mkreku

I remember when Ovechkin and Malkin were drafted (Ovechkin ranked first with Malkin second) and some experts in Europe were, "But the question is if Malkin doesn't have more potential than Ovechkin after all". I thought they were nuts, after seeing Ovechkin bulldoze his way through one Junior World Championship (where he had two hattricks and something like 14 points in seven games..). I'm glad I didn't bet anything on that I wonder what their national team is going to be like with Malkin, Ovechkin and Semin. Ok, Kovalchuk may fit in there somewhere too. And S. Kozlov. AAIIH!

Gamespot posted a new Dragon Age video again, this time a Q&A with someone called Dan Tudge: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/n...topslot;thumb;1 Didn't watch it myself but figured someone here would be interested.

I DEMAND THAT THIS FILTH BE BANNED! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Ok, ONE correction: You had confused the flash sticks with the RAM. The RAM is the computer's memory. Flash sticks are like CD's.. or DVD's. They are a storage media and are kept outside the computer. The RAM is mounted inside the computer case and once they're there, you'll never see them again. By the way, flash memory sticks are VERY cheap right now. You might as well go for a 32 GB one, like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820134801 That way you'll definitely not run out of mobile storage space for a while!

This works. But it's a Bokishi solution (aka. throw-your-money-in-the-lake solution). The suggestions we've been giving would deliver something like 10-20% less performance, but for half the price. Tough choice, huh?

The first game that came to mind was STALKER. After that System Shock 2. Guess I'm not very helpful in this thread..

Steen is a solid two-way player who's never quite blossomed as an offensive forward. I personally never liked Colaiacovo much and the Leafs actually have decent depth in their defence ranks anyhow. I think this was a pretty good move.. not that I've ever noticed Stempniak in any game but judging from what I've read about him. Now bring back Sundin and we're good to go! I hope.

The hard drive is a really fast one from Samsung that's called Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB (1000 GB). It's a good choice no matter how you look at it. Best value for your money AND great performance, relatively silent and low heat. What we agree on is that the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 graphics processor is your best choice among Nvidia's offers right now. BUT, I only suggested the brand eVGA because they've been getting good reviews. You could also choose to buy a card with the same Nvidia graphics processor from ASUS, XFX, Gainward, Gigabyte, MSI or any other third party manufacturer if you wish. Just make sure they are also called Gefore GTX 260 Core 216. For example: Same graphics processor from Gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125241 Same graphics processor from XFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814150329 Same graphics processor from Galaxy (whatever that is..): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814162023 Same graphics processor from BFG: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814143157 These examples all use the same Nvidia graphics processor, just built by different manufacturers. Choose the one you like. I still recommend eVGA. I'm not that hot on monitors (I usually go with Samsung's latest) so the other guys have to agree on that one.

Race Driver GRID. Great game.

A spy without stealth is like a soldier without a weapon.. or an actor without an audience.. or Britney without a scandal.. IT JUST DOESN'T COMPUTE!!

Keep in mind that this is a cross-platform title. What you're describing would probably work well with a mouse, but it would be nightmare on a gamepad. Very true. But I see this as a PC game first and a bad console port second :D

We used to play an old racing game called Screamer 2 on the school computers back in the day. It would probably be very difficult to make it work on today's computers (especially with 3DFx support..), but it's a ton of fun in multiplayer over LAN! Meaty cars, brutal crashes, excellent engine sounds and a great sense of speed. Oh, and it supports split screen racing on one computer too, if you want to be able to elbow your opponent in real time :D

Ok, here's the consensus so far: Me and Spider and Samm agree on the processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. Me and Spider agree on the hard drive: Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB. Me and Spider agree on the memory sticks: 2x2 GB Corsair 800MHz RAM. Me and Samm agree on the video card: Geforce 260 Core 216 (I suggested eVGA as the brand to buy). The motherboard is always the most difficult part to choose so I suspect we won't come to a consensus on that one. But you want an Nvidia video card, so make sure you choose an Nvidia based motherboard too, if you want to use SLI (which is not as complicated as it sounds). The computer case is a matter of taste. Do you like lots of blue neon lights? Go with Spider's suggestion. Do you like more discrete computer cases? Go with my suggestion. The most important part of the case is the power supply (PSU) unit anyhow. Just make sure it's at least 500W strong and from a trusted brand and you'll be fine. The DVD burner/card reader doesn't matter into the equation. They're all basically the same so you can't go wrong with those.

Gee, well done, Leafs, dropping two goals in the last period before losing in over-time. Now that's how you blow a play-off spot!

They really should play Dungeon Lords! They may not have gotten much right in that game, but the lock pick minigame was one of them. When you pick locks, a bar moves across a series of icons, highlighting them. When certain key icons are highlighted, you have to quickly click them. At low skill levels, the bar moves very quickly, making it damn difficult to hit the right icons. Higher levels slow the bar down considerably (unfortunately in Dungeon Lords case too slow, as having high lock pick levels meant you had to wait a long time for the bar to move to the last key icon). Still, it was fun, it really mixed player skill and character skill and it never made it possible to become so good at it that character skill became meaningless (like in Oblivion/Fallout 3).

$1500 to run KotOR? Uh, OK.. Overkill is the word that comes to mind. Anyhow! I did a quick build at Newegg.com that I know will work with KotOR.. (and Starcraft 2.. and Crysis..): $165: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037 $175: eVGA LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813188026 $55: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM 800 MHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145184 $245: eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB DDR3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130400 $110: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152102 $130: Antec Sonata III case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129024 = $880 - $60 mail-in rebate: $820 total. Since you seem to prefer Nvidia, I chose the best card for the money and a trusted brand for the GPU among Nvidia's offers. The motherboard is also Nvidia based so you get the SLI support. You could easily up the performance by 50-80% by adding another (exactly alike) GPU. You'd still be way below $1500, even though you'd need to switch the PSU (and, subsequently, case) to a stronger one. Another way of adding more performance is to buy faster RAM. Go with a 1066 MHz pair instead of the 800 MHz I provided in my example and you'll get slightly more performance. Not really worth the price difference though. No use buying 3 GB, even though XP doesn't support more than 3 GB. Price difference isn't worth it and you may want to switch OS at a later time. Yet another way of adding more performance in a more general way is to add another (exactly alike) hard drive and RAID them. Lots of choices, really, when you have a $1500 budget. Still.. this would get you started. The CPU (which you had already found yourself) and GPU are solid choices at least, according to your criteria. PS. The DVD burner is like $30 and a card reader even less so I didn't bother to add them into the equation.

Actually, I saw now that the post I thought I was replying to was cut off. This part: This is where the muzzle velocity reference belongs. Anyhow, it's still a question of kinetic energy and how well the bullet manages to transfer that energy to the target. There are (of course) several factors determining how much damage a shot does, barrel length being one of them, what sort of jacket the bullet has another, and even the quality of the weapon a third. Even the amount of bore in the barrel can determine the amount of damage a bullet does. Too little and there's a risk the bullet starts to tumble in the air (thus losing huge amounts of energy and precision), too much.. and I don't know what happens :D ANYHOW, even though the question is a bit complex, it's not surprising AT ALL that two different weapons firing the same cartridge can have different damage outputs.

Huh? You really should know this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_velocity Barrel length can affect the kinetic energy transmitted to the bullet. Thankyou for the wikipedia page. I never knew what muzzle velocity was until you linked a wiki page for me. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. Love it when people try to act smart by being condescending.. Yeah, I'm sure you know much more than the people writing the articles on Wikipedia, you just don't want anyone to know that by asking questions even an idiot wouldn't. Clever move.

Huh? You really should know this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_velocity Barrel length can affect the kinetic energy transmitted to the bullet.

It's supported, but I'm pretty sure they still have to do a lot of work to get it in the game. Just like the Unreal Engine 3 is supposed to support streaming maps, yet all that's been released are corridor shooters (basically) so far. Maybe it just supports tiny amounts of streaming, just enough to load one single long corridor on the fly?

It looks really good! I am still getting strong Deus Ex vibes from this! I know I'm probably mistaken, but still.. It works for me :D

What?! I've been lobbying for that position for YEARS! It's DEFINITELY my turn now!! Seriously, this place needs a counter-weight to Walshingham.

In the Swedish army we had to learn the sounds, functions and maintenance of the M16, the AK-47 and the Swedish AK-5. My experience with these weapons was that the M16 was the most difficult to maintain AND the first one to give up in harsh (cold) conditions. The AK-5 didn't need as much maintenance but when it does, it takes a long time to finish. The AK-47.. Luckily I never really had to clean it, but I did notice it's easy to take apart and re-assemble.. with my gloves on! It's that simple! Because we didn't have enough ammo for it at the time, only a few of us were forced to clean it, but I did get to shoot with it. If you were able to consistently hit your target with it, you're either lucky or such a good shot you can compensate for the inaccuracy of the rifle (most unlikely). The M16 (despite its odd sights) and the AK-5 are 300+ meter weapons. The AK-47 definitely is not. The 100+ meters was an estimate of mine, but I do know you can't hit targets at 300 meters at least. If you want, I can give you exact details of what went wrong with the M-16. First off, the magazines were made of aluminium, to save weight. But it also meant the magazines were fragile and in a hurried situation, when you quickly swapped magazines, chances were you'd bend the little flaps on top of the magazine (designed to manoeuvre the rounds correctly into the weapon), thus jamming up the weapon. Another thing was that because of its (relatively) tight build, it was difficult to get enough weapon oil in the weapon. In cold conditions, you need a lot of oil to keep the moisture out. If a tight weapon gets moist and it freezes, it's very, very difficult to get working again (unless you heat it, but that takes time). And what you call "composite materials" is actually plastic. You do know what happens to plastic in cold conditions, right? Most weapons are a compromise between weight and strength. The metal surrounding the round in the weapon is the weapons strongest part, but it's still only designed to withstand the immediate impact of the explosion that occurs when you fire the weapon with an unobstructed barrel. If you insert something in the barrel of a weapon, chances are you'll get some sort of blowout. Perhaps a barrel explosion or you get the bolt mechanism planted in your face (not very likely, but it happens). The AK-47 leaks gasses on all sides, thus isn't as likely to exceed the internal pressure limit. Most other weapons are built much tighter and the added resistance of a water-filled barrel may actually be enough to damage the weapon. All theoretical though as I'm sure most people never even dream of firing a weapon underwater. When we fired the M-58 (internationally called FN MAG) in the Swedish army we actually had to change the barrel once.. Air-cooled and ammunition belt is a bad combination for inexperienced soldiers. Trust me, we had plenty of ammunition to go.

It depends on the weapon (of course), but the more advanced a weapon is, the more likely you're going to have a problem with it. For example, most American made weapons are very advanced and accurate. But as soon as they're dirty they start malfunctioning. The complete opposite, the AK-47, which consists of something like 15-20 parts (!) basically never malfunctions and is so leaky you can even fire it under water (or so the myth says)! But accuracy at 100+ meters is useless. I remember being out in the field during my time in the Army and not cleaning the weapon (more than basic cleaning) for 12-16 days and firing probably thousands of rounds of (mostly blank) ammo. The Swedish AK-5 didn't have a problem with it at all. But when you got home.. damn it took a long time cleaning out all the crust.

I have to rely on scans. I don't think I've ever seen that magazine in Sweden.