Hey all, I’ve got some news:
I’ve officially migrated over to Ruckus7s.com! Please change your bookmarks, subscriptions, RSS feeds, etc.
It’s been a good two months, and I’d like to thank everyone who visited my WordPress.com blog – hopefully you’ll continue to check my stuff out at the new site as well!
~Jessica “Ruckus” Brohard
If this sounds like your type of game, check out my full written review at http://www.examiner.com/girl-geeks-in-columbus/strategery-review-review!
Tags: iPhone, Strategery, Strategery iOS, Strategery lite, Strategery review
Although iTunes has been pestering me to update my iPhone’s software for months now, I had my concerns; I’d been hearing reports of the new update killing battery life, and also proving difficult when dealing with the 3G network. But, after the November 28th update, which supposedly included a fix for the battery life issue, I bit the bullet and upgraded.
After the better part of an hour, the update was complete.
Please click here to continue reading the full article on my Examiner.com page!
Tags: Apple, iOS 5, iOS 5 battery drain, iOS 5 battery life, iOS 5.1, iPhone, iPhone 4
Here are my initial thoughts on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta – including gameplay! Tons of people have been bugging me to stream the game, so I decided to put some gameplay clips into a video instead.
Warning: I’m absolutely awful at CS:GO, but at least this video will display some of the basic gameplay mechanics.
Also, since EVERYONE has asked me: yes, I have one extra CS:GO beta key to give away – details to be posted at a later date!
~Ruckus
Tags: Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, CSGO, CSGO Beta, CSGO beta impressions, CSGO Gameplay, Global Offensive, Global Offensive Gameplay
Backstory
I’m terribly clumsy.
In the past few months as a direct result of my clumsiness, I’ve broken a pair of computer speakers (knocked ‘em right off my desk), a PS3 controller (spilled a glass of water directly into the drawer in which it resided), and a keyboard (tipped over a bottle of beer, emptying half its contents directly onto my BlackWidow).
After an initial panic over the spilled beer, I quickly unplugged the keyboard and flipped it over on top of a towel to let it drain as I pondered the ramifications. I then realized that I actually did not know what the effects of beer were when applied to the circuit board of a mechanical keyboard, so maybe everything would be ok. Sadly, it was not.
Solution
A flurry of Google searches led me to the idea that dismantling my keyboard and dumping distilled water directly onto the circuit board was my only hope of saving it. While this of course sounded like a terrible plan (water + electronics?), I was really left with no other option. And since my keyboard couldn’t possibly break even further, I went ahead and tried it.
There’s something innately terrifying about holding a naked circuit board over the sink and watching your boyfriend dump an entire gallon of distilled water over it. But once the deed was done, I let the circuit board dry overnight (with a bit of aid from my hair dryer), and then reassembled it.
Success!
Now, since my BlackWidow is safely put back together and functioning perfectly, I’m a little hesitant to dismantle it again simply for the purpose of taking pictures for this tutorial. Besides, every keyboard is different, so chances are that posting pictures the process of taking apart my keyboard wouldn’t help you at all. So if you’ve come here because you’re in the same situation I was, just make sure to follow these simple steps:
1. Unplug the keyboard IMMEDIATELY. This is the most time-sensitive step.
2. Purchase distilled water. This is usually sold in gallon jugs for very cheap, and can be found at any grocery or drug store. It is VERY important that you use distilled water, as it it de-ionized and therefore should not cause any electrical interference with the circuit board.
3. Dismantle the keyboard and carefully pour the distilled water over the circuit board, then set aside to dry.
4. Wash the keys and plastic casing with soap and water, and again set aside to dry.
5. After all components are sufficiently dry (you can carefully use a hair dryer to aid in the drying process if you wish), reassemble the keyboard and test it out.
6. Success! (Hopefully)
Disclaimer:
This strategy is not GUARANTEED to work. This is the method I used to clean the beer spill out of my BlackWidow, but that does not mean that you will necessarily have the same results. Also, as always when handling electronic equipment, please be sure to handle with care – I can’t be held responsible if something happens to you or your keyboard as a result of using this guide.
Anyway, hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions about the process!
~Jessica “Ruckus” Brohard
Tags: clean a blackwidow, clean a keyboard, Clean a keyboard spill, clean a mechanical keyboard, Keyboard, Keyboard spill, Razer, Razer BlackWidow, spilled on keyboard
Let me preface by saying that I love Battlefield 3. Once the game is up and running successfully and I’m in a match, it’s awesome – BEAUTIFUL graphics, awesome class-based teamwork strategies, and a variety of objective-based maps. When I’m able to actually get into a game, it’s hard to find much that I don’t like about it.
The Problem(s)
Notice that keyword “when”? Battlefield 3 isn’t exactly the most stable of games. I found that I suffered from three main problems: first, the game would take an inordinately long amount of time to load a map; second, that the game would often crash when I alt-tabbed (I’ll be damned if I’m gonna sit and stare at a loading screen that whole time); and third, that the game would sometimes crash when changing maps, even when I didn’t alt-tab out.
All these issues seemed incredibly strange given that I upgraded my PC just about two months ago – I’m now running the Phenom II 965 quad-core CPU and 4 GB of RAM, and it’s been able to handle anything else I threw at it. So I tweaked the graphics settings in the game to confirm that it wasn’t my PC that was causing the performance issues. I also changed the in-game settings to make Battlefield run in a window, which didn’t seem to help much.
Solution 1 – Long Load Times: ATT (ATI Tray Tools)
As I said before, my PC is typically able to run anything without a hitch, and even runs Battlefield 3 perfectly at max settings; so why the long load times? It could be partially due to an overloading of EA’s servers (just an initial guess), but I suspected there was more to it. I found a blog post on a community called Up In Smoke that basically hypothesized that Battlefield 3 did not natively make use of multithreading; that is, you’d have to tweak your GPU’s settings to allow it to make use of the multiple cores on your CPU. For me, that meant downloading a tool called ATT (click to go to the download page) since I have an ATI graphics card. After installing ATT, I went into the Tweaks menu, clicked Advanced Tweaks, chose Multi Thread Support from the drop down box, and entered 4 into both fields, to force it to make use of all four cores in my CPU.
If you’ve got an Nvidia card, however, you can simply open your Nvidia Control Panel, click 3D Settings, then Program Settings, find Battlefield 3 in the drop-down box, and turn on Threaded Optimization.
Solution 2 – Alt-Tab Crash: Realmware BF3 Borderless
So after a bit of Googling, I came across Realmware, the website of a small software development team that provides, among other things, software fixes for Battlefield 3. In particular, they have a tool called BF3 Borderless (click to visit the download page), a program that forces Battlefield 3 to run in a borderless windowed mode – the same trick I use with my Steam games, only Origin doesn’t provide such sophisticated launch settings. This essentially makes it look like you’re running the game in fullscreen mode, but makes alt-tabbing a lot smoother. So far, it’s not perfect, but without a doubt has made the game crash much less frequently upon alt-tab.
Solution 3 – Crash During Map Change
While I’m not quite as confident about this solution as the others (after all, BF3 Borderless already took care of most of my game crash issues), it certainly hasn’t cause MORE problems, at the very least. I came across a video (click to view) that suggested the following solution: go to http://www.evenbalance.com, download and install pbsetup.exe (PunkBuster support for many games), and run it. Click on “add a game,” choose Battlefield 3 from the drop-down box, and click “check for updates.” This will automatically download and install PunkBuster updates for the game.
Disclaimer
All three of these programs seemed to solve the problems I’d been having most of the time. I do personally recommend them, and can confirm that they do not contain malware, spyware, or any other malicious software. However, as with any new install, please use your best judgment before installing. Additionally, just because these fixes worked for me, it does not mean they are guaranteed to work for you.
Although I am recommending these three programs, I did not have any part in their development, and I cannot be held responsible for any hardware or software issues that could occur for you as a result of using them.
Hopefully these tools help you out as much as they helped me. Good luck, and see you on the battlefield!
~Jessica “Ruckus” Brohard
Tags: battlefield, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 3 alt-tab crash, Battlefield 3 change map crash, Battlefield 3 crash, Battlefield 3 crash fix, Battlefield 3 long map load, Battlefield 3 PC, Battlefield 3 PC fixes, BF3, BF3 crash fixes
I know I’m forever late (well, almost 6 months – which is basically forever in video game time), but I just now got around to playing Alice: Madness Returns for the first time, due to the combined forces of a Steam sale and the generosity of a friend. To be fair, I did send him my extra copy of Portal a while back, meaning I single-handedly introduced him to a fantastic game and a gaggle of internet memes.
Anyway, not only is A:MR a great game (more on that later), it’s an absolute godsend for taking my mind off my frustrations while wrestling with Origin in trying to play Battlefield 3 - if you’ve seen my Twitter feed at all lately (I’m sorry), you might have noticed the cacophony of complaints I’ve been lodging against EA’s digital distribution service. But that’s really for a separate, expletive-riddled blog post.
Back to the topic at hand. One of the best things so far about A:MR is that you don’t have to use Origin (ok, I promise, that’s the last time I complain about EA in this post) - the game was also released for Steam, Xbox 360, and PS3. To be honest, it’s actually refreshing to forget about competitive games for a little bit and focus on a game with a gripping storyline, an immersive world, and lovely imagery. Well, I guess I should say another game – because after all, Skyrim also fits the bill on those qualities.
If you didn’t play the first game, American McGee’s Alice, which was released over a decade ago, don’t worry. You can jump right into its sequel, as the intro cutscene provides a full recap of the events leading up to A:MR. Playing on the volatile nature of the human mind, the story opens with Alice recanting her tale to the therapist at the orphanage in which she resides as she tries to forget all memories of the fire that killed her family. From there, you’re plunged right into the dark but vivid Wonderland, with the task of collecting Alice’s memories to piece together her gruesome past and sort out fantasy from reality.
Although based on the classic child-appropriate fantasy Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the game is surprisingly dark and mature – Alice’s primary weapon is a bloodstained knife, and she collects human teeth found along the way and exchanges them for weapon upgrades. Yet at the same time, it impressively retains the whimsical nature of the original story; it includes some downright silly tasks, such as using a pepper grinder to shoot pepper into the nostrils of a flying pig snout in order to reveal hidden pathways.
On a more topical subject, everything just fits together perfectly to form the game’s world; each element (such as the soundtrack, the world’s creatures, and Alice’s frequently-changed outfit) is fittingly creepy on its own, and quite charmingly haunting when pieced all together. And here’s the real kicker: although A:MR was released almost 11 years after its prequel, the voice actress from the first returned to claim the titular role once more.
Basically, what I took over 500 words to say is that Alice: Madness Returns was underrated and horribly under-publicized. Sure, it can’t be compared to any modern-day military shooter, but it’s still a fantastic game, whether you enjoyed the first or are new to the series. Plus, with Steam’s awesome and frequent sales, it won’t break the bank – add it to your wishlist and keep your eyes peel for Steam’s upcoming holiday sale!
Tags: Alice, Alice impressions, Alice review, Alice: Madness Returns, Alice: Madness Returns impressions, American McGee's Alice, Battlefield 3, EA, Origin, Skyrim
If you’ve been watching my Twitter feed, you may have seen me tweeting about Star Wars: The Old Republic lately. Like thousands of other players, I had the pleasure of trying out the beta this weekend, and absolutely loved it. I’ve been leveling a Bounty Hunter so far – I’m only level 7, so I haven’t tried out any instances yet, but the beta does last all weekend! Check out the video to see what I thought about the beta so far.
Tags: Sith Inquisitor, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR beta, SWTOR beta impressions
I’ve logged well over 50 hours in Skyrim in the week or so since it was released – naturally, I’ve figured out a few tips and tricks after playing so much 
Hopefully these’ll help you out as well!
Thank you to my friend Julius for tip number 3!
Tags: Skyrim, Skyrim archery, Skyrim exploits, Skyrim sneak skill, Skyrim tips, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
