Tale

Now I'm not so sure it's the monitor. Back to the original train of thought, it's the graphics card. And I got a mysteriously bad graphics card to replace the old bad graphics. Or at least this has become bad. Or has bad drivers. *sigh* Experiencing graphical problems even with Sam & Max (only game installed) at varying resolutions that didn't happen in the widescreen resolution. Don't know best way to describe it. Each instance only lasts a frame, so I can't screenshot it. It's the problem where polygons will stretch or distort oddly. I should probably find another game to test. And maybe just scream a little.

Problem started a few months ago. Shortly after starting a game, my computer would lock up. Lock up in context is: 1) Monitor goes black. Reports "no signal." Cannot recover from this state. 2) Sometimes sound continues. Sometimes sound goes into a loop. Sometimes it'll continue THEN go into a loop. First thing did was replace video card and power supply. Problem continued with additional noticed symptom: 3) Occasional odd artifacting (weird little static-like spots usually displaced to the right of the mouse cursor that would appear briefly) on desktop and Internet Explorer. Reproduceability uncertain. Included the "lock up" on desktop, not even in game. It was recommended that I try a clean Windows install. Did so. Problem happened with a bare bones Window install and nothing else. Replaced every remaining part of the computer except hard drives, mouse, keyboard, monitor. Problem still occured, all 3 symptoms. Has happened twice with this new system, though once had a different error claiming an incompatible signal instead of no signal. I'm testing out an old CRT to see if problem persists with a different monitor, but even if the problem doesn't show up, it still seems awkward that the monitor could cause it. Monitor runs at 1680x1050 native. Desktop runs native. Was running 1440x900 for games with old system. Don't exactly recall res I ran a game at when experiencing the problem on the new system. Old CRT monitor I'm testing with is running 1600x1200. And I'll update with how that goes when I get time to play some games to test it. Any thoughts?

I think my monitor might be going bad. Buying that new $800 computer (oh, did I mention the seperate purchase of a new graphics card and power supply?) to fix what I thought was a video problem might have been going overboard. But totally worth it. I think the monitor is still under warranty. Or what just happened (that was pretty close to what happened with the last computer) was an isolated incident. Looks isolated so far, actually.

I'm in the "most likely Tigh, but could have been the 5th" camp. If she saw Anders, then there'd be some nice drama when they finally unboxed her. So, they'll avoid that.

Gaming evolution should not be defined by graphical standards. If that's how one tries to measure progress, then we're stagnant already. Working with a known platform that you already have experience with gives developers more capability for design of gameplay mechanics than a stronger graphics card.

Still playing Persona 3: FES. Putting off Nocturne until I'm done. My computer should be ready today, so I may give Kane's Wrath a whirl. Though, I'm toying with the idea of finally finishing The Dark Tower and putting all games on hold until then.

Doubtful. I don't know exactly how Bioware/EA 's EULA is written right now, but they can modify it to restrict sales. Novell (and I believe a few other companies) have had eBay pull down auctions of their second-hand software for years and years without being sued. How an EULA is worded is irrelevant in this regard. No company can deny First Sale doctrine. They can ask ebay to take things down and ebay can deny access to ebay's services at their discretion. Whether or not asking ebay to deny services is a violation is something that has not been tested. It's up to the courts though and according to Wikipedia there's still no clear winner when it comes to to the First-sale doctrine and computer software. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_sale_doctrine For First Sale applying to software: Bauer & Cie. v. O'Donnell Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus Circuits 1-6 & 9-13 Softman v. Adobe (2001) Novell, Inc. v. CPU Distrib., Inc. (2000) Against Davidson & Associates v. Internet Gateway Inc (2004) Circuits 7 & 8 So, while there is a debate, it's pretty heavily sided for First Sale applying to software.

Doubtful. I don't know exactly how Bioware/EA 's EULA is written right now, but they can modify it to restrict sales. Novell (and I believe a few other companies) have had eBay pull down auctions of their second-hand software for years and years without being sued. How an EULA is worded is irrelevant in this regard. No company can deny First Sale doctrine. They can ask ebay to take things down and ebay can deny access to ebay's services at their discretion. Whether or not asking ebay to deny services is a violation is something that has not been tested.

Something has long been wrong with the world. Politics have invaded way too many aspects of our world. And it's not just limited to our politicians.

2K gave in early and upped it to 5 for Bioshock, heh. And I hear rumors they removed it from the Steam version, though I can neither confirm nor deny it. But Bioshock did do it when I bought it. Every game I have on Steam does it, at least technically, every time I start Steam up. Though they're not overly tight with their restrictions and even have an offline mode I've barely ever used. Sam & Max episodes does it. Is it different for me because I trust Valve and Telltale more? Probably. Valve has given me free stuff and a secret forum. Telltale employees actually took personal time to get me that Max animated gif.

That joke was so funny I took you off ignore.

I'm already firmly entrenched in online authentication that it would be hypocritical to avoid this instance on principle. In fact, the every 10 day activation isn't even that draconian an addition by my prior reasoning so much as a nonsensical addition. Well, line in the sand. I'll take it at that. _>

Ever been kicked in the face?

Bioware backs down! http://kotaku.com/5008452/bioware-backs-do...-authentication I'm back on the "getting Mass Effect PC" bandwagon. Good thing, too, I spending $1k+ on a new compy. It sounds like it might be using the same method as Bioshock used. Which... actually doesn't seem to address all of my previous concerns or even the key one among them. If the authentication is disabled, you may not even be able to install. Though, if it's limited to first-run, you might be able to patch. But circumvention is DMCA violation. So, does my concern still stand? Should I jump right back off the wagon? Ouch, my brain thing hurt.

I'd like to point out there's a world of difference between having a complex system of cause and effect and having a "morality system" akin to D&D's alignment and KOTORs light/dark side meter.

Played the Haze demo yesterday. I'm not a Free Radical fan and have not been overly looking forward to this game, but I can easily say that was a poor choice for a demo. I'm not making excuses and saying the game is going to be great, but it totally went with the lamest thing about the game. Part of the game is about the schism between the world the Mantel troopers see and the real world. The Mantel troopers see things as very clean and mundane. They don't see blood, they don't see bodies. Thematically, this is intended to simulate that they don't really see the consequences of their actions. In the demo, it's just like that. But when you play through that, you're not really going to catch that theme. You're just going to see the world around you as bland because you're seeing only that clean and relatively mundane world. You're seeing faceless enemies fall down and their corpses dissapear. You're seeing injured people surrounded by spic and span bloodless surfaces. It looks generic and toned down with obnoxious teammates. There's a few hints that there's more to it, but it's not enough to hook you.

Yes. Players are generally offended by the notion of their character changing from the pre-set design they have in mind. It doesn't matter how many members of your family are raped and gutted before the PC's Paladins eyes, the player still wants to play his character the same as when he was dancing across a field of posies. If the player does by chance happen to change his actions and morality as a result of the sequence of events, he'll delightfully come up with an excuse for why he hasn't really changed at all, then get pissy when the game disagrees. If the player decides in advance that he wants to play his character as a Paladin, no amount of adversity, horror, or even greed on his own part will prevent him from wanting to ride off into the sunset on a white horse. I don't recall a morality system in those games, but I have played them. I don't recall much. Torment had probably nearly no use for one as all the important things that would be relevant were managed in other ways, but hey, it was still D&D. I can't even fathom what the point of it would have been in Fallout.

A reputation like system would be better. I don't think a morality system makes sense in context in the least. There's no magical spells with modifiers based on alignment. Besides, the concept of character development (in a non-stat building sense) is offensive to players, so the option to change alignments when that is valid is wasted.