I picked up an external hard drive the other day....
was just going to get a 500 gb one, but when I got there they had one that was a terrabyte, so I had to get that one.

One of my 2 batteries no longer holds a charge. They are about 2 years old now.

Considering how much even the average person would spend on normal batteries, the rechargeable battery packs are a godsend. Like with any other rechargeable battery, it will eventually lose its life. To prolong your battery's life, try to use all of/nearly all the juice in the battery, then recharge it fully. As soon as the battery is finished charging, unplug it. Not overcharging, or avoiding charging it halfway then stopping might be impractical, but you should try to do if you wanna get the most out of your battery.

Skate 2 weeeeee

I bought a new one for $12 and it works. I only had it 8 months, but I guess I could have done better with the charging. I wouldn't charge it until it was low, but then I'd just unplug it when I was done playing if it wasn't finished recharging yet. I'll try what you suggested with this one. But I'm sure I saved money by not buying regular ones as much as I have used it.

Fun day.

My 360 didn't like sitting in a bag during 100+ degree temperatures for 5 hours apparently as I was moving and getting stuff done. Can't say I was exactly suprised to see those three lovely rings show up for the first time when we got moved. It also makes me further believe that the red rings are largely caused by user misuse/abuse. I picked it up in the first part of 2006 and have had no problems whatsoever. Then I mistreat my system and boom. Whatever. Pretty annoying time for it to happen though since I'm on a flight to Thailand in 7 days and most of the 360s they sell over there are PAL/Japanese versions which means my US games wouldn't work. Gah.

As an aside, the towel trick works which will give me my fix until they ship out my coffin. Hmmm... I do hope it red rings again by the time we ship it out though, lest tech support turns it on, sees no red rings and ships it right back.

The first Deus Ex, not Invisible War, is seriously one of the most awesome games I've ever played. I played the console version for the PS2 two years ago, and was amazed at how good it was, considering how old it was. The control scheme is so good that at times, I forgot that I was even holding a controller in my hands. Also, the level designs are wonderfully complex...lots of game devs/designers like to BS about how open-ended their level designs are, but with Deus Ex, you really do have a number of legitimate options as to how to attack a level. The story is also well-written, and it adapts based on your decisions in game, such as who you save and who you kill. Without spoiling too much, just try one thing: when some dude talks about interrogating prisoners after your first mission, try following him down to the holding cells instead of immediately going on your second mission (but be sure to stay out of his sight line once there). The whole game is full of random little moments like that.

The crazy thing is, the graphics look nasty and clunky by today's standards, but the story, gameplay, and level design are so meticulously well thought-out that you will almost certainly forget about the fact that it looks like Goldeneye graphicswise. The one downside to the game that I can think of is that it's so good, it will make you ignore the reviews for Deus Ex: Invisible War and play the forgettable sequel anyway, just for more story and gameplay.

The sequel wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. I enjoyed playing through it.

I just got to Hong Kong in Deus Ex. I decided to go look at a walkthrough to see what all I had missed in the levels I've already played. Obviously (lol), I missed a TON of stuff. I'm talking about missing entire storylines. For example, in Hell's Kitchen, I didn't do the hotel rescue thing of the father and daughter. I just avoided it entirely. I missed out on TONS of inventory and storyline apparently. Go figure.

Anyway, I did manage to apparently avoid having my brother killed in his apartment, which according to the guide I looked at, he does if I had run away. I'm thinking he's going to die eventually anyway though. Either through game necessity or my folly later in the game.

Seriously? The thing was turned off and sitting in a bag for only 5 hours, it probably expierences conditions worse than that during shipment from the factory to a warehouse to a store. Considering the PS3's substantially lower failure rate your thinking implies that PS3 pwners provide better environements for their systems and I don't think that is the case.

It is a manufacturing/design flaw, just be glad it lasted close to 2 years, my first one only lasted 7 months.

This isn't really a fair statement. The problem is there, but is further exacerbated by users doing stuff which they have a reasonable expectation of being able to do, like leave the console in a kit bag on a hot day, or play with it in a cabinet.

I definitely enjoyed it enough to play through it, but not enough to see all the different endings like I did in the original. The main difference between the two games, imo, is the sense of scope that the original gives you. The levels aren't necessarily that big, but for some reason, they feel big. The diverse locations and level designs are pretty much the complete opposite of Invisible War, which felt like a lot more of a cookie-cutter design scheme. Also, they really nailed it with the music and the mood that it creates in the original, and this was obviously lost on the people who worked on the sequel.

For a real challenge, see if you can save the resistance leader in the airplane

I didn't really want to start a new thread for my newbie tech question.

If I buy a 3rd party HDMI cable off Ebay for my 360 and connect it to my HDMI compatible LCD, will I still be able to get sound from my 360 if I continued using my stereo speakers that are plugged into my LCD via the 'Line Out' jack? (as opposed to buying the $60 Microsoft HDMI cable that includes a non digital audio adapter)

Thanks.

Bitch shot him up. I don't even know what I would have had to do to save him. I can't imagine what it would be, short of shooting her first. Also, when I killed her, I decided to just shoot her instead of using the computer terminal way. It was super easy. I just lured her down near the medical room and then refilled after we got into a quick gunfight and then she lost track of me. Sucker.

Like I said, it's a real challenge I actually can't remember off the top of my head how I did it now either...my copy is out on loan to a friend, so I can't just pop in the disc and run through from that save point again. All I remember is that she wouldn't die to multiple head shots, and that it took me like 30+ tries to pull it off.

Yes it should work. I use a 3rd party cable from the 360 to TV and an optical digital audio out to stereo.

Is it off-limits to post about any ROM site altogether? Or just those whose games'/systems' copyrights are still in effect? I'm asking because I know of a very complete site for Commodore 64 games, and I'm sure it'd be of interest to other people who grew up on C64 gaming like myself. Also, I'm fairly certain I read somewhere that they became public domain awhile ago, but I'd obviously have to research that a bit more thoroughly to make completely sure.

not sure on site policy re: the rest of your post, but this is almost certainly false. also, use of google is not too difficult

No. Nothing published during your lifetime has fallen into the public domain.

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/

Yeah, I was just a sonofabitch and tossed gas grenades into the room and killed both of them. Pretty easy, if I remember correctly they just stand there gagging and you can just keep throwing until she dies.

Yeah I found I was horribly mistaken while trying (and failing) to locate that bit of info that I recalled reading.

I'm pretty sure what I did was to shoot her with a rocket while at full health, but there was a certain angle I had to be at so as not to kill the resistance guy in the blast (maybe stand in front of him to shield him from the blast?). Whatever I did, I distinctly remember going from full health to just about dead as a result of it. I can't even remember if anything cool happens by saving the guy...some of the other people you can save will show up later in the game and hook you up with random stuff or info, but I don't think they accounted for someone being nitty enough to try to save the resistance leader.

looks like my xbox elite is ****ed =/ i was playing call of duty when the colors got all distorted, the skies of overgrown turned pink and green, the colors were totally messed up, my team-mates names were in the same pink color. searched on google, looks like i need to get this fixed by M$ what a piss off!! may have to buy cod4 for my ps3

Cro, I had the exact same thing happen with Blue Dragon. Its still happening after a reboot? I stopped playing for the night and everything was better the next day and hadn't had a problem since.

just happened 30 minutes ago, watching starship troopers on blu ray WOOT
going to try again after the movie. one site mentioned it could be a heating issue with my power supply, so i'm also going to try adjust the location of my power bar.

i'm running clean power too, using some fancy power bar from dynex