Christmas Eve is here! I hope everyone has all their shopping done and has a Merry Christmass and good holiday. I wrote up a review of Project IGI. It's a single player only first person shooter that is somewhat similar to counter-strike/rainbow six and such military type games.

Linux beats Microsoft with Itanium support. Intel's high-end Itanium chip is scheduled for release in the first half of 2001. The Windows version for it won't be ready until the second half. But Linux will have Itanium-ready versions when the chip ships.

Tis the season to check for virii, FA-LA-LA-LA-LA LA-LA LA-LA! Kriz, a year-old computer virus, may be coming back for Christmas this year, thanks to its ability to piggyback on other viruses and spread with them. Be sure to update your virus software and do a scan before Christmas.

Tis the season for holiday hackings, FA-LA-LA-LA-LA LA-LA LA-LA! These days, the Grinch is using his fuzzy green fingers to hack Cindy Lou's favorite e-tailer. A USA government alert says of late there has been an "increase in hacker activity specifically targeting U.S. systems associated with e-commerce." Security experts say it's not time to push the panic button, but at this time of year, hackers have more time to kill, and companies have less time to deal with them.

Want to get intimate with windows upcoming new windows OS "Whistler"? Check out DevX.com; you can click in and take a test drive of the next generation of Windows. The new Whistler-Savvy Developer Center features articles, discussion groups led by experts, downloads and more to help developers get to know the new OS. There is also a "Report A Bug" section just for kinks.

Well, I've got an idea for a new gaming site but I'm going to need some help to do it. I've never seen a strategy & tactics site for Counter-Strike. I'd like to put one up. Things like layouts for each map with best paths to take, good camping spots, the best strategy for each team on each map, which points to guard, the best ways for the VIP to escape, that sort of stuff. If you would be interested in helping out, please email me.

Dopper has just posted a review for Project IGI. Wow. Looking forward to this one for quite a while, and it's looking mighty good! Check it out!

Merry Christmas everyone. Have a safe and happy holidays and remember: If you're drinking, please don't fly your scout home.

I'd forgotten to welcome some new hosted sites:

Welcome aboard to Strikezone. (He's working on it. :) A nifty little Counter-Strike site by our good friend Protocal-X.

The Gold Knights. Kingpin and I are playing Mechwarrior 4 with these guys when I have time.

Forever Twisted. I'll be playing Tribes 2 with these lads. Many of my old buddies from +NC+ & |WC|. Woot! :)

Canadian Gamers Online. I've mentioned this one before, but my good buddy Sko needs more publicity. Get on there and sign up if you are a Canadian Gamer. Very cool site, very cool idea.

3 Finger Salute. - We're mentioned the ever Dilligent Dillinger & the every Pleasant Praetorian a few times. Now they have joined the dark side and are hosting here. :) Go read their comic and prepare to laugh. The latest one especially had me ROFLing.

I believe I mentioned a few days ago that there were two different versions of Giants. The American version has been modified to meet our retarded continents censorship standards. The nipples have been covered and the blood has been turned green. The Eurobox version (Which is also cheaper) is still original. I naturally find it very amusing that gratuitios violence is just fine in a game, but seeing a naked female breast is something terrible to be feared. Anyhows, read the article here. (Thanks Prae) There's a patch here to fix the blood back to red. Not sure if it fixs the lack of nipple issue. :))

Just got an email from Crazy Goat's Tribes. Major site update, lots of new maps and content. Check it out!

Hehe. Apparently Tycho from PA is a bit of a sucker when it comes to fancy tactics in Evercrack. Read about it out here. Based on a true story.

Speaking of Tycho the evil avatar, the latest Penny-Arcade cartoon just about made me wet myself. It's funny because it's almost true. I however have it on good authority that girls only want one thing. Faster 3D cards. Preferably your old one when you spend $400 on a new one instead of a fancy present for them. Trust me here. Hand me down video cards. The gift that keeps on giving.

Listening to Kingpin bitch and complain about the Firearms mod for Half Life. Yesh. Have to try it myself. KP regretably only gives things a brief try before giving up and condeming them forver.

Well, that's about it before the Holidays. Family deathmatch for the next few days, so news will be spotty and indeed, most likely non-existant.

Marauder out. Ho Ho Ho.

Kingpin (ICQ #: 7100288)

OK a few things... Just put up a 4 pager of a review for the Linksys BEFSR Cable/DSL routers check it out here!

Another little thing to spread joy to the world.... Kitten sent these to me. a few pics to brighten the day! 1 2 3 4 5

Marauder (ICQ #: 12419781)

First off, just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm now an uncle. My sister Shelley had a healthy daughter last night at 1:00am. Woot! :)

I was surpised as hell last night when I checked the hits last night. Take a look at this. 1400 hits for the day! And we're up to almost 900 today. I guess getting your article mentioned on Game Spy and Planet Half Life has that effect. Wow. I'm a little awed that that many people have stopped by to read something I wrote. Thanks guys!

Speaking of such things, the article posted was my rant about cheaters in various games. I've gotten quite a number of emails and ICQ's, both positive and negative regarding the article. I'll be posting the emails in a seperate article in a few days. I've also started a thread in the FRAGtopia forum about it. Thanks to everyone who wrote in with thier opinions. It's great to know that people read this stuff and actually care enough to write in. :)

I can't remember if I posted this one or not. Apparently someone at McDonald's doesn't check their chicken shipments thoroughly enough. Amuzingly, the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this article was "Well! At least it wasn't a Mc Deep Fried RAT! HAH!" (I'm such a bastard.) Thanks d0zer.

Iceman sent me a link to the C box site. (Heh. I'm still laughing about the Cbox, Cbox run. Run box Run joke from last year. :) They're starting to make some buff looking cases. This one is liquid cooled... Hmmmmmm... Frosty!

Been playing Giants and Gunman. Giants is interesting to say the least. Gunman is actually pretty damned good, which surprised me since it just sounds like a retarded premise. I'll be posting a review of this one in the next few days. (Just after xmas most likely)

Jordan, a friend I made at the FRAGtopia 2000 event, when he ended up crashing at my place along with his buddy the gay guy sent over a link to The Cult Of Glee. I don't know why, but this site just makes me giggle like a schoolgirl. Most amusing. I could like these guys.

Nolman has been a busy little beaver lately. Aside from being a complete frame rate slut and buying a $700 GeForce 2 ultra, he's given me the following links:

First off is the Navy Seals mod for Quake III, which is looking completely amazing. All I can say it... I MUST HAVE IT!!!!! GIMME GIMME GIMME!

Second on his list of linky goodness is an interesting ebay auction, where the future of China is apparently being sold. Check it out here. Be sure to read the details. :) Whah.

And lastly, but certainly not leastly is a fix for those of us using nVidia video cards and windows 2000. This fix will allow you complete control over your refresh rates and more. Most usefull. Thanks Nol!

Penguin Marine brings us news that the wacky in the world don't actually get locked up anymore. They start websites! Check it out! It's kinda like Koolaid, but there's more than one. :)

Rune is still busy on our mission of mercy into Iraq as I mentioned yesterday, but he has telegraphed over a few links for you all to enjoy.

First is this link to PVP online. It's funny, cause it's true. Specially for those wacky Quake guys. I've seen how some of them play. Yech.

He's also send over some more Windows 2000 tweaking tips. Looking like a handy site. W2k is a great OS, but it's more of a pain in the ass to tweak out than 98 ever was.

And since bad news always comes in three, he's also posted me this little interview with an (x)3Dfx Employee. Dunno if it's true, but if so.... wow.

Amusingly enough I just got an email from one of our suppliers who just started carrying 3Dfx boards a few months ago. (I warned him not too, but ahhh well!) Here it is: (I've xxxxxxxxed out their company name to protect the innocent. :)

Hi All, By now you have all probably heard that 3dfx is about to sell its holdings to Nvidia. If the sale goes through 3dfx will be winding down its operation. Currently xxxxxxxxx has some voodoo 4 4500 and voodoo 5 5500 in stock. The attached pdf contains some very aggressive pricing on these cards. xxxxxxxx will warranty these cards with a 1 year limited warranty. These cards have a very low failure rate so warranty should not be an issue. The warranty will either be a credit on account or repair or replacement. I am open to any offers on large quantity buys. Bring me your best offer!!!

Du'oh! And I know some guys who just spent huge $$ on the V5-5500s too. :) *cough*Proctal*cough* As always those who don't listen to Marauder meet a horrible fate.

Neo obviously has waaaay to much time on his hands. He just sent me this. Homer in Half Life. Who wouda thunk.

Met an amusing individual today. He must have been french since his name appeared to be Mr. Dumase. He accidentally deleted all of his business data for the last two years. Then just to make sure he was well and truly fucked he defragged and scandisked. No backups of course. :) Make backups. Don't be a Dumase.

Anyhows, that's enough for today. Marauder out.

Thanks to Pappy-R, the Planet Quake Overlord (Hail, and long may he live!!) for the news that Gamespy just aquired themselves Mplayer.Whoa.

Next LAN party will be Dec 31/00 starting at noon. We will holding a FRAGtopia staffers meeting just before the LAN (Meeting starts at 10:30) and then we'll LAN into the new year untill everyone just wants to go home. Join us.

Man, just realised it's been over 10 days since I posted any news. Eeek. Amazing how flime ties when you're busy eh?

I however can honestly say that I haven't been slacking off. I've actually been working on the site when and where I can. I've been very busy at work, and I've been doing some comercial web work as well as design for two teams I'm playing games with. Forever Twisted for Tribes 2 and Gold Knights for Mechwarrior 4. I've also been doing some modifications on the site. The site meter is now on every page, which should give us a much better idea of what people are looking at, where they're coming from, and how long they're visiting. Our current # of visits are low because many of the hits we get from other sites are actualy links to certain pages on the site, not the main index. Only hits on the main index have been counted up untill this point. Du'oh. (Thanks for the info Prae!)

New stuff just up: Review up for Pacman. Yeah I said Pacman, get over it. I'm also working on a review of Sheep and Gunman Chronicals. Those should be up just after Christmas. We've also posted the world's shortest review on Elite Force. Thanks Darksiege. Iceman sent me over Edger Alan Poe's "The Raven" for your computer. Read it, it's funny.

Just did a write up on Cheaters, fucking cheaters this morning. Been playing a little Counter-Strike lately and man. It just blows my mind how many cheating little bastards there are out there. Definately not cool. These people need to have their asses kicked, and I don't mean in game either.

Yesterday I posted a little article on my feelings/thoughts about the whole 3Dfx going under thing. Sad, but I'm not really all that shocked. Sure was sudden tho. Thanks to Dillinger for drawing my cartoon for the article. I get some good ideas sometimes, but my drawring skills are just under Praetorian's stick people. Good thing there's people out there with more skill than myself.

Hmmm. Apparently Microsquash has selected the folks who are going to be testing the Xbox controller. As much as I hate Microsoft, thier peripherals are generally excellent. Going to be very interesting to see how this console stacks up against the PSX 2 and Dreamcast.

Apparently the Americans are worried about the Iraqui's being able to compete with us on equal footing at video game tournaments. The DOD is quite concerned about the number of PSX 2s being smuggled into Iraq. Read about it HERE and HERE. Thanks to Rune for one of the links. Regretably he can't post it himself, as he's busy buying up PS 2s with our new "Toys for Tots in Iraq" program.

Sadly Gordie the combat beaver (Stolen from Canadian World Domination I might add!) got frozen in a snow bank this morning. Poor Gordie.

Marauder out... For now.