PC News and Game Reviews

I have been at the edge of my sanity with computers as I’m sure 98% of the population have been aswell. And that remaining 2% are the people who created them, and think that computers are the best thing since sliced bread. They’ve been holed up in the basement of Microsoft somewhere nerding it up and loving every bit of it.

But I don’t care what they say, computers are not user friendly. Whoever came up with the processes and methods that computers go by and the software it uses today, was not a logical person. The concept of Logic amongst other things scientific goes out the window when it comes to trying to get something done on the computer. And it’s ironic because Computers operate on Logic and the basic rules of Boolean algebra itself!

Consider the common internal combustion engine. If one day, it stops, you do some troubleshooting, or the mechanic down the road does, and a problem is found. A solution which usually involves replacing something internal will fix the problem. Easy.

Computers on the other hand are not quite as easy-going. Ever since I got my first computer in ‘96 the long and bumpy, (don’t forget winding), road has taken years off my life. Was it bad luck? Or am I just incompetent when it comes to Computers? I have learned quite a bit breaking and unbreaking my computers, you would think that I’d learn a lesson or two, and be able to fix the next problem, but no.

About a year ago, I bought a Radeon 9800 Pro card. One year ago. I just installed it 2 weeks ago. The task took so long because I *KNEW* I would have problems upgrading. 2 weeks on my computer is still not working properly. Simple, you buy a new piece of hardware, plug out the old one and plug in the new one…easy. But no…since I plugged the new card in, I’ve had to feck with my registry, update DirectX, look for a new Bios, upgraded and also downgraded my graphics drivers in vain effort. A windows re-install looks to be the only thing left. It was suggested to me that I flash the bios, but no doubt my computer will reach critical mass and meltdown, the ensuing explosion will remove half of my desk with it!

I have thralled the so called “information highway” for a solution. My pleas fall on deaf ears in the tech forums. Nothing seems to fix it, all because some number is 2.0045.78 instead of 2.0045.79! Or crappy Netmeeting is conflicting with something unrelated. Apox on netmeeting!

The more and more reviews I see of the Radeon 9800 Pro being “the superior card of this and that” makes me want to strap an incendary device to it and fire it from a catapult at the Ati Headquarters!!

WinXp has about 47,000 services running in the Admin > Services section. W.T.F. do I want all those services for…I want one service to run windows, one to give me the Net, and one to make my fecking graphics card work!!

I can see, now, on the horizon another 50 I.T. companies inventing programs to right the wrongs and make a quick buck. Bah! They’re everywhere!

It has emerged that a company/website called Multiverse are developing an open source platform for those amongst us who aspire to building their own MMOG.

The idea as i see it i to have multiple, interoperable worlds built by aspiring or accomplished developers. I see this as a great opportunity to build something along the lines of my Stargate idea where the number of worlds a player can “jump” to is limited only by the imagination of the developers who build them.

Interesting prospect methinks….

Firstly I must slate the horrible 3D engine the boys a Fraxis have created. It looks lovely….and you can rotate the camera 45 degrees should you wish. One small problem, I don’t want to rotate the camera as that is confusing. I also want to finish a game without my computer crashing…and as of yet it has not happened! Why o why did they introduce the new swanky 3D engine? All it serves is to make the game completely unstable. Even with the patch my games still crash. Even more annoying is the fact that after my computer restarts and I load the save game……the game crashes again at the exact same point!!!!!!! The only way I have found around it is to change the graphics settings and restart.

Enough of the bad! The introduction of religion was a good move. I like the way Fraxis tip toe around the introduction of religion clearly stating that they do not wish to offend anyone! I have played several games where I have concentrated on religion, and religious expansion. I have found that cultural expansion seems to have taken a back seat to religious expansion. An excellent tactic I found is researching the technologies that reveal Hinduism and Confusism early on. If you are first to discover them…and you have at least 2 cities…you will get points for founding the religions and will own both holy cities for each religion. You can then build the religions wonders by using great leaders. You now gain income from every city your newly founded religion spreads to!!! You can build tons of missionaries and generate obscene amounts of cash…to spend on nukes!

So I would say…..buy the game and get the patch. Hav’nt tried the multiplayer yet…but you will hear about it when I do.

I was reading the post on civilization 4 and in particular the part about 3D not necessarily being a good thing for the likes of Civilization or Rome Total War.

This got me thinking of a recent experience i had while playing Worms 3D on the playstation. I am usually quite quick to find my bearings in a computer game but this was horribly difficult to master at first. After some time and playing the tutorials i did get the hang of it a bit but the effort seemed to take away from my overall experience.

I feel that this was a bad use of 3D graphics as Worms is, in my opinion, a better game in 2D. The charm of the original Worms was it’s simplicity and comic value, take that away and your left with an overcomplicated juxtoposition of earth dwelling nemetodes. Not very attractive!

Now when parents tell their children “don’t do that you’ll get worms” there will be a genuine fear of something nasty!