First Impression: Tribes Ascend

So, about a month ago I got a beta key for Tribes Ascend. I played the game for like and 30 minutes and decided it was too hard for me. Hah. How wrong I was. I tried it again last weekend and played it constantly!

What Is Tribes Ascend I hear you ask? It's an upcoming FPS game in Tribes franchise. The franchise is known for high speed and several not-so-ordinary game mechanics, such as "skiing" (where you slide across the battlefield. The game is currently in closed beta, but I heard it's quite easy to get access to it nowadays, you just have to go like their Facebook page.

My first impression of the game is: it is a fun game, with excellent mechanics. But it can be REALLY hard sometimes and might be bit hard to get into. But once you get a kill with Spinfusor, that feeling is pure awesomeness! I highly suggest all FPS fans to try it out. I have to admit that I have not played Tribes games earlier, even though they are classics. But I managed to enjoy this game even ignoring that fact!

Nintendo to launch WiiU before year end

Reuters is writing that Nintendo is going to launch Wii successor in key markets for year end. This is exciting news, I for one cannot wait for it! I feel like Nintendo is finally listening to it's hardcore supporters and gives them exactly what they want. I got to admit though, that I am a gadget freak, so out of the ordinary controllers are exactly something I get hyped over.

So, what do you guys think about WiiU? Is it enough to beat Microsoft and Sony? Do you believe that the controller and hardware is enough?

Zynga accused of ripping off a canadian iOS game

This image has received quite the raging today on the internet. In it, Zynga is accused of ripping off "Tiny Tower" in their new game "Dream Heights" from a small canadian developer team called Nimblebit.

Look guys, this is a bit harsh way of saying it, but tough shit. This is exactly what Zynga does. This is not new to them! They copy what their competitors have done and (try to) make it success.

Like Farmville, the game that Zynga is famous for, is it an original game? Of course not. Hell, even their CEO told their employees to just copy the games. And let's face it guys, you didn't really invent tower building games (SimTower anyone?)

Sorry guys, it sucks that it happens, but that's all. Don't make a big deal out of it.

Rocksteady's next game to be TMNT?

Heard an awesome rumor today! Rocksteady Studios (the guys behind Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City) are rumored to be developing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game! That is absolutely an astounding rumor!

I have been a huge fan of TMNT for a long time, I have fond of memories of watching the Saturday morning cartoons long, long time ago. Rocksteady has been doing an amazing job with the Batham franchise, the Arkham games have been entertaining and high quality. We'll see what they are gonna come up with the TMNT franchise. More details about the upcoming game in the blog post.

API for solving CAPTCHA with automated humans

Read a strange thing today. Troy Hunt writes in his blog about a website called Antigate. The website's idea is that it provides a service for solving CAPTCHA (for those who don't know what that is, it's that distorted image you have to "solve" when you have to f.ex. register for a website). So the API works like:

• Send a CAPTCHA image and API Key
• Receive a ID for that CAPTCHA
• After 10 seconds, send the ID back
• Receive a response for the CAPTCHA or receive "Not ready"
• Try again in 5 seconds & repeat if necessary

One of the most well-known types of CAPTCHA, ReCAPTCHA.

To me, this is pretty mind-boggling. So there are people working in some third world countries whose job is just to solve CAPTCHA all day? Jesus, talk about hell on earth. Even one CAPTCHA causes me pain!

The price, you ask?  1 USD for 1000 Answers. Seriously. That is pretty insane. And as stated in the blog post, it took around 30 seconds to receive the answer. 

We are living in an interesting world.

Adventures in Refund land: Koss Porta Pro

So, it happened. My Koss Porta Pro-headphones broke. It was a mini-disaster for me, since I use them daily. So I contacted my seller for a refund of the item. Filled a simple form and submitted. It only took like less than 4 hours to get an email response from my seller, informing me that they have removed my claim for refund! They said I don't need it, and they will be sending right away replacement parts. Also, they attached a link to www.myportapro.com where they instructed (with video!) how to change the replacement parts.

And lo and behold, today the replacement parts arrived. They included pretty much all new headphones and cable! Only the metal frame was left from the old model.

Replacement parts for Koss Porta Pro

This, I feel, is excellent customer service. I have always heard that Koss has excellent support for products, but I would have never guessed it would be like this. Awesome job Koss!

Do you have any exceptional refund stories? Share them in the comments!

Why I'm a pirate: Thoughts on piracy & the music industry

So I read today a great post on ploum.net, titled "Why I'm a pirate!". In the blog post, the author is explaining why he pirates CD's and other media. I found the opinions good and concise.

I feel that the music industry as we now know it is slowly dying. The practices that the big music corporations use are ancient and they don't work anymore. The future is in digital media. I can't even remember anymore when I bought my last CD! As a younger music listener I used to buy the CD's of the bands that I liked and wanted to support them. I do not want to support the corporations behind the music, only the bands that actually come up with the music. That's why nowadays I try to use digital services to support my favorite bands, like Flattr and PayPal donation.

Currently, I am using Spotify as my daily source of music. And you know, I happily pay the 10€ monthly price for the convenience! This is absolutely fantastic service and I wish other medias would turn to this system too, like movies and e-books. Come up with such services and you have a customer right here.

Got any opinion on this subject? Share it in the comments!

Elevator: Source - a HL2 mod

So today I stumbled into a bit weird of a mod for Half-Life 2 called Elevator: Source by PixelTail Games. It is marketed as a single or co-op "elevator experience". What this means, is that the whole mod is based on an elevator, which takes you to 28 unique floors. And oh man, it is quite a journey!

Below is a video of a group playing it for 45 minutes. I know it sounds long, but I have short attention span and for some reason I just had to watch the whole thing!

You can download the mod on the project's website or ModDB. Please note that you will HL2: Episode Two and Garry's Mod 10 and up.

Red Eclipse - Free Multiplatform FPS

Today I learned about a new free (open source!) FPS called Red Eclipse. It's based on Cube 2-engine and features a dozen weapons, over 30 maps and it looks pretty damn awesome (getting some Halo-vibes from this)!

Red Eclipse 1.2

They have just released a new version 1.2, named "Cosmic Edition". Weirdly though, I can't find any changelog for the releases.

Having played it for a while, I must admit that it is good fun! Not that many players currently though, but all the servers with players have been really cool! I certainly recommend that everyone tries this game, being free and multiplatform (PC/Mac/Linux). And since it's based on Cube 2, it has pretty low system requirements and should be running on all kinds of hardware.

Anybody else have thoughts about this game?

3 games made in Blender, for Linux

http://www.techdrivein.com/2012/01/3-nice-blender-made-games-for-linux.html

These are awesome! I haven't heard about these yet. Linux sure can use as many games as possible.

I have tried some Blender, and the fact that some people have made a full game with it? Jesus, hats off to them.

Numpad, WHY?

http://imgur.com/gallery/SOxfi

This is something that has really confused me! Well, at least the 5 is always the same :P