Drowsy Emperor

What's your position on nuclear proliferation then? Seems hypocritical not to allow Iran to have a nuclear program when Israel has one. Same applies to North Korea naturally.

Sadly my 22inch monitor only has a SVGA port. I got it when the whole craze with the large monitors started. A friend of mine has a DVI one but I didn't see much of a difference in picture quality to be honest. I use a converter obviously... Well, I'll try hooking it up to the TV.

How will it calm the situation down if the illegitimate rebels can draw out the conflict longer?

The brutal human rights abuses the Kurdish people suffer in Turkey don't count then? Why doesn't the rest of NATO intervene to free the Kurds from Turkish oppression?

The C2D E6300 isn't a bad machine. Win 7 and most apps fly on it with no problems. Its still many times better than a regular office PC, which in itself isn't too shabby for a 7 year old piece of hardware. I have a question. The 7850 has a HDMI slot at the back, what can I do with these slots? Can I play games on the TV then? And since the HDMI transmits sound does that mean the TV speakers would play the audio as well? And what the hell is the DP slot?

I'm playing Beyond Good and Evil. I quit this game twice on the PC for various reasons and this time I tried it on the PS2. I'm struck by how damn good this game is. Sure, the gameplay isn't anything to write home about, but the visuals, world building, characters, even the story all of it good enough to send any recent AAA project to the trash heap of history.

Well I really do wonder what the root cause of these riots are, I don't see them escalating to a revolution without either foreign funds (and a lot of them too, like with any revolution) or the typical Turkish scenario of the army overthrowing the government. I don't think either is likely to happen. I'd be glad to see Erdogan replaced by a more secular leader, he's been actively competing with the Saudis over influence over the Balkan muslims and meddling where he shouldn't be, helping drive the muslim population towards a more radical interpretations of Islam and overall driving the whole region and his own country backwards.

Yeah I used to love C&C games to death back in the day. Generals was the first one that that signaled the death of the series. I still pine for a sequel to Emperor of Dune, because I think there's a potential to make a better strategy game out of it.

They really did order a hit on themselves with that last Hitman game. ... Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

I thought you weren't into MMO's? How good is Rift, since it went F2P I might jump in to try it out...

Yeah, that's a bit better than what I've got now (if you're talking about the IntelCore2Duo series). I'm not expecting a radical performance boost, but at least the games wont freeze due to overheating.

I actually like it more than the Geralt from the second game. They tried too hard to make him look like a bad mofo and that's a turnoff for me. However he's probably more angsty in the trailer for W3 than necessary. They're blinging him out too much. I think the first one still looks best, a combination of cool, relaxed and ugly. And the nice, toned down armor and elegant sword (until the end of the game anyway).

Well, when I get around to playing it I'll just use my PS2 DualShock I suppose.

Does anyone know if they made a PC friendly version of the inventory for TW2? And has anyone played the game with a controller?

The UN is there to serve the interests of the world and its members. But maybe you can explain to me how letting Syria decline into a country where millions of its citizens are displaced, tens of thousands of its people are killed and its infrastructure is destroyed is in the interests of anyone? And to make things worse Western countries aren't asking Russia and China to support them with resources in Syria they are just saying "allow us to intervene" Not that China or Russia would assist in any military conflict unless there national interests were threatened of course. Does the US not want to intervene because of its national interests? Are you suggesting their motive in this is pure altruism? If they indeed want peace, why not support Assad along with Russia and China? That would restore order in a fortnight. Please don't use the "dictator" excuse. The west has propped up a lot of dictators and authoritarian regimes and continues to do so. And why would Russia and China be enthusiastic about supporting the illegitimate rebels (or the west in their support of them), and any other side other than the legitimate government? That goes against the UN charter. Use of force according to the UN charter is allowed to counter a threat to world peace, not to intervene in internal issues of other countries. Is the conflict in Syria a threat to world peace? It does not appear to be. It is in fact, an internal conflict. Under the UN charter, the legitimate government of Syria is fully within its rights to fight the rebellion the quickest way to end the conflict would be to help it do so efficiently. What is not helping, is supplying the rebels with arms because that brings them closer to the capabilities of the Syrian army, which in turn means the conflict is more likely to stalemate.

I ordered the ATI Sapphire Radeon 7850 1GB version. It showed up on a dicount... It should be arriving in a day or two. Finally I'll be able to play something without the graphics card imploding.

But you do know you're a troll, right? An ice troll from the Finnish wastes to be precise. Nah, I don't post to sow discord and provoke arguments, I post (in part) so that you and the other gaming hipsters wouldn't start thinking that your opinions represent the objective truth or that anyone who doesn't share your views on gaming is an unwashed and uneducated teenager from the basement. Of course, mostly I just post because I like Obsidian games. And this is their forum, not a gaming superiority complex club. But they obviously didn't teach you in law school to respect your own disclaimers. Actually everyone is pretty well behaved here, sure there's the occasional pissing contest, but its still a zen garden compared to gamespot forums, ign, codex, whatever.

If its legitimate for the US to demand action its also legitimate for China. Russia etc. to be against it. The UN isn't impotent, is serving its purpose by not allowing drastic action without legitimacy and consensus. Is the UN there to serve US/EU interests or is it there to serve everyone equally?

But you do know you're a troll, right? An ice troll from the Finnish wastes to be precise.

What I can't be bothered to read are your apocalypse fantasies. I understood quite clearly that you're arguing an economic downturn will cripple the military capability of the US. Your argument is - again - a fantasy. The USA has an immense economy and military. Cuts to US military spending could be absorbed on an enormous scale and it might just reduce their crisis response to only two World crises at once, rather than three. Even if spending cuts reduced the regular US military to the level of China it would be at least one or two generations before anyone else caught up. The US economy can't possibly stay down for that long. The country has a strong economy built into its _geography_. You may be stuck in your attic dreaming of rivers of blood for a wee while yet. We're talking decades down the line, not this time tomorrow. It doesn't really matter how long it takes for other competitors to catch up as long as they're doing so. The US economy doesn't have to suffer any economic collapse, its relative power is shrinking by the mere fact that the opposition's is growing. The post USSR collapse situation where the US is the strongest military and strongest economy was always living on borrowed time. What was actually being discussed there is whether the US will accept just being one of the world powers or if it will make a bid to stay the only power through military conflict, because down the line that will probably be the only way to secure that position. BTW you're not fooling anyone with your wild assumptions regarding my "fantasies" - everyone here knows you'd be the first to advocate bombing China back to the stone age if it were feasible, the same way you justify any military "intervention". I in fact am for a balance of powers scenario because its the only way a small country can hope to protect its own interests.

Then your very subtle trolling went straight over my head.

That's actually what I said but Walsingham couldn't be bothered to read.

The next time someone asks what a gaming hipster is, I'm going to link them to this post. I got a bingo on my gaming hipster card halfway through the second paragraph, and it just gets better after that. What's hipsterish about liking SoC and hoping for more from the same author? The game is almost universally considered to be the best title to come out on the PS2, and that's in some stiff competition. Its not about playing "artsy" titles for bragging rights, its a genuine desire for an experience different from the usual lemonade most genres have turned into.

No its not. Open world games are generally worse than corridor shooters, because corridor shooters are a controlled experience that is easier to craft into something coherent. Open world games are feel like randomly generated crap 95% of the time.