Hurlshort

Hmm, I'm looking at video cards as well. I currently have: P4 2.8 ghz 1 gig RAM ATI 9600 series 256 mb. card (it was about $180 3 years ago, can't think of the model number) I need an AGP card and I'd prefer ATI, although I'll go with Nvidia if I need it. I'm looking for something in the $200 range. I don't plan on upgrading my mobo or chipset for a couple years. edit: Got a question on http://www.gpureview.com/Radeon-X1950-Pro-AGP-card-471.html, What's the big difference between a 256 mb and 512 mb model?

I'm not sure if the Ducks have what it takes to go deep in the playoffs. Sure, they have great defense and decent goalies, but they seem shallow in scoring and some of their guys are fairly old. Plus...they still stink of Emilio Estevez.

That kid is totally sueing...unless they give him a PS3 for free.

So since Volourn has 10 times the posts that I do, does that mean I have 10 times as much "life"? Funny, I suddenly see Volourn with one Zelda heart and me with 10. I'm pretty sure that image appearing in my mind actually confirms the "lack of life" question.

Crazy, I was shocked when I realized what the line at my local Fry's was for. The funny part is, Fry's will likely only get a dozen consoles at the MOST. There was well over 15 people in line...why would you wait in line if there was no gaurantee of getting the console?

then give that credit to the creators of the PW-s and Modules. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sure, I'll give credit to everyone. The toolset is a huge part of these games, and making them easy enough to use isn't easy. I hear it's a decent toolset, although I had enough trouble with the NWN1 set to not bother with this one.

Hmm, I'll give it a proactive 9/10 because I believe that the bugs and performance issues will be worked out, and once the community PW's and mods get going, it will be an awesome experience. Honestly, NWN1 didn't impress me much when it was released. The OC bored me and the graphics were so-so. But I picked it up again 6 months after the release, and I was amazed at all the new content. The expansions were finely crafted and the community was going full steam. So since I wrote off the first one too quickly, I'm going to give the sequel a bit more leeway. Plus, I'm actually enjoying this OC.

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Hmm, like every game that comes out on the PC, you have a few folks who absolutely can't play it, a few folks who can play it perfectly, and a majority of folks who run into a bug here and there. But so far the vast majority do not seem to have any gamestopping bugs, and that's about all you can ask for with the way technology is today.

Why don't you try quoting my entire statement, instead of just pulling stuff out of context? I already stated what will happen to the community. It will continue on, but it will slowly lose steam. It already has started to see a decrease in new user mods over the last year, and there aren't as many PW's available as a year ago. It may take another couple years, but eventually there will be no excuse for not having a decent enough computer for NWN2, and the core NWN1 audience will drop the original. There will always be a harcore few, but the glory days of NWN1 are gone.

It seems like people are just resistant to change. NWN2 is out, toolset and all, which means the original NWN community will be slowly changing over to the new game. NWN1 PW's will slowly disappear, new mods will steadily trickle out, and eventually all but the most hardcore will make the transition. Do people think that if they complain enough, everyone will ignore NWN2 and stick to the original? It ain't happening, NWN1 is at the end of its capabilities. It's time for change.

The game is great, but that's an opinion. Just like every other comment that guy made. The UI is very functional, as is everything else about the game. Nothing is outright broken. There are no game breaking bugs.

Wow, all these opinions being stated as fact...whoopie. The only truth I've seen is that whiners tend to hit the boards more frequently than satisfied customers. It makes sense, as those who are happy are busy playing the game. I think I'll go do that

Well, I think the issue here is that fellow seems to hate KotOR with a passion. The fact that their are a few similiarities between the two (which is going to happen to all games that share an engine) seems to infuriate him. Pretty odd, I liked KotOR and NWN, I don't need to get into a comparison argument to enjoy NWN2.

Well, then get a HDTV. Heck, if you can afford $400 for a console, it's not that far of a stretch to pay another $400 on a TV.

Stranger than Fiction - Best literary movie I've seen since Magnolia. Easily on par with that. Brick - Pretty entertaining detective movie. I rented on the recommendation of someone on these boards, and I'm glad I did. You have to just imagine that High School in LA is much different than it is where I live.

er ehm...13-5. Good thing we have two top goalies, because Nabby got hurt.

I gotta say, I love Qara, and I find her incredibly useful. My whole pary is built around protecting her so she can blow stuff up. Her character hasn't developed much, as I'm still in Chapter 1, but she's not outright annoying. The druid was worse for me, always shapeshifting and making it hard to divvy the loot.

They could rig the advertisements to show while the game is loading, or maybe in between transitional areas. That's how TV shows do it, basically, and I never complain about a Ford truck commercial breaking my immersion in "LOST". WoW is probably the only game that could actually support itself with advertisements though, as they have a huge audience. There is still a pretty large rift between the corporate world and the gaming world. That's why EA put in that tracking software in BF2142. It gives them some actual data to supply advertisers with. A game that has 60,000 players is not going to be able to charge much in advertising. TV shows have millions of viewers.

First off, Planetside probably barely had enough paying subscribers to support itself. You can actually run the numbers on how much it costs to support a MMO for a year. You can figure that you have at least 15 employees with an average salary of $75,000. 15 employees is probably a bare minimum, with 2-3 IT guys, 2 artists, 2 programmers, 1 producer, 4 customer service reps, and support staff. Basically you are spending over a million $ a year just on staff, and that's about the lowest estimate you can get. These are educated or experienced folks, not minimum wage labor. Then you have business expenses like a building lease, servers and computers, software licensing fees, phone network, business licensing fees, etc. My buddy runs a small computer reselling business, and he needs to make $20,000 a month just to break even on the monthly bills. So that adds up to about $240,000. Advertising is extremely expensive, and I've seen Planetside everywhere. You also need a new employee to handle advertisements. I'm no expert, but I'd put all that at about $200,000 a year minimum. So we have our small MMO company that costs $1.45 million a year to run...let's look at subscription fees. It's important to note that most MMO's do not have 5 million subscribers. They are successful if they can break the 100,000 mark. According to this site, http://www.mmogchart.com/, Planetside dropped to about 20,000 subscribers. At $13 a month, that's $260,000 a month. That comes out to a nice $3.12 million. So it looks like our tiny little MMO company is turning a decent profit. Of course, that $3.12 million is taxable, so that's another huge chunk. But honestly, a company making a million a year is not that huge. That money will mostly go right back into the business, with the CEO and other heads maybe getting a decent bonus. It's not a cash cow unless you get a huge amount of subscribers. And trust me, Blizzard is supporting way more than 15 staff members. I made up most of these numbers at a VERY LOW estimate. I'm sure I left out other expenses. Also remember, the initial cost of $50 covers the initial cost of creating the game, and rarely any more. MMO's require a long development cycle that is usually on loan from a publisher, and when the game hits the shelves, it's the publisher that takes the lion's share. Anyways, I fully support $15 a month for a MMO because the entertainment is worth it for me. But if you don't find MMO's entertaining, it's logical that you wouldn't pay money for it.

There is, I think it's CoD for City of Doors or something. It's been a long time since I looked into it. First off, don't be turned off by the few MMO bashers on this board. They are vocal and complain every time anyone mentions a MMO. They aren't for everyone, and their complaints are valid, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying them. The whole complaint about RP in MMO's is pretty much anyways. If you put 5,000 people in a room, you shouldn't expect a great RPing experience. That doesn't mean you can't have fun. I think a PS:T MMO would be very unique, but I don't imagine it will be in the works anytime soon. It's very hard to commit to anything other than high fantasy because MMO's are a large financial risk. Hopefully someday we will see a MMO that breaks the standard mold.

I agree that the option should be available for permadeath. The game isn't what I would call easy, it's just that the death penalty is super light and resting is overly powerful. It would be nice if the OC offered more than one option for mortality and recovery. Eventually we will have plenty of persistent worlds and modules that include more difficult scenarios. Consider the OC a training wheel version of D&D. Personally, I'm a wuss and enjoy the fact that I can move through the story without replaying battles over and over again. For me, the OC is about the story and watching it unfold. I'm happy with it not being difficult, but I can see where people deserve the option to make it so.

This bothers me as well. It would also be cool if you could simply right-click the Character's portrait to bring up it's inventory panel. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yep, gotta agree on this one too. It's taken me a long while to get used to selecting the actual portrait rather than the character on screen. I don't know how many times I've moved my fighter away from a perfect doorway position because I though I was controlling someone else. Still, this is something I'll get used to over time, like the camera.

4 of those games are available on PC. I think for a game to be a "killer app" it needs to be an exclusive. Like Gears of War, for instance. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I disagree. First off, I see the PC and consoles as very different gaming experiences. I typically will buy sports games and action games for the console, while more complex games (particularly keyboard style games) are easier for me to play on the PC. PC games are typically played at a desk a few feet from the monitor, while consoles are played on a couch in my living room. There is also the cost issue, as a PC that can run these games as well as a 360 will cost about twice as much. Granted, the PC is also upgradeable and will always outperform a console in the long run. Secondly, I'm no expert on game development, but I believe that the Xbox is closer to a PC than the PS2 or Nintendo systems. I could be wrong, but this also makes it easier for development teams to create games on both the Xbox and the PC simultaneously. I don't think Microsoft should be penalized for that. Sony and Nintendo are more difficult to port onto a PC. I really see a "killer app" as a game that is top notch and only available on a single console. The PC and console market are actually pretty far apart. The real battle is between Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, and I feel that the 360 has done a decent job of building a game lineup in it's first year that is competitive with what's available on other consoles.