Have an Explosive 4th...
(12:15 AM 7/4/98) In some bizzare country called the United States of America the 4th of July is celibrated as Independence Day... Seeing as the people who run this bizzare web page live in said country, they will probably be celibrating in some fashion, or another.

Actually... We do have quite a few things in the works... Since it is said weekend, I doubt I'll see any game news to speak of, so maybe this will give us some time to work on other projects. I'll be working on some HTML for the reviews page, and the graphics for it. Fuse! will be working on those reviews that he has been promising for awhile now... There are two new things here to review as well... A Creative Labs PCI64 Soundcard, and Final Fantasy VII... Fuse! and I played Rock/Paper/Scissors and I won, so he bought it. I'm not sure who is going to be reviewing what just yet... I guess you'll eventually find out.

Chuck and I have both been feeling fairly opinionated about things, and since we don't quite get the hate mail Fuse! does we'll probably both be typing up some highly opinionated articles shortly. On a different note, I've finally gotten to see Banjo Kazooie, and honestly, I've not been in this much awe of a video game since Mario64. What Rare has done is simply amazing, to say the least. I think that is it for now. Have a nice weekend, enjoy the holiday (Playing video games is a great way to spend a day off.) Have an Amber Bock and hit the refresh button often when you visit the page... -Noxious?

Is AGP a DOWNgrade?
(12:28 PM 7/3/98) Think your PCI video card is a little long in tooth? Think what you need is one of those spiff-o new AGP cards, and the Pentium II to go with it? You just might be wrong. Check out Tom's Hardware Guide article Does AGP Really Improve Performance? by Bert McComas.

In other AGP vs. PCI news, I've been looking over a lot of video benchmark statistics while working on the Vs. piece, and I've got only one thing to say... My Pentium MMX isn't dead and gone yet, and it is not even close to being out of the race... Probably won't win, but it is still qualifying. -Noxious?

Pyro's Commandos...
(12:25 PM 7/2/98) Today Pryo Studios has released some new screenshots for its game Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. Set in the WWII time period, Commandos is a RTS game where you have 6 characters. Each character with their own special abilities, piloting, driving, etc. The game is going to feature tactics and strategy over firepower. The graphics are nice to look at, being "drawn" not rendered. System requirements are rather low, (Pentium 120, 16mb RAM, 1mb Video Card) so it should play nicely on most sytems.

Found this screenshots on the Commandos site... Here is just one example, they have more at their site.

There is also a 14mb demo available for download if you want to try it out. I'll be playing with it later. -Noxious?

Gore, it's the name of the game.
(6:17 PM 7/1/98) A new programming team by the name of 4D Rulers (lame, huh?) has been working on a game called Gore, as some of you may have heard by now. It's Yet Another 1st Person Shooter, with a unique twist (yawn). It's got blood and Gore.

Supposely, the unique Gore comes from the fact that enemies will limp and stagger from injuries, and wounded skins will show where damage has taken place. They say this will be a first of a kind, so it's obvious they've never played 007: Golden Eye.

I got these screenshots at 4drulers' web site and the words "stupid looking" come to mind.

There are more where this came from, go see for yourself, or better yet... Don't. (Besides, the site is really slow, and there just isn't much to look at. Honest.)

-Fuse!

Banjo Kazooie & 98!
(2:49 PM 7/1/98) Well, I bought Windows 98 and Plus! 98 so I'll probably be installing those soon. I also bought Banjo and Kazooie for the N64 today (I couldn't find Anal Fantasy 7) and have been playing that non-stop since I slapped it into the Nintendo 64. Nevermind specifics, I'll mention those in the review, but let me just say that this game has been loads of fun so far!

If you don't hear from me in a few days, it's because either my PC is FUBAR or this game won't let me put the controller down. This game is VERY COOL!

I've put aside the review of Unreal I've been doing because this game is just THAT GOOD! Though, the review for Unreal is almost finished, and after work tonight, I will post both a review of Banjo Kazooie and Unreal.

After that, I'll proceed to torture my system with Windows 98.

-Fuse!

Starcraft Chat...
(12:25 PM 7/1/98) Today Blizzard announced that ZDNet will be hosting a Starcraft chat on Thursday, July 1st. Um, Today is Wednesday, July 1st... ZDNet on the other hand is saying the chat will be tonight at 8:00pm ET... You'll need to go HERE if you want to participate. Guess those guys at Blizzard are working so hard on Diablo II they don't know what day it is. Well, I guess I'll tell them to have a nice 4th of July on Sunday... -Noxious?

Fuse on Final Fantasy Fnord
(10:35 AM 7/1/98) I just checked out the FF7 Demo that Noxious admited to liking. As rare as it is that I dislike something that he likes, I must say, I'm rather annoyed. I remember Final Fantasy being the game that people with no motor skills played because they could cope with Turn Based RPGs better. Nevermind that the character's positions (still) don't matter (there goes any strategic value) but the animations look like they SHOULD be in 2-D (as simple as they are) even though they are in 3-D. That's not the last of my gripes, either. It seems that so much attention was given to the graphics, that the sound effects were completely overlooked, and instead of actually scoring new sounds, they just used sounds from an older SNES version. In fact... that's EXACTLY what it sounds like... hmmmmm. Oh well. I won't be affraid to say that I think FF7 will suck. It'll probably be a mega-hit, but that doesn't take away from it's potential suck value. Noxious didn't want to like it, but he seems to. A full review will be posted soon since one of us are sure to purchase the full version... . . . I just hope it doesn't have to be me.

(PS- Yes, I knew how to play it. Now, give it controls that were a cross between Secret of Mana and Vitua Fighter II, and that would've been pretty cool, but then, it's target audience wouldn't be able to figure it out, now would they?)

-Fuse!

Still Unfinished...
(9:55 AM 7/1/98) I usually check on Unreal daily, but I found this information on Costello's Site first. What is it already? Oh, another update to the Unreal Bug and Patches Page. The beta patch they promised to fix some/most of the problems with intenet play has been released. They have updated that page from just being text, to something that almost looks pretty. The option for coop savegames looks like it will be cool if they implement it... For a list of what the v209 Public Beta fixes, and to download it, click HERE -Noxious?

Big 'ol lump o' News...
(7:00 PM 6/30/98) Okay, Deep Breath... On OGR you'll see that I'm not making any of this up... Midway has released the 4th installment of Mortal Kombat for the PC. You now get to fight in 3D arenas, but I've got no clue as to what it requires... Not even the Midway site says. Aztech New Media has some how gotten the rights to make a Dark Reign add on. Last of all, OGR has a review of Gravis's Xterminator gamepad, and some war game...

If you drop by Blizzard you'll see a new version of the StarEdit FAQ.

Eidos say that Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 is in stores right this minute. It is another RTS game which is supposed to do everything all the others don't... So, I guess it DOES slice cheese. Woohoo! I needed a cheese cutter. Actually, its claims are rather high, but what can you expect from hype?

That is it for now... I think I'm going to go play some games... -Noxious?

Demo playin' Fool...
(6:42 PM 6/30/98) Lately I've downloaded a lot of demos and played most of them. Some good some bad... Want to hear about them? No? Too bad. Note that the title links take you somewhere to download these demos.

Descent: Freespace - Not my type of game. I don't get into sims much, real or sci-fi. Looks nice and plays well, though. Make sure you get the D3D patch.

Final Fantasy VII - I have to admit, I like it. I didn't want to, too much hype. I have this thing about hating something that gets too much hype. It took me awhile to figure it out, but after playing it for a bit I started having fun. I'll have to buy it after they get all the problems worked out with other cards. Hey, just waiting till its finished.

KKnD 2 - I've got the demo, won't play on my system because it says it needs DirectPlay v5.1 or something. I've yet to feel the need to go looking for it. Anyone out there think it is worth the trouble?

RoboRumble - Pretty, but its not the most user friendly game out there is it now? The drawn graphics clash with the rendered game. The rendered game is pretty though, and plays nicely on my system, even with everything I usually have on my system running, running.

Starcraft - If your a fan of the old Warcraft games you'll love this. Its got great pre-rendered graphics, and has everything you loved about Warcraft. My problem is, that it also has what I hate about Warcraft. I've been spoiled by Total Annihilation. I like the unit settings in TA (Hold Position/Roam/Maneuver and Hold Fire/Return Fire/Fire at Will), and the fact that you click on the unit, click on the place on the map or target and the unit goes there, and if there is a target, it attacks. Not to mention fast aircraft, radar, sonar, tanks, ships, D-Gun...

Xenocrazy - I've got it. I need to extract it and play it, but from what I hear its a lot like Descent: Freespace. Oh well. -Noxious?

FF7 on Rendition, Soon to come to your Riva?
(11:55 AM 6/30/98) Well, Fuse! sent me over to Björn's 3D World to look at something, and low and behold, there was a FF7 patch to run the FF7 Demo on a Rendition V2x00 card. I don't know if this works for the V1000 cards. Look at all the pretty colors... I guess I should read the text file and figure out how to play. Hate it when I can't figure a game out automaticly.

Björn also has a ton of other news there, covering everything from people who already hate Sega's next console, to the fact that WinAmp 1.92 is out. I'll have to get that one. So, why not give his site a visit?

Also, I browsed around the Riva sites and found that nVidia will be making an annoucment later this week about support for FF7. Found that bit of news on The Riva Zone. -Noxious?

Ask Chuck!
(8:05 PM 6/29/98) I just put up the Ask Chuck Form. Go use it. -Fuse!

M.A.X. 2 O.U.T.
(6/29/98 - 6:50pm) Various sources tell me that Interplay's M.A.X. 2 is now in stores. M.A.X. 2 is a real time strategy game, with more periods in its name than most paragraphs. You can take the 31mb Beta test drive HERE. -Noxious?

FF7 on the PC?
(6/29/98 - 6:40pm) Okay, just read this over at The Adrenaline Vault on how to run FF7 on the PC.

Decent Chipsets Supported: i740 (Intel), Permedia2 (3DLabs), and Rage Pro (ATI).

Decent Chipsets Not Supported: Matrox G200, Power VR Extreme (even though the logo is on the game box), Rendition V2x00, RIVA 128 or ZX. (Generally, I wouldn't include the PowerVR since it is a 3D only chipset, but I liked the bit about the logo on the FF7 box.)

See, you can run this on some machines... Right? Oh. You'll also want to have the latest drivers. Which should be on the FF7 CD. Now is everything cool? Everything set to go? No? You'll also need DirectX 5.1 and DirectMedia 5.2... With those both installed you should be able to run it on any card with software rendering. What about us who already have DirectX 5.2? Oh well. Glad I'm not in charge of that mess. If you want to read the whole story check it out HERE. -Noxious?

News for Hardware Junkies
(6/29/98 - 6:30pm) Intel's new Pentium II Xeon processor debuted today. This probably has little to do with gaming due to the fact that these Slot 2 processors are ment to replace the Pentium Pro chips in Intel based servers. Want some stats? 400mhz, 1mb L2 cache that runs at the processor speed. These will cost you the price of a new Pentium II 400 system, for just the processor. If you want to hear Intel brag, on and on about how great they are, click HERE. -Noxious?

Squaresoft hates us, Really...
(6/29/98 - 12:30pm) One of the people who often visits us (and agrees with us... I must admit he has a very cool attitude...) decided to send Squaresoft a friendly letter vocalizing his complaint about Final Fantasy VII, in reference to its lack of support for any graphics card besides 3Dfx. Here is the wonderful reply....

Greetings,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding Final Fantasy VII PC version. Final Fantasy VII does not support Direct3D acceleration for the RIVA 128 or RIVA 128ZX chipsets. Since the RIVA chipsets do not directly support 8-bit palletized textures, which the game requires, nVidia Corporation has been working on a solution. Up to now, however, nVidia has not been able to provide an adequate fix. For the past several months, Square Soft has been working closely with nVidia (along with all of the other major 3D chip companies) to ensure that its chipsets are supported by the game. We expect some positive word soon from nVidia that a solution has been developed that will give RIVA chipset owners the opportunity to experience the incredible 3D accelerated graphics of Final Fantasy VII.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Square Soft, Inc.

Nice automated response. Blackdog doesn't even own a Riva card. As far as I can see, options are limited. We could boycott Squaresoft till they can fix our, no, THEIR problem. We can just break, give up and give in and buy a... a... Sony Playstation and play the game on the system it was designed for. I like the boycott idea myself. Many thanks to Blackdog for the mail. -Noxious?

Mondays...
(6/29/98 - 12:00pm) Even though it does not appear that we've done a thing to this space since Saturday, Sunday didn't go without us working on this web page. It just wasn't as visible. I set up an old news page and folder, and Fuse! is hard at work on a CGI script for an Ask Chuck! page. He was giggled like a maniac a whole lot while doing it too. We also discussed ideas for the page, kept some, tossed a few, and burned the notes.. You'll see the results in the future, if you visit... -Noxious?

Unfinished.
(6/27/98 - 9:45am) Well the game I refered to as Unmade (and probably still should), but is called by its creators Unreal, has had an update to its Bug & Patches Page. The multiplayer fix is nearing completion, and should be released as a public beta in a couple of days. The OpenGL version is working on some cards, but they are working on performance issues now. Probably 2 weeks before a public beta... Sooo, about 2 weeks before I buy the game? Sounds like it will be a lot closer to finished then. Also, there is a new Cyrix patch so the game will work on those systems, and they think you overclocking K6 owners should down clock your CPU from a 100mhz FSB to the standard 66mhz FSB so the game won't crash. Thats it for now, have a great Saturday... -Noxious?

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