NoLaFF

Quakecon 2008 Dates Announced!

John — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:47:00 GMT

It's that time of year again for Quakecon! Quakecon is one of the largest FREE LANparties in all of USA and probably the world for that matter. Quakecon is an annual event hosted by the people who make Quake (id software) and a bunch of volunteers. They do play more than just id software games in the BYOC, but the official tournaments are usually only for id software games. Anyway it's a pilgrimage that any gamer should make at least once in their life and it is a ton of fun. This year is an early...(read more)

Cox High Speed Internet Tier Upgrades Coming Soon!

John — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:50:00 GMT

I had heard rumors, or stories from a friend of a friend that Cox Communications would be upgrading their two top end residential internet tiers. So naturally I took this news with a grain of salt until last night when I received a plain old snail mail letter from Cox. Basically the letter said price for service was going up (nothing new there) and that the Preferred Service Tier was going to 12Mbps while the Premier Service Tier is going to 20Mbps. The faster speeds shoud be really nice when coupled...(read more)

Cox Communications Upgrading Nationwide to 1 Ghz!

John — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:48:00 GMT

There is a fine little article here about Cox Communications and what they are doing to delivery better internet and entertainment services than ever before. In short Cox is taking many different approaches to improve bandwidth effeciency along all of their communication lines that will in turn allow them to provide to their customers better service than ever before. They have already taken a major step in the right direction by having over 70% of their Markets networks upgraded to 1Ghz speed. This...(read more)

TeamFortress 2 Battle, Friday Night November 9th!

NightShade — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:37:00 GMT

A bunch of t he NOLAFF staff members have managed to have nothing to do this upcomming Friday night so we figured we would host a Team Fortress 2 battle. Come and play on the server and give us a run for our money (a.k.a. Get the beating you deserve)! This will be going on all night so feel free to jump in and out of the server as you see fit. So if your up for the challenge then you know where to find us!...(read more)

NOLAFF TF2 Server!

John — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:56:00 GMT

Just in case you live under a rock (or Fema trailer) Valve's Orange Box has been released. Once your done playing all the levels in Portal (and you get your cake) come and join us on the NOLAFF Team Fortress 2 server. The ip is nolaff.com. That should be easy enough for anyone to find, but we are posting it here as we would like to play against some of the NOLAFF regulars. See you there....(read more)

Cox Deploys SDV in Virginia!

John — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:48:00 GMT

Cox has deployed Switched Digital Video (SDV) in Virginia in the hope of releasing more bandwidth to deliver more HD channels. SDV works by only "turning on" watched channels. Currently Cox delivers all their channels all the time wether or not anyone is watching. This takes up bandwidth and is wasteful as even if no one is watching Lifetime network the channel is still being broadcast. With SDV the channel is only broadcast when someone tunes into that channel. With the amount of bandwidth that...(read more)

NOLAFF 22 FAQ!

John — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:09:00 GMT

With NOLAFF 22 less than 24 hours away I figured I would do a quick FAQ about the event tomorrow and what you will need in order to be prepaired. It has been awhile since we held a LANparty so for the most part this FAQ is meant to be a simple refresher. What time does the event start, and where is it at? The event will start at 9 am, but we will be there earlier than that setting up the network and tables. If you would like to help setup you can show up earlier than 9 and give us a hand. The event...(read more)

Cox Targets 50 HD Channels by Year-End!

John — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:50:00 GMT

Like almost everyone I know that has an HDTV the only grip/complaint that we have about our HDTVs is that there is not an adequate amount of content. I find that I'm so spoiled by the picture quality that HD brings that to watch anything not in HD is painful. This is even more painful when during football season you go to a friends house to watch the game only to find out they don't have a HDTV set (Or even worse, they have an HDTV set, but are watching a standard definition feed of the game). Well...(read more)

NOLAFF 22 to be held on June 30th!

John — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:44:00 GMT

NOLAFF 22 has a date booked and set in stone for Saturday June 30th. This event is going to be held at the usual hotel location at the Days Inn and is located at 3400 I-10 Service Road, South, Metairie, LA. 70001 . So far this event is going to be console only. Since it is very easy to switch from one game to another for consoles I would suggest just bringing your entire game library, but so far the main games that will be played are Gears of War, Halo, and Guitar Hero. We are open to suggestions...(read more)

Blizzard Officially Announces Starcraft II

John — Sat, 19 May 2007 18:59:00 GMT

For those who may not know Blizzard has had a countdown each day for the past week and a half describing the wonderful games they have made over the years. The countdown was active for a big announcement that Blizzard is officially announcing Starcraft II as the next game to be released that they are activley developing (So much for the console Starcraft: Ghost game). Any Starcraft fan like myself is extatic about this announcement, however in typical Blizzard style there is no release date announced...(read more)

Xbox 360 HD-DVD Update!

John — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:12:00 GMT

The HD-DVD add-on drive for the 360 just got an update that makes the unit that much better. If you haven't gotten into the next generation of DVD players (HD-DVD, and Blu-ray) and you have a nice BIG screen HDTV you may want to give them a look. The picture quality will really bring out the full capabilities of what a HDTV can do and simply looks increbile. Next week there is going to be a ton of "must have" titles released including the Matrix Collection, and hopefully these movies will do for...(read more)

NOLAFF 22!

Chad — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:13:00 GMT

I've confirmed with our host hotel that they have finished all reconstruction and that the ballrooms that we use for NOLAFF are once again opened! What we now need to know is what would you guys like to play? We have done everything from PC, XBOX, XBOX 360, PS2 and Duck Tape the new kid. I've started a forum thread to discuss this. Let us know what you would like to see and we can get started with the planning! As always, these events are for you. If you don't voice your suggestions, don't complain...(read more)

Spring Xbox 360 Update to be Released in May!

John — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:08:00 GMT

The Xbox 360 update for Spring 07 is almost here and several new tweaks and features for the 360 will be introduced. Microsoft will be introducing tweaks to the messaging abilities of the 360 and even releasing a new thumb keyboard for messaging. Should help make the "Live Anywhere" service that much better. More improvements on background downloading, and even more support for h.264 and MPEG-4 video formats are among some of the other improvements. For a full list of improvements just follow this...(read more)

Xbox 360's Guitar Hero II controler works in Windows!

John — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 04:16:00 GMT

As you can tell from the title of this post the 360 version of Guitar Hero II controller works perfectly in Windows. So you know what that means? Plenty of extended play value via Guitar Hero II controller and Frets on Fire ! For those who do not know Frets on Fire is an open source game the is pretty much identical to Guitar Hero except that for the most part it is played on a keyboard, but can easily be changed to now work with the USB guitar. The real bonus is that this game has an entire on-line...(read more)

Exclusive Console Game List Update!

John — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 12:46:00 GMT

Gaming Target has an updated list of console exclusive games and the rules by which all games were judged as being exclusive or being denied the label of exclusive. After the count the 360 has the most "exclusive" titles and easily beats out the PS3 and Wii....(read more)

Unbanned for Blood!

John — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:39:00 GMT

So with MMO's being as popular as they are for a gamer to become banned for whatever reason can be like an agonizing hell for the serious MMO player. Multiply that torture by the minutes that you have invested into your character/account and it quickly becomes close to unbearable. Now if the MMO game companies would just follow the example of this chinese MMO company that simply ask you to donate blood to become unbanned then the world would be a better place. No more blood shortages (or at least...(read more)

Gears of War PC Edition?!?

John — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:22:00 GMT

According to the site here it's only a matter of time until Gears of War ends up on the PC. We already have a ton of game ports, but what I would really like to see a convergence of titles where PC gamers can interact with console gamers, and it has happened with Final Fantasy (PC and PS2). Here to hoping with the new consoles out that we see more games include multiplayer across multiple platforms (other than just PC and Mac)....(read more)

sorry.. have to brag a little :)

Sal — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 20:12:00 GMT

gg Guys :) (View the entire post to see the Image) -- Sal...(read more)

Compatible Vista Software List

John — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:10:00 GMT

Still wondering if you should take the plung and upgrade to Vista? Well you know eventually you will, but for the potential early adopters installing Vista only to find out that the one program you can't live without won't work on Vista really sucks. Here is a list of the Vista compatible software titles. That list can really help to clear the muddy mirky waters that can often slow adoption of new software. ***UPDATE*** Just in case you are still neverous about installing Vista there is a how to...(read more)

The Perfect Mardi Gras, Chair/Couch

John — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:37:00 GMT

With Mardi Gras already in swing I figured it couldn't hurt to give some pointers as to what is possibly the best Mardi Gras Chair/seat/couch solution EVER ! Once the parade is over you can simply bring it together, throw it away, or just remain seated. Either way it looks to be simple, light, portable, and highly configurable....(read more)

Real Men Wii Standing Up!?!

John — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 16:24:00 GMT

Two friends were playing Wii sports while one was standing doing the full body motions (that nature intended) the other was sitting down "keeping it real" and was just flicking his wrist. The flicker said, "I have been playing games for years by pressing buttons and sitting down! Why would I change now?" He has a point, but just to bug the flicker a bit more he designed a T-shirt with the saying Real Men Wii Standing Up ! My question to those who have a Wii is how do you play? Standing up, sitting...(read more)

Playstation 3's Stolen from Elmwood UPS Distrobution Center!

John — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:52:00 GMT

update: engadget -- Sal Well you can see from the link here and here that 3 UPS employees stole about $19,000 worth of PS3 equipment that was supposed to be shipped to various retailers. I thought shipments to our area seemed to be a bit lighter than what other retailers were getting around the country. Whats even more interesting is how the Ebay market for the PS3 has all but collapsed as more and more auctions end with only a bit above retail price, or with no bids at all. The sudden drop in demand...(read more)

More HD is Good News to Me!

John — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:48:00 GMT

Cox Communications never really does do a good job at communicating with it's customers about new changes/upgrades to their services. You usually hear about them long after they have been added, unless if you notice them yourself. First they have added some new "interactive" channels in the 800s (available on Digital Cable) that include simple card games, and current weather and limited weather forecast data. What I really care about is the two new HD channels that Cox just slipped into it's lineup....(read more)

PS3, Wii, and XBOX 360 Comparison.

John — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:07:00 GMT

The three consoles have been compared and graded by Entertainment Weekly with the pros and cons of each of the next gen consoles. The 360 has run away with the highest grade of A- for having the best overall benefit as of now. Last year today (November 22nd 2005) the xbox 360 had just launched, and now microsoft has launched their full HD movie and t.v. show download service for the 360....(read more)

Microsoft Stock gets an Upgrade!

John — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:28:00 GMT

Credit Suisse has increased Microsoft's stock from "neutral" to "outperform" due to their strong standing and gains in the digital entertainment market. In other words Microsoft stock is getting an upgrade because the Xbox 360 is looking good compared to the PS3 and Wii. Now that all the cards are on the table from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo we are going to start to see who will really win this console generation war....(read more)