Verdungo

If you have an Nvidia graphics accelerator and you are using the Nvidia control panel, remember to press the "apply" button on the lower right corner.

First of all, yes, it is true that some of you have waited Black Shark for two years and probably most of those people will buy it no matter what. However, there are other potential customers too in addition to helicopter sim enthusiasts and lock on fans. I, for example, have waited this game for about a year now and although I'd really like to get my hands dirty with Ka-50, I will not buy BS if it includes too restrictive DRM. I think there are many other people like me who would really like to play a new highly detailed simulator but still regard it as a game that can be ignored if necessary. Simply put: You may have a choice, but I do.

Many games in Russia are protected with StarForce so I wouldn't say nobody wants StarForce since Russians buy those games. Whatever copy protection they decided to use in the Western release, I hope they'll announce it soon so that I know is this sim worth waiting for.

That site isn't that accurate anyway as it says that Sacred 2 is going to be released on 7th of November, although it has been already released in Europe and it will be released in North America on November 11th (according to Wikipedia).

BlackShark LLTM PREVIEW 1280x720.AVI (244 354 838 bytes): Video: MPEG4 Video 1280x720 25.00fps 2008Kbps [Video 0] Audio: MPEG Audio Layer 3 22050Hz stereo 96Kbps [Audio 1] It plays on my Media Player Classic so I say you download ffdshow (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow) and it should play fine.

I seriously doubt that the USB dongle itself is the reason why the game has not been cracked. Steel Beasts Pro PE can only be bought from their website, it costs 125 USD and it is a simulator so it's no wonder it hasn't been cracked. If the protection method really is that powerful, why hasn't anyone else used it? In my opinion playing online should not require a registered game (in other words there should be an ability to connect directly to a server by entering the IP address of the server or an ability to play LAN games without Internet connection). Instead what should require a registered game is server browsing, online flight statistics etc. This is nothing unusual and most games use this method but recently some games have restricted players' options by not including the ability to connect directly to a server by IP and disabling the LAN mode (Gears of War to some extent, Diablo 3). IMO the game should be the same regardless of whether the player has registered his/her copy or not. The only thing that should change is how convenient it is to play the game, for example if the game is not registered, it should require a DVD in drive in order to play, otherwise one could play without a disc in drive. Trackmania United Forever is a good example of this ideology: It lets you make a copy of the dvd, it lets you play without a disc in drive, it requires a serial key but it doesn't require internet connection. In other words you can play it in LAN or alone even if you aren't connected to the Internet without any restrictions (well there are couple of tracks that can be unlocked only by playing online, at least that is the case in Nations Forever) but it gets much, much more fun in online where there are dozens of people in one server competing each other. Of course Trackmania is a totally different kind of game compared to Black Shark but it shows that if the multiplayer is well designed, people want to play it even if the singleplayer/LAN isn't gimped down.

What do you mean by that? DCS should have no singleplayer modes at all or that the singleplayer modes should be made really boring and simple? Or do you perhaps mean that the multiplayer part of DCS should be really awesome?

The manual would also increase the price of the game, therefore some people could not afford it. A good alternative would be, in my opinion, to sell the manual separately and give a discount to those who have registered their DCS: Black Shark games online with their unique serial key. Of course I would love to have a big physical manual in the game box but I don't think many people would pay 80 euros for it if all they want is just the game.

How much are people ready to pay for the manual? ED could really make some good money by selling printed manuals and maps and that sort of stuff provided that the printing process isn't too expensive.

Although I understand why people want to have an in-game server browser, in my opinion development resources should be reserved for more important stuff, such as debugging, developing the new engine, developing A-10 module etc. Besides as you said we have HyperLobby that is fairly adequate even for a game of size of IL-2. Should an in-game server browser be implemented at some point, I think that HyperLobby support would still be nice as with it we don't need to open the game just to check if there are good servers online.

True, but just because all games do not support this, it doesn't mean that they or any other future game shouldn't. It's not that big a deal when changing graphics settngs, but it can get pretty annoying when setting up controller settings and experimenting with them.

Can those menus be accessed when in game? It is a shame if the graphics options cannot be accessed while still playing a mission.

Can the windshield wiper be damaged?

Why does the cockpit look a little strange in those old BS videos? Has the FOV been changed or is it something else? It is also good to see that the graphics have improved a lot since the days of Lock On: Black Shark.

I think the current DCS website is fine. It is easy to use, the colours are not too dark or vivid, and it is much wider horizontally than the ones you have shown us. Oh, and there is already the BS Wiki project, which should become a nice repository for information in the future.