Humanoid

... the way they handle their DRM-free version annoys me deeply... trying to sell people to the oh-so-hasslefree DRM that is Steam. To avoid swearing: in the olden days, developers were actually able to package bugfixes into small executables, and in most cases these even worked with any previous version of the game. This ability to serve their customers has been lost apparently. To be fair, they're not alone in that Expeditions: Conquistador had the same issue to an extent: their first patch was able to be released as a small executable, but their second required a redownload of the whole game. Applying Occam's Razor, I'd say the stated explanation that Unity makes it hard to patch games is a valid one, as opposed to deliberately wasting bandwidth to push a static number of users towards a different platform. We'll see for sure either way once a few more titles are released.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwpHVBjPr28[/media]

You're never going to make it as a AAA developer with that attitude!

It was hard to tell what station had what kind of content though.

Patch 1.0.2 notes, there's a fair bit of rebalancing going on there alongside the bug fixes. EDIT: DRM-free version is updated on the account website too, have to redownload the whole game though.

It's not even the full series. The only instalment I played, and then only because it was on the driver floppy for my Gravis Gamepad, was Goodbye Galaxy (I think).

RoboCop? Privateer

It's $20, so yes.

Had a couple hours to play some sort of two-player multiplayer game. Thought, why not finally try Company of Heroes? Neither of us had ever touched it, let alone knew the slightest bit about it mechanically, but with limited time, decided to dive right in. 2vs1 against an AI on Easy, should be plenty of opportunity to mess around learning the mechanics as we go, right? Wrong. Ah well, I'll go play the tutorial sometime soon I guess.

I've gone for the DRM-free options of single player games, generally: I've ignored Conquistador, Larry and Shadowrun for Steam (indeed I didn't bother asking for a complimentary Steam key for the former, which they were offering on request). However I do see the value in some cases - I went for the Steam version of Monaco because I really can't rely on multiplayer partners to figure out setting up the unencumbered version. (The alternative would have required setting up Hamachi for virtual LAN play)

Few more points: - The low voltage standards of 1.35V and 1.25V are officially called DDR3L and DDR3U respectively. This does not affect cross-compatibility, any motherboard that accepts DDR3 will run them. The only real tradeoff here is cost, though the difference is usually not significant. Low voltage DDR3 has the bonus of additional overclocking headroom, as there's no issue with running them up to Intel's maximum recommendation of 1.5V, which should allow for higher frequencies to be stable. - As general advice, it's almost always better to run fewer sticks than filling out all your slots - that is to say, on dual-channel platforms, run two larger capacity sticks instead of four smaller ones. This is mainly done to minimise the potential points of failure. In theory it probably also results in a tiny bit less latency, but essentially that's immeasurable. - A lot of vendors these days try to capitalise on the bling factor, providing stupidly tall and awkwardly shaped heatspreaders on their non-budget products. These are largely cosmetic, memory does not run hot enough for any one solution to meaningfully differentiate itself from the other. If you're planning on running a custom CPU cooler (which I tend to be in favour of), be sure that tall memory coolers don't get in the way. - Don't forget to set the correct profile for your memory in the BIOS once installed. By default they'll usually be set to some conservative setting which all platforms can run. The XMP profile(s), which are embedded in the memory, will set the correct (i.e. the maximum they were tested at) settings for your memory, so usually it's just a matter of turning that on. - DDR3 prices are unfortunately at a long-term high currently. While memory prices have always been very volatile, the driver in this case is more serious than it has been in the past. Until last year, there were only four manufacturers of DDR3 chips (as distinct from the vendors who solder the chips onto circuit boards): Samsung, Hynix, Micron and Elpida. Elpida has gone broke, leaving the pool of suppliers smaller than ever. Further, the manufacturers have been known to engage in cartel behaviour in the past, and while they technically may not be doing so now, it is in none of their interests to increase production and cause a return to the average price. So while prices will undoubtedly fall again as DDR4 looms, most observers expect the new price plateaus to be a fair bit higher than they have been in the past. - That said, Skylake and Haswell-E, the first generation Intel CPUs which will use DDR4, are still a couple years off.

The majority of DDR3 sold today is in pairs, i.e. dual channel kits. All that means though is that they've been tested together. So something marketed as tri-channel is basically the same product, except there happens to be three sticks in the pack that have been tested together, and so forth. There is no such thing as a dual(or whatever)-channel stick of RAM, the terminology only applies to the kits. At the consumer level, tri-channel was mainly used for the first get i7-9xx Nehalems, and quad-channel is in the current high end SB-E and forthcoming IB-E platforms, so there's not much market for them. As far as consumer advice goes, memory frequency really only matters when using integrated graphics, and latency, well, it's really of trivial effect for anything. Still, better rated memory tends to indicate that it's further away from its theoretical limit, and therefore can be said to be potentially more reliable. So to answer the direct question: Will anything called DDR3 do? The answer is a qualified yes. As in, it'll almost certainly work, but some of them will mean running your system out of spec, which may technically invalidate your warranty if anything goes wrong. Neither Intel or Asus will support you using 1.65V memory, whilst on the other hand, Asus will support the higher RAM frequencies marked 'OC', even if Intel do not.

No less specific than describing someone as Danish I expect. The religion you speak of is Judaism, which many Jews happen to practice. I'm sure someone will put this in better terms, as opposed to someone whose knowledge of the subject comes from playing Civilization.

Intel recommend a maximum voltage of 1.5v, and that's probably the only spec I'd stick to, avoid the 1.65V stuff. There's a perception that lower voltage stuff is better quality and has better headroom to be pushed, and I don't disagree: there are two lower voltage standards at 1.35V and 1.25V. Modern PCs don't use the FSB terminology as such, but still, to derive the frequency of the RAM from the rating there, divide by 8 (and round a bit). e.g. PC17000 ~= 2133MHz.

Not using the Doc Wagon?

Unfortunately if you start a custom class, it looks like the game just saddles you with a default loadout of SMG and pistol and no spells, even when I dumped all my points into Willpower+Spellcasting. Was just a test rather than actually a serious attempt at another playthrough for now though.

So basically by the term 'wired' they're saying the enhancement a coffee IV then.

One of those actions potentially benefits me, the other benefits Ubisoft. So....

I always felt sieges ended up being more of a case of exploiting the game mechanics than anything - the garrisons are so large, and gathering allies so mechanically unwieldy that the best approach always ended up being taking putting all my archers at the top of the troop list, telling my entire army to stand their ground and take potshots at the castle until their ammo ran out, then repeating until the garrison size became manageable. I think the whole mechanic signalled the end of my dalliance with the game.

Yeah, registered one of my Steam keys but haven't bothered downloading it, and gave away the two extra keys. Not sure how the Berlin eligibility for those players will work, guessing it might just drop three Berlin keys in my mailbox and have me send them out again. I wonder - given that the DRM-free version still supports user-made content (with manual installation), it's probably not outside the realms of possibility that once the DLC is purchased via Steam (a requirement imposed by MS), if it'd be possible, whether easily or with some fiddling, to then just transfer that content over into the DRM-free version.

Finally managed to wrangle together four people for the full Monaco experience. Arguably the most fun in gaming I've had this year.

Fundamentally yes, but some of the origin stories, ironically perhaps, serve to undermine that by removing any reason for you to stay. i.e. they do the exact same thing complained about in Kirkwall, except it's done in the prologue instead of the second act.

So this is Fallout: Mojave Moon?

^ I asked myself the same question repeatedly throughout DA1 though.

It wasn't until midway through the game that I realised I could move into melee and swing as a single action instead of having to do them separately. No luxury of being able to control angle of attack that way though, but at least the guy could get in three swings per round. There are some 'huh' aspects in how the special abilities are balanced though - e.g. shotguns get to do damage and cause -1 AP with the Kneecap ability, the melee equivalent, Pommel Strike, does no damage (let alone splash damage) for the same cost and at greater risk. And you need three ranks in the skill instead of one... yeah. Shaman seem interesting, but their summoning items are expensive single-use consumables that could potentially disappear in a single round. As much as the dialogue options of Charisma appeal, I'm a bit wary of that.