Keyrock

I have always said Miami was the favorite to repeat as champs. Even early in the season when I had Indy as #1 in the power rankings I noted that Miami was still the favorite to repeat as champions. But, by all means, show me the quote where I wrote that "Indy would beat Miami no contest". I'll save you the trouble, you can't because I never wrote that.

Disappointed by the connection issues and hilarious bugs that plague Battlefield 4? EA has something to soothe your pain, microtransactions.

"You cannot be bad at watching a movie" Yes, yes you can. For example, I will not watch a movie with my parents, because they won't shut the **** up during the movie, which makes it rather hard for me to follow the plot. My parents are bad at watching movies.

Pfft. My Steam Machine will be ready in about a week and a half.

Having fun with Watch Dogs. I really enjoy how the crime stopping opportunities unfold in this game. It's pretty cool listening in on people's conversations, then deducing from those that something bad might go down, then sneaking around the scene until the perp makes his move and intervening in time to keep the violence to a minimum. I helps ease my conscience that I'm doing some good out there to counteract all those other times I'm siphoning people's bank accounts and shooting security guards in the head.

I suspect the game is very vRAM intensive, much like GTA IV was, and this is where the 290X's extra GB of vRAM is beating out the 780Ti. It's too bad that even with it chewing up that much vRAM, the game still has the massive pop in issues. The draw distance on the buildings is fantastic, but the cars on the road annoyingly pop in at an alarmingly short distance. This isn't an issue if you're driving like a sane person, but when you're ripping through Chicago at 120 mph, it's a serious problem. I wish they would sacrifice some draw distance on the buildings to free up that memory to draw cars out to a greater distance. Better yet, I wish they would put in sliders to let the player control both those aspects. Hopefully someone finds an ini tweak for just that soon. Edit: If this is a case of the game being very vRAM hungry, this game would mark one of the very few cases where there is a case for the Titan Black over the 780Ti. Probably not $300 price difference worth of case, mind you, but at least, in theory, the Titan Black should significantly outperform the 780Ti in this game. I was lucky enough that the Uplay troubles didn't affect me. I had already downloaded and installed the game by the time the volume of players on at the same time took Uplay down, and Uplay was kind enough to let me play in offline mode without a problem.

I wasn't trying to bash them, Volo, I was pointing out that they haven't played well for an entire game this series, which is fine, since they haven't had to. They're doing enough to win, that's the bottom line. They've played well, even exceptionally well, in spurts. But they've also had stretches in all the games, game 4 included, where they've looked less than stellar. They don't need to bring their A game for an entire 48 minutes to beat Indiana.

Well, we got us a brand new, 3 game series between San Antonio and OKC. With Serge back in the lineup, OKC has its athleticism edge back, and that's really hard for San Antonio to deal with. On the other side of the country, the Eastern Conference Finals, unsurprisingly, are basically over. Miami has yet to play a start to finish great game against the Pacers, but they haven't needed to.

So, only the $1000 model will be octacore? Intel, shafting their customers yet again, because they can. *sigh*

I mostly agree with The Cynical Brit. As far as this game being "The First True Next Gen Experience", that's a load of rubbish. The game certainly doesn't look bad, and it does have some nice effects, but Sleeping Dogs (a game I'm also currently playing so it's very easy for me to compare the two) is decidedly a Last Gen game and it looks as good as Watch Dogs, if not better, not to mention, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better optimized. The optimization, as mentioned by Mr. Biscuit, leaves a lot to be desired. The game runs, but not nearly as well as it should. The menus being clearly designed with a controller in mind doesn't bother me one bit since I play the game with a controller except when I pull my gun out. Thankfully, the game switches from controller and m&kb control seamlessly on the fly and even instantly changes on-screen prompts. More and more games do that these days, as they should. I'll also give the game props for being stable. No real bugs encountered so far. The game is far from groundbreaking, but it is fun. Driving is too arcadey for my taste, the cars all feel like they weigh less than an ounce, but it's okay. Chasing down criminals is fun. Hacking stuff and making stuff explode is fun. Gunplay is fine. It's a fun game.

Got to see them 10 times before Jerry died. Good times.

Iced tea is quite good, but I have to make it myself. Any pre-made brand you buy here in The States is laced with an ungodly amount of sugar. It's sickening and should be considered a crime against humanity.

Watch Dogs is pretty cool. Chicago is a great backdrop, not Hong Kong great, but a big step up from Libery City and lightyears better than Steelport. My biggest complaint right now is about car chases. Maybe I simply haven't found a car fast enough yet, but I suspect the game has rubber banding since it seems it's physically impossible to simply outrun the cops, you have to hack things to stop the pursuit.

Grateful Dead ~ Scarlet Begonias "Once in a while you get shown the light In the strangest of places if you look at it right" Still one of the best lyrics ever written some 30 years later.

Wait... what? Ellen Page is certainly not unattractive, but she's not exactly a bombshell either. Who is it that's beating off to nude Ellen Page pictures?

I am only a messenger, Leferd. Just a simple, humble, unassuming messenger. Is it so wrong of me to spread the word about high quality teas to the masses so that they, even the lowliest of the low, may enjoy the delicious, refined, sophisticated, taste of high quality teas? Is it so wrong of me to try to empower the downtrodden plebians to enjoy the exquisite pleasures of the gentiles? I only wish to empower the masses, Leferd. I only wish to empower the masses. Do not misake me for a prophet or a God, I am but a messenger of good taste.

Grateful Dead ~ Estimated Prophet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl7jV2YvpDA

Salud. Though like Picard, I don't know if I can trust a man who champions blended tea from the New World served in *shudders* tea bags for convenience. This is akin to serving pre-ground coffee or frozen orange juice concentrate. I understand yor reservations, Leferd, and you are right to doubt. I cannot presume you would take my truths... I am sorry, awfully presumptious of me, my teachings, as fact without trying the deliciousness, the glory, NEIGH, THE SPLENDOR of Bigelow Earl Grey tea for thyself. I do not doubt that the old country has teas to not only rival, but maybe even surpass what the fine folks in Fairfield, Connecticut put together for our refined drinking pleasure. However, us colonists can only strive to duplicate the sublime, fragrant, splendiforous bouquet of true Earl Grey flavour known... NEIGH, FAMOUS, throughout the old world. Here is the url. They may be new world, but the attention to quality is nothing short of the highest the old world has to offer.

If you're mixing copious amounts of sugar and/or milk into you tea, OBVIOUSLY your tea is not palatable to stand on its own. A real, refined gentleman drinks their teas either straight or very lightly sweetened. /raises nose to signify superiority

I'm beginning to think that I simply get highly superior Earl Grey than all you poor, unfortunate, downtrodden serfs (I pitty all you underpriveleged, uneducated barbarians). Do yourselves a favor and splurge for Bigelow teas. I, as a member of the glorious, highly priveleged, Connecticut class not only get Bigelow teas fresh (they're in seales individual bags so they'll be fresh anywhere), but get them cheaper than other, far inferior peasant brands. On a serious note, I will eventually move the **** out of Connecticut because I'm tired of going through ****ty winters. Hopefully wherever I move (likely Virginia or Tennessee) I can get Bigelow teas. If not, I'll have my folks send me several cases at a time so that I can drink the best, like the beourgeoisie member that I am. I cannot allow myself to drink inferior teas like the common plebian folk. I want all you, highly inferior, peasants to know, I feel for you and I'm praying for you to get halfway decent teas into your miserable lives, because that's the kind of magnanimous, charitable man I am. You're welcome.

Maybe ya'll been tryin' some bunk-ass counterfeit Earl Grey tea. Ya'll need to try some Bigelow Earl Greay team. Maybe it's just proximity, since Bigelow teas are made right here in the overpriced state of Connecticut, though all the packets are individually sealed, which leads me to believe that Bigelow Earl Grey teas are just higher quality. Regardless, I've tried other brands, and none of them came even close. Bigelow Earl Grey teas have a nice sharp bite that hits you hard then fades away clean, leaving you with the nice smooth, yet pronounced, black tea taste.

Heathen! Burn him! Burn the unbeliever!

Hey folks, I may not be British (I'm an American citizen, but I'm Polish by birth), but I'm a very big tea drinker. I generally tend to gravitate toward two varieties of tea: 1) Earl Grey - A black team spiced with bergamot, an oil derived from orange peels that gives the tea a good bit of bite. 2) Oolong - A rather gentle tea with a very pleasant. but very subtle flavor. If you go to a Chinese restaurant, this is the tea you usually get served there. I generally stick with those tea varieties, what I'm wondering is what tea varieties others drink, and why? I want to expand my tea drinking repertoire, but I don't want to do so blindly.

I share your sentiment. It also causes my inner fanboy to stir... Vishera is still "fast enough", especially outside of games, but fast enough isn't a very compelling selling point sadly, people even prefer Pentiums, i3 and other feature crippled chips thanks to the i7 nimbus. I'm perfectly happy with mine, because in demanding contemporary games it's still my GPU that limits the options, and in older games (which I play most of the time) it does not matter. When programming business applications, the Vishera is somewhere between i5 and i7 territory performance wise, and it behaves more predictable than an i7 (Hyperthreading). So Vishera's performance is not an issue for me personally. While I am a fan of efficient, modern technology, and Vishera's perf / W is not good, when deciding between AMD and Intel, the following arguments are enough for me to prefer the underdog: David vs Goliath, monopoly, business practices and - less and less important at AMD sadly - company principles. An 8 core Excavator on FM2+ I'd prefer over Vishera, it would provide a very solid, modern platform. Oh, and in 20nm pretty please... :/ Regarding the iGPU: The Iris Pro is rare, expensive, and uses brute force over know-how to achieve its performace, made possible thanks to Intel's ever present process node advantage. I'm not convinced it is a real contender to AMD's and nVidia's offerings, seeing Intel's long history of GPU fails. Haswell has the first iGPUs produced by Intel that, apparently, can now play back HD content without sync issues. And maybe, just maybe (haven't tested one yet), they can correctly guess the resolution of displays/projectors connected by VGA now, because Ivy Bridge couldn't: One of the laptops I use at work has an Ivy Bridge i5, and every time I start it up on an external display (because when plug'n'play-ing, chances are 0% of the following happening), it is a gamble whether that slouch will offer the full resolution or even correct screen ratio on the external display. And it can power two monitors at most (internal + 1, or VGA + DP), while my trusty Llano workhorse of the same manufacturer has no problems of driving multiple displays or recognizing a VGA display's properties. So, if Intel's Haswell GPU featureset has indeed reached the two better IHVs, it is a first, and they have years of proving ahead until they can be considered a serious contender in the GPU space, feature- and technologywise. You make good points, but I'm not enough of a AMD fan to buy a clearly inferior "good enough" product in lieu of a clearly superior product. Sure, there are some processes where AMD's 8 physical cores (even if they are 4 modules that share an FPU between each module's 2 cores) beat an i5's 4 cores and even an i7s 4 physical and 8 virtual cores, but those real world situations are few and far between. AMD's cores are so far behind Intel's cores, in terms of IPC, that they need to get into the 5+ GHz regions to compete with Intel's 3.5-4 Ghz cores and that's at 220W (yikes!) vs. 80-90W. The high-end Visheras run so hot that it's REQUIRED to get an aftermarket cooler (water-cooled recommended) for anything more demanding than web browsing. That's just crazy. Intel hes a very clear and decisive fabrication advantage. it's sad, but it's true. In the long run, this may all be a moot point, since I think ARM is going to take x86's lunch money, even on desktops, eventually, and if Intel doesn't do like Nvidia did a while ago and AMD is starting to do now, they will be lefty out in the cold, fabrication advantage or not. ARM is simply a more efficient architecture. Even Intel's massive fabrication advantage can't completely make up ARM's massive performance per watt advantage, particularly in the highly lucrative mobile sector. Eventually, ARM chips will get powerful enough to power desktops as well as mobile devices and servers (in large clusters). This is going to happen sooner than people think. I know x86 has the advantage of supporting legacy stuff that may be too much trouble to port to ARM, but that will eventually disappear, especially if Windows ceases to be the dominant platform (and this is already happening in servers).

Eh, I can't (and won't) blame them for trying to get out of that political mess. I can (and will) blame them for trying to rip off their customers though. Especially since the former is only speculation. So far nothing I've heard from a purely gaming perspective properly justifies these "Redux" versions. Here's to hoping they clarify things a bit, preferably soon before the backlash reaches truly epic proportions. As far as I'm concerned, and this goes for almost all situations, the customer is on his or her own and should make an informed purchase (or lack of). If they don't, and impulse buy, then shame on them. If you, as a customer, don't do research before you buy, then I have no compassion for you whatsoever. Deal with it. (note: I'm using 'you' as directed toward potential uninformed customer, not as an attack at marelooke him/herself) Like I wrote before, these games, which are available separately, or as a packge, don't make much sense for many people. If you already own Last Light on PC there is really no reason to buy this Redux version. Whatever AI improvements they make are likely minor. If you already own 2033, then it's a judgement call. Is the imprevement in engine and graphics, as well as whatever minor AI improvements and Linux version, worth it to you? For someone like me, who owns neither game, it's very much worth it. That said, it would be cool if Deep Silver offered a discount to people who own one or both of the games already.