Evil Empire Gaming

Saw this on one of my favourite websites, Gizmodo. It's an augmented reality game for handhelds with cameras. There's a real wooden train track on the table and the software animates a train on the little screens. In this game the aim is not to collide.

So perhaps you're thinking "ummmm that sounds really boring". But wait! Take it to the next level...

There's a place near where I live called "Laser Skirmish". Basically it's like paint ball but with those infrared toy guns that make machinegun noises. Now I've always thought that it looked pretty lame. But now, if you join these two concepts together you have something awsome!

Imagine playing Laser Skirmish with a helmet and goggles. The helmet contains the computer and the goggles draw augmented reality over the landscape in front of you. So you're really running through the bush but now there are bullets and rockets flying and attack choppers circling (maybe we'll also need headphones). The bases could be constructed of bland concrete and the software would render them in cammo paint complete with bullet holes, the Toyota Corolla wreck is now a burnt out Sheridan tank and so on.

Hey you could even relive movie scenes; reconstruct Hadley's Hope from Aliens, "Game over man, game over!"

It would rock!

Been thinking about a budget upgrade recently, researching a lot of options and I've found a couple of useful resources.

But first here's an interesting stats page from Valve displaying system configurations for users of their Steam platform. Of course what we're really looking at are stats for Counter Strike players but still. According to them the most used video card is the Geforce 4 MX series. Interesting eh?

I find it interesting because reading hardware review websites would have you believing everyone has modern video cards and if you're upgrading the lastest and greatest is the only way you should spend your money. Hardware review sites often draw comparisions between budget and high end models that make you feel as if the budget models aren't worth spending your money on. They'll say this one has 16 pipelines and this one only 12, this one get's 10 - 20 fps more than this one.... But one thing they don't often rank is the user experience.

Anyway, here's a few articles that help. HardOCP have a US$500 Upgrade guide where they recommend an AMD64 2800+ (socket 754) and a Radeon 9600XT. Ars Technica have a system guide and their "Hot Rod" system configuration that uses a GeForce 6800 and a AMD64 3200+.

In this tiny little box, if you can get past the Nintendo like exterior, sit a dual AMD Opteron system, with 2 SATA hard disks, wireless networking and a nVidia Gefore 6800GT. To find out how they fit it all in and keep it nearly silent get clicking.

The T:V Beta client is available on Gamearena and they have 3 servers up and running.

If you're a Tribes fan join in the fun!

It's nice to see a games company taking care of its community and support a game throughout it's playable life. The latest details of the new BV patch 1.2, due soon, details a few fixes for some REALLY annoying things in Battlefield Vietnam.

"Performance problems resolved at the temple in HoChiMinh Trail and Cambodian Incursion."

Well that one is just mildly annoying but this:

"Parachute not opening properly on first key press."

How many times have you attempted to execute a really badass move that has involved leaping of the side of a building to bring death from above to the evil bad guys below only to land with a soft, wet splat at their feet?

And finally we get a tweak to foil what has to be the most annoying spawn camping tactic I've ever experienced: heli-spawn-raping;

"Helicopter pads at main bases will not reload or repair helicopters occupied by enemy players, even after the control point is taken by the enemy. Note that this is determined by the team the player is on, not by the vehicle they are in."

Hoorah! Suck it down campers.

The newest Razer mouse is the Diamondback - although you'll have to wait until November when they start shipping to own one.
1600 dpi, 7 buttons (where I can not tell) and a 7 foot cord! But that's just a few of the features, read all about it at www.razerzone.com.

I grabbed the Tribes:Vengeance SP demo tonight and had a quick play (well it is rather short and a quick play is all you'll get). It's surprising because it's actually quite good!

Here are some of my impressions...

If you check out Relic's old Rig on the old site you'll know that he doesn't do things by half. The old one had Mercury switch security, seperate 240v power for the case fans and car body paint job (even the CD trays were painted).

The new rig, tantalising tease pic below, looks like a mamoth effort (from what little we can see).

Aww, c'mon Relic finish it already!