Raining Effect

I'm trying to simulate rain with particles, but the effect looks more like snow...

Special effects have never really been my strong point you see lol

Could anyone give me some pointers?

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/4/1796632/tutorial/rain.cap

...and yes I've seen the almighty rain demo

Here's one. Apart from some tweaked parameters, using a line texture instead of a spot texture makes a big difference.

Wow that's perfect! Good idea going with lines, me feel so dum!

Thanks again Ashely! Bless you!!