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Malik
(6/21/04)
Nothing like a 3-day
weekend!!!...to make one pissed off that they wasted a vacation day
on the shit I just went through. My PC decided, once again, to
give out on me...but let me start at the beginning...
So, my car stereo went out a
few weeks ago, and as a person who is obsessed with music, I was
going insane whenever I had the chance to drive...in total
silence. So, I decided on Saturday to drop some major cash on
a new state of the art stereo (which is one thing I've never done
for my car; gone state of the art, that is), and then I'd be broke
for the rest of the month (I hate monthly paychecks). So, I
had my car stereo working like a mo-fo...let me just say that going
for broke was well worth it.
So, then on Sunday, my internet
connection died. At first I assumed it was my NIC, which is
part of my motherboard. Then, after buying a new NIC
($14.99...I hate BestBuy...they should have a NIC for less than $10
and I didn't have money for gas to drive all over, so I blew the
extra $5). Well, that didn't solve my problems, so today I
went into debt getting a new motherboard/CPU (the signs pointed to a
bad motherboard or CPU) that ended up being the same speed as (at
the time) current board/CPU. Well, I installed it all, and of
course, Windows failed on me. So, I had to format my hard
drive (not the one with Geek-Asylum.com stuff...thankfully I always
keep that and other important stuff off my system drive) and
reinstall Windows from scratch after reinstalling over my old
Windows didn't work. My PC still was dead, so I played with
the memory, in a last desperate attempt to fix this problem...and
wouldn't you know it, my damned second memory chip was bad. Everything started to work, and in a choice of money or work, I
decided my sanity was the most important, so I now have a new
motherboard and CPU in my case, and a (most likely) perfectly good
board/CPU to spare, but not enough money to buy a case, memory,
video card, and HD to get a second PC up and running. I
would've taken apart the mother board/CPU from my case and returned
it, but considering the heat (why the hell is this summer so damned
hot?) and the time to go through this crap today, I decided I would
rather be broke for now than lose my sanity or pass out from the
heat. At least I could always buy a new case and memory and
vid card after pay day and get my network of good PCs to grow a bit.
So, I haven't played and Thief
for a few days due to the car stereo (that was well worth the cash),
and the PC (which was not), nor have I been catching on any geek
news, but I'll get back on duty tomorrow. Also, it is hot as
hell, so I'm so out of it that I don't think I could've been
constructive if not for the desperate need of a running
computer. For now, I'm officially on vacation today, so I'm
out...maybe I can salvage the last 4.5 hours of my day of
vacation...blah
Malik
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Malik
(6/22/04)
I was hoping that I could make
up for this weekend's lack of news searching by finding something
cool to share with the Geek-Asylum.com community today. Sadly,
there is nothing interesting happening in the world of gaming
today...and when I say nothing, I mean not a damned thing.
It's like the geek world is taking a week or so off between blasts
of important news. So, I guess things will be a bit shorter
today than I hoped for.
Anyway, I'm starting up a new Malik's
Bitchings for this week, but so far the sailing is pretty damned
rough. It is not easy to bitch about things when there is
nothing to bitch about (see the above paragraph...sigh...).
So, I'm pulling double duty on this one. Hopefully something
big will come up before Friday (like last week...blah), so I will
have some time for editing and not just force another rush job...I
should add, even when I rush to get something out, it is not
half-assed by any means; it just might have a little worse than
average grammar.
I am still blasting through
Thief: Deadly Shadows. This game is too addictive. Every
time I think the story is starting to get stagnant and the stealth
game play is feeling a little too played out, something new comes
along to tweak my interest. Like I said, the stealth thing is
really played out...and I don't just mean in Thief. Too many
games are trying to use stealth as the primary game mechanism, and
like a RPG and the engine of a RPG, the game play is not the
deciding factor in keeping the geek into the game; it's the plot
that matters, and Thief knows this with authority. For those
who still haven't tried Thief: DS, or any Thief game for that
matter, you have to play the game with an open eye to really know
what a great story can do for the tired stealth action genre.
Well, writing about Thief is
good and all, but playing is better...sadly, though, that will have
to wait since I still have some more programs to reinstall on my PC
after the crap of this last weekend...the worst part are those
important things that I can't find the disks for (like my vid
capture card that I was going to start using to be a little more
thorough with my reviews...sigh...and I was going to look
professional...).
Malik
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Malik
(6/23/04)
Well, not too much exciting
news out there once again today...unless you count Tales
of Symphonia going gold! It's about time a (I hope...I
really hope) great game is seen on the release calendar for the GCN...besides
being on the calendar under the old "delayed"
section. It looks like we should have Tale of Symphonia on the
shelves in only 20 days (July 13th).
I have to take back a little of
something I said yesterday. Yesterday I said that the whole
stealth action mechanism for game play in titles like Thief and
Splinter Cell is always played out and stale after the first 10
minutes. Well, after playing some Thief today, I actually have
to take that back and say that it's normally played out since it's
usually the same old guards looking for the same old hero
type. Today I had a great time stalking The City of Thief: DS
as I was avoiding the Keeper Enforcers. Basically Keeper
Enforcers break the rule of the standard "guard" figure in
a stealth game by being, for the most part, an upgraded version of
our hero, Garrett. The look like Garrett (as in, they are hard
to see, and often times if they see you it doesn't mean you
definitely see them or even can see them), are hated by everyone
like Garrett (nothing like seeing some town guards having it out
with an Enforcer...), and have the ability to use telepathy (so if
you take one down, the entire city worth of Enforcers WILL
KNOW). Plus, they have the ability to fire off magical
projectiles, and the endurance of Garrett, which turns them into lethal
weapons of death and destruction. True I would get tired of
that situation after another 15 minutes, like with all other stealth
action scenarios, but at least it is different from the standard
situation of brain-dead guards that follow a very typical set path
with almost no AI to speak of.
Not to mention how cool it was
to watch The City's various factions and the typical city guards
have massive riots with Enforcers...nothing like seeing two city
guards taking down one Enforcer only to have the dying Enforcer send
a telepathic call for help and then watching the two new Enforcers
slay the city guards like they were mere insects...then two Hammers
(followers of a religious order in The City) got
involved...then...well, in the end, as I watched from the shadows
and laughed, I saw about 8 stupid AI warriors and 4 of the far
superior Enforcers die in vain...of course the sole remaining Hammer
was aligned with me, so I walked by him without a care...Nothing can
describe the feeling of knowing that violence was going on in The
City, and it wasn't against me for once. Of course this whole
mess was caused by me...I had to fire a noise arrow to a point
directly between the two initial guards and the Enforcer right in
front of the Hammer stronghold...hehehe.
So, as you can tell, Thief: DS
is, plain and simple, hella sweet! Even after about 12 hours
of playing (well, about 25 hours, but only ten that were
saved...what can I say, except that I take a lot of unnecessary
risks?) there are still enough new situations to keep me
enthralled...and that's saying nothing about the plot, which only
gets deeper with each finished mission.
Well, I have some more riots to
watch.
Malik
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Malik
(6/24/04)
There is just no news this week
of interest with geeking. The most exciting thing I've seen
for the last week was Tales of Symphonia going gold, but that's
nothing all that exciting considering the fact that we knew this
would happen soon anyway (it is coming on July 13th). So, with
no real news in the broad scope of geeking, I'll turn to something a
little more local. I have put up a forum
for all us geeks to share some views and news. I'm hoping that
some of my visitors will take advantage of the forums to give some
suggestions for the site, share some news and thoughts on games, or
whatever. I only ask that, like with any other forum, you show
some respect towards people...not necessarily a lot of
respect...just some.
I'm also looking to bring about
some more images to the Geek-Asylum.com community. However,
with my recent crashing of my PC and all, that will take some time
as I try to find all my old software and get it reinstalled...plus,
my misplacing of my video capture card (and it's software) is not
helping. I personally don't like to do things half-assed
(click both links and think about it...if you still don't get it,
check out Malik's Bitchings tomorrow and you'll be educated), so I'm
not going to do the lame thing of taking some digital pictures of my
TV...I'm not dissing anyone who does such a thing, but I personally
like detailed images, not blurry images of light reflecting off of a
TV screen.
Also, for those who have not
made their way to the forum yet, I have two things up that I want to
point out in specific detail; I'm looking for suggestions for the
site, and I'm looking for contributors who are willing to help to
build upon the Asylum. Check out the forum for details.
Well, I hate talking business
for too long, and since there isn't much going on in the geek world
right now, I'll leave things as they are.
Malik
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Malik
(6/25/04)
One word for you; NEWS! Not
too shabby of news at that.
First of all, those of you who
have been to the site before may have noticed that I've decided to
change my previously half-assed looking format. I decided a
change would be for the better, since the old set up tended to have
a bit of a hard to see theme going for it. I hope you
all enjoy and if you have some comments, share
them with me...or better yet, go the the forums
and tell me there (that's what they're there for).
Well, it's being said that Hotmail
is going to follow the actions of Google and Yahoo by increasing
their free email from the current 2MB to 250MB. However, that
is the least impressive of the news I've heard today. The better
news I heard today deals with the future of Arc the Lad and a
hopefully not so empty promise from Valve.
Also, I've got a
new issue of Malik's Bitchings for you all...it is Friday after
all.
Anyway, I've written a lot in
terms of news and Bitchings today (well, the Malik's Bitchings were written
thorough out the week, but I had to edit today...), so I will
keep this post short so you can all get to what matters.
Malik
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