Grand Theft PC, December 27, 2008

= Fun: 

As a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series since it was a 2D top down perspective game for the PC nearly 11 years ago, I was very eager to try the latest episode as I’d heard great things about the console version.

I thought GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas were superb games that were funny and entertaining with a good mix of shoot’em up, adventure/quest and interactivity to suit most tastes. Those titles stayed on my hard drive for a long time and provided me with much entertainment.

I’m sorry to say that GTA IV lasted on my hard drive for about 6 hours. The vast majority of which was spent trying to get the thing to work.

I’m sorry I didn’t come on Amazon and check out the negative reaction that this game has generated before shelling out my hard earned cash for this incredibly disappointing waste of time and money. The sheer number of 1 star reviews here would have warned me away from the game, like the plague.

Like many other reviewers here, I feel cheated out of my money by “Rockstar” games and I’m very angry about it. “Rockstar” have gone about their business in a very underhanded way. There should be clear stickers on this product declaring that various online accounts are needed to play the offline game. I and I’ll wager the vast majority of users don’t want a “Windows Live” account, nor do I particularly want “Rockstar Social Club” account either. The “Windows Live” account is mandatory, to enable the user to save their progress! Never in my many years of PC gaming have I come across such an idiotic and deal breaking device before. I’d love to have been at the meeting where that “feature” was suggested.

On top of that, the user is required to download and install Windows Service Pack 3 for XP users. Why? I don’t know. I’ve no idea why any PC game would need a Windows Service Pack to simply run. Obviously this is at Microsoft’s insistence, but it is yet another reason to leave the game on the shelf. There are some people who just don’t need, or want Windows Service Pack 3 on their machines. I was one of them until I bought this game. Oh, by the way, “SecuROM” is included too! The “SecuROM” anti-piracy spyware, like “StarForce” before it, is something I just don’t want on my machine.

What I and every other PC user would like to do is simply install the damn game and play it. A game like the GTA series is primarily designed for Offline users and that is the target audience, so why is “Rockstar” trying to push Online to the games detriment? GTA is, in essence, a story based adventure game for a single player.

After the irritation of trying to install the game, the real show-stopper makes its appearance. I’d heard that the game was resource hungry, but really, that’s an understatement. My current PC exceeds the recommended requirements by some degree and I had a lot of difficulty getting the game to even accept my assigned display preferences, even in 1024 x 768! On top of that, there were missing textures from the start of the game. So much so that the game was unplayable. I’ve run recent releases which are heavy, like Fallout 3 etc, with no problems. But GTA IV is just ridiculous. After much messing about, included unloading NVidia drivers and installing new ones, then fooling about with the preferences again, I finally got the game to run. But it was far from the experience I was expecting. I could barely get it to run at 20 frames per sec, which would plummet to about 8 or so in a car. So, in short, it was pointless.

According to Gamespot, “Rockstar Games insists that the problems experienced by users are extremely low”. I simply don’t believe them. They are lying and a casual overview of the reviews on Amazon proves that very clearly. “Rockstar” have stated that they were trying to `future-proof’ the game! But this is bunkum. Games should be designed to run on current hardware, not some rig that won’t exist until 2014, when few pwople will be actually playing this title.

The simple fact is that “Rockstar” have simply rushed out a lazy port of the console version for the Christmas sales and they don’t give a toss about the public doing the buying. It comes across as extremely badly optimized code and the end result is an unsatisfying whole, to what should have been this years masterpiece. There may be some hope to rescue this sinking ship with patches, but at the moment I am not holding my breath and GTA IV has been deleted from my Hard Drive. I’ve lost 6 hours of my life and 40 Euro and have had to put up with an extremely frustrating and ultimately miserable experience that just wasn’t worth the hassle.

I’ve never said this about a producer before, but I can honestly say that I will never by another title from “RockStar Games” again, nor anything that has “Games for Windows” emblazoned across the box.

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/grand-theft-auto-iv-download/#comment-622 Reitsuki Sat, 04 May 2013 18:57:43 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/grand-theft-auto-iv-download/#comment-622

Buyers beware…, December 4, 2008

= Fun: 

Buyers beware – The PC version is not a better choice than the console version, this time around. As a faithful GTA fan for years, I was eagerly awaiting this game – only to find out that it’s a poorly coded console port that fails to deliver satisfactory performance even on a modern system. In addition, the product is crippled by bugs, requires two separate online accounts to play (even to play offline), and installs invasive, difficult to remove SecuROM monitoring software into your computer.

Rockstar, shame on you.

To anyone considering this game, I highly suggest you pick it up for the 360 or PS3 instead – and that is the very first time I’ve ever made that recommendation about any game before.

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/grand-theft-auto-iv-download/#comment-621 C. Longo Sat, 04 May 2013 18:12:39 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/grand-theft-auto-iv-download/#comment-621

Terrible performance, even on high end PCs, December 3, 2008

By 

C. Longo (New York, NY) –

  

= Fun: 

We all know the game. It’s Grand Theft Auto 4. Enough has been said about the game itself, love it or hate it. The PC version could have been great, but it’s crippled by poorly optimized code and forced bloatware.

My PC lets me run any game I want. Most modern games run at 720p, 60 frames-per-second, 4xAA on my 46″ HDTV. This includes Fallout 3 and Dead Space. Other games, like Far Cry 2 are more taxing, but I still manage to crank out a solid 30 frames-per-second. GTA4, simply put, performs horribly. I am only getting 15 to 20 FPS on average. I can’t picture someone without a hardcore gaming PC getting anything close to a playable experience with it.

Also, to install the game you’re forced to also install Rockstar Social Club, Games for Windows Live, the SecureROM service (DRM). Plus you need a Windows Live account to even save your game. Terrible, terrible port. Shame on you Rockstar.

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/sony-hdrpj260v-high-definition-handycam-8-9-mp-camcorder-with-30x-optical-zoom-16-gb-embedded-memory-and-built-in-projector-2012-model/#comment-195 Steven Alvord Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:05:25 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/sony-hdrpj260v-high-definition-handycam-8-9-mp-camcorder-with-30x-optical-zoom-16-gb-embedded-memory-and-built-in-projector-2012-model/#comment-195

Best non-professional camera for the money, June 19, 2012

After spending hours researching about this camera, I bought it because I decided it was the best. Now that I have used it for several months, I know for myself. Why? Several reasons.

1. The image quality was my #1 concern and this camera doesn’t disappoint. Indoors, the quality is definitely more than acceptable, but outdoors is where it really jumps out at you. Color was amazing and there was absolutely no blurriness, fuzziness or grain. It’s really as good as it can get.

2. The photo mode is very useful and more than just an added feature. In 8.9 mp, the quality was better than expected (outdoors at least).

3. The touchscreen interface is easy to understand and people with steep learning curves will adjust without trouble. Also, the physical buttons on the camera are few in number, with only the most used and most logical functions being present; everything else is handled one step at a time on the touchscreen.

4. I thought that the GPS function would only be a software gadget that didn’t really do anything, but it is nothing short of phenomenal. I live in Ukraine, so naturally I got it shipped here. When I charged up the camera and looked at the GPS section, I saw that the map said I was in New York, presumably the place where the camera was manufactured. I told the GPS to refresh itself and went outside. The camera brought up a satellite map and started connecting with nearby satellites. Once it connected with four of them (after about 2 minutes) I got an exact map of where I was complete with coordinates and exact date and time. The map could zoom way in and I was shocked to find that not only were the names of local areas written in the local language, but the small, almost nameless street that I lived on was present on the map! Nice.

5. The projector is worth every cent of the extra $100 you need to pay for that option. It is extremely clear and the colors are almost as good as on the LCD screen itself. It’s a great way to show others the videos you just took. The projector is only a few lumens though, so naturally it works better the less light there is.

6. Another cool feature, the camera takes pictures when someone on the screen smiles, great for catching moments that you would have missed otherwise. Also, you can play a video in slow-motion and then capture an image from it as a separate picture.

Now for a few important notes.

I stand by my decision that this is the best video camera out there for about $600, but that doesn’t mean there are things for the buyer to keep an eye on.

First, there’s the battery. I think that Sony made a good choice when balancing battery life and the size of the battery, but realistically speaking, most people will only get about an hour and a half of recording time out of a full charge, and that is only if you avoid lots of playback, projector use, and standby time. You can’t really complain when you see how small the battery is and how big the LCD display is, but for those hoping for longer recording time, your best bet is to buy the optional NP-FV70 battery like I did. It provides about twice the recording time and honestly, is completely worth the extra $60. Just look out for the NP-FV100 battery pack: It’s almost half as thick as the entire camera.

The other thing is the memory. Sure, 16 GB sounds like plenty, but by the time the manufacturer formats the memory and the basic camera software and satellite maps are on there, there is about 12.6 GB of space left. That’s adequate, but if you like to record in medium-high quality like I do, then you might want to buy a high-capacity high-speed SD card. If you want to make good use of the GPS tagging function and the projector function, you pretty much HAVE to get an SD card, because once you move your pictures and videos off the camera, there is no way to use the projector function and using the GPS function requires that you install their software and run all of your data from there. I prefer to record in high quality FH mode which allows for full HD resolution, yet doesn’t take up as much space as the higher bit rate FX mode. Not only that, but it’s the highest quality mode that still allows for simultaneous picture taking and recording; anything higher and you have to quit recording to be able to take a picture. In FH mode, you can record for 1 hour and 43 minutes. By the way, don’t bother recording in 60p PS mode unless you have a high-speed solid-state hard drive to put it on. Otherwise the footage will look jerky on your computer. Hard disks are too slow to adequetly process such a complex image.

These notes aside, I think that this camera is flawless except for a slightly squeaky sounding LCD screen (update: it went away after a little while.) I’m sure it’s nothing more than a minor issue unique to this one camera that I received. Oh, and still images taken inside usually look grainy even…

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/sony-hdrpj260v-high-definition-handycam-8-9-mp-camcorder-with-30x-optical-zoom-16-gb-embedded-memory-and-built-in-projector-2012-model/#comment-194 R. Raimond Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:25:45 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/sony-hdrpj260v-high-definition-handycam-8-9-mp-camcorder-with-30x-optical-zoom-16-gb-embedded-memory-and-built-in-projector-2012-model/#comment-194

PLEASE NOTE THE TWO DIFFERENT MODELS, May 9, 2012

By 

R. Raimond (Lawrence, KS USA) –

  

While I’ve yet to use this product sufficiently to review all its features, I felt compelled to warn potential buyers about the fact that Amazon misleadingly aggregates reviews for at least two different models–the HDR-CX260V and HDR-PJ260V. While the two are almost identical, the PJ260V contains an additional built-in projector for watching your movies without needing to hook up the camcorder to a TV or laptop. Amazon uses the same product description for both, however, and applies the same reviews to both models. Therefore, unless you have a sharper eye than I, it’s entirely possible to search for the CX260V, then read a number of reviews describing the product’s projector; and end up mistakenly buying the CX260V instead of the PJ260V. As I see from at least one of the other comments to comments, moreover, I’m not alone in doing so. As such, if you want the projector, make sure you select the more expensive PJ260V and not the CX260V. While it’s not a dealbreaker for me and I’m not sure the projector is worth the extra money, it would have been nice to have made the decision with full knowledge of the distinction.

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/sony-hdrpj260v-high-definition-handycam-8-9-mp-camcorder-with-30x-optical-zoom-16-gb-embedded-memory-and-built-in-projector-2012-model/#comment-193 P. McWhorter Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:09:36 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/sony-hdrpj260v-high-definition-handycam-8-9-mp-camcorder-with-30x-optical-zoom-16-gb-embedded-memory-and-built-in-projector-2012-model/#comment-193

Impressive Camera!, April 24, 2012

By 

P. McWhorter (Christoval, Texas) –

  

  

Recently while preparing for a trip to Africa, I purchased an entry level Samsung camcorder. I was extremely disappointed in both image quality and overall functionality. In fact, I did not even take it to Africa, as it offered no advantage over the camcorder functionality built into my Canon Elf digital camera.

So, I was very excited about the chance to get this higher end Sony Camcorder. After my experience with the Samsung, I came into the deal somewhat skeptical. After spending some time with this Sony, I have become a true believer. In this review, I will focus on the things I liked about this camera, as compared to the entry level cameras I have used in the past.

First, the camera is easy to use. I was able to get going with it without reading the instructions. I am of the opinion that a well designed product should be intuitive, and not need instructions. This camera receives high marks in this area. I got all features working without the manual.

Second, the quality of the video was extremely good. The camera focuses well, and the images are brilliant and have excellent contrast.

Now, some of the things that were pleasant surprises compared to my other camcorders. I was delighted to see that there was no detectable “noise” from autofocus or zoom motor. In all my other cameras, you can hear an annoying buzz as you adjust zoom, or as the camera focuses. This camera is completely quiet, and the videos do not have the annoying hum.

Next, I was happy to see the camera has jacks for an external microphone. In some applications there is no substitute for a good external microphone, and this camera is compatible with industry standard microphones.

I was also pleased with the wind reduction technology. I took several videos in relatively high wind, and the wind noise was not noticeable in the video.

The camera came with all the needed cables, and the remote.

Finally, the jaw dropping surprise. I had expected the projector to be little more than a novelty and perhaps even a nuisance. I was shocked to see that the built in projector is actually usable. In a normal room light, you can use the projector for 8X10 projection. In a darkened room, you can project a Big and Bright movie. In addition, the playback speakers provided suitable sound, especially considering their small size.

Overall, I am BLOWN AWAY by this camera. If you check my reviews, you will see I am a picky reviewer, and am often disappointed with gadgetry. Not in this case. You will not be disappointed with this camera, and it is worth every cent of the price.

I am now preparing for another trip to Africa, and this camera will definitely make the cut and go in the carry on bag. I will be visiting the Mattaw Orphan Village and can wait to take video of the children, and then project the videos for them to see.

Review Update 7/14/2012

I have returned from a two month stint of using this video camera in east Africa. I must say that I am completely blown away by this device. In addition to taking exceptional video, there are several features I found invaluable. First, the feature where it snaps still pictures as you are making videos any time it sees a smiling face. On my trip, I focused on making videos. When I got home and looked at the video card, I was delighted to see a wonderful set of still pictures which it had taken on its own (when it saw a smile). This is an excellent addition to the media material from my trip. Secondly, the built in projector. I was able to make videos of children who had never even seen their own faces. I could take them to a dark area, and show them the video of their song or dance. Absolutely incredible. This is a great piece of technology, with features that actually have value!

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/full-auto-conversion-of-the-sks-rifle/#comment-145 RH Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:42:30 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/full-auto-conversion-of-the-sks-rifle/#comment-145

Just what it said, February 6, 2013

This book was as described and tells all asspecs. Cautions to take and be aware of.
I would reccommend this to others.

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/full-auto-conversion-of-the-sks-rifle/#comment-144 James E. Locke Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:41:16 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/full-auto-conversion-of-the-sks-rifle/#comment-144

Don’t try this at home, kiddies!, January 2, 2009

By 

James E. Locke (Shake N Bake, CA) –

  

Want to become intimately acquainted with all the small moving parts in your SKS? This book can help with that.

HOWEVER –

Just as the author tells you at the start, converting your SKS to full auto probably will earn you a free orange jumpsuit and stylish matching steel bracelets (connected by a couple steel links).

BTW, this gun was used for a LOT of years by the USSR, famous for recycling old technology for contemporary demands. In over half a century, no military EVER converted this weapon for use by its troops in a full auto configuration. If it actually were a safe, effective way to fire the SKS, I guarantee the Soviets would have done it.

Why not “bump fire” your semi-auto to achieve a full auto burst? Your semi-auto isn’t machined to tolerate the friction & heat of full auto fire, so you could ruin the receiver or blow the thing up. Same here. Oh, yeah — and there’s that whole felony thing… DUH

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/full-auto-conversion-of-the-sks-rifle/#comment-143 Spyro Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:39:14 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/full-auto-conversion-of-the-sks-rifle/#comment-143

Delivers as promised, January 4, 2011

Well i will say this booklet does what it says, i read it and im somewhat mechanically inclined,well unlike some of the smart suggestions from other other fellows that left reviews i went ahead and did the actual conversion, BUT and I say BUT,the only reason i did this is because i had an old sks thats been laying around waiting to be thrown away, its rusted to hell and just not worth doing anything to, so i figured hell before i get rid of it permantly why not see if it would really work, so i put it to the test and it did work, i fired several 30rd clips, and that was the extent of it, after that i destroyerd the trigger mech, but keep in mind not just for jail reasons this SKS which i used was a short barrel paratrooper model, but regardless of type these guns were not meant to fire full auto, it over heated like an oven couldnt even touch the top of it and along the barrel, i would imagine over time if you did this conversion it would defintaly destroy your SKS and cause injury and possibly death so i dont recommend actually doing the full auto conversion,but the point of the the matter here is the book does what it says and its fun just to say you know how to do, and who knows mabye the knowledge will serve you some justice in our uncertin future but for right now its a no no !

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]]> http://highpriorityparts.com/prime-choice-auto-parts-hb613123-new-hub-bearing-assembly/#comment-132 twistedtazz Sat, 30 Mar 2013 08:39:58 +0000 http://highpriorityparts.com/prime-choice-auto-parts-hb613123-new-hub-bearing-assembly/#comment-132

very pleased, September 7, 2011

ordered wheel bearings late Friday on a holiday weekend, it said 3 to 5 business days. received package mid-day on Wednesday. Items were brand new in box,good price, very happy and will do business again very soon.

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