L A K E --A R R O W H E A D
09-24-98 / 22:12:44

I'll be off to Lake Arrowhead for part of this weekend on another field trip. Man, am I living the life, or what? =)

Be back Saturday afternoon / evening, so no updates until then. Oh yeah, the Ground Zero review is posted along with screenshots of the new weapons, so hopefully that'll hold you over until I come back.

N E W --"S i N" --D E M O
09-24-98 / 22:12:44

SiN, copyright of Ritual Entertainment, is about to release another demo for the hungry masses of people piled up in the internet everyday (yeah, I'm part of that mass). Its first demo was released in July, and this demo will add some more stuff, including 2 extra deathmatch levels. Oh goodie! Too bad my poor little Pentium 100 can barely start the game.

By the way, in case you were wondering, SiN is another first person 3D shooter utilizing the Quake 2 engine. I played the demo (well, tried to) and it's improved a lot with the old Quake 2 engine. For example, there are more colors, and the environment is a lot more realistic (banks, buildings, etc... in comparison to Quake warehouses and dungeons).

S T U F F --G O I N G --G O L D
09-24-98 / 22:12:44

Microsoft's immensly successful strategy game "Age of Empires" has a new expansion pack that has just gone gold, called "The Rise of Rome". Age of Empires was released nearly a year ago, winning numerous prizes for its fun factor, and it marked the beginnings of Microsoft success in the gaming industry. The Rise of Rome should provide additional fun with the Age of Empires game engine. It features an entirely new mission based on Rome, and how it rose to the great empire it is known as. It should hit the store shelves around late October.

In addition to Rise of Rome going gold, Microprose's "Klingon Honor Guard" has also gone gold. Klingon Honor Guard is a first person 3D shooter powered by the Unreal engine. It is supposedly based upon the Star Trek universe, but unfortunately, I am not a very big Trekkie (okay, I confess, I don't know a thing about Star Trek). I guess Klingon Honor Guards are characters in the Star Trek universe? I have no idea, inform me or correct me at the "Message Boards" if you know more about it than I do (which is most certainly everybody). =)

Okay, so what does it mean when things go gold (i.e. Rise of Rome & Klingon Honor Guard)? Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, it means that the product that person / company was working on has been finalized, finished, completed, stamped and ready to be turned in or for mass production.

Now if only I can get my homework to go gold... =)

M O R E --C L I N T O N --D I R T
09-22-98 / 21:04:48

As you may all know, Congress released the full testimony on video a couple of days ago, with all the dirt and maggots that crawled along with it. Total cess. So what if you missed the broadcasts, or you wanted to see a specific portion of it? Have no fear, get the scoop here: click!

As a matter of fact, things relating to the Clinton scandal are now in the "Links" section. Erm... enjoy (?)

S I C K --& --M I S E R A B L E
09-22-98 / 12:47:43

After being hit with a serious case of allergies, I'm bombarded again by an attack of the flu (or some similar disease). Sore throat, headache, stuffy nose, puffy eyes... you name it.

More updates later... I'm going to go throw up now.

B R O O D --W A R S --B E T A --T E S T
09-21-98 / 22:29:31

Blizzard's long awaited addon expansion pack for their hit game Starcraft will undergo public beta testing starting Tuesday! Here's what they had to say about it:

Starting at 9:00am PST on Tuesday, September 22nd, and lasting
until 7:00pm PST, Blizzard will be accepting on-line applications for
people interested in beta-testing the Starcraft Expansion Set (Brood
War) over Battle.net.

Saw this on Game-Over Online. More info here: Click!

3 D --B A N S H E E --B L A S T E R
09-21-98 / 22:29:31

Creative Labs unleashed the best bang-for-buck video card as of yet on the market. Utilizing the 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee chip, Creative Labs cooks up a very good deal, selling their "3D Banshee Blaster" for a mere $129.00 with a $30.00 manufacture's rebate. That's $99.00 for a top of the line 3D / 2D combo video card.

I don't think I'm emphasizing this enough. =)

The best 3D accelerator in the market is the 3Dfx Voodoo ². That costs around the range of $200 dollars. The banshee, in some games, can equal the voodoo ² in sheer 3D acceleration. On top of that, it includes a very hot 2D chip that can play with the best of the big boys. If you don't believe me, benchmarks are posted in the hardware section of Sharky Extreme.

In other words, go buy it!! =)

F L O J O ' S --D E A T H
09-21-98 / 22:29:31

In another note, a sad day for the sports world when renown women's olympic athlete Florence Griffith Joyner died at age 38. The former Female athlete of the year and 3-time gold medalist at the 1988 Seoul olympics died of a heart related problem Monday.

C A L ' S --N U M B E R : --2 , 6 3 2
09-21-98 / 22:29:31

Sunday is traditionally the day where people from all around the world take a break from their jobs and relax at home or go to church. Cal Ripken Jr., starting infielder for the Baltimore Orioles, took a break Sunday.

So what's wrong with that?

Nothing really, just that Ripken hasn't taken a break since 1982. That's 16 years for you mathematicians. For 16 years, Ripken toiled endlessly on the baseball field day in and day out, for a total of 2,632 games in a row, which is 500 games better than the previous record which he broke in 1996.

Cal Ripken Jr. is baseball's iron man. In the day and age when whining and big contract signings and not showing up for practices are common with all teams, Ripken shines as a beacon above the rest of the cesspool community of rich athletes. He doesn't hit 65 home runs, he doesn't bat .400, he doesn't even play on a playoff-contending team. He does, however, go to work everyday. We tip our hat to you, Cal, for you are sport's true role model.

R E T U R N --F R O M --T H E --S I E R R A ' S
09-21-98 / 22:29:31

The trouble with leaving on a 3 day vacation is the amount of news that piles up when you return. Nevertheless, the trip was worth it. =)

Be sure to visit back soon to check out my review and impression of the Eastern Sierra's in the "Articles" section. I will tell you one thing though, I was attacked with the worst allergy of my life there!

Time to start getting updated...