mkreku

Yeah, I am following this on the Swedish news channels right now. Not nice.

What you listed isn't really a graphics card. It's a built-in Intel chipset that handles 2D graphics.. somewhat. It will most likely not handle a complex 3D game like KotOR2. You need to see if your computer has a free PCI port and buy a new graphics card. If you're on a budget I'd suggest a ATI Radeon 4670 or Nvidia Geforce 9600GT. If you have more money, spend it on a Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX+ or a ATI Radeon 4870. They are very easily installed and makes your computer capable of playing almost any game out there without a problem. My personal advice would be to get the ATI Radeon 4650. It's cheaper and faster than Nvidia's alternative (the 9600) and it's a one-slot design (small card) that fits in all computer cases. Also, it draws all its power from the PCI x16 port so no need to attach any extra power cables to it (which can be hard to find inside pre-built computers, that I assume you have).

Since you obviously don't mind EA making your games useless for trade-in or second hand sales, where's your limit? Will you do whatever EA wants you to do, no matter how ridiculous? I mean you obviously don't think anti-piracy measures hurt PC sales. What if the next step from EA is that you have to enter your credit card number before being allowed to play the game? That way they can charge you $1 for every time you start up the game. I mean, it's a privilege to play games you bought, not a right. Right? Would that be enough for you to take a stance? You don't mind that the game you're buying is incomplete on the disc and needs files downloaded off the internet to work. You don't mind that the single player game you're about to start up needs an internet authentication. You don't mind that someone else decides how many times you can install a game you've bought. All of the above will cause problems down the line. Not one year after purchase, perhaps, but after that? Useless. I didn't used to be on the anti-piracy bandwagon before. Why? Because it never bothered me. I bought my games (or got them sent to me), played them and never even wasted a second's thought on stuff like Starforce or SecuROM. Now we even know the names of the malware tormenting us whenever we decide to give someone our time and money. It was actually during my job as a games reviewer that I realized how much better the pirates have it than us regular users! I had to start downloading cracks to not have to juggle discs and manuals or whatever the next company decided was needed for me to play the games I wanted/had to play.

Well, since you think 160 kbps is "slightly above Youtube quality", would you mind doing a quick test? I'll link you to ten 320 kbps MP3's, where some have been downsampled to 160 kbps, then upsampled back to 320 kbps. This means they all look like they are 320 kbps, but some of them sounds like 160 kbps. Give it a try here: 320-160 kbps Test.rar I'm curious to see if you actually can hear a difference. I can not.

Not to me, seeing how many projects just die without notice. A simple update (if only the date when something was last changed) gives the necessary feedback to keep people less worried.

Please enlighten me: what kind of bitrate does your delicate ears need to be satisfied?

I'm beginning to understand some of your moderating behaviours now.

No Alan Rickman

I didn't bother with Mass Effect because of the DRM. I may buy it when it joins one of those "Sold Out" series since they usually don't have the same amount of DRM attached to them. One person, very anecdotal, but still.. I can't be the only one who thought like this, can I?

Puzzle Quest, Gothic 3, Wasteland, Eschalon: Book 1, Crysis, Assassin's Creed, Neverwinter Nights 2, The Witcher, Drakan: Order of the Flame, Jagged Alliance 2, Titan Quest, Diablo 2 LOD, GTA: San Andreas and System Shock 2. 14, apparently.

While my love of SS2 knows no bounds, I always found its intro to fall a bit flat. Yeah, I was hoping this thread would show me some new intro's but do far it's mostly been people reciting their most favourite games. Come on, people, I'm sure noone really thinks Fallout or Neverwinter Nights 2 has the best intro they've ever seen..

I'm pretty sure the developer responsible for the combat in Gothic 3 won't make the same mistake again. He was really hurt when people complained about the combat in Gothic 3 and has promised to not make the same mistake again. Let's hope he keeps his promise. Unfortunately I forgot his name.

This is unfortunately true. It'll get better (as in not much more fun, but less dying) when you can afford paladin armour and boost your skills. Also, spend learning points on hitpoints. It's lame, but it's much easier running around with 800-1000 hp than with 200 (or whatever you start with). Luckily the healing thingies in Gothic 3 are percentage based so you'll need the exact same amount of them whether you have 10 hitpoints or 1000. Oh, and even when you're level 50+, be prepared to die if you happen to run into a pack of wolves.. Gothic 3 is a game that's horribly flawed, yet I think it's better than 90% of what's out there. It probably says a lot more about the other games than it does about Gothic 3.. Ps. Don't liberate the towns too early. Take your time to travel around and solve quests (there are over 500 of them, big or small) and get a feel for the game first. There are three possible paths to take throughout the game, but they don't become obvious until you've travelled a lot. Also, every town/camp has a teleport stone hidden somewhere, make sure you find them all. Finding them all is like a mini-game in itself!

THIS. I remember the final fight in Dragon Quest: Journey of the Cursed King (yes, a JRPG).. I had spent the entire game coming up with a pretty complex and effective way of buffing my characters, defending and dealing lots and lots of one-time damage. It had worked well up until the absolute last fight of the game.. when you run into the end-game boss who just happens to have the power to completely and utterly destroy ANY tactics you've learnt up until then. His one power was the ability to not only attack during a round, but also being able to completely reset my entire party with the wave of his hand in the same round! All my three characters lost all their commands (which were stacked), all their buffs, all their abilities, all their skills, whatever. They just disappeared when the game decided it was time. So the final fight of the game was the most boring fight of the game. Not only did the last boss have a billion hitpoints, all you could do was hit him and heal, repeat ad nauseam.

Damn, now you're making me want a Failbox with all this NHL09 talk

To put it this way: I usually hate tactical turn-based combat, but I've played and re-played Jagged Alliance 2 probably twenty times from beginning to end, just messing with the myriads of options available in that game.

I WILL DEVOTE EVER WAKING HOUR OF EVERY DAY TO MAKE SURE ALPHA PROTOCOL IS A FAILURE!!

And yet you chose to play it for 10 hours. Oh, sorry, you were forced to play it for 10 hours. The "oh I only make this much and games are like sooo expensive" sob story it just pathetic. Games are luxury items, no one needs to play them, and certainly no one is forced to play them. "I was forced into it. By myself!" Companies make and sell games. You want to play them, you buy them. Don't want to pay for them, then you don't get to play them. Sure, it's a sob story. But if someone makes 700 Euro a month and can't afford more than one game per month.. Who gives a **** if he downloads stuff? It's not like he could have spent money he didn't have on those games anyhow.

I've been thinking about getting Mercenaries 2 for PC even after the game scoring 5/10 in both Eurogamer and Gamespot. The lure of playing this game co-op with my cousin is almost too strong. I just wish someone had reviewed the PC version of the game.. Is it as buggy, shallow and broken in the PC version as it is in the Xbox 360 version? I loved the first Mercenaries despite these flaws..

Climbing is back in Risen (as opposed to Gothic 3)! Although diving is out, even though the game plays out on an island But yeah, I would love to see climbing too! It gives the game world a much more believable 3D feel, that buildings and everything around you is just not there to stop you, you have to think in three dimensions to move around efficiently. Just like in Gothic & Gothic 2. Climbing was one of my absolute favourite features in those games. You could even climb tree branches!

I guess you've lied your entire life in the US then? Remember that Thorton is an international superspy. In most countries you can't find bullets lying next to the cabbage at every Wal-Mart in town. In Sweden, bullets are under exactly the same strict supervision as weapons. Hard to come by.

I remember playing the demo of Far Cry for more than an hour..

Oh, and all action game developers should read this: http://www.amazon.com/Fedor-Fighting-Syste...d/dp/0977731545 Not that I've read it myself yet.. seeing as it's being released on September 20

It's the only time a man is allowed to cry.

Aww. I read the title as "The Large Hardon Collider". I was expecting the gayest thread ever. I am disappointed