Tanthalas

I tend to out-science everyone, hold my own until I get shuttles and orbital weapons, and THEN start a war with the planet.

Normally I'd agree with you. FPS games are usually dreadful on consoles, and need a mouse. But I think being able to aim by pointing, as I believe CoD on the Wii does, would be interesting to try out. I'll have to get my mate a copy for his birthday and try it out. Ah, cheers for that! I think It'll be at least a month before I have the money!

People who disagree with you (on anything) or want different things aren't necessarily stupid. They want the same as you, but ALSO with shiny graphics. I don't really see anything wrong with that personally. You're taking things out of context here. In context, my remark to you was with reference to you saying that shinier graphics constitute the sole reason for having newer consoles. Not accurate at all, I would say. I also said that I dislike when graphics are promoted over gameplay, not that I don't like graphics. I'd have to be really dumb not to like the lighting effects in Lost Coast, or the advancements in graphics through, for example, the X series. And in that context, your last jibe about my 8800s loses its edge. Graphics don't matter nearly as much to me as they do to some people on here - but I have to make concessions to the fact that: 1) More and more games are going to need that power regardless of whether I care about the graphics or not 2) I play in rather high res settings, so I need the beef anyway. As for my comment to Rip - he was suggesting that it's impossible to get involved in games that don't have modern graphics. Woeful, IMO. I like graphics. I hate it when graphics are used as the sole selling point of a game/console. If the Wii, SNES or (what the heck) Spectrum is more fun to play than the PS3, regardless of the PS3's graphical abilities, then I'll be playing the other consoles every time. And new graphics aren't the whole point of new consoles at all, as Nintendo have so excellently demonstrated. The point of new consoles is to do something new with them. You get more power, so you do something with it - make a more powerful game engine, more advanced levels, better weapons, etc. You don't just blow all that power on shiny graphics. That's what the Vista designers did.

$2000 per processor, anyone? I'm saving up. *Cough!* *Splutter!* HEATHEN! Tanthalas Has "Property of Advanced Micro Devices" tattooed on the inside of his eyelids.

Socket F! Go on. Gooo ooonnn. It'll be fun! :D Seriously though. Go AM2. It's the latest one, it'll do DDR2, and you'll have the highest number of potential upgrade options, especially where RAM is concerned.

First thing to do? Make a backup. Right now. After that, check that the IDE connectors are clean and firmly plugged in. Also check that you've no strong beta-particle emitters aimed at the cable. That's been known to bugger things up. Beyond that? If a hard drive's failing, there's not a right lot you can do to stop it. Run a full scandisk with a decent utility (please note the adjective) - see if it turns up any bad sectors.

But what does it matter if the gameplay sucks? Sorry, just doing a thread crossover there. Man, I am narky tonight, eh?

Because people are stupid, and have been for a long time? Because a higher proportion of modern gamers are casual gamers, and eye candy is needed to pick up the slack-jaws? Ever wonder why the iPod dominates the DAP market when it sucks so very hard and the iAudio X5 exists? Gaming has become all about marketing, and graphics look good on adverts. (The ironic part being that they still pre-render even better ones for the adverts. ) Good question. Sorry about that. I'm more a fan of OpenGL, but it just doesn't get used enough to be developed to the point that DX is at. DX is bloated (another MS shocker!), but we have to work with it, I guess.And I will be getting 2 8800GTXs. But I'll be running them on XP until I'm forced to do otherwise. I don't believe I ever said that. Did I say that? I don't think I did. I think what I actually went for there is that promoting graphics over gameplay is not a good thing, never has been, and never will be. It is more than possible to make a gorgeous game that sucks. *Cough*Halo*Cough* It is also possible to make an ugly game that rules. *Cough*GTA*Cough* I started gaming on the Spectrum. It's called imagination. Go buy some with your next X-box purchase.I just started playing through the Final Fantasy and Dark Forces sagas. I'm playing from the beginning, not from FF7 and Jedi Knight 2, because I care about the games and the story more than I do the graphics. I'm playing the X series too - from X:Gold. I won't shun good games because they're old. The Wii does need some better games, granted. But let's consider here that the games released at launch are probably there to show off the Wii's abilities. I'm sure once we get a few more games like Call of Duty on there, it'll kick a**. FPS games on consoles normally suck, but I can see them being a little better with the Wii, for example. The controller is brilliant - no question, and that leads to an awfully large number of innovative opportunities.

Sounds like a sensible upgrade. Give it a try.

I think you just missed the entire point of gaming. Gaming is about gameplay. When I first loaded HL2, I didn't say "ooh, shiny graphics." I said "oooh, shiny physics!" I have 9 consoles and a PC. My favourite games of all time are the ones with innovation in them. Future Shock, Deus Ex, Project Nomads, Steel Battlalion - these are all games that were awesome because they did something different and fun, not because the graphics were better. True, a large part of the reason for upgrading a console is to get more power, but I would much rather that power was put into creating innovative gameplay and fun level design than simply trying to dazzle no-brainer muppets with fancy graphics. No it didn't. I couldn't care less whether Super Smash Brothers et al were on the GameCube or the NES - if they're that much fun to play, who cares? You have to remember that Nintendo make their consoles for the Japanese market, then bring them over here. Whereas in the western world consumers are too busy suckling at George Lucas' teet and asking for Hollywood special effects in their games, the Japanese just want something cheap and fun. And that's exactly the philosophy that the Wii embodies. Don't get me wrong - the PS3 has the potential to be a great console. But Nintendo have created a console that is fun, interesting, innovative and £300 cheaper on launch than the other consoles. And it's good to see them back on form, frankly.

Right here! The Civ games are the best strategy games ever. Hands down. No contest. I lost large parts of my childhood to Civ2, and I remember being mortified that it didn't work on XP. ....So I bought Alpha Centauri and Call to Power. Seriously brilliant games though. Well made, hugely in-depth and involving, and serious strategy too - not just building a bunch of goons and lobbing them at the enemy, a la War of the Worlds or Command and Conquer. For some reason I haven't yet figured out, I don't have Civ3 onwards yet. This is a travesty that I will correct immediately.

Wheee! I've got Fury3 and Hellbender to complete the set.

I don't know why you'd want Halo 2 anyway! I played Halo on the PC, and frankly it was just the worse side of rubbish. After all the hype I'd been hearing from X-box gamers, I was really disappointed. The same level, with the same enemies, in the same config, over and over again. Boring. The only good thing about the game was the Warthog, and being able to tail-whip it on the PC. About the only thing from the X-box that's going to make it onto my PC is the Steel Battalion controller. And of course it's going to be Vista only. I'd bet reasonable amounts of money that every Microsoft game is going to be Vista only from now on. They'd all work fine on XP, I'm betting, but Bill doesn't want you to stay on a system that doesn't make him more mone-...I mean, an inferior system. He's only thinking in your best interests, remember! Love the corporation. Conform. Consume. Obey. Did I just post that on an MS forum? I'm gonna get pwned now.

Glad to help, and happy that it does the job for you. I now officially hate you. The new SGU does kick large amounts of a**. I've used it to play F.E.A.R., UT2004 and HL2 so far, and it's worked surprisingly well. The compressed dialogs and text on UT were a bummer, but aside from that it's been great.

What kind of games is he playing? If he's just playing RTS games or older FPS games, stick some more RAM in it - the X700 should be able to cope with most stuff, though a 1.7 is a bit slow for modern games. If he's wanting to play up-to-date stuff, upgrade the whole lot. Especially if he's lost his mind and is considering Vista.