Some little game called StarCraft 2 apparently came out today. Bought my digital copy, now to see when I'll actually have time to play it.

Well it's the end of an era. The end of Windows XP. I just got confirmation from my suppliers at work that they're all out of Windows XP OEMs. Hard to believe it's almost 10 years ago that I first installed XP on a system. It's been a good run but considering how good Windows 7 is, it's not too hard to say goodbye to an old friend.

Interesting read here on ZDNet. They're alleging that Nvidia has been deliberately crippling the performance of PhysX when you're running it on a CPU rather than a GPU. As Nvidia is in the business of selling GPUs that wouldn't be surprising in the least.

:P To leaky roofs.

Steam Peril of Summers Sale. "Warning: Riding a bike is dangerous and can result in groin pain, injury or death."

!FT!Marauder says:
So many steam sales..
Can't stop clicking!@
Matt says:
yessss ... they are
!FT!Marauder says:
No Resident Evil 5! You can't make me click on you.... noo... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
*clikc*
Damn it
Ahhhh.... Assassin's Creed 2! There's no possible way I'm clicking on you, not even if you sneak up behind me, garotte me and click on the buy button for me! No way in he... *URK!*
*click*
damn it.

Despicable Me looks awesome. Must see. Thanks for the link Goshwin.

Office 2010 is out. Thanks Proto. Now go install Open Office. ;)

I'm sorry Apple. You didn't invent video calling. You just didn't. It's cool and all, but you don't have a patent on claiming cool stuff that's already been invented as your own.

Wow so many of the people that I grew up watching on TV and in movies growing up are passing away lately. Now Gary Coleman is dead. R.I.P. Gary.

If you're voting in Nevada, do not wear a chicken suit. You've been warned.

There's a fun little tower defense / RTS hybrid that both Goshwin and UT told me about within a day of each other. I checked it out and it indeed is fun and rather old school. Great music too. Check out Revenge of the Titans.

A great deal of what I deal with at work these days is Malware infections. If only people knew a bit more about computers and would refrain from downloading this crap from Limewire I'd see a lot less of it. It always interests me to follow just how it is that the cybercrime sorts spread their software, and all of the injinuity that goes into the spreading. There's some really clever little monkeys out there when it comes to this stuff and especially to the social engineering that it takes to trick people into infecting their PCs. Take a look at this one, a "Windows 7 Compability Checker". Nice.

Speaking of Monkeys, repair monkey and upgrade junkie UV (He's the new Protocal / Rune!) sent over a few sweet links. First off, have you wondered just howmuch you've spent on Steam? Find out here and shake your head. It shows the full price you paid for games and not the discounted price if you got something on sale but it's still cool.

UV also sent over a link to 8-bit Trip from Rymdreglage, a demo done completely with Lego. These guys seem to realy have a thing for lego. Lego + Chiptunes. Could there be anything better? it's like the favorite things from my childhood made into a music video. Killer.

Found an interesting article on the making of Populous, the first God game. Always interesting to read game developer blogs and see what's behind the making of games.

The guild: Do you wanna date my avatar. lawl. Best pick up line ever "How about a little tank and spank?"

From Rune we've got the annoying news that the New Mechwarrior is tied up in legal issues apparently. Everyone just needs to STFU and let them put the MAD-3R Marauder back in the games. Stupid Robootech. It's been far to many years since we've seen a new Mechwarrior game.

Speaking of games I have to find the time to start playing games again and going some reviews and more writing. I miss writing on here but unfortunately I'm doing 60+ hours a week at work right now so my time for things other than working is somewhat limited. On that note it's time to get home and wage war on the dandelions.

I make no bones about it. I miss the Amiga. It really was a fantastic computer back in the day and really set the stage for all the multitasking and multimedia things that we love about our computers so much today. The PC world took 10 years to catch up with what Amiga did in 1985. Sadly Commodore was mismanaged into the ground and the Amiga sort of died. There's been continued sporadic development of the AmigaOS ever since but no real new hardware. Personally I keep hoping they'll develop a version of the OS to run on normal x86 hardware. You know the stuff that the entire world uses these days, even those pesky Apple users.

Well, it looks like we might be seeing some new hardware this summer just in time for the Amiga's 25th birthday. Can't believe that thing came out when I was eleven. Man. Anyhows, check out the A-eon Technology X 1000 page here and the promo video here. It's going to be a power PC machine which pisses me off, but I might have to buy one when they come out just to have one again.

Good Lord. Two MILLION dollah! In four hours? Those WoW guys are crazy. And they all have shiney horsies. Thanks Blumencraft.

Thanks to Dman for this little video. These Mind in a Box fellows have some really cool tracks. P.S. The Great Gianna Sisters was a heck of a great game.

Noticed on Steam today that Llamasoft is back! I bought Space Giraffe and Grid Runner revolution. Not sure I'll really get a whole lot of playing done on them at the moment, but I've gotta support these guys. They made some of my favorite (and wierdest) games on the C64, including Attack of the Mutant Camels and Hover Boover. If you look at the links for the games you'll note they're from the mid 1980s. Yeah. I still remember playing those games when I was a kid. They were great. I can't wait to try their new games. (Well, Grid Runner is a remake of an old classic.) Always neat to see guys from the old days pop up again.

Speaking of old skool, I found out a few days ago that Jesper Kyd did the music for many many games. A few of them I knew about such as Messiah. Some I didn't, like UT3, Hitman Chaos Theory and MDK2. Back in the day Jesper was a member of an Amiga demo group called "Silents" and was one of my favorite scene musicians. Nice to see he's still around and going strong. It always amazes me how many old names from the scene you see appearing in different productions. The demo scene really was amazing back in the day and it had quite a deep affect on an entire generation of games, movies and music.

Part of the reason I'm thinking so old skool this weekend is that my minion at work UV had never heard of the demo scene. Going to have to edumacate that boy. Edumacate him good. Maybe I'll lock him in a room with Goshwin and an Amiga emulator for a weekend. That'd do it.

Well, back to listening to "Madness took me" by Uncle Tom from the most excellent Scoopex demo "Mental Hangover".

Goshwin the review monkey has been playing Supreme Commander 2 a bit today. Here's his initial impressions.

!FT!Goshwin: Welp... my first encounter with supCom 2 confirms that its watered down and more arcade than deep stratagy.
!FT!Marauder: :(
!FT!Goshwin: I'll try a big map next and see... Its more about tossing units at em and building big super bots. There's far fewer defensive structures and build times on the big stuff is very short.
!FT!Goshwin: But the health on everything is very low which leads to build and chuck em stratagies
!FT!Goshwin: I had a artillary duel with a CPU player that went on and on, the shots did little damage and took masses of em to really have an effect. The upper tec gus were also strangly ineffective except over time and volume.
!FT!Goshwin: Sending attack ships also seemed impotent since 5 of them couldn't even kill one arty in the time it took for them to die, yet only 3 AA guns were there.. screwy balance.
!FT!Goshwin: Just tried a big map with 8 way... faster pace... Arty is the only way to survive... They do have shields after all.
!FT!Goshwin: The game play is faster and build times allow more extreme tec into the mix in numbers.
!FT!Marauder: So it's no longer build forever and maybe get one big tech unit built in an entire game? !FT!Marauder: You tend to get more of the higher level tech units running around?
!FT!Marauder: Do you level your units up, or still have some level 1 units running around when you're further into the game
!FT!Goshwin: Everything levels
!FT!Goshwin: You can see anything happen at any time.. I just got nuked in a skirmish within 20 min
!FT!Marauder: Damn
!FT!Marauder: How the resource management?
!FT!Goshwin: Simple... you only have one level of mass extract... you cant build anything unless you have the energy and mass
!FT!Marauder: Ahhhh.. So no more bottle necking and everything slows down to a crawl while your resources catch up?
!FT!Marauder: I like that.
!FT!Goshwin: You cant crash your economy with deficit building.
!FT!Marauder: Thanks for the impressions. :)
!FT!Goshwin: Hehe.....
!FT!Marauder: Once I get playing we'll do some co-op. My favorite part of those games.
!FT!Goshwin: Heheh
!FT!Goshwin: it does need bigger maps
!FT!Marauder: I loved the old 40x40 maps.
!FT!Goshwin: and more
!FT!Goshwin: no 40 40 in this
!FT!Marauder: :(
!FT!Marauder: Those are my favs for drawn out slugging matches against a pile of ais !FT!Goshwin: Maps so big it takes ages for a battle ship to cross it.
!FT!Marauder: Yup
!FT!Marauder: Love those
!FT!Marauder: And your big arty cannons range markers look like soooo teeny.

Been playing? Got an opinion? Sent it in! themarauder@fragtopia.com

Supreme Commander 2 from the supremely awesome Chris Taylor is out. Can't wait to give it a go.

I mention it from time to time and since it came up in my music play list yesterday it's time to mention it again. Dan Nicholson is a genius. Riku Nuottajarvi is a genius. The guys from Toys for Bob (Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford) are geniuses. Why? Star Control 2. Star Control 2 is in my opinion and in the opion of many others, one of the finest games ever made. It was a perfect combination of inovation, a deep and compelling storyline, basic RPG elements, space combat, wonderful gameplay, great graphics and amazing music. I still remember sitting down at my 386 all those years ago and playing for endless hours. Then playing the game again. And again. There aren't many games in all the years that I've been gaming that I've played through more than once. And I still like to fire up The Urquan Master and play it a bit. If you've never played Star Control 2 you've missed out on a true classic moment of gaming history that's still playable today. I'd highly recomend downloading The Urqan Masters (a free remake for modern computers) and playing it. You won't regret it, I swear.

If you have Crysis installed and you're a Mechwarrior junkie like me, check out Mechwarrior: Living Legends. Just dling it now. Looks good.

Well the new server is up and running and the FRAGtopia mothership is moved over and all is good in the world. You guys should notice faster response times from the website and I'll notice that it's way easier to manage. As the new server also has support for Wordpress, I may look into making it easier for other folks to post on here and get some more people involved. That hopefully would mean more and more interesting updates. I've been way to busy lately to do much but work on the new house and work on.. well, work. No free time to myself.

On that note, don't buy Global Agenda whatever you do. It's shallow and quite repetative. The conquest mode might be better but I'm unwilling to shell out $15 a month to find out. Save your money for something worth spending it on. Like, anything other than Global Agenda.

Anyone else think that the Chinese are complete dicks?

Working on moving the website to our new data centre, so if things don't get updated for a few days don't be suprised.

Played a little Global Agenda last night, the initial tutorial isn't bad, but then I get dumped into the start city with no idea what to do. Damned if I can figure out how to group or find a quest or do anything. No time to play tonight, I'll give it another go tomorrow night.

Getting pumped about Global Agenda. Planetscape didn't work out and Huxley never showed up which disapointed me greatly. Hoping that Global Agenda will be a great MMO/Shooter Hybrid. We'll find out tomorrow night.

One of my favorite games from the C64 and Amiga was The Great Gianna Sisters. Fun little Mario clone and amazing music. It didn't last long as Nintendo took umbrage to it, but it became a cult classic. Check out Gianna's Return here on Betanews. Thanks for the linkage Proto!

UV has a very good name for 2010. Due to the many games coming out that are the second in the series, 2010 shall be known as "The Year of the Sequel".

Check it out:

mass effect 2
assassins creed 2
star craft 2
modern warfare 2
bio shock 2
supreme commander 2
mafia 2
crysis 2

And I'm sure there's others as well.

If you're not playing Dragon Age: Origins you're STILL a bad person. Just so you know.

Lots of hype today about Apple's new iPad. I'm contractually obligated to make mock it, just because it'll make the Apple people upset but there's so many people doing it for me online that I don't think I'll bother this time around. It sounds like an interesting device but I'll have to wait until I see and play with one to really pass judgement on it. Unlike everyone else on the internet I like to touch something and see how it is before the mocking comences. Xan sent over the live stream from Twit.tv, they're covering the launch.

If you're not playing Dragon Age: Origins you're a bad person. Just so you know.

Not sure I'm liking this new Dreamweaver. I had to buy it as the old 2000 version I had won't work properly under Windows 7. It was pointed out to me that I COULD just run it in an XP emulated window, but that's a pain in the ass.

Speaking of Windows 7, if you'd like to create a super handy "show all control panel" options shortcut on your desktop, check this out. Thanks for the link Killer.

Happy New Year, and may it be a happy and healthy one.

So many Steam games on sale. :( So cheap... Must.. buy...

Good read here about the death of 3D Realms. Learn to let go, how sucess killed Duke Nukem. Thanks Rune.

Picked up Serious Sam HD on Steam today on sale. Couldn't pass it up. I've got my disk around here somewhere but having it at my fingertips on Steam? Can't pass that up. Definately gotta get some co-op going on. Sooo many fond LAN party memories. SkeezixLAN back in.. shesh.. 2004? Owning it up with Rune, Skeezix, Pappy, Shortcut, and a few other people. Still an amazing game after all these years and still worth playing to the end for the best end boss ever in a game. The website is also worth reading. Croteam cracks me up. Nice guys too.

Been looking at some of the videos for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 and I see that the first one is cheap on Steam. Anyone played it? I do love my Star Wars games.... And some of them are even worth playing. Is this one? Lemme know.

I forgot to post this on for Halloween. If you're a gamer you have to admit that this Bioshock costume is the best thing ever.

Wanna get fat? Follow this link and eat one of each item on it. Make sure that you modify your will before hand and leave me as your sole heir.

lol. That is some nerdy funny stuff. Sadly I see no posts by the Fett man, so it fails to achieve total win. Thanks Fainney!

A very Merry Fraggin' Christmas everyone!

I'll have to check out Kreedz Climing mod. It reminds me a lot of the old Quake 3 speed jumping demos that were so popular back in the day.

Many thanks to R-Khan for Dragon Age: Origin! I look forward to trying it out.

Half way across the living room floor and I've used over 300 scews and just over 1,500 nails. (No, that's not a typo. And I'm putting it all down with hand tools, no power nailer.) Not quite sure how many times the Lord's name was used in vain but it's got to be up there as well.

Hirez Studios wonders just how well an Elf Mage would do against a modern combat soldier. You can find out here. Thanks R-Khan.

Just how bullet-proof is your server? Bet it won't stop a .50BMG! :) Thanks Orville.

The eternal battle between soldier and demoman is ratcheting up and the teams are pretty well neck and neck. Get the details here. Thanks Gosh.

I've started playing a little Starscape again, as I never did beat that game and it's one of the best I've ever played. If you haven't played it you're a godless game-heathen and must be delt with appropriately. You know, with fire. Avoid this fate. Buy Starscape from Moonpod directly or on Steam for $10. You won't regret it and there'll be less burning and screaming.

The next time you eat an egg, remember this picture.

Hah. Thanks Xan. :)

Still playing a bit of Dead Space. The controls are POV are still annoying but it's none the less quite a good game. Really enjoying the story and the freaky enemies. If you're looking for a good horror shooter I'd highly recomend it.

I'll have to write up a little article to celebrate. I forgot to post on the day of but it's been 10 years! On November 26th 1999 I posted our first article on the FRAGtopia.com website. At that time it was FRAGstock, but that changed shortly thereafter. Hard to believe I've been posting on here for a third of my life. Again, how time flies. Seems like just yesterday I was writing up the fifth anniversary article, which I finished off with "Thanks for reading the site, and see you all soon for the tenth anniversary write up. ;)"

Thanks to everyone I've met through the site and the LAN parties over the years. Some great times and great people.

Some interesting reading about Google's Chrome OS security here. Have to give it a try when it comes out, although like all non-Microsoft/Apple OSs I have a feeling it's not going to go too far unless they can introduce some really sweet emulation to get Windows software running easily and smoothly. That's the real holy grail for alternative operating system developers in my opinion.

Ever wonder how spartans brush their teeth? Thanks to the sublime Goshwin you need wonder no more and can send both the Cavity Creeps and Persians fleeing before the might of your magnficent smile.

Coming home this morning after a very long drive I came across a box with a smurf in it sitting on a chair. On that box was a sticker declaring that the Smurfs have been around for 50 years. Damn. I can't believe it's been that long. I remember watching that show when I was a kid and singing along to the records. Heck, I even used the Smurf tune as an intro to my gaming clan's website years ago. It's just that awesome. Of course it was funnier at the time, given the gamer lingo "smurf" term at the time.

Back to the TV show. I always felt bad for Gargamel and his cat and I always hoped secretly that he'd realise he should boil the caldron full of water BEFORE putting the smurfs in. Some people never learn.

Seems that Modern Warfare 3 is coming along nicely. Onion News Network (As usual) has the breaking news.

Well, I beat Modern Warfare 2 single player on campaign mode last night. Five hours total playtime. Very short even by modern standards. That being said, it was five hours of complete madness and crazy massive battles. Well worth the price of admission. Now to start on the special ops missions and the multiplayer. When I have time of course. :)

Countries prepare for cyberwarfare. Damn.

Noticed that Left4Dead went live on my Steam games list last night around 1:30 EST. Sweet. Now to find time to play it.

Forgot to give our resident mad scientist Goshwin credit for tipping me off to Osmos in my post yesterday. Thanks bud.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is amazing and complete madness. Buy it. Play it. Wolverines!

As I mention here on a frequent basis I love indie games. There's true inovation there which is something that's often lacking in "main stream" gaming. Just picked up Osmos and interesting little indie game that sees you as a mote of life, trying to complete certain goals and to consume motes around you to grow. Simple concept but it gets pretty darned hard as you unlock levels. It's avaliable on Steam and you can check out Hemisphere Games' website here. Well worth the $10 USD.

Thank you to everyone who's served and is serving.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Mysto and Pizzi are so freaking awesome. Great remixes, great videos and great "making of" videos. Nice to see guys who obviously enjoy what they're doing having a great time doing it.

Still playing a bit of Torchlight, and it looks like I've gotten some more people addicted to it. Proto's all hooked and it's really not his genre. Whahah! My evergrowing army of the undead grows.

What's up with all the nazi references on forums. I know it's nothing new, but it's really getting on my nerves lately. If you use a nazi or Hilter reference in a forum post you instantly lose.

On the subject of the Myans calling for the end of the world in 2012 (as was mentioned in my last post) I've had a few people writing me and telling me that it's true. The world will end most likely.

No problems. I invite everyone who believes that the world will end in 2012 to send me a cheque for $1,000 wriiten for January 1st 2013. If you're SO very sure that things are going to end, what have you got to loose? Email me at marauder@fragtopia.com and I'll send you the info for the cheque.

Steam has Battlestations: Pacific on sale tonight I see. For $14.99 USD that seems like a good deal considering how good Midway was. Picked up Mass Effect as well, that's one I've been meaning to play for a long time and it was on sale for $9.99. Heck of a good price for something that's supposed to be one of the best RPGs ever made. I talked our good friend Doc Brian into it as well. Time for him to expand his gaming horizons, since all he plays is Counter Strike. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I really need to find more time to write. I really do enjoy it.

Dec 21, 2012. The Myans apparently predicited that the world will end. I'm sorry, I'm not going to get into a panic. The world will end, or it won't. I'm guessing on the later, and if I'm wrong... Well, the fallout bunker in the basement will be handy, as will my Left4Dead training sessions.

Torchlight is fun. I've been playing it a bit and for $20.00 you can't go wrong. If you liked Diablo you'll like it. Certainly not an especially deep game thus far but for an action RPG there's tons of killing things and getting loot it's a hell of a lot of fun. And isn't it really all about the clicking and the looting? Oh and of course the carnage. And the great music. And the pretty graphics. And the cool spells. Did I mention it's also a lot of fun? Single player only, but I never played much Diablo multiplayer anyhows. That being said, they're currently working on an MMO action-RPG as well. Interesting.

Well the Windows 7 install went rather smoothly. I hadn't had time to write much about it yet as it's been insanely busy with work and weekends spent away from computer contact working on the house. So far no real problems with the new operating system. Well there are a few little wierd things such as a file error when trying to save multiple files into a location with IE and an inability to drag a shortcut from IE directly to my second desktop. Nothing that's been a deal breaker though. I'm working on an article about my first impressions.

Played a bit of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo with Proto yesterday. The Steam servers were of course swamped with the release and my client went wierd, but a reset seems to have sorted it out. The demo is quite good. Lots of changes from the intial game, but they kept the good stuff. There's melee weapons, (Frying pan for teh win! Clang!) new special zombies, lots of new guns and new toys (such as boomer bile and adreneline boost) and lots more gore. Shooting zombies to little bits has never been more fun. The demo is very short as it seems to be only part of the first campaign. Certainly wets one's appetite for the full game though which is due out in a few weeks.

Pretty funny talking to Proto about the delays on the release of the demo. I was at work late as usual so I wasn't exactly sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it to come out. I guess he was though. Didn't keep a log of the conversation, but to say he was upset would be putting it mildly. He was quite upset.

For the first time in almost 8 years I'm installing a new operating system. Ghosting my drive in preperation for a Windows 7 install. If I never log in again you'll all know what happened. Avenge my death.

I've been having issues with Punkbuster kicking me out of any protected game every few minutes with various errors including "disallowed program/driver. (125120)" Turns out the issue is FRAPS. If I have FRAPS loaded Punkbuster freaks out. Not happy about this, hopefully the Even Balance and FRAPS guys can work something out. Boooo.

I've posted before that I'm very interested in The Secret World, an upcoming MMO from Funcom. The interest continues. They've got a new trailer on their website, and a beta contest. Go. Apply. Choose a faction.

Microsoft has releasted Security Essentials, a free antivirus. Haven't had a chance to try it yet and I've never been a big fan of MS's security efforts in the past, but I guess I'll try and it see how it is. Considering how big their vested interested in increasing the publics confidence in the security of Microsoft's operating systems it should be decent. Again, we'll see. Anyhows, get the details here. Thanks to Killer for the link, which I already had. He's getting old and slow. ;)

VA-Viller sent over a link from PC Games Hardware. They've got (alleged) info and pics on the upcoming ATI Radeon 5800 series cards.

Meant to post this one a few weeks ago. Sony has announced they'll be installing Google Chrome on their computers. Good on Google. I've been playing with Chrome a bit and it's pretty decent. Some sites show some odd glitches but they're in the minority.

Tried Heros of Newerth last night. The hud looks good but I get a blank screen where my battlefield should on. Didn't have time to play with it much, but I'm suspecting it's due to my dual monitor setup. Some games really don't seem to like it much. I'll try it single after the weekend.

The guys over at S2 Games, developers of the incredibly fun Savage and Savage 2 just emailed me a beta key for Heros of Newerth, their upcoming DOTA type game. The NDA is lifted as well, so I'll report back on what I think of it.

Well I finally got around to beating Ghostbusters tonight after a very long day at work. Turned out that I was only a level from the end of the game. Protocal didn't like the game but I've got to say that I really enjoyed it. It really was like being in the movies. Nice that they had the original cast as well, and that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the thing. If you're a Ghostbusters fan or just like a good game I highly recomend it.

Thanks to VA_Killer we now know that some people like their floppy drives just a little too much. Take the cat, just return the floppy you sick bastard!

So we finally know why Google's been adding UFO stuff to their Doodle for the past few weeks. Happy birthday HG Wells! (My favorite one was definately the crop circles.)

Yarrrrr mateys! Do yea seek to sail the high seas in search of plunder and adventure? Get yer scurvy hide over to Telltale Games on the 19th and get the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island for free! Yaaarrrrrr!!!! Thank yea Bryan!

Despite the respect I have for our good buddy and overlord Pappy-R the Magnificent (Long may he reign!) I've just never shared his liking for the evil that is Norton Antivirus. Actually I guess that's not exactly true. I liked Norton's products before 2004. In 2004 Norton totally rewrote their software and it's interface and year after year it became more bloated, system performance crippling and problematic. I've lost track of how many computers I've fixed over the years that Norton has damaged and or killed. Norton 2009 seemed like it was pretty decent, but it doesn't offer the same level of protection as Eset NOD32 IMHO. Anyhows, Symantec has finally done something good.... Or at least midly amusing. Check out this Norton Dokken vs. Chicken ad and this Kimbo Slice vs. Caterpiller ad. Thanks Belthwing.

Working on a lot of notebooks lately and I'm starting to really, REALLY dislike the glossy finishes they've started putting on laptops lately. The Acer One I'm working on right now is so glossy that I can hardly see the screen under my florecent lights and the Toshiba on the other desk has a super high gloss keyboard that makes the actual keys invisible is there's much light shining on them. The casings are a nice shiney black as well. Doubtless it looks great sitting on the shelf, but once you touch them they look horrible. All covered in sticky fingerprints. Blah. Give me a flat black LCD and computer.

Rkhan just sent in the news that a Futurama box set is being release... Hmmmmm. Futurama. That's one sexy collectors edition. Our buddy Praetorian would definately be all over that one.

Haven't been home long enough to try the Aion beta out. Maybe get a chance to fire it up tonight.

LOL. Got a bunch of emails about Combat Arms. The general consensus seems to be that it's a terrible game. Ahhh well. I'll stick with COD4 for the moment I guess. Hmmm... Speaking of which I have to finish Ghost Busters and Braid.

First MMO I've run into where aerial combat (well, other than Planetside) is a normal thing. If you have a Fileplanet Account, you can sign up for the beta here.

I found this to be fascinating. A real life Divinci Code sort of thing. Music unheard for 500 years redisovered on an old carving.

lol. Thanks Chisel.

Anyone been playing Combat Arms? Haven't had a chance to download it and try it out yet. Apparently they now have zombies. Hmmm. Zombies.

That's right. Rubber Ninjas. From Rag Doll Software.

Bryan reminded me about the upcoming WoW Expansion pack tonight. A reason to start playing again perhaps! The trailer is here. Man I love Blizzard's videos. Looks great. They're finally opening the Greymane wall. Been wanting to get into that zone for years.

Well maybe. After reading my impassioned plea a few days ago VA_Killer and Bryan have announced their interest in helping out with the site. Nice. Everyone who reads this thing will have more than just me talking to myself to read.

A few quick links for today. First off, from the Old Skool Filez, watch the Enigma demo from way back in 1991 on the Amiga here. It's a true classic. Now download the listen to the demo tune (one of the best ever made) remix by Virgil here. Now check out this sweet remix and download the music disk here. I've gotta admit I loves my chiptunes. They still sound great years later, and some of the remixes people are doing of the old gaming stuff is really amazing. Even people who've never heard the original tunes like some of the remixes.

Don't have a girlfiend? Shy? Can't figure out what's wrong? Bullshot has nailed the problem down for you. Please check out this piechart for all the details. (Hmmm. Pie.)

Xan sent over this cool little video. I don't know what the japanese lettering says, but then again I'm more interested in the rest of the video. Wow.

That's 2 14 hour days and I have to be back at work in a few short hours. Out for now.

Wikipedia is right up there as the world's greatest wastes of time, only surpased by Youtube and arguing with people on internet forums. However unlike arguing with idiots it's actually usefull and informative. While reading about the Zeppelins, the Hindenburg disaster and how unwise it is to fly around the world under a balloon filled with tens of thousands of cubic feet of extremely flamable gasses I found a link to this video of the disaster. I've read and heard about the disaster for years, and seen still footage, but to actually see the video gives the story new impact.

Wow. As a side note to the above, I love the Internet Archive. Amazing project. Glad that someone's trying to keep a record of our digital heritage.

A huge thanks to everyone who came out to Wasaga Paintball's Black Reign big game this year. We had 1692 players on the field saturday, and yours truly was leading the W.A.R. (red) team as the nefarious Rinehart Vaugnhousin along with the valiant Sargent Tyler. The W.A.R. team had a narrow victory, ahead by 2 liters of water at the end of the game. I'll post a link to the photos and write up once I have a chance to get it done. Great event by the folks at Wasaga Paintball as always. If you're in southern Ontario and you haven't played paintball there, you haven't really played paintball at all.

Been busy buying a house and crazy busy with work. Just haven't had the time or energy lately to work much on the site or to do much in the way of gaming. Funny when I think about how much time and money I used to spend on gaming and computer equipment and these days I'm running a 2 year old PC and not having much time for gaming at all. Mostly six day work weeks and by the time I get home I just don't feel much like gaming. Once work starts on the house I doubt I'm going to have time to write much at all. Sort of a shame that I've never been able to get anyone else really interested in writing on the site. Have to work on that sometime I guess, in all my copious spare time. Ahhh well, I'll have to just make time where I can as I've always enjoyed it once I get the creative energies flowing and start on it. Keep thinking it's time for a site redesign as well, as the site has had the same look for years. However it'd be one hell of a lot of work and frankly I like blue. I remember when I came up with this design. It was a definate "Eureka!" moment. I was so proud of it.

lol. This news from Nov 10, 2001. "Everyone who's seen the new site likes it, other than Kingpin. He informs me he doesn't like it. I informed him he could go to hell. It's all good. :)"

On the note of writing for this site, I just realised that we're rapidly coming up on the 10th anniversary of FRAGtopia.com and the 15th anniversary of VAM Computers. November 26th, 1999 was the first time I made a post on this site. February 2nd 1996 was the date that the computer store started. Shesh. I feel old some days. I really do. It's a night for nostalgia I guess.

Gaming on your notebook? Need something mobile? The folks at Razer (Sponsors of the first FRAGtopia LAN party back in 2000) have the Orochi, a bluetooth gaming mouse. Why do I have the feeling that "Orochi" means something obscene in Japanese?

While cleaning out my closet on the weekend I happened to come across one of the famous Razer Boomslang Tshirts. Shesh. I remember when we got a box full of the original Boomslang mice in their funky metal boxes, mousepads and those very, very cool tshirts. Praetorian and Dillinger then imortalised that shirt in the webcomic Three Finger Salute. I have to try and get a hold of Praetorian and get those back online in an archive. He moved out to Alberta a few years ago, left his computer behind and I haven't heard anything of him since. ROBBIE D!! If you're reading this email me or call darn it. We miss you bud.

Well well, I got a link today from Blutsauger that the new Wolfenstien is out. Man, I'm completely out of it. I see from Planet Wolfenstein that the news is indeed true. Like all good people I don't believe anything I read until it's been confirmed by the mighty news machine that is Pappy-R. I'll have to pick this one up, can't miss a Wolfenstein game. There's nothing like killing super powered nazis.

I'm a moron and accidentally entered 1970 into the stupid age verification thingie on the Wolfenstein site and therefore got locked out until I dumped my cache. Sigh.

Pretty excited about Star Wars: The Old Republic. Been following it for a while and it's looking increasingly good. Star Wars: Galaxies I really wasn't that big on, but I think they're on to something this time around. I'm especially excited that it's Bioware working on it. Tingles. Going to be interesting to see how it turns out, I'll definately be playing this one. Story Based MMO? Oh yeah. Bioware? Oh yeah. Star Wars universe? Double oh yeah.

Watch this

And this.

I liked Age Of Conan for the first 20 levels, then the story telling died out and it just became yet another in the long list of sword and sorcery MMOs that have failed to knock out World of Warcraft. It's nice to see an MMO going in another direction and a new genre rather than just trying to hop on WoW's bandwagon and failing.

After it's dismal failure to completely destroy life, the universe and everything the first time around, the LHC is going to get fired up again in a few months. Hopefully a better showing this time around, although it'll only be running at 50%. Booooo. Thanks Asini.

Rkhan will doubtlessly find this highly amuzing. Zomg, our social network went down for a bit. What do we do?

Super, I'll be able to play a gay vampire in an MMO. Just super.

If you haven't checked out the Overlord 2 official webpage now's the time to do it. They've got a new episode of "The Overlord Show" for your evil viewing pleasure. They've also released an expansion pack, but it's only avaliable on console. Le Sigh.

I normally consider hunting games to be complete crap, on par with the lowest budget garbage that one could possibly come across in the deepest darkest depths of the local Wallymart's software bargain bin. Just when I'm all comfortable in my hunting game bigotry like some sort of nerdy Archie Bunker, along comes The Hunter. It's actually a very satisfying game and best of all it's free for basic play. Take a look, I was pleasantly surprised.

Gotta finish off the last bit of Ghostbusters. I have a feeling I'm near the end of the game but I seem to be stuck on a very, very difficult part. Damned demons, why they gotta try to keep a brother down?

I just noticed that back in the firehouse Vigo the Carpathian is sitting against the wall and has quite an extensive repetoir of nasty sayings when you spend the time to click on his painting. He just goes on and on. Neat little nod to the movies.

Well well, Windows 7 has gone gold. Can't wait to see the final thing running on my PC. First time I've actually been sort of excited about a new OS since Windows XP came out. Thanks for the link Proto.

UV came in to work this morning complaining about Bell throttling his peer to peer file transfers. In the afternoon Xan sends me a link to a CRTC inquiry into just that. Nothing like having your download speeds choked during prime hours. X(

I guess it's been a while since I've tried to upload anything to Google Video and it seems they're no longer accepting videos, but rather direct you to Youtube. I'm actually surprised they didn't do that as soon as they bought out Youtube for that unGodly sum.

If you're a paintball fan you're not going to want to miss out on Canada's biggest big paintball game at Wasaga Paintball. The annual game is coming up, a month from today. Last year we had over 1,700 people come out to play. Check out all the details here.

When I was running off the list of classic demos the other day I forgot to mention:

Desert Deam from Kefrens. Part 1 and Part 2.

Wild Copper. This one's a real classic. Love those funky chiptunes. Long, but worth watching.

Who could forget Megademo by Rebels. This was my favorite part, with the subway cars. The scroller and logo on Nabob was good as well. I always liked these guys, they really seemed to be having a lot of fun making this stuff. Maybe not the most technically advanced, but fun and well put together.

Oh yeah and Mental Hangover by Scoopex. I remember watching this for the first time at a Network23 copy party in Orangeville, Ontario. So so very blown away by this one.

Truly amazing what you could do with an Amiga back in the day. 15 years later and I still find these demos to be stunning pieces of computer generated art.

After commenting on Basshunter DOTA a while back, I've been hearing it on a few dance stations up here lately. I find it very, very funny that a song about a Warcraft III mod (Defence of the Ancients) is being played on mainstream radio. Also, apparently hot club chicks dig WC3 mods. No wait. They're bored, but happy when said LAN party turns into a rave. That's good to know. It's a great dance tune, but I wonder how many people know what it's about. I do believe this is the first time ever I've seen a LAN party in a music video. Dreamhack?

In other news, don't plug your computer into a wall outlet. Hackers could be listening in on your Facebook posts about your dog! This is interesting, I heard about this sort of stuff many years ago from a fellow who worked with the government trying to find ways of covertly monitoring what people are typing on computers but they were experimenting with some way of basically reproducing what was on the persons monitor. Ahh those crazy hackers. Soon we'll all be back to using invisible ink and passing notes around.

Check out the comments on this link from the Rune. It's not just me that's worked up about the thought of a new Mechwarrior game.

Also from Rune (He's quite the little link monkey tonight) DICE explains the reason for the BF1943 delay on PC. I'd rather they waited and got it right personally.

From the EA Forums:

Dear PC Gamer(s),

I know you might feel disappointed about the PC release being in September rather than June, but you should be very happy to know this is to give us the proper development time to create a proper PC version of Battlefield 1943 and not a console port. To the contrary of some less informed fans out there this is in no means an intentional ploy to punish our PC fans. And is in fact quite the opposite, we want to make the best damn PC version we can for our PC fans!

Not to bore your eyes out with endless text about the how's and do's I will say to make this a proper PC version we need a completed core game to develop over and remember we already released Battlefield Bad Company with the Frostbite Engine on the consoles, so this will be first PC game ever released using Frostbite! PCs are an open platform requiring additional features, support, technical consideration, and can't just be thrown out there using copy/paste. We have thought very carefully about this decision and in the long run felt it was the right choice even though we knew we'd catch some flak for it, but we feel once you play the first Frostbite PC game ever from DICE you'll see why we put this extra time and care in on the development making all right again in the universe. I hope this helps clear things up better and answers your concern(s).

Sincerely,

Gordon Van **** (The company that I work for thinks my last name is naughty!)
Battlefield 1943 Producer

Killer wants us to all know about the Chiaobama? Can you grow it? Yes you can! Only in America.

As I mentioned a few days ago, there might be a new Mechwarrior game coming out. Smith and Tinker picked the IP up a while ago and I was hoping they were going to do something with it. Looks like they are. (Thanks Rune.) They're also going to be giving Mechwarrior 4 (meh) away for free, along with the expansion packs. /happymarauder

Teaser trailer is here.

Zomg. Now this is exciting news! One of my favorite adventure games (LOOM) of all time is now on Steam for $5.00, along with a host of other classic LucasArts games. Definately a true piece of computer gaming art, if you haven't experianced the magic (And it's seldom that I've ever described a computer game as magic) of LOOM, go buy it now. Best five bucks you'll ever spend. I love Steam.

Speaking of Steam and classic gaming, I see that Chapter 1 of the new Monkey Island game is up as of today. That's exciting as well. I've talked to a few people who've played it and heard nothing but rave reviews. Chisel seems enamoured with it as does Guybrush from Northern Dragons. (He might be biased though, eh?) Nice that the episodes are coming out a month apart as well so you won't have to wait long between fixes of zany pirate adventure and humor.

Still working my way through Ghostbusters (slowly, I was at work for 14 hours yesterday) and I've got to admit the save points are starting to piss me off a bit, especially since they generally get made just before the cut scene before a hard part. At least you can skip the cut scenes, but that's just bad design.

If you were around back in the day you know who Future Crew is.

The Future Crew Second Reality demo is a true demo scene classic. It and I go way back. I have no idea how many times I've watch it over the years, but it was Second Reality that inspired me to drop my entire college tax refund on a 386 dx40 with a Soundblaster Pro soundcard and a color VGA monitor so that I could run it. Dman just sent me a rather excellent real life remake of said demo. These guys actually did a really good job of remaking it. The vector balls are awesome, and the tissue paper sea is great.

First off, watch the original here.
Then watch Real Reality here.

Nice work guys, brought back some good memories. Really amazing what people could manage to do with (by today's standards) very minimal hardware.

Speaking of demos, here's a few of my favs from the years: (The Amiga of course being the ultimate demo platform.)

Deus Ex Machina (C64)

Seven Sins by Scoopex (Amiga)

Cebit'90 by Red Sector (Amiga)

Red Sector Mega Demo (Amiga) (Four Part demo)

Wonder by Sunflower (PC) - Great demo, but the scene started to get more into this wierd drum and bass sounding music that I've never liked much.

Dead Ringer by Fairlight (PC) - One of my favorite 64k demos. That's right, it's 64 kilobytes.

Breakpoint 2008 Invite by Rebels (PC)

Various demos from Northern Dragons, Canadian Homeboys. (PC, also the only demo group I've been a member of, if only for a brief time.)

Of course any demo from Farbrausch is just amazing. Check out Debris and The Popular Demo.

Are we finally going to get another Mechwarrior game? Take a look at these tantilizing videos over at Voodoo Extreme. (Thanks Brian!)

Well not often you hear about a processor being overclocked to 6ghz, but Killer sent in a link today for just that. Damn. That's one fast CPU.

Installed a Western Digital Velociraptor 150gb into my system last week and I've got to admit I'm quite impressed. That's the largest performance boost I've seen in my system in a very very long time. Boot times are about half, software loads insanely fast and the system overall is much zippier. Definately going to include a VR in all my computers going forward. Incredible difference.

I can't remember the last time I didn't have to set my alarm clock in the morning to be somewhere on time. This is sort of nice, have to do this more often.

Been playing Ghostbusters: The Game a fair amount the last few days and I've got to admit it's really, really good. I've been hearing mixed reviews from some friends, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The writing, graphics, music, humor and ambiance are all very well done. It's well worth playing. Once I'm done with the game I'll get a review up and I've got to tell you I'm really looking forward to kicking Gozer's world destroying ass in person.

Happy Independence day to all you americans out there.

Happy Canada day my canukistan chums!

Limited time off, getcherself pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro for 1/2 price. Details are here. Doesn't appear to apply to us Canucks. Yay.

Wondering about this Bing thing that suddenly and rather alarmingly appeared on my IE search tab when I upgraded to 8. It's harmless, just more schenanigans from M$. Uv points out that "Bing" is a really stupid name for a search engine and I find myself agreeing.

Always a little odd when a famous celebrity passes away, but how often do two die in one day? RIP Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

Wow. Never thought I'd see iD Software get sold to anyone, but I see on Planet Quake this morning that it is indeed true. Damn. Rune sent over an article from Kotaku about why the sale was done. Interesting days in the gaming industry.

lol. The Overlord Show. Love it. Nothing like a little seal clubbing. This offically wins for best FAQ ever.

So I got myself an iMac G4 at Christmas time, and I've never had a chance to really do much with it. A little slow at work today so I decided to load up Mac OS X and play with it a bit. CD stuck in the drive, no manual eject, eject on keyboard no worky. Sigh. Luckily I found a helpful forum post. Hold the mouse button in on power up and lo! The thing ejects. Apple, you suck.

So many MMOs, so little time.

The Fallen Earth MMO closed beta is on. Go sign yourself up. Zombie MMO!

The more I use Windows Vista, the less I like it. It's sort of funny since for my job I'm required to sometimes sell people computers with Vista on them. I highly recomend NOT getting it, and the vast majority of systems I've sold for the past two and a bit years since Vista came out have had Windows XP on them. I still run Windows XP myself. It's comforting and I know it well. It still does everything I need it to do. On the other hand it is starting to show it's age a little bit. Vista however for me at least, is not the answer. It's slower than XP, it's awkward and other than being pretty and offering marginal gaming benefits from DX10, there's no reason to get it. Very disapointing. Eagerly awaiting the release of Windows 7. Microsoft had better not screw it up or I'm going to be majoryly pissed.

 Darkdaysarecoming.com. Ohhh. Creepy.

Ahhh good ol' fashioned games. Was doing a little reading about the classics the other day and stumbled across Speedball 2 Tournament. Speedball was such a great game back in the day. The Speedball website is great, doesn't look like the game is downloadable anymore, but it is avaliable on Fileplanet. Gotta download it and check it out.

Nice!! Overlord was one of my favorite little games a few years ago, and Overlord 2 is looking truly diabolical. Download the demo and unleash your inner villian now!

Yay for Atari for publishing Ghostbusters the Game, and yay to them for alliviating my fears and putting it out for my precious PC!

I've lately been watching quite a number of World War 1 and 2 videos posted on Youtube by Sonicbomb. Some great videos, and man, this is one hell of a crappy way to fight a war. Like the trenches weren't miserable enough.

Or so this study shows. Interesting.

Just got a press release from the folks over at Dreamspike Studios, and I've got to say that they should be applauded for their decision to release a DRM free version of their strategy game, Space War Commander. Hopefully people don't take advantage of their kind and trusting nature. If you do, you're a bastard.

Space War Commander Going Completely DRM-Free!

June 16, 2009 – Space War Commander made a splash earlier this year as a unique strategic experience. It drew critical and popular praise as “One of the most original and challenging games ever made.”

Now, Dreamspike Studios, the indie developers of Space War Commander, are announcing a DRM-free version of the game available at their website www.dreamspike.com. As a result, fans of the game will be able to enjoy it on as many computers as they like and for as long as they want.

Space War Commander is also available at other popular online venues, including Direct2Drive and GamersGate. Players will experience a depth of strategy unavailable in other games: run blockades, lure enemies into traps, and defeat enemy forces using hundreds of other cunning tactics!

Last but not least, stay tuned for the upcoming announcement of Dreamspike Studios’ secret new project!

Alex Kutsenok
Dreamspike Studios
www.dreamspike.com

Went to a performance at Hugh's Room in Toronto on Saturday evening called "Oliver's Cake Parade", to celebrate the life and work of Oliver Schroer, who passed away almost a year ago. Gotta say, that was a truly amazing evening. So much love and passion in the room. It's not the sort of music I normally listen to (being more of a metal/electronic sort) but Oliver's music has given me a real appreciation for folk and fiddle music. His stuff is quite often playing on my computer these days. If you've never heard of this guy, check out this, this, and my personal favorite, this. Many thanks to Xan for taking me to the show. :)

It's a musical sort of day and Uv sent along a link to this crazy guy. Lookit him go. That's some very cool music, and I could see it as a game soundtrack.

Played a bit of the Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. demo. (For some reason I want to call it "Tony Hawks Clancy". I have no idea why.) It's... Not bad... Very, very arcadey. It's fun, but it would be nice to have the ability to be just a little more simy. I guess when compared to something that really hit a good balance between sim and fun like Jane's USAF it just doesn't match up. If you're just looking for an Afterburner type air based shooter, with a touch more realism than the arcade games, it's good. I really like a few features such as the A.I. guidence for when you're trying to get on someone's tail, or doing a ground attack on a shrouded target. That's very cool, and I'd love to see it in a full blown simulator. It's a fun little game, but I was just looking for a bit more. Boo.

Art Bell was right! Aliens on Mars! No wait... it's a rock. Crap.

Killer wonders "What happened to you China? You used to be so cool."

Not much to talk about today, other than a little game called Huxley.. It's an MMO first person shooter and I've been anticipating it for quite some time. The File Planet subscriber beta is open, I'm signed up, got the software downloaded and I've been too busy to even run the software. Argh. The America's Army 3 beta is open as well, Proto say it's pretty darned awesome thus far.

Like space? Yeah, me too. Check out these sweet photos from CNN's Space Spotlight.

Nothing says "Bow down and worship me, o' lowly nerds" like having a 4gb Dual GTX 285 video card. Check this Asus out. Man. They make that into a production card and you buy it you'd better get practising your aussie accent so you can say "Thah's not a video card! THIS is a video card!" Thanks Killer.

More on our old skool computer theme we've had going for the last day or so, I consider Karsten Obarski to be one of the fathers of modern computers music. You can read all about the reasons behind my logic here. I'm busy downloading a wack ton of remixes from Amiga Remix based on his original Amiga classics. Some really nice stuff here. I think that my favorite is the Firefox remix of Sleepwalk, which along with Crystal Hammer are my favorite Obarski tracks.

Oh yeah, almost forgot what got me all nostagic today in the first place. Chisel dropped by today for a visit and mentioned that they're making another Monkey Island game! Guybrush is back, baby! Hmmm.. Monkey Island Episodic goodness.

Where the heck does the time go? I just spent a little time reading up on some of the old Amiga and C64 game developers and publishers that I remember from back in the day.Companies and indivduals that made some truly phenominal games. Heck, I even watched a few gameplay videos on Youtube and download a few new Karsten Obarski remixes to add to my old skool music library. Games like Jumpman, Frantic Freddy. Druid. The Last Ninja. The Last V8. Cystal Hammer. Lemmings. The Killing Game Show. Awesome. Maniac Mansion, Blood Money. Demo from The Crusaders, Razer 1911, TRSI, The Silents, Fairlight, Future Crew... The list just goes on and on.

Where the heck does the time go? I can still remember sitting in the AV room at high school with Intuitracker running on the school's Amiga 2000 rocking out to Karsten Obarski tracks and playing around in Deluxe Paint. Those were some of the happiest moments of my younger years. A quiet room, a great computer, amazing music and great graphics. The was 17 years ago and I can still remember it clear as day. I've still got quite a bit of my art work that I did back in the day on my modern PC. A PC capable of feats that the humble Amiga, C64 and XT never imagined... And yet I have a sense of nostalgia for those days. I think it's the same sort of whistfullness we all get when we talk about times past. It's not just me either. I have a few other nerd friends (Goshwin, I'm lookin' at you, grampa) that I can sit and talk about the good ol' days with for hours on end. My dad gets the same way talking about old cars that he owned when he was younger.

I think we're all just getting old. One day we'll be sitting on the porch in rocking chairs. "Why I remember when PCs only had 16kbs of RAM!" etc.

Ahhh well, time moves forward and so must we all... But it's really nice to go back and look at some of the C64 and Amiga game play videos and listen to the music and remixes of the music and realise with a certain sense of sadness that we're not likely to ever have a time like that in the computer world we've come to take for granted.

P.S. Going to be working on getting the FRAGtopia site a little bit overhauled and perhaps into a WordPress format so that it'll be easier to get other people posting news and reviews on here. It's been a many many moons since anyone also has had anything to say other than sending me links and news articles. (This means you, RUNE.) And I really should get around to posting up some more ICQ/IRC madness posts, I've got dozens and dozens of humorous texty thingies just waint to get used. Dating back several years at this point.

UV just sent me over a video from ARMA2. Damn. That's one fine looking game.

Messed around with the Braid Demo last night some more.. So far it's looking like that game is (for a puzzle game) sheer genius. Brilliant music, graphics and design.

Some people are just plain stupid. Incredibly stupid. Thanks Proto.

Hmmmm.. The SATA 3.0 Spec is out. It looks deliciously fast. Interesting they're planning on new connectors. Hopefully they make a retaining lock a standard on both the power and data cables. And maybe make them a little less delicate. I see an awfull lot of broken SATA cables and connectors. Thanks for the linky VA_Killer.

Netterick wonders, is there anything an iPhone can't do?? Check out this iWoW Project video. Impressive. Jam a Geforce 8800 into that bad boy and away you go.

Well, working away on a little article entitled "How to protect yourself on the internet" which I'm really debating subtitling "because you're dumb" but it's mostly a work project, so I guess I'd better not.

Sort of looking forward to Tom Clancy's HAWX. Downloading the demo now, looks like we might actually have a fun little arcade style flight sim with a bit of a story on our PCs. Can't remember the last time that happened.... USAF maybe? This looks more arcadey than that, but still looks good.

That's right, Intel gets fined 1.45 billion by the EU. Uh, ouch. That's gotta hurt. Damned anti-trusters.

I find PETA quite annoying most of the time. I'm sure their hearts are in the right place but everytime anyone mentions them I find myself wishing that they'd all go fall off a cliff into a vat filled with razerwire and pickle brine. Mind you, a maple syrup ban in Vermont would be fine with me. More delcious syrup for the rest of us. Thanks Proto. Before anyone sends me any hate mail, I'm not in favour of animal cruelty (duh) but I've got nothing against hunting and the fur trade in general.

Thanks to Bryan for pointing out I'd mislinked the Modern Warefare 2 trailer. This link works. I blame Rune.

Watch yourselves out there kiddies. Facebook virus = bad. There, "Facebook Virus" should get some Google hits. :P We've had a few calls this morning from people who have either a compromised account or some sort of nasty on their PC. It's sending messages to everyone on their friends list with a "check out this video" link. The link is to a page that attempts to trick you into installing "Macromedia Flash.". Needless to say it's a virus or some sort of malware. IE users beware.

Just downloaded the Braid demo. I'm intruiged. Must try it out and see how it is. Anyone else noticing the quality and quantity of indie games lately? It's refreshing.

Modern Warfare 2 trailer. Damn. Thanks Rune.

The "Meet The" videos just keep gettin' better. The latest? Meet the Spy. lawl. So so very, very many James Bond jokes.

"He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska, and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! but it is too late. You're dead. For he is the Spy—globetrotting rogue, lady killer (metaphorically) and mankiller (for real). "

Now this is very neat. Christin Engelberth , a 12 year old girl from San Antonio won out against 28,000 other entries for first prize in Google's Doodle contest this year. Sweet.

lol. From UV comes the Thriller Menu Mod. Awesome. Just awesome. Haven't actually tried it yet, but to me nothing says Left 4 Dead and Zombies like Michael Jackson. There's instructions in the download, seems pretty basic.

Just reading more security stuff today. We've heard rumors that some of the new DNS redirecting malware will actually log into your router and modify it's DNS settings. Turns out that it's actually true. Bastards. Make sure you've changed your router's default password.

Some music is far too catchy. I've been listening to Electro Gypsy from Savlonic and watching Weebl's video for said catchy tune for a good part of the day today. Yahma yahma ha!

Thanks to Sinister Sniper I now know that Battlestations: Pacific is out. I never did do a review on Battlestations:Midway, but I played the heck out of that game and it was amazing. I'll have to try the new one, but I really don't have the time to play much in the way of games these days. Life gets busy and there's better things to spend one's time doing much of the time. Must be getting old, I never thought I'd hear myself say something like "There's more to life than playing video games."

Thanks to everyone who joined my Brute's Dojo. 31 students. Eeeeehhhcccellent!

I spent some time last night reading up on Botnets and various security issues that are related to work things and man, there's some really, really nasty stuff going on out there. The Storm botnet is a good example, and these fellows are another example.

Played a wee bit of the Cortex Command 23 build at lunch today (one of the advantages to taking your gaming machine in to work everyday!) and I'm impressed. Definately a big difference between 23 and the last build. More weapons and units, including some real doozies. (Laaaaaazer beams!)

They've completed some more campaign maps and two of them are quite fun. There's still no real campaign mode but it's fun to mess around with the AI. I just tunneled all the way into an enemy's base, made a little hole in his brain room and took out his controlling brain with a single shot from a heavy sniper rifle through that hole. It took a while, but it was delicious when it all worked out.

I'm actually very excited about CC. No idea when/if they'll actually get the game done, but it's showing a lot of potential for greatness. Now to see if it actually comes to fruition.

The fellows over at Data Realms have released their much anticipated 23 build of Cortex Command. It adds some new missions, go download it.

Spammers never give up. Now they're harvesting valid email addresses from Twitter. It's be nice to see an end to these nasty little parasites of the internet wouldn't it?

Hai! I challenge you all to automatic cartoon Brute combat! Accept or forever hang your head in shame. Amazing how adictive such a simple little game can be.

Happy Victoria Day my Canuk buds.

Red Leader sent me a link a while ago to Wolfram/Alpha. They're working on infastructure issues and preparing to declare themselves operational on monday if all goes well.. It's an interesting concept, not so much a search engine, they describe it as a knowledge engine. It knows things like the answer to "Why did the chicken cross the road?". Oddly enough, it doesn't know "Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?" Poor Bill.

If anyone happens to do their Windows update to IE8 and you get a sudden internet slow down (yes Firefox users, insert joke here) or an error along the lines of "A program installed on your computer has corrupted your default search provider." the solution is to uninstall IE8. I'm working on a fix for the search provider error, seems that it's quite common with IE8, but nothing I've found or tried so far has fixed it.The issue only seems to be occuring on systems that have been running for a while. Fresh XP installs never seem to encounter the probem. Nothing on Vista systems but I just don't work on the same number of Vista machines, so I'll probably start seeing it on Vista boxes sooner or later.

DO NOT DO A SYSTEM RESTORE AT THIS POINT. I've had a number of customers panic, and rather than just installing the software, they do a system restore... Which then really breaks things. Just use add/remove programs to pull IE8 out, do your windows updates, uncheck the IE8 update and select "Do not show this to me again". Use IE7 for the moment or go download Firefox. www.firefox.com. Go Microsoft.

Wow. Killer wanted us to know that attacking the US military's computers could get you a cruise missile upside your head. Hooah!

Who the heck does a dance video with hot chicks dancing, all about a Warcraft III mod? Nordic people, that's who. Hmmm. It actually has a pretty good beat, if you're into Euro.

PC World has an interesting little article that I've been meaning to post for a while. It confirms what any good computer tech could tell you: Your computer's onboard diagnostics probably aren't going to tell you that your hard drive is about to go china syndrome on you. Give it a read, it's worth it.

Goshwin sent over a link to Festo. These guys make some freakin' cool robotics stuff. Hmmmm... Fluidic Muscle. Fascinating, Captain.

Wow. Thanks to Ariak we have a link to the oddest thing of all. WTF. Seriously, this is wierd. At least it's small enough to double as a coffin.

Ahhhh man. Looks like another long time game developer bites it. Hard to believe that a company whose games I started playing in the early '90s is done. R.I.P. 3D Realms. Such a bummer. After they finally got Prey out my hopes were pretty high for DNF. I really hope that someone else gets the project and finishes it. The 2007 Christmas trailer was looking pretty sweet. The end of an era indeed. Soooo many games that I remember playing since 1996.

Beyond the Titanic
Block Five
Diamond Digger
Maze Machine
Maze Runner
Kroz
Supernova
Night Bomber
The Thing
Trek Trivia
Word Whiz
Meteors
Phrase Master
Arctic Adventure
Crystal Caves
Duke Nukem
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
Secret Agent
Bio Menace
Duke Nukem II
Major Stryker
Monster Bash
Rise of the Triad
Realms of Chaos
Stargunner
Duke Nukem 3D
Shadow Warrior

I feel really badly for their employees, they don't seem to have had any clue or warning what was coming. I see they were still posting news updates on their website as of yesterday.

Thanks Rune, for the horrible news.

MSI's got themselves some funky new products, including some comps that look suspiciously like a Mac. The niftiest new toy they've got though is the Windbox. This is just completely awesome. Rkhan points out that it's not exactly a L4D powerhouse but for what most people do (Internet, solitaire, photos, email, music) or a point of sale system it's be perfect.

In worse news, Sony's going to be publishing Ghostbusters? I hope like heck this doesn't mean that we're not going to see it on PC.

R.I.P. Dom DeLuise. Can't believe he was 75. Man. Makes me feel old.

Got a raft of stuff to talk about today. I really need to spend more time writing news and things for FRAGtopia. Once I get into it I always enjoy myself. Stupid work, stupid hobbies. I'm going to lobby for getting some large rocket built and moving the Earth just a little further away from the sun in it's orbit. I need more time. Goshwin's a mad scientist sort, I wonder if he could come up with anything.

First off I just stumbled across a nifty little indy game: Cortex Command. As a disembodied brain you're in control of an army (Well, a small army, but probably more troops than say, Lithuania has.) of robots. The physics are great, and I've got a weakness for chiptunes and 2D side scrollers. The game isn't nearly complete, but it's still a riot to mess around with. Looking forward to seeing the finished products, innovation and fun are good. You can grab the demo here.

Our good buddy Dman has a new preview tune out. Darren's a heck a musician if you like your electronica, I've been listening to his stuff since the days of .mod files. Anyhows, you can check out the new tune (Alive) by clicking here. Unlike the movie, everyone goes home and no one gets cooked.

Just helping the GF out with her website the other night. Not our regular news item, but what the heck, we'll give her a plug just because she's so awesome as a person and with what she does. Know anyone in the Toronto area who needs some really great Facepainting done for an event or party? Consider Xan @ Faceart.ca. She's also participating in Yoga in Motion, a fundraiser for Breast Cancer at Mount Sinai hospital this sunday. Nice work Xan, have fun.

Think World of Warcraft isn't adictive enough? The guys at Popcap games have apparently made themselves a little mod so you can play Bejeweled and Peggle in WoW. You bastards. If you're really bored they've also got a little game that allows you to make your own zombie. Sweet, it's like college biology class all over again.

Before I go out the door, I'd just like to say that I miss the Amiga.

Hmmmmm.. So far Demigod isn't bad, but it's certainly not the best game evar. I'm enjoying it, but it's fairly obvious that the folks at Gas Powered envision it to be a multiplayer only game. The single player isn't bad, but it's somewhat lacking in depth and story. More laster.

Ever wonder how big the universe is? There's some HUGE stuff out there. Even larger than Tom Cruises' ego. Thanks Runez0r.

Well, my copy of Demigod arrived in the mail a few days ago after many many months of waiting for it. I can't recall when I ordered it, but it was a looong ass time ago. Haven't had a chance to play it much, but I'll letchyall know what I think soon hopefully.

I've often commented that the Japanese are wierd. Here's some more evidence. I'm sorry, Obama seems like a good sort, but able to take on Darth Vader? I don't think so. Thanks for the linkage Zyzyx.

I blame their days in India. Darned hippies.

Just got an email from Gas Powered Games, Demigod has gone gold, and should be on the streets April 14th. I've been beta testing this one for a while now, and it's a lot of fun. Can't wait to get my hot little hands on the final product and give it a go.