Daeval

I don't remember you much because I was probably just starting to post as you were leaving. I do remember your avatar, which is only near the greatest in the history of avatars, however. So, welcome back!

I think the cart does affect the battery life. I say this because I've seen some of the spec sheets for the newer flash carts that claim they affect the battery life less than older carts. *shrug*

Bah GC is cool for the few really good GC only titles, and the wack-ass controller is surprisingly comfortable for adventure titles (like Beyond Good and Evil).. (and they have the better Naruto games.. that oughta win you over hehe) But back on topic.... Where/What did you hear about GC Tekken K'?

This looks like a blast. I almost wish they would have went for a second-row with the L and R buttons, like an 8 button version of a classic capcom 6, but all in all I dig it. Now how much will it be and where do I get a PS2 to PC converter for cheap?

Republic Commando is supposed to be a smaller scale I think. In that, you're part of a small squad, where in this, you're part of an ARMY. I could be wrong though.

A little Advance Wars 2. That game rules.

I agree with those who've said that parents need to be responsible for what their kids play. However, as a former games-retail employee, I know that it's important to take some measures at the retail level as well. Parents are often too clueless to realize that the big "M" means it aint for their grade schooler. I always made sure to ask the buyer's age if the game was M-rated, and even for ID if the response was questionable. No one under 17/18 got away with M-Rated titles without an adult. And when a clueless parent set GTAIII on the counter at the behest of their giddy 8 year old, I always made sure to point out the rating and explain what it meant. Disturbingly, there were many parents who just didn't care, or who even thought it was "cool" that their kid's game would be as violent and risque as the r-rated stuff the adults enjoyed. There were many that appreciated the warnings though. I don't mind violence and "mature-themes" in games, but there are titles, especially Rockstar's titles, that use them as the primary draw. That I do have a problem with. The old GTAs were fun, and GTAIII was fun, but the gameplay has barely been updated at all since then, and most of the attention the series gets isn't for it's free-form play, but for it's controversial nature. Manhunt is another good example - a mediocre sneaker with enough violence to draw crowds. At that point, the title has sunk to "shock rock" levels, and no longer really contributes to gaming as a whole.

Mario Power Tennis for GameCube. Surprisingly fun, and more interesting for non-tennis freaks than Top Spin on Bill-Box.

The stuttering problem supposedly remains only on NVidia cards, and they're working on a fix already. This is the official word anyway. And 512MB of RAM should be plenty with your configuration. I wouldn't bother with such a costly upgrade before getting the game. But I guess if you've got the cash burning a hole in your pocket, go for it.

Like what, out of curiosity? I always wondered if they had fancy things like that..

Some areas have "shelters" like that here, but not all the homeless make it to them. Sometimes they're full, or the homeless person can't or decides not to go for one reason or another, etc.

I wouldn't say it's a matter of "difficulty" per se, as much as a matter of sheer workload. To do it well anyway. And as for the two screens, most good video editing software will handle this type of thing, but... You probably wouldn't be entering the subtitles in real-time, so you'd just have to enter them where you wanted them while the movie wasn't running, and then watch it to see if the line came up when it was supposed to. Imagine doing that for EVERY dialogue in a half hour show... oy..

Yeah, ok, I getcha. It still follows the established MMORPG formula, it just does it in its own way. I'm waiting for the MMORPG that breaks the mold established by EQ. Something where combat feels less like a chore and more like a fun game in its own right, where grinding, camping, farming, and all those other terms become obsolete, and where you can jump in and start enjoying things fully without playing for 27 hours just to get your most basic abilities first. In the meantime, to each his own, and may you enjoy WoW to its fullest.

Good point... I guess I took it for granted that the unfortunate sleep in dumpsters these days. I guess THAT'S a pretty good sign of the state of the world.

This may be ancient but I'd never heard of it. Thanks for the link!

I'm using a GF4 Ti4600 and 512MB of RAM, and the video settings it auto-loaded (a mix of high and medium) work great. It hiccups once right after loading a new area, but other than that it's basically fine. So, you both should be ok.

Out of curiosity, do these run from home, a rented server, or do you have a hookup of some sort?

True that. Although I got seriously owned by some Swedes. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I get seriously owned at least every other time I play CS (or CSS), but it's all worth it for one good run with the pump shotgun. Nothing like ducking and weaving and cutting an enemy team in half with some shotgun-fu.

Damn, at least he survived. Probably pretty shook up though. I don't know if this counts as a "State of the world" tragedy though. This one's more like a freak accident.

How does the combat work? Is it your typical EQ/AC/Every other MMORPG style where you basically auto-attack and then use special abilities as they recharge? And how do you gain new abilities? Do you have to grind a bunch of exp and cash and then go buy them from a trainer somewhere?

This 's so true, most of the guys 've an athletic exaggerated body & women look like top models. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Comic books and the whole of ancient Greek sculpture - both trash!

Assuming you have a high-speed (Cable, DSL, etc) connection, I'd say just go with the Silver Pack. You'll get the extra goodies, it's basically the same price, and your DL should resume if it gets cut off. In case you were wondering, buying it through steam just means it's enabled for your Steam account. You can then DL it as many times as you need to, so it's not like you have to worry about wasting the money if the DL gets messed up.

CSS is loads more fun. The weapons feel much more balanced, so you don't get overwhelming numbers of AKs/Colts quite as often. It makes for a more varied and interesting game.

I'd imagine it's pretty tough, and time-consuming. You've obviously got to have a good grasp of both Japanese and English, including colloquialisms and preferably in both languages. They've also got to have the video-capturing hardware/software set up to digitize a show (assuming it's one of the ones that air on TV). I would assume they then watch the show a few times and transcribe a script, either in the native Japanese first or possibly straight to the translated English, and possibly with notes on timing. Then they've got to put the text over the show. With modern video editing software, like Adobe Premier, I doubt that they would have to do this frame by frame, but I don't know what tools are popular among subbers. Even with a tool that could do it accross frames, they would then have to spend a lot of time matching start and end times for a particular subtitle with the spoken words. I think someone is usually credited as the person who does this on a team, so it's probably a signficant chunk of the work. And then there's relatively little things like translating signs as they appear or watching the show a few times over to make sure everything came out right. All in all, it's more trouble than I'd be willing to go to, but more power to them for doing it. I know I appreciate it, however long it takes 'em.

Assuming they put a little more into it than they did with the old Tekken Force modes. It kinda looks like they are, but doing too much would significantly affect their development cycle, so I doubt we're going to see anything revolutionary.