I have confirmed for those of you that may be in question, Dungeon Siege 2 *DOES* run on windows 2000.

Man, DS(2) to me is such a shame; continuous streaming level, a decent enough rpg system (but then again, everyone has been spoilt by the SPECIAL system ) gorgeous graphics...and it's all let down by a game which essentially plays itself. You sit and click to get your party moving...and that's basically it. Your characters are overpowered, there's absolutely no challlenge to the game. It is, essentially, the same as watching someone else play the game whilst you watch over his/her shoulder. Boring. But in such a beautifull engine

And I'm surprised about the amount of win-myths being posted here! Guys, go read arstechnica more, or even just the MS knowledgebase! Win2k is the same as Winxp; same kernel, same HAL's, same filesystems, same architechture, same everything under the hood.
The difference is that winxp includes a years worth of skinning tools and other UI 'enhancements' and one or two extra programs which run on top of the kernel (which hasn't changed a line of code between 2k and xp), like msconfig and certain other management tools.
Propperly admin'd, 2k and xp run exactly the same. I've got my windows dir at 1.5 gig (fully updated, but I went through and optimised it) and with services parred down to the ones I need (including wacom and mouse/keyboard drivers etc) XP takes up 152 mb of ram. As for paging etc, are you running xp in desktop mode or something?
So...xp does everything 2k does...plus more (like msconfig and run games). Downside is that you do need to tweak xp a HELL of a lot more to get it right...'cos out of the box it does run everything plus the kitchen sink. Which is why when I install xp, I run xteq (google that) first and the service management tools. Plus I have a customised .reg file to get rid of/customise the rest of the shit (like any admin would...also if you run win2k). All that takles half an hour, tops.

My conclusion: use winxp, 'cause given half an hour's work, it runs the same as win2k (just as fast and stable [duh: same kernel]), only it runs more than win2k does, is the OS of first choice for gamedevs/appdevs and will be EOL'd later than win2k.

Wow...sorry for the rant

ColoradoHoudini , as someone mentioned, the game never saves your location, it saves you progress, what youve unlocked..what gear youve collected.. your skill and experience points. Any time you restart the game, you will allways appear at the closest cities teleporter.

Since when is XP 200Bucks? Sounds to me you got ripped for buying a crap unsupported OS to me. XP may take more space and be a resourse hog, but if your running half way good hardware, you dont notice it. Dont like the silly baloons and eye candy, HELLO its an option. You simply have more flex with XP Pro. Buy a hard drive and pick it up for 100 buxx. Hell you can still pay 100 buxx for it if you look hard enough.

Oh and toasters are really cool, they toast bagels now too!

"I fart in your general direction!"

I am buying this today. Not because it is a great game, it is serviceable. Not because of its amazing design, though 70-100 hours of play ain't too shabby.

I am buying it because it has CO-OP. I will buy ANY game that has co-op in it. I want developers that include this feature in their games to be rewarded for it. Any game is much more fun with co-op in it. I wish other developers would wake up and see that.

Worm strikes down Windows 2000 systems
Microsoft in 'emergency response' as worm reported on three continents

Wednesday, August 17, 2005; Posted: 9:19 a.m. EDT (13:19 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A fast-moving computer worm Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.

This comment was edited on Aug 17, 10:13.

creston is an old Geezer

he probably still uses a oven to toast his bread

Windows/286 rocked. Remember the good 'ole days of having to load Windows at the DOS prompt?

Spread the O&A Virus on XM Radio!
http://www.opieandanthony.com
http://www.xmradio.com

You actually don't save as far as staying in place. Instead it's saved as a world and character state. You restart in the village then portal or back-track to the location you left off at. All items and character stats are saved as is though. And any boss you killed should also be dead unless I missed something in the demo.

I kinda like the game. It's a very fun time sink, with a long story and has an epic feel to it.

You guys should definitly try it out. It gets lots better after the first act.

the reason win2k is in such number versus XP, is because of the large consumers- corporations and the government.
In fact, we just sat through a conference where we were talking about the w2k upgrade to XP clients and 2k3 servers.. saying that we (govt) are a HUGE reason why 2k is still out in force.
it was a briefing from MS themselves. and like people said above me.. XP is great for home and you throwing out numbers of how many people are using 2k.. is misleading in your context.
XP owns the home market by a large margin.
----------------
anyone know a cheesy way to save the game in DS2? i know there are save points in the game.. but they are far and few between. clicking the "save game" option doesnt do anything!.. wtf?
-----------------

The only reason why I'm not upgrading is I bought Win2k for a hefty price

Which is a very good reason to not upgrade. And I fully agree with you about the BS being pulled by MS here -- there's no reason that it couldn't install on Win2k as well (it runs there just fine apparantly).

Yes, yes, yes... Win2k wasn't designed for games. Blah blah blah. But games run just fine and there's no good reason not to support it.

Its so gay reading posts about complainers, especially when none of them have even played the FULL game yet, unless they pirated it.

So lame...

and who gives a crap about disk footprint when disk prices are <$0.50/gig?

I never said I gave a crap, the original question was "In what ways is Windows XP not vastly superior to Win2k/98."
Well, in quite a few ways. *shrug*

The only reason why I'm not upgrading is I bought Win2k for a hefty price, and see no point in spending another 200 bucks on what is essentially the same OS but bugged down with more crap. I'll jump over to Longhorn Vista when it's out.

As for GPG solely developing for WindowsXP, that's completely retarded anyways. (and is only done because MS told them to in some vague effort to "promote" Windows XP, even though it itself is going to be on its way out in a year or so.)

Creston

         Check out the worm shutting down 2000 and NT

Oh, you mean the worm that's infecting everything from 95 to XP?

FWIW, I think they were referring to not the Zotob worm but rather this one:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/08/16/computer.worm/index.html

While the worm primarily affects Windows 2000, it also can affect some early versions of Microsoft XP, said Johannes Ullrich, director of the Sans Institute, a network security firm based in Jacksonville, Florida.

/me shrugs


Use your head, don't lose it - Don't feed the trolls!
This comment was edited on Aug 16, 20:35.

OH MY GOD. YOU GUY'S DON'T LIKE DUNGEON SIEGE 2. I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF NOW.

If you don't want the game, that's cool. I'm quite enjoying it. It's mindless, the voice-acting sucks, the story is terribly common RPG fare. The player models look like crap (though the graphics are FAR better in motion than any screenshot can tell).

And I still absolutely love it. The one thing I find incredibly annoying about the game is that it is incredibly easy. Some of the sidequests offer a refreshingly tough challenge, but the main quest is just way too easy. I'm hoping that the higher-level difficulty run-throughs of the game (which can only be done when you beat the game once) will change that.
This comment was edited on Aug 16, 19:48.

I looooove my MAME32

My, how time flies. We're reaching a point where MAME *itself* is becoming a classic...not just the games it emulates. I just realized it's been over 4 years since I did this:

http://www.markblanco.com/pages/cabinet/cabmain.html



Spread the O&A Virus on XM Radio!
http://www.opieandanthony.com
http://www.xmradio.com

Oh, those were the days...


http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7096

I looooove my MAME32.

Parallax Abstraction
Founder of StateOfGaming.org - Coming Soon
Commentary & Discussion About the Video Game Industry and Its Future

Check out the worm shutting down 2000 and NT

Oh, you mean the worm that's infecting everything from 95 to XP?

I rather prefer XP, but due to various UI improvements. The complaints about it being slower, more bloated, etc. are fretting about insignificant differences -- the speed differences fall into the "noise" realm, the memory usage is easily reduced by stopping various services, and who gives a crap about disk footprint when disk prices are <$0.50/gig?

If you have a legal license for Win2k then there's really no need to upgrade. If you're running pre-2k though then it's well past time to upgrade.

You know, that is actually a pretty sad comment. In essence you are saying that a game that does not let you play a role, but lets you become more powerful over time through some random combat skills is actually a better role playing game than other games more focussing on the role you play?

I was talking about the skill system in Dungeon Siege vs most others. Maybe I should've been more clear on that. In DS your skill develops the more you use it. In the others, you simply assign points towards whatever skill you want, even if its one you haven't used yet. The former sounds more like 'role-playing' to me than the other. I want my skills to be reflective of my character traits, not dictated by them. I have no idea what you mean by 'random combat skills'. What exactly is random about them in DS vs most other RPGs? And as for "playing a role", what are some RPGs that focus more on that aspect than acquiring power through combat?