Yearly Archive for 2007

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Demo Days – CoD4

Published on October 13, 2007 in Games. 0 Comments

Tried out the Call of Duty 4 demo this morning. My first thoughts are that it’s certainly a little more frenetic than 1 or 2, but the feel is very much the same. Graphics are excellent, even on my rig; my video card is a 6800 Ultra, so that holds me back a little bit when I try to run at my LCD’s native 1280×1024.

I got a chance to play with one of these, taking out some enemy armor. The weapons selection seems very close to what’s in the current US arsenal. The vehicles I saw were really well modeled; this is the same attention to details that we saw in the WWII games.

I can see they’re trying to give us a full-scale, near-symmetrical modern conflict. That’s where I’m a little unsure of the realism, because we haven’t had a symmetrical war for more than fifty years, to my knowledge. I can understand the political problems with presenting a game based on our asymmetrical fights in the Middle East, but that’s what we’re familiar with. I see them trying to give us that as well: RPGs were flying everywhere in the demo.

I think I can sum up the challenge this game will have. The original CoD games put you into a historical context where you relived some of the most pivotal, defining, and heroic events in our history. One of the best moments in any game, any platform was that final, frenetic push through the Reichstag. The Volga crossing into Stalingrad is another. Can CoD 4 give us moments like those in a fantasy conflict?

The Orange Box is Portal-rific!

Published on October 12, 2007 in Game Reviews and Games. 2 Comments

Being the good little Valve fanboy that I am, I went out and picked up The Orange Box at Circuit City Wed evening after work (it’s currently on sale for $37.99 btw). Although I could have pre-ordered the bundle on Steam, I generally like to wait and pick up the discs. I’m not sure why this is, but I imagine it has something to do with the need to have some sort of physical reward for my purchase. Something that can sit on my shelf and collect dust instead of just a digital representation of the money I spent (or flushed down the toilet in my wifes opinion). As a fanboy though, I purchased this bundle with high hopes, and so far, I’m gleefully delighted.

Like many of the rest of you who rushed out to buy this bundle, I’ve already beaten Portal. My initial impressions… I NEED MORE!!! This was a very refreshing romp through a world with physics and graphics that we’re all used to, but with a new twist. Source still looks gorgeous after all these years and I found myself being blown away by this new space-bending aspect they’ve introduced. Like all truly great games, this one has begun to bleed over into my reality and I’ve found myself studying any white wall I encounter to judge whether or not a portal would fit there and where I might place the other end.

In short, Portal is one of the best PC games I’ve played in a good long while. In fact, it’s good enough to have torn me away from Phantom Hourglass these last few days. The only downside to the entire experience was how short it was. The gameplay mechanics, environment and generally humorous tone were all pretty much perfect. Incorporating the Portal gun into the final sequence proved to be a bit challenging and quite rewarding when finished. I don’t want to give anything away here, but the closing credits made it all worth it as well as making me hopeful for another installment. What we really need now are some good old fashioned mod community maps.

In closing, if you currently own the Orange Box and haven’t tried Portal yet… shame on you. Get your butt home (or wherever you happen to game) and give it try right now. You won’t be disappointed.

Oh, come on now – Red Ring of Death strikes

Published on October 11, 2007 in Consoles and Random. 0 Comments

So it’s an open secret that Microsoft sort of ganked the first-gen Xbox 360. Rudeboy and I were in the local Toys R Us on a lunch break, and wandered over the sad, sad video game section. Even sadder than them having no new PSP slims was the sight of a damaged Xbox 360, proudly showing us the trademark red ring through the shop’s display. Not gonna sell a lot of Xboxes that way, are you, guys?

This dude is exactly right

Published on October 9, 2007 in Random and Tunes. 1 Comment

And I hope he makes a lot of money for Yahoo!, too. Take a look at this article. Basically, he’s saying “no” to any more DRM nonsense from the stupid music unions, which can only mean good things for those of us who like music and the gadgets that play it.

He also has some thoughts about context. A lot of people listen to music and don’t really think about what’s behind it, and that’s fine. But there are a lot of us who want more; we might want to know why Bono thinks it’s stupid to play “One” at a wedding. Guys may not know that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were all former members of other decent bands: the Byrds, the Hollies, Buffalo Springfield. And it’s even more important to have a local context; my wife and I played “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” at our wedding; if someone is listening to that track, and they’re a friend on Last.fm, they might be amused to see that context.

So there’s the content, and the context, and the next gen of music on the web will hopefully give us more of both.

Zarch’s Network Closet

Published on October 2, 2007 in Computers, Random and Software. 0 Comments

I took the opportunity to upgrade my Smoothwall to the new version 3 last night, and took some pictures of my “network closet”. I think this serves as an example of how NOT to EVER treat the heart of your home’s connectivity. My network closet is currently just an area of my unfinished basement with a little table set up to hold everything. There’s a big, ancient, 3Com switch, a smaller gigabit switch, my cable modem, my trusty Asus wireless AP, and the router for my VoIP service. Note the huge power strip on the floor, right next to my water heater.

So last night’s project brought up a unique case of jury-rigging. The little Compaq thing I’m using for the Smoothwall used a laptop CD drive, which has gone bad. The power connector wasn’t a standard Molex, and I could not find a splitter anywhere. My power supply supplies have suffered severe losses, so I couldn’t do a dual power supply thing. Luckily, I found a fix.

In my rummaging, I turned up an unused USB-IDE hard drive case. I stole the power from that and plugged the IDE in from the Smoothwall box, and was able to make the upgrade from there. Ugly, but workable.

So how’s Smoothwall 3? It’s a decent upgrade, actually. I wouldn’t run and upgrade if you’ve got a good system going, but the built-in QoS should help when I’m trying to torrent and make a phone call at the same time, and there are many more configuration options right in the GUI. I’d say consider it if you’re needing a little extra bandwidth management or switching from a store-bought router/firewall.

Zarch’s Gear: Smith Maverick Sunglasses

Published on October 1, 2007 in Gadget Reviews and Reviews. 0 Comments

I’m picky about sunglasses. Being a nerdy sort, exposure to the sun causes severe anxiety, and I need some specs to keep the glare down.

Behold: the Smith Maverick specs. Why does this count as nerdy? One word: plastics. I mean, polarization. If you don’t wear polarized sunglasses, you’re a real Luddite. Also, you’re probably squinting a lot.

Silliness aside, the key things I look for are comfort, sturdiness, and great improvement to vision. These pretty much nail all three, and they don’t make me look too retarded.

Zarch’s Gear: My Watch: Casio MTG930DA

Published on September 24, 2007 in Gadget Reviews, Gadgets and Reviews. 0 Comments

This one’s been on my wrist for years now. I’ve had gadget watches that I wear for fun (I have a binary LED watch, and I had a Pimp Watch for a while too, and a couple of slick retro-looking Spoons), but this one is the old standby.

So what makes a great nerd watch also a great every day watch? I guess the key here is practical technology. Guys like me enjoy things that are solar powered, and this watch delivers there. A full charge gives the watch 11 months of battery life (in perfect darkness), and 5 or 10 minutes in the sun gives it a full charge (I read somewhere in the manual that it takes 8 hours under fluorescent light, which is more realistic if you’re a regular reader). The other fun bit of technology is the automatic time setting from the atomic clock in Colorado. We’ve got these atomic clocks all over my house; there’s something satisfying about having everything ticking exactly the same.

Another thing about this watch is that it’s very similar to the first real watch my parents got for me, a great old feature-packed Casio with a big black rubber wrist band. Very nostalgic. Plus the fact that it’s pretty much bulletproof, being a G-shock and all, just completed the package.

So there you have it, another post of Zarch’s every day gear. If interested, here’s the page from Casio with all the specs.

Zarch’s Gear: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9

Published on September 22, 2007 in Gadget Reviews and Reviews. 0 Comments

We’ve been through a few digital cameras here in the Zarch household, starting with a 1.3 megapixel Olympus I got way back when digital cameras were just a novelty. Since then, we’ve had a Fuji Finepix, a couple of Nikons, and my wife’s great Canon Powershot S70 (which gave up the ghost today, in a sad coincidence). The camera that rides with me in my gadget bag these days is the Lumix DMC-FX9, from Panasonic.

When I first went shopping for a camera of my very own (as opposed to a “family” camera), I had a few things I was looking for. I wanted it to be very small, to have good battery life, and to have some compensati on for my shaky hands, especially shooting landscapes. I have some terrible photos of the Seattle skyline that were making me think about some sort of image stabilization. Reviews I read got me thinking about these little Lumix compacts, and after some deliberation, I bought one.

Continue reading ‘Zarch’s Gear: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9′

Zarch’s Gear: A New Series About My Stuff

Published on September 22, 2007 in Gadget Reviews, Gadgets, Hardware and Hardware Reviews. 0 Comments

I thought it might be of interest to post about the gadgets that accompany me in my day to day life. I’m a gadget whore, you might say, always looking for another fix of the latest crap that comes out. That’s why the stuff that sticks around might provide some interest: if a device survives my gadget churn for any length of time, there must be something pretty good about it. I might also mention the gear that didn’t pass, that got cycled out quickly, just for contrast. So watch for the new posts, starting with one later tonight.

Xbox 360 Halo 3 Edition: Unboxing

Published on September 22, 2007 in Console Reviews, Consoles, Reviews and XBox. 1 Comment

So neither Rudeboy nor myself had any big plans to get a 360, so we had to rely on a mutual friend to pick up this slick Halo 3 edition. Our buddy is kind of funny, and I had to go ahead and break the seal for him so he wouldn’t be able to freak out and return the thing. So, it’s opened, and there’s no going back now. Right away I have to say the color scheme is very nice in person, much cooler than either a black or a white one. The green controller looks very nice as well. All the internal packaging was either green or orange; a nice touch. The power brick could be hollowed out and used for lodging in your average favela, so that’s a recycling option in a couple of years. My take on the Halo 3 version: probably right up there in cool with the black “sports” Dreamcast, but not quite as cool as a top-loading NES (with dog bone d-pad). Apologies for not quite matching the sexiness of the famous PSP licking shot. Look, I can’t help that I’m an ugly man.