Topic: Laptop and PC --OT--

Talk about laptop and PC gaming here. Do you have a decent gaming rig? What does it consist of? What games and mods do you like to play on your laptop and PC?

i am interested in the following PC Games: American McGee's Alice, Alice: Madness Returns, the Dark Souls games obviously, and the new upcoming Odin: Valhalla Rising, very interested in that one. Has anyone else played or heard about these games?

Chill out, kick back and relax and talk about Laptop & PC gaming.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic hey cool topic! I'm new to PC gaming - or more accurately, I'm a long absentee PC gamer. In the late 90's it was my predmominant gaming platform, including massive LAN parties with friends on things like Quake plys countless hours on Star Wars flight sims, Tomb Raider and Wing Commander games.

The cost of PC gaming stopped that as I went to university and been a console gamer ever since. However, this past year, largely as part of Covid and isolation, I really wanted a project to get into so I build my own low to medium spec'd PC for gaming. I am still not into specs too much in terms of comparisons but running an Ryzen 5 300 CPu and an RTX 2060. I only have an HD gaming monitor so not going for massive resolutions or anything, mainly for smooth running. I can play most last gen releases at high or ultra on it - some of the newer ray tracing needs some configuring.

From a games perspective, there were a few games that I wanted on PC I couldn't get on console - such as Disco Elysium which I just wanted to play as soon as. Other than that, for some indie and third party games, they are just a bit cheaper on PC and I have gamepass so I get a few more games.

Yeah, I’ve been a PC gamer for as long as I’ve been a console gamer, we always had one in the house. I got my laptop a couple of years ago for uni and needed a beefy one anyway for the work I was doing so thought I might as well plump for one that would last without looking like a UFO. It’s got a GTX 1060, 16GB RAM and an i7-7700HQ that I usually overclock. Its a bit of a monster to be honest, I can get a smooth 60 in Resident Evil 2 on Ultra settings with some boosted lighting effects, I’m always going to be playing in 1080p so I can make the most of postprocessing. I do sometimes plug it into my TV for 4K access though, I played Assassin’s Creed Rogue through it. I have a ridiculous Steam profile with over 300 games I’ve acquired over the years so I do spend a lot of time on it. I dabble quite a bit in emulation as well - all my own ripped ROMs - and I’ve recently discovered RetroAchievements which is seriously cool. Dunno if @RogerRoger ever does much emulation through RetroArch but achievements for games on the PS1, N64 and PS2 is really cool!

I have an enthusiast tier PC that includes an RTX 3090 and have friends who have high end gaming laptops and I have my utmost satisfaction with all of them. That said, I still like what the 9th gen consoles have got to offer especially with PlayStation 5 and its exclusives.

For me other than vastly upgraded visuals and performance, I simply enjoy the free online multiplayer and the freedom to use any input devices you want, and the openly competitive hardware and software ecosystem. Recently unfortunately there have been numerous downsides to PC gaming which include stuff like hardware pricing hikes - especially the GPUs, and more paid for restrictions on game availabilities on competing storefronts, though these are still far outweighed by the advantages offered by PC gaming, especially in the high-enthusiast tier, and I also like making use of my PC for productive and creative usage.

Right now however I still look forward to laying my hands on a PS5, not just for the exclusives but also to get a DualSense controller or two to game on my PC with. They'll be a match made in heaven. Games wise if you have a good gaming PC you should definitely check out the strategy games as well as tactical RPGs with top-down views, which are frankly undergoing a bit of renaissance right now.

@SweetSummerShunv Yep, consoles miss out on games like Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings III. I couldn’t do without a PC as I play too many exclusives.

@nessisonett Looking forward to Odin: Valhalla Rising? Whilst we're on the topic of PC exclusives.

@Rudy_Manchego Thanks, I'm planning on getting Disco Elysium at some point myself, whether it be on PC or on a console.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Not particularly, never been big on Black Desert Online and I only really have enough time to sink into one MMORPG which is Final Fantasy XIV.

@RogerRoger I only noticed support was inbuilt in RetroArch after my uncle handed me down some of his old Playstation games and I spent an afternoon ripping them onto my PC! I just asked for Medal of Honor as I knew he had the first two but he dropped off some more games like King’s Field, Gran Turismo 2, Soul Blade and a couple of Legacy of Kain games. It was really quite cool seeing a trophy pop in Medal of Honor after the first level, it’s such a satisfying feeling!

I just got Crusaders Kings 3: Royal Edition. I only paid 35$ too. It's good so far, if not overwhelming as effectively being my first CK game. There's so much to it, but I think I'll enjoy it a lot. I love the medieval ages and it total lack of morality and how terrible you are most likely going to be interests me. Such chaos. I love strategy games where you feel like a villain and it isn't necessarily cartoony.

@Jaz007 Hope you enjoy it, I’ve been a massive fan of Paradox’s grand strategy games since Europa Universalis III. Crusader Kings II was fantastic, especially the Game of Thrones mod, so I really should give more time to CK III. I’ve sunk hundreds and hundreds of hours into Europa Universalis IV but only conquered the world once. These games are more about the individual stories in each file than any sort of grand plan as inevitably everything will go wrong.

@nessisonett Have any tips for a beginner at the game?

@Jaz007 Make friends with a big friendly giant, somebody strong enough to take down your enemies but absolutely make sure they won’t border you in the foreseeable future. Border friction is where alliances die. Otherwise, just try to have fun. Even when things go wrong, it’s trying to struggle against that which is the fun part. Success comes in waves. My favourite tactic though when there’s a really annoying rival is to assassinate them and then sow discontent among their vassals when the new leader is installed.

Total War Rome is being remastered coming out next month. Should be brilliant!

Oh yes, it would be nice to look at her

I'm replacing the HDD in my girlfriend's laptop with an SSD... Last laptop I did this to just had an easily accessible HDD bay - it was like 2 screws and done...
Turns out in this one I'll have to completely remove an USB port and the headphone jack first. WTF Asus

Got my first ever gaming capable laptop a few months ago and have been enjoying it quite a bit.

Due to my schedule I don't get to use my PS4 as much as I'd like (same would apply if I got a PS5eries X) & while I love my Switch it's not the best way to play 3rd party titles, so I figured this would be a good solution & so far it has been. I'm also quite surprised how easy it has been to set up & get going, at least with Steam.

Currently playing Tales of Arise (1080p, Max settings) and it's been great so far!

I have an Alienware m17 r3 which I just love, plays everything great. I am currently playing Memento Mori on it and it plays great at maximum settings. So happy.

Decided to buy the Destroy All Humans! remake while it's on sale.

It's a game I've been interested in ever since it's original release though I never got around to getting it until now, and I figured for $10 it was worth getting for a rainy day/lull in releases.

Meanwhile, in Tales of Arise I've just arrived at the obligatory section where you lose access to your main healer for a bit, so that should be fun, lol.

Well, that sucks. I just got a mail about the Steam sale having started now and I remembered that there are a few games on there that aren't on consoles that I want to get, which are: Trails in the Sky, Half-Life 1 and The Witcher 1. All of which are on sale for crazy low prices on Steam right now. So I looked up Trails in the Sky first and apparently the game can only be played on Windows computers and I only have a MacBook. Then I looked up Half-Life 1 and apparently the game doesn't even have Xbox controller support on MacOS without an external program (which I don't want to bother with) and I can't play games with the keyboard and trackpad on my laptop, that would be too difficult. Finally, I looked up The Witcher 1 and that game isn't even supported by recent MacOS for some reason. So basically, all three games that I've been really wanting to get on Steam aren't even accessible on my Mac, lol.

I was kinda hopeful about being able to play them since I never play games on computers but seeing as how these are decade old games, I thought they would run well on my MacBook Pro. Not to mention that these are all games that I would've loved to play first because I have the sequels on consoles. Oh well.