I built my first computer last year with no prior knowledge, and while I was nervous during it, I didn't have any problems. A lot of it was actually easier and simpler than I expected; they didn't assume as much enthusiast knowledge as I thought they would.
That said, I was nervous till it was done, and considering the cost of the whole thing I don't blame people for not wanting to find out just how complicated it is. It need not be for everyone.
Building a PC at home when you have time and no audience and the right tools is much easier.
With that said, I won't fault anyone who doesn't want to do it themselves. We don't fault people who eat at restaurants because they don't *scoff* cook their own food.
Even with the "PC parts are just like Legos now!" argument, they're very expensive, somewhat fragile Lego pieces.
Looking forward to GOTY talks this year. They are always the best GB podcasts by far.
I'm pretty much done with getting games this year. Nothing much coming out in the immediate that sparks my interest enough to not be able to wait. Since I really only got about five games this year, my list will probably just be GOTY and then runner-up, and right now that list includes - in order - DOOM and Overwatch.
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
I've told this story elsewhere already but the first computer I owned I built by my lonesome and it was an incredibly educational experience. It was full of fumbling about, of unnecessarily flexing motherboards, of being nervous about securing the CPU under the metal plate, of being dumbfounded at all the stupid cable leads and sockets available.
The thing is, at the end of the day the current technology for these things are designed to be foolproof so that most of the important components aren't usually capable of being plugged into the wrong spaces even with some degree of effort in fucking up. The worst thing that happened to me during my first experience was I sliced my pinky finger open about a millimeter or two deep trying to pry out an aluminium front panel bare-handed, and I didn't even notice that it had happened until I saw my hard drives coated in blood :P
I did have a bugbear at some point about my CPU heating up to 89 degrees for about a month, (which turned out to be due to the shoddy way the thermal paste was pre-applied on the stock CPU heat sink), but that became an easy fix and my CPU suffered no lasting side effects from it, which I attribute to my impromptu blood magic.
The main things to keep in mind for prospective builders is to keep a hand on the metal, to wear gloves when handling sharp, metal objects, and to be firm, if not forceful with plugging things in. There was definitely a time in the past where building a PC was not for the unadventurous or trepid, but the overall progress of modern mechanical design has only made things more and more user-friendly.
All that said, I never begrudge anyone from not wanting to ever build a computer for themselves, since poking around with "delicate" electronics is an inherently daunting prospect taken at face value. It's a very rewarding thing to accomplish but like many rewarding tasks it has its challenges which aren't for everyone.
Jeff and co. are currently on Twitter talking about how Bethesda isn't sending out copies of Dishonored until 1 day before launch and how that's just the way things go now, especially with paid influencers reaching more people.
Of course, this just means that if you find a mom and pop shop with an early copy, there's nothing to stop an outlet from just covering it, as many places did with No Man's Sky.
I built my first computer last year with no prior knowledge, and while I was nervous during it, I didn't have any problems. A lot of it was actually easier and simpler than I expected; they didn't assume as much enthusiast knowledge as I thought they would.
That said, I was nervous till it was done, and considering the cost of the whole thing I don't blame people for not wanting to find out just how complicated it is. It need not be for everyone.
The first computer I built back in 2001 had a host of roadblocks.
Firstly I went with the cheapest prices online, which resulted in spending $200 on a $250 cpu and getting sent a 56x speed cd-rom drive (not even a burner) instead, and then the company went out of business. Lesson learned there.
Next, after ordering and waiting like a week for the CPU, I couldn't get the damn thing to boot for days after building it. Eventually I learned that if you press down SUPER HARD onto the ram, it'll fully slot into place. Apparently having it in far enough to clip in wasn't enough.
Then I couldn't get the damn thing to post properly. I speculated it was because the bios wasn't up to date and couldn't handle the awesome new Athlon XP processors, so I ordered the cheapest processor for that chipet ( a $50 duron) so I could boot the damn thing, update the bios and get the good CPU installed.
Also I sliced my thumb on the heatsink. Blood for the Computer God!
Sadly that computer slowly died over the next four years. All but one RAM chip went bad, both the CD burner and the DVD drives stopped working and the heatsink fell off when moving it from a lan party. And since this was a early 2000's era Athlon, the cpu just died rather than run shitty without the heatsink.
Computer #2 went way smoother and lasted longer, until a power outage broke the motherboard after five years and I just decided to build machine #3.
Jeff and co. are currently on Twitter talking about how Bethesda isn't sending out copies of Dishonored until 1 day before launch and how that's just the way things go now, especially with paid influencers reaching more people.
Of course, this just means that if you find a mom and pop shop with an early copy, there's nothing to stop an outlet from just covering it, as many places did with No Man's Sky.
I tend not to use reviews anyway. Do I really need 10 hot takes from websites telling me whether Watch Dogs 2 or Dishonored 2 is going to be a game I like? The question I need answering is 'is it broken?' and then let my personal tastes take it from there.
That said, for the more niche stuff and titles I'd never heard of, that's where I want to get some opinions of it (and there's where GB's Quicklook have helped me in the past)
"Oh, well, this would be one of those circumstances that people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers would call a coincidence."
Jeff and co. are currently on Twitter talking about how Bethesda isn't sending out copies of Dishonored until 1 day before launch and how that's just the way things go now, especially with paid influencers reaching more people.
Of course, this just means that if you find a mom and pop shop with an early copy, there's nothing to stop an outlet from just covering it, as many places did with No Man's Sky.
I tend not to use reviews anyway. Do I really need 10 hot takes from websites telling me whether Watch Dogs 2 or Dishonored 2 is going to be a game I like? The question I need answering is 'is it broken?' and then let my personal tastes take it from there.
I mean, if money isn't an issue and you can just buy something sight unseen without caring whether or not it's something that fits your tastes then yeah, you don't need reviews.
Sounds like Titanfall 2 might have a chance at dethroning Doom for GotY. Everyone who's played the campaign loved it and Jeff seems pretty high on the multiplayer.
I think I said this last year also but I would love to see the format for GotY change. I just hate how it becomes an exercise of tearing down a bunch of awesome games so some of the guys get their favorites on the list.
Just make it a retrospective on the year with various categories. I don't need anybody to decide or tell me what was "the best". I just want to hear opinions, both good and bad, around the various releases of the year.
I know the format isn't likely to change but I've written them many a time in hopes that others are doing the same. I know Vinny hates it too so I have hope that some day they'll switch it up to make it less antagonistic.
Sounds like Titanfall 2 might have a chance at dethroning Doom for GotY. Everyone who's played the campaign loved it and Jeff seems pretty high on the multiplayer.
Either way, I think Doom is a lock for Best Surprise. Maybe that's the accolade it gets in lieu of being number 2 on the main list.
But I dunno. Brad and Jeff are the two who feel the strongest about these sorts of things, and they definitely loved DOOM the most out of everyone.
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
I think Doom is also a lock for Top Ten.
Overall though, it's been a hell of a time for games this year - a lot of surprises both pleasant and unpleasant. Mostly though, I think the main thing that's pleased me the most is kind of a trend of seeing game franchises that might have potentially been considered falling out of relevance, making big, fresh new titles.
Assuming the surprise can be bad, No Man's Sky might be a contender there. Brad, at least, was super excited before-hand and not so jazzed after release.
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
Sadly I'm of the leaning that Recore will probably hit that category the hardest, given how seriously enthusiastic they were about the game's actual potential and fun at the beginning being gradually soured at the very end
It was very much a big part of Brad's score for that game
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
edited October 2016
Waiting for Dan to pull all sorts of shady deals to get Stardew GotY.
Also for someone to repeat the Tropical Freeze OST joke again.
Mx. Quill on
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited October 2016
I think Stardew does have a place in the top 10 somewhere. It was an incredibly well built game with a ton of depth that came out of nowhere and it still getting a ton of post release support months after release.
Sadly I'm of the leaning that Recore will probably hit that category the hardest, given how seriously enthusiastic they were about the game's actual potential and fun at the beginning being gradually soured at the very end
It was very much a big part of Brad's score for that game
ReCore is so close to being really good, it has so many neat concepts and such but technical difficulties and a terrible treadmill to actually finish the game just make it hard.
Sadly I'm of the leaning that Recore will probably hit that category the hardest, given how seriously enthusiastic they were about the game's actual potential and fun at the beginning being gradually soured at the very end
It was very much a big part of Brad's score for that game
ReCore is so close to being really good, it has so many neat concepts and such but technical difficulties and a terrible treadmill to actually finish the game just make it hard.
I haven't personally played the game. That said, I feel the argument against ReCore as a biggest disappointment contender is that the initial pricing and level of marketing hinted that at it being flawed in some way.
Black lives matter.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
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I'm not really sure anyone was that excited about ReCore prior to release. It was very much on my "well, it could be neat?" list.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
ReCore is a game that is only disappointing by virtue of it having a strong start and then completely fucking up the landing.
Did anyone really expect a Comcept game to blow their socks off at this point?
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Kinda bummed that Armature, comprised with some Retro alumni, is getting by only by hustling port jobs, and the couple of games they actually designed and developed are middling at best. You had people who made Metroid Prime and Megaman on the detail, what could go wrong?
Destiny and Minerva's Den were 100% I am going to keep talking until I win.
Nothing wrong with it, but it certainly happened. Listen to Vinny post Minerva's Den discussion and you can tell he just wanted the conversation to move on and Brad beat him down.
I've been going back and watching some of the previous Mario Party Party goodness on YouTube in the form of highlight videos and right now I'm nearing the end of one for Mario Party 4.
I forgot just how many damn times they had to play Pair-A-Sailing. Not quite done and the count is at 12 times. Pretty amazing.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I think the reason there hasn't been a Bradibuster has just been because the rest know that when Brad decides something "HAS to be at least on the list" that he'll drag the whole thing down for eternity because "Dota HAS TO BE ON THE LIST" so they just go "Fucking, fine, take the number 10 slot. It's not worth the pain"
Posts
That said, I was nervous till it was done, and considering the cost of the whole thing I don't blame people for not wanting to find out just how complicated it is. It need not be for everyone.
With that said, I won't fault anyone who doesn't want to do it themselves. We don't fault people who eat at restaurants because they don't *scoff* cook their own food.
Even with the "PC parts are just like Legos now!" argument, they're very expensive, somewhat fragile Lego pieces.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Or pay someone else to do it.
Video games!
I'm pretty much done with getting games this year. Nothing much coming out in the immediate that sparks my interest enough to not be able to wait. Since I really only got about five games this year, my list will probably just be GOTY and then runner-up, and right now that list includes - in order - DOOM and Overwatch.
Jesus.
The thing is, at the end of the day the current technology for these things are designed to be foolproof so that most of the important components aren't usually capable of being plugged into the wrong spaces even with some degree of effort in fucking up. The worst thing that happened to me during my first experience was I sliced my pinky finger open about a millimeter or two deep trying to pry out an aluminium front panel bare-handed, and I didn't even notice that it had happened until I saw my hard drives coated in blood :P
I did have a bugbear at some point about my CPU heating up to 89 degrees for about a month, (which turned out to be due to the shoddy way the thermal paste was pre-applied on the stock CPU heat sink), but that became an easy fix and my CPU suffered no lasting side effects from it, which I attribute to my impromptu blood magic.
The main things to keep in mind for prospective builders is to keep a hand on the metal, to wear gloves when handling sharp, metal objects, and to be firm, if not forceful with plugging things in. There was definitely a time in the past where building a PC was not for the unadventurous or trepid, but the overall progress of modern mechanical design has only made things more and more user-friendly.
All that said, I never begrudge anyone from not wanting to ever build a computer for themselves, since poking around with "delicate" electronics is an inherently daunting prospect taken at face value. It's a very rewarding thing to accomplish but like many rewarding tasks it has its challenges which aren't for everyone.
Of course, this just means that if you find a mom and pop shop with an early copy, there's nothing to stop an outlet from just covering it, as many places did with No Man's Sky.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
This is my exact position.
Firstly I went with the cheapest prices online, which resulted in spending $200 on a $250 cpu and getting sent a 56x speed cd-rom drive (not even a burner) instead, and then the company went out of business. Lesson learned there.
Next, after ordering and waiting like a week for the CPU, I couldn't get the damn thing to boot for days after building it. Eventually I learned that if you press down SUPER HARD onto the ram, it'll fully slot into place. Apparently having it in far enough to clip in wasn't enough.
Then I couldn't get the damn thing to post properly. I speculated it was because the bios wasn't up to date and couldn't handle the awesome new Athlon XP processors, so I ordered the cheapest processor for that chipet ( a $50 duron) so I could boot the damn thing, update the bios and get the good CPU installed.
Also I sliced my thumb on the heatsink. Blood for the Computer God!
Sadly that computer slowly died over the next four years. All but one RAM chip went bad, both the CD burner and the DVD drives stopped working and the heatsink fell off when moving it from a lan party. And since this was a early 2000's era Athlon, the cpu just died rather than run shitty without the heatsink.
Computer #2 went way smoother and lasted longer, until a power outage broke the motherboard after five years and I just decided to build machine #3.
I tend not to use reviews anyway. Do I really need 10 hot takes from websites telling me whether Watch Dogs 2 or Dishonored 2 is going to be a game I like? The question I need answering is 'is it broken?' and then let my personal tastes take it from there.
That said, for the more niche stuff and titles I'd never heard of, that's where I want to get some opinions of it (and there's where GB's Quicklook have helped me in the past)
Just make it a retrospective on the year with various categories. I don't need anybody to decide or tell me what was "the best". I just want to hear opinions, both good and bad, around the various releases of the year.
I know the format isn't likely to change but I've written them many a time in hopes that others are doing the same. I know Vinny hates it too so I have hope that some day they'll switch it up to make it less antagonistic.
Either way, I think Doom is a lock for Best Surprise. Maybe that's the accolade it gets in lieu of being number 2 on the main list.
But I dunno. Brad and Jeff are the two who feel the strongest about these sorts of things, and they definitely loved DOOM the most out of everyone.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Overall though, it's been a hell of a time for games this year - a lot of surprises both pleasant and unpleasant. Mostly though, I think the main thing that's pleased me the most is kind of a trend of seeing game franchises that might have potentially been considered falling out of relevance, making big, fresh new titles.
That would be the Most Disappointing.
It was very much a big part of Brad's score for that game
Also for someone to repeat the Tropical Freeze OST joke again.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I don't think he'll have to fight super hard.
ReCore is so close to being really good, it has so many neat concepts and such but technical difficulties and a terrible treadmill to actually finish the game just make it hard.
Can I count Witcher's DLC as a new game???
I haven't personally played the game. That said, I feel the argument against ReCore as a biggest disappointment contender is that the initial pricing and level of marketing hinted that at it being flawed in some way.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
Did anyone really expect a Comcept game to blow their socks off at this point?
Jeff just gave Titanfall 2 a 5-star review.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Nothing wrong with it, but it certainly happened. Listen to Vinny post Minerva's Den discussion and you can tell he just wanted the conversation to move on and Brad beat him down.
I forgot just how many damn times they had to play Pair-A-Sailing. Not quite done and the count is at 12 times. Pretty amazing.
At least The Witcher 3 should be a shoein for 2016's 2015 game of the year.
Except that it did. And it happened to a lesser extent when he got DOTA 2 and Destiny on in other years.
Not to mention Brad getting Skyrim in over Saints Row the Third.
Jeff is normally a voice of reason but last year's Mario Maker thing showed that he can be just as bullheaded when he cares about something
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Which granted was awhile ago now