I'M FREE I'M FREE!!!

Okay, I've been suspecting this to be the case for sometime now, but since I've been doing my computing degree it has been confirmed.......Windows is a bit rubbish!

For years I have been turning the air blue with my foul language as Windows decides to freeze, or Windows decides to slow to a crawl, or Windows decides not to connect to a network unless I reboot, or Windows applications decide stop responding with no explanation as to the cause.

Many people have told me that I should buy a Mac, usually whilst their smug self satisfied selves are watching me thumping my laptop in frustration. Maybe I should "buy a Mac", but they are overlooking one problem, they are about double the price of a PC and I'm not Roman Abramovich! I have to agree though that Macs are good looking, have good quality hardware and their operating system is stable.

So I have had to explore other avenues. One of the reasons Mac is so stable is because Mac OSX is built upon the Unix operating system, the most stable system of all. Luckily this means that PC owners can also benefit from this stability. I therefore decided to try Linux which is also a Unix based system, and best of all it's completely free.

It's not a new idea for me to try this, I have dabbled in the past. There are many different flavours of Linux to consider from the beginner level Debian to the more geeky Slackware. I tried Mandriva Linux a couple of years back but had trouble with a flaky wireless connection and video that would only play sound with no picture. So back to Windows I went.

It wasn't until our resident Gameov3rite ed.kilverts mentioned that he moved to Kubuntu Linux that I decided to dabble again. The newest Mandriva, Debian, Mint and Kubuntu all gave me trouble with my internet connection. It wasn't until I tried Ubuntu that I had success with a driver for my wired connection installed 'out of the box', and my wireless driver recently being available on the internet.

I installed Ubuntu as a dual boot with Windows (just to fall back on if needed) and started to play. At a basic level it's a good looking beast with everything available in a logical place. Even better is the fact that Linux has a 'repository'. This is an application that allows you to download (again, for free) applications for pretty much any purpose you can think of. Simply type what you're after, mark the relevant application from the list that you wish to install and click apply, job done! You can also download Wine which allows you to run Windows programs in Linux with ease. It even comes with Open Office as standard so you don't need to worry about Microsoft Office.

Linux is by no means the most user friendly of operating systems. If you download an application from the internet rather than using the repository you will probably need to learn some commands to type into the terminal (the Linux equivalent of the Windows command line). Executable files are a rarity here so you have to embrace your inner geek.

My Uni lecturers will tell you that Windows architecture, ie the very bowels of the operating system that sits beneath the skin of what's on screen is poorly designed making Windows slow, long winded unstable and prone to security issues. Sceptical? Well, let me tell you that Linux doesn't require an anti virus solution. The architecture and permissions system on Linux means that whilst a virus can get onto your system, it stays contained and cannot do any damage. Windows on the other hand allows viruses do pretty much do whatever they want which I think says it all.

So I'm finding Ubuntu fast (no matter how much I install), stable (hasn't crashed once), good looking, logical and most importantly a usable alternative to Windows. If you are a person who has ever shouted "STUPID F'ING WINDOWS" or cursed Bill Gates, or even if you're just feeling brave, I would wholeheartedly recommend giving it a go. You could end up being like one of those Mac users who says "you should try Linux" in a smug tone.

I genuinely feel liberated to have finally escaped Bill Gates' clutches. Hang on, who makes the XBox? Oh s**t!!!!

Battalion Wars II

A few nights ago I met up with another forum member for some post work online fun with the Wiiware game Onslaught but it was not to be. It felt like the Nintendo server was making horn shapes with its thumbs in its ears and a loud raspberry emanating from its tongue, not allowing us to connect together for a game. Instead we decided, and I can’t remember whether it was Myrrhman or myself who suggested it, that we should try Battalion Wars 2 instead. We’ve played the game many times together across Nintendo’s Wifi but the last time was over a year ago.


BW2 has three different online options – co-op, assault and skirmish – and as we had been looking forward to the cooperative action in Onslaught that is what we chose.
I think the point that I realised just how rusty we both were came as my units got caught in the crossfire between an enemy light tank and helicopter gunship. I have no idea what my team mate was up to but I assume that it was similar to my pitiful experience.

How do I?

aaarrrggghh

NO I don’t want you to attack

erm

I want to control that unit

what’s the right button?

By the third attempt at the mission the old familiarity was back again and we cruised through, attaining an ‘S’ Rank for a perfect 100% score. On then to the next co-op mission and another ‘S’ rank, this time at the first attempt!


Have you ever assumed that you’ve remembered the controls for a game only to realise too late that you haven’t?



If you need to confess you should visit the Gameov3r Forum

85%

It is true that only 15% of gamers complete the games they play. A massive 85% of us don’t finish what we start!

I wonder what the figures would be for people that don't finish watching a movie? What if we’re faced with a bowl of ice cream or a Millie’s cookie? 100% complete I’m sure.

Not the fairest comparisons considering the length of a movie or the amount of time a Millie’s cookie would last in the hands of some Gameov3r members, compared to the time required to finish a video game.

So, are games too long? Too hard? Are there just too many games or are gamers a fickle bunch that move on to a newer, better game as soon as one’s released? Who says we only finish 15% of games we play anyway?

The 85% figure comes from Microsoft and is based on Achievement figures. This isn’t a figure representing a gamer obtaining all the available Gamer Points in a game just finishing the story/final level. It doesn’t in anyway represent Sony or Nintendo although I think that a similar percentage would be true for PS3 owners. The Wii might be slightly different, if the Wii is truly owned by a majority of casual gamers, we may well have a figure even higher.

Is something fundamentally wrong with games if hardly anyone finishes them?

If there is, then how are developers going to get us to complete the games we play? Making games shorter or creating compilations of mini games is one way and does seem to be the approach of some narrow minded Wii developers that are cashing in on the popularity of the console and it’s perceived casual market. Making games easier isn’t the answer although having a choice of difficulty levels certainly helps to make a game accessible for everyone. More often than not though developers force the player to play through on Normal or harder if you’re going to get any bonuses, unlockables or Achievements.

ATARI have taken a step in a direction. Maybe. Playing Alone in the Dark, a flawed game in many ways, presents the player with the opportunity to skip scenes, basically skip whole sections of the game thus providing the player with a chance to simply avoid a tough part of the game. Perhaps ATARI included this feature because Alone in the Dark plays so awfully that they thought there would be little chance of anyone getting to the end any other way and inadvertently find themselves being mentioned here. But maybe, just maybe, they saw the 85% and decided to try something a little different.

Who knows, maybe sometime soon 85% of us will finish the games we start.

Do you start what you finish or does it inexplicably get cut off halfway through? Many more jokes spring to mind, but now is not the time for toilet humour…… Gameov3r’s FORUM awaits…..