Kunal's online rant & commentary

Epic fail for Sony

maritrunks — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:48:54 +0000

I can’t believe that Sony didn’t think of this ahead. On Feb 28, 2010, many PS3s got the error 8001050F when connecting to the PlayStation Network and the clock was reset to 12/31/99. I know it’s not a leap year, so that couldn’t be it, so what happened. Apparently, many PS3 owners are reporting this error as well as corrupted or missing trophies. It only seems to be happening with the phat (old) PS3s.

This seems to be console blackout, and Sony has actually suggest to NOT turn ON the PS3 until the problem is fixed. WTF?! Anyways, it seems I haven’t been affected by this error since I have a slim PS3, and was able to connect to PSN without problems, but I do feel for those PS3 owners that have lost their trophies because of Sony’s negligence.

Come on Sony, you can do better.

Capcom takes a bite of the Apple!

maritrunks — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:18:10 +0000

That’s right, Street Fighter IV is coming to the Apple iPhone. Now as ridiculous as this sounds, how are you suppose to pull of moves with a touch screen interface? I guess Capcom will be redesigning the entire fight system to suit the iPhone and iTouch interface, and make it much more simpler and less frustrating. We all know what Capcom wants to make more money, and what better way to do it than put their best selling title in the palm of your hand, literally. I’m just disappointed in the fact they didn’t release this on the PSP or the NDS yet, and they’re going straight to the iPhone. By the looks of the screen shot, it seems there will be 1 tap for the kick, 1 tap for punch, 1 tap for the special move (hadoken? shoryuken?) and 1 tap for the super move. The game will feature different control schemes and allow bluetooth multiplayer gameplay.

Capcom plans to release this in March 2010, to make it available before the release of Super Street Fighter IV in April 2010.

Installing Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver drivers shouldn’t have to be this hard

maritrunks — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:23:18 +0000

I feel that I have to post this cause I couldn’t find this on any website, even the Microsoft website didn’t help, and I had to figure it out on my own. For all you that are running the 64-bit OS (like Windows Vista or Windows 7) you might get a problem when installing drivers for the XBox 360 Wireless controller receiver. Recently I purchased this Wireless receiver so I can use my Xbox 360 wireless controller on my PC (I miss Gears of War, and this controller is perfect for this game and probably other third-person shooters).

Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows

So I plug it in, Windows detects it and doesn’t install drivers automatically, so I thought ok well this is a third party peripheral so maybe I need the CD. I pop in the Drivers CD, and install the drivers as normal. Still nothing. Restarted, Still no drivers found. I Check device manager and it shows “unknown device”. WTF? This is a Microsoft product, right? I tried a few other USB ports, but same problem with all of them, it detects new hardware but fails to install drivers. I also managed to try it on my Laptop (which runs Windows XP 32-bit) and it installed perfectly. Ok so it doesn’t like 64-bit Windows, but on the Microsoft website it says it supports all Windows platforms, 32-bit and 64-bit, so WTF is going on?

After much time, I did it the old school way, manual installation. So here it is for all you frustrated with Microsoft driver installations:

Note: Make sure the wireless receiver is plugged in at all times, do not disconnect it.

1. Uninstall all Microsoft XBOX 360 Wireless Controller Drivers
2. Restart your PC.
3. Install the latest Microsoft XBOX 360 Wireless Controller drivers from the Microsoft download site
4. Restart your PC again.
5. Go to control panel > Device Manager. You should see “Unknown device” there. Right click “Unknown device” and select Properties, and then click on Update Drivers.
6. Select “Browse my computer for driver software”
7. Select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”
8. Select “Microsoft” from the left side, and then on the right side select “Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows”
9. Click Next and now it should be installed. Restart your computer.
10. You should now see “Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows” in your list of hardware devices in control panel.

You can now pair up your Xbox 360 controllers to the PC the same way you do it on the Xbox 360.

There you have it, I just did what Microsoft can’t do.

Finally got the PS3

maritrunks — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:33:18 +0000

I been debating for a long time whether to get a PS3 or not. Before it was $399 and I would never pay $400 + tax and games for a gaming console, I might as well get a computer for that price, but now the price for the PS3 has recently dropped a few months back to $299, and it got me thinking. Blu-ray player, wifi, free online play on PSN, 120GB HD, it is a really good deal, but those games are going to cost and thats where Sony likes to make the money. After much though I finally got one on Boxing week, and even managed to save $25 using a web-only coupon from SonyStyle.ca.

The PS3 arrived a few days ago and I’m really impressed with the noise output of it. It barely makes a sound! Sometimes I forgot it was on even! Also managed to get Mercenaries 2 for the PS3 as it was on sale for $10 at the source, and I know how fun that game could be.

I know I’m going to miss the fact I can just bootleg any XBOX 360 game and play it whenever. At least now with, I’ll probably appreciate games more since I’ll have to actually buy them instead of just downloading and burning bootleg copies.

XBox360 was fun, but since the PS3 offers free online play and wifi, (and some can argue better exclusive titles) the PS3 has the advantage in this case.

Farewell XBOX 360, hello PS3!

The Apple survives!

maritrunks — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:53:05 +0000

I usually take my ipod shuffle to the gym with me but recently I’ve been busy with other stuff so didn’t get to go for a week. So yesterday, I decide to go but I couldn’t find my ipod shuffle anywhere. Then I remember that I left it in my pants, the same cargo pants I where at the gym and then realized…. I WASHED THEM! So I checked the pockets and there was my ipod shuffle and praying it still worked. I connected to the computer and nothing happened…. then 10 seconds later it turned ON! Tested it out and everything works. Wow, this Apple is strong, locks like their made to survive the spin cycle!

Bye bye Athlon, Hello Phenom!

maritrunks — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:47:56 +0000

After 3 years I finally decide it’s time to part with my Athlon 3700+. The computer was good, and the Motherboard was extremely reliable and perfect for overclocking and even SLi nvidia cards (which I never got to try). I decide on this because I notice that most of the current games (like Bioshock, Crysis Warhead, Gears of War, Call of Duty4) seem to be laggy and choppy framerates. I just couldn’t take it any more, even at low settigns my Athlon 3700 + Geforce 7900GTO were struggling with these games. So I finally took the plunge and went multi-core, although I don’t feel I really need it, but it’s not like I can buy a single core CPU.

After much research I decide on the AMD Phenom II X2 550BE. Cheap processor that’s built for gaming with a huge 7.5 MB Cache and 45nm process @ 3.1GHz. Not only that, it’s unlockable! That’s right, a dual core CPU that can be unlock to a triple core or even a quad core CPU. I read about here: http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/535501-amd-phenom-ii-core-unlocking-guide.html

Combine this CPU with a SB710 chipset mobo, and you can unlock the cores (hopefully)
So I ended up getting the Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H with 4GB OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 RAM, and threw them in the Antec Sonata III 500 Case (which by the way is super quiet). The rest I grabbed from old rig and add them. I’ll probably upgrade my graphics card to ATI Radeon HD 3870 or 4870 sometime next year.

New Rig Summary:

AMD Phenom II X2 550BE @ 3.1Ghz (stock)
Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H Mobo
OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 2x2GB RAM
EVGA Geforce 7900GTO (Stock)
WD 160GB SATA2 HDD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA2 7200.11 32MB HDD
Antec Sonata III 500 (Legendary Silence!)

Can’t wait to unlock the cores and start OCing this rig!

New PS3 slim release and PS3 Price drop finally!

maritrunks — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:59:07 +0000

Its about time that Sony did something about their PS3 prices. $399.99 is too much for gaming console, and that’s one of the main reasons why many families simply won’t buy it. But finally, the PS3 price has been cut down to $299.99 US according to this article. We’ll have to see if the CDN price are similar or a bit more than the announced US prices. Now, I might actually get a PS3 at this price, but don’t know if I should get the original or the slim..

Sony also announced their release of the PS3 slim which is suppose to be in stores on Sept 1, 2009. It’s 33% smaller, and 33% lighter, and comes equipped with 120GB of storage space. IMO, it looks kinda of cheap with the matte plastic exterior, but then again it’s suppose to be a lite version of the original.

Click here for more pics

At $299 the PS3 slim is going to kill microsoft’s 360, ps3 has blu-ray + wifi and free psn, thats over $150 in additional costs for the 360. microsoft needs to respond with something big!

Well my Xbox 360 died…..

maritrunks — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:43:32 +0000

This actually happened about a week ago. I’m not really surprised since its the very first generation Xbox 360 which I bought broken from some guy on craigslist.

I bought it broken for about $20 which include just cables and 20GB HD, and I thought “the HD alone is worth more than $20, so why not buy and see if I can repair it”. I repaired by adding extra copper heatsinks to the ram chips and it seemed to fix it, worked fine for 4 months, and just failed on me a week ago. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I sold it for parts for $80 so all in all, I had nothing to lose.

Meanwhile, I started playing God Of War on dusty PS2 to keep me occupied.

Now to find a Jasper Xbox 360 for cheap. Let the search begin.

Xbox 360 Price drop again??!!

maritrunks — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:04:39 +0000

I was shocked when I saw this in the Walmart flyer

I hope these are Jasper versions! I might just get this to replace my current XBOX360 since this one has HDMI output can possibly be the new Jasper versions. (I’m using a RROD repaired Xbox360 so who knows how long it’ll last)

Game Review: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

maritrunks — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:44:24 +0000

It’s been a while since I played the last Red Alert, but I do remember how fun it was and I was very excited about this game. Like any other RTS, Red Alert 3, which is produced by EA, has the basic RTS elements such as building, training forces, upgrading technology and the attacking the opposing army. Red Alert 3 could have been a very good RTS game but suffers from some technical problems that make the game unplayable without applying patches, and even then, very slow and sluggish.

Gameplay: 8/10

You play as either the soviets, allies or empire of the rising sun, which is a new faction added and plays very different than the other two. Gameplay is very straight forward like any other RTS, and the units are easy to command. During single player campaign, the user can either play solo and have the computer control the secondary force, or you can connect online with a friend, assuming you both have high speed internet (which is required). I didn’t get a chance to test the online play so I can’t comment on that, but the single player campaign is alright, the ally AI units do really do much so you’ll have to tell them where to strike, and also is very poor at defending their own base. Despite the poor ally AI, the enemy AI is actually really good, so you’ll always have to keep an eye on your defenses as well as your attacking units, some missions just seem impossible! Also, each faction gets a commander unit which can take down buildings with their special power and also can far better attack ranges. The Allies have Tanya, which is taken from the previous RA game, the 2 new commanders added is the sexy Natasha from the soviets and Yuri, who uses physic powers to blow away tanks and other enemy units. The Empire of the Rising sun is the new faction in this game, and plays very different than any other faction. They offer single units that can both transform from ground units to air units. There is a delay between them, and there also a time restriction to when they can transform back, only problem that I found with these units is thier defences. They are very poor, and can be taking down instantly if not managed properly. Anyways enough of the gameplay, lets get in to the graphics.

Story and Presentation: 8/10

Story is well put together, aside from the cheezy acting by Tim Curry and J. K. Simmons (it was like sketch comedy). It turns out that the soviets built a time machine to travel back in time to kill Albert Einstein, and thus making the nuclear weapons non-existent, but in turn created another supreme force known as The Empire of the Rising Sun in the current time. So no nuclear missles this time, but there are a ton of other superweapons you can play with

Graphics: 9.5/10

The graphics are superb in this game. Everything from the trees to the water, to the lighting effects from the Telsa Troopers. I haven’t played any recent RTS other than Warhammer 20k: DoW, but these graphics are the best I seen in any RTS to date.

Technical Issues:

This is where it gets ugly. What a great game, and so close to a perfect, what could they have done to break it? Simple, make it unplayable right out of the box. The first time I installed this game, the kept on crashing, and sometimes wouldn’t even load. I would simply just see a black screen and sit there. I was able to play Crysis at low settings, but I can’t play this game, WTF??! So I checked online for some patches, installed them and it finally worked smoothly, MOST OF THE TIME. There are times where the game would lag, or slow down, even with the graphics set to the lowest settings and Anti-aliasing turned off. Even with the technical issues, I still found myself playing this game again, and again, and I would still play it today. BTW, I was running this game on my home rig (AMD Athlon 2.2Ghz, 1GB DDR, 100GB+ HD, Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GFX card)

Overall: 8/10

This game could have been better, but it suffers from many technical issues. A great story, with amazing visuals and an addictive game play.I ts a great game, but unfortunately the technical issues make it far from perfect.