OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread

[VooDoo7]

Lesson learned. (I did get some better cards, but nothing approaching Giannis.)

I see 2K still has horrible player models.

[REDDzone]

I have decided to replay BOTW, and holy heck the 2nd time is so much easier when you do the "These things make the game easier" things first.

Also, I have come to accept that I am old and will absolutely never be good at combat in this game, so my only solution is craptons of +hearts food, shock arrows and swearing.

Is there a specific list or video for the "these things make the game easier" that you are referring to above?

[Ron Swanson]

Back on my **** and started a new Metal Gear Solid 5 playthrough after getting bored with Outer Worlds and GoW. Still convinced that it might be the greatest open world/Business Sim hybrid game ever...

[KidA24]

I have decided to replay BOTW, and holy heck the 2nd time is so much easier when you do the "These things make the game easier" things first.

Also, I have come to accept that I am old and will absolutely never be good at combat in this game, so my only solution is craptons of +hearts food, shock arrows and swearing.

Is there a specific list or video for the "these things make the game easier" that you are referring to above?

The two big ones for me were 1) Getting Revali's gale right away and 2) Always having a ready supply of Hearty Durians to cook up and give me lots of bonus hearts.

[ReasonablySober]

I have decided to replay BOTW, and holy heck the 2nd time is so much easier when you do the "These things make the game easier" things first.

Also, I have come to accept that I am old and will absolutely never be good at combat in this game, so my only solution is craptons of +hearts food, shock arrows and swearing.

Is there a specific list or video for the "these things make the game easier" that you are referring to above?

The two big ones for me were 1) Getting Revali's gale right away and 2) Always having a ready supply of Hearty Durians to cook up and give me lots of bonus hearts.

Getting the Master Sword right away is a good one too.

Watch on YouTube

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

Interesting.

[Sauce Boss]

Read on Twitter

Interesting.

I just find it humorous that they were part of MS, broke off for independence, now are owned by Sony.

[MikeIsGood]

Possibly even moreso than MS, who seems to have done good job recently in this regard, Sony gives their owned studios basically full autonomy to continue to operate how they did before, and even (or finally?) let them move into PC releases, too. With how big of a install Bungie already has on Xbox, I'm going to be interested to see if "...wherever they choose to play" continues to include Xbox...or if that means "...wherever they choose to play, as long as it isn't Xbox."

But again, in the larger landscape, I don't like the console makers gobbling up all of the independent studios - especially the AAA ones.

[Ryan5UW]

Possibly even moreso than MS, who seems to have done good job recently in this regard, Sony gives their owned studios basically full autonomy to continue to operate how they did before, and even (or finally?) let them move into PC releases, too. With how big of a install Bungie already has on Xbox, I'm going to be interested to see if "...wherever they choose to play" continues to include Xbox...or if that means "...wherever they choose to play, as long as it isn't Xbox."

But again, in the larger landscape, I don't like the console makers gobbling up all of the independent studios - especially the AAA ones.

Maybe this will be Sony saying you can keep Halo on Xbox if you let us keep COD on PlayStation?

ETA: I definitely agree with you on the last part about console makers buying up studios.

[FrieAaron]

Read on Twitter

Interesting.

I just find it humorous that they were part of MS, broke off for independence, now are owned by Sony.

Destiny at least was also part of ActiBlizz for about a year. But now they're like their own nameless studio?

[MikeIsGood]

Speaking of Sony studios producing games for other systems, quite timely news - The Show is coming to Nintendo Switch this year, after making its Xbox debut last year. Now, I imagine MLB could have had something to say about this given the Switch install base, but still interesting.

It'll probably be terrible like all Switch sports titles are, but hey, it's something.

Possibly even moreso than MS, who seems to have done good job recently in this regard, Sony gives their owned studios basically full autonomy to continue to operate how they did before, and even (or finally?) let them move into PC releases, too. With how big of a install Bungie already has on Xbox, I'm going to be interested to see if "...wherever they choose to play" continues to include Xbox...or if that means "...wherever they choose to play, as long as it isn't Xbox."

But again, in the larger landscape, I don't like the console makers gobbling up all of the independent studios - especially the AAA ones.

Maybe this will be Sony saying you can keep Halo on Xbox if you let us keep COD on PlayStation?

ETA: I definitely agree with you on the last part about console makers buying up studios.

There definitely may be something nefarious here, but probably not about Halo. When Bungie went independent, they gave up the rights to Halo. Microsoft owns it and formed a new MS-owned developer.

[Ryan5UW]

Speaking of Sony studios producing games for other systems, quite timely news - The Show is coming to Nintendo Switch this year, after making its Xbox debut last year. Now, I imagine MLB could have had something to say about this given the Switch install base, but still interesting.

It'll probably be terrible like all Switch sports titles are, but hey, it's something.

Possibly even moreso than MS, who seems to have done good job recently in this regard, Sony gives their owned studios basically full autonomy to continue to operate how they did before, and even (or finally?) let them move into PC releases, too. With how big of a install Bungie already has on Xbox, I'm going to be interested to see if "...wherever they choose to play" continues to include Xbox...or if that means "...wherever they choose to play, as long as it isn't Xbox."

But again, in the larger landscape, I don't like the console makers gobbling up all of the independent studios - especially the AAA ones.

Maybe this will be Sony saying you can keep Halo on Xbox if you let us keep COD on PlayStation?

ETA: I definitely agree with you on the last part about console makers buying up studios.

There definitely may be something nefarious here, but probably not about Halo. When Bungie went independent, they gave up the rights to Halo. Microsoft owns it and formed a new MS-owned developer.

Ahh, my bad… I forgot about that.

[stellation]

Are there any home automation boffins here?

My father has a home cinema/music setup with a bunch of different components (projector/amp/imbedded speakers in the room with the projector as well as through the house/cable tv box/blu-ray/radio/turntable/cdplayer) with components that are, I'd guess, about 15 years old. He's an avid movie and music buff, it was his big pet project/early retirement splurge and his pride and joy. There's a handful of different components involved in just turning it on to watch something/listen to something, and they all have to be done in a certain order. They all had their own remotes (I assume RFID?), but at some point he ended up with a funky thing that looked like a palm pilot and controlled them all with had some very basic automation capability (e.g. watch dvd turned on a few components). That remote has given up the ghost now.

I've not touched any home automation stuff at all, but confident I can do it (just not sure where to start/if it's worth looking at). Does anyone know if you can setup some of the modern stuff to control older devices through older technology? I'm curious if I'd be able to setup something for him that then lets him control via Alexa/whatever that allows a command to correspond to somehow firing off a handful of RFID triggers to different things.

[Nightfall]

Are there any home automation boffins here?

My father has a home cinema/music setup with a bunch of different components (projector/amp/imbedded speakers in the room with the projector as well as through the house/cable tv box/blu-ray/radio/turntable/cdplayer) with components that are, I'd guess, about 15 years old. He's an avid movie and music buff, it was his big pet project/early retirement splurge and his pride and joy. There's a handful of different components involved in just turning it on to watch something/listen to something, and they all have to be done in a certain order. They all had their own remotes (I assume RFID?), but at some point he ended up with a funky thing that looked like a palm pilot and controlled them all with had some very basic automation capability (e.g. watch dvd turned on a few components). That remote has given up the ghost now.

I've not touched any home automation stuff at all, but confident I can do it (just not sure where to start/if it's worth looking at). Does anyone know if you can setup some of the modern stuff to control older devices through older technology? I'm curious if I'd be able to setup something for him that then lets him control via Alexa/whatever that allows a command to correspond to somehow firing off a handful of RFID triggers to different things.

Maybe something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/BroadLink-Universal-Control-Temperature-Humidity/dp/B08LKWZF8X

[crkone]

Are there any home automation boffins here?

My father has a home cinema/music setup with a bunch of different components (projector/amp/imbedded speakers in the room with the projector as well as through the house/cable tv box/blu-ray/radio/turntable/cdplayer) with components that are, I'd guess, about 15 years old. He's an avid movie and music buff, it was his big pet project/early retirement splurge and his pride and joy. There's a handful of different components involved in just turning it on to watch something/listen to something, and they all have to be done in a certain order. They all had their own remotes (I assume RFID?), but at some point he ended up with a funky thing that looked like a palm pilot and controlled them all with had some very basic automation capability (e.g. watch dvd turned on a few components). That remote has given up the ghost now.

I've not touched any home automation stuff at all, but confident I can do it (just not sure where to start/if it's worth looking at). Does anyone know if you can setup some of the modern stuff to control older devices through older technology? I'm curious if I'd be able to setup something for him that then lets him control via Alexa/whatever that allows a command to correspond to somehow firing off a handful of RFID triggers to different things.

Maybe something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/BroadLink-Universal-Control-Temperature-Humidity/dp/B08LKWZF8X

Also these guys:

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/harmony.html

[jschligs]

I'll second the Harmony products, and you pay for what you get. I set up a cheap one (Harmony 665) in my basement and it worked, but was just clunky and not that great. I ended up springing for the 950 and it made a world of difference.

[MikeIsGood]

Reinstalled Thronebreaker (Gwent spin-off) to see what I thought.

Boring as all hell. The actual cards are great - actually prefer the refinement of rules here compared to Gwent in actual Witcher 3 - but the slog to get to them is terribly slow. I have no idea how this game got such glowing reviews. You wander around a map to find the resource gathering points (walk up to a tree that's glowing and right click it) and any 'important decisions' (should I loot this grave to get 100 gold, or preserve to not lose troop morale). You just do that on the way to the next card battle. That's it. That's the game. Supposedly the story is very well written, but it's basically a very slow visual novel. There are pages and pages of dialogue which they read to you in Old English about 10 words per minute.

I think I ended up stopping at the same spot I did two years ago, which is about 2 hours into the game. Maybe it opens up, but hell if I'd ever want to get there.

[Ron Swanson]

I thought Gwent was boring as hell and only did it to get some of the quest items. Don't understand why people loved it so much. Like, hey there's this massive open world with magic, loot, tons of fun side quests, and cool locations. But you know what I really want to do? TRADING CARDS...

[MikeIsGood]

Some of this **** is wild.

Watch on YouTube

They're simulating the skies at different locations, so that stars, planet placement, coloring based on atmospheric composure, based on if you're racing in California vs. Japan and reflecting real world conditions.

I haven't enjoyed/played GT since GT2 - maybe 3 - and this isn't on my radar for launch, but maybe down the line. I prefer Horizon's arcade take on racing, but there was something appealing to me about how GT presented itself. It'd be a fun nostalgic trip to play Deep Forest in 2022 in 4k.

EDIT: GT3

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

I rarely preorder anything but since this is a digital code for a game I'm 100% going to be all over, saving $10 was a no brainer.