One of the more useful things you can do in the game is modify the sounds. Make the objective noise louder (and easier to find), quiet the ones that are weirdly too loud, or silence the ones that annoy you endlessly. Or, if you want to have fun, replace the sounds with anything you want! Goats, Cats, Laser beams… whatever!

I wanted to create this video for a long time, but knew it was going to take a lot of work (and it did). But I’m happy with it in the end! It’s mostly the same for any of the servers, but I play on Rebirth (https://play.cityofheroesrebirth.com/public/) if you want to check it out!

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

Changes like this always make me wonder about Microsoft's motto: "Empower every person to do more…" How am I "doing more" when I spend my time fighting with changes no one asked for and no one needs?

Granted, we probably needed a faster and more convenient method of opening the Snip tool than WIN+SHIFT+S, but what's wrong with WIN+PRINTSCREEN? That's an easy two keys that doesn't require remapping a key function used by people for literal decades which includes gamers – people who really don't have time to fart around with an auto-open app when they're in the middle of fragging this or exploding that.

Fortunately this isn't one of those changes they didn't give us a way to undo. In fact, the option is already there, but correctly disabled by default. Once it goes to "enabled by default… not that anyone asked", here's how you recover from their poor decision-making skills:

1. Press the Windows Key
2. Type "Print Screen". The "User print screen button to open screen snipping" control will show as an option. Click it.
3. The accessibility option allowing you to toggle this hateful feature is shown. Set it to the "OFF" position.
4. Sleep peacefully, but watchfully for the next thing Microsoft decides to screw up.

There's a toggle to turn it off thankfully

I'm sorry to my friends at Microsoft and admit I'm being a jerk on purpose partially for emphasis, but also partially because user-hostile decisions authentically annoy me. If you're on the Windows team, please consider doing more research and communicating with the community before making changes like this.

Asus gaming machine. It turned out to be pretty good, but two years later, I'm looking for something new.
(See online!)

At the time I bought this, ASUS and MSI were the two top contenders. Both were solid brands with good history and all the features I wanted, but MSI has a weird obsession with making the keyboard perfectly rectangular at the expense of shoving all the keys together. As soon as I noticed the ASUS had a more spaced out keyboard and even a few media keys, the choice was obvious. In practice the keyboard is easy and natural to type on, though for some unknowable reason, there's no light indicating Num Lock status and no easily accessed END key which is REALLY annoying.

That aside, the coloration and controls are good, the performance is good, it's much thinner and lighter than my Qosmio and, most importantly, there's an empty RAM slot so I could upgrade from 16GB to 32 very easily (which I did).

The screen is crazy bright and I don't think I've used it on even 50% brightness yet because I'd likely get a burn from the glare. I think the macho ROG symbol is a bit childish but I wouldn't mind it too much if I could at least customize the color of the glowing ROG eye on the back of my screen.

Grr. So manly! Chest thump! WOOO. Look at my menacing laptop!

At the one year mark, I noticed two other problems. The function keys are shifted slightly further right than they should be making it too easy to hit the wrong one or the delete key when you mean F12. Additionally the fun keyboard color feature is less so when the color is weak and without definition. Either it's weakened considerably over the year or it was never as bright to begin with. Either way, the advertised color and reality are starkly different.

It's a shame. It's not an important feature, but I thought the lighted keyboard would be cool; not dim.

Second: I noticed this problem early, but didn't want to deal with it because I waited so long to buy the laptop that I just couldn't bring myself to return it. Every now and then it has problems with the disk hanging. I can move around, click windows, and so on, but disk-heavy programs (in particular VMware which I use for virtual machines) seem to lock hard. After that, the computer becomes incredibly slow in all programs (particularly any that would use the disk). If I try to shut it down, it hangs for so long that I usually just force power it down and when I restart, my login screen is wrong and I have to reset it.

I'm still not entirely sure if it's Windows 10 problem, a VMware problem, or an ASUS problem, but I figured it was better to point it out in case others had a similar issue.

In the end, it's a good laptop that did what I wanted it to. It has a few downsides that aren't critical enough that I wouldn't choose Asus again; but it wasn't great enough that it's my top choice for the next laptop either.

Horizon Zero Dawn - Complete Edition
(See online!)

Without a doubt, Horizon Zero Dawn is still one of the best games I've ever played. Fantastic visuals, great gameplay, incredible story… this is the complete package if anything ever was.

I had some trouble getting a working copy of the Frozen Wilds expansion and eventually did so by getting this "complete edition" which includes the base game and the Frozen Wilds expansion in one. Once I finally was able to play, I started from a new game and enjoyed it just as much times as the first two playthroughs. There were a few new skills, a few new characters, and of course the entire new area with new machines, new contacts, new stories, new collectibles and new challenges.

Story-wise, it perfectly meshes with the existing narrative in a way that makes it seem like a part of the original game – exactly what you'd want for an expansion. It gives some new weapons and armor that seem overpowered by comparison to the base equipment (and even the best options in the main game), but that's ok because the level requirement for Frozen Wilds makes it a good idea to only tackle when you're most of the way through the main story or at least well equipped and experienced. Despite that I still had some trouble with the machines there so fair warning: they're beastly.

The only downside I could point to was the ridiculous arm and neck waggling the characters did in talking scenes. It was like watching someone who mistakenly thought they were supposed to animate power rangers (who can only express emotion through constant flagellation of their bodies). It was out of place compared to the rest of the game, but really is a piss-poor animation style and is out of place anywhere.

I suppose most people wouldn't care as much as I did and I admit it was a very minor annoyance in an otherwise flawless game so I still recommend it. If you like great story-based single-player epics, this is as good as they come.

Horizon Zero Dawn - PlayStation 4 : Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC: Video Games
(See online!)

I first became interested in this game when I heard of the concept: bows and spears versus big robot dinosaurs. There's clearly much more to it than that, but I never regretted it playing it. Besides beautiful graphics, and exceptional gameplay, it has one of the best stories I've ever seen. Finding out what happened and how gave me tingles. This is a rare treasure to be sure and I highly recommend giving it a try if you have even a little interest in the descriptions or reviews you've read (click the pic to go to Amazon and learn more if you wish).

Horizon Zero Dawn - Easily one of the greatest games I've ever played.
(See online!)

I first became interested in this game when I heard of the concept: bows and spears versus big robot dinosaurs. There's clearly much more to it than that, but I never regretted it playing it. Besides beautiful graphics, and exceptional gameplay, it has one of the best stories I've ever seen. Finding out what happened and how gave me tingles. This is a rare treasure to be sure and I highly recommend giving it a try if you have even a little interest in the descriptions or reviews you've read (click the pic to go to Amazon and learn more if you wish).

That said…

I received the game as a gift a few years back. Since then, there has been DLC released that adds game content and it has been long enough that I thought it might be fun to play again. So, during a week's vacation I took this last Christmas-time, that's what I did. I bought the DLC, though it was strangely difficult to do and downloading it was a pain, but off I went and fired up the game. It was just as great as I remembered.

Look for the TEEN rating sticker. If it says PEGI with a colored number instead like this one, it's a European disc

(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

I had a good time, but as I neared the end, I wondered why the DLC content hadn't activated yet. I looked around, read some guides and did some testing: hours of time to eventually learn the problem: I had a European version of the game.

Well crap.

So, I understand why companies want to region lock games and it isn't always about greed and making more money. It can be about exclusive content, meeting legal standards and so on. Whatever. The point is that all of that should be invisible to the customer and if they're not going to be compatible with other types of content (DLC, exclusives, extras, etc.), a little warning would be nice.

Whoever bought it for me as a gift clearly didn't know the difference and why would they? I didn't know the difference either until I did deep digging online. The game installed and played fine without any warnings or tips or indications of any kind that it was the wrong region. Even when I tried to install the DLC content, it didn't explain the issue, it just failed with a generic error.

You'll take store credit and be grateful for it! You're lucky we're even giving you that! (basically what Sony told me)

With no indication of a real problem vs a random glitch, I went online to buy it, but still Sony didn't warn me the version of the game and DLC weren't compatible and happily charged me for content I couldn't use. Then, when I called to customer service for a refund, they made it sound like they were doing me a huge favor by giving me – not a refund, but an in-store credit.

What should Sony have done?

Customers aren't experts on game systems, programming, laws, or any of the other factors that drives how the Playstation system, store, and network operate (nor should they be). All they are responsible to do is buy games and play games and it's in Sony's best interest to keep it that simple.

They could have sent up warnings at three points in the process (install, in-game DLC purchase, online DLC purchase). They could have just directed me to the EU store for the DLC. They could have sold me the EU DLC directly. They even could have blocked the install and play of the EU version of the game.

Here's the US version of Overwatch. Notice the "T" rating in the corner instead of the number that the EU uses.
(See online!)

Any and all of these would have been preferred to making people jump through hoops. Not only did I have to waste my time and money, if I ever want to play the expanded content for one of my favorite games, I'll have to re-buy the whole thing (because the save games are apparently also incompatible which means I'll have to start over too!). And for what? Preventing all of this would have only required a trivial bit of computer code like this:

if (region = EU) then:
    popup_warning_message();
    OR
    redirect_to_EU_store();

That they couldn't be bothered is surprising below the standard I would expect from a company who's been doing this for this long. Regardless, be careful and don't make the same mistake that I did.

You shouldn't have to know or care about this, but until Sony puts in the effort to make this work seamlessly, be careful. If you get a Playstation game, make sure it has a US-looking rating (which uses letters while the EU uses numbers.)

(Image is in the Public Domain)

For anyone who's participated in forums, online games, or any other system where you can communicate with random strangers, you've probably encountered people who make you angry. Some are just people who you don't get along with legitimately, and some are "trolls"; people who toy with others for their amusement.

What makes people trolls is generally the anonymous nature of the Internet. Sadly, this is often a perceived anonymity only. Just yesterday, I found a post I didn't agree with and wanted to comment on it. Since the author had locked comments, I did a little web research and found her real name, school, e-mail address, and other sites she posted to. I was only looking for some means to contact her, but the information was fully filled out on these sites with no protection at all.

Imagine her shock to find out how easily she was found (and to be honest she called me quite a few names at first though we did have a good conversation after that).

Sadly, most people don't realize how difficult it is to be truly anonymous. The only things keeping you safe in many cases is that you've never given anyone enough reason to look you up. And now we get to the real story.

Online games can be tense and frustrating. For example, the first time I played an online competitive game, I was completely crushed in seconds and insulted repeatedly for my efforts. I chose to stick with offline gaming but others weather the storm and build their skills to the point they can keep up and even be good enough to win.

However, there are just going to be times that someone is better than you. That's frustrating enough, but when they're rude and insulting, it can be maddening. And for context, understand that the people who are the rudest are often younger males who believe they don't have to "pull any punches" since they don't have to face the consequences of their actions (an idea that was excellently portrayed in Disney's Pinocchio).

My point is, this kid was being an ass with abandon. What was his opponent going to do? Hunt him down and hurt him? Turns out the answer was yes.

And believe it or not, there's a lot of support for the attacker online. The sad fact is that there are still consequences for what we do, even if we're online. Similar to the adive every parent must give to their children of how posts last forever, we must also teach our kids not to draw undue agression. After all, how do you know whether the person you're "Teabagging" has the ability and desire to come after you in person?

Photo shamelessly stolen from the source article

I've always thought that prisoners should be made to work to support themselves and others. Maybe the Chinese have hit on something with this:

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

The Guardian says that prisoners were beaten if they couldn't make their quota so maybe they're taking it too far, but the idea itself is still sound.