Category: review

Driver Parallel Lines Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Driver Parallel Lines PC

After way to long, I finally purchases Driver Parallel Lines for pc. I was reluctant to purchase this game while I was waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV to be released for Computers. Many of the online communities rated driver PL really bad. So you see why I never bought Parallel Lines.

Today I was at the electronics store with my son looking for him a game and me a cooler for my recently acquired laptop. While walking around killing time as my son picked out Fear2  for his Xbox360 I rummaged through the pc games section. I came across Driver Parallel Lines for pc on sale at $9.99. Well that went into my basket pretty quick. I also grabbed Split Second at $39.99. (crummy control Need for speed mock up). We made our way back home.

On first inset of the game DVD, The first pop up message looks pretty bad. It looks like I am running a windows 98 program.I noticed the install never prompted for a cd key. but it did as me if I wanted to register, I selected a reminder of 15 days. Cutscenes ate the start of the game reminded me of grand theft auto iii and Vice city. When I could finally start the game I was sitting in front of a boxy looking city with a skinny lanky looking fellow with long hair as my main person. I started to walk and his hair started swinging back and fourth in an exact repeated motion. it was kind of goofy. I was getting really disgusted with the game. I jumped into another car and chased down my car (which was being pushed down the street by the police car that was supposed to be chasing me). In chasing down my car, I hit a pedestrian. Ok I am cool with it now. The way I know the game driver, you couldn’t get out of your car. I switch cars and begin running from the cops again. I ran over another pedestrian and they did the exact same thing the last pedestrian did. I tilt my head a bit to the right in confusion and nail another one. Yep exact same motion. So the physics sucked.

I later grab a motorcycle and decide to go for a joy ride. I first search everywhere and can not see how to do a wheelie. I jump what looks like a ramp and barely get any air. I get to top speed and try to power slide. the slide was pathetic. I came to an instant stop with no drift.

I do a custom search in Google for “mods texture Driver Parallel Lines PC -xbox -ps2” and find plenty of skins for cars and peds. So I go to work on resolving the issues that bugged me. (I clipped off that hair so I don’t have to see that stupid swinging)

After I get good and settled in, I start playing the game for real. The game is really fun. Yeah the cars handle just like they did in the first driver game, and the controls have limited  functions but hey I am here just for the fun. Right? This game has all of that. The back end story you get in the cutscenes is probably ten times better than any other game I have played. it is a memorable story. I realized that driver was out long before GTAIII and True Crimes. In GTAIII you are the driver of gangs, in driver you are a driver so it would only be expected that you can change cars as you do in GTA. The textures well they clearly reflect EA. ok back on topic, I had more fun playing the missions in Driver Parallel Lines than I ever had in GTAIV. The action is fast and hidden humor is abundant. The cops do not let go of you man. When they chase you, expect to spend 5 minutes minimum trying to shake them.

Wish I could turn the radio to another station. or honk the horn. Or power slide.

Ubisoft made a pretty fun game here and it is well worth buying at it’s current price.

I have to categorize this as a racing game because it has more than 60% of it’s action in a car. Typically they call those racing games. I call em action if there isn’t a drag strip or illegal street racing as the major part of the game. So it’s a racing game. :-)

Racing Game Score

ragdoll- 1

AI – 3

texture- 5

sound- 5

entertainment- 10

This is not video game for showing people how cool your graphics card is. This a game for showing your friends a fun game.

Opera Mini 5

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Installed on blackberry 8100 rim and on G1 android.
I was using opera mini on my lg flip phone and Motorola rizr and blackberry for years before I got my android. Seems my rizr didn’t quite measure up so I had to install version 4.
I’m not too keen on opera on my computer. Feels kinda netscape navigator-ish.

The blackberry install was fast. Use was very smooth. Impressive appearance. Small pop ups look druple like. Could not find settings to change browser color. Navigation and page change smoother and softer than previous versions. Bookmarking has been made easier refreshing and closing ap happens fast with no lock ups.
Blackberry install I give a 10/10

Install for android, was 5 beta.
I’m beyond impressed. This is one sharp looking application. I have yet to see another app look this great. Downside is the menu bar at the bottom uses some of the screen realestate. I’m scared to turn it off, it might not come back. Menu button does nothing. Maybe if I close the bottom navigation bar it will show up in menu area. ( if anyone tested this, let me know results). Navigation bar has a forward and back button with refresh button. You no longer have to hit back button a million times to exit 10 minutes of surfing. This feature needs to be in all programs.
After you install this, do not change your home page. Look at the home page that is provided. You can have basically a bookmarks with thumbnails as your home page. Touch screen is now functional, in my honest opinion better than the default android browser. very fluid with your finger movements.
Again I could not change color or theme.
I give opera mini beta 5 for android a 10/10

Opera 4 for motorolla rizr 9/10

Got my Digg 4 Invite Today

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man

Ok. Feed submission is automated and you can just simply verify and be done with it

This is an open source project with a couple apps already created for it.

Seems to be in Alpha mode, Seems to be a social network of news builders and posters.

Wish I could figure out how to invite people. There is someone I want to invite to it but I can not locate the “Invite to Digg 4” button or option. *update* digg tech support said to just send her to new.digg.com

I didn’t take up on the crap where it makes you invite everyone in your facebook and gmail account. I hope that “Google Me” is as good.

Hands on with Iphone 4

Posted onAuthorTruXter

I got my hands on the IPhone 4. After a week of arguing with the macfaqs at work about how Apple is not super man and the pope rolled into one and how the Iphone really does have a signal issue.
One of the co-workers brought an Iphone 4 in to the office and let me get a hands on.

one of Iphone4's Cameras.

IPhone 4 With camera on

The camera on it is amazing. (yeah I’m in the background gathering pictures with my G1).

Back Of IPhone 4

You can actually have a full on video chat with someone who has an IPhone 4 also.

Front Camera

The resolution is remarkable. The thing is nice and heavy feeling. Very sturdy. Somehow though it looks like the old nano and a Motorolla birthed an Apple. Video quality is up to 720p 29 fps recording.

screen area

  • 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
  • 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
  • 800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
  • 500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)

512mb Ram 1GHz processor Really impressive. That could play GTA liberty City Stories easily.

Well that’s the best I can do with my limited time with the phone. The co-worker that brought that with him is now as we speak on a plane to somewhere on vacation. HTC needs to build more like that. or Motorolla needs to build more like that. Then again, just be motivated by that to make something better. So if I did not make it clear reception was fine. a room with 7 computers 6 of them running and reception was fine. No matter where I placed my fingers on that phone, the signal was good.

(((((1 video was removed)))))

I really appreciated the chance to check that thing out. It was the feeling of when you are holding a brand new hard drive that you know is fast and has tons of storage. It just felt sturdy very well built and nice and heavy.
I will not be buying one simply because AT&T has chased me away already with their bad signal in my area. Sure wish it was on Tmobile. Not much better but better.

Toshiba A75 S2112 Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Just received a laptop computer as payment for replacing a motherboard on another laptop. The laptop I received as payment is a Toshiba A75 S2112 Satellite.

Specs:

CPU Arch : 1 CPU – 1 Cores – 2 Threads
CPU PSN : Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.06GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2, 3)
CPUID : F.4.1 / Extended : F.4
CPU Cache : L1 : 12 / 16 KB – L2 : 1024 KB
Core : Prescott (90 nm) / Stepping : E0

Freq : 3066.8 MHz (133.34 * 23)
MB Brand : TOSHIBA
MB Model : EDW10
NB : ATI RS300/RS300M rev 02
SB : ATI SB200 rev 00
GPU Type : ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000 IGP
DirectX Version : 9.0c

RAM : 448 MB
RAM Speed : Unknown (Unknown) @ N/A

Rundown

Goods

Very nice looking. Keys move fast. Screen is very shiny. Images look clear and crisp. The on board memory and yes I do mean “on board”, the memory is actually part of the motherboard. There is one slot for an upgrade stick. Hard drive is quite though you feel it spin up for sure. There are two fans under the motherboard and a large copper heat sink. Volume knob on the right side. A media button on the left (can assign it to any .exe). Two speakers in the front, they function well with no cracking noises. Latch lock works flawlessly. At times the computer is super fast. DVD burner. good solid housing. Battery works and charges up within just minutes. Built in WIFI is strong and has not failed once. 3 usb 2.0 ports 1 lan port and one modem connection. All lights function. Plenty of bundled software, came with Microsoft Office, tons of editing software like video and image (I’m still going to download and use GIMP it’s what I am used to)

Bads

When I got the laptop, the power button was inside the housing rattling around. Line going up the screen on the left. Some times the computer slows way down. Over heating despite the dual fan and large heatsink.If laptop is set on a table while running it will shut off in a blink in less than 20 minutes.  Battery about 4 hours as long as I keep airflow unobstructed. There are many old posts on this 5 year old computer talking about solder failure due to overheating.

Fixes

Got the power button to stay on by use of a Soldering iron and a pen cap.

Worked to repair the overheating issue cleaned fan and heatsink pulled out half a wig of hair, dust and funk. (fail) Still crashes when sitting on a table.

Screen having a line up the left if I push on the screen, sometimes the line goes away. Someone showed me how but i kind of didn’t start listening until I saw it work. So I have to go back and re-ask.  If I can get it to fix by Doing so, then I will locate the issue better and solve it.

For the work I did on the other computer and the fact this thing actually runs ( This post is being done on the Toshiba), is a great factor in this review. It’s like a free computer . I spent seven hours on that other computer. She spent $100 on this computer. Who got the better deal ?

Score

I give this laptop – notebook a

7/10

Ninjas Live Codes

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man4 Comments

Ninjas Live, this game is crazy fun. I am so glad it came to the Android system. I have been playing this thing now for a week on my Droid Phone. Not many games are this fun. I have to say that storm8 knew what they where doing. I just want to see storm8 Come out with Pirates Live and let us all go head to head pirates verses Ninjas lol.

Well to show my support for the game I left it open so you can leave your Ninjas Live code or just pick up someone elses code.
No sign up needed to post just leave your ninja name and a fake email address and all is good :-)
MFJ5Y

Vampires Live Codes

Posted onAuthorTruXter35 Comments

This game is fun. One of the greatest cell phone creations was the invention of the Iphone and android phones. The act of using computer applications on your phone is an excellent time killer on a bus or in a cab or in the boss’s office getting chewed out.. Now comes the games and applications. Storm8 is the maker of many fun games for cell phones using Iphone apple tech and Android cell phone operating system.
If you play storm8 games such as Vampires Live, as I do. Then you want as many people in your group. As I do. So Invite everyone to leave their Vampires Live code with a simple response.
So I have to show my support for this dang thing and post my code.
2F2CTP
I hope you leave your Vampires Live code here also.
No sign up or anything. but I do filter for spam. ( I get lots). So it won’t be more than an hour .. I will accept your Vampires Live codes.

Just leave your vampires Live code here and add the ones that are already here and you can increase your Vampires Live clan.

If your Iphone or Android phone has any other storm 8 games, feel free to use my search feature on the right and see if I have these games listed.

Should You Overclock Your Nvidia 9400

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

The question has always come up. “Should I overclock my video card?”.

We all want to know we are resourceful and frugal enough to make a good deal out of what we have. It’s in our nature.

Contrary to popular opinion.
Overclocking shows no actual performance difference.
It may show increase in certain feilds of benchmarking but will also show a hit in other fields. If the card makers made it so you could unlock magical sections of your gadget so you can save money, no one would buy better. The best you can get from overclocking is a cool score on a benchmark test.

Your video card is fine for what it is made for. I have seen some extreme benchmark scores come from that video card. Truth is though, once you put any weight on it like actually gaming and random processes such as gaming, you will see a drastic hit on it.

I have busted many video cards and processors and sticks of memory through the years (12 years) playing the cheap role.

For better performance buy a video card that performs better right out of the box. and then go back to your 9400 and overcliock the dogsquirts out of it and see what it’s full potential is. get benchmarks and play some games. Then toss it aside and put the newer better card in and see for yourself.

If you overclocked good enough the 9400 would have out performed a boxed 9600 right out of the pack. Low shader count means your video card will stop at the low number and not stress on drawing the greater shaders. In fact it will ignore them. So your benchmark scores could smear the 9500 9600 9200 210 video cards. but in actual game play. That’s a whole different story.

Just because a video card does not have certain features does not mean it will not perform as good. it just means it will look like crap and not have all of the image features. In some cases it will perform 1000 times better and faster when clocked like crazy, but you will not see what everyone sees in the game.

heck it was almost 3 years before I realized gtaiii billboards actually had crap on them. and that there was smoke coming out of the stacks at teh first safe house.

You do not want the video card with the first of a feature. you want the video card that came years later. The 9500 and the 9600 have huge shader counts yes, but they don’t have the nuts to use them.

move into the 200s or greater (which is the same processor as the 9000s) .. the freaking 500s are right around the corner.

Yank that card and stick it in a media computer. It’s great for dvd and 720p hd.

Google Custom Home Page

Posted onAuthorTips Of Tech

Hey that’s nice they are trying to dress up the plain ol Home page. I mean it is a change but um.

What if we don’t want to see that? What if we don’t want to wait for our image to load.

Well I have some solutions, for me that is. TruXter Tech Custom Search.

I installed my toolbar and it gives me  me the choice to use the search as my home page.

The search uses Google as it’s engine so it’s like you don’t miss out on anything that you used to have.

but here is the custom search page from my toolbar. Nice and plain.

Either of the two will be fine. It’s like you get the old Google back. Works well for me.

The search is just the same as Google used  to be.

I liked Google just simply because it let me load a fast blank page that does not load massive files. So this solution is perfect for me.

But it does look like Google is following Bing now.

Is Pc Gaming Dying

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

I wrote Is Pc Gaming Dead 2 years ago, Now I recap.

I actually got tons of hate-mail from pc gamers. There was a ton of messages from console gamers saying stuff like “go buy a ps3/360 you cheap %%^#). but to get hate mail from pc gamers on a subject that bothers me. To get called a scare monger or fear monger or a poor writer with scare tactics. It threw me for a curve. So for two years I stayed off the topic. Now the consoles are a few years old. No news on a new Xbox or the next playstation. I do feel like I am cheating because this is a bad time to do an assessment. Then again, people are fanboys of stuff for a good long while. I am certain the fanboyism has petered out now that pc gamers have slapped the console kiddies down with “Nice out dated machinery, still calling it next gen?”

Okay lol that was so wrong of me. but it was right. Very right.

Ok to the work at hand.

I took a trip to the local gamestop to see if I could find a fun new game for my pc. I mean I did just upgrade my video card to dual Nvida gts 250 cards toting 1g memory, and I just upgraded my processor from a dual core 2.9g cpu to a tri core 3.0g processor. and I added two gigs memory to my motherboard. So you can see I am ready to game a bit. I get into the game store and look what I found.

Game stop Pc gaming

Pc gaming went from a small shelf, down to one of the outer edges of a small shelf. A small 4 foot shelf end-cap. so I was was shocked. all of the games so old and outdated, I tried to laugh at it but it came out distorted. It was disturbing. I was outraged. I walked to the cashier and said ” What the %^^&%^ is this %^$%^” or something really close. The cashier pointed at the pieces of paper hanging over the side.

It was three pages I think, front to back listed with  hundreds of pc games they have in the back. I was excited. I bought some games from the list and left there happy. Then I got all the way home and realized ‘dude, we are pc gamers, not paper gamers.”   They could just go ahead and remove that whole dang rack and that notebook on the side and just put us a computer there to select our purchase from. i could go for that.

a week or so later, I was shopping in Walmart for some screws or something. It was late and no hardware stores were open. So wally world was all I had. After I finally found something that might work, I walked to the electronics department so I can look at the fading pc games there and sulk at the three shelves of 9.99 games and a few two year old games. The pc games were gone. I mean completely and entirely gone from the spot they have slowly dwindled down to. They were gone. I broke out my cellphone to take a picture. I back up and bumped into some guy. I turned to apoligize. As i turned I winced because of the huge long glass cabinet of console games. My eyes moved from the furthest end. Nintendo stuff had to have had 300 different games. Counting hand helds and stuff. Then the next case xbox. Well over 100 games. Then playstation 200 or so. Then….. wait…. What????? IT’S A HUGE RACK OF PC GAMES AT THE END OF THE LINE. MORE PC GAMES THAN ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walmart Pc Gaming

The Humble Walmart has more pc games than Gamestop of Spring (on 45 and cypresswood).

so what the heck happened? is pc game dying? Is it on it’s last breath? Is it getting it’s second wind? It looks like pc gaming is coming to the forefront again. Quietly making it’s march forward.

What i am worried about is that most pc gamers are let down enough, they have been buying online only. so they may never even notice that this is going on. and by the time they find out about it, the games will be pulled off the shelf because it was a failed attempt.

Or someone will get the news out as well as they can that pc gaming is not dead or dying, we just have to find it and make sure the guy who sales knows he has what we want and that we will be there for him to profit from.

******Update*****
Well I talked to Gamestop.
Got the answer we needed to hear.
GAMEstop (lol their name says it all.)
Gamestop is reducing their pc games because gamestop tends to sell used games. Pc games, even though they do not get pirated any more or any less than Xbox and Playstation games, they have great deals of protection methods on them that prevent the RE-SELL of Pc Games.
Since GAMEstop sells a lot of used games, and you can’t use cd keys like you used to by “unregistering a cdkey”. Games now come with a limited amount of installs.
The pc gaming industry is killing it’s self