Smart cars were designed (By Swatch and Mercedes) specifically for the kind of driving most Americans do. That is, short-hop, city-driving. It would seem custom made for the market.
The real hurdle seems to be the country's preoccupation for BIG cars. Perhaps Fab! could bundle it with a massive cod-piece, to compensate.:)
What I understand, Valve banned people who were using a CD key they knew to be pirated.
It'es possible someone aought the game and chose not to use the CD key the got with it, but it seems very unlikely.
As an aside, steam allows you configure the game to run off-line. So really the only "problem" is having to put the CD in the drive. May seem odd, but think of all the exercise to be got from it.:)
If this protection means Valve have more money to invest in their next game, then more power to them. I enjoy HL2 and I was happy with the £35 price.
Well, they're in the bsiness to make money. Personally, I'm happy with paying £35 for the game.
Maybe they could have sold it for £10, but as I said, I'm happy enough with £35.
Watchmen is a clever dissection of the comic super-hero myth. It challenges the medium's clichés by ignoring them. Putting spandex-clad thugs in real world settings is a great way to observe them.
It also happens to be wrapped up in a "who done it" story. I suspect the movie will focus entirely on this aspect and ignore the real strength of the book.
There have been a few places in a game where I was requird to load a previous save in order to continue (dune buggy was under water, and couldn't be moved, I was surrounded by radioactive slime, and couldnt escape, etc)
I've played HL1 and it really doesn't make much of a difference. In HL2, Gordon Freeman doesn't really know what's going on either.
As for reloading, it is never necessary. You can knock your dune buggy out of the water with the grav-gun, and as for being trapped in slime, it sounds like you just didn't have much energy left. I got stuck there too, but only because I went the wrong way.:)
I'm not saying the game is perfect, it is just another linear FPS, but I don't think that particular complaint is valid.
It must also be said that valve did an excellent job on making the game accessable to lower end machines. It runs fine on my 2.7 GHz, 512 Meg laptop with no graphics card to speak of.
More interestingly, there are theories that some of the universe's fundamental dimensionless constants may have changed by a parts in a million over the last 10 billion years or so. These clocks are so accurate that they should be able to detect these changes over a year or two.
Exactly how long will it take to detect these changes?
What are your laptop's specs and how are your graphics looking?
I'd love to get this game, but I assume my 2.4GHz laptop with 512Meg RAM and its 64Megs "Graphics RAM" just can't cut it.
Also, it takes more than some ham-fisted, Christian imagery and the death of a main character to raise the intellectual level of any movie.
I agree with you that most of Hollywood, big-budget, animated movies are aimed at the family market, but there is still plenty of small, independent animated shorts out there to make you think. If only they were more popular on bit-torrent.
I believe the preference of Japanese animation over Western is just another fad. It starts off small and obscure, which leads to elitism, which in turn leads to popularity. Once it becomes mainstream (Perhaps when Disney buys one of the studios to replace Pixar), the fan-boys will have to latch on to something else. Start buying stocks in Bollywood now.
the RIAA drops the prices on CD's to compete directly with cassette tapes
Or even when they drop the price of movies' soundtracks to complete with the price of the DVDs.
A soundtrack being more expensive than the movie can't be right...
If the EULA does get in the way then
I think it's time the government stepped in to protect the consumer and started making companies liable for acts as stupid as this.
I dislike these EULAs as much as anyone, but if the EULA states that the product might not be too safe, then the customer has agreed to fork out X amount of cash for a non-too safe product.
Worse still, it the EULA is hidden at the time of purchase, that the customer has agreed to fork out money for an unknown product.
It's never the government's job to take responsibility for the customer's actions.
...promised unconditional returns (postage paid by Sears) in case there is any dissatisfaction with the product even if the product behaves exactly as described
So it was basically a free, rental-service for all goods? I can't see how that could be abused.
Slashdot Mirror
Smart cars were designed (By Swatch and Mercedes) specifically for the kind of driving most Americans do. That is, short-hop, city-driving. It would seem custom made for the market.
:)
The real hurdle seems to be the country's preoccupation for BIG cars. Perhaps Fab! could bundle it with a massive cod-piece, to compensate.
Clearly, the check is done on the server side.
Anyway, you can configure steam to run HL2 off-line.
What I understand, Valve banned people who were using a CD key they knew to be pirated.
:)
It'es possible someone aought the game and chose not to use the CD key the got with it, but it seems very unlikely.
As an aside, steam allows you configure the game to run off-line. So really the only "problem" is having to put the CD in the drive. May seem odd, but think of all the exercise to be got from it.
If this protection means Valve have more money to invest in their next game, then more power to them. I enjoy HL2 and I was happy with the £35 price.
Well, they're in the bsiness to make money. Personally, I'm happy with paying £35 for the game.
Maybe they could have sold it for £10, but as I said, I'm happy enough with £35.
It's comforting to see piracy protection which works.
People who paid for the product can enjoy it and those who didn't can't. Seems fair.
Watchmen is a clever dissection of the comic super-hero myth. It challenges the medium's clichés by ignoring them. Putting spandex-clad thugs in real world settings is a great way to observe them.
It also happens to be wrapped up in a "who done it" story. I suspect the movie will focus entirely on this aspect and ignore the real strength of the book.
I realise 2.7 GHz isn't a bad speed for most things, but machine would generally not be classified a gaming computer.
Fot what it's worth, my graphics card seems to be an "Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller".
One could say I "nicked" it from him.
There's nothing like a good pun...
Well, the CPU is fine, I guess, but there are very few new games out there which will run as well as this does on my machine.
:/
The lack of a graphics card it a burden to carry.
There have been a few places in a game where I was requird to load a previous save in order to continue (dune buggy was under water, and couldn't be moved, I was surrounded by radioactive slime, and couldnt escape, etc)
:)
I've played HL1 and it really doesn't make much of a difference. In HL2, Gordon Freeman doesn't really know what's going on either.
As for reloading, it is never necessary. You can knock your dune buggy out of the water with the grav-gun, and as for being trapped in slime, it sounds like you just didn't have much energy left. I got stuck there too, but only because I went the wrong way.
I'm not saying the game is perfect, it is just another linear FPS, but I don't think that particular complaint is valid.
It must also be said that valve did an excellent job on making the game accessable to lower end machines. It runs fine on my 2.7 GHz, 512 Meg laptop with no graphics card to speak of.
:)
Not great, but "fine"...
More interestingly, there are theories that some of the universe's fundamental dimensionless constants may have changed by a parts in a million over the last 10 billion years or so. These clocks are so accurate that they should be able to detect these changes over a year or two.
Exactly how long will it take to detect these changes?
Wow!
What are your laptop's specs and how are your graphics looking?
I'd love to get this game, but I assume my 2.4GHz laptop with 512Meg RAM and its 64Megs "Graphics RAM" just can't cut it.
What graphics card do you have, if any?
I believe the rock will not only do all his own stunts, but he will also be doing all his own camera work too.
You can't beat those first-person movies.
It's Japanese "entertainment", not "culture".
Also, it takes more than some ham-fisted, Christian imagery and the death of a main character to raise the intellectual level of any movie.
I agree with you that most of Hollywood, big-budget, animated movies are aimed at the family market, but there is still plenty of small, independent animated shorts out there to make you think. If only they were more popular on bit-torrent.
I believe the preference of Japanese animation over Western is just another fad. It starts off small and obscure, which leads to elitism, which in turn leads to popularity. Once it becomes mainstream (Perhaps when Disney buys one of the studios to replace Pixar), the fan-boys will have to latch on to something else. Start buying stocks in Bollywood now.
Here is another pic of it.
the RIAA drops the prices on CD's to compete directly with cassette tapes
Or even when they drop the price of movies' soundtracks to complete with the price of the DVDs.
A soundtrack being more expensive than the movie can't be right...
If the EULA does get in the way then I think it's time the government stepped in to protect the consumer and started making companies liable for acts as stupid as this.
I dislike these EULAs as much as anyone, but if the EULA states that the product might not be too safe, then the customer has agreed to fork out X amount of cash for a non-too safe product.
Worse still, it the EULA is hidden at the time of purchase, that the customer has agreed to fork out money for an unknown product.
It's never the government's job to take responsibility for the customer's actions.
A classic breakdown in communication between the hope-they-changed-the-passwords dept. and the like-the-$6-million-man dept.
...promised unconditional returns (postage paid by Sears) in case there is any dissatisfaction with the product even if the product behaves exactly as described
So it was basically a free, rental-service for all goods? I can't see how that could be abused.
*cough*
"eunuchs"
For reliability reasons, I prefer machines based on eunuchs.
Doesn't Disney already have rights to the place?
Am I a humourless drone, or is this guy just a twat?
Building morale is one thing, annoying others for your own entertainment is another.