http://www.thetechlounge.com Recent News: Software en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:18:53 -0600 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:18:53 -0600 Software news Copyright 2009, TheTechLounge, Inc. 60 http://www.thetechlounge.com/templates/thetechlounge/images/88x31_ttl.png http://www.thetechlounge.com 88 31 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13966/Hotness-Google-Chrome-OS-Available/ "Seriously, how awesome have the past few hours been? Engadget turns the design stakes up to 11, Google finally dishes the dirt on Chrome OS, and now you can even download the forthcoming software to have a fiddle with yourself. It's completely free, though you'll need VMWare running atop a Windows, Linux or OS X installation to make the magic happen. Naturally, we've been considerate enough to provide download links for everything you'll require at the source below, so get those fingers clicking. ...We've had a chance to have a quick and dirty snoop aroun...]]> Recent News: Software Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:58:21 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13966/Hotness-Google-Chrome-OS-Available/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13963/Modern-Warfare-Hacked-Restored/ "Yup. You read that right. Modern Warfare 2 PC now has dedicated servers. Wait, PC gamers! Before you send Bobby Kotick a thank you letter, know that it wasn't they who did it, but rather the gamers who took Infinity Ward and Activition's attempts to lock down the game as a challenge. And bring it those gamers did, managing to hack in the developer console and enable the ability to set up dedicated servers. Keep in mind, the game hasn't even been out a week. Perhaps some of the boycotters caught playing the game were not being hypocrites, but rather hard at work t...]]> Recent News: Software Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:55:29 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13963/Modern-Warfare-Hacked-Restored/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13961/Boycott-Averted/ "Just as a FYI. (Click for the full thing)" @ Kotaku "According to "internal Activision estimates", Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 didn't just have a good launch, it had "the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment". This claim is based on sell-through sales, with Activision bean-counters reporting the game managed to pull in $310 million in its first 24 hours on sale. And that's not a worldwide number, that's just in North America and the UK. $310 million. In a single day. In three countries. Sure, games cost mor...]]> Recent News: Software Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:51:04 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13961/Boycott-Averted/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13947/Free-Planescape-Torment/ "Just picked up from Richard Cobbett’s twitter, it appears that Interplay are re-releasing Planescape Torment. Its release date is listed as the 30th October and the price is a – not-much-change-from-the-nature-of-twenty-quid – 17.99 of your Earth pounds. In fact, it appears to be a whole load of Interplay other material too. It’s a surprise to see a decade-old game released at a mid-range price… but it’s also one that I find hard to argue against. A game that’s still placing high in all-time lists, that’s been unavailable for years, that goes for full-price when it turns up on eBay a...]]> Recent News: Software Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:04:16 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13947/Free-Planescape-Torment/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13942/Windows-Windows-Everywhere/ "It's not often that the two most popular operating systems get major updates so close to each other, so we couldn't resist throwing them into a cage match together. Already we can hear some of you screaming that Snow Leopard isn't a major update--we know this one's personal! But is Windows 7 nothing more than "Vista done right"? " Windows 7 - Part 1: Introduc...]]> Recent News: Software Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:34:19 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13942/Windows-Windows-Everywhere/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13941/Modern-Warfare-Sucks-All-of-the-Suddenly/ "More than 60,000 supporters thus far have shown up to petition for dedicated "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" servers following Infinity Ward's confirmation over the weekend that it would use a player-to-player matchmaking system, much like what's used for Xbox Live and PSN play. The program, called IWnet, provoked responses from PC server supporters, eventually resulting in the petition directed toward Infinity Ward. "Get Infinity Ward to review their decision not to allow fully dedicated servers for their forthcoming game release 'CoD:MW2," the petition, titled "D...]]> Recent News: Software Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:58:49 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13941/Modern-Warfare-Sucks-All-of-the-Suddenly/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13938/Germans-Destroying-Video-Games/ "A German advocacy group has organized an event designed to get participants to bring their “killer games” to in order to dispose of them in a trash can. Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden, or Action Alliance (loosely translated), has setup the event for this Saturday, October 17 in front of the Stuttgart State Opera. One game tosser will win a signed jersey from the German national soccer team. No word on what will be done with the “donated” games, but presumably they will be smashed or discarded in some way." Doesn't anyone see the issue here? A group of Germans gettin...]]> Recent News: Software Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:54:38 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13938/Germans-Destroying-Video-Games/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13925/Left-4-Dead-2-Headed-Down-Under/ "Australia's long nation nightmare of maybe not being able to play Left 4 Dead 2 may soon be over, as the government's media ratings board has apparently issued the zombie shooter a rating of MA-15+. That would essentially mean an end to the "ban" on Valve's PC and Xbox 360 sequel and translate into "good news" for our Survivor friends down under. No word yet on whether Valve's appeal was successful and/or if the company had to submit the edited version of the game for the Australian release." What you thought was a distant sucking noise was the sound of a...]]> Recent News: Software Wed, 7 Oct 2009 19:54:04 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13925/Left-4-Dead-2-Headed-Down-Under/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13924/Mickey-Frightens-Me-Enough-as-it-Is/ "Now that the cat is out of the bag and Disney Epic Mickey has been revealed to the world, we thought it would be a great time to explore the world of Warren Spector. No, not the dark, shadowy world gamers are used to. The world that Spector has been living in his whole life. From birth, he was destined to work in the Magic Kingdom. From wearing mouse ears at just a year old to owning a second house filled with rare memorabilia, it’s safe to say that Disney is in his blood. With the formation of Junction Point, Spector has been handed the task of reimaging the most recognized carto...]]> Recent News: Software Tue, 6 Oct 2009 23:58:36 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13924/Mickey-Frightens-Me-Enough-as-it-Is/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13923/KOTOR-2-Completed-Well-Complete-in-Beta/ "The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords Restored Content project has entered open beta after years of development. Instructions and download locations can be found on the Deadly Stream forum (spotted by EG reader Garthy). The Restored Content project - as the name suggests - aims to reinstate much of the lost content found on the KOTOR2 disc but not in the game itself. The one year that developer Obsidian had to make a bigger and better sequel simply wasn't enough - that much was apparent at review." Well, I was sorta hoping that Team Gizka wou...]]> Recent News: Software Tue, 6 Oct 2009 23:46:15 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13923/KOTOR-2-Completed-Well-Complete-in-Beta/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13912/Japans-Gaming-Future-Nuked-Like-a-Fridge/ "Keiji InafuneThis is probably not the message you would want coming out at the end of the giant industry trade show that's supposed to be glorifying your native talents, but at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this week, Capcom's Keiji Inafune (creator of Mega Man and Dead Rising) shared his starkly damning assessment of the Japanese games industry: "it's finished." The comments were made during an event showing off Dead Rising 2 (via Destructoid), where Inafune asked the attendees for their honest opinions of what they had seen at the show so far. Then, he shared his ow...]]> Recent News: Software Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:53:01 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13912/Japans-Gaming-Future-Nuked-Like-a-Fridge/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13900/Hot-ODST-on-ODST-Action/ "Only Bungie can get away with throwing a random string of letters after their game's name. Halo 3: ODST? Overdose street? Outdoor, sexually transmitted? Oddest? Of course, the Halo faithful know ODST stands for "orbital drop shock trooper" and everyone else eats up all things Halo, no matter how overpriced they are, much less the letters and numerals on the box. ODST is a sure-fire success. It's also a disappointment." Firefight mode single-handedly saves Halo 3: ODST "There are no long hallways and there is no t...]]> Recent News: Software Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:28:14 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13900/Hot-ODST-on-ODST-Action/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13892/Speaking-of-Steam/ "The LucasArts comeback wagon just keeps on rolling. It is a wagon laden with wondrous games both old and new, designed to trick us into falling in love with the computeryvideotasticgames arm of the George Lucas Empire all over again, even though it used to keep us locked in the cellar and whipped us with the metal end of its belt on a daily basis. It’s a deception few will grumble about, however. The revisiting of its back catalogue on download services (specifically, Steam and Direct2Drive) continues with the announcement that the Jedi Knight shooter/lightsaber series will fetch up ...]]> Recent News: Software Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:44:18 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13892/Speaking-of-Steam/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13886/BattleZone-II-Patch-13-Beta-Available-Ten-Years-Later/ "This took me by gentle surprise: ongoing fan patching of Pandemic’s seminal but rarely namedropped 1999 RTS/FPS/tank ‘em up Battlezone II. While it’s admittedly an acquired taste, it’s one of those games I regularly bust out whenever I feel a spot of joystick nostalgia, alongside Crimson Skies and Mechwarrior 4. The unofficial 1.3 patch for what was once an infamously buggy affair was originally created by two Pandemic chaps, and they’ve continued to update it even as they spend their day working on other games. Ten years on from the game’s release, patch 1.3 beta 5.1 (crivens) has j...]]> Recent News: Software Tue, 8 Sep 2009 23:49:09 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13886/BattleZone-II-Patch-13-Beta-Available-Ten-Years-Later/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13884/Section-8-Interviewed/ ""You have these people who like play different roles. Like the sniper. He's going to climb to the top of the water tower, put down his claymore mines, and pull out his sniper rifle. He's going to protect that control point over there. That's his mission. But what sometimes ends up happening is that nobody goes to the control point. He didn't get to play the game he wanted to play. And now his team is pissed off at him for it. Or what about the engineer? You see these bridges you can blow up, so you're like, "Oh, man, I'm the engineer, so I'm going t...]]> Recent News: Software Mon, 7 Sep 2009 23:36:00 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13884/Section-8-Interviewed/