FreeWareCentral

Just watched a movie on Rogers Pay Per View (channel 100 on Rogers Cable, reasonably good service). It’s Man of the Year which features Robin Williams as the protagonist, Tom Dobbs. Dobbs runs a news show where he pokes fun at political institutions, the government, and strange decisions by those in high power. The story starts with an audience member saying, prior to that day’s filming, that he should run in the election. The idea is quickly pushed away until a few weeks later when he announces, on live television, that he will be running in the campaign.

As this is going on the company running the voting software, Delacroy, have employee Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) confront them about a glitch in the voting software that will make the votes practically irrelevant to who gets elected. They dismiss it as it is only weeks to the election and their stock would plummet if this news was leaked.

The story picks up from there, as the most amazing thing happens: Tom Dobbs wins. Yes, a comedian wins the campaign to become president for the United States of America.

Overall, the movie is a great watch. There are some scenes, mostly around Eleanor Green, that give this movie its PG14 rating. However, it is a funny comedy that will appeal to most people. I recommend watching it and give it an 8.5/10.

-Metroid48

Since the site is still not working satisfactorily, I will post links to some games you have to try. But first, an update for what’s going on behind the scenes of FWC:

The first major change will be how games are added and managed. Until now, this was the game page. A little annoying to use, couldn’t find games by name, inconsistent layout, etc.

Here’s a look at the newer layout. In this case I have used a commercial game, Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii) as an example. Firstly, it has a blurb about the game. Also present is some information such as category, download link (if free game), publisher, etc. Links to the Review, Videos, and Screenshots are also there.

Also, there is a search engine being worked on. Here is the link to it. Currently, there are only a couple games (rayman raving rabbids and mu-cade) added to the new system, so you won’t find much with it. However, it’s getting there.

The parts that need to be finished before I start using the new system (and updating more frequently) are:

• Images for game page and search page. It’s still a little chaotic developer-version looking
• Finishing up the method of adding new videos, screenshots, etc. on the admin page to make it more convenient
• Fixing some glitches, making the video player friendlier to non-Windows-systems

Overall, not that much. However, it may still take a month to get it done due to other concerns I currently have.

So, now that I’m done that, you’re probably asking for the games. Well, here they are:

• Megapixel, interesting FPS (singleplayer only, Mac and Windows and Browser versions available)
• Sumotori Dreams, very funny (in multiplayer) game where two ragdoll sumo people try to knock the other person over
• Orbiter, not really a game, more of a simulator. Can simulate flying to other planets and landing with realistic (and not-so-realistic) craft. Has a lot of mods available, very cool simulator, though only try it if you’re a hardcore-flight-simulator-fan. Large download.
• Grid Wars, a Geometry Wars-clone that unfortunately had the original link removed due to Intellectual Property Rights. Anyway, the link goes to WorldOfStuart which has a mirror. Very VERY fun arcade-like game
• Within a Deep Forest, an adventure game where you play a bouncing ball trying to stop a bomb exploding that will freeze the world. Very fun, unique game, though I would have suggested a different narrator

That’s some of the games I’d suggest at the moment. I’ve got a list with 40+ of them, many untested, about 20 listed to add to the site. These are just a few that I think are really good, though don’t try Orbiter unless you’re really into flight simulators.

Anyway, just before I end this post, here’s a few projects I’m keeping an eye on because they look interesting:

• MarioKart Source, mod that uses the source game engine (you need Half Life 2 installed) to create a physics-accurate Mario Kart game. Looks like it will be fun when it’s done.
• Subversion, a game from the creators of Darwinia that is currently in the works. The link goes to the blog, where you can find articles called “It’s all in your head, Part #” which talk about Subversion. Looks like it’ll be interesting when released.

I know that must look like the longest blog post yet. Well, it is pretty much. Anyway, as I get through my testing que I’ll write about any other games I suggest and updates about the site.

Until next post,

-Dravailo

There was an RTS named Total Annihilation. It was released prior to the well-known Starcraft by a company named Cavedog. Though those who found it (including me) found it to be superior to Starcraft, it died out as Cavedog went bankrupt.

Now there is Supreme Commander, a game which is considered to be the ’spiritual sequel’ to TA, as it was made by some of the same people. I also have played Supreme Commander and find it retains the same amount of difficulty as TA, the same habit of non-satisfactory campaigns, and a LOT better multiplayer than the first.

However, before SupCom was released, there was a project. Known as TA Spring! (now simply Spring) it’s goal was to replicate the type of gameplay as TA, while offering it for free. Recently the project has moved away from being a copy of the gameplay of TA, and is now starting to develop and be a fun online game. It has mods (eg. StarWars mod), good 3D graphics, deforming terrain. It’s got many new features, all for free:

Spring Homepage

Overall, after testing it again, I can see it’s become better than ever. I’d definitely suggest it to any fan of TA, or SupCom. Though, newbie be warned, metal resource management is quite hard.

Coming up tomorrow, several games to try out while I get the main site up and running proper (search engine for games, game database, etc.),

-Dravailo

I’ve been browsing and just saw the Mythbusters web-cast of Ninja questions, in which they had the person from AskANinja.Com on. Here’s the youtube video:

Anyway, that reminded me to check out AskANinja.com again. Checked it out, funny new material. For those who don’t know, people send in questions to Ask A Ninja and a ninja (or so you think) answers them, in very funny ways, via video podcasts. There’s about 40 episodes, the more recent ones are funnier. Still, I’d recommend classics like “Ninja Skills” and “Ninja Dogs” (or Caninja’s, as the ninja calls them). Very funny site, well worth watching.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I’m starting to try and have lucid dreams. Again. I’m too busy right now, but during summer I’ll have a lot more time and (hopefully) several lucid dreams. Lucid Dreaming is, simply put, becoming conscious that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. May sound pointless, but this gives you a whole world, which can be more vivid than life it self, in which you have control. You can actually affect things by willing them to happen. This includes flying, walking through walls, talking to your subconscious, shapeshifting, whatever. Whatever you can think of that doesn’t go against your beliefs (since your subconscious creates the dream world, deep beliefs often prevent some things from occurring) is usually possible.

If you want to learn to have lucid dreams, a few things are great resources. One is a podcast from Erin Pavlina. Another is the DreamViews site and forums. The best book on the subject is Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen Laberge.

-Dravailo

Well, I’ve been using Vista for a little while now. The first thing you’d notice while using it would definitely be Aero glass, the interface change. Basically, it makes window borders transparent and has other little effects that make everything look better. If your computer cannot run Aero, however, the ‘Aero Basic’ theme looks really bad, so I’d change it to XP theme.

Past the new interface, Vista is basically XP. It does have changes, like User Account Control (UAC), but it other than UAC it’s the same operating system (OS) with minor interface changes. There’s a search bar added to the start bar, better background-image-control, some more customization options, but it is mostly the same OS. There’s no major need to upgrade if you’re using XP just fine.

Onto other subjects, I just got Battlefield 2142 and gave that a whirl. Aside from no widescreen support, the game is a lot of fun. Conquest mode is basically the same from the previous titles in the series, but Titan mode is brand new. Basically, there are two giant air craft. They have a shield around them that only friendlies can pass through. There are also several silos, usually 3-7, on the ground. Standing near one for a little while will convert it to your team’s side, in which case it will periodically fire missiles at the opposing titan, weakening its shield/hull. Once the shields are down, you can directly fly people over and land on the enemy ship. They can infiltrate inside the ship and destroy the ship’s core a lot quicker than external attacks.

Overall, I am very impressed by 2142’s new Titan mode. The rest of the game is really similar to Battlefield 2, though helicopters don’t use rotating blades and are a lot easier to fly. Still, it doesn’t seem much like the year 2142. You’d think they’d have thought of new things instead of still using tanks and dune buggies. Either way, I give it an 8.6/10.

Finally, I’ve blogged previously about Garry’s Mod 10 (Gmod10). However, I was recently contacted about where to download Gmod9, the version prior to Gmod going commercial. So, I checked Garry Newman’s site, but he’d taken down the Gmod9 downloads. Then, via http://forums.facepunchstudios.com, the official forums, I got a filefront link. However, filefront requires registration to download files. Instead of registering, I used BugMeNot to get a public username and password. Basically, BugMeNot is a useful site where people submit username-password combinations for sites that require registration. Then, other people can use said site without registering. I’d recommend it for any sites where you aren’t going to do much after downloading one file/reading one article.

As for Gmod9, I gave it a whirl again. I tried searching for pirate gamemode, but it doesn’t seem there are as many servers for that anymore. Overall, Gmod9 is a major step back from Gmod10, and I’d still recommend the new version over it. After all, it’s only $10.00 if you already own a Source Game (CS:S, HL2, etc.), or $24.99 bundled with Counter-Strike:Source.

-Dravailo