Finally: A computer!

After a more than a week I finally got my upgrade. It's just hard with these retailers in Romania. Not as I expected to find (A64 3500+ and Leadtek 6800GS) but A64 3200+ and PixelView 6800GT.

With only 512MB of RAM (now I'm broke, so next month I'll have a memory upgrade) and with default mainboard and video drivers (77.77) got something over 2270 points in 3DMark06, which is definitely good.

I got some pictures of the process and I'll post them in this blog later.

Update:
With 81.89 nvidia video drivers and latest mobo drivers it got something over 2310 points easily. After a light 5% overclocking (processor/memory/video board) it scored in 3DMark06 over 2440 points. It has some OC potential.

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

So I've been playing this game for about a week or so. It's a cool mix between hack&slash RPG (Diablo style) and comix. It's a little addictive (I must admit). So let's get down with the pros and cons of this game:




Pros:

• Lots of characters to play with, right from the beginning (X-Men party and Brotherhood) + 3 unlock-able characters
• Characters have each lots of upgradable super-powers (at the higher levels, are very powerful and very cool to watch)
• Engaging story (yes, it's the old: the bad-guys are almost winning, do your best and save the world kind of stereotype, and the missions are all like: get that and put it there/go there and destroy that, that and that... with little variation of course). Even if stereotype, it's kind of interesting to see where would the plot go
• Nice comix like graphics, cool explosions and spell-effects (aka super-powers), very-very-good voice-acting, highly destructible environments, very cool animations, characters and villains. Bosses are well designed, though, some of them are a little disappointing (at least for me). The level design is very good and somehow varied (it's nicely themed but varied)
• AI of your party is satisfying. Auto-healing is cool. Temperament selections for your party-characters is also a good thing. Auto-spell and auto-equipment management are very good if you don't really want to waste your game tuning your characters
• All the characters evolve over time even if you don't play with them. A cool feature because you don't have to play some fixed party to optimize your experience points...
• Extra-content: artwork, original comix drawings, training sessions & exams, etc.
  

Cons:

• Right from the beginning, the controls seem dumb. KP4 and KP6 are your main attack buttons and W, A, S, D for movement. Special powers are stupid combinations of KP5 and KP4, KP6, E and [Space]. I mean, how do you come with these controls? Accessing some other power? No problem: B + 1, 2...0. Simple as that! :( There are also combos: KP4-KP6-KP4 combinations, but it's very hard to do one if you press them too rapidly or too slow. You need something like 500ms delay between pressing each key (and hold that for about 200ms). It's stupid!
• The stash, upgrades and buy/sell screen and party-management parts suffer from lots of control bugs! A mouse click doesn't always select that particular option, a up/down key could move the cursor way past the desired option, sometimes keys don't seem to work at all... Dumb-dumb-dumb!
• In good-old-Diablo-hack'n'slash-classic-RPG style, you have tons of enemies to kill and doesn't seem like you're really evolving, because of this stupid system: enemies evolve and give more experience points when you kill them, but no worry, because you need more-and-more experience points to advance your level. So, you'll always have the same fights, because of the constant distance the computer sets between your party and your opponents
• The camera sits in a high position to better catch your party smashing enemy's forces. But sometimes it's pretty annoying hiding your active member from your view behind a wall or something. It's true, that when your party approaches a certain obstacle, that particular object becomes transparent (and you don't always realize why your character takes a particular trajectory apart from a straight line :) )
• Breaking different objects throughout the level will sometimes reward you with money or objects that you can wear or sell. But it doesn't seem to follow any design pattern and always come in great-great numbers, so you can successfully fill your time with'em

It's a good title and if you like comix it will get you. It is well designed, beautiful graphics and a little flashy, lots of characters and things to do and let's not forget: addictive game mechanics. It's definitely worth a 9.

Gamespot X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse review.

Buying a new computer...

Once every 2 years I upgrade my computer...

I started in 1996 with a Cyrix 486DX4/100MHz (remember those days - Cyrix was bought by VIA and now creates low power processors like C3). It was a good machine back then: 4MB RAM, Chips & Tech 1MB SVGA Video Board, a Seagate 540MB HardDrive, a KTeck/Ruffles(?) 14" SVGA Monitor (good old 800x600@60Hz and 1024x768@43Hz interlaced). I remember the motherboard had a respectable VL-BUS architecture, good for those days.
After about a year, I bought 4 more MB RAM, a OPTi SoundBlaster Pro compatible soundcard and a pair of active speakers that totaled about 7W.

In 1998, with the help of a friend of mine, got a Pentium Pro 200MHz, 32 MB RAM, a 4 MB ATI Mach64 (just temporarily) - a S3 Virge 2 MB VRAM. The speed increase was phenomenal! About 4x. It was on PCI architecture, a better videoboard. Cool! Also I've managed to replace the 540MB Seagate with a 1GB Fujitsu harddrive (way more capacity). Also by then I had purchased my first CD-Rom drive: 16x Funai.

In 2000 I had purchased an AMD 400MHz K6-2 processor, with a ACorp motherboard with the new AGP stuff :) in it. From the first day, I've kept that CPU overclocked at 450MHz (I just could not set it at 500MHz with that board...). The CPU remains as cool as ever with just a simple cooler... (these days, you have to have a real fridge glued to the CPU just to keep it at~40C). From a friend of mine I've upgraded my videoboard from a S3 Virge 2 MB to a AGP S3 Trio 3D with 4MB VRAM. I've also upgraded my RAM to 64MB Kingmax (slick memory those days). More memory was about to come to my computer a year later - another 128MB Infineon memory bar (Infineon was just as cool!) The hard drive couldn't last for long, so I've bought a 20GB Quantum LS drive (big mistake, because those drives had not 5400RPM but 4400RPM... and they've recently been introduced it... so with the element of surprise and a tiny bit cheaper, I've managed to screw this up). With the help of a friend, I exchanged the Quantum drive with a cooler 20GB Seagate Baracuda drive (way cool! 7200RPM and very quiet). An Aureal 1 sound board plus a pair of Phillips 50W speakers completed the system.

I don't know if you still remember, but my first monitor had been purchased was back in 1996, so, 6 years with the same old 14", was awful. In 2002, I've got myself a 17" DynaFlat Samsung 757DFX (way better than the "exploding bubble" that the old one was).
I was working on a project (a serious Java based Web application) and it really needed more RAM. So I've got another 256MB SDR, but when I've put it in there, the motherboard spelled 512MB and frozed. So no more joking around, I had to buy a computer to fit my memory... so I've got a 1200MHz Duron processor with a motherboard that could flip-the-chip and deal with DDR memory too. My 386MB SDR memory got upgraded a year later when I've sold them to a friend and bought a 256 MB Corsair memory. A merely month later, the price of the memory almost doubled (some trouble with an earthquake in Taiwan) and I've only got a 256 MB Samsung memory bar. So, with a new system, a 40GB WesternDigital drive would fit very well.

In 2003 I've won with a friend of mine second place in an software educational contest, so I've well spent my share on a 52x LG CD-RW (putting a rest on the little 5 year old 16x Funai drive) and a Gigabyte 9000PRO 64MB videoboard ("Shaders...here I come!"). At the end of the year, I've also got a Lexmark Z25 printer to help me with my papers.

In 2004, yes, two more years after the last big upgrade, I got a Gigabyte K7N400-L motherboard with a AMD 2500+ Barton processor. Assorted with that, came a pricey GeCube 9600XT 128MB. No way I could live with a Over that, I've exchanged one of my 256MB DDR 333 sticks with one Kingmax 256MB DDR 500, and then I've paired it. A good big, fast WesternDigital 120GB drive came in handy those days. No system should run without the appropriate powersource, so a 350W Hyper was enough for me. At the end of the year, I've also bought a Pioneer DVD-DL+-RW drive, a set of Genius SW 5.1 Deluxe sound system and a Audigy 1 LS soundcard.

In late october 2005, a good shinny Samsung 960BF TFT monitor arrived on my table (still not convinced the old CRT was such a bad monitor and this is new one is "wayyyy better...").

So here we are, in 2006, trying once more time to upgrade my computer. I think I'll change my system in a 939 style if you know what I mean, hoping that dual-core processors will drop next year: ASUS A8N-E, AMD64 3200+/3500+ and a Leadtek 6800 GS 256MB (so yes! I'll go nVidia way!). I should buy a 450W Hyper and a Geil 1GB Kit. Wish me luck at buying those!

AstroPop

I know you'll say I'm insane (and maybe you're right) but I've seriously enjoyed AstroPop Deluxe. This is a little arcade & puzzle game created by PopCap Games. It's one of those little flash games that you'll play during your boring office hours.

I'm a PC gamer, so why I've played these arcade games?
1. It's a very simple game to learn. Very simple game mechanics (destroy all the bricks, putting at least 4 of the same color bricks together). Also, the game evolves as the levels unveil: an exploding brick, a brick explosion-power modifier, a brick-line clearer, virused bricks, bonus bricks... and although it's easy to play, it's hard to master (level 15 and up are very difficult to pass).
2. Presentation is sensational for this little game: you control a little ship (at the bottom of the screen) and shoot colored bricks that stack continuously from the top, but the way they explode, the announcements made throughout the game, the tension that permanently rises as the game goes... it's just cool.
3. There are 4 different ships with 4 different drivers. Two of them are playable from the beginning, the other 2 are unlocked by playing through the levels with the first ones. The have different goals, different special powers, different way to upgrade their ships. It's like 4 little stories but fun to follow.
4. It has the advantage of being this fun little game that you'll install on your laptop and take with you on a trip. It's tones of fun and excitement.

This game runs on different platforms:
1. Flash game right from the PopCap.com site
2. AstroPop Deluxe on your PC
3. AstroPop Deluxe on Xbox360
4. AstroPop on your mobile :)

I'll definitely give it a 10 for being the fun little game that I enjoy so much.

Gamespot AstroPop movie.
Gamespot AstroPop for mobiles review.