My computer of choice is a 24" iMac and I love it dearly; which is just as well as I spend more time with it than I do my wife (as she reminds me on a regular basis). I also maintain a love/hate (mainly hate) relationship with a Windoze machine which is used for gaming. The installation of new firmware for the motherboard had caused the collapse of XP, and it was time for a fresh install.
Flushed with the acquisition of a new graphics card and CPU, I indulged in an original copy of XP. Of course, being Thailand, it couldn’t be completely legal and it came in a box that indicated that it could only be used by the likes of Dell and Acer for them to install on a new machine. Still, I reckoned I was a computer manufacturer too, so that made it OK.
An install of XP is a painfully slow process. You get blue screen bollocks for ages while it loads all the stuff it needs, then there is an hour or so while it does the install, stuttering as it goes with endless shutdowns and restarts. At some point it even stopped and asked for the 94 character, easy to remember, security code; not something it bothers with when you have a pirated copy.
Then, once XP has finished loading and is sitting there looking all smug with itself; you have to embark upon the process of loading drivers for the graphics card, the sound card and all the other little bits and pieces which most computers apparently don’t have as standard. Usually I can’t find the original disks, and there are probably updates, so I have to download the latest version from the web. But I can’t just connect to the wonderful wide world of web because XP wants to take me through one of it’s endless wizards. The wizard for web access says “Do you want to connect to the web?” and the answer is “Yes you stupid bastard, that is why I started the wizard”, but it just has space for you to click “yes.” Then it does it. Pointless.
Anyway, the install was a success because I only had to do it once and it only took three hours from start to finish. Then another two hours while it uploaded all the updates it could find. Then another hour after it found some more and updated them too. Finally it fell silent and glowered at me. “What do you want to do now? I bet you I’ll fuck it up”, it seemed to say.
Install Crysis, was my answer. And I did.
Crysis has been hailed as an excellent game, but it needs a very high powered machine to run it at the highest resolution. I have a medium powered machine so I run it a fairly high resolution, but it is still a gorgeous thing to behold. If you had to pick things that were difficult to model in a computer you might choose water and foliage; Crysis takes on the challenge by placing most of the game action in a jungle next to the sea.
You start deep in the jungle at sunrise. The trees and leaves are swaying, it is so realistic you expect to meet David Attenborough lurking behind a twig. You climb a hill and find yourself looking over a bay with the water sparkling in the early morning sun. Then the leaves around you disintegrate as bad guys start shooting at you. Then you die, but life was beautiful for a moment.
Screen shots do not do it justice, you have to play it. Sadly, unlike most games released in Thailand, Crysis has only been released at Thai prices with full Thai dialogue. If you want the English version you have to buy an import, available in Bangkok at around 1,600 baht. Or 499 baht, if the wife asks.
Comments 🔗
2008-07-16| The Ghost saysIf you can get an English version for 499, I’d really like one. Been wanting to play it (got the top vid card possible for an AGP-based motherboard) but don’t go to BKK.
2008-07-17| Rotwang saysWhy bother with 499 baht and wasting a full day in BKK when you can download it from the internet in no more than a few hours, even with the slow 1-2Mbps “broadband” there…
Now if Spike would only upgrade his iMac to a MacPro (with a 24-inch cinema display, of course), he’d be able to install a top-end video card in it and play Crysis on his Mac. It even has 4 drive slots so there’d be no need to partition his boot drive to make way for the most bloated computer virus the world has ever seen – Windoze. I hear they’re going for 100'000 baht at the usual places in BKK (8-core, 2.8GHZ). Just think of how many more photos he could process per minute with such a machine!
2008-07-17| Spike saysBecause, in my extensive experience of trying to steal stuff, downloaded games rarely work properly, you can’t install the inevitable patches, and you can’t play on-line. And anyway, I think games companies deserve their income; unlike rock stars and Hollywood. As for the Mac Pro…. It is indeed my current object of desire (apart from the wife of course, in case she is reading this). Why only last night I was in iStudio caressing the case and dreaming of ownership, with the graphics card upgrade and a cinema monitor. One day…
2008-07-17| Rotwang saysI figure the game makers are just like the movie producers. There’s a few good titles out there and a whole lot of trash. Grand Theft Auto anyone?
When you buy those 499 baht DVDs, do the serial numbers provided allow you to play online? That’s a surprisingly low price for a recently released game – hard to believe it’s legitimate unless it’s an older game.
2008-07-17| Spike saysIt’s priced at what the market can stand. Game companies started releasing their games in Singapore at much lower than Europe/USA prices some years ago; and Thailand followed a few years later.
They are fully legal games. The manual is always in Thai, but often there is an english manual on the disk or you can download from somewhere; assuming a manual is needed. There are shops in Pattaya and BKK which sell original games, I would say 599 baht is usual for a recently released game. I have ordered desperately desired games from Europe at European prices, only to find the game available here the following week at a fraction of the price.
Grand Theft Auto? This is my opinion: 2008_05_grand-theft-auto-iv-review
2008-07-18| Rotwang saysMy issue with GTA is not the technical execution, which I am sure is quite good. In fact, games are becoming so realistic these days that they have become effective virtual realities.
Now, when an adult immerses himself in a virtual reality in which immoral behavior is required to win, the effects on his psyche may be subtle. But when a less mature individual does so, the effects are likely to be a lot less subtle. In fact, the military counts on this when they recruit young people into their ranks so that they can mold them into machines that will kill on order without question. Would you want your children playing GTA? I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I would be surprised to learn that an awful lot of teenagers (and younger kids, sadly) are playing GTA. The mechanisms in place for denying access to such games to children are considerably less effective than those for keeping alcohol or drugs out of their hands, and sadly they have no difficulties in getting their hands on either.
2008-07-18| Spike saysI agree GTA is a game for adults. There are also movies for adults. In both cases I would not want a child playing or watching these products, and it would be my job as a parent to ensure they didn’t. But that does not mean that the product should not be made or has no artistic merit.
GTA4 is intelligent, funny and at times surprisingly moral entertainment. You really need to play it before you can criticise it; don’t believe all the crap in the media, expounded by people with an agenda who haven’t played it either.
My child not only plays it, he was instrumental in developing it and has his name in the credits. But he is over 18.
I believe there are many worse influences in the world than computer games.
2008-07-18| Rotwang saysI have played the original version of GTA, which I personally didn’t care for and would cringe at the idea of children playing. I can’t comment on more recent versions of the game, though I can only assume that they continue in the same vein unless someone suggests otherwise? As for the media, their only purpose is to keep us in touch with the ignorance in our communities.
I agree with you that there are a lot of movies that seem to glorify violence. Thankfully, more often than not, these movies have at least a crude moral compass and don’t generally glorify those who prey on our societies.
2008-07-18| mart saysOK, break, flowers?
As a side note: Rotwang, I think you underestimate the ability of modern children to discern Reality and Fiction. I am 30 now which means I grew up with computer games and Hollywood action films. Although they were nowhere as “real” as they’ve got, I’d say I’ve acquired, as a child, a quite sharp understanding of the difference between both. Now that movies and computer games have got even more real looking, I’m quite sure that children develop an even sharper understanding of both. Of course there is the odd “accident” with children running amok at schools but I wouldn’t blame computer games and movies but other, more fundamental aspects of our society - think Isolation for example here…
2008-07-19| rotwang saysIt is up to parents to teach their children to be moral. In the absence of such teaching, they will not automatically become moral. One need only look to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge days to see what children become without their parents (animals).
If parents are attentive and insure that their children understand that the sort of behavior that is encouraged in some computer games (or movies for that matter) is just plain wrong in real life, and furthermore that the consequences of such behaviour would be disastrous, then there would be little to worry about. Unfortunately, in today’s busy modern world, few parents take the time to properly raise their children and many of them don’t have any clue what’s on their children’s computers.
2008-07-19| Billy saysClearly it is parents responsibility to keep their children and the unsuitable apart. It is nonsense to excuse failure to do so by talking about “today’s busy world” and the rest
That said, every effort should be made to make that responsibility easier to meet, and this is often done. Sale of cigarettes to minors is for instance prohibited by the law in many places and rather strongly enforced (though I suspect that Thailand would come pretty low on the league table here). The sensible parent would however be wise to smell their child’s breath from time to time. Similalry it would be a particularly stupid parent who allowed their child unfettered access to the Internet, while a parent who didn’t check out his childs hard drive from time to time would be failing in his part of the deal. Trust but verify.
It would be wrong to call for computer games to be banned, but it spot on to require, to demand, that every possible step is taken by the sellers of such stuff to prevent their getting into the wrong hands.
2008-07-21| Large Hadron saysMr Rotwang; I find it amusing that someone pontificating about morals and consequences begun this thread by advocating video game piracy! Classy.
As for GTA, I would advise you to play and understand it before you criticize it so strongly; or leave it from the equation. Otherwise you look as uninformed and foolish as the attention-seeking politicians and reporters that have come before you.