Personal Gaming Thread

[Jason]

I'm not seeing the "game-changing" improvements with the skating. I guess it's somewhat better, but not the revolution people claimed it to be. I am having fun with FIFA though, although not a big upgrade over 18. The most noticeable difference is the smarter AI. I'm struggling on Semi-Pro in 19 while I was fairly competitive on Pro in 18.

[Jason]

I decided to update some of my Xbox 360 games to digital last night. I had a year and half old code for 1 month of Xbox Live Gold that I used last night to take advantage of the current Gold Sale going on. I was able to buy:

   
• Gears of War 1
• Gears of War 2
• Gears of War 3
• SSX 3
• Fight Night Champion
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist

for $33.08 total. Even with the PS4 and Xbox One generation coming to an end, the Xbox 360 is still going strong in my house. I also bought the digital version of Red Dead Redemption right before Christmas.

[Brad Company]

I've bought a lot of pristine PS3 games on disc recently, as The HPBs near me have stacks of them, for 3-6 bucks.

[Jason]

Also bought Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. arcade authentic versions from Nintendo's eshop on the Switch. The versions available on the NES classic and for download for the DS are the NES ports of those games. My son was excited to finally be able to play the "bakery" level in Donkey Kong, which is not included in the NES ports.

[Jason]

Really like the new Nintendo eShop. It much easier to navigate than Xbox.com and on par with PSN. Just bought a volleyball game for my daughter for $7.49 and got an additional $4 off for gold coins I had accumulated for owning other Switch games my son got for Christmas (Mario Cart, Donkey Kong Country and Zelda). Apparently, you're given gold coins for each purchase made on the store.

[Ted]

Did a PC upgrade (final one for this rig) and have started playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance (great so far).  Jake got me the F5 for DCS World so in the process of updated to DCS 2.5 to check that out.  And getting my space fix with X4 foundations.

All PC.  I know.  Don't hate.   

[Jason]

What are the final specs for your current PC now?

[Ted]

I've really loved this PC and it's given me more longevity than any prior hardware purchase.   I purchased it from a fellow flight sim enthusiast in 2012 or 2013 (I think).  He and his brother built them for fellow simmers.  The original 2GB 560 card blinked out after two or three years, probably  after a dust build up, and was replaced with a 960 4GB card which has been good.

It has the original P67 motherboard with an i5-2500 @ 3.3ghz.  It's not a K so I don't think it can be overclocked, but a few years ago I used an internet guide and fiddled with the multipliers in the BIOS.  I have had it boosted to 3.79ghz ever since and it's totally stable.  I did add a giant cooler master heat sink and fan.  It idles at 45 and typically runs at 60-63 under load when running games like sims or Kingdom Come.

So the last iteration of this PC is

i5-2500 Sandy Bridge @ boosted 3.79 with coolermaster heat sink and fan.
Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (4x8) DDR3 PC 1600 9-9-9-24
Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 @ 1797mhz
Rosewill Bronze 1000W PSU
250GB SSD (Windows 7 OS only)
500GB SSD (for sims like DCS World 2.5 and other heavy games like Kingdom Come that are texture heavy)
1TB HDD (for older and lighter games)

It's also VR capable now and that will truly be my final addition to this rig if I decide to take the VR plunge.  All the reading I've done indicates that any further upgrade of the video card will just be bottlenecked by the older CPU.  And the RAM is maxxed for the board.  So this is it.

I'm enjoying playing this weekend, but will probably do the free backdoor upgrade to Win10 Sunday night.

[Jason]

Have you thought about upgrading the CPU to an i7? You can get a decent one for about $300 now. That should help a lot since you're running a lower-end i5.

You should definitely make the switch to Windows 10. I'm assuming you're going to use the media creation tool to upgrade for free?

[Ted]

yeah media creation tool.

You know I have looked at an i7 for my 1155 slot, but it just doesn't seem worth the $.  The info I've read is that for the types of games I play I would not see enough of a difference with that CPU for the $ investment.  When I finally do upgrade to an i7 (or beyond?) I'd rather do it on a new mobo that has M2 slots for the SSD's, and also utilize DDR4 RAM.

I think, for the games and sims I play the biggest difference so far in performance has been upgrading to 32GB from 8 GB of RAM.    Especially DCS World which loves the RAM and the SSD.

I'm calling it good with this rig.  Next time will be a full replacement, but probably not for 3 years (or more hopefully).

[Ted]

Got impatient.  Upgrade to Windows 10 appears to have gone fine.

[Jason]

Curious to see how NHL 19 plays after reading this post from EA:
Before the holidays begin, we just wanted to provide everyone with an update around NHL 19, and more specifically the feedback we have been hearing around the gameplay.

Over the past few months, we have been seeing a lot of people on all channels asking for us to revert to Beta tuners as they enjoyed the game better during that time frame. While we believe that the current gameplay has a lot of improvements from launch, we also recognize that there could be areas of gameplay that you preferred better in the past.

As a result, in mid-January we are going to be rolling back to the Beta Tuner for a limited time to get your feedback on what you like/dislike about the Beta Tuner compared to the current gameplay tuner. Please note that this will undo some of the positive changes that we’ve seen from the community, so you’ll be seeing some of the following occur again:

   
• Poke checks will be more sensitive and cause more tripping penalties
• AI goaltending performance will be different
• The ability to drop your stick
• Increase in incidental contact strength (bumps)
• Decrease in penalties from stick lifts

After we change back from the tuner, we will be posting a feedback survey to gather your thoughts, likes, and dislikes on the Beta tuner.

While it is a little while until the tuner goes live, we wanted to provide you with an update as we know how passionate you are about the product. Once we get closer to the date of the tuner, we will provide an update with more information and details on what is happening, when it’s happening, and what you can expect.

Thank you for your dedication and feedback throughout NHL 19 and we hope everyone has a happy holidays!

[Jason]

Redout is another one I'm keeping my eye on. Will probably wait for a price drop before purchasing though.

This is currently on sale on PSN for $20. Seriously thinking about it...

[Jason]

I ended up joining PS+ for a month to get some deals on a few games:

F1 2018 was $42 and Redout was $20 for non-PS+ users. Total $62
I purchased a one-month PS+ plan for $10 and got F1 2018 for $24 and Redout for $10. Total $44

I may end up grabbing some more games while I have the extra PS+ discount.

I made sure to cancel auto-renew on my account.

[Brad Company]

Stick with it, we can play some co-op, I can help you level up a character or something.
Plus is totally worth it over the long haul.