GoTeamVenture

I had some extra vacation time so I took today off from work so I could pick my PS4 up at midnight and play games today. I downloaded the day one patch to a USB stick in advance so I didn't have to wait for that download. It did take me about an hour to actually sign in to PSN last night. It seems to be working fine today though. There aren't a ton of games I'm extremely interested in at launch but I bought a couple more games than I normally would because of that buy 2, get 1 free deal at Target this week. So far I have just played Knack because I wanted to wait for PSN to be up before playing Battlefield 4 or Need for Speed Rivals. I don't have a gaming PC so I am used to playing games at 30 fps. I am pretty super Knack runs at 60 fps so that fluidity is really nice in comparison to what I am used to seeing. Knack isn't anything amazing. It seems like it will be fun to play through once if you like 3rd person action games. The Dualshock 4 is really nice. I think it's probably up there with the 360 and Gamecube controllers as one of my favorites. The analog sticks and triggers are a huge improvement. I haven't used the touchpad yet. I haven't tried out the Vita remote play yet. The system itself is small and pretty quiet. A friend of mine still has a launch PS3 and it's nothing like that. I can't hear the system when my TV is at a normal volume. The interface reminds me a little of the PS3. Everything is basically set up in a couple rows and a few things have sub-menus. I haven't had any problems finding things within the menus. It sounds like friend activity will show up in the main menu too. The PSN store looks basically the same as it does on PS3. The intergration of Twitch and UStream seems really cool. I watched people stream games for about an hour last night. It's really easy to share what you are playing or just hop into different streams. I definitely want to put a larger HD in the system at some point. The 500 GB will probably fill up pretty quickly unless I manage what I have installed pretty carefully. I'm really happy with the system and controller itself so far. It seems like it will be a lot of fun to use. The launch lineup isn't amazing but there are a ton of games coming out next year I am looking forward to. If anyone else has a PS4 my PSN name is GoTeamVenture10.

I've been using the core set Jinteki identity. My thought behind the deck is that it would be nice if I flatline the runner, but it's not my only goal. I've been including a lot of low point agendas so either the runner has to make a lot of runs/takie a lot of damage to win or I can advance them faster. I had been using a mix of operation and asset economy. I think I'll try the operations only idea though. In the past I've always felt like I don't have enough credits with Jinteki so I am going to try 3x Beanstalk, 3x Hedge Fund, and 2x or 3x Celebrity Gift. I also have 3 of the Gila Hands agendas in my Jinteki deck now which can be used for economy. I don't think I had quite enough punishing ice in my previous Jinteki decks. Grim is a good idea. I think I am going to splash one of those along with two each of Archers, Rototurrets, and Cadeucus. I also have the Jinteki ice like Neural Katana and Chum. I had been using Himitsu-Baku and Wall of Static for ETR ice so I will stick with this. I like Popup Window but I am pulling that to use the agenda points for other cards. Do you guys use Data Mines? They seem like they could be more useful now with Jackson Howard. Right now my only traps are Snares. I am considering including one Ronin though. I don't want to try and find room for Trick of Light so I'd rather not use Junebugs or Cerebral Overwriter to make use of the advancements if the runner doesn't go for those traps. The fact that so many traps are in Jinteki tends make runners cautious and slow them down even if there aren't many in my deck. I'd rather do damage with my ice and identity to slow the runner down and use the deck space for other cards. I also have Neural EMPs and a couple Hokusai Grids in my current deck. Right now I have two Jackson Howards. I was considering adding a third. I would have to remove Rototurret though. How many do Jackson Howards do you guys use in your Jinteki decks? I haven't played this particular build yet. I think I might use it at the tournament on Sunday anyway just because I think it would be fun to play.

I was also trying to build a Jinteki deck to play this weekend. A played a couple versions of it within the last month, but I haven't been able to create a build I'm happy with. My goal was to make it expensive or dangerous for the runner to make runs rather than catch them in a lot of traps. For traps I was just using Snares and sometimes a Cerebral Overwrite. I think I'm most unsure about what to use for economy and ice (other than a few standards like Neural Katana, Archer, the new cheap Jintei barrier). Do Jinteki players here use Celebrity Gift? Celebrity Gift seems like it would be better if a deck had more traps so you could do things like show the runner a combination of agendas and traps. Which ice do you prefer in a Jinteki deck?

I'm going to one of the Plugged-In Tour events in Wisconsin this weekend. The event reports on the FFG website and Board Game Geek make these events sound like a lot of fun. I don't expect to do well, but it will be nice to play against new people. I go to a game store that has a weekly LCG night, but it's usually just myself and one other person there for Netrunner. I usually end up spending more time thinking of decks/building decks than actually playing the game. I haven't been able to play my current decks much in their current builds. I think I am going to play an Anarch (Noise) Darwin/Virus deck and an NBN (Making News) fast advance deck that uses tags for things like Closed Accounts and resource destruction to slow the runner down.

I looked at a lot of the i5 computers on Newegg and these seem to be comparable: The HD, RAM, GPU and CPU are about the same. It's $50 cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227441 The HD, RAM, and CPU are about the same. It has a GTX 650 rather than 660. It also includes a small SSD in addition to the larger HD and is about $200 cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883258005 This is pretty similar except it has an AMD GPU that I think might be a slight step down? It's also only $50 cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229381

I'll look around and see if I can find a better price.

Right, I meant GTX 660. http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx The i5 version of this computer can be customized to include a GTX 660. It looks like the version I would probably get has an i5-3330, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, 1 TB 7200 RPM HD and GTX 660 GPU. It think it comes out to about $950. I'll probably look around on Newegg just to make sure I can't get something pretty similar for a significantly better price (pre-built). I have an Amazon gift card that should cover a large portion of the cost of a monitor so I don't have to budget for that too much.

I noticed right after I posted that I used the wrong term for the graphics card . I think I may have found something in my price range with an i5 and a GTX 600. For someone who hasn't really played any PC games/bought a new desktop PC in about a decade this can all be a little confusing. I really appreciate all the help.

I didn't realize that Dell computer I linked to had a GeForce GT GPU rather than GTX GPU. It sounds like the GTX GPUs are the ones made for gaming? So a GeForce GTX 660 would be suitable GPU?

They also offer an upgrade to the GeForce 640 GPU. I was thinking going with that upgrade and sticking with the i5 processor. Is that GPU okay for gaming?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Right now I am looking at possibly getting one of these Dell computers: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8500/pd.aspx#!stoneId=undefined&overrides=fxdnpx42h:6~W8NVGA3;5985~S2240LCC;2~CPI7377|fxdnpx28h:5985~S2240LCC For an extra $125 is it worth it to get an i7 processor instead of an i5? I am assuming this will probably make it so I don't need to upgrade the computer quite so soon.

I am interested in playing indie games like FTL, Binding of Isacc, etc. but would also like to be able to play games like Tropico 4, new Sim City, Skyrim and The Witcher 2 sometimes too.

I live in the United States. I have a Mac now but would like to buy a desktop PC. I wasn't planning on buying a Mac for gaming.

I use a Windows PC at work so I am comfortable using both operating systems. I'd prefer a PC over a bootcamped Mac.

I have primarily been a console gamer for most of my life but I keep hearing about PC games on Idle Thumbs that I'd really like to play. I have a Macbook that's nearly five years old so it's time for me to get a new computer. I've been considering buying a desktop PC that I can use for gaming. It's been a long time since I've looked at PCs so I don't know much about the current processors or graphics cards. I have also never built a PC so I don't really want to go that route. I don't think I need something that is top of the line but I don't want it to be useless for new games in six months. I also don't plan on completely giving up console gaming. What sort of system specs will I probably need? What are the more reliable PC companies these days?