Posts by Thrik
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Clearly a superb series.
Wasn't as keen on the fourth, as the whole piratey atmosphere I loved was kind of lessened (although this was admittedly the goal of the villain in the storyline). First three, though... man, best game memories evr~~~~~
I must replay them some day. Been years.
Grim Fandango is also of course on the same level as Money Island, with the same writer and much of the team responsible for it. Well worth a play for anyone who hasn't but liked MI.
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This widescreen thing definitely needs stamping down on.
Battlefield 2 and 2142 are other games that do the whole cropping thing, and it's just lame. I do see their point in saying that widescreen gamers could see more on the screen at once (especially snipers), but seriously, it wouldn't take much genius to just change the game itself slightly to compensate.
In Battlefield, they could just make it so you don't get markers telling you whether they're foes or friends towards the edges, stuff like that. In BioShock it's irrelevant as it's single-player.
Better be fixed in an upcoming patch. Voice your hate, all.
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I think we might be a while off truly digitally distributed content. Bear in mind that these new discs can (and do) store something in the region of 50GB. Even the fastest internet connections would take quite some time to download such a vast amount of data. I mean, I have a 24mb/s internet connection which is in the top tier of speeds in the UK (
), and I'd be wincing at the prospect of a 50GB download, considering a disc would do the job immediately. And then if I delete it or need to start again, or get a new computer... oh, I need to do it again and can't just slap in a disc.And then, even if you do download it, you'll soon realise that wireless networks are on average limited to around 54mB/s, often less depending on distance. So instead of just carrying it over to your HD-DVD player or whatever, you're looking at a 10-minute wait just for it to transfer. Sure, you could hook an ethernet cable over there between the computer and HD-DVD player which could do it in about one minute, but what the fuck.
In short, the idea of digital distribution is solid, but a number of technology issues do put a damper on the idea for the new generation of games which take up increasingly large amounts of room. Once these new disc formats hit the PC on a widespread basis and 50GB games start coming out, stuff like Steam is going to feel the burn.
There is of course also the simple, traditional fact that people like to physically own something. I do enjoy knowing that if I ever lose the data for any reason, I can just put the disc back in and reinstall it immediately.
Although not completely related, Google Video recently shut down its paid service. Guess what happened to all the videos people bought? That's right: they can't download or watch them any more, and only have a $2 Google Checkout coupon as compensation. The fact that even a giant like Google did that has given anti-digital distribution advocates some serious ammunition.
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Probably true, considering the design audience; 1024x768 is by far the most common in general though, and even though my desktop resolution at work is 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 at home, I run my browser at both locations in a 1024x768 window. I think most people on large widescreen resolutions do this. Not sure if Google is smart enough to detect that.
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Yeah. Works out here at about... midnight.
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I'm a fan.
The only minor complaint I have is that on 1024x768, the site borders right up to the edges of the browser and this doesn't look so good. It'd look much nicer if there were at least the same amount of space between the design and the browser edges as there is between the three big images. As it is, it looks quite cramped.
This goes for the other page(s) on the site too. Bordering right up against the browser borders is a bit of a no-no.
Thumbs up, though. I'd go with this one.
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And mine.
Okay, no it wasn't. It was the modern LCD monitors that gave it away.
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It's really interseting how back when Paint was introduced it was actually genuinely quite a significant step, and yet because it's been virtually unchanged since then (even in Vista) it's like some kind of relic, almost standing for the total opposite of progression.
I mean, if the Paint in Vista was as much of a step forward as the original Paint was, it'd be more like Paint.NET (which is excellent for a free package). Not hard to see why the default Windows software is kind of mocked when it's pretty much not changed in about a decade.
Kind of going off on a tangent here, though. Funny video humour.
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Ah yes, the time one learns about the magnificence of includes.
Truly amongst the most helpful things in any web designer's tool kit.
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FMPOne has just hit that stage in life where he becomes a pretentious jerk with the annoyance as many people as possible being his goal.
I mean, seriously. You know full well a number of Gearbox staff visit this forum. Show some respect and put across your thoughts in a mature manner, you dweeb.
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Man, I can't wait for the PC demo
... no, really. I'm going round to Irrational now and holding them up at gunpoint until I get a copy.
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That limitation did exist in the pre-release terms, but was later removed. Possibly due to the large backlash it caused.
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For gaming, Home Premium should be the sweet spot. The Business/Enterprise editions really don't offer what many home users might like to use, and Ultimate probably doesn't give you benefits worth the cost (unless you are warezing).
Essentially, every single version except Ultimate has different features; Ultimate has them all. However, for most people I seriously can't see more than Home Premium being necessary. I do use Ultimate and I can't really justify it as being that worthwhile.
Not for what I do anyway, which pretty much consists of web browsing, IRC, and playing games.
A notable restriction of Home Basic is that only 8GB of RAM is supported; this is 16GB in Home Premium, and an epic 128GB in Ultimate. 64-bit for all, naturally.
There's a good comparison of all the versions here:
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Running in 64-bit doesn't really offer any gaming benefits whatsoever at the moment, both in XP and Vista. It is theoretically superior, but until software actually makes use of it there's little point.
While 64-bit Windows can kind of emulate for 32-bit software (although it's not emulation in the sense of it being slower), or rather is backwards compatible, the same isn't true the other way around. So if games were 64-bit, people on 32-bit systems couldn't play them. As a result they all come as 32-bit so everyone can play them.
The only hard incentive to use 64-bit Windows at the moment is the higher RAM handling, which in the case of Vista Ultimate 64-bit is a whopping 128GB. Much more then the 3.2GB or whatever that 32-bit XP/Vista support.
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Yeah, NVIDIA have (finally) gotten a proper release schedule now, which should be a little nicer for gamers and developers so they can time things better. It was pretty random before.
The general idea is that the high-end cards come out every autumn/winter, and the mid-end cards hit during spring/summer (afterwards).
Not really trying to advise anyone with what they want to do, but I think knowing this is worthwhile.
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Got this several months ago:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked from 2.4GHz to 2.76GHz, essentially making it an E6700 (and then some)
NVIDIA BFG 8800 GTX 768mb overclocked from 575Hz to 600Hz
Asus P5B Deluxe
2 x 1GB DDR2 800Hz XMS2-6400C4 (planning on duplicating this soon)
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer
Thermaltake ToughPower 650W
And since Hessi threw in the connection too: 24mbps ADSL2 by ethernet (in reality runs at about 20mbps).
For those who're planning on joining me in 8800 GTX land, bear in mind that the 9800 GTX is coming this autumn and will almost certainly absolutely annihilate it in performance. Since the 8800 GTXs are still at a premium price, it might be worth waiting until they most likely drop in price by half towards Christmas.
The more affordable 8800 GTS variants will also hit a major price drop as I assume a 9800 GTS will accompany the GTX. An SLI 8800 GTS would be quite a set-up.
I assume you're already doing this Sentura, going off what you're planning to upgrade.
Although there is no 640mb GTX, only the GTS -- not sure which you meant there. -
It's worth noting that Vista 64-bit has significantly better support than the XP iteration, which as far as I'm aware is still plagued with various things not having drivers released (since the manufacturers have to put out XP 64-bit specific drivers) and general oddities.
If it's XP 64-bit you're talking about I'd advise just not bothering. It's become kind of a Windows ME of 64-bit operating systems.
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Yeah, bit of a pain that whole 4GB in 32-bit Windows thing. I'd buy another 2GB right now if I didn't have to totally reinstall with 64-bit instead.
Nice computer, though. Welcome to the world of superb frame rates.
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From what I've seen this game is quite a departure from the play in the previous games e-freak, and of course the environmental interaction and action has been expanded upon significantly.
It certainly looks like it's evolved enough to be considered something fresh without turning away the very loyal fan base that's developed over the years. I do slightly question whether or not you've actually bothered looking into Conviction much.
If you've never liked Splinter Cell much then sure, fair enough. But you can't expect the series to change into something completely different just because it's not for you. I'm sure most people who enjoy stealth and Splinter Cell games will very much like Conviction.
