Physics and you

Here it is. The first consumer level physics card. Ageia has been working on the PhysX card since 2002. This is the first engine and processor card dedicated to dynamic physics-based realities in a gameworld.

Key features of the card are...

• Stable, high-performance solver
• First and only multiprocessing physics API
• PC and console support
• Works alongside and is compatible with other game engines
• Supports vehicles, rag dolls, and character controllers
• Integrates with any renderer
• Full complement of code samples and tutorials
• World-class developer support and custom solutions

And the card provides radical acceleration of...

• Universal collision detection
• Finite element analysis
• Soft body dynamics
• Fluid dynamics
• Hair simulation
• Clothing simulation

According to an interview on Attack the Show the card will be out by the end of the year. However, it comes with a heavy price tag of $250- $300.

Taking games to a whole new level

Welcome to Valhalla.

A training facility and shooting club with die-hard dedication to it's clients. They've trained marines, seals, and many more military personnel. Recently, Attack of the Show's Brendan Moran visited Valhalla and they set up a FPS run for him in the Scenerio House. They had all sorts of locales: convienent store, flashing Doom-esque hallway, cockpit of a jumbo jet. All vaguely reminiscent of popular locations for FPS games. He was given live ammo, because that's what they do, and then they sent him through with a small arsenal to take out the baddies and save the innocents. I unfortunately can't find any video of this, but it was pretty impressive.

If you've got the cash and you're looking to play real FPS then take a trip to Valhalla.

Ramblings from 3kalbia Mirror

I'll put a cap in yo ass... a Mountain Dew cap

So, I just spent the last hour and half watching Garden State on HBO and entering about 220 Pepsi/Mountain Dew caps in for Mountain Dew's Xbox 360 promotion. I think my chances are pretty good. They have a drawing every 10 minutes until October 31st @ 11:50 PM. I entered them all into one drawing that, at the time, had 35 entries. So now it has about 250 entries, and 220 of them are mine. I'm not saying I'm going to win. However, I have been working awfully hard to get these caps. I've asked co-workers to set them aside, people that frequent work, my mom, and the biggest contributor besides myself has been my girlfriend. She's been gathering them from all of her friends. They all drink at least 1 Mountain Dew a day so it's definitely been adding up. I'll keep everyone posted on the results when they come in.

Do the Dew or live a healthy life without caffiene laced syrup!

Ramblings from 3kablia Mirror

Street Fightin' Man

I'm sure everyone has heard the rumors of a Halo character being an unlockable in the upcoming Dead Or Alive 4 game. No? You haven't. Well, it's true. There will be a character from the Halo-verse hiding away, waiting to be unlocked in DOA4.

When Bungie announced this they were all hush hush, and wanted to get the rumor mill started with the fans, but the character has been revealed. She (that's right SHE) isn't Cortana, and she isn't a marine. She is in fact Spartan-458, a female Spartan. She has the exact same armour as Master Chief, except there's a girl under there. Maybe one of her winning animations will pay homage to Metroid.

They claim that she flows naturally in the game. Bungie worked alongside Team Ninja to keep her true to form. Bungie also claims that even without a weapon Spartan-458's ass-kickery is very high.

Two images have been leaked onto the net. They are screenshots from a British game mag. Check them out and tell us your thoughts on Spartan-458

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2

In other Bungie news, to this date they have banned 53,982 accounts, and there are about 662 active temporary suspensions at the time of this post. That's alot of jerks. Bungie claims there aren't enough banhammers dropping. Here's an idea for all you 12 y/o's out there. Stop using Halo as your refuge to get back at all the kids who poke fun of you at school. That's your problem, not mine. So, don't fuck up my good time.

Somebody Save Me

Ok, Ok. It's been awhile since a post so I thought I'd change that. I just got back from town and I picked up Shadow of the Colossus, and F.E.A.R. (Super Fun Happy Director DVD Cut Edition Special Widescreen Version.) I also got Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for the xbox in from Gamefly. I've given MK:SM some play alongside Evan a.k.a. Liu Kang. From what I played I enjoyed it. Massive blood. So far this game has me more excited about Mortal Kombat than ever before, and I hate the franchise. (Street Fighter was a much better game.)

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for gaming over the next few weeks because my mom just got back from surgery (hysterectomy.) She'll be unable to do anything for about a week. So, I'll be on overtime with house duties, and with a broken dish washer that's going to eat away some time.

As soon as I get a chance I'm going to break into Shadow and F.E.A.R. though, and give MK:SM some more playtime before concluding that it's officially Kick-ass. (I spelled kick-ass with a K, just like Mortal Kombat.)

In Halo news, I played some Halo 2 the other night. First time in weeks, or so it feels like it. Double0Bogart just got his internet back after the big move back to Ohio, and we (Owl Stretcher (a.k.a. Huge McLarge), Faded Joker, and myself) celebrated the only way we know how... HARDCORE CREEK PARTY!

Which brings me to the new Hardcore playlist. WTF? It's filled with dicks (people with too much time dedicated to Halo.) They know their shit. I'll give them that, but unless you're on your game and very competitive, which I'm neither most of the time, then Hardcore isn't where the party's at. (IT'S IN THE CREEK!) Most of the Hardcore games I played were spent consistently shouting, "HARDCORE! HARDCORE! HARDCORE!"

Well, I'm out.

P.S. Anyone else out there got some gaming goodness to share?

Then again some legends were meant to be forgotten

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

Pub: Activision
Dev: Raven Software

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- The camera angle is too far away to give the player any real sense of action.
- The menu screen is flawfully designed w/ bold yellows that mask the white text. Meanwhile there is no consistency in navigation buttons. Sometimes they'll be on the bottom, sometimes the side, and sometimes not even present at all. wtf?
- The game's bird's eye view action is also cut short when characters constantly level up requiring the player to distribute skill & attribute points. The players level up too easily and too often. The game comes off as patronizing the player by rewarding them with levels for taking 20 steps in any direction.
- Cell shading? It looks as if the developers took 2nd rate skins and dipped them in a candy glaze. This style makes the game come off as some sort of saturday morning cartoon, and with the loads of obscure AND colorful characters they have added it seems that way twice as much. Any hardcore fan playing this game, and trust me they're the only ones that are, don't want to see the cartoon X-Men. No one does.
+ Content? There are an ungodly amount of unlockables ranging from videos to the cliched comic book covers. Both of which are unlocked by finding them throughout the game. What is this Tony Hawk's X-men? There is also a trivia game based on the comic books. Getting answers right earns you experiance points for the team. Flex those comic engraved neurons!
+ Monotonus gameplay. I, more than often, found myself running up to enemies & disposing them with continuous AAB combos. Run, AAB, run, AAB, run some more, AAB, level, rinse, repeat. Occasionally, I'd use a mutant power to spice things up, but I never found it all that necessary to advance in the game.
+ Patrick Stewart! 'nuff said. He lends his voice for Professor Xavier.
+ An online co-op play of up to 4 players. That's pretty damn cool. Actually, I've been wanting this in games for awhile now. It's just a shame that this game had to suck.

Bottom Line

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It's a dungeon crawler with X-Men, and enough micro-management to choke a donkey. I don't think this game deserves the $49.99 pricetag that is attached to it. I could understand a $39.99 tag, but only because of the uncannily massive amount of content in the game. However, even $40 is too much for me to pay for this X-Pile. If you're a fan of the first one then you'll probably like the 2nd one, you poor sap.

2/5