Category: Uncategorized

Whats the difference between 60/120/240 Hz?

Let me get some things straight first. It seems to be common misconception specially for computer people to confused the LCD’s refresh rate and frame interpolation aka Motion Flow, Auto Motion Plus, depending on the manufacturer. Your LCD’s refresh rate is either 60Hz, 120Hz or 240Hz, you can not change it by turning frame interpolation on or off. By turning it off, you will get rid of the extra frames inserted to create a smoother picture. I advise frame interpolation to be used only for watching sports.

What you need depends upon the type of material you would want to watch.

60hz LCDs will display 60fps, which is equal to the broadcast refresh rate, however introduces judder to 24 fps material(film).

120hz LCDs can display 60hz material by displaying each frame twice or interpolating motion from one frame to the next, so long as that option is available for the TV in question. As for 24fps material, some 120hz LCDs can play back this material at it’s intended rate by playing each frame 5 times. This removes any judder that was a result of the 3:2 pulldown associated with playback at 60hz.

240hz LCDs double the 120hz resulting in additional frames for interpolation.
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Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Issues

Modern Warfare 2I have been playing Modern Warfare 2 since a couple of days after the release because I got it from Steam. I have been playing with my buddies from the clan and several other friends since pretty much everybody got the game by now. It is a fun game; however, I am still annoyed with several issues that need to be addressed with the game and IW.net.

First, this matchmaking does not seem to be working for the player to make the experience simpler. The purpose of getting rid of dedicated servers was supposed to make it easier and more approachable to the casual player restricting the interface to a console-like experience. However, it has been completely the opposite effect. Since we are lacking dedicated servers, a player is going to be designated to host. If you are behind a router, as most people are, make sure you forward all the ports that are needed otherwise your NAT is going to be set to “Strict”. If you are a casual gamer, I probably lost you already but you can see my point.

Second, the party system does not seem to work without problems. It is tedious, you have to invite everybody and for some reason some of your friends will not be able to connect to your party. It always takes a couple of tries until somebody can successfully be party leader and invite without issues.

Third, on several occasions, the player that is hosting will disconnect because he either rage quits or his connection is not good enough. At this point, it is possible someone in your party will disconnect while trying to switch to another host. Not to mention the process takes about 20 to 30 seconds in a good scenario which disrupts the flow of the game and annoys all players. Continue reading “Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Issues”

Add an ‘o’ at the end and it is in Spanish!

This is a list of words in English that you can add an ‘o’ or an ‘a’ at the end
and they will actually translate to Spanish.

English Spanish
car carro
sex sexo
act acto
large largo
product producto
telephone telefono
cost costo
liquid líquido
program programa
Atlantic Atlántico
automatic automático
democratic democrático
didactic didáctico
fanatic fanático
gymnast gimnasta

Continue reading “Add an ‘o’ at the end and it is in Spanish!”

Cristiano’s top 5 games to watch for in the 2009 shopping season

5. The Beatles: Rockband The Beatles Rockband

At first when I heard about RockBand a couple of years ago, I thought it was kind of silly. Then, I started playing with some friends and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I even got my wife to be an expert on the vocals. I own a copy of Rock Band 2 Special Edition since the drums are better quality than the previous set. We play it every now and then, especially when friends come over. It is a great party game. Now, add The Beatles into the mix and this game is going to be great. Of course, if you do not like The Beatles you should probably stay away from this one, but who does not like The Beatles :P.

4. DiRT 2 Dirt 2

This is the sequel of DiRT of course, but these games are part of the Collin McRae Rally franchise. I had a lot of fun with DiRT and it is my favorite arcade racing game. Needless to say, I prefer this style of racing much better than your regular arcade street racing game.  It is just so much more fun to slide in gravel roads and look at great Mediterranean landscapes than city night lights.

Do not expect Gran Turismo realism here, this is all about speed, bumping into cars, and getting your cars dirty! I still have not decided if I will get the PC or console version but I expect both to be great successors to an already great series.

3. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Ratchet & Clank

Ratchet & Clank games are not exactly masterpieces but they are a lot of fun to play and I love this kind of humor. This series has been my favorite platform franchise since it came out on the PS2. I know Mario is supposed to be the King but he is just not cutting it for me anymore.

The first PS3 installment, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, looked very pretty and showed high production values.  The subsequent add on “Quest for Booty” was rather short but it moved the story along. I am expecting this new sequel to include more content, fun weapons, and spice up the platform shooter genre a bit more.

Continue reading “Cristiano’s top 5 games to watch for in the 2009 shopping season”

Killing Floor Guide

Searching for guides for Killing Floor, I realized there was not a single one in gamefaqs.com. So, I decided that I should create one with a little help from the guys from the clan. I am going to start it by creating a thread on our forums taking suggestions on what to add or edit.

I am planning on covering mostly strategies on how to handle enemies and finding good spots in the core maps. Hopefully, my guide will provide some more exposure to the clan and we can find more recruits. Killing Floor is an awesome game, but it is way underrated. It is only $20 bucks on Steam, and it is pretty much everything I wanted Left 4 Dead to be. I got 3 servers running on my media center that you can check out here. You can get an awesome ping in these, especially if you are in the South. Feel free to ping me if you want to join our ventrilo server.

Copyright 2009 Christian Rios

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.

$$$$$ UPDATE 08/31/2009 $$$$$

After working on it for a while, the guide finally got publish on gamefaqs.com. So, you can check it out here. Now that it was accepted, I will be adding more content to it. I will add an actual FAQ, and enemies quotes among another things.

Google AdSense Experience

I decided to try and make a little bit of money to pay for game servers and what not. So, I started looking online for the easiest way to add ads to my blog and to the clan website. I went to Yahoo but I could not find squat, everything I found was to pay them money to advertise. I think they have a program to get paid for advertisement but I could not find it. Then, I tried Google AdSense, they had denied me before so I figured I should try one more time. Luckily, this time they accepted me, my websites being better. I applied at night and they approved me the following morning.

I just hate how people put all their content online on facebook, myspace, and other social networking sites. They are driving massive amount of traffic to their website with little to no reward to you. Think about it, you do not get any money for all the views you get in your page or click to advertisement in your page. You can not even put ads of your own on the page. That is just unfair. Sure, they provide a place to put your pictures online with low quality but still. I feel like I am getting ripped off here. Continue reading “Google AdSense Experience”