DreamWeaver

Sod the demons, I just wanted a whip-based powerset.

What?

I'm enjoying these more than my previous MM villains (Agent Flux - Bots/Traps, and General Dare. E. Lee, one of those mysterious Ninja/Poison cows that hide in fridges, have access to massive amounts of technology and are constantly trying to force psychedelic mind-control cheese down youngsters).

That said, a team of 6 Demon/ MMs - particularly if any of them went /Thermal and are using the shielding buffs - aren't just going to set light to the Skuls. They could well take the average video card with them.

EU servers still down?
Don't keep me waiting. I can make it so, so much worse for you. But then, wouldn't you enjoy that?

w00t

...bets on how many evil leather-clad whip-wielding kinkstresses will be running around Mercy ten minutes in?

- Playing Hellion Golf in Atlas using any knockback power. Fore!

- The Atlas Park plaza music. Every. Single. Time.

- Still finding odd new bits and in-jokes after 6 years, especially stuff that snuck past you in an issue change ("...when do you meet Hero 1 in a cape mish? I haven't done one of those in ages...")

- Introducing a new player to something that makes them go "whoa."

- Shield Charge, the new Dual Pistols loonytunes gun kata "nuke", and any other power that causes utter mayhem with your enemies.

- ...double that for Psychic Wail (aka "DW's PMS". Thanks Plight.)

- My Icon loyalty card. *cuddles*

Happy 6th Birthday Paragon City

Wizards did it.

What happens when you let loose CoH players in Star Trek Online. WARNING: contains suggestive material, extreme canon instability, Unicron, potassium-eating space horses, The Rocky Horror Show, and Majel Barrett.

Oh, and +1 vote for Dead_Calm's Defender Manifesto.

Vehicles.
With fins.
Big. Shiny. FINS...

Far too many choices. Gah.

BEST FOR DEFENCE: My original Emp/Psi still rocks when it comes to team buffs, but Rad/Rad has a lot more versatility.

BEST FOR RANGED OFFENCE:I'm currently loving my Dual Pistols/Energy blaster, but Elec/Energy is a ton of high-voltage fun as well. AR/Dev is also quite keen...

BEST FOR CLOSE-UP ACTION: MA/Shield and BS/Shield scrappers can tear through most enemies like paper and also be a pretty decent team anchor.

BEST FOR VILLAINY: Night Widow epics - love, love, love 'em.

BEST FOR ANNOYING OCD HERDING TANKERS: Gravity/Storm troller. No question :P

You love someone,you tell 'em right now. All right? Stay bright. Not 'arf.

If I was looking around for a laptop specifically (I travel a lot), would an NVIDIA GT200 series (maybe 260x) be ok, paired with 4 or 6gb of ram and Intel dualcore?

Really not fussed about anything higher than Championship right now.

...although I do want to know why everyone in Devon, Delhi, Denver, Dublin and all the other MUFC hangouts is suddenly supporting my beloved Norwich City? *blink*

Gah. It's only been a week and the nerves are starting to crumble.

Was quietly levelling up my new Pistol-packin' blaster (yeeha!) Saturday morning with a lovely cuppa when my comp froze with a sound loop. Odd.
Rebooted, came back up, back in game... same thing.
Rebooted... lots of visual artefacts... NVidia driver dies but comes back up... then BSOD.

Uh oh.

And when I finally get it back up in Safe Mode, the screen is cluttered with random visual junk, and Device Manager can't find my card.

So my shiny laptop is now in the vet's, but I think it might be time to put it out of its misery.

WHAT I'M AFTER:
1. Something that can run Final Cut and/or Photoshop, DW and a couple of server interaction apps at a decent speed and with plenty of layers & windows active, as this is my stock in trade.

2. Something that can handle the current generation of 3d games without keeling over or burning a hole in my desk. Ultra Mode would be nice but I've never really been fussed, so long as I can still play. In my mind, this means Dual Core, NVIDIA gfx card and at least 3 or 4 gig of RAM. HD space is totally irrelevant.

3. I'm not fussed about brand names or looks. BUT I do want one with an actual, walk-up customer service place that I can walk up to and [ look piteous/rant/flirt shamelessly - delete as necessary ] until I can get it fixed.

4. The words "customer service" and "PC World" are mutually exclusive. John Lewis is great, Dixons and/or Currys ok, or any decent store within Central London or 50 miles of Norwich.

5. Ideally a laptop, but still one with swappable parts/PCI-E rather than everything glued to the chassis. I do travel for my job quite a lot - and while I don't work well on trains or in taxis, hotel rooms are fine and dandy and it's good to be able to work out of a client's office when necessary.

6. Preferably spending less than £800.

7. Yes, I want fries and a calorie-free double chocolate muffin with that.

Two I've been looking at as examples:

LENOVO G550S
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
4GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce G210M (512mb dedicated)
Win7
£550

ASUS K50IN
Intel Core 2 Duo T6500
4GB RAM
512MB Dedicated NVidia graphics (exact card not specified)
Win7
£570

Thoughts and/or tips would be appreciated. Particularly from poor Damz, who illustrates one reason why I'm terrified of mail order for anything this big and/or delicate...

...the other is that I used to sort at Royal Mail when I was a student. Having someone stage diving and/or jumping on trolleybins full of packages to get them to fit on a lorry deck does not inspire confidence.

This is even before you get to what the internet would do to you. I am NOT having:

- Perez Hilton sniping at my costume sense or revealing if I'd had a couple of shots after work
- People setting up TwitFaceSpaceBook accounts in my name, trashtalking other heroes and hinting at saucy antics
- ANYONE photoshopping my head onto Power Girl's "leaked" sex tape stills

Not sure, but I haven't seen any references to the ending of Watchmen yet.

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET...

Ozymandias' plan wipes out millions of innocents (in the book, it's a psychic shockwave from a genetically created "alien race": in the movie, it's caused by Doc Manhattan's reactor which Ozy turns into a bomb).

However, the slap in the face draws the world back from the edge of nuclear meltdown, and unites the nations in hatred and fear of the "other" (whether the mysterious aliens or the Doc).

Question - do these twin evils, the killing of millions and the brainwashing and fear induced in billions more... are they justified by the results?