Are you a cheapskate?
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If you are, and you’re a console gamer, you need to know about this. You may have to register to access this. In a nutshell, there’s a huge list of games that will be on sale ($9.99 a pop) next week at Circuit City. If I can beat the hoarders to my local CCs, there’s a couple games I’d like to get my hands on (Baten Kaitos, F Zero, Riddick)
Useless Silicon…
Want to know how to make a little square piece of silicon absolutely worthless? Process it to contain 63 million transistors (say, to be a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 core), each pumping electrons to-and-fro, allow this switching to heat up the silicon really hot and then make sure the fan on the heatsink is broken. This should ruin all those submicron oxide layers and other tiny features and make your GPU a piece of worthless silicon. Which is what exactly happened to my trusty ASUS VT9280. It was quite a workhorse, even though it was at the low-end of the GeForce 4 cards. It served me well for almost 3 years, so I can’t complain too much. The little fan pumped as much as it could but lately I had noticed it was sounding a bit louder than normal. Then last night it went ka-put, dying a horrible, sizzling death. It has shaded its last pixel and verticed its last vertex. A moment of silence, if you please.
Thank you.
I guess I should see this as somewhat of a boon. This gives me a chance to upgrade to a better card and not feel guilty (or feel the proverbial heat from the buttonWife, since she uses the PC, too). I decided not to go all out on the new card, but I didn’t skimp either. I’m still an nVidia guy, so I’m sticking with the family with a new EVGA e-GeForce 6600 GT. The card is a bit old but I think it will suffice just fine. I’m not running DOOM3 at insane resolutions, I just want to get back to some Guild Wars. I’m going through withdrawls and I need a fix. Lucky for me, I snagged a good deal on the card and I’m excited about my new hardware. It’s like my birthday or something.
I didn’t get around to installing it tonight but hopefully this time tomorrow I’ll be running around Ascalon, powered by my new trusty 6600 GT.
You ever dance with the devil…
Went and saw Batman Begins tonight and I must agree with the consesus — it’s GOOD. It takes a while to get going but it really hums once the movie finds its pace. I was a little wary of Christian Bale being cast as the next Batman, and at first I thought he looked a little off, but seeing him in the mask, he just looked right. Keaton looked right. Kilmer and Clooney did not (certainly not Clooney).
The casting was great. Gary Oldman is one of my favorite actors and he plays his part so well. Freeman and Caine were great. Neeson was a bit of a stretch, but that is forgivable. People are panning Katie Holmes but I thought there was just enough of her - that is to say not a lot. The guy that plays the Scarecrow was pretty creepy.
I give it a thumbs up. Action was fast and chaotic, not mechanical and choreographed. Nothing felt hokey, it felt real. It was a great movie and a great foundation to who Batman is. Now there is depth to Bruce Wayne’s past, but I’m a little confused. I don’t know the whole Batman mythos but it was my understanding that Jack Napier (aka The Joker) killed Bruce’s parents. Well, that appears to not be the case in Batman Begins. I’m so confused… can anyone clear this up?
Update: Wikipedia sheds some light on the Joe Chill/Jack Napier issue. (Thanks, Amit!)
David vs. Goliath - Round #?
This news of AMD taking Intel to court is getting lots of air-time everywhere. I’m personally an AMD guy, I’ve used them in all my PC builds (Full Disclosure: I also own AMD stock) so I’m excited and nervous about this news. Excited, because I’d love to see AMD continue to grow. It’d be great to see a Dell without an “Intel Inside” sticker on it. I’d love to see the company I have a vested interest in succeed on a larger scale. But this makes me nervous because AMD may alienate the people it wants future business from.
Nevertheless, reading some of this case does make it look like something is amiss with Intel’s “practices”:
AMD’s complaint lists examples of what it characterizes as bribes, threats or intimidation by Intel involving 12 computer makers, nine distributors and 17 retailers.One example noted that Gateway paid a hefty price for its limited dealings with AMD, with its executives conceding that Intel “had beaten them into guacamole.”
and
In discussions about buying from AMD, “Dell executives have frankly conceded that they must financially account for Intel retribution in negotiating pricing from AMD,” the suit alleges.
This will be interesting to watch because the ramifications are huge.
One thing that should be pointed out is that this AMD/Intel bickering has been going on for a while, here in the US and overseas. Intel may already be trouble in Japan, and possibly the EU, too. The case here in the States isn’t something that just happened out of the blue.
I hope AMD has a solid, legitimate case. Crying “Intel isn’t playing fair!” because they feel they are losing ground is something I hope they’re not doing. Life, especially in a free market, isn’t fair. But, and that’s a big but, if Intel isn’t “playing fair” they should be held responsible, within the bounds of the law.
Why didn’t I think of that?
Everyone has that “Why didn’t I think of that” moment when they see someone have unbelievable success with an obvious invention or turn something sweet and simple into a business model. I actually thought about doing something similar to what Replacement Docs is doing. This site is a boon for anyone who’s rented a game from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video and had to mash buttons (something I’m a fan of) just to figure out the jump or the attack button. Well, mash buttons no more!
I still rememeber renting Super Nintendo games at the local video store and they’d include either the real instruction manual or a photo copy of it. That is almost non-existent now. My grocery store has a video store attached and they include the manuals to their game rentals, but this is a rare occurence now. I know so many games now have pretty extensive tutorials at the beginning of the game, so you get the idea of the controls anyway but I still like having the physical manual. Simple things like the art work and the little details enhance the experience far more than you can get from an in-game tutorial or GameFAQs (which is still a great resource, too). Even though Replacement Docs offers PDF files it’s still are great find.
I really appreciate sites that take the time to support the gaming community like these. They deserve our support in return.
What I’m playing
Shot-Online - I’ve been hearing about this Golf MMORPG (Golf?!) out of Korea a bunch lately (I read about it first at Wonderland months ago) so I decided to download it and give it a try. It’s laughably translated but looks decent and it’s Golf RPG, what more do I need to say? I haven’t played a full round yet but I’m been playing with the practice options and I’m liking it so far.
Up Next:
Fate - I’ve been hearing so many good things about Fate that I decided to give it a try. It’s sitting on my hard drive right now but I’ll be getting around to it soon.
Carnival of Gamers #3
The Carnival of Gamers #3 is up!
Update: Okay, I’ve been really lazy updating around here. I’ve been stricken with some wicked Poison Ivy (I thought I was immune!) but that’s neither here nor there. I’ve got a bunch of irons in the fire so I’ll be doing some catching up this weekend. Hopefully you’ve checked out all the delicious Fair food at Carnival #3 (man, I love Fair Food). Since Corvus decided do hold a little contest for the best entry, I voted for AggroMe’s entry. The first time I saw the commercial in question on G4 I couldn’t start laughing. I’m glad the “Not intended for residents of Texas or Massachusetts” disclaimer hasn’t gone unoticed. There’s so many good quotes from this one, but I love this:
When one of the dudes says, “I can’t believe we got jobs doing this!” I’m not sure if he is referring to the game design job or the fact that someone hired these two as actual actors.
Of course, I found some great new bloggers to read and I’m really glad so many people are taking a liking to the Carnival. This is good stuff.
Also, on a semi-carnival-related post, render sends word about an upcoming blog event called the Blogathon where bloggers do what they do best, blog. Only they blog for 24 hours, all for a good cause. I think we’re going to do a group effort and I’m not sure what charity we’ll be hooking up with, but you can follow the progress over at Render.
Finally, I’ve updated the Carnival HQ page with some new host information. Remember to always check there first for any Carnival questions you have.
I should be able to get some good blogging in this weekend, if I can ever take a break from scratching this dang poison ivy. It’s insidious!
Don’t forget about the Carnival
You still have a few hours left to get your submission in to Corvus for the Carnival! Summer is in the air, the Midway is rocking and the Carnies all look like slime-balls! All that’s missing is your blog!
Guild Wars - The Single Player Experience
The review is after the jump.
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The Xbox 360 is gonna be CHEAP
You may not know this, but a lot of gamers are cheap. So I boldly predict, in a way only a blogger can, that the Xbox 360 is going to be CHEAP.
That’s the only way to explain these wild claims coming out of Microsoft these days. Ten million units in 12-16 months? A billion worldwide gamers? This is either the mutterings of a clinically insane person (or people) or they have something up there sleeves. Those are lofty numbers. I can think of two ways Microsoft might accomplish these insanely lofty goals.
One - Microsoft is going to start giving the Xbox360 away. Does that sound crazy? They already started doing just that in Japan. While this certainly isn’t the most plausible, I wouldn’t complain. Microsoft has piles of cash, right? They sleep on pillows stuffed with hundred dollar bills, don’t they? They would make up for the loses with the volume of game sales, right?
Two - The Xbox 360 is going to be insanely cheap. They’ve built up a tremendous amount of buzz, they’re planning on a big line-up of launch games, and there’s the promise of an insanely cool Halo 3. So in order to hit the ten million mark in a year (it took four years to hit 20 million Xbox’s), the Xbox 360 has to be CHEAP. How cheap? My guesstimate is that it’s gonna debut at around 200 dollars and then drop to around 150 dollars when the PS3 drops. It could happen!
Both cases sound like financial suicide, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this happens. Microsoft is committed to lose as much money as it takes to become #1. They’ve done goofier things. I myself don’t plan on picking up an Xbox 360 until it drops below the 300 dollar price tag, so I hope my prediction comes true.
CoG Next Stop #3
A couple quick updates: the Carnival of Gamers makes its third stop at Corvus’ Man Bytes Blog. Make sure you head over there for all the info. There may even be a prize for the best entry (crosses fingers it’s me and the prize is a sketch!)
Secondly, I’ve updated the CoG’s HQ with a list of future Carnival stops and a “mini-FAQ” that will hopefully clear up any questions the uninitiated may have. If you have something to add to the FAQ, drop me a line.
Enough already.
Enough with the knee-jerk reactions already. I wasn’t going to comment on this, which I read a few days ago, but after discussing this with a friend of mine, I’m frustrated how quickly this was blamed on video games. If you haven’t read the story, basically, a couple left their four-month old at home (alone) while they went down the street to play some World of Warcraft at a local PC Bang. When they returned (five hours later) their daughter had suffocated. While the news that a small child had died is a horrible thing, blaming this on video games is so far out in left field that it borders on the ridiculous. First of all, you could replace “went to play video games” with “watched TV” or “took a nap” and all of a sudden this just becomes a sad story, possibly a case of SIDS. Instead, the media (and the police) jerk their knees in the direction of video games. What a joke.
Discussing this with other gamers, it becomes evident that they think this is a simply a case of bad parenting, of parental neglect, not video games. But it’s not even that. How do the police know this small child didn’t suffocate five minutes after the couple left the house? They don’t. Even if the couple was at home, how could they have avoided this tragedy? Short of checking on the child every two minutes, this probably could not have been avoided. Instead, we get a quote like this from the police:
Police said, “It’s unfortunate, because the tragedy could have been averted if the couple had just left their daughter with Yu’s mother-in-law, who lived upstairs from them… We booked the pair on criminal charges, judging that when you consider the situation, they were responsible for their daughter’s death.”
No, I don’t think the tragedy could be avoided. But since we need someone to blame, we’ll blame the parents and their evil video games. If I was the manager of the place this couple was playing at, I’d be getting nervous. “If only he hadn’t provided a place to play their game this would have never happened.” And if “Blizzard hadn’t created such a darn addictive game, this little girl might still be alive!” (Excuse me while my head explodes).
So in summary - this is a tragic story. As a father, everytime I hear of an infant passing away, my stomach turns. But I find it too much of a stretch to blame this on parental neglect or video games. This is a just a sad case of misfortune. Unfortunately, in the blame-obsessed society we live in, video games are the easiest target, so they get the lion’s share of blame. Which is just sad.
(On a side note: I always thought prevailing wisdom was to lay a child on its back to sleep until it was old enough to roll over on its stomach. Most four-month olds can’t roll over. So maybe this was just a case of the parents putting their child to sleep on her stomach and that was simply not the best decision.)
Happy Birthday buttonmashing.com!
Today mark’s buttonmashing.com’s one year anniversary. Man, how time flies! I had various ideas of what I wanted buttonmashing.com to be but I settled on the idea of a video-game blog. It all started with a simple post about my intentions with this site (which have morphed over time) and snowballed from there. Although I can certainly recognize good writing, I’ve never considered myself a good writer. Looking over my older posts, however, I have seen a definite improvement. Improving my writing skills has been one of my goals and I hope that continues. I’ve also been fascinated with the blogging phenomenon and I’m glad to be a part of it, small as buttonmashing.com may be. I’m not really sure where video game blogging fits in to the “blogosphere” but I think it has had at least some effect. I have also noticed that there’s been an increase of video game bloggers, which can only be a good thing.
First, I want to give a big thanks to everyone who’s visited, commented, vented, whatever, here at buttonmashing. It’s been fun reading what others have to say and what others think about this medium we all love. It really is a great community, fanboys and all.
Even though I caught flak for using numbers for a measure of success, I’m gonna do it again. In addition to the numbers below, one measure that can’t be put into statistics is the fun I’ve had. Buttonmashing.com has been a lot of work but it’s been a lot of fun, a great release, if you will. Buttonmashing.com originally started out on Blogger, which was a good starting point but I eventually wanted something more. The move to WordPress has been the easiest switch and I am impressed on a daily basis by the support WP gets. From plug-ins to security to comment spam protection (Bless SpamKarma2) WP is the best blogging software out there. With that, on to the numbers:
Posts - 212
Comments - 206
Page Views - 25,825
Unique Visitors - 16,590
Controversies Started - 1 (that I’m aware of)
So it’s been a wild, fun, first year. Starting the Carnival of Gamers has been a treat and I’ve “met” a lot of great bloggers and gamers out there. I hope buttonmashing has provided at least some form of entertainment and information to you, the reader. Thanks again to everyone who’s stopped in and here’s to another year of button mashing!
Nintendo is cool with the kids!
The first time I read this, I groaned, recognizing this as instant “Nintendo is for kiddies!” Fodder. Then I thought about it for a while and realized what they’re saying is actually good news:
Asked to identify the three “coolest” brands, 42 percent of respondents 8 to 12 years old chose Nintendo, while 36 percent think Disney is among the coolest.
I thought back to my first experiences with the NES - I was about 11 years old. Nintendo was cool. I was firmly in Nintendo’s camp in the Nintendo vs. Sega battle. The fact that 42% of these kids are associating Nintendo with “cool” means they are growing up with Nintendo! They fact that they recognize Nintendo as a brand is positive. I’ve said before that Nintendo should embrace this reaction and run with it. Kids love Nintendo. Even 21% of the 13-17 year olds cite Nintendo as cool (tied with Sony, the perpetually cool company). Hopefully this will foster interest in the Revolution and a new generation of video-gamers will hold Nintendo in the same regard as those of us who grew up with it.
I noticed that Xbox was missing from these lists. They did ask the kids about “Brands” so that may explain why. Nevertheless, it doesn’t appear that Microsoft is cool with kiddies. Very interesting…
Long live the Internet!
I have been connected to the “internet” for so long that I often forget life before Google (or HotBot or AltaVista or whatever). I feel I’ve become careless because I know that everything can be solved by Googling it. It’s a crutch, and I know it.
Well today wasn’t a case of carelessness, it was a case of an upgrade gone awry. Last week I added a stick of memory to my aging PC to give it at least another year of shelf life. I consider myself rather PC/Tech savvy — I built my current PC from scratch, so I know a little bit of how this works. I figured this was a no-brained upgrade. Sometimes, however, errors and problems crop up whose causes are unknown. By some weird cosmic combination of components and mismatched parts, Windows seems to go crazy and begins corrupting itself in some self-preserving, self-destruct mode. At first, it seems harmless. A simple BSOD pops up. Then an occasional reboot that happens out of the blue (no pun intended). Then things get wonky. This time around, I get an error message, on boot-up, along the lines of:
lsass.exe — system error indicates a revision number encountered or specified is not one known by the service. It may be a more recent revision than the service is aware of.
Huh? I swear I never touched lsass.exe! I’ve never even heard of it! Nevertheless this rendered my PC completely unbootable. After trying everything, I went to Google, looking for guidance. (Thank goodness for the laptop!) The nugget of wisdom that Google bestowed upon me came in the form of this site.
The steps were followed, windows was fixed and I was playing Guild Wars by 8:30. I could go on a rant and say how wonderful consoles are because when they crash (if they ever crash) a simple hard reboot fixes the problem 99.98% of the time. But I won’t, because my consoles don’t have 2+ years of baby pictures and movies. Or 4+ years of emails and contacts. I wasn’t so desperate that I was ready to wipe everything but I was close. Thanks to Google problems were solved and I have once again regained my throne of technical superiority in the eyes of those who care (mainly my wife).
Man it feels good to be a PC-fixing super hero. Now let’s see what happens when I put that memory stick back in…
Update: As Bobster noted in the comments, the problem was my Kensington Memory Stick being incompatible with Dual Channel Operation. Whether it some how corrupted data on my hard drive is unknown, I blame it completely for all my hassle.
So I’ve taken this as an opportunity to do a fresh XP install, clean out all the gunk and get back to a streamlined installation. Guild Wars is gonna fly now!
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