NPR

WTF

£3K for a GPU

At the moment the RRP on GPU's is a joke. Retailers can't even buy them in for the recommended price. And to be honest, I'd rather a retailer set scalped prices, than have to try getting one off ebay etc. A retailer will pay taxes, and your warranty would still be in place.

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:07 am At the moment the RRP on GPU's is a joke. Retailers can't even buy them in for the recommended price. And to be honest, I'd rather a retailer set scalped prices, than have to try getting one off ebay etc. A retailer will pay taxes, and your warranty would still be in place.

All the bitcoin miners buying up the stock

Bloody Nora. Those prices are ridiculous. I’ve just bought a mid range laptop with a 3060 in it and that’ll do me nicely for a long time. I’d hate to see the look on the bosses face if I suggested a desktop with a £2.5k graphics card in it.

Holy crap. Well, I guess I’ll be sticking with my 2070 for the foreseeable future.

Yr Alban wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:28 pm Holy crap. Well, I guess I’ll be sticking with my 2070 for the foreseeable future.

In fairness that's still a pretty hefty card if you're not gaming at 4k.

The problem with the rtx 2070 and 80s is that they were seen as a minor upgrade to the previous gens, and when the next gen came along, not that long after, they were seen as a massive upgrade to the previous gen for comparably really cheap prices, to the point that everyone who bought rtx2070s and 80s were livid.

I have a GTX 1070. It's fine.
Does VR in flight sims ok.

My crappy i5 550 processor is the bottle neck.

I bought an RTX 2060 this time last year for £299, the exact same card is retailing for £589 now

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:45 pm

Yr Alban wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:28 pm Holy crap. Well, I guess I’ll be sticking with my 2070 for the foreseeable future.

In fairness that's still a pretty hefty card if you're not gaming at 4k.

I’m playing Starcraft II with my 3060. I can’t find my age of empires disk otherwise I’d dust that off.

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:47 pm

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:45 pm

Yr Alban wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:28 pm Holy crap. Well, I guess I’ll be sticking with my 2070 for the foreseeable future.

In fairness that's still a pretty hefty card if you're not gaming at 4k.

I’m playing Starcraft II with my 3060. I can’t find my age of empires disk otherwise I’d dust that off.

1440p rather than 4K, and yes, it’s plenty good enough for me right now. I wasn’t actually thinking of getting a new one, more observing that if I had been then I’d be reconsidering right now!

I’m mostly playing Octopath Traveller and Disco Elysium right now. Neither is exactly taxing the card.

Yr Alban wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 5:34 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:47 pm

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:45 pm

In fairness that's still a pretty hefty card if you're not gaming at 4k.

I’m playing Starcraft II with my 3060. I can’t find my age of empires disk otherwise I’d dust that off.

1440p rather than 4K, and yes, it’s plenty good enough for me right now. I wasn’t actually thinking of getting a new one, more observing that if I had been then I’d be reconsidering right now!

I’m mostly playing Octopath Traveller and Disco Elysium right now. Neither is exactly taxing the card.

1440p for me too, but the challenge comes from when I play in VR. Not taxing mine either at the moment for the most part though. Mostly use it for Star Trek bridge crew at the moment! And that's only once a week. Want to get Skyrim VR at some point.

Mass effect legendary edition dropped to 25 quid on cdkeys so i bought it. I'd forgotten just how good the game is and how "just one more thing" it is. Going through 1 at the moment. Still hate driving the Mako but I've now collected all the collectible things for the assignments and whilst there's still more out there, I'm not bothering with them. So now I've got much less driving to do around on all the inexplicably mountainous planets.

Never played the dlcs on 2 as never played 3 at all, so quite excited. Started as a soldier but i think I'll switch to a biotic or engineer in 2. Probably a biotic so i can bring mordin along!

Is the Legendary edition any sort of improvement on the original trilogy?

CM11 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:49 pm Is the Legendary edition any sort of improvement on the original trilogy?

Some quality of life improvements, some graphics, almost all the DLC included. I've never played 3 before, and got it for £25, so I'm happy enough. They've made it so you can apparently reach max level on 1 now in a single playthrough, but I only managed to get to 57/60, before it would take multiple play throughs. It has an effect on what level you are in 2, so I'm hoping I still start at lvl 5 as I would have done had I made 60 (struggle to see how 60 is possible myself, but I missed a few little bits, not much though).

Literally finished 1 10 minutes ago, and it's as good as I fondly remember it. Except for driving the Mako on planets, I hate that, but using the maps from Wiki's meant I didn't waste time driving around trying to locate things.

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:01 pm

CM11 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:49 pm Is the Legendary edition any sort of improvement on the original trilogy?

Some quality of life improvements, some graphics, almost all the DLC included. I've never played 3 before, and got it for £25, so I'm happy enough. They've made it so you can apparently reach max level on 1 now in a single playthrough, but I only managed to get to 57/60, before it would take multiple play throughs. It has an effect on what level you are in 2, so I'm hoping I still start at lvl 5 as I would have done had I made 60 (struggle to see how 60 is possible myself, but I missed a few little bits, not much though).

Literally finished 1 10 minutes ago, and it's as good as I fondly remember it. Except for driving the Mako on planets, I hate that, but using the maps from Wiki's meant I didn't waste time driving around trying to locate things.

Cheers. I looked up the changes and mako was meant to be improved but I guess you can't polish a turd.

I've played through the trilogy twice, thinking of a third but not sure I can justify the outlay for a bit of extra graphics. Especially as I've already bought it on two different platforms!

CM11 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:05 pm

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:01 pm

CM11 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:49 pm Is the Legendary edition any sort of improvement on the original trilogy?

Some quality of life improvements, some graphics, almost all the DLC included. I've never played 3 before, and got it for £25, so I'm happy enough. They've made it so you can apparently reach max level on 1 now in a single playthrough, but I only managed to get to 57/60, before it would take multiple play throughs. It has an effect on what level you are in 2, so I'm hoping I still start at lvl 5 as I would have done had I made 60 (struggle to see how 60 is possible myself, but I missed a few little bits, not much though).

Literally finished 1 10 minutes ago, and it's as good as I fondly remember it. Except for driving the Mako on planets, I hate that, but using the maps from Wiki's meant I didn't waste time driving around trying to locate things.

Cheers. I looked up the changes and mako was meant to be improved but I guess you can't polish a turd.

I've played through the trilogy twice, thinking of a third but not sure I can justify the outlay for a bit of extra graphics. Especially as I've already bought it on two different platforms!

It's been a long time since I played 1, so it may be the mako has been improved.

If you've already got it on 2 platforms, with dlc, I don't think it'd be worth it. Apparently there's been some balances put in place as well. Maybe wait till it drops to £10 on cdkeys :D.

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:11 pm

CM11 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:05 pm

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:01 pm

Some quality of life improvements, some graphics, almost all the DLC included. I've never played 3 before, and got it for £25, so I'm happy enough. They've made it so you can apparently reach max level on 1 now in a single playthrough, but I only managed to get to 57/60, before it would take multiple play throughs. It has an effect on what level you are in 2, so I'm hoping I still start at lvl 5 as I would have done had I made 60 (struggle to see how 60 is possible myself, but I missed a few little bits, not much though).

Literally finished 1 10 minutes ago, and it's as good as I fondly remember it. Except for driving the Mako on planets, I hate that, but using the maps from Wiki's meant I didn't waste time driving around trying to locate things.

Cheers. I looked up the changes and mako was meant to be improved but I guess you can't polish a turd.

I've played through the trilogy twice, thinking of a third but not sure I can justify the outlay for a bit of extra graphics. Especially as I've already bought it on two different platforms!

It's been a long time since I played 1, so it may be the mako has been improved.

If you've already got it on 2 platforms, with dlc, I don't think it'd be worth it. Apparently there's been some balances put in place as well. Maybe wait till it drops to £10 on cdkeys :D.

Game have Xbox Series X in stock..just ordered mine.

Anyone heard of the board game Wingspan?

My brother had a discount code for the online version which he gave to me and it was on sale on Steam, so I picked it up fairly cheaply. It's kind of a resource management game where you use turns to accrue birds, food and eggs. The latter two are the cost of playing a bird into a habitat. Four rounds with a decreasing number of turns in each one, lots of ways to score points including random objectives for each round like having the most number of birds with a particular nest type on the board.

A relatively steep learning curve to get a handle on all the play aspects, but surprisingly fun.

Wingspan is a really good gateway board game but it's a little simplistic and despite being multiplayer is almost entirely solitaire in reality. The expansion helps with that a little.

The art is absolutely gorgeous, mind.

Just shat meself playing Walking Dead Saints & Sinners in VR.

sorCrer wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:46 pm Just shat meself playing Walking Dead Saints & Sinners in VR.

I've got it, but yet to try it. Picked it up in a cheap VR bundle, something like 5 games for £15. That was only a month or so after it had released too. Currently sucked into mass effect legendary. Onto the 3rd one now. Gone full paragon soldier all the way through. Next play through will be renegade sentinal (the one with biotics and engineering powers).

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:47 pm

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:45 pm

Yr Alban wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:28 pm Holy crap. Well, I guess I’ll be sticking with my 2070 for the foreseeable future.

In fairness that's still a pretty hefty card if you're not gaming at 4k.

I’m playing Starcraft II with my 3060. I can’t find my age of empires disk otherwise I’d dust that off.

Wooo looo looo wooo loo looooo ninimy !

*SFC now supports England*

Yeeb wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:25 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:47 pm

Raggs wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:45 pm

In fairness that's still a pretty hefty card if you're not gaming at 4k.

I’m playing Starcraft II with my 3060. I can’t find my age of empires disk otherwise I’d dust that off.

Wooo looo looo wooo loo looooo ninimy !

*SFC now supports England*

Ageof empires remastered for 4k on steam for about £8.00 bloody brilliant it is.

ASMO wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:52 am

Yeeb wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:25 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:47 pm

I’m playing Starcraft II with my 3060. I can’t find my age of empires disk otherwise I’d dust that off.

Wooo looo looo wooo loo looooo ninimy !

*SFC now supports England*

Ageof empires remastered for 4k on steam for about £8.00 bloody brilliant it is.

Wait. What. When? Is that still available?

tabascoboy wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:10 pm

They might have 3090 supplies in stock by then.

I suppose they must be making enough money out of GTA V Online that they want to keep it going for a while yet.

tc27 wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 3:57 pm I suppose they must be making enough money out of GTA V Online that they want to keep it going for a while yet.

Making a complete fortune out of it.

Finished ME3 with my first run through. Loved going through the series. So many little in jokes, and great conversations. me1+2 really build into 3, but have a very different feel. I loved how much the story telling could touch you in 3, though plenty of really good laughs too.

Just started a renegade sentinel run now. Having to save before a lot of conversations since it's very easy to lock yourself out of side quests by being rude to people (but you don't actually get renegade points for it, which is annoying).

Interesting article on the state of game censorship in China.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/j ... dApp_Other

I know this has been covered before but looking for recommendations on a new gaming pc. Can quite happily build but don’t have the time at the moment so looking for links for £1.5k pc?

shaggy wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:08 pm I know this has been covered before but looking for recommendations on a new gaming pc. Can quite happily build but don’t have the time at the moment so looking for links for £1.5k pc?

I'd suggest following hotukdeals to be honest. There's someone who regularly posts good prebuilds at decent prices. Also gives suggestions on what to improve in the build.

shaggy wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:08 pm I know this has been covered before but looking for recommendations on a new gaming pc. Can quite happily build but don’t have the time at the moment so looking for links for £1.5k pc?

I bought one for just over that from GladiatorPC - an AMD 5600x, Nvidia 3070Ti jobby

So now on mass effect 3 for my second play through. This time as a sentinel renegade on insanity. Really enjoying sentinel play, much more than soldier. However playing as renegade is beginning to bite it feels. Annoying to miss out on legion in me2, which will have inevitable effects on me3. Running into some others now. Have to say there's some decisions that i reckon are going to be really tough to do but i want to see what happens.

Might have to play it again as a paragon to clear the bad taste. Also get a few more lines during missions with different characters.

Happy to admit the ending could be better written, even if the outcome were the same, but overall i really like me3, a great culmination to the series that has a lot of emotional moments (especially with a thane romance).

Still working through me3, but really getting hit by having to be renegade. Also playing rec royale on the quest 2 headset, basically a battle royale game. Teams of 3 and good fun if you actually have a team that communicates and works together. Never got into the battle royale games on PC due to not have the insane reaction times and mouse accuracy, but now in VR it's far more natural, even if I'm still not that accurate.

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:20 pm

ASMO wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:52 am

Yeeb wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:25 pm
Wooo looo looo wooo loo looooo ninimy !

*SFC now supports England*

Ageof empires remastered for 4k on steam for about £8.00 bloody brilliant it is.

Wait. What. When? Is that still available?

Experience one of the most beloved real-time strategy franchises with the Age of Empires: Definitive Collection. This collection packs a 20-year legacy of historical adventure in definitive form with remastered 4K Ultra HD graphics, enhanced audio, all previously released expansions and featuring brand-new content in all three remastered versions of the games:

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

Yep. Grabbed those. £20 for all three in the end I think. Also grabbed gta v for the pc. Good for a cheeky laugh now and then.

Have always stuck with a big name brand for home office desktop /games laptop needs to date, but the off-the-shelf builds on offer at the moment just don't seem to fulfil my needs. Now I'm looking to combine the two in one unit - which is a desktop capable of running games but don't need the balls-to-the-wall spec for the really demanding titles like CoD or Fortnite etc.

Most of the UK companies offering customisation seem to be good when it all goes right but have poor customer service ratings. Finally it looks like Chillblast might be the place I need even if the machines are a bit OTT for my needs. Anyone have experience with them at all?

Before anyone suggests it, not interested in doing a DIY build myself from scratch!

I used PC Specialist for my last laptop and was happy with them. Responsive post order, calling and suggesting a change in spec that was beneficial etc.

My current one I bought off the shelf though and just added additional storage and RAM myself as I needed it quickly