When is it coming out? Seems like it's been in development for years.

Yeah, I got a Tempest Of Set on the PvP Tyranny server. But I wanted to experience the game world fully without being gang raped.

My mates mostly play weekends so that leaves me alone in the wider world the majority of the time. I wasn't enjoying the game under those conditions. Started an alt-chr in PvE with which I just hit 21 lvl.

Really enjoying going through the game without the constant specter of death PvP brought. Still playing my ToS on Tyranny but now I got a Dark Templar on PvE.

Can't fucking wait to trample motherfuckers with my Killer Rhino. Oh man.

Whoa, thats brilliant. My HoX character is lvl 21 now as well and I too am exploring that sand world too (which I can't remember the name of). I didn't realise you could get transports until I saw some dude on a horse, but that rhino is absurd!

There is also a War Mammoth that one can acquire in addition to War Horses and War Rhinos.

So, I'm sure this has been asked before, but does anyone here play Guild Wars? I must confess I dabble in my more bored summer hours.

That's the one where you don't have to pay a subscription fee right? Never played it. Any good?

Guild Wars is fun. I stopped playing when the gameplay got a bit thin for me. Somewhere around the second expansion, whatever it was called.

Good game. PVP and no fees are the main draw.

Pretty much. I've had it for a few years, and still manage to find it enjoyable. I do take random breaks for months at a time though. I thought to post this when I was playing the other night, and the radical thought of a Sound Opinions guild came into my mind, which I found highly amusing.

Got my pvp character to lvl 20 in 3 days (I have no job) and I've been enjoying it. You have to constantly have your wits about you otherwise someone's coming up behind you and you're a goner.

Only quibbles being complete lamers who are 10+ lvls above you who feel a need to ruin your questing with by squishing you as they run by. I need to team up with someone (I can't get tyranny server because I'm in Europe btw).

Yeah, but here is the rub on AoC; a bunch of lower level characters can quickly and easily take out dudes higher in level than the sum total of the party.

Definitely need to apprentice with someone or at least have a mate watching your back. Assassins are evil motherfuckers.

Guys, if I get this in july will any of you still be low enough to chill w/ me around lvl 20?

No.

But Age Of Conan has an apprentice feature that allows higher level characters to train lower level characters. If a higher level mate accepts your apprenticeship, your low level character will automatically be brought up in level equal to the higher level player. You won't get the feats or perks as if you gained those levels naturally, but you will be able to survive and gain levels faster than if you were out there on your own. When an apprenticeship is terminated, you go back to your normal level but keep whatever levels you (and perks) you gained while being stewarded.

Age Of Conan's design wants you to form war bands, adventuring parties, guilds, et cetera- without the artifice of required raids and quests.

It's pretty awesome. You need never worry about your friends out leveling you.

Here is some more info; link.

Cool. This game looks great, I can't wait to get the cash for my new laptop.

Well I'm in Europe which uses a completely different set of servers unfortunately so I won't be able to play with you. But don't let that put you off, I havn't really made a proper 'friend' yet but I'm still enjoying the hell out if. Damo makes a great point about the apprenticeship feature as well.

Finally decided that I will cover E3 in Los Angeles next month. Going as a freelancer, so the flight/hotel costs are kind of ridiculous (thank god it's a tax write-off), but found out I should be able to not only make up the difference with my writing, but have a good shot at making a few bucks over the course of some hectic days.

The fact that it's less than two weeks after my big move to Chicago isn't great timing, but it's a pretty essential career move and will inform my work for the rest of the year.

I finally need to order some business cards. (Any recommendations?)

Can't find my Civ IV discs and I'm too lazy to pirate it so I have been kicking some Civ III ass lately. Also finally got that latest Zelda game for GameCube which I plan to indulge in after finishing The Witcher (anyone else play this game? A great single player RPG).

I played through The Witcher. It was terrific.

Initially I thought it shovelware. But the game was rather polished and inventive.

I am enjoying Half-Life 2

So apparently a great side benefit of Wii Fit is that videos of hot chicks doing Wii Fit are showing up on the net. I've seen a couple over at break.com and apparently there is a good one at playboy, too. Ha!

So I don't post in this thread much, but I just saw that Rock Band is coming to the Wii. So, should I get it taking into account these factors: (1) I'm never gonna form a band with friends or do any of that stuff; and (2) I won't be singing?

I guess that pretty much just leaves the drums, which don't look like that much fun based on the rock band displays I've seen at Best Buy.

I'm waiting for Guitar Hero IV which will have drums and vocals.

Only about an hour into Zelda: Twilight Princess and I'm enjoying the game so far but I can't believe how spoiled I've been by voice acting in video games. To have to read again - the agony! Without voices, the game seems oddly silent.

I didn't mind the lack of voices but the cherubic faces on most of the people gave me the willies. They all look like inflated babies. Still a fun game though.

Can't believe how solid this is. They really nailed it, though I'd still rather play the console games (well, Rock Band).

Playing Secret Agent Clank, Space Invaders Extreme, and Arkanoid DS for various articles.

Can't believe Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is selling for $50-60 on eBay. Absolutely mindblowing. I'm tempted to part with mine.

It took me awhile (and 82 hours), but I finally beat GTAIV last week, and then took a break, and now I am tasked to complete the few games that I hadn't completed when GTAIV abruptly made me quit playing all of them. First up, the last disc of Lost Odyssey. Then, Assassin's Creed, Okami, and maybe Ico. Since I probably won't be playing that much, those will probably hold me over until August... when the deluge begins.

I have to remember to pick up Persona 3 FES somewhere in there, too, just so I know I have a copy before it's worth a gazillion dollars.

i played and enjoyed the new mario kart for a few hours last night but never really got to a point where i felt comfortable playing with the wheel. i still prefer the gamecube controller for most multi-player games.

I'm alternating between The Witcher (great) and Mass Effect (not so great) for first time play-throughs. Replaying Planescape: Torment (masterpiece) with the absolutely beautiful widescreen mod installed.

And I'm always playing Team Fortress 2. Just got my Pyro unlockables. Woot.

Heh. I just played through all the Bioware 2.9ed games about a month or so ago. Baldur's Gate -> ToSC -> BGII -> ToB w/ BGTuTu installed and a bunch of high quality mods.

I followed it up with quick play sessions of Icewind Dale I & II; much better than I remembered. And finally, epic late night session of Planescape:Torment.

I don't know if RPGs can ever get better than those games.

Sold COD4, Mass Effect, and Ninja Gaiden II today to put towards Rock Band. The allure of the Red Album DLC tracks finally got me off the fence about dropping $170 on a goddamn video game of plastic instruments.

I just played some of this EVE-Online trial. Still in the noob stage, but my overall impression is "cool concept, cool place, still kind of boring and the attack system is tarded".

I played Eve for a while. It takes an absolute age to get going in that game with a lot of flying solo. I just felt that the game took up way to much time to achieve anything and thus packed it in after a month.

Hugely complex game though, just wasn't for me.

That's a good decision. However, you may soon find the Red Album's offerings to be only mildly amusing compared to all the other great stuff the game has to offer. In fact, "Say It Ain't So" trumps all those, just on a Rock Band basis.

Yeah, me and my Buddy did Say It Ain't So three times last night. Flip-flopped guitar/bass, and then once I sang. I am embarassed to say that I hit 100% on medium difficulty vocals my first time through, and I actually had a moment of pride. I just ran down the list of all DLC over on Wikipedia. My God. There is so much shit I'm going to blow dough on tonight. I haven't even set the drums up yet.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

I know it's old as hell, but it's still damn fun.

yea i don't see the input being worth the return so i'm not goin back

Got AoC yet? Or did you say you were waiting to get a new laptop?

waiting on the laptop, which might be a while because my parents are retarded and i need to teach them why dell, hp, apple, etc are horrible purchases especially since i'm on a budget.
plus my dad wants to see what his company offers via discounts/financing etc.

i mean dell is pretty much a horrible choice, no matter the budget.

of course, but my parents don't know a thing about computers so my only real way to convince them that dell etc are shit is the fiscal advantage of buying from an ODM like asus

i have to disagree. for a long time they were utter shit, but recently dell has made a comeback. last christmas i got this:

Vostro 1400 - Intel® Core蒂 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2
Unit Price: $1,127.00
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $1,127.00

-- Vostro 1400 --
-- Intel® Core蒂 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
-- [223-1214]
-----------------------
-- LCD Panel --
-- 14.1 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife蒂
-- [320-5565]
-----------------------
-- Memory --
-- 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
-- [311-7287]
-----------------------
-- Video Cards --
-- 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce蒂 8400M GS
-- [320-5563]
-----------------------
-- Hard Drive --
-- 120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
-- [341-4903]
-----------------------
-- Operating System --
-- Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2
-- [420-7291]
-- [420-7611]
-- [420-7658]
-----------------------
-- Integrated NIC and Modem --
-- Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
-- [430-0493]
-----------------------
-- Optical Drive --
-- 8X CD/DVD+RW Read and Burn CD and DVD
-- [313-5521]
-----------------------
-- Sound Card --
-- Integrated High Definition Audio
-- [313-4783]
-----------------------
-- Wireless Networking Cards --
-- Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Wi-Fi Mini Card
-- [430-2442]
-----------------------
-- Primary Battery --
-- 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
-- [312-0557]
-----------------------



-- With this option, PC ships with no preinstalled malware protection
- $0.00

-- Save $384 on Select Vostro 1400 systems through Dell Small Business
- $384.00

Subtotal: $743.00
IVA: --
Shipping and Handling: $19.99

Import Fee: --

Shipping Discount: -$19.99

Total: $789.45



i wanted it preloaded with ubuntu as dell sells many of its computers now, but all the ubuntu models had ati video cards, and nvidia makes better linux drivers, so i got this one and installed ubuntu on it as soon as i got it. (note: since then, linux ati drivers have come a long way).
not bad for under $800. i love it. i even use it for LANing, the video card can handle all but the newest, most graphically intense games, and i dont really play those. the irony here is that it has the power of a gaming laptop, but it is from their business-class line, which are much cheaper than the gaming class line.

Christ, I don't even want to think about how much I've sank into Rock Band DLC.

Anyone playing Space Invaders Extreme, or Arkanoid DS? I haven't played my DS this much since EBA. I'm currently the 11th best Arkanoid player in the world according to the online leaderboards, and the 636th best player on SPE. I'm working on getting into the top 100 at least by this weekend.

yeah, dellienware's gaming line is completely stupid, ridiculously overpriced parts (they must make at least $100 profit off each component, if not more!) and usually piss-poor build quality (alienware's premier 15" line shipped with major heat issues that were so bad people's chasis cracked). some of their smaller stuff is OK, but I'm looking for a 15" or 17" with decent stuff in it. might get an asus 15" m70 or 17" g2sg. I think my max budget is $2000 from my parents if I get 1 pc for 4 years or $1200 if I get a laptop for 2-3 years and replace.

i'm just wondering if the 17" would be too difficult to carry around campus. it comes w/ a sturdy-looking backpack, but the 17" weighs in at a touch under 10lbs compared to 6.5lbs for the 15". I don't think it will be a big difference, though. Plus, I anticipate having to buy another laptop for graduate school, meaning one for the first 4years and then one for grad school would be better.

Game-wise, I'll probably just play a few this summer (mass effect, age of conan, maybe bioshock or assassin's creed) and then hang up gaming during school besides picking up starcraft2 once in a while. I haven't been on the cutting edge of gaming for a long time, so i'll probably spend years catching up the "great games" of the past 4-5 years, especially on a ps2 emulator.

Kid Icarus Wii is definitely coming.

I loved Diablo but I didn't play Diablo II for more than a few hours back when it was released. I was disappointed that the atmosphere of the first game wasn't carried over and I quickly grew bored. After seeing the very beautiful and badass Diablo III gameplay footage, however, I developed a hankering to play II. So that's what I'm doing right now. Diablo II plus the expansion. I'm playing an Assassin.

Oh my fucking God, Diablo 3.

Yep, was just looking at the exact same thing just then. It looks amazing, as does Starcraft II.

PC gaming has got a very exciting rest of the year. Isn't Fallout 3 due this year as well?

fuck yea diablo iii. i was looking at the site earlier today, it looks wicked. it basically going to be like guild wars quest part in the sense of an MMO w/o subscription costs?

Exactly what you'd expect it to be. Playing it for an article, otherwise the $60 price tag is well outside what I'd pay for the amount of content here. $40 is fair.

That looks fucking awful. Now, Aerosmith is on my short list of least favorite bands ever so that enters into it. But even the non-Aerosmith tracks don't do a lot for me. Hell, the Joe Perry solo tracks might as well be Aerosmith tracks in their own right. A blatant cash-grab like the "Rocks the 80's" pack on the PS2, just to stem the tide until a reboot of the series with World Tour. Loved GH3, which was my first introduction to the franchise, but this is very very poor.

No, wait a sec, they actually did a very good job on this one. It's nowhere near as tacky as the 80s one (which was damn fun too), the venues are all different, there's an expanded selection of guitar models, there are cool little twists with the band performances, and it looks like they expanded the whole motion-capture thing. The only bad Aerosmith song is that recent one, "Beyond Beautiful" I think it's called, but the rest are great fun, with lots of 70s material ("Seasons of Wither" and "Lord of the Thighs" would have been cool to have though). "Mama Kin" is a blast. And "Rag Doll", surprisingly fun. And their updated covers actually sound solid, too. Of the non-Aerosmith songs, the only ones I disliked were the Kravitz and STP, only because I can't stand either in the first place.

I paid $50 CDN for it, and I'm more than happy.