Intrepid Homoludens

So you have a food fetish, eh? Come over to my place, I've got champagne and oyster in the fridge.

I spent 20 minutes downloading the just released Shade: Wrath of Angels demo, only to find out it comes with that gawddamn Starforce protection crap! WTF!! For those of you unaware, Starforce is this highly volatile copyright protection software that oft times you don't know comes with a game. It can screw up your system by slowing it down, fighting with other programs, etc. In other words it's bad for you. Worse, it's nearly impossible to remove manually and can lurk in your rig for a loooong time after you've uninstalled the game. Read more about it here. Thankfully I hadn't installed the demo yet, but I really wanted to play it, I've been keeping tabs on this supernatural horror themed action title ever since it was announced. WAAAAAHHH!!!! :\

Um....yeah. My apple pies are so delicious they'll make you come.

Can Rodi be our token arsekisser?

Screw the leftovers, I'll bake a nice fresh one just for you!

Oh, not just squeal. You can also fart in public, flirt with women and men, kick bandit ass in nothing but your underwear, marry more than one person, get tattoos and haircuts, steal everything in sight, have sex, and be renowned as a chicken chaser. And all that's just to start...

I just make my apple pie with just apples, a very small amount of sugar, and lots of cinnamon. And a crumbly crust with lots of butter. I made two last night.

I decided to just squeal on him, screw his gold.

I have a computer and some games. And I know how to make a good apple pie.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/steven_seagal/index.html

In other words, pirates are everywhere, not just in the U.S., hon.

Um, Rusalka, didn't Kingz ask you a while back to write some kind article/rantatorial/whatever on being a girl gamer? And wasn't it you who never followed up on it or something?

De-clog your nose, mister. I was merely pointing out some more pros and cons. For one deficiency one platform has, the other platform compensates for, and vice versa.

PC games are 'notoriously' known to push the technical boundaries so of course they're going to be risky to buy compared to console titles. There are practically innumerable potential problems to prevent PC games from running at the nominal acceptable level (i.e. fundamentally playable), let alone the optimal level (all the bells and whistles turned on). You never know what's gonna happen when you load up the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s and the Quake IVs on your rig, but only then will you really find out if you can at least get them to work on your particular setup. Hence, this is practically a case by case basis. And that's not even yet considering how well the developers programmed the whole software. There are often instances where, even if you did own the $3000 desperately bleeding-on-the-edge dream system, it's still no guarantee. Many people with high end rigs still had problems getting Deus Ex: Invisible War to run smoothly, and this had more to do with the devs failing to streamline the game to run optimally. That said, the console by comparison 'deliciously' levels the playing field, so to speak, by enforcing a 'no-brainer' standard, simply because the console itself never changes its specs, never needs upgrading (except every 5 years when its next gen younger brother is born). So there is far, far less risk of a game not running smoothly, everyone gets the optimal performance. It's so damn silky convenient. A clueless soccer mom can simply look for the Xbox logo and grab the game at Walmart and moments later enjoy a session of Prince of Persia with her hubby and kids, just as any hardcore console gamer can do.

Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon had Starforce in it, and gave quite a few people some problems. Curiously my system didn't seem to suffer from it [knocks on wood], but I've since switched to XP from ME and cleaned out everything. I decided not to install and play the Shade demo. [shrugs]

Don't be, you'll have yours soon enough. I forced my niece to play it, and she started to really get into it. She decided she didn't want to get married, and she squealed on that married guy who was having an affair after he tried to bribe her.

Are you sure it's not more along the lines of: Tragic Deaths in Piltown, 3 Dead Schoolgirl's last words something like, 'Trep....Trep....I never had the chance to...to shag you....'

And I have just given my niece money and a note. She's off to Walmart with mummy to finally get me my copy of Fable! Tonight should be great fun!!

< seriously considers starting an 'Official How Would You Seduce Deadsie Sweetyhunnypies deadworm? Thread' thread >

Incidentally, someone by the name of Deadsie Sweetyhunnypies has just registered, Rusalka. You've been warned.

So much so that you misspelled a word. Darling.

But that depends on the game, doesn't it? I wouldn't dismiss an entire system - PC vs. console - on a generic preference of control schemes. There have been and are console games that have crappy interface and control configurations, sometimes uncustomizable. Same thing for some PC games. That's one really plausible advantage. PC games go on sale much faster than console games, it's primarily tied in to the royalties console devs have to pay companies like Sony, etc., for the rights to make games on their systems.

We learn our lessons, don't we? And one last time, just because I can't resist:

Of course it would be funny, but from another angle. Like I said, I was concerned about you and your family. I hope you can appreciate that.

You saying consoles have the edge over PC in terms of accessibility? I thought the opposite. How much does it cost to subscribe to Xbox Live (for gaming only) versus the fact that you can have Internet access for general purposes as well as multiplayer gaming on your PC? And if you subscribe to Xbox Live AND Internet, that would be even more expensive, yes? And there's also free downloadable mods and other amenities. Just thought I'd throw it into the mix.