New Zone of the Enders project underway
Carmageddon ploughing into GOG
Harry Potter for Kinect announced
Mad Riders trailer goes heavy on the meta
Anarchy Reigns finished, delayed by Sega anyway
Evening Reading
by Steve Gibson, Apr 21, 2005 6:02pm PDTSo in the superchuckles of the day while trying to hunt down a fix for an IE bug I noticed that our CSS stylesheets were not being compressed by the server before being delivered to you guys. They are now! Should make for some much more speedy page loads for those of you unfortunate enough to be on slow connections.
- Do you recycle your e-waste? - Google is like Wal-Mart - They solved it, why some popcorn doesnt pop - Y! hands over email to family - Late night Vaseline deliveries are never good news - KFC revamping image - Hibernation on demandLastly, got my new laptop! yay! The Acer 8104 really is pretty darn good. I'm impressed. Hooray for no dead pixels too.
E5: New Jagged Union is the coolest thing ever. Seriously. You have no idea how badass this game is, and it's not even done yet.
You owe it to yourself to check this out. I was introduced to this by Poor Yurik, aaand.. there aren't enough favorable things that I could say about this game.. I'm floored by it in every conceivable way. It's like Jagged Alliance 2, except 100x better.. and JA2 was a bloody sweet game to begin with, right?
Before you start reading this, download the following files. By the time you're done reading this, you'll thank me.
http://www1.tepkom.ru/users/vi/e5demo_600_nomusic.exe
http://www1.tepkom.ru/users/vi/E5Demo_patch_6xx_602_eng.exe
Note: This is still a beta product, so expect crashes from time to time. Try turning off shadows to help with crashes.
The game works on a "smart pausing" system that actually ends up being very effective. Situations can develop in this that simply would not occur in JA2 or SS.. things tend to be a lot more "alive" and fluid than in either of those games. It's more of a living, breathing, roiling battle than a piece-by-piece game of tactical chess. The player has control of when he wants to pause, and the game will automatically pause on certain (customizeable) events such as a merc running out of orders (at which point a little icon will pop up to show which merc needs new orders), an enemy being spotted, or any number of other things. You'd likely have to see it in action to fully appreciate what kind of gameplay it allows for.. it might take an hour or so of play to get really comfortable with how the pausing works out, but after that, you'll never be able to go back to something turn-based like JA2/SS again.
Note: I played v6.01 primarily, and this is based off of that. Some things have changed in 6.02, and I was just playing it to get a feel for them. The most noticeable change I saw was that there's (I believe it's optional) a time deceleration when certain events are occuring (such as your mercs being shot at). This looks like a great change, and I'm sure it'd make managing the heavier firefights a lot easier. I haven't had time to play the demo fully through in 6.02 yet though, but it looks like it's even better than what I played. I just tried the first little firefight with this feature.. wow. Definite improvement.
Anyhow.. one of the things that struck me right off the bat about E5 is that it's brutal. It's BRUTAL, extra emphasis on that. Far more so than either JA2 or SS. Weapons perform like you'd expect them to, meaning grenades will put out a world of hurt (including individually modelled shrapnel pieces, which vary depending on the type of grenade) and can be thrown a very good distance (unlike some other games), all firearms are capable of one-shot kills if you aim well, machineguns will make mincemeat out of people, and so on and so forth. Again, you might have to play the game to really appreciate how realistic it can be in regards to damage. It's a brutally challenging tactical game the likes of which I've never played before. This game is going to be huge. Remember how in Silent Storm you had a pathetically crippled range for weapons like panzerfausts? Yeah? This is nothing like that.. if you have an M-203 on your M-16A2, expect to be able to propel one of the grenades all the way across a map. If you have an RPG, same story.. you're going to get a believable range out of all of your weapons.
Moving on to equipment.. if you look at no other screens in this post, please, for the love of all that is holy to you, check these out. This is where my jaw dropped when I first played the demo.. right as I got to the arms dealer.
Weapons. Weapons. Weapons. There are TONS of destructive devices available for your purchase. Pistols, SMG's, rifles, carbines, machineguns, RPG's, mines, flashbangs, grenades, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, claymores.. TONS of options.
Allow me to illustrate this. Here you can see a composite of the firearms available in the demo from the arms dealer:
http://www.dslyecxi.com/screens/e5/guns_guns_guns.jpg
There are over 80 weapons visible there.. just a few of them are: M9, Glock 18, 1911, Bizon, AUG, Uzi, Mac-10, MP-5, several shotguns, P90, G36, AR-15 and variants (CAR-15, M16A1, M16A2, M16A3, M4A1, M4A1 SOPMOD), FN-FAL, AK-47, AK-74, G3, Minimi, Dragunov, RPK, .. and all the variants of each type..
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Running full scan now :(
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this ps2 i got from haiku won't let me watch a dvd with a rating level of 8 (shaun of the dead). it asks for a 4 digit code, which i don't know. i thought maybe removing the memory cards would work, but it still asks. i looked all through the options, and couldn't find it. i tried all the obvious ones (0000, 1111, ..., 1337, 6969, 1234, etc.).
is there a default or something? why is this so gay?
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So I'm insomnia'ing the place up.. who's up for PGR2?
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Getting off al little early don't you think. They don't even have a price, or confimed name..
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Let's see what you got.
Plus, let's make it into a little competition. Name the character and/or game.
"They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark on everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger, and it was over."
"I had a dream of my wife. She was dead. But it was alright."- Max Payne 2
"Hey...it's a boot!"- AvP2
"American Soldier: You've come to save us! Where are the others?
SF: It's just me.
American Soldier: Aw, crap."
"SF: Tell me what you know about your friends on the inside.
Indonesian terrorist: I don't speak English.
SF: I'd bet your neck you do.
Indonesian terrorist: I speak a little English."
"Terrorist: I'm the biggest coward you've ever met.
SF: You'd be suprised.
Terrorist: I just wet myself.
SF: Well, you made the top ten."
"Hey! I'm going to the bear pits tomorrow..."
All for now.
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(click on the big pic in the link to see it, if you haven't already)
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=000036&p=2
This is supposedly rendered realtime, on a X800. Does that demo show the kind of graphics we can expect from the next generation?
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BF1942 SHACKBATTLE Announcement for Sunday, 4-24-05!
SUPER SPECIAL-O-BONUS: If you don't have BF1942 for some reason, you can buy it plus two other games for only $7.99 + shipping!!! That's right, three games for eight bucks, and you can Shackbattle with up to 64 other Shackers, EVERY SUNDAY NIGHT! See here:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/245630.asp?siteID=FKSJxY2VJAk-ZquTlt6Dp1Lf5XjL%2AzBn%2Fw
Also I continue to extend my offer to train anyone who asks on the Shack training map so you can learn how to play, if you're scared of just buying the game and jumping in with us! This is how I learned to play last summer, and it was very helpful and very worth it! Just Shackmessage me.
Anyway, on to the battle details:
We'll be playing on hirez & themelon's 64-player server, hirez.themelon.org:14567 , from 9:00 PM EST (6:00 PM PST) until whenever we quit!
Please sign up here:
http://www.shackbattles.net/battles/view.php?battle_id=347
The map rotation will also include Shackmaps and the tournament map pack:
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5284
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=6351
If you do not download these maps, you will not be able to play them.
Punkbuster is disabled for now because we were having so many issues with it a couple of weeks ago.
We had a peak of 43 players last Sunday and there was never a server-side slowdown. Let's try to get as close as we can to 64 people this week!
F2 F2!
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and shit if i take these bad boys out it's over, i can't see dick. i can see 6 inches in front of me before the world turns into a fuzzy colorful blob
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Wow.. its seriously like my eyes just opened up and stuff. I can't believe I didnt see how it worked before.
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I think someone here likes the stuff. I don't. But hey now's your chance.
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Our Accounts Receivables specialist's computer is hosed.
Any login will immediately log you back off to the Ctrl + Alt + Del screen. Admin, both local and domain, user, both local and domain, Safe Mode, etc.
Some spyware was removed from the nightly autoscan.
Any tips here? This system is 100% unusable and the guy is on his computer all day.
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http://www.geocities.com/dukester2.geo/ross1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/dukester2.geo/ross2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/dukester2.geo/cduk1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/dukester2.geo/cduk2.jpg
plus the new album is very good.
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after about 32 days of in-game time I have reached level 60 with my orc warlock... 6 minutes before server shutdown for maintenance and patching, which will introduce the PvP "honor" (yeah, right) system.
http://img254.echo.cx/my.php?image=wowscrnshot0422050532171bt.jpg
how do some people make it to level 60 in less than two weeks?!?
this was bloody hard work and I can't say I've enjoyed most of it... I basically just did it to please my ambitious girlfriend...
please tell me this is where the fun starts again...
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"Station Exchange is the official Sony Online Entertainment auction service that provides players a secure method of buying and selling the right to use in game coin, items and characters in accordance with SOE’s license agreement, rules and guidelines. "
http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/
Sony selling gold/items for REAL money...
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overclock stability testing is FUN!!!1!!1!
runs 3dmark
*3dmark crashes*
raises voltage .025v
*3dmark crashes*
raises voltage .025v
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I think it looks good except the belt buckle, which seems a bit redundant.
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http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/opteron-x75/s2985-setup.jpg
I just came a little.
dual dualcore Opterons and a pair of 6800 Ultras.... HAWT
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Thank god for compressed air.
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So...what the hell is the difference between Composite Video/RCA Audio/Digital Coax Audio/Component cables? I mean...they're all conductive wiring in the same shape. Is it all marketing? Or do the more intensive component cables need better quality cabes? I have so many RCA cables lying around, that when I get my 30" Sanyo I very well might just try using them as component cables before spending $15 on the pretty RGB ones.
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Front : http://roushimsx.shackspace.com/100_2926.jpg
Back : http://roushimsx.shackspace.com/100_2925.jpg
Also got a Goldfish Summer Tour 98 shirt. It sucks that they haven't run the free tshirt promotion since then :(
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So it looks like moe6 was right after all (http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=9938511)
Here's a quote from Gamespot's new article:
While the producers of the game were careful to tell us that the footage we saw (the very same footage that will roll on Saturday) is not in-game--but rather EA Sports artists' "target video" of what next generation hardware will be capable of--they did claim that the final product will actually be superior in quality to the footage in the commercial. Will this be the case? Only time will tell.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/sports/maddennfl2006/preview_6122758.html
Hope that settles that. sorry if this has already been posted I haven't been on all day
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