LANCOZA Blog

Now that my graphics card driver is working as it should, I have returned to the loving arms of AWN . I still have to do a bit of tweaking and add a few launchers but aside from a tiny bit of lag, I am all set.

I am considering testing Gnome-Do again because it is far easier on the resources but AWN is so pretty, I might just live with the lag.

The recent announcement by Infinity Ward to replace dedicated game servers with a console-style match making service has been universally panned by the PC gaming demographic.

I have spent more time on Live than I have on PC game servers. And my time on Live has also been spent on private parties rather than trawling the net for a random game. I have spoken to friends who have spent alot of time on game servers especially playing Counter Strike and Call of Duty. The idea of eliminating the game servers is quite repugnant to them. As ever the guys over at Penny-Arcade have managed to summarise the entire tragi-comedy quite succinctly in their own unique style . While you are there you should also check out their take on babicide .

After much installation and re-installation, I finally managed to get my ancient Ati Radeon 7000 working with AWN .

Initially I thought that the problem was the low spec of my graphics card. But after breaking my graphics card driver a few times, I finally purged my Xorg.conf file and this fixed everything. It only took two hours. I have not had a chance to play with AWN because to my great shame I created an XP/Ubuntu dual boot and have been spending alot of my time in XP.

Ubuntu 9.10 has been released and although I am tempted to see what's new in this version, I also do not want to break my graphics card driver until I have had time to play with AWN some more.

I checked the usage of my free 10GB trial account from WebAfrica recently and realised that I had only used 300MB. Because the trial was scheduled to end at the end of October, I decided to go on a weekend downloading spree.

I logged into Live and downloaded as many Arcade games as I could. I was even tempted to download themes and anything else that I could get my hands on. Even the Call of Duty map packs were starting to look attractive but the fact that I had to buy points and then login to a VPN turned me off that idea.

As I was gorging myself on downloads I realised that 10GB of International bandwidth is alot even if you download 500MB Live games. WebAfrica mentioned on their forum that their new product offerings will be available early next year. I am keen to see what changes they will make to their pricing.

The Nintendo DS is going large while the PlayStation Portable is going Slim. I have always preferred the PSP over the DS because of its bigger screen. The DS has great functionality especially the touch screen but the screen size has been a deal breaker for me. Now there is a larger screen version coming to a store near you.

Need more info on Bioshock 2 ? We can help you out.

I have not had much interest in DJ Hero because of it's initial lack lustre track list. With Jay-Z's involvement, things are looking alot more interesting.

If you haven't had enough naked, witch exposure , then you can fill up your trough here. Although I must say there is something about those spectacles - but the cheerleader outfit...?

Well it depends on who you believe really. A source from BT Games mentioned that we would have Live 'sometime next year'. But he did not have any firm date or other proof to back up his claim.

Microsoft did respond to complaints about the lack of Live in SA. You can read the full interview here. It may have been a PR exercise on their part to reduce the number and volume of complaints. The one useful thing to come out of the interview is that bandwidth is not the obstacle keeping Live out of SA.

When we will have local Live servers is really anyone's guess. At the moment it is probably easier to get your UK/US Live subscription and points here  or here and not stress too much about something that is completely out of your control.

I saw a YouTube video which showed how you can obtain more powerful weapons from the mystery box in the first Zombie level.

Apparently the key is to wait until the question marks turn a bright shade of gold and this will ensure that you get the Ray gun or Browning machine gun. I tried this a few times but have so far not gotten it right. I am not sure if it's my timing or the lag which caused the problem.

 If you have had success timing the magic box, drop me a line .

This guide will make it easier to decide whether to add someone to your friends list or not. As I mentioned before, the mute button is your friend.

We are looking for writers who can submit news or reviews articles on a regular basis. If you are interested, send a 500 word review or news article to ebrahim@lancoza.net

In exchange for your contribution we will give you a 15% discount on any item that you purchase from Lancoza.

 The due date for submissions is Friday, 23 October. Once I have made the selection, I will contact all the applicants.

I finally got my Gold Live Subscription which means that I no longer have to create serial online personalities. The plan on Saturday was to kill zombies in Call of Duty but by the time I was online everyone else was headed to bed.

I decided to dive into the great unknown and join a random game. It seems no matter how random the selection, I always end up playing with 12 year olds from the UK or US, the mute button served me well.

I normally play online with maximum swearing and shouting so it was a weird sensation to play zombies, which requires a great deal of co-operation, without any communication at all. Regardless of how many rounds we played, we could not get past level 12. If anyone knows the secret to progressing further, please do let me know.