Civilization… IN SPACE! — A Review

Wow. Galactic Civilizations II is awesome. If you have played the first iteration of this series, the sequel will more than satisfy. It’s exactly what a sequel SHOULD be. No dumbing down and no bullcrap, just a whole bunch of really cool new features.
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The Leveling Guide I wish I had 15 levels ago

My main just recently dinged 45, and so NOW I find a really great leveling guide.

This would’ve been infinitely more useful back when I was 30!

Anyway, this is a REALLY well-made guide. I will be giving my main a break, and switching to my alt in order to take advantage of this smorgasbord of information.

Uh… Hey, Bethesda? You’re screwing us over, here!

Bethesda released the necessary PC specs for Oblivion. Overall, not too bad.

Recommended:

* 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 1 GB System RAM
* ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:

* Windows XP
* 512MB System RAM
* 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 128MB Direct3D compatible video card
* and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
* 8x DVD-ROM drive
* 4.6 GB free hard disk space
* DirectX 9.0c (included)
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
* Keyboard, Mouse

My system should be able to EASILY handle this. Oh hey, what’s this? It looks like Bethesda also included a list of “Supported Video Card Chipsets:”

* ATI X1800 series
* ATI X1300 series
* ATI X850 series
* ATI x800 series
* ATI x700 series
* ATI x600 series
* ATI Radeon 9800 series
* ATI Radeon 9700 series
* ATI Radeon 9600 series
* ATI Radeon 9500 series
* ATI Radeon 9000 series
* NVIDIA Geforce 7800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce FX series

Oh look, the nVidia 6600 series isn’t listed. Yeah, basically, one of the most powerful and affordable subsets of nVidia graphics cards (especially when used in SLI) have been ignored. I’d like to point out that a single 6600 GT benchmarks HIGHER than the early 6800’s. Thanks, Bethesda! Those of us that don’t HEMORHAGE money for our computers’ video cards are completely shafted.

UPDATE: This just in from the Bethesda forums:

We aren’t done adding to the list and that, along with other cards, will be added today to the list.

You’re welcome, for nothing.

Good to hear.

Why Blizzard Is Right

There’s been quite the uproar over Blizzard’s decision to email a guild for advertising that it is “GLBT-friendly” as it recruited members. Since the kneejerk reaction seems to be “ZOMG!!! HOMOPHOBES!!!”

I figured I would put forth a viewpoint that landed a little more on the side of reason.
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Farmer Farming

Collecting your own materials can be a risky business in WoW. First there’s the drop rates to consider, then there’s the population from which you have those drop rates. In some cases, this amounts to 1-2% off of mobs that are only in one place in the game. But the real problem? Goldfarmers.

Popular methods of farmer annoyance aside, a friend of mine hit on a method that he used to drive the farmer from the site entirely.
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New Life for Star Trek

MY HEAD ASPLODE

Star Trek: Legacy [for Xbox 360 and PC] places you in the role of the Admiral of a task force of warships, which you control in small and large-scale battles. Test your strategic and tactical skills in real-time combat featuring authentic spaceships, full damage modeling, and spectacular visual effects.

Star Trek: Tactical Assault [for NDS and PSP] features real-time spaceship combat from the universe of the original Star Trek series. With a wide array of authentic Star Trek races, ships, and weaponry, you can engage in single-player battle through either the Federation or Klingon campaigns or in head-to-head wireless multiplayer combat.

Bethesda is one of the few companies that I will buy their games without renting or trying out first. Now you tell me they’ve got the Star Trek license!?!? Between this and Fallout 3, Bethesda is sitting pretty if they can make these into quality games. Oh, please, let the Star Trek franchise be redeemed.

Gosh, I haven’t been this excited about a Star Trek game since Starfleet Command II. Not III, because that game was a dumbed-down crapfest. Starfleet Battles purity FTW!

In related news, I read a developer’s diary for GalCiv II, and I am very intrigued. Regrettably, I was never able to commit the time to the first Galactic Civilizations game that it truly deserved. Galactic Civilizations filled a dark hole left by the garbage that was Masters of Orion III (aka Masters of Galactic Empire Upper Managers).

I feel like that for every EA and Ubisoft out there, there are a couple small-time developers like Strategy First and others that lovingly release really great strategy games. You know, like the ones you used to play like Civilization, Masters of Orion, and Jagged Alliance. Not to disparage big developers like Bethesda and Bioware, but I am more and more impressed by the exploits of some of these smaller companies, especially for someone like me who grew up with strategy games of all kinds. And as people like me get older and older, these kinds of companies are only going to making more and more money, so I think the future is bright for strategy gaming.

So much for the Xbox 360 modchip

I know a bunch of you will read this and say, “duh,” but Blacklisted411.net put together a great article [pdf] detailing all the research they’ve done on icemodchips.com, the supposed manufacturer of an Xbox 360 modchip.

What it boils down to, is that Ustler at Blacklisted411 has linked icemodchips.com to eBay fraud and various other fakery shenanigans.

For REAL Xbox 360 mod news, be sure to check out www.xbox-scene.com.

WoW woes… or just whining

A lot of people have been complaining about login problems, and such.

_>

I have characters on 3 servers, all old servers and I always get the warning message about logging into a “full” server. I have YET to queue. At all. Ever. Even for a second. And I play on realms that have been around a LONG time, so don’t give me this “But you play on a new realm” garbage. Quit it.

And I’m on dial-up. 56k modem goodness. On crappy phone lines.

I download the patch painlessly from 3dgamers.com at work and a minute to install when I get home. I login to one of my characters and everything is relatively painless. The only headache has been with mods. I got hooked on a bunch of UI mods that got nuked with 1.9, but otherwise all has been well.

So, I have a hard time understanding some of this incessant whining that INEVITABLY happens with EVERY SINGLE PATCH.

My message to all of you:

STOP WHINING.

For the sake of the Internet, just stop it. The 99% of us that have NO problem with playing, logging in, etc. just want the rest of you to SHUT UP. Please, make good on your threats and go play EQ2/DDO/whatfreakingever and please just be quiet.

Uwe Boll Watch: Interview at 1UP

1UP.com has up an interview with movie genius Uwe Boll. Truly an articulate and intelligent interviewee:

1UP: Though BloodRayne hasn’t officially screened for critics, there have been some select showings, one of which prompted a sharply negative review by Ain’t It Cool News, a site you previously told 1UP you read. Is that the response you were expecting?

UB: no. HARRY and Quint are retards

In case you didn’t know, in the past, Uwe Boll (arguably one of the most auspiciously bad movie directors, EVER) received financing from a laundry list of German financiers. Interestingly enough, German tax law had a loophole that allowed one to write off any expenses due to a horribly failed movie. So, naturally, rich German people found the worst producer possible, and gave him stacks and stacks of cash that they could then write-off. Well, turns out that starting this year, this particular tax loophole has been removed.

1UP asked Uwe Boll about this.

1UP: You’ve mentioned in other interviews that your next projects are already financed, but how will the recent change in German tax law affect later projects?

UB: we will see

Yes, indeed we will.

Xbox 360 Mod Chip!?!?!? LOLBBQ!!!!

So, first there was this Kiosk Disc debacle. Now, some Canucks are advertising that they will be selling a 20-30 wire modchip for the Xbox 360 for $70 within the next few weeks. (Not sure if that’s US$ or CD$.)

Little is known about this modchip. The general feeling I’ve gotten from places like the xbox-scene.com forums, is that this is BS. Could be a scam, I suppose. If everyone chipped in a few bucks, I’d be willing to buy an Xbox 360, a modchip, and try it out. You can make your checks out to “Cash”.

On the other hand… if this is true… whoa.

Just… whoa.