Max Jenius

McFarlane toys were always disappointing to me when I found that the articulation only allowed for 1 or 2 cool poses.

Aside from the DECEPTICON logo.... I like Hidden Mist/Leaf(Naruto) missing nin emblems... they're just like the normal ones only with a nice little gouge down the center.

You can back up content downloaded from steam...

LoL seriously? I dunno, I just don't see a problem with it right now because I've been on broadband for years, and it rarely goes down. BUT you do make valid points for being able to play offline w/o a connection. All I'm sayin is that its far from Orwellian. Oh and the Skynet thing was a joke I said to my buddies while we were all furiously typing to eachother on MSN having HL2 authentication races... I was first out the door, but now they're all way farther in the game than me... d'oh! So if you harass Steam enough it lets you play eh? Interesting...

hehe... this must be like... one of the all-time repeating threads (non-macross) on this forum.

hoping they don't divided in several parts or make sequels of the movie... I kinda like the episodic films. Hell, I like all of the Matrix movies (Matrices? )

It is not wanted with me... it is an intrusion in my eyes. They could have done something as simple as they did with KotOR or Men of Valor and simply put a "check for upgrades" button in the game menu. Why does it have to be it's own manager? Why can't just the program have it built in? They are setting us all up for big brother Steam to monitor our games and keep us "safe" from those nasty pirates. It is overkill and unneccessary... I hate how now every time I start my computer Steam comes on and whines at me about my internet connection not being on. I do not trust Steam and I want it off my box. I just want to play a stupid game... I don't need some corporation telling me how to play it and watching me when I do. No, they're set up so that Valve can make more money per copy sold rather than have to go through publishers like Vivendi. Their margins are 3x higher through Steam. I would rather have Valve see more of my money than Vivendi. I think you're reading wayyyy too much into it. Plus if you're so worried about DRM, then I hope you're on a Linux box. But I mean, you CAN set steam to not run every time you start your computer up.... Its not Big Brother, its cost effective. Single Player is like, the FIRST and EASIEST part of a game to crack. But hey, you can think what you like, nobody's forcing you to play the game. But hey, maybe you're right and Steam is really SKYNET in disguise!!! OMFG! It does suck that HL1 isn't souped up though... That bugged me. But oh well, I mostly wanted the back catalogue of games anyway because I lost my OpForces and never played Blue Shift.

Orwellian? Dude... seriously.... this is the next logical step from Valve's authentication servers. Steam is convenient... read about a new patch.... *checks steam* ohhhh... I already have it! I'm ready to play. The only load times that are long for me are the ones at the VERRRRY beginning of the game... then its <20s in the spurts between levels.

Who cares? M$ could afford to bring it down easily. GC has always been cheaper than XBox and up until last year it was a dead-heat. More units sold is more units sold is more units sold. They're both competing in the same market and their power is comparable. By that logic the generic brand cereal in the 20lb sacks should outsell the PC Game box sized name brand cereals... no? Its just as good, correct?

I dunno, Splinter Cell never really grabbed me. Plus I thought the splits thing was really, really stupid.

hmm... took maybe 5-10 min to authenticate. What happens is that supposedly if you got it through steam you downloaded an app and it "uncooked" all the HL2 files. In any case, I'm loving steam. If I get lonesome for some CDs, I can always back up my files and just stick em on a burned DVD.

Nintendo has sold more Gamecubes than MS has sold X-Boxes. Last Xmas put them up on top. Hehe, kinda funny that I own the 2 consoles that are least popular. Oh, and in response to my earlier comment, you guys are right. Sony is the only guilty party really. I think most of that annoyance stems from PC part manufacturers... Voodoo, GeForce, Radeon, TNT. But I suppose 3rd parties come up with some good names. I remember my GeForce DDR; Creative 3D ANNIHILATOR PRO. Heh, stemmed a funny discussion where we came up with different names for vid cards ("3D RAPIST PRO; F*cks your games in the @$$ after they said no!") Of course, that's off the top of my head, we came up with some better ones. Dammit... sorry for being OT guys.

Like I said, I just rode the tram in, took one look at Barney and his walking animations and got out because I wanted to play HL2. Otherwise, I'm not really seeing anything new. I do intend to play through some more though, the lighting looks better as far as I can tell.

Dude, I'm in this "PC crowd" you speak of and I don't care for any Baldur's Gate games whatsoever. But hey, PC D&D style RPGs are supposedly superior... but I prefer consoles for that because, well... I like to be able to play a game for 20-60 minutes at a time and still feel like I've accomplished something; Console RPGs do that for me. Sure, there are my marathon sessions, but I don't have as much time to sit down for that these days. Plus... well... HL2 just came out. X-Men Legends has its moments, but hopefully if there's a sequel they will refine the formula a bit.

I think there's different Links. I always assumed that the "quest" that the Hero of Time went on was to look for the Soul Edge and destroy it.

PFF, the crap in it isn't worth it. People can have a nicer set up for less.

No... but to really "get" what is going on, you should probably play through the first one. Half-Life is an amazing game even by today's standards, so I say give it a go on your computer man! It shouldn't be too difficult, plus you'll get better as you go through.

Graphics wise, HL:Source appears to look pretty much identical to the regular version. I must say that I'm disappointed, though I needed a new copy of HL1 anyway plus I haven't gone that far into it(not even at "Unforseen Consequences". One of the cool things about HL Source is that it comes with "tracks" already to go so you can dive in wherever you want(think DVD menu). Anyway, I'm having an absolute blast with HL2. I just got the gravity gun, that thing is marvelous. The only problem I have is that I can't manipulate corpses with it. I guess Newell got upset when people put pics up with HL2 models in comprimising positions. In any case it was a minor disappointment and I'm enjoying every minute. This game definitely feels like Half-Life, but with a few interesting twists. Its hard to describe how exciting the game is without giving too much away, so I say we make this thread pretty much spoiler free until next week. Cool? *minor spoiler* One of my favorite parts happens right off the bat when you first get your Hazard Suit. You go in and put it on and then the Valve theme(from the logo in the beginning of HL1 and HL2) kicks in very cool. Sent a shot of adrenaline through me just knowing what was in store, yet at the same time not knowing.

i'm shocked and amazed that someone like you doesn't have a computer and super nice joystick setup for playing flight sims on the computer. learn something every day. ditto

Close; pile cinderblocks on one end to raise the other end up. Doom 3 was a different kind of FPS. I don't even really compare the two because Graphics-wise they are very similar. HL2 has better physics and is in a totally different environment. Doom 3 made me feel like I was on Mars running around a base that was getting fizzucked up. They accomplished their goal and I think D3 rocked. HL2 is a totally different kind of game and it rocks in its own right. I'm more excited about HL2 because I'm all about making love to my environment in FPS games. Doom 3 - Claustrophobic, Dark killing HL2 - Open, Participation, oh... and killing. Both kickass games. Its been a good year.

Its a fun game. Little hard to keep track of your character in the middle of all the action... but hey; its still fun. Rogue is mah girl.

*sigh* They should have sent a poet.

I never thought I'd see a Disney/Pixar fanboy... jk Anyway, who cares who is doing it as long as its still entertaining? Lets hope they keep up the good work w/o Pixar.

SOL was a good game. A lot of people just cry because they got tricked. Plus it gets complicated at the end, but all in all a solid package. If MGS is a 9 or 10 I'd rate SOL an 8 and that's just because I miss the Foxhound names. I look forward to seeing what Snake Eater is all about.

Wow! This sure feels like old times.