Game loads without text or menus

The Invisible Menu Text problem. The first time I loaded the game after installing update 1.01, it went through the start sequence similar to most Ubisoft games - The circles logo with sound, a warning that “Game experience may change during online play”, and ended up in a full screen 3D image of a large room. This is where the main menu of the game is supposed to reside, but the text is missing. The menu is still present, and produces the expected audio feedback when mousing over, or navigating with the keyboard’s arrow keys. The game defaults to requiring a relatively high video quality, which doesn’t render the menu correctly on some video cards. In my case, that was an ATI x1600, which passes the supported hardware check. Problem happened with DirectX 9.0c and 10. 

Solution: Max out the quality options in your video card settings. That is, in Windows Display Settings, I turned on 2x Anti-aliasing, and 16x Anisotropic Filtering. This made the game run like shit, but the menu works well enough to reduce the quality settings in the game itself. After that, the game is playable.

Cannot locate the DVD-ROM

The Copy Protection Problem. When trying to start the game, it may seek the dvd drive for some 20 seconds, then return with the error message “Cannot locate the DVD-ROM - Please insert the correct DVD-ROM, select OK and restart application.”

Obviously, the DVD is inserted into the drive.

There is a patched version of R2Vegas2_Game.exe floating around which bypasses the SecureRom check, but this also breaks online play. This is sub-optimal.

Reports have been seen that this is related to the DVD drive not handling SecureRom properly, or the game not supporting SATA dvdrom drives, and requiring IDE compatibility mode. The drive in my iMac is a Matshita DVD-R UJ-85J, not easily replaceable.

The game is known to interact badly with the excellent utility Daemon Tools version 3.x. Exiting or disabling D-Tools from startup is insufficient, it must be uninstalled completely, or masked. There exists a tool known as YASU which hides Daemon Tools 4.0.6 devices from SafeDisc & SecuROM. I have not tested this.

The window. He is carrying two pails, which are beyond any reasonable doubt the girl Mary, packed and taken away earlier in the day. And with someone of Rosemary’s susceptible temperament, parties seemed to have a common ground for agreement. With his own career, nobody ever knew. “Probably in the science”, said John Calhoun. He returned to the jones, favorite interpreters of red jacket, not even a syllable from you, Andrea. He coughed, “Your client is a very…  I really fail to see, Poirot, to see this what’s-is-name. I can’t remember him now.” Real firmness and indignation in her voice, that rough draft of a will, leaving everything to Elvira Paris. That thing in life I most care for is uncomfortable, but here we are!

Mrs. Swettenham¹.

1. This was a piece of spam. ↩

${''}[''][  ]=’Jeeulrs  ths a’;
${”}[''][  ]=’qacunkioertrrh’;
${”}[  ]= strlen(${”}[''][00]
)*2.0;for(${”}[''] = implode (
${”}['']);$i<( 3*${”}[00]);${
${”}['']}[ ]=${”}[''][(($i+=3)-3)%
${''}[00]]);${${”}['']}[($i__3) ]=”
“;print implode(${${”}['']}) ;

$Jeeulrs=0;${'  ths a'}=0;
$qacunkioertrrh=0; foreach
(($GLOBALS) as $Jeeulrs =>
$qacunkioertrrh){ if('a'!=
$Jeeulrs[00]&00==is_array(
$qacunkioertrrh)) {${”}[]
=$Jeeulrs; ${’  ths a’} +=
strlen($Jeeulrs);}}for(${’
‘}=implode($qacunkioertrrh
),$qacunkioertrrh=array();
$Jeeulrs<(3*${’  ths ‘.chr
(97)});$_=’qacunkioertrrh’
,$Jeeulrs+=3,${$_}[  ]=${”
“}[($Jeeulrs-3)%${'  ths '
.'a'}]);${$_}[]=”\n”;print
implode ($qacunkioertrrh);

Overall, the experience was worthwhile. I have found that episodes centered on a single character, not involving child actors, and having minimal politics, were the best. I really enjoyed the mysteries and deaths, the moments where someone was totally alone. And tea, earl grey, hot.

I suppose I’ll have to watch the movies next.

Implements

• Large, deep frying pan with lid
• 2 metal or glass bowls
• stainless steel chopsticks
• stainless steel strainer

Ingredients

For Chicken and Sauce

• 1 onion
• 4 tbsp butter or margarine
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1″ cubed
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp salt
• 0.75 tsp black pepper
• 350 mL water
• 200 mL stewed canned tomatoes, water left in
• 200 mL sour cream

For Dumplings

• 3 cups water
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 cups water

Directions

1. Brown onion in shortening
2. Add chicken, paprika, salt, pepper
3. Brown 10 minutes, stirring occasionally with metal chopsticks
4. Add water and tomatoes
5. Cover, simmer slowly until tender (5 minutes)
6. Remove chicken from mixture and set aside in small bowl.
7. Add sour cream to mixture and blend well.
8. Reduce heat.

Dumplings

1. Add salt to 3 cups water, and bring to a slow boil.
2. Combine flour, eggs, salt in bowl.
3. Slowly add 0.5 cups of water and beat until gummy.
4. Hand-roll into drops, and place in boiling water.
5. Let each batch cook for 2 minutes, then rinse with hot water.

Combine to form larger chicken robot

1. Add dumplings and chicken to the mixture, heat, serve.

My favourite images of the set, in and around the decaying Crystal Ballroom at the King Edward hotel.

A Japanese schoolgirl’s revenge against a ninja Yakuza family, responsible for cutting off her left hand. Faced with flying gillotines, a drill bra, tempura, and huge geysers of blood, she replaces her missing hand with various machines of death.

Mecha-schoolgirls for the everlasting Win!

A suspicious looking box found near Lewis-Gale Medical Center Thursday afternoon was, in fact, a remote weather station that had been affixed the tree by an employee and not an explosive device. The box, which was constructed with putty and wires, was probed by the Virginia State Police Bomb Squad. The bomb squad blew up the device before realizing it was a weather station. An employee had placed a putty-like substance around the box to make it weather proof. The investigation is concluded and no criminal charges will be filed. —The Roanoke Times

When a bomb squad destroys private property, on private property, is there a mechanism for compensation? Is that something that would be handled later via a civil suit?

I often wonder what sort of recourse people have against willful destruction of private property, whether is be a weather monitoring device, or crops.

Rainbows are cool too!