This year’s E3 was noticeable for one thing, a sudden decision by Microsoft to cancel / ‘postpone’ an announcement from Bungie. Rumours floated around the forums on why precisely Microsoft would do this. Microsoft went as far as citing time constraints for cutting Bungie from the show. Most gamers are of the opinion that it might have been cut so as not to take the attention away from Microsoft’s announcement of the new Xbox Live dashboard update.
But just recently a timer reappeared on the Bungie site and was followed by several cryptic blogposts that had fans guessing what Bungie had in store for them. Yesterday the timer finally ran out and revealed this, a teaser trailer for a project Bungie is currently working on. It seems to be for a downloadable expansion of sorts for Halo 3 though this is just guess work on the part of fans. It might not also feature Master Chief but rather it will focus on the exploits of the ODST, though once again this is just speculation. Anyway, here’s the clip so you can watch it and make your own mind up.
As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. Today I’ve had my car, a 2006 VW Golf, pack up on me yet again. What makes it even worse is that this is the exact same problem I had with it a few months ago that was supposedly fixed when I took it in to Barons. The problem seems to be related to an electrical fault in the car and at random points while I’m driving it will just turn off the entire electrical system which shuts down the engine. As you can well imagine, this is quite a bit hair raising while you’re driving at full speed with cars all around you.
Needless to say I’ve phoned Barons and booked my car in for next week Thursday. This puts me under a bit of pressure as I’ll be flying up country on the Friday to attend the Rage gaming show so I’ll have very little time to get my car back. Hopefully the repairs will be cheap as I’m already cash strapped as is this month after spending close to R 2000 on my air tickets so any additional unforeseen expenses will really hurt me this month.
I’ve also been given some additional strain with the news that I’ve got to work almost permanent overtime at my work after it seems a blunder on management’s side sees me under a huge amount of work pressure. I suppose I should have expected this sooner rather than later as working between two departments will always be impossible to schedule in a normal 8 hour working day. Hopefully things will calm down and get under control in the next month or two as I work my way towards the end of my 3 year articles for my SAIPA qualification.
A further thing on my plate is my upcoming trip to Rage. My friends know full well that when it comes to air travel I get as nervous as can be with thoughts of crashing and disastrous happenings flying through my mind continuously.
Perhaps this time will go just as well as my trip to Natal last year.
So hopefully this quick update has managed to give you an idea of why my blog posts have slowed down of late. I’m also especially glad that Craig finally gets his wish that I post about something other than open source software
Being an avid Firefox user I’ve become accustomed to its powerful extensions and themeing capabilities. So it was pleasant to stumble upon this link to Foxkeh’s blog. If you didn’t know, Foxkeh is the official mascot of Firefox that was created in Japan 2 years ago. To commemorate his 2 year birthday there’s a Foxkeh theme that has been released for Firefox that places him in the upper right of your browser window and animates him while pages load. Give it a try and download it from here.
We’re fast approaching that time of year where the annual battle of the big two heats up. No, not Manchester United and Liverpool, rather the perennial battle between FIFA and PES for your gaming dollar during the month of October.
After last year’s disappointing PES game I was adamant that this year I would opt for FIFA rather and succumb to its shiny and addictive gameplay. This morning though I am swaying back to PES 2009 and there’s one reason for it: PES has managed to grab hold of the Champion’s League licence for the next 4 years. This means that you’ll be able to play the Champion’s League in all its glory with licensed teams including stat graphics and logos straight off your TV. Add to this the fact that my favourite team, Manchester United, are also now officially licenced for this year’s game and there is just no way I can say no to PES 2009. Liverpool are another English team that is officially licensed and its even gone so far as to have been branded the Official Videogame of the Liverpool team. So all you Pool fans will have to buy it this year
Here’s the Champion’s League trailer for PES 2009 to whet your appetites:
Just a quick update with regards to the recent release of iTunes 8. This new version of iTunes doesn’t bring too many enhancements and new features above iTunes 7 and unfortunately for us Windows users its still very slow to load and play your music collection.
I’m actually considering moving my music playing to Winamp or foobar2000. Both of which have large numbers of fans and are also both faster by far than Apple’s product. Grab the programs at the following sites:
Great news for a Google fan such as myself is that the long rumoured Google Browser would now seem to be almost upon us. Google have just released news of Google Chrome, the much vaunted open source browser they will be releasing today. According to Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on ZDNet, the browser will have the following features:
Open source, built from scratch
Make use of a JavaScript virtual machine called V8
Support multiple processes so each tab runs in isolation so bugs and slow-downs only hit a single tab (creating what’s called in the comic book a “sad tab”) rather than bring the browser crashing down
Revolutionary use of tabs (the tabs will be at the top of the window rather than below the address bar
Incognito mode that kinda sounds like Internet Explorer’s InPrivate mode
Make use of WebKit open source rendering engine
Plugins removed from the rendering process and placed in a separate process
Web app support
Whiz-bang address bar called “Omnibox”
Be sure to check up on the official Google Blog for the exact release time today. It certainly will be interesting to see how this browser will enter the market and affect the market share for IE and Firefox.
So after 3 years in development The Behemoth has finally released Castle Crashers on Xbox Live to mixed reactions. There is no denying that the game is wonderful and real good fun when played with friends. The problems arise when the netcode used has a lot of bugs. This has led to frequent disconnections with friends while trying to play online co op. Thankfully it seems as though the initial batch of problems have been sorted out this past week and I’ve had several fun games online.
The actual gameplay of Castle Crashers is quite simplistic with two variations of attack, a jump button and some magic attacks. Where the fun comes into play is with the fun to be had slaughtering waves of enemies while laughing and running amok. You guide your little group of knights through several different levels each following the standard action formula of waves of enemies followed by a boss character. Where Castle crashers excels is in the use of humour and great graphics from Dan Paladin. Each of the enemies you face is hilarious to come across and the bosses each have some sort of lovable characteristic to them. Take for instance the one boss who uses an organ to fire cannon balls at you while you desperately try to pummel him into submission.
Each of the knights you use can also be customized with different weapons you can unlock as well as their stats which can be increased upon levelling up. At 1200 points Castle Crashers is well worth the purchase, though you might be well advised to wait a few weeks for the bugs to be ironed out with a patch in the works from The Behemoth.
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