.
    • Iceblood Graveyard has been fortified.
    • The Frostwolf Relief Hut now has appropriate guards.
    • A great avalanche has closed off both the eastern and western segments of Alterac Valley. This has displaced the Syndicate, the Wildpaw Gnolls, and many of the Winterax Trolls.
    • Due to the avalanche, Korrak the Bloodrager and a small band of surviving Trolls have made the Snowfall Graveyard their new home. Players will find that Snowfall is now under Korrak's control and they must defeat Korrak and his Troll guards if they wish to take Snowfall.
    • The quests Korrak the Bloodrager (Alliance), Korrak the Everliving (Alliance), The Legend of Korrak (Horde), and The Return of Korrak (Horde) have been removed from the game. The rewards for the initial quest involving Korrak have been moved and can be acquired by completing the quest associated with winning a match in Alterac Valley. We realize that some players may have had the Korrak quest and never completed it. These players may have already completed the quest for killing the General and thus might not be able to benefit from the rewards from the previous quest line. We have opted to add an extra quest step at the end of the General kill quests to reward players that fall under such conditions.
    • A new item has been added as one of the reward choices for the quests Hero of the Stormpike and Hero of the Frostwolf.
    • NPC difficulty has been scaled down. All NPCs have had their power reduced by 15-30%.
    • There is now a portcullis at the end of each of the entrance tunnels inside Alterac Valley. They will rise two minutes into the battle.
• The PvP Tier2 Alliance and Horde Cloth armor sets have new updated textures.
• Hunter traps no longer affect opposing players when the hunter is not flagged for PvP.

Druids

• Due to significant talent changes, talent points for Druids have been refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.
• Hurricane - No longer a talent. Now available to all Druids at level 40. Damage and Mana cost increased on all ranks. Spell is now cast on a targeted area up to 30 yards away and affected by Nature’s Reach. Multiple Druids casting Hurricane will no longer stack the slowdown effect. Radius of effect decreased slightly.
• Remove Curse - Updated tooltip to reflect that it's usable on friendly targets only.
• Shapeshifting - Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when shapeshifting.
• Swipe - Self cooldown removed.
• Tranquility - Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes. Mana cost reduced by 25%.
• Cat Form - The attack power bonus from the base cat form will now calculate correctly on zoning or logging in.

Hunters

• Counterattack - Now properly sets its cooldown.
• Throw - Use of this ability will no longer cause a global cooldown with all other abilities.
• Auto-shot is now cancelled when you die.
• Added Lightning Breath pet ability for Wind Serpents. This ability instantly hits a single target for Nature damage at medium range.

Mages

• Arcane Missiles - Should now properly report the correct "out of range" indicator on the action bar.

Paladins

• Judgement of Light and Judgement of Wisdom will now benefit players that are immune to Holy effects (e.g. Divine Shield).

Priests

• Psychic Scream - Updated tooltip to reflect that damage caused to the feared target may break the effect. Included radius in tooltip.
• Devouring Plague (Undead) - Will now properly consume the Inner Focus effect when cast.
• Shadowguard (Troll) - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
• Elune's Grace (Night Elf) - New icon.

Rogues

• Vanish - Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when vanishing.
• Parry - Minimum level to train this ability has been lowered to 12.
• Shoot Bow/Crossbow/Gun - Fixed a bug where these abilities could be used faster than intended.
• Throw - Use of this ability will now only cause a cooldown with Shoot abilities.
• Ambush - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Backstab - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Riposte - Now properly sets its cooldown.
• Sinister Strike - Now uses normalized attack power.

Shaman

• Lightning Shield - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
• Ghost Wolf - Will now correctly have its cast time reduced by Nature's Swiftness.

Warlocks

• Death Coil - Cooldown reduced, mana cost increased, and now causes a short Fear effect that is not diminished.
• Corruption - Duration reduced and damage per tick increased. Total damage over duration approximately identical.
• Curse of Agony - Duration reduced to 24 seconds and damage per tick increased. Total damage over duration approximately identical.
• Conflagrate - Conflagrate will now correctly remove Immolate rank 4 from its victim when cast.
• Bane - Now reduces casting time of the Soul Fire spell in addition to Immolate and Shadow Bolt.
• Intensity - Now reduces chance to be interrupted during cast time of Rain of Fire, Hellfire and Soul Fire spells.
• Pyroclasm - Now gives a chance to stun when Rain of Fire, Hellfire, and Soul Fire spells damage the target.
• Soul Link - Percentage of damage split with pet has been reduced.
• Soul Link - Is now a spell cast on your pet that gives an aura to both you and the pet. This aura increases all damage caused by you and your pet by 3% and splits 30% of all damage taken by the caster to the pet. The aura will last as long as the pet is active, and the pet must be the target of a dispel effect in order to dispel this ability.
• Summon Felhunter - Has a new, unique sound effect.
• Lesser Invisibility (Succubus) - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Master Demonologist buff to be removed if the pet was banished.

Warriors

• Concussion Blow - Will now initiate combat when used.
• Shoot Bow/Crossbow/Gun - Fixed a bug where these abilities could be used faster than intended.
• Throw - Use of this ability will now only cause a cooldown with Shoot abilities.
• Mortal Strike - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Overpower - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Whirlwind - Now uses normalized attack power.
• Warriors can immediately Intercept after using trinkets to remove immobilizing effects.
• Camera angles when using Charge should be improved.

Items

• Items which provide +hit chance will now be allowed to counteract the increased miss chance penalty of dual-wielding.
• The 5-piece set bonus for the Warrior's Wrath set now works with Whirlwind.
• The 5-piece set bonus for the Druid's Stormrage set now properly displays the reduction in casting time.
• The Cenarion Druid set bonus that improves Thorns damage now properly works when Thorns is cast on other players.
• Anathema, Benediction, Thunderstrike, and Shadowstrike will now remember the enchantments and durability data they possessed when they transform.
• The ability to transform Rhok'delar and Lok'delar has been removed, but you can talk to Vartrus the Ancient to receive the item you currently don't possess.
• The Drape of Benediction had the statistics and effects of a Superior quality item, but was an Epic item. The item has been improved to have the proper Epic stats.
• The effect of the Admiral's Hat has been changed. You can now click the Admiral's Hat to provide yourself with an aura that gives you and your nearby party members a stamina increase. Taking the hat off will remove the effect. The Headmaster's Charge item has also been changed in a similar manner.
• The Thunderfury effect's spell damage will no longer be increased by other item effects.
• Shard of the Flame and Shard of the Scale are now unique.
• The Resurgence Rod now heals more health over time.
• The Puncture Armor ability found on the Rivenspike, Bashguuder, Digmaster 5000, and Vibroblade will no longer stack with Faerie Fire.
• Chromatic Gauntlets no longer has a listed Holy Resistance bonus, since there is no actual Holy Resistance.
• Ring of Binding and Blade of Eternal Darkness now have appropriate minimum levels.
• Demonic Rune has been changed to a Good (green) item so it will display the bind on pickup dialogue when looted.
• Invulnerability will no longer protect you from a Demonic Rune.
• Deviate Fish changed to appear in the Trade Goods section of the Auction House.
• Jadefire Pants texture fixed.
• The icon for Flash Powder has been changed.
• Shredder Operating Manual pages will no longer drop for the Alliance.
• Gurubashi Helm now properly hides long hair.
• The Sheen of Zanza has a tooltip typo fixed.

Professions

• There are now alchemy labs that are needed by alchemists to make flasks inside of Blackwing Lair.
• There is now Silithid armor that can be made by leatherworkers. The recipes require Cenarion Circle faction to learn.
• Additional Tailoring and Blacksmithing recipes can be found in encoded messages found on the members of the Twilight's Hammer in Silithus.
• Two additional pieces of Dragonscale Leatherworking were added to the Dragonscale Leatherworking Trainer.
• A Dragonscale Recipe has been added that requires killing the great Green Dragons.
• The Blue, Green, and Black Dragonscale Leatherworking Armor pieces are now parts of sets and have set bonuses so they should be significantly more desirable.
• Green Dragonscale Armor has slightly reduced spirit and now has a stamina component.
• Ironfeather Armor set bonus has been improved.
• Leatherworking item Murloc Scale Belt improved.
• Leatherworking pattern for Black Whelp Tunic added to vendor in Redridge Mountains.
• All Wild Leather patterns for Leatherworking are now bind on acquire.
• All Wild Leather patterns for Leatherworking no longer have cash value with vendors.
• Enchanter-made wands are now Good (green) quality and have had their damage increased.
• The minimum level for the Artisan First Aid, Artisan Fishing, and Artisan Cooking quest lines has been lowered to 35.
• Water Breathing potions will no longer be overwritten by Shaman and Warlock Water Breathing spells if the potion has a longer duration.
• The Pet Healing effect of the Robe of the Void has been improved.
• Expert Alchemy requires 125 skill now instead of 100 skill.
• Free Action Potion text changed to clearly indicate that the potion is not retroactive. No actual change was made other than the text.
• Gnomish Mind Control Cap - Is now subject to diminishing returns in the Charm category.
• Blindweed has been increased in size, making it easier to see.

Quests

• Added level 50 class quests for the Warrior, Shaman, Paladin, and Warlock. Trainers in the major cities will let you know where to start your quest.
• A few new quests have been added in Tanaris. Head over to Steamwheedle Port to see if you can help out.
• The Rin'ji's Secret quest line now has an ending and reward. If you previously finished the Rin'ji's Secret quest out of The Hinterlands, speak with Oran Snakewrithe in the Magic Quarter of the Undercity and select the Oran's Gratitude quest.
• The following repeatable quests have had their levels increased to 55: Morrowgrain to Darnassus, Morrowgrain to Feathermoon Stronghold, and Morrowgrain to Thunder Bluff. The net result of this change is that level 56+ characters will notice an increased amount of reputation when turning in Morrowgrain.
• The Thistlewood Axe will no longer be an available option as a quest reward for the Webwood Venom quest.
• The level 30 Mage class quest rewards are now Superior (blue) quality.

Raids and Dungeons

• Azuregos is now properly resistant to Frost damage.
• Zul'Gurub
  • Reduced the damage of the Mad Servant's fireball
  • Reduced the number of mad voidwalkers that are summoned from the death of a Mad Servant from three to two.
  • High Priestess Mar'li will now despawn her summoned spiders when she returns from combat.
  • Slowed the rate at which High Priestess Arlokk's panthers spawn
  • Fixed a bug that would prevent High Priestess Jeklik from summoning Frenzied Bloodseeker Bats.
  • Fixed a bug that would allow Hakkar's Corrupted Blood ability to target pets.
• Blackwing Lair
  • Razorgore now has the ability to summon players to him if he cannot reach them for a time.
  • If you are in front of Chromaggus and can hit him with spells, his breath attack will hit you.
  • There is no longer a one-hour time restriction on the Vaelastraz the Corrupt encounter in Blackwing Lair.
  • Fixed erratic taunt behavior for Ebonroc, Firemaw, and Flamegor.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing Broodlord Lashlayer to do less damage than intended with his Mortal Strike.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the debuff "Burning Adrenaline" to be removed if enough other debuffs were applied to the target.
• Molten Core
  • You now receive Core Leather when you skin Magmadar.

User Interface

• To speed up game loading and reduce memory usage, several portions of the UI have been converted to add-ons. These are completely transparent to the player, but custom add-ons may need to be updated.
• You can now search for random suffixes such as "of the Monkey" in the Auction House.
• Items that are in your action bar and are equipped will now display a green border around them so it's easy to tell which of your action bar items are equipped and therefore usable.
• The Reputation tab will now display on mouseover exactly how many reputation points you need to attain the next reputation level with that faction.
• When you gain reputation, the combat log message will now display the numeric value of how much reputation you gained as well as the previous relative message.
• There is now an option in the interface window to put a translucent pane behind the portraits and health/mana of other party members for easier visibility.
• When you place an auction up on the Auction House, the auctions tab now displays your minimum bid and buyout price even if there are no bids on the item.
• Players should no longer miss loot rolling messages when they're outside of the immediate area.

World Environment

• Latency upon entering crowded areas, such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar, should be substantially reduced.
• The flight paths in Silithus have been moved from Valor's Rest to the new Cenarion Hold. Characters that previously discovered the Valor's Rest flight path will be treated as having discovered the Cenarion Hold flight path.
• A neutral graveyard has been added to Silithus at Cenarion Hold. With the addition of this graveyard, characters dying in Silithus will be sent to whichever graveyard they are closer to when they die: Valor's Rest or Cenarion Hold.
• Flamekin Imps (Ragers, Spitters and Sprites) in the Burning Steppes now drop Elemental Fire.
• A new weapon merchant who can also repair durability damage on items has moved in to Talonbranch Glade in Felwood.
• The Silithus area map has been modified and its scale has changed.
• Tyr's Hand now has the proper outdoor elite monster respawn time.
• Hearthglen now has the proper outdoor elite respawn time.
• A Graveyard has been added to Duskwood at Ravenhill Cemetery.
• A flight path has been added between Stormwind and Morgan's Vigil.
• Modifications were made to several areas of Azeroth so that the undiscovered areas of the map are revealed easier.
• The Woodpaw Hills sub-area of Feralas now properly grants discovery experience when you enter it for the first time.
• Brackenwall Village now has an arrow on the minimap that points to it when you get within range.
• Sayge’s buffs at the Darkmoon Faire are now exclusive to one another.
• Due to popular demand the general goods vendor in Undercity now sells Morning Glory Dew.
• All graveyards that needed adjustment were changed so that a character's spirit comes into the world facing toward the Spirit Healer.
• Fixed a bug that caused people to fall out of Blackwing Lair during the Nefarian fight.

Macs

• Enhanced the WoW Error Reporter to be able to intercept some types of errors that were not being handled in 1.7.x.
• Eliminated the "r>=0, r=NaN" assertion frequently seen when utilizing third party UI add-ons.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where your pet would be both in and out of combat simultaneously when you were dismounted by pursuing creatures.
• You no longer become stuck and unable to loot if you try to open clams and chests while you are a ghost.
• Fixed bug where players would get stuck in the falling animation if they cast an instant-cast spell while jumping.
• Fixed a missile bug that could cause crashes in large battles such as Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Arathi Basin.
• Fixed a bug with Win9x where if you started in Windowed mode, the cursor would be stuck and could only be moved from side to side.

I've been wanting to try them forever, but today I finally got my eDimensional 3-D Gaming Wireless Glasses

of course, I didn't pay $100 for them.. but $52-ish last week while they were on sale at Computer Geeks.com (currently $62.50)

Neat thing is that Nvidia drivers seem to already support this and other "3D" tech (including the ol' red-blue glasses!!) via an additional 3D stereo driver download...
Edimensional has links to "universal" drivers for non-Nvidia graphics, but I've only tried the Nvidia drivers with an FX5700 Ultra.

The effect is that the monitor surface is the closest you can get.. then everything goes into the screen from there. So, nothing is really going to fly out of the screen at you.

For World of Warcraft, you'll need to turn off the full screen glow effect for this to work. I had read you had to turn all shader effects off, but i'm glad it was just the full-screen glow and I'm not sure I was ever a big fan of it anyway.
For best results, I also turned triple buffer off and set the refresh rate to 85Hz; I'm not sure if v-sync has much effect..
From the start, the log-in boxes and buttons hover in front of the graphics right against the monitor surface. You'll get to see your characters in 3D standing just behind the glass with the rest of the scene extending behind him/her.
In game, the interface action bar buttons and windows are on the monitor surface and everything else is in. Character names and labels (if you turn them on) also render at the correct depth and appear exactly where they should, right above the respective heads.
It's pretty cool :D

My FPS rate did take a signifiicant hit though... Using hotkeys to turn on/off the stereo 3D effect, I got 8-9fps with it on and 18-19fps off (1280x960). Of course this is also all dependent on where you are and how much stuff is going on anyway. I got 30fps (stereo 3D on) inside a cave..

I found aiming in UT2004 to be even harder :) as the crosshairs are not projected onto whatever you're looking at, but more like if you were to paint crosshairs on your car windshield and try to aim through that..
You'll have to make some adjustments in your UT2004.ini file to get it to come up at 85Hz, otherwise the game will just use your desktop refresh rate.

The glasses supposedly also work w/ desktop LCDs, but definitely not with laptop LCDs, at the least because laptop LCDs have a polarizing film or layer.. and the LCDs on glasses are polarized too. Thus, rendering your LCD black if you try to look at it... unless you want to tilt your head 90 degrees..

Reacktor

Sort of a cross between Lumines, Tetris, and Tempest?? :P

oh yeah.. this sounds like a really good idea ...
I can just hear it though: In Soviet Russia, game controls you!

DriverHeaven.net - Remote-controlled humans enhance immersive games

Original Source: New Scientist

Civilization Watch - June 26, 2005 - Brain Training - The Ornery American

and

The Truth About Violent Youth and Video Games; article; the source charts are very easy to find: Facts at a Glance: Violence: by victim age

Venus or Mars? from 1UP.COM

The uneasy relationship between gaming and gender.
by Nadia Oxford 06.29.2005

A very interesting read .. Thanks to driverheaven

• [gamespy] : Call of Duty 2 preview
• [gamespy] : Battlefield 2 screenshots
• dh : New wrinkle in DVD swapping; article: News.com -- the format seems to be really cool and all, but reading his "why" page uh.. it doesn't sound like it was really hatched out of a legal use..
• dh : InterVideo Demos WinDVD for Blu-Ray, HD DVD
• dh : Red Hat [to] Spins Off Fedora Project; article: Information Week
• dh : Prey E3 2005 Presentation Movie released
• dh : Sharp to launch 65-inch LCD TV
• dh : AOL Opens Up Audio, Video Technology (also on /.)
• dh : No "unannounced" DRM technology in Pentium D processors
• /. : Your Rights Online: Judge Rules Offering != Distributing
• /. : Will Next-Gen Consoles Kill Off PC Gaming? -- yet another "pc gaming is dieing" article *rolls eyes*
  I don't think so..
  Seriously, I can barely think of a very, very few number of games that are better on console that could not be done on PC and done better. Even games that are reportedly "totally awesome!" (like Knights of the Old Republic, Halo). (Too bad ports generally suck either way (PC to console, console to PC.)
  Whenever I play games on my Playstation2, I generally ALWAYS think: man, this game would look better on the computer (TV res sucks); man, the controls SUCK. give me my keyboard and mouse; man, the text is so freakin' huge and takes up all the visual space!
  2 things a console does better than a PC: 1) Fighting games (but only because they don't make them for PCs (AFAIK) and when they do.. controlling with a keyboard SUCKS. 2) Multiplayer games ... with 1 console, 1 TV -- remember trying to share halves of a keyboard? blech. Multiplayer PC games generally require multiple computers, monitors, controls, extra room on your table, AND multiple copies of the game. Can you plug multiple keyboards/joysticks/gamepads into your computer and play split-screen? Sure you could have, but did any games even have a split-screen mode for playing in multiplayer with shared halves of keyboards (+ joystick for the 3rd player)?
  Everything else would be better on a computer.. first-person shooters (of course, aiming with tiny analog sticks? give me a break), real-time strategy, ANYTHING that involves typing! (argh!), driving games.. (yes, better resolution on a computer)
  Generally being able to save your progress at any point in the game! Being able to skip texts and intros you've already been through!
  And let us not forget MODS! You can teach yourself a lot about making a game working on a mod or even a map or level, plus it can be a whole lot of fun just re-skinning something.
  Sure a console is a whole lot easier to set up and get gaming ... but it is just SO limiting all around.
  OH! And one more thing.. what if the game is buggy? Nobody is perfect.. And yeah.. there is almost ALWAYS an update for a PC game as soon as the game is available, but can you even get bugs fixed on a console game? ... They MIGHT address this with the online services, but I think in general you have to pay to get the service.. and they only provide additional game content rather than fixes. (And once again, PC Games have TONs of independently created additional content & modifications versus the tiny amount the game publisher/studio might release after the game.)
• /. : GPL First Person Shooter Released: Nexuiz
• /. : Plugging Internet Explorer's Leaks
• /. : Anonymous Library Cards An Option?
• /. : Google Launches Google Sitemaps
• /. : New Way to Crack Secure Bluetooth Devices
• /. : Mars Phoenix Lander Given the Go
• /. : G5 vs x86 and Mac OS X vs Linux
• /. : Will Sex in Games ever be Sexy?
• /. : Google never Forgets
• /. : Final Windows 2000 Update

A ton of interesting links (if only at the time), I've accumulated and not had time to post.. and posting here.... umm.. just because? easier to search/find? i dunno ... 2005.03.07

• AMD jokeys with Intel in software stakes
• NVIDIA® Expands Comprehensive Toolkit for Game Developers
• World's Sleekest 3D-Gaming Phone Powered by ATI
• The Story Behind Cell Phone Radiation Research
• Privateer Remake Complete
• OSS Unix: Dividing & Conquering Itself

WinFS to be available in WinXP
• Captive: The first free NTFS read/write filesystem for GNU/Linux
• access Reiser3 from Windows:
  • RFSTool
    
  • YAReG

2005.03.08

• World's First Physics Processing Unit
  • Q&A: Epic Games' Tim Sweeney on Ageia PhysX
  • PC Hardware: Ageia PhysX Interview
  • Press Release: AGEIA to Redefine Realism With Hardware-Accelerated Physics
  • ars technica: CPU and GPU, meet the PPU
  • Beyond Unreal
• Puppy Linux Lets You Run From, Save To The Same CD
• MiniMo(zilla) Running on Windows Mobile
• Plextor PVRs Now Support Linux

2005.03.09

• Mount St. Helens Shoots Steam, Ash
• Long-awaited BitTorrent 4.0 Released
• The CELL revisited
• Ergodex DX1
• KY high school arrested, 2nd degree felony; zombies
• Sex I.D. test
• DriverHeaven.net
  • ATI Catalyst 5.3 released
  • DH Editorial: Petes Open Source: "Gaming on Linux"
  • DH Review: Creative Zen Micro
  • AMD Athlon 3800+ Socket 939 64-bit CPU Review
  • Pentium-M to get 64-bit support, Extreme Edition
  • AMD claims widespread support for dual cores
  • Gnome 2.10 released
  • Multi-meter vs. Motherboard: A Study of Voltage Readings
  • Understanding Modern Flat-Panel Technologies
• Slashdot
  • Would you pay 5 cents for a song?
  • Israeli Army Frowns on D&D
  • Mario and Link get their Stars on Walk of Game
  • U.S. Approves IBM/Lenovo Sale
  • Science: UK Doctors Cure Type 1 Diabetes
  • Gnome 2.10 released
  • Linux: Spain Prepares for 14,000-user Linux Installation - Health Service of Extremadura, Spain, IBM, $33.8M USD/4yr
  • Science: Stars have a Weight Limit
  • Terra Soft offers Linux-booting iPods, FW Drives - "Note that this is about booting a Macintosh into Linux, not running Linux on the iPod."
  • Forbes Lists Top Corporate Hate Web Sites
  • Consumer Data Stolent from LexisNexis

2005.03.11

AIM's New Terms of Service (/.)
• Off-the-Record Messaging

2005.03.12

• Nero ported to Linux!
• TechWeb | News | Mozilla Puts a Stop to Browser Suite

2005.03.14

• GDC 2005: Black & White 2
• First look at ATI's dual graphics solution, RD-400
• Gainward CoolFX SLI Graphics
• The Quest for More Processing Power, Part Two: "Multi-core and multi-threaded gaming"
• Torvalds switches to Apple
• Clearing up the HDTV picture
• The chronicles of a futile battle: Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD
• AT&T ready to trial wireless (WiMax) broadband
• CompUSA forced to pay overdue rebates
• Star Trek Online first details
• Dual Core CPUs and Unreal Engine 3.0

2005.03.15

• Flash Kung Fu
• Why Britney Spears Hates HDTV
• (Macrovision) Study Shows Rampant Console Piracy - well, of course Macrovision's study shows rampant piracy.. what other kind of piracy is there for a company that sells "copy protection"..
• AOL to Modify AIM Terms of Service - kinda funny watching the damage control
• And "Video Game Makers Finally Have Chance to Raise Their Prices" is not what we need to "help" piracy ... What's everyone's #1 excuse for piracy (music/games/software), it costs too damn much ($18/$50/$100s)
• J2SE 5.0 Update 2.0
• Verizon Confirms FiOS Access
• Flat-Screen Makers Face Patent Lawsuits in U.S. - here we go again.. wait 'til something has taken off then claim to have patents on the idea...
• How to Install Linux v1.0 on PlayStation 2
• WinOS + QEMU + Knoppix 3.8 = WinKnoppix!
• Red Hat Fedora Core 4 Test 1 Now Available
• Apple Developing Two-Button Mouse
• So TV dinners are good for you??

2005.03.16

• EDS: Linux is Insecure, Unscalable
• Blizzard bans a gold rush
• System Shock Remake - PlanetDOOM
• Star Wars Revelations - May the Force Be With You!
• Sony revamping PSX with PSP connectivity
• The Long Tail
• ViewSonic announces 4ms LCD monitors
• Game Creators Going (for) Broke
• New consoles promise big problems

2005.03.17

• Logitech MOMO Racing Wheel
• Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Preview
• We Got Next - Part Three (Xbox)
• Chip industry straining at the limits of technology
• Hitachi Unveils Humanoid Robot (with wheeled feet)
• Google's X Files Vanish

2005.03.18

• World of Warcraft: 1.5 million and counting
• Sega opens up Phantasy Star Universe (to PS2 and PC)
• Spell with flickr bluesnews
• Intel ready to ship dual-core processors
• Microsoft yielding to IE standards pressure?
• Internet security takes a hit (hashes not as secure as previously thought)
• Starcraft: Ghost going multiplayer?
• Lucas to Redo Star Wars in 3-D
• Microsoft Fails to Comply with EU Requrements
• Buying DRM-Free Songs from the iTMS
• Tracking GPL Violators
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 8.0
• McAfee flaw leaves users wide open
• 2D Sidescroller, SoldatUT, Released
• CliffyB on GDC

2005.03.30

• Onliner gamer stabbed over 'stolen' cybersword
• Better Light's E-HS digital backs: 144 megapixels for $9,495
• Girl Calls 911 After Parents Killed
• Woman Challenges North Carolina's Cohabitation Law
• Cops Seek Two Women in Fetus Theft
• Wasp and Hornet Control

2005.03.31

• Lithium ion battery recharges in one minute
• The State of 3D: ATI and NVIDIA, 1H 2005
• Chipmakers push ahead with new tech
• Interview with Mark Cuban About Grokster
• Firefox Hacks (book review)
• Wordpress stuns supports with unexpected fund raising practices
• Pop-up TiVo
• P2P v. Big Content: Opening arguments in the Supreme Court case to watch
• An interview with the creator of Scorched Earth, Wendell T. Hicken : Page 1
• IBM launches formal initiative to push Cell beyond gaming
• Windows 2003 SP1 released, 64-bit on its way, Exchange 12 next year

2005.04.01

• World of Warcraft Performance Guide - Nebu on 3/31/05: The technology website Anandtech has posted an extensive hardware performance guide for World of Warcraft.
• Google Gulp!
• World of Bookkeeping
• iTreoPod
• Blizzard Teams with Pandaren Xpress - Indoflaven on 4/01/05: Blizzard Entertainment, in conjunction with the Pandaren Xpress® chain of quality restaurants, is proud to announce the /panda program! Don't let the inconvenience of eating impede you from reaching your Maximum Gaming Potential! Click here to read more!

2005.04.03

• MGM Concedes Some Fair-Use Rights Exist
• IRC on the PSP
• San Francisco Attempts to Regulate Blogging
• Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.12 (Cat 5.2)
• E-mail worm graduates to IM
• DRIV3R Demo
• New Empire Earth 2 Demo

2005.04.04

• Adobe Unveils Photoshop CS2, Entire New Creative Suite
• Black Holes 'Do Not Exist,' Contends Physicist
• Cartoon Network's 1st Original 'Toonami' Series
• Ruby on Rails Showdown with Java Spring/Hibernate
• New Technique for Tracking Web Site Visitors
• The Rocky TiVo-DirecTV Relationship
• Gigapixel Tapestries & Gigadecimal Pi
• BloodRayne bites into PSPs
• Hollenshead confirms Quake IV for QuakeCon X, talks next gen
• Microsoft Using Immersion to Undermine Sony? (shacknews.com)
• No Merit to 'Dumb' Suit, Court Says (bluesnews.com)
• Biologists Discover Why 10 Percent of Europeans are Safe from HIV Infection (bluesnews.com)
• What a Little Moon Dust can do (bluesnews.com)

2005.04.05

• Feds Hack Wireless Network in 3 Minutes
• Firefox Improves Pop-Up Ad Blocking
• Jon Johansen Interviewed
• NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition Launched
• Google Adds Satellite Imagery to Maps
• Colorado May Allow Cities to Provide Wifi
• Linux + Sci-fi + Detroit = Penguicon
• Microsoft Using Immersion to Undermine Sony?
• Eidos unveils new Lara Croft
• flawed JavaScript engine: Firefox, Mozilla Exposes [random] Data

2005.04.06

• Sony Patents Matrix-like Game Technology
• PSP Hacks and the Mainstream
• CherryOS Goes Open Source
• Daylight Savings Change Proposed
• Spy vs. Spy screens
• an interesting blog entry ... 'bow n*****' - you go dude
• ATI Catalyst 5.4 released
• Half a million PSP sold in first two days - or so they say.. depending how they figure it..
• Next Gen Oxyride Batteries Coming Soon
• Congress Ponders Opening up iTunes DRM - as one commenter pointed.. why (pick on) iTunes? why not (pick on) Windows Media DRM?
• Google Delivering Factual Answers

2005.04.11

• Microsoft pays Gateway to go away
• VMWare Unveils Fifth Generation of Powerful Desktop Virtualization Software
• Media groups, ISPs side against Apple in dispute
• Painkiller: Gold Edition
• Xbox 2 to be Unveiled on MTV May 12
• Keyboards are Havens for Super Bugs
• EA Signs College Football License Deal (also on shacknews.com)
• Experimental Transistor Breaks 600 Gigahertz
• Book Review: Google Hacking for Penetration Testers
• Run Two 30" Apple Cinema Displays on PC
• ISPs in Argentina Must Log Everything
• Firefox and Opera fail Acid2 Test
• The Complicated Way to Turn on a Flashlight
• Mapping Google News
• Remote-Controlled Files
• Microsoft Research on Stopping Spam
• New York Computerizes Its Subway System
• ATI Proprietary Linux FireGL/Radeon Drivers 8.12.10 released (2005.04.07)
• IBM, Sanyo To Develop Fuel Cell System for Notebooks
• Miranda IM 0.4
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted announced
• Project: Snowblind demo
• Ghost Recon 2 for PC cancelled
• Psychonauts demo
• More In-game Ads
• Elder Scrolls IV Q&A
• Dungeon Siege 2 Previews

2005.04.13

• FoxTrot try GOD_MODE ...
• jedi knight: jedi academy final fantasy vii advent children weapons final mod
• Experimental Gameplay Project - I like Tower of Goo
• counter-strike: source de psp map
• GIMPshop
• Sanswire Networks, LLC
• DIY PSP USB charger cable

2005.04.18

• GameSpy Review: The Matrix Online
• Computer games can slow aging of mind
• Ultimate Test of Recordable DVD Media Discs
• PSP processor capped
• Intel Intros Affordable WiMax Chip (also /.)
• THX and Microsoft Announce THX Best Practices Laboratory for Windows Media
• Adobe purchases Macromedia for 3.4B USD
• World: 50 Years After Einstein's Death, His Discoveries Still Matter
• Gene Therapy Corrects Hemophilia in Mice and Dogs
• hahaha, wow: PSP as Home Remote Control
• Gamestop buys EB

2005.04.19

• Midnight Club 2: MODern Edition Released
• Skype spruces up with premium services
• It's Moore's Law, but another had the idea first
• Sirius nabs Martha Stewart ... whoopty freakin' doo
• AMD to star in Dreamworks' films
• Liquid-filled chips cool like mini-fridges
• Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience announced
• World of Warcraft 1.4.0 patch released today
• Bandai to Ship UMD and DVD Discs Together [in Japan ... and we'll wait and see]; while i think it's cool, that's mostly because I have a PSP and it would be nice not to have to do the conversion myself and copy it to MS Duo.. but what if you don't have a PSP? why would you want to pay extra? I shouldn't think they'd want to bother with making 2 diff't boxes (1 with UMD, 1 without; even more if they do things like fullscreen or widescreen or special platinum extended director's edition)
• Federal Grant Applications to Require Windows (for their stupid PureEdge viewer)
• DMCA Prevents Photoshop Support of Nikon [D2X] Camera
• Why Must You Destroy the Industry, PSP? -- somebody put waaay too much time into this :P

2005.04.20

• ATI Launches Industry's Fastest Integrated DirectX 9 Chipset for Intel Notebook PCs (Radeon® Xpres™ 200M)
• Nvidia cards more popular for HL2
• Ballmer grins and bears Linux--a little
• Skeletons on your hard drive
• Verizon's salvo on cable TV
• Playboy offers free pics for your PSP, CNET, Playboy
• Serious Sam II announced
• You got game, Charlie Brown!, gamespot
• More Freedom for DVD Players?

2005.04.21

• Gamespy: PC: Fighting Game Frenzy
• Namco collection coming to US PSPs; Screenshots
• Sims 2 coming to consoles, handhelds, and mobiles
• Prey confirmed, developer revealed
• shacknews: Sony's Station Exchange - Sony Online Entertainment has announced it is starting Station Exchange, an official auction service for EverQuest 2. ... More about why and how can be found here.
• shacknews: Creating the Language within Jade Empire
• shacknews: ATI to Launch New Mobile GPU (M28PRO)

2005.04.22

• Hynix, DOJ reach memory price-fixing settlement; also /. -- nice, and this is the RAM that my laptop came with too
• Nikon's photo encryption reported broken (CNET)
• Sony, Toshiba discuss [next-gen] DVD standard (CNET, /.)
• Concert to be Performed from Beyond the Grave -- well, they signal processed a recording into a MIDI file and are having an expensive Yamaha piano play the file ...
• New Bill would Ban Public NOAA Weather Data
• Conan MMORPG in the works ... :P (screenshots on gamespy)
• More on IBM's Project Monterey and SCO
• AMD Dual-Core Performance Revealed
• Beyond Unreal: Unreal Championship 2 Concept Art
• shacknews: Empire Earth 2 Update Demo
• shacknews: Dungeon Siege II Hands-On Preview
• bluesnews: Gold - Guild Wars; also on gamespot, driverheaven, /., shacknews
• Graphics patent suit fires back at Microsoft
• C++ creator upbeat on its future
• Human Hibernation on the Horizon?
• Regulating the Sales of Videogames (CA)
• Deconstructing Stupidity - Why is IP Policy Bad?
• Soul Calibur III screens
• E-mails hurt IQ more than pot
• More on PSP Capping News

2005.04.25

• PSPworld: Battlefield 2 coming to the PSP, PSP-spot
• PSP Gets Screen Maginifier
• UMDs being dumped?
• Logitech PlayGear Pocket Case Review
• Half-Life 2 Korin Bikini Model on GameSpot DLX

2005.04.26

• First Ever Serious Sam 2 Screenshot
• Star Wars Battlefront II First Screens
• buncha stuff on /. the other day... (20050424)
• AIM for PSP
• Guide to Using PSP for Online Play
• Wal-mart Offers Custom Music CDs (4.62 w/ 3 songs, 0.88 each additional up to 20 (19.58))
• Real's New Rhapsody Adds File Sharing
• RealNetworks Rekindles iPod Tech Tussle
• Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill Demo
• Hellgate: London Preview

2005.04.27

• PSP Maze Generator
• PSP ad-hoc distance pic
• Gentlemen, Start Your Droids
• Room-temperature, Small-scale Fusion at UCLA; duped 2005.04.28
• GoDaddy Usurps Network Solutions

2005.04.28

• Looking at the Psychology Behind Games
• Wal-Mart Parody Site Censored by DMCA
• The Darth Vader Blog; also Yoda's and Boba Fett's

2005.04.29

• Tomb Raider: Legend trailer
• Pariah Trailer Part #1, Part #2
• Valve and Vivendi Universal Games Settle Lawsuit (driverheaven, gamespot, beyondunreal)
• Net-powered computer goes on show (computer powered via it's network cable connection)
• Microsoft SafeDisc Windows XP Fix for Microsoft Games 1.0 (betanews)
• UT2004 mod: Interceptor Shield Update
• PSP Cyber External Battery
• Alien Swarm: Infested Announced (to be on HL2/Source engine)
• Battlefield 2 demo mid-June
• X3: Reunion Q & A - Single-player, Dynamic Campaign, Economy

2005.05.03

• Risk Management - A Cautionary Tale (re: Comair/Delta xmas 2004 meltdown)
• No Need for Trek Anymore (Orson Scott Card)
• The Future of Windows Graphic Technology
• Red Hat Founder Offers Help in Apple vs Tiger[Direct] Lawsuit
• Changes to Functionality in Microsoft WIndows XP Professional x64 Edition
• ABC News, AtomFilms Offer PSP video
• After the Fever's Gone - Sony PSP's ultimate showdown (a post-launch hype review)
• Logitech Playgear Pocket skins (more here)

• Breakdown of the EB/GameStop Merger (shacknews; actual story on 1UP)
• Dungeons & Dragons Online E3 2005 Preshow Report
• Pariah accepted by stores
• SOE quest for real-life EQII heroine
• Live for Speed demo
• Call of Duty 2 Q&A - Story, Characters, Weapons, Vehicles, AI
• S.C.A.R. Demo - A S.C.A.R. (Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo) demo is now available, offering the chance to test drive the racing sim. The demo offers the chance to drive one of three Alfa Romeos on the Valenciana circuit, a country track, and a city track. The 192 MB download is available on the BlackBean Games Website, and mirrored on 3D Gamers, Gameguru Mania, and Worthplaying.
  
  Source: Blues News
• Half-Life 2: Substance mod patch 1.1 - Half-Life²:SUBSTANCE enhances the hl2 single player experience,John Woo style: new action oriented gamestyle, deadly challenges and extra gorish killings make it the best choice for HL² veterans who hunger for more replay value. Welcome to the real Substance,what the action is made of! (source)

2005.05.05

• Digital cameras--stop them before they shoot again
• Serious Sam II Details
• Californian violent games bill voted down; Illinois bill passes
• High-brow graffiti leads to Web
• Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.25 (Cat 5.4)
• GamePC - Mobile CPU Showdown : P4 vs. P4EE vs. PM. vs. Athlon64

2005.05.12

• Nero Recode converts for PSP; tutorial
• PSP Hacker: Text Viewer v0.2
• BBC News | Sci/Tech | Insects use lesbian ruse
• Toshiba Developing 45GB HD-DVD Disc; lame betanews article - "The 45GB capacity would eliminate Blu-ray's size advantage." ?? Blu-ray according to this article holds 50GB ...
• Longhorn Surprise: 'Red Screen of Death'
• Flickr + Maps(.google.com)
• Sony releases PSP security update patch
• Creative announces X-Fi audio processor
• Questionable E3 Booth - ?? uh, ok; about as questionable as America's Army, Rainbow Six, SWAT 4 ... but there are some "peaceful" games there so.. wtf, mate.
• Windows for you car! I know you can't wait ... Philips and Microsoft Finalize Software Deal
• /. Cassini Confirms New Moon of Saturn
• /. Key Advantage of Open Source is Not Cost Savings
• /. Dutch Academics Declare Research Free-For-All
• /. Firefox Updated to 1.0.4 (Mozilla Suite was also updated to 1.7.8)
• /. Google Acquires Dodgeball ... ok?
• /. Microsoft Under Attack - Part 2 - "Part 2 of BBC's report on Microsoft at its 'most vulnerable moment in history' ..."
• /. New Edition of the Daedalus Project - "The Daedalus Project is an ongoing survey study of MMORPG players. ..."
• /. Cisco Confirms Arrest in Theft of Its Code
• /. 3rd Season of Red vs. Blue Concludes
• /. Massachusetts Drops Hammer on Spam Gang
• /. Xbox Unveiling Tonight on MTV - cool, but whoopity freakin' do about the celebs' reactions
• /. Safari vs. KHTML
• /. Firefox Promo Videos
• /. The Feasibility of Star Wars Tech
• /. Reverse Engineering MineSweeper
• /. Using Email Networks as P2P Spam Filters
• /. Winelib Hobbled by Exception-Handling Patent
• /. ah.. well, look just about everything was interesting today

2005.05.15

• US Wipeout Pure Finally Gets Update [May 18]
• PSPOMag.com - internet PSP browser friendly magazine
• Daxter for PSP Videos
• SNES Emulator with Sound
• NCSoft Licenses Unreal Engine 3
• HP Will Offer Customized Linux in Notebooks
• Exploring Superstrings in the Lab
• Human Blood for Electrical Power
• Next Step in Human Evolution
• Several Critical MSIE Flaws Uncovered
• How-to - Flying Snakes

2005.05.16

• PSP: Tetris Portable v0.2
• PSP Emulator for PC First Ever?
• PSP: Street Fighter Alpha 3 (working title)
• Blizzard buys Swingin' Ape
• Get to Know Mach, the Kernel of Mac OS X
• Excursions at the Speed of Light
• HS Students Steal SSNs to Prove They Can
• Space Weather Warning [after the fact?, so how much of a warning is that]
• HDTV creates new reality for game developers (unless you're working on Nintendo)

2005.05.17

• Intel Discontinues Family of Intel Pentium-M, Celeron Chips
• Gamespy: Wipeout Pure Gets Download
• PSP: Homebrew on Firmware 1.5 ?
• /.: Game Boy Micro Announced

2005.05.19

• BitTorrent Goes Trackerless
• /.: Blu-Ray DVDs Hit 100GB [4 layers]

2005.05.30

• Upcoming loader to work with v1.5
• SNES9X for PSP v1.5 Demo Attempts
• How Not to Get Best Buy to Fix Your Broken TV
• New Catalyst 5.6 to give big boost to PC Games
• Dual-Core Duel: AMD Beats Intel
• Orson Scott Card Talks Advent Rising
• Advent Rising for Xbox ships
• Garnet Hertz - Experiments in Galvanism: Frog with Implanted Webserver [Project Documentation]

2005.05.31

• Mom hires stripper for 16 year-old son's birthday party
• Morpheus put to sleep
• PSP Homebrew Guide and FAQ
• Sony tests anti-CD burning technology (and on /.)
• The Diganostic 'Bugbot' (also on driverheaven)
• Wired: AI Seduces Standford Students -- if you can call mimicry AI (thanks to treu)
• E46Fanatics - Coolest thing ever, Half-life in real life (thanks to treu again)
• Halo v1.07 hot-fix

2005.06.01

• Google's Summer of Code, get $4500 (driverheaven, also on /.)
• Ubisoft's Defense Against the Dark Arts --er.. EA
• Mark Rein on Next-Gen, Rising Costs, and More (from BeyondUnreal)

2005.06.02

• Battlefield 2 goes Gold
• Porn-friendly '.xxx' Domains Approved
• HOWTO Change Windows XP Home to Windows XP Pro
• Mmm... doughnuts ..
• How the Secret Service Busted ShadowCrew
• Carmack on Game Patents
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: Princess Leia Model
• Trust in a Bottle
• Basics of Modern Intel CPUs

from Beyond Unreal, on CliffyB's blog, to which I say, AMEN:

NO!

Videogames need to be CHEAPER! They need to get down to the $19.99 price point you fucking morons! Damn. I do decently here at my job and fifty bucks is still too much of a barrier for me to spend as an impulse buy on a game. But... twenty! Sign me up! Perhaps if we focused on figuring out ways of growing our audience and making our games more accessible we'd sell more units and finally arrive at the magical new price point instead of shooting ourselves in the damned foot by RAISING PRICES?

Something to look forward to.... The New Game Ads - Shacknews
Some of it actually sounds kind of neat.. but you just know it's going to get out of hand.. (ads everywhere ala the web) and it's not going to help US (the consumers/users/gamers) any, it's not going to make games any cheaper for us ...

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, SDK, Source Engine Updates Available

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Impressions

And something for the kiddies: Eidos to publish Lego Star Wars game

New 'Out of the Blue'

• God's Number Is Up (either 2% or 67% probability ... heh)
• Smoking wipes 10 years off a person's life on average
• Transgaming releases "WineX" 4.0 "Cedega" [/.], Transgaming Press Release - i'm going to have to see about trying this.. maybe on my laptop even
• and just posted on /., Slackware 10.0 Officially Released. How convenient.
• Haven't people learned by now not to use or depend on Outlook? Pr0n spammers sneak images into Outlook
• Climate film put to computer test ...why don't they just say "The Day After" put to computer test.. :-\
• on that note, SETI@Home just released BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) [/.]
• Burping sheep are bad for the planet, so let's infect them with a methane-reducing virus ...
• Alternative Fuels Cropping Up ... might be interesting if there were more details >:-\
• Something to this Matrix thing after all? Power implant aims to run on body heat
• Burning Man Gets Zoned

For fun ...

• yetisports strikes again ... this time golf in Africa. best score so far.. 3624
• The Sliding-Door Maze (Java Applet)
• Appleseed trailer (in case you hadn't seen it yet)
• Volume 1 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex will be out on DVD soon (2004.07.27) (with new volumes coming out every 2 months).
• Is this a cool looking case mod or what. Check out Orac³
• But does it go with The GameDeck?
• Just what you need to play Ricochet: Lost Worlds, the older, but still cool Ricochet Extreme, Crimsonland, or Playtonium's Enchanted Forest. Crimsonland is not recommended for younger viewers though. (these guys were all hiding on last month's PCGamer CD.)

So a friend of mine, catnipgirl, was kind enough (depending on how you look at it i guess ;) ) to (1) take advantage of a Sony promotion to allow current players to deal evercrack to their non-addicted friends, or (2) or simply offering me a chance to try it out and have another buddy to play with, esp. since i've recently expressed interest in MMO(RP)Gs.
BTW, Sony is also doing a "recruit a (10-day) buddy" for Planetside; or just selling Planetside to you for $10 (w/ 30-days; $12.99/month !!! after that) off fileplanet. Plus, the 14-day free trial of Star Wars Galaxies .. also via fileplanet.

Well, sad to say, I've not been all that impressed by it so far. I don't hold the graphics much against it. I know the game started in like 1999, but it was pretty dang choppy.. I would've thought my 2002 laptop (P3-M/1GHz, 512MB RAM, GF4 440 Go 64MB) would handle it pretty well though; after all, it handled the much more graphically impressive Guild Wars fairly well even at higher-res, in a window (vs fullscreen) with the slightly slower (and much buggier) Mobility Radeon 7500 64MB).
But mainly, I'm having "interface" issues. The one thing that IMO can kill ANY game or app no matter how cool. It seems to be more of a first-person game than a 3rd-person. Which I guess is OK for some ppl, but first-person melee just doesn't work very well IMHO. This is the same reason I don't play Morrowind even though Shadowdream loved it. Here is a sample of "combat":

*Click*
(ok, go kill that thing)
Auto-attack is on.
You're too far away, move closer.
You're too far away, move closer.
You're too far away, move closer.
...
*chasing target*
*run right in-front-of/next-to target*
*wait until characters starts swinging sword*
You cannot see the target.
Kobold hits YOU for 8 points of damage.
*sigh* *mouselook down*
*sit and wait.. watch the "battle" "unfold" (staring at your hand in 1st-person mostly..)
*hrmm.. down to 17% and he has 64% ...
*turn yourself around w/ the choppy graphics and run*

Granted, yes you learn quickly how far to run up to your target.. and to look at it.. but you still sit there and wait for the battle to be over. running if need be.. or casting a healing spell or ... whatever.

These fights would be more interesting in 3rd person.. but that view all but doesn't work.. Namely, I could NOT get it to look DOWN at the short little spider/rat/whatever I was trying to attack without hitting F9 repeatedly until I found the 1st person view as there are like 4 other wierd views that to me seemed even more useless because well, you couldn't ever look up or down with them and the camera would move all over the place and there was nothing telling you which view you were in. So i think this game is intended to be played in 1st person..

Basically, I liked Guild Wars better..(and i would have to agree with those players that logged in and exclaimed, "this kicks EQ's @$$ !!!!") Select target. Select an attack and the game would maneuver the character to where they needed to be in order to perform the attack. (Except the monsters seemed to all be able to sense right when I had just clicked to send an arrow at them and start charging at me while i draw my bow. I think it'd be better if the monster would have to be hit first.. then even try to FIND you; rather than automatically knowing where you are and begin the process of wailing on you. Now sometimes the monsters DO spot you and come after you, but that's diff't.)

The other main thing I didn't like about the game.. well, the quests! :P

Welcome! Before I train you or whatever, you need to take take these papers to the registrar and get them stamped and junk, so like you'll be a full/real citizen of this city (and pay taxes).
"OK, where do i find the registrar?"
*stare at screen.. ok, no response*
"Who is the registrar?"
*stare at screen.. ok, no response*
*sigh* *wander aimlessly looking for someone with Registrar in their name*
*get lost* *ask random NPCs where the registrar is ...
AH! finally someone tells me the registrar's full name and where i can find them*
*wander around looking for this area .. and look for this person .........*

At this point, let me say that EQ supposedly has this Find function that shows a "misty path" to lead you to whoever you're looking for.. except of course the people you DO need to find are not on this list..
No, I don't expect that if i'm trying to find random bad guy who is out in the middle of nowhere doing bad things.. find him, stop him, kill him, etc. that this Find feature would tell me where they are, No.
But you'd think that the person sending you on this errand (to the city's bleeding registrar.. or king) would tell you something about who.. where.. how to get to... the person they're sending you to is .. no.. they just stare at you. And you need to find the random, non-related NPCs to tell you that ...

I know some RPG'ers find that to be half the fun. To have this big, open feeling game where you have to wander around and explore. But c'mon.. i'm just looking for the freakin' registrar.. and the gosh darn KING of the place.. (yeah.. duh. . he's in his palace or what not.. WHERE is it?). I mean anybody/NPC who apparently resides in this city should be able to tell me that.. or to tell me that they don't know.. I don't think I'm asking to be totally spoon-fed here.
oh.. and exploring ... I literally fell asleep.

So.. nearly my entire first day of EQ was spent running back and forth to the various tutorial NPCs, trying to get the hang of the controls and cameras.. looking for the registrar, looking for the tax collector, looking for someone to make a acrylia slate for me.. looking for the king...

I'm willing to give it more tries, but it's been hella-boring so far (sorry).. More boring than EVE Online and that game.. i was literally just hauling junk back and forth, to and fro various ppl/star systems/space stations.. with nothing to do but watching the really pretty graphics while my ship was in hyperspace or whatever.. make some money being errandboy or mining and trying upgrade my skills and/or ship. Sounds pretty boring but it was somehow addicting.

Excessive UT2004 released
Yay! Now we get to have crazy vehicles too :)

Anomaly looks cool too.

Duffers Golf.. GOLF w/ UT2004.. haha, looks neat though.

Arrrgh! ye UT2004 land lubbers - yes, a pirate-theme UT2004 mod

also from BeyondUnreal (almost all this stuff is from Beyond Unreal ... )

The State Of DVD-Games
by hal at 4:04 PM EDT (Commentary) [ n Comments ] #6024
JCal of HomeLAN opines on the state of DVD gaming. Here's a bit to get you started:

The biggest case for the need of DVD-ROM PC games is the release of Unreal Tournament 2004. Epic Games and Atari released two versions of the multiplayer shooter; one was the six disk CD-ROM version while the other was a limited special edition two disk DVD-ROM edition with the entire game on one disk and a number of game editing video tutorials on the other DVD disk. The DVD-ROM special edition was a huge hit and was almost an instant sell-out, so much so that Atari re-released the DVD-ROM version again (although without some of the other elements of the limited special edition).

I have the limited edition DVD
:D

The last time this happened was cuz a Make Something Unreal Contest phase deadline was up. This is again the case for June 6.
So much stuff happened from the end of last week and over the weekend, but these caught my attention most..
I've only downloaded Alien Swarm so far and it is pretty darn cool.

Alien Swarm

Strangelove mutator :)
from UT99, when you alt-fire the Redeemer, you RIDE the redeemer

Red Orchestra 2.1 patch out
Jungle Warfare

another Carball released; 1.7 (they have new version like every 3 days)

Monkey Matrix Moves 2004 v130b released!
Y'all ready for some bullet-time and wall running?

Flag Domination - combines elements of Capture the Flag and Domination ... flags start out in a neutral place, and each flag has a designated spot to be captured by each team. Some maps have two flags, and some have three.

Allied CTF - sounds like a royal pain in the ass: Search for the four orbs scattered about the level at match start. Kill enemy players; take their orbs. As a team, bring all four orbs to the enemy's flag barrier. This unlocks the flag and allows you to try for that score.

Slavemaster - a free-for-all gametype, like Deathmatch. When a player is killed, they respawn as their killer's slave. Slaves have a ghost-like appearance and cannot receive nor deal damage. When a slave picks up items, they are given to his master and the slave earns "favor." If a slave can earn 100 favor, he has "earned his freedom" and respawns as a player again. Another way for a slave to earn favor is by "tagging" enemy masters. Slaves can shoot a tagging orb by pressing primary fire. Once a player has been tagged, the slave's master can easily see the location of the tagged player. The objective is to enslave every other player in the match.

Unwheel - driving mod, looks pretty cool.

ChaosUT2: Evolution PR3 released

For fans of the old Total Annihilation, Unreal Annihilation 2004 beta 1 was released.

I hope MechPack will be about as good as say MechAssault. (or if it's actually a lot diff't that mechassault, i hope someone will make a mod for UT2004 to make it into Mech Assault.. ragdoll mechs.. muhahahaha!)

"After months of anticipation", UT2004 Troopers has finally been released!

There's still a couple other things, just have a look at PlanetUnreal of BeyondUnreal to see what all happened this weekend ... sheesh.

The flexibility of UT is pretty astounding, namely Alien Swarm, Unreal Annihilation.

waiting for the drives to sync last night, I found that
UT2004 now has a nice little interface to view demo recordings.

When you record demos, UT2004 puts them all in a Demos folder..
or you can put your downloaded demo files there.

Then from the main menu, you can select "Community" and then "Demos" at the top.
You'll see a list of all the .demo4 files in your Demos folder you can select and play or "make avi".

During playback, if you hit ESC, you get a [STOP] [PLAY] [FF] (x2, x4 not sure if it goes higher than that) bar at the top.
Of course, you can press [FIRE] to cycle through the players you want to view.. (if you have a server's version of the demo.. otherwise you'll only get to see from your POV i think).
You can also right-click to view your current player in 3rd person and zoom in/out with the scrollwheel.

The "Make AVI" is supposed to make a DIVX AVI file, but it was REALLY slow.. like 1fps, but it does make a 30fps avi file. .

And in case you didn't know.. you can play UT2004 w/i a window .. just hit Alt+Enter.. You'll need to Alt+Tab to get your pointer back to go to your other apps. You can go into Settings to adjust the window size.
Of course, Alt+Enter again to go full screen.

Thanks to Epic for this nice interface.. It was always a pain to have to type demoplay <whatever-the-name-of-that-demo-file-was...>.

For making video files though, I'm going to have to give Gamecam a try.

Yeah.. it's been quite a while since i've posted anything, but things have been busy.. and it just takes some time to put stuff together and link it up and all.. Plus anything i post here is generally easily findable on slashdot, gamespy, shacknews, arstechnica, wired, (yahoo news, cnn, foxnews, etc.) ... so anyway

Today is the last day of E3, Lots of stuff going on there (obviously)... not going to list them as i'm sure there are a number of sites that will have stuff (gamespy.com (E3: Complete Editor Blog Index), shacknews.com), but:
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 was announced (though never really got time to get into the first ...)
- More details about Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP revealed ..
- not to be left out, how about the XBox handheld ! (although it seems to be running XP?)

Tried a few MMOGs ...

Guild Wars is available to play/demo for free during E3 (today's the last day! so go get it quick!).
Graphics are pretty nice.. You can pick a primary and secondary class and you start off and are locked at lvl15. I guess i'm doing something wrong though cuz my Ranger/Elementalist, Dougie Deathblade (hehe), just gets pounded and dies if he runs into any particularly difficult monsters (much less a group of them). I've tried running away, but they generally chase you ALL over the place and sometimes they run faster than you or they still throw things at you. Maybe I just have to go through Mission 1 and/or run around in the single-player area a few more times and get gold and find cool things to upgrade weapons, armor, skills.
A couple of cool things (if only to me, since i've never played any other fantasy MMOGs (see below)):
- This game will NOT have a monthly subscription!!! - You can get dye to color your equipment.. give you a little bit of customization for your character.
- You can change the game interface language to ... Swedish Chef!!!

I also tried EVE Online for a few days... Nothing to do with E3 actually. It's space/sci-fi-based, and strangely addicting for how boring it is/was... I was basically just running errands for various agents and mining now and then and trying to find a good price to sell the stuff.. all to make enough money to upgrade my ship, equipment or skills. . The graphics were really cool though (esp. if you like to look at astronomy photos) and the interface is pretty slick.
I downloaded the client for free and got a 10-day trial here (you'll need a fileplanet/gamespy.com account to get a trial key). The key is tied to your account/userid; so no, you cannot keep requesting a key, you'll just get the same one. If you like it, it's $20 to turn it into a real account w/ 30-days and then $15/$12/$11 per month/3-months/6-months.

This is how MMOGs should be IMHO.. free/cheap download for the interface. I have always objected to paying $40-50 for software that is really just an interface. They usually come w/ 30days, which is about $12-15/month, so let's say it's really $25-38 for the interface then. But what if you don't like it! Too bad huh. You're out all that cash. Esp. since few places will take returns on computer games/software.
And then, if you don't keep paying, your character eventually disappears. You can't download your character data, save it, come back to it later.. Especially if you want to play a bunch of different ones! EQ, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, Final Fantasy XI ... that adds up pretty quick.

Tabula Rasa sounds interesting ...

A little more stuff about Advent Rising.

Valve admits that it was premature in its release hopes for Half-Life 2, one of the reasons the hackers posted the source code IIRC, to prove that Valve was nowhere near ready.. a point/discussion we've had around the office regarding this game, its hype.. a couple of friends' purchase of new systems in anticipation of this game ...

ATI just released Catalyst 4.5 (download) .. geez, just look at all the Known Issues ... even with games that have been out for a while now (Need for Speed: Underground, EVE Online, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Halo.

Epic just released the first patch for UT2004 (v3204). There've been only a few "bugs" I have noticed with the game so far (besides the problems with ATI cards OF COURSE):
- sometimes my shots do not register in our LAN games (mostly shock combos.. I fire the ball, I click to shoot the ball, but it never fires.. >:-\ ).
- Also, the bots are either super stupid or way too freakin' good. I'm up for a challenge and all (with their super-accurate shots (esp. w/ minigun and link gun), but when the bots are freakin' Jedi !, dodging almost every shot you're firing (tank shots, rocket shots, flak shells, anything) at them.. EVEN when they are not looking at you/don't see you AND are busy shooting at some other player /bot!! that's just no fun and cheating.. IMO
- Map Voting ( this one i believe is addressed my the patch ) is a bit screwy.. sometimes the wrong maps are listed for the default selected game type. The font is also a bit large and you cannot read some of the longer map names and the voted-for maps shift around a lot and you easily double-click/vote the wrong one.

I hope one of the above updates will fix Will's brand new Inspiron 8600 w/ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro issues with UT2004 Onslaught (yes.. of course, it CRASHES after a little while; doesn't seem to crash under Deathmatch though). Dell doesn't offer much in the way of NVidia GeForce FX mobile graphics .. ---they also took off the dual pointing devices :-(

In other Unreal news, looks like there will be a GOLF game mod for UT2004! haha
Not entirely sure if these will be downloads for UT2004 or if they are for the Unreal3 Engine, but ..
some speech/facial animation from OC3 Entertainment.
and a new physics engine
And how about this classy pic of the day ... oi

I think that's it for now ... :P

I finally finished Diablo II: Lord of Destruction for the first time (in single player w/ sorceress).
And check out The One Ring in Diablo II.. heh
Warcraft v1.14 is out.... followed shortly by v1.14b. uh.. Blizzard isn't looking so good since v1.13, v1.13b, v1.14, v1.14b all came out pretty closely to each other; esp. with the b versions w/i days to fix some issues. Of course, I'm still only in the Orc campaign right now.. but it makes me wonder if their quality/bug-testing dept. a little short-handed or something?? maybe everyone has been playing World of Warcraft instead there.
And in case you missed it, Blizzard had some funny stuff for christmas.

I also picked up an origami calendar (50% off) and a Logitech Cordless MX Duo (oooh, lots of buttons!!!). There's enough junk on my desk.. having a few less cords helps a little (plus it's just kinda cool). You can even plug it all into just 1 USB port (and AC outlet). The keyboard is fairly nice (2 AA batteries included) to the touch..typing (except the esc key is a little misplaced). The scroll wheel on the keyboard is neat. Volume knob (vs. buttons on other keyboards) is definitely handy. The construction is alright IMHO, even if it feels a little flimsy.. (perhaps due to its overall lightweight, which i guess is not bad). The mice is a little heavier (uses 2 AA NiMH batteries) than i'm used to, but it has 8 buttons! :) Diablo II can register the 2 thumb buttons as mouse4 & mouse5. You can set the other 3 wheel buttons via its software for other keystrokes/functions, although it would've been nice if i could configure all the buttons per application as Intellipoint does w/ microsoft mice.
I could've gotten it from newegg.com for $76 (free fedex express saver), but i couldn't wait so i'm doing the $99 - $20 mail-in.

My gf's mom picked up the kirigami calendar. Looks interesting, but I didn't see it at the store. I was lucky to find the origami one.

From PlanetUnreal.com:
Free Unreal-Engine Use - redef - Comment!
10/8/03 17:48 PST - UnrealEd Editing/Levels
BeyondUnreal pointed out an article at 3FC that announces that an education and non-commercial version of the Unreal engine will be made available. The comments are reported to have come from Mark Rein, so you can be assured that this is true in its entirety (additionally, I’ve heard similar reports from the source). Here’s a little of what was said:

We're creating a version of our engine which can be licensed for non-gaming use with the following features: It will include an Unreal Engine runtime and Epic's Unreal toolset such as UnrealEd, Karma Authoring Tool, UnrealScript IDE, UnrealScript Debugger and exporters for Max and Maya. The runtime will have a vanilla user interface suitable for loading maps and setting configurations. Our tools are strictly Windows based so that is the only platform we plan to support initially with this. If there is enough demand the runtime itself could be made available for Linux and Macintosh OS X as well.

The runtime will be a free download and free to use for non-commercial and educational use. It will include a sample level but no game-specific content. The download will be fairly small - maybe about 20Mb. You can think of it like a free version of UT2003 but without any of the gaming content or code. It will NOT be compatible with UT2003 however - levels created for this version will not run directly in UT2003 and vice-versa.

interesting ...

I made my first UT2003 map :) It's based on the office at work. It seems to play surprisingly well! My co-workers seem to like it :) I just need to fill it in with a few more things.. jumppads, fix a weapon pickup..

UT2004 is looking pretty awesome. Can't wait to try out the vehicles.
check out the Official Trailer [bit torrent] and a HUGE (300MB) Gameplay Video.
I hope my laptop will still be able to run it...

Back to UT2003, Jupiter Effect - Influx looks like a really neat mod! esp for anime/mecha fans :) (like me)

In other games news.. Soul Calibur II, Jedi Academy and Homeworld 2 are out. I've got Jedi Academy and I'm liking it pretty well. I've actually been playing it. I tried to get into Jedi Outcast, but couldn't really.. Multiplayer was pretty fun though. I haven't had a chance to play Jedi Academy with anyone multiplayer (besides the bots) though.
I'm going to hold off on Homeworld 2 since i haven't finished Homeworld or Homeworld: Cataclysm yet :P
Halo for Windows/DirectX came out today.. but i'm not going to get it just yet either as i'm pretty sure none of my computers are going to run it very well since the minimum spec for it is i think is 733MHz.
Still waiting on Knights of the Old Republic. A few of my friends and co-workers are waiting for Max Payne 2. Also interested in seeing how Starcraft: Ghost turns out. Might be a Playstation2 game I'll actually like/play.

GameSpy.com - Article: Star Wars Galaxies - First Impressions

basically it does seem to take lessons learned from other MMO games, but there's still bugs and some gameplay/interface issues (like getting lost).
some good things seem to be the player-run economy ("The E-bay style market system they have in the game is pretty neat, but for right now, players need to be careful.") and the non-combat classes ("There's great potential in the non-combat classes. For some gamers who are really looking for an "alternate life" they now have a chance to never fight and still gain experience and make important contributions.").
AND of course.. it's Star Wars, complete with John Williams music; one of the goals was to make it actually look cinematic, like you just stepped into the film.

favourite quotes
"Well, at least I now know how Han and Luke got so good at running and shooting at the same time. You do a lot of running away and shooting in Star Wars: Galaxies."

of course, for me (as with all MMO-games), since i have neither broadband at home nor the time necessary to dedicate to a $15/month game ... i'll be passing

Firaxis Announces Conquests - Kyote [gamespy.com]
Our hosted Civilization fan site, All Civ, has posted the official announcement by Firaxis of the upcoming Civ III addon, Civilization III: Conquests. They can link you to the press release, the main site, and they also list the features which include new civilizations, new units, disasters, newly added map features, and more. Check All Civ for the details.
Source: StrategyPlanet

---

Jedi Academy Screens - Celeryface [gamespy.com]
The official Jedi Academy site has some new screenshots from Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Look for Jedi Academy to hit store shelves this fall on the Xbox and PC.

---

Warcraft III: Frozen Throne is Gold [gamespy.com]
Blizzard's highly-anticipated expansion pack hits stores on July 1.
http://www.gamespydaily.com/news/fullstory.asp?id=5112

Warcraft III Expansion Goes Gold, Due July 1st [games.slashdot.org]
Posted by simoniker on Thursday May 29, @02:21PM
from the blizzard-offices-move-to-fort-knox dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing out that the Warcraft III expansion, The Frozen Throne, has gone gold - it's due in stores worldwide on July 1st. The add-on has an extensive official site describing new features, including extra campaigns, units, maps, an enhanced world editor, and new multiplayer clans and tournaments. The press release describes "initial orders of over 2.5 million copies", which is even more impressive considering Warcraft III has 'only' sold "well over 3 million copies".

(Read More... )

---

Enemy Territory Media & Press - Jube [gamespy.com]
id Software's Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory(TM) Now Available Online - For Free, that's the latest PR headline on Yahoo! Finance today. If you've not yet downloaded Enemy Territory then strap yourself in and check out the latest news and media, including the ET Intro video!

With the free, online release of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, gamers can instantly jump into the action and experience the fun of team-based, tactical combat through exciting campaigns in Western Europe and the deserts of Egypt," said Larry Goldberg, executive vice president, Activision Worldwide Studios. "Splash Damage has created an incredibly unique Wolfenstein experience that fuses the intense action of first person team combat with exciting new strategy, communication and persistent role-playing elements.

Read Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Press Release

Download Enemy Territory Intro Movie from FilePlanet (21MB)

Download Enemy Territory (Win32) from FilePlanet (257.8MB)

Download Enemy Territory (Linux) from FilePlanet (258.1MB)

---

MultiTheftAuto Mod For GTA3 Released [games.slashdot.org]
Posted by simoniker on Thursday May 29, @09:31PM
from the car-marge-dead-on dept.
Ryan M. Pamplin writes "There's an announcement on the MultiTheftAuto website that the MTA v0.3b multiplayer mod is out for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 3, a milestone for the community. Servers are popping up everywhere - we can finally play a little GTA against our pals in 3D!" We ran a story on this a little while back, but there's now a downloadable version to tinker with.

( Read More... )
In case you didn't know, you can also download the first GTA for free now.

Posted by kn0w1 at 20:55