Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Webcam in the near future.

Date: 12/31/03 at 4:30AM

Yesterday I went over to Best Buy with Bob and his friend, Mike. I was going to buy a webcam so I can do video with people over the Internet. I was planning to spend 60 dollars on it, but they are only 1 MEGAPIXEL. I had my eye on a certain webcam called EZCAM PRO III at Tigerdirect.com. It’s only 30 bucks, and it has all the features and high resolution of any 60 dollar deals at Best Buy. If I had a high speed connection, my webcam would be on all the time. I was going to buy some Gamecube games at BestBuy and didn’t. The game I want most is Beyond Good and Evil for consoles, it looks like a AAA class game! I almost got Project Gotham Racing 2 for Xbox. I own Project Gotham and it was good, but I don’t play it very often. Although it is an unfair comparison, Project Gotham looks better then Gran Turismo 3.

I saw Gothic II at Gamestop too, and was going to get that, but I heard the battle system is weird and not as good as Neverwinter Nights. So I didn’t. I know Grand Thief Auto 3 is a great game, but I already have it for PS2 so I don’t need to re-buy it. Bob is going to copy Vampire the Masquerades for me. I take any copied game I can get. Except I think Bob has a virus on his PC so I hope it doesn't affect the copy. I also saw Half-life Value Package for 30 dollars which included Half-life, and 4 expansion packs including the very popular Counter Strike. I never played Counter Strike. Mike is going to download it of the Internet, and give me a copy. Half-life is Bobs all time favorite game.

When we got to my house, I was disappointed to hear that they had to leave right away. I was hoping that I could host a LAN party for an hour. He is going to a party on New Years and I was invited but I'll be around many people I don't know and they'll be drinking so I may just stay home.

Today I woke up at about 3:30AM and I’m working on Xenosaga Episode 1. This game is the prequel of Xenogears. Unlike Xenogears, Xenosaga is about the human race at war with the Gnosis, these aliens kill humans just by touching one. The year is set about 2450, and we have warp speed, mech warriors, and KOS-MOS, a super hybrid android capable of destroying Gnosis. So far I’m 4 hours in the game. It’s fun. Sometimes I feel that there isn’t enough gnosis around to fight: [No fighting, no leveling up, no experience, no damage.] I don’t know about most people. I like watching the games cut-scenes. On the case, it says that this game is an 80-hour adventure; I plan to beat it in under 60 hours. The game has over 2 hours of cut-scenes. We know that Namco is making 5 sequels, all dated centuries before Xenogears. We know that the technology is lost and human kind is thrown back 600 years of technical achievement. It’s weird in the game Xenogears when you get “ancient technology” in form of giant mech machines. Was this game inspired by Gundam Wing? I like futuristic sci-fi games. They are cool. Who agrees with me?

Monday, December 29, 2003

Couldn't wait until 2004 to buy some games

Date: 12/29/03 at 2:15AM

This will be my last entry of the year 2003. I will always remember 2003 as the year I took two college courses and passed, and then re-took them over again just to make sure I was good at it. These courses included Intro to DOS, and my favorite, Intro to Linux. We where trained on Redhat Linux Professional 7.1. Both classes are required courses for someone wanting to be an industrial network specialist. I joined WITC 3 months after I graduated from HS. I got immediately transferred after high school to another college. College is cool, but I have too few of friends. I feel that people going to my classes aren’t really my type. That’s not bad though since Bob and I hang out once every too weeks. I also remember this being the year I bought 3 videogame systems this year, a ps2, a psone, and xbox and one handheld. I bought countless games. Much more then I should of. I just got today – a Game Boy Advance SP. The unit is really small and that alone amazes me. I had a GBA since 2000, which I barely played, except in high school. Now that I’m a ‘mature’ adult, I have places to go, people to see, no time for Gameboy Advance. I am a bit wiser then I was in high school. I plan ahead, and budget my money, although it is mostly spent on gas and videogames. I also mentioned what else I spent money on if you spent close attention to my blog.  I do now because I’m on Christmas Break. I don’t work. Gameboy Advance SP cost me 100 bucks. I’m broke as of now. I was going to get an Atari 2600 because its old school. I could have such “immortal” classic games like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Pacman, Defender, Pitfall Harry, and Tron. Then the NES has improved graphics with the same ports. Improved sound for that matter. I almost forgot about my own GBA because I hardly even play it. GBA games are more expensive that’s what kept throwing me off. It was suppose to be awesome in the early 80s until the NES kicked it in the arse. The NES ruled from 1985 - 1991. I have a friend who owns a NES. With “immortal” classics like Super Mario Bros, I thought I going to own a NES. Then I soon realized at an early age, why spend money on outdated NES or SNES when I can have a “3D game machine.” (I wanted my own copy of Super Mario 64 really badly partly because I was only 12 at the time, and I thought N64 was cool.) Everyone else in the grade seemed to have either a Playstation or N64. Back when I was 12, I thought N64 was a huge gift for a Christmas present. I remember being over joyd at the site of owning it. My first two games where Star Fox 64 and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.) Games I want for NES are Super Mario Bros. 1&3, Final Fantasy, Spy Hunter, Mega Man 1,3,4,6. It seems like a used NES will always be available if I eventually get one, but it stopped me because the graphics are so bad now, and I can play it on the PC through emulation anyway. After getting the latest GBA handheld, I don’t think I need a NES. I can go to a game specialist store any time, and buy any used GBA game I want. I realize that GBA games are somewhat more expensive then the old NES. Having the controller makes the experience more real. I can buy most of those games for GBA anyway. Plus GBA out sells PS2 3 to 1, I was beginning to wonder why. I disbelieve that Pokemon does all that!

Today I installed Unreal Tournament 2003 on all three of my computers. I can still kick ass in the skilled experience level. I have a small local area network (LAN) up and running. I was going to get the Xbox version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for Christmas. I originally wanted the PC version because IGN.com said it not only looked better, it had more stuff, and was longer. The two versions both had a 9.2/10 rating. The game was rated the Best Xbox RPG and Xbox Game of the Year by IGN.com, and Best Xbox RPG by Game Informer Magazine. It will be nice playing it on a fast Pentium 4 with a ATI RADEON 9800 and 1 GByte RAM :D. The game is made by the makers of Neverwinter Nights, Bioware.
Published on 11/29/03 | http://ian1984.Modblog.com

Today I am feeling good. I went to Bloogz.com where I found my name, ian1984, already listed under the Playstation 2 category. This was my first entry at Modblog.com, and I did not want a bot to list my page on Bloogz.com. It seems to me that this site has some trade offs. I don't care. That's not so important as what I found at a website called MoveableType.com. Moveable Type.com is an open source blog template that lets you search, categorize, autolink visitors, autoping visitors, and trace his/her route – exactly what Modblog does. I want to upload Moveable Type (MT 2.64) to http://geocities.com/nightwalkers101/ , but I haven't quite figured out how to make a template I could write on. I know how to load everything, that's not the problem. I'll figure it out sooner or later. I believe it uses php or xml, very unfamiliar territory. If it works in Dreamweaver, I can more then likely figure this one out.

So far I pulled in 14 hits with-in the first 4 hours of my page online. I love this place, I never had this much visitors through Geocities. Just could be the fact that everyone now knows I'm an Eagle Scout. Yep. I camped at temperatures below 32°F without any signs of frostbite. How did I do it? I was taught that you take everything off except for my underwear, climb in my sleepingbag with a winterjacket over me. And stay away from the Fire, I hate getting close to the fire because I always will get cold again when I'm away from it. That way I was slightly more cold then warm, but not sweating in my bag. Cold sweat is the worst. Every scout knows this because it comes right out the hand book.

It was June, two years ago, I also took swimming and life saving merit badges with Life Rank. (I was Patrol Leader that time.) Life saving merit badge was by far the worst. I had to go down 9 feet, save a dummy with team work while doggie pattling (dead man's float vertically) the whole time. You were down there for about 15 – 25 seconds moving around holding your breath. The water up there was about 50 degrees, and I felt numb when I got out. I remember that final weekend up at TrollHaugn Scout Reversation near Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Kayaking and the sailing were fun. Haven't done ither since then.

Sunday, December 28, 2003

PS2 makes me focased, but it makes school less ent

http://ian1984.Modblog.com | Date: 12/8/03 at 2:15AM

Sorry about the lack of updates. Playstation 2 makes me more focased, but makes school less interesting. I been working on homework. I was noglecting my webpage a bit. Semester is almost over at WITC. I dropped a few classes so it wouldn't go on my record. I have struggled through the electricity aspect of school. With computers, I also need to know how to use electricity, being there are many regulations on numbers of pcs, power sources, servers, that can be in one room. Everything has to come off the IEEE standard. As for my pesonal life ....

I finally got Kingdom Hearts for the PS2. I haven't played it yet. Kingdom Hearts combines Final Fantasy 7, 8, 10 and Disney characters in one game in a role playing game type fashion. What I should of done was buy Kingdom Hearts new, but I paid used, and got a game disk but no manel. The game is made by Squaresoft, and it got good reviews from some of Bob's friends. I'll review it here at this website soon. I'm going to return it tomorrow, and see if I can't get it new. I'm not going to play it until I finish Final Fantasy X-2. I'm almost done with Chapter 1. There are a lot of side quests in FF X-2, but I see it as I can play it straight through.

I went over to my friend Bob's place. His parents just bought him a Playstation 2 a week ago and the only game he got was ATV offroad racing. It's as I thought, newer Playstations have a newer version of drivers. I didn't know that the new PS2s have a modem adapter on them. Not that it was any different then mine. He likes Mature games. I asked him if he likes Summoner or Baldur's Gate Deadly Alliance. He came over 2 days ago where we went to a Game Store. I said buy Final Fantasy X, because it was a really cool game. He didn't want Stuntman, Spiderman or Rune. He ended up buying Baldur's Gate. It so happened that I owned it for Xbox and we played Baldur's Gate, he liked it too. Bob said he's getting the GTA Double Pack for X-mas. I let him barrow GTA Vice City, Madden 2002, and Devil May Cry for a week. I don't get a lot of time to play games with other people so it was great playing Madden with a friend. I was rusty. I lost to the Packers 21 Vikings 20. He owned Madden 64 so he knew Madden more then I. In 2000, I bought NFL 2K on Dreamcast, but that's 3 years ago already! However we played NFL-Europe teams .... and the Dragons (Me) won against the Claymores (him) 7 -5. We got even!

Bob has a speaker system that he hooks up to his computer that had Dolby Digital Pro Logic II and the surround speakers and it sounded great. I wasn't heart pumping, but it did sould better then two generic pc speakers. I then thought, hmm, I could get a tv tuner for my computer and play Playstation 2 on it. Higher resolution display makes it worth it to him. I'm getting my other pc fixed, installing a new motherboard. I was either going to get a new harddrive or tv tune. and I don't know which one is better. I don'tneed the space right
now. I bought a 100 Gigabyte harddrive and the I aleady have a slightly slower one installed.

The day before I had nothing to do so I drove over to Randy's house. He and I know each other. He was installing a sub speaker in his truck, but needed a board in cased with fiberglass to support the speakers. He wanted the richest sound he could possibly get without putting a lot of money in it. The sawing noise was *beeping* loud!

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Merry Christmas 2003

Date: 12/25/03 at 1:47PM

Merry Christmas to all bloggers! Well, I liked this Christmas okay, and it is much better then last year. Last year, my parents gave me money to build my own computer. The one that I fried a couple times over. I woke up at 2am in the morning, worked on the website some. Then I played Gran Transimo 3 for a couple hours until my parents woke up. We have a nice tree this year. I didn’t tell you about it. Well, it’s a spur (native to that of Wisconsin) with a lot of ornaments and lights. I only got one Christmas present under the tree, but that’s okay because I also got a third computer. This one is a Dell so I don’t know how well it’ll hold up. I’ll tell you that it’s one of those high end gaming machines. The specs are my secret for now Dad got a 4 year warranty so I better not touch it. I want too, but I will force myself to avoid the goodies if it comes at a cost. We had a bad time with Thunderstorms in the Summer. That time cost me 800 dollars, and that doesn’t count the time mother short circuited both because she had to shut off the electricity. That and the fact that I fied one computer using my hands. All my computers now have surge protectors. They like pay for themselves the first time something goes wrong.

In the past I couldn’t keep my hands out of the PC. I know how to install most everything, except for the processor, which I’m always afraid I’ll crack. If the PC doesn’t turn on, there is a 75% chance I fried the motherboard. In the future, I’m going to build cheap computers, that way I can afford to buy a new motherboard if I screw up. Everything else I can handle. I know where all the wires / cables go. I can flash the bios, and load the OS. Pretty soon I’ll build PCs for my friends for free once I’m 100% sure I can without damaging it.

Actually I have a lot of extra PC hardware lying around. I have extra parts to make one including two 128 MB SDRAM DRR Sticks. One Extra 40 GByte hard drive. One NIC card, one winmodem, one 128 MB XFX Geforce 4 slightly used! (There is a long story about that) One sound card. And a slightly used Athlon XP 1800. The stuff I don’t have is a 160 Volt power box, a Socket A motherboard, and a case (defiantly need one of those.)

Now, I bet you were wondering about how I have a perfectly good graphics card unused? For my Birthday, Dad got me a 256MB Geforce 4 and I didn’t need that Geforce4 anymore. The slowest computer that I have right now can only support up to 64 MB of video ram.

Monday, December 22, 2003

WinXP

Date: 12/22/03 at 3:18PM

Mood: Tired and lazy

In my opinion, Windows XP is a great operating system to have, but isn’t Microsoft charging to much for it? I have Windows XP Home on one PC and Windows XP Pro on the other. Windows 98 was also the ideal operating system to pirate because you didn’t need a crack to install it on multiple computers unlike that latest version of Windows. WinXP Home isn’t that much, only 100 bucks. WinXP Professional makes you cash out 200. Is that fair? Microsoft also has its XBOX bundle for 170 dollars, and that’ll cost meless then their Windows XP PRO. It’s near insanity how much Microsoft charges for their OS. But I already own a Xbox so that problem doesn't concern me any. Most of you must agree with me on this. The big question I always asked myslef is, Windows worth as much as it is? All the consumer gets is a upgrade disk. The full Windows Pro runs even more. The faulty deal consumers get when they buy Compaq or HP is that they don’t get an upgrade installation disc with their PC. What happens if you want to reformat your hard drive? Even worst, what happens if you don't even own Windows 98? And if you want Windows 2000, which is actually an earlier version of Windows, you will have to cash out an extra 300 dollars. Sure there are cracks on the Internet that will allow you to bypass the activation code, but doing so is wrong. I haven’t seen much difference between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I play with Windows 2000 at school. I know there are some differences. Both both have NT file system. Windows 2000 has a better firewall, but I just use the Norton Firewall. Lucky for me, my dad had an extra Windows XP PRO lying around our house.

So, you forget Microsoft all together and run Linux *open source* OS with the latest free version of Winex, a program allowing you to run Windows Games on Linux by emulating the Windows kernel on Linux much like MS-DOS is emulated. WineX Website >> http://www.transgami...g.com/subhilites.php << There is not much you can do with Linux except surf the Internet and play MP3s. All the cool software is available for Windows. I hope one day WineX can emulate all Windows programs (and games), and one day make Microsoft lower it’s price on Windows because then everybody would soon realize Linux would be better. I take it that not all PC owners know that Linux exsists. Now, Wine can only emulate 33% of my Windows Programs, and still does a crappy job on emulating Diablo 2, but I can see that it does work. I wanted to see if Unreal Tournament runs good on it. I run Suse Linux 8.2 at home. I wonder what Project Greenhorn will be like? This is next generation Windows. This was why I did a Google search on it.

As for the rest of the day, it’s gotten very boring. None of my friends had the day off today, so I downloaded a few desktop themes mainly Final Fantasy VII, one Counter Strike desktop theme and one Legend of Dragoon desktop theme. I change desktop themes every month. Stayed home most of the day. Worked on the mod some. It's coming along. I wish I had feedback on it.

Action Replay Max is the way to go if you own PS2

Orginal entry date 12/1/03

I am 100% British. My name is Ian isn't it. I knew I had some Brit in me, Yot. I wonder how many Brits play PS2. What would be interesting, is if they played Xbox (which all of you should know is made here in US) What do the Brits like to do? Drink Tea? I hear Coca-Cola is big over there. Jolly Good! Take the quiz.




Jolly good, wot! Anyone for tennis? That'll be ten ponies, guv. You're the epitome of everything that is english. Yey :) Hoist that Union Jack!
How British are you?

this quiz was made by alanna


All of you may of noticed the Devil May Cry banner on my page. Although I have that game, it isn't one of my favorites. I thought that Devil May Cry, the first one was very successful, would appeal to the hardcore gaming community. Dante was a good idea which appeals to the hardcore gaming person. People who look at Rob Zombie videos would like this game. You'll never catch me watching Rob Zombie, System of the Down or Marilyn Manson videos on MTV. DMC2 wasn't so good. The first one had better graphics, better gameplay. I read a head, and didn't buy DMC2. A good site is http://www.gamerankings.com/.

If you want to cheat for your Playstation 2. I advise getting a Action Replay MAX. I bought a ordinary Action Replay for PS2, and while the codes where OK, it didn't include games like Final Fantasy or .hack part 1, or some other codes that you can only get off Codejunkies. Codejunkies.com, the official Action Replay website,only accepts AR MAX codes, which have three sets of code separated by two (-) instead of one. The $19.99 price tag with PSone Action Replay disc and the memory card included is just the older version of the game enhancer. I wanted to complete such games like FFX, FFX2, Jak 2 and Castlevania in record time. Bottom line, don't make the same mistake I did, and get an Action Replay MAX for your next PS2 game enhancer. Don't buy a gameshark. Action replay max wil read gameshark 2 (ver. 1, 2, 3) code saves! Gamecube owners don't have to worry about this. It's all the same with GCN.

I think that X-Port or Shark-port is a waste of my money with the exception of XBOX game enhancer, which can not use codes. If you want to get a game anyway for PS2 such as Metal Gear Solid 2, always get the PS2 version. I was thinking of getting MGS2 for Xbox, but I thought nah, it's not worth 20 dollars. Why? First of all, you can cheat on PS2 only. Second the bulky Xbox controller is worst then the Duel Shock 2. It's still good since I play xbox at home.

Horizons is suppose to be out today. It's a new massive multiplayer online role playing game for Windows. Game of the Year quality. I had a friend who played the demo and immensly enjoyed it. He said it was a lot like the game Dungeon Siege. I think that any RPG fan should own this game because it could be long, and packed with features.

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Star Trek is beginning from it's roots

Date: 12/21/03 at 8:27AM

Many people may not consider me a Star Trek fan or “Trekkie” as they are now beginning to find themselves a dying breed. However, I have today familiarized myself with the Star Trek timeline at Startrek.com. Paramount Pictures has disparately tried to keep the Star Trek franchise a float entering the 21st century on their UPN TV Network. Knowing now how outdated Star Trek in the 1960s was. I was a fan of watching the last years of Star Trek Voyager. Anyway go to this link, it’s most interesting. Star Trek: Enterprise has, for sure, bent the rules just to stay current to what we know think the future will be. The link http://www.startrek..../episode/121932.html you are about to read is about the first episode of newest Star Trek TV series, Enterprise, which dates 90 years after the Enterprise-E was sent back in time in the movie, Star Trek: First Contact. It is about the best summery of the beginning of Star Trek that you can have or from what I ever read in my life. Back when human-kind was limited by Vulcan technology. We were only 2nd best. Even better the Klingons were even more advanced then we were! The Valcans helped us come up with Warp 5 when we were still only capiable of Warp 1 for the longest time period.

Saturday, December 20, 2003

And I thought N64 was dead

Date: 12/20/03 at 6:14AM

Remember N64, the console that could have made it big if only the cartridge cost was less for the consumer. Nintendo is bringing N64 back in form of IQue. IQue is the Entire N64 gaming system packaged in one controller. It can be called the world’s first 64-MB handheld! I wish it was released here in the USA. It’s going to be released very cheaply in China, Korea and South America. I hope this Nintendo product doesn’t flop like the Virtual Boy did. Nintendo also leaked information that their next generation console is coming out in November 2004, but I disbelieve it. I had my eye on a new PS3 when it comes in the USA in 2005. I might also get a NES5 in 2006 just because of the quality of the first party games. You know, when I have the extra money…..

Thursday, December 18, 2003

New NWN Mod I created, it's not release quality

Date: 12/18/03 at 2:20AM

Today, I downloaded the new Neverwinter Nights patch for Hordes of the Underdark. While I was downloading the huge 25MB patch, I went on my other PC and created a Neverwinter Nights mod called “Ian’s Fantasy World.” It’s not release quality for sure. The mod is set in a forest with a 3 goblins grouped together set along a path. The graphics are nwn quality. My mod is meant for starting characters. But I made it easy for myself...I used someone else’s mod to get started. That’s the best part! I know, playing with mods is a waste of time, and perhaps I should use that time to play online. I never was much of an Unreal Tournament mod developer because I play few FPS though I keep updated with the new patches on all my games and downloaded the official map hacks if there are any. And then when I did play online, I died so often, and I just got boring. Believe it or not I was always on the upper half of the score sheet in UT1999. I noticed that lag got better with Ut2003. I could play first person shooters again online. But then theirs the awesome Call of Duty to play online. I don't have it. But I heard it's about the best WWII game out. I have Metal of Honor Allied Assault. I played the demo online at school. Their are a lot of gamers online that can frag a beginner. Everything is fair game, so that's another reason I switched to Diablo 2. It's much more fun to chat with people. Ya? I have all the official map packs for UT2003, and over 2 gigabytes of zipped maps for Unreal Tournament I’ve backed up on cdr. This was back when fileplanet.com was free. Why am I telling you this? I once thought I could play all of them, and be a master at Unreal Tournament – frag all my friends. After I found out that none of my friends played games online, I went the opposite direction, and became a big RPG fan both console and PC. At the begining I was a excellent marks man.

If I was to put my new mod online, it would be located at http://www.pressente...~scampbel/nwnmod.exe. I was playing Hordes of the Underdark a bit yesterday night, and then I was playing Diablo 2 for 8 hours straight today. I level upped 22 levels in one day. Playing the game is harder without the map hack I used before. I am now logged as *eyeofamarksman at USEAST Battlenet as a ladder character which means if I don’t play once every 3 days, my account will be deleted. No, I don’t play a PvP character or a level lecher. However, the new patch makes Duriel, Mophisco, and Baal harder. It would have been easier if I got further in the game, but party members kept dropping out of tight situations.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

New Webpage Template online

Date: 12/16/03 at 8:28PM

I just finished with a new template and checked all the links to make sure that they were working. I liked using miniwindows in my website. All my gaming reviews are shorter a least. This is what I want surfers to read first is my reviews. I continued to look at my webpage and made minor changes through out the day. This day is the last day of school until January 02, 2004. I feel that I should be on my PS2 because this webpage business is sucking up all my time.


Go to Link: http://www.geocities.com/nightwalkers101/v7_index.html

I headed over to http://nwnvault.ign.com today at school and downloaded 470 MBytes worth of mods. I also got Norton Antivirus so if I had any viruses on my computer. Before I had this bad problem with the Downloader_Trojon Virus. It infected 6 files on my computer. So I had Norton repair those files. After that everything went smoothly.

Neverwinter Nights is really cool, I go online and play, level up. I usually create a new character everything I go online. I hear that Final Fantasy XI is getting popular. To bad I don't have a credit card.

Monday, December 15, 2003

I recently reopened my Battlenet account ....

Orginal Date: 12/15/03 at 10:42AM

Neverwinter Nights is a midevil computer role playing game released 1.5 years ago by Bioware, the creators of Knights of the Old Republic for Xbox / PC. I play online for the first time in four months. I bought the two expansions, Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark. Right now I’m getting into HotUD. There are some who prefer HotUD over SoU, but I agree with both of them. See, Neverwinter Nights is about a 40 hour game and most people play 5 hours online at the most (like me) which means they won’t get to the ending unless it’s their server. Both expansions have their own 15+ hour campaign. The game is as fun as Diablo 2 was – though I still play it online. It’s wonderful not to have a game that crashes! I remember back in Version 1.21 (one year ago) that the game barely managed to work. And it’s really fast on a modem now. Get this game it’s really fun to talk to people – sometimes. Make sure that your computer doesn’t get window popups because they’ll bug me and you.

When I went to Wal-mart to get Shadows of the Undrentide expansion, it was too crowded. It reminds me on how bad this time of year is. And I live in a smaller part of the country with about 2200 people.

I told readers last month that I was an ex-diablo 2 player. Now I’m back online. It’s fun for the amount of time I spent on it. I still see Diablo 2 at Wal-mart so it must still be popular. I bought by copy in 2000 and the expansion when it came out for the first time. I find that Amazons are the most fun to play. Although I like Barbarians too. They just specialize in Weapons and are the easiest to level I think. Now with the 1.10 patch, Diablo 2 has really accelerated. Within the first 15 minutes you’re at level four. You noticed that all Dungeon and Dragons games are a like. It’s not apart of the “Forgotten Realms” like all of Bioware’s games are. It’s much darker then Neverwinter Nights. The graphics are bad, but it’s still playable.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

I'm downloading DIVX codec for the first time!

Original Date: 12/3/03 at 12:30AM

I headed over to Divx.com and downloaded Dr. Divx for my PC. Not that I'm going to edit video soon, but I wanted to see DIVX decoded in it's codec in action.In fact Internet Concepts was talking about different Codec to encode movies. If it does work and encode in AVI then I can bring it up in class. Imagine if you had a uncompressed "Desktop Video" about 2 hours, it would be below 650 MB compressed. Now I found out that the most common desktop video codec was AVI. I ran AVI and it can store a minute of video, very small screen with sound for about 550KB. Imagine how DIVX could work with streaming video. It's about half as small as most MPEGs and you can record a whole DVD movie on a CDR. Imagion how much video you can fit on a 4.7 G DVDR!!! Playstation 3 is going to read DVDRs so maybe it'll be able to read MPEG 4 & DIVX. My PS2 makes screeching sounds when I play movies. It's like a version 1.1 PS2. The first ones didn't have a system fan, this one does.

Anyway I found some freeware software. The selection is a little slim I might add. There is CrazyRIP (http://www.crazyrip.free.fr) which supposedly detects a movie playing and rips it to AVI encoded in Divx. It looks highly customizable and you don't need extra software. Next is DVD2AVI. It looks simple and rips streaming mpegII or MPV. Next choice requires anyone to download several files that plugin a program called Claddvd. (http://www.clonead.co.uk/) I've been saving the best DIVx all-in-one package available off the Internet for last called K-lite codec pack. (http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm)

School is going good so far, no problems really exist, or not the ones I wasn't to express on this page. Most of them are weak voices that I think I hear such as I know I can get every question right on my next quiz without studying in Internet Concepts. I like to think that I can but I really can't. It's the undeniable truth. Yep, I'm still downloading techno, country MP3s off the schools T1 server. What everyone else sees is my streaming audio, but I'm ripping that audio stream to the harddrive, and downloading it from the PC to my MP3 player I got on Nov. 01, 02. I must be a little odd in my game choices. I promised myself I wouldn't spend 50 dollars for a game that I would only play for about 20 hours then let it sit. This game from Urisoft (makers of Splitter Cell and Rayman) called Beyond Good and Evil could be my next investment. BGaE is a action adventure game that got good reader reviews for all platforms (that it's for.) It's has Zelda: Wind Waker like graphics and Zelda: Wind Waker type gameplay. I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking I just might own this title. I haven't really played Final Fantasy x-2 lately. I said I was going to be playing that game next. Remember I bought F-Zero GX for Gamecube 3 weeks ago? I haven't played it in about 3 weeks!!! That Action Replay set me back 20 more dollars then it should of. That sucks, and I can't return it because I opened it. Some of the newer games use a newer version of Action Replay. You all may laugh at me, but I cheated on Final Fantasy X-2. The saying "Cheaters never Prosper" applies here since my cheats make FFX-2 freeze. I wanted infinite items on my game. I doesn't make any sense because the codes were straight off Codejunkies.com!

Saturday, November 29, 2003

Life is Okay

Original entry off Modblog on 11/29/2003

Here's for all you bloggers out there. I've got a load of PS2 games that I don't play. Some you may of heard this one already. I have both GTAs for the consoles. GTA 3 and VC are the best games for PS2 aren't they. I reviewed the game and I found it fun chasing criminals around in cop cars. Cool?

I am an ex-Diablo 2 player. Level headed online player who never duels. I learned that 50% of the time, you don't get your stuff back, unless you're stuff isn't worth *crap*, and that guy who you dueled just left the game. I still play the game once in a while offline, but I always felt that I was getting ripped off when I sell armor / weapons to the elite classes. Most of the high level characters don't want you sell you anything that doesn't come off the ground! So I have never had magic find abilities on my characters and have never found or bought one of those eye of jordan stones that Battlenet players always want in change of elite armor / weapons. A guy like me can go bankrupted, but Diablo 2 is just that, trading the best deal for something someone else needs. I have some characters up there in the level 80 range. It's not that difficult to achieve after a week of online play. I stopped playing Diablo 2 when I owned a PS2. Okay so I played more then Diablo 2. I have a 2.1 Ghz Athlon to play games on. Hardware requirements aren't an issue except for the modem aspect.

So I got a PS2, what did I buy for it. Well, honestly, I have nothing to do yet so I don't do anything except play console games. I want to go to the mall. I want to buy stuff I need. I want to go to movies, and play pool (billards.) I want to some day jack up the car's sound system so you can hear it a mile away. But all my friends are working or going to school. I'm into platform games so what drived me to the PS2 was that it got all the ports of anything you ever want to play. Jak and Dexter is a good game. I'm still completing the game. Jak is a mute character, while Dexter is talking away. Do you remember Gex Enter the Gecko for the N64? Gex, unfortunally was a aweful game, but it had one thing that if used properly, could of been something great. So I like the worlds in Jak. It had good graphics at the time. PS2 is getting dated know though. But it manages to have the best controller of any console. Want to talk about Final Fantasy, Diablo 2 or games in general, tag me, im me or email me. I'll get back to yeah.

My weekend was all and all pretty lazy. Not that I'm unemployed, not that at all. I'm on Thankgiving Break so being lazy is a must for anyone with 168 (24 hrs x 7days) hours on hand of nothing to do. What do you do? I stay up all night until 4am, sleep in until 10:30.

I recently owned PS2 the game of the month, Final Fantasy X-2. I am currently 1.5 hours in the game. I say Game of the Month because I know there are always better games out for the system. In fact I know the absolutely must haves. Square always trills me with their new releases except for "The Bouncer" and "Kingdom Hearts." Nothing against Square Enix, but Disney combined with Final Fantasy would be a little young for me. Monster's Inc is probably the only exception. Although I actually thought of buying Kingdom Hearts, because it was made by Squaresoft and now only cost 20 dollars. Last month I owned Final Fantasy XI for the PC never being able to play it. I was hoping that it would be yet another online adventure, but my parents won't allow me to own a credit card when I'm not earning cash to back it up. All I want to do is buy things off Amazon.com, Tigerdirect and pay for Final Fantasy XI. All of these need electronic money to function.

Monday, September 15, 2003

Red Dragon Productions Lite

Good day. I did some new additions to my website. I added a Playstation 3 since Playstation is cool. Xbox is cool too, but this so happens that I'll be talking about Playstation 3 today. I added the Game Archives that'll follow up on Playstation 3. I also made Red Dragon Productions Lite which will have better bandwidth for dial up users like me. But the original isn't too long to load is it? I read information off this Playstation 3 forum site, but it sucks. Everyone there doesn't talk about anything new on Playstation 3. This doesn't mean that their won't be any new news in the future though. I went to this website for some humorous jokes and I thought it would be good enough to put on my website Click Here I've been focusing all my free time on the Game Archives section to get it as much updated as usual. I will have a hard time finding out-dated information on Playstation 2 software or hardware on the Internet. I probably will avoid that since it's not worth the work.

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

My own Laptop

Finally I get a laptop of my own. It's a slow bitch. The computer has a Pentium 2 CPU with 128 MB of Ram, a 4 MB video card, and 6.5 GB hard drive. It had the Win98 operating system. What was good to know about Win98 was that it only took 300 MB of my hard drive. WinXP takes 3 GB. I had trouble installing a new driver for my video card to make the resolution true color. WinXP fixed that issue at the cost of space. Which sucks to know. I stuck a bunch of Gameboy Advance Roms on it. I recently got a new book on network electrical. Network Electrical demands a lot of know how of the basics of touching a circuit. First there you have to put one hand into your pocket. Next, you need to check your gear. Then you touch the open circuit with a watt meter You can use level 2 amp meters, but you can use level 3 amp meters. Level 3 meters are nice, they are made of rubber, which all of you should know that absorbs electricity. I have to read a large text book on it. If I had it my way I wouldn't want a text look, I'd take my course online. Online courses have the context on screen before you. Web page content has many pictures so I can look at the pictures. I lot of the time it makes more sense because less words are needed to explain something. For example - electrons are apart of what we use. Us electricians (I'm not a electrician, I'm going into Cisco Networking) must know the approx voltage and pressure of a gas line or electricity. A humid and enclosed workspace is extremely dangerous. I have to know what to do when I work in these kinds of conditions. That's my Network Electrical class I'm in. Ahh, the Computer and Internet concepts. The class is easy at first. I'd would hold my breath because it can get more difficult. I took this class before eight months ago. I had to learn how to ping people, move files, delete files, create files, make Batch files in command prompt before. I just might drop the class I'm in. I might not, since I can learn all those commands again. (the computer, I feel, runs my life)

Nothing is new except I am more then 3/4 way through with Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy plays great. But the voice acting isn't quite aimed at adults, know what I mean? It's what you expect to come from a teenager's mouth. Really, it's a good game. It is over rated and I know that a lot of 10 - 16 year olds play this game. Well most of them, just don't know how to think buying the game. The story makes perfect since too me, in fact I don't get confused. Square should of not had the characters speak. Speaking can void the quality of the game. Games aren't suppose to be a movie. This game is a movie. You watch the cut scenes, then your back in control of Tidus, then you get another cut scene, then you back in control of Tidus and so on.

I don't plan on making any major updates anytime (last time I said that I came out with a new webpage template) soon. I am working on a lot of college quality reports in Written Communication (I have to technical write my progress on networks and display the results. ) I really don't know where I am in my writing. Everyone in that school can write. Everyone knows that it's not what you write that matters, it's how often and how much you write. That's my motto.

More as it develops .......

Monday, August 25, 2003

College started today for myself. It was a new experience. But seriously, how many people go to college, once in their life, right? And I am going to take Math, Writing Concepts, and micro operating systems. While college is going on, my play time is cut in half. I can't play videogames no more. Gotta get organized so I can pass Math. CISCO I and II starts next summer, which means because I took only CISCO I this summer and got a passing grade on it, I may have to take it again because I didn't quite make B+. He did say congratulations to me though. I'm still playing Legend of Dragoon. I got pass the Divine Dragoon on Disc 3. Anyone who played this game knows that the Devine Dragoon was hard, but I have put the best armor in the game on Dart, the Armor of Legend. All I had to do to defeat the Devine Dragon was to hack away at him and keep my health percentage high. Disc II seemed to go by fast, and disc III seems to go by even faster. I only spent 5 hours on this disc. I spent 9 hours on Disc two and 14 hours on disc one. Disc 3 is full of cinematic cut scenes. I went to Wal-Mart and bought :

  • Gran Turismo 3
  • Jak and Dexter
  • Twisted Metal Black

Three days later I bought 4 games at gamestop ....

  • Final Fantasy X
  • Breath of Fire - Dragon Quarter
  • Midnight Club

The Final Fantasy X review is already online, so read it. I try to make it flawless as possible. So far the game is really interesting. The game has more cutscenes then I've seen in any game before. The battle system is unlike other Final Fantasy times, which were slower, this one is faster.

I'm in Networking Electrical for one on my college course. And I realized that everyone there had previous hands on background with big machines. Our teacher isn't your average teacher. He gives us work that is easy to figure out. We're supposed to work with amps and volts when we currently work in, whats called the POP room or mainframe of where all the network wires go. This is going to be my job. Networks are very complex. This means I will have to deal with all these hot wires and the only thing that is between me and the wire is a circuit breaker inside a meter. It will be quite interesting what will be the turn out. I have yet to meet anyone in the class.

Friday, August 15, 2003

New freeware games

did a couple things added to m y website. I just got a Playstation 2 three days ago. Why don't I do that. Well I got a bunch of CDRs so I can burn software on it. CDrs aren't really expensive right? So I can download as many as I want. So I found this website off google. Here are some top picks
  • ParityShot 1.9 - A free side shooter with really good graphics for a free ware game. You play this girl on a broom and she shoots other witches and cats. If I didn't know better this game was based off Salor Moon. It plays well. Plenty of powerups. And the game is anime based. Game developed by Crane Software. It's a realy good game!!! The first level is easy. The second level is a bit harder. There are 3 difficulties in this game. And easy isn't easy. Although it might look cute, it's really a hard game to beat on the hardest setting. Download it, you like it, honestly. Only problem is the website is in Japanese. So look for a link that says something like "parilyshot.zip" on it.
  • Super Mario XP - A Super Mario clone with has a pinch of Castlevania (looks like another Super Mario Bros Game except it's darker. I played it and it's really good.
  • Little Fighter 2 - A combat game featuring fighters and you must be the last one standing. Much like PS2's, "Bouncer." At first you suck at it because the other fighters kick your butt but if you seem to know who to punch off first you'll get though stage 1. The ones who died are out which means game over for you..

I found some compression tools today. One did not work on Geocities though. One didn't work with my website at all. One I really, really liked.

  1. Shrinker 1.2.1 This little program does a big job and works with all webpages because it does't zip any files like the others do. This means the page doesn't have to de-compress once loaded. I had trouble with de-compressing html on a iMAC because they were too slow to process. This is what I'm using on my webpage right now. For a long time I didn't use any html decompression and I realised that I only had 3.0 MB left on my server and had to do something about it. Shrinker Lite is the best program because it is FREE to use. The compressor compresses page on average 40% on a normal webpage, 60% if it's really long like my review pages. But how small do you want your html anyway. It will still take less time to load it then normal, no side effects. You can view the compressed format in Dreamweaver so to problem there. And it has no de-compression loading times like the other two I'm going to review although they compress up html 80% their orginal size. I love this program. Webpage builders must have this unity. Only a 600KB download.
  2. HTMLzip is adware meaning it'll put a banner on the bottom of your page. Not mad, when you compress just click yes and it'll be yours forever! This program does a good job compressing files for 60 to 80 percent the orginal size of the html. One problem is that you can't edit the compressed files because they are encrypted in compression code so compress these files in a different folder. I like this because it has more compatibility with html then any other HTML compression unity out on the web! But the compressed html it shows may show up invalid in some file transfer protitols like what Geocities has. But on a regular FTP Client it should work 100%. HTML should de-compress in a matter of seconds after it's fully loaded.

After this was all done it cut a couple MEGABYTES off my server! It was well worth the download!

Sunday, August 10, 2003

I don't really go to CNN Technolegy section, but CNN has found it quite interesting that Disney is making a Videogame of the 1982 movie Tron calling the game Tron 2.0. I know about this a month in advance, but I don't think that Tron 2.0 for the PC is much a impact. I can always to be wrong on it. The graphics aren't state of the art but the game is kind of great. I also read that Nintendo is going to release specs on the Gamecube 2 next year. It'll be interesting which will be faster PS3 or GCN2 next Spring. Whoa!

Well I'm going to try to get a PS2 tomorrow with Bob. I'm am excited. Some how I'm going to have to find $150 dollars for a used console. I'm going to get Grand Thief Auto 3 free. But I plan to also get Gran Turismo 3 or Jak and Daxter. Sony Playstation 2 is in 5 has many homes as Gamecube. First I have to call Gamestop in Woodbury, Minnesota to see if they have one so I can reserve my copy. Then I have to go to the bank. I'm selling my PSone to Bob for 40 dollars. That should give me about 60 dollars of extra money if everything turns out. Here's hoping.

I am continue enjoying the game Legend of Dragoon from Sony for the PSone. I signed a pention at pentitiononline.com to get the next game developed - I said ....

"I hope the next game is even more like Final Fantasy then the original. I want spoken dialog every cutscene! Have a female character lead the game next time. Incredible graphics is a must. Plz make it for the PS3!!! Oh yeah -- hire either Camelot (Shining Force III) or Squaresoft to co-develop the next game because they rock! If there could be more then one difficulty in the sequel/prequel, that would increase the replay, but that the first game was long enough, so when I beat easy, I can replay the character I played again in nightmare when better drops when enemies are present. "

Anyway these are the games that I plan to get for PS2. If not the first time, maybe the second time I go to Gamestop.

  • Summoner 2 - looks like a really cool RPG. The prequel was one of PS2's first RPGs which means it's also the best at it's time. But will I play it? I want a RPG other then Final Fantasy. This looks like a good one because it has pretty good graphics. It has a mid-evil look too it.
  • Final Fantasy X. I started collecting Final Fantasy games, believe it or not, this year. I got a Playstation last year because I wanted RPGs. FFX has a unmatched gameplay combat system for a console RPG. I've been playing Dungeon Siege and Diablo 2 much longer then I've played Final Fantasy games and they have pretty good battle system. But the other games including Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 do. Diablo 2 does.feature a ATB (Action Time Battle System) where Final Fantasy X waits because it's a turned based action RPG. Other thing I like very much is the spoken dialog in a RPG like this.
  • Grand Thief Auto 3 - Quite possibily the best game for the PS2. Until Vice City came out that is. But I'm getting this game free anyhow. Have you ever stole a car before? I played GTA2 for the Playstation and it was Okay. I just heard this game is one of the best. Might as well try it out then.
  • Gran Tranismo 3 - A Spec - I read the review on IGN.com and the article said that this game was packed full with over 20 tracks including 10 Rally tracks which I like since I like Rally (FIA World Rally and American Rally) and Formula One Racing games. The rest of the game sounds good too. I've played it once at Best Buy about a month ago.
  • Jak and Daxter - I need a platform game in my collection and Jak and Daxter seems like a good choice because it was made by the same developer of Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog Software. I've heard about Jak 2 and it seems like an award winner too.
  • XenoSaga : Episode I - Looks like a really cool RPG. It's like Final Fantasy X, has a real sequel with the same characters, and this saga doesn't suck like Unlimited Saga. The graphics are very good. The gameplay is better then Xenogears for PSone and the game is very long.
  • Midnight Club - Looks like a really nice Street Racing title when it came out, the price is nice too only $19.99! It reminds me of Tokyo Extreme Racer for the Sega Dreamcast. Rockstar made this game so it has to have smooth control.

I went to a website discussing why PS2 is the better console of any. Click Here for Link to that page. I wrote :

"I agree with ‘Gamer’ to a point because a got PS2 today and I already own Xbox and GCN. Some games I gotten for Xbox are THPS4, Halo, Moto GP, Return to Castle Wolfenstine, and Project Gotham. (good racing game) I play all games listed above sparingly.

I like the Playstation controller mostly because I can play RPGs like Final Fantasy VIII and Legend of Dragoon and both are alright RPGs. The PS/PS2 controller is very comfortable. I got a Mad Catz ADAPTER that’ll hook your PS2 controller directly up to your Xbox. It kicks arse! The Xbox controller is bulky like the Gamecube controller. I admit I like Moto GP for Xbox. I like the Xbox hard disk capacity so I can put my songs on it. Who needs to play songs on their console when theirs radio or cd players. I like the triggers on the Xbox though, the same as my Dreamcast. I suppose PS2 has those shoulder buttons. No doubt that PS2 duel shock is the best controller out yet. It’s nothing new since I had a PSone for about a year. I’m a RPG gamer. In the last six months I beaten FFVIII, FFVI, Star Ocean II, Chrono Cross and I’m now on the second disc of Legend of Dragoon. So although I’m new to Sony Playstation, since then I was enjoying what Sony has to offer with their much bigger RPG category. I like Xbox more at the moment (Midnight Club 2 is out for Xbox and I have yet to get that game.) But I also paid royalty for gaming so I didn’t have to decide, you guys know what that’s like.

So I have all next Gen consoles. I’m playing Legend of Dragoon now. It may be another one of those save the world rpgs, but it’s actually not all that different from Grandia 2. I bought Final Fantasy X and Xenosaga Episode 1, GTA 3 and Suikian III for the ps2 and I have yet to experience them. They all sound good from IGN’s point of view. I was thinking of getting dark cloud and Jak and Dexter. I’m not into Metal Gear Solid or Silent Hill games even though one of them is the top 5% action game of all time. I’ll get back to this board once I “experience” the Playstation 2. "

Monday, July 28, 2003

Back to the Internet. I've played Hyperbonia (a map off the Internet for Dungeon Siege) The map is much better then Yesterhaven because you can play in more then one difficulty. And the armor is better in this game. It's big, there is a lot of trees in this map. And some of the enemies are tough. They are really tough !!!

I found a couple MP3 sites off Google this time. MP3shits.com and Massive MP3. Both working MP3 search engines. Of course most of you know of Kazaa! What do I download? The top chart music. I downloaded the new Metallica - St Anger, and it sounds great. Oh, if you download from MP3shits.com be sure to enter >>> copy metallica-st.anger.eds metallica-st.anger.mp3 in the command prompt.

What has been my last decision should of been by first decission. Ask anyone around and 90% of them will say that they have a PS2 or want one. Well lets see me I own Dreamcast, GCN, and Xbox. I got all the cool games like Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker for Nintendo Gamecube, and Halo and Moto GP for Xbox! But Playstation 2 has all those quality rpg titles exclusive to it. People should know about this because I'm not the first generation to grow up with videogames, their the number #1 toy in America. There is the PS2 but then there's the Gameboy Advance, the 2nd fastest selling videogame unit in America. I own one, but I haven't gotten a new game for it since 2001. I waited until 2002 to get a Playstation. Which doesn't mean much except that I waited until the console had 95% of all the games developed for it. Right now I'm playing Legend of Dragoon. It's a pretty good RPG. I'm wondering after three hours, just when the first disc (of four!) will finally end. I'm going to have to re-write the review for Legend of Dragoon now that I'm more familiar with the game. I'm at the part where Sir Latiz meet with the King Albert and gets home safe. I only began playing it 2 days ago. I'll have it up with in the week. I'm planning to get a PS2 in January. Then I won't miss out on some unbelievable games. So what am I doing lately. Lately I ride my bike around at night. In the summer in Wisconsin, it's warm enough that you can bike without getting cold. The cool night breeze is refreshing. I have a walkman and a flashlight that I take with me. Good exercise too.

I'm only a analyst, but the Minnesota Twins went from a 8 games ahead of Kansas City Royals to 6 games behind them. The Twins also traded a power slugger to Toronto for a lead off hitter. I thought the Twins were going to do very well this year, but it back fired on them this month. The manager has managed the team too hard. He should back off a little.

I really don't know how I came across this page. I now realize that this site has the best NES and SNES reviews I've read in months if not ever. This guy really knows how to describe a game a lot better then I could. He really spent time to write his game reviews clearly. For some reason his sentence structure is so well written, that I think his game reviews compare well to that of IGN.com. Which is impressive. Check it out here. Oh and while you check out that site, you might as well check this N64 Review Site too.

Monday, July 21, 2003

America's Army is great. Not as great as maybe Quake III or Unreal Tournament, but still good. It's free for peeps sake!!! If your like me, you love free stuff! The game makes you feel that your at war with current Allied Ground Forces in action. If the US Army developed it, then why is it easier then most first person shooters? I'm not that hyped up for it like I am for upcoming Halo 2 for Xbox or Halo for the PC. But it has the basis of a first person shooter. Who's idea was it to develop this game? You can download it at their website for free. It looks a tad out of date, but it's probably the best full game you can download. If you have broadband you'll be fine, but if your dial up you'll have some trouble. I'm a college student and I like to work with wires, but on the my spare time I work on this .... small print makes me happy.

I added a one new section to my webpage, the Sega Saturn Review Section. It has 3 new reviews, Nights into Dreams, Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon. I went to the used videogame store to see if therq was any copies of the old school shooter, Reliant Silvergun. Nope. No major new content. I decided I'm not going to make a dedicated Final Fantasy webpage. With the exception of Final Fantasy XI coming out, I really only beaten one Final Fantasy game and I do not know the series too well. I have an idea of the case of events that the Final Fantasy Saga takes place because of the Internet.

Oh I'll remind all mp3 attics that a new version of the popular enhanced audio addon (DFX) for Winamp 2x and 3x is out. Go to www.fxsound.com to download it. Then go to the crack site http://keygen.us to download the crack to make it freeware.

Since I didn't have a Win98 product key, a found a working key off Google. It is XJQ22-Y47QY-P8FH7-VJ9DK-HKWVW. So if you have any trouble with your installation, you've already gotten the key. Thank me later.

Friday, July 18, 2003

Much has changed. Unlike at the beginning of the year when I really wanted to change my site into something that used dynamic html. I just wanted to make it more dynamic. I am being a little greedy, because of all the modications that make all the gaming sites state of the art, I want on my site. "I want to have some of that pie too." So my site isn't just about having the latest design anymore. Okay, so it never was that way, it's just hurts too much to say how much!

I still have many ideas for version 4.0. A month ago I thought it would be entirely in flash script. So what do you get is limited text with in a enormous download for modem users. Since gaming sites are leading the way in the html script department, I just thought that version 4.0 could be part php (which I legally took from Raget.com (has free php tempates) or look like the very nice, simple, fast loading website like Gamecube 128. A Flash template is out for now. I was playing around with Macromedia Flash MX. I find that the lack of internal effects is dumb. Again the flash template is too massive to be worth a download. I've been doing some searching on PHP setups on my spear time. I've seen php used in message boards mostly. I haven't seen any difference between php and html. Go look at some php projects programmers have done for multiplatform at Sourceforge.org. I went to sourceforge downloading message boards but I could not get them to work. Your suppose to download all the files in your server file and it's suppose to automatically be working. It looks cool when other websites have it though. One in particular .... EZboards.

I guess there isn't anything wrong with 3.0. I'm thinking of keeping 3.0 online. I am not a sell out here, I am doing this website with no cost whatsoever. The programs I'm using are free. AKA. "My html editor is pirated though that doesn't really matter now, people have access to Dreamweaver in class rooms where you can't say that people can't make their own websites, because they can." If someone makes a PowerPoint 2002 presentation or Frontpage 2002 template, people can export their hard earned work over the Internet as a webpage with all images compressed to size. Although Mozilla Composer has the same functions as Namo Webeditor and is free! I don't know if my visitors know that or not. It's worth the download! Mozilla also has a free irc client with it too. If you like IRC, I sugess you getting a modified Mirc client called GeniusXP. It has all the functions of Mirc but it has mods that allow you to say things with CTRL-A,B,C,D, etc. I haven't really figured out what it actually does other then it's a free Mirc client.

I've downloaded the NeverWinter Nights v1.30 beta 1 patch today. The patch is large (55 MB download) I've been planning to play NWN online over the modem. I found two websites that I've added to my javascript menu :

  • RPG Gamer - a website that collects Game wallpaper. Also has a small news section that talks about the rpg industry.
  • Theme Doctor - If you want any kind of Windows Themes, I suggest you come to this website for Diablo 2, Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, and Neverwinter Night brand themes. I've downloaded two themes and like them very much! Download the Neverwinter Nights Desktop Theme It's awesome!

The current project I've been working on is a version of php that I've downloaded from Rigsnet.com. It is perfectly legal. This project is called Ian's RPG Guild and I've created websites on Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege 2, Neverwinter Nights and Diablo 2 : Lord of Distruction. It will feature some fansites. I don't know what it's going to have. I know I'm still a RPG kind of person. <:0)

I admit that I have no previous experence with stradegy guides. I have plenty experence making Game Reviews. But ever since the games including Diablo and all the Playstation RPGs I own. Such as finishing RPGS without cheats including Final Fantasy 7 (PS1), Final Fantasy 8 (PS1), Tales of Dystiny (PS1), Eternal Darkness (GCN), Legend of Zelda Orcania of Time (N64) Dungeon Siege (PC) Diablo and Diablo 2 (PC) Skies of Arcadia (DC), Grandia II (DC) and my latest competition of Legend of Zelda : Wind Waker (GCN)

I almost had a reason to buy a Playstation 2. I just found out that Chrono Break, the 3rd installment in the Chrono Series is in process of development. I think that is so cool! I've enjoyed Chrono Cross for Playstation. I believe with the new Final Fantasy X-2 and .Hack 2 coming out, I couldn't believe how much the Playstation 2 graphics improved since Grand Thief Auto 3 came out. I believe Playstation 2 is in the 3rd generation of development where games pretty much maxed out it's hardware.

I've also started games (but not finished) like Legend of Dragoon (PS1) Baldur's Gate II Shadow of Aims (PC), Neverwinter Nights (PC), Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind (XBOX), Chrono Cross (PS), Final Fantasy III (SNES9x) Chrono Trigger (SNES9x) Secret of Mana (SNES 9x), Legend of Mana (PS1) Legend of Zelda : Link to the Past (SNES) That's a lot of Playstation RPGs. I even own Final Fantasy 9 (PS1), Lunar II (PS1), Xegagears (PS1), Seiken Denestsu 4 (PS1 (Seiken Denestsu is Japanese for Secret of Mana)) and Star Ocean 2 (PS1) where I haven't even played them since I bought them. So I can call myself a RPG fan when I've completed 10 RPGs and started playing 9 RPGs, and didn't have the time to finish them. And then there is four that I own and haven't even started playing! If you want to hear my opinions, read my console reviews. <:0)

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

I recently been following up on Final Fantasy XI for the PC. Normally you won't see Final Fantasy title on other platforms. But now you see Final Fantasy XI for the PC and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube. So the latest Information I gotten about Final Fantasy XI for the USA is that it's coming up next Spring with an expansion pack on it's debut date called Final Fantasy XI : ____. However the Final Fantasy XI and it's expansion will be simply huge, I had very little information on the game except for some screen shots. Go to this site if you want to find out a little about FFXI.

I'm thinking of building a Final Fantasy site. Or I can just add Final Fantasy XI to my RPG Guild. Look for it in the future !!!! Normally I would be fascinated with Dungeon and Dragons theme computer games, but Final Fantasy is a dream come true. To save some time, I'll just created a new banner for Final Fantasy XI. I originally planned to devote a new website for all Final Fantasy games. I guess I'll stick to what I'm good at and that is writing reviews. Like-wise it won't be a informational site. I've seen a dozen Final Fantasy oriented websites out there. I'm just going to re-direction this site to the best links. That's what RPG fan sites usually are. In fact I'm excited for World of Warcraft, Dungeon Siege 2 and Final Fantasy XI. Did I mention I got a copy of Final Fantasy Anthony for the Playstation. I've posted my review of Final Fantasy VI on Playstation Reviews !!!!

Friday, July 11, 2003

Guess what everyone. I dug myself a hole and it'll be more expensive to I need to dig myself out of it. I hate myself for it. I had a techician install a new Athlon XP in it. And my screen boots up normally until the boot loader comes up (I have both WinXP and Linux installed) This motherboard that is installed is suppose to be compatible with all Athlon XP 2600. When you install Windows, it first loads a prewindows operating system so it can detect the hardware and install windows probably. My first guess is that when StarTech installed my new processor, Athlon XP 2.2 Ghz, that the operating system can't detect my cpu. So bottom line, I spent a lot of money so a experienced technician could properly install my processor and now I'm going to have to spend money on a 20 GB harddrive. Doesn't that suck? If the possibility of frying my motherboard, but then how could the Linux Boot Loader even show up? I'll know if Windows XP installation on a new harddrive installs completely.

If you haven't noticed I'm now in the beta of version 4.0. Everything is knew in v4.0. I like to keep tabs on website versions because it feels like your advancing in website appearance. I liked the simplity of it so far. My last version of my old website is now known as v3 Alpha or "Final Version" I did some work in "Ian's RPG Guild" The RPG Guild looks exactly like the front page. I wrote my own summery on Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights on the front pages. I spent 3 hours on that part, I hope you like it.

Known Bugs / Sytanx Errors in My Website v4.0

  • Xara navagational bar has limited compatibly, thus all the syntax errors. In all web browsers have to read html v4.0 and javascript on to be able to read the javascript menu. AKA IE4.0 can't view this website.
  • my website v4.0 is full of meta tags. They are all harmless.

I started a new website at Internet DJ. This is a underground public access mp3 site created for members. It's free and you get free space to provide mp3s and a free static ip. I put two songs on there I did a remix of Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda with Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer 2.46. I'm a Okay Disc Jockey, but their still work to be done. I can do this by recording various beats off other music and remixing it together on one program like Acoustica. I like getting low cost shareware tools so I do get jipped on retail boxes.

I was spell checking my website yesterday. It's a lot of time to spend on a webpage, but I have nothing better to do. So my Gamecube / Dreamcast / Playstation / Xbox Reviews pages should be more readable. I've added two reviews to SNES review page with Crono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, Secret of Mana, Seiken Dunsenue 3 (legend of mana 2.) Most of this you heard before. I actually do play these games, but through emulation. If you want these roms I suggest you downloading iMESH v4.1 and downloading the roms yourself. A good SNES emulator is SNES 9x.

Here are some sites for downloading some remixes of famous Videogame like Super Mario Bros, Diablo and my favorites, Final Fantasy I, II, III, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, and X-2. Once you find MP3s on the Internet like these, midi just fade away in my mind.

Remix.Overclocked.orgChronicles - Crono Cross / Crono Trigger Music

I also added favorite games / favorite characters to my about author section of my homepage. They are of course going to be RPGs. You have to click on the link to find out what they are.

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

I've changed back to the full text layout. The javascript I made with Xara didn't feel right. The Internet is full of text navigational bars with no java script, so there can't be much difference between this. I seen javascript used in navigational bars, but these are most popular horizontally. I think people like seeing what their looking at, not searching between gifs to find the right header. So why did I change it. Firstly I thought the navigational bars would look cool, but after I stared at them for a while, I realized how out-of-stake they looked with the rest of the webpage. Plus my page has errors. I had syntax errors ever since I've put in the top navigational bar. Some html script is IE dependant. If I made a simple webpage with javascript, it wouldn't be fun at all.

Besides, because we all know Microsoft is a monopoly in the Silicon Business, most people are using IE anyway. I checked up on the Bravenet stats again. The site tells me what parts of the country they've came from, how often they've visited, what browser they were using, etc. So I know for a fact that the majority is still using Interent Explorer.

I've been working on the Music page again. Added a couple bands while enjoying my recently upgraded pc(s). I've recently gotten Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 5400 128 bit bus speed. I really thought I would see a difference between that and my 64 bit ATI Radeon 9500 and their isn't much difference at all. I image that I'm getting somewhere around 90 frames per second at 1124/840 on my Geforce 4 and 60 frames per second on my Radeon with the same resolution. The game I'm playing is Dungeon Siege. I've tried out that new Copperhead siegelet and I didn't like it. My friends thought it was cool. But I think it's not.

I'm trying to get caught up in CISCO classes, I'm behind. The course has been online for 3 years now. http://cisco.netacad.net/public/index.html is where I sign in. The page is rather uninteresting because theres not many links to access when your not a member.

Friday, June 27, 2003

I've made some interesting changes to this website. Whether or not you like this update a lot then the text layout I had a week ago. However, I recently noticed that this javascript was making Dreamweaver act funny. So that javascript text effects off entirely and added javascript menus. I hope you like it. I've tested the web browsers and It works on Internet Explorer and Mozilla for sure. One bug I haven't got out was why before in the last version I could compressed the html with HTML compressor and now I can't. It has to do with the banner. I must of took a wrong turn somewhere. I find a way to fix it in v3.3.2 :) I don't care much right now, because it works like it's suppose too. The webpage actually loads faster second time around in the uncompressed format.

I posted a message on my message board asking if you like the website one week ago better then this version. I passed the 13,000 hits marker and this site isn't even a year old. It's my videogame reviews receiving the most hits. I even have a pic of the old version (v3.2.1 60 KB) I have the old version saved on my harddrive. Just tell me if you like this logo or the other logo. This logo is in high resolution, the other one is medium resolution!

I've taken some time to go over to the college and it's good. WHen you first beat students, their all died quiet. I mean I dont' know, the instructor who laid out all the information wasn't that bad. I bolted, but that was from immaturity. I hate em choices where you sign up for yourself. So it goes.

Bob and I had a lan party at my house. It was ingenious. We were playing Dungeon Siege and it couldn't of been better. We both started out new characters. It didn't work out that way. I kept getting false connections. I had to copy the game's contents off one harddrive so I could put it on another. Then I wouldn't get error messages. I wish I though of that earilier. So we also played Baldur's Gate Deadly Alliance for consoles.

Sunday, June 22, 2003

Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of World of Warcraft and Diablo 2, has increasingly interest me. I have been playing Diablo 2 for more then 2.5 years. I stayed off it for 5 months until I started up again. Yesterday I joined a big chat at Gamespy.com about World of Warcraft. Gamespy has a Warcraft Portal. I've been playing Diablo 2 and on a private channel on Battlenet I've been learning actually how big World of Warcraft is going to be. At first, I thought it would be "Warcraft 4" playing like Warcraft III would with war tactics, seeking and destroying military bases. Yesterday I heard that World of Warcraft would be much like Dungeon Siege where it would be both a massive Single Player mode game and have a massive multiplayer mode covering the same amount of land like Dungeon Siege. I like Dungeon Siege and is one of my favorite PC games, so naturally I would be driven towards World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft looks state of the Art, much like Dungeon Siege did when it came out. Star Wars Galaxies is coming out this year, and is another MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) Everquest 2 is another, but I'm not much into that game. So I've been checking the previews of that game and playing online with Diablo 2 the past 2 days.

I've recently got the Action Replay for Xbox. This allowed me to continue playing Halo. I can now download online saves (which was done through the Dreamcast as well) It's kind of idiotic for me to discover that when you hold down X on the Xbox controller that you can switch guns which were laying on the ground and I couldn't figure out how to arm them. I always had a hard time believing that I had no ammo in the middle of the game. Especually the one when Pyro goes into the spaceship (the end of level 2) has his to find another way out, before this team gets killed.

I've also added a slightly different design of my webpage. (version 3.3) I thought with every new version, I can change my logo with it. I've added Blizzard Enertainment to "Greatest Game Developers of all Time Page 2". I've added links to my menu drop down so check that out too if you haven't already. I found out that a major javascript bug is keeping my site from being seen in Mozilla and Netscape. That's the error messenge you get in Internet Explorer. It's not html code that's the problem! When I uncompress my html, it shows up fine, and show up in all browsers, but when I compress the html, half the graphics won't even work in either Netscape or Mozilla! That sucks. I know that compressed html helps the page load quicker. But no one is giving me feedback, so I don't know if people like compressed html or not. The compressed html compressed the hypertext up to 20% of actual size.

Boston, Mass vacation



I went to Boston for three days as part of a business trip. I saw the cambridge side galleria to eat California Pizza Kitchen and I bought Halo: Combat Evolved from a Gamestop. I seen a Boston Pops play. I either heard the Baby Boomer Bash or Pops Light Classics when there. I stayed in a Hilton hotel. All the time there, I played Xbox including Unreal Championship, Halo, Project Gotham, and Ralisport Challenge. The stay was okay. I looked outside and saw city night life. I went to one dance club by myself and his selection sounded average compared to European counterparts.

Sunday, June 15, 2003

e've returned from Boston. This is my first trip far from home since 2000 went two places. One in South Dakota to see Mt. __ and then to Michigan to go canoeing with the same school. That was all in the past. So what did I do in Boston? Dress up in a suit to go with my dad on his "Circle of Champions" meeting. Dad and I stayed at a hotel for 4 days. I brought my Xbox on the plane. I probably played Xbox 5 hours total when I was there. I played Moto GP. The hotel had a 32" television so I had a fun time playing my games on it. Dad got me Halo, which everyone knows as one of the best Xbox games available (Halo is coming out for PC in 2 months) I went to a couple open dinner / meetings. I seen the Boston Pops. They were good. Well they were so good that we couldn't even begin to make negative opinions about them. However the composer (who ever he may be) did some funny yet annoying taunts while he composed the musicians. We walked back in the rain after the last song. Boston Pops had 3 encores. You think the song ends, but it continues. Boston Pops were good, so I didn't compain about how much they've played. The wind currents keep the city from smelling like air pollution. The city had many old buildings that were remodeled into small businesses. I saw the USS Constitution (Replica of 1776 Vessel used to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War.) The replica was modernized and had electricity on the gun deck. I forget the name, but a real World War II destroyer was stationed next to the USS Constitution. I had a chance to go to the nearest GameStop to get Halo. Then on the way home I was randomly picked to be handed searched at the airport in Boston. I won't shut up, that's why I got picked or who knows.

Anyway I've updated this website in the Gamecube and Xbox sections. I've added new headers. What a waste of time, but I thought it'll look good so that's why I changed it. All headers are 1.5 KB or less. I did most of my updating right before I went to Boston. I don't really have time to add Cisco information. People go to college for that. They don't need to get it off my site. However, I'm going to update the javascript menu you see on top of this page with more links. The night before I traveled it to Boston, I went to Billards place /w friends in River Falls to play some pool. Luigi Pizza makes great stuffed Pizza too.

I seems like Sony has a death grip on Nintendo and Microsoft, but they sure not going away. Nintendo and Microsoft are seriously planning to release an Gamecube 2 and Xbox 2 in two years. I grabbed a lot of this information off SPonG.com. When will I ever be sacifide with what I have? Am I going to support the precessors of current consoles. Why?

I've been trying to get Satellite Interent a reality in my house. It's faster then dial up. So far I'm at least talked about it. But my parents want to wait. I said I would happily sacrifice my allowance to cover costs of Internet.

Monday, June 09, 2003

Graduation Party

I did a couple things in the last days. I've updated my first javascript menu since the one I had in 2001. Which was worthless junk and only worked in Internet Explorer. Now I have Xara Menu Maker and that makes really good menus. All I have to do is update to javascripts which I just have to load to my website. No changing javascript on my html. I went to my first session of Cisco at CVTC. This was alright. I spent 4 hours there. Congraduate me, not many adults can come out of high school and go straight into college. Hey, it's summer vacation. I did the usual. On that day I read this online tour, extremely well layed out. They have the entire class in Flash from 1999. Updated in 2000 I expected. But they had it online for 2 years. I took a test and got a 80% on the first day I took it. It had a lot of computer terms. The tests are activated for 24 hour period and then it shuts off. Most of these guys taking Cisco are retired and are taking the class to pass the time. Two of them were Airforce Computer Engineers who wanted to say up to date with cutting technolegy. Next year I'm going to WITC in New Richmond and they have the State-of-the-Art computer lab and equipment for CISCO classes. I mean some of the techneques programmers do when connecting to other computers (LAN) or to the Internet (WAN) is state of the art. WITC must of upgraded to a full T3 Digital Cable Connection.

I also had a Graducation Party. This is were all the family comes here. Bob came!!! He's my best friend and we talked about mainly how each other were doing. This was mainly a family get-together. And my friend comes in the door. Bob's a real nice guy. I known him in Boy Scouts. He changed. He has metal sticking out of his head now. He a year older then I am and been out in the world of work for about 3 years. But he's a smart kid. Pictures of him are in my gallery page. Oh and I haven't mentioned Dan, my school consoler on this website before, he came too. My cousin David and his brother Brian came too. David's got into the Navy. He has a higher GPA then me. Although I graduated 18th in my class. Somewhere between 18 and 21. I got all As and Bs in high school. I took Econonics, Algebra, Language Arts 11, My reading skills got immensely better. But I seem to have a bad memory. All my family members know me. So that's cool. See I'm usually more aggressive when I'm by myself.

Since Dad and I are going to Boston next Thursday, we had to go and see if I could get my camera fixed. Usually it has a higher resolution with flash. All my webpage pics are taken from that camera. The flash doesn't work, so I had a hard time getting good pictures. Luckly I have software on my PC that can enhance photos to a very good level. It's definally the flash on my camera though, we'll get it repaired after the trip to Boston. It's a Sony 4 megapixel camera so it's really reliable. I am waiting until 2004 to get a Sony 6.5 megapixel off the Internet where I can find them really cheap. It's already on my wish list. I'm also trying to get a 128 MB videocard (ATI Radeon 9500 FAST!!!!) off Tigerdirect.com to update my other PC so I can run The SIMS faster. Then I can update both PCs for 130 dollars. Both PCs have 386 MB of DRRAM and are plenty fast. I'm looking at updating to 512 DRRAM in a few months (also on my wish list) My monthboard can support 2.3 GB Athlon CPU. I'll probably one buy the end of the year I sould be able to get one for 130 bucks. I can interchange the CPU that fits on that computer and put it on my other computer. Next thing I'll probably be doing is setting money aside for a faster motherboard so I can stick a faster CPU down the road. Then I have to make room for the Panasonic 24X DVD ROM Burner. It's going to be sweet to be able to burn my own DVDs.

Sunday, June 01, 2003

Officially out of high school :)

I am officially out of high school. I feel like a free person. I can driver where ever when ever I want with the exception of cost of gas. First thing I'm going to do is get to know my xbox more. I went out today to get registared with CISCO at CVTC.

I also added all my work on my successful first & second website of consoles from 1999 - 2002. I did a bad thing when I took this webpage offline, I was getting some good readings on my hit counter, some 10,000 hits in one and one / half years it was online. It was my last website to be listed on Google.com and was orginally on the first and second page of "Gamecube Reviews" results at Yahoo.com. Some of the viewers will find this quite interesting. This was a outline of the progress of Gamecube, Dreamcast, Playstation 2 and Xbox. I can compress my HTML to 1/4 it's size so I can easily fit it on this geocities account. To get my compression unity go to HTML Compact's homepage. To access just click on one of my links in the Red Dragon Productions (originally NDX Productions 1999 - 2001) section on the left menu on this page. These pages load very fast because their entirely text. Notice the effort I made with text effects and table borders. All my work went into them! Check them out!

Anyway I been looking up PHP forms to add to my site. This all started when I noticed my email form would not work, and I got it straight off geocities.com. So I tried having a separate html to show up on my email.html so that javascript of different origins won't effect the email form. It still didn't work. So then I got into php3 (a form of html script) in forms. I found a couple of websites that allow you to download their software. I want to sign up to a service like bravenet. But none of them seem to use a form of php. Php is much more dynamic then html message boards. My next version of my website may be written in php source code instead of all html and javascript. For now I can atleast make my guessbook and forums using php technolegy. I find that hosting your own message form is easily if you want to take up one megabyte of space. So instead of going through bravenet, I also signed up at ezboard. Unlike bravenet, you can talk to people and find forums easily through their database. My user name is nightwalkers101.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Xbox - Moto GP review

| GAME FEATURES |

Developer : Climax

A.) 10 exciting, twisted, professional league tracks.

Publisher : THQ

B.) Nice looking graphics that take advantage of xbox hardware

Released on May 22, 2002

C.) Tight control seen only in NASCAR and grand prix games.

D.) The entire soundtrack is techno. Lame music. It is in high quality, but it's not the music I would look for in a grand prix game like this one. Not really good techno, but atleast it lets me listen to songs of the harddrive.

Type : Motorcycle Racing

I never owned a motorcycle racing game before. I've seen professional racing of this type on television. I figured that this game had to be a cross between Formula 1 World Racing and European stock car racing or "the Le Mans series" In MotoGP you get all the racers in the grand prix in 2001. The game features multible texture layers and looks more like the real thing. It hasn't become the ultimate racer for Xbox. But since xbox is low on high-quality racing titles, this game makes it seem all good.

Sometimes the Grand Motocycle Championship can alter games to what it feels is morally right. For example, if you drive a motorcycle on slippery conditions and you lean to far to the right on a sharp right corner, it'll throw you off your bike 10 feet infront of it wasting valuable seconds and since your in last place in the championship, you only have 10 seconds to cross start after the leader.(unless your in time trials, then your time getting to start is infinate) gives you even less time when you cross the start lap 2. What I do in this game is on curves coast until I'm 90% finishing with my turn before pressing A to accelerate. Sometimes brakes near the inner corner can save you speed and time just like the real championship races. But never brake too late or you'll overseer your bike which could mean fatal.

The training mode and the Grand Prix mode are the hardest modes in MotoGP. In training mode your bike has to swerve to the left (or right) to pass the cone and do a 180 around the last cone in 20 seconds or you repeat the process. This is not easy. In fact I never got pass it yet. It's best to do time trials until you can successfully stay on the pavement for 1 or 2 laps. The tracks, especially the replica of Le Mans, are full of sharp, dangerous, corners. In time trials, the game automatically loads your ghost (ghostly image that repeats the best lap time while you continue to race.) Racing yourself can be fun. When you leave your ghost by quitting, the ghost is saved on xbox's massive 8 GigaByte harddrive automatically.

Summing up Moto GP

Graphics

9.9

MotoGP has the best graphics I've seen in a racing title for Xbox. I seen Halo so I had to leave a point off ;) This game carries far in this area. It has cloudy days that look very detailed. The bikes themselves have several layers of detail on them. The game doesn't have any odd placed pixel or low resolution or deformed color. None at all! The rain can be really realistic while you race the game's 8 tournament tracks. It's incredible what the xbox can do. The sequel is also out.

Control

8.5

The control is loose. You must slow down before each curve to prevent oversteering. But this can easily be avoided in 3 to 4 hour practice in time trials.

Orginalism

10.0

This is the only professional motocycle racing game I tried. It comes with a load of options. The dynamic intro is cool. And the menu with the film capture of the real motogp in the background is a nice addition. The grand prix mode is well layed out (other then that it's medium hard) It is possible to tweak your bike to make it faster / slower, turner sharper or brake sooner. It's not as hardcore as BMX, but it is still hardcore racing, European style.

Sound Effects

8.0

The game features great engine sounds

Replayibly

10.0

I could come back to this game all the time. The time trials are really exciting. It could also be that I own 3 xbox titles and got sick of my dreamcast titles. Being my choice on any xbox game I give this game a perfect 10.