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6 Jan 06
It's amazing how complex a project like Postnuke is. I'm amazed they're able to keep it going. Anyway there was a problem with the comments modules. If you were getting an authorization error when you tried to comment (assuming you were registered), the problem should be fixed now. Please try it out and let me know if you're still experiencing any problems.
It looks like my Xbox 360 prediction has come true. If you look at prices on Ebay, the profit's largely gone from the market. Units keep trickling in to both brick and mortar retailers and online shops. Later this month might be a good time to grab one as they should be more available, but it's before the increased demand of the next wave of games in February/March.
I heard back from Ironclad Games. It looks like we'll have a Sins of a Solar Empire interview for you sometime next week.
Finally, I have a couple of quick news blurbs for you. Ubisoft has released a new map for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Grab it from the Usual Suspects or Xbox Live. Atari has announced sign ups for the Timeshift beta. Check out the information Here. Have a great Wildcard weekend.
Jason
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5 Jan 06
Wow, what a football game. I officially declare this the best bowl season I can remember. As an old Nebraska boy, I know I had more fun during their National Championship runs, but I can't think of any bowl season with so many high quality games. I was amazed at the number of analysts still claiming today that not only is USC better than Texas, but they're much better. I'd suggest they not repeat those opinions down here in the Republic.
There are a lot of interesting trends in the gaming industry. Some of them make a lot of sense. Some of them come out of the blue. After the near disaster of Master of Orion III, no one expected to see much in the space 4X realm for a long, long time (and perhaps in a galaxy far, far away). However, in this quarter, we're expecting not one, but three games in the genre, and they all look promising. The main difference between them seems to be time. Galactic Civilizations 2 seems completely turn based. Sword of the Stars is turn based strategy with real time tactical battles.
And our game of the week is pure real time. It's Sins of a Solar Empire (official site) from Ironclad Games. They're using their own engine to create a dynamic universe featuring a future war between three races. You have the Trader Coalition, The Advent and Vasari. You'll lead your faction as emperor and fleet commander either against dynamic AI or up to 9 other players online. You'll have plenty of opportunities to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. They're promising an easy to learn, hard to master strategy game. Look for Sins in the first quarter of the year (it could be an expensive quarter).
Jason
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4 Jan 06
National Championship in college football is going on tonight so I want to get an update up before the game. Shocking I know. In another shocker I have another hardware review for you. This one was purchased.
The Datel Max 64MB Memory Card is an accessory for the Playstation 2. If you own a Playstation 2, you know that Sony has only released one official memory card and that's 8MB in size. The Gamecube, which launched a year after the PS2, has already seen two increases in memory card size for that platform. The Xbox has a built in hard drive that gives near limitless save space so it has a limited memory card market. So the PS2 is really the only console now where you have to worry about running out of memory and swapping memory cards.
There were rumors of a memory stick adapter for the PS2. Nothing materialized. EGM reported a rumor of a larger official PS2 memory card, but nothing has yet materialized. I must admit I'm a bit baffled by this. Now that it's late in the PS2's life cycle most purchasers are unlikely to buy more than one more memory card. If Sony created a larger card, the production cost difference would be minimal thanks to dirt cheap memory. They would also reap the benefits of a large segment of current PS2 owners that would finally be motivated to buy another memory card. There must be some financial or contractual reason for Sony to stick with the 8MB cards, but I don't know what it is.
Markets abhor a vacuum, so in steps Datel to fill the need. Previously they had released a line of memory cards that were larger than 8MB, but they required a boot disk to function each time. Needless to say, for most gamers, the hassle outweighed the benefit. Apparently their reverse engineers have finally come through and produced a card that comes in sizes larger than 8MB and is simple plug and play. Max Memory cards come in flavors of 16, 32 and 64MB. I picked up the 64MB version during the accessory sale at Circuit City for about $30. For reference, I have an early model, big version PS2.
The card comes in simple plastic packaging consisting mostly of the card and a short instruction sheet. I booted the PS2 to its browser, plugged the card into slot one and boom, there it was. It showed up as a standard memory card but showed 64MB free. I tried different things to make sure the card worked including copying files and erasing them. Everything went fine at least until I tried the card with the PS2 multitap (the official PS2 peripheral that allows you to use up to three more controllers and memory cards). Strangely when inserted into the PS2 multitap, the Max memory card doesn't show up at all. In slot one or two, it works perfectly. That's something to keep in mind if you keep two multitaps connected at all times.
It's interesting to note that the PS2 didn't have any concerns that a memory card was showing up with more than 8MB. It appears the system was designed to be flexible with different sized memory cards. I noticed a few games only show four digits with regard to free space on a memory card, but it appears the system manages space on the memory card so regardless of what the display shows, if there's room on the memory card, the system will write the save file.
Once I determined everything was working, I started transferring all my saves to the Max memory card. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to copy a bunch of save files (that I know of anyway). It was a long, tedious process, but once I was done, I still had 50MB to spare. I didn't notice any difference in the speed writing or reading from the Max memory card and the official PS2 memory card. I did learn that there are certain files that can't be copied. Mostly those are system files (Network config, DVD driver) that are easy to recreate. Culdcept stood out as one of the only games that locked its save file. It was still pretty easy to go into the game and copy all the data over to the new memory card.
Right now, I all my game data on one card. I have plenty of room left for new game saves. I haven't encountered a read or write problem yet. Obviously reliability can only be measured over the long run. I'll keep you updated with any problems. Note: I also didn't have a slim PStwo to test it on. There shouldn't be problems, but I didn't verify that.
Pros: Lots of storage space. Low price. Easily used. No boot disk required. No more swapping memory cards.
Cons: Doesn't work in multitap. Feels a bit flimsy compared to the official memory card. Unknown reliability.
Overall: 4.5 stars out of 5. Recommended to any PS2 user who uses more than one memory card.
Jason
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3 Jan 06
This is a community site. I'm here for you. This place is here for you. However, the danger exists that if I float out here too much on my own without community input, I'll just lead the site off into any old direction instead of the where it should be going. That might explain the recent updates.
I'm a football fan. Admittedly, it's taken away from my gaming recently, but it's nice to curl up in front of the TV with my wife, after David's tucked into bed, and watch some quality football. Usually by this time in the bowl season, I'm burned out by the crappy games and am just hoping the national championship can redeem the season (think Ohio State beating Miami). This year has to be the best bowl season I can remember. It's been just great game after great game. I'm sure I missed some of the mediocre games, but as a fan this year has been a thrill. Now we have the Legends game tonight going into triple overtime. There's no shame in losing that way (unless you're a kicker). Now the only question is can the national championship game live up to rest of the bowl season. I sure hope so.
I was going to link to the new edition of the The Escapist before being informed that it's actually the worst new gaming magazine of 2005. That's from Something Awful's Worst Gaming Journalism of 2005. In part two, we're introduced to the worst gaming journalist of all time. At first, I was upset at not making the list of the worst articles, but after studying the examples, I realized the slightly pretentious mediocrity isn't going to get me there. I have to take my writing to a whole new level. Wish me luck.
Jason
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2 Jan 06
Happy New Year, and welcome to 2006. I suppose the biggest thing time gives us is perspective. Game Tunnel has just released their list of the top independent games of 2005. I remember last year reading their list and thinking I should keep an eye on their site. Of course, I didn't and reading the list was the first time I've been back. I wonder how many people have thought the same thing about this place. I know it's not any sort of ill will that keeps people away. Thanks to everyone who's still around.
How good is Civilization IV? Well, I know this: Lost Time is back. I was playing a game and Alexander (of Greece, or Macedonia if you prefer) stopped talking to me and started massing troops. A neat little war erupted where he convinced Isabella (of Spain) to attack me as well. Eventually both of them were crushed and their people liberated by the American armies. Somehow I lost around four hours without noticing. Just one more turn indeed.
One final thought on real world strategy. In the Sugar bowl, West Virginia used a fake punt to win the game. How many games have been won by a punter? So a big Talk Strategy bow to punter Phil Brady and his coach Rich Rodriguez. I swear I laughed for a minute after watching that play. It was shocking and brilliant all at the same time. That's what I like about sports and what I like about great games.
Jason
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