Gerard

Tonight is the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 Final. For those who aren't familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest, it is a major music festival where every European country offers up a song to be performed at the final, and hope to win. The 23 countries in the final battle it out on this one night, performing their songs and hoping to win over the 10 million viewers at home. Then, each country holds internal votes (phone, text etc) to decide who their favourites are, then they award points (up to 12) to their favourite countries. Each nation cannot vote for themselves, but they usually just vote for nearby countries, friends and allies - this show is politically based even if it isn't supposed to be. The votes are tallied up, and one country's performance is crowned the winner, and they get to host the contest the next year. In 2004 they introduced the semi-final, this year's took place last night, which is used to send ten winners through to the final. These ten play against those that automatically qualify, including last year's top ten finalists and the four or five countries which financially contribute to the show (including the UK and France). In 2003, the UK got nil point (no points) since we put on an awful performance with Gemini, who sung out of tune and were just frankly awful. This year, we have some idiot wigga trying to rap with some minxy schoolgirls - his only hit to date was 'Kung Fu Fighting' a few hundred years ago. We don't stand much chance until somebody good comes in, but that aint gonna happen - doesn't work like that. Some familiar names started off in Eurovision, including Bucks Fizz and ABBA. Best thing to look out for this year is Lordi (below) representing Finland, with their song "Hard rock hallelujah". Just wondering, do the US hear much or anything about this? Good luck to all Europeans anyway.

Laptops are not slow, cheap laptops are, and bad laptops are. I have a dell laptop (2.8celeron, 512m, 30g) which is alright for everything I wanna do, and I got it nearly two years ago. It plays San Andreas fine on low settings (up to 800x600x32), and even plays Half Life 2. Problem is, it's broken twice and is gonna break again - the inside part of where you plug the power connector in snaps off the motherboard, which has to be replaced. Thing is next time it happens, the bloody thing won't be under warranty. So yeah don't get a Dell. Don't bother with Alienware, they're too expensive and you're paying for the design+name. Since you're British (wooo - go Dan Sampson) the best thing for you to do, no doubt, is get a Rock. Rock laptops are the best, they brought out the first SLI laptops or the first dual-core laptops in the World (cant remember which). They come with 3 years C+R warranty as standard, which pwns all others. The laptops are good and solid, can go up to VERY high spec, they use only the best parts (not neccessarily the most expensive parts) and the prices are reasonable. I'm way off upgrading at the moment, really need some cash, which is why I'm gunning round for jobs. But yeah - get a Rock.

This has nothing to do with GTA Games. Rockstar North make GTA games, Rockstar Vienna make different games. It means these different games will cease to exist, be sold to other developers, or integrated into another studio belonging to Rockstar.

No. Not gonna buy a PS3 at all. Crap. Sony have made tons of mistakes, it's gonna be too expensive, the cheaper version won't be available in the UK apparently, and the late release will be crap. Microsoft have the edge by releasing the 360 a year earlier, but I suppose if there isn't anything for a while after the PS3 is released, it'll be the 'most recent' and 'newest' piece of kit for years. Maybe its all a clever marketing campaign from Sony, which aren't unheard of. I'm gonna get my PC upgraded or a new laptop, THEN think about a 360. Not gonna bother with the PS3.

What is the file you're trying to find? If it is a .txd or a .dff then that is inside the tools/gta3.img file. You need a special tool to be able to edit that.

typo - fixed now I've got exams this week and last week, so pretty bogged down. Sorry if my brain isnt working in my breaks

There have been loads of changes on these forums recently, and this is the most recent change on these forums recently. This topic is a place we can chat. We don't get much chance to have an idle chat about anything other than GTA. Talk about where you live, what you've been up to, who you'd like to get to know more. Ask about people you don't know much about, ask for help on a game, discuss some private matter if you need to. I want this to be somewhere we can be comfortable, relax, whatever. Just chill. I know for a fact we have similar interests (GTA+Internet+computers?) or else we wouldn't be here, right? So yeah, enjoy, post about what you like. Perhaps have a bit more... fun?? ---------- Just gonna point out we've renamed 'General Off Topic Chat' into 'The Lounge', and general Gaming Chat has moved up a level.

You mean strategy guide? Well, Overdose of Trouble doesn't sound like a pleasant mission title, and indeed, your last mission for Maria is a handful. She's on the brink of an overdose, and needs you to find the ZAP that'll flush out her system. So just grab a Leone Sentinal, head over to the diner at Callahan Point. There's no zap there, but there is the remnants of Wayne's biker gang, looking for revenge for what you did to their leader. After you hit the diner, you're going to have mobs of bikers coming at you for the rest of the mission. They'll either attempt to ram your car, or get off their bikes and shoot you. You should be able to outrace them, for the most part, but they will catch up to you when you hit Hepburn Heights, since your next checkpoint is in the middle of a little building area, and is tough to hit. Thus, before you head towards the Hepburn Heights checkpoint, stop in at the Pay N Spray nearby to get your car's health topped off. The bikers will probably mass themselves outside and fire at you as you pull out, but if you back out rapidly enough you should be able to crush a few of them. From there, hit the checkpoint at Hepburn Heights, then head to Maria's apartment, then Salvatore's mansion. The last two checkpoints should be a bit easier to get through without taking major damage due to the straight streets between them. If your car gets too damaged to continue, then you might have no choice but to ditch it and find another one. This is going to be difficult to do, since the bikers really never stop coming for you, and they'll jack your car if you ever get close enough for them to do so. Since Maria takes a while to get into a car when you pull up to it, you can see the problems here. It's far better to pick a solid car to use in the mission and just hit the Pay N Spray if you have to to keep it running. [edited excerpt from getintothegame]

Nah, I see no reason why it wouldn't work. You won't get the best results obviously with the old graphics card and mid-range CPU, but you'll be able to play. You have a gig of RAM, that'll do you for running it. Just for speed you'll need a better CPU, and for better/bigger/higher quality graphics you'll need a bigger and better card - a 256mb would be fine, but a 512mb would be preferred (and last longer). Hey your specs are better than mine anyway

I adored the radio in Vice City, was the best. GTAIII's radio was.. alright I just don't like it in SA. I just turn it off. Annoying.

Turns out he wasn't a cabbie after all, thats just what the beeb blagged us off with. He was actually an interviewee for an IT job, and now you can see the confusion between a TV interview about computers and a corporate interview about computers. Him: "I'm here for IT interview" Assistant: "Right this way Mr... Kewney" He then sits down where he's told to, his face flashes up on a screeen, and a woman's asking him if he's surprised. No doubt he thought it was an on-the-spot interview, putting him in a difficult situation, having to think on his feet. But the question on everybody's minds is: did he get the job?

No, it is true. There is a (mechanical) shark floating around Vice City. It's relevant to one of the film studio missions or something.

Chris, seriously, stop now. You've wasted enough money, dont bother taking any more risks. You aren't as immune as you think you might be Just.. be happy with what you've got.

You press 'printscreen' on your keyboard Then go into paint, photoship, fireworks or Word (or whatever), press paste (or Ctrl+V) et voila.

Here is the making of that new Sony Bravia commercial, with all those bouncy balls: http://www.ivonic.com/articles/6/sony-bravia-advert After numerous requests, I've shoved the theme music to the ad on there too. Enjoy.

For the Applied skin, Staff can see members usernames below their display names. I did czech this out, and turns out Ambience wasn't set to show display name instead of member name, but it's fixed now.

This will be because Ambience probably just shows your username not display name, since Ambience is made for an older version of IPB. We'll get it sorted.

Okay everybody has heard by now that , but we want to know your thoughts on it. GTAIV (GTA Four) will be released for Xbox 360 and PS3 in October 2007. Probably released for PC about six months later, Probably June 2008. It will be all new, which means different from GTA3, VC, SA and LCS which were very similar, and all ran off the same GTA3 engine, just with modifications (that is why they were not all given their own numbers, Vice City was GTA 3.1 really, not GTA4). Do you think it's time for a new game? Do you think the launch is too far away? What do you think of the change that is releasing it on the Xbox 360 as the same time as the PS3? Let us know. Right here. Now.

1) Don't use the word Gay. Ever. You obviously don't know how to use it properly. GTA4 isn't an 'unoriginal' name, it follows the GTA, GTA2, GTA3, GTA4 pattern. They had a break with all the games in the GTA3 series, and they called 3 "GTAIII" and 4 "IV", which is a bit of a change. The game will be completely different, just like every numerical increase. And what's stopping you getting an xbox 360 now? You won't have bought a PS3 instead yet.

Mind you.. October 2007.. thats a helluva long way away. We'll probs see first content at NEXT year's E3. Not a PS3 launch title then

This is good very good Now let's just hope we get to see more of it pretty soon. GTA Chicago proved that curiosity is spiking. And as I recall, it was Spaz who has been claiming it would be GTA IV for years now

Being rude was totally uncalled for. Apologise now. What modding skills do you have? If you let people know then teams will have a better chance of picking you up. Jezz, you were half right, we don't offer moderating positions to just anybody who asks, but he said "modding team" as in GTA modifications. Big difference.

What glitches? In any game? In any GTA game? In San Andreas?

No, your account was actually suspended for three days This was a different error on Thursday morning.

I myself visited Firenze (Florence) in Tuscany. I loved it, was great. Stayed at Castello di Montegufoni which was cool - had its own lemon groves and bats in the hallways. All the towns and cities were pretty cool, including , Sienna, Pisa (italics=leaning, gettit?) and Liverno. Highly recommended.