Yes, everything finally went right, and I'm happily typing away on a new computer. And I'm having a blast in the free copies of Far Cry 2 and Assassin's Creed that came with my parts (tomorrow, I'll get Team Fortress 2 at half-price).

I've switched back from Chrome to FireFox 3, since I can handle the resource-hog-ness of it. However, I have installed several plug-ins to make it more familiar.

Rehash of the parts:

[spoiler]
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
Intel Q9550
EVGA GTX 260 216 Core
4 GB OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066
Corsair 750TX
Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium
Western Digital Caviar 640 GB 7200 RPM
Lite-On DVD/CD Burner
Antec Twelve Hundred
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Razer Lycose
Razer Tarantula
Razer Goliathus
Steelseries Siberian Neckband
[/spoiler]

This is the life.

Click for full-size.

Logically, the trend follows for all aspects of the game, no?

:P

In all seriousness, though, I love this game. And the free Banjo-Kazooie code is also keeping me occupied. Rare continues to impress.

Another Black Friday come and gone.  I tend to shop online during it, but that doesn't mean I don't spend more than is responsible for the times.  Thus, my purchases:

Steelseries Siberia Neckband
I use $5 clip-on headphones.  I have for the last four years.  Now that my gaming computer is in varying stages of being built and being taken apart, I'm going to need a headset.  It's compatible with my computer, Xbox 360, and DS (mother of all evils, I don't have an MP3 player).  And it has a retractable headset, so I look less stupid ;).

D-Link DES-1105
Some of you may know that my home network is a nightmare.  This week, my evil Linksys hub finally died.  On the downside, I can currently have to switch wires between my 360 and my PC.  However, I get a switch now (switches are significantly better than hubs).

GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R
Because there aren't enough *'s in the world to censor my current thoughts about ASUS, I'll just say that this is going to be my new motherboard.

Clubhouse Games
For $20, I can't say no.  I've been meaning to get it for a while.

And while not on Black Friday, I did purchase Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts earlier in the week.

Today I finished building my new computer. However, my motherboard (ASUS Striker II Formula) has the dreaded "CPU INIT" problem, where the BIOS won't recognize my processor and it needs the newer version.  Not having spare CPU's lying around to pop in and get it to POST, I contacted them and am waiting for a response.

In the meantime, I'm staring at my pretty paperweight while they tell me to send it in...

Which I probably won't be doing.  I'm probably going to pick up a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R and enjoy stability at way less money (however, no SLI.  So be it; I wasn't really planning on it anyway).

My, how things change. As you may or may not know, I've decided to get a new computer. Since then, I've made the call to build it on my own. Sadly, I've ended up paying for this (plans fell through, so be it), but I'm more than able to support myself financially.

Parts are shipping now. And they can't get here fast enough.

Parts and Reasoning:

Motherboard: ASUS Striker II Formula
-I'm an ASUS man. And I've decided to go with nVidia. There's a good chance I'll go SLI in the future, hence the board.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
-Yes, quad. Not an E8500 or another Core 2 Duo, but a quad. For my image/video/sound editing while browsing and other hardware strenuous tasks at the same time. Also, since games are beginning to take advantage of more than two threads, I'm future-proofed (no discussing i7 chips, as DDR3 SDRAM and corresponding motherboards are too pricey).
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
-Having decided on nVidia, this is the way to go. Almost as powerful as the GTX 280 while way less money.
RAM: OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066 PC2 8500
-Solid brand, solid price. It's memory, not much to it.
PSU: Corsair 750TX
-It's a power supply (albeit a really good one). Powerful and should I go SLI, capable.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar 640GB 7200 RPM SATA
-I'm not even going to be witty about a hard drive.
Drive: LITE-ON 20x DVD Burner
-Cheap, CD, DVD, and a burner. Works for me.
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
-I'm currently running integrated audio. I can't wait to upgrade.
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred
-A behemoth. A behemoth that looks cool.
Monitor: ASUS VW222U
-1680x1050, 2ms. Sold.
Speakers: Logitech Z-4
-I always wanted a subwoofer. I haven't had one since the days of realsubwoofers.
Keyboard: Razer Lycosa
-A normal keyboard while still being a gaming keyboard. Time to bind Shift+Enter to my Enter key to make the GameSpot boards easier. I'm serious.
Mouse: Razer Salmosa
-I hold my mouse with my fingertips. Thus, a small, inexpensive, brand name 1800 DPI, 1000Hz mouse fits the bill.
Mouse Pad: Razer Goliathus Speed
-The surface the new computer's going on is terrible. And might as well stick with Razer.

Bonus Freebies:

Far Cry 2
Assassin's Creed
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
Peggle Extreme
T-shirts, stickers, and other trinkets

It will hopefully be assembled within two weeks.

There's nothing quite like a good trailer. And while it's no secret that I despise Halo 3's online (and think that the campaign was mediocre due to its length), I'm still excited for Halo 3: Recon.

To get me to buy it, it would need a longer campaign and...yeah, that's about it. I have low hopes for any form of multiplayer, if it comes with any.

But ODST's were always one of the cooler parts of the Haloverse, or at least that's what my time on Halo wikis has told me. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm still cautious. Halo 3 left me with a bad taste thanks to unbalanced online.

For those of you who haven't seen the massive spammage of DSi topics in the DS board (temporary sticky is surely imminent), Nintendo announced its DSi, a DS that's smaller and has bigger screens. And SD card support, an integrated web browser two cameras, music and image support, a game store, and other features worthy of an Internet interjection of choice (I'm going with BBQ).

It has no GBA slot and apparently slightly shorter battery life, but neither of these are too terrible for me, as I still have my GBA and battery life was never much of an issue for me.

The sheer insanity (and genius) of it all makes it a must-have for me...if the web browser is good. If it can take GameSpot and has tolerable speeds, sign me up. If not, I'll see what the Google Phone can do.

But Nintendo? You're still the undisputed king of handhelds for a reason.

Some of you may know I consider myself to be a hardware illiterate. I can fix my computer and I understand software, it's just I'm not good with hardware. This is demonstrated by my computer, which has less than half a gig of RAM.

However, it appears that I, somewhat unwittingly, will most likely be getting a new desktop (oh, the humanity!), so I decided to have a little fun, since, due to (legal) inexplicable reasons, this is free up to a certain point. As a result, I figured now is as any to get into PC gaming, so ladies and gentlemen, here is the rig I'm looking at getting. Not all of it is set in stone, but it looks that way.

Dell XPS 630 (with Red Bezel)
Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad-Core Processor (2.40 GHz)
Dual ATI Radeon HD3870 512 MB Video Cards
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card
4GB of Ram
500 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
Dell A252 30 Speakers
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Microsoft Sidewinder Mouse
ViewSonic VX2255wmb (1680x1050...monitors come this big?!)

Final price: obscene, to be blunt. I can't believe people spend this kind of money on a machine. Then again, I've never had one :P.

Because I'm hardware illiterate, any comments would help. I'm mainly going off my research and recommendations here. Oh, and I've checked; I believe it canrun Crysis.

1200 points goes a long way. I bought Castle Crashers, and am too busy playing it to type how awesome it is. Definitely a must-have.

And yes, I've changed my icon and signature. It's a test drive of sorts. I'm going to add a background to the icon and see about the sig. Comments appreciated.

Sig:

The future is coming.

Honestly, I have no idea how good it'll be. I don't know if I'll be blown away, but I'll have to put it through its paces on GameSpot. If it can do copy/paste and centering, it might just win. Sorry FireFox, but v3 just wasn't as good as 2. Besides, 2 had better themes :cry:.

But tomorrow I'm going to download it and hope for the best. Considering that Google does some very nice work, here's hoping!