The Video Game thread

[GronkWelkhead]

Originally Posted by Leonard26

You can use an xbox 360 controller.... easy to setup....

Yeah, I know. But what's the benefit to pc vs. console?

My pc has some pretty screaming specs for gaming, but the few games I've played, like Left 4 Dead 2, and Tomb Raider Underworld look no better than the PS3 versions. I know some say tweakablity is the pc's strong suit, but I don't see how to tweak either of those titles, or I'm just stupid, which is a distinct possibility.

[Jetworks]

Originally Posted by Fishooked

Yeah because I want to upgrade my entire computer with every PC game that I buy Yay PCs!

I usually do a video card upgrade according to how long they handle the bulk of whatever games I play, which is based on the game engines that underpin them. usually you are good for 2-3 years on the video card front, depending on the cycle. The rest of the platform should be good for at least 5 years if you know what you are doing. Granted, it used to be less than that, but the "socket wars" have pretty much ended.

Originally Posted by GronkWelkhead

Yeah, I know. But what's the benefit to pc vs. console?

My pc has some pretty screaming specs for gaming, but the few games I've played, like Left 4 Dead 2, and Tomb Raider Underworld look no better than the PS3 versions. I know some say tweakablity is the pc's strong suit, but I don't see how to tweak either of those titles, or I'm just stupid, which is a distinct possibility.

What are your specs?

L4D2 is based on an old engine, Source, so there is a finite return as it gets longer in the tooth. Not sure about TR, but if it was made consoles in mind, it isn't the most robust gaming engine.

[GronkWelkhead]

Originally Posted by Jetworks

I usually do a video card upgrade according to how long they handle the bulk of whatever games I play, which is based on the game engines that underpin them. usually you are good for 2-3 years on the video card front, depending on the cycle. The rest of the platform should be good for at least 5 years if you know what you are doing. Granted, it used to be less than that, but the "socket wars" have pretty much ended.



What are your specs?

L4D2 is based on an old engine, Source, so there is a finite return as it gets longer in the tooth. Not sure about TR, but if it was made consoles in mind, it isn't the most robust gaming engine.

Not top of the line but no slouch either. BTW, Velocity Micro is a great US company to deal with with local support. Each system is hand built with care.

Case
GX2-W Silver - Velocity Micro Classic Aluminum Case - Full Sized chassis with side window
Power Supply 850 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI™Certified
Motherboard Asus® P8P67 LE Intel® P67 based chipset, ATX Motherboard
Processor Intel® Core™i7-2600K processor, quad 3.40GHz cores, 8MB Cache
CPU Cooling Intel® Certified Heatsink/Fan, Thermal Controlled Variable Speed Fan
DDR3 Memory 8GB DDR3-1333 Dual Channel Memory (4 x 2048mb)
PCX Video 1GB ATI® Radeon™HD 5850 GDDR5 (LXe or MX2 Case required)
Video Tuning Basic 3D Video Performance Tuning & Optimization
TV Tuner Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1850 with Remote, PCIe x1
Monitor None
Audio On-Board Integrated ALC892 8-Channel Audio
Speakers None
Hard Drive 1 1TB 7200rpm 32MB Cache SATA 300 w/NCQ
Hard Drive 2 None
Optical Drive 1 20x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner with LightScribe Labeling Technology, Black
Optical Drive 2 None
Media Reader Integrated 8-in-1 Flash Memory Media Reader
Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000MBps Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Network Adapter 2 or WiFi
Adapter
None
WiFi Router None
FireWire 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear
Bluetooth None
Ports 2 Rear USB 3.0, 6 Rear USB 2.0, FireWire, Audio Out/Mic-in, 2 Rear eSATA
Operating System Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

[Jetworks]

Originally Posted by GronkWelkhead

Not top of the line but no slouch either. BTW, Velocity Micro is a great US company to deal with with local support. Each system is hand built with care.

Case
GX2-W Silver - Velocity Micro Classic Aluminum Case - Full Sized chassis with side window
Power Supply 850 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI™Certified
Motherboard Asus® P8P67 LE Intel® P67 based chipset, ATX Motherboard
Processor Intel® Core™i7-2600K processor, quad 3.40GHz cores, 8MB Cache
CPU Cooling Intel® Certified Heatsink/Fan, Thermal Controlled Variable Speed Fan
DDR3 Memory 8GB DDR3-1333 Dual Channel Memory (4 x 2048mb) (+$90.00)
PCX Video 1GB ATI® Radeon™HD 5850 GDDR5 (LXe or MX2 Case required) (+
Video Tuning Basic 3D Video Performance Tuning & Optimization
TV Tuner Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1850 with Remote, PCIe x1
Monitor None
Audio On-Board Integrated ALC892 8-Channel Audio
Speakers None
Hard Drive 1 1TB 7200rpm 32MB Cache SATA 300 w/NCQ
Hard Drive 2 None
Optical Drive 1 20x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner with LightScribe Labeling Technology, Black
Optical Drive 2 None
Media Reader Integrated 8-in-1 Flash Memory Media Reader
Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000MBps Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Network Adapter 2 or WiFi
Adapter
None
WiFi Router None
FireWire 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear
Bluetooth None
Ports 2 Rear USB 3.0, 6 Rear USB 2.0, FireWire, Audio Out/Mic-in, 2 Rear eSATA
Operating System Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Definitely a nice system, you should have no problems running anything out right now with some eye-candy enabled. The 8 GB of RAM is a little weak, especially considering that the i7 is a Sandy Bridge CPU (it would rape with 16GB, imho). The 5850 is already showing its age, but you can go with two in Crossfire which will help as well. Unfortunately, the P67 chipset only supports Crossfire in 8x, not dual 16x AFAIK. Also, you owe it to yourself to get a SSD and make it your boot drive. Get something with a Sandforce controller, maybe a Vertex3 from OCZ (that's my next purchase).

Agreed about Velocity. They also now probably do some of the best, if not the best, cable-routing in the business.

All said, your system owns mine (I build my own), and I have zero issues playing L4D2, Portal 2, CoD: Black Ops etc. My specs are:

Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor
ZALMAN CNPS10X Extreme 120mm CPU Cooler
MSI 890FXA-GD70 Motherboard
OCZ AMD Black Edition 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
HIS IceQ 5 H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 Turbo 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
CORSAIR HX Series 750W PSU
Intel X25-M Mainstream SSD
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB
LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader
SAMSUNG B2430H Glossy Black 24" 5ms Full HD 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

And some pics:

[tfine350z]

I am a huge fan of RPG's especially MMO's. I have played EQ, WoW, RIFT, FFXI. Star Wars TOR is going to own. Its the first story driven MMO where YOU have input in a dynamically changing world. Thank god I have a ****load of vacation days.....

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by Jetworks

Definitely a nice system, you should have no problems running anything out right now with some eye-candy enabled. The 8 GB of RAM is a little weak, especially considering that the i7 is a Sandy Bridge CPU (it would rape with 16GB, imho). The 5850 is already showing its age, but you can go with two in Crossfire which will help as well. Unfortunately, the P67 chipset only supports Crossfire in 8x, not dual 16x AFAIK. Also, you owe it to yourself to get a SSD and make it your boot drive. Get something with a Sandforce controller, maybe a Vertex3 from OCZ (that's my next purchase).

Agreed about Velocity. They also now probably do some of the best, if not the best, cable-routing in the business.

All said, your system owns mine (I build my own), and I have zero issues playing L4D2, Portal 2, CoD: Black Ops etc. My specs are:

Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor
ZALMAN CNPS10X Extreme 120mm CPU Cooler
MSI 890FXA-GD70 Motherboard
OCZ AMD Black Edition 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
HIS IceQ 5 H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 Turbo 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
CORSAIR HX Series 750W PSU
Intel X25-M Mainstream SSD
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB
LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader
SAMSUNG B2430H Glossy Black 24" 5ms Full HD 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

And some pics:

Uh, holy command center. Are you susceptible to JI viruses on that thing?!

[GronkWelkhead]

Originally Posted by RageATL

Uh, holy command center. Are you susceptible to JI viruses on that thing?!

I know huh? Impressive home built rig.

[Fishooked]

Originally Posted by RageATL

Uh, holy command center. Are you susceptible to JI viruses on that thing?!

That there is some impressive stuff to be sure...damn...

Upon teh advice of The Hampur, I am deciding to give Oblivion a try.
I traded in 4 old games for a used GOTY copy today...and still got 16.00 to put towards COD MW3 when it comes out....

[Jetworks]

Originally Posted by RageATL

Uh, holy command center. Are you susceptible to JI viruses on that thing?!

Originally Posted by GronkWelkhead

I know huh? Impressive home built rig.

Originally Posted by Fishooked

That there is some impressive stuff to be sure...damn...

Thanks! I've always really enjoyed building. Tried doing it as a business years ago, but I could have made more money at McDonalds. I put too much effort into them.

Originally Posted by Fishooked

Upon teh advice of The Hampur, I am deciding to give Oblivion a try.
I traded in 4 old games for a used GOTY copy today...and still got 16.00 to put towards COD MW3 when it comes out....

You won't be sorry, it's a fun game.

[GronkWelkhead]

15% off all gamers at PC Richards, includig some preorders, like Duke Nukem Forever.


http://www.pcrichard.com/catalog/thu...ll+Video+Games!

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by Fishooked

That there is some impressive stuff to be sure...damn...

Upon teh advice of The Hampur, I am deciding to give Oblivion a try.
I traded in 4 old games for a used GOTY copy today...and still got 16.00 to put towards COD MW3 when it comes out....

Nice, lemme know how it is cuz I expect to be done with LA Noire soon and will be sans game.

[JI]

Terraria
This 2D platform, old school graphic PC game is addicting.....

[Fishooked]

Originally Posted by Jetworks

Thanks! I've always really enjoyed building. Tried doing it as a business years ago, but I could have made more money at McDonalds. I put too much effort into them.



You won't be sorry, it's a fun game.

I just started playing it this weekend....just barely scratching the surface and I am just overwhelmed at how big and how deep it is. This is definitely going to keep me busy for a long time....

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by Fishooked

I am just overwhelmed at how big and how deep it is. This is definitely going to keep me busy for a long time....

We're still talking about video games here, right?

12 minutes of game play footage from Arkham City:

[Warfish]

Originally Posted by Fishooked

I am just overwhelmed at how big and how deep it is. This is definitely going to keep me busy for a long time....

Someone needs to imortalize this as part of their sig. Lol.

[Jetworks]

Originally Posted by Warfish

Someone needs to imortalize this as part of their sig. Lol.

Happy to oblige...

[Fishooked]

Damn it's going to be a long winter sitting on my can playing all these games coming out in the fall


RAGE is one I'm realling looking forward to:

[Fishooked]

Skyrim:

[Fishooked]

Originally Posted by Warfish

Someone needs to imortalize this as part of their sig. Lol.

Son of a

[brady's a catcher]

Originally Posted by Fishooked

Damn it's going to be a long winter sitting on my can playing all these games coming out in the fall


RAGE is one I'm realling looking forward to:

That looks fun as hell. One of my buddies works for them, gotta aks him bout this game.