Gaming

I am an addict

Posted by Matthew on June 9, 2008
Posted in: Gaming, Wii. 3 comments

Super Mario Galaxy

I understand that the Nintendo Wii has been out for some time, but I still have to admit it. I am an addict. Wii is really what I have been looking for. These days (wow that makes me sound old, but) a lot of games are becoming more and more and more complex. More realistic. More involved. More buttons to do things. And on and on. Well some of the games that I enjoyed the most on my new Wii are very simple games. The graphics aren’t all that stellar, heck, none of the games are in HD at all. However, they have a much higher fun level then most games I have purchased and played before.

Please. Don’t buy Super Mario Galaxy. I am telling you now. It will suck you in and you won’t know what to do with yourself. Run, run, run away!

Best. Purchase. Ever. Well, of 2008 anyway.

Some more Guild Wars

Posted by Matthew on March 20, 2007
Posted in: Gaming. Leave a Comment

Sometimes I like to waltz around random areas in Guild Wars. Then, sometimes, I come upon some really odd stuff.

Brood Mother Kalwameh

Enter the Brood Mother Kalwameh.

Brood Mother Kalwameh. DEAD.

After just about 30 minutes, I finally killed it. 30+ minutes! The damned thing kept healing itself, but I finally kicked its ass. Sweetness.

A long break

Posted by Matthew on February 22, 2007
Posted in: Gaming, General Nonsense. 1 comment

Mellofone Delnor

Wow it has been some time since I posted. I’ve been busy. Mainly with Guild Wars. Wow is that game addictive. It has a few great changes to the standard MMORPG that most still do not have.

To speed the game up, when you move into “explorable areas,” each player or team gets a copy of their own area. That means you get your own things to fight and your own things to accomplish, without other players buzzing around you all the time. At first I didn’t think I would like it, but playing without all of the extra public junk in the game is quite a switch. I like it.

You can also save a lot of time when traveling. Once you have visited an area, it is then displayed clearly on your map and you can travel to it simply by clicking the map. No more 20 minute runs from area to area like the other games.

Of course other games will always have that, because they charge a monthly fee to play. Guild Wars still remains free, and is more then worth it.

One more to the list

Posted by Matthew on February 16, 2007
Posted in: Gaming, Linux. 1 comment

Add one more game to the list: Guild Wars Nightfall. It almost like a standard MMORPG, but there are no, repeat no, monthly costs to play. Not only that, but it is also supported (and runs very well) in Cedega.

Chalk up another game that works in Linux.

So far I made it through the tutorial/training mission, and am just about ready to get started in the real game. This game seems to be much more story oriented then other MMORPG’s, which (to me) seem to be a bunch of randomized tasks and mini-missions that have to be completed. I could be wrong, but so far it’s great.

I’m just waiting for a party member or two to join up so we can get a heck of a war party started.

Game time

Posted by Matthew on February 14, 2007
Posted in: Gaming. Leave a Comment

I just started to look into a new game called City Of Heroes. It is your basic MMORPG online game, which has a monthly fee for persistent play. However, this is based on comic book super heroes. You basically create your own hero, with different abilities and weaknesses, and you fight crime. And Super Villains.

The counterpart to the game, is City Of Villains. The same exact idea, but you play on the evil side of things for a change.

So far the Villains game is laying out just like every other MMORPG; start out doing small tasks and gradually gain experience points. You start gaining player levels, and the tasks start to become more involved and more difficult. I’m about 3 or 4 hours into the game, and it is still holding my attention. I’m not sure how long it will last, especially since it is $14.99 a month to continue to play.

However, so far I like it. Better yet, it runs perfectly in Cedega so I don’t have to boot into Windows.

It works!

Posted by Matthew on January 31, 2007
Posted in: Gaming, Linux. Leave a Comment

After a few hours of messing around with Cedega, I finally got all of the Steam powered games running on the new Linux box. I tried messing with so many things I nearly forgot what the heck I changed. In the end, it turned out to be an audio problem. If anyone out there is running AMD64 Linux and using the 32-bit emulation packages to run Cedega, please, please, PLEASE make sure you have the “Use MMap” option unchecked. It was that simple. Uncheck and games run wonderfully.

The best part was that I didn’t even have to reinstall anything. All I had to do was scp my ~/.cedega directory from the old machine to the new and run. It was just that easy. The directory and all of the sub-directories was about 12G in total size….

Counter-Strike: Source Cedega Settings

Posted by Matthew on November 30, 2006
Posted in: Gaming. 2 comments

Well here they are, the Cedega settings I have been using to get Counter-Strike: Source running perfectly.

General Settings

Graphics Settings

Audio Settings

As you can see on the Audio settings page, I am still using ALSA’s OSS emulation. For some strange reason that is the only way I could get my headset’s microphone sounding decent enough to use. Using straight ALSA created a loud, choppy, buzzing sound whereas the OSS did not.

Hello. My name is Matthew, and I am an addict

Posted by Matthew on November 29, 2006
Posted in: Gaming. 4 comments

I am totally addicted to Counter-Strike: Source. I can’t get enough of it. Even if I’m playing against bots, I still can’t get enough. John and I have been playing on and off, and I’m starting to get better and better.

However, the good news is that after weeks of testing, tweaking, changing, running, testing, and cursing, I finally got it running well in Cedega. Translation: I can play a (generally) Windows-only game on my Linux desktop.

Yes. That is a VERY good thing.

Counter Strike: Source

Posted by Matthew on November 22, 2006
Posted in: Gaming. Leave a Comment

I have really been getting back into gaming lately. Not only with Game Nights with the CPLUGers, but I have been playing on my own as well.

Since I had a bit of free time, John and I decided to try out a bit of Counter-Strike:Source. WOW is that a great game. We have played the original, non Source engine Counter-Strike Half-Life mod at the last two Game Nights, and I have really really fallen in love with it. I never thought the same style game would be so much better with the new Source engine. Is it ever. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous. Not only are the player models 100 times better looking, but the surrounding scenery is really stunning.

If you are into multi-player, first person shooters, please go get it. Get it now. It’s only $30. Do yourself a favor.