Warhammer Online Gameplay Video, Its Done.

This video shows the latest build of the game, shown at E3. Its clear the amount of polish and interface tweaks they have done in the past few months. There are more videos over at French website Jeuxonline.

The game is done. End-game dungeons, 20 classes, 7 races, 2 HUGE capital cities. RvR battles, Public Quests, open grouping. Its all there.

Release date is set for later this year. I'm guessing early November, to give them a chance to iron out more bugs before the Christmas holiday.

256 Players in MAG FPS, How?

Sony just announced a new game for the Playstation 3 called MAG (Massive Action Game). it supports FPS action for up to 256 players per server. How can they fit 256 players in one (1) server? How can you avoid the lag and still provide a fast paced action first-person shooter? How is that even possible?

Easy.. most FPS games offer 32-player multilayer. So to increase that number to 256, you divide the players into 32 teams of 8 players. now each team (or squad) of players communicate directly with their leader who relays that communication to the main server. Same thing happens when the server talks to the player, through the squad leader. Therefore, the server will only communicate with 32 players but manages to run a smooth game for up to 256.

This is very smart coming from Sony, and I'd like to see how they'll implement it in the game.

Internet Speak, Shorthands, and Acronyms

These are some common shorthands and acronyms used in the web, email, and instant messengers like MSN. I quoted this list from Answers.com. This is most useful reference for when you receive such acronyms in an online conversation.

AFAIK As far as I know.
AFK Away from keyboard.
ATM At the moment.
AWGTHTGTTA Are we going to have to go through this again.
AYT Are you there.
BBL Be back later.
BFN Bye for now.
BRB Be right back.
BTDT Been there, done that.
BTW By the way.
CUL See you later.
DETI Don't even think it.
DQMOT Don't quote me on this.
EBCAK Error between chair and keyboard.
EBKAC Error between keyboard and chair.
F2F Face to face.
FOAF Friend of a friend.
FWIW For what it's worth.
FYI For your information.
GAL Get a life.
GD&R Grinning, ducking and running.
GMTA Great minds think alike.
HB Hurry back.
HHOK Ha, ha, only kidding.
IANAL I am not a laywer, but...
IAW In accordance with.
IMCO In my considered opinion.
IMHO In my humble opinion.
IMO In my opinion.
IOW In other words.
JK Just kidding.
JOOTT Just one of those things.
KK Okay, all right.
LMAO Laughing my a** off.
LOL Lots of luck.
LYLAS Love ya like a sister.
MWA A kiss (the sound of "mwa.")
MYOB Mind your own business.
N2M Not too much.
NIH Not invented/invited here.
OIC Oh, I see.
OTOH On the other hand.
OTP On the phone.
PAL Parents are listening.
PEBCAK Problem exists between chair and keyboard.
PEBKAC Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
PIR Parents in room.
PLBCAK Problem lies between chair and keyboard.
PLBKAC Problem lies between keyboard and chair.
PMJI Pardon my jumping in.
PTG&LI Playing the game and loving it.
RL Real life.
ROFL Rolling on the floor laughing.
STFU Shut the f*** up!
SUP What's up?
TANSTAAFL There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
TIA Thanks in advance.
TTFN Ta, ta for now (goodbye).
TTT Thought that too.
TTYL Talk to you later.
TU Thank you.
TY Thank you.
WFM Works for me.
YT You there?

ASUS B51, Now That's One Tough Laptop

The rugged ASUS B51 notebook computer can survive being run over by a car! Now that is the way these things aught to be built. Other laptop makers, please observe and copy.