logan!!!!

i apologize...

i've been playing a lot of rainbow six: vegas lately...

i know... in video game terms, this one's a bit old, but i can't help it. i've been a big rainbow six fan for many years, and now that i've got the video card horsepower to run it, i gladly grabbed onto this title and dove in.

all i can say is... WOW! i know, i say wow a lot, but this is incredible. first of all, ubisoft has been neglecting pc'ers for years with this franchise. r6 was originally a pc game, and i remember playing the hell out of it, and it's various add-ons many eons ago, i believe i first played it on a pentium 233 mmx with a monster 3d PASS THROUGH card. as the game evolved, i went with it... until it evolved to the console land.

don't misunderstand, i love console systems. i have a few... but, i don't like using a gamepad to play first person shooters, which is what i'm forced to do on a console. but, thankfully, r6 vegas, while clearly intended for the next-gen console, it is incredibly, intricately, and beautifully ported to the pc.

the only real drawback is that the story isn't great. it is like 'playing a movie' but, the dialog is pretty pathetic, and it's very straight forward video game fare. also, i hear rumors that the ending is very disappointing... i'll let you know when i get there....


speaking of the beautiful art of first person shooters...

ign.com ran a preview of the new 'french' game... crossover.

this game looks like it will be... amazing... if they can pull it off.

here's the concept: a fusion of singleplayer and multiplayer. it's hard to explain in basic terms, and it's best to read the article, and perhaps watch their video preview, which does a decent job. you play the game from 2 angles, either as an 'elite' singleplayer, or you can play as a 'skirmish' player, typically playing against the 'elite' player or players.

there's a lot of mix and match going on, but the concept is that you progress through the game, playing against various a.i. players, except that those a.i. players are typically inhabited, ala agent smith from the matrix, by a real person.

the story, however, is a little silly, where apparently, you are living in our reality, but are being phased in an out of another reality where the knights templar survived the burnings of 1307 and grew to take over france. you are in paris, yep, paris.

besides that, though, the concept looks pretty solid, and they seem to be working hard on implementing it right. again, if they can pull it off, this will be great. i wonder how good the game will be in a year and half when the servers are merely a skeleton crew of it's former glory... like almost every game on the planet.

it's being devoloped on the source engine, and by the art director of half-life 2, so you know it's pretty without looking at a single screenshot.

i'm curious how well it's going to work, what factor lag will play, and how they are going to keep the servers going strong if it's not pay-for-play...

i'll be waiting... and watching.


and in other pc news...
is enough ever enough???

oc team italy has managed to push a pentium 4 631 to 8Ghz... yes, EIGHT GIGAhertz! all they had to do with get ahold of a p4 631 and an asus p5b mobo. they modified the mobo... then, all they had to do with cool it with liquid nitrogen... yep, just liquid nitrogen.

of course, liquid nitrogen is responsible for all the great overclocking milestones, i don't know if anyone remembers the HUGE 5Ghz!!! project a few years ago... but this one definitely takes the cake.

now, the only real question... what's the point? i mean... is this really useful? now, i'd like to see them pull this off with a core 2 duo... maybe a 5 Ghz per core powerhouse.


for anyone looking....

to shove some i-told-you-so's in some peoples faces... livescience.com does some 'myth' debunking.


and, if you were wondering...

here's how to solve a rubiks cube (without taking off the stickers). this would have been really handy in the 80's... but, better late than never. now, i just need to find myself a rubiks cube and try it out.