Cage's World

I always thought it was very weird Doom III only supported 4-player deathmatch. Well, consoles do 4-way splitscreen and it seems Doom III will be developed for the Xbox. That's all good, but I'm inclined to believe the PC version of the game has taken a back seat to TV friendly gameplay.

I cruised over to 3D Downloads for the 179MB Call Of Duty Demo. As usual, the file came across like a crackhead on a "you buy, I'll fly" mission. Installed it and was pleased to find 1280*1024, unlike some other demos I've tried lately.

In case you don't know, Call Of Duty is made by a big chunk of the Medal Of Honor team. Obviously, they didn't want to mess with a winning formula, so the two games play about the same. Unfortunately, the weapon effects are rather wimpy compared to MoH.

All I can really say is this: Call Of Duty is the game for you if you couldn't get enough Medal Of Honor. CoD could get an extra kick if the 'net code is solid, but we'll have to wait for a multiplayer demo or the retail game to find out.

Anandtech scraped together an Athlon64 preview complete with a 2GHz part and reference motherboard. This part should be of special interest to gamers, and there's some rumors about an Enthusiast A64 which is faster and supports dual-channel DDR. Here's a clip:

The other day while I was browsing around the 'Net I found a place called Cable Organizer. It is an all-in-one stopping place to find products that will help your bring your computer cable mess under control.

The items can be a bit pricey, but the selection helps make up for it. I have yet to order from them, but I'll certainly give them a look when I put together my new computer/media room.

I nabbed the Homeworld 2 demo from 3D Downloads, which scooted the 144MB file across in 10 or 15 minutes. The game installed painlessly and shot me a message my video drivers were obsolete... d'oh!

Being quite bull-headed, I played the game without updating my Nvidia drivers. Big mistake because performance suffered during scripted sequences, and ships entering/exiting hyperspace had funky texturing. The new drivers solved the texture problems, but I still have a slight stuttering during scripted sequences. That could be the nature of the demo or my +1900/Ti4200 system. Dunno.

Another odd thing about the game is it doesn't support 1280x1024 resolution but coughs up an oddball 1280x980. Call me an old fart, but that's just too wonky for me and I stuck with a more traditional 1024x768.

I played through the tutorial, which is adequate for getting acquainted with the basics of the game. Most of the advanced ship-building and research features aren't covered, but the included single-player missions don't require 'em anyway. You'd only miss 'em if you decide to play skirmish against the CPU or LAN/Internet, which are included in the demo.

The single-player missions involve gathering resources, getting attacked, retreating, and making a few basic units. The whole thing lasts 30 to 60 minutes, which is enough time to figure out if you love or hate the game. So far, I'm neutral.

Skirmish against the CPU is more of a kick, but that's one of the features I loved about the original and is more like the style of gameplay I'm used to. I played several rounds of 1v1 on the easy setting. Got waxed in the first round and dominated the second time around.

Advanced research and ship-building is available in skirmish and LAN/Internet. It's a little confusing at first, even for veterans of the original game. I finally got into the flow of things and was building gun platforms, frigates, and carriers in no time.

It's been a long time since the first Homeworld, and the RTS genre has matured quite a bit. There are some modern conveniences I'd like to have like the "idle villager" and "grab all my military units" buttons. I haven't gone through the readme file yet and those options could be in there, but I didn't notice 'em on the game interface. I'd also like to set rally points for new ships, specifically resource collectors.

Ultimately, Homeworld 2 felt very "old school". It doesn't bring anything new to the plate and seems to ignore (or bury) very popular interface and unit-control options. What it still has going for it is a unique experience in 3D space. You'll either love it or hate it.

Sierra announced yesterday that a Demo for Homeworld II will be made available for download today.

Cage let me know Homeworld2 went gold and will be available on September 16th. The original(s) are among my all-time favorites, so HW2 is a no-brainer for me. Unfortunately, I gotta figure out if I need to upgrade now or hold off for HL2

FiringSquad popped off a review of the ATI Radeon 9800. That's the significantly chaper non-Pro version, which packs quite a punch for $250. I belive you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between this card and the Pro verison, especially when it'll OC to Pro levels. Here's a clip:

Underworld is what ya get when The Matrix and Blade get squished together. It actually looks like a really cool movie, and there's a Half-Life mod available... go figure.

The SciFi Channel is blasting off with a new Battlestar Galactica mini-series on December 7th. The trailers look pretty sweet, not to mention the blonde Cylon. Yep, the Cylons look human this time around, which puts an interesting twist on the plot. If they look human, anyone could be a Cylon. Should be a real kick!

The LA Kings are mixing things up again this year. It seems they're trying to steal back some of thier old flame while trying to fix things between the pipes.

Luc Robitaille and Jozef Stumpel are returning and should inject some offensive power in goals and assists. Felix Potvin and Jamie Storr have been given free agency and moved on. I'll miss Potvin, but I fear his injury during the later part last year's regular season probably had something to do with his release. Storr was always hot/cold, so there's no lost love there.

Roman Cechmanek was aquired from the Flyers and has a 2.05 goals-against average. Cristobal Huet, who played 9 games with the Kings last season, will advance to the second goalie position.

The Kings have always had a strong offensive line but are typically weak around the crease... even when Rob Blake was back there. Aaron Miller was a great addition last season, but it'll be interesting to see how things gel with new goalies.

The opening game of the regular season will be on October 9th in Detroit at 4:30 PST, and their first home game will be on October 15th against the Ottoa Senators at 7:30 PST. If ya can't wait, FSNW will air a pre-season game against the Ducks on September 18th at 7:30 PST. The whole schedule can be found here.

I'd been down on this summer's flicks, but Cage and I saw Bad Boys II and had a great time. It sports lots of great action and some good one-liners. I do have a rough time trying to figure out how a clean cop can afford a Ferrari though.

Looks like Creative is getting in the SSF PC business. They have three different models, which look pretty slix... er... slick. They don't sport the sexiest chipsets though, and I'd guess this is just a way to get people to buy sound cards, speakers, 'n such.

Did you ever listen to that D&D spoof by the Dead Alewives? If not, Volition acted the scene out in a game engine with some characters from Summoner and Red Faction. I had to dig for it, and it's certainly worth a looksie. It's also an .exe, so I AVG'd it to make sure it's clean.

I have a love/hate relationship with NovaLogic because their games always seem to have a strong wow-factor but fail to deliver a complete graphic/gameplay package. They also had that thing for voxels when everyone else was sportin' polys, but times are changing. Their latest endeavor is Joint Operations which is like the bastard child of BF1942 and Black Hawk Down. The game sports the regular suspects: 64 players, vehicles, and military theme. Check the streaming in-game flick and hope they can pull it off this time.

Here's a pair of mods which certainly fit in the fugly files yet seem to scream coolness. bit-tech has a Koolance case mod by Macroman, who is one slick dude. WaterCooling also has a water-chiller mod by Rebus, who is new to me but quite clever. I'd actually been thinking about some sort of water-chiller system but don't have the mad skillz to pull it off.

Cage just let me know the Q3 total conversion Urban Terror 3 is available. UT was my main squeeze for quite a while, and it looks like it got a swift kick in the rear with updated maps, graphics, and weapons. Lube yer fat pipe for 322MB of love!

There are some new in-game flicks for XIII. These look more interesting than what I've seen before, but I still don't think this game will have a chance unless it lands in the void between HL2 and D3. So, here's da flicks in WMV and MOV.

What's up with the movies this summer? It seems like every one of 'em is like the sticky residue on the theater floor... something you just have to deal with. I actually want to see the new Tomb Raider movie, but I think that's more out of desperation than a pure desire to see the flick.

Cage and I went to see T3 after getting good vibes from various sites and word-of-mouth. I originally thought it would just be a re-hash of T2 with a "cute chick" thrown in for good measure, which is exactly what it turned out to be. Go figure.

While cruising some of my usual sites, I came across the Entertainment Page at GamePro. Basically, it struck me as the Suck List. Rather than try to explain it, I'll just show it to ya.

I don't think that's a very inspiring list of flicks. When I was just a lad, summer meant there were gonna be movies which had to be seen. Movies without which you were a complete loser. I'm talking about stuff like Alien, Star Wars (the original), Poltergeist, and E.T. C'mon, you know you were dying to see E.T. back in the day.

In case you think I'm off base, American Wedding made $33.4 million in it's first week. Think about it.