Off Topic – No IE Bundled in Windows 7 for Europe

Click this link, and you’ll see what I'm talking about in the rest of this post.  Oh and before anyone says anything, I'm not a MS Fan boy! I

No IE in Windows 7 in Europe

It was only a matter of time, I’ve been following the anti competitive cases against MS for a while now. They had to back down eventually. Despite the fact that their biggest competitors in the browser market are Mozilla with Firefox and as that is a completely free web browser developed as open-source (i.e. you can download the raw code, and do what you like with it… it’s a public project, that’s the whole point of Mozilla, a company run by users creating software for users). The only other competition is Google chrome and safari, safari has no leg to stand on as they own the Mac market being developed by Apple (internet explorer cant run on an apple Mac… where’s the anti-competitive law suit against them?) and Google are less concerned with the browser wars than the search engine wars now that Microsoft have made Bing live (their new, very pretty and quite good search engine­­). It just makes me laugh that everyone hates Microsoft so much that they are the ones having to bow to everyone.

Nobody else makes a worthwhile operating system. Surely it’s their prerogative to put their own software in the bundle?? Anyone who wants to use a different browser can easily download one and use it… but apart from the main couple of competitors, the rest lack any functionality!

The scary thing is, that I’ve always been quite anti-MS but now I’m defending them… perhaps it’s the fact that recently they’ve excelled themselves with Windows 7 being their best and most stable operating system yet… even though it’s still in the testing phase it’s great! Their new search engine is definitely worth using as a Google alternative, and their announcements at E3 were fantastic…

I honestly don’t feel that IE is forced on me, I don’t feel that windows media player is forced on me, I don’t feel that windows as a whole is forced on me. I choose to use IE because it works, and Firefox has become increasingly slow. I use winamp over windows media player because it had the functionality I wanted YEARS before windows media player, and I’m now comfortable with it, but WMP is now a viable alternative, and finally I use Windows because I really cannot be bothered to learn Linux and I hate MacOS, not that it runs on a PC anyway (well, I just don’t like anything made by apple, iPhone?? NO! Give me a Nokia N Series any day, IPod? NO! I use my mobile, Quicktime? NO! How many adverts and crap can you fit in one bit of software without being real-player! iTunes? Why do I want to use that when I can use winamp and rip my own mp3s??)

Rant over :-)

It’s all about the Saints…

Well as mentioned yesterday, I’m back on Saints Row 2. Really getting into it much more this time around, just shows the difference between Solo and Co-Op play on some games.  I still love my PS3 (I'll love it a whole lot more when i get my HDMI cable back up from the living room and can actually use it) BUT the game is just so much better when there’s someone else to play it with co-operatively. 

The diversions… I've actually finished some of them now, not so much because of the help, more for the fact that if Gazmo81 can do it, so can I!!

The cut scenes are fantastic, the fact that my character (a man, bright green Mohawk, moustache, mutton chop sideburns, all over tattoos) is wearing his little black dress and red stilettos in every cut scene and NOBODY bats an eyelid :-D.

It’s not a game for easy achievements, although going through the story in co-op earns you around 200G (40G for the campaign, 25G for doing it Co-Op, and then another achievement for finishing all 3 campaigns, plus probably another for doing all 3 Co-Op).

There’s so much to do in the game too, diversions and mini games, unlockables that aren’t linked to achievements at all, most that are un-documented and just appear after doing certain things.

The best distraction so far has to be “Fight Club”.  The joy of standing in a room with 6 NPC’s (more if co-op) and having only Melee attacks to defend yourself with is fantastic.  Yes you get weapons thrown in but there’s nothing more satisfying than a good old fashioned beat-down :-)

Anyway, progress so far… Gazmo81 and myself have taken down the Ronin and Sons Of Samedi… we are well on our way to taking out the Brotherhood too.  I now own and have fully pimped out every crib in the game, I've finished the fight club distraction and managed to find around 16 stunt jumps… My character keeps singing along to Aha – Take On Me (hmmm.. 10G for the first time he does that) and I'm working on the Nut Shot achievement.

Should be getting Prototype at the weekend, that looks to be an ultra-violent crackdown style game… SWEEEET!

P.s. FMK48’s card is shown just to show how far behind he now is… despite the 1000G from TMNT lol :-)

Left 4 Dead 2!!!

E3 the awesome games expo it is has had a fantastic surprise for us all recently with the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2! Due for release on 17th November 2009.... Bring it on!!

In the mean time Gazmo81 and myself have been steaming through...

Rainbow Six Vegas
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Crackdown
Saints Row 2
Halo 3
Gears Of War
Gears Of War 2
and hopefully if i can track down a cheap enough copy, Mercenaries 2 - World In Flames (i have it on PS3 just need it on 360).

Other than that the only other game i've played worth mentioning is Bionic Commando.

On another note I have managed to overtake Fat Man Kev 48's gamer score, helped slightly by 1000 pointing TMNT (courtesy of Gazmo81 buying it and lending it) and 750 pointing NBA 2K6 (i'm still trying for that last 250pt achievement). King Kong is the next to get the 1000G treatment, once Gazmo81 has finished it himself.

Saints Row 2 is the latest in a long line of Co-Op conquests, so far we've taken down the Ronin, just the Brotherhood and Sons of Samedi to take down next (then of course the DLC).