#excited for a beefy PC though
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I was jokingly considering doing this but my work drive crapped out the day before I left for vacation 2 weeks ago and now we're waiting on computer parts to arrive for a new PC for Cam (I'm getting his old one, which should be more than enough for my needs) so... I guess I can't reliably make any new art in the meantime and I will be participating in Repostober for real!
Ok I have decided that I don't have the stamina for an october drawing challenge I am going to start #REPOSTOBER where I just repost old art that I like every day 💁♀️ JOIN ME IF YOUR DARE 🎃
#great timing as always#excited for a beefy PC though#don't worry I won't spam you only 1 a day#if I don't forget#I'll post 3 today to make up for the last 2#personal#long post#repostober
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I've been very patient with VR.
I've been very patient with VR. (Posting here since the r/patientgamers mod took issue with me "asking for requests", even though that wasn't at all the point of the post, and just a line I threw in to encourage engagement.)Truth be told, I've been salivating over the thought of Virtual Reality ever since I saw some grainy photos of a prototype arcade machine when I was a kid. A little older and I played an arcade game called Jarhead (iirc), which had a massive helmet held aloft by a counter-weighted arm (not sure what the right terminology is) that gave you 360-degree movement.Then VR just kinda...died. For decades.Everyone now knows more about the recent history of VR, so I'll just say I was very, very excited when the first Oculus Rift came out. Mostly due to it being a bit outside my budget at the time, and not having a pc beefy enough, I waited. And waited, and waited; for the technology to mature, for prices to come down, for it to be widespread enough to have plenty of support, and for there to be a larger selection of high-quality content.Well, the price drop on the Quest 2 finally cemented the deal. It was time.And it is everything I had hoped it would be. A game-changer, literally and figuratively. I'm actually in awe of all the tech crammed into this little headset. My frame of reference is rock-solid no matter how minute my head movements are. Controller tracking as well is top-notch...I'm pretty sure it's picking up the trembles in my hand, lol.Also, the self-contained nature of the Quest means it's basically a console in it's own right. I'm planning on taking it out into the yard some day and making a 20-foot boundary, lol.I'm glad I waited, but I'm also really glad I pulled the trigger now. For possibly the first time it feels like I'm living in the future.Please hit me up with any of your favorite VR games (I'll be connecting it to my pc shortly, which will open up a bunch of games I already own, so let's keep it to Quest store or SideQuest.)Or feel free to tell me how VR is a gimmick and a flat screen is all anyone needs. :p(Update since the original post. One of my controllers is fucked up and I have to sent it in to be replaced. RIP VR for the next week or two unless I can figure out a temporary solution.) Submitted April 18, 2024 at 08:50AM by Zathura2 https://ift.tt/DlwZnep via /r/gaming
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Steam Deck is now due to also offer a refurbished option
Steam Deck Linux handheld game console gets refurbished listings with discounted prices. Thanks to the minds at Valve who are offering these units back on the market. Due to make their way onto Steam soon. So, the news in the gaming realm is all about Valve's Steam Deck. If you missed the big sale recently, there's a deal coming that may be of interest. First off, the handheld console from Valve already has its foothold in the market. A portable Linux PC that lets you play your favorite Steam games on the go. Now, Valve's gearing up to offer "Certified Refurbished" Steam Deck. This means these units have been checked out, tested, and given a clean bill of health by Valve themselves. There might be a few scratches here and there, but they've made sure it runs as good as new. Here's where it gets good: The refurbished pricing is the same as the sale prices. The 64 GB model is $319, the 256 GB is $419, and the beefy 512 GB one is $519. So, if you're quick, you might just grab one of these when they are available. These same prices can also be found via GameStop. Although, these units seem to only be available for GameStop Pro members.
Refurbished Steam Deck pricing
Now, there's the twist. The SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik found the refurbished listings on Steam's database. But Valve went quiet and took them down. Some people were faster, though, and got screenshots. According to those pics, if you're in Europe or North America, you might just be the first when these models release. I know what you're thinking, "But what about warranty?" The new Steam Deck comes with a 1-year warranty, but it's still unclear if the refurbished ones will. Let's hope they do. Gabe Newell at Valve, mentioned back in 2021 that pricing the Deck was a bit of a heartache. Since they wanted to make sure it's affordable for players. Even with brands like Asus, their hardware is still pricier than the Deck. Now, you might have heard about the Steam Deck sales volumes. Research suggests they might sell more than 3 million units by the end of 2023. But, with big names like Lenovo and Nintendo possibly dropping their own handheld consoles soon, the competition is heating up. The Steam Deck is making waves, and with these refurbished options coming up, it's an exciting time to be a Linux gamer. So, keep an eye out, you might be flaunting the handheld from Steam.
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@justsuha filled this out, and I felt like doing the same. Kinda felt they didn’t have the best categories so maybe I shouldn’t have bothered, also tried not being too repetitive with my picks. Favourite Game - Final Fantasy VI, this was an easy one for me. One of the first games I ever played, then I came back to it around like 12-14 years old and it was the first game I ever played on an emulator, then it was one of the first games I ever watched an LP on, one of the first game I ever started playing with mods, and yeah, I’ve just played this game a lot in my life. Best Story - Mass Effect (1), could’ve gone with FFVI again but eh, and maybe Hollow Knight but I feel like the world building in ME1 is crazy-deep and unparalleled. Maybe that’s not story in like a “plot” sense, but it’s what I settled on. Favourite Art Style - Killer7, was a comfortable pick but Persona 5 is also a really crisp game. Also thought about other things that are more atmospheric like Metroid Prime, Hollow Knight, or Bloodborne. Favourite Soundtrack - Final Fantasy VI, like I said, didn’t want to be repetitive, so there was games that had like a banger of a track like Papers, Please, or something like Super Meat Boy, but I couldn’t really justify anything being equal to FFVI. Hardest Game - Dragon Age: Origins, Felt like a Soulsborne game was the “gimme” answer so I wanted to swerve a bit. DA:O is hard as fuck, if you’re not optimizing your build you’re not beating that game. Even on “easy” I’m like chill man Funniest Game - Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, was tempted to go Undertale but since that’s kind of just a parody game I feel like it had a lot more liberties it could take to still be funny. TTYD is super funny while still being like it’s own game. Game I like that everyone hates - Gears of War 2, some kid in Gr. 11 said I should get a 360 and play that, and so I did. I played the online mode so much, but it never really felt like a popular competitive game. I liked being so beefy, it’s basically just one-shotting people with shotguns is the meta and so the whole stalking someone to close the gap to be in range was super fun to me. Campaign kinda trash and my friend wanted to get an achievement for co-op beating it on the hardest difficult that was miserable for me, but I think it’s a really fun game to play with some great audio too, the SFX are top notch. Game I hate that everyone likes - Borderlands, hate is a strong word but man I don’t really care about this game at all and people have been hyping it up for a decade. Underrated Game - Catherine, all my irl friends I tell about this game don’t know what it is, until I remind them and they go “oh yeah, that game looked weird/was too hard.” don’t know anyone who’s actually played more than an hour of it. It’s one of my all-time faves, though. Overrated Game - Breath of the Wild, my wife says I didn’t give it a “fair shake” but I played like 20 hours and zzz... was tempted to go with a Pokemon game too, but it’s more a franchise in general than a specific game. Best Voice Acting - Yakuza Kiwami, I didn’t really have any real opinions on a game having good voice acting; generally they don’t. Yakuza is all VA’d in Japanese so that’s probably why, but it felt pretty cool and was the only thing that I could think of actively enhanding a VG experience. Maybe shoulda gone GTA (3 or San Andreas), both are really dated and definitely don’t sound that good anymore but one of my favourite games to listen to dialogue from. Worst Voice Acting - Metroid: Other M, not bad in terms of the actual talent of the VA’s but damn if it doesn’t ruin everything about Samus as a character. “REMEMBA ME?!” Favourite Male - Kazuma Kiryu, was tempted to go General Leo from FFVI, but couldn’t find an image big enough before I resized this, which I could have easily worked around, but I also really like the Dragon of Dojima! It’s weird because he seems like such a simple design but he’s just badass in the right way, and I don’t know why more games can’t get it right. Favourite Female - Franziska von Karma, from the 2nd Ace Attorney game. For some reason had a huge crush on her, when I was younger I even drew some fanart of her which I ain’t done for nobody but her and Broly. Favourite Protagonist - Samus Aran, wanted to go with a “franchise” character and Samus is always super cool (except in Other M), I’ll always be excited to play her in some new game. Favourite Village - Kakariko Village, felt like kind of a weird question, ‘cuz like if it was favourite area or something, I could have put some other stuff (Greenpath in Hollow Knight for example), and being a village I feel like basically limits you to medieval games but not the main hub either as that’s “a city.” But Ocarina of Time’s Kakariko Village is always really fun to roll in to, also thought of the Goron Village, or just any village in Secret of Mana because that village theme is soo good. Most Hated Character - Nathan Drake, have barely even played Uncharted, but I just always hate any character with his personality, and he’s the biggest and most well-known. Maybe he’s fine but meh. First Game You Played - Super Mario World, can’t say for 100%, but this and Super Mario Kart were games I was playing a lot since at like 4 or 5 my older brother owned them and they’re the most baby friendly. Also remember playing a lot of PC games that my dad had, Timon and Pumba pinball, Chip’s Challenge, Ski Free, and stuff like that. Skunny Kart Racing for DOS but I never understood how to get to DOS. Favourite Company - Bioware, I don’t really care about gaming companies in general, but Mass Effect and DA:O are some of my favourite games. I might say Square as well but they do a lot of stuff. Hated Company - Ubisoft, don’t hate them all but I just feel like they only make games I have zero interest in. Depressing Game - Doki Doki Literature Club, this and creepy are kinda really similar I feel, but I went DDLC but I kinda forget how it even ends. I just remember feeling bummed about the purple and pink haired girl, and then the Monika scene just being uncomfortable (in a good way). Creepy Game - Doom3, don’t really play creepy games, Doom3 was suspenseful so I don’t know if that counts. I had it for like 2 years, played it once for like 10 hours straight, and never played it again. Still lives in my head. Happy Game - Super Meat Boy, is this a happy game? I don’t know, I feel like it’s got a pumped up energy which I equate to happiness. It’s fun and the music makes it really addictive. Favourite Ending - Metal Gear Solid, don’t really have a great answer to this. I really like Meryl and Snake riding off on their snowmobile though.
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Guys I finally finished Tales of Zestiria and I’m definitely a Tales fan now.
So I bought Zestiria for PC back in 2016 I think? (At least that’s my earliest save files) but my laptop could barely run it, and going into Ladylake made Sorey run at the usual walking speed, and the cutscenes took twice as long because it would pause between dialogue to let the animation catch up. So I gave up pretty quickly.
Last year I got a big beefy gaming computer and went back to try again. I got to meet Edna for the first time, but the game kept crashing in the mountains, and even with the quick saves it was frustrating me. It was one of those that freezes the computer too, so I had to turn everything off and on again each time. So I gave up a second time.
I was feeling a JRPG need last February (2020) and remembered that I didn’t have to spend any money to play this one! So I went back to it. It still freezes my computer every once in a while, but after some online adjustments and tweaking, I was able to make it take hours between, rather than minutes. So with plenty of quick saving, I finally beat it!
......
And promptly realized I needed more. I bought and am playing Berseria on the PS4, with the hope that it won’t crash like my PC experiences. Also a friend recommended I look for the older games at a retro gaming store, and I found the Symphonia Chronicles soon after for $11, which I haven’t played yet. And I’m trying very hard not to look up if the Vesperia Definitive Edition is on Switch yet so that I don’t buy yet ANOTHER.
My big love for the series so far is how well it sets up the characters and party dynamic. Especially in Berseria, it’s amazing how constant and rich the character skits are. They flow easily into the story. And even with Zestiria, though they were harder to find, it really felt like glimpses to this group on their adventure when they’re not worrying about the big stuff. And when they are. Everyone feels so real. I have yet to hate a party member, although I was unsure about Zaveid originally, and I really don’t care for whatever the fuck is up with Bienfu.
Anyway I’m rambling now, and there’s probably two categories of people reading this. If you haven’t played a Tales game, definitely look into it. If you’re a Tales fan, wow! Thanks for reading this. I’m new and awkward but I’m so excited to enjoy this new JRPG love!
Uh..... bye!!!
#tales of zestiria#tales of berseria#tales of symphonia#tales of vesperia#tales of games#sorey and mikleo have my heart but im really enjoying B’s plot and gameplay loop.....
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21 Dollar Foot long
It’s been a hot minute, but I have a new fic for youse guise.
Angus receives a new app from his buddy which claims to allow him to host his very own growth drive! Angus could use the money, and it’s not like the app can really grow his cock. It’s just trick photography and photo manipulation, right?
Angus was sitting at his desk when he heard the familiar chime of a file being sent coming from his desktop computer. Having nothing better to do, he quickly opened up the chat window to see who had sent the file and what the nature of the file was. Angus was not at all surprised to see the message had come from his best bud, Donald.
“Check out this latest program I made” read Donald’s message.
“What does it do?” Angus asked.
“Oh. You’re gonna love this. You know those growth drive things that have been going around on Twitter?” Donald asked.
“Yeah?” Angus replied.
“Well, I got to thinking. Why don’t we try making one of our own!” Donald said.
“You know as well as I do that neither of us can draw for shit.” Angus replied.
“That’s the beauty of it. We won’t have to! Just fire up this program, pop in a few parameters, and let the magic of modern technology do the rest!” Donald said.
The whole conversation was carried out via text so it’s not like Angus could really hear the tone of Donald’s voice, but the speed at which he was firing back responses as well as the various typos made it pretty obvious that Donald was beyond excited by his latest pet project.
“If this is such a great idea, why haven’t you done it already?” Angus asked.
“Well…. I was kind of hoping that you’d be the one to try it out.” Donald replied.
“Me?” Angus asked.
“Yeah. I mean… You’ve already got the looks. I bet you’d have people lining up to see what you can do.” Donald replied.
“If you wanted to see me naked there are much easier ways to go about it.” Angus teased.
It was obvious by the ellipsis on the bottom of the chat program that Donald was typing something, but the long pause in between Angus’s comment and Donald’s actual reply made it clear that Donald was having a hard time picking his words.
After what seemed like ages, Donald finally replied, “Just try it out. You said so yourself you were strapped on cash. This could be a great way to make a few bucks.”
Angus couldn’t argue with that… well, he could argue with that, but he didn’t see the point in it. Truth be told, he was curious about what Donald’s program could actually do, and it’s not like there was any harm in firing it up.
Angus shrugged and clicked the file. Once it had finished downloading, he fired it up and easily coasted through the installation options and eventually got the app up and running on his computer. He was amazed at how clean and easy to use the app was. All it took was a few clicks and a few permissions and the program was fully booted up and ready to go. It had even gained access to Angus’s webcams. The cameras had already fired up and were fixated on him. One feed was zoomed out to show his whole body, and the other was zoomed in on his crotch, although since he was currently wearing boxers, the second feed only got a good glimpse of plaid.
Angus took a moment to look through all the options. It didn’t take him long to get a feel for how this app worked. There were some basic parameters he could choose. First, he had to link it to an account that he would receive pledges from viewers, and then he got to choose how much he would grow per pledge. There were tons of options he could choose from as far as how much to grow for each dollar value, but most of them seemed too unrealistic. He could do something ridiculous like 1cm per $20, but that would take forever to see any growth, and he doubted anyone would pay money to see something like that, especially since it was all just going to be on the fly footage editing. Angus could just imagine how he would look during his cam show with a comically stretched out ten-inch-long dong that seemed to curve and distort every time it moved as if it was being viewed through a convex mirror.
Eventually he decided to just click one inch per each $3 donation. This seemed like a safe enough bet. People did Ko-Fis all the time for growth drives so there were obviously people who would pay that much to see some trick photography do its thing. With the parameters set and his account linked, all that was left to do was to fire up the stream, and fortunately Angus had a site already in mind to host his little cam show. All it took was a few keystrokes, and he was logging and ready to go.
“Hey guys,” Angus said awkwardly and waved to his webcam. He could see the footage displaying on his computer screen of himself waving back at him as well as a second window of just a close-up of his still plaid-clad junk.
At the moment there was no one to reply back to his welcome, but that didn’t take long to change. Once his stream was live there was a steady trickle of viewers who popped in to check out what was up. The icon of the stream just showed an old photo of Angus flexing for the cam so a few people were there to see the hot, beefy stud wearing even less than he was in his avatar pic, but there were a few who had stumbled in because they were bored and looking for a few whack and a few who had stumbled in out of pure curiosity. His stream header promised dick growth, and that’s not something you saw every day.
There were only a few people in the stream by the time Angus got his first comment. “Now eventually you might have dicks on your dick stream, yes?” the comment read.
“Oh right. I suppose I ought to get right on into it,” Angus said. He got up from his chair and took a step back, all the while keeping an eye on his cam feeds to make sure that the cameras were still staying focused on him. Sure, enough one camera remained focused on his body and the other remained zoomed in on his crotch. Angus took just a moment to steel his nerves before hooking his thumbs into the waistband of his boxers and shimmying them down. It didn’t take long for his perfectly modest five inches to spill into view.
Angus was just about to sit down on the foot of his bed and get to wanking when he saw another comment pop up on his stream, but he quickly realized a small flaw in his master plan. It was tough to keep an eye on the comments on his computer while he was seated at his bed. He quickly scooped up his phone which he had left beside his PC and logged into his own stream so he could read the comments. While he was scanning the newest comment a few more popped up, but they all said roughly the same thing.
“Nice.”
“Great cock, bro.”
The real comment that caught his attention though wasn’t even part of his actual stream. Angus phone buzzed twice alerting him to two new messages: One text message and one email. Angus checked the text first since he doesn’t normally worry too much about emails, but the nature of the text made him keen to check his email immediately after.
The message had come from his pal, Donald. “Looks like you could use something to get the ball rolling there,” the message read. It didn’t take Angus long at all to figure out what Donald meant. Angus almost immediately felt a strange sensation across his cock and balls. It was a slight warmth almost as if his junk was pulsing with energy. Angus instinctively glanced down at his cock and what he saw made his jaw drop. His bait and tackle were actually growing! It wasn’t just the fact that he was getting hard either. He was always more of a shower than a grower, but even ignoring that fact, getting a boner wouldn’t make his nuts swell up too.
Angus quickly checked his email to confirm his suspicions. Sure enough, the recent email was from PayPal alerting him to a new donation of $3 from his pal, Donald, but that was just the start. Even while he was checking his new message his phone buzzed a couple more times, but rather than having a new email show up in his email list numbers appeared next to the PayPal alert email. First x2… then x3… then x4…
Angus checked the comments on his stream. He was too dumbfounded to do much modeling for his new fans, but his cock was more than happy to put on a show. He solid six inches was rock hard at this point and steadily creeping up in size as he read the recent comments.
“Woah! Did his dick just grow!?”
“No way!”
“I gotta try this out.”
“Same. I got three bucks to throw at this.”
“Me too. I got three bucks in my couch cushion.”
Sure enough, those commenters made good on their goal and tossed another $9 Angus’s way for a combined total of three more inches. Angus stared on in awe as his cock went from six inches… to seven… to eight… to nine… He couldn’t believe his eyes. He had gone from a perfectly average five inches to a porn star nine incher in the span of a few minutes! This wasn’t trick photography. This was real! Donald’s app actually worked! Angus was too stunned to think too hard on it. All he could do was stare at his cock. He had to be sure what he was seeing was real. He had to feel it with his own hands, and his audience was only all too happy to watch him do just that.
Angus plopped down at the foot of his bed and wrapped a hand around his fat cock. He could barely fathom how huge his dick was now. It was like gripping a water bottle. His cock used to only just barely poke out past his palm when he gave his rod a good tug, but now he had room to spare. He could almost get his whole other hand around his shaft, and judging by the buzz of his phone, he got the impression that would soon be possible.
Sure enough, Angus felt a familiar warmth pulse through his penis while he had his hand around his crank. He could actually feel his dick getting thicker in his hand. His had to loosen his grip as his cock grew fatter in the palm of his hand, but that wasn’t all that changed. His dick not only got thicker but longer as well, and his balls were growing right alongside the rest of his junk. His nuts had grown from the size of cherries to the size of cherry tomatoes and were showing no signs of slowing down just yet.
Angus continued to stroke his swelling cock with one hand while he held his phone in the other and glanced at the comments in his stream. The comments were really blowing up. His did a double take as he saw that his follower count had quickly climber through the double digits and were rapidly approaching triples, and it didn’t take him long to find out why. A few of the comments said it all.
“Oh man. He’s huge! I know a site that’s gonna love him!”
“Is his dick growing!? No way! I gotta show this to my server!”
“I gotta share this on Twitter. They’re gonna go nut for this guy!”
“God. They gotta see this on discord.”
Angus had gone viral, and more viewers meant more potential donators, which explained a lot about why his phone felt more like a vibrator than a minicomputer. Angus could scarcely fathom how fast his cock had reached porn star status, and it didn’t seem like his growth was going to slow down any time soon. Judging by all the new arrivals, he might reach absurd sizes in the very near future.
Angus stared at his cock as it continued to grow and swell. He was so shocked at what he was seeing that his mind was lagging. As his cock grew past a full foot of fat dong, he started to wonder if maybe he ought to pull the plug on this little pet project or at the very least turn off the donations. He was more than happy to spend a little bit of time exploring his newly enlarged cock and he was sure his audience would love to watch him do so.
Angus was just about to get up from his seat at the foot of his bed and put a cap on donations, but something was stopping him from doing so. It was like his body refused to cooperate. He knew he should stop this before it got out of hand, he really did, but at the same time this thought in the back of his mind wouldn’t shut up. His cock was already hot as hell at a full foot. How great would it look like when it got even bigger? It had just gotten hotter and huger and sexier with each added inch. Just the thought of packing on a few more points on his pecker had his dick drooling pre. He could soon have a world record shattering schlong! Angus didn’t know what the current record actually was, but he was sure he rivaled it already. Even as he sat there staring at his schlong, he could feel his phone buzzing and see his dick swelling. It had surpassed a solid foot, that was for sure, but how huge was it really? He could always do the math, sure. He had a list of all the donors and knew how much dick he had started with. It would be a simple matter of tallying to donations to see how huge his cock was now, but where’s the fun in that? It had no punch. No pizazz.
Angus quickly got up from his seat and scrambled for his desk, but he didn’t touch his computer. Instead he opened the drawer and fumbled through the various items inside. At first, he pulled out his trusty ruler, but after a quick glance at his computer screen he quickly changed his mind. The camera feeds now both showed a close-up of his cock and balls, and it was plain to see the foot-long standard ruler would no longer suffice. The tip of Angus’s rock-hard cock now poked well past his belly button. Just seeing how huge his cock looked on cam made Angus even more excited, and his excitement led to a great show for his adoring public. His dick dribbled pre for all to see. He was so hot and bothered that his hands trembled as he dug deeper into his drawer for something that would do the job better than his now too small ruler, and soon he found what he needed. A tape measurer.
Angus plopped back down at the foot of his bed and hurriedly unfurled a segment of the tape measurer and held it up to his humongous cock. His dick was already sixteen inches long and growing by the second! He had to have hands down the largest cock of any dude on the planet! Surely this would be big enough, right? But even as he thought that he could hear his phone buzzing on the bed beside him. The donations were still flowing in!
Angus once again argued over whether or not to call it then and there. He could pull the plug on the stream right now and cap donations. He already had a cock that was seventeen inches long and growing by the second! His dick was beyond huge! His dick was already so thick that he couldn’t even hope to wrap a hand all the way around it. His cock was about as fat as a two-liter bottle of Coke. He had balls the size of large, ripe grapefruit, but even as he debated, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be even bigger. His cock already looked so amazing, and it was just getting hotter as it grew and grew. Surely it couldn’t hurt to add a few more inches to his already amazing cock.
Angus watched the twin video feeds as he reached down and cupped his balls in how hands and gawked at what he saw. The tip of his cock now reached up to his pecs. His nuts were now so huge that either enlarged orb filled an entire palm and then some. At the rate he was going he was soon to have nuts the size of his head! The mere thought of it caused his nearly two feet of fat cock to buck and lurch excitedly. Pre flowed freely down his humongous cock and his massive nuts and dripped onto the floor below.
Angus knew he needed to dial things back a bit if for no other reason than he was close to cumming, and the stream had barely even begun. He wanted to give his audience a good show and maybe squeeze a few more inches out of his donors before he blew his load.
Angus reached over for his phone which he had dropped on his bed when he had decided to be a bit more hands-on with his cock. He quickly unlocked the screen and skimmed over the chat to see what he had missed. The answer to that was not much. Most of the comments seemed to be more of the same.
“He’s so hot.”
“That cock is fantastic!”
“He’s almost big enough!”
Angus had to smirk at these comments. Was he almost big enough or was he just beginning? That was for his fans to decide – and decide they did! For no sooner had Angus had that thought than the conversation took a drastic turn.
“Nothing says we have to donate in increments of $3, right?” Someone asked.
“Not that I know of, why?” came a reply.
“Well, I think this is going a little too slowly.”
“I can put down some money for a BIG spurt.”
“I’ll match it!”
“Me too!”
“Let’s see him get YUGE!”
Angus gasped at what he saw. Just how much were they talking about chipping in? He had already packed on nearly twenty inches. His once average cock was now full two feet long! His dick reached past his nips and was as thick as his beefy bicep! His nuts were now the size of cantaloupes!
Even as Angus pondered just what his donors had in mind his phone buzzed to alert him that he had a new email. His hand trembled as he opened the email to see just what it was. He was not surprised to see it was another PayPal notice, but what did surprise him was the amount.
“I just chipped in 30 bucks.” One commenter said.
Angus read it again to be sure. Thirty dollars! That’s ten whole inches! That’s almost half what he already has!
“I said I’d match it and I will!” came the respond.
Sure enough, his phone buzzed again to alert him to yet another email, but he didn’t need to read this one to see what it meant. The previous email alerting him to a thirty-dollar donor now had an x2 next to it to indicate a duplicate. Sixty dollars… That was twenty whole inches coming at him fast!
Angus stared in awe as his cock began to grow with renewed vigor. Soon the tip of his dick was at his collar bone, and then his chin, and soon it was eye level! It wasn’t long before his dick poked up above his head. Angus stared in awe at the behemoth as it towered over him. His dick was almost as thick as he was, and Angus was no slouch at the gym! He had to feel it with his own hands to be sure it was real. He ran his hands up and down along the length of his newly enhanced rod. His hands looked and felt so tiny against his nearly four feet of fat cock. It was hard to believe that just this morning he could easily wrap a hand around his dick. Now he could wrap both ARMS around his cock.
Angus peeked around his humongous cock to get a glimpse at the camera feeds. Both feeds were now basically showing the exact same footage – a giant cock with some arms and legs poking out from behind it. Angus could scarcely fathom how huge his cock had become. His nuts had swelled up right alongside his dick as well. His nuts were now as large as prize pumpkins! They hung off the edge of his bed and drooped almost down to the floor below!
Angus’s phone began to buzz once more. He couldn’t believe it. He was already so huge, and people were STILL tossing money at him? He quickly scooped up his phone, unlocked the screen, and perused chat once more.
“FUCK He’s huge!”
“That’s so fucking hot!”
“He’s almost more cock than man now!”
“Almost”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Angus gasped at what he saw. They couldn’t possibly be thinking what he thought they were thinking. Growing his cock even more so that he was more cock than man? That’s ridiculous! Yet even as the thought crossed his mind his massive schlong lurched with glee. Pre oozed down his four feet of cock, and his phone buzzed again and again.
Angus watched in shock and awe as his cock climbed higher and higher. It was coming dangerously close to hitting the light fixture above his bed and showing no signs of slowing down, and even without looking he could tell his nuts were growing too. He could feel the cool, faux-hardwood laminate of his dorm room floor against the underside of his swollen nuts.
Angus craned his neck around his monstrous cock and stole a glance at the video feeds. His cock now touched his ceiling. His nuts now rested solidly on the floor like a pair of massive, fleshy bean bag chairs. Angus knew for a fact he needed to stop this, and soon! His cock was thicker than full-sized punching bag! When he wrapped his arms around it his fingers only just barely touched on the opposite side.
Angus unlocked his phone once more and quickly typed a message into the chat. “Ok, guys. That’s enough for one day.” But his message was met with an automated message from the server. “Guests may not comment on this video. Please log in.”
Angus’s eyes fell upon the follower count in the corner of the screen. His cock was now so huge that it hit the ceiling! He had to angle it back to keep it from mashing against the light fixture above him, and he was still gaining followers and fast! He couldn’t believe there were so many people pouring in even this late into the stream, but it didn’t take him long to figure out why.
“I shared the link to this vid with some forums I lurk. I know for a fact they’ll love him there.”
“He’s almost a little small for some of the forums I linked him to.”
“We’ll soon fix that.”
Angus cursed under his breath and hurriedly typed in his username and password. Even as he did this, he could feel his phone buzzing and his cock growing even larger. Angus couldn’t believe how huge he had gotten nor that he was still getting bigger. He thought for sure his watchers were done with him, but even as he typed in his log-in credentials he could see the chat still going.
“Fuuuuuck he’s huge!”
“Hell yeah! So hot!”
“Bigger! Bigger!”
Angus finished typing in his password and groaned at what he saw. Invalid password. It must have been because his hands were shaking that he botched the password, but whatever the case may be he had to try again and stop this mess. He typed his name and password in again, this time being extra careful not to make a typo and hit enter.
Angus flopped back in his bed and waited with bated breath while the loading circle spun in the middle of his screen. His cock was now so huge that he had to angle it towards the wall at the head of his bed. His cock was already as wide as his twin sized dorm bed and quite a bit longer. His dick was so long that it angled from the foot of his bed all the way to the ceiling against the wall behind him. “come on, come on…” he groaned under his breath as he watched the circle continuing to spin. He was running out of room for his enormous cock. If he got much bigger, he wouldn’t even fit in his own dorm room! All he needed was for the stream to load in once more and he could finally dial things back, but it was not to be. A new error message soon popped up.
“That user is currently logged in in another device.”
Angus one again cursed under his breath. There was no helping it. If he wanted to stop this he’d have to get up and head towards the PC sitting on his desk, but that was easier said than done. For starters, his desk sat on the opposite side of a solid wall of cock and balls that kept him pinned to his bed! Angus slowly shimmied his way sideways off his bed. With each inch he moved he was amazed at just how incredibly heavy his cock and balls had become. His nuts alone weighed him to the ground like a ship’s anchor, and he couldn’t even imagine how heavy his dick would be if it wasn’t currently propped against the wall at the head of his bed. It took some finesse, but once Angus was off his bed, he was slowly able to crawl shift around his massive cock until he was now over top of it and crawl his way backwards over his massive nuts.
Angus stared in awe as he stood there with his back to his desk. His cock was now so huge that it filled almost his entire room. He was nearly pinned to his desk beneath the behemoth that was his cock and balls which presented yet another problem. He couldn’t get the drawer which housed his keyboard and mouse out from underneath his desk! He was pinned so tightly against his own desk by his gargantuan cock and balls that his own thighs were pinning the drawer shut!
Angus glanced over his shoulder at his desktop screen and gasped at what he saw. The audience was still cheering for him to get even bigger! Wasn’t he big enough already!? Sure, he couldn’t deny how staggeringly hot his massive cock and balls were, but how was he going to get through life attached to a schlong the size of a subway car?
Even as Angus pondered this another message caught his eye.
“Don’t worry, guys. I just sent him a BIG one.”
Angus could feel his phone buzzing in his hand. He had kept a death grip on his phone this entire time even without really realizing he had done it. He was almost afraid to look, but he unlocked the screen anyway. Sure enough, he had a new email from PayPal, but unlike the others this wasn’t a duplicate. This was a donation with a brand-new value on it. Angus was afraid to click the email and see what the amount was. Part of him wished that it was just another $3 donation… after all, he could see the $3 at the tail end of the email preview, but the … after the 3 worried him greatly.
Angus nervously clicked the email icon. It didn’t do him any good to hide from it. After all, he was going to be growing one way or the other. It was like ripping off a band-aid. Best to just get it over with.
Angus’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw the final value. Three… HUNDRED!? Who has that kind of money to throw at something like this!? But there was no denying what he was reading. Someone had thrown enough money at him to nearly double his already colossal cock. With the added eight plus feet of fat cock he was soon going to be at nearly twenty full feet of schlong!
“Oh, fuck…” Angus murmured under his breath. The sound of his own words sent shivers down his spine. It wasn’t a cry of shock or anguish. It was a moan of almost orgasmic delight! Even as he shuddered, he could feel his nuts tense up as if bracing for the largest load of his – or anyone else’s – life!
With his cock rapidly expanding once more, Angus soon found himself more than mashed against his desk. He was being pushed up and onto it by his own swelling cock and balls. Soon his ass knocked his monitor off the desktop. Seconds after that he was pinning against the far wall with his cock pressed against the wall on the opposite side of the room, and he still had several feet left to grow!
Angus wasn’t sure what he was going to do now. There was nothing he could do. All he could do was stand there and gawk as his cock outgrew his dorm room. Even now he could feel the wall begin to buckle under the onslaught of his swelling schlong. He could hear the plaster crumbling. He could see the lines spreading across the far wall as it cracked and crumpled. And then, as if a dam breaking, sunlight poured into his room as his cock spilled out into the open courtyard between dorm rooms.
Angus’s cock was free to extend to its heart’s content, but he soon found himself with another problem. His nuts had grown so much that he was now resting atop them. They were so massive that they almost pinned him to his own ceiling! His massive nuts filled up every inch of space in his room from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall! His entire dorm room was flooded with his own nut sack!
Angus groaned as he felt himself be pinned between his ceiling and his own swelling balls. For a moment he was sure that he was going to be crushed to death by his own package. He was just about to close his eyes and accept the end when he felt something quite peculiar. He wasn’t sure how and he wasn’t sure why, but he was sliding forward. The rough texture of the ceiling scratched against his back, but soon he felt the fresh air on his bare skin. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sunlight, but when they did, he took stock of his surroundings and started to figure out what had happened. His cock had grown so huge and so hefty that the sheer weight of it was enough to pull his nuts right out of his room like the cork being popped off a wine bottle. He had fallen from his room on the second floor and landed with a thud on the grass below, but his cock and balls were just so damn huge that the single-story drop had felt like nothing more than an inch.
Angus was pleased as punch to no longer be in any mortal danger, but now he had a new problem to deal with. The arrival of a twenty plus foot schlong in the middle of campus had attracted a lot of onlookers, and there was nothing he could do to try and hide from their scrutinizing eyes. Fortunately, his phone had stopped buzzing, and so it seemed that he had finally reached his new, maximum size.
In part because he had nothing better to do while trapped atop his own package and in part because he wanted something to distract himself from the crowd that had gathered around him, Angus unlocked his phone once more and peeked in at the stream chat. It didn’t take long for him to notice that things had quieted down, and it was immediately clear why. The stream had been cut short. No doubt his PC had been knocked offline due to his growth spurt which had crushed his desk. Angus breathed a sigh of relief. At least this meant things would calm down now… or so he thought. No sooner had he breathed a sigh of relief than he saw a new comment in the chat.
“Dudes… you’re not gonna believe this, but I think this was real…”
“What? How?”
“Check the news!”
“This is on the new at my college! It’s real!”
Angus saw the previous poster link to a local news network that he recognized. He almost didn’t dare to click the link, but he knew he wouldn’t be satisfied until he saw the truth. Sure enough, as soon as the live feed loaded, he was greeted by the sight of his own gargantuan package splayed out across the lawn. While he gawked at the surreal view of his own cock from a third person perspective, he was soon alerted to something else. The viewer count was rising rapidly! It didn’t take long for him to figure out what was going on either.
“Looks like the growth stream is still on!” Said one of the new arrivals.
“Now that I know this is real, I can really crack open the wallet!”
“God, I wish that was me…”
“Fuck yes. Can you imagine being that fuckin huge!?”
“Huge! Huge! Huge!”
“Let’s make him even bigger boys!”
Angus didn’t know what to say or do. They couldn’t still grow him, could they? The PC was offline. The app was closed down! But even as he thought this, he could feel his phone buzzing and his cock pulsing.
“Oh fuck…” Angus moaned, but once again the tone of his voice betrayed his true feelings. Instead of being a groan of disgust his voice came out as a low, horny moan of carnal glee. His colossal cock gave a lurch of glee. Pre oozed from his person-sized slit. He couldn’t believe he was so turned on by this. He couldn’t move with a cock this big. There was no way he could walk around. His cock was bigger than a city bus and his balls were the size of bungalows. He had a cock that would make a blue whale weep with shame, and it was still growing! Angus was so hot and bothered by his swelling member that he could barely even focus on his phone, but he could see the alerts piling up. His missed emails now numbered in the dozens, and it wasn’t all just duplicates either! With each new email alert he received, the dollars being donated varied widely. Some people were chipping in the old fashioned three-dollar inch, but some people were really cracking open the ol’ check book. Some of the donations were in the triple digits! Some generous donors were adding entire feet to Angus’s already ginormous schlong!
“fuck, fuck, fuck…” Angus whined as he continued to try to dry hump the grass beneath him, but at this point his cock was so huge that his whole body could barely even budge it. Even if he rocked with all his might, his dick would barely even shift under his weight.
As he continued to grow the crowd around him grew and grew as well. Somehow all these viewers just made Angus even hornier. It was one thing to pose for a faceless crowd on a webcam, but it was another to have a huge crowd gathered around his dick as if it was some impromptu music festival in the middle of campus. With all the people turning out to ogle his growing member, it was shaping up to be a regular Woodscock on the dorm lawn. Soon it wasn’t just the local campus new team reporting on his swelling schlong. Soon he had the major new outlets from all over reporting on what some people were calling the story of the century. Some guy with a cock the size of ship was lying buck naked in the public park.
Some part of Agnus’s mind was still fighting against his own arousal. Some part of him still wanted to keep a level head despite his growing desire to paint the town white in one massive tidal wave of cum, but that part was quickly losing out to his growing libido. About the only thing keeping him even vaguely rooted in sanity was the phone which he clasped in his hand. He kept glancing at the newsfeed to try and take his mind out of the moment. Somehow seeing his cock in third person like this seemed to distance him from the truth at hand, but soon even this proved to just fuel the fire. As the chat continued to explode with chants of “Huge! Huge! Huge!” and “Grow him some more!” more and more links began to flood the chat. Some were to other news outlets filming Angus’s colossal cock from other angles, but others were from personal feeds from people who had gathered to explore Angus’s cock.
“Oh my god! They're actually going to do it!” said one of the posters as they linked someone’s livestream.
“the absolute madlads!” came a reply.
“I wanted to be the first to go in!” came another reply.
Do it? Go in? What were they talking about? Angus wondered. His curiosity got the better of him and actually managed to stave off his hormonal need to cream, but only for a moment. The view he was greeted to upon opening up the new livestream was enough to send his libido into hyperdrive all over again.
When the stream fired up, Angus was greeted to the sight of another student he was vaguely familiar with waving at the camera. The guy was clad in a damp, white t-shirt and a hardhat with a huge headlight attached to it. He looked ready to go spelunking but judging by the lighting the guy appeared to be out in the daylight instead of heading into a cave, but that soon changed. The guy lifted his phone further up to give a wider view of his surroundings. Behind the guy stood a large ladder which was propped against a large, fleshy looking wall. It didn’t take Angus long to figure out what said wall was, though. It was his own cockhead! The guy was actually about to climb into Angus’s dick and record the whole thing for all the watch.
Angus let out another horny whine. The flow of pre from the tip of his cock really began to ramp up, and after a few second delay he could see the flow of pre on the livestream begin to increase as well.
“I think he feels me.” The spelunker said in a corny accent as if announcing his actions in a comical parody of the Crocodile Hunter. The truth was, Angus COULD feel him, but only just barely. The guy crawling into his exposed cock head felt like little more than a tickle. The dude may as well have been a gnat compared to Angus’s whale-sized schlong. At this point Angus’s cock was so huge that his back and balls were pressed against the dorm building he had fallen out of and the tip of his dick nearly reached the campus admin complex across the large, open park. The park was nearly the size of a football field, and Angus’s dick damn near filled the whole thing! Just thinking about how huge he had become made Angus once again struggle to stifle a moan.
“Oi. This bronco’s really buckin’ now,” Said the spelunker a moment later.
Just the thought of having someone crawling around inside of his cock was driving Angus wild. He desperately wanted to cum, and yet at the same time he fought the urge with every fiber of his being. He couldn’t even say why he was doing it. It was almost as if some part of him was afraid this was all a dream and the moment he blew he would wake up and find himself back in his dorm with his old five-inch rod.
Angus watched the video stream and tried to make sense of what he was seeing through his hormone-fogged senses. At first glance it looked much like any other chasm some guy might go spelunking through, but the sides were soft to the touch and glistened pink. It was hard for Angus to comprehend that these chasm walls he was watching in the video were the insides of his own cock. As angus watched the video it almost seemed like the guy’s point of view was shrinking. The walls grew further apart and reached higher and higher, but it wasn’t the guy who was shrinking. It was Angus’s cock that was growing! Even now, Angus could feel the constant buzzing of his phone and feel the constant pulsing in his cock. He couldn’t even fathom how huge he had become. His cock was so huge that he nuts pressed hard against the side of the dorms. He was so high off the ground that his nuts now crested far above the torn-out hole that was his second-floor dorm room. His balls filled much of the courtyard that spanned from the dorm hall to the campus administration office. His cock was now so huge that had it not been for the curvature of his rock-hard cock, his cock would have long since crushed the multi-story admin complex. His cock now stretched so far that the head of it loomed over the science building halfway across campus. The puffy head alone of his massive cock now dwarfed the main lecture hall AND the connected labs. The pre leaking from his cock splashed down on the street below in giant, SUV-sized gobs.
Angus’s life as he knew it was effectively over. He had a city block sized cock, and still it was creeping up in size. He was so massive that even that large donations that had been pouring in barely made a dent in his colossal size, and yet, even if this was a dream he never wanted to wake up. He wanted to remain like this forever. He couldn’t get over how amazing having a cock you could land a 747 on felt. He couldn’t get over how amazingly hot it was to have such a massive cock and balls that no matter which direction he looked, all he saw was more and more cock and balls stretching off into the horizon. Even as his nuts got so massive that they crested at over roof of his dorm he wanted to get bigger and bigger. Even as he watched the video of the dude spelunking inside his cock and watched the light of the guy’s headlamp fade to nothing as it shone down the impossible depths of his colossal cock, Angus reveled in his own hugeness. If his fans never ran out of cash to throw at his constantly growing cock, he would be OK with that, but already he could feel the constant buzzing of his phone slowing down. His donors had nearly reached their limit, and Angus too was reaching his limit in a very different sense.
Angus moaned and writhed. His monolithic schlong shuddered. His mountainous balls tensed up. He was going to blow soon, and everyone could tell. In the throes of ecstasy, Angus’s phone fell from his hand and landed with a plap on the soft flesh of his colossal nuts. Somehow the impact knocked web browser back a page. It was no longer focused on the spelunker’s livestream and was back to the newscast. The newscaster was eyeing the teleprompter intently and let out a gasp.
“This just in. Apparently, this situation is the result of what has been called a “growth stream.” If my understanding is correct. People have been paying money to see this guy grow. Is that a thing?” The newscaster asked. Then something happened that made even Angus, in his addled state that he was, gasp with shock. The URL for his stream was displayed underneath the reporter. His cock was now an international news story. His humongous cock was being displayed to people all over the globe, and now those people knew of his stream!?
As if to answer his unspoken question, his phone began to buzz even more intensely than before. He had just gone international. Now even people who don’t lurk the specific parts of the internet that had wanted to see him grow knew of his story and how to make him even larger. Whether it was out of genuine horny desire to see him grow, some kind of morbid fascination, or just the good old internet troll wanting to cash in on an already absurd situation, the donations were rolling in faster than ever before.
The video feed on the newscast changed. It was now no longer focused on the reporter who stood in the shadow of his colossal cock. The view was now zoomed out from up high. No doubt this new video was taken from some news helicopter circling far, far above. The helicopter was so far above that Angus could neither see nor hear it, but he couldn’t deny what he saw. He recognized the area shown in the feed. It was his campus! … or what was left of it. His cock and balls now eclipsed the entire region. A solid square mile of academia had been completely eclipsed by cock. His cock was so massive that he couldn’t even see himself atop it. He may as well have been an ant atop an ambulance, the size difference was so severe, and he could still see his cock growing and growing on the news feed. At the rate he was going he would no longer just eclipse the campus. He could cover the entire town surrounding it!
Angus almost chuckled at the thought, but he didn’t get the chance. The imagery was too much for him to take in. He gritted his teeth and let out a loud, low moan. His cock shuddered with enough force to shake the ground surrounding it. Car alarms went off for miles around, and then the dam broke. Gigantic spurts of cum, each jet with enough jizz to fill a reservoir, arced through the air, and everything went white for Angus.
It wasn’t just the streams of cum that caused his vision to fade though. Truth be told, Angus was relatively unscathed from his perch atop his mountain-sized stones, but the sheer intensity of the pleasure that coursed through his miles of cock caused his mind to short circuit. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t see. All he could do was moan and writhe in ecstasy as he came and came again. There was no telling how long he was cumming for. It could have been seconds. It could have been hour. Time had no meaning to Angus while he was in the throes of ecstasy. All he knew was that by the time he finally started to come down from the high, it felt like it was all over far too soon.
As the fog slowly started to lift from his mind, Angus looked out over his surroundings. All he could see was flesh spread out as far as the eye could see. His cock and balls filled the entire landscape. It was impossible for him to grasp the sheer size and scale of his package from his current position. Fortunately, he had a way to get a different perspective on the situation.
Angus strained with all his might to reach his phone which had slid away from him during his climax. He was only just barely able to get his fingertips onto the edge of the phone, but it was enough to awkwardly fish the phone back into range. Once he had his phone back in his hands, he opened up the newscast from earlier. He watched in bemused fascination as the newscaster stood in front of his cock and balls and described the scene for the audiences at home, but what Angus really wanted wasn’t words. What he really wanted was video. Fortunately, it only took a moment for the feed to shift back to the bird’s eye view of the city. Angus marveled at how massive his cock had become. His cock and balls had completely eclipsed the entire campus and had spilled out into the surrounding city. His junk covered several city blocks. His dick had to measure in miles at this point. It may have just been the afterglow still in effect, but Angus couldn’t really consider what this meant for the long run. All he could think about for the moment was how amazing his colossal cock looked and felt, but there was someone out there thinking about the future…
Meanwhile in the suburbs, Donald gave a whistle of approval as he watched the aftermath of his new app. The size his buddy Angus had reached exceeded even Donald’s extreme expectations.
Donald tabbed over from the local news website over to the master copy of the growth app. He waited for a moment for the most recent donations to be processed before finally pulling the plug on this little experiment. Now that he knew what kind of market there was for a growth drive of this sort, Donald figured it was time to make some adjustments to the programming before his next test run.
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- Hey, guys, this is Austin.
This is the brand new Series 2 Edition
of the Xbox Elite controller, which has got me thinking.
Kevin, what is the best controller that I can buy right now?
- Well, we got a different couple options to talk about here
so let's round 'em up and see.
(imitates music)
? Kevin Kenson music, Kevin Kenson music, ?
? Kevin Kenson music, do do doo ?
The benchmark that I compare every single controller to
is the current generation Xbox One.
Now, it's seen some updates over the last few years,
like Bluetooth and an audio jack,
you also have the Design Lab.
But this is always what I compare things to.
Kev, why am I wrong?
- I mean, look, the standard Xbox One controller
is a great controller.
When it comes to just the baseline models
that come with systems
this is honestly my my personal favorite as well.
- [Austin] Same, yeah.
- But there's a lot of room for improvement still
and there's a lot of things that have kind of become more
common and popular amongst pro controllers
that aren't necessarily feasible
in an affordable regular baseline like this one.
- Such as.
- Such as Microsoft's own Xbox One Elite 2.
Honestly, we could talk all day
about the special features and things.
I think the main kind of take away points
aside from just general build quality,
multiple sticks you can use, multiple D-pads, back paddles.
Which are pretty common across a lot of these ones.
The big stuff for this too though
is the unique customization features
that are in the Xbox Accessories app
where you can do things like button remapping,
adding a Shift button options, stick acceleration,
lots of crazy in depth stuff.
- And of course, this works across the Xbox
as well as the PC and those settings that you sync
will actually work across consoles as well.
Or across, did I just call PC a console?
I mean, across systems, across platforms.
- Identity crisis.
So aside from the Elite 2
the other one we have here is the Prestige.
Now, this is the newest one from Scuf
I'd mentioned earlier
and the main thing with this
is that this is a modified Xbox One controller
so it still has the same core base in it,
which is really cool actually
'cause that means you can use it with the Xbox One,
the upcoming Project Scarlet, PC, whatever,
if it works with Xbox controller it'll work with this.
One of the cool things about it
is how you can further modify it.
If you wanna change the sticks or anything
you actually just pop off the faceplate.
- That's cool.
- And this is how you can swap out the sticks.
You can also switch out the D-pad,
although I think you can just do that
from having this faceplate on as well.
So this one has four adjustable paddles,
you can take them off if you don't wanna use them.
- [Austin] The problem though
is that this is expensive, right?
this is actually around the same price
as the Elite controller?
- So, it's 20 bucks cheaper
if you just buy the base model unmodified.
But one of the big things about Scuf
is how you wanna customize it to make it your own design
so depending on if you want certain colors,
special designs, different sticks,
depending on all the things you modify and do to it
it can end up adding up to being quite more money.
- So I get that you're really excited
about your controllers and everything
but really everyone knows the superior way
to play any kind of game is using a mouse and keyboard.
Which I so helpfully have provided
with the Razer Turret.
- [Ken] You said this was controller video.
- This works with an Xbox, I can control my games with it,
I think that counts.
- [Ken] What is wrong with you?
- Can I bring in a racing wheel next then?
- There's a cursor inside the game.
It's almost as if I'm playing on a PC called the Xbox.
- Now to be clear, this is because the Xbox
actually does support keyboard and mouse,
it doesn't have to necessarily be the Turret
but the Turret is an awesome controller design
specifically for the Xbox in mind.
- 'Cause essentially you're getting
like a proper Razer keyboard
that's built into this little platform.
And then you have the mouse which is magnetic
so you can actually kind of.
You have a little like mousepad.
So if I was sitting.
- Come on, do it, yep.
Yeah, squat work out!
- This is the way all true gamers play.
So the Turret is certainly not cheap.
At $250 this is probably the most expensive thing here.
So the thing with the Turret is that
you really shouldn't use this
as purely like an Xbox controller.
I mean, you can use it like that, certainly.
But it sorta makes more sense
if you have like a PC and an Xbox
and you wanna have everything
kind of unified into one setup.
- Or if you just really love playing
just Fortnite all the time
and you wanna keyboard and mouse set up.
- And you don't wanna use a PC.
- And you don't wanna use a PC.
- Yeah, that's really popular.
Now over on the PlayStation side of things
we of course have the DualShock 4.
A perfectly respectable controller, it's good, fine,
but it's not really great, it's really super impressive
which is why I'm really curious,
especially to play with this Raiju.
- So actually, real quick before focusing in the Raiju,
I think something that's interesting about PlayStation
is that on Xbox you saw some similarities
with the two controllers we were trying,
they were both based on the standard Xbox design.
All three of these are very different.
All three pro controllers we're looking at
are very different approaches
of how to make a pro controller.
- This doesn't work.
- Does it not work or did you not log in properly to...
- You would be correct, I didn't log in correctly.
- There you go.
- Kevin Kenson, PlayStation expert.
- So the deal with the Raiju is that
at least out of the different pro controllers
we're looking at today,
it's the least physically customizable.
There's a little bit you can do,
you can swap out that D-pad, it does have some other sticks.
But the really heavy focus is on
just straight up the build quality.
- It's so sturdy, this to me out of all these controllers
is the only one that feels on par
with the Xbox Elite controllers
as far as just like, it's beefy, it feels heavy,
it feels like this is something I can throw across the room
in a fit of rage after I lose in Fortnite
and it'll be just fine.
- The table that it hits won't be, but yes,
the controller will survive.
- Now, you know, I totally get that customization is great
and for some people, especially with like the Scuf stuff
you can go really over the top.
But for me, I'm one of those guys
who wants to walk into Subway
and order the sandwich just as it comes.
When I go into Blaze Pizza I'm like,
I just want a pizza with pepperoni on it.
I get overwhelmed with too much choice and you know what,
this doesn't have too much choice.
I just pick up the controller, I'm like,
look, someone smarter than me designed this.
Sweet, I'm on board.
- Of the controllers we have out here today
I think this the only,
is this the only one that we're talking about?
- [Ken] Yeah.
- This is the only one we're talking about
that is actually not available normally in North America.
You can get it, you just have to import it
which also means you're probably gonna spend
a little more money than the actual MSRP lists.
- How much is it if I wasn't importing it,
like say if I'm in Europe,
how much does this controller cost?
- Well you know, that was something I planned on checking
when we weren't filming earlier and hold on a moment please.
- That's fine, I gotta kill some droids.
- Now the Scuf Vantage, really almost the opposite
of what the Raiju is.
While the Raiju is focused on minimal physical customization
but having lots of just high build quality,
the Vantage is all about modular design.
Kind of like what we saw with the Prestige,
you can take the faceplate off.
- That's cool.
- But on this one you can swap the sticks, the D-pad,
and even take out the rumble motors if you want.
Kinda like we were talking with the Prestige earlier,
with Scuf things are so customizable
there's not really one set price.
There's a starting price.
If you get a wired version of this it starts at 170.
If you get a wired wireless version it's 200.
- I will say that so far this is still my favorite.
- I will admit, personally, that's my top as well,
for the PlayStation at least.
And actually let's go ahead and talk about
this last guy then.
- [Austin] So, you need a screwdriver
to work on this guy I see.
- Yeah, so there's a faceplate that locks in,
it keeps all the modules, as they pop out.
So you can do things like, lets say you like offset sticks,
you can have this set up.
Or if you don't, take that off, swap 'em,
and now you have symmetrical.
But I like offset so I'm gonna put it back.
- [Austin] I'm afraid to ask,
how much does the Astro C40 cost?
- Well the C40 is $200 for the base design
and it does not include all the different swappable parts.
So if you wanna get all the different D-pads
and all the different sticks it's gonna be a little more.
We have fewer controllers to talk about for Switch
than we do for Xbox and PlayStation
so I came up with a solution, I got one more.
- Okay, I mean, you've done a video
on every like Switch controller ever so.
(electronic music)
What is this slime thing?
- That, my friend, you are holding the one, the only,
HORI Slime controller for Switch.
- [Ken] I love that!
- Why? - It's adorable.
- This is not meant for human hands!
- It is not comfortable but it is amazing.
I should note that I guess kinda like the Raiju
we were talking about earlier,
this is a Japanese exclusive so if you want one of these
you are gonna have to pay top dollar to import it.
- How much is this really?
How much did you pay for it?
- I wanna say I paid 80.
- Oh.
After these $200 stupid controllers
$80 for a joke is, well, it's actually wait,
no, that's still a joke.
Can we look at some real controllers now?
- How dare you, how dare you. - Insult me.
So for the Switch when it comes to pro controllers
I think the one that really comes closest
to kind of at least capturing the idea right now
is the SN30 Pro Plus from 8BitDo.
- That actually really surprises me
because it's obviously a Super Nintendo style controller
but it has the grips as well as you have the sticks.
And this also works with a pretty wide variety
of different devices, right?
It's not just a Switch controller.
- Yeah, so 8BitDo controllers are designed to work
with the Switch, with PC, Mac, and Android.
- But you said this is 50 bucks, right?
- I believe so, yeah.
- That's not bad, especially considering, I mean,
I've got like $1,000 worth of controllers
on the table right now.
- Yeah, and in terms of what
kind of makes it a pro controller versus say,
using the official pro controller from Nintendo
is that this does offer some of those
special features that people equate with pro controllers,
like you can do things like actually remapping
what all the buttons are.
So if for whatever reason you really want B
to actually be the right trigger button
you can set that up if you like.
- [Austin] Now, obviously this is not as full featured
as the proper pro controller
since you don't have NFC for Amiibo
and you don't have rumble, or do you?
- [Kevin] No, this does have rumble, that's right.
- [Austin] Oh, that's awesome, okay, cool.
- You do have motion controls though.
- Oh, that's cool, okay.
- So this is the Split Pad Pro from HORI
and it's meant to be an alternative to Joy-Cons.
Now, because it is a third party option
it doesn't actually have all the features
that you might get used to seeing in a Joy-Con.
You don't have rumble, you don't have the ability to use
Amiibo scanning, you do have the motion controls still.
But the big trade off for that
is that you actually have a longer--
- It fits your hands. - Yeah.
It's a longer controller that's actually designed
to fit in your hands.
- I mean, look at the difference, right,
it's not even close.
Now, that doesn't necessarily fit in a bag as well
or anything like that but these,
to me the Joy-Cons are fine for a quick game
or if you wanna do some like Just Dance or whatever
but this is not a super comfortable way,
especially when you're using them
even in like a Joy-Con grip.
It's not that great for long periods of time.
- Well, and especially being used in handheld mode
I gotta say that it's not just a matter of the size,
it's not just that the thing is simply bigger,
it's that it actually does have contoured grips
and is designed to fit in your hands a specific way.
It does have remappable buttons on the backside.
Because these are each individual units
you can only remap buttons that are on the same side.
But still, that's better than not having
any remappables at all.
And because it's a HORI controller it has a turbo function.
- Because turbo is what we need.
You can't non-turbo game.
- I mean, if you like turbo, the slime does it.
Wanna use that slime, it's got a turbo button.
- I'm good, you have at it.
Now, if you actually want to use some of these controllers
you might find the sponsor of today's video useful.
This is the brand new Optoma CinemaX P1.
This is a 4K ultra short throw projector
which can go all the way up to a full 120 inch picture.
And the cool part about this
is that you don't have to sacrifice your space.
Even if you have a smaller room or apartment,
you can still get the maximum out of the projector
by putting it just a few inches away.
The picture quality is incredible too.
Not only are you getting an insane amount of brightness
for a projector but it even supports HDR10.
You're also getting an integrated Dolby Digital 2.0 soundbar
with a full 40 watts of power.
Now of course, if you want you can connect it
to a full speaker set up,
but honestly just the way it comes,
it actually works really well
as an all in one entertainment center.
It also supports a variety of streaming services,
you have voice control using Google Home as well as Alexa
and you can also take advantage
of the Info Wall app to fully customize the experience.
If you're looking to up your home theater game
then you should definitely be sure
to check out the Optoma CinemaX P1
at the link in the description,
and again, huge shout out to Optoma
for sponsoring this video.
This excellent bit of consumer advice
has been brought to you by Kevin Kenson,
you can feel free to subscribe to his channel
at YouTube.com/KevinKenson.
Kev, can you please play us out with a little tune maybe,
a song and dance, perhaps an ode to the slime?
- [Kevin] I can set things on fire.
- That's a great alternative.
- [Kevin] Oh, this doesn't have
super reactive environment, I forgot.
- Are you complaining about the Witcher on Switch?
The greatest port of all time
according to everyone on YouTube?
- [Kevin] I mean, it does run great considering.
- It does look like Vaseline was smeared on my TV though.
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How NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptops Supercharge Your Gaming
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
This article is presented by NVIDIA.
Ray tracing is a feature so graphically revolutionary that NVIDIA named a whole series of GPUs after it. And after a big impact in the desktop gaming PC space, NVIDIA next turned to laptops. RTX 20 series laptops brought a whole new world of power to PC gamers who no longer had to choose between portability and power.
Now NVIDIA has brought its Ampere architecture powered GeForce RTX 30 Laptop GPUs to the masses, and the results are as impressive as you’d expect from technology which the company describes as its “biggest generational leap ever.”
There’s more to it than just pretty lighting effects, though: RTX 30 Series laptops pump up the frame rates and reduce the volume, all while delivering up to twice the power efficiency of the previous generation – something that’s pretty darn important for gaming laptops.
To explore the full potential of GeForce RTX 30 laptops, I tested the state-of-the-art MSI GS66 Stealth. Suffice it to say, while it’s initially astonishing that such a thin and light device can be so powerful, things become clear when you see what’s inside. The included RTX 3080 GPU is given the perfect environment to thrive, with the GS66 also featuring a 10th-generation Intel Core i7 10870H processor, 16GB RAM, and a super-fast 1TB NVMe SSD.
Despite those beefy specs, the MSI GS66 lives up to its stealthy billing, at under 0.7 inches thick and tipping the scales at just 4.6 pounds. Not too shabby for a 15.6-inch laptop, especially one that’s capable of playing games at over 60fps in 1440p resolution with full ray tracing effects enabled.
I’ll be covering my experiences with the latest ray-traced games soon, but first, we need to talk about the technology under the surface that makes the RTX 30 laptop experience such a generational leap – and trust me, there are a few unsung heroes that don’t get as much attention as ray tracing.
Ray Tracing and DLSS Are Game Changers
Before I get into that, let’s quickly cover ray tracing for those yet to sample its delights. Ray tracing is an innovative technique used by game developers to render life-like lighting, shadow effects, and reflections accurately, making game worlds look more photorealistic than ever before. With ray tracing enabled, shadows emerge realistically from around corners in the dimly lit corridors of Cyberpunk 2077, while characters and objects beautifully reflect off Control’s Oldest House, just as they would in the real world. It’s breathtaking.
Ray tracing is, as you might have guessed from that brief explainer, incredibly taxing on compatible GPUs, and some people prefer to disable it to maximize their frame rates into three figures – especially if they’re esports professionals. Fortunately, with certain games, you don’t have to make the choice between frame rate and graphical fidelity anymore, thanks to a feature called DLSS.
DLSS – or Deep Learning Super Sampling to use its full name – is a really clever technology that uses the RTX GPUs’ Tensor Core AI processors to play at a higher resolution than its rendered at. In other words, while your RTX 30 laptop may be outputting at 2K or even 4K on screen, you get the same performance you’d get if your laptop was running at 1080p, just with more graphical niceties.
Read More About NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptops Here
This is a feature I’m extremely well acquainted with, as my desktop has an entry-level RTX 2060 powering things and DLSS really helps maximize performance, but it benefits top-of-the-range laptops like this as well. Using the same specs as the MSI laptop, NVIDIA found that Control, running at 1440p with high detail and max ray tracing, would run at a respectable 35.3fps with DLSS disabled, but shot up to 80.8fps with it switched on – an improvement of 129%.
You may assume that such a boost would result in a decline in image quality, but if there is one, then my eyes can’t see it. In fact, DLSS actually improves the quality of some games, as the video of Death Stranding demonstrates below. Not only does DLSS more than double the frame rate, but the text is far more readable on the AI-assisted version on the right. Impressive stuff.
A More Efficient Gaming Laptop
Not all features are as attention grabbing as DLSS, which means they run the risk of falling off the radar, but that would be a huge disservice to the many powerful 3rd generation Max-Q technologies at work with GeForce RTX 30 Series laptops. Take Dynamic Boost 2.0, for example, which tackles the problem of laptop power management. With a desktop PC, you can throw power at both the CPU and GPU to maximize performance, but laptops’ fixed power and thermal design makes this impossible.
Dynamic Boost 2.0 is the next best thing: AI detects where power is needed from moment to moment and automatically shifts it from GPU to CPU and back again as required. The result is not only improved performance and higher framerates but a significantly more power efficient laptop. It’s the very definition of “seen and not heard,” as it works so well that most gamers will never know it’s doing its job perfectly.
Powerful hardware in a thin laptop is usually a recipe for noise when the fans kick in, and that’s why NVIDIA has come up with WhisperMode 2.0. It’s not the tech firm’s first attempt to make gaming laptops more quiet, but it’s by far the most intelligent: rather than just reducing fan speed — which can lead to throttled performance — NVIDIA’s AI kicks in to match CPU power, GPU power, system temperature, and fan speed to the user’s chosen minimum frame rate. In other words, sound won’t just be reduced for its own sake: it’ll intelligently match the framerate you’re happy with.
Personally, I don’t mind a bit of fan noise, and I didn’t exactly find the MSI GS66 Stealth to be deafening anyway, but I can confirm that the feature works nicely. WhisperMode 2.0 audibly drops the decibels, and could be just the ticket for those trying not to irritate housemates with fan noise. NVIDIA puts the decision making power in your hands, and it works beautifully.
Then there’s NVIDIA Reflex, which looks to make latency as low as possible for the competitive gamer. Frankly, that doesn’t describe me, but it’s impressive all the same. The Reflex SDK has been enabled in competitive titles like Apex Legends, Valorant, Destiny 2, and Call of Duty: Warzone, and allows the CPU to submit work to the GPU just before it finishes the previous frame, killing the rendering queue. The result? Better response times, making it that much easier to quickly line up a headshot that could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
There’s one more feature I want to highlight which isn’t exclusive to the company’s RTX GPUs, but it’s so brilliant that I have to flag it: NVIDIA Highlights. If enabled by game developers, this clever software automatically records exciting moments of gameplay – incredible shots, match-winning plays, or desperate clutch kills. I play a lot of Hunt: Showdown, and at the end of every round, I find NVIDIA has carefully cataloged all my kills so I can save the best ones to easily share with friends. It’s simply genius.
All of these things, whether they’re obvious to the player or not, add up to a portable gaming experience that’s simply second to none. Many gaming laptops will make you pick between beauty and performance. With the new range of RTX 30 Series laptops, NVIDIA wants you to have both.
Learn more about NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 Series laptops here.
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The post How NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptops Supercharge Your Gaming appeared first on Den of Geek.
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Pimax 5K+ Impressions – The First of the Second Generation of VR
In case you haven’t figured it out, I am a Virtual Reality enthusiast. I’ve been looking forward to the coming of consumer-level Virtual Reality since the early 90s. I expected it a lot sooner than it got here, to be honest, but I’m glad it’s here now. I love that I get to work with it as part of my day job. Anyway, I have been willing to sink a bit of cash into it this hobby… to the extent that I pre-ordered a Pimax 5K+. Offering about the highest resolution out there and 170+ degrees of field-of-view, it seemed like a game-changer for PC-based VR.
My headset arrived a few weeks ago. Due to crazy work hours, I haven’t had as much time to play with it as I’d like, but I thought I’d share my impressions so far. The company and the PiTool software are still kind of young, so there’s plenty of room for both to grow. In fact, that’s probably the first alarm bell you should be hearing: There’s always a chance that one big disruption could cause the company and all its support of this product to disappear tomorrow. It’s no longer a “boutique” product, IMO, and has been growing to meet demand. My pre-order took months to arrive, but I understand that lately people have been getting their orders within 3-4 weeks. So… it’s improving.
Since it arrived, there have been a ton of announcements of new and impressive VR headsets for 2019. I’m going to state for the record that I’m calling this the second generation of VR hardware. Yes, annoyed pundits have their own list of demands for second-generation hardware, a bunch of revolutionary changes, but I call tough toenails. It is what it is, and the latest stuff coming out is definitely pretty exciting. I count the new Pimax headsets to be the first of this new generation. For the next couple of years, you’ll be able to treat yourself to much higher resolution, bigger field of view, inside-out tracking without the need of external sensors, untethered (or standalone) use, lighter weights, foveated rendering with eye-tracking, and improved frame rates for cleaner tracking. The problem is… I don’t know of any system coming out that will give you all of the above (or even a significant subset of the above), at least not at a consumer price-point.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to describe a VR experience. You can’t even show videos, really, that capture the experience properly. All I can do is offer comparisons and hope that it works.
Construction / Appearance: Construction feels a little more rugged than the Oculus Rift, but not as solid as the Vive / Vive Pro. It’s lightweight, though, in spite of its wide size and beefy lenses – less than the original Vive, I think. Anyway, I dig the LED Cylon-looking thing across the front. Maybe it makes me look less dorky or less like a hammerhead shark when I’m wearing it, but honestly, I don’t care. While it looks weird, it works. All is good.
Fit / Comfort: The strap that comes with the Pimax 5K+ is… well, functional. Kinda like the strap that shipped with the original Vive. I ordered some 3D-printed adapters for less than $10 that allowed me to hook up my Vive Deluxe Audio Strap to my Pimax, and it worked GREAT. I mean, really…. it feels like it belongs there. Pimax is coming out with their own version of the DAS for the Pimax, but I have a tough time imagining that it’ll be any better than this. I keep saying the Deluxe Audio Strap is a “must buy” for the original Vive, and it holds true here, too. With the strap, the Pimax is plenty comfy.
Some caveats, however: If you wear glasses in VR, you’ll need some thicker padding and adjustments to make it work right. Also, it seems to me that you really need to dial in your inter-pupillary distance (IPD) pretty closely… it’s not as tolerant as most headsets to being off by a couple of millimeters. If you don’t do this, you’ll probably see double and feel some eye strain after a while.
I’ve played for up to 90 minutes at a time with no significant feeling of eye strain or discomfort.
Setup: Getting things working with my computer is always a little bit of a chore, requiring software installation, reboots, etc. However, once it was set up, everything worked and kept working. Sometimes VR is finicky. The Pimax (currently) requires Lighthouse base stations (for position tracking) and controllers only available from HTC, which is great for an upgrade from the Vive, but not so great for new owners. However, Pimax is supposed to have both available really soon now, if they aren’t already.
Image Quality: Okay, here’s the biggest part – how are the visuals? In a word, fantastic. But you probably want more. Compared to the early 1st generation headsets, they are amazing. Compared to, say, the Vive Pro (which I have available for comparison), I think they aren’t quite as good. The LED display isn’t quite as bright and vivid, and the vertical resolution is about 10% smaller (1440 instead of the Vive Pro’s 1600). The horizontal resolution for the nearest 110 degrees (the standard FOV of headsets today, including the Vive Pro) is as good or better. The images do seem a little bit sharper than on the Vive Pro, and the screen door effect is hardly noticeable for me.
Of course, the selling point of the Pimax 5K+ is the wide field-of-view (FOV). It does not disappoint. The software allows three display modes: Small, Normal, and Large. Small FOV is about the usual 110 degrees that other headsets offer. If your game is having a really tough time running at higher resolutions at a decent frame rate, try this. “Normal” offers about 150 degrees of horizontal FOV, and it’s fantastic. “Large” opens up an extra 10 degrees on either side, giving you 170 degrees of horizontal FOV (they advertise 200 degrees “diagonal” FOV, which is a bizarre way to measure it that only marketing schmucks could come up with). Honestly, the difference between “Normal” and “Large” is hardly noticeable, and that last sliver is a little distorted by the lenses anyway. It’s really just good for catching stuff in the extremes of your peripheral vision. However, I didn’t notice a big difference in frame-rate for the large FOV, either, running on an RTX 2080Ti. So… YMMV. I may switch to “Large” mode in the future, but right now I’m extremely happy with Normal mode.
Normal Mode captures most of what your eyes see. You no longer feel like you are wearing blinders. It’s more like ski goggles than scuba goggles. This makes it much easier to “check six” in a flight simulator, or to catch a glimpse of bad guys attacking you from the sides in a shooter. Some people say they can’t go back after experiencing the wider FOV for a while. I don’t have that problem, but it really is nice. The higher resolution and sharp image quality make it easier to read the instrument panel in a flight sim, or to spot the details in Skyrim VR.
Looking at hard numbers: The original Vive and Oculus Rift offer 1080 x 1200 resolution per eye. The Vive Pro offers 1440 x 1600 resolution per eye… about a 75% improvement in resolution. The Pimax 5K+ has up to 2560 x 1440 resolution per eye – 184% better resolution than the original Rift and Vive, and about 60% larger than the Vive Pro… but it’s also spread out over a 55% wider field of view.
Software / Tuning: The Pimax 5K+ is compatible with SteamVR. I haven’t found anything that doesn’t work yet. However, you do need to run support software called “PiTool”. There are a lot of things to tweak here, in addition to the options inside SteamVR, in order to get the performance optimal for your tastes. Tweaking stuff in PiTool requires a restart of SteamVR for many of the changes to take effect. One of the most annoying issues is that a lot of older VR programs require the “Compatible with Parallel Projection” option to be activated. This forces a slower rendering system to avoid seeing double, and it’s a significant hit to performance. Unity games and the newest Unreal games don’t require this option (and, happily, neither does DCS). Sadly, IL-2 Sturmovik does require this option, and I can’t get a solid 90 fps anymore in this game. Still, I’m generally ranging near 80, so it’s not terrible.
Other options include changing the field of view, modifying the brightness of the display, enabling their own version of Motion Smoothing (“Smart Smoothing,” which I don’t like as much as the one for the Vive), allowing “hidden areas” to be left unrendered (which can sometimes be noticed in the periphery of your version, but increases performance), changing the frame rate target (to sacrifice max FPS for a smoother frame rate… very important) and a bit more. One size might not fit all games — particularly with Smart Smoothing and parallel projection compatibility. However, I like that they enable so many options to try and get the optimum performance / quality balance.
Overall: The VR landscape is about to get a bit more complicated, but as of right now, I’d say the Pimax is an excellent upgrade to the original Vive, if you have a machine beefy enough to keep up. You can keep your Lighthouse sensors and your controllers, and even keep your Deluxe Audio Strap if you have one. Put the original Vive in a box to remember it fondly, and rock on to the new, higher-resolution, wide-FOV new world. I consider it an upgrade over the Vive Pro, but not nearly as significant. The positives and negatives in the differences in visual quality probably balance each other out. The Pro has a wireless adapter allowing untethered gaming, but the wide FOV of the Pimax is a huge improvement.
If you do not already own the Vive “Lighthouse” base stations and controllers, it is a far more expensive system (even before you consider the costs of the PC). Pretty much the cost of a Vive Pro.
Is the high resolution and wide FOV a game-changer? Not exactly, but for some games it really makes a tremendous difference (especially flight sims). I think foveated rendering doesn’t make much sense until you go outside the 110 degree FOV window. It’s a big enough deal that my next VR upgrade a few years down the road will have to offer a similarly wide FOV. Nothing announced so far is giving me any semblance of buyer’s remorse. If I didn’t already own the Pimax, I might be looking very closely at the upcoming HP Reverb or the Vive Cosmos. Then, I still might choose the Pimax.
I think it probably represents the hardware limits of graphics cards for the next few years, and unless you really MUST have an untethered experience or the absolute bear minimum of Screen Door Effect, I think this headset looks like something that will grow with me for several years.
source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/pimax-5k-impressions-the-first-of-the-second-generation-of-vr/
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Intel’s new Core i9-10900K CPU is an interesting product. While some of the more vocal fans of a certain red competitor may give Intel some flak about reusing their 14nm node yet again, Intel has learned how to really polish a product and extract every bit of benefit from the silicon. This is Intel’s first 10-core mainstream product, with previous 10+ core chips locked entirely in the server and HEDT realm. The i9-10900K also boasts the highest stock Turbo clocks ever released at 5.2Ghz. If that wasn’t enough speed, the new Thermal Velocity Boost can kick the clocks up a bit higher yet to 5.3Ghz, pending your cooler can handle it. All this speed did require a small boost in TDP, up to 125W from the past ~95W ceiling the previous gens have tried to stay at. With more core, more clock speed, and more power, you would think this chip is destined to melt right? No. To help with cooling such concentrated performance, Intel took a page out of “I-void-warranties” extreme over-clockers book of tricks and shaved the actual silicon die down about as thin as it can go. With less physical silicon between the actual transistors and the heat spreader, every watt can get out as fast as possible. A new socket, LGA 1200, houses Intel 10th gen chips and paves the way for some exciting things slated for the next generation. Even though there are few more pins, all of your existing coolers will work with the new socket, which is great news to anyone with a beefy aftermarket cooler.
We want to thank Intel for sending us over the new Core i9-10900K to test out!
Intel’s take on the Core i9-10900K:
The new 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K leads our new family of processors and takes the crown as the world’s fastest gaming processor, delivering speeds of up to 5.3GHz. New overclocking controls allow gamers to get more from their unlocked 10th Gen Intel® Core processor and get the best overclocking experience.
Built for serious gamers, 10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors bring the right balance of frequency, cores, and threads, plus support for the latest technologies and advanced tuning flexibility to help put users in control of the real-world gaming experiences that matter most to them.
Obligatory Die Shot:
Important features:
Intel Thermal Velocity Boost: Gamers and creators get an opportunistic and automatic boost across single-core and multi-core workloads, up to a blazing 5.3GHz, right out of the box.
Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0: Get an automatic performance boost on lightly threaded applications with Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.
Intel Hyperthreading Technology: Do more simultaneously across 10th Gen Intel Core i9, i7, i5, and i3 processors.
Intel Quick Sync Video: Uses integrated processor graphics to optimize gameplay while gamers stream and record and provides creators with the hardware acceleration they need for the latest video codecs.
Memory Support up to DDR4-2933 Memory Speeds: For smooth gameplay, immersive realism, faster multitasking, and productivity when creating.
Intel Graphics Command Center: Optimizes your Intel® graphics experience.6
Enhanced Core & Memory Overclocking: Gain ultimate control when overclocking your processor and key system components with features enabled by new unlocked and overclockable 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processors.7
Per-Core Hyperthreading Control for Overclocking: allows experienced overclockers to decide which hyper threads to turn on or off on a per-core basis.
Intel Ethernet Connection I225: Now available on the 10th Gen platform, 2.5G Intel Ethernet Connector I225 delivers greater than 2X the network speeds of 1GB Ethernet on existing cabling.
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201: Now integrated into 10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors, Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) delivers responsive gameplay, nearly 3X faster downloads and more reliable connections. Delivers best-in-class wireless experiences with the freedom and flexibility to game or create anywhere throughout the home or office.
Intel Performance Maximizer: Offers an active core group tuning feature that overclocks each core group tuning feature that overclocks each core group, increasing their performance potential, for maximum gaming performance.
Intel Extreme Tuning Utility: Push performance desktops in new and innovative ways with a new Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility benchmark targeted for experienced overclockers. Now with the Intel Speed Optimizer that is a one-click overclocking feature within Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU). Intel Speed Optimizer will be new for 10th Gen processors and takes advantage of power delivery and thermal headroom within a given chassis or design. Intel Speed Optimizer helps more an unlocked processor’s cores reach nearer to the single-core turbo boost frequency.
Intel Smart Cache: Up to 20M of shared lowest level cache allowing faster access to your data by enabling dynamic and efficient allocation of the cache to match the needs of each core, significantly reducing latency to frequently used data and improving performance.
Thunderbolt 3 support: Thunderbolt 3 ports are the fastest USB-C available, so you can take Thunderbolt 3 SSDs to LAN parties and play games with lightning-fast data transfers.
Intel Optane Memory H10 with SSD Support: Launch apps, games, and project files faster, and stay productive while multitasking.
Quick Specs:
# of Cores – 10
# of Threads – 20
Processor Base Frequency – 3.70 GHz
Max Turbo Boost 3.0 Frequency – 5.20 GHz
Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost Frequency – 5.30 GHz
Cache – 20 MB Intel Smart Cache
TDP – 125 W
Max Memory Size – 128 GB
Memory Speed – DDR4-2933
Max # of Memory Channels – 2
Processor Graphics – Intel UHD Graphics 630
Scalability – 1S Only
PCI Express Revision – 3.0
Max # of PCI Express Lanes – 16
Sockets Supported – FCLGA1200
TJUNCTION – 100°C
For full features and specs, click here:
Intel 10th Gen SKU Table
A Closer Look
Our review samples showed up in a special box that retail chips won’t be in.
It opens up to reveal a blue acrylic sheet with the Intel logo. You can see two smaller boxes under it.
A finger hole lets you pop the clear cover off.
Inside are two smaller boxes, one contains a Core i5-10600K and the other, the new flagship Core i9-10900K.
Today we’ll be focusing on the i9-10900K.
The new LGA1200 based CPU’s look very similar to the former LGA1151 chips at first glance.
They are the same size, the only difference is the key notches are now about a quarter way up from the bottom instead of very near the top.
The bottom itself is also very similar, with a ton of micro-sized SMT components in the middle, and a grid of gold contacts around it. Let’s strap it in the test bench and move on to testing!
Synthetic Testing
Test Platform:
CPU – Intel Core i9-10900K Mobo – Aorus Z490 Master RAM – 32GB (4x8GB) HyperX Fury RGB 3200MHz C16 GPU – Nvidia RTX 2080 Founders Edition SSD – Kingston KC1000 1TB PSU – Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold 750W Chassis – Open BenchTable Cooling – Custom Liquid Loop (EKWB Velocity CPU Block, EKWB PE240 Rad, 1x DDC Pump)
All testing is performed at stock settings except for enabling XMP (Profile 1: 3200MHz 16-18-18-38 1.35V) and Aorus’s Multicore Enhancement disabled in the BIOS.
Super PI Modded 1.5
“In August 1995, the calculation of pi up to 4,294,960,000 decimal digits was succeeded by using a supercomputer at the University of Tokyo. The program was written by D.Takahashi in collaboration with Dr.Y.Kanada at the computer center. This record should be the current world record. (Details are shown in the windows help.) This record-breaking program was ported to personal computer environments such as Windows NT and Windows 95. In order to calculate 33.55 million digits, it takes within 3 days with a Pentium 90 MHz, 40 MB main memory, and 340 MB available storage.”
As this test is entirely single-threaded, it’s no surprise the Core i9-10900K lands a win here with single thread clock speeds able to hit a staggering 5.3GHz.
CINEBENCH R15
“CINEBENCH is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus, and much more.
CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.”
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Again we see single thread speeds pull in a decent win here with multi-core testing only loosing out to the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X as expected.
CINEBENCH R20
Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It’s free.
In the newer Cinebench R20, we see a similar pattern with the 10-core i9-10900K only falling behind the 12 and 16-core chips in our testing.
Passmark Performance Test – CPU Mark
“Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing, and benchmarking. PassMark Performance Test ™ allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.”
Passmark’s Performance Test 10 really scales with thread count rather than raw clock speed, so you see almost perfect scaling from 6 to 8 to 10 to 12 cores here with the i9-10900K almost reaching 25K points.
SiSoft Sandra – Cryptographic Bandwidth
“SiSoftware Sandra provides a robust package of diagnostic tools for testing your system and teasing out its problems–or potential headaches.”
SiSoft’s CPU Cryptographic Bandwidth really favors team red’s architecture here but some of Intel’s HEDT chips hold the top spot. We do see a pretty significant increase over the last gen’s 8-core parts.
Y-Cruncher
Written by Alexander J. Lee “From a high-school project that went a little too far…” y-cruncher, (y for gamma) is a number-crunching program that can compute various mathematical constants.
It was originally a small program specialized for computing the Euler-Mascheroni Constant. (Which uses gamma as its symbol, hence the name). It has since gained the ability to compute other constants.
It is the first of its kind that is multi-threaded and scalable to multi-core systems. Ever since its launch in 2009, it has become a common benchmarking and stress-testing application for overclockers and hardware enthusiasts.
We tested using the built-in benchmarks to compute Pi to 1 Billion Digits in both single and multi-threaded mode and recorded the Total Computation time at the end of the run. Y-Cruncher is also able to take advantage of AVX512 instructions in compatible CPU’s.
Core counts matter here and the i9-10900K only falls behind the mainstream 3900X and HEDT parts that sport AVX512 support in multi-threaded. The new chip lands the fastest non-AVX512 single-threaded speed in our lineup by a fair margin though.
Black Hole 4.2
Let the beast run and benchmark your system in three different tests (Multithreaded, Single-threaded & 4-Threaded) that will test your CPU to the very limit, and score you among hundreds of other systems that have tested.
Multithreaded will test your CPU’s efficiency of running more than one thread without major system lag. The higher you score on this one, the more threads your CPU can handle with a comfortable speed. High multithreaded scores generally mean you can render things faster.
4-Threaded tests your CPU’s performance in games since most games currently run on 4 threads.
Single-threaded evaluates how fast the CPU can handle a single, dedicated thread for processing.
This is another test that shows decent scaling from prior 8-core parts, but again see’s AMD’s architecture holding a pretty noticeable advantage, even with fewer cores.
Workstation & Productivity Testing
Blender Benchmark 2.82 – BMW27
A new platform to collect and display the results of hardware and software performance tests. Aimed at an optimal comparison between system hardware and installations using open source software and testing content in the public domain.
In something a little more real-world, the Core i9-10900K smokes through the BMW benchmark render in a touch over 2 minutes, nearly matching the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X, dusting the 10-core HEDT segmented i9-7900X and laying waste to every other lower core count chip from both teams.
POV-Ray 3.7 Standard Benchmark – CPU
The POV-Ray standard benchmark shows similar results with the i9-10900K more than able to hold its own in workstation tasks
x265 HD Benchmark A benchmark that measures how fast your computer can encode HD (1080p) video in the new H.265 / HEVC format.
Encoding video to HEVC is not that uncommon these days, and the i9-10900K just screams through it, even whipping the 12-core 3900X by a fair margin.
7-Zip
The benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second). The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is normalized with the results of the Intel Core 2 CPU with a multi-threading option switched off. So if you have modern CPU from Intel or AMD, rating values in single-thread mode must be close to real CPU frequency. There are two tests, compression with the LZMA method and decompression with the LZMA method. Once the total passes reach 50, the score is taken
Zipping and unzipping files to send is another frequent task that is even more common in this ‘work-from-home’ world this year. The 10900K handles this readily and leaves even last-gen HEDT chips in the dust.
Memory & Cache Testing
AIDA64 Engineer Edition
“FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme Edition 1.50 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business Edition 1.50 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises. The new AIDA64 update implements AVX-optimized benchmarks for the upcoming Intel Sandy Bridge processors, adds a brand-new video encoding benchmark, and supports the latest AMD and NVIDIA graphics processors.”
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Part of the success story of the 10900K is the 20MB of Intel’s smart cache. Not only is it flexible, but it is extremely fast, clearing the 3TB/s mark on L1 cache reads.
Actual memory bandwidth to the system ram is largely the same with most Dual-channel setups running this speed and latency. Nothing really stands out here, good or bad.
Interestingly, we see the new Core -5-10600K has a little bit lower latency overall to system memory. How boards handle XMP sub timings can affect this, so we are more looking for something that stands out, which nothing does here.
Passmark Performance Test – Memory Mark – Threaded
“Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing, and benchmarking. PassMark Performance Test ™ allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.”
Passmark again shows us with the i5-holding a slight performance advantage over the new i9.
SiSoft Sandra – Memory Bandwidth – Aggregate.
“SiSoftware Sandra provides a robust package of diagnostic tools for testing your system and teasing out its problems–or potential headaches.”
While we expect quad-channel enabled HEDT chips to score higher as we see, most of the Dual-channel parts here all stack up within margin of error.
Synthetic Game Testing
3DMark – Fire Strike
“Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today”
In this synthetic physics test, we see the extra few cores and increased clock speed hold a solid lead here, even against team red’s 12-core part.
3DMark – Time Spy
“3Dmark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spay is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built “the right way” from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.”
The more modern Time Spy test shows the same trend with an even wider lead on the 10900K.
Game Testing
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Originally created by legendary game designer Sid Meier, Civilization is a turn-based strategy game in which you attempt to build an empire to stand the test of time. Become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age. Wage war, conduct diplomacy, advance your culture, and go head-to-head with history’s greatest leaders as you attempt to build the greatest civilization the world has ever known.
Civilization VI offers new ways to engage with your world: cities now physically expand across the map, active research in technology and culture unlocks new potential, and competing leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical traits as you race for one of five ways to achieve victory in the game.
Intel bills the new Core i9-10900K as the world’s fastest gaming processor, and that appears to hold true right out of the gate with Civilization 6’s Ai test completing rounds in just under 6.7ms.
Far Cry 5
Anything can happen. Everything will.
Welcome to Hope County, Montana, land of the free and the brave, but also home to a fanatical doomsday cult—known as The Project at Eden’s Gate—that is threatening the community’s freedom. Stand up to the cult’s leaders, Joseph Seed, and the Heralds, as you spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community.
Far Cry 5 hits modern multi-core CPU’s pretty hard, and can take advantage of more than a couple of cores. Here we see the 10900K pull the crown off the special edition 9900KS’ head. The new i5-10600K is hot on its heels here as well.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.
The latest Tomb Raider also sees a benefit from more CPU power and the 10900K delivers the best experience out of the box of anything on the market, albeit only a fraction of an FPS ahead of the former champion.
Ashes of the Singularity
Planet by planet, a war is raging across the galaxy. The technological singularity has given humanity the power to expand further than they ever have before. Now, they compete with each other and their sentient artificial intelligence adversaries for control of newfound worlds.
Ashes of the Singularity is more of a playable benchmark, but the Core i9-10900K holds a commanding lead here. If you scrolled past everything to here, the i9-10900K took 1st place in every gaming test we put it against.
Overclocking, Power & Thermals
For Power usage, we will be using a FLIR CM78 DC Amp clamp directly monitoring the 12V EPS connections to the motherboard. This gives us a real-world accuracy of +/- 2 Watts across our entire measuring range from 0W to more than enough to melt both 8-pin EPS plugs.
Out of the box, the Core i9-10900K runs at up to 5.2Ghz on 2 cores, or up to 5.3Ghz if cooling permits via Thermal Velocity Boost.
Thermal Velocity Boost ONLY applies these increased clocks to the two best cores, selected by Intel at the factory and denoted in red in CPUID’s latest CPU-Z tool. In our case, this happens to be Core 8 and Core 9 (or 9 and 10 if you start counting at 1 instead of zero).
From there, we see 5100Mhz with 3 cores active, 5GHz with 4 or 5 cores active, and a still impressive 4900MHz with 6 to 10 cores active.
At stock, we see temps hit a tepid 68C on the hottest core. This is 10 cores, at 4.9Ghz folks. Less than 70C! the new thin die and Solder Thermal Interface Material is doing its job and doing it well. When we first tested the i9-9900K, we were in the mid to upper 80C range here. More cores, more threads, faster clocks, and significantly cooler temps. We’ll take that any day of the week!
Voltage is reading about 1.224V here, so that has a fair amount to do with it. You can try to bash Intel for re-using the 14nm node yet again, but it is WELL refined at this point. Power usage lands at a pretty hefty 246W though. Remember that TDP is THERMAL Design Power, NOT actual power usage.
From here, we’ll bump the multiplier up to 51 on all cores. We get a nice jump in performance, with a modest jump in voltage to 2.84V which gives us temps landing around 80C on average with the hottest hitting 84C. You can clearly see our two good cores here sitting at 71C and 75C. Power draw jumps to 308.4W under load.
At 5.2Ghz on all cores, we are starting to bump thermal limits, with the hottest core hitting 96C and the package bumping the 100C limit. Power jumps to nearly 380W at this point and the voltage has to come up quite a bit to keep it stable under AVX loads. With a little lengthier fine-tuning, this can probably be trimmed back, but 5.1Ghz on 10 cores is a pretty killer system as it is and 5.2Ghz is certainly doable.
Conclusion
Intel bills the new Core i9-10900K as the ‘Worlds Fastest Gaming Processor’ and we have to say, it’s not a tall tale. The crown did indeed transfer from the retiring champion i9-9900K. The 10900K just pwned every gaming benchmark we threw at it, synthetic or real world. As far as productivity, well, it does a sporting job there as well. While it’s hard to argue against raw core count in productivity, something team red is currently maintaining the lead on, Intel is able to make up a fair amount of that core count discrepancy with raw clock speed. It wasn’t very many years ago that 4Ghz was a hard mountain to summit. More recently overclocking to 5Ghz took some effort. Now, it’s hard to get this chip to run UNDER 5GHz.
While we all want to see that new node, that new 10nm process, it’s hard to argue with the results of a well-refined product. Give the core count, the stock clock speeds, and the raw power on tap, we have to say we are VERY impressed with what Intel has done for keeping this monster cool. Given today’s use cases are pretty much guaranteed to include heavy multitasking with more than one heavy-hitting application, a few more cores are always welcome. Especially when it doesn’t come at the cost of clock speeds.
If you are purely a gamer looking for the absolute best, the roughly $500 price tag is pretty fair, even more so when you can throw a few cores at streaming your rounds and still have the best experience money can buy. If you work and play, the Core i9-10900K is still a very compelling option in most use cases. Its gaming performance is epic and edges out the closest red chip, the 3900X in many real-world productive use cases.
If you purely work and can saturate every core you can find, you may be better off with a red product given the core count per price that side offers. Gone are the days of black and white ‘product X is better than product Y’. That grey line is rather blurry. Can we recommend this? For the serious gamer, 100%. For gaming and streaming, that’s still a yes. If you get things done and only play here and there, well, then your specific use case and budget are going to have to guide you.
Great job Intel!
[sc name=”award-must-have” ]
Intel Core i9-10900K CPU Review Intel’s new Core i9-10900K CPU is an interesting product. While some of the more vocal fans of a certain red competitor may give Intel some flak about reusing their 14nm node yet again, Intel has learned how to really polish a product and extract every bit of benefit from the silicon.
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Halo Infinite's Xbox One Version Won't Be "Second-Class," Halo Boss Says
New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/halo-infinites-xbox-one-version-wont-be-second-class-halo-boss-says/
Halo Infinite's Xbox One Version Won't Be "Second-Class," Halo Boss Says
Halo Infinite is releasing in Holiday 2020 as a launch title for Microsoft’s new and more powerful next-generation console, Project Scarlett, as well as the standard Xbox One in addition to PC.
Halo boss Frank O’Connor spoke about this distributed release in an interview with YouTuber Blackmist523. O’Connor said the Halo development team worked alongside the hardware developers behind Scarlett to allow for the game to look and perform “amazingly” on the next-generation system.
That being said, O’Connor said people playing on the standard Xbox One (and presumably the Xbox One X) will still have a good experience. “The Xbox One is not going to be a second-class citizen. We’re building it so it plays and looks fantastic on Xbox One,” O’Connor said.
Halo Infinite is also launching for PC, on the same day it comes to consoles. That’s a big change for the series, as Microsoft never released the mainline instalments after Halo 2 on PC (though they are coming to PC now through The Master Chief Collection). The PC version of Halo Infinite might end up being the best version of Halo Infinite–provided your rig is beefy enough, O’Connor said.
Here are his full thoughts on the matter:
“Obviously the special citizen [for Halo Infinite] will be Scarlett, and we’ve worked with that hardware team to make sure the game shows up amazingly on it, and work with them to make sure that we know how to make sure the game look amazing on it, but it will be for Xbox One and it will look incredible. And it will also be for PC for the first time, day and date so that’s exciting for us too.
“That’s changed the way we develop and the way we think about things, but we are always shooting for the best possible hardware target. This time it’s going to be up to you to decide–is it going to be Scarlett or PC; it kind of depends on your PC at that point. But the Xbox One is not going to be a second-class citizen. We’re building it so it plays and looks fantastic on Xbox One, and then everything else is plus-plus-plus, but we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves that we’re thinking about. “
Given the increased horsepower of Project Scarlett, and O’Connor’s statement that developer 343 Industries is developing toward the “best possible hardware target,” it remains to be seen if the standard Xbox One version will be limited in any capacities. Presumably the better hardware with Project Scarlett will allow the game on that platform to look and run better, but any other differences between the versions are unknown for now.
Also in the interview, O’Connor spoke briefly and at a high level about Halo Infinite’s story and how it is connected to the events of Halo 5: Guardians but also aims to be approachable to newcomers. O’Connor also talked about how while the E3 2019 Halo Infinite trailer did not show any new gameplay, it did introduce players to some of what to expect about how the game will look and feel at the start.
While Halo Infinite isn’t scheduled to release until Holiday 2020, a beta for the game will be held prior to release.
Source : Gamesport
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Mortal Kombat 11 – Review
Mortal Kombat is more than a game: it is the closest thing we as gamers have to a counter-culture. It is an I.P. that has consistently laughed in the face of censorship boards by never compromising on giving fans the unfiltered carnage of close combat. This was literally (part of) the reason why there exists an ESRB rating system today.
What’s more, this violence is not just for looks – it is also about skill. The genius of Mortal Kombat’s formula has always lain in demonstrating the player’s fighting ability through how sadistically they can crush their opponent. You don’t just K.O. an opponent in this game; you FINISH THEM!!!
Is it weird to admire the way blood is animated in a game?
I am quite pleased to say that this 27-year-old spirit of Mortal Kombat is alive and well within the eleventh arrival. Let’s not beat around the bush here. This is essentially the perfect fighting game, and players and pros alike will surely regard it as one of the best this series has ever produced. This is because Mortal Kombat 11 manages to include every modern convention that works, while being mindful of the old-school novelties that cemented the I.P. in gaming culture.
Time and time again
In the single-player ‘kampaign’, Earthrealm yet again comes face to face with an apocalyptic threat. The story opens with a now corrupted Raiden (see MK XL) decapitating the elder god Shinnok as a message to anyone who dares to threaten his domain. This was was a most serious error in judgement as Shinnok turns out to be the son of a new character, Kronika – the guardian of time itself.
“But know this–the arc of the universe bends to my will.” – Kronika
Needless to say, Kronika is rather unhappy not just about her son being reduced to the usefulness of a bowling ball, but also due to the balance of good and evil now being uneven. She vows to restore equilibrium in the timeline up to the events of her son’s beheading, but is also aware that Raiden and the Earthrealm gang could present a troublesome thorn in her side in any dimension.
Kronika therefore merges the past and present together, and teleports an army of Netherrealm’s most formidable villains, like Baraka and Shao Kahn, from the past into the present as her insurance policy. As per usual, the player will represent the fight for Earthrealm’s fate from the perspective of Johnny Cage, Kotal Kahn, Kung Lao, and other classic and contemporary characters.
I get that the whole time travel motif has been done to death, but the team at NetherRealm have once again shown their practiced hand for storytelling. They have wisely used the motif of temporal distortion as a McGuffin to re-imagine and bring back some of the franchise’s most beloved figures for the modern gaming climate.
Johnny squared!
This makes for a deeply interesting plot with some exciting and unexpected alliances forming or breaking between characters from different time periods (because their major clashes haven’t happened yet). More than that, Netherrealm sets up the opportunity to introduce characters like Cetrion and Geras who have fighting abilities centred on the manipulation of time.
Overall the story really oozes the kind of cinematic quality that would make Marvel Studios sweat bullets. The combination of excellent graphics, captivating voice acting, and the return of favourite characters will most definitely have new fans engrossed, and old fans spiralling into nostalgia.
In with the old, out with the new
Objectively speaking, Mortal Kombat 11 plays it extremely safe. This game demonstrates the old adage that players are bound to enjoy what lies in their comfort zone, and it is not necessary for sequels to reinvent the wheel. Instead, MK 11 goes for the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but make it a whole lot prettier’ approach.
Indeed, MK 11 plays just as slick and precise as every game Netherrealm has developed thus far. What can be perfected has been tweaked, but a whole slew of small changes collectively add up to an experience that will still feel fresh and engaging to long-time players. Not much is new here, and I am very happy about that.
You get to see quite a lot of Sub Zero’s face in this game.
So aside from the single player campaign, the ‘Klassic Towers’ mode also makes a return in which the player must defeat a sequence of opponents to ascend up the tower. Except for infinite modes, these always end with Kronika as the final boss. Defeating her also gets you a brief cut scene that fills in some story details specific to the character you happen to be playing much like Tekken or Street Fighter.
You will not find the ‘Living Towers’ of the previous installment as Netherrealm has ditched this mode in favour of the ‘Towers of Time’. These differ from Klassic Towers in that opponents get more challenging as you approach the top, and players are also permitted to activate certain modifiers (they unlocked as loot) either for one match, or for the duration of the entire tower.
As an example, you can assign Jade one or two of Cyrax’s cyber webs to fire at her opponent stunning them momentarily. Alternatively, the match might have a vampire modifier in which the player’s health bar drains constantly to the opponent’s, so it is best to finish the match sooner rather than later. These towers can certainly get infamously punishing, but the game drowns you in rewards for completing them.
Lemme smash! This is who you will be playing in the Krypt. Note the three currencies in the bottom of the screen.
The Krypt is back again, of course. This time the event plays out on Shang Tsung’s island (see MK 2011) during which you open chests, smash vases and crush meteorites for some sweet loot and unlockable goodies. The Krypt also adopts a third person perspective now which only makes the act of swinging around Shao Kahn’s colossal hammer at vases and statues all the more gratifying.
Light puzzle solving is also a way of collecting some treasures, and it is clear that the developers really want the player to enjoy exploring for goodies to make your game more interesting. I have always been intrigued and, a little creeped out by this subsection of Mortal Kombat games, so it’s nice to see it return here. It’s really beginning to feel like a crucial component of the experience.
Kompletely Unreal
I have never been shy to express my admiration for the Unreal Engine, but what Netherrealm has achieved on a visual level in this game is outright astounding. Here we have a super modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 no less, throwing around particles and rendering high definition textures like it is trying to put Frostbite and Unity out of business.
Even though certain sections of the game have been mysteriously capped at 30fps (most of which can now be fixed by a mod), this game flows on the PC like butter down a centrefold’s butt cheek. In contrast to Mortal Kombat XL, the vibrant graphical tone of MK11 really throws the bountiful details of the visuals into sharp relief. I feel like the unique cast of characters that has always defined this series finally get the representation they deserve.
Damn this game is beautiful. This allows for particularly dramatic cut scenes.
The environments and fighting arenas have also been given the deluxe visual treatment through dramatic lighting and environmental effects. I found the arenas to have an enigmatic and refreshing feeling to them, and a particular favourite of mine became the decaying Shaolin temple where the corpses of dead monks observe your match. I clearly have issues.
They are noticeably the tightest fighting planes that Netherrealm has implemented within one of their games, but this has the pleasing outcome of somehow making the action feel closer… more immediate. The close-quarter combat also places more importance on finding openings in the opponent’s technique rather than just flying from one combo to the next.
Combos are still just as important, but it is clear that MK 11 wants shorter, more potent moves to play a bigger role too. This means that the one guy with supersonic thumbs you always get paired with online is less safe than he thinks this time round. You know who you are!
The fatalities and other post-match tomfoolery have, naturally, also been given an obvious graphical upgrade. Seriously, seeing brains being splattered and bones being shattered in this level of realism is not at all for the faint of heart. Be that as it may, I nevertheless have a hard time imagining a more beautiful, albeit visceral fighting game.
The very definition of fighting chance
As I mentioned, the roster of fighters is a mixed bag of old and new characters including the original 7, but like all the other yobs on the internet, I feel like some characters leave a conspicuous absence. Where the hell is Goro!? I also miss, Takashi who had a snappy and responsive feel in his fighting that appealed to my playing style in the previous game.
Perhaps old Goro will get his chance with DLCs, but the roster is still a bit smaller than I would have liked. It is once again too obvious that most of us will be expected to fork out more of our hard earned cash as extra content later down the line. Netherrealm has chosen quality of quantity, but this rather anemic roster just smacks too much of leaving room for microtransactions.
At least Geras more than makes up for my four-armed favourite being conspicuously M.I.A. His time-travelling abilities allow him to execute a punch, blink back in time, and execute another attack before my opponent could even find a moment to move. I also liked the beefy, warlock look he had going on which looks particularly slick during fights. Definitely my favourite new character in this game.
Geras warping back in time behind his opponent. Cannot remember who the other is… uhm was…
It also helps that the developers have really gone the extra mile to give MK 11 a truly comprehensive and helpful tutorial segment. They even included a lesson on frame times and hit advantages – something I usually ignored and left to subconscious strategy until I actually paid attention to it in this game.
Best of all, for the really nasty combos and chained assaults the game will actually demo the move on screen with button prompts. I am embarrassed to admit that some combos in previous games took me upwards of an hour to get right. With this new system, it was ten tries tops. As such, newcomers to Mortal Kombat, and fighting games in general, will undoubtedly feel more welcome than ever before.
On the subject of techniques, MK 11 has swapped out X-ray moves for a new system called ‘Fatal Blows’. Like X-ray attacks, they are once-off, deadly attacks taking you microscopically close to your, or your opponent’s, cracking jaw and rupturing internal organs. Except there is one crucial difference: Fatal Blows can only be activated in the last third of your health.
In other words, if the player has only been maintaining a slight lead with their opponent throughout the fight, the last section becomes indescribably tense. You can no longer rely on short-distance techniques or longer combos to win because if you allow even one opportunity to have a Fatal Blow performed on you, you’re toast.
Let us have the talk
So what exactly is the deal with this grind getting everyone all upset? Well, the manner in which MK 11 deals with in-game currency makes us all want to gather our raincoats for the inevitable microtransaction storm that is surely going to hit soon. At the time of writing, MK 11 has very little to offer in the way of DLC on Steam.
Still, something tells me that this will change soon not just because this is the nature of our industry, but because fighting games are also particularly lucrative opportunities for monetisation. They always have been because it is so satisfying seeing no grey blocks on your roster, or adding some cosmetic personality to your favourite fighter.
This is my only major issue with MK 11 because it feels like there is simply too much being gated off from the player when you start the game. Every time I completed a fight, the game goes through a huge pomp and circumstance to inform me of all the different currencies I just earned. Not that the handouts are even that generous mind you.
You read that correctly. This time there is not just the Koins used to unlock outfits, fatalities and modifiers for tower modes. Even in the Krypt, you now have to juggle multiple kinds of currency units like hearts and soul fragments if you want all off the riches the hidden content has to offer. Oh, and the Krypt chests are randomised so your friend may find a liquid metal suit for Sonya Blade in the same place you get concept art…
Playing around with some of the unlockable skins and finishing moves.
Even though I have never really cared much about cosmetic items in the games I play, I don’t like the sense of gaminess MK 11 creates with the endless pop-ups eagerly informing me how much I have earned. I am playing because I am having fun, and this just feels like Netherrealm is trying to force me into some scheme inevitably leading to microtransactions.
FINISH IT!!
In case that last section threw you off a bit, I want to state again that Mortal Kombat 11 is essentially fighting game perfection. This game is completely saturated with the kind of creative vision that has been the worked into the design of my favourite fighting games. This game looks great, sounds great and feels great.
If Netherrealm vow never to turn the superfluous currencies online into an evil plot of monetisation, I will not need another fighting game for the next ten years at least. Combined with an excellent story, this will become an essential classic in your Mortal Kombat collection.
Remember to check out our Mortal Kombat 11 performance analysis!
Tight and refined combat
Tutorial section
Story
Excellent visuals and sound
Design of new fighters
Temporal fighting abilities
Somewhat limited roster
Too focused on currencies
Playtime: About 28 hours total. 10 hours on the single player campaign with much of the remaining time spent online.
Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox Controller (Thanks to my friend Niel for lending me his!!)
Mortal Kombat 11 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/
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Standalone HTC Vive Focus Gets A Wider Release, But Probably Won’t Be Sold To Consumers
Smartphone specialist turned VR headset honcho HTC is expanding its lineup of Vive hardware. The latest device is the Vive Focus, a design formerly restricted to the Chinese market, coming to 37 new markets next week including the US and Europe.
The Vive Focus has been around since late last year, when it was introduced as a standalone, mobile-powered alternative to the expensive Vive for PCs. It uses a Snapdragon 835 processor—also seen in 2017’s top Android smartphones—which might lead you to believe it’s intended to compete with the upcoming Oculus Go. But in fact, HTC says that the Vive Focus will be marketed for enterprise applications, such as retailers hoping to give virtual tours to customers or educators hoping to make VR simulations.
That’s a good thing, since its $600 price tag doesn’t make it competitive with either the $400 Oculus Go or entry-level PC-powered VR headsets. The standard model doesn’t even include a controller with six degrees of control—an essential part of full-scale VR gaming—though a $750 upgraded model does.
The Vive Focus is running Android software, but it doesn’t use Google’s Daydream platform, instead using a modified version of HTC’s Vive Wave software and app/game store.
youtube
In short, while a “new Vive” might sound exciting, it doesn’t look like this one will be making it into many consumer hands. Which is a shame, since HTC’s experience with VR hardware and a surprisingly high-res set of 1440×800 screens (one for each eye) would have enabled much more impressive experiences than currently available via Google Daydream or Samsung Gear VR.
If you’re looking for a more expansive option, the Oculus Rift is only $350 and the original HTC Vive is $500, but both require beefy gaming PCs to play anything.
Source: Variety
from https://www.reviewgeek.com/9575/standalone-htc-vive-focus-gets-a-wider-release-but-probably-wont-be-sold-to-consumers/
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Standalone HTC Vive Focus Gets A Wider Release, But Probably Won’t Be Sold To Consumers
Smartphone specialist turned VR headset honcho HTC is expanding its lineup of Vive hardware. The latest device is the Vive Focus, a design formerly restricted to the Chinese market, coming to 37 new markets next week including the US and Europe.
The Vive Focus has been around since late last year, when it was introduced as a standalone, mobile-powered alternative to the expensive Vive for PCs. It uses a Snapdragon 835 processor—also seen in 2017’s top Android smartphones—which might lead you to believe it’s intended to compete with the upcoming Oculus Go. But in fact, HTC says that the Vive Focus will be marketed for enterprise applications, such as retailers hoping to give virtual tours to customers or educators hoping to make VR simulations.
That’s a good thing, since its $600 price tag doesn’t make it competitive with either the $400 Oculus Go or entry-level PC-powered VR headsets. The standard model doesn’t even include a controller with six degrees of control—an essential part of full-scale VR gaming—though a $750 upgraded model does.
The Vive Focus is running Android software, but it doesn’t use Google’s Daydream platform, instead using a modified version of HTC’s Vive Wave software and app/game store.
youtube
In short, while a “new Vive” might sound exciting, it doesn’t look like this one will be making it into many consumer hands. Which is a shame, since HTC’s experience with VR hardware and a surprisingly high-res set of 1440×800 screens (one for each eye) would have enabled much more impressive experiences than currently available via Google Daydream or Samsung Gear VR.
If you’re looking for a more expansive option, the Oculus Rift is only $350 and the original HTC Vive is $500, but both require beefy gaming PCs to play anything.
Source: Variety
from James Dole Gadgets News https://www.reviewgeek.com/9575/standalone-htc-vive-focus-gets-a-wider-release-but-probably-wont-be-sold-to-consumers/
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Standalone HTC Vive Focus Gets A Wider Release, But Probably Won’t Be Sold To Consumers
Smartphone specialist turned VR headset honcho HTC is expanding its lineup of Vive hardware. The latest device is the Vive Focus, a design formerly restricted to the Chinese market, coming to 37 new markets next week including the US and Europe.
The Vive Focus has been around since late last year, when it was introduced as a standalone, mobile-powered alternative to the expensive Vive for PCs. It uses a Snapdragon 835 processor—also seen in 2017’s top Android smartphones—which might lead you to believe it’s intended to compete with the upcoming Oculus Go. But in fact, HTC says that the Vive Focus will be marketed for enterprise applications, such as retailers hoping to give virtual tours to customers or educators hoping to make VR simulations.
That’s a good thing, since its $600 price tag doesn’t make it competitive with either the $400 Oculus Go or entry-level PC-powered VR headsets. The standard model doesn’t even include a controller with six degrees of control—an essential part of full-scale VR gaming—though a $750 upgraded model does.
The Vive Focus is running Android software, but it doesn’t use Google’s Daydream platform, instead using a modified version of HTC’s Vive Wave software and app/game store.
youtube
In short, while a “new Vive” might sound exciting, it doesn’t look like this one will be making it into many consumer hands. Which is a shame, since HTC’s experience with VR hardware and a surprisingly high-res set of 1440×800 screens (one for each eye) would have enabled much more impressive experiences than currently available via Google Daydream or Samsung Gear VR.
If you’re looking for a more expansive option, the Oculus Rift is only $350 and the original HTC Vive is $500, but both require beefy gaming PCs to play anything.
Source: Variety
from Computer And Technology https://www.reviewgeek.com/9575/standalone-htc-vive-focus-gets-a-wider-release-but-probably-wont-be-sold-to-consumers/
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HP bb09 Battery all-laptopbattery.com
Similarly, in the trailer for the upcoming sci-fi film Kin, the neon lights and colorful explosions burst with rich, saturated blues and oranges. Matte displays don't typically have the same wow factor as their glossy counterparts, but I was in awe every time I visited my favorite websites on the Precision. My main complaint with the display is that skin tones look oversaturated, but you can adjust the color temperature using Dell's included display-calibration software.The display's outstanding qualities were quantified in our testing. The panel reproduced a staggering 211 percent of the sRGB color gamut, achieving among the highest ratings we've seen. While the Lenovo ThinkPad P71 (183 percent) and HP ZBook 17 G4 (173 percent) also impressed, their panels were nowhere near as colorful as the Precision's. The workstation average is much lower, at 149 percent.
With this machine's matte display and impressive peak brightness, you should have no issue using the Precision 7730 in bright environments. The display reached a maximum brightness of 330 nits, which is higher than scores from the ThinkPad P71 (283 nits) and HP ZBook 17 G4 (256 nits). The workstation average is also dimmer, at 325 nits. With an actuation force of 69 grams and a key travel of 1.6 millimeters (1.5mm to 2mm is recommended), the chiclet-style keyboard with numpad is comfortable to use, even during long typing sessions. Weighty and tactile, the backlit keys offer a rewarding amount of feedback and are well-spaced.In the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I reached 114 words per minute, with an error rate of 5 percent. That matches my 95 percent accuracy rate but is slightly slower than my 119 word-per-minute average, likely because of the key's above-average actuation force.
For a device this large, the Precision 7730's 3.9 x 2.1-inch touchpad is inexplicably small. Fortunately, it made up for its size by responding quickly to my gestures, including pinch-to-zoom, four-finger tapping to open settings and three-finger swiping to change apps.MORE: Our Favorite Gaming KeyboardsIf touchpads aren't your thing, you can use the little rubber nub in the center of the Precision 7730's keyboard. That is, if you can find it. The black pointing stick doesn't have a colorful ring around it, so it blends in with the dark deck. Still, I had no problems using the pointing stick and secondary set of left-, right- and middle-click buttons to navigate the web. The Precision 7730 is a performance powerhouse. Equipped with an Intel Core i9-8950HK CPU and 32GB of RAM, the Precision 7730 quickly loaded 30 Microsoft Edge tabs, four of which played YouTube videos while two others streamed Fornite on Twitch.
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You've long been able to buy portable batteries that'll keep your phone running even through a heavy day of thumb-typing. Soon you should be able to get one of those even for your beefy 15-inch MacBook Pro, too.Hyper, a Sanho product line specializing in accessories that fill gaps in an Apple-centric digital life, on Monday announced the new HyperJuice portable USB-C battery that packs a whopping 100 watt-hour capacity. For comparison, the current 15-inch MacBook Pro has a 83.6-watt-hour battery.The 7-inch-long HyperJuice has three ports -- one 100-watt USB-C port for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, one 60-watt USB-C port for smaller laptops that don't draw as much power, and one quick-charge 18-watt old-style USB-A for phones and tablets. You can charge devices with all three of its ports at the same time.
The device shows the versatility of the USB-C standard, years old but still a relative novelty for much of the computing world. The same port can be used for many types of devices, and now it can handle charging PCs as well as power-sipping phones. If you don't have USB-C today, you might well have it on your next laptop or phone, though Apple still hasn't embraced it for mobile devices.The HyperJuice battery pack will cost $300, although an early KickStarter price is half that. It's scheduled to start shipping in October.It'll charge a 15-inch MacBook MacBook Pro as fast as its power cable, Chief Executive Daniel Chin said, since it can pump out more power than that laptop's 87-watt charger. And it holds its charge well while you're on the road, losing only about 20 percent of its power per year, he added.
Because of the cleverness of modern USB charging, you can plug the HyperJuice into the wall to charge it at the same time it's charging a laptop. It takes 60 to 90 minutes to fully charge the 1.2-pound, aluminum-case HyperJuice.Its battery capacity is right up against the current Federal Aviation Administration limit for battery packs.PC gaming is the hardest gaming ecosystem to join since a decent gaming PC, be it a desktop or laptop, can easily run for $2,000 or more. But the Acer Predator Helios 300 laptop disrupts that trend: this $1,199 laptop is fully capable of high-end gaming and VR. If you’re in the market for a gaming laptop but you have a limited budget, you should be excited because, until now, your options have been far more limited.The Helios 300 is a true-to-form gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch 144Hz screen, GTX 1060 graphics, and an Intel Core i7 chip. Specs like these are usually reserved for laptops in the $2,000 range, yet the Helios 300 offers all of them for a fraction of the usual cost.
While it seems like the Helios 300 is a too-good-to-be-true laptop, it does come with some caveats, namely in design and keyboard quality. But even with those compromises, the Helios 300 is a precursor of a trend in cheaper but still-capable gaming laptops.At the very least, I can say Acer designed a gaming laptop that looks the part: bright red accents, chunky corners, and thick bezels with plastic and metal that equal six pounds in weight. The Helios 300’s 1.05-inch chassis isn’t the thinnest, and it doesn’t have the highest quality build I’ve seen in a laptop for this price, but it does well to mask most of my fingerprints, despite its dark metal palm rest. The Helios 300 reminds me of gaming laptops from two years ago when tasteful styling was unheard of and a gaming laptop that could double as a productivity machine was equally unheard of. I cannot say this design language has aged well — it hasn’t — but the real worth of the Helios 300 is in how well it can play games.A “gaming” laptop, no matter its price, should be able to deliver high-end performance through a decent GPU and CPU and have the bare essentials to take advantage of that performance, such as a high refresh rate screen and reliable cooling. To this point, the Acer Helios 300 delivers a little bit of everything and then some.
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The first spec an affordable gaming laptop should focus on is a good screen. Acer used a 144Hz IPS screen on the Helios 300. High refresh rate screens are important in PC gaming because the higher the rate, the smoother your gameplay experience will be. 144Hz is the current standard for high-end desktops and laptops, and it’s a welcome addition to a $1,200 laptop, which are usually equipped with slower, 60Hz screens.There’s a lot I can say about the Helios 300’s gaming and productivity performance. Prior to the Helios 300, I haven’t tested a sub-$2,000 laptop that can play Rainbow Six: Siege and League of Legends, at a consistent 144 frames per second. Overwatch also runs at ultra settings, but it dips to the 80 fps mark in intense firefights. Destiny 2 also runs comfortably at around 100 fps with settings on ultra.The gist of it is that you’ll be able to play most current-generation PC games on high (or the highest) settings, well past the 60 fps mark needed for smooth gameplay, and sometimes you’ll even reach the native 144 fps target.
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