jazzyc

I know exactly what you mean. We should be using it as it was designed, without a case. But 2 or 3 phones ago that changed for me. For me it came down to resale/trade-in value. A small dent/chip on a corner has reduced the value of my phone from £150 to essentially nothing. Another time (back when you could) a DIY screen replacement job never was perfect and bugged the hell out of me.
My current phone has had a case since day one (now 2+ years) and I've just got used to it. On the few occasions I take it out it feels too light and wrong in my hand.

@ltcolumbo: There have been a few "little library" systems set up in my neck of the UK. Given that they usually get local press coverage, I would say that such things are few and far between here. But, would make the perfect launching pad for helping the community.
I'm probably in the minority but I tend to purchase a book every month or so (to read during lunch break, rather than staring at the phone). Most I don't think I'd ever pick up again so I end up donating them to charity shops. I, personally, would be even happier just popping them down to one of these libraries and letting someone else give it a try.

I'm looking for info on what is the "best" VR Headset to get at present. Or, if I should hold off for a few months as something may be around the corner?

My two choices appear to be (though I haven't really considered PSVR) either the Oculus Quest or the VIVE Cosmos.

Here is what I know so far. The Oculus Quest is substantially cheaper (£399 or £499), has no leads and pretty simple to set-up. But you're limited to the Oculus store-front and onboard storage limitations (and computing power). In the future you will be able to plug it into your PC and use that as the computing power, and tracking of hands will do away with controllers.
The VIVE Cosmos is £699 and wired to the PC (can buy a wireless mod for something like £300 more). Screen is better resolution. Presumably it being PC-based I'd have access to whatever store/games I wanted?

I've scoured what I can from reviews and news and wanting to make sure I haven't missed anything substantial that would make one purchase far worse than the other. Those with experience, what is the fidelity(?) of the Quest like? My only experience is GearVR and you can see all the pixels, is it like that? Would a better screen make the additional cost worth it? Is the difference between tethered and wireless more important? Have I missed anything else I should consider?

@hayt: Musical instruments and such things have been in the game since launch. I've been to a couple of recitals and the stuff that people can put out is incredible. One of the periphery systems in the game that really took off.

@therealturk:I know what you mean. I keep hoping they'll do more with fishing and hobbies. I've played this game entirely solo, so have been glad when certain things came to pass that allowed you to solo the group quests in the Epic quest set. Rohan was where I fell off hard for a few years. Mounted combat was (and probably still is) terrible. I only returned when they released a store item that essentially levelled you past Rohan.

There are a ton of systems I don't interact with, or do so purely to see numbers go up (legendary items) but I mostly stick around for the storylines in the quests. We've got through Mordor and now in Dale and Erebor seeing what is happening with the dwarves since the fall of Sauron.

I'm still waiting to see the Scouring of the Shire.

I know this is likely to fall on deaf ears (last post here was circa 7 years ago) but does anyone still play?

I've just started back in recent days. Been on and off since launch (thanks to a Lifetime sub). Play on Laurelin as a Hobbit Guardian.

Hey,

I'm pretty much solely playing this on PC at the moment. Have it on PS4 but have yet to boot it up.

Really looking for some people to squad up with and meet some new people.

Origin - JazzyC

PS4 - JazzyC

UK time. Trying to play an hour or so a day, but that isn't always possible. Usually evenings.

Is it voiced by John Cena?

@mrcraggle: No second monitor but I was going to use my phone and the twitch app to test the stream, hopefully alongside a friend who has some spare time to check it from his end. Last thing I want to do is test it, say it is fine for myself and what I like sound/image wise, and find out others think it's terrible.

@inevpatoria You're right, and that's a great way to look at it. It's $100 that wouldn't have been there before.

Over the next few days I shall be exploring the software and trying to get the set-up ready as best as possible. I'll be hoping to keep it as simple as possible and hoping I can just capture/stream my desktop and whatever is displayed on it, along with my webcam and maybe a scrolling donation link at the bottom. Fewer cogs should hopefully mean fewer issues. Plus, it should hopefully mean I can capture some of the games I've had issues streaming before, or those old ones people have suggested I played.

I found a copy of Croc and got that to work (albeit without the soundtrack) but neither Nvidia nor Xsplit picked up the game as something I could stream/record. So maybe OBS and capturing my monitor is the best way to go, as it will undoubtedly not be the only old game I'm asked to play. As an FYI, Croc handles far worse than I remember.

Of the few streams I've done for bits, I've had at most one or two viewers, and I'm fully prepared for that. I just have to remind myself not to internalise my voice, and say it out loud. Otherwise it's just going to be 24hrs of me playing in silence with the occasional cat walking past.

Thanks for the advice and support.

I decided to commit two days ago and so far I've had two restless nights sleep about the stream going well and (above all) me not making it through 24hrs.

I'll take a look at OBS and the tutorials on their site. I didn't have much luck last time I tried it, as it would never capture my gaming window. But I think I'll persevere this time. At the very least I need it to be easy to switch between games, even if that means showing a desktop while I load the other up. If I go with OBS it may help with the issues I've had with Xsplit not detecting the DirectX 12 version of Hitman. Then, when I dropped it down the 11, I kept having issues with mouse clicks not registering. If it resolves that issue, I can save the latest Hitman update for the stream and cover a good few hours of content.

I've just hit my $100 target. Though I am hoping to get some of my gaming friends to come out of the woodwork and support me. Ideally popping into the stream to boost my confidence in talking. I think this stream could do wonders (either bad or good) for habits and confidence when it comes to streaming.