Slowtrain

It's like a little bit of sweet computer love!

I should point out that Jag 2 also runs well on an old laptop and since my state of the art gaming pc is in pieces all over the floor, well, I think it is time to revisit some old faves.

FOr anyone who is interested, the main 1.13 mod page for Jag 2has moved to a new location. The latest release was this past July. I'm upgrading to the current version now and am going to give it a spin. It remains, I think, the best mod ever released for a computer game. My opinion is colored by the fact that I think Jagged Alliance 2 is one of the best pc games ever, however. So. http://ja2v113.pbwiki.com/

I know. I looked at the box. The screenies looked sweet, I must say.

I went to Best Buy and looked at the XBOX ultimates or whatever the top of the heap is called. A mere $459. Peanuts! Maybe it is time to leave pcs behind after lo these many years, maybe this is a sign from god.

I've never tried it either. We're like peas in a pod!

Well, I eliminated the three easiest possibilities. Monitor, PS, and video card. It's not the drives cause its not even POSTing. Pulled out all my cards on the off chance that something might be causing a problem there. No change. Switched the RAM around and reseated it. No help. Took everything apart except the proc and heat sink and put back the mobo, ram, video card, proc makign sure everything was nice and secure. Still nothing. By nothing I mean power light and fans, but nothing else. SO that leaves me with the either the mobo, ram, or proc as the problem source in all likelihood. They are a year and a half old so they are kind of a group thing at this point. Can't really change the processor without changing the mobo etc.

Right. I'll just whip out my soldering iron and have a go! I eat ICs for lunch.

I turned it on this morning and I got fans and power lightd, but nothing else, no video bios, no post, no drives spinning up, nuttin. I had a spare power supply and video card lying around that I know work so I swapped them in but still nothing. To bes on the safe set I checked the monitor with my laptop and it is ok. I'm afeared now that the processor has cooked, which I've never heard of before, but I guess could happen. Anyway, unless any one has some thoughts, it looks like I am going to be spring for a new mobo, proc and ram. Which means, a new system. Which is good, but I really don't want to spend the money right now. ANybody have any thoughts about anything else to try before I start buying new parts?

I think Hurlshot does have a valid point though. I remember showing some game I was playing that I thought was pretty cool to one of my friends. She watched me play for a while, marveled at some of the sight and sounds and dialogues for a bit (she knows nothing about computer ganmes at all), then fell silent. After a while she said, "Isn't there something else to do besides kill things?" And I was like, well no, its a computer game. She walked away at that point, bored. lol. I don't think art can't be violent; much of life is very violent, but the violence has to have some resonance, some meaning, which computer games tend to lack. The violence is pretty sanitary and ultimately pointless.

I thought there were quite a few questionable design decisions, some really bad gameplay elements, and a rushed implementation of a broken engine. I still enjoyed it to some degree, played it twice, but doesn't hold a freaking candle to the first DX.

I can't be exactly sure, but a few days ago I read somewhere that the average rating for Bioshock is 9.8, whereas Oblivion's was 9.4 I just find it interesting how reactions can differ to the same level of hype and garish reviews. With Oblivion, the high reviews were because either game reviewers were incompetent or all game publications are in the pocket of major publishers like Bethesda, but with Bioshock the great reviews must be because it is a great game. WHich I am not saying it isn't, merely remarking upon the inconsistency of gamer response.

Someone should put together an initial game rankings for Oblivion and compare it to the one for Bioshock. I bet they are pretty similar. Not that Oblivionation was bad game, but eh meh...there's been a lot of better ones, you know.

SAdly, I won't be able to play this until late September. SOmething to look forward too, though.

Wait, are you suggesting that Roger Ebert does not KNOW Dak'kon? How then can he KNOW himself? Well, I am sure he has at least a working knowledge of the Red Wizards of Thay,

I see no reason why a game could not be "art". I totally disagree with Ebert on the requirement of authorial control as a requirement for something achieving the state of being "art". I would say that art develops in the play between artist, medium, and viewer, and in fact requires the participation and interpretion(s) of a viewer. IMO, the ability of the gamer to interact with a game raises the potential for art rather than detracts from it. Ebert seems to be postulating a rather primitive notion of art. However, as if this point in time, having been playing computer ganes since the late 70s, I've never played a computer game that had any sort of impact on me that was powerful enough I could classify it as art. That of course is my own personal definition of art: something that has an impact that goes beyond fun or amusement. Other people's definitions of what constitutes art are sure to vary, the world being as large and varied as it is. But to blandly state that computer games could never be art, never develop and achieve, is pretty lame.

I think the question is less could FO be transformed into a fun mmorpg but rather is Interplay the publisher to make it happen. Personally, I think using 20 milliion one dollar bills as a lifetime supply of toilet paper is a more profitable use for it than giving it to Herve.

I like the way Oblivion does it personally. Dialogues about mud crabs make any game better.

yeah, that sounds great. Like almost all of the Oblivion reviews. Speaking of which, anybody know how this guy scored Oblivion?

The final boss battle is Opposing Force is ludicrous. The rest of the xpack is pretty decent.

Dinocroc and Supergator. go scifi channel go. Prediction: WIthin 2 years Scifi channel wil be 24 hour wresting and extreme street fighting specials.

Hve you tried the 1.13 mod yet, MC?

I got Ninja with 12 Honor. I guess the test is associating honor with Ninjas? I thought Samurai were about honor; Ninja's were more mercenary.

Actually, I've changed my mind. I went back and looked again and everything looks pretty finished. If its the PC version why is everything so big?

With the game still a couple months away, I am assuming those screenies are from are not doing justice to the final shipping UI. Probably they are from an older build anyway. THe UI looks clean but not fully fleshed out. Or so I am hoping. Those item descriptions are really half-ass compared to SS2.