Well, after a hearty amount of game reviewing I’ve decided that perhaps I should get into the Mod scene. Right now I’m working in two total conversion projects for Sins of a Solar Empire. (Like Master of Orion only real time) I’m involved in a Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica Conversion project for the Original Sins of a Solar empire, and when i manage to finish them, will be taking that core product and then making it compatible for Entrenchment and Diplomacy, the two micro expansions that are only available for digital download off impulse. Impulse being Stardock’s non crap non buggy, non stupidly restrictive online platform similar to steam. Finally a company that believes in less DRM rather then more equals more profit for them.

Ohh well, this is really a pre-cursor to Star-trek Online which I happen to be downloading from Impulse atm but won’t be able to play until it’s Australian release date in June if I recall. So when I can get access to the servers expect a lengthy review on the subject because I’m giving myself enough leadtime to do a decent review on the game.

Alright back to modding I go

I have had my quad core for about 2 years now and it has always seemed to run hot, (like if i leave my computer on and not the heater it would heat the room up by itself quite nicely). This is why I finally decided to do some thing about it, especially with the weather getting hotter, and so too my room. I looked at forums relating to this problem and eventually went with a cooler a friend recommended, the Thermalright IFX-14. He has one in his dual core machine and said it would perform well.

I ordered the monster and within a few weeks it arrived (Why is there always [ED]. a delay in stock) when i pulled it out of the box i was in amazed at the size of the cooler, at 146mm in length, 124mm in width, 161mm in height and 790g in weight it is huge. The cooler came with a back plate to support it on the motherboard, thermal paste, 2 fan brackets and all brackets to suit Intel LGA775,  AMD AM2 and socket 939. Installation was easy it required taking out the motherboard, removing the old cooler and thermal paste, reapplying thermal paste,  mounting the cooler using the brackets and screws provided and installing your 2 fans of choice. (For mine I choose 2 120mm Antec 3 speed fans).

Now to the difference it made. (Ambient temp was 25 deg C)

Idle Stock cooler – 44C

Idle Thermalright IFX-14 – 40C

For stress testing i used two test from Prime95 small FFT’s (this hammers the cache of your CPU creating maximum heat) and in place large FFT’s (this is a more realistic CPU load as it uses cache and RAM)

In place large FFT’s Stock cooler – 74C

In place large FFT’s Thermalright IFX-14 – 45C

Small FFT’s stock cooler – 90C (I stopped this test after 2 Min’s as the temp kept on going up and i thought it would melt)

Small FFT’s Thermalright IFX-14 – 50C (This i left for 10 Min’s and it didn’t change)

All in all the Thermalright IFX-14 in my opinion was a worth while investment as you can see from the information above it dropped the CPU temps by 40C in some cases, after running these tests i went on overclocking my q9300 which runs at 2.5 GHz stock to 3.2 GHz and the above temps for the Thermalright IFX-14 didn’t move. This cooler is reasonably pricey at around $170 for the cooler and 2 120mm fans but it performs, to add to its performance it is compatible with the new Core i7 cpu’s and motherboards. I am extremely happy with this cooler and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cooler for socket LGA775 mother board.

It’s some kind of re-mix. It’s got some kind of political message going through there but I was to busy trying to bash the hypnotic beeping out of my skull. That was untill the splosions and wet t-shirts…

As a geek when someone mentions RPG’s there are a few things that come to mind. The chances are however that Diablo is one of the first things to pop into your head.  So when I finally got my hands on Torchlight I wasn’t surprised at the look or feel of the game. To say the hack and slash click frenzy was reminiscent of Diablo might be considered an understatement of the most extreme kind. Diablo II like game mechanics and the  atmoshpere and simplicity of the original experience of Diablo mixed with a pleasant and classic graphical style all mesh for simple, fun and streamlined experience with Torchlight. Calling something  clone is ussually a negative factor but the Diablo’esque fell comes from the Team, a group of former Blizzard North members working with Runic Games and doing a damned good job.

With a small footprint and very reasonable spec requirements Torchlight is a unique game and at it’s bargain pricing (Steam 19.95 AUD) it’s a hard gem to look over.

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So very true.

It’s been an interesting year for me, and I can only guess the same goes for most of you.

Tragedy and Joy, political intrigue the Global Financial Crisis, the Election of America’s first African American President (Yes I know he’s not 100% African American but the fact that is an issue speaks volumes about the American populace and the important step this was for America as a  whole.)

The sad and truly unwholesome death of ‘the King of Pop’ Michael Jackson (When i say unwholesome I wish to refer to the vultures and ass clowns whom simply would not let the poor man rest in piece. Simply put have some respect for the dead you ass clowns.)

On 23 November 2009, the first proton–proton collisions were recorded, at the injection energy of 450 GeV per particle.

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Well the past few days I have been trying to get the beta version of the mod working and finally some success. The mod offers a MechWarrior game utilising the crysis engine which adds up for a great game. Some minor issues I had where not having some of the mod files in the right areas as some of the installation guides were not the most comprehensive ones I have seen, still with some thinking and many reinstalls of crysis later I finally got it up and it does not disappoint.
Follow the link below for the download. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so I’m playing Aion : The Tower of Eternity, have been for 3 months now. Got a asmodian sorceror to 50, and then deleted him to go play Elyos on the same server cause some mates are there. Now I’m playing the Elyos side of the story line. And I have to say, as someone who’s played : LOTS of other Korean MMO’s, World of Wangcraft, Age of Constipation, Warhammer Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, DAOC (Dark age of Camelot) and probably a few others I can’t think of atm. I would have to say that Aion is by far the best experience I’ve had to date.
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This man, will look into your soul… I think what frightened me is the fact that somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind I remember a state of intoxication that may have created such a moment. Fortunately ‘I guess’, my flat mates did not own a web cam, and they were to afraid of my laundry to brave my bedroom and steal mine.

Prepare for the soul searching, the epic shower of untold knowledge…

… or maybe a seriously stoned guy who in a moment of clarity see’s the webcam his mate’s have stashed in his bathroom. unfortunately the clarity passes, well not unfortunate for us. I would like to point out that this is NOT why cigarettes are dangerous for you. This is why drugs are bad mmmmmkay !

I’ll need to track down all the info for this film clip(for the song Parlez-vous_français? | do you speak french) but the guy Alex Roberts, who did this film clip for Arc vs Science walked away with the triple j award for and don’t quote me on this “Most Awesome Film Clip of all Time starring two random guys that apparently can mime really well.” Music Video of the Year (I like my award better). Yeah I know this is old news but that makes it no less worthy. Also, who could resist two Mime’s duking it out mime style on there front page blog.

So It’s not a big surprise to people that know me when I bitch about Halo. The rave, the lunacy, the frat boy society that pervades the Halo Franchise all in all simply takes a less than absolute fps game experience and defecates on it. Let’s just get it all out in the air. Halo is a console fps and console fps’ are still 3 years behind PC fps games. That is of course until Activision’s COD4.

Those of you who have played COD 4 will have undoubtedly appreciated in both console and PC form. Being that PC is my preferred gaming media device I will say COD4 on PC was better than COD 4 on Console however the experience is legitimately arguable. COD 4 brought real fps gaming to the Console. None of this uber jump and sniper pistols, no Zombies’ or Alien’s or Alien Zombies in fact not even forgetull pathing ai’s. COD 4 was plain and simple a tactical modern combat game across all consoles. ( It could be argued that COD 2 and COD 3 were pc/console equivalents. They weren’t!)

COD6 is that and more.

I’ve just finished the Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 single player campaign on normal and I can only describe the experience as the single most intense and absorbing piece of entertainment media I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of. ** please note full article may have spoilers. Though if you have been reading the news or have any interest in the game you’ll know what I’m talking about already.

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So ive been fidling with illustrator and despite everything I have finally made something I believe is workable. It’s not a Mona Lisa but there is a certain charm about it. Hopefully this will be the first of many in a series of Ghostlies. Perhaps moving towards a downloadable collection of Ghostlie avatars and emote icons.

Uploaded a gallery of images for my mum.  I’ve censored a few and whats left is some shots of my family and a mate or two. Read the rest of this entry »

Well Mass Effect 2 is coming out halfway through next month, so I thought I’d give you as thorough a review as possible so you’ll consider preordering it in time. Now I’m a Mass Effect fan, played it extensively on XBox 360, and PC. Yes, there were issues with the first game, but personally I believed those issues to be worth putting up with for a new type of RPG. It was really the first decent Sci-Fi third person RPG/FPS game ever made, and with games that revolutionise both the nature of those two genre’s, usually you’ll either find a very awesome game. Or you’ll find a game that could have been awesome but is let down by some issues with execution. ME was sadly in the second category. But Mass Effect 2 looks to be of the first category, and I’ll go into some detail why.

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So I was reading around and came across this story at wired. I mean we all knew the zombie apocalypse was coming, but I doubt we expected it to be caused by clean cut government paid scientists running publicly transparent research into creating ‘zombie pigs‘. Of course its for emergency medical response on the field. Trust the American Army to justify the creation living bacon (or is that un-dead bacon?) with the war on terror.

(HAHAHA – While searching for an image to put here I came across this. Im sure all you american’s have seen this before but LOL”)

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It all begins with Yie Ar Kung-Fu, and from there it only gets more awesome. I first played Kung Fu on my parents Amstrad CPC. So for all you older (not oldest) who want a sentimental trip down memory lane this little gem is a must. If nothing else the fate of poor mega-man cracked me up.

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Now in these hard times it can be scary entering the world of high finance. In fact if we look back to the Monty Python short Crimson Permanent Insurance we could all see this coming. As below part 1 and part 2.

“The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials … we’ve made piracy a community activity.”

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So the missus(Wife/Girlfriend for the un-Australian.) recently bought me Assassin’s Creed II (I know I know, I was all like WTF ORSM). Initially I wasn’t incredibly impressed. The game play followed very closely to the original (not in itself a bad thing) and I had started to think perhaps it was simply the same game with a different character and new settings. To some extent this is true however after a few hours of  intensely enjoyable game play I had found the new an improved Price of Persia Rip Off that we had all come to love.

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Recently I’ve been dragging my clunky old machine around a little too often and i’m finding it quite straining on the back. It’s been in the back of my head for a while now that a new case might be in order. Not to say my Lian-Li is anything but exceptional but I could do with a lifting aid (Handle, Personal Troll,) and perhaps a little more internal space for better cooling. I don’t think my tiny mid-atx was ever meant to handle a solid quad and a 4890.

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Let’s not beat about the bush. I want Geek-Haven to work and that means I need you.

Well, I need you if your a talented individual with some spare time on your hands and a penchant for “drematicus, artistical awesomer” stuff. WTF ! I’ve got a copy of Blood Bowl I’m gonna give to anyone who can make me a new title bar.

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So Borderlands is coming. A gaming buddy of mine [Judas] introduced me to this game a few years back when it looked like development might have gone the way of the Nukem. Fortunately it hadn’t.

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