Category Archives: Uncategorized

Rediscovering the passion of video gaming when AAA has lost it’s way.

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Video gaming has lost its way. There was a time not too long ago, when gaming was about the simple things. Getting from point A to point B, solving a puzzle to get to the next level, or winning or losing a match. This was true from the 1970s to the early 2000s. From arcades, to consoles, and PC, games tested dexterity, problem solving skills, and more. Playing video games was a great way to pass the time, or compete with your friends for fun. Back in 2019 I felt a disturbance in the force, but I could not put my finger on it. Unfortunately now I have a better picture of what’s going on.

Classic gaming

Over the years gaming has gained more popularity than the movie and music industry combined. Unfortunately this grabbed the attention of soulless corporations. Game design went from a handful of passionate guys who focused on making the next great thing, to bloated corporate development teams whose focus is to please investors and not the consumer. Large financial institutions are pushing their progressive social agenda in exchange for funding. New developers have replaced the legendary ones who had a passion for making games. Activists and narrative consultants are the new creatives, all pushing “their message” into games. I’ll get more into that in another post, but the rot in the industry runs deep and the only way out of this mess is for a total collapse of the modern AAA gaming industry.

Bad games

It’s no secret modern games are failing, people do not want this garbage. Changing a game’s essence and expecting people to blindly consume it, just doesn’t fly anymore. People recognize that the current trend of gaming narratives and representation feels forced. It stems not from genuine passion, but from imposed ideologies. Games are no longer about getting from point A to point B, they are now about social narratives and checking boxes. Corporations obsessed with the new modern audience, turn their backs on the existing one. But in their effort to court this new audience they have alienated everyone..

What we’re up against

Progressive consultant grifters such as Sweet Baby Inc have convinced corporations there is this whole other audience of consumers out there. They convinced them this customer base exists, and that they are missing out on that untapped revenue. This aligns with the agendas laid out by banking investors like Black Rock. But this new modern audience has not shown up yet. AAA releases are losing massive amounts of money. Tens of thousands of developers have been losing their jobs. Several major releases flopped this year and that trend doesn’t look like it’s going to end, unless there is a huge shake up. I fear these companies are too far gone to be helped.

Good games

How can we make it better

But it’s not all gloom and doom. There are a lot of great games in this sea of soulless corporate cash grabs. Around 10,000 to 12,000 video games are published every year, offering plenty of mainstream choices. The same way the indie scene has saved movies and music, it is also saving gaming. A lot of gamers have extensive backlogs of games they can use to ride out this mess. There are also game developers who haven’t sold there soul and have made hits like Space Marines 2, Black Myth Wukong, and The First Descendant. These titles have been delivering the experiences gamers want, and coincidentally are selling very well.

I on the other hand have been exploring some real obscure indie games. They may be rough around the edges but they make up for it in other ways with heart, passion, and originality, but most of all fun. So I’m going back to 1984 with some Retrowave Racing.

Retro wave racing

Gaming should spark your imagination and be the escape it was meant to be. Video games should be timeless and fun, not a representation of current year politics or propaganda. And don’t let this trend of corpo-gaming get you down, gaming will find it’s way back to its roots. There are plenty of fun and exciting alternatives out there. Explore indie developers on twitter. See what they are creating and get excited again. Until next time, keep having fun and reject corpo-gaming!

Laptop Upgrades

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I recently went on vacation and had the opportunity to bring my gaming laptop. I got his as a present from my wife for my 50th birthday during the height of the pandemic. I don’t use it much but this was an opportunity that forced me into a situation where I had to if I wanted to game. I thought about getting a Steam Deck but I’m still on the fence about getting one. But being I already had the Laptop I decided to stick with it. It is a MSI GE75 Raider, one of those you always see pallets of at Costco. Nothing Ground breaking but very capable with some obvious caveats. The 16 gigs of ram and mechanical hard disk would prove to be the things that were frustrating. Playing Cyberpunk 77 at medium settings gave me a solid 70fps and it actually looked really good. Games like Forza looked great on high with about the same FPS. But loading times for games were horrendous. Click the icon, walk away boil some water, and make some coffee kind of bad. Now that I look back I think this was a reason I didn’t use this machine as much as I should have. I was use to such a snappy response on my desktop it was more of a pleasure to use.

So I bit the bullet and ordered 32 gigs of ram, a 2 terabyte NVME, and a one gig SATA SSD. The brands I picked were for nothing else other than the convenience of getting the same day delivery off of Amazon. But TEAMGROUP, Crucial, and PNY are solid brands so I had confidence in ordering them.

Out with the old and in with the new.

I usually hate working on laptops, but taking the back cover off the MSI was quick and easy. For the most part it used the same screws all around with the exception of 2 of them, and the back cover easily snapped off. I knew there was an empty NVME slot and planned to one day to fill it. But being that I was going to take it apart I figured I might as well upgrade everything while I was there. Replacing all the old components with the new ones turned out to be a breeze. I then put everything back together, turned on the machine, and formatted the new drives.

Now I don’t do any science based testing. My perceived experience is worth more than numbers on a spread sheet. I want to click on an icon and have the program open instantaneously. I didn’t have that feeling before the upgrades, now I do. It doesn’t even feel like the same machine, it feels like something new. Programs load fast and stutter in games is gone. It really is a pleasure to use now.

I wish this is something I could have done sooner but to be honest would have been out of my price range at the time. The total cost of the upgrades was just over $200.00 Three years ago a 2 Terabyte NVME would have been well over $300.00 on it’s own. The initial cost of the laptop was $1,500.00, as it is now would been over $2,200.00 with the upgrades. Like I mentioned before not only do I like gaming but building and upgrading computers is also part of the fun. This turned out to be a project in which not only was it fun, it also brought a capable machine into a great gaming machine.

Cyberpunk Edge Runners

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Edger Runners gives CDPR a second chance.

Cyberpunk 2077 review part 3 Edge Runners update. Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in. I was going to make a post on update 1.6, but never got around to it. I was so hyped when I heard Studio Trigger was making Edgerunners. I loved Kill La Kill and was curious what they could do with the Cyberpunk franchise. Up until this point the world of Cyberpunk was missing elements that fleshed it out. As detailed as it is, it is missing certain back story elements that lead the player to infer, correctly or incorrectly the lore of Cyberpunk 2077. Edge Runners which is a stand alone story helps flesh out some of those inferences.

The story of Edge Runners moves very fast. While I loved the show there were plot points that suffered due to pacing. I feel they had to do this out of necessity and doesn’t take away from the fun. I think CDPR was at a cross roads and a lot of their future actions would depend the success of Edge Runners. Because right after Edge Runners exploded, CDPR back tracked on some previous statements. Initially they were like, yeah we’re going to have one expansion but our teams are now going to be focusing on The Witcher 4. Now they are like, just kidding we’re only getting started with Cyberpunk we’re already working on a sequel! We are even making a studio just to work on Cyberpunk! As I stated before, I really like this game. I have a bias because I love the Cyberpunk genre. So while I’m excited, I’m going to remain cautious. While I didn’t have the same launch experience as others did, Cyberpunk as it exists now is vastly different and for the better. The game we have now should have been the launch game. The fact that players are coming out in numbers that mirror the original launch numbers, customers are showing their appreciation and good will. I just hope CDPR doesn’t take that good will for granted or waste the second life Edge runners have granted them.

Cyberpunk 2077 review part 2

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Now that the hype has died down. I can give my final review of Cyberpunk 2077. I never knew what the original direction of this game was supposed to be. Once I did know, I understood the dismay people had. They were expecting more of an RPG experience and towards the end I must admit, I wanted that too. What we got though wasn’t that bad. Parts of the game are very polished. Such as the main story with Johnny for instance. The side quests were very good too, such as River and the Peralez. The romance stories with Judy and Panam were very good as well. I can not recommend this game enough, especially at the price now you can’t go wrong.

Negatives

I’ll start off with the negatives. They changed this from an RPG to an Action RPG title. Unfortunately the RPG elements leave you with yearning to have more of this game fleshed out. When it was over, I left with the feeling of wanting more dialog options with these amazing characters. Night City is this amazing place at first it seems so full of life. Then you realize it is this empty place, just as empty as most of the buildings there. Even though this is the city where you live, you feel like an outsider. It is full of restaurants, clubs, and random vendors. There should have been more interactions other than just the setting for the mission. Something else which bothered me, after you complete a mission they close that area out and you can not return. I don’t understand that design choice. Here you finally get inside a new interesting place to explore, than they lock you out.

Positives

Now for the Positives. You are to make your name in Night City as a Mercenary. You wind up pairing up with another Merc, Jackie who is looking to make the big time as well. A botched heist along with Jackie’s death, leaves you with the Relic chip in your head. This chip has an engram of Rocker Johnny Silverhand encrypted on it. Now his electronic soul is rewriting yours and will eventually kill you. The open world of Night city is beautiful, it is such a fun world to walk around and explore. You stop and look around and it looks like this real living breathing city. While you are fighting for your life you are also helping others. The premise of the story is great.. It has this spaghetti western type of flair to the story line. While you are arguably an outlaw you are helping people. Helping others durring these side quests makes this game as long as it is. If you don’t do a lot of the side quests. the game won’t last as long. In this game the different factionsare rounded out very well. Arasaka, Maelstrom, Valentinos, Sixth Street Gang, Scavengers, Tyger Claws, and of course, the Aldecaldos, all have their own unique style. The main quest with Johnny, is the most rounded out and polished quest of the game. Followed by Judy’s and Rivers side Quests. Kerry’s side quest with getting the band back together was good, but I wish he was in the story more. Side quests in Cyberpunk can be either hit or miss. Some seemed cookie cutter while others had a lot of heart. Quests with the Brandon the vending machine, Delamain taxi, and the Peralez, stick with you long after the game is over. Combat in the game is fun now. Enemy Ai saw improvement. Plenty of weapons and cybernetic implants to dish out all kinds of damage and fun.

Final Thoughts

I’ll end this by saying, I spent over 500 hours in this game with multiple play throughs. Cyberpunk may not be for everybody. But if you like an engaging story, fun combat in the Cyberpunk setting, I can not recommend this game enough.

Cyberpunk 2077 review part one.

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Oh Cyberpunk 2077, where do I begin? It is really weird to have a game that on one hand, I really like and the other hand it pisses me off. Bottom line this feels like an unfinished game. Although is runs great on the PC, it’s still borked at times. To compare, a game I love is Satisfactory. Satisfactory is a game that is a work in progress. But somehow they have a way of making that fun, even when they update it and break your saves. Cyberpunk on the other hand has moments that are jaw dropping then you turn a corner and it just breaks your immersion. I wish they would have took the Satisfactory approach. Maybe release a few levels that were polished, then later release more. That being said it is a fun game for me, I have no regrets to my purchase. I was never into the hype for the game, in fact I wasn’t even aware of it. I remember seeing the original teaser trailer. Then at some point Keanu Reeves getting involved, that’s it. So when I got the game I was unaware of what was left out. As weeks went on after release is when I started to see the whole picture. Not only was the game not living up to their hype but CDPR took a black eye when people realized they were just like any other corporation. People had them on this pedestal. When you do that you are just setting yourself up for a fall. My first experience with a game not working was in 1996, “A10 Cuba” a military flight simulator. I put the CD in and nothing happened you couldn’t even install it. You had to download a patch just to get the game on your computer lol. Sad to say broken games began to be more of a thing after that for me. I’m actually more surprised when a game works as it should these days. Keep your expectations low and you’ll never be dissatisfied lol. But when playing Cyberpunk as big as it is, I get this feeling there should be more. There is a shit ton of doors you can’t open, that bothers me. Having these cybernetic implants I can use physical strength to rip open a reinforced metal gate, or use my hacking ability to open an electronic lock to get in. But that is only for very few doors you encounter in this game. A simple door to a bodega or door to an apartment, cant open it. As big as Night city is, there needs to be more access, more places to loot.

There are places in this world that are outright beautiful. The fact they put in an awesome photo mode shows they new they had something special. I love using it. There is certain times of the day where the lighting just makes everything realistic and breathtaking. Which leads me to another point, I don’t care about the main story. This game would have been triple A platinum if they would have kept it a strictly open world exploration game with side missions. I’m just hypothesizing here but I have a feeling this game faced several setbacks that seem obvious. First was the type of game it was supposed to be. I don’t believe Keanu Reeves was always part of the equation. Somewhere, some executive said we need star power. Now this is just speculation, I don’t know this as fact. I’m just trying to make sense of the delays and the product we got verses what was promised. Raytracing I believe was another factor. This technology is relatively new and is in this game. I’m sure it wasn’t part of the original development. They were contacted by Nvidia and they said, “Hey we have this new tech we’re trying to push, here’s some dollars include it please.” Again just speculation, not only added delays but changed the script. It was just another factor in the delay of this game. Still after all that, I do like this game. Not being a shill for CDPR but there is enough good in this game to keep me coming back.

Happy New Year!

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No better time to officially launch a site than the start of a new year! PC gaming had its ups and downs this year no doubt. Although I thought it was a great time to build a new gaming rig for the holidays. For my daughters Christmas present I built her a budget system based on the AMD platform.

  • Processor: RYZEN 5 2600
  • Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F
  • Video Card: ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 DUAL-GTX1070-O8G 8GB
  • RAM: 16 GB G.SKILL TridentZ RGB
  • SSD M2: Samsung 960 EVO 250 GB (For OS)
  • Hard Drive: WD Black 2TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive
  • CASE: AZZA Storm Series in White

Earlier in the year built a new rig based on the Intel platform.

  • Processor: Intel i7-8700K
  • Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero
  • Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB
  • RAM: 16 GB G.SKILL TridentZ RGB
  • SSD M2: Samsung 960 EVO 250 GB (For OS)
  • SSD: Samsum 500gb
  • Hard Drive: WD Black 2TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive
  • CASE: Cougar Panzer Evo

Hopefully 2019 will be better for PC gaming, wishing you all well I hope you have a great year!