It has for me. I've noticed a lot more hate and abrasiveness throughout the forums. I was ragged on the other day just for asking a simple question in a post. I ask questions for two reasons: one, I don't know the answer and would like to, and two, I value the answer of the person I asked. Instead of receiving an answer, someone else "jumps in" and accuses me of "targetting". Now how in the world does asking a question = targetting? As much as I enjoy contributing in the forums, I'm just about at the point of losing that. So I'll ask this of you - do you feel it's worthwhile to continue to contribute, regardless of the attitude of some users here? If so, please give me your reasons behind either your "yes" or your "no" answers. Thanks as always for taking the time to read.:)

I wanted to take a moment to thank Falcon084 for this very nice new banner. His choice of script has a great look to it, and is sized perfectly. I think he did a great job - kudos to Falcon.:)

I have always enjoyed writing a game review - I pen them with the hope that I can pass on some of the enjoyment I had playing the game to someone else, so that they too can have some enjoyment. But of late I've seen altogether too much "popular hate" on games in general. It's funny. Not the "ha-ha" kind of funny, but to the point of ridiculousness. People are jumping on the "hate bandwagon" when they've only played a demo, and the majority admit to not even owning the game they hate. This bandwagon carries over to user reviews. People take one look at the rating you assigned, and they never bother to read the text of your review - they just automatically thumbs-down the thoughts you shared. This can make some contributors reluctant to write reviews on some games, as no matter the meticulousness of their review, it will more than likely never be read. I actually enjoyed a DLC for a game recently, and it motivated me to generate a review on it. My desire was that others would also enjoy it. It's a little disheartening to see people thumbing you down just because they think they are "popular" by hating on a game. Ah well, guess I'll just keep on truckin'.:lol: Maybe I'll get a better response on my next review.:)

I received an interesting email from a friend, so I thought I would share it with you here. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this.

To realize
The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone
Who doesn't have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

I've often wondered why game interviews are strictly softpedal, always asking the same old easy-to-answer questions, such as "When will this be released?" and "What platforms will this game be on?".

I would like to see some probing questions put forth to the game developers and publishers, and I'm certain that you have questions of your own that you wish would be asked.

Here are a couple of mine:

"Okay Activision, why is it you're announcing Prototype 2, when you've all but abandoned the original Prototype? Why is it you've never engineered a single patch for the original?"

"2K Games, why do you allow a digital distributor to sell your games, yet at the same time cut them off from all DLCs? Do you see that the end result is alienating your customer base?"

I would be interested to hear what questions you wish would be asked in game interviews. Please share.:)

I won't say anything as to who or what you fight in the Final Boss Battle, but it is a rough road - I was using some judicious tactics to stay alive, and it drug on for around 30 minutes.:lol:

I would have liked to have been at a higher level; however, a lot of quests had some complicated and time-consuming puzzles, so I left them open and continued on with anything else I could find.

One nice thing about this game is that it doesn't end when the credits roll - you can continue on if you so desire. I did, and made a save.

I'll revisit it again once a walkthrough has been published.

Overall, much-improved over the original. Much easier to make some money so you can afford things you need.

Well, I finally reached Level 40. It took me nine months to go from Level 30 to Level 40. Not too bad I guess.:P

I'll be downloading a brand-new RPG today - Drakensang: The River of Time. Kind of got myself "in the mood" by cranking up the original Drakensang and running it for a few hours.

Hopefully this new one will be as good as the first one was.

Hope everyone is having a great day today, and enjoying their games.:)

Have you ever heard of Animusic? They have engineered some of the most innovative computer-animated music ever designed. They are visual albums in the form of DVDs.

Animusic 1 and 2 contain several computer animations of music, fully rendered in-house, as well as all music composed by the same person - Wayne Lytle. His productions have been featured on CBS and PBS. He uses Mental Ray for rendering, and Propellerhead Reason for digital music software.

These computer animations are nothing short of amazing: Lytle leans toward ATI, but the videos run fine on nVidia GPUs as well. All that is required is good DVD player software, of which Cyberlink PowerDVD is rated #1.

You can play them on any home theatre system and really show off its capabilities as well. Here are some videos of what you would see, which of course would look many times better on your own system (all open in new windows).

Pipe Dream. Ball bearings play all sorts of instruments.

Future Retro. See animated robot hands play three guitars fused together, as well as drums. Lytle said the algebraic algorithms to control the hand movements were extremely difficult.

Starship Groove. Robots rock out on top of an amazing spaceship.

Harmonic Voltage. Looks like a huge electrical generating station powering instruments.

I've had these two DVDs for a few years, and everyone was amazed at how good the videos were displayed on a PC. What makes the animations so interesting is that the notes themselves drive the animation, instead of the other way around.

Hope you enjoyed this sampling of computer-animated music videos. You'll enjoy them even more once you put the DVDs in your home theatre or your PC.

Man, I've been waiting for this for months on end.:o

I decided today to give the encoder another go, and I got the PM stating my video is posted.

The person who fixed it should get a raise if it keeps on being operational.

Time for me to roll out Fraps again in earnest.

If you are a Fraps user, the Registered Version has been updated to 3.2.5.

I have been waiting for Patch 1.41 for Borderlands, and I recently downloaded and installed it.:)

For those who haven't heard, it raises the Level Cap from 50 to 58 (up to Level 69 with the General Knoxx DLC).

The patch works - I just took a character from Level 50 to 51.

The weapons and combat should be even more awesome, as the NPCs and monsters will level with you.:o

Edit - I just now found a Gearbox forum thread explaining the patch in more detail, and that they "mixed up the info" in a couple of interviews- so no Playthrough 3.:(

Link to Gearbox thread.