If Microsoft and/or developers think that the game will be good and sell heaps of copies, then they will make it on next generation stuff only-sorta thing. So they think that Halo2 vista will be relly good and encourage people to buy vista. Well you cant speak bad about that approach, worked on me :biggrin:

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Aaron's Stuff

Hay ReNo, you would be a crazy ass son of a bitch to.. not get Halo3 on the box. Even if you dont like it. :biggrin:

I am a Halo fan Aaron, you've no need to bring your crusade of conversion to me :razz: Sadly I just put an order in for Crackdown with the Halo 3 beta key yesterday, before my 360 died. Hope it's all sorted out and returned before the end of the beta :sad:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

? quoting omegaslayer

? quote:
It Halo 2 still only going to run on vista? STALKER was a vista game and it ran on Xp.
Correct -- Its to get gamers to buy vista by holding your "kahones" in a vice grip.

What's in it for the game creators to make "vista only" games? I mean, if they made them for both XP and Vista more people would be able to play them and hence more people would buy their games.

If i find you running on anything other than vista I'll F##king kill you.

Anyone tried the new Lord of the Rings MMORPG?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote: ReNo</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I am a Halo fan Aaron</DIV></DIV>

:eek: ....... you my bitch reno :biggrin: . I thought you where all Half-life peoples.

I didn't get the halo 3 beta because when I finally get the game, I want it to be like a massive suprise.

And no French toast, have not playin that game. But I think somewhere in my house I got a lord of the rings game for pc.

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Aaron's Stuff

You miss read us aaron, we like the halo series, we're just not fan boys (like you) of any game in particular. Here at the pit we play all sorts of games.

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Posting And You

Oh ok, thanks omega. I play all sorts of games to. I had a thought today. The gman. He is so mysterious. So I looked him up. Let me say something, I have gained a bit more respect for valve now. :biggrin:

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Aaron's Stuff

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Suprisingly short (beat in ~9 hours first time through), the combat is a little clunky, but the puzzles and acrobatics are where the show is at. Its a puzzle game at heart and a whole damn lot of fun just to move around the levels. Next up is finishing Warrior Within (got about halfway through twice), then I'll likely get The Two Thrones.

Also played a demo of Doom RPG, seems like a solid game, something to play while bored on the go.

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o

Flipside
It's a HL2 mod side scroller, and pretty freaky. It's short, and the controls are annoying, but it's a original idea you should check out if you have 160 Mb to spare.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Finished Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory a few days ago. Was pretty fun, but I've always liked Metal Gear Solid much better. The Splinter Cell games feel so repetitive, you do the same thing over and over in similar environments on every level. The pace doesn't change very much throughout the game. 4/5.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I got Civ3 Complete to run on my old apple laptop. BIG mistake. As grand as it is, it eats so friggin' much time. :sad:

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Why snark works.

I spent hours downloading HL2 Infiltration. I don't recommend any of you do the same.

First of all, the .rar file itself is a hefty 223 Mb, which is to be expected of a mod, but not of a mod that has no new models, and few new textures. It takes place in City 17, after all. The thing is, 61 Mb of that is bitmaps! HL2 itself has less than 4 Mb of bitmaps, not compressed.
Uncompressed, those bitmaps total 352 Mb, when the entire mod folder itself totals 758 Mb. I don't know what those bitmaps do (sourcemods/infiltration/expressions), but they can't be that important if HL2 didn't use that many.

I thought it would be forgivable if the mod kicked a lot of ass, but it didn't. The opening sequence was cool, but that was about it. There were a lot of annoying mapping and scripting errors that could've been easily avoided.
There are areaportals that don't work right, so when you open a door, you see the skybox.
There's brush-based dirt that should've been done with displacements, including an attempt at blending textures without using a displacement.
There are innumerable misaligned textures, including windows that stick halfway out of walls.
There player clips in places where there should be a fence, including a gap between fences that could fit two players.
There are metro cops that just stand there until you shoot at them, even some surrounded by other metro cops that do shoot at you unprovoked.
You can see the edge of the skybox in multiple places that the mappers didn't even try to block the player from getting into and/or seeing, including a set of train tracks that abruptly ends with the edge of the skybox, in plain view.

You get the point.

Now here's the clincher, it crashed on the transition from the second map to the third map, by this point I'm less than amused, and the only reason I'm still playing is because I bothered downloading and opening this mod. Now it crashes on me, f*** that.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Thanks for the heads-up on that mod, I was curious about it, now I'm not.

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don't sweat the petty stuff,just pet the sweaty stuff.

223 MB isn't really that much.... last check Fortress Forever was around 1 GB.

the .rar file itself is a hefty 223 Mb, which is to be expected of a mod, but not of a mod that has no new models, and few new textures.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

223 MB isn't really that much.... last check Fortress Forever was around 1 GB.

:eek: damn high-res textures.

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Why snark works.

I finished F.E.A.R. Extraction Point earlier today, the expansion for F.E.A.R. It was pretty much more of the same, which means cool slowmo gunfights and evil replica soldiers screaming as you gun them down. A few new weapons had been added, for example a minigun and some sort of lasergun. I'm not sure how long it took me, but according to gamespot this expansion takes around 4-6 hours to beat. All in all, a nice expansion with a vague story, some new weapons and more of the awesome action from the first game. If you enjoyed the original, you'll like this one as well. 4/5.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I've been playing some Armored Core 4 on the 360 the past couple of days, and I'm really enjoying it. For those who don't know of the series, it's all about building and customising mechs and using them in an array of mercenary missions. It's extremely fast paced and hectic once you are in the game, with a whole lot of missiles flying around, a very busy radar, and boosters working overtime to keep you airborne more often than not. I've never really played any of the earlier games properly (just the odd go at my mate's house) but I'm glad I've finally taken the plunge, as it suits my gaming tastes very well.

It's a very strange game in that missions are quite often trivially short (literally under a minute in a lot of cases, and always less than 5 or so); you often end up spending more time setting up your mech for the mission than actually carrying it out. Although they all tend to revolve around blowing up enemies there's a fair bit of variety in the scenarios they present, which not only mixes up the gameplay by forcing you to change your tactics (and tweak your mech accordingly) but also makes it seem like there's a lot more to the game than there is. You'll be taking down helicopter supply convoys, fighting an enemy mech in a sandstorm, taking down an army on a pitch black battlefield lit only by intermittent flares, flying through the now totally flooded Shanghai's skyline while you sink invading warships, and intercepting swarms and swarms of slow moving missiles as they head towards a allied base. Although all you can do in the game is shoot things, they think up plenty of different ways for you to do so :smile:

Sadly it looks like multiplayer is pretty lame, which is a shame as given how customisable your mechs are I could easily have seen myself getting hooked on it. It only comes with 6 or so levels to play and all of them are painfully featureless. The game might be mostly about fast movement, effective use of weapons, and evading missiles through excessive use of boosters, but it wouldn't hurt to provide some more cover. The single player levels are often quite sparse as well but I don't see why they couldn't have used some of the more interesting battlefields for play online.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I started playing Resident Evil 4 a few hours ago. It's 06:15 am over here, so you can guess what kept me awake. :razz: Great game so far.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Super Paper Mario is fantastic even if it can be frustrating at times.

I really hope they continue this mish-mash-style of platformer and rpg, because it's working really well.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I just finished Resident Evil 4 for the PS2. Nice game, but not quite as good as the first three games. Still, a nice, wellmade game. 5/5.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

You should check it out on the GCN or better yet the Wii, they're both better versions.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I tried RE4 a little on a Wii before playing it on the PS2, and I got the feeling the graphics weren't quite as good on the Wii. What does 'GCN' stand for? Could it be Gamecube?

I played the Limited Edition PS2 version btw, and according to the cover this version had some exclusive extra missions with Ada after beating the game. Maybe the GCN and Wii have limited edition versions with similar extras.

Is there anything in particular that makes the GCN and Wii versions better?

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

The GCN (Gamecube) version looks a bit better than the PS2 version, but doesn't have the additional content such as the added weapon or two, costumes, and extra Ada side story. The Wii version, AFAIK, is graphically as good as the GCN version with the added bonus of having the additional content of the PS2 version.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Roller coaster tycoon 3

I've missed this game.

I have the first one.

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Aaron's Stuff

ReNo said:
The GCN (Gamecube) version looks a bit better than the PS2 version, but doesn't have the additional content such as the added weapon or two, costumes, and extra Ada side story. The Wii version, AFAIK, is graphically as good as the GCN version with the added bonus of having the additional content of the PS2 version.

I've always thought the PS2 was more powerful than the GCN, and about equal to the Wii, if not more powerful. And it's got nothing to do with me being a Playstation fanboy :razz: .

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Pretty sure the Gamecube is more powerful than a PS2. There are ups and downs for each of the platforms though since they're all built differently with different methodologies in mind.

No, the play station 2 is more powerful than the game cube but the xbox is more powerful than the play station 2.

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Aaron's Stuff

The gamecube is much more powerful than a PS2, as far as hardware goes. The RE4 for PS2 actually has less quality in the worlds and is choppier (as I understand it).

The Wii is substantially more powerful than the PS2 and moderately more powerful than the GCN. The PS2 was only moderately more powerful than the Dreamcast (a gorgeous under-appreciated console).

If you don't believe me go hunt down some specs.

The XBox is a desktop x86 computer, the only difference between the computer you're using now (unless you're running a mac or sparc or something) is the OS on the console and the instruction set for the GPU. That's it. The actual hardware is identical in most respects.

I think the size of the freaking thing has to count against it as well.

[tangent]
The downside of the GCN was the lack of 3rd party support and general attitude towards it by the public, talk about a case of the Saturn without the insane price tag. But there's more "must have" games on the GCN than any other console in the last few years ... even the Wii (at least at this point in time). I'm not counting handhelds, though. There are good games on PS2, but only a few are as good as the "pretty good" games on GCN.

The PS2 (like it's successor) was just plain engineered poorly. It's "power" was feeble, for a console it was decent, but all around it couldn't hold a candle to other things out at the time. The only thing that's kept if afloat is the games that are on it. The problem is, there's too f**king many. Sony stated this overdrive push in making and releasing games then making them incredibly hard to find and suddenly "rare" in a matter of months. I mean, two sequels in a series could come out the same year and by the time the second one comes out the first can't be found. Nintendo did the same thing with the GBA.
In addition to this, the original models (like the one I have), actually damaged discs if not placed horizontally. The older models also can barely (if ever) read "blue disc" games, because those games are cds and are thinner. They wobble too much in the drive and the POS laser can't read them. (No Ico or Contra for you!)

The Xbox just plain doesn't have enough "great" games to justify it's purchase (for me ... and it's made by Microsoft). If you can count all the games that are "good" on the console that are also exclusive on one hand, that's not a good sign. The only games I ever wanted to play that actually stayed exclusive to the Xbox were made by Sega anyway.

My main beef with Sony and Microsoft is that they have this disregard for their consumers' intelligence. They ship defectively engineered consoles and push expensive hardware. Their answer is, engineer a smaller, better working version, then the consumer can buy that one too. And people put up with it. I think I'm a little more against Sony on this because they do it with EVERYTHING. You could buy a $10,000 product from them and it would still have the same type of corner cutting that's in the PS2. I will never understand why people accept it.
[/tangent]

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

No, the play station 2 is more powerful than the game cube but the xbox is more powerful than the play station 2.

Well both a little research and personal experience disproves that. :razz: Most of what Crono said is pretty much truth, granted I don't have as much of a distaste for the last gen in respects to the PS2 and Xbox (My PS2 was a first gen, Xbox is near the end) I have similar gripes with both companies and haven't bothered to get either of their respective current gen consoles.

I own almost as many consoles/systems as I have fingers and toes (and no, I'm not deformed nor a sloth) but the key thing is they all still work with the exception of my PS2 which while technically still working is glaringly showing the corners that were cut in its creation and while I was okay with that in the past because Sony tended to redeem itself somewhat but nowadays they just flat-out lie to your face and make the same mistakes again.

I miss the days when game stores cared about the games and not selling all the other junk, or at least had decent junk to sell. (Sort of goes hand-in-hand with the high volume of PS2 games but 95% of them suck balls.)

It's super early in the morning and I'm tired so this post probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense. :razz:

Well my Grandpa used to work with that generation of consoles (xbox, ps2, gc) and he said that the most powerful was the xbox followed by the ps2. Who knows though, I was kinda young when he told me and mabye I got the wrong idea.

All's I can say is this though, judgeing from personal experiance, the xbox is slightly more powerful than the Playstation 2. I've playin the same games on xbox and ps2 and the xbox games always seem to have better graphics and be more 'clear'

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Aaron's Stuff

A little something i found. http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/
My best score was like 240 something. have fun.

Silversphere - Suprisingly awesome puzzle game.

Rome - Total War
I think I'm in love.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

aaron_da_killa said:
I've playin the same games on xbox and ps2 and the xbox games always seem to have better graphics and be more 'clear'

The picture for the PS2 will be a lot more clear and crisp if you use a SCART cable with all pins. The difference was very noticable when I switched from the one that came with the console to a "Joytech PS2 SCART cable" or whatever it was called.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

OtZman said:
The picture for the PS2 will be a lot more clear and crisp if you use a SCART cable with all pins. The difference was very noticable when I switched from the one that came with the console to a "Joytech PS2 SCART cable" or whatever it was called.

SCART cables (and connectors on the TV) arent used much in Aus, seems to be more prevalent in Europe, but there seems to be more TV's with SCART connectors on them in recent times.

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SourDough2.0 - With Strawberry Jam

Silversphere - Suprisingly awesome puzzle game.

Reminds me of the Windows 3.1 classic, Chip's Challenge (aka, excellence).

OtZman said:
The picture for the PS2 will be a lot more clear and crisp if you use a SCART cable with all pins. The difference was very noticable when I switched from the one that came with the console to a "Joytech PS2 SCART cable" or whatever it was called.

SCART cables (and connectors on the TV) arent used much in Aus, seems to be more prevalent in Europe, but there seems to be more TV's with SCART connectors on them in recent times.

I don't think I've ever seen a TV in NA with a SCART connector. My DVD player has one but it has just about every connector under the sun and plays almost every format.

Wow, I figured SCART was popular everywhere - it's the standard here in the UK and Europe. So what do you use normally in the US? Composite cables, S-Video?

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Depends on the setup, but mostly Composite, S-Video and Component.

Coax is just now, finally, getting phased out, nearly completely. At the very least, most devices are offering better hook ups. Cheaper TVs are being made with Component hookups also. S-Video never really hit it big here and the less connections there are, the better as far as the public is concerned so we don't get GOOD connectors on devices unless they're insanely expensive.

Top of the line here is considered to be HDMI and right beneath it is Component (which, in all actuality, isn't that great).

But, overall, composite has taken the place of Coax, and will likely, be just as hard to eliminate.

I was really annoyed when I got my satellite dish, because the connection from the dish to the receiver is coax (with no alternative). There's like 100% digital clarity going into the dish then they slap on one of the lowest bandwidth cables around.

However, with audio, fiber optics seem to be everywhere. Near my house the cables themselves are cheap (~12 ft for ~$6) so everything in my house (that has it) has optic audio hooked up.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

The last five days I've been playing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater quite a lot. I've beaten it once on Normal, and I'm now playing a second time for extra stuff. The game is pure quality all the way through, although there are some things that annoyed me. For example, the radar with dots and cone shapes representing the enemies and their fields of vision is gone. For me, this radar was almost half of Metal Gear Solid. It could be that I just suck, but I got discovered over and over and over again in area after area. In the previous games (MGS and MGS2) I used to at least occasionally feel like an awesome spy when I managed to sneak past all the enemies without any trouble. Instead I felt like idiot of the year when playing MGS3. When playing for the second time I've realized I made quite a few stupid mistakes during my first play, but still, it was a bit too much. I felt like you had to watch what the enemies did, their movement patterns etc, and then crawl around to get by them, and be more careful than in the previous games. I'm sure some people will like this, but I think this made the game a bit more slowpaced then the previous titles.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Although not as fun/great as the previous two games (again just my own thoughts), this game is pure quality, despite missing the beloved MGS radar. You can see that the creators have really put in lots of effort. 5/5.

And sorry for any incoherence in this post, I've been playing all night long and my clock says 7:30 AM.... well, good night.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Halo 3 ZOMG! Awesome, awesome game!

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Aaron's Stuff

Halo 3 ZOMG! Awesome, awesome game!

zomgomgomg aaron gets the heart attack!!!111

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Why snark works.

ZOMG! HALO 3, AM LUUUV HAYLO 3. AM LUV TEH Story LINZ

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Aaron's Stuff

SPOILER: s**t blows up, dudes die

Got a 360 last week. Bought NHL '08, Viva Pinata and just picked up Dead Rising and Tomb Raider Legend. I'll grab Halo 3 in a week when I visit Washington for a weekend vacation, save myself $10 or so.

NHL '08 is just plain amazing, but the PC version blows ass, don't ever pay money for it.

i've started playing secret of mana again, snes rocks my socks
oh and i can't stop playing oblivion

Halo 3 is great. Really. Not god's gift to gaming as the hype would have you believe, but it is still a really excellent game. It isn't gonna change your opinion of Halo if you don't like the earlier games as it is just more of the same with minor tweaks and improvements, but anybody who isn't put off by that will have a great time. Finished the campaign in 2 sittings; think that shows I was having a good time :wink:

A mate brought over his 360 and we did 4 player coop in system link last night, which was predictably awesome. We then did some 3v3 team deathmatch, and we had a great time and some seriously closely fought battles. I'm thinking it won't be long before we've tried to recruit an extra 2 players to maximise our screen usage :biggrin:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net