In regards to next-gen games, yes, you probably want to get as beefy a GPU as you can. It'll get easier as the console generation gets older (like now vs. the 360/PS3, it's pretty easy/cheap to get that level of graphical fidelity). Though it's important to note that the new consoles just aren't the spec beasts their predecessors were. Both the xbone and PS4 are modest hardware-wise, with the only excess coming in the RAM (which should make some developers cry tears of joy; the 256MB limitation on the PS3 was downright archaic).

The SSD question--no, it's not going to mean a whole lot to a gaming rig that is used primarily for games. The only upside is in load times, and games are fucking huge storage-wise, so it's just not cost-effective. The read-ahead cache drives like the Momentus XT are mostly a waste of money--just get a good 7200RPM 2TB drive, like a WD Caviar Blue. SSDs will greatly boost overall OS performance, though, and extremely fast boot times, but it's primarily useful for people who do actual work with their computers (high-res image editing, graphic design, 3D modeling, H264 video encoding, DB work and anything that is I/O-bottlenecked on a hard drive).

IPS panels have more input lag than TN panels, so it's a personal choice. Personally I wouldn't use anything else than IPS these days--I value my viewing angles and unfortunately my laptop's stuck with a crappy LCD, but at least my PC doesn't have to be. 120Hz panels are great for gaming if you can get good ones that aren't going 120Hz just for the 3D, but I'd personally go with IPS (6-bit eIPS is also very reasonable, even if it's not as good as true IPS, but hey, we're not photographers, we're gamers).

It's funny - Both of us have watched a lot of Summer 2013 shows, but I think there's no overlap at all between us yet.

I've watched the first episode of the Rozen Maiden remake, Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyo -Il sole penetra le illusioni, Fantasista Doll, Kiniro Mosaic, Love Lab, KKK, and Free!

Out of all of those, I'd think you'd like Love Lab and Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyo -Il sole penetra le illusioni the most, although I'm not sure if you were much into the original Rozen Maiden or not.


And yeah, Love Live! almost seems tailor-made for me. There's very little I'd change about it if I could. It's a great show for a moe/yuri/drama-lover like myself.

She figured on much more sex (though she's still working through the first volume) given the musician setting. I told her to hold that thought until the second volume. I am happy most seem to be getting the idea that the personalities involved provide good reasons for the relative conservatism of the band members.

I always had some drug activity planned but it needed a reason better than "oh, here's some grass/meth/coke let's do it". Glycerin's recent depression bouts are my ignition spark ... though I'll spoil and say it isn't Glycerin who we have to worry about drug abuse.

I played NOLF, it's kind of a love-letter to cheesy old spy movies from the 50s and 60s with a little Austin Powers silliness thrown in for fun. It's really a great classic FPS.

Thanks, I've got my head stuck in the rewrite of volume two and then tweaking of volume one ... almost have too many tracks going. Fascinatingly, some of the wildest feedback has been from my 80yrs old this week aunt (the eldest sister). I sometimes forget she was a hellraising spunky petite girl who dated race car drivers, drank, and smoked when it was racy to do so

The ~uguu~ was totally intentional, easter egg for those who know - just an odd noise for the rest. Trope corrosion required that I have Kpau lead her into "debauchery" though.

I will say adding Sashi and Hank with their little substory gives me more eyeballs to work with, without overwhelming the cast. My aunt is a voracious and picky reader and that was one of her first comments was she liked how I didn't throw the entire cast at her at once. After that came the 'make it racier and where are the drugs?' type of comments. She also had a number of friends in the Texas blues scene that overlapped the racing circuit (drugs, alcohol, stir and serve).

Wow, hadn't seen the Razer Blade. This might cause me to start rethinking "main rig" a little bit. At this point, I try to view laptops as "throwaway field disposable" and try not to spend too much on them. I'm perfectly happy with this little Lenovo, it runs video, etc. and talks to my data clouds. If I step on it, meh.

But yeah, nomadic lifestyle demands nomadic computing -- my older son is discovering that. His Lenovo runs most games just fine at moderate settings and he likes that he can sit in his bed/chair/deck/car/etc and call me up when he has an hour or two to kill between clients and we can slay borderland bandits or something.

Thanks for being persistent in reading. My foreword credits you, syn, and a few others so I guess I'll ask if you want it kept to your online "Neo" nick (0utf0xZer0) or that other name

That actually looks sweet! I'm hoping NIS picks up Tari Tari as well.

I think I own that R1 DVD. Yours is from Bandai yeh? TBH I got it from Amazon because it was on sale as a duo with Sola. It's incredibly shitty package and I merely bought it to support it. Though I'm not sure I wanna fork out 100s of dollars on a non-sub Japanese only Bluray box

What's in the HSI pack btw?

I was going to ask you if you were going to Anime Expo 2013, but then I remembered you live in Canada.

So jealous of the people going to meet Okada in person. If I lived in the US I'll probably end up buying the Japanese True Tears Blu-ray Box outright just to get an autograph.

IdeaPads are junky pieces of junk. The only good thing Lenovo makes are Thinkpads, and even those have suffered mightily under Lenovo's stupidity. I'm sticking with my four-year-old X200 because they nixed the awesome oldschool IBM keyboard from the Thinkpad line, instead replacing it with a chiclet POS.

Most of the "good" gaming laptops (i.e. Clevo, Sager, etc) are constructed rather poorly, bad build quality, cheap thin plastic... and the internal components are really, really heavy. If you drop one it's probably not going to survive.

Compare this to a unibody Macbook Pro, which is pretty much built like a tank.