Buds Biased Utils Report, 1
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buds biased utils report
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1998 December 5
- Text / Magazine
- Bud, writer credits
Bud's Biased Utils Report #1 (see below)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to the biased Utils report. It's been a while since the last one graced the pages of
NWR, and I wasn't involved with that, but with the mass quantity of utils released each day,
people need to be able to weed out the shit, and those who consistantly put out a good effort
should get the credit. So lets get on with it...
Take note I'm writing this on Saturday, so it takes into account only the releases of the
week up to the time I finish this crap. However, I'll probably spew out a bunch of junk
from earlier in the month. These won't be counted in the groups score however.
Notes:
Disclaimer: It's BIASED moron. My opinion. So don't send me a bunch of mail & message's
bitching about this or that. If you don't like it... SCREW YOU =]
Rankings: Groups get a score out of 10. Points are given for amount of releases, but QUALITY
titles will give a group a much higher score. Nukes for duping, broken releases and
just plain CRAP will lower a groups score. However on the occassion that a title is
nuked which I don't feel should have been, MY OWN JUDGEMENT TAKES PRECEDENCE. Cuz I'm
writing this. Groups can also get points for any other reason I see fit.
Week: Week is based from 11/29/98 to 12/05/98 - any late 1205 releases were probably missed.
I'm in EST time zone so dates/times run according to it.
Groups: (In no particular order)
PIRATES WITH ATTITUDE -
Well, aside from one HUGE ass 200MB+ release of MS SQL 7 Desktop & Server, the PWA crew has
been pretty quiet this week. Not much to say here really - that one title was quality,
and the couriers loved it - when they wern't nuked for size. Good marks to PWA just for being
consistant over the years, and 7 marks for the SQL title, cuz a lot of people have been
waiting for it.
Total: 7/10
THE CORPORATION:
Corp is affirming that they are serious about their comeback, but then how many times has
Uncle John tried this? No matter. I have mixed feelings with Corp (being part of an earlier
brief Corp comeback), they have the talent - if the important players are active. So far it
seems as if they are - but honestly someone should teach these guys to use Max compression when
they package. Releases are steady - and good points go for releasing Macromedia Director 7. With
a couple months under their belt now, it looks as if they're here to stay.
Total: 7/10
RISE:
Quality over quantity - very true of RISE, but I almost want to kick them and say "Release
More!!" Almost no presence this week, but still overall a true quality group, and consistantly
bringing out excellent titles. Thus even though we didn't see anything from em this week I'm
still giving em a good score just for being RISE =) Had they released something they probably
would've seen at least an 8.
Total: 6/10
SIEGE:
Nothing extraordinary, but some decent utils, and some cool Director plugins. Should be some
more of these coming with Director 7 here. A couple of dupes didn't help their effort, and
having to put out a fixed Extra Office Client 4.6 took a point off their total, but still a
very good week for these guys. Arguably the best group this week. Since their cracks keep
showin' up in LND rels, maybe I should give em extra....
Total: 8/10
X-FORCE:
Woah, what's happened here? Just Lotus Betas this week, and not great at that :P I mean,
really, Beta2_163.1 NORTH AMERICAN VERSION ??? Not a whole lot of people want to take
the time to download stuff like this, but I guess there must be some. They lost out on
SQL 7 to PWA, which is a blow as we saw some betas from XF in that area. This is NOT the X-Force
of old... hell it's not even the Clip-Force we all know and love ;) Hopefully we'll see them
back again next week.
Total: 5/10
SHOCK:
Decent steady releasing... but then they've always had steady releasing. No nukes, nothing
broken, no incredible titles but consistancy is what works best. (Note to the idiot who uploaded
Bill Power Plus 4.6 -SHOCK - the group released it months ago. They released 5.0 since that time.
Please quit the courier game as your vain attempts for credits are pathetic). Good points for
having a steady week. They took some heat for re-releasing what LND stole but tough shit.
Total: 7/10
ENTITY:
A VIRUSFREE repack on the IBM Visual Age Generator release didn't help what was a slow week for
Entity. They've lost a lot of the dominance they showed in past weeks, and saw the loss of MGD
to Corp about a month. Still, they're far from out of it. Not much else to say, see ya next
week guys.
Total: 6/10
PENTIUM FORCE TEAM:
PFT continues to be a releasing force, and one that seems to be underestimated by quite a bit.
Steady releasing again this week. A lack of ego's and good quality titles make them an
excellent group. No nukes or fix's for the week... hrmm I dunno what else to say so I'll stop
there. They get 8 points for an excellent week.
Total: 8/10
LEGENDS NEVER DIE:
What THE FUCK happened to this group? The current incarnation of LND, even with some cool
members (hiya Powertool,) does not live up to past editions. Check out releases saying
"Cracked by: Siege" - LND does not have the cracking talent it once did, and now resorts
to taking cracks from other groups. They also got nailed for stealing serials from SHK and
that earned them a nuke on a lot of sites. The blame for all this lays entirely
on Grad, and he's admitted as much, but refuses to change his ways. Now LND does have some
legit releases, but the crap outreaches the quality. Lets hope someone in LND can talk some
sense into Grad. Or get him to quit the scene. LND place dead last for trying to take the
credit of others.
Total: 3/10
PINNACLE:
Pee N' Cee had a HORRIBLE October, then improved a bit in November. So what is ahead for the PNC
crew? Well in the past week, not much. Showbase Forms is an ok title, File Fission
Wizard I've used (and released) so I won't harp on it... but thats ALL Pinnacle has done this
week, and that won't win them top marks. Pinnacle should take their own advice, FUCK THE
COPYRIGHT - a little more often, and get their name out there. Otherwise you have to wonder
why sites like MS hang on to them.
Total: 5/10
DRINK OR DIE:
Alright DOD is one of my favorite groups, they've established their name over the years -
quality over an extended period of time is the top factor in a good group, nevermind these
3 month wonders that pop up and then promptly die. That said it wasn't a great week for them,
but for all those expecting DOD to die everytime they have a slow week: Fuck off and get a clue.
The DOD team picked up MNS this week as well, strengthing the site side of things.
Total: 6/10
HERITAGE:
It's been rough for HTG the last while. They are putting a bit more out in the past few
weeks, and JrMafia is putting a lot off effort into bringing the group back to its feet. Both
John Astig and JrMafia are cool guys (thought I'd plug em). Now they just need a stronger
supplying team - a lot of dupes and nukes are really hurting them. Near the end of the week
HTG lost their WHQ, MNS, to the Drink or Die clan, another blow against them. Not a stellar
week, as the points show.
Total: 5/10
REBELS:
Rebels is simply a cool crew, and while I haven't used a lot of their releases over the
years, I've never had a single problem with what I did use. RBS had a slow week with just 2
standard releases at the time I was writing this, so they're low on points, but don't let
that fool you.
Total: 6/10
So thats it for this week. Top slot goes to PFT & SGE for a well rounded week, and LND hit the
bottom of the barrel. Cracking groups were totally left out because I don't have the time to
check out all those little keymakers... it's not that I don't appreciate them though, its
just too much work. Groups may be added or dropped week to week as they keel over and die, and
make their presence known... now enough of this shit. Go actually USE something.... feed yer
feeble minds.
- Bud