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Waiting to hear how the service holds up for the next month or two before I decide. I don't subscribe to PS+ or Xbox Live Gold but this is cheaper so I could be swayed to subscribe.

@BLUEVOODU - This would probably be better in the retro gaming section.

Oh yeah, forgot about Zorin. I remember you telling me about it.

Zorin also is based on Ubuntu with a Windows friendly UI.

[PlayStation Classic]

Sony is jumping on the classic console release bandwagon and is releasing the PlayStation Classic. For $99.99, you get a miniaturized PS1 with 20 games built in. It's available for pre-order at Best Buy, GameStop and Wal-mart. However, looks like Best Buy is out of pre-orders as of this post. I had to get it from Wal-mart.com.

Here is some quick info -

Today, we are excited to announce that we are bringing back the original PlayStation experience in a new miniaturized version – PlayStation Classic! The console will come pre-loaded with 20 classic titles, including fan-favorites such as Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, and Wild Arms.

Available for pre-order at select retailers across the US and CAN, each unit will also come with an HDMI cable to connect to their TV, a USB cable, and two controllers for local multiplayer within compatible titles. PlayStation Classic will be available for $99.99 USD (MSRP) / $129.99 CAN (MSRP) on December 3, 2018 – a historic date for all of us at PlayStation.

@CreepinDeth In this particular case, I was supposed to get the game 2 days ahead... not 1.  The Croft Steelbook Edition was launched 9-12-18 and the regular edition was launched 9-14-18.  You paid extra and received the game 2 days early.

Ah, that makes sense. I've never heard of that before where a special edition got released first.

I bought it to get it 2 days early from the normal September 14th Launch date.   I have prime 2 day shipping and ordered it early on the 10th.  I received the game on the 13th - 1st world problems.

They actually shipped it early? The normal process is to ship it the day before so that it gets to your door on release day or later. I find this interesting.

lol @Kinikko ... you and @mastermario ... I tell ya.

You know... I wonder if a physical copy of that game would ACTUALLY retain value lol.

It just might. Fortnite Physical Copies Are Selling For Wild Amounts Online

Fortnite's publishers are no longer making physical editions of the game, focusing 100 percent on free digital downloads

is it Spider-Man GTA style?

Since the PS1, Spider-Man has always had open world elements. I would say this latest one has the biggest open world in comparison to the past games.

Not only have I spent my gaming money, I want one of these really bad.

https://www.analogue.co/pages/store/

I plan on getting one of those as well.

OOOooo   we need a topic on those.  I like them ... I like them  A LOT 

Way ahead of you!

https://www.chickendinnergaming.com/forum/index.php?topic=127.msg880#msg880

I bought Shadow of the Tomb Raider early edition with the cool steelbook:
Chickendinnergaming - Shadow of the Tomb Raider Topic

This game was rated 9/10 by IGN... more posting about that soon.   The steelbook design is pretty cool as well - as noted in the above topic.

Game looks amazing. Let us know how it is.

@CreepinDeth LOL - Where do you get yours from?    It's been such a long time since I messed with Linux outside certain server editions.

I just grab [Ubuntu]

From what I've read it has the most PC Component support. Especially legacy support. I don't think I've encountered an issue with Ubuntu. Linux Mint is a distro based off of Ubuntu. That one is more like Windows in terms of UI.

The problem I have with 1st party companies - such as Nintendo - offering up their digital games is they are generally not at a discount.  It is really cool when HD remakes come out, introduce trophies, and add to the original aspects of the game.  There still should be  an archive of the original games... like music as well.  For example, Megadeth has a remastered version of their Rust in Piece album.  Cool stuff... sounds good.  But some musical parts have changed from the original CDs.  You cannot buy these originals in MP3 form from Amazon and other online businesses... so those versions get lost in translation.   I have the original physical copies... so there are originals in my possession.  It would be cool if they could figure out a way to create a "gaming repository" and you pay monthly or whatever to gain access to this repository.  The repository has all original classics for a system and you can play them whenever.  That would be cool IMO.  So you would buy the Sega Saturn Repository and get all Sega Saturn games.. or Nintendo 64... or Super Nintendo.  It would be very hard to have all 3rd companies agree to this though.

That's pretty much my stance on it. If these aren't going to be available to play somewhere for a price, then they need to be archived at the very least so that we don't lose out on the history. Technology breaks down eventually. Carts will eventually oxidize and have issues with their contacts. CDs will start to get bit rot (Dreamcast games are especially susceptible to this. Those needs to be archived.) Even the consoles will eventually die out. Fortunately, there are companies making clones so that the original medium can be played but those can get expensive as well. Especially if you want something that's accurate in its emulation.

@BLUEVOODU - I pre-ordered this morning! I was going to post this as soon as I was able to. You beat me to it. Can't wait. 

These days you don't have to compile distros. I just download the distro and create a bootable USB drive and install it that way. Don't even need a disc drive anymore. These are glorious times. 

This isn't a lease though. It's through a credit account.

@CreepinDeth
I'm still researching this.. it struck interest in me after cell companies left the contract style agreement.  Maybe the above isn't correct, but from what I initially read... it appeared cell companies had more control over certain aspects since they are technically "leased and turned in" after the user is odne with them.

Once you're done paying off a phone, cell companies are required by law to unlock the phones and you're free to take it to another service that the phone is compatible with. It's how I took my Nexus 6 from T-Mobile and then set it up on Project Fi.

You can turn in your phone towards a new phone. Cell companies are more like gamestop in that regard. They buy the phone back and apply that credit towards a new phone. You don't have to do this though. You can keep the phone.

Windows 10 for all of my daily driver PCs. Linux on my netbook that strictly plays music and on an old 10 year PC that's still hanging in there.

Maybe one day I'll return to Mac OS but I love to tinker so being one and done with a Mac doesn't really intrigue me. But some of the apps are great and well engineered so I am curious in that front.

Rounding back on this, seems like prices are more reasonable now. I started pricing things out and the main component that still seems overpriced is RAM. I've seen GTX 1080 GPUs go for as low as $500.

My mindset has changed quite a bit this last month. My PC is 7 1/2 years old now and even though I can't run everything at 60FPS, I can still max out all of my games and keep the most demanding ones at a locked 30FPS at 1080p. Now, I just want to build a budget rig and tinker around with parts. I think the thrill of the hunt is something that's more satisfying for me than just buying top of the line and being done with it.

I recently upgraded my PC to 16GB of DDR3 RAM and my PC feels snappier. Might just be placebo but I'm certain I noticed a difference. Especially in web browsing. Chrome and Firefox cache a good amount of the sites I frequent the most.

Yep, I bought it! I've only played through the tutorial mission though and had to stop. Maybe I'm too used to the Arkham games because when I try to dodge I press Triangle rather than Circle, lol.

So far, I think it looks great in terms of Image Quality but need more time with it for sure to see where it stacks up.

@Polygon You are 100% right.  2TB should be the standard drive... especially for the price.  I'm sure the companies would receive a good discount with the quantity they pull.   However, 2TB 2.5" SATA drives are still somewhat pricey.  Price per GB is only $0.04 for 1 of the drives - 2TB Western Digital Blue 5400RPM.  Not sure how they would perform in a PlayStation 4 though. 

Sony or Microsoft would get a bulk discount but since they're not free, the cost still adds up. Let's say they can get 2TB drives at $20 a pop and they ship 200,000 units with those. That comes out to $4,000,000 just for those drives.

And then let's say they get 500GB drives for $5 each and ship the same 200,00 units. That only costs $1,000,000. Even with discounted prices, the margins are much different.

That's probably why Sony allows you to upgrade your own drive just so that they can save money.

@CreepinDeth I didn't realize they capped it at the Kernel level.  That's interesting - It makes sense to provide a consistent experience.  However, it limits the upside potential for those who want to upgrade... which sucks a bit.

Yeah, I'll see if I can find the articles on it. Makes sense in the long run. It's probably also there to help keep the drive from wearing down quickly.

Hold on though... so the interesting thing with the Cell Phone deals - it changes who actually owns them.  I don't have a lot of proof to this... but technically you are renting and they own.  If you can find information to refute this... I would GREATLY appreciate it because I cannot.  So... they own the device, and this makes it easier for companies to snoop and do what they want.  It's not like they couldn't do it anyway... but it is similar to a  Land lord.  Maybe that's a bad analogy. 

Cell Phone companies don't really operate like that anymore. What they do now is they finance the phone. Some companies actually charge you separately between your actual service and what you owe on the phone.

Currently, I finance my Google Pixel. It's paid separately from my service which is Google's Project Fi. Once I'm done paying it off, it's mine. Well, technically it's mine now, it's just that I owe money on it. Same when I was with T-Mobile and bought my Nexus 6 through them. I could actually pay off my phone whenever I wanted and it wasn't tied to the service.

That's what's happening here. Dell is is the entity providing the financing actually (plus whatever bank they use.) If you stop paying the bill, your credit takes a hit and probably get sent to collections, but the Xbox One is yours to keep.

@targetrasp This is correct... they definitely will push up the price.  IMO it's a bad precedent to set.  At the end... the customer doesn't care because it's "cheaper" in some respects... but it's technically not cheaper and may come with more restrictions than gamers would like.

IDK... I could be wrong... My mindset is more on ownership.  Leasing isn't a wrong way... but it's definitely pushed too much these days. 

I don't necessarily think the price is going to go up (although, it will probably go up somewhat. If they start costing as much as high end PCs then they lost some of what makes consoles attractive. I don't think Sony or MS would let that happen.) The precedent it could set is console revisions would be coming out every two years rather than 6-8 years as they are now.

I was cautiously optimistic about Spider-Man and then I watched Digital Foundry's tech analysis. Holy crap am I excited for this game now. I think this is the first game to really make me want a 4K TV (not that I didn't want one before. )

Spoiler warning for the video at 3:20-3:30.

yup... I just Impulse bought it as well... thanks for helping me fall off the cliff.

Ha! Well, at this point, happy gaming! 

Welcome Princess Peach!!

Horizon Zero Dawn - we need a topic. lol     DAngit @CreepinDeth ... it's less than $20.   This makes me want to buy it.

It was $17 last week both digitally and physically. Impulse buy for me at that point.

And yeah, a topic would be great. Reading and watching the devs talk about the tech that went behind this game is really interesting to me.

Does AMD have anything to challenge any of these technologies?  I Hope they start doing something.

Not that I know of. I'm hoping they do, mainly to keep the competition going and to keep NVIDIA honest with prices.

I picked up the Shenmue I & II collection and Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Collection for PS4. I'm happy to see that HZD has dropped in price, I've been wanting to play it for a while. Mostly because of the graphic fidelity.

So NVIDIA announced recently their new RTX 20 series. Besides bringing the usual improvements, this time NVIDIA is adding a new feature, real time Ray Tracing.

What's real time Ray Tracing? I'm going to let Digital Foundry answer that one.



I'm not going to lie, I'm seriously excited about these new cards. They definitely have early adopter prices and I can see why there are people don't feel these would be worth it. However, this is the next evolution in games and that alone makes me want to save up and get one.

[GeForce RTX 20 Series]

Newegg/Amazon. Depends on who has the best price at the time I'm buying. I got my GTX 1080 at Best Buy and would do that if they have good prices and if I want instant gratification but they're not my first choice to check on supply. I used to have a Fry's near me when I lived in So Cal but now I have to drive over an hour just to get to one.

As for finding the best deals, I check out slick deals or gaming sites to see if any good stuff pops up.

Welcome Bomber Man!!

For those of you who haven't heard of this, Microsoft is financing Xbox One consoles for two years and includes two years Xbox Live Gold and two years Xbox Game Pass. This is very similar to purchasing a phone these days where you buy it now but spread the cost of the phone for 2 years.

I'll be honest, I'm very tempted by this. To be clear, you won't be saving a ton of money (it depends on which console you end up getting, the S has more savings than the X) but if you want a console now, you can walk out with a console for as little as $22 a month. I'm looking at getting the X for $35 a month. The fact that you get Game Pass as well, which includes tons of games, makes this seem sensible even though it's all at just slightly lower than MSRP prices.

[Xbox All Access]

This is only available in the US and at Microsoft Stores.