prettyunsmart

Yeah, I've done GPU and RAM upgrades before, and those were easy. I've just paying for the cheap motherboard/CPU bundle I got when I first built my PC ever since.

I feel like upgrading my PC is becoming like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you want to switch from AMD to Intel, you're going to need a new motherboard. If you're going to get a new motherboard, you're going to want to get one that supports the newest Intel socket. If you're going to get a motherboard that supports Intel's newest socket, you're going to need to switch to DDR4 RAM. Oh, and the new i5 doesn't come with a CPU cooler, so buy one of those too.

I didn't know where else to put this, but I wanted to gush briefly about the map in Thief. I'm playing through the original game, as I had an urge to play an immersive sim and there don't seem to be any new ones coming out for a while. Years ago, I had a demo disk with the tutorial and the first level on it, but I never picked up the full game. At the time, I never appreciated how great the game's maps are, both in practice and in fiction. They're these wonderfully abstract drawings of the levels that are usually justified as coming from someone you know who visited the level before. They're vague enough that you need to explore quite a bit on your own, but specific enough that you can orient yourself based on the level geometry and your compass. The map highlights your general location without giving you a specific "you are here" dot, which helps balance things between total abstraction and a line on the ground that tells you where to go. Now if only it was an actual piece of paper Garrett pulled out of his pocked like in Far Cry 2...

1. This looks great. 2. I will probably hold off until release as I already have too many early access survival games. 3. I wonder if this would actually be relaxing to play as I have a pretty serious fear of drowning (since I don't know how to swim in real life).

"Sometimes we just kick the robot." Great idea! Make them resent us even more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwrjAa1SgjQ "We've outfitted it with a manipulator...it's not stuck in the lab."

It's pretty great! Judging from the conversation in comment threads across the internet, people seem to be clamoring for "crazy" maps with jumps and obstacles. Really, I just want more like this new one. It makes it feel different, but doesn't change the balance of the game. Give me a ton of maps that look crazy (Rocket League: Arctic Circle, Rocket League: In the Jungle, Rocket League: On the Moon) but don't change the shape of the pitch or the feel of the game. I'm having a hard time justifying picking up the paid DLC. On the one hand, this is my favorite game of recent memory, and sending a few more dollars to the people who made it would probably be alright. On the other hand, I still haven't unlocked all the cosmetic stuff in the base game (and my hot rod with a top hat already looks pretty swanky).

Nick's point on simplifying terminology in DOTA commentary was spot on. I've played enough DOTA to understand the game, but I'll never get in deep enough to actually play it regularly. Every year, I watch a bit of the International, and most of the commentary goes over my head, even if I can follow most of it by paying attention to the announcers's tone and watching health bars. If the casters would just say "Lina goes in for the kill, but Gyrocopter blocks it" instead of "Lina fires off her Laguna Blade but Gyro pop his BKB" (not even sure if that's right), people like me would probably have a way easier time keeping up.

That's what I thought, but there are a few threads on Tom's Hardware and similar places where people reference switching motherboards out with Windows 8 and above. Something about a new feature that detects the change and sorts out the driver issues on first boot? I'm using the Windows Insider version of Windows 10, so who knows? Maybe I'll just try it and be prepared to have MS ask me for some money.

So I just ordered a new motherboard and CPU (one of the fancy new Skylake i5s). I'm currently running Windows 10, and from what I'm reading, it sounds like I can just swap out the motherboard and CPU without having to reinstall. That sounds too easy. I probably will back everything up and have install media ready just in case, but has anyone tried switching out motherboards without reinstalling lately?

I played NEON STRUCT (which apparently is supposed to be in all caps and has a German subtitle that I don't feel like typing out). It's a blocky take on immersive sims with Deus Ex seeming to serve as its most direct inspiration. Basically someone made a game just for me, and I unsurprisingly loved it. It's a pretty stripped down form of the Deus Ex formula, with stealth as your only option. I didn't really mind since I always play those games as the guy who sneaks through air ducts rather than running in with a rocket launcher. Since I've only played through once, I can't say for sure, but I think it does some neat stuff where it responds to how you play. Like, if you're spotted in one level, the people after you will send more agents in for the next, or if you help some people take out a security camera, you can read about what they did next on the news terminal in the next level.

I had meant to write an email saying something similar for the Her Story spoliercast. Her story ended up leaving such a lasting negative impression for me in spite of how taken I was by its formal elements initially. In comparison, Contradiction is just so much better of a complete game. It isn't nearly as ambitious, but it knows the goofy but still intriguing story it is capable of telling and it just nails it. As an aside, this video of the actors doing Doctor Who impressions just makes me smile.

I know I should never be surprised at anything that comes out of 4chan, but that is profoundly fucked up.

Big Dogs confirmed for some game William Gibson is apparently writing?

I was trying out a new podcast app a few minutes ago, which meant I needed to resubscribe to all the stuff I already listen to. I searched for idle thumbs, and I stumbled across a hot scoop about an upcoming show. I don't know if finding that made me feel like a cool guy, or just someone with way too much free time on my hands.

I played through Contradiction over the weekend. After Her Story, I was looking for mystery games to play through with my wife. After we watched the first few minutes of the Quick Look, we had a pretty good idea that we were going to enjoy it. It ended up being a great middle ground between low budget schlock and a legitimately enjoyable adventure game. Toward the end a few problems show up (your inventory gets so full that it's hard to sort out the relevant information, the game wraps up quickly with lots of loose ends, apparently because the team ran out of money), but we had a ton of fun with it.

If you like these kinds of stories, Anthony Burch from Gearbox runs a tumblr about playing different games "wrong" called No Wrong Way to Play. Also, I think the most recent post on it might be tegan writing in with some super obscure Pokemon correction, which is pretty great. Edit: I don't think I ever actually played a race in Rush. I would go to Blockbuster as a kid with my sister to check out a copy, we'd load up that map, and we'd play that stunt course for hours. Racing just wasn't as cool as trying to do sweet flips.

I've been playing the season mode here and there, and I've been surprised how fun that can be. The only thing is that it is way too easy to win by just taking long shots at kickoff.

I thought the same thing before I picked it up. Then, I had a really rough day and just needed some mindless fun, so I picked a copy up. I've been really surprised how non-awful playing online with strangers has been. I think chat is text only and limited to a few preset phrases, so the number of jerks you have to deal with is pretty limited. Or maybe the number of jerks that are identifiable as jerks is what limited. Either way, I have a fez for my creepy van, so that's all I need.

These translated captions would make pretty good game jam prompts. "I did not alert her husband" - A stealth game about having an affair discreetly. "Also a game with physical fitness criminal responsibility" - A management sim about the health of a prison's population.

Yeah. I've gotten that sense too. The main thing that makes me consider holding out is the ability to upgrade by just swapping out a newer processor down the line and keeping my motherboard. I went cheap on my motherboard and processor the last time around, and now I have to basically rebuild my PC to upgrade them (and do a clean install along with it, I think). It would be kind of nice if the next time I upgrade, I could just swap out the CPU and leave the rest in place.

Would anyone mind giving me some advice on upgrading my motherboard and CPU? I'm currently using an AMD FX-6300, which has been fine for most things, but a few recent games have made me realize that its days might be numbered. I know AMD's processors have generally been far behind Intel forever now, so I'm willing to make the switch, but everything I read about sockets and processor generations has me pretty confused. So, if I'm looking to get a motherboard and CPU that will last me a while for mid-to-high end gaming (and possible VR stuff if I feel like being truly irresponsible), what should I be looking at? I know z97 motherboards and Haswell processors seem to be the go-to thing at the moment, but it seems like they're about to be replaced. Will Skylake processors need a new kind of socket? Am I missing any other key details? EDIT: Full system details below. Processor - FX-6300 Black 3.5 Ghz Six Core AM3+ Motherboard - MSI M5A78L-M LX Plus RAM - 8GB Graphics Card - GTX 970 w/ 4GB

"I DISPATCHED A LANDING PARTY OF GIRLS IN HOT PANTS AND HALTER TOPS...TO TAKE DOWN MENTAL HEALTH!" For example. EDIT: That just happened to be the line that was being said as I read your post.

I just noticed that I had a bunch of stuff that I hadn't redeemed on my Humble account. PM me if you'd like any (preference given to folks how have been around a while and didn't suspiciously make their accounts a few minutes ago and all that). All are on Steam unless otherwise noted Bastion x 2 Saint's Row The Third Dead Space (Origin) Limbo FTL Batman Arkham Origins DLC Magicka + 2 DLC Garry's Mod Starseed Pilgrim FEZ Gone Home Civ III EVE Online Trial Key & Rifter Ship Skin Mountain Papers, Please Monaco LUFTRAUSERS The Bridge World of Goo Dungeons of Dredmor Audiosurf Amnesia: The Dark Descent Dust: An Elysian Tail Also a few Steam Gifts Heavy Bullets Super Monday Night Combat x 3