Turtle Rock Studios is developing a new Zombie survival game called Left 4 Dead, and it looks really rad. Left 4 Dead is meant for online play, and the coolest part about it is the face that you can play as either a survivor or one of the infected!

Similar to Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Rant", a highly virulent strain of ravies has spread through the population. As is the case in any survival horror movie, your job is simply to survive by any means necessary. You'll need to use teamwork, covering your friends, and reviving them when they fall (think Counter-Strike against Zombies). As an infected, you are driven to bite and kill any survivor you see. Through either sheer force or teamwork with your infected brethren, you must get to the survivors.

Not a lot of information has been released yet, but there is a gameplay video thanks to the PC Gamer Video Podcast.

The graphics look really decent, and the player animations are really well done as well. One to eight players can join in on the game --too bad, a more battlefield2-ish 64 players would have been totally amazing-- with 20 maps in the initial game release (via Steam). Turtle Rock found the completely open level design to be too frustrating and hard (just staying alive in this game is said to be next to impossible) so the levels are instead of a 'structured' linear design.

The only melee attack is a shove move with your weapon, which is said to be a critical skill to use, but leaves me wanting a better selection of melee weapons (knife, hatchet, katana...). Still, Left 4 Dead looks like it may become a LAN party favorite. We'll have to wait and see. Left 4 Dead will be relased some time later this year.

I hope I'm not too old for you all to remember Oregon Trail, because this shirt is awesome. Its sad to think that the game was about 14 years old when I started playing it in middle school computer class.

Thats right, Starcraft II is in production, and whats better is they've released some teasers that are sure to make any gamer drool with longing and giggle with delight. Jesse has been bugging me to post about this for a little while now, but I've been putting it off like a bad little blogger. I apologize for depriving you all of this eye-candy so to make it up to you, I'll give you links to the goodies first, and then give you a few highlights.

Here is the Gameplay video and Trailer (be sure to watch the gameplay video!) and
some screenshots while you wait for the 20+ minute video to download (goes fast on a decent connection).

So, in between oogling the screens, and waiting for the video to d/l, why dont you read on about a few of the cool things in Starcraft II:

This long-awaited second installment of the Starcraft series will not dissapoint old-timers nor the new gaming generation. It keeps the 3rd person aerial view, with the additional ability to change the viewing angle, but updates the old motif with beautiful new textures, silky smooth new unit animations, and a new physics system for falling debris and the like.

Don't worry, this isn't just starcraft I with a new 3d engine. Blizzard has stayed true to the delicate balance of the beloved three races of Zerg, Protoss, and Terran, but have updated the races with all sorts of goodies.

For one, there are new units like immortals, stalkers, the colossus, and an awe-inspiring gem I shall not spoil here. These new units, and many old favorites, sport new weapon types and defenses like the planet cracker, new shields and laser weapons, and something called the "time bomb!"

There is also a new "IK system" which I believe integrates multiple-level terrain that can be moved across by certain units, and includes holes in the ground revealing the infinity of space.

In addition to offline story mode and multiplayer battles against either the computer or online players via Battlenet --which, BTW, is getting a total overhaul (No word yet on what that may entail)-- Starcraft II will also have story modes available online. That should be interesting to say the least. Lastly, Blizard says they'll provide fully-functioning map making and scripting tools for players to create custom maps and battle scenarios.

There is currently no release date, which is good as it ensures they won't be rushing out a half-assed product. Also, Starcraft II is only in development for the PC, which IMHO is just the way it should be.

I know the idea of Microsoft finally releasing a new OS is cause for celebration among some (though for the life of me I don't know why...), you may want to wait untill its been out for a while, before going out to grab a copy. Though it doesn't release to consumers until Jan. 30th, some institutions can get a copy now, but as Wired writer Bruce Gain says, you probably don't want to.

Bruce sez:

Visual splendor is Vista Ultimate's greatest selling point -- the new operating system does offer a graphically intensive interface that differs greatly from that of Windows XP. Also, Vista dumbs everything down for you, streamlining the Wild West of complex OS software into a useful product... However, I encountered several bumps in the road during testing that show Vista is not ready for everyday use by millions of people just yet -- no matter how pretty it looks.

It appears Vista's cosmetic improvements over XP come at a price. Not only will many of your older programs not run on Vista, some of your peripherals may also experience incompatability woes. Plus, lets face it, new Windows releases are always buggy while the user-base ferrets out glitches and vulnerabilities that the beta testers missed, so you might as well stick with XP for now. Actually, unless your using an application that specifically requires XP and has no existing equivilant in Linux, and barring games or course there are VERY few apps of any kind without a par or better open source equivilant, you should be using Linux anyway!

I mean, think about this: why pay for an OS when there is a free OS that not only has an endless number of variations suited to any need you may have, but also supports an endless number of free applications that run on it? Its common sense people.

And don't give me that "I don't know linux" or "Sorry Tom, we can't all be computer gurus" excuse. ANYONE, even my grandmother, who has never used a computer, could install Ubuntu by herself. Yes, some distros are hard to get up and running, but most are not, and Ubuntu is the king of that domain. So do yourself a favor and instead of spending $300 on Vista, install Ubuntu for free, and dual boot it and windows. That way you can still play your Windows games and you won't be dropped into an unfamiliar albeit user friendly environment all at once. Go ahead, wean yourself off the tainted teat of Microsoft.

Oh, and if you are really scared to install Ubuntu by yourself, here are a couple guides to make it even simpler:

Installing Ubuntu Linux
Video: Installing Ubuntu on a windows machine (Dual Booting)
and here's another dual boot video.

Oh yeah, got a little sidetracked. Bruce goes on to say:

The Verdict
Vista's power consumption superlatives aside, I would not recommend going out and buying Vista off the shelf or pre-installed on a PC when it becomes available. Users will likely suffer many headaches with missing peripheral drivers and a lack of backward compatibility with legacy software, and those headaches will not make Vista worth its hefty price tag.

If possible, wait a year or more after Vista's launch to invest in the operating system. At least by then, numerous updates, hardware drivers and service packs will likely have been released.

One potential treat I hope to review in the near future is how game developers will take advantage of Microsoft's DirectX 10 API, which Vista offers. Unfortunately, DirectX 10 games and capable graphics cards were not yet available when we ran our tests.

Sure, it has a silly name, but if you want to get your whole family involved in hours of fun, want to experience revolutionary gameplay, and don't want to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for a gaming system, you NEED the Wii.

Nintendo is the only console creator left with originality and passion to push gaming to the next level, and it shows.

The Bachelor Party

The 20th we had an awesome bachelor party for [Matty] B[lanchete]. Rather than the normal drunken debauchery, we decided to invite the girls and head down to Foxwoods for a weekend of gambling and sight-seeing. Amme, Zach, Doody, Jesse, and Kelly came, and we had a great time.

On the way down we strayed from our directions to go through Providence to hit up this really great vegan resturant I'd heard about called Melanie's Vegan Eden. Unfortunately once we got to Providence we realized they were closed until 4, and we had to get to our hotel posthaste, so we instead headed to Spice of Life and got some crazy wraps. Doody and I got a gyro with falafel. I never knew what falafel was until I ate it, and it was pretty darn good! B and Kelly enjoyed their veggy wrap, even though it wasn't anything special, because it had some really good vinegarette sauce on it. The best part of Charleston was when we passed the big sign that said "We Have Hot Weiners!" ROFL *Sigh*, I'll always have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy.

Amme, Kelly, B, and I's car made our way to the hotel, while Zach and the other's car had a crazy we're-lost-and-trying-to-find-the-hotel with the result that when they finally found our hotel, they were experts at navigating the greater Groton, CT area. They knew where to get everything from gas, and groceries to medical supplies and wholesale good.

The hotel had a decent indoor pool so we got settled and went for a swim that ended in us sinking the patio furnature to the bottom of the pool and trying to sit in it anyway. After that we all got spiffied up and headed out to foxwoods.

We had a hell of a time finding vegan food at foxwoods. I'd looked online for vegan resturants, but there was a dearth of them in the foxwoods area and I had assumed there would be vegan options at some of the many many resturants. There were vegan options at some places, like the Hard Rock Cafe, but there was also a 2 hour wait and we were starved! We ended up going to the Golden Dragon chinese resturant, and they ended up having good spring rolls and fried tofu. I know B and Kelly get sick of tofu relatively quickly, but they said it was a good meal. I loved the place because Amme's mom always gets me ox tail soup when we go there (a korean favorite) and I always scarf it down. Their lo mein is also very light and low-oil. I remember one of the waiters was singing loudly to himself whenever he walked by. That was really entertaining.

After eating our fill, we headed out to one of the many casino floors. We had pooled our money to cover B and Kelly's expenses as well as some gambling money, so we went and all got some quarters for the slots. Unfortunately B and Kelly didn't win big, but some of us did!

Doody had no real urge to gamble, and Zach won a few dozen coins, ending up with slightly more than he came with, which is the important thing. Amme didn't do as well, but didn't lose much, and came out ahead if you include the money she gave me to bet with, but I'll get to that. On the other hand, Jesse showed the one-armed bandit who the real swindler was, and won at least two 300 coin jackpots, a 200 coint, and man many 100, 50, and 20 coin spins, all on the same damn machine. He wouldn't get up from it until he bled it dry. After filling his change cup, Jesse forgot the 2 rules of gambling:

1. The casino always comes out ahead in the end.
2. Don't get greedy!

Whenever I win a lot, I like to put aside my winnings and continue betting with my original cash until I start a losing streak or lose it all. The machine went cold after his second 300 coin spin, and he ended up spending half his cup, though he still left the casino with at least $70 more than he came with.

I had mixed luck with the slots, and opted to have some fun at the Black Jack table instead. Unfortunately, the smallest tables were $25, and I was *very* apprehensive to place such large bets, but Amme finally convinced me to play at least $25, and she gave me $25 of hers to play too.

I don't like to play BJ unless I can find a really friendly dealer. I sometimes make mistakes and I like to have fun above all else, so Amme and I walked around until we found a nice lady. My first hand... Blackjack!
"Yeah! Thats the way to start," I thought. And continued to get face cards for the following 6 or 7 hands, ending up with around $175. Then this pissy, moody, mopey guy took over dealing and after one hand I said no thank you sir.

I walked two tables down and who could it be but my old dealer! I sat down at her table and she asked why I'd moved. I told her I wasn't feeling it over there and she responded, "Hey, you've gotta play where you feel it!"

I should have walked away after $175, but in the mix I forgot for a few seconds my gambling rules, and ended up dropping down to $25, and winning back up to $100 i think. After that I realized I was being a dumb-ass, and walked away. At least I doubled our money, which is what I did last time I played, and coming back with any money more than what you came with is certainly something to celebrate.

After that little run we went to the arcade wanting to play "Target Terror". Target Terror is a mindless shooting game with live-action sprites. What makes this game amazing is that if, in a given level, you shoot out 20 windows or blow up 10 monitors or 10 oil drums, you get bonus games.
Now be forewarned, these are not your ordinary shoot the tin-cans in 30 seconds games. Oh no.

Level 1 bonus: Turkey Terror - Its duck hunt, but instead of ducks, it's terrorists throwing frozen turkeys at your ass, and you have to gun the turkeys down. It culminates with a barrage of thousands of english-ass-tonnes of turkey filling the screen like pop-ups on granny's 233MHz.

Level 2 bonus: I don't know what it was called, but it's missle command with parachuting terrorists. not as outrageous, but very fun.

Level 3 bonus: Golden Terror - Think "Golden Tee" but with something gone horribly wrong. Level 3 was as far as we got, but this was by far the best bonus game of the three. In this gem, you hit flaming golf ball bombs at terrorists in golf carts on the driving range. They drive across the screen and you have to blow them up by driving balls at them. But wait, thats not even the best part. If you blow a hole in the ground, they fall in the hole slanted, and then the cart behind them will rev his engine and do a wheelie while peeling out, then jump the fallen cart like Evel Knievel!
I howled and cried with laughter when I first saw this, and could barely shoot the screen between my spasms of giggling. This game is truely wonderful.

Despite my love of Target Terror, they didn't have it there! The website said they did, but it was nowhere to be found. Regardless, we played a lot of other fun games, and Amme kicked my ass at Need for Speed Underground to the tune of "Get Low".

The next day we went to Mystic where I got to eat lunch at Mystic Pizza!!! I was soooo thrilled. I really love that movie and didn't even know it was based on a real location. Everyone there was super nice, and although we couldn't find vegan food again (there aren't any within an hour of foxwoods), we did find a good health-food store for B and Kelly to fill up at. Everybody in the town was really nice and it was a cute little town.

Our next stop was Mystic Aquarium. We watched a beluga whale training session, seal training session, and Amme and I petted live rays! They felt really neat, like a rubbery cool piece of leather. It was a lot of fun, but we missed Jesse. He stayed outside because he had electronics homework to do, so he found a nice comfortable tree to sit under and camped out.

All in all, it was a great time. We all had a lot of fun and I'm glad we all got to hang out together. We definately missed Jalbey, Johnny, Evan, and Trevor.

via: Nyrath > MetaFilter > Wonderland > shacknews

Heres the skinny: Blizzard adds in a new instance: Zul'Gurub. Inside is the god of blood, Hakkar. Well, when you fight him he has a debuff called Corrputed Blood. It does like 250-350 damage to palyers and affects nearby players. The amazing thing is SOME PLAYERS have brought this disease (and it is a disease) back to the towns, outside of the instance. It starts spreading amongst the genral population including npcs, who can out generate the damage. Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die).

GM's even tried quarantining players in certain areas, but the players kept escaping the quarentine and infect other players.

Here is a video of it spreading through a village. You have to watch it. It's like spontanious human combustion... er, explosion rather.

And a different one here

Zul'Gurub was introduced in the version 1.7 update last week.

On some servers it's infected to many npcs to go into town. On some it is around and then dies off and comes back a few hours later.

Ripping good laugh, that.

Note that bash.org is a different site than QDB.us, which are damn near identical in appearance. They both were spawned from the QDB that resided on GeekIssues.org, however QDB.us and bash.org are not affiliated and do not share the same database. As of this post, qdb.us has 10579 quotes approved, 352 pending (10931 total); while bash.org has 18044 quotes approved; 14531 pending (32575 total). Though it is clear that bash has just short of 3x the quotes of qdb.us, quality takes precedence over quantity. QDB.us claims that "recently, many bash.org moderators have migrated to this site." However, I do not know which site boasts the best content. The purpose of this post is to ignite your interest in the idea--meaning read whichever you want, or both--not to pursuade you to favor one over the other. Both have top quotes, latest additions, and random lists.

So why is an IRC quote database useful? Why should you go check it out? Entertainment, of course! Some of them are weird, some of them are involved, but most of them are hillarious!

To spark your curiosity, I'll reproduce a couple of my favorite shorter ones here:

#515407 +(1005)
(kp) the admin just came over and asked me why my desktop looks like xp and what the hell i just did to his computer
(kp) leet hax was not an acceptable answer

#514827 +(1356)
(azemilcar) What do you Brits say when you stereotype American speech?
(starblaydia) anything lacking irony or sarcasm usually qualifies, Azemilcar
(gala |drunk) *nod*
(yamatto) or we just hoot like gibbons and invade sandy countries.

#98 +(3444)
(ikkenai) i don't have hard drives. i just keep 30 chinese teenagers in my basement and force them to memorize numbers

#146497 +(2995)
(demoneater) wtf
(demoneater) ESPN is showing 2003 national jump rope championship
(demoneater) who the hell watches jump rope competiti--- ooh bouncy

#35897 (846/1166)
Miraculous) does anyone know anything about routers?
Rukus+) the most important advice i can give you
Rukus+) do NOT rip it out of the wall when drunk and say you have defeated the matrix

#511932 +(1194)
(joshkr) Who is this General Error, and why's he scanning my hard drive?
(de0n) He's the boss of Major Malfunction
(bismuth) Looking for Private Pictures

#510700 +(862)
(unspawny) The ultimate game would be a game sorta like The Sims.
(unspawny) Except it would be called 'Angst'.
(unspawny) And you would see how many angsty people you can befriend, screw over, and then befriend again.
(frog) you just described Livejournal: The Game

I used to play with Rogue for hours on end, tweaking the code, learning commands, and breaking stuff. It was my first contact with programming and really sparked my interest. I'd all but forgotten about Rogue and its many clones (most notably Nethack) until I read that post today.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you all, and tell you to go check out the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 smiley games at Webfroot.

I love this wastebasket-hoops flash game hint: you can bounce them off the floor with the right technique and get very consistant.

Either these wheelbarrow freestlye guys have made one hell fo an elaborate joke, or they are idiots... or both. Yet I still love it.

This is the best ipod holder ever, cause hes a cute lil (BIG actually) lego-man.

Doody was asking last weekend if there were any websites dedicated to airfields, since he knows about how great airliners.net is for aircraft. Well Matty, http://creports.capnhq.gov/airfield/default.asp is the Civil Air Patrol website of airfields, and it has every place I've typed in, including, of course, CAR. Hey, I can see my house from here. No really, I can! Its in the North picture. I'm not telling you which one, though.

Wow. Amazing ballpoint pen drawing. Thats all I have to say... wow.

Photomatt.com is another great photoblog, but not just another. Note this is not the same as Photomatt.net.

If you are like me, with no graffiti skills whatsoever, check out stencilrevolution.com. They have great artwork and tutorials for making beautiful multi-layer stencils. Join the revolution, brother.

Ah... want some eye-candy? cssbeauty.com is a CSS design showcase site.

I don't know whats more wrong: Defacing a national graphic novel treasure, or how hard I laughed at it.

This site is along the same lines as engrish.com. Its a hall of techinal docmentation weirdness.

Brando has come up with some neato cameraphone lenses, however, the macro Lens is the only one thats not blurry as hell.

If you enjoy playing Boggle as much as I do, you'll LOVE WEBoggle. You play in realtime against other players around the world.

Jalb put up a deviant art site: jalbey.deviantart.com. Go peep his great photography.

FUYAMA Taruto made this wonderful animation:

This work gathers the animation works created by the distinctly different styles/methods of several writers who are avid readers of Jim Woodring's original. My version focuses on how to depict the movements of the characters accurately in the CG without doing injustice to the beauty of the pictures and global vision found in the original. At any rate, this work could not have been possible without the greatness of the original. I wish to share the pleasure of receiving this award with Jim who resides in Seattle.

This is exactly like something Jesse would put together: Onstar transcripts that didn't make it on the commercials.

This is how I see Bush.

Copies of the game on file-sharing networks and newsgroups are being downloaded by thousands of people.

The cost to the game's makers, id Software, could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost sales.
...
Its release is the gaming equivalent of the third film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In the US, the game is expected to retail for $54.99 and is expected to sell in the millions.
...
Translated in lost sales, this amounts to $2.7m (£1.5m), if all these people instead bought the game.

Whats scary is that with all the game companies going belly-up in the past couple years, I hope they sell enough on the Xbox to still stay alive. Plus, many people don't have a fast enough system to run it in the first place.

At least the guys and gals at 3D Realms don't have to worry about that with Duke Nukem Forever. They'd have to actually make the game first!

On a side note, I bought Neverwinter Nights at Mardins Discount for $5. I just installed it and don't dare touch it until I have at least 5 hours to lose track of.

This new incarnation has a thinner base, larger face and shoulder buttons, a stylus slot, and stereo speakers. It seems for once Nintendo actually addressed the concerns of consumers, though I still think the screen resolution is way too low. Plus, a second screen is more of a novelty, with most of its usefulness lying in RPG inventories and mini-games. I guess I'm most excited for the games: Super Mario 64x4, Animal Crossing DS, Dynasty Warriors, Mario Kart DS, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Sonic, and Viewtiful Joe to name a few I'm salivating over. Eurogamer has the full E3 games list, as well as hi-res photos of the unit, and their reviews of the demos.

Theres only one problem. Thats right, the PSP is going to pwn the fork out of all other handhelds. Oh god, its so sexy it hurts to look at: 16:9 ratio TFT LCD wide screen, 480 x 272 pixel (16.77 million colors), 802.11b, wait, b? why not g? hmm..., USB 2.0, sony memory stick (of course) compatable, and bad ass Universal Media Disc format games, which will undoubtedly allow one to use it as a portable movie player as well. This unit will offer 3D-CG that game-boys just never do. They still use the shatty low-res screens... *sigh"

Theres another flip-flop though: The PSP has 12 titles lined up for its release year. The DS has more than 120 in development by more than 100 companies. 20 titles are by nintendo alone. So yeah... FACE!