Thursday, March 18, 2004

Windows Security CD -- 6:11 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I forgot to mention that yesterday the Windows Security Update CD that I ordered a little while ago (story). It's been quite a while since I reinstalled 98 on my kids' box. When I do that again, it will be much easier to update instead of having to download and reboot all evening.

UT2K4 Initial Impressions -- 9:47 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I feel bad because I'm the bonehead who pointed out the Best Buy UT2K4 sale to The Master. Hopefully he'll still be able to get the DVD version. I've heard similar horror stories from folks who pre-ordered at brick-and-mortar EB Games stores.

The Master comments: Just wait—I'm sure this will make for a great rant about corporate ethics in a week or so.

I got my copy late yesterday afternoon which was cool except that meant I couldn't do anything with it until much later at night. Immediately I noticed the coolness factor of installing from a DVD. The disc mounted fine as an iso9660 filesystem. It took me just over seven minutes to install everything. UT2K3 took me 24 minutes with much less content. I'm not sure if the 2.6 kernel's better ATAPI CD-ROM drivers had anything to do with that.

Right now, I've got a splitting headache from some bug I'm fighting, so shooters are right out for the time being. I was impressed with the large number of maps included. Last night, I checked out a couple of the new Onslaught maps. ONS-ArcticStronghold will be a much bigger challenge to master than ONS-Torlan (that came with the demo). The nodes are on different levels vertically, making navigating the map more difficult than just pointing your vehicle in the direction of the next node. I also checked out the Leviathan in ONS-RedPlanet. When "transformed", its main gun can bring down an enemy base in two direct hits. Thankfully, it moves slowly and is a HUGE target to hit. Still, you need to do 5,000 points of damage to bring it down.

New UT2K4 Onslaught Map -- 9:31 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

From the "well, that was quick" department, a new Onslaught map called ONS-Icarus has been released for Unreal Tournament 2004 by Christopher "Plutonic" Blundell. Plutonic did some contract work for Epic, designing some of the levels that come with UT2K4. This map will really help you practice your driving skills with ramps, bends, and jumps all over the place. It's fun just to drive a Hellbender through it.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Friggin' Best Buy -- 8:15 pm CST, Update by The Master

Eeyore pre-ordered the special DVD edition of Unreal Tournament 2004 from Best Buy.com for me. We had originally ordered it from Amazon, but BB.com had it for $10 cheaper. So we moved the order. Today, we find out that they are cancelling the original order, and instead shipping the normal CD version, and giving us a "10% discount on anything". Thats B.S. I just knew they were going to screw this up, and they did. I really hate being proved right this way.

UT2K4 Almost Here! -- 10:28 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The FedEx webpage indicated that my copy of UT2K4 was loaded for delivery in Green Bay this morning. Joy! While waiting for your copy to arrive, you might enjoy the pictures of this super secret vehicle which is included in the full version of UT2K4. I'm speechless. To see it, enter this command in the console:

summon OnslaughtFull.ONSGenericSD

Thanks Beyond Unreal.

UPDATE! It's here! Too bad I'm not going to be able to play with it much until later. It only took two days to get here, even though EB Games' free shipping said 7-10.

The Master comments: Well, guess I get to wait longer, since Best Buy screwed me over.

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