Age of Empires III

We bought Liz AoE III the other night, but it wouldn't install on her new PC, coz we got an error message claiming various CAB files were corrupt. The CDs themselves looked fine, but the game wouldn't complete the install. I tried burning a copy of the CD (you know, like threatening something. See here? This is you, only an effigy of you, and I'm burning it...get the picture? Wait, that's not what I meant by "burning a copy"...never mind) but during the burn my DVD reader reported quite a few unreadable sectors on the CD (the original CD, not the burnt copy...I mean all the sectors on the burnt one were unreadable, coz it was burnt, right?...never mind) so I figured the CDs got messed up while they were being produced, so we returned them tonight.

Yes, you can return opened video and PC games, but you can only exchange them for a copy of the exact same game, which was fine with us. Liz had already played the demo and enjoyed it, so we were happy to get a working copy.

We got home, popped in CD#1 (of 3), ran the install, it asked for CD#2, we popped that in...and a corrupt CAB error message came up. WTF? What the hell is this shite? Well the game is produced by Microshaft Microsoft. Need I say more?

This time I attempted to not burn a copy of the CD, but install it, on my PC, and it worked...WTF? Ok, Microshaft Microsoft are taking the piracy thing a little bit too far and are encoding their CDs so they are more difficult to pirate...which is complete BS because they're no more difficult to pirate now than they were last year...but they are harder to install unless you have top of the line readers to handle all the encryption shite, like I do, but Liz doesn't.

I then attempted an install on Liz's PC over our LAN using my PC, and it worked...sort of...despite the fact that in the network neighborhood I could see the shared directory on Liz's PC, and that said directory contained a folder called AoE III, I could see that folder only on my PC. I mean it was on Liz's PC, but I couldn't see it using her PC, I could only see it using my PC. WTF? So Liz calls my bro-in-law to ask him for help, but she calls my bro-in-law by mistake, as in she meant to call my older BIL but called the younger BIL instead. While I was chatting to him I copied the AoE III folder from my PC to Liz's PC over our LAN. Not installed, copied. Liz popped in the CD, and instead of getting an Install prompt, she got a Play prompt. That was good, but another WTF? moment.

So she plays AoE III for a little while, and she's enjoying it...but it's awfully slow...coz she doesn't have a dedicated video card...she has an onboard video card using 64 of her 512Mb of PC2700 DDR Memory, which is enough to run the game...it's enough to run the game. Liz got a little annoyed. Frustrated even. Some might say "Pissed."

I was playing World of Warcraft (as I do every evening) and I don't know what came over me, but I voluntarily gave up my PC so Liz could play her new game. No, she didn't ask me if she could kick me off, I offered my PC to her. She was so pissed at first that she didn't want it, but the desire to actually play the game (not just run it, get the difference?) was too strong, and she agreed.

Tomorrow, we get her a BFG4000 video card...from Best Buy...or maybe I'll see what CompUSA have...although we have a 12% discount coupon at Best Buy...I think BB is gonna get our business...again.