LadyCrimson

I tend to think the same, although I do understand wanting to be able to at least play more recent games ( a few years old say) with an upgraded piece of gaming hardware, even if those older games didn't benefit from the higher res settings/graphical improvements. That desire is a big reason I stick with PC's, where you can still upgrade/patch/tweak old games to run for years and many O/S changes (or have multiple O/S installs or PCs if you want) etc. But when you're buying an enclosed unit that isn't upgradable/you have little to no control over its make-up, I think the expectation that it should have almost endless backwards compatibility starts to become a little unreasonable. That said, I also wouldn't disagree that Microsoft isn't really thinking about what gamers want, at this point. Actually, I have no idea what they're thinking, but that's because I still believe one is better off just connecting a PC to your big screen TV instead.

Ever use FRAPS? 8-10 minutes of 1080 game recording = 40-60GB. I hit that record button all the time. I don't always keep the resulting video (most of the time not) but the point is I hit that record key many many times during a single day's play session. Look, I'm not trying to devalue that SSD may be great for other people (especially maybe laptops?), depending how they use their computer. All I've ever been saying is that it is NOT a worthwhile benefit to me ... not yet, at their price per GB point. My husband bought one for one of his work computers. He then replaced it because it wasn't as fast as he wanted and he thought it might be defective. The new one was better, but he's still not that impressed and hasn't gone out to replace all his work stations with SSD. When I ask him, he basically says "the way you use computers, there's not much benefit." So I'm going with what he says + my impressions from what I've read. As to them making things go faster if I'm processing a video and trying to do something else, my solution has always been - even before SSD's - to have a 2nd computer (usually the old one leftover from after I build a new main rig) that I can surf the 'net with, play videos on, play some games on, etc. while the main PC is busy doing whatever. eg, no benefit ... to me. Edit: P.S. btw, game-wise, I have 120GB of games-only installed. Maybe more. 60-80GB SSD would not do, and if I install them on a non-SSD instead, what's the point. Unless the SSD still is game-beneficial in some way even if the games aren't installed there. Not sure on that point.

I loved my P4! Once. Unlike Bok, I don't still have mine. I kept it as a backup/storage for ages but it finally went to the dump's recycle center. As to the disc drive stuff from a month or so ago ... I do a lot of 50GB chunks video recording and editing. Or at least, I do sometimes. It goes in flurries. SSD would not last long. If they were cheap for the space, that'd be fine. On the O/S drive ... eh, don't really care. I still don't use/load up the PC in a way that makes programs slow to load, including turning it on first thing in the morning. People mention their long loading times for cold-Firefox or the O/S but doesn't seem to happen to me. Saving 20-30 seconds on the bootup isn't really important enough to justify the price per space.

I'm glad they have more work, I'm sure they could (almost) always use more work, here and there. I don't want Obsidian as a company to have a MMO focus, but sometimes, work is work, and if they have a team who enjoys MMO's and would be good for collaborating/lending a hand a bit on one, why not take advantage of that if the opportunity comes up. So I wish them luck...who knows what could come of it.

I saw the '74 Gatsby in highschool history class. Had a teacher who liked to show his students movies now and then. Not one of those movies I'd probably watch on my own but I liked it a fair amount when sitting in a classroom. It is really slow and 70's dated of course...and last time I viewed it was probably in my early 30's. I'd guess if I saw it now I'd probably get impatient with it. My (possible) issue with the new Gatsby, from what I've seen/read, is if they put too many time anachronisms in it. Like, I've read a few reviewers mention music not appropriate to the time period or something.

ST:Into Darkness - I don't know. The first half was fun/decent and the humor bits worked well. And of course Cumberbatch was awesome. But the 2nd half became ... well, they were trying for homage I guess, but it went too far and I was sitting there rolling my eyes at that point. Especially with the (spoilerspoilerspoiler) That said, it was fun. I might like it more on hindsight as well. That's what happened to me with the first new Trek film.

So then ... Xbox: CoD Sports TV? I didn't watch it or read the press notes, since I'm not interested, but I'm gathering from this thread that the announcement wasn't exactly ... thrilling.

I'm kind of bummed with the whole "only one paragon path" thing. I know they're going to add more, but are they going to give us a free respec, since we didn't have a choice? ...also, the Cleric paragon's feel largely designed for (obviously) party play...very heal-others focused. Not much there that seems useful to me soloing until you get to the lvl 50 one maybe. I haven't put any points in Paragon at all. I almost wish they'd allow one to continue putting points in Feats (Heroic?) instead, if one wishes. But the cleric does regen the action points fast, very early ... just spam that regen skill to heal instead of pots (even when not in a fight) and up it goes.

The theater we go to has this steep/long stairway to get to the theater area from the ticket buying spot. One small escalator in the middle. Like this. On the way up, I took the stairs, figuring my knees could use the work. That was fine, didn't bother me at all. On the way out, the escalator was too busy so I used the stairs. Big mistake. More than a few steps aren't part of my daily living, so I didn't realize just how bad my knees have become in the past year for going down ... I went slow but things were grinding together and I was limping back to the parking lot. That fever/virus in 2007 really messed up the knee/ankle joint sockets (even with str. exercise they still bug me/feel wobbly socket-wise) and it's getting worse I guess. So note to self: increase amount of leg strength exercises again, but no walking down stairs. Har. It's weird tho how a slope probably wouldn't have hurt as much as the stair motion did. As to the Trek movie ... still kinda sinking in. I'll have to think about it. Offhand I'd give it maybe a B rating, which means I didn't love it nor dislike it.

Part of a package in the mailbox. I finally tried making a male chr. the other day (all my chrs are female) just to see what those options were. I ended up making what is probably the thinnest human male Great Fighter evah. His sword might be too heavy for him to carry. But he looks good in his skivvies! ...they do need more chr. design and armor options tho. Everyone ends up looking essentially the same.

In an hour I shall be sitting in the theater watching Benedict Cumberbatch the new Star Trek movie. Better be at least entertaining. I think it will be. I'll bring my sunglasses in case of lens flare.

For the server shutdown/diamond exploit fiasco, everyone gets a cape! Of course, it takes up a jewelry slot, so no one is going to use it outside of fashion in town, but ... at least it's a cat-cape! (it's a joke or something - the small cat companions were part of the situation I guess ... people buying/giving away oodles of cats w/their illicit diamonds or something...)

The "One?" Xbox : Highlander. There can be only ONE!

All right ... I think this thread has devolved far enough, for long enough. Time for a time out.

Going to sleep "early" and then tomorrow late-morn trying to pry my spouse out of home-lurking and into the movie theater .. often a Herculean task these days. Wish me luck.

Hm, maybe something like this: Oingo Boingo - Boingo:Alive Peter Gabriel - his 3rd album, nicknamed Melt for the cover art. Beatles - Abbey Road Fleetwood Mac - Rumors New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu Talking Heads - Little Creatures (plus Sand in the Vaseline double best-of CD I have...) Moody Blues - A Question of Balance Barenaked Ladies - All Their Greatest Hits 1991-2001 ( ) ...uh...a 10th one would have to be the composite list of every other album I've listened to on repeat forever at some point in my life.

Yeah, I hear it gets a fair bit harder overall the higher lvl you get. Makes me wonder if I'll get to 60 with any chr. My highest is lvl35. Oddly I feel like the CLeric's attack speed has been getting slower and slower, with the same at-will spell. I'm not sure why. She was really fast casting it at first but now it's sluggish. Since I acquired more chr. slots I've now developed a habit of getting alts to level 10 and then spending time on the gateway with the professions/hiring a lot of extra mercs before leveling the chr. much. I like Leadership. I wonder how long it'd take to get a chr. to lvl 60 doing nothing but Leadership thingies. Probably forever, but it's funny that you could theoretically play that way.

I like that 2nd pic, Elerond. I have no clue how "practical" it would be but I like the combo of robe-ish garb with the torso armor. It looks nice.

Xbox:The Next Generation?

Meat, rawr! Anti-material rifle ... oddly, makes me think of Boone.

I like the fact there's no serious grinding in NWO (unless one really wants to). Usually the complaint about MMO's is there's too much grind. I also like that I can overlevel via the Foundry if I want, because I'm not a player with uber eye-finger-twitch skills in combat (the times I hit the wrong hotkey, don't dodge in time, etc. is epic! heh) and sometimes I need the advantage. I don't skip areas/quests either, at least the 1st time, I like to see/know everything even if over-leveled for it. Likely to skip a bit with other chrs. after that, tho.

I haven't read the book (as usual), and went into it knowing nothing but that the preview/ad made it look like some reincarnation romance/mystery/drama or something, so any confusion I have probably is largely related to that. I didn't catch what you mention and that does make it more interesting. The performances were great and it was interesting seeing the actors playing different people all throughout, with a few moments of drama being fairly affecting, but it was still confusing wondering what the heck all those stories had to do with each other/what the point was. I kept waiting for some bigger reveal about why these people/groups seemed to be always tossed together every time but got nothing. A little over my head philosophy wise or something. The chr. makeup (+CGI?) overall was great too ... except when they were trying to make some of the actors Asian. I understand they wanted to have actor continuity, but that did not work.

Yeah ... and the usual account bans etc. Not too many hours and probably won't affect me much if at all, think I quit around 4:30am... sucks for those that played all morning tho. Ah well. I remember when WoW did rollbacks now and then too. Player-set MMO/online economies always suck before too long, imo....even without exploits.

Yup. Probably not until after midnight, my time. Guess I'll take a nap. Or I could drive over to Cryptic Studios and gaze into their window with big sad game-nerd eyes.

Tried to watch some more episodes of Elementary. When I discovered what they did with the Moriarty chr, I turned it off. I'm all for equality and new modern interpretations and all, but if you're going to make Watson female, Moriarty female (and have Irene Adler = Moriarty (!) ), and Sherlock is a lusty dude who can fall in love, just make a new mystery show with new characters and stop calling him Sherlock Holmes. ....Breaking Bad isn't until end of summer or something. Wah. Also: aww, look how young he was...