Spider

I think it's just you that need to refresh as well. I saw the old one until just now when I refreshed and then it was the new one. I'm guessing the forum keeps the name of the image whenever we change avatars, and therefor it's still cached in the browser.

Actually, Sparkle has a 8800GT with passive cooling (and it's the same price as a regular one). So ATI doesn't even have that advantage. You can get an OC version from MSI or BFG for the same price though.

Not really anymore, at least not as a deterrent to pirates. Starforce used to be really hard to crack (didn't prevent clones from popping up though), but once it was beaten it was beaten. Afaik Starforce game (what few there are) are cracked very easily these days. Besides, does it really matter what drm is used in Russia or when the game is released in Asia? The scene will crack the english version, so the other releases are fairly non-significant as far as international piracy goes. The Asian piracy-market is another beast altogether. There the problem isn't as much with copies on the internet as much as DVD:s being sold on the corner of every street for virtually no money very soon after release. At least that's the picture I have, I could be wrong though. Really? I keep hearing the opposite. Supposedly JE is fun romp but not up to standard. Yeah, it depends on who you ask. I liked the combat system, but it got a bit boring in the end. Especially the metamorphosis styles (whatever the name is) are kind of overpowered. I didn't even use the one that people complained so much about on the X-box. But maybe the PC exlusive ones were also considered overpowered? I only ever used the one that turned you inte a flaming beast, and that one was pretty strong. It was more fun to just jump around with tiger claws. The writing, on the other hand, is pretty bad. The companions are bland and uninteresting and the story is fairly obvious where it's heading. Also, the companions are horribly overwritten. It seems like the developers thought that if they just tlak in long enough sentences at a time, no one will care about the quality of the writing. KotOR has JE beat hands down when it comes to companions, and I suppose the story quality is fairly equal between the two. JE wins on game mechanics though, but loses in character customization (levelling up was a pretty boring affair). I played KotOR twice, but the mere thought of having to go through all that chatter with the companions again makes me not want to replay JE anytime soon, if ever.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I'll probably try and see if I can help her this weekend.

Walkerguy, go to www.whatismyip.com and make a note of what it says. Next time you're logged out, go to the site again and compare.

A friend asked me for advice on her computer because it's acting very strange. And since I'm not sure what the problem is, I figured I'd throw the question to the boards to see if there is any help. A while ago her network connection died. We know it's not just internet problems, because she has other computers that have connected to the internet since. So she did what any reasonable person would do, rebooted the computer. Only the computer wouldn't start, at least not at first. She pressed the power button, but nothing happened. She then went away from the computer only to have it start 5-15 minutes later (with no more pressing the power button after the first attempt, it just started by itself). A few days later, she turned the computer off and pulled the power chord. When returning the chord to the computer, the power LED lit up, but nothing more happened. Then when she got back in the room a few hours later, the computer was running, this time without the power button being pressed at all. The computer always takes 5-15 minutes to begin the start-up process after the power button is pressed now. And the network connection is still not working. She has a motherboard with integrated network card. I don't know the brand or model atm, but I can find out if it's necessary. We both believe the motherboard is the most likely culprit, but either of us feels qualified to say for sure. So any help would be welcome.

Abrams is doing a new show. I'm sure it'll be great, but I'm so much more excited about Joss Whedon's new show. Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku. Whatever people may think about Buffy, at least we can all agree that Firefly was brilliant? Right?

We all have our tastes. But I don't find Buffy to be either immature or bad acted. It's probably one of the most faithful descriptions of high school life (in it's first three seasons), apart from the monsters. The thing is, if you only watch an episode here or there, it will look a little silly. But if one follows it for a while there is depth and nuances that totally changes how one views the show. At least for me. Angel is a bit more mature in it's tone though. A bit darker, a bit more adult. Again, some episodes are sillier than others. I think they are both worth a shot, but there is a lot more recommended to you, so if you find other things more interesting, go for those first. Funny that, I thought season 5 was the best (in competition with season 1). & was pretty crappy though, so don't bother with it. Babylon 5 is the epitome of serialized Sci Fi. JMS wanted to do a show that would span over five seasons, no more, no less. He also had the entire story envisioned from the beginning, with a clear beginning middle and end. And that's basically how he did it, with is extremely gutsy considering how the TV industry works. Banking on getting a second season, let alone five, from the get go is either brave or stupid (or both). He did compromise his vision a bit in season 4. A fifth season was such an uncertainty that he wanted to give fans closure. It did happen anyway, but the end of season four is slightly rushed and season five is a bit empty plotwise, but both are still very good. What is most impressive is how much of what happens early on matters later. Stuff from the first season comes back in the last and so on. The characters feel very real and develop a lot from the starting point. The show overall is very plot driven so no, no alien of the week. There are a few standalone episodes, but those are typically very good as well. First season is a bit weaker than the rest imho though. It spends a lot of time setting things up and the commander is a bit uncharismatic. I'm not sure how it is the first time someone watches it though, I just remember what I thought the last time. If you're going to check it out, make sure to watch the pilot first, called "The Gathering". Also make sure to not watch "In the Beginning" until afterwards. That movie is a prequel, but gives away a LOT of plot. I'd ignore all the other movies until after having seen the show. Honestly they're just not all that good.

Not surprising considering that the creator of The Wire, David Simon, wrote the book Homicide: A year on the Killing Streets, that was the basis for the show. He also wrote for the show. The Wire is just brilliant. No other show has left such a void for me after it ended. Anyway, to the original poster. Based on your list, I think you'd probably appreciate Breaking Bad. Heavy serialized and thought provoking. I'd also recommend Buffy and Angel. This'll probably get a lot of scoffing, but they are very good, very serialized and tackle far deeper issues than just the monster fighting. If you like Veronica Mars, I'm pretty sure you'll like Buffy if you give it a chance. Also Babylon 5 if you don't mind the somewhat corny special effects. It has a fantastic story (at least the core show, the movies are a bit hit and miss). If you've only watched the first season of 24 I think you should continue with that. Granted, the sixth season is a bit weak, but the rest are very good to amazing. I'd also recommend Jeremiah. Post-apocalyptic goodness. Intelligent and thought provoking. Alias is also good. It wasn't as good in the end as in the beginning, but still worth giving a shot.

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I, on the other hand, is completely sold on the setting. I thought the clean cityscape was just beautiful. I thought the cleaness of it all was really refreshing, and a nice backdrop to all the crazy acrobatics. And I'm also sold on the theme of the game (a city where people like to live and are happy, they just had to give up some freedom in order to live there. The game is about a person, or a group of people, who didn't)

You can fight as well. And take the guns from those shooting at you and shoot back, just not the primary focus of the game.

Jumping and climbing around while there are cops after you shooting at you. (although the trailer doesn't show this)

So I saw the first trailer for this game today. And it completely blew me away. I can't stop watching it. It's been a long time since I've been this impressed by a game trailer. Well Assassin's Creed also had fantastic trailers, but beyond that... The trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33585.html (HD version, because that's how it deserves to be watched, but there are normal versions for those who want them linked from that page) I just hope this game will deliver on what this trailer promises. (I feel like such a fan boy right now, but I can't help myself)

Play it with whatever program you used to make it and record it with something like audacity?

In terms of art direction, I am still in love with Tribe 8. The game may have it's flaws, but the ad is stellar. But I kinda like the ad of Pathfinder to.

I managed to get out after the Malloreon. Well, that nad the Belgarath and Polgara books. But none of his other series, and for that I am grateful. And while you're absolutely correct about the Malloreon, I will say that I find it to have some redeeming qualities over the first series. Specifically Mallorea is a much more interesting nation than the rest, and the books aren't as blatantly racist (and at least somewhat less sexist). Only a couple of hundred pages to go...

They probably are a bit high. We have a 25% VAT in Sweden, which makes everything more expensive. Also, I'm not sure how the Euro vs Dollar vs SEK fight is currently. Prices in

I figured i could hijack this thread rather than start my own. So... My turn! I'll be upgrading my computer this summer. It's been overdue for about a year or so now. So finally. I'll be keeping my box and my PSU, but the rest needs to go (well, I'll keep the harddrives as well I suppose). I have somewhat of a budget, which would be roughly $1000. But given that the prices I'm comparing to are Swedish, that number is a bit unexact. Stuff is a bit more expensive here, although maybe not so much any more. The purchase will be made in a couple of months, so if anything significant is happening within that timespan, feel free to enlighten me. Anyway, here is where my head is currently at (all prices taken in Swedish from datorbutiken.com and converted to US$). The prices will be a bit lower than what I'm listing since the stuff will be bought in South Corea, but since my understanding of corean is fairly limited, I'll list the Swedish prices: Motherboard: Asus P5N-T DELUXE (roughly $315) I want the ability to go SLI. Not from the get go, but possibly before the end of the year. I also believe the motherboard should be as new as possible, since it'll stay with me the longest. So that really only leaves N-Force circuits. Since I don't see myself going three-way SLI, this board to me seems like the best buy at the moment. Of course, that can change in two months when more manufacturers start producing boards with these circuits. But I like Asus. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (roughly $215) Seems like the most priceworthy at the moment. I've gotten the impression that it's not worth it to go Quad at the moment. Or am I mistaken? Also, is it worth going up to the E8400? I do intend to OC a bit, if that matters. GFX: MSI GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 Zilent (roughly $280, price from komplett.se not datorbutiken.com) The idea of reducing noise really appeals to me. And this card has been getting good reviews (and isn't all too expensive, it will cost less where I'm getting it from than I list above, just used that price to give something to compare with). It comes OC:ed at 660, but that can be increased to about 700 apparently. Memory: Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D Dominator 2x1024MB (roughly $115) Here is where I feel the most uncertain. For starters, will 2048MB be enough? Memory is cheap, but if I add another pair of these, I'll need to cut back on something else. Getting a cheaper graphics card comes to mind (since I can get the same performance but with another cooling system for something like $50 less), but I'm reluctant to do that. So the real question is, how much of a performance boost will I see going from 2048 to 4096? I currently only have XP 32-bit and I know about the hard cap that imposes (although I might be able to get my hands on 64-bit XP, the advantages of having a brother that works for MS. Vista is currently not an option). Another question in regards to memory, does anyone have any experience of the G.skill brand? That one is currently much cheaper than the corsairs in Corea and the stats seems to be the same. So I kinda want to get those instead, but I don't want to buy crap memories. Cooling: (total roughly $150, prices taken from Corean market) I'm also going to be upgrading my cooling a bit. My current set-up is a bit too noisy for my taste (actually, quite a lot). I'm not bothered so much when playing games, since then the speakers typically beat out the computer anyway. But when I'm not gaming (or listening to music) it's too loud. For the CPU it'll likely be a Silverstone NT06. The case I have is a Silverstone TJ06, a bit old but I like it. There is an older heatsink designed specifically for this case and it's wind tunnel, the NT01 v2.0, but what I've seen it doesn't work all that well with Socket775 motherboards. My original plan was to get that one and just replace the case fans to see how that worked. But after reading up on it, I'm getting more and more hesitant. Hence I'm thinking of the NT06. That one can be fitted fanless, but also comes with an external fan controller. And since it's also based on a very efficient heat sink, it's possible it can be used with the fan at fairly low speeds. But I could definitely use advice on this. I want CPU-cooling that is as quiet as possible. If it helps me OC the CPU, that's a bonus, but I'd rather see quiet if I have to chose. I'll likely still replace the fans on the case though. There are simply better fans available now. So I'm probably getting a pair of Noctua fans. Either NF-S12-1200 or NF-P12. Haven't quite decided yet. The P12 pushes more air, but at higher noise levels. The S12, on the other hand, can go down to very low RPM where it is extremely quiet, under 6dB(A). If I decide to try with just a heatsink for the CPU, it'll likely be the P12, otherwise the S12. I'll also get a NF-R8 I think (the case has two 120mm fans and one 80mm, and I'm looking to replace all three). So the total cost of this would be something like $1075. Except it'll be a bit lower, considering where I'm getting it all. So it'll land somewhere around $1000 I think. The numbers are just there to give a reference point anyway. So any comments from those who have been paying more attention to the market than me? Or anyone else for that matter.

So just because movies can do these amazing special effects these days, does that mean that movies that have no special effects at all in them are obsolete? Just because you can do something doesn't mean it will improve every game. For instance, I would much rather see NWN2 have the world more fleshed out rather than have awesome physics added if more time was to be spent on that game. Besides, games like Civilization 4 manages to do pretty fantastic gameplay without any physics at all.

I don't know by outdated. I think complemented is a better word for it. SCGII and Tactics seem to do wildly different things, at least to me. The AI enhancement of Tactics helps, but the core of the mod is the ridiculously hard encounters that it adds. They're not there to make the game tougher, they're there to challenge the number crunchers. But I haven't played SGCII so maybe I'm way off. So I'll ask, how much difficult does it make the game, preferably in comparison to Tactics? Are the two compatible with each other?

ToEE only sold more than the other Troika games because of the D&D setting. If it had a more atypical setting it would probably have sold less than Bloodlines. It has nothing to do with it being turn-based though, just with it being crap. It did sell considerably less than any other D&D game in recent memory though. Maybe it outperformed Pool of Radiance 2, but that would be it. Speaking of PoR 2. That's a game that also served to scare publishers away from turn based games. The suits don't care that it sucked, they just see that turn based + D&D didn't sell at all, so why bother. It's quite possible that game and ToEE together killed the possibility of seeing a turn based D&D game in the foreseeable future. Again, we're talking about a really poor attempt of a game here. The engine used in Silent Storm is fine for squad based tactical games, but it sucked for RPGs. Or rather the implementation in H&S sucked anyway (the way they handled dialogue alone made me feel ill). There was much hope that H&S would be good, because S2 and S3 was so awesome, and because a game developed by fans is always an interesting idea. But the result was lackluster. But again, that had more to do with it being a bad game rather than it being turn-based.

My signature is for new Changeling. Miles better than the old one (and the old one was good).

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Currently reading (and I'm almost ashamed to admit it) the Belgariad and the Malloreon by David Eddings. Almost through actually. For some reason I decided to go through the entire series again. Before that I read the fantastic Cloud Atlas and very good Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, and the weird but entertaining Legends From the End of Time by Michael Moorcok. Going from those books to Eddings writing makes me wonder what I saw in his books all those years ago when I loved them. They are really, really awful. And yet, I can't stop reading them... *sigh* Thankfully I'll soon be done and ready to give Black Sun Rising by Celia Friedman a whirl. A book that was recommended to me by CrashGirl. I will definitely recommend David Mitchell's work though. He is bloody brilliant. He is very ambitious in his writing and isn't afraid to take risks. It doesn't always pay off, and some parts of his books don't really work (probably different parts for different people). But the ambition he has is so inspiring, and the parts that do work are so good it almost hurts. Black Swan Green takes fewer risks and as such feels a little less brilliant than say Cloud Atlas or Ghostwritten. But it's a book I couldn't stop reading. And considering it's plot is a year in the life of an eleven year old boy living a fairly ordinary life in a small english town in the eighties, that's no mean feat.