I just spent last weekend building my friend a nice computer!

Specs:

AMD Athalon 64 3800+

1 Gig OCZ PC 4800 RAM

Nvidia 7800 GT

WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD

That is a very good computer.  And it only cost him 1,100 dollars.  The only problem was a got him a lightscribe drive with it.  Apparently these drives have firmware issues and don't work very well when they get in windows.  Actually, they didn't work at all, least ours didn't.  So I spent most of the weekend trying to figure out why the drive I got wasn't playing any disks.  I built the entire computer by the book and it always works for me.  I've built like 5 computers and they never had done this before.  I ended up taking the drive to a local computer shop only to have him tell me the drive was bad.  So anyway we bought a new one on the spot and it worked fine.  Now he's playing CSS with me and getting better fps than I do.  Oh well, at least I know someone in real life who plays CSS.

His video card came with CoD2 (Call of Duty 2.)  I've been looking at this game and now that he has it I think I'm going to pick it up.  Either way I need some PSP games, I think I'm going to get Socom.  It looks nice for a hand held game.  On the PC side it's as amazing as ever, playing 2 year-old games and having a blast still.  Oh but Ryan F. really needs to get BF2, it would look amazing on his 7800 GT.  He still needs an MX-518 though, so he should get that first.  Well Counter-Strike: Source is sweet, even when not playing competitively.

*Edit* The Radeon X1900 XTX is amazing!  ATI IS STILL KING!!

I really think that the gaming industry as a whole is going to continue to push forward, and eventually pass the movie and television industries.  The poll today on GameSpot said:

"Despite predictions of a gloomy 2005, NPD's numbers for the year were better than 2004's. What do you think 2006 holds in store?"

I chose the option that said the industry will keep moving forward and it'll be an exciting year for gaming.  And I do believe that it will be.  I mean, in March the best game that will ever come out is going to be released, TES4: Oblivion.  I don't have a 360, but I'm sure I'll be able to get one by the end of March.  That game should last me at least 500 hours, if not more.  Morrowind took two whole summers from me, and I loved every second of it.

As for PC gaming, some people think that it will die out as the newer consoles are released.  I don't think this at all.  In fact, I still know PC gaming leads the industry.  They said the next generation started with the Xbox360, look at games like Battlefield:2 and F.E.A.R.  The latter is one of the most amazing games I've ever played.  The graphics were the best ever and the game play couldn't have been more perfect.  Except, maybe, that it was too scary.  But hey, that was their point.

I've even been playing more Guild Wars lately.  That's a really fun RPG that you don't have to pay for to play monthly.  I be that if I had the money WoW would be better but GW is still killer fun.  I'm still trying to beat that.  All of these PC games are more lasting than most console games.  With the exception of Halo 2, that's still fun to play even after months.  This is also because they keep updating it. <-- Like PC games!!

...conquered.  Wow that was one amazing game.  I played it on hard and it took me so long because I played it in segments.  It is such a scary game, it's rediculous.  If you don't think F.E.A.R. is scary you have mental problems that need to be checked.  **SPOILER**  The ending is crazy.  The player character is actually the son of Alma who is the daughter Mr. Wade.  That's a pretty crazy plot for a game.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Best Game of 2005: Battlefield 2 -- This game is fun to play.  Most games get old but BF2's multiplayer is amazingly awesome.

Runner up: F.E.A.R. -- Amazing game but almost too scary for me to play.

an Xbox 360.  My brother's friend brought one over and he has Perfect Dark Zero and PGR3.  They are both amazing looking games, and they play nice too.  They are playing online w/ Perfect Dark right now, I wish he had 3 controllers lol.

Christmas time is here!!  I'm not getting much gaming stuff this year.  Just BF2:SF and a 1 gigabyte card for my PSP.  I hope to get GTA:LCS though, that'll be "t3h hotness."  Otherwise I'm getting a new case for my l33tsauce computer and that's about it.  Can't wait for my 1 gig card though.  That'll be so much nicer than 32 MB. 

CSS update was hot.  I don't really like the new models but everything seems to reg. better and the guns on the back are nice. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!

So my CSS team just got sponsored, by a radio station.  They are going to shoutcast our matches, w00t! 

Idle and support #paragoN on gamesurge.

Got my X850 Overclocked finally. Final clock is:

Core: 567

Mem: 601

I think I must have gotten a slow core.  I can't get it any higher and I've seen them at 590 with the standard cooling.  Oh well, I got my highest score on 3Dmark, 6553, w00t!

This shortage sucks.  On monday the 21st I went to walmart, kmart, ebgames, and the like to try and get a 360.  I know it wasn't smart to not preorder, but it seemed like a waste of $50 at the time.  Now I'm hearing it's going to not be until March '06 until they are availible in large quantities.  I do want one to play PGR3 though, it looks so good!

Looks sweet.  625 MHz...crazy.  It makes me want to OC my X850.  I think I'll do just that!