Melted Dreams

Sometimes it's for the best to not be one of the first to be doing/getting something.  The whole early 5000 series NVIDIA GPU release seems like a fiasco.  Firstly, it was apparently most of a paper release with evidence of extremely meager supplies (so meager that Microcenter located in southern California got something like 67 total 5090's).  Your chances of actually obtaining a card were miniscule, but that might not be a bad thing.  There have been reports that some cards are having the same problem as the early 4090's--those absolute beastly cards suck up a massive amount of power and have been melting power cables.  What a bummer to actually get a card and then have it disintegrate before your eyes!  I'm sure those few people who actually experienced this will be getting a replacement...someday when NVIDIA actually starts pumping out GPU's (rumored to be anywhere from March to June).  And another piece of bad news is that with the new tariffs on China, those cards are going to cost as much as $400 more.

Personally, I'm pulling for AMD to release their 9000 series cards and for things to go much more smoothly.  I'd love to see AMD start grabbing more of the GPU market.  The new AMD cards are supposedly going to be released in March.  I think a lot of gamers are keeping their fingers crossed given that the 5000 series launch has been so ridiculous.

(If you want to listen/watch and entire podcast about this issue here's a link to Hardware Unboxed discussing this issue--link)

If you want a great breakdown of all the 5000 series woes, JayzTwoCents breaks it down well in this video:

My Satisfactory dreams of saving the human race from vague disaster are slowly materializing.  I've reached what appears to be the final phase (9) and am working through unlocking even more complicated machinery.  Completing this phase, of course, requires a mindboggling array of fancy items.  One of my big goals is to build another nuclear reactor that runs on plutonium rods (plutonium rods are a different fuel source that are built from the waste of uranium reactors--it's a whole other complicated process to piece together).  With this extra power I could even further refine my sadly inefficient production lines.

There has always got to be something to look forward to and I'm greatly anticipating the March 4th release of Two Point Museum!  I've seen lots of great videos of the different kinds of museums you can build--the stock natural history variety but aquariums and goofier supernatural themed affairs.  I'm not going to pre-order or buy the slightly spendier "explorer edition" that offers up a week of early access play and a bunch of mostly cosmetic/bonus items, but I'm very much looking forward to the regular release.

I've also reconsidered my opinion of the "early access" bonus days that some games are offering.  It might be a good strategy because it allows developers to have a smaller number of players interacting with the game and discovering issues/bugs before the full release (and then hopefully addressing these issues).  I just don't think it's worth paying 1/3 more of the price (although there are some parts of the explorers edition that do seem nice--like an additional museum to run).

Happy post-Valentines day (I'm hoping to grab some cheap candy--ha!) and happy gaming!

Oopsies

The big news in gaming/hardware this week was the release of the RTX 5080.  Most of the reviews I saw for this, the semi-latest and greatest of GPUs, were very underwhelming.  It sounds like these newest gen cards aren't a huge upgrade over the last gen cards (insert sad trombone noise here)--there are some improvements like smaller size and better cooling, but the performance boost from gen to gen is lackluster at best.  If you're interested, here are a couple of good videos explaining the general underwhelmingness of the 5080's:

This Paul's Hardware video also lays out a good comparison of price vs. performance increase from past generations.  It's interesting (but unsurprising) to see that as prices have risen, the performance increase has actually gotten worse--basically you're paying more for less...seems to be the general vibe these days.

If you were someone who was hoping to actually pick up a 5080 on release day, well.....lol.  In a completely expected fashion, they were sold out almost immediately.  NVIDIA of course released a statement along the lines of "oopsies, we didn't realize demand would be so great--we're working hard on restocking."  Yeah, I'm sure that wasn't intentional.  

I'm hoping to build a new PC and it never feels like it's a good time.  These new cards sound like they're going to be difficult to get and the prices of the older gen cards are sort of all over the place.  I'm also not 100% sure if I want to go with another NVIDIA GPU or AMD.  I'm totally unimpressed by ray tracing, so it's not a big deal to me.  I guess I'll just watch and wait to see what the 5070 and new AMD 9000 series cards have to offer.  If the 5090 and 5080 are anything to go off of...I'm guessing the 5070 cards will probably be equally underwhelming.

Ready to Slay?

If you've been missing punching, kicking, and of course, rip/tearing the demonic hordes of hell there's some good news on the horizon--Doom: The Dark Ages announced its release date yesterday.  We can all be joyously rip/tearing on May 15!  Well, that is if you can meet the specs (sadly, my CPU does not meet the minimum--check out the specs on the Steam Page).

There's also a new trailer/gameplay video to ogle--give it a looky:

According to info from the devs, The Dark Ages is a prequel that focuses on the DOOM Slayer pre-events in 2016's DOOM and DOOM: Eternal.  Eternal notably drew players into a bit of a storyline involving the planet and culture of the DOOM slayer, so this seems like a logical progression for the series.  Other info also indicates that there will be less platforming/acrobatics in the new game--this was one area that I did see a bit of grousing about--players would much prefer to be on the ground slicing demons into little chunks than navigating platforming puzzles.

The gameplay trailer features a notable new weapon--a chainsaw-like shield that looks like it can be thrown or used in melee attacks.  This is fun (but not anything that new/novel)!  According to this Polygon article, the game will also feature a wide array of other melee weapons to help you slay the demonic hordes.  Undoubtedly the best/coolest part of the trailer is what appears to be the ability to pilot a giant mech to fight a titan.  Can it get much better than that?

One interesting tidbit:  there's not going to be any multi-player.  That's fine with me, and really, DOOM is an excellent singleplayer title.  I'm glad they've decided to focus their energy on that.  The downside...the $69.99 price tag.

On the hardware front, the 5090 reviews are starting to roll out and...they're a bit lackluster.  It sounds like the improved performance between the current gen cards (4090) and the 5090 aren't as good as in the past.  Still, as Paul from Paul's Hardware states--it will be the fastest card on the market.  And, let's be real, the folks who are going to be buying these cards are probably those who simply must have the best and would be willing to drop that money regardless.  NVIDIA made some pretty bold claims about the improved performance (unsurprising) and I'm waiting to see the 5070 reviews.  If you're interested, you can check out Paul's video below: