Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[king3pj]

So I decided it was worth figuring out the PS4's save file management/transfer system (to external USB) so I could play the 30-minute version of FC4 without overwriting my main save file. As this game was my first true current-gen experience graphically back in December, I have a particular fondness for the opening prologue anyways. There are also those things one tends to miss in opening cut scenes that come up later. I couldn't help noticing how once Ajay gets in the helicopter, just before the part where he has to wait (or not wait) for Pagan, the Far Cry 4 logo flashes on the screen for the first time with the single lyric from the Clash song playing: "Should I stay or should I go?" lol I almost wished instead of the credits rolling and being kicked to the main menu, I could've started playing, or as Pagan Min says, "Now let's shoot some damn guns already!"

I need to get back into this game more heavily. This is the busiest time of the year for me so I'm lucky if I get an hour to play per night. Far Cry 4 can be played in 1 hour chunks but you really only have time to do one mission. I have found myself just hunting animals and securing outposts instead of progressing the story. I already have most of my items crafted to the point where I need the special rare animals to go any farther there and I've barely played any of the story.

The time constraints on my gaming has drawn me more to games that aren't story based. I played through Grow Home and I've been playing strategy and city builder games like Banished, Sim City, XCOM, and a little bit of Civ V. The appeal with these games is that you can tinker around for an hour and feel like you've made some progress. There is no story to think about so I don't have to try to remember what happened last time I played.

When I play story based games I like to sit down for a couple hours and let myself get immersed in the world. If I have a few days between play sessions in a bigger game like Far Cry 4 I have a harder time getting back into it. If it's been a month or two I will often just start games like that over. I'm not going to let Far Cry get to that point but it does seem overwhelming at this part of the year, especially jumping in right after Dragon Age: Inquisition.

 

[Zookster]

I need to get back into this game more heavily. This is the busiest time of the year for me so I'm lucky if I get an hour to play per night. Far Cry 4 can be played in 1 hour chunks but you really only have time to do one mission. I have found myself just hunting animals and securing outposts instead of progressing the story. I already have most of my items crafted to the point where I need the special rare animals to go any farther there and I've barely played any of the story.
...

When I play story based games I like to sit down for a couple hours and let myself get immersed in the world. If I have a few days between play sessions in a bigger game like Far Cry 4 I have a harder time getting back into it. If it's been a month or two I will often just start games like that over. I'm not going to let Far Cry get to that point but it does seem overwhelming at this part of the year, especially jumping in right after Dragon Age: Inquisition.

That's pretty much how I approached FC4: I'd do all the little things when I only had a short time to kill and then tackle the main story campaign missions when I had a larger block of time (though most didn't turn out to be terribly long). In fact I even got to the point where I had literally done everything there was to do (in terms of side missions, and unlocking skills, weapons, and craftables) in the southern part of the map before being forced to continue the main story if I wanted to progress, unless all I wanted to do was track down collectibles.

I played FC4 over a period of two and a half months, giving me plenty of time to lose the story's thread. Fortunately, the story isn't really all the complicated. Not to mention, many of the early main campaign missions simply unlock a new side mission story arc. Sure, some of the story's finer points, such as they were, escaped me due to the gaps in play, but it certainly wasn't worth restarting an open-world game in which 80% of the time is spent outside the main story. However, now that I'm interested in finishing all the Shangri-la missions, I'm completely clueless as to what the heck is going on in them -- though I never really did understand it much to begin with.

 

[Zookster]

Last night, I finished Papo & Yo (free for Plus members right now) and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. Not that I didn't think I would like it (I did buy it for a buck during a flash sale last year after sampling it during the PS Now beta). It's just that when I played 30 minutes or so of it during the PS Now beta, there was just something that seemed a bit meh-ish about it. Part of it was the fact I didn't venture very far into the game; the other part was how streaming the game apparently dulled the graphics. I had in fact pretty much forgotten about it (a new PS4 will do that) until it was offered as part of the free PS Plus content for March.

In spite of the dark emotional undercurrent of Papo & Yo's story, the game plays like a light and whimsical puzzle-platforming adventure game that won't have you tearing your hair out over mind-bending puzzles or seemingly impossible platforming sequences. There was just enough challenge, at least for me, to keep it interesting. In short, it's a perfect puzzle adventure game to play when you really want to relax. Even the great instrumental soundtrack is light and relaxing. And unlike my PS Now experience with it, the graphics are bright and colorful with lots of rich textures. The only problem I encountered was framerate drops at certain fast action moments.

The emotional aspects of the story are mostly represented symbolically and in three very short cut-scenes toward the beginning of the game. And by the time the big final reveal ties everything together at the end, you are emotionally prepared. In other words, depending on how much you can relate to the protagonist's experiences, it doesn't feel like you're being set up for a big tear-jerking moment like in Brothers. If your eyes do get watery, it's likely more out of a feeling of release than as a result of a gut-wrenching tragedy.

Though it was originally released as a PS3 exclusive, I believe it is now available on STEAM.

EDIT: By the way, I just checked the Metacritic score and saw that almost every synopsis posted spoils the story and experience to some degree. So you may wish to avoid reviews if you think you want to play this. I will post one synopsis that I thought encapsulates the game well (from Gaming Nexus - score: 85): "Papo & Yo offers a deep reflection on the life of its designer. It's doubly impressive that this game manages to be touching and not overbearing in its message. The flaws present are easily overlooked in favor of an amazing story, clever setting, and haunting soundtrack."

 

[king3pj]

Last night, I finished Papo & Yo (free for Plus members right now) and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. Not that I didn't think I would like it (I did buy it for a buck during a flash sale last year after sampling it during the PS Now beta). It's just that when I played 30 minutes or so of it during the PS Now beta, there was just something that seemed a bit meh-ish about it. Part of it was the fact I didn't venture very far into the game; the other part was how streaming the game apparently dulled the graphics. I had in fact pretty much forgotten about it (a new PS4 will do that) until it was offered as part of the free PS Plus content for March.

In spite of the dark emotional undercurrent of Papo & Yo's story, the game plays like a light and whimsical puzzle-platforming adventure game that won't have you tearing your hair out over mind-bending puzzles or seemingly impossible platforming sequences. There was just enough challenge, at least for me, to keep it interesting. In short, it's a perfect puzzle adventure game to play when you really want to relax. Even the great instrumental soundtrack is light and relaxing. And unlike my PS Now experience with it, the graphics are bright and colorful with lots of rich textures. The only problem I encountered was framerate drops at certain fast action moments.

The emotional aspects of the story are mostly represented symbolically and in three very short cut-scenes toward the beginning of the game. And by the time the big final reveal ties everything together at the end, you are emotionally prepared. In other words, depending on how much you can relate to the protagonist's experiences, it doesn't feel like you're being set up for a big tear-jerking moment like in Brothers. If your eyes do get watery, it's likely more out of a feeling of release than as a result of a gut-wrenching tragedy.

Though it was originally released as a PS3 exclusive, I believe it is now available on STEAM.

EDIT: By the way, I just checked the Metacritic score and saw that almost every synopsis posted spoils the story and experience to some degree. So you may wish to avoid reviews if you think you want to play this. I will post one synopsis that I thought encapsulates the game well (from Gaming Nexus - score: 85): "Papo & Yo offers a deep reflection on the life of its designer. It's doubly impressive that this game manages to be touching and not overbearing in its message. The flaws present are easily overlooked in favor of an amazing story, clever setting, and haunting soundtrack."

Yeah, I have it in my Steam library but I've never actually downloaded it. It's pretty sad when I look at how many games in my library I have done that with. That's what happens when there are decently reviewed games for less than $5 every day and Humble Bundles where you can get 5 or 6 good indie games for about $6.

 

[Zookster]

Yeah, I have it in my Steam library but I've never actually downloaded it. It's pretty sad when I look at how many games in my library I have done that with. That's what happens when there are decently reviewed games for less than $5 every day and Humble Bundles where you can get 5 or 6 good indie games for about $6.

I'd definitely be in a similar situation if Sony had more of those $1-$5 flash sales (I bought several games last year during those).

I forgot to mention Papo & Yo is rather short (4-5 hours), so it's a nice quick break from the AAA experiences.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah I played it for like 20 minutes and lost interest. Not that it's bad, but I have awful ADHD. I'll delve back into it eventually.

I diverted a bit from my original gaming plan. I actually decided to pick up Guild Wars 2, the MMO and try it out because I heard it's a good MMO for guys who aren't really into MMOs, and many people have pointed out that it is quite a bit better than WoW. Also, the lack of a subscription fee and no F2P (or rather, F2W) elements made it more appealing. I tried it out for about 3 hours and enjoyed it, but I didn't like my Warrior character at all so instead I started again as a Necromancer and am having more fun. I also picked up the Xbox 360 version of Saints Row 2 because I finally want to finish that game off, and the PC version just doesn't cut it, unless I want to play with a keyboard and mouse, and I think doing so makes about as much sense as playing Super Meat Boy with that setup.

 

[king3pj]

Yeah I played it for like 20 minutes and lost interest. Not that it's bad, but I have awful ADHD. I'll delve back into it eventually.

I diverted a bit from my original gaming plan. I actually decided to pick up Guild Wars 2, the MMO and try it out because I heard it's a good MMO for guys who aren't really into MMOs, and many people have pointed out that it is quite a bit better than WoW. Also, the lack of a subscription fee and no F2P (or rather, F2W) elements made it more appealing. I tried it out for about 3 hours and enjoyed it, but I didn't like my Warrior character at all so instead I started again as a Necromancer and am having more fun. I also picked up the Xbox 360 version of Saints Row 2 because I finally want to finish that game off, and the PC version just doesn't cut it, unless I want to play with a keyboard and mouse, and I think doing so makes about as much sense as playing Super Meat Boy with that setup.

If I would have known you were going to pick up Guild Wars 2 I might have grabbed it during that sale too. I've never played MMOs either so I passed. Knowing that I could party up with someone else who is completely new to the genre instead of wading in on my own would have been a much better experience though.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Well I'm not exactly completely new to MMOs. I played WoW for a little under a year and I also did a bit of DC Universe Online. Also I ended up getting it like at the last minute on a spontaneous decision. Trust me, given how big your backlog is, the last thing you need is to get sucked into a MMO. There are few bigger time sinks and black holes of time than a good MMO. Besides, it's fun now, but it may suck later (a very common MMO issue), so maybe you dodged a bullet.

 

[yourbeliefs]

My gaming interests have been a bit scattershot as of late. Here's a rundown:

One Finger Death Punch: On paper this sounds like a rather stupid idea. It's a fighting game, akin to the classic Kung Fu on the NES where waves of enemies come at you from your left and right side, and you press either your left or right button to kill them. And that's basically it. You don't even get to move. A game like this should stop being fun after about 5 minutes. But then why have I thrown down over 3 hours into this game over dozens of play sessions? Because the little bit that this game does it does AMAZINGLY well. It is really hard to describe how or why this game is so fun, so I'll just let Total Biscuit do it here, as it was one of the main reviews that convinced me to get into the game (I already had it from a Bundle sale I got a while back.) And speaking of, the game only costs $5 and has a 99% positive rating on Steam and is $3 on the Xbox 360 Marketplace along with a free demo in the Indie section. I should mention there is a F2P version on mobile devices, but it isn't as good. It tries to spice things up by adding abilities and variety, but you start off so weak that it's insulting. You HAVE to commit in order to really enjoy the game, and if the full version already costs $3/$5, why bother with a F2P version?

Murdered: Soul Suspect: The gist of this game is that you are a police officer killed by a serial killer in Salem, MA, and you're stuck in limbo until you can solve your murder. It's a 3rd person adventure game where you go to various places and try to find clues to help progress the story. So far it's okay and I'm invested enough to want to see where the story goes but it definitely trips up in a few places. First off, there's not a great deal of thinking involved. Basically you hit a roadblock, you collect all the clues, which are done by finding them in whatever room(s) you are in, then pick the most appropriate clue(s) needed to advance the plot. At times it almost feels like an interactive narrative. Also, the game breaks up some sections with "action scenes" where you need to stealth around various "bad" ghosts. These parts are not fun at all and just feel like padding, as if the developers knew their game had limited gameplay so just came up with this to compensate. Still, not bad enough to not want to play more, but I definitely don't see this winning any GOTY awards. This review sums up my thoughts pretty well so far.

Saints Row: Gat Outta Hell: I suppose the best and worst thing that can be said about this is that it's more of Saints Row 4, but it strips out a lot of nice nuance. First off, not being able to play as my character was a bummer. I wasn't high on playing as Kenzie or Gat. Speaking of, even though they're the main characters, neither really get a lot of "screen time." Rather than the fully fleshed out in game cutscenes of the previous games, nearly every story progression is done via Kenzie reading the story of "and then this happened." It comes off as very lazy (and the developers even allude to this during one part) but then again it falls onto the "What do you expect for $20?" argument. Well, I'd expect some more voice work, and some in game music would have been nice as well. Hell even a decent ending would have been appreciated. Basically you beat the game, and then you're granted 1 wish with 5 options. Then you get a cutscene that lasts about 20 seconds each and then the credits roll. Seriously, here's all the endings in 1 video. There's no soundtrack like previous games, which can be expected as music licenses are expensive, but still, it was a little annoying to have to always run Media Player in the background and play my own music. Thank god my keyboard has full audio control on it. Finally, as I mentioned a while back I didn't like that I didn't get to play as my character, but when I found out they were the "damsel in distress" I thought that could be cool. I figured I'd see my character having some fun verbal arguments with her captor and other funny dialogues, as are common with these games. Sadly this doesn't happen. In fact, the ONLY time you see your character is in the beginning when they're kidnapped, and at the very end when they are saved. THAT'S IT. I don't think my character had more than 4 lines of dialogue in total. I found this to be the most disappointing about this. Still, considering this is a $20 standalone, and I only paid $5 for it thanks to a nice Gamestop sale, I can't really complain, and if you liked SR 4 you'll feel right at home with this as it's 91% the same game with an added flying mechanic and various powers renamed. I just wish they had thrown a little more out there, and considering this is likely the end of this incarnation of the Third Street Saints as they're looking to reboot the story in the next game, I just wish they didn't end on a note like this. Still fun.

A Bird Story: This is apparently a prequel to the highly acclaimed "To the Moon," and that's very apparent as the game shares the same art style and gameplay. Actually, there's even less gameplay in this than To The Moon. Your job is just to move the character from point A to point B. The story is interesting, but given how little there is gameplay wise it is a hard sell. Also, the game can be completed in about an hour. I don't regret my purchase, but you can watch the entire game on YouTube and basically have the same experience.

Guild Wars 2: I purchased this when it went on sale some weeks back (and after watching Angry Joe's raving review of it, along with Yahtzee's mostly positive one as well.) I've probably put down about 13 hours so far (part of which resulted from me restarting after I got bored as a warrior and went to the Necromancer instead) and am enjoying it. I like the emphasis on exploration and teamwork, and that they really encourage these things with rewards and such. There's also a lot of other stuff like crafting and hunting that I'm looking to get into as well. This may also mark the first time ever that I join a guild so that I can find some other people to play with and also teach me some of the ropes, as this game definitely leaves out some stuff in the tutorials that would be MUCH appreciated.

There's also some other games I've played a bit but the time has been so short that I can't really give a proper assessment yet. Hopefully in due time that will change. They're mainly some free games I got from PS+ along with Mortal Kombat 9, which so far is good, but I don't think I'm even an hour into the story mode so I don't feel right passing any judgement. I also have Saints Row 2 on hold, as I needed a little break from the Saints after finishing Gat Out of Hell.

 

[king3pj]

My gaming time has been all over the place lately too. As I mentioned before, this is a crazy time of the year at work for me. I haven't had a day off in about 4 weeks and most days I don't get home from work until around 8:00-9:00pm. Luckily tax season ends tomorrow and I can get back to a more reasonable work schedule.

I'm pretty stressed out and it's hard to get locked in any intense stories or difficult games. I found this out when I tried to play TLoU Left Behind DLC. The first time a Clicker ripped into me I turned the game off and moved to something less mentally demanding. I'll get back into it eventually.

Far Cry 4 was my go to game for a month or so. I got about half way through and decided I needed to change it up for a while. I'm having fun with it and the world looks great on PC but I just needed a change of pace. I'm sure I'll get back into it soon.

After putting down Far Cry 4 for a little while I started jumping all over the place.

I've been playing Diablo 3 on PS4 again. It's a nice, stress free game that I can pick back up and play at any time without worrying about trying to remember story details or game mechanics. It's a really nice fit for the amount of time I've had to play games lately.

I played a lot of Banished on PC. It's kind of a city builder game like Sim City except your town will be more like an early American settlement. It's all about keeping your settlement alive. Instead of worrying about taxes people are basically your number one resource. you need farmers, teachers, doctors, fisherman, general laborers, and other workers.

You expand your population by building houses. Once kids become teenagers males and females will move into empty houses and have children of their own. If the population grows too fast you won't be able to produce enough food, firewood, medicine, clothes, etc... to sustain them and people will die off. If there are no empty houses available they will stay in their parents house and not reproduce. Eventually you will have a settlement full of people who are too old to reproduce and your settlement will die out. There is a lot more nuance to the game than my simple explanation. I would also say that it's more addicting than fun. Like Civ V I can plan on sitting down for a half hour and still be playing 3 hours later.

I've also been playing a lot of Binding of Isaac. It's a perfect game for playing in small chunks. It's endlessly replayable and you don't have to worry about a story. It fits into the same category as Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, and MLB The Show in that respect and that's probably why I have been playing all of those games lately.

I played Telltale's Game of Thrones episode 1 and 2 on Sunday before watching the Season 5 premiere too. I was kind of on the fence with this one before playing it. They used actual actors from the show and the way they looked in all the preview footage was a real turnoff to me. It is a bit unsettling seeing them in the game but luckily it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would when I'm actually playing.

They do a good job of making you feel like you are actually interacting with the characters you see on the show all the time. When I was talking to Ramsay Snow or Cersei Lannister I was actually worrying about answering every question carefully because the show has trained you to be afraid of interactions with those characters. You know from the show that they are constantly trying to trick you into saying the wrong thing so they have an excuse to have you or someone else killed. The game actually does a good job of making you feel that pressure as a player. I'm actually surprised at how much I like it so far since I was kind of skeptical before I tried it.

The game that has been demanding most of my time since I took a break from Far Cry 4 is Saint's Row 4. I got a great deal on the Game of the Century upgrade and it got me back into the game. I started a new save file and it has become my new go to game. It's easy, it's good for playing it short bursts, and it's pure fun. It's got a ton in common with the inFamous franchise but it gives you even more of that power fantasy. The reason I say that is because the game quickly makes you so powerful that taking out enemies is trivial. Even just getting around the world with all the traversal powers they give you is fun. It's definitely one of the best games I can think of when you just have 45 minutes to unwind after a stressful day.

Wow! When I started writing this I planned to give a quick rundown of the games I've been playing lately. I ended up writing as much as yourbeliefs did in the post above mine. I haven't checked in with this thread in quite awhile because I haven't actually finished a game in quite a while.

Edit: I went back and bolded the names of the games I've been playing so people could quickly jump to specific titles if they aren't interested in reading all the crap I just wrote.

 

[king3pj]

Since I'm done with my busy season and baseball is back my Vita and Xbox One (with a Tigers game snapped to the side) have been getting more use again lately.

Last night I played through the entirety (1000 achievement points) of Forza Horizon 2 presents Fast & Furious in one sitting. It took about the same amount of time as the Tigers game so I would guess around 3 hours. This was much better than the cheap cash grab it could have been and since I got it while it was still free it's even better. What this really is, is great marketing for Forza Horizon 2. I'm not a huge racing game fan but I admit that the first thing I did when I finished the game was look for deals on Horizon 2.

I think I had more fun in the 3 hours it took to finish this free, standalone game than I did in all the time I've spent with the full version of Forza 5. I don't want to oversell it because it won't be on any GOTY lists but this game is surprisingly good for what it is. The main difference to me is the emphasis on fun driving on open world city streets (and off road driving) versus Forza 5's more realistic track races. For people who want a racing sim the main line Forza series is the clear choice but for people like me who like a more arcadey experience the Forza Horizon series is just a better fit. Once I can find Forza Horizon 2 for around $20 I will definitely pick it up.

The game that has sucked me in on Vita is Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. I was on the road over the weekend and played a ton of this game. I unlocked new characters and trophies that had requirements I thought I would never complete. The game is hard but as you start to beat certain enemies or complete certain tasks in the game you unlock more powerful pickups. You still aren't guaranteed to find these new more powerful pickups because everything is randomly generated each time you play. When you do get a really powerful combination of items it feels great tearing through a room of enemies that would have killed you almost instantly before.

I beat mom for the first time over the weekend and I beat her, the womb, and her heart a couple more times on PS4 after I got back. The cross-save feature is great too. Earlier this week I was playing on Vita while I had a Tigers game on the TV. When the game ended I paused and uploaded my save to the cloud. I fired up my PS4 and downloaded the save and I was at the exact same spot on my big screen in just a few seconds. I can see myself putting a lot more time into Binding of Isaac this summer and I might even go after the Platinum Trophy even though it seems almost impossible. Before this weekend I would have said the same about winning two boss battles against mom in one life too though.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I beat mom for the first time over the weekend and I beat her, the womb, and her heart a couple more times on PS4 after I got back. The cross-save feature is great too. Earlier this week I was playing on Vita while I had a Tigers game on the TV. When the game ended I paused and uploaded my save to the cloud. I fired up my PS4 and downloaded the save and I was at the exact same spot on my big screen in just a few seconds. I can see myself putting a lot more time into Binding of Isaac this summer and I might even go after the Platinum Trophy even though it seems almost impossible. Before this weekend I would have said the same about winning two boss battles against mom in one life too though.

I told ya Isaac was a great game, and it's only going to get better with the upcoming rebirth DLC (which I hope will stay free for Console users.)

In other news, I came to the realization that while my graphics card has served me well over these past 3 years, it simply can't compete in today's 1080p/4K world. Saints Row 4/GOOH showed me that my card wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was, and the recently released PC specs for Arkham Knight show that I don't even have enough memory in my card to run on Minimum specs, meaning it would look quite inferior to the console versions. So I decided to pull the trigger on an upgrade. I wanted to stick with Nvidia because they seem to be the best in terms of consistency. I've read a lot more issues with AMD cards than I have with Nvidia ones, so to be safe I spent a little more money and got a GTX 960. Not as good as the 970 or 980 but I also don't break the bank with it either. And I got the 4GB version as well. Not all games currently see improvements with 4 vs 2 but I figured I may as well help future proof my purchase. Also, thanks to Amazon credits I had I got it for less than $200, which is pretty sweet as well. The only downside is that to get it at the cheapest price I had to get it off of backorder, but that is only 1-2 months. As long as I get it before the new Batman arrives I'll be happy. It also comes with a free copy of The Witcher 3, but I don't know if I'll redeem that or just sell it.

 

[king3pj]

I told ya Isaac was a great game, and it's only going to get better with the upcoming rebirth DLC (which I hope will stay free for Console users.)

I actually had no idea there was upcoming DLC planned. I hope it's free too but even if it's not I will probably buy it on day one. I got the game free from PS Plus and I have put a ton of hours into it. In addition to my time on PS4 I might have more hours into the Vita version than any other game on that platform. This is one of the rare cases that I would be fine with paying full price for DLC on day one.

In other news, I came to the realization that while my graphics card has served me well over these past 3 years, it simply can't compete in today's 1080p/4K world. Saints Row 4/GOOH showed me that my card wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was, and the recently released PC specs for Arkham Knight show that I don't even have enough memory in my card to run on Minimum specs, meaning it would look quite inferior to the console versions. So I decided to pull the trigger on an upgrade. I wanted to stick with Nvidia because they seem to be the best in terms of consistency. I've read a lot more issues with AMD cards than I have with Nvidia ones, so to be safe I spent a little more money and got a GTX 960. Not as good as the 970 or 980 but I also don't break the bank with it either. And I got the 4GB version as well. Not all games currently see improvements with 4 vs 2 but I figured I may as well help future proof my purchase. Also, thanks to Amazon credits I had I got it for less than $200, which is pretty sweet as well. The only downside is that to get it at the cheapest price I had to get it off of backorder, but that is only 1-2 months. As long as I get it before the new Batman arrives I'll be happy. It also comes with a free copy of The Witcher 3, but I don't know if I'll redeem that or just sell it.

I think you made the right choice on GPU. The 960 had just been released when I bought my 970. I considered the 960 since it was in a price range I was more comfortable with but the 2GB of VRAM turned me off. When games like Shadow of Mordor are already asking for more than that in their recommended specs I didn't feel comfortable buying it. I don't have to have the highest end stuff but when I'm spending $200+ for a GPU I don't want to settle for something that doesn't even meet today's recommended specs. How would it hold up in a year or two if it's already below recommended?

That led me to look into AMD cards so I could get 3-4GB of VRAM but stay near my price point. The problem with that was that everything I read about the r9 280x or r9 290 said not to buy one now. The AMD 300 series is supposed to come out this Summer so all the suggestions were to wait for that or just go with the Nvidia 900 series since they are the faster cards.

I absolutely would have bought a 960 instead of my 970 if there was a 4GB option at the time of my purchase. That didn't exist at the time though and I wasn't going to replace my 2GB 7850 with a 2GB 960 even if it was a faster card. I think the 4GB 960 will be a great card for 1080p gaming and my 970 is probably overkill for now.

When I run a new game for the first time I usually run FRAPS so I can see my FPS (I use adaptive VSYNC so this never goes above 60) and HWInfo so I can see the details of how much RAM, VRAM, GPU usage, and CPU a game is using. What can I say? I'm a nerd about this stuff. When I was playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel last night my GPU was using 31% of it's processing power and less than 2GB of VRAM on average. This isn't exactly a graphical powerhouse and other games like Far Cry 4 use much more of my GPU's power but my point is that a 970 is overkill for most games at 1080p.

Don't get me wrong, I love my 970. It chews up everything I throw at it. I just felt a little uneasy buying a single PC component that costs the same price as the Xbox One Master Chief Collection bundle. My card didn't even come with any freebies like your Witcher 3 code or my old 7850 that came with pre-order codes for 3 unreleased highly anticipated games (Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon).

In summary I think you got a much better deal than I did and you have the card I would have gone with if it existed a couple months ago. You also have much more patience than I do buying something with a 1-2 month backorder. My lack of patience would have led to me spending a little more to get it now.

 

[king3pj]

I might be interested in your Witcher 3 code if you decide to sell it. I'm currently working through Witcher 1 and wanted to play Witcher 2 before jumping into the 3rd though. On the other hand I jumped into Dragon Age: Inquisition without playing 1 or 2 and I was just fine. It's a bit of a slog playing through a massive RPG from 2007 so there is about a 50/50 chance I will end up looking up story details on youtube and just going straight into Witcher 3.

You can probably get more money selling it on eBay or somewhere like that than I would be willing to pay though. Since I'm still partially committed to trying to play the older games first I don't want to buy it before I see a nice discount on it. We'll see how long I keep that attitude once the reviews start hitting.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Actually at first I was looking at the 970/980s. but the prices were so hard for me to justify. Yeah they're good, but still so much money. Then I considered AMD cards, but given their slowness in releasing new drivers and performance issues they seem to have (I can't cite specifics but I just know I've seen "AMD users screwed over" more often than I have "Nvidia users screwed over." So then I thought about alternatives but didn't know what to look for. So I searched for Nvidia Graphics Cards on Amazon and the 960 came up with 4.7 out of 5 stars (and 5 out of 5 on Newegg) with praising reviews and a VERY reasonable price. Then I searched to see how it ran GTA V, and people basically said that it can run almost the highest settings on 1080p with a 60 FPS rate. That sold me.

And yes, like you I often need my new toys ASAP, but the ones that were available sooner on Amazon were through 3rd party sellers at higher prices. For $30 cheaper I had to wait on the backorder, but again, I don't have any games that are really demanding the better card. I think I could have gotten it sooner if I ordered through Newegg, but I didn't have any credit for there. The only game that will require a better card will be the new Batman game in June, and eventually GTA V, which I ain't getting until it's 50% off at LEAST.

 

[king3pj]

Actually at first I was looking at the 970/980s. but the prices were so hard for me to justify. Yeah they're good, but still so much money. Then I considered AMD cards, but given their slowness in releasing new drivers and performance issues they seem to have (I can't cite specifics but I just know I've seen "AMD users screwed over" more often than I have "Nvidia users screwed over." So then I thought about alternatives but didn't know what to look for. So I searched for Nvidia Graphics Cards on Amazon and the 960 came up with 4.7 out of 5 stars (and 5 out of 5 on Newegg) with praising reviews and a VERY reasonable price. Then I searched to see how it ran GTA V, and people basically said that it can run almost the highest settings on 1080p with a 60 FPS rate. That sold me.

And yes, like you I often need my new toys ASAP, but the ones that were available sooner on Amazon were through 3rd party sellers at higher prices. For $30 cheaper I had to wait on the backorder, but again, I don't have any games that are really demanding the better card. I think I could have gotten it sooner if I ordered through Newegg, but I didn't have any credit for there. The only game that will require a better card will be the new Batman game in June, and eventually GTA V, which I ain't getting until it's 50% off at LEAST.

I have absolutely nothing to base this on but I would also guess that the backorder won't take as long as they are saying now. There is huge demand for a 4GB card in that price range but Amazon is huge and you would think they would get some priority in new shipments of cards.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I have absolutely nothing to base this on but I would also guess that the backorder won't take as long as they are saying now. There is huge demand for a 4GB card in that price range but Amazon is huge and you would think they would get some priority in new shipments of cards.

Right. I've seen instances where they put shipping date way out and I end up getting it like 2 weeks later. The only way I'll be mad is if the card isn't here in time for Arkham Knight, and that would be insane IMO.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Right. I've seen instances where they put shipping date way out and I end up getting it like 2 weeks later. The only way I'll be mad is if the card isn't here in time for Arkham Knight, and that would be insane IMO.

So I got this in my email this morning..

 

[king3pj]

Nice! I wouldn't be surprised if that delivery estimate is overstated either. I have had things from Amazon that were estimated to ship in 7-10 days show up in 2 business days more than once.

 

[Zookster]

My current schedule has been limiting my time for gaming as well of late. So I've been reluctant to start a long immersive campaign like Skyrim or even TLOUR (my top two backlog games) as I don't want to be subjected to long breaks in the story campaign as other things in my life come up. So here's my rundown:

Child of Light — I finally got around to finishing this, my first turn-based RPG, after a three-week break. As much as I enjoyed it, I was ready for it to be over when it was, and I didn't even bother completing the last two side missions (which weren't required for 100% trophies).

Valiant Hearts — Simply an amazing game! I loved the documentary aspects of it. Beautiful story and music and interesting art style to boot. I got a little annoyed with the throwing mechanic at times, but not a big deal.

Tennis in the Face — The perfect 95-cent Flash Sale puzzle diversion for March Madness. I actually started using my Vita again for the first time in over three months.

Run Sackboy Run — Speaking of the Vita, I've since become a little addicted to this F2P runner, based, of course, on LittleBigPlanet. I would've even spent a bit of real money on a couple of perma-boosts, but luckily I found out there's a glitch that makes them expire if you turn off your Vita (still not fixed to my knowledge).

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments — As far as I can tell the only punishments involved in this game are the ones being inflicted on those of us playing the free-for-Plus members PS3 version. Terrible, terrible performance issues. But still a fun game. I like having something more cerebral to play when I'm tired and don't feel like mashing buttons in an action game.

Borderlands 2 DLC — I finally finished the last of the DLC included in the season pass. Sir Hammerlocks was the weakest of the bunch, but when I'm tired and stressed, sometimes all I need is mindless killing and mayhem without worrying about keeping track of a story.

Ratchet: Deadlocked — Having done everything there is to do in Borderlands 2 (multiple times in some instances), I needed another easy mindless killing/mayhem game with a thin story to fill that void. Fortunately, the only Ratchet & Clank game I don't yet own that I still hoped to play at some point was on sale during last weekend's Flash Sale for $2 (no brainer for a big R&C fan). There literally is no story to this game as Ratchet goes through a series of challenge arenas to win his freedom from some diabolical game master.