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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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Top 5 PC games to play in a dull class

Got a professor that allows you to use laptops in your class and doesn’t actually care if you pay attention or not? Why not abuse the crap out of it and become the reason they change the syllabus to not allow computers anymore? I did, and it felt great.

Steam, my preferred online game store has a plethora of indie games available that a strawberry pop-tart could run. And, because many of them are 2D, you don’t actually need to use your mouse, and you can avoid suspicion.

Here are some of my favorite games that you can play in class and get away with it (just remember to Alt+Tab to Microsoft Word when they get near you).

5. One Finger Death Punch

This $5 indie game is exactly what it sounds like. A game you can play with one finger. Because the controls are so simple, you won’t be making much noise as you completely ignore your professor to beat the crap out of stick figures.

4. 20XX

A procedurally generated, rogue-like shooter platformer inspired by the old school Megaman X games, 20XX is a great time killer that, as of the most recent patch, you can save and quit in the middle of a run with no worries about losing your progress. With daily challenges being offered by the game devs, you’ll find something new to do every time you boot the game up in class.

3. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth/Afterbirth

A rogue-like, dungeon crawling, two-stick-shooter, The Binding of Isaac Rebirth takes its inspiration from the 1986 Legend of Zelda. Because it’s a rogue-like, once you die, you have to start over from the beginning, which may seem like a bad thing, but because the upgrade drops are completely random, and the dungeons are procedurally generated, no run will ever be the same. You can play this game all semester, and provided you like it, never get bored of it.

2. Undertale

Offering a unique spin on an old RPG combat system, Undertale allows you to spare your enemies, rather than killing them. Depending on how you play the game and how you treat the people you encounter, your experience with the game will be completely different with each play-through, and it’s 30+ endings means you can play the game countless times and still not know how it will end.

1. Cave Story

Up until the release of Minecraft, Cave Story was the poster child for indie games. Released in 2004, this shooter-platformer is a mixture of Mega Man gameplay, with Metroid style exploration. Each weapon, upgrade, and health power-up not only changes the way you play the game, but also changes the ending of the game. Truly standing the test of time, it’s still widely regarded as one of the greatest indie games of all time.

0. Your entire Steam library

If you’re an absolute madman and have a powerful computer, you can download this software called Hammachi to both your laptop and your desktop. After doing this, create two accounts with the service (one for each computer) and then create a virtual private network (VPN) for your two computers. Assuming you already have the steam client downloaded to both your computers, you set your desktop so that it never goes to sleep, and set your games to Stream in steam rather than Play/Install via the drop down arrow in your library. You may need to adjust the streaming settings for both the host computer and your laptop (namely, you’ll need to turn off encoding and decoding on your desktop and laptop respectively, but after a few tweaks, you can stream your games directly to your laptop over any wifi connection, though if your WiFi is too slow, it’ll be pretty pixelated. You’ll also probably be kicked out of class for playing DOOM in class, since you’ll be doing a lot of clicking.

#college #gaming #pcmasterrace #undertale #tech

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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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PSA: Nvidia GTX 1080′s $100 Price Drop

2017 has proven to be a great year for PC enthusiasts such as myself. Recently we’ve seen the release of the GTX 1080 Ti, the most powerful GPU on the market; the release of the Ryzen 7 chips, AMD’s first attempt at an enthusiast level CPU in years; and most recently, Nvidia has announced that its former flagship, the GTX 1080 will be getting a $100 price drop. This will mean that its starting price is now just $500, the same price as the 1070 when the 10- series was launched. Even though the 1080 Ti is the much more powerful older brother, the standard 1080 is still nothing the sneeze at. It will still be powerful enough to play most games in 4k definition, provided that you have the monitor for it, and will undoubtedly run any game at 1080p well above 60 FPS, with many games seeing a stunning 144 FPS experience (again provided you have the monitor for it).

If I weren’t already saving up to purchase the $700 1080 Ti, I would definitely be jumping at the opportunity to snap one of these up for the price. Though, if the insane price gouging going on with the new tech doesn’t end soon, I may have to settle for the standard 1080.

#nvidia #gaming #technology #pcmr #nvidia gtx 1080

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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City Review *SPOILERS*

Having been a late adopter of the Souls’ series, I hadn’t been around to experience the original Dark Souls and Demons Souls in their heyday. However, I did jump in just as my personal favorite, Bloodborne was released. I’ll have to admit, at first I hated the series. I thought the controls were stupid, I thought it was too hard, and the pre-patch loading screens for Bloodborne were unbearable. However, after hacking and slashing my way to the first boss, The Cleric Beast, and managing to defeat him on my third try, I was immediately hooked to the unique adrenaline rush I’d never before gotten from playing games before.

Within a few months, I had snapped up every game that From Software, the developers of Bloodborne, had released in the past 6 or so years. For nearly 2 years, the Souls games were the only games I ever played. As a gamer, after I graduate next year, the thing I will remember most about college is falling in love with the series and spending weekends and summers with friends playing through the games multiple times, creating new builds with each new run and fighting my friends with them, and doing challenge runs where I did not allow myself to level up my character.

In those 2 short years, I had fallen in love with the worlds of the games, specifically the world of Dark Souls. It was this massive world with lore that now spans 3 games, and 6 expansions, but now, after 8 years, the Souls series has come to a bittersweet end.

The DLC is accessed by the bonfire (the games version of checkpoints and fast-travel) in the Kiln of the First flame, where the final battle of the base game takes place. It can only be accessed after completing the first DLC as well as the base game, which tells us that the events that take place all occur after the conclusion of the game. In other words, the DLC is the series finale.

Upon sitting at the bonfire, you are teleported to a crumbling citadel with church-like buildings collapsing and falling off the cliff into a seemingly bottomless abyss. You are soon greeted by an angel that immediately begins to fire at you, and you must quickly run for cover. As you make your way through the rest of the area, the buildings become less and less common, fading into burned down buildings and dunes made of ash. You are greeted with two more demons, both of which can be killed and never respawn, implying that they are the last of their kind. This area made me worried about the quality of the DLC. This first area had fairly lazy and confusing level design that left me wandering with no sense of direction, all the while being shot at by angles that could kill you within a single round of firing their bows.Eventually, with the help of my friend with his tablet, I managed to find the *VERY DIFFICULT* jump I had to make from the cliff onto a tree branch below that is competely obscured until you get to the ledge. I probably spent two hours in that area, completely enraged. I complained the entire time about how FromSoft had completely flushed away everything they had built a reputation for in terms of level design with their final DLC. However, after making it to the next bonfire and jumping off the cliff, I plunged into an enormous cavern where I immediately was thrown into battle with the first boss of the game. It starts with you fighting 2 demons that switch between toxic and fire based damage, and you have to stay aware of the location of the other demon while attacking the one of your choice. After dispatching the first, you can then focus on the second. After killing both, the bosses’ health bars disappear, but you don’t get the familiar “Heir to the Fire Slain” message. Instead, you hear a scream and the last demon you killed stands up, except this time much larger than before and brandishing a new name: The Demon Prince. The entire fight is reminiscent of the infamous Ornstein and Smough fight, and I immediately fell in love with it. After a few tries I managed to slay him, and once again, I felt the same rush that I had felt the first time I killed a boss in the series. By this time, I was feeling better about the sendoff to the series, but I wasn’t convinced yet.

However, no more demons or angels ever showed up again, most likely meaning that both races are now extinct. Knowing that the gods have all been dead for over a hundred years, the last one being killed by Aldritch, the Devourer of Gods, the player truly is alone. There are no longer any supernatural forces, either good or evil at work anymore.

The next area has the player ducking behind cover similarly to fleeing the angels, except this time, it’s an entire wall of archers firing at you with arrows that you can *actually* dodge. Seeing the ethereal forms of the ghost archers appearing all at once to kill you was one of the most awe inspiring,as well as dread inspiring, moments in the series.

Passing this, you get into the the collapsing remnants of the last city of humanity, which has slowly devolved into a swamp. Getting through here, you find the boss Halflight, This boss has you fighting both the main boss as well as another player that the boss summons in to fight alongside him.

After killing him, you find a temple with a woman holding a broken orb. Touching the orb causes the player to go into a hypnotic state and the world around you crumbling. When the cutscene ends, you step out of the now destroyed temple onto a gigantic desert of ash. It’s very clear that you’ve gone into the future, but it is a future almost completely barren of life. As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but ash.

Stepping out into the ash, you’ll see a king that has been severed in two, crawling towards you trying to escape the “red hood”. After progressing a bit further, the final cutscene of the series begins, the final boss fight commences. The arena is by far the largest in the series, and the jagged terrain of the dunes makes for a very fun boss fight. He fights a lot like the Knight Artorias from the orginal game’s DLC at first but getting him to lower health lets him attack with his cape, a machine gun like crossbow, and if that weren’t enough, a storm begins brewing, eventually meaning you have to avoid being struck by lightning as you’re fighting him. It was an extremely intense fight, and choosing to go for a more subdued aesthetic for the final boss reflects the more somber tone of the DLC. Killing him rewards you with the blood of the Dark Soul, not the Dark Soul itself, as he had absorbed it.

There is also an optional boss where you fight a dragon, who has the biggest health pool of any boss in the series, and also has some of the most difficult to avoid attacks in the series. To get to him, you have to knock him off the bridge you cross to fight Halflight, and then follow a series of secret tunnels to get to his arena. You jump down into a cave filled with water, and the limp body of the dragon is lying on the far side of the cavern. Walking towards him brings him to his senses and the fight beings.

As I started playing last night, I have not yet killed this boss.

Now for a bit of lore:

The base game’s canon ending is where you extinguish the flame, ushering in the age of darkness. Up until now, it was believed that doing so would end the Age of Fire (also known as the Age of Gods), and usher in the new age, the Age of Dark (or the Age of Man). With the fire burning, humanity, which had been created by the Dark Soul could not thrive, so it would make sense that extinguishing the flame would allow them to do so. However, because we flash forward in time in the DLC, we can see that this is not the case. In fact, the world began to rot and die because it no longer had the flame. And with the player going through and killing everything, you are extinguishing all hope of anything ever being rebuilt.

Flash forward to the final boss, Slave Knight Gael. He was fetching the furtive pigmy (or the Dark Soul) to bring back to his mistress who needed it to paint (I don’t understand it either). However, after coming into contact with it, he was driven mad and killed the royal pigmy family (the ones chosen by the Dark Soul). And he absorbs the Dark Soul into himself. However, when you kill him, you don’t get the Dark Soul itself, you get its blood, meaning that you killed the Dark Soul. With no Dark Soul, humanity has no chance of being restored. You have literally ended the last life in the world.

That seems to be about as depressing as you can get, but it gets worse. Because you killed Nito, the keeper of the Death Soul in Dark Souls 1, there is no God of Death anymore, and no more afterlife. And the last two being left to live, yourself and the painting lady, are not only immortal but infertile.

You are the villain in Dark Souls.

Final Words:

I was extremely nervous after the first DS3 DLC that the sendoff to the series was going to be a let down, and I was kind of disappointed that there was no cutscene after killing the final boss, but after thinking about it and creating my own interpretation of the lore, the momentous weight of this ending is going to be something that sticks with me for a long time. The 4 fresh bosses that are all difficult but fair, and the stunning visuals of the levels reminded me of why I fell in love with the series in the first place.

Sure, I’ll replay the games over and over again just like always, but knowing that I will be responsible for the apocalypse of the world that I have grown to love over the past few years will haunt me forever, and that, I think is the most beautiful ending I could have asked for.

Final Score: 9/10

#dark souls #dark souls 3 #the ringed city #gaming #dlc

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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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Has soccer finally made it as a mainstream American sport?

I am a big fan of soccer, known commonly as football to the rest of the world. In the U.S., soccer’s popularity has been eclipsed by American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. But, according to recent trends, this is going to change. Soccer is going to be a beautiful gift to this new land.

If we start flipping the pages of the past, we can clearly see the craze of the people starting to fill the hearts, and the stadium during soccer game. On Sunday, July 5, the U.S. women’s soccer team overwhelmed Japan in an incredible World Cup final with a 5-2 victory. This win was very special because more than 25.4 million U.S. viewers watched the game, making it the most-viewed soccer game in U.S. TV history.

Another example: When compared to the other major 2015 summer sports events, the Women’s World Cup finals viewership beat out the NBA Finals (19.94 million viewers) and the Stanley Cup finals (5.5 million viewers).

It’s majestic that people are loving soccer more and more in the recent days.

In addition to the amount of views and viewers, American news is benefiting greatly from soccer. Even before the finals, ratings for the 2015 Women’s World Cup were up 45% from the previous series in 2011. While the Fox network estimated about $17 million in ad revenue from the 2015 series, each victory for the U.S. team during the series drove increased viewership and advertiser demand.

Furthermore, more kids are playing soccer in the U.S. in present years compared to last years. Also, social media buzz in the U.S. for major soccer tournaments is doubling every year. Hope, in coming days, soccer will bring out the peace and the love among people and countries. With all this being said, I think soccer is slowly and gradually being a mainstream sport in USA.

#sports #soccer #football #world cup #american sports

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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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How Biology Students Feel While Preparing for Symposium

As the semester draws to a close, symposium is almost upon us. Every biology student has probably experienced at least one of these things the night before the big day.

1. When you’ve printed everything out and start cutting paper faster than you thought was humanly possible.

2. Your hands are now covered in glue and paper cuts but you no longer care.

3. Realizing a piece of construction paper is glued on crooked and just going with it.

4. Looking at someone else’s poster and seeing that you formatted your references incorrectly.

5. Finishing your poster and feeling extreme relief.

Don’t forget to come out to the library on April 11th from 6-10 pm to prep for symposium!

#science symposium #biology #college life

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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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PC Gaming for Beginners (Part 2)

So you’ve made the decision to switch from console to PC, a big step in the right direction. For that, I commend you. You have made the first step towards ascension. But now you’re gonna need to drop some cash to get your build going. Now that you’ve started your journey, your computer is going to depend ENTIRELY on your budget. For the $0-$200 range, you’re better off buying a PS3 or a used PS4. For that little, you’re not going to get much power UNLESS you buy used parts, like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KusG3hA1ONU For <$500, you’re better off going with a pre-built computer or again, building with used parts. While a pre-built won’t be as customizable as a computer built by you, it will be noticeably cheaper because of deals on Windows 10 that the manufacturer gets.

The first thing you need to know about buying prebuilt is that you should NEVER, and I mean NEVER buy a Mac for gaming. Not only are they overpriced for their components, they also have very little support from game developers, not that you’d be able to run their games anyway.

The second thing you need to know is that the only way to get a good computer is to stop thinking of computers by what brand they are. There aren’t any computer manufacturers that actually make their own parts (except for ASUS, and even then they only make motherboards as far as I know).

Third, you need to keep your expectations realistic. While a $500 computer will be leagues better than a console, it’s not going to be running the newest AAA titles with maxed out settings at 60 FPS. Here are a couple of good pre-built computers you can get for 500 or less: https://www.amazon.com/CyberpowerPC-Gamer-GUA880-Gaming-Desktop/dp/B011B9E928/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1490807791&sr=1-3&keywords=gaming+computer&refinements=p_36%3A-50000 CyberpowerPC Ultra Gamer: $487

This computer seems to be the best bang for your buck with a powerful 3.8 GHz AMD-FX4300 preocessor, 1 TB Hard Drive, 8 GB of RAM, and a respectable Nvidia GT 720. While you won’t be maxing out any games, you can run most modern games comfortably at a steady 60 FPS, and the included keyboard and mouse shaves off even more of what you’d have to spend, coming in at just under $500. The processor and memory will also be powerful enough if you wanted to upgrade your graphics card later down the road to an Rx 470 or 480.

iBUYPOWER https://www.amazon.com/iBUYPOWER-AM720FX-Gaming-Desktop-FX-4300/dp/B00SV7ITKM/ref=sr_1_24?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1490807791&sr=1-24&keywords=gaming+computer&refinements=p_36%3A-50000

With similar specs to the last computer, this rig comes with Wifi, a nice, if unnecessary addition to a gaming PC for when there aren’t any wired connections available.

Now, if you’re going to spend $500-$1000, that’s where the real fun begins. Here are 2 $1000 builds that I’ve done personally.

With $1000 you can run pretty much anything with completely maxed out settings at 60 FPS.

In case you’re wondering what that looks like, here’s a screenshot I took of The Witcher 3 on my computer:

To build a computer, there are only 8 things you need: -A case -A Motherboard -A power supply (PSU) -A processor (CPU) -A CPU cooler -A graphics processor -Memory (RAM) -Storage (HDD, SSD, or SSHD)

And finally, here are some builds (created by me) for various price ranges. Codename: Furiosa: $641

For $650, you get your PC, your mouse and keyboard, AND your monitor, something that previously hadn’t been included. It also comes with speakers so you won’t have to use headphones whenever you game (though you should). With a quad-core FX-4350, 8 GB of RAM, and an RX 480, you’ll be running nearly everything with the exception of the most demanding of titles at max settings at a smooth 60 FPS. This computer will last you a solid 3 or 4 years before you have to think about upgrading any parts. Link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rygCvV

Codename: Mephisto: $854

With the FX-4350′s big brother, the octa-core FX-8350, your processor will be able to handle even the most strenuous of loads. The new, more powerful Seagate Firecuda SSHD will allow for blindingly fast loading times, and the sleek, InWin 303 case comes with a tempered glass panel so you can show people your components.

Link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8jWKbj Codename: Niflheim: $1095

Now that we’ve gotten into the enthusiast class of PC building, the prices are going to go up significantly with each level. This monster of a computer WILL run anything you want at max settings, and its 2 TB SSHD will mean you can download as many games as you like before adding in another hard drive. The Intel i5-6500 will not only handle playing your games, but it’ll let you stream it at the same time. Your disk drive will also let you watch movies and take ISOs (disk images) directly from your favorite old games. This monster is all the power you will ever need, but why stop there? Link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CF49Ps Codename: Ragnarok $2491

If you’ve got more money than sense, this is the computer for you. This is the most powerful computer you can possibly build without running into issues from having too much raw power. Tempered glass panels, a 5 TB hard drive to store everything you could ever want, a super fast 250 GB M.2 SSD for near instantaneous boot times, the most powerful consumer processor and graphics cards on the market, and liquid cooling to keep the thing from overheating. This is as close to a future proof computer you’ll ever be able to build with current technology. You’ll be gaming in 4K with this beast, and still getting 60 FPS. This thing will do ANYTHING you want it to. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8bRqXH If you’ve made it this far, Congratulations, and I wish you luck on your build. You don’t necessarily have to use the lists I included, but those can be a good guide to building. Stick around for my How To on building the system.

#pcmasterrace #pc #diy #tech #gaming

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quietzzzone-blog · 8 years ago

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PC Gaming for Beginners (Part 1)

Are you a gamer that’s tired of paying $60-120 every year just to play games online? Are you fed up with the limited selection of games available for your $400 machine? Do you wish you could play the games of your childhood but just have no means to do so without going out and buying an old console that might not even work? If you answered yes to any of these, it is time for you to ascend to the Glorious PC Master Race.

Now, it may be a bit scary to ascend at first. It’s a much larger initial investment than with a console, but it is a much better choice. Let’s say you go with a cheaper, $600 build. Not only will it last you longer than a PS4 Pro will last (we’re already halfway through this console generation) you will also pay less for games and you won’t have to play online. If you’re a serious gamer and you want a console, let’s face it, you’re gonna go with the PS4 Pro. The price starts at 399.99, but then you have to buy PS Plus which will set you back another $60,and while you’re at it, you’ll probably pick up another controller like I did when I bought my PS4. That brings your price up to $520. Buy a game for $60 and you’re up to $580. You’ve already spent the same amount of money, and you’re getting a worse experience. And in a few years when it’s time to upgrade to the next generation, rather than dropping $500 on a new console or waiting til it gets cheaper, you can sell the part in your computer that isn’t powerful enough to handle the new games and use that money to buy a more powerful, modern part without losing access to any of your old games.

Current gen consoles are limited to playing this generation’s games, with the exception of the Xbox One which is now starting to support backwards compatibility. On the other hand, PCs can play games from 20 years ago (like Half Life or Daggerfall) without any trouble, and you can also emulate the games from your childhood like Super Mario Galaxy or even further back like Silent Hill.

As a college student, your time is limited. So you won’t get all that much time to play games, so it may seem that you have no need to make that big of an investment just to play a few games every once in a while. But that argument actually works against consoles. You would only use those while gaming or watching Netflix, something PC can do as well. However, PCs are much more versatile because on top of those things, you can also do homework, browse facebook, go on Youtube, and Skype! So not only will you be able to spend more time on your PC, you’ll actually save time while using it.

In order to keep prices down, consoles use inferior parts that cause their speeds to be much lower. However, PC doesn’t have this problem, because you can make it as fast or as slow as you want it to be. A game that would take a minute or two to load will now only take seconds. This may seem insignificant, but if you were to have 10 loading screens in the 2 hours you play, that would mean 20 minutes of loading on console as opposed to just under 2 minutes. That means there’s an extra 18 minutes you can spend in game. Doing so means you’d be 15% more productive while on PC than on console.

Finally, gaming on a PC provides you with a unique experience. There’s no words to describe the feeling you get while gaming on something you built yourself. Aside from that, no employer will care about the fact that you play a bit of Playstation or Xbox every once in a while. However, if you tell them that you built your own computer, that could make you more attractive in an increasingly technological world. Knowing how to fix computers and build them is a very useful skill. Not only will you save money in the event something goes wrong with your computer, you can also put that on your resume as a skill. Believe it or not, building your own computer is really simple, cost effective, and enjoyable. And for a gamer that wants the best value for his dollar, PC gaming is the way to go. Stick around for my guide to building your own/ buying a pre-built computer for gaming. JP

#gaming #ps4 #xbox one #pcmasterrace

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