Yep, my new components arrived today. Plan is to do the teardown and installation Friday so I have time to dig into the upgrade and not put Tight Night in jeopardy.
I'm planning on getting the rig up and running with driver updates, etc. prior to doing any overclocking. I splurged on an aftermarket cooler for the processor after reading that the new e4500's come with a much smaller aluminum heat sink than previous e4000 series processors. The aftermarket cooler comes highly rated, and straddles the performance line between Eric's Zalman 9500 cooler and the stock Intel cooler. I'm hopeful based on the reviews and commentary on NewEgg.
Anyway, Rob should be inheriting my old motherboard, RAM, Processor, DVD and DVD-R drives along with a new GeForce 8600 GT card. Post-upgrade, his system should be running at comparable performance levels to my current PC. Given he tends to run CoH at lower resolutions than I do, he should be able to max out most of the in-game settings (200% world detail, etc.) without lagging his system. I was able to pull it off prior to getting my widescreen LCD, so it's very do-able.
Part of my desire to upgrade is driven by a look toward the future. CoH is a great game and we all have a good time getting together and playing it. However, Eric has recently been expressing some dissatisfaction with the way the game is heading. With other competition on the horizon and the ever-present potential for folks to want to try new stuff, it's highly possible we may transition to another MMO in the future. Given that possibility, I figured getting Rob and I up to a roughly comparable level to Eric's current rig gives us options if we ever decide to branch out a bit.
Personally, I dig the content and the low time requirement to hop in and play. Teams are generally easy to find and build, and most characters solo well. With the recent game additions and my increased access to higher level content and story arcs, I'm exploring more of the content in the game now. All that coupled with the enjoyment I get out of our Thursday sessions give me absolutely no impetus to try anything else. Particularly WoW. It's the elephant in the room, but somehow I don't want to commit to something that may be overwhelming and too deep for me... I tend to obsess somewhat about online gaming, and that may be too immersive a game for me. Particularly given my impending job change and increased family activities now that nice weather is here. Plus, who wants to be just another face in the crowd? I *like* playing a super-hero game. It's very different and a whole different vibe from the cliched "Elf, Dwarf, Healer, Mage, Tank" paradigm that a ton of other MMO's rely on.
Anyway, I no longer have BLOG access at work (it's been flagged as a "social networking" site and is now blocked as non-work content), so I figured I'd shoot out an update while dinner was cooking.
See you all on Thursday.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Hardware Ho!
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3 comments:
TYRANTS!!! We will crush them beneath the heel of mighty Dystopic! Not today, but soon. Maybe after Orleans burns a respec or something. But THEN! THEN our wrath will burn as hot as the Rikti sun an all will cower in TERROR.
I still like the game. I actually like soloing depending on the toon. But I can't street sweep at the lower levels because I'll out-level my contacts too quickly. I can't play any higher than rugged or vicious for the same reason. I would actually like to level more slowly. I know that makes me an anamoly, but I'm not interested in short term gain. 4 years this month. (Not for vet rewards b/c they gave me 3 free months after Katrina) I want to see everything without having to micromanage my playing time.
Occasionally, too, I get a little bored. Especially in a PUG that doesn't interact and just blows the shit out of everything.
I just got Age of Empires 3 and my wif bought me World in Conflict, so that should be enough to distract me on non-tight nights.
I'm scared of WiC. It looks really hard and if I can't play it I will feel so old.
You know, it's funny, but some of the best teams I have been on are the most competent. Teams where everyone knows their role, is playing with an eye toward the rest of the team, and generally synching well. Those are the ones where people chat and have verbal banter in the midst of missions. Hell, a few of us last week were chatting back and forth while we were taking down AV's in Tina's mission arc. That's nice. Performance and the social elements all in one.
Of course, there are a lot of other worse ones. Like one goddamn Scrapper pinging me for three missions about how "squishy" he thought Ice Tanks were, despite the fact I had aggro locked and my health barely fluctuated for those three missions. Putting up with morons can be entertaining and frustrating at the same time. Entertaining when the rest of the team thinks they are morons too... :)
Cheers folks.
Well, they killed off the proposed Star Trek MMO, so I'm not really looking forward to anythng outside of COH other than the cartoony, guilty pleasure of Spore! when it arrives. I always have Neverwinter Nights for what is still a great distraction when needed. I can't wait until Isabelle is on some sort of schedule so I can get in to COH at 6:30 or 7:00 again like I used to. Both she and Chase already seem to have different ideas about that.
I still love the look and the feel of this game. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to bed and dreamed in the Steel Canyon setting or dreamed that I could manifest powers from my bare hands. It's like being a kid again. I mean, don't we all just want to fly?
I'm always ready to do newer COH stuff, sometimes even craving it. I wanted an MMO that didn't take much planning before playtime. When with a D&D group, I'll often spend hours of non-play time obsessing over spell choice or character development. This was a great MMO because I could just play right from the get-go. Ignorance was bliss.
Having still not gotten around to making Cacaphony's matching costume, his big respec, my next planned respec for Fjord, better levels for Marzi, my keybinds for Slash's pets, nearly anything of note with the market, only one arena disaster with Eric, most of the higher COV zones, blogging with any regularity, or more plain task force content, I do now feel that to get to new stuff I am going to have to start planning a little with you guys.
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