Well that depends - a lot of the focus of Half-Life was "escape Black Mesa" and that meant a lot of moving forward.

Other games are focused on things like "get past locked door" and that can mean going down a bunch of halls, getting the key, then backtracking back to the door. Half-Life would probably have a work-around, like go into vents, climb above door through vents, drop down behind door and open from other side.

I personally think backtracking areas can be a boon to level design if done correctly - I mean you're sort of maximizing the gameplay potential of an area, meaning you're sort of doing more with less, and it just seems like the area matters more I guess.

But I agree, not a ton of backtracking, but some used throughout. 

That TV model is among the simplest Philips makes. The only real redeeming quality is the price.

Also 52" is likely to be too big for your place, but if you do want that size, consider a projector. 

http://www.quaddicted.com/quake-nostalgia/a-little-gem-on-the-sega-saturns-quake-soundtrack/ 

How did your speech go? 

I'd like to know too. 

not sure if you're allowed to say anything but is there anything in the works in the way of a new Unreal game? Not UT, but Unreal.

I understand if you're not able to say anything. 

I honestly don't know. I'm not currently working on one but I don't know what the future plans are... 

Proper Unreal2 i.e. actual Unreal sequel, would own me. 

I hate Unreal. Makes me feel icky. 

And so do we. 

thanks for the response.

Would love to see one happen, I think the new Unreal tech would support it nicely. 

If I ask it'd be too much like industrial espionage.

But like Nitin says, it'd be great to see a new Unreal. 

The waterfall at the start of the second level of Unreal is one of the greatest things ever created in a computer game. Especially in context of the era. 

Nuff said. More bad-assness in the level than in most games at the time... 

That and the Spire level. I think everyone who played quick saved at the top and jumped off. You just had to. 

run at like 10 fps on my original rig at the time. But it was still amazing.

And I jumped off a few things well before the spire level :) 

Would be kinda cool if was set on the same planet as the original and you had the freedom to explore wherever you wanted, kinda like Stalker or Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

The sense of exploration in Unreal was fantastic! 

But a journey, a trek across a continent towards your goal. There was a tangible sense of going from point A, to B, to C, to D, etc... and a feeling of accomplishment when you finally reach point Z, the mothership. 

...and raise you Na Pali Haven too. 

It did look great. I think it was one of the first video games that needed state-of-the-art hardware. Doom 3 also iirc... Others ? 

my computer has just shut down completely and will not power up at all anymore, not even for a second.

Any ideas? I'm presuming power supply but is there something I might be overlooking (cables and powerpoint are fine, checked that)? 

That does sound like a dead power supply to me. Bad luck :(

The only thing I could think of is that you may have knocked or tripped the power switch on the back of the power supply. Next to where the cable goes in. But thats pretty obvious I guess. 

It could also be something else. I once had a similiar situation where the harddisk controller turned out to be the culprit.. 

Take all cards, drives etc out and then try if it does anything. Insert one after another and see if you can find a culprit. 

Try removing and re-inserting all memory dimms.