To me it sounds like pulse may be defaulting to the hdmi output, there is a good discussion on the mint forums at http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=117247 in which they have helped people to track down and resolve hdmi audio and auto-mute audio issues, I highly recommend for you to check it out and see if any of those solutions can resolve your problem.

It looks like you want more advanced functionality out of your synaptics touchpad, a basic explanation of configuration items can be found at http://askubuntu.com/questions/82740/help-configuring-synaptics-touchpad , I also have saved the configuration file that I use for my CR-48 chromebook running slackware at which includes comments for most options at http://pastebin.com/bmETqb9k , you can use that as a base for your configuration.

Most desktops distros come with gnome, kde or enlightenment installed by defaults so those satisfy your need for a 3d desktop. The games are the question because we do not know what type of games you want preinstalled, first person shooters are generally very large so they are not installed by default, but I know that at least KDE based distros ship with kdegames installed which include card games, logic games and other basic types which can be reviewed at http://games.kde.org/

If you tell us what type of games you want then maybe we can offer better assistance.

I am glad that launchpad was able to fix your problems. I personally do not use ubuntu because I do not agree with their software choices, but I have personally met some of their engineers and they are knowledgeable, passionate people who are very willing to help correct problems.

As for any ubuntu, if you just need help understanding a tool then checkout http://help.ubuntu.com and if there is a problem with hardware not working or software acting weird report it on launchpad so that community can help you.

We here at linux.com will always try our best to help you but we use varying distros and may not always know your distro or hardware well enough to give a prompt answer so it never hurts to ask in both locations, if nothing else we can point you to the community for your chosen distro.

Rather than reposting data that is already on the net, I recommend checking out some of the posts at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12522388/sed-awk-match-a-pattern-and-return-everything-between-the-end-of-the-pattern-a

In addition you may be able to find some other scripts that can help at http://www.commandlinefu.com

I have not used NS2, but I will try my best to help. If the executable is stored in a folder that is displayed in the output of "echo $PATH" then the app should be capable of launching by just typing the name. Please make sure that the app is executable and that your path is located in your path environmental variable.

Does the app run when you attempt to execute it directly from the containing folder?