World of WarCrap’s 9 million subscribers Rant

Just a post i posted on shacknews about Wows 9m players.

The whole 9million figure is suck a crock of crap.

Firstly there not 9m active accounts.
Secondly and speaking for myself here alot of people are sick to death of wow. You hit the level cap and can either
1) Raid (no thanks id like to half a life) or
2) PVP (ok sounds good but didnt i just do AV 10 mins ago?)

So if your a casual player which i ended up as due to hating raiding and its insane time sink and demands. 4 hours of sitting in front of your PC and falling asleep after 30mins isnt fun.

PVP is all theres left and doing 4 battlefields over and over just for the sake of a few items of gear gets tired after while so you roll a new class and rince and repeat. When i quit wow i had 7 alts (insane yes i know) and since ive tried AoC and left and now im still finding my way in WAR im taking my time and not rushing it through like i did in WoW.

I hope WAR can succeed heck even AoC but as long as they know they cant beat WoW from the start then theres hope. Id love to see Blizzard get some competion from another MMO lord knows they need it.

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=54530#itemanchor_18043455

Excellent UFO Video goes missing

A bout a year ago i had found a really great UFO video called “Most accurate Investigation into UFO’s ever” and it really went into detail about UFO’s it had Bull Aldrin the NASA Astronaught speaking about his experiences. It was the best UFO video id ever seen but it seemes this video has vanished from the net. It was on youtube its gone,i found it was on megavideo its also gone and its gone from aolvideo too.

Seems very strange to me that a video like this would just be taken off all video sites. I mean everyone knows youtube take all the good videos down but for it to vanish from at least 3 video websites is just a little weird to me. A Possable copyright infringment might be the reason but who knows really. Im hinting at some other reason really but im sure how to even write it down.

Below are the links to the now dead video if my some chance you find this post please send me a link of the video working online somewhere id love to see it again.

AOL:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/most-accurate-investigation-into-ufos-ever/355076442

youtube:
http://asasncodr.blogspot.com/2007/09/most-accurate-investigation-into-ufos.html

google search link;
http://www.google.ie/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=Most+accurate+Investigation+into+UFO%27s+ever&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Games you cant get into – Stalker:Shadow of chernobyl

Ive had this game for about a year now and ive never really gotten “into” it. Its a First person shooter PC game thats a cross between FPS and a RPG game. I find the RPG part of it a real turn off having to loot enemy corpses all the time and you die so easily its just dam frustrating. A game where you die very easily is not a game i want to play. Perhaps im playing it on a too high difficulty (2nd highest)but i just wanna throw the game out the window when i get killed.

Im looking for a new game to get “stuck into” ive got Crysis WArhead ready but i wanna “save” it fr another time to be honest. Ive got a tonne of games that missed out on over the past two years due to World of Warcraft that i wanna try and get through some of them.

The “Prequel” to Stalker is out and i cant and wotn play it till i get i finish the first one at least. “Call of Duty 4” is the only PC game im still playing regualry at the moment with some “Warhammer online” thrown in as well.

Top 5 Multiplayer PC Games

Another top something list but this time its online games.

1) Counter-Strike
My first online game and it was great fun back in the day around 2001. CS 1.6 was truly great fun and yet required skill and of course a bit of luck to play.

2) Battlefield 2
the Sequel the Dice’s Battlefield 1942 was a great online-FPS with a huge range of great maps, weapons and vechivles to choose from.

3) Call of Duty 4
This game is just great fun, its very tough when you start out and you will die a lot due to other players actually knowing what the heck there doing. This probably should be number one but only because i havnt played it as long as the other two games.

4) Team Fortress 2
Valves remake of the Half-Life mod is just awesome with its cartoony graphics great game modes and characters its great fun from start to finish.

5) Unreal Tournament
Is a game that ive never really gotten into i remember the demo of it back in 1999 i think it was great fun but ive never really gotten into the main game of it. Its the insanly fast gameplay that puts me off to be honest buts its still a great game is its own right.

Top 10 Software Programs

Following on from my “Top 10 Games” post i just want to focus on the Top 10 software programs that ive found over the years which i always use on a brand new windows install. Ive had to reinstall Windows Vista so many times in the past few months due to problems (mainly with new hardware, Vista dont seem to like you changing motherboard). Not really in any order as its wouldnt be fair.

Mailwasher Pro
The best solution to get rid of spam emails. Ive two email accounts and i keep getting more and more spam everyday. This program can detect about 99% of all spam emails. An absolutute must knowadays if you want to be able to actually read your good emails.

WinRar
Another must have program, .rar and .zip files are everywhere these days and this program is a must as it supports both.

Comodo Personal Firewall
A Free Firewall for Windows thats very good at what it does and a must have if you your PC to remain safe on the net

Avast-Anti virus
Some folks have their own choice of Anti-Virus software but ive been using this for years now since i ditched “Norton Anti-Virus”. Its free and its very very good at what it does.

Azeurus / Vuze
If you want to download any torrents these days you need a good Torrent Client and Vuze / Azeures is one of the best.

Winamp
The best Free Mp3/Media Player software out there, very versatile and very easy to use. Been using this since about forever really it supports a lot of music formats and even video now.

Daemon Tools:
For using ISO Files for any reason this Free program makes it easy. At some point on the internet you will end up with some kind of ISO File (CD/DVD Image) and this is the best solution for using them

Cute FTP:
If you run your own website this is probably the best software to upload files to your FTP site with. Its not free and bit on the expensive side but non the less its superb at what it does.

Nero-Burning ROM:
I was trying to not list commercial software but theres not getting away from the fact that Nero is best program out there for burning ISO’s, making DVD’s and just about everything else.

Getright:
An absolute must have program, this excellent download manager will make downloading files so much easier. Its feature-packed and simple to use, ive been using this since i logged on to the internet about 10 years ago.

Firefox 3 – Not so good

Im using Firefox 3 at the moment and 2 things really annoy me about it.

1) Realplayer Recorder Plugin
Not Compatable with Firefox 3 yet. Not being able to say youtube vidoes anymore really really sucks.

2) Videos dont play somes times
Dont know why this keeps happening maybe its a Flash Player problem with again its annoying. Only Fix is to restart the browser.

Im trying to find an old up-to-date version of Firefox 2 cant seem to find one. Im going back to firefox 2 i cant do with those 2 features really.

Im back to firefox 2.0.17 at the moment by only because of the “Realplayer Video Recorder Plugin”. I hope they make it compatable with Firefox 3 ASAP.

My Top 10 PC Games in Ten Years of PC gaming

I normally dont post top 10 lists but i just thought id post my Top 10 for PC Games. I recently started to play “Mass Effect” and its one of the best games ive played in a long long time.

Half-Life 2
The most anticipated game ive ever encountered. You might remember back in 2004/2004 a german hacker stole some of the HL2 source code and the game got delayed. I can say that ive never ever waited for any game as bad as Half-Life 2. The game is simply incredable a master class in what a good game is. If you manage to find this post and would like a Free Copy of Half Life 2 just comment on this post saying your name and email address, ive one free copy to give away.

Operation-Flashpoint (ColdWar Crysis):
This game look quite dated now but its another real classic game where it puts you in the role of a soldier and makes you live every minute of it. I still can remmeber 2 missions from that game that still remind me how fantastic this game is.

Mafia:
A real gem of a game that i picked up by complete “Accident” in my local PC Shop. The story in this game is amazing the cut-scenes are fantastic and its game that i really enjoyed playing from start to end.

World of Warcraft:
A game i kinda hate at the moment but none the less a fantastic and very addictive game that was my first MMORPG.

Max Payne:
The movie based on this game is coming soon and it looks like its kept the style of the game. Not many games can make Bullet-Time fun but this game’es great story and cut-scenes made it something special.

Blade-Runner:
This 1997 Westwood studios Adventure game based on the 1982 Ridley Scott Movie is another example of what makes a great game. Its living breading atmosphere and characters made it something special. I onyl wish i could get it to work on windows vista 64.

Mass Effect:
I only installed this game two days ago and even though its been out for over a year its simply incredable. The story is just awesome and your thrown right into the action and giving a ship to sort the galaxy out. Made by Bioware who know how to make great games its simply stunning. With incredable cut-scenes and voice acting and graphics its a game you wont put down until you finish it.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City/IV:
I cant decide what version of the game is the best and i dont think it would be fair to do so but GTA4 is the reason i bought an Xbox 360 and is again huge step forward in the GTA games.GTA Vice City has such a great feel and soundtrack that its probably the better one but only by a tiny factor.

The story in GTA4 is what makes it tick unlike GTA:San Andreas where the whole “Boys in the hood” story didnt do it for me. The Multiplayer is also good fun and im looking forward to the PC version in november.

Crysis:
Make no mistake that this game is total “beast” to get running on your PC. Unless youve got a good gaming setup forget playing this game it wont do it justice. The physics and graphics are out of this world in this game and story bar the ending aint half bad either.

Call of Duty:
You could say Any Call of Duty game but Cod4 wins because of its multiplayer part. I havnt finished the single player campaign yet but i love the multiplayer game. Its great fun and the stats system adds that bit of extra fun asn you unlock new weapons.

Social Networks – Videosift is up its own arse

I recently rejoined this video voting site after a 1 year break from it. I like the idea of this site you post and vote on videos you like or hate. A Video needs 10 votes to make it in the “Queue”. Its a good site to kill some bordom but unfortunetly it seems to be a place for the “elite” only.

For the past week ive been trying to get a video to the front of the “Queue” i.e a video to get 10 votes. I was posting some great music videos by irish bands all of which failed to make it. So i decide to try and post a bit of a “crazy video” and well the votes started to flood in but all of which where downvotes…

To cut a long story short the downvotes got me mad and i accused the community of being as bad as the “Eastern Europeons Blockvoting in the EuroVision” when i seen one member tell another member to downvote a video.

hmm ive lost the will to even post the rest of this as life is too short and the people on this site really need some to get out and get some fresh air. If your bored you can read the “Dull” story here;
http://www.videosift.com/talk/Siftquisition-prisonpanda

They gave me a 2 week ban which is only further proof of the “Elitist” members at that site. I paid 10 euro for 20 day “Charter Membership” upgrade wonder what happens to that.

GIGABYTE GA-MA790FX-DS5-Worst Motherboard ive encountered in 10 years of PC Upgrades

Well after 3 weeks of complete head scratching and endless frustration this motherboard is on the way back to the suppliers. It seems that even when you pay more for a product it doesnt always guaranteee quality. A motherboard twice the price of a entry level mobo.

Having tried everything i could possably think of to get the Mobo to work, posted on many forums around the net it seems its the Mobo thats at fault and not the PSU,Ram or CPU.

Having tried the Motherboard with my “old” AMD 6000 CPU the motherboard failed to power up in the exact same behaviour as before. Gigabyte Tech support have told me this now which while isnt news to me its some kinda of closure of the whole nightmare;

Dear Gerry,

Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. About the issue you mentioned, If the problem still occurs with supported CPU and with different hardware combination, then we suggest you to contact your motherboard supplier or nearest distributor and see if they help you to check your system directly to see if there’s a motherboard problem. For their contact information, please click HERE.

We are really sorry for the inconvenience you have with our product.

At last, if you still have any further question or suggestion about our products/service, please do not hesitate to contact with us. We will try our best to help you resolve the problem ASAP.

Regards,
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY

I found a rather mixed result of reviews on this motherboard which i never researched when purchasing i just assumed well it supports AM2+ (AMD New CPU sockets) and it will work fine. Lesson learned there let me tell you.

The newegg.com has such a mix of reviews from folks that bought this board some with the exact same problem i have i.e a D.O.A Mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813128074

PC Upgrade Hell- Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 And AMD Phenom 9850 Black Editon

Almost 2 weeks after getting a new motherboard and CPU which have left me in the red money wise, i still havnt got the bloody motherboard to work with a “Proper” decent power supply.

I had thought for some strange unknown reason that when i build my new PC and nothing powered up when i turned it on that the motherboard was dead and the CPU dead too. Then i wracked my brains and took everything out and finnaly tried out to see if it was the power supply which i paid a small fortune for back in march the “Corsair HX 620watt”. Anyway i put in an old “dodgy” Jeantech 420 watt PSU to see if was the power supply. By some unknown miracle the bloody thing decided to boot up.

And its been running for about 2 weeks now although its not as stable as the previous set up i had.

So today i went back to basics and took the whole fracking lot apart again and put in the PSU “Corsair Hx 620”. And nothing the PC wouldnt boot, took everything out the 4 ram DIMMs,graphics card discoonected fans etc. Tried the 4pin 12V slot on the motherboard, tried the 8 pin slot and nothing. The motherboard just wont power up with the 2 600watt powersupplies i have. For some unknown reason it will with the oldish 420 watt power supply i have.

Ive no idea what to do, to make matters worse i paid a lot for the motherboard and it doesnt list the CPU “AMD Phenom 9850 Black Editon” as a support CPU even though the mother board supports AM2+ CPU’s. Ive the latest BIOS installed and nothing.

I had the expensive Power Supply ready to return as an RMA but the after trying out the PSU on a old PC it works so ive no idea what to do now.