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Happy Birthday Icy!! 

Sony was really the only one that had anything I liked this year. I honestly don't even remember much about the other companies except for Fallout and Gears of War but I'm kind of over those games.

I think with most of the 1st parties doing their own thing like PS Experience and Nintendo Direct, E3 has lost some of its luster. My guess, E3 will no longer be the big event it is within the next 5 years.

I guess I can see why this E3 wasn't really on many people's radars. They had some good stuff like The Last of Us II and Tales of Vesperia but everything else seemed a tad underwhelming. At least, to me it did.

Agreed and so well organized too! I wish I can organize my music and headphone collection that nicely.

I dunno dude, I feel like maybe you had some bad luck. Since I was old enough to start buying TVs in like 2007, I haven't had a single one crap out. I still have the 37" and a couple of 29"'s from college and the TV in my bedroom is like a 15 year old 65" projection TV that @SpartanEvolved sold me for a couple hundred bucks., just had to replace the lamp in it. I've personally never had to throw out a TV so we just keep stocking up haha.

Oh, I'm not talking about a TV going bad. I mean cheap TVs generally tend to look like crap. Could be because I had video and audio classes during college, but I can immediately tell when a TV has bad colors or crappy black levels. Now whenever I shop for a TV, I check professional reviews so I know what I should expect in terms of picture quality. If I'm going to spend a bunch of money on these high end consoles plus games and 4K/HDR media, my TV better have a damn good panel. I refuse to just accept a cheap TV unless it's proven to have a good picture, like the TCLs.

I still have the TV that I regret purchasing. It's in the bedroom because in there I don't care if the colors aren't accurate or that the black levels look gray and uneven.

So like, yeah, it's happening. Some cool stuff. For example -

Spoiler: ShowHide

Resident Evil 2 Remake!!!!!!!!

I think it's called E3. Might be something worth checking out if you have time.

I would recommend using a blu-ray calibration disc. I use the Disney WOW one and it helped even my crappy samsung LCD screen from 2007 look decent. I feel it's worth the investment especially for how often I use the TV.

Movie mode is the best preset to use when calibrating too. All of my TVs start in that mode and then I calibrate from there.

But the black on this screen is black. The difference in the contrast to the picture is spoiling me. I have been tainted. I can't go back.

Is that without calibration? If you haven't calibrated it yet, I recommend that as well. It can take a decent TV and make it even better.

So as a test, and as a stop gap, I purchased a TCL Roku 32inch TV, only $138.

This is exactly what I would have suggested after reading the first paragraph haha. Regular HD TVs are so cheap now that I just can't justify paying over $1000 for a 4k. I'd rather buy two 65" LEDs for that price lol.

True, but sometimes you get what you pay for. What good is 65" if it's 65" of horrible color banding and washed out blacks? I went the cheap route with my first HDTV and I wish I had just saved a little more for a better TV. TCL is one of the few exceptions though. They make quality TVs and I would definitely recommend them if you're on a budget. If you have the money though, LG 4K TVs are superb as Mai just reported.

At work we just started selling an LG 4k OLED that's somewhere around $3000 but holy crap is the image amazing. My coworker and I just stood there and stared at it for like five minutes in awe.

I believe it. You should see if you can hook up a PS4 or XB1 to it. 

I'm definitely interested in one. I just don't know how easily they can be acquired. I mainly want it for collection purposes.

They thought you had to pay for all the apps.

ah, okay, that makes sense. LG is also making some of the best 4K TVs as well. They're just a little more expensive. If someone wanted to upgrade from a TCL, the LG line would be it.

TCL came out of nowhere and their 4K TVs are some of the most highly rated and well reviewed sets, especially their 6-series. [The Wirecutter]

I also love Roku and have a set top for each of the TVs in my place. I don't know if the embedded Rokus in TVs are any different but the setup was pretty straightforward on the set top boxes. Every Roku I've had walks you through the process of setting it up.

Either way, I think you made a good purchase. I plan on getting a 6-series 4K TV one of these days. Can't beat $600 for 55". I can't speak towards over the air as I have stopped using that and just stick to Sling.TV. Its served me and my wife very well.

[Hacker gets Super NES games running on unmodified NES]

At this point, we're used to modern computers being able to perform near-perfect emulation of older gaming hardware via software trickery. The latest project from Tom "Tom7" Murphy, though, seems poised to coin its own definition for "reverse emulation" by running a playable Super NES game on actual unmodified NES hardware.

Murphy breaks down this wizardry in a pair of detailed videos laying out his tinkering process. Though the NES hardware itself is untouched, the cartridge running this reverse emulation is a heavily customized circuit board (ordered from China for about $10), with a compact, multi-core Raspberry Pi 3 attached to handle the actual Super NES emulation.

Not very practical but I love reading about this types of projects. Some of these games he emulates are really trippy.

[Atari's Retro Console Launches Pre-Orders, Quickly Crashes Indiegogo]

We finally have more details on what this thing can do and apparently more people are hyped up about it than we expected. On Wednesday afternoon, Indiegogo was struggling to keep up with the influx of traffic...

...The VCS runs on the Ubuntu OS (Linux), includes a Radeon R7 processor, a 32 GB hard drive, 4 GB of DDR4 RAM, and expandable storage. It connects to the internet and will support streaming video and online multiplayer games. Voice control is handled by four front-facing mics and two new controllers (one retro, one modern) connect via Bluetooth.

This piece of kit is starting to sound really nice. I can see why there is such a high demand for it. This might be more flexible to mod than an NES or SNES Classic.

That's fair. I guess it would depend on the usage. If it's for critical work stuff, then I would probably recommend google docs over the web versions of Office. If it's for just writing simple papers and/or spreadsheets, it should be okay.

I was also going to throw out ReadyBoost as a suggestion but I believe it has an SSD in it already so it wouldn't benefit.

If you go the portable apps route, you can use Windirstat and have it analyze the HD. It will tell you what files are taking up the most space. It's very handy.

I would uninstall Office and just use the web apps if this person is all about the cloud. Seems you've done all you can and it might be time to go into expandable storage.

Does this laptop have an SD Card slot? That could be one way to expand storage to house music, pictures, etc. If there are USB slots, they can look into using portable apps that run off of a USB drive. [PortableApps.com]

Wow, good job Valve. It still hasn't pushed me to play more games (that's more because I'm busy with life) but I love the idea.

@targetrasp lol... nothing is wrong in reality.   Google pretty much owns the world.   

Just give in to our Google overlords already. You'll be fine, lol.

I'm kind of torn. I'm going to want to open this to play but I also want to keep it sealed because I'm a collector. Hopefully they're not so limited so I can pick up two.

I believe the Mini has extra ports for more controllers if you want to do multiplayer.

That's cool, although is the arcade cabinet part really necessary? Its not a dealbreaker by any means, just seems like a way to push msrp up.

Someone should be sure to mention when they set a release date or when preorders open up.

I think the arcade cabinet parts makes it a much cooler novelty than any of the Nintendo releases. I don't expect them to use high end Sanwa parts, so I don't expect the price to be astronomical. Plus, you don't need a TV, which is always nice.

I'll keep an eye on the release date and price.

As for long plays, these devices are not meant to be for that, they're novelties. Publishers just release higher end versions on consoles which are meant for longer play sessions.

Now this is something I can get behind. SNK is making a mini version of the Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet called the Neo Geo Mini and comes with 40 preloaded games.

No date or price announced yet but this thing is looking mighty sweet. 

I don't know about soundtrack but the using Cage the Elephant's "aint no rest for the wicked" for the intro to Boarderlands was as good as anything I've seen, definitely up there with Breaking Benjamin in Halo

That counts. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 has one of the best compilation soundtracks ever. GTA comes close but THPS2 brings back so many memories.

@CreepinDeth 69' RS/SS is my most favorite car out there.
I would also kill for a 1969 ZL-1

aw yeah, high five! You have great taste.

PC building is definitely a hobby of mine as well. If I could build a computer once a month I would, lol. I have parts lying around my place and in storage. Need to start organizing and getting rid of older stuff soon to make way for more things.

I'm also into cars but not as much as I used to be back when I was younger. I also don't have any space to work on them even if I wanted to. I do want to own a '69 Camaro SS one day. I might have one commissioned.

That's why I stick with the Pixel and the Nexus before it. Stock Android is sooooo much better than the other crap other manufacturers use. I personally prefer it over iOS. iOS is just so blah to me and isn't as flexible.

I saw Kinikko likes to knit and that's pretty cool. I personally really enjoy music, so I tend to collect headphones. I have quite a few in my collection and always take time to listen to them. I just wish it wasn't so expensive, lol. But I really love to nerd out on audio. And if there's one thing that I like to collect more than games, it's music.

Do any of you have hobbies that are just as big, or bigger, than your gaming hobby?

These are awesome! I really like the turtle. 

As for prices, you want to see first how much it costs you in materials to make one and then figure out how long it takes as well and then give yourself an hourly rate or something similar. You then add those amounts together, that way you'll make a profit rather than lose money on them. Unless you enjoy just making them and having them available for anyone who wants to buy one. In that case, you can set a price that you feel is fair. Like $5 for example for a small item and $10-20 for the bigger items.

Not a bad idea. I might do that this weekend when I get some more time.