Trust Microsoft to AGAIN fuck up a good program.

MSASW has expired (for those of you that have it installed, trust me.)
So I went to download a new version. Only, they don't have it anymore. It's now called "Windows Defender Beta 2."
Apparently this program will never get out of beta, despite the fact they've now been working on it for, what, a year and a half now?

First off, if you do get this, it turns on all kinds of irritating crap, you can turn off the "Automatic Settings Update" under tools. For me, it immediately turned on Automatic Updates, the security manager and all kinds of crap.

But then the fun part. Running a full scan now takes 20.5 minutes and counting. MSASW did a full scan in seven minutes. I haven't really installed THAT much since the last time I ran a scan, maybe a minute's worth of files or so.

Bravo, MS. Your ability to go up in version numbers and down in actual functionality is, as always, firmly intact.

Re : Prey. I finished it yesterday, I hadn't played for awhile as Titanquest took up all my time. I love Prey for its visuals. Most levels had at least a few "Shit, that looks cool" moments. It's fun to explore. It also has a nice twist near the end of the story to do with Jen, I won't spoil it for those that haven't finished it yet, but I thought it was a good bit of storytelling.

One thing I can't figure out, though (Secret Text) Even though you're some sort of immortal Native American who can fall off a walkway to his splattering death 5000 feet below, then just get back up on the walkway as if nothing happened, how exactly does Tommy take control of the Sphere, then FLY IT INTO THE FUCKING SUN, and yet be walking around on Earth six months later as if nothing happened? HIS BODY DISINTEGRATED IN THE SUN! Awesome bit of storytelling there... Very logical.

However, in the gameplay department, Prey is sorely, sorely lacking. Since you are essentially playing with Godmode on (in fact, because the whole "deathwalking" bit is so fucking boring, I'd just recommend turning on Godmode to begin with), the developers felt no need to balance any monsters or any encounters. Those flying red-dotted robots, for example. Launch heatseeking bullets, three of which kill you. Or they launch mines which have a blast radius of approximately 80% of the entire level. If one of those hits you, you'll be lucky to survive. And they send 4, 5 of those at you at any one time. Wow, that's real great.

Or, my real favorite. Quick everyone, what's more fun than a guy with a rocket launcher in a small enclosed area? TWO GUYS WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER! Woohoo!

Every time I died I just read PC Gamer for a minute while the stupid birds flew around, then I continued playing, died again, waited again, continued, until I finally managed to kill those bastards (only to get at least four more, ofcourse).

The worst offender in this aspect was the final level, with all those fucking Keepers. Great, monsters that take 10 blasts from your own rocket launcher to die, that's just great fun.

Blergh.

But those levels are sure purdy.

Creston