Pictures doesn't really do it justice, but this thing is completely HUGE, easily dwarfing my tiny-by-comparison Macbook.

I'm on the way to a sleepover at a mate's place tonight, where hopefully it'll get a good workout with some Modern Warfare 2, some Left 4 Dead 2, and maybe even some co-op Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Yes, I love myself some sequels.

Speaking of games, there's a HUGE Holiday sale on Steam until January 3rd - I'm planning to grab at least one RPG (adding that to Borderlands and The Last Remnant from this year alone), plus at least another indie game or two, depending on whatever tickles my fancy.

I'm kinda glad that I haven't bought (that many) games from Steam this year - I may have bought at least 60% of my current games collection this year, but only a fraction of those have come from Steam.

To quote Francis from Left 4 Dead 1 - "Steam? I *love* Steam!"

Yeah. It's pretty cool - games aren't really affordable when you're buying them as soon as they're released, and games hardly ever go on sale at brick-and-mortar stores (with the exception of EB, who's continual sales kinda dull the "zomg it's on sale" factor), and digital distribution kinda sucks when you have a slow connection, regardless of whether or not it's part of your metered usage or not (thanks, Internode!). On the flipside, though - the cool thing about digital distribution is that prices can fluctuate madly - just look at the iTunes App Store as a perfect example of this, as well as Steam. Sure, it's usually the developers/publishers that have some sort of say on the final price, but The App Store and Steam and both great
examples of how the future is right here, right now.

I still want my hoverboard, though.

...it's just not a fantastic one, either.

If you'll ignore the whole multiplayer controversy, the whole "Infinity Ward screwed us", "Steam prevents resale", "the game isn't balanced for your grandmother", "there's no customisation" and many other issues besides, the game isn't half bad. (I may or may not be kidding about that second to last one. We'll see.)

I had to think long and hard about the purchase of this one. After reading multiple reviews online, their stories of the horror of multiplayer were shocking. I eventually caved after EB Games held a Monday Madness sale where they sold MW2 for $73, with free shipping. Rather than buy it from Steamerica (as opposed to Steamstralia who are selling it at the rip-off price of US $89) for US $69 and then having to download roughly 12-15GB of content, I took the plunge. It's only money, right?

The single player, as short as it is, is pretty good. The general gameplay is satisfactory - while it's no game-changer by any means, it's similar enough to the first Modern Warfare to keep existing players of the series entertained, while sucking in a whole new generation with new weapons, weapon sights (personally I'm a huge fan of the ACOG sights, followed by holographics, red dot, and finally, iron sights), locations, and an ending that more than paves the way for a Modern Warfare 3.

All in all, I finished the single player on the Regular difficulty just under the 6 hour mark. Not looking for any enemy intel along the way netted me 50% completion - but the thing is, like the recent FPS- with-RPG-elements game Borderlands, I don't really feel compelled to complete the game again. Not because it's not a good game, but because it's not a great one - why do the same thing over and over again? When the only thing that's for certain is you'll "die" (I use that term losely) more, the enemies will be harder, and there'll be less ammo/ weapon pickups, there's kinda no point...

Multiplayer is just a bag of hurt. It's not just bad, it's unpredictably bad, which is about three times as worse as when you've discovered the girl you like is taken, or a lesbian. Not that there's anything wrong with either, but I digress. Joining a multiplayer game involves a ritual involving a blue moon, a skinned cat, and a chook that has been washed in pigs blood, and staying connected is a matter of performing the above acts while hanging upside-down over a 300 metre high gorge. Or something. Yes, I've deliberately cranked out the sarcasm today, but only because there aren't any phrases in the English language that can describe just how bad MW2's multiplayer can be. I say can be, because it can, on the very scarce ocassion, be actually playable. I don't think I've been in a game where I haven't stuttered in a momentary lag spike, but it is ocasionally playable. Ab that's that; bottom line is, "play at own risk".

But wait, there's more! I'm can't decide whether this recent trend of "recycling" content in games is a good one, but it's happened twice with both L4D1 and L4D2 with their Survival and Scavenge modes respectively, and now it comes to MW2 with their "Spec Ops" mode. Whatever the trend is, it works - Spec Ops has easily doubled my playtime for MW2 alone, and that's a good thing - they may have screwed multiplayer, but playing with one other friend on select missions is pretty cook nonetheless. Don't get me wrong, campaign co- op would have been awesome beyond all imagination, but hey - beggars can't be choosers, right, Infinity Ward? ;)

Look past the lack of customisations for the PC version. Look past the repetitive campaign gameplay. Look past the infinitely-screwed multiplayer, the lack of dedicated servers, the fact that Spec Ops is nothing more than a gimmick, the fact that your enemies are smarter, more accurate, and can take many more hits than you. Look past all that and you'll find shame which is pretty good. It's not great, but it's not horifically bad either.

Sure, recommend this to your grandmother. Just don't be mad if she starts saying things like "danger close", "tango down", or "weapons hot", because you're probably not balanced enough for that ;)

Wow.

Just, wow.

There's not a whole lot I can say about these - they're nothing short of amazing, if not spectacular.

About a month ago my parents decided to re-take their ancient hi-fi system. As old as it was, the sound that came out of those Sony bookshelf speakers was something else - I'm no audiophile, but it sounded pretty darn good - well balanced, with plenty of mids. There really wasn't anything wrong with them that I could fault.

And so stepped in my faithful Apple Pro speakers. In a former life these would have been sitting next to a Mac Cube, because as far as I know they're the only Mac that came with the USB version of the Pro speakers. Sound quality, as you can expect, wasn't particularly great with this set - apart from lacking volume, they also seemed a bit muddy, due in part to the lack of a dedicated tweeter, I'm sure.

From there I had to make the decision between a set of the universally-praised Harmon Kardon Soundsticks II, or something different. The Audioengine 2's fell into the "something different" category, but so did other sets of 2.0's like the M-Audio Studiophile AV-40's (which recieved the highest of praise from Macworld UK), as well as a set of 2.1 Edifiers that probably weren't that great anyway.

Disaster struck as I soon realised the Soundsticks were either a) in short supply, or b) about to be discontinued. Fortunately I'd be able to get my hands on a set, if I so desired. But I digress.

I must admit, I had second thoughts about the Audioengine's - not because of their diminuitive size, but rather it was the lack of a dedicated bass unit/subwoofer that worried me. Having heard the Soundsticks in action and knowing how much their bass unit lent to their overall sound was a serious concern - because no matter how many reviews you read, there's just nothing better than experiencing what you're about to buy for yourself.

In the end though, the Audioengines won out - and while I'd still love a pair of Soundsticks one day (I'm still convinced they're an excellent set of 2.1's, and would buy them in a heartbeat), the Audioengines are pretty much exactly what I wanted - compact enough to fit on my desk, yet powerful enough to make the desk resonate with their lower frequencies.

They're extremely balanced in almost every regard - highs, mids - but like several reviewers I too found the bass a little overpowering at first. Not muddy by any means, just a little strong in comparison to the other frequencies. At first I thought my EQs were completely off, but only after EQing out a bit of the bass did I realize that yes, they are, insanely great. I'm no audiophile, but to me these sound pretty damn amazing.

Most highly recommended.

Welcome back, OCAU. I missed you so...

Growl is by far the most awesome Mac notification utility there is -
it shows me when stuff happens on my computer, like when Firefox has
finished downloading files, like when Transmit has finished uploading
files, and when stuff finishes zipping, when contacts go online or
offline, and so on. It's pretty awesome.

Enter Prowl.
Prowl is an iPhone app, and it uses pish Notification technology on
the iPhone to send me a notification whenever I'm away from my
computer - essentially, it's like having Growl notifications on my
Mac, sent to my iPhone.

The really cool thing about this is, I can leave a file downloading at
home, and when it's done, Transmission will show a Growl notification on my laptop to let me know that it's done - but since I'm not at the computer, Prowl automatically picks up the notification and pushes it to my device - with no interaction required from me.

Now obviously this kind of notification system could be extended to oter systems - already, people have created extensions and plugins so you can get a Prowl notification whenever someone comments on your Wordpress blog, for example, or when someone mentions you on IRC, or when you get a message/call on Google Voice, or even when you have a new RSS item to be read. Infinitely extensible, and easy as hell to use - all while being pretty damn cool, to boot.

Twilight may have dampened my hope for humanity, but it's stuff like this that makes technology so awesome.

Poll courtesy of Poll Everywhere, the more awesome web poll interface I've seen.