Archive for the 'Tech' Category

X-Ray looking iGoogle Spider

Hello, I have been playing around with my aBowman Spider gadget that you can get for iGoogle.
If you would like this looking spider then here are the settings:
Head Color: 666666
Belly Color: 666666
Leg Color: FFFFF
Background Color: 333333
If you want to toggle the orginal look
Enjoy Tweaking.

Talk 2 Me – Version 1.9

I’m relasing my Talk 2 Me app.
What I does is it opens a console panel and you can ask it phrases and it will respond.

Talk 2 Me Command Window.

Talk2Me_1.9.rar – Download Link

Some Exclusive Commands that can be used:
command:cls     = clears the screen
command:exit    = exits Talk 2 Me.
command:edit    = opens C:\Phrase.ini for editing

And some more good news. Its open source. I have included source code for purebasic 4.10 in the .rar file.
Enjoy

Grid Crash

I recorded a crash from Grid Racedriver. You might want to have a look.

Crysis – Windows 7 Vs. XP – Frame Rate Comparison

Today I have done some research on the frame rates in Crysis.
I did I comparison with Crysis on Windows XP and Windows 7 to see how the frame rate differs.

Download the PDF file with all of my results.
It includes graphs and tables.

This link is the savegame file I used while I was testing the frame rates with: r_displayinfo = 1 command in the ingame console window. I was standing in the exact same postion without even moving the aimer to a different postion throughout the whole of the frame rate measurements.

XP Framerates

WinXP_graph

Windows 7 Framrates

Win7_graph

Download PDF: CRYSIS_FrameRates

Rapidshare – FPS TEST Scene Save Game:
http://rapidshare.com/files/278931362/default_FPS_Test_SCENE.CRYSISJMSF.html

Enjoy!

Changing from Yahoo to Gmail.

Finally, I chnaged my email address to Gmail.
I have to admit it was such a pain, first I had to remember that I had an account on Gmail, I first tried the tools provided by Google Gmail themselves. The importing tools didn’t work and after looking over the internet (oh wonderful internet) I found a solution, -it didn’t work. The mail and contact importer kept asking me for my correct password. I entered it in about 30 times it just continued prompting me that the POP3 server didn’t find a match to my email and password.

I then manually exported my contacts and imported them into Gmail, that worked. But the mail bit I was still very stuck in. I have (had) 177 messages but I painfully had to minimise the number to 5. ‘Woo’, just think about it: 177 to 5 messages… anyways, I ended up just forwarding my most valuable messages to the new email address.

I recieved them and opened them so that Gmail didn’t keep thinking that I still have 5 unread messages left in my Inbox!

At last I finished and customized my iGoogle home page. I’m using the ‘World of Warcraft’ theme. lol!

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller with Media Centre!

My Media Centre Layout

I got my XBox 360 controller on the 31/12/08 and for people wondering I don’t have an Xbox or an Xbox 360 so I didn’t use an Xbox as an extender.

What I did was first I bought a combo that had in one box a controller and a PC compatible Recevier to connect the Wireless Controller to my Computer.

Then I found a program called Xpadder which allowed me to make a loadable profile of remapped keys.

Heres how I maped my keys:

My Media Centre Layout

I used Xpadder to map all the keys and it works great!

download Xpadder: http://download.softpedia.com/dl/27b7b9ea3e1caf6ead390ec42656e665/495d6187/100045445/software/system/Xpadder5-3.zip

enjoy!!

Review on gOS

Well first thing I have to say I that I haven’t been on my blog for a long while, mainly building computers, testing games and striping DVD players clean of life.

But now I have found gOS and decided to take look. And when I did take a look I found I quite nice and simple, and like many OSs from third party sources they are all based a Linux source code. When I burnt myself a CD of gOS and tried it in a computer that I found and the street just standing there doing nothing. So I thought that maybe I should have a go. Along with that I also took another 2 MOBOs (Mother Boards), and found in the pile a Pentium 4 chip in brilliant condition as well as many other sticks of RAM that 4 of them were already nicely Metal Plated.

So back to the main thing, gOS. I put into the extremely old computer and made sure that BIOS was set to boot from CD. And the painfully slow the computer that had the near specs of the Minimun Requirements stated on gOS homepage.So I got a bit disapointed that gOS din’t run so well on the computer of the street but hey, it’s of the street and we din’t have that much RAM.

Apart from that gOS looks really nice a seems very stable. It has a range of themes (4 Pre-Installed) and UI looks very snapy on the faster computers.

Just for people who are interested on the specs for what gOS is better of with here is below:

Computer of the Street: (Not Recommend (unless you have the will to wait))

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.1GHz
RAM: Access 266MB
MOBO: Unknown (if I find out I will edit here)
Power Brick: CODEGEN 350WAT
Floppy: SONY MPF920-E
HDD: Seagate 10GB

Required:

Much Better then that!

I typed the post with gOS and I must say you should try it and you can play with without touching any of your HDD data. (Just make sure you have at least 1GB to 2GB of RAM)

Well thats it, THANKS FOR READING

Getting the Crysis Demo!

Hello there everyone it has been a long time since I posted something and now time to post something I’ve been checking out:

The Crysis Demo is a quite interesting game with interactive environments that include shooting a tree will cause it to fall down kind of interactiveness. But is it really worth buying a magazine and then using the disc that comes with it (I use PC Power Play) to play the demo. I say yes, it is worth it to get the demo and play it through to the end of the demo.

I played to the end and the preveiw of the full game is fantastic because it does not rescrict you to a certain path. It is a huge open world but of course if you want to get to the end you have to follow objectives.

The game mechianics are also quite nicely done with three atributies you must switch through quite oftenly are Maximum Speed, Maximum Strength and Maximum Armour. These can be used very effectivly to complete the game this is what I did for fun when playing the game again.

Tutorial: How to kill a guy with a simple barrel!

1: Switch to Maximum Speed and turn on Cloak Mode
2: Spint to an ememy
3: Switch to Maximum Strength before he shoots.
4: Pick up a barrel
5: Throw it at him
6: Ouch, Thats got to hurt!

The game also needs stratigy to complete such as taking cover to reload and getting out of a car before it explodes with ememy fire!

The Verdict:

RATING

9

Good: Requires stratigy which really puts you in the mood and the interactive environments are superb!
Bad: For more casual gamers who don’t really like the rush off having to duck for reloading and the carefull movement required to play the game without dying every time you take one step.

Overall: The game can be quite inspiring but for others the game could be a bit of hard game to play.

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for Wii

Hello and once again I will be reviewing another game for the Wii called Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and this game comes on 2 platforms, the Wii and PC but this time I will be reviewing Wii version, before I start my review, on this review I will be using the term RRR2 as a short term for Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 because it gets tiring when you have to keep typing its long title.

And yes, I know there is a older version known as Rayman Raving Rabbids (1) which has a bigger storyline but is not very friendly when it comes to having multiplayer fun and playing with others.

The story line in RRR2 is the rabbids are plotting to take over the world by invading countries such as Paris, USA, South America, Tropics and China. Every country or in the game Trips, have different Mini-games.
There are 50 Mini-games in total and 10 Mini-games in each trip.
When you complete a trip for the first time you unlock a basic shooting game that can be accessed through the Main Menu of the game by going to the Plaza section of the Main Menu. In the Plaza you can access the Game Credits, Jukebox, Character Customization and Shooting Arcade.
I will cover all the options in the plaza and then get back to talking about the Mini-games but now I will review the Shooting Arcade.
Shooting Arcade
There are 5 Shooting Games that are unlocked when you complete a trip through the trips menu, there is 1 shooting game for completing USA another for China and so on. Each shooter has a animated background which when the game was in developing stages they filmed when they walking and then added rabbids to jump all over the place with pistols that fire plungers and rabbids come with candy canes to whack you.
Also at the end of a shooting game there is a boss or bosses you have to defeat in order to win.

Game Credits
The credits may not seem interesting at first but we infact watched the whole thing and we found something really funny at the end of the credits so when your watching the credits don’t touch anything and just wait, even if you think is nothing coming up, there will be something.

Character Customization
The Character Customization it quite funny with your rabbid sometimes falling of the dressing stand. You unlock clothes when you are playing trips and while playing a trip getting a good or high score in the mini-game you were playing. You can dress your rabbid with 3 categories of clothing, 1. Hats, 2. Torso, 3. Torso Ver.2, the second torso accually has different clothes and styles.

When your dressing a Rabbid the choices are huge ranging from a special toilet cleaner hat with a scrubing brush and detergent, and a matching torso piece of clothing to add to the effect.
I personally like playing as a rabbid dressed up in pirate clothes. Bajo from Good Game really likes pirates too, visit the Good Game website HERE  -and return to this review!.

The Jukebox
The Jukebox is really enjoyable section to go to, the reason that the Jukebox is so nice is that when you select the JuteBox all the Rabbids and Rayman that you use to play RRR2 get organized and dance to the music its very enjoyable to watch and the songs have been dubbed to really sound like the Rabbids are singing the songs, the songs are Smoke on the Water, Teenage in Love, Satisfaction, Papa’s Got, Celebration and Funky Town!

Back to the Mini-Games
The minigames have been made very well and it is amusing to play the various mini-games, some of the funest games could be, TNT were you have to blow yourself up at the closest millisecond to zero, Funky Town Music were you have to use your Nun-chuck and WiiMote to play the notes and get the best score and it also could be a mini-game where you have to unclog the toilet from a blockage of carrots?, and many others that are great Multiplayer, and Single Player fun.

So to another of my reviews on another Wii game ends here and the game box information simplified:

Title: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Developer: Ubisoft
Players: 4
Nun-chuck: YES
Modes Supported: 50Hz / 60Hz
Compatibility: EDTV / HDTV

Super Monkey Ball – Banana Blitz for Wii

The game I will be reviewing is Super Monkey Ball – Banana Blitz for Wii and the company who developed this game is SEGA and of course it is Licensed By Nintendo.
The version I got is PAL and will only work on PAL Wiis that are bought I Australia, the reason that Nintendo sell their Nintendo Wiis in different versions (PAL, NTSC, SECAM ect.) is to prevent game piracy*.
The game is also 50Hz and 60Hz Modes Supported and also EDTV/HDTV Compatible.

The game has a title like Super Monkey Ball – Deluxe for XBox and XBox 360 but in the Wii version it has a different mode inside the game known as Party Mode and contians all of the 50 party games are ready for your enjoyment and no unlocking is requied for party games so you can just battle out with your friends.

And also there is Story Mode where at the beginning the evil Pirate Monkey steals the Golden Bunch of Bananas, you play through levels by pointing your WiiMote at the Screen and then by twisting your WiiMote to go left or right through the levels while avoiding obsticles in the level such as bumpers to knock you of the edge and send you falling forever.

At the end of the levels you have completed there are also unique bosses for you to verse after you complete a world in story mode, there are bosses who have rocket launchers and fire at you and you have to jump at the right moment to push the button on the rocket to fire back at the boss and make him lose some of his life.

Something else that is new in Super Monkey Ball – Banana Blitz is that there are 2 new characters known as YanYan and Docter. YanYan doesn’t look very new and could be basicly a copy a MeeMee (An ‘original’ female character) but with a bit of a new hair style.
Docter also looks strange because first of all he has crosses that are on the inside of the glasses he is wearing and that his beard looks like a duck’s beak! (I’m Hoping that he has a beard not a beak).

Now another bit of critsim to this game is that the party games suck when it comes to using the WiiMote with some of them. One of the games could be one of the hardest to use because you have point at screen and move your WiiMote to the side of the screen for it to change direction, but the character doesn’t even twitch, for people who are interested that Party Game, it is known as Frog Ball.

When I played with my friends and my brother we found some good Party Games that handle really well, as well!

So to conclude my review this is some box information simplified:

Title: Super Monkey Ball – Banana Blitz
Developer: SEGA
Players: 4
Nun-chuck: YES
Modes Supported: 50Hz / 60Hz
Compatibility: EDTV / HDTV

* Piracy is when a person makes a copy of a game’s data of its Disc and then puts it on the internet for people to download to their PCs and then put that game data on a disc to use in a console or in another computer.

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