For Scott, with something like this, you can plug in any GPU you want anytime without any issues. Gave you a semi-modular PSU, which makes adding stuff (or just plain building) easier.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-K ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($132.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($87.95 @ OutletPC)
Total: $709.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 12:50 EST-0500

I haven't tried wireless recently, but at least initially the Link did not work well on a strong 5 ghz connection.

The Link didn't work for me with PowerLine in the first few weeks--it was very fussy (even with older games, lots of stuttering in the video and cracking in the audio). Tried tweaking everything on my network/system and nothing worked. Even upgraded the video card on my desktop. Went away for the holidays, came back a few patches later, and suddenly was pulling a solid 60 fps. Wizardry.

The Controller seems not fully baked yet, and much of what's wrong with it can't be fixed with patches. I'd be disappointed if I bought it thinking it would function like a standard gamepad (that's not quite how they marketed it, but that's how the gaming press talked about it). There are a ton of user-generated configs out for it though.

IMO, they hurt themselves by pushing the Link out while it was still effectively in the beta phase--but maybe they needed all of the testing in the wild to identify and fix its gaggle of problems.

The Link didn't work for me with PowerLine in the first few weeks--it was very fussy (even with older games, lots of stuttering in the video and cracking in the audio). Tried tweaking everything on my network/system and nothing worked. Even upgraded the video card on my desktop. Went away for the holidays, came back a few patches later, and suddenly was pulling a solid 60 fps. Wizardry.

I'm encouraged to hear about your experience with a PLA and SteamLink, because I'd really like to be able to play some games on my desktop monitor setup (FPS's mostly) and some on the big TV in the living room (Rocket League!) so I actually went ahead and purchase this PLA and as far as delivering a nice consistent stream of bandwidth to the living room it's working great. I haven't purchased the SteamLink yet but most assuredly will in coming months. In the meantime I'm enjoy all my streaming video options without buffering, a nice relief for me living in a very old apartment building with walls full of lord knows what hindering the wireless signal from my office.

After hearing a friend talk about how much he liked SteamLink I very briefly considered getting one, until realizing I'm an idiot. My TV is two feet to the left of my computer desk. So I decided to upgrade my TV (my previous one was quite old, had only one HDMI port, and was 720p) and now I'm using a 43" TV as my third monitor and for playing games I use a controller for. Rebel Galaxy looks pretty sweet on the big screen.

I haven't purchased the SteamLink yet but most assuredly will in coming months.

Meanwhile Gabe starves without your $50.

Thanks for the link to the Humble Bundle, dp. I'd wanted x-com, and $10 is the price I was willing to pay. Plus have Civ III and IV on Steam, and can retire my old CDs.

If Gabe wanted my money he'd have released Left 4 Dead 3 by now.

If Gabe wanted my money he'd have released Left 4 Dead 3 by now.

When the Vive (the Steam VR system) comes out in April, I'll be VERY surprised if one of Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3, and/or (heaven forbid) Half-Life 3 isn't released at the same time (or packaged with the system).

Seasonic, Fractal R4, EVO 250 and Intel based i5 build? Man after my own heart. Good mid-tier build with outstanding choices. I enjoy ASUS boards as well they don't overthink things in the BIOS. Add a GTX 970, maybe get crazy on some monitors you'd have a great rig and certainly entry level Oculus worthy.


______________

I just built a little dual core skylake system to hold me over until I can upgrade the CPU. It's pretty nice. No hyperthreading but it doesn't really matter most my games are GPU bound. DDR4 doesn't really bring any benefits (and is pricy) but wanted a Skylake based socket. I actually "downgraded" from an i7 2600k but I never really even came close to needing its power. Sandy Bridge is still incredible. That chip retails for around $200 still on secondary markets I put it to use in a system for a customer that does video production, much better use of it than gaming and mild multi tasking.

When the Vive (the Steam VR system) comes out in April, I'll be VERY surprised if one of Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3, and/or (heaven forbid) Half-Life 3 isn't released at the same time (or packaged with the system).

When Valve announced the Vive I was certain that was the case. Now I am equally certain that will not be the case, that the Vive will either launch with hardware alone or with some far less-heralded games and technology demos and any anticipated software releases like the ones you mention above will not come out for a long time, if they arrive at all, to allow plenty of time to work out bugs with the new technology.

When Valve announced the Vive I was certain that was the case. Now I am equally certain that will not be the case, that the Vive will either launch with hardware alone or with some far less-heralded games and technology demos and any anticipated software releases like the ones you mention above will not come out for a long time, if they arrive at all, to allow plenty of time to work out bugs with the new technology.

Curious how many people here are planning to go in on VR (either Vive or Oculus)? This price keeps ticking up, to the point where Morpheus--with Sony's walled garden--might come out the winner, unfortunately.PC's the better option long-term, obviously, but if Morpheus comes in at $400, a lot of people will go that route instead and Oculus/Vive will wither and die. The problem with selling peripherals that require a $1K+ hardware investment to run is that it limits the markets for compatible games, and kills developers' incentives to build for the platform.

I have a Gear VR--Oculus for Samsung phones--and it's OK as a teaser, but gaming on it is pretty tricky. Overheats the phone in three minutes.

Thanks for all the advice, DJS et al. I've ordered the parts per your build- I'll let you know how it turns out!

Has anyone played the most recent version of the Caveman to Cosmos mod for Civ 4? Any tips? I am enjoying it, but by the time I get to the later eras I am overwhelmed by its complexity. It seems like you have to decide on a strategy early in the game and implement it pretty carefully, or the later eras become a pointless slog, even on the lower difficulty levels. Given that this mod is created and tested entirely by volunteers, I wonder if there are late-era game-balance issues they just haven't had time to address yet. Regardless, this mod is a lot of fun, and a shining example of what a passionate mod community can do.

Curious how many people here are planning to go in on VR (either Vive or Oculus)?

I'm intrigued and not opposed to it, but there would need to be some sort of "killer app" that makes it more than just a fancy technology demo for me. And of course I'd need to try it out first and make sure it doesn't make my eyes cross up and overwhelm me with nausea.

I think a Left 4 Dead game would be a lousy fit for the new hardware. However a new Portal game would be pretty much the best possible way to show off the technology is a game that won't punish you too severely for your missteps.

I'm intrigued and not opposed to it, but there would need to be some sort of "killer app" that makes it more than just a fancy technology demo for me. And of course I'd need to try it out first and make sure it doesn't make my eyes cross up and overwhelm me with nausea.

EVE Valkyrie!

Seriously though, I'll probably give it 6 months or so to collect feedback from the early adopters, wait for the worst of the bugs to get cleaned up, etc.

I'm intrigued and not opposed to it, but there would need to be some sort of "killer app" that makes it more than just a fancy technology demo for me.

That's where we seem to be stuck in neutral-- the lessons of the Wiimote and Kinect aren't that far in the rearview mirror--and those devices had the virtue of being relatively inexpensive. The Gear VR has an immersive 360-degree photo app, and it's really cool to spend a few minutes playing with. But if you want to show someone pictures of your vacation (what sort of a terrible friend would do that in the first place??), you're not going to strap them into your $600 VR rig. OK, maybe once. Then the novelty's completely gone.

The Oculus Connect keynotes have some very good moments throughout--especially Michael Abrash's talk, which deviates from the standard tech pitch a bit and goes into VR from the programmer/engineer/physiologist side of the problem.

I played around some with the Gear VR (buddy is a Samsung fan boy and had the Note already so I convinced him to buy it) and wasn't that impressed. It's not high enough resolution to really immerse you and it's laggy and there's a lack of media. That said, it's obvious how far the tech has come from the day 15 odd years ago when I was looking at colored polygons with 20lbs of goggles on my head at EPCOT center.

My tech analogy is HDTV circa 2003. It's cool, it can be a "game changing" tech but it's also in its infancy and outside the price range of the majority of consumers and there just isn't much content yet.

Give it 5 years I'm sure GPU power will progress enough to where mainstream laptops can run it in 1080p without input lag and then you'll see content take off and from there it will only be a matter of time until we are all Wall-E'd out fat and happy in our chairs and goggles. If we get sick of watching the goggles a holographic real life Kate Upton (you can pick her outfit) can be projected in front of you and you can watch her strip.

I'm serious, holographic tech is maybe 2-5 years behind VR and will be perhaps even more game changing. The Star Trek holodeck might be possible in the next 20 years.

The Star Trek holodeck might be possible in the next 20 years.

I really want replicators and a holodeck. Don't care for the whole space travel thing.

"Where's Zeth?"
"He's been in the holodeck since March."

"Leave me alone, I'm with my Marilyn Monrobot."

So I finally put together my computer. It's amazing to have a machine where the default settings are "ultra."

RE:299

Thanks for the recommendations Dan. It does seem like when I bought my CPU, that was one of the last good spots for AMD in $$/performance. I've been casually following it since then and haven't been impressed with anything that made me want to upgrade.

For now, I think I"m going with a GPU, RAM, and an external fan controller, and put off the mobo/CPU upgrade for a while. Not seeing any real issues with it, other than like I said my case fan weirdness. The extra 8GB RAM is more for non-gaming uses, like running a local development sql server, having 2-4 IDEs open, and of course 900 chrome tabs. I recently went to 16 on my work tower, and it made all the difference.

This post is coming from my newly-built PC built exactly as specced in #301, above. Things looked dicey in the third hour of work this morning, when it seemed like we were randomly snapping cables into things because they fit rather than because we knew what they did, but shortly thereafter it booted on the first try, and Windows installed, and everything seems to be working. I'll see how it performs, but for now, thanks so much to DJS and the others who offered help!

Are the Asus Beebox 3050 or 3150 worth doing as a HTPC? Typically I'm a believer that you can squeeze more performance from a home built, but my needs are really minimal. Just some internet streams in 720 or 1080 that you can only get through a browser. The lady friend likes those because they seem relatively good looking and unobtrusive. I'd probably prefer to have upgrade options if I could hit $150-200 in a decent case. Any recommendations for a dirt cheap HTPC build or should I just go with the Beebox?

Any recommendations for a dirt cheap HTPC build or should I just go with the Beebox?

I think the biggest problem with those are storage, 32 GB is nothing. For a little more you could get one of the cheapest NUCs Intel sells (they have the same form factor) and put a bigger disk and more RAM in it. That would cost about 250 dollars though.

Otherwise, it would be fine performance-wise, I have a Celeron in my media PC and it works well.

EDIT: Alright, I see that 3150 is expandable, so you will be fine. Be sure to buy an extra disk.

This post is coming from my newly-built PC built exactly as specced in #301, above. Things looked dicey in the third hour of work this morning, when it seemed like we were randomly snapping cables into things because they fit rather than because we knew what they did, but shortly thereafter it booted on the first try, and Windows installed, and everything seems to be working. I'll see how it performs, but for now, thanks so much to DJS and the others who offered help!

First tries are always the best! It's always disheartening when you have all your stuff together and a part needs to be RMAed!

It's definitely super-important to make sure all the modular cables go where they say they should! There are a few that fit in too easily where they shouldn't if you're not careful. Also, if you ever lose a cable, do not use a modular cable from another PSU, they are not standard. The pin layouts are going to be different and you're Going to Have a Bad Time.

Thanks for the recommendations Dan. It does seem like when I bought my CPU, that was one of the last good spots for AMD in $$/performance. I've been casually following it since then and haven't been impressed with anything that made me want to upgrade.

For now, I think I"m going with a GPU, RAM, and an external fan controller, and put off the mobo/CPU upgrade for a while. Not seeing any real issues with it, other than like I said my case fan weirdness. The extra 8GB RAM is more for non-gaming uses, like running a local development sql server, having 2-4 IDEs open, and of course 900 chrome tabs. I recently went to 16 on my work tower, and it made all the difference.

You'll never be unhappy with 16 GB. I just don't recommend it unless I get the OK because up until a certain price point, you get better marginal gains from an SSD or a better GPU!

AMD's in a tough spot right now. There Phenom IIs were terrific little chips. I still have a spare rig with a 965 Black that I have no turned into some kind of different use. AMD went into the FX series, however, by mostly just throwing more weak cores at the problem. So the FX processors keep up with Intel, but primarily in extremely parallel workloads. Problem is, most tasks aren't embarrassingly parallel, and every subsequent core, in a general use situation, will have less of a marginal gain in real-world performance. Intel's individual cores are more powerful and combined with the incremental gains they've gotten in the last 5 years (during which AMD's FX series has more or less stood still), it's created an awkward situation in which even on games which can use several cores, the two-core i3 with hyperthreading can beat AMD's four-core, six-core, and in the latest round of games, frequently even their eight-core processors.

I'm really hopeful about Zen. It's beneficial to the consumer to have AMD being competitive with Intel. As much as I enjoy supporting an underdog, when someone asks for a recommendation, I can't in good conscience recommend an AMD platform these days without a very specific reason (like a very budget workhorse non-gaming rig or someone who just wants an AMD build).

I think the biggest problem with those are storage, 32 GB is nothing. For a little more you could get one of the cheapest NUCs Intel sells (they have the same form factor) and put a bigger disk and more RAM in it. That would cost about 250 dollars though.

Otherwise, it would be fine performance-wise, I have a Celeron in my media PC and it works well.

EDIT: Alright, I see that 3150 is expandable, so you will be fine. Be sure to buy an extra disk.

Yeah, if you get one, get the one that allows a 2.5" hard drive. You're going to want the storage.

My 7-year-old box failed to post this morning for the 3rd time in 3 days, beeping along that the display adapter was not found. Hopefully I can jiggle the card and get it up again after work, but clearly, the End is Nigh. I was really hoping I could hold out until the nvidia die shrink cards are out, but we'll see.

Zack, do you have an integrated GPU to check?

For reasons like this, I usually suggest that if you don't have a CPU with an integrated GPU, to keep a really cheap crap $20 GPU hanging around, both for diagnostic reasons and as an emergency backup.

I picked up this "case" for cheap in a clearance sale. I have a desktop with a mini-ITX board, so I can actually use it for that if I wanted to. My guess is that it would probably be damn noisy and I would be better off putting one of those fanless boards in it.

I think the biggest problem with those are storage, 32 GB is nothing.

I picked up one of these last week and have been favorably impressed so far. It can be a little clunky working through Kodi's variety of front-end channels but I recognize that part of this is that I don't know which ones are good and which ones aren't, presumably it will get easier as I winnow the pre-installed channels from my index.

The storage hasn't been an issue for me because one of the primary reasons I purchased it was to decode video from my external hard drives. The plethora of streaming options have been a very nice bonus for me. Currently finding good success and variety with Phoenix, Genesis, SALTS, and eCloudTV.

Zack, do you have an integrated GPU to check?

For reasons like this, I usually suggest that if you don't have a CPU with an integrated GPU, to keep a really cheap crap $20 GPU hanging around, both for diagnostic reasons and as an emergency backup.

Nope, or at least, I don't think so. It's an E8500 CPU and I'm fairly sure I would not have bought a board with an integrated DA. I do have a couple of ancient* GPUs that I might be useful in an emergency, good idea.

*And I mean ancient. I think the newest might be a geforce 4? I bet there's still a matrox g400 lying around somewhere! They might all be AGP though!

I'm really hopeful about Zen. It's beneficial to the consumer to have AMD being competitive with Intel. As much as I enjoy supporting an underdog, when someone asks for a recommendation, I can't in good conscience recommend an AMD platform these days without a very specific reason (like a very budget workhorse non-gaming rig or someone who just wants an AMD build).

The new PC I just bought was the first non-AMD CPU I've purchased in the last 20 years. AMD always had a nice price/performance ratio, but they've really slipped the last couple years. I agree that everyone will be better off if AMD can get back in the game.

I picked up this "case" for cheap in a clearance sale. I have a desktop with a mini-ITX board, so I can actually use it for that if I wanted to. My guess is that it would probably be damn noisy and I would be better off putting one of those fanless boards in it.

That is a really sweet case. Fans are really quiet these days and it may not be as noisy as you might think - if that thing is as airy as it looks, you shouldn't be stressing things too much temperature-wise.

Nope, or at least, I don't think so. It's an E8500 CPU and I'm fairly sure I would not have bought a board with an integrated DA. I do have a couple of ancient* GPUs that I might be useful in an emergency, good idea.

Yeah, that's before GPU-on-chip became a big thing. For Intel, almost every mainstream CPU today has Intel HD graphics available on the CPU (the Xeons don't and the i5-3350p does not). THis started with many of the CPUs from the Nephalem era and was pretty standard by Sandy Bridge. It's a good trend as a lot of people who don't do any gaming really don't need a discrete GPU at all and just having the CPU in this case rather than having some very basic GT 210/HD 5450 type GPU chucked in is a good thing.

I am getting hooked on Paradox's development diaries. Stellaris is sounding like it's rounding into an interesting game, perhaps the first 4-X space game I can really sink my teeth into since Spaceward Ho!

But I'm really getting excited about Hears of Iron IV. I've never really got into any of the previous incarnations of the game, but this one seems to be moving towards a much more coherent and transparent style of play.

Also, Europa Universalis is introducing a new naval mechanic - sailors. A specific kind of manpower produced in coastal provinces and necessary for the construction and maintenance of fleets. And, in a stroke of historical realism, pirate slave raiding as an option to increase your sailor manpower pool. It's been fun integrating each layer of sophistication to that game slowly over time. I imagine just jumping into Europa Universalis for the first time right now must be a bit overwhelming.

I eventually got into CKII on my 3rd or 4th try over the course of 3 years, and it was fun until one day I suddenly never wanted to play CKII ever again (and haven't).

I want to play EU4, but between the complexity in just purchasing the damn thing and the complexity in learning it without any EU3- background I don't think I ever will.

I want to play EU4, but between the complexity in just purchasing the damn thing and the complexity in learning it without any EU3- background I don't think I ever will.

It can be a bit of a chore the first couple of playthroughs. But the payoff!!

One thing Paradox has improved over time is how user-friendly their games are. I played EU2 and EU3 for hundreds of hours each and there are still components I don't fully understand. EU4 is quite good for actually letting you know the effect of everything you're doing (and that is being done to you). The intimidating part is that there's just so much information it can be overwhelming.

One thing to remember about EU4 is that it's perfectly possible to play a good, successful campaign without understanding everything.

I confess: I don't really understand how the trade mechanics work. I did some digging around in the wikis but I bounced right off. I send my merchants to the places with the biggest numbers and that seems good enough. I'm sure I could eke out more money by "doing it right," but I also don't think I've ever lost a game because my merchant wasn't in the right trade node.

I confess: I don't really understand how the trade mechanics work. I did some digging around in the wikis but I bounced right off. I send my merchants to the places with the biggest numbers and that seems good enough. I'm sure I could eke out more money by "doing it right," but I also don't think I've ever lost a game because my merchant wasn't in the right trade node.

One of the fun things about EU4 is that there are several different ways to play depending on who you are. If you're playing as Hungary, trade isn't too important (except for maybe determining what provinces might be worth more to conquer than others in order to maximize your trade influence). Whereas for someone like Portugal or England, trade is the name of the game. Trade is one of the (many) elements that EU4 does infinitely better than it's ancestors. The trade mechanics in 2 and 3 were the height of dull, and poorly explained care-taking.

Essentially in EU4 you want to manage your nodes. Your trade power in a region determines how much of the trade there goes the way you want (ie. either stays put and is collected by you, or is pushed on to the next node). The purpose of your merchants is to collect trade, or direct where it moves on to. So if there is only one exit route for trade out of a node, it's pointless to put a merchant there to direct the flow - it's all going to be flowing to the same place. You may still want a merchant there to collect trade for some reason though. So merchants are best placed in nodes that have multiple possible exit paths for trade. For example, if England and Spain both have a ton of trade power in the Ivory Coast, that's good for both of them...keep pushing that trade on towards Europe. But from the Ivory Coast the trade could go to (I forget exactly so just for the sake of argument) Seville, or Brazil, or the North Sea. So it's not enough that you are pushing trade down-stream, you want to make sure it's going down the right path. If there are no merchants I think the trade flows evenly down each path. But if there is a merchant there it goes the way he chooses. So if Spain is the only one with a merchant in the Ivory Coast, all of that trade that's been picking up steam along the route from the Orient will go to Seville. As England, you need to get a merchant there to make sure it flows your way too (how it would then be divided up between England and Spain depends on their relative trade power in the region and whatever trade steering bonuses you have*).

*Which may be related to national ideas, temporary modifiers, advisors, buildings you've constructed, your nation's mercantilism rating, how many ships you have in the region protecting your trade, any blockades that might be happening in the region, and the new element of any privateering going on in the region.

[edit: I suppose that trade power can also depend on your government type (merchant republics fare well), and there's a new mechanic for Protesant (or maybe Reformed?) religions that allow them to accumulate piety and use it to shape the religion, one such option being to improve your nation's trade skills. The new expansion they're working on is apparently focused on the naval game, so expect many more additions to what influences trade!]

So simple!

I'd also echo Dudefella that knowing what's going on is by no means necessary to playing a successful game. Understanding all the mechanics may save you from making a mistake here or there, or allow you to achieve your goals more efficiently, but it's not strictly required. I usually find the most fun I have is when they add a new element or two and I blunder through a game figuring out on the fly how it works.

Any early feedback on XCOM 2?

The rockpapershotgun review is so glowing that it hurts to look at.

The rockpapershotgun review is so glowing that it hurts to look at.

Sort of a disappointing review. 80% of it was about background colour bells and whistles like the variety of postures your soldiers have when they're standing in barracks.

The wider variety of types of missions sounds promising though, as does the evac mechanic.

Sort of a disappointing review. 80% of it was about background colour bells and whistles like the variety of postures your soldiers have when they're standing in barracks.

I think you're referring to this article from today?. That's not the actual review, just a post-launch list of interesting things. The actual review was posted on Monday and is much more in-depth. I should have posted a link in the first place.

I think you're referring to this article from today?. That's not the actual review, just a post-launch list of interesting things. The actual review was posted on Monday and is much more in-depth. I should have posted a link in the first place.

Ah nice! That's re-assuring.

AMD's in a tough spot right now. There Phenom IIs were terrific little chips. I still have a spare rig with a 965 Black that I have no turned into some kind of different use. AMD went into the FX series, however, by mostly just throwing more weak cores at the problem. So the FX processors keep up with Intel, but primarily in extremely parallel workloads. Problem is, most tasks aren't embarrassingly parallel, and every subsequent core, in a general use situation, will have less of a marginal gain in real-world performance. Intel's individual cores are more powerful and combined with the incremental gains they've gotten in the last 5 years (during which AMD's FX series has more or less stood still), it's created an awkward situation in which even on games which can use several cores, the two-core i3 with hyperthreading can beat AMD's four-core, six-core, and in the latest round of games, frequently even their eight-core processors.

AMD has a very, very, very niche market right now and that is the budget home gaming and video enthusiast. Almost everyone that does video editing professionally however will simply purchase an i5 or i7 and spend the extra $100-200 or so to do it. Or, like most of my clients, they are tied to Apple and will use a Macbook pro or iMac, which of course are Intel based. As you said, their strategy of simply throwing more cores at the problem (with unlocked multipliers) only works to a point and it really doesn't work for gaming as most games don't benefit from extra cores.

The phenom series was relevant because of the insane overclocks and that they were mostly competing against Core 2 Duo and pre Sandy Bridge Intel. Once intel dropped Sandy Bridge it was over for AMD from a market share perspective. Intel hasn't knocked our socks off lately with anything other than their improved fab process, but that, coupled with the inability of AMD to make a similar Sandy Bridge style architecture leap, has made it a rather one sided fight at the moment.

Really hoping AMD gets its #### together and pushes Intel to at least start offering more unlocked CPUs but I don't see it happening any time soon. Even on the GPU side, where AMD used to be able to compete with Nvidia, they are struggling.

I'll say this about EU IV, and jumping in now - a friend of mine was interested, but felt similarly. We've played a number of slow-paced multiplayer games for him to get the hang of the basics and allowed him to ask questions on how things work. Many of the improvements Paradox keeps making include displaying tooltips that explain some of the stuff like trade - now when you are about to send trade ships to protect trade, it'll list how much money you'll get from it.

So, if you are interested enough, play along with someone that can help you out. I'd be up for multiplayer like that if anyone wanted someone along to answer questions, and explain things. - I don't like to play like I'm in a rush to get to the end of the game.

So, if you are interested enough, play along with someone that can help you out. I'd be up for multiplayer like that if anyone wanted someone along to answer questions, and explain things. - I don't like to play like I'm in a rush to get to the end of the game.

I've never played multiplayer, partly because I always worry about this. I am probably the most easily frazzled person on the planet, I think I pause the game just about any time I do anything, mostly because I can't handle two things happening at once. I'd be curious if I could handle a game that just constantly moved at the slowest pace.

A moot point at the moment as I am sadly divorced from my gaming desktop for another couple months due to work.

I tend to pause often during a war if it's a closely matched thing, or when you get long winded events, as well. It doesn't bother me when other people pause. I don't feel a need to rush through anything. After all, playing the game is supposed to be fun. Where's the fire?

I am finding X-COM 2 to be, thankfully, more of the same. I like it very much so far, although the stalls during turns and the various non-skipable FMV parts are irritating. It looks great at 1440p, but then, I have an absurdly overpowered system built for CNNs and single-precision floating point math.

Overwatch is really nice. I'm now a bit sad that I'm traveling this week!

I had a $50 steam card from Christmas, and used most of it to get the witcher 3 half off. This is a very, very good game, and it looks excellent on ultra settings.

I'm glad I've finally gotten into the series, it is a style of game that I really enjoy. Still like Dragon Age more, though.

Witcher 3 is just a fantastic, lovingly-crafted game. It's what an open-world RPG can be, not the sterile wooden environments of the Elder Scrolls games that we'd come to accept as the apex of design in this genre.

There are mods for it too, but I haven't tried those yet. I heard they make the game even better looking, but I will wait for my new video card before doing another playthough.

I agree with TFTIO on all points regarding XCOM 2. The only complaint I have to add is that the campaign is too short. I'd still highly recommend it for anyone that liked XCOM.

There will be a System Shock 3

So oh, this game "Unreal World" got released on Steam and I basically spent most of my Friday playing through the tutorial (yea, got halfway through the first (!) tuturial in roughly 3 hours, tells you about the crazy depth of the game).

I really had no idea what to expect from a game that apparently has been in development since MS-DOS was still a mainstream OS but this game -- wow. Graphics are out dated as you'd imagine but the text is helpful and not too verbose and the semi-hi res photos get the imagination going when you're travelling from spot to spot.

Basically the game is that you're sprung loose in a randomized world simulating late iron age Finland, which apparently was a pretty hard time to survive. You can pick a number of different starting scenarios including "you start naked, with nothing". I picked one of the more generous scenarios (it gives you a fire, shelter a weapon and some clothes to start) and then started the tutorial. Hunting and killing my first game was my last task and damn it's not easy. Even when you see game you have to get close enough to throw a rock or spear at it and often times you miss, expend a lot of energy, and just end up going and fishing and resting until you can try again.

If you've ever read "Big Two Hearted River" by Hemingway (or I guess are familiar with Finland's Geography) that's sorta how the terrain is. There's lots of small hills, dense pine forests, marshes, small lakes and occasionally big lakes and moving through the various terrain is itself a challenge at times.

Alright, I'm going to go play some more. The game is only $9.99 on steam (free elsewhere but I wanted to support the devs come on 10 bucks for this???) go pick it up now if you're ready to spend a couple hundred hours surviving your first few in game winters.

Is there any compelling reason to purchase OOTP 17 other than updated rosters?

Is there any compelling reason to purchase OOTP 17 other than updated rosters?

The ability to play any two historical teams against each other sounds nice. There are some little things that are vague but potentially promising (flavour stuff like generated game summaries...which, at best will mildly improve immersion) But not things I'd be willing to actually pay for. You can usually get the newest OOTP for 5 bucks come September...which is what I always end up doing.


I will add that it's cool to see this: "All major league player ratings plus those of more than 1,000 minor leaguers based on ZiPS, the projection system created by well-known baseball writer and SABR member Dan Szymborski."

Speaking of new games...I had been keeping one eye on the development of Stellaris and was interested, but Paradox has put some gameplay online (about three hours of two of the developers playing as the Blorg, a race of ugly fungi), and I am sold. This looks like the Space 4X I'll finally actually enjoy!

I will add that it's cool to see this: "All major league player ratings plus those of more than 1,000 minor leaguers based on ZiPS, the projection system created by well-known baseball writer and SABR member Dan Szymborski."

That intrigues me. Carlos Rodon was somehow lumped in as a generic B- pitching prospect in '16 and it annoys me to no freaking end that out of a half dozen or so play throughs starting with the 2015 Sox he doesn't even make the bigs half the time and in the other half he turns into a back end starter. I mean come on, it's Carlos Rodon, how do you not half him as a 25/75 to start? Instead he's like a 20/55 usually.

I'm in 2020 in my current playthrough of OOTP16 and Rodon is a superstar.

If you start a fresh 2016 franchise in 17 the FaceGen pictures actually look like the real major league players, which is pretty cool if you're into immersion. (There have been mods to do that for a couple years now, but it's nice to have it come standard now.)

Another highly recommended mod--not sure if it works on 17 or if it needs updated--dramatically improves the quality of randomly generated names depending on what era you're in. It always annoyed me extremely that half the guys getting drafted in 2016 were named Fred and George and Norman and Stan and such #### that almost no boy born in the 1990s was named.

Now if we can just have actual Hispanic faces rather than just getting either a Caucasian or African face when you pick Hispanic...

I've been too busy for much gaming recently (except for the tabletop variety on roll20.net, my players are just reaching level 4 and going to start taking a bigger role in the world) but what time I do have has been going into Stardew Valley. My goal is by year three to have developed a factory farm and crush everyones hopes and dreams by selling out to JoJa.

OOTP16 and Rodon is a superstar

Huh. I think the best I've ever seen him is a solid 3rd starter in my playthroughs. Even when I let him sit in AAA for all of '15 he hardly ever gets past a 50/55 rating with completely mediocre stats as well.

One player that always seems to turn into a superstar for me is Javier Baez. Last game I played I pulled off a blockbuster with the Cubs and sent them Quintana and Robertson for a package centered on Baez and Montero with a high ceiling 18 year old thrown in as well. Trade worked out well for both teams through 2018. Sox made the playoffs in '16 (crumbled in '17 but oh well) with Baez turned into a 4-5 WAR player; I got two good years out of Montero then he was off the books and the Cubs won it all in '17. The kid I got is now 20 and making his way through high A ball. Still has a 65 ceiling according to my scouts but he's gotta start hitting sometime.

I like OOTP 16's automation features that's the big improvement from the version I had prior (13).

Another highly recommended mod--not sure if it works on 17 or if it needs updated--dramatically improves the quality of randomly generated names depending on what era you're in. It always annoyed me extremely that half the guys getting drafted in 2016 were named Fred and George and Norman and Stan and such #### that almost no boy born in the 1990s was named.

One of the features listed for OOTP 17 is a revamped naming system to get more realistic. I hadn't really noticed a problem, though I play my own fictional league with players from all over the world, so there's only a handful of American/English names every year anyway.

One feature I'd like is a change to pitcher's WAR. I'm not sure but it seems like OOTP uses a fangraphs style FIP-based WAR. I'd prefer b-ref style (or maybe just the option).

Might be nice to get a 2016 thread for these topics, but anyways....

Since we discussed cord-cutting and HTPC stuff on this page, I figured I would share my updated experiences in that realm. I decided to get another streaming video box in addition to the one I mention in #332 and went with an Amazon FireTV box when it went on sale for $85, figuring that it's combination of solid hardware and integrated access to the Amazon Prime video library would make it a nice option. Having used the box for a month now I have to say I am very favorably impressed. There are a few annoyances that are entirely related to Amazon's obvious desire to create a closed "walled garden" for their own content and desires - you can't access Google's PlayStore for apps, so if it isn't on the Amazon store you're forced to sideload your apps which isn't particularly difficult but it isn't the one-click breeze it would be otherwise. Amazon just started adding banner ads at the top of the screen when you browse the "apps" and "games" sections of their bootup homepage. And you can only use an external drive for video content if it's formatted in FAT32, which limits you to 4GB file sizes (so my big Blu-Ray rips have to be broken into chunks if I want to enjoy them in all their high-bitrate glory).

But if you can live with that...well it's a pretty sweet piece of gear. The Amazon front-end is nicely arranged and the speech-to-search function works extremely well, so much so that I've never used my remote keyboard with it. You can press a button and say, "Documentaries about baseball" and you will indeed get a list of documentaries on baseball. The menus are quick and responsive and the streaming works extremely well - shows start playing almost immediately, and the video quality ramps up over the course of the first 10 seconds or so to stabilize at your best sustainable video quality. Streaming 1080p over a wireless connection has been a breeze.

If you want to explore beyond the Amazon functionality, that's where you see what a true cord-cuttting monster this box can be. Sideload Kodi, install a few channels, and you have a universe of content available unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I love documentaries so of course there are huge archives dedicated solely to that programming, but I've been surprised at how seductive other niche programming can be. I watched livestreams of fashion shows from Milan, the Israeli adaptation of "The Golden Girls", massive libraries of animation stretching back to the 1920s, and 24/7 channels that do nothing but stream random episodes of popular TV shows from any era - I Love Lucy, Columbo, Sanford and Son, Benny Hill, you name it. All these features are supplemented by official streaming applications from many popular cable channels like HGTV, DIY, Food Network, Bravo, Travel Channel, and AMC, and even show-specific official applications like South Park.

And of course the content you have access to isn't typically geo-locked, so if you like to waste some time watching newscasts from Indonesia or Bollywood musicals or Canadian hockey updates it's all there for you once you figure out where to find it.

Ol' YR gives it the big thumbs-up.

So the big VR headsets are shipping. If you haven't seen it yet, check out this unboxing and testing video for the HTC Vive and SteamVR. No killer app yet, but damn if this thing isn't dripping with potential. Look at the segment beginning at 1:00 in, that is some real sci-fi stuff.

Okay, laptop question (asking for a friend):

He's looking for a media machine first (movies, TV, music) and the ability to play some games when he doesn't have access to his home consoles. His budget is $1000. Also, since it's a laptop, he really wants to just pay once and get a complete machine that he doesn't need to assemble or do much customization for. He wants "good value" and "quality components." 15"+ but preferably 17"+. Backlit keyboard.

What brands (or even better, specific builds) would be a good starting place for his search? I am pretty far removed from laptop shopping to the point where I can't offer any good advice on my own. I could look online for advice from strangers but figured I'd ask here first.

Apparently Quantum Break is Arkham Knighted on PC. Too bad, because I'd like to play it.

Crosby, ASUS and MSI usually have good gaming machines and good technical support, so on game-heavy builds, I look to them first. Games depends on which games - gaming on laptops tends to be hot, noisy, and expensive. At around $1000, you want to be looking at laptops with an 860M, 870M, or 960M (I tend to recommend AMD less frequently in laptops given that their GPU solutions tend to run hotter, which is far less of a concern on desktops, where I regularly recommend AMD GPUs).

just reminding you to still don't play dota, thank you and good day.

Scott, sadly there always seem to be 2-3 AAA titles every year that are broken on PC release due to a half-assed port.

There's an open beta of the new DOOM game this weekend, according to STEAM. I'm curious to check it out, even if I'll probably never get into its frenetic-looking multiplayer.

Also, there are hands-on demos of the HTC Vive VR system at Gamestops around the country tomorrow. Check and see if there's one near you if you're curious. I sure as hell am.

So here's an odd question that probably belongs here more than anywhere else...

An elderly family friend has a photograph of a "younger Lincoln" -- at least, his family has always imagined it to be such. The photograph has been authenticated as being of that period, but there's still some question as to whether it's actually Abe...

I know software exists to compare known images against this one to determine likelihood of being the purported subject, but looking for an option that doesn't require plunking down a few grand.... Anyone happen to know of any services - preferrably online - that could be used to authenticate... or absent that, I suppose, software recommendations to compare two photographs?

So I got a 10 minute hands-on demo of the HTC Vive as intended for home use - headset, headphones, two handsets, and two body-tracking cameras set up by an HTC representative. This official presentation consisted of 4 short demos, each lasting 2 minutes or so, during which I was free to explore and try different approaches towards the environment.

The first demo used the two handsets in different functions - the right handset was a device that would let you select and then inflate virtual balloons and the left one could be used like a baton to bat the balloons around a virtual room. The physics of the balloons was well-developed and helped keep the illusion intact. You could bat them above your head and look up - there was no ceiling on the virtual room, so you could really bat the heck of of them straight up and they would respond like a regular balloon would. Balloons bounced off the floor, the walls, and each other. A neat little demo, nothing amazing but a good introduction to manipulating objects in 3D VR space.

The second demo was to show how immersive a VR world could be and placed you on a deck of a battleship on the bottom of the ocean. This wasn't very interactive, you could walk around and look around things but the handsets didn't have a function. Looking around you could see all sorts of marine life swimming above you and around you which was very cool and immersive - you tilt your head back, and there's a manta ray above you, or a school of fish. After about a minute of mucking around the big reveal happens - a blue whale swims by the ship, and it's truly enormous, a really impressive way of showing you how the VR system handles objects and scale in 3D space.

The third demo was more interactive as you used your handsets to "paint" in 3D space and are given the controls to change paint color, texture, effects, etc. And so I walked around a little bit make big loopy swirls that you could then walk through, which was neat but nothing to write home about. But then the HTC person showed me how to use the left controller to change my environment, and with just a couple of clicks from my thumb my 3D environment went from white walls and ceilings to a 360 degree background of deep space that I was floating in along with my paint scribbling...and boy, that was something else. THIS was really disorienting, but also incredibly cool.

The last demo was a simple game of shooing little robots using your handsets as a gun and a shield. It was ok, pretty much what you would expect.

After the demo the HTC person asked me some general questions about my experience. The hardware is pretty amazing. You can see how immersive this can be when utilized properly. The headset tracking is amazingly accurate and turning my head to look around was completely natural and intuitive. The handsets had one or two moments where they went wonky but were otherwise easy to use and not particularly distracting.

What the system really needs, of course, is the first must-try game. As it stands I can pretty much guarantee that you are going to see a HEAP of horror games implementing VR support, because something like Outlast or Amnesia should be relatively easy to adapt to VR and is guaranteed to really impress people with the emotional impact of VR gaming. Like the rest of the planet I've given up on Half Life 3 being available, but I bet the Portal games would be perfect for VR as well.

So there ya go - YR went and checked out the $800 VR system and came away cautiously impressed.

I downloaded Rocket League about an hour and a half ago (it's free to play this weekend) and I am already hooked on it. Though I have a suspicion that I might be terrible.

After the Rocket League free weekend I now understand why Rock Paper Shotgun named it their game of the year. It's so, so much fun.

Also, I will rocket-ball with anyone, any time. I think I'm merely mediocre on most of the game, but I cannot time a jump at a bouncing ball to save my life.

I bought Rocket League a few months back and had a grand old time with it but, yeah, I'm terrible at it as well. I have a hard time keeping track of the ball, especially when it is close but out of view, and I can't time my jumps at all. Also, it might be my imagination but other players seem to be able to stay in the air far longer than I can, so I might be missing some basic understanding of how the game works.

I played some free Rocket League as well this weekend. I am terrible, I'm a detriment to my team, and I'll make the blooper videos all the time.

Here is a short video of me playing net as the first shot comes towards me just seconds after OT started.

Yes, I was trying to hit it...

Hey you looked pretty convincing right up to the moment when you sailed over the ball. Too athletic for your own good there.

Obo: you can double jump, and you can boost once you're in the air and direct your flight. It's possible to fly all the way across the arena... I've done it, albeit without any accuracy yet.

RTG: ####### if I haven't done almost the same thing. The multitude of interceptions I've missed is outnumbered only by the own goals.

I'd love to set up a BBTF Rocket League fun time, we can all be terrible together!

I also suggest setting the camera back as far as possible, so you can see your car when you're going for a jump ball. It's helped me be less terrible at giving the ball a whack.

Also, as first bid, I can do a couple hours Sunday night, on Saturday I'm getting me a Noah Syndergnome.

I don't know if anyone here played The Banner Saga, but The Banner Saga 2 is out and is a better game. It's a bit short in terms of time to beat it, but it also doesn't start to drag along like the first one did.

Also, Stellaris is out on May 9th for anyone who likes Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis 4. Personally I'm really excited for that game.

I'd love to set up a BBTF Rocket League fun time, we can all be terrible together!

You know where to find me. I think.

Also, Stellaris is out on May 9th for anyone who likes Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis 4. Personally I'm really excited for that game.

It's scary how much of that Blorg game play I've watched. Stellaris might be the first game I pay full price for in a long, long time

Stellaris is going to eat my life. It's going to be great.

I can't wait for people to do CK2->EUIV->Vicky2->HoI4->Stellaris mega-campaigns.

I'd consider getting Rocket League if enough people joined up.

Stellaris is already pre-ordered and I expect I'll be pouring hundreds of hours into that the first week.

I can't wait for people to do CK2->EUIV->Vicky2->HoI4->Stellaris mega-campaigns.

I don't know, it would get quite dull...the inevitability of a Welsh/Breton alliance slowly building a inter-galactic empire kills all the drama!

You know where to find me. I think.

Party with Trump!, right? I haven't seen you online, but if I'm in Rocket League by all means send me a group invite.

That goes for anyone else playing Rocket League when I'm ingame, too.

OVERWATCH IS BACK

Dan, I was neutral on Banner Saga, what makes the second one better?

Dawn of War: 3 announced. I'll play that. I'm just a sucker for the WH40K universe.

Party with Trump!, right?

For now, yes :) Party With Nixon! will be back at some point, I just liked the excuse to use a new avatar and sprays in L4D2.

Dan, I was neutral on Banner Saga, what makes the second one better?

The battles aren't as tedious, the narrative is more compact, and they manage to do both without weakening any of the good qualities.

http://download.cnet.com/blog/software-deals/get-25-off-stellaris/

25% off Stellaris through Green Man Gaming.

I'm buying it despite having never played any of the Paradox grand strategy games and having trouble maintaining interest in the constant management of Civilization games. It just looks damn cool. Hopefully I'll play it enough to get my money's worth.

I agree Stellaris looks great - definitely buying (I love Paradox stuff anyway - never ever felt disappointed or ripped off from Paradox).

However, I'm MUCH more excited that we FINALLY have a release date for the many, many, many times over delayed Hearts of Iron IV: June 6, D-Day.

I'm grateful that they actually decided the release candidate last year just wasn't gonna cut it and decided to put another year into development, but man... it's been really, really hard waiting a year and half past the initial launch timeframe.

Stellaris is beautiful and amazing. I got lost (in the good way) just trying to create my own faction already.

And get this....there is a functional tutorial!

P.S. If anyone is interested, I will be streaming it Sunday for sure.

Flip.