WarFlail's Archives - November 1998

Go to December 1998 Archives.

If you have always taken for granted the safety of commercial airlines, you might be a little shocked by a site entitled Some Unusual Aviation Pictures. View them at your own risk! :-)

I've been immersing myself all day in Half-Life. What an incredible game. Realistic weapons, interactive environments and people, logical level designs, intelligent monsters and even enemy humans who work in teams against you - the immersion factor has been taken to an unprecedented level. And the greatest joy (for me) is that this game runs well even on a low-end system like mine (P166MMX w. 96MB RAM, Sound Blaster Live! Value and a Pure3D II). Nice to know that there is already a patch out that fixes a few minor bugs, too.

As you may have guessed, I've been away for the past couple of weeks. However, I'm back now, so keep checking back here for updates. :-)

Woah! It's Update City on the Quake II mod front! Over at Action Quake2's site, there's a client-side AQ2 upgrade patch from version 1.0 to 1.0c, a full version of AQ2 v1.0c (if you don't have version 1.0 already) and a small VWep fix for v1.0c. Also, over at the Rocket Arena 2 page, there is a huge client-side RA2 upgrade patch (15.0MB) from version 2.11 to 2.20 and an even bigger full version of RA2 v2.20 (27.7MB) if you don't have version 2.11 already.

For those of you who are wondering what Ned Kelly and I look like, and are also interested in seeing my PC hardware setup:

Nemesis, in SWAT garb, is double-teamed by two members of Clan Shambler!

The Tomb Raider III demo is looking really good, especially now that there is a hack available that gives you access to the entire India level! Download the demo and the full level patch from The Croft Times. :-)

Let it be known that Clan Shambler has declared war on the Demon Horde of Balgashang. Clan Leaders ÊvïlSmü®f and WarFlail are currently negotiating when and where to conduct the battle.

As promised, the new, improved Blood2 demo is now out. It's a sizeable download (36.4MB), but it's definitely worth it.

While Quaking on the deathmatch servers, my Clanmates and I sometimes get asked what the word "Balgashang" means. So, I've added a page that should explain everything. Just click here:

The final beta of Internet Explorer 5.0 has been released! If you're using IE4.01, the cool new features are certainly worth a look.

I watched Death Race 2000 on the video tonight. What an absolute classic! Now I understand how Carmageddon was inspired, right down to Max Damage's vehicle design. The movie is almost a quarter of a century old (with a very young Sylvester Stallone as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo) and was made on a low budget, but it is still a very entertaining film.

Just as a break from Quakin', I decided to try out the Trespasser demo. One thing is certain about this game: it is definitely not a Quake II clone! It's really an adventure game played from the first person, and the way you can manipulate objects, it is clear that problem-solving is a very important element in the game. The heroine of this single-player demo appears to only have the use of her right arm (don't ask why), but this arm of hers is at the same time very strong (she can lift heavy barrels single-handedly!) and limp-wristed (watch how any weapon she holds feebly flails about!). If you look down, you can't help but notice that the heroine is indeed a girl :-) and that tattoo on her left breast ain't just for looks - it serves as a life meter too. The overall graphics are a bit blurry, and some of the sound effects (e.g. weapons firing) wouldn't play through my Sound Blaster PCI64 for some reason. The gameplay is quite smooth but slow, which gives the whole game a rather dreamy quality about it - that's probably caused by my slow PC, which only just meets the minimum specs. It's too early to say whether I like or dislike Trespasser, but let's just say it didn't blow me away like the Half-Life demo did.

I've been immersing myself in the Blood2 demo the past couple of nights. So far, it looks very promising, with realistic model animations and surprise moves (the death animations in particular are quite good). The blood splatters are impressive and the weapons are cool, although I'm not a big fan of firing two guns at once (i.e. John Lone style). It's a shame I have to tone my game down to the lowest resolution and detail settings to experience smooth gameplay, but then, I do have a low-end machine (P166MMX w. 64MB RAM and a single Voodoo2 card). One consolation is that the team over at Monolith is working on a new Blood2 demo that promises a considerable improvement in speed, so I have something to look forward to... except I'll have to download the entire demo all over again.

Today was Melbourne Cup day. This is one of those special days when over 300 million people around the world tune in to watch 24 horses gallop around Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, for a trophy. But not just any trophy - the Melbourne Cup! My horse came in first in the office sweeps so I'm stoked! :-)

My Clanmate Gryphon has posted some pics in his diary of the softball game I played in on 24 October. They came out quite well!

We're in for a First Person Shooter overload! What with the Blood II demo out, Sin said to have gone gold and Half-Life supposedly going gold today(!), deathmatch addicts have a lot to look forward to. Now all I need is a powerful computer...

Do you ever suffer from sore wrists/forearms after hours of intense Quake 2 deathmatching? If you do, Game Armor may help prevent long-term injury. As much as I truly hate putting plugs in for commercial products, this one sounds like it might actually be useful. Check it out, although bear in mind a plaster cast for the forearm or a tenpin bowling wrist brace might be cheaper alternatives!

Happy birthday to my Clanmate, Nemesis! :-) Another year plods on by...

Go to WarFlail's Archives - October 1998

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