Be sure to "middle click" on the post links to open them in a new tab. Kids get your mom or dad to approve all the news feeds, some may be PG-13 or higher.
Since Diablo III isn’t going to be hitting until at least the end of 2010 (why did they even announce it?), it’s probably a good idea to get a little something now so you don’t die of a hack ‘n slash deficiency. Your best bet? Torchlight. I’ve already beaten it once and am about to take another trip through as a different class — I’d recommend it at its original price, but it’s half off this weekend, putting it at ten bucks. That’s a bargain, people.
It’s a randomly-generated, monster-smashing lootfest and I enjoyed every second of it. I’m partial to this kind of thing (I even enjoyed the comparatively interminable Titan Quest) but Torchlight is great fun that, as a bonus, can be played on pretty much any computer due to basic (but still cool-looking) graphics. It’s straightforward enough that non-hardcore gamers who need presents will enjoy it, too.
Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of virtual currencies. They certainly have their place, but usually they’re just an obstacle between you and the object you want. Why do I have to buy points if points are just your version of dollars? There are exceptions: here in Seattle there are a couple alternate currencies being traded for goods and services which work on a different level from dollars — and GamersGate, the direct-download games site, appears to have something of a good deal in their blue coins.
Unlike in Mario 64 and other games, you can’t get an extra life by collecting 10 blue coins. That would be impossible. No, these are used for buying games, just like regular money, but it appears that you can earn them just by participating in the site. Writing reviews for games, answering questions in the “Game Tutor” program, and doing other stuff nets you a load of coins. They’re not worth a lot individually, but once you buy or review a few games (may I recommend X-COM?) and lurk on the forums for a bit, you should have enough to make a bargain purchase or two.
If you keep an eye on the offers page, you can also find games that give you lots of bonus coins, too — so if it’s between buying it there or on Steam or whatever, you might as well get the extra buck or two off.
Anyway, if you’re going to lurk on a gaming community, you might as well get paid for it, right? I couldn’t find a complete guide to how to get coins so I’ve put what they sent me here:
Some of the current EA titles have huge Blue Coin bonuses (i.e. Dragon Age: Origins- 5,000 blue coins).
Pre-order
GamersGate allows you to pre-order a game, and when you do you’ll be rewarded with Blue Coins. The standard is 250 BLC, but sometimes there are special offers that include more.
Price guarantee
If the pre-ordered game drops in price within 30 days after its release, for more than 5 days, you will get the difference back in Blue Coins.
Review
Your reviews posted on GamersGate are important as they will help other gamers with their game selections. Therefore we want to ensure that all reviews are as useful as possible to our gamers. Anyone who has purchased a game is welcome to write a review, which will be published on GamersGate. Please note that in order to get your review published you need to follow our review policy. In order to review a product, you must be logged in and own the game, and you can only review a product once. If you are first to review you will receive 300 BLC, with additional reviewers receiving 150 BLC.
Ratings – rate a game
GamersGate allows you to rate the game you have purchased, using a five-star rating scale. If you are first to rate the game, you will receive 100 BLC with subsequent ratings receiving 50 BLC.
Game Tutor
The Game Tutor program is designed to help members with any game issues and reward those who help.
For example, let’s say you can’t get your game to load or you are struggling on a specific level of a game. You simply go the page, post your question and the first member who responds with the solution is rewarded with Blue Coins which can later be used to purchase games. The person who provides the solution will be rewarded with 500 BLC.
Purchase Games
For every game you buy, you will receive 5% of the purchased value in BlueCoins. Let’s say you have bought 5 games for $39.99 – you’ll have enough coins to get a FREE game (valued at $10).
Walkthrough
GamersGate offers tons of challenging games, and players are bound to get stuck from time to time. Any player who writes a Game Walkthrough for the site will be rewarded with 1,000 Blue Coins.
GG Tag
Gamers will use their “GG Tag” widget to direct new users to GamersGate. The “GG Tag” displays your GamersGate profile with links to your profile page, the game you are currently playing and the games you own. Users will be able to post their “GG Tag” widget on websites, blogs, and any other place where you can imbed HTML code. You will have a kickback in BlueCoins on every purchase generated from your GG Tag.
White member will receive 2%, Green 2.5%, Yellow 3%, Red 5% and Black 10%.
Reward program;
Pre-order: 250 BLC (Watch out! Sometimes games give you more BLC.)
Review (1st): 300 BLC
Review: 150 BLC
Rate (1st): 100 BLC
Rate: 50 BLC
Game Tutor Solution: 500 BLC
Walkthrough: 1,000 BLC
Purchase Games: 5% of the total purchase value will be rewards in BLC
[Example: Buy Football Manager 2010 for $49.95 get 5% back in Blue Coins, or 2,498 BLC. Or buy 5 games for $39.99 each and get a game for $10 for FREE.]
GG Tag: Create you own GG Tag and show off your entire GG catalogue.
Publish the GG Tag on your blog; when friends buy games through the GG Tag widget, you’ll be rewarded with BLC.
Member status:
White Member: 0 – 1,249 BLC
Green Member: 1,250 – 4,999 BLC
Yellow Member: 5,000 – 12,499 BLC
Red Member: 12,500 – 999,999 BLC
Black Member: >1,000,000 BLC
And no, I’m not on the payroll there! Just seems like a good deal.
Happy post-Halloween! Thanks for sending in your costumes and thanks, most of you, for following the rules. That said, I’m proud to show you the 11 best costumes in this line-up, as judged by all of us at CG. I added one extra because we just couldn’t bear to choose between the various Iron Men we saw.
Here’s how to vote:
1. 1 vote = 1 comment. You can vote once for each and any entrant. You can vote for multiple entrants.
2. Do not use robots. Seriously. There are kids in this contest and although I suspect their parents are just using them to get a free XBox, let’s give them a fighting chance.
3. We’ll pick the entrant with the most votes as of noon Eastern on November 10. The winner gets the XBox.
To repeat, do not upgrade your Apple TV to 3.0 if you're running hacked ATV plugins like XBox Media Center or Boxee. I'm sure this will be fixed in a matter of days - if not hours - but as of right now it means a ride on the Failboat to Sad Trombone Town. That's right: this update destroys the only thing that makes Apple TV usable and good.
Also, as an added bonus, Apple TV firmware 3.0 is insignificant. It adds Internet radio to the package and improves the UI. It also adds Genius playlists. My cup, as they say, runneth over.
UPDATE - Post has been update with instructions for downgrading to firmware 2.4.
To repeat, do not upgrade your Apple TV to 3.0 if you’re running hacked ATV plugins like XBox Media Center or Boxee. I’m sure this will be fixed in a matter of days – if not hours – but as of right now it means a ride on the Failboat to Sad Trombone Town. That’s right: this update destroys the only thing that makes Apple TV usable and good.
Also, as an added bonus, Apple TV firmware 3.0 is insignificant. It adds Internet radio to the package and improves the UI. It also adds Genius playlists. My cup, as they say, runneth over.
But I do have Internet radio! Welcome to 2001, Apple TV! When I’m old and bitter I can listen to AM talk radio from all over the world!
Yipeee!
That said, you can easily hack any 2.x AppleTV with the ATVUSB Creator, a Windows or OS X app that takes the hard work out of hacking. You just run it and insert the resulting USB key into the Apple TV. A few minutes later you have Boxee and XMBC installed. We also have an older How-To here.
Just a PSA, really: The newest iMacs are somewhat limited in their capability to be used as external monitors for your laptop. I’d consider the functionality to be a bonus to begin with, but if you were going to be relying on it, better make other plans. It seems that the DisplayPort on 27″ iMacs (there isn’t a video in on the 21.5″ ones) is a bit picky on what it takes an input from. Using various adapters, iFixit determined that at the moment, the only devices which can use the iMac as a secondary display are those equipped natively with a Mini DisplayPort.
I won’t editorialize here other than to say what’d you expect? Apple was going to ignore the chance to sell another accessory?
Last week, Volkswagen “launched” the new 2010 GTI via an iPhone App. This week, famous rock band Alice in Chains launches its new album via an iPhone App. It comes out tomorrow, and includes the album itself, along with photos, news, videos, etc. Think of it as a bonus DVD, back in the early days of when the record labels were trying to figure out how to get people to buy CDs.
Really, really big news today for World of Warcraft players. Today’s the day that Zygor’s leveling guide hits version 2.0. Leveling guides are used by players to hit level 80 (or, soon, 85) as quickly as possible so they can more quickly enjoy the endgame content. Think of them like GameFAQs or the old school Brady Games or Versus Books strategy guides.
I’ve used a handful of guides over the years, and I’ve liked Zygor’s the best. Granted, I’ve never hit 80 yet on any of my characters—my latest alt is a level 49 Blood Elf Warlock—so what do I know, but the Zygor guides were pretty handy for automatically updating quest objectives as you moved along. Handy map markers, detailed directions, etc. It’s a fine guide. A bit pricey at $60 for Horde or Alliance (they’re sold separately, I’m afraid) but if you’re committed to dinging 80 then it’s not a bad investment.
So what’s new in version 2.0? Well, judging by the Web site (I haven’t grabbed the new version yet since the Internet connection at the TechCrunch office in New York is hot garbage, and I don’t have the game installed on my laptop)
• It’s updated to include content (quests and the like) up to patch 3.2.2a (the most recent one, of course)
• There’s some sort of new UI that’s customizable
• A talent advisor. Sort of, “what talent build should I use when I’m grinding/when I’m running an instance?” etc. (Not sure if that’s a pre-order bonus or not)
• Totally complies with Blizzard’s add-on rules. It’s just a leveling guide, no different than Quest Helper or anything!
I think that’s it. Like I said, I can’t try it out till I get home late tonight, and that’s provided the Web site comes back online so I can download it in the first place!
I’m pretty excited, I have to admit. I want to ding 80 before Christmas, which should be easy enough (again, level 49 right now) but my play schedule is pretty wacky.
Yes, WoW is more or less the reason I get out of bed in the morning. Sad but true!
Sharp has on display a number of fun new gadgets at CEATEC. As is all too often the case, these things are for Japanese release only (at least for now). Maybe we’ll see them in a couple years.
First up is this digital photo display which integrates a telephone and fax. You can see a visual address book, which allows you to dial recipients by picture. It can also display received faxes on screen, if you’re the faxing kind of person!
Sharp is working to integrate Internet content into some of its AQUOS televisions, and is currently testing digital newspaper delivery. Rather than read a physical newspaper, some Japanese can read the day’s edition right on their AQUOS TV:
At first I thought this was a pretty clever idea; but the more I thought about it the less impressed I was. I don’t know anyone who would actually use their television — no matter how big or how wonderful — to read a newspaper. I think folks I know are much more likely to use a Kindle or similar e-reader. Japan can keep the newspapers-on-TV idea!
And finally, solar powered cell phones. Not entirely solar powered, of course, but chargable through solar energy. Five minutes of sunlight provides one minute of talk time. That’s twelve minutes of talk time for an hour of solar charging. Not great, but not really terrible, either, if you’re the kind of person who consistently forgets to charge your phone.
And as a bonus, I got to play with the Sharp Netwalker PC-Z1!
This thing is nigh-unusable for me. But I still think it’s cool!
This is probably a question that the record labels should be asking, but I’ll ask it here anyway: how do you guys listen to music in 2009? On your iPhone (or whatever portable device, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this here post)? On your computer while you surf your favorite Web sites? At the gym? Now, how many of you will sit in front of your computer, and devote 100 percent of your attention to the iTunes visualizer? Not too many of you, I’d venture to guess.
That’s the problem, as I see it, with iTunes LP, which Apple announced last week during it “Rock and Roll” event, which was characterized by a noticeable lack of rock and/or roll. Now, as I said during our live play-by-play podcast, it’s not like the addition of iTunes LP is bad in and of itself; fine, add it, doesn’t bother me. It just seems so… strange.
This man, Jay Robinson, bought the iTunes LP edition of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3. Included in the purchase is an “ITLP” file, which is quite large (up to 500MB). Launching the file, you’re then taken to a table of contents of sorts, from which you can select to play all the songs, read the lyrics, look at some photos, etc. Again, Apple is trying to recreate the feel of “owning” a proper LP. One problem is that, if you’ve never owned an LP, how can you replicate that feeling?
The actual bonus items, again, are fine: some pics, a couple of videos, etc. That’s all fine and dandy. But if you’re never near your computer, if you’re doing your primary listening in the car on the way to work, or at the gym while they play MTV Presents: Some Piece of Junk, Part 2 on the TV, what good does having lyrics or photos handy do? Unless you’re hunched over your computer devoting 100 percent of your attention to the album, all those extra features are lost on you.
I’m trying to think how I mainly listen to music, and it mainly happens when I play World of Warcraft. I can load up Vox—like Devin, I’m a little tired of iTunes taking up incredible amounts of RAM and processor power to play a couple of MP3s—then go about my business in the game. The game volume is kept just loud enough to hear the clash of steel, and the casting of my Shadow Bolt spell, that I can still hear The Blueprint loud and clear. At no point am I thinking, “Man, I’d also love to be able to read the lyrics to ‘On to the Next One’ while I’m fighting trash.”
Again, there’s nothing wrong with iTunes LP per se, it’s just that it seems to deliver something that I can’t seeing be too useful most of the time. And never mind the price: $16.99 for The Blueprint 3, while the standard edition is $10.99. A whole $6 extra for something that I’m never going to use?
Of course, you’re free to call me a giant idiot, I’m just trying to start some sort of hot topic on a Sunday is all.
Hey guys. Hanging out on a pile of rocks with your laptop bags, huh? Can I join you? No? Why, because I don’t have my own laptop bag? Ah, I see. Laptop Bag Owners Club members only, eh? Tough but fair. If I buy one of those bags can I join you? No? Ah, I see. The Laptop Bag Owners Club is also known as the No Dougs Club, too. Gotcha. What if I change my first na—just no? No, in general, no matter what? Okay, thanks anyway.
The bag you see triplicated in the above photo is from Lug and it’s called the Flatbed Slim Laptop Brief. It has many pockets and straps and, much like babies and certain adults, features a “wipeable bottom,” according to the product description.
It opens up flat for easy security checkpoint passage and can fit notebooks up to 17 inches in size. As a bonus, it features a handy built-in mouse pad.
He sure looks happy using that mouse pad there. Too bad he doesn’t notice the guy in the background hitting on his girlfriend. Looks like she’s interested, too. Perhaps there’s gonna be an opening in the Laptop Bag Owners/No Dougs Club after all.
The price of the bag is $66, which seems like an awful lot unless you’re really keen on the mouse pad thing. Available in eight colors.
Could this be the Macbook iPad Touch Tablet Notebook Edition e-Reader? Or could it be the work of a bored young man who should probably be playing WoW instead of trying to spread vile rumors using poorly designed web pages and falsified images? Which is it, Tom? Which is it?
Bonus Fun Quiz: See if you can spot the Photoshop artifacts!
JK, Tom. Thanks for sending this in. It’s always nice to see kids taking an interest in industrial espionage and hoaxing.
The common air horn: enhancer of graduation ceremonies, sporting event attention-getter, and the perfect way to wake someone out of a drunken slumber. But air horns are expensive and they don’t last that long — there’s got to be a better way!
While $30 might seem like quite an outlay for an air horn, the Ecoblaster can be refilled endlessly with ordinary, everyday air from a bike pump. Each recharge provides up to 70 adjustable-volume blasts of up to 115 decibels apiece.
Bonus: you can take it to your next environmental rally, as it doesn’t use any harmful gases. It also meets Coast Guard regulations, so get one for the pontoon and start honking at people.
Question: What do you do with a 654,000 pound space station with no budget past 2015?
Let her crash and burn, which is just what the current plan is for the International Space Station. The short story here is that NASA will not have the budget to keep the huge space station in orbit. It seems like a shame to let the $100 billion ISS fail in such a glorious method. NASA doesn’t have the money and soon will not even have transportation with the Shuttle on the quick road to retirement.
There are of course folks in the government that want the ISS to survive a bit longer, but they can’t find the money. AIG executives apparently need a bonus so the space station needs to come down. Sorry, science and humanity, some playboy needs to make yacht payment. Sad.
Kids! NERF 2: “N-Strike” Elite is coming out on the Wii this fall. You’ll get the above-pictured SWITCH SHOT EX-3 blaster. That little flip-up “red reveal lens” shows in-game secret messages and enemy weak spots right there on the screen. Your mom and dad won’t be able to see any of that stuff, but you will!
Apparently the first NERF game on the Wii sold a bajillion copies, and this new one’s coming out right around the time of NERF’s 40th anniversary. Bonus: that blaster doubles as an actual NERF dart gun in real life. So go run around outside and then when you get all winded and sunburned, come inside for the rest of the day and play video games while eating Tostitos and sour cream.
This has to be a viral campaign of some sort, but seeing as though we’re on the cusp of a three-day weekend I’ll bite. GameStop is selling three unusual Nintendo Wii bundles that, I don’t know, belie all logic. There’s the “Take a Bath With a Buddy” bundle, the “Pirate Tattoo” bundle, and the “Summer Fun” bundle. Yeah.
Each bundle is $250, and includes a Wii, plus each bundle’s specific bonus item. The “Take a Bath With a Buddy” bundle includes a rubber duck; the “Pirate Tattoo” bundle includes pirate sleeve (for the Wii controller); and the “Summer Fun” bundle includes a water gun.
Why GameStop has, all of a sudden, a warehouse filled with rubber ducks and water guns, I don’t know.
If I had any ambition to speak of, these crazy bundles would spark a “Fun Console Bundles Throughout History” feature. But, you know, we’re about to start up the grill, so…
JVC Japan announced the XV-BP1 today [JP], a new Blu-ray player that comes with two interesting features and a fair price. The player supports DivX/MPEG-4/MKV/AVCHD files and sports a USB port at the front so you can plug in a USB stick with your DivX-movies (you know, the ones you downloaded legally earlier) into the device and directly start watching.
The player also supports BD-Live, Bonus View and delivers video in 1080/60p or 24p quality (DVD upscaling in 1080/60p). Needless to say, it not only features a USB port but also an HDMI interface.
The XV-BP1 will hit Japanese stores in late July (JVC is yet to announce international distribution plans) and will cost $440.
Tekken 6 is still several months away—October 27 is circled on most fighting game fans’ calendars, I suspect—,but Namco just took the wraps off the joystick for the 360 and PS3 versions. It’ll run $150, about $50 less than the Fancy Pants version of the Street Fighter IVjoystick from MadCatz. The joystick is wireless, yes.
In other Tekken 6 news, did you guys hear that that Cardboard Tube Samurai from Penny-Arcade will be in the game? Yeah, it’s a pre-order bonus at GameStop. Far out!
The only beef I have with the HP LX195 is the price for the amount of storage. Newegg must have heard my cries as the retailer is now throwing in an Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB USB external hard drive. That means, you can get 1.67 TB of storage in a Windows Home Server for only $375. Now that’s a deal, but you better hurry as it ends on 6/25/09.
Don’t forget that we are giving away one of these servers in our recent review. Just leave a comment in this post to be entered.
WHS can automatically add the USB drive to the storage capacity of the server but you will not be able to use it for anything else unless you format the drive. Who’s to say that you have to use the external drive for this server though? Maybe the 670 GB drive that comes with the LX195 is good enough for your needs. The 1TB drive is just a pleasant bonus.
Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of virtual currencies. They certainly have their place, but usually they’re just an obstacle between you and the object you want. Why do I have to buy points if points are just your version of dollars? There are exceptions: here in Seattle there are a couple alternate currencies being traded for goods and services which work on a different level from dollars — and 
To repeat, do not upgrade your Apple TV to 3.0 if you're running hacked ATV plugins like XBox Media Center or Boxee. I'm sure this will be fixed in a matter of days - if not hours - but as of right now it means a ride on the 
Last week, Volkswagen “launched” 
The common air horn: enhancer of graduation ceremonies, sporting event attention-getter, and the perfect way to wake someone out of a drunken slumber. But air horns are expensive and they don’t last that long — there’s got to be a better way!
