As far as I can tell, Ironforge lag and loot lag are generally different things. Ironforge "lag" is usually actually poor framerate due to hard disk access: because they put the auction house right at the main entrance, as soon as you walk in you have to load a buttload of textures from disk to display all the people milling around. The other kinds of lag you mention are actual examples of server latency.
Creation, however (at least, a strict reading of biblical creation), is pretty easily falsifiable by the preponderance of scientific evidence. Thus far, evolution has held up pretty well.
The reason this sticker is problematic: most people don't know the scientific definition of the word "theory".
Those ads were not produced by MoveOn.org. MoveOn sponsored a contest, entitled "Bush in 30 Seconds", which invited contestants to submit political ads of their creation. MoveOn.org members would then vote to determine which ads would make it to the judging panel. There were more than 1000 ads submitted for the contest, of which two contained the Hitler-related content mentioned in the Moonie Times article you linked to. When these ads were brought to the attention of the contest organizers, they were promptly removed.
You can criticize MoveOn for having a lax screening process, I suppose, but that's about it.
...in Spanish, means "The Royal Road", or "The King's Road". In California, at least, it was a highway that linked the Spanish Catholic missions up and down the coast. The original highway is no longer in use, of course, but California has marked various roads and highways as "El Camino Real". For more history and maps, see this site.
There are two other major El Camino Reals - El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which may be the one you've seen in Texas (it originally ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe) and El Camino Real de los Tejas, which ran from Mexico City to what is now Louisiana.
As I understand it, the release of those cards is not tied to the release of the game. 9800 and 9600 XT cards bought before Half-Life 2's release will include coupons which allow the full version of the game to be downloaded via Steam (and possibly to be bought at retail stores; there have been some conflicting reports on that one) once the game is released.
Actually, they're more like overclocked Geforce 2 cards than they are like castrated Geforce 3 - the 4MX line supports DirectX 7, whereas the 3 (and 3Ti) line support DirectX 8.
Point #1 (no Scouring of the Shire) is reasonably well-corroborated, but point #2 is solidly in the realm of rumor. A number of interviews with Christopher Lee, for example, have implied that he will appear in all three films.
See, I think the "Free Beer is Good" thing ought to be reconsidered. Every time I've had free beer, it's been pretty awful beer. Perhaps the statement ought to be amended to "Free Beer is Good, except in those cases where the aforementioned beer consists of flat Old Milwaukee served from a room-temperature keg into a plastic cup."
This is an excellent point. I've been playing the Babylonians, and I'm in the middle of the Industrial Age - but I have no oil, which means I can't build tanks. I'm contemplating invading the Zulus to the north, because they have a supply near their capital city (which they don't seem to know about, not having discovered Refining yet); the resource system has really changed the dynamics of the game for the better.
FWIW, he'll be playing Elrond in the new Lord of the Rings movies. If that's not enough, he was also quite good as the lead drag queen in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert".
No, no, no. What we need is a patent on *0*-click shopping. I'm not sure what's the best way to implement it, though. We have two options, as I see it:
1. Mouse-Over Shopping - this new, revolutionary system is a wonderful aid to those too lazy to click. Just run your mouse over our product listing, and they will be billed, packaged, and shipped without your having to lift (or depress) a finger!
or
2. Predictive Shopping - Based on your previous purchases, our cutting-edge neural network will send you the items you want *before* you know you want them.
First of all, the animators appeared to feel that a CGI character couldn't look real unless it fidgeted. In Jar Jar's case, though, this made him look like he had about twelve nervous tics going at once. His attempts at "humor" were, at best, unimpressive, cutesy slapstick. At worst, they were offensive. His lines were either cloying or stupid, and his dopey silliness was a horrible distraction from the plot, which wasn't particularly interesting to begin with.
However, the not-so-very-subtle racist undertones were what did it in for me. Stepin Fetchit wasn't funny then, and certainly isn't funny now. The difference between the humor evident in IV-VI and the humor we saw in I is that one set is witty/funny, and the other isn't.
Re:Now if they only hurried up with Planescape 2..
on
Baldur's Gate 2 Gold
·
· Score: 3
BG2: Most advance reviews claim it has a far more intricate and involving plot than BG1. If Bioware is to be believed (and I tend to trust them), each of the party-joinable NPCs in BG2 will have as much dialogue as all of the party-joinable NPCs in BG1 combined - as well as several character-specific subquests. Most previews have also mentioned that the quests seem much more complex this time - far fewer "kill foo" or "bring me binky"/FedEx quests.
Also note that each character class gets its own "stronghold" quest - these promise to be quite interesting:
Fighter - acquire a keep, which may need to be defended from a siege
Ranger - a cabin in the woods, as well as a small hamlet to protect
Paladin - join the Order of the Radiant Heart
Thief - run a thieves' guild
Bard - put on a show in a (possibly haunted) playhouse
Priest - run a temple
Mage - mystic tower, complete with magical laboratory and a guardian golem
Planescape: Torment:
I'd love a sequel. Two factors may prevent it:
1. The ending of the first one didn't leave much room for a second story. It would have to involve a different main character.
2. I don't believe the game sold very well. A shame, because it's a true classic.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I can tell, Ironforge lag and loot lag are generally different things. Ironforge "lag" is usually actually poor framerate due to hard disk access: because they put the auction house right at the main entrance, as soon as you walk in you have to load a buttload of textures from disk to display all the people milling around. The other kinds of lag you mention are actual examples of server latency.
Creation, however (at least, a strict reading of biblical creation), is pretty easily falsifiable by the preponderance of scientific evidence. Thus far, evolution has held up pretty well.
The reason this sticker is problematic: most people don't know the scientific definition of the word "theory".
Those ads were not produced by MoveOn.org. MoveOn sponsored a contest, entitled "Bush in 30 Seconds", which invited contestants to submit political ads of their creation. MoveOn.org members would then vote to determine which ads would make it to the judging panel. There were more than 1000 ads submitted for the contest, of which two contained the Hitler-related content mentioned in the Moonie Times article you linked to. When these ads were brought to the attention of the contest organizers, they were promptly removed.
You can criticize MoveOn for having a lax screening process, I suppose, but that's about it.
...in Spanish, means "The Royal Road", or "The King's Road". In California, at least, it was a highway that linked the Spanish Catholic missions up and down the coast. The original highway is no longer in use, of course, but California has marked various roads and highways as "El Camino Real". For more history and maps, see this site.
There are two other major El Camino Reals - El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which may be the one you've seen in Texas (it originally ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe) and El Camino Real de los Tejas, which ran from Mexico City to what is now Louisiana.
As I understand it, the release of those cards is not tied to the release of the game. 9800 and 9600 XT cards bought before Half-Life 2's release will include coupons which allow the full version of the game to be downloaded via Steam (and possibly to be bought at retail stores; there have been some conflicting reports on that one) once the game is released.
Actually, they're more like overclocked Geforce 2 cards than they are like castrated Geforce 3 - the 4MX line supports DirectX 7, whereas the 3 (and 3Ti) line support DirectX 8.
found here.
NVidia's official Geforce FX site
NVNews has a large group of links to previews(scroll down to the "Geforce FX Preview" article)
Some impressive images from the release demos
Point #1 (no Scouring of the Shire) is reasonably well-corroborated, but point #2 is solidly in the realm of rumor. A number of interviews with Christopher Lee, for example, have implied that he will appear in all three films.
Frighteningly apropos: "...These go to eleven."
And I think Pizza Hut should change their sizes to large, extra-large, and GALACTUS, DEVOURER OF WORLDS.
See, I think the "Free Beer is Good" thing ought to be reconsidered. Every time I've had free beer, it's been pretty awful beer. Perhaps the statement ought to be amended to "Free Beer is Good, except in those cases where the aforementioned beer consists of flat Old Milwaukee served from a room-temperature keg into a plastic cup."
So, uh, why did you buy a box two months ago that doesn't use DDR? The stuff is pretty cheap.
I'm glad you said most musicals, because otherwise I was going to challenge you to a one-sentence synopsis of "Sunday in the Park With George".
This is an excellent point. I've been playing the Babylonians, and I'm in the middle of the Industrial Age - but I have no oil, which means I can't build tanks. I'm contemplating invading the Zulus to the north, because they have a supply near their capital city (which they don't seem to know about, not having discovered Refining yet); the resource system has really changed the dynamics of the game for the better.
FWIW, he'll be playing Elrond in the new Lord of the Rings movies. If that's not enough, he was also quite good as the lead drag queen in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert".
No, no, no. What we need is a patent on *0*-click shopping. I'm not sure what's the best way to implement it, though. We have two options, as I see it:
1. Mouse-Over Shopping - this new, revolutionary system is a wonderful aid to those too lazy to click. Just run your mouse over our product listing, and they will be billed, packaged, and shipped without your having to lift (or depress) a finger!
or
2. Predictive Shopping - Based on your previous purchases, our cutting-edge neural network will send you the items you want *before* you know you want them.
Which seems more promising?
First of all, the animators appeared to feel that a CGI character couldn't look real unless it fidgeted. In Jar Jar's case, though, this made him look like he had about twelve nervous tics going at once. His attempts at "humor" were, at best, unimpressive, cutesy slapstick. At worst, they were offensive. His lines were either cloying or stupid, and his dopey silliness was a horrible distraction from the plot, which wasn't particularly interesting to begin with.
However, the not-so-very-subtle racist undertones were what did it in for me. Stepin Fetchit wasn't funny then, and certainly isn't funny now. The difference between the humor evident in IV-VI and the humor we saw in I is that one set is witty/funny, and the other isn't.
BG2:
Most advance reviews claim it has a far more intricate and involving plot than BG1. If Bioware is to be believed (and I tend to trust them), each of the party-joinable NPCs in BG2 will have as much dialogue as all of the party-joinable NPCs in BG1 combined - as well as several character-specific subquests. Most previews have also mentioned that the quests seem much more complex this time - far fewer "kill foo" or "bring me binky"/FedEx quests.
Also note that each character class gets its own "stronghold" quest - these promise to be quite interesting:
Fighter - acquire a keep, which may need to be defended from a siege
Ranger - a cabin in the woods, as well as a small hamlet to protect
Paladin - join the Order of the Radiant Heart
Thief - run a thieves' guild
Bard - put on a show in a (possibly haunted) playhouse
Priest - run a temple
Mage - mystic tower, complete with magical laboratory and a guardian golem
Planescape: Torment:
I'd love a sequel. Two factors may prevent it:
1. The ending of the first one didn't leave much room for a second story. It would have to involve a different main character.
2. I don't believe the game sold very well. A shame, because it's a true classic.