Monte Carlo

OK, I looked inside. There is a sinister, shiny black and green Nvidia case in there with no screws on. It's like HAL in there. This is a custom-built machine I bought from Guys Who Know What They're Doing. I, OTOH, don't, I might phone up their tech support on Monday. Although I'm comfortable troubleshooting software issues, I'll give Driver Sweeper a try, thanks for the tip. Cheers MC

They both worked fine before, then I started getting bluescreen crashes when I tried to update drivers, it might be an SLI problem but I'm afraid I haven't got a clue how to enable it. When I uninstall and reinstall the lot via disc one doesn't update, which with my extremely basic knowledge does seem to involve SLI (which links the two cards, right?). @ Morgoth. Me remove something from inside a computer? Whoah. Cheers MC

My computer (OS is Vista), runs two NVidia GeForce 9800GX2 cards. I'm having problems with them which I'm convinced is down to the drivers. When I try to update them via Windows device manager they crash, or only one works. When I try to update them manually via the drivers from Nvidia they crash. When I uninstall them both and reinstall via the original dish only one works. It's driving me crazy, hey at least the blue screen crashes have stopped, now it's just a black screen freeze with a flashing white cursor in the top left hand corner. Strange thing, though, sometimes in device manager they are Geforce and sometimes they are shown as 'GF.' Hmmm. Thing is, I can't get them both working at the same time. Any ideas? Help appreciated! Cheers MC

We are so in the same grid square on this one. This is exaclty the type of dark, gritty but mature and tasteful romance music I too was anticipating.

Just watched that vid again... bejaysus the VO for the Imoen-lookalike is awful. OK, I only listened to a bit of it, but most ATMs in the UK can manage more emotion than that.

Personally, I like the idea of a camp elf assassin. A lot. Even better, if he was cheerful about his lot in life and was refreshingly amoral about his profession. If only I could find out about it gradually, by talking to the dude, without another NPC telling me his life story in the monotone reminsicent of a speak-your-weight machine. As for his Duran Duran concept art = Shame they didn't follow it through.

Personally, I'm loving the dialogue that consists entirely of exposition.

My son was born just after RT:W was released, he fell asleep loads of times whilst this mix from RT:W was playing in the background... Cheers MC

Harsh. But then again, SoZ wasn't really about plot, I've enjoyed it plenty without being too distracted by why i'm looting, levelling up, beating up monsters, exploring (etc).

SoZ, good-aligned party (although I've added the Drow Warlock for arcane firepower and Ribsmasher because he makes me laugh), currently at level 16 and have done one raid on the high-level bit of the jungle before the final area. Now back in Sword Coast grinding for level 17 / 18 finishing some unfinished quests and getting tooled up for The End. It's really really good fun, it's like playing a superior, gonzo 1E AD&D pen and paper campaign. Kudos to the developers for making an old gamer very happy and more power to your elbows! Cheers MC

^ So I'm not alone. Phew. Now, there are six origins. Three blow chunks, two look OK and one (Dwarf Commoner) I really like the look of. So I'll be doing this really annoying habit with three origins. Maybe we're looking at about 200 hours. By then some smart-arse will have modded it... Cheers MC

It's still a bargain, SoZ is excellent.

^ Not really. Chainmail bikinis might be OK in context, but I'm getting to the point where I find them embarrassing. Hey, we know Morrigan gets her kit off later in the game, maybe it would be nicer if she stays covered up 'til that point. I'm beginning to realise that one of my mage hang-ups is that they don't look cool.

Not really a Dragon Age specific observation, but why do mages always wear robes? OK, they must be comfy for pottering around doing experiments in your tower, but what about adventuring? You'd want a sturdy pair of boots, britches, a jacket and a cloak not to mention a belt, harness and pack for all your wizardly bits and bobs. You certainly wouldn't want a pointy hat. Or those curly-ended slippers with little bells on the end. I want to see a swaggering, sexy wizard done up like Captain Jack Sparrow or something. Not Gandalf. NWN2 had sort of gonzo-goth wizards, which was a start. cheers MC

I think of it a bit like chess-by-mail, I can happily make a move, save, leave it for a week then come back to it. This is why I love games and think they are extremely good value for money.

^ That's because I don't actually play that many games. I normally have no more than two serious games on the go at the same time, and am in no hurry whatsover to finish them.

^ The hype is there, we probably view it differently. As for the length of the game, am I alone in incessant re-starting? I'll do ten hours then realise that my character build is wrong. Start again. Rinse and repeat. This is my first 20-30 hours of play time, and for this reason alone I'm sure DA:O for me might well be 100 hours.

The first time I completed BG2 / ToB all the way through easily took me 100 hours, mainly because I did everything and I was using a number of mods. My first vanilla BG2 only game was about 80-odd hours, but I went critical path and motored through it. Like I say, in reality I'm expecting DA:O to be a sort of compact BG2 size, and similar interms of linearity (without the structural 'freedom' design flaw of BG2 whereby you could do most of the game then set off for Spellhold).

It was NWN1 old chap, he was a blocky and poorly-rendered figure, the precise nature of which escapes my memory. Although I'm certain that in real life Eric isn't poorly rendered nor blocky.

D&D must be a massive pain in the arse for developers. One the one hand you have instant brand recognition and sales. On the other you have to deal with the various interested parties. On top of that 4E is so meh-tastic, and removed from D&D, that maybe it's all over.

^ I remember the open games on NWN1. I have the hand / eye co-ordination of a kitchen table. I'm also, obviously, a sweet natured and collaborative person. I lasted about fifteen seconds on most servers. Never again. Although I did get to have a short online chat with the Eric Noah in his virtual NWN dungeon on NWN release D-Day release date +2. Hi Eric! What a nice guy. Cheers MC

^ all the reviews / dev comment I've seen hasn't put an approximate hour cap on it, they've just said that it's their biggest game since BG2 (but not as long). I'm reckoning, including inevitable re-starts and doing everything,up to 90 hours. I'd be well pleased with that. Maybe alanschu can assist. Cheers MC

I looked at Age of Conan and really, really liked it. But I didn't touch it with a bargepole. I don't want to pay a subscription to play a game. I don't want to have to put up with lamers and griefers to play a game. I don't want to be connected to the internet to play a game. So why don't they simply make a basic Age of Conan single-player core product and charge for DLC / modules? You open up a new revenue strand for every MMORPG because the feedback here is that most folks are playing them solo anyhow. Cheers MC

^ Thanks for your input.

None of this would amount to a hill of beans if it weren't for the fact that Bioware are trumpeting, as usual, a vertiable revolution in meaningful decision-making. Which it palpably isn't. Your decisions are marginal when compared to the critical path / story arc. Hey, before I get the usual barbs for my Bio-antipathy... consider this. 1. Bioware suggest that their game is a classic, massive, immersive, NPC-intense old-skool RPG. OK, the story arc is fairly linear in a roundabout way but everything else more than makes up for it. Hell, it's BG3 but with an original IP. 2. Bioware claim that their game is gritty, dark, ground-breaking. Your decisions really can make or break stuff. Admittedly, it ain't the longest game ever, but in terms of sheer originality and re-playability it's more than worth the price of admission (console gamers, I suspect, would dig this and I don't mean that pejoratively). To assauge old-skoolers, they hint at future XP / DLC to expand the franchise. Either of these would make me perfectly happy, rather than the repeated claims (for which Bio has previous) that they've Done it All. Cheers MC