Archive for September, 2008
Sep 26th
Scour is a great concept for a search engine. Bring together the results of Google, Yahoo, and MSN along with user ratings and comments to make sure that the first page of results is the only page you’ll need. But the results are clogged with ads and extra spacing that you don’t need.
Scour+, developed by myself, solves two problems with one script. It makes Scour have a fixed width, meaning that widescreen users have an easier time reading the search results. It also removes any and every sponsored ad, making Scour better than every to search with.
Before and After:
To use Scour+, you’ll have to be using Firefox with the Stylish installed, which is an awesome addon that lets users customize the way their browsers view webpages, and it can modify Firefox itself too. You can view more styles at Userstyles.org, where Scour+ is hosted.
Sep 26th
Left 4 Dead, Valve’s next big game, is coming on November 18 with the demo infecting players on sometime before the release. HalfLife2.net got ahold of the system requirements from Doug Lombardi, the Valve marketing man.
- OS: Windows Vista, XP or 2000
- CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
- RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
- Disc drive: DVD-ROM Drive
- Hard drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space
- Video: Direct X 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
- Sound: Direct X9.0c compatible sound card
The only potential worry is the need for a 256 MB video card, as many people still run games with a 128 MB card, although you really should have upgraded to something better by now.
Sep 21st
“Van Buren” by Black Isle would have been Fallout 3 if Interplay hadn’t closed down the Black Isle project in 2003. This is the tech demo that was leaked in 2007, which is freely available over on StrategyInformer. There’s not a great deal to it, but the very existence of an alternate Fallout 3 makes for an interesting compare and contrast. Also, since Bethesda has said there isn’t going to be a demo for their Fallout 3 and it’s still a long way till October 28th, it’s worth a try.
You can check out 136 screenshots of Fallout 3, gameplay videos, and more over at the Different Pixel Blog.
Sep 17th
For those of you who haven’t already heard of Peggle, it’s a highly addicting game that has similarities to Plinko in that you fire a ball from the top and see what it does on the way down. The goal is to hit all of the orange pegs before you run out of balls. Peggle Nights expounds on the game by adding in a new character, 60 new levels, new style shots like “Double Long Shot,” and 60 new challenges to keep you playing all night. The cost of the game is $19.95, and hopefully the original Peggle will receive a price drop soon.
The most exciting feature about the new game is undoubtedly the downloadable level packs that Popcap is planning on creating, and hopefully they will even release a level editor for players to create their own levels, but that has not been confirmed.
Sep 10th
Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve (the greatest gaming company ever), confirmed at Videogamer.com that the demo of Left 4 Dead will be for PC and Xbox 360. Gabe, while unsure of the final content that will be in the demo, assures gamers that both singleplayer and co-op will be in the demo as a taste of what the game will be like. The game itself is due out on November 18th in the US, and November 21, 2008 in Europe.
The Pxl Lab is also planning on reviewing both the PC and Xbox versions of the game, so be sure to check our reviews of the game when it’s released!
Sep 8th
When I first watched this Youtube video detailing a Face of Mankind emulator, I was skeptical. But after visiting the site and the forums, the FoMEmu Project has me very excited for the first public release. Their “mission statement,” better known as the About page, details the game and what FoMEmu would like to do with it:
FoMEmu is a project to recreate the gameplay of the previously retail MMORPG Face of Mankind. Face of Mankind was a unique futuristic MMORPG/FPS that offered a much higher degree of player freedom compared to other commercial online multiplayer roleplaying games.
We aim to create an emulated game server for the retail client entirely constructed of our own code, with gameplay elements modified to emphasize on the greater amount of player freedom that existed in the earlier open beta versions. By recreating the original atmosphere of the game and establishing a strong community, we hope to restore Face of Mankind to its former state as a unique and fun online game.
We’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date with the latest news from this awesome game. You can read our Face of Mankind post to learn more about the game in the meantime, however.
Sep 6th
Battle.net, for those of you who don’t know, is Blizzard’s online matchmaking portal and community for games including the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series. To put it simply, you can go online with your specific game, whether it be Diablo II or Warcraft III Frozen Throne, and play user-made maps or Blizzard maps with friends. What’s intriguing about Battle.net is the popularity of it. For Warcraft III Frozen Throne, its attendance strictly from Xfire is 16,000 or so per day, making it Xfire’s #6 most played game. For not being updated since 2003, and being made in 1997, I would have to say Battle.net is a very great system.
I personally think Battle.net is good enough to last us another 10 years, but with the release of Diablo III and Starcraft II, some technical and visual updates are of course necessary. Blizzard has not released the dates for the conversion to Battle.net v2.0, but we know it will be soon, with the release of Diablo III (not for sure) and Starcraft II somewhere in 2009, hopefully not much longer! Among some of the features of Battle.net II are:
- Excellent Ping (fast connections)
- Channels and Chat in-game
- Ladders and Rankings, secured against cheating.
- Extended stats, with possibility to see who D/C etc (source)
- Automatic/Anonymous Matchmaking
- Avatars, Images and Icons to represent yourself
- Diablo III Hardcore mode
- Friends/Ignore Lists with advanced management (see accounts below)
- Clan Support
- Automated Tournaments
Here are some screenshots of games that currently use Battle.net:
Sep 4th
Could Google’s attempt at an internet browser be a huge success, or just a flop? Google released Google Chrome on September 2nd and they are making some pretty big claims about their new browser. I’ll start first with the mechanics behind the browser.
Chrome uses a different method behind it’s tab system. Instead of opening each tab under the same process, and lagging the computer as well as consuming memory, some of which cannot be reused until you restart, Chrome opens each tab in a new process. In this way, if one tab goes faulty, the whole browser doesn’t crash, just the tab. If you prefer to use tabs over windows, this is the browser for you. If you prefer to use windows over tabs, this is the browser for you. It’s unique drag and drop design allows you to separate tabs into windows, and windows back into tabs again. This is all done at a quick speed, and there is no lag time involved. More >
Sep 3rd
I noticed that I this is actually the 9th day of the week that I’m writing the closing post, but I just had to extend the week because there is so much great stuff to talk about in Team Fortress 2. Japanerd and I had a great time writing about the game this week, and I’m pretty sure that the reason I didn’t have a post a night was because I was too “busy” playing the game with the awesome Gib$Ru$ guys instead of writing about it. I only wish I had made it TF2 month or something so I could have written more!
Just in case you somehow missed the past week of awesome articles, here’s the run-down:
- Good Grief, it’s Team Roomba
- How To: Skinning the Team Fortress 2 Characters
- An Interview With the Gib$Ru$ Admin
- Inside the Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update
- Tweak Team Fortress 2 For Max Performance
Thanks to all of you who read and enjoyed the articles, pretty soon I’ll put up a poll for you to vote for your favorite game that you want us to devote a whole week writing about!
Sep 2nd
Team Fortress 2 runs on the Source Engine, the well-known game engine created by Valve, which also runs other games like Half Life 2 and Counter Strike: Source. The Source Engine is very customizable, which is one of the reasons it’s so popular. I have come up with some great tips to make the Source Engine run great on your computer and look great at the same time.
Preparing Your Computer
First off, if you don’t have the latest drivers from either ATI or nVidia (depending on your video card), downloading the latest drivers almost always helps with game performance. Just with the latest nVidia driver update, I’ve noticed about a 5-10 FPS gain from an original 40-45 FPS in TF2.
Once you are sure that you are running on the latest drivers and you are still experiencing any stuttering in-game, TweakGuides has a few recommendations on how to fix it. If you are missing any in-game textures, you can scan your TF2′s contents and have Steam replace any missing files just by right-clicking the game in Steam, clicking “Properties”, going to the “Local Files” tab, and clicking on “Verify integrity of game cache.”
Now that your computer is ready to run the game, let’s get into messing with the game settings.
Game Audio Settings
If you have absolutely terrible performance in-game, reduce the speaker quality to low and mono (single speaker) output. For the most part though, messing with the audio settings won’t really hurt your performance.
Video Settings
As a quick rule of thumb, the higher the resolution gets, TF2 will begin looking significantly better, but will take a noticeable performance drop, so it’s up to you to figure out what resolution works best on your computer. Again, TweakGuides has a ton of detailed information on the “Advanced” settings. One recommendation from me though is to keep the textures on as high as setting as you can, because they don’t have much impact on performance and really help make the game look good on lower settings.
Also, Hackosis highlights how to make Team Fortress 2 run on “Ultra High” settings, which really runs Team Fortress 2 on the highest settings that you can go. Here are a couple comparison screenshots:
If you have any other tips to run Team Fortress 2 to the max, feel free to leave a comment below.