The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Hmmm, I decline to answer that question on the basis of the right against self- incrimination, plus where the hell on that map are any bays at all? You must have microscopic vision. Are you saying my map is defective? Possibly.

But ddp, didn't you mean to say that you are 2 to 3 hours north of omega, rather than vice versa.

Wait - how does that make sense? Time zones are by longitude. I thought you said you were directly north of Kevin - so in the same time zone.

So on second thought, I absolutely have no idea what you are talking about in regard to:
"omega, you are about 2 to 3hrs north of me by latitude."

Assuming you had it backwards - that YOU are the one who is north of omega - are you talking flying time? I guess you must be. Why would omega in his right mind consider flying north for 2-3 hours to reach that remote area where you are holed up? Are you suggesting that we come rescue you? I would be up for that. But how could we smuggle you back across the border into the US. Won't your thick Canadian accent give you away?


Anyway, this whole thing about mixing up who is north of whom, is getting to be very suspicious. Do you do side work for Cevat Yerli? Was it you who decided to remove the bow cross-hairs at a difficulty above veteran?


Speaking of Yerli, I just made the decision to go through Crysis 3 for a second time. Now that, despite the best efforts of ddp and Cevat, I actually know how the bow works, I plan to do a lot more silent killing. I even found out late in the game that the bow kills those fierce-some aliens. In fact, by the end of the game I was killing them so much, I no longer plan to avoid them, like in that chinatown screenshot.

The hints say you can kill them in ways that don't make them blow apart. I like blowing them apart, but the negative is that it makes it impossible to retrieve their bio weapons. They carry some potent firepower. One hint said kill them with headshots. You can also sneak up behind them and melee cut their alien throats.

And thinking back to when I shot an arrow into that one alien dude - I don't think that overtaxed his exo-skeleton resulting in him disintegrating. I think he was just politely lying there dead and I went over and retrieved my arrow. Thank you very much. So that's probably the best plan of all.

I believe I'll use stealth only in order to make the first kill, take the alien weapon, switch to heavy armor, and kill another dozen of the scaly basta*ds. Then I plan to waltz around chinatown in complete disregard of cloaking myself. I might even stop in and get a malted milk.

The thing about playing a second time, is that you've already beaten the game - you know the tricks - and now it's sort of a lark, without some of the anxiety of the first attempt. The anxiety and suspense make the first attempt challenging, but take away from the ability to enjoy the scenery.

Besides, I spent a whole $20 bucks. This way I'll get my money's worth.

Rich

 

A bit more research with fresh windows installations, different cables, different drivers, and it's abundantly clear AMD's implementation of displayport on the newer cards is simply not strong enough to support MST hubs.
With no new hardware on the horizon (despite press releases initially indicating otherwise, only to then be told it was re-release of old hardware in third-world markets), it's the antiquated HD6 series or the nvidia route from here. Which of those two paths I'd prefer to take should largely be obvious.

At the cutting edge, it would now seem AMD's graphics division is falling as far behind as its CPU division. For mid-range gamers, where most of the market arguably is, they are offering reasonable products. But for cutting edge users who want the best that technology has to offer, AMD simply come up empty on both counts.

I'll be processing my RMA next week - the GTX970 will be the first geforce I've owned since the 4MX
It's been a while, but as they say, never say never...

 

DDP, you better crack a smile at Rich's post lol.

Rather sad when you put it that way Sam. If AMD can't compete with Nvidia, then Nvidia will charge whatever they want to for their cutting edge tech :S

 

The hardware is all there - it worked in the HD6 series, there is no reason for it not to work in the R9 200s, but the simple fact is it doesn't - the driver support simply does not allow it, and there are no plans for that to change any time soon. I watched someone who bought a 290X near release time battle with getting 4K MST to work with his UP3214Q which he's had as long as mine (9 months) and thought I'd try it myself to see if I had any better luck - I did not. AMD simply aren't able to code eyefinity well enough for these monitors to work - if you thought crossfire was unreliable, eyefinity is worse - always has been since the time it was released.

4K MST is a bit of a niche market as by the time the masses are using 2160p at 60Hz, MST won't be necessary (Samsung already produce a monitor that doesn't need it, regretfully with a low-grade TN panel), so this won't be a permanent solution, but since the high-end manufacturers sadly have no plans to mate the SST technology with a high-grade panel like in the UP3214Q, PN-K321 and the likes, it will be christmas 2015 at the earliest before you can buy monitors that have all bases covered for 4K - that's a long time to wait with a borderline-unusable PC - I've had to reboot my monitor almost 20 times already today due to the issues with the R9s and 2160p.

 

First Kevin, then Jeff, now you. I'm all alone here with these 7950s.

Which I love! Since I am no longer out on the bleeding edge, I'm fine for now.

Oh, I think he takes it okay. Feelings of deep humiliation and remorse come natural to a Canadian.

That is utterly astonishing, and I am sure glad you are working this stuff out for those of us who might follow in a year or two. You say a year from now one will no longer need MST. Could you explain that a bit further? I take it that eye-finity is an approach to handle multiple monitors, and it is by pretending the 4k is actually two monitors, that - when it works - you can send the image to the screen. And this all ties in tightly with display port, about which I don't know very much, still being tied to dvi. What is nvidia doing differently? Is it all the same MST, but they simply have the drivers that work reliably? And while you are at it - how will MST become a thing of the past in a year or so - is displayport going away - is dvi getting more bandwidth. Sorry to be so ignorant about this - but as soon as you said $3,000 for the panel I put it wayyyy in the back of my mind.


=========================


ON ANOTHER NOTE - I HAVE FIGURED OUT WHY I AM LOSING CROSSFIRE IN CRYSIS 3.

THE SHORT ANSWER IS: I AM NOT LOSING CROSSFIRE.

I completely forgot that crossfire only works in full-screen mode. But I have to go out of full-screen into windowed mode in order to get these non-steam screenshots, because Origin says "Press the print screen button on your keyboard."

What I do is hit Alt-Enter, which drops me into windowed mode. While the first and last screenshots seemed to indicate that the second card was still running at 975, the truth is it had dropped out, and I found that it takes about 3 seconds to show the true speed of 300.

Most of the game is cpu bound - with a few exceptions where I am gpu bound and the graphics cards are loaded at 97 or 98% both cards.

My 7 screenshots showed from 19 to 25 fps. But yesterday's gameplay showed that 25 - 45 is my real framerate, which is why I reported that the game never seemed to lag. I saw yesterday that 25 is unusually low, resulting from a screen with a lot of wind movement on the high grasses for example, pushing the cpu load quickly to 100%. Normally my framerates are in the 30s, and sometimes low to mid 40s.

Let's consider a frame rate from yesterday's post, showing 19 fps. Possibly that was a cpu bound section, where the real frame rate was 30, and gpu loaded at about 75%. When I get ready to take the screenshot one card drops out, and the load on the other goes to 100%. Well, 2 X 75 = 150, versus 100. I am losing one-third of the gpu computing ability. So the 19 of the picture, may have really been 30 before I dropped out of full screen mode.

If the section of game was heavily cpu bound, and my graphics loads were around 50, then I won't lose any frame rate at all by dropping a card - the other will climb to 100% and maintain the frame rate. I watched this happen yesterday.

I have some wonderful screenshots, as I am now taking more time to enjoy the lush graphics. I'll try taking them with Alt-Print Screen and see if I can eliminate the band at the top of the shot. (Alternatively, I do own fraps - as I recall there is a screenshot capability in that program - I'll try to remember to check it out.)

Rich

 

Ah now if I knew that I would have said something! Windowed mode has never really worked for dual graphics at all, that's why I used to avoid using it.

Short answer about MST Rich is this:

Current 4K monitors, e.g. my UP3214Q cannot display a 3840x2160 image at 60Hz using one image controller, they simply weren't powerful enough at the time (kind of the same reason why the early 30" Dells couldn't upscale from other resolutions). Thus, they use MST - same technology used to run, for example, four eyefinity monitors off one or two cables - multiple monitor signals are sent down the same cable, in the case of my UP3214Q it's the left image controller and the right image controller - they're blended together at the monitor end, but require Eyefinity or vision surround to work. The former, is an unapologetically awful bit of software. It never truly has worked properly since it first came out in 2009 and AMD's laziness with driver development certainly does not help.

One or two new monitors on the market now support the full 60Hz over SST (Single-stream) dispensing with all the above, but currently the only such examples use the cheap nasty 28.5" TN panel which has poor colour and viewing angles. When a proper 31.5" IGZO (or similar) panel monitor comes out with this new controller, I'll be all over it. Until then, looks like nvidia is the way forward.

Oh, and if you thought that was bad, the new UP2715K (5120x2880) requires a four-way MST link - i.e. not just two virtual monitors per-cable, but two cables as well. First cable is split into two of the corners, the other cable split into the remaining two. I shudder to think how unreliable that's going to be...

 

hahahaha ........... (would somebody please help - what the hell is he talking about?)

Sam, that explanation was very informative - and now, WHY is Nvidia the way forward? Better drivers for eye-finity? Do Nvidia offer eye-finity? I have always thought it was strictly an AMD thing.

Well, I certainly know a lot more than I did yesterday. Get the newer monitors with the more powerful image controllers that will display the entire picture, as soon as they have upgraded beyond the cheap TN displays, and as soon as I have a spare $3k to spend, not to mention some additional big bucks for the hefty hardware needed to play the 4k games.

Speaking of 4k games - you had previously posted, just before your monitor began disconnecting every minute, that you played warhead at full 2160p for about 20 minutes and it was a joy. Are you saying that the Crysis titles ratchet up to that resolution? As I once mentioned, the last Assassins Creed 4 came with larger texture files to better support 4k. I posted one 4k image. The idea of 4k will be a joy if the games support it - right? You wouldn't want to spread a 2560x1600 game over the 4k, that wouldn't look so great. So the game itself has to support that resolution. Am I correct?

I imagine that a lot of games do, as AMD has been pushing eye-finity for what - a good five years? But I don't know that for a fact. (should I google it?) Can I assume that just about every high-level game will support 3840x2160?

Well, I hit google up for a bit of info: http://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-in-4k-the-future-is-now-if-you-give-up-60-frames-per-second/

The future—aka 4K gaming—is made up of very, very small pixels. After spending the past two weeks checking out games on Samsung's U28D590D 4K monitor, I'm still going to call 4K gaming the near future rather than the present. Yes, you can play games at 3840x2160 pixels right now. Yes, 4K monitors are becoming more affordable. But are they worth it? After spending a couple weeks using one, I can comfortably say: no, not yet. Even for a high-end graphics card (or two), 4K is too demanding for max settings and high framerates. If you're willing to play at 30 frames per second, though, 4K is a different story.​

Well...........

I think I know somebody who is very comfortable playing at 30 frames per second (and he doesn't live in Canada.)

Rich

 

On a single graphics card, unless it's a fast-paced multiplayer shooter or a racing game, 30fps is largely fine. Without any microstutter to deal with, I found playing Crysis Warhead at 30fps perfectly doable, even when explosions dipped it to 18-20 on odd occasions. Generally speaking the singular 290X has been powerful enough to run said titles at 3840x2160 all max as long as you turn the AA off (and AO as well in certain titles that use it) - at the higher DPI, as predicted, while not wholly unnecessary, AA is a little less important.

I should point out, although it still happens, monitor disconnections are less frequent in games than they are at the desktop - it's the same problem AMD cards have had for years where if you had multiple monitors attached, the system would be unstable or you'd get flickering because the memory timings at idle were wrong - in the old 2x DVI days they hacked around it simply by upping the clock speeds at idle, resulting in, with a crossfire system, almost a 100W increase in power consumption at idle, something I proved with my HD6970s. Since dual-display setups prevent crossfire from operating in a large number of cases (not trying to run the game on both screens, just the other screen being there in the first place) that idea was short lived, and I've stuck with having a second physical PC for the other display with its own keyboard and mouse.

Eyefinity is AMD's version, Vision Surround is nvidia's version of the same principle - I won't say same technology as it isn't quite - of seamlessly combining multiple monitors into a single display space. As far as windows is concerned, once this mode is enabled, even though there are multiple physical displays connected, there is only one display space, of a resolution the sum of its components.
In the classical case, you'd have three 1920x1080 displays. Ordinarily windows would see three displays in the display manager, designated 1, 2, and 3, each 1920x1080 in size. Activate eyefinity or vision surround and windows thinks you have a single 5760x1080 monitor, allowing you to play games at the latter resolution.
The same principle is used with the 4K MST monitors - the difference is, the two 'monitors' are virtual - they exist inside the monitor itself and are each responsible for the left half and right half - or as I mentioned earlier in the case of the UP2715K, top-left, top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right corners.

With a monitor that can scale and use a single display space, such as the new Samsungs, all the problems with 4K are dealt with. Graphics power is most of the way there these days to supporting games at that resolution, and I've found very few games not to support it, other than those that also didn't support 2560x1600 (or even 1920x1080 etc - old stuff that topped out at 1024x768 or 1600x1200 is what I'm thinking here).
If you don't have the graphics power, with a monitor that can scale like the U28D590D, you can simply drop down to 2560x1440 and have that work. The UP3214Q does not have a scaler that can do this, so again I have to miss out on that one - I can use 1920x1080 when in DP1.1 mode, but switching the monitor is not an instantaneous process, and that is quite a step down - a quarter of the pixels, and nothing in between.

Once proper panels like the 31.5" IGZO are paired with decent display electronics like in the U28D590D I'll be all over it. Until then, 4K is more of a gimmick, at least on AMD's side. Time will tell if nvidia fare any better. I know for a long time 4K wasn't supported in SLI, hopefully that's now since changed. Looking at benchmarks, I'm pretty sure it has.

 

Just made a gamble and picked up a Razer Black Widow Ultimate for $120 at Best Buy. Mechanical, brilliant backlighting, very simple standard QWERTY layout, super nice tactile feel. I think the only difference between the stock Black Widow and the Ultimate is the backlighting. Is certainly bright and consistent enough for me; superior to the Saitek Eclipse which dimmed badly over time and was never very bright to begin with. The stock setting isn't even as bright as it goes and it's already brilliantly lit. Excellent build quality. MUCH heavier and more solidly constructed than other Razer keyboards I've had in the past. I can see this one lasting for a very long time. Much more pleased than my previous efforts with the multiple dead Logitech G501s. Struck my fancy quite perfectly much like this Razer, but never worked...



Awesome replacement for my thoroughly destroyed Saitek Eclipse Blue. Only issues so far are that the font on the keys takes some getting used to and the macro row on the left side is a bit off-putting for my finger placement. I do touch-type and touch-game, but I glance down frequently, so It'll take some time. No buyer's remorse. This whole post typed problem-free with the new board which the Logitechs were unable to do and which the Saitek will struggle with. Barely functional space bar and all. It feels great for typing BTW. Not sure which switches it uses but they have a fairly soft feel like the membrane keyboards I like so much. Happy camper. Been meaning to have a new keyboard since the Saitek Eclipse was bought as a stop-gap some 6 or 7 years ago. I went for broke and got a great one

Didn't bother to get the Chroma model with multiple backlight colors. The green suits me just fine

 

It may have been their first outing but the Tarantula was enough to put me off Razer keyboards for a fair while - that plus the declining quality of their mice has made me wary of buying anything of theirs again. I wouldn't dump them in my 'do not buy list' (alongside the likes of Asus, Sapphire, Epson, BenQ etc.) but they're not my first choice for peripherals. I did buy a Taipan mouse from them last year which still works as it did when new, but trouble is, even when new it wasn't very good! Certainly far inferior to the Diamondback it replaced, which cost less than half as much!

The Tarantula worked as a keyboard but the non-detachable wrist rest was too large and slippery (the Sidewinder's was also non-removable but textured and an appropriate size), the USB lamp peripheral to make up for its lack of backlighting was hopeless, dimly lit up about half the keyset and gave you annoying reflections - the keys themselves were laptop-style half-depth and not very nice to use, and the right shift didn't work properly (took almost 1kg of force to trigger rather than the usual 50g or less). In other respects it worked, but for in excess of £50 (almost $80 at the time) for a membrane keyboard I expected far better.

Granted, it's not as bad as the Saitek Cyborg which had about 20 defective keys on it and an enter key that split clean in half after only 4 months or so of normal use from a manufacturing defect, but hey. Live and learn, as they say. The MS Sidewinder X6 kicked the backside of all those other membrane gaming keyboards, if I hadn't switched to mechanical I'd still be using it. It even cost less, too.

Meanwhile my first mechanical keyboard, the Qpad MK-85 was also an absolute disaster. As anticipated by the reviews, the wrist rest snapped off within weeks as they're only designed to be removed/reattached 2 or 3 times before they break (!) - the same befell my MK-50 but not as soon as that doesn't move very often. The MK-85 has a defective backlight controller by design that flickers considerably after a few weeks' use, and the final nail in its £135 ($200) coffin was the MX switch itself breaking under the enter key. 50 million keystroke life? Can't have reached 500,000 on it I wouldn't have thought. At £135 for about 7-8 months tops, that was quite an expensive keyboard.

The Ducky Shine II has been better, it's still as-new after 18 months or so, the lacquer on the keys is all still there apart from a couple of tiny specks here and there, the backlighting works perfectly (even if it is a bit bright on the lowest setting), all the keys work properly and it's fairly nice to use. That said, the additional cushioning makes it feel more like MX Black than MX Red which is a shame as I much prefer the lighter touch the Qpads had, and the lack of wrist-rest can get a little uncomfortable at times. For £150 for a keyboard with no anciliary keys (all macros etc. handled by use of an Fn key and the F keys) you'd expect at least a wrist rest, wouldn't you? The win-key disable being a tiny DIP switch on the rear is also a nuisance, but the detachable USB cable for it is quite neat.

The Blackwidows I avoided on principle given my issues above, I'm tempted to get something for my other PCs that's mechanical, but given how often it'll be use, that's an indulgence I can ill afford right now. Having seen some black widow keyboards after use, they've suffered 'letter smear' quite badly with the lettering on the keys, so I'm curious to see how yours turns out
At present, the most likely next mechanical keyboard I'll try is probably the Corsair K70 - which was my #1 choice until I realised how long I'd have to wait for it to be released - the Duckies were available then. I regret my choice of yellow, but hey, could be worse - anything but blue!

 

I feel ya. My last Razer mouse was a Habu which was absolutely gorgeous in-use but Microsoft felt they had to ruin it. They insisted on picking some components and saddled the whole model run with bad click switches. Major disappointment as that was by far the highest level gaming I had ever done. It actually improved my skills. Felt failed by Razer there.

After that I experimented with a Razer Arctosa, then a Lycosa with the backlight. Both were flimsy, cheaply built, and didn't feel right at all. Also gloss finish which meant they looked terrible after a couple hours of use. The Arctosa eventually died so the Lycosa went bye bye while it was still worth money.

My only fully Razer mouse was the Krait, basically a very simple 3 button. Worked beautifully for my needs for years and AFAIK still works every single day without fail for its current owner.

 

I'm relatively sure, that I'm allergic to MY mouse...

 

I have an Abyssus mouse at work which is better than the Taipan for sensor reliability, but only 3 button (not that I use the side buttons on the Taipan really) and more than that, is quite cumbersome, not a fast-paced mouse for gaming like the Diamondback was. If I'd have known at the time I'd have stockpiled Diamondbacks...

 

I have a little confidence in this keyboard. The most common reports seem to be that the paint rubs off a bit and some have bits of plastic left from the mold causing multiple key-presses. The latter problem is easily fixed, and the former is a matter of usage. If my keyboard develops a nice wear pattern, I shall consider it a bonus It really can't be worse than the Eclipse which has pretty flimsy construction really... The Black Widow is an excessively nice keyboard in comparison and none of the common issues seem to be anything major. I'll try my luck

 

Got my SSD reinstalled. I forgot how incredible it is :S The velociraptor is good, the vertex 4 is amazing+ LOL! So I'm in the reinstall mode. Probably no time for gaming tonight, but I'll try and squeeze some in by work time tomorrow lol.

 

Congrats on re-installing that SSD Kevin. So you're going to try to get some gaming in? You're going to think I'm kidding but I have a $20 game that I highly recommend for you. And I'm not kidding. Read on.

Wow, thanks for that detailed explanation - you've really brought me up to speed. So the new Samsungs solve ALL the problems of 4k - great! You're talking about the cheap TN panels though, right? If they can do it with a video controller in a cheap panel - then the video controller hardware can't be that expensive. I would think, therefore, that in the very near future (one year?) the $3,000 monitors would be able to incorporate that kind of hardware in their monitors. I take it, from what you have said, that as of this moment, there IS NOT ONE high end monitor that has the video controller that Samsung has in their cheapee $700 TN - correct?

You mentioned that the disconnects happen mostly during non-gaming periods. For me, that wouldn't be much of a problem, because the gaming rig and 30" dell are dedicated just for gaming. I'm over here at the moment on the other side of the trailer on a 20" dell 1600x1200 monitor, powered by an old Dell p3 (the computer, by the way, that did the animation for the original Left 4 Dead, lol.)

But nevertheless, even if the gaming rig is dedicated to gaming, I would not want to have to hassle with MST to save a few bucks if my gaming rig is already costing me close to $6,000 including monitor - might as well get a system that is as simple as possible even at an additional 10% investment if it came to that.

Jeff, congratulations on your new keyboard. Because of your recommendation, I bought the Saitek a few years ago which I have taped down on my gaming table on the other side of the trailer. It's the Eclipse II, and it's a great keyboard for me. For brightness, I don't have it turned up all the way, I noticed just now, but again, it's only for gaming, so it doesn't get constant use. For non-gaming I'm typing right now on the best everyday keyboard I've ever owned, an illuminated EXTREME LOW-PROFILE keyboard which was a $50 Logitech highly reviewed at Newegg that was being offered near half-price refurbished.

A nice keyboard is a good investment - congratulations again. I'll probably save your post in case the Saitek ever wears out.


Haha - I just read Sam's keyboard review, requiring 1kg of force to trigger the right shift. I hate keyboards like that. The i7 that I converted to the sunroom general usage, has an HP keyboard that my brother used to use, and apparently he had years ago dropped some coke into the arrows section, so the down arrow is one of the 1kg like Sam just talked about. You have to pound it, and then it keeps going for a bit. So when I boot into the boot menu, to select boot device, or which particular hard drive, I use the up arrow and go around, rather than that sticky down arrow.

I have several ps/2 mice up in the garage attic - I put a note on the HP keyboard to remind me to get a ladder and get up there and grab one, then throw the HP in the trash!!!

Hahaha - Sam's keyboard woes continue! I never read anything so funny. Somehow, either you have the worst of luck with keyboards, Sam, or you are very hard on them, or both!!

It sounds like that Ducky Shine has worked out okay, though. Detachable usb cable - nice touch. Are you still carting everything to the LAN events - is that why keyboards have to be designed to MIL specs to keep working for you?


OMG!! THE DUCKIES ARE YELLOW!!! YOU OWN A YELLOW DUCKY!!!
That is quite hysterical - I somehow can't imagine a yellow keyboard, or blue for that matter. You English and your coloured peripherals! No wonder half the Scots want out!

Yes, I know what you mean regarding skills - the Saitek, and the Steelseries laser mouse on a steelseries mouse pad, seemed to make me a much better CS:GO player back a year or two ago when I was playing multiplayer.

One time at the train depot, as a terrorist with an AK, I immediately killed 3 counter terrorists with head shots. The round ended and the game gave me credit for the kills. A guy on the team who was great - far above my skill level - typed out, "berk you have a pretty good aim." (My steam id is Berkeley.) I replied "Sometimes I do." That was also around the time at the boathouse, that as a counter terrorist with a viper or such, playing the bell ringing format where you keep changing guns, that I went around in the water while the rest of my team went through the house and all got killed without eliminating any terrorists. In the water I started taking out counters, figuring I wouldn't last long, until only the last one off to the left on the wharf was there, and he died just before I did. The game said "Berkeley as the last player on his team, killed 5 of the other team." One of the guys typed "What the hell!" I replied "LOL." (I've gotten 3 before, but never anything like that - I was on a roll!)

Such can happen with good peripherals!!!

Kevin, what the hell are you talking about - you're allergic to your mouse! That sounds pretty funny. Are you speaking metaphorically? Or have you been drinking far too much vodka recently. Read on, I have a good game review here for you. Spend the $20 on this game instead of on the vodka.


I know what you mean, Sam, about stockpiling mice, as I bought about 5 extra V220 wireless Logitech laptop mice for a really good price on ebay, after discovering how nice it was. It says 1000 dpi, and I used to use it for gaming - although since then and before picking up the steelseries, I have read that you should not use a laptop mouse for gaming. Anyway, guess what - the animator relative - most of the facial expressions on Dota 2 - uses a V220 that I gave him when I was there and he was complaining about his wired usb mouse problems - losing connection - unreliable scroll wheel. He's using my $10 v220 (they used to run about $30 at microcenter.) In fact, I'm using a V220 right now - I got tired of the mouse cable getting caught by the various things on my desktop, including a big scanner, so I pulled one out of the box.


==============================

Guess what - the scaly hard-to-kill lizard alien creatures from Crysis 3 go down with ONE arrow. Yes! I have the arrow set to maximum pull-back, which hurtles them across the room against a wall like Bioshock 2, but today I plan to turn the bow to mid-pull-back, and see if they still go down with one arrow. Once they are dead, you go over and pick up their power pinch rifle, with 100 rounds, which is good against about 5 of them, until the charge is exhausted. Or just keep shooting arrows.

That's what I did last night. I got the first one, and then distant shots kept coming in as 4 more of the lizards started running my way. At first I defended with the first alien's gun, but it isn't too great at distance. When I respawned, I decided to forget about cloaking, and I just went for maximum armor, and let the lizards keep coming. I still had 8 arrows, there were 4 lizards on the way. Two minutes later when my armor ran out of power, there were 5 fear-some alien grunts lying there dead, and all their pinch rifles were available to pick up. Plus I was able to hit B for my situational visor, and it told me where my arrows were.

I LOVE THIS GAME!

Seriously, I started thinking last night, this is really a good game!! Such is the difference a bow makes.

I also killed off every one of the 9 human soldiers that were stalking me before the aliens showed up. It makes such a difference as you sneak around and try to find places to uncloak so you can charge up, without being seen, as you are able to gradually reduce the enemy count down to just a few left. I also try to make liberal use of the visor, to make sure I mark all the enemies - like you do in Battlefield when you spot an enemy and then they carry a little "kill me" triangle above their heads from then on. I don't know if they did it in Crysis 2, but initially you see empty triangles. If you focus on the empty white triangle for one second it fills with yellow. This map is quite dark but I can always spot those yellow triangles, lizard or human, converging on my location!

I can spot those yellow Duckies coming toward me a mile away.

The game is becoming a really good game, and it's not just the bow, I am taking more time to enjoy the graphics. Apart from the improved game-play, the graphics are REALLY lush.

They had a great game on their hands, that they chose to ruin with lack of play-testing and lack of objective input (the way that microsoft ruined Jeff's favorite mouse with bad clickers.)

The game has an awful opening. Industrial, metal, uninteresting and boring - even with the bow. But after that first 30-60 minutes, it improves immeasurably.

If I were creating a game that I wanted to sell in the millions, I would not put a terrible opening on it. Look how crysis opened, in the beautiful jungle, and then you got to kill a bunch of soldiers at a camp.

And also, the pacing is bad. You have to follow the AI buddy around, psycho, and he doesn't linger. He'll wait for you, but he keeps reminding you that he's in a hurry.

I DON'T THINK THIS IS A SPOILER
So he brings you to the rebel's hideout, and it's a two-minute video with the interesting german guy Karl Ernst Rausch with the terrific accent, and the also interesting Claire, and when you walk in somebody is attending a wounded soldier ala Half Life 2. But unlike Half Life 2, where the British commander shows you how to work the laser guided missile, then leaves you alone, in this game the video takes you completely out the door.

The rebel camp that you just visited is on the other side of a locked door - and you are out in the hallway again with Psycho. What a lost opportunity! I would like to personally slap Cevat for doing that! He'll say "Budget restraints." I'll retort "Budget, bullsh*t."
END OF NOT A SPOILER


Don't get me wrong about psycho. He's done pretty well - he's a character. Most of the AI action with him is reasonably good. Half Life 2 it ain't. There are a couple times where he doesn't look you in the eye, and he gives you a big come-over-here large arm swing, when you are standing right next to him.

That's the same time after you shot down the tower cannons, that he says "How did you find that gun." That is completely puzzling - bad dialog. He knows damn well how I found the gun, his advice from the sidelines took me right to that quadrant after the other locations didn't yield any firepower. When I saw it there, he said "Oh that's alien, we can't use that" but the game said "To pick up pinch sniper, hit E."

So how did I find it is a dialog mistake, and it was sloppy of them to leave that in. My answer is "It doesn't matter." They could have used the same answer, but ...

The question should have been,

"How did you know you could use that alien gun?"

That reminds me. For the first time, yesterday, I heard some new dialog that I didn't hear in the first play-through, and it was actually very good.

When I arrowed my first lizard and then picked up his weapon and blew the next lizard apart, Claire who doesn't trust me - thinking I've become too alien - but who as field commander is locked into my visor signal, said in high alarm,

"Did you see that - he picked up the alien gun and employed it on that other alien - he can use alien weaponry!! Michael did you know about this!!"

Well, yeah, Michael - psycho - had just seen me do that with the control tower cannons. But that was funny and great to hear! They should have drawn that out a bit and made more of it. It had a nice ironic element to it that could have been milked for a while. When you finally meet up with psycho, they could have had claire on a monitor coming in- "Explain how you are able to use an alien rifle, and you keep telling us you are human!" I would have milked that for all it was worth. Those are little things that can make the experience so much more memorable. You look back and you say "Wow, great writing." Like Half Life 2.

But aside from often-weak dialog, I guess my main complaint - like with the rebel base - is that you don't get to walk around - there is not enough variety. Not enough side activity. Not enough break in the non-stop combat. And I would call that weak pacing.

Think about Wolfenstein - Jeff knows what I am talking about. I don't know if you played it, Sam, and I am sure Kevin, that you didn't play it, but the rebel house hidden right in the middle of Berlin, was amazing.

Gameplay is more enjoyable - like with a movie - when the action is tempered occasionally with quieter moments. Bang bang bang can actually get a bit old. Right? That's another thing about the bow - no more bang! Just a silent whoosh of launched projectile. Then dead lizard.

With a bow, you can silently kill all the idiots, all the yellow duckies closing in on you. For a few minutes you can stop being so obsessive about cloaking and desperately watching the timer in order to avoid having your invisibility suddenly wear off and some fool spots you and starts shooting, then all the yellow duckies come running, and you wind up dead.

Every time you silently kill one, that means fewer glancing eyes ready to spot you, so it's easier to hide and recharge, and then when they're all dead, it's wonderful, let's walk around a bit. Where was that malt shop?

So I am doing my own pacing, and it's helping.


THE COMBAT IS BETTER THAN WOLFENSTEIN
Combat-wise, as much as I enjoyed the combat in Wolfenstein, I am beginning to like the combat in this game much more. It is actually becoming an standout game for me. With the exception of the horrifically bland and industrial 30-60 minute opening, more reminiscent of a run-of-the-mill shooter - even Home Front was better - the rest of the environments are superbly designed and executed.

It has incredible elements that could have yielded a 90 something metacritic game with a little more attention to the gamer experience. But the Yerli's have apparently lost their touch.

Jeff, why don't you send them your pizza card, and tell them you will fly to Germany or wherever and consult with them on their next project, to help them recapture the magic of the original game. Valve play-tests ferociously, listening to gamer input very carefully, which is why their products, like Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, are so polished and are so popular, with metacritic scores in the high 80s or 90s. Yerli spent millions on brilliant artwork and graphics, and some reasonably good story-boarding, but earned only 78 metacritic points, after starting the game with a weak 60 metacritic point opener. He was lucky the reviewers chose to largely disregard the beginning of the game - however an opening like that leaves a bad taste.

If you disregard the first hour, the game is 85-90 metacritic quality after that. It still lacks pacing. But it offers exceptional environments, and engrossing and challenging combat scenarios. And yes, like it advertises, you can play it your way - more stealth - or more run and gun. Taking my time, with a bow that now works, taking advantage of the hacking assistant, the game is more enjoyable and I am really soaking up the graphics this time.


I have some astonishing graphics shots that I will be posting soon. But the one that follows, is one that I already posted. Here is where I am right now.


THE FOUR COMBAT ZONES IN CHINATOWN

Dark, wet and foggy Chinatown, New York City, post apocalypse. Where was that malt shop again?


I have played three combat areas in Chinatown so far, and the fourth will happen tonight, and it is filled with the lizards again.

I am out here on my own, for a change - no Psycho. I'm supposed to meet him at the skinning lab where I can go into a nanosuit cradle for some reason. My first run-through, I killed nobody, and snuck through this whole chinatown area watching the cloaking timer.

Very suspenseful. But not as much fun.

This time I slowly eliminated all the soldiers, then in the section after that, I extinguished all the lizards. Everything with the bow.

Then there was a shorter third section, with about 5 Scorchers, two of which I killed. This is a pig-sized insect-like metallic creature - sort of a beetle - sort of a praying mantis. It is brilliantly designed and executed. Terrific animation and sound. It emits insect chirping noises almost like a cricket. It lifts up, stretching its neck, it squats down, or it assumes a defensive armored stance facing its enemy.

It can spit out fire, hence the name scorcher, and you get to watch it incinerate a dozen screaming cell soldiers, like the ones you have just been fighting, who pour out of a warehouse double doorway that you just tried to enter before it exploded open from the heat inside. Still playing the cutscene, the creature looms up large in front of you, beautifully magnificent and glistening, about to roast you, until you launch yourself behind a nearby chunk of concrete. The screen says, "Kill the scorcher." Claire is babbling on the headpiece "My god, I have only seen pictures of this thing."

The first time through, having never battled the thing before, I respawned several times until finally, out of desperation, some grenades seemed to do the trick. But now I am combat-wise.

Last night I backed up at a distance of about 20 meters in front of the creature, which put me beyond the flames. It didn't advance on me, but stood up from time to time, shot out fire from time to time. It seemed to be wondering what I thought I was going to do.

In its armored stance, it has the ability to face you head down, with its large wings spread over its body, at which point it is completely invulnerable from any type of small arms fire, according to a game hint. It become vulnerable when it starts spitting fire, or when it stands up, or if you can hit it from the back or sides.

If you hit it in the leg with a lightning arrow, which I did on the second one, you will zap it electronically - maybe kill it - and you can go up and take the incinerator gun. But I found that its fire-spitting gun is weak against the lizard soldiers, so I have no use for it.

So this time, last night, I set myself up about 20 meters away, and I happened to be near an alien remote charging unit that glowed bright red as I got near. As I started shooting when the scorcher began spitting fire, surprisingly my weapon display suddenly lit up indicating that my alien gun was receiving charges from the now brightly glowing red charging unit, and my ammo kept replacing itself, remaining on full 100 rounds maximum capacity. So I thought 'Yeah!" and just kept shooting, while it kept spitting fire, until in about 20 seconds it finally started smoking, and then it blew apart.

That wasn't as elegant as an electric arrow, but it was really cool. You can kill them like that also when you carry around the heavy detachable 50 caliber sentry machine gun.

But I'll have to remember to look for those alien charging units. They actually were back there with the lizards but I forgot what they did - that they kept your alien gun fully charged. I could have cloaked myself, and blasted those lizards all I wanted. That would have been fun.

Instead I killed them with the bow. I had the bow set to maximum draw, which means maximum impact and longer range. The bow has a nice zoom, and the range seems quite good - maybe a full 50 yards or more.

But tonight I'll try medium draw - a little less powerful - to see if it is still a one-shot kill. The advantage is shorter pull and fire time, plus the arrow never gets stuck in so hard that you have to hit the use key to pull it out - just get close to it and you get your arrow back.

Time to go lizard hunting!

Kevin get this game - $20! It's like Angry Birds on steroids! Your rig will run it fine fully maxed.

Rich

 

Crysis 3 eh? I'll think about it lol

Quite serious about my mouse allergy. This is the only mouse that has ever done it. Not sure what's it's made of. Apparently not uncommon. Apparently 1 in 5 mice can do it. So I'll probably be in the market soon for one.

 

It is a fantastic keyboard. Still getting used to the very light mechanical keys but it feels amazing mid-stride. Gaming has definitely been enhanced by having a better functioning keyboard. In contrast to complaints I've heard about this board, fit and finish are laser perfect. It lights up beautifully, is heavy and well constructed, and is effing awesome looking on my desk. I love it so far. Only true downside for me is that the key sensitivity takes some getting used to and there are no dedicated media buttons. I could probably program the macro buttons for that task come to think of it, lol. Not a terrible keyboard from Razer. Pretty pleased Not overly loud either. My friend's Das Keyboard has deafening switches. It is fantastic though.

If the keys start to chip or smear after a while, so be it. A little battle damage is never a deal breaker I can always spruce it up with a Sharpie or a paint brush as well.

 

Correct - if such a monitor existed, I'd have serious looked into trading in my UP3214Q for one - I'm very attached to it, it's the most beautiful panel I've ever seen by a country mile - vibrant and bright like a TV, clear & sharp with anti-glare like other Dells, a fabulous PPI and a huge 16:9 desktop real estate, not to mention substantial desk presence being 31.5" in 16:9 aspect (quite a bit wider than the 3008WFP and almost the same height).
Really, the perils of 4K haven't put me off using one - I just need to find hardware to suit!
Unfortunately my discussions with Dell suggest no such replacement 4K monitor is forthcoming from them, and I haven't heard anything from the rumour mill from Sharp, Samsung or Asus (the other 4K manufacturers) yet.
4K gaming is a secondary objective with this display - if you intended to use it just for gaming, it'd quickly change your mind. The crisp image and huge screen area are just fabulous to work with - whereas 4K gaming does work, but you do need plenty of graphics power to run it, as well as video memory.

Compared to all the other goings on, the introduction of the 480GB M500 has been almost sidelined, but the thing certainly seems have all the get-up-and-go of the 128GB Samsung 830 it replaced, if not a little more. Since my PC's near-5 year old motherboard doesn't have UEFI it doesn't show so easily in boot times sadly, but in windows it certainly runs fast enough.

I think all of us in this thread must have had an Eclipse II at some point - I had two (one good one before I lent it to someone who dropped it - they were fragile, even if nice to use, the second one was terrible and built to a far lower standard, so didn't see much use before it too suffered damage - should have taken the hint really before buying the awful Cyborg).

Before you get too carried away Rich, only the backlight is yellow - the keyboard itself is black. I didn't actually make the Yellow ducky connection until now
Yes, all of these keyboards have been to LAN parties, but the worst offenders in that tale less than 3 or 4 times, and they really didn't see much use on that trip, packed into a flight bag, carried 10 minutes in a taxi, then unpacked the other end, and vice versa.
Nowadays taking the train 210 miles to the event they take a bit more of a pounding in the front of the suitcase, but despite having been to a dozen LANs now since purchase, the Ducky shows no sign of damage anywhere yet. I'm not careless, contrary to popular belief - It seems I just find all the bad hardware out there, there's a lot of it!

Regarding skill, I am super bad with the Taipan. Granted, I'm out of practice a bit, but I don't even come close to the FPS skill I had with the Diamondback sadly. The ridge-edged buttons also mean I can't twitch-click as easily either.
I compare modern Razer mice like the Abyssus and Taipan versus the Diamondback to driving a luxury car rather than a small sportscar. The former is far softer, smoother and more comfortable to use, but the latter is far more agile, responsive and responds to your input far quicker.