Gone Ashore

DuckDNS a Free Alternative to DynDNS

2015-05-31T16:17:00.000-06:00

DynDNS has been a staple of DNS routing for years now. Routers have had support included in their firmware for so long you'd be hard pressed to find one without it. Gamers and small business owners have been using it for years to host servers for things like Teamspeak, Ventrillo, FTP or VNC access across the web. The free service was fine for 99.9% of the internet because you didn't need any of the services that the paid model offered. Dyn finally smartened up, first building in annoyances such as having to log in to your account once a month through the website to finally just killing off free service altogether. The alternatives such as NO-IP are following suit, adding annoyances and just making transparent service impossible. Whats Joe Average to do?

DuckDNS is a goofy named DNS server that is hosted on Amazon VPC and offers exactly what users want; simple integration. While setting it up via routers can be a bit problematic, gamers such as myself just want a simple solution. Their website, which can be logged in to with Twitter, Facebook or Google+, has some software solutions to update your IP. For Windows there is the standard background utility that constantly updates or a Powershell script and a VBS script that you can set up as a recurring task. None of these solutions are to my liking, unless you are on DSL or dialup (egads!) your IP will almost never change without you forcing it to do so. Also, allowing Powershell or VBS scripting through your firewall is a serious security risk.

I decided to create my own using AutoIt3, a simple shell scripting language that I use for many things. The program does exactly what I need it to do; tries to update your IP until it is successful or you click cancel, then terminates. Simple, easy and transparent like it should be.

The program is available here and the source code is included so you can modify it to your liking. It works by either hard coding your domain and token into the program or by adding them to the commandline. You could also add it as a recurring Windows task if you wish but a simple run at startup works for me. The program itself does not require internet access, it uses Internet Explorer to update so IE will require net access for this to work.

Terrordome: A Love Letter to the Bad Guys of Horror

2013-11-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

This. Is. Awesome.

Seriously, I almost wet myself when I watched the video. How I have missed the creation of this fantastic piece of amazing is a mystery to me. Imagine, if you will, a fighting game with some of the most iconic horror baddies in history? Now imagine that it's free, final and can be downloaded today. Can I get a F**K Ya?

Now you may want to not watch this video as it shows almost all of the characters, half the fun is seeing them materialize in the game. You have been warned.

Story? Who needs a story when I can pit the Tall Man against Pinhead? Not me, that's for damn sure!

Blackthorne - Now Free!

2013-11-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

A classic from the past, built by the Warcraft smithy's known as Blizzard, Blackthorne creeps back up from the abyss to your awaiting hard drive. Back in the DOS days, platformers were pretty abundant with titles like Commander Keen and Jazz Jackrabbit heading the pack with their cartoony and mostly violence-free gaming that were a staple of the consoles. PC owners on the other hand were still slavering after a small shareware title called Doom that was most likely still on their Multi-Megabyte MFM hard drives after a year of being released.

A large distinction that separated the PC from the consoles was a bigbrother-free market. This allowed what would be called an AO rated game such as the Shareware version of Doom to be freely downloaded from any BBS and enjoyed without anyone's approval. Doom employed blood, gore, violence and satanic symbols with wild abandon and the PC market was in love with the sheer brutality of it all. Cute characters on the consoles only inflamed the scorn PC users felt towards being treated like a child watching Saturday morning cartoons and helped sowed the seeds of the PC vs Console debate that has raged ever since.

Blizzard surely noticed the attention that Doom had attained and while smart platformers such as Prince of Persia existed on PC, it lacked a certain bloodlust that had grabbed the PC market. Enter a marriage of the two: Blackthorne.

Now Blackthorne is not the wanton carnagefest that Doom happily propagates, but having a shotgun that visually inflicted bloody damage was new to platformers. Killing things such as your own people, who are chained to a wall, backhanded blind fire ala Evil-Dead style was taboo and a guilty pleasure for the time.

Game of Thrones 8-Bit

2013-09-10T17:25:00.000-06:00

Very old schooly, Game of Thrones 8-Bit is a throwback to the NES world. The game doesn't go through the entire story so far but instead plays through key moments of four of the characters from the books.

You can expect some hard gameplay here, as in you'll die trying to make the first jump, but if you are a fan of these types of games you will come expecting.

The website is in spanish, so those non-Latino can use this link instead.

Donkey Kong 2600

2013-07-21T15:02:00.000-06:00

Unnng! Yes that's what I thought as well. At the time, Donkey Kong on the 2600 was sure as hell better than spending quarter after quarter in the arcade but let's be honest - it sucked! Not casually, but on an almost Pac-Man level of suckage here. Two Levels of awful leaving you to hope maybe, just maybe, there'll be another level if I grind enough - Nope!

Now after 30 years is the game that could have been. Well not really as the cartridge would have been 32k and likely cost more than the console, but this is an impressive feat to say the least.

The Original 2600 Game

The Updated Version
Pretty impressive wizardry going on there, I think I would have wet myself if that's the game that came home with me back in the 80's. You can download the rom and play it to your hearts content using the fantastic Stella emulator.

Continuum

2013-07-10T14:54:00.000-06:00

Continuum is a free adventure puzzle game done in the third person. Fans of a older and almost unknown gem called Cursed Mountain may recognize some similarities, but that's ok by me. The game consists of solving environment puzzles to continue on your quest to find a lost expedition member. Some supernatural elements exist in the form of deja-vu moments where you see what previously happened. This is not a new design element, but it adds some needed depth to the game.

A word of warning, the game can be glitchy and hitchy and you will find yourself stuck if you try to break the game. There is also no way to save your progress, so be careful where you step. I will share one helpful hint here, many puzzles require you to press the mouse button repeatedly, not just once. I was stuck in the first chamber watching what appeared to be an onscreen indicator to press and move my mouse to get a lever to work. Nope, just mash until it clicks. That said, you should have no problem continuing afterwards.

I would have really liked to see this game polished and expanded, it has some excellent design elements and graphics that could make a fantastic game. Maybe some press and attention is all it needs.

The Freebie Bundle

2013-07-10T13:40:00.001-06:00

Another site has popped up that bundles free games to showcase new talent. The Freebie Bundle is now up to bundle 5 and has brought to light some very interesting games I'd never heard of before. Out of the current crop of four games, three are from my favourite game school DigiPen. These guys produce some fantastic content that is generally fresh and exciting to the discerning pallet but their site is painful to parse looking for new projects to check out. This site will help alleviate that for many as their choices in selection is excellent.

My only gripe is that they ask for donations to help pay for the site, I understand that bandwidth costs money but they use MediaFire for downloads which costs them zero bucks. The only funding required here is for the sparse webpage content that could be easily hosted on a free site. At the very least they could split the donations with a game-related charity, but I'm willing to give them a pass in favour of the limelight they are putting on some talented developers.

Here is a video from my favourite game in the current bundle.

The site also accepts submissions for game bundles but so far they are perfectly proficient in their choices and I anxiously await their future submissions.

They STILL call me Bruce!

2013-07-08T21:50:00.000-06:00

Bruce Lee, BRUCE LEE! Say it with reverence, whether it's the man or the kick-ass game for the Commodore 64. Bruce is the bad ass that even beat Chuck Norris! The original game for the C64 had everything: action, platforming, adventure, ninja's, green sumo wrestlers, even exploding bushes. Every level was different, bizarre and above all - punishing! No continues, no idea how far the rabbit hole went down, just you, your joystick and endless hours plugging away. Don't waste time hunting it down, a pixel-by-pixel remake has already been released.

Now, after a painfully long wait, we get a sequel that is truly worthy of the original. Bruce Lee II is free and available for download in a true testament to the originals spirit and design. In other words, expect to die a lot! Featuring CPC or C64 color and sounds for your nostalgic pleasure, Bruce Lee II serves up some whoop ass with a key ingredient that was missing from the original; I'm talking about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of course. The team behind this game understood the original very well and their attention to detail (pitch-perfect loading screen anyone?) makes it a trip worth taking.

Tecno - the Base

2013-07-01T15:23:00.000-06:00

No, this is not some new Dubstep album I have lost my hearing to. It is instead a game from a small developer that I had purchased back in 2008. The game itself was very reminiscent of another small game I love you may have heard of called System Shock. It has an old school charm with some of the classic tropes you had come to expect from that time period. I wanted it, but to get it I would have purchase it through the website. This was something I just didn't do. Not because I didn't want to spend the money, but because it seemed like a one-shot purchase that would disappear if I lost the download.

I succumbed to it's charms and Tecno - the Base became my first online purchase, ever. Many followed afterword, but Tecno took my virginity and I have never regretted the relationship it started. It has a special place in my heart and after some reminiscing, I decided to take a peek at the website to see how my old flame was doing. I had thought about the services that exist now in a more prominent state such as Desura, GamersGate and, of course, Steam Greenlight. How would Tecno fare on those services? Would it's creator get enough interest to see a second game? If nothing else, an email of encouragement may brighten a few days.

The website is still live and kicking, nothing new to report except one small thing: Tecno is now Donationware. You can, for free, download the game and play it in it's entirety. All that's asked is a Paypal donation if you liked it. As much as I would have rather seen a Greenlight campaign, I'm not sure the niche nostalgia target market would be enough to get a go ahead. This way at least, people get to experience the game and hopefully contribute a few bucks for their enjoyment.

(Sorry for the grainy trailer, it's the best, non-spoilery one I could find.)

You'll want to check out the support page and use it's guide for altering the INI configuration. This allows you to use any screen resolution, turn on mipmapping and enable 32 bit color so the banding is reduced.

Duke Nukem Forever - The Mod

2013-07-01T13:41:00.000-06:00

Many were nonplussed about Gearbox's final take on the industry's longest running joke known silently, but appropriately as Duke Nukem Whenever. I for one enjoyed it for what it was and can appreciate their attempt to preserve as much of the 12+ years of random development contained in the game. That doesn't mean that those with a dislike for what was can't make their own version of what should have been and give us what they believe is the game we were meant to play.

Modders Gambini & Mikko Sandt have released their take on Duke Nukem Forever in the form of a mod for the original Duke Nukem 3D. This will then require that you own the original to play the game, but anyone interested in a mod like this will definitely own the original, likely multiple times. What makes it special is that it attempts to incorporate scenes from the official videos released over Dukes extended development time. These touches are nice but likely completely missed by those not familiar with the original work. What is important is that the mod is (mostly) well designed and ultimately fun to play.

Expect lots of wanton carnage and unforgiving gameplay, but as a Duke fan, you want that.

The Free Bundle

2013-01-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

The Indie Bundle? Bah! The Free Bundle! Now you're talking! The Free Bundle website is dedicated to bringing you some of the best free indie titles that you may not be aware of. No flash games here (well, no browser-dependant games anyway), only downloadable and enjoyable-at-you-leisure freebies! Some of the titles have been mentioned on this blog before, but author's keep working on thier projects and stuff just keeps getting better. For instance, the fantastic Abobo's Big Adventure is now browser independant, I can stop trying to explain how to download and launch SWF files now... Yes!

The folks who run the website do not accept donations, if you want to contribute, then do so directly to the authors - how great is that? They plan on releasing more bundles, that is to say more links to free games, in the future and welcome your suggestions on what should be added next bundle.

Spread the word, free and fantastic games are a click away.

Street Fighter X Mega Man Out and Free

2012-12-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

Capcom has released a worthy Mega Man game, for free. Capcom, Free, WTF? Yea, that's what I said too but it seems it's actually a fan game created by Seow Zong Hui and published by Capcom for Mega Man's 25th Anniversary. Well, screw 'em, free's free and I'll take it. New powers await you and, spoiler alert, you fight characters from Street Fighter. The site is being bombarded by the fans and the cheap so you may want to try the direct links instead.

Daily Freeware

2012-10-22T16:46:00.000-06:00

Been a while, but here are some goodies I've been using recently:

Flutter is an app that allows you to use hand gestures to playback movies and music. Needs to be expanded but it can be handy.
Coolbarz allows you to have up to four hotbars, one at each side of your monitor. Can be set to desktop only so it won't interfere with gaming.
WinMetro is your chance to see what the Windows 8 experience will be like without installing the operating system. Not a complete makeover, but enough to get the idea across.
Immersive Explorer is a Metro-inspired file explorer to go along with your WinMetro experience.
Free Editor will allow you to edit a dizzying array of file formats such as Word, Excel, epub, graphics, coding and even direct EXE modification and hex editing without having to install anything else.
PotPlayer is the new KMPlayer hotness now that the original is nothing more than a crapware installer.
Volume 2 is a visual volume control with intuitive mouse interactions and hotkeys. Includes the ability to also control a second sound source such as a mic or USB Headset.
Sound eXchange (SOX) is a command-line sound file converter and processor. Perfect for batch-file conversion of music-file types.
TYPO3 is a free all-in-one suite for hosting your own web server. Multiple packages including an enterprise-level option. Open source.
Booktype is a web-based, online, collaborative book-writing platform you can host yourself - No third-party accounts necessary.

Greenlight This

2012-09-02T19:57:00.001-06:00

Steam has added a new feature called Greenlight which allows voting on games you want to see on Steam. Anyone can start a Greenlight project and some just aren't getting it or just being a**hats. Adding things they want to see on Steam such as the original Metal Gear Solid, calling themselves the creators and getting banned in the process. It's a marginal time out but what the hell fellas? Look, it's simple: Author wants game on Steam, Steam for whatever reason has said no, Author adds game to Greenlight, Steam users vote on game, Game gets added or doesn't. See? Simple.

Two such games have come to my attention in this fashion.

First is Fibrillation, a game you can buy right now for a piddly $1.95 from the website or you can upvote it on the Greenlight Page. It's a 40 minute romp through a bizarre world with no violence or gore but plenty of atmosphere, puzzles and WTF-ery going on. There is no saving, just a blast straight through the game. My description does not do it justice, so watch instead:

Next up is Receiver which again can be purchased right now for $4.99, Greenlit here or you can get it free by pre-ordering Overgrowth, the sequel to Lugaru and thusly the reason I won't be getting it free. The game is involved to say the least, you will not be jumping in blind and blasting through without care. There are mechanics involved, complicated mechanics, cool mechanics, mechanics that big publishers would wipe away with abandon. It's also what makes the game worth playing and again I'm not doing it justice, so here:

Greenlight looks to be a great idea for the Authors and buyers on Steam. I feel there needs to be a percentage slider though. Right now, votes add 1 to the total votes required and after a set amount, the project is Greenlit. I feel that people who have purchased more games should have a heavier vote due to their obvious penchant to purchase from Steam. One or Two game buyers should continue getting their one vote, users with no games on their account or only free-to-play games should get 0 votes as far as I'm concerned as they buy nothing. You would have to massage the math of games purchased vs number of votes, but it solves the soon-to-be issue of purchasing upvotes.

Atari 2600, Adventure and Dark Souls

2012-08-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

The Atari 2600 has some fond memories for me, I spent entire summers in front my TV basking in it's cathode-ray goodness. Rudimentary though the games may have been, it's the imagination and thus creativity that their crude graphics sparked within my pre-pubescent brain. The cover art for those black plastic bricks of awesome promised so much more than the paltry 4k rom could ever deliver. I suppose coming from a background of table-top Dungeons and Dragons probably had much to do with this. Module covers promising so much action and adventure within one still image that you bristled with excitement waiting for your friends to show up so you could play. Video games became an extension of this imagination and that small block on the screen waiting silently for your input became a simple avatar for you to build up within your mind. The blue lines became crevice-encrusted walls, slick with the blood of those who died before you and that simple arrow now a Dragon-slaying +5 Sword of F**k-Ya.

Adventure is probably one of the most remembered games for the 2600 and it had, arguably, some of the most basic graphics available on the system. What brought so many to drink from it's low res, flickering pool is random chance and the unknown. You had no idea what items did what and they were never in the same place. Monsters appeared randomly and didn't care if you hadn't found the sword yet, hardcore experiences by today's standards. Just when you thought you had it figured out, you could bump up the difficulty and add whole new layers over what had come before. The cartridge is ingenious when you break it down, vastly far ahead of it's time and the games available today could learn a lot from it's 4k design.

Having finally got a hold of Dark Souls for the PC, I have been quickly introduced, or re-introduced, to the concept of dying repeatedly and not rage quitting. Something years of video game evolution has tried to eradicate through tutorials, on-screen prompts and general dumbing down of gameplay. Dark Souls spends it's time unabashedly trying to kill you, unfairly if it can, and doesn't give a damn how you feel about it. This by itself is refreshing in this day and age of hand-holdy gaming but what really gets my bun in a twist is the level and graphic design. Everything in this game feels hand-placed, by someone who actually cares and is not just trying to get on to the next level. It feels, natural, real, and most of all it looks like how I imagined Adventure to be in may ways.

Then

...and how I imagined it

Then

...and how I imagined it

Then

...and ya.

Although there have been many games attempting to do just this, Dark Souls (and obviously Demon Souls) seems to be the one that got it right. Just Google some screenshots and over and over you will find scenes that look like they belong in a Monster Manual somewhere - fantasy incarnate. There are many guides available for the game due to the many options and choices that affect it in ways that would be unknown to anyone without one. So many unknowns that make you want to replay the game once you understand them. This is true replayability, not a cheap easy mode item for completing the game but a desire to use your new found knowledge. The feeling of adventure and trepidation as you move forward, or backwards, or via some previously unknown path is palpable and each new monster is ripe with experimentation as you probe it's weaknesses. You are expected to use cheap tactics like kiting, bad AI pathing and spamming arrows from long distances to win, just like the the games of old. It's worth exploring the nooks and crannies because you may find more than just a chest, you may find a whole new path to explore. The love and care that went into this game is visible everywhere, the people involved in it's creation are serious fans of the genre and best of all, understand what makes it great.

This to me is Adventure for the new generation, the game that will live on beyond it's console lifetime and go down as one of the defining titles.

Evil Magician Returns I & II

2012-08-26T14:50:00.000-06:00

Having gone through a nostalgic trip down 2600 lane, I came across some interesting stuff regarding one of my favourite Atari titles: Adventure. It seems that not only has Adventure had a (pulled) reboot but has had two (unofficial) sequels. I'm not talking a flash game look-alike or a newly encoded engine to appear like a 2600, but an honest-to-goodness Atari cartridge rom that will play on a vintage 2600, complete with box, manual and an overworld map for you to use.

(+2 internets for those of you who can tell me where the box cover art was ~~stolen~~ liberated from.)

The Swordquest Series was touted as the official sequel to Adventure, but anyone who has played both games knows that was just cash-in marketing BS. Swordquest is nothing like Adventure in any way, shape or form and while it had it's charms, we wanted the real deal.

Here is a shot from the original Adventure to refresh your memory:

Evil Magician Returns on the other hand is an Adventure sequel that would be made today. That is to say it's more of the same, even lifting existing assets and making modifications to call it new. This isn't a knock on the game, if anything it's a compliment as this is what big businesses do, and get rich. It's familiar while being new, adds new things and makes you remember what you liked about the first game. This title can actually be burned to an eprom and played on a 2600 if you wish, but the easier method is the fantastic Stella emulator. The graphics are actually updated to look better (it's a 2600 remember) and the fun factor stays intact.

Evil Magician Returns II on the other, other hand is more of an evolution of EMR. With even more advanced graphics (really) EMR2 really just builds on what EMR did. It plays the same but looks better and has more, um, just more. You could skip EMR completely and go to this version, but you'd be missing the steps that made this one better. The forum post has the skinny on everything that has changed, so check it out for more info.

See? Better! Both roms were available as cartridges through the author, but made in limited quantities. Another production run is promised if enough interest is generated but I for one haven't had an Atari in longer than the author has been alive I'd wager.

A Story About My Uncle

2012-07-27T14:01:00.000-06:00

Another UDK indie project, this time from Sweden's Södertörn University. A Story About My Uncle is a first person platformer (Wait!! Don't run away just yet!) that centers around dear old uncle Fred, his amazing inventions and his fantastic journeys as told through a bedtime story by a narrating father to his daughter. Consisting of eleven programmers and artists, it has been nominated in the Swedish Game Awards which would dole out 10,000 kr for a first prize win.

The crux of the gameplay is a glove which allows not only super jumping, but grappling hook lasers to propel yourself around the floating rocks of a cave. There is a story present, complete with characters and non-interactive dialogue, told in a setting that is reminiscent of a Longest Journey or Myst otherworld. The graphics are decently realized and the level design is well thought out, with some more polish it could be quite breathtaking.

The game is treading familiar ground in gameplay for the indie market, but it does control well. When you fail it's because you messed up, not because of clipping or shoddy map design. The storybook aesthetic is pleasing enough and it would be interesting to see this expanded into a multi-world, Myst-like full-featured game. So here's to hoping they get the chance.

Critical///Path

2012-07-23T15:25:00.000-06:00

An interesting website with a myriad of short blurbs from interviews with some of gamings most influential creators has sprung up. Critical///Path is short on WTF as far as their objective goes, I can only assume this will be some kind of full-fledged feature at some point. As it stands, it's interesting to hear the various opinions of these game giants on items within the industry and even other companies games. I just wish there was a Play-All button.

Forget Me Not Annie

2012-07-23T15:16:00.000-06:00

Even wanted to know how Portal might be if it were written by Lewis Carroll or maybe Team Silent? Forget Me Not Annie may just be that LSD-induced answer. Though not currently complete, this game shows promise with it's nursery-rhyme-come-nightmare story if not it's object manipulative gameplay. You play Annie who, one assumes, is in a mental institution along with her childhood friend, a teddy bear named Howard. You can see where the story is going pretty quickly with some disturbingly interesting dialogue from Howard but getting there looks to be an interesting ride.

The game uses the Unreal engine, but currently the graphics are a little sparsely modelled considering the limited room space required and the small amount of objects within each area. A few jump scares are included which completely failed to engage even a blink, but it's the story I'm interested in here. The game stops at a certain area to explain that what follows is very beta and may not work correctly, it doesn't but don't let that deter you from going on. I look forward to seeing this game completed.

Reality Check: Top Ten Factors for Choosing a Gaming PC

2012-07-03T21:20:00.000-06:00

PCWorld has a nice, sedate and condom-wrapped version of ten factors to take into consideration when choosing a new PC. I have read and heard many of these "Helping Hand" stories, from sources that I trust even, and they simply don't give you the reality you need to hear - IT'S NOT CHEAP!

Oh, many sources really want you to believe the opposite, it's healthy for the PC industry. Don't scare away the new users with horror stories of $2000 rigs just to get a good frame rate in Battlefield 3 when they can just run back to their $150 consoles and play it there instead. TUFF! Forums everywhere are littered with reams and reams of hate posts from doorknobs (technical term) who are upset that their $125 netbook won't play Battlefield 3. Idiots (also technical) who complain about the $2 sound codec on their $50 motherboard not playing in 7.1 Hi-Fidelity and sounding like static on their $5 discount speakers. Best of all are the morons (not a religious term) who have never used anti-malware/anti-virus software and spend all night clicking OK to "Give me faster porn" popups. This has to stop, you are lying to these Luddites and their pent up anger is only serving to push game makers away from the PC due to the boatload of f**ktards (RvsB term) bombarding them with self-inflicted problems that they have to at least TRY to solve. You are chumming the waters with these bottom-feeders who are in all likelihood just pirating the game and looking for free tech support, McD's don't pay much you know and weed is expensive.

Maybe I'm painting this all wrong, maybe what we need is a REAL look at these top ten factors. Knowledge is power... to teach a man to fish... and tell you no lies... and other smart sounding proverbs - whatever. Here is MY take on their top ten factors:

1. Budget
Simple, take whatever you were going to spend and double or triple it. Thinking laptop? Don't! They are overpriced and offer no upgradability. Buy a real computer for home and a cheap netbook later for surfing on the go.

2. What Do You Play?
Don't worry about that as tastes change with opportunity and having a rig capable of running more than Facebook games gives you that opportunity.

3. Graphics: Consider Your Display
Actual display, as in screen on which you are looking? Just get a TV, it's big, cheap and you'll get the 1080p resolution that consoles can't play games at. Want crisper and better graphics? A sweet 30" at 2560x1600 for a mere $1300 would be killer if you didn't need a three-way SLI/Crossfire to power it maxed at a good framerate. A nice three monitor solution for a truly immersive experience? Nice, and stupid pricey for the sparse and high-maintenance game support you'll get. How about 3D? Just don't, it's equally demanding, gives terrible framerate in the most ideal of scenarios and is already dead but just doesn't know it yet. If you really want this option, get a passive TV with a built-in 2D to 3D converter - same basic job for the short time you'll use it (think Wii), cheaper and no speed costs. Best to stop into a real computer store where they actually have machines set up for a hands-on look, a quick play around will give you an idea of what to really expect.

Now Video Cards - this is where the bulk of your money will go. One third? Try half or better if you are doing it right. The latest, greatest generation, one-step down from the top tier is where you are aiming at. The roof is always overpriced and generally, you can SLI/Crossfire a step or two below for less money and more horsepower. Triple SLI/Crossfire is a waste unless you are doing that 30", three monitor or 3D setup, it's money best spent elsewhere. You are doing this now to save you money in the long run - see upgrades.

4. CPU and Cooling
Intel, full stop - AMD is cheaper/was better - NO! The AMD chipsets are janky and just too far behind to catch up - they own the budget arena for a reason. Again, latest and greatest generation but scale to your cash. Six cores? Don't bother unless you plan on doing some serious computing, like rendering (not converting) video. Gaming is barely taking advantage of four cores thanks to the console world and chances are you will upgrade long before that changes.

Never use stock cooling, period. A decent cooler with a large and quiet fan is a pittance and can save you from frying your machine when you don't game inside a refrigerator.

5. Memory
Max it out using your boards top speed/next to top speed rating, it's cheap and you will use it even when not gaming.

6. Storage
Thinking solid state? Think again! SSDs are way overpriced and WILL fail - it's a fact - and you'll get no warning before it happens. With all the compromises and adjustments you have to go through just to make good use of them, it's a waste. Two 2TB drives are cheap as chips and using RAID technology costs zero bucks, 10 seconds versus 30 seconds is not that big of a deal.

7. Power
If it's not branded by a company that anyone would recognize as a computer power supply maker, just don't. The gentleman/woman behind the counter at the computer store with the full tilt setups for you to try will know what you need.

8. Motherboard and Cases
Motherboard - latest generation of non-conservative chipsets is what you want. Intel's I5 came out after Core I7 but was actually a cheaper version of the I7 with some new tricks to make it suck less. This takes a little research to check into but hardcore hardware sites can give you the information you need. Do not be fooled into the whole "hard-core, best overclocking gamers motherboard" path, you want rock steady stability. I don't care what they tell you about performance vs cost, it's just not worth the price. Frying or at the very least shortening the life of your equipment for a lousy 5-10fps is ridiculous. Also many games are overclock sensitive and will crash or not run at all when enabled. Buying new tech gives you the luxury of not having to do that as everything runs great at stock speeds.

Cases - fans. Fans, fans, fans. If you are going water cooled, and the maintenance is not worth it unless you are dedicated, you need something that will hold all your cooling gear. Again, your friendly neighbourhood shop guy/gal will have the answers. If not, then you need fans. Not one, not two, several and in various areas for best results. It will get stinking hot in your case and parts will slowly fry themselves if not cooled properly. This means you will have to dust your case regularly, with air, thoroughly and preferably outside. Twenty minutes powered-off cool down before cleaning, twenty minutes waiting for parts to return to room temperature before powering on. Don't be lazy and miss the filters or the heatsinks, it's important for the gobs of money you've spent. Space inside is important and proper cabling is a must, don't get little Jimmy down the street to build your pricey system to save you a few bucks, get someone (read: a professional) who knows how to do it for you.

9. Input and Control
Don't waste money on "gaming" peripherals. Get what is comfortable for you, those gaming mice and keyboards come at a speed and resource cost of sometimes a dozen of background processes running and examining everything for a measurement to display on a tiny screen that you will look at for a week and never use again. High DPI mice are nice if you want to go through the pains of setting them up properly, but I'll take comfort over extra options any day.

10. Audio and Communications
Onboard audio is crap, period. Don't buy into any of the tales you will hear about it, if you are gaming - it's crap. You want a dedicated gaming audio card, and if you are not spending over $100 on it then it too will leave you wanting. Audiophile cards and gaming cards are not the same thing, if the first recognizable bullet point is about Blu-Ray playback or music recording you are likely in the wrong area. $50-$70 cards are usually targeted at movie boxes with Optical 7.1 output and dedicated hardware decoders for non-audiophile movie and music playback. They are usually better than onboard for gaming, but for slightly more you can have much better sound. Do not waste this fantastic audio on headphones or crappy $10 speakers, treat it like your surround sound movie experience and buy accordingly.

Voice communication - you want a headset with a dedicated USB audio chip so it's separated from your audio card. Yes, that fancy card will handle it just fine but you want to completely separate your voice communication for a number of reasons such as latency. A dedicated voice line will not tax your gaming in any measurable way on today's hardware and your gaming will not interfere with communication no mater how terribly it's ported. Plus you can use external programs like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak without fear of a game taking control of the audio inputs and outputs for it's own means.

Some mentions should be made to your internet connection. I would use a dedicated network card unless your motherboard's Lan has no CPU offload liabilities. You want the best speeds and lowest ping available and a Lan card that tries to offload processes to your CPU is not giving you that. You don't need a Bigfoot Killer NIC but having a card that takes care of all it's own processes is desirable for performance. Wireless is a lost cause in this regard, if you have to go wireless, dedicated hardware is of little benefit.

11. Upgrades
Yes, you will have to upgrade. No there is no final purchase for all time you can make no matter how much you are willing to spend. The key here is time before upgrade. Purchasing the latest and greatest gives you more options for upgrades later: If you had to buy a less powerful CPU, those prices will have come down quite a bit over a year or so and a beefy upgrade will be far less then buying all new hardware. That video card you purchased could go SLI at a fraction of the cost it was when you bought it after less time than that. You can get five years out of a high end purchase and still be running ninety percent of what's available then at full details.

Conclusion
This guide is meant for those who want max settings on their games, at a good framerate and a respectable resolution. Having to reduce the quality of my gaming for the sake of speed is not something I do easily. Call me a graphics w**re, call me elitist but you won't call me compromising. It's those shiny screenshots companies show you that you fall in love with, not the watered-down blurry and sparsely populated facsimile in banded 16bit that those forums complain about.

Telling people that they can get into PC Gaming for cheap is hugely misleading and the only person you are hurting is every PC Gamer in the world. Gamers don't want compromise, they want flash and glitz; realism and fast response. Getting their money now may boost PC sales for this year but in the long run it's just going to bite us in the ass. Game makers will get sick of the extended development time and constant patching to cover low end garbage hardware and simply jump over to the latest console generation in frustration. PC Gaming will once again be dominated by six month to a year wait times for what little will be coming our way.

Wreckage - Free Standalone Crysis Mod

2012-06-17T14:41:00.000-06:00

Yes, standalone, as in no Crysis required, just download and play. Wreckage is a seriously fantastic piece of modware that Crytek gave their ok to distribute without requiring the original game. When the hell does that ever happen? All the PC masses give me a Booyah!

There is one caveat though, it's in German. There are subtitles and it is an action game but this may deter some from an otherwise fantastic experience. The download is around 2GB and comes from MODDB so it's legit and will be updated as required. You can also use Desura if that is your thing, but there is no indication on the webpage that it is the standalone version and is labelled as a Mod.

COD fanboys and action junkies alike need to check this game out, it comes across as a truly professional piece of work and is a blast to play.

Of Light and Shadow

2012-06-17T14:13:00.000-06:00

Of Light and Shadow is a fantastic little free puzzle platformer where you control two protagonists, each of a different element. Mr. Light and Dr. Shadow, each with their own abilities and require that your movements constrain within their respective names. Light for light, Shadow for shadows and the opposing element will hurt and eventually kill.

Mr. Light has the ability to jump and run while Dr. Shadow can walk on all non-destructive surfaces, move objects and drop from the current surface. The artwork and animation is fantastic with only a few minor glitches in the controls where Dr. Shadow was concerned. I would occasionally not be able to walk off a surface onto it's side but this can be patched easily enough.

While you are there check out their other free game The Balloon Quest, another platformer with a twist containing some truly amazing Disney-esc music and full voice acting.

Casus Belli - Crysis Wars Mod

2012-05-13T13:37:00.000-06:00

This mod came to my attention through Desura and I had never heard of it before. Watching the trailers and looking at the screenshots made it look too good to be true: A battlefield-like mod that will work on even the demo of Crysis Wars, patched up to 1.5 with multiple, epic-sized maps, different map modes, vehicles and multiple character roles. Where's the catch?

Well, it's getting no play would be the biggest problem. Jumping on the game will net you maybe five servers and no one playing on them. When I have been lucky enough to find a populated server, it's been with people from Europe on early mornings and weekends. This mod needs more attention!

The maps are well thought out, different in style and design - futuristic to jungle to classic WWII to apocalyptic maps that you might see in a Stalker game. There is little of the race track mentality that CoD maps suffer from where there's no place to get your back to the wall for some serious stand-offs. Some of the most epic firefights I have been in all year come from this mod: Racing to the top of a huge building to provide sniper support for a flag capture across the street within a burned-out office with one other sniper, a medic and support crew had me grinning like a mad man. Then on the same map, I was routing out an enemy sniper who had dug himself in and was picking off the team before they could reach the front. The large map allowed me to circle around behind him and crawl (prone for the win) along the bushes beside a large building and finally spot his position - Satisfaction +100 Achievement Unlocked!

The fact that the Mod works with the trial is a little questionable but as Crysis Wars isn't really topping the charts in multiplayer or head space, it's not really hurting much as the servers are self-serve anyway. The whole system-killing Cryo engine requirement may be an issue, but the servers seem to force DX9 anyway and anything but onboard graphics should get a reasonable framerate while looking decent. I'm left with simply thinking that no one knows about it, hell I didn't until the Desura mod-crawl unearthed it for me.

There is nothing stopping you giving it a spin and if you have the rig to support the engine, it shines like BF3 in many respects. Just come early, and bring friends.

Daily Freeware

2012-04-15T13:14:00.000-06:00

I've come across two very excellent writing tools that put many payware titles to shame while competing quite nicely with the most expensive of the lot. To be clear these tools are mainly for creative writing, not creating your resume or writing emails. Both are flexible and cater to a niche of the creative individuals out there of which I am one.

FocusWriter by Graeme Gott

First off we have FocusWriter which is directed at the writer wanting a distraction-free environment. While there are other similar freeware titles out there such as Q10 and WriteMonkey, they don't offer the flexibility of FocusWriter. The ability to create and change themes which consists of a background wallpaper, size of writing area and the font you wish to use can really make a positive impact on the atmosphere and focus of your writing environment. The only addition I could possibly suggest would be a music player with playlist/loop/repeat function. This can, of course, be solved with other software but having it as part of a theme would be nice. Also available within the program is in-line spell checking, no F7 to scan through the document but actual Office-style spell checking. The positives of quick glances versus the tedium of a unnecessarily manual process need not be stated. The interface is what you would expect but autohides until you mouse-over, leaving you with a clean, full canvas in which to fill. Source code for FocusWriter is also available, so if you have a great idea or Graeme happens to fall of the planet, the program can continue. Format handling is limited to TXT, RTF and Open Office's ODT format with support for multiple open documents but that's as flexible as I need anyway. The basics such as bold, italic, etc and justification are all available but no advanced features such as image insertion, fonts or font size - the font you choose for the theme is all you can have. Though I can understand the typewriter-esce aesthetic, I'm ok with the modern computer and wish to take full advantage of it's features. This issue aside, I could completely uninstall Open Office now without a care if not for the necessity of reading or editing other document formats. Creatively though, FocusWriter will be my mainstay for the foreseeable future.

Trelby by Osku Salerma and Anil Gulecha

Next up we have Trelby which is directed at a specific subset of wordsmiths out there called screenwriters. Final Draft is most probably the know-all and be-all of screenwriting software available but $250 is a little steep for many. Freeware solutions are few and far between, mostly requiring you to be online in some way or joining a cult for access, Trelby has no such requirements. The features are a little lacklustre when it comes to Final Draft, the formatting is spot on and almost automatic but utilities such as character, dialogue and scene breakdown are limited to reports. Having a handy scene breakdown with jump points and especially a character list is crucial and needs to be added. A fine piece of accompanying software you can use for this is yWriter by Spacejock Software. Built for novel writing, yWriter supports the character and scene breakdown with places for some additional information if you require. Two other handy features Trelby includes are a regional name database containing the common names of people for the area you specify and script version comparing. The comparing feature is a great idea but requires you save multiple versions separately, a much better idea would be to save them internally within the same file and add a snapshot feature. Trelby supports importing of Final Draft or Celtx file formats with exporting to HTML, RTF, Final Draft as well as PDF files with optional watermarking. For those interested in getting to know screenplay writing more intimately, the resource page on Trelby's website has some linkage for you. Trelby is also open source but unfortunately requires you to contact the authors directly for access.

Tribes: Ascend Now Free and Available

2012-04-12T19:03:00.000-06:00

Out of beta and into the wild, Tribes: Ascend from HiRez Studios is available now. HiRez is responsible for the MMO come Free-To-Play game Global Agenda and you may have noticed the similarities between the two. Having only a cursory knowledge of Tribes 1 and 2 due to a lack of interest in the game, I would have to say this shiny new version is looking pretty spanky. Guess I'll have to wade into the three-game deep veteran n00b hunt and check it out for myself.