And Where Exactly Have You Been, Young Man?

I took my computer in on Monday to get the hard disc space and RAM upgraded (given how sluggishly it was running, and that I had only 800 megs left on my drive, this was the next best thing to buying a new computer). I was given a very reasonable quote ($80 for the drive, $50-$80 for the RAM). I had the vain hope that I'd be able to get it back the next day, but knew that probably wasn't very realistic.

It took until FRIDAY to get back, and when I did it turned out to be a hundred bucks more than quoted because of the job of copying the old drive to the new drive. Given that the old drive is STILL IN THE COMPUTER, I don't see how necessary a service this was, but seeing as it had already been done, I didn't have much choice but to pay the excess and be on my way.

I've noticed a few bugs with it (like if there are too many windows open for Internet Explorer they just stop loading) but over all it's running a lot faster, and the extra space is great.

One of the happy little offshoots of this upgrade was that I'd be able to FINALLY play Knights of the Old Republic. KOTOR is a Star Wars role-playing game that I bought three years ago when it first came out, only to find I didn't have enough RAM to run it. I asked Ben about it last night and it turned out they had it at JB for $13. "Ha ha!" thinks I "Finally, I will be able to design my own Jedi and take him/her on destiny-defining adventures!"

So I went to JB today to get my KOTOR goin' on. The place was packed and I couldn't see Ben working anywhere, so I figured I'd just take a look at the game's section for myself. I found the game, but since the last time I bought it and didn't have the right hardware requirements, they've re-released it and PUSHED UP THE HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS. I finally have enough RAM, but because I don't have a DVD drive I CAN'T RUN THE STUPID THING!!!

I went to other stores to see if they had any CD-Rom versions of it, but all of them only had the new DVD-Rom version. Finally, I stopped in at Dick Smith's. While they only had the DVD-Rom version, they also had a CD-Rom version of the sequel. By this stage I was frustrated and fixated enough that going home empty-handed would have been too much of a defeat. I read the tech specs for the game and they seemed to line up with what I had, which was helpful seeing as there was a great big sign saying how Dick Smith doesn't refund/exchange PC games (probably due to how easy they'd be to copy).

So even though it was $30 (twice what I was expecting to pay) I was determined to get something for all my troubles. I bought the game, got something to eat and came home to install it. I was even coming up with Star Wars-sounding names for all the characters I'd invent.

Loaded. Seem to run fine. Not enough RAM. This, despite the box saying that the requirement was for half the amount of RAM I have. Not the right graphics card. How the hell am I supposed to know what freakin' graphics card I have??

The game is perfectly loaded, and I have enough RAM that I'd probably be able to run the stupid thing, but every time I try to play it it just won't start. I think it's the graphics card.

***EXPLETIVE DELETED!!!***

This is EXACTLY why I don't buy games for my stupid damn computer. If you don't have a PC that's been purchased in the last five minutes, all your hardware is obsolete and you can't freakin' run ANYTHING. You need a goddamn doctorate in IT to know every single aspect of your computer's tech specs in order to walk into a shop and know if you'll be able to run it, and if it turns out you can't you're not even able to return the stupid thing!!!

AAAAAAAARGH!!!

Given that it was thirty bucks, I'm going to hold onto it for when the time comes that I can upgrade my computer (probably another five years at this rate) and then, maybe then, I can finally play the stupid thing ... and find out for myself how it's not as good as the first one.

This never happens with my Playstation, I can tell you that much right now.