Cool_Freaker

Haha I remember. Still lookin' good there Reaver! Certainly haven't lost that touch.

Gosh, haven't been here for yonks. 'Grats on four years though SM~ and still looking good.

I'm great at AoE 2, just 1 is crazy! 1900 food for an upgrade? And those towers- sudden jump from 5 damage to 20!

So I got the original Age of Empires. I set it on easiest and tried to get a feel for the game. I got owned. Hard. 1 enemy heavy calvary killed all my villagers, entire army, and all my priests.Then I started a new game. I got 10 calvary units, 10 Academy units, and I stormed their base. I got owned. Hard. Catapult triremes and catapults owned me.Unlike AoE 2, in AoE 1, whoever has the most catapults wins apparently. Then I made a lot of Helipolises, which worked, but they had like 20 priests which converted half. After I killed all the priests, they made more and converted the other half...

Yes! If the person behind you is one of those angry types, having a sign swearing at them and flashing would be a very bad idea. Frankly, I'd rather be hit by some bad driver and collect insurance money, than be shot in the head and letting my family collect insurance money.

It's probably a matter of what the Japanese society considers important. That, and a lot of technological advances made in Japan are mainly in consumer electronics which are mainly a private enterprise, whereas a fully fledged space program would (at this stage) be run by the government. According to the article they planned a trip to Mars earlier but scrapped it? I would imagine that was way too ambitious, but to put off going to the moon as well seems to be a major setback. If anything, you could consider Japan's close relationship with the US allows them some access to the space programs the US runs - in which case they may not feel an urgent need to develop their own?

Are they that hard to find? I swear I've seen quite a few in the shops - out of the three next generation consoles the Wii's have been relatively well stocked (so I've heard, anyway). I believed people had more trouble getting the Xbox 360 after launch.A lot of my friends didn't pre-order but managed to get it a day or two after launch, which indicated how readily available they were (to me).

I used to follow Naruto fanatically, but once I hit about ep130 and the fillers started I just gave up. The stories seemed poorly contrived - not only pointless but not even all that entertaining in their own right (by that I mean one of the earlier filler arcs of the Mission in the Sound Village). I started to find the manga went too fast as well, and I couldn't really keep up with what was going on, so I honestly haven't been reading it either. I really liked the Kakashi's Gaiden arc in the manga though - is it confirmed it will be part of the anime?

I saw those screens a while back soon after the game was announced. It looked really good then, and I'm still anticipating its release. I saw it at my local EB and was really thinking about getting it (though from what I'm seeing it was probably only a preview box). The previews of it on IGN have been pretty positive so far. I've been playing a lot of the Dawn of War expansion, Dark Crusade lately also. Hopefully Supreme Commander can be the next RTS I work on for a while

It's just a lot of stereotyping, which probably has little basis especially considering the saturation of video games in our society. Myself, I am a gamer, probably considered normal, or just a little skinny. With food it really depends, at home generally healthy, going out I go for the junk food (as my wallet isn't that fat yet) - so I guess "Whatever I feel like" is the choice.You have to wonder though, isn't there also the stereotype of the skinny nerd/geek? the tall lanky one with glasses/pimples who knows everything about computers? By the looks of the poll this stereotype could have a little more accuracy

If you wish to preach, please do so in a way that may inspire people to do good, rather than lash back at you. Considering this is the gaming section of the board, I believe such comments are unneccessary. Whilst I agree you may have a point, are you saying people must deny themselves a form of entertainment? Anyway, the Wii is the cheapest. In terms of launch, the Wii was probably the most successful, although I believe the 360 and its early start have proved beneficial. To me, though, the 360 is all about online gaming and FPS games - which I believe is much better on PC (no matter how hard I try using a controller and analogue sticks for aiming is not as satisfying as a mouse). Not to mention you can do without the Xbox Live subscription. At the moment, I would be backing the Wii, as the PS3 still lacks the games or the pricetag to make it desirable.

It depends really on the style of play you like. Guild Wars is more concentrated on PvP combat (player vs player), whereas World of Warcraft is more focused on PvM (player vs monster/npc). The quests, support and increasing content are rather good on WoW as well, though I have heard a lot of good things about Guild Wars. The subscription fee for WoW is rather high, in my opinion, whereas the cost for Guild Wars is in essence, unlimited subscription. A rumour I heard was that the developers of Guild Wars were some disgruntled former Blizzard employees... As for a WoW demo: us.battle.net/account/activation/landing.html?key&product=WOWC - should work on PC (including your Dell).

I don't think it's all just for research that he wishes to go into space - I mean, a simply trip into space probably has ample documentation if he wished to collect data.I think it's more a personal fulfillment thing - especially if you read the end of the article, how Hawking believes in finding a new planet for humans to inhabit as a "disaster" could easily end the Earth. In which case, I say good on him for going into space to pursue his dream. If anything it shouldn't be too arduous as it's going to be a commercial kind of trip, considering it's run by Richard Branson and all.

I tried it out for the first time on my cousin's PS2 a week back now. Before I'd played it, I had initially assumed it was just some hack and slash game, not something too interesting. After giving it a go I have to admit it's really quite fun. I guess the kinds of animations and the moves that Kronos (I think that's his name) can pull off makes it all the more fun. Kind of like how Prince of Persia is fun because the Prince has all these tricks up his sleeve.I'll definitely be having a look at the sequel when it comes out later in the year.

As Kubi mentioned earlier, World of Warcraft comes with a Free 10 Day Trial if you download it straight from their site. If you want a direct link: us.battle.net/account/activation/landing.html?key&product=WOWC Alternatively I've seen many game stores (like Electronics Boutique) have this in a disk form for AU$2, which I believe is a slightly longer trial at 14-days. My cousin was trying to get me to purchase it, but I have the feeling I'd get hooked - and I don't really want to spend that much time on an MMORPG if I can help it

That sounds rather bad, I really wonder how such an ISP can afford to operate. Are there no other viable options for you in India? I can't see people sticking with a service which is so unreliable. To be honest though, 256kbps (as in kilobits) is the way all ISPs show it, is it not? Your monthly charge isn't really that expensive, and I'm not too sure of the competition on India... My friend who was over there, though, told me television was rather bad - he claimed there was only one free to air tv channel, and that the reception was terrible. Maybe it's a general thing with media/communications in India?

Is Vista really that great? I'm on XP right now, but next OS I wanna buy needs something revolutionary. I'm talking Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 revolutionary. 95-98 really had no difference, 98-XP just got smoother colors. It seems that vista is going to be just like XP only with more frosting. I want to see something huge going on here.

Say, how do I activate this dagger_backup he has going?

Now that is where the problem might lie- There is no folder entitled "Dagger".

Uh huh. Yeah, This board stuff is way over my head. cPanel I assume refers to a control panel? Where is this control panel? And then, how does one restore a database? EDIT: Alright, I'm in the CPanel, but seriously, this thing is more complicated than Windows 3.0. Looks vaguely like progman too... Ok, I clicked on MySQL databases, because MySQL seems to be a recurring theme and you mentioned a database, but ah, can you point me to a quick MySQL guide so I can decode this thing? Now, found something called Dagger_Backup, and there was a repair function next to it. Since it's broken, this button looked very nice indeed. Pressing it resulted in a lot of "OK's" and the following: This anything important?

Can anyone lend some aid? CoolFreaker hasn't been on for a while now, and neither has the boards. I have no idea what this means:

It's not totally their fault, as the media stereotypes it in that kind of way. Just as black people live in the slums and are gangsters, white people live in suburbia and go to work with a suit and tie, according to movies, TV etc. (Reminds me of some documentary which was talking about those US Cop shows where all the criminals caught are black - what kind of message is that sending?) It works both ways, and unfortunately thats how it is, and until these kinds of messages are no-longer sent through mass media, the stereotypes will remain. The problem with jobs/careers in relation to racism is that it does exist but often in a subvert way - say two candidates are just as eligible for a job, one could be white, one black. This job could be in a company which is predominantly white (just simply because of the organizational culture starting from the founding members) - the white person will get the job. Perhaps the people in the company aren't specifically looking to be racist or to exclude people with different skin colours, but when the choice isn't simple, they stick with what they believe is the *safer* choice, subconsciously. That is, of course, hypothetically - but I believe it does or could happen. Living in a white dominated society (in terms of political and economic power), whilst being white, obviously has some sort of advantage, whether it be small or large, wanted or unwanted.

Yes, some form of Naval combat would be nice indeed - although considering that would be quite a big leap for the game (and while MTWII from Rome was not), I guess it wasn't to be expected :lol:I'm not sure how they would implement such a thing, anyway - would you command each ship? or would each ship have units on it which you would command? - whether they'd have things like wind taken into account, etc etc

I have to agree with Mich in saying Pop-unders are extremely irritating, with you actually having to switch screens just to close the ad. The other kind I particuarly hate are the ones which pretend to be helpful (i.e. Your computer may be at risk - Click here to install SpamDestroyerblah), not only are they misleading and trick ignorant and/or inexperienced computer users, but often the Cancel or "X" button on them pops up a new browser window directing them to their site anyway. In my opinion that's some really underhanded tactics.All ads apart from text ones are really rather annoying - which is probably part of the appeal and success of the Google Ads. Generally they're unobtrusive and at least have some remote relevance to what you're looking at. To be honest, I'm much more likely to click an ad if it isn't so desperate as to need to flash a huge window in my face or trick me into visiting their site.

Since I haven't seen a topic yet about it, has anyone played (or been playing) the latest game in the Total War series? Essentially it's a remake of the original Medieval: Total War, but incorporating many of the gameplay elements from Rome: TW, with improved graphics overall. I really loved Rome: TW - I'm a fan of huge armies fighting it out (which is why Warcraft 3 was never my thing with extreme micromangement and a pop cap of 90). Medieval II: TW is great too, although I felt it's not really a huge step up from Rome: TW. I'm not sure if I'm just unobservant, but in terms of new features I haven't come across anything yet (which has made a gameplay impact, anyway) - apart from the nice graphics. Sure, it's great having units in your armies more unique and natural, by that I mean how they have slight variations in appearance and movements, but essentially you do exactly the same thing.Medieval II: TW is still a great lot of fun, but for a full game I honestly expected a bit more to it, instead of playing a sort of repackaged Rome: TW. Does anyone else feel the same way?