Gamespot review says the single player campaign is only 5 hours. Think I may just replay the first one, which I never did quite finish.

While I enjoyed the first overall, the scene with you and your girlfriend watching the movie was just an incredible gaming moment. I was so connected to the game during that scene.

Well, the GOG version of Thief works fine.   I am on the third mission and had no problems.

Really? You didn't even have to install a different codec to get the movies to play?

I use the Rocketfish for my rear surrounds and it works fine. It works acceptably due mainly to the fact that the surrounds are not usually taxed much so the rocketfish's tiny amp is not an issue.

The last time I replayed Thief Gold (~2-3 years or so ago), I actually had an easier time getting it to run win Win 7 than in XP. Go figure....

Season 7 will start in the Fall. Yes it airs on BBCAmerica.

I think it's more than just buying into the apple world.  While that Transformer does look cool, it really doesn't seem like there's a comparison here.  It's really 2 completely different sets of hardware.

I agree with this and meant to mention this in my earlier reply. Comparing any tablet to any notebook is really not an apples to apples comparison.

I also want to make it clear that I do like my Iconia tablet and use it every day. But, I don't think the experience is nearly as polished as using an iPad, and with certain apps that are available to both Android tablets and the iPad - the iPad experience is light years ahead.

If you plan on keeping the iPad, I would still suggest the MacBook is more worthy of your money.

I'm a big Android fan, and I have never owned a Mac and have generally been irritated at them when I have (albeit briefly) used them.

Having said that, I have been very disappointed by the experience of owning my Acer Iconia A500 tablet. My wife's iPad 2 is simply a much more enjoyable tablet experience. I think the devs are not (yet) really putting ANY effort into their tablet Android apps. And, with Android making little gains on market share, I am not sure this will improve. The Kindle Fire seems to be the first real competitor, but since it's a very gimped Android tablet, I am not sure it will result in Android tablets getting the attention they need or not. I'm on my 2nd Android phone since I feel the iPhone lacks a lot of features I would really miss, but things will have to improve greatly before I would even consider another Android tablet.

So I say MacBook Air.

WOW. The opening movie of series 2 was fantastic. Easily my favorite episode of Sherlock to date.

Personally, I would probably opt for the Alienware. I doubt any of the Dell's increased specs will make as big a difference (for gaming) as the video card will in the Alienware.

Before purchasing memory, make sure you know how the PC's current memory is installed/configured. At minimum you need to make sure there are free slots for more memory.

Good luck and have fun no matter which PC you get!

Watched last night's Christmas Special. I thought it had a spectacular opening scene and a lovely final scene. The bits in between were just ok. I didn't dislike the special, but I thought it paled in comparison to last year's (my personal favorite) Christmas Special. I would also probably rank it as my least favorite Moffat penned episode.

And after that, it's going to be a LOOOONG wait for series 7.

Forgetting everything else about whether Macs are shit or miracles, my only question is this: Is your particular Mac Mini configured with a 5400 rpm hard drive?

If so, I would return it. I will never, ever own another pc (we have an old laptop) with a 5400 rpm hard drive. It is a true bottleneck for doing anything.

[Spoiler]

Question about Dark Brotherhood questline:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Once you get to "Dark Brotherhood Forever" (I think that's the name), where you are in Dawnstar Sanctuary and I am the official "Listener" do the quests get/stay interesting, or is it just a series of meet contact, kill victim repeated over and over? I'm getting a little tired of being an evil, murdering bastard, and if the quests are just going to be kill next victim over and over, I'm ready to move on. If, there is some more cool DB storyline to come by doing these, I would like to know that, without knowing the details.

I am at around 70 hrs in, level 26.8 or so. Still having fun. Done with main quest (fun, but anti-climactic and seems mostly pointless since Dragons continue to attack everywhere) and sided with the slightly less evil Nord rebels (they didn't try to execute me at the beginning of the game, so I went with them). Amazed at how compelling some of these side quests are, which has kept me playing, but I am getting a little fatigued now. By far and away the best TES/Bethesda game, and the only one I would rate highly.

This maybe a dumb question, but what IS the main quest line in the game? Is it picking a side between rebels and imperials, or following the grays commands for learning about what it means to be dragonborn?

I did install the game on my 360. I haven't noticed any change in the graphics. I also haven't noticed any improvements in load times. Oh well....

Haven't really chimed in on this one. It has many MANY flaws/quirks, but as someone who has always wanted to like this series more than he ever actually did like this series, Skyrim finally moves me into the "like" category for a game.

I still think it's silly for there to be any mob harder to kill than a dragon. Silly design decision. If I had been Giantborn (or Bearborn), I would really feel powerful.

Question on the 360 version. Does installing to the hard drive help with the load times? I think I would live with the blurry textures if I could cut these load times in and out of buildings down.

Maximum unlike.

Having been done with the main quest for a week and having spent the time since running around doing side quests and finding Riddler stuff, I must say my disappointment with this game has grown. One thing that really annoys me is that there are too many random (respawning) criminals in the city with guns. I enjoy the stealth element and clearing rooms/areas of these guards, but the process always takes me a few minutes. When I want to run back to an area and do a search for side stuff, it's annoying to have to keep clearing out these guys since it brings my side quest hunt to a screeching halt. This annoyance has me on the brink of just quitting even though I am only at like 54% done.

So, final thoughts. Main quest was very good, but way too short. Gliding, and grapnelling around the city was super fun - even more fun than some of those Spider-Man games. However, the city doesn't feel as craftily designed as the Asylum. The explosion of side stuff is a bit of a turn off for me since I would have rather had more main quest. Overall, I am demoting this to a B+ title - which fundamentally makes this a disappointment to me. I am somewhat surprised that this seems to have reviewed at least as well as the first and in some cases reviewed better. Definitely disagree on that one.

I finished the main quest (seemed shorter than the 1st game) and am running around doing side quests, etc. I think the best way to sum up my feelings is that I preferred the BATROID of Arkham Asylum to the BATMAN'S CREED of Arkham City.

I still thought this was great, but I definitely prefer the first one - a lot.

Any thread on British comedy that doesn't mention Steven Moffat's completely awesome "Coupling" requires me to chime in and mention Steven Moffat's completely awesome "Coupling".

I also didn't know about the new series of Red Dwarf. I am skeptical based on the awful last special. I love series 3-6 though. Fantastic stuff. (and the first 2 series aren't chopped liver - and I may be in the minority, but I liked most of series 8....)

AUGMENTED REALITY TRAINING... can go straight to hell....

I'm still fairly early on, but I admit to being a bit disappointed. I still think it's a great game, but I think they did a poor job of introducing some of the new elements gradually. I feel lost at times. While I did complete the first Waynetech glide training thing for the upgrade item, I haven't even come close to being able to do any of the others in the city. So far, I definitely prefer the first game to this one.

Thanks for the advice and the offer of a cable loan! I went ahead and paid the full $299 ante for a new 250G model. I also went ahead and paid the $20 for the stupid cable (thanks anyway Wonderpug!). I've already done the transfer, and now just need to do the license transfer. Hopefully I will be back in Arkham City soon!

Ok, so my 2007 XBox 360 finally got the E74 single ring of death. (Of course it's the day after Batman came out, damnit.) I'm definitely not still covered by the 3 year extended warranty. Looking at the xbox.com site the repair will cost me $120 and I wait around 20 days for it. This didn't seem that appealing to me, so I thought I'd see how much the new slim models are. I knew the slim came out a while back and I had seen them but never really paid attention to what the different SKUs were or how much they cost.

Putting aside anything with Kinect and the lousy 4G current Arcade model that is useless, I see the XBox 250G is actually $300. $300?! You mean in FOUR years the equivalent to what I bought back then is only $50 less?! Seriously? I know that they improved the hardware and increased storage capacity, but that seems well... shitty. So, $300, + the cost of the HD transfer cable, and.... NO COMPONENT VIDEO?! WHAT?!

Ok enough ranting - time for questions.

1. Is there a way for me to transfer the data from my old (non functioning) 360 to the new 360's hard drive without paying for the $20 cable?
2. Does this thing really not come with a component cable now? Didn't Sony get KILLED for this with the PS3?
3. Can I use my old 360's component cable with the new one?
4. Am I stupid for not getting the old one repaired?
5. Is buying a "refurb" Slim for $50 less a bad idea? If I went this route would there be any issues with transferring my license info from the old one to the "used" one?

Thanks all. It's weird to be a newbie on a console I have owned for 4 years...

I'm a little tired from a tough work day, but I played a couple of hours tonight. Seems pretty cool. Fundamentally more, bigger Arkham Asylum.

There's a review from iLounge here. They like the hardware but think the software is a bit lacking.

Wow, perfect timing. Just completed a replay of Portal last night and immediately thought that it would be nice if the sequel went on sale. Lo and behold it's downloading now.

Based on your post, I would strongly advise you to try Thief 2. I think you will find the missions in that are far more suited to your tastes. It's also one of the greatest games ever. A sublime experience.

Horrible season. At this point, I hope it doesn't come back.

Having said that, this episode felt more like a real Torchwood episode than any other in the season so far.

it was the sex, wasn't it?   

:-) It had more to do with it being centered on Jack and Gwen. Also there was an honest to goodness alien in it. Add a jack flasback, name dropping the Doctor and the Trickster's brigade and it just felt more like Torchwood.

I can't say that I disagree with any of the criticisms of this episode. Having said that, this episode felt more like a real Torchwood episode than any other in the season so far. Not having much of Rex and ... (??) whatever her name is certainly added to my enjoyment. I continue to think that this series is way too long for this story.

Batman and Assassin's Creed. Then next year Mass Effect 3. Those are my only definite buys.

If I hear it's teriffic, maybe Forza 4, but this is a series I love for a few days and then play it rarely thereafter. (In fact I just put my racing wheel in storage a couple weeks ago....)

If I hear it's nothing like the last two DS games in the series I may give the new Zelda shot.

As an owner of the exact same receiver, I am sorry for your loss.

Start saving up for the 1021!

Yeah I don't think he'll be killed forever, but I do think they'll tease it.

Frankly, I don't think there will be any more series of Torchwood after this one - at least not co-produced with Starz (here's why). So, if the show continues, I hope it gets closer to its roots than this season. The ratings are down about 25% or so in the UK for this series, so I have doubts it will carry on at all.

As for Doctor Who I would also love to see Jack interact with Matt Smith's Doctor. I think it will definitely happen in 2013 (if not before) in whatever season or half season or whatever they plan to do for that year since it's the 50th anniversary.

I'm enjoying this series (mainly due to loving Jack and Gwen), but I think it's my least favorite TW series so far. I was not very enthused by the premise going in, but it's been a bit more interesting than I expected. My main issue with this series is that I think it's just too long. Every week it feels like the plot is moving at a glacial pace. After every week I am just like "... get on it with it already!". I wish the series was about half as long - or they would tie the main plot together over 10 eps by having unrelated "Torchwoody" plots to solve each week.

Another enjoyable part of this series has been Bill Pullman's performance and character. I'm curious to see where they are going with him and I find it interesting. I do have a lot of trouble buying his meteoric rise to massive popularity. It just doesn't feel plausible to me, but Pullman's performance and the uniqueness of the character have me going along with it despite my misgivings.

Finally, my pet theory (not based on any inside knowledge or spoilers) is that since they made Jack "mortal" in this series, they clearly are going to kill him off late in the series. It almost seems like a cheat to take away his immortality and not kill him at some point. I expect it will be the ep 9 cliffhanger or happen at some point in episode 10. Since it seems highly likely that Miracle Day has come by someone stealing Jack's immortality, and clearly this will be reversed somehow, I would expect Jack to regain his immortality and be resurrected at the end. I have a feeling that Rex and Oswald won't fare so well at the end. Anyway, just my pet theory.

The season 6 part 1 DVD/bluray release seems to be very light on extras. I would expect a full series 6 box set to be released with a more robust package once series 6 completes. (Possibly not until an equally vanila series 6 part 2 release hits the shelves.)

You could always try using a power line router. They don't work for everyone, but it's been great for me. It eliminated all of the hitches and dropouts I suffered with when I was using wireless.

Sigh... I'm usually better at resisting these things, but I picked up Divinity 2 and Amnesia. If they have D2 for $10 or less later on I will be pissed.

yeah, but no full season of Doctor Who until 2013.

Actually, there's no guarantee we'll get a "full" season in 2013 either. It's really unfortunate they revealed/leaked this info without giving us all the info. Moffat has indicated on twitter there are "cool" announcements coming. We'll see...

I'll be buying the standard, non-collector's, non-special edition. $60 is my limit for one game - even a series I love as much as AC.

[Spoiler]

well the end of The Flesh two parter was very interesting.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I don't think that's the last we'll see of Flesh Doctor.  it could be a great way to extend the doctor beyond his twelve regenerations.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Or it's the flesh doctor that gets killed from the season opener..

Spoiler for Hiden:

Moffat has said it is NOT the flesh doctor that was killed. He has emphatically stated it's THE Doctor.

I think the first half of this season has just been incredible. Naturally, the pay off at the end is going to need to be strong or the whole narrative may fall apart, but as of now, this is potentially my favorite season of Who. Only Black Spot has been less than great IMO.