VH1s Heavy: The Story Of Metal

VH1 Press Release

Metal is rocks untamed wild child. Metal is rude, crude, irreverent and irrepressibly loud. Metal is rock and roll just as its supposed to be, which is why everyone from Black Sabbath to Iron Maiden to Motley Crue to Slayer to Slipknot, have been hated by critics, feared by parents, attacked by politicians, and blamed for most of the worlds ills. So how did a combination of the devil and decibels become such an irresistible lure to generations of metal fans around the world?
What Ken Burns did for jazz, VH1 does for heavy metal — only a lot louder. “Heavy: The Story of Metal,” premiering Monday — Thursday, May 1-4 at 9PM* each night traces the evolution of heavy metal music and culture, from its dark, grim beginnings in Birmingham, England to the worldwide force that it remains to this day.
In a series of four themed hours, “Heavy: The Story of Metal,” explores
four decades of music, each hour examining this powerful and often
misunderstood genre, from metals pioneers to its love of glam and excess;
from the fight for metals rebellious soul to its storied flirtation with the
devil: Continue reading VH1s Heavy: The Story Of Metal

Point of Existance Mod Update

Point of Existance was (and is) a very good modern warfare mod for the Battlefield Vietnam game. They are currently developing the mod for the Battlefield 2 engine and are making significant progress. While no release date is mentioned, the fact that they have entered “level design testing” is very encouraging. From the PoE website:

These are exciting times as we are happy to announce that we released our first internal build to our test team to begin “level design testing” on Saturday. Currently there are seven maps on the test server and as we continue our development process some more might be added for our fist release.

The team has gone through our list of items to develop and have decided that it’s time for “content cutoff” and nothing else will be added to .1 except for the previously approved items. The graphics department is still working hard on providing additional weapons/vehicles for everyone’s enjoyment so stay tuned to our weekly updates to view more things that will be added.

Read more and check out some screenshots at the Point of Existence site.

EA BF2 Update – Patches and Booster Packs, Oh My!

Thanks to Duck for spotting this one 😉

In a community update, EA/DICE provided some details on the upcoming 1.2 patch for Battlefield 2 as well as info on the two “Booster Packs” that they are releasing this spring. The patch is currently in beta testing and seems to be addressing many of the complaints that have been heard from the community. The first of the “Booster Packs”, called “Euro Force” will be released on February 8th and sees the introduction of the all-new European Army (with new weapons and vehicles) in 3 new maps. March 28th sees the release of “Armored Fury” which will focus on large armored battles.

Click on read more to see the full list of changes confirmed in the patch

The entirety of the community update can be read here: January 11th, 2006 BF2 Community Update

Complain about stuff in this thread with us. Continue reading EA BF2 Update – Patches and Booster Packs, Oh My!

Funcom Brings SpeedTree RT Into Age of Conan

Press Release –

Durham, NC – Funcom, a leading developer of multi award-winning games like Anarchy Online and The Longest Journey, has licensed SpeedTree®RT for their upcoming Online Action RPG Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures.

“The partnership with IDV and SpeedTree helps us ensure that Funcom can continue its tradition of creating visual excellence in games,” said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom.

Continue reading Funcom Brings SpeedTree RT Into Age of Conan

Top 13 Tracks As Of January 07, 2006

# Artist Song Title Album
1 Mudvayne Happy Lost And Found
2 Slipknot Wait and Bleed Slipknot
3 Slipknot My Plague (New Abuse Mix) Resident Evil Soundtrack
4 Pantera Cementary Gates Cowboys From Hell
5 Korn A.D.I.D.A.S. Life Is Peachy
6 Slipknot Wait And Bleed 9.0: Live [Disc 2]
7 Slipknot The Nameless Vol 3 (Subliminal Verses)
8 Killswitch Engage The End Of Heartache The End Of Heartache
9 Disturbed The Game The Sickness
10 Tool Prison Sex Undertow
11 Slipknot Vermilion Vol 3 (Subliminal Verses)
12 Rammstein Amerika Reise, Reise
13 Pantera Walk Vulgar Display Of Power

This list is generated weekly from a ranking based on your votes in the Live365 playlist window.

HDTV Tivo Series 3 Is Real!

Yesterday at CES in Las Vegas, Tivo debuted the new Series 3. This is the Tivo all Tivo Lovers have been waiting for. It has the ability to record two shows at once or record a show and watch another show. It can even do this with 2 HD channels if you have two HD cards.

It also adds HDMI , Component Video (woohoo) SVideo and Composite Video. On the audio side of things, it has Optical Digital Out and RCA Stereo. Finally getting smart, there is a built in 10/100 Network connection, USB and get this, an external SATA port. Thats right. You can add a SATA drive to your Tivo without voiding the warranty.

Now, before you start thinking you can share your stuff with this external drive, keep in mind it runs the internal hard drive and external hard drive in an array where data from one show will be stored across both drives. Remove the SATA and you loose everything stored on both drives. I know it sounds like a PITA, but its a smart move if you ask me. You will be able to easily add HD space for all that HDTV hard drive eating content and they keep the evil Media Moguls off their case for allowing people to easily pirate content.

You can get the full scoop on the Tivo Lovers Website along with a whole bunch of mirrors of the Pictures taken at CES.

Alternative Battlefield Ranking

I stumbled upon this at Planet Battlefield today and it sounds interesting for those running an unranked BF2 server. According to their website, “Alternative Battlefield Ranking is a collection of scripts, which provide the same functionality as the original official battlefield 2 ranks, without having to pay for a ranked server.”

EA/DICE has recently given permission for this effort to go forward regarding Battlefield 2 and Related Products, and it will offer support for general unranked servers as well as those running mods similar to that seen from BFTracks and BFStats in the Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam days.

Check them out here: Alternative Battlefield Ranking News

FAQ: Alternative Battlefield Ranking FAQ

December Recap

I just received our December stats from Live365. I thought you might be interested in seeing them.

Heres a recap of your stations stats this month:

Total Listening Hours
Last Month: 43927
This Month: 42278

Total Station Launches
Last Month: 55156
This Month: 53996

Station Presets
Last Month: 8045
This Month: 8597

Favorite Station Designations
Last Month: 496
This Month: 542

Our stream was launched almost 54,000 times in the month of December. That blows me away. Thank You for listening. If it wasnt for you, this would not be worth doing.

The Next Not So Big Thing

I played my first MORPG (not Massively, but definitely Multiplayer) game on AOL way back in 1996. It was a single server that would hold 500 people at any given time. The name of this game? AD&Ds Neverwinter Nights. This was the original online gaming social fest for me. In 1997, AOL shut it down and I have never been the same since. I have been trying to recreate the fun and adventure I had in that game without much luck.

With nothing better to do, I joined TEN (Total Entertainment Network) and picked up AD&Ds Dark Sun Online. Graphically, it was a much better game. Overall, it lacked the fun factor I had experienced in oNWN.

Soon after, I jumped into Ultima Online and it was fun and all of the old NWN guild came along. We were a thriving group of 50 or so players. We had a good social network and we enjoyed working together for a goal. However, it lacked something. I could never put my finger on it, but this was no oNWN.

Well, I think I finally know what it was missing. The recreation of the paper and pen D&D games I had enjoyed through my late teens. Meeting once a week with the same group of people to make it just a little further down the path set before us. It was exciting and enjoyable. It was social and fun gaming all at the same time. The one thing it was not was about getting “Phat Lewt”. Sure, we loved getting cool new items, but we always put the need of the group before the needs of the individual.

This is the problem with todays MMORPGs. They are all about the reward and never about the adventure. They require the efforts of large groups, yet only reward the individual. They are about instant gratification and never about the adventure.

I can hope this will chance soon. Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach may be just the game to bring me back to the days of Neverwinter Nights on AOL. It may not appeal to the “l33t G4merZ”, but it should appeal to those of you who are just like me. Looking for the adventure along the way rather than the reward at the end. If this sounds like something you are interested in, check out this article on DnD Vault. It goes a long way to describing what type of adventure you can expect to find in the new Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. In the meantime, Ill keep my fingers crossed that my Beta application will be accepted so I can get my first taste of adventure.