My personal best (and not so best) games of 2020(ish)

Might as well do a listicle... My best (or other than best) games of the year, by category...

AAA single player: "Cyberpunk 2077"... I really don't have any gamebreaking bugs or performance problems making it unplayable, and it's otherwise the best single player game I have played, at least since New Vegas, maybe even better than that.

Close runner up: "Final Fantasy 7 Remake"... Its honestly much better than the original, both game play and story and (it follows the same basic storyline but has 100 times the depth and detail...  and given the original is one of the greatest games of its genre, that's saying something. And its jaw droppingly gorgeous at certain moments.

And for additional... Flavor, as it were... "Game I wanted to love, and it was good enough that I still really liked it, but it has too many issues to actually make a "best of" list": that goes to "Control". Yeah it's not a 2020 release, but the "ultimate edition" went on super sale in 2020... and while its worth buying on sale, and worth playing... it was just a little more work, a little more polish on both crunch and fluff... away from actually being a great game. 

Indie single player: "Hades", no doubt. Love the aesthetics, love the game play, love the humor, absolutely brilliant game. No other indy game even came close this year... Though there were definitely a bunch of great indies this year ("Kentucky Route Zero" FINALLY finished releasing its last episodes this year, and it's a very interesting experience... not much like any other game you would think of off hand, but certainly worth experiencing... and I've heard very good things about "Cloudpunk" for example). 

AAA multi-player: Also easy, "Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War". Without question the best  Call of Duty... or for that matter CODlike game... Oh... at least a decade or so. Though it is absolutely KILLER on your system resources. Getting playable framers on a 1070 in 1080p was difficult, never mind anything better. That said, its a VERY good looking game when you turn the settings up. 

Indie(ish) multi-player: For the... third year in a row now I think? It's "Warframe". They've completely overhauled the game over the last three years, even to the point of writing a new engine and new textures and shades, and of course major new content, for free, 4 times a year, with minor new content every 40 to 60 days.

Best mobile game: Well... that's kinda complicated and difficult at the moment... Hmm... Do you count Hades, which is on mobile platforms too (just the Switch for now, but likely it will be ports to iDevices soon, an android eventually), but is better on PC or heavier weight console? Do you count three of the best PC or Console games from decades ago...KOTOR and KOTOR-2, and "Castlevania Symphony of the Night"... which also released native mobile versions recently? 

...Maybe... "Sky" Children of the Light"? Its gorgeous, it's fun, its got a unique aesthetic and viewpoint... Well worth getting. I haven't played "AnimA" yet but I've heard its really great. Same for "Battle Chasers: Night War".... Both are installed and waiting to play. 

Worst mobile game AND worst game  that I actually paid money for: "Elder Scrolls Blades"... its a switch and mobile game... and its been in Beta and early access for like 3 years, and yet there's very little content, and whats there is shallow and repetitive. Also MICROTRANSACTIONS!!!!!... I bought enough of the in game resources to try to make the game more enjoyable... But there's just not enough content or game play no matter what. 

Biggest AAA (ish) disappointment: "Star Wars Squadrons"... It was... Just OK. Good even... But it had iffy controls, and just... not enough game. Both too short, and too shallow, with only OK game play. That said, you can often pick it up for $20 on sale, and it's worth the $20... Just not the original $40 release price. 

Biggest indie(ish) disappointment: that Vampire the masquerade Bloodlines 2 was delayed repeatedly... and now may not even come out in 2021 even. We'll see.

The early 2016 gaming sweetspot?

So, theoretically AMD is "getting serious about desktop gaming CPUs again"... which is hilarious to me, since they haven't BEEN serious about any kind of desktop or consumer performance for 10 years now.

But it got me thinking about the current state of desktop gaming, and what the current price performance optimums are...

And I was actually kind of surprised...

Because it looks right now, that the "sweet spot" is right where it was about 18 months ago... only it's cheaper...

Right now, the sweetspot in gaming GPU price/performance is still the GTX970... which has been out since the middle of 2014.

You can get a really good gtx970 for $300-350 right now... The lower performing Radeon r9 290x is still over $400, and as high as $500, and the even lower performaing r9-290 is just touching $350.

And GTX980s, are still $500.

On CPU's the price performance equation is certainly more complicated...

First question for CPU is actually not about CPU, it's about RAM... and then motherboards.

Do you want a DDR4 machine or not... 16gb ddr4 runs $85 to $100 right now for 2400mhz or 2700mhz, and more like $115 to $125 for 3000mhz. 16gb of good high performance DDR3 is more like $85 flat for 3000mhz.

More importantly though, the best ddr4 mobos are a bit more expensive, and the best performing DDR3 is actually faster in some ways than DDR4... and more overclocking stable, with more options of overclocking motherboards etc... though that won't be the case for long, and the very best mobos are now DDR4.

I'd probably go for DDR4 to futureproof... but really, the price performance right now isn't definitive. And if you want to overclock, DDR3 may still be a better choice.

For DDR4 gaming boards... basically you've got three price points... $170 $270, and $370.

So... you've got options for socket 1151, and socket 2011... the socket 2011 options obviously being the more expensive, and taking the more expensive CPUs.

Right now, I'd still go with an 1151... Though a lot of people are doing Xeon gaming right now, I still think your best option and best value is with an i7, and the skylake based Xeons are now on the 1151 anyway.

For DDR3, you can still go for LGA1150 boards, and basically pay whatever you want. $50 to $400, with really good boards in the $150 to $200 range.

And the best value for performance in an i7, is actually probably still an older i7 like a 4790 or 4790k from 2014... at $300-310ish and $330-340ish respectively.

If you want the new skylake, the i7-6700 will run about 50-60 more and a 6700k unlocked will run $420ish.

.. but guess what... clocked the same, on the same speed RAM... they benchmark out at about the same... with the 4790 actually slightly edging out the skylake in some things.

... and overclocked to their maximum, the 4790k will out perform the 6700k in a lot of benchmarks... though some of that is simply that the boards and ram are better worked out.

So, to my mind, the gaming sweetspot right now is:

cpu: i7 4790k $330
Board: any decent gaming 1150 board $150
RAM: any decent 3000mhz gaming ram $85
GPU: any decent gtx970 $300

That's $865 for the core components, that would be variable among gaming builds. The rest... case, psu, ssd... is all the same, and based on personal preference more than anything else.

Oh and before you ask, no, there is no AMD option worth bothering with at this point, unless you're trying to build a much cheaper system.

If you want to be more current and future proof

cpu: i7-6700k $420
Board: decent gaming 1151 board $170
RAM: decent 3000mhz gaming ram $125
GPU: any decent gtx970 $300

$1015... about $150 more than the DDR3 system.

Is it worth the difference... ehhhh.... Performance wise, probably not... But getting into a DDR4 platform with an 1151 socket... Especially if you're thinking about going higher end on the board, with an NVME-SSD... yeah, probably.

Apparently, JayG has been a Knight of the Republic this whole time...

... and neglected to tell us:

I swear to god that was not deliberate. I opened up the character editor and set a couple parameters, and all of a sudden, there he was the spitting image of our favorite northern Massachusetts blogger.

Star Wars, The Old Republic arrived on Friday; and on saturday I got my early access validation. I've been playing since Saturday night (in between trying to sleep off a nasty head and chest cold).

Oh and this is the avatar I eventually chose for my first character:

Look a little familiar?

Anyway, at the moment I'm playing a Human Jedi Sentinel on Wall of Light; and I've reached level 15 playing through up to near the end of the first Coruscant phase.

This might be the first MMORPG since City of Heros I've actually liked, and wanted to play for more than a few minutes.

Holy crap... now I know the REAL apocalypse is coming...

Duke Nukem forever...

...has gone gold...

I think I just saw a pig fly by, and a demon buying ice skates.

If you want to know where I'll be for the next few days...

It's downloading now.

I want this, simply because it is AWESOME

I want this in a way only a hard core airplane geek can. I don't play any games that could even USE this thing, but I lust after it.

Hell, I don't even think there are any games currently out that I would WANT to use it with. The combat flight sim genre has almost completely died. The last one I particularly enjoyed was about 10 years ago. The space combat game genre is dead too... There aren't even any good mech games to use it with anymore (which is why I bought my LAST Thrustmaster HOTAS controller... about 10 years ago).

It's stupid. It's hilariously overpriced.

IT'S AWESOME!!!!

When gaming meets RICO

There are MANY reasons I don't play Games Workshop games...

No Content Today: Dragon Age is Eating My Brain

That is all...

I don't want to be WoWed

Frequently, my fellow geeks are surprised to learn that while I am familiar with World of Warcraft (how can you be a geek today and not be); even familiar enough to get WoW jokes, and be amused by WoW themed and/or inspired comics and videos (Looking for Group is one of my favorite web comics); I don't play WoW.

I don't play WoW, because I don't like WoW.

In fact, I don't care for MMOs in general. They're fun for me for a few weeks, or even a month or two (basically until the solo gameplay aspects limit out), then I get bored.

I love role playing games; but I prefer they be single or multiplayer, not massively multiplayer... Or really I prefer they involve 3-7 people who I like (or at least tolerate), in a single room, with books and dice.

As for electronic gaming, I just don't like social network gaming. I enjoy social gaming, like Rock Band; and I like networked gaming when it is focused on individual achievements, or ad hoc groups (I enjoyed City of Heros for months, because it was entirely possible to advance through the game without ever having to have a "guild"); but not games that require the formation of online social networks (which is the fundamental mechanic of most MMOs, including WoW).

I'll gladly pay $60 for a game with an excellent, immersive single player storyline and gameplay. I won't pay a dime for a gameplay environment that requires me to create or join an online interest group, completely detached from "reality", in order to "get the full experience".

I build teams and manage projects, and schedule group efforts all day at work; and THEY pay ME, not the other way around.

I don't need or want that class of interaction. I have my job, my friends, my wife and my family, my gaming group (a subclass of friend as it were), and you guys for that.

DEEP in the uncanny valley

Fallout Boy

Well, I meant to have the optics uberpost done today, but Fallout 3 has eaten my brain; so instead I'm going to give you some tips.

First thing, I'm not even going to bother reviewing it; because if you've been paying any attention at all, other than the stability problems, this is probably the best game since portal came out. It's almost certainly the best action RPG to come out since the original DeusEx.

So, if you're a fan of the genre, you're going to love the game. In fact I'm presuming the only reason you don't have it already is because you haven't bothered upgrading your system since the LAST good game of the genre came out (Oblivion probably; and that was almost three years ago).

For this game, you really do need a recent processor; either a dual core of 1.8ghz or above; or a single core in the 3ghz range. You also need at the least a Geforce 8600, or something similar, to run at a reasonable resolution at high quality.

It runs just fine on my $80 GeForce 8600gt 512 (DDR3); even with everything turned all the way up at 1680X1040 windowed. I'd say that's about the minimum I'd want to run it on though. I do have to turn the details down from ultra to high when I go fullscreen 1920x1200.

Oh and it runs just fine on my laptop, which has an 8600GS 512mb discrete card, running at 1440x980. Again, if I shrink the window a bit it runs on ultra high in windowed mode, but wont run well at full rez on ultrahigh. I get jitter and slowdowns (unfortunately it also crashes like mad either way - less in full screen than in windowed - ; but that has nothing to do with performance, because it happens no matter the settings).

So it doesn't take THAT much horsepower. Crysis is far worse.

Alright first things first, character creation is CRITICAL. You don't get to increase your basic attributes (called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. in this game) very often, if at all, during the game; and they effect everything that comes after them very strongly, so you have to get it right.

No matter what type of character you want to play, intelligence is the most important stat by far; and should be prioritized above all others. You should start the game with a minimum of 8 in intelligence, and give serious thought to 9 or 10. Remember, intelligence determines your base score for all your technical skills, as well as the number of skill points you receive per level; so max it out.

Also critically important are agility and perception; again no matter what type of character you want to make; because they control your gun skills, your sneaking skills, and your manual dexterity skills like lockpicking (a CRITICAL skill in this game).

The wildcard is endurance; because it controls basic toughness, but is also the relevant stat for assault weapons like rocket launchers, miniguns, and cannons. Dont reduce it below 4, and consider taking a 6 just to have it for later.

Physical strength it relatively unimportant in this game. It accounts for inventory capacity (which is important certainly), and melee damage; but that's about it. Since you can't really play an all melee character successfully I'd deprecate strength. Don't go below 4 though or bad things happen (you lose access to certain perks etc...)

Just after chosing your SPECIALs, you'll be asked to "tag" three skills. You will then get an initial bonus to those skills. I recommend you chose your tagged skills out of the pool below.

I don't see how you can build a socially oriented character in this game and win; or even have fun. Although there is a lot of social interaction, the game doesn't give you many social ways to avoid combat; and most of the quests are... not quite combat oriented, but would be very difficult to accomplish without combat.

You MIGHT be able to get by with a sneaker though, by putting everything into sneaking, stealth oriented stuff, and science(for terminal hacking). Also, at some point you can pick up a sidekick (actually, you can apparently pick up several simultaneously; though I haven't got there yet)and it may be possible to survive with stealth alone until you do; then have them handle combat for you.

...Maybe... I kinda doubt it though. Sidekick characters in video games tend to do dumb things, like wander randomly into the line of fire, fall into things, and set off traps. Stealth is not their friend.

Now, onto game play.

In general, conserve and collect like mad. Everything is saleable, so if you see something that has a value more than 4 times its weight; it's worth picking up to sell later. This is a HIGHLY resource constrained game, so you're going to want to explore everywhere you can, grab and conserve all the ammo, stimpaks, and money you can.

Dont ignore Karma; it does make a difference.

Also, don't ignore luck. It determines how much ammo and money you find.

Once you get past the first storyline quests (past Moriarty in "following in his footsteps") stop following the main storyline.

Go and talk to everyone in megaton, and get their quests. Then talk to all the people you meet on those quests and get their quests. Do the little side quests etc...

Unlike most open world games, Fallout 3 ends when you complete the last mission of the main storyline; so do all the side quests as they come, don't save them for later.

Get up to level 5 or more (I'd say take it all the way to at least 8), and build up your stats.

Get your repair, and lockpick skill up into the 75 or more range. These are by far the two most important skills in the game. You will be using them constantly; and I recommend putting them up to 90 fairly quickly (it's easy to have items bring them to 100)

Medicine and light guns, are also important; especially in the beginning of the game; and again I'd say bring at least light guns up to 90 eventually.

Science, Explosives, Heavy guns, and energy weapons get more important as you go; but are little help in the beginning. You'll want to get science up to around 50 at least by the time you hit level 7 or 8.

Honestly, although the other skills do provide some value, and some interest; You really need to concentrate on the core skills I've mentioned. You need to get good to survive the higher level enemies; and "barter" doesn't help you much there (though it's certainly useful in the shops).

When you do your side quests, build up inventory and caps. If you haven't already got your intelligence at at least 8 (10 would be better... actually I'd say start the game over if you didn't initially set it to 8 or more), and your perception to at least 6 (8 would be better) take the "intense training" perk every level until you do.

Grab the Thief, Gun Nut, Educated, Toughness, and Swift learner perks as soon as possible (prioritized based on your play style), and consider taking multiple levels in each. Oh and hunt those bobbleheads for the skill and ability bonuses.

Then, when you're well sorted, get back on the storyline. You'll be much more likely to survive, use less stimpacks, deal with the big baddies a lot better in general etc...

Did I mention conserve ammo? Use your VATS; and use the cheap ammo weapons, like the 10mm pistol and 10mm submachine gun. Wait until they get close, and then go for multiple headshots at high percentage.

Get good at light guns, and use the hunting rifle A LOT. It is by far my most used weapon. Once you're good, you can do some serious long range sniping with it using VATS. No, it's nowhere near as accurate as the sniper rifle; but the ammo is far easier to find, and far cheaper.

The combat shotgun is the best close quarters weapon of the first half of the game. The hunting rifle, the best for medium to long ranges, until you can get the lincoln repeater (and the .44 ammo for the lincoln is a pain to find in comparison). The assault rifle and SMG are useful for the midrange as well, but are wasteful of ammo, and inaccurate. I much prefer using my hunting rifle and VATS to make precision kills.

You're going to be in the washington DC metro tunnels a lot. Take every opportunity you can to pop up out of the stations, so you can set a map marker, and fast travel back there when you need to.


Repair, repair, repair, repair. Gather a half doezn duplicates of items you want to use and keep, and repair constantly. Keep your armor and wepaons as close to 100% as possible.

Lots more to come as I continue playing.

China Cat Sunflower

So Mel and I have been playing "Rock Band" lately. If you haven't heard of or tried it; it's a game where you play instrument like controllers, and sing along with a rock song playing on your home entertainment system.

The game includes a pad based drum kit, a guitar (that can also be used as a bass), and a microphone for singing along. Future planned expansions are rumored to include a dedicated bass, and a keyboard.

There is a similar earlier game (programmed by the same company but since sold to a larger distributor) called Guitar Hero which is now in it's third sequel and nth expansion; that only has the guitar component, without the bass, drums, or mic.

Honestly, if you HAVEN'T seen it (or even if you have actually), the game looks a bit ridiculous from the outside, but it's spectacularly fun. Most importantly, it's interactive group fun; something missing from a lot of household recreational pursuits these days (and why "Rock Band" is in my view far more fun than "Guitar Hero"; though GH has a better guitar only experience).

Difficulty varies from fairly simple songs, like The Clash - "Should I Stay or Should I go", or The Ramones - "Blitzkreig Bop"; to the ridiculously complex and difficult songs like Deep Purple - "Highway Star", pretty much anything by Metallica, or Iron Maiden - "Run to the Hills" (the most difficult song in the game by the internal difficulty ratings).

One of the basic characteristics of this game (like all rhythm games) is a funny quirk of difficulty; in that some very complex songs are easier to play than others that may not seem as difficult, because they have consistent patterns and rhythms without major key or time signature changes. In effect, you are playing fast and hard, but at least you can settle into the rhythm.

Some songs on the other hand...

So last night we were playing some Grateful Dead. Now, I've always been a fan, though not a massive one like Countertop.

I just have one question about The Dead: How in the hell did they manage to do THAT, while they were that high, that much of the time?

A lot of people seem to think their music is simple, uncomplicated, or unsophisticated. Those people have never tried to play it, or sing it.

The thing about The Dead, is that they were constantly changing things up. Even the simple songs have polyrythms and unusual timings, multiple key changes, multiple time signature changes etc... and that's just their studio stuff. Their extended live jams (the "real" Dead as it were) were loaded with seemingly endless complexities.

Much like Jazz, they took simple themes, and built magnificent things on top of them; while making them sound simple to the gross listener. If you're just singing along to the radio in your car, you might never notice them; but as a singer and a guitar player, the details stand out.

I think this is true of many "cult" artists. They have a reasonable general following who are just hearing the "fm radio" side of things, and don't get what the hype is about. Their true fanatical listener base though are there for the complexities (take a REALLY good listen to Scarlet Begonias some time - oh and Harmonix and MTV, if you're listening, I'd really love that for rock band. Way better than Franklins Tower). Try asking a real Ramones fan just how much you can say with 4 chords in 2 minutes and 45 seconds ("we are a happy family", "The KKK took my baby away", "Sheena is a punk rocker").

Anyway, the game rates the difficulty of the deads songs in the upper middle of its scale; probably because of the relatively slow tempo; but they are wrong. I had a much harder time with singing "Sugar Magnolia", then I ever did with say "Number of the Beast"; and "Sugar Magnolia" is one of the easier Dead songs. Try playing the title song for this post... hell, just try listening to it.

Funny thing that really.

Interesting... how 'bout you?

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Ranger/Sorcerer (3rd/2nd Level) Ability Scores: Strength-15 Dexterity-15 Constitution-17 Intelligence-18 Wisdom-17 Charisma-18 Alignment: Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable. Race: Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like. Primary Class: Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast. Secondary Class: Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast. Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Oh and for you RPG geeks out there (everyone else just stop reading now) this just shows up one of the weaknesses of the D&D character attributes system; and to a certain extent almost all other RPG systems in some way or another.

I am extremely large, very strong, I can walk all day long with a pack on so long as I don't have to run, I have a strong constitution and a great ability to take damage; but I'm also quite fat, I have bad knees, and I can't run. I'm fast and agile for a fat man, but I'm still not going to be supertheif, or a marathon runner etc...

All of those attributes have to be represented by three numbers, Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution; and sometimes there are multiple factors in opposition. For example, I am an excellent shot, very good at handicrafts and video games, and I play guitar. All of these things are associated with high dexterity. I am not however an acrobat, or a pickpocket, or a tumbler, or a gymnast etc... all of which are ALSO associated with high dexterity.

As for the intellectual and social attributes, I'm very intelligent, quick witted, and well spoken. I'm also friendly and personable most of the time, I talk with new people easily, I have a great deal of life experience for my age, and I'm an excellent leader. However, I am also confident, aggressive, opinionated, more than occasionally offensive, etc... All of those attributes have to be represented by three numbers, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

I have excellent leadership skills, but tend to piss off people who I don't have much respect for. I refuse to use "tactfulness" as cover for "bullshit". These are characteristics in opposition to each other, but are both represented by charisma.

It's nearly impossible to classify people, and their habits and abilities and skills with numbers, or dots, or points, or spheres, or whatever else the system uses; the best you can do is give it a general try, and then play things as they would make sense for the story, and the setting, and the character.

HT: Cowboy Blob

Lost a friend today

This morning, Gary Gygax passed on, a few months shy of his 70th birthday.

Gary is... was... a friend of mine. I'd only met him a few times at gaming events and the like, but for the last couple years I've been moderating a mailing list for him, and participating in some great online discussions.

Gary was a big personality... one that a lot of folks couldn't handle. He was confident, agressive, assertive, and he never backed down. He had an amazing wit and sense of humor; especially for the ironic, sarcastic, and absurd. Sometimes, he liked to argue, just to see what people would say; or just for fun.

What most people don't know is that Gary was also a deeply religious Christian, and a profoundly conservative man politically and socially. He was a father of six, and a grandfather of seven.

It always amused the hell out of me that the fundies would decry how D&D was the tool of the devil; and yet Gary was almost certainly more conservative than they were.

Being conservative, and being religious, don't have anything to do with having a quick, agile, open, and creative mind; no matter what some seem to believe.

Garys health has been pretty bad for a long time. Over the past few years, he's had several medically imposed periods of bed rest and isolation; a couple strokes, a couple cardiac events, and some immune system issues. It hasn't been announced exactly how he died, but it's believed to be heart related.

My prayers go out to Gail, his kids, and his grandkids.

Confugio Deus, Draco Magnus.

Well... I hadn't planned on it...

But the deal was so good, I couldn't pass it up....

Well... actually... BOTH deals; but I only ended up with one, and that was as a result of the first one falling through.


What am I babbling on about?

Why, buying my SEVENTH computer for the holiday season; this one for lil'ol'me.

Kinda funny how this one worked out.

I had wisely avoided the day after Christmas mess; but I got several emails that day alerting me to "special savings" etc...

One of them had a system exactly like what I was planning to build, excepting without the second hard drive, or bluray/hd-dvd combo drive. The kicker was, it was only $999... but they wanted $70 shipping.

Well, that set me off on a research run as to specials available that day, and build vs. buy values based on those specials.... then I remembered I had seen one of the exact same computers that I was looking at as a "special value" deal in Costco with a 24" monitor, for $300 more than I was seeing it on the net for... which was a worthwhile deal if I decided I wanted that monitor; but I don't buy monitors sight unseen.

So the day AFTER the day after Christmas, I headed down to Costco to check it out.

Thus the adventure TRULY began.

When I got to Costco, they indeed had the system I remembered; but apparently that price was only good just before, and the day after Christmas. It was running $200 higher that day.

... still a good deal actually, but not better than I could build after taxes vs. shipping were taken into account.

At any rate, since I was out; I decided to head down to Frys, just to do a little comparison shopping; and because I knew their after Christmas sale went through the 1st... well technically their after Christmas sale went through the 28th, and their New Years sale went through the 2nd but anyway.

I got down to Frys, and they had the same system as Costco, but without the monitor; for about $400 less. Again, a good deal, but not better than I could build; and it's a $580 monitor, so I'd be better off buying from Costco.

Now I don't know if you've ever been to Frys, but they tend to be thin staffed at the best of times; and this was not the best of times. Also, unfortunately, my smart phones internet connection doesn't work inside their store; and I had various technical questions I needed answered about several models.

Let's just say it took me a while.

At any rate; I didn't care for the price on the Intel C2-Q6600 machine with the BluRay/HD-DVD combo drive. It was $1350; the exact same price as I would get online actually, but $25 shipping vs $90 tax... Not a great deal.

... BUUUUT

They had a brand new quad core AMD Phenom system, identical to the Intel box 'cept without the BluRay combo drive... and they had it for $950... and they sell the BluRay drive separately for $299.

and I really like the memory architecture on the phenom; it's actually significantly better than that of the Core 2 (there are errata on both processors by the way; neither is likely to occur iN any real world instance).

Better yet though, that is actually cheaper than I could build the same system for.

Now remember, this is after an hour driving to and shopping in Costco then driving down to Frys, and another 90 minutes in Frys trying to get served etc... etc...

I looked at the deal, I thought about it for a couple minutes, I thought about the online prices and the build prices... and I said what the hell, let's buy it.

So, 20 minutes later the sales guy finds the box in the back (they've only got one and it's stacked in some weird location), and I head up to the line with it.

Again, if you've never been to Frys, the lines are legendary. They have 30-50 cashiers lined up at the front of the store, and one REALLY long line, that snakes back and forth across the full width of the store, in multiple rows of S curves.

On this night, there were about 200 people in line ahead of me. From the time I made my "let's buy it" decision, to the time I got to the register, was about an hour. A total of about 2 and a half hours in the store...

And I get to the register, and check all my things in, which takes a good ten minutes because of a malfunctioning scanner...

And I present my card for payment and get in response "I'm sorry sir, we no longer accept American Express".

WHAT!

Now let me just let you know something. We have a few cards, but they are all low limit (on purpose), and used mostly for the reward points, and for the convenience of buying and paying bills online. We pay our cards off like cash every month. The only higher limit card we have is the Amex, which we use as our primary large purchase card, because it's the only card they take at Costco (in fact, it's the Costco Amex rewards card. A great deal by the way).

Now technically, I could have done it by splitting the purchase across two other cards (which they will do); or I could have paid in cash on the debit card, but this is just after Christmas, and I'd just (that day) paid every credit card off in full to account for Christmas purchasing. Not only did I not want to put more on the other cards, but I wasn't sure which payments had cleared yet and which hadn't... and I didn't want to dip into the cash reserves that far (the total including tax, and the bluray combo drive was $1300 something).

So after two and a half hours in Frys, and another hour in Costco, I just abandoned the hardware there and made ready to go home.

Man I was irritated. I HATE wasting my time like that; and I espeically hate having to change things around after coming to a decision.

What happened next... well, that's another post; but lets just say that my weirdness magnet proved once again infallible, and it cost me $150, and a fair bit of irritation. When I say this is for another post, I mean it. It's too good a story not to share, but I'm going to share it some other day soon.

At any rate, by the end of all this, I'd been out for four hours or so, and it had not only been a complete waste of time, it had been net loss. I was tired, and pissed off, and annoyed (yes I can be all three at once, and it's not a pretty sight)....

I needed to either break something, or build something... or maybe both.

So there was a Best Buy not too far out of my way home, and just for the hell of it I stopped in; not expecting I'd find anything, but I wanted to see what their after Christmas deals were...

And damned if they didn't have a core 2 quad system, identical to the one I'd got an email about, that started this whole mess... and for $910... $90 cheaper than the email box. In fact, because the email box had such high shipping; accounting for tax vs shipping, still $90 cheaper.

So I asked the sales guy about it, and he said "Oh, it's the last one we've got, a floor model; you can get it for $800".

To which I said "do you take Amex?"

Yes, yes they do.

So, the specs:

Proc: Core 2 quad 6600 at 2.4ghz
Mem: 3gb PC6400 (2x 1gb 2x 512m)
Video: Nvidia GeForce 8500GT
Board: Intel G33 oem workstation board (good quality, a bit light on features)
Drives: 2x 500gb 7200rpm SATA3 with 16mb cache
Other: Lightscribe DVD combo drive, 15 way media reader, optical out and HD surround, 2 firewire ports onboard, 8 USB2, eSATA port, 7 sata ports total, GigE.

The only thing I'd change if I were building it myself, is go with a gamers motherboard (about $70 for an equivalent board) , and to use an 8600gt instead of an 8500gt ($150 vs $75). My cost including tax: $865 dollars. Difference in component cost: $145. Cost to build it and ship it as I would have built it: $1110 dollars.

Hmmm.... looks like I break even, even replacing the motherboard and video card, and I'm not going to replace the mobo. Honestly, I don't need to overclock a quad 2.4ghz machine, and that's the only reason to replace the mobo.

Oh and of course this way I get a 1 year warranty, tech support, and an OS; rather than having to actually pay MS an extra $150 for an OEM copy, which I didn't include in the build price (I have OEM XP, I don't have OEM Vista, and if I want DX10 games, it's Vista only).

I MAY replace the video card at some point; but I can reuse the 8500gt in my kids computer (which has crappy video), so it's no loss.

In the mean time even this vid card overclocks to 600mhz stable with no heat issues (the entire 8 series are overclocking monsters), maxes out the Vista performance scores, and screams in every game I've tried it on... though I haven't tried to run Crysis yet; and I'd expect it wouldn't do too well since it's only a 256mb board (actually the only reason why I'd bother changing it is to get 512 or 640).

I stuck in a wireless card; and I'm going to grab that $300 combo drive (funny enough, it's not cheaper anywhere online than it is here locally), and a Hauppage PCIe HDTV/VidCap card with remote.

I actually could've bought the comp with the 24" monitor, and got another $140 off, but I was still trying to decide what to do about a new display (and I have a really top quality 19" already) so I declined that deal (it WAS a smokin deal though).

I'm still trying to decide if I want a new 24" monitor; or if I want to go whole hog and get the 30" and just use the whole thing as my secondary HDTV/Media center.

Or hell, I could even go dual head on the thing with my 19" as my "windows" display, and use an HDTV as my other display. They've got some really nice smaller model LCDs at quite low prices these days; and 1920x1080 on an $800 30", 32", or 37" TV looks just as good on an HDTV from a computer over HDMI as it does on a $1400 monitor (of course the $1400 30" monitor can do 2560x1900, but I don't NEED more than 1920x1080).

Oh and before you real hardcore geeks ask, yes it's dual booting Ubuntu, and yes, kernel compiles absolutely SCREAM.

For my graphics geek friends, don't expect TOO much because it's just an 8500gt; but the cpu scaling results are pretty damn good:

CINEBENCH R10
****************************************************

Tester : Chris Byrne

Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
MHz : 2400
Number of CPUs : 4
Operating System : WINDOWS 32 BIT 6.0.6000

Graphics Card : GeForce 8500 GT/PCIe/SSE2
Resolution : <1280x1024>
Color Depth : <32>

Rendering (Single CPU): 2435 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 8586 CB-CPU
Multiprocessor Speedup: 3.53
Shading (OpenGL Standard) : 3285 CB-GFX

Oh and thats on the standard clock; the fan always being on high when I had the video oc'ed was irritating me.

The 8600gt typically sees 1000 better or so on the Shading test. I haven't seen an 8800gt yet, but I'd guess its another 500 over and above that. Also, Vista typically sees lower results than XP (or OS-X), and for "standard" tests, benchmarkers usually use 16 bit, because some systems use 24 bit and some 42 bit as their maximum, but they all support 16 bit.

I'll run a few more different benchmarks (any requests?) and post them up tomorrow.

A fun little waste of time

Gladiatus, the game of Roman Gladiators.

It's a great way to get through those 4 hour group phone meetings.

I've founded a guild.... PeopleOfTheGun. We're on server 7.

One of the many reasons I stopped playing at "3rd" edition

Which wasn't really third anyway, it was 4th (because AD&D went through unofficial 2.5 and 3 revisions in the late 80s to early 90s while still under TSR). Then they did a 3.5 which was actually fifth edition, or at least 4.5 (it was mostly fixing the major screwups of "3rd" edition). This change would be more like sixth edition, or at least fifth.

"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum..." - Agustus DeMorgan

Gamers are a Security Risk?

Wow, I find this amusing. Aparently the IDF (Israeli Defense Force)automatically grants a lower security clearnace to people who play D&D and other Role Playing Games (RPG's)

I'm an AF vet, 2 years EM, 6 years as a reserve officer (actually just under three, just over 5). The last security clearance I held was TS with the full alphabet soup (it's been inactive the last two years). I can neither confirm nor deny that I have been in the presence of special ordnance and materials, and that's all I can say about that. I'm sorry sir you'll have to speak with the public information officer. I'm sorry sir you'll have to step behind that line. Now sir.

Okay, bad inside joke, feel free to ignore.

I've been playing SF/F-RPG's since I was seven, and I'm a member of the SCA. I'm also an avid SG/WG/BG.

Let me translate that: SF/F is "Science Fiction and Fantasy", the largest subcategory of RPGs. The SCA is the Society for Creative Anachronisms, a medieval recreation and recreation socity. SG is strategy gaming, WG is war gaming, BG is battle gaming.

ALL the airmen and officers around me had similar clearances, and every last one of them was into RPG and SG in some way. Hell, most of them went to fighter practice with me.

You have to understand, military life when you aren't actually in training, or on a deployment is PROFOUNDLY boring. Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and officers will do literally ANYTHING to occupy their time. If you dont believe me take a look at this: http://www.soupsandwich.net, and this http://www.skippyslist.com

One of the most popular hobbies in the American military (at least the Air Force and Navy anyway), is gaming. It's a mentally engaging hobby, that requires creativity, problem solving, and team skills to do it well (no, that asshole troll munchkin from the 7th grade isn't doing it well). It doesn't take up much space, or special equipment other than a dice, a tabletop, and some books. Trust me on this one, the smarter you are the more you have to engage your brain to avoid going insane. Most importantly to those of us who've served, gaming takes up a phenomenal amount of TIME, with your brain in gear. Time that you would otherwise have spent staring at the walls in the dayroom, or reading the same paperback over and over again.

A lot of folks in the military are into a particular (and particularly extreme to the outside world) sub section of this hobby called Live Action Role Playing (LARP), either through the SCA, or other LARP groups. In fact the article linked above has a picture of some LARPers in the included picture (not D&Ders as in the caption).

The single largest group of people in the SCA? Active duty military. The next largest? Military veterans. Every major U.S. military installation has an active SCA contingent. The aircraft carriers Enterprise, Nimitz, and John F. Kennedy all have at times been independent baronies or principalities within the SCA, which means that out of their 4-5000 crewmembers, at least a couple hundred were in the SCA.

The funniest thing here though; the smartest people in the military are generally the ones working in the jobs with the highest clearances; these are the same people who are most likely to be active gamers in some way or another, because as I said above, smart folsk need to keep their minds occupied in their off hours.

Trust me, if we tried to pull these policies, half our Air Force and Navy would have to resign because their clearances would be insufficient to do their jobs.

UPDATE: Just read this on slashdot, which had this lovely link. Where would we be without the self parodying genius, Jack Chick.