Digital Fugue - Random Thots

Contemplating

I was contemplating to buy a laptop... I had two candidate: A Toshiba Satellite A50 or a Dell Inspiron.
Then Doom 3 came out.

Since my desktops are due for upgrades, now I'm contemplating on buying a superduper gaming machine.

Here's Doom3's worry free requirements:
3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 64 3000+.
1 gigabyte of memory.
Two gigabytes of hard drive space.
An nVidia 6800 graphics card or an ATI X800XT

An Athlon64 3200+ costs about RM 1200 while an ATI Radeon 9800Pro will burn about RM 1500. Plus all the other stuff that would round up close to my budget for a laptop (around RM5000 to 6000).
So, do I buy a laptop or a gaming machine?

Battlefield Vietnam

Over the long weekend, I spent half of the time playing Battlefield Vietnam over LAN. The game was developed by Digital Illusions CE, the Swedish company that developed the award winning predecessor to Bf Vietnam, Battlefield 1942.

Over the last two years a lot of mods and expansion packs have been added to Battlefield 1942 stable. Battlefield Vietnam however is not a mod or an expansion pack, it is like a new game. The game itself is cool with the player having the option of choosing the Yanks or the Viet Cong. Each side have their own weapons and vehicles. Of course, like its predecessor, you can abandon your weapons and vehicles and "steal" the enemy's toys. You can even drop Napalm bombs on enemy.Compared to Bf1942, the vehicles (especially the helicopters and planes) in Bf Vietnam are easier to master and maneuver.

The game certainly bring back memories to Vietnam movies like Apocalypse Now, Platoon and China Beach.
One of the coolest feature is the 60s classic rock tracks. It certainly live up to the Vietnam Day's mood with Deep Purple's Hush and the likes blasting thru the radio as you pump lead into your enemies.

However, although there is a Single Player mode, the game was designed to be played multiplayer. I can see the days of Counter Strike wanning.

Having said that, in order to fully enjoy the game, make sure you are equipped with a powerfull PC and a good game card. Although it plays average on a Duron 900Mhz with 256Mb RAM and a 32Mb GeForce 2 MX graphics card, I would suggest a processor of at least 2Ghz with 512Mb DDr RAM and Nvidia FX 5200 or ATI 9500 graphic card.

Overall I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

For those interested in the historical aspec t of the Vietnam war, head over here.

War!
what it is good for?
Absolutely nothing
Yeah!
War, Edwin Starr

War of the ring

Digital Fugue have been relatively quiet lately. The reason behind it: I am keeping myself busy with three games; two real time strategy and a Flight Sim!

For this post, Im just going to cover the first game which is War of the Ring by Sierra. With the excitement of the final instalment of Lord of the Rings, the game jived in quite well with the ambiance.

As far as game play is concerned, it was easy. The learning curve is short and simple and it had the look and feel of Warcraft III. But of course, with better storyline and graphics.
In terms of playability, you can play the good campaign or the evil campaign. Both have their own strength, although the good campaign was a bit easier than the evil campaign.

You also take control of various heroes in Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, Aragorn and others in the good campaign and Grisnakh and the Lord of the Nazghul in the evil campaign. Again, each heroes have the own special powers. Very similar to Warcraft III.

Besides heroes, there is also this special fate points awarded to you each time you go into battle. You can then use these fate points to redeem special abilities such as summoning Ents or Balrog. Preety cool.

The game also have Multiplayer option that would give hours of fun with your friends after you're done with the campaigns.

Personally, I think the lord of the ring game should be a CRPG, like Dungeon Siege rather than Real time strategy ala Warcraft III. Nevertheless, the game occupied my time quite well and i'm happily entertained.

I give it a strong 8/10. What are you waiting for? Go get it!

Flight Simulator 2004

When I was young, I wanted to be a pilot (every kid wants to be one right?). I love planes. I love flying. After high school, I applied and got an interview. But then, God decided that He has something better for me and put in the IT line :p. (not that Im complaining). The thought of getting a private pilot license (PPL) hit me but it's too costly for me. Maybe when I'm rich I can afford to do that. So, the closest i can get to flying a plane is with Flight Simulator.

I remember my first flight simulator. I think it was Flight sim 4.0 or something like that. It ran on an x286 IBM PC Compatible with 1Mb of RAM and 256k video RAM. The graphics were wiremeshed monochrome. :)
The Flight Simulator have been around for about 20 years or so. If someone come up to me and ask what's the best product available from microsoft, I'd say Flight Sim without thinking.
Some say Flight Sim is boring. I remember when a friend of mine watch me fly, he asked, "Can't you shoot anything...? What's the point?" Some people just dont have the passion.

Late last month, Microsoft released Flight Simulator 2004. It was labled A Century of Flight. I can't wait to get my hands on it. More planes, more airports and killer graphics. Apparently the game was optimised to be used with medium configured machines, which is good news to me. What im looking forward to is flying the DC-3, a classic transport airplane (remember Jack Dalton from McGuyver? he used to fly one of those ;)). I will write a review the moment i get to play it but for the mean time, here's an extensive review from Tom's Hardware.

p/s: One thing I noticed, when i was a kid my dreams were bizzare. As I grew up, my dreams become more down to earth. I wanted to be an astronaut, then a pilot, then an aeronautical enginner... now im a systems engineer.

"I'm looking to the sky to save me
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright
I'm looking for a complication
Looking cause I'm tired of trying
Make my way back home when I learn to fly"
Learn to Fly, Foo Fighters

Games Review

Games Review

I have taken break too long from the gaming scene,. All this while i've been re playing some old games; Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and reinstalled Myth II for old time's sake.
So, i decided to checkout the friendly neigborhood game store. Boy, I am still way behind time. Anyway, I got myself three games; Ubisoft's Downtown Run, Postal 2 by RWS and Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

However, something was wrong on the 2nd disc of GTA:VC. Halfway thru the installation the thing got stuck. So i didnt have the chance to play it. Guess i have to return it to the store. That leaves me with Postal 2. Cool game. Ultra massacre.
The graphics aren't really eye poping. I still prefer Unreal and Mafia as per 1st person and 3rd person shooter.
Really its a no brainer kill 'em game. After a bad day at work, there is nothing like dousing gasoline on the marching band and set them on fire. Just got a ticket for using a hand phone while driving. No worries, just pop in Postal 2 in your PC and you can blow up patrol cars.
I give it a 5/10.

Downtown Run is an interesting game from France's Ubisoft. Not the serious racing game like F1 or anything. And nothing like flashy car racing game either. Instead it goes to the basic. You race in normal production cars like, the Peugeot 307, Peugeot 206CC, Audi A3, Renault Clio and work your way up to Mitsubishi Evo 7, MG and the ultimate Ford Mustang Cobra. Graphics are brilliant and smooth. Loading time is fast. Takes about 1.5Gb on the hard drive. Reminds me of an old game called Ignition. Simple and easy. I like it!
I give it an 8/10.

Thats all for now, until i replace the Vice city Disc, I'll be playing these two games.
Which reminds me, I had Splinter Cell lying around somewhere, my cousin passed it to me. I just didn't have time to install and play it.

Oh yeah, the Postal Babes are hot!

Quote of the day: "To kill or not to kill... what a stupid question", The Postal Man

sick

errrrghhh... i was down with a fever the last couple of days.... Started of with a cold on Saturday followed by high fever on sunday. I was in bed all of sunday untill my back hurts. On monday, the fever was still going on and off... now im recovering slowly.
A massage would be nice...

A little update. I bought myself 3 games (yeay!); FIFA 2003, No one lives forver 2 and Need for Speed High Stakes 2.
That should keep me occupied...

Anyway, will blog when im feeling better...

"Games, games games!"

I bought 4 PC games last night! IL-2 Sturmovik, Mafia, Unreal 2003 and EA Sport's F1 2002.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy...! Now I reaaaaally need that GeForce3 video card.

Plug:
Le Monde Aliene
Neurotwitch

Listening to: Gettin' Jiggy wit it, Will Smith

Triumph! The year was 1453.

The year was 1453.
His majesty, the King of France have expanded his empire to the north and southeast of the European continent.
England, Scotland and Ireland are now under the French Empire, so is Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The Holy Roman Empire have to bow to the Russians while the Spaniards are now under Egyptian Rule.
Italy is merely surviving and the French empire is claiming the Sicilian governed provences.

Medieval TW should incorporate an auto log for each campaign... hmmm... i think i'll suggest it to them. maybe in Medieval TW Special Edition... or Blog edition... heheheh

Listening to: Pardon Me (Acoustic), Incubus

TOTALLY MEDIEVAL

I got hold of Medieval:Total War! last weekend and i am Medieval: Totally Hooked!
I started off playing the Byzantines... ditched it and currently playing the French.
The plot thickens as i was excommunicated by the pope... And now the pope is waging a crusade against me... just because i ass kicked the english! woohoooo....!! now the Russians and the Spanish are giving me headaches!

Anyway, here are some good sites on Medieval Studies:
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
The Labyrinth

Listening to: You're not Alone, Olive

Medieval: Total War

Yess.. based on some insider info, Medieval: Total War should reach our shores by the end of this month!