New levels of annoyance

Ah yes, and then there's the nostalgia that you wish you didn't remember.
I hooked up my old pc and finally managed to map a network drive to it, so that I could copy some old files, images and other nonsense over to my current PC.

Among which some WoW screenshots from way back when my rogue was still lvl 60 :)
More on that later.

I also found an interesting file called "Revenant crack.zip", which was apparently all that I needed to get the 2 Iso files for the game running.

The game... wait... let me rephrase that.
The Bugged, unpatched (1.22 actually, but still bugged to hell and back), poorly maintained, frustrating, not worth spending a dollar on, piece of shit that eidos interactive DARED release and ignore, (I don't see how this company can still possibly exist if they produce shit like this!) "game" called Revenant...
It's been version 1.22 for the last decade or so, yet they never bothered to fix some substantial bugs like black textures under certain video cards, game freezing when talking to a shop owner, game locking up if you defeat the dojo master, and a horrible death, load, save system...

Anyhow, let's look at how old this game really is.


Minimum Specifications:

# Pentium 233 Processor or Equivalent
# Windows 95/98
# 32 MB RAM
# 400 MB Uncompressed HD Space
# DirectX 6.1 or higher (included)
# 8X CD-ROM
# 100% DirectX 6.1 or higher compliant 8 MB Video Card
# 100% DirectX 6.1 or higher compliant Sound Card
# Keyboard and Mouse

Right, P233 processor or higher.

No problem there.
Even though I did have to modify the ini file to disable hardware rendering and a bunch of other stuff to even get it loading.


"Way back when", and that would be around 7, maybe 8 years ago I rented this game from the local library, installed it and played it for about two days.
At the time it was one of the first "3D" rpgs to come out somewhere after Diablo, and before world of Warcraft was even talked about. It was decent enough in terms of gameplay, it looked nice, it had potential. And... It had bugs.
I gave up on the game out of sheer frustration somewhere halfway through the second day because a same game got corrupted somehow, and the last "other" save game was where I had just gotten myself locked in at the dojo master. (whatever you do, do NOT kill him or the dummy, the game will get stuck in an endless loop) Basically, I'd have had to go back and start pretty much all over to 8 hours of gametime back. Which in terms of this game would be 4 hours of progress and 4 hours of loading and saving because of bugs where the game freezes or crashes.


A simple word of advice. Do not ever play this game.
While it may seem a decent distraction, you'll wish for those hours of your life back and curse Eidos to die in a fire. Bloody idiots can't do shit right.

I mean, these are the uninspired guys that made the Tomb Raider game series.
How much more proof do you need?

At any rate... Finding said .zip file on my old pc I figured I'd give the game a try and see what it was like. Oh woe is me.

Started the game, talked to some npcs, got out of town.
Get frustrated at the shop owners for having the memory of a gold fish and constantly giving you their LONG welcome AND goodbye speech.
Get even more frustrated the first time the game freezes upon talking to one of said shop owners.
Get even more frustrated when you find out your latest save game was half an hour ago.
Threaten to bring down a fiery meteor onto Eidos headquarters when you find out (belatedly) that dying to some damn monster that hits you for 200% of your health and thus kills you does not mean you can run back to your corpse, but you have to actually go back to another one of those save games which you made 15 minutes ago, or longer.
Yes I know everyone was "used to that" back in the days, but in a game like this, it REALLY adds up to the frustration.

After spending another half an hour of running around, exploring, and slowly gaining xp, it's time to dig out the walkthough because the directions in this game are poor as hell. You'll end up running in circles (thank god for the run button, at least they thought of that) and going nowhere. Encounter monsters you should not even try to get near, curse at the poor equiqment, curse at the silly small resolution (for most old games it's a charm, but here it's a limitation), and curse as you get two shot by a dragon and have to go back to yet another 15 min belated save game.


Finally, after another shop owner freeze or two (at this point I was saving every time I even tried to enter a shop) finally give up and rant about this piece of shit of a game on a blog and wonder what sort of morons Eidos Interactive ever hired as programmers and testing department.

If you simply resurrected in town on death (would make sense too) it'd be much less punishing for not saving often enough. And if they could at least have tested their own game and fixed the retardedly common freeze bugs, it'd at least be playable.

But no. Seriously, What the fuck.
Total waste of time.


Screenshot source: Activewin reviews.
They must not have played many good games, because they gave it a 82% in their own review. Huh, what? Makes you wonder how long they actually spent on playing that piss of a game, or whether they simply received the screenshots from Eidos with a bag of money and got told to write a smooth review.

More stuff dead

With LK being dead on 25 man (for our guild that is), we went and killed Marrowgar, gunship (hard not to really...), festergut and rotface (of which festergut was a decent challenge), lady deathwhisper (-2 seconds on enrage timer kills ftw!), and not least of all variwhatsit dreamwalker got healed up. (They should really give these dragons easier names...)

Heroic difficulties are giving everyone better loot, more dps, more healing, and in a few weeks we'll be cursing at people for not moving out of fire/shadow or other circles again. Still, it's just the same fights again, but with a twist.

We also went back and finished off Ulduar and poked Algalon in 3 or so tries. I'm sure he was difficult before, but with ICC gear... Everything is easier ;)


Speaking of Mounts

This, thing will cost you 25$ in the blizzard store. It caused SUCH a silly riot. Here, look at the QQ and laugh. It's sad people, that you can get so worked up over pixels. It doesn't make you a better player, doesn't make you hit others harder in pvp, it's not 310% speed by itself, and it's fucking ugly. What's the big deal?

If you're so eager to play with a flying horse, then Nerf Now has a good tip for you. Go play Robo unicorn.

So, until Blizzard sells gold, or actual epic items that you can use on your twink or raider... Guess where you stand.


Cataclysm

The class previews have been posted, and you can find most on MMOC or WoR somewhere.
For here, I'll link to the Rogue one.

We get: Redirect (level 81), Combat Readiness (level 83), Smoke Bomb (level 85)

Redirect basically gives us back an ability which we already had way back in Molten Core and was taken away from us at some point before TBC. Indeed, we get to "transfer any active combo points to the rogue's current target". Pretty lame indeed.

On a good note, "self-buff abilities like Slice and Dice will no longer require a target". Which, is also something we already had way back in Molten core.

Combat Readiness is some junk you'll mostly use in PvP. As it only gives you 10% (stacking up to 5x) damage reduction when you're hit. Something you'll generally wish to avoid in PvE, as most stuff hits you for 80-300% of your health pool. Best of all, it's got a 2 minute cooldown.

On a side note, Cloak of Evasion will become a 100% effect, instead of the 90% it is now.

Smoke Bomb and the mage's Wall of Smoke are the "slightly more interesting" abilities which we'll have access to. It basically puts you out of line of sight for most effects. Meaning enemy NPCs will have to move closer and start to melee you. AoE spells are unaffected, so don't get too sure of yourself on boss fights. You will still need to move out of that fire!

Some further changes "may" include the ability to poison our ranged throwing weapon. Sadly it'll also mean that abilities like Fan of Knives will use the ranged weapon. Thus no more dual poison application by spamming Fok...

Ambush will also be available for sword, axe and fist using rogues. Though with a slightly reduced % of effect.

Blizzard is also planning to provide us with a new low-level ability called Recuperate, which would be able to convert combo points into a small heal-over-time. Should be nice for solo grinding.


ps: Warriors are getting Heroic Leap from Diablo 2. A lot of the recent ideas seem to be coming from there. Titan grip anyone?


Other stuff

Winamp has had this annoying bug for at least three years now, where it loses it's "always on top" property after going alt-tab from WoW or other games. If you know any data that may help the Winamp Devs find a solution, by all means drop by on their forums and tell them how to do it.


Older ideas revisited

I've been playing with the idea to make a sort of link/bookmark database which would be available to the whole world to see. Yet I can't quite find the necessary click in my head yet to get it actually rolling.

Here's a few rough lines.
* Primarily it'd be for linking and sharing comics much like the Belfry has, but with a far superior interface. And, it'd allow comic owners to claim their link and adjust the description.
* It'd have a link rating, sharing, "you'd like this" and personal link lists much like AnimePlanet has. You'd be able to keep a personal list of comics you've read and enjoyed, and show this list to others.
* You'd be able to import/export your personal list to third party sites like FoxMarks, or simply bookmarks.
* It'd combine any RSS feed a comic may have to give an up-to-date overview of new comics to read. Would make for a good list on the front page. Adjustable to include/exclude your favorites.
* As a second phase, it could implement and expand to linking games like Armor games, NewGrounds and many more.

Since it'd mostly just be links, walkthroughs and reviews the hosting space should be able to remain fairly small. Though I'd want 3-4 preview images of each comic/game linked much like anime planet does.


Now, the problems....

* Hosting, what's cheap, how much would you need initially, and how easily could you upgrade if it proves to be needed?
* Advertising, how would you get a site like that running once it's finished?
* PHP, ASP, or, other languages. I'd guess PHP as it's pretty common, but I've let myself be told that sites like youtube and google are currently working with Html 4.0
* Apache, or no apache? Is there even a choice other than apache?
* What database to use? Firebird seems a good (free) choice, but does that even work online?
* User login, editing, submissions of new content, admins to keep everything running, capthas to stop bots, etc.
* I've worked with C, C++, Java, Delphi, some Cocoa, some Html and even CSS. But, my SQL and PHP skills are,,.. well, let's just say they're not quite up on par with the ideas I'd like to implement.
* Finance! Setting stuff up big requires money. Start too small, and you won't get anywhere. Start too big, and you lose the money if it fails. Investors will want to see results, and time is always a pressing issue.

So, ideas aplenty as always, but time and the know-how. Yeah... That'll take a while.


Fun stuff

It's a MF SHAAAARK!
Go kill stuff dead!

And, BvS is still awesome, and now has an actual and proper Chinese Mahjong mini-game implemented. That stuff is hard! You'll also have a hard time catching up on me though. Currently I'm season 24 :P

There's a free trial version available of Cortex Command. Be sure to check it out. It's a kind of worms / tankx clone. Just way more awesome.

Lich king, and on old games

Booyah! He's dead!
But, lives on in... nah, he's dead as can be.
Took a while, but totally worth it.
Onward to hard modes next.


And now, on another note

You know, I HAVE played other games ya know?
Back before "internet" wasn't Adsl with no limit to bandwidth. Back before dialup even. Back before that whole "MMO" thing came along and claims a part of your soul and keeps it forever.

Who needs to play outside, when you got a computer, right?
Just remember, you can "see other games", even while you've got a subscription to one. It's not like you're married to it. (And even then, /wink)
Recently I've picked up Torchlight. Which turns out to be quite an interesting game. It's much like Diablo but with a vast array of improvements. Go Check it out sometime. You can get it through Steam if you got that. Just use the search function and download the free demo. Yes I said FREE, no strings attached.


Annoyances

You know what annoys me?
Game producers raping a completely fine game and making it "balanced". Or adding features that nobody is waiting for.

Settlers.
It used to be an awesome game. Simple, but amazing.

Back when it was simply "settlers", and not with a 2,3,4,5,6 or 7 attached to the end it was all down to earth. Build stuff, gather resources, send your guys somewhere, build more stuff, conquer the world.

At some point, around settlers 4 or 5... dunno. I lost count after 3 or 4... They decided to make your Minions have needs. NEEDS?! What on earth? I rather liked the game the way it was thank you very much. Why do I suddenly need to keep restrictions in mind? Settlers 6 was awful. It looked fine, but as half the world has been shouting out for ages: Gameplay is more important than graphics.

Settlers 6 is just shit and 7 looks to be more of the same.
You make a woodcutter, who gets hungry. You make a hunter who gets meat, who also gets hungry. You make a butcher and a fisher, who get "food" so everyone is no longer hungry.

Fine so far, right?
No, wrong.
Next they want clothes to wear, water for bathing, soap and brooms for cleaning, and the list goes on. And every house you make has another settler that wants more of the same.
Gone are the days of having 100 farms all farming grain to feed your soldiers. Alas. Settlers has turned into the fucking SIMS... If I wanted to play that (And I most certainly Do NOT) I'd have sent my money to EA. (Who deserve to be paid in lead instead)

They ruined a perfectly good game.


Old things

I'll share some of my childhood with ya. In case you care.
And even if you don't, you'll still read this anyhow right?

I've played Settlers 1 for hours and ages, left my computer on for days so they could continue their building overnight. Resources stockpiling as my hundred farms all had miles and miles worth of grain. Woodcutters and planters, mills and bakeries, gold, coal and iron mines. And it was good!

Settlers 2 came along. It was good as well, though it lacked the "2 players on one computer" option that settlers 1 had.

Yes you can install settlers 1 on the PC still, but it doesn't support 2 mice. Seriously, don't get me started on what a ridiculous throwback in technology the "new" pcs were over some of the later commodore models. Both graphically, sound, and OS wise. I tenfold pity and curse the retard who came up with the idea that PCs were the better machine to use. However the fuck that happened.

My commodore was doing THIS (plenty of vids below), while your PC was doing BLEEP, and painting monochrome graphics in a 16 color DOS. While I had stereo, awesome vga, and an OS that some might describe as a predecessor of Windows 3.11. Stick that up your arse Bill Gates. Heck, even Apple had a GUI before most PCs did.



Some Grand names from the past: (May they be remembered forever)
* Team 17 - which is still active today, and the creator of a game many will know. Worms. Alien breed, if you don't know it, shame on you.
* Bitmap brothers - Made the chaos engine, Xenon, gods and many more. Now eaten by evil overlord EA.
* Rainbow arts - Responsible for Turrican 1 and Two, logical, rock 'n roll (And I do not mean those stupid snakes on the Super nes) and many more. Now "eaten" by EA as well.
* Psygnosis / DMA Design - Lemmings, Lemmings, Lemmings!, LeMMings!!, LEMMINGS!!!! (You get the idea now right?), Hired guns. DMA Design is now Rockstar north, yes those guys who made Grand Theft Auto (aka. GTA). this tune seem familiar? There was a vid out there with the HR Intro music that showed the awesome screen where the game detected "extended" memory worth 358 KB, and it was using that for improved sound. Classic.

Also, for some reason I've had this odd tune in my head for years thinking it was some fiddle from a megaman 5 level or such. Turns it it wasn't. What song? Wolfchild. Track 7.
Silly me. Though technically it's possible It was megaman 5... perhaps the megaman designers snitched it from the above game. But, I can't seem to find the actual track in any of the megaman soundtracks that matches it.

Also, if you've never played Moonstone, like ever, then seriously dude, you missed out on the most bloody game ever made before Mortal Kombat. And THAT one caused a riot like no other. I'll tell you this, the game had atmosphere. Playing it at 11 PM at night, the few hours befor mightnight on new year's eve. It sticks with you forever.

Ever heard of Monkey Island? Sure you have! It all started way back when, along with king's quest, Leisure suit larry, and so many others like it. Monkey island was the master above them all. (Though opinions may vary) It had comedy, it had violence, it had innuendo, swordfighting. It even had undead! Not to mention a three headed monkey!

There were more games of course, I could go on for hours (and have, by now in writing this), but I need to press that "Publish post" button sometime so you lot don't think I've been hit by a truck or anything silly like that.

Look em up, youtube, google, whatever.
* Lotus challenge II+III
* Super Cars
* Super frog
* Swiv
* Speedball
* Dogs of war.
* Spin dizzy
* Lemmings!!! those poor little creatures, i have murdered so many.
* Theme Park, even with all it's bugs.
* Syndicate
* Cannon Fodder
* Alien Breed

Undoubtedly I've forgotten a few of the other rare gems.
They don't make games like they used to :/


Honorable mention, Fairlight. While not a game, is a very memorable group for various cracks and demos. Look on youtube for 64KB demos by fairlight. Yeah, that whole thing is under 64KB. How's that for compression and coding eh? No silly libraries and DLLs that cause a giant overhead. Just pure awesome writing.

This one's nice too. But not fairlight. :P


Disclaimer:
* Historical accuracy may vary based on perspective. So, don't come crying to me about your pc having been better than the junk I got saddled up with back then.