Bjossi

Sam 2 was wacky to the point where your mind could go into any direction really.

That does sound like fun, I'll find out for myself soon enough. So far the game is rarely tediously tough in my opinion. No section has made me want to tear my hair out at least. I already played eps 2 and 3 so there is no need. This was many many years after I played episode 1 for the first time though, at least a decade.

A game that should use french fries as enemies is Serious Sam.

Duke Nukem 1 is awesome. Used to love (and hate) seeing the demo playback of a level not in episode 1, I always wanted to play it for myself.

My first ever games were Solitaire and Minesweeper, on Windows 3.1. This was formerly a machine used in a bank. Later I got some diskettes with maybe 30+ freeware and shareware games, so I can not say with any certainty which one was the first. Among these games was Monster Bash shareware, a game I played countless hours with my dad. We always tried to beat each other's high scores. This PC is still very much functional, I could set it up and take a walk through memory lane.

Does Doom have any story at all? I remember reading about Carmack saying years and years ago that he didn't believe in stories for video games.

DNF's Balls of Steel edition may be one of the few ones that end up being actually any good. I hate limited editions that a) offer exclusive in-game stuff and b) cheaply made physical stuff.

Hmm, maybe we are not thinking of the same elevator, I find the parts right after it fairly quiet and slow paced. The one I rode up got attacked by I think three beasts with some yellow weak spots to shoot at. The difficulty for me was low visibility once the bastards started breaking the windows. But boy was the view gorgeous before the shit hit the fan. I play on medium, even though I'm pretty familiar with the game's mechanics from the first game.

I was too young when Doom was popular and modern, I've tried several times to get into it but I'm not liking it very much. Doom 3 and its expansion I find very enjoyable however, to me they feel like classics/familiar territory that I can always come back to when I got no new games in the pipeline. My last, complete runthrough of them both was last summer.

I am playing Dead Space 2 these days. Damn fine game in my opinion. I am currently in chapter 7, the game is starting to get quite tough at this point (Damn you, solar array elevator, damn you to hell.).

You just have to love artificial engine limitations.

Two words: bandwidth cap. And I simply am not interested. I make enough money to spend a few hundred on upgrades every 3-5 years. I do not understand the attraction. At all. My hard drives can store all my emails and other data, my dirt cheap HD 5770 can play the newest games nearly maxed out. I can understand big companies renting out big server farms, but why would a consumer need this, or even want this? Maybe it is just the advanced user me not understanding how more casual computer users think. I feel better knowing of my data on my own hard drives + backup rather than floating around in the skies as "clouds (where the heck did that buzzword come from anyways?).

The Duke has a (seemingly) solid limited edition package so the big fans should consider investing in that. I will only go for the standard edition myself.

I am looking forward to this mod but I stay away from their community, it looks like internet memes are the native language over there.

What many people do not seem to understand when judging this stuff is simple arithmetic. When there is a steady increase in demand in order to supply the increased demand you always need to find bigger and bigger oil reserves to keep the supply in check. Even a tiny percentage of increase each time factor can have massive effects over longer period of time. I have seen people that for some weird reason calculate based on current demand and pretend it will stay the same for the rest of time. Watch all 8 parts of this, it is a very powerful lecture. I wish this guy had been my math teacher in high school.

<--- Iceland, a country which name I never understood the reason for.

Isn't it pretty much going right against the current flow of data? Scientific computing is moving away from megaservers to home computers, because home computers are bloody powerful and forming a collective whole their output can make a megaserver/supercomputer look like a motion impaired snail. People don't need to have stuff rendered for them and sent across the planet, it is not only troublesome physically but it is simply uneconomical. It is much cheaper and better for the environment to just use local computing power and only use remote servers for data storage. To me this is one of those opposite effects, like when it was believed computers would cut down on paper usage (Boy were they wrong.). Apparently as storage and computing power become cheaper and more mainsteam, strangely enough there is a growing demand for a jungle of server farms across the planet connected back and forth in a web that makes people's heads spin. One would think that this was not necessary when you can get 10 TBs of storage space for a month's salary or two.

Games I am looking forward to and will definitely buy. FEAR 3 FEAR 2 doesn't come close to the originals but I have hopes this game will redeem the series. But I shall never forgive them for ditching manual saves and only having one checkpoint slot, that is just a dumb design choice, almost as dumb as making the glass separating Isaac from outer space in Dead Space 2 non-bulletproof. Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution Deus Ex is fairly good, never played Deus Ex 2 but never the less I will buy this one after a few pricedrops. Duke Nukem Forever Enough said. Serious Sam 3 Been a massive fan of Sam since 2001. Croteam have VIP access to my wallet. Sam 2 was disappointing to say the least but Sam 3 is looking simply awesome from the screenshots released so far. HL3/HL2: Ep3 Enough said. STALKER 2 No release date or much info yet, but GSC, like Croteam, have VIP access to my wallet. I absolutely love the STALKER games. Even Clear Sky was above the surface of today's ocean of AAA titles. One thing worth noting: GSC will make women a part of the sequel's world. Intrigue me but no guaranteed purchase. Portal 2 I love GLaDOS, her sinister yet sterile personality, and of course her old-school-gone-modern computer voice. She sends shivers down my spine whenever she speaks. But the game itself did not capture my heart. I don't really understand what is supposed to make this the second coming of jesus. But I might pick it up after several pricedrops, who knows? Bioshock: Infinite The two former Bioshocks aren't all that good really, the sequel is miles better than the first. What makes me consider this title is the new setting, I love the idea. But before I go for a purchase I will need to read reviews that sing along with my tastes and favour the game on several important points. Batman: Arkham City Didn't play the first but I am itching to pick it up. If these two will end up in a double pack for cheap I'd definitely go for it. Crysis 2 This used to be on my to buy list but it got downgraded after reading worrying things about its mechanics and options customization. Reviews and player comments will decide whether I invest at all in this game. There may be more but these are the ones I can think of right now.

Never tried it, never will. My PC is more than capable of rendering its own set of frames.

I also read about the Ep3 idea being expanded to HL3. If those rumours are true I will be very happy.

I can name two ideas right off the bat: 1) Either increase the posts per page considerably or make this optional for each user. I feel most comfortable with 50, but I even choose 100 when available. 2) Maybe add an option to enable/disable swear filtering? I saw this in one phpBB forum and it works pretty well I would say. I prefer no word filtering but some people may disagree, plus the guest traffic probably has a good deal of youngsters.

I am good. It is a lonely night here. Strange how I stay up for a while every single night only to do absolutely nothing productive or even remotely interesting most of the time. I might as well go to bed to get better and longer sleep instead, right? Well, I don't do that for some reason. Some nights I do have excuses, like watching a TV show or play some Dead Space 2 (the current love of my gaming life), but other nights there is just nothing happening.

System Shock 2 should be installed on your system, Ross. It takes up a microscopic chunk of a modern hard drive's free space and is some fine gaming to fall back to every now and then. Though it is anything but fun getting it to work right, just installing the 11.1 Catalysts broke it for me for the umpteenth time.