AKA WipeoutHD Edition.



Once again it's friday and it's time for more ass kickery of the epic variety.
Since Mushman is seemingly away from the PS3 FNF, I thought I'd step in once more and be a host of a game of some description.
But we all know we'll be playing the greatness known as WipeoutHD before moving onto other other games that incidentally also involve shooting the living crap out of each other such as COD4 and UT3. I probably won't be shifting off WHD all evening, but if you're interested then drop us a line and I'll try and sort stuff out - I should be online around 8 to 8.30ish.

Edit: I did mean 8PM GMT

PSN: Schsim

Since nobody seems to have mentioned Euro PS3 FNF, I thought I'd have a crack at sorting stuff out for once.
Anyway, it's that time of week once again – FNF!. This week saw the release of the much anticipated 'Bikes' patch for Burnout Paradise which as you may know adds new bikes and challenges as well as the day/night cycle.
So it seems like a great idea to include this as part of the usual festivities. Though for those that don't have the game then there would be the likes of GTA4 and COD4 to keep us occupied until the 'global' FNF starts at some ridiculous hour here in the EU. Hell we could even play MGO – show that game some love.
However, I don't own either COD4 or Warhawk so if someone else wishes to run those games then let us know. Feel free to suggest something else to add to the usual chaotic mix.
For those interested leave your PSN below and I'll try and start things off at around 8PM GMT (my PSN is Schsim)

PS – Excuse the piss poor picture and attempt at organisation, I couldn't find a better picture or find something witty to say - this is what lack of beer does to people.

Edit: Damn it, families are annoying, now I have to go running around after the rest of the family, so I'll be gone for a couple of hours and so won't be here for the festivities. Still I will be here at some point if not for EuroFNF then FNF. And if not then, I'll organise things properly for next week, besides Wipeout HD will be out by then so no doubt we'll be running that - 8.43PM

Recently, BunnyRabbit2 and myself made a trip to the excellent Download Festival located at the spiritual home of rock music in England - Donington Park.

Much fun was had, vast amounts of beers were consumed and of course, many bands that were made of WIN were watched. There was also an attempt at a video game related podcast, but with being surrounded with large numbers of fairly inebriated people, it soon degenerated into complete anarchy.

Anyway, BunnyRabbit2, (possibly inspired by Suff0cat's recent exposure on WWE) decided to have a crack at constructing a Dtoid helmet. This did however, present a problem – we were stuck in a sea of tents and drunk people with little construction resources.

Using only my empty crate of beer, part of a cardboard cup holder, some black tape, some twine and a pair of scissors, the helmet was constructed. The finished helmet looked a little empty so random Dtoid quotes (many of which are lifted from IRC quotes) were drawn on around the helmet.

Now although the final product may not have been the greatest design achievement in the world, credit must be given given the lack of materials and tools, not to mention the nasty sunburn we both had.

Still you can judge for yourselves how good (or bad) said helmet is with the following pictures:

There are some higher res versions located here

Note from BunnyRabbit2

I apologize if anybody at Download Festival took me to be representing Dtoid rather than a fan of it. Also, I
apologize for the poor effort helmet I made. I only had those materials to hand


First up is the hat, just after it was constructed




DToid web address




Best DToid Hat Evar watching the excellent In Flames




It's Over Nine Thousaaaaaaand! - The hat gave some sheilding from the sun though it was probably very hot in there.




Moar DToid related comments




The least most interesting side - the top. But if Niero does happen to see this and it offends him, we are VERY

sorry.


BR2 playing a recent build of EA's Facebreaker. I think the hat may have given him some super games playing skills given he could not be beaten with the hat on.




The hat chilling out back at the campsite, whilst we had several beers and tried to do a podcast.




This last unrelated picture is of Antero Manninen, one of the on/off touring members of Finnish cello-metal band Apocalyptica. This man did not move in 45 minutes or so and barely changed his facial expression. He is one of the coolest men alive, being beaten only by a select few.




So there you go - DToid's invasion of the Download Festival. Hopefully next year, we'll think about this before we leave and construct something better.

It might be a little late buts it's taken till now to get hold of a working camera.



Thats the main rig and next to it the sub-woofer for the surround sound. The spec for the system is as follows:

AMD 64 4200+ X2
Asus A8N-SLI Motherboard
512 MB generic RAM - it's only 512 as I fried another 1GB stick
Geforce 7900 GT 256MB
320 GB SATA II HDD
16X DVDRW DL

No picture of the inside of the case as it's largely uninteresting

The surround sound is 5 x 15 W and 25W for the woofer. It might not sound like a lot, but in this small room, they get loud very quickly.

Next up is the desk that contains all the stuff:



That is much more organized than the desk normally is. The reason for having 2 sets of peripherals is simple: one for PC, 1 for PS3. The statue on top of the TV is really cool as it's only made from nuts and bolts and other small pieces of metal.

EDIT: It turns out I turned down the quality too much, the 3 labels that can't really be read say : Soon to be replaced TV and Not stolen pint glass and Exactly the kind of food that won't be near the turning point rig

Now what I don't get is how you can put some cables round the back of desk and how they inexplicably get tangled up. This is where the next picture comes in:




I think theres close to 30 different cables under the desk, tangled in a way that would take days to untangle.

Then again theres the drawer of cables. How I managed to accumulate so many without getting rid of them is beyond me. Still at least 1 of them is bound to come in handy at some point in the future.



Lastly here's a picture of the gaming chair and bed:



Hardly the most glamorous looking thing and it might be a bitch to move as it lacks casters, but boy is it comfy. And that bed, that thing made me even more lazy, with having all of my computer equipment withing arms reach is great as I can lie in bed, therefore staying warm whilst I watch TV / play games.

Anyways, thats my rig amongst other stuff. the only other things I haven't shown are the electric guitar and the DVD holder that contains most of my not downloaded stuff.

Music has always been a part of video games, and some of the older stuff is among the best. Recently I've been listening to some of the music so that I can figure out how to play the stuff on guitar. This presents a problem if the game in question isn't part of the emulated games collection.
This is where this site comes in handy. it allows for the downloading of many different game soundtracks, all in mp3 format. I've mainly used it for the Sonic games that came out on the Mega Drive.
Being able to play the music from the Marble Run zone from the original Sonic never gets old to me...

EDIT: Although this might not be new news, I thought I'd just use it as an excuse to tell people that I can play various video game themes on guitar