Nolan

I'd kinda like a combination of US and EU art. I like the color and crispness of the US, but the rust blotches are similar to the old titles and movie, so like Retro Link said a possible nod.

Main difference between 15" and 17" is often the keypad and the resolution. Not really a large difference no. Core 2 Duo is gonna be the best bang for your buck, anything that is Core i7 is better but likely out of price range. AMD hasn't yet brought their mobile parts upto Athlon/Phenom II standards. You can probably get by with 3GB of RAM if you find something you really like at that spec. 512MB really isn't that important when it comes to a laptop, outside of a special expensive few the resolution won't get much higher than 720p, 1366x768, or 1440x900. At those resolution, you don't need a hugely large framebuffer, especially if you consider that the 4570 has a 64-bit memory bus. Basically, the memory bus isn't large enough to warrant that much RAM. That's the case for most Mobile GPUs. Card Readers are nice but pretty standard, as well as HDMI is getting fairly widespread as a feature. The HDMI is an output though, so no PS360 on the laptop screen. You could look into a gamebridge type adapter, but they're expensive and idk about reliability, but they're designed to take a console signal and send it through a PC and allow for video capture. McAfee is likely a limited trail unless it says otherwise, most Laptops do that with the different brands, but I find Avast or AVG to be better and free. Battery life is tricky, some manufacturers will test it by doing something like turning off everything that isn't necessary and waiting for the battery to die rather than running a program designed to keep it in use until the battery dies. Usually reviews will test this in a more accurate fashion. As for the Acer...I've actually heard good things about them, but most of the people here have said nothing but bad. Search the model number in google you'll likely find user and professional reviews that will have a more accurate idea of it than us. EDIT: Most of the software that comes pre-installed is bloatware and usually just slows down whatever it's installed on. Most users with some know how promptly get rid of it. Some things hardly come with any Bloatware though.

Well, I also had it run near 24/7 for some time, and forking out for replacement right away isn't necessarily needed, they replaced it once and I didn't bother to contact for a second replacement which they may or may not have done for free. Besides, the first set of RAM lasted about 8 months before it died. Not good I know, but not immediate, although the second set only lasted a month or two... Also of note would be that both sticks didn't die at once menaing I just removed the dead one(well, after I figured out which it was) and went on with 1GB instead of 3GB. Ahh well regardless. I'll just list what I think of as good brands to keep in mind and a list of UK hardware sites which have varying degrees of laptop diversity. Toshiba Asus Dell Lenovo Samsung MSI(Micro Star International) Sony HP http://www.overclockers.co.uk/* http://www.ebuyer.com/* http://www.scan.co.uk/* http://www.candccentral.co.uk/ http://www.tekheads.co.uk/ http://www.thecoolingshop.com/ http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/ http://www.misco.co.uk/ http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/ http://www.aria.co.uk/* http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/ http://www.cclonline.com/ I'm not URLing all of those, so c/p(nevermind, they automatically do it, yay). I put a star by the ones that I know are popular and oft used. All of them are user suggested though. If you want to do any gaming, make sure not to pick something with intergrated graphics, or just abandon the idea. Also of note is Laptop GPUs rarely receive driver updates, so with the help of a simple little program it's very easy to just make desktop drivers work on mobile GPUs.

I don't understand how you came to that conclusion. They have excellent customer service and great build quality, the only problem I've had stems from the sticks of Samsung RAM. I don't know if it's a common problem, and I may have contributed by not always allowing proper airflow like a desk does. Otherwise I've been nothing but happy with Toshiba and my Laptop. Other problems stem from accidents (cats knocking it down and breaking the screen) or Windows Vista which isn't an issue anymore with Win7 being shipped. Even some of their cheaper models have desktop audio quality with the Harmon/Kardon speakers. Most laptops are pretty bad in that regard. It's also got one of the best touchpads I've used before. The wireless is good enough to connect to a router in another house through a basement.

I'm pretty average, possibly even below average.

Possibly, but I cna't say how much or when. Ebay may be a good place to check for lower than average prices though.

Well, when you have to go into the same dame subway another 6 times with nary a difference, it will get a bit tedious. Still fun, but those subways are a low point.

I haven't watched anything really, but I'm betting in terms of skills and what you can do, there's alot more in Dragon Age.

DDR2 prices are rising to try and make a return on unsold stock as DDR3 is coming in and down on price. DDR was expensive to DDR2 as well.

I recommend Toshiba as I know their customer support is pretty good. Took all of 20 minutes to diagnose that my RAM had died and all of a week(give or take a few days) for the Laptop to ship out get fixed and be back. The build quality is also pretty nice, and they have a tough sleek finish that doesn't scratch easy (well mine does). If you do go Toshiba I would recommend changing out the RAM as the Samsung sticks they put in Died twice on me, and my OCZ have been great.

Sounding pretty nice. If you don't mind a bit of risk, it's possible to unlock the other cores on that 550, it's oddly easy to do as well. Although, the 785 chipset is fairly new and may not allow.

Woo, put one of my 4 horses to sleep about noon after 4 hours of walking the damn thing. Take my advice, never get horses they are terrible.

Dell are Dell, which automatically put some people off to them. I haven't exactly heard bad things about quality, but I don't exactly like them.

Toshiba has excellent build quality, and Gateways are decent. I've seen an MSI laptop before (MSI makes motherboards and GPUs) it seemed average build quality but the price was excellent for the hardware in it. In choosing graphics, just make sure they aren't intergrated and you'll likely be able to play most games, but you won't be playing them higher than medium or low unless they're pretty old. Better graphics disproportionately raises the price of a laptop. Also, take into account size and portability and battery life. A 17" screen is mighty nice, but it makes it harder to be lugging around.

Do you prefer a top down view of the action or a over the shoulder view?

Death Metal had a bean weapon (hardly a Katana), Dark Star had like a giant Beam Whip. Plus Henry, who actually did have a Beam Katana. A few random enemies had them but not that many considering the amount of them you slice through. Doesn't exactly take away from Travis's uniqueness. Especially if you think about the fact that his first Katana was won on an online Auction. Kinda makes Beam Katana not seem terribly rare.

I thought you were being incredibly sarcastic. I don't really have a desk or a way to take a picture of it. So I'll describe, ok now close your eyes and visualize. A Blue recliner with a mouse on the right arm and a wireless keyboard on my lap. That's my workspace, wonderful eh? To the right is a 10" tall 8" square table I made that my laptop sits on with a VGA cord going to the Monitor sitting on a fishtank stand. The 360 is below on the bottom shelf with HDMI and an ethernet cable going a whole 5" to a Ethernet hub that also connects to the laptop to bridge my wireless connection to me the 360 online. There's also some headphones lying around. Okay, you can open your eyes now.

Try the Character Creator to gauge...um rendering a single character over a black background....hmm not much of a stress test. The console controls are more action-y with the camera pulled in tight Mass Effect style and fewer enemies on screen, while the PC gives the classic Baldur's Gate high isometric camera angle and more enemies on screen. Consoles couldn't really handle it:cry: Sad cause my laptop probably can't as well.

Yea I know about Gog, but it was cheaper on amazon, plus I didn't know about the no CD drive things. Ouch. You could always look into a external USB drive, otherwise your out of luck I don't think they're on any Digital service yet. Well, yea not an RPG and it's been a while but it's still different. The majority of people only know them as an RPG dev, and I shudder to think how many only know them from Kotor or just ME. Maybe they're going through a cycle, they Medieval type things then MDK and went on to Star Wars and Space Opera, Now they're doing 3 of those perhaps a return to MDK is next.

Indeed, this thread could easily turn into gushing about the grand age of wRPGs Baldurs Gate Planescape Fallout Icewind Dale. So much awesome in them. I don't know if anyone else played with teh Character creator released on PC or not, but I did. Looking through the skills even if it isn't officially DnD it might as well be. The skills are pretty well ripped from the system, which is a good thing. Amazon £13.99 I also recommend Fallout Collection £3.79 and Icewind Dale £13.10 I am a bit perturbed at only seeing Atari on those BG and ID boxes though...They have the DnD license, but those games were made and (originally) published by Black Isle Bioware and Interplay. Near as I can tell the series didn't change hands to Atari just the license. Well, how is this for different. Bioware made the MDK series.

A local church won the halloween Scarecrow contest for businesses. Church, participating in a pagan contest for buisnesses. >_> I'm probably not doing anything at all, I know of a few parties but eh. I think my buddy is going to go as Naked Snake (not as indecent as it sounds.)

Unsurprisingly the 27" iMac has the ATI 4850 in it. Apple was reported as buying up the extra stock from Newegg.

Tried this a while back, but I was either too close or too far for it to work correctly. My eyes just kept refocusing, odd since I can cross them normally and just keep them crossed for quite some time.

Their 360's

Technically you're not allowed to illegally download anywhere, and P2P isn't actually illegal. It's just often used for illegal activities and eats up bandwidth and isn't allowed.