Review: Forza 2 Demo

All I have to say is WOW. The developers really rushed this demo out to the xbox marketplace. Within a fifteen minute period, the game crashed twice. Once while loading, and the second while mid-race. Apart from the crashes, the game doesn’t look all that impressive compared to other racing games available for the 360. I was a fan of the first Forza and really enjoyed fine tuning the car to be just right. It brought back memories of another game I used to play all the time (too bad I can’t think of the name).

If you are thinking about downloading the game, take this as a warning. If you do download it, tell me how it works.

Review: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

I just got my new graphics card (x1900GT) and another gig of ram. I also purchased S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. And I must say, it is one of the more graphically advanced games on the market. I tried to play it with one gig of ram and my older x800GTO and it looked ok. The graphics were very comparable to those of Half-Life 2, except at a lower framerate. On my new card the game runs great. I can’t play at max settings with dynamic lighting, but that’s fine. For a graphics card that cost only 124 dollars from Newegg, it is holding up wonderfully.

Not much of a review, nothing really bad to say about the game at all. It plays much like Oblivion. If you have the hardware, go out and buy this game. You won’t regret it. Screen caps to come soon.

Why I [Now] Hate Windows Vista

Windows Vista, the next generation of computing. The visual eye candy masterpiece of the century. The most stable operating system from Microsoft to date. This is what they want us to think. We were told that Vista would be so stable that you wouldn’t have to restart because of programs locking up, or explorer crashing. I wish I could believe this, and I did until today.

Today alone I had to restart upwards of six times. The day before even more. It seems that the more the operating system is updated, the more problems arise. It all started a few days ago when an update was released for my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 940bw). I’m fine with updates as they usually make things better. This one however changed the color profile of windows to look more “realistic.” If they think realistic is white being a shade of yellow, then I must be color-blind.

Trying to fix this wasn’t easy, it kept reverting the color profile back to what it thought was best. I even tried a system restore; that’s another story. But along with this color profile came something else. Photoshop decided to stop working. It would open just fine, then right before the toolbars load, gives me the error:

Hardware error. Photoshop will not exit.

Hmm. I wonder what caused this. System restore was my only option. Oh great, system restore is broken. That’s just great. In fact, it’s still broken today. If anyone knows how to fix it, I would sure love it if you could assist in fixing it.

That’s not the end of this yet. I tried to run system restore off the Vista Business CD Microsoft sent me … no system restore points found. Oh that’s great. Yes, I did have them enabled.

Ok, so today is really what sets me off. I sitting here, not more than an hour ago downloading updates for Quake 4. I was trying to burn files to a DVD at the same time. Although, Windows isn’t happy with letting me do what I want, instead, they must make me suffer. The computer crashes, 90% done with the download that has been going for about fourty-five minutes. This was the last time I had to restart today. Throughout the day, Vista has decided to just stop working. Mouse works great. But the GUI is completely unresponsive. Animations don’t play when you mouse over the red x, star menu doesn’t come up. Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn’t even work! This was supposed to be a safeguard way to make sure you didn’t have to hard reset your computer!

It’s working again for the time being. And I’m not very pleased right now with Vista as you can tell. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new system. But why on earth did they take RC1 which worked perfectly on my computer, and destroy it for no added gain? Sure games do run now, but is that a tradeoff of stability?

Microsoft, if you read this, please fix my Vista. I would call tech support, but I don’t want to pay for it. Somehow, I think you knew this was coming so you can easily charge people to fix problems with your new OS.

Why Cramming For Finals Is Bad

Let’s face it: you’ve slacked off all semester and it’s now finals time. Don’t open that book just yet, you may just be wasting your time. I will attempt to explain before it’s too late.

First, I would like to evaluate the reason we are forced to sit in an often crowded class for an endless amounts of time. We are forced into this because it is supposed to be the time when we learn new ideas, theories, concepts, procedures, et cetera. School is not about wasting time and ignoring the teacher. As bad or boring as the class may be, paying attention will ultimately save you much time in the long run.

In my case at least, studying before a major or even minor test actually hindered my test scores more than it helped. I have found out that simply doing the work in class is more than enough to familiarize yourself with everything you need to know for the finals and other assorted tests along the way.

Tests are not made to be a test of how much you can remember for one day, they are designed to test how much of the information you stored in your brain over a long period of time. This is why most finals focus mostly on material covered in the beginning of the semester.

To whom benefits if you know the information for one day? If you forget the information soon after then you really just wasted your time and probably would have been better off taking a different course.

I have only studied a few times my entire time at school. I don’t worry about a test the next day. If I don’t know the material, then I don’t know it. I’m not going to waste my time and cram the information to try and mislead the teacher into believing I know it. If anything, it’s better to get wrong what you don’t know. It lets the teacher know what they did right. How else would they know if no one told or showed them?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for doing extra work spread over a long time. You will better retain that information. I all the time read up on past subjects on Wikipedia. It’s much fun to learn more than the teacher taught.

One last reason cramming is bad: it adds too much stress to your life. That is the last thing you need when trying to memorize information. You will almost certainly forget the information as you doze off hours before class starts.

Review – Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny

Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. And I’m not being funny either. I knew the movie was not going to be great, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jack Black and Tenacious D, but this movie…. could have been so much more.

Plot goes that little JB runs away from home, lands in Hollywood, and meets some local slacker (KG). They become friends, start a band, and begin their search for the holy grail of guitar picks. After stealing the pick, they meet get into a car chase, meet up with Satan and somehow defeat him in a rock off.

What gets me, and I still wonder why they didn’t do this: at the end of the movie, they had the best setup to start the song “Tribute” and as I waited for it, nothing. They left me in my seat with and empty feeling, and the desire to leave before the credits finished. All in all, it was a good idea, executed in the wrong manner, by the wrong people. Jack Black needs to find something else to do because his other movie (Nacho Libre) was also horrible.

If you are into cheap giggles, and some clever moments, then this is the movie for you. I got no more than a chuckle in the very beginning of the movie. Usually I laugh like crazy during comedy, guess this just isn’t one of them.

Need For Speed Carbon + Vista = Problems

It’s really sad that games being released so close to the “Vista Epoch” are not vista compatible. It makes me wonder what the game developers are thinking. Sure I was able to get the game to run, but it took some tweaking and lots of trial/error.

Besides the crashing, even on XP, the game really stinks. The graphics have not improved much, and for some reason it won’t let me enable anti-aliasing. Good thing ATi lets me force AA on. I’m going to sit down tonight and play through the game, and maybe update this mini-review if it gets better, but what I saw a few minutes ago did not look very promising.

Update: 11-24-2006

I’ve noticed a lot of hits to this small article, and all the search engine terms point to people having trouble running Need For Speed: Carbon on Vista. The solution is quite easy.

Go find the .exe file in the programs folder. Right click on it and select properties. Next, click the compatibility tab and select the Windows 98 option. Any other version of Windows compatibility do not work correctly. This did fix a problem with the game crashing, but it does not fix the problem with memory programs coded into the game. I am still waiting for a patch from EA to resolve this problem. Let me know if you have any other troubles and I might be able to assist you.

Update: 11-25-2006

By the looks of it, EA has realeased a patch for Carbon, but does not fix any of the real problems.

This patch has been released to address the following issues:

1. Client side EA Messenger crash
2. EA Nation registration email field character limit to small for larger email addresses
3. EA Nation registration CD Key field character limit issue
4. Issue pertaining to launching Need for Speed Carbon PCCD
5. Incorrect car names appearing in the Pursuit Tag leaderboards

All issues above will be resolved by installing the Need for Speed Carbon PCCD Patch.

Wow! EA sure did a wonderful job making the game run right. I will be sure to buy the next installment in the Need For Speed series.

Update: 12-29-2006

Thanks to Denzo for pointing out that if you rename the MOVIES folder in the Need For Speed Carbon program folder, the game will run flawlessly. You won’t get the pre-rendered videos, but you also won’t have to use the Win/98 compatibility mode. I just tested it and it runs very smoothly on Vista. I should point out that the videos need to be updated by EA if they are the problem.

UPDATE: 2-2-2007

Vista has been out in stores for some time now, and what would you know? No patch from EA. Tisk tisk tisk.

Review – Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

I got back a while ago from watching Borat, and I must say, I don’t think I have laughed so hard in my life.

– SPOILER WARNING -

Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional character created by Sacha Baron Cohen, travel with his producer and friend Azamat Bagatov, played by Kevin Davitian, across the United States trying to make a documentary for their home country. They arrived in New York where they met their first American friends. After Borat had the ‘best day in my life’ they ended the day in the fancy hotel room. While watching television, Borat spots Pamela Anderson; which he instantly falls in love with. The agenda for the trip was forcefully changed to revert their path to California, where Borat hopes to marry Pamela.

On the way to California, home to Pearl Harbor and Texas, the two film makers run into many problems. At one point they were wrestling in a hotel room, without their clothes. This made them part their ways. Eventually Borat makes it to California and somehow, through some form of magic, meets Azamat. They find Pamela; that can only lead to one thing. Borat says he wanted to show America some Kazakhi culture. He asks Pamela if she would marry him, and when she says no, Borat proceeds to put a large pillow case bag over her. Pending his arrest, he chased her around the book store and into the parking lot. In the end, the two create their movie and make Kazakhstan a better place.

Overall I would give Borat a 5/5. The amount of off-the-wall comedy was simply amazing. Much of which you were not expecting. And what you did expect hit you without much warning. As a suggestion, do some sit-ups before you see this film, your abdomen will thank you.

IMDB listing
Wikipedia listing

Review: Prey (PC)

I decided to buy myself a copy of Prey, because well, after playing the demo I was quite amazed. I have to admit, the graphics are the best I have seen yet on any PC game I’ve owned, which isn’t many. I downloaded it for the 360, and was not as impressed.

I haven’t had time to fully play the game, however; I am very drawn into the plot line which goes something like this:

You are on an Indian Reserve. Your girlfriend lives on the reserve with you as well as all your family. You try to talk your girl into moving away with you because you can’t stand the place. Not before long, the tv talks about strange thinks in the sky. As one could predict, a truck outside the bar is lifted up, then thrown into the bar. Everything in the bar is sucked up by the aliens.

You now find yourself somewhere in space in some form of carrying device. You cannot move much and death seems imminent. However, something blows a machine up and you crash out of the device. Your girl is still on the device and you set out to save her. From here everything gets really weird, such as walking on walls, transportation mirrors and the works.

I’m not going to spoil your fun if you do buy it, so I will stop where the demo ends and let you discover the rest. If I were to rate the game, I would give it an 8.5/10.