It's better than randomly refreshing store pages on your own, and puts the average joe on more even footing with scalpers who have their own bots. Still takes some luck and frantic precision placing your order when the time comes, but watching a tracker like this or something alerting through Discord/Twitter/etc is necessary if you don't want to wait weeks or months in a back-order queue. A garden variety stock checker like NowInStock or Zoolert is just way too slow, they don't even detect these little blips of availability that only last a few minutes.

This year they became the new most popular mobile shooter with 300M+ downloads and they have 85M+ registered users for Warzone on consoles and PC... That's in addition to their annual full-price AAA releases, which aren't selling quite so well as they used to, but now have microtransactions and season passes and all that stuff. If anything, $3 billion is lower than I would have expected, but the franchise is definitely on the rise again.

WaltC wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 16:38:
What I read was a tad different...the data cap only affects people in the Northeast--not the whole country--and it's way more than 1 tb...;) Comcast is always doing stuff like this--or else people who hate Comcast are routinely spinning fake news about Comcrastic data caps--but the last cap Comcast had for a temporary period in limited areas was 250GB a month. People didn't like it, so Comcast dropped it. If people complain as they are sure to do, Comcast will drop this one, too. That is pretty much guaranteed. It's a pity, but "news" today isn't what it used to be--it's corrupted by political agendas and personal wish lists or gripes. Anyway, I'm on Xfinity--no caps, 12MB/s up and down (depending on the server, of course.) Also, the rationale Comcast *reportedly* uses to justify this is that "Only 5% of our customers go over 250GBs a month"--which, if true, would mean there's no sense in establishing a cap at all, even at 250GBs, as 95% of Comcast's customers would never hit the cap! Look for this--if there's any truth to it--to fail as well, imo. But I'm talking about wired landline cable-modem service (I'm on wired EWAN off of fiber-direct)--but with mobile phones the rip off on Internet broadband is nationwide--all the carriers charge too much and many of those routinely use caps and always have. That's why I use my computers at home and I carry a dumb-phone (phone calls/txt mssg only)...;) Save a large sum every month.

Reading comprehension not being what it used to be is even more of a pity, if you ask me... The latest news is that caps are coming to a dozen northeastern states because everywhere else has already had them for years. As of the beginning of 2020, Comcast's ENTIRE service area (across 39 states in total) will be enforcing a cap of 1.2TB on ALL residential internet customers who don't pay extra for an unlimited plan. So you're either in a location that doesn't yet have a cap but soon will, or you're not on a standard residential plan (100Mbit upload is not standard in my area, but I don't know how other places differ on that). Or maybe you do have a cap and just aren't aware, which wouldn't surprise me.

When I heard they were remastering Sam & Max, I assumed it was the original... Bah.

Yeah, a standalone campaign on Steam was probably too much to hope for. I'm guessing they have an in-game purchase to unlock the full version from here.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 1, 2020, 15:04:

jacobvandy wrote on Dec 1, 2020, 14:44:
If what you have now still meets your needs, that's great, but it's no reason to misrepresent the facts. (These are all reference design boards, 3rd party products will differ in cooling).

I underlined the relevant portion for you. I currently have Jedi Fallen Order running on a different screen (1080p, everything maxed). According to AMD's own Radeon Performance Metrics, my card is currently sucking down 134 watts and, with my headphones currently off, I cannot hear the card at all and it is to my immediate left at ear level, and current temperature is listed at 42C. That's all on a straight up bone stock ASRock Challenger 5700XT in a Corsair Carbide 540 chassis. That case has zero noise dampening in it whatsoever.

I cannot misrepresent facts that I am pulling from measurements I can do on my own system right this very second. Well, I could, but that would be unethical.

Based upon those metrics, I see little need to "upgrade" to a card that is hotter, louder, and thirstier as presented in data from both Nvidia and AMD themselves.

Dude, like I said, I'm glad you're happy with the 5700 and how it works for you. Based on what you're saying, I agree you don't need the upgrade, but your comparison is completely flawed. Drawing only 134 watts indicates that GPU is sitting nearly half idle, meaning the frame rate is very conservatively capped and/or your CPU is the limiting factor in that game at those settings. Playing a game with a similarly low graphics load on one of the new cards would result in similar or even lower power draw and temps, that's just the reality of an apples-to-apples comparison between the old silicon and the new (namely, performance per watt).

This comment was edited on Dec 1, 2020, 15:51.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 1, 2020, 13:46:
My 5700XT sips power in comparison to both vendors' current cards and runs much cooler.Moreover, at 1080p@144Hz, there's not a significant performance gain to be had.

Rated TDP:
5700 XT - 225W
6700 XT - 200W (rumored/unreleased)
6800 - 250W
3070 - 220W
3060 Ti - 200W

TechPowerUp's relative Performance Per Watt @ 1080p:
3060 Ti - 100%
6800 - 100%
3070 - 94%
5700 XT - 76%

TUP's measured temps under load:
6800 - 70 C
3060 Ti - 73 C
3070 - 74 C
5700 XT - 92 C

TUP's measured fan noise under load:
3070 - 30 dBA
3060 Ti - 30 dBA
6800 - 34 dBA
5700 XT - 43 dBA

If what you have now still meets your needs, that's great, but it's no reason to misrepresent the facts. (These are all reference design boards, 3rd party products will differ in cooling).

This comment was edited on Dec 1, 2020, 15:13.

Cutter wrote on Dec 1, 2020, 13:26:
So the 6800 is $100 more and the 6800 XT $200 more and they crush this thing. It would be a great card at $200US but $400US is effing ridiculous. Once again I know why I don't buy Nvidia.

You're mixing up USD and CAD prices or something, 'cause the 6800 is $580, not $500.

eRe4s3r wrote on Nov 30, 2020, 21:24:
I watched the trailer and.. already played something better (Genshin) pass....

Genshin is pretty good for the price (free) and makes a great impression with its expanded (but still rather limited) facsimile of Breath of the Wild's elemental interactions, but it quickly becomes very grindy and generally suffers from crowding the otherwise pleasant landscape with too many minor, meaningless encounters. They don't really give you much time to just walk around and enjoy the view, probably out of fear that those playing on mobile devices will get bored during very short sessions. Then factor in the floaty movement systems and imprecise combat necessitated by the lag of a persistent online connection, as well as a heaping helping of the usual F2P trappings like the slowly-regenerating energy pool spent on claiming repeatable activity rewards and abysmal gacha rates... I don't think I'll be sticking with it to the 'end' (a moving target with their admittedly impressive plan of continuous updates), despite the few weeks of fun diversion it provided me.

It was obvious from the very first reveal trailer that Immortals was also trying to be BOTW, but from what I've read in some of these reviews so far, it seems like even the mighty Ubi open world machine has failed in capturing what made that game so special. Just fooling around in Zelda's limited tutorial area (which I've done again recently) is more dynamic and satisfying at a basic gameplay level than what anyone else has been putting out since then. There is so much attention to detail put into the wildlife, the cooking system, the physics, and the environment, which benefits greatly from Nintendo's legendary level design prowess... If some random indie dev had put together a game that was JUST the Great Plateau and sold it for like $10, it would be universally lauded and sell millions. Shit, man, BOTW 2 can't get here fast enough.

NVIDIA continuing their trend of record revenues in the last quarter indicate people have been buying plenty... Ampere raised their total sales 22% over the already COVID-boosted previous quarter, putting them 57% higher than the same period last year (gaming segment specifically is up 37%). If that's the result of merely pretending to launch new products, then why would any company bother actually doing anything?

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 28, 2020, 16:45:

jacobvandy wrote on Nov 28, 2020, 16:37:

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 28, 2020, 15:00:
Yeah, she is trying to be engaging and failing.

Despite their fearsome reputation, black holes can be safely manipulated with gravity and magnetism, and it might even be possible to draw power from them, though doing so won’t be practical any time soon.

I beg your pardon? And how exactly do you propose to "manipulate" gravity? You forgot to mention how we can build worm hole tunnels to allow nearly instantaneous interstellar travel...

'Gravity' is not the subject of that verb in that sentence. And you're overthinking it if your mind jumps to a hand-held device straight out of video games... Place any significant mass precisely where you want it in space and its force of gravity will act on surrounding objects. Just as the moon's gravity manipulates our oceans.

It isn't? You'll need to explain why, I mean it seems straight forward to me. And whatever she meant, interstellar travel via worm holes is certainly no more radical than suggesting we are going to use black holes for power generation...

Really? Okay. The "with gravity and magnetism" part is extra information, it can be removed without changing the meaning of the statement, which is "black holes can be safely manipulated." So black holes are the subject, for that verb as well as every other part of that rather large sentence (referred to with their and them).

Using gravity to affect something doesn't mean you're "manipulating gravity" in the colloquial sense, to directly control or change that force and how it functions. Rather, you'd be harnessing it (figuratively) and employing it to do work for you, like with hydro-electric dams or satellites. Or even pre-historic man realizing his spear/arrow hits a little harder when it's moving downward. They don't go into details on how exactly they would go about manipulating the black hole -- this article is just an advertisement for a book and they don't want to spoil much -- but it's not hard to imagine some possibilities. Yeah, of course we'd have to reach one first, but theory is what a physicist does for a living.

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 28, 2020, 15:00:
Yeah, she is trying to be engaging and failing.

Despite their fearsome reputation, black holes can be safely manipulated with gravity and magnetism, and it might even be possible to draw power from them, though doing so won’t be practical any time soon.

I beg your pardon? And how exactly do you propose to "manipulate" gravity? You forgot to mention how we can build worm hole tunnels to allow nearly instantaneous interstellar travel...

'Gravity' is not the subject of that verb in that sentence. And you're overthinking it if your mind jumps to a hand-held device straight out of video games... Place any significant mass precisely where you want it in space and its force of gravity will act on surrounding objects. Just as the moon's gravity manipulates our oceans.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 23:58:

jacobvandy wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 21:06:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 14:34:
On the plus side, GoG has avoided the blatant Steam/Publisher scam/issue/tactic of raising the prices on most games, then discounting them for a total price still higher than previous sales... very annoying.

I believe this is against Steam's ToS and can get your game banned from the platform, plus they have restrictions in place that prevent changing the regular price within X number of days of a sale event you intend to participate in specifically to prevent the practice. If there is actual proof of such a thing occurring, and this is not just an expression of frustration with the quality of deals currently on offer, it should be reported.

?? I am not sure we're talking about the same thing? I don't believe it's illegal to have various sales for a game, current price for Rage 2, which I keep debating buying, is $17.99 on Steam, but it's been as low as $11.99 on Steam, according to Is There Any Deal. I put off buying it back then for whatever reason, but I kept it in my Wishlist, which made me think about it in the first place.

To be fair, checking my wishlist and comparing to ITAD.com, most games on Steam do not seem like they have gone through this, Rage 2 definitely has though.

So you're annoyed a game was 80% off before but is now only 70% off? That's fair, but yeah, that's not a scam. As I quoted from your earlier post, you claimed to be seeing blatant examples of games having their price raised before the discount is applied, which is VERY different. The regular price for RAGE 2 has always been $60.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 14:34:
On the plus side, GoG has avoided the blatant Steam/Publisher scam/issue/tactic of raising the prices on most games, then discounting them for a total price still higher than previous sales... very annoying.

I believe this is against Steam's ToS and can get your game banned from the platform, plus they have restrictions in place that prevent changing the regular price within X number of days of a sale event you intend to participate in specifically to prevent the practice. If there is actual proof of such a thing occurring, and this is not just an expression of frustration with the quality of deals currently on offer, it should be reported.

Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully all are enjoying the day, even if likely in a non-traditional way.

Noice.

Fion wrote on Nov 26, 2020, 11:53:
On a different subject:

How on earth is Hades not in the Outstanding Visual Style category of the steam awards?

There are no set nominees for each category, it just shows you a somewhat random list of suggestions based on what you've played.

Razumen wrote on Nov 25, 2020, 22:29:
It's literally only ONE MORE step than before, damn, people are really trying hard lately to be annoyed by things.

Yeah, despite the keyword bait, the entire article is summed up as "I'm used to the old way, why did they change it? Now I have to get used to the new way..." If it's that much of a hassle, get up off your ass and push the button on the system itself.

Icewind wrote on Nov 24, 2020, 16:11:

eRe4s3r wrote on Nov 24, 2020, 15:53:

Saboth wrote on Nov 24, 2020, 15:49:
But wait! There's more! If you sign up today, we'll not only give you 1,000 V-Bucks, we'll give you 500 Digio-Dollars. In addition, your avatar can change their eye color, and add a glowing effect to their big toe (right toe only).

Why makes games when you can make people buy no game whatsoever at twice the cost of 1 game. It's a GREAT DEAL.

There are 20-something gamers who would laugh at us for saying this and they've accepted these kinds of schemes as not only normal, but preferential to our old way of going to the store, buying a box with a disc in it, and installing it.

Kids today. Really.

The kids think it's normal, but they didn't make this reality. They don't have the bank accounts or credit limits to become part of the 1% of whales that wholly support all free to play games by individually spending thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands... No, those are your old-school gamer peers, specifically the small segment lucky enough in life to end up with more money than sense. Don't tell me you think it's the kids throwing hundreds of millions at Chris Roberts, as well?

HorrorScope wrote on Nov 24, 2020, 12:32:
"The claim that Rune 2 was a 'threat to Skyrim franchise'"

Whoever said/wrote that should look into being a comedic writer.

Right? Like a bunch of small-time schmucks, they can't even fathom that the Norse-inspired snowy region is just one small part of the overall Elder Scrolls setting. "Skyrim sold tens of millions of copies, that's a mega franchise you'll be milking forever!" No, dummy, it's one game and they're moving on, there's not going to be a Skyrim 2. Go cry in shell company indie publisher with one mostly public domain IP.