I'm not entirely sure what a "3DMark" is supposed to represent as a unit of measure. But apparently the difference between my PC running Vista Ultimate and an identical PC running XP Professional is 1500 of them. So Vista's achilles heel continues to be driver support? It's certainly been more troublesome for me than I had hoped, but it's what I get for going with the 64-bit OS. Anyway, last night I installed Futuremark's 3DMark05 synthetic benchmarking tool to see how my machine stacks up against the latest and greatest tech that money can buy. It's funny to look back on how I thought that these demos looked amazing running like a slideshow. And now that my computer can more or less crank them out at 70fps, they're somehow less impressive... It's slightly annoying that when I built this PC I missed some fairly significant price cuts by a matter of weeks. But I've been enjoying being able to play games in high-definition for that period of time. And that's really just the way it goes in the consumer electronics market. The pace of advancement is so rapid there will always be better products or deals just around the corner. My solution is to sort of amortize whatever premium you might unwittingly pay against the enjoyment that you get out of your toys, and that's good enough for me. A better solution might be to keep up with fiscal year calendars, and not buy anything just before the end of quarters. :P I really can't speak highly enough of widescreen PC gaming. It's honestly an entirely new experience. Granted, some older games require a bit of coaxing before they'll display in full 16:9 or 16:10 glory. But I've found an invaluable resource in the Widescreen Gaming Forum. My complaints about Supreme Commander seem silly now; and that was on a 21" 4:3 CRT, which is certainly no slouch when it comes to viewing area. Of course, it also weighed 80 pounds if it was an ounce, and took up about 3 square-feet of desk space.

I'm pretty sure that I've gone on record regarding the great format war that rages on between the HD-DVD and Bluray consortiums. But while I was in Best Buy on Friday afternoon, in the consuming mood, perusing the new(ish) releases of DVDs, I found myself with a bit of a conundrum... In my left hand I held the $20 DVD copy of Children of Men, and in my right the $35 HD-DVD, which contains the mere standard definition version on the opposite side of the disc. After a few minutes of thought and a quick run-through of Sweet Child O' Mine on the 360 display of Guitar Hero II, I decided to go with the HD version. I figured that sooner or later I would buy an HD movie player, and the HD-DVD group's decision to throw in a "legacy" version (for a sub-set) of their movies on the disc was apparently my tipping point; and I have to imagine it is (and will be) for a lot of other people as well. I've just about finished my second time through God of War II. I want to say that the first time took somewhere between 12-15 hours, and it looks like I'll be done with this second lap in just under 6 hours. After that I'll probably move on to Titan mode... But I should also probably find a newer game to test out my new PC. I reinstalled Sin Episodes through Steam, but that didn't run in 64-bit Vista. I didn't put any time whatsoever into trying to get it to work, so hopefully there's an easy fix. Although I'm not holding my breath since Ritual was sold a few months back to that "casual" *shudder* game publisher. I installed Supreme Commander, but after about 15 minutes I quit playing. I couldn't really get into it, and my first impression was not so good. This may sound pretty weak, but the mouse just jerks the screen around way too much, and I couldn't seem to find a sensitivity setting in the options. It's also kind of annoying that the interface takes up nearly 50% of the screen, making it all but impossible to see anything if you haven't zoomed well out of the action. Which is particularly confusing, given all of Chris Taylor's "face-in-a-sandbox" talk we heard in the months leading up to SupCom's release. I'm going to stick with it, but so far I'm glad that it came as a free gift with my motherboard. I also installed the demo for Command & Conquer 3, and that game looks amazing! It runs incredibly smooth even at 1280x1024 with maxed out quality settings. The original C&C is still one of my favorite games of all time, so this newest addition to the franchise may be the next PC game that I play. I'm a sucker for FMV. I wish they would bring it back...

Well, I put together my new PC this weekend. After about 5 or 6 years of incremental upgrades, I finally decided to invest in a completely new system. And it was quite a transition... My old computer still used PATA hard-drives, first-generation DDR RAM, and even the AGP bus. Not to mention the processor, which was an AthlonXP running at about 2Ghz. I didn't go nuts, but I wanted to get a platform that would hold up for the next few years. I had a bit of a scare at first. I spent 2 hours (give or take) getting everything installed, only to have the power switch just click at me. I would have been worried if I didn't know from experience that no one has ever hooked up the case control leads correctly on the first try. I can almost imagine the relieved looks on the Penn scientists faces when one of their colleagues flipped a pair of vacuum tubes and ENIAC roared to life. In my case, the motherboard pins were color-coded, but that coding didn't match the system that the case manufacturer used... I haven't done much with it so far, other than mess around with Vista. I picked up an OEM copy of Vista Ultimate from Newegg.com. I haven't actually tried out any of the Ultimate-exclusive features, but I have to say that I'm really impressed with Vista so far. The live Search function built into the Start button (or whatever they're calling it now) is very smooth. My only complaint is that if you want to use the slimmer "Clas.sic" menu system, you won't be able to also take advantage of the new Search. From a purely aesthetic perspective, Aero is amazing. The translucent windows are actually a lot more impressive than I was expecting, and I've stopped using maximized windows for no good reason other than they look really nice. Frankly, other windowing systems just look ugly in comparison now. The 3D Alt-Tab replacement for switching between open windows is nice, but probably not as useful as Exposé. I'm also really glad that Microsoft has finally added the desktop to the possible Alt-Tab destinations. The User Account Control functionality that Apple has so excellently lampooned recently isn't anywhere near as intrusive as they would like you to believe. I suppose that depends on whether or not you actually like being told when your computer is doing something. Personally, I do. And that concept also happens to be one of the simpler tenets of human-computer interaction - tell the user what you're doing. The only other thing that I've done so far is to fire up Half-Life 2 - The Lost Coast. It was as smooth as glass, running at about an average of 75fps at 1280x1024 with HDR enabled, 4x anti-aliasing, and 16x anisotropic filtering for textures. My motherboard and video card came with copies of Supreme Commander and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, but I haven't installed either yet. I was busy giving Zeus the business in God of War II. I'm actually almost a quarter of the way through for the second time. I usually don't fall for the alternate costume nonsense that a lot of action-adventure games use as replay bait, but it's probably going to work on me in this case. The Cod of War costume is great. :lol:

So you can make a complete idiot of yourself, right? I came home yesterday evening and pretty much breezed through that "Fires of the Phoenix" puzzle in two tries. Though to be fair, if you want to get that pair of red orb chests you have to be that kid from The Wizard or something. I managed to last about ten minutes in that madness - hiding behind a pillar that gets batted around by the fire every 4 seconds, at least a baker's dozen of those gargoyle guys, and 3 or 4 of those sword- & scythe-wielding soldiers. But I gave up on the chests, and it was pretty much a cakewalk. I tore through the Scylla and I'm on my way to the Sisters of Fate. Anyone that may have been surprised by my complaints should know that, my ravings aside, God of War II is probably the best action game ever made. Just look at the reviews, or better yet, see what Gabe & Tycho had to say about it, because that pretty much sums it up.

The greatness of the original God of War - whether its storytelling, amazing level architecture, or the execution of its brilliant combat - had blinded me to the single black mark on my memory of the game. Nothing more than a lonely speck of criticism really; buried beneath my fond recollections of that triumph of David Jaffe and his team. But that tiny blemish came roaring back to the forefront of my mind this evening as I played the final act of God of War II... Those cheap freaking environmental action-puzzles! In the original, I was both cursing the frustrating timer puzzles and begrudgingly chuckling along at the fairly clever, tongue-in-cheek designers' joke that was "The Architect's Tomb." But the absurdly frustrating latter portions of "The Palace of the Fates" in God of War II go above and beyond anything that the twisted mind of Pathos Verdes ever dreamed up. And it's not that these "puzzles" are actually demanding - you can't get by on skill or even sheer mindless repetition. Because you aren't merely fighting against the game, but literally fighting against the game. Take for example the awesome "jam on the 'O' button to lift junk" mechanic. Made even more annoying since they've ever-so-slightly increased the amount of time that it takes Kratos to clean & jerk those massive doors into the air... Which brings me to the "Fires of the Phoenix" that employs not only unceasing, overpowered environmental damage but also the Zapp Brannigan strategy of sending wave after wave of enemies at you. You apparently can't just weather the storm of attackers and then complete the puzzle... I guess would eliminate the "challenge." So way to go SCEA! You've completely ruined my enjoyment of an otherwise fantastic game. Thanks! After 20 or 30 minutes of the same nonsense, I threw down the controller in disgust & caught the second episode of The Riches tonight on FX. It's a pretty good show so far. I'm continually impressed by the quality of content that FX produces...

Anyone that is a fan of Breakout clones should be sure to check out Grubby Games' Fizzball. One part Katamari Damacy and two parts Arkanoid, Fizzball is probably one of the most unique spins on the block-breaking design that we've all come to know and love.



Rather than simply hitting blocks, Fizzball has you directing a rolling, bouncing bubble that will swallow up everything it touches, assuming that the object is small enough. Just as in Katamari Damacy you start each level of Fizzball by picking up the smallest objects available, in this case butterflies. But as the Fizzball collides with objects on the level, it causes reactions - trees drop acorns, broken crates spill apples, chickens lay eggs. And with each gathered item the Fizzball grows larger, allowing for the collection of even larger items and animals.

Though the game isn't all that hard and the graphics are very cartoonish (and exceptionally well-done), to dismiss Fizzball as only a children's game would be a mistake. It's an interesting and very thoughtful redesign of one of the oldest of game formulae, and with 180 levels has enough depth to keep the action-puzzle crowd busy for weeks.

Granted, it's not the best descendant of Arkanoid that I've ever played - that honor is still claimed by Nurium Games' amazing BreakQuest - but Grubby Games has certainly shown that any design, even one 31 years old, can be turned on its head for a completely fresh, entertaining experience.

I'm sure you've seen the commercial... There's this little girl and an elephant standing in a football stadium, and the girl's talking to an HVAC installer about Texas Instruments' newest version of their Digital Light Projection technology (now featured in an HDTV near you). Every time I see it, I can't help but think that out of all the little girls that auditioned for that part, why did they have to go with the one that can't pronounce "mirrors?" Well you know what else is all about the meers? RayHound. Yeah, that actually was the best segue that I could come up with. Anyway, RayHound is a fantastic top-down shooter from Hikoza Ohkubo. Except that, you aren't actually capable of shooting anything... You're piloting this ship that is being attacked by turrets that teleport into place and then remain fixed, only able to rotate about that fixed point in space. And as you're fired upon, you use the ship's interesting ability to sort of bend space, and redirect any nearby fire back at the turrets. Eventually, you are dodging into and out of fire, practically seeing everything at once - you might say it gets pretty crazy. Here's another 1000 words that may give you a better idea of how it all works. Like a lot of Ohkubo's games, your only real enemy is the clock, and taking damage inflicts a time penalty. The better you play, the longer you can play, etc. You move by moving the mouse, and "fire" by clicking the left mouse button. It's all very straight-forward. It's also a pretty elegant design. The graphics are simple but impressive. The sound is minimalistic. If you dig old-school shooters, you should definitely check it out. Besides, how many games these days can easily be measured in kilobytes? But if RayHound is a little too much for you, Warning Forever (farther down on Ohkubo's page) may be right up your alley. If I had to choose between them, I'd probably go with WF myself. But the more I play RayHound the more I understand how to be good at it. And it just may become my new favorite.

Now, I know what you're thinking... What was all of that "Apple zealot" stuff about, if Macworld was so awesome? Well, I'll tell you. Last time, I was pointing out the idiocy of claiming that any operating system is somehow immune to exploitive bugs that can cause serious security concerns. Apple made just such a claim in nationally-distributed ad campaigns, and now they are being proven wrong on a daily basis (until the end of January?), which is pretty funny. But I never said anything negative about the quality of Apple's products. I couldn't have any more respect for what Apple does for the home computer and consumer electronics markets. Since the launch of OSX, to say that Apple's approach to user interface design has been inspired would be insulting. And that's just their software. For the last 3 years, it's almost as if their hardware designers have been rummaging around in my wildest dreams for new ideas. They are constantly pushing the envelope for what people understand about the place of computers in our lives. And Macworld 2007 was possibly the best conference yet. You've just got to love Steve Jobs' showmanship. The iPhone is an incredibly promising portable computer that offers the functionality of both a media player and a mobile phone, as well as wireless Internet. Chat-like SMS messaging, email, voicemail that behaves like email, and a Safari-based web-browser that allows proper Internet browsing on a mobile device. And again, that's without even mentioning the physical device itself. The inclusion of a multi-touch LCD is a first, and something that I've only seen before in academic research or incredibly high-end professional systems. But equally cool, is the accelerometer that allows the iPhone to determine its orientation and alter its display from profile to landscape accordingly. And lastly, proximity and ambient light sensors on the face of the iPhone that help it conserve battery life and eliminate erroneous input on the touchscreen while being used as a phone. Check it out at CNet TV. Then there was Apple TV. Basically, a wireless entertainment hub that connects media from your computer to your "widescreen television." The device costs $299 and boasts a 40GB hard-drive, HDMI, and all the wireless flavors you could need. The interface is slick, taking advantage of Apple's fantastic Core Animation to deliver wonderfully fast, browsable thumbnails of all of your media. But the product as a whole starts to lose a little of its sheen, the closer you look at its purpose. The details are a little sketchy to me... The 40GB local disk allows for "up to 50 hours" of video at 640 x 480, with support for 720p. Now HD content would take up considerably more disk space and would no doubt trim down that 50 hour mark by quite a bit. And that's before you consider how you're going to get that HD content on the box. Apple doesn't offer HD video yet, and I'm not sure the broadband quality and penetration is there to even make it a realistic option. Maybe by 2010, but not today. And 640 x 480 just isn't going to look all that great to someone that's used to a high-definition image. How this product will compete against Microsoft's pending IPTV service over Xbox Live is questionable; though frankly, I think the answer is "not well." I could ramble on, because this is an area of computing that I'm pretty interested in and excited about... So I'll just leave it at this - Apple TV is definitely a nice first attempt (Apple is clearly thinking). Though I have to say that I think dropping another device between the computer and the television is not the right conceptual direction to move in. But that's a whole different post...

I have always been amused when Apple users (or the corporation itself, for that matter) point to the lack of security issues with the platform's software as an indicator of some degree of superiority to the non-platform that is the Personal Computer. I'm not sure what exactly was supposed to be unique about Apples - hardware or software? I guess if it were hardware, now that the Mac line-up is running Intel silicon, the users at least have an out. If that is the case, I won't point out the heresy that is continuing to be an Apple zealot in this post-PowerPC era. But if it was the Apple software developer's Zen-like, omniscient ability to create unbreakable code, then that generation must have moved on to their next lives. Because I'm afraid the first casualty in January's "Month of Apple Bugs" has been delivered:

The QuickTime vulnerability relates to how the media player software handles the Real Time Streaming Protocol, or RTSP, according to an advisory published on the Month of the Apple Bugs Web site. An attacker could create a special RTSP string in a rigged QuickTime file that would cause a buffer overflow, according to the advisory.

"The risk is having your system compromised by a remote attacker, who can perform any operation under privileges of your user account," said LMH, the alias of one of the two security researchers behind the Month of the Apple Bugs. "It can be triggered via JavaScript, Flash, common links, QTL files and any other method that starts QuickTime."

And no, I'm not glossing over the fact that Windows is susceptible to the exploit as well. Because that's just to be expected since it's a piece of junk, right? I'm just enjoying the irony that it's Apple's code this time. :)

January 1st, 2007 was a tough day for sports fans in Atlanta. My alma mater, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, threw away an amazing first half lead, to lose the Gator Bowl to the number 15 West Virginia Mountaineers. It was sort of confusing to watch, actually, almost as if a completely different team came back out from the locker room to play the second half. WVU was riddled with injuries, and flat out didn't have an answer for Tech's passing game the full four quarters. And despite some pretty amazing numbers by a few of Tech's key offensive players:

Tashard Choice (RB) - 169 yards on 27 carries, with 2 TDs
Calvin Johnson (WR) - 186 yards on 9(!) receptions, with 2 TDs
Taylor Bennett (QB) - 20 of 30 for 335 yards, with 3 TDs & 1 INT

WVU still managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Granted, 14 of WVU's crucial second half points came partly on a trick play that had the West Virginia offensive line crouched over like gargoyles for the entire down, freezing the Tech secondary just long enough for a wide open reception in the endzone. And then again on a fluke kickoff recovery where the ball caromed off the thigh-pad of a Tech blocker and into the waiting arms of a WVU player, setting up another easy touchdown. But Tech just couldn't get anything going in the fourth quarter. And it was difficult to watch such an otherwise well-played game on Tech's part amount to another frustrating loss by a fieldgoal. And then there was the news that the Atlanta Falcons' owner and CEO Arthur Blank had decided to fire the team's head coach Jim Mora. Following 2004's impressive 11-5 NFC South Championship with an 8-8 2005 season and 2006's 7-9 is pretty bad, I have to admit. And losing the last game of the season to Philly's 2nd and 3rd string, despite not having a chance at the post-season, certainly didn't help. But Mora isn't the one out there dropping passes and throwing interceptions every week once November rolls around. So there is certainly enough blame to go around. And that's before even mentioning the injuries this season. Brian Finneran, Atlanta's number 2 receiver out for the entire season. Both starting defensive ends, Patrick Kerney and John Abraham, were severely injured and out for the majority of the season as well. I'm not trying to make excuses, I just don't understand how you can fire a guy with an overall winning record, just because of an off-hand comment about how his dream job would be to coach his former college's football program. You've at least got to give him a chance to get the team healthy and have another go in the following year. After that, give him the axe if you want. So I guess my only hope is that Blank doesn't become Atlanta's own George Steinbrenner and continue to think that you can win championships by buying talent, no matter the cost, and having a revolving door on your head coach's office door....