The Return

After feeling a bit stressed and seeing a ton of very nostalgic The Witcher 3 content related to the 10th anniversary of its release, I decided that it was a good time to spend some quality time with one of my favorite game series.  Now here's where you would think I would go for The Witcher 3, but no, why would I do something so logical?  Instead, I decided that I should revisit my favorite commander on the Citadel--good ol' Commander Shepard in Mass Effect.

Shockingly it had been 2 entire years since I had done a re-play (I generally like to do an annual re-play just for funsies).  I completely forgot how irritating it is to boot up the legendary edition on Steam only to remember that you have to go through the EA App (ick).  For my umpteenth playthrough I decided to go with a male Shepard--I generally opt for femshep because she is voiced by THE absolute video game voice acting legend that is Jennifer Hale--but, I decided that I should roll as the male Shep this time around for a bit of variety.  I think my only other male Shep playthrough was the one time I decided to do a hardcore renegade run (so many people got shot...and punched...and betrayed).

Here's my Shep (a nice looking fella).  He's a space born, war hero, infiltrator who blasts all the baddies with a sniper rifle.  Oh and I think he's going to strike up a nice romance with Ashley (who I know gets a ton of hate).

Paul Shepard--paragon of the sniper rifle.

I'm in an awesome Mass Effect fan group on social media and there is usually an intense debate about starting off with the first game or jumping straight into the second.  I will admit that ME2 is definitely my favorite in the bunch, but skipping the first game just feels like blasphemy.  The writing and atmosphere in the first game is so great--it almost makes up for the janky combat and weird exploration with the Mako.  The legendary edition upgrade also slapped on a fresh coat of paint and slightly revamped combat so it's not only less difficult (I never could finish the OG game on insanity--krogan were basically unkillable--but I can easily do it in the legendary edition) but it's also much less annoying.

The beginning of Mass Effect is such a mixed bag--you start off injected into the middle of a great space mystery but then find yourself plopped on the Citadel and just basically sightseeing.  Perhaps part of that is the fact that I've played it so many times that I know exactly where all the quests are and it's my goal to complete them all in one go.  It becomes fairly boring, so I can totally understand why some people might have started up ME in the past and decided that it wasn't for them.  Once you get past the Citadel, things start to take off and you're back in the mix.

I'm not to my favorite part of the game (the fight on the Citadel), but I'm making progress.  I'm also very much loving the ease of moving from game to game in the legendary edition--no struggling with importing saves or downloading DLC's--just fire up the next game in the series and get rolling.

If you're feeling stressed or sad, fire up a nostalgic favorite and bask in the glow of familiarity.  Chat up your favorite romantic interest and feel all the feels for the 900th time.  7 more days of school for me and then it's the magic of summer!  If you're a fellow educator, hang in there, we'll make it!

Just a Consumer in an Anti-Consumerist World

Lately there has been an undercurrent of pricing ridiculousness.  I've mentioned the insanity that is the current GPU pricing nightmare, but there have also been several discussions about the pricing of upcoming gaming titles.  A new piece of controversy entered the arena when Gearbox's CEO (Randy Pitchford) responded to someone questioning the proposed $80 price of the upcoming Borderlands 4 by stating that "If you're a true fan you'll make it happen." (Here's a link to Rock, Paper, Shotgun's article about the original statement and then the backtracking: article)  Collective jaws dropped at the audacity and there was a lot of internet griping about the smugness of these tech overlords.  (Sidenote: Mr. Pitchford did back off of this statement as the backlash got more and more backlash-ier)

I don't agree with Mr. Randy (although the tariffs are greatly complicating pricing predictions) but we have heard multiple big developers state that the costs of producing these massive games has gone up (should we really call Borderlands massive though?).  For a game like GTA VI, maybe a price increase is a bit more understandable--you get a big, awesome singleplayer game and an online multiplayer world that is continually being developed.  I do not think the supposed $100 price seems realistic, but I guess we will see.

The honest reality of all these situations is that as consumers there's basically only one thing we can do and that is to not pay these high prices.  But--and here's the big BUT--unfortunately, people will pay those prices and that gives these companies zero impetus to actually change anything.  I've seen a ton of anger at GPU pricing...but then you see stuff that is constantly sold out!  (*and yes, pricing right now in the U.S. is very much being complicated by tariff nonsense)  So, sadly, I don't think anything is going to change.

In the GPU market things are even further complicated by the lack of competition in the GPU sector.  You either go NVIDIA or AMD (sure, Intel sort of seems like they're trying to join the fray)--those are your choices.  NVIDIA has done some scummy stuff lately (see video below from Gamers Nexus) that makes me want to opt for AMD, but the pricing on the 9070xt is absolutely nuts.  And realistically, NVIDIA makes only 20% of its revenue from GPU's, so why would they even care about doing better?  I'm still crossing my fingers that pricing drops when the 9060/xt releases in early June.

Maybe Steve from Gamers Nexus is right that gaming is going to become a much more expensive hobby.  Maybe it's just a confluence of unfortunate economic conditions like inflation and tariffs?  Le sigh--all we can do is wait and see.

I don't want to end on a downer note, so everyone have a happy long Memorial Day weekend!

Will the GPU Insanity Ever End?

As the summer draws nearer I have started to feel more (needlessly, let's be honest) antsy about building a new PC.  With the recent news that tariffs would no longer reach the insane 145% threshold and instead be (the still stupid) 30%, I was feeling hopeful that maybe prices on GPU's would level off a bit more, but alas, that has not happened.  Much of my agonizing has been about the exact model of GPU I want to invest in--AMD's 9070xt or NVIDIA's 5070ti.

Initially, AMD looked like it was prepared to make a splash with a range of semi-decently priced GPU's.  It all hinged on supply though and since release the 9070xt has been surprisingly popular (especially since NVIDIA GPU's have absolutely dominated AMD for years--like 80%-20% of market share).  As a result, 9070xt prices have ballooned up.  The supposed MSRP on this card is $600...the cheapest card you can find right now (that is being sold by a legitimate seller) is $850 (probably more like $899).  It's absolutely bonkers!  There are also a number of reports of people with black screen issues related to this GPU.

(Here's a good video from Hardware Unboxed comparing the 9070xt and the 5070--non-ti.  It also includes information about their previous tests with the 5070ti and a nice cost/ratio comparison at the end)

NVIDIA got a lot of grief about its very dicey rollout of the 50 series GPU's--supply was extremely thin, they definitely made a lot of overexaggerated claims about performance over last gen, and they really banked on the whole "AI generated frames."  Since then the supply has gotten better, prices have dropped, and now an NVIDIA card is looking like it might be the way to go.  NVIDIA has also had its own share of driver related issues that seem like they've been ironed out.  (*There's still some shady stuff happening with their lower tier 5060 cards--like them not releasing drivers to reviewers until the card is literally on sale...so basically, no reviews).  The 5070ti was supposed to have the MSRP of $750 and you can now find cards for roughly the same price as the 9070xt--$850-$899.  I guess that's better, right?

Maybe the release of the 9060/5060 cards will help supply even more--I can hope even though the sketchy behavior of NVIDIA around the 5060 cards doesn't bode well.  I wouldn't start building until I'm officially done with the school year (which doesn't happen until mid-June where I live), so I've got a bit to wait.  I'm sort of feeling the pressure around the end of Windows 10 too.  Upgrading my current PC to Windows 11 is likely just an issue of updating the BIOS (not my favorite thing to do) or enabling TPM and then doing the upgrade--a pain in the buttocks, but definitely possible.

I'm very fortunate to be able to build a new PC, ultimately I feel grateful for that.  Hopefully it happens--it makes me very excited just to think of it.  Happy gaming (and building) wishes to everyone out there!

Smackin' Demons in the new DOOM Trailer!

I've been spending ALL my gaming time re-playing Against the Storm (my favorite modern strategy game) and checking out some of the features in the "Keepers of the Stone" DLC that I purchased in a sale awhile back.  The major highlight of the DLC is the addition of a new race, the frogs.  The frogs have talents that are geared toward stonecutting and rainwater-based activities.  They are heartier than the obnoxiously weak harpies and their one annoying trait is that they will not live in basic shelter and require frog housing (which requires 4 bricks, so not too expensive as race-specific housing goes).  There are also new special map encounters and zone types.  The coastal grove map features a fun strider port where you can periodically send workers out on special expeditions (which require food for both the strider and the workers) to search for blueprints or crates of goods that range in rarity.  There's also the ashen forest which is geared toward mining and offers up a unique building where you can use a special currency that's rewarded for mining a certain amount of ore.  Using these "thundershards," you can combine two variables (and one penalty that slightly increases the perk) to create a new cornerstone ability--it could be something like for every 4 human villagers increase boot production by 2.  Like pretty much everything in the game, variables change and the quality of your crafted perks can be great or very meh.  I'd recommend checking out the DLC if you haven't (*there were some early gripes about the amount of content in the DLC and it was fleshed out quite a bit and I've found it to be worth the price--plus, I got it on sale).

In smokin' hot news, a new trailer for the upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages dropped yesterday.  There's plenty of demon smacking and rip/tearing to make every DOOM enthusiast feel a glimmer of demon-slaying lust.  It looks like there are a greater variety of melee tools to increase the amount of hand-to-hand demon punching that you will get to experience.  And, of course, there's even more of the giant robot action that was premiered in the original trailer.  Take a gander at the new trailer:

Unfortunately I will not be playing it because ye olde PC is too long in the tooth to meet the requirements.  I look forward to rip/tearing and punching demons with a fancy shield in the future.  

No GTA 4 U!

It was...a somewhat disappointing gaming news week for (mostly console) gamers.  Probably the biggest news of the week was the (completely unsurprising) delay of the greatly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.  If you are a console gamer and thought you'd happily be looting, shooting, and exploring a sprawling new Rockstar world this year...welp, not so much.  The new release date is in late May of 2026 now.  Sad face.  There has still been no news about the status of a PC release (we all know that a PC date is probably far in the future), so while the news might have been disappointing for console folks, us PC folks can do nothing but shrug.  There has also been some speculation about the potential price of Rockstar's latest and greatest with some projections that it could cost around $100.  As much as it sounds insane, let's be real, people will pay it.

No one is going to be playing this for awhile!

There was a bit of good news this week though!  Borderlands 4 has pushed its release date up two weeks, so at least fans will get a chance to shoot a billion baddies a bit earlier.  Before the GTA VI news rolled out there was some speculation that this was being done to avoid a potential conflict of release dates.  Guess that's not a problem anymore.  I haven't been paying a ton of attention to Borderlands related news largely because the third game was a bit meh.

In "games I actually play" news, Two Point Museum premiered its first big update.  This update features many new cosmetic features like more wall and floor patterns, but also a big batch of quality of life and fan requested features.  I've already completely played through it, but all these changes seem like they're going to make the game even better.  I didn't mess around with some of the features (like establishing patrol zones for security) and know that some of them weren't working as intended.  Hopefully they're fixed and working better.

The GPU/PC hardware news has remained fairly bleak with tariffs looming.  NVIDIA released its spate of 5060 GPU's that seem very lackluster (and, of course, overpriced) and AMD is likely going to release its own 9060 series of lower cost cards soon.  Prices are still well above MSRP and likely to remain that way for awhile.  The prices of non-GPU hardware were on a downward trend for awhile but that also seems like it's starting to move the opposite way.  It's just not a great time to build.