Category: Games

My memory is not as good as it used to be

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, EverQuest, Games, LOTRO, MMORPG, Tech2 Comments

Memory has been a huge issue with how slow my computer is because I only have 1GB of ram.  EverQuest play OK, but it’s not great.  Lord of the Rings Online is really bad because as I’m running through a zone or area, the screen will freeze up every ten seconds for up to a second or two which can be a bad thing, especially if something is chasing you.  It can be a matter of life and death, well, for your character anyway.

I recently discovered that EverQuest 2 is free, so I installed it and went into the game and it immediately froze up on me.  In order for me to get out of that I had to hit the reset button on the front of my tower to reboot the computer.  I figured it was slow because I had just installed it, but that wasn’t the case at all because I tried to run it again and it froze up again.  That told me that I definitely need more memory for my computer.

I have been doing research over the last few days to find the most inexpensive memory because I just don’t have a lot of money to spare right now.  My go-to website used to be TigerDirect, but when I discovered how quickly I got my orders from NewEgg, that became my go-to site, but they are too expensive for 4GB.  A friend told me to try the Fry’s Electronics website so I checked it out and they are way cheaper than NewEgg.  I did go to TigerDirect and they aren’t too expensive, but I don’t want to have to wait a whole week when Fry’s is in Los Angeles and I could get it as quickly as NewEgg.

My ideal brands are Kingston and PNY, but they don’t have any available that will ship out immediately.  Fry’s Electronics also had some other less expensive brands that I would have liked, but shipping was unavailable, so I chose the Patriot Extreme Performance PC2-6400 (800MHz).

My motherboard will accept PS2 memory up to 8GB.  I can’t afford to buy 8GB so I am buying 4GB for now and then I will buy another 4GB later when I can afford it again.  What I love especially about this memory I am buying is the heat sink.  The memory I have doesn’t have that.  This is the description of this memory, and it really fits for what I use my computer for too.

“Patriot Gamer Series (PGS), part of the Extreme Performance (EP) Enhanced Latency line is engineered to expand your gaming options. These modules are designed to operate at 800MHz at 5-5-5-12 timings and is available in 4GB kit capacity. Equipped with lightweight aluminum heat-dispersing shields, these modules are designed for maximum performance and stability under extreme overclocking conditions. Engineered with quality and Performance in mind, Patriot Extreme Performance line is the ultimate solution for extreme overclockers, gamers, and PC enthusiasts.”

I think that “Extreme overclockers, gamers, and PC enthusiasts” really fits me lol.

Another issue I have with memory is Hulu, YouTube and Facebook games.  I don’t really care too much about Facebook games, but it is fun to play them every so often, you know?  I can’t play them at all because they freeze up my computer.

I will  order this memory now and then see how it works out.  I really hope that it’s as fast as it says it is, and it if is fast, I may just forego buying the other 4GB, but can you imagine how much faster it will be with 8GB?  I actually would love to see how much faster it would be so let’s hope I can afford that next month.

I will let you know how fast my computer becomes when my new memory comes.  I can’t wait!

Update: I ordered it early this morning and it has already shipped.  WOW that was fast!  I don’t have a tracking number yet, but if they ship it from Los Angeles, I should get it by tomorrow, that is if the mail comes on the 4th of July.

Update 7/13/2012: I called Fry’s a couple of days ago asking them why the tracking isn’t working and where my package is since I bought this on the 3rd, but they told me there was a tracking number, it just wasn’t listed yet because it wasn’t working on the UPS website yet.  I told the woman who I spoke with that it’s supposed to come USPS, but she said they ship it out with UPS, then they hand it over to the post office to send it to me.  Well, I was finally able to check the shipping on the UPS website, and the tracking says it should be here on 7/16/2012, but we will see if that is true on Monday, I won’t hold my breath.

My reason for buying this through Fry’s instead of NewEgg or TigerDirect was that I thought they were shipping it from their LA store, but they are really shipping it from back east, which wasn’t what I had thought.  If I knew I would have to wait for 2 weeks for my memory, I would have gone with TigerDirect which only takes 1 week.  They had the same prices, NewEgg was more expensive.  So this is the first and last thing I will ever buy from Fry’s.  I wanted to buy the other 4GB from Fry’s with my next check, but I think I’ll just live with 4GB.

EverQuest will be free to play in March

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, Games2 Comments

I don’t sit and watch the live feed on Facebook as much as I would like to because I have better things to do, but today I saw a friend comment on a post from EverQuest.  They are turning 13 years old in March and as a treat for us players, they are making it free to play.  Check out the article on the EverQuest Players website.

I had played EverQuest from 2002 until 2008 and loved that game so much.  It got old the last year that I played because I spent more time twiddling my thumbs since people were abandoning the game and I was left by myself.  I could have gone out to the zones and LFG’d, but it just wasn’t the same anymore, so I quit.

I have wanted to go back to the game but haven’t because I’ve been happy playing Lord of the Rings Online since that is free to play.  Now that EverQuest will be free to play, I will be able to go back.  Although I won’t be quitting LOTRO, I will just play both, obviously not at the same time but you know, I will split my time between the two.

I actually haven’t really had any time to play any games because I have been too busy trying to get my book ready to publish, so games really aren’t on my mind as much as I would like.  Knowing that I will be able to reactivate my account and have my Gnome Wizard at the ready whenever I am ready to play will make me happy.

Just like LOTRO, EverQuest won’t be totally 100% free to play, you will most likely have to buy points for buying in-game items just like in LOTRO, you just won’t have to pay a monthly fee.  Although, you could still pay a monthly fee if you are a silver member, but now you have a choice so you aren’t forced to pay even when you don’t play.  That is actually the reason I closed my account.  I had paid for 2 years and then a few months later I stopped playing.  I forced myself to get in the game to raid because I wanted to get my moneys worth for a year, then the second year I decided that I just wasn’t into it.  When my membership was up, I canceled.  If I had a choice to not pay but keep my account active I would have done that, and now I can.

So thank you Sony Online Entertainment for making EverQuest free to play in March 2012.  I can’t wait to start playing again.

CastleVille

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games2 Comments

I don’t know what it is about these Zynga games that is so addictive, but I just cannot stop playing CastleVille.  I don’t want to play it, yet I am compelled to for some reason.

I can remember how fun YoVille was because you were able to chat with your friends.  We would go hang out at the club (in the game of course) and chat and buy drinks; it was a fun time.  But then people stopped talking in chat because suddenly they were too busy with all of the mini games and with the job, that they just didn’t have time to talk anymore.  All of a sudden it became a job to play.

Then I started playing another Zynga game where you have a farm, oh what was it called?  Oh yeah, FarmVille… they seem to like the Ville titles, don’t they?  I was into it, and you used to be able to chat at the beginning, but then they took that away too.  You could go to someones farm and do chores and then go back to your farm and “work.”  That seems to be a common theme.

Then there was Chef World, Pioneer Trailer, Treasure Isle… the list literally goes on and on.  I had to stop playing these games because they took over my life.  I had people TELLING me to get on these games and send them crap that they need and I’m just thinking excuse me but I am busy with my own stuff here lol.  “Oh alright, what do you need?”

I had to quit playing all of those games so it’s very curious why all of a sudden I’m playing CastleVille.  I guess because it’s one game and I only play it for 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there.  This game requires hours of your life everyday, otherwise you miss out on quests.  Like, you have to build these wood planks or stone blocks to build other buildings and sometimes you have a time limit like 3 days or whatever.  I am going to miss out on a quest today because they want me to build 15 planks, 15 stone bricks and I don’t know what else in 2 hours.  Well, it takes 1 hour to build each of everything.  I refuse to beg anyone for help so I’m just going to let that one expire.

I want to say enough with this stupid game because I have better things to do with my day, but in a strange way I don’t want to; I like it lol.  I have a love hate relationship.  I love it because it’s cute, but I hate it because it’s work.  But then again aren’t all games work?  I play Lord of the Rings Online, which I haven’t been playing because of my book, and everything that you have to do seems like a job.  Maybe I’m getting too old for games.

Whatever, I like it and I will continue to play it at 5 minute increments like I am doing now.  It is time-consuming, but I am not allowing it to be on my screen for 16 hours a day and that is all that matters.

I’m sorry, were you expecting me to make a point about something?  LOL

Games on my Samsung T-401G with Net10

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Games2 Comments

When I needed to buy a new cell phone, it wasn’t for playing games on, it was for those emergency phone calls while I was riding my bicycle, which by the way I never had, an emergency that is.  So I wasn’t buying it for games since I have a PSP, games on my desktop, games on my CR-48 netbook and even my Nook has games.  I’m good on games, I don’t need another gaming device.

However, there are times when I’m sitting in a waiting room bored out of my mind and Sudoku on my cell phone just isn’t doing it for me.  My phone also has another game called JumpBoy which is really difficult to play.

We went to the doctor’s office on Thursday and while I was waiting I decided that I wanted to buy a game from the game store on my phone.  I bought Lego Batman.  I have Lego Batman for PSP but I wanted to see how it played on the cell phone.  It was $4.99 or 49 minutes and I had plenty of minutes that I never used so I bought it with my minutes.

It starts to download and it gets to about 82% and I lose my connection because the Net10 service really sucks here in Bakersfield.  I never have a full strength signal so it wasn’t shocking to me that this would happen, although I wasn’t thinking about it at the time.

I tried to download it 4 more times and I got a message telling me that I have downloaded it too many times.  What?  I have attempted to download it but I haven’t successfully downloaded it.

When we came home I tried to download it again, not to download it but to get the phone number that is listed in the message.  I called the number and went through the menu and they told me to email support@gameloft.com.  I sent them an email telling them what happened and they emailed me the next day.  I am very glad that I’m a patient person.

They gave me a link to download the game again so I tried it 3 times at home and it still didn’t work so I rode my bike to the mall and tried it there.  2 more times and no go because I downloaded it too many times.

I email support again telling them what happened and I get another email within 24 hours telling me that there was a glitch in the game download file and offered me a new game.  I don’t know what to do so I log into gameloft on my cell phone and this is what I see.

I had to crop it and I added the :p face and the “lame!” lol.  Notice my signal strength?  That is normal for my phone.  Half the time I have 2 bars and the other half of the time I have no bars.

At this point I don’t know what else to do so I went to the gameloft website and I don’t really see anything I want so I just told them in the email that I wanted Green Farm.

So I get the email from them today with the link for Green Farm and tried to download it 3 times at home with no success.  I went to the store because the signal is stronger there but for some reason when I tried to download it, it got halfway then said I had no signal.  Even though it still showed that my signal was strong, 5 bars.

WTF!

I go home and think, I only have 1 more shot at this, I think what I’ll do is download it with my netbook then email it to myself.  No problem right?  So that’s exactly what I did.  I emailed it to myself then connected to my email account on the phone and I downloaded it and it worked.  It got to 100% and then it installed.  I’ve been playing it for like 20 minutes and it plays great.

Unfortunately I still cannot access the gameloft site through my phone and in fact, there are links missing in the browser to connect to gmail and to connect to weather and what not, not like I use those but still.

So I think this game is the last game I will buy for my phone.  If I had this difficult of a time downloading Lego Batman and Green Farm then I’m done.  If I had better cell phone service then I think it would be worth it to try it again but until that day comes I think I’ll just stick with using my PSP to play video games with.  Well, besides being able to play Green Farm on my phone lol.

I don’t blame GameLoft, heck I don’t even blame my phone for what happened to me.  I blame Net10 for having such crappy service.  Come on Net10, give me a better signal here will ya?  I am so sick of this crappy signal.  I can’t count how many times I wanted to throw my phone against the wall.  If it weren’t for the fact that it’s an $80 phone I would have.

My DSL Usage

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, LOTROLeave a comment

This May, AT&T DSL users are going to get a DSL cap (in their arse) of 150GB or 250GB for U-verse users. I thought I was going to be in trouble because I like to watch a lot of tv shows and movies on my computer and I’m also on the internet all day long so I never really had a gauge on how much internet I have been using until now.

I’ve been looking at my DSL usage every month to make sure I don’t go over 150GB because once you go over they start charging you $10 for every 50GB. The first thing that came to mind was EverQuest. When I was playing EverQuest, I was on that game for up to 16 hours a day. It was the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before I went to bed. I was a hardcore gamer. But I haven’t played it since 2008 so no problems right?

Well, I’ve been wanting to get back into it the last few months but not with EverQuest, this time with a free game but would I be screwed if all of a sudden I started playing a game that uses up a lot of internet?

Here’s my test. I started playing Lord of the Rings Online 1 month ago on 3/19/2011 and I’ve been playing practically every day since. Here in this graph you can see my data usage in mid February through mid March as 17.29GB download and 6.26 up. That was with just regular internet being on Twitter, blogging, looking at Hulu and YouTube videos, facebook, email etc.

Now look at this last month from March 17 through April 16. Not a lot of difference is there? It only went up by 3GB and the upload actually went down by 3GB which I wasn’t expecting.  I don’t really understand why my upload is so high, I mean, I never send files to anyone.  The only uploading I ever do is when I upload an image to my blog and even then it’s only a few KB here and a few KB there.  I don’t even upload videos to YouTube so that confuses me.

(I’m sure someone will explain it to me and I will feel stupid lol.)

Now keep in mind, I’m not on this game 16 hours a day. I can’t, my carpal tunnel doesn’t allow it. I mean, I’m having pain now just from typing this. I usually get on at around 10 or 11am and play until 3 to 4pm or when my hands start to hurt.

I get off the game not just because of my hands but because of my shows.  When I was playing EQ I would miss my shows every night because we were a raiding/family guild and they expected me to be on every night.  I would have to record my shows so that I could watch them later but I can’t do that anymore since the Digital Cable can block certain signals from recording.  The only way for me to do that now is if I had a DVR which I don’t so I play during the day and reserve my nighttime for my shows.  I don’t want a game to rule my life which is one of the many reasons I quit playing EQ.

So this was a good test to see how much DSL data I use every month with a game at the hours that I play.  I’m very satisfied that I won’t have to worry about going over my 150GB/mo.  I mean, I don’t care about $10 if I go over but I don’t want that hanging over my head and it won’t because I don’t use enough to ever have that problem.

As far as me playing Lord of the Rings Online, I absolutely love it.  I’m not as much of a hardcore gamer as I used to be and that’s a good thing.  Actually I start getting bored after awhile.  Yesterday I was falling asleep because I was bored with the area that I was in since I had been there for a couple of days.  I had to leave and go somewhere else to wake me up.

This game is really fun and relaxed and even though I’m already hooked on it, I don’t think it will rule me because of my hands.  So that’s a good thing.  My hands are like a timer for me.  When they start hurting, it’s time to sign off and go watch tv.

My House in Lord of the Rings Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, LOTRO2 Comments

I have been having so much fun playing my hobbit in Lord of the Rings Online the last couple of weeks.  I even bought a house for 1 Gold.  Although, I had to get my farming skill up to the highest it could get in order to make the money to buy the house but it was fun to farm.  It really didn’t cost me that much to farm and I didn’t have to kill anything to get any of the ingredients either (which is another form of farming).

So my house is a standard house with 2 rooms, you can see the main picture has me standing in front of the house then the 2 little pictures of the living room and bedroom.  No need for a kitchen or a bathroom since I would use my cooking skill just standing anywhere and video game characters have no reason to use the toilet, this isn’t the Sims after all.

I have to keep paying the game 50 silver a week to maintain the house but it doesn’t take that long to make 50 silver, actually it’s very easy and I have plenty of it.  I can even pay 5 weeks in advance so if I know I’m going to be away from the game for long periods of time, I won’t have to worry about my house being abandoned and having everything in my chest auctioned off.

The only point to having a house is for the extra storage, the chest.  Also you get a discount on the merchants in the zone that the houses are in.  Other than that it’s purely for show.  It’s fun to have and to decorate and to invite your friends over to look at.

One of the issues that I have with this game is that when I exit in a well populated area then when I get back in the game, all of those graphics make the game crash.  So if I log in to the game in my house then there aren’t all of those graphics to crash me.  I can log in, leave the house and go play.  So that’s a very good advantage of having a house, for me anyway.

Lord of the Rings Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

I was first introduced to the world of MMORPG video games in late 2001 by my cousin who had played EverQuest since beta.  He wanted to play with me and so he bought me the game at Fry’s Electronics for $10.  I played for 6 years and quit for personal reasons.  Believe me, I didn’t want to quit but things were going on here at home that was a direct result of my neglect thanks to me being on EQ for up top 16 hours per day.

I haven’t played an MMORPG game in about 4 years now and I really miss it.  A friend of mine who was my EQ guild leader introduced me to Lord of the Rings Online ironically in 2007, the same year I quit playing EQ.  I only played it for an hour with him then I never played it again because I was too freaked out that things here were going to go south again.

Since I’m home alone for about 12 hours a day now, I figured it wouldn’t do any harm if I started playing LOTRO.  So without emailing my friend to ask him what server he was on, I just got on and created a character and started playing.  A week later I emailed him and found out that he’s not even on the same server.  So I have a choice, I could either delete my character and all of my progress and create a new character on his server or pay $25 to move my character to his server and that’s what I did.

I had already bought a horse with real life money and I couldn’t justify deleting that character or even playing on 2 regular characters on 2 different servers so I just bit the bullet and transferred.

My character’s name was Rego on the Riddermark server but since that name was already taken on Silverlode, the new server, I had to change the name so I chose Xanapus.  It’s not very original but I couldn’t think of anything else on the spot.  He is a Hobbit Burgler and his trade skills are Crafting Yeoman; Cook, Farmer and Tailor.  And his hobby is fishing.  I figured the fishing and farming would help in cooking, the tailoring is just bonus.

I really love this game because it gives me the feeling of being in the world of The Lord of the Rings.  There are many differences between LOTRO and EQ such as the never-ending zone.  When I was in EQ and went to go from let’s say Butcherblock Mountains to Lesser Faydark, I would have to go through the “zone” which took time to load.  Sometimes fast depending on my computer speed and/or my internet speed.  In LOTRO there is no zoning.  All of a sudden I see words on my screen saying I’m in such and such place.  There is a jolt sometimes when that happens and I tend to spin out of control when it freezes me up but I recover.  The only time I zone is when I go into a building.

Quests are much different in LOTRO too than in EQ in the way that they have a Quest window and a Deed window which allows you to see what quests you have going and what your progress is so you know what you have to do to complete the quest.  I have done quite a few quests and deeds in the shire since my character is a hobbit.  I am only level 13 but I hear when I get to level 15 I can buy a house.  One of my hobbies is Fishing and they have certain fish which are mountable and I have already mounted 10 for the walls of my future house lol.

Yes, I do plan on buying a house in this game because they really aren’t that expensive.  I would have to do a lot of farming and selling what I make to be able to make up the money to buy a house and to keep it up but I’m willing to put in the effort.

I’m having fun in this game and even if that fun wears off I won’t regret playing because I’m doing it because it’s what makes me happy.  Yes I have other things that need attention in my life but my brain needs this too, not just those other things.  I can play this game during the daytime when I’m alone then at night pay attention to Darrin so he doesn’t feel neglected.

PlayStation NGP Debut Trailer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gadgets, Games, PSP1 Comment

The PlayStation NGP debut trailer looks pretty cool but it doesn’t tell me everything about the future for the PSP. Check this video out that comes straight from the G4 website.

http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/50948

I did see something about the NGP that showed an image of what it will look like and they said that it has PS3 quality games. The icons on the home screen look way cooler and those are the round icons you see in this trailer and I’m pretty sure it’s a touchscreen. You could kind of tell in this trailer because of the way he was picking people up. If it is touchscreen then that would be pretty cool especially if you could play the game with touch as well as the directional buttons and/or analog stick which there are 2 of, one on each side.

It also seems from the video that it has the award system just like the PS3 has, which I have no clue how that works since I still don’t have a PS3 :(.

It looks really cool and I would love to upgrade but I’m still using the PSP Slim (the 2nd gen PSP) so I don’t see an upgrade in my future, no matter how cool it looks lol. That is unless my PSP suffers an “accidental” fall in my toilet. Oopsie.

OnLive Cloud Gaming System

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gadgets, Games, Tech2 Comments

I watched this yesterday on Attack of the Show and wanted to blog about it but I really didn’t know much about it at the time to really blog about it.  After looking at their website though I discovered that it’s a pretty cool service.

When you play video games how long do you play them before you stop playing it FOREVER?  And how much do you want to kick yourself because you couldn’t afford to spend $80 on a new game every time one comes out that you want?  Isn’t that just the most frustrating?

You could rent them with GameFly but then you have to wait for the next one to come in the mail 2 days after you’ve shipped out the previous one.  OnLive is a GameFly killer!

You get the little OnLive box that is the size of your hand and plug it into your network.  I don’t know if it has WiFi but if it’s anything like the Roku then you’re probably better off just plugging it into the router anyway.  Start up your service and you are on your way to playing as many cool new video games as you like.

Here is that Gadget Pron video from Attack of the Show via Hulu:

http://www.hulu.com/embed/XHi-t64QEBl67tCDWxwG2Q

Trust me, if I had $100 for the box, I would definitely buy this.  There are so many games out there that I want to try but can’t because I just don’t have the money for the gaming system and even if i had the system, I still couldn’t afford the games.  So this will be a great way for anyone to try out any game that is available to users to see if it’s worth the sometimes $80 cost of the game.

The game controller looks very sleek and shiny and Kevin said you’re better off using another game controller from another system and if the controller that comes with it sucks then great, do that if you have one.  If you don’t then go to Game Stop and buy a refurbished one for an x-box or PS3 or whichever one is compatible.

They only give this a 3 out of 5 but considering it will probably save you thousands of dollars on games that you buy and never play again I’m going to give it a 5 out of 5 just for the money you will be saving.

Lord of Ultima

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

Here is my latest obsession. I know that Lord of Ultima is not new, it has been around for several months but thanks to the Google Chrome Web Store, I have found it and am now playing it with my CR-48 laptop.

Today is only my 3rd day of playing so I’m not going to give a rundown of how you play the game but I will say that it is fun and kind of addicting. Not in a negative way because it does get boring after a while. You have to place buildings in your city and keep upgrading them which can take a long time. The more you upgrade things, the longer it takes to upgrade to higher levels.

When you send your army to raid dungeons, you have a long waiting game. You can’t actually be there with them, you can only wait until they get back to see what they brought you.

I wanted to play a game that was like EverQuest but something that was browser-based and although this is nothing like EQ, it is browser-based and works on the CR-48 laptop. If it can play on this computer then I’m good to go for a while.

The screenshots below are covered in snow because it’s winter now. If I had known they were going to do that I would’ve taken some screenshots yesterday when the ground was dry and green.

The one on the top is just an image of the center of my city. You got the town hall in the middle then a farm with the lake, an iron mine and a cottage on the bottom left and the right.

The one on the bottom is an image of the region where my city is. You see a dragon on that mountain, well it’s in the screenshot but it’s gone from the game now. I don’t know where it went but they removed it. It’s a good thing I already raided it lol. They had a minotaur dungeon but it was gone before I could even react. Oh well, my loss.

What I like about this game is that 1 its browser-based so it works on the laptop and 2 it’s FREE to play. So if you want to join me in playing Lord of Ultima, click the link with my referral number to make sure I get the credit for inviting a friend. If you already play the game, my name in there is Xanapus so say hi when you get in the game.