Erkki

Ok, I used the wrong word. I mean there is nothing in the controls that couldn't be done without the Wiimote, everything would work just as well with a regular controller. Compare it to the tennis game. You could also say that it could be done by pressing buttons instead of imitating real tennis, but it seems fundamentally different to me. I think that's exactly because in the tennis game your hand mimics what happens in the game, while in Zelda the movements only correlate somewhat. And it's not cohesive because you do some things with buttons but some with gestures.

Although I personally like the Zelda controls, I agree with you that they are tacked on since there are definitely no new kind of control mechanisms whatsoever here but indeed just button precess replaced with iconic gestures. Or actually, the fishing thing is an exception (somewhat), but that's such a small part of it that it doesn't really count. But honestly, I never expected anything different -- after all this game is also on the cube and noone expected them to make two completely different versions.

I think this problem exists in pretty much every RPG today. I'm playing Twilight Princess and I'm having full money most of the time to the point where it's annoying to open chests because usually I'll have to put the rupees back. Well, actually at least that cap makes it a little better. Frankly, I don't even clearly remember any games where the economy was well balanced, except Mordor (and maybe it's sequel Demise). But that was a pure hack'n'slash rather than a full-blown RPG. Maybe Diablo was balanced, too? Or Baldur's Gate? Can't remember.

Apparently, yes it can. ... I mean could [edit]... Oops... actually no it can't (if WiiConnect24 is on)

Hmm... maybe I should try it. For some reason I thought those Calendar programs were not fully functional/usable yet.

Thunderbird is much better. But it can't be used instead of Outlook in many companies because there is Exchange support and it's missing calendars and stuff. I hope Mozilla's Calendar app is going to be as great as Thunderbird. They are doing it both as a separate app and TB plugin. PS. What does it mean Thunderbird has "iCal compatability"? It doesn't have a calendar currently. Or are you talking about some extension?

So I finally got the Wii! I payed an obscene amount of money just to get it a couple of weeks earlier than would be possible otherwise. The first moments were brilliant, as I realized how fucking easy it was to use the wiimote while going through the initial setup. After that was done, I proceeded to setup the WiFi connection, and done that the Wii started updating itself. At some point during the update I noticed that the cursor rotated with my hand and started playing around with that. I don't know if that could have been the cause or not, but when I rotated the cursor a full 360 degrees counter clockwise, the thing suddenly hanged, or at least seemed to -- sounds stopped and the cursor stopped moving, the progress bar had almost completed. I waited for a while, and then thinking it had crashed, turned it off. Now it won't even boot. I've tried a thousand times. Sometimes the first screen comes up, but sometimes theres just a black screen. I suspect it didn't actually crash but was doing a firmware update... Could that be? Anyway, I'll probably see if I find any help on some forums and if not, take it back to the store tomorrow so they can send it back to be repaired or whatever and wait probably an obscene amount of time before I get it back. It was so fucking brilliant of me to pay a bit more to actually get it somewhat later that I normally would have.

Hey! Who changed the title?

Wiiiiiiiiiiii! I got a replacement yesterday. Wii Sports is pretty cool, although the controls are a tiny bit less responsive than I expected. Definitely not bad for a launch title, though. Warioware is awesome! Although I can't compare it with the previous Wariowares or similar mini games as this is the first one I've played. I also got Zelda, but haven't played very long yet. Any other games I should get? I'm thinking Wiiplay, but it wasn't available yet. For some reason the game manuals are in Swedish... And WiiConnect24 isn't avaiable unless I select another country.

Has anyone tried the new Linux 3D desktops (or other 3D desktops)? I've given a try to Compiz in Ubuntu before and now I've been using Beryl (a fork of Compiz) in the latest Ubuntu beta for a week or so. I think Beryl doesn't work with ATI's own driver and the open source driver is kind of slow, but otherwise this thing is pretty cool. Beryl creates a 3D cube instead of a flat desktop. I think it's awesome. Linux had virtual "workspaces" before, but I never used them. Now that the workspaces map directly to sides of a cube and thus create a visual association, I find them pretty useful for grouping related windows together. Now if only they make it properly support different backgrounds and icons for the cube sides... Also, I think it's a pretty easy transition -- my mom thought she was using the regular desktop until I showed her that it can be rotated. Attached: Beneath a Steel Sky in 3D

Hmm... maybe I should get an NVIDIA card too, I need an upgrade soon anyway. Is NVIDIA on Linux considered a better choice than ATI overall?

With the open source "radeon" driver the performance was bad during window animations like minimizing. However, I got it to work with the proprietary "fglrx" driver, although that needed some hassle and a few google searches before I found the configuration that worked for me. With that, the performance seems really good. But it has crashed a few times already. I hope this is gonna get better during 2007. ATM both Beryl and Compiz seem somewhat unstable for me. But I've grown so used to the cube already that I really miss it when I'm on Windows. It really helps that you can push some distractions to the side to be dealt with later.

It's superior by mapping those different desktops to a visual metaphor (cube) instead of something purely abstract. Also, I don't know all the details about resource usage, but it most definitely doesn't hog resources -- it uses the graphics hardware to render stuff instead of doing software rendering. But that is probably compensated by it needing to do more. In my experience, the GUIs are even more responsive during normal operation. It may use the processor more while rotating the cube etc., but at that time you don't really interact with anything else anyhow. Also, task switching has never been better, showing window contents in real time.

Umm... maybe you could give us a hint what this is about before we download this zip. What "the issue"?

Update: I tried again and if I go really fast I can click through most of the setup menus before it crashes. So what it basically does is: work fine for 10-20 seconds and then crash. Sometimes it already happens in 5 seconds. Could something be overheating? I mailed Nintendo yesterday, no answer so far. Maybe I should call them instead. [update]even managed to boot up Wii Sports! And then it crashed again at some "press A and B" screen. So it seems to just crash randomly...

Ok, I see it now. The last third, or maybe even the entire second half of it pretty much sucked. Up to the first necropolis visit it was ok, but everything beyond that was reduntant redundant. And the ending was utter crap. But smashing Orcs was cool! I now will start drooling waiting for Project Offset, and then cry out in anguish as it gets cancelled at some point.

I agree with Duncan about comparing Oblivion and Dark Messiah. They just don't compare at all. I think it's made by the same people who made Arx Fatalis (or am I wrong?) and I think it definitely reminds me of both Arx Fatalis and Thief, and also Half-Life 2, not only for the engine -- Half-Life 2 was just as much a very linear shooter as this one. I just made it to the same level that was in the demo and so far I haven't felt it get repetitive -- but maybe it's because I'm playing with the hardcore difficulty. I think this helps to keep the combat interesting a lot, but there are some rare battles that get nigh impossible because of this -- an Orc boss could kill me with a single leaping slash when I had full health so I had to quicksave / load a lot during that fight. The flaws of this game are definitely starting to show for me too, though. I actually hope it will end soon, because I think I'm soon starting to feel that the combat is repeating itself. It's also become somewhat easier thanx to the Shield of Lightning and the Earthfire Sword. Of course, I could throw them away ...

Aye!

The Pathologic thread made me want to ask... what are the games that really suck on some level, but still you somehow really love them? For me: Omikron: The Nomad Soul Vangers: One for the Road (an obscure driving/action/rpg/strategy game that gets way too hard and unforgiving near the middle so I never finished it) Dust: A Tale of the Wired West (maybe this one wasn't actually that bad, but I played it at a time when it was technically outdated) Jack the Ripper

Awesome!

It might work with movies -- you are just passively watching and only waste 2 hours or so. But spending 10 hours playing a game that is crap -- hmm...

So, anyone played it yet? It hit me out of the blue when I just noticed it in the store, having no idea it was released already, and I just couldn't not buy it. But now at home, looking at the requirements, I'm not sure it will run well on my PC. I'll give it a go soon. In other news, Psychonauts is awesome! Probably the best level design ever!

If only it didn't take a minute on my computer!

I'm loving Gothic 3 so far, although it seems to have lost some of the charm of the previous games in the process of making the world I don't know how many times larger. But now I must cry out in anguish: can there be a more inappropriate time for the power in the house to go out? I had just taken Montera in a battle of epic proportions, had lost a comrade in that battle, had already accepted the loss and had almost completed collecting the loot from the bodies when the screen went black. Of course I had not saved yet... I just can't do it again.

Happy Birthday!