Oh yeah, def Blu Ray. And I already have a Windows 8 Pro key that I would use for this if I went the Win 8 route(honestly I can't think of a reason to go with W7 instead).

Except that the Metro tile Start screen makes your PC feel more alive than any desktop wallpaper could ever hope to achieve. Not only can use have a wallpaper, but your personal tiles and apps are constantly updating, moving, and showing your email updates, facebook friends, news stories...all the things that make YOUR desktop YOURS.

I'm sorry, but that feels much more organic and alive than a static wallpaper with some lifeless icons sitting ontop of it.

I have Windows 8, and my only issue with it is that I still have to use the desktop. Metro blows the old style of windows interfaces out of the water. It's slick, alive feeling, and attractive. It looks like what a modern computing interface should look like.

Unfortunately, when using non Metro apps, I'm forced to look at the old, outdated, and ugly Windows 7 desktop. Once Microsoft saves it's users from that eye sore, Windows 8 will completely outclass any other OS on the market.

I honestly don't. Anyone who buys Wii U is essentially buying a PS3/360, as for the first 6 months to year of it's existence, you'll be doing nothing but playing ports from "last gen" consoles with zero graphical improvement.

By the time the Wii U does start to pump out some "next gen" titles, it will be competing against the PS4/720 with their vastly superior hardware and 1st party titles. I'm sorry, I don't see maybe a new Zelda game, Pikmin 12, Lego Dora the Explorer, and Super Mario Bros Galaxy Sunshine Gumdrops III competing against more powerful consoles that have games gamers WANT to play.

Anyone else see the Wii U the same way as me?

Got taxes and student loans coming up, so I decided to take the plunge and finally build my HTPC. So I'm looking for suggestions on how I should go about building my new baby :)

Goals of my HTPC:

1. Replace my DVR
2. Replace my PS3
3. Replace all my physical media
4. Allow anyone in the house to stream music and movies
5. Allow 1080p gaming @ at least 45-50FPS, 60 FPS prefered of course
6. Easy Home Theatre in a Box integration
7. Everything must be controlled with one single remote control so the family can use it easily

My budget is a bit flexible, but for now I'm wanting to keep it around $750ish

As for the software side of things, I'm leaning towards Windows 8 + Steam Big Picture Mode for all my gaming and media needs. Metro almost seems designed for an HTPC, as the tiles are attractive to look at and would be easy to read in a living room environment. Windows 8 already has a Netflix and Hulu Plus apps, so that's another plus for W8. But I'm open to suggestions here as well.

So far, the best F2P game I've tried is Bloodline Champions. It's basically WoW's arena system, but without the gear imabalances. Anyone who's interested in WoW arena should deinitely check this game out.

I'm sort of in the middle of a gaming drought right now, so Ive been exploring different options in the F2P game market. In the past week or so, I've downloaded close to 10 F2P games, ranging from Black Prophecy to Dragon's Nest.

But I'm wondering what F2P games everyone else is playing, which may help me decide upon my new gaming home.

Also...what's your opinion on the F2P game market as a whole? I think it's a fantastic revenue model if it's done right, but I recognize the issues that can come up if it's implemented poorly.

Thanks.

It would be cool if they released a remake, but it would probably fall well below expectations here in America sales wise. We're too conditioned to copy and paste FPS and shooter games, so I doubt the game would get the appreciation it deserves.

My vote would be to create a true sequel to FF7, but make it more combat and action oriented while still maintaining the cool characters and storyline.

Well, then with 2nd generation APU's wth possible crossfrire additions, the next generation of consoles may be able to produce some decent graphics.

Of course it won't be as good as pc, but the drop may not be AS big as it is today.

Either way, APU's are pretty awesome, and may be the future of all CPU's.

Off Topic:

BTW, why can't APU's graphics processing be taken advantage of with >6700 cards? I mean, couldn't at least some "low level" tasks be passed along to the APU, just to get a tad of a performance increase?

Just wondering how the new AMD APU's match up against the PS3/360's graphics and processing capabilities?

Or, if one were to replace the cpu and gpu of the consoles and just replace them with an APU, how would that affect their performance?