Torpar

The news here has reported the death toll as over 100,000 and still increasing. The tsunamis caused by the earthquake have reached heights of 50 meters (about 15 stories high). The experts also predicted that at sometime in the future, there is a large possibility that even more powerful tsunamis will hit the eastern side of the US and destroy most of the major cities along the coast (such as New York)... Several after-shocks also occurred today (one had a magnitude of 6.2) in the region... seems like the trouble isn't over yet... As for the risk of an epidemic, yes, it's highly possible if the bodies aren't taken care of quickly enough. Should one break out though... To make matters even worse, astrologers have predicted that the year 2005 is going to be a year of disasters... There will be increased political unrest (even a chance of war), a epidemic breakout (most likely SARS, they say), and more natural disasters... Astrological evidence isn't very convincing (and I really doubt all of this will happen), but this is depressing news all the same...

Now the death toll has reached 22,000... And it's only a rough underestimation of all the casualties. From what I've heard, this is the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded - the tsunamis it caused were about 10 meters high (that's about 4 to 5 stories in height). My deepest condolence to those living in the region... Though I live quite nearby the Pacific Rim of Fire, my country has been fortunate enough not to be affected by the earthquake... Terrible...

In terms of performance, the Radeon 9700 is, by far, a more powerful card than the the Radeon 9600... Exactly, how much better I cannot say. This is probably how I would rate the first generation DirectX 9 ATI cards (according to the quality of their performance): 1. Radeon 9800XT 2. Radeon 9800Pro 3. Radeon 9700Pro 4. Radeon 9800 5. Radeon 9700 6. Radeon 9600XT 7. Radeon 9500Pro 8. Radeon 9600Pro And etc... Of course, there are also the new Radeon X cards avaliable as well - though they are quite pricy...

Agreed - I'd go with the Radeon 9600 Mobility as well. The GeForce FX 5200 is a relatively old card (its performance is average, probably equivalent to that of a Radeon 9000...), so if you're looking for a card that will be able to handle the new generation of games that are coming out, the FX 5200 is definitely not your best choice here... On the other hand, the Radeon 9600 Mobility is - as others have said - an excellent card that can easily handle the new generation of graphically-demanding games (I've seen it in action before and its performance is top-notch, to say the least)... If you can afford the extra 70 pounds, you should probably go for this... I use Radeon 9000 Mobility on my laptop myself, and I must say, you'll have to have something better than this...

Aye, my apologies for the misinterpretation there... Though, IMO, a major plot twist would be effective than multiple smaller ones throughout the story...

A storyline without some kind of a "twist" or surprise would have less appealing. A successful plot should include some kind of climax, and most of the successful RPGs have one (BG, NWN, KotOR I... etc). As they say, tell the player something he or she doesn't know from the beginning of the game. Make the situation more complicated than it actually seems. Myself, I'm expecting a different yet equally shocking plot twist in KotOR II... We'll see in due time then...