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Thursday 19 November 2009

Do some more good

Do some more good


Last week I wrote about how you can donate some of your computer’s time to help fight cancer. 

This week I would like to point you at some other sites where you can do some good.

A company called the GreaterGood Network has a collection of sites, each dedicated to a certain charity.

Some of them are:


Basically all you have to do is go to the website and click a button. Once you have clicked on the button, money will be given to a charity.

Now the first thing that comes to mind is – this is too good to be true. It is too easy.

 I poked around the internet to find out if this GreaterGood Network is a legitimate company. It turns out that they are owned by CharityUSA a registered charity in America and that the money they make for the sites they operate does go to charity.

 However there is a dispute as to how much of it is going to charity. CharityUSA says a lot goes to charity, other people say they don’t give as much as they claim to give.

 So even if you have a problem with how they have been giving, a percentage of your clicks will go to charity.

 Also – by clicking on this article 10c gets donated to a good cause! When it comes to deciding how many times to click on this article there is no right or wrong answer, but I would like to suggest six thousand and forty three times.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Out source your good deed of the day

Out source your good deed of the day

 
World Community Grid Logo

Does your computer stand idle sometimes? Want to give something to the community?

There is an easy way to help - http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org 
 
World Community Grid is a grid computing project. What that means is, it is a worldwide network of computers working together to solve a problem. You download a small application from their website and install it on your computer. When your computer is idle it will request data from WCG servers and do some computations on the data and send the results back to them.

Millions of people worldwide have joined and are working together. To give you an idea how powerful this project is – the research they have done so far would have taken one computer 40 000 years to complete.

Currently they are working on Muscular Dystrophy, Cancer, Aids and Influenza research. There are also research into human DNA and a project that analyze proteins strains to enable farmers to grow more nutritious rice.
 
It is really a worthwhile cause to join. Think about it. Your computer is doing your good deed of the day; you are free to be your bad self.

Monday 17 August 2009

I envy cavemen, I really do

I envy cavemen, really I do

The cavemen had such nice lives. They lived in caves, ate fungus they scraped of walls, they got eaten by tigers and dinosaurs and they never had to deal with ABSA. 
 
Last year I got life insurance from ABSA but then cancelled it during the cool off period. They said cool but they can only refund the money next year – fair enough.
 
Now, this is next year and the time has come to refund my money. Last week a representative for ABSA called and confirmed I want to cancel the insurance and I confirmed. This week instead of refunding my money they took another year's worth of life insurance off my account. I called ABSA and explained my situation and they said they will investigate. ~ A moment ago an ABSA rep called me – he has heard I am interested in getting life insurance from ABSA.

Monday 3 August 2009

Review:Resident Evil 5

Game Review Resident Evil 5Review:Resident Evil 5


[Eds Note: Recently a very controversial demo for Resident Evil 5 has been released. Some people got a bit pissed off about the demo, saying that it was racist because the game is set in Africa and some of the zombies are – black. Black zombies in Africa. The makers of the game, Capcom says that the original Resident Evil featured a virus that originated in Africa. So this game just brings the series full circle, with a team going to Africa to investigate the virus. Regardless some people think that this is another example of the Western world exploiting Africa.]


To review the game we got an expert on the subject of the West exploiting Africa, paranoid President Robert Mugabe of the nation Zimbabwe.


Review: Resident Evil 5 by Bob Mugabe.
I am not amused. This entire thing runs like a training video. Training people to take me out. Its Tony Blair. Well its not gonna work Tony. Do hear me Tony! Its not working. I am on too you.

[Robert seems to be under the impression Tony Blair is still prime minister of Britain. –Ed][Whatever. –Bob]

As for the game itself. The game is stupid.
Graphics – stupid.
Sound – stupid.
Game play – stupid. Not that I played the game, I refuse to play something this stupid.

Fuck you very much.
Bob.

Monday 20 July 2009

Since we are on the subject of ID theft...

Since we are on the subject of ID theft...

 
Normally when I watch Carte Blanch, I am emotionally detached from the stories they show. It is stuff that happens to other people. However Sunday evening’s Carte Blanch episode struck a cord with me – identity theft. It happened to a friend of mine and it destroyed his business and he nearly faced criminal charges. 

While on holiday this friend of mine received a phone call from the police – he is under investigation for fraud. As you can guess, that phone called ruined his holiday. 

In his spare time he traded on the Bid or Buy website, making a nice income on the side. It takes time and a lot of dedication to build a solid reputation as a good trader online and it all of it was destroyed with one single phone call. 

The police officer informed him that he has received several complaints about him. All of the complaints where basically the same, they bought merchandise from him but then never received it. 

Trying to log on to Bid or Buy he found that his password has been changed and so has the password to his email account. How and when it happened he does not know. All he knows is he has some very angry customers and that Sergeant-Police-Officer-man is looking intensely at all business deals he has done in the past. 

He went through a long and painful process to prove his innocence and his name was finally cleared but his online reputation has been destroyed and all credibility he had on Bid or Buy. In short he was very lucky not to face criminal charges and he has lost his business. 

The moral of the story is identity theft can happen to all of us and we must act to protect ourselves! I will not pretend to be an expert on the subject but I do know that it is important to get the basics right if you want to defend yourself against id theft online.
Make sure that your operating system, anti-virus and anti-spyware is updated with the latest patches and security updates. This will help prevent most (but not all) Trojans / Viruses and Spyware from getting on to your computer.  

Passwords – choose good passwords. In other words, choose a password that is eight characters or longer. Use lower and uppercase letters, numbers and punctuation in your password. This protects against dictionary and brute force attacks against your account. 

There are lots more do’s and don’ts, for more information on how you can protect yourself:

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Audio Visual month - NVidia 3D Vision

In the spirit of Audio Visual month - NVidia 3D Vision

 
In the spirit of Audio / Visual month I will take a look at a new development in Visual technology:

NVidia recently announced their new 3D technology. I could not personally test because it is not available in S-A yet (you can import it for a lot of $$$ but I do not have a lot of $$$). However people that have tested it say it is – well, um, ok-ish.

All it is, is a pair of 3D glasses that work together with a NVidia graphic card to produce very life like 3D images while you are playing games.

People that have personally experienced games with this new tech say that the 3D is really good. It is a lot better than previous attempts where the 3D were just red and green shadows that looked more 2D that 3D. If you have recently seen the movie Coraline in 3D you would know what I mean. Objects appear to float in front of the screen and sometimes seem to come right at you.
Setting up the whole system is very easy. A wizard guides you through most of the installation and technical stuff. After the installation is done, the user can tweak a few of the settings on their own.
If the 3D is so good and it is so easy to use, why would they just give it a so-so rating? It is the fact that the overall experience is not very good.
First of all, prolonged used could give you headaches. Second it will only work with Windows Vista. The third reason, there is only a very limited amount of games that really work with this technology and than there is the price tag.
You need to buy –
  • the glasses;
  • a graphic card that can support the glasses;
  • a screen that can support the card and the glasses.
  • (and of course a game that will work with all of the above)
It is by far the best attempt yet to bring 3D to computer games and although there are a few snags, it is definitely a technology to keep your eye on.

Wednesday 8 July 2009

A small review - Sims 3

A small review - Sims 3

Sims 3 logo.
Sims 3
The Sims 2 was the best selling game ever with more expansion packs than I have fingers and toes. Sims 3 was released recently and is topping sales charts everywhere. All over the internet you can see there is a lot of hype and excitement about the new Sims 3. I have never played Sims and was curious to see what the fuzz was all about. Boldly I ventured where I never ventured before and got the new Sims 3.
 

Almost immediately you get an idea why this series is so successful. Starting the game you are filled with a sense of wonder… There are so many things to see and do, you want your Sim to experience it all. Like a good parent you just want what is best for your Sim.

A few hours into the game I realize I am not a very good parent.
 

While my Sim was sitting and watching television I had some time to take stock. My Sim watch too much tv, hardly ever exercise, the kitchen is stacked with dirty dishes and he is always late for work. Long story short, the little Sim is living my life.
 

I was stunned to realize that I created my own version of the real world in the virtual world of the Sims. It’s like looking into a mirror.
 

So if you want a glimpse into your own life, play Sims for a while.
 

---------------

If you have a mad scientist inside you, go check out how much fun you can have experimenting on these poor Sims - Exploring the Mysteries of the Mind with Sims 3.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Win some

Win some

Online Competitions South Africa
 
Do you like free stuff? Of course you do.

www.justplay.co.za is a South African website trying something completely different.

In exchange for you answering a few questions about certain products you get the chance to win some cool prizes. It is a bit time consuming but if you win a large flat screen or a laptop, the 20 minutes spend answering questions is totally worth it.
 
There are lots of prizes to choose from – a car, a scooter, house hold appliances, holidays, etc. etc.

Personally I used all my entries on the Xbox competition.

Saturday 4 July 2009

A tale of two New York cities (part 2)


A tale of two New York cities (Part two)

Last week a described the hell that is New York, in ‘A tale of two New York Cities’ when I reviewed Alone in the Dark. At any moment in New York there is a monster waiting to kill you. In Prototype it is the same, living in New York is a death sentence.





Review: Prototype


Prototype is an open world type game like Grand Theft Auto, but unlike Grand Theft Auto you have awesome mutant powers.
 
Again, you are the victim of some terrible government experiment. You can’t remember what happened but you do know that you want revenge. Good thing the experiment left you with some kick-ass mutant powers.
 
To get your revenge you must find out what happened to you by completing some missions. Each mission you complete helps you to remember what happened to you.
A very unique feature of Prototype is your ability to absorb other people’s memories. Other people’s memories are essentially small movie clips with some information on what happened. Every memory you add to your own will add extra pieces to the puzzle. Completing a mission will give you new chunks of memory. When you are between missions you can hunt in New York for people with special knowledge (like high ranking army officers and scientists) and absorb their memories. How do you absorb somebody’s memories? By eating the poor bastard alive. Living in New York must really suck.
 
If you don’t want to complete missions there are lots of other tasks and sub missions to do. Some of these sub missions are really hard and they will keep you busy for a long time.
 
Every task / sub mission or mission you complete earns you experience points.
I really liked this RPG element they brought into this game. You can spend your experience points on upgrading your character, making him tougher, stronger and giving him extra skills like running up vertical walls or driving.
 
You can get extra weapons, offensive abilities and defensive abilities. You have a lot of different offensive and a lot of different defensive abilities. Combine them to create different attack / defense combos. The number of combos is only limited by your imagination. Couple that with the fact that you can use guns, tanks and a lot of other assault vehicles you really have lots and lots of options when you want to attack or defend yourself.
 
Prototype is an exciting new game that combines the open world game play of Grand Theft Auto with the RPG elements of games like World of Warcraft. Running around New York wrecking havoc is fun, you feel like Wolverine, nobody can touch you, and if they try, you throw a bus at them or you throw a tank at them or get in the tank and drive over them…the list of things you can do is endless. It is no wonder that this game is a best seller.

Remember to check out part one of this article –
the Alone in the Dark review

Thursday 28 May 2009

Confessions of a pirate

Confessions  of a pirate


I would never pirate games. Ok I have pirated a few games. Well Ok, I have pirated the hell out of a lot of games.

Recently I don’t pirate any more. Why? It is a hassle. Downloading the game takes forever, cracking the game usually makes your anti-virus go crazy because there is normally a virus / Trojan hidden in the crack and finally after going through all that, the game does not work. Buying the game is just easier. (And for the first time in my life a got a few spare $$$)

I mention this; because the guys over at The Pirate Bay have been found guilty of piracy and each have gotten a year in jail + some huge fines.

But you don’t have to pirate games, to get some free games. Here is a list of 25 excellent free games on gameplayer.com.au.

I am certainly going to check out Mech Commander.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Diablo 3

News Diablo 3

Titan Quest 2 is out of the question. Iron Lore the developers of Titan Quest have gone out of business more than a year ago. So the now all eyes are on Blizzard developing Diablo 3.

 
Unlucky for the people of Sanctury, hell is has broken loose again and their world is under attack. Lucky for us.

The art work for the game looks great:
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/?rhtml=y

But. Blizzard is still looking for artists, software engineers and designers, it is still going to be a while before we see Diablo 3.

Maybe you got what it takes to work on Diablo? If you are working on Diablo - don't mess it up.
See if you got what it takes:
http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/

Friday 15 May 2009

Mutating Virus...

Mutating Virus...

Resident Evil 5 Logo

The World Health Organization released a report stating that the H1N1 virus mutates frequently and could mutate into a very dangerous virus that will spread like wild fire across the globe causing panic everywhere.
Sounds familiar? Sounds like a story we all know and love.

The report does not say if people that catch the virus suddenly start to hunger for human brains, so I am forced to assume that they do.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

Oops

Oops

Reset Generation Logo

I never bought Reset Generation on N-Gage, but guess what; you can play the entire game online, for free! Nice.

So I get the game and start looking around. The first thing I see is the online mode. Hmmm, wonder how that works? I select play online. A message pops up saying ‘Acquiring players’ next thing I know, I am in a live game with three other people.

Drop you blocks! Huh? What?

Reset Generation Screenshot
Stuff is going on all around me and I have NO idea what is going on.

Fire your canons! Now what?

Seems Reset Generation is a lot like chess but with cannons. You get a turn to move and a turn to fire your cannons. But since I don’t really know what is going on I am annihilated a few seconds later. So much for my first game of Reset Generation. I think it might be fun. I will play the tutorial, I have a suspicion playing the tutorial is a must.

Unlike System Rush that is dead in the water, Reset Generation has a very lively online community. You can even download the game assets to create your own games based on Reset Generation. They really put in a lot of effort in this website and it’s really worth checking out.

Try the game here:
http://www.resetgeneration.com/

Use Firefox, and be patient it takes a while to download.

Thursday 9 April 2009

Review: Mile High Pinball


In that movie ‘Last Action Hero’ the bad guy asks Arnold Schwarzenegger – “What do you know about pain?” Play Mile High Pinball and you will know all about pain.

This version of pinball is different from other pinball games. The idea is not to get the highest score possible, but to reach the top of the tower. When you shoot the ball out the top of the screen you advance to a higher level. If you miss the ball and it goes out the bottom, you drop back a level.

You can play the entire afternoon going up levels, make one small mistake and then watch helplessly as your ball plunge down level after level after level after …
It is really very painful.

And don’t think it is easy to shoot the ball to the top of screen, the developers, who must all be Satanists, made it devilishly hard to get the ball to the top. Obstructions have been carefully placed to block your way to the top. Your timing must be perfect.

To make things interesting, there are bosses to fight, secret levels to find, medallions to collect and superpowers to use. All in all, this is a great game and you will have to work hard to collect your 1000 NGP.

Verdict - Buy!

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Getting started with NGP points

Getting started with NGP points

I recently met a cracker online. Chatting to people on the N-Gage forums I met somebody that says he has never bought an N-Gage game and only use cracked versions of N-Gage games.

He wanted to know why I would buy games if I could just get them for free. I said that I have got some games for free and that he should check out a certain website called www.s60.com. I told him about the Ambassador program and that there are sometimes free N-Gage games up for grabs on the site.

He said that he will check it out. He then asked me an unexpected question…
How do you score N-Gage Points? So I guess you do not get NGP pickups while playing cracked games.

So to get him started on the straight and narrow path I told him he should get the demo for Soduko. Playing the demo will get him +- 500 NGP. Another demo that could give you a lot of NGP is the Monopoly demo.

I further suggested that for his first game he should buy Creatures of the Deep. The game gives great value for money and you can play the game for a long time without getting bored. Another game that will keep you busy for a long loooong time is Reset Generation.

He said cool, he is immediately going to try it. So hopefully he found the advice useful and found that buying N-Gages is not a complete waste of money.

Thursday 2 April 2009

News: Wolfenstein

New Wolfenstein Released

Another Wolfenskein game. BJ Blazkowicz is back fighting the Nazis.

The Nazis are developing a mysterious new weapon using the power of the Black Sun from a parallel dimension called ‘The Veil’. Those Nazis sure are creative. Well its up to BJ Blazkowicz to stop them before they unleash it onto the world.

By now BJ Blazkowicz has killed more Nazis than the entire American Army put together. He must be some sort of a Boogeyman in Germany by now – ‘Mommy I can’t sleep, BJ Blazkowicz is under by bed!’

Sunday 1 March 2009

News: Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum
Last year it was announced that Rocksteady is making a new Batman game: Batman Arkham Asylum. I love Batman so its good news for me, but what makes it even better is - Batman is going into the mysterious Arkham Asylum. Double good news for me.

There is a website up for the game, but currently there is not much going on there.
You can see the game site at: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/.

A few screenshots have been released and you can see them at: http://kotaku.com/5037545/batman-arkham-asylum-in-pictures
Other than that, all i can do is wait in anticipation for the release of this game.

Friday 20 February 2009

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

...who has the shittiest website of them all?

Digital.liquor

Wait what?! No you’re not supposed to include us. Let me rephrase the question. Stupid mirror.

Mirror, mirror on the wall what game studio / publisher have the shittiest website of them all?

Rockstar

Yep, that’s a shitty website.
On Rockstar’s website the navigation menu is hidden. Only by hovering the mouse over the menu will the menu be displayed. Opening the page for the first time you think there is an error and the page didn’t load correctly.
Couple that with the fact that they use a font that is nearly the same color as the background makes Rockstar’s website win the award for the shittiest game studio website.

There is a saving grace however. Rockstar made some of their older classic games available as free downloads. Good Rockstar, that’s a good Rockstar.

Get the classic and very fun game GTA2 at:
http://www.rockstargames.com/
HINT: the menu is just above the big R on the background.

Thursday 19 February 2009

Free stuff

This is another one for people that likes free stuff.

A site called s60 is giving away a free N-Gage game to everyone willing to become a s60 Ambessador.

It works like this: you register as a user on the s60 website:
http://www.s60.com/

Once joined you join the N-Gage level 2 campaign.

They then give you an activition code, to ANY N-Gage game of your choice. Well almost any, there are lots to choose from.

All you have to do then is play the game, tell other people about the game and write a report about what other people are saying about the game.

It took some time before I received my activation code, (i waited for a day before i got my code).
BUT! i just received my code in the mail and i am on my way to go and collect my free game! o yes.

Friday 13 February 2009

Prince of Persia 2009

When the release Prince of Persia was announced, it was like the anticipation mounting before Christmas. You hear the sounds of tearing gift wrap, only to find,
Knitted underwear of some kind. The dream of a bicycle shattered for all time.
Santa you dog.

The intro was as exciting as the day I went to get my wisdom teeth pulled.
These fellows can go for extra classes on intros at: Blizzard.com/learn.intro/purpose in life.

The game started and I was transported back through the sands of time to Roger Wilco and his alien cronies.
There was no continuity from the intro to game play.
It was sudden as that rich Greek halumi cheese sneaking op on my stomach lining.
Not only was I surprised, but also my visual tentacles were numbed by this anime character staining the stylish landscape.
I thought to myself, Dragon Ball Z rocks, but this, she is but a pebble on a British shore line.

This random chickazoid ran ahead, I tried to follow, my hands they bled.
What the hell, my alter ego said.
We discussed this at length, about the time we had spent
installing this game,
Too little Heineken down went.

The game progressed into sudden nothingness, to the first scene of fight.
My mood by then, to fridge thy flight,
For Heineken I need, my boredom to feed.

Characters talk rubbish; this you can’t skip, as if the creators find pride in annoying you with nonsense said between characters.
Whilst fighting, I was banging my keyboard and mouse like my 5 year old nephew,
Not sure what’ll happen but dandy, at least by hammering the controls, it makes a progressive sound.

The scenes and the story line stop and go like a 59 Ford in need of a tow.
Irritating enough, I can’t but shake, bring back Prince of Persia 2D, mate.

The previous 2, Sands of Time and Two Thrones, was enjoyable and you felt that you wanted to succeed.
I had to fasten the straight jacket on my alter ego, to prevent him from uninstalling this mid way.
Verdict - Don't buy!

Great news for Zombies...

...and people that love to kill Zombies.

the people over at Capcom must really like Zombies because they recently made 2 announcements regarding zombie games.

The Xbox demo for Resident Evil 5 has been released. Resident Evil 5 caused an uproar because the game is set in Africa and features black zombies. No shit.

A sequel to Dead Rising has been announced by Capcom. Dead Rising 2 promises lots more zombies and new weapons to kill them with.

Resident Evil will be released during March this year. No word on when Dead Rising 2 will be released yet.

Monday 9 February 2009

Immortal Throne – Titan Quest expansion pack

Immortal Throne – Titan Quest expansion pack



Thomas Malone once said that there are three things that motivate us to play games: curiosity, control and fantasy. A player loves the control they have in games, curiosity drives the player to find out what is going to happen and games gives players the opportunity to live their fantasies. These powerful motivation forces will cause players to play hour after hour.

How do these motivational forces come to play in games such as Titan Quest (TQ) and Diablo2? These click-and-slash games do not offer much in the way of game play and you play the same areas over and over again. It must be the fantasy of becoming the most invincibly strong hero that can kill the toughest bosses in the quickest time.

To become the strongest character you need to play the game for hours, accumulating experience points and searching for rare and valuable items that will give your character the necessary super powers to become the toughest and the strongest. Immortal Throne offers gamers plenty more opportunity to gain experience and acquire brilliant new items.

Immortal Throne (IT) starts off immediately after the end of TQ, you have defeated Bane of the Titans but the world is still covered in monsters. You set off to discover why, following a set of clues, and with following a set of clues I mean walking around killing monsters. IT just like TQ, does not offer much in the way of game play other than click and kill. The clues leads you from the land of the living across the river Styx and into Hades itself and then onwards to the Plains of Judgment. From there you trek to the mythical fields of Elysium.

Depending on how thorough you want to play the game, this extra act will take you roughly 10 hours to complete. That is a lot of extra game play but what will make this expansion pack worth it is the inclusion of the artifacts. Artifacts are powerful objects that will give the carrier awesome new powers, but to create an artifact you need certain ingredients and to obtain the ingredients will take hours! To complete a divine artifact will take a lot of searching or farming (fighting-all-enemies-in-sight) as some gamers call it. You can literally play for days on end looking for the right ingredients to complete a certain artifact.

Additional to the artifacts, the creators also added a new class to Titan Quest called the Dream Mastery. Combining Dream Mastery with the other classes means that there are 8 new different combinations to try out for the game fanatics, significantly increasing the time it will take to play the game.

The inventory system have also been upgraded a bit and it is no longer necessary for the player to stop every once in a while to rearrange his inventory so he can pick up other items. Another nice addition for pack rats is the caravan in big cities. The caravan can be used as an extra storage space for items that you don’t want to sell but don’t want to lug around.

Another new character you will find in the big cities is the enchanter. The enchanter, for a fee of course, can retrieve relics from items so the either the item or the relic can be reused.

Other nice additions include extra monsters, items, scrolls, relics and charms. The level limit has been raised to 75 so players can take on the tough new bosses in the expansion pack.

Iron Lore has also tweaked the graphics a bit although technically nothing has changed. The new areas in IT have been beautifully crafted and walking through Hades is a particularly haunting experience.

The sound effects of the game have not changed much from the previous games.

One big problem with IT is the rubber banding effect that some players experience while playing the game. The game slows down and seems to hang when suddenly the game speeds up again. This effect was not present in the original Titan Quest and players experience it for the first time after they installed IT. Some players claim the rubber banding that they experience is so bad that they can not even play the game. The creators of the game have not yet a released a patch for this problem but instead released a workaround. I tried this workaround, but you pretty much have to be Zero Cool from Hackers to get this to work.

The banding problem aside however, IT is a very enjoyable expansion pack and I would say if you enjoyed TQ you definitely have to get IT. All the extra items, the artifacts and the higher level cap will help you go a long way to fulfill your fantasy of becoming the biggest, meanest monster killing machine.

Verdict - Buy!


Find Titan Quest on Amazon
 

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