Dog.Beckament.net

Yet another online racing game I am looking forward to, Test Drive Unlimited 2 (from Atari) is going to start beta testing soon (you can apply for the beta here).

It will attempt to blend single player and multiplayer gameplay to create an evolving/dynamic massive online world. I expect Test Drive Unlimited 2 will have an online mode similar to the previous game (so plenty of police chases and races through scenic Ibiza and Oahu), Test Drive Unlimited.

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In a recent post I mentioned that I’d been playing the free MMORPG, Project Torque (PT) for a while and that it may be updated soon… Well that happened just the other day (the new build is called Julia) and I can definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes racing games (and as always it’s free to play).

It includes simulation and arcade physics and various game modes (and I guessed correctly… the game modes have changed with this build): vs. Race, Battle, Return the Flag, Thunder Alley (fast oval track draft racing), Explorer, and Team Capture the Flag. They have added a new interface and more tracks as well! (Tokyo tracks are now set at night instead of day… A great atmosphere for street racing). A couple of game modes were removed, but hopefully we will get them back in a new build.

You can find more information out at the Project Torque site and forums, you can download Project Torque here.

Project Torque is published by Invictus Gaming and run by Aeria Games in North America and Gamigo in much of the world.

Now that judge Kimba Wood has ruled that the popular filesharing software Limewire infringes on copyright, the recording industry lawyers have asked US courts to order LimeWire owner Mark Gorton to pay $1,500,000,000,000 (that’s 1.5 Trillion) for 200,000,000 alleged downloads of the Limewire software as reported by the P2PNet news site (go there and read it, it’s quite informative).

A quick Google search of US GDP shows the US Gross Domestic Product (in current US dollars and not adjusted for inflation) in 2008 as 14.6 Trillion dollars. So Limewire has cost the recording industry 10% of the 2008 US GDP…??!?!? Has the industry even made that much in it’s entire existence?

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Well not too long ago I wrote a little article suggesting you play Project Torque, a free online race game with purchasable (though in no way required) content. Need For Speed World will be released soon and I must say (as a NFS World beta tester) that it is also quite enjoyable! It is also online and free to play although there are items that can only be purchased for real-world money (and a level cap for the free players), but PT has a micro-transaction system as well so hopefully this won’t exclude players from the game.

NFS World is based on street racing and features the cities of  Rockport and Palmont which players of the NFS franchise will already be familiar with. Standard NFS features like upgrades and tuning, licensed cars, police chases, and multiple game modes are included as well.

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MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries (MTX free version) Installation and Setup

MekTek has released a FREE updated version of MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries that includes the latest MekPak, the Clan and IS packs, and a new installer/updater named MTX (you can get it here). Many thanks go to Smith & Tinker who recently acquired the rights to (some of) the MechWarrior videogames.

BASIC INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS: This will give you a good setup for online and (MWL) League play (accurate as of 5-2010).

There is a newer patch coming out soon… I am not sure if everyone will switch to it. Look for MekPak 4 from MekTek.

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I have been playing some PC racing games lately (mostly various Need For Speed titles) and discovered a fun (and free) online racing game called Project Torque. It’s only for North America (due to an imposed IP ban) but there are regional versions for much of the world (although I think they are named Level R).

Project Torque is closed track (and closed street) online racing, has lots of cars and several modes of play including: fast oval track draft racing (Thunder Alley), simulation race mode, arcade race mode,  capture the flag, explorer mode, drift, and drag racing. One of the things I really enjoy is that there are a ton of different levels and variants of levels and many different types of road conditions including dirt/mud tracks for the 4 wheel drive fans out there (yes, the game has 4WD racing too). There is an update for the game coming soon that may add/remove some modes of play, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

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MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries + MekPak 3.02b Setup

EDIT (5-28-2010): MekTek has released an updated version of MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries (you can get it here), My updated install instructions are here.

BASIC INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS: This will give you a good setup for online and (MWL) League play (accurate as of 4-2009).

NOTE: These instructions are now out of date (as of 5-2010) and pertain to the CD version of the game, MekTek has released an updated version of the game available for free here (use the MTX client to install MechWarrior 4). Updated install instructions are here!

There is a newer patch coming out soon… I am not sure if everyone will switch to it. Look for MekPak 4 from MekTek.

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As you probably (don’t) know I have been playing guitar and writing songs since I was about 14… F***ed Up was recorded in 1999 and released in 2000… we were listening to lots of crazy music at the time so it’s kind of an eclectic batch of songs. These masters are off the reel-to-reel and not cleaned up and tweaked (and normalized) like the actual album was, but I think it’s worth a listen. If you like it I can probably dig up a copy of the release version of the album  and get you a copy (for a small fee).

Kevin and Jer were not in the band when we recorded this album, but they used to come over and jam on the weekends and give us feedback on our music… As soon as we lost the members of the band that were on this album they joined up in an instant (which got us back to a power trio format which I enjoy). I actually have about 2 and a half albums worth of songs we recorded before I moved to Tempe and when I get motivated I will release them on the Beckament Band site.

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The removeAdmin utility is pretty neat… It runs your web browser with limited user privileges, in effect it keeps it from writing to your ‘Program Files’ and ‘Windows’ directories. Many malware programs copy themselves to one (or both) of these directories. In effect it can help reduce the amount of malware that gets installed on your system by restricting write access to these directories (they are where important system files are kept and are often an attack vector for malware).

The default installer will attempt to create secure shortcuts on your desktop for Internet Explorer and Firefox web browser. It is my understanding that it can be configured (with minimal effort) to run with other browsers as well. Here is a screenshot example showing how I have it configured for use with Firefox.

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