The latest PC patch for GRID added native TrackIR support for the game. Previously I was using a little hack, making my PC think TrackIR was a joystick so I could look around in the driver seat that way. This is much better, you can look around further in all directions and it has 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DOF).

I recorded a video of the new feature. Keep in mind that I had the sensitivity set too high and I still need to tweak is somewhat. The game is a lot more immersive with this feature.

Video after the break:

I found some new ArmA 2 Screenshots online this morning. They're pretty sweet, the new Russian setting looks awesome. Makes me pine for a STALKER mod for ArmA 2.

Every Saturday I play ArmA with ShackTac. The game on it's own isn't really all that much, but there is a ton of potential, and with the right group it's the most amazing gaming experience I've ever had. I figured I'd get my son started while he's still young.

I took a short video of his first run through with TrackIR in the game, he didn't like it at first but he warmed up to the idea by the end. You can see the video after the break.

Thanks to the weekend Steam sales I now have a healthy backlog of games to play through. It's not big by any means, but when you've got a newborn, any backlog is a big one.

Thankfully there aren't any RPGs in the list, that would just make it unbearably long to get through.

Beyond Good & Evil™

It's shameful that I still haven't played through this game, and for $10 on Steam I couldn't pass up the opportunity to give it a go.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men™

I picked this up for $20 on a sale weekend. It's alright so far, certainly not worth more than $20 though. I wouldn't say it's terrible; it doesn't deserve the bad press it's gotten.

Call of Juarez™

$10 on Steam and it was a steal. It's a by the numbers shooter with a few twists and in a Western setting. How can you go wrong? Some of the art is really shitty at times, but overall it's a solid games. If only it didn't take 5 minutes to load each level.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

My favorite game from last year. I'm replaying this with the Oblivion Lost mod. It makes a great game even better. I'd recommend this game to anyone in a heartbeat.

Thief: Deadly Shadows

Fantastic game through and through. Well deserving of a replay. Sadly this is last on my list of games to play through, I haven't even started my second run yet.

I made some more updates to the website.  The biggest of which is integrating the php pages I'd written with the Joomla frontend.  All of them are working except for worth.php which was timing out.  I fixed that problem by reverting it to it's original code.

Additionally I've upgraded the .css sheet so that the width of the page is no longer fixed.  It's not completely open, but it has maximum and minimum values it'll float between depending on your browser.

I've gotten some nice comments about my signatures and I'd like to thank the people who have taken the time to email me.  I spent a lot of time coding these and it's always nice to get some recognition. 

I've also coded a neat little video player page that will use an embedded player for AVI and WMV files.  It's neat because it uses the natural resolution of the file.  I plan to upload more videos in the future, the ones I have there now are mostly for testing purposes.