I have a V1, v4 and v9 PS2s. They die if you think at them too hard. So far 33% failure rate for me (I don't count the last one as failed).
The version one laser went out of alignment. I adjusted it till it worked but it re-sets the alignment to the bad value every time you open the tray (has a motor adjusting it) it can not read DVD media.
The Version 4 unit will sometimes play DVD media, but will not read CD and DVD most of the time. I can't seem to get the simple alignment adjustment to fix it, so it's on the bench and will be hooked to my oscilloscope shortly to see if I can tune the laser for best signal.
The version 9 unit was sold to me with a "broken power switch" and upon opening it I discovered they had broken the surface mount connector for the power/reset cable. After fixing the console it would not read DVD or CD media. I cleaned the lens and magically it was able to read almost all stuff except for Zone of Enders will not boot properly, it crashes during boot thus I blame SONY (it boots and plays fine on other PS2 units I have tested it in). It also takes longer to read/load form some intensive things like GTA3 games and I sometimes get a hiccup in FMV so I don't know how long the unit will remain able to read media.
You guys are not using the streatch option on your HD sets are you? You did set it not only for 480P in the Wii but also for the proper aspect ration and turned all the TV's scaling/enhancements off for that input right?
My 36" Widescreen displays everything with a crisp and clear output. It does look like crap if someone has it set to 4x3 and uses the TV zooom/expand function to make it fit.
Re:Very promising first two levels (PC version)
on
BioShock Review
·
· Score: 1
"Unfortunately trying to save or load at any point after the second level reliably crashes the fucking thing. Not to mention the painfully random stuttering and crashes."
I dont have a recent machine and I am playing with almost all options set to max and none of these problems. Are your driver up to date, and are you doing any kind of overclocking? Does your machine have proper cooling? Do you have proper hardware to run the game?
For referance I am using an Athlon 64 4000+ (single core), 2GB ram, Geforce 7800gs (agp) and a 20" CRT monitor.
"Father, why have you forsaken me?" "We have turned away from your light."
Then he says:
"I'm sorry Father, I will do what you say, I will do what you say."
He could just be having his religious moment, but it occurred to me that at that point in the game I had recently heard the recording about the stuff Ryan was using to control the splicers. I was thinking maybe that was an indication of Ryan telling him to get a grip rather then his continued religious lamentation, heck he could be so messed up he is talking to Ryan.
zero day vs. one week from what I hear. Frankly people who are going to buy it will buy it, and people who won't will not. I dont think sales would have been much lower if there had been no securerom protection.
To me it looks like the losses to piracy would have been offset by the number of people extra buying it. No matter what there will be pirates and I doubt seven days made that many people purchase it rather then pirate it but without securerom there would have been more legit sales then there were. YMMV
Re:My (many) problems with Bioshock's gameplay
on
BioShock Review
·
· Score: 1
"1. You can't lose I'm all for having savepoints in a game, both automatic (when you finish a level, or complete a goal in a level), and user initiated. I hate however Bioshock's Vita Chambers. No matter how bad you play, if you get killed you get revived in one of those chambers with some health and Eve and, what really ruins gameplay, your enemy will have as much (or little) health as when it killed you. This means that you can play really badly, and still win by being resuscitated many times."
If this is a problem for you, just never buy anything that is System Shock related (like bioshock) as those games had something quite like it. In the first one you had to activate them otherwise you would die and have to reload. I don't remember how they worked in SS2.
Think about it for a moment. You are complaining that there is no final death, no way to lose. In that case do you ever re-load, even after you die in a game? How is that significantly different from the Vita-Chamber other then sent inventory/health of enemies?
Do you like games that make you sit through the same 10 min cut scene several times because there is no save after it and a hard battle that you have to reload after dying?
In System Shock there were regenreation chambers you had to activate so that if you were killed you would be remade back at that location. Seems to be the same function as the vita chambers, except I don't have to check into them. In SS1 if you did not activate the chamber on the level and died you got turned into a cyborg and had to reload.
You get half as much if what I have read is correct (I've been saving them so I only get 80 per sister). Harvesting them gets you 160 or so. If you save them, every now and then you get a gift from the angry scientist who made them and now wants you to save them. Sometimes it includes adam, but I have not been counting/paying attention to how much and doing the math.
The one annoying plot driven invisable half wall was that there are places where I have completely unobstructed access to a plasmid container/other item yet I can not TK it. Instead I have to jump over to the ledge it is on or perform some other activity and that is only because it's a trigger for a plot device. Why give us TK and then not let us pick up small objects when we have been hefting around all kinds of other heavy stuff.
Listen to the splicers, look at the way some of the people have died (not the ones you kill) there are suicides and other creepy things. Think about what drove them to make that choice.
Little sisters are creepy, in every way, even when you liberate them it's discomforting, The fear of you, the pleading with the dead Big Daddy to wake up, the crying, the shouts of no when you save them (at least I hope I am). Next play through I will be a wrencher and harvest them.
Sander Cohen and his followers are creepy and you feel creepy doing his "jobs".
Andrew Ryan is creepy in his lack of empathy, compassion and mercenary self interest.
Atlas seems normal, but I am thinking once I meet him, there will be some twist that makes me look back at every bit of his actions/dialog as creepy.
The mob guy Fontain who is dead by the time you get there is just as creepy in a thuggish sort of way. Did you melt the ice in the freezer in his warehouse? Clearly he executed those people and let the ice hide his deeds. He shot them and left them to die in the cold, it took long enough they could write "It was F" in what I think was their own blood.
I was thinking along the lines of dongle emulators. Some of those dongles are quite fancy in what they do, but all of them seem to get hacked around (last time I looked, I do not use em so my information may be out of date).
"Considering that all other PC games only allow you to install the game on 1 PC while Bioshock allows you to install it on 5 I don't see what you are complaining about."
Sorry, I have never had a game prevent me from loading it on as many machines as I want. Do you have some proof that what you say reflects reality or what this anti-copy software does somehow lets me do more then before?
Serial numbers are a good way to make sure of legit on-line play, and even ok for off-line install. No matter how many installs I do, unless it's licensed to be active on more then one, only one can login to a server or whatever (steam for instance) at a time.
The norm for PC games is unlimited installs on any number of computers any number of times. License says only one copy can be active at a time (grow a backbone and make a moral choice) and license keys/servers can be employed to ensure this for multiplayer.
Actually there is. Try burning a copy of a xbox or 360 game and it will not play unless you have modded the console to bypass DRM. Same goes for the Gamecube/Wii and PS2/3. I think the last Console without DRM was the Dreamcast (some people blame this for it's demise).
I think a quote that is on topic is "A free man choses, a slave obeys".
So far I have had no problem with the protection system (compared to past systems that put me on the shitlist for owning a CD-R/W) letting me play the game.
I do have to deactivate Daemon tools (I use virtual drives for my virtual machines), a bother but not a problem.
I will be grabbing a No-CD patch once I have completed the game (I am going to play through again as a wrencher who harvests) until they come out with a patch that removes the install restrictions.
I could have priated it but I did not do so because I am responsable for my actions and have made a moral choice. I also enjoy rewarding good work and the game IMO is good work. The copyprotection not so much. I did make sure to let Take 2 know how I feel about it's choice of anti-copy software.
Simple answer from crackers will be software the mimics the authentication server and allows for play. I think something like this has been tried and defeated before.
Sorry in advance for the rant, but you managed to touch one something that has bugged me.
Back when Sim Golf came out, I bought it. This was back when no one accepted opened returns, not even for store credit.
It installed fine but when I tried to play the game with the original media inside my optical drive (only drive in my computer) I was told I had illegitimate media and had to insert the original disk.
Calling tech support got me "You are a pirate, this is proven by ownership of a writable drive." That first bit was paraphrased, but I was accused of making illegal copies because I had a CD-R/W "You must buy a CD/DVD-ROM to play the game." Back then they were not as cheap as now (it's insane to have to spend $75 and have to pull and add hardware to be able to do the same task the other hardware can), so I got the N0-CD patch since that allowed me to play the game.
Explain to me how I have harmed the company or done something wrong just to use something I purchased but was not allowed to return.
I suppose you are all right with software that non returnable being rendered useless by a company's arbitrary decision that a bit of hardware/software in you computer might be able to be used for EVIL and that's why you should be punished even if you have not done anything.
The same kind of thing happens now. I run virtual machines (linux, windows, solaris) and have virtual drives running off so I can use disk images for those systems.
The stupid arrogant fuckers at companies that make anti-copy schemes have caused no end of trouble because if they even detect you have any software (free or commercial) that can create a virtual optical drive they immediately say you are a pirate and violating the law and block legitimate programs from running even if you have the original media in the same drive it was installed from. That's not a mild inconvenience that interfering with my life.
Fuck them with a bad car analogy.
I can only hope everyone will always judge you in the worst possible light and assume you are drug dealing, copyright infringing, child pornographer, simply because you have a camera and some bottled water (it's drug paraphernalia now, did you know that?) and a VCR (Jack Valenti thinks you are the Boston Strangler). If it's just fine for your software it should work everywhere else, it will just be a mild inconvenience that you have to every day fend off accusations about the above.
Thats how stupid it is to assume someone is doing something wrong when you have no evidence and ignore evidence to the contrary.
"I liked the fishing actually. I wish the game was just fishing with Zelda characters, I would have kept playing."
You should have kept playing (or read the manual) later in the game there is a more advanced angling sim (nunchuck for reeling and better control IMO).
This is not always a good thing. As one of the married men on/. I need to tell you that there is a biological recording unit that is 100% independent from you called a Wife.
From wikipedia "The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. Initially, it alternated stories set in the past, which would teach younger audience members about history, with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science. This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher."
During the seconds Doctor's series they dropped the historical style episodes (they had stuff in the past, but it was all about the sci-fi in the past). I liked them, sure they were not hugely educational but they were well done and it was amazing how good a job they did with so little.
Half the time the first Doctor was getting into trouble was because of scientific curiosity, at least the character started as one who was interested in exploring the unknown, collecting rock samples and looking at things in a microscope. Often every stereotype of an old man (part of this was intentional and part was due to an undiagnosed illness) he had a sharp wit and cared greatly for his "daughter" Susan.
The second Doctor was younger and more active. He tangles with Cybermen and Daleks, and there are quite a few Sci-Fi on earth Stories (Yeti robots, and other strange things). This Doctor's run introduced Lethbridge-Stewart who later became the leader of U.N.I.T. I would describe him as whimsical and much like Tennant capable of giving his adversaries the impression he is a bumbling fool rather then a clever and intelligent opponent.
It's worth seeing at least his final story arc (war games I think it was called).
I really want to see more U.N.I.T. in the current run of Dr. Who., Torchwood does not cut it for me.
Sadly many of the first two Doctors episodes (more of the seconds sadly) were destroyed and if they exist only as reconstructions made with production photo stills (sometimes with action subtitles) and usually complete audio tracks.
For a good description of the style of characters and things read the wikipedia entries on the first and second doctors.
If you do decide to watch them, try to see the early Dalek and Cybermen stories, The Cybermen evolve the most over the various Doctor Who series.
I also like the multi doctor episodes (2, 3 and 5). Another fun thing is that the earlier actors tended to blend in a little of their predicessors mannerisms and quirks from time to time. To me that made the character feel more like an evolution rather then someone who jsut walked on stage to play the part.
I don't know how much you played (and tennis does sometimes act crazy) but I notice that it responds and tries to apply the physics of how I swing to the hit on the ball. This lets you do over hand and underhand swings as well as control the direction of your return. I know it does not map the Mii exactly to your motion and swing graphically, but I don't pay much attention to that.
The hardest part of all Wii sports type games is getting a feel for where the ball is vs. where you are so you can connect properly. Both in Baseball and Tennis swinging too early or late (tennis is more forgiving in most cases) will cause you to swing and the ball sail past you.
Once in a while (quite rare IMO) I get a skip but otherwise it is playing fine. I'm up to Fort Frolic. I am amazed how high I have the settings and how smooth it is with all those shaders and particle effects.
Ahh. So you are happy with the recent uses of time travel as a part of the plot rather then as a means to get to Ceti Alpha 5 so they can build sandcastles.
I agree that the writing you refer to is science fiction. I think you are overlooking a lot of Dr. Who writing that, while not using time travel as a major plot element, still is science fiction.
The reason I asked if you were wanting Hard SF is that the hard stuff looks at things we know about the way things work and where it is going and the writer uses that in the story. Wikipedia has some links to authors who tend to write in that style.
Dr. Who writing is not hard SF (even the stuff you like goes too far) and there are often elements of fantasy there as well as the horror/remade story elements you mention.
Looks like our definitions of what is acceptable as science fiction are different I can live with it. I hope you get more episodes to your liking. It's worth watching some old ones (especially the first two doctors) from time to time, even if they are not exploring the nuances of time travel and reversing the polarity of the neutron flow (3rd doctor).
Slashdot Mirror
Thats what they get for going into the lexicographical equivalant of The Shades alone at night.
If you can find a copy, check out Sega Soccer Slam for the Gamecube. No wiimote but it is quite fun for it's era.
I have a V1, v4 and v9 PS2s. They die if you think at them too hard. So far 33% failure rate for me (I don't count the last one as failed).
The version one laser went out of alignment. I adjusted it till it worked but it re-sets the alignment to the bad value every time you open the tray (has a motor adjusting it) it can not read DVD media.
The Version 4 unit will sometimes play DVD media, but will not read CD and DVD most of the time. I can't seem to get the simple alignment adjustment to fix it, so it's on the bench and will be hooked to my oscilloscope shortly to see if I can tune the laser for best signal.
The version 9 unit was sold to me with a "broken power switch" and upon opening it I discovered they had broken the surface mount connector for the power/reset cable. After fixing the console it would not read DVD or CD media. I cleaned the lens and magically it was able to read almost all stuff except for Zone of Enders will not boot properly, it crashes during boot thus I blame SONY (it boots and plays fine on other PS2 units I have tested it in). It also takes longer to read/load form some intensive things like GTA3 games and I sometimes get a hiccup in FMV so I don't know how long the unit will remain able to read media.
You guys are not using the streatch option on your HD sets are you? You did set it not only for 480P in the Wii but also for the proper aspect ration and turned all the TV's scaling/enhancements off for that input right?
My 36" Widescreen displays everything with a crisp and clear output. It does look like crap if someone has it set to 4x3 and uses the TV zooom/expand function to make it fit.
"Unfortunately trying to save or load at any point after the second level reliably crashes the fucking thing. Not to mention the painfully random stuttering and crashes."
I dont have a recent machine and I am playing with almost all options set to max and none of these problems. Are your driver up to date, and are you doing any kind of overclocking? Does your machine have proper cooling? Do you have proper hardware to run the game?
For referance I am using an Athlon 64 4000+ (single core), 2GB ram, Geforce 7800gs (agp) and a 20" CRT monitor.
Get your research high enough and some hacks always work with no mini-game.
One of the splicers says:
"Father, why have you forsaken me?"
"We have turned away from your light."
Then he says:
"I'm sorry Father, I will do what you say, I will do what you say."
He could just be having his religious moment, but it occurred to me that at that point in the game I had recently heard the recording about the stuff Ryan was using to control the splicers. I was thinking maybe that was an indication of Ryan telling him to get a grip rather then his continued religious lamentation, heck he could be so messed up he is talking to Ryan.
zero day vs. one week from what I hear. Frankly people who are going to buy it will buy it, and people who won't will not. I dont think sales would have been much lower if there had been no securerom protection.
To me it looks like the losses to piracy would have been offset by the number of people extra buying it. No matter what there will be pirates and I doubt seven days made that many people purchase it rather then pirate it but without securerom there would have been more legit sales then there were. YMMV
"1. You can't lose
I'm all for having savepoints in a game, both automatic (when you finish a level, or complete a goal in a level), and user initiated. I hate however Bioshock's Vita Chambers. No matter how bad you play, if you get killed you get revived in one of those chambers with some health and Eve and, what really ruins gameplay, your enemy will have as much (or little) health as when it killed you. This means that you can play really badly, and still win by being resuscitated many times."
If this is a problem for you, just never buy anything that is System Shock related (like bioshock) as those games had something quite like it. In the first one you had to activate them otherwise you would die and have to reload. I don't remember how they worked in SS2.
Think about it for a moment. You are complaining that there is no final death, no way to lose. In that case do you ever re-load, even after you die in a game? How is that significantly different from the Vita-Chamber other then sent inventory/health of enemies?
Do you like games that make you sit through the same 10 min cut scene several times because there is no save after it and a hard battle that you have to reload after dying?
In System Shock there were regenreation chambers you had to activate so that if you were killed you would be remade back at that location. Seems to be the same function as the vita chambers, except I don't have to check into them. In SS1 if you did not activate the chamber on the level and died you got turned into a cyborg and had to reload.
You get half as much if what I have read is correct (I've been saving them so I only get 80 per sister). Harvesting them gets you 160 or so. If you save them, every now and then you get a gift from the angry scientist who made them and now wants you to save them. Sometimes it includes adam, but I have not been counting/paying attention to how much and doing the math.
The one annoying plot driven invisable half wall was that there are places where I have completely unobstructed access to a plasmid container/other item yet I can not TK it. Instead I have to jump over to the ledge it is on or perform some other activity and that is only because it's a trigger for a plot device. Why give us TK and then not let us pick up small objects when we have been hefting around all kinds of other heavy stuff.
Bioshock not creepy?
Are we playing the same game?
Listen to the splicers, look at the way some of the people have died (not the ones you kill) there are suicides and other creepy things. Think about what drove them to make that choice.
Little sisters are creepy, in every way, even when you liberate them it's discomforting, The fear of you, the pleading with the dead Big Daddy to wake up, the crying, the shouts of no when you save them (at least I hope I am). Next play through I will be a wrencher and harvest them.
Sander Cohen and his followers are creepy and you feel creepy doing his "jobs".
Andrew Ryan is creepy in his lack of empathy, compassion and mercenary self interest.
Atlas seems normal, but I am thinking once I meet him, there will be some twist that makes me look back at every bit of his actions/dialog as creepy.
The mob guy Fontain who is dead by the time you get there is just as creepy in a thuggish sort of way. Did you melt the ice in the freezer in his warehouse? Clearly he executed those people and let the ice hide his deeds. He shot them and left them to die in the cold, it took long enough they could write "It was F" in what I think was their own blood.
Even some of the audio recordings are creepy.
I was thinking along the lines of dongle emulators. Some of those dongles are quite fancy in what they do, but all of them seem to get hacked around (last time I looked, I do not use em so my information may be out of date).
"Considering that all other PC games only allow you to install the game on 1 PC while Bioshock allows you to install it on 5 I don't see what you are complaining about."
Sorry, I have never had a game prevent me from loading it on as many machines as I want. Do you have some proof that what you say reflects reality or what this anti-copy software does somehow lets me do more then before?
Serial numbers are a good way to make sure of legit on-line play, and even ok for off-line install. No matter how many installs I do, unless it's licensed to be active on more then one, only one can login to a server or whatever (steam for instance) at a time.
The norm for PC games is unlimited installs on any number of computers any number of times. License says only one copy can be active at a time (grow a backbone and make a moral choice) and license keys/servers can be employed to ensure this for multiplayer.
Actually there is. Try burning a copy of a xbox or 360 game and it will not play unless you have modded the console to bypass DRM.
Same goes for the Gamecube/Wii and PS2/3. I think the last Console without DRM was the Dreamcast (some people blame this for it's demise).
I think a quote that is on topic is "A free man choses, a slave obeys".
So far I have had no problem with the protection system (compared to past systems that put me on the shitlist for owning a CD-R/W) letting me play the game.
I do have to deactivate Daemon tools (I use virtual drives for my virtual machines), a bother but not a problem.
I will be grabbing a No-CD patch once I have completed the game (I am going to play through again as a wrencher who harvests) until they come out with a patch that removes the install restrictions.
I could have priated it but I did not do so because I am responsable for my actions and have made a moral choice. I also enjoy rewarding good work and the game IMO is good work. The copyprotection not so much. I did make sure to let Take 2 know how I feel about it's choice of anti-copy software.
Simple answer from crackers will be software the mimics the authentication server and allows for play. I think something like this has been tried and defeated before.
Sorry in advance for the rant, but you managed to touch one something that has bugged me.
Back when Sim Golf came out, I bought it. This was back when no one accepted opened returns, not even for store credit.
It installed fine but when I tried to play the game with the original media inside my optical drive (only drive in my computer) I was told I had illegitimate media and had to insert the original disk.
Calling tech support got me "You are a pirate, this is proven by ownership of a writable drive." That first bit was paraphrased, but I was accused of making illegal copies because I had a CD-R/W "You must buy a CD/DVD-ROM to play the game." Back then they were not as cheap as now (it's insane to have to spend $75 and have to pull and add hardware to be able to do the same task the other hardware can), so I got the N0-CD patch since that allowed me to play the game.
Explain to me how I have harmed the company or done something wrong just to use something I purchased but was not allowed to return.
I suppose you are all right with software that non returnable being rendered useless by a company's arbitrary decision that a bit of hardware/software in you computer might be able to be used for EVIL and that's why you should be punished even if you have not done anything.
The same kind of thing happens now. I run virtual machines (linux, windows, solaris) and have virtual drives running off so I can use disk images for those systems.
The stupid arrogant fuckers at companies that make anti-copy schemes have caused no end of trouble because if they even detect you have any software (free or commercial) that can create a virtual optical drive they immediately say you are a pirate and violating the law and block legitimate programs from running even if you have the original media in the same drive it was installed from. That's not a mild inconvenience that interfering with my life.
Fuck them with a bad car analogy.
I can only hope everyone will always judge you in the worst possible light and assume you are drug dealing, copyright infringing, child pornographer, simply because you have a camera and some bottled water (it's drug paraphernalia now, did you know that?) and a VCR (Jack Valenti thinks you are the Boston Strangler). If it's just fine for your software it should work everywhere else, it will just be a mild inconvenience that you have to every day fend off accusations about the above.
Thats how stupid it is to assume someone is doing something wrong when you have no evidence and ignore evidence to the contrary.
"I liked the fishing actually. I wish the game was just fishing with Zelda characters, I would have kept playing."
You should have kept playing (or read the manual) later in the game there is a more advanced angling sim (nunchuck for reeling and better control IMO).
"You never have to forget ANYTHING, EVER AGAIN."
/. I need to tell you that there is a biological recording unit that is 100% independent from you called a Wife.
This is not always a good thing. As one of the married men on
From wikipedia "The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. Initially, it alternated stories set in the past, which would teach younger audience members about history, with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science. This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher."
During the seconds Doctor's series they dropped the historical style episodes (they had stuff in the past, but it was all about the sci-fi in the past). I liked them, sure they were not hugely educational but they were well done and it was amazing how good a job they did with so little.
Half the time the first Doctor was getting into trouble was because of scientific curiosity, at least the character started as one who was interested in exploring the unknown, collecting rock samples and looking at things in a microscope. Often every stereotype of an old man (part of this was intentional and part was due to an undiagnosed illness) he had a sharp wit and cared greatly for his "daughter" Susan.
The second Doctor was younger and more active. He tangles with Cybermen and Daleks, and there are quite a few Sci-Fi on earth Stories (Yeti robots, and other strange things). This Doctor's run introduced Lethbridge-Stewart who later became the leader of U.N.I.T. I would describe him as whimsical and much like Tennant capable of giving his adversaries the impression he is a bumbling fool rather then a clever and intelligent opponent.
It's worth seeing at least his final story arc (war games I think it was called).
I really want to see more U.N.I.T. in the current run of Dr. Who., Torchwood does not cut it for me.
Sadly many of the first two Doctors episodes (more of the seconds sadly) were destroyed and if they exist only as reconstructions made with production photo stills (sometimes with action subtitles) and usually complete audio tracks.
For a good description of the style of characters and things read the wikipedia entries on the first and second doctors.
If you do decide to watch them, try to see the early Dalek and Cybermen stories, The Cybermen evolve the most over the various Doctor Who series.
I also like the multi doctor episodes (2, 3 and 5). Another fun thing is that the earlier actors tended to blend in a little of their predicessors mannerisms and quirks from time to time. To me that made the character feel more like an evolution rather then someone who jsut walked on stage to play the part.
I don't know how much you played (and tennis does sometimes act crazy) but I notice that it responds and tries to apply the physics of how I swing to the hit on the ball. This lets you do over hand and underhand swings as well as control the direction of your return. I know it does not map the Mii exactly to your motion and swing graphically, but I don't pay much attention to that.
The hardest part of all Wii sports type games is getting a feel for where the ball is vs. where you are so you can connect properly. Both in Baseball and Tennis swinging too early or late (tennis is more forgiving in most cases) will cause you to swing and the ball sail past you.
How are you haveing such trouble?
I let it defailt detected settings (most everything set to high) and my setup is comprable to yours.
Athlon 64 4000+ (single core)
2GB ram
WinXP
GeForce 7800GS (AGP).
20" CRT screen.
Once in a while (quite rare IMO) I get a skip but otherwise it is playing fine. I'm up to Fort Frolic. I am amazed how high I have the settings and how smooth it is with all those shaders and particle effects.
Ahh. So you are happy with the recent uses of time travel as a part of the plot rather then as a means to get to Ceti Alpha 5 so they can build sandcastles.
I agree that the writing you refer to is science fiction. I think you are overlooking a lot of Dr. Who writing that, while not using time travel as a major plot element, still is science fiction.
The reason I asked if you were wanting Hard SF is that the hard stuff looks at things we know about the way things work and where it is going and the writer uses that in the story. Wikipedia has some links to authors who tend to write in that style.
Dr. Who writing is not hard SF (even the stuff you like goes too far) and there are often elements of fantasy there as well as the horror/remade story elements you mention.
Looks like our definitions of what is acceptable as science fiction are different I can live with it. I hope you get more episodes to your liking. It's worth watching some old ones (especially the first two doctors) from time to time, even if they are not exploring the nuances of time travel and reversing the polarity of the neutron flow (3rd doctor).