MAZOC Nerd clubhouse

FPenvy

So to all of the hardcore pc guys in here do any of you guys use steam? And also have you been following CES and all the "steam machines" people have been announcing? I'm not a pc guy at all but this all seems interesting.

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4r3s

You're exactly the type of person they are marketing these boxes to! I think the biggest problem they will have initially is getting people to develop games for linux (SteamOS runs on a variant of linux). But I have a feeling developers will be happy to shed the world of Microsoft and DirectX its just going to take some time.

I'm personally most excited about a streaming machine. All the current SteamBoxes are equipped with fairly hefty hardware. I want to use my own personal computer I built to run the games and then use a very small form factor pc at my TV to stream the games. This is what I am excited for the most to date. the controller sounds interesting and I'm willing to give it a go but I have my doubts.

FPenvy

yes i agree. i myslef or any hardcore console gamer is their main target. i think most of the hardcore PC guys arent trying to have a "living room" experience on a TV or anything but then again you have PC gamers who use 42"+ monitors for gaming. essentially it's the same thing then lol

as for the linux stuff i could honestly care less lol that never really interested me in getting over a battle between it or MS/DX. although you can say i back MS/DX since i am a big xbox fanboy and xbox got its name from using the direct "X" system lol

my main gripe with steam and that whole thing is that it's basically like the hipster equilvilant of gaming. it's all about early alphas/betas and who played it first nonsense. also they do run some awesome deals on older/other games as well so dont get me wrong there. it is a nice platform of gaming and ways to access/obtain games. i still just find it laughable about the early offering stuff. i guess im a older gamer since i still think when i buy a game it should be you know finished lol but i do love with online stuff now they can update games with rosters for sports games and new maps/game types. i just hate things like GTA needing a million patches to run correctly. thats just awful to me but i still love the game lol

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dmhenderson

My tl;dr on the steam machine situation is that they are basically Alienware with a fancy proprietary OS but without the suck. They are dedicated gaming machines.

Unfortunately for Cody, you can't use them to play LoL or DotA.

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FPenvy

some new thing Razor is making looks disgusting. it's a modular PC set-up with parts you just snap into a main tower piece. i dont PC game much at all but this set-up just looks awesome. even has a LCD screen for hardware statuses and maintence info.

Razer Re-invents Gaming Desktops with the World's Most Modular PC Concept Design | Razer™ | For Gamers. By Gamers.™

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4r3s

The idea is cool that just about anyone could build a nice computer with this solution but sooner than later the backbone is going to become obsolete and have to be replaced. The architectures change so fast because they have to keep up with all the new chipsets for new processor families.

FPenvy

still looks awesome though lol

also reminds me of the block phone idea. seriously one of the best ideas i've seen.

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XiP

Changing out the motherboard/CPU/ram should be pretty easy though

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4r3s

All I was getting at is that at some point the buses are going to be too small for the processor/memory/etc and its going to require additional pins. typically this happens when there are new processors being released that use a new socket type offering new features. Pretty much anytime you upgrade your cpu you are going to need to build a new computer. That's been my experience at least.

4r3s

It didn't used to be like that. I've been on steam for 10+ years and the whole greenlight, alpha/beta early access junk is recent within the past year. I'm right there with you, I don't buy games until they're fully released.

The nice thing about steam is that it downloads and applies the updates for you automatically. A patch on a console usually means something is seriously broken because the developers have to pay MS to release a patch. A patch on a pc game is usually expanding the content of the game but not always.

All of those boxes are FUGLY too. I don't understand why no one has anything decent looking yet. I will likely be building my own small form factor pc and dual booting windows and SteamOS on it for my media center.

I would imagine DOTA is going to be ported to linux since Valve owns the game now I believe. Just really a matter of time to get developer buy in.

FPenvy

[QUOTE=4r3s;2642169]It didn't used to be like that. I've been on steam for 10+ years and the whole greenlight, alpha/beta early access junk is recent within the past year. I'm right there with you, I don't buy games until they're fully released.

The nice thing about steam is that it downloads and applies the updates for you automatically. A patch on a console usually means something is seriously broken because the developers have to pay MS to release a patch. A patch on a pc game is usually expanding the content of the game but not always.
QUOTE]

well with the xbox one now and the low power standby mode it'll automatically download and apply updates while it is "off" and you're not home or playin etc... which is nice because soemtimes with like COD and the new playlists/maps the updates on 360 would take anywhere from 5-20 minutes or so. when you take the time to download a whole map pack the last thing you want is more wait time for the playlist patch lol.

the Halo 3 beta may have been one of the only betas i was ok with it lol it was amazing and to be honest it didnt feel like a beta at all. that was more or less a "hey heres the MP. go play it tell us what sucks and what is good." it was the community having a voice in the final product. the early stuff on steam is bascially you paying to be a tester lol it's a very clever way these low-level start up game designers are getting around costs and taking advantage of gaming retards wanting to be "on the cutting edge and forefront" of gaming aka being gaming hipsters lol.

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dmhenderson

Uh..DotA can't be played on the Steam Machine because it's geared towards console gaming. DotA can't be played with a controller - it requires a keyboard/mouse.

Apparently, it's a running joke around Valve HQ

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4r3s

I feel like you mean pc gaming in your first sentence? I thought their new fangled controller was supposed to supplant the keyboard and mouse?