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I've conquered my previously-mentioned media issues. My CD drive will now once again run music CDs. It's not totally ironed out--it still won't auto-play when I pop a music CD into the drive. I have to manually start XMMS. But at least it works again. And otherwise, I'm better than ever. Version 9.3 of my operating system will now handily present every audio/video format I've tried so far, including Windows media files! Take that, Bill Gates!
Plus, I've found a new game to act as my too-braindead-to-write timesink.
BZFLAG, which stands for BattleZone (Capture The) Flag. It's an online, multi-player combat game in which you race around the map in a tank, smiting your enemies who are fruitlessly attempting to smite you back.
...in theory. In practice, I race around the map trying fruitlessly to smite my enemies, who swat me like an annoying but helpless bug. But then, I've not yet found a thorough newbie guide. I'll learn. But like Battlefield 1942, my previous online gaming obsession, I suspect that I'll be getting killed far more often than I'll be killing for a long while. And thus I've resurrected by BF1942 screen name: Bullet Sponge!
While capturing the enemy flag (and defending your own) is theoretically the point, a lot more effort seems to go into killing one another. Plus, the map is littered with plain white flags. When you run over one, you pick it up. Most of the flags then give you some kind of advantage--though a few give you a disadvantage. You can drop one flag (though the unhelpful flags may stick with you for a time) to grab another. I see other players doing amazing things and I know that the flags are involved, but that doesn't tell me how they do it. When I pick up the Wings flag, I assume I can then fly thru the air like I've seen some other tanks doing. But I have no idea how.
Not that it matters, since I'll be dead again shortly anyhow.
It's still fun, though. The graphics are merely adequate--certainly nothing to write home about. But then, it's designed as a cross-platform game. There are versions for Linux, Mac, and Windows. By keeping the graphical overhead low, it lets you play a very fast-paced game. I've hopped onto half a dozen servers so far, and compared to BF1942, where sometimes lag was a serious problem, that hasn't yet been an issue for me. Getting my ass handed to me, being pwned over and over again, has been a problem--but it's one I can live with.
Plus, I've found a new game to act as my too-braindead-to-write timesink.
BZFLAG, which stands for BattleZone (Capture The) Flag. It's an online, multi-player combat game in which you race around the map in a tank, smiting your enemies who are fruitlessly attempting to smite you back.
...in theory. In practice, I race around the map trying fruitlessly to smite my enemies, who swat me like an annoying but helpless bug. But then, I've not yet found a thorough newbie guide. I'll learn. But like Battlefield 1942, my previous online gaming obsession, I suspect that I'll be getting killed far more often than I'll be killing for a long while. And thus I've resurrected by BF1942 screen name: Bullet Sponge!
While capturing the enemy flag (and defending your own) is theoretically the point, a lot more effort seems to go into killing one another. Plus, the map is littered with plain white flags. When you run over one, you pick it up. Most of the flags then give you some kind of advantage--though a few give you a disadvantage. You can drop one flag (though the unhelpful flags may stick with you for a time) to grab another. I see other players doing amazing things and I know that the flags are involved, but that doesn't tell me how they do it. When I pick up the Wings flag, I assume I can then fly thru the air like I've seen some other tanks doing. But I have no idea how.
Not that it matters, since I'll be dead again shortly anyhow.
It's still fun, though. The graphics are merely adequate--certainly nothing to write home about. But then, it's designed as a cross-platform game. There are versions for Linux, Mac, and Windows. By keeping the graphical overhead low, it lets you play a very fast-paced game. I've hopped onto half a dozen servers so far, and compared to BF1942, where sometimes lag was a serious problem, that hasn't yet been an issue for me. Getting my ass handed to me, being pwned over and over again, has been a problem--but it's one I can live with.
