Super-Duper Sombrero

So I've been planning on picking this game up for a while now, what with the keyboard and pro guitar and all. Been kinda concerned about whether or not to pick it up for the 360 or the Wii though. I've already got the controllers for the Wii, but it seems like the 360 may have better DLC or online play support. Anyone know of any major differences? I've looked around a bit, but haven't found anything too clear or reliable, and I don't relaly want to drop a load of money on something without doing a bit more research.

when atmuh is trolled also when punctuation is used

I'm lookin' at Torchlight, looks like it could be fun. No multiplayer is a huge turn-off, though. I know it says it plans to be multiplayer in the future, but Diablo 3 is also in the works. Sure is tempting at $5, though...

I can't stand Well. Something about it just really kills the fun for me, but I can't quite place it.

I'm down for tonight. When did the server names change (to BLU and RED)? Which one will be for scrimming?

I'd love to get in on the next scrim, if there's a slot available. I should be able to play, provided it's around the same time.

So I recently picked up a new headset (since my old one broke), and they seem to be working great. Problem is, the bass on them sounds really loud and unbalanced. Most likely balanced for heavy percussive sounds (gunshots, explosions) as it was marketed as a gaming headset. The model is a Plantronics Gamecom 377, and other than the sound balance, they work great. On the other hand, I'm not sure if these new ones are properly balanced and my old set just lacked quality bass. I'm not a hardcore audiophile, but I prefer my headphones not to come with a preset bass chug setting that makes everything else sound tinny. Is there any (relatively easy) way of testing the audio balance? Preferably without buying any expensive equipment. I'd like to find a simple process that I can just test by ear, but I suppose that might not be possible.

This is an achievement worth going for.

I really like the top one. It's simple, and the image is very clear and distinguishable. From far away (or very small), it's still very easy to see what it is. The text on it is a bit small, which can be difficult to read; the circular text pattern doesn't work well with the TF2 text. Also, the slogan "Reinterpreting the Frag Since 2008" doesn't really make sense to me. Being a circle on a rectangular (I assume) flag, there will be a lot of empty space around the main logo. The second one looks more like a coat of arms, and would probably fit better on a flag. I like the idea of having two teams on either side, but the emblem's colors in the middle seem like they would work better if they were reversed. Also, since it's a mirror image and has duplicates, I feel it doesn't show the full diversity of the different classes. I like the text (even though I'm not sure what it means), it works well with the emblem in the back. It's not real clear what the medic is doing; he seems to be just standing there. I like the positioning of the headphones and the class icons, but it looks a bit crowded. There seems to be quite a bit of detail work, which may not be visible from a distance. My vote is for the second, it seems to bear closer resemblance to an actual coat of arms, and the rectangular shape works better as a flag.

Excellent, I always thought this was annoying when trying to nominate a map, then having to scroll through 5 pages to find a map that isn't arena.

I read about that team building destroying bug on the steam forums a while ago. I'm pretty sure it involved a script that killed you and put you on the spectator team at the same time, but you would respawn anyway, and be able to kill anyone. Just so you know what to look for. Also, I haven't seen any of these custom maps to know whether they're at all good or not. Are they uploaded to the server, at least? I'd like to nominate one one of these days, maybe see it at least once. Also, someone might want to update the front page about the reserved slots, at least. Apparently there's still some confusion about that.

I got yelled at yesterday for dancing at Brushfire while he was trying to snipe on 2fort. Also, the first page could use an update to reflect current rotation and maps used. The info for donating is a bit misleading. Anyone know if the server keeps recordings of any kind? I know some game servers record demos, but I'm not sure if TF2 does. I'd love to get some recordings of RED so I can figure out what he's doing that kills everyone ever. Though to contribute to the current flame war, I actually have to say I agree with atmuh about most Valve maps. I find I enjoy them more than the customs. Perhaps it's because I'm not familiar with a lot of the customs quite yet, but I think it's easier to play on the default maps. It helps to alleviate some of the "Where did that pyro just come from" feeling, and makes it easier to place and spot sentries. For me, at least, but that's mostly because I'm terrible. Usually as a medic I just try to heal whoever needs it most, and sometimes I get quite a few points that way. If I end up on atmuh's team, though, I think I'll have to test the new mechanics for the two needle guns. I hear the default needle gun actually is competitive, now.

Zangief. I was playing through Street Fighter 4 to unlock all the characters, which, unfortunately, requires you to play as El Fuerte. This is bad enough as it is, as I'm terrible as him (and I'm convinced he's the worst character in the game). On top of that, his rival is ZANGIEF, the worst possible matchup in history. Zangief has about twice as much health as any other character, and does ridiculous amounts of damage. On top of that, nearly all his attacks other than the instant green nutshot rush are grabs, which are unblockable. Remember that I didn't know how to do Fuerte's belly flop or jump grab or anything that actually works, and you have two hours of "Heavyweight wrestler destroys malnourished Mexican man in what police are calling 'assisted suicide.'" Good times.

The whole "Humans are assholes" theme is quite common in science fiction, and pretty much any story where humans aren't the only characters (and even in some where they are). Lord of the Rings, for example. Humans failed to destroy the one ring and thus made things worse for everyone involved. This happens alot. He's a giant robot. He's allowed to be a dick. Giant robots do whatever they want, and if we get to watch, it's awesome. But yeah, I think his fighting on Earth is kinda dumb, considering they can pretty much go anywhere. Wasn't there an explanation that Earth had some sort of super-resource that only one side of the giant robots could use? I think they had a reason for being here, but I'm not certain.

It seems to me like it's a BIOS or mobo issue. I'm going to try re-flashing the BIOS first, but if it's no good then I'll see if I can't send it in for repairs under the warranty.

And here we go with more laptop issues. My favourite. Anyway, it turns out whenever I turn on my laptop from a cold boot it decides to bluescreen halfway through loading windows. Which is a problem. I thought it might be a corrupted version of windows, so I reinstalled it (Vista x64), but nothing changed. The bluesceen only occurs on a cold boot though, after I leave the laptop off for quite a while (overnight, for example). Also, the error message it shows is never the same. I'm not sure what the problem is, and testing it is kinda difficult as it reboots fine if it's been on at all recently. There have been a few similar problems after a cursory Google search, and some people seem to have fixed it by updating or re-flashing their BIOS. Unfortunately, Acer seems reluctant to part with any useful BIOS that I can use, so I don't really know what to do. A few of my friends seem to think it's a mobo issue, which is not something I want to mess around with. I'm hoping it's solvable without sending it in for maintenance. Any idea what would be causing this? I could just ignore it, since the only major consequence is that it takes longer to boot than normal, since it has to boot about 3-4 times from cold.

So I just got my new laptop, and after setting it up to my standards (uninstalling poopware, making it look like Win98) I fell onto the power management settings. I've heard that running a laptop that's plugged into the wall while the battery is still in can be a problem, draining the battery life and such, but I'd heard that several years ago. Is that still an issue (if it ever was), and should I take out the battery if I have it plugged in for extended periods of time?

Wow, prophet, I think you just saved me like ten hours of browsing pieces and parts. There's no way that CPU cooler will fit in my current case, so it looks like I'll be getting one of those, too. Too bad every case I've found has like a billion LEDs and neon tubes and stuff. I'm going ot miss my current beige rectangle. =( Everything you listed looks like it will work for me, and I might just throw it all into a cart and have it shipped on over to me. I'll probably go with mephisto's MB, as it seems to have better SLI support, which is something I may be interested in in the future. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

I intend to run Crysis/FarCry 2 at full with minimal slowdown. If possible, that is. I run dual-monitors, and I do like multitasking, which makes me think the quadcore may be justified. Thanks for the tip on the graphics card, I'll look into that. As for RAM, what should I look for? Is timing really that important, and what about the voltage? I once bought a graphics card upgrade only to fins it was the wrong interface type, and I want to avoid future occurrences of that. =/ I understand PCI-e 16x is the standard now, but what about CPU or RAM socket types? is there a certain type I should look for?

I've been looking to upgrade my computer for some time now, and I've just started browsing newegg. As I began my search through the processors and graphics card and whatnot, I was assaulted my various nonsensical jargon which is of no use to me. I've figured that OCR will have some hardware savvy people, and may be able to help me figure out what specs I should be looking for, is quad-core really worth it, etc. Since I will be using this computer primarily for gaming, I want a decent machine. I am, however, on about a $1500 budget (with some buffer zone), and I don't really want to spend my life savings on this. I've already got hard drives and a case (though the power supply could use an upgrade). I'm really looking for what the important stats are on the vital parts, and which companies are the best to buy from. Particularly the ATI v. GeForce and AMD v. Intel debates.

I've never seen any kind of weather pattern like that. Any idea what causes it?

Well, usually The Coop comes in at this point and names the game. He does seem to know everything about everything, ever.

The custom maps really destroy the server population. They're can be really fun, but when the server starts dwindling to non-regulars, and it switches to a custom map, everybody leaves. I think the rotation should be the basic default maps, but have the custom maps available via rockthevote. We'd still be able to play them, but it wouldn't clear out the server since the people who voted for it would play it, and it is a majority-wins vote.

Sweet. I was having some real problems with the "First No Harm" Achievement. Got all the Pyro weapons, though. The flaregun is lots of fun, and they buffed the standard flamethrower hardcore. Sometimes it's more fun to just run around throwing people everywhere.

I've had to fight several 2v2s WITH WARGLAIVES. Who put us up against those teams? It's not even a fair fight at that point, it's just sad. Half the time we fight full Vengeful teams, and the other half it's a resto druid/ MM hunter combo. Awesome. We're stuck at ~1700, can't seem to go above that...