Category Archives: Computers

Google’s Machinae

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Besides a lot of rpg postings lately, the world hasn’t stopped rotating, hasn’t stopped moving onwards and it’s already end of January, 2009 again. Hell, time if flying by it seems. A lot of things change and not always for the better, that’s true for so many things and usually you at least have the chance to recognize these changes. Then again, there are large companies and I think we all don’t have illusions to  think companies are not dictating the rules in this world, or?

Yesterday I’ve learned a nice example from my girlfriend over at the Vienna Writer’s Blog, Google has recently changed a little in their privacy statement and they started logging every single activity you’re actually doing with any of their applications. Of course only to prevent harmful sites and protect the users from fraud…
Even if this would be true, I would have appreciated a single statement on it – just a few words on the change instead of correcting it overnight without any notice to the users themselves. So I’ve used Google for most searches online, been using google-reader for some while and will switch now. This has just given me a few moments to think about how much information a single AAA-corp is collecting on me and I’ll start using alternative search engines (ask.com looks nice imho) and use different rss applications, I’ll start with netvibes.com instead of iGoogle – I know this won’t be a lot better but I just didn’t like the way this went recently… Just imagine what it really means, every mobile-phone using google maps for navigation purpose will be collecting time and place where you are staying at and for how long (in case you’re having the application active). I simple don’t want somebody to know all of my habits and stuff. Maybe you just think about it as well.

Sacred 2 released

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Interesting thing, while I’ve had a hard time find an equal after Diablo (one, and only the first episode!) when it comes to action rpg’s, I’ve playtested Sacred 2 in the night from 2nd to 3rd of October, you can fetch a 1.7GB Demo with the Seraphim and I have to say, I enjoyed it pretty much – I mean honestly. I’ve read a review yesterday that mentions the wickedly bad quest-system (questlog) and even worse system for trade in Sacred2. And I have to admit, yes it’s all true (sadly) – but still the game looks very much fun!

So I’ll probably have a more in-depth look into the full version – I’m not 100% convinced yet and I hate copy protections like Securom, for it really doesn’t do any good. I mean – copy protection for single-player isn’t an issue for long these days and never has been. For multi-player you’ve got your (hopefully unique) key and I’m fine with a connection based validation every time – but what do I need (stupid) cd’s every time – honestly? Comfort = 0.

I tend to be a computer gamer, spending too much time in front of my pc during work and at home as well. I have a fable for FPS (shooter) games, like Team Fortress 2, and I love the Steam environment since it’s CD-free. I’ve got the same problem with NWN2 (which always requests a cd), Dawn of War Soulforge (wants a cd as well), Crysis (ok this isn’t my favorite game… still it requests a [stupid]  CD).

But that was too much derived from my original post. If you like action games, Sacred 2 might be interesting for you, give it a try. (or wait for Diablo 3). I’ve stuck with the predecessor and I am looking forward to find out whether the updates of this version might help out with the severe issues they still have.

A word on games and microsoft

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Or maybe a few…

After all I have to start with my position. I’m a regular computer gamer, mostly a fan of ego-shooters, tend to try strategy games and roleplaying games every now and then and spend a bit of my spare-time with these various games… I am playing solely on my pc (I got a few pc’s at home, not getting rid of my “old”er parts and currently game on a G1S laptop from Asus). I have to admit, I bought for my 25th or 26th birthday a playstation 2, the nice slim design and my personal preference of beat-em-ups just made me do that. I was looking for a console for several years and always decided against it, but back then, I bought one and – it is totally useless – I mean, I am using it every 6-10 months… or in other words I hardly ever use it at all. I got quite a lot games (in relation to the usage, it must be around 10-15 games. But console gaming just lacks the fascination of the PC, you still have less interactivity in most games and I’m not a friend of the controllers after all.

[so much for the introduction]

Now I read a recent article on golem.de (a quite useful news resource for all things computer), with Microsoft announcing they don’t focus on the PC in the european market,  because of their low sales with the X-Box 360. (I’ve read another article before that from the GDC (Game Developer Conference) expressing the frustration of various programmers, that the Windows PC’s are not going further and offering new gadgets, interfaces, ideas, or any developments at all for their programming.

So I have to admit it’s pretty hard not to write four letter words for Microsoft in this regards, honestly – I don’t give a damn whether you sell a lot of your X-Box 360 consoles or not.
But to see you speculating, that if you reduce your support for the PC platform, more players will migrate to the consoles – I pray this will utterly fail.

Again in other news I read about the current status of ReactOS, which is slowly but constantly catching up. I have to admit, after reading the comments of Peter Zetterberg on golem.de – I hope that ReactOS will catch up faster than anyone expect and that it will become a real alternative to Windows as Operating System.
In my opinion a windows compatible operating system like ReactOS, that is fully operational as well as open source could gain a lot of market share if it has a stable base for gaming.

In my view it has to be really short-sighted to expect a lot of the PC gamers to emigrate to the consoles, no matter what console producers are dreaming of and no matter what software will be released for PC on a later point.

Dawn of Fear

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Das kommt davon wenn man ein paar Kategorien zusammenlegt…

Also primär war mir ja aufgefallen, dass meine Post-faulheit die letzten Tage zugeschlagen hat – jetzt ist es nicht unbedingt so, dass ich gar keine Zeit haben würde. Eigentlich war’s auch dieses Wochenende wiedermal eher gegenteilig. Nachdem am Freitag eine gemütliche Rollenspielrunde zu Ende ging, haben wir uns noch zum 10. Ball der schwarzen Masken gewagt – alles in allem sehr nett 🙂 Ball der schwarzen Masken
Mit den 2 Euro Karten ist der Eintritt auch weitgehend erschwinglich und auch wenn die Musik seit 10 Jahren gleich ist – (wobei sich das auf Classic allgemein bezieht) – ist sie deswegen nicht schlechter.

Aber zum Glück gab’s an dem entspannten Wochenende ein wenig Action (abseits von mörderischem Kopfweh am Samstag) in den virtuellen Welten – neben einigen (weniger entspannten) – aber ich kann es einfach nicht das mit den RTS Games – Partien Dawn of War – Dark Crusade online… Hey immerhin hab ich eine Partie gewonnen inder 4on4 gespielt wurde und war noch dazu ständig in Bedrängnis – da hab ich (eigenlob stinkt, ich weiss) gut gespielt – in den anderen 3 Partieen hab ich einfach verloren² – ganz einfach und so war’s :).

Nebst der Tatsache, dass ich mich ab und zu zu einem RTS hinreissen lasse – gab’s ein paar nette Stunden mit dem FPS “F.E.A.R. – First Encounter Assault Recon”. Wobei – bislang hatte ich mich auf “Fear Combat” beschränkt – die unter www.joinfear.com frei erhältliche (wirklich legal, gratis) Multiplayer Version. Aber ich hatte mich schon im Vorfeld ein wenig in das Spiel verschaut und mir die Single-Player Version auch gekauft… Bislang (bislang!) lag die im Regal – gestern wurde sie auch installiert und das kurze Fazit – HORROR! HÖLLE! 🙂

Nun, oki ein wenig sachlicher… Ich mag spannende Games, ich erinnere mich noch an Half-Life 1 – yeah das war auch eine nette Story (ich hab es nie durchgespielt…) – aber F.E.A.R ist nun doch noch eine härtere Gangart. – Ohne zuviel vom Game vorwegzunehmen – der Soundtrack ist einfach genial – wenn man auf Nervenkitzel steht – die Visionen/Halluzinationen sind schockierend und bringen das unangenehme Gefühl von wegen gleich passiert etwas zum Höhepunkt… Und am Ende liegt da noch dieses Slow Motion (ist das eigentlich von Max Payne geklaut? – MP hab ich nie gespielt, nur davon gelesen – Bullettime Mode!?) – eine EIgenschaft die auf die verbesserten Reflexe des “Helden?” hindeuten soll – eine Art dem Film Matrix ähnliches Feeling  Kugeln ausweichen zu können und ewig Zeit zu haben (allerdings wieder nur für wenige Sekunden aktivierbar).

Trotzdem hat schon einen netten Effekt das ganze. Werd mich wohl nicht in den Singleplayer Modus verlieben, da die Gegner trotz guter AI einfach mies sind 🙂 – ich (man) aber wiederum nicht auf maximaler Schwierigkeit das Game spielt – weil’s einfach zuviel Horror ist um es wieder und wieder von abgespeicherten Spielständen zu beginnen ;). *smile*

Egal – also das war mein Dawn of Fear Wochenende – erholsam bis zuletzt und fand in der Tanzschule (Danek, Korneuburg) auch noch einen netten Ausklang –
moment das war eine Lüge – der Ausklang fand bei zwei Episoden Columbo (SuperRTL um 20:15 und ORF um 23:xx) – statt.

Jetzt sollte man meinen nach dem Wochenende ist der Start in den Montag einfach –
leider… Das ist und bleibt leider nur eine Illusion ;).