Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Soundbits: King Conga

I've been experimenting with music software ever since there was something available for home PC's. In the past I have already created some "songs", and today I'm putting my newest track online. Let me know what you think about it!

Genre: "Spacy Tech House" :D

Download:
DK - King Conga.mp3

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review


Oblivion hit stores around the world a week ago. The internet hype around this game has been phenomenal. Why? Well it's the new installment in the popular single player RPG series Elder Scrolls. On top of that it is the first major RPG-title for the Xbox 360, which obviously contributed to the hype buildup. The question is, does the game deliver?

Gameplay: Oblivion is a sandbox game. This means that you basically choose what game it will be. Think Grand Theft Auto in a Fantasy World. After a good "tutorial-dungeon", which enables you to familiarise with the controls and on top of that the main story line starts there. At the end of this stage you get to pick your birthsign and class. You can create all kind of hybrid characters, which is actually fun.

When you get out of the tutorial your adventure begins. At this point you are free to go and do whatever you want. By completing quests or simply kill creatures you gain experience and at a certain point you are able to level up and increase your skills. The story however is really great. I liked it so much that my first 10 gameplay hours have been very slowpaced. When you get into a city and talk with citizens or merchants, you often get side quests, which mostly are pretty cool and not always your typical "fed-ex"-quest. After 10 hours I barely scratched the surface of the game. I didn't see much of the world yet, and the main story line is still in it's beginning stages. This game promises some massive ammounts of gameplay hours.

The fighting system comes together pretty well. To damage your oponent you can use all kind of swords, bows, magic and so on. The blocking system is manual and not calculated on the basis of stats. By simply using abilities you will gain skillpoints which allows you to use better spells.

Gameplay: 8.5 / 10



Graphics: Stunning! Depending on your system the graphics are true eye-candy. However the game scales pretty good, so somewhat older systems will still be able to run it, however with a cost to be paid in the graphics department. This game uses all the latest technoligies, like HDR. The Havok physics engine really adds to the visual enjoyment of the game. When your system is powerfull enough you can tweak the .ini file to replace the low ress textures in the background with higher resolution versions. Also the pop-in of grass, buildings, trees etc can be highly modified. With everything maxed out this is one stunning title. If you want next-gen, there u have it!

Graphics: 9.5/10

Audio: The soundfx and soundtracks are really phenomenal to say the least, they really create a nice atmosphere in the game. Certainly worth mentioning is that every NPC (non-player-character) communicates with you in spoken words, complimented with subtitles. This adds alot to the realism of the game, and also makes it more appealing to get into the story. After all you're playing a game, and not reading a book, so that helps alot.

Audio: 9/10

Wrap-Up: This game really raises the bar. All aspects of the game are topnotch. The gameplay and story are fun, the graphics are stunning and the audio is phenomenal. 'nuff said.

Conclusion: 9/10

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Quote of the day

"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race."

- Don Marquis

Another case where the problem is the solution, and the solution is the problem. Get it? :D

Xbox360, PS3 and Nintendo Revolution update


Last week the annual GDC was held. This conference is more geared towards the game devs, as the name implies ;) However time and again, new tidbits of info are released to the public. But rest assured, the big smoking guns are firmly held on to until E3, where the console war will reach a new high this year.

Microsoft did not have a keynote at GDC. Then again, they had some nice stuff to show and hand out to people. The buzzword was XNA, their new game dev framework. Basically what it does is provide devs the tools to create games in a more timely fashion, because of the tools. It allows content creators, programmers, testers to work together in the XNA Studio. It also features a unified set of class libraries which will allow for maximal re-use of code and assets across target platforms. Those target platforms are obviously Xbox 360 and Windows. Write once, play many :)

Attendees of GDC were given the March XNA build , which includes the complete source code of Mechcommander 2 as a product demo. If you are interested in the DVD, you can get it at Microsoft's website.

On the Sony side, not much news has surfaced on the PS3 during their keynote. Most notable was another confirmation of their online service. This will launch simultainiously with the console. So they have a lot of work to do, since they are starting from scratch. It remains to be seen how their cooperation with GameSpy will turn out. However there are some fishy claims about the price of this online service. Some claim online play will be free and gamers would have to pay for particular content. On the other hand, other sites are reporting a per-game fee for online gameplay. I guess we will get more specific details at E3. On a positive sidenote, their final devkits should reach devs before E3 ;)

Nintendo also had a keynote at GDC. Their biggest announcement was that they have made a deal with Sega to make the top Genesis games available through the Revolution. How about that! If you told me years ago, when I was playing my Sega Master System, that by 2006 I would be able to play Sonic on a Nintendo, I would've declared you crazy :D Well time passes, and here we are, being on the virge of doing just that.

I guess the console war will now blend into a cold war, until battle is reopened at E3, where armies of marketing soldiers will draw their guns and let the bullets do the talking.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Quote of the day

"Funny how just when you think life can't possibly get any worse it suddenly does."
- Douglas Noel Adams

Quoted for truth.

Starforce forces reboots?

According to the internet rumour mill, the Starforce RING0 drivers are rebooting pc's when someone tries to copy a protected cd. Without an option to save any work. The driver would also interfere with existing drm software, causing legally bought games to stop functioning.

Whether this is true or not, I do not know. But I sure as hell wouldn't be surprised if it was...

Monday, March 20, 2006

Quote of the day

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."
- Anonymous

These are some wise words that anyone should take into consideration.

Xbox 360 "hacked"

This weekend the first genuine Xbox 360 hack video has surfaced. The video shows a backup copy of PGR3 being booted on the hacked console. "Hacked console" is not entirely true. As a matter of fact it is not the console that's hacked, but the firmware of the Hitachi dvd drive.

The hack doesn't allow unsigned code to be booted, so no XBMC for you guys yet ;) 360 executables are signed and thus cannot be modified. In the executable it is specified what kind of media the software can be run from, in the case of games this would be a genuine 360 dvd-rom. The dvd drive checks the media and reports back to the system. TheSpecialist and his crew have created a modified firmware that always reports the disc is a genuine dvd, even if it is in fact a recordable. Another problem is that genuine dvd's have specific bad sectors on the disc as an extra protection. As these cannot be written with regular dvd recorders, a fix was needed. The hackers use a lookup table that reports the necessary sectors as bad, even when they are not. This implies that for every new game, a new lookup table has to be added somewhere.

As this firmware can only be used for piracy, since running unsigned code isn't possible yet, TheSpecialist has decided to not release it into the wild. This might have some thinking the hack is not a legit one, although I'm pretty convinced it is. For example in the video they do not show the back of the TV which could have another 360 connected. Then again, the group of hackers have a good reputation, and their research is available for review. As of yet nobody has claimed the hack as a hoax, which I do not expect to ever happen.

If this hack got out anyway, it would be a piece of cake for Microsoft to check the firmware for inconsistencies through a live update, so this hack would not be very effective. So what's next, and when will people be able to run unsigned code? (if ever)

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Quote of the day

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein

These wise words of the worlds greatest genius, have proven to be right today ... again.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

PS3 launch delay officially confirmed

Last year at E3 Sony announced the new iteration of their Playstation console would hit the market in spring this year. The previous weeks and even months there was quite some speculation online that PS3 would not make that launch window. There are still no final devkits, hardware hasn't been finalised and the Bluray vs HD-DVD format war didnt help anything either. It has also been suspiciously quiet since E3, with no mayor announcements or news whatsoever concerning the new Playstation console.

Today there came an end to the PS3 silence. The big man himself, Ken Kutaragi, held a press conference where he let out some new info to the public. The most important thing being that Sony will try to launch the console in November this year, worldwide, mind you. They also announced that Sony will start up its counterpart to Xbox Live, namely 'PlayStation Network Platform' which would alledgedly be free.

Anyone could have guessed the PS3 would be delayed, but today it finally is official. I'm quite curious if we will see some playable games at E3. My guess is that there will be, and to be honest I think that last years E3 CGI-hype bubble will burst into thin air when that happens. Sony has proven in the past to not live up to the hype they create, Namco Girl anyone? :D Even a Sony insider claimed earlier this year that Xbox 360 would even be more potent, ofcourse he got fired. Most devs are saying that both will be more or less equal in terms of graphics and overall power.

By the time PS3 is released Xbox 360 games will more or less be going into their second generation of games. So I think it's more then likely Xbox 360 will have better graphics then PS3 launch games. On top of that the 360 will have a much larger game catalogue. Marketshare-wise I think PS3 will certainly be at the top of the list in Japan. US and EU marketshare remains to be seen. But I think the new Sony console will probably also top the list in the other regions after a while.

Either way, by the time PS3 launches, I'll be playing next-gen games on my 360 for a year, give or take :D And it remains to be seen how the 'PlayStation Network Platform' will compare to Xbox Live, considering they are more or less starting from scratch on that regard. Anyway, 2006 will prove to be a good year for gamers!

Quote of the day

`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
- Alice in Wonderland

While we are on the subject of cartoon quotes, this remarkable one has quite some content to it.
As far as I'm concerned, Alice in Wonderland is the best cartoon Disney has ever produced. It's unconventional style, story and color palette appeal to me.

Let's have a look at what is in the quote. "We're all mad here", that might refer to beings in Wonderland, but I think this can perfectly apply to our world too, and was probably even the 'hidden message' . When you think about it, how could one person determine if another person was mad? Because the other person might think likewise! So who is mad?
The same goes for the concept of right and wrong. Right or wrong is totally dependent on time, space and several other factors. Thousands of years ago people would think it was right to crucify "bad people". I don't think anyone in his right mind still thinks this way. In fact my personal opinion is that you should not kill anyone for what (s)he has done, who are we to judge? Who are we to decide over another man's life?
A similar example can be given about the space factor. While in some countries it is considered right to marry someone off, this is not the case in a whole lot of other places around the world.

In the end, what it all boils down to: Everything is relative.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Quote of the day

"Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive."
-Bugs Bunny

Whoever was still doubting cartoons actually have some interesting things to say to the youngest in our society, well here you have it. Proof black-on-white, by the allstar carrot-eating Bugs Bunny. Mmmyeah what's up doc?

Like music? Like shoes?

customer: I'll take the new Prodigy album!
store clerk: Well ofcourse sir, good choice. Anything else you would like?
customer: Yeah, i'll have those shoes to go with it!

Well this conversation might not seem so weird when you see this new gimmick:


That's right, a shoe with integrated MP3 player, speakers and wireless headset. haha! Well if you can't get enough of this kind of stuff, take a look at the MP3 sunglasses from oakley :D
Well I guess we havent seen the last of these items just yet, "stay tuned".

Monday, March 13, 2006

Quote of the day

"It's hard to believe things you can't understand"

This is a quote from an episode of the X-Files. Being a fan of the series, this quote caught my attention when watching.

Having some weird questions to myself, this quote had quite an interesting answer to them. Maybe it helps solve your own questions ;)

In the future i'll try to somewhat regularly put up a "Quote of the day" along with my reflections on it.

Starforce links warez on their forum

As you may know, Starforce is a copy protection scheme used to prevent illegal copying of intellectual property, manely used for game protection. There's a lot of controversy around the Starforce copy protection. Quite some users have reported malfunctioning operating systems, security issues, slow CD drive speeds, even to the point of physically destroying CD-Rom drives. Ofcourse the company claims their software is perfectly safe, in contrast users are reporting the above mentioned problems. Whoever is right, I do not know. What I do know is that usually, where there is smoke, there's most probably a fire. For more information what games are using Starforce, and how to remove the drivers it installs, I recommend that you visit the Starforce Boycot website.

A few weeks ago a game called Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords was released. Nothing out of the ordinary you would think, except for the fact that this game doesn't use any copy protection whatsoever. It has a serial number, which you would only need when you want to download updates for the game, or when you want to access the online "Metaverse". This game has some great salesfigures, even claiming to be bestselling software at Walmart, without any copy protection.
This caused quite a stir on the internet, and quite some sites reported the good sales.

Now what happened is that someone had posted a link to such an article on the Starforce forum, to question wether or not copy protection increases sales. Here comes the shocking part, an administrator of Starforce replied with a link to a torrent website that had an illegal copy of the software, claiming thousands of people are downloading the game right now. To me this looks like some mafia practices... "Hey you don't use our copy protection, watch this, we'll help spread the illegal copies". Stardock, the creator of the game, made a statement about this on their website. The link was removed on both the Starforce forum and the torrent site it was linking to.

However, this leaves me with one question. Is Starforce a legitimate Russian company, or are they Russian mafia in disguise?

Who, what and why?

Since you are reading this post, i guess you are interested in knowing who is the writing force behind this blog. Well, my name is Kevin, I've been involved with computers since the early nineties, have a bachelors degree in Computer Science and I am currently doing a post graduate Multimedia.

I'll be bringing some random thoughts of myself together with some news that caught my attention and think I should share. You can expect anything from cars, tv-shows, computers, games, internet, ...

My decision to start a blog was made when I caught myself reading other blogs and found some interesting stuff. So i figured that maybe, someday, someone might find something I would post interesting. Enjoy.