Thursday, April 26, 2007

Back online, but not all is good

Back on the 16th, I mentioned that I was still without Internet access at home and that I was waiting for a Sympatico.ca technician to test the modem and replace it if need be. Well need there was. He replaced the SpeedStream 5360 modem with a 6520 wireless gateway.

So I've had broadband access since then, but I spent the next two evenings trying to get the gateway to recognize the Linksys Wireless Game Adapter, and then my Xbox 360 to recognize the same adapter. I managed to do the former, but not the later. So no Xbox Live since.

The plan is to get the Xbox Wireless adapter and then try to get it to work. If I run into problems, I can always get support since this is the only adapter Microsoft supports and I know tht the gateway Sympatico provided is supported for Xbox Live. So there it is. As of now I still can't stream music, movies of images through to my 360 from my PC. But we'll get there soon.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

EVE Online hardware poll results

My latest completed poll was about what you wanted or were about to upgrade in order to play EVE Online to it's fullest. The results are in and it basically shows the maturity of the graphic engine running EVE: most of you have absolutely no desire or need to upgrade any part of you gaming rig in order to enjoy playing EVE. Let's have a look at the results:

63% said it was just fine as is
17% will be upgrading their CPU (I'm one of those)
8% will be adding much needed RAM
8% will be changing the whole darn PC
4% will be changing most parts


Well there you have it. If you didn't get a chance to let your voice be known, then fill free to add your comments.

Now on to the next poll: so what are you, a PC gamer or console? Let me know!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Why I finally got an Xbox 360

As I mentioned yesterday, I finally got an Xbox 360. There's 3 reasons altogether why I finally decided to upgrade from my original Xbox.

The first is the games, Gears of War - Halo 3 - Mass Effect - Lost Planet - which you can view the trailers below. Secondly, Xbox Live and my buddies. I play with friends , buddies from work, all of whom are scattered either in different parts of greater Montreal, or elsewhere in Canada. Xbox Live gives me a chance to have fun with them, and sometimes poke fun at them.

Also, I get access to lots of content, especially with the Gold level. And third, the 360 gives me access to content on my PC which I can stream (once I get my wireless connection working!) through the console.






Monday, April 16, 2007

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

On Thursday night last week, I picked up an Xbox 360, and Gears of War, got home, installed the whole thing after packing my trusty original Xbox and the rest of the night playing Gears of War. I finally went to bed at around 2:30am Friday morning. That was the Good. Actually that was Great!

Now for the Bad. That Friday (which was last Frdiay) I got up 4 hours later, and tried to connect to Xbox Live again. No connections. no DNS, nadda, none. When I got back from work later that day, I still had no connection. Actually the DSL connection was down, and had been down the whole day I was informed by the wife. Well that was certainly wasn't good, that was real Bad. So I called up Sympatico Tech Support to get that fixed. After a few minutes with Level 1, I got pushed over to Level 2, where I was informed they would run some test on my line and then I would be called back.

The Ugly. Saturday morning still no broadband access, no access at all actually, the DSL modem isn't able to synchronize at all. No Eve Online, more like Eve Offline, and I'm not talking about the site! That afternoon, I get a call back for a tech, we go through a few more tests, and he comes to the conclusion that it's most likely the modem. Just to be sure, they're going to do some more tests and then call back to let me know. Sunday evening, I get a call back from Tech Support, they're sending a technician on site the next day to either check my set-up or (most likely) replace the darn modem.

I've survived another week-end without online access. It's more frustrating then you'd think, and I'm not talking about gaming, or blogging or even picking-up your email. I'm talking about all these little things that you'd need to check something online, a site you've just seen an ad on TV, the name of that actor, a little utility you need to convert .AVIs to .WMVs.

Anyway, things should be back to normal tonight. I'm just glad I had the new 360 to keep me busy. More on that later.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Video of Succubus versus a True Sansha Outpost

Here's a well made short video of a Succubus going after a True Sansha Complex. The video has a good pace, a nice track (Arrakis from Black Sun Empire) and some great visuals. I wish there were more of these videos out there! Maybe I'll have to start making some myself!! In the mean time enjoy this one!

Monday, April 02, 2007

New EVE Online Poll: your next hardware upgrade

So I'm thinking of my next upgrade to improve the visuals of EVE. Since I play this game regularly, I've always had it's requirements in mind. When I changed my CRT to an LCD, I made sure that it had a native resolution supported by EVE.

My last upgrade was going from my old and trusty Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb (
378 MHz / 338 MHz) to a new NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (579 MHz / 747 MHz). Both these cards are AGP, and that was intentional. As do most of you, I have a budget to follow when it comes to spending money on gaming and PC upgrades. And if I don't follow it there's always the Minister of Finance, aka the wife (wink wink), who'll remind me of it. It's an arrangements that actually works quite well. She makes sure I don't spend our hard earned money on whim, and when the time comes to actually spend it, I've done my research and buy knowing it's money well spent.

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In the case of my new graphics card, I wanted to make sure I didn't spend too much on an AGP card, knowing that I'd eventually move on to a PCI-X card, but enough that it would make a difference. At this point in time, changing to PCI-X is investment was a bit too high (new mobo, new RAM, new card).

My 3DMark03 score went from 5752 to 7449; not bad. Now you may think that this a very low score, but for EVE, and for me it's more then enough. I'm trying to get as much value out of this old PC that I build myself, and before I make the leap to bigger and better, I want to have pushed it to its limits. I know that's not the case yet. I can still upgrade the CPU and increase my RAM. Current set-up is as follows:
  • Asus P4P800SE
  • Pentium 4 2.62 GHz
  • 1 Gb DDR Ram
  • 320 GB SATA HDD
  • Plextor DVD-R SATA
  • Sony CD-R
  • NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256Mb DDR3
I'm thinking of increasing RAM up to 3Gb (XP's limit, not the mobo), then getting a 3.2 GHz processor. That's about it actually, though this should give me a lot more usage out of it. Once Vista is stable, and mid-range Direct-X 10 cards are affordable, I'll consider changing the system.

If you've got any suggestions, please feel free to comment. And while you're at it, have a go at the poll and let me know what you'll upgrade next yourself!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

EON #007 - Table of Content




















Table of Content - EON 007
  • Page 6 --- E-ON Upfront (News)
  • 14 ---- Post Cards from the edge (Screen shots)
  • 16 ---- In Crowd: Ivar Kristjansson (CCP Employee Interview)
  • 18 ---- E-ON Awards 2007: The Shortlist
  • 22 ---- Chronicle: A matter of Economy by Nixon Bradsley
  • 27 ---- In Character: Caytlyn Rose (Player Character Interview)
  • 30 ---- Cover Story: Hot Chips
  • 37 ---- In Character: Caytlyn Rose (Player Character Interview)
  • 38 ---- Chronicle: The Dragon by Andrew Dice
  • 42 ---- Alliance Profile: BRUCE
  • 44 ---- Testflight: Tier-2 Battlecruisers (Harbinger, Hurricane, Drake & Myrmidon)
  • 52 ---- In Crowd: Peter Orn Thorarinsson (CCP Employee Interview)
  • 54 ---- Chronicle: Life Insurance by John Kastronis
  • 58 ---- Insider's Guide: Exploration (Player Guide)
  • 64 ---- Insider's Guide: Rigs - Part 1 (Player Guide)
  • 70 ---- Insider's Guide: CCG - Part 3 (Player Guide)
  • 78 ---- Teh Funnies (EVE Humour)