Using Console Hardware on PC

If I get any interesting Hardware for my consoles I try to connect it to my PC just to see if it works.

This started when I found out you could get the eye toy working as a web camera on windows by downloading some drivers. It was pretty straight forward, just had to find what drivers went with your camera model and off you go.

With Windows 7 now it seems to be even easier as just about every piece of hardware I have connected has installed itself with no issues.

I got the Beatles Rock Band set last weekend, and thought the mic might be good for talking to people on Team Fortress 2 etc on PC. I plugged it in and it installed itself, and worked pretty well.

Even better at the weekend I got a bluetooth headset for my PS3. After playing Uncharted 2 for an evening with my friend I thought this is great (much better than the usual type of headsets) so I thought about setting it up on my old PC.

Luckily enough for one reason or another a few years ago I had brought a blue tooth receiver for my PC.

I plugged that into my PC and Windows 7 installed it right away (Was a relief because I remember having problems with it on XP). I then took my blue tooth headset set it to broadcast, and the PC picked it up and connected to it right away. After that without having to set anything up I fired up Team Fortress 2 and it was working great.

So it is always worth trying your console hardware first before going out and buying the same thing for your PC. As both my PC headsets are no longer working this saved me a bit of money and got me a more comfortable PC headset all in one.

Another thing I use on my PC is my 360 Street Fighter Arcade Stick, which is great for arcade games.

Windows 7 and me

So after using my shiny new copy of windows 7 for a week, I can judge how it feels different to using vista for the past couple of years.

These points here are observations made from my daily use of my computer and how things have changed between systems.

First things first, booting is a bit faster, not massively as some may say but faster none the less (this could be due to windows applying updates as it starts up till things settle down a bit) . The thing that is quite a bit faster is shutting down, even when its applying updates its still pretty fast. The new taskbar is very nice, I like the way it lays out the windows for each program just above the icon, allowing you a preview of each windows as you hover over. The other neat thing you can do here is right click any running program on the taskbar and pin as a shortcut.

Im usually not one of shortcut gimmicks etc but I really like the new drag to the edge of the screen features. I now naturally find my self dragging windows to the top of the screen to full screen them, and even better dragging one to each side to compare two windows. The side by side  feature is really useful as its quick and really helps when your choosing files to upload somewhere or just looking at two different articles at once.

One thing that was amazingly simple to do is set up printer sharing. On vista I had to dig out the driver CD for the printer when setting it up across the network but windows 7 installed it on its own and in seconds too.

So how are things on the games front? Well for all the slack vista got it really wasnt to bad in the end, and I do not think there is much difference in terms of performance between vista SP2 and windows 7. There were a few games that vista did not get on too well with, one being Company of Heroes and these issues seem to have cleared up now. Of course if theres still problems windows 7 has theXP mode if your using professional or above. I do not know if these issues were to do with vista or direct x 10, but we will have to wait a few months to find out what direct x 11 will bring us.

Well thats all for now, I cant really think of any other features to comment on for the moment, I might try out some old games on XP mode at some point and see how that goes.

My Uncharted 2 stats card

Here is my uncharted 2 stats on a card made by JakPro.

You can make your own here.

PS3 3.0 Killed my new game

How unlucky is this? I buy uncharted for the ps3, go home update my console only to find the update breaks the one game I brought. After the update the ps3 forums have been full with players complaing about this problem. Hope its fixed soon!

I should really mention I brought a PS3 last month, an 80GB fat as they are now called. Meh well at least I got yellow dog you thin power saving bastards!

Monkey Island Special Edition

A remake of monkey island has always been a dream of mine. It was one of my favorite Amiga games, and the first point and click adventure that I completed.

I much as I like hearing of remakes, they commonly turn out nothing like the original. Thankfully this is not the case with monkey island. So for fans of the original what’s changed? Well the graphics have been redrawn for HD and voice acting has been added. As you can see from the screenshots below, the new graphics style fits in well with the game and inwould even consider it an improvement. Of course I like to take a glance at it in it’s orginal from time to time, and you can do this at any time by pressing the back button. The game then seemlessly blends between the two modes which is really cool.

So what about the voice acting? What can I say it’s great! The pirates sound like pirates and the main characters all sound as I would imagine except for gov marly. My favorite voices have to be that of the circus brothers hearing them argue in their accents is so funny. It’s the insult sword fighting though that benefits most from the addition of voice acting, with the tone of the insult reply changing depending on if they are right or not.

Of course to people not familiar with the game this is all giberish, which is a good thing as you will have the experiance of completing this great game ahead of you. An experiance that should not be missed. I don’t want to give much away to new comers but you play a wannabe pirate named guybrush who ends up having do save the day. The game is very humerous and has a well written story. Gameplay is your standard lint and click affair where you pick up, use, push/pull things etc to progress.

This article was written on my I phone

Some quick notes on BF1943

Well bf1943 was 96% done when I got it so I didnt have to wait long for it to finish. However the servers for the game are currently so overloaded most people cant get on at all. EA are bringing more servers online but its going to take a while to sort the problem out. After about 20 tries I luckily got into a server. The game seems to be built on an enhanced version of the  Dice’s frosbite engine because you can pretty much take out whole buildings now unlike bad company. There are 3 classes of which I have played all, Rifleman sniper and anti tank. All have their purpose although it seems a bit of a sniper frenzy out there right now. The vehicles are cool with the tank able to demolish most things in its path and the planes being reponsive and easy to control. The maps are pretty much exact remakes of their 1942 counterparts with a few terrain and object adjustments, and look really nice in the new engine.

All in all I am enjoying playing it and it seems good value for the 1200 microsoft points it cost.

Remote Download Initiated

Will need some sort of remote device to turn my xbox on. My mum has trouble finding the power button.

Brought Battlefield 1943 – I hope someone turns my xbox on before I get home

I decided to test out the purchase online feature today that microsoft has for xbox live content. Being a fan of the battlefield series I want to get my hands on BF1943 (released today) as soon as possible. Now I purchased it along with worm Armageddon 2 while at work, the only problem is I need to get someone to turn my xbox on before I get home from work so they can download. I think it would be nice if there were a way to wake up the xbox when it receives a new download queue, but these games are pretty small so its not so much of a problem.

Will comment on the two games after playing them. Hopefully 1943 does screenshots like bad company did.

Why I spent £70 on a streetfighter arcade stick

After getting streetfighter 4 for the 360 and realising how poorly the classic 8 way streetfighter controls work on the 360, I decided to look for an alternative. As most people with 360’s know the d pad sucks and analog is no good for fighting games. You can buy an 8 way xbox 360 controller, but I decided to go one step futher and get an arcade stick.
Now I can pull for super and ultra combos with ease, something which was down to luck with the standard controller, this is crucial as luck doesn’t help you win online.

This is both my first proper post from my I phone and while in a moving vehicle.

I phone test

I phone test. This is a post from my new phone.