Norguard

...but you can't put cheese and gravy on fries down there, either... ...or mayo or peanut curry...

Your foods suffer great oppression.

I'll see if I can't get my friend to eat a Japadog for you, once she's back from Brisbane.

Dismissed?!? Oh noes.

The streets of Minneapolis will never be safe again, with a known jaywalker allowed to roam the streets, elsewhere in the country.

Watch out for some vigilante justice coming your way.

Yeah, you prolly prefer Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

...but... ...that's just the way it is.

Some things will never change...

And yes. The speed and proficiency with which they dispensed the LOLCats is just...

...just...

i can has wow.

And Tek... ...now that you know what the lolcats meme is all about, all I can say is...

This is the end...

...this is the end of the innocence.

I totally win the guessing game.

I'd even be able to pick them out of a side-by-side lineup. AND a taste-test.

I loves mah milk (before you ask, Mo, that does say "Mah" and not "Man").

Oh... ...and as far as the letter of petition goes...

The gameplay video for Diablo III makes me happy.

I totally like how it was modified for the PC. There are still some things that need to change - like the inventory system... ...it takes way too long to dig through stuff.

But the combat feels incredibly different, compared to the 360 (well, unless you only played as a soldier, and you never used any abilities... ...in that case, that style of gameplay hasn't really changed)

Yeah. Well, actually, 2k is removing the DRM from BioShock, now... It's been out a year, and they've decided that it was enough for them. That un-patch should be coming out in short order.

I'll never really have to deal with it, one way or another, because I got it on Steam. I had to deal with figuring out how to get it to run on my new PC... ...because it was having issues with my onboard sound (had an Audigy 2 in my old one, but didn't have the cash to put out for a new card, yet), and I was willing to play it soundless, but without the sound, I couldn't get out of the bathysphere, because the people at the start of the game wouldn't move...

EA backed down on releasing the SecuROM 10-day activation. Most games require a one-time online connection... ...dating back as far as, say DooM3/Quake4. I've come to expect it.

The limited installs sucks, but honestly, it won't effect me until long after EA decides that it's made all it's going to make off of it, and removes the limit... ...just like the days when patches removed key-checks, and CD-checks (like Quake 3/Unreal Tournament, and the latest Diablo 2 patch).

As it stands, you're allowed to install/uninstall the game as many times as you want on the same system. It's a hash-check verification, taken from hardware samples. Apparently, the videocard isn't supposed to be included in that hash - so even if you upgrade the card in your system, you should still be good.

What does upset me a little is that it doesn't tell you when it's activating. It's completely invisible.

So if you activate, format, change hardware, put it on a new system... ......you aren't going to know your activations are up, until you try installing it again, and it says they're up.

I have the same pet peeve with WindowsXP.

...I've had the same copy on the same system for... ...well, many, many years. I end up formatting the family PC two or three times a year... ...which means calling to reactivate the same copy on the same PC, two or three times a year...

The SecuRom DRM that they had planned to use on Mass Effect and Spore was this:

When you buy your game and input your CD key, it goes online and validates and then you can play your game.

The CD key needs to renew every 10 days. It will try to renew after the 5th day, silently, in the background, when you launch your game.

...if after 10 days it does not establish an internet connection, it will refuse to let you play... ...your single-player game...

The other DRM was just that you can only have the game installed on three separate hardware configurations. After the third configuration, you need to call customer support and activate it that way - much like XP or Vista.

After a huge outcry, just hours after it was announced, EA canned the first kind of DRM... ...at least for now...

Blame EA and Sony (owner of SecuROM) for being ridiculously restrictive.

...requiring internet to play single-player games is ridiculous. Activation, sure, that's fine... ...but having an always-on connection, to play your single-player games...

...well, there were a lot of military personnel, and a lot of broke students who were a little miffed.

The fun bit is that you need to come to the point in your life where you realize that living with somebody doesn't necessarily mean that you are no longer independent, but independent along with another independent person, who shares a mutual goal.

I mean, living with someone, you'd lose a few things that you could see as being independent (like... ...throwing house parties for the Swedish bikini team...)

...but that doesn't necessarily mean that you will stop being you.

Yes, it takes more work, and a lot of communication, and likely some concessions, but people can't be entirely dependent upon one another. It just doesn't work. If somebody is 100% dependent upon you, and can do nothing for themselves, or likewise, if you are 100% dependent upon someone else, and can do absolutely nothing for yourself, it's just not going to work.

Of course, it takes two people to see this. A relationship's health is only as good as the collective health of both members...

...and of course, take all of this with a pinch of salt. In the end, you know you (hopefully) better than anyone else. And you know her better than a bunch of guys scattered across North America (again, hopefully)...

...and all of this is coming from a guy that has been terminally single for the better part of six years.

What I really loved about Portal... ...and I'm surprised nobody here caught it or mentioned it, was that there were some parts of the game that tied into the viral website for it.

...I've been living and breathing this game on the PC in my free time for the past... ...well, since it was released.

There are some issues running it - I've worked around just about every single one on my PC... ...but for people who want it, you might have to get your hands a little dirty by going into the Program Files folder (*GASP*).

The combat is incredibly different on the PC. Even if you're a biotic, you can have completely run&gun gameplay, thanks to the hotkeys.

You can give each teammate individual orders. The spacebar is the pause/command button, and is totally natural, seeing as there is no jump button. ...I think I might have rebound two single keys (going back to the Normandy from the Mako, and the equipment screen). Mind you, if I actually used the Codex at all, I'd probably rebind that, too......

It needs a patch, which is coming, along with the PC version of Bringing Down the Sky.

...if only they had let him into art school, he wouldn't have had to go getting all "emo" on Eastern Europe...

The biggest difference between gaming cards and QuadroFX or FireGL(ATi's card), is that while gaming cards are designed for speed, when rendering, the developer cards are geared specifically towards pixel perfect accuracy, every time they render a scene. All of the textures and shaders will render out exactly the same way, every single time, at the cost of speed. In the case of the new cards, the clocks and RAM have been bumped a lot (1GB+ on some of the new FireGL models) to match the speed of gaming cards, while keeping the rendering perfection.

Unfortunately, some of those cards are almost $2000 - way, way above budget for the entire system.

2GB would be sufficient. I honestly don't know how I'd recommend it, though. ...whether it should be 2x 1GB DIMMs, to take advantage of dual-channel RAM, or whether it should be 1x 2GB, so that it can later be upgraded to 4GB dual-channel, for less money, than having to buy a total of 4 1GB DIMMs. Either way doesn't really matter in the short-term.

The funny thing is that these excerpts come from a 56 minute special feature. He gets Harvard and Yale professors to sign petitions: one to keep Canadians from partaking in the Saskatchewan seal hunt (think Iowa or Ohio, and you're not far off), and the other is a petition to get our King to stop us from putting our elderly on ice floats, and sending them into the ocean. He gets a Political Science major to congratulate Prime Minister Tim Horton (a deceased, alcoholic hockey player) on his political Double Double (Tim Horton's was started by his family, posthumously, and is now owned by the same company as Wendy's).

...and I find it plays more on geographical blinders than general stupidity. What you'll notice, if you pick apart the whole thing, is that the further southwest he goes, the more political stuff, and blatantly stupid stuff he can get away with, because they're further removed. Somebody in Niagara Falls isn't really going to believe that we collect our dirty diapers and dump them into the Love Canal... ...or will they?

Oh, and when they did a kazoo solo, and started mumbling and "blah, blah, blah"-ing in our national anthem, it brought tears to my eyes.

"...what is life, the universe and everything?"

This is great stuff. I can actually see and hear him getting his influences from a couple of places - also Canadian.

Jeff Healey, though he largely plays blues and rock, played lap guitar exclusively, with the inverted left hand. ...it's actually inspired a few people I know to try it. ...not too efficient, but it's worked for a few people.

The picking, and the right-hand brushing, the tapping and the open-tuned songs all look and sound largely like a man by the name of Don Ross, who actually lives half an hour from here, when he's not touring around the world.

He's the greatest instrumental folk guitarist I've ever heard, and even though this guy is phenomenal, I think Ross has got him trounced, if with nothing more than another decade (at least) of experience. Actually, I think that this guy was one of the guests at Don's annual music-composition camp a few years ago. I'd go, if I didn't suck immensely compared to these people (and it didn't cost $500).

No, Mo! No!

That one's years old. ...and still just as funny as the first day I saw it. I didn't even watch the video this time. I just saw the lady, the sexiness (not the same thing) and the bag, and that was enough to bring back the memories.

Yeah. I'll totally share my code with you, Bun... ...when I gets mah Wii. I'm trying to sell my internal organs right now, but the Wii's still too popular for the likes of my liver.

Actually, I'm just waiting on an expendable paycheck (probably the beginning of February), then my buddy's going to hook me up with a tax-free Wii, and goodies but good.

I think just heard every member of =Eh?= shed a tear in unison...

C'mon now, if you don't remember to press Select, it's only going to be a single player game... ...and where's the fun of pressing all of the right buttons in sequence, if it's still just 1P?

Mega=100. Kilo=1000.

Yeowzers. ...now we just sit back and wait for the Wii jokes.

...but sometimes, I wish they would. ...I don't know wether I'd run across the street, through heavy traffic, or propose right there, on the spot, but at least I'd be able to spot them a mile away, so that I could make my decision.

Basically, the lower the Hertz, the lower the note, and the higher the Hertz, the higher the note. So the headphones will list the highest notes and the lowest notes that it can play, like 10Hz-18kHz or 22Hz-22kHz. It doesn't have to do with volume, that's actually separate. And sounds aren't really notes, per se, but if you think about them that way for right now, it might help.

1Hz is so low that you'll feel it, but not hear it. MHz is Megahertz. kHz is Kilohertz. When you get into the 22000Hz range (22kHz) it just starts sounding like open air. If you take it out of a musical recording, it'll feel like something's missing, but you don't really hear notes up there. If you're one of the people who can pick up the really high-frequency static from CRT monitors/TVs or florescent bulbs, that's the range we're talking about, here. Just a buzzing in your ear.

So having the lows (10Hz-20Hz) will help you feel the bass, and having the highs (20kHz-22kHz) will help you define the ceiling for your sound, and help keep it from sounding too cold and perfect. ...it gets a little more technical, and Mo could probably get into that, but them's the basics.

You may also want to look at Shure's in-ear-monitor 'E' series. They're super-comfy for earbuds, and have good reproduction. They aren't meant to colour sound, either... ...that may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whom you're talking to.

If you loved Max Payne, Brew, play Max Payne 2. Just make sure you beat it three times on the three different difficulty settings to get the right ending. You'll appreciate it, if you liked the storytelling in Max Payne.

...and Half-Life 2 wasn't really a letdown for me. It's just open for a sequel. There was no huge 'boss' at the end, but the story was still solid, and every bit as brooding and mysterious as the beginning. I thought it wrapped things up nicely. Then again, I know a lot of people who want to shoot things to make them bleed, not think about X-Files like higher powers and espionage.

Plus, the story in Episode 1 picked up nicely where Half-Life 2 left off. All of those "Half-Life 2's story was a letdown because I didn't get all of my questions answered and live happily ever after" lines are moot now.

They are working on DNF. ...apparently, this may be the year they finally lock it down. Max Payne and Prey have likely barely kept 3D Realms afloat. They need the money.

Prey was originally going to be released on the Quake engine. Then it moved to the unreal engine, and hopped around a few times to land on the DooM 3 engine. I still have a few stills from the game, when they suggested dual VooDoo II cards to run it with the proper eyecandy.

And Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (along with Portal and TF2) have been delayed, because just like Episode 1, VALVe is doing a major overhaul on the engine.

This time, they're adding multi-thread support, for people with quad-core processors (dual-core will benefit, too, but it's being made with 4+ cores in mind). They've already added soft self-shadows (have a look at the soldier banging his helmet straight in the TF2 trailer), they hired a programmer that used to work rigging/programming at WETA to help them develop grand-scale physics effects (look at the house at the end of trailer 5), and particle physics effects (smoke that swirls around you, and raindrops that splash individually in rippling puddles, et cetera), both optimized for four-core processors.

I also wouldn't be surprised if they've taken some of this time to redo the number of polys that make up Alex and Eli and Issac and Barney again, after they already redid the models and textures for Episode 1.