This is a new Google Gadget. Bit of a cheeky one, as this is a clone of my Net Meter gadget, but with a different way of presenting the information. The gadget shows a pair of dials to indicate the upload and download speeds, and has a kinds shiny Vista Aero look to it. I could have made this a part of the my original Net Meter gadget as an alternative display mode or something, but in the end decided to make it a separate gadget.
Download - Net Meter Dial Edition - v1.6.2
(more…)
I’m a bit of a roguelike fan, yes they are probably the most geeky games in existence, but there is something about trawling through a dungeon slaying monsters and finding treasure that always apeals to me. If you have no idea what a roguelike is (which is more than likely!) check out the wikipedia page for details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike, but to quote and summarise:
A roguelike is a member of the role-playing video game genre that borrows its name and gameplay elements from the 1980 computer game Rogue. Superficially, a roguelike is a two-dimensional dungeon crawl with a high degree of randomness and an emphasis on statistical character development. Though traditionally featuring a text user interface, many such games utilize graphic tiles to overcome character set limitations.
The roguelike I mostly play is Angband on the PC, but I had the urge to see what portable versions exist, primarily for the Nintendo DS. Sadly no playable version of Angband exists for the DS, but there are a few other roguelikes available, this is what I found…
There are two versions of this venerable roguelike for the DS, one is unplayable (IMHO) due to the microscopic font and tileset used. The other one is much better and far more playable. Get it here:
http://frodo.dyn.gno.org/~brettk/NetHackDS
Crawl is another popular roguelike, it’s been ported to the DS but many of the links and the main site for it are dead, I finally found a working copy at the link below. It’s not got as much graphical polish as Nethack (and that’s not saying much!!) and it has an odd control scheme that took some getting used to, but it seems perfectly playable on the DS
http://library.dev-scene.com/index.php?dir=DS/Games/DSCrawl/
I’d never heard of this roguelike until today, but it seems rather good. It was developed specifically for the Gameboy Advance which explains why it works so well on the DS. It’s got a good user interface which works excellently on the DS. Of the 3 games I’ve tried this the best “fit” for the DS, the other games show their PC heritage with obscure command maps and pseudo-keyboard input. It also seems pretty detailed in terms of things to do and monsters. Recommended.
http://www.zincland.com/powder/index.php?pagename=about
Right so now I can happily slay goblins, cast spells, drink unknown potions and bash down locked doors all from the comfort of the train!
No More Heroes is a Wii game directed by Suda51 and devloped by Grasshopper - the same team that did Killer7.
This game is a shambles.
If you stop for a second, and look past the wannabe POP art stylings, the “crazy” dialog, the fact the game thinks it’s being dangerous and different, you will find…
An incredibly poor game underneath it all.
If this wasn’t a Suda 51 game then it would have been panned.
It plays, looks and feels like a 3rd rate budget Dreamcast game, or some fan made GTA clone with a sub-standard fighting engine tacked on.
100% pure style over substance.
I can see now why it got a 9 in Edge, and no that doesn’t mean it’s any good; the total opposite. It’s just the sort of arty wank they lap up.
Yes another Google Gadget, a nice and simple one this time.
It’s a notepad/sticky note/post-it/jotter gadget, yes there are already several of these available but this one is different. It allows you to store several pages of notes all in one place. You simply pick the page you want to edit from the drop-down combo list.
Download - Multi Note v1.0
(more…)
About the same time I picked up Halo 3 I got Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) on the PS3 too, bit of a FPS overload in hindsight, but hey-ho.
I didn’t have high hopes for UT3, I played a lot of the original on the PC way back in the day, but recent experiences with online multiplayer FPS games haven’t been good (my Halo 3 experience below being a case in point) But much to my surprise I’ve been really getting into this; firstly the PS3 version allows you to download & install custom content, such as maps, mods etc. a feature common on the PC but this is the first time I’ve seen it done so openly on a console. I’m a sucker for this sort of stuff and I’ll happily while away hours trying out new maps and such like, but I’m odd like that.
The game still plays and feels a lot like classic Unreal Tournament, a fast paced, twitch shooter almost arcade like in its core simplicity. In essence not a lot has changed over the years since the original game back in 1999 and basic deathmatch & team deathmatch is still its strongest side for me. It’s very pretty too, sadly most of the time it’s rushing past in a blur, but if you take the time to look around you’ll find some very nice looking and well designed environments. As an added bonus I’m not totally shit at it, yay! and this has come as the biggest surprise to me! I’ve played a far few matches and even won a couple, coming second or mid-table at worst. This isn’t a boast; I’m not that good, but it’s sure a lot more fun to play when you are not dying every 3 seconds or feel like you are merly n00b cannon fodder for all the other players that probably spend about 12 hours a day doing nothing but playing. Don’t expect a detailed plot or story (the offline campaign mode attempts this and it’s frankly embarrassing) but for a quick & mindless blast you can’t go wrong.
Top stuff…
I’m probably a glutton for punishment or something - despite not liking like online multiplayer FPS genre I’ve gone and picked up Halo 3 and Unreal Tournament 3 (henceforth UT3). Why?
Well Halo 3 got a lot of love when it was released, I didn’t pick it up at the time as the prospect of playing a shiny space marine blasting shiny purple aliens a-la Halo 1 & 2 bored me to tears. However a £23 quid bargain price (zavvi.co.uk) and a burning curiosity to see what all the fuss was about resulted in me picking it up. First of all the plot/story/acting is laughable; after playing Half Life 2 this is like coming straight from Blade Runner to an episode of Hollyoaks, anyhow that’s not a major problem. The offline campaign seems pretty good, I’ll probably endure it to the end, it’s deserves at least that much of me. So what about the online multiplayer, the main reason everyone loved Halo 3 – shit! did everyone else get a different version of the game from me? I hated it, absolutely loathed every second of it. It was just a horrible, repetitive experience - enhanced greatly by being sworn at in French the whole time.
I just genuinely can not understand the appeal. TBH online play has never really been my thing, but you know this could (or should) have been the game to change my mind. The fact that I die within about 3~4 seconds of respawning clearly doesn’t help. All the other players seem to have some uncanny, magic ability to kill me with a single shot where-as I’ll be pumping thousands of bullets into them and they bearly flinch. Gahh life is too short of this kind of hassle, and I’ve got a pile of games to play in which I don’t spent 90% of my time as a crumpled up corpse.
Shite this has turned into a long whaffle posting, I’ll cover UT3 another day…
I’ve been taking my time over The Orange Box, having done Half Life 2, Episode 1 and Portal last year, I was logically leaving Episode 2 till last. So now it’s done - wow what a top quality slice of gaming. Its triple ‘A’ stuff from start to end. It’s far better than Episode 1 which suffered from feeling a bit of a stop gap or some sort of “Lost Levels” add-on to Half Life 2.
Episode 2 has all the hall marks of the series, great story line, excellent characters and some classic set-pieces; the epic fight at the end was something I’ll remember for a while! Something the all Half Life 2 games do very well that few other games manage is to make you feel part of a believeable and realistic world - despite the sci-fi setting. For example the characters look and act convincing and don’t fall into the Uncanny Valley trap like say Mass Effect does. Also the world around you is convincing too, small details like a pile of empty cans next to a corpse in an abandoned house, all manage to convey little stories. There is always something to interact with, even it’s some litter or a crate bobbing in a puddle, other games this gen feel bland and empty in comparison. Mass Effect or DMC4 for example - they might look very pretty but in terms of game content and interaction most of the time you might as well be walking through a series of featureless box rooms & corridors. Half Life 2 level/world design is probably the best I’ve seen full stop.
I figure we’ve got some time to wait before Episode 3 comes along, which I from what I’ve heard will wrap up this current “story arc”, lets wait and see.
Oh before forget…
Girlfriend Friendly Factor: High, lots of plot and story to follow, Vortigaunts provide light relief
