Gorth

My IELTS is on the 8th and 9th of May Your first language isnt English? What is it? Danish... second language German... third language English... and a smattering of French as a backup language @Steve: I don't remember the required score, nothing outrageously though (not academic level)

My IELTS is on the 8th and 9th of May

Maybe he used one of them Monty Python Hungarian/English dictionaries?

Oh look, those nice guys at Gigabyte provided the motherboard with a stock watercooling block on the Northbridge Yeah, finally got to unpack some of the boxes, just to realise that I forgot to order a wireless netcard (my old/current motherboard has it built in). Time to go shopping in one of the local retail stores over the Weekend.

I hope it was just bad luck... as the warranty goes out the window when you start taking it apart and put your own cooling on it Thats a hefty model that Toxic. Takes a more serious gamer than me to even consider the crossfire option though. I'm a casual gamer at best (usually playing more old than new games), but fast OpenGL is a godsend for previewing scenes in my 3D apps, the latter also being what I need the processing power and memory for.

Well, a good thing that I still have a couple of weeks to think about it. I wasn't too impressed by the manufacturing quality of the Sapphire card* and my trust in Asus plummeted like a rock with the motherboard that I'm in the process of retiring (I kept running into stability issues until I downclocked it from 1333 to 1111 which is a bit of a joke). Gigabyte is a completely unknown brand for me, my new MB being a first. Well, got most of the parts for my upgrade stacked under my desk here at work. Need to take a taxi to work one of these days so I can get them home and start assembling it *the metal "front" plate was placed all wrong, making it impossible to use monitor port 1 (because it was pressed too tightly against the casing) and I needed non standard screws etc. to actually get it fastened to anything. Sloppy design or sloppy construction, don't know. A lifespan of less than 2 years wasn't too impressive either.

Bullfrog... R.I.P. They made some awesome games. I remember playing Populous and Syndicate on my Amiga.

Sometimes that's true and sometimes it's not. While I think that all the 5970s are reference designs -id est the stock coolers, clocks, etc.- you might want to make sure as non-reference designs can make one type better than other. XFX, if they make that card yet, is another company you might want to look at since their double-lifetime-guaranty, basically a transferable-warranty, might help if you ever want to re-sell the GPU (or simply need to REM it down the line, most cards come with more stringent time-limits). Hope this helps. Warranty is probably a moot point for me, as one of the first things I do is take it apart, throw away the fan etc. and put a full sized watercooling block on it (I run it out of the box for a fortnight first to catch any doa or other obvious errors)

Anybody knows of any significant differences between Gigabyte, Asus and Sapphire when it comes to the same GPU? I.e. they all currently make 5970 cards, specs look similar, prices look similar etc. Same card with a different sticker slapped on it?

Did you play Battlefield Vietnam? Did you download the free Battlefield 1942 pacific add on for it? Basically the same levels except on the same engine as Battlefield Bad Company which means destructable buildings and cover. I think they dumbed it down a bit too much though. You have infinite ammo for ALL weapons including bazookas in grenades. Not quite as horrible as it sounds: You get 3 rockets for your rocket launcher, once you fire/reload all 3 you then have to wait about 20-30 seconds to get another 3 rockets. Also, the classes have been combined to make 3 classes from the original 4-5. Also, to be a bit of a geek, I find it incredibly annoying that they don't give the Japanese their actual rifle. Why are they using a German Mauser? Just skin an Arisaka rifle. It would work identically! Yeah, I have both Battlefield 1942 (plus Road to Rome) and BF Vietnam (the music brings back childhood memories) + the Pacific Addon. Hmm, I might just pass on this then. Maybe wait and see if they make a demo of it.

I'm mildly curious about Battlefield 1943 (because I loved BF1942). If it is just a console version of 1942 re-released on the PC with a few bells and whistles, I won't bother. Sometimes hope dies last.

No

According to Berlusconi because the left has uglier women

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236096 Will attempt to respond more fully later. That is both good and bad, isn't it? Those guys are supposed to be better than other people.

As it says in the Aeneid, "Beware of geeks bringing gifts"

The first movie character I thought of when watching the video clip was Simon Gruber (yes, different gender, I know)

Funnily enough, that's how I like it, actually. The entire game should be bleak and grey. I'm just afraid that if they try to make it more 'cinematic' and add more emotion and depth to characters they'll end up disneyfying everything. i.e. Do we really need to see Abigail or Triss break down and cry and tell sap stories about their past in TW2? I know that's not what you mean, but I'm just afraid of it being handled badly. The last thing the world needs is an emo Geralt

Bought a few games from Gamersgate... Against Rome (RTS in the "easy" category) Spellforce 2 Gold (to satisfy my curiosity) Beyond Good & Evil (heard a lot of good stuff about it. Can't go wrong at $5) Post Mortem (Point and click adventure) Still Life (Point and click adventure) Archon Classic (Remake of the Westfall/Freeman oldie) Druuna (Serpieri - nuff said) Syberia (Looked good in the reviews) Syberia 2 (Because it came bundled with the first one) Disciples II Gold (Because my old discs are getting worn and scratched) I guess I'll make up my mind which one to play first when they are all downloaded Edit: Oh btw, all together, 10 dollars or so more than Dragon Age

Zombie Driver. Good fun. Opposition gets stiff on later levels though.

I don't know about games, but I've bought dozens of dvd movies from various Amazon branches, all shipped nicely to SA.

I believe that the BioWare forums, the place that hosts the official Mask of the Betrayer forum, were closed when the new social site was launched. Not really, but it does sound like a bug. Isn't there an Int requirement for wizard spells? I.e. 18 to cast level 8 spells, 19 to cast level 9 etc. Whats the intelligence of your character. Btw, I'm moving this to the gaming forum...

I whimped out on the 24Gb kit. Four times the money for twice the RAM, I settled for 12Gb Corsair Dominator 1600MHz (CMD12GX3M6A1600C8) "Upgraded" my powersupply to an Antec Quattro 1200W. Quotation marks because I didn't really need more power I think, but it offers more physical rail lines than the old one, making the cable work easier to manage. Just for kicks, ordered the OCZ gaming keyboard. My almost 4 year old Microsoft Keyboard shows a history of every meal eaten at my desk. Rather gross really. Ironically, that leaves me with the graphics card (and watercooling block for same) to get sorted out. Need to put the new parts together first though. Wouldn't surprise me if the 5970 turns out too tempting. I'm bad...

*Drinks*

Ever wondered what Mike Thorton played as a kid?

Sorry. It just seemed odd using those two words in the same sentence. From what I've observed so far, porn appears more "mechanical" with perhaps some manic/frantic qualities to it. Sensuality wasn't the first thing I would associate it with People hanging around the street watching it on their phones in an "in your face" manner would probably bother me the same way as people playing excessively loud music on the their mp3 players. Not because I don't like music, but I prefer to decide myself what I want to experience. A bit like the old smoker vs non-smoker debate.