Keyrock

The 10th and final guardian: This is a really well designed battle. It's difficult and grueling, but not unfair. It's the final boss, so it's supposed to be difficult. Phase 2 has some RNG, but bad RNG doesn't completely screw you, like it does in the Surtr battle, it just draws things out a bit. This took me more times than I can remember to complete, but eventually I did it. After the battle is an escape sequence. Great game. 72 hours well spent.

^ Are you doing NG++?

Especially if you want tight timings. I speak from experience, as I recently spent WAY TOO MUCH on 32 GB (2×16) of 4000 MHz 16-19-19-39. Why? 3 reasons: 1) I'm an idiot b) I want nothing to do with the voodoo black magic that is memory overclocking III) I'm an idiot

Assuming the rumors are true and 4000 MHz is the new sweet spot (would be nice) you could always try to OC the RAM yourself. There's no guarantee that you can reach 4000 MHz, or what kind of timings you can get, but there's no guarantee that you can't get 4000 MHz and good timings either. When you buy more expensive RAM what you are paying extra for are binned parts (and fugly RGBs, if you're into that sort of thing) that have (supposedly) been tested and proven to be able to handle higher speeds and/or tighter timings, plus an XMP profile to make things easy for you. It's entirely possible to OC cheaper RAM to those same speeds/timings or close to them, but it's a crapshoot.

I'm a complete weiro gaming with a trackball. I love this Microsoft Trackball Explorer so much that after I broke my original one and then found out that they stopped making them years and years ago, I scoured ebay and paid double the original price to get another one. I can't stomach the idea of using anything else. Then again, I'm a weirdo.

I still haven't defeated the final boss of La Mulana 2, but at least I'm making progress. I got him fairly hurt in phase 4. During that phase he uses some of the attacks of previous guardians. At different stages of damage he switches to different attacks. I got the first few down pat, but I'm still figuring out the best approach to some of the latter attacks. Considering how ludicrous his HP during phase 4 is, I have to imagine this is the final phase.

I bought G Skill Ripjaws. The heatsink isn't completely ridiculous, only sorta ridiculous, but at least I'm not paying extra for some fugly RGB.

Does McCarthy call the defense? Does he call formations, blitzes, etc? Because that's where the problem lies. Our offense has been fine. We've fumbled way too much, but that probably comes down to preparation and discipline more than play calling. We're too pass-heavy for my tastes, but that can't be helped when you are constantly down by 800 points. Our offense has played well, it's the only reason we've been in these games at all. Our defense couldn't stop a pee wee football team from scoring at will, let alone a NFL team. Sometimes I wonder why we bother putting defenders on the field at all. It's not like they're doing anything.

I don't disagree, the PSU is one of the most criminally overlooked parts of a build and it's very important. I too own a Seasonic PSU, it's in my 6 year old rig that's about to be retired and replaced. I have nothing but respect for Seasonic. But when I saw the Seasonic prices and then I saw a Be Quiet! Dark Power (their premium line) PSU for over $100 less... It's not like Be Quiet! is some cut-rate, fly by night company, they make very good products.

Noctua is a good reputable company. I'm a bit perplexed by their fascination with beige, but I won't hold that against their otherwise high quality products. Like @AwesomeOcelotI initially looked at Seasonic for a PSU, their reputation precedes them, but the prices were ludicrously high. I wound up going with Be Quiet! They're not exactly famous for PSUs, like Seasonic is, but they're a reputable company that I trust won't sell me junk. Plus, they tend to live up to their name.

The radiator is from Alphacool, pretty much everything else I got from PrimoChill.

I have everything purchased for my upcoming build except CPU, GPU, GPU water block, coolant, and SSD. I'll post in the specs thread once I have all components purchased. This will also be my first time ever doing a custom water loop. I'm both nervous and excited. It should be a good learning experience. If anyone is interested I'll post my experience assembling the water loop. Heating and bending the tubing will probably be the scariest part.

If not more. People were generally getting 4.6 GHz all core on the 3800 XT without reaching voltages where they risked degradation, so 4.7 GHz all core on the 5800 X is not inconceivable. We'll find out pretty soon.

Some CPU porn for y'all:

The 5800 X is likely the sweet spot as far as purely gaming is concerned. The extra 4 or 8 cores of the 5900 X and 5950X will likely be of benefit in only very few future titles. The extra boost clock will be of benefit, but 100 or 200 MHz won't make THAT big a difference, not nearly enough to justify the price differences. As far as overclocking goes, we'll see how well these chips overclock in a few weeks. If they overclock anything like Zen 2, then not that well. Buildzoid explained why in his video in detail and that man does know his stuff. On the one hand, a 8 core chip will most certainly do an all core overclock better than a 12 or 16 core chip, all things being equal. On the other hand, the high-end parts always get the best silicon, so your chances of winning the silicon lottery decrease with the 8 core chip and definitely with the 6 core chip. With that said, I would still expect higher all core overclocks on the 5600 X and 5800 X than the higher-end chips. If I can safely get an all core overclock to within 100 MHz of the single core boost on a 5900 X LA_Noire_doubt.jpg then I will do it, otherwise I'll just leave it stock, though I will still put great cooling on it since it will help the chip boost longer before hitting thermal targets that would cause it to stop boosting. Overclocking the GPU will be my bigger concern, since that is where I'll get the majority of my gains, given that I'm targeting 4K at high-ish settings.

The Yakuza games are most definitely designed with a controller in mind. In theory, you could play them with m&kb; it will be a less than optimal experience, to put it mildly.

Unless you are planning on HARDCORE overclocking 1000 W is overkill. I know Seasonic made a statement about how you may need 850 W for Ampere, but consider the source. Seasonic are in the business of selling power supplies, they would be most appreciative if you spent as much on one as possible.

@BruceVCYakuza: Like a Dragon is a jRPG, the earlier Yakuza games aren't RPGs, they are open-ish world action/adventure games similar to GTA and Sleeping Dogs. They are fantastic, highly recommended. If you liked Sleeping Dogs you will very likely like Yakuza. Start with Zero.

I'm struggling with the final boss in La Mulana 2. I can consistently get to phase 4, but then I just seem to do no damage to him. He either has a ****ton of HP or I'm doing something wrong. I also started playing Yakuza Kiwami in preparation of the western release of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. On a scale of stoicism from 1 to 10 Kiryu is a 97.

^ Otterly adorable

A Yakuza game being tons of fun is the least surprising thing ever. I'm really excited to try out the job system. I wonder if you can give any job to any character or just certain jobs to certain characters?

I have reached Spiral Hell in La Mulana 2, which the game makes abundantly clear is the final area in the game. I can also testify that it lives up to its name. The area is filled with new, extra tough enemies, but the worse part is a tough platforming section where if you screw up you have to teleport out and start the area all over. I guess I can't get mad, it's the final area, it's supposed to be hard. I just hope there's a save/teleport point somewhere in there. Edit: I reached what is presumably the final boss. Phase 1 is a piece of cake, phase 2 is easy, phase 3... I'm still trying to figure out. I'm not sure if I've even done any damage in phase 3. No clue if it's the final phase. Edit 2: I got through phase 3, turns out there's a phase 4.

I've been purposely avoiding any Outer Worlds discussion waiting for the Steam release. Not much longer.

Dak suffered a compound ankle fracture, significantly worse than a run of the mill ankle fracture. We won't see him again this year, maybe not next year either. Who knows if he'll ever be the same.

I don't expect AMD to beat Nvidia, but if they can come close enough to make Nvidia break out that 3080 Ti SUPER we all know they have in their back pocket, that would be swell.