Cool_Freaker

I thought these days generally as long as your computer is in a well ventilated position (and case has proper air flow through it), you can get away with stock cooling unless you started to overclock?

That animation is just so smooth... it's awesome

Lovin' this batch Johnny. The render on the second is kinda funny . The third is just the foshizzle

I don't know whether it's my screen or something, but to be honest it doesn't look that great from here. Sorry SM

Yeah, it's the most (if not one of the most) expensive games in the arcade. Not to mention that there are always people on it, so you can almost never get a turn. From what I've seen by looking over people's shoulders it looks good, but hey I've never been a huge fan of chucking money into an arcade machine

Yes it would be nice to have a section like that with post count. I believe the reviews may need to be moderated (like the tutorial section) so we have some consistency of quality, and not some 5-year-old gibberish.

I'd have to agree with the majority of the people here. I browse Xisto a lot longer than I used to and it continually gets harder to find a topic where you believe your input has value and you're able to post a substantial amount to gain hosting credits. I believe also that more forums have no post count and no hosting credits attributed to them than at the beginning. I know I used to get a lot of credits from the GFX forums but now that's not happening. Obviously if you are desperate you can always share some prose you've written (of any sort), and post it up, as I've seen others do. There's no issue as you've written it, and it gives a nice boost especially if it's a long piece. Plus I don't mind reading people's works

The original was different, but I believed it was rather similar to the Skype setup. I found it rather cumbersome to use though, the update makes it cleaner and more streamlined, though it loses a lot of the style update it had.

I vote Razor. Same reason as last weeks - simple, but clean and professional looking.

To be honest I'd say the pinnacles of the series are Tony Hawks 2/3 and later Underground (1). From what I've heard/read American Wasteland is not all that great, just in the way it's set out - or tries to do too much.Personally I played a lot of THPS3, which was a lot of fun in it's time I'd have to admit. They've really upped the polish and presentation on these games over the years though - and the ones I've gotten my hands on play great, if not rather similarly (ie if you can do a combo in one of the games, you can pretty much do it in the rest)...

Might be worth a watch for the special features - any heads up about what's on it?I'd probably rather re-read the book than re-watch the movie though...

Wow, very nice Avalon. Well polished, and nicely done without being too over the top.

With gaming he will definitely need a graphics card - on board can barely handle any games that have been released in the past two years or so. I suppose two RAID disks would be viable, but then it really depends on his budget again

So it's down? Just got worried because server status says it's up

Today I was checking my account, as my site forums were down, so I wanted to see the SQL server status or fix the mySQL database. On Cpanel it says I have 0/99 mySQL databases - which is really weird seeing that I have definitely had one for over a year .Anyone have any ideas? Or will I need to start from scratch?

It depends what the computer is primarily for. If you're definitely going to be using a lot of multimedia applications, then go for the Intel P4, otherwise for gaming and general purpose (which it seems like it's for), then go for an Athlon. I put together a computer recently in December for gaming and general usage, for about AU$1200, about US$800. Anyway, right now I'd be recommending:- AMD Athlon 3200+ Socket 939 Venice- Gigabyte K8NF-9 Motherboard OR Asus A8N-E Motherboard- Generic RAM 1x1gb stick (sure you don't get the dual channel, but for multimedia applications you'd want to get the extra RAM ASAP, and it leaves for more upgrade opportunities - and generic is good enough unless you want to overclock)- nVIDIA 256mb GeForce 6800GS (Any brand except Forsa)- BenQ 1640DW Dual Layer 16x DVD-RW- 200GB Seagate SATA HDD - Thermaltake Soprano with 430W PSU (great value with 3 fans and easy drive installation)Adds up to about US$850 all up, but it is a decent gaming system and should work on fairly high settings for even the more demanding games such as FEAR or Battlefield 2. Otherwise if you need to cut it down, a smaller HDD, a X800GTO or 6600GT GFX card should save you a bit. I would say get at least a 120gb HDD though, as the price per GB for an 80gb is not worth it.PS. Yes the VIA chips are terrible unless you plan on only using simple applications such as word processing or light web browsing.

Wow, I never knew this was released. I only have Red Alert - sad I know, but the rest I somehow borrowed/scammed from friends. Does it include Generals and Zero Hour?There will be more C&C games, as I doubt EA will just drop a franchise that has made them so much. Rather, Westwood Studios has been absorbed into EA, so they work on other products also (correct me if I'm wrong but I heard some of the staff were working on the Battle for Middle Earth games).

Good to see you back Reaver Think SM, Johnny and TF pretty much nailed it -saves me some typing

Some nice brushing in the first and third one there - has a really good textured feel. Maybe lower the opacity on the dots or pattern overlay thing, as I would say it's still a bit too strong. Good render blending in the first also.I don't go for the second one so much - it's clean and simple, but somehow doesn't quite have the *style* I expect from minimalistic sigs. The white vector thing seems a bit pixellated also?

Yup, Rome Total War is the best. I just got it recently, and it's great. I have to say it's outlasting AoE3 in replay value at this stage. I don't see why people find it too complicated? It's still much easier to play than the Civ games, and the battles are amazing. I don't know where you got micromanage from, smartbei - it's definitely macromanagement with large armies. Age of Empires has a hell of a lot more micromanagement with individual units etc.

I like it. Clean cut and minimalistic. Just maybe a little too blue

Professional doesn't always mean tech, though these days I would have to admit vectors can make something look pro. If it's going to be a professional splash (ie used on a commercial site), then render/brush use would have to be subject to copyright or permissions etc.

I vote Razor, it has a nice professional "feel" to it.Avalon: 2S_M: 0Razor: 4Johnny: 1

I used to play ET alot, when I was using my old Athlon 1.2ghz with a GeForce2MX GFX card. (I got RCTW when I got the computer). I really only played it because it was free, and was one of the few games I could play on that computer (after having a long stint with CS and getting rather ticked off by it).I really liked the train map, I think it was Railgun? It was hilarious trying to get the trains to their destination - especailly when mines were next to the switches and people with panzers constantly shooting the carriages. I think it was also one of the few maps where the Nazi's got to go on the offensive.

As said above, definitely go AMD for gaming, and most general purpose use. On a price/performance ration they're better, plus they run cooler and I believe they use less power than Intels these days.I personally would only go Intel at this stage for Laptops, or if I wanted to do multimedia without spending the money on a dual core.