christiangamer

You may have heard about this, you may not have.  Chances are if you’ve ever played World of Warcraft or any other online game and liked it then you at least know about a variety of “free” online games that exist.  You may have even tried a few.  You may have tried a few only to learn after that extremely large download and installation process exactly why it might be free.  Don’t get me wrong there are a few of these free online games I have tried and liked; but only a few.  They typically just don’t have the production values of a pay to play game like WoW or Lord of the Rings Online.

Enter Free Realms; which has definitely bucked the trend.  Now this is a preview of sorts rather than a review, as I am just getting started.  But I can already see some things that I love about the game, and a few things that I like…  Here’s the launch trailer:

So that’s the video that Sony Online Entertainment want you to see.  Is it really fun?  Is it really free?  Is it safe for kids?  I am on a quest to find those things out.  In my limited time with the game so far I think the fun and safe questions can be answered fairly positively yes.  The game is pretty fun; even for this old guy.  Safe for kids – well so far I haven’t seen anything terribly offensive, and you can bet that I am watching carefully.  Some parents might be turned off by the bare midriffs their kid’s female character can opt for.  Some parents might be concerned about the fantasy creatures and monsters and the use of magic.

So far my only real concern with the game is it’s not really totally free – but anyone who has let their kids play Webkinz knows how that works.  There isn’t any software to buy but they still make money (and indeed – they probably have to make money to make the game happen).  There is a premium membership you can buy for 4.99 a month (really cheap for an online game) and you can purchase special items in a shop for the in-game currency that you buy with real money.  I really don’t have any problems with SOE making money off of the game; I have heard that they are a bit misleading in their approach – but am withholding judgment until I see for myself.

And I will see for myself!  I plan on playing a lot in the coming weeks and trying out many aspects of the game.  If you see Kade Wolfrune running around in the game stop by and say hello!

So my home computer, which my wife and I both use for work and I use for gaming; died. It was hanging on by a thread and was well past it’s expiration date so it was to be expected. I was able to save the backups of all our important things on a USB hard drive, so all was not lost   We decided it was time to stop scrapping old systems together and get a new one. First of all a disclaimer: I am NOT a computer expert; I’m a somewhat cautious enthusiast. Don’t rely on this as a guide or how-to… just a story:

Old Computer:
(Too old and sad to mention – was a Frankenstein monster from two even older computer’s parts)

New Computer:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5ghz
4gb RAM
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
640gb Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

It’s rather exciting to start up a game like Lord of the Rings Online; grab every slider I can see and stick them all on the highest settings available and play it that way… And that’s a gorgeous game. I’ve been running through all my old PC games and trying them out – well, because that’s what geeks do when they get new gadgets! Unreal Tourney 3, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War 2, Sacred 2, Spore, and more are installed and running beautifully beautiful!

And it’s not all about fun and games, though. I was seriously out of space on my old 80gb hard drive, and now both wifey and I have plenty of space for everything (for now). Also the RAM makes switching user accounts a lot snappier.

Here’s what I did: I went to a local PC shop (Microcenter in Columbus). I told the very nice salesman what I wanted to do and he helped me out splendidly. I bought the cheapest quad-core processor based PC I could find (a Gateway DX 4710-07). It had all of the specs above except for the nice video card (there was a generic on-board intel something or other in it). I had done some research on video cards before I left and had pretty much decided on the GTX 260. The salesman and I thought about which make of video card to get. I knew I wanted the 260 but there were 4 or 5 manufacturers to choose from. I went with the not-too-overclocked EVGA. I bought a 600-watt power supply to replace the terribly skimpy 300 watt original because the old PSU would have pretty much exploded and destroyed my house had I added that video card to it.

When I got home I realized the primary mistake I had made – not thinking about the case size and not knowing about the video card size. It’s been a while since I had bought a new video card and I had no idea from the pictures I’d seen just how ridiculously huge they have become! There was not much room to move in said case, but I was determined to make it work…

3 hours later; victory.

1. Removed the PCI Modem (they still sell those?).
2. Got the old power supply out and the new one in.  I had to take out the large CPU cooling system to do it.
3. Moved the hard drive to a different bay so the video card would (hopefully) fit.
4. Put in the new video card… or as I’d like to call it from now on; the leviathan (epic biblical sea monster anyone?  anyone?)
   1. You can sort of see that the back of the card was very snuggly with the back of the drive bay – just getting the thing in there was quite a trick.
   2. I had to reroute quite a few wires.
   3. I took some of the thin metal sheeting out of the back side of the case (for a very small amount of more space).
   4. Noticed the blood; went and cleaned up my poor finger.
   5. Finally ready to get -the leviathan- set in the PCI E slot; but it wouldn’t go. He’s a rather unruly beast, it seems.

It took me a while to figure this out because there was nothing I could see that was in the way anymore. Then I realized that since the monster card takes up two slots on the back of the PC case, it has two metal tabs on the bottom that have to slide down in the space between the motherboard and the case. I looked and sure enough, one of the tabs was being caught on the back of the case. So I grabbed my sea-monster video card and bent it with some pliers (just those two tabs). Fit perfectly (very snuggly).

3 hours. Blood and sweat, but no tears. Totally and utterly worth it. Also I saved quite a few hundred dollars by way of ‘do-it-yourself’. It’s not the fastest thing you can buy; but it may be the faster thing you can afford… Be careful if you try stuff like this. One small zap of static electricity and it’s all over for your new PC.

I finished Chapter 6-2 of Resident Evil 5 yesterday (one more sub-chapter to go). About to beat the game, but went back to chapter one to help a friend in some co-op (by far, the best way to play the game). Still stand by my first impression about the game’s content. It’s not for kids, but for grown-ups who don’t mind gooey monsters – it’s pretty amazing once you adjust to the controls.

Resistance: Retribution on PSP is the first shooter that I’ve played on the system that I’ve liked. The fact that it has fully-functional online multiplayer is pretty amazing. And it’s fun until you get up against some glitch-abusing-spawn-killing foes that are just in it for the points. Parents be warned about this one as well, but more for the swearing in the campaign than anything else.

Played some 3-player Little Big Planet last night and that’s pretty much always a winner. Some of the user-made levels are absolutely incredible.

And supposedly the Call of Duty:World at War Map Pack 1 will be out today featuring a new zombie-level and 3 new multiplayer maps. It’s ten bucks on PS3 or 800 MS points on 360 (the mega-corporation proprietary currency of Xbox LIVE equivalent of 10 bucks).