After a long foray into things like film and music (And one that certainly isn't over by any stretch of the imagination) I decided that I really missed gaming, the forums, and basically being in the loop. So I'll start building up my console collection in a little while, but that still doesn't solve my need for a decent computer, and well I've never been a PC gamer. But I hear about stuff like Fall of the Samurai and all these cool Steam games (And fucking Steam sales, jesus) as well as bigger facets like Starcraft if I obviously kinda came to that party late.
So I suppose you could call me tech and computer savvy but my knowledge of PC Gaming is null. So, I'll be building a computer from the ground up.
For, well, optimal gaming, what would you guys recommend in terms of hard drives, ram, cooling fans, etc? I need suggestions for everything! Links are appreciated.
And keep it a bit cheap, would you folks? Man, I haven't been on Giant Bomb consistently in so long. Thanks.
So on Thursday, I went to log on to PSN. And it was down. I was upset but didn't think anything of it until I looked up an outage a few ours later and noticed they were down. Then a little later, I heard it was an external attack. And thats some straight scary shit. "EXTERNAL!?"
So the questions come up, and quickly people are bitchin'. The questions are all logical.
Is my info out there?
Who did this?
Who fucking farted? Because this shit stinks. (Okay, that was just me.)
When is PSN coming up?
Are people going to steal my shit?
(And the funniest one to me) Are my trophies safe?
Now, i'm proud of my trophies, like anybody is. But some dickbag could be out there buying shit, letting my info loose, and buying bulk amounts of double-clitted unlicensed blue Avatar fleshlights. Which are a real thing. I'd link it but I'd be afraid to get locked or banned.
Now, I'm just as concerned as you, but this is a bad situation that is turned sour on every aspect and handled TERRIBLY by Sony. I just don't buy that a multi-million dollar company didn't know things were even missing until Monday. Thats a load of shit. The vague and infrequent PSN Blog updates were not-helpful at all, and now they finally put one out that answers some questions and its pushing the boundaries of "Too fucking late." Now if this was Valve and their Steam service, or fucking Addicting Games dot com, thats cool, fine. Whatever, its a fucking small service/site. But fucking Sony? The software and hardware MEGA ASS CORPO GIANT, let their goddamn PSN service fail by a band of hackers? And not only that, but didn't notice at first, let a bunch of info go, and then don't tell us until almost a full week later? That is insanity. But.
this is teh interweb.
And the reality is that hackers (Especially in groups) are incredibly fucking capable. Shutting down websites, hacking emails, and presumably farting in the faces of everybody they fucked over.
Now, who is to blame for this fucking mess? Sony, sure. They fucked up and thats not questionable. But let me tell you about the other fine folks on the PSN comments section after almost every update on this bad scene.
Glad I have a 360.
(And then the less polite) this is ridiculuz sony has no concern for my safety clearly
i am trading my ps3 in for a game gear and a virtual boy at least thos dnt get hacked
And then the more eloquent: This is ****ing stupid, insane. I am going to trade in my PS3 right now for a 360.
(And all over XBL forums and in banners) LOL STUPID SONY GET WHAT U PAID 4 MOTHERFUCKASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS$
And like I said, Sony did screw the pooch. And let me tell you, i'd like to fix their fucking wagon just as soon as I would the people who caused this bullshit. But hackers are capable fucks, indeed so in groups. Would I have guessed (What I assume is) a bunch of dickheads could break PSN over their knees? Hell Fucking No.
But they did and here we are, us and Sony with our dicks in our hands.
And fellow bombers, whose fault is this shit? Are people right or wrong to blame Sony and threaten to switch over one incident, albeit a large one? What can be done to stop these plagues of info leaks? I remember when the Gawker one was a big deal, but this shit has to break some kind of record.
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And thats awesome, yep. Skydiving, explosions, stopping traffic because you saw another lime green bikini that needed some bloody accents, and...whoa, what the fuck is happening to that cops head in that one picture? Anyway, GTA IV comes out and some people go "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SKYDIVING INTO A STRIPCLUB AND STEALING BICYCLES AND GIVING THE FINGER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ITS TOO REAL" Most people just had their heads explode, because of how good the game was. You really felt for Niko Bellic and his European ass. I knew people who were literally emotionally effected after the cab service was burnt; after Kate was shot, etc etc etc. The consensus between me and my friends is something along the lines of; Well that was awesome, but what the fuck is R* doing after that? The answer was especially awesome to me since I loved Red Dead Revolver, a game most people overlooked for whatever reason. The only hidden gem Rockstar ever made, I suppose.
The fact that they would even have the balls to make a sequel to a relatively quiet and meh-received PS2 game was pretty nerd-cool. The thing that nobody saw coming was how good Red Dead Redemption really was. One of my favorite storylines in any game ever, MGS3 included. While John Marston wasn't unforgettable, Red Dead Redemption is an ensemble effort from the Heroin addicted Professor on leave, to Dutch, to Bonnie Macfarlane, to Irish, to you get the goddamn idea. The landscape was beautiful, story was great, gunplay was as good as ever, horse-riding was fun, and the only big problem I have with the game is that you have to join free roam to get to any other multiplayer game mode. But, the game was more or less GTA IV with all the kinks worked out, and set to a different drumbeat. Some tweaks for the engine and a whole facelift for the story change.
Now, LA Noire.
Looks awesome, like it might be my favorite game of the year already. But again, it kinda looks like another Rockstar game with some touches to make it better. Now whatever affiliation Rockstar actually has with this project I don't fully understand, but people seem to get bitchy whenever you say Noire is a Rockstar Game. Watch the trailers that show driving and gunplay. Does that look different to you? As far as i'm concerned its a collaborative effort that will basically just be GTA/Red Dead revisited in a different era, with different story mechanics IE detective work. Being said, it looks great. But what happens after LA Noire? GTA V? Will that be more of what we saw? I'm not complaining because R* makes awesome games, but where are they going? Are they just going to venture off into Max Payne 3 and then come back to the next GTA or Red Dead later?
Here's another good question to ask:
Where the FUCK is Agent? Ah gee, it sounds awesome guys. Really, it sounds like a game i'd pre-order and I fucking hate pre-ordering anything. But how come nothings been said about it in years? No screens, no announcements, no cancellation announcement even. Is this bastard in the works, or what?
My question to the GB community is, where do you see Rockstar heading next?
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I listened to this bombcast earlier, and cracked the fuck up.
Then the one where they drink hemp milk--hence my namesake, thank you Gerstmann. Does anybody else go and listen to old bombcasts since their so damn funny? And well this an interesting question, but whats the first time the bombcast made you laugh? AND A THIRD QUESTION, Does anyone remember the bombcast where they were talking about if someone made a fighting game with a bunch of industry people, like Ken Kutagari, Jay Allard and stuff? I loved that and I can't figure out which one it was.
But when I play Black Ops online I play shittons of mutliplayer, like anyone would. I loved Team Deathmatch, and continue to love it.
HOWEVER--FUCK NUKETOWNI'MFUCKINGSICKOFIT.
Seriously, i've never played Team Deathmatch where it hasn't been this map. Is this annoying anyone else? Is this even happening to anyone else or is this just in my head?
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Well, this shit isn't going to end, is it. I think i'm cursed.
Anyway, so I did a little DIY figuring that my heatsink was what was dicked up on my PS3. I bought some thermal gel. Followed the instructions. Reassembled. I went to test it out, and the PS3 works, but it wont output anything. My TV downstairs wouldnt pick it up at all, and my tv upstairs flashed "NOT SUPPORTED FORMAT". Also, it was turning off to standby mode every 5 goddamn seconds. Anyone seen anything similar? Did I do something wrong? I'm looking for the AV cables since maybe it wont read HDMI since its been so long since its actually been on.
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Something I will Enjoy Reading That Nobody Else Will. Instrumental memories in my life, (and how they are often connected to gaming.)
With my PS3 in the shitter again because the company I sent it to was to cheap to buy this thermal heating gel, i've been thinking about me as a gamer, and where I started. Nobody will give a shit, but its still fun to write about because its always interesting to me because gaming is just so pivotal to my life. Some of my first memories are playing games when me and my parents still lived in a Trailer in the mid-90's when I was just a little kid. The first games I remember playing were on the SNES, specifically Super Mario Bros., Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures, and getting my ass handed to me trying to play Super Return of the Jedi. I still have never beaten the 2nd stage, then again I lost my SNES about 3 years ago. I took a step backwards when I was 5 or 6 and started dicking around at my Grandpas with his NES, after I found it in the closet. I've never seen him lose at Dr. Mario, and i've still never seen it happen. He's fucking amazing at it. I was never good at that as a kid, or really any other NES game then, but the one I always found to be neat was 8 Eyes. In retrospect that game is super hard, and kind of terrible but I always thought everything about it was neat.
Sega Does What Nintendon't. (Nintendo is What Genesisn't.) Also, PS1 and Possibly when I became a Sony Fanboy.
So without luck on the NES, the next thing I remember was the Sega Genesis at my house. The only game I remember having was Sonic the Hedgehog and General Chaos, but i'm sure we had others. My Dad had great love for General Chaos since it was pretty much the only game he had in College that him and his roomates played the shit out of that never got broke, stepped on, or had beer spilled on it. We'd play two-player for hours, and hours. Around 1998 (I was 3), we bought a PS1. This is where I started really liking games. Now, the first game I remember ever playing on it was this demo disc. So we were picking up a Pizza from Pizza Hut, and they were selling PS1 Demo's as a promo or something, so we bought one. It had demo's for Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider, Medievil, and Metal Gear Solid. I remember this very well, there was even a CGI video-intro to the menu screen.
Here's the part where I get really into gaming. (Defining moment?)
So the demo disc. I remember playing Tomb Raider and getting frustrated as hell, it may have resulted in the first time i've ever said "Motherfucker!". I didn't really like Gran Turismo, and although I wanted to play Medievil so bad it was just a video. That was semi-upsetting as a kid. So, because my Dad always did, I played MGS. I never really knew what to do, and finally beat the demo when I was about 4. It ends when you find the Darpa chief. I remember taking my Dads snowmobiling goggles and walking around the house pretending I was Solid Snake. I even did a Snake voice, I thought David Hayter was the shit even then. So I got sort of obsessed with the demo and was kind of devoted to playing the whole game. The next thing I remember is being at a Best Buy with my parents and seeing "METAL GEAR SOLID" on a case. I rushed at it and asked if I could get it, and I got home only to find mild disappointment. It was VR Missions, which was cool, but not what I really wanted.
Metal Gear Beef Taquito's. (Economic Paradox, Damn You Schwan Man!)
Nonetheless, I spent endless hours with my Dad playing VR Missions and we'd always play that game and eat beef taquito's and push-pops with bubble gum inside we got from the Schwan man. After we beat every mission in that game 30 times, I sort of lost interest. My Mom came back from a vacation with Namco Museum Volume 1, and that was the next thing I Remember. I loved EVERY game on it, but I was the only one in the house who had interest in the actual museum section of the game. I liked Bosconian, Rally-X, and new Rally-X. My Mom liked Bosconian, and my Dad liked Pole Position. They played Toy Pop co-op all the time together, and i'd stay up extra late and wait for them to get to the bonus apple stage, and i'd play it. It was my favorite part for some reason.
The Lost Vikings. (Norse by Norsewest might be why i'm into Norse Mythology. Huh.)
The next game I remember is the Norse by Norsewest PS1 port, and not because I played it alot, but because my parents did. Its also the first memory I have of them fighting. If you've never played it, its a hard fucking game. Its still ridiculous, and although its one of my all time favorites, I don't think i've ever came close to beating it. Its also, awesome. The music, sound, gameplay, and even the characters are hilarious. If you die a couple times they start bitching, or break the fourth wall and stuff. That stuff blew my mind as a kid. Also, the music in the menu is the best i've ever heard. I remember every little detail about it, and i'm the same way with the music from "Columns", So, the game was stupid-hard, so I butted out. But my parents loved that game, and since its co-op, they played together. But if 1 character dies, then they have to restart. What would begin as a playful "Ah, you bastard." would end as "FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING RETARD! FUCK THIS GAME!". Also, possibly the first time I ever saw someone ragequit. Ah, ragequitting. So they kind of...well, quite playing Norse by Norsewest. Anyway, my mom got Namco Museum Vol. 3, which my Grandpa loved, my mom loved, and my Dad was kind of whatever to, he was really into World of Warcraft. But these were the days when it was like an RTS, the old school warcraft. So again I loved the museum stuff, Dig-Dug, and Phozon. Phozon is still awesome, and I kind of spent the next two years of my life looking for Volumes 2, 4 and 5 but NEVER found them. Last year I bought copies of all of them in case, with book, and they are framed upon my wall. Oh yes. I did it.
Playstation 2 is What Xbox....don't. Uhhh. (Fuck Taglines!)
Anyway, so my first jump into that gen of consoles was with an Xbox, I played Max Payne at my Uncles house. With renewed interest in gaming, I asked for a PS2, Max Payne, and the Simpsons Road Rage for my birthday since the PS2 had just had its 179.99 price drop. Since my family had just left its trailer and bought a house, we were as strapped for cash as ever. Luckily for me, my maternal grandparents and my parents pooled and bought me a PS2, Max Payne, and Road Rage. I was ecstatic. I went into the other room immediately and played Road Rage for about 7 hours, only playing Max Payne when nobody was around since I figured if they knew what it contained i'd probably get it taken away. I might be remembering wrong, but I think I got "Enter the Matrix" too, but that might've been the year after. Anyway I played the shit out of those 3 games, and never really stopped. I kept adding games, and the next sort of milestone for me was MGS2, which I played nonstop for 2 days, and then my first (what I felt was a_ real "M" game.
The Last Dance for Lance Vance, Tommy Vercetti, CJ, and Myself. (For a while, anyway.)
My dads friend from the War, Chad, had Vice City, and I played a bit at his house and was decidedly hooked. I asked him if I could borrow it, and I did. I played that game like crazy, and i'm listening to the song "Fascination" right now probably because of that game. I was blown away! the characters were great, story was awesome, and I was blown away by the fact that I could just roam around and have fun. My main outlet of playing games was at my cousins house, since they had a shitton of money and a library of PS2 games within a year. Anyway, fresh off of Vice City, I played San Andreas there. Subsequently, "DUDE WHAT." It was awesome. So awesome, my 10 or 11 year old self decided to borrow it from their house without my asking. They didn't appreciate all the shit that they had, it felt right to jack it. I pretended I was a hardened criminal the whole way home, staring a Clint Eastwood stare out the window the whole car ride home. I played that game like crazy too, being very careful to keep the saves on a memory card I always had with me, and keeping the game itself in a CD Case, carrying its actual case in my locker at school. My mom was cleaning my room one day and discovered it, immediately pissed because she knew I stole it. Also, pretty upset after being VERY misinformed by national news about the hot coffee scandal. Remember how much every new outlet used to hate Rockstar? I mean, they still do, but it used to be rampant. Anyway, I felt like a dick forever about the San Andreas thing and until I was about 13 I thought my Uncle Doug hated me and thought I was a thief.
The wonderful, blazing, defiant end of my PS2 days. (Losing friends to Guitar Hero and masturbation.)
So when Guitar Hero came out I was the first on the bandwagon, and me owning that game and taking it over to every friends house is the reason why everybody has GH1 in my area. I rounded up the cash the first week it was out, and drove 15 miles to pick it up at 10pm. I went home and played it until 10am the next day, I had already gotten halfway though the medium setlist. The orange button kicked my ass for a week. By the time GH2 came out, I mastered Guitar Hero and kicked eternal ass, and my circle of friends were introduced to internet porn. By the time Encore:Rocks the 80s came out, this is how sleepovers went. We'd play Guitar Hero till 2am. One of us would go to the computer and look at pron. We would follow eventually. And this 1 person in particular who I can't name would masturbate wherever, whenever. We were in his den and he went into the corner and started jackign off. He got obseessed with Guitar Hero and porno, and our circle of friends kind of disbanded. Where he spent all his time in Dragonforce and 100% on Expert, I started checking gaming blogs and forums. When I was 13 or so and still read GamePro magazine, I joined the website and started using forums like crazy. I had the same profile pic then as I did now, but my account over there was WeaselMgsFan. My parents got a bit cooler with M-Games and thats how I got to play stuff like MGS3, which confirmed my extreme MGS fandom. I got a PSP, and played portable ops like crazy. My PS2 Library was approaching 60 games when the PS3 was coming out with its 2nd gen.
This would be really hard to make a timeline out of. (Because i'm about to totally fuck it up, I think.)
So in 2006, (I Think), I got a 30 gig Zune. This was before iPods were way cool, but right about the time when they were getting awesome. I loved it, like fucking crazy. I would stay up all night listening to music and reading Kotaku and shit, and it was just way awesome to me. This Zune nonsense will become important later. So it took a straight 6-months of convincing him, but I finally got my little brother to think that we should get a PS3 instead of a Wii. When little kids are set on something, its hard to convince them otherwise. Anyway, when all my relatives asked me what I wanted to christmas it was really weird, because I wanted to name off a bunch of PS3 games but couldn't since it would be an asshole move to assume I was getting one, but I was so excited about them that I just couldn't think any other way. By this point, my mom had moved out and separated from my Dad and because she kinda made us, we went with her downstate to live where she grew up. I was so set on PS3 I did math everyday on what the cost of everything would be, the grand total, and how much money I could contribute towards it to make it affordable. I had around 250 bucks saved up, and that was monumental because I am TERRIBLE at saving money. From Summer of 2006 to December of 2007 my parents were not together, and something about the holidays made them talk again, and since they were pretty much back together but living apart it was very weird. We had christmas at my dads house with my mom present, and then he came back with us to ___________ for a few days. Anyway, I got a PS3, and holy FUCK, it was awesome. From my entire family I got games, it kicked ass. I got Skate, Ratchet and Clank Future, Uncharted, Lego Star Wars, and it was so awesome. I was so pumped about all these games and just so immersed in all these new releases and all this other shit I became a serious gamer, and have been ever since. Okay, so heres when the Zune becomes important. I was browsing through gaming podcasts since I thought it would be a good way to catch me up on stuff, and was just interested by the name "Giant Bomb". I heard the 08-05-08 podcast. I cringed at the length, thinking "Alright, at least I can fall asleep to it or whatever." I started cracking the fuck up at everything, and I was ecstatic. I went downstairs and downloaded the last two podcasts before it and stayed up all night listening to the Bombcast.
The Giant Bomb Launchcast. (Me as a Giantbomber, in the early days.)
I listened to bombcasts everyday, they were so awesome, informative, and the funniest fucking things ever. I even made a GiantBomb beanie hat myself and had it confiscated because none of the school administrators were sure what to make of it. I never got it back, goddamn them. I quickly became the most knowledgeable gamer anyone knew, and quickly was popular in the geek crowd at school. Most of them are still my friends, 2, 3 years later. I had other friends but I was so engulfed in gaming and I didn't want out. Every dollar I made I spent on games, I watched G4 nonstop, read Kotaku, and listening to Bombcasts. I realized they had a website, and registered. My name comes from the first podcast I heard, where they drink hemp milk and oat milk. I listen to that particular podcast at least 3 times a month, if only the first 15 minutes. Jeff says "You know what I like? Milk. Like milk milk. Just some Regular ass, Milk!". I actually think i'm one of the oldest members on the site, and I havent really been completely active lately but thats for the next part of the story. Anyway, MGS4 came out, and I spent like 54 non-stop hours into that game and loved every second of it. I spent like 134 total hours in Fallout 3, and I still play that game. Anyway, gaming was becoming my life.
That Damned Blinking Yellow Light. (Reason for my sporadic usage of Giantbomb since May of 09. )
In May of 2009, my PS3 broke. I kept up with bombcasts and Kotaku for maybe 2 weeks after this happened, then just quit because I had no reason to be here. I didn't have the money and my parents didnt either since they had broke up not too long after Mom came back. I called Sony, and they said they could fix it for 150 dollars. I said "Fine." I started saving the money, and by the time I got close enough, I really didnt care anymore. I got more into movies, music, and comic books. I'm still way into all of those things too, but gaming took a backseat for a long time. This August, I ponied up 110 bucks and sent my PS3 to a company called PSR1, who works with Sony. They sent it back, I bought GTA IV for 20 bucks, and played the shit out of that thing for 2 weeks. YLOD Again. What the fuck?! I Sent it back, I just had to pay to ship to them. Came back, but came broke and worked for like a solid hour, and then freezes. Then YLOD. So anyway, I found out the problem. So their are these two metal plates the PS3, and between them is supposed to be this thermal cooling gel or something, but the company was too cheap to put it in! A long story short, its getting fixed right now, and my PS3 will be back up in a few days---hopefully for a good long while. I have a lot to catch up on.
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I don't know why, my headers arent working so excuse this, this might become a wall of text.
But fuck, dude. So my PS3 broke last May, tragically. I got the money to fix it not to long ago and as opposed to sending it to Sony, I went to a third-party company called PSR1 since they were having a sale to fix it for $109. I sent it in, got it back, and it worked great. 3 weeks later, YLOD again. I sent it back in, had to pay for shipping. I got it back today, and its doing spooky shit and i'm just about to run the fucking thing over and facepalm until my skull is exposed. Everytime I try to quit a game and return to the XMB, it runs for a second, and then freezes up and glitches out. Visually it looks like something a fucking arcade game would do during its boot seqeunce. Shit like this. Seriously, the fuck?Besides that, it always runs the fan and it makes my PS3 super loud for no reason. The machine feels hot NOWHERE on its shell, I can't imagine why the fan is running. And constant, constant freezing. I get about an hour in (at the absolute most) before it locks up on me. So i'll probably end up sending the thing in and tell them to just give me a new goddamn system for free and put my old hard drive in it, and if I can't get that i'll keep sending the damn thing back until they figure it out. But i'm really posting, because I was wondering if anybody else with a PS3 has had these same exact list of weird phantom-ass problems? So anyhow, thanks Giant Bomb. And avoid that fucking PSR1 Company.
The header isnt working for me. Anyway. My PS3 broke last may, and I finally fixed it. I got it back last week. I played it like crazy, played a bunch of Street Fighter IV with my friends, ah it was just awesome. I went to Gamestop. Bought Darksiders. Got home. And it wont turn on. Same thing it did last time. Motherfucker....
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