Star Wars Outlaws, Vader 3 Pro, Black Myth

Star Wars Outlaws

• I subscribed to Ubisoft+ for $18 to play the game instead of purchasing so I've been able to play since Monday night. 
• It's a Star Wars game from Ubisoft.  
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• Now that I gave you some time to reflect, here are my impressions.
• The setting of the game is the best part as you do feel that you are in a Star Wars world.  
• The graphics look great but there are some performance issues once you reach the first open world planet.  I initially used FrameGen with DLSS set to performance but the image was too soft.  I turned off the RTGI Ray tracing and FrameGen and was able to set DLSS to quality and the game looked and performed much better.
• So far the gameplay is okay.  Not bad but not great either. 
• The melee combat is kind of stiff and the gunplay is pretty basic.  The enemy AI is better than Starfield, but it's not really challenging even when turning up the difficulty to challenging.  I did have one interesting fight when the enemies had grenade launchers. 
• I've crawled through 25 vents and knocked out enemies with helmets from behind with just my hand.  A couple of missions you can't be seen and if you are you start over.  ugh.
• The lockpicking and hacking mini-games are terrible and luckily you can turn them off.  Lockpicking is a type of rhythm game, but the animations don't really match up to the sounds so it just feels off.  
• Nix, your animal companion, is pretty cool but so far the actions you can have them do are basic.  Flip this switch, open this door, distract this enemy, hopefully those interactions become more varied.
• The reputation system is the only innovative thing I've encountered so far. I've only started getting into missions where I have to pick sides so we will see where that goes.

Vader Pro 3

• Not related to Star Wars Outlaws. 
• I love the Xbox Elite V2 controller but the build quality is atrocious.  I've been through 3 of these expensive controllers so I decided to try out something different.
• I've been using the FLYDIGI Vader 3 Pro for a couple of months and I really like it.  
• The sticks use HALL sensors so stick drift should hopefully be eliminated.
• It has two extra face buttons and 4 back buttons but two of them are placed rather poorly so they can be a bit tough to activate which is my only gripe with the controller.  
• It has an on/off switch so I can quickly turn off the controller.
• The software that comes with it isn't the greatest so I'm glad Rewasd supports the controller so I can use that to remap the buttons. 
• It has a similar shape to the Elite V2 so it feels good in your hands, but it's all plastic instead of the nice rubber material on the V2.  $65 vs $120 so that's expected. 

Black Myth

• I finally reached Chapter 3 after spending about 3 hours trying to defeat the ending boss of Chapter 2.  
• After 2 hours I finally caved and looked up some tips which I don't like to do.  I found that I had missed some quests that would have given me items to make that fight easier. 
• I was wrong in my last blog about there not being a parry.  It's not explained well in the game, but if you are executing light attacks and have 1 focus point, you can hit the heavy attack as the enemy is attacking and that will parry his blow.  
• The game is still awesome, but it is getting harder so we will see how my reflexes hold up. 

Black Myth: Wukong

 Black Myth: Wukong

• A third person action game that is a mixture of God of War and Dark Souls. 
• I thought God of War 3 had the best opening in any 3rd person action game and this game somehow tops that experience.  It's also the developers first game so that really makes it impressive. 
• There isn't a difficulty setting and some of the early bosses can be a bit difficult, but you don't lose anything when you die, no corpse runs. The enemies do respawn when you rest or die at a "bonfire". 
• You can reassign your skills at any time with no cost which allows you to try different strategies.  I believe there are 178 different skill points with 3 different combat stances.  Sometimes when you defeat a mini-boss or boss you will receive one of their powers so your arsenal continues to expand which really opens up the combat customizations. 
• The combat does take a bit to get used to.  It's not a button masher game so you need to plan your attacks.  You build up focus by using light attacks and other methods and then you can do a heavy attack that will do major damage, but the move takes some time so you can miss if not timed correctly.  There isn't a block/parry button so you will be dodging around the enemies.  With all the skills and powers there can be a lot of button presses to remember.  
• It's not quite a boss rush game as there are areas to explore with secret areas and basic enemies to fight, but there are times where you will go from one boss fight to the next.  So far all the bosses have been amazing.  
  
• All the enemies are well animated and they will taunt you as you walk up to them and during the fight which adds a nice touch. 
• The game is using new tech so the graphics look amazing but it does require a hefty PC to run with everything maxed which requires Frame Generation to get 4k60. The default graphics have too much sharpening for me so I got a mod that removes all the smoothing and I think it looks much better.  
• I've put in about 6 hours and reached Chapter 2.  One boss took me about two hours to defeat, but the other bosses were 1-3 tries so the difficulty varies. 
• The game is based on the book, Journey to the West, which I'm currently reading, only 2000 pages.  
• The game has a lot of lore in the codex if you care to read it.  Every enemy you find will have a lengthy codex entry with some beautiful artwork with it.  

2023 Recap

Sorry for the lack of a consistent blog, but I have been playing some games this year.  Well, mainly one game, Rocket League, but I did manage to play 201 games overall.   

Completed Games in 2023

• High On Life
• Fun game and a decent shooter.  
• Luckily the comedy never got old. 
•  Calisto Protocol
• So much hype, but the game was just ok.  
• Tons of technical issues at launch.
• The game looked amazing, but the combat was disappointing. Dodge, dodge, Swing.  
• Hogwarts Legacy
• My real surprise this year and probably the game I enjoyed the most. 
• Exploring Hogwarts was amazing, so many secrets and references to find.  
• I enjoyed the combat as well, but it did get a bit repetitive towards the end.  
•  The Last of Us PC
• Third time completing the game was just as fun as the other two.  
• Like all PC games this year it had some technical issues at launch that took a couple of months to sort out.
• Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Amazing game that really felt like a new game.  
• I need to finish the DLC.  
• Diablo 4
• The campaign was great, but lost interest once it was completed.
• The end game just wasn't satisfying to me. 
• Bramble the Mountain King
• If you liked Limbo or Little Nightmares then you definitely need to play this.  
• Spider-man 2
• The traversal and combat were amazing, but the story wasn't that great.  
• Some of the missions were just silly.  
• Alan Wake 2
• Another amazing game by Remedy.  
• The graphics and the atmosphere really stood out.  
• The combat was tough even on normal.  
• The story was a bit convoluted and nonsensical at times.  
• There are a bunch of jump scares throughout the game that I really didn't care for.  
• Sad to hear of the death of the voice of Max Payne and Alex Casey, James McCaffrey. 

Honorable Mentions

• Baldur's Gate 3
• Played through the first chapter then somehow got sidetracked.  
• I was really waiting on some patches to flesh out the 3rd chapter and fix some performance issues.  
• Star Wars:  Jedi Survivor
• Game is awesome but performance issues killed all the excitement.
• They have released 7 patches, but the game still suffers from stuttering issues.
• I restarted the game a month ago and  I'm about 2 missions from completing the campaign
• Meta Quest 3
• Awesome VR Headset.
• Asgards Wrath 2 is amazing. 
• Gotham Knights
• Just kidding........

Meta Quest 3

• Comfort
• My biggest gripe with the Quest 2 was the comfort. I could only play about 45 minutes before my face would get irritated and that was with trying multiple types of straps.
• The strap that comes with the Q3 is better than the previous Q2 one but I still found that it was not that comfortable.
• I installed the Elite Strap with Battery and I was able to play for 3-4 hours continuously without any irritation to my skin or leaving any red marks on my face.
• You can angle the headset away from your face so that it doesn't touch at all, but that allows more light to come in from the bottom of the headset which can be a bit distracting.
• Passthrough/Mixed Reality
• The Q3 has full color Passthrough so now you can see your outside surroundings much better. It is grainy depending on how much light your room has, but being able to walk around your room to find something without taking off the headset is really nice.
• Instead of using a home room or space I just enable passthrough so all the UI is just floating in my room.
• MR is a big feature that Meta is pushing and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
• The pack in game, First Encounters, is really cool. You map your room and then aliens will start breaking through the walls and ceiling and you can see the alien world through the holes they create.
• Performance
• The lenses are awesome. The sweet spot is huge so I never found that I had to adjust my headset to get a clear view like I had to do with the Quest 2.
• Everything is just sharp. I find watching movies in the headset is now enjoyable, 3D movies especially.
• All games get a 30% resolution bump which make a huge difference. RE 4 looks amazing now and Beat Saber feels like a whole new game.
• The only downside is the black levels since it's LED and not OLED so it's more of a dark grey than true black. There are no god rays or bloom from white text so that is nice.
• The speakers are so much better than the Q2. The speakers feel more spatial and they can get really loud with decent bass so I didn't find I needed to wear headphones.
• Controllers
• The controllers work great and I haven't had any tracking issues.
• They do tend to get a bit sweaty so I need to get some type of grip for them.
• They still take a AA battery and the battery is great.
• PCVR
• For PC VR games I'm using Virtual Desktop and that has been flawless.
• I have a 4090 and Wifi 6E so I'm able to stream games using the AV1 codec(10 bit) and the games look amazing. There is a bit more latency, but I haven't noticed any impact in any game.
• Overall
• This is my 6th VR headset and by far it's the best and most comfortable I've ever used.
• If you have a Quest 2 and use it regularly, I would definitely consider upgrading to a Quest 3.

Starfield

Starfield

• General 
• It's a Bethesda game so if you enjoy their games then you will probably like this one, but it depends on your expectations.  
• It's more like Mass Effect than No Man's Sky or Elite Dangerous.  It's an RPG in space and not a space exploration game.  You won't be flying your ship around the galaxy and see a cool planet in the distance, fly to it, then land to explore. 
• Space exploration is menu based where you have a star map and you select the galaxy then the planet you want to explore.  You will be placed outside the planet in your ship and you can fly around that immediate area, but that's about it.  The game will sometimes spawn enemy ships that you can shoot or other spacecraft you can interact with, but actually flying around in your ship is very limited.  Landing or taking off from a planet is shown in a cutscene.    
• The character creator is pretty good and there are a lot of settings to tweak.  When selecting traits you are able to remove them later in the game, but not add them so make sure you like your choices. I restarted after 10 hours because I didn't like my original traits.  
  
• The game starts a bit slow and there are a lot of systems to learn, but like other Bethesda games you can just take off in a direction and go find your own fun and the main story will be there when you want to start it.  
• There are a lot of loading screens, luckily on PC the loading times are fast, but it does take you a bit out of the experience since there are so many.

• Graphics/Performance
• Some of the landscapes are stunning. Watching the sunrise over a mountain can be awesome.  
• The game can also look awful, especially random AI characters. Never stare one in the eyes. 
• If you take photos using the photo mode then those pics will show in the loading screens which is a nice touch. 
• Performance has been great, but I do have a beefy computer.  The game does like newer faster CPUs with all the simulation that's going on so be aware if you have an older CPU as you may have to lower the settings quite a bit.
• The game's lighting is a little on the bright side with no brightness or gamma settings and no HDR on PC.   
• I have had some small bugs, but no crashes or mission breaking ones yet.   
• Ground Combat
• The gunplay feels great and using your boost pack with low gravity to fly around the battlefield could make for some exciting battles.  
• Unfortunately the enemy AI I've encountered is awful.  This happened in my first real fight in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hphl7V4BZs&ab_channel=AshCountach
• I was able to try a couple of Combat AI mods and they've worked pretty well.  Last night I stormed a base and had an epic battle so modders should be able to create better mods when the full creation kit is released.  
• There are a lot of weapons in the game and all of them can be modded.  The only gripe I have is that there are about 8 different ammo types to keep track of so you will run out of ammo and have to switch guns which was probably their intention.  
  
• If you want to try a stealthy approach for a mission I would suggest not using a companion or speaking to them and have them wait outside as almost anytime I've tried sneaking my companion has alerted the enemies before I was ready.  Also if you want to sneak or use your boost pack you have to put a skill point into them first.  
• Ship Combat
• I've only done minimal ship combat, but the AI seems fine.  You have to manage power to all of your ships systems which adds some strategy other than just holding fire.
• I would suggest doing the UAC intro mission early in your playthrough as that lets you access a ship battle simulator.  You can use that anytime to level up your piloting skills instead of in real combat.  
• Ship building requires a ton of resources so I haven't touched that yet.  You can upgrade ships though which is not that expensive.  
  
• Planet Exploration
• There are 1000 planets to explore but most of them are barren.  They procedurally generate content on the planets  so you will have something to do like exploring caves or attacking pirate hideouts, but with so many planets they reuse assets so doing those will eventually get boring.  
• You can scan resources, animals, and plants.  If you can scan everything on a planet you get money and experience. I spent an hour last night scanning one planet.  
• There is encumbrance so if you try and pick up everything you will be overweight quickly and that prevents you from fast travelling.  Also you lose oxygen while running while encumbered so try not to be a packrat. 
• If you find a resource you need you can set up an outpost to extract that resource.  It takes a lot of material to build an outpost so I haven't done much with this yet.  
• Mods
  
• I can't play a Bethesda game without mods so here are a couple of QOL mods that really improve the game
• Quicker Menu Loads
• You are in menus a lot and for some reason there is a slight delay when you open each menu.  
• This removes the delay so opening menus is instant.  Also if you want to fully exit out of a menu you have to hold the B button and this reduces that time as well.  
• Star UI
• The UI is pretty terrible and basically shows you one inventory item at a time.  
• This mod changes that to show multiple items like in a spreadsheet so you can see more stats. 

Dave the Diver, Armored Core VI

 Dave the Diver(PC)

• I'm trying to finish Baldur's Gate 3 before Starfield comes out, but I tried Dave the Diver and got addicted.  
• It's a fairly casual game where during the day you dive into the ocean and gather fish, other aquatic animals, and restaurant condiments. At night you serve them in your Sushi bar. 
• At least it starts out that way.   Each half hour or so they introduce a new mechanic or a new way to interact with the game that even after 12 hours I'm still encountering something new to do.   
• I won't go into details since discovery is a big part of the game, but the latest thing it's added has given me Stardew Valley vibes.  
• The game is perfect on the steam deck. 

Armored Core VI(PC)

• A third person action MECH game from the developers of the Dark Souls games and it does share the difficulty of those games.
• I've never played an Armored Core game before so I thought the best time to try one would be a week before Starfield comes out and I have 3 other games I want to finish.  
• I've only put in about 2 hours, but I have earned my gamer card since I can at least say that I've beaten the Tutorial boss although it did take me 10 tries. 
• Customization of your mech is half of the game so there are a ton of options of how to build/paint your mech to fit your game play style.  One of the nice things is that you can sell back items purchased from the store for the same price you bought them so no punishment for trying new parts or builds.  You can even upload your own images to put on your Mechs. 
• The story is delivered by codecs so it's usually just a voice talking to you giving you mission briefs. You will be making choices that will affect which missions you can go on so you won't see everything in one playthrough.  From what I've read one playthrough is around 16-20 hours.  
• The combat is pretty hectic and a lot to keep track of from your booster and weapon cooldowns, to the whole 3D space you can be attacked from.  Luckily the boss fights have checkpoints, so unless you need to buy something from the store, you don't have to restart the whole mission if you get in a tough fight.
•  There is a multiplayer arena where you can test out your best builds against others.  You can also upload/download builds for specific campaign missions if you find one giving you issues.  

Starfield

• If you buy the premium edition, the game will be playable next Thursday night at 7pm Central. From some leaks it appears the game may be the most polished Bethesda title.  

Baldur's Gate 3, Benq 4550i 4k Projector

Baldur's Gate 3

• ​It's awesome, go buy it.

• I took the day off when it came out, which is usually never a good thing to do because most games have bugs or issues at launch.  The 120 gig game took about 30 minutes to download and I had no bugs or any other issues.  Good job Larian.  

• T​he game does a good job of explaining everything so if you aren't familiar with D&D you don't have to be.  It's a very accessible game and a good starting game if you've never played a CRPG before.   ​It has a story mode if you just want to experience the story​ without the combat being difficult.  

• ​The story has been ​interesting so far and there are a ton of difficult choices to make that can alter your story dramatically.  You can save scum your way through the game to always get the best outcome but what is the fun in that?   

• The combat is turn based and on the normal difficulty setting I've had to try some battles multiple times, but nothing has been frustrating. It's easy to switch out your companions so you can try a different strategy.  Also any companion not in your party still levels up so every character is around the same level.  

• ​I'm playing with a controller and they've done a great job making that control scheme work on a game like this.  It's a totally different UI than the Keyboard\Mouse setup and you can switch between them at any time. 

• The only gripe I have is that everything is voiced except for the main character, but some may like that as it could add to the roleplaying aspect.  

• The game is in the top 10 of Steam concurrent player list with over 800k users and it releases on the PS5 in September so it seems to be a massive success and I'm happy for the developer.  

​Benq 4550i 4K projector

• I accidentally bought this projector about a month ago.  I was browsing the Benq site and was curious if they charged sales tax so I went through the process and was thinking I'd get to the payment  confirmation page and exit out.  The payment confirmation page turned out to be a purchase confirmation page and the Benq site doesn't allow you to cancel your order.  

• My older projector, Sony 40es, is a 1080p projector and the input lag was a bit high at around 30ms so I never really used it much for gaming.  So far with the Benq I haven't turned on my TV in two weeks.

• The Benq uses an LED light that is rated for 20,000 to 30,000 hours so no need to worry about replacing lamps every year. It's also a very bright projector so it does HDR content reasonably well.  

• It is factory calibrated and the colors are very accurate and I could tell immediately in movies as the skin tone was so much better than my Sony.  

• It can only do 4K/60, but that's fine for me and the input lag is not noticeable so FPS games feel great.   

• It also has 3D support which is still a top feature for me.  Fury Road in 3D is awesome. 

• The only negative is that the fan could be a bit quieter.  It's not that loud, but when there is a quiet scene in a movie you can hear it running. 

• The ultimate viewing experience is still my OLED TV with true blacks, but I've been having a blast playing Baldur's Gate 3 on a 132 inch screen. 

​

Guardians of the Galaxy

• I was a little worried after the not so great Avengers game, but GOTG turned out to be one of the best games of the year.
• This is not a GaaS game, it's a single player adventure game that's a mixture of Uncharted and Mass Effect that lasts around 20 hours and has a new game plus mode.  
• The characters' voice actors are not the ones from the movies and honestly I think I prefer the game's voices to the movie actors.  I really liked their take on Drax. In the movies he's basically used as comic relief, but in the game he comes across as very intelligent and you really get to know his personality and what motivates him.  The same is true for all the characters as you find different mementos during a mission and when you return back to your ship you can choose to have a lengthy  dialogue and learn about each member of the group. 
• There is a lot of dialog in the game.  In the whole 20 hours it took me to finish there may have been 10 minutes where no one was talking.  I enjoyed the dialog and thought the writing was very well done. 
• You only play as Star-Lord which may sound disappointing, but the game feels like a leader simulator where your actions and dialog choices seem to have a huge effect on how the story and gameplay turns out so only playing as one character makes sense. 
• In combat Star-Lord has guns that do minimal damage with some modifiers that can affect the enemies in different ways, but the majority of the damage comes from your teammates and the actions you have them perform.   Since you are more of a commander than a powerful fighter it makes the fast paced combat interesting and somewhat tactical on the harder difficulties.  At certain points during combat you can assemble the whole group and can give them a pep talk. 
• Amazing graphics. It maybe the best looking game and the soundtrack is awesome. 
• The whole game is top notch and really shouldn't be missed. It was developed by the makers of the Deus Ex series so hopefully they will be able to continue that franchise for their next game.

Switch OLED

• I told myself I wasn't going to buy one since there were only minimal improvements from my original Switch.  I was going on vacation ​two week​s​ which meant time on a plane, so somehow I convinced myself to get the new Switch and I'm glad I did.
• I do like OLED screens and on the Switch it makes a huge difference as having true blacks and great contrast makes the graphics pop off the screen.  
• The screen is only marginally larger, but it feels bigger and it seems to be the perfect size for a handheld console. 
• They did update the battery in later Switches and the OLED uses the same one, but since I had the original Switch the extra battery life was very noticeable.  I got around 5 hours playing Metroid which was great.
• On the original Switch I found that my hands would cramp after 15 minutes of playtime so I bought a device that made the Switch a bit bigger.   The new Switch is a tad longer so it wouldn't fit in that device, but for some reason I didn't have any issues cramping on the new one and at times I played for a couple of hours straight. 
• The new dock has an ethernet port in it but since I don't play online it isn't that big of a deal and I didn't notice any faster downloading of games when I had it plugged in.  I bought an additional dock for my older Switch last year and luckily it works on the new one.
• Moving my data from my old Switch to the new one was the only downside and it's still surprising how backward Nintendo is on the software side.
• I wasn't sure that I was going to keep the new Switch so I didn't choose the option to completely move all of my data from the old to the new and moving it in pieces is a pain.
• If you subscribe to the online service then your saves are stored in the cloud and can be moved easily, otherwise they are stored on the internal storage and since they can't be moved to the Sd​ ​card moving them manually is a huge pain.  They use near field communication to send the save files so the Switches have to be close together.  Also you can only move one game at a time.  On the old machine you select the game and then select send, then on the other Switch you have to select receive.  The transfer takes about 10 seconds then you have to go through all the menus again.  Notice I keep saying moved as you can't copy your save to the new machine, they are deleted off the other Switch after the copy is successful.  Moral of the story, sign up for a month of the online service for $5 if you have a lot of game saves to move.
• Another backwards thing is that I had an sd card with a lot of games stored and you can't move the sd card to your new Switch without formatting it so I had to download all of the games again.  Ugh......
• Other than that I am really enjoying my Switch and I am happy I upgraded.  

 

It Takes Two, Legacy Bowl

  It Takes Two(Xbox Series X)

• The game is about a family that is at the point of divorce and the effects it has on their daughter. She finds a magic book and unknowingly turns her parents into dolls that sets them on a quest to return to their normal bodies and maybe rekindle their love on the way.
• From that description you are probably not excited or interested in this game and you would miss out on the best game of the year.  
• It's co-op only so you will need a partner on the journey, but only one person has to buy the game, the other person can play for free by downloading the friend's pass version. My only gripe is that the game is not cross-platform compatible. 
• I've played the developer's previous games, Brothers and A Way Out, which were both great games, but this game is just on another level. 
• The game starts off a bit slow as it sets up the story, but once the gameplay begins it's a thrill ride for the next 16 hours. 
• The world is like the Honey I Shrunk the Kids movies or the new grounded game where you get to experience it from a different perspective.  I was amazed at the number of levels in the game and each one was unique  and the amount of creativity felt like you were playing multiple games.
• Since it's co-op each character has different abilities that you need to combine to traverse the environment, solve puzzles, and succeed in combat.  Each level you receive different abilities so you are constantly doing something different and the game never becomes stale. 
• There are mini-games to find in the world which pit you and your partner against each other for really no other reason than bragging rights, but each time we found one we were compelled to play to win.  
• The combat encounters are awesome, especially the boss fights which leads me to another discussion about the story. 
• The story is about divorce which itself is a bit depressing, but this game gets dark, really dark.  During some of the boss fights we were laughing hysterically because what we were doing was so horrific that it was the only way to cope with what we were forced to do.  I still have nightmares....

Legacy Bowl(Steam)

• I subscribed to the EA game service for one year so I got to play the new Madden game on PC and just like always, I was kind of meh.
• It looks good, but not much has changed in the gameplay department and I'm not interested in buying packs of ultimate team cards which I think is the main issue with the stagnation of Madden. 
• I saw a review for this new football game and decided to give it a try and it's great and it has features Madden still doesn't have.  Can you believe it has Refs on the field??
• It's basically a reboot of Tecmo bowl with better AI and actual strategy. It's not licensed by the NFL, but on the game's discord channel you can download a mod that adds the NFL to the game so you'll have all the teams and players. 
• The play calling screen feels like Madden with tons of plays for offense and defense with an ask the coach option as well.  
• Since it's sprite based the game is quick and responsive.  Passing, running, and playing defense all feels good. Kicking is a bit tricky with the quick moving meter that caused me to miss a couple of kicks but everything just feels right.  
• The AI is good. The first couple of games I lost by 3 points each with both me and the CPU having realistic stats.  
• The game is missing a Franchise mode which is a bit of a bummer but you can play a full season which is still fun.  
• The game was in early access for awhile and just fully released a couple of weeks ago on PC so now that more people are playing there have been more feedback so there have been a couple of patches that have made the game even better.
• If you get the football itch and have a PC give this game a try for $20 you won't be disappointed. 

Resident Evil Village (PC)

• Sequel to the excellent Resident Evil 7
• Same first person camera perspective as RE7 and is the best playing Resident Evil game as the movement is fast and responsive and the shooting feels great.
  
• More action than RE7, but not as scary unfortunately.  A couple of jump scares, some enemies will chase you around the levels at times, and a couple of creepy locations, but nothing like RE7.  One caveat though, if you are a hand model then stay away from this game as it will freak you out.  
• The game looks great and the performance was pretty good. I had an issue where the  game would open up on my second screen for no reason which would mess up my HDR settings so I would have to redo the HDR  setup and that happened about 6 different times.  I also had a couple of massive frame rate hits in some mini-boss fights.  
• I like all the characters and the new merchant is great and of course the Tall Vampire Lady is awesome.   
• Tip:  Don't sell any of the meat you get, give it to the merchant and he'll cook you some nice meals.  
• I've never been a fan of the enemy transformations the characters go through when they are infected and turn into a boss character and this game doesn't change that.  They all have these weird tentacles and such and they are never very scary. 
• The enemies are varied and fun to fight and be sure to let each one of them kill you at least once so you can see the cool death animations. 
• The default difficulty was a good challenge.  There was one area that went on for a bit too long and had you fight too many enemies in a tight space that I was glad when it was over.   
• I completed the game in around 12 hours which is a decent length.  
• Definitely recommend the game. 

Mass Effect Legendary Edition (PC)

• The Mass Effect series was one of my favorites in the Xbox 360/PS3 era so I was excited to play through the trilogy again.  
• I replayed the first one a couple of years ago with a mod that let you use a controller on the PC version and I'm glad they added that feature to the remaster on PC.  
  
• They did a decent job of improving the graphics and the addition of HDR really makes the game look great especially with all neon and the views in space.
• The first game was more RPG than action shooter so the combat was always a bit clunky and they've improved it somewhat, but it's still not that great.  Your teammates are useless and will die pretty quickly even though you can tell them where to go. 
• I changed to the easy difficulty so I could get through the story which is the best part of the first game.  
  
• I'm about 3/4 the way through the first game so I haven't tried the 2nd or 3rd game yet as I don't want to spoil anything.  
• For new EA games you can sign up for the Origin Plus for $15 a month and play the game for a cheap price if it's something you will never play again. 

Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart (PS5)

• The first thing you notice is the awesome graphics.  I'm playing on the 30fps Fidelity mode since I want all the bells and whistles  and it's amazing.  There is so much detail in every scene and the world is dense with a ton of things happening in the background.  I haven't tried out the 60fps modes, but I haven't had any issues with 30fps as it feels very smooth. 
  
• The gameplay doesn't drastically change from the previous games which is a good thing as they always played and felt great.  You still get crazy weapons that have a ton of upgrade options and I like the instructional video you get for each new weapon as the voice over is really funny.  
• The big thing in the marketing was the rifts and how you would go through them and be in a totally different area with no loading.  The no loading is cool, but so far I really haven't used them that much. They are also in the combat arenas, but they feel like a grappling gun more than anything else.  I've only played a couple of hours so maybe they are used more farther into the game.  
• I was playing at a higher difficulty, but turned it down to the default after a couple of hours since it felt like the enemies were mainly bullet sponges and at the default difficulty it just felt better. I was also having a hard time knowing where I was getting hit and from what direction as there were usually a lot of enemies on the screen all around you. 
• The controller is put to good use as each gun  feels different when you pull the triggers.  There are also slight rumbles throughout the game that really add to the immersiveness, much like the rain you feel in Returnal. 
• When you play as Clank it's mainly puzzle sections that you are able to skip if you don't like them which is a nice feature. 
• The game is $70 which can leave a huge hole in your wallet, but I used BB reward points to lower the price.  
• Overall I'm enjoying the game, but it's not that much different from the older games so unless you want something new to play on your PS5 or really love the series I would give this a wait till it goes on sale.  

 

Cyberpunk 2077

 Cyberpunk 2077

• Graphics
• I'm playing the PC version with an Nvidia 3090 at 4K Ultra settings with all Ray Tracing turned on except Ray Traced Shadows in DLSS Performance mode.  I maintain 55-60 fps and with VRR the game feels smooth.
• There are issues with it's HDR implementation, but I've been able to get an amazing  picture using these settings on my LG CX.  TV Brightness set to 48 and Dynamic Tone Mapping turned off on the TV and the in-game HDR brightness set to 3000 with the midpoint balance set to .90
  
• With Ray Tracing it puts it above Demon's Souls as the best looking game.
• Walking down a dimly lit alley with water puddles on the ground reflecting a lonely red neon sign hanging from high above the building is a sight to behold.  
• There is just so much to see it's almost overwhelming as the city is so vertical and densely packed, it's an amazing world to walk around and get lost in.   
• Gameplay
• I was excited to see how they would improve upon the open world game formula and unfortunately they don't deviate very far from other open world games.  
• I'm enjoying the game, but there isn't anything revolutionary about what I'm doing moment to moment.  The world, story, and it's characters are the main draw for me.  
  
• A lot of people are trying to compare the game to GTA V, but currently it's more like Deus Ex than anything else.   Will you use stealth, hacking, or a gun's blazing approach to fulfill the mission.
  
• I was worried since it was their first game with guns that the shooting wouldn't feel great, but after tweaking some strange controller settings, it feels really good.  Their default settings have some deadzone setup which makes it feel a bit sluggish but turning those down fixed the issue for me. 
• The stealth is just ok.  There is no real indicator you are being stealthy, each enemy has a cone radius and you have about 5 seconds to move out of the cone before being spotted.  If one enemy sees you then all enemies do so I've reloaded quite a bit when that happened.  
• The hacking isn't anything special either.  Highlight a device and you can turn it off or use it to distract enemies by the press of a button if you have enough resources.  Same for enemies, you can do various things depending on how you spec your character, but so far nothing that interesting.
• The skill tree is massive, but it's filled with a lot of add 3% to shotgun damage and stuff like that.  There are only a handful of them that offer up any real game changing experiences.
• You do a lot of driving in the game and the cars that I've driven don't handle very well, it's not as responsive as I would like it to be.  The way they offer up new cars is also strange as most characters you do missions for will try to sell you a car immediately after meeting them.  Didn't know in 2077 everyone was a car dealer, also no flying cars. 
• There is a ton of loot in the game that is mostly worthless.  I have hundreds of special drinks that can alter your attributes, but I've never drank one so far.  After each battle there are a ton of items to loot, luckily they are color coded so you can just loot the special ones.  
• I'm playing on the hard difficulty as the normal mode felt like I could go on a rampage in every mission and not fail.  
• It sounds like I'm being hard on the game, but I could say most of these things about every open world game and they would apply.  I was just hoping to see something truly different.
• As I said earlier I am enjoying the game, the world is fun to explore and just look at the pretty graphics.  The story and characters are interesting and I am excited to see the story through.
• The main quest can be beaten around 20 or so hours if you run quickly through it, but not doing side missions will affect the end of the story and how many different endings are possible so I'm trying to complete all of them.  The side quests are varied enough to keep you interested and almost all of them have some story in them.
• Bugs
• The game was delayed a couple of times this year and honestly it should have been delayed once more even on PC.
• I haven't had any game breaking bugs, mostly visual bugs, but it does take you out of the game in those situations.
• The most irritating bug is sometimes when I die and the game reloads it puts the last subtitle on the screen and it stays there even though I don't have subtitles turned on.  A quick game load fixes that, but it's happened about 8 times now.
• The combat AI is decent as enemies flank and take cover, but the pedestrian and car AI is awful.  If you get out of your car in the middle of the street other cars will just stop until you move your car, they just sit there and pile up until you get back.  Same if you park your car in a pedestrian's way, they wait as well.  
• The Cop AI is pretty bad.  If you commit a crime in front of them they will start shooting, but if you get in a car and drive about a block they stop chasing you.  They will also magically appear out of nowhere when you commit a crime. 
• There was a reddit post a couple of months ago where one anonymous developer said the game needed about 6 more months of development and that turned out to be true.
• CDPR does have a great track record of fixing bugs and getting the games where they need to be.  The Witcher 2 really wasn't fun to play until a year later when the definitive edition came out.  
• If you have a beefy PC or the latest consoles then you may want to go ahead and get the game, but if you are on a last generation PS4 or Xbox don't bother until at least February until most of the bugs are ironed out.  No sense druding through a game that will be better in a couple of months.

Random Game Thoughts

 Random Game Thoughts

• Dirt 5
• I was so excited for the game as I've loved every Dirt game Codemasters has made.
• I almost bought the ultimate edition so I could play early, but I waited and found out that the game did not support wheels at launch. It still doesn't. 
• So disappointing and on top of that it doesn't output telemetry so I can't use my motion platform.  
• C'mon Codemasters, this may be the first Dirt game I don't buy.  
• Ubisoft Connect
• Ubisoft's subscription service on PC 
• For $15 you can play every Ubisoft game including the 3 games they released in the last month.  
• Worth it 100%.  
• Immortal Fenyx Rising (Terrible name)
• A Ubisoft open world game that can actually be completed under 35 hours.
• It's a cross between Assassin's Creed and Zelda BOTW 
• Played a couple of hours and I really like it. It's whimsical and the world is full of color and missing most of the bloat that Ubisoft games have had as of late.   
• Watchdog's Legion
• Played for about 2 hours and it's not my jam.
• It's kinda cool wandering around causing havoc but it's definitely a create your own fun type of game that I get bored of quickly.
• Ubisoft needs to rethink their facial hair technology.
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• I really liked Origins and even finished the main campaign, but for some reason Odyssee never clicked with me.  It felt really janky, especially the combat. 
  
• Valhalla feels more like Origins so I was more interested.  
• I put in a couple of hours but honestly I am liking Fenix so much more right now that I'll play that instead.
• Spider-man: Miles Morales
• Really enjoying the game.  About half way through at around 12 hours so a meaty game.  
• Raytracing looks really good, so many reflections.
• I tried the performance mode and it does play a lot smoother but I am keeping it in resolution mode as I do like the way the game looks with it on.
• GTX 3090
  
• Was going to get the 3080 but wasn't having any luck so decided to spend the money and get this.  Crazy, I know.  
• 4K120FPS with HDR is amazing. 
• Can't run all the new games maxed out at 4K with 60 fps so that's a bit disappointing.   
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Looks amazing on the new card
• Not exactly sure what I'm doing as the game is massive, but I'm able to keep the plane in the air for at least 10 minutes. 
• Make sure you install the upgraded graphics patch before flying out to see Mount Rushmore, otherwise you'll fly 10 minutes to see a plain rock. 
• Also, if you didn't know, there is a Las Vegas, Mexico.  It's strip is not that impressive.
• PGA Tour 2K1
• Been playing with Mitch online and it's a fun golf game.   
• The UI needs to be improved, but the gameplay is spot on.  
• Mafia Definitive Edition
• Finished the game and was disappointed with the ending.
• It felt rushed and needed to be fleshed out a bit more with a couple of extra missions.
• Cyberpunk 2077
• One more week if you can believe it.
• Watch out, some copies were sent out early so be careful for spoilers

PS5, Xbox Series X, Astrobot, Demon Souls, Yakuza Judgement

 I was lucky enough to pre-order an Xbox Series X so I was sure to get that console on release day, but I missed out on pre-ordering the PS5​.  After trying Walmart a couple of times, their site was awful, I was finally able to order the PS5 Disc version from the Sony Direct website on launch day and it arrived on Sunday.  I've spent a couple of hours playing both so here are some quick impressions.  

Form Factor

• Xbox
• Looks like a small boxy PC.
• Has many vent holes on top so if you have little kids or pets that could be an issue
• Very quiet
• Just one HDMI output port and no kinect or Digital audio support.
• PS5
• Huge, largest item in my entertainment center
• Flimsy stand to hold it horizontally. 
• Very quiet, although I do hear it accessing the disk drive to check if I have the game disc loaded when I start a game. 
• No Digital output support. 

Controller

• Xbox
• Similar to the older controllers but with a slightly different D-Pad
• Has a share button so you can take screenshots or capture video 
• All the older controllers work so I mainly use my older Elite Controller, I love the back paddle buttons.
• PS5
• Insanely better than the PS4 Dualshock.  
• More heft and fits in my hands better.  
• No more bright light in the front to reflect in my TV 
• Better Battery life. 
• Haptic feedback and analog triggers are revolutionary.  The rumble can be subtle now instead of just a strong vibration.  The triggers can have various amounts of tension depending on the game.
• Only worry is that a few games will use the added features of the controller.  The touchpad on the older controller was basically just another button for most games. 

UI

• Xbox
• Same layout as the last generation Xbox.
• Quicker Response moving through all the tabs, feels good now instead of being sluggish.
• Quick Resume is an awesome feature if you play multiple games as it keeps a number of them in memory so switching between games takes seconds.
• Loads new games quickly, not as fast as PS5
• Adds HDR to older games.  Some games look good, others not so much.
• Download speeds are still a bit slow.
• PS5
• Still have a row of your recently played games on the top that you can scroll through to select a game to play.  
• More information displayed about each game and each game has activity cards so you can keep up with trophies and progression by pressing the PS button.
• When pressing the PS button in game you stay in the game and an overlay comes up so you stay in the game instead of loading out into a menu
• Holding the PS5 button does nothing now so turning off the PS5 is a couple of more button presses
• Loads games extremely fast and the loads inside of games are almost instantaneous
• Download speeds are fantastic, almost using full bandwidth.  

Value

• Xbox
• No first party games at launch so has to rely on 3rd party and backwards compatible games
• Gamepass is definitely worth the money and is a great value especially since some next gen games are going to be trying a $70 price point. 
• If you have a gaming PC then it's probably not worth it since all first party games will be coming to the PC.  
• I mainly bought it for Rock band 4 since I play that a ton and for some backwards compatible games that are on PC but don't have controller support. 
• PS5
• First party exclusive games are the main reason for my purchase.  Astrobot is awesome for a pack in a game. 
• The quick loading is also a huge breakthrough. For some games I would wait for the release of the PC version because it had better load times, but now the PS5 loads games quicker than my PC. 
• It is backwards compatible with almost all PS4 games and it also increases the performance of the games that don't have a specific PS5 version patch
• If you are a PS Plus subscriber you can get some good PS4 games for free. I already bought most of them, but it's nice to have some of them digitally. 

Astrobot

• An amazing game that shows the potential of the controller. 
• Each step your Astrobot makes produces a different rumble based on the texture of the surface you are walking on. 
• In one mini-game you are crushing items to get collectibles using the triggers and each item you crush feels different.  Sometimes you can barely press and the item crushes or other times you really have to put some effort in.  
• Both of these are subtle effects and really add to the excitement feature you want out of a new console launch.  
• It's a must play even though it's a pack in game.  Do not miss this awesome game.

Demon Souls

• Best looking game ever.  
• The lighting is amazing and it adds so much atmosphere to each location.  It's the gritty combat game I've always wanted.  I wish the Diablo 4 developers would take a queue from this game.
• It is a remake of the PS3 game so I feel like I'm visiting an old memory.  The gameplay hasn't changed much so there is still a bit of jank here and there but still a great tough game that I kinda wish had an easier mode.
• Loading times are insane, about 3 seconds to reload if you die.  

Yakuza Judgement

• PS4 game that is amazing on the PS5 because of the load times
• On the PS4 when you would get into a fight there would be a staging of the fight that would put up a graphic of who you were going to fight which hid the load of about 3-5 seconds
• On the PS5 there is no staging or graphic, a guy says I want to fight and you begin fighting. 

Oculus Quest 2

 Oculus Quest 2

I'm a tech guy so my house is filled with wires, wires everywhere.  Speaker, Hdmi, Cat5, Usb, and other various cables are infused throughout my house. I probably have a mile of cables if I stacked them end to end.  In storage I have some S-video cables for my old video camera that I for some reason still have from 20 years ago.  So I'm getting a little tired of wires.  That may be the reason that I got the Quest 2 even though I have 3 other VR headsets that I sparingly use. 

I like VR and the experiences it gives you, but I hate the cable as it always gets in the way.  In my racing rig with the motion setup I could never get the cable in the right position, I would move in some direction which would cause a slight tug on the cable that would take me out of the experience. Even for fully stationary games you can feel the weight of the cable pulling down on the headset.  

I never messed with the original Quest for some reason, but I decided to get the Quest 2 and I'm glad I did. It's really an incredible self contained VR experience for $300, actually $350, as you really need the deluxe head strap for extra comfort.  Playing VR wirelessly is amazing and really takes it to another level.  Setup is a breeze and moving from room to room is effortless which is really what VR needs to make it a mainstream product.  

There are a couple of downsides.   Facebook integration is the biggest one for most people as it requires you to link your device to a facebook account.  I already use facebook so it wasn't that big of a deal to me although I don't like them gathering even more information about me. The next downside is that the Quest 2 could be a bit more comfortable, it's a bit front heavy, but if you get the deluxe head strap it makes for a comfier fit.  There have been many reports of the deluxe headset band cracking so that's something to look out for.  The battery life is not the longest at around 2-3 hours which is fine for me since I rarely play longer than an hour and a half, but they do make a strap with an extra battery that extends the life to around 5-6 hours.  I was impressed with the internal speakers on the unit as they are actually better than the Rift S, but if you want the best audio experience you need to use headphones.  

There is one other huge potential downside, not all games will run natively on the Quest, but you can use a link cable connected to your PC to play Rift or Steam VR games.  This is a bummer since you are once again saddled with a cable, but there is an alternative, Virtual Desktop Streaming.  Using the $20 Virtual Desktop app and the free sidequest app you can stream all the VR games from your PC to the Quest 2 and they look better than using the link cable.  It's amazing and I'm not sure why this method isn't being touted more since it's a pure wireless solution.      

I've played Half-life Alyx this way and it looks amazing, it's not quite as good as my Rift S but it's pretty close.  There may be some games where streaming isn't supported, but so far all the games I've tried have worked great and that's using the 5G band of my AT&T supplied router. 

So far I'm impressed with the Quest 2 and think it's a great time to get into VR if you haven't already.

Pre-orders, Mafia Definitive Edition, Hades

 Pre-orders

I think I need to learn how to write a bot after the last two weeks attempting to pre-order a PS5, Xbox Series X, and a 3080 Video Card.  Every site I went to basically crashed or went crazy when I tried to pre-order.   Just because you get one in your cart does not mean you will be able to buy it.  Luckily, I was able to get an Xbox Series X from Best Buy on the day that the pre-orders went up, although it was the least of the three that I wanted.   

It's pretty crazy that with the Covid stuff there is such a demand for electronics that are priced at  $500.  I even thought about buying a Geforce 3090 which is $1,400 and it was just as bad.  I'm not sure what the vendors can do except some sort of lottery and even then you would wonder how rigged the lottery would be. It would also be nice to know the exact numbers they had for sale.  I'm pretty sure the video card stock was around 1,000 or so which they really shouldn't have launched with the numbers being so small.  

Were you able to pre-order?

Mafia Definitive Edition

I remember playing the original Mafia when it came out on PC back in 2002.  The main thing I remember is how slow the cars went and that if you sped or ran a stop light in front of the cops they would arrest you.  Also there was this one car race that took me 30 or so tries to beat.  Luckily with this re-release both of these memories will stay back in 2002.  

This game is a full on remaster and they basically touched everything so the game feels like a 2020 release, except for the movement of the character it's a bit clunky.  They also added some options to negate the issues I had back in 2002.  You can skip a lot of the driving by a button press and have the cops not be so strict.  

If you like Mafia stories then you should think about picking up this game as the story is the main focus and it has some excellent voice acting.  It takes place in an open world but it's not an open world game.  It has linear missions that allow you to roam the world, which I like, as I'm getting tired of the open world formula.  It takes about 12-15 hours to get through the campaign which is a good length for $40.   I also recommend the Mafia Trilogy that has all 3 games in the series, only the 1st game got a true remaster while the other games had some minor changes.  

Hades

Supergiant has made 4 games so far and this is my favorite.  I really liked Bastion with the cool narrator.  I could never get into Transistor as I really didn't like the combat.   Pyre was interesting in that it tried to tell a cool story using a sports game as the background which I've been meaning to return to.  

Hades is rogue-like that has a great greek mythology story intertwined throughout the whole game which sets it above other games in the genre.  I like roguelikes, but usually I play them for  several hours then get stuck or bored and lose interest in playing.  I generally need a story in a single player game to keep me interested and Hades does a good job of weaving the story into the gameplay to keep me adventuring.  

The combat is tight and each weapon you unlock feels different to use.  You acquire unique powers on each run through meeting greek gods who have specific powers.  Sometimes you are given a choice between two god's powers and the one you don't choose becomes insulted and sends in some tough enemies to defeat.  

The game looks gorgeous with some great artwork, especially the portraits of the greek gods.  Each deity is also fully voiced so you get to know them and their personalities.  For $20 this is a great game and highly recommended.  

I was looking around at some old notes and found one back from 2001 where I listed some various computer parts that I had bought.  I still have some of these parts.  

• CPU
• AMD K7 Athlon            $310
• Motherboard
• ASUS K7                     $120
• Storage
• 1.2G Hard Drive          $220
• Syquest Removable Cartridge Drive  $150        
• 8X Cd-rom                   $100 
• 3 1/2 Floppy                 $ 30
• Memory
• 256 MB Ram          $120
• Video Card
• Diamond Stealth II        $140 
• Voodoo 2                      $235             
• Sound Card
• Sound Blaster Live       $139
• Gravis AWE 32             $105               
• Modem
• 28.8 ZModem         $100   
• Monitor
• 17" VGA Monitor     $769              
• Accessories 
• UMAX Scanner            $100              
• Joysticks/Controllers
• Gravis GamePad Pro  $30
• Trackman Vista            $45
• Logitech Mouseman    $20
• CH Flight Stick             $40
• Mark II Thrustmaster    $20
• Speakers
• Reveal 2.1             $40

Completed Games in 2019

Control

• My favorite game of 2019. 
• The graphics went from great to amazing when you enabled ray tracing, it actually made me purchase a 2080ti.
• The particle effects were unbelievable, during combat stuff is flying all over the place and being able to see all the destruction you caused to the environment was impressive.  
• The voice acting was great and just like other Remedy games the live action video sequences were awesome. 

Resident Evil 2

• I never played the original back in the day, but this version was awesome and brought back some feelings of RE4.
• I played as Chris and need to go back and play again as Jill to see what difference that play through will bring.
• Resident Evil 3 is coming soon.

Days Gone  

• The game got mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed my time with the game.  
• Their take on a zombie game felt unique enough that I never got zombie fatigue.
• I really liked riding the bike and thought it was fun to ride around and explore the environment.

Luigi's Mansion 3   

• A wonderful game that had me smiling the whole time.  The game is just full of surprises and innovative ideas. 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

• Having just rewatched all of the Star Wars films made me appreciate the game so much more as it really made you feel like a Jedi. 
• The game was awesome and I can't wait for a sequel. 

Metro Exodus

• I enjoyed the game, but I liked the other two better.  Not every game needs to be an open world and even though the world was gorgeous there was just something about the claustrophobic feel of the first 2 games that really makes those games stand out.

Yakuza 0

• If you've never played a Yakuza game then you are missing out.
• Combat is crazy and the story is wacky, but definitely worth spending your time with.
• 3 Yakuza games are coming to Xbox Game Pass this year.  

Darksiders 3

• Each Darksiders game has played differently and this was a Dark Souls lite version that I really enjoyed.
• Also Darksiders Genesis is really good. 

Mortal Kombat 11(9,10)

• After starting the story mode I realized that I hadn't finished the other games story modes so I went back and finished them and they were all great.
• I played 9 and 10 using a fight stick and did pretty well, but on 11 I switched to the controller and it was so much better.  I did miss the feeling of playing with the sticks but with all the button presses I found the controller to be much easier to use. 
• Just played some multiplayer fights this week with Brisket and it was smooth and a ton of fun. 

Astral Chain

• If you are looking for a 3rd person action game on the Switch then grab this right now. 
• Great combat and interesting story with some quirky Japanesiness thrown in.

Gears 5

• Another competent Gears game.  Once again open worlds are not needed for every game, the world was fine but a linear story works just as well. 
• I did like the fact they didn't do the Gear 4 tactic of making you fight waves of enemies over and over.  
• It's still one of the best co-op games.  

Crackdown 3

• Just old school fun and best played on co-op.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 

• Back to the basics and loved every minute of it.
• Being able to play with a controller on PC against other controller users made the multiplayer for me and they keep on enhancing the game. 
• Battle Royale mode coming soon?

Bioshock 1,2,3

• Replayed the entire trilogy with all DLC and it was a great time.
• Bioshock 4 is coming.  

Mass Effect

• A mod for the PC version released that allows all the PC versions to use an Xbox controller so I started playing through the trilogy again.
• The first game is still an amazing ride.
• I got through about a third of the 2nd game and stalled for a bit after some rumors mentioned that they may be remaking the trilogy. 

Next Level Racing Motion Platform

Hello, my nickname is AshCountach and I have a problem.  It started with Rockband, well, I've actually always had this problem, but let's just say it began there. I started playing guitar at 15, but never had an interest in playing the drums, that all changed on Nov 2007 when Rockband was released.  I loved the Guitar Hero games and remember rushing to Gamestop to pick up one of the two copies they had on hand of the very first game back in 2005.  It was awesome and I can't believe I'm still playing these games after 14 years.  Thanks Harmonix.  

Two years later Rockband came out with the full band and once I started playing that plastic drum set I was hooked.  I remember modding the drumset with socks to dampen the sound and also hoping that my plastic kick pedal would never break.  Then Rockband 3 came out and it had a Midi adapter that would allow you to connect electronic drums to the kit and Boom!! There goes the dynamite.  

I jumped in head first and went with the gold standard and bought a Roland electronic drum set just to play Rockband and I have never regretted it.  I also got two of my friends to do the same thing as well, Rusty, who even went farther with it than me, and then Keenan who bought my old set after I bought Rusty's old set.  So at least I'm not the only person with this problem.  

Now if this was the only instance then I may have a case for being a bit crazy, but uh, yeah, well, sim racing happened.  Strangely enough, after looking up the purchase history this also started in 2007.  I had already had a couple of basic racing wheels, the Xbox 360 wireless racing wheel and the Logitech G27 wheel, pedal and shifter set. I was using TV trays and desk mounts at this time but I never really like that setup.  So I bought a Playseat sim stand on May of 2007.  

Then in 2012 I bought my first Fanatec Wheel, Shifters, and pedals and the Playseat just wasn't able to handle the torque the new wheel put out so I bought an Rseat rig then about 4 months later I bought the Obutto Revolution racing seat/computer desk which I've been using ever since.

The problem with hobbies is that they can be expensive, my problem is that I have too many of these hobbies. So this past year I had been debating on whether to get a motion platform for my Sim Setup.  I looked at videos and reviews for about 4 months then finally decided to pull the trigger on the Next Level Racing Motion Platform.  I ordered the NLR and waited about a week for shipping and then opened up the box and one side had a dent in it.  So I had to ship it back and wait for that whole process to complete, but good things come to those who wait. 

Then came the fun part, how to merge the NLR with my current Obutto rig, which was the main reason I waited so long in making my decision.  There is a standard bolt pattern for car seats and of course the NLR doesn't follow that standard since they sell their own seat.  Luckily I found a forum thread with other Obutto users that had already figured how to mount the seat so I had to take a hand file and make the holes larger on the NLR itself which I was really hesitant to do, but trying to make a special bracket would have been more difficult.  The process only took 40 minutes and the seat when on smoothly.  

When I was looking at motion platforms there were two types, a seat mover or a whole rig mover and there are endless debates on which one is more immersive.  I ultimately decided on the NLR, which is a seat mover, mainly because of its size and quietness, it's small and compact, but has a ton of power.  I've had to tone down the movement quite a bit because a little motion goes a long way.  The NLR reacts so quickly that you can feel when the rear end of the car starts sliding out allowing you to correct it which is amazing since it's only the seat moving around.  The first time I flipped my car in Dirt Rally I actually thought for a second that I was going to be thrown out of the car.  

The NLR comes with some easy to use software which makes setting up motion profiles for each game or for specific cars in a game a breeze and you can even make adjustments real time and feel the effect.  It supports almost all of the sim racing games that I play and also supports transducers so I can control all of my buttkickers to give me some extra tactical feel in one software package. I've actually become a racing snob in that I really don't want to play any racing game that doesn't support motion.  Pairing this with VR and it becomes the ultimate racing experience.

Dirt Rally 2 with NLR

Dirt Rally 2 NLR Video 2

Sim Rig Overview