Review? Not as good as the original modern warfare. The graphics had a nice buff, and the character stories are could have been a bit tighter in the second. That’s about it really.

Kinda the same experience as the original MW though.

Now for the third.

Anyways. So i bought mine today. See my prior blog post for a review. Further, since i live a good portion of my life in mac.. was curious to see if the G keys would work in OSX, without a driver and all. At first blush, it didn’t seem at all possible, a utility to inspect keystrokes turned up nothing when the G keys were pressed. To be expected given no drivers.

Immediately I did remember from researching the keyboard, that many users were having problems with the G keys in windows even, that was solved by using a ‘save to keyboard’ feature in the driver software. So the next question was… if i was lucky, did my recording in windows, set the keyboard to hardware mode.. would the macros saved to the G Keys come though in OSX? The happy answer is YES!!

Here’s what i did in case.
1. Downloaded the latest firmware and drivers on my boot camp partition, which today is beta 2.12.
2. Ran the firmware update and driver installer on windows without issue.
3. Started the driver software. Its not the most obvious, and i certainly would have missed it without having bumped into the instructions online..

When the driver application starts, you should be at the macro recording screen.
0. I checked the ‘Hardware playback’ checkbox on the ‘Assign Keys’ tab first to get things set.

To record a macro:
1. On the actual keyboard itself, press the ‘MR’ button. The driver software blinks to acknowledge.
2. Then select a memory bank via the keyboard buttons (i pressed ‘M1′).
3. Then select a G key. The driver software should change to the G key you just pressed, if its not already selected.
4. Now press the key sequence you want to use in OSX. One of the macros i made was ‘Windows+Q’, which translates to Command-Q. Note the sequence of key presses should appear in the macro window for that key.
5. Press the MR button again.
6. This being an keyboard shortcut with no cooldowns to worry about, I went and deleted the 50 ms delay step between the ‘Lwin’ and ‘Q’ key down steps, and the last two ‘Lwin’ and ‘Q’ key up steps.

Repeat for as many osx functions as you need.

Once that’s done, to save these to the keyboard:
7. Click the ‘Save to K90′ button on the ‘Manage Profiles’ tab. There’s a little progress counter that counts to 100%. Course you can imagine  that this step is quite compulsory.

Now simply boot up into OSX, and you’re done! For me, suddenly i have command-Q as a one button press. Awesome. I’ve got one setup to fire up ‘Bevy’ also, and one to trigger ‘MenuPop’ so far.

So i must say how impressed i was by this working. There’s some smarts in the keyboard firmware, beyond the other keyboards.. namely this hardare mode, which is damn awesome. I had a not so perfect impression of this keyboard due to the membrane keys on the home/end cluster (and the fact that the membrane keys are crap), but this redeems that and then some.

Well done!! Thumbs up Corsair. Now could we get this board fully mechanical with an option for Cherry MX Brown switches please!!!

First, i just went and -purchased- my keyboard. I really doubt most of the current reviews did. Sadly, i’ve been noticing a lot of that in online reviews recently.. look at all the press praise for SWTOR for example.. and then look at what the user consensus of the game is.. anyways..

Quick background.. I like good keyboards. Ever since using those really, perfectly awesome keyboards on the “IBM compatible” pc’s in my year 9 computing class (early 90′s).. then, not appreciating how good the old honeywell keyboards really were when using them later, then really enjoying the first few generations of dell keyboards in the late 90′s early 2000′s.. it was pretty much a downward spiral of crap ever since as far as keyboards went. You’d think that people had forgotten what a good keyboard was. Ok, might not have been that bad.. The keyboards on the IBM/Lenovo thinkpads, and the IBM performance keyboards thinking about it, were pretty nice… And now at last, over the last 2 years or so, mechanical keyboards are becoming available again in the enthusiast market.

And now i’ve got my second, the corsair k90.

Here’s it, coming from the idea of wanting just a very nice keyboard to type on.

Last year sometime, i got a Razer Blackwidow after trading a bunch of stuff in at EB.
- The thing is built well. I reckon its total bullshit when anyone speaks down on that keyboard for the build. The piano finish can get VERY dirty, but the thing is a rock. It is -HEAVIER- than the K90, just is, sorry youtube people. It also feels better built, not in the sense of the missing gutter around the keys, but in terms of the plastic used in the overall body vs the K90. Bullshit that its inferior in build.
- Sadly, the cherry blues are too heavy to type on. I’ve always had a heavy, punchy type action with my fingers, and the extra actuation with they heavy type didn’t work for me. I felt a subconscious pain when typing. Works great for gaming sessions, even longer ones once you get used to it.. but try writing a long document, or coding on it.. and it just didn’t feel as fluid on the keys as i would have liked.
- To the point about the blue vs red cherry switches, you do get a more satisfying punch from the blues when you press the keys, and it is happiness to the hardware enthusiast in me, but that means squat in the middle of typing a sentence, and all you constantly reminded of is the force being too hard.
- It doesn’t have multimedia keys. You’d be surprised at how much you actually miss em once you don’t have them (i was using a logitech illuminated before the blackwidow).

So then i went and picked up a Corsair K90. In short, its a great keyboard. After typing a few sentences, i knew i would absolutely be replacing the blackwidow. But, i DON’T think its as good as the sponsored press reviews and youtube reviews make it out to be.
- Its not as crazy built as people claim. Its a solid build for sure, the metal parts are metal, but the plastic section on the right is not as nice, and well finished, compared to the dense, hard plastic of the blackwidow.
- I might have to wear them in a bit, but the non cherry keys on the K90 feel shit. I’ve used much better feeling membrane mechanisms before. They’re really crap. Does this impact me? Only for the delete, home, end, page up,  and page down keys. I think its really strange that they made the num pad mechanical, but made the cluster above the arrow keys membrane. I’m strongly suspect more people use those keys than the num pad. Don’t get it. I mean the delete key is membrane.. you bash that all the time. See, the problem with the membrane keys is.. worse than any keyboard in recent history.. you get NO feedback on the key on when its been actuated. They sort of land in a cheap pillow of force. Not in a good way.
- The cherry reds on the rest of the keyboard are faffin awesome. Its not head and shoulders above the best typing experience i’ve had to crown them king, but they’re up there with the… very best. See how they fare over time. Thinking about it.. they feel like an “above average”, high quality keyboard from the 90′s.
- Multimedia buttons!! Woot! Made of plastic except the wheel, Fail!!!
- I had no problems with my LED’s, unlike the poor few people on amazon. Add one to the good pile if you’re reading around.
- The cord is impressively thick and sturdy lookin.
- Small mention about the handrest, it feels good, but i have big hands.. and it seems to be about 1cm too short for me.
- The keys are also, well, as soft as keyboard keys get. Some sort of rubber coating? Subjectively i really like the feeling, though if your hands are greasy it does wipe off onto the keys easily.
- Something that is interesting neat about this keyboard.. the fact that there is no shrouding around the keys.. If you have an older keyboard, turn it upside down and shake it. The stuff, and the quantity of stuff, that falls out is unmentionable to the point of being humerous, usually. When i blow the crap off this keyboard, all the tuft is going to fall out just fine. That’s brilliant.

So its good, but I’m not THAT impressed with it. I can imagine how enthusiastic those people who received one free in the mail would be, but im a paying customer, so feel the urge to be honest.
- If you type lots, cherry mx red switches feel better than the blues (i havent tried blacks, but given they’re a strong force, would be torture for long typing). 45gs of keypress force feels just right for me.
- If you have a use for the programmable G keys, id say the K90 is awesome and recommended, as you get all those, as well as the media keys.
- If you don’t have a use for the G keys however, i’d not get the K90 and go for a fully fledged cherry red keyboard. Not having to deal with the non mechanical keys i reckon would outweigh any other advantage the K90 has. I also just checked my favourite enthusiast online retailer.. and it seems there are some tangibly cheaper boards available that don’t have the extra buttons but are full cherry red.

So closing back on keyboards in general.. are cherry red’s the new typing nirvana from the 80′s and 90′s? Right now, i’d say no. See.. i like the reds. I like em alot. From recent and past experiences… what would be ultimate for me is a low actuation clicky keyboard. Just like the ones that used to exist, lol.

EDIT: After a good session programming, really, really starting to like these cherry MX red switches. There’s sadly no punch to the keys, but when you’re in flight typing, and not thinking about the keyboard, they come accross very well.

And seems like i’m a mechanical keyboard noob also. cherry brown’s are what i may be after, clickly keyboard with 45g force. Will save one of those for the next impulse.

Subjective EDIT2: After 2 more days of usage, personally, I LOVE this keyboard. When you’re not thinking about it, the cherry reds are, well, a real pleasure to type on. While they don’t have a nice click clack, the the responsiveness they provide hold their own surprisingly, delightfully, and consistently well (as a bonus, I think my gf is also having a small party inside her head from not having to hear the loud clicks from the cherry blues). The membrane keys kinda.. become acceptable, but if you happen to think about it, they always come across as a tad shit. Sadly that impression didn’t go away. This is still disturbing as i purchased it because its a mechanical keyboard.

What tipped the scale to positive is the smarts on the board. I’ve got a bunch of uses for the G keys, I use OSX alot, and that is a really keyboard heavy operating system. Its a dream to have the CMD+Q’s etc on one button. I also use the G buttons when trading currencies as well to buy/sell different markets. Now what’s nice about the G keys? First, there’s tonnes of them. As in, 54. Beyond other keyboards (that i’ve seen anyway), the K90 is capable, once setup in Windows, for your recorded macro’s to be played back in hardware. From testing, this feature is absolutely independent of the driver software, so WORKS in OSX! That, and the fact that its one of the few mechanicals with multimedia keys.. wins over the fairly crap membrane keys that are so sadly present on the board. And the plastic silver buttons. And the fact you can tell the G keys were just grafted onto the the end of a K60 body.

But don’t that spoil it for you.. the function of this board (general typing on mx reds, multimedia keys, and hardware smart g keys) is enough to score a win with me. Nice!

A few days ago, i got 3 free days in Rift for changing my password.
- The graphics are best for mmo’s. Epic, good use of shaders, lots of detail. Rocks. I don’t believe it will age badly. Wow has aged well in large because of the details, not  the simple style. If you look at wow, there’s incredible detail where it counts (character models etc). Rift has this also.
- The soundtrack is uninspiring. Not having that powerful emotional draw that wow (at least before cata) had in the intitial experiences doesn’t do well for the experience.
- Probably what kills it, seals the deal of why no sub for rift is: Bad looking armor. There’s no endgame carrot for me. Worse, there isn’t even a skimpy outfit for my female toon while she’s levelling, except for the starter set maybe. That’s crap. Without an engame carrot, this is just a really well done version of wow, without the emotional hooks.

A more bland wow that’s polished better.

Id probably pay if they added good looking armor sets. Skimpy ones too. While searching for rift armour, seems there are many threads about the lack of skimpy armor at least in Rift. Before i played again, i thought, fine, prude developers (wonder why lotro, another well built mmo is free to play? but from a few days in the game, this is definitely not the case. There’s female npc’s in close to bikini’s in all pockets of the world. So why no sets for players? Dumb.

Lol, also looks like swtor is dead. Medium graphics forever. That sealed the ‘NO’ decision for me. Another bioware fail.. Geez, these guys used to be good.

- Me finishing the game says alot about the game.

- The main difference between Portal 1 and 2, to me at least, is the enhanced story in Portal 2. Added massively to the experience, and kept me going. I wanted to see how it would end. In a really strong way too.. it wasn’t a constant feed of story, it was subtle, and i -just wanted- to know what would happen at a fundamental level.

- The difficulty is so insanely right. On a number of occasions, i wanted to cheat, but stopped myself thinking “hang on, i know if i just stick at this, the solution will come”. And spookily enough, it did. Massively rewarding too, that it was ok not to cheat. There’s a strong degree of logic even to the most challenging levels, which makes the whole experience very possible. I only really cheated once, and don’t feel bad. Who would have walked down one level of stairs and looked down the shaft?

- I initially didn’t like the direction the game took midway through. And at the time, i kinda wanted to finish it too. But as second 1/2 of the game progressed, the atmosphere matured really well, and by the end, left the left a great impression of the setting. Portal took that theme and made it its own. Very nicely done (sorry for this spoiler even).

So how did it go? Very satisfied with the gaming experience. Its got story, didn’t over extend itself, and the difficulty pacing was perfect.

But due to it being a puzzle game.. i’ll abstain from giving it a score. If you’re going to be interested in solving puzzles in first person format.. guess this is the only game that does it.. and it does it bloddy well.

Further, i typically don’t like puzzles. I liked Portal 2.

The graphics were excellent btw! Soundtrack is average. Except for the girl ai voice. She’s very soothing… lol.

Thinking back to all those teachers i had back in primary school and the like.. ok, if you’re going to be ‘humble’, first rule is you don’t -call- yourself humble. Your actions will speak for that.

Second, when your humble, selfless, unassuming bundle grosses over 2 million, you don’t make a press release, boasting about the achievement. That’s absolutely not humble.

Seems more to be like ‘Self obsessed 5 seconds of fame woot indie bundle’ is better. Humble it is not!

Goldman Sachs rules the world.

And if anything, its definitely the case that trades without analysis have a much higher chance of failing than do trades that are properly anticipated.

And its very timeconsuming to be responding to the market without doing analysis. See if i wasn’t staring at the far right bar for so long.. i might actually have time to do analysis.. lol.

That one should have clicked a long time ago, hence the post.

First, this game has the best graphics i’ve seen. Think witcher 2, with more details added into each scene from a bigger budget title, but low detailed view distance, using tricks to hide the fact that the game is running on a 7800gtx. But still, somehow, best graphics i’ve seen in a video game. The fact that you don’t notice at all during the gameplay you’re running though a, nervermind, is such great credit to the developers.

For many years, in my head the top position for game soundtrack was tossed around between Funcom/Squaresoft/Blizzard depending on the day. Uncharted 3 blew them all out of the water to take a firm best soundtrack in a video game.

If you’ve played a previous uncharted, you’ve been treated to some of of the most well done action sequences in video games. In uncharted 3, you get one of everything, and they’re slightly more polished than before. Most of them except 1 (maybe 2) have been done before.. but thinking about the feature action sequences where you do epic stuff, that you usually get only 1 of in other games, at the end of uncharted 3 you’re very content and satisfied.

So why the odd feeling? See the first 1/2 of the game was perfect. Literal 10/10 material, couldn’t be better. If you’ve played any of the previous uncharted games, and happen to not get off on putting a bullet in someones head (or have been doing it for 15 years and don’t care anymore), the action sequences can be tedious at worst. As in you’re kinda annoyed that another wave of mobs just spawned and you’re forced to deal with them. The first 1/2 of uncharted 3.. finally nailed it. It was perfect, the amount of story vs the amount of platforming vs the amount of shooting. The pacing had me looking forward to the combat. Then, just when the story should have gotten good.. it suddenly drops off and goes back to teenage bang bang uncharted. The exploring stops, the story stops, and the last 1/3rd of the game is basically gunplay. And yes, i sat though it, and yes, i was just hoping it would end. Shooting, no story. Shooting…

Of course during this final shooting, not for a second did the presentation drop.. graphics and sound got BETTER for those bits. Shame the story dropped… and was just shooting

It went from perfect to.. less than perfect.

I had one more serious irk from this almost perfect game. Excellent, and almost compulsory single player features that were in BOTH uncharted 1 and 2 are missing.. the ability to replay the ingame cutscenes, and the single player cheat unlocks (basically cheats are purchased by collecting currency from doing things ingame). Why is this sad? Because the cutscenes are so GOOD in uncharted 3, when they happen. EDIT: A cutscene viewer has been patched in! Woot! And i really wanted to playthrough again with the unlimited ammo unlock at least.

No seriously the drop off did make me sad. Still, its got the best graphics and sound and polish. Can’t be that bad.

When i was a kid, i remember liking video games because they were interactive. How could you watch movies like other kids, when you could be playing games and keeping your mind going as well. With uncharted 3, i can finally say i’ve played my interactive movie. I’ll take my movie in game form, thanks.

9.38/10.

p.s. Uncharted 3 also takes the crown for best virtual chicken prop in a game. Chickens have been a staple prop in video games.. the chickens in uncharted 3 are spectacular.

pps. Do NOT watch the bonus features that get unlocked with the game. Not one of the interviewees says it directly, but if you add all the comments they made about the development process.. there’s a really strong hint at why the story dropped this game.. Too much information!!! Don’t get me wrong here.. the presentation, graphics and soundtrack have raised the bar for “perfect” in video game quite significantly..

Since preordering Uncharted 3 at the beginning of October, i’ve been trying to make myself finish Uncharted 2 (which i got out of a bargain bin, as with uncharted 1). I tried all sorts of things, even purchased an Aimon PS (a controller where the right analogue stick is actually a mouse), and finally got to the happy state where my ps3 was connected to my pc monitor, and all was good. I ended up doing it over 3 sessions.. one to start (which stopped, as i didn’t see any nice forests in the first hour of the game), the second to play the bulk of it (which i stopped as the damn Yeti’s stressed me out), and the third to finish the last few hours (with the game set on easy) just to complete the story.

Damn glad i did. Uncharted 2 post completion, is bloody amazing. The ending is so strong after the not so inspiring bit in the monastery covered in snow. In no particular order:

- The truck sequence, thinking about it, its the second one with trucks, is the best action sequence i’ve played in a game. Seriously. I didn’t think that much fun and that much goodness was possible in an interactive scenario in a video game (and i was playing normal difficulty even!). The train sequence that got out in the previews and reviews didn’t do much for me.. probably because i was too focused on it to take in the really nice graphics that were flying past. The train sequence would have been one of those ‘better to watch someone else play it’ than play it yourself.

- Shambala takes the crown of the prettiest zone i’ve seen in a video game, ever. Its on a console too..  mindboggling. Uncharted 2 still has the crown of best use of water and shaders also.

- Story heavy action games = win. Helps if you like Indiana Jones. Characters were excellent.

- Having a mouse to aim (once its been setup and the sensitivity set up just right) increases your quality of life insanely.

- On normal difficulty, every single mob in this game has a health bar as large as spiders to in Aus. Dammit, they’re so large they should have an option to display them to help you out. Setting the difficulty to Easy (theres Very Easy also) makes mobs die after a believable number of bullets.

- There was only two or three places in the game where the waves of respawns felt like one too many. And thinking about it.. for the set piece, it was probably perfect.. the only reason it was noticable was there wasn’t a long enough rest with exploring/story before the last gunfight sequence. Pacing bugs?

- Interesting effects of playing Uncharted with a mouse: 1) It doesn’t completely fix the aiming problems. That means they’ve considered the fact that players are hamstringed by the deadzone and 1cm or so of movement in the console controllers into the gunplay mechanics. Yuck. 2) If you move faster than said hamsringed console controls, the camera doesn’t keep up. Looking around as you would on a pc also reveals how they’ve got so much detail and such good framerate on such primitive console graphics.. in reality nearly all the maps in the game are narrow corridors. The fact that the game still looks stellar, and you actually don’t notice this when playing is sheer brilliance. 3) Then you realize you need to learn how to play like you’re playing on a console controller, just with more accurate aiming.. then uncharted with aiming via a mouse is very very creamy.

- Will say it again, its one of the greatest tragedies to befall humanity that Uncharted is a PS3 exclusive. If they only made these to run on current PC hardware… See the graphics are the best i’ve seen already.

I’m glad i got the expensive edition of Uncharted 3. Awe inspiring stuff for a video game.

Can’t wait to get cracking at 3