Don’t worry too much about it. On a completely different note, I hope everyone is enjoying the longest night of the year. I personally will be celebrating by firing up a classic PC game which begs to be played in the dark - Thief: The Dark Project.
I wish I still had Dead Space in my collection. I always played that game in the dark with my headphones on for maximum effect. By the way, are they ever going to release another game in the Thief series? I think I’ve read something about it earlier, but I don’t quite remember when and where I read it at.
According to Wikipedia, Thief 4 was announced as being in early development by Eidos Montreal. Thanks for asking about that, as even I hadn’t heard anything about it. I suppose it makes sense though since I had heard about a new Deus Ex game, given that Thief seems to be linked together with it since the collapse of Looking Glass Studios.
I didn’t even realize they were making another Deus Ex game. I remember playing both Deus Ex and its sequel, Invisible War, and the latter was so disappointing compared to the first one. I’m hoping Deus Ex 3 brings back some of the magic from the first one.
Well… the quality is up in the air. Is SE lets the original team deal with it and only offers its financial or technological help, then it could be special. If SE tries to mess with the story, then I don’t know.
Finally finished Disgaea 2. I mean really finished the game. Did everything I could do. 100% complete. Done and done.
Awesome fun.
Too bad #3 is on PS3… praying for a PSP port.
Laharl VS Adell. Rocks fall. Everyone dies.
Crap, shit, dung and manure!
Once to live and twice to see and thrice to die.
Just purchased the components to build a customised PC. First, intimidating and overwhelming at the beginning but I know more about computers than before. Second, in doing comparisons with pre-built retail PCs… let’s just say that I may never buy a pre-built again if all goes well. Some of the “gaming” computers didn’t even have HDTV plug-in capabilities nor were the graphic cards all that special. I would have had to purchase a compatabile video card right off the bat after spending 1200 plus! By no means do I have a monster set up, but it should handle new games quite well. And I can always add more memory, HDDs, and another graphics card… o yes, I’m going to be poor. I know it…
Still, I’m all giddy now. I can fully maximise my copy of Dragon’s Age and finally get around to playing The Witcher. Also, more memory for VN… the real reason to do all this 
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Welcome to the club Kabraxal! 
I’ve been building my own machines since the days of the original Socket 7 Pentium chip (mine was a 233MHz MMX) and when Voodoo was still in business (I had a Voodoo 2). If you need any kind of help or advice (besides that which would require me being there), feel free to send me a PM.
We shall see. I don’t expect the “construction” process to be all that difficult. I mean, I had no idea about my old PS-One when I tore it apart and rebuilt it… It actually worked after that too! I’ve also had to replace controller components time and again. Really, that gets frustrating after the eigth time in the matter of three years.
I would think that I’ll be searching for top tier options sometime down the line, but ight now I can live with pretty and efficient Dragon Age and will worry about godliness much, much, much later. Despite the research done to this point, I still have a lot to do to stop those occasional overload headaches.
Yeah, it isn’t too hard to do. The biggest hassle I usually have is trying to tidy up the various wires throughout the case to improve airflow. In any case, the two big pieces of advice that should keep you out of major trouble are as follows:
[list]
[]Keep yourself grounded at all times. You can use a fancy wrist strap that does this, but it isn’t really necessary. Personally, since I am usually barefoot in the house, I keep one of my bare feet against the case for this purpose (since I always use a metal case instead of plastic).[/]
[]Be careful with the amount of force you use to seat a component. If it isn’t fitting properly, double check that you are putting it in the right spot and are putting it in the right direction. In my experience, the part that usually requires the most force is the CPU heatsink, due to the tight fit needed for optimum heat transfer.[/][/list]
If you do these two things, you’ll avoid the two main ways that people turn their expensive new components in to expensive new paperweights.
Kabraxal: Dragon Age which origin? If you started.
I’ve finished four of six origins but completed only the human/male noble and most of the side-quests.
Got the anti-static starp just to be safe and will definetely handle the parts with extreme care. Luckily, both of my parents repaired computers, so I can easily have on hand help within an hour if necessary.
Chaos: on the 360 version I have completed 5 of the 6 origins (well, 4 as my Dalish is coming into the endgame at the moment). Contrary to a majority of fans’ opinions, I find the Dalish Elf origin to be the best. It might not have the most “impactful” first hour or so, though the immersion into that character is still the best, but it seems to play a bigger role through-out the game. There are constant references to the origin, a little surprise near the endgame, and continued unique dialogue choices that are origin specific.
I just have to do a Dwarven noble. Can’t wait to get on the computer and finally be able to use the various mods as well as create some of my own. So giddy! Though I have to wait until early next week because of New Years 
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Silent Hill: Shattered Memories…
… just, wow. Intense, disturbing, and powerful. You know, up until today I would have easily placed Dragon Age as the GOTY… but now I’m not so sure.
I can’t wait to try Dragon Age myself. I pre-ordered the “Digital Deluxe Edition” through Steam, but there is no way I’m going to attempt playing it on my current machine. I’ll be building my new machine pretty soon so that I can play it, but I’m being held up by a shortage in the video card I want to get. Supposedly more will be in around the second week of January.
I didn’t think Shattered Memories was scary at all, but it was a very good direction for horror to go. It was totally awesome. Plus, SH is the only horror series that’s going for psychological aspects right now. RE and Dead Space are both oriented heavily towards action.
As for Dragon Age … I personally found the writing to be mostly sub-par, with moments of pure brilliance scattered throughout. I suspect my opinion would be much higher if I hadn’t actually read the books they claim to have been heavily inspired by (Song of Ice and Fire). I also feel the Black Company novels show how to do that “guys operating on the grey line” thing far better than DA. DA seemed to have lots of the game that had “choices” that fell squarely into the “retarded evil” alignment just because Bioware felt they needed to have a choice there you could take.
I’ve read the Song of Ice and Fire, but recently my opinion for “dark fantasy” has taken a nose dive. DA at least offers hope and light if you wish it.
On SM: the nightmare and car sequences were the normal "frightening in Shattered Memories. But the true terror and horror comes from the disturbing nature of the agony and despair. This was the first time that after I finished the game, most of the elements actually became more disturbing and terrorising simply becuase they are no longer the fantasy play of “horror”, but a look at something real, powerful, and something that I find far more frightening than the cheap thrills of “fight or flight”.
It might be a more personal connection, but also the simple fact that I find these psychological aspects in SM are more frightening than being chased by a monster. I am far more afraid of loneliness than I am of death.
On the video card: which card are you looking for? I didn’t go for the highest tier possible, but I didn’t find many “out of stock” labels for video cards on newegg when I was shopping the other day.
The problem I had with Dragon Age was that you could - without any real motivation I can see - make deals with demons when it is your job to kill them on sight, and the worldbuilding clearly establishes your character knows damn well what happens when deals with demons get cut. Just the fact that such lame options existed at all really hurt my ability to get into the game.
Similarly, Bioware has a consistent problem with foreshadowing way too god damn much, and it really hurt the game early on when a bunch of stuff they apparently thought was supposed to be a surprise … wasn’t. At all.
I’m looking to get a Sapphire Vapor-X HD5870. While it has a slight overclock, the reason I want to get it is that it runs cooler than a standard 5870. (Besides, tests I looked at indicate that the small overclock they applied didn’t show any signs of making a real difference.) Last time I looked, the only place I could get one was on Ebay, marked up about $100 dollars more than on Newegg. I figure this card will meet my need to play games with high settings, given that I still use 4:3 CRT with a max resolution of 1600x1200 since I don’t like LCD screens. Even if I did like LCD, there is no way I would spend money on a new monitor when the one I have still works just fine.
Vapor 5770 for me. I don’t need the crispest or highest tier of graphical power yet, though I think I met go with dual cards when that time comes.