Yesterday I bought the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Nothing special about that but what is interesting is the price online and in retail stores!

First I thought I will get it on the launch date via Xfire online-download-buy as I thought it only costs 60$ in their online-download-shop: http://callofduty.gamesplanet.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-game-xfire.html – that’s about 40€ – a good price for a new game that has been just released – but then Xfire or their parter site Metaboli messed something up in the localization and 60$ became suddenly 60€! I checked the price on a different local online-download-store by Metaboli (http://www.metaboli.com) called GamerUnlimted (http://gamerunlimited.gamesplanet.com/) and there the price has been 50$. Ok, that sounded reasonable to me and  I tried to buy it there… but the ordering process failed as I had to run through an age verification that obviously didn’t work! Yesterday I went to my local Saturn store and bought the game in the traditional way in a DVD box for 45€! Well… Metaboli just messed up. If they would have had a consistent price throughout their co-branded online-stores and a working currency conversion I probably would have spent my money on their website.

If you don’t know Modern Warfare 2 yet – go check out this video!

Photo gallery of the people buying Modern Warfare 2 in a store in Vegas on the launch date:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//091113/photos_bs_afp/dd0ba116619f629f0f2b60986b0996c5/#photoViewer=/091113/photos_bs_afp/aa9d49a0b9cbdc8f0aa999ba68ac4233

Nice MW2 website with more screenshots and videos: http://www.modernwarfare247.com/

Just in case you wonder what features the new DirectX 11 brings and what DirectX introduced in the past I’m posting these videos. Personally I’m still happy with DirectX 9 but the new version looks interesting indeed. I’m sure I will upgrade to Windows 7 and a DirectX 11 graphics card at some point but I think I’ll give it some more time.

The upper videos are more kind of ads than information but this one is really detailed although you can see that the guy in the video tries to explain everything in easy words

Today I learned about a new way of upgrading to Windows 7. Actually you don’t need to run to the store anymore or order it via the Internet. You can download it. It’s not for free of course but I think it’s much more comfortable and there is an option to order a backup disc.

URL: http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Windows-7-Home-Premium-Upgrade/product/B0F9E641

I think the most sexy feature of Windows 7 is DirectX 11 – check out a demo – it’s really neat:

I can’t believe this software is for free… I’m so amazed every time I use it! It’s so powerful and has everything I need. Kick Autodesk 3D Studio Max and other expensive professional-crap 3d packages…  Get Blender! http://www.blender.org/

The screenshot is a clock model for my ETQW map PKiN – I don’t have much time to work on this map but I’m making little progress step by step. Recently I rebuilt the roof metal material. It now even has a detail map (if the player comes very close little scratches are visible – a very cool effect).

Quentin Tarantino tends to make brutal movies. Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill are kind of splatter funny but Inglourious Basterds shocked me a little bit in some scenes, especially the one at the end (no worries – I don’t tell what’s in it). In general I liked it very much but I didn’t get rid of the feeling that I’m watching a jewish revenge-fantasy movie where Hitler dies in an assault on him in the end – it happens in a very short scene and is not mentioned further. It’s not like any other movie that shows WWII and the Nazis from a historic and educational prespecitve. It’s fiction based on WWII. This movie is what Wolfenstein is in the video gaming world: Great entertainment!

The topic is maybe not the most up to date but it’s just right for me today (sitting sick at home with headache). Obama and his Mickey Mouse diplomacy. I always thought that this guy is cleverer than Bush – No chance! He called the Czech prime minister at midnight out of bed just to tell him that he’s gonna cancel the missile defense shield deal but what’s MUCH BETTER is the date he has chosen to call the Polsih prime minister: The 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland! I call this total ignorance. Many Americans have the great talent to ignore European culture (Believe me, I work at an American company) but what Obama has done is total madness. Now Putin is going to piss on him…

… the irony couldn’t be better. Obama, who promised a lot and reached nothing yet gets the Nobel prize. For what? For his ignorant Mickey Mouse diplomacy and ignoring Eastern Europe?

Artwork by Snuggles – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihatesnuggles/

Another nice blog post about this topic: http://therobalution.com/?p=1230

Here is a funny video I found – Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama – check it out

Missing ASE? All-Seeing-Eye? The quick loading independent game server browser? I’m so sorry what happened to this company and this great piece of software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_All-Seeing_Eye

I found now a very good alternative that I can recommend: Game Scanners

DL: http://www.bdamage.se/

I got a new notebook from the company I work for. HP EliteBook 6930p. It’s fast… P8600 2.40GH dual core but then on the other hand it runs so much software in the background like the hard drive encoding software SafeBoot, Symantec Endpoint Protection and other crap that sometimes it feels like my old Celeron 1.7GH single core notebook. The case is really nice with all the space-like-lights everywhere and I like the keyboard but it has the most useless feature I’ve ever seen: A little weak light above the screen to illumine the keyboard.

Remember HP’s handspot TV-commercial campaign? Very nice…

My favorite:

Little making-of:

Photo by personalagain

This couldn’t be more bizarre. Gaddafi wants to ask the United Nations to abolish Switzerland and “share the land among its neighbouring countries”. What a moron!

More info: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/bizarre-colonel-muammar-gaddafi-plan-abolish-switzerland/story-e6freuy9-1225769557728

On the other hand there is something true in his “Switzerland is a world mafia and not a state” statement … but look at this wonderful lake. It would be a shame to divide it…

September 1. is the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II

World War II began like everyone knows with the attack of Nazi-Germany and Soviet Russia on Poland in 1939. Later Germany attacked Soviet Russia. Now Medvedev, Putin and his FSB/SWR (the KGB successor organization) comrades try to manipulate the history telling that Poland has been an ally of Nazi-Germany by spreading fake documentaries and aggressive press releases on that topic. The allegations are ridiculous saying that the foreign minister of Poland in 1939 was a German agent and that there has been a secret pact between Germany and Poland aimed at Russia signed in 1934… oh boy! That can’t be true – Soviets have been very good in manipulating history but these times should be over – it’s a shame

More info on the  Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that defined the division of Poland between the Nazis and the Soviets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov–Ribbentrop_Pact

Russian and German soldiers after the invasion on Poland

More on onet.pl (in Polish) can be found here: http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/10424,temat.html