Posted 10/30/2009 at 07:10:23am

Since it is a Live CD, I'd say pop it in and give it a go.  If the WiFi doesn't work, reboot and you're back to normal. :)

Posted 07/18/2009 at 09:19:50pm

Now that the NDA is over, as a beta tester for the game, I can say that it is a blast to play.  The store does not break the game in any way and works as advertised.  You can either grind your way through without paying a dime and still have access to pretty much all of the in-game content, or if you do opt to spend some cash you can get a quck path to some of the unlockable items like the Drow or the Favored Soul.  (You can still get to those classes or races just by grinding, so don't think you *have* to spend money...)

I am quite stoked for when the game goes live.  I'll be a little sad to see my Drow Ranger from the beta go bye-bye and have to start over fresh, but I think it will be worth it to start over again now that I've had time to get a feel for what works and what doesn't...  (But I will really miss that bow I worked so hard to get with the extra 1d6 lightning damage...) :)

Oh, and as for the content that you get "stonewalled" on, I really haven't run into much of that.  There are some quests you have to purchase the content for, but if you're used to playing the pnp D&D game, it's really not much different than having to go out and purchase a module if you don't have it in your collection. And having spent quite a bit on modules in my day, I'm not really as miffed at that as I once thought I might...  If you are in a party and one of the players is a VIP, they can always give you a game pass to join in on the module...

There is plenty of "free" content, so you really won't feel like you're being cheated out of anything...

Posted 11/17/2008 at 08:36:16am

I was planning an upgrade to my existing PC (I always build my boxes, I haven't purchased a store-bought PC yet...)  However, after having to replace our 9-year old furnace, it looks like my upgrading plans have pretty much been cancelled out for the next year or so...

Hopefully I can get a little more milage out of my current system.  I upgraded my video card and slapped in an extra Gig of RAM.  (replaced my aging 7950GT with an 8800GT, and bumped up to 3GB of RAM).  The AMD X2 4800+ CPU is just going to have to do for now. I'll see if I can't juice a little more umph out of it by overclocking...

Looks like my Quad-Core plans will just have to wait...

Posted 11/10/2008 at 02:52:39pm

I still am in the dark ages when it comes to hardware.  My DVD player, head unit, and 27" TV only have component support, so I'd have to replace the entire chain to take full advantage of Hi-Def.  And it's just not in the cards financially...  So, no Hi-Def lovin' for me for a while yet it seems...  On the other hand, my PC's video card and widescreen 22" monitor (1680x1050 and HDMI compliant) seem to be fine for displaying Hi-Def (well, 720p at any rate) so if the Blu-Ray drives come down enough in price, I may be tempted to add one to my PC...  But we'll see how that goes once the economy starts to stabalize a bit more...