I generally feel guilty when I buy big-budget items, because I normally do so when I don't need to. I mean, I don't know if I ever need to, but the point being it's sort of a "I should have saved my money" feeling instead. 

Zwiffle

Well, that's a different issue. If you aren't saving any money and you buy something like that then, yeah, maybe you're being dumb. 

Well I do save, but not as much as I think I should be saving, considering the economy and stuff. I would like to have enough saved up to cover me for a few months if things go sour. 

at least with a CRT, you could live in the box when things go sour. LCD boxes are too thin. 

also, as a self-righteous communist (aka humanities graduate) - JOKING - I think there's a good argument that most people in the west live way above what a reasonable standard of living would be before you start putting your money toward fixing some of the world's many problems. One person can't change much, but when I do make money that I consider above that standard, I'll feel better knowing that this extra money will be going toward getting rid of corruption, stupidity, and the particular combination of both known as religion. 

do you have a model number? tvs vary drastically even within the samr brand?

at a rough guess though, $1000 for a 52inch tv is either a ridiculous bargain or a not so great tv. Most cheap 1080p tvs only look good in 1080p (ie blu ray) and absolutely crap in SD (ie dvd, most regular tv). 

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5631256&CatId=3651 

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5631256&CatId=3651 

that look decent but how big is your room? 52 inch needs a fair bit of space, these tvs tend to look better from a distance, particularly for SD. at least 4-5m from the screen. 

Most western governments have pledged support/aid for Haiti. This will cost money. If you are a tax payer, it is your money. If you are a higher tax payer, it is more of your money, so feel good that you are doing something for them.

Meanwhile, don't feel bad about spending some of your earnings on yourself. It's why you sweat and toil throughout the days. 

FWIW, I have a 55" TV (old style, but still HD). It's awesome and I would recommend it to anyone. Games look AMAZING on a screen that size.

Mike

The same could also be argued that your taxes are already helping the poor and the hungry in your own country - but it's still helpful to give more when you're able. 

Mega-bank CEOs? 

You know what I mean. The government has a lot of charity programs so it could be argued that we're already donating to charity via taxes. Obviously, that's not a great argument though. 

I just watched part of a Half-Life speed run on YouTube and I was amazed at how expansive the levels were. I mean, he ran down corridor after corridor, rooms, air vents, pipes, etc. It just goes on and on. Sure, the detailing is very minimal but still ... makes me think that maybe I spend too much time worrying about interconnecting areas and should focus more on travel. Let the player move through a large structure that doesn't have tons of back tracking. It's just large. You know? 

Well that depends - a lot of the focus of Half-Life was "escape Black Mesa" and that meant a lot of moving forward.

Other games are focused on things like "get past locked door" and that can mean going down a bunch of halls, getting the key, then backtracking back to the door. Half-Life would probably have a work-around, like go into vents, climb above door through vents, drop down behind door and open from other side.

I personally think backtracking areas can be a boon to level design if done correctly - I mean you're sort of maximizing the gameplay potential of an area, meaning you're sort of doing more with less, and it just seems like the area matters more I guess.

But I agree, not a ton of backtracking, but some used throughout. 

That TV model is among the simplest Philips makes. The only real redeeming quality is the price.

Also 52" is likely to be too big for your place, but if you do want that size, consider a projector. 

http://www.quaddicted.com/quake-nostalgia/a-little-gem-on-the-sega-saturns-quake-soundtrack/ 

How did your speech go? 

I'd like to know too. 

not sure if you're allowed to say anything but is there anything in the works in the way of a new Unreal game? Not UT, but Unreal.

I understand if you're not able to say anything. 

I honestly don't know. I'm not currently working on one but I don't know what the future plans are... 

Proper Unreal2 i.e. actual Unreal sequel, would own me. 

I hate Unreal. Makes me feel icky. 

And so do we. 

thanks for the response.

Would love to see one happen, I think the new Unreal tech would support it nicely.