Broadband, I embrace thee!

[moya]

Brothers (and Lara), it's time for me and mine to step into the glorious, technicolour TWENTY FIRST CENTURY! Where people wear shiny space suits to work and cars fly and the internet goes quicker than a lame tortoise pushing against a strong headwind... YES! It's time for me to get broadband.

I have been putting off this moment for so long, mostly because British Telecom are absolute b*stards and the best offer we can get round these parts is £14.99 a month for a 2MB down/512kb up service. Still, that's a pretty good offer all told, especially compared to some of the other metered broadband services which are so popular these days round here (usual limit is 1GB a month of downloads -- yep, that's it. 1 gig). Finally, we'll be able to talk to friends and family on the telephone while on the internet AT THE SAME TIME (cue Twilight Zone music).

But more importantly--much more importantly--I'll finally be able to join you guys for fanciful first-person frolicks in UT2004 and Swat 4 and the like. I'll probably get my ass handed to me, but STILL... Much love brothers, much love. And frags. It will be with me in roughly two weeks (BT again), and I will post an update. So until we meet virtually (when I'll no doubt have a virtual gun pointed somewhere in the region of my temple)... TTFN!

[Mochan]

Welcome aboard!

the best offer we can get round these parts is £14.99 a month for a 2MB down/512kb up service

Shutup! I pay $50 a month for a crappy 384kbps (about 50kb/s)


Anyway just say when you're ready to play and we'll be there. Oh, and you host the game so I can get some better pings. :D

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Yeah, thats about what I pay too for the same service Mochan.

Anytime you wanna get into a game of SWAT4, let us know.

[Lara]

Thanks for the inclusion Moya ;)

You do have a good deal. You're paying about half of what SBS, Mochan and I are. Mochan, that's outrageous for what you're getting!

Comcast gives us 6meg, but I still think it's over priced.
I had DSL previously, but connectivity and slow downs were driving me nuts, so I switched.

[Mochan]

Yeah, broadband infrastructure isn't in place here with any degree of efficiency, and thus is a lot more expensive. The penetration just isn't there, so it's still more of a niche market. As with all other things electronics related here, internet service is just more expensive than it is over there due to lack of economy of scale, importing and taxes (for consumer electronics), and other factors.

Still it's a vital part of my hobby so I'm willing to pay the price for it.

[Aku]

Yeah, thats about what I pay too for the same service Mochan.

Anytime you wanna get into a game of SWAT4, let us know.

Fifty bucks in US dollars? That sucks. I've gotta get SWAT 4 when it comes down in price so I can play with you guys. I like SWAT 3 enough so 4 should be a lot of fun.

[Mochan]

I'm reasonably good in Swat 4 deathmatch actually. I usually kill around 4 people before I get killed. In Aliens vs. Predator I usually die 10 times to 1 kill or something. ;P I think the ping doesn't affect me too much, that's the nice thing about these "slow" shooters.

But I don't top the games too much cuz I get lost around the map and don't find too many opponents. My death rate goes way over the roof when I try to arrest people though, lol.

[Aku]

I've never played AvP2 online. I should try it, the game's still on my hard drive.

[And_so_it_goes]

another great game, even for high ping because it is slower paced and tactical, is delta force extreme. tons of great maps coming out on multiplayer and you can do almost anything with these maps. alot of good creativity. if anyone plays, i'm Raskolnikov and I play mostly on the public TDM and TKOTH matches.

[moya]

Thanks for the replies. I was under the impression that we're pretty backward here in the UK as far as broadband access goes. 2Mb is the highest possible speed here at the moment, but that'll be increasing to 4Mb and then 8Mb come the Autumn. Of course, you'll have to pay more per month for that kind of service...

The only catch with my deal is that BT levies a one-time £60 ($100 US) charge for ISPs on each broadband activation. Some ISPs pass this full charge on to their customers and keep monthly costs down. Some soak up the charge and raise the monthly costs to cover it. My deal is that they don't charge you, but if you leave before 4 years with the ISP they charge you a fraction of the cost. The longer you stay with this ISP, the less they charge you. I don't totally agree with it, but it's pretty much the best deal going round these parts. Plus, I don't need to think about it right now (bonus!) and I get to enjoy broadband service for the same price I was paying for dial-up access.

The other thing about my broadband deal is... they don't cap your usage, BUT they do "traffic-shape". What this means in essence is that P2P and newsgroups will be a little slower than vanilla web-surfing, emails, and (I guess) gaming. Again, it's another niggle, but nothing's perfect and you have to really pay through the nose for uncapped, unshaped broadband.

As regards SWAT 4. Dudes... I am literally chomping at the bit to play this sucker with you guys! I love the game, although I pretty much suck at it. I look forward to doing some co-op attempts at the missions and maybe some deathmatch/other stuff. Will let you know when I'm up and running.

[Mochan]

I'll be here all weekend and then some (I have Monday off) so just leave a message here when you're gonna play SWAT.

[moya]

It's not gonna be this weekend unfortunately. As I said, it takes 7-10 days for the line to be checked and activated. Maybe next weekend? Then we'll have to work out timezones and stuff: I'm GMT +1 right now.

[Mochan]

I'm GMT+ 8 so I'm, 7 hours earlier than you. I think most of the other boys here are GMT-8 give or take a few hours. Well we can play next week, no rush. I better get some practice playing, the first time I tried SWAT4 deathmatch I had a pretty good kill to death ratio though overall rank wasn't too high. I tend to play on servers that have low ping for me though, I get around 200+ on SWAT4 usually. I should get around 100+ if you host the game, hehe.

[moya]

LOL, GMT +8 to GMT +1 to GMT -8. I don't think you could get a much wider spread of timezones right there. Anyway, no bother since I don't mind gaming late/early at the weekends... Do you just play DM Mochan, or do you do co-op or other modes?

[Mochan]

I've only ever tried DM but I'm game for Co-Op. Actually I've only ever tried SWAT4 multiplayer once (and it was DM - barricaded suspects mode actually).

Actually in general I prefer playing CoOp for multiplayer, although team vs. is also great (as like in Counterstrike or Rogue Spear or CTF) but not plain jane team deathmatch with massive respawning et al after each death (doesn't promote team play). My favorite kind of coop for multiplayer is the setup where you and a handful of brave friends face a horde of AI enemies and you have to survive and mow them all down. That's why I love Harntrox for Ghost Recon (you don't just hunt static enemies, they assault your position in droves!) and those funky maps in Starcraft where a crapload of enemies attack your bases.

Admittedly though playing online isn't anywhere as fun as playing on a LAN (since you usually get to play with good buddies who you are a great team with on LANs) as compared to internet where you usually just get on a server and play with some freaks killing everything that moves (unless you have a clan or something).

Time doesn't matter to me during the weekend, I can play early morning or noon or midnight and I'll be fine. Especially now that my monitor is free from glare!

[Suicides-by-Steve]

LOL Still going on about the lack of glare, eh?! I certainly want to play too, and prefer co-op, if only I can pull myself away from that silly game... WoW.

Okay, so what do we have planned out now, next weekend sometime? Sounds good for me. I have Saturday night free.

Oh yeah, Aku- 50 bucks CDN so around (insert cliched money exchange joke here), 40 bucks American cash.

[moya]

Next weekend sounds cool, but my presence is obviously dependent on how quickly things get sorted. It's all out of my hands now, but I look forward to some co-op SWAT sometime soon.

[Aku]

Oh yeah, Aku- 50 bucks CDN so around (insert cliched money exchange joke here), 40 bucks American cash.

That still sucks. I'd get SWAT 4, but all the stores around here STILL sell it for $50. That's ridiculous. I would have to buy it online, where I found I could get it from one source for $27 including shipping.

[moya]

I would get it Aku. It's well worth it for $27. In fact, that's a steal.

[Mochan]

SWAT 4 still sells for about $40 over here.

[moya]

Well, it's here and it's AWN! I will post later about potential SWAT/UT2004 clashes this weekend. Basically I'm free saturday evening here from around 8pm - whenever and probably sunday afternoon from 1pm too (GMT +1).

Bear in mind I'm a total online gaming noob (SbS will vouch for this) so I'll need a little leeway before you all start shouting "!LOL NOOB JUST CONFIGURE UR ROUTER TO OPEN PORTS 111 THRU 154!!!1"

[Mochan]

I'm pretty much an online newbie myself, but I pretty much survived. Never had to do any fancy port opening (don't do that for filesharing either). I'll be free the entire weekend pretty much so just say when and where and I'll be there.

[moya]

Do you have any IM program or anything like that? If not, I'll PM you from here or email or something.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

ICQ #123399000 I too am around Saturday. Send me a IM and I can fire up SWAT4 pronto. BTW, disabling MS's firewall should be all you need to do in order to play SWAT4.

[moya]

Well, I'm around right now and ready to play SWAT4 when anyone else is.

[Mochan]

Was playing SWAT earlier but right now I need to sleep.

[moya]

Okay, well I'm around again now and will be on and off for another 7 hours or so. Just PM me if you want a game.