GreasyDogMeat

Speaking of the near explosion. I hate the scene where they show something juuust about to happen, but then show the heroes taking their sweet time making the escape, then cut back to the horrible event juuuust about to happen but it looks like its still at the same point it was when they first showed it. I.E., a train is roughly 30 feet away from running over our hero. Cut to a shot of him strugging with the rope to free himself for 10 seconds. Cut back to the train but it is still 30 feet away from the hero. Back and forth etc. Monty Python's King Arthur and the Search for the Holy Grail did a hilarious spoof of this cliche with the guy running towards the castle. Back and forth between two guards looking at the hill and the guy running towards them.

I mention season 1 because I became somewhat addicted to the show a few months ago and purchased all the DVD sets within a 3 month period so season 1 is still fresh in my mind, even if it is ancient history for those that have watched the show on TV from the start. As for the fainting thing, yes, I would (and I hope most people would) rush down to see if the daughter could be rescued. She just stands there and plops on the ground. Maybe she got out... maybe she needs help. It was just a completly cheesy scene all around and the fainting didn't help at all. I'd think the adrenaline of your child in danger would keep you up, it would only be if you discovered a horrible outcome that you would clonk out. The whole thing was just a low point in the series for me. The positive of it is that I'm more apt to overlook other cheesy parts in the show, especially considering I've yet to see anything I consider more cheesy. Either way the show keeps you on the edge of your seat and it is hard to stop watching it once you get started. It's kind of hard to actually have to watch the show as a show now with season 6. I'm so used to spending a weekend on the couch watching 4-8 episodes or more at once. I did manage to get the first 4 episodes of season 6 on a DVD disk. I think I'm just going to ignore the show on TV until the whole 6 is out on DVD.

Despite it's flaws I really enjoy 24. I'd have to say that the cheesiest moment in the series so far was the wife getting amnesia in the first season. I have a laundry list of why this part was so lame. 1. The car rolls down the hill... and explodes. It wasn't very steep and cars don't just fricken' explode cause they fall a few feat! 2. The mother doesn't bother checking to see if something actually happened before fainting. If something terrible happened to a family member but I haven't quite seen it yet I save the fainting until I actually see the horrible result of the event. It would have been much more appropriate for a faint if she found kims charred remains and then hit the dirt. 3. Kim somehow jumps out, bumps her head and faints for just the right amount of time for mom to wake up and be kidnapped. Kim also suffers no apparent cuncussion or other head problems. 4. The mother gets AMNESIA! Extremly rare condition. I have yet to see anything in 24 that has reached the implausible stupidity of this scene. Yeah, season 5 has had a few cheesy moments in the show. I have no idea why they never shut down the ventilation system to prevent the spread of virus' and gases. They always wait until the hazardous gaseous chemical or what not is circulating in the vents before somebody says, "Hey! Maybe we should shut down the ventilation!" That should be the FIRST thing you numb nuts do! Even with a few implausible moments now and then the show really keeps you on end and I've bought every season on DVD so far and I haven't regretted any season yet.

Terrorist plots that appear to be islamic extremists but turn out to be some white dude. Cause Hollywood knows Bill Gates was really behind 9-11. Oh, almost forgot my most hated cliche. The vehicle that drops 10 feet and explodes in a massive fireball. Vehicles do not just go boom when they fall 5 feet. One of the lamest/funniest instances of sudden vehicular explosion was in an old Sean Connery Bond film where a car full of villainous henchmen drive off the road into a tiny ditch and go kaboom for no reason other than driving in the tiny ditch.

Snakes on a Plane. Talk about over hyped. While the movie had some decent parts and a few laughs it was far from the fantastic movie it was billed to be. It was not scary at all, if it was even trying to be. Considering snakes usually give me the heebee jebies... it is pretty pathetic that movie almost completly about snakes biting the hell out of people didn't offer any creepy moments. I'm guessing it was because 99.9% of the snakes were BADLY done cgi snakes. The movie was also pretty immature. Of the first two people killed by a snake, one is a topless woman bit on the breast, the other is a dude pissing who has a snake grab on to his wang. :crazy: I'm sure all the 12 year olds watching the movie were laughing in hysteria... I was rolling my eyes muttering... 'oh brother'. The transformation of the nasty jerk rapper who one second is shoving people out of the way for the snakes to save himself and pointing guns at passengers to next second making a really half hearted apology was incredibly lame too. Especially considering they save the most horrible death by snakes for the brit who behaves in the same manner. I guess rappers are nicer people than british businessmen who despite their exact same callous disregard for fellow people in perile will eventually apologize. I really can't believe the ratings this movie has recieved. I love over the top action and horror movies... but this was just bad in so many ways. It was entertaining enough for, IMHO, about a 5 or 6 out of 10, but all of the 9/10 and 10/10 ratings this movie has recieved has been ridiculous. Also recently finished watching Season 3 of 24. While the show has it's corny moments it more than makes up for it with the constant plot twists and on edge moments. ::MAJOR 24 SEASON 3 SPOILERS!!:: I am disapointed that my favorite character/villain in the show, Nena, was offed. Damn, she was a fun character and I was hoping they would keep her around to be a thorn in CTUs side for seasons to come. I also would have loved to see Jack and Nena forced to work together more often. I loved the awkward moments and back stabbing. :D

That is why some soldiers didn't like the BAR. As a support weapon it would chew through a single clip of ammo very quickly. At 19lbs, plus the weight of the ammo clips, which were almost a pound a peice, it was also a very heavy gun to lug around. Its deffinitly not something you would want to be on the other end of though. Some of the old 20s and 30s gangsters liked them because the BAR punched straight through police vehicles.

Awesome looking gun. I'd like to get a M3A1 Grease Gun simply because my Grandfather used one in Korea. Total peice of junk though. He said he had a friend who shot himself in the foot by accident while trying to unjam one. The BAR is certainly a heavy sucker at over 19 lbs. Is yours an accurate reproduction or does it have any bells & whistles to help it 'perform' better than a period BAR? I've read that thanks to the BAR's weight and length a lot of the force was absorbed by the weapon lowering the kick back. Oh, and does it have a 'slow and fast' setting and what mode do you use for garbage extermination?

I think the greatest romance story in a CRPB was Viconia from BG 2. Especially if your character was a good character. You really had to work at it, put up with massive mood swings, and recieved a bitter-sweet ending. Unfortunatly, I'd have to say the worste romance I've experienced was NWN 2. I very rarely took Elanee along in the party and gained few influence with her. Then suddenly, I'm on a castle wall and Elanee wants my character now. The only part in the game where I started rolling my eyes, sighing, and quickly skimming text to get by a scene. Frankly, I would have rather seen no romance at all if the only option is to be jumped by a character you invested very little time with or emotional attachment. I personally prefer the 'tragic romance', that is either doomed to failure, or requires actual commitment for it to work. Ooo, and the suggested romance between Sly Boots and his holographic secretary in Anachronox was pretty good too. :D

Total sell out. Oh well, atleast they didn't go with Kim Jong Ill or the president of Iran. Real great people they were considering for person of the year. I have no idea how I'm person of the year anyway. I didn't even use youtube!

Most of us have been around an annoying child, family or not, that may have rubbed you the wrong way or wrecked one of your precious things. Normal people... spank their kids, make them take a time out, ground them. They don't beat their 17 month old to death. If this were a case where after beating his child, it suddenly dawned on him, what he did, 'Oh my god! what have I done!' I think the death penalty may not be necessary, but some SERIOUS fricken' help/psychatry/whatever is needed. Kids break things... it is just a fact of life. Ever seen a nature show with a lioness laying around while 3 cubs use her as a jungle gym? Yet you usually don't see the queen of the jungle making a snack out of that cub gnawing on her ear. I hate the news lately... nothing but sick and twisted parents. Babies in microwaves, trash bags in back yards, being sold off. Either society has been taking a foul turn for the worse lately, or this stuff has alwasy been happening and the news companies, like the bottom dwelling parasites they are, are feeding off these stories with more regularity because they don't have anything of actual substance to report on. Here it is, a beautiful sunday afternoon and I'm all depressed now. :'(

If he has it in written form with .002 and the cent symbol he DEFFINITLY should get a refund/not required to pay. If however, it is written $.002 with the dollar sign then it is an awkward situation. It would be like going to a hot dog stand, seeing 1 with a cent sign after it and having the hot dog guy demand a dollar when you set your penny down. I still think he deserves a refund for their butchering of terminology. Verizon obviously screwed up big time. I've had situations where I've bought a product off the shelf and the cashier asked for a different price than what was on the shelf. When I've brought it to their attention, they went and checked, saw the error and charged me the amount that was on the shelf. The funny thing is, I wonder how many other customers are like the representatives on the phone, with no idea that they've been screwed over. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge amount of people have happily payed a bill they actually didn't owe.

I wonder how this will turn out. If the actual written term is $.002, and the phone representatives are SAYING cents, the representatives are making the mistake and if they are still the ones making the mistake I think he shouldn't have to pay/get his money back. However if the terms are written .002(cent symbol here, forgot how to do it on computer) AND the representatives are using the terminology .002 cents then every aspect of what they are saying and reading in the terms are wrong from what they are charging. I admit, that the first minute or so when the guy was talking I was thinking, "What is this guy on about... same thing!". Before he got to any sort of equation explanation I had the terminology figured out. Kind of funny how it is so easy to tell the difference between half a dollar, .50 cents, and half a cent, .005, but for some reason it took a bit longer to fathom the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents = .00002 dollars. I'm rather amazed that not one of the representatives couldn't even fathom what he was saying... especially considering I'm absolute crap at math but even I figured it out with just a few moments of thinking about it. :crazy:

Jedi Outcast was a great game. I remember how insanely cool the lightsaber fights were the first time I played... it was like the next level of coolness had just come to PC gaming and it was what got me in a state that Star Wars games might be worth trying now and then. Jedi Outcast was especially cool when you activated the cheat that allowed you to completly dismember your opponent. NOTHING was cooler than striking a finishing blow that sent the game into a slow motion spin around your character as you decapitated them. :joy: Yeah, the actual shooting component was weak, but the lightsaber duels were just pure joy.

I've been working on a remake of the D&D Capcom arcade game Tower of Doom. The first area is an inn where you may recruit some NPCs to help you, all of which are based on the characters you could pick when starting the arcade game (Dwarf, Fighter, Cleric & Elf. Will also add the Thief and Wizard from the Sequel. I haven't decided how many of them will be recruitable. 3 to make a 4 player party, 5 to make a 6 player party, or all of them to make a 7 player party.) In the original arcade game most chapters would, at a point, branch off allowing you to go one of two completly different routes with different challenges. For instance, in the first stage, after choosing your character, you come upon a caravan that has been destroyed by a band of kobolds and gnolls. After defeating the creatures a caravan guard aproaches you and asks you to either go into the mountains and defeat the creatures massing there, or go into town to help the villagers. Going into town has the harder fighting, but offers a magic weapon as a reward earlier in the game. Going into the mountains is easier, but less spoils, though you do find the stolen caravan goods. After beating either section, you then move on to the next 'chapter'. My plan is, unlike the arcade game, allow you to go BOTH routes. I'll handle this by having each route offer a reward and punishment for doing it first. For example, if you go to the caves first, you will find the caravan supplies, get a reward for finding them from the surviving caravan guard, BUT, the town will be ravaged by the gnolls and kobolds and the rewards will be sparse when returning to the town and more villagers will have perished. If instead you go to the town first, you will save more villagers and recieve a nice magical weapon as a reward for defending the town. However, when you head up to the mountain cave, more enemies will have amassed making the fighting harder and the caravan supplies will have been moved removing the nice gold reward you would have recieved by doing it first. Each 'chapter' of the Tower of Doom will offer a reward and punishment for doing one section before the other. I think this will provide a nice bit of replayability while at the same time allowing the player to explore more than the arcade game allowed. When I finish this I also plan on remaking the sequel, Shadows Over Mystara, however that is probably quite a ways a way. So far the Inn is pretty much done and the openning road is looking good. It still needs a lot of touch up and I'm learning the ropes. I can't wait to start working on other areas like the ship and the swamps, but I plan on finishing the first chapter and then seeing how people like it... suggestions etc. The first chapter will include a small inn, a caravan road alongside a mountain overlooking a valley, a mountain cave with monsters hording the caravan treasure acting as a base for the attack on the town and the town itself with a few side roads, an inn and a boss fight alongside a river. http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:9971 Heres a site with a few screen shots of the arcade game. All of the shots are from the first 'chapter'. The first shot shows the fighter on the caravan trail fighting kobolds. The seconds is a shot of the elf in the mountain caves fighting skeletons. That big rock behind her is actually a secret area. You can push the rock aside and enter a treasure room. The third is a shot of the dwarf fighting a gnoll and kobold in the city. The last shot is of the cleric fighting Ogre leader along a river in the city.

To my absolute :joy: (w00t) :D , I've discovered that the beta patch allows me to play at my preferred high resolution (1600 x 900) with shadows, normal mapped terrain and numerous other effects on at a butter smooth frame rate. I didn't think it was possible but this is a fantastic patch! I've seen promises for years of increased frame rates from patches and graphic driver updates, but this is the first time I've seen such a massive actually noticable effect! Before installing the beta patch, simply running the game at 1600x900 resolution with ALL effects off and low texture quality on would cause noticable slow downs. Now... just wow. I still notice a frame rate hit if I turn point-light shadows on, but even with that on it runs better than it did previously. Between the frame rate, the addition of AA, the numerous control options added to camera turn speed and saves no longer requiring you to re-enter a name when you save over an old game this patch is friggin' awesome! I'm sorry if I sound overly excited, but it is extremly rare to see any patch or even gfx driver that offers the insane fps improvement I've seen with this patch. Now if only the inventory menu could be streamlined a bit more.

I just finished th e game today and enjoyed it quite a bit. I do have 3 major complaints about it though. 1. Game performance vs. the graphical detail. NWN 2 isn't the most amazing looking game. It looks like a number of games released a few years ago. Yet it slows down like some mega next gen game. If I run the game at high res I have to turn literally every special effect off or to minimum and it still lags in places. If I turn the resolution way down I can turn some effects on BUT the game will still run sluggishly in parts. What is the deal? The areas aren't that huge or amazingly detailed. The load and save times get massive later in the game too. I just can't fathom how Oblivion takes 1-2 seconds to quicksave and quickload and NWN 2 takes 30+ seconds to 'quick' save and a minute or longer to load an area you are already in. I'm hoping upcoming patches can help these problems but I'm not holding my breath. It's also irritating to see a game in 2006 with enemies that clip into the groun. No rag dolls. 2. The inventory is horrid. The ORIGINAL Baldur's Gate had an inventory that was easier to see. The icons are tiny and hard to associate. Why couldn't a KoTOR style list have been implemented? Weight/Space limits could still have been enforced. Each item would take up a certain space percentage and it could list at the top of the screen your weight and space limit. 2006 and an awful tiny grid backpack system without even the option to auto organize. 3. A lot of quests that remain incomplete in the list for no apparent reason. ::SPOILER:: This rendered the quest incompletable. Wouldn't it be acceptable if you had some script or some such to check if the quest is incompletable and at least inform you that the quest was botched and then delete it from the quest log? A bit more time needs to be spent making sure that quests are either always completable, or that the game informs you that you have botched the quest or that it is no longer completable. At the end of the game I had atleast 5 quests that I had completed, but had not been updated as complete, or quests I had botched yet were still haunting me in my journal. Overall I enjoyed the game, especially building up the keep, but I wanted to get these negatives off my chest first.

"Also, where would that option be for the 68000GT? I would love black bars." You should have an NVidia Control Panel. Just click on Start on the desktop, go to Control Panel then open NVIDIA Control Panel. It may be a bit different depending on what version of the drivers you are using, but I click on Display, then click on 'change flat panel scaling'. I then click on the option 'Use NVidia scaling with fixed-aspect ratio'.

I really hope I see a noticable improvement in frame rate. The way the game runs on my system compared with other games that look much more impressive is just pathetic. NWN 2 looks like a late 2004 game but runs like a next gen 2007 game .

I understand how you feel. As far as I know there are only two solutions. Either use your graphics card's control panel to fix the aspect ratio. For me I go into my nvidia control panel, go to "Change Flat Panel Scaling" then check "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio" which adds black bars to the sides of the moniter giving the game a 4:3 ratio instead of my usual 16:9. The other 'solution' would be going to www.widescreengaming.com and looking up and downloading a hack they have. I tried it once but it caused some awkward problems with the icons on screen. Don't be afraid to try it though, as I've also had no problems removing it and they give good instructions. I simply use my graphics card control panel settings to add the black bars. Not the solution I'd like but better than having full screen with massivly wide characters. Interestingly, some games, even when distorted, still look good stretched. I think the IE games, like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape games all look fine stretched. More and more people are buying widescreen moniters and it drives me when they don't offer support out of the box for it.

Thank you! I just tried 30, but it was a tad to big . I'll fiddle around till I get it just right.

I have a widescreen moniter and play the game at a resolution of 1600x900. The problem is that the text of minor non-voiced dialogues is TINY! While I can read it, it causes eye strain after short periods. Is there any option to increase it's size? While I could lower the resolution it would defeat the purpose of my nice widescreen moniter...

"Comments disabled for this review due to spam and personal attacks. If you don't agree, you don't agree - it isn't the end of the world because you have a different opinion. " LOL. Now, I wish I had caught the user comments.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I've tried the Battlefield series, but could never get into them, just too wide open and un-focused. Quake Wars looks like it is finally going to put some focus an team work into the large scale vehicle & infantry combat game. Medal of Honor: Airborne I'm REALLY excited about this game as well, especially after watching the recent gameplay video. I'm hoping EA is going to steal the WWII shooter thunder back from the CoD series after the CoD series has 'sold out' to console systems and ruined the gameplay. NWN 2, Jade Empire & The Witcher Yeah, I know NWN 2 is already out, but I'm waiting for a local store to have a copy. After reading some player and pro reviews, I'm as excited as ever. After NWN 2, Jade Empire & The Witcher might be fun to try. I'm kind of an odd game player in the sense that my two all time favorite game genres are First Person Shooters and RPGs, yet I usually don't enjoy hybrids (Oblivion, Deus Ex, System Shock) as much as 'pure' versions of the genre (like Quake or NWN). Does anyone else feel the same?

I swear! If you kids don't stop asking that question I'm going to drive this car off a cliff! :D

It is a shame the inventory is still a mess. I wish they could have implemented a system like Oblivion's inventory list, or the auto organize button of Silent Storm. They could make the inventory an organized list and STILL have you worry about space. Example: You could still have your weight limit, # lbs. of a max of 120, AND a space limit. Just convert the grids to a number. For instance, say there were 40 open slots per back pack page and 7 back pack pages. That would mean you had a total of 280 space slots. Just have a limit like weight: This bastard sword weighs 12 lbs and takes up 8 space slots. Then it would have a number at the top of your list that said Weight: 12lbs of 120 Space: 8 of 280. Once you ran out of either space or slots #s you would then need to drop or start passing items. Boom, you have the nice neat simple lists of KoTOR/Oblivion games combined with the more realistic weight and space management of D&D. That was one of my biggest complaints about NWN 1, the sloppy do it yourself organization and it seems NWN 2 hasn't fixed it in the least.