General Chat

Try [url="http://www.free-av.com/"]AntiVir[/url]... it's free. Make sure you update your virus definitions often too if you install it.

Well, tried downloading that and it said that the file had been damaged or changed since it had been created, if you downloaded this file try again.
ass.
Its 1:00am and Im tired, will try again tommorrow

Sounds like a virus or some kind of worm that you've got there...

When a friend installed a worm on his system it took some effort in removing, but what the worm did is that it hooked itself into windows so that each time an application started it would know about it so that it could shut it down, therefore no antivirus would work etc.

Well I ran that AntiVir program, it picked up a few trojans but the problem still remains.
Daemin, how did your friend get rid of that? Im thinking a freshh reinstall of XP might be good idea.

We googled the worm symptoms/name and found several websites that told us how to remove it.

Then we had to go through teh registry, removing many entries, and removing the files used by the worm... I.e. manually remove every last trace of it...

Personally, before reinstalling XP, try Ad-Aware and SpyBot. I find if you use both of them, your system is practically clean of spyware, trojans and worms, the cool thing about SpyBot is it immunises your computer so the spyware, virus or worm cant infect you again [:)].

Lavasoft Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

SpyBot Search & Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Give both of them a go, you wont be dissapointed. SpyBot is 100% free and so is Ad-Aware to certain extent if i recall [:p].

EDIT: And if that doesnt work, try SpywareBlaster, it is targetted more towards browser hijackers and is recommended by the SpyBot team.

SpywareBlaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

i dont have a link, youd have to google it but theres a program called "hijackthis" and theres a forum set up here: http://forum.tweakxp.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=29&PN=1 where people will help you with your logs. Incase you cant tell the program is for browser hijackers and has served me well in the past :)

After reinstalling XP its still there.
I think its a browser highjacker. I cant click on any of those links tbag gave or the download link to the highjack this program, as IE closes automatically.
Something else thats weird is that I had Spybot on my PC, yet its disappeared somehow. Its not on my Start menu, I cant find it in the Program Files folder, Ive searched my HD for Spybot and that didnt show up. The uninstall option under add/remove prgrams is there though, so maybe Im just blind. I know I didnt uninstall it as its quite a handy little program.

I think I'll have to get a different web browser, what do people recommend? Though will it highjack that?
Hopefully it wont so I can use the new browser to download spybot, etc and get rid of it
Gah!! this is annoying, especailly not being able to upload as I really need too!

Dude... seriously... [url="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/"]Firefox[/url]. Tabbed browsing, pop up blocking, more secure (no active X), and a whole lotta extensions that will make your browsing experience a hundred times more efficient/enjoyable..

Whats a tabbed browser!?!?

Are you running WinXP SP2?

quote:Originally posted by Souri

Dude... seriously... [url="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/"]Firefox[/url].

Seconded. Firefox is the way.

As for "what's tabbed browsing?", it's like the right-click open in new window", but takes up less resources, and you don't have to alt-tab back to the original window. Basically in Firefox you click a link with your middle button and it opens in the background in a 'tab' in the same window. you can see when it's ready to read and then switch across to it later.

you can also open all the bookmarks in a given folder (ie: all your first-thing in the morning links like penny-arcade, sluggy, sumea, google news etc.) in tabs with one click. FANtastic.

Another good thing I use is the 'bookmarks synchroniser' extension.
quote:
http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/authorprofiles.php?id=22
Bookmarks Synchronizer is a Mozilla Firefox extension that let you connect to an FTP server and synchronize your bookmarks that are stored in an XML file. Setup is easy; just write in your FTP server address, username, password and a name for the XML file.

This means that my work PC and home PC and second HD for my work laptop all get the same set of bookmarks.

Woo-Hoo!

That definitely sounds like your machine has been hijacked. From the sounds of it, when you say "reinstalled windows" it seems like your just installing it over the previous installation, not doing a complete format c: reinstall. Anyway, that's a last resort. Try this to help narrow it down.

Obviously something is not allowing your other programs to run, which means that there's a process somewhere that's not friendly. Check your Process list under the Task Manager (control -> alt -> delete -> Task Manager) if there's anything there that you don't recognize, google it. The exception is svchost.exe, a lot of crap runs as a service so if the malware has taken that as it's process name, then you won't be able to find it that way. Another way is to open up the run dialog (start -> run) and type, cmd. That'll open a command prompt, once there type netstat -o that'll list all the incoming and outgoing sockets, the -o option shows the process id with each of them. If they're connecting to addresses that you're not familiar with, well that's some good proof it's a worm or something. Check out the process id on them. What you need to do is kill it :)

Back to Task Manager, with the Processes tab clicked, click view -> select columns then select process id. Match up the ids you saw from netstat and select and click end process.

Once you've done that, you should be able to download and install ad-aware and spybot like the other guys suggested. That should catch your pest :)

Oh, in the meantime, try mozilla's firefox. It owns :)

Munkee

REdwyre, No Im not running SP2. Havent installed any of em.
Munkee. wow, I'll look into that thanks :)

I got firefox downloaded but whe I try to connect to I site its says "The connection was refused when attempting to connect to www.anyurlhere.com
Where is the connection settings?

Honestly, it sounds like this thing has really infected you. Check your processes running in the background, is there anything suspicious there?

As for Firefox its great, i can view websites that require membership for no ads but Firefox kills those ads anyway [:)]. You do however, need to customise your userContent.css to do this [;)].

You haven't installed SP1 yet?? [:0]

quote:Originally posted by Souri

You haven't installed SP1 yet?? [:0]

Im guessing your referring to Makk?

And as far as i know, isnt SP2 the latest release?

thats why hes shocked that he hasnt even installed 1 yet

I still have SP1, although SP2 is in the cupboard next to me [:p], probably should install it.

EDIT: Found another program that clears up quite some crap, BHODemon, it clears out IE hijackers and other annoying stuff: http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm

oh yeah, its a pain in the ass. Especially when your bit of a lamer like me when it comes to the technical side PCs

I think I might backup important data then do a reformat. Ive been wanting to do that for awhile. Anyone know the commad line for that in MS-Dos?

So I should get SP1, eh Souri

I've tried the Task manager but there doesnt look like one there thats suspicous.

In the latest adventures of Spybot, I found a site which wont close IE on me, allowing me to download it. However! when it gets to 99% and goes to copy it to the folder in which I saved it to, it cames up with an error and says Cannot copy file: CAnnot read from the source file or disk. FUN!! :(

Gotta say thanks to you all you guys helping out :)

Okay. to really see what's going on, try wget.

http://allserv.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/

basically, it's a command line utility to download files from the web (and can be used for all sorts of other useful purposes, but that's beside the point)

once it's unzipped:

wget http://blah.blah.blah.com/directory/file.exe

and it'll download that file.

it should be about as low level as you can get, so you might be lucky enough to bypass whatever hijacker you've got there.

heh heh i can understand that to an extent, being a ex games journo myself.
I worked as a voulenteer and never received a penny (unless you count free entry to AGDC) but i was working for a more low key website that wasnt actually generating any money itself. The banners paid for the copies that the website received to review or to use for competitions.
It aint so bad and it might actually work for some wanna be journos.

I think they might've taken it down because of the poor quality of the reviews they recieved?

I'd imagine that they would've gotten mainly crappy reviews from early teens just trying to get a free game outta them.

Ahh well.. To my knowledge, Gamespy seem to be the most profitable game-like company out there that came out of the dot-com era. They had a solid product back then, a huge audience that only continued to grow, and a good business model. Though now I think they might be outgrowing their humble roots, it's only time when they'll be bought out by AOL now...

Haven't gamespy already been bought by ign? (or was it the other way around).
CYer, Blitz

Blitz yeah they were.
Its not a bad idea, but like Daemin said the quality they would receive could be a little poor.
The reviews they wanted people to write, were these of games none of the journos were going to review or were they in addition to ones written by Gamespy staff?

Yeh, they did a merger with IGN. [:p]

A Fifth of Beethoven by
Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band ( US )

Mississippi by
Pussycat ( UK )

Errrrrr.......

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac in the US
Lucille by Kenny Rogers in the UK

I Owe You Nothing by
Bros (UK)

Foolish Beat by
Debbie Gibson (US)

I think i will agree with Jacana, errrrrr...

19 by Paul Hardcastle

which is how old i am... scary

and US
Everything She Wants by Wham!

quote:Originally posted by tbag

I Owe You Nothing by
Bros (UK)

Foolish Beat by
Debbie Gibson (US)

I think i will agree with Jacana, errrrrr...
LOL
You probably can't get any worse than Bros and Debbie Gibson.. [:D]

US: Just Called to Say I Love You
by Stevie Wonder

UK: Freedom
by Wham!

hows them for well known songs

Judging by Souris response to my number 1 hits, i got screwed when they were handing out the number 1s [:p].

I might try and listen to these horrible songs i am cursed with...

Shit, radio wasn't even invented when I was born let alone the charts ;)

uk: Under Pressure by Queen And David Bowie
us: Physical by Olivia Newton-John

woohoo!

It?s kinda scary that I can remember when a couple of these were new!

Oh tbag, what a horrible selection. Hehehe Bros!!! [:D] Probably the first Boy Band. Even when they were ?popular? everyone hated them! Here?s a site I found after a quick search with a picture of them:[url]http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=268199[/url] LOL! The picture should be enough to tell you what they were about and how much they sucked!

The Reflex by Duran Duran (US)

Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood (UK)

(24th June 1984)

19 by Paul Hardcastle - (UK)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears For Fears - (US)

I've never even heard of those songs...[:(!]

Being with You
Smokey Robinson (UK)

Betty Davis Eyes
Kim Carnes (US)

The second one isn't such a bad song, but never heard of the first. Great pointless trivia Souri.

UK: Uptown Girl by Billy Joel
US: All Night Long (All Night) by Lionel Richie

[;)]

Beat Surrender by
The Jam (UK)

Mickey by
Toni Basil (US)

Go Mickey!

Lol :) I remember when some of these songs from the 80's first came on the radio....

*suddenly feels old*

UK: "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder
US: "What's Love Got to Do With It?" by Tina Turner

It seems my songs are fighting.. or somthing...

I Should Be So Lucky by
Kylie Minogue

Seasons Change by
Expose

:(

"I Should Be So Lucky by
Kylie Minogue"
LOL!! [:D]
That's even funnier then Bros!

I was born inside the communist bloc, so there weren't any music charts around.

quote:Originally posted by Souri


Yeh, I was hoping for a famous song. Totally clueless about the ones above. They sound like hippy songs. >:/

I managed a pair of classics:

UK: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones

USA: Help by The Beatles

U.S. No.1
The Hustle
by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony

U.K. No.1
Give A Little Love
by The Bay City Rollers

Look at all you people born in the 80's?!
I was playing with my GI Joes and watching first run episodes of Thundercats when half of you were born! [:P]

At least yours made me feel younger though Zaph. [;)]

US: It's Still Rock 'N Roll to Me by
Billy Joel

UK: Xanadu by
Olivia Newton-John

Damn those 2 had a few no. 1's

U.S. #1 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' - Elton John and Kiki Dee.
U.K. #1 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' - Elton John And Kiki Dee.

Oh, the shame.

UK - Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
US - Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper

Damn, was hopething for something a little better.

You're the One That I Want by
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (US)

Rivers Of Babylon by
Boney M (UK)

Wow, John Travolta! That owns :)
Who's Boney M though? with a name like Boney, they have to be good :)

MajorClod: But I love those songs lol [:P]

quote:Who's Boney M though?

Who is Boney M? Blaspheme, the are the epitome of true disco. They did songs about Rasputin, and Ma Baker who, and I quote ?Ma Baker she taught her four sons, Ma Baker to handle their guns? Don?t write them like that anymore.

Pantmonger

'RA RA RASPUTIN, RULER OF THE RUSSIAN QUEEN!' That's all I know... great song though.

16th May 1982

UK - A Little Peace by Nicole
US - Ebony And Ivory by Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder

I don't think I know the first one. The second one isn't that great a song, but at least it has Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder BD

1.5 million copies on pre-order in the US alone.. that is just plain nutty.

Yeah. The store where my copy is on pre-order had almost 1000 pre-orders alone, and that was in June (EB Games, Indooroopilly).

I think there are just too many people who dont think think, or take any notice of outside the square. too many ignorant people in australia, and the world.

I think there are a few too many leftist commie pinkos in the world :-P

And if you're so pissed off about the election then you should obviously do something about it. And if you felt so strongly about it why didn't you?.. You really have nobody to blame except for yourself, the people have voted, get over it.

Not exactly related but anyway... Saw Johnny at the polling booth that I voted at, it was totally weird cause there was no media or anything around, he was just standing off to the side tucking into a sausage sizzle, go figure.

Yes yes I do accept that the people have spoken, just that i'm going down kicking and screaming.. again voters are more concerned about their hip pocket, not moral judgement.. but who am I to tell people what to think?.. anyhoo.. I hope to god that the next three years are positive!

Stop paying out my Dad!

Anyway, politics dont work, they work themselves out. Because im under 18 i aint got to do squat with politics [:p].

Australia did screw up this election, however liberal controlling the lower house is not the problem. The problem is they now control BOTH the lower and senate, so they can pass any bills without a second thought. This is due to people not understanding the australian political system at all. Fools!
Also, pretty much every party except liberal are morons for giving their preferences to the FFP.
CYer, Blitz

Arent Americans legally allowed not to vote without having to acquire any permission/legal forms? Why cant we be like that?

Ah well, cant let an election get you down. Go outside and have some fun, or move to another country, clear your head and make your mind fresh [:)].

I think most people only care about $$$, hence the election results. Every time Labour gets in, all the big investors seem to pull their money out of the county. Though it?s a scary thing that they control both houses?
Australians don?t understand the system.

I saw on TV that Bush was quite happy that Johnny?s back in. He finished his speech congratulation Australia and Howard, and the large crowd gave a roaring cheer! I guess they are happy that we?ll continue to brown nose them for another three years.

God, how many wars are we going to be forced into now?!?!?

tbag - we only have 20 million people, so unless everyone votes, the system will be easily corrupted. It's not as bad with 240 million like in the States. At least that's how I understand it.

http://david.australianinfront.com.au/Forum/Libs.jpg

quote:Originally posted by Me109

I hope your now happy with the blood of thousands of innocent Iraqis on YOUR hands!

That is the most offensive statement I have ever read.

That is just like saying it's the car manufacturers fault for every car accident that has ever been had.

Sorry to tell you that politics are a lot more grey then that. If you want black and white then this isn't the country for you.

I'm all for Howard, I dont agree with what happened in Iraq, but i'm sure Kerry will make Bush pay for that :P

oooh and im communist.

quote:Originally posted by Me109

How the *uck did he get back in power?

short answer .. lies and deception

labour really need to start the campaign now to change ppls view of them ... theyll need the 3years

howard will be out b4 the 3 years r up .. i give him 1

@bullet21 .. how can u b for howard and be a communist ... isnt that the opposite?

Well, its not really the fact that Howard is an absolute fool. The thing is, he has been in this game for a LONG time. So has Costello, they know the system back to front, its their job.

People caring only for their back pockets? Well, if Australia's economy was crap it would be incredibly hard to produce and publish the games we make for the international market!

War? Everyone knows it was a stupid mistake to go to war, a real waste. However, the Government has had, in the first time for AGES, a 6 billion dollars excess. It was that excess that was used to pay for the troops heading to the middle east. If the Gov didnt have the money lying around, the taxes would has gone through the roof!

And, Mark Latham has only been in the position for 10 months. Do we really want someone with only 10 months experience managing Australia?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mick Gordon
Lava Injection Studios
www.LavaInjection.com

I laugh at anyone who believes we WOULDN'T have sent troops to iraq if Labour was in power at the time.
CYer, Blitz

But the point is it should have been decided in parliament, not by the PM alone while he was in the States sucking up to Bush. It?s not so much the fact that we committed troops that?s disturbing; it?s the fact that Howard himself committed troops without a vote. He didn?t have the authority to do such a thing. So what if the Liberals now control both the Senate and the Lower house? He was doing what he wanted without a vote before the election anyway. It?s a real worry that the Liberals now hold the majority of seats in the lower house.

Exactly, John Howard even had an ad prior to the election saying he would do what is necesary even if it wasn't popular with the public.

Not popular with the public?! little Johnny the public pay your salary! We are your bosses!! YOU do what WE say, not what George Wubbya says!!

I believe it came down too better economic benefits and the "better the devil you know" vote for most liberal voters.

Labour voters aren't as stupid as we are made out, we knew the risks of having a younger, less experienced primeminister, especially economically, but even with the expected backlash from the States if Labour won we still chose to vote morally instead of with our hip pocket.

But in the end Liberal won, they managed to get majority control of government and the right wing religious family first party gained some power also...bless.

So now we get to look forward to an economically stable but socially and morally retarded few years.

Hope minorities, gays, lesbians, single mothers/fathers, immagrants, the poor, the non religious and aboriginals have enough canned food to wait out this long winter.

Thanks A-US-tralia. [;)]

I think anybody that has more than 10 years experience in the world will be more concerned about their hip pocket than some moral opinion or other. And in my case I believe that it was right to go into iraq and free those people, weapons of mass destruction or not. My parents and myself (somewhat) grew up in a communist state, so they know what it's like to have a tyrannical system ruling the country. However it would have been nice if they went into some other country that is more dangerous to the world, say Iran, North Korea, etc and flushed out those vermin in charge. Ough I hate organised religion, esp extremists.

Plus don't blame Bush Jr. for the war, his daddy told him to do it :-P

His Dad should have finished it back in 91 (or whenever it was). They royally screwed up by letting saddam sit there for another 10 years. You should also remember that not everyone holds the same beliefs. As some people may believe it was better (and morally right...) to ignore what happens in other countries such as Iraq, other people believe that freedom is worth dying for. If not, there would not have been much of a world war 1 or 2, or if there was it would have been fought by very different sides for very different reasons.
I think theres a nice saying that goes along the lines of "Better to live one day as a lion, than a lifetime as a mouse"? It can be applied somewhat to the situation that these people face if they are willing.
CYer, Blitz

If the reason to go into Iraq was to free the people from a tyranical leader then "maybe" I would be more sympathetic to Bush, Blair and Howards cause, as it is it has been time and time again shown that the war with Iraq was fought for economical and geographicaly strategic reasons (gee I wonder if having a US sympathetic country deep in the middle east wasn't a big reason for that war).

This war was then disguised in a rich tapestry of deceit to fool the general public, Sadam has been proven by the US government itself to have no links to the Taliban or Al Quieda, the CIA has proven that he had no weapons of mass destruction or any infrastruction to start making them. Its only now that these reasons fall flat that the "oh hes a tyrant" reason comes to the front as the 'just' cause, come on guys make up your mind.

Yes he was a vicious dictator, one who needed to go, but do you think killing hundreds if not thousands of innocent Iraqi, US and allied people was a more morally upstanding way to go than say taking him out soley?

We all know the greater politcal climate frowns on such actions as assassination but to invade a whole country to topple one man is a tad on the eccessive side unless you have other agendas? Connect the dots.

quote:I think anybody that has more than 10 years experience in the world will be more concerned about their hip pocket than some moral opinion or other.
I'm honestly sad for you that you believe that, so a world full of greed and an ever increasing poverty gap is more important to you than say a free and open society were every race and sex are considered equal, do you really think that we will ever find any form of lasting peace when money is our sole motivater?

Im 29 and although I come from a reasonably well adjusted white lower middle class family who has benefited more than most of the Earths populous socially and economically from my luck of birth I still understand that there are way more important factors to life and how we judge our success in life. I would happily give part of what I have if it meant that by me having less the rest of the world has more.

You have to remember that who we vote for doesn't just impact on our country, we aren't a small pacific island nation, we are one of the more powerful countries on Earth and when we make major decisions about how 'our' world should be we need to realise this.

So yes I totally understand and respect that people may have over-extended themseleves financially during the last few years of prosperity and a factor such as interest rates rising may be a big and fair factor too you, but your vote doesn't just affect you and your naive and irresponsible as a human being if you just look after "your" hip pocket.

You have to love how politics brings out the best - and worst - in people. :)

As someone who really doesn't care about politics and chooses not to vote, I'm always amused by how passionate people get about their chosen parties. It's great to see people still arguing and debating, even if they take dirty swipes now and then.

In all honesty, I was quite surprised at the backlash against Labour. I thought it would've been a close call, but then again I wasn't paying much attention to the media prior to the election. I will be interested to see their analysis of what they think went wrong.

Part of the problem I see with Australian politics, and politics worldwide, is the lack of choice as party policies begin to converge around the same pole. Labour has gone head-to-head with the Liberal Party on their own turf (e.g., economic management), without offering anything new or significant. On first glance, they appear to be home-brand Liberal. While I know this not to be true, at a national level, the differences between the two parties' policies are insignificant. People will stay with what they know and trust, and despite the lies and deception, Howard has managed this country well, even if he hasn't done the popular things. You can't afford to be a populist all the time in politics; people just don't have a clue how big a job it is to run a country.

I do stress the word managed, however, because he has certainly not led this country. That's why I believe he won't relinquish his leadership willingly, as the public won't support Costello as a leader and he knows that. Costello has never shown any guts in his long-standing career, and while Howard has catered to many of the Bush's wishes, Costello would instantly fall in line with America's march to cultural obscurity, a march which is already having an impact on our way of life.

Until such time as a politician has the guts to stand up and say we need to forge a uniquely Australian trail through this world, instead of blindly following the ally of the day, then so we shall be stuck with managers in place of leaders.

Cheers,
Paul.

quote:
As someone who really doesn't care about politics and chooses not to vote [...snip...]
Part of the problem I see with Australian politics, and politics worldwide, is the lack of choice as party policies begin to converge around the same pole.

Do you see a cause/effect here at all? The fact that "people" don't pay attention to issues means that politicians need to appeal to the basest and most banal instincts of people. Hence, it's only if you become more informed that you can make politics work.

A bit early isn?t it?
What kind of guitar are you after? Just starting out? My tip: don?t get anything too pointy [:P] ? Seriously, sound and playability is sooooo much more important then looks. Going for a new or second-hand axe? What size amp are you going for, just a combo (amp + speaker)? Peavey make some great little combo's [:)]

Hmm, Xmas wish list. I seemed to stop getting cool prezies as soon as I hit 20, but by then I could afford to buy my own treats.

My wish list (which I?ll end up getting most of sometime next year anyway):
Graphics tablet
WiFi DSL modem/router
2nd monitor
Grand Turismo 4
Fee?s for next years Art course paid in full [:P]
Car paid off..
Sarah Michelle Gellar [:D]

Not that I want much.

A job for christmas please!

To finally finish painting and rebuilding my Celica, I'm sick of driving around in this old bomb of a Corolla.

Also wouldn't mind a PS2 with the new GTA game, but I'll settle with Halo 2 and Half-life 2 for now.

quote:Originally posted by palantir


What kind of guitar are you after? Just starting out? My tip: don?t get anything too pointy [:P] ? Seriously, sound and playability is sooooo much more important then looks. Going for a new or second-hand axe? What size amp are you going for, just a combo (amp + speaker)? Peavey make some great little combo's [:)]

Yeah im just starting out [:p].

Im currently probably going for an Ibanez Starter Pack, they are around $400 new and are apparently pretty good for the price [:)].

I don't celebrate ot :P

quote:Im currently probably going for an Ibanez Starter Pack, they are around $400 new and are apparently pretty good for the price
Yeah, they do seem pretty good. My first guitar was an Ibanez. They make some beautiful instruments. I dream of getting a Satriani model one day? mmmmm

Something worth considering though is a little digital effects unit instead of a practice amp, like the Pandora. They cost about $250 for the cheaper ones, but you get a multitude of effects, a tuner, a metronome (handy if you want to learn to solo!) and best of all: a phrase trainer ? record a few seconds of music, and play it back over and over and slow it down and everything. Great learning tools, plus you can plug them into your computer for a simple recording studio! Worth looking into anyway [:)] And don?t rule out second hand guitars either ? just make sure someone who knows about guitars checks it out before you buy.

Sorry about the advice, I know you didn?t ask for it [^] It's just cool to see people getting into it.
[8D]

A YF-19 die cast fully transformable Veritech Fighter Please!!!!

a mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 would be nice too!

two front teeth...[;)]

no, really what I am getting is a new PC case and some accessories, eg. UV light, UV reactive cables etc.

also hopefully some Dragonlance books...[:D]

A friend of mine got a nice Ibanez RG470XL I think that was the model number... Damn nice sound and all, but they're soo damn hard to find.

Me personally have a cheap ass bass and a cheap ass amp...

Hrm, is it just me or are a lot of computer people also musos?

I have the Half Life 2 ati voucher, so I'm all set for that. Battle for Middle Earth looks awesome, and there's tonnes of games I'd like to try.. that Star Wars Battlefield game, Tribes: Veangeance, Sims 2 etc.. alas, I am a poor Souri T_T

Oh, a new CPU, better gfx card, more ram would also be nice too.. [:D]

Memory twig, Return of the King Extended Edition then my set will be complete.

quote:Originally posted by Souri


Oh, a new CPU, better gfx card, more ram would also be nice too.. [:D]

Im probably going to wait 6 months and chuck in a new graphics card and perhaps an AMD Athlon XP 3200+, at the moment though, i would say my 9600XT Extreme is letting me down and not performing to what i want. But hopefully in 6 months i can pickup a cheap 9800 XT or FX6800 [:)] for around $300.

speaking of guitars...

i have a cheap ass amp, but this is my guitar...

[url]http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=3&CollectionID=1[/url]

need to get a new amp soon to compete with the guitar...[:D]

on my christmas list?? boy its a bit early isnt it??
only thing ive really thought about it getting a game (probably fable) cause AGDC tickets are eating up that money
oh yeah and i allready have the HL2 voucher ;)

Yeah, Christmas is a bit early, and getting earlier every year - or is that because we're getting older every year?..

Hopefully I'll have enough cash to get into the AGDC this year...

Is the AGDC worth going to?

I am currently not ready to actually get a job in the industry but I love games.

Would it be worth my while going?

I want HalfLife2 collectors edition
new laptop would be nice too!

personally im going for a more community aspect. Meeting up with people again and so on. Plus there are some talks that will be of advantage to me, if not just plain interesting.
However i fall into one of the cheapest ticket categorys, if you have to shell out the big bucks and arent sure if its going to be all that benificial to you, then id do a bit more carefull thinking.
uhhhhh i was sorta just answering that question but i realist that sorta pulls the conversation away from the topic so ill try to be a bit more festive *clears throat*

rudolph the red nose raindeer... had a very shiny nose...

like a lightbulb!

quote:Wizenedoldman said:
Return of the King Extended Edition then my set will be complete.
Have you seen the preview? It looks pretty awesome!
You can download it here (about 4 meg): [url]http://progressive2.stream.aol.com/newline/gl/newline/lordoftherings/Re… [/url]
Mouth of Sauron, House of healing, Saruman's death, Aragorn looking into the palantiri, witch king confrontation...... oh yeah *drools*

Hehe, thanks Palantir but I prefer to wait and soak it all up on the coach when I bring that baby home. My god that sounds so dirty...

Looking forward to more Saruman though, missed him in the cinema release, and Brad Dourif's always a pleasure to watch as Grimer, hope he's in it too.

quote:Originally posted by Wizenedoldman

Hehe, thanks Palantir but I prefer to wait and soak it all up on the coach when I bring that baby home. My god that sounds so dirty...

lol!

quote:Originally posted by tbag

like a lightbulb!

Thats the spirit! everybody now!

Christmas list? Well, only if I've saved up enough money by then [:)]

Hoping to buy a digital SLR (Canon EOS 20D). Damn expensive things [:)]

Dont really get presents for chrissy anymore :( Spose if I had to pick, Id say some cold un-feeling cash to put towards my video-editing--effects-rendering-games-destroying rig I need.

Or alterantively someon could just save me the trouble and buy me the whole thing :D. It would fit easily into the Porsche GT3RS that I would also get, which would sit nicely next to my house that I would no longer have to pay rent for.

They got the actress who voiced Aki Ross from Final Fantasy in there. [:D]

I had no idea what this trailer was about, and my first impressions were "man, this looks cheesy, but kinda cool!" [:D] [:D]

It makes me wonder why they would fight the least likely (not trying to give away the plot of it) anyway? Why would they do that in the first place?

lol that i didnt expect

Lets see..

The usual Manga classics like Ghost in the Shell, Ninja scroll (though I?m not into the serries much, but love the movie) and of course Akira. Blood the last vampire was a pretty cool movie too. There?s a few other Manga greats also..

Robotech and Macros was pretty cool. I?d love to see a 3D robotech movie! Actually I heard ages ago that someone was making a live action Mechwarrior movie.. don?t know if it?s still in production or not though.

Astroboy is great, though there are a few things about the new serries that I don?t like (?Let?s ROCKET!!?[;)])

I?m kind of embarrassed to admit it, but back in the 90?s when it first came out (I was just starting high school) I was a HUGE teenage mutant ninja turtles fan. Now the new serries has grown on me too, though I miss Beebob, Rocksteady, Crang and the technodrome!

Anything spider-man works for me, but I especially love the new serries based on the movies (which have some 3D also).

The Animatrix is awesome ? best matrix movie of them all!

The little anima section in Kill Bill vol 1 was pretty neat [:D]

Transformers ? the original serries; classic stuff.

Lion force Voltron!!!!

Battle of the planets!

Ulysees! Oh yeah! Looking forward to the DVD release over here.

?Ulysees Ulysees!
Soaring through all the galaxies,
In search of Earth??

I?ll stop now (I?m suddenly 10 again, living in the 80?s! [:P]).

One word, SEALAB!

Ren and Stimpy!!!! yay!!!
and followed by Macross Super Dimesional Fortress!!!

I forgot my favourite comedy: Futurama. Bender rules! [:D]

Dragon Ball Z was my favourite. Also, like in 1997, a Robot show, my gosh that went for so long, not sure what it was called.

futurama!!!
ive seen allmost every episode :D

family guy

Another childhood flashback: MASK!! Whoa, that stuff was awesome! [:D]

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/mask.jpg[/img]

Futurama and The Simpsons, i own every single Futurama episode on DVD [:)] (Season 4 includes the Season 5 episodes for those wondering [:p]).

You should buy the box sets, around here at JB Hi-Fi they are $39.95 each if i recall, pretty good for around 6-8 hours of goodness.

EDIT: I do recall watching a lot of Robo Tech and G.I. Joe when i was young aswell

G.I. Joes,
American heroes!

I still have the videos, and strangely enough so do alot of people i know...

MASK? yeah it was good as a kid, but have you watched it lately? Do yourself a favour and don't, it'll ruin the illusion.

Oh really? Damn. I suppose most of my memories of MASK come from playing with all the MASK toys my stepbrother and I had. Between us we had quite an army. I guess those battles would have been much more interesting then the actual TV show.
-Fond memories.

Talking of toys I used to have a pretty fine collection of He-man dolls when I was a young fella but I think my mum threw them out, damn her, I'm sure I could get money for those now on E-bay. ;)

Haha - Yeah, I know what you mean - I had a large collection of (original) Star Wars figurines and toys. I remember sometime in the late 80's I sold them all at a flee market for a couple of bucks each. Now that collection would be worth hundreds, if not thousands...

I am really into Fairly Odd Parents at the moment...god that show is funny!

Samurai Jack is also very cool...[:D]

Definately Futurama. The Simpsons is great but I really think it should have finished a while back. Its just not as funny as it used to be.

Man I hope some more Futurama episodes are made! It still had so much to offer...

In my youth it was definetely the Thundercats, Silverhawks, GIJoe, Hongkong Phooey etc

But now days its the Simpsons and Futurama.

Palantir: tell me about it! I've only kept a few pieces of my collections, damn fleemarkets lol.
I had amased a huge collection of star wars figurines and vehicles and I managed to get every item of Mask and GIJoe! Gotta love my parents though for shelling out the dough to begin with[:P]!!

I still have a few original star wars figurines in the bathroom. They were originally bought for my brother and I. But over the years they were very well loved and eventually became bath toys and they are still in the bathroom, where i play with them everyday as they battle the sith shampoo and sith conditioner planets [:p]. Not really, but they are still their. There are two of them, one is Nickbar and the other is Actu, i cant actually spell their names but i'll research them now and post an update shortly [:)].

WIthout a doubt, Astroboy [:D] I watched a tonne of cartoons as a kid, but I only remember Astroboy off by heart.
Ninja Scroll blew my mind when I first saw it. It's one of the few old classics that I can still watch over and over again. It's got some really awesome action sequences, and cool imagery too. And ninjas rock. [;)]. Everytime I watch it, I'm thinking "someone has seriously gotta do a live version of this*.

Live version hey? I honestly doubt anyone could do it justice, I'd hate to see hollywood actors dressed up as ninjas bouncing around on wires, it's the most unnatural look in the world.

They can do it!! Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon showed that the whole roof jumping business can look awesome!

As far as i knew they did a live anime. I think it was Evangelion though, how they did the massive angels beats me but what havent those japanese done? [:)]

I wouldn?t trust it to Hollywood, the only thing they do well are the uncool things like comedy/romance and drama. However, what would be awesome to see would be a high budget 3D ninja scroll movie, like what Weta are doing with Neon Genesis. [url=http://www.cgnetworks.com/story.php?story_id=1901][/url]

We need more serious 3D, I?m getting sick of nothing but kids movies in 3D.

Hey Souri, did Astroboy in the 80's have the "let's rocket" catch phrase? It really annoys me [:P]

Souri: yeah the roof jumping scenes were good for the most part, but when Ang Lee tried to get them to stand on bent over bamboo trees the illusion all fell apart for me. I'm mainly thinking of certain sequences in The Matrix and Kill Bill that really don't look good.

Nothing beats seeing a skilled martial artist that can really jump and flip around the place, someone like Jet Li or Jackie Chan in his early days could do it.

EVANGELION 3D JESUS CHRIST..........WHY WASNT I INFORMED

i'll be there

Invader Zim
gurr rulez [:)]

invader zim gets my vote.

in youth it was disney darkwing duck
now simpsons needs to be mentioned..
robotech, love hina was very cool. patlabor 1, appleseed, the first few seasons of samurai X,
disney: alladin, robin hoood

and most of all the memory of a really old series on tv called "mysterious city of gold".or somethign liek that. i only had pale memories of it but it rocked so much.. i think it was a french/japanese production shown on channel 2 about 18 years or more ago.

Tykiel: I seem to remember it being called 'The Lost Cities of Gold', but I might be wrong too. It was a great show though, always loved tuning in and following their adventures, I remember one guy had a face like a monkey.

Sorry, did a quick google, you were right it's 'mysterious cities of Gold'. There's plenty of fan sites out there.

add another tick to the invader zim box aswell
"i was the turkey all along!! meeeeeeee!!"

Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, Ulysses 31, Astro Boy, and Captain Harlock. I was a big fan of the Japanese and French animations.
Current Favorites. Cowboy Bebop, Macros Plus, most of Studio Ghibli with big love for Nausicca.

Pantmonger

ive been fairly satisfied with most games ive purchased, but the one which came to mind first was halo on xbox ( bought in a console game bundle a while back), it is a superb game as most people would know, but what i think made it a great buy is its co-op mode. my brother and had a lot of fun and still enjoy playing through the game in co-operative.

Baldur's Gate 2, I still go back and play through that quite regularly

Metal gear solid, it's always been a facourite and always will be. But i got the Halo pack as well for xbox and it is great especially playin with my pro, you just keep goin back and playin level. I cant wait for number 2

Without a doubt it would have to be my purchase of Medieval: Total War, went halves with my flatmate so it cost me $25. I reckon I ended up clocking around 100 hours playing that game, I just HAD to completely conquer Europe. :)

Hmmm, then there's others like Magic: the gathering which cost me $5 at a fair, and of course Fallout 1&2 bought for about $20 each, and lastly Dune and Lure of the Temptress bought for $2 each from Bi-Lo. Can anyone tell I'm a bargain hunter?

Half Life. I've probably spent more time playing Half Life MODs than all my others games put together.

Thief 1 and/or Thief 2.

Loved the original games and have spent a ton of time with the editor and playing fan missions, some of which are quite a bit better than the missions in the game.

ogre battle 2, which maybe many people don't even know. it's a strategy RPG, with a fantastic story line and strong system.
and Baldur's Gate serie, final fantasy 7

i'd say Half-Life... the game itself was great, it was the "next step up" in mapping for me, coming from Quake1, it had a great array of mods for it... which increased replay value.
I still regularly play DoD today! :)

Either Time splitters 2, Unreal Tournament 2004 or Mario all stars ;)

TS2 because i played that game for months and months, it never really got old (infact i can play it now still, its just ive clocked everything) and it had so many arcade challenges and multiplayer was a hoot

UT2k4 cause for starters its a fun and entertaining game but secondly the fact that it comes with UnrealED, something that i can do my own projects on and so forth. Its really given me a great boost in learning to make computer game content.

Super Mario All stars because i played that game for so damn long as a kid, common man, its mario!!

oh and urgrund, i still play DOD today aswell, quite a lot :P

Goldeneye on the n64, spent hours trying to get all the cheats. Also, being a lil guy back before i was using a computer, it was great to have some multiplayer action with my friends.

Also Warcraft 3 tft [:D] i'm always on battle.net playing that, it's a great game plus i can easily get by on my modem.

Morrowind.......3 years later and I still havent see everything.
Also close seconds would be Vice City and MGS1

I'd have to say half-life purely from the amount of enjoyment and hours i've clocked playing Natural Selection. CS and DOD also added a lot of value. And it only cost $20 :)
A close second would be the original unreal tournament, during uni i played UT CTF, and the TacOps mod a LOT.
Third might be Halo, much enjoyment has come from the co-op mode, although it fails on the multiplayer side of things...I got this for free which was good, as i was one of the early buyers of the xbox and got the "loyalty bonus" pack (2 games + a controller) when MS dropped the price from $650 to ~$400 a couple months after release in au.
CYer, Blitz

quake3

Most hours spent on a game: definitely EverQuest. Wow, I donated half a year of my life to that game! To think of the hundreds and hundreds of hours I clocked up in the quest for the bigger and better item? damn MMORPG?s. My life all but fell apart when I was addicted to that.
But despite the endless hours of fun I got from it, considering the ongoing fee, EQ was probably a bad purchase.
Can?t wait for EQ2! [;)]

So accounting for the hefty fee for EQ addiction, my best purchase would have to be Grand Turismo 3. I got that and my PS2 the day it came out, and I still play it on a semi-regular basis. Best value for money (even though the bundle cost me over $800 back then!).

Most everything that has been the product of Square Enix / Bioware. Althought there have been a few oustanding RPG efforts like Morrowind ( despite its horrible bugs ) and EverQuest.

Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3 for me...

I bought them all years ago when SNES' were the in thing, and now I have them on my PC using an emulator...

In my opinion they are the best games ever made...[:D]

Also Super Smash Bros. Melee...I have clocked up a phenomenal (?) number of hours on that game and still haven't completed everything needed to finish the game (ie. collecting all the trophies)

Id have to say in this order:
Elite, I played that game to death.
Lemmings.. with all those expansions...
Warcraft!
Civilisation

For me personaly.

Halflife, then DeusEx, Morrowind and Thief series

BattleCruiser!
BattleCruiser 3000AD!
An experience you can only describe as Phenomenal.
And it spawned a sequel, Battlecruiser Millenium..
not only Phenomenal, but Incredible.

Unfortunately in both cases the second adjective
I was thinking of was 'awful'; playing that game
can give you cancer.

Seriously, for replay value I'd say NWN. The different
characters you could choose, coupled with the expansions
both by Bioware and the game community gave it lots
of replay value.

I would personally say a toss between Half-Life and StarCraft, but unfortuneatly i cant still say i own Half-Life. I own a backup of my brothers copy which he lost and its the last copy we have [:(]. However, that just reminded me to add it to my christmas list, the half-life platinum pack for $50 sounds good [:)].

But yeah Half-Life has always kept me going. I quite often play it all over again around every 3-6 months. Oh and aswell as the mods, i have probably spent around 150 hours (i honestly swear) on Counter-Strike alone. Actually to prove that, every two weeks i go to a friends and we have 8 hour lan battles of Counter-Strike and of course alot of caffiene.

As for StarCraft, i probably play a quick game of it every two weeks on Battle.net. I used to be on 24/7 for around two years, i probably spent around 200 hours on StarCraft. Keep in mind that this was when i was in Year 7 and 8 and didnt have a care for anything but gaming, friends and get togethers etc... so i would say the guesses are quite rough, but fairly accurate [:)].

Ah, some great games listed here! I have 3 games which I play quite a bit. Two of which, I didn't even have to pay for.

Gunbound. The rules are simple and so are the game mechanics, but it's actually quite difficult to master. But what makes the game so lasting though is that there are many kinds of bots' that you can choose and play as which provide totally different playing styles. It provides different tactics/weaknesses against every other of bot, so it makes it all the more interesting. Another plus is there is a small rpg element (levelling up, buying items which give you more defence, attack etc), which makes you stick around even longer hoping to get more cash..

You can download it for free, there are 8 servers running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there's always people playing in there.. I can't help but play it now and then for long periods of time, so I'm cursing Kezza for getting me started on it in the first place..

The second one is Enemy Territory. I think you all know about that game. I love the classes, and the different ways you can play in that game. And the missions are awesome.

The third one is Unreal Tournament 2004. Seriously, I'm blown away by how much I've gotten out of it for my $100. I have over 10 gigs of UT2k4 content, incredible mods, huge bonus map packs, and more brilliant maps and levels than you can shake a stick at. The quality of most of the maps are so great, that I'm just loading them up in Instant Action just to walk or drive around in them. The community has really taken to doing stuff for UT2k4 (different to what I felt with UT2k3).
The only problem is that there isn't as many playing it online locally. [:(]

So, the two main factors that summarise what I want in games. Tonnes of content [;)], and games that offer different playing styles, and depth..

i guess i have to say ninja gaiden i bought it the day it came out halo is another game but i only play it multi now, final fantasy x I still havent completed and on occasion i play sonic the hedgehog 3 after 10 years i still havent gotten round to completing that game but its still fun

Probably Quake 3 for me, seeing as ive easily got 300 + hours multi up on it :)

After that, Id have to say UT99, which i scored 3 days after it came out for 10 bucks, thanks to a pricing stuff up :D. Even if I only played it for around 100 hours multi, it was only $10.

Third place goes to my Parachute G&W (which is 15 years or so old now) which I have played for atleast a few hours every year. It sits on top of my computer occasionally as my loading screen game, only problem is I get addicted and forget about the PC game im meant to be playing.

Most id Games. Especially Quake 1 and 2.
Halo
JSRF
Abuse (I should load that up again)
Total Annihilation
Starcraft
NeverWinter Nights. I still have never completed it. I just keep on making new characters.
Resident Evil

Fable is getting a fair bit of play at the moment.

Neverwinter Nights & Morrowind. I never get to finish them.

in no particualr order:

Metroid Prime - sequal in december!!!! can't wait

Goldeneye007 - Q: what other game have i played a single death match game for over 4 hours straight?

Perfect Dark - A: this game. everything and more than golendeye

DeusEx - bought it at $50 and i'm sorry i didnt buy it at full price when it came out just so i could have played it a few more times through. my fave PC game ever. played it again just last week. fantastic. pitty about the sequal.

Morrowind - very much worth it - even more so since i got it off my friend for free cos he didnt like it! (now that's value for money). had to uninstall it last year cos i was playing it too much and not getting my tafe assessments done!

quote:Also Super Smash Bros. Melee...I have clocked up a phenomenal (?) number of hours on that game and still haven't completed everything needed to finish the game (ie. collecting all the trophies)
i was considering putting SSBM in mine too. it was certainly worh the money many times over, but not as much as the above. anyway - i know what you mean, i've clocked up unbelieveable hours on it too and am still missing a lot of trophies. but i've finished everything on everymode - 'cept damn allstar mode on very hard! so close but slowarse gannondorf vs lighting quick fox, falco and young link is not a fair match!

Star Ocean at the moment cause its already been 30+ hours and I haven't even gotten off the second planet!
Baldurs Gate 2, finished it by myself in 4 months and then played it online afterwards for 6 months hehe

*shame* All the pokemons on the GB* I started playing it in 1998 and I still play it! [:o)]

quote:NeverWinter Nights. I still have never completed it. I just keep on making new characters.

LMAO! so true Aven... ever soo true :D

For me no.3 is Syndicate Wars. for $40 i sent many, many hours playing that. and never compleated the last mission for the syndicate (I think it was the last one. the stupid one in the space staion that blows up it you do anything) and never played the Church missions. I so wish I could get it to work on my computer now.

No.2 would be Fallout 2 for $60 I think. I spent so many hourse trying to find everything in the game but never figure out to have Gecko survive in the end credits.

and the all time No. 1 Time destroyer of my life is Civilization 2 for $20. I must have spent many hundreds of hours on it. I was so looking forward to Civ 3 but was so let down.

Linux is not for uninstalling (unless you are upgrading to a new distro) :)

Seriously though, it is very unlikely you have killed your machine. What you need to do is reset the bios to defaults again. This may seem impossible when you can't get into the bios, but there are ways, but they equire opening the case:

1)Read the manual for your motherboard, if you find something that talks about a "cmos reset" jumper use it.

2)Find the battery on the motherboard and take it out. It looks like a big watch battery. Then unplug the computer (if it isn't already), and leave it for about a minute. Put the battery back in and boot up.

thanks lorien, i will try the battery thing this instant...

unfortunately I don't have the manual for my motherboard on me, so if the battery thing doesn't fix it I will have to wait for the weekend...

many, many, many, many, many, many, many, etc. etc., so on and so forth thanks to you lorien...

I owe my life to you!

my computer is booting this very moment, I will have to find out how to get my CPU running at full speed again!

Many thanks! [:D]

Some boards will automatically reset the FSB on reboot if you have increased it too much that it hangs. Others will simply not boot until you reset the bios like you did.

To get your CPU running up at full speed again, set the FSB to 133Mhz if its an AMD Athlon XP 2000-2400, or 166Mhz if its a Barton Core Athlon XP 2500 or higher.

A 200Mhz bus setting is only used by the Athlon XP 3200+

No problem Kane, though I really think you uninstalled the wrong OS :)

BTW this FSB changing is how to overclock a machine. While your machine is unlikely to work with a 200mHz FSB, you can probably crank it up somewhat still. In an AWARD bios you need to press "ctrl F1" as soon as you get into the bios to reveal the nasty "advanced settings". If you boost up the FSB, you will probably need to boost the voltage to the CPU, as well as decrease the ram speed (which runs at a percentage of the FSB).

I got my athlon-xp (barton) 2500 running on a 200mHz FSB, which turned it into a 3200. I'm using the default cooling too, and I had to increase the voltage to the cpu by 7%.

If you go increasing CPU voltages IMHO it is unsafe to go above 10%. Also AMD say it is safe to run athlons @ 80 degrees, and some can be run @ over 90 (though IMHO 65 degrees is a much safer limit).

thanks again, but I have nothing against Windows personally...[:0]
in fact I am considering a dual boot with Windows 95 so I can run old PIC16F84 programming software..

and as for overclocking, im not really into that, becasue once I get tinkering, I won't stop and I'll end up hurting something...or someone...[:p]

Kane: Just grab a virtual machine emulator to run that old software on and have the latest OS installed. There's no reason now why you should be running anything less than the latest really. Emulation is the go for getting older software to work.

I'm not getting anything [:(]

oh boy its uhh... pretty much the same lookin as doom 3
or that could be just me

Yeeaaahh!, man it looks cool, i'm realy cant wait for this one even though i know i'll be doin it for ages.

That looks pretty cool. Though I?m starting to loose my enthusiasm for all things next gen. Like Moony said, all these new games look pretty much the same as each other ? which is great and everything, but I?m just saying the wow factor can only last so long.

And as Souri pointed out in the unreal thread, all this detail in the character models won?t really be appreciated when your zipping around trying to frag or be fraged :P

I wonder what the mod situation will be like with Quake 4?

Ahh, thats a shame...

hehe actually it looks alright, nothing spectacular though

Eh, space marine fighting half organic half machine monsters running the Doom 3 engine, wasn't really expecting anything different visually. Hopefully this one opens up a little more on the claustrophobic interiors of Doom 3. Still it might be alright. I'm assuming they are continuing on from the Quake 2 storyline with the stroggs or whatever they were called?

I'm sure I'll play it but I'm not expecting anything revolutionary.

Well, vehicles would be a cool thing, but I agree in the fact that most next-gen games dont really push the barrier that far. I mean, sure, Doom 3 looked great, but I dont think that it really lived up to all the hype that was around it. Try and think of Doom 3 without the "DOOM" label, as if it were another game - not a sequal. Would it of been as big???

Mick Gordon
Audio Engineer
www.LavaInjection.com

They look good, but where the hell is the colour? its so bland, even doom3 wasnt as bad as that.
Hopefully raven will include their trade mark ultra gore.

When somebody posted the leaked concept art ages ago on here, I had a glimpse before taking the link down. It had some character concepts and some interesting level designs. It looked *awesome*.

These screenshots (from a magazine) are a bit of a let down. They're mainly of your typical player/enemy in bog-standard corridor shot which you've seen a million times in Doom3. There is one outdoor scene which looks nice, but I'm sure they're hiding the best till later.

As much as I love sci-fi, it would be great to see the Doom3 engine doing something other than space marines in metal-corridors [;)] The level editing community for Doom3 hasn't really exploded with creative content just yet..

To me, this looks just like doom3, but with probable multiplayer goodness. Hopefully Raven won't make quake 4 look as dark as doom3 was, damn flashlight (why didn't they think of incorporating it into the suit?) ....

I also wouldn't mind seeing more outdoor arenas in the screenies, I hope we won't be battling in rooms again, jeezz ..

Doom3 and quake 4 are sharing assets as far as I know, simple things like barrels and crates among other things, supposedly it was to save a bit of time to just re-use stuff. I cant remember where I read this unfortunately.

Cripes... id's next game is using some Doom3 assets as well. Let's hope it all doesn't look the same. [?]

Surely they would get rid of the UAC stuff off the crates and barrels first though [:p].

I cant wait for Quake 4. Because this time it looks like we actually get to fight along side with other marines instead of them always dieing before you meet them (Doom III, cough).

i used to do warhammer 40k but its too expensive for me to keep up. I still love the warhammer universe though

EDIT: ive mentioned it before, but those new to my antics, i collected tyranids

I got right into it (original warhammer ? I wasn?t a big fan of 40k) years ago, back when I got my first job. I had a medium sized army, about 5000 points worth I think, but even that ended up costing way too much, which is why I got over it. That and the huge time commitment involved. I also decided that I?d rather see animated computer game characters fight it out rather then imagine what the armies were doing [:P]

And I suppose loosing every battle I played didn?t help my enthusiasm for the hobby!

The whole citadel and games workshop range is a complete rip off ? there are some lesser-known miniatures around that are way cheaper, though just as cool. I?d recommend checking out some of the other companies products before investing too much of your hard earned cash.

Despite the cost, warhammer can be a lot of fun. And some of that Lord of the Rings stuff around now is almost enough to make me want to get back into it?
?Almost.

Oh, and undead are pretty damn cool [8D]

lol palantir you are so cool.. with those sunglasses esp..

im a terrain and terrain feature artist, i make the buildings and hills out of polystyrene, cardboard and balsa with plastic etc.. paint them all up. make your war field that little better looking.

havent done any in a while.. its pretty messy work. all that cutting of polystyrene n stuff.. is good fun..

I was so keen on Warhammer 40k 10 to 12 years ago and I still have a few figures floating about. The setting is very cool, having over 17 or more years ripped off every major piece of sci-fi cool that existed, boiled it down and amalgamated it into the great empire that is GW. The models are also rather nice, and there art is top notch. But here in lies the problem. The game itself can?t live up to the setting, to the cool it projects because when it come down to it, it is a board game. A board game that takes 4 to 6 hours to play and in that time you only get 4 turns. A game that is dull and mired in the minutia of rolling fist loads of dice and an ocean on nitpicking rules for ?friendly? contestants to fight over. Its also scary from a corporate point of view as its target audience (as far as they are concerned) is to young on average to be working full time and hence actually afford a full army to play with, and most mum and dad aint ?that? generous.

In a nutshell great setting and visuals, lousy gameplay which screams to be turned to a computer game to do away with all the die rolling and rules lawyers. Which is why the new game is so interesting to so many cynical ex-warhammer players. It looks fun.

Pantmonger

quote:In a nutshell great setting and visuals, lousy gameplay which screams to be turned to a computer game to do away with all the die rolling and rules lawyers.

Yeah, i have to agree, that's why i dont really want to get into playing it that much, cos i'd rather play something like warcraft 3 and actually watch the animation and so on. But it's still shit loads of fun to model and paint.

I am looking forward to Dawn of War as well. It looks mad fun and i should really get the demo.

I've been playing the demo for DoW for a couple days and I have to say it rocks. I used to be hugely into Warhammer 40k but I haven't played a game now for 5 or 6 years.

I think Warhammer 40k players will get more out of DoW then most people; there's something really cool about seeing the armies of 40k come to life in such detail. I felt that the previous 40k games didn't really do it justice.

If you need fast rendering speed - go for it [:)] - otherwise for general pushing of polygons and playing games in one I'd spend that $1000 on a 6800 Ultra / x800 Extreme Edition anyday.

If you are going for a dual cpu setup etc and you have that kinda cash to spend - then id probably go for the Quadro as well. But if its an allround machine then yeah, definately see above :)

Hey, I've got a Quadro FX 500 to use with Maya.

I don't know about faster rendering, cause I thought that was more reliant on your processor, but to keep you sane in a 3D app by all means go for it! Doing stuff like painting objects whether it be effects or skin weights are so responsive.

Try to find it cheaper on Ebay (Americans seem to sell them a lot). Of course it depends on what you want to use it for, but if your planning to be hardcore 3D, its the only way to go.

Thx!! yeah I know all about how much better your life can become with a quadro.. its on my wish list!! cept my only concern is getting mediocre gaming performance... I wish I wish one card could do it all!!!!!!!!

Sorry yeah I meant rendering to screen whilst in a 3d app - not actually rendering for animation or such. [:P]

If you're going to be doing a lot of gaming just get a decent consumer card, only get those "workstation" cards if 90% of the time spent on that computer will be doing 3d models that are very detailed.

yeah thought I'd hold out at the moment.. might looking at purchasing a second monitor instead :D .. none of my scenes are getting complicated enough to chug my existing card..

Lol then welcome to the LCD Vs CRT dillema [:P]

If u ask me I think quadros aren't worth the price. The studio that I was freelancing for bought a quadro 1100 to handle the complex scene we where working on. We did tests on the card and the differences are minimal compared to a FX 5700 card. We soon after returned the card. I bought a 6800 GT XFX which can be clocked close to an Ultra without risk of harming the card, which I got for 850 and u can get just a regular 6800 for 700. That's what I recommend or go all out and get a proffesional wildcat, but they can be quite pricy. I think the quadro is a card to rip off big companys with alot of money. Then again I read people on cgtalk say they get great performance out of it. Hope that helps.

yeah were getting a couple here in at work for the modellers.. the city scenes theyre working on a large and fat! As far as animation is concerned were hitting the upper limits of performance, but some simple optimisation brings it back into the fold... :D

Yeah as far as getting a new monitor is concerned.. got a nice 19" Hitachi crt.. I've always had my eye on the black 17" mitsubishi LCD.. look nice and sexy... probably wait until the new year until I make a purchase thou...

thx for everyone input on the quadro! cheers!!![:0]

Ah, I remember when I first tried to get my learners permit... I failed but still had to shell out ten bucks. [:(!]

I did my L's test and got 97% :P, 1 question wrong. But I couldn't get my L's cos i was born in Sri Lanka an dont have an aussie birth certificate or passport under 2 year old. So now i'm gettin my citizenship just to get my L's :(, but the citizenships a good thing, it's just the whole process.

I Feel old now [:(]

Congrats man :)
I got something like 84% on my L's, got it first time.
I got 95% on the driving test for my P's, though the computer test I screwed up and had to do that again. Apparently, "click to slow down" means "click to STOP" and not actaully to slow down....

quote:Originally posted by bullet21

I did my L's test and got 97% :P, 1 question wrong. But I couldn't get my L's cos i was born in Sri Lanka an dont have an aussie birth certificate or passport under 2 year old. So now i'm gettin my citizenship just to get my L's :(, but the citizenships a good thing, it's just the whole process.

I got my L's long before I ever got my citizenship. You may want to check it out better......

quote:Originally posted by codyalday


Working at the front service desks and check outs was the best,

Never thought i'd see someone say that...
CYer, Blitz

quote:quote:
Originally posted by bullet21

I did my L's test and got 97% :P, 1 question wrong. But I couldn't get my L's cos i was born in Sri Lanka an dont have an aussie birth certificate or passport under 2 year old. So now i'm gettin my citizenship just to get my L's :(, but the citizenships a good thing, it's just the whole process.

I got my L's long before I ever got my citizenship. You may want to check it out better......

Yeah but you prolly had a recent passport. mines 7 years old now. [:(]

quote:Originally posted by codyalday


Working at the front service desks and check outs was the best,

Try doing that at a computer store. The other day I had to try and explain why an Athlon XP 2800+ does not run at 2800MHz and a P4 2.8 does. Man it was a nightmare I swear I tried so many different stories. Eventually I got him with a story using stocking shelves. I basically said an Athlon can put more items on a shelf at a time then a P4, therefore it doesn't need to stock as fast because it can put more products on the shelf at a time than a P4. I had to do the hand actions and all and he finally understood. I don't think he understood what the word efficiency means...

And if anyone asks me the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R again I am going to scream!

Man I need a new job...

quote:Try doing that at a computer store. The other day I had to try and explain why an Athlon XP 2800+ does not run at 2800MHz and a P4 2.8 does. Man it was a nightmare I swear I tried so many different stories. Eventually I got him with a story using stocking shelves. I basically said an Athlon can put more items on a shelf at a time then a P4, therefore it doesn't need to stock as fast because it can put more products on the shelf at a time than a P4. I had to do the hand actions and all and he finally understood. I don't think he understood what the word efficiency means...

And if anyone asks me the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R again I am going to scream!

ROFL, it was probably one of my parents who where asking you the questions[:D]

Cody, i'm surprisesd you like the counter as well. I work at KFC and counter is shit. You have to be polite all the time, even if you are gettin an ear full from a retarded customer who can't understand why the potatoe gravy's are so small[:(!]. I prefer cooking.

Why are the potatoe 'n gravy's so small?

Its important that I know.

Its really hard to harvest the potatoes without the gravy thats inside spilling out so it takes a long and you get less for your money. [:P]

Its a hard life being a patato 'n gravy farmer.

I bet you didn't know that the potatoe's are made from an instant mashed potatoe powder that's mixed with water, and the key ingrediant for the gravy is gungky shit colleced from the cookers, no joke.

but hey...KFC mash and gravy is fricken delicious, I don't mind what it made of!

but lol to the gunky shit...[:D]

Yeah, I don't mind working at the front, pretty fun I have to say. Also, don't mind either on being polite, pretty easy for me, but I will probally start skitzing it when some custormer is being a smart ass. Also, thankaz for the nice responeses to my thread.

heh heh luckily it would seem ive never had to deal with customers, im just a janitor >.<

Hang on, isn't the gunky stuff left over when cooking what you always make gravy from? [:P]

Gunky Shit ? [:O] You know i used to think KFC was all good - but ive noticed a really sad decline in quality of the Zinger Works fillets over the past few months from the local KFC. 60% chicken 40% greasy veins and oil wrapped in " The colonels special blend of 11 herbs and spices! "
Very un-cool !

I think that's called "economizing" (In the American spelling of course)

KFC is ait.

counterwork is great, customers can range from good to bad bu when there good, oh man.... its good :o) .....

but then i work in a resteraunt bar.

Also, it is a very good way to meet people, like females.

" Okay thats a Zinger Works Combo, will that be all ? Thats $5.95 and your phone number thanks [;)] "

Cody you sly dog you! [:P]

Or do you put a photo of yourself with your phone number smiling away at the bottom of the popcorn chicken box / bucket o? chicken.

Pantmonger

but Cody doesn't work at KFC does he? it's Big W

I don't work any yet, Big W still hasn't called back, so I guesse I have to look else where. Also, why is it so bad to hand your number to someone, nothing sus going on there.

So Major Clod, what IS the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R?

Lol, already answered that one about five times today!

Aside from getting technical, I just tell people that there is no particular advantage of using + or -, other than what their recorder supports and what their stand alone DVD player supports. At the moment DVD-R seems to be the more popular/compatible. DVD-R Developed by Pioneer, DVD+R by HP, Sony, Dell, Yamaha, heaps of ppls.

Theres a whole bunch of small technical differences with + being supposedly higher tech, but I don't really car that much about it. One interesting thing I was reading a while back was a type of Mouth Rainier support for + being developed for Windows Longhorn. Kind of like DVD-Ram but with better support in stand alone players. You'll need to buy a new burner to support that though.

Cheers for the enlightenment, I didn't even know there was a DVD+R.

I'm up for a Perth meetup, but the catch is that I'll only be in Perth for 2 weeks around Chrissy... My in-laws live pretty close to Subi, places for food there are almost as good as they are in Melbourne ;->

Cheers,

Mark/CW

Although there isn't much of a response here, there definately is a growing community of Perth game development enthusiasts (maybe they haven't heard of Sumea just yet [;)]).

You [url="http://perth.siggraph.org.au/community/viewtopic.php?p=680#680"]can see it here[/url]...

DaMunkee, you should just drag your girlfriend and move to Sydney [;)]

Haha, see, it's the cities like Sydney that I'm trying to get away from... no on the other hand... my girlfriend my drag me to Melbourne :) Which in that case, I may return to the industry :) I'll see if I can hunt down these slacker perth enthusiasts :)

naaaasty, i wonder if they had much of a backup plan for their servers been taken by a tornado :O
the one thing anti virus cant help you with -_-

That's one way to cool your machines, I guess :-)

Anything that delays the World of Warcraft release should be seen as a wonderful thing for hobby game developers - I got into the beta stress test for WoW, and I am now _really_ scared of what this game is going to do to my life :->

My thoughts after playing WoW for 10 days or so, Blizzard have done a really good job on WoW, atmosphere of the game is stunning, and gameplay was heaps of fun (it fulfils each of the 8 categories of fun in Marc Leblanc's scheme admirably). It is still in beta, but even so I would describe it as one of the best games I've yet played. Network code was great, very nicely done - network latency was only noticable very occasionally. One thing I was very impressed with was that if the client drops out or crashes, when you rejoin the game server you're still in the same party you were in when you crashed :)

One of the cute touches I liked is that when your character is drunk, the level estimate that your character makes of monsters is a lot lower than monster's real level :)

Anyway, if you like any of blizzard's previous offerings or you play fantasy MMORPGs, my best advice is: don't start to play this game - just run as fast as you can from it!

Cheers,

Mark/CW

Yep, that's the main reason I don't play any MMORPG's.. I'd never get any work done!

I just read your blog entry, Zaph, but I'm curious - what is at the data centre there exactly? I had the impression that it was only the servers hosting the games and storing players data/records etc, rather being where all the artist's working files, code source etc is stored?

There are two pictures of the datacentre after the hurricane hit it at http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/ (some Star Wars Galaxies servers are hosted there as well). I guess a safeguard step is to build them underground. [;)]

quote:I guess a safeguard step is to build them underground. ;)
That?s a good idea. Then if tornado?s or nuclear weapons hit, we can still play our online games, even if the rest of the world is in nuclear holocaust! I mean, if people need to live underground in a nuclear winter, they are going to need some online games ? it?s essential for survival! [:D]

But then if you have floods the whole room would fill up!

I played the sims and I liked it, not enough to dedicate a lot of time to it but I thought it was fun enough. Sort of like a plot less RPG, there are goals and objectives, you get experience points from doing learning activities etc. Its just all packaged in a form that those unfamiliar with the conventions of Sci fi / fantasy / military can relate to and come to grips with.

People demonize that which they don?t enjoy because it adds a justification to their choices and preferences and thusly makes said choices more valid and ergo themselves also. Its just an ego building exercise. Happens on all levels of life and society. The clothes you buy: Consumer whore / fashion victim, vs the style disposed / the lazy nerds. The food you eat, if you smoke or not, the car you drive. Very few people say I chose ?x? because I like it, most people instead say things like ?You chose/bought that, what where you thinking? You should have bought the superior brand ?x? which is coincidentally what I bought?.

Enough musings from me
Pantmonger

The Sims was great, i have an older brother and sister and when i bought the sims the computer was permanently being used. I also have all the expansions. I absolutelly love the game. In fact i think your freind would be in the minority of gamer who hate the sims, as i'm pretty certain that the sims is the best selling PC game of all time. and what an original concept, get a family move 'em in and make 'em live.

I allso love simulators in general. Simcity, and all those tycoon games. They're just shit load of usually nonviolent fun

Pants is on the ball major Clod, each to there own.

Both games have valid markets and reasons for existing, neither is a waste of time if someone enjoys it.

quote:I was interested to see what you guys think about the Sims and other similar games. I think they are great for the industry and selling well simply because they are targeting a new market rather than stealing players of your general FPS, RTS, RPG genre.

I for one play all those types of games, no one steals players from other genres. [:P]

Sims btw are not a new genre.
Flight sims, racing games etc appeared long before the newer and still smaller market share of FPS games.

The worring part of your post was that you mate said you were helping support EA?! Why not? Its the same as supporting any other publisher, they all have hits and misses with there games.

People just get into these bizarre clicky camps with regards to certain genres etc and they believe that there opinion is the only valid one.

Just like the whole pointless Sony vs Everyone argument. lol.

Enjoy your copy of Sims 2.[:)]

Lol :) The credit that must be given to the Sims as a whole is that it has reached out to a very large casual female gamer population. That in itself makes it unique :)

I got my copy of Sims 2 on Saturday. The have really put some humour into it. Just try the Woo-Hoo in the hottub ;) I about died laughing.

Personally, i've never been a fan of The Sims, except for Sim Ant. However, i have heard good things about The Sims 2 so i might go and check it out at a friends place. Do they speak english in this version or is it still that Sim crap you cant understand?

Heh I love the Sims, been playing Sims 2 for the past few days. Really good.
And yeah, they do speak "Sim-ish" but I would prefer that over english.

Thought I've never played the sims, I would imagine that I might like something like it. Perhaps in a different setting, maybe someone could design an Anime/Manga sims? Something set in a universe like Megatokyo (www.megatokyo.com)?

But beside that I think that anything that pushes gaming into a different area is a good thing, since a lot of people are tired of mindless shooters (granted games like Call of Duty are a damn good experience by themselves) and RTS's. However I must point out some blunders into new areas of gaming, such as the games Black and White (was fun for a while, but the creature got annoying rather quickly), and Fable (haven't played it, but Penny Arcade folks dissed it heaps, discussing some bad design issues). Therefore just because a game contains an innovative idea or gameplay mechanic it doesn't mean that it should not be solidly designed overall.

I would also like to point people's attentions to Turn Based Games, such as the classic X-Com and the current game Silent Storm. I've been playing these games lately and they provide a nice break from all the fast paced action oriented games like C&C Generals and UT2k4 etc. (And as such I'm working on my own X-Com type clone game.)

are you planning to pay for hosting somewhere or are you hoping for a geocities like free solution, because even if you get a geocities or whatever page you can get a free .tk domain or something (a mate of mine does similar, but hes got a bit of a better hosting situation). Though im not sure if there compatible to upload a flash page...

You should find everything you need here.

http://www.flashkit.com/

Flash is nice.. I tend to not like using it as my primary form of interface for website.. just watch that you don't create a .swf file thats HUGE! its really easy to do and it just makes your site take longer to download.

html is your friend

yeah I reckon its nice to incorprate it here and there, but you have to be careful tho. Some of the worst sites have been made entirly in flash!!! Of course some of the best have been too! I usually use flash just to mess about animating, but I had a site, it was like training tools or something, sorry dont have an address, but it was the complete BASICs, really simple, I found it cool cos I have an odd learning curve, sorta starts off REALLY steep, haha. But yeah flashkit is prolly your best bet, if not it'll be hell of a starting point!

Oh, dont forget to post the link to your site when your finished!! [:D]

Crikey thats a beast [:O] what size monitor(s) ? cost ?

put's mine to absolute shame. Hurry up and sttart pumpin out work now. I'm still stuck with a piece of shit that slows dow after 7K poly's and you have to hear the noice the MX440 makes when i do hit anywhere near that. You may as well be at the air port.

Your MX440 has a fan? O.O crazy.
CYer, Blitz

He has a 19 " Flat Screen CRT LG Monitor, very nice I have to say. I have to use the old Monitor for the Old Computer, and it is so hard to see, but I am getting use to it, but I hope this donesn't strain my eyes too much causing me to wear glasses.

There was a similar post about this a while ago.. [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1727"]check out this thread[/url] for some really useful links..

Hey Souri,

I just went to www.fileplanet.com last night and downloaded the demo for Medal of Honour - Rising Sun.
While you are there I am sure you could download a fair amount of good stuff, you have to sign up and sometimes wait but it doesn?t cost nothing.

Cheers
Sam

Visit www.suprnova.org and kiss your data allowance goodbye. =]

(10GB - I pity the fool)

download a linux distro or 10 :) Mandrake is nice and easy for newbies (though it wasn't the most stable distro last time I used it-which was ages ago) http://linux-mandrake.com

Yeah, I got a 16gb cap on Internode, which hit me unexpectedly at the start of the month. Luckily I found enough downloads :-)
www.torrentz.com also has some nice links to other sites. There's also www.legaltorrents.com which you can download some indie music and other indie production type stuff...

Also if you're into Anime you might want to check out www.downloadanime.org and a.scarywater.net

Downloading anime episodes chews through your bandwidth...
And if running windows I would recommend www.torrentstorm.com as a torrent downloader. Although everyone has their preferences.

robota moive trailer off the apple website

sorry no link im lazy

souri youve got UT2k4 right? theres some fat mods about, start clicking to the nvidia make something unreal contest page (its on ut2k4.com somewhere) which will pretty much list them for you. Thats about the largest downloads ive made recently. That and pre-loading HL2

I don't really need to use Fileplanet because I can download off Gamearena, and it won't add to my download limit either [:)]. Also, I get like 600k's a second downloading the demos and game movies hosted there as well. They usually have the latest stuff. It's a bit odd being able to download 400mb movies/files in just few minutes! [:0]

I might give bittorent another go. I tried it a while ago and all I ended up with was a bunch of unfinished files and no seeds to be found anywhere.

Hey, I read about Robota years ago! Good to see it in motion finally [:)] The head artist/creative director type person for that was involved with The Phantom Menace...

I'm trying to keep my UT2K4 folder slim and not downloading until the next patch/bonus maps etc.. it's heading towards 10gigs of space already >.<

I decided to check out what that whole Red vs Blue thing was about today.... and I ended up downloading every episode from both seasons, and all the public service announcements! That stuff is hilarious!! If I knew what it was about previously, I might have made an attempt down to that ACMI screening in Melbourne!

Hmm.. You've HD space to burn..

If you don't know about Hotline then you really should get the client!

http://www.tucows.com/preview/193834.html
And to see what servers are up, and what they have available for download:
http://www.tracker-tracker.com
This product is totally safe, it just has ads in the client's toolbar.
It allows you to download all sorts of useful things, apps, games, mp3s, movies, and predates
the current messy clients by at least 10 years (incidentally that's about how long I've used it).
Note that this isn't an advocation of piracy, just stick to the 'legit' servers.
I think I've seen at least 3 sites dedicated to 3D computer graphics.

I forgot to mention, it's not even affected if your IE/Netscape
crashes, since it runs on its own protocol. Pretty bulletproof.

http://www.yeahthemovie.de/

Yeah the movie...

re: red vers blue. heh. the 4th of july public service anouncments where about the best laugh i have had this year :))

'it run away time now'

you know thats like the one ep i dont have...

*pouts*

Sorry to bring back an old post, but i have been downloading some very cool stuff lately. go to suprnova.org. Then go into comics and then misc, it will come up with a list. Just look for artbooks, there just a collection of various artworks mostly anime cartoons. I got the Full Metal Alchemist one, it's so cool[8D]

Ok, I'm turning this thread into a list of "ways to use up your bandwidth limit" because I have a few suggestions now [:)]...

I don't have an Xbox, none of my friends have an Xbox, and unfortunately I don't plan on getting one (I'm too poor), so it broke my heart that the chances of me seeing the sequel to one of my most favourite arcade games was nil - until I fumbled onto kikizo.com !... They have a tonne of movies captured from Outrun 2, and you pretty much see *all* the beautiful levels and routes from the beginning right till the end! Pretty hefty file sizes (about 80mbs each), but I get a pretty good 50k/s download speed from there.. http://games.kikizo.com/news/200409/018.asp - Kikizo.com is a great place to download game movies and such as, unlike a lot of other game websites, they don't throw a tonne of page size banner ads, click throughs, waiting lines etc at you, and you get real fast speeds too..

Next place to chew up some bandwidth is : On the Spot - GameSpot's Live Weekly Show.. As you can guess, it's a live show with game news, reviews, previews, conventions and events, tonnes of developer interviews (sometimes you get a walkthrough of their offices too), Q/A sessions etc.. It streams into your browser, just click and you're off watching the show straight away. They have archives of all their shows, so you can spend a good deal of time just watching them all. I wish more of the big game websites did this!
What I like most is that, since they cover a fair bit of console stuff, you get to see games you don't generally see if, like me, you tend to visit sites that mostly cover PC games. http://www.gamespot.com/onthespot/

I've been downloading a few animes lately using azareus (torrent client) and they are downloading very slowly. I've heard that time and popularity affect the speed but this has been going for ages and has some 90 odd seeds, yet still it's downloading at around 9 kbps with bigpond unlimited cabel.

I've got norton internet securities personal firewall enabled and the microsoft firewall disabled. I've been trying to forward the ports and i can't find a way to do this for norton. I also can't find bigpond in my connections.

does anyone have any ideas?

It all depends on what other torrent clients are using as well, I have seen a recent slowdown in these, but that might be just transitory. If you keep it up you should get better speeds...

oh, and if you are at the site of the Bubble, look out for my hello message to all Sumeans!

Had a peek down there just now, they weren't doing anything interesting though and didn't have Halo 2 on either. They sure do have alot of equipment packed in there.

ill probably check it out as ill be in the city on the weekend, just because its so amazingly bizzare, that and i like regurgitator.

tell Jabba he is a wiener for me...

and, yeh I didnt realise how much gear they had crammed into that place...a bloody lot...

There was a thing on rove live when they went in, there was a guy dressed up in halo armor guarding the door.. and rove said "ooh a robot".

Yeah the armor was walking around with Kevin Sheady on the news, he was his new Assistant Coach.

Speaking of master cheif and kevin sheedy, i noticed there was a photo of them in the sports section of yesterdays (friday) Mx newspaper...they called master cheif a martian :/
CYer, Blitz

was out with a bunch of friends last night in the city so we breifly checked out the bubble. Its pretty cool the kinda gear they have in there, heaps of cameras and mixing boards and instruments etc. I only really looked from two sides (the bedroom and the instrumental room) because they stayed in the instrumental room whilst i was there playing music (everything in the bubble is broadcast on speakers outside) so i got a bit of a free gurge concert thing :P which was neat

sorry for double post but i just got back from the bubble concert and oh my god it rocked hard

to begin, i met up with friends around 2pm and we bummed around for a while before andrew G and that other dude from australian idol (forgive me forgetting the names, i dont watch the show, i only know andrew G from the nova out of order show i hear at my GFs place) showed up around 4 to entertain us with general shenanigans like pointing out all the freaks in the crowd (one dude had what he called a "skunk mullet", a black mullet with a white stripe down it) which was entetaining enough for a while. Then after a lot of music being played on the big speakers (it actually took em a while to get that working which was a bit of a pain, but like they had a few hours to spare) it was 6pm and time for the guys to leave the bubble.

They came up to main stage via a golf buggy from the bubble and me and friends were about 3 rows back and everyone went freaking nuts as they all jumped around in joy of being out of their bubble. Then the fun started ;)
A free concert is a free concert, unless its missy elliot or something id be tempted to turn up. But when its a band you actually like, its a damn fun experience.
I have no idea how long it went for but since i was up the front there was a lot of jumping up and down and headbanging to be done, it was a absolute ball. I was seriously stuffed by the end (yet still chanted "ne more song" with everyone else ofcourse, which they gave us :D ). Jabba climbed the scaffolding at one stage but otherwise it was just general moshing, music, deafening noise and screams with a bit of crown surfing and one breakaway on stage who got tossed back into the crowd.

In shot best thing ive done in a while (as i seriously dont have the money to get into concerts these days, i mean like there all $70+ ).
My friend took some digis and ill upload a few if anyones interested.
and now im going to collapse ;)

EDIT: btw for all of you wondering, the new album rocks hard, i mean what they played was just awesome. You can listen to their single "the drop" on the bubble webbsite and get an idea what the kind of theme of the music of the album is if your interested. I know ill by buying it for sure.

yeh, upload some pics for sure...

id like to see what it was like seeing as I only saw parts of it on the telly...

sounds like you had a greate time...damn you! [:D]

That was pretty good. A couple of years ago you could have sold that thing.

heh heh that was actually pretty good

awesome

Its being made into an actual game. News was on newgrounds quite some time ago.

got a URL for it?

Yep sure, I got 2 of em.
Newgrounds new link:
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=157130
Annoucement Link on GameGossip:
http://www.gamegossip.com//comment.php?id=9016

Apparently failed projects hurt the publishers too...

i didnt really think when i heard about Z-axis being bought or Critereon how all of acclaims hits were being taken away from them. Never like to hear about any company crashing :(

They actually had some promising games in development, Juiced, Red Star (both of which i believe are only a month or two from release?) and... <.< >.> AFL Live 2005 :P
CYer, Blitz

I got a playable demo of Juiced on a coverdisk, and I thought it was pretty ordinary. But yeh, Acclaim haven't been putting out quality or successful titles out for quite some time. BMX-XXX was a huge stinker, Turok's sequel didn't recoup on all the promotion and development costs involved, and you can only push so many Mortal Kombat titles before it gets silly.. Just like Eidos, the money is just gonna dry up sooner or later.

Of course, it's sad to see a once prominent and familiar publisher disappear, but so many equally large (and even more influential, in my opinion) publishers have gone since the 80's..

Curious to know what will happen to AFL Live 2005 as well.

AFL 2005 will continue development, Acclaim weren't directly funding the project. Will still need to find a new publisher though. Can't really say much more i think :)
CYer, Blitz

AFL Live gets a quite fair few hits on this site (probably one of the most out of Sumea's local games listing). I'm sure there'd be quite an outcry if 2005 doesn't get published... heck, they should just distribute it themselves [:)]