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8-30-04,
10:48 AM
You're
gonna rue the day you came up
against The Extreme, baby. We're
talkin' imminent rueage!
Music:
Ennio Morricone - The Big Gundown
My
body says sleep but my brain
disagrees. Insomnia isn't as fun as
Dave Attell makes it out to be.
Okay, so I failed, I haven't updated
in quite some time. I'll probably
write up a full Doom 3 review
soon since I finished it off quite
some time ago, but that's the only
thing I can see myself writing about
in the near future. You see, I never
intended for the site to be a blog,
so I tend to leave out day to day
bullshit. I don't need to go rushing
for the keyboard when I have a
slightly above average tuna melt,
nor do I expect you to enjoy reading
about it. Maybe if we're talking
about a sandwich of truly
astronomical proportions, the kind
where its power can be used to cure
all known and future diseases as
well as level major cities if
harnessed by the forces of evil,
sure I'll write about it, that thing
probably has turkey in it. The point
being that I prefer to keep the
updates leaning towards things that
I think are interesting, funny or
informative, and with a lack of all
three occurring in my life at the
moment it kind of makes it hard to
keep it going. The site, I mean, not
my life. I'm also sort of burnt-out
on writing at the moment, because
there are plenty of things I've been
meaning to do that I just can't
bring myself to start (or continue,
in some cases).
This
also means that I have not been
pulling my weight on the RPG project
or Hero One (hence the
image), for which I apologize. With
newly gained access to the DV
cameras and lighting equipment
(Oddly enough I don't think sound
equipment is included under my
level) from Webster's media center,
I very much would like to have it
written before the fall break so we
could have the chance of filming it
during that period.
Hope I can get a boom mic.
Also, The Venture Bros. is
probably the funniest show on
television right now, animated or
otherwise.
-K.
My invention is: You!
8-12-04,
5:12 PM
Insanity
runs in my family... It practically
gallops.
Music:
Cake - Mexico
Well, it's been a while. I finally
updated the What to Think section.
You'd think I could do something
special since it has been so long,
but I'm not. Suck it.
I
also haven't written a whole lot for
a while and I think it's because I'm
a gamer first and a writer second.
During the slow periods between big
releases that's when I pop on here
more, but with Doom 3 finally
out the site takes a backseat again.
It also doesn't help that since I
upgraded my rig I've been going back
and replaying games that chugged a
little before the boost. I'm
probably going to do a few
mini-reviews of all the games I
loaded on here soon, but I don't
know how soon.
It also doesn't help that it's been
recently reported that on August
17th, bits of Half-Life 2
will be preloading on Valve's gaming
program Steam. People who have
pre-ordered the game through Steam
will start getting content sent to
their systems, nothing playable, but
things that won't be changed from
now until it's finally gold like art
and audio and such. This only means
that it's nearing much closer to
completion and will be out any time
now.
I'll
try to post more often.
-K.
in the future there will be robots
8-4-04,
8:43 AM
Half the
payment now. Half tomorrow. Half on
delivery.
Music:
The Strokes - The Modern Age
Well, if nothing else, the past 15
hours have been a learning
experience. I successfully installed
this motherboard, bringing my system
up to a 2GHz processor and brought
back 256MB more RAM that went MIA in
my last motherboard, which now means
I've got a gig of RAM. Doom 3
runs like a champ on high detail now
(note that there is an even
higher detail setting) and still
remains to be the most frightening
game I've ever played.
It all started many months ago when
I got a 2GHz processor for
Christmas, and you'd think I
would've put it in right away.
However, for some indiscernible
reason I waited until a few weeks
ago, discovering that even on the
latest BIOS my motherboard could not
handle it. So I went to CompUSA and
picked up this nForce2 motherboard I
heard offers great audio and video
support. I bring it home, take out
my old motherboard (Which consists
of taking out all of the hardware,
power cables, RAM, processor,
heatsink, IDE cables, etc.) and put
the new one in, finding out that it
doesn't work, trying to power it on
yields no effect. I take it back to
CompUSA for an even exchange only to
find out that they don't have
anymore in stock. When asked about
the one I see in the glass case the
short, pale, human-like object
explains to me that it's their
display model and isn't for sale.
It's important to note that it's
sitting in the exact same place the
one I bought yesterday was, meaning
that I was handed a display model
yesterday. No wonder the anti-static
bag was open and it didn't work. So
I got my money back, although
pissed, I ordered the deluxe version
of the same motherboard online at
Newegg.com (This
is where you should go for anything
computer related, they are
glorious). I got the extended
warranty, put it on for overnight
delivery, threw down three extra
bucks rush processing, and I still
managed to save a little over forty
bucks. Fuck CompUSA.
My trouble didn't end there,
however. With the motherboard
delivered early yesterday morning, I
slept until 3 PM before tackling the
project. Removing hardware,
unscrewing things and then screwing
them back in, plugging in all
manners of cables and reattaching
the hardware is a pretty time
consuming affair. Even though I'm
capable, I could never get into the
business of building computers,
simply because, while I'm not all
that is man, my hands weren't made
for this kind of precision work.
It's hard to put in a miniature
screw when you've got Vienna
sausages for fingers.
After everything was set, I
reconnected all the cables into my
system, and hit the power button.
Nothing happens. I start getting
pissed. I followed the
installation instructions to the
letter. Did I forget to ground
myself? Did I end up frying
something? Did I slice up one
of the leads when I was putting the
heatsink back on? After pacing
around the house and yelling for a
little bit, I disconnect all the
cables and take the computer back to
the table. Well, this motherboard
does come with on-board sound, maybe
there's a conflict with the sound
card being connected. Maybe I should
try disconnected everything and
seeing if I get power at all.
Halfway through this I discover that
the plug that connects the
motherboard to the power supply is
pretty loose. Barely in there, in
fact. With a sigh of stupidity I
press it firmly into the socket,
reinstall everything, and take it
back to my room. Plugging it in once
more, I press the power button and
I'm greeted by the now harmonious
sound of beep followed by the
whirring of several fans.
It seems to be booting up okay, it
goes through the normal procedure,
eventually coming to a splash screen
with the motherboard's logo. It
fades to black and the next thing I
expect to see is my desktop. On the
contrary, the next thing I see is
the start-up screen again. My system
is going through a never-ending
cycle of restarting itself. After
spending two hours getting my
brother's computer sort of up to
speed (Which isn't doing so well) I
try to get the latest BIOS for this
motherboard, thinking it would help.
The BIOS must be flashed from a
floppy disk. I can't find a single
floppy disc in my room or in the
house. There was a time I had a
hundred of those fuckers, now I
can't find one. My floppy drive
doesn't work, so after I download
the files and put them on a disc on
Blake's computer I have to take his
floppy drive out and put it into my
computer. I plug it in, slam in the
disc and flash the BIOS. Afterwards
I noticed I just put the same
version of the BIOS on to the
motherboard as what it came with
which is already the latest.
I remain stumped for a while until I
decide I will try booting from the
Windows XP CD and seeing if I try
repairing my installation of XP it
will fix everything. Repairing my
current installation of XP leads
only to an error screen in which I
cannot proceed past. I opt for a
second, fresh installation of XP on
top of the one I already have and
this goes along fine. However, all
my settings and drivers are out of
place and cannot be detected. After
an hour or so of trying to restore
everything to their previous
settings, I decide that it is
futile, it is too complicated a
process, especially when it comes to
the registry. I admit defeat and am
forced to format my hard drive so I
can start fresh, but not after using
up 17 blank CD-Rs to make backups of
my MP3 directory, saved games,
emulation software, etc.
So what started at three in the
afternoon is finally coming to an
end around four in the morning, with
another hour spent downloading and
installing programs, drivers, and
all things necessary. It isn't until
fifteen hours of work that I finally
get a chance to play what inspired
this whole mess, Doom 3.
After all this, damn it, there
better be quite a performance
difference.
There was one hell of a difference,
and it was worth it.
I was cured, all right.
-K.
is anyone
still awake
8-2-04,
4:49 PM
I'm
faster than you'll ever live to be.
Music: Ben
Folds - Fired
Well, where to begin?
I
was extremely skeptical about id
being able to pull off a truly scary
game, because so many other titles,
and this includes 95% of all
"horror" films released these days,
rely on cheap camera tricks, unseen
crying children, and loud,
out-of-place sound effects. Like the
closing of a medicine cabinet to
reveal the killer in the mirror,
many artists overuse all too
familiar elements when they discover
their bag of tricks is dangerously
small, hoping that by the right
combination of previously tested
material they'll be able to scare
the audience serendipitously. From
the media I had seen before, I was
expecting Doom 3 to be a
decent shooter with phenomenal
visuals, but ineffective when it
came to delivering fear. I was
expecting it to be totally reliant
on pre-programmed scripted sequences
to take the place of terror,
something you could see coming a
mile away, knowing that a zombie is
going to pop out from that dark
corner of the room.
I've only been through the first
three levels of Doom 3 and
already it has caused me to reach
previously unthinkable of levels of
paranoia and fear. I can't remember
any past experience where I've had
to work up the willpower to go
through the next door or go around a
corner. It did reach the point where
I had to stop playing entirely,
evidenced by the fact that it has
essentially taken me two days to get
through two levels (The first is an
introductory level, not unlike the
pre-disaster levels of Half-Life).
I'll try to go in-depth a little
more with a full review after I
finish it, but I'm not playing
anymore today to wait for my new
motherboard to arrive so I can use
the 2GHz processor I bought several
months ago.
It's important to note that Doom
3 is extremely demanding of your
hardware, as I am actually below
minimum requirements, but only
because of my processor. That's why
the screenshots I posted yesterday
(and today) are very small and
lacking in detail, because I'm
playing at 640x480 in low detail
mode with all advanced video
features turned off. So, before you
rush off and buy it (official
release date is tomorrow, but some
stores got it early), here are those
requirements:
1.5Ghz P4 chip or AMD Athlon
1500
384MB of RAM
2GB of hard drive space.
An nVidia GeForce 3 or ATI 8500
graphics card
I
also decided to throw up a few more
shots:
Shot #14
Shot #19
Shot #15
Shot #20
Shot #16
Shot #21
Shot #17
Shot #22
Shot #18
Shot #23
-K.
lamp shade
monster
8-1-04,
6:32 PM
You've
had your whole life to prepare for
this moment. Why aren't you ready?
Music:
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Doom 3 is the scariest game I
have ever played. Undying and
System Shock 2 hold little
comparison to its fright factor, and
I'm only barely an hour into it. I'd
write about it in more detail, but
I'm just waiting for my heart rate
to lower to a point where I'm able
to speak coherently.
In
the meantime, I took some
screenshots:
Shot #1
Shot #8
Shot #2
Shot #9
Shot #3
Shot #10
Shot #4
Shot #11
Shot #5
Shot #12
Shot #6
Shot #13
Shot #7
-K.
watch out evil
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