Entries from November 2007 ↓

Ok guys here is my review for Crysis and why I now think the game was ground breaking and the absolute best game I have played ever!

Firstly the down side, the game even on our updated systems runs like a dog. The enemy armour is too strong, the gun accuracy is not what it should be and the bullet damage is too weak. I hated the first bit because; even though the game look pretty, it annoyed me that even when you sneak
into a good position it took 10 plus bullets to drop anyone unless you was standing right next to them. Most games I play are on the middle setting, but this one even on “easy” was impossible.

I did a fair bit of reading about the game and found a lot of posts about a file in the config directory called “diff_easy” in here and not hidden, are all the game difficulty settings, I guess the best way to explain it, is that your hardness and the AI are all controlled in this one simple file. You can change any setting from time for enemy to lock on to how quickly your armour in different circumstances will recharge. Unfortunately you can’t increase the hit damage which would have solved the problem but you can change the game to a more easy setting.

I changed my config to the file below which you’re welcome to paste over the top of your “diff_easy” file. Basically I can carry all the weapons at once and once you have full bullets they never run out. About ½ the way through the game I was carrying nearly all the games weapons and could have loads of fun with the sniper rifle and machine gun from long distance. Using my config you can still die but with the non stop firepower you will stop dying every few mins.

Graphic wise run at the full 1920 res but change to Medium effects and the game runs a dream and still looks amazing.

Now the good part, after you scoot around the island a bit finding stuff out, you eventually join back up with the marine force and all hell lets loose. This is the time you really see how amazing this engine really is, my god I cant tell you how good the explosions look as 2 F15s skim through the valley to take out an enemy camp. But it doesn’t stop there the game after the half way point just gets better and better with massive battles leading up to the last ¼ that will just blow your mind. My god i cant believe that I nearly didn’t play on and missed the chance to be in a massive tank battle, fly an attack raid and battle my way up to the deck of an air craft carrier while the biggest battle you have ever seen is going on it really blows your mind with stunning graphics and game play that would give all of you a small heart attack. I don’t want to spoil the story but please play it until the end, you all really can’t miss the graphics. There is a silly weightless part but after 10 mins it’s over and you find yourself back out in the open.

In summary, I have no idea why they made it as hard as they did, I am sure like me, many people would become very pissed off with the game very early and not find out what an amazing game it is after the first half. The config file maybe an indication that they want you to find an experience that suits you but even so, it’s a big risk making the game as hard as it is. The Crysis engine is amazing and I can’t wait to see what will come out next using it, as its truly is breath taking in doors, in the air, on the ground and in the water all round great engine.
Please play it all the way through! Nuff said!!!

Text below for pasting over the “diff_easy” file.

———————————————————————————————–
– EASY

– AI Detection speed
ai_SOMSpeedRelaxed = 1.2
ai_SOMSpeedCombat = 0.3

– Alive time
ai_RODAliveTime = 5.0
ai_RODMoveInc = 1.3
ai_RODStanceInc = 1.0
ai_RODDirInc = 1.0
ai_RODAmbientFireInc = 2.0
ai_RODKillZoneInc = -2.0

– AI fire reaction time
ai_RODReactionTime = 0.2
ai_RODReactionDistInc = 0.1
ai_RODReactionLeanInc = 0.2
ai_RODReactionDirInc = 1.0

– Cover fire time modifier (cover fire time specified in weapon)
ai_RODCoverFireTimeMod = 1.0

– ROD ranges - percents of attackRange AI property
ai_RODKillRangeMod = 0.2
ai_RODCombatRangeMod = 0.6

– Ambient fire, enemies not in the quota cannot hit the player.
ai_AmbientFireUpdateInterval = 0.5
ai_AmbientFireQuota = 2

– Low health effect duration and health threshold
ai_RODLowHealthMercyTime = 2.5
g_playerLowHealthThreshold = 40

– AI voice readability
ai_UseAlternativeReadability = 1

– Player Health/Energy/Suit
g_suitCloakEnergyDrainAdjuster = 0
g_suitRecoilEnergyCost = 5
g_suitSpeedEnergyConsumption = 50
g_suitSpeedMult = 1.50

g_suitArmorHealthValue = 100.0
g_playerSuitArmorModeHealthRegenTime = 5
g_playerSuitArmorModeHealthRegenTimeMoving = 5
g_playerSuitHealthRegenTime = 12
g_playerSuitHealthRegenTimeMoving = 15
g_playerSuitHealthRegenDelay = 2.51

g_playerSuitEnergyRechargeTimeArmor = 4
g_playerSuitEnergyRechargeTimeArmorMoving = 5
g_playerSuitEnergyRechargeTime = 6
g_playerSuitEnergyRechargeDelay = 0.5
g_suitCloakEnergyDrainAdjuster = 0
g_playerHealthValue = 200.0

g_difficultyLevel = 1
v_driverControlledMountedGuns = 1
i_noweaponlimit = 1
i_unlimitedammo = 1
——————————————————————————————-

Cak…

Good…

Cak.

Poopy.

AVForums and Scan are offering customers free delivery. This will make a fair difference as Scan deliveries are normally quite expensive and make the order slightly more than competitors.

You need n Account at both sites. Start on the AVForums home page.

I dont know why I love these photies so much but they make me want to go there and see for myself.

Lully shots of a, well, of a barn!.

On Friday last week, I took the plunge and purchased a new and very shiny iPhone.

I did laugh to myself as I entered the O2 store in Milton Keynes. There were crowd control tapes outside the door for the launch of the iPhone and lots of members of staff. At least 10 iPhones were arranged on a table for demo, the only thing that was missing were the hundreds of punters all waiting to sign up for an iPhone. “Would you like to try the iPhone sir” an almost pleading member of staff asked. “Sure” I said, I couldn’t help myself from saying “so, do you have any of these in stock?”

Anyway, I paid my £269 and took my new iPhone home. It did feel a bit strange not having the store setup the phone, but all of the activation is done through iTunes.
Opening the box, I was greeted with my first look at my new phone, the packaging is excellent and the box includes a docking station, usb to docking station lead, charger unit, cleaning cloth, headphones, documentation and of course the iPhone.

I eagerly switched on my PC and fired up iTunes. Then I connected the iPhone only to be greeted with the message “iTunes does not support iPhone with this version of iTunes, please install the 64bit version of iTunes” Huh? I knew that I had the latest version of iTunes, so I did a bit of digging on Google and discovered that iTunes does not work properly with vista 64bit. Luckily for me, I fired up my Hackingtosh and ran through the activation on that. I must say in iTunes defence that the activation was smooth and the phone was working in less than 10 minutes.

Wow, how cool is the iPhone, all of my anger at iTunes melted away as soon as the iPhone lit up for the first time. The screen is just a joy to look at and use, I keep finding myself playing with the phone just because.

Amazing applications, this is the best phone I have ever used. I was worried that the onscreen keyboard was going to be a real pain to use, nope; it’s the best phone keyboard I have ever used. In less than 5 minutes I was typing like a pro, the predictive text is excellent and very easy to use, you just press the onscreen spacebar to insert the word or not, the choice is yours. The text messaging is just a joy, I love the way that the texts are displayed like a conversation. The camera is not to bad either, a lot of reviews have slated it, but I thought it’s ok and I love snapping a picture and then zooming into it using my fingers. Email supports multiple pop3 accounts and push mail from Yahoo, although I haven’t tried this as I don’t have a Yahoo account.
Safari web browsing is just in a league of its own, although it is not without its faults. There is no support for flash or real player, but it’s just so cool to have tabbed browsing on a phone. It even works well using edge although it really zooms along when connected to a wireless network.
The phone is very easy to use and moving over to O2 gives me a better signal strength at home. Contacts are easy to add and you can do all of the usual stuff like assigning ringtones to single users, etc. The phone does have vibrate as well as ring and there is a mute all hard switch on the side of the phone if you do not want any sounds.
The ipod part is cool, although not a massive requirement for me. Flicking through the albums in landscape is very cool though!
Setting up the settings is just so easy; it is really nice with the large screen. Connecting to wireless networks couldn’t be easier, the phone prompts you that there is a wireless network available and you can either join it or cancel the request.

So, in summary, I am very pleased with the iPhone all of the applications are better than I expected and the problems it does have are software rather than hardware based, this means that it should only get better in time.

Hello chaps!
I am writing this post from my m3100 phone, connected over WEP WiFi, using a jbed java emulator, running the new opera mini java app.
Just because i can ;)

FANTASTIC! This game is prolly the best I have played since Half Life 1. Seriously. By a long way.

I’m currently playing the single player levels and I am blown away. The modern warfare setting, storyline, weaponry are only a close second to the best graphics “in game” that I have ever played. I’m running in 1900×1200 and left all the settings as suggested and (with the exception of a few rare slowdowns) it performs well and is the closest to realism I have seen. The world, the explosions, the cut scenes (and their amazing transitions) and the secondary scope guis are all just fab! A partially destructive world environment gives it a realistic feel and the panoramas, landscapes and textures used for the scenery are beautiful.

I have not yet finished but I am completely hooked. I need to have a break after 5 straight hours of play.

As if all that wasn’t enough, I have just played the best level I have ever played in 10 years of gaming. You see, the best thing for me in warfare FPS games is when they let me loose with a decent sniper rifle and this level gave me everything I wanted and more. I will not spoil it for you but you follow a lead sniper and support him as you go about your snipey mission. His character animation, amazing detail and shadow/light play across this character is just jaw dropping. I kept stopping just to watch him move around and point and stuff! At one point you follow him crawling prone and you can see the tread on his boots as your heart races while you hide from the enemy. I would play it all again just to replay that level.

Anyhoo, the only downside seems to be that you cannot control the save games. It saves as you cross checkpoints but these are frequent and have not seemed to be a problem so far.

It’s not easy! I am playing on Normal, and I have died more times than care to remember. There is a lower, spastic level for those of us that struggle to play these things. And there is a hard and a shit-thats-difficult level for Jezz!

I wanted to review this game as I was SO impressed with it. I have just played 30 mins of Gears of War and it sucks by comparison. If Crysis doesnt completely change the graphics performance and playability in the full realese (the demo was cak imho), this COD4 will wipe the floor with it and will deserve to.

A big 9/10 and that’s only for the single player. There’s a whole new world in the multiplayer mode. This is gonna be a big game. And I have not even mentioned the nuke! Oh the nuke…

Actually, this is the the best game I have played. There, I have said it. Sorry Action Half-Life, you’ve been demoted!

Death at a Funeral

BritCom well worth a look at! I loved it even though it was silly, crass and all has been done before. I giggled at the fart/poop/dead jokes, of which there were loads! Good cast,  Alan Tudyk was hilariou as the drugged up pansy.

There were at least two “oh my god” moments where perhaps Ferr would die from embarrassment!

7/10 in the silly laughs department.

Available on the download!

They’re hitting them hard it seems.

“The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.”