Jun 242013
 

I extended my PC with two old monitors I got from my sister/brother-in-law. An HP1955 and an HP2035, with resolutions up to 1280×1024 and 1600×1200 respectively. Since my main screen is FullHD (1920 x 1080), Eyefinity on the RadeOn 7970 will set the height of all to 1024 when you put them in a group. Giving me a total resolution of 3840×1024. Not the best the card can do, but the best in this setup.

To save me the trouble of constantly setting up the group and gaming, and then switching back to a normal extended desktop (with max resolutions on each monitor), I created two presets in the Catalyst Control center. Easy. Just do your setup, go to Presets (second item in the accordion) and click on Add Preset. Name the preset so you can recognize it. Do another setup and add it too. Now you can switch between the presets by right-clicking on the system tray icon of the Catalyst Control Center and selecting “Invoke preset”. Choose the appropriate preset, and you’re done.

May 302013
 

I bought a Sennheiser/Adidas PMX 680 today, so I could finally “test” Zombies 5K. First the unpacking and connecting the headphone of course, it’s a nice thing.

So I changed into my running gear, changed some settings in Zombies 5K, and started listening. Yes, listening. Zombies 5K (and also Zombies, Run!) is a novel, a game and a training assistant in one. A novel, because it tells a story about a zombie-infected world. A game, because you are a runner (Runner 5) in that infested world and you need to do tasks/complete missions to proceed. And of course, it’s a training assistant because you guessed it: you can only complete missions by physically running!

First mission I thought would be easy, but I never do interval trainings, so after the mission I was more exhausted than my regular training. But I felt good about it, and the story and game is such a great addition to running, it actually makes me WANT to run more. But….doctor Myers gave me a day of, so I will run on Friday!

Check their website for more info on Zombies, Run!

Apr 142013
 

In my last post I said Grid did not support FullHD mode, but with a little tweaking it does. Grid is an older game, and it probably can’t read all the hardware info from the newer graphics cards. Mine has 3GB of RAM, but the restrictions in Grid won’t allow you to go beyond a width of 1280 when your system has less then 270MB. So Grid must not understand 3000MB.

Here’s how to change the config files. Make a backup of each file first, in case you screw things up.

1) c:\steam\steamapps\common\Grid\system\hardware_settings_restrictions.xml
Find the line containing:

<res mem="270" maxWidth="1280" />

and change the value of maxWidth to 1920.

2) {userdocuments}\Codemasters\GRID\hardware_settings_info.xml
Add the 1920×1080 resolution by adding the following lines:

<resolution width="1920" height="1080" aspect="normal">
    <refreshRate rate="50" />
    <refreshRate rate="60" />
</resolution>

3) {userdocuments}\Codemasters\GRID\hardware_settings_config.xml
In the graphics_card section, change the resolution settings to something like this:

<resolution width="1920" height="1080" aspect="16:9" fullscreen="true" 
            vsync="1" oldWidth="1920" oldHeight="1080">
    <refreshRate rate="60" />
</resolution>

Start GRID. It should work. It will ask you if you want to keep the new resolution of 1920×1080 and after that you’re good to go. Have fun.

Apr 132013
 

With Grid2 around the corner (May, 28th) I decided to buy Grid (the first one). It’s cheap on GreenmanGaming.com at the moment, so I bought it and installed it by entering the key on Steam.

The controller defaults on Grid are of course the (cursor-)keys, so to use the Fanatec wheel, I had to make a custom setup. Not very difficult, but strange to see a game that is all about realism does not have a default “wheel” setup.

The game is difficult. I did my fair share of Forza3, Forza4, Shift, Shift2 and Forza Horizon, but this game is unforgiving. Like it is in real life of course. Bump into a wall, and basically your race is over, since your front wheels are damaged or maybe worse: you totalled your car. I cranked down the difficulty a bit, but even then the game is very hard.

Probably because it’s an older game, it does not support FullHD resolution. The closest is 1280×800 or 1280×900. Still the game looks great when you modify the graphics details to HIGH.

For the price on Greenman, don’t think twice and buy this game if you’re into racing games. But don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Aug 272011
 

Right. That was quick. Yup. I bought Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II as well. So now I have to wait (whilst playing the other ones) for Revelations, which will be out in november. Nice.

Aug 262011
 

Yesterday, I bought Assassin’s Creed – Brotherhood for the XBox360. One of my best friends plays it, and I watched it, and liked it. It’s from the same people that made Prince of Persia – The Forgotten Sands: Ubisoft. That’s a pro and a con at the same time. A pro, because I like the gameplay (way of storytelling, the puzzles, etc) and the graphics are equally superb. But it’s a con too, since the same annoying auto-shifting camera that haunts you in Prince of Persia is even more present in Brotherhood. Sometimes in the middle of a jump the camera is repositioned, effectively altering the way the stick moves you (forward becomes move to the right for instance). It will definitely lead to some frustrating moments where you fall of some building or just missed a latch, even though you know what needs to be done there.

I’ve never played the other Assassin’s Creed games, but Brotherhood is a nice mix of present and past (around the year 1500), using the present (future to be exact, it’s 2012 in the game) to re-live memories from the past. Once you’ve re-lived a memory, you’re one step closer to solving the game. But for me that’s still a long way to go!

Aug 112011
 

The game Prince of Persia – Forgotten Sands does not get the highest ratings in the world (Gamespot gives it a 7.5/10), but I bought the game after playing it on the Wii (and liking it) for only €7,50. That’s a bargain, since most shops still sell the title for about €20!

Apart from the sometimes annoying camera (you can’t see what you want to see) the game is very beautiful and nice to play if you like to puzzle. Sure, there are enemies, but so far they are not a real problem, and certainly after some upgrades (earned in the game) they are not. For the price: highly recommended. If you are a die-hard gamer, just skip it 😉

Oct 292010
 

As long as I can remember, I used the alias SwitchBL8. It started when gaming got network-capabilities and the first “clans” started to appear. I was member of a clan of friends/colleagues, the [CBB]: Clan Brutal Butchers. At that time, we were brutal butchers. Look at what 15 years changes… 😉

Today I registered SwitchBL8.nl (or just switchbl8.nl) as a domain. This weblog will move eventually, but first I have to get everything in working order. I’ll keep you all updated.