Shot across the bow: Steam vs GoG

(tags online, game, Windows)

Obviously Steam and GoG, who both sell games for download, are in competition with each other, but it has never been more clear than this weekend's deals.

GoG offers for the first time Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil, IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 this weekend, at USD 9.99 each. I got the mail directly from GoG.

Then I learn later through Kotaku that Steam is offering BG&E, IL-2 Sturmovik and Farcry for USD 9.99 combined. (The other game, Dark Messiah Might and Magic is not available in my region!) It's just for the weekend though, but that's enough.

Which one do I like better? Obviously the Steam deal is compelling, since I want to play BG&E and IL-2 Sturmovik (probably with my Xbox controller just for the latter.) But GoG is totally DRM-free, and I can download again anytime I want, working on multiple computers.

Except games for me now are a play-once affair. I rarely get nostalgic about games. I'm currently thinking of going with Steam since it's the same level of convenience and cheaper. I'll think it over one more day though.

However, does this mean that whenever GoG gets a deal just to publish, Steam will try to cover the deal in response? This will be interesting.

Halo 3 DLC: Heroic Map pack

(tags game, Xbox 360, Halo 3, online, FPS)

So I bought the Halo 3 DLC Heroic Map Pack and I am now enjoying it while I type. It's 0.5 GB! Loading... Too bad there's only 38000 people online. 10:00 PM Japan time (+9) means 3 AM U.S. Pacific Standard Time.

Lost one, won one, but not through my skillz. I like the alternative games for a change, neutral assault, multi-flag CTF.

The Japanese dudez that are playing right now are congenial. Otsukare-sama deshita.

I played that Rat's Nest too many times, though. And got totally owned on Standoff - Territories. The other team knew how to control the Warthogs. Ouch.

Auction sniping from afar: Sekaimon JP <--> USA

(tags online, auction, ECsite)

My Japanese teacher mentioned that Yahoo Auction JP and Ebay USA are teaming up to make a "worldwide" auction site called Sekaimon. Currently it's just Japan and USA only.

I remember that Yahoo Auction USA left the market this year, but Yahoo Auction JP has strong traction in Japan. The service, starting today (but currently down, ha) will allow Yahoo Auction JP users to bid on Ebay (USA only?) items. Coming next year, Ebay USA users will have the ability to bid on Yahoo Auction JP stuff. There will be a company translating the item details for each auction. Prepare for "make your time" language shenanigans.

How shipping will be done remains to be seen. Given most Yahoo Auctions I've seen are domestic only, this Sekaimon better have a shipping service that makes it easy on sellers.

Coming back home to Google Reader: disappointing FastLadder evaluation

(tags blog, application, online, failure)

I was motivated by the Planet Emacs resident antipop's post about FastLadder, a web-based feed reader, so I gave it a week. Fastladder has some good ideas and great performance, but I am totally used to post-based read marking, so now I'm back to Google Reader for good.

Here is the list of advantages and disadvantages I see.

• + Unbelievably fast for moving from post to post, feed to feed. Almost as fast as your key repeat (Google Reader cannot do this)
• + Natural keyboard shortcuts+ Pin the interesting posts then open them all with one key stroke (Google Reader cannot do this)
• + default can be set to sort oldest first (Google Reader cannot do this)
• - Cannot mark individual posts as read, forcing you to read the whole feed at once
• - "Mark as read" link only at the top, not at the bottom
• - Formatting of pictures not preserved (no centering)
• - no keyboard shortcut to mark feed as read.
• - clicking on a post body does not move the page (a Google Reader feature)
• Not evaluated: Open ID compatible (Google Reader does not have this)

Basically the deal-breaker for me was the first disadvantage. I often like to go into a feed, but then skip it. It's the "why did I walk into this room?" syndrome? Or, you know those heavy photo-expose feeds like Engadget? I like to jump in and out so that the read items are purged from browser memory. With Fastladder I would go into a feed, but then by default it would mark the whole feed as read. I turned off this function but then the manual way to mark as read made me scroll all the way back to the top. Dumb dumb dumb.

Coming back to Google Reader feels natural, but I miss the speed. I am now going to memorize the keyboard shortcuts.

I'm a n00b all over again: Xbox Live and Halo 3 online

(tags game, online, Xbox 360, FPS)

Last night I used the Ethernet cable to hook up the ol' Xbox 360. I made a new account in the Japan region, because I want Idolm@ster stuff. Unfortunately I won't be able to get the TMNT Arcade game without an US account. So how to beat the system? I asked my Xbox 360 expert and he said, google the words "US account" (「北米アカウント」). I'll try this later, not now.

I spend most of the first two hours online download stuff for the Xbox Dashboard. There are a lot of demos to try, but I deleted some pre-installed demos and videos already. I'm just not interested in those things. I expected the Xbox Live Marketplace to demand you to pay stuff for frivolous things, but seeing it for the little icons for your profile (game pics) is still shocking. I will get some Xbox Live points but not now.

And yes, I tried Halo 3 multiplayer. I played Deathmatch mode, which is called "Slayer" in Halo. I also played Big Team Matches which include Assault/Defense (like UT Domination but less dynamic), Team Slayer, VIP, and CTF. It's not fun for me. :-( I'm lagging and I need voice chat to understand team movements. I did win a Slayer game but it was a fluke because the top guy left. Some people say that the additive part of Halo is the online multiplayer. However, after years of playing UT online, I don't think this is my kind of game.

File backups and second thoughts on Mozy

(tags backup, online)

After my brush with file loss woe despite using a RAID 1 last month, you'd think I'd learn my lesson. Well "shame on me", but making a system for backing up my files is irritating and complex, and thus I never get a backup done. I am just courting disaster, aren't I? :-/

I thought I'd try Mozy, an online backup system. Though it got rave reviews over the years, I suspected that my backups weren't stored after 30 days. After reading the article "Everybody likes Mozy--except me" (parts 1 and 2), I saw some more valid criticisms that make me reconsider my current "backup solution", such as the relative newest of the company and the clarity of the backup period. I know that my relatively slow upload speed is no fault of Mozy, but it another minus to this backup solution. It is however, unobtrusive and convenient during backup. And I did test the restore function to my satisfaction, unlike those rave reviews that seem to gloss over that. I wouldn't say its totally useless. Since restore works rather painlessly, I'm keeping it.

One thing I added recently to my computer recently is a internal 5 inch removable bay for SATA 3.5 inch HDDs. Before with PATA, you needed to put a frame on your HDD before placing in a removable bay. So the cost would be something like 3000 yen for the bay, 3000 for the frame. However with SATA you don't need to add a frame, just slide in the HDD to use it. The removable bay I bought was around 3000 yen. Since I have some HDDs laying around from the old RAID, I'll add full local backups to my backup solution using some sort of home-grown rsync based script. Too bad my current motherboard doesn't support hot-swapping SATA drives. One thing I also learned is that SATA I drives don't produce a "read/write signal" that this bay can use to flash a activity LED. You need a SATA II drive.

Other than that, I should look into a local network backup solution like Bacula, as introduced through user comments at Lifehacker's article "Are you Prepared for a Hard Drive Crash?". That would entail making another computer. Ugh.

3rd in the world!?!? Idolm@ster leads Xbox live item downloads

(tags Xbox 360, Japan, online, kawaii)

According to the same Microsoft press event at Tokyo Game Show, The IdolM@ster's Xbox Live Item download count is the third largest in the world. (Thanks Geemaga Blog)

This game is Japan only, and coupled with the fact that there are 400,000 consoles in Japan while the US and Europe have like 11 million, does this mean Japanese otaku are picking up the Xbox slack or other territories don't buy into (or pay money for) Xbox Live Arcade online goods? How is this even possible?

Wanting a Xbox more and more: Ikaruga announced

(tags Xbox 360, Japan, online, Ikaruga)

Well it was rumored that Ikaruga (斑鳩) was coming out for the Xbox. I even wrote a me-too post on it back in 2007-02-15. Now it's officially announced, at the Microsoft Press Event at the Tokyo Game Show 2007.

(photo from Game Watch Impress)

There's no question now that I'll get a Xbox 360. I wonder what will this do for the used Ikaruga game market? Still this game fetches 8000 yen or more at auctions, and 10000 yen at used game stores.

The other game I wanna try is Rez HD, but you know what, I need to play it first on my PS2 with the "Trance Vibrator". I don't have a HDTV and VGA won't cut it, I bet.