Building Custom Chromehounds

Some of my favorite video games involve piloting and winning wars with large robot machines, commonly known as mechs (or basically a large walking tank). Over the years, I probably played all of Microsoft’s Mech Warrior games for the PC along with Mech Assault and Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf for the Xbox. Now I need to add Chromehounds to my list, SEGA’s newly released squad-based action shooter for the Xbox 360.

Chromehounds is the first squad-based mech-combat game available for the Xbox 360, and it first caught my eye at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). This game definitely has my attention, whether I’m sitting at the edge of the couch, or fully standing up and yelling at the television. The gameplay is excellent with lots of action, and it not being too complicated, along with rockin’ graphics. You could almost swear to be watching a movie throughout the game. I also appreciate the missions because they’re not too long and drawn-out while playing the story mode.

There are two modes of gameplay: the story-driven single-player campaign that takes you through all three sides of the battle, and online play (via Xbox Live). The game is set in an alternate future where the Cold War never ended due to an explosion of solar flares that has crippled the world’s infrastructure and communications. It has caused a global conflict and Chromehounds puts you in the midst of a fierce ongoing battle between three nations in the Eastern European region known as Neroimus.

You live in the world of the Hound, where those giant mechs piloted by mercenaries like you, are the armored knights of the earth’s new Dark Ages. You can extensively customize your Hound from scratch. As you progress throughout the game, you earn more and more parts and color schemes for your Hound. No two Hounds are exactly the same. In fact there are millions of possibilities with combinations using the parts and color schemes you acquire. You can customize your fighting style and the appearance of your Hound with these.

Every Hound starts with a chassis, which can walk on two or four legs, roll on tank treads or four wheels, or hover. Once your chassis is in place you add your preferred weapons, armor and accessories. As long as the generator can power it and your chassis can hold the weight, you can put whatever you want on there.

There are six basic types of Hounds you can build, and that you also train with in the story mode - Scouts, Soldiers, Snipers, Defenders, Heavy Gunners and the Tactics Commander. Each Hound has different advantages and disadvantages, so you’ll have to decide for yourself which one suits your style. Once you become really good, you can create hybrid Hounds to mix together your strengths. As for me, I prefer a Sniper/Scout combo. I enjoy the challenge of seeing how precise I can shoot at moving targets while I myself am moving.

With the online play, join together squads of up to 20 players with over 115 playable maps. You can play the conventional online modes such as capture the flag, death matches, survival battles, and more. If you play in the story mode it’s unfortunately only single-player, but it helps you become well acquainted with your Hounds to make you a stronger player. You can also use your custom built Hounds in online play.

One distraction in the game for me is that the debris from some your destroyed targets will disappear right away, which isn’t very realistic. Also, my Hounds, don’t seem to move very quickly and it feels like I’m moving too slow and taking too long to reach waypoints, even if I’m not damaged. Other than that, Chromehounds is a must for your Xbox 360.

Chromehounds is rated “T” for mild language and violence. It is available for $59.99, exclusively for the Xbox 360 at your nearest GameStop or CompUSA.

The Perfect Keyboard For Gamers

Especially when I’m playing first-person shooter (FPS) games on my PC, I’m extremely particular about how I configure the keys on my keyboard to control my character. I always have the four arrow keys control my directional movement, and other keys control specific weapon selections, reloading or special moves. Needless to say, I’m very picky in general about my keyboard. Now there’s a smart keyboard that can remember my unique commands with the touch of one button.

Logitech’s G15 Gaming Keyboard is the first in Logitech’s G-series and is easily customizable to your beloved game. It was designed for gamers by gamers to provide a high level of programmability and control for the serious PC gamer. But don’t let that intimidate you. If you’re not a gamer, that’s okay. Just think of it as a really cool keyboard on steroids.

One of my favorite aspects of the G15 is the adjustable-tilt and backlit LCD screen. Depending on the game, you can program the screen to show you vital in-game information such as your score, health status, ammunition levels and the leader board. Using it as a regular keyboard, you can see external PC information such as incoming e-mails, instant message alerts, time / date, your connection speed or CPU usage. Note that if you are playing, it can display this without disturbing your game.

The LCD screen can also act as a media control / display so you can see your music track information, control music, playlists and Internet streaming radio. If you need to customize your screen further than that (and are very computer savvy), you can download a publicly available Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows you to create your own application (with Windows and GDI C++ programming) to display your desired information on the LCD screen. Probably not the most recommended thing to do if you’re a beginner.

The LCD also folds down to make it easier to transport to next LAN party or competition. But I wouldn’t really consider it a very portable keyboard. It’s a large-sized keyboard that’s easy to type with (as I’m doing with right now). I also had my husband take this to work to use, and he loved it. At home it makes playing World of Warcraft much easier, especially with the G key commands.

The Mode Keys, labeled M1, M2, M3, are located above the 18 G keys. Each Mode represents a different group of settings for the G keys. After programming my keys with macros, with the touch of one button, I can now tell my guys to give me cover fire and within milliseconds of that, push another key and reload my weapon. Oh so convenient! If in case you didn’t do the math, there are 54 definable commands with these keys. These keys work fully functional on PCs (with the driver installed), however on the Mac side, you won’t be able to use these specialized keyboard commands.

Call me crazy, but you true gamers know about the all-night gaming sessions. If you’re in for one of those, the G15 features blue backlit keys to lead the way on your nightlong adventures. When the backlighting is turned on, a light from underneath the key illuminates the character on top of the key. A button on the keyboard turns on the backlighting with two possible brightness levels.

The Logitech G15 is available at your nearest CompUSA (or www.compusa.com) for $79.99. Check out more information on the G15 or Logitech’s other G-series gaming products at www.logitech.com.

World Series Of Video Games 2006

I’m excited to see the results of the World Series of Video Games (WSVG) since it’s the first international video game competition circuit on multiple gaming platforms. The WSVG circuit consists of eight national and international events where top two winners of each category are flown to a final tournament. The final will be held later on this year, and the ultimate video game champions will be crowned.

The second U.S. circuit event, the Intel Summer Championship, was a four-day event held last week (July 6-9) in Grapevine, Texas, if happened to be in the Lonestar state. (I was just there, and I’m disappointed that I missed it!) As the event’s primary sponsor, Intel showcased the Intel Core 2 Duo architecture as the future of competitive gaming. While I was playing Quake 4 at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), I saw this chip in action, and I can’t wait to acquire one for myself.

The competition at the Intel Championship was be intense with 860+ gamers competing for the $225,000 in cash and prizes winnings. There was a massive Dance Dance Revolution contest and a Geometry Wars tournament. Also, the Bring-Your-Own-Computer LAN party had 1,500+ participants.

This circuit is coincided with the World Cup Finals, so soccer fans could test their skills in video game soccer competitions. Also held were the “Break Into The Video Games Biz” seminars for the more serious gamers, or those looking for a career in gaming and technology industries. Intel also had presentations on “How To Build Your Own Laptop” and mobile gaming. Microsoft had one regarding Xbox Live service.

The WSVG was founded by Games Media Properties, the worldwide leader of video game competitions, tournaments and festivals. To find out more about the WSVG and the results, log onto www.thewsvg.com.

Do It In A Jiffy With Gliffy

For some reason, I’m always tasked with making flowcharts, diagrams, or any other similar seemingly complicated tasks to accomplish on the computer. I’m the unspoken designated go-to person for this kind of stuff no matter where I go, but I’m now hoping to pass this special torch along to others with Gliffy.

Gliffy is a program that makes creating flowcharts, drawings, floor plans or any diagram very simple to do for just about anyone. Its interface is extremely user-friendly and it runs fast - almost real time. If you are familiar with Microsoft Office’s Visio, Gliffy is somewhat similar to that, without you having to spending hundreds of dollars. Gliffy runs completely in your web browser so you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues if you’re jumping from a PC to a Mac, or vice versa.

If you’re thinking about remodeling your house, creating your own floor plan, complete with furniture, wall colors, floor patterns and upholstery is a breeze. Also calculate the distances between objects using a (removable) grid for proper measurements. If you’re tasked with showing a complicated developmental process on paper, Gliffy is perfect for that too. You can also make technical drawings, computer network diagrams (which I have to do frequently), webpage layouts or even a golf course map. All these are made possible clicking, dragging and manipulating pre-made shapes onto your document area.

If you’re working with multiple people on your projects, around the world, or as close as across cubicles, there are two ways you can enable document sharing. Collaboration enables others to see and edit your work by entering an e-mail address. Publishing creates a read-only image of your diagram that you can embed in a blog or your web software. Unfortunately you can’t perform real-time group editing, but since it does track all the changes, it kind of works as a wiki. Gliffy keeps a live JPEG of your files in its servers, so your blog will always show the latest version. Because Gliffy is a web application, you don’t have to worry about losing your work. Your documents are stored securely on Gliffy’s servers, saving you time and sparing you from a headache.

Gliffy, Inc. is a next-generation rich Internet application company based in San Francisco, CA. Its mission is to provide platform independent Internet applications with rich user interfaces for collaboration.

For those of you who are interested in using this for work, there will soon be a business subscription version with premium features available (no pricing yet).
It is still in an early beta stage, but you can sign-up with Gliffy for free today at www.gliffy.com.

Going Expert With Over G Fighters

Being a huge modern aircraft fan, I’m always drawn to flight simulators. Usually the ones for game consoles (i.e. PlayStation 2, Xbox, etc.) aren’t as accurate as the ones designed for PC gameplay. However, Ubisoft and Taito Corporation recently released Over G Fighters, which provides just the right balance between accuracy without being overly technical or complicated.

Exclusively available for the Xbox 360 console, Over G Fighters allows you to control a variety of over 30 fighter jets in skies over North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Some of the available aircraft you can fly include the F/A-22 Raptor, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Falcon (now known as the Viper), MiG-29 Fulcrum or the F-117A Stealth Bomber. There are over 40 missions you can fly, and they all take place in a modern day global conflict. The only thing that’s disappointing about the missions are that they are extremely short, lasting only about two minutes each.

If you don’t want to go through the missions and just jump right into the action, you can go directly to Xbox Live and play with up to seven other players (total eight players possible) in single head-to-head dogfights or cooperative team play with squadrons. If you play it as a stand-alone, it is one-player game.

If you are a flight simulator fan as I am, you’ll find it frustrating to play Over G in the Beginner mode. Make sure you set it up to play in the Expert mode. If you leave it in the Beginner mode, you won’t be able to have a whole lot of fun with the aircraft, such as performing turns and rolls that would probably make you sick in a real plane – the game forces you to stay level the whole time. The Expert mode definitely gives you the opportunity for flying accuracy and maneuvering the aircraft better.

My favorite part about the Expert mode is that gives you the freedom to choose your own weapons. You can select what air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground bombs to mount on your aircraft’s rails (compatible to your plane you’re flying). You’ll have the experience of blacking out if you pull too many G-forces or go into a stall if you fly too steep. It’s difficult to gauge your speed, especially if you’re not paying attention to your HUD (Heads-Up Display) indicators. If you fly to high altitudes, you’ll visually see the clouds as you ascend, and see the stars in space. You can also run out of fuel and weapons, and unknowingly fly around with your landing gear down, which wastes fuel and causes your aircraft to drag. That happened to me when I first started out, and I didn’t realize it until I watched the replays. Speaking of replays, watching those gives you a good idea of how to improve your flying and it also gives you the chance to admire the excellent graphics Over G has to offer.

If you’re not about the realism, and care more for the excitement of having unlimited weapons to shoot up everything versus careful tactics, you probably will be disappointed with this game and Ace Combat for the PlayStation 2 (a game I recently reviewed) may be more for you. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of having to plan out each mission to just the right amount of weaponry I had on my plane so I wouldn’t run out of munitions to destroy my targets.

Over G Fighters is rated “T” for Teen and you can buy it for $59.99 at your nearest CompUSA or GameStop.

Netgear’s New Powerline Router

I’m always looking for ways to improve my wireless home network, especially if it involves saving space since I live in a small home. Well, Netgear just came out with the Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter, which allows you to turn any AC 110-volt electrical outlet into a high-speed Ethernet broadband connection.

The adapter offers you the ability to perform HD-streaming to view high-quality video (built-in Video Quality of Service – VQoS), play your online games and talk with Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) just as you would a normal Internet connection. If you live in an apartment, townhouse or any other close-quarters situation as I do, you don’t need to worry about your network becoming compromised since it is equipped with encryption for consistent performance.

The Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter Kit (HDXB101) consists of two Powerline HD Ethernet Adapters, an Ethernet cable and a set-up CD. All you need to do is plug in one of the white adapters to an electrical outlet (and your router) and the other into your computer, game console or print server. It will give you the luxury of quick speeds up to 200 Mbps without interruption or complicated a setup procedure. Your large file transfers, such as backups or copying pictures, to networked storage devices will be up to 12 times faster compared to previous Powerline products.

The adapter is based on the Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2) chipset, which provides the underlying hardware behind powerline networking technology. With DS2, Netgear has developed an excellent solution to bridge the gap in areas of your home that aren’t conducive to wireless, and doing it without the spaghetti-cord mess. The evolution of this high-speed Powerline product uses your existing electrical wiring to route data and provides an interesting alternative.

Although it works over your home’s electrical wires, the two adapters don’t need to be on the same circuit. However, you should plug each adapter into a dedicated electrical outlet. The powerline technology has been tested in the United States in various homes and apartments. It will not be limited to the North American market, and will most likely be available in Europe and Asia in the near future.

The Netgear Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter Kit (HDXB101) containing the two adapters is $249.99. If you need to connect additional devices to your network, a single adapter (HDX101) will cost you $129.99. Both are available at your nearest CompUSA or www.compusa.com.

iTunes Music Store Has MTV

Since Apple began making television shows available on iTunes, I’ve been enjoying the convenience of downloading and watching the shows I missed or just want a copy of on my computer. I also enjoy the fact that they’re commercial-free. Now there’s a wider variety available with Apple’s newest addition from MTV Networks to bring more music, comedy, and entertainment programming to the iTunes Music Store.

New television programming from Spike TV, Nick at Nite, TV Land, Logo and The N are now available on the iTunes Music Store. This adds more variety to MTV Networks’ content that was already available on iTunes. This new round of programming has just about every genre, including Spike TV’s brand new action series “Blade: The Series,” MTV’s prank comedy show “Viva La Bam” and TV Land’s “Sit Down Comedy With David Steinberg.” “Blade: The Series” is Spike TV’s first original scripted action-adventure / drama that builds upon New Line Television / Marvel Studio’s successful movie trilogy and brings the main character into new story lines. You can download the two-hour premiere episode free on iTunes now till July 11. “Sit Down Comedy With David Steinberg” is a one-on-one comedy forum where celebrated performers open up about their personal lives and careers. Performers include Larry David, Martin Short, Bob Newhart, Jon Lovitz and George Lopez.

Some other available shows include The N’s “Beyond The Break,” a drama series about the competitive world of surfing, where four passionate women pursue their dreams of becoming professional surfers. Nick At Nite’s “Fatherhood” is an animated comedy series based on Bill Cosby’s best-selling book. It’s a hidden camera series where adults play good-natured pranks on children of all ages. MTV’s “Viva La Bam,” documents the comical and chaotic life of skateboarding pro and “Jackass” star Bam Margera. Finally, Logo has four different shows available: “Noah’s Arc” is in the first season of the network’s original drama / comedy series, “U.S. of ANT” is a reality series following the irreverent comedian ANT, and “Wisecrack” is a stand-up comedy series.

“MTV Networks’ programming has been a hit with customers since launching on iTunes earlier this year,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “iTunes is the world’s most popular online video store with over 35 million videos sold, and we continue to expand the catalog of great television content,” he added.

With Apple’s easy-to-use features such as integrated video and podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing and seamless iPod integration, the iTunes Music Store is the best way for you to legally download purchase and download music and videos online. The iTunes Music Store features a selection of over 9,000 music videos, Pixar and Disney short films, a variety of hit television shows and more than three million songs from major music companies and over 1,000 independent labels. iTunes offers over 150 TV shows available for viewing on your computer or iPod.

Other television networks available on the iTunes Music Store are: ABC, ABC Family, Animal Planet, Bravo, CBS, Comedy Central, CSTV/CBS Sports, Discovery Channel, Discovery Health, Discovery Kids, Disney Channel, ESPN/ABC Sports, FOX, Fuel TV, FX, Jetix, NBA TV, NBC, NBC News, Nickelodeon, Sci Fi, Showtime, SOAPnet, SPEED, Travel Channel and USA. Just to give you an idea of how popular it is, Comedy Central’s “South Park” alone sold over one million episodes so far.

You can download the latest iTunes 6 for Mac or Windows at www.apple.com/itunes. It includes the iTunes Music Store and it’s free. If you purchase and download songs and videos from the iTunes Music Store, you will need to use a valid credit card with a legitimate billing address or you could also use a gift card. All television shows, music videos and short films are $1.99 each. You can also purchase entire show seasons, but in most cases it still adds up to $1.99 an episode.

A Web of Support For Our Troops

As a member of the United States military - Air Force - I ask that you celebrate the Fourth of July by helping me support my uniformed brothers and sisters with any of the following websites:

AAFES “Gifts From the Homefront” (www.aafes.com/docs/homefront.htm)
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), aka “The BX,” is where most of us military folks do our shopping. With this website you can purchase a gift certificate for anyone who is deployed or injured.

Any Soldier (www.anysoldier.com)
Any Soldier allows you to see a list of deployed individuals by service and what items they are in need of. You can then adopt the troop of your choice and customize your package of aloha to send to them.

Books For Soldiers (www.booksforsoldiers.com)
Books For Soldiers is a non-profit organization, operated as a ministry from a non-denominational church in North Carolina. Send books, DVDs, games or relief supplies.

Commissary Gift Certificates – Groceries (www.commissaries.com/certificheck)
Help a family with groceries by purchasing gift certificates to the commissary. You can either purchase one to give a gift to an authorized shopper, or elect to donate one through select non-profit organizations.

Homes For Our Troops (www.homesforourtroops.org)
Contribute to building and remodeling specially adapted (handicap accessible) homes for severely wounded veterans.

Operation Dear Abby (http://anyservicemember.navy.mil)
Send a special e-mail message to any servicemember. They can view your messages online.

Operation Hero Miles (www.heromiles.org)
Donate your frequent flyer miles to deployed troops so they can fly home complimentary. It also opens opportunity for family members of wounded servicemembers to visit their loved ones recovering at military hospitals around the country.

Operation Gratitude (www.opgratitude.com)
Provides different ways for you to show your appreciation for the troops. Your monetary donations will be used to purchase needed goods, or opt to donate something from the wishlist. Care packages and letters are then sent to deployed troops.

Operation Uplink (www.operationuplink.org)
Keeps military personnel and hospitalized veterans in touch with their families. Your contribution will help fund phone cards that are distributed to servicemembers who are separated from their families.

Soldiers’ Angels (www.soldiersangels.org)
Become a soldier’s angel by adopting one. For this program, be prepared to send a card or letter every week, and at least one or two care packages a month.

USO Cares (www.usocares.org)
The United Service Organization (USO) is requesting assistance from individuals to support the troops through Operation USO Care Package. These packages are delivered all over the world to deployed servicemembers to show them that they have not been forgotten. A donation of $25 can sponsor a care package and includes a personal message of support and encouragement.