SDirickson

PG, one thing I've learned when dealin with the 'rents. Any time they ask a question like, "Why didn't you ______" just say, "Sir/Maam, no excuse, sir/maam." Repeat as necessary. They can't argue with it.

Aside from the fact that he used the word "gooder" four times, it was a good speech with a promising message.

Ahh, wonderful 19. Privaleges unlocked? None. Though, best part of turning eighteen is being able to renew your driver's license for six years, lol.

"Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting dirty for." - Mike Nichols "And Adam ruled, for he was the king. Until the day his will to be King deserted him. Then he died, food for a stronger. And the strongest was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together. Among the rats." - James Clavell's King Rat

I hate to see a forum with as little action as this one. I for one would love to see an accurate WWI simulation, especially now that we have graphics as good as Il-2.

The intro and ending to Proof of Life. Killers. Boondock Saints. Any scene with a shotgun in L.A. Confidential. The Bourne Identity.

Every five minutes in Band of Brothers.

Now that I've played Vietcong through approximately five missions, I can definately recommend this game. Therefore, consider this a mini-review. Graphics: The environment of the game and the weapon models are the primary focus in the graphics department. The flora is diverse and provides varied and ample cover for an FPS environment. It looks much like Operation Flashpoint on Miracle Grow. THe weapon animations and models are superb, especially when using the weapon's iron sights and when reloading. Character models are a little light, but do the job. Little touches like mouth animations and vaulting over logs and trees are interesting at first, but get a little old after a while. Vehicle models are decent, again much like OpFlash with better textures. FPS is excellent and overall the varied colors and excellent recreation of actual plantlife make camoflouge actually work. You'll spend a lot of time moving slow and checking for anything out of the ordinary. I run at maximum graphics levels, 1280 x 1024, no FSAA, 4x AA and I never get below 25fps even during massive firefights. Audio: The environmental effects are very immersive. Insects chirp, monkeys howl and canyon's even echo. Fire your .45 in a tunnel and it'll definately set off the subwoofer. Weapon audio is excellent. The sounds of footsteps accurately reflect the surface you're on.The only bad mark is the generic character taunts and responses. The scripted audio is good, but the remarks your teammates make during battle can be extremely annoying. Gameplay: First off, the campaign system is immersive, fun and fast paced. The missions are scripted, and play in much the same way as Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, with grand themes seemingly straight from all the movies and books you've ever read on Vietnam. Crawl through tunnels searching for VC with a flashlight and a Colt 1911. Travel down brown rivers manning a mounted M-60. Track VC platoon's, rescue a Montagnard village and make it back to your LZ. Protect your firebase fram a NVA attack, then try and find where the enemy infiltrated from. That's only a bit of the first four missions. And, listen carefully: Missions are long. I'm talking well over an hour to finish one. But, unlike COD and MOH, you won't be mindlessly mowing down hundreds of VC. Many times it is necassary to stalk through the undergrowth just to eliminate a mere squad. Getting killed is easy to achieve and you really have to rely on your squad. The AI is average. Enemies don't seem to work together, but they do use cover to their advantage. Teammates will support and follow you, and will during a firefight seek cover, spread out and engage targets in other areas. The weapon count in the game is larger than most FPS's. Varieties of handguns, rifles, shotguns and automatics are at your disposal. Even when you begin to find NVA soldiers with AK-47's you'll often rather keep your Thompson or SKS. All the weapons behave like they should and you can't expect to kill with a handgun from 300 yards or empty an entire AK clip accurately without going prone. Finally, for those players who really want to experience how it was, they can choose from a "Vietnam" playmode for the single player campaign. No saves, no lives. You die at any time and its game over, start from the beginning. You'll definately be more cautious peeking over that log now. Multiplayer: The game boasts multiple types of gameplay, and a maximum of 64 players. I haven't played it much yet, instead mainly keeping to the singleplayer. But, soon I'll be getting some other friends in the company hooked up and we'll see how it goes. I've play a couple duels with a buddy a couple rooms over, and it was fun even 1 vs 1. Pros: Over 20 gigantic and very immersive missions. Over 30 individual weapons. Fast running and varied graphics that really look like they came from Platoon or the Deerhunter. Excellent audio effects. Lots of multiplayer potential. Even an expansion soon to be released with even more maps and weapons. Cons: Bad character models. Constrictive map design with annoying "vegetation walls". Predictable AI. Worth picking up, especially when you can find it for near $20 now. System Specs: 3.0 ghz P4, 800mhz FSB Radeon 9800 256 RAM 1 gb PC-3200 RAM SB Audigy 2 Windows XP DX9 and Cat 3.10's

Is this the WWII Strategy game we've all been looking forward to from Maddox and 1C? Seems somehow less than I hoped, expected.

Thanks folks. Not much of a birthday for me, having to report back to school and all. But, now all I have to do is finish the rest of knob year. I just got a couple CD's, a few books and my parents and I went to a nice little Sicilian restaraunt we know of. I spent my last day and a half of leave lounging around with my parents. Being an only child, we're pretty close, and its just as hard on me leaving as it is on them.

lol, yeah, crap. For some reason I was thinking the whole Bill of Rights was part of the first ammendmant. Kinda made a fool of myself there.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just bitching. It aggrevates me though that owning a gun is one of our first ammendmant rights and we aren't allowed to exercise it as an adult. Well, as much of an adult as you can be at 18. To me, if you can pass the background check, you shouldn't have any problem owning any sort of weapon. If the checks aren't thorough enough to safely sell handguns, then its the check that should be changed not the age to buy. Besides, anyone that needs a weapon to commit a crime is gonna find a way to get one, regardless of the laws. But, to be honest, I don't particularly care. Amny of the laws are f***ed up, but there is nothing I can do to change em yet. And because I'm not, nor can I change anything, I'm just gonna stop bitching, cuz that don't help niether.

I can buy a rifle or a shotgun at 18, ammo too. No handguns though till 21. It seems to me, the background check they perform on folks when they buy a firearm should be just as accurate for 21 year olds as 18 year olds.

Well, my problem isn't so much at the Citadel, but with the great state of Texas. It's a state law that prohibits those under 21 from purchasing handgun ammo, anywhere in the state, be it a range, Academy, wherever. But I know exactly what you're talking about, people's worries and concerns over seeing any type of weapon in the open. I was in JROTC, and we always had people look at us funny, even when we were just practicing rifle drill on the parking lot outside the school. Unfortunately, people associate the weapons themselves with danger, not the people who carry them.

Holy crap man. I've been waiting for a decent A-6 for years. It was always my dream to see an A-6 sim the likes of Falcon 4.0 or Jane's F/A-18.

So my friend and I were going to go to the local shooting range with two of my father's handguns, something I have done frequently. My friend had never fired a handgun before, so he was looking forward to it. Being the careful sort I am, I had unloaded the mags, placed the guns and mags seperately in a carrying case, and we both made off ammo-less, figuring we'd pick up some cheap FMJ rounds at the range. Well, we got there, I got a box of .45 and a box of S&W .40 and carried em to the counter, only to be completely shot down because I wasn't 21. So, it is perfectly legal for an 18 year old to shoot whatever he wants at the range, perfectly legal to buy rifle and shotgun ammo, more than perfectly legal to purchase a hunting license, yet he cannot buy cheap target ammo at a controlled range. Not even in Texas. What crap, Bill of Rights be damned. That s**t ain't right.

lol, all I can say is, any tattoo of a profile on one of my cheeks will end up looking like Alfred Hitchcock.

You know, you could be right, PC. Todd, you got a birthmark the shape of John Foster Dulles on your right butt cheek? Cuz I know I don't.

I have to say, even on my old PC I got stellar fps with Raven Shield. Graphics maxed and everything. Now, I run it at 1280 x 1024 with 4xFSAA and 8xAA. Its unbelievable. As for a sequal to Ghost Recon. So long as it is at least as good as RS and they maybe even revamp the recoil system to be something a bit more realistic, like say in DOD, then I'll be a happy camper.

Happy B-Day to you too, man.

lol, Jan 11th huh? Same here bro. Except, my present is gonna be reporting back to the Citadel.

GR2? What is this?

Books, Robert Plant's latest album, a CRKT knife and.... a TrackIR II. And, with my birthday almost exactly two weeks away, who knows what else?

lol, umm, I just realized you were talking about LO-MAC there, PC. You're right, on my pop's PC Lock On don't run too well either.

You've got about the same system I'm runnig here at home, on my dad's PC. Only thing different is he is running XP. Here are my specs: 1.4 mhz Athlon 768 PC-2100 DDR-RAM Radeon 8500 64mgb SB Live! X-Gamer Cat 3.10 drivers for the Radeon I set Il-2 config to the Radeon 8500 settings, and in game I run 1024x768x32 with medium settings except full object textures and lighting. I'm normally running numerous things in the background, including AIM and TrackIR and I still get around 30fps. It drops a bit around cities and stuff, but its definately playable. Wish I could help more, but I promise you, it should run great on a Win98 system with those specs. There shouldn't be any problem. And at the settings I use, it still looks fabulous.