Shameless Words from Shameless Geeks

I picked this up online: the USPTO has granted a patent for a Space vehicle propelled by the pressure of inflationary vacuum state. One would think that the gravitic drive (which is what this looks like… I’m not a physicist) would belong to someone like Asimov, if anyone.

I can remember waaaaay back in ‘98 when I was dealing with a patent and it was tough to convince the examiners that we had the idea “reduced to practice” without a working model. This ‘invention’ can’t even be tested until technology advances a few dozen years. It just shows how low the USPTO has sunk.

It looks like the Microsoft’s move toward Open Standards really was too good to be true. Obviously, last weeks big announcements were intended to give Gov. Romney of Massachusetts an excuse to embrace MS Office. Yet another example of Microsoft’s big money “persuading” the government. Sheesh!

Just thought I’d point out that there is yet another “Windows vs. Linux” study available for your amusement. As usual, you have two equally annoying sides to this story. Microsoft continues to believe that they will convince everyone how reliable Windows is by buying expert opinions. Linux lovers still think that they can convince Grandma that Linux is as easy to use as Windows by screaming it at the top of their lungs.

Is it just me, or does the tech industry seem to have a learning disability?

The rush of games coming out for Christmas has come to a stop now that we passed Black Friday and entered the home stretch for Christmas. This week list may be fairly light but there is still a few gems amongst including a PSP game that may force me to get my PSP out. Onto the list:

American Chopper 2 Full Throttle for the Gamecube
Burnout Legends for the Nintendo DS
Dr. Mario / Puzzle League for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance
Elf Bowling 1 & 2 for the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance (delayed from last week)
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS
PopoloCrois for the PSP
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones for the XBox, PC, Gamecube and Playstation 2

Again not much compared to 30 or 40 games on average per week for the last 2 months.
The highlights for this week are:

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: Mario and Lugi left the Platformer genre a few years ago when Mario Sunshine did not do as well as expected. Since then Nintendo have matured them and created a string of Mario RPGs for his aging fans.

PopoloCrois: Is a Japanese old school 2-D RPG which can go one of two ways. Instant classic like Lunar or instant failure like Shining Tear. Until it is reviewed there is no way to tell. I am leaning, okay praying, that it will be good. The 2-D Japanese RPG is a dieing breed with each generation and will most likely be one of the last games ever in this genre. The genre needs a few good hits before it fads away for good.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: The third installment in the current generation revision of Prince of Persia. If you where a fan of the first two you will like this one. Also if you where a huge fan of God of War you may want to give Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones a go.

My pick for this week is: PopoloCrois, this game has reinvigorated my hope in the PSP. Okay actual because I love 2D Japanese RPGs it has gotten me to dust off my PSP. For that PopoloCrois gets the game of the week.

Over the past few days there have been reports flooding the Internet that the XBox 360 is having issues with overheating and is occasionally crashing. Not one to believe rumors, and since I do not have a XBox 360, I decided to hold on this story until I could talk to my friends that have an XBox 360.

I finally did, and none of them report any overheating issues, but a few of them did have a crash or two. All of them are also reporting that the power supply is huge and gets very hot, which would give credence to the reports of the power supply causing overheating issues. One person complained that he smelled a burning smell when he turned on his XBox 360, which would suggest that Microsoft may have skipped the overnight burn in test.

The biggest complaint I heard was not the overheating or crashing. It was: if you did not have HDTV, games that were ported to the XBox and XBox 360 looked about the same. Again I can not verify this since I do not have an XBox 360. One other thing of note: the five or six vendors I talked to all said they do not plan to have any XBox 360s in stock until after Christmas. This is contrary to Microsoft’s reports that the next wave of XBox 360s should be hitting stories over the next few weeks.

Kevin Smith announced today on his site that he has finished shooting on Clerks 2: Passion of the Clerks. In addition to the shooting he has already finished editing an hour and 15 minutes worth of the movie. Hopefully by months end Kevin will have it done and in the can. Then out to theaters early next year.

CNN accidently flashed an ‘X’ over Dick Cheyney’s face today. They quickly explained the situation as a glitch in one of their systems. Still no word on which Democrat was in charge of the system

Filed under some-people-have-more-money-than-brains:

Xbox flipping on EBay has been a profitable business today. The only credible reason for this is that paying $800 for a $400 unit is inconsequential to some people. I find it hard to believe that here are 30000 gamers rich enough to buy all of the systems that are being offered. The rest will either be sold at cost, or bought by people with very little in the way of brains.

A nude man in Florida got his genitals tasered by police when they tried to arrest him for indecent exposure. No word yet about whether his lightning rod will ever get back to normal. Now you know what I meant by Shock Jock.

In a few hours the first XBox 360 will be going on sale across the World. If you have not heard already, the XBox 360 is going to be in short supply. So you better be in line right now or have a pre-order. Microsoft claims it is the demand causing the shortages. The leading conspiracy theory however, is that Microsoft is shorting the supply of the XBox 360 in hopes of creating a massive sales spike down the road. This is similar to what happened with the Playstation 2 and Super Nes in Japan. Personally I feel the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The demand is high but not as high as Microsoft thinks. What is really causing the shortage is the simultaneous launch around the world, with the bulk of the extra XBox 360’s being earmarked for Japan. In a few hours we will find out if it is a fake shortage like the PSP shortage or a real shortage. The sad thing is that if it is a real shortage, Microsoft is sacrificing huge markets, like Europe, for weak markets like Japan. I guess Microsoft thinks that we all will be good lemmings and run out and buy the XBox 360 in a few months when there are plenty.

My personal opinions about the XBox 360 are mixed. Graphically the machine is a powerhouse but other than that there is little that impresses me. The XBox Live arcade stuff is neat but I could already get all that for my PC. The micro market just scares me. I love the idea of being able to buy new content for my game but not when I payed $60 for the game. I want that for free. If you are going sell me a game and then charge me more money to play with the neat red car on the cover… that is just greed. What is going to stop some company from releasing a game and then charging you a fee for each level and character?

If by some chance you get an XBox 360 please post here about it. I was to late to pre-order mine and I am not standing out in the rain for one. I would love to hear some honest opinions about the XBox 360 and the launch games, particularly King Kong and Kameo. Then again if none of you do not buy one I don’t blame you. This has to be one of the most bland launches I have ever seen with no real breakout must buy games. I think only the PSP launch selection was worse. Hopefully, unlike the PSP, there will actually be a few good games six months down the road.

It looks like there is a rather nasty exploit for a recently uncovered IE bug. This one could remotely run code on your machine if you are lured to a malicious web site. I would suggest that you use the Firefox link at the top of this web page to download the latest version… just until IE is safe to use again (if ever).

It looks like Sony’s legal troubles over their rootkit have begun in earnest. The State of Texas is suing Sony under it’s anti-spyware laws. This is the first credible lawsuit I’ve seen over this incident. There have, of course, been class-action suits filed, but those tend to be nuisance suits that are easily settled by giving a few lawyers some money.

Let the public flogging begin!

UPDATE:

If you need a little more info, check out Groklaw’s recent post on the same subject.

On the eve of Thanksgiving weekend we have a major launch event this Tuesday when the XBox 360 launches. Most gaming companies have chosen to not launch anything this week so other then the 360 games everything else is light. Even though some XBox 360 games are now in stores, I have held of to list them all until you could actual play them. Onto the list:

American Chopper Full Throttle for the Playstation 2 and Gamecube (delayed from last week)
Ancient SuDoKu for the PC
Battlefield 2: Special Forces for the PC
College Hoops 2K6 for the XBox
Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers for the Playstation 2, XBox
Crime Life: Gang Wars for the XBox
Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2 for the Nintendo DS
Elf Bowling 1 & 2 for the Gameboy Advance
EyeToy: Kinetic for the Playstation 2
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Kaznapped for the Gameboy Advance
Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World for the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie for the PC, XBox, Playstation 2 and Gamecube
Real Time Conflict: Shogun Empires for the Nintendo DS (delayed from last week)
Snowboard Kids DS (delayed from last week)
Zatch Bell! Electric Arena for the Gameboy Advance

Not much to pick from the week mostly budget stuff. The stuff of note is Ancient SuDoKu which is a new puzzle game crazy that is sweeping the county and Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. I am not convinced King Kong can make a great game but the it does have a great pedigree behind it with both Ancel and Jackson working to make sure it does not suck. Every good geek should know who Peter Jackson is but most of you most likely do not know Michel Ancel. He is most famous for creating Rayman but his best game, which is why Peter tapped for King Kong, was Beyond Good and Evil.
This week I am going make two picks of the week, The XBox 360 launch title and the rest. The pick for this week is Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie.

XBox 360 launch titles
———————————–
Amped 3
Call of Duty 2
Condemned: Criminal Origins
FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup
Gun
Kameo: Elements of Power
Madden NFL 06
NBA 2K6
NBA Live 06
NHL 2K6
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Perfect Dark Zero
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
Project Gotham Racing 3
Quake 4
Ridge Racer 6
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

The most talked about launch title is Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark Zero. If you are into racing games it is a good buy. The other highlights that are getting hype are Kameo , Call of Duty 2, Condemned, GUN (Gamespot did give it a bad review) and King Kong. The one I am most looking forward to is Kameo. Rare has spent a lot of time working on it and a lot of guys that have played it are talking about on hushed breath. Hence it is my pick for the best XBox 360 launch title.
One other thing of note, even if you do not buy any XBox 360 titles thanks to XBox Live you can download a neat collection of various arcade and puzzle games.

Sony may be in far more trouble than they think. It looks like the media player that they included on the XCP CD’s may have been snatched from the LAME encoder, which is covered by the Lesser Gnu Public License (LPGL). Even if it doesn’t result in a lawsuit, their violation of someone elses license would keep them from believably claiming that they are only looking out for someone’s copyright. If you want to check out the details, I first saw it in a Reuters article, then found more info from a post at dewinter.com.

If all of this is true, then Sony would have to make the source code and objects available to the public. Now THAT is what I call poetic justice!

So… I gather from the article that the Sony software is really LAME. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

UPDATE:
If you’re not sure whether you have been infected by the Sony/BMG bug, the Electronic Frontier Fountation has published a Sony/BMG Spotter’s Guide.

I finally got around to putting up a game server. If you are in the mood for Call of Duty 2, check out ShamelessGeeksCoD2. As of right now, it’s an extremely simple public deathmatch server, but that will likely change soon. If you get a chance to play, please drop a comment here letting me know how your experience was… good or bad.

New Scientist Breaking News - $100-laptop created for world’s poorest countries plus you get a workout at no extra cost.

Actually, I doubt it. They will get away lightly, they will apologize profusely, but they will try again in a few months.

Sony/BMG’s recent DRM-by-enema campaign has to meet with more than just a “OK, we forgive you” from the consumers. This was something that can be considered borderline criminal activity, and we shouldn’t let them get away with a simple “oops, my bad” reaction. If they don’t feel it in their bottom line, they will just try it again.

I think this whole thing was more than just a really, really bad idea. It smells like something that runs a lot deeper. It almost looks like this was an experiment by a big, anal-retentive corporation to see how much control they can exercise over their consumers. If this really wasn’t part of a big plan to see how far they could push us, then why did it take several days for them to apologize? Why did they take the attitude that they were in the right? What made them think that their rights were more important than everyone else’s?

I know how I’ll be responding… I won’t buy anything with the words ‘Sony’ or ‘BMG’ on them for at least a year. It will hurt a little, since I tend to buy a lot of CD’s, but I feel like I have to do it. I invite everyone to join me in this, though I doubt that many will.

Many people will look back on this and think that the recall was apology enough. Some wackos will actually believe that Sony was right. But I think the real reason that most people will ignore the problem is that they just don’t care.

… and you better believe that Sony/BMG will try again. Soon.

James Doohan’s last wish of having his remains placed in orbit will have to wait a little while longer. The Falcon 1, which is the commercial space ship that is supposed to take him and 200 others into Earth’s orbit, is unlikely to be ready for it’s scheduled launch on December 6th. It looks like Scotty will have to wait until at least February to go to his final resting place.

I never thought I’d post something to the Humor and Windows/Microsoft categories at the same time. Well, you have to give them a lot of credit this time. Contrary to their Beast of Redmond persona, they have released what may be the funniest high-tech video of all time. It explains the new WSYP (We Share Your Pain) program, where you get to share the pain of a system crash with the programmer responsible for it. Enjoy.

Microsoft’s WSYP Video

Well, not really. But it got your attention, didn’t it?

It looks like there is a new weapon in the war on terror. An Israeli company recently tested an airport lie detector that is intended to catch anyone planning something illicit. Though I’m always glad to see a device that can make air travel safer, I’m a little worried about the potential for abuse of this device. One thing is almost certain: the day they start actually installing these devices, there will be a pretty nasty public debate.

Anandtech has posted a guide on how to take apart an XBox 360. It has also posted pictures of what the insides of an XBox 360 looks like. Now that people have figured out how to break open the XBox 360, I wonder how long till the first mod chips appear?

Once again, we find ourselves looking at another ridiculous Sony DRM scheme. It looks like Sony and SunnComm have gotten together for more DRM fun. The SunnComm version seems to be a little less troublesome than the prior rootkit, but it still looks like spyware. It installs itself on your computer and transmits info about you without ever telling you what it is going to do. It also leaves 12MB of garbage around, even if you decide not to install it. It also seems that refusing to install it doesn’t stop it from running, it just stops it from re-running on the next boot cycle.

Could it be that Sony is getting informed that you refused to install their monitoring software for future legal action? Your guess is as good as mine. I would ask Sony, but I no longer trust their answers. I think that recent events justify that position.

More questions… Just how many copies am I allowed to make of a CD I legally bought? Am I allowed one at home, one at work, and one for each of my cars? what happens if I break or lose one? can I replace it? What happened to the concept of fair use?

I think that the most annoying of all of the big music assertions is that this is all done for the poor artist. If you want a view from one of the aforementioned artists, check out Janis Ian’s article “The Internet Debacle: an Alternative View” (you’ll need to scroll down in the left frame to find it). The most telling quote from it is this: “in 37 years as a recording artist, I’ve created 25+ albums for major labels, and I’ve never once received a royalty check that didn’t show I owed them money". Just exactly how much of this can be for the “poor artists"?

Ted Owen, the owner of GPL, has posted an article on GameDailyBiz on how to become a pro gamer. Some of his advice is fairly common sense, like go out and play in multi-player games. Other bits of advice, like take Media classes so you can learn to speak to the media, are just wishful thinking on his part. If Fatal1y took media classes, whoever payed for it should ask for their money back. Ted, I would suggest instead of focusing on making your guys media savvy, that you focus on teaching sportsmanship to your top players. The whole ‘eating of the young’ thing that you point out in your article is a major reason pro gaming will only cater to a niche market and not the main stream. Most normal people do not have the patience for the online antics of pro gamers like Fatal1y, especially when they are starting out.

It looks like the high-tech politicians of the world have agreed to allow ICANN to continue administering the web. In the end, I really don’t see what the controversy was all about. The so-called demands for foreign language extensions is reasonable, but far from worth the fuss. There isn’t yet an example of a single time that the US has exercised any of it’s control of ICANN, and non-US applicants are not screened out.

Could it be more anti-American sentiment? I really can’t think of anything else… unless you count countries that want to screen all “objectionable” viewpoints from the Internet. Seems to me like those countries should just abandon the Internet in favor of the old fashioned bullhorn.

Apparently, Sony’s management has never heard the old adage: “when you find that you are in a hole, stop digging". Sony’s rootkit removal program opens the computer to attack from ANY web site. This is almost as bad of a security risk as mass-mailing your name and address to prison alumni.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this whole thing is beginning to make me nervous about other Sony products. If you can’t trust a high-tech company to know when they are seriously compromising the security of a computer, how can you expect to buy a laptop from them that doesn’t have pre-installed viruses? Once they resort to means as devious as the rootkit in the name of a few bucks, can you really trust anything they sell?

Urban Outfitters is selling a Christmas tree just like the pathetic one in It is a Charlie Brown Christmas. It is the perfect yule tree for every geek out there. You do not need to even decorate it.

A legal eagle out a Groklaw has written something that should be read by anyone interested in the wacky state of intellectual property laws. Basically, it says that Microsoft’s reaction to Sony’s rootkit raises some questions and proceeds to explain them. The main question here is: If these rootkits have been installed from Sony CD’s for 8 months, why didn’t the large AV firms detect them and assess the potential damage? That’s a very pointed question, but I’d love to know the answer.

The article questions whether the AV firms were involved in the process, or just too inept to discover the rootkit. The first could be a reason to sue, and the second could be a reason to question whether they are worth using. I almost agree with the conclusion that switching to GNU/Linux is the answer. Though it is certainly more secure, it is waaaaaay to difficult to teach Grandma how to run. It’s a correct answer, but a useless one.

The Department of Homeland Security has it right… It may be your Intellectual Property, but it isn’t your computer. DON’T undermine its security in the name of a few bucks.

Unless you have been living in a cardboard box for the last few weeks, you have probably heard about the debates raging at the UN technology summit in Tunisia. It was billed as a chance for nations to get together and discuss strategies for spreading the Internet to developing countries. It has become everything but that.

How can you take a conference about freedom of speech seriously when it is being held in a country with an abysmal record in that area? I’m really not sure how much of the info coming out of the conference can be trusted when the host country is harassing foreign journalists and controlling the local ones.

The main topic has shifted, naturally, to the UN’s desire to take control of the Internet from ICANN. Yeah… that makes sense. Lets take it away from a non-profit organization run by people with a strong leaning toward free speech, and hand it over to an organization whose membership is more than half dictatorships and oppressive regimes. It wouldn’t be long before the UN would make all speech completely free… as long as it is anti-American or anti-Israeli.

The Internet is a wonderful mechanism for disseminating information that we cannot allow to fall into the hands of the ridiculous UN bureaucracy. Once it does, it won’t become a tool that is more accessible to developing countries as the UN promises. It will become nothing more than a tool used to oppress people. If you need evidence of the UN’s inability to do anything useful, just look at the bizarre and useless oil-for-food program.

Well, just a little It looks like the hops found in beer can slow the growth of cancer cells, based on cell cultures and animal studies. (Lucky cells and animals… I wish I could drink beer for a living)

The best news is that the positive health effects are very slight. That means I’ll have to drink an awful lot if I want to prevent cancer.

Sometimes, people do sensible things: The National Toy Hall of Fame has inducted the cardboard box as a significant toy. Anyone who has kids, or ever was a kid, knows how much fun the cardboard box can be. Silly as it sounds, I think this organization has it’s head in the right place… and it’s probably a cardboard fort.

One week to go till the XBox 360 launches. Even though stores are starting to stock XBox 360 games I am going wait till next week to talk about all the XBox 360 launch goodness. Instead I am going focus on all the games the developers are trying push out before the 500 pound retail giant shows up next week. Onto the list:

Aeon Flux for the Playstation 2 and XBox
America’s Army: Rise of a Soldier for the XBox
American Chopper Full Throttle for the XBox
Armored Core: Formula Front for the PSP
Bust-A-Move DS for the Nintendo DS
Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 for the Playstation 2, Gamecube and XBox
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe for the Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, Playstation 2, XBox, Nintendo DS and PC
Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3 for the XBox
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for the Playstation 2
Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends for the Playstation 2
EyeToy: Operation Spy for the Playstation 2
Friends: The One with All the Trivia for the PC
From Russia With Love for the Gamecube
Half Life 2 for the XBox
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the PSP
Infected for the PSP
Kingdom of Paradise for the PSP
The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion for the PSP
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood for the Playstation 2 (delayed from last week)
Mario Kart DS for the Nintendo DS
Neopets: The Darkest Faerie for the Playstation 2
Need for Speed Most Wanted for the PC, Playstation 2, Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, PSP and XBox
Pac-Man World 3 for the Playstation 2, Gamecube, PC and XBox
Shadow the Hedgehog for the Playstation 2, Gamecube and XBox
Snowboard Kids DS for the Nintendo DS
Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS
Stuart Little 3: Big Photo Adventure for the Playstation 2
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse for the PC and Mac.
Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land for the Nintendo DS
True Crime: New York City for the Gamecube, XBox and Playstation 2
Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble for the Nintendo DS
Wild Arms Alter Code: F for the Playstation 2
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006 for the Playstation 2

Lots to choose from this week. The big surprise for me is the amount of good RPG are coming onto the market. Also the PSP is finally starting to get games. I will be back tomorrow with my comments about the games for this week. I am fairly sick right now and need some sleep to get healthy so I can be at my smarkest tomorrow.

Stars and Stripes, the hometown newspaper for the Military, has posted a gaming supplement about what games are hot in Iraq and Afghanistan. The gaming supplement is pdf but it gives light to often neglected military gamers and is an interesting read. It was also kinda of eerie to hear that GIs in Iraq have to adjust their gaming cycles depending if they are being shelled or not. Normally when I game the only thing I want to go and that goes boom is my TV. Also if you are GI reading this and want free gaming swaq, Stars and Stripes is running a contest to get some. You just need to tell S&S why.

Sony was warned that the rootkit-disguised-as-DRM that is shipping with it’s new CD’s was a huge security risk. Now it looks like someone already has an exploit for Sony’s controversial DRM package. I can smell the class-action suits ripening, and the all of the lawyers are walking around with little woodies.

I can’t say that I’d feel sorry for the perpetrators of this stupidity. Anyone dumb enough to take a multi-billion dollar risk to save a few million deserves to loose a lot of billions. Told Ya So-ny.

Heh… It looks like Jack Thompson has finally given up his crusade after being accused of ethics violations. We at ShamelessGeeks truly feel sorry for him. NOT!!!

I’m honestly tired of talking about this sleazy attention hound. Hopefully, we won’t have old Jack Thompson to kick around anymore.

1UP has posted an article comparing the launch of the XBox 360 to that of the Dreamcast. The first part of the article compares how to the two are similar. The second part compares how they are different. Either way the article shows that both the Dreamcast and XBox 360 have shades of similarity. That may just give a hint to the future of the XBox 360, a bad one that is.

Wow… a bunch of propellerheads from Rice U. have created the world’s smallest functioning car. It has a working suspension and wheels, and is composed of a single molecule. At 4 nanometers long and 3 nanometers wide, it isn’t exactly something you would want to carpool with. No word on how many horses under the hood

Three youths in Bosnia earned my nomination for the Darwin Awards when they died while tossing around a hand grenade. Though the death of teenagers is a tragedy, it’s pretty obvious that they were from the shallow end of the gene pool. 19 and 20 year-olds from a country with so much war in its recent history should know the difference between a grenade and a ball. One would also think that seeing the lever fly, and hearing the “sshhiinngg” sound would be a clue to RUN!!.

Slate has posted an article about the London adventures of a book collector. The first one sums up why the author collects books and the first shop he visted in London. His summary of why he collects books is the same reason I collect Video games and comic books. For the thrill of the hunt and joy of enjoying a great comic book or video game.

According to this article on Slate; Sumner Redstone, the mastermind behind Viacom, is in the middle of buying Midway Games. The main reason Redstone is doing this is not because Midway makes great games but so he can make a fortune adding ads to games. Redstone and lots of TV execs feel with the growth of TiVo and TiVo like devices, new ways will be have to devised to bring ads to consumers. Redstone feels video games is this new way. Personally I do not like paying $50 for a bunch of ads.

It looks like every gamer’s favorite target Jack Thompson is in ethics trouble and may even have his license to practice law revoked. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

You knew it was coming… it looks like commercial ads are coming to online games. Luckily (for now) it looks like they will only be appearing in flash-based games. The only question is: how long will it take some genius to figure out how to add a server mod for commercials in something like Q4? That would be the end of fun as we know it.

Leakenova’s PSP XBox 360 Survival Guide

The PSP XBox 360 is coming out this Thursday later this month and you forgot to pre-order it. Do not worry. Shameless Geeks is here to help to acquire a PSP XBox 360, and once you have what you need, to make your PSPXBox 360 experience the best.

1. Run out right now and pre-order the PSP Xbox 360. Most of the major stores are still taking pre-orders. Word of warning: all the stores will most likely take your pre-order but you might not get it till the second or third tenth or eleventh wave of PSP XBox 360 arrives in stores a few weeks after the launch on Thursday later this month.
2. Get to know the clerks at the store where you pre-order. Most clerks are underpaid, unloved and easily bribed with a free game. It is often up to the clerks who gets their PSP XBox 360 first, and knowing the clerk can make the difference between getting the first wave of the PSP or the fourth eleventh wave.
3. If you were unable or decided not to pre-order the PSP XBox 360, get up earlybefore midnight, head out to one of the stores like Walmart, Kmart, Target or Meijers who do not do pre-orders. Get in the long line, and pray they do not run out before it is your turn to buy. Better yet, go to the store Wednesday night day before the XBox 360 launch with your sleeping bag and tent and spend the night in line. That way you do not have to worry whether god exists or not.
4. Go to the smaller vendors if the bigger vendors sell out. When a new gaming system comes out most people rush off to Walmart, Kmart, Gamespot, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Meijers and EBGames. People often forget about the smaller vendors like Suncoast Videos, Game Crazy and Fye. Don’t believe me? Well, here is an example: when Halo 2 came out the quickest place to get a copy of Halo 2 in the DC area was Fye.
5. Issues may pop up with your PSP XBox 360, so make sure you fill out the warranty card that comes with it. Remember SonyMicrosoft’s first generation video game products always seem to have issues. For example: the over-heating issues with the Playstation One, The dreaded disk reading errors on the Playstation 2, and Japanese version of the PSP having dead pixels and non working buttons. The only issue I have heard so far about the US version of the PSP is the rumored crashes from time to time during WiFi play, but that might be a software related issue. XBox 360 is that the wireless controllers signals mess up Walmart intercom system.
6. If your PSP XBox 360 is one of the first million sold, then you will get the Universal Mini Disk (UMD) movie Spiderman 2 for free. If you are a movie buff, pick up one of the cool movies that Lion Gate Films and Sony are releasing for the PSP and enjoy some movies on the go. Well, one movie anyway nothing.
7. Once you get your PSP and a game that uses WiFi over the Internet, like Twisted Metal, head out to Starbucks and start abusing Starbuck’s free WiFi. If you do not like coffee, then you can do what I plan to do: wander around my neighborhood hunting for the one neighbor who forgot to secure his WiFi connection. XBox 360 you may want find an ethernet cord so that you hook it up to XBox Live. This time around the basic version of XBox Live is free. If you want any of the neat benefits of XBox Live you are still going to have to fork out money.
8. The PSP comes with a 32MB memory stick basic XBox 360 does not come with a hardrive, which is great if you only plan to use it for game savesuse memory cards for game saves. If you want movies or music then you will need to get at least a 512MB memory stick for around $90. For an additional $60 you can get the biggest bad boy on the block, the 1GB memory stick. game saves, speedier load times or backward compatibility then you will need to buy the XBox 360 with the Hardrive. Get a bigger memory stick if you want to actually play music or movies that are not on UMD disks.
9.In order to get the music and all those movies onto that 1GB memory stick you will need a memory stick reader on your computer or the (not included) USB cable. Sony also did not create a manager for music files. You will need to download a PSP file manager if you do not want to do a lot of dragging and dropping to the memory stick. the XBox 360 just requires you buy a hard drive so you can rip songs to it and then use them to custom the soundtracks of your games. There is a joke somewhere in there but any grown man listening to Brittany Spears will playing Halo 3 is well just sad.
10. In order to play movies that are not on UMD disks, they need to be in the MPEG-4 format and in a special hidden directory on the memory stick. Luckily, someone had the foresight to create PSP video 9, a program which allows you to convert regular PC video files into the MPEG-4 format. It can also manage the transfer of the movies between your PC and your PSP. PSP Video 9 is free, but the creator does appreciate donations. you will need to buy a remote that will allow you play DVDs. Hold on if you buy the premier version with the Hard Drive it comes with the Media Remote so you can play DVDs without paying extra like you did for the XBox.

11. The battery life stinks if you are taking any long plane trips or plan to watch more then one movie on a UMD disk before having to recharge the PSP. The PSP’s battery life is two to five hours at best. Either you better get lots and lots of battery packs/portable chargers or you will spend a lot of time with the PSP plugged into the wall. is not an issue unless you plan to use the wireless controllers. If you do you may want to buy the rechargeable battery.

12. Lets not forget the real reason you are buying the PSP XBox 360, the interchangeable faceplates. So you can make sure that the front of your XBox 360 mismatches the rest of the XBox 360. Seriously though the real reason is the games. Here are all the games that I have heard a lot of cool things about: Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower , Lumines, Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure, and Twisted Metal: Head On Gun, Call of Duty 2, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, Quake 4, Dead or Alive 4, Ridge Racer 6, and Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie . My personal recommendation is the ultra cool puzzle game Lumines Kameo.

Good luck on getting a PSP XBox 360 and if you fail to get your PSP this week XBox 360 later this month remember there is always Ebay. Alternatively, you can simply wait a month or two six months when there will be plenty in the stores.

So far, this Christmas season has been bad. Yes there were some great games like Civ 4, but most have left me disappointed. Hopefully this week will cheer me up. Onto the games:

College Hoops 2K6 for the Playstation 2 and XBox
Crash Tag Team Racing for the PSP
Disney’s Kim Possible: Kimmunicator for the Nintendo DS
Donkey Kong Country 3 for the Gameboy Advance
Fatal Frame III: The Tormented for the Playstation 2
Ford vs. Chevy for the Playstation 2, XBox
Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2
Gun for the Playstation 2, PC, XBox and Gamecube
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the Playstation 2, PC, XBox, Nintendo DS, Gameboy Advance and Gamecube
Karaoke Revolution Party for the Playstation 2, XBox
Lord of the Rings: Tactics for the PSP
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood for the Playstation 2
Mario Party 7 for the Gamecube
The Matrix: Path of Neo for the Playstation 2, XBox and PC
The Movies for the PC
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo for the PSP
SpongeBob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger for the Nintendo DS
Suikoden Tactics for the Playstation 2

An interesting list of games. Nothing on the level of Halo 2, but some neat ones anyway. The highlights for this week are:

Guitar Hero - This one has been getting a lot of buzz amongst the hardcore gamers. A lot of the sites that got their hands on this game earlier this week fell in love with it. Most claim to love it because they think it is a great music game. I think it is because it comes with a big electric guitar. You know secretly every gamer hides a 70’s Rockstar waiting to be unleashed… and what says 70’s Rockstar more then a huge electric guitar?

Gun - The best version is still a week away, but this week we get the current generation of Gun. At E3 Activision was giving out bloody rubber ears to promote this game. It was kinda of creepy to walk around E3 and see all the press guys with ears around their necks. In a nutshell, GUN is an over-hyped Western.

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood - I forgot it was that time of the year. Time for Atlus to release another strategic RPG. Every March and November Atlus releases a strategic RPG. Like a bunch of lap dogs, we run out and buy it. Hopefully they will keep this tradition into the next generation. I need my strategic RPGs.

The Movies - Only a year late comes the next Peter Molyneux game. In this one Peter promises that we will be able to create and run movies like a a major Hollywood movie mogul. I will wait a few weeks to see how much of Peter’s promise holds up.

Suikoden Tactics - Hey kids! Look! It is another RPG franchise trying to cash in the Tactics craze. Too bad no one told Suikoden’s makers the craze ended a year ago. Then again, the makers of Suikoden are fairly clueless. I mean… who releases a RPG the same week as Final Fantasy?

My game for the week is: The Movies. Yhea I know it’s a Molyneux game but this time he may just keep his promise of making a game that lives up to the hype. Then again this is Molyneux, so my back up game of the week is: Guitar Hero.

… but it’s still extortion, in my opinion. The MPAA now says that Grandpa can pay a $4000 tribute in installments. I say it’s still a crime to sue someone who you can’t prove did you any harm.

Instead of finding a reasonable way around this problem, the MPAA’s lawyers have resorted to a legalized form of extortion that should irritate even the most capitalist of Americans. Where do they get off suing a guy because somebody in his house downloaded a movie? I’ve never downloaded a movie myself, but it’s beginning to look like a good option. I’m getting annoyed by the fact that a portion of every one of the DVD’s that I purchase legally is going to a new form of organized crime.

In another stunning display of customer antagonism, Sony/BMG has begun auto-installing CD copy protection on hard disks. The major problem is that the software is automatically installed, and never indicates what it does, or that it cannot be uninstalled. Honestly… it doesn’t take a lawyer to realize that this is an enormously risky endeavor. The security risk alone could easily put a huge bite into Sony’s revenue for the next quarter. Sounds like a good stock selling opportunity.

Why don’t we make a deal with Sony and the other music industry leeches… You replace my broken CD’s at cost (cost of the media that is, not some inflated number that you dream up), and I won’t have to make archive copies of them. Yeah… like they would really go for something that reasonable.

BTW… if you suspect you have this software installed, follow the link above to a pointer to a utility that will identify it. As of now, there is no removal tool.

You can buy a house in a ‘trendy’ Denver neighborhood, as long as you don’t mind the conveyances… namely the 48 year old current owner. Deborah Hale is selling her Washington Park house with her still in it.

She claims to be looking for her soul mate. That may be the case, but I really don’t think it’s a good idea to advertise that the house you are selling has 48 year old fixtures. I’m wondering if she would be willing to move out for an extra 100K?

Well, it looks like the oh-so-wonderful lawyers of the MPAA are at it again. They are suing a 67 year old Grandpa because he couldn’t pay the $4000 extortion bill his grandson ran up by downloading movies. Now they think it’s OK to demand that a man, who committed no crime, pay an extortion fee that he can’t afford, or risk an even bigger one.

… and they call me Shameless.

My first impression is that SWBF2 is that it’s worth updating to. I was only able to briefly run a training mission and a few multiplayer missions, but they were a blast. I’m not sure what the trigger condition was, but sometime during gameplay, I was allowed to switch my character to Darth Maul, and that’s when the fun started. As the dreaded Sith, I was able to chew through enemy forces like a hot knife through butter, recharging my health from the little heath canisters of the enemies I killed. I can’t wait to see how the game handles the clash of Jedi vs. Sith.

SWBF2 is just like the original, only more so You still blast your way from CP to CP, capturing them along the way. The gameplay is still pretty simple, and there really isn’t much strategy involved. Single player mode still seems pretty pointless, leaving all of the fun in multi-player mode. In short, this game is great for LAN parties, but will probably get old fast if you play at home too much. If that sounds like a review for the original Battlefront, it isn’t an accident.

I haven’t gotten a chance to try the much anticipated space battles, but if they are as good as the rest of the game, they will be fun. I also haven’t yet checked to see if it works in LAN party mode (shared CD). If anyone has tried it that way, let me know.

Here’s the big fly in the ointment: I can’t seem to get it to play more than a few levels before it crashes to Windows. Once this happens, I have to reboot the machine before I can play again. If I don’t figure the problem out, and if others have the same problem, the game will be unplayable at LAN parties.

At the risk of giving a sound bite to the publisher: if you liked Halo you will enjoy Stubbs the Zombie . That is because the game plays and feels like a Halo mod. A fairly good and innovative mod, that is. The only major difference in the way the two games are played is that Stubbs is mostly third person and is very light on gun combat, whereas Halo is mostly first person and heavy on gun play. The main reason Stubbs the Zombie is so much like Halo is because it is built on the Halo engine and it is made by Wideload. For the uninitiated, Wideload is a group of Ex-Bungie Employees that left after they helped create Halo .

My favorite parts of Stubbs the Zombie was the Zombie Army. I loved the added touch of being able to eat a characters brain and then, instead of them vanishing, they simply stood up and followed you around like… well… a brainless zombie. The Zombie Army AI was fairly simple. If they saw a live human they attacked, if they did not they wandered around trying to follow you. Nothing complex, but it was a breath of fresh air to be able to push and shove the zombies around instead of having to dodge them like in most games.

Stubbs the Zombie was also strong on humor. Most of the cut scenes were semi-funny, but I found few of them worth re-watching. The sound effects where hilarious and drew me into the game, but they got old. The one that got old fastest was hearing brains for the hundredth time. I really got sick of that gag and wish they added some new sound effects later in the game. The thing that drove the humor home was the future-50’s setting in the game and the characters like the Barbershop Quartet and Quaker State Militia. I can not stress how much I loved the 50’s setting. It really felt like you where battling in a 50’s town of the future. Graphically that was also my favorite part.

Stubbs the Zombie may have been a blast to play but like most modern games it suffers from being too linear and short. I beat the game in under six hours and I never really left the main path. The only time I did deviate was when I got lost trying to find the next exit point. Stubbs also suffers from the main complaint I had with Halo. It feels like the level designer hit the copy and paste buttons a lot. Many of the different sections were hard to tell apart, just like in Halo. Also, I had to replay through the same area twice. The only other major complaint I had was there was no background music in most of the game.

Instead of going with the traditional 1 out of 10 rating I am going with a new rating system I have invented, the price point I would buy this game at. My price point for Stubbs the Zombie would be around $30. It is fairly innovative and fun to play, but it just does not have enough to justify the $50.00 price. I know I jump up and down about how you need to support innovative games, but I also feel game publishers need to wake up to the truth. Most games are just not worth the $50.00 - $60.00 price tag. If you rent games instead of buying games I would highly recommend that you rent Stubbs. More details about the actual game can be seen in my first impressions from earlier this week. After finishing Stubbs, my opinions about the game did not change much from my first impressions.

After a long drought of no real goofy press release, I think I finally found one. In fact, I think I found the first press release written in Leakish. A language I thought that I only wrote and spoke fluently. In addition the date when the game is coming out is wrong. SpongeBob: Yellow Avenger is coming out in 2005. Enjoy.

Much as I hate to plug Tom’s Hardware since their conversion to the dark side, their Holiday Buying Guide is a yearly tradition. Kinda like the Geek equivalent of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. As usual, I have trouble looking at the actual products being described. Luckily, there are a few pages that don’t have Theresa on them, so I was able to read some of it.

According to scientists, Pluto may have three moons instead of one. My take on this is that astronomers must be the most obsessive of all geeks. After all, traditional geeks may argue about how many red-shirted sacrificial lambs were slaughtered by Star Trek, but they never worry about how many butts are on Mickey Mouse’s dog.

HeHe.