So, my cousin randomly called me out of the blue one day and asks if I can help him out with a guild website. Apparently he liked my Halo 2 clan site (which was a template by the way, so I didn’t do any of the art). Always wanting to help out I agreed and over the phone had him sign up at 1&1 for web hosting. After starting out on the site and realizing that I generally suck with PHP and MySQL. I got my friend Justin (who is a beast with both) to help out. I also somehow convinced my friend Jeff (who is gosu with photoshop) to help out as well. The site is slowly coming together, but it’s a good start for now. You can check out the site at http://www.eminenceguild.org/

It looks like Sony is going to start allowing people to play planetside as much as they want for free. The only catch is that you can only go up to battle rank 6, at which point you can continue to play, but wont gain XP.

The recently re-launched their website with a completely new design

A community member over at the planetside site made a pretty cool fan trailer of the game to promote this new system. It is actually a pretty impressive video. You can view it here.

There is also a somewhat older video made by a different community member that is equally as impressive. You can watch that video here.

Anyways, here are some of the details of the thing taken from the planetside site

Q: What is the demo program PlanetSide Reserves?
A: Demo players will be able to download the PlanetSide Reserves demo and will be able to play for free through Battle Rank 6. Once they reach BR 6, they will be able to continue to play the game, but will not accumulate additional experience points unless and until they upgrade to a paying account. On exit from the game after each play session, players will be taken to a website that will allow them to purchase the game client and upgrade to a paying account. Upon purchase of the game client, you will receive an additional 30 days of play after upgrading your account. This offer is not available for existing PlanetSide accounts.

Q: Is Battle Rank 6 the maximum rank that PlanetSide Reserves accounts can reach?
A: Yes. The PlanetSide Reserves accounts can only progress up to Battle Rank 6 (BR 6). Once BR 6 is achieved, you will be able to continue to play the game, but will not progress further unless you purchase the game client and upgrade to a paying subscription.

Q: How do I access PlanetSide game files to try it out?
A: We will provide you a location to download the demo game files. There will be a link on PlanetSide.com with more details.

Q: How would a PlanetSide Reserves account user convert to paying subscriber?
A: On exit from the game, you will be taken to a website that will allow you to purchase the game client and upgrade to a monthly subscription for the price indicated on the website, which includes the opportunity to obtain the Battle Frame Robotics (BFRs), the giant robot units, and gain more XP to progress through higher Battle Ranks. With higher XP you will be able to gain new implants, better weapons and higher command ranks.

Q: How long can I play the demo?
A: The program will run for a fixed 12-month period. The length of your demo time will depend on when in the promotion period you sign up. If you sign up on the first day, you will have almost 12 full months of gameplay. If you sign up one week before the end of the program, you will have one week of demo time.

Q: When a PlanetSide Reserves account converts to a paying account, what happens to the characters and account if they decide to cancel later on?
A: Once an account converts over to a paying account, normal cancellation procedures apply. To play that account again you will need to enter billing on it. Please note, only one PlanetSide Reserves account per Station Account will be permitted.

The rest can be found here.

There is a cool (and extremely funny) video tour of Bungie’s new(ish) building. If you watched the Channel 9 interview with Mat Noguchi, then you have already seen some of their building. This new video tour from Bungie is so funny though, it’s worth watching just for the humor. Not to mention you see a lot more (and a lot more interesting stuff) in this tour then what you could see from the interview.

I could not be more excited right now. After the bad sales for Tribes: Vengeance (which is a great game that everyone should buy), most of the community expected to never see a new Tribes game. As you probably know, Tribes has been my favorite online game and I have been playing it for years (since 1999). Well, a few days ago, “Ajaxprojection” (a Garage Games employee) made an extremely interesting post in the TribalWar (the biggest Tribes fansite) forums. He posted: “Hmm…might be a good idea to keep your eyes open around the GarageGames booth at GDC 2006. Never know what kinda things might be shown off…” in a thread titled “Any chance we will ever see another Tribes game?”. Now why do we care? Well after Tribes 2, Sierra closed down the Dynamix studio (the company that made the first two Tribes games). Many of those employees went and created a new company called Garage Games. So really, the company is made up of many of the people that created the first two games.

What is even more interesting is that later on “ajaxprotection” posted a cool video in the forums as well. Watching the video, it looks a whole lot like a Tribes game. Could Garage Games be working on a spiritual successor? Did they actually manage to grab the rights?

The video looks absolutely beautiful. When they left Dynamix, they took Torque (the game engine that Tribes 2 used) with them. Since then they have been modifying and updating the engine. They have created the Torque Shader Engine, which looks great. Included is a completely new terrain engine that allows for huge viewable distances (greater than 4 miles / 7 km).

I can’t wait for GDC to find out more.

And it’s about damn time. Seriously, people have been cheating in this game so much because it had no anti-cheat software with it. The new update includes the introduction of the “PunkBuster” anti-cheat software, a vote kick option, and 3 new Multiplayer maps. Now all I want is an update for Call of Duty 2. It needs some anti-cheat software as well.

Ok, so let’s start with what I do like so we can get that out of the way quickly. The graphics and settings are amazing. The islands are rendered beautifully with huge draw distances and lush foliage. The gun fights are actually pretty frantic and the vehicles can be cool at times. The game also has a pretty good length, one of the longest FPS games I have played in a while. There is a good selection of weapons, and you are limited to four different guns which can add a bit of strategy when you select what to take with you.

Now on to what I don’t like. First, whose idea was it to put a checkpoint save system in this game? That person needs to be fired. Honestly, I can not think of a single pc game that has a good checkpoint save system. It would have been bearable if the checkpoint system was at least done well, and offered a generous amount of checkpoints. Instead, you get a bunch of checkpoints that mostly seem to be placed at random. At least they generally give you a checkpoint before a large firefight, usually. But there will be times where you will have to travel large distances over and over and over again.

Next, up is the AI. What’s so bad about it you ask? Well, it cheats. There were many times when they actually spotted me through solid walls. They can also hear the slightest noise from a mile away, and instead of going to check out the sound, they usually go on full alert. The cheating AI makes the stealth aspect of the game completely useless. There is no point in trying to hide or be quiet with the slightest thing will set them off. There were times when I would creep around a corner and as soon as I peak out, I would get a rocket in my face, even though there was no way they could have possibly known I was there. The cheating AI and the checkpoint save system can make the game extremely frustrating. Not to mention the cheap mutants later in the game with rocket launchers for arms that can take you out in one or two hits, but take what seems like hundreds of shots themselves to take down. It doesn’t help that they also usually throw half a dozen of them at you at a time, often in indoor levels where there is no where to maneuver.

Then there is the vehicle physics, or should I say lack of realistic physics. Jeeps and the like bounce around like crazy, making them almost impossible to control at high speeds. Then again, you won’t get too much use out of them as you can’t even take them off road much due to the amount of trees, rocks, and the rest that will get in your way.

Of course, that didn’t make me quit the game, I felt compelled to play until the end (no thanks to the story, which is pretty bad). I think Robert Coffey said it pretty well when he said, “It would be so easy to dismiss Far Cry and the devastating effects of its save system as just another game disaster, but the truth is, the game does so many other things not just well but exceptionally, that you almost hate the game more because it could be so great.” If only they had spent more time on the save system, and fixed the obvious cheating AI, the game could have been a lot more fun.

Would I recommend the game? Yeah, its only $20 now, but I would highly suggest that if you have an Xbox, pick up Far Cry: Instincts instead. From what I played in the demo, they fixed many of the PC games problems.

Anyone with some time to kill that happens to be good with graphics? I am trying to get some banners/logos made for my sites.

First up is my gamepad page. I can add a banner to the top of all my pages there. The image size is 518px x 100px. I would use my sig that I have been using for a while but it is too small. Over there I go by NeutralX2. My avatar is Mercury, a character from Tribes: Vengeance. If you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know.

Second is my Gamespot profile. Same sort of deal over there, but the image size for that one is 760×140. I go by NeutralX2 over there as well.

Lastly, I am trying to get a good spray for Counter Strike Source. On there I go by the name Mercury (not NeutralX2).

Here is the avatar I use on forums; it’s also my current spray for CS. As an avatar it is cool, as a spray it is lame.

And here is a render of Mercury:

And here is my current banner I use for my sig, made by Jeff, its beast:

So I decided to go write a testimonial for newegg, seeing as their site is amazing and I buy everything there. Anyways, I ended up getting a free T-Shirt with the newegg logo and license plate cover that reads “I’d rather be pimpin’ my pc” with the newegg logo. I won’t use either of them, but hey, it was free.

If you want some free junk, this is what you do:

You need a newegg.com account (which is free).

1. Log in.
2. Go here… Here.
3. Write a positive testimonial. (make sure you’re logged in) The link is DIRECTLY above the first testimonial.
4. Click “Submit”
5. Wait for free stuff

You may not get a message saying that they’re sending you a free gift, but just be patient and it should arrive at your door.

Last year’s so-called “modest proposal” by Jack Thompson sparked a firestorm of controversy that culminated in the Miami attorney filing a complaint against Penny Arcade with the Seattle Field Office of the F.B.I.

Now comes an entirely new PC game based on the Modest Propospal fiasco. Published by a team calling itself Thompsonsoft (we’re pretty sure Jack isn’t involved), the game is I’m O.K. - A Murder Simulator.

I’m O.K.” features SNES-style graphics and gameplay. There’s even a judge who looks a little like Mario.

So who are the designers? The website says, “Consisting of 3 alcoholics and a foreign exchange student, Thompsonsoft is a new game company formed around the singular idea that Jack Thompson is the most brilliant game designer in the universe… Our first title, “I’m OK”, is based on Jack’s masterful design from “A Modest Video Game Proposal” and it’s a murder simulator so cruel, so bloodthirsty, so horrifyingly violent that it makes Grand Theft Auto seem like Sunday Funday.”

“How does one explain why, in a world overflowing with disease, war, and other horrifying realities, a man would spend 18 years crusading against video games? Easy. You say that it’s the most extensive, ingenious marketing campaign for a video game in the history of MAN.”

Features of “I’m O.K.” include: 7 unique weapons including uzis, shotguns, rocket launchers, and a baseball bat and something called the Realistic Urine Engine (R.U.E.).

It’s all tongue-in-cheek of course. Thompson’s reaction will be interesting, since the game closely follows the design he laid down in his Modest Proposal. Can he complain about his own script?

Probably.

You can read the full text of Jack Thompson’s Modest Proposal in MS Word format

Well I finally got around to setting up FTP access to the web server so I can edit the files on there without physically being on the network. I might just start using it to transfer files from school to home and back again, though I did just buy a 1 GB flash drive for that. Now that I have that working, I think I might start on some PHP programming again. I have a few ideas of some small programs that I could write that I would actually use.