Geek Swagger.
PC
A new contender enters the ring…
Apr 7th
It's no secret that I've been planning my next laptop purchase for a while now. Â Up until today I was stuck deciding between the HP HDX 16 and the Dell Studio XPS 16. Â Now Acer had to come along and throw a monkey wrench into my plans! Â I was lucky to have narrowed it down that far!
Acer announced a new line of very interesting notebooks at their event in New York today. Â The new line is branded "Aspire Timeline," and they basically amount to machines with the portability of a MacBook or Dell Adamo with a much more attractive price. Â There are three models (13.3", 14.1" and 15.6") and all three are only an inch thick. Â The prices range from $699 - $899. Â They also have incredible battery life; eight hours stock and up to ten with a solid state drive.
Since I'm looking for a machine with a screen that's larger than my current MacBook's the 15.6-incher is my most likely candidate. Â Of course details are sketchy right now and if the laptops don't perform in the end then I'll have to pass. Â Still, in the documentation Acer says that these are for "knowledgeable users who understand performance" so there's hope.
Originally found on Engadget:
Rockstar announced Max Payne 3
Mar 24th
I can't decide how to feel about this one.  I heard about it yesterday morning and at first I was quite happy since Max Payne is a series I love, but then after thinking about it things could be worse off this time around.  First, this game is not being developed by Remedy who developed the first two in the series.  Second, the game's one press image is of Max looking rough and old, almost like Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell: Double Agent (which was my least favorite in that particular series).  Finally, they're promising to take Max where "we’ve never seen him before," and frankly I'd be happy with a game that's exactly like Max Payne 2 but with new levels, story and graphics.
Of course since there's so little to go on I can't really make a snap judgment at this point, but I guess I'm just a little wary of this announcement.  Hopefully the game turns out great, and either way I'll be playing it.  You can hit the link below to catch a bit of info if you're interested. Let's just hope they don't try to work in any of the story elements from the movie, which I just watched last weekend for the first time (handily enough), and am not a big fan of.
Dell Adamo – Style over Substance
Mar 18th
My interest was piqued back at CES when Dell announced their new Adamo line of laptops. They are branded as extravagant, stylish and lightweight alternatives to Apple notebooks for the PC crowd, and given Dell's push to compete aesthetically with some of the prettier laptops on the market this new line truly showed promise.  On Tuesday the Adamo's details were leaked and since then most of my excitement has evaporated.
I'm not going into the details (I'll save that for a link at the end of this post) but this new Adamo laptop is like the Dubai of notebooks. Â That is to say Dell seems to have paid most attention to outward appearances and the look of the laptop but when it gets down to it beauty is only skin deep. Â The actual hardware inside the sleek chassis is pretty anemic. Â The machine's processor only maxes out at 1.4ghz, and that's only on the $2,700 model. Â That's right. Â $2,700! Â The lesser model comes in at $1,999 for a 1.2ghz core 2 duo. Â Sheesh...I think Dell is borrowing one of my least favorite parts of the Apple model - premium pricing.
There is some good to be had.  Like I mentioned the machine is beautiful, and each models come with a 128GB solid state drive.  They've also worked in DDR3 memory which is a plus.  However that's all I can really say about the Adamo that's positive.  One of the best things about purchasing a PC laptop is that you can customize the model by picking and choosing details like processor speed and amount of RAM, but you can't even do that with the Adamo.  You either get the expensive laptop or the even-more expensive laptop, and hey if you want to you can drop some expensive accessories on top of it for good measure. The hardware and price on this 13" beauty just isn't justifiable.
See the whole nitty-gritty here: Dell.com - Dell Adamo Specifications
Laptop shopping
Mar 5th
It's become painfully obviously lately that I need a new laptop. The ol' black macbook (with a Core Duo, not even Core 2) isn't cutting it anymore. I'd also like something with a 15"+ screen. So, check out the Macbook Pro, right? Not so much. They're expensive!
I've done some looking around lately and my two most viable options are the Sony Vaio FW and the Dell Studio XPS 16. The Dell has better components (DDR3 RAM, RGBLED display) but costs a few hundred more than the Vaio. Despite all of that the lowest end Macbook Pro costs several hundred more than either of them. The biggest problem is that I like the looks of the Pro more than any laptop on the market, but that really isn't worth the extra $500 considering I'd be sacrificing a faster CPU and bigger default HDD.
So honestly I'm kind of stuck. I've found that I mostly use my MacBook for work stuff and therefore I'm running Windows on it 90% of the time, so going with a PC laptop seems the best route. Still, none of them seem perfect. From what I've heard the Vaio has really loud mouse buttons and a less-than-desireable trackpad. The Dell is...well, a Dell. It's got a leather accent on it which treads the thin line between cheesy and classy. It's also covered in glossy black finish which would indicate to me that it's a magnet for fingerprints, even moreso than my black matte macbook.
What's a geek to do! Any suggestions?
Gaming deal of the week – Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions for 5 bucks
Feb 27th
This one is courtesy of Steam. I've been looking to pick up this game anyways since the news of the sequel hit the street, and this just made my purchase that much easier. A current generation title for $5? Yes, please. If your machine can run it this is an awesome deal. Even if you're not really interested in the game it's worth a shot at this price.  I found out about this from my boys at Joystiq:
And here's the Lost Planet 2 trailer announced earlier in the week:
Area 5′s Co-op show
Feb 23rd
I was (and am) a huge fan of the 1UP Yours podcast. Unfortunately 1UP was hit by the economic downturn like most other companies these days, and so a lot of the guys who I'm used to hearing every week suddenly found themselves out of a job. Fortunately a few of them have banded together to start a new video series, and in so doing have given new life to the now deceased 1UP Show.
This isn't really news but I just wanted to give them a plug, as little as it may mean from my minuscule blog. If you're into gaming at all I can't recommend their videos enough. They've set up a YouTube channel, so if you have an account go ahead and subscribe like I have:
If you're not sure what the whole thing is about you can catch the latest episode of CO-OP below.
This is why I love Valve
Feb 20th
They know how to sell their games. They're perfect at inciting that impulse purchase by putting up a game for so cheap that even if you don't need or want it, you can't resist. This past weekend their extremely popular survival horror FPS "Left 4 Dead" was available on Steam for 50% off. That means you could get a couple-months old blockbuster for $25. It goes without saying that this is an amazing deal.
Because of this deal the sales numbers for Left 4 Dead on Steam went up 3000%. That's not a typo, three-thousand percent. Not only that, but the game sold so well that it actually outperformed the game at launch. Amazing. Hey Sony and Microsoft, you want to know how to solidify digital distribution as a means of content delivery? Start offering up some limited-time deals to subscribers like Valve does! The only unfortunate thing is that I already own Left 4 Dead for both the Xbox 360 and PC. It's funny, I actually got it for PC from Steam when they dropped the price to $35 a few weeks ago...and I thought that was a smoking deal.
You can check out the article that I read about this from here:
Also on a related note I saw this in my twitter feed yesterday and I couldn't help but laugh: . Props to @jcallinan for linking this up, haha!
The future of music games
Jan 6th
If you know anything about the gaming industry, you know that music games have been extremely successful lately. Whether Rock Band or Guitar Hero, this new peripheral-based spin on gameplay has garnered a ton of fans over the past year or two. Me personally, I've started to get over the "fad." I don't necessarily think these games are just a fad, but the appeal has worn off on me after playing 3 successive generations of Guitar Hero, and 2 of Rock Band. I'm not sure how many more times I'll be asked to purchase new plastic instruments to keep up with the games as they evolve, but I'm sort of ready to hang up my guitar and retire at this point.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially because a lot of my friends still play Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and I'm wondering what could keep people like myself interested moving forward. First off I think they need to standardize instruments. Perhaps each console maker could cut a deal with the developers to create first party peripherals, and give a cut of whatever money they make back. All I know is that I can't be bothered to buy a new set of instruments every few months...I'm already running out of room to store all of my plastic instruments in. It seems like a bit of a scam, doesn't it? First we had wired guitars, those were fine. Then wireless, that's a desirable upgrade. Then Rock Band came out with the drum kit, microphone and a new guitar with solo buttons. Now Guitar Hero has a full kit as well (thought it should be noted that you can use these cross-platform) including a guitar with a slide on it. It seems like almost every time there's a new game released we get new, slightly improved instruments which have some new janky feature. I'm the kind of person who wants to buy this new revision because I feel like if I don't have solo buttons or a guitar slide I won't be getting the most out of the game. But no more!
The most important part about music games is, of course, the music. The only problem is that the music is getting more and more obscure as the well-known artists become tapped. The first few Guitar Hero games plus the first Rock Band game already have a lot of the songs that I'd want to play in a music game. I was playing Rock Band 2 a while ago and I thought to myself "man, these songs are okay to play but I don't know who half of these artists are." Not only that but there's a lot of overlap between the two franchises - you'll find songs in Guitar Hero that were already in Rock Band, and vice versa. How can Harmonix and Neversoft keep things fresh as more and more games are made, especially with the requirement of downloadable songs not included on the initial disc? One way might be to lock up artist-specific versions of the game. The Guitar Hero franchise is already headed in this direction with Guitar Hero: Metallica slated for early this year.
Rock Band on the other hand has a huge library of songs ready for download. It seems they're more prepared to supplement their current games with downloadable content moving forward. This is more appealing to me. I'd rather buy one disc every 2, 3 or 4 years and then just buy the songs I want as DLC in the time between major releases. I'd also like to see the DLC bundled in with future releases, something they didn't do with Rock Band 2. If, with Rock Band 3, I could pay an addition fee and get all of the DLC released between RB2 and RB3 I'd jump on that in an instant.
Ultimately though I'd just like to be able to choose which songs I want from the get-go. Rather than having Harmonix or Neversoft choose what songs will be included with their game, why not just let me ask for what I want to play? I know, it sounds ridiculous. What, they're going to make a custom version of the game just for me? With all of the legalities involved it's an impossible task. Still, a little personalization wouldn't hurt. That way I wouldn't be stuck playing Mighty Mighty Bosstones tracks (no offense if you're a fan), asking myself all the while why there hasn't been a Deftones song available yet.
What I really want is a version of Rock Band or Guitar Hero with all Irish folk songs though...Folk Hero? Folk Band? Get to work on that. =)
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Holiday gaming rituals
Dec 16th
It's that time of year, and as we move towards the Christmas holiday my mind is always flooded with great games from Christmases past. It's a rather commercial outlook on things, but for any gamer it's hard not to remember some of the great games you've played in the years prior. For that reason I oftentimes find myself revisiting these games leading up to Christmas, and this year is no different. For the past couple weeks I've found myself playing the original Call of Duty, probably spurred on by the fact that I just finished the latest title in the franchise just before. From there I moved on to the cel-shaded shooter XIII, a game which wowed me back in 2003, and still holds up quite well 5 years later.
It's an odd habit, I suppose. For whatever reason I get in certain moods for certain games throughout the year...a sort of "jonesing" if you will. Sometimes the urge to play a game will pay dividends (with Call of Duty and XIII, for example) while other times I'll revisit a game and wonder what I was thinking. I just think it's fun to replay games that tend to get thrown by the wayside so quickly these days by checking out my back catalog. Last year for example, I played through Thief 3: Deadly Shadows for the first time since 2004. The game was great, and it's an excellent way to kill spare time while on break from school and work.
I suppose the only question is will my stint into the archives continue? Probably. So do you have any holiday rituals? Something that makes you perk up this time of year as you relive a tradition? The 1UP Yours podcast has done a segment where gamers send in their own past holiday stories, and I can definitely relate to a lot of them. As a child there was nothing like the anticipation leading up to the big day, and although some of that magic has faded over the years it's always fun to reminisce. Leave a comment and share a story! It doesn't have to do with video games, and can be about absolutely anything.
After all, despite my passion for gaming a lot of my favorite memories involve just having fun with the family. Although this is a little early, I just want to wish any and all readers happy holidays and a merry Christmas!
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