Tsoglani

I have to admit I sort of agree here, I used to solely game on PS3 and ever since I bought a new PC and upgraded the GPU and PSU nearly all my gaming has been done on PC. The lovely thing about it is I went back and played all the games I missed out on in previous years like The Witcher 1 & 2, Crysis/Crysis Warhead/, Far Cry, Sins of a Solar Empire, The Orange Box, etc.

I pretty much prefer gaming on the PC now, although I occasionally feel like console gaming and will likely play things like Darksiders 2 on PS3.

@believer258 said:

I bought The Witcher on Steam for $2.49.

That's not some little indie game, that's one massive fucking RPG, and that little fact is one of the biggest reasons I'm saving up for a new PC. Granted, it won't be a powerhouse, it will probably end up with a GTX 460 in it, but that still opens up far more and far cheaper possibilities than my Xbox ever could.

I figured if we were going to bitch about how much Xbox Live is a rip-off, I'd point this one out. I don't think they could ever pull off the sales that Steam does, but don't tell me that MS couldn't do better. And at this point I've had all of the Gears of War that I want. The Halo games, I'm a fan of, but the Metroid series didn't keep me anchored to Nintendo and the Halo series isn't going to keep me anchored to Xbox.

That Witcher deal is pretty excellent seeing as though you are getting a fantastic game.

I loved that game; was cool with the branching story-lines and different endings too. One of the best soundtracks ever to grace a video game as well. And I totally forgot about that dragon fight until reading this! That was pretty far-out, but it makes me wonder if there are dragons underneath Chinatowns all around the world...

@InfamousBIG said:

I like capitalism. It's just a fact, it's just who I am.

Don't get me wrong, fuck Ayn Rand and Objectivism and that bullshit. I just feel like there's more than enough opportunities to position yourself right if you have an ounce of intelligence and aren't lazier than Jabba the Hutt that it's pretty goddamn easy to make a salary where you can live comfortably in America. It's honestly not that hard.

Actually, it is a bit harder than what you are making out. For one, upward mobility isn't what it once was, the classes below middle had something to aim at in the past and now even middle is nearly out of reach, and same with the middle, it is nearly out of reach to get into that higher bracket. This is the decline of upward mobility, so I disagree that there are more than enough opportunities. And there have been countless studies proving that opportunities for upward mobility is declining.

After deciding to get a new PC and start gaming on that rather than primarily console, at first I was bugging out from controller withdrawal; to the point I went to the store after a few weeks with the intention of buying a controller, but after thinking about it for a minute I said stuff it, I'm going to give the keyboard and mouse another crack... haven't regretted it, it is so true that you get used to it. The control and options for slots, etc are second to none.

But, I do think there are some games better suited to a controller; out of all my games on PC, Mini Ninjas is one that I would prefer to use a controller. But I can't imagine playing stuff like the Witcher with anything other than keyboard and mouse.

I thought I would start gaming again on PC a couple of years ago and the initial outlay was $800 AUD; while good enough to play games like Starcraft 2 on medium it still couldn't handle most of the games I wanted play without problems. I recently upgraded to a HD7850oc and a decent Antec PSU which cost an extra $350, thus bringing the price up to $1150 total. And still have to upgrade RAM to 8 or 16GB (running on 4GB at the moment) and thus upgrade to Windows 7 64bit (admittedly should have gone 64bit from the beginning, but anyway...) in order to utilise the full amount of RAM.

So when all is said and done I will need to spend another $200 approx. to have a decent gaming PC that can play most games on high settings and that can utilise the full power of the CPU and RAM. After my experience, I tend to agree that you need to spend a minimum of $1000 to gain a decent gaming machine. I admit it "could" be done cheaper, especially for those with intimate knowledge, but for your average Joe, minimum $1000, but in the end I reckon it would be worth it.

I play whatever game i feel like playing at any given time. That said, I barely play anything aimed at the "casual market" like Wii Sports, etc, but that is just more a reflection on what I find to be entertaining and stimulating. I am also not big into COD, but enjoy a good FPS like Half Life 2 and Crysis.

And the older I have got, the less time I have to play hours and hours so my hours have definitely dropped to "casual" hours. in the end, I don't even really see the benefit of being labelled into one of two categories, at the risk of sounding like an old fart, back in the days gaming was just gaming; for fun and entertainment no matter what games you played. My belief is that "hardcore" and "casual" is only applied to hours that you game.

@Samael2138 said:

@Tsoglani said:

The best thing you can do for music recording and editing is getting a good soundcard so I am happy for you there. I do the same thing (producing/recording) and the worst thing I ever did was getting a below average soundcard. I need to upgrade it now. A decent microphone also works wonders for recording vocals.

Yeah, I think the X-fi Titanium should work out nicely. My next purchase will actually be a decent condenser mic, undecided as to which one though. As for vocals, you have to have a really good compressor,too, as well as know how to work an EQ.

Gots to get those vox to ride in the mix just right!

How much was the X-Fi Titanium? As I mentioned I am in need of a new one. And you are so correct when talking about knowing how to work with the EQ and compression; one of my musician mates a few years ago gave me so many helpful tips on balancing the EQ just right, attack and release, etc, and those tips have worked wonders. I was actually amazed at how much of a difference they can make.

I think a lot of PC gamers like to annoy console gamers because of their hardware and showing it off thusly.

Personally, I used to be pretty much a pure console gamer, but the last three or so years I have definitely moved more towards gaming on my PC, mainly because of hardware upgrades, and the fact that prices of PC games are so much better than console games.

@Samael2138 said:

@SexyToad said:

I bought a laser from amazon and it came 3 days later but it turns out it was defected so Ihave to send it back and wait again. Moral of the story is that I know the feeling of having to wait.

Always nice to know somebody else feels my pain, lol. Waiting sucks!

@Jazzycola said:

I really hope you got the GTX 690 on a discount, the blu-ray drive for free, and the soundcard for free because all of those are either overkill(the GPU) or not needed(other two). I also hope you're going to do more than just gaming with it cause otherwise you just blew like 5000 dollars. I think paying $1000 for one GPU is just plain stupid but I'm not you. The fact that you bought through Dell doesn't even matter to me. I don't think you'll ever get the value out of that machine at least not the amount of money you put into it.

Actually, the 690 was only $800 from Alienware, and I doubt I'll need a new GPU for a rather long time. The Blu-ray drive was only $50 dollars, and seeing as how my pc is the only thing I ever watch movies on, seems like a good deal. As for the sound card being useless, I do all my music recording and editing, as well as playback on my pc, too. I actually do nearly everything with my PC, so I think it was well worth the price. And your estimate of $5000 dollars is really high. Try $2844. Between the hundreds of hours I spend yearly gaming or producing music, I think I'll definitely get that much out of it.

@lead_farmer said:

Nothing like getting a new rig. A buddy and I are both ordering parts to build our own, but I have been getting them shipped in pieces. I myself don't really care for alienware stuff, but that razer mouse is slick. Good luck and hope everything ships in good shape.

Yeah, I've been using a Logitech G5 for a few years, but have heard nothing but awesome things about the DeathAdder. Hope everything ships well for you, too.

The best thing you can do for music recording and editing is getting a good soundcard so I am happy for you there. I do the same thing (producing/recording) and the worst thing I ever did was getting a below average soundcard. I need to upgrade it now. A decent microphone also works wonders for recording vocals.

I think you should be pretty future-proof, that GTX 690 is supposed to be quite a monster. I am just generally wary of pricing for new GPUs.