toblix

Yeah, I guess there aren't enough days in the week to accommodate everyone. There should be more days!

Yes, it was awesome, even though we lost. I don't know if it was because the other guys were so much better, or because I'm so terrible. You don't have to tell me which.

The Black Valge or something. He's a good guy in my book. Anyway, what the hell has happened to you people, playing on a server without crosshairs? Everything went to crap last night, because I couldn't aim because my crosshairs were gone, and then I tried to ask you guys about it but my voice is weak, like a gentle breeze, and then I typed the question but nobody answered BECAUSE I HAD BEEN TRANSPORTED TO THE OPPOSITE TEAM. Anyway, good times. Also, is everyone agreed on the bad scheduling of L2D and BC2 (and, seemingly, DoW2)? It seems everything is happening at the same time, and we're forced to choose.

I'm so happy to hear from single-player Valve again. While they're doing awesome multiplayer stuff, I've always enjoyed their single player games the most. Although I was at first disappointed that it wasn't Half-Life related, and also doubful of a full-length Portal game, I really have no doubt it's going to be completely amazing. What's more, all the technological advancements they've been making with the Source engine will make the coming single-player games even more awesome. I have little doubt there'll be some talk of Half-Life from Valve this year.

Have they changed the helicopter controls in a crazy way since BF2142? I had super control in that game, but in BC2 I just flipped the helicopter and burned.

Luckily, you enter your klan tag each time you select your soldier, so there's no need to rename.

Finish what you start James.

I unlocked stuff like a mother fucker tonight. I guess it's not much of an indication of my skills, but it felt nice and motivated me for playing more jesus I WALKED RIGHT INTO THEIR TRAP!

I also prefer Thumb. Let's always do multiples of four, then. Simple.

OMGOMGOMG I just played with a bunch of thumbs guys and it was totally awesome. I killed a bunch of young men and racked up points, unlocked pins, badges and new weaponry like a shotgun I didn't use, and a weapon prototype, which I did, and which was awesome. Also I rode on a little car with JamesM, blew up three guys at once with a grenade, and got disconnected from Skype a couple of times. All in all, A++++ will play again. Although I might be horribly wrong, I felt I didn't suck completely, which made things even more fun. Also, we should agree on Thumb or Thumbs. Also, I tried riding a helicopter but died at once. AWESOME FUN FOR EVERYONE!

Gordon and Chell are clearly related. Their health meters are almost identical!

I'd rather not post it here, so as to protect my double life. I found two of you on there, though. Which one is you, and which one just wishes he were?

Yeah, it's a real bitch to get up and running. I guess the advantages are that it probably uses less bandwidth, and apparently scales really well. It only came to mind as a fallback, since you apparently had some Skype issues. I'm already running Skype, so it's no big deal.

Have any of you tried TeamSpeak? It's Skype-ish, but made for gaming. Actually, it's more like an XBL party. I have a server running at least, if Skype is a problem. I'll be on the lookout for people playing.

Oh, is there already a Thumbs thing going on? When, where, etc.? I noticed Armchair was playing, but the server was full. Didn't see anyone else on, but I guess that's to be expected when I have to manually add everyone. Steam integration FTW

OMGOMG this was awesome. Even thought the server browsing and general UI is really crap, the game itself is super smooth and fun. Now the only thing missing is: Thumbs playing The game not suddenly disconnecting

Yeah, I should probably add some helpful tags too.

Actually I'm still not totally convinced anyone's written anything.

So, just to chronicle my adventures for posteriority, after the data loss I went looking for a data recovery tool, since I figured I could scan all my old discarded hard drives for some of the lost files. Now, googling for this kind of stuff is like googling for video converters or internet accelerators -- it seems like someone's made a crapware generator. Anyway, I finally ended up at Ontrack Easyrecovery being the best choice. I was at the point of considering buying it (the cheapest version is $89), but then I found a second app, Piriform Recuva. Now, immediately looking at the web page I thought, great, another mac app, but not only is it for the PC, and not only is it being updated regularly (already certified for Win7), it's totally free. And it's awesome. I used it to scan all my disks, and I was able to recover all my lost photos, most of my music, and a bunch of other crap. So, if you ever need to recover files, try this first. Also, today I ordered parts for my new self-built NAS. Hopefully this will fare better than the Seagate CrapArmor.

Yeah, also MIDI sequencing, 3D graphics and most games is harder using only the keyboard, basically almost everything that's not based on the OS's native UI, or made by developers who prioritize usability more than most. My comment wasn't aimed particularly at you, Chris, that was just the next available spot in the thread. I apologize if I came off condescending. I just have the impression that most computer-using people would benefit from learning more keyboard shortcuts. Even people considering themselves "computer-savvy", and know Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+V, probably use menus and toolbars more than they should, even if they're using the same two or three apps daily. There's a (maybe stupid) philosophy that if you're about to do something you've done once before, look up the keyboard shortcut instead. I work mostly in programming IDEs, which I guess are maybe more shortcut-heavy than most kinds of programs, but I know that millions work almost exclusively in Word, Excel, etc., and those people should almost never need to touch the mouse either.

High quality? More like high comedy. You should do it more. Also, no matter how much you do it, it would be impossible to turn into a "meme", so that's a plus.

It seems to me most people should try to use the keyboard more. There really is very little you need a mouse for, and a lot of things go way faster if you learn the shortcuts.

The only thing I ever regretted throwing away all the discs that came with, is my Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick. For some reason the drivers and awesome software weren't available online. For everything else though, I've been able to get the same -- usually newer -- software online.

I love how that is something that one would say. Seriously.

No, Jake is the Gentleman of Robot Voices. He should have his own show. Which begs the question (!) did he do one of the voices for the old computers in S&M Episode something?