So silly eBay finally delivered Fire Emblem, Path of Radiance (GameCube game I’m playing on the Wii, prequel to FE: Radiant Dawn, actually a Wii game) a few days ago and that’s been keeping me busy. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been playing computer games for a long time, or whether FE:PoR is actually a really good game, but it’s kept me very entertained.
Sure the graphics are a little dated (although nothing that jars you from the experience, IMO), it has the standard Japanese console game anime look (which I’m cool with, but others might find childish), the sound is standard stuff, bla bla bla. What the game does really well however is fairly key. For one thing, it’s tough. It’s one of those ‘you can’t let anyone die’ type of strategy games, so even one bad move and you have to restart the battle if you want to see all of the story elements, or just be a silly completionist like me. Adding to the difficulty is that in almost every battle (seen 15 so far) something happens midway through, be it reinforcements show up, a gate opens, or enemies you figured would not start moving do. Good stuff for sure, but it does lead to a few ‘son of a…’ moments.
Unless the game drastically changes in the second half, I would recommend the game for anyone looking for a good turn based strategy game for the Wii/GameCube. Just know that FE:PoR is a DIRECT prequel to FE:RD, so grab that one first.
Other than that, my two EVE accounts are set to finish training the rest of the Learning skills. For a while I had put them off in favor of other skills, but now with FE keeping me busy I figured it was a good time to finally get them done. I don’t think I’ll be training the rank 3 skills to level 5, but I do plan to get all the rank 1 skills completed, with the rank 3 ones already sitting at level 4. The goal after that will be to get my main pilot in full +5 implants, which currently go for about 120 million ISK a pop as I recall. That will be a decent chunk of ISK once I have all 5, and then I’ll need to get another set for my 2nd account. That’s an easy 1 billion ISK+ just to speed up skill training, but it will be worth it I think.
Oh and silly Alienware delayed my comp (shocker, I know), so hopefully that will actually ship this week, and the gf and I can get back to questing in WoW. The group we were playing with is ahead of us now by 10 levels or so, and the longer we go, the farther behind we get. Some quest grinding will be in order once we are back online, that’s for sure.
Hardcore Casual 
It’s still not too late to teach yourself a new skill (or improve upon it) and save yourself a LOT of money.
That Alienware you pointed out is able to be built with comparable parts for nearly half the cost. It’s not too late! :)
Convenience vs cost. What’s more important? ;)
Honestly, convenience :)
Plus it’s not like I’m getting a Voodoo or Falcon Northwest. The price is still reasonable at Alienware for the parts + service. The last thing I want to do is gather however many parts together off the internet only to find one of them is faulty, and having to deal with testing each and every one of them. I know it can be done cheaper, but to me the time+effort of doing it that way is not worth the cost savings.