Archive for April, 2007:

So I’ve had a few hours of S.T.A.L.K.E.R flowing through my bloodstream/brain and I’m loving it.

The installation took the usual 10 minutes or so and appeared to be successful. Then I unfortunately had to disappear for a few hours shopping until I could try it out - but the wait was worth it.

I don’t know if it’s my setup or not, but the initial loading seems to take forever. Maybe it’s Vista working out if it should bother running the game at all. Once you’re into the game, things start to get interesting. There was an FMV cut-scene right at the beginning, something that I’ve not seen in many years in games. Though it stuttered throughout, skipping many frames, becoming out-of-sync with the sound. On the subject of sound, the game has a great orchestral score which will surely win awards.

The learning curve is nice and easy, throwing you straight into a simple mission, requiring you to talk to a few characters prior to eliminating 7 enemies in a car park. I’ll keep this review short and sweet though, as I need some sleep - so, starting with the good points (and there’s a lot of them) - relevant screenshots are linked to:

• The Russian (I think) voice-overs are great and add a bit of authenticity to it all
• The voice-over switches to English in a Russian accent when you begin communicating
• The bump mapping is supreme, out of this world and I spent 10 minutes staring at it all
• It feels like Half-Life 2, but with that RPG element thrown in for good measure
• Your fellow STALKERS wield guitars at the end of a battle to wind down
• Radiation is present everywhere, causing you to go ‘funny’ in close proximity
• Fire looks like, well, fire
• The clouds look real - and cast shadows on the ground
• The lighting is fully dynamic and it shows
• The binoculars are actually useful

Alongside the good points there are only a handful of minor bad points - the first being slow-down. Usually I’d put it down to the settings being too high, but it’s not consistent and hard to emulate. I think it’s to do with the game and Vista both being new - and the fact that the game doesn’t state that it supports Microsoft’s latest O/S.

The only other annoyance is the physics in the game. They’re good, but not fantastic. Whereas in Half Life 2 you can pretty much pick-up anything and throw it at someone’s head, in STALKER you can barely move anything. A few crates will budge if you run into them, but they wont smash if pushed off of a ledge. Ah well.

Overall STALKER feels very polished, which is quite surprising considering it’s new - but then again, the long development time probably allowed them to bring it to a shine. I’ve found myself adapting to it very easily and I’m finding it a lot more enjoyable than Oblivion. That’s not to say Oblivion is shite, just that S.T.A.L.K.E.R (with the p.e.r.i.o.d.s) rocks my boat that little bit more.

You’ll probably find me rambling on about STALKER a lot more over the coming weeks, so be prepared.

As I’m writing this, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is currently installing on my Red19 rig (Vista Ultimate 64). To pass the time I thought I’d waste it on blogging a bit more for the day.

I plan to write-up a short review, or summary/precis, but the latter could cause me to run into problems. It wont be on par with Bit-tech’s marvellous reviews, though it wont be too crappy either.

My only worry is that it wont run, as I’ve seen many reports floating around the internet complaining about STALKER’s (minus the p.e.r.i.o.d.s) lack of compatibility with Windows Vista. I wiped XP off of my gaming rig prior to installing Vista as I wanted to throw myself into the deep end. Unfortunately, this could backfire on me - in that I may have a copy of STALKER but no means of playing it, for the near future at least.

Oh well, at least the 4 screenshots on the back cover of the DVD case should keep me occupied for a bit…

I’m always a bit weary about mentioning anything to do with work, as either my colleagues may read it and be offended, or I’ll run into some legal issues. But on this occasion I think I’ll be safe - the only worrying thing is if my colleagues read this prior to finding out in a staff meeting…

Anyway, I applied for a Web Designer job a fortnight ago - Thursday 29th March to be precise. The job application process involved an Agency who took my CV and passed it onto the employer if they felt it was worth a read. On the Friday I had both a missed call and several emails from the Agency, asking me if I could attend an Interview on the following Monday. However, I was so caught up in work, finishing off an ICT Suite that I didn’t catch the messages until that evening - by which time, Monday morning was too close to take time off.

Luckily, I was able to re-arrange the Interview for the Thursday as I was off to see Ricky Gervais anyway.

To cut a long story short (as it’s already becoming long), by about 11am I was offered the job, having arrived at the premises for 9am. After some deliberation I accepted it - as it was a big decision moving employer, especially as they had been so supportive.

So, on Tuesday May 8th I begin working as a Web Designer for IOCEA/CShop - turning a dream job role into a reality!

Although I’ve been ‘boasting’ about my Fileserver’s new capacity for a few months now, the new drives weren’t actually installed until last night.

I’ve had 4 x 250GB IDE Samsung Spinpoints sitting on my bedroom floor since almost Christmas it seems. But finding a good few hours to install, format, transfer, test and backup the drives is hard. Luckily, the Easter holidays has allowed me to finally ‘upgrade’ my Fileserver.

It still boasts most of the same hardware as before, but with a few additions (in bold):

• AMD Athlon XP 2000+
• 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC3200 DDR
• ACorp 7KT333 (Via) Motherboard
• ATI Rage 128 Pro 32MB (powah!)
• Yeong Yang Cube case
• 1 x 80GB IDE Maxtor HDD (O/S)
• 8 x 250GB IDE Samsung Spinpoints HDD (4 x Data, 4 x Backup)
• 4 x Lian-Li caddies
• 2 x ATA133 PCI IDE Raid Cards
• 12 fans ranging from 40mm - 120mm
• and some other thingys

Although I upgraded the storage capacity of the Fileserver, I decided to downgrade the graphics side of things - as after all, a GeForce Ti4200 is slightly overkill for a 24/7 server. The ATI Rage 128 Pro provides enough graphical power for the Fileserver and I was pleased to see the Server 2003 comes with some generic drivers for it - eliminating any additional hassle.

I ran into a problem that had me stumped for a few hours, as the 3rd and 4th caddy wouldn’t pickup the drivers contained within them. But after removing and reconnecting all the cables, the problem seems to have sorted itself out.

8 x 250GB gives a raw total of 2TB. However, due to Windows and the whole bits/bytes thing, it’s slightly less. But, I’ve now got 1TB (or there abouts) of Data storage - split into Documents/Downloads/Music/Video and 1TB (or so) of removable Backup storage, which takes a copy of the Data drives via batch files. I could have opted for a RAID setup, but I wanted as much storage as possible, with minimal problems.

The above shows the ‘upgraded’ Fileserver, albeit naked. I could fit a further 6 drives in there if I tried, but the cabling is extremely cramped as it is.

The only side-effect of all this new storage, is that it’s going to take the whole day to complete a full backup. Afterwards, I’ll resort to incremental backups once a week, but my fingers and toes are crossed, in case I lose any data during this transition.

Many people’s Dads appear to have decent PCs, either inspired by their son’s or they are the inspirer themselves. My Dad is the latter, as he introduced me to the world of PCs and technology. I suppose I could blame him then for the 5 PCs I have lying around, with a 6th in progress.

I went home for the Easter weekend, mainly to check out his new setup, but also for the family time. I knew he had ordered a brand new Dell 3007, which I believe cost just under £900 inc. delivery, from eBay. But he’d also purchased a new set of Logitech Z-5500’s to compliment the huge monitor.

The picture doesn’t do the setup justice, but it’ll suffice. The LCD itself is very crisp, clear and bright - and although it’s one of the biggest for PCs, it doesn’t seem too ostentatious. In fact, it fits in very well with the rest of the black/silver hardware - the Logitech Z-5500’s; a Saitek Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse; the Lian-Li silent case…

The speakers sound fantastic too and are on my wishlist from this day forward. They’d be ideal both in a PC setup, but also in the living room for 5.1 THX movie madness.

Oh, and the 2560×1600 resolution of the 30″ 3007 is outstanding. You could fit 3 browser windows side-by-side and still have enough room for Vista’s sidebar, full of gadgets. I believe he’ll be putting one of his 19″ LCDs alongside it in the near future, but that may end up as a second 3007…