Native Jovian

Here's a guide that does include Sandy Bridge processors (though their "budget box" uses an AMD processor instead). Since you don't need a new monitor, you might want to spend that money on some of the components from their "hot rod" instead. The article is pretty good about explaining the rationale for their choices and offering alternatives even if you're not super tech-savvy.

So that's why you've been bouncing between those games every five minutes on Steam. Personally, my opinion on ARGs has pretty accurately been summarized here... but the allure of time-constrained collectables calls to me none the less. I might have to look up how to get all that crap and do it just because.

*high five*

I was mostly going demo during that. Problem was that while I was killing the heavy and the scout, the sniper was killing me, and if I went to kill the sniper, the heavy and the scout were busy capping. Didn't help that on later maps, once the server filled up, the guy playing sniper was lagging like hell. He went demoknight and was using the headtaker, which already has absurd range; combine that with a little lag and suddenly you're being beheaded from halfway across the map. I would hit him with grenades while he was charging and he wouldn't flinch. I killed someone through him at least once; as in, I shot at him, the shot went through him, and the guy behind him died. And then the map switched to Thunder Mountain. It was somewhere during stage three that I ragequit.

Yeah, I just got more pissed off at TF2 than I have at anything in a really long time. It started with a 3v2 on Hightower where the other team went srs biznus with sniper, heavy, and scout. It only got worse from there. i mad, bro.

Huh, I've heard about this off and on for like a year, but didn't realize that it's actually airing soon. But hour and a half episodes? Holy crap, that's not an episode, that's a short movie. I hope to god that Dance with Dragons doesn't get delayed again. I've already started rereading the first four books (which I haven't in years). If it gets pushed back even farther, I will be sad. And being sad sucks.

This is the most terrifying thing I've seen in quite a while.

Medieval mode was fun. I wouldn't want to do it all the time, but I'd be up for making it a regular (once a month?) event. Rocking the huntsman was awesome. I was in the top three scorers for pretty much the entire time I was there, except for a few maps where there wasn't enough room to operate safely and demoknights kept slaughtering me. Still, good times. I also like the "see the MVPs from the losing team" mod. +1 would use again.

Because of

So apparently Steam is offering the "potato sack" bundle this weekend. It's a bunch of indie games that are bundled for 50% off. You also get a potato hat for TF2 if you buy it (or just have all 13 games on your steam account already). Games are: 1... 2... 3... KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby) AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity Amnesia: The Dark Descent AudioSurf BIT.TRIP BEAT Cogs Defense Grid: The Awakening Killing Floor RUSH Super Meat Boy The Ball The Wonderful End of the World Toki Tori Total price is $38.72 It also lists the "individual price" at $77.37 and the "package price" at $154.87, but I can't figure out what that actually means. I only recognize about two of three of these games (AudioSurf, whose concept doesn't really interest me; Killing Floor, which I played the demo for a while ago and didn't really think much of; and Super Meat Boy, which I've heard is really good but don't actually know anything else about. Anyone know anything about any of these games?

So what's the process for getting a reserved slot again? Seems like the server's always either completely empty or totally full, and having to wait five minutes to get in is a bummer.

That's got to be by your county. I live in Palm Beach and grocery stores definitely sell alcohol here. (Unless you meant "liquor", which isn't the same as "alcohol", and requires a separate license to sell.)

Ground pound. I keep it fucking classy up in here.

Sniper items kinda suck in general. The Huntsman and Jarate are both decent alternatives, but the Sydney Sleeper, Razorback, and Danger Shield are worthless. But thanks to that new fucking sword, I officially hate demos even more than spies now. I didn't even think that was possible.

I got up to 'u mad, bro?'. Strangely entertaining.

It's past the warranty date, even the extended RROD warranty; I missed it by a friggen month (ended Jan 2011). I talked to Microsoft about having them fix it -- it's $100 and would like 4-6 weeks. Since a brand new one is only $200 these days, I figured it wasn't that much of a difference. I haven't been able to find anything that talks about whether the new 360s are actually less RROD-prone than the older ones, though a lot of stuff points out that it should be. Since I'm the kind of guy who keeps his consoles forever (my SNES is hooked up right now, and my NES isn't only because I don't have enough ports on my TV), I'm totally willing to pay a extra $100 to get a console that will last. I did double (and triple, and quadruple) check to make sure it's really the "real" RROD, not any of the various "not actually as serious as you think" versions. As far as I can tell, it's the real thing. Anyway, thanks for the link, Sole Signal, I'll check it out. If it dies on me again, then at least I won't have wasted a lot of money on the project. And if it works, hey, good deal. edit -- ooooh, fixing it and trading it in sounds like a damned good idea. Sure, it's probably sort of a dick move, but Gamestop is sort of a dick company anyway. They don't actually check to see if you've cracked open the case or anything before they accept the trade-in? Because trying to slip them a semi-broken one and getting caught at it would kinda suck.

And I've decided that I want to try fixing it myself. If I completely fuck it up, no real loss anyway, as I'd probably have ended up buying one of the new versions of the 360 rather than repairing my old one anyway -- the new hardware supposedly runs a lot cooler and is a lot less likely to RROD. Of course, that's what they said about the version that I bought three years ago... Anyway, anyone ever tried it before? I've seen some guides and stuff for how to do it online, but I was wondering if anyone here had any personal experience with it.

How did a song from a game released in 2005 win a 2010 Grammy?

So when you first moved to Escapist, I tried to check your videos and got an error message, figured it was a temporary glitch, and forgot all about it. Except that I just tried it again and I still can't watch any of the videos, even after following all of the instructions on their help page. The fact that they even have a detailed "help, I can't see your videos!" page suggests to me that they're doing something wonky on their backend. And it means I can't see any of their crap. Bah.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/8/11/ Along the same lines: subtitles. OPTIONAL subtitles. A lot of games have them, but some don't, and it's really annoying when you can't adjust the voice volume separately AND can't turn subtitles on. While I'm thinking about it, a video option for whether you're using an HD TV or not (though I suppose that's really only an issue for console games). I've played games where some stuff (especially text) looked really terrible because it was designed with an HD TV in mind and I don't have one yet. It's especially doubleplus irritating when stuff like menu options are nigh-illegible because I haven't dropped a grand on a new TV.

I liked halc before it was cool

The only reason I can think for them to remake Halo 1 is to print some fucking money.

So that's why you just stood there while I Huntsman'd your sentry, then your dispenser, then you. My bad.

Did you find it somewhere at a decent price? Because I've been thinking about getting into it but I'm not willing to pay like $100 for all the expansions and crap.

I know, right? Basch or Ashe would have made much more sense as the main character.