1 - Can you switch out party members any time you want or do you only get a chance to when you discover them?

2 - I went and got Tali before talking to Garrus without knowing what was what - Can I still go get Garrus somewhere? I want both but prefer Garrus.

3 - Is worrying so much about classes and skills that important your first time through on normal difficulty? I want to kinda figure it out on my own without using websites and advice to plan everything to an exact blueprint. I'm also a Soldier and was wondering if those are boring or if I should put in sometech or biotics.

Halo 3 is a failure. It's such a miserable way to end one of my favorite series that i've spent so much time with. The game just isn't satisfying and everything feels like a step backward. It lags, it skips, the physics are totally jacked. You die without having any clue HOW you died..... Halo 2 filtered people by their skill levels and that made it fun because you coyld find a good game for yourself. In Halo 3 if you don't play all the time you'll never be able to stand up against the countless high ranks who apparently have no life. Even when winning, the game just isn't satisfying. I fall asleep during matchmaking constantly because it takes so long. You spend twice as long in matchmaking as you do actually PLAYING the game. It irritates me how stupid bungie is with this one, this is not a halo game, this is something else that's not as fun and you'll notice that as everyone on xbox live is moving to other games already while halo 2 on the xbox stayed solid for years.

COD4 however is perfect It's paced right, it's fun.... obvious things you'd think bungie would've thoought of or FIXED - like how after games it'll automatically pair everyone together for another round. Voila. No waiting 5 minutes for a matchmaking session. Simple, yet VERY effective.. and VERY obvious. More importantly.... when you die in COD4... you UNDESTAND why you died and have no problem admitting it. Halo 3 you never know, at least not for me. I've smashed people several times with a ghost and they haven't died (i have a video to prove it) and everyone had perfect ping. There will be times when I'll shoot at people and miss or somethin and I'LL even have to stop and say to the guy it -says- i killed "dude.. i didn't kill you, that wasn't right." Things like the physics are just totally.... messed up. It makes it worse that 1) they had it right in Halo 2 and now that they've made their game "superior" in halo 3 - it fails completely. 2) I seem to be the only one noticing this stuff. Does it only happen to me? Or is everyone under some spell? I'd like for one other person to just tell me what I'm seeing isn't real, and that Halo doesn't suck THAT bad.... Granted I still try to play it... I try REAL hard... Halo's awesome and the multiplayer brings people together.

But Halo 3 is pathetic. If only it could turn out like Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 - where they SAY it's going to be the last one in the series and close out the story.... then find a way to re-open it like with MGS4.

K i feel better now that I've spit on Halo 3 a little bit.

this will be the first time i've actually installed windows myself, and I know nothing about it. I was borrowing a hdd from another computer till i could afford to buy windows (so expensive) WHEN this house had a power surge and as far as I can tell, the hdd that had windows that i cloned to my new hdd, and my dvd drive, were fried. Or at least, something happened to them and I can't get windows to recognize them.

SO. I should be able to install a new dvd drive then install windows no problem right?

As for the other hard drive and the other computer, will I be able to use the backup i made when I first used the computer to reformat? It'll have a new dvd drive, a new hdd, more ram, and a gfx card that weren't there on the computer originally. The backup I speak of is the one that windows lets you create "only once" when you first power on your new computer.

Then finally, is there anything I need to know about the process of installing windows? Am I risking running into a serious problem by buying the OEM version? I just want the whole thing to go smoothly and NOT leave me without a working computer.

Oh yeah, I'm buying either vista premium or vista ultimate because if i'm going to buy a new windows, i might as well get the future and not another xp.

Well first when you sign into xbox live there's supposed to be a little square window that lists upcoming events or news or new downloads, etc. I've seen it because my brother's xbox does it. But My 360 has never shown that xbox live window, it only says "Xbox Live. Games. Entertainment. Movies. All the possibilities (somethin somethin) what are you waiting for?" It's irritating, I can't get it to show anythng. Also in the downloads area or wherever it is you download movies and demos and basically everything, it has a box of an animated xbox 360 swirl and I can press A on it like t's supposed to do sometihng, but it doesn't and it doesn't show me anything.

Second. Does anyone here have a Linksys BEFSR41 router that has gotten media sharing to work between their 360 and pc? I've spent more hours than i want to admit trying to get it working, I've tried every program even some i bet you've never heard of. I've opened ports, put up DMZ, everything. It just won't work.