The Tratz Blog

Duke Nukem Forever

2012-02-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Duke Nukem Forever went on sale in Steam this week and I was able to snag the game and all of the DLC for just under $10. I always loved the series in my teens. Despite how awful the Duke Nukem games have been since Duke 3D and the horrible reviews Forever received, I decided the $10 was worth the risk. After being sucked into the game for at least two hours I realized that I should have never

Black Prophecy

2012-01-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

Black Prophecy is an action packed space combat simulator and MMORPG hybrid by Reakktor Media GmbH. The game came out in March 2011 and it's my opinion it has received less exposure than it deserves. The game is set in the distant future where two superior races, the Genide and the Tyi, vie for control of the known Galaxy. In their exploits for conquest they uncover a dangerous unknown alien

SOPA and Protect IP - A Rant

2011-12-30T04:18:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last month then you've probably heard of SOPA and PROTECT IP. If you haven't, the short version is they are pieces of crap legislation that will allow large copyright holders to block and take down content in the United States over the Internet. PROTECT IP (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property

EvE Online: A Year in Review

2011-10-28T00:16:00.001-07:00

I checked my employment history in EVE and realized that it's been just over a year since I started playing. Now would be a good time to reflect on the game and share some of my experiences. It may also explain why I've barely written in nearly 3 months! So, here goes.My journey into New Eden started with boredom. I had been playing Star Trek Online (STO) and I had already capped out a character

Shat Trekk'd Photoshopping

2011-08-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Another Shat Trek update for you folks to take in. I've got some promotional posters I'd like to share. David and Jack are hard at work producing more footage for the first episode. Check them out or Jojo Kracko will break my kneecaps!

Introducing: Shat Trek!

2011-07-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

I've got a soft spot for independent work and science fiction. Star Trek, as some of you may know, is no exception to the rule. Additionally I can have a very crude sense of humor. Put these things together and what do you get? Shat Trek.Shat Trek is essentially an independent stop animation project put together by Logan 5 Pictures. Logan 5 consists of two of my friends from work, Jack Hutzler

Google+

2011-07-09T14:16:00.001-07:00

I had the fortune of getting in on Google+ thanks to a resounding response to my request for an invite on Facebook. I just wanted to write a quick blog on my first impressions of the social networking service that I've been lovingly calling "Google Facebook." Before I get to that, however, here's a basic overview of what I've gotten myself into.Essentially what we're looking at here is a medium

U.S. Law to Limit Creativity?

2011-07-04T02:59:00.001-07:00

There were a few disturbing articles published around the Internet yesterday regarding a nasty little ammendmant to Bill S. 978 that's being considered by the US Senate. As some of you may already know, I'm Canadian. Why should a bill passed by the U.S. Senate bother me? It could effect the content in this blog for starters.The long and short of this nasty little amendment is that it could turn

Incarna is Here!

2011-06-22T02:59:00.001-07:00

CCP Games released the first update in their Incarna expansion on June 21st. It is my completely biased and heartfelt opinion when I say that this expansion is what will make EVE the space faring MMO to end all space faring MMOs. This first update gives us the Captain's Quarters, the Noble Exchange, brand new ship turrets and much more. The full patch notes can be read here.The Carbon based

Hacking Spree!

2011-06-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hacking seems to be a bit of a fad as of late. It's certainly a re-occurring theme in the tech blog-o-sphere. People are getting hacked and personal information is being leaked in the form of thousands of usernames, passwords and emails. It's not just your typical "Low Orbit Ion Cannon" DDoS shutouts, either. One thing's for sure, it seems that a lot of people and organizations have taken flimsy

Humble Frozenbyte Bundle

2011-04-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

The Humble Bundle is at it again. This time they've teamed up with Frozenbyte to release another 5 game bundle. Three of the bundled games are released and two them are still in development. Once again, proceeds from the Humble Bundle can be donated to Child's Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.The games on the list this time include Trine, a physics based platformer game where

EVE Fanfest 2011

2011-04-11T04:10:00.000-07:00

The good people at CCP Games are still at it. In March they hosted the 2011 EVE Fanfest in Rykjavik, Iceland. During their annual Fanfest they announced many exciting up and coming changes to their flagship game, Eve Online. The scope of what they have in mind for EVE is quite large. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to take the time off and fly to Iceland to enjoy this year's Fanfest. I did,

EvE Online

2011-02-01T03:19:00.000-08:00

Eve Online is a Sci-Fi MMORPG by CCP Games. The game has been around since 2003. Most of you probably know (vaguely) what it is and some of you have probably played it within the last 5 years. For those of you who don't have any idea about what Eve is I'll share the core details but for the most part I wanted to share my gameplay perspective on the game.The genre of Eve is heavy science fiction

Dot Dot Dot

2011-01-19T03:50:00.001-08:00

Ok, I'm not usually one for blogging other people's reviews...but this one's priceless. Believe it or not, this was based on an actual "review post" on new grounds. I've got to say that Axman13's review of Super PSTW Action RPG is startlingly accurate and hilarious...but only beacuase the voices where pretty good.

Minecraft Revisit

2011-01-16T02:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take an opportunity to cover some of the aspects of Minecraft that I didn't go over in my first article now that Minecraft has reached beta. Those topics would be skinning, texture packs, redstone wiring and multiplayer gameplay.While there's nothing new about re-skinning your character I still want to touch base on how neat skinning is. In order to re-skin your character (so that you

KeePass Password Safe

2011-01-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

There's been a bit of a buzz around the Internet since Gawker was hacked in December '10. We all know security over the Internet is important. This isn't anything new since we all know how easy it is for an individual to have their personal and financial information compromised. What made the Gawker incident such a big deal was the scope of compromised accounts. There were 1.3 million accounts

Braid

2010-12-25T10:45:00.001-08:00

Braid is an indie (independent) side scrolling platform game developed by Jonathan Blow. You play the role of a little man in a suit who is trying to find his princess through a crazy series of "Cloud Worlds."Each world has a set of story books that tell you what each world represents. Every world has a collection of jigsaw puzzle pieces that are largely guarded by puzzles. To get to all of the

The Humble Indie Bundle 2

2010-12-18T23:54:00.000-08:00

This week I'm taking a look at the Humble Indie Bundle #2. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to hear about the first Humble Bundle until after it was over. From what I understand it was a huge success. When I heard that there would be a second Humble Bundle, I jumped all over it.So what is the Humble Indie Bundle and why should you care? The Humble Bundle is a collection of 5 Indie (

Global Agenda

2010-12-12T23:54:00.000-08:00

Global Agenda is an arena style shooter game by Hi-Rez Studios. It is their first major game and so far it has been successful. The game takes place in 2155 after a third world war has forced a menacing Commonwealth into power. You are one of their super agents who has been freed by Agency Zero. Agency Zero primarily operates out of a place called Dome City. In Global Agenda, Dome City is the

Turf Wars

2010-11-25T03:50:00.000-08:00

Turf Wars is an iPhone game developed by MeanFreePath LLC. For those of you who are familiar with the Zynga game Mafia Wars, this is going to look a little familiar. Unlike Mafia Wars, Turf Wars uses the GPS as a mechanic for capturing territory in real time.The objective of Turf Wars is simple - be the biggest mobster in your city, region, country or even the world. As you progress through the

The Swap to Linux

2010-11-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

I have had the joy of spending the last couple of weeks breaking free of Windows and adopting the open source philosophy. This is something that I had intended to do for a long time. It started with my father giving me a laptop with Karmic Koala installed on it. I didn't think much of it at first mainly because the laptop wasn't capable of doing much more than surf the web. The idea of using

A Review of Minecraft Alpha

2010-11-06T23:54:00.004-07:00

Minecraft is a game developed by Mojang Specifications. To be blunt Minecraft is a game of extreme spelunking and Lego on steroids. The game is mostly developed, programmed and designed by one man by the name of Markus Persson or “Notch.” Persson has been been producing Minecraft since 2009 and the game is still currently in the alpha stage. A gameplay video for Minecraft There are a couple of

Pidgin IM

2010-11-01T12:56:00.002-07:00

Pidgin is an open source instant messaging client that handles multiple IM services simultaneously. There are several other multiple IM chat clients out there such as Trillian or Meebo but Pidgin is the only client that covers the most chat protocols locally on your computer for free. Right now Pidgin 2.7.4 sports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MXit, MySpaceIM, QQ

Pro HDR

2010-10-25T12:30:00.002-07:00

Pro HDR is an application for the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 that takes high dynamic range photographs. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it basically refers to the practice of merging different exposures of a photograph into one vibrant and colourful image. HDR imaging also tends to bring out the details that you wouldn’t otherwise see by letting just the right amount of light and

The iPhone 4

2010-10-19T00:53:00.002-07:00

One of the biggest splurges I’ve made recently was purchasing an iPhone 4. I was coming up on the end of a 3 year contract with Bell and trying to decide which shiny new gizmo to get and had been reading a lot of tech blogs such as CrunchGear and Gizmodo to try and help me make my decision. Ironically I’m a Google fan but when push came to shove I decided upon the iPhone 4 for several reasons. It