Well, I spent the last two nights attempting to force-beat the Wing Commander: Privateer Remake into shape to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, integrated graphics suck (as someone on the support forums was quick to point out).

So, after beating it bloody getting it to work, I only found it to be unuseably slow. It's gotten some good reviews, though, even grabbing a mention on Slashdot. I'm really wishing that I'd chosen to build this machine from scratch with the parts I wanted. Unfortunately, a year ago I don't think that I really knew what I wanted. Ahwell. Until I get the money to build a new machine, or buy something along the lines of Nvidia's Geforce, looks like I'll just have to deal. I'm a little leery of touching the hardware on this out-of-the-box machine as well, having heard enough horror stories of the difficulties of making upgrades on similar computers.

Live and learn, I guess. Or, as they say in CPR training: "Learn and Live". At least I'll get some more sleep now.