Vivi22

I like it, though I've yet to find it actually scary. They need to take a few lessons from the Silent Hill series if they want any sequel to be a truly frightening experience. Less reliance on monsters popping out at you would be nice since it seems to happen every five minutes, before the games atmosphere has a chance to really build some tension. I think Silent Hill was an excellent example of a series that build the tension until you almost can't stand it, and even when they gave you some relief in the form of monsters, they knew how to dial it back up again in an instant. Like I said though, it's still a fun game, and I do like it. Maybe I'm just a little jaded when it comes to scares since I've been playing survival horror games since I was 11, and watching horror movies since before that.

I think the solution that involves changing your paging file implies it might be a ram issue without actually saying "go buy more ram". When ram fills up, the paging file lets your system use some hard drive space as ram (albeit slower than ram). I guess the implication is there isn't enough ram in the system to let all of the programs and the game do their thing at the same time, and the paging file is a quick fix that doesn't cost anything, though this is all a guess from someone with only cursory computer knowledge. I may be way off in left field here. I don't think you can actually hurt your computer by messing with the paging file too much though. It should say what the recommended maximum for it is, so just set it to that. I've done that in every computer I've had for years and it's never given me a problem.

I'm not sure if you've found this while searching for a solution, but if not then here's a link to Valve's suggested solutions for the error: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1274-UOHK-5653 If nothing there is helpful then you may be stuck doing a little upgrading, in which case Dhsu has given some great suggestions.

I'm definitely interested in it, but whether I get it is going to depend on reviews and my money situation. There are a lot of other games I'd like to get either out or coming out and I unfortunately don't have the money for them all. I was a huge fan of Socom on the PS2 though, so that's a point in this games favour.

I have to ask again if it's a desktop or laptop, simply because upgrading the graphics card may not even be possible on a laptop. As for narrowing the problem, I'm unfortunately checking this at work again so it won't let me see the picture of the error message you got. I'll check it again when I get home just to see if I can track down anything on it, but I would bet money that the problem is the integrated graphics and the 1 GB of ram. When I got the Orange Box, I tried running it on my former laptop which actually had better specs than you listed, easily met the minimum requirements, but I had tons of issues. Missing textures, huge framerate drops and more, mainly because I was running on integrated graphics with 1GB of ram. It's made even worse by the fact that integrated graphics shares system ram, so the game 1 GB you have is being split between the CPU and the onboard graphics card. Even though I technically met the minimum specs it just didn't run well. Now if you have a desktop then this point is rather moot. Another GB of RAM and a cheap graphics card and you'd probably be set. Even if it's a laptop, another GB of ram could probably help alleviate the problem if not fix it entirely. Or you could just do what I did and build a new desktop computer (I was planning to at the time anyway), but that doesn't sound like an option for you here.

Can I just second these reccommendations. I have the P-180 and aside from being a gorgeous case on the outside, I love how it's setup on the inside. Mostly anyway. The power supply cables can be a bit of a bitch and kind of get in the way sometimes, especially when you're trying to put everything together, but none the less it's a great case.

I'd say post all of your computer specs. Just like Ghz isn't a good measure of your processors performance anymore, barely meeting other specs might not mean much if you're playing on a laptop or an older system. If you could post a screen shot of the exact error that may help us as well for tracking down the cause and a fix. As it is, I can't say I know what error you say you're getting. Then again, I also can't get on the Steam forums (or any other game forums) from here at work to try and track it down right now.

Argh. Tried playing just now and I keep getting massive lag spikes that make the game unplayable for me. I can't be arsed to try and figure it out at this time of night. If I'm lucky maybe it'll fix itself by morning.

If it makes you feel better I'd never leave the OCR ranks. Then again, I don't play often enough lately and never get asked anyway. I need to remember stick some OCR tags in front of my name though.

The nice thing is that I find when I'm off, I'm not far off. Like when I pick, say m3 and I'm wrong it might be M2 or M3. I'm usually not far off so I guess my ear is a little better than I usually think it is which helps keep the confidence up. I'm going to keep with it though. After about twenty minutes of limiting myself to only four options, I went from almost never getting one right to starting to get streaks of four or five at a time. Now part of that is probably getting used to hearing the same intervals over and over, but then I guess that's the point. This sort of thing only comes with repetition and practice.

The ear training one seems pretty good so far. I'm terrible at recognizing intervals so I had to limit it a bit at first to just four. I like that it let's you scale it down depending on how good you are, so I can bring it back up as I improve. I'll give it a shot for a while since I know ear training is something I could definitely stand to improve on, and I was getting better by the end of trying it just now.

I'm sure we all understand. Real life takes priority a lot of the time. Hell, I just started a new job, and an intense professional program myself so I completely sympathize. I also want to thank you actually (I don't think I did before) for organizing the whole thing to begin with. I'm sure it was a fair bit of effort to get things together and ready to go off to blind and eventually be released and we do appreciate it.

Agreed. I've thought about resetting all of my stats just to get rid of it, but I have a few achievements that I might never be able to get again that I earned legitimately to be honest which has kind of prevented me so far. It's really annoying having my medic stats jacked way up there above everything else. Especially when it isn't my best class by a longshot.

Haven't played The Hidden since it was first released. It was pretty good back then, but hopefully improved now. I need to go back and download a lot of HL2 mods again. Dystopia and Gary's Mod are also great. And I haven't played it since the initial release but Eternal Silence was pretty decent. I hear they've fixed the lag that was rampant in the first beta and added a bunch of new features since so I'll have to give it a go again. Sourceforts was another pretty fun one. I'm blanking on some of the others I've played, but I haven't really kept up with the HL2 mod scene since they started releasing them so I'm a little out of touch with the whole thing. I still miss some of the classic Half-Life mods though. Natural Selection was brilliant before they added the Combat mode. Combats fun and all, but almost every server runs it instead of the classic mode. Still an excelent blend of an RTS and FPS though. I also miss Science and Industry. Last I tried installing it the online community was pretty dead, but the game was brilliant, particularly at it's peak of popularity.

If you read the article Moguta linked, you'd know it's not just talking about searching one database. I would think searching using reasonably available sources can include things like at least typing the thing into Google. Odds are, anyone who put their work out there enough that some company could be thinking about using it, is probably somewhere to be found on the internet. Could some people still get the shaft? Probably. People get the shaft all the time without this, but at least this makes people try to look with at least some diligence.

There's a difference between good cheesy and whatever the hell that trailer was. Also, what Gollgagh said.

Maybe it's just because I haven't been able to play as much for the last little while, but I can't remember a time that I saw Hydro stalemate, and I've rarely seen one team blow the other away. I personally like Hydro, but if others want to see it go I wouldn't be too bothered, particularly if it keeps players on the server.

Silent Hill always freaked me out (especially the third) but not because they play on any real fear or phobia, it's mainly just because they create some of the most surreal and distrubing environments and creatures I've ever seen in games. As for actual phobias, the giant spiders in the Gamecube remake of RE always bothered me a bit because they looked much more real than in previous games. I was never that bothered in the PSX games, or even Code Veronica, but giant hairy tarantulas apparently make my skin crawl. I never got super scared or anything like I would if I saw said creature (or even a normal sized tarantula) in real life, but they did bother me a bit.

Sounds really cool, but I have enough to worry about with paying off credit cards and getting ready to start paying off my fiancees student loans right now. Unfortunately for me, being out of debt wins over having a new synth to play with. Maybe when I have some more expendible income though since this does sound pretty awesome. I'll have to add it to my favourites list so I don't forget.

Not that Cyberpunk ever sucks when you're around Brushfire. Some of the best times I've had in TF2 lately have been just fucking around on that map with you and listening to your arena commentary.

It's my understanding that if you receive the gifts or the guest pass they can be sent either to your email or over Steam. Either way you'd have to either have Steam already or download it and make an account. From there you should be able to download the games and in the case of gifts, they're yours to keep. For guest passes you get to try the game for a while then you'd have to buy it. I'm sure all the instructions on how to get them would be in whatever Steam message or email you'd get once the gift or pass is sent.

I also have a TF2 pass and HL2 and Episode 1 gifts for those that may like them. I have absolutely no one to give the gifts to right now since every friend I have who would like the HL games already has them. Anyone who wants any of these can PM me and I'll give them out first come first serve. They've certainly been doing me no good sitting there for almost a year. Also; I haven't played it in quite a while but Dystopia is awesome. I need to download it again.

I've been back home for the day and ran my old route on the trails and have cut my run time down by 10 minutes compared to what it was 3 weeks ago. I think running on hills all the time is helping loads, and I still had energy to burn in the end. I'm not sure how much farther I could have gone, but I'd rather up the pace than the distance anyway. I'm also down a total of 11 pounds now. I only have about 30 more to go before I hit my goal weight. My wrist is also feeling a lot better, and I think I may be ready to hit the weights again in another week or two.

Been out running for 4 of the last 5 days. The hills are getting easier and my stamina is increasing greatly. I'm looking forward to visiting home tomorrow and if I get the chance, I plan to run my old route on the trails to see how I handle it now.

It's been a while since I played through it last so I couldn't remember how long all of the installs were. I think there was one that was about 3 minutes, but I remembered at least one being in the 2 minute range. Far from 10 minutes either way.