Pookiablo

Man's gotta point - fuck things like lamp and noticeboard - you'll get one of those things - it's like a given. And dressing gowns are for losers - if you're caught wearing pjs (as a bloke), you will be ridiculed as one of my sheltered flat mates was. Boxers are FTW. Agree with Ashley about the apron, if you think you're gonna spill it down you then just stand back and let it fall on the floor.

Shame on you for merking the 80s film - it makes plenty of sense (in an unrealistic way). Plus who can fault Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron - fuckin' amazing!

Defo bring your own printer - it's a neccessity in my opinion. I got my printer for 5 quid thanks to a pricing error at WHsmith. Not too shabby. Otherwise, don't go overboard on stuff for your kitchen (unless it's already provided of course), as everyone is bound to bring 15 different tin openers etc. Are you staying at the residences on the Bulmershe Campus or the main one (Whiteknights) out of interest. One thing you might want to bring in abundance is tea towels as I seem to recall severely lacking these in first year - and a t-shirt you're wearing isn't always the best of substitute I found....

Well obviously I'm English so I speak that, but am also doing a degree in French and German, so I'm not too shabby at those. Not fluent yet, that will take years yet but when I lived in Germany and France I was able to communicate with people pretty well if I do say so myself! And I can understand most folk too! Learn languages people, everything thinks knowing English is enough and yes it probably is but if you know another language, your employment prospects increase by so much!

Whoa, this thread is starting to get too technical for simple folk like me!

Somebody give that man a medal!

I would say only when it's local - Online is one of my top ten worst gaming experiences ever. When it's local though it really does add another level to it - I think all the frantic action goes down well when you're in a room with 3 mates and it's not so serious. Online is more proving yourself to the world whilst doing your best to overcome the worst lag encountered in a game in the history of gaming. Hell, 32 player Return to Castle Wolfenstein on dial-up was smoother than Brawl.

Nice colour Suits you. And you have very pretty eyes! (Although I can only see one of them...)

Oh man that is so dark but so freakin' funny!

Wow, you're so right!

Probably Mario Kart - I had good fun with it in split screen and online is just utterly amazing - split screen multiplayer with my sis playing is just one of the funniest things ever! Brawl, offline and with 3 other decent folk is great. I find people who don't get it, don't enjoy it so it kinda dampens the experience. MK is just very accessible, and it's just good for everyone! Brawl is more for the hardcore, so when you do have 3 excellent players, it's certainly more epic than MK. But Brawl online is just the most dreadful thing in the world - I really hope the members of Nintendo who were responsible for it are taken outside and shot - they completely ruined it. Hence why MK gets my vote! Otherwise, Wii Sports - Bowling and TV Show King is a close runner-up!

Agreed, I think people also fail to see what the film's title is hinting at - the people are surrounded by folk they don't understand, with different cultures etc. so they latch onto each other because they simply get each other - mixes in well with my experiences of when I was living in France and Germany.

Phew, just as well I didn't say anything until after reading this message!

The Dark Knight Utterly amazing - it's easy to think that people get carried away with the hype but this film was just sheer win - best film of the year for me so far.

My loan covers rent and bills...just. I actually have to work to pay for my food lol. The amount seems to have gone up a bit this year

Well that's good, I'm glad you like it! I'm guessing you came for the Festival? In regards to the nightlife, out of the choice of Wetherspoons pubs, go for the Hope Tap on Friar Street as it's the best. Wherever else you choose to go is obviously dependent on what you like to do but I strongly recommend that you end your evenings out by going to the Purple Turtle - pretty much always free entry and open til about 5am every night (I think it's every night anyways). It's a funky little place! So yeah, hope you have a good time while you're here!

I'm assuming you're referring to me??? Yes, yes I do and well done on ya for choosing Reading, it fucking rocks! What are you coming here to study? Are you excited about coming? The university campus is great, I've been using their gym for the past month or so temporarily and it's pretty "lush". Plus, you're gonna love the nightlife here, it's pretty awesome! A win-win situation if you ask me!

Oooh, well danke schon, my day of awful essay writing just got quite a bit better! And I assumed that nightwolf was merely confirming my statement lol, next time I'll learn to read properly.... At the end of the day all us n-europe people are hawt.

Aye...but oh well! Least I got to stand next to Batman

Well I thought I should join in the "fun" and add my ugly mug to the boards seeing as I'm becoming more and more obsessed with these forums by the day (thanks n-europe and all you chaps and chapesses too, my essay is already a fail as a result....). Here's your standard creepy mugshot - had to get it taken for my French Navigo pass and like fuck I was going to pay €6 to go to one of those booths. It was taken a few months back but I more or less look the same as I do now. And here's me at the Japan Expo back in July with my friend Fred (the most awesome French Nintendo nerd I ever met!) paying our dues to the Dark Knight himself (no idea why he was at the Japan Expo though....).

Hmm I dunno....Sheffield's kinda far....not that you're not worth it or anything....wouldn't you rather just move south, we have things like TV and civilisation down here. Well, I'm sure I sounded like such the suitor just then! Argos one looks good although not too sure about the graphics. If you convince your parents to get you an Alienware system then you could pretty much do anything, like conquer Russia, so good luck! I remember I had enough trouble just convincing my Pop to let me buy my laptop with my own money....lol.

You know that Packard Bell iXtreme 9600 one from PC World looks pretty decent for the price. GS graphic cards usually come with power saving options if I'm not correct? Usually better for not overheating your comp etc, plus 768mb GPU is pretty sweet although I've no idea what the clock speed of it is! Now Nightwolf if only you'd marry me, then I'd be able to get you discount on the Argos computer as I work there! (Well will be starting there again next week after my little excursion abraod for the past 12 months....). If it helps, I do make a pretty mean sausage and bean casserole!

Nowt wrong with a Coors or Bud on a nice hot day! As for me, love the real ales but my all-time favourite drink is Guinness, but I do love Abbot, Best Bitter, Theakston's Old Peculier, London Pride, and pretty much all of the Bath ales. Other ales I like but only rarely have because they're not very often found near me are Landlord and Bellringer. If you haven't tried a Bath ale then you haven't lived in my opinion - if you like your ales strong go for Barnstormer but Gem, Wild Hare or Spa are pretty good standard ales. Best thing about Ales is that they're just so damn cheap at Spoons - 1.79 is such a bargain!!! Also, next time anyone's in Asda, go to the drinks section (not sure if it's actually stocked next to the beer, might be another aisle) and get yourself a Dragon Stout. It's absolutely divine and incredibly strong!

Moogle's comp is an excellent system for the price, and if you change the card for the radeon one like.....someone (sorry!) said, then it'd probs be better but it's not gonna make a humongous difference.

I'm assuming you're referring to the awesome rhymes you're slapping down on these forums with "Pookiablo" and "know"? If so, very impressive, you're gonna go far in life, I can sense it! Well I'm not particularly helpful as I bought a laptop, a Dell M1710 XPS one to be precise which is built specifically for gaming! The main reason why I bought it was because I wanted something that would last me throughout Uni and a short while after and so far it still runs as well as the day I got it! Other difference is that it was very expensive....but game wise it's absolutely godly! But I suggested Dell because despite all the people on the internet who claim that Dell suck and think they know it all, they're actually pretty good, plus in most cases quite cheap. Very good sales team - was in no way bombarded with unneccessary upgrades or insurance and even got a couple of phone calls afterwards just to check that everything was fine and dandy. So that would please your parents. Only thing I was thinking is that from what you've described, your course sounds like you're gonna need quite a powerful computer - correct me if I'm wrong though, as I don't know loads about these sorta things. With Dell, although you get good value, you're primarily paying for them to put the thing together - which is perfect for a n00b like me - but at the same time you're probably losing out on components. Whoever said that they use cheap components is talking out of their ass, that's only if you're buying a cheap business machine or something. My machine is full of all kinds of hot shit. Despite saying all that though, I've looked at the desktops on the Dell website and there's not really much special at the moment on there unless you're dishing out a fair wedge of cash. That or things like the RAM or GPU are a bit too low, whereas everything else is pretty acceptable. Do you have a monitor already? If so perhaps you could not get a new one and use the money saved to upgrade in another area? Otherwise you could try the Dell Outlet: http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?country=GBR&target=InventoryPage&lob_constraint=DIM There's some good machines on here - they're older models but they have higher quality parts and at lower prices - a decent "old" graphics card is better than a low end new one. Although that's bound to provoke some debate because the older cards won't be directx 10. If you're capable or have a friend who is, it may well be better just buying things separately and putting together yourself as you will save an absolute fortune and I assure you that you'll also get a pretty high-end PC for your cash. Otherwise you're gonna have to convince your parents to fork out a lot. Also, don't worry about upgrading later on so much, chances are you'll either make no upgrades or very minimal ones at least. It's a bit of a sticky situation really - the thing is, for the machine you're after, you probably do need to find a gaming PC specific website which will provide tailor-made PCs at decent prices - Dell has the XPS line but it don't come cheap! Also, do NOT buy anything from PC World, Currys or Comet - these machines are in no way designed for what you need them for and they are complete shite! They're just family computers - built for those who use a PC for the basics. My mate used to work at PC World and I'm sure he could tell you how crap their stuff can be.