sparkomatic

I enjoy the "Total War" series of games...until they switched to Steam. I abhor steam so much, I refuse to play New Vegas because it uses steam. But Shogun 2 just came out, and the original is one of my top 5, all time. So it is a 16 Gb install, which took 17 minutes, plus registering, blah blah...then this: an f'ing mandatory update screen, which BREAKS the game (see posting on steam's website) and despite the "do NOT update my game" selection in the options, it updates/breaks it anyway. Sure, some people like steam, some people like broccoli. I paid for the game, I installed the game, I would very much like to f'ing play the game, but thanks to steam, that is a no-go.

Ha ha! Now that is the JM that I know, solid reply! For me, steam completely ruined the Total War series, it made Empire unplayable and it has managed to repeatedly break Shogun 2. I do not enjoy the "steam is updating your account"...why? Looks the same as before, maybe you are updating the spyware? Maybe updating the mandatory ads? And as far as Shogun 2, I clearly tell it to NOT download updates, but like a bad puppy, as soon as I hit the "play" button (rather a necessity) it begins "updating". Maybe I am doing it wrong; but unchecking the "download updates" in the "settings" menu and then hitting the "play" button should arguably be all that I need to do. Will try the unplugging it from the wall trick, maybe that will fix it. I did notice that one can purchase older games through steam, and maybe it works well for those, supporting that the newer games have some sort of built-in auto-update case. Also, for Shogun 2, it just came out and I know that there are always issues with a game then (which is exactly why I usually wait a few months post release to buy a game, but this was Shogun 2, and my eagerness overpowered my natural caution). Cheers!

Not saying that it is worthless, just that I personally loathe it. But come one JM, "million of people cant be wrong" argument is beneath you...just asks Communists and fans of Bieber. However, I am still stuck with the "Thou Shalt Download this Update". Yes, I went in to options and told it not too, then hit "play", it IMMEDIATELY starts downloading again and wont play until it updates. Please tell me how to get it to stop that. And I have traveled quite a bit with me laptop, maybe FedEx likes to put people in 5-star hotels, but we do not always have Internet connections for personal laptops in some of my locations, thus rendering steam (and whatever Dragon Age is on) out of the question. Never managed to get either GTA4 or Total War Empire to work, and if you check the various forums, they are replete with people that feel the same. Cheers, and death to steam!

wait...you played "Lock On" on a notebook? Personal opinion, but they really arent meant for that, could be part of the issue. Personally have used both ATI and nVidia; but really your question is akin to Ford v. Chevy, Mac v. PC, everyone has an opinion. I just bought 2x nVidia 460 GTX and have them in an SLI set up, they are quite nice and can finally run FSX at better than 14 FPS (way, way better than 14). Cheers

"Rule #9, always carry a knife" cheers

Thanks!

Boeing was going to win, regardless, which is a shame. This is not the Boeing of the B-17 and B-52 legend...this is "new coke" Boeing as in same name, bad taste. What puzzles me is 2017?!?!?! The 767 has been around awhile, and there are other nations already flying the KC767...so why does Boeing need 6 years for something they already build? But I guess it is like how they are behind on the new 747-800...again, an old design being updated...can you imagine if they had to build it from scratch? That is probably the real reason the XF-32 lost, Boeing would have needed until 2033 to get to IOC. Either way, it will be late, over priced, and generally a disappointment. cheers

I like it this way, sometimes one finds the unexpected. cheers

Does that only happen with third wire games? When was the last time you went on a virus hunt? Sometimes trusting the "scheduled scans" can be misleading, as in a new virus or an improperly updated virus scanner could miss something. I mean, if scheduled scans caught everything, then computer viruses would have died out by now, eh? cheers

happy birthday to a true friend and awesome dude cheers!

as fragged,

So after literally about 4 years, decided to try another PC. Dont even lecture me with MAC (which is the communists version of a computer). Had an E7200 Core 2 Duo with a 275 GTX (at an odd 1798 MB) and XP/SP3. Just had a friend build an i7 with twin 460 GTX (SLI) and win7 (DX11). Unfortunately it seems will have to re-install all of my old games even though there is a separate HDD that is in there for them. That is a real poop party since there was a lot of "work" on there and I do not have time to re-play Mass Effect and Dragons Age and Fallout 3. The first two more so because their sequels will be out and will require previous saved games to continue the story. Especially since for Mass Effect 3 that would entail playing both 1 and 2 all over again. Anyone know how to avoid that? Nice thing is that after, what over 5 years I can finally play MSFS FSX with clouds on and some traffic. Had to install it from scratch, hoping I dont have to start all over on the aforementioned games. Cheers

That is not a typo

I would like to think it is silly, but someone went to the trouble to put up that sign for a reason. Personally, I have been a supervisor in the private sector and the g'ment for 19 years now and every time I think I have seen it all, nope. cheers

Not to start a flame war, but respectfully: you, sir, are no student of history...so the British EMPIRE never used lethal force on people that did not want to be ruled by them? Hey America, we did it also, first to our own people (its called a civil war, but was anything but civil) and the US has used lethal force on plenty of people that would have preferred we did not. I am no dove, but we should all choose our words carefully. Besides, we have no business in Libya; have we stopped chanting "no blood for oil"? That is our only interest in that country. And of all people, one would think Qadaffi would have jumped at the chance to blame America, who put a bomb in his house (still un-repaired by the way) and killed one of his sons. But he is not blaming the US for this, instead he is blaming al-Qaeda. Maybe, just maybe he is correct. Think about these "revolts", Egypt (big US ally and moderate, not run by extremists), Tunisia (didnt bother anybody and again, not run by zealots), now Bahrain (HQ of 5th Fleet, obviously an ally), and Iran. Of those, only Iran has been anything but helpful in the global war on terror. And, from many accounts, the Iranian people have no hatred of America, it is only a few in power that sponsor terror and blame America, the same that want Iran to be Arabian when it is Persian at heart. Why are we even thinking about getting involved? There are no nukes, no American hostages, no vital interests. Saudi Arabia already began increasing oil production to cover the losses and can more than compensate. We are not even out of Iraq and Afghanistan yet. If anything, we should have supported Iran's uprising, but we were too afraid. We should leave Libya alone to sort out its own problems lest we do EXACTLY what we are accused of, interfering in the affairs of other sovereign nations. Cheers