I don't know how they do it but Raven demonstrates once again how well planned a game release can be. First they make the deadline (did they ever miss one?) and now they have the dedicated server available before the game is in the stores.

Now all that's missing is the demo and I'll be happy :).

Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."

I didn't know god was also a level designer

Baaaaaad voice acting alert! You should consider yourselves very happy if you don't understand german...

Don't know about the game itself. There just doesn't seem to happen enough. Most of the time you just fly around idly and search for a hint what you should do next. I got bored pretty fast...

The USA is the only country he should worry about. You can worry about your damn country!

This is actually a pretty funny comment in this context.
Exactly what I meant - the environment is not a problem of the US, let someone else handle that. Now let's just continue to blow tons of CO2 into the air and all kinds of poison into the ground until it is absolutely proven that it destroys the world we live on. Which means wait until it happened, of course, so that we can be absolutely certain and don't do anything more than absolutely necessary.

*shakes head*

Here we go blaming Bush again.

Actually I didn't intend to blame him for the current situation (although I can see that it may have sounded like that). I just don't think that he'll do anything to improve it. Quite the contrary, if his statements on environmental matters are any indication.

The ice shelf which just broke off added a whole .0000426 PERCENT to the volume of the ocean.

Wait until .0000426 PERCENT of the ocean flood your house...

But seriously, the problem is not one ice sheet collapsing. The problem is the *trend* of global warming. Right now everything's still fine but if the trend continues it will not stay that way for long.

Pity that Bush doesn't give a damn about the environment. On the other hand, why should he? He doesn't live in the environment, he lives in the USA .

edit: spelling
This comment was edited on Mar 20, 11:30.

I think that Blue should scan the sonogram and make it the picture of the day.

Since it looks like him, it would perhaps be more fitting to put it up as a new logo

Hmmm. Is this Play Time link a special Saint Patrick's day release? I mean, do you have to be drunk to understand it?

Was it just me, or was Blues News down for around half an hour?

Yep, got the same error.

Maybe Moose is back? Perhaps this time not moving servers but playing with all dem pretty cables dat stick out of it?

I think those media companies are just lazy. They sit there and scream that new hardware allows people to pirate their property and that, therefore, that hardware should be outlawed. Apart from the rather skewed logic used here, there is one question that is still left unanswered:

Why do these companies see new technology as a threat instead of using it to their advantage?

An example: current broadband connections have brought an increase in people pirating music using Gnutella, Kazaa, whatever. So the big media guys, having failed to suppress broadband, try to outlaw P2P networks.

Why don't they take advantage of fast connections? Where is the pay-per-listen/monthly subscription Software that requires you to log on and then streams the music directly from the internet? It works for television and radio - why shouldn't it work for music?

Where is Disneys offer to view their movies for 2 bucks over the internet, a few months after they hit the theaters?

Just imagine such an offer for Episode I today - wouldn't it be cool to just say "Hell, I'd like to see that one again", start your home theater software and view it for a few dollars? It isn't in the cinemas anymore, the DVD would take a few days to arrive, so right now many people settle for the "P2P solution". But what if you just had to select the movie from a list and hit play? No searching, no aborted downloads, no nothing? I'd certainly pay for that...

This comment was edited on Mar 15, 15:03.

Ummm somehow I doubt the Lithtech engine is $150,000 more expensive than the Quake 3 engine.

To get the Q3 engine you'll have to pay 5% royalties with a 250k minimum:

http://www.idsoftware.com/corporate/idtech/index.html#The%20Quake%20III%20Arena%20Engine

developers must just be downright stupid to spend that much money on an inferior engine.

I don't understand why some people think LithTech is inferior. Even if you don't like the look of NOLF - that was mainly an art issue. How well a game looks depends to a large part on texture and model quality. Take Max Payne for example - you won't find any high poly count models there but it won numerous prices for its good graphics.

That said, I'll admit that the Q3 engine was superior in pure graphics horsepower, compared to the LithTech version at that time. However, there are other things to be considered than just the number of polys an engine can push. As I understand it, Lithtech is easier to use and customize than the Q3 engine. LithTech's support is also said to be top-notch. That means development time will be shorter with LithTech, shorter means cheaper and cheaper means more profit, which is a Good Thing (TM).
Add the fact that the developers will have less headaches to get the engine to do what they want and you know why LithTech is used as much as it is.

[edit] URL corrected.
This comment was edited on Mar 13, 19:58.

just saying that the basic concept behind tron makes me feel nauseated...

Well then - just swallow the red pill and you'll be fine... or was it the blue one?

but if you get into one accident your license is revoked for your whole life too.

Not completely true. If we drive in a way that endangers or hurts others we get so called "points" (the amount depends on the severity of the case). If you have more than a specified number of points you license is revoked.

Altogether they're better and *safer* drivers

If that is true then I don't want to drive in the U.S. - must be complete anarchy on those streets

So what's between a million and a billion for our Euro-friends?

A milliard, of course. You Americans must, at some point, have swapped milliards and billions (never get anthing right, concerning units, eh? :D).
The correct (i.e. European) order is: million, milliard, billion, billiard.

P.S. Before I start another flame war: I firmly believe in everyone's right to count however they want. Besides, is there really much of a difference between owning a billion dollars or owning a milliard dollars? I'll take any of the two

It froze like a deer caught in head lights, uh?
Why do they do that?

After seeing a bright light coming towards it the deer probably thought it had died - and was probably also busy wondering why god had a goatee

Well, I have to confess that I'm not much of a football fan (me being german and all...) but last night I decided to watch the SuperBowl, mainly because I was too burned out to do anything else.

But while the game itself was quite entertaining there was one thing that seriously got on my nerves: is it normal to have a 20 second commercial break every minute or so, during every single delay that occurs in the game?
I mean, I know that there are way more commercials on TV in the USA than there are here in germany but at times it seemed that I was watching nonstop commercials with some sports in between. Is it always like this in the US? (*shudder*)

Nevertheless, I think maybe I'll watch it again next year. Those last few minutes were quite exciting

WTH is Valve doing with device drivers?

IIRC they are working on this "Power Play" technology, together with Cisco and some others. It's all about optimizing internet technology for games or something...

C# is M$ rip-off of Java. They didn't like the fact they lost the court case to Sun over trying to make Java their own - just the same as everything else they do. So what was their solution ? Blatantly rip it off. Therefore, anyone saying C# is better than Java is speaking out of their a**s.

If you call C# a rip-off of JAVA then JAVA is a rip-off of C++, which itself is a rip-off of C, Ada and some others.

The languages all have some similarities but that's nothing bad! Why would one want to throw out something that works? No, you change the stuff that doesn't work quite so well and thus improve the language.

By the way: I have the feeling that you do not know much more about C# than the name. Look at it before you pass judgement. It really IS an improvment over JAVA from the pure language point of view. .NET is an entirely different matter - I just talk about C# here...

Uh huh. C# - also known as: "Java, but without that pesky platform-independence stuff. Brought to you by Micro$oft."

Actually, C# is a pretty good language. It really shows that MS has invested quite a bit of analysis time to find out what's wrong with JAVA and C++. And then they pretty much ironed out those flaws.

I don't mean to say that C# is perfect but in my opinion the language is superior to JAVA and C++.

If only it wasn't tied to the .NET platform I might actually use it :D.

Maybe .NET will achieve platform independence one day (not that JAVA ever really has...) and if it does I might use it, together with C#. But until then I'll stick to C++...

I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds containing people trying to kill me. Even though I always win, I prefer to avoid fights if possible.

He. I think it's time for my daily wall-run