Posted on

Review: The Crew

This may be a bit delayed for some, but sales made this possible at all. I had no interest in it from the start. It didn’t look right and my gut told me no. My gut was right. It is a bad, bad game. It controls like ridge racer meets… a wall. Originally posted Aug 1st. It is now roughly a month and a week later and I’ve played it again. See bottom for updates! Point of note: I didn’t find the e-brake in my first run through. I was using the controller, tried X, B, and A is apparently…

More...
Posted on

Video: GTA V Gets A Tweak!

Rockstar always rolls them out dialed waaaaaay back. Up until GTA V had already been out for a year the mods were still being applied to IV. They had 4K working in that quite a ways back. I still see a lot of blurring, and the people don’t appear to be optimized but it looks damn good. Here was IV Redux, assuming same author: http://www.moddb.com/mods/grand-theft-auto-iv-redux (warning: autoplay)

More...
Posted on

Vacations Highlight Living

I spent a lot of time this past week doing nothing, it was all I dreamt it could be. I am now at the stage where I feel depressed that it is coming to an end. It’s not so much that work misty begin, but regret that nothing has to end. Possibly regret that I haven’t done enough, that I don’t have much to show for all this time off. I saw my family, shared my children, and had some reflective time with the wife. I had time apart with both my brother and my sister with the brain tumor……

More...
Posted on

Technical Requirements

I spent much of last night attempting to get a 3D video posted.  I’ve been a fan of 3D vision (with the 3D LCD flicker glasses) since I tried the first wireless.version at PAX.  Crisis 2 was being  used to show it off.  It was triple monitor setup and I was hooked. I got the Asus 120hz monitor with it built in.  I even have a second pair of glasses now in case I want to watch a 3D movie. My plasma TV does 3D as well… Where has it gone?. They have not stopped making games, nor 3 D…

More...
Posted on

Doom Open Beta

I pre-loaded Doom. I wasn’t going to do it, but I am in an endless quest for graphics and gameplay evaluation. I know I sound old when I say this… am I saying this? Yeah — it’s a gore fest. It feels like it’s trying a little too hard with the face smashing and the head ripping and the biting and… well, everyone’s in full armor suits and it just doesn’t feel right for Doom. Of course I have formed this opinion by the opening trailer alone. Despite having pre-loaded it, it will not launch. It did launch, but when…

More...
Posted on

EA Access – Need For Speed PC Preview

Need for Speed is currently loading, I’m going to give the first 10 hours a shot and see if it’s worth it. I appreciate they allowed it to scale to 4k and supported wheel hardware (assuming force feedback) but really don’t think it’s going to be anything earth shattering. They often go far too arcade. I don’t wish to play Ridge Racer. I want good old Road & Track: The Need for Speed Video is a success! New drivers did the trick. 1080p/60 ** NVidia Driver 364.51+ is a MUST for this game ** [update 3/11/2016 10:46] Attempting 4k resolution……

More...
Posted on

Initial Impressions for Elder Scrolls Online (Tamriel Unlimited) – DLC

I had not played Orsinium yet, and given Thieves Guild just came out I figured I’d give it another shot. I have been waiting for this Thieves Guild content since day 0 here on ESO and I finally get to use my designed thief. I had started getting him ready as a secondary character from the beginning. I’d focused his craft skills and honed his speed and sneakiness. I waited, so he hasn’t done a quest in quite some time, just did some crafts here and there and he’s been stuck at about level 36 for a while. I got…

More...
Posted on

YouTube Punished Me For a Sun Fish

So long story short, I’m in the penalty box for YouTube. I had the ability to upload longer than average clips all was going well and good. I grabbed a video with viral-potential from Facebook because no one had done it yet. It was from my home state, shared by one of my friends so I figured I had the jump on it and could possibly get some visibility for my channel. I sucked it down and uploaded it to my channel. It was the MA guy yelling at the sunfish “I think it’s a dead whale, Jay!” and apparently…

More...
Posted on

Checking in with GeForce 3D in the face of VR Headsets

3D was a phase. I was in denial. I know how computer 3D came and go but the underlying technology was sound and would live on. At the time, the next version of my card did not have 3D but this is the 3D that it had, complete with the same NVidia test pattern they use with the N that floats out in front of you. Same one. Anyhow — I still have faith, because GeForce isn’t getting rid of it and games are going to be made more and more sprite-less, meaning no glitches and such. Bad 3D, like…

More...
Posted on

The Division: Streaming to Twitch: Beta Review

Few screenshots, some 4k, some not. Two EVGA 980ti: 20 to 30fps @ 4k 70fps vsync @ 1080 NVidia doesn’t even have an optimized driver for this one yet. The city looks alive-ish, Multiplayer started out really cool — I had help from real people, we all ran into the fire together. Once I took the base, then I had to go looking for people for each mission. I didn’t discover this until later. They’ve got some reworking to do. You need people all over, fighting for both sides or it might get a little crowded. The cover system could…

More...
Posted on

Rise of the Tomb Raider et al

Ok, so QTE aside (it’s minimal) they really stepped up the tech.  It doesn’t quite look as smooth as it could, snow vs Assassins Creed III, as an example, but there were multiple times I was in awe.  It played less like an interactive movie, and more like a book I couldn’t put down.  It was all I could do to stop after the obligatory flash back sequence.  I can only hope it’s at least as long as the first one.  I purposely read very little about games now a days. Prior to that it was 3D Mark, a brief…

More...
Posted on

Tomb Raider 2013: Revisit

With Rise of the Tomb Raider on its way, I thought it might be a good time to take a second look at the one that got it all going again.  I can’t believe it was 2013, seems like a long time ago.  The hair was the big thing, it looked incredible… But yippy couldn’t actually play with it on.  I had 2 780ti cards and it would struggle with the hair. Perhaps the physics dipped the performance, everything r else was ultra but not the hair. Today it was a single 980ti and even the hair was swaying. With…

More...