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.

Guildwars Nightfall Music Video

I made this video when nightfall come out to demonstrate the new classes dances. Thought I would start posting my old videos on here to catalog them all in one place.

28 More Zombie maps for World at War

Feeling a little cheated after COD:World at War only shipped with one zombie map?

Well fileplanet have just made  a map pack out of 28 map by various artists for all (PC players) to enjoy. It kind of puts the offcial map pack (of four maps) to shame especially considering console owners will have to pay for it.

You can download the map pack here!

I am planning to try this pack with my friends at our weekly lan gathering so should have some feedback on it then.

Got some new games over the holiday to keep me busy

360 Games

• Mercenaries 2
• Far Cry 2
• Gears of War 2
• Soul Calibur 4
• Army of two

Funnily enough most are sequels, at least they are good ones. There are too many below par sequels being released nowadays.

As for the PC

• Lost Planet Colonies edition (Not bad for a fiver)
• GTA 4
• Sacred 2

Do not get GTA 4 for the PC whatever you do.

Fallout 3 (G.E.C.K.) Construction Set Out + my first plugin

The construction set for Fallout 3 has now been released. This allows players to build their own content, be it whole cities or small side quests. I am going to start with simple things like adding objects then move onto quests once I’ am familiar with the controls. For those of you who have used the older elder scroll construction sets, the G.E.C.K is pretty much the same. There are some enhancements which are detailed on the G.E.C.K. wiki.

I have thrown together a quick plugin, whilst familiarising myself with the construction kit once again. As you can see from the screenshot, this mod simply adds all of the bobble heads in one place so they are easy to find. You can find them in the male toilet in Megaton. It just occurred to me some of you may of destroyed Megaton. If so shame on you!

Download Bobble Head plugin

Download the G.E.C.K.

G.E.C.K. wiki

To install a plugin, place it in Fallout 3′s data folder than activate it from the data file menu on the splash screen.

Left 4 Dead Demo Impressions

I have to start by saying that I’ am a great fan of COOP games (The team work games not shelf stacking type). So I was very excited to see valve working on their own cooperative shooter, especially as it involves zombies. Personal preferences aside I decided to download the demo to see if it was worth buying. I played the demo on steam, and although I do have a 360 I felt this was more of a PC game. The game is 1-4 player coop and 1-8 player versus. The demo is coop only.

Now it seems valve have some weird idea on what the purpose of a demo is. To me the idea of a demo is to

New Games Fallout 3 and Red Alert 3

Last week I brought Fallout 3 and Red Alert 3. Both were long awaited games which I have been juggling between in my spare time. I am planning to write something about both of these very soon but for now my time is spent playing them.

Take a look at the screenshots I have captured for both games on my xfire page. Beware of the Fallout 3 screenshots if you are not fond of gore.

Click here for Kenjaras Xfire Screenshots

These screenshots will update as I play through more of the game. They automatically get uploaded everytime I finish a session on a game.

Heavy update (TF2)

The heavy update was released last night, conveniently just as I got home from work. The update focuses on the heavy class, giving him 35 achievements and 3 new weapons/items. There is the sandvich, which is basically a glorified first aid kit and fun to see in action. The sandwiches heal 120 health and leave the heavy vulnerable to attack in the few seconds it takes for them to munch it down. There is a new mini gun called Natascha which slows enemies down but deals less damage. The last item which most people know about is the KGB (Killing Gloves of Boxing), these gloves give 5 seconds of critical hits when used in exchange for a slower hit speed.

As well as the updates to the heavy there is a new payload map (badwater basin) and a new gamemode called arena. Arena has 5 maps, two new and three converted old ones. Arena is played in rounds where teams face off in a one life battle. There are few health packs around so you need to be careful. The round ends when a central point is captured or one team is knocked out.

There is a new “meet the” video out about the sandvich, you can watch it here

As per usual the class update has turned the game on its head with 90% of all players being heavy. Its a site to see given the heavies large size, watch them lumber around with their miniguns in the masses.

Making Vista more gaming friendly 1

Vista as it stands right now it scolded by the gaming community for being slower than XP at gaming. Due to a recent troublesome virus on XP I decided to go full vista and I have no noticeable performance difference between my old XP setup. Anyway I have been playing with vista and looking into ways I making it more gaming friendly. Some of these enhancements will be the same as XP as it is after all a very similar operating system.

• Install service pack 1

The first thing to do is to make sure you install service pack 1. This includes all the small performance updates that were released, including some vital ones that increase multi core and memory performance.

• Turn off automatic hibernation

When you use your pc for gaming you often need to download large files. This could be the game themselves (if digitally purchased) or patches for games. It seems vista by default sets you pc to hibernate after 20 minutes (I think) of idle time. This is obviously no good if you want to leave you pc downloading big files while you do something else.

To turn this off go to control panel -> System and Maintenance -> Power Options -> Change when the computer sleeps.

Change the put the computer to sleep option to never to turn off auto hibernation.

• Install the gamertag gadget

If you have a 360 or play a lot of the games for windows titles then you may want to show off and keep track of your gamerscore. There are a few gamertag gadgets but the one I have been using is called compact xbox360 gamercard. To install a new gadget that is not in the gadget list go to get more gadgets online. From there search for gamertag and you should find this nice little gadget.

• Install the Steam gadget

The steam gadgets displays your favorite servers in the sidebar and shows how many people are in them as well as what map the server is on. To get his gadget simply go to get more gadgets online and search for steam. When you click a server the gadget expands to show the players, scores and an image of the map.

Kane and Lynch is actually pretty good

I lost all interest in this game last year after all those reviews came out slating it as a mediocre shooter. I decided to pick it up in the 2 for £15 section at GAME and give it a go now its cheap and I got a big suprise. I have only played singleplayer and split screen coop but it is a very impressive game. I never faced any real bugs or problems whilst playing the game straight through on hard. It has a very good story line where you play a pretty much unlikable rogue who is paying for the problems he caused. A lot of reviews call it an average shooter but the cinematic storyline really makes it more of an interactive crime film where you are the star.