I just picked up Brisco County. Man is it expensive for an obscure series that hardly anyone saw. $70! Ouch. Sometimes it hurts to be a Bruce Campbell fan.  

I just want to know what part of Knightshade's anatomy she's recoiling in horror under. :lol:

As if he ever needed this.

+1 to Knightshade Dragon for an UNOPENED copy of Mechassault 2 and Badur's Gate Dark Alliance 2.

Just to be certain, your HDTV has a built-in HDTV tuner in it? If that is the case, there will be no loss of quality by using an antenna hooked up with an RF cable.

If you are looking for an antenna, you don't necessarily need one of those special HD antennas. Plain old UHF rabbit ear antennas work just as well. Even better results if you can get an amplified one. I have a cheapie amplified antenna that I picked up at a local surplus store for $15 and I get the over the air HD stations fine, when the signal is strong. I used to have an RCA HD antenna ($30) and it was terrible. I couldn't get anything using that POS. The higher up you can mount the antenna, the better. Amplified rooftop HD antennas will probably be the most reliable, but they are more than $100.

What you need to worry about though is whether or not you have obstacles around your home that could interfere with the signal. Tall trees, multistory buildings and nearby hills can affect reception. Also, what direction you position the antenna will be important. You can check what type of antenna you need and best positioning direction at:

http://antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Just enter your zip code to get the local configuration.

To give you an idea, with my antenna, my reception is very hit or miss. I have better luck in the evening than I do in the daytime. Even then, I still have to do some manual adjustment based on which channel I want to watch. My local PBS, CBS and ABC HD stations seem to come it pretty reliably, while the local FOX and some minor regional stations are not so great. It's a hassle sometimes, but the OTA HD signal is free and when reception is good, the signal looks great.

Yet another proprietary Sony media format fails? Wow, who saw that one coming?  

Their "plan B" to sell movies on memory stick is pathetic. They are more expensive than blank ones and they are putting some pretty weak movies on them. On top of that, the movies are in lower resolution. Uhh, no thanks.

Boy I can't wait to see what happens to Blu-Ray.

You have to go old school.

Might & Magic 1 and D&D: Pool of Radiance because you had to manually draw maps on paper as you played. No automapping in the old days!

Not sure if it counts as a traditional RPG, but Starflight 1 and 2 were great just for the sheer size of the game world.

Bard's Tale 1 because it was so freaking hard. At least it was for me.

Wasteland, the true precursor to Fallout.

And going REALLY old school, the first RPG I can remember playing was an Atari computer game called Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. A fantastic game because it could be played co-op multiplayer. That was a huge deal in 1982.

To me Looking Glass and Origin are the two that I am most sorry to see disappear. They made innovative, fun and unique games that pushed genres forward.

I was thinking about what other companies they could have profiled in that article. It would have been interesting to read about what happend to SSI (prolific computer wargame company), Spectrum Holobyte (originator of the Falcon flight sim) and Microprose.

And this is supposedly what it may look like. If that is indeed what it is, then Apple doesn't have anything to worry about. Good god it's fugly looking.

Interesting that Nerva, the first Starforce employee, gave way to Sage, who seems to be much more reasonable.

It's some fascinating reading over on that thread, some of which is a little over my head in terms of the technical mumbo jumbo. I'm glad our GT bretheren are engaging them in substantial constructive discussion.

And what was with the dude who was capping on DeVry? Way to contribute to the topic of discussion monkeyboy! :roll:

I'm in...as soon as I buy the game.

The thread over on the Starforce site is hilarious. It's like adults trying to discuss existentialist philosophy with a five year old who keeps answering with "I know you are but what am I?".

When you have her in the sack, making her all wet and horny, just remember to yell out "PO-TA-TOES!!!!" at the moment of climax.

Wow.  Looking at the StarForce boards, all I can say is that those guys are a bunch of dicks.

They do like to silence any voice that doesn't praise their every step don't they?

That's because everyone who disagrees with them are software pirates backed by the mafia.  

It's been a while since I built a system. Whatever hardware you go with, newegg.com is the best place to order what you need. Very good prices, and their RMA process is very painless in case you need to return anything.

I like ASUS motherboards myself. I find them very reliable and well built. Plus, their manuals are really nice. Don't get one with an AGP slot. PCI express is the standard now.
At this point, an AMD processor is probably the best value. Go with dual core if you can.
For RAM get as much as you can afford. 2 GB is a nice range.
For hard drives, go with 7200 RPM SATA drives.
For sound, the motherboard onboard sound is plenty good unless you want something more elaborate like Dolby 5.1, although some motherboards now have onboard Dolby 5.1 sound.
Separate network cards are not necessary as most motherboards have the network hardware built-in.
On the DVD drive, go with a dual layer DVD burner.
The graphics card may be the hardest choice simply because there are so many options. I'm partial to nVidia cards myself, but really you cannot go wrong with ATI either. Either the ATI 1xxx series or the nVidia 7000 series if you can afford it.
LCD monitors are the way to go. A decent 19" LCD display can be had for $200 to $300.
On the power supply, get at least a 450 watt one.
Cases are more of a personal thing. I like Antec and Kingwin ATX cases.

The last system I built was one of those compact cube systems. While the small size is nice, the wimpy power supply and amount of heat it generates is not worth it. Don't bother with these small form factors.

I'm sure others will chime in on specific models of components to get.

Or he's been fired! :lol:

The patch is available now via the in-game updater. Version is 1.08.

Seems like their servers are getting hammered so downloading it might be kind of spotty for a day or so.

Ron, I sent you a reply (twice), but I'm not sure if it went through okay.

It's all about Titan Quest this weekend. Hopefully the patch comes out today as well.

Also some Over G Fighters and some goold old Geometry Wars.

Another YGPM...

Here's some perspective for you.

You're 30 years old and you play video games and run a gaming website.

I don't think you're ready for a motorized chair just yet.

Okay, I've had more time with the game and I think it's a lot better than my initial impressions would suggest.

One thing this game is not is a clone of the Ace Combat series. Over G Fighters has more of a PC flight sim feel to it. Air to air combat is mainly missile engagements at long range, which is more realistic. Since weapons loadouts are realistic, it introduces a lot more tactical decisionmaking in terms of what targets to take out. You can't destroy everything, a la Ace Combat and its near limitless supply of missiles. Also, in the preflight setup you need to really think about what combinations of weaponry to load. Another important aspect is that you really have to rely on your wingman now, especially if you run out of missiles or bomb but still have primary targets to take out. The wingman command system is pretty simplistic but it's important.

The graphics have grown on me. The ground textures still look terrible at low altitude which is a shame since the ground attack missions are mostly played at low altitude, particularly if you fly the A-10. However, at higher altitude, the ground textures looks decent. I really like the graphics during the mission replay footage. The planes do look great and there are lots of nice little details-- wingtip contrails, flaps opening and closing, heat shimmer from the engines, accurate loadouts on the weapons pylons when they are launched, accurate engine sounds (particularly the drone of the A-10 engines).

I love the A-10 missions in particular. I've seen and heard a real A-10 fire it's tank busting gatling gun and it's portrayed accurately in the game. The sound is right on, and you even see the puffs of smoke when the gun is fired.

There are still some negatives to the game though.
-Mission length varies wildly. I've completed air to air engagements that lasted only a few minutes and others that took 10 minutes. Same with ground attack missions. Some are ridiculously short while others take a long time. There doesn't seem to be any pattern based on difficulty either.
-The AI is pretty brain dead. On one ground attack mission, there were several Hind-D helicopters literally hovering high above ground just waiting for me to shoot down. I still have not figured out the technique of missile evasion so I either get shot down right away or I shoot the enemy planes down right away. Enemy bombers just kind of loiter in the area flying in big lazy circles waiting to get blown out of the sky.
-The voice acting is still abysmal, especially the wingmen.
-The game crashes on occasion when completing a mission, but before you can save the game.
-The targeting system seems flaky. It doesn't always target the enemy I want switch.
-Missile evasion seems ridiculously hard, although I could simply be lame. :o
-The sensation of speed still seems to be off. The planes feel like they fly too slow, although during the replay mode, it looks fine.

The bottom line is that the game is still not worth $60. However, at $30 or $40 it's a decent game if you are into PC style flight sims. Granted, it isn't as full featured or sophisticated as a dedicated PC flight sim, it does have a similar feel. The game reminds me a little of Jane's USAF from EA for those who know flight sims. Just don't expect an Ace Combat clone.

I don't know about anyone else, but this reminds me of the old Neo-Geo system. $700 console and $100 game cartridges.

That's odd. For me the triggers control the rudders, allowing me to slide left/right without having to turn and bank.

I pretty much agree with Kathode. The menus are terrible. The voice acting is horrific. The terrain looks flat and boring. PS2 quality textures. The planes look nice I suppose, but they could have been a lot more detailed. There is no sense of speed. Starting out in the F-14 Tomcat was a bad game decision because the thing handles like a 747 with a slow turn radius.

There are some things I do like. The cockpit view is nice with working gauges and rear-view mirrors. The ability to do visual panning with the right analog stick is a nice touch. Something you normally see in PC flight sims. The weapon loadouts are realistic compared to the Ace Combat method where your plane carries a ridiculous number of missiles.

It seems like Taito set out to make a game that was more in line with serious PC flight sims, which I commend them on. At least they tried to avoid making a carbon copy ripoff of Ace Combat. However, the game needed a ton more polish. The overall look is so uninspired it totally destroys the few decent things it gets right.

Sadly, the game is a ripoff at $60. I would wait until the game is in the bargain bin in 6 months at a more appropriate price-- like $30.

I read some of the feedback about the game on the GameFAQs messageboards. Good god, the place is a cesspool of idiots and smacktalking kids, most of which don't even own the game. It's hard to gauge if the game is really any good.

I am very interested in the game as well. If I can pick up a copy tonight, then I will "take one for the team", try it out, and post impressions here later. From the few bits of useful information on GameFAQs, the game seems like a poor man's Ace Combat that doesn't look dramatically better than a PS2 game and is not quite as arcadey as AC. I like the fact that you can taxi the planes on the runway. Plus it seems more realistic in that air to air combat is predominantly missile exchanges at long range.

I was kind of looking for something other than iTunes, but I guess it is the easiest to use.

I'll take a look at CDex. Thanks!

Can anyone recommend a good freeware program that is straightforward and easy to use for burning audio CDs? I have a bunch of MP3s that I would like to put on CDs. Also, can I just leave them as MP3 files or do I need to convert them into some other audio format?

Thin_J, ironically enough, I am typing this on an HP dv8280us, which is the same model series you are interested in, only it's a Media Center XP system with 2GB of RAM and dual 100 GB hard drives. All I can say is that I LOVE it. I've had it for about 3 weeks now and it's been great.

The Brightview screen is awesome. Colors are vibrant and the image is really sharp. Battery time is okay considering the quality of the screen. Mine has the GeForce 7400 which is middle of the road so it's not going to do well with the latest GPU intensive games, but it does the job with most games. The touchpad is pretty awesome. Tapping it does the same thing as mouse button presses but the pad is fully configurable. You can assign button functions to the corners of the trackpad, adjust the sensitivity, set click-dragging, and it has a touch scrollbar on the side. The one thing that I've had to get used to is the weight. Since it is a 17" display, it's not exactly very compact and at just over 8 lbs. it's fairly heavy as laptops go. When I first got it, HP had it preloaded with all sorts of junk, which I spent about an hour reconfiguring and uninstalling. After that, it's been running flawlessly. I like the fact that it looks sleek and sexy, but not obnoxiously gaudy. I had considered a Dell laptop, but they look so boring, and quite frankly, almost everyone has a Dell. Sure, they are good quality systems, but there's no 'wow' factor with them. The HPs are  nice compomise of style vs. quality.

So, I give it a big thumbs up. If you're interested in an HP 8000 series, I say go for it.

How is the difficulty level of this  game? I tried the first Hitman long ago and just couldn't get into it because it got sadistically hard after one or two levels.

I was pretty skeptical about this game because, come on, how fun could a table tennis video game really be? Well, color me impressed because I spent hours playing it last night and it was incredibly fun. Awesome graphics, but the gameplay is so simple and easy to pick up. Getting into an extended rally is a zen-like experience, and when you deliver a spectacular smash to the opponent, it puts an evil grin on your face. In a way, it almost feels like playing real table tennis. Sure, there aren't a lot of bell and whistles in the game, but I think it's pretty refreshing. Here's a game that actually relies on gameplay rather than how many extras can be crammed into the game to make it more flashy or appealing. It is definitely an excellent foundation for Rockstar to build upon in the future for any sequels.

Thanks for the impressions. I was interested in getting it, but now I think I will pass.

I liked it a lot. Best of the three MI movies I think. However, the ending was beyond stupid in the most cheesy MacGyver ripoff sort of way. Too bad. With a less ridiculous ending it could have been a much more satisfying movie.

Wow, it looks fantastic, but I worry about how one can keep up with controlling so many units on such huge maps.

Get ready for $1000+ bundles from Best Buy and EB.

Freaking insane. Sony is too full of themselves to realize that they just priced themselves out of the casual gamer market. The first run of units will sell like hotcakes to the early adopters. They'll buy it no matter what the price. After that, who's going to buy one? I can see parents all over the country telling their kids "are you crazy??" when they get asked to get one by their kids.

Well he roasted them pretty good then. Burnt to a crisp!

The end where Colbert shakes Bush's hand was classic. The pres was obviously NOT amused.

IMO, regardless of what score Fight Night 3 ultimately deserved, what I find most laughable is the OXM editor's defense of "it's a game, don't take it so serious". That is simply a lazy copout. Instead of defending their review scale or explaining why the game deserved a 10 regardless of the percieved weaknesses, she'd rather just give a lame excuse.

If gaming ever wants to become an entertainment media on par with movies or music, then why shouldn't people be so serious or passionate about games? Whether she likes it or not, games ARE a serious industry. People ARE serious about games. For a lot of gamers, including many of us who frequent this board, games are a hobby. The fact that so many people are debating the merit of a "perfect" score for FN3 is good for our hobby. To say that people shouldn't take it so seriously shows me what kind of gamers they are over at OXM. If that is their attitude, I'll gladly let my subscription expire and not bother renewing.

Miyazaki is an animation genius. Every one of his films is a classic. I've been waiting for Totoro on DVD done right for so long and when it FINALLY came out recently, it was one of those DVD "holy grail" moments for me. My 2 year old daughter watches it every day and just loves it. I am so glad and grateful that Disney, treated each Miyazaki movie with respect and care on each release. I usually prefer the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, but the English dub cast work on each Disney release has been really well done. On Totoro, Dakota Fanning's sister was perfectly cast as Mai. Just fantastic voice work. Without John Lassiter's fanboy admiration of Miyazaki, I doubt Disney would have put the effort to do these movies right on DVD.

(Smacks forehead and exclaims "Duh!")

Thanks! That did it. Unequipping my shield allows me to hold the torch and sword.

Okay, I'm confused about torches. When I first started out the game in the tutorial dungeon/cave/sewer, I was able to hold a torch in one hand and the katana you get early on, in the other hand. Now that I am out in the countryside, I noticed that now I can't hold a torch and a one handed sword at the same time. I have to switch back and forth now, which is aggravating when exploring caves and dungeons. Am I missing something? I don't understand why I was able to hold both at the same time in the beginning of the game, and now cannot.

From the interview:

"That was really sad, because you put over a year of your life into a project, and you think it's going to do something,"

It took over a year to make that piece of crap??