Odds/Ends for 3/10
March 10th, 2008 at 12:42 am
So, now that Giant Bomb has launched in blog form, I’m not 100% sure what to do with this blog. I’ll keep it going as best I can, but that sort of depends on how many non-gaming things that happen to me. Anything gaming-related probably belongs on the other site. With a site to launch and a game blog to keep up, I’m not sure what sort of non-gaming things will actually happen to me, but I’ll drum something up.
- I’m currently in the process of making my way through the Human Giant Season 1 DVD, which was released last week. I missed most of the episodes when they were on originally, and I’m pretty surprised by it. It’s better than “sketch show on MTV that isn’t The State” sounds. And, unlike The State, they were thinking ahead when they made this stuff and properly licensed the music for the DVD release. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the Xbox Live Marketplace or iTunes versions of The State because they went in and replaced all the music with generic-sounding stuff for licensing reasons. The music was a significant part of The State’s comedy, so… I don’t know, maybe it’s just nostalgia, but it isn’t the same without it. I guess I’ll have to stick with my 80th generation VHS tapes.
- It’s daylight savings time now, which has me way excited, because I’m due to start commuting to an office again as of, well, later today. Driving home in the dark always sort of leaves me depressed.
- I dislike the wireless router I picked up. While it’s easy to configure and everything, it’s still a router. My ISP provides me with 8 static IP addresses, so I don’t have to put up with port forwarding and internal IP addresses and all that crap, but I am now. So far, it’s been mostly smooth, but it pops up and gets totally irritating just enough to make me remember/regret my decision. Like when an AIM file transfer seems to not work. Or when, for whatever reason, I can only upload files to the Giant Bomb media server from my Mac when it’s got a wired connection. That makes blogging from the bathroom (the American dream, maybe you’ve heard of it) totally impossible. Not cool.
- The long-awaited album from Crystal Castles is only a little over a week away. If you haven’t heard of them, it often sounds like a girl singing/shrieking over an NES, an Atari 2600, a Game Boy, and/or a Commodore 64, all of which are running through distortion pedals, including (especially) the girl. That’s a bit of an over-simplification, but whatevs. I like their sound, and the songwriting is good, too. Take a listen on their myspace page if you haven’t heard of them already. It fits my criteria in that it occasionally sounds like they’re playing dancey music on a device that is about to break or catch on fire.
- Speaking of music, I haven’t had a whole lot of time lately to work on new Midnight Brown material, but I’m hoping to find some time for more of that in the near future. With a Mac available to make recording vocals easy and portable (before I had another desktop set up in a spare bedroom), it’s all a little easier to deal with now. Now I just need to find a decent host/sequencing application for OSX and see if I can find anything I like more than FL Studio. I doubt I will, but I should at least give it a shot.
- OK, fine, one little gaming thing before I remember to post about it in greater detail. You should check out Nexuiz if you haven’t seen it before. It’s a free, open-source update of the Quake 1 engine that makes for a decent online first-person shooter. You’re not going to confuse it for Crysis or anything, but it’s very playable, and the price is definitely right.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Hey Jeff. I really hope Giant Bomb takes off; actually I suppose I should say I hope Giant Bomb explodes into a huge success.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Glad to see someone pimping Neuiz. It’s especially awesome because it runs great on my Asus EEE laptop (because how many online shooters are available for Linux anyway?) Fragging fools in lecture halls is always fun.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Heyhey Jeff… long time reader, first time poster… good luck with giantbomb, and I hope you do keep blogging here.
Oh and Nexuiz? Yeah its pretty good fun! You can also check out another FPS called Warsow… I think that uses the quake 1 engine too, but its cell-shaded and looks rather spiffy.
Let us know what you think of it if you do check it out.
All the best dude,
Jay
March 10th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Sweet, you like Crystal Castles too? They were here in Toronto about two weeks ago and I almost went to see them but my friend bailed out at the last moment. lame. Looks like they’re back home by the end of the month though, so maybe I’ll go to that.
Oh, and my deepest regards for introducing me (and subsequently, my friends) to Cobra, and re-introducing me to Commando. Thank god its march break.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:20 am
I just want to say how amused I am at how it’s become ritual on Arrow Pointing Down to complain about how your corner of Sonoma lacks certain stores/brands/etc.
As a guy who spent 22 years in Cotati, I can totally identify with having to go to another town for fast food. And having to drive across three towns to get to a Best Buy. And public transport that shuts down at 5PM for a region that boasts of it’s environmentality, and on and on.
I had no idea growing up that game journalism was an industry located so close by. Maybe it’s because of Nintendo, but back then I kind of guessed everything was based in Seattle and New York.
Anyway, keep on truckin’. In a fairly literal sense.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Careful using the old MacBook Pro on the can, those things get super hot on the lap. Not that I’d know about that or anything.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Appreciate your valuable insights Jeff. Not just on gaming alone, will make a mental note of what you had to say this time. Keep bombing bud1
March 10th, 2008 at 2:44 am
You should try out Logic Pro. The new version for mac easily beats any FL or Reason. Although Reason is good aswell, Logic is your best bet.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:35 am
I’ve herd of Nexuiz before but never got arround to playing it. I might actualy get around to playing it now I have a recomendation from the king of games himself.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Definitely keep this old thing alive. I enjoy reading it.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Where’s the latest podcast (mentioned that it was recorded like 4 days ago)? Just wondering
i miss jeffyan’s dulcet sultryness!
March 10th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Blogging from the bathroom is the hot shit! Nexuiz is cool, i’m not really big into multiplayer based shooters based the feeling of the game does invoke some of those classic memories from years gone by. i need a laptop/macbook - not sure what to go for as my friend has a macbook and he also says, as some1 mentioned above, that it can get extremely hot if used for too long. cool to show off the apple logo though, if u like that sort of thing.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:36 am
I’m digging Crystal Castles. You’ve more than likely heard of them, but if you’re looking for more use of 8 bit systems as musical devices you should check out CONSUMERS and YMCK.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Crystal Castles + Audiosurf = ????
March 10th, 2008 at 7:01 am
You could always write about, that, you wrote about stuff. There?
Hey, where is the PSP section anyway?
March 10th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Interesting how you do not say the name and model of th wi-fi router
March 10th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Didnt you mention that you got a D-link router? I almost got one myself but I was advised otherwise. They’re not that good, as you have already noticed. I have a Belkin router myself and it works just fine.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:42 am
please keep the Points! video alive on here or Giant Bomb
March 10th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Awesome! I didn’t know that Human Giant came out on DVD! I actually forgot all about that show, but I do remember it being surprisingly decent and I remember watching some 24hr “Save HG” marathon thing as well. Good time, good times!
You’re just a beacon of information aren’t ya!
March 10th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Woah, you like Crystal Castles aswell? I live in the UK and cannot wait for this album and a UK tour whenever that is! Yous should get to a show while you can and tell me all about it. Good luck with GiantBomb its going to be the GS lol. Oh and please dont let this blog die, especially not point report and your general random daily updates on life and things
March 10th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Is the Points! report going to become part of Giant Bomb?
And hold up, you guys rented out an office for Giant Bomb? Wow, you must have some big plans. I can’t wait!!
March 10th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I emailed some suggestions about the site to info@giantbomb.com, Jeff. I hope that you would have the time to read them.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Entranced to see this blog still being on the horizon providing great opinions based on whatever you find interesting which is engorssing for us as well.
It would be awesome if you’d still distribute Points! on this particular website just talking about games or whatever or just attach that to GiantBomb coming soleley from you.
Well well sir, keep up the good work, because
March 10th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Entranced to see this blog still being on the horizon providing great opinions based on whatever you find interesting which is engorssing for us as well.
It would be awesome if you’d still distribute Points! on this particular website just talking about games or whatever or just attach that to GiantBomb coming soleley from you.
Well well sir, keep up the good work, because everything you do is GREAT. We’re happy.
Regards!
(rectifyed)
March 10th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Forums on Giant Bomb?
March 10th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Midnight Brown are one of my favourite bands of all time, and so I am super-excited to hear that you still plan on releasing something in the not-too-distant future. If the next album has anything on it that is even half as amazing as the likes of “A Filthy Classic” or “Militia Girls” from the last album, then we’re in for a treat.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I anjoy readins.. sank you
March 10th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I just really wanna here that new midnight brown song that played at the end of the on the spot episode where rich left. It’s fucking depressing but it sounds awesome.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Just so happens jeff that I am commenting on your blog from right here on the toilet seat. And all this time I thought BlackBerrys were for pussys.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Jeff, what ever happened to your video-podcasts “points”? I loved those!
March 10th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I went over to Crystal Castles MySpace and I gotta say, they are pretty awesome. As the other poster said, Crystal Castles + Audiosurf = ????
I’m also super stoked to here about a new Midnight Brown album.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I used to have to be at work at 6:30 in the morning. I was waking up at 4. Talk about depressing. I’m commuting towards L.A. as the party animals are heading home.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
just listened to CC on thier myspace page, love thier long “Crimewave” it sounds pretty rad
March 10th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
you should buy Ableton live for your mac, great music software audio/midisequencing tool.
Check out the website
http://www.ableton.com/home
Trev
March 10th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
you should buy Ableton live for your mac, great music software audio/midisequencing tool.
Check out the website
http://www.ableton.com/home
Trev
March 10th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Blogging from the bathroom is totally awesome! I think this blog would be great for off-topic rants and such. Can’t wait for the full Giant Bomb website!
March 10th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Dude, try a D-Link GamerLounge router. I had all sorts of network problems with an older router, but have had little to no problems with the GamerLounge. The prioritizing algorithm does seem to work, and I generally get silky smooth performance. They cost 3x more than most routers, but you definitely get what you pay for…
March 10th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I told you not to get a d-link.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I’m stoned and I think this is brilliant.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
FL Studio: Yes. Finally a fellow Fruity Loops brother-in-arms… that is until I got my MPC. You want beats… real beats? MPC. Seriously, it is worth the $$ Jeffy.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
viva la jeff giant bomb is gonna be way more hardcore than gamespot
March 10th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
My D-link router has an option to set up multiple WAN connection with different IP addresses and enable them at the same time. If you set up yours to do the same for every WAN IP address you have from your ISP, disable NAT from your router’s LAN settings, and then finally bridge every WAN IP connection you’ve set up to a device in your network you should have different WAN IP adressess for every device connected like you want.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I would seriously give garage band a good try. I know no pro’s like it and it isn’t very “deep”. But I think in the right hands it can be pretty versatile. I’m better in Fruity myself. When I got a mac pro, moving from fruity to garage band was a leap I couldn’t make. But I chalk that up more to my own lack of experience and raw talent. My friend however is pretty good in Garage Band, and you can hear some of his works here oddword.phpwebhosting.com. We were trying to put together a album of nerdrapish songs a few years ago. But we never finished. Anyway if you go there the songs produced in Garage Band by my friend, are the ones that sound alot better and have clearer vocals. He has a nice audio technica mic. If you like GB get some of the Jam Packs. Dance & Hip hop and I think there was one with a really good 80’s guitar soundfont.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Crystal Castle is actually pretty awsome, different but awsome
March 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Thx for the recommendation
March 10th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Nexuiz looks pretty good for a free game
March 10th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
dude, just checked out Crystal Castles. … its really awesomely weird
March 10th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
how do you guys get those icons next to your names?
March 10th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Um, I’m a Pro Tools man myself. Yeah, I know you’ve mentioned it in the past, but it really is the standard. I’ve been working with it for some time and honestly everything else feels kiddy like now. For actual recording, it’s the best thing to work with. But for MIDI and such, I would go elsewhere. It’s really not that expensive anymore. If you fork out more bucks though, things like Goliath for Pro Tools (40 GB of samples, yes, 40!) are great for virtual instruments.
And Logic is the most reasonable choice. It has a lot more effects built-in (like robot voice, awesome). Great for MIDI and virtual synths etc.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Giant Bomb… I know will be successful! Cheers to You
March 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Now that the other site is up and running I really hope to see Jeff continue THIS blog also. I really look forward to Jeff’s posts on here and being able to check out both sites on a regular basis would double my pleasure. So I hope Jeff will continue this blog, even if he is not able to post on it as often now that he’s busy with the new site.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Focus on the success of “the bomb”. I plan to get my videogame news from you for a long time.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Looking forward to new Midnight Brown stuff.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
the D-Link DIR-655 is almost the DGL-4500 but with out the game firmware updates and features.
the D-link gamers lounge series they fix support for consoles and add special pass thoughs for things like the DS/PSP with updates so they always work correct all DS are exactly the same so they just fix it for you, and they just put the options for the DS/wii/psp/xbox live directly on the bios menu.
and they got all the stuff all the others Dlink has like multiple WAN for your multi static IP’s and things.
if i was not 100% happy with the D-Link DIR-655
I would try the D-link DGL-4500 before i gave up with d-link entirely i thnk it would d the job, my gamer lounge model does all the things I need it too with my static ip’s and consoles/handhelds/PDA/laptops.
http://games.dlink.com/products/?pid=643
March 11th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
the D-Link DIR-655 is almost the DGL-4500 but with out the game firmware updates and features.
the D-link gamers lounge series they fix support for consoles and add special pass thoughs for things like the DS/PSP with updates so they always work correct all DS are exactly the same so they just fix it for you, and they just put the options for the DS/wii/psp/xbox live directly on the bios menu.
and they got all the stuff all the others Dlink has like multiple WAN for your multi static IP’s and things.
if i was not 100% happy with the D-Link DIR-655
I would try the D-link DGL-4500 before i gave up with d-link entirely i thnk it would d the job, my gamer lounge model does all the things I need it too with my static ip’s and consoles/handhelds/PDA/laptops.
http://games.dlink.com/products/?pid=643
March 11th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The gamefuel hype of the D-link gamers lounge series sounds lame but it does work as advertized it is a router for gaming I love the products.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Redirect it my friend, redirect this blog to Giant Bomb
March 12th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
will points be here?
March 12th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Seen the new Incredible Hulk trailer yet, Jeff? Make your next entry about that.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Will points remain here or will that go over to giantbomb as well?
March 14th, 2008 at 8:21 am
[...] segunda feira o Jeff Gerstmann postou no blog dele sobre a dupla musical Crystal Castles. Desde então a página do MySpace deles está aberta aqui, pronta para satisfazer meus repentinos [...]
June 14th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
[...] a way, this is the new title for my news in brief style posts (which I kinda stole from these two completely unrelated blogs). But yeah, this is the stuff I didn’t really feel like [...]