OT: Video Games V

[CapitalsCupReality]

I have had a couple of Razer Blades now, and I'm a fan. They're expensive, but I find that with laptops, the tactile things are really important for me. You might cart around a gaming mouse with you, but otherwise, you will be staring at the laptop's screen, you'll be typing on its keyboard, and the quality of the materials and construction for the chassis really matters. It's not like a desktop where you'll be interacting directly with peripherals. If your laptop warps or creaks or flexes, you're going to know about it. Razers are built like Macbooks, but they're all PC. Good graphics, good compact build. They're expensive, though I think you get what you pay for with the Blade's construction.

I have a Blade 15 now. Having had a 14" 3K touch screen as well as a 15.6" 1080p version, go with the 1080p for gaming unless graphical workflow use is really important to you.

Razer makes a lot of overpriced junk, but the Blade is a quality product.

I read a review...sounded great....there was some comment about the screen and chassis being a dust magnet and I was back to Alienware lol.....

if I didn’t really want to scratch a specific vendor itch, I think a Razor would be my next pick....

 

[Drake1588]

It's been a little while, but I had two Alienwares and a buddy has one still. The one I remember was a metallic blue 17" behemoth, sort of too big for portability, really. It took a dedicated backpack to carry the thing around. Man, I loved it to death, though. They're built well, though not as well as the Razers I've owned, but they have more reasonable price tags too. They're also totally focused on gamers and features that gamers prioritize, which is good. The only real thing you're losing with Alienware is the compact size... they get thicker at the back to allow for more vents and cooling. That's too thick as far as portability goes to me. Top notch computers, though.

The one thing I've soured on are laptops from no-name brands that you get purely because they have the innards you want at the lowest price you can find. The build quality and support on those things can be disappointing. Many of the known brands... Razer, Alienware, Acer, MSI, ASUS make some quality products at various tiers.

 

[Drake1588]

You might look into the Acer Predator and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus product lines for gaming laptops.

 

[usiel]

You might look into the Acer Predator and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus product lines for gaming laptops.

So many good manufactures for gaming laptops these days. Just the price versus performance to compared to desktop as things head to upper performance where it doesn't seem to make much sense. I do think that Dell hardware to use external graphics card is interesting as with my pc desktop builds often go through at least two or three graphic card upgrades before updating the core system.

 

[Drake1588]

It's funny, I've actually been finding lately that the hardware that has been coming out at a really good clip from AMD and nVidia... it's no longer being driven by gaming. PC gaming doesn't need anything more than a mid-range 20xx series card, nothing is making truly good use of ray tracing yet, gaming really doesn't touch any more than three or four cores and for that you really want high frequency counts like the 10900K... I don't know. The big advances on the graphical fidelity side and on the processing thread count side are mostly geared for workflow applications.

I find the only real hardware challenges that I need hardware for these days are coming from my photography hobby. If I want to do batch image processing on 500 RAW files, then multi-thread count is valuable. I've ordered a new mirrorless Canon EOS R5 that shoots 45 MP images and the resulting image processing will demand some horsepower. But I don't shoot video, I don't edit video, and I don't process animation or create special effects. The hardware is fast eclipsing my needs, and has been for a little while now.

I'm gaming on two very good 27" 1440p Gsync panels, 165Hz, IPS, and I'm not really looking for 4K, much less am I interested in 8K. The 360 Hz panels don't really interest me either. I sometimes see the attraction of an ultrawide for work, but not for gaming.

I'm hoping that the new console generation will drive the third party developers to start making use of the newer technology for gaming. Right now, while I know I'll eventually plunk down for a RTX 3080, I certainly am in no rush. I am gaming on 9700K and RTX 2080 Super. It's plenty at these resolutions.

I have an x570 platform with a token 3600X in it for the moment. I plan to put an AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series CPU and a RTX 3080 in there in the next six months, but do I really need it now? The games specs just aren't there for it yet. I can wait a while.

(Except of course, incongruously, Flight Simulator. What the hell, Microsoft?)

If I were advising someone right now, I might steer him/her to go for a Ryzen 5600 when it's out ($200), a B550 motherboard ($150), 16GB of 3600 MHz RAM ($60), a good air cooler ($75) or even the stock cooler, some decent case fans ($15 x 3), and then a RTX 3070 ($500) when it's out later in the year. That's a cool $800-$1000 and it will give you plenty for most gaming purposes. Do as I say and not as I do, because I'm leaving a lot of performance unused on the table with what I built. Some of that is purely aesthetics, though.

Laptops are just a different animal. I want them to play new games and I want them to be durable, well built, and extremely compact. I don't need battery life, but I want almost everything else. I need to fit it in a medium knapsack with a lot of camera gear, and all of that small enough to carry-on even a smallish plane. That's just pricey any way you slice it.

 

[g00n]

After a few more games of FIFA 21 some more observations.

Game still cheats. Phantom passes and weird fluffs happen, where the CPU gives the ball to itself, or computer controlled teammates make inexplicable errors and your avatars miss nets, hit posts, take bad angles, pass in the opposite direction you indicate, etc usually in the last few minutes of a match.

In one case the computer gave my best defender 2 consecutive yellows for animations the CPU selected. The contest went extra time plus 1 minute, following countless sketchy breaks for the computer, but for some reason the match extended to almost 4 minutes of additional play, at which point the computer gave itself the ball on a funky bounce and pounded it into the net.

In another game I lost my 2 best players to injury in the first 5 minutes.

This shit usually happens when you play against teams with 100 chemistry. Beware such matchups, even if the team's rating is low. This isn't really new but it seems more pronounced this year.

Soundtrack sucks so bad got immediately sick of it. Turned the music off entirely, and the various other volume sliders down. Play with Spotify app on in the background and the crowd/announcers barely audible in the mix. Long-press of the PS button during play brings up the menu to control Spotify.

Getting used to the menus and if you can figure out the tricks it's easier than previous versions to manage your FUT team from within the squad page rather than having to go back and forth to the transfer list. This was a complaint of mine so glad they addressed it (along with the insane fitness drudgery).

Maybe it's more realism and ability ratings having an effect, but some basic moves seem more difficult and passing on the fly seems clunky and less crisp. Again this could be the ratings as I'm using players in the low 80s since the game just started and I'm not buying any additional packs.

As usual with FIFA, the problems sort of feed into the satisfaction when you pull off something nice, and beat the computer at its own game. So maybe they know what they're doing.

 

[John Price]

I love the Caps but I hate the direction EA has taken NHL with minimal improvements year after year

Is NHL 21 worth the HYPE

 

[Cush]

Cyberpunk delayed again, December 10



Game had gone gold, wonder if they missed a major bug or something

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Cyberpunk delayed again, December 10



Game had gone gold, wonder if they came across something big

Is that Keanu Reeves?

 

[Marshall]

Yep, he's a character in the game.

CDProjekt stinks at release dates.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Yep, he's a character in the game.

CDProjekt stinks at release dates.

Haven't heard much about Cyberpunk but now that I know Keanu is in it I must check it out.

I've been digging Rogue Company a lot lately. It's a lot of fun and easy to jump into. Debating on whether to drop some money to unlock a few more of the Rogues or just keep keeping on with the stock characters.

 

[g00n]

Got bored with Fifa. Typical EA repackaging, mostly. At least for my purposes. Setting it down for a while.

Probably just finish AC Origins and wait for FarCry6. AC taking foreverrrrrrr

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Got bored with Fifa. Typical EA repackaging, mostly. At least for my purposes. Setting it down for a while.

Probably just finish AC Origins and wait for FarCry6. AC taking foreverrrrrrr

Haven’t had the urge to buy FIFA this year. Maybe it’s the long queue of unplaced games I have already or being able to watch less of the Premier League due to Peacock or that I’m having fun with a few others right now but I don’t plan on buying it any time soon or until it goes on deep sale.

I’m just waiting for PS5 and the release of AC Valhalla. Resisting the urge to play anything AC right now so I don’t get AC fatigue before that comes out. I just downloaded Watch Dogs 2 so I’m going to give that a shot. Or hell, maybe I’ll finish one of the 15 books I’ve started recently

 

[Hivemind]

Yep, he's a character in the game.

CDProjekt stinks at release dates.

It's amazing how much their release date slips despite having reportedly horrible working conditions (12+ hour days with no OT, etc). I guess working from home during COVID might make it harder for them to crack the whip.

 

[g00n]

Haven’t had the urge to buy FIFA this year. Maybe it’s the long queue of unplaced games I have already or being able to watch less of the Premier League due to Peacock or that I’m having fun with a few others right now but I don’t plan on buying it any time soon or until it goes on deep sale.

I’m just waiting for PS5 and the release of AC Valhalla. Resisting the urge to play anything AC right now so I don’t get AC fatigue before that comes out. I just downloaded Watch Dogs 2 so I’m going to give that a shot. Or hell, maybe I’ll finish one of the 15 books I’ve started recently

Book? That's like a paper iPad, right?

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I think it’s usually overkill to buy FIFA or NHL every year. An every other cycle where one gets updated each year is where I try to go....

FIFA and F1 will be high on my PS5 list when the time comes....

 

[g00n]

I think it’s usually overkill to buy FIFA or NHL every year. An every other cycle where one gets updated each year is where I try to go....

FIFA and F1 will be high on my PS5 list when the time comes....

I usually skip years as well but rolled the dice the last few. FIFA 21 coming with a free PS5 upgrade version was a plus.

I'd like to be able to play EPL seasons without dicking with all the GM crap. IDGAF about 7 figure contract negotiations, for example. I do that kind of shit in real life, I don't want it in a soccer game I'm playing to ESCAPE work. lol

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I usually skip years as well but rolled the dice the last few. FIFA 21 coming with a free PS5 upgrade version was a plus.

I'd like to be able to play EPL seasons without dicking with all the GM crap. IDGAF about 7 figure contract negotiations, for example. I do that kind of shit in real life, I don't want it in a soccer game I'm playing to ESCAPE work. lol

Same here.....just let me play the entire season, all competitions and be happy. The contract negotiation enamor wears off way too easy. Just let me build my all star team and crush people lol....

 

[g00n]

Same here.....just let me play the entire season, all competitions and be happy. The contract negotiation enamor wears off way too easy. Just let me build my all star team and crush people lol....

Hell I don't even want that much. I would just like to be able to take the stock roster and play the season. This year it feels like the only way I'm going to get to see my team play on the reg.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Book? That's like a paper iPad, right?

Yep, and the best ones have lots of pictures.

 

[g00n]

Far Cry 6 Delayed Until After March 2021 - IGN

Plenty of time to finish AC and try some other crap, too.

 

[tenken00]

 

[Devil Dancer]

Hades is great, if anyone needs a new Roguelite in their life.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

Last night for the first time in 3-4 years I played NCAA 14. It was bliss like I haven’t known in, like, 3-4 years.

Sad thing is the player/game graphics haven’t changed a lot between NCAA 14 and the latest Madden.

 

[Devil Dancer]

I like the Series X so far, but Watch Dogs Legion is broken on it. The save function just doesn't work. It's not just me, there are plenty of people complaining about it on the Ubi forums.

Shame, it's a lot of fun when it works.