Xbox - Sega GT 2002

| GAME FEATURES |	Developer : A2
A.) Enhanced graphics over Dreamcast's Sega GT Special Edition. The xbox version is a sequel to that game.	Publisher : Sega
B.) Ability to listen to songs off harddrive is cool.	Released on March 20, 2002
C.) 12 tracks to play around with. Tracks can be mirrored to add to the gameplay experience.
D.) Sega's only *car* racing game of 2002. Crazy Taxi 3 isn't a racing game.	Type : Racing

Sega makes one hell of a racing title. So this game is above average. Every game I buy is above average. I don't know Xbox too well so it was a catch 22 to pick the right game. I'm not rich, I can't sample all the Xbox titles at once. This game was made exclusive to Xbox. If you know of Project Gotham and McCollens Rally 3 for Xbox. This is the other high profile racing title. It's been developed by a developer;s house at SEGA. It has Japan written all over it. Although Xbox is made in America. The once popular videogame maker. Eh, getting popular videogame maker. Sega is not out of the race, they are here to stay. They have the money to deliver state-of-the-art videogames.

The cars are still very polished. It's hard to deBate which game gets a perfect score of 10 in the graphics department. It'll probably be the upcoming Midnight Club sequel for Xbox. You can tell that the game was developed near the end of 1st generation xbox games. So in English, the game looks better then the latest demos for the Gamecube. The first generation is graphics that the Xbox had when it first came out on September 15, 2001. Microsoft didn't see a direct effect on microsoft sales due to 9.11. It was way better then the PS2 in terms of graphics from the very beginning. Both consoles render differently and Xbox has 4 times the Bus speed in it's cache. Sega created a game that was well compared to Project Gotham, the other game that I have. The background is really cool. It has sun spots that are more realistic then PS2s. However since the Xbox does have extra graphical power (every gamer should know this) and the Xbox does a cleaner job with the sky. As you can see I got the second version. The game disc I own had some bug fixes. So far the control is loose. You have to apply the brakes in all tracks. I like loose control. How fast does your car turn at 200 MPH? Same deal in this game. You can't turn very far at full throddle. Sega GT has all the tracks at the start. Some of these type of racers have locked tracks / cars. This only has unlocked cars. In arcade mode the simulation. There are a lot of cars. Who cares where they come from, I can drive it. If I can drive it, I'll have fun! Somehow, Sega managed to out all of those cars on screen without slowing down. This is stellar as it is right here. The game runs at a blazing 60 frames per second all the time.

The soundtracks are purely European. Professional dance remixes. Not exactly trance, but it doesn't sound like rock neither. Not the kind of music that belongs to our pop culture. Some of these songs are even good in a scary way. I am sure that Sega got these songs from somewhere. They be genius' if they would of mixed it themselves. They've must of taken it from the top charts in the UK / Europe and put it all into their game. In English though, it's gran tranismo music. Most songs have a good beat to them. I give the music a 10/10 since you can also put your favorite music and have it play during the game. The game even shuffles the music for you. The music can be in MP3 or WAV format. (article posted on May 25, 2003)

Summing up Sega GT 2002
Graphics	9.3	Excellent graphics. I am a new xbox gamer so I'll probably think that all those graphics are really cool regardless. But yes, the difference between xbox and Gamecube is noticeable. This game has a lot of high resolution art on xbox. It hasn't quit reached the 2nd generation type xbox games. (The ones with more effects on screen while still supporting more pixels in the animation) So in English, it looks the same as Gran Tranismo 3 A Spec for the PS2. Ok, so that's great!
Control	8.5	It is easy to control the vehicle. But it's hard to master it. Aka. skidding all over the place is bad. This game features what is called the draft effect. When your directly behind a car you get less resistance between the two, so you become closer.
Orginalism	7.0	This game is definably a genuine rip of the PS2 game "Gran Tranismo 3 : A Spec". But Sega does an excellent job at it.
Sound Effects	8.0	Nice engine sounds. The sounds of the engine are excellent Soundtracks are ok.
Replayibly	9.0	Good section of maps and cars. With 25 soundtracks that come with the game alone! It's a good game. Not the best. The best so far is the Dreamcast title Test Drive V Rally. I love that game. But defiantly look at it. The game has been out for a year. The price of this game can always go down.

Xbox - Unreal Champtionship review

GAME FEATURES |	Developer : Epic Games
A.) good graphics, the return of Unreal Tournament	Publisher : Atari
B.) 14 levels to play with in Deathmatch, however this is small comparison with UT2003's 30 levels with a growing amount of new maps on the Internet.	Released on June 22, 2002
C.) Smoothed out gameplay. This is a fun game for lan parties. It is one of the first XBOX games that will be broadband able.
D.) questionable gameplay ????	Type : First Person Shooter

I played Unreal Tournament ever since the demo came out in 1999. If you haven't already played this game and seen Unreal Tournament 2003 for the PC, you know that this Xbox game is the exact same thing. Unreal Tournament is the only game that I thought would go through with my buddies and have a blast playing. Besides some old favorites such as Diablo II, or Goldeneye 007 (N64) and Starfox (N64) This holds true with this game, but just enough, because control in this game takes some getting use too. I am really use to be able to have a mouse / keyboard when I play Unreal Tournament. The Dreamcast was set up with one when the prequel came out for it. This didn't stop me from getting the sequel. In the sequel, the graphics have improved. It was in those years that games ran in low and high resolution. In 2003 everything is in high resolution. The game plays average to above average. I have experienced the same problem with the gamecube when you don't have lock-on battle systems, it makes it harder to stay on the other teams position for that Killer shot with the use of the most important crossfire on the screen.

One thing that I dislike about the Xbox is that it has 2 buttons, black and white, and in this game they allow you to jump and crotch. Your life depends on jumping. And the annoying enemy can get an extra annoying shot off you if you don't know how to jump !!!! The railgun isn't the most powerful weapon to use. In my opinion the weapon that inflicts the most damage is the machine gun and the flak gun. Both guns shoot random bullets which helps me corner a bot and kill him (her). I can close in for the kill but a lot of the time I will be counter attacked by his friends, and that isn't good.

The level design is really good. Some of the same levels are used in UT 2003. They all have good spaces where you do sniping. The guns stay in their spots throughout the game. So everytime you have to go back to get the weapon, hence the word, camping near the best weapon. But there are exclusive Xbox deathmatch levels, and capture the flag levels. The xbox also has this exclusive mode were you go through hoops with the ball. Through it I mean. Haven't tried it out yet. It sounds that it's not that great.

While Half-life invented Capture the Flag, Unreal Tournament took it to the next level. The polygons are far superior to the PS2's Unreal Tournament. But with the blazing new faster PCs coming out every month, the UT for PC looks better on those higher priced PCs. The capture the flag is really the most popular team based operation. I personally will play the game in Deathmatch, and such is because the action is there and the solution is simple, shoot down anything in site. If your use to the Playstation controller (those of you who played Unreal Tournament for PS2) know that the xbox controller is big and bulky. It feels like a cheap Gamecube controller. Which makes me wonder if Microsoft just copied the Gamecube controller so it could bring many Nintendo developers to it. While that can't be true, I think the part where the Gamecube controller is probably the worst controller for First Person Shooters simpually because you have to aim one thumbstick to adjust while the other most right thumbstick is to aim. What the console counterpart should be used for is to play with Friends. People are starting to own their second computer. In my house, we have 4 computers ranging from 1 to 3 years old. Only 2 can run UT2003 decently.

Team Deathmatch

Team deathmatch is my favorite kind of mode (with no mods). In Unreal Tournament this is the absolute way to start your game. You can get skills in this mode to play in story mode (which you defeat bosses along the way with a gun) But Team Deathmatch you can also play with your friends, which is cool. Unreal Championship does not come with as many deathmatch maps as Unreal Tournament 2003. The reason, every map had to be good enough to be put on the Xbox. The maps are dynamic and very colorful. The game runs at 60 FPS so there are not too many slow downs. There are a lot of passageways in these Deathmatches, so you can not easily find the enemy because they do travel as a team. Once you track them down, then all hell breaks loose. The ememy can loop around the back and shoot you in the back as you advance forward and break their line, it's a squad that is lethal and you need to seek and destroy, much like Bombing Run.

Bombing Run

A new mode found only in Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Championship. Some gamers will argue that this is the best mode of the whole game. On novice setting all your squad does is seek and destroy, much is very straight forward! If you team has a ball, their be this indicator which shows who has the ball. The objective is to get the ball to the other teams place. AI is pretty good. Your the squad leader so it's your choice to either stay back and perfect your zone or go out and attack. I say definably go on Defense. The chances are that the other team is doing the same thing. It's not stealth like in Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell, but is actually the opposite.

Summing up Unreal Championship
Graphics	10.0	Excellent graphics. This game excels in the graphics department. No game looks better on the Xbox then the Halo franchise, but this game comes in a close second. It has vast environments. The character models are pretty good. However the bitmap textures has been smoothed out a little on the character models. Epic games did an exceptional job on this game in this area. No game besides Halo and a few others are able to stand up to it.
Control	8.5	The Xbox has 2 joysticks. One is to turn the character at a 360° angle, the other joystick is suppose to turn the weapon at a 360° angle. Together Epic Games created a decent gameplay experience. I don't like reaching down for the tiny black and white buttons below the diamond shaped button pattern on the xbox controller. It sucks.
Orginalism	9.0	Quake, Unreal Tournament and Half-Life are all the same when it comes to multiplayer. They all have Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, the 3 main essentials in a first person shooter. UT Championship is no different from these. The gamer can get health packs, weapon powerups, adrenaline for his fighting fury as he progresses through the levels. First Person Shooters are such a solid concept and aren't dying out, in fact their getting more popular then ever before!
Sound Effects	9.0	The mature gamer might not be bothered by the gore in the game, or the extreme Ahhs and getting hammered with a machine gun. But the game does have bad language in it. IF you have this game at a higher volume, which I know most of you probably will, you just don't want teammates or the enemy crying out endless amounts of profanity at you. You can always turn the option "Mature Taunts"
Replayibly	8.0	The game in the end is questionable. No doubt that Unreal Tournament is a good franchise to own. But Unreal Tournament came short in maps and playable characters. What you have is well developed. You have plenty of wide open spaces to have 1:1 duels. 2:1 duels, 3:1 duels or purely mass suicide for yourself. And the enemy will outsmart you by running away. Of course a lone player controlled by the computer not wounded enough is going to find their teammates and then I say "Ouch!" Some AI controlled players in this game will stand it out and bring death to himself.

(article posted June 06, 2003 4:50 PM)

My second project absolutely done at the University Check it out here. I'm done cramming all work I had yet to do before the Linux program was done for the year. It was cut. People must hate programmers at that school. Everyone must think we're not doing anything. Eating donuts, not caring much about worksheets in class. WE'RE PROGRAMMERS, WE DON'T CARE, WE DON'T DO ANYTHING UNLESS WE'RE TOLD TO DO IT! We learned mostly about how to come up with good shell script on how to ping each other. When that failed to work, we just used the GUI. When your in a large classroom, nothing is going to work. Jerry didn't count that against the class. Jerry is our Unix guy. He has over 25 years of experience in shell scripting. I paid attention in class. I'm not like the others. I had my graduation ceremony. I going to graduate from high school at least.

New vistors must of seen the enhancements I've done. Like the green and blue marble backgrounds. I came across these while surfing the Internet for backgrounds and they were perfect for my webpage then having a white background. Transparent Flash has came out this year. I knew it exsists but I couldn't find a sample until today. I'll never put my background in Selteco Flash Designer again. Flash animation + background image = compressed animation (25 KB) instead of 103 KB I would have had if I included the background with the swf. Isn't new technolegy great!

I found a way to connect to the Internet through SuSe Linux. I bought a somewhat expensive external modem, Modem Blaster from Creative, it worked. It hooked up to my serial port. I recently had a US Robotics 56K PCI FAx Modem. The USR never showed up until I attached the external modem to the computer. Then it showed up. I used YaST to connect to my ISP. Then the USR modem does work in SuSe and I've spent a lot of extra money for nothing.

I found a game that copies the card dealing games in Final Fantasy 8 called Questra RPG Legends. I don't know why they called it that? Anyway it's the same game in FF8. I've been playing it. It's not good enough to put on my game list though. I get beaten most of the time merely because I loose a Diablo right way. Diablo is a good card in this game.

Xbox - Halo review

GAME FEATURES | Developer : Bungie A.) great co-operation play Publisher : Microsoft B.) A very long game. Your advantage, having a squad of your own. However these guys are only moral and if not careful, they'll die in front of you in the beginning. Released on November 15, 2001 C.) many cut scenes describing the story in a lot of detail D.) Four species of the Coveniant. The small guys are easy, but there are species that carry shields who are twice as big as you are. Type : First Person Shooter This game will be coming out for the PC in two months and will be Microsoft's giant Multiplayer, amazingly 3D, first person shooter. Only because it is Microsoft's only online first person shooter. Halo is already has some amazing co-operation both by squad members and extra players. This is what the developer, Bungie, hasn't forgot. When you die, the game is never over, you just sent back to the last checkpoint in the game. I find having the television volume up is the best way to stay alive. For example, you can hear your teammates saying commands or taunts over the radio. It's really helpful to hear what they have to say. In a lot of ways this game is a above average military (co-op action genre) game which so happens to be a first person shooter. STORY You and some remaining colonist have just survived the illnilation of a small planet and your ship called "The Pillar of Autumn" want some pay back. Halo isn't any name of a planet or commander of the alien army. Halo is ground zero for your launch of super explosive hardware on a small deserted asteroid belt. The Covenant are keeping you successfully planting a bomb in their mothership on Halo. Anyway these aliens already know where Earth is and want to destroy it so humans don't exist and wind out like many other alien species, extinct like the dinosaurs. And this spawned a trilogy of games, Halo (2001), Halo 2 (2003) and Halo 3 (2005.) The year is 2525 and we've only colonized space for a 100 years. 2001 Game of the Year In the game you pass some awesome scenery. Getting "The Game of the Year" in 2001 would have been already awarded when Halo came out. E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA) holds "The Game of the Year" awards in October. Bungie would of easily stole that award for best action game of 2002 if Nintendo haven't released Metroid Prime. Both games are really good. Ahead of it's time in 2001. Probably the only honor achievement Microsoft had with the Xbox. I heard of this game a year ago and gamers have said that Halo was the game to own on Xbox. One year later I had a chance to played this game. It is good. The military tactics are realistic. Halo is a game that makes Rainbow Six look like a maggot. It has military tactics that the other Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell couldn't easily done. This would be over rating Halo because I've never tried Splitter Cell. Campain Mode and Multiplayer Mode(s) The game also has Multiplayer Modes. Almost all First Person Shooters have a Deathmatch mode. I've never tried Deathmatch. Halo also has Interlink cable where you can play 8 players in Deathmatch on four Xboxs. Halo is no different from other First Person Shooters, except that it has Co-op in the "campaign mode" The Co-op in campaign mode is splitscreen. The same idea Free Radical Design put into Timesplitters. Player 2 has the same armor and guns / ammo as player 1. Both go through the large levels in the game. In level 1 you landed on a deserted planet. Pyro (you) and selected squad members of the United Nations Space Command go towards and warp portal which you beam onto a alien ship. There you are surrounded with aliens who use guerilla tactics against your squad. Then Pyro needs to open doors / activate elevators without lossing teammates in the process. Very Easy is to Somewhat Easy. Easy is to good level. Normal is to hard. Hard is to Very Hard. Now for those of you who liked to drive --- The Jeep! ---- in Halo. The Jeep controls are as good as many driving games. Is it the power that makes you come back? Pyro can loose teammates in the process. However your squad doesn't feel as suicidal as Pyro does so they'll follow the red dots on Radar through out the game. Jeeps have machine guns mounted on top of it. So the right thumbstick controls the gun. It's easier firing at a distance then up close. Squad members don't get to drive Jeeps as much as you do. The point of this paragraph is driving Jeeps in Halo is fun! Which each new level you get new recruits. But like the 3rd level, you get to drive a Jeep, but your recon is lying dead somewhere just because the Covenant forces are to strong. Pyro must do eveything, including destroying the majority of the covenant. In level 4 when you crash into the mothership, but eracusally Pyro survives being rammed against the outshell. Inside is the covesant, and no recon. So it's up to you to go against really tough hunters with shields. Shields pertect them from everything including plasma grenades. Read this article from IGN.com. Summing up Halo Graphics 10.0 Halo has the Xbox hardware down packed. Like I said, this game won the 2001 Game of the Year award at E3. This game has a lot of particle effects to enjoy. Much like what guns look like in Unreal Tournament 2003. There are a lot of good looking enemies. The squad members have clarity in their faces instead of a washed out look that you'll see in games of this kind on Playstation 2 and Gamecube. Control 9.5 I like to say that controls are good. You can easily target the enemy. On the PC you'll get to play this game with a keyboard and mouse. The weapons can easily be sorted with the B button. A is for jumping. And naturally, the left and right triggers are for firing the weapon / tossing out grenades. Orginalism 10.0 Highly original. Bungie got the feel of some of those games that Red Storm Entertainment (developer for Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell, Rainbow 6 Raven Shield and DEUS EX) has. You can even include Perfect Dark and Goldeneye in this category. All are the leading military action games which require stealth a much as teamplay. Sound Effects 10.0 Halo is full of mature taunts and a radio with real military commands. Whether you follow them is your choice. Sometimes if you follow the commands of your squad, you'll see how valuable they are to you. The main point of this game is the weapon fire and the music. Yes, the gun firing sounds like a M-16 assault rifle or a double barrow 20 caliber sniper. The music is good and atmospheric for Halo. The game features futuristic industrial tunes. Replayibly 10.0 The main game is long. But what makes this an ideal xbox title was that it wasn't rushed in the production. The co-op game play was well thought out. The graphics are great. You'll have fun playing with a squad in campaign mode or deathmatch in multiplayer mode because of it's slick control.

[ Top ]

Suse 8.2 report completed

I haven't finished de-bugged this website yet. I know what I'll do I'll send a popup message saying you can't read this page in Netscape to warn users of errors. This website looks fine in Internet Explorer but some images haven't shown up in Netscape. Odd, but it shows up on Mozilla and Konqueror in Linux? Is that right? I am about to fix that sometime this weekend. I've added my SuSe Linux 8.2 Impressions to the Editorials page. This week is the last week of Intro to Unix college course. So I must hurry up with my source code and get it handed in before too long. At school I minded my own business. I'm thinking that should stop. I think I got to get out and talk to some people. Hmm what to say. I could talk about Linux all day but no one would care, besides I dont' know enough about Linux to appeal to even shell scripting students. Damn, I get lonely. I am always so glad I get home from school from the college. Not really to go to sleep, but get food in my stomach. I have really been going light on food when at school. For what you ask. A stupid game? I much rather spend my money on videogames then food. I was looking at that Nascar Thunder 2003 for Gamecube, honestly.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note from the Writer : Some readers

may view this page as Playderism. If you ever known about how open

the Linux community is about their opinions, you do now. There are

100s of websites that review SUSE LINUX. So if you read off of LinuxNews.org

or some of those first hits off Google, will you call those sites, Playderism?

They don't list their sources neither. While I should list my sources

after the sentences, I won't because I forget where I find the most

of this information. If you still think that this article is playderism

then leave. I don't want you here!

Suse Ltd was created in 1997

in Oakland, California. The four lucky people who created capital in

Suse includes Hubert Mantel, Burchard Steinbild, Roland Dyroff and

Thomas Fehr. Suse went into business with the goal of distributing

a better OS then Red Hat. Redhat publicly

introduced itself in 1998, one year before Linux sored high

on the stock market. (source : "Revolution OS" on

IFC ) Redhat has been making commercial versions

that weren't sold in stores until 1998 (Redhat 6.1). So it came

together by a group ownership. With SUSe's Germany operation(s),

Suse was able to create something competitive to Redhat's OS. Suse

bought the Jurix Linux source code and renamed it to Suse making a

much improved interface. By this time Linux was well established. Since the operating system was commercialized, it quadrupled in

size. Now we are at version 8.2 with version 9.0 around the corner.

Recently Suse went 64-bit instead of 32. This improved the interface,

it booted up faster and do more applications then it has done. Suse

has a office sweep specifically designed for Suse Linux.


 


If you haven't read my Red Hat 8.0 editorial, you should read it, I

mean I put weeks into that project. I described how

Redhat looked a lot like Windows. I don't know about copyright laws,

but Linux in general has moved up the bar and broke laws. Windows

applications are able to run on Linux! I think that is so cools. I

talk about this later. Red Hat has recently been keeping up with

the industry, surprisingly. They have

both Gnome 2.2 and KDE 3.1 on their desktop. Red Hat supports both

operating systems! KDE is entirely commercial in it's looks and

it's performance as a desktop shell. I knew Redhat is good at what

they do now. But I realized that their

competition have had some interesting ideas. Suse, who is

entirely profit driven, is unlike Redhat who goes more towards the

GNU Project. Both operating systems use the same KDE Desktop and

it comes with all the applications. But Suse Linux is priced 20

dollars less then Redhat. I choose the Personal version because it

was cheaper.

Suse is

already faster then Redhat. The bootup is faster. I like this much

better. Instead of commands being compiled, Suse has an upload statist

bar.  Opening applications is as fast

as Windows XP. I have a 1.8 Ghz Athlon XP with 386 MB of DRam with a ATI Radeon 9000

video card. My processing speed is plenty fast. When the

industry lowers it's price for 3.0 Ghz processors I'm going to

upgrade.

The X factor [rating 9.5/10]

X as in Xwindows. Xwindows seems much stronger in

Suse 8.2 then in Redhat 8.0. Suse has a system were the MS Windows C

drive is displayed on the KDE desktop. I shrugged at this massive accomplishment, for I have never seen

the c drive on Linux before. Whether this option is in Redhat 9.0, I

don't know. But it makes it highly flexible to

save things to the Window's C drive through Linux. Infact the C

drive is listed on /root for easy access. You have the stability of linux to do your work without it

crashing. I can do multiple stuff on the c

drive that I couldn't of done in Redhat 8.0. Personally I listen to

MP3s on Linux that's on Windows. The sound quality is as good as it

was on Windows. The drives for Redhat 8.0 will also pop up. If you

saved work in Redhat 8.0, it'll automatically work in Suse. It was

really weird, but it was really awesome. I know Suse did one thing

right, they've added a full directory listing to Kstart so that you can

directly access /root directory through the gui. I suppose I went

sur-crazy for a mere 10 seconds. It's that cool. I don't have to

make cdr each time I go on the Internet like I thought I had too.

Installation [8/10]

Installation (YaST) has a

lot in common with Redhat. No doubt it is a excellent and well set up

Installation effort done by SUSE programmers. I liked Redhat's latest

installation wizard in version 8.0. By default, Suse 8.2 comes only

with KDE desktop. What we really need is both Gnome and KDE. YaST

will help you through the installation. If you have this by default.

KDE runs faster then Gnome, slightly. Gnome has even more programs

then Redhat. All programs are installed in Gnome show up in KDE. The

Professional version of Suse comes with 5 discs instead of 3 disks

and can add up to 3 Gigabytes instead of 2 Gigabytes. The source code has been shorten in the

Professional version and helps the computer load software faster. But

the Personal version, what I have, has the exact same properties,

but alittle slower. The system will have to re-partition your current

Linux partition whether it is Redhat or Mandrake because Suse has

to use the same partitions to create it's basis too. It's the damn competition way of saying, “ You bought me,

now you have to use me instead of Redhat” So at least Suse is kind

enough to show file progresses that are installed to the Linux

partition. Put this can easily be reversed by renaming the

partition to a different Swap drive and have Ext 4, 5 and 6 for

Suse or vice versa for Redhat. There is an option that allows the

superuser to check gnome, too. With gnome you get another desktop.  The installation takes 15

minutes. It takes anywhere from 1 Gigabytes to 2 Gigabytes of hard drive space. KDE and Gnome are both 700

Mbs each. With the huge and cheap options with

hard drives these days, it should be recommended by anyone

for the full installation of both Shells.

The YaST asks the user to

check his modem. The modem is connected in the COM1 of my computer (

bottom socket of the motherboard ) The only modem that'll worked in

Redhat is the common 3COM Robotics 56K Fax Modem. YaST needs to be

updated further. If you have a Win modem,

it won't work. So I went back to CompUSA to get an External Modem called the

Creative Modem Blaster. That time it worked. Sometimes I think that

PCI cards aren't viewable since they aren't in use unless you stick

something in the serial port such as a external fax modem. I

have had a odd connection viewing my fax modem inside my computer.

There has been news off the web that Suse doesn't have the proper

drivers for PCI modems. YaST will ask you if you want to download

a patch for your Nvidia videocard. I know most people will go and

buy a Geforce II or IV. While others will go with ATI Radeon series.

This patch will give your card compatibility with OpenGL. 

 Suse Personal version automatically

asks you if you want to become a workstation in a LAN. Since most

people will only own one computer, this isn't possible. So

workstations work fine. Like in all The installation recognizes all 2003 hardware

components and earlier (video card, hard drive, monitor, mouse, sound

card, speakers, processor, modem, network card, fire wire ports, usb ports, etc.) When Suse is

installed I like to use Partition Magic 8.0 to create free space so Redhat can detect it and install

according to it. I haven't seen a way that Suse can do that. No

problem though.

The difference between SuSe

8.1 and 8.2 are noticeable. I don't know.

I've never used Suse. So I heard : A lot of the bug fixes that comes

with shell development are now fixed. Not so much a new release of

the two desktop shells, but rather improved use of memory and small

application fixes. Suse 8 can now recognize newer

hardware. Suse 8.2 never crashes. That's good news. To prevent extra

work. Suse put more updates on the Programs on 3rd disc. I never needed

to use the third disc.  

The Internet on Linux [rating 8.5/10]

Unix has much Improved in

the Internet field. Netscape Communicator has been whipped off the

face of Linux distributions! This OS comes with Konqueror,

Mozilla, Opera. Out of the three, Konqueror is the most advanced

browser. It can open any webpage without a problem. Not to say

that Mozilla or Opera don't have that ability. You can't read most

javascript made by independent users that work exclusive for

Internet Explorer seen on both iMac and Windows. Gaim is still the

premiere instant messenger for Linux. It has everything : MSN

Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, IRC. And is very reliable. There is

more drivers that allow automatic detection like you see in

Windows XP. That annoying “Hardware Found” icon on the Windows

taskbar is in Suse 8.2. I don't know how long Suse had the technology

though. It comes with Opera 6.0 and Mozilla 1.0.2. Opera and Mozilla

are award winning programs. Both browsers use Sun's Javascript in bedded into each. This allows you to see

some basic html javascript like popup menus and

slide shows.

The Word Processor / html editing /

programming [rating 9.0/10]

I recently

talked about Open Office on Redhat, and it's so good, that it's back

on Suse 8.2 version. It is the preferred office suite of all KDE and

Gnome operating systems. KDE makes it's own version of Koffice.

And Gnome makes Abiword. But these word processors, although

close, dont' have as many features as Open Office.org Office

Suite. One enhancement is that it highlights your typing in blue

and while you type, displays the end result as you type. That's

cool. Now I don't have a problem of missing words. In

OpenOffice.org 1.0.1 for Redhat, OpenOffice.org crashed once every

time I use it. The only thing that kept me from getting mad at it

is that it periodically saved my files to /home/students/

directory. It's better in Suse or Linux in general. 

If you want

to edit html, you have plenty of options. Linux comes with Mozilla

Composer. It has much improved over the Netscape 6.0 composer. MC

can view both gui style and html script in the same program. Then

you can use Open Office to create light html pages too. There are

some free downloadable software like Bluefish 0.9 and Coffeecup HTML

editor. Both a command line based html editor. People can use the

Kate for easy access to their html script. It highlights different

code in color so you can easily find your code. It's also used for

Pearl, C++, shell script and Python shell script. Best of all, when

your system crashes, Kate will keep your work for you till you log in

and open Kate again. I seen this work in different Linux OS, and

it isn't new to Linux.

One thing new

aboard linux is Python 2.2 programming client. Python script looks

like shell script, but has MSDOS commands are built into it, and some

simple commands. It's available for all

Linux distributions. The script is simpler then

shell script for linux and looks the same. Not like Korn shell.

That's what the terminal uses now. What is Korn, you ask? Korn is

a more advanced shell programming structure then Bourlen Shell script. It's a hybrid, to be exact.

Python is included with SUSE under the programming tab of the statist bar.

The Multimedia Software [7/10]

With the ability to see Mp3s on windows partition, you

can use a program called XMMS (looks exactly like Winamp) and play

your songs. The XMMS can read all Winamp customized zipped skins.

It's about the highest quality mp3 player out for Linux. XMMS comes

with equalizer abilities and a range of sound adjustments. I really

like. XMMS is in Redhat 8.0 too. So it's a Linux thing. Sometimes

XMMS will play, but not show up and then crash with the music still

playing. At least XMMS is skinnable.

Mplayer can show DVD movies not very well, but the idea is there. I

haven't seen this program in Redhat at all. Mplayer can read avi and

mpeg off DVDRs, so that's a plus. It's not as buggy as the Redhat

version of it's media player. Suse comes with Realplayer. Realplayer

reads MPEG off cds, but also doubles as an Internet radio

tuner and streaming video client.

Picture

clients are cool. I like Kuinkshow better then Image Viewer in Gnome.

This program will read graphic files off Linux / Windows and scrolls

through them as you scroll the mouse wheel. Esc on the keyboard

cancels Kuinkshow. It has many similarities with

Irfanview. One thing that I find difficult in Suse makes it's file

system so you can't bring up Kuinkshow first, and look at your

photos, but have to find them on the desktop or even cut / paste

directory shortcuts to the open statist window.

I look at Kuinkshow so I can easily page through my artwork I made

in Windows.

Many games

have the same problem with Nvidia cards that use Direct 3D. Suse has

an easier time using the video card to

it's advantage, but SUSE stop supporting Nvidia drivers for what

ever reason. The focus for Linux

partitions is OpenGL, an open source graphics

accelerator which should work as well as Direct 3D and

doesn't. OpenGL improved some since 1999, but it still doesn't

look as good or have as good as frame rate as Direct 3D. However I

was able to get a Geforce driver off Nvidia.com, which improved

graphics acceleration slightly.  

Video editing

can also be done on Suse with “MovieActor 3.7.” The Linux version

of Microsoft's Moviemaker software and still more filled out with

options. It is still very basic. Some features that properly describe

it is that it can move mpeg video around by croping the video and

export it to mpeg. It can add still images and add slide transitions

too.

New Games [7/10]

All the games are stable in

Suse 8.2. Gnome's game package grown bigger in this version. Racer

is a 3D Car Simulation (a 250 MB game) The game is much like

Midnight Racer for the PS2. At least we

know that 3D racers are supported by the operating system. There

is also Fool Billiards, a pool game for

Linux that uses real nice 3D acceleration.

Loki makes

some affordable commercial versions of

Neverwinter Nights, Civilization 4, Simcity

3000, Quake III, and Unreal Tournament 2003 for all Linux OS. There

just isn't games to go around in Linux. I found a large selection of

free games off linux.tucows.com.

Chronoium is a good 2D shooter, but it requires OpenGL. Should Direct

X be on a Linux operating system, that will be the day. The

frustrating time comes when 3Ddiag doesn't work with Nvidia's

latest driver. The driver can come in a compact 1.3 tar.tz format or

a very large uncompressed .run format. Quadra is a new Tetris game

put in Suse. It wasn't in Redhat's distribution. It's fun, but

Ksirtris is more fun and it has somewhat better level adjustment.

Quadra is impossible to keep up with after level 3. Grometris is

Grome's version of Tetris. It's a basic game at best. KDE had come

up with Kbattleship after the boardgame Battleship. That is alittle

fun too. The buttons in the game have been updated to look rounded and

shady that went well with the desktop anyway. This wasn't possible 5

years ago. Desktop appearance took a giant leap in the Linux department

in KDE 2.0 and 3.0 AisleRiot is the only solitaire game on board

Suse Linux. That sucks! Katomic is a fun games. It's a well known game

in the Linux community. I am good at it. The game is about matching

balls which move and stop by hitting a wall. Then they have to be in

the order of the matching screen to go on. There is 50 levels in this

game. There is plenty of time to fool around.  The higher levels

are unreachable by the average person, I believe. Linux is about having fun. The more fun your having,

the more you are educated about Linux, and that is the best part of

using Linux. Patience is another solitaire game. Solitaire is relaxing.

Thus, Solitaire is the bomb! Everyone agrees with it. 

I've played Tux

Racer and it's a good game. It has a catchy jingle to it. It's more of

a Penguin Grand Prix then a racer. It's a nice game though. A good

effort. As a player, you can race 6 tracks. The tracks are better then

most racers. It has various shades of tree colors and snow cover. Good

background artwork. It runs in high resolution. I wonder if KDE or

Gnome plan to add Doom 1.1 to their 3D games. If so it would be

awesome. If not, that's ok, I'll just download it off the Internet. If

only I had a videocard that excepted OpenGL.

There was one

game that worked with OpenGL well called Frozen Bubble. I love this

game. It's new and it's cool. Frozen Bubble most resimbles the N64

game, Bust-a-Bubble. It's simple, it's stable, just line the bubbles up

with the color and there it all goes down. Do this all in time to move

on. This game has 100. Newer versions should have more then 100. 

The program comes with mp3 music that is apropraite for this style

genre. The music isn't that cheesy. Redhat didn't come with this game.

It was top rated on the web for most enjoyable game on Linux. So ... I

rest my case. This is one of the best games for Linux off the Internet,

period. This game deserves a 9.0/10 user

rating. If you don't own a brand new computer like me, you can even

lower the graphics quality so it'll run on your videocard. You'll see

once you find it. 

If you like to

download a lot of games, I advice you to download the compressed format

.tar or .gz. Then you won't be missing files and a lot of times, if

your games come pre-compiled, you can get away with it. So download the

zip format of your games. If you don't have an unity, which you should

have if your running Linux is ARK. 

Linux is fortunate to have as many

games as it does. Here are examples of those games for users that

aren't familiar with Linux yet.

Grometris - Tetris for Grome	KSirtris - Tetris for KDE	Gnome Mines - Linux version of Minesweep	KKK		Katomic - Perfection building
KTron- Anti crash dot game	KBattleship - Battleship for KDE	Travravex - "Match the numbers in time"
Grometris - Tetris for Grome	Aisleroit - Solitaire for KDE	Katomic - Perfection building
Quadra - Tetris for KDE	Patience - Klondike for KDE	Kmarbles - Perfection building
SameGame - Process of Illimination	FFKWK

Desktop Management [8/10]

Desktops in Linux improved

slightly in the last 2 years. Linux has a good os shell recovery

system (something that occurs in the kernel.) Applications can't

crash as they would in Windows. It's a Linux standard and gets

better in every release of Suse / Redhat / Mandrake. In the industry,

there is an argument whether or not the latest versions of SUSE,

Redhat or Mandrake are as stable as they were 2 years ago. It

shouldn't been true though, the kernel went

up more then a 100 public releases since then. All of these curtacy of the GNU Project.  These

companies release a new version every 6 to 8 months every year.

They're always trying to put something new in there OS. I mean ,in

Linux, SUSE took a more drastic turn then Microsoft did when they

went from Windows 98 to Windows 2000. Now you can go to your folder,

right click and do renaming, moving of files to any directory. Use

the terminal or use of the gui to make adjustments to your files is

quick. If you right click on the desktop itself you have a broad

view of many options. By the way, I found out all the screen savers

that Linux is known for is in Gnome. In KDE, you get a scenic black

screen that will enlighten your Desktop. You can change your resolution

to look like Windows, Change your background image. I

tried this on my mom and she thought she was using Windows XP. It

was so funny to watch. She did see something different about "Kstart."

 I didn't say anything.  Like in KDE 2.1, you

could change your titlebars to look a lot like Windows 2000. There are

a lot of Desktop backgrounds that come with Suse. Really cool screen savers appear when you don't' use the desktop for a length of time. I

seen these in Redhat, though. Every thing has a

minimum quality, for all screensavers have to look cool and

not crash. Linux also has an option where you can reserve energy by

putting your computer into sleep mode. Sleep mode doesn't make much

since to me when you can turn your computer off. 

Installing

programs are varied. RPMs usually don't have the the system files

I need to install what I need. RPMs are the install wizard similar to EXE for Windows. Some programs come

compressed in tar.gz format. I don't like these as much because there

harder to work with. YaST gives me errors saying that the packages

need to run the wizard is unavailible. A lot of times you need to be

signed in as root to allow any rpms to be installed. Sometimes you

can't install new versions over the old version (such as Mozilla) so

you have to delete the directory Mozilla and install the latest

version over that. Suse has an uninstall wizard, but I have no idea

where it is?

FIN : The End Result

The end

result is that I much rather have Suse on my Desktop then Redhat.

Although in the future, I'll use redhat for school. I can have what I

feel more comfortable with in Suse 8.2. I

like the ability to see the Windows hard drive,

it gives me more options I never had. I

like Redhat's smooth features like the screensavers. They both run

the same version of KDE and Gnome. But, Suse runs faster then

Redhat. So I have to like Suse more then Redhat 8.0. I'll see what

Redhat 10.0 is like in 2004. But until then, I like what I have

with Suse. Suse.com doesn't have any selection of drivers for

hardware what-so-ever. But they do have a toll free 1800 number to call

for tech support. 

Written by

on May 10, 2003 with Openoffice.org | rev 1.0.4

New Metal Gear for Gamecube?

Some interesting Metal Gear Solid sequel news : Komani asked Silicon Knights to make "Metal Gear Solid : The Twin Snakes" exclusive for Gamecube. All I know is MGS2 was a top game for Playstation 2. The new game is suppose to look the same or better then the xbox version of MGS2. The new Sonic game is coming to gamecube, Sonic Adventure Directors Cut. I have the Dreamcast version 1.1 of Sonic Adventure. I've played it and the game was ok. But now I learned that Sonic Adventure DX also includes all the Gamegear titles to boot.

I took my road test the first time and passed. It's a good feeling to have that out of the way. Now I can go where ever I need too. Finally the day has come.

Xbox - Elder Scrolls III - GOTY review

| GAME FEATURES |	Developer : Bethesda Softworks
A.) Being one of xbox's largest games. The first being Shenmue 2. Developed with the best attentions.	Publisher : Bethesda Softworks
B.) Play as any Dungeons and Dragons characters including Elfs, Orcs, Human.	Released sometime in 2002
C.) One of few first person RPGs seen only in Heroes of Might and Magic, DEUS EX.
D.) Quest around in a massive world doing favors for people. Although, some of these favors are from evil outlanders who don't look evil at all. For example, all aristocrats in this game are evil because they've got their hearts stolen from evil elves.	Type : "Massive Offline Single Player Role Playing Game"

Elder Scrolls III Morrowind is the sequel to Daggerfall. There is absolutely no comparison to the two games. Daggerfall was released on DOS in 1996 by Bethesda Softworks. The graphics best compare to Dungeon Keeper or Hexen for the PC. If you want to see what Daggerfall really looked like Click Here. DaggerFall first introduced a huge 3D game with entire lakes, dungeons, lands, towns, roads and country making it up. Much like what Diablo was when it first came out. Expect Diablo franchise from Blizzard didn't improve as much as this franchise. At the time in 1996, Elder Scrolls II was really awe inspiring. Anyway it's really old now and few people play it anymore. Seven years after the release of Elder Scrolls II : Daggerfall; Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind became a state-of-the-art RPG with a huge world to boot. And it wasn't originally released on Xbox. I could of owned the game either way because both my PCs can handle the graphically demanding PC version. I have never played a RPG in first person before except if you count Legend of Zelda 64. Morrowind is also the smash hit PC game. I guess I wasn't the only one looking for an Xbox RPG. Except I waited it out one year after the game was released. I don't have the PC game. But from what I heard the Xbox version look better and I wanted to play a RPG on Xbox. Although I've seen some nice textures on the PC. Regardless, Elder Scrolls III is a huge game. The closest game that comes in comparison is EverQuest.

So first in the game, you go through this process. You've just got out of jail and they want you to decide on what character your going to be and then they make you answer a lot of questions just so you have a signed release forum saying you've passed security. Now for the fun part. The part where you get to create quests and take what you want. Much like Dungeon Siege. The bigger / stronger the enemy, the more expensive loot he has on him. So you can loot anyone whom you kill. Except people / alien races aren't dumb in this fantasy world, the minute you steal something, who ever you steal it from will want to kill you. Except the aristocrats are amused and still try to kill you. They are amused only because their heartless fouls who got their hearts stolen from evil elves (the game tells me so...) Which brings me to my next point, the character your playing is wiser then you, so check the journal often. You might even discover what ways you can set apart a good elf from a evil elf. Your job is to kill all the evil elves. The journal is usually right. I almost wonder if this game will be similar to the upcoming World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft stepped aside from war strategy foundation and stepped up into the realm of Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.

One thing that the PC has is Patches. This is relatively new to console games. Mech Assault is the only game that allows you to download new patches from the Internet to the hard drive. Even though the game is well designed and has amongst the best graphics on Xbox, it has slowdowns. The game usually goes a long the lines of 30 frames per second. That won't cut it for just any game, but I've been arrange by the size of each level. There just isn't any boundaries in this title. It's a very large world and it loads along the way. Which is OK. This makes me curious how Gas Powered Games managed to make Dungeon Siege a huge game without any loading times. It has something to do with the balance between backgrounds loading when some disappear. Everything in a 200 feet radius loads simutaniously. That's how the game engine works.

The infamous example of the half orc in Neverwinter Nights "He may be strong and reckless, but everyone tends to stay away from him because he's not too bright." This fact stays true with Morrowind as well. In the beginning, if your character doesn't have a very good score, that old guy won't say a word, however, if you are lucky to answer most of the questions right, he'll be overly friendly to you. The guard just grinds at you as if nothing seriously happened. But hey what can you do, you have no weapon.

There are evil creatures in this game like in all RPGs. In this game, the smart ones pretend to be friendly so they can lure you into a trap so they can kill you or just turn you evil. In this game, you have a choice of being evil or good from the actions you do. Your not evil when you fight back when someone is trying to kill you. The opposite is true. Some creatures are just born evil, while others become evil. This game gives off a whole new meaning of evil I've never encountered in a game before. Yes, there are many ways to die in this game, you can even die evil. An example would be, where a thief hands me a bag full of something expensive. Of course I'll take it! But if it looks like something evil, I'll just leave it. When you evil, there will be people who hunt you down to kill you. It's more trouble then it's worth. Don't think you can out last most of the guards from the beginning because guards are very well armed. Some evil in this world is better equipped with armor and magic then you. Once you have a weapon then you can explore the many towns. Some quests require you to go all the way back to the beginning of the game and explore a town opposite of where you are. Sometimes you'll bring items back and forth from town to town, while other times you'll bring people from location to location. Be careful though, some people will ask you to go one direction and you won't know what they're talking about? So when I offered to help this one person, it took me 45 minutes to find it. To be specific it was a farm near the coast line.

The level up system in this RPG is like others, in other words it's average. Most console RPGs have a high standard of it's level up system. In this case the new stats are displayed in text each time you level up. Instead of giving you stats points like in Diablo 2. The more your character uses melee weapons, the stronger he gets. The easiest way to get the weapon you want is to kill someone for it. Becareful who you duel because some guys are very well skilled. I tend to try to duel aliens with out shields. There are ranged weapons in this game, but 9/10 of all weapons used by everyone is melee. Glass type weapons are the most effective. All magical weapons have a green glow.

My favorite part is exploring the new world. I wonder if I compares well to Dungeon Siege. That was also a huge game. It had not 1 massive world, but 3 maps roughly the same size. From the beginning with a new gamer, the game looks endless. And the hundreds of quests makes it so you can cover the same ground that makes the game so huge several times.

Summing up Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind
Graphics	10.0	Elder Scrolls III Morrowind is a good looking game. It renders graphics that surpass any Playstation 2 game. In this case I'm comparing Everquest to Xbox's Elder Scrolls III. The game one Xbox RPG of the Year from Xbox Magazine. Baldur's Gate was it's runner up. Morrowind is huge. It's full of countless characters to Interact with. The character models are average while, the world they live in is eye popping, like the PC version, although I seen some Internet sites say that the Xbox version looks better. The PC and Xbox versions of Morrowind are similar. The trees, plants are all 3D. And they look very high definition. There doesn't look like there's a odd placed pixel in the game. The water effects and reflections are awesome. You can even go swimming in this game if you like. Unlike some games where you just float, in this game, you swim for real! The game doesn't have smooth frame rate, a though its really good 90 percent of the time. Be worn that there is a lock up bug in this game wear the game locks up. But this could also be that Morrowind is way too graphically defined to be simple for Xbox to handle.
Control	10.0	The game is easier to control then most first person shooters. At least most console First Person Shooters. The only ones I think that stay par to Morrowind is Unreal Championship, Timesplitters 2, and Halo. The reason why I compare it with a first person shooter is that these games share the same controls. The left thumbpad controls forward movement while the right joystick turns the character left or right. It's simple and effective. The left thumbpad could be the keyboard arrows, while the right thumbpad can be the mouse. The difficulty in this game is medium. Like I said above, you can equip your inventory with stuff you buy or steal. If you steal, you must over power the person who is trying to kill you first. But if someone notices, then there is not 1 but 2 or 3 people trying to kill you. So if your planning to buy this game, it's great fun. But don't get caught killing someone in public.
Orginalism	10.0	I can now see how this game can come with high expectations from anyone who plays it. It's perfect and I thinking that Elder Scrolls IV is going to be a whole lot better in this area. The game looks like it been worked on for 3 or more years just by looking at it. The developer, Bethesda, is new to me. I mostly known about Black Isles, Blizzard Entertainment and Gas Powered Games. I'm not much of a Might and Magic fan myself, so I never had a RPG in first person view.
Sound Effects	8.0	Morrowind has a less then perfect soundtrack. But the spoken dialog with every person you encounter makes up for the gap! Voice acting in this game is good.
Replayibly	???	Don't know yet. It looks fun and I've been playing it for a couple days, spending 3 hours at each setting. Not doubt, it's fun, just that this game is so huge.