aldo_q

I don't really think it's a matter of if you need to play it to understand II. As I understood from the podcast that isn't the case, but will make the experience richer. It's more that you should just play I period as it's a stunning stunning game! So if you are going to play it anyway (because it's wonderfull and you should) I'd play it first. But totally a personal opinion :)

I noticed the same thing. But overall it's been very unstable for me. Some songs I know will for example also cause the game to just crash either on load or completion. It seems the game isn't entirely free of bugs yet :)

I am probably one of the few whom honestly did not hate the ending. Not the best ending to a game ever, but I didn't hate it either. I found it okay to be honest...

First off thanks to all the people who gave serious suggestions. I already spend some time looking at some of these laptops and spec's and will also check the new ones made since then. I tried to reply in my own topic yesterday, but either GiantBomb or my tablet didn't really want to work along (guess the later...). I've not had time to reply to everything in great detail due to a busy combination of work and being a parent.

I'm sorry the topic seemed to be a bit of flame-bait for some. I did not realize this was such a hot and debated topic. My idea was just to ask about a Laptop mainly for my wife that I could 'abuse' to play some games on I simply can not play on the console. So nothing like the latest version of Battefield. Mainly because I'm super excited about the new Xcom reboot (the strategy one) and my desktop PC is so underpowered these days it's sad, my work laptop is a powerhouse but... not for gaming, it's great for developing and coding but not actually running games. And my personal laptop is a MacBook Pro. I tried experimenting with games running in Paralells or Bootcamp, but I could not get something like Dawn of War II to even run normally on that.

Oh and yeah, Europian.. Dutch to be exact. Not sure if we have the same issues in pricing as the people in the UK. I think it's less bad here as some of the spec's I've seen here are within budget. Then again my MacBook Pro was 3.000 dollars (2.400 euros) a few years back. So yeah... US people somethings are nicer over on your side of the ocean :D

@Kidavenger said:

@aldo_q said:

Plus need the ablity to hok it up to either the tv in the livingroom or the tv in the media room.

The only reason most gaming laptops get away with running the games that they do, is because they run at a lower resolution, the output from a laptop to your TV isn't going to look very good.

Asus makes the best mass market gaming laptops, I'd start with them.

It's something I'm simply interested in to experiment with. I guess perhaps that will not go to well then :D It all remains minor to it simply being a good Laptop for my wife to work on that I can abuse to finally play Windows based games on again to get my RTS kicks :D

@Wallzii said:

sgjackson pretty much nailed it with his post, and it contains some great points and advice. With your budget, it is really hard for me to recommend anything to you. If you are able to give me the smallest screen size you are willing to have, I may be able to make a few sugestions if you are set on a laptop.

I actually had not thought about the screensize at all. I must admit I am quite used to the 17" of my MacBook, but that is not a demand for sure. 15" is probably preferred.

Edit: checking out some laptops I might have to lower the 15" wish :D

Thanks for the concrete answees I got from some people. I have some things to consider now. As I said, it would never be used for the best first person shooters. As I am more then happy to play these in their crappier versions on either xbox or ps3. Mostly it would be for stategy games and the laptop would mainly be used for work related things. It would simply be nice if it could also run some pc only games.

Mid price for me would be around 800 euro's. Thats around the 1000 US dollars. So anythng from 800 to 1200 dollars. The reason for a laptop should not matter for the question. But I know the internet always loves to answer with the answer you are stupid for asking your question as they personally disagree. ;) The reason is very simple, we are long since decided to not house a computer anymore in the livingroom. But it's non viabale to have a non mobile pc only in the study. Especially with kids playing in the livingroom when you also need to do somethimg behind the pc. But othertimes its prefeered to use the study so the kids don't bother you when somebody else is warching them. Plus need the ablity to hok it up to either the tv in the livingroom or the tv in the media room..... I don't live in a dormroom with 1 room on my own. A real house with multiple people to keep in mind :)

Before this topic I had no idea who Jessica Chobot was or that I was supposed to find her character so bad in the game. I had not really noticed either. Luckily this topic was here to teach me.... that some gamers really need to outgrow the age of 12. Seriously..

I've more or less lost track of anything Windows PC related aside for when it's work related. But my wife really wishes we would have a Windows based PC again (mainly for her work which uses a lot of software not compatible with Mac). Since I do kind of miss playing some great PC games I thought why if we get a Windows based machine again not immediately also make it a good gaming rigg?

Since we far prefer laptops to desktops it would have to be a laptop. Which I know is more limiting and more expensive. But it just better suits our needs. I've just not looked into these things for years now and was kind of hoping to get some good advice here. Can any of you recommend a good gaming laptop that is kind of in the mid price range? Preferably something that can be used for a couple of years. Mostly for games like the upcoming Xcom game and other strategy games that simply don't play well on a controller. I'm not to worried about shooters and everything since I am more then happy to play the 'inferior' versions on the consoles :D

Anything easy to hook up to a TV, controler, wireless keyboard and mouse would be a plus. Anything not as butt ugly as an Alienware even better :D