rob

Visually, The Getaway is a great looking game. While it doesn't quite look like the renders Team Soho released way back, it certainly does come close to achieving the look of them. For starters, The Getaway features superbly detailed character models that feature incredible skin complexions, which makes for very life-like detail. Team Soho used the faces of actual actors and rendered them perfectly onto their polygonal bodies. The facial detail is amazing, especially when compared side-by-side with the actual counterparts. The only real downside to the characters is their obviously textured and poorly detailed two-dimensional outfits. Character detail out of the way, The Getaway boasts fantastic vehicular detail, especially for a game of this size. While it's not exactly Gran Turismo, every car model is designed as precisely as it could possibly be. The cars are textured nicely and they cast very good looking environmental reflections.
  What makes The Getaway an even more visually pleasing title is that it features the largest open-ended locale in a videogame ever. Team Soho managed to faithfully re-create 22 miles of London, rendered accordingly down to the last brick. Never personally visiting London myself, for knowledge purposes I asked a few UK online buddies to tell me how accurate The Getaway's detail is. The comments were quite positive, stating that the game was pretty much spot on everywhere. In terms of overall accuracy, they all said that it would rate at about 85%. Not bad for a game that large, huh? That said, unlike the demo, The Getaway's frame rate is quite consistent for the most part, though every now and then it does drop during very hectic moments, but nothing that really irritates. The game's use of vehicular damage is done quite well. The cars don't crumble like sand-castles. Though if you collide head on, you will damage your engine and it will begin to smoke and eventually it'll just completely burn out and your car will become useless. If you're hammered hard enough continuously, the car will begin to burn with you in it. You can escape, but there will be instances when you just burn. Watching your car burn slowly is pretty cool, as its tires will burst, glass will shatter and eventually it just turns into a big chunk of charcoal that's shaped like a vehicle -- it all makes out for a great visual spectacle in the end. One feature that The Getaway boasts is the ability to enter buildings during most of the game's missions. The interiors are designed incredibly well and feature some very good texture detail. Lastly, the environment, the time of day, and placement of clouds all change with every other mission. So one time it'll be cloudy, another it'll be sunny, and so on.

  When it's all said and done, as an overall package, The Getaway looks sensational, but it is not without its flaws. There are areas of the game that feature some pretty awkward environmental nuisances with washed out textures. There are spots of the game that just look sharp as can be, and then there are a few spots that are just so damned blurry and washed out, it can't be ignored. On that note, my last complaint is that the game's CG sequences suddenly look terrible towards the end of the game. Around the 11th mission, you'll notice this happen, only for it to later go away as soon as you start playing as Frank. Regardless of the minor stuff, as I stated prior, The Getaway is an exceptional looking title, and for those wondering, the jaggies are very minimal and there is no shimmering to be seen.

  After completing The Getaway, I'm compelled to go back to the game a few more times. The game plays out like a movie that you just can't stop watching. The story is everything you'd expect from a group of Brits. It's fantastic, full of vengeance, plot twists, violence, British humor, and more. You are Mark Hammond, a retired bank-robber living a normal life, when one day your life is turned upside down. Charlie Jolson, your former boss, sends his henchmen to kidnap your wife and son. Though, tragically they end up killing the wife, and only kidnapping the son. In wake of the commotion, Hammond runs outside only to find his wife bleeding to her death. Picking up the murder weapon in sheer horror, Hammond stamps his finger prints onto it and is mistakenly framed for the murder of his wife. On the run and in search of his son, he arrives at Jolson's warehouse where he is greeted by more of Jolson's men. Eventually, he is surrounded and beaten to submission. Jolson tells Hammond that in order to get his son back, he'll have to do him a couple of 'favors'. With no choice, Hammond gives in, and here is where the game begins.

  Perhaps what makes The Getaway so incredibly appealing is its realism. The reason why a game such as Grand Theft Auto never managed to fully capture me was because of its cartoon-esque visuals and its unrealistic car models. The atmosphere in The Getaway really does help the gameplay shine brighter. The game features dozens of cars to steal, with manufacturers including Lexus (SC430, IS300, LS430), Saab (93), Toyota (1990 MR2), Honda (modified 1997 Civic), Nissan (Skyline), Mercedes (E500), Land Rover, Jaguar (S-Type) and much, much more! Each car has its own unique traits, such as acceleration, braking, handling and top speed. Though the traits aren't as true to life as, say, Gran Turismo, it's good enough.

  Now, what sets The Getaway apart from a game like Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and Driver, is that there are no on-screen indicators, such as a map, health meter, or a directional arrow. Driving decisions must be made by paying attention to the turn signals of your car. Yes, you read right, your turn signals. As ridiculous as it sounds, this is a pretty innovative feature, but it does take some patience to fully understand. At first, your missions will be rather simple, both on foot and in car, though as you progress and you get a much better feel of your character and the driving aspects (including navigating with your turn signals), the missions will become more and more hectic. There is a total of 24 missions, that are broken up between two playable characters. The first 12 missions are the actual story, as you assume Mark Hammond's role. The other 12 missions put you into the shoes of Frank Carter, who is part of the Flying Squad, and is set to track Charlie Jolson and his whole crime family, as well. Carter's portion of the game is more or less a fill in of what happened while Hammond searches for his son -- the stories are parallel. The situation is almost like Pulp Fiction, where towards the end of the movie the viewer is shown the cause of Jules' sudden disappearance. Each mission has checkpoints, some missions may have one, another may have two, and another may have three -- all depending on how many objectives are given to you during a mission. Upon completing all of the game's missions, you will be treated to a full-fledged free roam mode. You'll be able to freely roam around during certain missions (most notably the second one), but if you complete the whole game, more cars will be accessible to you when you drive around using free roam mode.

  The on foot gameplay can be a bit of a chore at times, but give it a little patience, and it'll work to your benefit at the end. The auto-aim works extremely well, but we'll get to that later. As far as gameplay goes, The Getaway almost feels like a mix of Hitman 2, Grand Theft Auto, and "Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels". (In fact, the actor that plays Charlie Jolson -- the figure that you see in the game and the voice -- co-starred in "Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels".) Despite what you may have heard, The Getaway is a sensational action/adventure title that does far more right than it does wrong. As a whole, the gameplay is extremely addictive and challenging.

  As stated earlier, the game does take a little time to get used to, in regards to controls. Give it about ten minutes or so, and everything should fall right into place. The game's aiming feature works remarkably well when you are required to take out multiple people simultaneously. Tapping the R1 button will lock on to a target, and hitting square shoots your weapon. The pistols are far more generous in terms of precision, while the machine gun and shotgun need to be shot from a closer distance. There will be many instances when you, yourself, will have to fight off a heap of thugs during monstrous blood bath gun wars, which is when you'll realize how well done the lock on system is. As either Mark or Frank, you'll be able to shimmy along walls and sneak around to prevent from being spotted. Not only that, but both characters have stealth attacks. Mark grabs somebody and breaks their neck, while Frank grabs them and arrests them. If there is a weapon present, you can take somebody and hold them hostage, and by pressing Square with a weapon drawn, you will be able to kill the hostage.

  The Getaway easily sports the best voice acting in a videogame to date. The acting is done by the very same actors that the game characters are modeled after. The dialogue is unsurpassed by any other title on the market, including the PS2's current roster of AAA titles such as Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto III & Vice City, Soul Reaver 2, Lord the Rings: The Two Towers and a select other. The timing, delivery and overall execution really make The Getaway's voice acting the best of the best. If you're having difficulty understanding the dialogue, there is a subtitle option, so use that to your advantage. That said, The Getaway has no radios like GTA, so the soundtrack is very boring and is obviously tacked on last minute -- it's nothing but very redundant techno beats. The sound effects are also done well; gunshots, tire screeching, crashes, engines and even pedestrians cursing at you is all there with force. It should also be noted that the game uses some extremely harsh language. In total, throughout the whole game, the "F-word" is said approximately 200 times, if not twice more. All in all, regardless of the tacked on soundtrack, the voice acting in The Getaway impresses so much that it's almost hard to care about the poor music.

  With a total development time of 3 years, The Getaway delivers on all accounts. Visually, chances are you won't find many games like this on the PS2. The level of detail that Team Soho put into virtual London is ridiculous and will surely go unrivaled for quite some time. The car detail is precise and there really isn't much to complain about there. There are a few visual hicks here and there, but nothing too staggering. Most importantly, The Getaway plays like a dream. It's a hybrid of Hitman 2, Grand Theft Auto, and Syphon Filter. The action is top-notch, and while the controls may take a little time to get used to, the auto-aim is a big plus. On a final note, the game's voice acting is as cinematic as can get. With all of that said and done, The Getaway is worth the 40 bones that most retailers are selling it for. It's one of my personal favorite Playstation 2 games, and I highly recommend giving this game a chance, despite what you may have heard elsewhere...My final words: go out and buy The Getaway

like gta so if u like that u will like this

Fantastic Four the game is based on the events in the recent film, though some creative liberties have been taken to lengthen the game. The Fantastic Four were at one time normal people, but after an accident in space, they now have super powers. The Invisible Woman can, yes, turn invisible. Mr. Fantastic can stretch his arm to attack enemies from a distance and contort his body, allowing him to reach places others cant. The Thing is just different enough from The Hulk that someone doesnt get sued, and The Human Torch, wait for it, is not only on fire, but can light others on fire as well. Who says comic books arent complex?
The game is essentially a brawler with some light, and I do mean light puzzle solving elements thrown in. Like the watered-down gameplay in Batman Begins, the game doesnt leave much to chance, color-coding objectives and making the interactive cut-scenes little more than rotating the analog stick or mashing the X button. Along the way youll rescue helpless civilians, beat up hundreds of bad guys, and fight bosses its all standard fare. Sometimes youll go it alone, and other times youll have to team up with one of the other Fantastic Four. Teaming up is done by tapping the d-pad, having one character perform a task, and then selecting the other character and using their strength to finish the job. Like the puzzles, the game holds your hand too much during this process, but it does help add some variety to the game. Co-op play is available, and it does make the game more enjoyable since teaming up with a real person to get through situations is more natural than switching back and forth between characters.

As you fight your way through the levels, youll earn points that can be used to unlock new moves as well as bonus content, like trailers, interviews, character bios, and concept art. The new moves dont add much to the game since you rarely have to do much more than pound the heavy attack button the whole time. The game is incredibly easy on the medium setting, so easy in fact; you can get several hours into the game before dying for the first time. The lack of difficulty stems from poor enemy A.I. where theyll just stand in a corner and take a beating without moving, and the games slow pace. You can get bonuses from hurrying through a level, but theres not really anything to encourage you to move quickly you can simply play it safe and inch your way through most situations.

Some decent visuals would have served Fantastic Four well, taking away attention from the repetitive nature of the gameplay, but instead the game looks no better than average, with the biggest problem being everything looking bland and non-descript. The level design isnt very interesting, and the cookie cutter rooms often make it difficult to figure out which way you entered and which way you need to go.. Explosions and fire are average, the animation is ok, the cut-scenes are serviceable, and the textures are poor. Theres a fair amount of clipping, where characters walk through things or disappear through walls, and there are also times where they get stuck trying to get around objects. Throw in attacks that rarely appear to connect with their targets, and there are too many issues to look past.

Early on in the game the camera isnt a huge problem because there arent a whole lot of enemies, but as you progress and you have to track multiple bad guys at the same time, the camera fails to get the job done. It can be adjusted with the right analog stick, but its often too close to the character, and theres no way to fix that problem, unless you move away from the obstructions, at which point youll have to try and adjust the camera again; all while trying to fend of hordes of enemies.

Fantastic Four uses voice acting lifted from the movie, but the clips are uninteresting and often do little to advance the story theyre just there to let you know you beat an area. Thankfully you can skip all cut-scenes with the X button and get back to smashing things. The music is decent, but nothing memorable, kind of like the rest of the game.

If youre a huge fan of The Fantastic Four movie, then you might have a good time renting the game over a weekend. If youre just a lover of comic books, other games, like Spider-Man 2 have been much better, so if you dont really care what superhero you are playing as, you might want to go with something else. Anyone thinking of picking up the game with hopes that its simply a good game is going to want to look elsewhere theres just nothing new here and it doesnt do anything particularly well.

I got hundreds of PM's asking what the hell is Xisto, how did I get this name, what does it mean.. there is also a thread open regarding this. While most of the people are still wondering, what does Xisto mean ??

 

Ok! Time to open up the secret!

 

I used to play CS in a gaming zone at my place called Xisto.  I used to waste 8 hours out of my life,everyday  in that place and I kept doing it for about 2-3 years! After which that gaming zone was converted into a Gaming Shop where now Game CD's are sold. Its name was changed from Xisto to Cobra!

 

My friend and I used to miss (bunk) our college lectures and play CS. And after that place closed down... We were really disappointed. I wanted to keep that name up and soon after I registered that domain. 

 

Like most of you guys, I was looking out for free web hosts. Some of them, whom I tried are freedom2surf(which is now a paid hosting site), compactvision, dymihost, chromehost etc.. of which most of them either closed down or used to put ads on top of the page.

 

Dymihost ( which has quite better than trap in terms of BW and space ) closed down suddenly. I had written more then 350 php programs and stuff. This was really a huge blow and It was like all my work was gone in a flash.

 

Things were crappy and It was hard to find a good free host. I soon thought about starting my own free hosting. I made a small crappy site initially with my remaining programs and stuff.. Started free web hosting as a side feature.. and then I really started getting a good response.

 

I signed up for google ads and I saw the revenue was quite satisfactory to keep up the web hosting requirements. The site which I had started more like a personal one was getting a reputation of a professional site. and soon people started critsizing the personal website, tiny programs and registration systems that I had created. I removed all my site data and made Xisto a dedicated free Web hosting site.

 

To keep up with low expenses and stuff, I had a very simple design actually.. the only member whom I remember to be with Xisto from a very long time is WASSIE ( co-admin ) Soon I realised that, Xisto was falling behind as it was not having a proper presentation and template.. Lurk ( admin of http://lurk365.com/ ) donated the main template of Xisto.com and from that day, things really changed..

 

To keep the service as reliable, fast, secure and cheap as possible, I was testing out many servers. Old members may remember that Xisto had also lost the forum contents due to these server transfers.. things were difficult in the begenning.

 

But the this was only a begenning... when finally my Google account was disabled! Due to a member who tried to spam on the ads. Frankly, at that time, the first thing that hit my mind was to Close down Xisto. But it was only the responsiblity of so many members and the feeling that I had at the time when my site was closed, I decided to keep up the site. Till now [26 Nov 2004] I have been covering up the expenses from the  money I made out of my part time job..

 

At that time ( when I got my google account disabled),  I met another person who had an advertising company. I partnered with him and he in turn introduced my to other companies.  Xisto's Traffic statistics were pretty much impressive and It attracted a lot of attention. soon I was accepted by that company and I started a partnership deal to trade off the expense of the site by selling of the top advertising space at Xisto forums.

 

Soon the partnership was terminated, but it did not make much of a diffrence because till then, I was introduced to many advertisers... so there after I Stopped running behind google ads and stuff ( even though they can fetch up 20 times more money that what I am earning of these ads ) but my main motive was to keep the server up and also to keep the site running. Even a little amount enough to keep this site up was quite satisfactory..  ( I haven't made any profits or even any money of this site .. Because all my google accounts were disabled at the last moment when I was actually expecting my payments )

 

I had registered about 2-3 google accounts and placed them on other sites.. so that I could atleast make some money off those. But Google Disabled them too saying that a Publisher who has been disabled is not allowed to participate in the adsense program.  and when I saw my ad-tracker stats, I noticed that someone was purposely trying to get my account disabled. because everyday, I used to see a huge set of clicks from a single ip address.  One by one all my google accounts were disabled. And I lost all of the money I had with google.

 

2 of my server charges have been paid by my pal who is from Canada. I still owe him more than a $100. But I think I can repay him back soon because, I will start getting the money of my advertisers after december. I hope to recieve before it, but it may take time due to shipping and stuff.  I really thank that guy a lot, his name is Wen.  It was because of this guy that this site continued to run. If I hadn't met this guy, this site would had been closed 2-3 months back..

 

Initially because of the name of the site and stuff, I also had to fight through a hell lot of bad reputation! This was the worst chapter for Xisto.. I dont know why, but members were afraid of the name or something. Or may be the competitors.  Bad words, news etc are were spread about Xisto. (for eg.  http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) Issues were made out of small things  like the MySQL hookups.  Couple of members were also trying to spam the MySQL server ( the main reason that was and That is for the MySQL hookups )... But these things are practically un-avoidable. Haden't I recived funds, I could had ensured to get another chip of ram for my server, but due to financing problems. I could not upgrade.

 

Xisto survives because of the members.. The Traffic and the popularity. The only thing that holds this community is its popularity. The reason for this success inspite of so many difficulties was simply that We did not make this site for profits at the first place.  I am satisfied with whatever small amount I make to keep the server up. eg. 4discuss.com, one of the biggest competitor closed off his site, removed all the user accounts after he lost google ads. And gave an excuse saying that the server has been hacked! That guy did it, because his intension was profit. While I, even though I wanted to do it ( because I had lost my main source of income) , I simply could'nt.

 

Xisto has gone through many difficulties initially... more than one can imagine.  the ones listed out above still fall short. Very old members actually know what trap had been through before it reached the this successful position. I remember working for about 18 hours a day for my site! I used to literally sleep in front of my pc. All day,  I used to search for advertisers, manage my forums, lookout for better servers and monitering them etc... But, now, I am able to concentrate only on financial, marketting and other professional aspects. Thanks a lot to my admins who have really taken the load off my head regarding the forums.  After being with Xisto for a long time and helping it out sincerely, I finally gave Wassie the server rights and direct access to it for making and editing user hosting accounts. Then I gave it to Spectre ( one of the only members of Xisto who has helped us without any specific intension. ie. without requesting any hosting account ) . Here is the place where I guess we prove the amount of trust we have in each other in this community.

 

After getting this site to work on a full swing, I launced Xisto.com for members who were very highly talented and were feeling un-confortable at the Xisto forums.  And then due to the requests for paid hosting, I and one of my chat friends ( the former manager of freenukehosting.com forums ) launced a paid hosting site ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) We belive we have one of the highest competitive and cheapest rates available on the internet. We are still young and learning ...

 

I hope this site keeps growing ( umm.. well without those difficulites ) and continues getting loads of new members day by day. So that we may serve as many members as possible..

 

Thank You for all your time ( for reading this article ) and your support without which Xisto was simply not possible...

 

Warm Regards,

OpaQue.

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wow that was a great story

 

i bet you went through some emotional times keep up the hard work

ps your site is really cool

hi all,

i found this website that sends money to your paypal, you can either get it monthly, or send an email to payments@paychimp.com, and get it whenever!

 

the website is: http://ww1.paychimp.com/?pid=9POWXXJ33&bkt=13231

it took me about 2 or 3 hours to complete all the offers, and i got a total of $18 or so...

 

anyways, that website again is http://ww1.paychimp.com/?pid=9POWXXJ33&bkt=13231

 

i hope you can find it helpfull.

 

thanks.

-xorc

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that website did not work at all

ive found the catch a you have to be on a t-mobile nbetwork and b you are paying about 99p a keek for that money

so what do u prefer windows or mac

To tell u the truth i think windows is the worst thing ever made and i want to kill lt..... it crashes,frezees and u can easally get viruses

 

so i went out and brought a appl mac g4 powerbook

 

Its great i dont get viruses (even thoughh i have no virus protection or firewall) it doesnt crash or freeze and its absoulty great.

                               

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i personally like windows because it is faster for arciving files and loading multiple things up at the same time

 

 

i like mac beacuse it is good for image edditing softwear insted of the crap windows edditing stuff

strong hold is a game set medievial times and basically you have to build castles and attack the enemy or wait for the enemy to come for you its a bit like age of empires reallythe charactersin stronghold there are many different characters which are:archers, which are you guessed it like archers. (they can also fill in moats)crossbow men, are basicaly archers but they have a crossbow insted of a long bowspear men, these pepople have very sharp spears which can kill the enemy very easily but they are not very well armourd and so they can be killed easily as well. (they can also knock down walls and dig and fill in moats.)pikemen, these are basically the same as spearmen exept they have a pike and battle armour they cannot fill in moats but they can knock down walls and kill people quicker than spearmen.macemen, these units has big maces (big metal ball with loads of spikes on them) they can dig and fill in moats and knock down walls and kill people in one swipe of there mace.swordsmen, these are elite foot soldiers they can kill anything in there path with 1 swoop of there sword they are the slowest unit but when there get to there target consider them gone so dont bother trying to save them swordsmen are also the hardest to killknights: this is the best unit in the game they can do anything very fast move very fast you name it they will do it appart from filling in moats and climbing walls (note: you can only make knights if you have stables)tunnelers, are basicially tunnelers they gig into the ground and crawl under the enemys wall and colapse it by setting alight to the structure that holds up that wall or tower almoast instantly but if they are hit whilst tunneling they will die straight away and they cannot tunnel under a moat.laddermen, these units will almoast be killed instanty they have no armour or wepon they only have ladders which they prop up against a wall so that soldiers can cliumb up themthey cannot deploy the ladder if there are walls that are cronculated (cant spell it correctly)and they will die if there ladder is broken by spearmenengineers, these units can build all siege equippment and can control siege equippment toand also tip boling oil the emeny to melt them very efective against swordsmenblack monks, these units are like spearmen and pike men crossed together also very mysterious loard, he is the most important character in the game he is a deadly fighter and rules over all the characters he is you.lady, she is the lords wifejester, he makes people happy and rasies you populationwoodcutter, he cuts down trees for wood for the stockpilehunters, they hunt dear for meat and they can also shoot arrows at the enemy if attackedfarmers, they grow various crops and take them to the stockpilepeasants, these people wait for jobsstone masons, they make and get stone out of the ground for buildingsiron miners, they get iron for producing swords and armourpitch diggers, they dig pitch for boiling oilmillers, they mill flower ready for bakingbrewer, brews bear for pubsinkeeper, gets bear from stockpile and takes it to the pubfletcher, makes bows and crossbowsarmorer, makes armour blacksmith, makes swords and macespoleturner, makes spears and pikestanner, makes lether armour for crossbow menpriest, blesses the populationhealer, heals indured unitsbuildingsstrongholdwooden gatesmall stone gatelarge gatedrawbridgewooden platformturretarmorywodden barracksstone barracksengineer guildkilling pitoil smelter these are just some of the buildingsthe game is really easy to learn and is also very addictive i would recomend this game to anybody who likes age of empire type games.

I wanted to know what the best free os out there was. I would like it to be lighteight, sence I allredy have windows, and I'm uisng this for other things like checking e-mail. Something that boots up quick. Any suggestions?

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the best opperating system for a server is red hat linux because it is free or you can use windows server 2003 even tho its not free its still good

 

for a home computer i would recomend linux because a its powerfull and b its fast there are loads of linux opperating systems for you there are about 0 of them for different purposses

so just chose what u want to use

does anybody know what the best servers around are and any free companys that are giving them away coz i really want to know for future refrences thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

first you must buy all the equippment you will needthen all you have to do is start building the system which isnt hared youm just plug your harddisk ram ect into the mainbord its like building a computerthen you install your opperating system the best ones are red hat linux or windows server 2003 service pack 1then get it connected to the internet and do whatever you want to do with it simple !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!