Day of Defeat: Source – Now on mac
Out of nowhere (well I havn’t seen anything recently) Day of Defeat: Source is released for the mac. Originally one of my favourite games, after Counter-Strike (which has actually made it to the bottom of the games I own on steam so far) but I preferred it to TF2 (now top, but there are a few missing) we will see if the game has been destroyed or improved but the updates that have been pushed into the other Orange Box multiplayer titles.
Looking over the achievements, MOST of them seem very easy, just play for a while and you will get them, a lot of Get X kills with Y.
With this games release, that’s it for the Orange Box titles (Team Fortress 2, Half-life 2, Half-life 2: Episode One, Half-life 2: Episode 2 and Portal). Well, HL2 deathmatch isn’t available yet, can’t wait for this. HL2 deathmatch is required but most/all? total conversion mods. Dystopia & SourceForts (TFC on the Source Engine) being two a played frequently. I am not sure if the process for mods on OS X will be a simple one, however it should defiantly be far more simple than a full game engine.
PlayStation Plus
Announced at E3, PlayStation Plus is a new subscription service to the PlayStation Network.
At release, I subscribed a year, costing me £39.99, the same as an Xbox Live Gold subscription for the year (from Microsoft directly). So, what did this get me (me personally, which I now own and have downloaded, not everything it offered)?
Free Games (usual price in brackets)
- Little Big Planet (£19.99?)
- WipEout HD – PS3 (£13.99)
- Destruction Derby – PS one (£3.99)
- Fieldrunners – minis (£3.99)
- Age of Zombies – minis (£3.99)
Game Packs
- Killzone 2 Game pack (£4.79)
Other stuff
- An orange icon next to my name
What would I have purchased even without the subscription?, well just WipEout HD. I would not have got the minis or PS one content att all, if I didn’t own a PSP though. I really don’t like looking at those graphics, stretched to 1080p on my 42″ television.
So far there have been no additions to this since release, however I do recall reading somewhere, this would not be a weekly thing like the rest of the games on the PlayStation store, but this would be a monthly update. Looking at what I’ve got so far it a bit meh.
Although the collection has been slim so far, I am still on the fence as to whether or not there will be a renewal, obviously being 1 year away things are likely to change.
Under the Account Management -> Transaction Management -> Services List, it seems to suggest that both WipEout and Little Big Planet expire at the end of the year, when my PS+ sub expires..really hope this is not the case.
What else?
Automatic updates. I find it strange this is a paid feature, but that’s not the point here. I downloaded WipEout HD and upon opening it told me there was an update. Instead of doing it then I decided to leave the update and turn off the console. 2 days later I come back and it asked me to download this update. I would have thought, during this 48 hour period, the auto-update might have done something.
COD MW2 – Resurgence Pack – Out Now
Another map pack is now out. Again on the slightly pricey side, but its not that bad.
5 additional maps. 3 new, 2 from Call of Duty 4;
New maps – Carnival, Fuel & Trailer Park
Updated maps – Vacant & Strike
The PS3 download for all 7 different versions (depending on the number of the box spine) comes in at a fairly reasonable 346mb. Thankfully I have my new 2.5″ drive to put into my PS3 as soon as I can be bothered to backup my current data.
Not much to say on these yet as I haven’t played them first hand, only seen videos, might post an update in the near future if I can get some playing time in.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni – Review
When I first saw details on this, I was quite pleased with a fairly different take on the series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni “ひぐらしのなく頃に”. Although that was not necessarily my favourite anime, it was up near the top.
This series takes place on an island owned by the Ushiromiya family, Rokkenjima (六軒島). Shortly after the family members have arrived a typhoon his and the game begins. Six mysterious deaths occur and the challenge of solving the witch’s epitaph begins. Battler Ushiromiya (右代宮 戦人) is trying to figure out who is causing the murders, creating some rather odd circumstances so as not to suspect any of the family he loves. As time passes and the epitaph going unsolved, more people are murdered, narrowing both the list of suspects and increasing the likely-hood these murders were not committed by a human.
At the start of part two, Battler and Beatrice (ベアトリーチェ) the Golden Witch go head-to-head to prove, or disprove, the existence of magic as well as the reasons behind events that have occurred and still to come.
The real let-down in the series was most defiantly the final part. The final episode in particular really did not seem at all well planned to fit in with the series.
The first 3 parts of the series were pretty good overall, one or two episodes and ideas were a little far-fetched however. It was the final few episodes that really let the series down. It really did seem as though there had been no thought put into any of the episodes to make the final one make any sense. Battler offered an extremely long explanation as to how the events all took place, yet it was entirely full of holes and seemed as though Beatrice (and the writers) had simply given up to let the anime die.
Although leaving out the final part would have really left the series incomplete and almost defiantly would have annoyed most, I feel as though this would have been a better ending.
I think I am going to have to read the Manga and/or Novel to see if this finale was what was originally intended.
Story
Overall, an OK story, just missed really being finished properly.
Characters
I must say, I don’t even recall the names of some of the ‘main’ characters
Music
The intro track was actually made this series to catch my attention, although it’s far from my favourite.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising
I can’t believe that I missed this. It’s also quite an achievement for this to even be possible at the moment, billions of possible actions. This is on a completely different level to rag-doll physics, which was awesome when I first saw that.
Heres the trailer. Watch the whole thing, but specfically 1:45 – end… and I HIGHLY recommended watching @ 720p.
I have a feeling it will not quite live up to my expectations and I’m expecting the Xbox version to be somewhat crippled in comparison but…amazing.
Sorry Apple…but I’m unimpressed
This week was the release of the iOS4 & the new iPhone 4, both of which seem to have issues. Let’s start with the most obvious issue.
iPhone 4 stock
This is not the first product release by Apple, nor is it even the first in the series. Somehow Apple have seriously underestimated the demand. I am unable to get an the iPhone 4 from 3 (I was very early to register interest) until W/C 19th July.
iPhone 3G – iOS4 bluetooth
This one has annoyed me quite a bit. The morning after my upgrade, I get into my car and my iPhone sync’s like normal…except it doesn’t. The phone will work through my hands-free, but the bluetooth audio doesn’t. At first I thought fine, I will just re-pair the device. I do and it works.
On the way home from work, I get into my car and the same happens again, the iPhone seems to have forgotten what its doing. This seems to be a somewhat common issue. Really hoping for an update in the VERY near future.
iPhone 3G – iOS4 missing backgrounds
This is another “stupid” thing I feel. I can understand leaving off the multi-tasking from the 3G due to the CPU requirements, however a background image????? I don’t actually care about this 1, its just something for me to moan about.
iPhone 3G – iOS4 missing 5x digital zoom
Yet another stupid thing.
iPhone 4 signal loss
Seriously, just what the hell. Lots of videos on this. With the sale of these “bumpers” I get the feeling Apple were already aware of this issue and rather than solving the problem, decided to try and make money from it. This really needs to be addressed, but all that is now going to do is increase the delay for anyone else who has pre-ordered and sitting in a queue.
I don’t want any of these DIY fixes, me paying money for your mistake or BS responses I’ve been hearing so far.
I’m definitely waiting to get one of these, at least I didn’t get the chance to waste my money on day 1.
P.S. I don’t want anyone to think I’m an Apple hater. I own many Apple devices. This simply is not what I expect.
Counter-Strike: Source – Now on Mac
It seems the Steam store is having problems at the moment, frequently showing 0 games available on the Mac and not showing anything under New Releases & Top Sellers, this doesn’t however change the fact that Counter-Strike: Source is now available.
It’s a fairly large download, much more than I expected, over 1.5gb, as I would have expected several shared resources with other Source based games.
This seems like a fairly big title so at the moment I am not expecting anything more on the store, even though this doesn’t appear under the homepage of the Mac section yet either.
Some of the 3 website “breaking” due to the iPhone
As has happened already this year, the iPhone 4 is breaking websites. Three have not managed to escape this.
An SMS & E-mail was sent out recently to several/all? of the “register interest” folk which has in turn caused a lot of traffic to the main 3 website. 3 have done a very good job of separating parts of their site so a lot still works without problem.
O2 & Orange have dedicated websites, on different domains just to handle the iPhone, this should mean they have kept downtime to a minimum. O2 have also announced no online ordering until at least the end of July.
Bleach now on Crunchyroll
For a few days the more recent episodes of Bleach have been available on the Crunchyroll website. This is another anime series Crunchyroll has got which I already watch and may push me to get a subscription. For anyone who doesn’t know what Bleach is either go here, read the manga, watch the series on crunchyroll, buy the series, watch one of the movies…….
Going through myanimelist and the Crunchyroll anime list, I’m sure most of what I am watching is available as well as several of what I have watched & intend to watch are also there.
So…why havn’t I already got a subscription?
This is actually quite a simple answer. I don’t want to sit in front of my computer to watch anime. Although I own a 24″ imac (soonish to be replaced by 27″ imac), I also own a 42″ TV which I most defiantly prefer to use.
The device I use at the moment for most of my media & online streaming is the Popcorn Hour A-110. Unfortunately Crunchyroll is not in the online services section of that box. A PS3 is attached for Blu-ray & DVD’s which have been released in the UK, or work on my UK based console.
OK.. So there is Boxee, a great bit of software, supports crunchyroll, but the only “set-top” box it runs on is the Apple TV, which from what I can tell, doesn’t work at all with the 720p stream and not well with the standard ones. At this stage I am not going to plug my imac into my TV for this stuff when I have dedicated hardware for the job. Downloads would have been a great addition, but I don’t expect that to happen any time soon.
So, whats next?
- Popbox, when originally announced, looked to have Crunchyroll support. This seems to have since dissappeared and at this stage, there is no UK release.
- A mac mini under the TV, really costly for, really, only crunchyroll (maybe I can replace the old mac-mini and use that instead).
- The boxee box, no mention of price, UK release, or even if a lot of online services will work
- Plugging in my imac to my TV. Although this is a possibility I’d rather not.
- Using the PS3 to watch. This could be the one I choose, as long as it works. Both positive & negative responses so far. I have packed away my PS3 ready for a house move so its not happening quite yet.
Counter-Strike: Source – Next week on Mac
Valve have today made a new post stating no updates this week due to E3, along with a trailer for portal 2. Not only that, it seems as though Counter-Strike: Source will be making its way onto the mac next week.
All good news, however I must say I am somewhat surprised be the news of Counter-Strike. This seems to very quietly made its way here, is this also to be closely followed by Day of Defeat: Source in the near future as well I wonder.
