Any PC Gamers Around?

[Stephen W.]

Well it finally happened. The only game I play on-line became toxic during yesterday’s session and so I left.
I can take a joke even if it is in poor taste. I can handle some smack talk when I know it is in jest. I understand that some players have a difficult time controlling their potty mouths so I take that in stride. But there clearly is no wiggle room when it comes to hate speech whether it’s politics, religion, nationality or sexual orientation. In any video game, as in real life, you are bound by the social norms and agreed to rules. You treat people with respect, decency without malice or contempt. You don’t talk, text or post about these subjects, period! There are plenty of other places you can engage in such subjects. It must not be tolerated in-game.
I spent hours crafting a carefully worded account of why I felt I had to withdraw and posted it on our BETA Testers forum. I do not expect to get much support but I am Canadian so I’m always hopeful of a good outcome.
Should the others of my group decide not to act then my only recourse would be to lodge a formal complaint with Steam. Not sure that will have any effect. I’m really bummed about this as I’ve been involved with this group for about 10 years.
I guess I’ll have to fire up my old WinBorg gaming system and the wife’s old system so we can go back to playing Unreal Tournament.

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by Stephen W.

Well it finally happened. The only game I play on-line became toxic during yesterday’s session and so I left.
I can take a joke even if it is in poor taste. I can handle some smack talk when I know it is in jest. I understand that some players have a difficult time controlling their potty mouths so I take that in stride. But there clearly is no wiggle room when it comes to hate speech whether it’s politics, religion, nationality or sexual orientation. In any video game, as in real life, you are bound by the social norms and agreed to rules. You treat people with respect, decency without malice or contempt. You don’t talk, text or post about these subjects, period! There are plenty of other places you can engage in such subjects. It must not be tolerated in-game.
I spent hours crafting a carefully worded account of why I felt I had to withdraw and posted it on our BETA Testers forum. I do not expect to get much support but I am Canadian so I’m always hopeful of a good outcome.
Should the others of my group decide not to act then my only recourse would be to lodge a formal complaint with Steam. Not sure that will have any effect. I’m really bummed about this as I’ve been involved with this group for about 10 years.
I guess I’ll have to fire up my old WinBorg gaming system and the wife’s old system so we can go back to playing Unreal Tournament.

Stuff like this is why I've drifted away from online gaming. If I do play, it's quite niche games and rarely has that kind of nonsense in it.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by weederr33

Stuff like this is why I've drifted away from online gaming. If I do play, it's quite niche games and rarely has that kind of nonsense in it.

I only play online with my three adult sons in private sessions. On a very rare occasion, we'll play as a team against others but it usually lasts only about 30 minutes before we get sick of it.

They each also have their own set of long-time friends they play with the same way.

[Dadhawk]

Saw this today (Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Gameplay). Looks pretty amazing, but I suspect I'd have to upgrade my PC to get most of this. Still it seems they are focusing on making it run on all level's of PCs.

[Captain Snooze]

@Dadhawk
Do all the controls of this sim rig "talk" to the game software? That is, do all controls of the rig work in the game?
Regardless, very impress.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

@Dadhawk
Do all the controls of this sim rig "talk" to the game software? That is, do all controls of the rig work in the game?
Regardless, very impress.

Looking over the site for the product, yes it talks directly to the flight sim software, but it does have it's on built-in computers for displays and avionics. Things like MS Flight Simulator reproduce all these instruments and switches anyway in software (on screen), and are able to send the information out to other devices. For the most part its a lot of on/off information so not a lot of heavy data flow.

Looks like it is about $43,000 US based on today's exchange rate.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Looking over the site for the product, yes it talks directly to the flight sim software, but it does have it's on built-in computers for displays and avionics. Things like MS Flight Simulator reproduce all these instruments and switches anyway in software (on screen), and are able to send the information out to other devices. For the most part its a lot of on/off information so not a lot of heavy data flow.

Looks like it is about $43,000 US based on today's exchange rate.

Wow! That becomes really expensive when you put in the co-pilot's deck.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

Wow! That becomes really expensive when you put in the co-pilot's deck.

Yea, It does, but it would be good for a pre-trainer for an airline before moving into the full motion simulator assuming it is "muscle memory" accurate in terms of placements.

Too bad they don't have a setup for a simpler plane, like a Cessna 172 or maybe even a fighter.

I had the good fortune of getting to fly the L1011 simulator at Delta Air Lines once before they decommissioned it. What a blast! This was in the mid 1990's and it was still amazing. With today's graphics engines it would be superb. Even then it sucked you in. I remember after making a successful landing at ATL, I was just chatting with the "copilot/instructor". I looked up and we were slowly rolling towards the edge of the runway, and I had a true moment of panic as I started slamming on the brakes to stop our demise.

[bcj]

We had three of those full size hydraulic simulators in the metrology lab building we were co-located in a couple years after I started.
Impressive kit, even now. They didn't let us wander around much and poke things though.

[Stephen W.]

In the mid ‘90’s I was able to spend time in the C-130 simulator at CFB Trenton. What a rush sitting in the left seat of one of those. The monitors were designed to fit into the window openings precisely. However, the images they showed back then were very basic. However, every other aspect of the sim was true to life. Even now I can still remember those times like it was yesterday.

[Ray Fountain]

Whip up a feast of crypto winnings with a dash of culinary cunning! Start with games sizzling at 97% RTP—think Sugar Rush or blackjack—as your main ingredients for a tasty payout stew. Portion your bets like a Michelin star chef, keeping them at 0.02 BTC to savor the session without scorching your pot. Cook when the blockchain’s simmering low, and withdrawals plate up in under 20 minutes. For a cookbook of top-tier tips, stir in a visit to this site where reliable instant payout info spices things up Add a 250% welcome bonus as your secret sauce, turning $50 into $175 faster than you can chop an onion. Toss in provably fair games for that farm-to-table trust, and voilà—you’re serving up digital dough like a gourmet pro. Keep the heat steady, taste-test your luck, and soon you’ll be dishing out crypto riches worthy of a five-star review—bon appétit to your bankroll!

Finished Alien Isolation. Still holds up as a stellar survival horror games. One of the finest. Being chased by the Xenomorph is terrifying, at least in the beginning. By the end it does get a little annoying because he pops up at very inconvenient times, like when you welding a door or pressing the security tuner. It gets frustrating when you have to replay same section multiple times. The story, graphics and sound design is amazing, and is true to the 1979 classic movie. It follows the event from there and it could be considered a true sequel. Lots of cool Easter eggs throughout, paying homage to the Alien franchise. Isolation is probably the best game when it comes to Alien, it's so well made with an amazing attention to detail, great level design, tense stealth and survival gameplay and awesome voice acting by the cast. The fact that Creative Assembly is finally doing a sequel makes me all jittery inside. They've should've done it a long time ago instead of wasting their precious time with the that abomination Hyenas.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Ray Fountain

Finished Alien Isolation. S....

I'm not usually a fan of the horror genre of games but I really enjoyed the Alien franchise. Haven't played Isolation yet, will have to add it to the list.

On a different subject, now that I'm retired I lost my "vacation gaming laptop" which was a generic build work laptop I used for testing non-corporate configured equipment on our network for security purposes.

With our upcoming spring break beach trip I had been on the lookout for a deal on one. I didn't want to spend money on a full blown gamer laptop (which would be between $3,000 and $4,500)

Ended up picking up a Dell G16 laptop with an Intel i9 and NVidia 4070 graphics for $1,000 from the Dell outlet on a recent sale. That was about 45% off it's normal price. It's basically a dumbed down Alienware M16.

It doesn't have a touch screen, or a webcam (neither of which I needed for my purpose) but it seems to be more than good enough for what I do on vacation in terms of gaming. Plus it kills at playing things through Luna or streaming from Steam.

The only downside is the 330W power supply is literally the size of a large brick and is very heavy. There are 3rd party ones available for half it's size so I'll have to order one of those.

And, in case you are asking, why are you gaming on a beach vacation? Well, I can only take so many hours in a day on the beach, where MomHawk basically is there sunup to sundown. So, I sit on the patio of whatever place we are renting and play games or listen to books.

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I'm not usually a fan of the horror genre of games but I really enjoyed the Alien franchise. Haven't played Isolation yet, will have to add it to the list.

On a different subject, now that I'm retired I lost my "vacation gaming laptop" which was a generic build work laptop I used for testing non-corporate configured equipment on our network for security purposes.

With our upcoming spring break beach trip I had been on the lookout for a deal on one. I didn't want to spend money on a full blown gamer laptop (which would be between $3,000 and $4,500)

Ended up picking up a Dell G16 laptop with an Intel i9 and NVidia 4070 graphics for $1,000 from the Dell outlet on a recent sale. That was about 45% off it's normal price. It's basically a dumbed down Alienware M16.

It doesn't have a touch screen, or a webcam (neither of which I needed for my purpose) but it seems to be more than good enough for what I do on vacation in terms of gaming. Plus it kills at playing things through Luna or streaming from Steam.

The only downside is the 330W power supply is literally the size of a large brick and is very heavy. There are 3rd party ones available for half it's size so I'll have to order one of those.

And, in case you are asking, why are you gaming on a beach vacation? Well, I can only take so many hours in a day on the beach, where MomHawk basically is there sunup to sundown. So, I sit on the patio of whatever place we are renting and play games or listen to books.

Holy cow that's a massive power supply! Granted the XPS 16 9640 I picked up from their refurb outlet at the end of last year is only an 8gb 4060, 32gb RAM, Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (16 Core, Up to 4.80GHz, 24MB Cache, 28W), but the 130w docking station is all it needs when I plug it in to my home office dual monitor setup.

[p1l0t]

Been really enjoying Motor Town. It's like simple voxel type graphics but the mechanics are actually really pretty in-depth. You can play online with people too and like co-op. The combination of simple graphics and conplex mechanics brings me like autistic joy. It's a driving game mostly everything from mopeds to taxi, ambulance, police, trash, towing, trailers, big trucks, buses with customization etc.. You can get out though too and walk around it's open world. It's very physics based. Like if you buy a couch for your house you have to pick it up and throw it into a truck and drive it back. You can drive you race car onto a trailer, hook-up the trailer to a truck and drive the whole show to the racetrack. It's so good.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk