games and stuff
Held off playing this for ages, but just tried it. It is addictive.
Welcome to the official Balatro+ game! Hypnotic and endlessly satisfying, Balatro is a magical mix of card games like Solitaire and Poker, that lets you twist the rules in ways never seen before! Your goal is to beat the Boss Blinds by making strong poker hands. Find new Jokers that change the gam…
Source: Balatro+
Star Wars Outlaws may have reviewed okay enough, but it may not have sold enough, if Ubisoft’s recently stock decline is any indication.
Source: Tepid ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ Reception Sinks Ubisoft Stock
This news is a bit dramatic, it’s not that bad. Still, from what I’ve seen it’s a “get on sale” game, and that seems to be the general consensus.
I just did the unimaginable, moved my main Destiny 2 platform from PS to Steam. I’ve played Destiny on PS since the betas of Destiny 1, but this announced price hike of PS+ is just getting too much. I only have PS Plus for online gaming but at $80 a year it almost doubles the cost of Destiny each year. And I’m a casual player doing just vanguard stuff, strikes, gambit and seasonal stuff. But all of that required PS Plus apparently. Worst of all, Sony owns Bungie.
Time to spend some money again!
Small update on building my gaming rig. The case came in, a Lian Li Lancool 216 ARGB in black. The thing is huge, but has great airflow. Also bought my PSU, a 1000W Corsair. Only need a Cooler, RAM, NVME drive, and a GPU now.
And while I was clearing space I wiped and packed up my old PS4 Pro I hadn’t turned on since I got my PS5 at the end of 2019. Wanted to sell it, but checked the trade in value at places like GameStop and Best Buy. GameStop would only give me $70 store credit. Best Buy on the other hand… $180. It seemed way too high but coincidentally also $4 less than what I paid for the PS4 Pro. Back in 2018 Target had a price error where certain coupons would stack on online purchases. Stacking the 3 coupons the best way, it brought down the price of a PS4 pro to $184. Traded it in and it covered the price of the PSU.
Years ago, back in 2001, I used to be a PC gamer. But in college a laptop was easier and moved on to consoles, the GameCube to be precise.
When the Steam Deck was announced and joined the waiting list. Once I got the Steam Deck it quickly became a regular in my gaming routine, pushing out the Switch which as been gathering dust since. But the idea of playing on Steam Deck on the go, and then moving to the big screen with the same game started to appeal more and more, something the Switch does so well. Tried the Steam Deck Dock but graphics were obviously meh. So last week during Amazon Prime day I started checking prices on PC components. Amazon was pretty bad with deals but Best Buy had an almost 50% discount on a latest generation AMD CPU with MB, and then I just bought it.
I picked up the CPU two days ago and next week the MB is ready for pickup. I’ve already started my build on PC Part Picker (see below) and will tweak, finalize and purchase the rest in the coming weeks.
So I guess this is Part 1 of many as I get back into PC gaming.
PCPartPicker Part List| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor | Purchased For $134.99 |
| CPU Cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler | $89.90 @ Amazon |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard | Purchased For $154.99 |
| Memory | G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory | $104.99 @ Newegg |
| Storage | Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | $99.99 @ Adorama |
| Video Card | Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card | $1049.99 @ Amazon |
| Case | NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case | Purchased For $9.99 |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $119.00 @ Amazon |
| Mouse | Asus ROG Strix Impact II Wired Optical Mouse | Purchased For $38.56 |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $1802.40 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-23 16:48 EDT-0400 |
After the reveal of the Death Stranding 2 Trailer at the Game Awards I felt like playing the first game again. So a couple of days ago I started my third play-through of Death Stranding. Going for the Platinum this time.
The game adaptation has also founds its showrunners
Glad the team behind Westworld is doing this, and Bethesda is also involved.
Source: Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan to direct Fallout TV show at Amazon – Polygon
Picked up my badge on Sunday, ready for tomorrow. Some stuff I’d really like to check out on the show floor:
And the Sony Press Conference hasn’t been yet, so who knows what Sony has to show for.
