64-bit And A Day Later…

Posted on 27 October 2008 by FoxTwo

Yes I finally bit the bullet and went 64-bit.

For one thing, it sucks that there’s no 64-bit browser plug-in support in Sun’s JAVA Runtimes. That means I still have to fall back to the normal, 32-bit Firefox and IEs. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, but since I’m on 64-bit I’d prefer to use native 64-bit stuff, you know? Installing the 64-bit version of the JRE is pretty pointless on a PC, unless you’re doing development work. All other software you have will probably run fine on 32-bit version of the JRE.

First of all, many people have said that the PC will “slow down” when running 32-bit software because it’s not native. My reply – no difference. It’s the same as your standard Windows XP trying to run a DOS program (16-bit). If you didn’t find your DOS program “slowing down”, you won’t find 32-bit software “slowing down” on your 64-bit OS.

There were some hoops I had to jump through to install some stuff, though. Be warned. For example, Windows Live Photo Gallery, part of the Windows Live suite of programs, refused to install, claiming that WinXP 64 was unsupported. Luckily, I found a workaround and installed it anyway and it runs fine. The trick is to get the actual MSI file and bypass Microsoft’s retarded installer. Yes, it’s 32-bit but it runs fine.

The big test was of course, my games. If any of my games refused to run on x64, you can bet I’ll reformat back to bog-standard Windows XP. Fortunately, they ran fine.

So in conclusion, I guess I’m staying with WinXP x64 then. I have yet to encounter any application that can’t be run on 64-bit Windows XP. As far as I am concerned, 100% of whatever I use run fine. It’s just too bad that there’s no 64-bit version of some of the software I’d like to have, like Gimp.

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Do I Want To Go 64-bit?

Posted on 21 October 2008 by FoxTwo
Windows XP

Image via Wikipedia

Recently I added 2 more gigs of RAM to my new PC, and totally forgot about the 4GB limit of Windows XP. So the end result is, while I may have 4GBs of RAM physically, only 3.25GB is visible in WinXP. No amount of fiddling around with BIOS and WinXP boot options “fixed” it. It is a limitation of normal, standard, 32-bit Windows XP.

So, I am now in a small dilemma – do I move on to Windows XP 64-bit?

And for those of you who are going to suggest Vista, save it. Not interested. I’ve always only upgraded my OS to the next version if, and only if, my games demanded it. Otherwise, I’ll just stay with the current version. Moving to Windows XP 64 bit is technically not “upgrading” to me. It’s just using a slightly different version of the same OS.

The only reservation I have right now about this move is that I might run into a game which may not work. However, AMD 64-bit CPUs have been out for awhile now, and I don’t really see gamers denouncing AMD or anything. So, I guess my fears may be unfounded.

In fact, I have been doing some “research”. I have been downloading all the 64-bit versions of everything that I can lay my hands on – graphic drivers, sound drivers, LAN drivers etc… all to prepare for the day (which may actually be today) that I do decide to reformat and install WinXP64.

The thing is, it’s hard to locate 64-bit versions for stuff like anti-virus, firewalls, etc which aren’t drivers, but equally important for the security and well-being of the PC. Well my primary concern is actually the anti-virus rather than the firewall. I’ve been using the one in the router and also the native WinXP one for so long, that I don’t really need something “better”.

So, I am still trying to decide if I should take the plunge…

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The Witcher Enhanced Edition

Posted on 30 September 2008 by FoxTwo
The Witcher (video game)

Image via Wikipedia

I thought I was pretty up to date with Bioware stuff, but I guess I was wrong. The Witcher went completely under my radar and I never knew of the game till just a week ago or so. I was down at Sim Lim Square, getting more RAM for my new PC (oh yes it’s now running on 4GB dual channel). Since I was there, I thought I might as well swing by my regular game shop and check out what’s new over there.

Crysis Warhead and The Witcher caught my eye. Hence, I came home with 2 new games 🙂

First off – the studio that did the game is Polish (ie, from Poland). Hence the original dialogue, story and so on are all in Polish. It is pretty obvious when playing the game, because when the characters spoke, the English sentences sometimes sounds a little…. weird. Translations usually have these kind of problems.

However that doesn’t really detract from the game itself. As far as I can tell, the story is pretty interesting. Witchers are monster hunters for hire, and usually are mutants. Hence they are often scorned by people and are caled “freaks”. The story tells of a witcher, Geralt, who has lost his memory. The introduction movie sequence shows you that he is a witcher of some renown, as he’d been able to cure a princess of her curse of being a monster previously.

Some time passed, perhaps years, and the next scene shows Geralt running from something or someone. He collapses, and is found by fellow Witchers, who bring him back to a Witcher’s haven. When Geralt wakes up, he had lost his memory. That is where the game starts, and that is also where the tutorial starts too.

The video clip above just shows a small section of the game. This is in Chapter 1, right after the Prologue is completed. I have just made it into a small village and have saved someone’s life. In the clip, all I’m doing is just running around and exploring. By this time, I am already about 4 hours into the game.

The game is supposed be running on Bioware’s Aurora engine, but a heavily modified version of it. At first glance, the screen looks nothing like Neverwinter Nights. Nor the inventory screen, nor the skill tree. However, during fights, familiar things start to appear such as the damage figures floating above the character’s head (or the monsters’). I even went into the game editor and discovered some default scripts in there still had “Neverwinter Nights” as the name of the script.

The version of the game I got was the “Enhanced” version. It comes with the original Witcher story, and 2 more “modules”. “Modules” is a pen & paper term for “adventure”, based on the Dungeons and Dragons rules. Right now I’m just playing through the main story. I’ll get around to the 2 extra stories after I am done with the main story. The other disks in the box are 2 more audio CDs of soundtrack from the game, as well as a music CD of similar music that inspired the soundtrack for The Witcher.

It also comes with a novella and a paper map. Usually I never look at paper maps in game boxes, preferring not to spoil my enjoyment of the RPG.

As I said, the game looks pretty interesting. You can check out the links below to get a more in-depth look at the game itself.

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