Music videos and TV shows should have been offered for online purchase a long time ago. The problem is that unless you have high quality encoding then it won't catch on.

I won't buy MP3's/AAC's online when you get better quality on P2P programs - an option for what quality you want to download from the iTunes store wouldn't go-a-miss.

I have to disagree with you about the WMD... there have been some found, just not to the extent the U.S and U.K were expecting. I'm trying to gather together about a dozen links by reputable sources to post if you are interested. Furthermore, it my opinion that much of what we were looking for is stillthere- it's just not easy "combing the desert"

Hmmm... well, a lot of the problem is what is classified as a WMD? The UK managed to think a mortar was a WMD... I really despair at the government here. But, even after the UK had managed to claim a mortar as a WMD (they would have classified a knife as a WMD if they could) they still had to admit that evidence was wrong and they believe their to be no WMD.

I've watched documentaries about nuclear discs being buried in the sand and how they recreated the exact plant that made the first atomic bomb there, but even IF they had them (which is unlikely) they couldn't have deployed them much further than the adjacent countries (ignoring the unlikely event that they could transport them to another country without detection).

It's a bit like Santa Claus... there's so much evidence against him existing but you still want to believe. Get over the fact that your parents (the government/media) lied about Santa Claus (WMD) existing.

The Hilter comment was probably too far, but I was trying to illustrate a point and not trying to insult millions of dead people. It would probably have been better comparing Derek Smart's willingness to be civil to others, as like that of self-preseveration to a lemming.

Hmmm... I think it's quite safe to ignore Hellbinder's defence of Derek. After all, looking at his past posts this is from him:

There were and likely still are WMD in Iraq. They recently found ammo laced with chemicals, The plot to trash Saudi arabia recently had trucks with 80,000 gallons of Chemical agents.. where do you think that came from? It is obvious that Saddam had his stuff burried out in the desert somehwere or Trucked off to Saudi arabia in the months of build up to go to Iraq.

Hmm... against all the evidence of the people that actually work in Iraq and the fact that the UK (and US?) government has admitted there are NO weapons there and they were wrong. Then he goes on to accuse the liberal media of covering up anything that is against HIS viewpoint. Please, Hitler was more tolerant with the Jews.

If you look at his past five posts they have all been hateful and based on complete nonsense.

It's pretty hard to stick up for Derek Smart when reading anything by him has him condemning man-kind within 4 sentences. He even goes as far as to claim that he does have an ego but people misinterpret the word - well, the dictionary does have the definition of "An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit"; that seems to fit the bill just fine and that is no misinterpretation of the word.

I feel sorry for anyone working with him... an attitude like that is enough to take out a modest city. I have seen some pretty disgusting personalities in my time, but Derek does take the biscuit (and the whole cake factory too).

If it ain't Tool then whoever made it when to a lot of trouble to make it sound like Tool. I know Tool, and this sounds like Tool. The bass, the riff, the drums are all VERY Tool.

Tool songs all sound too similar... as much as like I like some of their stuff, they have near zero originality in their songs anymore. Daney Carey is a legendary drummer, but all his stuff is too samey. Still, you can't beat Swamp Song.

LMAO....

I think a lot of people will have to realize that what we wanted out of Halo PC (the game promised to use since before Bungie was bought by MS) will never truely exist.

Yeah. If the game had have been what was promised then it would have been incredibly fun, but it seems that Microsoft has a not-so-hidden agenda to make sure the Xbox succeeds to the detriment of the PC.

I feel that the story and feeling(!!) shown in the video from E3 was stripped out and they decided to let a 5yr old write the plot. The E3 video of Halo probably showed the most potential for any game so far in the history of computer games (I am being completely serious) - that is why I feel so cheated that Halo became this commercial brainless console shooter.

Halo 2 looks, unfortunately, like nothing more than an extension to the brainless romp that was the original Halo. I remember all the Halo movies from 2000 and how it was so revolutionary... being delayed for about 3 years certainly didn't help (that's a long time for computers). Such a shame.

Halo was so amazingly average and they completely ran out of ideas for the end. The Covenant were a good enemy, but when they introduced the swarms of aliens at the end it got pathetically tedious.

The game was ridiculously hyped and delayed by years, then they sold out and when they eventually DID bring it out for PC it was an out-of-date average game that had a poorly optimised graphics engine. Farcry looks amazing, has a great feel to it, runs fast and it generally very good (except for the pathetic excuse for a storyline - the game is basically just an engine; they should have skipped the storyline) - Farcry will produce better mods that the dated Halo engine ever could.

I have no respect for Bungie because they sold-out and THEN had the cheek to release an awful console port to PC (with the help of Gearbox, the biggest fart of a company I have ever known).

Farcry "could" have been an amazing game... instead it was crap. Great graphics; great AI (mostly); great vehicles; good feel to the gameplay (slow and collected) - but ultimately, it was crap.

Could no-one have thought of a better plot? Did they not have any cleaners they could have consulted? They could have even asked some pondlife to contribute better ideas.

With a good storyline (say based around human events, conspiracies, etc - not flamin' mutants!) it could have really shaken up the genre. Why have the plot as a throw-away means for getting from the beginning to the end of the game? Heck, why bother with it at all? It would have been more fun with huge islands with many buildings on, where you just walk around and kill people; nothing to do, just walk around and have to get from the start of island 1 to the end of island 14.

NOTE: *whispers* The storyline to Farcry was awful *whispers*

Most stores don't let you return opened software... and it doesn't say on the box which software it doesn't work with. Therefore, if you open it but can't run it because it doesn't like what software you have AND you can't return and opened game... isn't that theft? Last time I checked theft was still a crime.

[Don't give me crap that by opening it you're accepting a EULA or whatever... because that's IN the box]

Copyprotection sucks - UT2004 shafted me, accusing me of copying the game because it didn't think I had the original DVD in (which I did). I guess it didn't work because of Fantom CD [WHICH WAS DISABLED!!!], but they should not dictate what software I use (particularly when it is disabled - they CAN'T tell me to uninstall software they don't like).

What next? Software that won't run if you are a certain religion or ethnic group? Software that insults your mum when it gets bored? Software that wipes your harddrive because it thought it would be a laugh?

It doesn't really matter the reason behind the copy protection... the result is that they lost thousands of dollars (remember the web/world is big and that it only takes 25 people not buying it to make it a thousands dollar lost). Not only did they lose a lot of money but they also created an awful lot of negative publicity. All taken into account, they lost more than they gained - people sharing a disk can't share a CD-key online so it would only be played offline... and piracy is so high that anyone that wants to can download it or get someone else to.

Still, the publisher doesn't care (or they would have stuck with copy protection that works!!!!)... they just add this to their bloopers list and move on.

I loved Transport Tycoon... I used to play it for a ridiculous amount of time. The only reason I stopped playing it was when I went on to XP and couldn't run it any longer.

I've been wanting a sequel to this for ages... at first I thought Trucks & Trains Tycoon was meant for that, but it was a joke. But, as Lindset said... are those the new games' screenshots? I loved the original to bits, but if the new games look like that then I'm gonna have to pass. The game is literally 10 years old, I don't want graphics that look worse than/the same as the original!

I so want this game to be good. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 looks amazing - these shots shown looks abysmal.

over at my blog ( www.popularculturegaming.tk ) I wrote a rant about why I think the Sims 2 will fail

Is life getting you down??? Do you find people in the real world tend to ignore you??? Do you still live with your parents and argue online because you think you're cool??? A bit full of yourself are you??? Need to promote your blog???

Well, come to BluesNews where people care SOOOO much about what you think you'll wonder why you ever bothered talking to your imaginary friend.

*End corny American accent*

This isn't a place for advertising... your post would have been just as valid without the shameless self promotion.

The problem with Enterprise is that it's SO predictable. Other series had an element such that the episode could go anywhere. With Enterprise it usually follows a basic shallow plot. Then they slap in "Trust me"... "give me your phaser so I can save your life otherwise you'll die"... what crock. The last thing I want to see is the Americanised crud that Star Trek now is - I don't want to see how Archer doesn't trust any other race but how he slowly accepts them and they accept him.

Also, Elite Force II is such a disappointment - all you do in it is climb into Tunnel A, crawl for a bit and then destroy Borg Terminal 2, THEN crawl out the way you came - repeat for good measure TWENTY TIMES to allow for ultimate enjoyment. ARGH! Plus, they really didn't have to turn Chell into a character worse than Neelix or all the DS9 cast put together.

Enterprise has potential but it was SOOOOOOOO annoying seeing Archer in one of the early episodes trying to be righteous with that woman giving gas to the kid... so damn predictable and SOOOOOOOO irritating. They seem to forget that even though it's back in time it's STILL ahead of our time - these people seem to be prehistoric in their stupidity. Plus, seeing Archer and T'Pal rub each other down is easily the worse thing Star Trek has ever done.

Just to clear a few things up now:

TOS was ok (films were good, series sometimes amazing, sometime weak)... prolly just cos it looks so dated in comparison.
TNG was good.
Voyager was good. (equal to TNG in certain ways but both had their own character)
DS9 was poor. I enjoyed the space battles but I found the cast to be incredibly irritating.
Babylon 5 had the best space battles but I'm not much of a fan... though I wanted the space sim game SO much, but then they go and flamin' cancel it (I'm not even a fan but that game looked ACE!).

PS - Where was the Voyager film??? They continue to make TNG films while it was going and after it finished, but Voyager (the most popular [and best] series after TNG) they ignore. Please may the next ST film be Voyager and NOT Enterprise...

These screenshots look crap... the only even *slightly* interesting shot is the one that features the sky. Graphically it looks very dated but there's still plenty of time to improve that. The most important thing is gameplay and if it's ANYTHING like Tribes 2 then it will be amazing. Tribes 2 is amazing fun... it's such a shame that it was never very successful. I guess they're hoping that this version will be more popular due to increase broadband uptake... please make this a good game.

#55 I love my SB Audigy 2... but will admit that Creative have been shit in the past. Support for my old SB!Live was abysmal and when XP came out it was a nightmare to find decent drivers to work for it. Saying that, I got the SB Audigy 2 after I looked around and found no better soundcards around (within a reasonable price range... the top ones don't support things like EAX though) and seeing that I'm into recording myself (being a musician) I have found it a great card, particularly the ASIO which is BRILLIANT for Cubase (as is the MIDI driver). Time-scaling is also another very impressive feature (useful for some songs that seem just too slow... like Tired Of You by Foo Fighters). The 6.1 surround sound and FireWire port wrap up the card nicely, though I admit I have yet to use it (prolly will upgrade the home network to FireWire though, 400MBit/s... wow).

Previous support has sucked but this works ^perfectly^ for me out of the box so I'm really happy.

Normally I would agree that it would seem selfish to refuse the girls organs be donated but to chastise the family for refusing is to minimize the pain theyve gone through in this whole ordeal. The family is from a somewhat superstitious, undereducated and heavily religious society and to expect them to convert to our way of thinking is a little much.

Yes... I can understand... it's hard for them to give organs because of their beliefs but it's perfectly OK to receive them... what crap. Personally I intend to donate my organs when I die, and would do the same with any of my children if I had any - they're not going to do me any good rotting underground (or being burnt to ashes), yet they could save the life of somebody else.

I do find it strange that illegal aliens can get into the country and have this treatment performed, and THEN have the audacity to deny dontating of organs and consider a lawsuit against the doctors. In the UK the system is abused by illegal immigrants plaguing the benefits system and receiving homes as a priority over native homeless people - I have absolutely no support for people that don't come in to the country through legal channels!

PS - It is sad that a mistake can happen like this. It's not hard to assume that there should be some sort of basic checks carried out before surgery to confirm that it is the right blood type and the organ has been approved for use in the person undergoing surgery. Tsk, tsk.

This comment was edited on Feb 24, 12:06.

CRAP? This games looks like being the only game worth upgrading my PC for! The screenshots look crap but if you download the movie that was released it looks AMAZING... TRULY.

There have been a lot of previews but for people like me its great to see that there's so much interest in the game and would LOVE to play this game (if I could just run it). The mouse interface ideas seems like a brilliant touch.

I really don't like UT2k3 in comparison to the original. It just doesn't have the ATMOSPHERE - the orginal style and music for the Aztec levels was just amazing, but this just doesn't cut it. I prefer the original. As said earlier by someone else I think this game is nearly identical to Quake 3... now Q3 was good but I liked UT because it was the more calculating game - less speed, more features.

I am I the only one that thought the support for UT was lacking? They got upto patch 436 and then stopped adding features (or fixing any bugs like the 32bit bug whereby you need to apply the 432 DLL).... just SHODDY! And now UT2k3 looks like being similar with it's brownout bug on ATi cards (oh yes, THAT was annoying)... like the original you can download a DLL update.

Judging from the AMAZING intro to 2k3 this looks like an engine looking for a game. The engine is pretty AMAZING but as a game UT 2k3 is hugely lacking.

The game I'm REALLY waiting for is 'Canada's Army', where you have to fight with antique equipment and a minimal budget, all the while dodging falling Labrador helicopters and friendly-fire from the U.S.

LMAO!

This comment was edited on Jun 26, 13:14.

Is the time I waste, er, spend, playing this game tax deductable?

LOL.

Neway, I hope this game lives up to the 'hype'... just wait, there hasn't BEEN much hype! For a free game using the latest build of the Unreal engine it does seem strange that not every website is covering details of it! Unless that's because they are not letting anyone preview it before it is released, like most developers do with normal retail games.

Some minor questions that were probably posted on one of the numerous interviews:

1) Does it have LAN/offline play? (apart from training missions)
2) Does this game have any serial/account protection or does it block users by IP if they are disruptive?
3) What sort of performance will the game produce? UT ran blisteringly on mine (only TNT2) but some other Unreal engine games (like Deus Ex) ran like poo... I assume this being a later build it assumes a GeForce 2 MX minimum?