The Download Munkey : A Link A Day ;)

Just saw this cinematic trailer for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2, the upcoming sequel to Computer Gaming World’s 2004 RTS Game of the Year.

The action is even more visceral in this prerendered CG trailer by Plastic Wax than the intro trailer (also prerendered) for the original Dawn of War by Blur Studios as befits the mega-violent nature of Games Workshop’s vision of the 41st millennium.

© THQ

Flashy lighting effects and shiny surfaces are put to good use in this trailer as the stealthy Eldar attempt to ambush a squad of Space Marines from the Blood Ravens Chapter during their nighttime mission in some unknown jungle. The graphical effects makes it feel more more Unreal Tournament III than Warhammer 40,000 at times.

© THQ

My only grouse for this trailer is that I expected Space Marines and Eldar to look less like *us* - the former because of their genetic and bionic augmentations and the latter because they’re supposed to be an alien race.

© THQ

Iron sights on Space Marine Bolters in the 41st millennium? WTH?

© THQ

A Eldar Farseer … or a very convincing human cosplayer of the 41st millennium

Personal nitpicking aside, it’s still a must watch/download for Warhammer 40,000 fans, Dawn of War fans and CG action film fans (in no particular order) for some really fantastic fighting sequences.

Copious amounts of blood are a pre-requisite for Dawn of War cinematic trailers (below).

© THQ

I especially enjoyed the duel between the Eldar Howling Banshee and the Assault Marine, the graceful movements of the agile Banshee making the Space Marine’s broad slashing strokes with his whirring chainsword look incredibly awkward and amateurish.

© THQ

Spectacularly choregraphed CG action trailers like this are the reason why I started collecting game videos in the first place

Download the trailer in Quicktime or Windows Media Video format from GameTrailers or check out the official Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn Of War : Soulstorm Art Assets
Favourite Illustrators of Warhammer 40,000 (VI) - Kevin Chin (King Mong)
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millenium Card Database
Blur Studio - Incredible Cinematic Trailers for Games Part I - Transformers : The Game, Halo Wars, Warhammer 40,000 : Dawn of War

© Gas Powered Games

First saw this Demigod wallpaper over at GameWallpapers.ru featuring a character which looks not unlike a cross between two of my favourite fictional characters:

1. Getter ‘Bear’ from the original 1974 anime Getter Robo / Starvengers

Image used without permission from MaxToons

2. Marvel Comics character Juggernaut. Read more about about the big brown guy @ Marvel where I found the pic below.

© Marvel

Demigod is an upcoming RTS game developed by Gas Powered Games founded by Chris Taylor who developed my favourite RTS of all time, Total Annihilation.

© Gas Powered Games

Download the wallpapers from the official site at www.demigodthegame.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Juggernaut & Psylocke fanart by Junny
Girls & Mecha ≠ Girls + Mecha
Keith Thompson’s Fantastic Mecha Designs

A new firearm locally designed and manufactured right here in Singapore which I first read about from the excellent site Modern Firearms. It’s ironic that there’s often more detailed information on locally manufactured weapons on overseas websites - or maybe I haven’t been reading the newspapers these days

© ST Kinetics

Known as the Compact Personal Weapon or CPW in short, this ST Kinetics 9×19mm submachinegun can be compared to the likes of the Heckler & Koch MP7 (which it bears more than a passing resemblance - see below) and older machinepistols like the IMI Mini-Uzi and B+T MP9 in terms of size (especially barrel length) and purpose.

H&K MP7 from the Modern Firearms website

As with any recently-designed submachineguns, Picatinny rails are a standard feature on the CPW together with the retractable stock, although the foregrip is an optional accessory unlike the foldable foregrip of the MP7. The pistol grip is partially translucent to provide operators with a visual check on the number of rounds remaining in the magazine.

More information can be found at the Modern Firearms page or in the official brochure available at the ST Kinetics page for the CPW. A more detailed compilation of the specifications for the CPW can also be found The Firearm Blog.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Accesorized vz 61 ‘Skorpion’ SMG
Assault Rifle Basics Vidcasts
Brügger & Thomet MP9 (Formerly Steyr TMP)
Next Generation Infantry Concepts from Tom Clancy’s EndWar

I have been using the below-mentioned tools to handle the ISO files (CD images) made for the installation CDs for clients at work recently so hopefully they’ll prove to be useful to you as they were for me.

There are several advantages in duplicating CDs via an ISO image over repeatedly burning a collection of files and folders - burning is much faster and significantly less error prone since it eliminates the risk of human error in selecting the files to burn. Using ISOs to duplicate discs also makes it more convenient than copying from CD to CD (especially when you only have a single CD-RW drive).

As CDs burned via ISO images aren’t overwritable, ISO images are perfect for burning CDs to distribute the final versions of software to clients. Unfortunately, this also means that any space not occupied by the ISO image on a CD-R is lost permanently.

To create an ISO image, TrustFM has created a handly Folder2Iso application which will convert a specified folder into a single ISO image. Dump all the files you want to burn in that folder, select that folder in Folder2Iso and click Generate ISOM, it’s that easy!

To verify that your ISO image is created correctly, there’re 2 ways that I commonly use - burn to an actual CD or use virtual drive emulators like DaemonTools to load the ISO and test like a real CD so you can ensure that all necessary files are in the disk and that AutoRun functionality works (if the autorun.inf file is present). Besides, you can save CDs (and the Earth!) if users of your software can run ISOs directly instead of you having to burn CDs for them.

NOTE: Most copy protections on new legally-purchased boxed games will ensure that these games will refuse to start on any system with DaemonTools installed.

Now if you simply want to extract files from an ISO, use WinRAR or the freeware CDmage (above) instead.

Download Folder2Iso, DaemonTools or CDmage.

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NirSoft.net - My First Stop for Quality Utilities
Foxit Reader vs PDF-XChange Viewer vs Sumatra
Using Sandboxie For Testing New Software

Time seems to fly by really fast these days …

Anyway, the three most viewed posts written in Aug 2008 according to Google Analytics.

• Art Assets for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War : Soulstorm - Some close-ups of the renders for the unit models in Dawn of War : Soulstorm.
• Metal Gear AC!D Concepts - Concepts for the Metal Gear AC!D series - think MGS + Anime + Pink
• Katakijin, a ninja action game - flashy, stylish and incredibly fun.

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Most Popular Posts for July 2008
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