kalimeeri
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Posts posted by kalimeeri
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This tribute to WGA from zdnet's Ed Bott:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=221&tag=nl.e539
When I installed a beta version of Acclaim's 9Dragons role-playing game (protected, apparently, by nProtect's GameGuard anti-cheating software), Vista dropped a bomb on me. A time bomb, that is. The software convinced the Windows Software Licensing service that the operating system was being tampered with, deactivating the system and starting a 72-hour countdown to "reduced functionality mode."I'm baffled that this Windows error message doesn't actually mention Windows. It just says "your license" and "your software." How am I supposed to know which license and which software. And in the left-hand-meet-right-hand department, where's Windows Defender in all this? I'm installing a piece of software that is tampering with my operating system, according to the Windows Software Licensing module. So why is Windows Defender looking the other way while this dastardly deed is being done? Why doesn't it detect and block this software?
In this case, closing the game and restarting the computer allowed me to reactivate over the Internet, but other people haven't been so lucky, based on reports filed at Microsoft's Vista Validation Issues forum.
For the record, I think Acclaim deserves a share of the blame for this problem. This problem has been known for a month, maybe much longer. When I installed the 9Dragons software today, it auto-updated itself to the latest version. Supposedly, nProtect has had a patch available for some time, so why doesn't Acclaim include it?
Still, shifting the blame around is cold comfort to a Windows user who downloads and installs a perfectly innocent-looking program only to discover that they've actually pulled the pin on a grenade that will go off in 72 hours unless it's disarmed.
So far, it looks like most of these problems respond to simple treatment: uninstall the game or program and reactivate, by phone if necessary. Still, it's a hassle to deal with, and nontechnical users are likely to be thoroughly confused.
I don't think 'confused' is the word I would have used.
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I disagree that the ending is what a memorable game is all about. IMO, a really good game is like a good book--you don't want it to end, because you know it'll be a cold day before you find another that you like even half as much. And while I'd like to say it's as simple as an engaging story or great characters (because that's what I look for in a game), it isn't.
Think of any game you've played, and there will be at least one element you remember, be it good or bad. (Killing stuff doesn't count.) The story/character angle is the most obvious--NWN2, PST, K2, Anachronox, etc. But in Dungeon Seige 1, it was atmosphere (swaying trees and awesome music); in Diablo 2 it was multiplayer LAN with my kids. I couldn't tell you exactly what the story was or how it ended in either one of those games, but I liked and finished them both, more than once. I don't regret buying them. On the flip side, what I remember most about Fahrenheit were the mindless Simon-says puzzles, Morrowind trudging across an endless brown landscape ... enough said. Somewhere in the middle is IWD--I finished it, but I can't tell you a thing about it other than 'snow'. I think it was hope that kept me going.
What's sad is that over the past several years, I think the industry has shifted focus from just making 'good' or 'fun' games to just making $ instead. Fewer and fewer games are being made, and most of the ones that are, are all about coming up with an 'innovative' idea (which sometimes involves a horrendous mixing of genres) to cloning whatever sold last year, pumping it out as fast as possible. What you end up with is a CD or DVD that gets tossed aside in disgust.
So I think the real question is, 'how many RPG's have been worth buying, over the past couple years?' because you can't finish a game you don't bother buying in the first place. I'm grasping at straws here, but I see it as a hopeful sign that I found two--count 'em, two--last year alone. Wow. Granted, I'm not into MMO, and I play PC games exclusively, but I haven't seen much better on the console front (with the possible exception of Jade Empire, haven't seen that yet). I'm hoping that those two--NWN2 and Oblivion--signify a shift back to sanity. Or, good old fashioned value for money. Otherwise, well, I'll stick to my old games and save myself the cost of upgrading hardware.
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I agree that schools should monitor what goes on when children are under their care--it is their responsibility. Who, then, is responsible for monitoring activities on the internet? There's already a long line of folks who would just love to legislate every facet of it. But is that what we really want?
The internet may serve to keep the kids out of their parents' hair, but it is not a babysitter or a nanny--any more than television was a decade ago. Parents are responsible not just for monitoring what their children are doing, but also how they are reacting to it. If it's a problem, then as a parent, I reserve the right to restrict access and even pull the plug. That's what user accounts and ISP internet control settings were designed for; any parent that ignores them and the child both is asking for trouble--and not just from bullies.
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Don't get me wrong, I like to finish games. I really try. But there are a couple of RPG's that are still on the shelf, for whatever reason...
Advent Rising ... maybe 1/3-1/2 finished.
Fahrenheit ... I never got past the tutorial.
Dungeon Seige 2 ... Last hurdle stuff, never went into the last battle.
Morrowind ... almost finished every single quest, installed both the expansions, and lost my game to a hard disk crash. Tried to go back, but couldn't do it.
Fallout 1&2 ... started, but never got into it.
Arcanum, same. Not a big fan of post-apocalyptic, I guess.
The rest are history, most of them more than once: Diablo, Diablo2, IWD, IWD2, NWN1, NWN2, Dungeon Seige 1, Oblivion, Anachronox, Kotor 1&2, BG1,2, & Shadows of Amn, PST, and all the older Sierra/LA games like QFG 1-4, Shannara, both Krondor's, etc., etc.
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I agree with TA overall, that Kotor's story closely mirrors the OT (and consequently follows the simple heroic-adventure story formula that GL and countless others have used). There really are no new plots, or twists. Once you've seen one, you've basically seen 'em all. What sets one such story apart from another, in any given genre, are the characters and the way that they meet those standard challenges.
This is where Kotor 1 shines, and why it still has a singular appeal separate from the OT, and from K2. Revan is a memorable character, in that in spite of the challenges set before him, he maintains resiliency--and a sense of humor. And at the same time there is a cold anger beneath the surface, both at the Jedi Order and at Malak, the friend who betrayed him.
The game sparkles with humor, both situational and character-driven. Jolee is irreplaceable, Mission is adorable, Bastila is easily embarrassed, you can't take Canderous anywhere without feeling his machismo is going to land the whole party in trouble, and HK ... well, you know. I even like Carth. (umm, Juhani not so much).
That's why I still play K1, and still love it. It's obvious that it was meant to encompass the entire OT in a single game-- beginning, middle and end--and that it did. At that point, I don't believe there were any plans for a continuation of any kind.
TSL had a tough act to follow.
Kotor2 was brilliant, in that it not only picked up the thread of Revan's story, it enhanced it, deepened it. Players started over with a new PC whom they had no reason to care about, but the instant that Exile's backstory intertwined with Revan's, I was sold.
K2 was a vastly different game. First, it was darker; but considering the Exile's past and the current state of the galaxy, it needed to be. It was as if the light had been snuffed out, but you could see it way off in the distance, guess where. Second, it was obvious that this story was the middle part of a trilogy.
The way that K2 blended Exile in was truly inspired; and Kreia's character was a masterful touch. For me, at least, that's who this game was about: Revan, Kreia, and Exile. I was happy to see T3, HK, Bastila, Carth and Canderous again. But with the exception of Bao-Dur, I found it hard to care about the rest. (And in fact, the way the game shipped, there was no way anyone could, because those people didn't matter).
The subtlety found in K2 is a rare thing to find in a video game; it tells you nothing. One play-through I'll get one impression, and the next I think differently. But for all the speculation, I'm still not sure any one of us is sure how much impact Kreia had on Revan, or what he had planned to do. I do know I want Exile to find out, and that I still think he and Revan (along with our old friends Canderous, et al) are the key to ending the story successfully.
And like TA, I would only trust this task to Obsidian. They took this story and ran with it, and in the process made it their own. They've shown me that they know story, and I want to see where they were going.
So which do I think is better? That still depends on which one I'm playing at the time. But I can't ever play K1 any more without applying K2's subtle implications, nor K2 without missing Revan and wanting Exile to help resolve his plan. In other words, I guess I want Kreia to be vindicated--because I don't believe she was evil. Only prophetic.
I think that's 400 words. Or, well, more. But I think K2 was a greater game, in that it made K1 something better too; and the two can't be separated.
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The Night Listener, with Robin Williams. No great surprises, because it gave you all the necessary hints along the way, but it was nicely done. One of RW's better dramatic roles to date, IMO.
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Not if we have our senior citizens patrol the border. They're a vast national resource that we haven't put to use yet.
Okay, hey, thanks. Now I've got Aerosmith's song stuck in my head...
'Grandma's got a gun..." :'(
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I remember I've read somewhere a point system that outlines the cost of various hardware upgrades in points (with motherboard costing the most, of course). After reaching a certain limit, your system becomes "new" in respect to licensing. Now only if I remembered the link... so don't take my word for it, yet.
I think it's buried somewhere on Microsoft's site. But yes, a point system was employed at least as far as XP went (but as Sammael said, there are no hard and fast rules with Microsoft). Once you hit the cumulative total, the point system supposed you had a new machine. But the point system itself was flawed, in that it put a larger value on some easily changeable components than it should have--in other words, theoretically, just changing out the motherboard 'shouldn't' trigger it. It wasn't very smart. I don't think it was capable of telling the difference between newer and older versions of certain chipsets, either; if the manufacturer was the same, it generated the same machine code regardless, and a full Acronis restore would sometimes take right off even if all the heavy hitters had been exchanged. (Not recommended, but an interesting experiment, all the same.)
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I don't know. Oblivion is no NWN2, but it does have its charm, and I'd hate to see it lose that trying to be something it's not.
I was a little put off by the 'crazy' theme behind the expansion, at least the way the press release described it. But I did find an interview on YouTube with 2 of the devs that made me think again; their description and enthusiasm made it sound a lot better, even though I don't much care for the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme of the plane. They did put a great deal of thought into the various types of madness, and embodied them in various NPC's you must deal with; which could be interesting, and I would like to see Bethesda do more with story. So I may give it a try, even though one of the parts of Oblivion that I most enjoy is the natural landscape and the not-so-perfect AI. There are still many places I haven't seen; and I wouldn't have missed Shadowmere jumping on the roof of the stable to get out of a fight for the world.
Please tell me that is not *my* horse. (I took a screenie to blackmail her with.) I think as long as Oblivion doesn't take itself too seriously (like Morrowind), it'll be all right. -
Attacking the establishment, even in such a ridiculous vein, will likely result in -10 influence for acceptance of the gay community in general, unfortunately. It invites retaliation. This is not the way to make their point.
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Only fire or acid will kill a troll.
'Detect Life' works on ghosts.
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If I do, at some point, I think it will only be on a single machine--assuming that would provide a function I just can't live without. DOS 6 and Win98se have earned that right, because they do certain things (okay, some games) better than my XP workhorse. But those are only used occasionally and were no sweat, since I already had the OS's and hardware lying around. If I have to do a major upgrade just to make it happy, not so much. Not worth it just for the sake of tinkering--not even for a single app. The OS itself isn't worth the cost, as the Home Premium and Basic versions offer very little more than XP--again, you've got to go Pro.
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The cables that snake out of my docking station are all tidied away, though, so that I can keep everything clean. I remember way back when I first started work, whilst still at school, as a PC repairman and I confounded a user by diagnosing his keyboard problem as a voltage jump across the PC's cables (including the keyboard cable); I simply separated them and the problem was solved. :D (Stupid unshielded cables.)
PC repairmen everywhere hate you. You could have sold them a new keyboard, power supply, and had them reinstall Windows -- teaches them a lesson for calling you out, and makes a tidy profit on labor and hardware ... all without straining a brain cell.* Since the cables were moved in the process, it's fixed!! Wottsamattau? You didn't get the flier?
(*this message has been provided for you courtesy of
Dell
, and does not reflect the views of this station.)
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Does it impact dust level inside the case in any way?
Doesn't do much for the pup's nose and whiskers, I'll tell ye true. :'( My tower has to sit on the floor.
So yeah, I pay attention to cables and air flow, but it's not fancy. I got geeky about component heat/energy efficiency this time around ... the 'holistic' approach, LOL. I wanted to see what happened if I didn't make the heat in the first place. (And what happened is the CPU fan speed shutdown gave me heart attacks--solely because it wasn't getting warm enough to shift the fan into 2nd gear in time). The wide open room probably has a lot to do with that. It's still a pain to have to take the side off every time I want to change or dust something out. And filters or no, dust is always a battle.
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Shouldn't XP see a great reduction in price after Vista is officially dropped?
You know, I don't believe we will. XP is still Microsoft's bread and butter, and from all indications, Vista may start off slower than they might hope. They've already announced that support for XP Home will be continued for another three years, just like they're doing for their business customers. XP lives, and that shows it has value to them.
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Wake-up call: when the publishers give "minimum specifications", it doesn't mean "minimum specifications to get the title screen to display", it means "minimum specifications to play the game to its conclusion, however painful it might be at times whilst the harddrive thrashes to keep up with the virtual memory requirements or the GPU overheats trying to produce more than single-digit framerates, etc."
Very true.
There is a big difference between coaxing a game to work, and actually enjoying playing it. In DOS, and in Win3.1 up through even 98SE, games were in an adjustment phase, and it was sometimes a challenge to get them to run at all. It was fun ... kinda ... but not nearly as much as counting the new gray hairs I get while my (now ancient) 533 mhz Dell boots up. It's a dinosaur, but worth keeping around for those games that don't recognize newer hardware (Audigy and USB joysticks come to mind). But while it 'might' run some of the newer titles, I'd have no right to expect it to, or to complain if it didn't. Not to mention that watching loading screens and hearing it straining while the graphics crawl across the screen would be torturing both of us. It wasn't built for that.
If the average computer user doesn't know what's in the machine he bought, or what those numbers mean, that I can forgive. I even understand impulse buying. But nowadays, if a game doesn't run the way I think it should, it isn't that hard to figure out why, especially if the developer played as fair as Obsidian did.
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IIRC there is a slight difference in the Dell OEM version, in that it makes you reformat first, instead of giving the option of choosing another directory. I have seen that kind of tweaking by some computer manufacturers. Regardless, it's wise to tread a little lightly with OEM. It's not unheard of to purchase a copy whose reg code will not validate because it's already been used somewhere else; by the time it gets through several discount vendors to eBay, the trail is snarled and so is sorting the problem out in thirty days or less.
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Come on, that isn't fair. Those bright shiny game boxes have been getting smaller and smaller, and I haven't seen one yet that says 'Warning: This game may not run on your machine!! If you don't know what kind of video card the computer company sold you, Don't buy this!' They leave about one square inch of space for system specs, and its typically stuck down on one side in the corner, because it looks boring.
You and most of the others here know their machines from the inside out, and read every inch of the fine print just for a thrill. And anyone like that knows the value of 'wanting to believe'. In other words, it might be possible to 'make it work'. I've lost count of the number of games that weren't supposed to run (on various systems), but did so ... okay, with a lot of encouragement, and maybe not very well, but still. My machine meets specs, so all I can do is guess, but NWN2 is probably one of the few that wasn't kidding.
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Powerdesk. I was an addict to the old DOS PC Tools, and this is the closest thing I can find for a Windows environment. I've tried others and always come back. Can't live without it.
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FYI, I just had one incomplete/corrupt autosave with 1.03, so stay on your guard. I was going from Blacklake back to Crossroad Keep, in Act III. When I brought the game back up and loaded that autosave, I could go everywhere BUT CK. I loaded the prior quicksave, and it was fine.
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Waiting for 1.04 final... Can't bring myself to install the (any) beta on my clean machine, and I'm about to go to war in my (3rd) game in progress. But I check every night, can't wait to see the changes. Guess I'm going to have to play again to really enjoy them. Darn.
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Glad somebody thought so. The main PC has as much character as a bowl of cream of rice, and I can't justify for the life of me why he's even there, let alone why we're focusing on him.
He had a brother who died, and that makes him special? Not in this game--only one NPC left standing who doesn't have an evil twin/father/cousin/auntie, and I fear for her. Or I would if I cared.
Pretty graphics and a decent battle system does not equal a good game; and if Gamespot gave this a 9, maybe they should cast 'dispel reputation' with regard to Square, and try actually playing it. Me, I prefer Dungeon Seige 1--at least it wasn't pretending.
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I doubt I'll buy it, especially if it's just more of the same. Oblivion itself was quite enough of the same if you found the same satisfying. It would be great to let someone capable of telling a decent story loose with the Oblivion engine to produce an expansion pack, but is that really going to happen any time soon?
Oblivion's game world is a fun sandbox to poke around in, nothing wrong with that. It's recreational at its simplest level; Bethesda seems to have opted more for a 'short story' approach for anything else. Sometimes that's enough, in the context of a real life day. Sometimes it isn't. Especially considering the potential of marrying a feature-length story with that engine.
I suppose Bethesda's decision boils down to target audience, more than anything else; a little bit o' this, a little bit o' that equals something for everybody, whereas a full well-thought-out-and-executed story often goes unappreciated. It doesn't lend itself well to the console market, which is rife with the ADD-afflicted. Not to mention that few enough in the game industry even understand what makes a good story, let alone can write one of novel-length and make it work. And most of those are in hiding.
But yeah, I'd love to see it too. And if they're talking about branching plotlines and affecting outcomes, it's at least possible that Bethesda's inching toward it. I've gotta see, at any rate, although I'm a little concerned about the 'madness' premise. Humor is a tricky thing.
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Please tell me that is not *my* horse. (I took a screenie to blackmail her with.) I think as long as Oblivion doesn't take itself too seriously (like Morrowind), it'll be all right.
He had a brother who died, and that makes him special?
Study linking OTC painkillers to hypertension
in Way Off-Topic
Posted
I think many people equate OTC medicine to mean 'safe at all speeds', and that is not the case. For instance, the hypertension medication I used to take had a warning buried way down deep in the PDR--not to be used with ibuprofen. That is not information that I learned from talking to my doctor, or on the label, or from the pharmacy; I researched it on the internet years after it was prescribed. And I've got to wonder if it was because the OTC painkiller counteracted it.
I don't like medicine, period, and refuse to take it unless I really need it--and then I stick with the simple stuff (aspirin, or sudafed ... until they pulled it from the shelves). Most fancy flu or cold meds put me to sleep.