This is Bob, Chris and Doug who form the band Irvine. They originally hail from East London and I actually used to play for them for a few years. Doug took my place when they all moved to cape town as I was unable to uproot my life for a possible music career. They should be more known than they are. Awesome guys, awesome talent!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cp04V1pHkQ

Gareth, Nick and Drew of Gravity Wins Again - They are not that active anymore because Drew recently got married and Gareth and Nic are building momentum with the Sunday Blues. I came up with the band name( Gravity Wins Again) yay me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6t56usg7o

Nic and Gareths new project - they will make you wee with laughter when you hangout with them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5UVKd3PbdM

What Now - met these guys when they still lived in Durban. Band I was in at the time did a tour to Natal and we played at the Wavehouse with them. Don't know the drummer and bassist too well but Ryan the guitarist is a freakin riot! Party animal of doom.
they're headed for the big time for sure.

see, Im also :cool:!

http://jujumalema.com/juliusmalemamatricresults

Some of you might have read Ben Kuchera's article entitled The Xbox One will kill used games and control second-hand sales, and that’s great news (Really!). I don't know about any of you guys, but it left me feeling pretty angry.

Killing off the used games market is bullshit and the corporate apologists like Kuchera's justifications for doing so even worse.

So, why is the industry so excited about killing off the used game market? Because the used game market is one of the key issues facing their broken-as-fuck business model. It's easier to try and destroy a symptom of your shoddy business model than it is to fix the shoddy business model in the first place.

What the hell am I on about? The cost of games. As a hobby, gaming is one of the more expensive ones you can choose to participate in. Games are pretty expensive. Now I know there are always arguments saying they're cheap on a value-per-hour basis and the like, but that's complete bullshit. It took me roughly 48 hours of reading to finish each of the Game of Thrones books, but that didn't make publisher charge me R600 - R800 a book. It's the same with videogames. They're expensive. That's why the used market exists and that's why piracy is a major problem. Not everyone can afford to buy multiple games a month. It's also hard to justify spending R600 on a new IP you know nothing about. Especially if the games journalism industry is so flawed and you can't really trust reviews because the industry hands out 8s and 9s willy nilly.

And that's where the flaw in Kuchera's logic comes in and where the gaming industry is making a mistake. They seem to think killing the used game market is going to solve all the industry problems and cause a giant surge in sales. It's not. More than likely what's going to happen is people are going to buy less games. It's also going to cause an issue with the types of games people buy becoming more and more limited. Someone who buys used games might pick up second-hand games that he might not have bought at all otherwise, then enjoying those games might go on to buy them new next time. If it wasn't for the fact that me and my friends shared our games when we were younger, there would have been a lot of franchises I am a fan of, that I would likely barely have known anything of or cared about.

So how does this tie into poor business practices? The AAA industry is rotten from the core. Have you guys seen what the development costs of the average AAA game is lately? Of course you have. Bioshock Infinite allegedly cost $200 million to develop. That's fucking ridiculous and it's only one case in many. Development costs are so overinflated that the industry absolutely has to do everything in their power to ensure they remain profitable. And what do they do? They don't try and see where they can decrease development costs. Absolutely not. No, they bitch and moan about people buying used games and try to justify the death of the used game market. Because supposedly that's magically going to fix all of their problems. The fact that someone like Ben Kuchera, in all his infinite wisdom, seems to think killing the used game market is going to have a domino effect that's going to lead to reduced prices of games is so ridiculous that I actually can't even laugh about it.

If the industry actually addressed the real issues and tried to look at why a game selling 1 million copies is considered a disappointment, maybe things would go better for them? Let's not even begin to talk about Dead Space 3 requiring 5 million copies sold in order to be considered profitable. I honestly can't fathom why the industry seems to be incapable of seeing that if they simply tried to slash their development costs, they would be able to remain profitable with much lower sales numbers.

The second-hand sales market is only as big as it is, because it's a symptom of an issue with the AAA industry itself. Removing the symptom isn't going to cure the problem.

So this past week there has been alot of hype surrounding the Xbox One and the PS4, and that is mainly because they are essentially the 2 major players in the next generation Race (Nintendo is still chasing its own tail somewhere).

The majority of people are veering to the PS side because it is has no used game restrictions and it will be the most powerful console upon release, however history has shown that processing power does not win you a console Race, and it never has, not even exclusives will win a race, it all comes down to marketing. The best marketer has always won.

If we rewind to 1995 it was a 3 horse race between Sony the Newcomers and the veterans nintendo and sega, The ps1 was the slowest of the lot and yet it ended 1st, how did sony do it ? Marketing they did not market the console to little kids like previous generations, they went after teens and young adults and their games also seemed to end up carrying that theme, look at parasite eve, resident evil, metal gear solid etc. in the end the ps1 even outlived the sega dreamcast from the next generation.

if we go forward to 1998 sega Release the Dreamcast (One of the best consoles Ever) again Sony brings their marketing in play touting dvd as the future throwing Home entertainment (Yes sony started the home entertainment gaming device crap) and raw processing figures around that it can render 70 million polys yada yada yada, in the end the dreamcast died out due to sony's market kill strategy the ps2 ended up being the weakest of the remaining 3 consoles during that generation , both the gamecube and xbox ran circles around it processing wise and yet it sold 4-5 times the amount of those consoles, due to impressive marketing from sony again.

2005 Microsoft announces the xbox 360 it had a tricore cpu (with is actually an offspring of the cell architecture in the ps3, most people dont know that) sony announces the PS3 which is powered by the Cell, If the Xbox 360 was coal powered then the Ps3 would be nuclear (thats how sony marketed the ps3) and then nintendo came out of nowhere announcing the wii (which is actually a gamecube 1.5 processing wise) which if compared to the Nuclear power of the ps3 the wii would be a penlight battery, however nintendo had a new strategy getting a broader audience not just core gamers and they went and marketed the wii as a console for everyone to play, guess what it worked, the company with the most powerful console of this (Current) generation is infact in last place (Ps3 and that was due to sony's bad marketing the ps3 lacked a lot of features they hyped when unveiling the prototype, boomerang controllers, dual hdmi etc etc) and the weakest one actually won this generation.

if we look forward yes the PS4 has better Specs than the Xbox one but microsoft understands that its not about processing power, the most powerful console has never won a generation for the past 25 years and microsoft knows that, they are pulling a nintendo by going for a wider audience (as Jasong said consoles are more than gaming machines these days) its like a smartphone people wont buy a phone these days that only makes phone calls, no matter how good it is they will still go for a phone that can do more than that and MS understands that, yes the MS xbox one unveil wasnt that good but i am sure on the 11th of June when there are some actual demos being played the skepticism will be gone.

Remember marketing wins console wars not processing power, it never has.

Hope you guys enjoy this one
What did malema say to the alien before it tried to abduct him?











"You racists you not welcome here, go away bastard, you a small alien you can't do anything right, dont come here with your alien/white tendencies."

"Alien said ... STFU you stupid mongrel. We were traveling the universe while you were still swinging in the trees.

Hope you guys enjoy it

Once upon a time there was a baby who was born with only a head, when he looked through the window he wondered why the other children were lucky to have a full body.

One day the fairy godmother came to him and asked him what wish would he like. He said i would like a body so i can run and play with the other children, voila his wish came true.

He went running outside and got hit by a bus and died. Whats the moral of the story? Always stay a-head

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did when I saw it on on the back of the bakkie when driving home couldnt stop laughing.

"Wife and dog missing, there is a reward for the dog"

So, The Dead Linger is a zombie survival game. No, wait! Don't leave just yet! The zombie genre is overflowing, but TDL is not just any old zombie game. The Dead Linger is a freeform, randomly generated zombie survival game that has you scavenging for weapons and supplies while trying to survive the harsh zombie apocalypse as well as other survivors.

"So it's essentially a clone of DayZ then?" you might ask. Well, yes and no. It bears a lot of similarities to DayZ, but it is different enough to warrant interest on its own. Whereas DayZ takes place on a predetermined map with predetermined locations, TDL has a planet-sized (yes, planet sized) map which is entirely randomly generated. The focus in TDL is a lot more on the exploration and scavenging aspects, whereas in DayZ often the players are already aware of where all the good loot spawns and exploration flies out the window in favor of heading to the places where you an be assured of getting the best loot.

State of the game:

At the moment the game is still in very early alpha. It already contains a lot of features, but not all of them work like they should. World generation is something to marvel at, with the game generating entire towns filled with houses as far as the eye can see, giant farms surrounded by fields of crops, prisons and the like. Unfortunately, it is still somewhat buggy and often building spawns in the air or into the ground, so it has a way to go yet.

Combat is mostly functional, if not exactly pretty. Melee combat has you swinging your melee weapons at zombies, but you can't really see the effect aside from them dying after being hit a few times. Guns work as intended, although they can do with a bit of tweaking in the animation and sound department.

Another very interesting concept is infection. Every time a zombie successfully hits you, it adds to your infection chance. The higher your infection chance, the more likely you are to get infected and turn into a zombie. This is, of course, not a very nice thing to happen when playing with your friends, as you will then start attacking them.

Gameplay at the moment roughly includes just travelling the world, looking for supplies while trying to stay alive. There is a multiplayer mode, which is still a bit wonky, but which works as it should. Me and a few friends played it via LAN a few weeks back and before we knew it, 3 hours had passed with us just travelling around, trying to survive.

There are obviously a lot of features still missing, such as NPCs, construction, crafting, animal zombies, vehicles and the like, but the game is currently shaping up very nicely. For anyone who is even remotely a fan of open-world survival games, buying The Dead Linger is an absolute no-brainer. Even if you're not entirely satisfied with the current state of the game, there's a lot of content still coming and there is just no way the final game is going to be anything short of amazing.

The Dead Linger official site.

I haven't posted since November!? Thats mad!

Anyway the forums all a flurrey with this new competition criteria and I think its great! It feels like the forum has gone from a sleepy retirement village to a bustling metropolis in mere hours!

Its also inspired me to write some more blogs which I've been wanting to do for some time but just to dang lazy.

So XBOX ONE..................

You know, the more I hear about the new consoles the more I feel I'm just going to stick with PC. I just want to play games quietly in the corner, I really don't care for talking to household appliances or waving my arms around at the TV, I appreciate the tech but I just feel stupid doing things like that.

I've been a console fanboy since forever but as I've got older I've realised how rigid they actually are, and really expensive at first with many technical difficulties and waaaayyyy over priced games.

So PC will be my next gen platform (as long as the games keep coming) for these reasons:

Load times - games load 3 times as fast on PC.
Graphics - Always had better graphics on PC. Mid range PC already kills the new consoles.
Control - Absolutely nothing beats a mouse and keyboard for most games except a racing game (maybe)
Steam Oh hello there extremely easy to obtain new, obscure, interesting and indy games service with totes crayballs specials all the time!
Game Pricing PC games are crap loads cheaper. Everytime.
Tech issues nigh non existent and if your PC does break and you cant sort it yourself, you definitely have a friend who can. Thanks Voicy!
Multi functional Wow not only can I play games but at the touch of a button I can look at the internet, watch a movie, listen to music and skype a friend. I can even do some work on this console called a PC.
Backward compatability of notification You can even play games from a complete different platform from a complete different era.........for free! Not condoning piracy but you know, everyone's got an nes emulator on their hd somewhere.

Anyway that's all I can think of for now.
I will definitely be getting one of the new consoles in 3-4 years once I see how the exclusives go and once pricing drops but I'm really not chomping at the bit for them in the slightest.

Rockstar Games' upcoming GTA 5 has recently come under scrutiny as the Concerned Parents group expressed discontent at the presence of sexual content in the upcoming game. These concerns were raised after a recent trailer for the game showed scenes containing strippers.

The aforementioned scene that raised the concerns

"My boy is only 7 years old," a distressed Mr Peter Phile told the reporter during a telephonic interview on Monday, "I don't want him seeing sexual content while playing GTA5. Next thing I know, he becomes a juvenile delinquent and he's out stealing cars and robbing stores. Rockstar Games clearly do not care about protecting our children from harmful imagery."

When asked for comment, Rockstar Game's CEO Terry Donovan responded via email saying "Are these people for real?"

GTA V is set to release in December this year.

EA executive chairman Larry Probst has issued a press statement in which he explains the company's decision to keep the name Electronic Arts after a recent internet petition to have it changed to Electronic Turds went viral, garnering more than 100 thousand signatures in less than 24 hours.

There has recently been a lot of pressure from the gaming community for us to change our name to Electronic Turds, as many seem to feel that the name Electronic Arts is not representative of our company. After much internal discussion we have concluded that the name Electronic Arts does indeed suit our company and therefore shall not be changed.

The business of publishing and developing games is a very volatile trade at best, and we feel in our current state we have perfected what it is we do. While our games themselves cannot be considered art, the ability to develop mediocre games and still make a profit could be considered art.

Some have also criticized our DLC practices and called us thieves and scammers, but we can assure you this cannot be further from the truth. By selling parts of a game as DLC we are merely creating more value for the player. Consider Mass Effect 3, if we had sold the full game for $60, players would have valued the game at $60. By ripping out the Prothean DLC and selling it for an extra $10, we have now increased the value of the game to $70, making gamers value it even more.

Our online-only value-added service for Sim City follows the same company policy of trying to add value for the player. Due to the fact that players are often locked out of the game, they value those times that they can actually play much more highly than they would have otherwise. Really, players should actually be thanking us. We're doing this all for their benefit.

So, as most of you might know, Grim Dawn's alpha came out for anyone who had pre-ordered the $50 version or chose the $50 option in the Kickstarter campaign.

I've yet to see the entire extent of the alpha, but I think I've seen enough that I can give at least some feedback about the game.

The story and atmosphere:

As most of you would likely have played Titan Quest, you'll instantly notice that the atmosphere is a lot darker and more grim this time around. Considering the story starts off with you being possesses, then hung and then miraculously surviving, I think the change is rather fitting. You start out in the town, being assigned tasks by the person in charge of hanging you, and as you could have guessed, which enemies do you wake up to? The undead. Yep. No points for originality there.

Otherwise, the story seems pretty standard fare for an aRPG, so it doesn't help to complain too much.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very reminiscent of the gameplay we saw in Titan Quest. You've got your hotbar where you can place your abilities, then you've got two slots for LMB and RMB to slot skills of your choice.

Actual gameplay consists of clicking things and watching them die, so nothing really new there. It somehow feels a lot more satisfying than in Titan Quest, but it's hard to pin what exactly it is I enjoy more about it.

Quests are the standard fare 'kill this' and fetch that. There is also a faction reputation gameplay element, but it doesn't really do anything yet.

Classes

Classes work in much the same way as they did in Titan Quest, except this time around there are definite classes and not just specializations. You can still choose a second class after a certain level, though.

Apparently we will 5 different classes, but as of yet there are only three in the alpha, the soldier (weapons expert), demolitionist (guns and explosives expert) and the occultist (mage).

Investing points in your class works the exact same as TQ. You have to add points to a bar at the bottom of the screen which unlocks further abilities that you can invest points in.

----

So far, the game looks pretty standard fare for an aRPG. Nothing overly special, but not bad. If it can deliver the same excellent co-op that Titan Quest did, I can see this game doing very well.

As most of you probably know, Skyrim's melee combat doesn't offer much in the way of variety. Inevitably it boils down to clicking things until they die. Rinse and repeat. It can get pretty mindless, pretty fast.

However, don't lose hope, because Requiem is there to fulfill all your medieval combat needs! Boasting over 2000 hours of development, this impressive mod overhauls a ton of things. Most importantly, it changes the way the player approaches combat. This time around, instead of mindlessly charging into a room and killing everything you see, you have to hang back and assess the situation first.

The first thing the mod does is up the weapon damage for both the player and enemies. By a lot. Playing defensively and intelligently is an absolute must. Never before has your choice of weapon and choice of armor been so important. Some weapons are more effective than others against different targets. As an example, a lightly armored or unarmored warrior is vulnerable to any weapon, but especially slashing weapons. Enemies with bows are perhaps the most dangerous opponent you can come across. At early levels a single shot from a bow is enough to shave down about three quarters of your health, if it doesn't just kill you outright. The same goes for magic. Magic simply tears through light armor as if it is tissue paper.

On the other hand, wearing light armor allows you to dodge attacks a lot easier, whereas wearing heavy armor makes you more resistant to damage, but also encumbers you more. Naturally, bows and slashing weapons are not quite as effect against heavy armor, but blunt weapons such as maces are. This forces the player to carry a variety of weapons so he can face any enemy he comes across.

This system also forces players to use their environment to their advantage as often as possible. As an example, Draugr are extremely powerful in this mod, so often it is easier to lure them through traps than it is to try and take them on head-on.

But perhaps the most important skill of all is the player's knowledge of when to fight and when to rather make a run for it. Especially at early levels, running is often the safest bet.

Another major change is in how the health system works. Health potions no longer instantly restore health, but do so over a period of time. They are also a lot more expensive and rare than in vanilla Skyrim, emphasizing the need for the player to approach combat situations intelligently. Losing health also drains your strength skill, meaning you can carry less and do less damage until you restore your health.

Overall, Requiem might sound like it is too unforgiving, but I urge everyone to at least give it a try once. It changes the game to such an extent that it feels like an entirely new game. As far as Skyrim mods go, Requiem is one of the best you can choose to play.

Requiem can be downloaded over at Skyrim Nexus.

Not sure if anyone else has faced the problem where their old printer worked on XP but not on Windows 7/Vista, but I figured out a quick fix after reading that people claimed it won't work on them at all. (This was with my Lexmark Z35 which had no support higher than xp)

I let the printer install automatically but when it got on the driver installing part I then right clicked the printer I installed then went to Printer Properties.

I went to the tab Advanced and set the driver to Lexmark Z25-235 Colour Printer instead of the standard install option then added the new driver which was on the laptop since I downloaded it earlier (xp driver).

After that the printer worked but didn't want to start printing so figured out that I had to go to the cartridge manager to install the right cartridge to make it work properly, since the default one was wrong, now it prints perfectly .

"For mono printers that don't have drivers for Vista, 7 or 8, I always installed them with the Generic drivers. Worked for a couple of HP and Lexmark printers and most dot matrix ones need to be installed using the generic drivers as well." ~NAG - Wesley