Magus is on vacation, hanging with my sis (Schala) - here's a nice picture, as you see it's very secluded and beautiful on this little isle. We'll send you a note or two about some of the games we are playing while we are here - oh yes, we got the hook-up here... HD, broadband, every game console ever created, some smokin' PC gaming rigs... we're good to go! Schala wants to thank all of you for helping me find her, and after we get some rest - we'll go get our freakin' cats! Now... where were they...

• 6Sep 08

  A new Gaming Idea! Complete Game Modes!

  Hey folks - let me know what you think of this new idea - I don't think anyone has ever thought about it, because every interview I've read (of companies like EA for example) speaks to the ignorance of this cncept. But just imagine - you buy a game, install it - and BAM! You can play either online or offline without missing any of the game! YES FOLKS - a game that is complete in BOTH MODES!

  AND BEST OF ALL - you won't be reminded, spammed, prodded, asked or bothered in anyway that there is another mode to play - because each mode is completely autonomous and independent of the other! WOuldn't that be the TOPS!

  Imagine you are playing Need For Speed Pro Street offline, and you check the leaderboards, and there is no forced connection to the offline mode! A leaderboard actually pops up, created by the PC just for you! Imagine the same game, you want to check your stats - and your stats just come right up WITHOUT A NEED FOR ONLINE CONNECTIVITY! Wouldn't that be great! sound delicious, huh Something innovative and new, isn't it? I'm sure this idea is like money in the bank, because nobody has thought of it!

  Gone are the days where the game is crippled because the company wants you to go online and pay them fees for subscriptions and content - unless that's what you want. MMOs will still be an option, and a complete game experience - they just won't be a nag factor in the SP experience! Now that's golden, huh? So when you want to go online and play, you can do so. But if you'd rather play offline, you can do that as well - WITHOUT HAVING TO EVER THINK ABOUT THE ONLINE MODE. Great idea, huh?

  Well it's in the air now - lets see where it goes. Besides, with all of the ISPs limiting people's bandwidth nowadays, your going to need something that doesn't have to be hooked up to the internet to keep you occupied anyway - and it could be triple-painfule to be reminded constantly of online mode when you absolutley cannot get on because your ISP has locked you out until the end of the month!

  Think about it - write about it. DO SOMETHING.

  • Posted Sep 6, 2008 3:39 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 6Sep 08

  Mashup Contest Revisited - Always read the Fine Print... Hi EA!

  Remeber the Battlefield Bad Company Mashup "contest" that we had here at Gamespot a couple of months ago? I was just thinking about it because since then I've seen a rash of clones and it's starting to get my ire all over again.

  In the Battlefield Mashup, you were "challenged" to come up with the best "commercial" built with a library of artwork / clips from the developer. Supposely, the "best" would be chosen by the company and would get this awsome prize. People could vote on their favorites (which was clearly explained had no impact) and they would get rated. There were insinuated incentives in the GUI that made you think that using the maximum amount of material would count towards getting a better chance at being picked.

  So I, and others, sweated for days to create just the right mix. A focused message, the right material hare and there, editing sound just so, to get as perfect a mashup as can be. Being that I do have some filmatography background, I might have an advantage. Unfortunately, it turned out that all of our efforts were for squat.

  EA made it's big splash that it had chosen a winner. When i went to see this winner, who wasn't me or any of the people who I knew did as good a job or better than I - I was blown away. The mashup they chose only used a few clips. It was incomplete. It said NOTHING. It didn't even have the GOOD CLIPS. It looked like someone was working on something, and accidently pressed the "Submit" button! It was among the WORST of all I had seen, something that a 2 year old could have made by banging it's diaper against the keyboard. I could not believe that I was looking at the one that was chosen over all of the other!

  I was so angry I flew a hot email to EA AND Burger King (who of course never responded - why should they, I only own thousands of dollars worht of their products...). It was as if they purposely set out to insult the people who actually thought their efforts would count for something. Or maybe they were just lazy as hell and just chose anything! In any case, there was no regard whatsoever for the time and thought each contestant - whom 99% were better than the winner - put into the composition of their entries. It's like a person with no vocal chords winning American Idol.

  Later I found out that, somewhere in the fine print we weren't allowed to see until after the "contest" for some strange reason, it was stated that it was not a contest - but rather a sweepstakes. I'd like to take the time to brow-beat Gamespot staff for helping to promote it as a contest - that's exactly what the article stated here. I don't enter sweepstakes, and if I were properly informed in advance I would not have wasted my effort. (Maybe when I move to the deep USA South and become a hick, I'll entersome sweepstakes - that seems to be a qualification for winning...). I hope in the future Gamespot will be more discriminate and not participate in or promote this kind of deceptive activity. It reflects on the site - you do not come out unscathed.

  So from now on, I've learned that if there is no fine print, do not participate - and if there is, read it. since everyone's out for the scam - even big companies like EA, you've got to be triple careful these days...

  • Posted Sep 6, 2008 2:52 pm PT
  • Category: General
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• 22Apr 08

  Geek Squad alert - Best Buy scam-ola!

  There's this almost elderly couple (mid 60's) that I frequently do computer work for, and the husband is really enamoured with the whole internet thing (the wife could care less). Anyways, she wanted to get him a laptop - probably because it's cool to say "I have a laptop"... so today I get a call from them. They are at Best Buy, and are about to purchase a laptop for $499.00 - you know, one of them "bargain" laptops that you kow they are wishing you would buy all the upgrades so you can wlak out of there spending twice as much as you intended...

  But that tactic wasn't going to work on my friends - because they don't need a lot of power and don't know what all the extras are anyway. Hey - I still haven't convinved him to move away from 56K - even though I showed him cheaper comparisons than AOL...

  Anywho - they call me and he goes on to tell me abouot the laptop, and about how the Geek Squad wants to charge him $129.00 for "services". After trying to get my friend to explain to me what these "services" were, to no avail, I told him to let me speak to the Geek Squad guy. This fool tries to run circles arouond my head, but he's not dealing with a hardware dummy - I build / optimize / configure systems, ETCETERA. He starts with his "we provide services for the optimization of the PC" and some bull-stuff about "Anti-virus and how it's very important, blah, blah ,blah...". I basically, and rudely had to stop him and ask him point blank - "LOOK - what are you actually charging for - what are you doing that actually costs $129.00 for Anti-virus protection, and another $49.00 for 'services'"??? I had to break it down and get him to answer specifically what they are doing - because Trend Micro doesn't cost $129.00, and i don'tknow what "services" you need on a PC - it should be set to go, at some level, when you leave the store.

  His answer: We install Trend Micro Anti-Virus, and our services are... get this: UNINSTALL DEMO/TRIAL SOFTWARE (that's what he called "optimizing" - geting rid of trial software... What kind of scam is that??? Any idiot can install an application, and any idiots fool brother can uninstall an application - even so, it shouldn't cost $178.00+tax to install anti-virus and uninstall demos! what a freakin' rip-off! Is that what the Geek Squad is all about? Are people actually paying them to do menial tasks like that? If so - I need to sign up for a position TODAY! Oh, forget that, I'm going rogue and keeping the profits Best Buy is skimming off for myself. That is ridijculous! I told my friend to buy the laptop, sans "services" and I'll see him in the morning to fix him up...

  Besides - AOL gives antivirus away for free (another thing I'm sure the Geek Squad knows - but that oh mighty dollar keeps calling...

  The moral of the story is - don't get into something you don't know about, unless you have a friend that does to save your sorry butt...

  • Posted Apr 22, 2008 11:01 pm PT
  • Category: Computers
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