What is the last video game you played?

[Wojo 2,453]

Full Throttle was amazing. I still daydream about it from time to time.

"You know what would look good on your face?"

[Jay 37,374]

I'm not putting my lips on that.

[Quintus 5,399]

Anyone else here play Beyond Good & Evil?

[Wojo 2,453]

Never. GOG sells it but I never bought it.

[Quintus 5,399]

Shame. It's an absolute delight from start to finish.

[Quintus 5,399]

Hey KM...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-the-banner-saga-review

[King Mark 3,631]

Tactical RPG's are my least favorite but I play them

The one I'm playing now, Record of Agarest War 2 is a grid based tactical JRPG.

Took me a week to figure out the extremely convoluted battle system. They made it confusing to the extreme on purpose and it would take spread sheets to figure out how to set your skills properly. Actually the whole thing only makes sense near the end of the game

I have some Disgaea games on my shelf still to do

[KK 3,307]

Anyone played The Banner Saga before?

Austin Wintory just shared his score, and it sounds quite interesting.

[Wojo 2,453]

Anyone played The Banner Saga before?

Austin Wintory just shared his score, and it sounds quite interesting.

I don't know enough about it to gamble $25 or whatever the game costs.

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

So the beta of Double Fine's Broken Age part one is out (as a beta for backers), apparently to great reviews. I was planning on waiting for the physical backer release (which won't be out until the second part is released in April or so), but Tim Schafer warns that there are some big spoilers in the first part for those who wait for long, so I'm beginning to reconsider.

[Brónach 1,302]

My new goal in life is playing Kerbal Space Program until I get rovers on Jool's moons.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I went back to The Last Of Us to finish my Survivor+ playthrough in order freshen up for the upcoming Left Behind DLC. It's weird switching between gens, mainly because of the controllers. I surprisingly adjusted to the shape and contour of the DualShock 4 very quickly. Not to mention it taking forever to go into the PS Store to buy the Season Pass.

Anyway, I immediately got sucked into the game's world again. I need to think up a Top 10 of the generation list. It'd probably look something like:

Fallout 3

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

BioShock Infinite

The Last Of Us

Journey

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Red Dead Redemption

Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

[Wojo 2,453]

I killed the alpha male deathclaw in Quarry Junction by taking advantage of the game's shitty AI. ED-E and Veronica were worthless, but as long as I stood behind the digger vehicle, it wasn't walking around me to attack. But it was all for naught because two normal deathclaws were on my left flank, blocking my retreat to Sloan. And I didn't have the necessary ammo to kill them both before one did charge around and kill me. The only named gun I currently have is Ratslayer, and I'm only level ten or so. I need some more grinding before I return.

[Quintus 5,399]

Playing Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut on PC.

[King Mark 3,631]

My top 10 last generation:

Fallout 3

Demon's Souls

Dark Souls

Dragon Age Origins

Star Ocean The Last Hope

The Last Remnant

Kingdoms of Amalur

Tales of Graces F

Dragon's Dogma

Valkeria Chronicles

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I killed the alpha male deathclaw in Quarry Junction by taking advantage of the game's shitty AI. ED-E and Veronica were worthless, but as long as I stood behind the digger vehicle, it wasn't walking around me to attack. But it was all for naught because two normal deathclaws were on my left flank, blocking my retreat to Sloan. And I didn't have the necessary ammo to kill them both before one did charge around and kill me. The only named gun I currently have is Ratslayer, and I'm only level ten or so. I need some more grinding before I return.

Yeah I stumbled into the Quarry very early on. I happened to clear it out much laser with a giant laser gun with incendiary rounds. I got lucky though since the Mama Deathclaw got stuck on something. Stay away from the Legendary Deathclaw.

[Quintus 5,399]

My top 10 last generation (in no order):

Bioshock Infinite

Red Dead Redemption

The Arkham Batman games

The Last of Us

Halo 3 & Reach

Fable 2

Uncharted 2

Portal 2

Assassins Creed 2

Mass Effect

Honourable mentions: Vanquish, Sleeping Dogs, Gears of War 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and probably many more.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I forgot Portal 2, damn! And Mass Effect 2.

[Wojo 2,453]

I killed the alpha male deathclaw in Quarry Junction by taking advantage of the game's shitty AI. ED-E and Veronica were worthless, but as long as I stood behind the digger vehicle, it wasn't walking around me to attack. But it was all for naught because two normal deathclaws were on my left flank, blocking my retreat to Sloan. And I didn't have the necessary ammo to kill them both before one did charge around and kill me. The only named gun I currently have is Ratslayer, and I'm only level ten or so. I need some more grinding before I return.

Yeah I stumbled into the Quarry very early on. I happened to clear it out much laser with a giant laser gun with incendiary rounds. I got lucky though since the Mama Deathclaw got stuck on something. Stay away from the Legendary Deathclaw.

I don't have many good weapons yet. My laser and plasma rifles are in bad shape. I know Boone would make a better ranged companion than Veronica, and I'm more inclined to do the Novac quests to get an apartment there than do the BoS quests. At this moment, all my extra stuff is just dropped on the floor in Wolfhorn Ranch, which isn't a good spot because a) it just isn't and 2) it used to belong to Ulysses (I did a ton of spoiler reading). I'm ticked because when I killed the convict leader in the Buffalo Steve casino in Primm, the Incinerator weapon that had been there the last time I played (two years ago) must've fallen through the floor or something, so I didn't get it. That wouldn't help against DC's but it's still a riot to use.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You're making me want to load up New Vegas and get those last trophies I'm missing.

Fallout 4, please!

[Quintus 5,399]

Just installed an AMD R9-280X graphics card into my pc. Wow that was hairy. It's an absolutely massive card and barely fit inside my tower. Two reinstallations later and nope, nothing. My PC wouldn't load up from boot. I was sweating and deeply concerned at this point. VERY carefully squeezed it out again and refitted and checked all the connections, before squeezing (and scraping) it back in again. Plugged in the power lead and switched it on expecting more failure, but lo and behold it worked. THANK FUCK.

Hello Battlefield 4 Ultra settings.

[Wojo 2,453]

You're making me want to load up New Vegas and get those last trophies I'm missing.

Fallout 4, please!

Does that count all the wacky Gun Runners Arsenal achievements like "kill ten DC's with melee weapons", "kill House with a nine iron", and "kill ten cazadores with grenades?"

Nice card, Lee. I can't believe the grief my new card gave me, so I'm glad to read you got it on the second take.

[King Mark 3,631]

Just installed an AMD R9-280X graphics card into my pc. Wow that was hairy. It's an absolutely massive card and barely fit inside my tower. Two reinstallations later and nope, nothing. My PC wouldn't load up from boot. I was sweating and deeply concerned at this point. VERY carefully squeezed it out again and refitted and checked all the connections, before squeezing (and scraping) it back in again. Plugged in the power lead and switched it on expecting more failure, but lo and behold it worked. THANK FUCK.

Can your power supply handle it?

[Quintus 5,399]

Nice card, Lee. I can't believe the grief my new card gave me, so I'm glad to read you got it on the second take.

Cheers Wojo, but as I said it took 3 attempts altogether. 3 very precarious attempts. The damn thing almost had to be forced/edged in due to its size, it was like docking your spaceship in Elite.

Anyway, I forget which card you went with in the end?

Can your power supply handle it?

Only just, as it happens. Funny you should ask actually - it was the last major consideration I had to make before ordering. How did you know? The recommended wattage is oh about 250 higher than I have, but a couple of hours reading Google last night assured me I'm fine. And I am - it's running games and benchmarking as it should do.

No, my problem, as it transpires, has been my relatively weak processor, which is holding my powerful GPU back somewhat to the point that it's noticeable. So yeah, I've learned how to overclock my CPU tonight, so far so good...

All in all a good brain/patience workout today

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You're making me want to load up New Vegas and get those last trophies I'm missing.

Fallout 4, please!

Does that count all the wacky Gun Runners Arsenal achievements like "kill ten DC's with melee weapons", "kill House with a nine iron", and "kill ten cazadores with grenades?"

Nice card, Lee. I can't believe the grief my new card gave me, so I'm glad to read you got it on the second take.

Yeah I'm missing some Gun Runners Arsenal challenges and one trophy from whichever DLC had the warheads scattered about the Wasteland. Have to blow all of those up.

[Wojo 2,453]

Oh dear, I miscounted. Whoops.

ASUS HD 7970 Direct CU II. It recommends 600W, but I believe I have 750.

[Quintus 5,399]

I pretty much have the same card.

[King Mark 3,631]

Can your power supply handle it?

Only just, as it happens. Funny you should ask actually - it was the last major consideration I had to make before ordering. How did you know? The recommended wattage is oh about 250 higher than I have, but a couple of hours reading Google last night assured me I'm fine. And I am - it's running games and benchmarking as it should do.

No, my problem, as it transpires, has been my relatively weak processor, which is holding my powerful GPU back somewhat to the point that it's noticeable. So yeah, I've learned how to overclock my CPU tonight, so far so good...

it was usually the limiting factor for me unless you scratch build your PC with a a high power supply to begin with. It's also the main reason you can't turn any general use PC they sell at Best Buy into a gaming machine easily, because the power supply in pre-built PC's is 350 watts at max

I think this is the reason it crashed twice during installation...I don't think your out of the woods yet

[Quintus 5,399]

It didn't crash. It just didn't load Windows at boot, but there was power to the system. The problem was the gfx card wasn't flush with one of its 3 connections - meaning it couldn't produce a video signal.

[Wojo 2,453]

Did you ever get to download Skywind from their website? They have discontinued its download because it's in such an early alpha, but the video they show of Morrowind remade in the Skyrim engine is breathtaking. Looks like I missed the boat until later this year. And in Morrowind, if you miss the boat, well...

[King Mark 3,631]

i remember trying to install a graphics card with too high power requirements...I almost killed my Pc

Windows booted in 4 color CGA mode and I had no idea what to do. then it had to recover from an earlier restore point because it had caused a couple of fatal errors

[Quintus 5,399]

These days unless you're a hamfisted moron you won't do serious damage to your pc when installing new hardware. Instead the CPU will just go into a fail safe mode. Put a gfx card in which is too powerful for the PSU and it''ll just be throttled down to safe levels (it just won't work as it should do).

[Wojo 2,453]

It's a shame you had to learn the hard way because, strictly speaking, replacing a power supply is usually going to be cheaper and easier than updating the processor, if you've identified the graphics card as the bottleneck you need to replace. No thermal paste to mess with.

Yes, if you have a store bought computer, the case and power supply are likely proprietary and thus dropping in a standard ATX PSU isn't cut and dry anymore. I had a Packard Bell case with nonstandard holes, so I had to drill new ones to get the PSU to fit. An old Hewlett Packard case had a very narrow PSU form factor, so any upgrade had to come from the company, of course with a markup. It's a sales gimmick designed to make computers hard to upgrade, and expensive if you actually need to. I saw it as an incentive to learn how to build my own.

So yes, in that situation, replacing a graphics card might force the purchase of a beefier PSU, which might require a new case. Now it's not so simple an upgrade, but as long as you don't swap out the CPU or replace the motherboard (obviously), it's technically not a rebuild, so you don't need to reinstall the operating system. It's not like you care about the factory warranty at that point.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Consoles for life!

I had a power surge the other day that scared me. I had just clicked Start on Battlefield 4 and the surge happened. The way the system was trying to read and not read the disc at the same time made it sound like my PS4 was about to explode. It turned itself off and luckily turned back on without issue, other than the expected restore screen.

[King Mark 3,631]

Why do they make it so hard to convert a regular store bought PC into a gaming PC. Don't the manufacturers (Dell, HP...) know a % of buyers will want to install a graphics card and play games?

It's like they don't want you to. Either the PSU is too shit or some other component is the bottleneck. In some rare cases it *could* work (almost by accidental design of a few select models ) but you have to open the case in the store to check the components.

Basically you have to ask for a custom built PC or buy an overexpensive "gaming line" PC that has a shit pre-installed graphics card and waste more cash to upgrade it. That's an automatic 1500$ +

In other words, I think Gaming PC's would really take off if most computers they sell could be easily upgraded with a good graphics card. That is not the case

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Desktop PCs for home use are phasing out. I don't think they care anymore.

[King Mark 3,631]

They do things tablets will never do. I don't think they will phase out

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You have to understand that your average household only requires an internet connection to browse social media sites and listen to their 8GB music collection.

Tablets and laptops will rule if they aren't already.

[Wojo 2,453]

It's easy to conclude that desktop PCs are phasing out by declining sales of pre-built systems. Nobody can conclude that all motherboards sold at Tiger or Newegg ultimately become desktop PCs. Some are destroyed in testing or other goofing around.

But yes, km, the pre-built computer companies want you to pay through the nose to upgrade their cheap, barebones, refurbished boxes with minimal expansion room. That's been the desktop norm for twenty plus years, as long as I've been in PC gaming. If you want a gaming machine, there are simply too many things to improve to make upgrading an MS Office dedicated machine, and why charge Office users for your potential upgrades?

Companies will build you dedicated gaming machines that easily blow my or Quint's rigs away, but they're pricey. Alienware does this for a living. Dell also will, but again, these companies may use iffy parts and charge a premium for their services. Best to hire a college kid to build it for you.

[Quintus 5,399]

It's a shame you had to learn the hard way because, strictly speaking, replacing a power supply is usually going to be cheaper and easier than updating the processor, if you've identified the graphics card as the bottleneck you need to replace. No thermal paste to mess with.

Yes, if you have a store bought computer, the case and power supply are likely proprietary and thus dropping in a standard ATX PSU isn't cut and dry anymore. I had a Packard Bell case with nonstandard holes, so I had to drill new ones to get the PSU to fit. An old Hewlett Packard case had a very narrow PSU form factor, so any upgrade had to come from the company, of course with a markup. It's a sales gimmick designed to make computers hard to upgrade, and expensive if you actually need to. I saw it as an incentive to learn how to build my own.

So yes, in that situation, replacing a graphics card might force the purchase of a beefier PSU, which might require a new case. Now it's not so simple an upgrade, but as long as you don't swap out the CPU or replace the motherboard (obviously), it's technically not a rebuild, so you don't need to reinstall the operating system. It's not like you care about the factory warranty at that point.

Huh? My CPU was bottlenecking my graphics card so I overclocked it from 3.3ghz to 4.1ghz @ stock voltage.

Problem solved.

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

They do things tablets will never do.

How so?

[Wojo 2,453]

Quint, I was addressing KM, not you. I guess you could call that a slow burn ninja. On mobile, editing posts to clarify quotes is a pain.

[Quintus 5,399]

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition comparison analysis:

[King Mark 3,631]

But yes, km, the pre-built computer companies want you to pay through the nose to upgrade their cheap, barebones, refurbished boxes with minimal expansion room. That's been the desktop norm for twenty plus years, as long as I've been in PC gaming.

Yes, but if the whole approach had been different (making every PC easy to upgrade to gaming), then PC gaming might be more popular than consoles now

This is why I still "doubt" Quint's claim that PC gaming is "user friendly" now if the hardware hurdle is still there

just finished Record of Agarest War 2. Probably the worse designed game I played yet but I had to finish it. Also this game had a "true end" that I couldn't unlock even with checking a guide (you have to do everything in a specific sequence) , so I'm locked out of the post game contents

[Quintus 5,399]

PC gaming is nowhere near as popular or user friendly as console gaming, KM, and probably never will be.

And in some ways that's actually what makes PC gaming so interesting and worthwhile - because many of the titles aren't dumbed down "casual" experiences for mainstream playing audiences. PC only titles can be notably more hardcore and avant garde. Experiences like Dear Esther, Starcraft, Going Home and The Stanley Parable would never be found on one of the big consoles, because between them they are the very meaning of niche, hardcore and experimental game design.

The slight extra effort involved in PC gaming rewards the enthusiast in kind. But yeah, your JRPGs will always find a home on Xbox or Playstation, so you'll be okay where you are.

[King Mark 3,631]

it's not a slight effort unless you have a big budget and go for the top gear right away.

Problems are when you try to go for the "best bang for your buck" PC you always end up with something underwhelming and feel like you wasted your money

A good gaming PC will run about 2000$...that never changed over the years

[Quintus 5,399]

You're quite wrong:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-r7-260x-vs-next-gen-console

But I suppose "slight" is a subjective adjective. Getting the card in that article and putting it in a decent little tower would be a slight effort to me, but would probably feel like a massive faff and stressful headache to you.

[King Mark 3,631]

Also I think if you make a gaming PC you should only use it for gaming and not websurfing or running a bunch of other programs that will slow it down in the long run

[Wojo 2,453]

That's your welcome opinion. The same processor and ample RAM in my gaming rig is much faster and better cooled than my laptop, making it ideal for converting music files between various formats and rendering video files. It's also got the better monitors for viewing my photo collection. So I'm not about to have a dedicated gaming computer and a workstation because whichever is better will make the other a pariah. If I wanted a dedicated gaming rig, it would live next to the TV, but I'm not there yet.

The key is to backup important files, control malware, and uninstall and clean up after unneeded programs.

I've never been worried about the cost of a gaming rig because it's always doubled as my primary machine, I don't compound its cost with a pile of console stuff and games, and to me it's always been a worthwhile hobby. You get what you pay for.

As a proud PC gamer, I don't need PC gaming to be more successful than consoles. Console games have a high rate of return and can fund the big companies who might also port the game to my preferred system. Truthfully I'd rather play the games dedicated to the PC or at least the ones I can modify. But coexistence is for the time being a good thing.

[King Mark 3,631]

Ideally., I would have a gaming PC next to my TV and only use it for that