OT- Mind work... (Was For filePro and overall strength which isbest, SUSE or RedHat?)

[Fairlight]

You'll never BELIEVE what William Randall said here...:
> You know....our list friends are going to hate this thread...well, maybe
> only some of them.

Probably.  

> I have no idea what Hard is like but I switched quickly for Easy to Normal
> because of the fact I love torture.  :)  I found Easy too easy and restarted
> on Normal because I figure if I can't beat normally on normal I might as
> well give up games.

Well it would have been--until right after the first boss.  Then it would
have gotten challenging enough for you.  I usually start playing games on
easy because 1) they've increased difficulties over the last five years
across the board--I used to start things like Doom, Quake, Diablo, etc., on
Normal or Medium.  I get more replay out of them this way, as well.  :)
(Do I -need- more replay with 33 Cube games alone, nevermind my PS2 and PC
games?  That's another question.  I need like 72hr days, or a few clones.)

> I agree that the puzzles are not that difficult but the fight scenes and the
> bosses are completely beyond 'my' normal capabilities.

I found that rather than trying to master the entire move list, I took a
page from Soul Calibur 2 and the like--try the moves and stick with a few
you know you can get off and that work really well.  I personally -love-
the high/low whirlwhind type attack.  There are some places where that's
the only one that works.  Loved how some of the enemies would toss you back
down if you try jumping over them as well!  I laughed pretty hard the first
time that happened.  :)  Oh...and rolling helps.  Remember that for later
boss fights.  It makes it easier to sneak around them when you can't go
over.

> > Then I beat 007: Nightfire, which was actually the best Bond game released
> > since Goldeneye for the N64.
> 
> I remember the N64 game and liked it.  I will have to give the new one a
> try.

I've also read that cool as Nightfire is, Agent Under Fire is supposed to
be even better.  So...eventually.

Problem is, I have too many games, not enough time.  I've started
systematically going back through my games and trying to make sure I beat
them.  Eventually I'll get back to Final Fantasy X and beat it.  Problem
being that I'm up to the final fight and can never get more than 1/3 the
way through it.  Based on the stats I've heard people report, I think you
have to hang around in a field somewhere and fight things just to work the
entire sphere grid--which I think is poor design.  You -should- be able to
get the whole grid (or at least what you need) just by not escaping from
most fights that happen anyway, as was the case in FF2 and FF7.  I need to
get back to that--it's only been 2 years now since I gave up on it.

> I was reading the reviews on Metroid and it really sounded like something I
> wanted to try.  Guess that one will be in my 'to-do' list.

They did an amazing job.  Don't go into it expecting a FPS--it's not, even
though it has that element.  It's my favourite Nintendo franchise
though--surpassing even Zelda (whose last outing disappointed me).

> I agree that it sounds really good but I have never liked the grotesque
> story line so I have have stayed away from it...at least for now.

I remember reading it once upon a time.  I just haven't gotten to the game
yet.  I picked up two titles for a rainy day when I wanted something new
and had no money.  One was Nightfire.  I still have the other in reserve.
Sometimes you're in the mood for something "new", even if you have 20 you
haven't beaten entirely, ya know?  Got it really cheap, too--like $30 when
it was practically brand new.  Go figure.

I wasn't even familiar with Twisted Metal: Black's storyline before I
played it.  Some warning might have been nice. *chuckle* That one went a
bit far in what little plot there was, but the gameplay was deliciously
fast and furious.  I have GTA3, and for all the hype and two sequels
later, I actually have quit the original twice now--about 2/3 the way
through.  It just gets boring.  I think the violence factor in that was
highly overrated and overhyped--as was the attraction.  But it sure has
sold a lot of copies.  Those are probably two of the darker games I have.
Oh wait...I have two Resident Evil games--but those make me laugh to hard
to take seriously enough to be scared.  Now Eternal Darkness: Sanity's
Requiem was far, far better--but it's Cube-only.  Very Lovecraft, and it
plays with your head as well.  If you want a good chuckle, get this:  I had
-just- replaced my Cube controller with a wireless WaveBird like the day
before.  I was playing Eternal Darkness, and there's a sanity metre.  If it
goes too low, you start hallucinating--things like walking halfway through
the floor, some other very odd things.  But they didn't -just- limit it to
in-game pranks.  One apparently (I never hit this one) has bugs walk across
your screen--making it seem like it's actually physically on your TV.  The
one -I- hit was an error box telling me it couldn't read Controller 1's
input.  I'm like, "Geez, I just got a new controller...why would it be
dying?"  I take it out, try like five games, all work.  Put that back in,
it worked.  I figured out about 20min later what had happened--I didn't pay
close enough attention, I guess, as the dialog/warning box was done in the
style of the game rather than being something like "Disc Error" straight
from the console.  It still had me looking though, despite the fact the
controller still worked even in that before I pulled it to check.  That
still cracks me up, to this day.  I've never seen a game play with your
head like that before.

> I also have had some of those issues but have been able to go back (thank
> you for saving) and have changed my approach just enough to avoid the
> glitches.

You'll laugh, but at one point I -thought- I hit a restart-necessitating
bug about 45min into the game.  I restarted and, due to all the bug reports
on needing more than one save point, started using all three in rotation.
Funny thing was--I never needed to restart.  I'd simply gotten turned
around and was actually going backwards in one area.  Doh!

> Oh my.   I hate jumping long distances and to areas that don't seem to be
> logical.

Some of the level design is a real mind-bend.  The mechanical tower was
truly designed by some real sadists.  Frustrated architects, is all we can
figure.

> > OB fP:  Thinking of making a database to keep track of game, platform, how
> 
> Sounds like something I already have.  Keep track of levels, feelings and
> bugs found.  I seem to wait on buying until Price Grabber finds them really
> reasonably priced.  Since I only play PS2 games, I have no need to compare.

If you like FPS single-player games, I just checked and it was released
tri-platform, so try Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.  Besides being
insanely hard even on Easy, it was also nice and LONG at 40 huge levels.
It has to have the best sense of humour I've seen in any game in ages, as
well.  It had some pretty inventive gameplay additions, too.  I'd buy a
sequel in a heartbeat, if the quality was as high.

mark->
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