are any of you using firefox 3?

i just installed it today, and immediately had a screen resolution issue with everythign being twice as big as it should be - i sorted it out thanks to a forum elsewhere, but now i have a problem with certain content not appearing - for example, when i go into my own blog here, it has the titles and all the other stuff, but none of the text i typed - i also could see that you's all posted comments to the Crysis post, but none of your actual text showed

i've been onto the FF site, but they seem to have taken down FF2, so i've had to resort to MS Virus Installer, but obviously want to stop using that asap

any ideas on what my problem might be?

PS - i managed to find somewhere i could download FF2 again so all's well - but if any of you are thinking of getting FF3, i'd leave it for now - there's clearly some serious issues

The Good News:

very reminiscent of Far Cry, but in a good way - great graphics and, movement and gunplay, good locations/scenery, and the quality of the interaction with the environment is great - i really enjoyed shooting up some of the huts inside just to see every object react - also occasionally explored the maps, though the plot tended to drive you on a bit, maybe too much at times (for example - did anyone else ignore Psycho and stay on the deck of the aircraft carier long enough to see the planes take off and land - i even got run over by a plane landing!)

- the whole nano suit concept worked really well - made a change from health packs etc, and a great way of having special abilities which were easily accessible. It was good the way they'd worked out how to dispense with an inventory and too many other menus

The Bad News

- but one thing that annoyed me was not being able to press specifc numbers for specific weapons - the mouse wheel just isn't quick enough sometimes, also you can end up going past the thing you need - v annoying when you quickly need to switch to the shotgun for an enemy that's sneaked up on you

- some of the AI was awful - i was playing on the hardest setting, but the Koreans still kept turning their backs to me and didn't always react when soeone next to them got shot - even some of the small alien flying things seemed to get stuck in the rocks.

- But the helicopters were annoying telepathic in terms of spotting you - until they got stuck in a tree and then the last laugh was on them! ;)

- it was good to be able to use a lot of vehicles, but using things like the tanks and VTOLs were too few and far between

- i felt it was a shade short - much shorter than Far Cry I'm certain, and the end was really abrupt and left me feeling a bit cheated

might add more later, but this'll do for starters - were i to rate it i'd make it an 8 i think, 'cos the AI really lets it down and Psycho's really annoying!

So i just finished the game - but don't read beyond this first sentence if you haven't played it.

Basically, there's me thinking i'd got the better of Shodan, and it turns out she had a back-up plan - which does mean there's an SS3 possible, doesn't it?

definitely a great game, glad i played it - got v addicted to it, but also glad not to have that large gap in my gaming history

there were bits that reminded me of several other games: Unreal, Deus Ex for two - obviously though it doesn't have DE's interactions with other characters - the gunplay's better though. having said that, did anyone else find the energy weapons useless? maybe i didn't build up the relevant skills enough

i must say that Bioshock is obviously partly based on it, but i didn't find that annoying - i think that's partly because i chose not to use the PSI powers at all in SS2, whereas i did use the plasmids in BS.

Despite there being different ways to play it, i don't know if i'd play SS2 again - it's heavily plot-based, and is long and complicated enough that, even playing with very different attributes, ie as OSI instead of Navy, it might seem a bit of a chore

One thing i would mention is the enemy AI - the GS review (which i know people think doesn't do the gamefull justice) says it's really good, but one exception for me is the cyber-assassins - they just stood there and let you shoot them

i did find the story engaging - the voice logs worked well, and the interplay between the Many and Shodan was clever

I just loved the look of it, and the design of the ships etc - the Von Braun in particular is really well-designed

simply out of impatience/boredom with not owning this game, i went and bought it yesterday - in a shop - new

this is very rare for me, as i normally order online, often buying used stuff

but i just have been reading way too much about this game and its graphics, so once SS2 is out of the way and i finish COD-UO, i'll be loading that little baby up and maxing out my rig

then it'll be a small matter of playing the stack of other games i own but haven't played yet...

- Medal of Honour Allied Assault (+ Breakthrough expansion)

- Deus Ex Invisible War

- Thief 2 + 3

- Star Trek TOS Archon Project (or something like that - it's a mod-developed episode)

- COH

- TC's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

And then i can think about replaying Chrome Specforce and actually finishing it this time

Then i might do some work...

After a few abortive starts (including one on 'Impossible' - and boy do they mean it) am making really good progress in this game on the 'hard' setting. Thanks due to FS and Artur, plus i downloaded the official game manual (what a good idea...), and used the texture mod, the no weapons-degradation mod and that fantastically brilliant 'nospiders' mod which does exacty what it says on the tin - whoever it's creator 'Jock' is, he deserves a gold medal for Services to PC-Gaming Arachnophobiacs - there's one dead spider hangin around and believe me, there's no way i could have played the game with loads of those things ganging up on me

Anyway, still only about half-way through, so no spoilers please in any comments you post - just had to say that, despite not believing this game could live up to its reputation - it does.

It's just so well put together, addicting, creepy and, as much as anything, there's a complete absence of negatives: with the above mods applied ;)

Now if you'll excuse me, i'm off to find that transmitter code... remember, no spoilers!!

so i post and blog like crazy to get out of 'Rad Racer' and now i'm 'Toobin''

WTF is 'Toobin''?!?!?!??!!

OK, i had a go at other people's lists, now it's your turn - first films. Note that 11-20 and 10-2 are in no particular order within those bands - only No. 1 has it's own specific placing.

11-20

- The Bourne Ultimatum – sheer action movies just don't get any better than this

- Jaws – Dreyfus, Shaw and Scheider are just brilliant

- The Masque of the Red Death – Hammer Horror/Vincent Price at the height of their power

- The Seventh Seal – Bergman classic

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Only Terry Gilliam could have got away with this…

- Lost in Translation – great performances, mood and soundtrack

- The Day the Earth Stood Still – great early sci-fi (though Fritz Lang's Metropolis should get an honourable mention for being a much earlier sci-i great)

- Performance – one of the weirdest films ever – Mick Jagger is just totally out there

- Catch 22

- The Wild One: "what are you rebelling against?" - "whaddya got?"

10-2

- The Good the Bad and the Ugly

- Blade Runner – Director's or Final Cut (though it says something that even the original would make it into the top ten)

- Solaris (Tarkovsky)

- Bergman trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1962), and The Silence (1963)

- Afterlife (Koreeda Hirokazu, 1998 ). Brilliantly quirky but moving Japanese film about the point between heaven and earth

- Dr Strangelove

- Monty Python's Life of Brian

- 2001: A Space Odyssey

- Withnail & I – brilliant cult British comedy

AND: Number 1. Twelve Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) One man, using the sheer power of combined logic, reason and humanity, takes apart the 'open and shut case' against a young boy accused of killing his father. The most absorbing and important film I've ever seen.

sorry, this is kind of a rant, but i've been playing COD1 and really enjoying it - playing it on the hardest setting, which is challenging at times but very enjoyable.

but when it got to the (brilliantly staged) bit when you land on the beach at Stalingrad and have to get up the hill to the sergeant, i just couldn't make any headway at all - i tried every tactic - lying low, running, trying to take cover everytime i heard a plane (there are a LOT of planes) but was mown down every time.

i looked at a walkthrough, but it said 'there are a few health packs around' - err, not on the hardest setting there aren't - and then it went on: ' the machine guns don't go for you' - WHAT?! - i was gunned down EVERY time

I read this book - which was the inspiration for both the film Stalker and game Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl - at the weekend.

only short - about 150 pages - but a good read, well written and really quite gripping.

there's quite a lot in there that players of 'Stalker' will recognise, as well as some bits used to inspire the film.

So if you dig the whole 'Stalker' experience, it's worth hunting out

having played the game through, i went back to an earlier save and for the hell of it decided to see if i could take out everyone at the Duty base. i managed it pretty well, though was a little guilty when the stalkers joined in against me and i had to take them out too

but when i got to the bar, of course your gun disappears when you walk in - i partly solved it by throwing grenades down the stairs - the guy that stops you from going through the door by the bar then came up, and i took him out, then ran past the guy who normally says 'come in...' - becuase this time he was shooting at me - so i got through the door and into the rooms behind the bar - not much there, to be honest but you can go behind the bar and stand with Barkeep

shame, though, i couldn't shoot that really dodgy guy who keeps saying 'i have some information that could be of use to you stalker...'