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Scrivener

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Everything posted by Scrivener

  1. I'm glad that you opted against it. It seemed an added level of customer-side complication (Knowing how many impressively stupid people are out there) that I'm sure you diden't really want to deal with. Besides, if I got my hands on BCM any sooner, the thought terrifies me of the productivity I'd lose. Lord knows I'll be losing enough when I get my hands of Max Payne this coming Monday.
  2. I'm not all that experienced with BC so don't jump all over me if I say something unwittingly stupid: 1) I was unfortunate enough to end up with the "Error writing to the temporary location" error. After uninstalling the BCM Episode 1 demo, however, I was able to install Episode 2 without a hitch. 2) Ep2 seems significantly more polished than Ep1. In any case, though. There are obviously still a few issues to work out: a) I've had experience with the "sliding floor" phenomenon that was mentioned in another post. It seems like a fogged ~25ft x ~25ft square that moves out of sync with the rest of the ground/scenery/etc when you move (ATV or on Foot). After approaching the planet in the first scenario, I couldnt help but notice that the ocean looked sort of paralaxed. It was very hard to determine where, exactly, the surface of the water was, except by the islands which just seemed to float around in space. Maybe it was just the ocean being reflective and mirroring the sky?
  3. I had really hoped that it would be Microsoft. Please refrain from making such comments on the board. Racist or not, hating the Chinese is not what I'd like to see in this board. Thank You [ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]
  4. Evolution was bad. Real bad. I don't recall laughing once in the entire movie... raised an eyebrow a couple times. The monkey-monsters were pretty cool. But other than that, it sucked. It wasn't funny unless you happen to be a Junior High student obsessed with bathroom humor (It wasnt even good bathroom humor). Not to mention the Head & Shoulders commercial was pretty lame when compared to the Popeyes Chicken shtick in Little Nicky.
  5. I was terribly dissapointed by the remake. It may have been truer to the books, but the quality of the movie was absolutely horrendous. The acting was mediocre, the stages were lame (The painted backdrops were so rediculously amateur that I felt almost ashamed to be watching it), the special effects were lousy, and I could keep going on forever. The original Dune movie was far more realistic and believable than the new one by a far cry. IMHO, the remake should never have been done with the shanty budget that a TV miniseries allows. They could have at least shot the desert scenes on location in Death Valley or Egypt, rather than use those painfully corny backdrops. Ack!
  6. Well, after playing the I-War 2 demo, I was so dissapointed that I came very close to cancelling my pre-order. To me it just seemed so... dumbed down. I liked I-War because I felt like I was on a real, working cap-ship. I-War2 feels more like Wing Commander. I guess I was just looking for something a little more complex and deep. Anyway, I reasoned that I wasn't really all that impressed by the BCM demo either; but since I'm sticking that one out for now, I figured I would just keep my pre-order.
  7. For all of you having to upgrade for BCM, I have recommendations for you: 1) Don't skimp yourself. If you want your system to run the recent stuff for more than 3 months, go all out. Spend the extra cash. You'll stay with the curve a little longer and be able to run newer stuff a longer. Trust me on this one. I learn from experience. 2) Never, never, never, never, NEVER buy generic off-name brand bargain stuff. You'll lose every time. Is that $50 saved worth it when your US Drives or BTC brand DVD drive starts scratching your CDs and smoking (Remember, *experience*). I give Creative and ELSA my top honors on all hardware. HP and Sony have screwed me over more than once on warranties (Among other things). 3) Never, never, never, never, NEVER buy hardware via ebay. Not even if they have positive 5,000,000 feedback rating. You will be taking a VERY big risk, and 75% of the time, you'll lose. 4) Never buy directly from the manufacturer. Whenever possible, buy from a nearby physical store with a good return poicy (Ie; Frys/Fried Electronics). I tend to do most of my shopping at www.mwave.com, but only because the shipping center is near my home, so I can will-call and avoid shipping charges. Not to mention they're almost always cheaper than the places 'round here. 5) Buy you're case in person. Frys may have a pretty bag selection, but its better than buying one over the internet when you havn't had a chance to check out the insides. Remember, the exterior/cosmetic appearance takes back seat to the roominess/accessability of the inside. Horizontally mounted power supplies are a must. 6)Never buy Cyrix anything. 7)Unless you have a penchant for lighting cigars with hundred-dollar-bills, opt for an AMD processor over an Intel. The 1.3Ghz AMD outpaces the 1.7Ghz Intel in almost every test. Intel claims that programs "just aren't optimized yet", but the truth is: they never will be. Remember MMX? Streaming SIMD? AMD has the raw power. Intel is overpriced and behind the curve.
  8. You should have a talk with Gray Davis. He has consistently made the problem worse. Deregulation - The democratic crusade to fix something that was never broken. The spoiled-rotten, self-centered, morally-devoid majority of Californians are responsible for voting deregulation into existence.
  9. Just order it from www.ebgames.com . I believe they ship to both Canada and Australia. Albeit shipping will cost a pich more, being international and all.
  10. lol. I so agree. But from what I've heard, it’s much more expensive to live in Canada than America. Although with gas and electrical prices skyrocketing like they are right now, that could be the other way around before you know it. Truth be told, Canada is one of the three countries in which I'd most consider living (Australia, Canada, New Zealand).
  11. And then there was Arena. There IS Arena... and Daggerfall. After all these years I still play them at least several times a month.
  12. The first game I ever played was "A Mind Forever Voyaging", and that was at a friends house. I didnt get my own computer till about the time Descent came out- a 100Mhz Packard Hell.
  13. Today has definately been one of the most boring days of my life. I had been hoping to play a bit of Echelon today (Seeing as its the first real day "off" I've had in a long time- being either at school in the morn or work at night), but alas, it was not to be. May 9 was the ship date. But then it slipped to May 10, then May 11. And now I'm $#!% outa luck. At one point, I was soo friggin bored that I reinstalled Rollercoaster Tycoon. When that just didnt do it for me, I tried Battlespire. But I guess that dosnt run on modern hardware. Alas!!! What a hell I am trapped in. But thats all besides the point and merely the product of my undergamedness. What I really wanted to know is how many people have actually heard of Echelon? It SHOULD be in stores by tomarrow and seems like the perfect thing to pass the hours until the next BCM demo.
  14. quote:Intel's Pentium 4 will eventually outperform even the fastest AMD processors currently available as soon as games optimized for it are released. That's just not gonna happen. Remember Streaming SIMD? No? Thats because nobody cared or "optimized" for it. The same thing was said about the Pentium 3. The truth is, Intel has to keep changing it to keep up with AMD. What we HAVE seen is many games optimized for 3DNow (Which dosnt really matter any more) because it stuck around while Intel was changing around all their "special features". Optimized or unoptimized, AMD has the chips with the most RAW POWER. In all the tests that you'll read about (Unless the results are rigged), you'll find that the 1.3Ghz AMD STILL outpaces the 1.7Ghz Pentium 4. That is just SAD. Then there's the prices as well. You can spend $450 for a 1.7Ghz P4, or $200 on a 1.3Ghz Tbird that still outpaces its P4 1.7Ghz counterpart. That said, opt for the AMD chip. There will be no "long run" because AMD is close behind with even more raw power while Intel is simply beating around the bush with a plethora of useless jerry riggings. Here's specifically what I recommend: Mainboard: Asus A7A266 ($150) CPU: AMD 1200Mhz w/ 266Mhz bus ($180) RAM: 256MB PC2100 266MHZ ECC DDR DIMM ($130) For CPU cooling, I'd recommend an "Alpha PAL6035" ($30) with Arctic Silver II thermal compound ($10). You can pick up all that stuff from www.2cooltek.com. I've shopped there on numerous occasions, so I'll vouch for 'em. Also, the prices on the Mobo, CPU, and RAM are from www.mwave.com. Another place I frequently shop at (Although I Will-Call it, since the warehouse is near where I live).
  15. While on the topic, I thought I'd educate you all with a bit of trivia. The new ST series is called Star Trek: Enterprise (Working title). As for the prequel... I'm not sure if thats the one or not since I havn't heard any plot rumour as of yet. If it is, I wonder what the Klingons will look like (Remember that "crossover" DS9 episode)? Next, the new ST movie sounds a LOT like the long-cancelled Interplay adventure game Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury. The premise was awesome and it had all the original ST cast voices. According to the dev team members, the game was less than a month from gold and merely undergoing the last bit of polishing when the project was canned.
  16. OMG, now I REALLY can't wait for BCM. *giggling like a little girl* And I thought IWAR2 would be the end-all space sim... HA! This could be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
  17. This is likely one of the most asinine questions ever asked on the boards... but what about trees and forests? While BCM is definately one of the most jaw-dropping sims I've ever seen, I just wonder about the "emptiness" and "flatness" of the planet surfaces I've seen in the released screenshots so far. Like Mt. Olympus on Mars (And its whole jagged canyon-covered surface)... is all of that actually rendered? Will forests or vast, sprawling cities on some planets? I'm guessing all of this are possible future updates, but I just wonder. The more detail, the better.
  18. Like I've said in a previous post, I'm new to Battecruiser series, though very fond of the Elites. And I have to say I'm simply overwhelmed by the complexity of this game. I dont remember feeling so daunted since Mechwarrior 2 was released. Something I'm curious about, however, is the entering of a planet's atmosphere. Since there will be seperate engines for surface flights, how will the transition work? Will it be seamless like First Encounter and require you to manage things like heat and air friction, or will it take one of the lower roads (ie: Canned Cinematic or Instantaneous Translocation)???? The answer is likely covered somewhere, but I'm too busy reading the manual and BCM demo info to look it up. ------------------ -The Scrivener-
  19. Now I'll admit I'm a newcommer to the Battecruiser series, although I'm a diehard Elite/Frontier/First Encounters fan. So far, I have no clue what I'm doing in the game, but I'm reading up whenever I'm not preocupied playing Darkspace. On Music: The guitar solo in the main menu really gets on my nerves. But I hate guitars. Its just my pet peeve. However, I LOVE the piano music in-game. It sort of helps set that "epic expanse" tone. The guitar music... well, it sounds 80s retro. Like it belongs in a Battlestar Galactica remake *shrug* On Icons: I absolutely hate the icons. For me, they are a gross distraction. I just cant imagine a 30th century Battecruiser (Im just using an imaginary date, here. Since I'm understudied at the moment) running off Windows. They're fine for learning purposes, but there should definately be a text-only option somewhere. While the icons make it seem more like a game, text is more for the sim-oriented folk (Like m'self). On Flight Model: I'm obsesive when it comes to realism in games. Independence War was a godsend in the days I still had a Monster 3D on my rig (I can only hope that Nvidia adds Glide support to their drivers soon). I'd love to have a more realistic flight model (A la I-War or Allegiance) as an option. At the moment, it feels more like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter or Tachyon: The Fringe than than a true space-sim. I sincerely hope a more realistic flight model will be incorporated either pre, or post release. BTW, what is GCO????????? ------------------ -The Scrivener-
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