Well, I love Guild Wars. Mostly because I'm a casual gamer and I can't justify $15 a month to only play 5-20 hours per month. (some months I don't even play at all :/ )

Guild Wars is less grind oriented than many other MMOs, and its play style is completely different. I actually prefer only being able to use 8 skills instead of having 30 or so at my disposal, as I feel it adds an extra layer of challenge. Most of the community is pretty friendly and willing to chat. (which was NOT the case when I played D&DO)

GW is much more direct and mission oriented than WoW. You can still grind in GW, it's just not as rewarding. Instead, the purpose really is to play through the campaign. GW also has a pretty good, consistent, and competetive PvP scene.

Yeah, I gotta say go for The Sims 2. (or Sims 1) The idea behind it, according to Will Wright (the creator), is that planning out your day-to-day life and chores and alloting enough time to do these things is a form of strategy. Go ahead and read GameSpot's review for The Sims 2, and then decide if it is something your wife might like. Heck, I'm a guy and I love the game! Creating your own town, building houses, decorating them, creating families... it can eat up a lot of time. You only control 1 family at a tim, though. Which is good. Controlling a family of 5 or 6 is a very hard task!

If Sims isn't to her liking, try the Civilization series. If your wife enjoys sci-fi stuff, maybe give Galatic Civilizations II a try. GalCiv II is a great strategy game and is very indepth.

If you haven't played Baldur's Gate II, do it. NOW! If you look around you can get the BGII collection that has Shadows of Amn and its expansion; Throne of Bhaal. Same deal with Baldur's Gate. There used to be a Baldur's Ultimate Collection that had BG1&2 plus expansions for both, but that collection (last I checked) is no longer sold in the US. (though, I have heard that it can still be found in the UK)

As for straight-up BioWare games, there really aren't that many. Mostly due to BioWare constantly creating new engines and focusing mainly on RPGs. (RPGs take a long time to make) BioWare has been around for a long time, but it really hasn't been until Neverwinter Nights that BW began to really grow in size and scope. 

Favorite BioWare games:

BGII (D&D game. Regarded by many as one of, if not THE best RPG of all time)

KotOR (Star Wars RPG. Play as a Jedi and choose light side or dark side. Incredibly fun with great dialog. (there is a mod that gives you Jedi powers right at the beginning of the game. Using this will cause the game to be very unbalanced and way too easy, but can be wickedly fun))

Neverwinter Nights (D&D RPG. Large multiplayer community and a toolset that allows for users to create their own adventures. Also has a Dungeon Master client to help facilitate multiplayer games. (tied with KotOR when you consider all the great SP modules out there. this game has a VERY long shelf life))

BG1 (D&D RPG. A great game. Much more "low level" oriented.)

Jade Empire (Asian themed world. Controls are simple and combat is uninspired, but has a solid storyline, good dialog, though it is a bit short)

Regarding NWN2, it's actually a pretty good game. It would have been nice if BW would have made it instead of Obsidian, but it is still a very solid game. The upcoming expansion will add a lot more content. NWN2 can be a bit of a system hog though. Especially with all of the shading options turned up to high.

I really can't wait for PC users to start playing 360 players. :) Finally, the age old question will be answered, "can PC gamers mop-up on console gamers?" IMO, the answer is, of course the PC players will kick the crap out of the consolers! But at least it will now be proven. ;)

I actually predict quite a bit of **** and moaning from the console gamers about this. my prediction; Consolers will revel in the chance to take on their PC counterparts. When they realize they can't compete, they'll demand MS remove PC-console competition.

If you have a wired 360 controller (bought one before I even had a 360, now it makes good use on the console as well) then it's mainly install the drivers which come in the CD and then plug and play, though there also many games where you only need to map the buttons. It's so easy, you can't go wrong with it.
bakalhau90

Technically, any game that can map buttons for a controller should work. GTA:SA works fine for me. Many newer games are making use of this feature and including rumble-pack (not sure what the MS equivelant is) features. Most games, IMO, play better with key and mouse, but some (such as GTA:SA, Winning Eleven, etc) really do need a controller. Others are either way (Oblivion and Battlefront II for example). So, whichever is more comfortable.

[QUOTE="nutcrackr"]do you mean repair or reinstall?W3dotCOM

Reinstall. I want to whipe it ans satart brand new. with no viruses either.

Yeah, what you're saying really needs to be clarified. If you reformatted and reinstalled, then any viruses will be gone. If you simply reinstalled (without formatting( ie: all old data is stil there)) then the viruses will still be present.

Just FYI, my personal virus busting regiment is Spybot Search & Destroy (free), AVG Anti-Virus (free edition), Lavasoft's Ad-Aware (free edition),  Spy Ware Doctor ($$$, but definitely worth it, and CCleaner. Thes progs should clean your entire system. Spy Ware Doctor is a great investment, too. It will find and remove viruses that many other spyware progs imsply will not find. Oh, and a good firewall is Comodo Personal Firewall. It's free, low on sys resources and very powerful.

Best of luck to you. 

Well, I'm sure the OP has already made, and I don't really care to argue the merits of Doom3. But I feel compelled to quellthis major mistruth.

1)

The original was about shooting stuff...the third one is about scaring you...so no....doom 1>doom 3 and i believe you can DL doom 1 legallyniko44

No, you cannot. The Doom franchise is still sold by id (or "ID", "iD", "Id") Software and is covered as an intellectual property (IP). Downloading Doom1 is just as illegal as downloading Doom3.

baserx, whilst I undertsand your sentiments, I disagree. You are correct in that it is your opinion, and your qualms with Doom3 are indeed valid; but I, personally, found the game to be quite fun. Pure corridor shoot 'em up action, which was exactly what I expected. IMO, too many people had such lofty goals for Doom3, that when it failed to meet such goals, it was regarded as horrible.

IMO, get Doom3. It's cheap, a fun game, well made, and delivers, IMO, a great Doom-based experience. Doom3 wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking either. Just solid corridor shooter fan-fare. (BTW, I seriously recommend AGAINST the duct tape mod. it really ruins a lot of the atmosphere, IMO)

Dude, you've never heard of VietNAM! Freaked Out Heroin Junkie Pissing Himself Hiding In The Jungle II. By far the best heroin junkie freakout-and-hide simulator of all time. VietNAM! FOHJPHHITH II has a few new advances over the first one. Namely the ability now crap yourself. The whimpering sounds are much better, and the hallucinations are much more realistic.

Also, I heard that a sequel in the best adventure game series of all time is coming in the works. Yep, Vietnam Draft Dodger 3 is coming out early '08. Rumor has it that they're using the CryTek 2.0 engine.

but in order for that to work my dvd drive would have to be able to read the disc right? :(

zero9167

Nope. You mount the disc image (usally an ISO image or an MDF/MDS image(similar to BIN/CUE)) using a virtual drive emulator, like Daemon Tools. As far as your computer knows, you have an actual disc in an actual drive.