What is the last video game you played?

[Edmilson 11,810]

2 hours ago, Quintus said:

How's the difficulty? As I get older I've noticed I have ever shrinking patience for annoying roadblocks such as particularly challenging boss fights and opaque puzzles.

The combat is clunky but by design. James, the character you control, isn't a trained soldier or anything. At the beginning of the game you receive a wood plank to defend yourself from the monsters, but as you progress you get more firearms and a piece of iron. However, the amount of ammo you have is always pretty slim, as is the healing items. So you need to proceed with caution, some monsters you'll need to avoid rather than kill, etc.

 

The good news is that for the boss fights there's a nice amount of health items and ammo, so you won't be stuck. You'll just need to find them in the corners of the boss area, which can be a little annoying when the boss decides to attack you as you're healing or reloading your gun.

 

The puzzles can be very opaque, but to be perfectly honest... most of them I just looked the solution on YouTube 

 

Most of the gameplay is you running around for each level (the city itself, two apartment buildings, a hospital, the prison, the labyrinth and finally the hotel) finding items you'll need to complete the puzzles. The game doesn't clearly indicate where are each item and what you should do with them, or maybe it was me relying on Youtube too much .

 

But IMHO nothing that detracts you from the experience. The game's strong points are the atmosphere, the (very) dark and disturbing story, and you'll still need to fight the monsters defending the items you need. 

 

I found out that when you think you've got a good handle on the game, it throws you surprises to keep you on your toes.

 

A fantastic game though... But it may not be for everyone, especially if you don't want to check YouTube every 20 minutes to make sure you're not going to the wrong place.

 

Also, something that may annoy the player: the only way of restoring your health is with health items. And I mean that literally. For example, if you create a save point when you have 50% of your health, whenever you reload that save point you won't be with full health but rather the same 50%.

[Koray Savas 2,259]

On 9/4/2025 at 4:38 PM, Quintus said:

I'm playing Ghosts of Tsushima. I was reluctant because open world stuff turns me off, but I'm surprised by how crisp this one is. It just feels so nice to control, the combat especially is 🫦

One of my favorite open world games. Great design with the fog of war and integrated UI mechanics to guide you around. Meaningful side quests too. 

Very excited for the sequel this year. 

[Holko 11,953]

After the incredible Baldur's Gate III I had a major itch to scratch, and so I went down an RPG rabbithole, stuff I've always heard of but somehow never really got to or cared to get to. And holy crap are there good stuff out there to scratch the itch.

Planescape: Torment must've been awesome for its time, and still is pretty good if you can get past the dated and (intentionally) ugly and muddy visuals and the not exactly fantastic combat. I even got the soundtrack!

Disco Elysium is absolutely fascinating, and one of the only games ever so far where instead of being content to try and get the "best" ending every time in similar ways, I want to replay it multiple times in different ways and styles, see how the other personalities work and what else can you get or miss. Great atmosphere and voice acting too!

Dragon Age: Origins was the one I really wasn't sure how I missed all this time. Again, fantastic. Picked a mage which is usually not my choice, felt like it worked so well into the story that I can't even imagine how other classes start out! I'l see eventually I guess. Loved how much the companions grow and how much depth everything gets. Nice satisfying package. Based on many opinions I then decided not to ruin it with the next games 

 

And then I just finished the Mass Effect Trilogy (Legendary Edition). Wow. 1 was a great KOTOR throwback, from another time design-and gameplaywise but loved the characters and world and got again a neat package. 2 was a bit of a whipash in the gameplay/RPG downgrade and story weight/focus department, but the character writing was strong enough that I still liked it a lot. And then 3. Looooooved it. It feels like there's weight to everything. Choices you made previously are referenced or even come back to support you every step of the way (yeah of course I was a full Paragon all the way through with some exceptions where my Shepard had to cut the shit, but by 3 I really loved how she's basically a superhero with empathy as her superpower), characters are developed now and play off of each other all the time, it all felt like one big ending, a series of payoff after payoff after payoff. Getting to see home planets, solving century-old galactic problems, following up on everyone, getting a ton of crew interactions, saying goodbye to everyone... Yeah, it got pretty emotional at times.

[crocodile 9,535]

On 03/06/2025 at 12:42 AM, Koray Savas said:

One of my favorite open world games. Great design with the fog of war and integrated UI mechanics to guide you around. Meaningful side quests too. 

Very excited for the sequel this year. 

I literally resumed playing after 3-4 years not long ago. Took me a little time to relearn fighting etc. But now I am almost done, finishes most side missions so the only thing left is completing it now. Love this game, can't wait for the new one later this year.

 

Karol

[Jay 45,403]

 

Portal 2

 

Started last night and completed Chapter 1 in less than an hour.  Everything has been easy so far, and sometimes I barely knew what I was doing, but it felt good to be back in the world and I can't wait to see what new challenges it throws at me now that I have the full portal gun again.  Boy, there's WAY more dialogue in this one than the first one!

[Jay 45,403]

Completed chapter 2 last night.  The difficulty is slowly ramping up and I love it!

 

The constant taunting from GLaDOS as you work you way through the testing floors gets funnier and funnier.  At first she is just ragging on you for being dumb and an orphan, but now she's saying you're fat too  

 

Meanwhile that robot head guy (pictured above) that talked to you a ton in chapter one didn't say anything in chapter 2 at all, but a few times you could see him ducking into a wall and stuff.  I actually really like the massive increase in environmental effects compared to the first game, with you going into the rooms and the walls and just screwing into place and stuff.  

[bored 603]

Coincidentally I just finished another run of the first game. Forgot how dark and twisted the Portal universe really is under the comedic surface. Probably one of the best video game stories of all time, those two games. 

[Anthony 894]

16 hours ago, Jay said:

Completed chapter 2 last night.  The difficulty is slowly ramping up and I love it!

 

The constant taunting from GladOS as you work you way through the testing floors gets funnier and funnier.  At first she is just ragging on you for being dumb and an orphan, but now she's saying you're fat too  

 

Meanwhile that robot head guy (pictured above) that talked to you a ton in chapter one didn't say anything in chapter 2 at all, but a few times you could see him ducking into a wall and stuff.  I actually really like the massive increase in environmental effects compared to the first game, with you going into the rooms and the walls and just screwing into place and stuff.  

 

Oh man, you've got so much more to discover. The game is HUGE in scale compared to the original. This is barely scratching the surface. I will say no more.

[Jay 45,403]

Sadly I wasn't able to play chapter 3 last night, and won't tonight either, but hopefully soon!

[Jay 45,403]

Finished Chapter 3. Love the new mechanics, especially the light bridge! Super fun that it can be used as a bridge or as a turret blocker. Love killing turrets with laser blasts too!

 

Finding new graffiti now with phases of the moon drawn, and messages I don't really understand. GLaDOS has just promised a reunion with my parents....

[Jay 45,403]

Finished Chapter 4. It was very short! Only three levels I think, when most had 5 or 6 or so. But this is because the floating eye robot guy helps you escape! That was a fun change of pace, since you have to run for your life at times, so it becomes a bit of an action game for a bit instead of a puzzle one. Oh, and GLaDOS lied about reuniting you with your parents lol. Curious to see where the game goes now that you're not just doing her tests!

[Holko 11,953]

Interesting, in all my countless playthroughs I mostly paid little attention to the chapter titles, let alone break the game up with them like this! And I'm pretty sure there will be one or two where you won't just quit when you see the title 

 

In some places if you stand and wait instead of following or doing the obvious action, you can get minutes of great Stephen Merchant rambling!

[Jay 45,403]

Finished Chapter 5 and it was soooo cool!

 

I loved being "behind the scenes" of the facility, there was a ton of new visual elements to enjoy, and different platforming challenges instead of mostly portal based challenges.  Sabotaging the turret manufacturing, then neurotoxin tank, then GLaDOS was all super easy after some of the very difficult puzzles you're doing in the early game, yet no less satisfying because it was all so different and cool.  And I loved the big showdown with GLaDOS and how the power immediately goes to Wheatley's (apparently the name of the eyeball robot thing) head as soon as he takes over And GLaDOS herself is a potato now?

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Holko said:

Interesting, in all my countless playthroughs 

 

 

Oh wow, you've played it more than once?

 

10 hours ago, Holko said:

I mostly paid little attention to the chapter titles, let alone break the game up with them like this! And I'm pretty sure there will be one or two where you won't just quit when you see the title 

 

Me stopping playing for the night is more due to being tired and having so little free time in my life to even play at all, so the new chapter coming up is actually a perfect excuse to stop playing and go to sleep

 

 

10 hours ago, Holko said:

In some places if you stand and wait instead of following or doing the obvious action, you can get minutes of great Stephen Merchant rambling!

 

OMG, Stephen Merchant!  I recognized the voice but hadn't put any thought into who it was lol.  Totally recognizable now of course!  And yes, whenever he or GLaDOS start talking I always make sure I hear the whole thing before doing something that would cut it off.  The dialogue in the game is both well-written and well-performed!

[Holko 11,953]

I guess by now you can really see how 1 was just a tech demo beefed up and polished to be fit enough to release for the public, while 2 was built to be much more of a game

 

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

Oh wow, you've played it more than once?

5+, maybe 10+ times probably! Same with the first one! But I could only rope in a friend to go through the co-op campaign of 2 with one time. But on every playthrough I still remember how stumped I was at some parts my first time! Then breeze through them easily 

[Jay 45,403]

Yeah I saw this one was co-op and that mode looks pretty cool, I'm sure they can do way more complicated puzzles with two people having to do things at certain times, etc

[Jay 45,403]

CHAPTER 6 WAS INCREDIBLE!!!

 

Holy smokes, the complete change of visuals to not only go into a retros 60s futurist aesthetic, but also have these HUGE open spaces instead of narrow corridors all the time, was amazing.  And the sound design was amazing as well, with the echoes and the occasional rumbling from unknown depths making you constantly feel like something huge could be coming at any time.

 

And then... JK SIMMONS IS IN THIS GAME!?  Holy cow that was a fun surprise, and he did great work (honestly, all 3 actors do great voicework in this game throughout).  I loved the attitude his character have, and his delivery made already funny dialogue at times even better.  

 

Then on top of all that, you get more new stuff to play with, like blue goo that makes you jump!  This let to some really fun puzzle solving.  The cubes getting coated in goo and bouncing all around was fun too, and the the mechanic of water being available to un-coat things was nifty as well.

 

Then at the end you find the GLaDOS potato in a bird's nest and have to rescue her  

 

Can't wait to see what happens next!

[Jay 45,403]

Chapter 7 was super cool!

 

The red good to make you go faster turned out to be a fun mechanic, especially when combined with the jumping goo.  Then they introduce another whole mechanic, the white goo that can turn surfaces into portal-able ones.  I guess that's not a new mechanic, more like a bit of puzzle solving you do first to then set up everything else you gotta do with other goos or whatever.

 

What makes chapters 6 and 7 so fun is how the rooms you go through keep ticking up from the 1950s to the 1980s, as JK Simmons voiceovers with it, so he goes through a bit of a personality change over the years, especially at the end when he's affected by the moon rocks used to make the white goo and he's yammering on about lemons  It was a fun reveal that GLaDOS is his former assistant Caroline in AI form, but kind funny that it takes her a while to figure that out even though its obvious to the player right away

[Jay 45,403]

Chapter 8 was great, and probably the longest chapter in the whole game (took me multiple nights to finish)

 

Stephen Merchant is having SO much fun playing the deranged Wheatley, its great.  Another new mechanic is added here, the tractor beams that push (or pull) you (or boxes) up, down, forward, or backward depending on what you need to do, and its awesome.  So many rooms you walk in and have no clue what to do, and slowly figure out how to combine all the different mechanics to get it done, and its so rewarding when you do.  When you get to the point where you're using the tractor beams to move gel from one place to another, or setting up areas to use red gel to fling yourself crazy distances, its all so cool!

 

I didn't really like that the boxes are now broken turrets repurposed, so they kind of wiggle and make weird noises - it's creepy!  But the visuals overall are also kicked up another notch, where you're now really up high over bottomless pits where you can look down and see tons of structure and depth they put into it just to look at.  I liked a few times where Wheatley is still creating the chambers and giants parts are moving around before you start doing your thing.

[Jay 45,403]

I finished Chapter 9!

 

The final run of levels are fun since there's a speed element introduced, where sometimes you have to figure out what to do quickly before Wheatley crushes you, or execute what you know you have to do in a small window.  It's fun that GLaDOS's big plan to stump him with a paradox doesn't have any affect at all, but then when you confront him he kind of tells you what to do.  So like the first game, the final boss isn't all that challenging really, but still has challenging parts and uses a different sort of puzzle solving.  There really isn't a final big level that makes you use every single mechanic from the whole game in succession or anything, but that's fine, because the boss fight was really fun.  I definitely died a lot trying to pull off what you go to do, which was not annoying at all, really, since it saves for you after you attach each CPU, and also because each CPU had such FUNNY voice lines to listen to!  The first one obsessed with space was mildly funny, but then the second cowboy guy was hilarious, and then the third guy quoting random facts (i kept hearing different ones every time I died) was a hoot too.

 

The hardest part of the final boss fight for me was figuring out how to get that third CPU.  I saw the pipe get smashed and the red goo come out, and knew I could place a portal in front of it so I'd run into that and then get shot somewhere, but for whatever reason it took me far too long to realize I just had to put it in the floor and it would shoot me right up to it lol.  Once I did that, I don't even know how I managed to attach it to Wheatley, I think I just randomly chose one portal point and it was the right one!

 

The ending was a bit strange.  Why does shooting a portal onto the moon work?  I mean, I get that they set this up by saying the white goo was manufactured from moon rocks, but how is your portal gun able to shoot so far? I guess I'm not supposed to think about that stuff  

 

The turrets singing a song was super weird and kinda funny, and I thought a nice contrast to the ending song from the first game, since I mean, how could you possibly compete with that..... but then they go and try anyway, with another GLaDOS  ending song!  It wasn't as good as the first, maybe just due to the novelty having worn off, I'm not sure;  I'll have to listen to both again outside of their games.

Overall it's a bummer Valve gave up on making Half Life and Portal games to just run Steam instead, because boy is there potential for this to be an ongoing series with new games every so often, there's so much you can do with the mechanics, and so many new mechanics that would probably fit right in!

 

 

[Holko 11,953]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

but how is your portal gun able to shoot so far?

Quantum physics!

[Jay 45,403]

haha ok!

 

I have to say, this was some of the most value in gaming I've ever had.  I want to say it was like $3 for BOTH games, and I've gotten WAY less enjoyment out of $60 games!

[Fargo 303]

On 12/05/2025 at 5:41 PM, p0llux said:

I'm currently playing:

 

Schedule I

Helldivers 2

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Starting soon)

 

How did you like Expedition 33? I did a search on the site for this game and this was the only hit, which kind of surprised me. It has some of the best music I've heard in a video game in a long long time. And the game itself was amazing, IMO

[Jay 45,403]

Trying to decide what I should play next!

 

Top options right now are:

• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Hades
• Dead Cells
• Ghost Trick
• finish Tears of the Kingdom (put 150 hours or something in when it came out but have TONS left to do)
• finish Metroid Prime remastered (gave up halfway-ish through, never played the original version either)
• finish Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (wasn't loving it or hating it, just moved on to other things)

 

Any thoughts?

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

Prime or Tears.

[Jim 6,204]

Just noticed mention of Helldivers 2 here. Spectacular co-op (and solo) sci-fi action extravaganza which makes the Starship Troopers MOVIE look like Animal Crossing. That game for me is tied with another as being one of the two best gaming experiences I've enjoyed in the past five years. The other title being Grounded, which was magical. They just announced its sequel a couple of weeks ago, and me and the kids are over the moon. 

[crocodile 9,535]

I casually play bits of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle every other night or so. As far as the spirit and tone, the game nails it. It actually feels more Indiana Jones than the last two movies. The guy voicing Indy does a great job of channeling Ford and music mostly replicates the sound successfully. But I am not so sure about the gameplay itself. At times, it feels immersive, when you're investigating and solving puzzles. But the world and people around you feel dead. It would have been better with third person. But I will stick around for the story.

 

Karol

[Jay 45,403]

My choice to go physical whenever possible for the Switch bit me in the ass last night, as I was already comfy in bed with my Switch when I realized any of the new games I wanted to start were all in another room.  So browsing through the digital games I had picked up super cheap, I decided to randomly go with.......

 

 

The Messenger

 

Holy shit I loved it!  I was actually turned off a bit at first, as the retro, 8-bit, Ninja-Gaiden-esque graphics and music were kind of a turn off.  I mean, I like retro games, but sometimes when modern developers go TOO retro I think it backfires; I prefer something with retro gameplay but gorgeous modern graphics, like Hollow Knight or Steamworld Dig.  However, the game quickly won me over with very funny dialogue from the shopkeeper, which genuinely made me excited to find his spots again and see what new dialogue he had.  And along the way of course, I got more powerups and traversing the level and defeating the enemies got more and more fun.  I only played one level but I know what I'll be playing on the plane in a few days!

[Not Mr. Big 4,943]

Started my borrowed copy of the new Fire Emblem but kind of got overwhelmed by the vast text instructions every five minutes (I never played one of these games before).  Maybe one of the earlier games would be a better starting point.

 

Playing Octopath Traveler on switch and the music is fantastic.  I'm finally starting to get the appeal of turn based games and I really enjoy the mechanic where you exploit elemental vulnerabilities to "break" an enemy's guard, skipping their turn and leaving them vulnerable to attack.  This leads to strategic moments where you can choose to attack an enemy, heal, or break. 

I don't like the pixel art character style but the shallow focus 3D environments are cool.

[Jay 45,403]

Nice, I played the demo of Octopath Traveler and enjoyed it, been meaning to play the full game but haven't found time

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

21 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Started my borrowed copy of the new Fire Emblem but kind of got overwhelmed by the vast text instructions every five minutes (I never played one of these games before).  Maybe one of the earlier games would be a better starting point.

Engage?

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

In-game rendered Lara

 

Fan-made Sora AI generated Lara

[Jim 6,204]

On 25/06/2025 at 8:03 AM, crocodile said:

I casually play bits of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle every other night or so. As far as the spirit and tone, the game nails it. It actually feels more Indiana Jones than the last two movies. The guy voicing Indy does a great job of channeling Ford and music mostly replicates the sound successfully. But I am not so sure about the gameplay itself. At times, it feels immersive, when you're investigating and solving puzzles. But the world and people around you feel dead. It would have been better with third person. But I will stick around for the story.

 

Karol

 

I agree. Despite them doing a really good job making a first person Indy game feel authentic and well thought out, I still found the gameplay, the pace of it, a bit plodding. I get that some players love the immersive sim style, but I'll never not think an Indy video game adventure would be much better served in third person and paced more like The Last of Us, with those same cinematic production values.

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

I'm about ready to rage quit Arkham Knight.

 

EDIT: Never mind, I managed to soldier through this bit that seemed impossible. Devs having a good laugh with unforgiving tanks, unfair checkpoints, and even bizarre glitches.

[Jay 45,403]

Wow, I just discovered that Dan Trachtenberg (director of 10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey, and Predator: Badlands) directed a Portal short film, and its free on youtube

 

 

 

I thought that was pretty good!  It's a bit unfortunate that with the overall short runtime, it takes so long to get into the portal-gun action, and then she just instantly learns advanced techniques to do with it, but whatevs.  The actress playing Chell (Danielle Rayne) is super hot, it's kind of shocking she doesn't seem to have garnered much of a notable career.  She'd be great in all the action movies they make these days.

 

The score is basically just Nine Inch Nails, I wonder if Trent's ever heard this and what he thoughts were, lol

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

After so many rage quits and heart attack inducing states of frustration, I finished the main story campaign of Arkham Knight. That GCPD rooftop brawl almost killed me. As in, real life. I was feeling the onset of a myocardial infarction as these levels slogged on and on... or it might have been indigestion. It was dragging out for so long and it seemed no matter how much I tried, I just couldn't beat these thugs and brutes who were coming in waves. Mercifully, this brawl had checkpoints, but farrrk you had to fight your way towards it, almost breaking the controller. And I'm sure my Dualsense is getting worn out.

 

So now it's just going free roam and finishing off side missions and figuring out all those stupid Riddler puzzles. And you need 100% entire completion to get the Knightfall protocol ending, so this will take me ages on top of the previous 38 hours I've clocked on this game.

 

I need a more laid back game after this.

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

@Jay Silksong playable demo at gamescom 2025!!

 

Hollow Knight: Silksong Will Be Playable At Gamescom 2025

[Jay 45,403]

Yeah I saw!  Maybe we'll actually be able to play this thing in 2025!

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

I still haven't finished HK! LOL

[Jay 45,403]

What part are you at?

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

In my current playthrough, I have just beaten the Dung Defender and opened up Kingdom's Edge.

 

I am trying a "getting all the upgrades as early as possible, before getting the monarch wings and the dreamers, in order to keep the crossroads becoming more difficult due to the infection" run

 

The farthest I have gotten was to Traitor Lord.

 

 

[Jay 45,403]

The Traitor Lord is a tough boss, I never beat him on my first playthrough (where I only got the bad ending).  Felt so good to beat him on my second playthrough (where I finally got the good ending)

 

On my third playthrough I think I had retained enough muscle memory of so many parts of the game he wasn't that big of a deal.

 

I might do a fourth playthrough this fall...

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

Not entirely sure what number playthrough my current is lol (sometimes I help my Dad with his file, which usually ends up with me semi taking over, and then him starting over later, especially if he/we pick it up again after us not playing it for while

 

BTW, I got a Switch 2 now!

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

I'm interested in getting a wired mechanical keyboard for my gaming laptop, but I'm not sure whether to get a brown switch or a red switch.

 

On one hand, the brown switch seems like it would have some familiarity to it – the tactile resistance probably resembles my old budget wireless membrane keyboard, which is fine for typing. But for games? It may or may not provide what I want, I'm not sure.

 

On the other, the red switch would be a big departure for me, but maybe it's better for gaming? I mean, if I want to switch keyboards between games and typing, I just change keyboards, which would probably be a pest, but hey, the option is there.

 

Need help.

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

Consumed heaps of YT vids explaining the difference.

 

Cherry MX Blue switches appeal to my typie impulses, but I want this to play games, too. The Red seems way too linear for me – probably exceptionally good for games, but hopeless for typing. The brown, well it seems to offer the best of both worlds; yields a more "clocky" sound, with a slight smooth bump that tells you "no need to push all the way" while gaming.

 

So I bought a Corsair M70 Cherry MX Brown off Amazon and a Logitech G502X mouse that was on special.

 

My old Logitech wireless membrane board and mouse just weren't up to the task.

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

[The Score Cleaner 9,645]

@Jay I have been making a ton of progress in Hollow Knight

 

I got the Pure Nail and found out something cool: you can actually Pogo (downward slash jump) off of the breakable objects! which you can use to get to certain things "early" for example Pale ore and a Grub in Crystal Peak, and the Watcher Knights area.

 

I found my basic charm build: 

 

Steady Body, Dashmaster, Longnail, Wayward Compass, Gathering Swarm, Quick Slash, Grubsong.

 

Having quickslash made it a breeze to finish the second trial of the colosseum. and Hive Knight.

 

 

And Hornet Sentinel.

 

Also started a new Metroid Dread playthrough

[Jay 45,403]

Yeah you can also get some stuff early by using the Vengeful Spirit in the air to knock you backwards a bit in the right spots

 

I had a basic build for wandering around collecting stuff, then would switch out at times for boss fights . Basically don't need the compass or gathering swarm for a boss, so put more combat stuff in

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

I bought a new ASUS 24 inch gaming monitor for my laptop. It has a Displayport input and two HDMI inputs. My old HP 20 inch monitor I stole from work is past its use-by date.

[Not Mr. Big 4,943]

Started playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate, a new fighting game by Nintendo.  You can play as Mario, Sonic, Solid Snake, or even Luigi.  They even introduce new original characters like Shulk and Ness. 

[Jill Sandwich 10,825]

Anyone else ever consider building a gaming PC? I'm just looking at a site called PCpartpicker, and it seems building one yourself is easier than you'd think, and cheaper than buying a whole pre-built tower from a retail electronics shop.