Ability to prevent motion sickness: The entire game takes place in a 3rd person view, which is fantastic; however, when the hero (Marcus) walks, his head bobs up and down, and up and down. Couple the bobbing motion with closed quarters and quick screen movement, and you have a nice recipe for motion sickness. The levels that took place in the outside environment caused fewer problems in terms of motion sickness compared to some of the underground levels. While the game ran in 1080p, at a solid 60 FPS, there were some hardware slowdowns in 3-4 areas of the game as well.Fun factor: The game had it’s frustrating moments, but was pretty fun. The game had an auto-save feature every time a “checkpoint” was reached. Each time the character died, you would simply start from the last check point. Beyond there, the characters in the game were hilarious, such as Cole Train. On the ending credits screen, Cole Train starts doing one of the worst rapping sessions I’ve ever heard. I supposed I should mention there’s a wide variety of weapons, such as a machine gun with a chainsaw on the end of it, I mean, that’s cool right? Lack of repetition: After 5 minutes of gameplay, you will know the fighting style for the entire game. It’s not bad, and there’s a large variety of terrain to hide behind. However, all you pretty much do is hide or crouch behind things while shooting the enemy.
Always knowing what to do: If there’s one thing I absolutely hate in video games, it’s not knowing where to go or what to do. The game is pretty linear, and the level design makes it hard to get lost.
Controls: There isn’t a mess of buttons to worry about, and there isn’t 500 secret button combos to do. Solid controls, never had a frustrating moment.
Cleverness of design: Gear of War gets big points in this category. It was fun, intuitive, creative, and I’ve never played a shooter game that did the job quite like this. There were basic elements of puzzles such as blowing up gas cans to spark explosions to kill enemies, and so on.
Overall: If you own an Xbox 360, you should own this game. While I never complain about games being too short, this title would make a fine rental as it can get beat in under 10 hours.
Last week, The Pirate Bay announced that it filed charges against against some of the key players in the entertainment industry for corrupting and sabotaging their BitTorrent tracker. We asked Brokep, one of The Pirate Bay founders to give us some more background information on this counterattack that will, once again, embarrass the entertainment industry.
The Pirate Bay filed charges against 10 major media companies, including Paramount Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Music Group. Fighting fire with fire some would say, but what’s really motivating them to take on these companies?
TorrentFreak: What is the main reason why you decided to file charges?
Brokep: To make the big companies aware about their own wrong doings. They are huge corporations where I’m sure a lot of different people decide. I don’t want that to be an excuse, I want them to take their crappy methods and stop their wrong-doing. They are going around accusing the pirate community for doing immoral stuff, when they do illegal stuff. We need to make a statement that just because something might be hard to fight it doesn’t mean that laws do not imply in the case.
TorrentFreak: In your blog post you said that the MediaDefender leaks started all this. Have you contacted MediaDefender about this suing of their clients?
Brokep: Yes. I talked to Randy Saaf, he sounded like a nice guy but he didn’t want to talk about it. He basically said “you do what you have to do” and honestly - if it were my clients, I would be a bit more eager to not get them in trouble.
TorrentFreak: What’s the legal status of the leaked emails, can they be used in the lawsuit as evidence?
Brokep: Yes. We have something called “fri bevisprövning” in Sweden which means that evidence, no matter how they’re obtained, can be used.
TorrentFreak: Do you have any other evidence against the media companies?
Brokep: Yes, stuff like our own logs of the connections from MD and such.
TorrentFreak: Have you heard anything from the companies you pressed charges against?
Brokep: No. We tried having a debate in national swedish radio but they refused to talk to us. They sent a note using IFPI saying “we will not talk about unserious claims like this”. It’s a twist of irony. They do illegal stuff and it’s unserious claims, we do stuff they consider immoral and they force the police to help them out. How’s that for democracy…
TorrentFreak: What message do you want to send out to the movie and music studios and anti-piracy companies like MediaDefender,and what else do you hope to accomplish by pressing charges?
Brokep: That you can’t fight file sharing. You have to join it, embrace it and adopt to it. It’s the only way, like it or not. It’s not going away, it’s grows every day and it’s for a good reason - the people want it. And the people are their customers, why fight them? Listen to them.
TorrentFreak: Thanks Brokep, and good luck of course
So, here’s the story. A year or two ago, I had an Xbox 360, but ended up selling the device to save up money for my move. A little over a month ago, I received this E-mail:
“Dear Nick c,
This mail is confirmation that you successfully purchased Xbox Live 12 mo. Gold Membership on Sunday, August XX, XXXX.”
I checked my Credit Card bills, saw no charges on it, so I didn’t think much of it. A few days ago, I bought myself a new XBox 360. I fired it up, it asked me about XBox Live, I forgot it had no wireless, then traveled to 5 stores (not kidding) to find an in-stock wireless adapter. I chose the option to recover my gamertag from my previous console. Entered my email address (same one I got the confirmation E-mail to above), and my password, and viola, I had my account back. I went into the membership section, and activated my 13 month Xbox Live Subscription Card I just purchased. After I did this, I went into the “payments” section and I see my credit card stored there, as well as another persons.
Apparently, I made a mistake when I sold my Xbox, and forgot to turn off the “auto sign-in” feature, and it stored my password to the HD. With this feature, you can’t modify/edit any account information without the password, but you can add Credit Cards (go figure…). The guy who bought my XBox decided to use MY Xbox Live Account for himself instead of creating a new one. This is probably because I had a few months remaining on my old XBox Live Gold Subscription, and he wanted to use it instead of paying for a new one for himself.
I decide that this is probably a good time to call Microsoft to sort out the mess. I spoke to the front-line rep for maybe 3-4 minutes, where he promptly told me he was confused, and that he needed to transfer me to his supervisor. Someone named “Kerry” got on the phone to try and help me. She first looked me up by my last name, then read off the names of my parents. I asked her why she had their names, and she said they have Hotmail Accounts (scary). I explained the situation, she asked for more personal information from me, puts me on hold, comes back and said there’s nothing she could do for me because I couldn’t “verify” all the account information.
This is where the call started to go downhill. Of course, I politely asked which information was incorrect, so I could give it to her again. She said she couldn’t tell me, because that’s against their supposed privacy policy. I asked her if I could repeat all the information I had given to her again, in case it was put down incorrectly. She said no, she couldn’t do that. Again, referring to her privacy policy. I asked where this privacy policy was so she could point it out, and she started to raise her voice and said, “SIR, I LEARNED THIS IN TRAINING.” I had my Xbox Live account open in front of me, and I had access to ALL of the information on file–my old address (parent’s house), phone, etc, so there is no way I could have given her wrong information. The only thing I couldn’t verify, was the Credit Card # of the person who used to buy points.
I explained the situation again, and she started to argue and talk over me saying she already explained the situation. I had a hard time disconnecting the call, because I was so flabbergasted by the ineptitude of their customer service. I was so upset, I asked for some personal information from here. I started by asking for her last name (I know people rarely give that, but some companies have pseudonyms) or phone extensions. She was continuing to raise her voice, and said it’s against the rules to give that out. Finally, I asked for the location of the call center, again, she told me it’s against the privacy policy to give that out. I started to laugh at this point, she’s claiming their privacy policy states they can’t give out the physical location of their call center.
At this point, I asked to talk to her supervisor, and she told me she is the supervisor. I asked if she reports to anyone, and she said “no.” At this point, I was annoyed, so I decided to have some fun. At this point, I clarified that she ran the entire department, and was in an executive position. She said “no”, then I asked who she reported to again. She again told me that she is the boss. One more time, I asked if she was the director, or higher of the call center, and she said “no”. She finally told me her supervisor doesn’t talk to consumers. I asked how she gets feedback from her supervisor, and she said, “I don’t” then said, “If you don’t have more question, I’m disconnecting” and before I could even say anything, she hung-up. Well Kerry, it’s just like you said, it’s perfectly clear that you don’t get any feedback from your supervisor.
Where does that leave everything? Well, there’s an Xbox Live account that contains all of my personal information, my stored Credit Card, a stored Credit Card for another person, and my recently added Xbox Live Subscriptoin. Microsoft knows about this, and choses to do nothing to rectify the problem. Go figure.
*EDIT* It’s not possible to remove Credit Card #’s from an Xbox Live Account. Here’s an interesting story on the matter. Click here.
Here’s a quote:
I gotta tell you, nothing is more frustrating than calling a company’s support only to be told that they can’t and won’t help you … Oh so sorry, but you are screwed!
I’ve never been mad at Microsoft or their support until that call. And you know what bloggers do when they get mad … they blog.
**Edit #2** After attempting to resolve the situation again–unsuccessfully. I decided to return the console to the store.
Ok, Mario world came out in the early 90’s, and we’re just now seeing a flood of videos about it? Also, how many of these “levels” can be completed on their own without any buttons being pushed? I’m a tad skeptical. None the less, here’s another video for your enjoyment. Keep in mind this the Japanese version of Super Mario World (SNES).
I heard some unusually loud noises coming from outside, when I took a peek, I saw my dog chewing some plastic. After I caught him in the act I tell him to go inside. When he tries, the planter gets stuck on his foot. Let’s see how long it takes him to listen to me.
– Note — I probably think the video is funnier than it actually is because it involves my precious animal.
Link here for story.
Go green blue power! I’m all for alternative forms of energy, hopefully this comes to bear fruit.
For obvious reasons, scientists long have thought that salt water couldn’t be burned.
So when an Erie man announced he’d ignited salt water with the radio-frequency generator he’d invented, some thought it a was a hoax.
John Kanzius, a Washington County native, tried to desalinate seawater with a generator he developed to treat cancer, and it caused a flash in the test tube.
Within days, he had the salt water in the test tube burning like a candle, as long as it was exposed to radio frequencies.
His discovery has spawned scientific interest in using the world’s most abundant substance as clean fuel, among other uses.
Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, held a demonstration last week at the university’s Materials Research Laboratory in State College, to confirm what he’d witnessed weeks before in an Erie lab.
“It’s true, it works,” Dr. Roy said. “Everyone told me, ‘Rustum, don’t be fooled. He put electrodes in there.’ ”
But there are no electrodes and no gimmicks, he said.
Dr. Roy said the salt water isn’t burning per se, despite appearances. The radio frequency actually weakens bonds holding together the constituents of salt water — sodium chloride, hydrogen and oxygen — and releases the hydrogen, which, once ignited, burns continuously when exposed to the RF energy field. Mr. Kanzius said an independent source measured the flame’s temperature, which exceeds 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, reflecting an enormous energy output.
As such, Dr. Roy, a founding member of the Materials Research Laboratory and expert in water structure, said Mr. Kanzius’ discovery represents “the most remarkable in water science in 100 years.”
But researching its potential will take time and money, he said. One immediate question is energy efficiency: The energy the RF generator uses vs. the energy output from burning hydrogen.
Dr. Roy said he’s scheduled to meet tomorrow with U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense officials in Washington to discuss the discovery and seek research funding.
Mr. Kanzius said he powered a Stirling, or hot air, engine with salt water. But whether the system can power a car or be used as an efficient fuel will depend on research results.
“We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads,” Dr. Roy said. “The potential is huge.
“In the life sciences, the role of water is infinite, and this guy is doing something new in using the most important and most abundant material on the face of the earth.”
Mr. Kanzius’ discovery was an accident.
He developed the RF generator as a novel cancer treatment. His research in targeting cancer cells with metallic nanoparticles then destroying them with radio-frequency is proceeding at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Manuscripts updating the cancer research are in preparation for publication in coming months, Mr. Kanzius said.
While Mr. Kanzius was demonstrating how his generator heated nanoparticles, someone noted condensation inside the test tube and suggested he try using his equipment to desalinate water.
So, Mr. Kanzius said, he put sea water in a test tube, then trained his machine on it, producing an unexpected spark. In time he and laboratory owners struck a match and ignited the water, which continued burning as long as it remained in the radio-frequency field.
During several trials, heat from burning hydrogen grew hot enough to melt the test tube, he said. Dr. Roy’s tests on the machine last week provided further evidence that the process is releasing and burning hydrogen from the water. Tests on different water solutions and concentrations produced various temperatures and flame colors.
“This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere,” Dr. Roy said of salt water. “Seeing it burn gives me chills.”
I logged into my Yahoo account to play some online Pool with a friend. After I logged in, I had to input some letters/numbers to ensure I was in fact, a real person trying to log in.
Well, that’s all fine and dandy, minus the fact that I can’t even read half the letters they produce. Take a look:
Seriously, how is anyone supposed to be able to read the middle item?
Lack of repetition: After 5 minutes of gameplay, you will know the fighting style for the entire game. It’s not bad, and there’s a large variety of terrain to hide behind. However, all you pretty much do is hide or crouch behind things while shooting the enemy.
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