I'm currently taking a Geography class, which (I hope) is the last core class I need to get out of the way before I can transfer to Sam Houston and get into the juicy business classes. ^_^

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q-0_m_Pz24

Johnny Depp is once again starring in a Tim Burton film. This time, he's playing a vampire trapped in the 70's after being cursed by a witch 200 years prior. The result? I don't really know how to describe it, but whatever it is, it just looks fun. If nothing else, it's full of awesome quotes.

"You may strategically place your wonderful lips upon my posterior and kiss it repeatedly!"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr8vmckMipc

Let's be honest. The original trailer was funny, but it didn't really look like the movie would be worth watching. This second one, on the other hand...wow. It takes a completely different direction, and I like the looks of it. I'm really looking forward to it now.


Last Edit: Apr 5, 2012 20:57:08 GMT by Scorpian

Detailed info: www.dragonforce.com/The-Power-Within/

Due for a release later this month, "The Power Within" will be Dragonforce's fifth studio album. It's also the first album to feature their new lead singer, Marc Hudson. Two of the songs from the album have been released in advance as a bit of a preview.

"Cry Thunder," one of the first new songs they began to play live last year, is available on iTunes, Zune Marketplace, and other digital distributors as an advance single. You can also listen to the entire song for free on soundcloud, via this link.

"Fallen World" is also available for download after a quick registration at Roadrunner's preorder site. As an added note, this song is claimed to be the band's fastest, most powerful song yet. After listening to it myself, I have to agree.

Overall, things look very promising. Their sound has changed quite significantly, mostly thanks to their new singer. It's different, but in a good way. I really like the new direction. And if the rest of the album can match up to those two songs that are already out, it should be very good. Anybody else looking forward to it?


Last Edit: Apr 5, 2012 20:53:56 GMT by Scorpian

The ability to kill people with guitar solos. That's the primary reason I enjoy Brutal Legend. If there is already an MMORPG with this feature, please point me to it. I will master it within a few minutes.

Josh has disabled the ads! MY GOD! That will put a HUUUUUGE dent in PB's profits. Better report him now!

It's been insane. My theater has been ridiculously busy over the past few days. We sold out 16/19 screens for midnight showings (two were overflow theaters and one has a faulty projector), and every single showing of HP7 since then has sold very well. There were huge lines for all of them. It's nuts, man.

Source: www.neowin.net/news/ea-confirms-purchase-of-popcap-games-for-750-million

wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/e/e5/Heavy_jeers05.wav

I see no possible way for this to be a good thing.


Last Edit: Jul 12, 2011 23:00:35 GMT by Scorpian

MORE INFO: www.neowin.net/news/the-six-ways-you-can-appeal-the-six-strikes-mitigation-measures

Looks like the first four strikes are nothing more than warnings, and nobody (not even the content holders) really cares about them. The fifth and six strikes are when they'll start getting serious, and that's when they'll let you appeal it.

You know, I have to admit... of all the methods used to combat piracy they've tried out so far, this one seems to be the best. I'm kind of curious to see where this goes.

Source: www.neowin.net/news/american-isps-agree-to-six-strikes-enforcement

When I saw that title, I thought that maybe, just maybe, the movie/record companies finally found which buttons to push in the minds of the ISPs. However, upon reading it... this seems like no threat at all. To my understanding, here's what will happen:

1) You download something illegally.
2) The copyright holder catches you doing it and informs your ISP.
3) Your ISP lets you know that you've been busted and tells you to not do it again.
4) You lower your IQ to that of a turnip and download something illegally five more times.
5) The respective copyright holders catch you each time and inform your ISP.
6) Your ISP wags its finger at you.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Effective? Maybe. Most people would probably give up piracy if they knew somebody had caught them. The more "hardcore" pirates would probably just continue on though. I'm not sure. It's interesting, if nothing else. At lesat they didn't go for the three-strikes rule that recently passed in... New Zealand, was it? Caught downloading something three times? NO INTERNET FOR YOU! In comparison to that, this sounds pretty tame.

Actually, Windows Live has several metro aspects in it. Also, I saw a metro-style mockup of a future version of Outlook that *supposedly* originated from within Microsoft. Of course, that's like a rumor based off a rumor, but still... it could be happening. Good thing too. The metro UI is awesome. Oh, and the implementation on Outlook that I did see looked pretty damn good, imo.

Anyway, this looks like something that would be more efficient to use with a with a mouse or motion controller, which is what I'm pretty sure they were trying to do. My question is simply about how well it will work with a regular, handheld controller.

Also, that picture of Lady Gaga is frightening. More-so than usual. :S

DAMN! I was close.

The in-game overlay suffers from certain programs running in the background. For example, it's been confirmed that certain antivirus programs don't like to play nicely with steam. That's mostly the fault of the antivirus software though, and there isn't much Valve can do about it. No company can create software that's guaranteed to run perfectly on all hardware/software setups. If you notice problems with any type of software, after confirming that it's installed correctly, the best thing to do is to look at software running alongside it. Again, antivirus software doesn't like to play nice with other programs all the time.

As for VAC... have you ever played on a server that isn't VAC protected before? Try that and see how it works out. You'll notice pretty fast that there's a good reason why they don't tend to be very popular. The system itself is not perfect, but it's necessary. All Valve multiplayer games would be unplayable if it weren't for VAC. Yes, it has had a few times in the past where it's issued erroneous bans, but those have all since been reversed. Unacceptable? Try comparing it to other anti-cheating services. Hell, if you even mention "PunkBusters" in most gaming communities, everybody will immediately tell you to shut up. (Also, their website never claimed that the serviced is 100% perfect. If anything, that was a user on the steam forums, not even a Valve representative.)

Source is the exact opposite from terrible. Its flexibility and scalability is far greater than any other engine out there. Since its introduction in 2003, it's evolved to be a strong competitor with the most advanced engines of today. And, thanks to the design of source, all of those upgrades have been easy to port to all of Valve's games. Half-Life 2, released in 2004, runs on a 2010 build of source.

Also, xfire created an in-game chat system first. Therefore, they get to hold a monopoly on the entire idea? Um, hello? America? Also, this is Valve. They noticed that a system like that is what their customers wanted, so it only makes sense that they would create one.

Yeah, kind-of a rant post, but I'm sure XuZi will read it. There's no way he's gone forever. We all know that.