Sunday, December 15, 2002

ASUS A7N8X Review -- 6:06 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

HardOCP reviewed ASUS's nForce2-based motherboard, the A7N8X. It sounds pretty sweet. If I were building an AMD-based box today, I'd take a long look at that mobo.

NWN Linux Client Un-Delayed? -- 3:25 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Bioware updated the Neverwinter Nights Linux client page with news that the client might not be as delayed as they originally feared. Here's the scoop:

We have just been informed by Rad Game Tools (http://www.radgametools.com) that they have Linux versions of both Bink and Miles. We will be getting our hands on these tools on Monday and we should have further information for you then.

This solves the two outstanding issues with the Linux Client, and I bet we will have even more good news for you in the coming week in terms of future Betas or Demos of the Linux Client. We here at BioWare are thrilled with this development.

We would like to apologise for the confusion arising from the Dec 13th update where it seem like we were blaming Rad for the delay. This is entirely untrue. We were stating that, to the best of our knowledge, we would have to find our own solutions for movie and sound playing in the Linux Client. This is no longer the case and we look forward to using the Linux Rad Game Tools just like we are in the Windows and upcoming Mac version.

Rejoice!

A beta? I am SO there.

J.t.Qbe comments: This is really impressive, and I heartily applaud Bioware for supporting Linux in this way: I doubt that NWN sales due to the Linux client are going to pay for the development costs, so apparently Bioware is doing this out of the good of its corporate heart. If I didn't already own all of their games, I'd buy them as a show of support! If you're a Linux gamer and don't own NWN, buy it when the Linux client comes out. There's been some really amazing user-generated stuff released in the last few months. You could play this game for years without seeing the same sights twice.

But the undelay is sort of unfortunate: I was hoping to make some better progress on my backlog of games before getting pulled back into NWN. Oh well!

Saturday, December 14, 2002

NFL Week #15 -- 11:25 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Today marks the three month anniversary of the Lions being mathematically eliminated from post season contention. I suspect we should see them challenge for a playoff spot about a year after I die. At least my Fightin' Wombats have some favorable matchups going into the Fantasy Football semifinals! With that being said, here are my fearless predictions for the antepenultimate weekend in the NFL regular season: Falcons, Jets, Dolphins, Bucs, Ravens, Bills, Steelers, Saints, Eagles, Jaguars, Colts, Chiefs, Giants, 49ers, Rams, Patriots.

The Master comments: Eeyore's picks: Jets, Falcons, Bills, Jaguars, Bucs, Dolphins, Saints, Eagles, Steelers, Colts, Ravens, Broncos, Giants, Packers, Rams, Patriots.

Mozilla 1.3 Alpha Released -- 1:18 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Mozilla team has released version 1.3 alpha of their web browsing suite. The big change in 1.3 is the inclusion of spam classification. With a little training, Mozilla "learns" what is spam and what isn't pretty cool. You can read the release notes here and download it here. Since this an alpha, use with caution. I think I'm going to wait for the beta before taking the plunge.

NWN Linux Client Delayed -- 10:56 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Bioware updated their Neverwinter Nights Linux client page with news that will not please Linux users but also won't surprise them either. The ETA of the client has been moved from Fall 2002 to Winter. That's no big shocker since winter officially begins in a week. Here's the whole update:

There have been many questions as to why the Linux client is taking so long. The two big issues are sound and movies due to the fact that BINK and Miles are only available for Windows and Mac. BINK is the in-game movie player and Miles is the sound engine for Neverwinter Nights. We are having to find our own solution for Linux sound in Neverwinter Nights, and we are exploring possible movie options. Due to these factors, we are revising the estimated release date from Fall 2002 to Winter 2002 (Dec 22 2002 to March 21 2003), with January 2003 being the earliest date it could be out.

Progress has been made on sound this week, and to re-iterate, the graphical side of the Linux client is looking excellent and is almost complete.

I can wait. I've basically suspended my NWN playing until the client is out. Hopefully this delay will mean that the expansion packs can be ported more easily. Hope springs eternal.

Past Two Days' News

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