One more reason to stick with consoles
Filed in Gaming, Internet, News, January 24, 2008, 11:49 pmars technica released a story that solidifies my belief that consoles are the way to go with games now a days. The story was in regards to the PC specs for Assassin’s Creed. I can’t believe what they are recommending when you compare it to what is in the Xbox 360!
Check out these specs Minimum/Recommended:
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OS: Windows XP/Vista (only)
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Processor:Dual Core 2.6GHz Intel or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ /Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better
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RAM: 2 GB / 3GB
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Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card /512 MB video card recommended (see supported list)*
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Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
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*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 / 3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6600-6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 series
Hmm $300-400 console or $2000-$3000 computer. Easy decision for me. The last PC game I purchased was Half Life 2: Orange Box. I guess that will be my last PC game for a while.
61 is the music digg
Filed in Music, blog, , 6:53 amI found this site the other day and the idea of “digging” music you like is starting to grow on me. The site is called “The Sixty One,” where the name came from or what it means, I have no idea. The site takes the digg model of having users that click on the music they like the artists with the most points gets pushed to the front page, only instead of calling them diggs, they are called bumps. When you sign up for the site you sign up as either a listener or artist. You then get 100 points to start with and these are used to bump your favorite music. Then when you like a certain artist you have to listen to a minute of their song then you can click on the bump link which costs 5 points. Don’t worry you can earn points in may ways. For instance, if you bump someone’s music and they gain levels or popularity you can get points in return. You can also earn points by picking your Top 3, listening to the brand new artists, modifying your listener page, etc.
The artist can choose to steam only, sell, or allow free downloads of their music. The artist gets instant gratification if people like their music. I know because I showed this to a coworker that posted his music yesterday morning and he was on the front page in a couple of hours. His band is called “All Found Out,” here is a link to his music on the site: http://www.thesixtyone.com/allfoundout/
Just like digg, you can click on a listener’s account and see what he/she is liking and even she their Top 3 and more. Here is my listener account to see what I mean: http://www.thesixtyone.com/bryansays/
The site is still new and needs a little more polishing but I can see this site taking off. My friend from All Found Out had some initial issues with double-posting of songs and comments but he spoke with the site owners and the problems were resolved.
Hate is Fun, “Rootin’ Shootin’ Circus”
Filed in Comics, blog, January 22, 2008, 5:47 pm“Hate is Fun” is a comic strip made by Mark Garner who used to work at the same company I work for now. You can say that Hate is Fun is similar to Penny Arcade without the gaming. All bets are off with it comes to what Mark will talk about next. Topics range from Anime, Religion, Politics, Relationships, Computers, you get the picture. Here is Mark’s Description of his site:
“This comic should be viewed by anyone UNLESS they are easily offended, pious, uneducated, self important, and rage-aholic meglamaniacs. Then, by all means… please enjoy..”
UPDATE: Looks like Mark made another comic already, man he’s on a roll! He even mentions me after the comic. Here is the link.
Check out the Archives for some of the more memorable strips:
Strip 7 Intimate Details
Strip 10 I Don’t Get It
Strip 32 I Call The Redhead ‘Botz’
Strip 53 She Actually ISN’T
Undertow Free of Charge for Xbox Live Accounts
Filed in Gaming, Internet, blog, January 20, 2008, 3:40 pmLooks like they finally decided what XBox Live Arcade they are going to be giving away for the outages that happened after Christmas(read more here and here). I was not really affected since I was playing Assassin’s Creed and Fusion Frenzy 2 with relatives most of that week. But Undertow is the game they are giving away. The game will only be free from Wednesday January 23rd, 2:00 a.m. PST through January 27th,Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST for all Silver and Gold Xbox Live memberships.
The game is normally 800 MS Points ($10). I like the feature list of the game. It has a single player campaign, on and offline co-op, and multiplayer for 2-16 players over Xbox LIVE for Gold subscribers. The other nice thing that peaked my interest is the ability to setup an offline game against the computer by adding bots. I know bots usually have bad AI and are basically repetitive in movements but one of the best times I’ve had with gaming resulted from a impromptu LAN party playing Battlefield 1942 on the Normandy map against 60 Nazi bots! We played that level for hours. I say bring back the bots in multiplayer gaming :) Anyway here are some links to wet your appetite for the game:
IGN.Com Review’d it with a 8.7 out of 10
Project Petal looks ambitious
Filed in Video, blog, January 16, 2008, 3:32 amSaw Zadi’s twitter about Project Petal’s last episode being good. So I checked it out and it’s a cross country bicycle documentary. I’m a sucker for any documentary and this one had good music. Here is the synopsis from their site:
This documentary - tentatively titled ‘Pedal‘, will bookend with the Pacific and Atlantic oceans… anchored to a small group’s cross country trip and focusing on the inspiring people that cross their path.
After watching the first episode I was hooked and wanted to know more. It seems like an ambitious undertaking and the way the director explains the trails and tribulations in getting the project to completion seems heartfelt.
If you don’t want to watch them all at least check out the first episode and episode six.
It was a web and gaming weekend…
Filed in Gaming, Internet, blog, January 14, 2008, 7:17 pmSaturday I performed my weekly ritual of sleeping in as long as I can (which was until 11AM), grabbing a cup of joe, and watching my favorite video podcasts. The podcasts alternative between a handful of shows. Here are the ones I watched this weekend: The Totally Rad Show, 1up Show, DiggNation, and Tekzilla.
In case you didn’t know the 1Up Show is a weekly video podcast from the editors of EGM (Electronic Gaming Month, for the non-gamers). One of their first specials of the year had a segment on new independent free games called Freeloader. They had a few games that were kinda funny and definitely out there (links to follow), but one struck my eye as being new and innovative. The game was called Crayon Physics.
The game itself is very simple: draw squares and lines to move the red ball to the stars. What I really like about it is the mood set by the soundtrack, the ease of use of simply free hand drawing shapes, and the authentic look of crayon on paper. The music is one simple song that loops throughout the 6 different levels, but I love the melodic haunting voice of the woman singing or chanting. Here is a link to the mp3 if you want to take a listen: ghost lullaby. The first game was built as a proof of concept by the author. He has a new version coming out soon called Crayon Physics Deluxe which incorporates the ability to add moving parts, like drawing a car and watching it drive forward. Here is a link to the deluxe page. I will be sure to post a blog when it becomes available.
Next comes Synaesthete which is a mind trip of a game. Its a game that is part Geometry Wars,part Guitar Hero, and part Tron with a techno sound beat.
The pictures really don’t do the game justice. Upon first playing this game, I thought oh great another geometry wars-like game but it really surprised me with how fun it was. Killing monsters to a techno beat is really satisfying!
Here are some other mentioned games:
Sumotori Dreams - This is basically a poorly done, but funny Drunken Sumo Game. Thats all I’m saying.
I wanna be that Guy- This is a sadistic look at all those side scrollers of yester year. Super Mario was Patty-Cake conpared to this game. It takes elements from those games and elevates them times infinity. Try it but you have been warned.
I finished out the weekend with Mass Effect. I borrowing it from a friend and you may as well call it “Crack Effect!” I played it until 3:30AM on Sunday! Yay me!
