u235

It used to be that "computer games" required a "computer". You know in the classical sense, like one with a keyboard and maybe some sort of pointing device. Something you could pop the hood on and add maybe update your RAM or video card. Basically none of this console shit where you buy a pre-packaged box and play on it until they make you throw it out and buy a new one. Really it was something, because computers were the only things that could really do innovative things like wire-frame graphics and greater than 16 colors.

Eventually the PC became a solid platform for all sorts of new games and types of playing that required more than a 4-way rocker switch or joystick and a big red button. But now...? Game manufacturers have basically written off PC users as a market because it's *expensive* to design and write a real video game.

Ok, I admit, games like the FEAR and Half-Life series basically raised the bar to a level where it's hard to compete. But when games that do stand a chance of making a promising impression come out and then fucking blow it, it makes me want to take a stick to the management that set the priorities. Yeah, I'm talking about you Epic, and yeah I'm talking about Unreal Tournament 3. It's close, so fucking close we can all taste it - all your PC customers that brought your series to a fourth release know you kicked us in favor of the freekin' console release.

Items of Mass Stupidity:

• Remapping the console key from the standard ~ to F10. Why, gods oh why?
• A seriously gimped list of key bindings. Toss weapon? Hot-key phrases? You need to edit the damn ini.
• X and Y scale factors set to different values... because it's too hard for console gamers to push up and down compared to left and right. BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH A PC?
• No linux server release.
• No web admin for servers.
• User files stored in some gods-fosaken directory under "documents and settings"

I dunno, I'm too despondent to add more items, but seriously - none of these things would have taken more than a day of testing. All these things were standard in previous releases, and yeah, any real UT player is used to editing their ini for certain details... but come on - for stuff like toss weapon? What the fuck were they trying to prove?

This is probably more in the "irk" class of woes than in the "rant" class. It has to do with a lack of consistency in how states are ordered in a drop-down list. So why is this a problem for anyone? It's a problem for me because I do most of my shopping online because I detest box stores (well ok, the people *in* the box stores, not the stores themselves... I find an almost-empty store to be a pleasant store).

Since, as I said, I like to shop online I have to enter my mailing address. Unfortunately I live in one of the many states that begins with an "M".

Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri... the M-states have it all the heck over any other letter (since "A" and "W" are the next runners up with a paltry four). What bothers me is the ordering of the states when they are displayed in a list.

If you're selecting from the 2-letter acronym it makes sense for MA to come first, and ME to come later. If you're looking at the full spelling it should be correct for Maine to be at the top of the list. What makes absolutely no damn sense is to have ME, then MD and then MA. None.

I'm sure there's billions of lines of hand coding to ensure that states are not automatically ordered alphabetically. It would be a damn brilliant idea for everyone to agree on a single implementation depending on the number of letters displayed - or better just *always* sort things alphabetically!

So, Verizon ran a traffic service you could dial with "*1". It was a good service, a really good one. You entered a major route and then the number 1 for north or 2 for south (same with east or west) and they told you if there were any delays, how long, where, if you should be in a particular lane to get by and what caused it. Great service. Awesome service.

Then the state took it over.

The first bit of bleh came when I dialed "*1" and got "HELLO THIS IS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SO-n-SO. WELCOME TO ..." It's damn near deafening. Then they tell you to dial 511 instead of *1. That sucks because you have to remember that it's 5, not 4 or 6 or 9. Ok sure, fine, whatever.

Next they basically say "Yep, you're stuck in traffic and you will be for the next hour." No information on where the accident is, how to best get by (if possible), or ... most importantly ... WHY I'm stuck. Yes that last little bit is actually pretty important. I don't feel so bad when it's a 5 car crack-up than if it's just holiday-shopping congestion.

So yeah, way to take a great, free service and suck it up. Just so we can all hear "HELLO THIS IS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR...."

If you *miss* your exit, just fucking get off at the next one and turn around mmm'k? Ripping over three lanes and slamming on your brakes, bringing a moving lane of traffic to a jacking halt... while you force your way into the the exit ramp is *not* the way to do things right.

You know there's really no damn excuse for not cleaning off the top of your car when there's a foot of snow on it. None.

The best possible ending is when the idiot stops suddenly and gets his windshield covered with snow as it all slops onto his hood.

The worst is when it flies off into someone else's windshield.

In either case the laziness should be criminal, and the person should be fined. Only *after* the cops stop them and make them clean off their car...

Look, I appreciate when people give me a break when I'm trying to merge but honestly there are people with no damn common sense on the road. These are the people with only one person behind them and then a fifty mile open gap. Listen Buddy, I know you feel like you're doing me a favor but if you'd just freekin' gone on by I would have had *plenty* of time to merge. Really, I didn't need you slamming on your brakes to let me in, as I watch the eyes of the guy in the car behind you widen like soup plates as he desperately tries to stop in time.

On the other hand when I'm the person behind the jackass who feels like he needs to let the person on the cross street turn, hey what about me? Because I'm behind you I don't get the same courtesy? What about when I miss the damn light because *you* decided it was ok to stop everyone for the guy who was patiently waiting anyway?

Unless it's an endless stream of cars there really isn't an excuse to stop everyone behind you because you feel like being a Samaritan. The person behind you didn't get a chance offer their opinion, so please, just keep going on your way and give everyone else a break...