Give Us Us Free [Free PC Games]

Oh Dijimon Hounsou, you talk so, so bad.

Anyways, recent feedback suggests that the number one most popular aspect of Killa Blog is that it is free. In keeping with that spirit, I'ma point y'all to a couple of really well made and enjoyable games that don't cost a muthafuckin' thing.

Vanguard Princess has been mentioned in this space before, and it is still a free PC fighting game! (You may recall futuristic gunslinger Luna Himeki won KB's GOTY award for Best New Character Design, though, admittedly, I second guess this decision everytime I play as SFIV's Rufus.) Suge9's baby is still receiving updates, and there is unofficial netplay support via Lunaport.

I've more recently dabbled into League of Legends, an online multiplayer action RPG-RTS hybrid based off of the 'Defense of the Ancients: Allstars' Warcraft III mod. It's a real joy to play and highly addictive. Highly addictive, like meth addictive. This may sound ludicrous ("On Killa Blog?! No!"), but it plays kind of like a mishmash of Diablo, Team Fortress 2, and Warcraft (the RTS, not the MMO). It's a great free game, and you can earn anything in it through time and energy, though you can always burn some scratch and unlock anything else you fancy.

Riot Games has a really nice microtransaction system in place for LoL; The game is free to download and play, and all of the Champions/playable characters (as well as many other add-ons, like palette swaps) can be unlocked either via Influence Points earned through playing the game, or through Riot Points that must be purchased in real life. Certain sets of Champions are rotated through terms of temporary availability so that new players without points can use them, and current players can try them out before purchasing.

So yeah, if you're not like me, someone who doesn't really mind plunking down cash on every (BioShock 2) new (Final Fantasy XIII) game (Super Street Fighter IV) that comes out, give these two a shot. It'll be worth your while, yo.

Closer

I came home the other day to find this in the basement.


This, and a very cross Legoman with an ultimatum, to get some stuff done on the next phase of the Mame cabinet, or else. I began to inquire or else what, and was subsequently threatened with a knife.

Beginning to feel the gravity of the situation, I enlisted the aid of the Software Engineer, who regrettably has the least fun pseudonym of any of my usual cohorts. After deeming the first prospective box too archaic (read: coal-burning) to be used reliably even with a new HDD, we cannibalized the recently unemployed box which it turns out uses IDE anyways. My consultant then began to unleash a brand of Technologic far and beyond my own software comprehension, flying through screen after screen of terminal text while I merely sat idly by and chatted up Mojo about the bailouts.

(Btw, Mojo thinks the automakers should go suck a dick.)

Casual recollection aside, Josh (aka the Software Engineer) installed Ubuntu Linux on the new drive, grabbed a bunch of Mame and frontend apps (eventually AdvanceMame and AdvanceMenu), as well as a few items to help us map the controls. We snagged my rom collection from the old drive and dragged it over as well. We then relocated the machine to the basement. Ooh, and then we had Angelico's!

By the end of Sunday, we were here:


The Debugging stage. Yes, we have most of the pieces working together properly. The arcade controls are running through the I-Pac, into the computer, which is outputting through the transcoder to a CRT we happened to have already, and then throughputting to the LCD you see next to the control panel. And, yes, you can play games on it, which we did solely for debugging purposes. Player 3's and Player 4's fourth button isn't functioning, so I'm going to borrow a multimeter to check out those terminals. We had to make sure we switched the joysticks from four way to eight way for proper fighter operation as well.

We've still got some control issues to resolve, a CRT to procure, and a cabinet to build, but we are definitely past the proof of concept stage.

How you like me now, bitches?

Christmas Morning on a November Night

Guess what I'm blogging from, bitches!

Err, Guess from what I'm blogging, scoundrels!

Crysis is on its way via Steam as I type this on my wireless keyboard.

Sorry, sorry. I'll stop.

Financial, Crysis

Got a WaMu credit card application in the mail the other day. This other day being the day after WaMu folded/got pwned. The collapse is understandable, though, you know. A big company like that is bound to run into some financial difficulties. I mean, what did they know about managing money, anyways? ... Funny is all, that I would get a credit card application from a company that had gone out of business while the correspondence was in transit. That's the credit crunch for ya, (I guess).

So anyways, as tempting as it was to try and get a Visa branded with a failed bank, I chose to skip the middle man and apply for a Chase card. The primary goals being the acquisition of a new gaming PC to replace the old rig, and the enjoyment of an introductory 0% APR with which to spread out the financial hurt. And when I say "old rig" I mean the POS, totally hijacked, functionally worthless desktop that I haven't turned on in a month.

I haven't even really been a real PC gamer for quite some time, and you can find much more eloquent articles on the idiosyncracies of the modern PC gaming market elsewhere if you're not in the know. Oddly, the game that has been the greatest impetus for obtaining a state-of-the-art system is notorious for being one of the worst culprits in the performance one up-manship racket. That game being Crysis.

That, Left 4 Dead (which doesn't appear to be coming to my console anywhere in the foreseeable future, if ever), and maybe even Starcraft II have whet my appetite for a new box. Here's hoping a Geforce 9800GX2 has what it takes. I can't sell myself on shelling out to crossfire two GX2's, though the option is always out there.

Anyways, I expect to get my Chase card any day now. Let's see how much credit will be afforded to a refusenik such as myself...