Gamespy just got shafted big-time. Do they REALLY rely on these for basic revenue, or was this just a chance to stuff the coffers a little more? It was wholly in Activision's interest to have EVERYONE play this game over the weekend, instead of benefitting GameSpy.

Which is better for Activision: Benefitting GameSpy, or gaining thousands more players on a long weekend, many of which will buy the game? Hmmm.

Holy alliteration, Batman!

Isn't this Sierra and Blizzard? If so, that's a major omission in the news post. Or is the former Havas Software unit (Sierra + Blizzard) considered separate from Vivendi Universal Games, even though they're owned by Vivendi Universal?

Right... FilePlanet purposely set a horrible limit of 1000 people on their FTP servers just to get you to sign up. In my day, 1000 was huge! And we sat there waiting for the anonymous FTP to let us in to a full server! Of course, ftp.cdrom.com was almost never full, but then again, we only had modems back then. Or we paid money for a BBS! Sure, FP is splitting that 1000 between multiple servers, but we don't all have 14.4 modems now, do we?

The days of the free lunch are over. You want the file fast and now? Hunt it down yourself, wait in line, or pay up. I personally see it as a good investment - The few bucks to Fileplanet would be worth less than the the time lost on the free site, if I signed up. And I'm already an IGN subscriber. Cheaper than a magazine subscription, far faster and far more fun. I didn't sign up because of the limits (They didn't exist back then), I signed up simply because I like IGN.

This comment was edited on Jun 26, 03:36.

A good path with nVidia cards has been every other; so 1/3 or 2/4. If you're buying a 4 right now, it's nice to know it'll probably run Doom 3 decently.

Good insight. That's how I've always done my upgrading, perhaps not consciously. TNT2 -> GF2 -> GF4. Did wonders for my 3DMarks. And I have slapped that bastard around, abused him all I can, but I still have not managed to make Max Payne sweat a single frame. Maybe at 1920x1600... that's an option, right?

This comment was edited on Jun 26, 03:31.

By your argument, if people do something despite it being illegal, the law should be stricken down because they're gonna do it anyway. Therefore, virtually every law should be stricken down because people still commit murder, robbery, rape, etc.

Yes, but the difference is, murder, robbery and rape are *actual crimes*, ones that one person commits against another, and the other person is harmed by it. Peaceful commerce between two parties can never be considered a crime. If a store wants to endure the massive reptuation damage it will endure if it sells booze to a 9 year old, so be it; but if that 9 year old wanted booze, guess what, there are other ways than legally.

If a 16-year old went into Blockbuster and rented Gladiator and Platoon that Blockbuster would be breaking the law.

Actually, it wouldn't. No law enforces the MPAA ratings; to do so would be a violation of the first amendment. It's just that most theaters and rental places abide by the rating.

the reason that government needs to do these things is because there is always some idiot out there that would do these things if they weren't illegal...

So? They do the things even if they ARE illegal. Or do you believe that no one at all smokes pot and crack anymore?

I would be more upset about that than the prospects of a bill that will help keep "M" rated games out of the hands of minors. Or do you want children to be able to get access to porn and spirits?

Why yes. Yes I do. If a parent doesn't want their kid to have them, well so be it. If a store doesn't want the HORRIBLE hit to their reputation for giving booze to a ten year old, so be it. But it's not the government's responsibility to determine and dictate what can and cannot be exposed to our children. We can handle that ourselves, kthx. Giving that one bit to the government just opens the door for them to add more things to "protect" our children from. Like dodgeball!

Neat, someone who hasn't played an FF game, er, ever. Save your inane comments for Myst Online, that's more deserving.

[edit] I've been using this nick for over ten years, ever since a lark on Prodigy. I am not an FF fanboy, I simply enjoy the series, and know when it sucks (FF8, and likely FF11).

This comment was edited on Jun 18, 13:13.

Blue, OotB is the only post I read every day. Oh, don't get me wrong; I skim the headlines, read some of them, read the etc. section and skim the reviews. But the only thing I do each and every day is read OotB and check out your links. It's a lot easier to read a news page like this when it has a human side to look forward to reading every day.

Keep up the good work!

Aye. My family hails from County Fermanagh, so you who have issue with Northern Ireland, shove it!

Watch Braveheart. Now, imagine if it were Northern Ireland and not Scotland. Ayy, not so clear-cut anymore, is it?

Oddly, even though Prima Nocte didn't really exist, it's been used in Northern Ireland in a different way; the Brits shipping over Scots and English to supplant the native Irish population and religion. Ah well.

Unfortunately, it's gotten so bad that even the Republic doesn't care much for Ulster anymore. Damned bloody shame, what the Brits have done.

St. Patrick may have been German? Well that just furthers the booze thing, doesn't it.

1 in 1000? Let's see..

As of the 2000 census, the US population is 281 million. According to the 2000 census, 75.1% of those are white. (This is, of course, ignoring biracial Irish, or people descended from the Irish conclaves in Argentina and other places. But we need simplicity) That means 211 million Americans are white. 1/1000 would mean that only 211 thousand Americans were descended from Irish - a number that even you can see is entirely too small.

I'd raise it at least to 1/100 and maybe 1/50. Hell, the populations of Boston and Savannah (locations of the two largest St Patricks Day parades) combined are 720 thousand; I would wager at least half of that alone is descended from Irish.

We're a far more Irish country than we let on.

I'm impressed for once America didn't get a game first.
Well apart from the warez monkeys.

Remember Quake 2? It was released in northern Europe a few days before American release, if I recall correctly. I recall someone from id stating that within a few hours, most hits to the id Master Server were no longer coming from Denmark, but from nations where the game hadn't been released yet. They were mad.

This comment was edited on Feb 6, 02:54.

I agree. Concept art is nice and all, but, uh.. it's just concept. It shows the vision but little more. It doesn't show what ION is able to reproduce on screen, or better, in motion. I've become a firm believer in the 'media blackout' method; it didn't burn me out on Max Payne, and it has only made me desire Duke Nukem Forever more.

Oversaturation leads to things like Daikatana. Whoops.

Perhaps the best use for concept art would be in a booklet with the game, or a 'making of' special, or even along with screenshots of the game BASED on the concept art. But the concept art alone does little for me.

What would you propose they do, do nothing? There were bugs and a new feature to add, I commend them for making a patch for an ancient game. This is how companies keep market share - by caring about their customers. And I can sympathize completely with wanting to clean up bugs, even on a 4 year old game. It's partly about pride, and partly about completeness.

If you don't want it, don't play the game. It's obvious you don't care about it.

It's funny when people make total asses of yourself. I take it you were in a coma during E3? Or did you just convince yourself that the 3-4 minute DNF trailer didn't exist?

Walnut Creek sold cdrom.com to Digital River nearly two years ago, so they weren't involved in any of this.

I see... hm. What was Digital River prior to this? And why is www.cdrom.com simply and 100% a SimTel mirror now?

And without the cdrom.com archive to leech off, where is Walnut Creek getting their material, if they even exist anymore?

Let's move back to infant2!

Let's head back to infant2.sphs.indiana.edu

This really sucks. ftp.cdrom.com has been one of the biggest and most accessed servers in the internet's history. However, I can't think of a time I've been on it in the past .. 3 years. It just got too bogged down and slow. What does this say? Frankly, I think that with all their new rules and stuff, they were using far more bandwidth PRIOR to, oh, Quake 2's release. Why shut down now, when bandwidth is cheaper than several years ago, and usage is lower? Walnut Creek always struck me as a profitable company; run a free server, sell CDs of what's on it. Is their core business suffering? And, again, if they are using less bandwidth now than in past years, why suddenly up the premium?

And, one last thing - How does moving the archive into the hands of inexperienced people outside of the community save Walnut Creek money? (I'll always know it as wcarchive, don't try to confuse me with a new name %))

PS - Well, having gone to www.cdrom.com ... I see no mention of Digital River or Walnut Creek remaining whatsoever, except for a copyright notice - it's all a SimTel archive now. (blast from the past, that - I haven't thought of that name for years. All I ever used them for was to snag obscure archival programs)

And here I was thinking about designing a World Trade Center scenario for CS. I guess I should cancel those plans...