Yesterday evening, I rediscovered Metallica's newest album, Death Magnetic. When the album was released last September, I immediately rushed to the store to buy it - hey, it was a new Metallica album! How could I miss that?

I'm fairly sure many other metal fans thought similarly, and bought the new disc as well - and were just as disappointed as I was. The audio quality of Death Magnetic is, to say the least, heinous. On any playback device except PMPs, the songs sound raspy, distorted and clipped. It's tolerable on my iPod, but on my (high-end) home stereo, the album definitely provides a "sub-par" listening experience. By now, we know that this is due to the high compression used, the final goal being able to reach higher volume - a result of the so-called "loudness war" going on in the music industry.

Enter Guitar Hero 3. As part of the marketing campaign for Death Magnetic, the album was also released as a digital download for Activision's rock star simulator. Now, this wouldn't be very special, except that the audio quality of the GH3 tracks is decidedly different (read: better). For whatever reason, the songs are far less compressed, which improves the audio quality considerably (at the expense of volume). check out this comparison of the two different versions:



After witnessing the difference in quality, I just had to get my hands on the GH3 version of Death Magnetic. Rapidshare delivered as usual, and now I can finally enjoy Death Magnetic the way it's meant to be played (sorry Nvidia). In fact, I would advise any Metallica fan to do this - you deserve to hear this album in decent quality, and you won't be disappointed, trust me. The songs sound so much better, they're crisp, sharp and clear, a joy to listen to.

NOTE: The advice posted above does not reflect the opinion of Hooked Gamers, but only of the author himself. Don't be stupid, kids. Downloading copyrighted material is illlegal in most countries (not mine though - eat that, RIAA & Co.). If you do indeed download the GH3 rip of Death Magnetic, do it at your own risk. Just don't forget that Lars Ulrich will hate you for eternity...

eDimensional, manufacturer of quality gaming equipment, has just released a new headset, dubbed the AudioFX2. Here are a few excerpts from the official press release (which you can find here in its entirety):

On the new product itself:


eDimensional CEO Michael Epstein says:


Of course, we're not easily blinded by fancy PR talk, so in a few weeks, we'll have our own review of the AudioFX2 online. Make sure to check back then for the full write-up on eDimensional's new headset. We'll be taking a close look at all the features the AudioFX2 has to offer, and of course giving marks in the usual categories, so you can compare it with all the other headsets we've reviewed.

About eDimensional:

We all know that the Wii's gameplay is, to say the least, highly entertaining. Indeed, it seems as if even royal blood can't protect you from the scourge of Wii-itis.

According to The People, a British newspaper, Prince William got a Wii for Christmas from his girlfriend Kate Middleton. However, after seeing him play, his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II wanted to have a go as well. As one source in the Palace put it, "the Queen showed the hand-eye coordination of someone half her age [at Wii Bowling]". William was having trouble getting it back from his gran, and that she "shows all signs of becoming a Nintendo addict". (Nintendo must be having a field day about the free advertising...)

It seems as if the Queen is quite the technology junky. According to various sources, she's equipped with the latest cell phone, an e-mail account, an iPod, a Blackberry, and just recently has "taken delivery" of her very own Youtube channel.

We like free stuff. It's in our nature to not want to pay for things. Leaving out the obvious, partially illegal variant of filesharing/P2P/whatever-you-disguise-it-as, you're pretty much stuck on either paying (which we've established as not favorable) or getting some sort of trial version that fills your PC with useless links and adverts and whatnot.

However, there is now a novel way around this dilemma. At
Giveaway of the Day, there's a new, cost-free, spyware-free, adware-free, virus-free full version of a program or tool. Every download is available for 24h, after that, it gets replaced by the next one.

But that's not all. Us here at HookedGamers, well, we are after all gamers. And yes, you guessed it, there is also a Game Giveaway of the Day. Don't expect any EA games here, but there are those small, high-quality games from small devs we've come to love as great pieces of programming that almost always deliver the goods in some sort of new, fresh, unique way. Again, they're online 24h, so daily checks are advised.

Johnny Chung Lee is at it again. After bringing us the Wii Interactive Whiteboard, he's now come up with an even cooler application: VR Displays.



I think this is just brilliant. check out his site for more cool stuff.

I suspect you've got here due to the link in my "WoW Skills Save Kid's Life"-post. As promised, read here what my thoughts on the whole thing are.

I'd like to start by saying that what 12-year old Olsen did was rather brave. It's probably not something I'd have done. Then again, I don't play WoW. Which brings us right to the point.

According to various news sources, Olsen learned the employed tactic, playing dead, from WoW. More specifically, from being a level 30+ hunter in WoW. Now, from what I've heard about WoW, it can be rather time-consuming. Say what you want, but I find it disturbing that a 12-year old plays such an online game. Plus "hunter" sounds like a rather violent job to me. And yes I know I sound like Jack Thompson. Still, I'm just not under the impression that this whole WoW business is in any way good for the kid (well, maybe beyond the fact that it saved his life). I have nothing against WoW gamers, in fact I find the whole craze rather interesting, but I think that at the age of 12, kids really don't have to spend their time indoors slaying virtual demons and whatnot.

These are just my personal quick thoughts on the topic. Please do comment if you feel differently, and we can discuss this in a civilized fashion. Indeed, I'd be interested in your opinions on the subject, so feel free to criticize or support at will.

It appears as if video games don't just make you want to maim everyone in sight. Indeed, 12 year old Hans Jorgen Olsen, from Leksvik, Norway, recently used skills he had aquired while playing Blizzard's famed MMORPG to save his life.

Olsen was walking in the woods with his sister, aged 10, when they encountered an enraged moose. Olsen promptly started to hit the moose (for those of you who spend your days in front of your PCs, moose can and will reach 6ft in height and a weight of well over 1000 pounds) with a stick to lure it away from his sister. He then employed a tactic he claims to have learned as a level 30 hunter in WoW: he played dead. The moose apparently went for the ploy, seeing that Olsen survived to give Nettavisten an interview.


I will digress from mentioning that I find a 12 year old level 30+ WoW player (addict?) mildly disturbing (actually, I won't, click here for my thoughts on the matter), and applaud young Hans Jorgen for his bravery.

It seems that the good folks at Blizzard can't be put off from working by the fusion with Activision. Indeed, not only are they working on a Russian-language WoW to enter that booming new market, they're also producing a new add-on to "our" WoW, called "Wrath of the Lich King" (read Rook's preview here).

Yet the biggest news from Blizzard was recently announced on their official forum when fans had gotten nosy about some new jobs openings at Blizzard. It seems as if Blizzard is working on "an unannounced Next-Gen MMO. And that doesn't mean it's an expansion to WoW either". In my opinion, that's tantamount to a a sequel (or rather, follow-up) to one the most popular and greatest MMORPGs ever (and best cash-cows to boot). So what will we get?

Obviously, a WoW2 would sell like ice cream on a hot day, but I'm inclined to think Blizzard will go further. Much further. In fact, I wouldn't at all be surprised about "World of Diablo" or "World of Starcraft". Both Starcraft and Diablo are immensely popular video game worlds, just like WoW sprouted from the venerable Warcraft. It wouldn't be all that far-fetched. These are just speculations however, Blizzard has yet to release hard facts, but rest assured we'll tell you when they do.

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