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Has your little Wii got you down? Are you incensed by your Xbox or put off by your Playstation? Do you not want to flail around like an idiot with motion controls like all of the major consoles are making you do these days? [Just kidding. Seriously, please don't use this thread for platform warfare. -ed] Well, maybe it's time that you tried something different. Yeah, that's right. PC gaming will make a man out of you. Even if you're a woman. I: The Purpose of This Thread A while ago I noticed that, while every console seems to have its own Q&A/general discussion thread, there's no real thread for PC gaming. The closest thing we have, really, is the Steam thread, and that's more focused around digital-distribution deals than anything else. And let's face it, the PC platform can be daunting for someone who's used to simply popping a DVD in their console and going to town. You've got hardware and software issues to work out, configurations to... uh... configure, and things like monitor resolution, competing digital distribution platforms, and frame-rates all throwing extra wrenches into the works. Therefore, I want this thread to be a place for us to discuss what's happening in the PC gaming world, to help newbies and people returning to the platform get started, to work out issues regarding getting games to run playably, to offer advice on modding and such, and, well, pretty much anything else not currently covered under the purview of the Steam thread or the various PC hardware threads in SH/SC. II: Why Should/Shouldn't I Become a PC Gamer? Advantages of the PC platform include:
However, there are some disadvantages...
I need to add here that I'm trying to be objective in the above. I'm not a console warrior. I own a Wii and iPod Touch 4G along with my PC, and I owned a 360 and DS until recently, and I love them all for their own respective merits. But I also feel that you should know what you're getting into before you drop big  on a gaming rig.But wait! Isn't PC gaming dying? The "PC gaming is dying" argument is as old as dirt. PC gaming has been "dying," by all accounts, for at least ten years, so it's probably not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, with the advent of Steam, the scene is actually much stronger than it was five years ago. That said, the PC gaming scene certainly has changed a lot in the past decade. Here's what you can expect to find in the way of PC games nowadays: 1) The odd big-budget AAA exclusive. These generally tend to be RTS or 4X games (Civilization, Starcraft 2, Dawn of War), MMOGs (World of Warcraft and tons of also-rans), casual-oriented sim titles (anything by Will Wright), Western RPGs (Neverwinter Nights, Titan Quest, The Witcher), and FPSes (Team Fortress 2, Crysis Warhead). There's not as many as in the "Golden Age" of the 1990s, but they're still released periodically and they can still justify the cost of a gaming PC in and of themselves. 2) Console ports and cross-platform titles. There's actually been a ton of these in recent years, thanks mostly to how easy it is to port games from the 360. Usually these are "shootery" titles, but sometimes we get a good action-adventure or platformer; for example, in 2010 we got competent ports of Darksiders, Assassin's Creed 2, and Lara Croft, among others. While many console ports are "quick and dirty," and thus require some tweaking to get the most out of, we PC gamers can enjoy things like higher native resolutions, mouse aiming, and better graphical effects on these titles, making them quite worthy of your time. 3) Eastern European-developed titles. Astonishingly, countries like Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic actually have huge PC development scenes. These games all generally share the following things in common: They're arguably pretty, very demanding on hardware, very atmospheric, and sort of rough around the edges. Still, the Eastern Europe scene has produced wonderful titles like The Void, Metro 2033, and the STALKER series. 4) Indie titles. These range from simple-looking freeware/browser games like Knytt and Captain Forever to higher-budget commercial releases like Shattered Horizon that have graphical flair on par with the big boys, and everything in between. III: What Hardware Do I Need?  Need specific advice on components to pick for building or upgrading your PC? Please don't post it here. Instead, go to SH/SC's Parts Picking Megathread. NihilCredo posted:PC gaming is like an RPG in reverse: the later you buy an upgrade the better. First of all, I would HIGHLY recommend building your own PC instead of going for an iBuyPowerXtreemFatal1tyAlienware pre-built box. Pre-builts tend to suffer from substandard hardware (especially power supplies, cases, and motherboards), bad hardware configurations (for example, sticking a high-end Intel Core-i5 in with a low-mid-range video card), and sizable markups compared to simply buying the hardware yourself. And besides that, building PCs is hilariously easy and idiot-proof these days, so long as you can read directions. As for pricing/speccing out a PC, the realm of PC hardware is far too complicated to go into in the scope of this thread. Instead, I'll simply direct you to the SH/SC Parts Picking Megathread, where Crackbone and his crack (haha, get it? Crack?) team of hardware experts will be able to direct you toward the best configuration for your needs. Generally speaking, though, all that you need to "max out" 99% of modern games at a true 1080p resolution is the following: CPU: A triple- or quad-core Athlon II, generally available for under $100 Video Card: A Radeon HD 6850, GEForce GTX 460, or equivalent, generally available for under $200 RAM: 4 GB DDR2 or DDR3, about $50 Plus the case, power supply, Windows, etc. Seriously, that's it. Hell, even people with high-end Core 2 Duos from 2008 can still use them with an aggressive overclock. Note on "Gaming Laptops:" Generally, unless you have special needs (you travel around a lot, you're in the military, or whatever), gaming desktops will ALWAYS be a better option than gaming laptops. Gaming laptop hardware needs to be scaled down to run on a portable PC, so you'll generally be paying at least twice as much for equivalent laptop hardware when compared to desktop parts. Plus, notebook gaming hardware hits a wall pretty quickly; even "high-end" mobile GPUs are equivalent to mid-range desktop parts. (For example, the Mobility Radeon 5870, AMD's flagship mobile GPU, is just a scaled down Radeon 5770, a desktop video card that can be had for about $130.) Finally, gaming laptops are generally hot, noisy, have hideously low battery life when gaming, and lose the upgradability that desktops have. That said, there are some situations where you might want to consider a gaming laptop, but generally you should get a desktop instead. IV: What about keyboards/mice/controllers? Keyboards: Generally, anything will be at least competent. Just buy whatever you're comfortable with. I use a basic Acer keyboard and have no complaints. Mouse: Several people in the thread have recommended the Logitech MX-518. Haven't used it myself, but it's supposed to be the best all-rounder on the market. As for controllers, there's tons of varieties out there and pretty much every one seems to have its proponents and detractors. So here's a bit of general advice: get a WIRED Xbox 360 controller. They're comfortable, reasonably priced, and supported natively by hundreds of games. Why wired? Because the wireless 360 controllers are terribly overpriced and have issues with certain console ports. V: And monitors? Check out SH/SC's Monitor/Display Megathread for some recommendations. Just keep in mind that 1920x1080/1200 is basically the modern "default" resolution for desktop PC gaming, so that's probably what you want. There's a lot of debate over 1920x1080 versus 1920x1200 for playing PC games. The first offers a more "cinematic" view conducive to action games, while the second is more useful for top-down games like RTSes and anything else where a large vertical AND horizontal field of vision are helpful. I personally prefer 1920x1200, but your mileage may vary. Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Aug 3, 2011 |
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VI: Okay, I've got my sweet-rear end PC setup. Now how do I get me some games? Unlike console games, even big-name PC titles are distributed digitally these days. Basically, publishers will contract with one or more distribution platforms to sell their games through those platforms. The buyer (AKA you) can then select from any of these platforms, purchase the game, and download and install it, all without leaving his or her comfy computer chair. The PC has tons of these competing platforms, and it can be really hard to make any sense of all of them. Here's some of the ones you'll want to keep track of:
Don't want to check all those sites every day? Here's some resources for tracking PC game sales: CheapAssGamer's Video Game Deals forum: Covers consoles and iOS too, but if there's a good PC digital-distribution deal, these guys will pounce on it before anyone else. Digital Distribution Deals blog: A nice, clean general run-down of deals on the major DD sites. Useful if you don't want to check 10 different websites for deals every day. One general rule for PC game buying, though: Unless you're going to play the game you're buying immediately, always always ALWAYS wait for a sale. Otherwise you'll be crying yourself to sleep when that $50 game you just bought went on sale the next day for $20. VII: "Prettying Up" Your Games Now that you've got some games, it's time to play them. But wait! One of the main advantages that PC games generally offer over their console counterparts is a sharp increase in visual fidelity. When you first open up the graphical config menu in your everyday PC game, however, you'll no doubt see a lot of things that make absolutely no sense to you. Here's a brief run-down of some of the common settings you may or may not find in a modern PC game, and how you should be setting them. This guide assumes that you have a PC that meets the hardware requirements in Section III. If you have less powerful hardware, then I'll get to that later.
404notfound posted:And for an all-around good site for reading up more about this kind of stuff (with game-specific graphics tweaking guides), hit up TweakGuides. VII Part Deux: Prettying Up Old Games One of the best advantages of PC gaming is that old games with still-good gameplay often don't have to show their age in the visual department. While a PS2 game will display at 480p with low-res textures forever, many old PC games can have their visual quality upped several notches thanks to fan patches and tweaks. That said, here's a few tips at getting old games more up-to-speed with modern times: Source Ports - A "source port" is just what it sounds like: a port of the original game's source code to a new platform. For PC games, that generally means that a game has been ported from DOS or Windows 95/98 to Windows XP/Vista/7. Source ports are free addons that usually require the original game files, and they generally enable things that the original game engine couldn't do: Higher resolutions, better lighting, mouselook, anti-aliasing, and so forth. Generally speaking, source ports are most often developed for old 1990s FPSes, but they can sometimes be found for other genres. Resolution - The first thing you'll probably want to do is up the game's resolution to your monitor's native res. While not all old games support custom resolutions, you can often enable them anyway with a few tweaks. The Widescreen Gaming Forum Wiki is a great resource for how to do this for any given game; if they don't have a solution for your game, then chances are that one doesn't exist. Anti-Aliasing & Antisotropic Filtering - Enabling these two filters can easily turn a jaggy, blurry 3D game into one that looks a whole lot sharper. Both can be enabled through your video card's control panel. Texture Packs - Early 3D games generally have horribly low-resolution textures due to the constraints of system and video RAM at the time. Sometimes, however, independent artists will make sharper, higher resolution replacement textures more befitting of a modern-day game. These packs can often be found on ModDB; otherwise, a Google search is your best bet. Model Packs - Somewhat rarer than texture packs, sometimes an intrepid soul will redo some or all of the polygonal models in a game to have a higher polygon count. For some early "2.5D" games, these models can even replace 2D sprites! Generally these are best paired with a nice high-res texture pack as well. VIII: Modding "Mods" are community-created add-ons that either enhance a game's base ("vanilla") experience or make significant additions to it. Some will even use the game's engine, and maybe some assets from the vanilla game, to create an entirely new single-player campaign or multiplayer experience. And the best part is, they're generally all free! The process for installing mods varies by game; most mods will come with a readme file with instructions. But Rule #1 is always Backup, Backup, Backup! Do NOT install a mod without backing up your game first. Otherwise you might just end up with a broken game and a whole new installer to download. There's a TON of resources all over the 'net for mods, but ModDB is a good starting point, especially if you're interested in new single-player campaigns or multiplayer modules. IX: What to do if your game is running like poo poo First: If you're experiencing crashes, graphical artifacts, or any other such problems, run over to the Haus of Tech Support. This section is concerned purely with slowdown or stutter, which is far more common, especially if you have an older system. Your PC outputs a certain number of frames per second to your monitor. This number is known as your "framerate." Many of the visual enhancements I described above negatively affect your framerate. Generally, a framerate of around 30 FPS with occasional dips is the bare minimum of what is considered "playable." Beyond that, you'll start to see visual "stuttering," or choppy movement. To boost your framerate back up to an acceptable number, here's what you should do, in this order: 1) Turn off tessellation, bloom, and/or any post-processing effects. 2) Drop down to DirectX 10 or 9 rendering. (This can make a HUGE difference where applicable.) 3) Reduce anti-aliasing by one notch at a time. 4) Reduce other settings (texture quality, shadows, etc.) by one notch at a time. 5) Drop your resolution down to a lower one that still matches up with your monitor's aspect ratio (16:9, 16:10, or 4:3). In other words, if you have a 1920x1080 monitor, drop your resolution down to 1600x900, and then to 1280x720. This will make your game look like rear end but may make it playable. If none of these things work, then your system simply may not be powerful enough to handle the game in question. In that case, it's time to upgrade your hardware. Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 20:41 on May 27, 2011 |
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Dec 17, 2010 23:58
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RELEASING THIS WEEK    RELEASED THIS PAST WEEK       "Frontier Colonies Map Pack" DLC            UPCOMING PC GAMES FOR 2011 Rock Paper Shotgun Adrian Werner's list - A little out-of-date and containing a handful of delayed/canceled games, but still a good resource. GAME RECOMMENDATIONS All of the following games are either PC-exclusive or have PC versions that are generally more well thought of than other versions. All are easily available via digital distribution, and most come highly goon-recommended. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but instead merely a "launchpad" of where to begin as a PC gamer. (More to come!) Action Alien Shooter series - Intense top-down shooters by a team that's honed the formula to an art. Alien Swarm - A FREE multiplayer co-op, top-down shooter from Valve. Altitude - 2D multiplayer aeroplane combat. Pure, simple fun. Action/Adventure Aquaria - A highly polished, indie-developed "Metroidvania." Giants: Citizen Kabuto - Part third-person shooter, part Godzilla sim, with some genuinely funny storytelling. Mount & Blade: Warband - A pretty accurate, and fun, simulation of medieval combat. Apparently really fun in multiplayer. The Void - Artsy game with naked chicks. Adventure Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Horror-adventure. You will wet your pants. And poo poo your pants. And probably do a lot of other unsavory things to your pants. Ben There, Dan That! and Time Gentlemen, Please! - Hilarious lo-fi adventures by a couple of narcissistic Brits. Broken Sword: Director's Cut and sequels - An enhanced version of the classic '90s adventure. If you like it, the sequels are worth a look too. Gabriel Knight series - Detectivey point-and-clicks. Master storyteller Jane Jensen's crowning achievements. The Longest Journey - Long, kind of wordy at times, but well worth the experience. Machinarium - Just try not to find this simple point-and-click adventure charming. Just try. Monkey Island Special Editions - In my humble opinion, the best adventure games ever created. Period. If you're looking to start an adventure game kick, start here. Penumbra series - Slow-burning horror-adventures. Not for the faint of heart. Puzzle Agent - Twin Peaks meets Professor Layton, with art by the Grickle guy. Arcade/Score-Attack AaAaAA!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity - A falling simulator, and a helluva lot more fun than that description makes it sound. FPS ArmA II - Probably the most realistic military shooter out there. WARNING: Requires one helluva CPU, and probably a SSD, to run well. Counter-Strike Source - Lots of people still play this game and I don't know why, but you might want to check it out. Crysis and Crysis Warhead - Lush, wide-open jungle environments and Predator-like powers make these some of the best PC-exclusive shooters in recent years. Deus Ex - Stealthy shooter with RPG elements. Considered by many to be one of the finest FPSes ever released. Doom and Doom II - The FPSes that started at all. If you've never played them, do it now. Seriously. And be sure to install some visual mods. Duke Nukem 3D - You can always bet on Duke. Half-Life series - Atmospheric, story-based corridor shooters. Still second to none after all these years. Killing Floor - The other multiplayer zombie-killing FPS. Many goons will actually recommend KF over Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 - Multiplayer zombie-shootin' mayhem. Grab it even if you've played it on your Xbox already; the twitchy gameplay style works so much better with a keyboard/mouse. Painkiller - A fast-paced, twitchy FPS in the style of Quake and Unreal, except with better graphics. Serious Sam HD + sequel - Twitchy FPS gaming at its finest. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl - Atmospheric, open-world shooter set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Team Fortress 2 - Valve's flagship multiplayer, class-based FPS. If you want to get involved in a PC multiplayer community, this is one of the best. MMO Guild Wars - An MMO that doesn't require grinding, and therefore just might not consume your entire life. World of Warcraft - Don't play this unless you want to become an instance-grinding poopsocker. Music Audiosurf - Sort of like Guitar Hero plus a racing game, and terribly addictive. Platformer Commander Keen series - What the iD guys did before they invented the FPS genre. Eversion - Yeah, it looks cute, but it's not for the faint of heart. You've been warned. VVVVVV - An excellent representative of the genre that I like to call, "torture-platformers." You will die. A lot. RPG Arcanum - Basically a steampunk Fallout, made by the same guys who worked on the Fallout games. Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 - Classic, party-based fantasy RPGs set in the popular Forgotten Realms D&D setting. Dragon Age: Origins - Yeah, it has a console version, but DA:O started out life as a PC exclusive and the PC version is light years better. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Classic open-world RPG. When modded to hell and back, it's one of the best - and most beautiful - all-around games on the PC. Fallout and Fallout 2 - Open-world post-apocalyptic RPGs. The original games behind the more modern Fallout titles. Freedom Force + sequel - Real-time strategy-RPGs lampooning old superhero comic books, developed by Irrational Games (BioShock) King's Bounty: Armored Princess - A lovely RPG with strategic battles. King's Bounty: Crossworlds - An expansion to Armored Princess. Planescape: Torment - When PC gamers talk about genuinely moving video game stories, they usually start and end here. Torchlight - A classic-style action-RPG with some very blatant homages to a game that rhymes with "Meeablo." Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - A deep RPG set in the World of Darkness universe. The Witcher - Polish-developed game with REAL MORAL CHOICES. And tits. Racing Super Laser Racer - A top-down combat racer akin to Micro Machines. Now with multiplayer support. Trackmania Nations Forever - Crazy-rear end racer with lovely graphics. Plus it's free! Simulation Dawn of Discovery Gold - A streamlined exploration/trading sim set in the Age of Exploration. DEFCON - A Cold War nuclear-holocaust-sim, and about as intense in practice as that sounds in theory. Europa Universalis III - A well-regarded medieval 4X game. Master of Orion 2 - Widely considered to be the "gold standard" of space 4X games. Minecraft - Sort of a building-sim-...thing. I really don't know but a lot of people seem to be gaga over it. Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale - Simulates running an item shop in an oldschool RPG. Ignore the anime and just play it. Sid Meier's Civilization V - Considered by many to be the finest iteration of the long-running civilization-sim series. Tropico 3 - Create and control your own banana republic. Need I say more? Uplink - A hacker sim by the Darwinia/DEFCON guys. X3: Terran Conflict - A space 4X game that the guys around here love. Has a near-vertical learning curve, so NOT recommended for beginners. Strategy Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic - Combination turn-based strategy and 4X game. Goons raved about this title for months before they finally released it for digital sale. AI War - A frantic space RTS that has to be played to be believed. Company of Heroes - Squad-based, tactical RTS set in World War II. If you're new to the RTS genre, I'd start here. Heroes of Might & Magic 3 - Turn-based fantasy exploration/conquering game. Three is usually considered the best of the bunch. Jagged Alliance 2 - Turn-based strategy with RPG elements. Console SRPG fans should start here. Napoleon: Total War - The latest iteration of Sega's long-running, PC-exclusive Total War RTS series. Sacrifice - A bizarrely captivating RTS made by Shiny (the Earthworm Jim guys). Space Rangers 2: Reboot - An RTS-based game that literally tries to do every other video game genre, and actually does it pretty well. Starcraft 2 - It's the sequel to Starcraft, and if you haven't heard of Starcraft then you've probably been living in a deep, deep hole in the ground. Total Annihilation - Forget Command & Conquer, this is THE classic RTS. Genre newbies should start here. Warhammer 40K Dawn of War II - Highly rated, squad-based RTS set in the Warhammer 40K universe. X-Com: UFO Defense - Defend the Earth from an alien invasion in this classic tactical strategy game. Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Aug 1, 2011 |
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Dec 17, 2010 23:58
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Edited OP with the suggestions so far! Keep 'em coming guys.  404notfound posted:Do people really make arguments for and against 1920x1080 or 1920x1200? Seems to me like the logical thing is to just get the biggest one available, hardware horsepower permitting. You'd be surprised what nerds on certain tech forums are capable of debating til they're blue in the face.
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Dec 18, 2010 00:52
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slev posted:Does anyone have any experience with this mouse? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826146009&Tpk=GM-M6800 I'm actually using one right now and I have zero complaints. It's comfy, has a couple of extra buttons, and costs under twenty bucks.
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Dec 19, 2010 22:00
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rj54x posted:On the controller front, I usually have one of the aforementioned wired 360 controllers, and one of these: I use one of these for emulation, and while it works if you have Xpadder (which you should already have anyway if you're serious about gaming with a gamepad), do NOT install the included drivers. For some bizarre reason they can cause random crashes on Windows 7.
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Dec 20, 2010 15:33
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Updated the OP with more recommendations and a "games releasing this week" section.
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Dec 20, 2010 18:08
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Chortles posted:Thanks for the comparison, but I'm still wondering what the AMD equivalent to Intel Core i5-i7 is supposed to be. There really is none in terms of price-to-performance ratio at that price point. However, a $100 Athlon II is enough for most gamers. NEW RELEASES THIS WEEK   NightSky, a new puzzle-platformer by Nifflas (Knytt, Saira)
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Jan 3, 2011 16:00
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Starhawk64 posted:Are soundcards worth it? Most motherboards come with onboard audio, and I'm not an audiophile and would rather use the money saved on a soundcard for a part that really matters, like a videocard. Not really, unless you do a lot of hardcore audio work. The best (and most cost-effective) audio setup for PC gaming, I find, is onboard audio + a good pair of Sennheisers or similarly quality headphones.
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Jan 3, 2011 20:11
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RPS posted their most anticipated PC games of 2011 list earlier today. Gonna be a good year.
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Jan 3, 2011 21:16
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spasticColon posted:Isn't BF3 coming out this year too? There's no announced release date right now, so it might slip into 2012.
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Jan 3, 2011 22:16
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Brace posted:I'm too scared of overclocking It's actually really hard to screw up overclocking if you're not a moron. Just read a few guides online and go to town. There's even a helpful SH/SC thread you can consult on the off-chance that something goes wrong.
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Jan 3, 2011 23:39
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UNANTICIPATED RELEASES THIS PAST WEEK       (Chapter 2) RELEASING THIS WEEK  
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Jan 10, 2011 15:55
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A Fancy 400 lbs posted:So this was released in Germany only on PC and 360 in '09, in the UK only on PS3 in '10, and will be released in the US on all 3 next week? That's kinda weird. The plot sounds like it'll be terrible if played straight, but awesome if done up all B-movie style, anyone know which they went with? Here's some reviews of the German version collected back in '09. They're generally favorable, though the game seems to suffer from some technical issues that they've hopefully polished in the meantime. All in all, looks pretty promising. I just hope it comes to Steam
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Jan 10, 2011 22:05
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Pr0phecy posted:edit: also huge lack of quality games recently. I don't remember it being this quiet for a good while. It's just the usual December/January lull. The major publishers all blow their loads in the run-up to Xmas and things never really pick up again until March at the earliest.
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Jan 11, 2011 15:11
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MurraneousX posted:I just unexpectedly bought this computer today as it seemed like a once in a lifetime deal, one only last year's ex-display model, bought primarily as a gaming PC. How much is a "regular notebook"? The weak point seems to be the GTX 480 - those are ridiculously hot, loud, and overkill for anything less than a 2560x1600 display to boot. Otherwise, seems like a pretty solid build, though as a display model I'd worry about a no-name PSU that's been run 24/7 for the last year crapping out on you before anything else.
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Jan 11, 2011 16:19
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..btt posted:Hot? Yes. Loud? Yes. Overkill? For DX10, sure. For newer, graphically intensive DX11 stuff, not so much. For example, Metro 2033 in DX11 mode...  Click here for the full 565x650 image. Metro 2033 in DX11 mode brings anything to its knees unless you spend at least $400 on video cards. And like Crysis, it's a major statistical outlier that you shouldn't take into consideration when purchasing GPU hardware. EDIT: Yeah, that's a really good price. Still, I'd eBay the GTX 480 and invest the money in a Radeon 6950 instead, since a 10-minute BIOS flash can turn one into a Radeon 6970. Or just grab a "sweet spot" card (GTX460/R6850) and pocket the remainder for upgrades in a couple of years. You'll thank yourself later for reducing your gaming environment's ambient noise level. Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jan 11, 2011 |
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Jan 11, 2011 16:47
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Samurai Sanders posted:Has anyone else played Mirror's Edge on the PC? I got it cheap some time ago but I can not get the audio working at all and Google has failed me. Before, I asked about input lag and it turned out that it was a very general problem that was easily fixed, I don't suppose that could be the case this time too? Have you tried updating your audio drivers? Usually that fixes any audio problems I might have for games released in the past few years. Dodoman posted:Can anyone recommend any decent, recent Sci-Fi RPGs that aren't Mass Effect, KOTOR, EVE and Greed. Fallout 3 and New Vegas are the obvious choices here. You might also be interested in Alien Swarm, a top-down (and FREE) multiplayer co-op alien-shootin' action-RPG. Did I mention it's completely free?
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Jan 16, 2011 17:42
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spasticColon posted:I'm getting one of these too if they are indeed $200 and are on par with a GTX 480 and I want Tessellation in upcoming games. Are they still coming out on the 25th? That sounds more reasonable than that ludicrous "basically a cooler, quieter GTX 470 for $200!" rumor. The latest rumors say it'll launch for $279, which seems like a reasonably competitive price point - though it won't dethrone the GTX 460/Radeon 6850 duo from the "sweet spot."
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Jan 17, 2011 01:45
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SURPRISE RELEASES THIS PAST WEEK   RELEASING THIS WEEK 
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Jan 17, 2011 15:18
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:Free to download and play ok sold Yep, and it was pretty dumb. I really hope this one turns out better.
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Jan 17, 2011 16:22
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El_Matarife posted:What's the best pure PC news site these days? I'm getting really sick of reading Shacknews as they're becoming more and more of a console gaming site with PC as an afterthought. Rock Paper Shotgun seems alright, but I'm trying to figure out if there's something bigger out there with more daily updates. Aside from RPS, I'm personally a fan of BigDownload. Their news commentary is generally limited to, "hey look at this news item," and generally doesn't involve the annoying, nerdy/spergy type of stuff that makes Kotaku and Joystiq a chore to browse through. Starhawk64 posted:I'm planning on building a system in the near future and I was wondering if AMD is still relevant or should I spend the extra bucks and get an Intel CPU and motherboard? Intel's stuff is pretty pricey. Attention all posters like this one: Please use the SH/SC Parts Picking Thread for specific advice on buying internal PC components (case/mobo/CPU/etc.) This thread is meant for general discussion on PC games and gaming, and not for advice on building or upgrading your PC. General discussion of PC components and news thereof is okay, but I don't want this thread to turn into Parts Picking Thread-Lite.That said, AMD's Athlon II line is probably the best general option for PC gaming nowadays, with Intel's quad-core i5s the best option if you have extra cash to blow. Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Jan 17, 2011 |
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Jan 17, 2011 18:48
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Ravenger posted:My EVGA RMA replacement card turned up today and it's a GTS450! Ok, it's not a top end card, but it's a good replacement for the 8800GTS 512, and my spare rig (which my son uses) is now fully capable of running modern games. Saves me having to splash out on a new card, which is good - it only cost me postage back to EVGA. That's a pretty good replacement. The two cards are more-or-less on par with each other, though the 450 runs cooler and quieter and can handle DX11 stuff.
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Jan 18, 2011 22:38
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I have a tech question regarding Dead Space for PC, if anyone can help me. I tried to run the game last night and every time I do, it just gives me a blank screen and nothing else. Not even any intro videos or anything. Google has yielded nothing helpful, and my video drivers are all up to date. Please help me goons! Side note: I ended up playing a bit of Borderlands for the first time instead, and holy poo poo is that game pretty at 1920x1200 with morphological AA enabled through the Catalyst Control Center. I don't know how ATI did it but I swear MorphAA is like some wonderful voodoo magic.
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Jan 20, 2011 16:37
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meme posted:Anyone have experience with a Nvidia 9600GT? I picked it up ages ago and never installed it, but I'm thinking it might be a good stop gap until I can pick up a 5770 next month. Basically asking if I'll be able to play stuff like fallout without it crapping out on me. It really depends upon your monitor resolution. Fallout 3 should be playable at medium-ish settings up to 1680x1050 or so, and maybe at low settings at 1920x1080/1200.
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Jan 20, 2011 18:50
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Ravenger posted:If it's the retail version make sure there's an exception for it in your firewall, as it'll try to contact an activation server on launch. Looks like that was it, actually! Played about an hour of Isaac's Mighty Boot last night and I'm amazed at how much easier the game is with mouse control than with a 360 controller. I usually play games on Medium/whatever the default difficulty setting is, but I'm almost tempted to restart on Hard.
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Jan 21, 2011 19:14
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Aw, yeah. Now we're getting to the good stuff. The usual December/January freeze is over and we've got a ton of kickass releases this week! SURPRISE RELEASES THIS PAST WEEK           RELEASING THIS WEEK     
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Jan 24, 2011 15:58
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Just a reminder that NVidia's GTX 560 has launched, and with it will come price drops for AMD's 68X0 line and probably the GTX 460 too. If you're looking to upgrade an aging video card, there's really no better time!
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Jan 25, 2011 15:51
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:I got a new gtx460 last month Sup "upgraded his video card last month" buddy.   Ah well, I'm happy with my R6850, even if I paid $200 for it and it's gonna be like $160 now. I rock the poo poo out of most games with it at 1920x1200, so I don't feel the need for anything more powerful anyway.
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Jan 25, 2011 16:28
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oh well, if I panicked every time parts of my computer went obsolete I'd never buy one.
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ETPC posted:If I have a 260, should I upgrade? Kinda want those sweet, sweet DX11 features. The general rule is: Are you experiencing lots of slowdowns or having to turn down lots of settings in your games? If yes, then you might want to look into upgrading. If no, then not yet. Remember that PC hardware, and video hardware especially, drops in price all the time. If you wait until you need to upgrade then you'll be able to get more power for less money. MrMoney posted:I'm waiting for those new dual GPU cards to waste my money on. Any speculation on price or release dates for those? I suppose the cards will be the Radeon 6990 and the Nvidia version will be the GTX 590. The R6990 is supposed to drop before the end of Q1 this year. Not sure about the other. But holy poo poo you must have some expensive monitor(s) to be able to actually use all that power. Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Jan 25, 2011 |
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Jan 25, 2011 16:45
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Manac0r posted:While I understand it's not possible to futureproof a PC. I recently built at great expense, a kind of wedding gift, the following: Depends upon your resolution. You're looking at maybe 4-5 years at 1920x1080 (though PLEASE tell me that's not what you're using this beast for) or 3 years at 2560x1600 or multi-monitor. However, you easily overspent by at least $1500 on features that are completely useless to a gamer (fun fact: that $1000 Core i7 performs roughly the same as a $200 Core i5.) So congratulations I guess?
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Jan 26, 2011 17:58
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Manac0r posted:Your right for gaming it was overkill, but for viedoe editing and conversion, along with CS5 I m noticing some great gains from using this processor. But you already made my day when you said 4 years. So mazeltov! So... wait.. you are saying that you're using that thing at 1920p?  I mean yeah, the 980x has some small marginal gains in video encoding over, say, a $225 Core i5-2500k. In a few specific cases. But not all of them. And that, ladies and gents, is why you don't try to "future-proof" with a $1000 CPU. Anyway, enough of this derail. Back to gaming! Devil Wears Wings fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Jan 26, 2011 |
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Jan 26, 2011 18:23
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7734 posted:I got my computer two years ago to the day, how much life is left in it? Overclock the hell out of that C2D and head over to the Parts Picking thread for a video card recommendation. You can easily squeeze another year or more out of that thing by just upgrading the 9800GT.
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Jan 26, 2011 18:50
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Added a "PC gaming is dying" section to the OP. Just in case.
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Jan 27, 2011 15:22
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Parker Lewis posted:"The odd big-budget AAA exclusive." .. it's not everyone's cup of tea, but this might be a good place to mention World of Warcraft since it's certainly still widely played. Thanks for the suggestion! I added some clarification to that section.
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Jan 27, 2011 17:57
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doctorfrog posted:We can pretty much relegate the MX518 to the OP at this point. Done and done.
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Jan 27, 2011 22:56
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Marcus Aurelius posted:Also for those of you wanting to do research on components and look at possible configurations there is https://techreport.com Don't listen to these guys. Some of their recommendations are over-the-top (520W PSU for an HTPC with integrated graphics, a $180 mobo and $150 case for a "sweet spot" gaming system) and others are just completely laughable (a dual-core i3 with integrated on-die graphics that you won't even use, instead of a cheaper quad-core Athlon II, for a gaming system? Ha.) The only source you should trust on the Internet for building a PC is the Parts Picking thread. They don't have any brand loyalties and they're not influenced by enthusiast-targeted PR.
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Jan 30, 2011 01:14
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. Also they come out with a system configuration guide about 4 times a year,
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Vertigus posted:I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in this comic. A poster mentioned that they were trying to get a crossfire setup running on a laptop, but what the hell is Gabe talking about with a "3rd party mod" and "canceling an install before it finishes"? Probably some weird hack-ish solution that he found on the Internet. Either way why the hell would you want a Crossfire setup on a laptop? That thing must be hotter than the surface of the loving sun and have a battery life of about 15 minutes.
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Jan 30, 2011 02:08
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Holy poo poo I forgot how much Dead Space owns. I can't wait to pick up the sequel for $10 at the next Steam Christmas sale. (  )And yeah, I don't mean to fuel the Webcomics Chat, but Penny Arcade (and pretty much all "video game webcomics" that aren't Brawl in the Family) are the worst.
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Jan 30, 2011 05:53
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Samurai Sanders posted:How is Dead Space 2 PC? Does it have the same technical problems the first one did? The Vsync bug is apparently still there, but there's a bajillion ways to force Vsync nowadays. Plus there's the usual reports of crashes and arcane ways to fix them. Otherwise both are pretty solid as far as console ports go: They scale to a ton of resolutions up to 1920x1200 without having to gently caress with the FOV and feature loads of graphics options for playing on less powerful PCs.
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Jan 30, 2011 07:07
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