Video Games - a general discussion thread — Page 250

xhonzi said:

HarryTasker2525 said:

Console is too easy.

I know.  I kinda hate how I can just put a disc in my console and play a game without spending hours on hours reconfiguring it and getting all new drivers for each of my components.  I only have so many hours to play each week- it's kind of boring that I'm not spending any of those hours fighting my computer.  I mean, I like that consoles make it easy... but they're just too easy.  You know what I mean?

Without sarcarsm, this is part of what I like about PC gaming :P Often I enjoy fighting activation and disc-checks, getting the best graphics settings and trying out mods more than I enjoy the game itself. I freely admit to being a "tourist" gamer and play just about everything on easy while I look at the pretty graphics... I have nothing against consoles other than FPS games suck to play with gamepads. I generally go with PC for first-person and console for 3rd-person/driving/fighting games.

I remember why I didn't go ahead with BioShock now... it was the damned aspect ratio on my 16:10 monitor. The HDCP in my DVI connection wouldn't allow my graphics card to scale to 16:9. The game can be run at 16:10 with proper FOV (after the patch) but the HUD is still stretched and it pisses me off to no end looking at a non-circular reticle. Picky I know. I believe the solution may be to break out the old VGA cable and see if my graphics card will scale it, as that will hopefully make it look exactly as it should.

Actually, your point is becoming clearer to me now...

HarryTasker2525 said:

Unless if you have shit pre-built or stupidly fucking idiotic Apple computer.

I have a stupidly fucking idiotic Apple computer. I love it! I've had so many laptops start falling apart on me after a little over a year, I am still having a hard time believing that I have had this thing for over three years now, and other than some scratches on the casing and a couple of minor cracks around the edges, the thing is still as good as new. The last couple of years prior to switching to Apple I dealt with so many viruses it has felt rather nice not having to so much as worry about that for all this time. Haven't even had to reformat this thing once since I got it, and it is still as fast as it was the day I got it. And getting to avoid having to ever deal the with the even more "stupidly fucking idiotic" MS Windows Vista was a definite plus as well.

HarryTasker2525 said:

Torrentededed Borderlands. Very funning game. Will buying Game of the Year Editions for PC soon.

Ah, I think we have figured out why someone is such a die hard fan of PC gaming. Glad to hear you're going to buy the thing at least, it is definitely a game worth not stealing.

DoubleKO said:

Actually, your point is becoming clearer to me now...

Yup.

Actually, when I was in high school and had some extra time on my hands I kind of enjoyed tinkering with things like that and going online and finding the latest patches or reading on message boards how to get things to work. I think I actually spent more time doing that short of thing than actually playing games, but I honestly did kind of enjoy it. The triumph of finally getting a game to work was more rewarding than most games I have beaten. Now that I only have a limited amount of time to play, I'd really just rather spend that time playing.

Trying to play System Shock 2 lately has been an annoying reminder of my old PC gaming days. It runs well enough, but the occasional freezing up or glitching out is really annoying. 

I'm a Mac user. Kind of narrows my options. So far every old game I've wanted to play on my Mac I've been able to. System Shock 2, being the one I've wanted to play the most over the last few years, is the only one I have had consistent trouble with. Latest issue is I've made it a ways into the game, saved and quit after over an hour of not saving, loaded that save back up the next day, and discovered all my inventory, stats, logs, and mission objectives had inexplicably vanished.   :{

xhonzi said:

Whoah, I totally confused Omega with Sigma!  How in the world did that happen??!?!  The side of the box talked about Lamb sending Omega against Delta as her final attack... which, since I was thinking of Minerva Den's Sigma, really had me scratching my head.

Haha! That is funny. I went through a similar confusing line of thinking before a few days before I read your post.

I was kind of bored earlier in the week and happened to be passing a Toy's R Us, so I pulled in just to browse their Bioshock stuff. They had a ton of the Splicer mask + Little Sister + Omega sets. Took me a while to dig through and find one without a broken mask, but when I did I broke down and bought it. The cashier saying, "Oooh man! That is so sweet looking!" as he looked at the splicer mask reassured me I had made the right choice. So yeah, I bought one. At $20 it was hard not to. They had a Lady Smith Splicer figure there too for $7, which seemed like such a good deal I almost jumped at it, then realized she isn't something I want to have to look at, which kind of defeats the purpose when you're talking about something that's solely intended to be a decoration.

With the Omega/Sigma thing. It has been so long since I played any BS2, I forgot who both of those guys were. I though he was just one of the other random Alpha series Big Daddies you run across in the game. It wasn't until I got it home and read the side of the box that after a few minutes of feeling a bit puzzled I remembered what happened to Augustus Sinclair at the end of the game. That actually made me more fond of the figure (which is much, much, much cooler than I expected him to be. Not a big fan of the Alpha series, but it is a really well made figure. I like his coloring much better than Delta's... though it is still hard not to wish he had a drill). It is funny you (Xhonzi) thought he was Sigma from Minerva's Den, because after realizing he was Sinclair I spent a few moments wishing he was Subject Sigma (if you remember I was a pretty big fan of the Minerva's Den DLC).

Training wheels. I used to have a "real computer", I'm very grateful to have moved on to a computer that always does what I need it to when I want it to.

And lasts five times as long. For a guy who needs a computer for little more than word processing, it is kind of nice being able to throw the thing in a bag and lug it around everywhere I need it without it falling apart on me or breaking every few months. I have a long history of issues with my laptops, Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, I've had a lot of laptops, this Apple is my seventh. Numbers one through 6 didn't make it even 12 months before I had to send them in to be repaired. Not one of them. Not one of those lived over two years, and most had to be sent in multiple times for repairs during their two year life span. I've had my MacBook three years and it has yet to need any repairs whatsoever. To me that is worth a lot.   

I hate Apple's over the top, ridiculous and pretentious marketing. It really annoys me. And it annoys me even more that thanks to that pretentious marketing I get given a lot of flak for using what is actually a really well built computer with a really solid and reliable operating system.

You know what is really stupid? iPads. What a ridiculous device with a very limited range of uses.

Tyrphanax said:

Shoulda bought ASUS laptops.

Haha! My room mate had one of those pieces of shit! I wasn't impressed. He had a lot of trouble with it. Finally he got so fed up with it he impulsively posted it on ebay with a buy it now price of more than he paid for it, and it sold by the next morning. Crazy. Ended up needed to use my Mac all the time for the next week while he waited for the replacement he ordered to come in. Incidentally, a year later he sold that one for a few dollars more than he paid for it as well. Not sure how he does that.

I had another friend who had a KDS (Korean Data Systems) laptop. Sketchiest thing I'd ever seen. It was really cheap and came without an OS. A month later the paint started flaking off, and all the little trap doors and hinges began breaking off. I loved that computer! It was the most simplistic generic looking laptop I have even seen. Surprisingly, despite little pieced falling off all the time, it actually lasted a good long while.

I dunno what you were doin' to yours, man...

Travel. Lots and lots and lots and lots of travel. Air ports, overhead bins, under seats, trunks, back packs, climbing, falling, lots of running, walking, hiking, being jolted around, and an occasional drunken brawl with my computer.* My computers live an intense life. So far my Mac has been the only one willing to loyally stick by my side for the long haul. When it finally does die, I'll be more than happy to replace it with another MacBook.

*To clarify, that is a drunken brawl against my computer, not a drunken brawl with someone else while my computer is on my person. In these instances, the MacBook has been known to win, however on one occasion I bested it. He (sadly) still has the scars to prove it.

Tyrphanax said:

CP3S said:

Tyrphanax said:

Shoulda bought ASUS laptops.

Haha! My room mate had one of those pieces of shit! I wasn't impressed. 

Sure you don't mean Acer?

No, it was an ASUS. My other room mate at that time had an Acer though. Other than the fact that he had to have it sent in to be fixed due to a network card problem while it was still under warranty, and it took them the better part of a month to get it back to him at which point it would no longer even boot up... it wasn't a half bad computer... ah never mind, it was pretty awful. Our room mate helped him sell it on ebay for more than he paid for it (WTF?! I honestly have no idea how he does that) at which point he replaced it with an iPad (which we made fun of him for on as frequent of a basis as we could get away with).

Tyrphanax said:

Pretty well-known fact that Dell ... suck.

I'm in a room with four laptops now ... the other three are Dell and they're all at least five years old (two of them are ten) and they all work pretty damn well considering their age, and none of them were babied.

Wut.

This beginning of a Doom novel made me lol, what with all the water I've had lately.

xhonzi said:

CP3S said:

They had a ton of the Splicer mask + Little Sister + Omega sets. Took me a while to dig through and find one without a broken mask, but when I did I broke down and bought it.

Whaaaaat?  Are you telling me there is a "non-wrecked" variant to the splicer mask?

No. I am saying the wrecked splicer mask is either incredibly fragile or the local TRU employees in my area are extremely rough with the store's merchandise. They had about ten of the sets there, and all but three of the masks were broken into two or more pieces inside the box. After seeing that I treat mine like it is made of glass. 

I don't know. The wrecked mask doesn't look that bad, I think a bondo repaired one would look worse. Unless you are good enough to make the replaced parts look really good.

It actually looks really cool as a display piece, but just looks stupid if you wear the thing. It also tilts heavily to one side if you try to wear it, because its weight is so out of balance. If it was complete it would be a super awesome really creepy looking mask. 

Be curious to know if the ones at your Toys R Us are in as bad of shape as the ones at mine. Three good ones, six broken ones, and one missing from the box entirely is a pretty high failure rate.