Zombies 4 Charities

I recently had a conversation with someone that got me thinking.

Last year a few people got together, and organized an event. This event was to play the Legend Of Zelda series, live streamed on the net, for 48 hours, all this to raise money for a charity with a good common interest, playing video games.
The people who were involved weren’t power suits and they weren’t superheroes, just normal, everyday people. People who figured out a way to organize a unique way to bring people together and put smiles on peoples faces. They did not seek compensation at all.

In a few weeks Capcom is going to release Resident Evil 5. In leiu of that, I was thinking that we do the charity gaming marathon, but with Resident Evil games. Just the ‘main’ ones. Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica X, Resident Evil 4 and ending with The Umbrella Files. We could have this streamed live while having people submit donations via paypal.

First and foremost though, I need other people. Mainly people who can blast through these games. I also need tech people who can help stream and run this whole marathon I need supporters who can spread the word, who can help in anyway (ie food, drinks). I need people who will help make this happen in any shape or form. Keep in mind, this is for charity and there will not be any cash payments. There will be however as much media coverage as myself and other people can get, as well as the satisfaction of knowing that you helped changed a child’s outlook on life.

As for the charity, http://www.childsplaycharity.org/about.php , The amount of work that this charity puts out has never ceased to amaze me. Check the site to get all the info, this is one of the best charities out there. We all know the feeling of how one game, one toy, or one movie can make all the difference in a bad looking situation.

So please look at the website and if you are interested in anyway, please let me know. my email is a.real.horrorshow@gmail.com. You can message me over facebook as well.
I really want to get this off the ground. It means a lot to me.

Thanks
- Kenny.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Review

Well, one of the biggest gaming releases of this year recently came out… no I’m not talking about Grand Theft Auto IV, it’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots! This game is of course made out of the master mind of Hideo Kojima, and is available right now for the Playstation 3.

I got the game on midnight launch and played it after a quick 4 hour nap, non-stop until I finished it. With rumors and spoilers roaring all over the ‘net, I just wanted to beat the game so I could actually browse websites without the fear of being spoiled of the game’s ending.

I want to start by saying that this game was made for the fans. From start to finish, you aren’t just playing some video game or watching a movie (long cut-scenes FTW), you are part of an entire experience. I throw the word “experience” around a lot while talking about good games, but Metal Gear Solid 4 seriously gets you involved into its universe. This game was going to end a story that started all the way back in the NES days. The amount of hype that it had to live up to was unbelievable, I would go as far as to saying more so than GTAIV. The Metal Gear Solid fan-base is incredible. People have beaten the games countless times, read the novels, played the spin-offs, everything just to get ready for this game. I actually watched the Metal Gear retrospective the day before I got the game twice on GameTrailers. I highly recommend watching it.

Back to the game, I don’t know where to start. There are many ways you can review it. It can be reviewed as a game, an interactive movie, a movie, you get the point. The story… well I won’t talk about that here, that is what you play the game for!

Graphically, Metal Gear Solid 4 is simply awesome. Each area the game takes place in is unique and feels like you are really in it. When you are in a battlefield, it feels like you are in a battlefield. You see bombs go off, people flying around everywhere, it’s just incredible. The characters are some of the best looking models in this current generation of videogames. I would say you could put this game up there with a high-end CGI movie release and it would be just as good, if not better. The Metal Gear Solid series is known for using the real-time (in-game) graphics for the cut-scenes, so you never feel that transition as you do in other games when they start. Pictures or videos don’t do this game justice.

Sound also deserves a 10, A+, 100, whatever the websites are giving it. Battlefields sound even better than they look. I played this game with some pretty good stereo speakers *sad face* and there was just so much going on. The guns sound like they should, explosions, the whole package. You can hear birds chirping, water (!), fart sounds (!!), a guy emptying his bowels (!!!) all in glorious Dolby Digital as well. And while I haven’t heard it myself, I can only imagine how good it is. The Soundtrack (as you should know) is totally rad and epic. You can listen to classic Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid tracks throughout the game by using the iPod that Snake carries with him. You can find tracks hidden in different parts of the game, which keeps you on the look out. There is also a podcast that you can download that is only available through MGS4, which is pretty interesting. It mostly talks about the game, the people behind it, what you would expect from a video game podcast.

The Presentation of the game goes beyond most movies, and offers something that you really have to see to believe. From the moment the menu loads to the installation screens (lung cancer FTW), it told me “JC… you are about to witness a real next-generation game” to which I replied “why am I talking to myself?”. The cut-scenes have a real “movie feel” to them with amazing camera work and great choreography. Honestly, you could buy this game for the cut-scenes alone and it would still be worth it. I’ve yet to mention anything negative, but honestly, I don’t know what negative things to put here… the game ends? There you go. There is one complain that I can think of (not a bad thing for everyone, but it’s something to mention), the fact that the cut-scenes are pretty long. The whole 90-minute cut-scene deal wasn’t a joke. If this game was to be turned into a movie, it would need 3 sequels, a prequel, a spin-off somewhere in there and afterwards an extended edition of all of them. The game took me around 20 hours to complete the first time around on Solid Normal difficulty. Out of the 20 hours, 6-7 hours were of actual gameplay, which isn’t bad considering that is the standard length of an entire game (including cut-scenes) nowadays.

Like I stated in the beginning, this game was made for the fans. The reason most people like the Metal Gear Solid franchise IS because of the epic cut-scenes and the things around them. The cut-scenes (how many times have I said the word “cut-scenes” now?) are the backbone of Metal Gear Solid.

Now that’s all good and all, but what about the meat and potatoes?

When Kojima-san said that you could play the game in different ways, he wasn’t kidding. To put him to the test, I played each Act of MGS4 differently from the one before. The end result? He was right! I tried to match the way I played with what was going on. War zone? I took out a P90, a sniper, some grenades and took the whole place down. Quiet and dark area? time for some sneaking around. I don’t think a single player game has ever had this much replay value, and I know that’s saying a lot. The fact that you can play in all of these different ways will keep you coming back to the game for months to come, not to mention the different difficulty levels, easter eggs and unlockables. The addition of an over-the-shoulder camera view and much improved first-person view adds a lot of variety to the table.

One complaint that past Metal Gear Solid games have had is how the controls seem to have been taken from the NES games, rather than actually try to reinvent them. Guns of the Patriots seems to have finally fixed that issue by doing things like letting you hit the triangle button to hug the wall instead of having to run into it for a few seconds. Some new features include being able to move around while crouching, offering a good balance of stealth and speed. The Kojima Productions team did an amazing job of adding new features and blending them so well into the game, that they just feel like they’ve been there all along. The only real complaint I can bring up involving gameplay is that there simply isn’t enough of it. There IS a great portion of gameplay in MGS4, but when compared to the cut-scenes, some more gameplay or shorter cut-scenes would have been good to balance out the game.

In the end, Metal Gear Solid 4 is THE must-get game for the Playstation 3. If you are a fan of the franchise and own a PS3, odds are you already beat the game (isn’t the ending awesome!?) and are reading this just to see if you hate me or not. If you’re interested in the franchise or just want to see what all the fuzz is about, PLAY this game.

Did GTAIV deserve a 10? No. Does MGS4 deserve a 10? No. Does it deserve a 9.8/9.9? Yes it does. There really isn’t anything bad to say about it, but the fact that there are more cut-scenes than actual gameplay should prevent this from getting a perfect score, regardless of how good they are. The addition of Metal Gear Online: Starter Pack was a nice touch, but nothing that should help in making your decision to buy the game.

So the rundown:

Graphics: 10 – The game looks amazing and is truly a showcase for the PS3.

Sound: 10 – The audio in MGS4 almost surpasses any other aspect of the game.

Presentation: 9.5 – The cut-scenes are something to behold, but that doesn’t give it the right to have such a substantial amount of them, not to mention the length that might repel some of the casual crowd from playing the game.

Gameplay: 9.5 – What’s there is great, but there needs to be more of it.

Lasting Appeal: 10 – Easter eggs, unlockables, online and the different difficulty levels will keep you playing this game for months to come.

Overall Rating: 9.8/10

- “JC Magnus”

gamer vs gamer, on a gamer

There is a new enemy for the modern gamer, and that is a fellow gamer.  Its not limited to a person in particular, but we all have one of the following that we know, and secretly want to beat with a PS3 on the head uncontrollably.
Where brotherhood and companionship there is now gamer points to be won by simple picking off and destroying the person who had your back a few missions ago.  Sure it’s ok for him to kill your character, but you know the second you do the same to him/her, its hell to pay.  it makes you want to unplug your headset and disconnect the live connection.  Followed by blocking them on whatever your im’ing service of choice is.
Moving on, there is a new kind of predator, it’s no longer your bank account telling you have insufficient funds for that new system or game.  Its the person behind you who is waiting to get their grubby hands on what you possess most, not only to afford it, but purchase excess than you think you could ever need.  They are also going to a rent free home, a fridge full of food, and air conditioning/warmth.  This enemy is the living-at-home gamer.
The next is one we can’t deny we know.  Its the video game section/store employee.  Don’t think that just because you get paid to sell stuff we probably know more about then your bullshitting sorry ass, that it makes you all mighty game expert.  The game I asked you to save for me I just saw about 10 seconds ago given to some hot guy or girl.  And yeah that broad on the other side of the aisle who only knows how to spell her name cuz its on her credit card, does have bigger tits than me, and more expensive clothes, her brain cant handle what you’re telling her about that game! Dont waste your time and effort, shes probably going to text her friend about how lame you were!  And speaking of tits, just because I have them and a pink Gameboy, doesnt make me less of a gamer than you, in fact, I see you only have about 3000 gamer points, while I have about 45,000.  Oh so now you’re interested cuz I play games, thanks for the gamertag, don’t expect to be added. Finally, fuck you and your little name tag, your goofy shirt and disgusting snug face.

I’m spent, I hope you can share some of your own stories.
- K

Hi Folks!

My name is Taylor and I’m the new editor around here, see? I don’t wanna hear any lip, see? Anyway, on to the article.

Up until about six months ago I was a Windows guy. I had never even run a stand alone linux machine before I had become fed up with vista on my laptop and decided it was time for a change. Originally, I bought a 160GB drive to put my Vista partition on and I was going to try out Ubuntu Gutsy on my old 80 GB drive, but I decided to try it out on my 160GB to keep from having to copy my partition over from the 80, and I’m kinda glad I did. I use the qualifier, “kinda” because, while I’ve stuck with Ubuntu, the relief it brought was only temporary, like how the joy of masturbation is only temporary.

I had earlier tried Edgy after my first hard drive failed about a year ago and I was not impressed. First, it took me three days to figure out how to get my wireless card to work. Second, while it was functional, Ubuntu seemed more like a novelty, a toy, rather than a full-fledged operating system. I later installed vista, and was happy, for a time. Come my hard drive upgrade and I’m ready to dive off the bow into anything but vista.

So it’s been about six months and my Ubuntu install is well lived-in. There are many things I like about it and many more things I don’t. In the interest of fairness, I will reveal both to you.

PRO: System Updating For Everything

This is totally awesome. Virtually every single piece of software on the machine receives semi-automatic updates via the update manager. Anything that’s in an available “repository” is automatically checked for new version releases and updated at your notice. Every operating system should have this function built-in. Well, I think every one does, except windows.

CON: Troubleshooting

I often find myself at the ubuntu forums trying to find out how to do something or fix something. Usually it’s one of three things: quick and easy, slow and painful, or impossible. This is important, because if I can’t do something quickly and easily I usually don’t want to do it unless I have some time and it’s important for me to do it, and while it is usually easy to find the information on how to do it, it is sometimes very complicated and lengthy to get it accomplished.

PRO: UI + Visual Effects (Compiz)

While it didn’t come enabled correctly out of the box, I was able to easily correct that via a tutorial on the Ubuntu Forums (which I use, A LOT) that allowed for some stunning UI action. I use the multiple desktops (also a PRO) which work great with the visual effects, which make switching desktops seem like the turning of a big cube, or prismatic hexagon in my case, which works and looks fantastic. The window manipulation is also pretty great. Windows flex and ripple when you move them, which sometimes leads to a permanent wiggle, but is easily corrected. They also close and fade away in an almost identical way to vista, but the window seems to fall over as it fades away. I sat down in a computer lab at school and found myself trying to bring up another program by switching to another desktop and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working until I had that V8 moment.

CON: Software Compatibility

This is the Biggie folks. There are simply so many mainstream pieces of software that do not work great, or in most cases, at all with linux. Games, flash, music organizers, none of them work unless they are explicitly designed to work.
While some games work through wine, the windows emulator for linux, the performance is so low compared to how they would run in XP that in most cases it isn’t worth the case unless you have a rockin’ system. Flash, for the most part, is broken. While videos play and web sites load, they often stutter and are impaired functionality-wise. For example: webcams don’t work with flash websites, at all. Want to watch a youtube video full screen? Forget about it. Flash games seem to work right, for the most part. I have an iPod, and while there are some players that claim iPod functionality, they are either too unstable (songbird), too ugly (banshee), or too unusable (amarok) to bother hooking my iPod up to them.
I am also learning how to code C++, but the compiler I use only works for windows, which also works great in wine, but none of the programs I make work correctly in the command line. I have to go over to my windows machine and test my compiled programs there, which is really a pain.

PRO: Virus Free

Since I’ve been using Ubuntu, I haven’t had a single infection which means I don’t have to run anti-virus, which means I don’t have to dedicate memory and computing cycles to running it and I don’t have to be a-feared of surfing some shifty porn site.

CON: Tiring

Lastly I just want to say how tiring running Ubuntu is, even for me. Every few days is an uphill battle to conquer some misbehaving software or research solutions to specific problems, where on windows it would be relatively simple. The forums are great and all, but it begins to be repetitive when you go back every other week for something.

Linux is great and is extremely stable, but sometimes it just seems like its a big puzzle with some missing pieces and some pieces that sometimes don’t fit together correctly. With that said it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever go back to windows for anything more than a sabbatical and I await Hardy Heron with great anticipation.

Thanks Tux.

-Taylor

Update: I’ve gotten a new laptop and my first try to dual boot Heron with vista didn’t pan out so well, but I still plan on dual-booting when it gets to release.

Demonoid is Back!! But Will It Last??

Some of you may have noticed that Torrent tracker giant Demonoid.com went back into business yesterday. First I would just like to say to the Demonoid crew, Welcome Back, you have been sorely missed by myself and many others. Also, I’d like to say that it’s sad to see Deimos himself go, hope things work out for you bro.

Now this warm welcome back comes with a bit of speculation on my part. That is to say, can Demonoid last? There have been so many other sites that have stepped up to fill the void when they went down. Some have come and gone (Oink.cd) some have revamped their current service to become stronger than ever (Pirate Bay) and many more private ratio trackers have sprung out of the demise of Oink. (what.cd, waffles.fm, swebits, etc.) So at this point, can Demonoid restore itself to its former glory? The answer in my opinion is that only time will tell.

That said, I wish them the best of luck, and I can’t wait to start using their site again. Private trackers are nice and all, but can be a major pain due to the amount of work you have to put back into them (i.e. surfing requests pages endlessly to find something actually WORTH uploading so that your ratio doesn’t dwindle and get you banned).

PeerGuardian blocking Revision3

So anyone who knows me, knows I’m a huge Revision3 fan. Diggnation, The Totally Rad Show, Systm, I watch every single show they have.

So imagine my chagrin when suddenly, their site no longer loads in my browser on my Windows machine. For a while, I thought that maybe it was a DNS issue, so I checked OpenDNS using their Cache Check page. All reports were in the green there, so I figured maybe they were just having some issues of their own…Until one day, while trying to browse the forums, PeerGuardian began flashing at me….I opened it up to see what it had blocked…lo and behold, Revision3 was inexplicably on that list! For a minute I thought maybe I was just seeing things…but I re-enabled PG and tried to browse the site again….boom, blocked again!

Now not to drop names or make myself seem like some important person, but I run an IRC network for fans of Rev3, it’s not official or anything, but we do, from time to time, get some of the show hosts and other Rev3 staffers dropping by to chat. On this occasion, thankfully, one such person was in the popSiren chat room. Mauricio Balvinera (aka maubrowncow), one of Revision3’s editors, had stopped by like he does every couple days or so, and I mentioned this to him. He told the head of their IT staff, Chuck Siu, who then provided the picture seen below from a Flickr photostream he googled.

I decided that something really should be done about this, besides just writing a disgruntled blog post and submitting the photo to digg. So I logged onto PhoenixLabs’ IRC Chatroom on Freenode to see if I could get some answers. Here’s a log of my conversation with them.

Apr 10 16:43:53 <TuxOtaku>      hey guys…I have a question about the PeerGuardian Blocklists
Apr 10 16:45:12 <TuxOtaku>      are they user-compiled? or are they something that are maintained internally?
Apr 10 16:45:37 <TuxOtaku>      the reason I’m asking is that certain legitimate sites I frequent are on the blocklists
Apr 10 16:45:43 <TuxOtaku>      namely Revision3.com
Apr 10 16:46:44 <siofwolves>    TuxOtaku, we use the lists that bluetack.co.uk create, as we don’t have our own.
Apr 10 16:46:54 <K`Tetch>       forget it, bluetack runs the lists, and they add stuff and random and NEVER take it off
Apr 10 16:47:52 <TuxOtaku>      damn
Apr 10 16:48:11 <K`Tetch>       they got 1/3 of the net on those lists
Apr 10 16:48:18 <K`Tetch>       they’re meaningless
Apr 10 16:49:21 <TuxOtaku>      meaningless??
Apr 10 16:49:43 <TuxOtaku>      whenever I have PG running and try to browse Rev3’s site, it gets blocked
Apr 10 16:49:44 <K`Tetch>       theres no way to tell who’s anti-p2p, and they mostly use home connections to just LOG
Apr 10 16:50:03 <K`Tetch>       so using bluetack’s lists to try and make you safe during p2p doesn’t work
Apr 10 16:50:15 <K`Tetch>       because the people they’re trying to block, they can’t identify
Apr 10 16:51:50 <TuxOtaku>      sooo, if that’s the case….are there any other lists that PG can use??
Apr 10 16:52:04 <K`Tetch>       not really, you torrent?
Apr 10 16:52:04 <TuxOtaku>      because clearly, that’s bad practise
Apr 10 16:52:26 <K`Tetch>       who can you complain to, complain to bluetack they’ll just ban you

So, not only do PhoenixLabs acknowledge that their software is inherently flawed, they have no means or even motivation (it would seem) to correct the problem.

Bearing that in mind, I no longer use PeerGuardian, and I would advise against installing this program unless you want to see similar issues to what I have experience. If this is how they plan to run things, I’m sure there are better alternatives out there. Also, I would encourage people to speak out against Bluetack and their extremely flawed service, and just generally help get the word out that this is not a product that will aid those in the filesharing and internet privacy communities.

“Dan in real life”

So, I just watched the movie “Dan in real life”.

The movie stars Steve Carell (of “The Office” fame), Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook and a bunch of other actors, one of them being Amy Ryan (who some people might know as Beadie Russell from “The Wire”). The cast is something I feel is done right in this movie. No one feels totally out of place and it helps in making the movie feel true. Apart from some of the younger characters feeling a bit fake at times all the performances really echo the appearance of truth brought by the casting. Everyone gave the impression that they could actually be those people.

The movie introduces a dilemma that could very well become ridiculous, had it been done slightly differently, but it seems to me like everyone worked for the movie to not turn into  a generic comedy, or more appropriately said; a farce. The story stays leveled and, again, true. This is where I feel a seldom seen synergy: Everyone and everything in this movie seems to work towards actually selling the idea that this could happen, and the chain of events actually could play out just like it did in the movie.

One small thing I feel somewhat relieved by is the fact that Dane Cook didn’t take the steering wheel, but got to play an important support role to build up the drama and conflict, as well as serve a joke or two; something I feel he is more suited for than playing a lead role. I think he’s even more suited to doing stand-up and staying away from movies, but that’s beside the point.

All in all, I thought it was a good watch. “Dan in real life” isn’t hilarious. It’s also probably not a movie that will bring forth a flood of tears either. It’s a mix of a good story told in a good way, some good comedy kept in good balance and believable content brought forward in a believable way.

// Rickard “GoNZooo” Andersson.

You Want A Piece of This??

Are you a blogger, or have you wanted to try your hand at it for a while? Think you’re geeky enough to hang with the Geeks At Large crew? If so, you’re in luck, because we’re currently looking for editors!

If you wanna write for us, send a link or short example of your writing to geeksatlarge.blog@gmail.com and we’ll look it over.

Personally, I can’t wait to see what you all come up with, and I look forward to reading each and every piece that shows up in the inbox.

Why saying “twitch shooters” is the wrong way to refer to 1v1 DM games

It has always bothered me somewhat when someone refers to 1 versus 1 deathmatch games like this, because more often than not it clearly shows they haven’t actually played the game enough to know what it really is about.

A lot of people think a shooter like “Quake 3/QuakeWorld” or “Unreal Tournament 2003/2004″ is all about pointing and clicking. What they fail to grasp is that pretty much every thing a player does in a match has some kind of effect on the end result, and as such is important to know about and manage correctly.

I will now try to convince any doubters that might read this that “twitch shooters” is an extremely ignorant way to refer to the above mentioned games.

The biggest part of a 1v1 DM game, I feel, is the mindgame. Before you have actually gotten there this might all just sound like crediting a game with overly sophisticated thinking… But, the way I see it, you have to play for two players in a 1v1 DM game.

You have to be playing your opponent’s game in your head, and go through the same process he does when playing, only; you don’t get all the information. Provided there are multiple choices for your opponent, you have to play through those choices: Evaluate the situation, assign a weight, or a certain percentage of possibility to each choice your opponent has, and adjust your plans accordingly.

Obviously, your opponent should be doing the same thing, and this is where it actually becomes a mindgame. You have to apply this same process to the fact that your opponent is playing the very same game as you, and factor in every way he can possibly try to trick you.

The second thing I would like to bring attention to is timing. Timing will always, to me, be the second most important thing in a 1v1 DM game (or perhaps all competitive gaming). The most apparent reason for this in 1v1 DM games is items (or “pickups”): Weapons, armor, health, powerups. Grabbing a mega health (+100 health) in “Quake 3″ will most certainly help you greatly against anyone.

Timing either just red armor (+100 armor) or both red armor and yellow armor (+50 armor) in a game will probably earn you more room in a match than most people realize.It’s very easy to say it’s just too obvious to comment on, but most people fail to see this event will probably change the entire course of the game from then on. Struggling in a match and finally getting that one item, or perhaps finally getting the chance to nab that weapon you’re exceptionally good with should be to the competitive 1v1 DMer what catching that second wind is to Rocky Balboa.

You might just have thought to yourself: “Did he really mean to put that much weight on a weapon pickup?”. The answer is yes. This might also be an obvious thing to do to most people, but I’ve never seen someone not well versed in 1v1 DM actually put enough weight on this. Of course you’re going to want to keep that rail from your friend who plays with a field of view set to 90 and every key bound to the rail gun, right? But it’s not that big of a deal, is it? It is, in a multitude of ways.

The most basic one is you thought about it for a reason. The mere fact you thought about it shows there is something to worry about.The second reason is psychological: If you let him have that rail he might just get the confidence to stop you from taking command again, and he might just nab every item on the map, because while his confidence got a boost, your confidence just got shaken badly.

My third argument is a mixed bag of smaller things: Movement, flow and simple strategy.

Movement has always been a big part of 1v1 deathmatch. There has traditionally always existed a way to make your movement more effective in both speed and potential. When I say speed I obviously mean to cover more ground in less time, and when I say potential I mean to reach places not possible otherwise. A good example of this is the boostdodge bug that existed in UT2003.

What you did was to move parallel to a wall (so the wall is to either the right or left of you), proceed to tap the key that corresponds to moving away from the wall, then the one corresponding to moving towards the wall, then the one for moving away again. Following this up with a regular jump, then a double-jump when in the air drastically increased your potential in movement. Being that it allowed you to reach places from afar it also drastically increased your movement speed.

Flow. A pretty abstact concept, when applied to a 1v1 DM game, but very important. I am of the opinion that you can’t just take every frag and every encounter separately. There needs to be an agenda; something that allows you to advance your position in the match without just looking for your opponent.

When you have recently had an encounter with your opponent it is important to fall back to this agenda immediately if there is enough time left to actually win or if there is a need to lock a victory up. This is something you see in inexperienced players: They have recently fragged someone and they don’t really know what to do next. They have to look around to see where they should go, it wasn’t actually a part of their plan beforehand. You will most certainly have better luck by making your plan 1st priority and your frags 2nd.

Simple strategy is, well; simple strategy. Evaluating the appropriateness of using a certain weapon, standing on a certain place at a certain time, shooting a blind rocket or spamming grenades to disrupt your opponents flow and movement is all part of the very simplest of strategic choices in a 1v1 DM match.

I’d say you will have more luck trying to kill someone who is equipped with the lightning gun (or “shaft”) in “Quake 3″ with the rocket launcher than using the lightning gun yourself, because of the simple fact that the rocket launcher has the great ability to toss your opponent around. If your opponent is smart, though, he might use the lightning gun at its maximum range, drastically reducing the effectiveness of your rockets and maximizing the potential of the lightning gun.

In fact, it is not that uncommon to see inexperienced players think the rail gun is to be used anywhere, anytime. One could make the argument that the rail gun is in fact a viable choice in any situation, if used by someone well versed, but I contend that it is bad practice, relying on a freak ability that may very well one day be matched or neutralized by smarter strategies. In any case, you’re not maximizing effectiveness with that attitude and you probably could benefit from not being stubborn about it.

To summarize, the reason I’d like to see people not call these games “twitch shooters” is because they are, to a greater extent, about thinking. They are about playing the smart game, not the freak game. To be a great player all these things and more need to be thought of and done all at the same time, and pulling that off takes some good thinking.

If you have opinions on this piece of text, please don’t hesitate to mail me at: svetlana-_- (nospam) telia.com or drop a comment right here.

// Rickard “GoNZooo” Andersson.

Installing Windows Themes WITHOUT the Use of Third-Party Bloatware

Normally in Windows XP, you can’t use third-party themes because well, it’s Microsoft and they want to control the entire user experience in Windows so that they can turn a buck off of it.

Sure, you could TRY using third-party applications like StyleXP, WindowBlinds, FlyAKiteOSX, or even replace Windows’ default shell altogether, but each one of those solutions invariably leads to either compatibility problems, or they make a tasty snack of your system’s resources. A better alternative, in my opinion, is this: Hack the Windows theme engine to allow for third-party visual styles.

Okay, Okay, I know that sounds complicated, and to be honest, it probably is. Which is why someone else had the courtesy to take care of this for us and provide a hacked version of uxtheme.dll (the Windows Theme Engine) that will allow you to use third-party themes. However, a simple copy-and-paste won’t work here, you’ll just get an error saying the file is in use. So you need Replacer, a command-line script that safely replaces system library files.

Altogether, the process is rather simple:

1. Download the hacked uxtheme.dll for your version of windows.
2. Download, unzip and run Replacer
3.  ???
4. Profit.

Once you have everything hacked, just reboot and start downloading themes!

To install the themes, just unzip them to Windows’ Themes folder (C:\Windows\Resources\Themes) and apply them in the Appearances tab of the Display Properties Control Panel applet.

A couple of sites I personally recommend for finding themes are themeXP.org and InterfaceLift. If you have any other theme sites (non-WindowBlinds, for obvious reasons) feel free to link ‘em in the comments.