Last week Woot was offering a refurbished 30GB Zune for $99 (black or white models) so I finally leaped since I was hoping for a black when they first started offering the white model for $20 more. I received the Zune on Wednesday and so far I’m liking it. As for being refurbished, I’m not sure what was wrong with it since it looks as if it’s brand new. The casing and screen are in perfect condition and the default load was installed. Could be Microsoft attempting to unload stock with the new model around the corner.

Using the Zune software and installation was just as easy (actually it was a tad easier) than installing iTunes. The Zune completed firmware updates and downloaded and installed the latest version rather than installing the older version on the CD, requesting a reboot and then notifying me that there are updates available (as iTunes typically does to me). (more…)

I started to check out all the games, I did throw up the UT3 shots here.

UnrealTouranment 3 Demo:

This is the motherload for me, even with disappointments in 2003 and 2004 I’m always ready for a new one in the series.  So far DeathMatch and Vehicle CTF have been the only mods active when I’ve played.  The game runs smooth and, as you can see from the screen shots, is visually beautiful!!  I’m hoping they update the browser a bit for PC since they’ve kind of went back to the feel of UT2003 before the huge amount of interface patches to give it more PC familiarity.  They also need to work on getting the browser to sort properly, if you played the earliest betas of Quake Wars, it’s kind of the same… the player numbers sort poorly and even the ping is screwy.  I’m also not sure what the 24/24 servers are since they don’t appear to be actual full servers and you kind of hang in space waiting for a connection.

Overall CTF has been fun and it’s too bad they don’t have Campaign active in the demo (or at least nothing appears for servers).

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Demo:

I gave this a try briefly tonight and it’s kind of like the previous single-player demos that they’ve released in the past.  No multi-player and an intense SP map.  At this point, this is one of the lower ranking games on my list.  It’s modern but it’s the same as the WWII games in my opinion, at least SP.  It does look “pretty” too.

Frontlines: Fuel of War Closed Beta:

This is very much a beta.  I had lag issues, no ability to set your default keys (which typically isn’t a big deal on my Fang but I can’t set my reload to my middle mouse button! heh).  The game moves more like Desert Combat than BF2/BF2142 and rather than the command button (q default) in BF2, it’s a quick weapon switch which is kind of a waste, I’d rather see it more like BF2/2142 with commands.  I also didn’t see squad options in the game.  Getting back to the speed of the game, it seems to move fast and be much more realistic (as Desert Combat).  I’m hoping that they don’t alienate the people who are looking for a game to move on from BF2 or BF2142 by making it too “hardcore”.

Honestly the game played like a console game or more closely like Modern Warfare on the 360 which is disapointing but AGAIN, it’s a beta and they have until the first of the year to work it out and I’m hoping it works out to be different than how the closed beta plays.

Others:

I’ve not tried the others but plan on giving the Crysis, Hellgate: London and TimeShift demos a try Friday or Saturday.

As always, I’ll get screenshots up as I go through them.  The CoD4 and Frontlines will be up this weekend.

So as I had said in missing Frontlines, it’s been a huge few months in the FPS gaming world and I have blown it on everything! Never fear, here’s a list of the demos out there now from just the past month!

UnrealTournament 3 Demo
Crysis Beta
Call of Duty 4 Demo
TimeShift Demo
HellGate: London Demo
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate Demo
Painkiller: Overdose Demo

and in the previous post… (requiring an a paid account on FilePlanet):

Frontlines: Fuel of War Client BETA

I’m ashamed and embarrassed that I missed the UT3 demo!!

I was just talking about this on SkunkWorks and didn’t realize the beta had hit on September 20!!! There’s been such an onslaught of game news for FPS recently that I’ve not kept up on a few of these (and last report was this was next year) but caught the ad on FilePlanet and kicked off the download!

Frontlines: Fuel of War Client download at FilePlanet - Requires a founder account.

If you’re not familiar with the game, I put a brief entry up in June here.

They don’t have the image out there yet for the PC version at Amazon but I threw up the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 links.

I’ve been working with some new themes to replace the current on here. I’m trying to move to a Widget friendly theme and completely revamp the site. I’m doing testing with the Widgets on my personal site right now and trying to get the Christmas site up and running (probably replacing Joomla with Wordpress since I really have no need for Joomla but wanted it up and running). Just need to find some contact/request features.

I’ve also not decided yet to break out the gaming piece of BREWTALITY to myGamerZone since it’s sitting idle right now…trying to come up with something for that site…maybe blog hosting for gamers. Not sure yet. I also want to get UT3online going but need someone to manage that one for me, good name but need someone with the time for that one as well. If you want to admin that site, let me know.

While it’s kind of outside of what the site is about (musically), I wanted to post that I have a Christmas station up and running… so spread the word around to friends and family! The site can be reached at The Sounds of Christmas or listen at Live365! AND YES… Zakk Wylde and quite a few of the other artists from Merry Axemas & Merry Axemas 2 are there as well as Trans-Siberian Orchestra! Radio Vietnam is still up and thriving well at Live365!

This concludes our broadcast day….

Gateway 2400 LCD Monitor and HP DV9640us Laptop.

I’ve been wanting a 24″ LCD for a while and have found myself needing a laptop more recently with doing consulting and side work. A trip (well two) to Micro Center solved both issues but hurt the wallet a bit.

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I picked up ETQW yesterday and so far it’s so-so for me.  The game is nice but it’s a lot more skill kill than the Battlefield series so it’s going to take some getting use to.  I would have never thought that out of the game after announcement but I’m not doing so great on KDR (which I typically don’t, it’s usually more strategy that I score with).  I’ve not found that strategy yet but it’s still early for me and I didn’t really play the beta much and maybe one or two games in the demo.

The game does look very good and smooth playing.  WTF is up with ID and not requiring a DVD to play? :)  This was a great surprise and I have no idea other games require them on games that you have to register with.  BF2142 is for registered users only but yet I have to use the game DVD (still) as does BF2 (still requiring the DVD).  Thanks to ID for not requiring you to scratch up your disc by constantly swapping it for other games.  I typically try to find something at GameCopyWorld to avoid this but BF2142 is questionable since I had lock up issues with the modified code and I obviously don’t want banned for using a cracked EXE even tho I bought the game.

I’ll get some more screenshots of ETQW up soon.

Even after a poor week, The Stewie Syndrome moves up to 3-1 defeating the last remaining undefeated team 86-67 but it wasn’t pretty considering most of their players were out either due to injury or a bye week including Brian Westbrook so we got very lucky.

BREWTALITY fell to 2-2 after a 97-74 whipping from the Manning/Addai combo.  I thought the Bears D would be a good keeper and they’ve done OK but unfortunately I found that we’re not tracking blocked kicks… I’ve been in the league for several years and not noticed until this year with the Bears very good ST.

So we move on to week 5 and The Stewie Syndrome is taking on another 3-1 team that looks good.  I’m a bit worried about the Patriots defense tho… I know it’s the Browns but if I didn’t have them I’d have to say that I’m looking for a good game.  I think the Browns may be a big surprise to New England who has rolled too easily the past 4 weeks but we’ll see.  I can’t drop them against the Browns tho.

BREWTALITY moves on to the only team without a win so I’m a bit worried since everyone in FF typically gets a win but I don’t have to force myself to use my number one QB McNabb (Eagles bye week) this week and have Garrand starting.  The Bears are also taking on Green Bay so I’m worried about the 2nd team secondary they have against (my modern hero) Farve.

We’ll see…