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cGamer FM - Back for now!

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:57:39 +0400

I have just managed to find a shoutcast host, which we will be using until something else is sorted out, whereby I have more control over the server. The radio can be found using the little image top left corner of the website, or in the navigation area.

The popup radio is VERY messy, and I need to design a new layout for it. I shall start on this through-out the week, or make a start at the weekend.

If you go on the radio page now, and cannot hear anything, it is most likely to be that the server has been turned off by the Host, to save resources and it needs a quick reboot, or their is simply no DJ streaming. Until I tidy up the page, and fix the stats scripts from showing the fsock area (My host is sorting this out now) you will not know the status of the radio.

Enjoy :]

*PS We have the request system too! Do not expect any DJ's to respond at the moment however.. Until other things are fixed.

New logo design and banner

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:51:36 +0400

I would just like to share a few designs with you. Not sure if I will use them or not, but here they are...

New banner without URL and New banner with URL

New Logo [Larger]

Evenin'

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 05:56:15 +0400

Evenin' all,

Time of posting is in the morning so the title is appropriate.

I'm Colin, I play games, I enjoy them, I work with them. By day I'm a Proffesional Programmer/ Server Technician, by night I am your standard pro in most First Person Shooters.

Want to know anything else? Just ask in here

Hope to meet you all soon.

Xfire Sold

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:37:23 +0400

Article taken from PC Gamer Magazine issue 218 Pg. 17

There are for the second time new owners for the popular PC Gaming IM Client and social network Xfire. It has been sold to a competitive gaming company called TitanGaming. The new owners run gaming events and make money through in-game betting and advertising. Titan have claimed that the service will continue uninterrupted for the 17 million-strong user base, although most of the staff have now left the company after the sale. While overshadowed by steam, Xfire did offer its users a lot of feature for free, including game stat-tracking, friends lists, video recording and profile pages. Let's hope that the high level of service is carried on under its new owners.

You can have any Black Ops server you like as long as it's this one

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:51:28 +0400

Article by Chris Thornett on PCFormat

Activision continues to figure out ways to lock down dedis

Good news everyone! Call of Duty: Black Ops will have dedicated server support. Aren't Activision wonderful for responding to the cries of PC gamers across the globe?

No, not really. Bad news people, the dedicated servers are exclusive to ONE COMPANY. I have nothing personal against Gameservers.com, and PC Format (Or cGamer) doesn't too for that matter, but if you want to limit the longevity of a game on the PC and kill any healthy competition over server pricing and performance you pretty much do precisely this.

I guess that's the point though. Why would a publisher want a multiplayer game to run and run? If you've spent millions on your latest creation Call of Temperance: Modern Warzone 4. You want to storm the charts with it, sell a lot of copies, then sell DLCs (new bullet skins (only £1.49) etc) for six months then kill it and repeat the process again with your next game, Call of Temperance: Modern Warzone 4 (Traffic Division), and thereby build a lovely franchise.

This isn't what gamers want to hear, but it looks like the 'Quake 3 Arena era', where you can expect to keep playing your new favorite game for years on end are over.

I can't say I'm surprised that we've ended up with one server provider for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The number of dedicated server providers that are 'endorsed' for the big, triple-A multiplayer games has been slowly culled over the years to a handful in the UK.

A few months ago, I emailed EA to inquire how their particular official partnering process lark worked and I got an interesting response.

A representative sent me a somewhat confused email. They seemed to think I was an employee of 'PC Format Purveyor of Sublime Servers' and not PC Format magazine. So was it a tendering process? or maybe a certification scheme requiring training, perhaps? Er, no. Apparently, if I was a 'good server provider' and kept on trying hard and raised my profile in my geographic region EA would contact me. Maybe. Or not. But they didn't need any more partners anyway. Thank you. Goodbye.

Regardless of how providers are chosen by the publishers - and I've no reason to believe that Activision's way of picking providers is any less arbitrary - they occupy an odd position in the PC gaming world. But that position is also an important one that some game publishers either appear not to like or try to ignore or, in this case, attempt to control.

It's definitely getting to be big business though, if exclusivity deals like this are being signed.

Source: PC Format
http://pcformat.techradar.com/blog-entry...e-03-09-10

Hitachi SimpleDrive 1TB External Hard Drive

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:39:17 +0400

I ordered this so I can backup things from my PC, and just generally store things.. I bought it from http://www.play.com for £65.99 Free Delivery, and to my surprise.. 1 day after the "Order has been Posted" email, I got it through the post with City Link. Although the box looked like it was kicked around and thrown in to the back of the Van.. the main box seemed ok.

This particular hard drive is said to hold the following, from the specifications..

1TB HDD Holds:
Up to 284,000 digital photos
Up to 250,000 songs (MP3)
Up to 24,000 songs (uncompressed CD quality)
Up to 76 hours of Digital Video (DV)
Up to 400 hours of DVD quality video
Up to 120 hours of HD video

Unboxing the really well packaged box, you find at the top the very sturdy sleek aluminium desktop enclosure with an embossed brand name "Hitachi" on both sides of the product. The base at the top are a really shiny, glossy plastic. Other contents from the box include a UK, US, CA and AU plug section, and the AC adapter itself, where you can attach whatever socket adapter you need. You get the usual paper work, and a USB 2.0 to mini usb cable.

Once you have the hard drive where you want it on you're desk, plugged in to a USB port, and the plug in the mains, it will power on and off with you're PC. You will know when it is powered on, as one, you will hear it, however it is not too loud, and two, you will see the nice blue LED! First time you browse your hard drive, you will see files on there. This is the software you may wish to install for making automatic backups. The device has a interface speed of 480Mbps and overall has a very impressive build quality.

Here is a closer look of what you get in the box.
( Note there are 4 plug adapters in this box, you will only see 3 in the video, as I found it stuck in the bottom of the box at the end of the video, whoops! )

Greetings

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:29:22 +0400

Hey there,

I'm Dracion, been playing a bit on your Gmod server and it seems very friendly :3 As well as Gmod I play far too much TF2, mostly on the Clan of Doom Toyfort server as I'm an admin for them.

As far as Gmod goes I know a fair bit of wire stuff, as well as some basic E2 things so feel free to ask me if you're unsure on anything.

Also please please please add Fin 2 to the server, it's great for making planes

See you on the servers

[CG]Jack Daniels™

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:26:58 +0400

So I was building my house just a little away from spawn when I notice a new player join, I haven't had company in awhile so I thought it would be nice to have another player to talk to besides myself, but sadly he turned out to be a mingebag and I eventually had to leave the server because I got so sick of it, he actually did more before this but I decided not to take a screenshot of it because I thought he was just mucking about, so when he started to set my house on fire, I got pretty annoyed.

Screenshot #1
Screenshot #2
Screenshot #3

And a nice fail at the end.

Screenshot #4

SteamID
STEAM:0:1:27454883

This guy has no reason for what he did and he knows it.

My tortoises!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:44:20 +0400

Just thought I would share some images. I have a Spur Thighed Tortoise and baby Horsfield tortoise which only just this weekend we made a new enclosure for it. Sadly our bigger tortoise has what we know as a runny nose, and we have to keep taking it to the vets for a few weeks for antibiotics.

Day 1 on 24/7 Build Server

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:12:25 +0400

Off to a great start with the Garrys Mod server today.. still a few things to finish up with but nearly there. Already have some great media from it!

"Cow sappin' mah sentry"

Some impressive tf2 poses by Patrick from PlugPayPlay.com

I would listen to him if I was you >;]

AND FINALLY!

Garrys Mod Server - What do you want!? [POLL]

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:09:05 +0400

Unsure what to do with the Garrys Mod server at the moment. There are a lot of things that could be done, through game modes, modifications, maps, blah blah..

Make you're vote, OR suggestion!

TF2 Train Glitch - The happy birthday ball!

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:02:24 +0400

Just testing the mods I have put on the TF2 #2 server, and turned on birthday mod just to make things more interesting.. and I managed to hit the ball on to the flat bed of the train while it was moving, and then the train just stopped dead, made a glitchey noise.. and stopped, the the gates closed! :O

Real life Force a’ Nature

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:55:33 +0400

Harrison Krix made a Force a’ Nature from the popular game, Team Fortress 2. He basically uses everything he can, such as MDF board, clay, duct tape, paint, jars and more bits and bobs that came in useful. He carefully recreates props from games, and then sells them as items of unique art. Here’s the process he went through to construct the Force a’ Nature.

Rather impressive if you ask me.

Browser Gaming

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:14:51 +0400

After the release of more powerful browsers, and the new HTML5, online games are becoming ever more popular, with reasonable 'graphics' and enjoyable game play. HTML will allow the ability for apps to store data on your systems for designers to embed video onto a page.

It has even been said that A game coded for HTML5 could run on any tablet, mobile phone or browser without any extra software with the so called 'canvas' element, which enables dynamic 3D graphics. HTML5 is believed to be a big leap forward and possible meaning an end to adobe flash. There will be no installations, no plugins, or downloads! Although HTML5 and JavaScript will not have the power to handle really high spec games in a little tab on you're browser, there are still a huge number of games already out there on the web. Although this browser gaming does sound a bit too good to be true, flash will not be leaving just yet, as the need to programmers, designers and tools are needed to start seeing these browser games, which I can see being a very popular thing for possibly those crafty office workers!

All we can do is look forward to what there may be in the pipe line... HTML5 is still fairly new, but there will be some incredible games.

Here are some HTML5 games you may wish to try.

FreeCiv - Conquer the world @ http://www.freeciv.net

Another World - http://www.megidish.net/awjs

JSNES - Contra, bubble bobble, mario and more! @ http://benfirshman.com/projects/jsnes/

Z-WAR - Zombie Shooter @ http://www.cool.z-war.co.cc

Digg Attack - Use Digg.com to shoot stories.. @ http://www.pixastic.com/labs/digg_attack/

Article from PCGamer Issue 217 PG 12

Ahoi there

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:27:53 +0400

I am Dr.Cola

I love TF2 and Unreal, i also make maps.

Unreal megathread

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:14:10 +0400

This thread is dedicated to the unreal series, I'm not good with the Op i know. My very first megathread.

Unreal

Unreal, one of the greatest atmospheric games of its time, it was developed by Epic games in 1996-7 and released in 1998.

The flyby map when you start the game.

The Plot:

*Shamelessly took it from wikipedia*

The player takes on the part of Prisoner 849, an otherwise anonymous persona aboard the prison spacecraft Vortex Rikers. The ship crash-lands on the lip of a canyon on the planet Na Pali, home of the Nali, a primitive tribal race of four-armed humanoids. The Nali and their planet have been subjugated by the Skaarj, a race of brutish yet technologically advanced reptilian humanoids. Skaarj troops board the downed Vortex Rikers and kill the remaining survivors, save for Prisoner 849, who manages to arm himself and escape from the ship.

The planet Na Pali is rich in "Tarydium", a mineral that is found as light blue crystals, which possesses a high energy yield, whose utility is the reason for which the Skaarj have invaded. The ship has crashed near one of the many Tarydium mines and processing facilities that the Skaarj have built. Prisoner 849 travels through the mines, meeting Nali slaves and eventually entering the ruins of Nali villages and cities, where the extent of the Nalis' suffering and exploitation are made clear.

Throughout the game the player stumbles across the remains of other humans, often with electronic journals that detail their last days and hint at the cause of their demise. Usually the tales are of desperate struggles to hide from the Skaarj or other bloodthirsty inhabitants of the planet. The player never meets another live human aside from a wounded crew member on the bridge of the prison ship who gasps and dies immediately.

Prisoner 849 continues to make his way through a series of alien installations, crashed spaceships, and ancient Nali temples infested with Skaarj troops and their minions, eventually arriving at the Nali Castle. Inside the castle, the prisoner locates a teleporter that leads to the Skaarj Mothership. The mothership proves to be a vast labyrinth, but Prisoner 849 manages to find the ship's reactor and destroys it, plunging the vessel into darkness. After navigating the corridors in the dark, the player arrives at the Skaarj Queen's chamber and kills her. Prisoner 849 jumps into an escape pod as the mothership disintegrates. Although the prisoner survives the Skaarj, the escape pod is left to float into space, with slim hopes of being found.

In-game screenshots

Unreal Tournament

Unreal tournament is to cover Unreal's mistake: The multiplayer
A lot of stuff had been added, along with new weapons for your killing needs.

Story: Unreal tournament never had a story really.

Gamemodes and screenshots.

Assault
Assault: This game type is played with two opposing teams, one assaulting a "base" and the other defending it. The map is set up with a number of objectives which the attacking team must complete (usually in sequence) such as destroying something, entering an area, triggering a button, et cetera. The team who first attacks then defends, and attempts to defend for the entire time they attacked. If they can accomplish this, they win the map. If the team defending first assaults the base faster than the other team, they win the map. If both teams defend for the maximum amount of time the map is a tie.

Capture The Flag
Classic Capture the Flag. Players compete to capture the other team's flag and return it to their base. Competitive teams must use a great deal of teamplay. Both teams must defend the base from incoming attackers and get into the other team's base, take their flag and return to base. This requires that the team protect their flag carrier very well from enemies in order to complete their objective.

Team/Deathmatch
Deathmatch: It's everyman for himself, kill everyone until you reach the goal!
Team-Deatmatch: Now you've got to work together, help your teammates! First team to reach the goal wins!

Domination
The game starts with 2-4 teams, and there are 3 nodes (Configurable if creating a map) scattered around the area, you must touch the node to take control of it. The more you have, the faster you points rack up.

Plan to add my own screenshots and and host them.
Add banners.
More information.
Add the rest of the unreal games.

Temporary Registration Issues

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:33:18 +0400

This Issue should now have been resolved

On a plus side, the TF2 server is now up and running with RMF ability mod, which makes general game play a lot more enjoyable with added LULZ!

Computing / IT Discussion and Support

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:28:59 +0400

Rob has renamed the Computing section to "Computing / IT Discussion and Support".

This new section will provide support for any IT problem, aswell as the same area for general discussion about computers etc.

I shall be monitoring it myself, I already have 2 Qualifications as an IT Practitioner / Technican, will be getting my third when I go back to college in September.

Ofcourse, other people can help with the problems, I'm not a problem hogger.

I hope this feature comes in useful to you and others alike.

Oh and dont forget, tell all your friends, cGamer has the best IT support in the world, so sign up yeah.

ya get wha am sayin mahn?

Maxtor Hard drive Scam

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:00:22 +0400

Training to be an IT technican and all, a man asked me to fix his computer, I accepted the request and got to work, It wouldnt start up at all, i tried unplugging everything to a bare minumum, it still wouldn't work.

To cut a long story short, It was unfixable, I told the guy and he said I should keep it for spare parts because its no good to him.

I looked at the size of the hard drives in there, and I saw a 320 GB one, so I thought, WOW I'm havin that (not bad for free eh?)..

I formatted the drive, turns out its only 120 GB, I couldnt work it out, it clearly said 320 GB all over the case of the drive etc, and the stickers.. So I started my googlingz research, and I found out just what I needed.

It turns out; a company went through all the trouble to fake being Maxtor, make a 120 GB drive, and pose it as a 320 GB..

How sad is this? Just to make money? Would it not be easier to steal the bloody things and sell them onwards?

Downtime and things..

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:43:05 +0400

You may or may not have noticed the site went down for a day or two. This was due to my web hosts main service provider (Not my Hosts fault at all) accidently terminating the account, deleting not only my website, but every site he hosts. Thankfully my host is very clever and made a full backup of everything about 11 hours before all this happened. So once again we are back online.

* Kieran, you're website will be restored shortly by my host too. Any forum posts made after the backup time will be lost, but your main website should be fine.