Reviews
Aug 28th
I’ve been a big fan of the Gib$Ru$ servers on TF2 for a very long time. The Gib members are always helpful and talk on the microphones, keeping the gameplay fun, and small server mods like instant teleport recharge keep the game moving quickly and competitively. I “sat down” for an interview with the guy that started it all, tony2k.
The Pxl Lab: When was Gib$Ru$ started, and what challenges did you have creating a brand new community?
Tony: I started Gib$Ru$ way back in TFC (Team Fortress Classic) about 10 years ago, and the main reason why I started Gib$Ru$ was because I was in a couple of clans with my best friend and they didn’t work out because of me. I was a hothead and I had no patience for low-skilled players. So I made Gib$Ru$ and only I was allowed, I did not recruit anyone. Me and my best friend, which is Mr.Hyde, the co-leader of Gib$Ru$, we got into Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory game and we allowed people to join us as Gib$Ru$. We had our own rocking server, with custom campaigns that people really really adored. Because of technical and network issues, we had to stop.
We were waiting for TF2 for about 5 or more years to come out. When it finally came out, me and Mr.Hyde were heavily into MMORPG games, but Mr.Hyde tried TF2 first at around December, then after a week, he got me into it. I liked TF2 at the start and I was already using the Gib$Ru$ tag from when I started playing TF2. Then I thought to myself, why not host a game server since I have a really good job, I can afford to host a professional game server. My real intention for hosting a Game Server is to have it populated 24/7. We had HLstatsX Points System running to make it more popular and at first, I was recruiting people just by seeing that the player was better than average. So I would bluntly ask the person if they want to join, without even really knowing them. So we recruited a lot of people, we had a good base of players and some bad players, but we all had fun. More >
Aug 23rd
Sometimes, just stumbling around the internet doesn’t give you your humor for the day. Well, there are some really awesome comics hosted on the web that are updated almost every day that you’ll love if you are a computer or gaming geek. Read below to check out my 6 favorite web comics…
AppleGeeks Lite is a comic featuring a guy and a girl that use an Apple laptop, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with Apple. Making fun of all the latest stuff is one of the classics of the comic, Portal and David Hasselhoff not excluded.
chainsawsuit is not a “normal” comic by any means. Most of their comics feature video games, and some of them are totally random, but most of them will probably get a laugh out of you. A good example of their randomness is TGI Knife Fights, while making fun of games Animal Crossing and Transformers shows off the writers’ gaming side.
When the art style of a first grader and the humor of a grown man combine, you get Explosm. One of the funniest comics ever to grace the internet, explosm is a true “masterpiece.” With comics featuring Bigfoot, God, and Space Invaders, Explosm updates daily, so you can get a good laugh every morning before you head out the door.
theWAREHOUSE comic again falls under the “random but funny” category. With comics featuring a shark, Mii’s, and shooting bears, theWAREHOUSE is a great comic to check perhaps once a week, as they only have a few new comics a week.
Penny Arcade is probably the most popular web comic right now (even more than xkcd), featuring video games 24/7. Some of my personal favorite comics that they’ve made have games like Portal, Army of Two, LEGO Online, Spore, and the list goes on. Every comic comes with a nice blog post explaining the meaning behind the comic and current goings-on in the creators’ lives.
Finally, if you’re reading this and you haven’t heard of xkcd, then you better get to reading the comic, because it is one of the most popular with an fanatical fanbase on the web. With stick figures doing all kinds of geeky stuff that other geeks can relate to, xkcd is a great comic to get into, with classics like rollercoaster chess and lots of others.
Aug 21st
I discovered this little game while surfing the net today. Desktop Tower Defense is a flash game where you have to protect your desktop from invaders by spending money on attack turrets and building a maze for the invaders to go through. It’s strangely addictive and before you know it you just want to play more and more. I really enjoyed seeing other people’s mazes and how many points they scored with it. You can play the game on Kongregate with achievements, or just play it on the creators’ website, HandDrawnGames.com. Check out the videos below for some awesome in-game action.
Aug 17th
This week, nVidia released their first ever “Power Pack,” one of many planned to be released. This power pack comes with new drivers for the nVidia Geforce 8-series or newer, bringing nVidia PhysX to gamers around the world. Astute gamers will notice that Ageia is not developing PhysX anymore; this is because nVidia bought the company in February and began integrating the technology into their video cards. PhysX brings some really awesome features to gamers, such as:
- Explosions that cause dust and collateral debris
- Characters with complex, jointed geometries for more life-like motion and interaction
- Realistic weather effects, with forces such as tornadoes directly modifying the world
- Cloth that drapes and tears naturally
- Dense smoke & fog that billow around objects in motion
The Force Within Power Pack itself comes with a slew of games and programs to make use of the PhysX technology. From the Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX mod to Folding@Home, the pack will hopefully continue to be a showcase of ground-breaking games, mods, and programs. You can stay up-to-date on future nVidia news at The Pxl Lab.
Aug 11th
Bubble Tanks 2, sequel to the excellent Bubble Tanks, is an incredibly creative shooter. As the name implies, you play as a Bubble Tank in a bubble world flying around shooting other bubbles so as to absorb their bubbles to make your own bubble bigger and better. The game has a lot of bubbles, to say the least, as well as many improvements over the original Bubble Tanks, and is easily one of the best Flash-based games this year.
In Bubble Tanks 2, the tutorial has literally not changed at all from the original. This is quite a blessing, actually. Bubble Tanks and Bubble Tanks 2′s tutorials consist of writing on the background of the first couple bubbles. That’s it. Also the core gameplay is virtually unchanged. You still move from bubble to bubble using W-A-S-D and aim and shoot using the mouse. BT2 also adds an entertaining “Arena Mode” in addition to normal mode. In Arena Mode, you can choose to do battle against any of the bubbly foes you have previously encountered, as well as start your bubble off at any stage you unlocked in normal mode. This brings me to my next point. Players of the original Bubble Tanks probably noticed that there are literally no customization options. Now in BT2, as your tank “levels” up, you can choose which specialization you want. You can go as an agile Fighter Tank, a slow powerful Heavy Tank, or a nice balanced Balance Tank. It adds a nice level of customization to the game, in addition to adding a lot to the replay value. There’s also a new Secondary Weapon feature, which affects your overall strategy in the game. If you’re playing as a balance tank, for instance, shields are useful for fighting bigger enemies so you can block their attacks. Though there are also plenty of useless secondary weapons as well, such as mines. No enemy ever ran over any of the mines I ever laid down, ever.
Overall, Bubble Tanks 2 is a huge improvement over the original Bubble Tanks, which is saying alot because Bubble Tanks is one of my all time favorite flash games. The only real problems I have with the game are the lack of balance between the classes, with many profoundly useless classes such as Sniper, as well as absolutely no carried over traits when you upgrade your tank. The customization really ends with which tank you pick. Also, it ocassionally has lag spikes when there are a bunch of enemies on screen. Overall, however, I’d say this game is an excellent way to spend a little time while in the interwebs.
Aug 9th
PlayXpert redefines gaming. How can I justify that statement? PlayXpert was designed for gaming, with gamers in mind. PlayXpert features screen overlay technology on the DirectX level, which creates a user interface that is semi-transparent over the game you are currently playing. This is similar to Xfire, but it comes with so much more. PlayXpert allows a user to never again have to “Alt+Tab” out of game to look up a quest guide, information on a enemy, or chat to other players. PlayXpert allows you to chat with MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, or Xfire in-game. It also features a Google widget installer that you can access without leaving the game, a “Tunes” widget, which has support for Winamp amd iTunes, a Teamspeak widget (which has some support for other VOIP programs), a Diagnostics widget (to check your computers power levels and a built-in process killer), and lastly a GameFaq‘s widget. They also feature a web browser in game, so you can go to your favorite sites without having to leave the game.
Aside from the great general widgets, there are also several widgets exclusive to World of Warcraft. The best WoW helper-sites (Wowwiki, Thottbot, the Armory, and WowHead) are all available in-game thanks to PlayXpert! Now you won’t be shanked while looking up a quest walkthrough anymore!
PlayXpert is an excellent program. For years gamers have been struggling with the very thing that it solves with ease! PlayXpert is also a very sleek program. The interfaces that popup are trimmed to save valuable screen space, and they are easy to use. PlayXpert works alongside the game, and draggable interfaces are what make it so compatible. You define its location, not the computer. However, PlayXpert is currently only in a beta version, so download it at your own risk. PlayXpert is a wonderful tool, a good program, and above all, a good friend when your stuck on quests.
Aug 8th
Some games were just never meant to be. Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is one such game. Here is a quote from the game box:
You are able to race your modified Rig on one of 5 different tracks for the ultimate driving rush as you crush the competition and set a new track record!
The lack of tracks and features that this sentence (and game) is lacking is only made incredibly worse by running the game on the worst engine ever designed by man. Collision detection and realistic gravity are some of the things that never had the time to make it into the game. Here is a gameplay video, and be warned: It’s hilarious.
According to Metacritic, a website that collects reviews from multiple sources and adds their collective score together, Big Rigs is the worst rated game of time, scoring an 8 out of 100. The only reason you’ll even want to look into this game is for some of the funniest videos you’ll ever see on Youtube.
Aug 8th
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is a PSP exclusive MMO style “free roaming” killing game, released in late August of 2007. After almost a year of being on the market, the game is beginning to gain hype in the United States. Known in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable 2G, the series is extremely popular, and had no trouble selling two million copies of the game. The basic gameplay of MHF2 is quest based. You choose a quest from a list according to your skill level, then you are sent on that quest, and cannot return to the village or leave the area of that quest until you have fulfilled certain requirements, such as killing a monster, gathering specific materials, or killing an amount of monsters. You will then be allowed to return to the village to restock and upgrade armor and weapons with materials you obtained on your quests. For those people who enjoy griding to get that special weapon, or full armor set, this is a game for you.
Unfortunately, this game did not take advantage of its greatest potential, online play. Though this protects those newer players who may not have the kind of armor and abilities that other more experienced players may have, this decreased game appeal greatly. Adhoc (system to system) play is possible, allowing players to play quests with nearby friends who also happen to own MHF2, but the lack of online play throughout the world is a real drawback.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 takes advantage of the PSP’s control and graphic capabilities. There are many things you can walk though, or stand inside that you shouldn’t be able to, but the massive size of the game makes these drawbacks acceptable. The controls take some getting used to, and at the beginning you may find things sneaking up on you due to no dual joysticks on the PSP, which reduces your ability to use the camera effectively, but after a few hours, this camera problem will be replaced by habitual scanning of areas. The controls also take a bit getting used to, but after they are mastered, they are actually well done for a PSP game.
Monster Hunter has always lacked a storyline, and Freedom 2 does not cure this problem. There is no storyline at all really. You lead the life of an average hunter, who goes on quests for people in the village you call your home. These quests range from getting herbs for some old lady, or killing a huge dragon for some coward who can’t do the job himself.
The grinding of the game can get old, but the sheer depth of the game is enough to keep fans occupied for hundreds of hours. If you enjoy MMOs this is a good game to play in the car, or if you are just bored and want to kill monsters. If you have a PSP I would recommend picking this game up, you will get plenty of play for your pay.
Screenshots of the game:
Aug 2nd
I’m sure anyone who has used Firefox 2 remembers Fasterfox, an addon that increased your connection speed to servers on the net. However, the addon creator still has not updated the addon to work with Firefox 3. Someone designed a modified version of Fasterfox to work with Firefox 3 however, so Fasterfox is back for the masses. If you are worried there is a virus in the addon, you can view the virus scan results. The addon is completely unchanged other than being compatible with the greatest version of Firefox yet, and here is a download link for it:
Update: I modified the file to work with version 3.6.* of Firefox.
To install the addon, just drap the xpi file (the only file) onto any part of the Firefox window, then you will see the normal addon installation steps.
Aug 15th
Posted by Pxl_Buzzard in Online Services
15 comments
The great thing about Scour is how you can earn money for searching exactly like you used to with Google, and the results are better too. Scour makes money by sponsored links like Google does, but instead of keeping all the money to themselves, they want to say thanks to their loyal users with a little cash present.
For Firefox users: If you would like to make Scour your default search engine in the URL bar, type in “about:config”, search for “keyword” in the filter bar, then change the “keyword.URL” value to “http://scour.com/search/web/” without the quotes. Have fun with Scour!