I have Win 7 Home Premium installed on my 3 month old computer, and through work I can get Win 7 ultimate (via download) for a mere $9.95 upgrade.

I know I could probably find the info on MS's website, but what are the major differences?  How does an upgrade work?  Would it "unlock" the additional functions in Ultimate, or would I have to do a complete re-install? 

The new PC did come with a Win 7 disc (from MS, too!) so I would effectively freeing up its license for another PC.

This isn't a FH2 problem per se, nor is it a gaming issue.

I've pretty much been an Nvidia GPU "guy" since my good old 4600ti that I got to play MOHAA back in 2002.  Nothing against ATI per se, but I seem to be having an issue.

There are tons of links for people that seem to be having trouble with scaling issues with ATI cards and Win 7, but my problem is a little different.

For whatever reason, my PC doesn't keep the scaling at 0%.  In other words, I have black bars around the edge of the screen when I first boot up the PC.  No problem, I go in and check the settings -- it usually is at 0% but once I move the slider bar down and then back up...it fixes itself, temporarily.  If it goes into sleep mode, the bars come back.  If I launch a game, it will often (but not always) put the bars back.

Most of the ATI/Win 7 scaling problems have people with the issue as they enter games -- but my problem happens after each reboot.  It just doesn't seem to "hold" the setting, even though the slider says it does.

I have a 23" Asus monitor with a native resolution of 1920x1080 and a 5670 HD 1GB GPU, running on Win 7 Home Premium.

I just finished reading the memoir of the French Foreign Legion's only female member, Susan Travers.  An interesting read with a great perspective on the war and the battle of Bir Hakeim. 

Anyway, her main role was as a driver to Colonel and then General Koenig.  She makes mention of driving something called a Ford Utility -- but I haven't been able to find out exactly what this is.

The Free French and Legion forces used British and later American equipment, according to her memoir.  Does anyone have any idea what a Ford Utility was?

Thanks.

I'm reading an interesting alternative history novel titled "Light as a Feather" or known in newer versions as "Death is as Light as a Feather."  It's about the U.S. invasion of Japan, if the atomic bombs weren't used.

The author talks a great deal about Sherman tanks doing this and that, but I would think by late 1945/ early 1946 Pershings would be part of the equation in the Pacific. 

I'm curious -- were Pershings in Okinawa or other late Pacific theater battles?

So I built my current gaming PC in 2004.  It's been upgraded and upgraded, and everytime I get to the point where I need to move up to a PCI express motherboard, I notice that there is a new high end GPU for AGP.

I currently play only FH2, FH1, and have TF2 & RO ready to roll at a moment's notice.

I currently have an AMD 64 3200+ with 1.5 GB of PC3200 RAM, a XFX 7800GS, and Win XP Pro.  I get great frame rates on vanilla BF2, TF2 and of course FH1.   FH2 gets down in the teens for indoor battles/intense firefights.

Is it, in your honest opinions, worth it to upgrade to something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161284

Perhaps with another 512MB of RAM (my board will only support 2GB at 800mHz)?

I've got plenty of power for that card, but I'm worried about CPU bottlenecking.  Or would that only be a problem with newer games?  I don't envision getting many newer more intensive games, at least for the time being.

I did a very rudimentary search on this, so my apologies if I missed a previous post.

I seem to get this error after clicking on a topic in forums, sometimes more than once a session:

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It happens on several different computers, FWIW.

I was a big fan of the five Close Combat games that came out in the mid-to-late 1990s and still play the later ones from time to time.  The series has a storied history that began with a small game developer with Microsoft as a distributor and ended with Mattel/SSI distributing the last game.

It was unique because it incorporated a morale system where the more seasoned your troops were, the better they would react under fire, take orders etc.  The series was based on the old Avalon Hill board game "Squad Leader."

The other cool feature is that the games are all very moddable, and the developers encouraged these mods.

Fast forward to the present day and many of these modders and community members revived the games and updated them to work well with XP/Vista and expanded many of the features.

Close Combat: Cross of Iron, the first re-release covers the Eastern Front 1941-45.
Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein is obviously the Battle of the Bulge
Close Combat: The Longest Day is duh Normandy invasion, was released a few weeks ago.

Rumors have it that they are working on a re-release of my favorite of the series:  Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far.

It can be played head-to-head multiplayer -- I remember the good ol' days of playing with dial-up and having my younger sister pickup the phone in the middle of a game, lol.  But it's tough without a dedicated matchup service.  Gamespy works with the old games, and they have something called BattleHQ with the new games...but it's tough to get a head-to-head matchup.

Anyhoo, some screenies:


Strategic layer map for Longest Day.  The original game only covered Utah Beach area landings

German unit selection from Wacht am Rhein


Flares/explosion effects during night battles.  Interesting, but looks a little odd.


Strategic layer map for Wacht am Rhein


Airstrikes, mortar/arty barrages available once a game (depending on the time/date/weather)

They haven't done much to update the graphics other than to allow for widescreen.  But these games are a lot of fun...but I'm really trying to recruit new people to play them!  It's much better vs. humans!

Matrix Games is the current distributor...check them out!