A new Half Life 2 movie was released over the last couple of days – grab it here (166Mb but worth it). You don’t really see any gameplay – it just sets the scene for what looks to be an atmospheric and very realistic world. The physics are used to good effect throughout…hopefully this game really is out next month.
Category: Blog
Olympics
The performances by GB in the Olympics over the last 3 days have been superb. Highlight had to be the coxless fours yesterday morning. Not only was the race good to watch, but seeing Pincent crying on the podium brought home how much effort these guys put in and what it means to them. The cyclists have also been good to watch and the sailors have done well although I’ve had more fun watching Rangers in Europe than trying to sit through a sailing competition. It makes snooker almost watchable.
Hopefully more success today for Paula Radcliffe in what will be a tough race in the early evening heat.
Work Hell
This has been a terrible week at work. Quite possibly the worst ever and definitely the worst this year by a country mile. Worse is that the rant that was about to unfold here will have to wait for another rainy day (tomorrow?!?) as that familiar migraine feeling has arrived. Like someone pressing down on the back of my eye and a slightly blurred vision on the screen. Popped 2 pinks for what its worth as in half an hour I’ll be in agony in a blacked out room trying to sleep this off.
Hopefully tomorrow things won’t seem so bad.
Bargain
Xbox for £99 from 27th August. An absolute steal and by far the best console you could buy if you’ve not already got one. And if you’ve got broadband – get an Xbox. The online gaming is superb compared to Sony’s. I’m still a beta tester for Sony’s online offerings and they have been pretty poor in comparison. Killzone is due to be delivered for testing this week though and it does look amazing if not the Halo beater it was once thought to be. The website is stunning though. Really wets the appetite.
That aside, the list of cracking games on the Xbox is large – much larger than the PS2. For example Halo, Links, Top Spin, PGR 2, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and the upcoming Halo 2 which looks soooooo much better in the graphics and gameplay departments than Killzone. And these are the exclusive games. Buronout 3 and Pro Evo soccer are due in the next couple of months on both consoles – Xbox will have better graphics and sound than the PS2 with better online support (although thats only a hope for Pro Evo as nothing is confirmed).
So spend that £99 wisely – get an Xbox. And if you’ve already got one, buy another and chip it, add a large hard disk and create the biggest games machine known to man. You can also install Xbox Media Center and create a fantastic media machine too. Joy. Even better Xbox Media Center now supports iTunes – woo-hoo. I feel an update session coming on.
ATI Drivers
There’s a new version of catalyst drivers out – 4.8 – grab them here. For the last two years I hadn’t bothered keeping up to date with drivers as the old pc started to get long in the tooth. The difference between each version seemed minimal except Battlefield 1942 needed the latest drivers all the time – every patch wouldn’t work unless I upgraded the driver- never had that with any other game.
However the new pc has changed that. Not strictly true – Doom 3 has changed that. The mearest sniff of a new driver and the download has started. Except these drivers are 26Meg in size. 26! Bloody hell. Bloaty or what. My old drivers were around 5Meg. Progress, eh? Hope they are worth it – a 5% improvement in framerates is promised.
Kubrick
After sticking with a fairly default template I’ve updated to a new one – Kubrick. It’s still fairly simple and straightforward and I’ve not deviated much (at all) from the standard look but that will come in good time. Much prefer this look to the old one.
BBC to drop Real
Scottish House Prices
If you live in Scotland and looking to buy a house (or are just nosey neighbour) then you’ll have heard of MyHousePrice.com which allows you to find the price of a recently sold house for £1. While good, it still costs money. For a free alternative try HousePriceScotland.com. While it doesn’t allow you to search and find local houses if you know the exact address your looking for it works a treat. Even better, use the postcode searching at myhouseprice.com to find the pucker local addresses and then use that info at the other site to get the house prices for free. Joy.
Service Pack 2
Downloaded and installed Windows Service Pack 2 last night. This is the much trumpeted update to Windows XP which should make the OS much more secure than it currently is and also explain to the masses just how vulnerable their machines are to virus and trojan attacks. A hefty 260Mb download and half an hour install time later and the service pack was installed.
On rebooting, before Windows was fully loaded an option screen encouraged you to ensure Automatic Window Updates were selected. Once past that screen XP loaded as normal. What was noticeable straightaway was the length of time XP took to get up and running. Slow as a dog. When it eventually loaded (3 mins against 30 seconds) there was a new icon in the sys tray – a red shield. This was the Security Centre telling me my machine was vulnerable. On opening it up fully it said I was fully firewalled as the new XP firewall is enabled by default. It also said my Windows Updates were good as they were set to automatic. However anti-virus was amber as Nortons was running but the software couldn’t detect if it was active or not. Doh. Disabling the windows firewall set that option to red also. But I’ve got a hardware firewall – no need for software. So Security Centre would also say I was open to attack as I didn’t have a software firewall. Nice.
I tried a reboot to see if the startup was any faster. It wasn’t. A quick trip to the services panel and Security Centre was disabled. One reboot later and the speed was back. On talking to others they haven’t seen an issue with speed so maybe it was another setting or bit of software slowing things down but I didn’t need a bit of software telling me I wasn’t secure when I was. However it’s a good tool for the great unwashed who don’t have a foggy about the nasties that can harm their machines. Pity the Security Centre didn’t nag the user into doing backups though – far more useful especially with the increase in DVD writers.
Other updates include improved support for Bluetooth (worked a treat with the T610) and Wireless networks and also some updates for Internet Explorer. Pop-ups blocked and an add-in manager to see what has attached itself to IE. Also mail will no longer download images by default and there’s a few other security related fixes. Windows Update is now at version 5 (seemingly doesn’t work with known dodgy keys used in non pucker copies of XP) and annoyingly it will also install Windows Messenger. To remove it follow the instructions here.
Finally there seems to be a lot of new drivers and compiled XP code. Certainly feels slightly more spritely in use. So a worthy update – just don’t believe the hype around Security Centre.
Manhunt Update
This article from GamesIndustry.biz put a new light on the Manhunt caused murder issue.
UK retailers Dixons and Game both pulled the title from their stores’ shelves last week after the parents of the murdered boy, Stefan Pakeerah, alleged that his murderer, Warren LeBlanc, 17, was “obsessed” by the grisly game and that it had inspired has murderous actions. The victims father dubbed Manhunt “a manual for murder”.
It was widely reported by the mainstream press, online and TV media that the game had been found in LeBlanc’s bedroom. However, today it emerged that Leicestershire police found the game in Pakeerah’s room, not LeBlanc’s, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
“The video game was not found in Warren LeBlanc’s room, it was found in Stefan Pakeerah’s room,” a police spokesperson said today. “Leicestershire Constabulary stands by its response that police investigations did not uncover any connections to the video game, the motive for the incident was robbery.”
Police believe LeBlanc murdered Pakeerah, whom he knew, to obtain money to pay back a drug-related debt.
LeBlanc’s assumed possession of Manhunt raised the questions as to how a 17-year-old was able to get hold of the game. The game carries an 18 certificate, so it is illegal to sell it to anyone under that age. Now it has emerged that the game was owned by the 14-year-old Pakeerah, that question has not gone away.