Fried at the Most Innoportune Time

Updated: See item #2 below. Also added a Nexuiz 2.4 promotional video.


"Life with an integrated video: 5 FPS in War Rock. I'm a Spartan. I'm dining. And this is hell." --- my current YM status message at work and at home.


Nearing summer and as luck would have it, my factory-OC'd videocard just quit on me. Crapper. That's the last factory overclocked card for me; I don't think my country's climate is exactly altruistic to juiced up components.

No, I'm not buying fancy cooling equipment. I'm not a millionaire nor do I have a wealthy spouse or a trust fund so burning several hundred smackers just for games is out of the question.

For me.

I don't know with people who spout "I can afford" every chance they get in chat sessions though. Ask them, maybe they will.

Lol! Sorry private joke with the folks here in the 'hood. Ha. Ha.

Anyway, I'm gonna buy a more energy efficient card next week, the fates willing so I guess the mishap is a blessing in disguise. It's just the waste of moolah that I'm tsking over. (There is no such word. Don't reach for the dictionary.)

Anyway, gaming news:

1. Nexuiz 2.4 has just been released. This FREE online first-person shooter offers Quake III action with expansive maps. Thinking that this might be another half-baked attempt? Wrong bai. If your resource juices can handle max settings, this baby looks almost as good as Doom 3. This was back in 2.3:

No Freudian comments please. Sickos.

The only complaint I had back then regarding this game was it wasn't optimized well. In some maps it lagged like hell and my FPS was a continuous sine wave. The latest version has a lot of engine optimizations though so I am expecting this one to run smoother. In the graphics department this one is well, wow. If the screenshots of this freeware online game won't get your attention, nothing will.

Is that bloom? Bloom in a freeware shooter! If not, hell, who cares? It looks kick-a$$!

This, my friend is a gun that shoots plasma bolts. Tired of the usual shooting? Use the right button and this baby will lay globules of plasma on the ground. Wait for enemies to step on them and kablooey! gore every which way. Or if you're not the patient kind, shoot a bolt at your little mine field and watch those plasma globes explode right at their faces.

Water effects. Enough said. Wait. See the wall behind? 'Spattered with bits of ichor and armor. The amount of eye candy for a freeware shooter is simply astounding.

The third screenshot evidently shows that the weapon skins had undergone a major overhaul. This video, which was uploaded by Phandentium will show just that (and gods of gaming lookit the gloss and water effects in the second map!):

'Loved what they did with the machine gun and that plasma-laying thingamajig.

2. Alien Arena 2008 has been released for some time now. The guys from that website have not been idle either. They have introduced some subtle theme changes in their game, which employs the use of martians whose getups are inspired from 1950s science fiction flicks. Think "Mars Attacks!" Martians with Quake III weapons.

Wait. I already said that months back.

Anyway, they have opted for a grittier feel that reminds me of Unreal Tournament 2004. The bubble helmets are still there though so this game is still going to be funny and have its own flavor, which is for me, very commendable.

SCREENSHOT 1

SCREENSHOT 2

SCREENSHOT 3

I just saw its 2008 trailer in YouTube and yes, the graphical tweaks are clearly apparent. The machine gun now has longer, narrower barrels and its body is now bulkier, giving it the appearance of a mean, ponderous, anti-aircraft death-dealing machine. The rocket launcher too, has been given a major overhaul; it now has a transparent top that shows rockets being fed into the firing chamber everytime you unleash a round. How cool are those?! Here's a video uploaded by ForsakenWeb in YouTube:

Oh yes, I am so going to like this! With its goofiness minimized with the latest changes, Alien Arena 2008 has taken on a more serious, sci-fi shooter theme that I have been seeking out for the past months.

I wasn't so bad in 2007:

I'm the guy with the 34 kills. Mogera is a bot. I don't know why two of the three have 0 pings though; it's a bug I noticed repeatedly in AA 2007. People with sub-50 pings tend to be displayed with 0 ones at the ending screen. I have 200+ ping and still won hehe!

There only two other guys who could hold their own against me. One I remember: his name was [BL] Chaos or something. Couldn't kill him. Very skilled player. The rest were lambs for the slaughter.

I don't know though, maybe I just didn't login at the specific times when pros of the game would be playing.

3. Just when I was planning to jump to the ATI dingy, the Nvidia battleship just released the 9600 GT. This mid-end juggernaut completely sinks the 3850 and the 3870 in my opinion so I'm still an Nvidia disciple all the way. Some of the articles about this product can be found at:

Tomshardware

Gamespot (preview)