Malik
(5/29/12)
My PC is now fully
upgraded and working perfectly. When I last posted, I was waiting on
my Radeon 7970. Once it had shown up, I then had to wait on getting
a new case. I thought the GeForce 8800 GTS was a big card. I was
wrong. The 7970 is a card that no one seriously stopped to think
about the simple logistics of "how does this fit into a case?"
After finishing all of
these upgrades, I ended up with a bunch of extra parts (my old
motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, memory, power supply, video card, and
case). These, in the spirit of being nice, are now going to my
parents. My mother has a PC from the same general generation as my
old PC, but on the low end while my PC was more of one I always made
sure was somewhat future proof. I mean it took five years before I
went with an upgrade. Five years of age on a PC and it still got me
through Saints Row The Third, Skyrim, and Arkham City (although with
some audio stuttering on Arkham City). So, I originally brought over
a box of part for my mother's future PC. That was before I was
forced into getting a new case due to the Radeon 7970 being a huge
freakin' beast of a card (an inch longer than the GeForce 8800 GTS).
Now, I will be the one to put together her new PC of my old parts
(in exchange for a meal of some good food) and I can't help but feel
like an idiot. I mean the only parts of my old PC I kept were my DVD
burner and my hard drives...which means I have a box of PC
components to put together into the same damned case they started
in.
Anyway, with my PC in
full working order now, I obviously tried a few things right off the
bat to see how good the experience would be. I loaded Skyrim and
watched as it decided to automatically adjust my video settings...to
ultra. I also loaded up Arkham City and change the video setting to
extreme (everything on max setting except for PhysX) and ran the
stress test to see an average of ~130 FPS and a minimum of ~65 FPS.
So, after taking advantage of seeing what my new hardware can do, I
did the natural thing and loaded up game to actually play. What game
do I pick? A high end game? Something to take advantage of my new
PC?
I spent the weekend
playing old Double Fine games starting with Costume Quest, which
definitely doesn't need a high end PC to run. After beating Costume
Quest and Grubbins on Ice (the epilogue), I then loaded up
Psychonauts. Yes, I am on a Double Fine kick and I'm playing games
that definitely cannot take advantage of the hardware...and I'm good
with it.
Psychonauts, in
particular, is a game I've always meant to play. It was critically
acclaimed and I wanted to see why for a long time. I would have
considered getting it on a console at some time, but the price never
came down to the levels that such an old game should have been at.
So, a year and a half ago, I got it for cheap during a Steam sale. I
had tried it once, before I had a wired 360 controller on my PC, and
hated the experience of playing a platformer with keyboard and
mouse. It just wasn't fun. Well, having had a 360 controller on my
PC for the last half year, it seemed like the right time to bring
Psychonauts back out of hiding.
In brief, this is a game
I feel like a fool for having ignored for so long. Playing
Psychonauts is a lot like when I first played Beyond Good and Evil
(another game I ignored for too long before finally playing it); I
feel like a fool for missing what was right in front of me, but I
also feel euphoric for playing something so damned fun and good.
I'm sure after I finish
Psychonauts I'll get around to something that can really put my PC
to work. Maybe I'll get back to Arkham City (without the annoying
audio stuttering of a slightly too weak PC). For now, at least I'm
just having fun.
Malik |