Geek-Weekly

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Category: Games

Games

Walmart Canceled my Nintendo Switch Order!

An open letter to Walmart!

I cannot express enough the continued frustration I am experiencing with your company. We Had Pre-Purchased some of the new Nintendo Switches as gifts for this coming holiday season. Like many others we ordered in early summer to be sure we could get a jump on the new system and have them for our family this Christmas. Here we are October 12, 2021, four days after the product launch only to find that you have cancelled our orders. While one unit was honored the others were NOT. If in the event you had a rule that only ONE was allowed per household then YOUR system should NOT have allowed the transactions to take place. We received NO advanced warning, NO communications and NO alternate options at the time the order was placed. YOU waited till today (OCT 12th) to inform us these were cancelled.

This information should have been provided at the time of order so we could have made alternate arrangements at a different retailor. This is an unacceptable business practice and the end of a customer at any and all Walmart locations.

As someone who works in supply chain, I fully understand your challenges in both stock and labor. However, THIS situation goes much higher and there is really no excuse as to how this was handled.

Games / GEEK

Why the SIM games fail.

Listen, I am the first one that will tell you how much I love the SIM games. Starting with SIM CITY I have lost hours of my life with this addictively creative and mind challenging game. Regardless if you play it by the book or evoke the uses of cheats so you can build the ultimate city you cannot deny the entertainment that any of these games provide.

So why do I consider them to be failures? Long term support and crapwear! I still have my old copies of SIM CITY and however compatibility on the latest PCs is sketchy at best. Not being able to even Launch the game. Perhaps it’s a challenge with a 64bit OS? It’s still frustrating. I have several other older games that do work just fine on a new PC.

Where the enjoyment is lost on PC games is this. Too long to install and all the added crap that’s installed. Some games I do not want on line or I do not want a different program running looking for updates. Let’s be honest after a short period there are NO MORE UPDATES so why do I need this application from EA on my PC? This is where the Play Stations and XBOXs excel. The games just work! Most of the time.

I find that Steam is bringing this console level of support to the PC that allows for background updates and a convenient interface. Something to think about.

What better way to breathe new life into these SIM games other than a refresh that allows for some new found compatibility.

Computer / Games / GEEK / Mobile

Top 10 Best Tech from 2013

I know that there are a lot of articles out there and I wanted to capture what I felt the top 10 tech items for 2013 were. In no particular order…

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

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Ridicule gargantuan tablets all you want. The Galaxy Note 3 may sport a gigantic 5.7-inch screen, but all that screen real estate is awesomely useful, the smartphone offers great battery life, and the included S-Pen stylus is incredibly useful if you like taking longhand notes.

A 2.3GHz processor and 3GB of RAM help power this massive device, and what you end up with is a smartphone that practically eliminates the need for a 7-inch tablet.

Massive smartphones aren’t going away—and the more we use them, the more we like them. And the Note 3 is pretty much the best “tablet phone” around.

 

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Games / GEEK

SteamOS! Valve’s free Linux-based operating system.

Source: PCGamer.com

The SteamOS beta has released to the public alongside the initiation of its beta program, which will put 300 prototype Steam Machines into the wild. For the estimated 7,129,999,700 of us not selected for that program, a living room machine running the new, free, Linux-based OS is still doable, though installing it may require some tinkering—Valve suggests you wait until 2014 unless you’re an “intrepid Linux hacker.” Challenge accepted.

At the time of writing, Valve has not officially announced that SteamOS 1.0 “Alchemist” is available for download. We expect a page to go live at store.steampowered.com/steamos/beta/ later today. [Update: it’s live.] Steam Universe group officer Jvert (presumably Valve engineer John Vert), however, has confirmed that the correct download link is at repo.steampowered.com/download/.

Unfortunately, that download will most likely fail right now. To help spread the data, Steamdb has created an unofficial torrent, but use caution when downloading from any unofficial source. [Update: Valve has provided MD5 and SHA512 checksums to verify that your download is genuine.] You can find system requirements and installation instructions in the official FAQ—note that AMD graphics cards are not currently supported.

SteamOS is meant to free Steam’s game library from the desktop, extending Valve’s domain to the living room with a superior couch-based PC experience and some of the features that have become standard on consoles, such as media streaming services. For Valve, it’s also about declaring freedom from Microsoft—SteamOS will only run games with Linux support (of which we expect to see many more in the coming year). That bold statement is tempered by the ability to stream games from a Windows PC to SteamOS over a local area network, though how much it’s tempered will depend on how well streaming works.

We’ll be playing with SteamOS this weekend, and plan to have impressions and installation tips for you as soon as possible. If you’re the patient type, Valve’s Steam Controller and third-party Steam Machines will be available until next year, no “Linux hacking” required, presumably.

Games / GEEK

10 Most Influential Video Games From the ’90s

Source: Arcadesushi

When you think of the ’90s, you can’t think of it without these 10 Most Influential Video Games. They have created a lot of inspiration and ideas for the games we play today. Ranging from their unique story lines, strategic abilities, and replay value, these titles deserve credit where credit is due. Without wasting any more time, let’s take a look at the 10 Most Influential Video Games From the ’90s.

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Computer / Games / GEEK

NEW! CraftBook.net!

New and still in development for the kids… CraftBook! this is a Facebook like site i created for the kids so they can get online with their friends and talk about Minecraft. Share ideas, worlds and Pictures without any of the drama or threats of Facebook.

Capture

Games / GEEK

PlayStation Vita 2000

Source: Engadet

To augment the new Vita’s built-in storage, Sony’s cut the prices of its own memory cards too. From 4GB to 32GB, they’ve been reduced to between 1,554 yen (about $15) and 6,804 yen (just over $68). There’s a new 64GB Vita card too, priced at 10,479 yen (roughly $105).

As for that original OLED model PS Vita, it’s getting a new ‘Play!’ Game Pack, which comes with pre-installed games and a memory card packed in — as well as 90 days of PS Plus, gratis. There’s no launch date as yet for this bundle, but it’s priced for Japan at 24,129 yen (about $241). The company says that it’ll ultimately discontinue the OLED WiFi model, but that the 3G/WiFi OLED version will continue to be available and will find its way into similar discount bundles in the future — make of that what you will. Sony’s press conference continues, but we’re hoping to get to test the device later on. Wish us luck.