Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by NightCloak

I personally went with Asus G75

Specifically this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230408

And I put a 256GB SSD in myself and reinstalled Windows onto the SSD.

That's a hot laptop.  In the bad sense of the word.  I'd recommend something more modern than a warmed-over Fermi card.

It has yet to get hot for me. The cooling does a good job from my experience. Its performance has also put it in the bracket of where I want to be right now.

And I was aware of it being a re-branded 580m prior to purchase. I am open for suggestions of a better performing pick for the same price (no need for SSD as I purchased one seperately). I also cant complain against a 1 year accidental warranty that came with it at that price.

Either way, Asus offers Keplar cards as well in other models. And I'll wave their flag all day.

Originally posted by ZoeMcCloskey

But my main worry is I might have under-graphics carded myself, my previous PC was an Evga GTX 260 and it looks like the card in this is really right about the same overall.  Slightly ahead in ways, slightly behind in others.

Just hoping this will last me 2-3 years. 

Your old card can run all of the games you mentioned just fine. The GTX 260 is approaching its "limit" so to speak in that it can play many of the newer games out but is closer to the minimum requirements than recommended for current or upcoming games. If you say your current card is running fairly on par with your old one, then you've not really upgraded with the money spent. You've only paid to increase the longevity of your old. And if you adjust for inflation, you've severely downgraded.

I don't think this machine will give you a satisfactory 2-3 years unless you are perfectly happy with low settings.

I personally went with Asus G75

Specifically this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230408

And I put a 256GB SSD in myself and reinstalled Windows onto the SSD.

I couldn't be happier.

I upgraded from the Asus G72 BestBuy model (Warning: BestBuy versions of Asus laptops come with underclocked specs and no 1 year accidental MFG warranty) that I had for two years without issues. I was still happy with my G72 as well. I just wanted to upgrade as I like my gfx settings a bit higher than what I was playing at.

The new Asus blows my mind in how great it is. Overall features are very nice and I really like the cooling. Its not all hype and marketing. It doesn't get hot like other laptops do.

You'll likely find it far cheaper to return what you have and buy a new laptop with the faster card already there.

There isn't any outlets that sell laptop video cards. Two 680m cards may not fit or work properly or in the same way in the same machine. There is a lack of true standarization in laptops. Sure, you might find a card, but it doesn't guarantee it will work. Here is a site that can help in learning about laptop GPU upgrades.

http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/index.html

I didn't want to assemble my own computer. I didn't want to buy a pre-built either because my peripherals (i need a new keyboard, monitors, desk, chair and speakers) needed replacement as well.

So I went the uber lazy route and bought a gaming laptop. Yes, I overpaid for performance compared to self-built computer.

The key is, find your budget first. What is the max you are willing to pay? 1000? 1300? 1800?

Once you find your budget, you can then work with what you want out of the machine.

I would recommend against Dell, Alienware or, in some cases, BestBuy. Here is why:

Dell - Underspec and over priced. You never get optimal matchups between CPU, RAM, GPU and HDD. They have an extremely good guided purchase system that doesn't allow options to be put together to make a great machine for a price range. Only their expensive models allow this.

Alienware - Over priced. Just that. You're better off going Falcon Northwest.

BestBuy - I've purchased from there before. Got some great deals on some items. But unless you can get that "uber" deal you are paying for brand and you wont get that optimal gaming mix.

Retailers and large stores that dont specialize in gaming tend to go with "performance" over gaming. This can lead to paying for a blu-ray drive or other novel addons that you may have no interest in being lumped together. Or worse yet, on lower budget systems, getting way underspecced GPUs.

I hated Trammel. I liked it much better when you could kill or be killed on a whim. When seeing someone pop on your scren in a dungeon mid-fight always made your heart skip and you wondered if they were going to help the monster, you or move along.

I loved how "wild-west" it felt in that there was no law other than group consensus. It was just good fun.

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by Quizzical

*Snip*

*Snip*

So you guys who are using SSDs now, are you using them as your OS (+ a game or two) or are you just using them as an ancillary drive to install apps on?

*Snip*

I bought a 256GB SSD. Picked it up for $190. Tossed it into the new Asus G75 as the primary hard drive and did a fresh OS install on it. This is my first experience with owning and using SSD.

I have Battlefield 3, Diablo 3 and World of Tanks installed on it + 5 other games and my OS. Load times are incredible. I can shut down and restart in under 60 seconds. I dont have side-by-side performance gains from HDD to SSD. But the new comp with SSD just feels like the largest jump in overall computing experience in my life. I built myself my first gaming maching in 2003.

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148526

Laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230408

All I can say, is that having your OS + games on SSD and it makes wonders of difference. The computer feels faster than it likely is. My overall experience with SSD is that its value and benefit are in the general computer experience and not just FPS in-game.

P.S.

I know it is an atrocity to be a gamer but use a laptop as my primary gaming machine. But it fits my needs and use for its expected lifespan.

Originally posted by Mephster

4. Whimsyshire was noting more than a slap in the face for the diehard fans. Too cartoonish! It was an insult to the franchise.

And the point of Whimsyshire has been made. Blizzard be trollin' you!

I love how the author of the article can't tell the difference between "characters" and "population".

1.9% of the characters had unlocked inferno. Very different than "population" when the average characters per player is 3.

Just one example on how that wonderful dev blog with so much great information has been misinterpreted, skewed and overall misused and why most companies don't share such great data like this.

Originally posted by ShakyMo

Im happy about some things, they talk of the world been huge and open and having open dungeons.  There are hints that the crafting is like the single player games, again great.  I know the leveling system of skyrim wouldn't work in a mmo, we have afk swimmers in darkfall as proof of that.

now the PVP, morrowind, skyrim et al.. are single player games, THEY DONT HAVE PVP.  now some people think they should have FFA PVP, but guess what Ultima and Eve appart full on PVP anywhere games DONT SELL.  They could goi the other end and just do wow style instanced crap.  I think they made the right choice going with a DAOC type system, thoose that dont want to PVP can avoid it, thoose that want pcp get something meaningful where they can effect the world.

BUT...

My one major annoyance is classes, for the love of god why have classes in a TES MMO.  I really really hope the devs take a look at either EVE or what Funcom are doing with the ability wheel in The Secret World and use something like that instead.

The main 2 things with TES are - Explore the world go where you want AND make any sort of character you want.  They sound like they have the first part covered, why ruin the freedom of the second part by having Hard Classes.  Also this will make your PVP easier to balance with a skill based system, as players can just go pick other skills from their pool of earned skills rather than wait for their gimped classto get a miracle patch, which would probably save them effort in the long run.

I don't know much about TSW other than it isn't a phenomenal success. So basing your game design off theirs wouldn't be a good idea right off the bat. Secondly, as you can see by the annoying example of SWTOR that basing your game design off someone elses just because it worked for them doesn't mean it works for you.

PvP balance is key to any game that has it in any significant way. So to get it right and balanced is more important than having the novelty of the SPG into the MMO space.

You also don't know much about EVE if you don't think it has hard classes. The class is determined by the ship you fly. That is the equivelant to your skills being tied to equipment in TES.

I'm kinda glad they went that route. The game has such huge shoes to fill that there needs to be enough difference between the SP and MP experience that it isn't viewed as the sequel to Skyrim and more as a new path TES moves in. The less direct comparisons they allow to Skyrim for things that aren't the same or improved, the better. If they know they cant make X function as good in the MMO as it does in the SPG game, then they better alter X to be different enough that a direct comparison isn't made in the mind of the player to think the game isnt good.

The trick they have to pull off is to either allow enough variety of classes to allow for extremely varied playstyles or have enough wiggle room in the classes to make them somewhat bleed into eachother for the variety to still work.

Why do people keep thinking D3 is a SPG like its predecessors? It's not. The game was designed with coop in mind.

The online only isn't a tacked on "security feature" of the game. Its designed around play off of Blizzard servers. There will never be an offline mode. Get over it and move on.

Originally posted by DAOWAce

I'm an IT consultant and have never had any security issues with my system or accounts for ANYTHING.  I educate people on security FFS.

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

As far as account compromises, your system and your security doesn't need to be breached. Nor does Blizzards.

Is the email address used for your WoW account unique to only be used with WoW and is in no way associated with any other login method to any peripheral gaming website?

Same goes for your password. Is your password completely unique to WoW and never used anywhere else in any variant?

My bet? They aren't.

My WoW account was totally secure without an authenticator. I never had problems for years. I made 1 mistake that I can trace back to that led to my account compromise. I created an account on a gaming website with the same email and password as my WoW login. My account was deactivated for about 7 months. I created the account on the website and 2 months later I got emails from Blizzard stating my account was banned.

Why is it WoW getting hacked and not other MMOs?

Some other MMOs have smaller problems of the same type, but the scale is off. WoW is huge. The biggest in the West. Naturally its the biggest target.

Why are there so many more virus and malware for PC over Mac? Same deal.

The vast majority of people claiming innocence in a compromise have stories full of holes. Its easy to point fingers but there is no reason to point one at Blizzard. Even though I agree they are pretty retarded to not have an IP region check or better standard account security.

The only reason you would need to spend money to remain competative is if you are playing in Clan Wars and you are severely under-gunned for the battles you are selecting. Aside from that, you can play for free and never worry about being under-geared or under-gunned.

Tier 8 gold tanks (Real $$) are all worse than fully upgraded Tier 8 free tanks. Below that, it doesn't matter as much but its not bad aside from one or two exceptions.

The matchmaker is fairly annoying. Too often will it leave some people in completely useless situations. But the matchmaker (actual pairing of tanks/people) is less impacting as the wide variance of individual player skill, which frequently turns the round into a total stomp.

Some form of Elo system added  into the MM will help. I don't believe there is any consideration of player skill/record involved in the matchmaker.

I do understand how MM can be frustrating at times... I just don't understand why people would quit over it if they weren't already going to quit the game.

Originally posted by saurus123

Originally posted by Xzen

Buy an authenticator or if you have a smart phone (I know you have one) just get the authenticator app. You're other choice is to get smarter when it comes to protecting yourself from keyloggers etc..

getting authenticator doesnt help

 

problem is when you join or create public games these "hackers" can read your real id and exploit/copy it somehow

 

next time you log into the game seeing your char is naked and have strange names in thier friendlist

 

thats how few of my friends was "hacked" by joining public games

 

That needs some serious evidence or proof to support that claim.

I'd also wager your friend who has this authenticator doesn't have it authenticate at every login.

Originally posted by Bushi13

Still it seems that even the so called RMAH will not prevent any black market.

And the funiest of all is,  Blizzard want to implement in WoW a so call black market where NPC sells you for much gold some really rare drop.

Officially implemented Black Market in WoW and official Real Money Auction house, will not prevent any real black market trading.

It's just childish to believe that. It was also childish of Blizzard to think that they will force people and gold farmer to use their official ways where they get 15% cut.

There will be plenty of places to buy unofficially and go around the 15% cut of Blizzard, how cynical.

Yet evil has been created.

For the buyer, they are dealing with the price premium of Blizzard's cut for the security of the transaction.

All Blizzard has to do is make the black market appear full of scams and they win back huge amounts of business.

Only once the RMAH is released will we be able to see, but if the price difference isn't terribly vast, then the black market will struggle. The problem is, the black market wont be able to maintain a large price difference for gold.The price of the black market can never be more than 30% cheaper than the RMAH. If so, then people will buy black market and sell RMAH for profit which will balance out the price again.

Here is what I believe Blizzard is striving for. They want to mitigate the scam complaints from black market deals. Basically an entire layer of players that are not savvy of black market trading or general internet prowess will likely switch to the RMAH. As will anyone who has disposable income that they dont really care to be inconvenienced. Another group of players that will switch are the ones that buy into the fear of being scammed.

So what this accomplishes is a constant stream of additional income from the game. And if they do it well enough, they will reduce the staffing requirements of the team handling the scam complaints.

Overall, there is so much win for Blizzard in this if they do it well. Less complaints. Less staffing. More money.

They wont eliminate the black market. But you bet they will do what they can to paint it as black as they can and make examples out of people participating to scare people into the RMAH.

Originally posted by thinktank001

And the plot thickens?

 

Another obvious case of a reporter only doing HALF a story with HALF the facts. Ken if you gonna take money for smear story atleast get the facts right.
1) Governor Chafstick broke the NDA releasing information that should have not have been public Do you have a copy of the NDA or have proof?
2) that payment was an extortion payment to get tax credits that would have kept 38 afloat for external funding to kick in next month.. Instead GOv. Chafstick humiliated 38 by backing out of a verbal deal made by the previous adminstration. It was a bit back-handed. But not extortion. The credits are only available under special conditions that 38 Studios didn't meet. That condition is that the company had to be incorporated in the state. 38 Studios is incorporated in Delaware. So I'm not sure what you mean by backing out of any verbal agreement. 
3) the game was 90% complete if you need a source google moorguard and read any forum posts he made This is irrelevant. 90%, 2%, 99.99% or even if it had gone gold, the money isnt there.
4) the layoff were in actuality a protest of the corrupt Rhode Island government backing out of agreements in the name of greed, this is proven by the two-faced statements of Gov. Chafstick. If you can see them ask someone who can read. Funny... I thought the layoff was a lack of funding. It would seem rather extreme to not pay your employees to "protest"
5) The corrupt RI govt. knew this game would be a huge success if it was competed and wanted a bigger share of the profits for personal gains but disguised at as something else. They were advised by "un-named experts", who had no clue about the game and proven via conflicting story directions by the Governor corrupt-afee. This makes no sense.
6) John Savage is useless in the gaming industry and has proven that he is as corrupt at the RI Gov. and giving false and wrong information. dig deeper and you will see the motives for his shady behavior. Cool story bro

Lastly, Why on earth would a reporter not talk to ANY employee from 38 and write as bad a story as this on such limited information? The editor must be rubber stamping half baked stories AGAIN.

There are fans that dig deeper into news than whats been reported on 38 Studios so far, I've made the conclusion that WPRI News, where majority of these stories started is connected to Gov Chafstick's corruption.

The problem here is that I give this post less credit and sway than the article because of how much opinion and propaganda is injected.

Regardless of the quality of the reporter, this type of response does nothing to bring light to the shortcomings of the article or provide much in the way of additional information/facts/evidence to weigh against the article for comparision.

38 studios went under. They failed not because an MMO cant be made with 75MM but failed because the company management failed. They wasted funds. They agreed to unsustainable staffing requirements for the deal. They over-spent and under-delivered on KOA.

As far as corruption? Its easy to find. Just release the info on who bought the bonds that funded the loan. If there isn't corruption there, then really the state doesn't stand to gain much of anything but a very unhappy constituency.

Originally posted by adam_nox

there's really no way this many people can get hacked without a server vulnerability.  the people posting on the forums are a small % of the victims.  People brave or stupid enough to admit it happened to them given the hostile environment.

 

I'm personally scared, but I'm between smartphones right now and I just don't feel it's right to HAVE to pay extra to have a secure account.  I'm a noscript/adblock/hijackthis type of guy.  I've only had an account compromised once, and that was a WoW account that hadn't been played in 6 months.  And technically it was my gf's. 

 

I just don't see how people can look at the constant barrage of new hacked topics and think that everything is okay.  WoW itself never had anything near to this level of account hacking during it's explosive growth.

Don't underestimate the stupidity of people.

The overwhelming vast majority of the people who are "hacked" fall victim to blind nets cast out by these "hackers" to collect account data and gain access to accounts.

A data breach with Blizzard servers would not be able to be hidden. Not without massive and severe legal response due to how much personal and confidential information Blizzard has. Thats not a risk a company would make. They will come out, say they are hacked, pass the blame and cover themselves legally.

The reality is that people fall victim to simple traps. Maybe some as simple as the wrong ad on a website giving them a virus. But I am willing to bet that no case of true hacking can be presented. They will all be from bad habits or mistakes.

You can test it too. Disable the authenticator you have and do nothing but register to this and other gaming websites you visit with the same email and password as your WoW account. I bet within weeks your account will be compromised.

Originally posted by sonoggi

logitech's g9x is still the best gaming mouse on the market. everything else is either too simple with not enough features, or too convoluted. g9x is just right. ive stopped buying mice from Razer, as they're built cheap and malfunction in some way in a year or less. mind you, their mechanical keyboard is amazing. while some of you swear by your Naga, many report problems with it after about a year of use.

anyway, g9x all the way.

 

I haven't used the g9x. I used to game with logitech mice. I've owned 2 and they are both still working fine. I have a friend that bought the mx518 when it was brand new. He games constantly and the mouse is still functioning fine. The bottom has been polished into a smooth finish from so much use. No joke, that mouse has endured more than 20,000 hours of use and zero problems. Logitech builds good mice.

I switched to the Razer Naga for the buttons and only recently started having the "double-click" issue. I setup the driver software to macro the left-click to have a 25ms delay and boom, problem gone.If more problems pop up for the mouse I might be in the market to switch back to Logitech.

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Originally posted by kishe

Guess name of RA salvatore alone doesnt save you when you game is just a shoddy Fable3 copy.

Fable 3 was wretched, even fans of the series loath it as uninteresting trash.

Kingdoms of Amalur was a great game, too bad too many narrow minded people looked at a books cover and never bothered to open it.

I looked at KoA with interest. A lot of it. But watching some of the streams of the game and reading a bit about it I decided not to grab it. It didn't seem like there was enough quality meat to the game.

Originally posted by Myrdynn

dude sucks, he didnt even beat hell difficulty

 

We dont know that yet. He's playing it right now