LadyCrimson

Are we only talking about game retail stores here? Cause I think extreme "specialist" stores in general are in trouble & have been for a long time. With any "specialty" retail store, as times/tech/demand & business practices change, the viability of that type of store can change. The game market & tech have changed, what people expect/want is changing...so in terms of retail store game market, yes, I think it's going away. I'm not sure the boxed game is entirely going away...you'll just have to buy it online & have it shipped to you, or do DD. No walking into a store & grabbing it from a shelf. And I also tend to agree that paying the same amount of money for a DD game as we did for a boxed game is a bit of a cheat....but then, I don't know what the related costs of DD are vs. retail store costs. I'd guess less, but how much less I have no idea. For instance, how much of the retail price tag is for the marketing, manufacturing, shipping & other fee type expenses vs the actual game development related costs? Anyway, I don't think big release DD games should be $10-$15 when they first come out, but maybe $40 instead of $50-$60. Assuming it does cost less for a DD only business model, to me that should = less cost to the consumer, not just less cost/more profit to the companies.

The hull walking scene had Lt. Hawk being assimilated & than shot. I guess in a space helmet he could be confused a little with Wil Wheaton. A little. ...I am such a ST goober.

I have yet to see an even remotely convincing 'spaceship' picture. Ever. But I do think life on other worlds is at least possible. Whether it would be advanced enough to even have a chance of discovering our planet, let alone somehow either rapidly travel back & forth to frequently spy & report on us or have near-by bases somewhere as they watch the planet for hundreds of years is another matter. Again, it's possible...but I don't consider it very probable. (edit) Even if you could have some degree of FTL travel, space is BIG. I think you'd need those sci-fi wormholes instead.

*looks at article* ... pfffft ... it can't fly. Don't care. (but I do agree they'd have military uses)

Well, they did kill them in the original series very occasionally - like Spectre of the Gun, Shore Leave - but it was always "fixed" at the end by some super-being or a stupid explanation or whatnot, so.... Dax is another in the long line of Star Trek aliens who are completely human in appearance except for nose ridges, pointy ears...or body tattoos. Eh? He wasn't in First Contact at all. I think he had a cameo bit in Nemesis during the wedding scene. IIRC there was also an early Q episode in the series where Wesley was killed by monsters that Q created to tempt Riker into becoming a Q.

I've tried playing a few games in a window so they're "natural" size, & that'd be ok for something like Myst, but some of us have trouble reading lots of menu/text & frenetic mouse-clicking in a tiny little space from desk/chair distance. 4:3/13" screen size is about as small as I like to go.

Google Maps satellite has updated since last I looked. Now, if you aren't me, you wouldn't think anything of the little white smudge near the center, but that's my hubby sitting on the patio. Made me laugh. At least it isn't the close-up of Google-streetview.

@taviow Yeah, it does depend on the game & I guess the tech used vs. how cards deal with it? The sprite stuff often looks less fuzzy than older 3D, not sure why. Dungeon Keeper1 actually looks pretty decent, Diablo1 was ok in terms of blurriness but appeared grainy/pixelated...and Dungeon Siege1 (at 1024x768) was Vaseline-covered-lens blurry. I haven't actually tried BG on this monitor yet, hopefully I'll have the same luck as you.

He was fairly long - maybe 20-22" head/body+10-12" tail - and somewhat tall (12-13" on 4 legs) but thin & not very heavy (maybe 14lbs). But he had giant 'snowshoe' feet. When he was a kitten I thought he was going to be even larger.

I was wondering if it was something like that. Kinda cute. Wonder if monsters will attack it. Think I'll go find out.

Been in one of those moods where nothing really grabs me. Tomorrow the Borderlands DLC comes out, so I guess I'll be playing that. Hopefully it'll be good.

Usually vet places that have euthanized my kitties send me a 'so sorry' card a week later. The place I went to this time sent me a clay footprint impression in the shape of a heart. Kinda like the baby-foot impressions people do. Does this strike anyone else as kind kind of weird? I mean, I'm sitting here wondering if they euthanized him then pressed his dead paw into this little 'remembrance gift.' Doesn't that seem a little creepy? I know they meant well, but still.

I saw Serenity before I'd seen Firefly. I loved the movie. At first I loved it so much that when I tried to watch Firefly, I didn't like it all. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure I know. I did finally buy the whole series and after watching it a couple times, I've come to appreciate it more - particularly a few certain episodes - but I still like the movie better. Guess it's the chicken & the egg reaction. Yeah, even having never seen the series, that scene really threw me for a loop. I didn't like it. :/ ....I watched 'The Time Traveler's Wife' on HBO, because I could. For most of the film I was thinking "what silly hogwash" and was kind of bored/confused. But then the end of the movie was so emotionally manipulative that I found myself sniffling a little. I wouldn't call it a good movie, but I guess it did its job at the end. ;p

It's isn't the small resolution that bothers me so much, it's the fact LCD screens can't display 'non-native' resolutions without turning them into blurry mush. I originally played BG1 on a 17 or 19" CRT monitor (can't remember which) and it looked just fine. In theory playing it on a bigger monitor (in 4:3 w/the black bars) might turn it a little more blurry, but probably wouldn't make it look that much more terrible, since 4:3 on widescreen 23" is only around 16-17" diagonally. But LCD's...bah. I wish I'd kept one of the old CRT's. Maybe I can find one in a computer resale junk shop somewhere.

Ah, there it is, thanks. .... yeah, it does make European look more like the American. I don't know what it's doing technically, but to me the post-processing visually comes off as = combo of saturation control and contrast control. It doesn't seem to affect things like sun glare, for instance, since that's a separate setting. Here's a couple more comparison shots. Just for disclosure, I have it set to European but also used the 'saturation' slider to boost color a bit more than the default 'European'. (click thumbs for full size) Something else I noticed, is if you have the shadows on "Ultra" & stare at them on the ground, they "tick" rapidly as they move w/the sun. eg, it looks jerky. Didn't notice if it's true on High shadows, maybe it did & I didn't observe. It's weird/distracting tho. Also...why is a sheep following me everywhere?

What post-processing setting are you talking about? Unchecking a lot of the options in that big 'Video' list, or something else? I wouldn't call it ugly...it's just very generic. And in the demo at least, the color scheme feels monotonous to the eye. For an RPG (vs shooter) with the usual tons of distant & close green foliage scenery - that rarely looks super-great in any game, anyway, imo - it doesn't look terrible while moving in-game. But definitely not very interesting. I think it's hard to say based on a short demo. Which is one reason I don't usually do demos. They're enough to judge certain things with but there's lots of games where it took me a long time of not giving up on it before I became really enamored with it.

Yes, all it does is increase/decrease color saturation. I don't think it does anything else (if it does, it's too subtle to be much noticeable), since when I take screenshots of the two different settings, and then only increase/decrease saturation in an editor, they end up looking exactly the same.

I played some of the demo (I don't know how long it is) but didn't finish it. Can't speak to potential longer term gameplay appeal, but initially I'm unimpressed. The invisible walls are very annoying, including not allowing you to walk off short platform edges to drop to the ground, and getting stuck on rocks here and there. Voice acting/script I don't care about personally, but I'd say it's not that bad. Not good, but not that bad. Interface didn't bother me at all either, fairly simple. The mouse turning motion felt way too fast for me - like spin around dizzy fast - and even with the slider all the way down it was more spin-y than I'd like. So count me in on the probably wait for it to come down in price camp. I might not wait for bargain bin, but discounted at least. I had it on max-everything & it was giving 30-35 FPS (i7/Win7/geGTX275) which felt smooth & non-stuttery. If I turned Fraps movie recording on, it only dropped a few frame points/wasn't laggy at all. Graphics were ok but nothing spectacular/super smooth in terms of the scenery/grass/trees - faces were better. One thing I did like was the "American" & "European" color saturation option. Did all the Gothics have that? I think more games should. Sometimes I don't want the over-saturated colors. Also had fun getting stuck on a rock in cave, which led to the always giggle-inducing inside-out-face/body model view. Hahaha.

Don't normally "do" demos (lazy) but I'm semi-interested so I'm downloading this now. Got over an hour to wait tho, so I'm also watching the YT video. As soon as the "hero" opened his digital mouth, I started laughing. It's Disciple!! LMFAO Edit:imdb doesn't list the game as a credit under his name, but it sure sounds like him in spots & he's done lots of other games. Can anyone confirm/deny?

It does? *checks* Well, sure enough, there it is. I wonder why I never used it back then. I haven't installed/played it since way way back-guess I never noticed or maybe the PC I had couldn't handle it or something. Altho I don't remember any of the ppl I hung w/in those years mentioning it - we all whined about disc swapping. I guess we were idiots? :D Ah well, still like the no-disc/OS concept, as well as not needing all those discs anymore. That would be nice. I don't see a mention of it in the page description however. Every time I try to toss my original NES, I just can't do it. Doesn't matter that I haven't touched it for maybe 8 years & only had one game I liked for it. I'm a book/game/vinyl/videotape hoarder. What can I say. Maybe in another 10 years... Altho, I did toss all my music audio-tapes a while back. Those really weren't worth hanging on to. 8-tracks, now...if I had any, I'd hang onto them. Alas I don't...

Well I saw it. I thought it was almost painfully slow for most of the episode - not so much boring where I wanted to turn away, but it brought out the "get on with it" impatient side of me a bit. The very ending left me a tad confused on one issue but I assume they'll explain it later. However I can see potential for future episodes as chrs. become better fleshed out, motivations become more clear & viewers become more attached to the goings on. Well acted, looks good, & seems as if in the future will have some nice conflict scenes & all of that. Just don't expect the pace or action of, say, Rome.

This isn't a statement for piracy (I'm very against it) but imo, with current tech at least, I see no way to effectively stop it (digital piracy) without complete policing of the internet that would turn the 'net into just another marketing/sales tool vs free information/use. If that makes sense. Although I can see trying to block large known pirate music sites, from here or ones based in other countries. But trying to keep track of all the IPs and such of them all as they rapidly change around seems like a pretty big task. But I'm no tech expert.

I assume they were up again for a while? Because I can't get the site to load at the moment. .... ah, nvm there it goes...server maintenance. 2nd edit: Can't wait to get BG...I still only have the original disc set where you had to switch discs in-game. heheh It'll be nice to have a copy that'll run on modern machines/no discs!

Tobacco hormworm:I'm hungry. Me:Here's another tomato branch w/several big leaves on it. Tobacco hormworm:Thank u nomnom. (few hours later) Tobacco hormworm:I'm hungry. Me:Already? Here's another... Tobacco hormworm:Thank u nomnom. (few hours later) Tobacco hormworm:I'm hungry. Me: ... gonna need a faster growing tomato plant .... or a giant jar of wheat germ... Tobacco hormworm:I'm hungry.

Bah. I caved and got HBO just now. $10/m for 6 months/$20 after that. Considering how much we pay even w/out it+the slow pace of movie On-Demand turnover seems worth it for 4 more commercial-free movie channels. Hopefully HBO will repeat the 1st episode a lot this week or have it on subscriber on-demand, so I can check it out.