Entries from June 2006 ↓

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from CDV's press machine informing me that the English language demo of the upcoming "Night Watch" PC game had been released.  Being a fan of the film and having known about the game for a while, I was excited to know that I would finally be able to check it out.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make time for that till tonight and I'm writing this now to tell you that I still haven't played it.  After downloading, installing and then running the demo I was greeted with: "To launch this application, you need to install additional libraries on your computer."

Strange.  I just finished the install why didn't it just install everything?  It was then I noticed that the window that was telling me it need to install libraries was titled "Protection System (Pro)".  After checking out the directory I installed the demo into I noticed that there was indeed an a file called 'protect.exe'.

So I loaded up Sysinternals FileMon and RegMon to get a better look at what was going on and it was just as I thought: StarForce!

protect.exe:26572  OpenKey  HKCU\Software\Protection Technology\StarForce Runtime NOT FOUND

That's right, CDV released the demo of a new game with copy protection!  Not only that but, they used a copy protection scheme that has been the focus of several recent debates and lawsuit threats.  CDV themselves say they are moving away from StarForce protection in future releases but this one seems to have slipped by.  I sent an e-mail over to Mario Kroll (Director of Marketing and PR for CDV North America) asking about the release and if we can expect a "clean" version sometime in the future.  I'll be sure to pass the word along once I hear from him.

Word just came through - the Spiderman 3 teaser trailer is up over at Apples trailer site!

Tomb Raider: Legend came out for the PSP this week so I decided to sit down and get it a try.  I may be bit spoiled from playing the Xbox version but, I could barely get through the first stage - it just felt clunky. Maybe it's just every game that needs a second analog stick just shouldn't be released on the PSP. For the most part it controls rather nicely - having the benefit of already knowing the stage that is. I couldn't imagine having to actually explore to find where to go next. Gun play isn't that bad - as long as you don't try to turn to fast the enemy! It's easier to just back up till they are on screen. Graphically, the game is on par with most other PSP offerings - it looks nice on that screen.  Although, I'm surprised Eidos decided to stuff the game into PSP shape.

To sum it up: Look for my copy on Ebay soon.

• Metacritic Review

After seeing the link for Slave Hack on Digg yesterday, I, like a bunch of other people (4000 or so new players signed up) decided to check it out. Now, for those who are out of the loop, Slave Hack is a web game whose goal is for you to "hack" your way around the "internet", installing spam/ddos bots and warez dumps, all in the quest to earn money so you can upgrade your hardware. It's pretty crazy when your first starting but, with 30 minutes of "n00b" protection should at least give you a chance to get on your foot.

The game is very addictive! I've been flipping from work to Slave Hack and back for the last two days. If anyone else was around they would have heard me cursing when I "hacked" a server with a full log file. 16 minutes gone! Yes it takes 16 minutes to delete a full log file. Of course after some upgrades you can cut that time down. Just for laughs I did take a look at changing the page with man-in-the-middle proxy but it doesn't seem to work - they must keep approximate track of time on the server. The "download" times are kind of nice because you don't have to sit and watch, you can just check back in 20 minutes.

I have been pretty lucky so far, I haven't experienced a major hack on my "computer" yet. *knock on wood* According to the high score list I'm sitting at number 281 right now - not too bad for flipping back and forth… Maybe I'll try to break the top 100.

Ever since my first experience with Lemmings (playing over at a friends house on his Tandy - yeah it was a while ago) I've had a soft spot for the little guys. It's no surprise that after all these years the game still holds up - it's essentially the same game after all. Lemmings is the perfect game for the PSP, quick levels that are great for small trips in the subway or on the bus. Visually, Lemmings is very good looking, the lemmings themselves are only about 10 pixels or so but, the stages look fantastic. The game was built for the PSP, controls are perfect and load times are seem reasonable so far. With tons of levels (new and old), and the ability to make your own, this one should keep you busy for a while. There isn't really anything new here though - so if the Lemmings made you break a mouse or two when they first started walking around your monitor you should expect to buy a new PSP shortly after trying this one. For puzzle gamers, however, this is a welcome addition to the PSP library.

• Metacritic Review

I received my 88 Rockets T-shirt from Printfection.com yesterday and much to my surprise it wasn't complete crap. I ordered a couple shirts from CafePress a while back and you could see the 'clear' part transfer from when it was ironed on. This one looks like it was printed onto the shirt - ink appears to be soaked into the threads not just sitting on top of them. I also sent the shirt on it's first journey through the washer and dryer and the image held up great. The only major problem I have with the shirt is that the 'Retro Gamer' tag on the back should be placed up higher on the shirt.

It's not as good as a silk screen print but, considering that this design would cost over $100 just to make the screens (wouldn't be a problem if I was selling them though) and that alone makes it worth the couple of bucks I spent on it.

*edit* I really can't spell it seems. I think I need a beer.

It looks like the FoxyTunes Firefox plugin now has some support for the PandoraFM player. FoxyTunes is a plugin for Mozilla Firefox which allows you to control various media players through the browser status bar. I have yet to install it but I'll probably be giving it a try tomorrow.

• FoxyTunes Beta with PandoraFM

I almost didn't pick this one up, but since I was hopping for a decent PSP RPG I took a chance. I didn't realize at the time is that the game is actually a port of a 12 year old Korean RPG. That is on the one hand cool because the game feels very retro - the way a traditional RPG should. Graphically the game is ok - featuring well animated hand drawn sprites. There is nothing special about the audio. Then again there is nothing special about the game at all. Overall, it's boring (I did however enjoy running into a character modeled after Kenshiro of Hokuto no Ken), just a mediocre RPG with some characters that I don't really care about. If story and character development was a bit deeper then this one might be worth a play but with that and the fact you have to see so many load screens it's just not worth it. I might put in a couple of more hours in the hopes that the game has a surprise hidden in there somewhere but, I'm sure this one will go unfinished.

• Metacritic Review

I just came across this interesting page that let's you use the Pandora music service with last.fm.  Very neat.  Really convenient since last.fm's radio isn't that good.

Well, the DS Lite is offically on sale!  And Best Buy and Circut City are offering free copies of Brain Age when you purchase the DS in store.

• Best Buy Coupon
• Circut City Coupon

So if you don't have one run out and get one!