Left 4 Dead

In the last few months, I have been swamped with training and work.  So, finally have some time to write again.  I have moved my desktop and now have a direct wired connection. 

HP Mini 1030NR
My remaining HP Mini kicked the bucket a few weeks ago - following an install of Windows 8, the hard-drive controller died.  There were a few things I could have done to save it, but I'd spent enough money on it and felt it was time to move on.  I get get two good years of use out of it, which wasn't bad considering I'd spent all of $120 on it.  Right now, I just don't need an ultra-portable computer and with prices low on netbooks, I have no doubt I could find a great deal if my needs change.

PSP 1001
I picked up a used PSP from Pawn America.  I already have most of my old PSP library back, only spending a few dollars per title between Pawn America and Amazon.  I was pleased to find PSN had released the PSOne Classic version of Command and Conquer and C&C Red Alert.  I also have Hot Shots Golf, another favorite.  My primary use for the system has been as a MP3 player.  I found I could fit the entire Beatles Remastered Edition on my 4GB memory card.  I only have three more games to buy and I'll have all of the games I used to have. 

Yes, I could have bought the PS Vita, but didn't want to pay the extra $100 for it, at least at the pawn shop - I can buy a brand new one for the same price without the worry of getting a dud.  This was the second PSP from the shop too, the first one the speakers were dead and the headphone jack damaged.  It made me glad I had gotten the 1 year warranty, because I'm fairly certain they would have hassled me coming back to try to exchange it.

Fall Steam Sales
Steam has had some really great deals this fall.  I've picked up Kane & Lynch, L4D 1 and 2, and a few others for almost nothing.  Be sure to keep track if you have any items on your Steam Wishlist because there's a massive Black Friday sale coming up.

Bye Bye Compaq, Hello Desktop!

Earlier this month, I decided to sell my Compaq laptop.  It was a tough decision but the heating issues I'd mentioned previously and on the other blog really had me worried.  You shouldn't have to spend $40 on an accessory to properly cool your computer considering I spent $500+ on the computer in question.  ($420 on the laptop + $80 for 8GB of RAM).  It wasn't a bad purchase by any means, just unfortunate Compaq flubbed an otherwise good design.

It really was a great machine, but not being able to upgrade the processor to anything beyond a 2.4GHz X2 - sorry that's just sad. Overclocking was not an option as it already had heat issues.  The only other solution would have been to invest in an SSD - that was too expensive.

The money from the sale was used to buy a larger hard drive for my Dell Laptop - 750GB.  I had also purchases a refurbished 19" Dell Monitor and networking gear to connect up my Desktop.  The only thing left at this point would be the upgrades to toss into my desktop.  Actually not gonna upgrade the machine itself, am going to go for outright replacement to a higher model number, majorly upgrade the processor to quad core, upgrade the RAM to 8 gigs, and install a 2gig Nvidia GFX Card.  I am thinking of using a 1.5TB hdd internally.

I would like another laptop, but right now, between the desktop and Dell lappy, I don't really need anything.  I still have my netbook for portable computing.  My two DC7600s, I will prolly strip down and sell on craigslist.  They are good machines.

Revisiting the Classics

June has been a hectic month so far.  I started a new job and have been going through a few old classics from my back up archive.


Age of Empires 2
I dug out my back iso from AOE2 and played quite a bit.  AOE2 does not work well in Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit) but the expansion "The Conquerors" works very well and will allow you to access the original content and missions from its launcher.  I don't care much for the missions and usually just play random maps against computer opponents.

As posted on my Facebook page, AOE2 DOES work in Windows 7, but you must launch the game, the (ALT+TAB) back onto the Windows Desktop, (CTRL-ALT-DEL) into Task Manager, exit "explorer.exe," and then (ALT+TAB) back into the game.  If you don't do this, you will get some image distortions in-game.  The reason it does this is issues with DirectX 10/11 (actually 9 as well) and Aero - at least, this is the reason I have found given.

Freedom Fighter
This is one of my favorite games.  Its a tactical third person shooter from the makers of the Hitman Series which chronicles an alternate timeline in which the USSR did not collapse, but moved forward to attempt to take over the US.  The game has a system that allows you to recruit up to 10 NPCs to command.

This game was much better on the Gamecube, but I enjoyed the PC version.  The game looks dated on my dekstop, but run extremely well.  I only got tot he second level before calling it quits.


Age of Empires Online
I am a huge fan of Age of Empires, with the exception of AOE3, which I felt was awful - the interface was awful, the game looked awful, and I feel it really got away from the things that made AOE fun to focus more on areas of play more geared towards fans of Civilization and Sim City.  I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those games, but they aren't what I like.

Age of Empires goes back to its roots by basically rehashing all of the missions from AOE 1 and 2, but in a new "Online" Free to Play that allows you to play through Windows Games for Multiplayer and Co-op games.  Unfortunately, you have to be online to play the single player campaigns as well.  This does, however, give you the added bonus of being able to play from ANY computer.  But if you were stuck offline you're SOL.

Rune Online
My brother sent me a copy of Rune Classic from Steam.  The game is a Viking 3rd Person Hack and Slash based on the original Unreal Engine.  I played through a few of the missions in single player, but work really had most of my attention.  All it really did was make me want to dig out UT GOTY Ed.  Which I did. :)

Unreal Tournament '99
I wish I had my backup isos, but they somehow did not survive the trip from Sanderson to Amarillo.  I believe they are either on my other backup drive or one of the three drives on the desktop I'd left behind.  What did survive was a complete backup of my fresh Install of UT GOTY from the desktop I left in Sanderson. 

I had wiped the primary drive, installed Windows and Office, and then a few of the games I'd played.  I had done a full install of UT with all Expansions, patches, and several dozen (read about 100+) maps.  Once I had finished, the UT directory was right around 980MB and I did a backup.  This meant i could install all contents to pretty much any computer - great idea, right? 

Well, I had forgotten to install the voice packs, so in order to have my game colored with comments from Samuel L Jackson and Frank Booth's memorable "Heineken?  Fuck that shit!  Pabst Blue Ribbon" or "Daddy's back, where's my bourbon?"  I'd have to dig back through my UT files archive - on the same drive as the UT backup, but - meh...

Work and Gaming
Right now am still job hunting for an IT job, so gaming has to take a back seat to working at home right now.  The job I'm working right now is telemarketing/sales and while I am glad to at least have this job, I am not sure this is something I can see myself doing for very long.   I just have to hang in there until something else comes along, I suppose.

Laptop Cooling Pad

My home network is really my pride and joy.  I have 8 machines total - 2 netbooks, 3 desktops, and 3 laptops.  There is a 9th machine in storage, but I don't use it for anything and it largely just sits in the closet.

At the heart of the network are two machines - My HP DC7600 and my Compaq laptop.  Unfortunately, Compaq (Hewlett Packard), through brilliance on their part, made rather poor design moves when building the Presario CQ62 series.  These are a budget line of machines that price between $250-$500.  And are comprised of Intel and AMD offerings.

My particular machine, Presario CQ62 220AU suffers from heating issues.  This is because Compaq uses the same chassis with most of their CQ62 - Intel and AMD, simply putting the different motherboard into the same case.  Unfortunately, this was a mistake on their part.  The Intel offerings were pared with Intel GFX, which, quite frankly, run very cool.  They are somewhat underpowered and most likely underclocked to improve battery life.

Commando as Told via animated GIFs

It started as somewhat of a joke, inspired by the work of several others.  I decided there should be a more complete telling of the story.  I will admit, I scoured several dozen websites to find these and spent the better part of an afternoon trying to get them to upload.

Unfortunately, my preferred image host, imgur.com did not work properly with some of the images.  It's times like these I wish I still had my hosting account.  I will add pictures to this post as I find them, but please feel free to help out.

Retro Gaming via SNES and NES Emulators

Last couple of weeks have been busy with job interviews and in between meetings and general job hunting, played a few retro classics - Unreal Tournament '99, Hitman, and quite a bit of NES and SNES games.  I went through Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 and Super Mario World. 

I hadn't beat Super Mario Bros. 2 in several years - the final boss, Wart, is a major pain in the ass.  You must hit him repeatedly - 8-10 times to take him down.  

Note: this video is from Mario All-Stars Version of SMB2, which is also the basis for the GBA version.

Super Mario 3 was fun to run through again.  The nice thing about playing it with an emulator, you can save progress and start up from scratch.  Also, the save feature comes in handy when playing the match up game.

Super Mario World, is also quite a bit of fun to play.  Luckily, the game has a built-in save feature.  Saving with the emulator will let you pause a game indefinitely.

It's interesting to note, playing these games on the original NES rom is much more fulfilling than the SNES Mario All-Stars.  While the Mario All-Stars allows you the option to save in-game, the graphics and feel of the game is different.  The sense of tempo you build up playing the old NES version is lost on the newer remakes. 

Still, a fun time and worth a few hours of mindless button mashing.  Pick up a gamepad to play any of these games via emulator.  I can suggest the PS2 USB gamepad as it is the best SNES copy out there.  There are remake gamepads to replicate both SNES and NES pads, but most of these you will have to buy from an overseas seller.

Tragedy at the Garbage Junkyard

I was playing through the Barkeep's mundane missions and chose to "Eliminate the bandits at the Garbage."  This mission has you returning to the junkyard to kill off the bandits that infest the woods surrounding the Garbage Junkyard.  What I didn't realize is this mission is a death sentence for Bes and the remaining fighters in the junkyard and the game does intend to collect by any means necessary.

"Neither a saint, nor a scoundrel. The Barkeep knows his worth and is respected by all stalkers." ~ STALKER Wiki

Eliminate the bandits at the Garbage

Reward: 2000 RU, bottle of vodka and an F1 grenade.  A job, eh? Let's see what we've got… Aha! Here you go: can you knock out that pack of bandits at the Garbage? The Duty, with all their speeches about law and order, just can't get down to it. Those are some rare scumbags, so they won't last long anyway. But the guy who gets them first will score big… and the booze is on me, of course.

The woods behind the junkyard are filled with several anomalies, artifacts and a few goodies stashed by the bandits.  If you take the fight tot he bandits rather than allowing them to invade the junkyard, expect to run into 8-10 bandits intent on killing you and everyone else in the junkyard.

"I try to fight the lawless just as I did on the outside. I train up rookies and teach them to survive in the Zone." ~ Bes

I rushed back into the woods and carefully engaged all of the bandits while dashing behind trees, crates, and the concrete highway tubes.  I quickly dispatched all of them and began looting, confident I'd spared my  Junkyard Comrades a death at the hands of the vicious bandits.  About halfway through stacking the bodies, I began to hear sounds of gunfire and dogs.

Occasionally, dogs will run through an area and the local will open fire on them.  But these were different sounds, the dogs were attacking the remaining Stalkers, and they were winning.  I ran over to their campfire in time to see Bes firing away at two dogs.  I managed to shoot one of them, but Bes fell to the remaining dog.

Glorious Russian BBQ: Not all dogs go to heaven, some burn slowly, tenderized and marinated by 9x19...

I played through this turn of events several times, but in each turn, Bes fell to either dogs or bandits.  This man's time had come and death was certain to punch his timecard.  Distraught over losing an ally, I did what any Stalker would do - I avenged his death.

Stacking the Dead
This tactic was born of necessity.  Some maps can get pretty crowded and when looting the bodies, you need some way to tell which have been looted and which have not.  Stacking them into piles can alleviate this.  In addition to wasting time, it can also make you a target to re-spawned forces - making more bodies needed to be stacked.

STALKER Complete 2009 Mod

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl Stalker Complete mod

Having finished the game with the "bad" ending, I've now gone back through a couple of times to pick out the undone missions and pick-ups.  I also decided to try to download the "Stalker COmplete 2009" Mod my brother had suggested.  The mod is available at the link listed below.

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009 

 

This mod makes graphical, effects, sound, and some balance changes to the game that really do improve gameplay.  I am impressed with the changes they made to the game and there is a 2012 Update in the works.  The improvements don't seem to have any negative performance problems and I've noticed some of the buggy play has been fixed with this mod.

 

Complete 2009 Mod adds graphics, sound, and effects improvements as well as addressing some game play issues with the original game.  The graphical fixes are simply awesome.

 

The changes to the graphics make me wish I had a better monitor and is quite close to tempting me into putting the game on my laptop.  The gameplay fixes work quite well and I'm glad to see the often buggy freezing and lagging is gone.  I was already quite impressed with the graphics in the game and this mod add even further refinement.

 

A word of warning during download, Firefox did not like the install file and did some strange things when downloading the install file.  It caused my system to hang up several times, requiring me to reboot and delete the downloaded file.  I tracked this back to an issue with Microsoft Security Essentials - I had to disable the program to download.  This was on my desktop machine which is running Windows XP Pro SP3 - am not sure why this happened, but it did cause me some trouble downloading.

 

I eagerly await the next version of this mod and am on my way back through the game.  Thanks to my brother for suggesting it shortly after buying the game for me!  :)

 

One Particular Gem of the SOPA/PIPA Blackout

On this lovely Internet Blackout day, I ran across a very well-written article by Gamefront's Jim Sterling.  I have quoted the article below.  Enjoy!

Wiping out the Military Presence from Cordon

I was able to clean out all of the military presence from the Cordon area.  This was no easy task and took about three hours to complete and there are two areas you must do this to accomplish this.

The Checkpoint: the pay off is massive weapons and ammo.

The Checkpoint
This area is right next to the start off point and close to the Boars' Lair - this is an easy mission - kill two boars and collect goodies from a dead stalker.  I ran into a roving patrol of soldiers after cleaning out the Boars' Lair and they opened fire.

I had plenty of ammunition and armor, so engaged them and took them down.  But immediately began receiving fire from the outpost.  Keep moving and aim your shots carefully and you can steamroll your way past them.  Unfortunately, it will mean you have to loot bodies to do this.  There were 18 soldiers at this post and they are well-armed, well-armored, and quite pissed.

A large portion of the soldiers were Speztnaz (Russian Special Forces) and they only went down from head-shots.  All of them are sporting the AKSUs so there is not much variation.  You can pick up quite a few health-related items.  I made numerous trips back to the shop keeper to sell all the excess weapons (Assault rifles and pistols).

Do yourself a favor and shoot the siren early, otherwise you will have to contend with the noise.  One or two shots is all it takes.  Compared to other military installations I've encountered, this one is quite challenging due to the small space the large group occupies.  Once inside the base, you have little cover.  Grenades will clear out some buildings, so have as many as you can.

The Fallen Bridge will net you more AKSU, but the officer also has a prototype pistol that works quite well.

The Fallen Bridge
The second area is not overly difficult to clean out, there are several ways to do it and you can take your time if you don't mind walking around.  If you plan on staying, you must take the others down quickly or retreat.  If you are quick, you can make it through tot he other side, but will need to use the available cover to make it out of there.  I did the "balls-out" approach.

When you walk up to the commanding officer, he'll say "what are you doing here stalker..." and then try to coerce a bribe to let you pass.  The others will turn their backs.  Make him a better offer - free him from this tainted orb - with a head shot!  Use the suppressed pistol and loot him very quickly.  The others will open fire on you shortly after, so take them down quickly.

Another safer approach is to engage them from atop the bridge.  Grenades are handy here, too.  From the bridge, you can engage soldiers one at a time, which will help you conserve ammo and health.  This tactic gives you more cover and the ability to hide from the others.

The goodies here are more AKSUs, health-related items, vodka, ammo, and a few pistols.  The commanding officer has a prototype Fort-type pistol which holds 15 rounds.  I kept this gun as it has exceptionally good range and the ability to be upgraded.  I took everything and sold what I didn't need to the shopkeeper.

The Aftermath
The results of the military presence being removed from the area is an increase in roving bandits and also an increase in attacks by wildlife.  At the fallen bridge, you will be attack by boars and bandits.  The bandits will be armed with better weapons - AKSUs, MP5s, and such.  Again, these can be stockpiled and sold.  I prefer stockpiling the weapons, unloading them, and then stashing them to sell later.

The military will not respawn!  But as I said before, the bandits will have better weapons - AK74s, AN94s, submachine guns - less of the crap they previously had.  I took down a rather large group of them next to the car park.  The allies you had worked with earlier to clear out that area will hold their ground, but may not be able to survive repeated attacks.

It all boils down to more cash for you in the end.  You can also stock up on your ammunition if needed.  But keep in mind the military in this area actually do keep this section of the map somewhat secure.  My hat's off to great game making.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - shooter RPG

So, I am engrossed in S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Shadows of Chernobyl, thanks to my brother and what he calls "Glorious Russian Christmas" in thick Russian Accent.  Here's a taste complete with the Theme song, sung in Ukrainian.

Customizable weapons, lootable, stackable, draggable corpses, mutants and...  no women.  Where tha women at in this game?  They could have added bar wenches.  :(


Half Life "Gordon Freeman" Easter Egg/Cameo  in Wild Territory area
This game relates to Half Life in that there is a cameo character "Freeman" found in a tunnel in the Wild Territory next to the downed helicopter.  You can find two Desert Eagle pistols, some health, and ammo.  Getting to his body requires you to jump on the overturned vehicles, spools, and various boxes to get past the "lightning" barriers.

Getting out of the tunnels requires you to, first, jump on the edge of the fire barrel to back yourself out the same way you came in.  The "Family rifle" - shotgun, is found inside the red container next to the container in which you find "Black Kite" and Big Ben." You will have to maneuver your way around to get to it, but it is not overly difficult.  There is nothing else in the back of the tunnel but death by electrocution.



The rewards in the tunnel are two Desert Eagles - "Black Kite" and a custom variant "Big Ben," some ammunition and health supplies.  Both guns are worth 2500RU if you decide to sell them.  There are also AK74s, L85, LR300, and a SG550 to be picked off the locals.  Many of the LR300 (TR301) are fitted with removable optics which you can sell separately.  A few of the AK74s are fitted with optics as well, these scopes will also fit on the AN94 (Obokan/AC96/2).

"Big Ben" chambered in 9x39.

There also appears to be a crate/stash on top of one of the barriers you use to cross the tunnel, but it is empty.  The crate/stash on top of the building hulk, mentioned earlier, is a handy place to store weapons you pull off all the dead Mercs, Scientists, and Bandits in Wild Territory - at least until you wipe out enough of them to begin making regular trips from here back to the bar to sell items.

"Freeman" character yields some nice swag.

Another crate of goodies is found between two containers close to the tunnel containing two first aid kits.  There is another crate atop the building hulk containing 4-5 snipers.  Their weapons are all LR300 fitted with removable optics.  It's another good place to stash away excess equipment.  Behind the train station, directly across from the sniper's tower is where I encountered a bandit with the SG 550 (Sg1 5K).

You can also pick up an RPG in this area of the map by the downed helicopter.  You can find it with one of the downed Mercs along with 1 remaining wound.  These are heavy items so you may wish to put it into your storage box until you can move it somewhere else.

Ammo-Gathering Strategy
So far, I pick up every weapon I run across.  When I get to a place that has good cover, I unload all of the weapons gathered, stripped any optics they have, and then put them in a crate.  Once I have secured that area of the map, I run guns back to a shop keeper to sell them.

I don't use the shotguns at all, so typically stockpile the ammunition.  The pistol ammunition, I end up with quite a bit, so will dump most of it into storage, carrying about 200-300.  Health kits, food, and bandages, I carry very few of, so excess go into storage as well. 

This strategy has worked quite well in providing me cash.  It also will occasionally bring unexpected items - I've picked up a Sig 220 and 1911 along with ammo for both.  Some bandits respawn into areas bringing more ammunition and supplies.


Am still working through the beginning so will post an update.

Portable Gaming: Yes Please!

Portable Gaming has been a hobby of mine since I was a kid in the 80's.  Through a trade, I acquired a battery operated Galaga hand-held.  It was a miniature replica of an arcade machine with two joysticks and it would let two players play - one at a time or head to head.  We had a few other handheld games but until we got the Gameboy in '91, they were mostly the little disposable games.

Over the next few years, again, through trades with friends I acquired two more gameboys, many games, and was proud to see by college, I had amassed several dozen games.  My brother still has one of these and many of the games.

There were a few other systems that were impressive, but failed to take off or gain popularity like the Gameboy.  I had, at one time, almost picked up a Sega Game Gear.  But with subsequent systems, I did buy the Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advanced.  Am even proud to say I picked up the Famicon Anniversary Edition GBA SP - and still own both the GBA and SP.

I picked up a PSP 2000 Series in 2008.  And it was an impressive system.  Gaming was top notch as was its MP3 and video playback capabilities.  The only problem I really had with the PSP was (1) the glossy, surface (2) the crummy wifi, and (3) the storage updates were very slow to being updated - there is really no reason for Sony to not implement firmware updates to give users the maximum storage options for the Memory Stick media - at the time I was limited to 8GB while the maximum size of the media format was 32GB.

I also really did not care for the fact that the UMD never really took off as a media format.  Not that it was ultimately needed, but as one of the selling points of the system, Sony failed to push the format.  I really wanted to get on board with this format.  Although, now its become somewhat of a moot point.

Most bluerays now come with the digital copy option which will allow you to watch on a portable device.  Amazon, my preferred movie site also gives you this option.  You simply have to have adequate storage for the files.

Half Life 2 Strategy

First off, I got my copies of Half Life 2 through Steam courtesy my little brother (slagmelt).  I played through Half Life 2 on Xbox right after it came out, but never really got into it.  I played through the original Half Life and Opposing Force on PC.  Opposing Force, I played through in one day!

I first beat Episode 2, which I had played a bit on my brother's Xbox Orange Box Collection.  Then I beat Episode 1, followed by the original Half Life 2.

I played through the games twice - once with cheats enabled to learn the level, a second without using as many lives as it took to beat each level.  Then I went through a third time just to earn the achievements.  This is the stage I'm still at - earning achievements.

Half Life 2 Cheats
There is an extensive list of command line cheat codes that will allow weapons, items, and characters to be added or removed in addition to developer items to modify game content.

In order to use cheats in the PC version of the game, you must activate the console int he Options Menu under Advanced. There is also command line parameters you can add to the game executables.

Cheat List

Bring DOWN the console and enter “sv_cheats 1”.

• No damage: god
• Never Die: buddha
• Infinite power for your suit: infinite_aux_power or sv_infinite_aux_power (Outbreak)
• All weapons and ammo: impulse 101
• Kill all npc’s in the area: npc_kill
• Enemies don’t attack: notarget
• Walk through walls: noclip
• Spawn a scout car: ch_createjeep
• Spawn an airboat: ch_createairboat
• Spawn an airboat: impulse 83
• skulls: impulse 102

A more complete list of codes is available on IGN or easily found via Google.

The above codes were found at http://www.ign.com/cheats/games/half-life-2-pc-492830