Movie, Game and Hardware Reiew

This page will include many reviews of Computer Games, Movies, TV series, and Computer Hardware.

Game Reviews

Hardware Reviews and News

Fury Review Update:

Well, Just a quickie to post my thoughts on the new MMORPG game, Fury.

Well, this game is still in its beta stages, but also, is unfortunately quite close to its release date...

This game, at the moment, is SHITHOUSE, and will need some serious improvements if it is to be even considered as a half-decent release.

The gameplay, i would give about a 3/10, it has some good bits, but also has major flaws, such as the fact that it uses an RPG sytle point and click style interface not only in the staging areas of the game, but in the real-time combat too.

Having such a control scheme makes the game almost impossible to easily or at all attack your opponents.

Although, I must say, i did like the very responsive mouse system incorporated into the game, which makes gameplay easier on older, laggy machines. the game uses a hardware house, which is run by a sub-process of the game, and hence is not affected at times of low frame-rate, where mouse lag and the disability to accurately move and operate the cursor that follows sure after.

Other things i didnt enjoy were the fact that you have to target your opponent with the cursor for each different attack, which is piss hard considering the general LAG that the server has, even with only an apparent 23% load.

the servers have an average ping to most parts of the world of at the minimum, 203ms, and an average of 400+ with connection freezes in combat and high density areas, such as the staging areas and where dumb-assed 40 year olds gather to fuck around and hack the server.

I could go on for days, but in the end id just give the same ratings, so here:

FURY: 2.5/10

Some good bits, the rest is SHITHOUSE, as i instated earlier.

----------

First off i have a post about a GAME that i have played recently.

Many of you have heard of Halo, and no doubt of Halo 2.

The version I played was originally meant for Windows Vista, and thats just what i started to play it on, but as anyone else who has this game, you know, regardless of your system, Halo 2 and any other game for that matter, runs terribly on Vista.

So go to my other page to get the XP patch for it...

Anyway, i enden compiling this patch for the game, and continuuedd to play it on Windows XP, therefore having it run over 30 times better, with decreased load times.

This game i must say is very good, and lives up to the expectations set by its predecessor.

Unfortunately, like most games of this day and age, the developers actually DROPPED the Cooperative mode, which was present on the XBOX release, as they did with the original.

This was met, as before, with cries of outrage and many, many death threats, but still, the developers screwed up this release by dropping it, and again, not releasing a patch that added it back into the game.

Cooperative game play is viewed by many as the greatest mode of play a video game can have. unfortunately, the developers of such games as HALO, STALKER, and so on have recently been announcing the release with CO-OP, and then dropping it out.

When playing HALO 2 for the first time, the controlls seem slightly different to classic first person shooters, but the player quickly adapts to this change, and generally finds it makes for an overall change for the better.

The story continues from where the original left off, following Master Cheif and Earth's campaign against the Alien Covenant sweeping throuought the galaxy, destroying life wherever it goes.

In this installment although, throughout the game the player changes roles various times to a Covenant Character, the Arbiter, and can play through several sections of the game as both Master Chief and The Covenant's Arbiter.

Overall, This game is one of the best I've played in a long time, offering seamless gameplay, Excellent AI, and Crisp, Smooth Graphics.

The Audio on the other hand, is just like a jumbled mess of low quality audio's with giant gaps and little to no environvental sounds.

The Music score, although scarce, is appropriate and sets the mood in the few areas it does play.

I give this game 7/10, drawing off a higher score is the Lack of Cooperative games play, and the bad audio.

BIGPOND REVIEW

This is not really a review, but a warning to people thinking about changing their ISP to Telstra Bigpond

DONT DO IT - More Below

This is, as far as 127 tests on 7 seperate networks and connections are concerned, constant throughout the entirety of the Bigpond ISP's lack of confidence

Service Reliability:

With the connection, it drops out periodically at 2 hour intervals, taking up to half an hour to reconnect.

The line also drops out when under any kind of load, and generally freezes and has lag/latency spikes when utilizing it through online games.

The loads recorded to have made the line drop are downloading above 130kB/s (kilobytes) and uploading above 30kB/s.

Also, having simultaneous connections to a common connection through the network, for example, 2 computers connected to a common game server can cause the connection to lag beyond acceptable speeds, and sometimes to even drop out completely.

With downloads and loading internet pages/browsing, there can also be considerable packet and data loss, and complete inability to fully load a page at all. Images, videos and audio files are more likely to disconnect the network from whatever server the files are hosted on.

Attempting to load Flash files and interactive content such as Java applets, generally take ten to twenty minutes to start, regardless of the server, line load and content.

The maximum recorded download speed was 210kB/s (kilobytes), although the average remains at a pitiful 8kB/s to 9kB/s.

All of the ebove is recorded in equal environments on four separate computers on the network, as well as each individually connected directly to the modem. At both the times that we had an alleged bandwidth of 1500kb/s (kilobits) and when it was supposedly throttled to 64kb/s

We have confirmed multiple times that neither the modem or router or any local hardware is at fault.

When the speed is “throttled”, speeds, reliability and packet content among performance, maximum connections, and load tolerance increase dramatically, Up to an average download speed of 110kB/s (kilobytes).

Performance within games, internet browsing and downloadable applets (flash, java) are completed almost instantly, and the line does not drop periodically every 2 hours, nor does it drop out when under a heavy load.

When there are multiple simultaneous connections to several different servers, (downloads, browsing, p2p networks, streaming video/audio such s youtube and google videos) all processes, although slower, complete without interruption or errors.

Recently, when I attempted to access the apparently “secure” bigpond home page, I was redirected to a “phishing” page, and there I stayed. This was not related to any spyware, virus or hardware locally, as It was constant on several computers, and networks but rather a lapse in site security. I cant see why anyone would want to register with bigpond, or continue to be registered when there details could be stolen as easily as the site could be overwritten.

We also started to have numerous troubles when bigpond switched their servers, and this is when all the problems we always faced, listed above, became unbearable. The new layout for the site is just as annoying, having it so twisted and flashy and overall unacceptable is a flaw also made by Microsoft, who published Windows Vista, (sales dropping average of 400% per day).

But the lapse in security is our greatest concern, and brings to light the posibllity, that while we are on our apoparent “fast speeds”, that our connection, like dozens of others reported to have been on the bigpond ISp, is being HIJACKED.

UPDATE:

I have finally screwed over Telstra. I switche to Internode, and i must say, Its FAST. although i got a plan similar to my previous one at Bigpond, its soo much better!

my old plan was a 1500/256 plan, with 12GB of downloads per month.

on that, as i have outlined above, I managed around 200kbps down, and less that 15 up. thats pretty shithouse eh?

not to mention the constant drop outs and irregular speeds, and hijacking...

NOW, with Internode, i get an AVERAGE of 1395kbps DOWN and about 380 up, with perfect connectivity, NO DROPOUTS and 30GIGS of downloads per month.

Too good to be true you're thinking eh?

Well, I though so too, but it gets better.

Not only can you download large files from internode file servers, these downloads DO NOT ADD to your monthly quota.

I downloaded the Fury Client from their servers in about 3 hours at 180+ KBytes/sec (1300kbps)

as well as that, UPLOADS do not count as transfer either, which is great for heavy p2p seeders like me. I'm Loving it.

Im not done yet, you're alrady on the churn page arent you? the churn cost me only $40 bucks! and we told Telstra to get F'ed in the A.

Not only does the above exist, but you can play on their online game servers, yep, you guessed it, WITHOUT using your downloads, and since uploads are nonexistent too, playing on internode servers is great.

You're thinking: "Ah, the catch is the monthly cost, hmm...?" well, its not. all this, meaning the perfect technical support, plan and perks, all coust about $85 per month, considering i was paying $80 for the plan per month of telstra, plus hundreds of $$ in unjustified phone bills and "other" charges, im pretty happy.

Even though I couldnt get the ADSL2+ plans, (thanks to Telstra and their g*y exchange) this is a lot faster and more reliable than any other ISP ive been on in the past.

If you're thinking of changing from TELSTRA, consider INTERNODE

----------

Software Reviews

Movie Reviews

Software Reviews Coming soon

For more game, Movie and Software Information, news and Reviews, visit http://www.rlslog.net