So I finally scrapped my second Dragon Age playthrough last weekend, partially because I had to go through the Fade again to continue the game and I was very much not willing to do so, and partially because I got Borderlands when I went back to California for Thanksgiving.  Loving my college and all, but the biggest issue I have is the fact that small towns in Ohio don't normally have game stores, so I either have to rely on Steam for my purchases (which eats up ridiculous amounts of hard drive space) or just buy a long game over break and play it until the next one.  So I got Borderlands, partially because I love the ridiculous awesome art style Gearbox has taken with this game and partially because my friend had just bought it and insisted we play over the internet so we could continue to talk when we live in different states now (we used to do this with DOTA, but both of us are kind of experiencing fatigue with the game right now - it's awesome but you can only play it so much before it gets frustrating).  

So Borderlands it is.  Ive been playing it since last Friday, and have two characters now - a level 18 Soldier I play by myself and have specced for solo play, and a level 19 Siren I play with my friend (he plays Brick, occasionally we have a third guy join us with a Mordecai).  I'm having a lot more fun with the Siren than with the Soldier, although that may be because Borderlands is really not a game meant for solo play - everyone's been saying this, but if you aren't playing coop with 1-3 friends, you aren't getting the full experience out of the game.  This game is amazing, but playing with my soldier has gotten kind of frustrating and dull recently, because I've gotten used to hearing other people freak out everytime a badass monster shows up, and because I've reached a point in the game where the game starts being ridiculously unfair and throwing a ton of dudes at you, and you don't have anyone else to back you up (the turret is nice, but is over way too soon and takes forever to recharge).  This game is friggin hard, and you really actually rely on your teammates to survive - having 4 guns rather than 1 doesn't make the game that much easier, but it gives you a fighting chance in some areas (looking at you, Sledge's hideout), and it becomes much more fun and hilarious when you wipe, instead of frustrating and painful.  

Another minor gripe I have with Borderlands is the online issues, and here's where I plug the best solution I've found.  Borderlands requires you to do the traditional port-forwarding headache that most of us know and hate to host an online game, and it really can be a pain in the ass, as Borderlands has started to become notorious in it's difficulty to configure.  Fortunately, there's a much better option for you out there: GameRanger.  For those of you who don't know what Game Ranger is, it's a program thats been around for a while, that allows you to simulate a LAN game over the internet.  You gather up some friends, all join a lobby in the GameRanger interface, and it will boot up Borderlands for you and put you all in a LAN lobby that the host can start, and you can all enjoy Borderlands coop without ever having to deal with the retarded GameSpy account or the ridiculous port-forwarding requirements.  It's completely free, completely safe, and completely satisfying - this is a really really good program.  The only thing is it's not very conducive to pickup groups - this is mostly due to the people playing it, rather than the program itself, as most people tend to create friends-only lobbies - but all that means is you should find friends to play with, and honestly the way Borderlands' loot system is set up, it's probably safer anyway to play with people you know won't just grab everything and quit out like a bitch, ruining your fun. 
http://www.gameranger.com/ is the website - check it out!  

And finally, Borderlands turned me onto a really good band.  To those of you who have played or watched the intro video, the song they use is called "Ain't no rest for the Wicked" by a band called Cage the Elephant.  It's a really good song, so I went out and got their debut album, and I found out that the entire album is actually really really good.  I wouldn't say a classic/iconic album by any standards, but this is a band with serious potential, and I'm looking forward to what else they'll come out with.  Go check out the album if you liked the song in Borderlands and want to hear more blues-and-Chili-Peppers influenced good old Southern-style rock - I really like the tracks "Lotus", "Back Against the Wall", and "In One Ear".  

That's all for now.  College is awesome, but the sad thing about the end of the semester is I have about 30 pages of essay to write.  Most of it by next week.  AWESOME.

With the recent revelation that Blizzard is going to remove LAN support from Starcraft II, I'm beginning to see a trend.  Not a good trend, a trend that perhaps Activision is influencing Blizzard's decisions much more than we would like.  In other words, the corporation is putting profit margins before the consumers, just like every other video game publisher out there, and it's hurting us bad.  Let's look back on the different decisions Blizzard has made since Activision bought it out...

Well, I'm off to college in August, so I decided to upgrade.  My old desktop is faring pretty poorly these days (it can run Left 4 Dead at fairly high quality, but that's about it), and I found a good deal, so I decided to go for it.  Placed the order today with Xotic PC, so it will come in 2 weeks or so.  Can't wait!

Total price for this: 1400$

Meh.

Just in case you guys didn't have enough.