I went through my game boxes and noticed I bought Civilization IV: Complete Edition twice. I need to make a list of what I own.

It's true what people say. If it's on console, it's consolized.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1012/portals.jpg

I just accidentally nicked my driver's side door while opening it. It's hard to find without a flashlight and knowing where the impact occurred but it's there. It's nothing compared to the crater some mysterious truck left in my coworker's rear door but still, I just bought this thing 9 days ago. :evil:

I just accidentally nicked my driver's side door while opening it. It's hard to find without a flashlight and knowing where the impact occurred but it's there. It's nothing compared to the crater some mysterious truck left in my coworker's rear door but still, I just bought this thing 9 days ago. :evil:

ABIT ip35-v $88.25
SONY 1.44mb black floppy drive $4.99
Discount -$10.00
Shipping & Handling $10.15

Total $93.39

INTEL|C2D E6750 2.66G 65N 4M $189.99
1Gx2|WINTEC 3AXT8500C5-2048K $79.99
SAMSUNG|SH-S203N SATA $35.99

Total $305.97

RAIDMAX|ATX-918WB $59.99
Shipping and Handling $15.56

Total $75.55

Subtotal $474.91

ABIT ip35-v rebate -$30.00
RAIDMAX|ATX-918WB rebate -$59.99

Total without video card $384.92

XFX PVT88PYDD4 Geforce 8800 GT $299.99
Shipping $7.67
Total $307.66

Final total $692.58

It's alittle more than what I really wanted to spend but still reasonable. I'm going to use one of my half-dozen hard drives I have to build this rig and swap out my current 485W PSU for a cheaper 430W I just bought for $20 after rebate. If I had just stuck to upgrading the guts instead of building a complete box, then it would have just been the cost of the CPU, mobo, RAM, and video card. That would have come out to be around $645.29.

EDIT: I finally managed to snag myself a 8800 GT. Price totals have been updated accordingly.

So who says PC gaming is dying? Apparently Americans do. I was just looking at Amazon's bestsellers list and noticed that Crysis just barely made it into the top 50. Over at Amazon Germany, Crytek's homeland, Crysis was selling at #3. Not too surprising considering both the collector's and regular editions of CoD4 PC outranked any console version. Then there's Amazon France where Crysis comes in at #9. Even Amazon UK and Amazon Canada where the game isn't on sale yet shows it at #10 and #12 respectively. Give it some time and I'm sure it'll hit number one at one of those sites soon. Or maybe it already did and I just missed it. As usual, don't expect to see any TV ads for this hot new PC game.

EDIT: I just noticed that it's at #6 at Amazon France.

Oct 14, 2002
Mario Sunshine and memory card 59 - $189

May 4, 2003
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Star Fox Adventures, or Mario Party 4

May 25, 2003
demo disc and choice of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Star Fox Adventures, or Mario Party 4 - $149.95

June 23, 2003
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Star Fox Adventures, Mario Party 4 or Game Boy Player - $149.95

November 17, 2003
The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition - $99.99

August 15, 2004
Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes demo - $99.99

November 14, 2004
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! - $99.99

Oct 13, 2005
Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness and Pokemon XD faceplate - $99.99

November 7, 2005
Mario Party 7 and two controllers - $99.99

Crap, I wish I'd gotten one if these bundles.

http://tvpot.daum.net/theme/ThemeView.do?themeid=122&lu=m_mono_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXoekeDIW8
http://www.gamemeca.com/special/section/html_section/wow/community/wwi/view.html?subcode=c1137&page=1&search_kind=&search_text=&id=84&gid=84&head
http://up.kupatrix.com/members/browse/1/Starcraft%20II
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v502/Einhanderkiller/Starcraft%202/
http://tvpot.daum.net/theme/ThemeView.do?themeid=122&lu=m_mono_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sog2k6s7xVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXoekeDIW8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJDFw4TGWmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJDFw4TGWmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TR7nGISEfc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELhtXtnV3pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_mEDcBDPF0
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6287387257388853221
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgjzhkOyJ0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbC5i6Vh2ys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V0cL7ofmwA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU7HAtouAAo

First off, the interface sucks. Adjusting my settings was such a pain in the ass. It reminds me of the consolized interface in Serious Sam 2. The game does look pretty good though. I especially like the motion blur. Turning it on makes it look like the Lost Planet commercials I saw on TV. Watching motion blurred snow fly around from an explosion is a real treat. It does however become a major distraction when engaging in a fierce fight with lots of movement. It's made even worse when my vision is obscured by my own character model. Some of the insect monsters in the game are really ridiculous looking, like the one with the big floppy lip-like mouth-parts. As for gameplay, I really hate the T-Energy idea. It just forces you to go at a fast pace and discourages you from trying to be slow and methodical. I also hate not being able to save whenever I want and I'm not too thrilled with button mashing in order to activate the data posts. Overall, it's a nice game to gawk at but it does feel pretty dumb.

Nvidia's model naming scheme may look confusing so I thought I'd lay it out in simple terms.

The first set of numbers will give you a general idea of how fast it is.

Low-end
X1XX
X2XX
X3XX
X4XX
X5XX

Mid-range
X6XX
X7XX

High-end
X8XX
X9XX

When looking at the suffix of the name, use this rule: Ultra > GTX > GTS > GT > GS.

Note: this whole thing only applies within the same generation so don't go around comparing a 7950 to a 8300.