well yeah, I'm sure that somewhere on my twin 80GB hard drives, somewhere there is a game I installed long ago that doesn't have the latest and greatest patch.

But if I'm not playing it currently, who cares?

And yeah, we'll just have to agree that its simply not for someone like me and move on. Its just a little scary to an old timer such as myself that there are people out there who call themselves "a gamer" and they don't know how to do this shit. Even though I work tech support, and yeah, deep down, I *do* know that there really are people that ignorant

I don't necessarily mean tweaking services and registry settings and ini files or whatever for optimal performance either, cuz hell, most the time I can't be bothered to do that shit myself. because for the most part, as long as it works, and as long as gameplay is smooth and not choppy...usually I don't give a shit.

Until everyone adopts Steam-like nazi-programs and force me to use their system for updates and whatever, you'll never see me pay for those kinds of things. same for Fileplanet...ugh!

Actually, yes, Grease Monkey does give you access to demos, game movies, maps, expansions and mods. No pre-release beta tests yet (that I'm aware of). It's early days though, so beta programs aren't out of the question either. Given that it's $55.00 approx per year cheaper, you might find the free trial version worth a try.

What I have trouble believing is that one would pay approx $70.00 US a year for a fileplanet subscription ($60.00 for Fileshack).

Does VIA give me demos, game movies, fan movies, mods, and access to beta tests?

No? Didn't think so. I'll stick with my Fileplanet subscription.

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Voodoo, thats exactly what I thought when I was first told about it. After all, I visit at least 10 different game sites a day - how could I possibly manage to let any of it get out of date? Well when I fired up Grease Monkey for the first time, I realised that almost all of the 40+ games I had installed were in fact due to be updated.
Blue made the remark 'someone should start a website for that sort of thing' and as we all know, there are plenty of websites that offer file downloads. Keeping up with it all (if you have loads of games installed) is the tricky bit. But GM does more than just offer patch updates, demos, maps or expansions. It provides graphic drivers as well, with benchmarks (for numerous recent games) which can be a useful guide for gamers only interested in fastest performance.
Of course its not for everyone, but I've seen enough tech support emails to know that there really is a market for this sort of utility. What I have trouble believing is that one would pay approx $70.00 US a year for a fileplanet subscription ($60.00 for Fileshack).

Sorry, that didn't mean to come across as crowing about linux - I dual boot with XP, which I use for Games and Music stuff, and I use Linux for work. I just thought that the article was making a rather big deal out of a XP64 release candidate when it's taken a long time and it will probably be released without much 64bit software.

Plus, it sounds like it's not being targetted as a consumer edition, more like a replacement for XP Pro, so it will be a while before the average gamer has a copy, even if some of the companies do release 64 bit engines (I know that you can already run UT2k4, or at least a demo on Linux and possible XP64).

I still find it ridiculous that there is a market for such services....really, how hard is it to surf to the game website and click on 'downloads' and then read

or is it the reading part that has them confused and bewildered?

Same thing with regards to DirectX, before I got proactive with updates such as these, I used to just leave it alone, the Game CDs themselves were always pretty good about telling you if you *Needed* a directX upgrade or not, since typically they would not let you install the game unless you had it.

and quite frankly, I don't even have to know anything about Grease Monkey at all I can say with some confidence that Grease Monkey is probably better than the token effort that Game Advisor is.

I do work for VIA, so you can take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but Game Advisor isn't anywhere near as functional as Grease Monkey. Whilst Advisor will tell you about the latest patches, it doesn't list all available patches for listed games, nor does it supply release notes for each file to check out before downloading.
Advisor doesn't know what graphics hardware you're using, which drivers are running, or supply benchmark guides for available graphics card drivers. Nor does it seem to alert you if you need to update your version of DirectX. Grease Monkey does.

When I was first told that VIA would release such a program I was the first to frown in dismay, thinking that it would only be suitable for complete newbies. But when I actually checked it out I was nicely surprised how handy it really is. As I said, given that I do work for VIA you can take that anyway you like, but the free trial version is well worth checking out and comparing with Game Advisor.
This comment was edited on Feb 2, 17:20.

OK, I've only just taken the plunge and installed a 64bit linux distribution

Most of us here are running XP because that's where the games are. Quite a few have Athlon 64 systems which haven't been catered for with an official MS OS. What this news item means is the start of 64 bit game development (I think UT2k4 is already capable of 64bit operation). It is pointless to crow about the availability of 64bit Linux distros on a gamer board. Go to slashdot if that's what you're about. And bear in mind that MS had a 64 bit OS back about 4 years ago. Hey, you're such an uber-geek you should know that.

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Big f'ing Wow. OK, I've only just taken the plunge and installed a 64bit linux distribution (FedoraCore 3) on my PC, but it also comes complete with a large number of applications compiled for 64bit, and 64bit distributions have been around for a while now.
It sounds like there will be hardly any 64bit programs for XP64 when it's launched - the first ones ready will probably be Open Source programs like Mozilla because they're already running in 64bit on other platforms.
Although I must note that I have the same problem with Firefox that they have with IE - if you're running a 64bit version you can't run 32bit plugins.

Microsoft has an initiative for this too, but just for Win XP. It's called Game Advisor and among other things, will find patches for games for you...for free. :\

IIRC, Microsoft wants to turn this tool into a one-stop-shop for gamers, around the time Longhorn is released.

secure surfing == no more shark attacks?

I wish the media would stop referring to people who use the web as "surfers". It has been a legitimate business tool (and superceded its recreational uses) for several years no

Calling web use surfing has jumped the shark.


This comment was edited on Feb 2, 10:22.