bushwack

I beat Infinite last week, it was a real sensory treat. Normally I wait for a price drop before I buy a game but after playing 1 & 2, I couldn't resist.

For those of you you haven't played 1 or 2 yet - go and grab them, they will not disappoint.

Can't figure out which is my favorite, but I'm leaning towards 2...thinking about replaying the first. Might be interesting with current hardware.

My recommendation, if you're going to build from scratch including a new monitor and case, is to save up a little longer and spend 2K--not 1K--on the build. Trying to build one for 1K is going to make you sacrifice quite a bit of quality. And if you want 16GB RAM, a mobo with a good sound card included, etc, you're going to have to save up more. I've made a Wish List build on NewEgg for you that I think meets your stats and doesn't completely break the bank.

 

 

^^^You'll notice that the most expensive item is your motherboard which is a Maximus V Formula. It's expensive but this motherboard will last for a long time and will handle many upgrades for years to come including the ability to overclock your RAM to 2666. Most importantly, however, it has a built in sound card that would make anyone jealous and is actually separated from the rest of the unit so there's no frequency interference. In addition you'll see the ViewSonic monitor which is 22inches but is touchscreen capable (perfect for windows 8) and still has a response time of 5MS which is great for gaming. The i5-2500K processor is still a great CPU and because it ends in K you know that it is made for the ability to overclock. And I still managed to find room for one of those Corsair H60's that will auto-cool your CPU and you won't have to worry about overheating.

 

If you don't want to take the time to save money, you could definitely take the motherboard down and the SSD down in quality to an HDD but I think you'll really appreciate both of those items if you just take a little more time to save up. The difference in a $2,000 build and a $1,000 build is usually pretty big.

Hey, where's the storage? My Steam games alone would would consume almost 2 of those SSDs.

I dig jonnyguru.com for power supply reviews. I bought a Rosewill unit he recommended and he was spot on. It's been a great workhorse for 3-4 years now.

I also have a ASRock mobo that's been keeping my i5 2500K humming along quiet well for almost 2 years now. like ZeroD said you could see what boards Microcenter has to offer.

Nice system! Is it fairly quiet?

So to get back on topic, the mod is on Nexus to get you going.

Unfortunately, this is not a mod I would want to play the game with. This is a mod to make some neat looking screenshots under the right camera placement conditions. I'm pretty disappointed.

First off, it turns the game into a low res smudge mess. Even though my in game display is set at 1920x1200, it looks more like half that with some AA applied. I imagine it wouldn't be so bad IF the mod's .dll worked with the game's AA. I figure the screenshots on the net look good because they have been reduced and maybe edited. At full screen, which is how you would want to play the game, it just looks nasty, especially outdoor environments. Secondly, without direct light hitting surfaces, darks are just way to dark. It might look cool in the screenshots, but makes the game difficult to play.

Here is a shot using the config supplied by the mod. It might look good in thumbnail form, but fullscreen play, ughalee.

And a shot using the originator's config.

Now without the mod.

I liked the wooden bowl thief one the best. That prostitute was hot one was good also.

Here's my best mod for Fallout 3. It's the only one I have installed ATM.

Wanderers is customizable with the default settings on the more "realistic" side. It's been a several months since I've played (been playing the NV DLC) and once you hit zones with super mutants, you really need a companion, cause after 60hrs, I was only lvl14 I think and it takes everything to take them down if you dont get a critical headshot. It's pretty much like playing New Vegas in hardcore mode on hard, but much more difficult at times...and that's FWE on normal. But like I said you can lower the settings to make much easier, like Fallout on normal.

I would do an evil charter playthough without FWE first. I did and it was a super fun game. Sneaking around Ten Penny Towers and killing everyone while they slept had to be the best moments I had in any Fallout 3 playthough. Don't forget to let someone catch you nibbling on a victim, then chase them around the place. Join the Slavers! You can pretty much put a collar on anyone and make some easy money.

If any mod is a must, it's a texture pack. Start there, cause vanilla F3 is pretty darn ugly nowadays.

Looks greats but think I'll have to wait for a good install guide before I try what he has done. Looks like a cross between a texture pack and Fellout.

If your like me and have beat F3 a few times here's a few popular mods I use. Was a real pain to get them all to work in harmony.

NMC's texture pack > purty

FO3 Wanderers Edition > changes the base gameplay, think hardcore

Mart's Mutant mod > adds new mutants

Street Lights > makes you actually want to explore at night, very creepy

Galaxy News Radio > adds up to 100 new songs

Project Beauty > takes away some of the ugly from people

DC Interiors > adds new places to explore that were otherwise boarded up

Darnified > required for Wanders, hires GUI and other goodies

So far this bad boy Asus Geforce GTX 760 TOP is worth tooling around in my old Alero for another month. If it holds together for another month...

 

I thought I missed a whole generation.

Fixed now.

I'm thinking the PC is holding the PC back. Take Diablo 3, major release, can run just fine on 5 year old hardware. But kinda looks like a 5 year old game.

Decided to put off buying a new car and sink the car payment into a new video card. So far this bad boy Asus Geforce GTX 670 TOP is worth tooling around in my old Alero for another month. If it holds together for another month...

I have been running a pair of GTX 460's in SLI for about 6 months, but it can be a drag if you want to run 3 monitors. Running SLI mode shuts off your 3rd monitor, unless you want to run the game in surround. My problem is my 3 monitor setup isn't fully compatible with surround (1x 1920x1200 & 2x 1600x1200) and besides most games don't support it so you end up with a stretched out mess and game menu problems. Great thing is Nvidia finally brings support to 4 monitors with 1 video card and that makes things much better on my end.

So far the 670 is about 33% faster then my old pair of 460's. The 670 was $430 and I had paid a total of $365 for the 460's.

3DMark 11 scores:

P6995 > Intel 2500K @ 4.0 with 2x GTX 460's in SLI http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3606026

P9249 > Intel 2500K @ 4.0 with GTX 670 http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3613292

This card is looOOOoong. had to move a hard drive to get it to fit.

Seems kinda short, maybe they figure everone will have a minumum of 2-3 playthoughs.

Surprisingly I have no plans of getting D3. I do have a friend who just offered me a guest pass so I may try it out, just not plunking down any coin as of yet.

I haven't played any of the Uncharted games but this looks interesting to me. But then again any post-apocalyptic game looks interesting to me.

Hmmm, undecided on this one. On that same note I still haven't bought StartCraft 2, maybe becuase it's still full price.

I did think D1 & D2 was pretty awesome back in the day though, but they don't have the market on it now, hehe.

Odd question I guess. I usually go to newegg but this card perked my interest. Is this card a good buy? http://www.walmart.com/ip/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-560-1GB-PCI-Express-2.0-DVI-Graphics-Card/16829853

 

Question is serious. I need a new card. I am using a gtx 260 at the moment and bf3 hates it.

My son has a GTX 260 and BF3 was suffering too. I swapped out his E2160 1mb @ 3ghz to a E5200 2mb @ 3.5ghz and his frame rate doubled, I picked up the CPU off ebay for $30. I was going to try that first before I dropped $200 on him for Christmas. Yeah I'm cheap, but it worked, and he's happy. I'm not saying overclock your CPU...

But yeah, If you can run down the street and slap that 560 in today, seems like a good deal to me. Plus if there is any sort of problem, returns would be easier.

I much more prefer the image of you taking your child's games away from him mid-game saying:

 

"Daddy needs his Skyrim. Do you know what a need is son?"

 

On another note, do I have any chance of swinging this game with an C2D E6750 @ 2.66GHz and an Nvidia 8800 GTS 640?

Awesome game, just beat the main quest yesterday after 73hrs of game time.

You're pretty much running the bare minimum listed on the back of the box Flitter.

For fun I just ran the game on lowest settings. It wasn't Skyrim anymore. Imagine playing Oblivion on the Wii.

I recommend holding off until you can play it with at least a little better video card. You can get pretty good performers for under $150

Just noticed this deal thread...oh well, last week I picked up a 64GB Samsung 830 series SSD. Was only $94 and came with a copy of Arkham City and Norton Ghost 15.

The extra space of the 120GB would have been nice, but I have 160GB+ in my Steam folder.....Is it possible to just put SKYRIM on the SSD and link it back to STEAM that resides on my dedicated game HDD? (1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3)

Skyrim loads pretty quick as is, but I'd like to see if it can be instantaneous.

Didn't I just make one of these threads? lol

 

I'm going with ATI. They have a better performance to dollar ratio.

I really don't see a clear winner between these 2 cards. Looks like they swap punches with the benchmarks, ATI slightly beating Nvidia in some games, and Nvidia besting ATI in others.

They are pretty much the same price too? Why is the ATI 6970 better per dollar?

Why is Nvidia only putting a paltry 1280mb on the 570? This is making me lean towards ATI.

I tried to run Skyrim Triple-Wide but my 1gb SLI cards choked due to lack of storage, on ultra settings anyways.

AMD. I don't feel like supporting intel and nvidias coming monopoly.

Yeah no kidding, so Intel is going to buy Nvidia like AMD bought ATI?

I side with nVidia. I'm not a fanboy or anything, but ATI screwed me about 10 years ago on a RMA by sending back a lower tier model card. Haven't bought anything by them since.

Ooooooo I would hate to be in the market for a new computer right now.

 

And to think I just few weeks ago I bought a Samsung 1TB for $50 from the egg. Now it's $140.

Wow now that 1TB drive is $160.

Seems like some "normal" HHD prices can be found through retail outlets.

I wonder how much a HDD would cost if produced in the States. We can make cheezburgers pretty cheap.

Ooooooo I would hate to be in the market for a new computer right now.

And to think I just few weeks ago I bought a Samsung 1TB for $50 from the egg. Now it's $140.

S K Y R I M in 6 days!

Skyrim is almost here!!

Yeeeaaaaees!

I've tried a few the past couple years, but I can't get into the pumpkin brews. I just don't dig the spices. Maybe in some cider, yum.