Vivi22

At least it's cureable then.

Bethesda is good at many things. Character models and animation are rarely one of them.

Or if I don't like it it could just turn out to be gas. You never know. Honestly though, I can't see myself not liking it with other people saying it's cool. To be perfectly honest, I can't think of a single TF2 map on the server that I hate. Some are better suited for different teams and game sizes mind you while others are a little more versatile, but when you're in the sweet spot on any of them I have loads of fun.

Well for starters, most of their money comes from licensing games. If they can't license the games to be on their system, they don't get revenue on every copy sold and you don't get a system to begin with aside from the PC. Second, licensing helps insure at least some semblance of quality, and helps to avoid over saturating the market with poorly made titles. Yeah poorly made titles still come out, but not as many as if every kid with some basic programming knowledge decided he wanted to make a game. All that and what XZero said.

In that case, I vote we play it at least once whenever Meeting_Gman is on the server. Unless of course I hate it when I finally do play it.

Not too much. Just: Little Big Planet Resistance 2 Valkyria Chronicles and every multi-platform title worth owning from the last few months.

Did you find the only map you can get a consistent FPS out of then? I haven't played Downtown yet, but it sounds fun.

I trust you're kidding right? Because if you are the sarcasm wasn't well conveyed over the internet. On the off chance you aren't kidding, then yes, your computer should handle it just fine.

I have to wonder as well. Especially since there's always alt+F4 if you really need to end it that way for some reason. I guess it's just there to screw with people who don't know any better.

True that they did refine it and that was the trend when they handled GH as well, but I recall around the time RB originally came out they said that with DLC they wouldn't even do a sequel unless they could do something really new and innovative. I guess that all went out the window when they realized just how much money they were making though, the way things usually go. And I doubt they'd have to pass RB on to another developer unless MTV sells them off. I'm pretty sure losing GH had to do with Red Octane owning the rights to the name and being bought by Activision while MTV bought Harmonix. Even still, I doubt they would have made another game with the Guitar Hero title had it not happened what with their shift to a full band.

goal: drop to 205lbs. weight now: about 235lbs. or so. Time frame: I'll be a little bit more realistic this time around. I'd like to drop at least 10 lbs. by the end of November. This should be easily attainable for me as long as I stick with the workouts, but anything above this will just be icing on the cake I'm not allowed to eat. I'll look at where I am at the end of November and set another goal for December. I'm intent on making this go better for me than the summer session. I had too many things get in the way of my dropping the weight up until this point. Namely poor diet and stress while away on courses and a wrist injury when I moved back in August. I'm largely recovered now though, and I'm intent on channeling all of the pent up frustration into my work outs. I'll be doing at least some of my workouts with my fiancee which should help with the motivation, and we're going to focus on further improving our eating habits for the next few months. It'll be good to have someone to suffer with again. I'll be focusing on trying to run every other day, and on the off days working out with resistance bands since my wrist isn't 100% and I'm not confident in it's ability to handle free weights yet. Which brings me to some exercise advice I had, which is about working out with resistance bands: these things are awesome. I had read an article about using them in Men's Health in August but was still a little skeptical. As someone who is used to things like squatting more than my body weight, and hammering out pullups, I didn't really know how challenging they'd be, but also being a believer in the idea that if you're not getting a good workout, you need to try harder, I bought some regular old pilates resistance bands from wal-mart on Friday (there were three in the box; light, medium, and heavy). I tried them out on Saturday, and I'm still pretty sore today. You can use them to mimic a lot of traditional weight training exercises, or adapt them to other, more sports focused movements with the right resistance tubing/bands and set up. I circuit trained every exercise; 30 reps each with no rest in betweem, and some pushups and ab work thrown in as well. It was absolutely brutal and I felt dead by the end. Even had the, "I just worked out so hard I want to puke feeling." The best part is that they're highly portable, which is handy since I'll be out of town for most of November. Anyone looking for something they can use at home or on the road and easily scale to meet their fitness needs should grab some. I paid all of $14 for mine. I was a bit long winded there, but I guess I'm just excited that I can do something other than run finally.

Not trying to criticize your opinion here, but RB2 has me thinking Harmonix is risking falling into the same rut as GH. It doesn't really add that much over the original from what I've been hearing. It may improve some things, but they aren't exactly doing a lot to expand on the genre by releasing a full game when many tweaks could have simply been patched in. Then again, it was a combination of Rock Band and GH3 that killed the rythm game genre in it's current form for me, so I may be letting a little bit of bitter hatred colour my opinion. Can I just agree completely with this? I did 16 months in total of co-op terms with an accounting firm, and not only did I get a job with the firm when I graduated, I got to find out if I even liked the job, and was able to apply a lot of what I learned from actually working in my University accounting courses, and with my first two professional courses in the CA program. I know quite a few people who are going through the CA program with me now who never did co-op, and people who've done it in the past, but I do think it makes things much easier. Even if it did take me 5 years to graduate instead of 4.

Time was companies didn't give a crap if you had practical experience, would pluck you out of school, and provide the training to turn you into something useful. Then they started realizing their employees weren't sticking around long enough to make it worth their while so they don't do it anymore. You can blame a lack of loyalty among employees more than employers on this one. Not that I blame anyone who leaves for a better job, or better employer. Accounting is probably one of the few professional fields I know of where you not only get the proper training needed (thanks in part to a system that keeps you kind of stuck in one spot for as much as 3 years), but where the employer also expects that most of the people who get said training won't stick around more than a year after they get it.

Oh, I knew you were just poking some fun at me in a good humoured way. I also agree with you, do everything they ask you to and awesome shit happens. It's half the reason I manage to get away guilt free (mostly) to actually play some TF2 with you guys in the evenings, and occasionaly do things like buy a 22" monitor, or a brand spanken new snare drum without her giving me any grief. And there's also the sex.

Oh I realize that, but there were some where I got back stabbed in less time than it would take a spy to decloak after just checking behind me while on the bridge of 2fort. I'm pretty sure some of them were just spies diving off of the battlements a second after I turned away, but some of the backstabs had me truly perplexed as to where they came from. Granted it was a server with roll the dice and some other server side mods, so they could have been using something on that end I'm not overly familiar with to gain an advantage (I don't usually play on heavily modified servers).

I've just accepted what most guys have to, and that's that if they think they're in charge or that a relationship is actually an equal partnership, they're either idiots, or have no interest in ever having sex again.

Indeed, last night was a lot of fun. I've been playing as heavy a lot lately and it turns out I'm pretty good at heavy. I'm not sure how because I'm pretty sure I sucked a week ago, but I unlocked 20 achievements in two days and had a 3:1 k/d ratio on another server with some genuinely great players on it yesterday (I've never been backstabbed as effectively, or as often in the entire time TF2 has been out). I really enjoyed Well before I had to leave. Tons of back and forth caps going on before my fiancee came and told me to get to bed because it was 12:30 am and she had to work this morning.

Well, since he's asking for first hand experiences with the games he's considering, I wouldn't say this is just a list thread. Haven't played any in Hawkwing's list myself, but excellent choices on Nohbody's part with Orange Box and CoD4. I doubt one more person describing the Orange Box as the second coming matters that much, but Portal and Ep. 2 were amazing, and TF2 and CoD4 were two of the best online games I've played in years. The single player in CoD4 was also amazing, but the online was where it was at.

Checked them out last night. The free one on the PSN is black with blue lights on the front of the helmet. I think the one for purchase is the same as the one you can purchase on the 360. I find the idea of paying $3 for an item in the game with no real purpose other than a new colour scheme to be rather rediculous. The real shame is there are obviously enough people paying for crap like that that companies keep doing it. The limited time only suit for free is a nice idea though. Oddly enough, I can confirm that you don't need the level 5 suit in the game to get it. It just shows up in the store for free and can be used immediately. Kind of game breaking for anyone who uses it right away on a first playthrough. I suppose not that many people will do it though, either to keep the challenge there or because they'll get the game after the two week period is up.

Reminds me of playing on my old laptop. I was exceedingly happy when I finished building my desktop which can chew through TF2 like it was nothing. Oddly enough, despite a crappy framerate on that computer, I was a decent sniper way back with the pre-release beta, and was even a respectable CS:Source player with similar graphical performance. How I ever managed to headshot anything in retrospect is beyond me.

I haven't even looked at the downloadable content yet. Are those two suits available to download for free? I'd probably be willing to pay for things like Episodic content, but I won't part with my money for something as simple as a new suit or items. I guess I'm just spoiled by companies like Valve who give stuff like that for free.

I'm not trying to say he should go with a PC desktop over a Mac. That's a choice he'd have to make on his own based on the available software, his preference for an OS, and whatever else he wants to do with the computer. In fact, if you noticed, I outright said that if they wanted a laptop, a Macbook would be one of the best choices despite the price differential. My only problem was your pretty weak argument that he won't save money in the long run going with a PC desktop. If anything, based on the sole fact that he could use the savings to buy other gear to go with the PC, I find your argument doesn't hold any water. A Mac is going to be more expensive than a comparable or better spec desktop PC used for music. Period. The only way that extra expense makes sense is if he really wants to go with a Mac for what a Mac offers.

I'd be up for playing a remake of Avante anytime. It was easily in my top 3 favourite maps back in the days of TFC.

In the midst of trying to argue against my point, you actually end up agreeing with me (sort of)? He has a choice, he can spend $600 now and have a hard time selling his desktop in 4 or 5 years (although he could always do something like donate it to a program that gives refurbished computers to people who could really use them), or he can spend $1,200 now and only get half that back, at best, in 4 or 5 years. I'm not going to get into a lesson on the time value of money here, but he's better off with the $600 now. Particularly if there are any other things like a midi controller, audio interface, or software programs he wants to buy, if not for the fact that $600 in 4 years is worth less than $600 now. And on the laptop side of things, unless you need the portability, I wouldn't bother. There are a lot of models out there that work well for making music, but there are some (and this isn't limited to one manufacturer as far as I know; it depends on what model you get) that just aren't suitable for the job at all. It's a gamble, so if you do go the laptop route, either go with a macbook or do research and find out what laptop models are working for people and what ones aren't.

Considering you can build or even buy a reasonably good desktop for half the cost of a macbook (assuming you don't need a monitor, and even then, just add an extra $100-150), I don't think this point makes as much of a difference as you think it does.