Topic: PC Gaming

Would a gaming laptop be recommended for someone who wants to get into PC gaming?
I can't build a desktop PC because I live with my mother and she has the philosophy of "less cables, the better", and got rid of our old desktop because no one used it.
I have an itch to play AAA games that I've missed on Nintendo systems, not necesarily on high specs.

you dont need to build your own pc. i got a complete pc 2 years ago and i still havent changed any of the components.

@Luna_110 Speaking from experience, I dont recommend getting a gaming laptop, they are more prone to failure than a normal cheaper one. Such a small case isn't build for gaming. They are also overpriced for just decently good specs.

So unless you have no other choice, and there's a good deal on one, i don't recommend it...

@whodatninja
I'll have to take my chances
I don't think my mother will let me have a desktop at home for gaming since I have precious little time and it is already divided between my 3DS and Wii U, while I can save up for a gaming notebook with no problem.

Yeah I know a guy who builds PCs for a living. He would do it for me, if I'm not up for it. It's just so many things can go wrong, it's expensive hardware and I'm a complete beginner. It was hard enough to make a list of compatible specs!

@Luna_110 Yeah a laptop is extremely convenient and easy and tempting. You can always go desktop later when you have more space, money, etc...

@skywake Newegg's sale has already started. This looks like a pretty good pre-built that is better than what I was looking to build for slightly more. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168831022...

Is there something I am missing with it that actually makes it bad?

@DefHalan
Looks fine from the basic specs. Hard to comment further without more details... but on paper? That's a pretty impressive setup

got myself new RAM today. but so far it doesnt work. not sure why. maybe i need to change something in the BIOS for each RAM modul. got two 8gb ddr3 RAM now. system crashes when i start a game or play a video. guess pc-gaming isnt that easy, but i hope i can figure this out. need the extra RAm to get just cause 3 to work properly.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is officially a thing! Been waitin' too long, I tell ya! The link also includes 7+ minutes of gameplay footage, so it's definitely no hoax, unlike last time, when they just scapped it and made an MMO (which...wasn't bad, but I need a singleplayer mode, these games are hard enough due to the realistic learning curve of using a giant bipedal machine in armed combat, without having some n00b-killer gloating about how many bits he just blew my torso into...) It's nice how we got so many interesting-looking games to look forward to lately.

In semi-related news:

We're also less than 10 days from the release of a new Heavy Gear game! Or at least the early access release, but hey, I didn't even know it was a thing at all until just the other day. Hopefully it turns out to be fun, I don't think I ever played the old Heavy Gear games, but I always wanted to.

alright i had to change some settings in BIOS to make the new RAM run with the old one. but just cause 3 is running better now. not perfect, but it's okay. i could need a new CPU, but i would have to get a new mainboard too for that :/

I got a Steam Link yesterday.

The good news is that, just playing Ori and the Blind Forest at least, performance over wifi was very acceptable to me (I'm not that fussy about framerate - bar the occasional stutter it looked smooth enough for me).

The less good news was that a wired connection didn't perform so well. Framerate looked sluggish, like the game was playing with the brakes stuck on slightly.

Worse news was that I seemed to get different issues each time I booted the thing up, be it screen ratio, audio distortion, controller not recognised, not connecting to host PC. Though updating the firmware part way through didn't help in terms of consistency. Hopefully it will settle down as I get to know it's quirks a bit better. It's clearly been a trial-and-error launch for the hardware, with many firmware revisions having gone by by now.

My next worry is how many games in my Library Steam seems to think are predominantly mouse+keyboard rather than joypad.

Well, last minute I got in on that gaming PC giveaway they were promoting during the Game Awards.

The thing is, I can't remember my Yahoo! Mail password, and couldn't recover it through their help system. It's been years since I last used my Yahoo account (been using Gmail for the past couple years), but I had to use it here since that's what's connected to my Facebook (which is what you had to sign in with for the giveaway). Their system ended up saying that my account can't be recovered online, and unless I just happen to remember my password, I'll forever be locked out of my account.

Probably won't win anyways, but wouldn't that be my luck...

Yahoo's been weird lately. And when did they make Tumblr accounts = Yahoo accounts? I closed my Tumblr account, and that's all she wrote. If I wanna make another one that isbn't immediately attached to an email I barely use, but need for certain important things, I have to make another Yahoo account, which I will then have to memorize. Screw that, I already have to use the password recovery every time I use my current one.

minecraft is welcomed here, isn't it?

sure. best played on pc. i havent played it for a while though. but i always come back and start a new world from time to time^^

Well, my brother built me a PC ground up for Christmas... so I'm assimilating into the master race!

It's not super high end, but for goodness sake it's a Christmas gift. I'm shocked it's as good as it is tbh. Set it up alongside my consoles, connected to my 4KTV.

CPU Intel Core i3 3.7GHz
GPU AMD Radeon RX 480 (8gb DDR5 RAM) overclocked to 1340MHz
RAM 8gb DDR4 RAM
HDD 128gb Solid State Drive
OS Windows 10 Home

That ain't bad. I'm running Civilization 6 in native 4K resolution, and 🐬 runs pretty much every game without a hitch. It's amazing seeing Xenoblade Chronicles in HD. It looks almost as good as the newest entry on Wii U- Xenoblade X.

Went ham on the STEAM sale. Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, every Valve game ever made (bundled for $22), Dragon's Dogma, Pillars of Eternity, Dragon Age Origins, Undertale...

I have a STEAM controller on the way (on sale for $34.99 @Amazon) because a lot of games such as Civilization 6 and Dragon Age Orgins are mouse and keyboard only, but apparently do work with STEAM controller. But I do have a wired 360 controller already, and ordered another Bluetooth X1 controller (don't wanna sync back and forth with X1) with chatpad to work as an easy access keyboard. Also got this little mousepad peripheral that attaches to the arm of your recliner, which should make mouse/keyboard a little easier.

i wanna get one for my 360 controller but im not sure if such a small keyboard really works for chatting in games. can you recommend it? i need it for elder scrolls online

PS: sounds like a cool pc. do you only have that one hard drive though???

@6ch6ris6

I'll let you know once it arrives. I mean, I have a wireless keyboard already that fits perfectly in my lap, but I'm just exploring options right now I guess. Seeing what works and what doesn't.

I have a 3TB HDD on the way, but it's not solid state. It's just nice having SSD for at least the OS. All the games can go on a normal hard drive. For now I just have a 2TB external plugged in until my other one arrives.

edit
And ya, it's a pretty nice rig. I mean, it's not on the same level as an i7 quad-core or anything, but he knew my main use would be 🐬 and that doesn't use more than 2 cores. So really, all that matters is how fast the 2 CPU cores are clocked. And at 3.7GHz it runs Wii/GameCube just as good if not better than a lot of i5 or even some i7 would.

Now, when it comes to playing modern AAA games, obviously that's another story- it's not gonna handle as well as i5/i7 but, seeing as I own a PS4 Pro and X1 those games are already covered, and in 4K at that. This is basically a Dolphin machine, and for PC exclusives and/or games I can't buy on PS4/X1/Switch.

@DarthNocturnal
I've heard a lot of people say no, don't get a STEAM controller... "mouse and keyboard is better" they say. But I don't care what anyone says. M+KB just isn't ideal for a console-style setup. And tbh, I prefer controllers. That's what I've been using for 25 years and that's what I'm used to. And the convenience and versatility can't be denied.

It just looks like it would work. The pads emulate the mouse, and it has a truckload of buttons to map commands to. It may not work for some types of games, like ones that rely on a Dpad, but maybe that can be overcome as long as it's not directional input... cause you could just map it to buttons.

I just know when I was playing Civilization 6, the only controller listed as being supported... was the STEAM controller. If even a small portion of KB+M only games utilize the STEAM controller, I say its money well spent.

I guess we'll both need to try it out to confirm but, how bad can it be, really?