# posted by Tank @ 3:27 PM
 
Midway Games is creating a new Party Game game for the Wii, including classics like darts, skeeball, and "Ping Cup".

What could possibly go wrong with this idea?
 1 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 11:13 PM
 

So...

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption... amazing. Not just the control scheme, but the whole package. It's hard to explain, but just play it, you'll understand.

Now I just need to win, like, the lottery or something to be able to afford the onslaught of video games coming out soon. Blue Dragon is already out, but that's $60 I can't afford to spend right now. Not to mention Guitar Hero III and Rock Band in the next couple months. There are a ton of others, but those are the big ones for me.

Oh yeah, Halo 3 comes out kinda soon, too. I realize I should be super-excited like (it seems) the rest of the gaming world, but right now, I'm kinda unmotivated about the whole thing. So far, it seems everything I've heard about it that's new is made up of the Warthog having some kind of extra gun, or something like that... and, uh... this shield-thing you can wear? I'm not trying to avoid all information about the game, but everything I've read doesn't really talk about much new stuff... unless that's about it.

So I ask you, dear readers: what's so great about Halo 3? I want to be excited for this game, so enlighten me!

-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 10:32 PM
 
Ladies and gentlemen... your Pic-Tac-Toe puzzle.





A few are pretty obvious, but a few are pretty tricky (or a stretch out of desperation... but tricky sounds better). See if you can figure them out!

Remember: There's a different theme for each row, each column, AND both diagonals. Use your imagination!

Post your answers on the comment section, but if you want to figure it out on your own, be aware that other people's answers might be visible.

Good luck!

-Chronodin  2 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 10:26 PM
 
...that making these Pic-Tac-Toe puzzles are harder than I anticipated. Stay tuned.

-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 6:48 PM
 
So I was reading Ken Jennings' blog... oh come on, don't look at me as if you don't... and I saw one post where he discussed something called Pic-Tac-Toe. Once I figured out how you play, the game has me fascinated.

The general concept is that you have 9 pictures set up on a Tic-Tac-Toe-like grid, and there should be a common theme for each row (separate theme per row... so the top row has one theme, the second has another, etc.), for each column, and both diagonals... so that's... *counts on fingers*... 8 different themes. Obviously, creating such a puzzle doesn't appear to be an easy task, but it is a fascinating one, one that I do plan on undertaking.

If anyone wants to take a stab at making one, feel free to... I'd be glad to post it on here, just tell me what the pictures would be and, if you want/can, where to find them. Otherwise, I'll throw one on here once I work it out. Stay tuned!

-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 5:21 PM
 
And I couldn't be more pleased as punch! Or something like that.

Anyway, here is GameTrailers.com's review of this seemingly-amazing game.


-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 12:35 AM
 
I know, I'm sure the pun's been done a gazillion times before, but I'm going to go through with it anyway.

This is a new trailer for the upcoming game that nobody's computer will be able to run, Crysis. Even though it doesn't seem to have much if any gameplay footage, the CGI is still incredible, and the in-game graphics won't be far behind.


If that's not enough for you, the hi-def version is right over here.

And in a totally unrelated note, check out Jjot--a website useful for taking quick notes, e-mailing them to yourself or doing a bunch of other stuff. Could be pretty useful in certain situations. And if you caught the other pun I used in reference to this link, then kudos to you. Bonus kudos if you actually found it funny.

-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 9:45 AM
 
The past two weeks I've been swamped with working at a band camp, hence lack of updates. If you were ever in marching band, or more appropriately if you've ever worked on staff at one, then you know how much time it takes. Don't get me wrong... it's a good kind of busy, but the website did unfortunately take a bit of a back burner.

It's almost over, though, and hopefully the updates will start a-flowin' once more!

A couple quick things to prove that I still love you:

• I know I mentioned earlier about Final Fantasy IV DS, and how super-excited I am (and yes, I just said super-excited). RPGamer has several scans from a Japanese magazine about the game.
• Don't have a modded PS2? Don't want to install a mod chip? Then this memory card mod might be for you.
• This really nifty CD player looks more like a weapon than anything else, but hey, it's pretty cool either way.

And finally, this video of a UFO spotting from YouTube is fake -- the whole thing was rendered in CGI, as noticed by all the trees having the same layout of their leaves, among other things -- but is still pretty cool even for being a fake.


-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 11:14 PM
 
So, yeah... laminar flow. It's apparently the opposite of turbulent flow, which is when you mix something up and it, well, gets mixed up, but when you mix the opposite direction, it continues to mix up. In this, however, you reverse the direction and it basically "unmixes." According to this page (and I'm sure they quote THEIR source somewhere there), the explanation is such:

Explanation: What you watched is "laminar flow", which is a deterministic flow: You can run it, it mixes, and then rewind and it comes back to its original state. This is in opposition to 'turbulent' flow, which is chaotic: you run it and it mixes up, and you run it backwards and it mixes more.
It's all about reversibility. Why does a dropped glass break, but the pieces never unbreak? Why does batter bake into cake, but cakes never dissolve back into batter? It's not because it couldn't; the laws of physics have no dependence on the direction of time: the equations work equally well going from t = 1 to t = 0. The reason is primarily that at t = 1, things are in such a massively changed state that reversing behavior would involve reversing trillions of trillions of particles all with precision. But in the case of this sort of example, the viscous fluid has significantly less molecular motion than water (which is why the drops stay where they are until you start mixing). That means that the minor pulling of the rotating cylinder is fairly regular and orderly, so reversing it's rotation reverses the fluid movement in almost the exact same way that it causes in. In this example, the viscosity of the fluid and design of the mixer (being a cylinder), makes the transition from t = 1 back to t = 0 feasible. You're no longer having to manually reverse trillions of molecules motion.

Get all that? Good. If you don't feel like clicking on the page -- and I can't blame you for wanting to stay here, really -- here's the video of this event for your viewing pleasure.


-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 10:52 AM
 
Alright, so...

I don't do this too often, but I think that I might start. I'm going to plug an album I picked up just recently that I would wholeheartedly recommend to the rest of you. It's Nickelback's most recent album, "All the Right Reasons." Now before you ask, no, I'm not getting paid for this (although that would be nice...), but rather because I feel it genuinely is a great album.

Honestly, Nickelback's last two didn't impress me that much. They both had a few really good songs, but the album as a whole wasn't enough to grab my attention -- though I am a fan of "The State", which is I believe their first major release -- but this one, on the other hand, I already knew I would like. How?

Because out of the 11 regular tracks on the album, they've released at least 6 tracks. That's over half the album.

Those 6 tracks are, in track order since I'm not sure what the release order was, "Photograph," "Animals," "Savin' Me," "Far Away," "If Everyone Cared," and "Rockstar." I also think, but I'm not sure, that they released "Side of a Bullet." I've heard the song before, so I'm led to believe that they have but I'm not certain. Either way, that's at least 6, maybe 7, songs out of 11. That's pretty darn good even by Linkin Park standards.

So that's 7 songs I could already tell you before buying the CD I knew were good. "Savin' Me" and "If Everyone Cared" are my two favorites thus far, but I'm really enjoying the whole thing. For some reason, Nickelback seems to have some kind of bad rap among certain rock fans. Several times I've heard about people complaining that the radio station I listen to (Octane 20 on Sirius Satellite Radio, baby! It's The Best Radio on Radio™ after all.) plays Nickelback, but it's usually from the DJ telling those people to shut up because Nickelback is a good band and a lot of people like them, etc. In any case, this CD is a great one.

AND I also suggest picking up the Special Edition. It's a few bucks more, but it has a DVD with, I believe, four of their music videos. Normally that wouldn't be enough to sell me, because rock videos -- let's be honest with ourselves, now -- tend to suck anymore more often than not. Nickelback, however, has some very good videos, and all four of these are pretty solid. As an example, here's the video for "Savin' Me" which is not only one of my favorite songs on the CD, but probably my favorite video from the DVD.

Watch, enjoy, and if the urge overtakes you, buy.


-Chronodin
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# posted by Chronodin @ 5:09 PM
 
Into reading? Take note of that update widget I added to the left.

It's from Goodreads.com, which is sort of a social networking site in that you add books you've read, sort them however you want, rate them, review them, etc. Then you connect with friends and can see what books THEY'VE, well, done all that stuff to, read their reviews, and so on. Sounds kind of simple, but if you're into books at all, as I am, then it's actually a lot of fun to list your books and do all that stuff up there. I'd suggest checking it out, and what more convincing do you really need?

I mean, really.

-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 1:04 PM
 
Because I'm hooked on this podcast lately, I'll share with you the latest update, which, in reality, is a "classic"episode, Question 17, "Omnibus".

But since I'm new to the podcast, it's new to me! And therefore, it might be new to you, too. Enjoy.


-Chronodin  1 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 11:41 PM
 
If you aren't into podcasts, you might want to check them out. If you're not familiar, they're basically radio-ish shows that you can subscribe to (for free, at least almost all the time). My personal favorite is This Week in Tech, or TWiT. Leo Laporte is the host, and you might remember him from the days of The Screen Savers, back when TechTV was, well, TechTV and not G-"Look awesome video games!! Have some Star Trek for no particular reason!"-4.

I normally used iTunes to subscribe and listen to/watch podcasts. But whatever program you use, you should definitely check out a video podcast called Ask a Ninja. It's exactly what it sounds like... people send in questions, and the ninja answers them. If you ever check out Strong Bad E-mails on Homestar Runner, you'll see a very similar format, but still very funny.

-Chronodin  3 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 12:27 PM
 
I love me some old-school NES games, and when you can play them in your browser for free, how can you say no?

Also... dang.


-Chronodin  0 comments links to this post   

# posted by Chronodin @ 11:38 AM
 

If the three of you that actually read this site happened to recently, you might have come across an unfortunate surprise. It seems that the Nerdcentral.org domain name expired, and they didn't think it was that important to, y'know, tell me that it was going to expire. Thanks to Rick for giving me the heads up, as I've been pretty busy recently and spending very little time on the internet, as demonstrated by my lack of updates (yeah, yeah, you've heard it all before, I know, I know...). But it's now renewed, back in action, and hopefully with some more activity than I was doing previously!

A few updates: Two games you might want to check out that I've checked out recently are Super Mario Strikers Charged -- which is fun but I haven't gotten to spend much time on... I'll talk some more about it once I've sat down with it some more -- and Lord of the Rings Online. About LotR, I can tell you that if you've played World of Warcraft (which applies to all but like two people out there, it seems) then you'll have no problem picking this one up, since it feels essentially like a mod of WoW. A very elaborate mod, sure, but the mechanics are extremely similar. But like they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you like that WoW-style of play but are looking for a fresh change from that environment, LotR is a good way to go. I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far. It's not perfect, but it's fun.

Also check out Harry Eng's impossible bottles. I know that sounds like the kind of thing your parents warned you about, but trust me on this one. It's kind of like those model ships you see in bottles, but it's basically stuff that just shouldn't fit inside these bottles. Very interesting.

And finally, 15 Unfortunately Placed Ads. Classic.

-Chronodin

PS: Does anyone else think that guy in Rick's last post looks a little bit like Tim Allen? Just sayin'.  1 comments links to this post