Maybe I Have It

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Apparently, FS doesn’t have the laptop to test out in store.  I’m guessing they don’t get a lot of demand for a $1500 laptop.  That meant a lot of surfing and research to find out what was out there and what was the best deal.  First, where to buy.  That basically came down to either XoticPC or Malibal.  Prices were near identical but the options were a bit different – I went for the former.

I figured a simple search of 17″ laptops would be good but no, that gives me a list of like 30 laptops.  Gives you an idea of the market these folks run.  Anyhow, I checked the options between the Asus and the Sager (or Clevo P170) and while the Asus was $50 cheaper, it had next to no upgrade options.  The Sager has a RAID option and I can change the GPU if I want to down the road.  For now though, simple machine with a fair bit of power.  Here are the specs:

Sager NP8170 / Clevo P170HM
– SAGER Sale!!! – $100 OFF When you spend $1500* or more! (*excludes accessories, shipping, non Sager items & taxes)
Confirmation of discount will be provided after Order Processing. + Sager Price Protect & Chance for Xbox 360 Giveaway!
– 17.3″ FHD 16:9 “Glare Type” Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920×1080) (SKU – S1R506)
– NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
– No Spare 3D Glasses
– Standard Dead Pixel Policy
– 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU – S2N224)
– -Stock OEM Thermal Compound
– ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD6990 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 $100 OFF (SKU – S3R151)
– No Video Adapter
– 16GB – DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) (SKU – S4R757)
– Sager Branding
– Custom Fitted Laptop Back LCD Skin (A Surface) [Choose from our designs or your own Graphic or Logo (Details of design made after order)]
* Will add 5-13 business days on order
– 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 – 16MB Cache) (SKU – S5R207)
– None Standard
– HDD Raid Settings – OFF
– 6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive – Special! (SKU – S7P557)
– No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
– No Back Up Hard Drive
– NO External USB Optical Drive
– No Floppy Drive
– Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
– No Back Up Software
– None Standard–
– Intel® Advanced-N 6230 – 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth (SKU – S8R111)
– No Network Accessory
– Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
– No TV Tuner
– Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio – Included
– Basic Black Business Case – Included
– Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
– No Car Adapter
– None Standard*
– No Dock/Hub/Adapter
– Integrated Fingerprint Reader
– None
– No External Keyboard or Mouse
– No Notebook Cooler
– No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
– No Operating System Redline Boost
– ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD’s + Microsoft Office Starter 2010 – Included with OS Purchase
– No Office Software
– No Software Bundle
– LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime -24/7 DOMESTIC Based- Toll Free Telephone Tech Support (Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Warranty Repairs (SKU – X9R009)
– 1 Year – Two Way Ground Shipping Coverage for Warranty Repairs (Canada) (Must be Combined with LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty)
– Standard Production Time
– No Xotic PC Gear

As you can tell, I don’t much care for 3D gaming or movies and I did opt in for a custom skin job.  Final price is 1808$ + shipping.  A tad more than I was aiming for but overall, still under 2K and should give me top of the line mobile gaming for 3 years, then an option to upgrade the CPU and GPU as I need (since the CPU bridge supports i7 extreme).  I’ll put in the final order tonight and find a skin image to work.

New Laptop

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When Rift launched last spring, it had come to mind that a laptop might be a better way to enjoy gaming yet still have mobility.  My wife had purchased a simple HP laptop for work the year previous and I had tried loading Rift onto it with no luck, so I was back to the PC.  I had to get a new video card (~200$) and since then, the system can run pretty much anything I throw at it with full settings.  The rub is that I need a complete room to store the PC and while I’m on it, I can’t move.  With my wife’s laptop I can check recipes in the kitchen, check film reviews on the couch, order items or show items when the in-laws are around or simply hook it up to the TV.  Not to mention that we’re trying for another little one, so likely the computer room is going bye-bye once that happens.

So as much as I love my desktop (and a desktop + a laptop is truly great for writing guides) I am strongly urged to get a laptop in the near future.  Since I enjoy gaming and the games I like have, shall we say heavy, demands, I need something robust that will last a while.  I looked at Dell and HP and all that crud and even if you’re getting an Alienware laptop, you’re paying through the nose.  With some research done many gamers on forums recommended Sager laptops.  They are an OEM distributor of Clevo laptops and their prices are quite impressive.

So the requirements for the laptop are somewhat straightforward.  I need an i7 core, a video card with 2 gigs of ram, 10+ gigs of ram, 500 gig hard drive, blu-ray player and wifi.  I would prefer a 17″ screen but 15″ is the bare minimum.  So let’s find a few to show you the options.  I’ll start with Future Shop (they offer the same as Best Buy really), then move along.

Future Shop Laptops – $899-$1899

All 2 to 2.2 GHz CPUs – fine I guess.  Only one has over 10 gigs of ram but that can be upgraded for about 150$ for 4 gigs though only 1 has 4 slots ($1699).  All have a big enough hard drive but I don’t want a 5400RPM.  3 of them do Blu-Ray.  Only one has a decent video card ($1699) with a GTX 560M.  With all said and done, I’m left with the Asus G74SX at $1699 with bag and Windows 7 Pro.

Dell next –  all the i7 2.2 GHz CPU.  The only 2 options are the XPS17 and the Alienware MX17/18.  The XPS with a 3gig card (Gt555), 12 gigs of ram, 1tb of storage with Win 7 Pro and no bag comes to 1699$.  The MX17 comes with a 2 gig card (amd 6990M), 16 gigs of ram, 1tb of storage with Win 7 Pro and no bag for $2250.  MX18 has a 1.5gig card (GTX 560M), 16 gigs of ram, 500gig hard drive, Win 7 Pro and no bag for, get this, $2650.  For all intents, this is the EXACT same laptop as the Asus and it costs $1000 more for an extra 4 gigs of RAM.  Wow.

There are no HP laptops with more than 1gig of video ram.

Sager finally.  The NP8170 is the 17″ with the same CPU as the others (2.2GHz).  1.5 gig video ram (same as MX18), 12 gigs of ram, 500 gig hard drive, Win 7 Pro and bag for $1587.  That’s US price and shipping is already calculated – which is the same price as the Future Shop one pretty much.  So this puts me in a pickle.  2 choices.  The Asus G74SX or the NP8170.  Guess I’ll have to head to FS to get my hands on a demo model.

 

 

Star Wars – The Old Republic Impressions

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So the NDA lifted last week and I said I’d put up my thoughts on the game, here we are.

First impressions are simple enough, it’s a themepark.  If you’ve played WoW or Rift, then the game will be intimately familiar.  If you like either of those, there really isn’t a valid reason to swap over.  If you’re tired of the setting but not the mechanics, then a swap makes sense.

From a core mechanics perspective – combat, equipment, groups – the game is as you expect.  Decently balanced with variety across all classes.  There is a significant hindrance to all melee characters (of which 3 of the 8 advanced classes belong) since the majority of the game is played at a distance and against multiple enemies.  Each character, due to the good story and diverse skill set, plays somewhat uniquely and as you would expect from Star Wars canon.  Sith Sorcerers shoot lightning, Troopers use big guns, Smugglers dual wield blasters.  Each advanced class (except 2) offer dual roles.  They all DPS but some can tank or heal.  This makes it a lot easier to play through the game without having to create a new character.  The single role characters are a thing of the past and I expect those 2 other classes to swap to something else in short order – especially the pure DPS melee one.

The planets and visuals are spot on.  You feel like you’re in a Star Wars setting.  Enemies are cool looking but there are about 10 types total through the game and 95% of your combat is against humans or droids.  That does dull it up somewhat.  Groups work well together and there are a lot of group quests.  You can also get into dungeons, of which there should be 15 at launch and all of them available again at 50 at an expert difficulty.  Some of the more basic group UI elements are missing though, such as Target of Target, Focus, Mouseover (for heals) and an Assist option.  This isn’t such an issue at first but on harder difficulty, where control is important, it begins to show.  Still no Looking for Group tool, which is a bummer.  All but 2 of the dungeons are accessible from the same location – away from the planets – making it for an odd choice to actually find a group to do them.  Your only option now is to sit in that zone, twiddle your thumbs and hopefully find a group.

Crafting, as the system currently stands, is for lack of a better term, broken.  Nearly nothing you create has any practical use since your quest rewards will always be better.  One particular skill, Slicing, it essentially an ATM skill providing money out of thin air.  All characters will be using this to supplement their income.  Speaking of which, money means next to nothing aside from paying for skill upgrades and a mount.  Unless you’re giving it away by the bucketfull, you’ll reach max level with close to a million credits and nothing to do with it.  I’m sure that will change with time.

Finally, the story.  A  lot has been said about this aspect and Bioware does it well – better than Dragon Age 2, that’s for sure.  Every mission has a voice over and some options, though some of those options aren’t clear cut.  Personal missions (for your class) provide a unique backdrop to your progress and make you develop an interest in what’s going on around you.  You can replay as a different class and see different class quests but the zone quests (per planet) will always remain the same.  And those account for 80% of all quests, so replayability is questionable unless you play the opposing faction.  Still, better than other games out there.

Overall, the game is simple and fun and will keep people playing to see through the entire story at least once, so perhaps 2 months total of play.  There are some serious questions about advanced systems and mechanics but those don’t begin to apply until you’re at level 50 and there has been a total of 1 week of testing at that level – lots of missing details.  Since this is the first MMO for Bioware, and the experience thusfar as been mixed, I won’t hold my breath that launch + 2 months will be smooth.  I do expect the game to be a flash in the pan with spiked sales and under 1 million subs for the long run.  Still, if you can play with some friends, it’s not a bad way to spend 2 months.

Choices!

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I don’t have the best computer but I have a decent one.  The specs to play Skyrim are less than they are to play Rift for some reason, even though I think they look better here.  Eh.  Regardless, I’ve killed 2 dragons now, explored a half-dozen dungeons, freed a town, climbed a mountain, killed a bunch of mountain cats (saber tooths!) on the way up and put in about 8 hours into the game.  My quest log is still full of items, and I have oh, maybe 15 spots on the map discovered. I think I could play this game for 100 hours and still have stuff to find.

Great stuff: Play how you want, voices are better than Oblivion, dual spell casting, no base stats, great perk choices, lots of crafting choices, music, the entire look of the world, lighting is much better, giants, dragons!!!

Bad stuff: Bugs and enough to find one per play session, poor inventory management (though better than Oblivion), console controls, never enough magicka (mana) making it near impossible to play a pure caster, things weigh too much (50 lbs of potions, really?), uneven difficulty (better than Oblivion though) and it feels like crack.

 

Secondly is the SWTOR beta.  Last weekend was an open beta and the devs say players logged in 1 million hours.  If the average play over the weekend was 4 hours, that’s 250K people, which I highly doubt.  Naturally, the server populations were high during that time, now they are practically empty.  You can find a beta key on what, 99% of gaming websites now?  Tens of thousands are being handed out for free so it’s an open closed beta I guess.  Waiting on the NDA to lift before I can put up some impressions and details but all of you can see that it’s a themepark MMO in the style of WoW, Rift and LOTRO.  When that NDA drops though, expect a point by point post.

Uncharted 3

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I finished the campaign for Uncharted 3 last night.  Last month I had replayed Uncharted 2, just to get into the feel of things before this one came out.  It’s surely one of the best games on the PS3, making the last few weeks interesting in games (Batman and Skyrim too).

Compared to the second one, the game engine is superior.  Worlds are bigger, much better lit and with a whole lot more movement.  A melee system – with counters and throws – has been added, which brings some needed depth to the game.  Water plays a really big role, as does fire and they both look amazing.  There are 2 ocean sections that just feel as if you’re part of the action, really well done.  The music is also top notch, with grand scores that play at the right times and push you more into the plot.  There are less guns, which is actually a good thing.  2 shotguns, 2 rifles, 4 pistols is more than enough.  Of course, you have the RPG, sniper and grenade launcher for those tougher fights.

What is missing is pacing.  The game has tremendous ups and downs without much reason.  The real start of the game doesn’t happen til at least 2 hours in and some of the fight scenes just draw on for much too long.  The last 3 chapters are of such high difficulty when compared to the rest if makes you wonder how it was tested.  Also missing are puzzles – not that previous ones had a ton but this game has you moving from point A to B, in a straight line much too often without having to figure something out.  Granted the wall hanging portions are cool, there is only one that I would consider fun. I want a reason to open my notebook and see the art and story and at the 1/3 point, I just don’t need it anymore.  A shame.

Overall, a great game and a worthy purchase.  Best system and mechanics than the previous but poorer pacing and story.

Books

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I have a Sony e-Reader.  Have had it for nearly a year now since I bought it before a trip south.  During that trip I’m pretty sure I read 6 books, so from a space perspective, great.   Just being able to have something to read at any given time is quite nice and it makes the bus rides into and out of work fly by.

As for types of books, don’t let Chapters or Coles fool you.  There are in fact very few quality books that come out each year and if you have a penchant for a given field (fiction, self-help, etc..) odds are you can read all the books worth reading if you only read a book every other month.  What this does not help with is the backlog of quality books already written.  I have a penchant for fiction, particularly sci-fi, though I can read just about any fiction book, if the quality is there.

I read the Harry Potter books and they were really “meh” but I could understand their importance.  They were easily accessible to a generation that had essentially given up on reading.  Dan Brown is another type of these authors.  Actually, he’s quite a bit worse than Rowling, probably one of the worst writers I have ever seen but his books are essentially tabloids, misconstruing facts and putting hooks everywhere.  Great page turners, great groan inducers.  I’m supposed to believe that the CIA computers can’t crack a 16 digit magic square cypher?  That a character that spends page after page talking spoilers all of a sudden shuts up for a chapter when a single sentence could sum up the entire book up to that point?  Wowza.

There is a reason there are classical authors and books that last for many many years.  They are not fads, they are poignant, well-constructed stories that you can re-read multiple times and get deeper meaning.  Fahrenheit 451, Foundation, VALIS, Divine Comedy, Iliad, Mice and Men, Sherlock Holmes.

The experience of reading, of taking the time to digest the words and transfer them into your head also makes you think about other things than what you see in the book.  If you read books and only see a movie in your head, then you are reading a script and not a book.  Books are more than the sum of their words, they are ideas that permeate the pages and make you want to keep reading once your done.  They make you want to re-read a chapter for that little item you think you missed that can open up a new story.  Books and reading and stories are humanity’s soul and will be the basis for the next human revolution – social interconnectedness.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, we still each only have one apple.  If I have an idea and you have an idea and we exchange ideas, we now have two ideas.

 

Microsoft Future Vision

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I don’t often link to MS stuff but this video is pretty cool.  Most exists already too.  Hand Waving is linked to Kinect, NFC (or RFID) exists on most credit cards and Proximity Sensors are being used in advertising.  Not to mention that new cell phones are coming with the last 2 items already installed.  Damn.

Batman: Arkham City

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I played the heck out of Batman: Arkham Asylum since its release a few years ago.  It was just an overall amazing game that had a perfect mix of stealth, combat and exploration.  Its sequel came out last week and naturally I picked it up and it does not disappoint.

The engine is the same and combat is essentially the same – everything just flows.  The difference is using gadgets in combat.  You can stick bombs on people in combat, or run up on their shoulders or dive bomb from the skys onto their heads.  There just isn’t a break in the combat, which feels great.   The game has an overworld of sorts, where you’re essentially in a city and have access to mini-zones (in the form of buildings) for story driven content.  The overworld is big enough and diverse enough but with upgrades to your cape and grapnel, you can travel from one end to the other in about 90 seconds in the air.  I’m sure it would be 5-10 minutes on foot.  Plenty of Riddler trophies and achievements to get (400 total), all of which can be marked on the map if you find an informant.

Voice acting is still amazing, a lot out of the 90s cartoon.  The story is pretty strong and the gameplay diversity is strong (throw ice bombs to create patches that you can float on, then pull yourself along the water) but at the same time it throws nearly all of it at you at once.  You’ll find Riddler trophies all over the place and 30% of them you won’t be able to get until you have the proper upgrades.  Even some of the missions will try your patience due to wonky situations and just simple bad luck.

That being said, it’s an amazingly strong game.  I wouldn’t put it equal to Deus Ex since it’s a different target audience but it’s one of the best games I’ve played in a very long time.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

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So WoW has a new expansion coming out and it’s all about Pandas.  Jump the shark much?

  •  level to 90 (5 more levels)
  • re-using existing dungeons, making them heroic
  • new race (Pandas), new class (Monk – melee DPS, healer, tank)
  • new talent system (18 total instead of 40)
  • scenarios (1-3 players, timed combat with medals)
  • timed dungeon runs
  • pet battle system (Pokemon!)
  • 3 new raids
Basically, they are adding new systems to try and keep the more casual players around.  Cataclysm, rather than increasing numbers, dropped them by over 10% with it’s more hard set focus.  We’re in the Angry Birds age now, games need to have a friggin’ strong appeal to be worth 15$ a month.
Finally, as an interesting aside since I wrote a Rogue Guide  for the game, they have been slowly taking a giant dumparoo on the class.  They were the only true melee damage class at first as each class had one specific role they did well and some other ones they were ok at.  Well now Warriors, Death Knights, Druids and Monks are all  in melee and every single one provides additional utility.  To quote Blizzard on reasons to bring a Rogue:
reasons to get a rogue now are things like poisons, interrupts and stuns

Just so everyone is clear on this, every class has an interrupt and a stun.  Every last one.  Poisons only affect the rogue  (increased damage) and provide no benefit to the group.  Take a look at their new talents and see how out of 18 talents, there are maybe 4 you’d take if you were not actively PvPing.  I guess they want to remove Rogues from the PvE game.

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