Been away a couple of weeks to let the storm of Gamespot's "rejuvenation" operation pass by. Upon my return, however, I am apalled by what has been done.

First and foremost because of the sluggish way Gamespot reacts. With all the slimming and trimming, one would have surmised that things would run smoothly, like, bathing in oil. They're not.

A lot (read: most) web browsers are completely to half useless on the new site because of functions not working properly. The only browser with which Gamespot seems to more or less agree is Chrome.

That the Unions were going to go was known to yours truly, but that a lot of the fora were going to be chopped down or disappear is an unforeseen matter. One of those fora I frequented a lot was the PC Hardware forum. Well, it's gone. Why the powers that be did away with an informative forum -where a lot of folk were helping out beginning PC gamers- is a complete mystery.

But then again, it's not such a mystery, since it seems the owners of Gamespot's only goal is to have a site which they can control easily, with complete disregard of the wants and/or wishes from/of the users.

Me, I don't care anymore in the end. It's not like Gamespot is going to miss me. And vice versa. I only drifted to these shores because I wanted to stay informed about the latest PC-games. There's opportunity enough to do that outside of Gamespot.

In fact, I got myself a feed from PC-Gamer on Facebook. Can't be bothered anymore by Gamespot and their half-assed shenanigans.

Oh, I'll hop in from time to time, just to watch the deterioration.

Off course, there's a lot of new folk who don't care about the negatives of the new Gamespot, and that's their perogative. Mine is to turn my back on a site which has nothing in common with the former place, except the bugs and the name.

Gamespot used to stand out from the rest. It used to be a place where one coud feel at home in some close-knit communities. They killed those communities and replaced them with bland, run-of-the-mill fora. There's tons of those out there and most work better than on Gamespot. So, once more, there's no reason for me to keep hanging around.

It's been fun while it lasted.

Ciao,

JJ

Just read the article by Lark about the upcoming changes GameSpot is going to suffer --yes 'suffer', because that's what it is in reality.

To me, it seems like Lark got caught in-between a rock and a hard place and that he has to dance to the not-so-merry tune of CBS.  Because, let's be honest, ever since CBS took over, GS went South pretty fast.

One of their so-called improvements is the axing of the Unions and User Created Boards.  All based on a low user percentage.

Now, excuse me for saying so, but since a couple of years the UCB and Unions have been features which were practically completely hidden for new members, so much so that people who subscribed in the last two, three years don't even know about their existence.

So, first hide the lot from members and then complain that the UCBs and Unions don't generate enough traffic?  Seems like a plot to me.

Then there's the 'vast improvements' in the fora.  No more choice of setting your name in a different color; no signatures larger than 500 characters or pics higher than 125 pixels --a lot of sites allow bigger avatars-- and you won't be able to set a forum index to 'last messages first' for example.  Talk about improvements.  A few large steps backwards seems more appropriate.

To add insult to injury, everybody will have their level reset.  Because, hey!, a new start requires all of us to be ignored and even slapped in the face by resetting us to n00b level and do away with achievements and the whole kaboodle which showed you were/are an active member.

On one hand complaining about not enough activity in one sector and then resetting everybody to zilch so that their activity proof has vanished, seems a tad contradictory...

In the end, the 'improvements' GS is going to get aren't improvements at all.  They're ways of saving bandwidth combined with axing individuality, presented as ameliorations.

Seems like CBS has become a part of the political establishment.  Such establishments can't be bothered by personal initiative and outspoken views.  So, do away with anything related to individual creativism --like sigs, avatars maybe, Unions and UCBs-- and create a clean place where every move is carefully monitored and everybody steps in line...

Well, I'll keep an eye on things, but to be honest, such a place is not where I want to spend my time.  There's loads of game related websites out there which offer pleasurable forums and freedom of expression, so, that's where you'll probably find me when everything that has been announced is going to go through...

Just my two Eurocents...

Thanks to things like Almanaks, I realised it's been five years I've been roaming around the GS area.  Doesn't seem like it, really.  In those five years, games hve come a long way, especially on the graphics side of things.

I recently came round to buying loads of games which I fancied at the time but which I for some reason didn't get --and they seem awful in comparison of how I remember them after having played the demo.

Which goes to show that the mind plays tricks on you and that you actually can't trust your own memories...

I wonder if I'll still be around GS in another five years.  And will PC (or console) games have evolved as much as they did over the last half a decade?  Will there be any games at all?  Will there still be computers?  Will there still be me?

I guess I'll have to wait, well, another five years, eh?

Found a guy on eBay who has loads of older games.  Gives me a chance to catch-up on those I missed or was unaware of at the time.

Here's some I bought the last couple of weeks:

1. Microsoft Train Simulator (together with a 'Great British Diesel Locomotives' and 'Liner Pacifics' add-on)
2. Microsoft Flight Simulator X
3. Rome: Total War
4. Battlefield 2 Complete Collection (Includes 'Special Forces', 'Euro Force' & 'Armored Fury' expansions)
5. Civilization IV Colonization
6. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GotY Edition (Includes 'Tribunal' & 'Bloodmoon' expansions)
7. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GotY Edition (Includes 'Shivering Isles' & 'Knights Of The Nine' expansions)
8. Crysis Special Edition (Metal box)
9. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl Radiation Collector's Edition (Metal box plus goodies)
10. The Witcher Enhanced Edition (Includes Andrzei Sapkowski book, a 'Behind The Scenes' DVD plus a CD with music inspired by the game)
11. Sins Of a Solar Empire GotY Edition (Includes CD with Original Soundtrack plus a big Tech Tree poster)

More will follow as I sift through the guy's eBay shop...

Been watching the goings-on at the "Best Of E3, People's Choice" countdown -after having voted myself, of course- and must say that the comments are quite fun to behold.

Fun, but at the same time kind of scary too.  Scary in the sense that people are getting so involved that their dedication turns into an eerie kind of obsession.  So much so that we sometimes get the equivalent of street riots in comment form.

Of course most of the gamers/commenters are young folk, barely out of their teens, and tend to get over-excited in the defence of their "own camp".  And we cannot blame people for being young, now can we.

Hell, I recently had my 52nd birthday and I still consider myself young -because in the end, age has nothing to do with the amount of years you've spent on this mortal coil (that has more to do with experience) but with how you feel inside.  After all, inside, my mind is still the same as the mind I had 35 years ago.  Except that I now have more experience and should have matured a touch.  With the emphasis on "should have".  I still like the same colours, the same music, the same type of women, the same kind of games.

But I digress.

Being a fan of something is okay.  But going as far as spewing hatred because someone else doesn't like what you like is a tad too far.  The result of such feelings could culminate into things that are going on in Syria or Afghanistan.  Far-fetched, maybe; but the folk who start trouble in those regions are also people who spew hatred because they want everybody else to like what they themselves like.

In the E3 polls, people go as far as creating multiple accounts on GameSpot in order to cast more votes and rig the poll in their favour.

Sounds a lot like a fascist group rigging local elections in a political showdown in a country of your choice.  Again, maybe an unfair comparison, but it's the idea behind it all:  wanting something so bad you disregard the fact that people are different and are bound to have varying tastes.

Some people might feel that rigging a poll through multiple accounts is more innocent than rigging elections.  But in fact it's not.  The act is the same.  Only the outcome is less far-stretching when rigging the E3 polls...

But I can understand.  I don't condone, but I understand.  I understand because I sometimes also had those feelings.  The feeling of being treated unjustfully just because someone voted against what I liked.

When such feelings arise, it's time to take a step back.  See the bigger picture.  Open the window and have a look at the world around you.  Look at the things that matter.  Does it matter that your favourite game doesn't make it to be the winner?  Yes it does.  But only marginally so.  What matters is that, in the end, the game will be released and you're gonna be able to purchase and ultimately play it, regardless if the game came-in first, last, or in-between in whatver poll.

A lot of the kids are going to look back on their behaviour with mixed feelings.  Mixed feelings about how they reacted in the heat of the moment.

And a lot of kids -myself included- might have mixed feelings once the game(s) of their liking are released and (might) turn out to not exactly be what they expected.  In that event, I pity anyone who went bonkers in the voting and comments.

And I'd certainly would love to see the reaction of the handful of imbecils who went through the labour of creating 50-plus accounts to rig the vote, when they end-up with their choice game and it turns out to be utter crap...

In that regard, I would like some games to turn out to be garbage.  Just to get back at some idiots.

Not nice, I know, but it's a gratifying thought.  Blame the immature juvenile part of the 52-year old inside of me.

I just hope they release "The Division" on the PC platform.  And that it turns out to be as good as my expectations think it to be.

JJ

Things to consider when buying a new computer case.  Fair and simple.  Or so it should be.

First of all, you need to make a full stock of what you already have and what you're going to continue using.  Usually, when buying a case, all you're going to do is swap all the parts from your current case to the new one.

So, the few things you want to consider are:

- Width of the new case (with regard to cable management: the wider the case, the more space you've got between the motherboard tray and the right-hand side panel), especially when, like me, you've got an Antec True Power Quattro 1200w power supply, which has bulky capacitators at the end of its power cables.  Not that easy to get them stowed away in a decent fashion.

- Inside lenght of the case (with regard to where the hard drive cages are and the length of your video card)

- Amount of plastic a case has.  Lots of plastic don't necessarily mean a less sturdy case, but often enough you get a rather cheapish feeling case which tends to be assembled less well than an overly metal one.

- Portability.  Of course only when attending LAN-parties a lot.  There's quite a few models out there which have a sturdy handle at the top (like the CM Storm Trooper, for instance).  Literally comes in handy when being able to carry the case around like a piece of luggage.

- Moddability.  Depending on what your plans are and on your skills, watch for cases that have lots of possible assembly combinations, like the Antec LanBoy or some Fractal Design cases.

- Inside space, with regard to the possibility of mounting 120/240/360mm rads for watercooling.

That's about it.  Doesn't seem a lot -and it isn't- but you would be amazed at how many people buy something of which they later conclude they cannot use it to their satisfaction because too small, or too fragile or too whatever because of not having considered one of the above...

JJ

How "Future Proof" is future proof? In computer hardware land, I mean. Because, the way I see it, "Future Proof" has long ago become just another trick of the trade; a slogan to give people the impression they buy something, if not for life, then surely for the next, say, five to ten years to come.

If the stuff which is being thrown on the market -like processors, graphic solutions and stuff- is so future proof, why do the same people who have their mouths full about this guarantee bring out more future proof stuff almost every year?

When I was a kid in the late sixties, the "future" was something like the year 2000: mysterious, unfathomable and ever so far away. Nowadays, it seems this future is so close it lurks around the corner of the new year. If this continues, the future will be something we just overtook without noticing. After all, isn't today just yesterday's tomorrow?

What I mean is, why build stuff which will last you half a lifetime when everybody knows most of us will replace this long-lasting gear after a year, or two, at the most?

Take me, for example. I just bought a new video card. Has "Military Class III Components" good to "last you five to ten years". Five to ten years? Joking, right?

Does this mean MSI sells me a top product only to make me get tears in my eyes in a couple of years because their long-lasting stuff is hopelessly out of date?

I'm not saying they should build crap that surrenders its integrated circuitry to the Great PCB In The Sky every two years, but still, there's limits to the future when they bring a new future to your doorstep every 365 days.

Me, I've opted out of the electronic rat-race. For now. Bought me a case the size of a mini-camper in the CM Cosmos II, got my future gaming insured with the MSI 7970 Lightning and have ordered an AsRock Extreme 9 socket 2011 mobo with a nice i7 3930K.

Why? Because I've been caught-up in the desperately-keeping-up-to-date disease. Got the virus a couple of years ago, after the release of the socket 1156 platform and the ATI 5xxx family.

All future proof stuff which lasted for just a year. Two, tops. Only thing which isn't so future proof is my bank account. Shows a lot of wear 'n' tear right now. First scars appeared back in late 2009 and the symptoms have worsened over the last few years. To the point where the patient will be pronounced dead in a very short time.

That's why I went for the socket 2011 stuff. As a kind of an epitaph. Not for my bank account, but for the future proof rat-race. No more spending rage for me for the forseeable future; however long that future will last, keeping the Mayas in mind and the ending of their calender on December 21 2012.

If the Mayas were right, then so were the hardware companies, come to think of it.

Anyway, I'll sing it out for a few years with my gear. Spend my saved cash to visit places. Puma-Punku or Machu Piccu. Better hurry then, since the future itself isn't future proof any longer...

Anybody ever wonder about the purpose of letting a character die in a single player game? No? Well, I did and still do.

I mean, what's the use for that? It's a game, right? So, why give your character the ability to die and in one go often set you back several hours of gameplay or at least lets you start a level right from the beginning? Why do that? Just to annoy folks who just paid 50 euro/60 dollar for the game? To thank us for our support with a "Critical Mission Failure" and making us throw things in our neighbor's dog general direction?

I understand that in arcade/console games, at the time in the pub, the games couldn't last forever for that meager dime you spent, so ways had to be found to restrain the players, to keep 'em from going on and on while an ever growing queue was forming. So, on top of ever more difficult levels, the ultimate game-stopper was introduced: Death.

Now, in a bought game, death couldn't and can't be used as a final end (how more or less final can an end be anyway? The end should be the end, right? You can't be just a little bit dead, or can you? "what happened?" "Oh, I just died, but I feel much better now...") so instead they let your character die to resurrect him/her at the start of the last level or -gamer-gods be damned- at the last save you made. The latter situation often results in you and the neighbor's dog never ever becoming friends again. No way.

I think it's silly. I think the demise of your character should be taken out of single player games, unless they force you to start the game all over again. Dead is dead, amen, and it's totally stupid that you are being resurrected at an earlier point in the game.

Why not instead use a "forced retreat"? There's lots of instances where games transfer to in-game movies to further the story, so, when your character's health is too low with no more options to upgrade that health through cover or health packs, let the game take control and get you to a safe place to heal. A place from where you can get back to the action, right where you left it.

Or, instead of croaking, have the game fade out and transport the player's character to a field- or other hospital to get better and continue the mission -or whatever you were doing- right from where you were swooped away to recover...

Anyway, just a thought about a feature which has always bothered me. If we were playing sims with real life accuracy, I could understand the possibility to die, but we're talking games here -however realistic they might be- and games should first of all be fun, so quit annoying the players with letting their characters die all the time. Or at least, don't "steal" our time and fun by setting back the resurrected character several gaming hours or a complete level.

I say, "death to in-game death". So let it be done.

After I posted my former blog -the first "Back To Green"- I realized that AMD finally did away with the ATI branding and as such also got rid of the fiery red color associated with the latter, to replace it with, well, green.

The thing is that I recently (last week on Wednesday -the 4th of July, to be exact) went from green back to, errr, the formerly red green.

In more comprehensible words (not necessarily comprehensible actions) I swapped my Asus GTX670 DCII Top for an AMD MSI 7970 Lightning.

Nuts, I know. But hey, as long as it doesn't hurt -although my wallet needed hospitalization due to severe starvation- it's okay, I guess.

Not that I was dissatisfied with the GTX670, it's just that I felt a tad silly for going from a 6970 crossfire set-up to a "meager" GTX670. I chose the latter after the XFX 7970 BE DF debacle and based on GTX670 benchmarks, which were pretty amazing.

But still. Being a tiny bit crazy, and after reading up on both the MSI GTX680/R7970 Lightning, I was sold and also able to convince Alternate (after a lot of blood, sweat but no tears -on my part at least) to trade-in the GTX670 for the aformentioned MSI R7970 Lightning. I went for the AMD card just because of the 384-bits bus and 3GB of V-RAM.

Now, for my wallet's sake (and Alternate's marbles), let's just hope MSI doesn't decide to come up with a Super GHz Lightning edition...

Should they do, I'd first have to refil the massive hole, formerly known as my bank account, anyway...

But never say never.

I'll keep you posted. Just in case someone might be interested.

Green meaning NVidia. Ever since the Scarabee debacle and the GTX300 series going South and eventually down the drain and into the bin, combined with ATI setting the record straight with their 5000 series, I switched from an Asus EN8800GTS 512 Top to the former, late 2009, with first a couple of Sapphire 5770 VaporX cards, later with an Asus Matrix 5870 Platinum.

2011 made me go for two first-batch 6950 cards from Sapphire, in the hopes they were refitted 6970ies. I was lucky -they both were. Flashed 'em and had loads of gaming fun with the lot. Until the release of Skyrim and ATI/AMD screwing-up their driver support for crossfire.

My latest conquest was an XFX 7970 Dual Fan Black Edition which did almost as good as both my 6970 cards together. But after I had to return the first 7970 for a squeeky fan and the second one seemed to be suffering from the same ailment, I was able to persuade Alternate to take it back (again) and let me swap it for an Asus GTX670 DC2-Top. Is a factory overclocked model which runs at 1058MHz (and an 1140MHz boost) out of the box. According to Tom's Hardware tests, this card runs just 1% faster than a standard clocked GTX680. Amazing performance, really.

This GTX670 even runs faster than my crossfire 6970 cards. That's how much power this baby has under its hood.

Am going to hold on to this card for a wee bit longer this time. Can't afford it to go nuts every year over some hardware one doesn't really need to do some decent gaming. The only games where I notice a significant performance increase are "BF3" and "Metro 2033". All other games I've tried run fine on even a single 6970 or even the 5870 or GTX460.

Meanwhile I sold both flashed 6950ies and the CoolerMaster Storm Trooper. Am busy brainstorming over which case I'll tinker with for my gaming rig: either an "old" CM690II Advanced (already got the USB-3 bridge from a pal who took it out of his modded latest model CM690) or my 2007 Antec 1200 case which doesn't have a CPU cut-out in the mobo plate. Not that I need such a cut-out, since I don't use water cooling and the Arctic Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU cooler I've fitted doesn't have a retention plate. But hey!, one never knows when the modding virus attacks again...

Maybe I'll clean the 1200 thoroughly and put it back in its box for now. For a gaming rig with only an SSD and a 2TB hard drive, the CM690II will do nicely. For now.

And when I get tired of the CM690, I just swivel my chair 45 degrees and marvel at the sheer size of that Cosmos II Ultra -my "everyday use" computer- which holds an MSI GTX460 HAWK and the rest of my drives. Jeez, what a case...

All systems are green again, Nvidia has assumed control...

JJ