metadigital

No, they didn't; his post was authorised for visibility, that's all.

Basically DD is a mechanism for developers to extract themselves from the poverty trap of the "loan-shark publisher" scenario, where the developers take the role of the indentured slave trying to earn enough to purchase their freedom (to finance their own publishing). If we use a four-year-old brick maker for an analogy, DD won't necessarily make the bricks any better, but the brickmakers will be of a minimum age, have minimum wages and health plan; they will be happier and healthier: which should make for better games in the long run. I personally object to the militant usury demonstrated by some publishers.

Includes the most eloquent argument against euthenasia I can recall, too.

Recommended. Rope's still my favourite Hitchcock. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No surprises there. Marnie is excellent, too.

Ha ha! Now you have to host the stupid thing!

He's telling the story about how he beat Yoda: "... so I threw the whole senate at him! ..." Tr

Or, you could get a docking station for your laptop, with a second power supply and external monitor, keyboard, mouse, PCI-E slots for soundcards and graphics, so that you can have your laptop and also have a desktop, when you plug it into the port replicator, too.

Samething for desktops. Zing! Anyway, I picked this one: here. It is good for my budget, and I believe it meets my criteria. Also, too bad about that lappy, Sawyer. We do want to hear the story though. I just don't understand why people have to go and steal things in real-life when they have RPGs in which to steal stuff <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That GPU is a bit lacking (no SM3): nVidia have a mobile GPU that is as good as their desktop 7x series.

Ugh.. that was incorrect, I'll be lambasted by graphics engine devs. What I meant was Shader Model 3.0. DX9 offered two new shader models, 2.0 and 3.0. While current engines are based completely on DX9, most features are SM2.0-specific. SM3.0 offers functionalities that are a significant upgrade from SM2.0 including extremely long shaders, dynamic branching and a bunch of floating point formats (required for HDR). nVidia have been supporting SM3.0 since the 6-series, but ATi has only introduced support for it in the X1x00 series. Most game devs do not want to leave users of the previous generation high-end ATi cards in the dark, and therefore center their engines around SM2.0, with a couple of SM3.0 features here and there optionally enabled if a capable card is detected. Bottomline? An SM2.0 game will probably run a wee bit faster on NV GPUs, as will an SM3.0 game that only uses a couple of its features. An engine specifically designed around SM3.0 with heavy use of dynamic branching and long shaders will whoop a 7900's butt. However, the chances that any such engine will ever see the light of day are quite slim, since DX10 and SM4.0 are right around the corner. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Interesting inteview summary on the PC Format Editor's blog (Have to find the link ... their site is a mess :angry: ), when talking to ATi, the reason they were so delayed in implementing SM3 was because (allegedly) the nVidia implementation is inferior to spec; furthermore, because of the nVidia's rushed implementation and their subsequent support for devs, devs now think that SM3 is a high-cost feature and are less inclined to incorporate them into the core graphics engine tech ... at present. ATi's SM3 is easier to use computer- and developer- resource-eating-wise and are better implemented in games. I believe this is true: the devs have made it pretty clear that they spent a lot of resources on a new graphics engine with lots of fog and water and sky effects, etc. Also, according to the same editor, ATi are also enabling their GPUs to do PhyX-like calculations.

Even though this is a little late (blame Space Rangers 2's Dominators :"> ) I would say that the nVIDIA SLi solution is more stable and useable than ATi's CrossFire (there were plans to enable cards of different types to work together for both platforms, but only nVIDIA has come up with the result, so far, IIRC); so your purchase is arguably a better future-proof one. In other words, when the nVIDIA 8700XXXTBXXX eXtremeXed comes out in a few months, you should be able to pair it with this card in SLi.

Good tip.

7800GS is the better card. That's an excellent card Lady. The X1300 is a low-end card targeted at basic PCs, and is comparable to a GeForce 7300. The person who was telling you that it is comparable to a 6800 didn't know what they were talking about, really. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

EDIT - All those things I listed had to be patched (Dunno about Legeds sound stuff, I uninstalled the game already and lost interest). They are far more common in PC games as well. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are missing the point: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No. My idea of working is simply different from yours. I don't find things like sound, crashing, stuttering issues acceptable. I'm not trying to say that all PC games are broken, I have plenty of games that are working. Quiet a few tooks official patches however. Anyways, you said that a superior PC setup would give you a better gaming experience over a console player with the same game. That's is not necessarily true. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I never played MOO3. The vast majority of PC game players do not encounter showstopping bugs in their games; and most of the ones I have heard about were due to graphics and (more likely) sound cards; otherwise the game wouldn't sell. Recently I read a review of Stolen, which was so badly made and unfinished that the manual had place-markers still in it on release ("put character description here", etc). If you want to be pedantic, then Yes, it is possible to ship a PC game that has no chance of working. But I would counter that consoles are not immune from that, so it is a meaningless distinction. The point is that consoles give a value-for-money advantage, whereas PCs give a better graphics and sound experience. OTHERWISE no-one would buy a console nor a PC (for gaming), which is patently not the case. My original point was (which I may have overstated and compromised the accuracy for simplicity) was that if you have a high-end PC, then you will have a better gaming experience: you will have access to better graphics, better sound, the same or better controls (gamepads for PCs, or mouse-and-keyboard, respectively), as well as games that just aren't available on a console (I am currently replaying PlanentFall, for example, but I could play any game from any non-current console, too), and added content from the developers (patches) and the online communities (mods). Bearing in mind that, if you want to buy the extreme latest PC gear, the additional purchase of a console and a few games is almost negligible; so those fortunate few will have both, anyway.

I don't think current generation cards will be able to take advantage of DirectX 10; that is Shader Model 4, IIRC, and that isn't implemented in hardware yet. Hence why I'm waiting for three months ...

(w00t) Pre-order FTW!

EDIT - All those things I listed had to be patched (Dunno about Legeds sound stuff, I uninstalled the game already and lost interest). They are far more common in PC games as well. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are missing the point:

I could argue that all of those problems exist in console games, too.

Stupidity?

Released: 19 May 2006 Category: Turn Based Strategy

Maybe they can hire someone who could raise the horsie for them ... maybe they might walk past a CN-with-evil-flirtations Cleric who whimsically decides to raise the horsie for practice, and for free ...

It was in a recent (last 2-3 months) magazine ... looks like I'll have to dig it up ...

This is simply not true. For example, no matter which computer you played the unpatched Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines on, it would crash on you. The script bug in one of the missions was gamebreaking and totally independent on your system.

I thought Supers weren't allowed to have children!

^

Aha! So you concede teh in3R7R0n ... t0 M3 ?!!!?!?!1?11!!1one/!1eleven!