Owner: Gamer Bait URL:http://gamerbait.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 18:14:48 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Gaming n'Stuff, good articles brought to you by good people. Site statistics:Click here
Halo 3 Beta for Sale Within a Month 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Halo franchise has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, name in Xbox's lineup since it debuted in 2001. Six years later, fans are drooling over the third iteration of their favorite console shooter. It wouldn't be much of an overstatement to say that there are a lot of people who would commit a few misdemeanors if it meant that they could get their hands on the Halo 3 Beta. Until now, breaking and entering may have seemed like the only way to be sure of getting a shot at playing the online beta. The only way you could get in was to either be a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq, or register for Microsoft's "Rule of Three" at the Halo3.com site. Registration would involve having been alive for seventeen years and a resident of North America, having an Xbox 360 Pro or Core system, an Xbox Live Gold membership, a copy of Halo 2, and staying up til just after midnight on the morning of Feb. 1st (EST) in order to register (registration ends Feb. 3 at 11:59 PM EST). Oh, and only 13, Read more:Month
A Step Forward for Stepping Back 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sony released the 1.5 firmware update for the PS3 today, which should make anyone who owns games for prior Playstation consoles positively giddy. Well, maybe not giddy, but placated at least. Why? Before 1.5's release, the PS3's backwards compatibility with PS2/Playstation games was painful at best, due to purely abysmal graphics. See for yourself here (video courtesy of Surrey.com; PG):Glad they got that problem knocked out. Well, that's one less reason for not buying a PS3. I can still think of about six hundred more though...but that's me.- Glock Read more:Stepping
, Forward
Introduction 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Letters from the EditorsReaders,Welcome to Gamer Bait. If you're here, I imagine that you're at the very least curious as to what this blog is about. Gamer Bait is the culmination of hours of musing and discussion between two everyday gamers, and a desire to share those musings with others. You'll know us by our callsigns, screen names, handles...whatever you care to call them: headstronGLOCK23 and nubulicious---I'm Glock. At the very least, we're gamers like you. At best we hope to be writers that you can count on when you want to read something dealing directly with your interests. So if you fancy yourself a gamer of any degree, bookmark us, maybe subscribe to our RSS feed, and settle in.We plan on the scope of GB to be fairly broad, while remaining true to those things that interest the average gamer. We'd like to think that we can directly relate to a more mainstream community than some writers seem to be writing to these days. We're a couple of guys with regular lives, regu Read more:Introduction
Blu-Ray takes a hit from HD-DVD 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It's hard for people to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a player they aren't sure will last through the next year. This is where each company will try to convince you, the consumer, that they are clearly winning and they have plenty of movie studios backing them. After the CES where Sony claimed they are the preferred choice by the majority of people, HD-DVD comes out with "[HD-DVD] confirmed they will release more than 100 new film and televison titles in 2007"This should definitely send a message to all the potential buyers out there that HD-DVD is far from losing this battle. It is probably wise to hold off on such a purchase until a half a year to year so you can see the general direction movie studios are taking, and which company they choose to produce their hi-def entertainment. However if you're the type of a person that wants the latest and greatest tech available it looks like HD-DVD is taking the lead from Sony, but in this market victories are short lived. That
Microsoft has some harsh words for Sony 1970-01-01 00:59:59 VS.So if anyone is still wondering how well Sony
is doing, this story should catch your attention. As a rule of thumb a company should not diss a competitor unless they feel that they are so far ahead that it won't come back to bite them in the end. And it looks like our good old friend Mr. Gates has joined the fray, saying Sony went the wrong way with their CPU choice. "They took their year and burned it by not having a decent CPU strategy and then turning to Nvidia at the last minute."Considering Microsoft
is gambling with a new OS that is just around the corner---one with which the critics aren't terribly impressed---its hard to say who has actually burned the year. And a few days later Microsoft executives Peter Moore and Chris Satchell had this to say:"It's going to take [Sony] a couple of years to get up to speed on this, and I'm not sure that they necessarily have the talent."
What does the future hold for Palm? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Over the past several years the mobile market has literally exploded, and we have come a long way since the Apple Newton. Now companies want more than ever to combine as many devices as they can into one, along with developing a flexible user operating environment. There has always been a fierce battle between Microsoft and Palm for the control of the mobile sector, and it is hard to tell what the future holds for Palm OS. With added pressure from its rivals, Palm is trying to satisfy its business customers, as they will "now provide automatic wireless delivery of e-mail, calendar, and contact information directly from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or Exchange 2007." Since Microsoft has this much influence in the computing industry it is hard to develop something that is unique and still holds a competitive edge against such a power house. Of course there is also an update that "introduces another feature that's critical to IT administrators: security and central management. " Ho
A New Breed of PC Gaming 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sometime soon, you may find yourself cursing the bots in your game and wishing for some good, old-fashioned, dumb A.I. That's because Arkane Studios (developers of Ubisoft's Dark Messiah of Might and Magic) is replacing the bots that we're used to battling it out with in single-player games with humans. The Source engine-based game, called The Crossing, is being marketed as neither single-player or multiplayer, but "cross-player", and if done right has the potential to revolutionize how we play games. Valve is working with Arkane to produce a first-person shooter in which you can have fun playing in story mode or hop online and get into a fragfest---player's choice.Anyone who has been gaming on a PC for very long can tell you that PC title releases with strong, enjoyable single-player (story) modes have thinned out in the past few years. Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R., Doom 3, and Call of Duty 2 come to mind. Not a depressingly short list, but it's hard to deny the growing trend towards mu Read more:Breed
, Gaming
, New Breed
A DX9 Game Worth a Look 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Here are 5 reasons to look forward to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. To be released in March '07.oblivion-lost.de Read more:Worth
How valnurable are we? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In most cases when a computer gets stolen it is rarely recovered and only the owner is "out of luck", but what if that computer had your information that you entrusted someone else to keep. More and more reports are coming about computers that have huge numbers of personal data on them being stole, most recently "A computer containing financial information on thousands of Vanguard University students and their parents was stolen from the school's financial aid office last week, officials said Friday."This is something that can happen to anyone at any time, and the scariest part of it is that you dont have a way of preventing such a thing. In fact some people might not even find out until it's too late. In the 21st century computing has brought a lot of good into the world, along with a helpful boom to businesses and such. However it also carries a huge risk with it, as a thief can literally walk away with tens of thousands of vital pieces of information which could lead to millions o
From Space Invaders to Space Invaders 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The oldest name in the game is back at it. Today, Midway Games issued a press release confirming the development of Blacksite: Area 51. The Chicago-based company states that the game will be released for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, just as its predecessor; Area 51. Released in April of 2005, the original Area 51 was referred to by some as "Halo for the PS3", although Midway's offering did not generate nearly the fervor that Microsoft's title did. Blacksite is being developed by Midway Studios - Austin, formerly known as Inevitable Entertainment. Due to Midway's declining financial standings in the past few years, Blacksite could be the game that puts them back on track.Windows Vista drops tomorrow, and with it, DirectX 10. I would like to see them release the PC version of the game utilizing DirectX 10, but since there will very likely still be a lot of people running Windows XP (which is not DX10-compatible) by the time that this game is released, Midway could play it safe and stick wit Read more:Space
, Invaders
, Space Invaders
THQ Appoints Gary Rieschel to Company Board of Directors 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The board of directors over at THQ has recently expanded from six to seven seats, the seventh being Gary Rieschel. This move by THQ shows their dedication to continue the pursuit of global growth of the company. They have several large titles coming out soon, including S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the recently announced Saints Row, and are mindful of the need to secure the Asian markets. Brian Farrell, the president and CEO of THQ, comments that "Gary brings tremendous experience in Asian markets to our board," and "We are delighted to tap into his expertise as we pursue our global growth strategies." Rieschel holds an a M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. from Reed College.Full story here. Read more:Board
, Directors
PS3 might be getting a break! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today THQ has announced that an award-winning game---Saints Row---will be coming to the Playstation 3. The company states that they are aiming for a Spring release date. The game, originally released for the Xbox 360, has been criticized by some detractors as a Grand Theft Auto copycat. While the general consensus among reviewers is that Saints Row does do everything GTA does, it does many of the things that GTA did wrong...right. The result is a game that while perhaps not as innovative as Rockstar's ground-breaking franchise, still has the power to attract console gamers with it's quality of gameplay and design improvements.THQ used the same dev studio that helped produce the impressively unconventional Descent as part of Parallax Software, and had this to say about the game: Developed by renowned internal studio Volition, Inc., Saints Row brings the hugely popular open-world genre to Sony's new console for the first time and will mark the first open world online experience availa
Extra Bait 2007-05-14 21:03:00 Apparently some genius had to conduct a study on whether or not paid video downloads have a "future" in the digital world, and to everyones suprise, NO! "The market research firm estimates that only 9% of online adults have ever paid for a movie or TV show download"As this is aimed at people who are already pretty familiar with everything the internet can offer it's hard to imagine a good number of them skipping a search on youtube or even perhaps on one of many torrent search engines and dish out cash for some videos to watch on their relatively small computer screens. Id much rather see movies that I paid for on this rather than thisObviously you could convert and burn and bla bla bla, but that defeats the purpose of buying it online. The best way yet in getting profit from all these sho Read more:Extra
Energy Drink Shootout: Rockstar 2007-05-14 19:37:00 This review is part of a larger comparison article. To read it in its entirety (and better understand the review as a whole), click here.Previous: Monster EnergyRockstar
Glock's ReviewThe Setup: I reviewed Rockstar the day after I reviewed Monster. As such, my second test period for this review was probably the truest test of how this specific energy drink will perform when downed to combat sleep deprivation. Why? You'll remember that I tried Monster on Thursday morning, and so I tried Rockstar Friday morning. So obviously one of the main influences of this test will be my sleep from Thursday night. If you've been keeping up with Gamer Bait, you'll know that for the past several weeks I've been participating in a podcast that gets posted weekly---on Fridays. We record Thursday night, beginn Read more:Drink
I Say Again: Break Radio Silence 2007-05-12 12:06:00 First off, we are still alive. Secondly, we here at Gamer Bait apologize for our absence the past two and a half weeks. Thirdly, wow. If you had told me two months ago that the month of April and beginning of May would be so busy that I would have neither time for gaming on my own equipment or writing for Gamer Bait, I wouldn't have believed you. But that 40-day period included a lot of working, literally 7 or 8 birthdays (four of which I went out of town for), and a lot of other things that we won't delve into. And after things calmed down, I got sick. Anyway, it's my fault for not letting everyone know in advance, and for that I apologize. It kind of snuck up on me. But while life did steal me away from Gamer Bait for a short while, at least it treated me well. This is why we're looking Read more:Again
, Break
, Radio
Energy Drink Shootout 2007-04-23 16:53:00 IntroductionIf you've ever found your reflexes slowing down around 3AM at a LAN party, woke up in the wrong lane during a seven-hour drive, or found yourself still yawning after lunch at work, this article is for you. A few weeks ago, nub pitched the idea of an energy drink comparison review to me, and I thought it was a great idea. So we decided to review the most common energy drinks; the ones that you invariably see whenever you go to the grocery store or stop in to refuel at the gas station. For this comparison, we selected Monster Energy
, Rockstar, Sobe Adrenaline Rush, Red Bull, Full Throttle, and Starbucks Doubleshot. You may notice that some of the drinks are smaller cans (around 8oz.) while some are a great deal larger (16oz.), and are wondering why we'd compare them alongside one Read more:Drink
New 8600 and DX10 Value Cards 2007-04-21 20:13:00 Many people are aware of Nvidia’s recent launch of the low and mid range DirectX 10 cards. People are questioning if the 8600 series will have enough punch to handle next-gen released games.“NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600 graphics processors feature the award-winning GeForce 8 Series architecture with unparalleled levels of graphics realism and performance for Microsoft® DirectX® 9 and DirectX 10 games for the pricepoint.” What sets the new 8000 series apart from Nvidia’s older line of cards is its new architecture. The 7-series cards were based off the G70 and 71, while the newer 8-series cards are based off of the G80. This is the first thing people need to realize when comparing the specifications of both card series. The 8800 GTS has 96 stream processors w Read more:Value
, Cards
D&K2C: Ep 31 2007-04-20 12:32:00 The weekly podcast is up, and you should check it out. This week in addition to the gaming segment, we discuss the new website for Damon & Klitts' Podcast, the tragedy at Virginia Tech, as well as the usual assortment of random news and feature segments. Also of note: they've got a comment line set up in the form of a voicemail, so go ahead and give it a ring. Be it a shoutout, a question for anyone involved in the podcast, a thumbs-up/thumbs-down, or anything else that strikes your fancy, try it out: 206-666-5053. Also this week I'm going to include the media player in this podcast post, although I don't know if I'll continue to do this because I don't want to keep people from checking out the podcast site itself. As a final note, Gamer Bait is looking for writers! If you're interested, s
Extra Bait 2007-04-19 13:45:00 Microsoft is aiming high (or low) to help spread its popular software like Windows and Office. They are deciding to market some of these software suits for as low as $3 in countries like China which have experienced a huge techonlogical progression in the recent years. It probably should also be noted that this is a partial effort in helping to combat pirated material, which is a very dominant practice in the Asian markets."According to Microsoft, the software is part of a “new commitment to help close the digital divide” and an effort to “bring social and economic opportunity to the estimated 5 billion people who are not yet realizing the benefits of technology.”" However in order to recieve this offer"Governments will have to subsidize the purchase prize of a PC by a margin of gr Read more:Extra
Today, we are all Hokies... 2007-04-18 19:02:00 Before now, for my generation there were two instances that stood alone in our minds...where we could instantly recall what we were doing when we heard the news; the day after Columbine, and the morning of September 11th. Now there's a third.Monday, April 16th, 2007.Monday, April sixteenth...two thousand seven.That date has been emblazoned upon my brain along with "33 dead, 15 injured" ever since I got home from work on Tuesday and turned on the news. I've not been able to get my head around all of it, and my thoughts and prayers go out to anyone and everyone affected by this tragedy. Still, it really wasn't getting to me. Wasn't. Past tense. Today
, I saw pictures of those killed on Tuesday, as part of a tribute video clip. I read a little about each victim; mostly just snippets about thei Read more:Hokies
Are piracy complaints legit? 2007-04-13 10:19:00 A few days ago, the US decided to file two piracy
complaints against China. Humphrey Cheung of tgdaily.com reports that"Susan Schwab filed the complaints with the World Trade Organization in Geneva and alleged that American companies lose billions of dollars a year to Chinese piracy." Now you should first think about this for a second; if this music had no pirated alternatives would all these people go out and spend their cash to buy it? The music and software companies seem to exaggerate these claims, and as they have a pretty strong representation in Congress they generally can drive their objectives pretty far. In a country like China legal copies of many CDs can cost many times more then their pirated counterparts. Now lets look at the salary comparison, "A professional employee could
D&K2C: Ep 30 2007-04-13 10:13:00 This week marks a milestone for Damon, Klitts, and the Roundtable: today they've released their 30th episode of Damon and Klitts' Two Cents. Friday the 13th? Who cares, we've got an hour and a half of jibber-jabber ready for you to listen to. If you don't have that much time to kill, feel free to jump around and find what you like. I guarantee that there's something in there for you, be it gaming news from yours truly, sports, wrestling, movies, general news, or personal interest discussions on a variety of topics. This week from our end, I talk about:Circuit CityHalf-Life 2: Episode 2/Team Fortress 2PSP Phone?Nintendo stocksXbox 360 Elite Mother's Day ContestNew song packs for GH2Guitar Hero IIIHalo:Halo 4?Halo 3 Documentary ClipHalo 3 Multiplayer Beta going liveAnd of course all the othe
Extra Bait 2007-04-07 12:42:00 If you have been getting tired of WoW recently, there is some good news out there. On Thursday"Turbine, Inc. announced today that the World Tour of Middle-earth has officially begun. Over one million North American gamers are planned to be invited to this event where they can play The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar for free from April 6th until its scheduled launch on April 24th." So if you're one of the lucky "few", go ahead and enjoy the time, if not you can still go and check out their site here.Now if you thought you haven't seen the iPod killer, the Zune, on the streets lately it's probably due to the lack of sales. However instead of going to the obvious strategy of lowering the price to pose an actual threat to the iPod, the good folks over at Microsoft decided that per Read more:Extra
D&K2C: Ep 29 2007-04-06 10:11:00 It's that time of week again...it looks like Gamer Bait may well have an ongoing segment as part of the Damon and Klitts' Two Cents podcast. This week I discuss more news on the Xbox 360 Elite, as well as Guitar Hero II (and an accessory that, when mentioned, causes an uncontrollable outburst from an unnamed member of the round table). Also covered: GTA IV release dates, Rock Band (Harmonix's latest music video game), Nintendo's sales figures, and Smackdown vs. Raw 2008. As you listen, you may notice a little bit of a delay between the round table and myself, which becomes more pronounced the longer the show runs. The reason for this is that I am really phoning in the podcast from the Middle East (by which of course I mean that it's the Skype delay coupled with a slight recording delay). S
Gears of War: New Multiplayer Mode, and the Value of Fun vs. Innovation 2007-04-04 20:43:00 Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, recently made a brief post on the Gears
of War message boards outlining the next title update for the game. Included will be fixes for a number of glitches, 720p support for VGA users running at 1280x1024, and a brand new multiplayer gametype called "Annex". Speculation and hopes flooded the board, until CliffyB (Cliff Bleszinski, also of Epic Games) stepped in and posted a (very) short reply:::respawning::This helps confirm the supposition that Annex will be a territory-based gameplay model, and many are hoping for a CTF (Capture the Flag) mode. As far as glitches go, we're earnestly hoping that they're fixing the instant chainsaw explosion kill in particular. Of all the glitches exploited in the game, that one is very likely the most frustrating o Read more:Value
, Multiplayer
, Innovation
Extra Bait 2007-04-04 19:11:00 So for a more casual look on the web I bring to you some of the more interesting clips and news I gathered on the net today for all to enjoy. First I bring to you a clip that most should have seen already, but if you haven't here is another take on the Black Eyed Peas "My Humps"Another video you might enjoy is the rip on the PS3 to a pretty popular song, take a look here.To all the Wii owners out there, Resident Evil 4 has been confirmed for a release. Some details have been released on how you will use the Wiimote, take a look,The Wiimote is used to aim a targeting cursor in order to target and fire at your enemies. To reload, you hold down on the B trigger and shake the Wiimote. In case you were wondering, the built-in speaker is being programmed with a reload sound effect.The Wiimote is Read more:Extra
The Life and Times of Take-Two Interactive 2007-04-03 22:01:00 Without a doubt, Take-Two Interactive is the company name on everyone in the game industry's lips these days. From attacking (and being attacked by) deranged lawyer-politicians from Florida in the legal arena, to realizing a net loss of $185 million in fiscal '06 (and subsequently announcing that they were up for sale), Take-Two hasn't had it easy of late. But the thing is, all that has just been the beginning of the current episode of ongoing turmoil and media coverage of the company's existence.Stockholders kicked CEO Paul Eibeler to the proverbial curb last Thursday, installing Ben Feder as their new chief exec (although the plan is to replace him after the company gets back on track; possibly within a year). Other upper-level types were given the same treatment, with fresh faces steppi Read more:Times
Is that a new outfit? 2007-04-02 22:24:00 Undoubtedly, many of you have noticed that Gamer Bait has undergone some changes over the past five days or so. We've moved from a simple, two-column, average-blog-style layout to what we hope is a more professional looking three-column format. The website is now optimized for a viewing resolution of 1024x768 or larger, since the vast majority of our readers (97%) use at least that resolution. A few weeks ago, we added Google AdSense pay-per-click ads to the site in an effort to generate a little bit of revenue for some of the changes and improvements that are still on the way for the site. Along with the layout revamp, we've exchanged the original text-based ads for graphical advertisements which (we hope) will blend in with the site a little bit better. We've added ourselves onto both AO
Multimedia? What's that? 2007-03-30 10:13:00 You may recall how a few days ago I mentioned that we were working on some new things for our readers (you)...well here's the first little tip of that iceberg. Gamer Bait has paired up with Damon and Klitts' Two Cents, which is a podcast running on an hour-long format, recorded weekly and available in either streaming or downloadable formats. What does this mean for you? In addition to enjoying Damon and Klitts' podcast (including a sizable roundtable of commentator/heckler-type folks), you'll be able to tune in and catch gaming news highlights from yours truly. While most gamers just know me by my nickname (Glock), I do in fact go by my real name (Matt) with most everyone else, which will include this podcast. Please check these guys out and give them a listen. Their page on ClickCaster.c Read more:Multimedia
Extra Bait 2007-03-28 21:14:00 ATI Lasso: Because They Figured You'd Like to Be a Cowboy (or Cowgirl)Regardless as to whether or not you enjoy westerns, this may be of interest to you. Every gamer knows that the one place that laptops really struggle is in the graphics department. ATI hopes to give you the ability to change all that with the Lasso, which will allow you to run standalone video cards outside of your laptop. Assuming you're in a locale in which you have room to set up another computer component, this will allow you to game to your heart's content and perform other tasks that may use your GPU's power as a supplement to your CPU. Not to mention the option to upgrade your laptop's video capabilities later on.Nintendo Attempting to Block Wii ModdersIn their newest console revision, Nintendo is trying to block Read more:Extra
Recommend Site To A Friend
