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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

Read More Games I have been hyped about Baldur’s Gate 3 since Larian Studios announced their teaser in August 2019. I’ve already mentioned that I was a massive fan of Black Isle Studios, the original maker of the PC Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale games… so naturally …

Since many of us are stuck at home in isolation, because of the pandemic, we’ve had to turn to movies, video games, and toys, to keep us entertained. And it shows with record numbers of PS5 and Xbox Series S/X selling out instantly. More than ever, people are buying and playing video games at home.

Recently, I purchased one of the biggest Triple-A game called Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, mostly thanks to enjoying Ubisoft’s previous two releases, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (both games earning high praises from me).

What AC does really well, since its original conception in 2007, was that it created the medieval past amazingly well. The game does a great job re-creating buildings and real historical figures from the past. Sure, at times, it takes creative liberties, but for the most part, it does a great job.

Before we get into Valhalla, you have to look at the two previous games… which sets up in Egypt with Origins and follows the story of Layla Hassan. If you saw the movie or even played any of the AC games, you know how we got to access the past, by using a machine called the Animus.

I don’t so much cared about the future in these games, but it does make for connecting one game to another. After Origins, we arrived in Greece with Odyssey… easily one of my favorite games when it was originally released in 2018. Odyssey seems to step away from the stealthy game play of the original games… and focused more on combat with its Spartan/Athena fighting style. Of course, the game developer still allow you to play stealth, if that is how you want to play.

It would seem with Valhalla, that Ubisoft concentrate more on melee combat. Which, to be perfectly honest, I don’t have an issue with it, since it fits the Viking’s berserker style of fighting (can you see an assassin Viking?)… The other thing that I’ve noticed with Valhalla, is that it allows the player to turn down the stealth difficulty!

While I love Valhalla, it’s pretty much the same as Odyssey and Origins. I would recommend you wait for a sale on Valhalla… in fact, if you haven’t played the previous two games, I would recommend getting those two games first (usually on discounts). I just can’t justify the $60 price for Valhalla, not when you can get Odyssey for $20. However, if you enjoyed the previous games, sure, pick up Valhalla … it will be right up your alley.

NOTE: Normally, I prefer to buy and play my games on my PC. My computer is ten times better than the PS4 or Xbox, but, unfortunately, if you want to play on the PC, you have to use Ubisoft’s U-Play launcher… which I absolutely hate. I ended up buying it on Xbox, as it promises an easy free upgrade path to Xbox Series X, should I ever buy the new console. I’m not sure the status of PlayStation’s backward compatible program, so I’m not sure if Valhalla would work on the PS5, at the time of my purchase decision. Plus, the fact that PS5 games will retail for $70, it doesn’t sit well with me.

Assassins Creed Valhalla Rognarok Edition (Best Buy Exclusive)

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How to upgrade your Asus ROG Strix G15

ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk Read More Asus So when I saw this ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk laptop for $899, I couldn’t pass it up. Both New Egg and Walmart are selling this same laptop for over $1,100… so getting the laptop sub-$1k is still a good price. ...

You can configure the Asus ROG Strix G15 to have 64GB RAM, 17-inch screen, and GeForce RTX 2070 Super… but the asking $2999 price was too much. Going in for sub-$1000 for the Electro Punk edition meant that some sacrifices had to be made… meaning a smaller screen, a less-powerful GPU, less storage, and RAM.

With the ROG Strix laptops, Asus made it really easy to open and access the storage and Ram, so upgrading your Ram and adding storage is a snap.

I decided to replace the Micro 8GB Ram that came with the laptop with two 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666Mhz Unbuffered SODIMM (for a total of 32GB). While it’s true that the installed Ram is clocked at a higher 3200mhz, in my tests, it shows a slower speed of 2900mhz (I believe you may have to manually overclock it in BIOS to get the maximum clock). The new Corsair DDR4 Ram showed a much faster read/write speed (23GB a second) than the Micron DDR4 Ram (11GB a second).

As for storage, I have added two 2TB NVME PCIe. The two SSD drives I used were Inland 1TB NVME PCIe and Western Digital 1TB Blue NVME PCIe. The WD drive is rated, and tested, faster (at 1.3MB a second) than the “genetic” Inland brand (at 1.1MB a second). It’s only by a hair, so I recommend saving some money and using the generic brand.

The new parts I added were:

Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 2666MHz CL18 Unbuffered SODIMM ($111)

Western Digital 1TB WD Blue NVME PCIe ($119)

Inland Professional 1TB NVME PCIe ($95)

For about $350, I was able to turn my Asus ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk into a respectable gaming laptop with enough storage (2.5TB) to store and carry around a lot of large triple A games.

Note: While some gamers might think 15 inches is too small, I think it is fine, especially because I want the lightness and portability of a laptop. In fact, I would’ve preferred a smaller screen. Since the screen can only handle 1080p, the 1650Ti GPU is perfectly fine for that screen. I was able to push 120 frames a second running Doom, and every game runs smoothly at 1080p (providing I use the power adapter).

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Asus ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk Gaming Laptop

ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk ASUS - ROG Strix G15 15.6" Gaming Laptop The ROG Strix G15 Electro Punk embodies streamlined design, offering a formidable core experience for serious gaming and multitasking on Windows 10. Featuring up to the latest 10th Gen Intel Core CPU and a NVIDIA GeForce GPU, it offers high-FPS power that takes full advantage of up to a blazing fast display Game at Professional Speed: An ultrafast 144Hz refresh rate makes the flow of fast-paced action look impeccably smooth and reduces motion blur for precision target tracking. ROG Intelligent Cooling: ROG's Intelligent Cooling philosophy mixes the right features and system settings to ensure the best experience. Performance is boosted with cutting-edge enhancements like liquid metal compound on the CPU and a well-ventilated exterior that keeps noise levels lower than the last generation. Comprehensive Connectivity: Get blazing fast transfers at Gen 2 speeds via the USB 3.2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4, or connect an ROG G-SYNC monitor for silky smooth gaming. Three Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports are ready for your favorite gaming gear, while HDMI 2.0b allows you to enjoy content on a 4K monitor or TV at up to 60Hz. Reliable Wi-Fi: Ultrafast Intel Wi-Fi 6 with Gig+ (802.11ax) lets you game reliably at LAN speeds wherever compatible connections are available. Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) enables a peak interface bandwidth up to 2.4Gbps.* Windows 10 Home Edition 15.6" Full HD display 144Hz (1920 x 1080) 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-10750H mobile processor (6-core) 8GB system memory 512GB Solid State Drive (PCI-e) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 TI (4GB GDDR6) Virtual Reality Ready Weighs 5.29 lbs. and measures 1" thin HDMI output Wireless/Wired connectivity (WiFi 6 - 802.11 ax) RGB backlit keyboard Headphone/microphone combo jack. Read More MicroSoft Anyway, when I saw that the new MicroSoft’s Surface Pro 7 (with keyboard cover) on sale for $600, I couldn’t pass it up. Currently their price is $700, but MicroSoft’s website is still showing $600. ...

I’ve been quietly looking for a gaming laptop for a while now. Let’s face it, as much as I like the Surface Pro 7, that machine is not capable of playing any modern games. I wasn’t looking to spend too much money, trying to keep it under $1,000, so when I saw this ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk laptop for $899, I couldn’t pass it up. Both New Egg and Walmart are selling this same laptop for over $1,100… so getting the laptop sub-$1k is still a good price.

For those that don’t know, this the Republic of Gamers Strix (ROG Strix) is a gaming laptop brand from ASUS. The G15 or G17 refers to the screen size, at 15 inch and 17 inch, respectively. Personally speaking, for portability, I prefer smaller screens, so I don’t mind the 15 inch, as it keeps the laptop lighter.

You can get the ROG Strix in a variety of colors, for example “Glacier Blue” or Black. This “Electro Punk” version (Black with Neon Pink trims) may actually be part of a bigger rollout of Electro Punk-related products… such as a Cherry Mechanical Keyboard, mouse, and headphones (and headphone stand?). Personally speaking, I probably won’t be buying any of those accessories, simply because I’m not a fan of the color scheme and I already own great products from Razer or Corsair, and they serve their purpose.

In order to keep costs down for the Electro Punk, there are some subpar or missing features. I’ll address some of these things, so you know what or what not to expect.

The laptop is all (or mostly) made out of plastic. It still looks good, but doesn’t have a “premium” look that some aluminum or metal laptops. The plastic looks durable to me, and I like the weird vents and cyberpunk look, so it looks fine to me.

The Electro Punk edition also has only 8GB Ram. The Strix G15 normally has 16GB, so I feel this is a stepdown. The good news is that you can always upgrade the RAM with one of their open Ram slot. I may eventually upgrade the RAM down the road, but for now, it’s not that important to me.

It also a lack of built-in webcam. This is a problem for game streamers, so if you’re one of those, you probably need to avoid this laptop. You can always buy an external USB webcam if you really need one. Most built-in webcam aren’t great anyway, it’s just a matter of convenience.

It doesn’t have a SD card reader, which really sucks… but again, you can always use an external USB dongle. Same goes for DVD/CD-Rom drive… if you need it, you’ll have to buy an external USB drive. That is not a problem for me, simply because I don’t want moving parts in a mobile device.

Keep in mind that not including those things above keeps the retail price to $999, so I think they made the right decision. If they offer a built-in SD Card Reader for $50 more, I would personally pay for the upgrade.

Let’s highlight some of the main features of the Electro Punk.

The best part about this laptop is that it has a 144Hz screen, which is unheard of for a sub-$1000 laptop. What that means is smoother gameplay. For example, it doesn’t matter if your game is outputting 120 frames per seconds if your screen can only show 60Hz (60 frames). You can only take advantage of the fast refresh screen natively on the laptop. If you output to a 4k monitor using the HDMI-out, it can only display 60Hz. I think 60 is fine.

We’re also getting an i7 with 6-core chip. Again, almost unheard of for a budget laptop. Most budget laptops or desktop uses an i5 chip (or i3). The last few computers I’ve had, I have used i5 and never thought it was lacking anything. The i5 chip is fast, so I feel i7 is just going to be better.

You also won’t find this in other laptops, but the 2020 edition of the ROG Strix comes with “Liquid Metal”, which was intended to keep the laptop cool. They use this technology on their high-end laptops, so I’m very happy to see it on their cheapest laptop as well.

I think a lot of people might scoff at the built-in 512GB SSD PCI Express, saying there’s not enough storage. You have to remember that you’re getting this in a budget gaming laptop, so it’s not a surprise that they are cutting corners on storage. The good news is that there are TWO NVME slots on the motherboard. This is amazing. Most modern desktop or laptops only offers one slot. I have already put in a 1TB NVME and plan on putting in another 1TB (for a total of 2.5TB of storage) soon.

That’s not all. We also get a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphic card (4GB GDDR6). It’s a mobile version, but it’s still very fast and can handle all my games. In addition, it’s powerful enough to fuel Virtual Reality headsets, like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Unfortunately, this is budget Graphic Card, so it’s not going to have the latest “Ray Tracing” technology that all the new GPU cards are touting.

What is funny is that one of the main features that Asus is promoting is that the Electro Punk laptop weighs 5.29 lbs. I feel this is very heavy, but compared to other gaming laptops, 5.29lbs is actually reasonable. The 1" thinness (when closed), is pretty compact for a gaming laptop.

We also get the latest WiFi6 (802.11ax). They could’ve kept it cheap and used an older (and more common) WiFi chip, so I appreciate the latest wireless technology. Unfortunately, my current router does not support the latest 802.11ax, but I like the idea that the laptop can take advantage of a faster WiFi… for future proofing.

You typically don’t see extra RGB light strips in a budget laptop, so what’s nice about the Electro Punk is that there are underlighting in sync with your keyboard RGB lights. It uses the ASUS’ Aura software to control the lights. For example, you can have the light display red when it hits 60 degree Celcius, as a visual indicator that the laptop is hot. There are also games that will take advantage of Aura, maybe flashing lights when you’re low in health or when it spots an enemy.

I do have some minor nitpicks on the laptop. I think the Neon Pink accents might actually discourage this for boys. I mean, why not go for Neon Green or Orange? I think any color would go great with the black. If you ignore the pink, and maybe think of this as a Cyberpunk design, it sort of make sense.

The other annoying thing is that venting fans are loud. They run all the time. I don’t think you can turn these off (even on “Silent Mode”). In a quiet room, you can definitely hear the laptop running.

It’s also expected, but I should reiterate, that you should not run games on this laptop on battery. Not only do games drain the battery incredibly fast (a 30-min session cut the battery by 50%), but games are choppy and doesn’t run very well. If you do light browsing and email, the laptop will probably run for less than three hours… so you’ll always want to bring the power adapter with you.

I definitely recommend the Electro Punk laptop, if you’re in the market for an all-in-one gaming PC solution. You can use it as a laptop, or you can always get an external monitor and workstation dock and treat the laptop as a desktop.

If money is no object to you, Asus advertised an Electro Punk with GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER version, but I’m assuming it will be a lot more expensive than $1,000. Overall, I’ve been very impressed with my Electro Punk and its capabilities.

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Xbox Series vs PlayStation 5

Xbox Series vs PlayStation 5 Read More Xbox One As a weekend gamer, I’ve been following the Xbox One X (formerly known as Xbox Scorpio) for a while. Over the E3 gaming expo weekend, Microsoft … Playstation 4 Last week my PlayStation Network account got hacked/compromised. The person removed my email and added his or her email and took $50 from my bank account (that is tied to my account …

With the console war coming up this Holiday 2020. Let’s talk about the new Xbox Series and PS5… and possibly the dark horse in the race, Nintendo Switch.

The exciting news is that both MicroSoft and Sony have unveiled their pricing: Xbox Series X is $499, Xbox Series S is $299, PS5 is $499, and PS5 (Digital Edition) is $399.

Breaking it down, and looking at the specs on paper, it clearly looks like the Xbox Series X is the winner. There are some major things to consider: it promises backward compatibility with previous software and previous controllers and accessories. That means, if you already own the Xbox One controller and want to use it as a second player controller, you can do that with the S and the X.

The other secret weapon is that Xbox has Xbox Game Pass, which is the “Netflix of Gaming”, where you pay $10 a month and can play over 100 games on its service (including new games). For the price-conscious, particularly with the $299 S model, it’s worth looking into if you’re on a budget.

While the S model does not keep up with its more powerful big brother X, I feel the $299 will be fine for any gamers. For serious players, you’ll probably need to look at the X or PS5, because their games will supposedly run on 4k.

As for storage, believe me, 1TB is not enough for me (experiencing this on my laptop). If you install 10 games, you’re tapped out. I’ve compared speed between NVME and standard Harddrive (USB or IDE) on my computer, and I can, without a doubt, say that NVME is much, much faster (and more reliable).

The only advantage that PS5 will have is that they’ll have exclusive games only playable on their devices. With Xbox, because of its relationship with the PC, their games will always be available on computers (which I appreciate).

There is no news on the Nintendo front, but there’s rumors that they’ll come out with the Nintendo Switch Pro in early 2021. The more powerful portable console will support 4K (I’ll believe it when I see it).

Personally speaking, I will not be buying any “next generation” consoles. I think they all look ugly, particularly the PS5’s design with the fat belly of a disc drive. I hate the name “Xbox Series X or S”. It sounds stupid. Games for these new consoles will also cost $69.99 each ($10 more than previous generation). Plus, I barely touch my Xbox One or PS4 for over a year, since I’ve gotten a great gaming PC and laptop. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be following and seeing who will win this console war this Holiday 2020.

Here’s the breakdown - green is good:

Compare	Xbox Series S	Xbox Series X	PS5 (Disc/Digital)
Price:	$299.99	$499	$399/$499
Release Date:	10 Nov 2020	10 Nov 2020	12 Nov 2020
Optical Disc	None	Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, CD	None / Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD
CPU/GPU	AMD 8-core Zen 2; 3.6 GHz, 3.4 GHz with SMT	AMD 8-core Zen 2; 3.8 GHz, 3.6 GHz with SMT	AMD 8-core Zen 2, variable frequency, up to 3.5 GHz
Memory	10GB of GDDR6 SDRAM	16GB of GDDR6 SDRAM	16 GB GDDR6 SDRAM
Storage	512 GB NVMe SSD (with Storage Expansion Card option)	1 TB NVMe SSD (with Storage Expansion Card option)	825 GB SSD (with upgradeable NVMe M.2 SSD, or external USB-based HDD)
Resolution	Up to 1440p	Up to 4K	Up to 4K
Backward Compatible	Games (limited), works with previous controllers and accessories	Games, works with previous controllers and accessories	Games (limited), does not work with previous controllers

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Free Stuff: Watch Dogs 2, Sunstone, and Peacock

Read More Weekend Gamer Wow, Epic Games is giving away some great free games. Last week, they offered Grand Theft Auto V and this week it’s Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. Normally these are $60 games, but free, I’m definitely signing up and doing two-factor, anything you guys want. …

Read more Weekend Gamer

WATCH DOGS 2
ubisoft.com

The idea behind the Watch Dogs 2 giveaway was you were required to watch the game maker’s livestream called Ubisoft Forward. Unfortunately, people who watched it didn’t receive their free copy. One of the problems was that you were required to have your Twitch and Ubisoft account linked or you had to use their Uplay client. People couldn’t log in, people didn’t link their accounts, people just got really mad at Ubisoft.

To make good at their failed experiment, Ubisoft has decided to just give away the game to anyone that registered with their account over at register.ubisoft.com.

You’ll receive an email saying that you’ve received Watch Dogs 2 and various in-game content in your account.

Anyway, I never bought the first Watch Dogs… but now having Watch Dogs 2, I might go back to the first game if I like the second (especially if there is a sale).

Ubisoft’s upcoming Watch Dogs Legion will arrive in stores on October 29, 2020.

SUNSTONE
imagecomics.com

Artist/writer Stjepan Šejić recently offered fans all six volumes of his adult comic book Sunstone for free on digital... adding, “If you prefer them in print, they are available in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Book Depository, Amazon and some comic stores.”

I love the idea that digital comics should be free (or at least very low-costing), since I feel that digital version costs almost as much (if not sometime more), than their print version. That doesn’t make any sense to me, considering that with digital, you don’t have to pay for ink, paper, distribution, comic store shelves, mail, storage, etc.

Anyway, after working on his Black Label comic Harleen, Šejić expressed his dissatisfaction with working with DC Comics. Even though his work may have had a wider reach, it doesn’t make up the point that Šejić won’t own his Harleen creation. Instead, it is the property of DC Comics… and if they choose to in the future, they can hire someone else to write another Harleen series - much like how they dishonor Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ work on Watchmen by releasing Before Watchmen comics.

Anyway, before you download Sunstone, be aware that the book is geared towards adults… so lots of weird sex/bondage stuff. Download at dropbox.com

PEACOCK
peacocktv.com

Look, I hate NBC’s name for their streaming service Peacock. I mean, how can they get away with the words pea and cock in the same word ? Also, just the idea of a Peacock doesn’t exactly conjure up images of a streaming service.

I actually had no interest in yet another streaming service. The space is just too crowded. You have Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, CBS, Roku, Apple TV, and recently HBO Max and Disney+. How can Peacock compete with these other services? Well, their answer is that it’s FREE.

Well, you’ll still have advertisements, but considering that you still get ads with CBS and Hulu, despite paying for their services… a free with ads for Peacock is appealing. There is a non-ad version they are calling “Peacock Premium” (also includes additional contents not available in the free version), which is about $5 a month. However, before I pay, I really need to see what contents I am getting…

Peacock will go live this Wednesday, July 15, 2020. I’ll check it out and may update this page.

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Weekend Gamer: The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch

Read More Games I'm a big fan of CD Projekt, the maker of the Witcher series. One of the main reasons is that they allow their games to be played offline on a PC, which is how I prefer to play my games. In return, I'll always support the software company …

I haven’t played The Witcher 3 since May 2015 (when it first came out on PC). I honestly can’t remember if I ever beat it, as I’m the type of player that wants to close out all quests before taking that final battle. Certainly, I got really, really far into it… and reconsidered playing it again when the Expansions and DLC came out a year later.

When The Witcher television show came out last year on Netflix, there was a massive uptick on newfound fans playing the game again. That’s because, like the game, the show was very well done and had a compelling story.

So… why am I playing The Witcher 3 again? Partly because I’ve forgotten almost everything about the game, but also because I started playing The Witcher 3 on the Nintendo Switch in 15 to 30-minute increments at work. It’s slow-going, but I have limited time with it.

To get the massive game on the Switch, the developer had to make sacrifices, so, as a result, the game looks incredible ugly, compared to its PS4, Xbox, and PC versions. If you can get past the low resolution and junky details… it is nice to get the game on a mobile device. Alternatively, if you have the first generation Switch, you can always dock it to the television and play the game with a traditional game controller - but it’ll still looks fugly compared to the modern consoles.

The other thing about the Switch version is that the loading time is much slower compared to the PC version (especially with NVME storage).

There is cross-save between the Switch and GOG version for The Witcher 3, which is pretty amazing when it works.

How to use Cross Save on the Nintendo Switch:

1. On the Main Menu, chose “CLOUD SAVES”
2. Choose STEAM or GOG.COM
3. Log in with your credential
4. Choose STANDARD EDITION or GOTY EDITION
5. Choose LOAD GAME or UPLOAD

There is no automatic Cloud Saves, so you’ll have to manually do this every time you decide to go back and forth.

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Raspberry Pi 4

Raspberry Pi 4 Specifications Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM (depending on model) 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz IEEE 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE Gigabit Ethernet 2 USB 3.0 ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports. Raspberry Pi standard 40 pin GPIO header (fully backwards compatible with previous boards) 2 × micro-HDMI ports (up to 4kp60 supported) 2-lane MIPI DSI display port 2-lane MIPI CSI camera port 4-pole stereo audio and composite video port H.265 (4kp60 decode), H264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode) OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics Micro-SD card slot for loading operating system and data storage 5V DC via USB-C connector (minimum 3A*) 5V DC via GPIO header (minimum 3A*) Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled (requires separate PoE HAT) Operating temperature: 0 – 50 degrees C ambient Read More Raspberry Pi I've recently poo-pooed Plex's useless $40 annual subscription just to access your local media. Instead, I told you to just buy a Raspberry Pi instead. I have good news, the new Raspberry Pi 2 is out now and retails for the same price ($35) …

I’ve been playing around with my Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB Model), a lot lately. I’ve had the single-board computer since November 2019, even though the RP4 wasn’t supposed to launch until 2020. As a result of it being released early (it came out in June 2019), a lot of software did not work on the new board.

So even though I’ve had the board for over three months, I’m only started playing around with it – simply because they’ve finally patch out all the bugs as more developers got their hands on the new units.

Let me tell you: the new Pi is pretty awesome. It has a new Quad core ARM chip, which is a 64-bit chip running at 1.5GHz (but can be overclocked to 2GHz), and, for the first time, it comes with a variety of RAM options - maxing out at 4GB.

Just to give you a little background to my love for the Pi, I’ve had the original $35 computer since Raspberry Pi 1 in 2014. The original version wasn’t very good, by today’s standards. It lacked wireless and only had two USB slots. In order to properly use it, you had to buy a USB expander, a wireless USB (alternatively, you can always plug in the Ethernet port), a power supply, a keyboard, and a mouse. All that would add up to about $75, depending on how cheap you want to go. Most of these items, you may have lying around the house, so that’s another factor to consider… but I wanted to mention that you might have to spend more money.

My original RP1 was stolen! So that sucked, and I ended up buying the Raspberry Pi 2. With the 2, they’ve finally added the much-needed wireless chip, so you no longer had to use an extra dongle. They upgrade to 4 USBs, so that eliminated needing an extra USB expander. The second version addressed so many of my complaints of the original… so in some ways, having my original pi stolen was a small blessing.

I never did upgrade to the Raspberry Pi 3. The main reason, in my opinion, is that it was only a minor upgrade – just a faster chip – and absolutely no change to the hardware or form factor. I didn’t feel like it worth an upgrade, as I was happy with the Pi 2.

When I saw the Raspberry Pi 4 at my local MicroCenter in 2019, I had no idea they had released it! As I previously mentioned, it was released early, and when I bought it originally, I did somewhat regret it as nothing really worked out of the box. Over time, Lakka was compatible, and finally, Retropie is working… so in 2020, I can finally recommend buying a Raspberry Pi 4. Plus, by this time, more cases and accessories are available now.

There are some things to consider: If you’re buying a Raspberry Pi 4 for retro gaming, I recommend spending a little more money to buy the 4GB RAM version. It’ll cost about $55 (I bought it on sale for $50), but I think it’s worth the extra money. After all, you cannot upgrade to more RAM later if you buy the 1GB version.

Like all Raspberry Pi’s, they’re running Linux… so if you’re uncomfortable with command lines, it might be a tough sell. I’ll have to confess that I think it’s still pretty easy to use, given that Raspbian is a GUI (Graphic User Interface). You’ll still have to use the command line for a variety of things, but it isn’t as hard as you might think.

My complaint about the new Raspberry Pi 4 is that it does get hot. It’s understandable, considering that this tiny computer is cranking out a lot of computation. If you decide to overclock your Pi 4 to 2GHz, you absolutely need to run an active fan on the chip.

My second complaint is that they’ve changed from a full HDMI to Micro HDMI, which was necessary to fit a dual micro HDMI setup. Personally speaking, I don’t need the second HDMI… but I understand that some people out there might want two monitors. I also like the option; I just don’t like having to buy a micro to full HDMI adapter.

I’m also disappointed that after four generations of the Pi, that it still does not have a power off button. You can get around this by buying a case with a soft power switch, or you can buy an USB extender with a power on/off switch.

If you’re going to buy one, these are the free software you should get:

LibreOffice - an OpenOffice free software with a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation software (Impress), a vector drawing program (Draw), a math creation and editing tool (Math), and a database (Base).

Kodi - a home media solution… which will play all your videos, plus the ability to have add-ons for video streaming

RetroPie - turns your Raspberry Pi into a retro-gaming machine, using EmulationStation and RetroArch.

Lakka - similar to RetroPie, it transforms your Pi to a full blown retro-gaming console.

Fruitbox MP3 Jukebox - a virtual Jukebox for your MP3 music collection

Below is a video of me playing around with the Raspberry Pi 4, running Damaso's Nostalgia Loaded 128GB build, which you can download at arcadepunks.com. You will need to buy a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB Ram) and a 128GB SD Card.

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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Television shows of 2019

Watchmen Read More Watchmen Anyway, I'll be taking it easy today, maybe re-read The Watchmen as I just saw the movie in theater over the weekend and was really impressed. As an old comic book fan (especially when it comes to the genius of Alan Moore), I loved it - …

Read more Television.

WATCHMEN
hbo.com/watchmen

HBO’s Watchmen Television show is possibly my favorite TV show of 2019.

The TV show expands on the influential Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic book… and it totally works. Instead of re-telling the story in a television format (like how the movie retold the graphic novel), what the show producers did was tell a different story – one set 30 years after the original event. And they honor the original work, by keep in the giant squid monster and going with that idea (in the movie, they changed the ending). It’s clear to me, based on all the homages that the writers all knew (and are fans) of the source material. It’s the love of those things that expands into their story.

One of the coolest thing they did in the show was give Hooded Justice an origin story. And you’ll never guess who and why he wears the hood! It’s unbelievable smart how they answered all the questions you may or may not have about the first “super hero”. In the comic book, they reference the original Minutemen, but you never really got much of a back story for any of those characters… so it’s very cool that the TV show explored Hooded Justice.

As a big fan of the graphic novel, I’m going to have to give it a big thumbs up. I love the comic book, and seeing that story taken to the next step, I love it. Unfortunately, I feel sometime that fans unfamiliar with the comic book (or have only seen the movie), might not fully enjoy all the little Easter “Eggs”, or somewhat complicated plot in the show. The show might be too clever for the average viewer.

I don’t think show creator, Damon Lindelof, should do a Season 2, there’s really no good reasons for them to continue this story.

Witcher Read More The Witcher I also picked up The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, at Walmart, which came with a lot of bonus items like a DVD and Soundtrack (all at the normal cost of a game product). They are on the right track, I definitely …

WITCHER
netflix.com

Critics absolutely hates Netflix’s The Witcher. The reason is that they don’t generally love the source material (a series of fantasy books) and they don’t play the video games. Since they don’t know the books or games, there’s a disconnect and they’re just lost and confused. One critic was so bored, he or she skipped a few episodes to get the plot moving. One critic just cringed at all the nudity.

Sure, there’s nudity, and actress Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) is very comfortable in her birthday suit, but who cares? I didn’t mind it and I think it’s true to the Witcher universe.

I think the biggest problem I have with the show is that I might know too much about the world of the Witcher (via the CD Projekt Red’s games) and was very disappointed to see that the actress (Anna Shaffer) that played Triss Merigold isn’t a redhead (as seen in the game).

I also have a certain vision of Ciri (from the game) that didn’t entirely matched with actress Freya Allan. I know not everyone is going look like the video game, but c’mon, Henry Cavill, is a straight match for the video game version of Geralt of Rivia, even down his “hmph” and talking to Roach, his horse.

I guess it just comes down to if the actress is good, it shouldn’t matter what they look like.

Anyway, the wide divide of critics vs fans is obvious to me - this genre television is meant for fans and clearly not directed to “professional” critics. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, this divide is also seen in The Orville (fans love it, critics hated it) and Batwoman (fans hated it, critics loved it). As a fan of the game and television, I would have to think that the critics just don’t understand.

Expanse Season 4 Read More The Expanse Song of the Show: "Heroes" by David Bowie BONUS: The Walking Dead: Season 6 (part one), The Expanse. …

EXPANSE
amazon.com

Possibly the best Science Fiction television show on air right now is The Expanse (no, it’s not Star Trek: Discovery). As I previously mentioned, I love this show.

In the world of the Expanse, there are three major factions: Earth, Mars, and the Belters… and the show is so smart (or rather the books it was based on is so smart), that it looks the long-term effect of living without gravity, etc.

Originally, SyFy produced the show. It was probably too expensive for the network and probably wasn’t worth what they were paying for their audience. The show looks fantastic, and the stories are amazing.

Admittedly, the show does take a little patience. The first three season of the Expanse is actually just the “setup” to what the Expanse is really about! It’s so epic, that it took that long to get to the point. Unfortunately, right when they got to the new worlds - SyFy cancelled the series!

There was a massive campaign, put on by the fans, to get another network to continue the series. Through a random chance meeting with the cast, Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, he decided to just finance the fourth season!

The fourth season sees our favorite crew, James Holden and his crew (Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal, and Amos Burton) investigating this new planet. There’s complications, of course, Belters vs the Earths (Royal Charter Energy), and Holden caught in the middle.

My biggest complaint about Season 4 is that it seemed like a really short story. They’re basically stuck on this planet and eventually in these ancient ruins (built by the original creators).

My other complaint is the storyline with Bobbie Draper on Mars. It just felt like it wasn’t going anywhere… I know eventually her path will lead back to Holden, but it’s not in Season 4.

I love seeing Detective Joe Miller back, and I love the new villain, head security Adolphus Murtry. Although, if you ask him, he doesn’t think he’s the bad guy, he’s only looking to protect his crew.

Anyway, give me more Expanse!

Mr Robot Season 4 Read More Mr Robot After resisting the television show Mr Robot on USA Network, I gave in and watched the first season. It was pretty good, it did remind me of plot from Fight Club... and despite figuring out the “twist” midway into the first season …

MR ROBOT
usanetwork.com

I love Mr Robot. After a long two-year break, I was ready to get back into Mr Robot on its final season.

Unfortunately, I have not been loving Season 4 at all. I feel like maybe they kept digging a hole in the story, especially since they setup one lone hacker, Elliot Alderson against the Dark Army (a cyber-terrorist organization of hardcore killers and assassins). There’s no contest… and the only reason why Elliot is alive is that BD Wong (aka Whiterose) is allowing him to live.

I understand it’s just a television show, but I’ve always thought the story and characters were grounded in reality and I can relate to the interesting hacks that Elliot was pulling off.

With Season 4, the story appears to take place in the course of a day or two days - leading up to Christmas. In those few days, you see that Elliot does sleep or eat all day! There was that getting lost in a park in the middle of nowhere, the big police chase, getting kidnapped, and then the big White Rose hack. I mean, take a break from getting hit by a car and falling down a bridge!!! It’s just hard to believe.

The show also feels very different, starting with the episode with Darlene and Dominique. That ending of will they or won’t they make it on the plane is just awful. It’s like some bad romantic comedy.

Then there’s this alternate dimension episode, which felt really out of place for Mr Robot! I couldn’t believe it, and it just didn’t make any sense.

The final two episodes will air tonight (December 22nd), and, as of this writing, I have not seen it yet… but I’m not exactly looking forward to finding out how it will end.

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GOG Galaxy 2.0 Closed Beta

Read More GOG I’m already a big GOG fan (it’s my launcher choice over Steam), so I was very happy to hear about GOG Galaxy 2.0. According to the developer, it’s the one launcher to unite them all. If it works, all my games on (Steam, Epic, …

As you know, I’m a huge GOG (Good Old Games) fan and was very excited about the news of GOG Galaxy 2.0 in June 2019. I have been using the GOG Galaxy 2.0 closed beta this past few weeks and here are some of my thoughts on it.

If you didn’t know, GOG Galaxy 2 was supposed to unite all the game launchers out there under the GOG launcher. At the time of this writing, there is only one official integration, which is Xbox. The rest, Epic, Steam, PS4, Origin, etc., are all community-created. And not all launchers are available to connect either, we’re missing some major ones like Blizzard’s Battlenet and Bethesda. I suppose you have to keep in mind that it’s still early days, and GOG is working on connections to all the major players out there… but that does mean that the problem mostly lay with the other launchers.

When everything does work, it’s beautiful. You get to see all the games you own under one area and see immediately your duplicate games or history of your game play. You can see all the games you own (I’m seeing that I own 672 across the various platforms… which is nice to know), achievements, and hours you sunk into your games.

In addition to the games, GOG also unite all your buddies and friends from across the board, and you can get a broad overview of how all your friends are doing. It also keeps track of games you recently played, as well as recent plays from other users (so you can see what’s popular with all the GOG users). It’s all very cool.

The other nice thing is that you may see games you didn’t know you own or hadn’t seen in a long time (because it’s on a launcher you rarely use).

Now for some bad news. And again, I should stress that this is still in Beta, it could change or improved by the time it’s officially launches.

First of all, your connected launchers will randomly disconnect and required you to re-log back in. I understand this is a security thing, but some launchers require more frequent passwords than others. It’s gotten to a point that it’s so annoying to put in passwords and second authentic codes that I had to disable the two-factor authentication to make it less of a pain to log into Epic every two or three days.

The other problem is that you still need those other launchers to run your games. It can get annoying, when there are multiple launchers tied to one game. For example, if I wanted to run For Honor on Epic Games, it also launches Ubisoft’s Uplay. This isn’t a problem if you’re always up-to-date on your patches, but chances are these launchers may take an additional two or three minutes to patch and update. Then, once those launchers are running, they remain running until you manually shut them down. The automatically closing down the other launchers is forthcoming, as an option you can choose, but is not available in my closed beta.

Finally, although you can connect to the two major consoles, Xbox and PS4, you can’t obviously play your games on your PC. What you can do is view your achievements and install games remotely on your primary consoles. It’s a nice feature, but it’s probably something that I probably won’t be using in the future (considering that I haven’t really used either of my consoles since I bought the Fallout iBuyPower PC in March 2019).

Hopefully, GOG will address a lot of these problems, and get official integration with the popular launchers (especially for Steam), so you won’t see these random disconnections. Plus, I’d like to see these other launchers open up and share achievements and friends (not all launchers will allow this).

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Weekend Gamer: Baldur's Gate 3, GOG Galaxy 2, and Stadia

Baldur’s Gate 3 GOG Galaxy 2 Stadia Read More GOG At least there’s still GOG (Good Old Games)... which will likely be my #1 PC gaming solution now. This company doesn’t require you to be online to play games you own. . … Nvidia I wanted the best of the best Android TV, and eventually just bought the Nvidia Shield when they had a sale. I was holding out for a new model of this device (since the internal hardware had not been changed … Games Pathfinder: Kingmaker is not out yet, but I was so excited about this game coming out on GOG that I pre-ordered it. This game is based on the Pathfinder tabletop game, which was and offspring of Dungeon and Dragons…

As a Weekend Gamer, I’m very excited about some of the news that is coming out from the forthcoming E3 2019 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). Ahead of the expo (officially starting June 11 to June 13), there are a ton of news that leaked (intentional or otherwise).



BALDUR’S GATE 3
baldursgate3.game

First, I’m very happy to hear that Larian Studios will be making Baldur’s Gate 3. The last Baldur’s Gate game came out in 2000, so it’ll be a good 20 years since the last game (considering that BG3 probably won’t launch until 2020).

As you know, I’m a huge Black Isle Studios (the original Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale game developer) and would love a modern version of their games. I’m already familiar with Larian Studios via their excellent Divinity series (owning the semi-recent Divinity: Original Sin one and two).



GOG GALAXY 2.0
gogalaxy.com

I’m already a big GOG fan (it’s my launcher choice over Steam), so I was very happy to hear about GOG Galaxy 2.0. According to the developer, it’s the one launcher to unite them all. If it works, all my games on (Steam, Epic, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Blizzard) will be accessible with Galaxy 2. On top of that, any of your friends on various launchers will also make it out - you’ll just have to authorize them once for GOG.

It sounds too good to be true and I can’t wait for it. I’ve already signed up for the beta, so I’ll let you know if it’s any good.

This could potentially fail if the other launchers refuse to play ball (or even block GOG from access).



STADIA
stadia.google.com

I think the biggest loser in this gaming news is Google’s Stadia platform - set to launch in November 2019. I will be avoiding Stadia, and you should too.

I’ll break down the problem that I have with Stadia:

It’s a subscription service at $10 a month (at launch only 31 titles will be available). That price doesn’t include any modern games. Current games, you’ll still have to shell out another $60 (or retail price) per title. Compare that to Xbox’s Game Pass ($15 a month for more games and no additional cost for current games) or Sony’s PlayStation Now ($20 a month but no additional cost for current games) or NVIDIA’s GeForce Now (currently free), it’s a hard sell.

In order to use Stadia in 2019, you’ll also have to spend $130 for their “Founder’s Edition” (which includes 3 months free… after that, you’ll have to spend another $10 a month).

You need a very fast internet connection. WiFi gaming is really not an option. This is based on my own personal experience with game streaming using other services over WiFi.

I’m not exactly sure who Stadia is meant for. As someone who buys and plays games regularly, this Stadia service is not very appealing to me at all. Hardcore games cares about frames and buffer, so playing it on their high-end CPU is preferred. Casual games don’t care about Doom or other Triple-A titles. General gamers already own a game console like PS4 or Xbox One.

Stadia just sounds like a bad joke. I can’t see a future where they’ll be the dominate format. If that’s the future, I want no part of it.

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