DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Fantasy & Gaming Sorta trying to get back into computer gaming

So I've got a MacBook Pro which I love, and i'm sort of trying to do a little more computer gaming stuff. I bought a gaming mouse of amazon at a great price, and I realized that I just haven't used an optical mouse for gaming in forever. I bought one with a wire after realizing that wireless on Macbook Pro is useless because the USB ports are on the left side of the computer. Totally ruined my experience with BioShock, and so I bought it for my 360 instead and loved the game.

Anyway, what's the best surface for an optical mouse for FPS games? And has anyone hooked up a 360 controller to their computer to play? I was thinking about doing that as I'm much better with a controller than the computer now. I used to be great with the computer, CounterStrike, Team Fortress, and Day Of Defeat, but now I just seem lost. So is it hard to hook up a controller? I looked on amazon and saw this thing with a wire attached to the battery pack which looks like it has a usb connection at the end. Has anyone used one of these?

Sorry if my two posts in this gaming forum have been ridiculous just now, I'm kind of all hopped up on prescription medications from an operation I had yesterday on my nasal passages. But yeah, any insight would be appreciated!

I actually use a wired 360 controller. If you are using bootcamp to run windows on your MBP it should be plug and play. If you are running Steam OSX it should still work, just may need to google for setup information. There are wireless USB hookups you can buy from amazon too to use your wireless 360 controllers on a computer.

As for best surface for optical mouse any mouse pad should suffice but if you want one in specific:

http://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-QcK-Gaming-Mouse-Black/dp/B000UEZ36W

Best surface for the mouse is the computer desk itself, I hate being restricted by a mouse pad.

I have a wireless xbox 360 controller installed on windows 7, not really sure about using it on a mac though.

Found this for you though.

Consoles have aim assist for FPS shooters that computers do not. You will find your aim using a controller on a PC game to be very bad.

As silly as the term "pro" sounds I'm a former pro halo PC player. Not a single person used a controller in our league for that reason. I currently play CS GO and don't know anyone who uses a controller. You can try if you like but I think the results will be pretty bad compared to a mouse and keyboard. Especially for CS GO the hitboxes are tiny, you might be able to get away with it playing as a Demoman in TF2.

I do have an emulated version of smash brothers melee that you can play online against people, a controller is very handy for that. I'm trying to play with a keyboard and it is impossible due to the sensitivity and keyplacement.

When you aren't using a mousepad all you really need to worry about is whether or not your desk is smooth and non-reflective. I didn't use a pad in my pro days and had no trouble with it. In fact when I had a steelpad it would sort of heat up from my hand and develop a reflective spot.

Edit: I'm not sure if reflective is the right term, but you'll know it when you have it. It might actually be the opposite of things being absorbed or refracted. It happens when I play on something white or when my mousepad would get condensation on it. Your mouse kind of wigs out and loses responsiveness.

Let me know if you want any tips at CS. I'm fairly good at it.

Sort of off topic here but ties into the thread title. Has anyone ever bought one of the pre-built gaming PCs from Newegg.com? I am looking for some feedback good or bad.
I have somewhat lost my "knowhow" when it comes to new PCs. I will say I am not a hardcore computer gamer(must have ultra settings all the time and play on a 32" screen etc.) but I would like to have one that will run most games decently without spending out the wazoo. I am not real comfortable with building my own, as i am not familiar with a lot of the newer parts, so that is where I am looking for the opinions.
I have found one that looks pretty nice for the price here

Thoughts?

The video card in that in a little lacking, but the processor and memory will be solid performers.

If you got that (or a similar system for a comparable price) and added a higher end video card to it, it would definitely be able to rock pretty much any game out there.

This one would be a fairly affordable choice ($115): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121727

That would give some pretty solid bang for the buck, and would be a significant upgrade over the stock card in that system.

Cool thanks for the feedback. Will definitely look into that.

That's a nice video card but I would probably recommend a card with at least 2 GB's of ram on it if you plan on playing some of the newly released games. They are becoming much more demanding.

That's a valid point.

There is a 2GB version of that card for $150: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121772

Cool thanks for the info. I have been doing quite a bit of homework and familiarizing myself again with the latest tech. That being said I found this also at newegg. It looks like quite a bargain from what I can tell. The only problem I see is there is only one review and it is bad, also I can't find much info on Avatar.

Does anyone see anything bad that maybe I missed with this pc or know anything about the company?

Well looks like it just went out of stock. Oh well.