This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.
See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.
Mind you, the game (Dragon Age: Inquisition) can be finished in likely quite a bit less than that. Really depends on how much side-questing you do decide to do.
Check HowLongToBeat. Playthroughs can range anywhere from 40-50 hours to...well, you can see where mine went (165 hours).
I wound up w/ a Playthrough similar towards that of a Completionist side of things - which for me, w/ a game of especially of this length, is quite rare. I believe I did all of the Loyalty Quests - since I kept bothering the important NPC's til they stopped giving me their Important quests up until they stopped giving me quests, right before the end.
But I also actually did most of the other side-quests - even the collect-a-thons + MMO-style quests (get X this, kill X enemies, find X area, etc etc). I didn't do all the side-quests, but a great majority of them.
Granted, when you finish the game - you may continue in the game-world to do side-quests. Just...not all quests will be available to you, once you finish the game - which the game tells you + warns you, right before you do the last Main Quest.
It looked like all the Collect-A-Thons and unimportant side-stuff (that MMO-like stuff set there for grinding purposes) that I didn't do was still there to do, once I finished the Main Quest. From what I read about finishing the game online and what sticks around and what doesn't - it looks like Loyalty Quests and Main Quests need to be finished, before doing the final mission.
Yeah most rpgs can be completed fairly quickly (relatively speaking) if you just focus on the main quest, but I tend to do almost everything depending on the game. I don't think I've ever played an rpg without doing at least half the side quests
Well, this is something. Minecraft is getting a new Windows 10 version that will launch alongside the OS on July 29th. It's free if you already own Minecraft on PC, and will launch at only $10 which is way cheaper than PC Minecraft has been since probably 2010 or so.
I'm running win8 Ultimate on my HTPC. Pretty much that thing boots straight into XBMC, so I never play with the Metro UI. When I was playing with the RC1 Trial I managed to disable the metro UI Completely, which was really nice.
All you need to know to navigate win8 is DICEX.
Windows Key + D, I , C, E, X gets you all of the important menus.
Yeah most rpgs can be completed fairly quickly (relatively speaking) if you just focus on the main quest, but I tend to do almost everything depending on the game. I don't think I've ever played an rpg without doing at least half the side quests
With RPG's, I tend to often aim towards 20-60 hours ballpark for playthroughs, no matter the amount + hours of content there - if I ain't going to take a break from it and I only want to stick w/ that one game for a while. Often, after a while, if it tends to start to feel like the game's beginning to feel like it's getting long for me in some way (whether it's gameplay getting repetitive to me, story's going on long too long now, both reasons, and/or any other reasons) - then, it's time to get it done with; especially if it's story-heavy + character-heavy. I don't really want to drop a story-heavy + character-heavy game, take a break, and then come back to it to the point where I feel that I might've lost some important information which now is no longer fresh in my head.
Super-huge games like Skyrim, Far Cry 3, and TDU2 - which ain't too plot important + ain't too character important, I've managed to play them for quite a while on a fair deal of their main + side stuff; get away from them; play something else for a time period; and then easily later pick up where I left off; repeat cycle.
Oddly enough, that did not happen w/ DA:I at all. I played for 165 hours w/ no other games getting in the way. I think it's the variety of content here w/ regular missions; Loyalty missions; the huge open-world + exploration/discovery factor; MMO-style quests + collect-a-thons; and the usual BioWare excellence in storytelling, narrative, game-world + characters that managed to keep me going w/ just that one game for such a long amount of time.
It's a 390X actually. And there's a reason we've been together for like 20 years. I keep an open mind with video cards usually. I've used both ATI and Nvidia over the years and been happy with both.
What are people using for good benchmark testing these days? Is 3DMark/Futuremark still the standard?
It's a 390X actually. And there's a reason we've been together for like 20 years. I keep an open mind with video cards usually. I've used both ATI and Nvidia over the years and been happy with both.
What are people using for good benchmark testing these days? Is 3DMark/Futuremark still the standard?
I often don't use Benchmark tools like those. I just throw games at it.
For monitoring card performance, framerates, and whatnot during a game - I use EVGA Precision X 15. I'm not much of a fan of EVGA Precision X 16.
But, that's really for EVGA Nvidia cards - so, something like RivaTuner would probably be more suited for you....since you now have a AMD card.
Side note: EVGA Precision X 15 used RivaTuner as a base mostly + X 16 has gotten away from RivaTuner, which probably explains why I don't care much for X16.
Sooooooooooo... I don't know if this is Tebow's cousin or just another unfortunate victim of lobotomy by piledriver, but... It scares the hell out of me.
My primary only does 1080 sadly. It's 40" though so it's all good.
Now that I think about this, I really don't have a good excuse as to why I'm not on a 4k. I work for the worlds leading glass manufacture for LCD and smartphones. Sounds like I need to tell my wife to step up the gifting.
Sooooooooooo... I don't know if this is Tebow's cousin or just another unfortunate victim of lobotomy by piledriver, but... It scares the hell out of me.
My primary only does 1080 sadly. It's 40" though so it's all good.
Now that I think about this, I really don't have a good excuse as to why I'm not on a 4k. I work for the worlds leading glass manufacture for LCD and smartphones. Sounds like I need to tell my wife to step up the gifting.
I don't know, man - but if my significant other went and bought me a tech-present like a vid-card (especially of that kind of VRAM & actual cost) for my B-Day, I'd probably feel like I'm in Heaven.
You must feel like you're in Heaven right now, I'd say.
I don't know, man - but if my significant other went and bought me a tech-present like a vid-card (especially of that kind of VRAM & actual cost) for my B-Day, I'd probably feel like I'm in Heaven.
You must feel like you're in Heaven right now, I'd say.
well ARK is a horrible way to test/benchmark. They still have a long ways to go optimizing as just last week they realized they had a thread sitting idle on the gpu just sucking up 25-50% of a gpu's processing power. They also represented trees as objects, vs representing them as simple integers/structures and the like, that used up 2x as much memory. Seems they have a ways to go in their programming knowledge as well.
well ARK is a horrible way to test/benchmark. They still have a long ways to go optimizing as just last week they realized they had a thread sitting idle on the gpu just sucking up 25-50% of a gpu's processing power. They also represented trees as objects, vs representing them as simple integers/structures and the like, that used up 2x as much memory. Seems they have a ways to go in their programming knowledge as well.
With all that Win 10 talk a bit back, does anyone know if you can get into the beta, not actually install now, but get the free upgrade when the full version is out? Or does it require install?
With all that Win 10 talk a bit back, does anyone know if you can get into the beta, not actually install now, but get the free upgrade when the full version is out? Or does it require install?
If you own Win 7 or 8 legally my understanding is you can upgrade for free on or after release to 10. If you don't, last I heard you get the keep it once it goes final release if you participated in the preview as long as you remain a member of windows insider, which is free so duh no reason not to be. I'm not entirely sure if you need to install the preview release in that case but the impression I am getting is yes.
Anyway it's really close to the final product so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Release is the 29th so that wouldn't be the case if they weren't in the home stretch. I recently installed the preview myself and can say it's been very stable and no issues here. I installed on top of my win 8 installation, didn't back anything up and didn't have to reinstall anything so the whole thing was really painless.
If you want to wait until the very last minute I guess you could always install the preview on the 28th so as not to chance it.
If you have Win 7/8, you can upgrade to 10 for free any time within a year of its release. So you'll have plenty of time to read the full reviews and see people's experiences before taking the plunge.
Kicking off the consumer-focused Windows 10 event in Redmond on Tuesday, January 21, Microsoft operating system chief Terry Myerson announced that current users of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 will be able to upgrade to the new operating system for free as long as they do so within one year of Windows 10's launch. Once you’ve claimed the upgrade, it's permanent, and Microsoft will keep you updated for the supported lifetime of the device.
That "lifetime of the device" has me a little cautious since, if I replaced my computer before, I could always uncouple my Win 7 key off my old box and put it on my new system. But Microsoft still hasn't said yet if upgrade users will get a Win 10 key so, if I upgrade my Win 7 license, what happens?
If you own Win 7 or 8 legally my understanding is you can upgrade for free on or after release to 10. If you don't, last I heard you get the keep it once it goes final release if you participated in the preview as long as you remain a member of windows insider, which is free so duh no reason not to be. I'm not entirely sure if you need to install the preview release in that case but the impression I am getting is yes.
Anyway it's really close to the final product so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Release is the 29th so that wouldn't be the case if they weren't in the home stretch. I recently installed the preview myself and can say it's been very stable and no issues here. I installed on top of my win 8 installation, didn't back anything up and didn't have to reinstall anything so the whole thing was really painless.
If you want to wait until the very last minute I guess you could always install the preview on the 28th so as not to chance it.
What is the motivation to get into the beta, other than to get it prior to the 29th? I'm a member and have it, and am unsure of any special benefits, other than providing them feedback.
Also am a fan of Win10 FWIW. They finally got Win8 right.
What is the motivation to get into the beta, other than to get it prior to the 29th? I'm a member and have it, and am unsure of any special benefits, other than providing them feedback.
Also am a fan of Win10 FWIW. They finally got Win8 right.
As someone who's been testing it for a while, I can confidently say that there aren't any, unless you just enjoy getting periodic emails from Microsoft. What Motoki said is basically correct, though. The 10159 build that was pushed out last week appears to have fixed pretty much every issue I've had to date; those issues ranged from random errors that force you to re-login endlessly or reboot, Desktop Themes not working properly, Mail and Calendar apps being broken, stuff pinned to the Start Menu looking weird and having illegible names, et cetera. I'm running a fairly crappy computer so I haven't noticed any differences in performance at this point, but the Start Menu is a considerable improvement over 8 and 8.1. I haven't messed with Microsoft Edge much, either (this is what I presume is the final name for what began life as Project Spartan, the replacement for Internet Explorer). The Cortana integration is a nice touch but it doesn't understand voice commands terribly well, at least so far. It does seem like the ultimate version of Windows Search. There's also a "Task View" icon embedded in the taskbar, which shows you mini-versions of the windows that you have open--it looks like something MS cribbed from OS X to me.
If we can get it free up to a year after release I'll probably just play it safe and wait. I'm pretty new to PC stuff so I don't want to jack anything up, I'll have to get another external HDD to back up everything first at least. I've got Win 7, and I'm not sure how much of a boost 10 will give my PC with the old stuff I have in it.
My friend just gave me his old PC for my b-day, he upgraded because it's pre-built and I guess the graphic card slot is smaller than normal so he wasn't able to put in any of the cards he wanted. I know very little about hardware so I'm going to start learning finally I guess if I want to do future PC gaming. He said he was able to run most stuff he threw at it except the Witcher games. I'm not too worried for now as I'm playing a lot of older and indie stuff mostly.
This is what I have, pretty sure still stock all around. I feel like being completely unable to upgrade a graphics card isn't accurate, even if I have to upgrade the power supply and processor along with it, or get some kind of adapter if said slot is a problem.
The specs show a PCI-e slot so it should be able to hold a graphics card in theory but the case and way the motherboard is put together may not allow for a very large one. So it's not a slot problem, it's a general "this was made to be an office machine, not a gaming machine" set up problem. A smaller form factor/low profile card might work in it. But I didn't see what the PSU was -- edit: looks like a scant 300w -- and that may be a goofy size as well. To be honest, I'd save up my pennies for a new system all around (the CPU is no great shakes) and just be happy to have a free box that plays what it can play. By the time you're talking about replacing the graphics, CPU and PSU there's no sense in saving the outdated motherboard and (stock, too small) case.
Not to be all YBX87 on your gift; it's awesome that you got a free PC and can play a lot of older stuff. Lots of good older stuff out there to play and for cheap. But I wouldn't sink any money into upgrading it.
So yeah, it's microATX in a mid size case, which is a great screw-up by HP/Newegg. Another screw-up is that they interbred an AMD processor with NVIDIA chipsets. Everyone knows you go AMD to ATI and Intel to NVIDIA. And the 2MB L2 cache is quite dated given the demand of current games.
Free is good for that computer. You should still be glad he gave it to you, because it will run older games. Just not newer ones. I say it'll run Arkham Asylum on low to medium.
Does it? I was just looking at the new featured, top of the fold games that just rolled over. Stuff like the AC games have been on sale for a day or two now.
Edit: The store via Brazil looks a little different than via US
Does it? I was just looking at the new featured, top of the fold games that just rolled over. Stuff like the AC games have been on sale for a day or two now.
That's what I saw on reddit. I think it was more the other day. But I'm talking about deals that rolled over in the past day, dunno if you meant newer deals.
If we can get it free up to a year after release I'll probably just play it safe and wait. I'm pretty new to PC stuff so I don't want to jack anything up, I'll have to get another external HDD to back up everything first at least. I've got Win 7, and I'm not sure how much of a boost 10 will give my PC with the old stuff I have in it.
