The CLUB

A non-dimensional bulletfest. Worth: $20
based on 360 demo

Run as fast as you can, you won't find much of a point here.

If you really liked Black, you'll like this game. There's no story (those are for wimps!), there's no allies (also for wimps!), and there's no personal motivation (wimps!). You just run around shooting guys.

The game handles very smoothly, it looks great, sounds great, and the camera is well done. But there's only one way to play: full speed ahead. To get the big points you'll need to memorize the level so you can sprint through it, killing every single person as you go. While it makes sense to play a racer for points, it feels weird with a shooter. Racing has always been something I'd do for the sake of racing. Having a shooter be "for the sake of shooting" feels a little... lame. Racers don't need stories, but shooters do. This game seems unfinished, like the developers and artists came up with all the physics and graphics, but they totally forgot to hire writers.

I understand that the developer is trying to mash-up racer game conceits with shooter everything else, but it just doesn't work. The closest example I have of something like this that did work is Carmageddon where you're a psychotically violent (like shooters) guy driving a car (like racers). In The Club you're a psychotically violent guy running a foot race.

Arth had a blast with this game, and I'm sure he would give it a much higher rating because he plays shooters at full speed anyway. If you're like Arth, this game could be worth as much as $40. If you're more like me and like to have _some_ reason for shooting things, it's more like $20.

Conflict: Denied Ops

Oh I'm sorry, were you shooting me? Worth:$8
based on 360 demo

Denied Fun.

Arth and I gave this a run-through. The developers lost us right away because the local split-screen is SIDE-BY-SIDE (like Halo 2). This means you have no peripheral vision, which totally sucks.

But what really sucks is the whole rest of the game. Walk down hall. Get shot at. Shoot back. The sound from the game was drowned out by us chugging Jolt Cola just to stay awake. The fact that you can do this with a friend doesn't help. It's like sharing a deformed, fat hooker with a buddy. The experience is so lousy to begin with, that having someone else there just makes it embarassing.

By the time this game gets down to a worthy price, hopefully something good will have come along.

---------------
A note about the side-by-side local co-op play. Halo 1 did it over-under, H2 was s-by-s, and H3 went back to over-under. What does _that_ tell us?

Viva Pinata: Party Animals

Totally Hilarious. Worth:$25
based on 360 demo

Run! Smash! Belch!

I played this with the GamerGal and our friend Arth. The game is very colorful, the controls are wicked easy, and the sound effects really add to the general kids-of-all-ages video mayhem. The events are short, but there are a lot of them, and participants can hop in and out of the game at will, the 360 will play any untended characters for you.

If you've ever run around like a maniac, or belched as loud as you can, this game is totally worth mid-twenties.

Adobe Scumbags

a brief departure from videogaming

A way to get Adobe CS3 installed and running on a case-sensitive boot drive in OS X Leopard.

Long story short:
You need to use Disk Utility on the OS X install disk for a lot of this. Backup your data because this process wipes your drives.
1. Format external drive as case-insensitive GUID partition.
2. Install OS X Leopard and CS3.
DON'T LAUNCH CS3
3. Format internal boot drive case-sensitive GUID partition.
4. Install OS X Leopard.
5. At end of OS X install, MIGRATE all data from external drive to internal drive.
6. On internal drive, create case-insensitive DMG disk image.
7. Copy just the CS3 apps to the disk image.
8. Done.
Pros: it works.
Cons: formatting is a drag.

Bags of scum
As a Mac-based web developer, I need to have my Mac boot from a case-sensitive drive so I can run MySQL and other dazzling Unix things like PHP and Perl. I also need the latest Adobe software to do my design work. But the Adobe installer won't even try to install to a case-sensitive drive. It gives you a warning about how "The people that work at Adobe are money-grubbing scumbags (error -FU2)" (or something like that).

The good old days
Back in CS2, you could install the software on a case-insensitive DMG disk image and run your Adobe software from that. It was weird, but it worked fine. It worked because _all_ the software went into the Applications folder on the case-insensitive DMG disk image. Now, with CS3, some goes in the Applications folder, and some goes in the Library and System folders. The problem is, my Library and System folders have to be on a case-sensitive drive.

The quest begins
I found a couple things on Google about how to do this. This guy got Photoshop to run right on the case-sensitive drive. Another guy was able to create a new, case-insensitive partition on his hard drive, installed Leopard on that partition, installed Adobe CS3, and then manually copied all the files from Applications, Library, and System over to his case-sensitive partition. What balls on this guy, eh? I tried it and felt my manhood shrink to nothing because it totally didn't work.

There be dragons
But, this guy gave me an idea which I combined with something I'd noticed while reformatting my drive to get rid of the goddamn case-insensitive partition. I formatted another drive (actually it was my 30GB iPod) as a case-insensitive GUID partition, then I installed Leopard and CS3. DO NOT LAUNCH CS3 YET. Then I formatted my boot drive (back up first, duh) as a case-sensitive GUID partition and installed Leopard. At the end of the install sequence, OS X Leopard asks you if you want to migrate a system and files from another drive. In fact, I do!

Roma Migrator!
I migrate my info from the case-insensitive 30GB iPod to my case-sensitive boot drive in my laptop. STILL DO NOT LAUNCH CS3 YET. I then make a 6GB case-insensitive DMG disk image with Disk Utility, also on my case-sensitive boot drive. I copy _just_ the Adobe application folders to this disk image. NOW LAUNCH CS3 apps from the disk image. I authenticate, activate, and it freaking works!

Photoshop gives me a weird warning about how the application has moved, and it needs to repair some settings. I click "Repair Now" and the app launches fine. I get this every time I start Photoshop though. If I find a fix for this I'll update this posting. I'm also not able to update the software on the disk image. I have to update the software by booting from the iPod (yes that works), update the Adobe software there, then copy it to the DMG disk image. Really fun. Yeah, great fun.

Adobe scumbags.