Yearly Archive for 2005

Goldeneye Reloaded?

Published on December 28, 2005 in Games. 0 Comments

Back in the day I was the poster child for Goldeneye addiction. Me and my Solitaire control setup could pretty much dish out a solid ass-whoopin’ to anyone brave enough to face us. My brothers started refusing to play with me because I’d destroy them both, even though they would be tag-teaming me the whole time. It actually got to the point where I had a hard time sleeping at night because when I would close my eyes all I could see was my KF7-Soviet bobbing up and down as a ran through map after map. I knew all the best places to plant mines and snipe from and I knew exactly where every weapon and armor spawn was. As Boris Grishenko would say… I was invincible!

Fast forward 8 years or so… I don’t think I’ve even pulled my N64 out of storage for 3 or 4 years now. I’m currently playing a lot of Counter-Strike Source, Half-Life 2 and Guild Wars so there’s not much time to play old skool games with crappy graphics. Besides, I don’t really have anyone to obliterate anymore. My daughter is only 4 and wouldn’t really be much of a challenge. Its pretty safe to say that I had given up all hope of ever playing a meaningful round of Goldeneye ever again.

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A Merry Guild Wars To All…

Published on December 24, 2005 in Games and Geek Fun. 0 Comments

Arenanet has just posted the Christmas update for Guild Wars so we thought we’d share some screenshot goodness of the festivities. Along with re-mapping several of the main towns, they’ve also created a couple ‘Wintersday’ quests to help everyone get in the Christmas spirit. You can also collect candy cane shards (crafting item) which can be used to craft candy cane weapons. I’m still working on collecting enough to make a candy cane bow for my ranger, but I can’t wait to go out and start kickin’ butt in a ‘sweet’ way.

Click to see how Guild Wars gets its Holiday on:

Lookin Good! (Unreal 2007 Screens)

Published on December 14, 2005 in Games. 0 Comments

I can’t deny that games like Half Life 2 and Quake 4 score high on the ‘Damn! That looks good!-o-meter’, but prepare yourself for Unreal Tournament 2007. Epics new Unreal engine freakin rocks and they’re getting ready to showcase that new engine with some killer graphics. If you haven’t seen the new Unreal engine in action, you really should (Check out some gameplay footage at Gamespot).

Epic has also released some sweet new screenshots providing us with a glimpse of things to come. And although I may be somewhat biased, its hard to deny that things look good!

Visit ToTheGame.com for some kick-butt Unreal screens

The Sangaku (Japanese) Case Mod

Published on December 9, 2005 in Case Mods. 1 Comment

This is one smooth lookin case. Another from the “I’d display that in the front room” group of case mods. You can check out more pics of the box as well their excellent 3DMark ’05 score by clicking below:

The Sangaku Case Mod

XBox 360 blues gotcha down?

Published on December 7, 2005 in Gadgets, Games and XBox. 0 Comments

Have you had a tough time obtaining the holy grail of game systems this Christmas season? Have you been turned away again and again with promises of new inventory which never seems to materialize?

Well, look no further. Your game system is available at last:

Behold the Atari Flashback 2.0

No more hopelessly calling every store in a 100 mile radius. No more driving around in a mad frenzy at midnight hoping to snag fresh stock. You can pick up one of these bad boys at your local Target (if you’re not currently boycotting them) for a mere $30. And there should be plenty of availability. Sure it doesn’t quite boast the same capabilities of your beloved 360, but hey… at least you’ll have something to open on Christmas morning.

Time for an upgrade?

Published on November 28, 2005 in Hardware and Random. 0 Comments

At what point is it time to upgrade your aging desktop? Is it based on financial limitations or performance needs? Does your PC do what you need it to (in a timely manner)? Is it better to build your own box or buy a whitebox machine? And if it is time for an upgrade, at what point do you say enough is enough?

Unfortunately I don’t have any one answer to these questions. But I can offer a couple suggestions that should probably be taken into consideration when buying/building a new PC…

1. Do you need it? – Now, I must admit that I don’t always live by this rule, but it is a good way to determine if its truly time to throw down. The important word here is ‘need’ though and how you happen to define it. Some might say they ‘need’ an upgrade because their computer won’t even run the latest version of Quicken. Others may say they ‘need’ an upgrade because they keep gettin’ fragged due to low frame-rates on their favorite multi-player FPS. Bottom line… this is a personal thing and it depends on how you use your computer.

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So you want an XBox 360 do ya?

Published on November 22, 2005 in Games and XBox. 0 Comments

OK… I realize that Microsoft has done a pretty good job of inducing a false sense of urgency around the Xbox 360 launch, but crimeny.

I stopped by my local small business stifling big box retailer last night to snag some A1 for my steak (yeah, I’m guilty too) and I just about fell over some guy chillin’ in the isle on his lawn chair. As I continued down the isle weaving in and out of the lawn chair parade, I finally came to the source of the urban robot army… a gigantic ‘XBOX 360 Line Starts Here’ sign.

Now, I personally have a hard time understanding why movie fans would sleep in front of a theater, but I have an ever harder time trying to grasp why people would camp out in Wally’s Palacial Pile of Crap to buy an XBox. Props to MS for making them think that its vital to their existance, but c’mon people. And if that weren’t bad enough… check out this eBay auction:

YOU BID HOW MUCH?

I guess I’m just not a console guy at heart. That’s the only thing I can think of that might explain my total disinterest in the XBox launch.

(post has been mirrored in the forums HERE if you’d like to comment on the insanity)

Creative Zen Vision 30gb

Published on November 16, 2005 in Gadget Reviews. 0 Comments

The latest gadget in my personal stable is the Creative Zen Vision. This is the latest PMP from our buddies at Creative, and I’ve had a pretty good time with it so far. It’s not without its quirks, but it’s pretty good at what it does too.

The Vision’s design is head and shoulders above any other player I’ve had lately, with the possible exception of iRiver’s PMC-120. There are separate, tactile buttons for each function. As sexy as touch-panel style controls look, they’re pretty lame when you’re in the car or in the dark. It’s fantastic to have a player that lets you feel your way around when you need to.

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Soltek Qbic Mania 915g

Published on November 14, 2005 in Hardware Reviews. 0 Comments

I was trolling Newegg.com the other day looking for a cheap socket 754 board to stick in my wife’s machine when I stumbled onto one of these little Soltek cubes. Newegg had a refurb at a pretty decent price (about half off, actually) so I thought I’d grab one and see what I thought. It arrived while I was at EHX, so I had something to play with when I got home.

Soltek shipped it inside the padded backpack that comes as an accessory, which actually seems to give it decent protection. I ran a check for blemishes or other obvious ‘refurb’ type problems, but nothing stood out, so I got to disassembly.

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Mars Station in your bedroom…

Published on November 11, 2005 in Case Mods and Geek Fun. 0 Comments

To be honest I didn’t really think Doom III was as good as all the hype. I suppose I’m just a wuss and it kind of creeped me out (in a bad way). But regardless of how much I did or didn’t like the game, damned if I can find an reason not to want this wicked-cool mod:

The project is called Crimson Sky and it’s a dang fine re-creation of a portion of Mars Station along with all the bells and whistles. This guy is truly a fabrication/air-brush magician. You can check out the complete work logs over at [H]ard|Forum here:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=802808&page=1&pp=20

The project isn’t quite finished yet, but we’ll let you know when its done and post a pic of the final results.