General Discussion

Thanks for the mention and the link to the post. You guys have made some excellent points and covered many things that I agree with. When Aurora arrives, I'll have to change my user pic. So far I can't tell what color the lights are because in the picture you showed they look red, but on the website's gallery they look purple. For now, I should get a pic of Blue64, I have the blue lights on, except for the side fan as I've replaced it with one that doesn't light (the original and replacement have died and has been replaced).

You guys are running better PCs than I currently am, but I'm about to smoke you. I've been building for the last decade or more and have been satisfied, especially when a custom built PC ran right away and booted fine. I always do my research when thinking about building and upgrading. One think I enjoy of building my own is the ability to get what I want and being able to upgrade later (if I choose to). That said, I thought about upgrading Blue64, which by now would be relatively cheap, but the motherboard lacks some of today's standards (DDR3 for instance). When researching on a new build or pre-built PC, I managed to figure out the components I drooled over and really wanted (like the GTX 690). In the end it was more expensive to get all of the components I wanted as compared to all pre-built PCs I looked at. When it came to Alienware, they had what I wanted and at a cheaper price than purchasing all components separately. Since I could afford to, I bought the Aurora. It's one to drool over.

My current specs are listed in the post along with the Aurora. Right now my only complaint with Blue64 (my current custom built PC) is that I'd like a little more speed at least. I've seen little lag in Terraria at high quality, but otherwise that runs fine. Minecraft runs ok, but will look sweeter with the new PC. FTL runs with no apparent lag. I haven't done much PC gaming except for some Command & Conquer, Magic the Gathering, and Morrowind, for example. Although, I think I'd like to play Starcraft 2 and The Sims 3.

I like the cheap cost of great Steam games like the two I've mentioned and Portal (which was a free download, and the other two were given to me). I haven't really questioned a $60 because I got used to buying console games. I haven't bought a lot of them and am particular when it comes to games. That and my budget hasn't always allowed me to buy many games.

I think Steam is my first experience with digital games and ones that are apparently in the cloud. When I move to my new PC, I'll see how all that transfers. Luckily, I know how to back up Terraria.

As an IT guy, like Travis, I'm experienced with working on Dell, Gateway, and HP computers, such as troubleshooting and all the tech basics. I've seen lots of issues, but that's what my job has been as a tech guy.

I'm glad you mentioned controllers. I don't have a 360 controller, so I'm interested in a good PC controller. I suspect Logitech would be my best answer. I've had some of their products and like them, but I found myself liking a wired mouse and keyboard better because of battery usage.

I've been loving AMD and buying their processors, but I am abandoning them for the first time in over a decade. I'm not sure what got me hooked on Nvidia as opposed to Radeon brands, but I've been sticking with Nvidia. Some of the CPUs don't be as expensive as I remember, but some really good stuff is expensive. You can easily build a decent PC, suited to your purposes for it, cheaply. It's a fun thing to do and be able to do. Researching components is something I'm fond of doing, even though I'm not always up-to-date on what's out and what's new and best.

Right now, I'm happy with buying as it does actually seem to save some money. This will be a somewhat new experience for me as I've been running this build of my PC for about 7 years. This recent purchase will give me a decent PC that I can let my son use and still do what we'd want it to do and with an ability to be upgraded at some time.

Aurora is still "in production."

Should I just buy an XBox360 controller just for my PC? I'm not sure how much it costs, but I've heard it's great. It might be worth it. I tried getting my PS3 one to work, emulated as an Xbox360 controller, but it still didn't exactly work as I wanted with Morrowind. Maybe I need to change and set some of the controls more properly. I'd like to be able to use a controller for it the same way that I use my PS3 controller to play Skyrim on the PS3.

My Aurora arrived today (well technically yesterday since it's after midnight). I now have two working PCs in my room that are turned on and ready. There's another very old PC in the room that I tried to set up for my son, but it couldn't handle Minecraft. I can't wait to play Minecraft on this new one with full, ultimate settings! Anyway, I have a point with this comment. Now that I have both PCs up and running in my room, something that I think Jon said in this video is really sticking out to me...the noise level. I built the old PC and the case fans are new and replaced the old ones not long ago. I can tell you that this Aurora is so quiet!!!! I can hear the old PC's fans running. It's not really loud and kind of what you'd expect from a PC, but it is loud compared to this new PC.

Why did I read it as "Are Angry Birds Fans Hurting Gaming?" LOL! Still, he has a great point and I can't help but to agree with him. I can't recall the name of the developer that was mentioned in this video and in one of your roundtable videos, but it is sad that angry gamers can get a developer so upset. Is this also why Flappy Birds was removed from app stores today? That developer said that he couldn't "take it anymore," though I'm not sure what specifically he was referring to.

I totally agree with Travis, the Internet provides anonymity and people do tend to complain a lot and it is most definitely "a sea of negativity." Just look at your Facebook newsfeed, especially whenever something "controversial" is posted. Even though anonymity doesn't exist as much there, people will still comment negatively on a post you made instead of just ignoring it and scrolling through the rest of their newsfeed.

I also agree with Travis about distancing himself from his online alias, although that's not something I've put any thought into. At first (during the BBS years), I went by "Cobain" (yes, an obvious reference). I then later changed my alias a bit over the years to various ones, one that last a long time was some version of "Cupid De Locke" (The Smashing Pumpkins song) like QpiDeLocke. However, now I use "GregoPeck" as I've been called "Gregory Peck" or "Peck" for short and at college, I was nicknamed "Grego."

That's cool about yours, Jon. Mine is similar too as I sometimes use gawoodruff (adding my middle initial after the first to differentiate from my Dad who is also named "Greg").

Yes, MCIS was fantastic! What else I loved is that the released all the singles in a box set, which contained more songs (some very good covers, in fact, like "You're All I've Got Tonight"). It probably is my favorite album by them, although Gish and Siamese Dream are right up there with it. I listened to their latest one a few times and liked it.

/slowclap

I wish I had a video of this, but alas, this was a long time ago. My friend Harry was introducing me to Halo - he was a veteran, but it was the first time I'd held an Xbox controller. Most notably, I wasn't used to the analog triggers.

Over the course of the game, I performed some *spectacular* failures. I found a way to lose the tank on the Rolling Thunder level, forcing us to take a long jog to our next objective. I could empty a clip at an enemy at point blank and hit nothing but Harry, but somehow I was a damn prodigy at driving the warthog. I could weave that jeep through impossibly tight spaces and park it on some asshole's head like it was no big deal. Of course, that led to me wanting to hold on to the warthog, so I tried to fit it through the door of a building. I wedged it in there so hard that we didn't think we'd make it to the next level, but we did something clever with mounting, dismounting, and grenades that somehow wound up doing the trick.

I also pioneered combat ballet. I'd hear an enemy, and I'd turn around and start firing my machine gun. Thing is, I had a tendency to pull the stick toward me as I turned, and the look sensitivity was set too high for me. From Harry's perspective, I'd get startled and react by doing a few tight pirouettes and shooting the shit out of the ceiling.

But my two favorite moments are the reasons I forever after had to take point in all of our co-op sessions. The first was when Harry was ahead of me, and starting to climb down a ladder. He commented that it was dark and he couldn't be sure there were no enemies. So, I walked up right behind him and turned on my flashlight. Or would have, if I hadn't mixed up my "flashlight" and "melee attack" buttons. You might already know that a melee attack from behind is an instakill. Harry chose to interpret this exchange as "Hey, it's kinda dark in this hole," "THEN IT IS A GOOD PLACE TO MURDER YOU AND HIDE YOUR BODY".

The second was when we were creeping along a hall, wary of enemies. We were moving slow, things were tense, and I didn't realize that I was holding my controller a little too tightly. Without a positive "click" to inform me I'd hit a button, my left trigger finger slowly crossed the shear line and tiny fluctuations in my grip shuttled it back and forth before I realized what was happening. My Master Chief *spazzed* out, and I twitched all four of my sticky plasma grenades right into the back of Harry's head. Harry said "Shit! I hear a plasma grenade!" I was staring, dumbfounded, at what I had done, and couldn't find the words to explain to him that the action had already been resolved. After a spectacular explosion that flung him clear down the hall, and left me battered but still alive, he looked at me and asked "What the hell just happened?"

I said, "The good news is, it's all over, and it can't happen anymore. The bad news is that I'm out of plasma grenades."

Oh man, can we start a new feature on the site called "Story time with CapnCurry?" Seriously, that was hilarious. I also have my new favorite out of context quote ever: "... we did something clever with mounting, dismounting, and grenades that somehow wound up doing the trick."

There are a ton of interesting/weird things you can do in that rolling thunder stage, like getting the Warthog into place it's not suppose to be or getting access to a banshee and skipping half the stage. One time we got the Warthog inside one of the buildings where the hallways were so narrow that the enemies had no where to run and we just ran them all over on our way through. I really miss the days of indestructible vehicles. With clever use of rockets and grenades you could really do some interesting things with the vehicles.

Ooh, I'll have to go and refresh my memory - I've got a yarn or two about Halo 2 multiplayer, at least, and I might be able to dust off some old Twisted Metal II tales for good measure. :D