Master Race Brag Topic... blah blah blah

Yea waiting for console sales is brutal. Amazon is really the only place that does a good job in that area.

Sym wrote:

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:At this point I don't really care to be honest as I personally believe the quality of gaming has had a serious decline over the past generation, with few exceptions.

Quality gameplay has slowly been ostracized in favour of grandiose cinematic sequences and uber-realism. We see games developed for years at a time only to deliver disappointing 10 to 20 hour single player.

While I by no means suggest that evolution and use of technology should remain stagnant, I as a gamer of 20 years, have seen the polish over soul trend of the gaming industry become more and more prevalent or at least that is how it seems from where I stand.

Maybe I'm wrong and I'm just getting old, but on seldom occasions have I enjoyed games as much as I did, not 20 years ago when I started playing as a kid, but 10 years ago.

I love gaming and I don't see my self stop gaming, but I do see myself severely cutting back (something which I have already done to some extent) unless devs start paying as much attention to gameplay as they seems to pay to impressing the masses with the surface values.

This is why Im tiring on consoles.

All the motion control BS is killing core games. It seems all Microsoft cares about anymore is Kinect.

But I'm not talking about motion controls, I'm talking games in general, including multi-platform games that are also released on PC.

Frankly, as far as motion controls go, I think it's a great idea that can actually freshen up the way games are played, but to a certain extent. Unfortunately it's all approached from the gimmicky side and that is why it's crap as we speak. Nintendo, despite their failure with the Wii, managed to release games with quality gameplay and to some extent intuitive and original motion sensor controlling aspects. Unfortunately for them, the graphics weren't up to par with the competition, so they got ignored, because the mentality in today's generation is that if something doesn't look good, it isn't.

It's this mentally that is destroying the gaming industry as far as I am concerned.

What ever happened to mind over matter, brains over beauty? I guess they got lost somewhere between veneer and autotuning...

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:

Sym wrote:

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:At this point I don't really care to be honest as I personally believe the quality of gaming has had a serious decline over the past generation, with few exceptions.

Quality gameplay has slowly been ostracized in favour of grandiose cinematic sequences and uber-realism. We see games developed for years at a time only to deliver disappointing 10 to 20 hour single player.

While I by no means suggest that evolution and use of technology should remain stagnant, I as a gamer of 20 years, have seen the polish over soul trend of the gaming industry become more and more prevalent or at least that is how it seems from where I stand.

Maybe I'm wrong and I'm just getting old, but on seldom occasions have I enjoyed games as much as I did, not 20 years ago when I started playing as a kid, but 10 years ago.

I love gaming and I don't see my self stop gaming, but I do see myself severely cutting back (something which I have already done to some extent) unless devs start paying as much attention to gameplay as they seems to pay to impressing the masses with the surface values.

This is why Im tiring on consoles.

All the motion control BS is killing core games. It seems all Microsoft cares about anymore is Kinect.

But I'm not talking about motion controls, I'm talking games in general, including multi-platform games that are also released on PC.

Frankly, as far as motion controls go, I think it's a great idea that can actually freshen up the way games are played, but to a certain extent. Unfortunately it's all approached from the gimmicky side and that is why it's crap as we speak. Nintendo, despite their failure with the Wii, managed to release games with quality gameplay and to some extent intuitive and original motion sensor controlling aspects. Unfortunately for them, the graphics weren't up to par with the competition, so they got ignored, because the mentality in today's generation is that if something doesn't look good, it isn't.

It's this mentally that is destroying the gaming industry as far as I am concerned.

What ever happened to mind over matter, brains over beauty? I guess they got lost somewhere between veneer and autotuning...

I agree with this. Great games like Limbo and Super Meat Boy get ignored.

People are sheep, and this aspect of life is finally creeping into gaming. Everybody must play CoD! Everybody must play Gears etc

Companies dont takes risks anymore because the shit sells, ALOT. Why risk something that might lose you money when you can just put a new paint job on something and rake in the dough?

Not saying its right or that I agree with it, just that is how the industry is nowadays. Honestly as gaming got more mainstream it got shittier. Which is a rule in life.

My two cents.....horrible gamers are ruining the industry by speaking with their money.

This hurts everybody , especially people like us who have been gaming our whole lives.

Sym wrote:

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:

Sym wrote:

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:At this point I don't really care to be honest as I personally believe the quality of gaming has had a serious decline over the past generation, with few exceptions.

Quality gameplay has slowly been ostracized in favour of grandiose cinematic sequences and uber-realism. We see games developed for years at a time only to deliver disappointing 10 to 20 hour single player.

While I by no means suggest that evolution and use of technology should remain stagnant, I as a gamer of 20 years, have seen the polish over soul trend of the gaming industry become more and more prevalent or at least that is how it seems from where I stand.

Maybe I'm wrong and I'm just getting old, but on seldom occasions have I enjoyed games as much as I did, not 20 years ago when I started playing as a kid, but 10 years ago.

I love gaming and I don't see my self stop gaming, but I do see myself severely cutting back (something which I have already done to some extent) unless devs start paying as much attention to gameplay as they seems to pay to impressing the masses with the surface values.

This is why Im tiring on consoles.

All the motion control BS is killing core games. It seems all Microsoft cares about anymore is Kinect.

But I'm not talking about motion controls, I'm talking games in general, including multi-platform games that are also released on PC.

Frankly, as far as motion controls go, I think it's a great idea that can actually freshen up the way games are played, but to a certain extent. Unfortunately it's all approached from the gimmicky side and that is why it's crap as we speak. Nintendo, despite their failure with the Wii, managed to release games with quality gameplay and to some extent intuitive and original motion sensor controlling aspects. Unfortunately for them, the graphics weren't up to par with the competition, so they got ignored, because the mentality in today's generation is that if something doesn't look good, it isn't.

It's this mentally that is destroying the gaming industry as far as I am concerned.

What ever happened to mind over matter, brains over beauty? I guess they got lost somewhere between veneer and autotuning...

I agree with this. Great games like Limbo and Super Meat Boy get ignored.

People are sheep, and this aspect of life is finally creeping into gaming. Everybody must play CoD! Everybody must play Gears etc

Companies dont takes risks anymore because the shit sells, ALOT. Why risk something that might lose you money when you can just put a new paint job on something and rake in the dough?

Not saying its right or that I agree with it, just that is how the industry is nowadays. Honestly as gaming got more mainstream it got shittier. Which is a rule in life.

My two cents.....horrible gamers are ruining the industry by speaking with their money.

This hurts everybody , especially people like us who have been gaming our whole lives.

Ditto.

This is why I don't actively pursue PC gaming, because the problem is widespread.

I personally want to upgrade my PC for recording and mixing purposes, and when the time and the money comes, I'll just happen to use it for gaming as well.

I just prefer the PC for so many reasons.

But really its kinda stupid not to since all I needed to do to my recording computer was just put a gpu in.

Im in the market for a recording program right now......I currently use N track and it is OK at best.

Need something more professional...what does your band use if you know?

I want Sonar X1

I use Cubase, of course I don't pay. I highly recommend it.

Did you ever find that sound card you wanted?

Yea I found a good one, but I'm waiting a little while to get it.

Right now I record my riffs through a POD system strait into my PC. QA sucks but it works for ideas.

I really want to start programming drums again like I did on that one song I showed you ages ago, but its such a bitch and so tedious.

Without a drummer right now, so recording for us is pretty much on hold until then.

Send me the sound card model. Also, which program do you use to program drums?

Alpha Brit wrote:apparently the Xbox 720 will have an AMD Radeon HD 6670 and the PS4 will have a AMD Radeon HD 7670. if that is true then by the time they are released they will be outdated by a year or two.

its like saying, "Ford is releasing their next mustang with 400 hp, and Chevrolet is releasing their next corvette with 600 hp. Theres no reason to buy the mustang it is obsolete".

And yes Gilly is an mmo nerd.

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:Send me the sound card model. Also, which program do you use to program drums?

Ill have to find it real quick.

I use Drum Kit From Hell 2 to record drums. Old I know but it works well.

I highly doubt becoming obsolete too fast is going to be a problem with the next generation. Shit isn't improving nearly as fast as it used to be, stuff like processor speed has practically plateaued.

If they're already making it with outdated specs then yeah, but I'm gonna wait until something official. I expect for them to be ~$500-600 on release though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132014

My bass player told me thats a good card for what we need, but Im not sure hes right haha.

Sym wrote:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132014

I think you could probably find much better choices.

If you're going to go for a sound card for any kind of recording, look towards a company that has practical experience in sound, not a jack of all trades that also makes motherboards and I don't know what. Perhaps and EMU/Creative Professional or an M-Audio sound card. I would also look into it having an external dock, so you don't need to always go to the back of your tower to plug in.

Also try not to buy into stuff such as:

The ASUS Xonar Essence ST is a PCI audio card is the world’s first audio card to focus on precision clock tuning to minimize audio jitter. The result is extensive musical details and lively sound image that presents a revolutionary experience. Equipping the Xonar Essence ST with the best components and the finest design, the ST delivers a top-of-the-line audio experience with a 124 dB SNR rating. With a built-in headphone amp that can power headphones up to 600 ohms and 6.3 mm headphone jacks, the STX makes a perfect pair with high-end headphones.

as it is total BS. Equipment in the audio world, especially when crossing over into recording territory can become silly expensive. NOTHING anywhere near that price range is going to be "the best in the world" at anything. Whatsoever.

This doesn't seem all that bad, although once again there is no external dock and I am not clear on whether it supports a simple jack input (which it most likely does with all those wires):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829121011

Also I noticed that the ASUS you've chosen goes up to 192KHZ recording. YOU WILL NEVER USE THIS.
Even if you're laying down tracks for an album, you're not going to go any higher than a 96KHZ sample rate (especially if you intend to just record demos, ideas and guides, there simply is no need to go any higher than 48KHZ). Also take into consideration that my card is twice the price and although it does handle up to 192KHZ, if you change the internal clock settings often during a long period of the PC being on (because you can't listen to normal media at that rate), things go wacky. This is because none of the cards beneath the very high price range are meant to handle these sample rates with the same ease the higher end will. Of course the higher end is more expensive and meant for more serious ambitions, such as professional studio use.

Now this is what I have, I would suggest finding the middle ground between this and what you decided on:
http://www.creative.com/emu/products/product.aspx?pid=19007

Your best bet is to go to a sound/instrument store (if you're serious about recording don't buy your sound card from a normal PC store, as they tend to not specialize in stock geared towards recording) and telling a qualified employee what your needs and budget are as he can most likely show you on hand what you might need. I could go through a couple of sites and research some possible choices, but I do not know when so you might want to do something along the lines of the previous idea.

Also, it might seem strange, but many semi professional and up sound cards often do not support codecs such as Dolby Digital and such, making it not possible to play surround sound (I for instance cannot play surround sound from my xbox due to the fact that my card doesn't support it). This is because you're paying for something that is geared toward creativity and not entertainment. If you are okay with this, all the better, otherwise you may have to look at sound cards which are more meant for entertainment purposes. I personally prefer to have a superior stereo processor than a mediocre surround one.
It really depends on your needs and desires.

Sym wrote:My bass player told me thats a good card for what we need, but Im not sure hes right haha.

Don't get me wrong, it'll do, but you can do much better, especially if you up the budget just a little.

Wow man thanks for all that info.

You know way more about recording than I do, that much is certain.

Thanks for the help. Thats really good info.

No problem.

Something else:

EZdrummer is more than adequate enough for programming drums. Meshuggah's Catch 33 is all EZdrummer. So you're good there. I think the problem is that programming drums is a tiresome process any way. I know, I have been there.

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:Something else:

EZdrummer is more than adequate enough for programming drums. Meshuggah's Catch 33 is all EZdrummer. So you're good there. I think the problem is that programming drums is a tiresome process any way. I know, I have been there.

true that. We attempted to do this for a demo we wanted to do since we didn't have a drummer at the time. I wanted to kill myself after one song and that was just getting the notes down. I didn't even start to mess with editing all the velocities of each individual note. I don't think I could hack that.

Oh and Sym if you're looking for a decent DAW Check out Reaper http://www.reaper.fm/ it's very customizable and fairly user friendly I find. It's not as rigid in the way that it works as other DAWs are. You can pretty much tweak it how you want. They update and fix issues pretty often too which is always nice. You get great support in the forums. And the demo you can download from their site isn't crippled in any way so you can just keep using the full featured program forever...no need to torrent. You just get a little nag window when you boot it up but that's it. And if you felt compelled to buy a license it's only 60$ for a non-commercial license.

It's my go to DAW now. I used to use Adobe Audition 3 but the MIDI in that is just atrocious and the metronome can't change tempo in the middle of a song which was a deal breaker for me. I still use it when I need to go in and actually destructively edit a wave though. It's quite handy for that.

Also check out XLN Addictive Drums for a good drum VSTi. You can torrent it pretty easily.

@greg you probably know more than me so I have a question. What do you think of USB and/or Firewire soundcards? Is it better to go with a PCi card? I only have a laptop so I use a USB card from M-audio and latency can be an issue depending on your buffer settings. Is latency an issue with PCi cards aswell? I'm not really a PC whiz or anything but I'm thinking PCi would be faster since it's hooked directly to the motherboard.

[quote="HydrasBreath"]

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:

@greg you probably know more than me so I have a question. What do you think of USB and/or Firewire soundcards? Is it better to go with a PCi card? I only have a laptop so I use a USB card from M-audio and latency can be an issue depending on your buffer settings. Is latency an issue with PCi cards aswell? I'm not really a PC whiz or anything but I'm thinking PCi would be faster since it's hooked directly to the motherboard.

Probably...

I haven't had much hand on experience with USB/Firewire sound cards so I'm not sure. I would assume that a USB one would have even more latency problems due to connectivity, but a good Firewire one should be decent enough (I hear USB3 runs data very fast, but once again, I have not seen it first hand). A friend of mine has an M-Audio Firewire card for his tower PC and has no problems, so I think if you find the right model you're okay. As for latency in general, it's always going to be there, even in a PCi card. For instance, my card can go down to 1ms latency at best, but unless you have the memory and processing power the sound can become fucked up, so it really also has a lot to do with your computer as well I guess (I usually record at 4ms and when you're mixing it's okay to push it up to 100ms, since you don't need the small latency to actually ply an instrumnt on time). As far a laptops go, I think you'll be fine if you find the right card, even if it is an external USB/Firewire one. As I suggested to Sym, it would be a good idea to talk to a qualified employee and actually see up close what he has to reccomend for your needs.

well I already have a setup pretty much just wanted to know what your opinion was on the USB/firewire route. I have a m-audio fast track ultra. It's pretty decent. 4 preamps, 8 ins 8 outs, built in phantom power. Can record all inputs simultaneously. The latency I have is quite low really...I can go down to 4ms sometimes I start stuttering though since my laptop isn't great so sometimes I drop it to 8ms which still isn't that noticeable for me.

For me I think I would prefer an external recording card even if I did build myself a rig. I wouldn't need to keep messing with the clock every time I wanted to listen to music or watch a video. Just plug in and hit record and away I go.

PS3 was only expensive because of blu-ray.

HydrasBreath wrote:well I already have a setup pretty much just wanted to know what your opinion was on the USB/firewire route. I have a m-audio fast track ultra. It's pretty decent. 4 preamps, 8 ins 8 outs, built in phantom power. Can record all inputs simultaneously. The latency I have is quite low really...I can go down to 4ms sometimes I start stuttering though since my laptop isn't great so sometimes I drop it to 8ms which still isn't that noticeable for me.

For me I think I would prefer an external recording card even if I did build myself a rig. I wouldn't need to keep messing with the clock every time I wanted to listen to music or watch a video. Just plug in and hit record and away I go.

The Fast Track is a good card from what I've heard, and 8ms isn't all that bad, as long as you compensate for it afterward in editing.

You only need to change the internal clock if you're planning on recording at anything above 48KHZ. I usually leave mine at 48/24bit, since apps like winamp support up to 24 bit sound anyway. But I understand the benefits of plug in and play.

Having said that, I love my sound card for it's price range and would gladly go PCIe to external dock in the future again.

for all the money I spent on 3 xbox 360s,batteries,controllers,xbox live,etc.....I could of gotten a decent gaming pc

JrTapia1991 wrote:for all the money I spent on 3 xbox 360s,batteries,controllers,xbox live,etc.....I could of gotten a good gaming pc

Fixed it for you

Why did you pay for 3 Xboxs?

Sym wrote:

JrTapia1991 wrote:for all the money I spent on 3 xbox 360s,batteries,controllers,xbox live,etc.....I could of gotten a good gaming pc

Fixed it for you

Hahaha...

With the amount of money I've spent on weed I could have a super computer.

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:

Sym wrote:

JrTapia1991 wrote:for all the money I spent on 3 xbox 360s,batteries,controllers,xbox live,etc.....I could of gotten a good gaming pc

Fixed it for you

Hahaha...

With the amount of money I've spent on weed I could have a super computer.

Think of the sweet car I could be driving instead of my 96 Chevy pickup.

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:Why did you pay for 3 Xboxs?

bought a brand new one the night Gears of War 2 came out,bad disc drive.....got a used one,lasted a year and a half,got the 2 and a half red rings which weren't good enough for M$ to fix,they said it had to be the 3 red rings....then I got a black elite 120gb in May 2010 that came with Forza 3 and Halo ODST,this ones been pretty good besides freezing which I think has to do with the games/XBL

I heard the later model fat 360s were decent called the "Jasper" models,which mine is.

it's funny because I know a guy who never took care of his badly used 360,never installed a game or anything,caked in thick dust,keeps it inside a small table,never had a problem out of it.....I babied mine,and they broke =/

JrTapia1991 wrote:

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:Why did you pay for 3 Xboxs?

bought a brand new one the night Gears of War 2 came out,bad disc drive.....got a used one,lasted a year and a half,got the 2 and a half red rings which weren't good enough for M$ to fix,they said it had to be the 3 red rings....then I got a black elite 120gb in May 2010 that came with Forza 3 and Halo ODST,this ones been pretty good besides freezing which I think has to do with the games/XBL

I heard the later model fat 360s were decent called the "Jasper" models,which mine is.

it's funny because I know a guy who never took care of his badly used 360,never installed a game or anything,caked in thick dust,keeps it inside a small table,never had a problem out of it.....I babied mine,and they broke =/

What about warranties?

the 360 was supposed to have a warrenty from microsoft but they said they would charge like 120 bucks (maybe 150) to fix it .The only way it would of been free is if it had the 3 red rings mine had 2 red rings.

I guess installing the games doesn't do a damn thing after all,because my xbox broke while I was playing Fallout 3 and it was installed

Pretty interesting list, but:

That list is mostly MMOs. Not that I won't be playing some of them.

Which means 90% of them don't count. Having the most exclusive MMO's is like bragging you're the drunkest Hobo under the bridge.

Metalzoic wrote:Pretty interesting list, but:

That list is mostly MMOs. Not that I won't be playing some of them.

Which means 90% of them don't count. Having the most exclusive MMO's is like bragging you're the drunkest Hobo under the bridge.

Just curious....what MMO's have you played?

Hmmm... None actually, I killed my gaming PC right around the time Ultima Online was getting popular.

But I've stood behind people and made fun of them while they played... does that count?

Really though, I can see how they could totally suck you in. Better if I stay away from them completely and not get hooked. Hell, shooter games with an unlock system like CoD and BF are bad enough for me. I'm afraid an FPS MMO would bring my life to a grinding halt. That Planetside game does look really cool though, and if Dust had released on the Vita I definitely would have played it too (I won't on PS3 though...)

Yea Im not a huge MMO fan myself, I was just curious.

I did enjoy the Star Wars mmo and Im looking forward to Guild Wars 2. They are much better if you have IRL friends to play with, which I do.

Rectal Tenesmus wrote:

HydrasBreath wrote:well I already have a setup pretty much just wanted to know what your opinion was on the USB/firewire route. I have a m-audio fast track ultra. It's pretty decent. 4 preamps, 8 ins 8 outs, built in phantom power. Can record all inputs simultaneously. The latency I have is quite low really...I can go down to 4ms sometimes I start stuttering though since my laptop isn't great so sometimes I drop it to 8ms which still isn't that noticeable for me.

For me I think I would prefer an external recording card even if I did build myself a rig. I wouldn't need to keep messing with the clock every time I wanted to listen to music or watch a video. Just plug in and hit record and away I go.

The Fast Track is a good card from what I've heard, and 8ms isn't all that bad, as long as you compensate for it afterward in editing.

You only need to change the internal clock if you're planning on recording at anything above 48KHZ. I usually leave mine at 48/24bit, since apps like winamp support up to 24 bit sound anyway. But I understand the benefits of plug in and play.

Having said that, I love my sound card for it's price range and would gladly go PCIe to external dock in the future again.

yeah back when I was doing all my research and trying to figure out what to buy I read that it was quite decent and had good preamps for it's price range. And yeah My DAW (Reaper) can record latency compensated tracks so it does the work for me haha.

I usually record at 96kHz just cause I have the HDD space available. I know recording something like a distorted guitar at such a high sample rate is pretty much pointless but I hate having to switch the clock so I just leave it at 96kHz.