Gone to Plaid

Over the past few days my computer has, seemingly randomly, been freezing up and displaying quite a wide array of colored lines and patterns when it feels like it. See the included picture of my Vista welcome screen, which strangely enough looks like an awesome arrangement for bath/shower tiles from further away!

Amusing as these random images are, at first I totally freaked out thinking it was my monitor. However, I quickly realized I was still able to do system restores and navigate my way around the screen whilst squinting through the jaggy lines. So that left my NVIDIA 7600 GT as the most possible culprit, which I’ve never had issues with before. I know they burn out with age and use though, and I’ve had it since I got my desktop over two years ago. So I guess it’s looking to be time for an upgrade. *sigh*

I went ahead and cleaned the case out, cleaned the gold contacts on the card, and uninstalled/reinstalled the card’s drivers. After the second time reinstalling drivers, everything seems to be happy. I’m hoping it doesn’t crap out completely, but if so, I found a pretty good deal on Newegg for a 9500 GT under $70. Kind of makes me wish I waited on spending $70 the other day on a 1TB internal SATA hard drive. . . but that deal was too good to pass up, and I neeeeed space.

E3 2009 Impressions: Kojima Productions

This was a pretty big year for E3, and there is certainly a lot to respond to. However, I’m going to start out by granting my impressions on one of my favorite developers, and one that kinda stole the show for me personally.

As a major follower and fan of the Metal Gear franchise and Hideo Kojima, I must admit I was lending a keen eye as to what would be announced from Kojima Productions this E3. In traditional Kojima style, there was a somewhat quirky teaser build up prior to E3’s launch, which left many watching, waiting, counting down, and attempting to unscramble flashing images, numbers, and letters. Read more »

Knights in the Nightmare

So, Knights in the Nightmare.  This game is something else.  It’s definitely something I’ve never played before.  A mixture of a bullet hell game and a strategy RPG with a bit of chess mixed in.  And, to top it all off, there’s so many missable items and characters, it gets extremely frustrating.

Also, like chess, it’s easy to learn but hard to master. Read more »

From Russia With Fun! Tetris turns 25

So today is the 25th birthday of Tetris, the figurative grand-daddy of all popular and addictive puzzle games.  Originally crafted by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov June 6th, 1986, its name is a combination of the words “tetra” and Pajitnov’s favorite sport of tennis. ‘Betcha didn’t know that did you? But, it’s certainly amazing how one man’s small-time project and past time grew to be enjoyed and distributed amongst so many.

I remember first playing it when it came out on the original GameBoy as it was bundled with the system at launch in good ol’ 1989 (I would have just turned 6). Eventually my brother and I aquired the NES version, so we finally got to experience the game in color. Yay!

Since, Tetris has graced a multitude of platforms, cell phones and PDAs being some I have personally used. It has also proven to become  a pop icon of sorts finding its way in to architecture, art, furniture, and… ice cube trays?

Cheers to you, oh immortal Tetris, and here’s to many more years of sequential interlocking blocks!

Fedor Emeilianenko vs. Josh Barnett

On my mind right now  is the up and coming Affliction/WAMMA heavy weight championship fight between Fedor Emeilianenko and Josh Barnett. Now, this in my mind is the greatest possible fight over 205. These are the world’s best!

My dilemma is that I like both fighters, for what they do in and outside the ring. Fedor is a great ambassador for the sport, showing that you can be the baddest man on the planet without being  a disrespectful muscle-head that caters to WWE fans. He’s a real mixed martial artist who has both amazing submissions and knockouts.

Josh similarly is a great fighter, not as great as Fedor in my humble opinion, but he is an even greater coach and all around cool guy. For example, the greatest female fighter pound for pound, Megumi Fujii, has been trained by him for years and anyone who’s cool enough to hang out with Mega-Megu, is cool in my book. Read more »