Solid points Kthunderthumbs! This game really makes me wonder how many people actually worked on it, because the flaws you mentioned are very obvious. It is hard to imagine the beta testers didn't catch them.

Things I liked:

- No fixed class structure means that their is less reason to restart a game, since you can continiously reskill.

- Excellent combat mechanics!!!

- Varied environments

- Great ambiance

- varied classes

Things I didn't like:

These two almost ruin the game, one the OP touched on, one he didn't

- Remember old NES and SNES games that were so frustrating you would throw your controller? Well Blizzard has brought that feeling back! Run from a champion mob on hell or inferno and watch them cortex you back to their fire chains and now you are dead. Respawn back at the start of the barracks maze in act III and run back for five minutes through a maze to the same champions that have full health and will do the same thing to you again! Awesome. These throw your keyboard moments will for sure happen inferno, if not hell.

- Loot system is terrible. It is basically like playing keno. If you know how keno works you would know that 20 numbers are picked at random from 1-80. THe probability of getting 1 number you choose right is 1 in 4.

In normal and nightmare the loot doesn't have many options for modifiers, so getting what stat you need on a piece is pretty good.

On hell and inferno there are tons for stat types and they all come at random, so if you get a piece of gear that will have 5 stats (a rare), chances of getting one of the stats you want feels like 1 in 10. "Yes this item has dexetrity for my monk" you say. Sweet. What about the other stats. Like keno the odds of getting 1 number is 1 in 4, the odds of getting 5 is like 1 in 100,000. Just like this game. You are praying for that item on inferno that has dexterity, vitallity, and all restistances. You say, who cares about the other two stats. Still your odds of ever finding that piece with so many stat possiblities is super low. so grind grind grind some more. Or hit the auction house and realize that the same piece you want is the one everyone else wants and it is $20 on the RMAH. Ouch, back to the gold auction house to find the one with 187 dexterity, 34 vitallity, and 17 to lightning resistance. Yeah it isn't balance, or very good, but it is better then wading through quivers, shields, polearms, and orbs that you won't/can't use.

Yeah, a rant I know, but it makes Blizzards business plan with this game very obvious, Make perfect and near perfect loot so rare and random that it will end up on the RMAH so they can get their cut. With millions of people playing these items will show up at just a frequent enough pace so the RMAH will never be flood or bare.

In closing, if you play for fun as a casual gamer, you will have fun with this game. Your first few playthroughs will be awesome! Try classes, skills, play with firends and enjoy. Though if you choose to play past lvl 55 it gets really really ugly. Perpare to swear, throw things, feel underpowered, and persue the hopeless quest of winning the lottery by getting a drop you will use in inferno. Good luck!

Yeah you could handle most games at that res, but forget AA and AF for many of them. My build is about the same, but with a 8800 GTX. I went with a 22" and can play most games maxed at 1680x1050. I decided to go with the samsung 226BW and honestly it is the best monitor I have owned. The colors and contrast are awsome, plus I have no noticable light bleed at all.

If you go with a 24", expect to have some problems with a few games. Crysis for instance will run horribly at the native res. Really the question you need to ask is "do i want high res with medium to low settings, or a lower res with higher settings?" Also remember that while you may be able to play many games at that res today, by no means should suggest that you will be able to in games released 6-9 months from now.

Some games out there just make you say wow in disbelief when you first play them. This post is a poll for your biggest WOW factor PC games since the year 2000. THey don't have to be your favorite, instead they should be games you were amazed by or had to tell someone about when you first played them.

For me:

GTAIII: I was totally shocked be this game, I could go anywhere and do anything in a large living world. I probably played this game for 80-90 hours before I even tried to beat it. I remember trying to fly the dodo from the airport to the main island for many hours finally making it. It was the open world that made me say WOW.

ROME TOTAL WAR: I love history and it is how I make my livelyhood, so when a strategy game comes out based in one of my favorite time periods, I just have to get it. RTW's battle shocked me to the core. Large deep battles that looked fantastic put me in a state of disbelief. I was so used to controlling individual units on top down RTS games. RTW made large scale, strategic battles amazing and a reality. I have plaed the others, but this TW game gave me a WOW factor unlike the others, and is just a great game.

OBLIVION: Go figure. Large expansive world. Highly detailed living world, and terrific graphics and sound made me shocked when I first plaed this game. It set a new level for RPG immersion. Morrowind would have won this spot if it wasn't for the poor combact mechanics.

BATTLEFIELD1942: Again a favorite time period, bet this game stands out by really letting you fight large scale battles where there are so many wow moments. Planes crashing right into the ground in front of you. Tigers pulling up next to the little bunker you are in. Huge battles and great graphics for the time. So many moments that just made me say wow!

FARCRY: The game that kept HL2 off my list. Smart enemies, amazing detailed graphics, lots of room to approach, and vehicles. This game truely redefined what a FPS game should be. If you haven't played it yet its only $10 and worth 5x that still today. Not to mention the level variety and length were perfect!

RUNNERS UP: HL2 (if released before farcry would have won), C&C Generals(first 3d rts I loved), SUPCOM(something new and massive), COH(I really wanted to put this on there), MOH Allied Assault(Intense FPS set some bars), BF2 (Took BF1942 to a whole new level), and Fear(hate the level design, but combat is insane), and GTA San Andreas(allows you to do pretty much anything in the largest/varied GTA world to date).

Since 2000

- Mafia

- Rome Total War/MTW2:kingdoms-tie

- Oblivion

- C&C Zero Hour

- Guild Wars: factions

Notables:

C&C 3, Titans quest, SUPCOM, Company of Heroes, Vice City, Battlefield 2 and 1942, Dungeon Siege, Halo, WOW, and Act of war

everyone seems to have forgoten about GTA 4 and that it was supposed to be out in a week or so. So sad :(

As long as we get KOTOR 3 Ill be happy.

Oh, and Tie Fighter 2

mrbojangles25

Kotor is bioware... and guess what? EA is buying them so probably no KOTOR 3 for like 5-8 years if ever

just cause

Pirates (new version)

Rise for Nations

Three big letdowns in my book

[QUOTE="twitch007911"]

[QUOTE="bobstos"]I restarted my computer and went to open Steam and it just goes to the main page and then crashes to the desktop. I can't play any games, I can't do anything associated with Steam. Anyone else having this problem? anyone know how to fix this issue? I couldn't find any helpful topics on the official forums, so I thought I would come here.DethZero

Um same problem here exactly. I unintalled steam... but guess what? you have to reinstall every game that uses it. And redownload every game you have purchased. I really didn't like seeing that I had to re-download Just Cause at over 7 gigs. sorry man. BTW it never happened until I got vista.

You dont have to redownload every game. You can backup the Steamapps forlder or something like that which contains all your downloads.

True, But that is something I forgot to do... and I could never get back into value to backup my games.