unreal25

I don't know about you, but I'm totally looking forward for this (its by the guy who made Wing Commander series and Privateer) and totally buying a nice joystick for it when it comes out. | Roberts Space Industries basically looks like MMO space sim.

I thought the story was OK (at least for the first ~66% of the game) for an FPS. Still light years away from Bioware games and Fallout of course, but I thought it was good enough for a single player FPS campaign.

That is true. Also, some have anti-reflective coatings (I have one of those) which actually does help quite a bit.

lol... I have exactly the opposite preference. For me glossy = annoying reflections. Even on the screens that didn't get moved much (i.e. my Alienware M17x) I found it really difficult to position it in such way to remove all the reflections. I can't say how much of a difference makes a desktop matte screen. Some screens are highly glossy (i.e. M11x-R1) which IMO was the dumbest decision ever to put on an ultraportable laptop. Same for iPad. I tried watching Star Trek (fairly dark scenes) when I was on an airplane on an iPad and I had a horrible experience. Not only due to the fact that I could more clearly see everything that was reflected of it, but to add all the fingerprints were clearly visible too -- in fact EVERYTHING was more clearly visible than the actual movie I was trying to watch. I am actually pretty surprised about the lack of matte displays on laptops and portable devices (I had same problems when I used iPhone without a matte coating), since they are used on the go and the reflections can be quite problematic. I do suppose in ideal conditions (complete dark?) the glossy screens look more vibrant; its just that I very rarely found myself using the iPhone/iPad/laptop in those conditions. I prefer to have some lights on when I am working on the computer. Same goes for my work -- the uber-glossiness of M11x-R1 was so annoying every time I was in a classroom or a conference room or trying to watch something during the sunny days when I take my lunch to eat outside of my building. I have similar experiences with the damn glossy coatings on any devices, in my opinion they make it look cheap in addition to being highly prone to fingerprints.

Also I've had this (quite similar) problem on Dell XPS M1330. It was a sign of faulty GPU (the infamous crappy-soldered nVidia GT 8600), so I had to get it back to the depot for mobo replacement. If you have any warranty this would be the time to use it. I'm not sure how Asus notebooks work, but on Alienware systems Dell has included a very nice diagnostic tool (this has to be one of my favorite features) that you can access during boot where you can test literally all the hardware (it even detects e.g. if the crossfire cable is bad). Perhaps Asus has something similar? I doubt the LCD is bad, but that can be easily tested by just hooking up the laptop to an external screen. Other than that, you could I guess buy a new GPU but then the problem is that there is still a small possibility that something on the mobo died.

Can you run this notebook on an integrated graphics? Looks like a video card dieing.

I really like the game overall, so I'd recommend it. I haven't had this much fun in an fps since Fallout, even though this is much less RPGey than Fallout and more FPSey (but not crap FPSey like Crysis). I haven't tried the coop mode yet, played only single player story. Keep in mind if you decide to buy it later when the sale is off, you can still get it for a similar price on eBay since the game codes for Far Cry 3 shipped (or still do) as a bonus with some graphic cards and SSDs so plenty of people will have these codes for sale. Pros: big open world, no loading screen whatsoever during the game. feels really big. great graphics nice choice of weapons and mods (silencer, scopes, ...) nice choice of vehicles which I think all are available to use immediately love the poker minigame good AI for wildlife, decent AI for enemies game relies much more on crafting consumables than Fallout nice selection of skills you gain by leveling up the story seems cool for me (even though this is highly subjective) Cons: runs through uPlay. it sucks. (but still better than starting the game through internet browser... jeez.) console-style menu and interface map takes too long to "load" graphic glitches (tho they pretty much always show up if you tend to use uPlay overlay or alt-tab often) some of the side-quests are somewhat repeatable failing a quest or leaving the quest area will automatically interrupt you and reload the game or put you next to your last checkpoint (a big turnoff for me) I don't like the fact that taking out enemies silently awards you better than going all in (but its nothing serious) aside from taking over outposts it doesn't feel like you can change the world permanently (say compared to Fallout where you can blow up the nuke, kill whoever you want, etc.)

The graphic engine in the game is quite buggy, so no surprise there. Microstuttering, texture bugs, black screens, you name it. Nice game otherwise tho. Fucking consoles and console ports...

I love the setup! GTX 680 is a fantastic card! Have you thought of a dock station for that laptop? It might make the whole setup easier to plug-unplug.

I guess the problem that some people have (including me) is that the OS itself requires 3rd party modding to make it usable at all. You can make Win7 faster and look like that too -- just disable Aero.

Yeah it has exceptional graphic details (the game engine again seems like it could be ahead of its time), but so far Crysis series had IMO, at best, mediocre gameplay. Play Fallout or Far Cry 3 and you'll see what I mean. In the worst case, I hope others can make something cool with that kind of graphic engine.

Oh man, when I read this I just had a major flashback. Commander Keen... now that's a classic. Welcome!!

If the idea is to use e-GPU why not just use a desktop GPU? I'm thinking something similar to what Sony offers on (I think) VAIO Z, a separate dock with a GPU (except that they have a mobile GPU). With the modern 3D games, I'm not sure how much would gaming on the go (on battery) would be useful? That's why I am thinking if you want to game then you dock the laptop, but if you want to do other stuff you can use it like a regular laptop with integrated graphics. I like the idea for 13" laptop (will be 13.37" for factor ofc). Atom-based detachment would also probably work wonders for the battery life.

So many games these days, I just don't have time to install and play this one. Right now, I'm rolling through League of Legends, Far Cry 3 and... Monkey Island 2 Special Edition. And I still have Guild Wars 2, Planetside 2, The Walking dead, Portal 2 co-op campaign and Saints Row the Third on the side waiting. I think I'll add this to my "To play later" shortlist.

Isn't 680M in M18x quite significantly better than 670M ? Seems like a nice price to me otherwise. I'm curious how much have these Sager notebooks evolve in the last couple of years.

Yeah it looks like the trackpoint doesn't fit into that design. Or rather it would have fit if they got rid of the trackpoint, but for some reason (marketing?) they decided to go with a touchpad instead of a trackpoint. Yeah the refurbished laptops are a bit cheaper ($600+ on E6230 for "certified refurbished"). HP 2170p new ones start from $1000 and the only Elitebook they're offering on their Academic website is 8770w (wtf...).

Great comparison! Latitude E6230 is the only one from the new Latitude series (with rounded edges so to speak) that looks acceptable to me. Unfortunately, I don't think it can compete with Thinkpad X230 at all, due to its insane price alone -- its about $500 more expensive than the X230 in the US (almost double the price). It also doesn't seem to have a trackpoint (I guess thats what you meant by touchstyk ), like X230 and 2570p and I really prefer it over classic touchpad. I am hoping that they come out with better features like Brian mentioned in their next generation.

Well that beats the top deal by a whole dollar. Then again... the rule of acquisition #16: "A deal is a deal ... until a better one comes along.".

Notebook Shopping Essentials Virtually any CPU sold these days is more than enough for any basic tasks. Don't fall for silly marketing claiming you need a "quad core CPU" for "multitasking" and such. In my experience any CPU faster or equal to the old Intel Core2Duo CPUs and any graphics better or equal to Intel 4500GMA HD will work fine for any regular use, including 1080p video decoding. If you don't intend to play games or do some 3D modeling (e.g. AutoCAD, 3D Studio) the dedicated graphics card will be useless to you and probably a waste of money. In fact, the most recent integrated graphics Intel 4000 HD can even handle some games fairly well. Similarly, when choosing a notebook think about how the notebook is going to be used. If you do a lot of coding and spend lots of time running and compiling your code a decent CPU will matter. If you spend 99% of the time on notebook surfing the web, checking your Facebook, using MS Office and watching videos, any notebook will do great aside from older netbooks (someone still buying those?). SSD (Solid State Drive). I can't stress this enough. For most Windows tasks, the fastest Intel Core i7 with tens of gigabytes of RAM and a mechanical hard drive will still feel much slower than an old Core2Duo with 4GB RAM and an SSD. Lots of people don't look above CPU/RAM/HD when buying a notebook and then of course end up buying some overheating piece of junk that they throw away after a year. Since most laptops are being carried around you might want to get something (if the budget allows) that has a good build quality. Aside from the build quality, the screen quality can vary extremely from one notebook to another. Higher resolution means better display (more pixels per unit area) but there are many other factors; for example maximum screen brightness (expressed in nits or cd/m^2), type of display used (IPS or TN displays with RGB LED backlighting are superior to classical TN), viewing angles, black levels, matte coating and such. Is the display glossy? If you use the notebook outside a lot... you're gonna have a bad time. Here I tried to classify the notebooks into groups, for people who may feel a little lost due to large number of different notebooks sold by most big companies. "El Cheapo" class You really don't care about all the fancy stuff, and would rather spend that extra $500 on a nice present in the form of expensive jewelry for your significant other, rather than having a decent laptop. We hear you. Women don't come cheap, but unfortunatelly -- neither do good notebooks. These are the notebooks that will get the job done, but don't expect to be bedazzled by any of their features or components. Examples: Dell Inspiron, HP Pavillion, most of the laptops advertised on big sales only by their CPU or something equally pointless "Multimedia" class Better quality but also more expensive than "El Cheapo" but still typically lack a good graphic card (and adequate cooling system) that would make them great gaming machines. They are typically used for "multimedia" according to manufacturers -- don't ask me what that means. They don't have enough horsepower to run the newest games, but are somewhat mid-ground between "El Cheapo" and "gaming". The main advantages I'd give the laptops in this range is better build quality, more features than "El Cheapo", better quality screen, etc. It may sound like a lot of small things, but they do add up. Examples: Dell XPS, Apple Macbook Pro, HP Envy Gaming class These are aimed at gamers, and more expensive than multimedia notebooks. Higher end gaming laptops such as M18x will come with SLI or Crossfire graphics which should satify all your (gaming) needs. Often both the CPU and graphic cards can be upgraded. The downsides of these laptops are their weight (where an AC adapter alone can weigh as much as an iPad) and they aren't exactly quiet -- due to the limited space they have smaller fans working at higher RPM, producing more noise. Examples: Clevo, Dell Alienware, ASUS Gxx series, Acer Ferrari Business class Notebooks in this category were originally mainly aimed at business users, but recently they started gain their share in the consumer market. Typically laptops sized 14" and smaller run on integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000 in the current Ivy Bridge generation) which can be decent for playing some less demanding games on lower details and lower resolutions and works perfectly fine for any other use that doesn't involve 3D processing such as playing videos, decoding DVD/BluRays, etc. The prices can vary but aren't as expensive as they used to be ~10 years ago. Their main pros are the best build quality, great user upgradeability and optional dock stations which makes them very convenient for office use. Examples: Lenovo Thinkpad, Dell Latitude/Precision, HP Elitebook Ultrabooks Typically fairly thin and light laptops aimed at being as portable as possible. They use low-power (Ultra Low Voltage) CPUs, solid state drivers and often unibody-like chasis so they are not as upgradeable as laptops not classified as ultrabooks. The CPUs are fine for any common tasks. For more CPU intensive tasks better CPUs are obviously going to be better, but they are fine for any university uses I used them for (some MATLAB, Python programming and light Photoshop image processing). Examples: ASUS Zenbook UX31A, Apple Macbook Air, Samsung Series 5 Tablet notebooks Microsoft believes these are the future. I don't. And it took me only 10 times I cleaned the screen of all the fingerprints and hand grease on my tablet. They're still cool for stuff like taking notes, good quality screens and often some interesting features like multitouch. All this comes with a higher price, of course. Examples: Lenovo Thinkpad X230T, Lenovo Thinkpad Twist, HP Elitebook 2760p

I think it's not just Dell, it's difficult to get drivers and support from other manufacturers too, like Lenovo. I tried using Ubuntu or Mint on my Thinkpad X200T and had so much difficulty getting all the drivers to work (most or all of them being unofficial) and some things I never managed to work properly, like switching from laptop to tablet mode and some features of the tablet functionality. I eventually gave up and went back to Windows. I'm hoping that Linux gets more love once Steam releases their Linux client, which Valve is pushing at least in part due to the new Microsoft's policies about app development in Windows 8. So there may be some really good things coming up due to "appleization" of Windows. I live for the day when we'll ditch the Windows all together and work equally well on Linux. After I've seen Win8 this day may come sooner than I expected.

For the positives, the file transfer dialog and the task manager have been quite improved. (However, if you want a Task Manager replacement for Win7 take a look at the Process Explorer.) I think it also loads a little faster than Win7 (I can't say since I didn't have it on SSD, but on a regular hard drive). IIRC (correct me if I am wrong please) this is because the OS kernel doesn't actually load from the scratch but sort of hibernates, speeding up the boot. Negatives? Don't even get me started here. Everything else... lol. The interface isn't good if you need to do some actual work since you have to keep switching between desktop app and the new metro GUI. I also don't like the desktop GUI since Aero is gone and imho looks a lot uglier with flat colors.

I actually discovered this some time ago by accident. Great little tool for troubleshooting!

Well, it may be an old system but with his upgrades its definitely up to par with the latest M17x.

Thanks! Is that M15x? I love the looks!

Well to me: porn = naked or bare "internals".