Psyte

Of course, if Cole is this way, I'm wondering how the devs will "grey" out the Resistance. Because if they're completely in the right (life, liberty, yaddayaddayadda) then it sorta diminishes everything for me.

Does the Resistance have internal strife, differing agendas, etc., who all have Cole as a common enemy and will promptly turn on each other once he's gone?

Were bargains that ought not be made struck in order to have an advantage against the thought police? A deal with a devil (or devils), so to speak?

Is the resistance itself just a plot to keep dissenters controlled and monitored?

Is the resistance just a pawn in the greater scheme of things? Maybe they're being controlled by someone/something else that wants Cole's position?

Are they incredibly radical, deeming anyone who has bought into Cole's way of things to be fattened sheep, so civilian casualties are not only acceptable, but deserved by the populace for not rising up? (edit: just remembered a bit from The Dark Knight Returns, where the S.O.B. cut off a clerk's fingers for not standing up to some thugs).

In short: what if part of the resistance is as bad as Cole and company, if not worse?

I mean, seriously, if its just "Okay, here's Tyrant's folks and if you're with them you're obviously wrong, but if you're with the Resistance and they're squeaky clean good guys so if you're with them you're obviously right" cut and dry then I'm going to be massively disappointed. If I can't be a villain (or rogue) by going through the resistance or be a hero (vigilante) by going through the Loyalists...

Looking to spend around $500-1000, although shipping does have to factor in. Sorry to forget mentioning that!

Thanks for the suggestion, EvilRyu, but I'm not a student, so no academic discounts for me on Windows. Office doesn't matter to me since I use Open Office and barely use 1/10th of what it has to offer!

I've found out about some companies I didn't know about - Maingear and AVA Direct, so I'm going to look into them. While I know its good to make your own, I don't really feel like being my own "go to" guy for tech support. Using Macs at work for the past 9 years has made me lazy

Right now if I make my own I'm going with AMD since I really would want the higher control over parts (seems like almost no OEM's are offering AM3 boards at lower priced systems, opting for AM2+/AM3). If I went pre-made then its likely going to be Intel.

What I've come to realize is all I really want is an upgradeable video card and PSU. Being able to upgrade the CPU is a nice perk but unless I go with AMD its not important to me (Bulldozer). So, aside from the video card I don't need additional expansion slots. Virtually everything I want to upgrade can be done externally via USB.

I've been going back and forth between making my own machine and maybe buying a new one. But, like any packaged thing ready for consumption, being able to add is always a plus. I've not met a box of Hamburger Helper I couldn't make better by adding a bit of this or a bit of that. The machines at the "low" end these days are plenty powerful with Athlon II's, Phenom II X2's, and now even i3's popping up, all I'd really want to do is upgrade the video card and power supply. There is the trick.

Video cards these days are getting freakishly long, so not all cases can fit them.

Some companies allegedly use weird, custom power supplies.

I've not seen a company admit "yeah, you have to get cards that are no more than X-many inches/centimeters long" or "yeah, we use a custom power supply that you can't upgrade." At the same time, I don't really see many reviews talk about it either.

In theory it won't be an issue for me to start off with - my Radeon 4670 is a short card and isn't particularly demanding power wise. However, one of the reasons I'm looking at the lower end of things is I would like to get a Radeon 5850 (or whatever's best at that price-point at that time) at some point, which means card length and power supply upgradability is a concern.

This is my "other" option. Main reason I'm looking at this is the support from one vendor and quite frankly shipping stuff to Hawai'i gets expensive quick (Newegg doesn't give us free stuff). Dell did right by my with my current machine when it came to support (replaced my GF 7900 GS for free, shipping included, when it died of heat stroke), so that's a nice perk, you know? So, while making my own would be fun, I'd be silly to ignore a good pre-made machine, too.

Oh, and if you know of anyone to avoid, this is a good time to mention it, also

Right now my most demanding games are Demigod, STO and Mass Effect. I have no intentions of running Crysis at 2560x1600 at 60fps or anything like that!

Can you put in another video card, by chance? If so (and I think you can), then I'd look at the power supply. Can you upgrade that? I think you look pretty good otherwise. I play COH with a much lesser CPU and a budget video card (Radeon 4670) - only place I've got you beat is RAM, and that's it.

Have it, love it, but if you don't need to upgrade, don't. GR won't require anything that XP can't provide; neither will most other games. I wouldn't upgrade until you want to or you get/make a new computer, really.

Since Posi said you'll still need a decent CPU to drive things...

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sho...spx?i=3704&p=1
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-661,2514.html

New i5's, with Anandtech trying to simulate/guess what the i3's will be like.

I'm running the RC and I can use gadgets. I ignore them (guess I haven't found the right ones). Only reason I'm not on Win7 proper is because I haven't had time to bother backing everything up, clearing off, reinstalling Windows XP and upgrading to Windows 7.

You can change the settings on your User Account Controls. I've got mine turned off, personally. Granted, I can't say if this would be a good idea for you or not. Given I've run Windows virus/malware and crap-ware free for several years I don't have much issue.

edit: If you use IE7 I just read it requires UAC for one of its security features. Actually, reading up on it, I wish Microsoft would make it less annoying (maybe add a user-created exceptions list?), because its actually a darn good feature (good idea, not so good execution).

While I probably won't use this myself, THANK YOU!

Even if its for a limited time with caveats, I can (temporarily) live out my dream of a serverless COH inspired by the disclaimer brought about when server transfers were first made available.

Here's hoping that most players won't use it to permanently move to Freedom or Virtue!

And did I mention...

Ah, sorry. I know a LOT of people who think Cryptic still makes COH. And from the folks who know they aren't anymore? They didn't know Atari bought them. Sorry about that!

Well, like I said earlier - this is to marketing (and to a degree, NCSoft, the publisher), not the devs/Paragon Studios.

And there's no telling how much of what's happened with Champions and will happen with Star Trek is Cryptic and how much is Atari. I'll give Cryptic the benefit of the doubt on that count - they do have to do what their owners say do, yes?

Well, I don't think Gamestop is offering their pre-order goodies/exclusives for only collectors editions. Heck, they seem to have pre-order bonuses on every third game coming out these days. Left4Dead's baseball bat, MUO2's Juggernaut, Halo ODST's character, etc.

For example, Star Trek Online has seven different pre-order goodies, all from different places. Don't think the Collector's Edition is required.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61508

Hi guys!

Right now I've got some money set aside to pre-order Going Rogue, eagerly awaiting for when I can do so.

One of the trends I've seen is store-specific goodies. Now, COV had this, and it wasn't too big a deal, but some companies out there are getting a bit ridiculous in terms of what's being offered.

"Pre-buy at Safeway and get a Shopping Cart emote!"
"Pre-buy at 7-11 and get a free 'create slurpee' power!"
"Pre-buy at Amazon and get free in-game shipping for all emails!"
"Pre-buy at GNC and get a free in-game exercise reminder timer power!"

So on and so forth.

Now, while neat in concept, I have to admit its a little obnoxious. Not all of us have store X, Y or Z in our area, for instance, to pre-buy from. Likewise, if you want more than one it would get expensive quickly, even assuming you could have multiple goodies per account. And, honestly, with today's economy, some folks might not be able to pre-buy anyhow, leaving them out of luck. Now, I'm sure retailers are offering incentives to you guys in exchange for these things, and I can readily appreciate that (especially if it means additional promotion/advertising). This is important stuff!

So, what to do?

I ask, that should Going Rogue have pre-order goodies, that the program be a mix between what is normally seen these days and what you guys are doing normally with the various editions of City of Heroes: have the special version and the goodies available ala carte. If they ask for a period of exclusivity, hey, fine by me. That's understandable, and quite reasonable to boot.

The idea of Joe and Jane Consumer pre-buying COH:GR from where they can (for however much that will be) and late on being able to buy the other goodie packs as they like at a reasonable cost is a winning combination, I think. I pre-buy today from a retail partner (which makes them happy), then six months to a year later I can buy the other packs for maybe $10 each? That makes me happy and hopefully you guys too.

I'm quite excited by GR, as are many of my friends. However, we don't want to go through the same ordeal some other game companies are putting their future-customers through. Please, step up and show them a better way to do things!

~Psyte

I feel so warm and fuzzy!

I'll be taking a little bit of a break (holidays and all), but will see!