B-1: First Impressions

There are plenty of hardcore reviews out there with benchmark results and the like. Though I'm an avid gamer, I don't usually bother with that type of stuff. I prefer to focus on the more practical matters... I don't ever monitor my frames per second. I don't overclock my processor. I could go on, but you get the idea.

It isn't for a lack of knowledge, but more a lack of reward compared to time invested. I just want to play games, you know?

So, with that introduction, I give you my casual-user's first impressions of the Asus G73JH-B1.

The laptop is sleek and a pleasure to use. I'm not a big fan of mousepads, never have been, and as I've said previously this is my first laptop. I haven't quite gotten the hang of using it yet, but I won't hold that against this particular laptop.

One of the soft rubber supports that is glued onto the under-side of the laptop was apparently loose and came off the first time I set the laptop down. That was disappointing, though not a big deal by any means.

There are no lazy or dead pixels. Windows 7 is a bit of a learning curve, and already I've ran into some compatibility issues with older games. Bioshock (with the 1.1 patch) in particular seems to be unresolvable; after countless hours spent consulting The Oracle, I failed to find a single effective fix that didn't involve downloading and running myriad third-party software.

Still, that's an OS issue and is neither here nor there... Though I can't say I'm entirely surprised by Bioshock's cantankerous nature.

Windows 7 - early verdict

I hate this shit. It's not just that I loath learning new OSes, which I do, but the simple fact is a lot of my bread-and-butter games/programs are running into issues with Windows 7.

The Oracle suggests that I'm not alone, but surprisingly has no solutions that don't involve running a passel of third party apps and software suites just to get your games to work. I'm not trying to play dos games here, this is stuff from as recently as two years ago!

I'm exhausted, I worked all day today, I work all day tomorrow, and I'm officially giving up on the laptop until the weekend. When I next have free time, I shall spend it playing fun games on my old, slow yet stable Frankenstein rig.

Why is it that I'm always shocked when I pay for a "gaming computer" that can't play games? A bit unfair to Asus perhaps, but there it is.