TheTerminator2004

Yeah, I've never had any problems playing The Witcher on Windows 7 x64, and nor has anyone else I know of, so it should be fine.7 is much better wrt compatibility than Vista, and even XP, were.<br><br>EDIT: Also, why does the forum keep adding the html br tag to the end of my post? Very annoying. Also, it seems to parse it when it's included in my post inentionally, even in code tags - could be a security vulnerability there?<br>

I agree. If buying a new OS for games, then Win 7 is the only real choice. And it is far, far superior to XP.

It depends on the resolution of the TV, and of your current monitor. 720P is considered HD for TVs, but is actually only a resolution of 1280x720 - so probably lower than your current screen. 1080p on the other hand is 1920x1080, which is much higher. There are of course other problems (overscan, blurriness, etc). TVs are designed to be viewed from a distance, so they are often not as sharp as a PC monitor, which are designed to be viewed from close up. All in all, if you plan to use it for regular PC stuff (browsing the web, work, etc) instead of your current monitor, it's probably a worse idea. If you want to use it only to play games on, while using your current monitor for work etc, it might be a good idea - but you'd probably do better just getting an equivalent sized monitor, if the price is right.

Do DVD drives actually have drivers? Every single disc drive I've ever seen has always just used the standard I/O interface - which means no drivers need to be installed to use it, and it can be used in any operating system automatically. External drives which connect via USB may be an exception to this rule, but otherwise, I find it hard to believe that it requires drivers to be installed. Disc drives usually only last a few years before breaking in my experience - chances are, yours has reached the end of it's life. Windows has just happened to detect a problem with the drive, and is misreporting it as a broken driver. Just buy a new one - they only cost £10-15.

Java updates are generally a good thing to install regularly, as they frequently fix security vulnerabilities etc. I do agree you don't want it to update automatically though (same with Windows update). Blocking its access to the net is a bad idea, however, as this will break a lot of applications (especially any using Java webstart, or applets which use more than one jar file) - and won't even prevent it from updating. Instead, what you want to do is stop jusched.exe from running at startup - this is the program that checks for and installs Java updates. Just go to Start -> Run, and type msconfig.exe. Press enter, then go to the startup tab and uncheck the entry for jusched.exe. Click OK, and you're done. To update Java when you want to, just download the newest version from the Java website and install it.

I like it, it's a lot more interesting than mine. It's a real shame Alpha doesn't have the coloured blocks and decent water physics Creative has - it makes it so much harder to create interesting things. And trying to do anything involving water is next to impossible.

I use photobucket - lots of space, plenty of bandwidth, uploads multiple files at once, and pretty fast. How do I open the level with your castle in? I've never seen .mine files before - minecraft alpha doesn't use them afaik. As for obsidian - I think it's created when lava touches water. Not 100% sure though, never tried it.

I've been working on a castle/manor to live in. It's coming along very nicely, though I'm running out of space to build on (I decided to put it on an island). Heres some pics: The interior isn't great, the entire castle is pretty much empty (Notch really needs to add more furniture to the game), but the outside is looking pretty nice. And yes, I did of course use an inventory editor. No way I'd be able to get all the stone, wood, and obsidian to build that otherwise.

I've been doing that, but in creative mode. Mainly because I was able to use a custom map with a really deep ocean :P But it's a lot easier to do it, partly because you don't drown underwater, and partly because of the existence of sponges which can effectively block water. Then again, the water physics are harder - if theres a leak, it will flood your entire base extremely quickly - although I've placed plenty of airlocks throughout to help prevent too much damage being done.

A better way to get a top-down map of your world is to use the infdev previewer on the minecraft site: http://www.minecraft.net/infdev/preview.jsp It looks much better imo. I'm not sure if theres a way to save to a picture though.

Just so you know, redstone torches are used to power circuits. So, just stick more redstone torches along the fuse to extend the power. You could also try building a cannon (search the minecraft forums for explanations), to shoot a block of TNT at your minefield, which will explode at just the right moment to detonate the mines.

That castle may have been built using the classic minecraft, but that only saves a little bit of time over the new version with an inventory editor. Especially if you use the trick of setting the quantites of blocks to 255, which effectively gives you infinite blocks. As for building bridges etc - I normally stand right on the edge and look down, and this usually allows me to stick a block to the end. It's a slow process though, and you're likely to fall off. Scaffolding would be better if it isn't too high up. ub3r: There are two buttons, 'Open from world...' and 'Save to world...' which can be used to load and save inventories from saved games. The .inv files are just for use in invedit - so you can save inventories independently from saved games.

I used an inventory editor to get all the tools and materials needed, hence the diamond pickaxe, and the obsidian roof. I built nice big normal stairs inside the square bit, which I was very pleased with (though they're too big), and sort of curved stair things in the actual tower. It's too small for proper stairs, and its not circular, so making curved ones is a pain. I ended up basically just sticking blocks to the wall for me to jump up, its the closest I could get. And I say its nothing special, because I've just been reading threads like this one. Its slightly scary how much effort some people put into their creations...

Actually, it seems to me it's not coming out any quicker than the original Portal - they've just announced it sooner. They spent about 3 years on the original, and they're probably spending about the same on the sequel.

The only way to protect your house with a cactus would be to just build a monster trap using cactii, and protect your house using a door as usual. Either that, or build a wall out of cactii, and leave a doorway perhaps? I dunno how it would work. As for the lava staying on the floor afterwards... the fluid mechanics in minecraft are very, very, very odd. Take a look at my attempt to build a moat round my tower: http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/The_Terminator2004/Untitled.jpg So I can well imagine it sitting around in mounds on the floor. You could probably scoop it up with a bucket. Getting stuck inside it probably shouldn't happen though. Theres a known bug at the moment where you stop being able to move, and if you build a block on the spot where you're standing, you can get stuck in it - presumably the same counts for falling fluids too. If you find yourself unable to move, or if the game starts stuttering violently, save and quit immediately, then load it up again. That'll fix it. If you get stuck in a block, you'll just have to kill yourself using NBTEdit - unless you get stuck in lava ofc, which does the job for you. Also, heres some more pictures of my tower. It's nothing special, but I'm quite proud of it:

Arcanum has one of the most imaginative and interesting worlds seen in a western RPG, I highly recommend it. It has not aged well, the interface is horribly clunky and outdated, but other than that it is a very good game. I'm not sure if there is a demo available or not, but I would recommend you try before you buy.

It says at the end: "Not a nif file". So chances are either the file your using isn't a nif file, it's invalid in some way (maybe the file includes something not supported by Blender?), or it's been corrupted somehow. Whatever the cause, Blender doesn't recognise it as being a valid nif file.

Nah, New Vegas uses Steamworks - which is a combination of community services, achievement tracking, and invasive DRM, all bundled into one convenient package :D And Steamworks requires Steam to run, so it will be required. Re. Impulse: I quite like it tbh. While I agree the software has a way to go before it matches Steam, it is much less invasive (don't need it running to play games, most of the time), the license is a LOT better (ie. you are actually purchasing a license to play each game, unlike Steam where you're purchasing a subscription - the terms of which mean Valve can do whatever they like (including ban you totally), whenever they like, whyever they like, and you have no rights at all), and the company behind it, Stardock, are definitely someone I want to support. They're one of the few companies who still support DRM-free, PC exclusive, games.

Also, monstes only spawn in the dark, and (usually) burn up in sunlight. So keep your base well lit, and dig yourself a little hideyhole to stay in overnight, if you can't defend yourself easily. It's a shame theres no Alpha creative mode, though. Building stuff is the main enjoyment of the game, having to keep worrying about resources can get annoying if you just want to build something cool.

Yeah, it's completely free, supported by donations. Pyro: the ascii graphics do seem a bit odd at first, and they take a lot of getting used to. You might want to try one of the graphics sets available for the game, like this one. Just download the preinstalled package, extract it, and run the game. Definitely read some tutorials first though, it's a complicated game.

Railroad Tycoon 2 was my favourite game when I was a kid. I used to play it endlessly. RRT 3 was fun, but less good, and Railroads! was too simplistic, and too small.

Yes! It's out now, but maybe we should give it a few releases until its a little bit more stable - right now, most of it doesn't seem to work properly.

I was under the impression that the infinite power glitch had been fixed now? If not, I'll have to give it a go. Though it does feel kinda like cheating. Hopefully Notch will improve the minecarts soon, so you can control them better, have proper trains, etc.

If you're looking for a good corp in Eve, you're welcome to join mine. I'm a director in PCG Enterprises, which is the PCGamer magazine official corp. We're only about a week old, and out of our 20 or so members, only a few of us have been playing Eve for more than a couple of months, but if you're looking to be a part of something new and exciting, now is the perfect time to join. We won't be going to nullsec for some time, at least not as a corp, so it might not be of much interest to you. We are building in that direction rapidly though. As soon as we have a decent core of relatively skilled members, we will be expanding into wormhole ops, and from there hopefully it won't be long until we move on to nullsec. [/shameless plug] As for other games... I'm not really an MMO fan, as a rule, so I haven't played many - but the impression I get from other people is that your best bet is to wait for Guild Wars 2 to come out. Supposedly, it will blow all other MMOs out of the water, though how much of that is just hype I can't say.

I've been using that to build a giant minecart railway :D Been giving myself thousands of stone and railway tracks, and building a massive long route with it. It takes a good 5-6 minutes to ride it's length so far (longer in fact, because the trains keep running out of coal...). I also built a smallish rollercoaster going down the side of a mountain. It's pretty fun (though too fast).