koffdrop.com

Digital magpie that I am, I’m always on the lookout for a clever gizmo or widget that will help me achieve my goals.

I was speaking to a friend yesterday and explained how easy it was to get updates to this site in Firefox by using Live Bookmarks or the Sage RSS reader extension. He grumbled a little but has decided to give Sage a go.

Today I found not one but two alternatives. Both do the same job of forwarding RSS feed updates to you by sending them to you in an email.

I’m trialing them both at the moment but from what I’ve seen so far, I’m favouring RssFwd over RMail.

If you’re interested in getting koffdrop.com updates delivered to you by email then simply click one of the two links below and provide your email address:

Subscribe via RSSFWD.COM

Subscribe via RMail.com

Yup, just announced for the Atomiswave arcade hardware system is the newest installment of the legendary run-n-gun Metal Slug series. I’m expecting the game to stick to it’s tried and tested formula of being a demonstration of fine pixel-art whilst being hard as nails. I guess 6 earlier installments (don’t forget Metal Slug X) of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality means we can expect more of the same frenzied, cramp-inducing shooting action we’ve come to expect from the series.

Gamespot have a dozen or so pictures of the title running including one image showing the player select screen featuring Ralf and Clark from SNKs King of Fighter games. I guess it makes sense that these self-styled ‘nam veterans should appear in Metal Slug games. It appears that even some of their signature fighting moves will be available in the game too.

It does still make me wonder what’s happened to the PS2 version of the game that was going to be presented in 3D-o-vision.

A change of pace now.

For some inexplicable reason I decided to fire up the original PlayStation 2 version of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Don’t ask me why, I can’t tell you. What struck me was just how well produced this game was when compared to it’s sequel. Warrior Within seems dirty by comparison.

One thing that really stands out is the way the game succeeds in having the well-spoken Prince telling you the story by way of voiceover. I particularly like the post save statement of “Very well, I shall continue the story from here in the future”. It’s all very evocative and suited the atmosphere and setting of the game perfectly.

From playing PoP I also realised that I actually like it when games give you a progress indicator. Games are huge these days, even the simpler ones tied into the latest Pixar movie. Having an idea of just how much of a time commitment you’re expected to pledge can make a difference to my opinion of the game. Few games seem to do this (which is why it stuck out when PoP did). Now that I think about it, games like Burnout 3 and SSX3 give a progress meter. Obviously, some games don’t need it (Tetris), some games are deliberately open-ended (Sim City) and others have you collecting X amount of items or going on Z number of dungeons which mean the player can determine their own progress. I know that there’s many a game that I’ve played almost begrudgingly just to get it finished. It felt more like work than fun sometimes.

Depending on the time I have available later today I’ll be making a long post about the X360 and some information I have on it that, to me, is a hundred times more appealing than anything about it’s silicon. I’m really liking Microsoft’s attitude to gaming right now.

My fondness for God of War is well-known. I played and evangelised the US version on release. I can’t recall the last time I was so unexpectedly delighted by a gaming experience. Perhaps when I played Contra 3 on the Super Famicom or One on PlayStation.

For those of you that have played (and no doubt enjoyed) the game and watched some of the unlockable extras you’ll be delighted to know that there are two sequels rumoured to have been green-lighted by SCEA. Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine suggest that a 2006 release of God of War 2 on PlayStation 2 and then God of War 3 for PlayStation 3 are likely future hack-fests.

Will Kratos’ brother feature? Will the games have more interesting titles? Will Sony bother to market them properly this time? Who can say.

One thing that seems certain for next-gen gaming is the “cast of thousands” style game. Hundreds of characters on screen at once – that sort of thing. Personally, I’m not to interested in that. It seems like more of a programmer’s wet-dream than a gamer’s delight.. ..but if I could hack through all those entities with some satisfying chain-blade action? NOW you’re talking!

Oh, in other news: http://www.segarally.com

Hell yeah!

Isn’t it funny how things go? I mean, I’ve been playing a lot of Sega stuff recently (ok, Outrun 2) and been talking about Virtua Fighter with J over the weekend. Now, with the JAMMA 2005 show underway Sega are hogging my mental spotlight with their bizarrely named arcade hardware and that “oh wow” picture of Virtua Fighter 5. And yes, I know the world and his dog are showing this image but you *know* I’ll make it up to you.

In my travels for more JAMMA news and a definitive yay or nay on the topic of the rumoured Streetfighter 4 (the nays have it) I stumbled upon this pic and promptly decided to steal it. Now, I’m not the type that goes wild for any picture of an Asian girl, but this one’s impossibly endearing and will probably have the sort of guy that does get a hardon for J-pop girls grabbing for the kleenex:

For the few people that read this blog and are of dubious moral fibre – yes, I know you’re going to nick the image. Just keep coming back – you never know when more good stuff’ll turn up.

I have a rant lined up for later. Watch out.

Remarkable. I talk about them, write about them but rarely seem to play them. Thanks to recent events, that’s going to change. Honest.

Last weekend was a bank holiday (except Scotland) and a good gaming buddy of mine came up to Nottingham to check out my flat and catch up on stuff. He’s a dedicated gamer but has found real life has distracted him over the last few years. We’ve known each other for over 15 years and a significant amount of that time has been spent staring at Streetfighter 2 on the SNES. Ah, happy days.

I promised him there’d be no distractions. Just good banter and heaps of games. As it was, we didn’t get through half of the stuff we wanted to spend time on but we did have a jolly good few sessions on Xbox Live.

J, being a keen Sega fan (to the point of owning his own Virtua Fighter 3 cabinet) was looking forward to spending time on Outrun 2. I’m happy to say that XBL didn’t disappoint in that area as he and I got consistently beaten to the finish line by nearly everyone we played against. The mood was congenial though – apart from when Darran – editor of GamesTM’s Retro section started having a go at Jeff Minter.

In time honoured tradition, Streetfighter got put into the machine and Mark challenged me to a few rounds. I’m happy to report that I beat him to a bloody pulp using cheap characters (Ken, Chun Li) and even cheaper moves on a pad where I barely knew which buttons were kick and which were punch. Most satisfying! Particularly when Mark blamed his lack of confidence in his controller as the culprit for his woeful performance.

Mark challenged me to some more Streetfighter last night – this time with his converted Dreamcast Fighting Stick. His performance was far better and it looks like we’re fairly well matched as many of the round finished very closely. I was still victorious though – but it was a far more satisfying experience.

Other games played over the weekend were the mighty God of War on PlayStation 2. I would hope this game needs no introduction. I’ve spoken of my favour for this game online any number of times. J, sensitive soul that he is, found the action a bit too gutsy for his palette. Heck, we played some Burnout 3 and he found the morally dubious attitude of ramming cars and causing damage to be beyond his pure gaming spirit. He’s a noble fellow is J.

Highlight of the weekend was getting utterly trounced at SSX 3 by my gorgeous wife. SSX has a special place in our hearts as, firstly, it’s a darn fun game and, secondly, it’s the game that she first got really into. She enjoys the SSX games for more than any human should and I’m considering getting the fourth installment on Xbox so she can go online with it.

I rediscovered the balletic Gradius V over the weekend also. It succeeds in a similar vein to Outrun 2 in that it updates a classic title, bringing it bang up to date in terms of audio, video and game mechanics whilst retaining that pure sense of exhilaration that filled our hearts when we played the originals. It’s still rock hard though and I’ve yet to beat the game on it’s easiest setting. However, playing anything produced by Treasure is a genuine privilege and a reminder of what makes gaming so fun and challenging. And how bad I seem to be at it these days.

I’m a big fan of RSS and ATOM feeds. I’m also a big fan of the Sage extension for Firefox. It’s a lightweight RSS reader that does it’s job perfectly.

So, there I am, quietly wasting time at work whilst catching up on various news sources and I head over to the Next Generation Online feed and check out the “This Week’s Releases” story. There, on page 3 of the article it states that PSP GTA: Liberty City Stories is due for release on September 1st.

That’s in two days time.

Where’s all the buzz and fuss? Where’s the Gamespot and IGN exclusives? What the hell is wrong with the world that a new GTA game on a brand spanking new format that will, no doubt, be THE killer-app of the system hasn’t been on some wild media blitz?

Where the fuck is Jack Thompson when you need him, huh?

Considering how amazingly slow, labourious and downright difficult it can be to get ANYTHING done around this office (courtesy of endless reams of red tape) I have to applaud their speed at which they can stifle communication.

This morning, at 8:50am I received an email from some IT-bot blathering on about ‘non-approved software detected’. The fuckers are, of course, referring to GoogleTalk. One of the few programs I’ve actually been able to download, install and connect to the internet with here at my place of work (an acronym laden with irony, I think you’ll agree).

So, any of you that I invited on GoogleTalk won’t be seeing me around during office hours. Don’t blame me, blame The Man.

Just a quick note to advise any readers that koffdrop.com has a couple of new pages showcasing some of the collected sayings of Rhinox.

I wasn’t responsible for creating the collection, that honour goes to a couple of chaps at Highbury in sunny Bournemouth. I should also like to thank Mark for the picture.

So, check out the Navigation and Links area for two pages of classic Rhinox nostalgia.

At long last, the saga of my hard disk is at an end.

Here’s a summary of the highlights:

• Built a whizz-bang Half Life 2 killing PC at the start of the year consisting of 2x 160gb SATA drives
• Six weeks ago, whilst doing normal windows clicking, everything freezes
• Reboots fail. Panic sets in. “Cyclic Redundancy failure” becomes a common term.
• Realise my primary drive is about to die. Commence backing up everything in sight.
• Speak to vendors who give me a returns number.
• Waste loads of time but finally get HDD and connecting cable back to vendor.
• Wait
• Wait
• Wait
• Phone vendor and nag. Vendor suddenly realises they can’t replace drive so offer a different drive.
• Get drive 2 days later – minus connection cable
• Frustration sets in
• Lots of phone-calls, lots of hold music.
• Get through on three separate occasions. Am promised sodding connection cable on three separate occasions
• A full week after the drive turns up, the cable turns up.

Rubbish service isn’t it? Although the drive I got last week looks absolutely spanking new it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to learn it’s duff.

So, I’m geeking out tonight, opening PCs and playing with partitions. My remaining drive has been working really hard and, seeing as it was my second drive with heaps of data on it, I just added a new partition to it to plonk the OS on it. Having XP and a paging file three partitions in on your system is a good way of dropping performance. If you ever feel like your machine is running too efficiently I seriously recommend copying my example.