JCC Gaming Förceboat Parté - JC G4m3z thr34d (Gaming General Discussion)

It's unusual to get the War in Heaven after the endgame crisis. If I've ever had it then it usually occurs after the Great Khan. What crisis did you get?

 

The Dimensional Beings. A nasty one, that - you are given absolutely no warning. And I messed up there, with my doomstack fleet trying to pick off its individual militaries and destroy its bases; turns out I didn't pay attention and failed to notice that he expanded into a nebula that obscured forces, and walked into a doomstack enemy fleet twice the size of mine.
Somehow, I managed to turn it around, and eventually destroyed the Dimensional Anchors and then the Gateway. After that, mop-up duty.

Before that, I had the Great Khan midgame crisis, and managed to beat his main fleet twice, finally killing him the second time.

The third crisis was too much, though.

 

Yeah, the Unbidden can be nasty if they get too large as you then get a second and then a third wave, but at least they fight themselves. It's always the Contingency I struggle with as with at least the Unbidden and the Scourge they have an easy hard counter. If I remember correctly the Unbidden have a ton of shields but no armour and the Scourge have no shields but tons of armour. So long as you equip your fleets properly it's not too bad. The Contingency have tons of both, plus a decent amount of health and spawn in four separate points in the galaxy. I think I had one run where two spawned in my empire and another two spawned too far for me to get to so they just gobbled up the surrounding empires.

I've not played the game since 2.6 I think, maybe I should give it another go.

 

Sadly, unless there's a big surprise I think it'll be next year or later.

 

I managed to keep their control of the galaxy limited so the other waves never spawned.
I also lucked out - they tangled with a Fallen Empire, and while the Fallen Empire's forces got trashed, they tied up about half their forces, while also whittling them down so it was easy to pick them off after I closed the gate.

 

Sooo recent rumour

Spoiler

apparently a Dead space reboot is getting announced at EA play!

 

My Series X is heeeeere! No more worry about exclusives. Wooo!

 

Part of me says to get XBX, the other half says MS will come out with an Xcloud update where you can download a game via GamePass to an external hard drive, with cloud save data with no need for a XBX.

 

Do what I did and get the Series S. All of Microsoft's exclusives will be on Game Pass anyway so it's not like you need the disk drive.

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Or, you know, a PC.

 

Yes, but:
1. PC's are far more expensive and
2. A faff.

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Yeah, I don't have a few thousand going spare.

 

If anyone knows about building PCs and/or upgrading old ones, would you recommend on whether or not it's worthwhile for me to upgrade my 10+ year old laptop or just invest in a new one?

I've had my Acer Aspire 5735z laptop for over a decade. A few years ago I upgraded the RAM from (don't laugh) 2gb to 4gb. Recently I found this website that suggests I can upgrade the hard drive to an SSD one and it would make a huge difference in the processing power. Over the years I've upgraded the OS from Windows Vista to 7, but I'd love to get 10 on there but I'd imagine it might be pushing it. I don't really use it for much other than when I've gone on trips to store photos and watch videos; but at the very least I was wondering if I could upgrade it at least enough to where I could play somewhat "simple" games like The Sims 4. I have TS4 on a modern desktop already, but it would be cool to take it on the road with me if I could. Even though I do have the means, I just don't see the point right now in buying a new laptop just so I could take it with me maybe a few times a year on vacation.

 

10 year old laptop = Get a new one

10 year old desktop = get a new one

Technology has moved on so much that what you get now for a few quid will blow your old one out of the water


It also depends on what you're doing. If it's browsing or email only and your old laptop still works, then you'd probably get away with sticking with what you've got. If you want to play games then get new.

 

The only problem right now is the computer chip shortage driving up prices.
My SO is facing the same issue with her laptop, and it's at the point that she absolutely needs a new one.

 

But that's my point. I'm already considering getting a replacement desktop for my bedroom (which I believe is older than my laptop, if you can believe it); but I barely ever use the laptop outside of taking it with me on the road. It has a very crappy battery; but outside of that it still runs fine considering I'm not exactly playing any games that demand even remotely high specs.

 

If it works and does what you need (especially if it's only going to be used infrequently) I'd spend the cash on a new desktop and sort the laptop at a later date.

 

The desktop is an investment. The upgrade(s) to the laptop would essentially be pocket change. Maybe $60 for the SSD and anywhere from $50 to $100 for the Windows 10 upgrade if it could handle it.

 

Upgrading the SSD isn't going to give you what you need for gaming though. You need a new processor and better graphics.

Here are the The Sims 4 System Requirements (Minimum)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (2.0 GHz Dual Core required if using integrated graphics)
RAM: 2 GB
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X1300 or Intel GMA X4500 - Misses
DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 128 MB

The Sims 4 Recommended Requirements
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Athlon X4 - Miles away
RAM: 4 GB - Pass
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or better
DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1024 MB

The laptop as it stands would probably "play" it but the quality will be abysmal

 

Yeah, a dual core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and integrated graphics aren't going to get you anywhere. Even when that laptop was new it would have struggled with contemporary AAA games. Most current titles simply wouldn't start.

And with PC gaming I would always recommend going with a desktop. They're usually cheaper for what you get, much easier to upgrade and are much less prone to overheating issues if properly ventilated.

 

I follow a TS4 group on Facebook, and every so often someone asks/recommends laptops to play the game on (good ones where you don't have to adjust to minimal settings). Problem is that they don't talk about actual prices. If I knew I could get a laptop for around $200 or so that could either meet or surpass the "recommended requirements" of the game I'd go for it. I like my old Acer laptop (took it to Japan with me back in 2010) but if it's obsolete it's obsolete.

 

Anything over 3 years old is pretty much obsolete when it comes to computing

Your laptop is an antique

 

It belongs in a museum!

 

That's the problem with computers vs. consoles. Computers just get obsolete so quickly; unless you're willing to immediately front the bill on a high-end gaming PC. I bought my PS4 maybe four years ago and not only is it running as strong as it did when I took it out of the box for the first time, but they'll be releasing more new games for it at least for the foreseeable future while the next gen console continues to tread slowly into the mainstream.

 

The PS4 is obsolete too, not because of the PS5 but for the same reasons that PC's become obsolete so quickly.

The PS4 was a "top" end PC (I know Ender, I know) when it was released but after a year the new tech had already superceded the capabilities of the PS4. The kit inside was still good and as it's a stable platform games can be designed to run on it for years.

A top end PC will be OK for top end games for around 4-5 years and in some cases longer if you can upgrade the right thing (GFX and RAM typically)

The Laptop you have is about 5 generations in the past now and as it's a laptop, upgrade options are minimal.
The laptop I custom built 8 years ago plays the Sims 4 to a reasonable quality but it was a gaming system so was decked out, my new Desktop runs it all on ultra with minimal load time. My old workhorse laptop (off the shelf Acer for the missus to browse on) won't even load football manager