Dreamkiller
June 30th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Dreamkiller is a new PC/Xbox 360 game currently in development by developer Mindware Studios, the makers of the popular first-person shooter Painkiller. Not ringing a bell? That’s understandable. When Painkiller was released five or so years ago, it mostly served as a very well produced throwback to classic shooting games like Quake and Doom. As you may imagine, the main concept behind Dreamkiller is very, very similar in that regard.
What’s the premise? Essentially, the game stars a psychiatrist named Alice Drake who can slip inside the minds of her patients in an effort to battle the monsters within and free the of his or her mental disorder or issue. A little hokey? Perhaps, but at the same time, oh so cool. Each and every mind you enter has a distinct style to it, with different monsters and environments, and where it gets interesting is when Alice discovers that there is some outside force doing this to these people.
Like Painkiller, Dreamkiller is a very fast-paced first person shooter. So the majority of the time Alice will be blasting away dozens of enemies at a time, and using some pretty big guns to do it, such as chainguns, etc. Only one weapon can be held at a time, but you can also put a secondary weapon attachment to use, which helps spice things up. However, in addition to this weaponry Alice has a few key abilities, one of the first and most notable being pyrokinesis: the ability to toss fire at her enemies. She can also make use of telekinesis(moving objects with her mind) and even teleport. The fourth ability is that of Berserk mode, which is activated when you filll up the kill meter, located at the top right corner of the screen. This is perhaps one of the coolest things about the gameplay, as Alice suddenly becomes far faster and stronger, and the screen goes all crackly in an eerie way for a period of time.
Even though there are a lot of features that can really spice up the shooting action, the core gameplay as you move from level to level is very arena-like; again, much like games such as Quake and Doom. As you enter a room, it will be closed off as enemies swarm you. Until you defeat them all, you won’t be able to move on to the next area. If that frustrates you, you had better leave the game alone. But if you are into the oldschool shooting action, this may be a game for you.
Tags: dreamkiller, xbox 360 game, mindware studios, alice drake
The Most Common Xbox Problems
June 18th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Does the Red Ring of Death sound familiar? The Microsoft gaming console, the Xbox, continues to be plagued with problems. Common xbox problems include the red ring of death, one ring error, two rings of light, and a four ring error.
What the heck do these errors even mean? The Red Ring of Death is when the power button illuminates in three quadrants (1, 3, and 4). When this error occurs your console will lock up – the only option is to hard reset the device by unplugging it and plugging it back in. Occasionally an E74 error will display on the television screen. This is the number one defect on the xbox console, and Microsoft was forced to extend the warranty an additional two years.
Other xbox problems include the one ring error, in which the lower right hand ring is lit. Additionally more details will be displayed on the television. Be advised the error details are often errors themselves. The console detects a problem but fails to detect the underlying reasons. The two ring error indicates that your console is overheated, and the four ring error denotes there is an A/V problem.
The Red Ring of Death error is caused by your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) coming lose due to high heat. The reason for overheating is that Microsoft shrunk the cooling unit in order to accommodate the DVD drive. You can fix your xbox problems by readjusting the cooling unit on the motherboard.
Other causes for the errors include the heat sinks for the CPU and GPU being too small, not dispersing the heat well enough. The high heat makes the solder that holds the CPU and GPU in place very brittle, which makes it easy to break.
Without a GPU your xbox problems only get worse. Microsoft charges $110 for the repair if you are out of warranty, however; there are plenty of Do It Yourself guides available for purchase.
Microsoft did not create the xbox with that of their consumers in mind. At the time they were determined to get the unit on the shelves before the PlayStation 3 console came out. Consumers paid the price for Microsoft’s mistakes. The company overlooked many problems, thus causing the plethora of xbox problems. Should Microsoft be charging consumers for their mistakes? No. But it wouldn’t be Microsoft if they did.
Be careful when purchasing an xbox on auction sites or at garage sales. Your $50 used gaming system could cost you a lot more… $110 more to be exact. With some of the errors, you may need to replace an entire component (such as DVD drive). A quick Google search of xbox problems can provide you with valuable DIY resources.
Find Some Xbox Repair Guides Below
1) XBox 360 Repair Guide
2) Xbox 360 Red Light Fix Pro
3) Xbox 360 Ring Of Death Fix
Tags: xbox problems, red ring of death, xbox 360 problems
