NHL07 Status

Well I just played my 56th game in my season on NHL07 and these are my stats and lineups thus far.

Top 6 Players (By Points)

NHL Teams (By Points)

Current Lineup

I will be working on getting screen shots of Oblivion. Currently my Character is level 14 however by the time I finish the quests I want to do I will probably advance another 2 or so levels.

How To Use Torrents

I have been getting asked a lot about how to download things with torrents.

First of all you need to understand what a torrent is. A torrent file tells a torrent client how to set up the files on your system and where to connect to a Tracker. A tracker then send you the information on the clients that have the files that you are trying to download and gives you their IP addresses, the client program then tries to connect with the other people to obtain the file.

Once you have done this then the file will start downloading, the speed of the download will depend on your settings on the torrent client, and the availability of the file.

There are many torrent clients that you can choose from. I personally use one called UTorrent. UTorrent's web site is located at: http://www.utorrent.com/. Once you download the client you will then need to get a torrent file for the item you wish to download. There are many torrent websites around the Internet. Some of them better then others.

The one site that I use a lot is called Torrent Spy. (http://www.torrentspy.com/) You then can browse the website and find the torrent file that you wish to download. Keep in mind that there are two things that they tell you in the information bars. The number of Seeders, and then number of Peers.

Seeders are people that have finished the full torrent and have all of the information available for download. Peers have only parts of the file. You want to find a torrent that has a lot of seeders and peers, other wise it will take you a long time or you might not get it at all.

Once you select the file that you want you open the torrent file with the torrent client that you have chosen. There will more then likely be a few windows that open asking you where you would like to save the files to, you save them to a location that you want them and then wait for it to start downloading.

Please note that wile you are downloading the files will appear on your system, however they are not the full files until they are done, they are incomplete and parts are missing so they will not work.

I have given you a starting block, you will need to learn the rest for yourself.

IcIrIs's Recommended Programs

Music

MediaMonkey - This program is the best audio program that I have come across thus far. I prefer it over Music Match and I Tunes. You are also able to upload to I Pods with it.

Movies/Videos

VLC - This has got to be one of the greatest video programs out there and it is totaly free to use.

Office Work

OpenOffice 2.1 - Works great, and it is free.

Web Browser

FireFox 2.0.0.1 - Greatest browser I have ever used!

Image Manager

Picasa 2 - This is another great freebie from Google. You can do simple edits and manage your photos with ease. It also comes with free hosting if you have a Google account.

Torrents

Utorrent - Simple, small, fast, and easy to use. Is there much else to say about it.

P2P

Limewire - I stay away from these P2P as much as I can but if I really am looking for a rare song that wont be on Torrent then this is the next best thing.

DVD Ripper

DVD Shrink - This program works great and uses the drivers installed for other discs. I use it in conjunction with Nero Burning Rom 7

Burner Program

Nero Burning Rom 6 - There are newer version out however I have found no bugs that I needed to upgrade, it is the most stable that I have used thus far and it is Vista Compatible.

Text File Viewer

EditPad Lite - The free version of a very easy to use tool.

File Compression

Winrar - The most versatile file compression program available, it will open almost any file.


Dos Emulator

DosBox - When you want to play those old games it has to be one of the best dos emulators available.

Weekly Update 2

Well its that time of the week again. I am sitting at home browsing the net looking at mindless things that I find. Most of my time well spent on YouTube (I do not know what I would do with out you YouTube).

At school I have only 2 out of 5 blocks to finish this semester, and I have been working on tying up lose ends at the end of the semester and get ready for the next one. So I have had quite a bit of time to do things on the net and play old DOS games on the school computers. Mostly I have been playing Commander Keen 4, however I we have also gotten Doom95, with the startup program which allows us to play multilayer with the school's network.

When it comes to home gaming, I have not really been doing all that much this week, it has been a relatively slow week. I have done a few games on NHL 07, and I haven't really touched Oblivion or Counter-Strike Source.

One of my friends game to visit and he ended up playing Oblivion on his game for quite a bit, and we watched Saw 3 and DOA: Dead or Alive. Saw 3 had a lot more storyline compared to the other two, and the killings were not as bad as the other two. However it was still a good movie overall. DOA was just a really pointless fighting movie with some really good fight scenes; I really only watched it because I played the game.

It looks like it is going to be another slow weekend at home with nothing but me and a computer, maybe I will be able to get some gaming in. I plan on getting at least 10 more quests done on Oblivion, and get another 10 games done in NHL 07 by this coming Monday. I also have Monday and Tuesday off due to finals. So I have an awesome weekend lined up. Sleep in Friday morning, then only have one class then skating in PE, then I don't have school till Wednesday, SWEET.

Well I better get started on those quests and those hockey games, I will defiantly have to post screen shots of my status in both. On top of the 10 questions I am also going to finish the main storyline, I have finished it on another game but I want to do it with my new character.

Peace Out

Weekly Update 1

I can not wait for the official world wide launch of Windows Vista. As it is right now there are so many companies that have not gotten their act together and come out with either drivers or patches to make things work on Vista, and it is really starting to get on my nerves. On said company would have to be Electronic Arts. They have done a really bad job making sure that things run stable on Vista, Carbon being my biggest disappointment, but hopefully things will be changing really soon as the launch time gets closer and closer.

I have been spending more and more time watching things on YouTube to pass the time away when I bumped into a Video Cast/Pod Cast that goes by the name NoobToob. I have to say it is really well done, they come across as gamers verses some of these pod casts that are really... whats the word for it... I dunno, conservative. They speak to the gamers from a gamers point of view. I don't know it could just be me, but I like it. Check them out at http://www.noobtoob.com.

Some of the people that game with me might have noticed that I have not been on CSS that much as of late. That is because I have really started working on getting my season done on NHL 07. Some of my friend know me and they know that when it comes to hockey games, as soon as it is on I can go hours upon hours without taking a break (What can I say I am Canadian, even though I am playing as an American team.)

To bring you up to speed on Oblivion (Ya I know its kind of old news now, old game, and a lot of people are further then me) I still have yet to redo the pilgrimage so that I can wear the cool armor that I got from the Knights of the Nine. I really have not been doing much other then attempting to finish the Mage guild quests. I unfortunately got kicked out for accidentally punching some Mage member's rat. Really retarded I know, but I was taking a drink and my finger slipped on my controller.

Another thing that I have been doing as of late, is playing some of the older games that I used to play now that I have found a cool application called DosBox. What it does is allows you to play old Dos games on the newer operating systems. I got good old Keen 4, and one of my personal favorite old school arcade style fighters One Must Fall: 2097. I am also in the process of getting one of my other old time favorite games that I still haven't beet because when I was younger I scratched the disk (This was before I knew about proper care of games); Full Throttle by Lucas Arts. I will let you know how things go with that.

If you want more information on DosBox check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DosBox

Xbox 360 Controller on PC

I know that I have been playing games on my computer and you just keep getting the feeling that it was designed around a console. I had no idea before hand that you could get a Xbox 360 controller and plug it into a PC and go. So I was talking to my dad about how much better NHL07 is with a controller so we went and got one. I plugged in the controller and it detected it and it worked. Went into NHL07 and it detected it and set up the controls just like you were playing on a Xbox. So I started wondering if I could get other games to work with the controller.



I downloaded a profiler designed around game controllers called Pinnacle Game Profiler. It automatically detected the 360 Controller and detected what games I already had on my system and installed the profiles with the information built in. You are able to change what each button does so if you do not like jump being Y in Oblivion then you can change it. However most of the time the game designers have come up with the easiest to use control system.

The only problem that I have found with playing FPS games on PC with a controller vs a Console was that in almost every console FPS they have Aim-Assist. What most people do not realize is how much this helps you until you play on a PC without it and you need to try and be dead on accurate with a control stick. To give you a little incite into this, out of my friends I am probably in the top 2 of them at Call of Duty and I can kill people left and right, but then I try playing Counter-Strike Source on PC with a game pad and I can only beat bots on normal difficulty and on-line play is practically impossible unless you are playing a ton of noobs.

You can get the controller to work perfectly with CSS and other FPS games however you need to be really good at sniping people without the accuracy that you get when you use a mouse and keyboard setup.

The one game that isn't sports related that I enjoy playing more with the controller is Oblivion. I have never played on the 360 however I have an idea of what it is like now that I have played with a controller, and I know that they were doing something right when they used the controller, I prefer it over mouse and keyboard 100%. The only time I do not use the controller now is when I am playing in windowed mode because a lot of people are messaging me on MSN. I used the profiler and downloaded a member of their forums unofficial button mapping which matched up with the 360. The only problem you are going to bump into is if you do not already know the buttons then when you are going through the game from the beginning then you are not going to know how to do some of the stuff.

So what do you need to get this setup? If you are from Canada then you are going to want to go to Wal-Mart and pick up the controller because they have the cheapest next to London Drugs. A computer with either XP or Vista. If you have Vista then you do not need the drivers because they are built in. If not then you need to go to http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/download.mspx and get it. Then you need to either play games that were geared already for controllers or get Pinnacle at http://www.pinnaclegameprofiler.com/ you can either use it for 30 days then reinstall it or pay the 20 dollars and get product with out the 30 days.

The Review

When it comes down to it Xbox has always had in my eyes the best controllers around other then the first one when it was like 3 sizes to big and then they made the mini version and have been on the right track ever since. They are ergonomically correct, they have a nice layout and the way that they use triggers is great (Glad to see that the PS3 adopted this). It gives it an awesome overall feel when you are playing games that require some more control over the action that is place with the triggers (Such as racing games when you want to give it just a little gas).

There currently is no force feed back using the rumble effects that you get with a 360 however I am going to be doing some more testing and experimenting with other drivers to see if I can get it going.

The great Xbox button does not work on the PC for very obvious reasons. If Microsoft wants to do us all a favor (by Us I mean people using a 360 controller on a PC) they should have that button programed to go to some menu like they have on the 360. I would personally love to see it be geared to Vista's side bar and have it just kinda appear over top of the game or application so that you can use the MP3 player or check the time or any of the other cool things that they have on the side bar.

Overall I think this was a great investment considering I love playing NHL07, it is just a much higher quality controller over the ones that I have seen come out in the past and they are practically indestructible; however I hate seeing a button not being which next to the lack of rumble capabilities is the only other downside.

Coming Soon

I am going to be working on a review and guide for the Xbox 360 Wired Controller working on Windows. I currently have purchased it and have got it working with at least one game, but I am working on a guide for getting a lot of games working, and what I think of it overall.

NHL07 Review

This Years Matchup: NHL2K7 VS NHL07, and the winner is.... NHL07.

Click Here to read more.

Windows Vista Compatibility

I have had Windows Vista running for some time now; since December 12^th and I know some people have the same questions that I do about compatibility with programs and driver related problems.

Here are my system specs:
CPU: AMD Barton Mobile running at a true 2.5 with a PR of 3.6

Video Card: Sapphire X800 Pro VIVO running 525 Core 560 Memory
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X 2.0

Memory: 2x512 Corsair PC3200 PT

I will post a list of my programs that I have installed or have tried installing.

Programs that Work Fine: (All of these programs were installed without any complications either during installation or during the use of the applications)

3DMark06

AC3Fliter

Adobe Photoshop CS2
Alcohol 120%

ATI Catalyst Control Center

Battlefield 2

DivX Codec

EA Link

Half-Life 2

Java Runtime Environment 6

JGsoft EditPad Light 6.1.2

Logitech G11 Keyboard Software 1.03

Logitech Gaming Software (Steering Wheel)

MediaMonkey 2.5

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1

Need for SPeed Most Wanted

Oblivion

Oblivion Nights of the Nine + Addons

OpenAL

OpenOffice.org 2.1

Picasa 2

Shockwave

Steam

SwiftDisc 1.96
UTorrent

Ventrilo Client

VMware Player

Windows Live Messenger

WinRAR Archiver

Programs With Slight Problems:

ATITool – ATI Tool works fine however it does not have permission to startup at Windows startup, I was able to bypass that by switching my user to True Admin.

Azureus – It worked fine for a wile but for some reason it has just decided to not work anymore, it isn't that it doesnt work, but I do not get to see the status of my torrents or live updates, I know it is still downloading because in Statistics it shows that there is activity for the current session.

Crative Audio Console – Works OK, however I can not get the effects to work wile I am on the desktop, I like to listen to music, however sence it is not in 5.1 format it plays in 2.1 and normally you can use a filter called CM2 to make it play in a virtual 5.1 environment.

DVD Shrink 3.2 – Shrinks the DVD's fine however windows has a bug where it does not refresh the DVD Drive when a program is using it, thus when I stick a blank in after compressing my favourite movies it tells me that the DVD is blank and that the write process has failed. I counter this by taking the data and burning it manually.

Logitech ImageStudio – Works for taking picture with my Logitech QuickCam 3000 but crashes when attempting to take videos, I was hoping to use my Cam to make a Video blog about Vista.

Logitech QuickCam Software – Does not recognize my Web Cam however the software does run.

Logitech SetPoint – Same problem as with ATITool

Nero Suite – Works other then it keeps popping up with an error message saying that Windows Vista is not compatible with this software and if I would like to continue anyways.

NHL07 – Works great however due to an issue with the drivers it is stuck in 640x480 mode.

PowerISO – Works other then an error message that appears ever once in a wile stating that the drive is unaccessible.

VideoLan VLC Media Player 0.8.6 – My dad has gotten this program working on his computer but I am having no such luck, I get sound but no video. Which stinks because on one of my videos I can get get Video but no sound with Windows Media player.

Programs that Do Not Work:

Battlefield 2142 Full Demo (1 Month Full Trial) – I can sometimes get the game to run for a short period of time however it is inevitable that the game will crash shortly after getting into the game.

Need for Speed Carbon – Wont work, even with the posted work arounds that people have tried. (Please read my NFSC review for a little more insite Here)

Feel free to ask me any questions that you have.

Need for Speed Carbon Review

Another Need for Speed, that brings it to one a year for the last four years. Each time they took a step forward, however this year I think they took a step back.

The graphics were OK, however....

Click Here to read more.

Knights of the Nine Review

Great, but I expected it to be longer or harder, please read for details.

Click Here to read more.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, I hope it was a good one. :D