MrKniceGuy.com

Author: mrkniceguy

  • Lot’s O’ Music – An Organization Post

    If you love music as much as I do, there’s a chance that you’ve spent hours ripping your CDs to MP3 (or if you’re like me you’ve done the whole process several times, just to get it just right), purchasing your DRM free music from Amazon, Google Play or iTunes and organizing and cataloging and, of course (most importantly), listening  to all your wonderful music.

    So how do you manage and keep track of all that tunage? I’m not claiming I’m an expert, but I’ve spent years working on my system. So I thought I would share it with you.

    File Structure

    This is the part that has gone through the most changes, but now that it is settled it’ll be staying like this for a long time. When managing thousands of files, a good folder structure is key. Especially if your ID3 tags get messed up! I use a folder structure like this:

    “C:/Music/A/Alice In Chains”
    “C:/Music/D/The Devil Wears Prada”
    etc.

    With all the different artists in my library it was necessary to break it down another level. Hence the alphabetical letters for each A – Z.

    The idea that all these artists could site in a single folder would never work for my collection. It may for you, but consider using what I’ve done here if you want to have room to grow your library.

    Format

    MP3 is where it’s at. I tried WMA, OGG and FLAC and by far the most flexible and good size to sound ration is MP3. I rip all my music to 320Kbps MP3. Now, of you might find that FLAC is more to your likeing because you can afford piles of hard drives. Or you’ve got a Windows mobile device and WMA works better for you. But for me (and most of the world) it’s MP3. If you dump thousands of dollars into a home stereo system consider FLAC since it’s lossless. But I find 320Kbps sounds just great. And I do hear a difference. I listen the most on my JLab Bomoba TEKST headphones, which sound amazing by the way.

    Tools

    Media Monkey Interface

    I’d be lost without Media Monkey. It’s the BEST audio manager tool out there. I would say you could get away with using the free version, but you really, really should just buy it. It handles my whole library with ease. In fact, I’m listening with it right now while writing this. Media Monkey provides massive library support, robust ID3 management and lots of transcoding options.

     

    Bonus

    If you want to listen to your music anywhere you’ve got internet access, there are two (pick your flavor) tools you can use. The first is Subsonic, a service you run like a server from your home. The other is Google Music which allows you to upload your music library (up to 20,000 files) for free and listen anywhere. Check them out.

     

    What do you use? Did this help? Let me know in the comments below.

  • Far Cry 3 Review

    FarCry3

    I have been a fan of the Far Cry series since the first Xbox game was released. Running around in the jungle and shooting all kinds of stuff was just way too much fun to pass up. Since then I’ve followed the series religiously. Far Cry 2 was good, but Far Cry 3 has expanded greatly on many of the successful parts of the game while going back to some of that classic jungle fun.

    The story is actually pretty solid. Some reviews have made fun of the main character Jason Brody for being “hard to relate to,” but I actually found it a joy to move through the story and develop him as a person and as a warrior. While he does go through a massive change, it’s done it a fun and interesting way, bringing you down the rabbit hole with him. The rest of the supporting cast take a major back seat to Jason with the exception of a few folks who help him along the way, but the point of the game is to shoot stuff and playing with any of them wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

    The gameplay is extremely satisfying. But if killing the bad guys isn’t enough there is hunting of rare jungle animals, finding lost letters and tomes and helping villagers  to take up your time. I didn’t keep track of the total game time (and I’m still not 100% done) but there is plenty here to get your money’s worth.

    The Multi-player and co-op dynamics are very fun as well. Teaming up with 3 others for the c0-op missions reveals a separate but related story centered around the islands. I experienced some major glitches while playing with a friend on the Xbox 360, but we made the best of it and still had a good time. I’m waiting anxiously for an update to those issues though so hopefully we’ll see that soon. Multi-player does an amazing job of requiring teamwork to win, a feature I welcomed after playing many other modern shooters. The team based play is tight and fun and well worth spending some time playing up the ranks. Ubisoft has release some decent online tools to continue the fun outside the game and manage your multi-player loadouts, decryption of items and other in game settings at the farcryoutpost.com as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS.

    If you like open world shooters, dynamic worlds and a fun story, check out Far Cry 3. It’s available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on Amazon and your local game store. Already have it? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

    -mrkniceguy

  • Halo 4

    If you look at the tag cloud the bottom right corner of the site, you’ll see that one of the most talked about games here at mrkniceguy.com is Halo 3. It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of the Halo games for the past 11 years. It’s been a fun series to play and uncover more and more of the story about Master Chief and Cortana. I’ve followed their adventure ever since the first Halo came out on the OG Xbox. So when Halo 4 was released, it was a no brainer to pick it up and play.

    Halo 4 logo

    I purchased Halo 4 at launch and jumped right in to the game. Playing through the first two missions on Heroic, I’m here to report that it’s every bit as good as the previous 3 Halo games. Master Chief, Cortana, and the Covenant are all back and a new class of baddies yet to be engaged. Not only is the story good, but the game looks and feels beautiful and clean. It has that classic Halo feel with a few extra elements added. The dynamics added in are pretty natural for the gameplay and don’t feel like they were just “thrown in.” The only story complaint I have so far is some pretty long cut scenes. But we’re here for a story, right?

    343 Industries (commonly referred to as 343i) took over development when Bungie parted ways from Microsoft Game Studios and went independent, which was a mutually beneficial move. Microsoft then employed 343i to develop the next big piece of the Halo universe. And I think they’ve done a great job.

    My favorite part of Halo 4 so far is actually the sound-scape. Sound has always been a make or break point for me in movies and games, and 343i does it right. The sounds are amazing. Doors opening and closing, the guns, the baddies, the epic struggles. It all sounds great.  I generally play with a pair of Turtle Beach headphones, so I get a full ear of the sweet, sweet sounds. And I like it.

    Multiplayer is quite fun, although at this point the map selection is pretty light. I feel like I’m playing the same map every 3 or 4 games. Upcoming map packs will fix that but I wish the game had shipped with more places to play. The playlists don’t even rotate through all the maps that ship with the game but instead land on the same 3 or 4 in Infinity Slayer. That being said, I’ve spent plenty of hours on those maps and haven’t really gotten bored. Yet.

    Halo 4 is solid. I’m still working my way through the campaign and will tell you more about that at a later date, but for now I can say with confidence, you should pick it up.  You can even buy Halo 4 in the newly created mrkniceguy Amazon store.

    Halo 4 Gallery (more…)