Brendan

I like the traditional game website experience but with the Duders personalities being at the core, expanded with more staff (I know, the old site). I really liked (and still do) reading game reviews, and I liked reading theirs. If I missed a bunch I liked being able to sit down for two hours and roll through several Quicklooks. I did like when the site changed and shows that Abby, Rickert, Vinny came up with a lot too! I liked that high-budget stuff like GOTY skit videos and travel shows. A lot of that content came around throughout the years as other content faded because the size of the site couldn't possibly do it all at once.

My favourite time in the site's history (and therefore what my favourite theoretical "future" of the site would look like) would look like what I thought the site was turning into in the Whiskey media days. We know it never panned out hence the first sale to CBSi and we got great stuff with a maintained relative smaller staff for years afterward, albeit instead of a lot of the great stuff I like above. I also know in retrospect the content was punching above its weight and the staff were working overly hard to make it all happen, so the site would have had to expand staff even to maintain what it was doing.

I know my theoretical favourite future of the site isn't possible because (this is my uneducated opinion) it probably relies on the original pie-in-the-sky hopes for the Wikis impact on the sites financials. People using Google to look up info for games drives huge traffic, hence Wikia, IGN's stuff, etc. I'm guessing subscriptions for core users, Wiki to drive large ad revenue in to allow the site to expand in scope. Instead it's had to mostly change in scope, although to be fair the site's staff did expand a bit under CBSi.

Since written reviews and Quick Looks have gone the way of the dodo, other than if there's a show that catches my interest (I still often skip through those a bit) I mostly interact with the site through the podcast which I'm fine with. So I guess since my favourite future of the site relies on a past that never came to be I don't really mind that they're doing this stuff now, because I still get the podcast anyway.

Wishing you the best Jason!

I've never played a game I've actively disliked just to play with friends, but the closest would be this game that was a Diablo-like called Helldivers which none of us were that into, and I think we only played it for a little while.

If I've purchased a game I will most likely finish it otherwise I won't feel like I've gotten my monies worth. I never really purchased games without knowing quite a bit about them so I don't remember the last time I spent money on a game and really disliked it so I've never really been tested on this. It's now been so long that I've gotten access to games through Live Gold, then PS+ that any game I've only dabbled has been one I didn't "pay" for anyway.

Other than money? Games are a relaxing passtime for me. I've never been good enough at them to feel like I should work at overcoming challenges that I'm not enjoying. I'll work to over come lazyness for exercise, or doing chores, or other stuff that matters.

No interest for me, I'm happy with my late-model "OG" Switch. It is universally docked and I purchase physical games for it.

At this point if there was a half step upgrade planned for next year that would make it most likely 5+ years after the launch of the Switch. Doesn't seem like a good value to me. Would make more sense to just have a clear break in performance in year 6-7.

I wanted to try Bloodborne as my first souls game after all the positive GB chatter but I just don't like the gothic/horror vibe.

@monkeyking1969: Appreciate the response. I'm generally in the "you get what you pay for" category of shopper but I couldn't seem to find much official chatter on Alienware like professional reviews. I assume that some of the parts would be of the cheapest variety but I didn't know if getting a 3080 for that little was worth the other parts. Seems like with the responses so far it's not worth it.

@apewins: Yeah RAM is easy to add, and I don't know the vendors for the different parts. PSU is 1000w although the rating isn't described. Mobo is a B550a which works for the next several years (I would get a Micro ATX if I was building my own anyway). Looking at Newegg today even if a 3080 was available I'd be paying $1,300+, and I don't even know how I'd get my hands on one if I was willing to pay.

I've got my Switch, I've still got my PS4 so if I just didn't get a PC this year then whatever but from chatter online it seems like pre-builts are the only way people are getting PC's this year, and where I look that operates in Canada I'd be paying a lot more, although I'd be choosing my components a little more selectively.

I live in Ontario, Canada. Not as many options for boutique builders. Looking at Newegg or other places where one can build their own (I've built my own once) no graphics cards are in stock, or I would be paying $3,000+ CAN for something decent with a 3080.

https://deals.dell.com/en-ca/productdetail/9g6x

Deal on this AMD, when I upgrade to a 3080, 1TB NVME brings it to $2,599+hst.

Is this a good deal? Traditionally folks says Alienware is a rip off but in the current environment this seems like the best option I've seen. The only other thing I've read is it's loud but I game with headphones.

What do y'all think?

Ahh the early gen acquisition wars