My new PC build

There comes a time in every PC man or woman's life where their old tiger simply can't perform up to par with the hub bub of newer technology. My Dell XPS 630i has finally reached its limit and now I'm necessitating an upgrade to be able to produce quality content for my channel, with not only quality commentary in all its jovial depiction, but also higher end graphics befitting of some of these worthy titles. Financially I won't be able to do this with college, bills and other concerns that unfortunately take precedence before a hobby. I'm pinching pennies and thinking incredibly hard on possible cuts to my budget in order to make a savings dedicated to this prospective goal.

It's interesting to think that at my subscriber base of currently at this writing, 5,049 individuals, that if they all donated $0.25 cents, I'd have $1,262.25 USD total. Enough to build my computer and possibly obtain Sony Vegas to produce higher quality videos.

This list I've made not only for myself, but my friend RedWantsCandy, who also needs an upgrade even more than myself.

Well, for those who are interested feel free to browse this list I've put together.

-----
GPU

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (100314-3L )

- $169.99 (159.99 after rebate)

Motherboard
ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($149.99)

CPU
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K ($219.99)

RAM
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 ($48.99)

Case
NZXT Crafted Series ATX Full Tower Steel Chassis - Phantom White with Red Trim Computer Case CS-NT-PHAN-WNR White/Red ($119.99)

CD Drive:
Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA Internal OEM Drive DRW-24B1ST (Black) ($22.24)

PSU
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom ($76.49)

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive - WD5000AAKX ($58.00)

$865.68 total not counting rebates, taxes or S&H.
*Does not include cost of a new monitor. 23” minimum size required.

Additional thoughts:

CD-Drive: If you watch movies and burn CDs. It may be worth looking into a CD-drive with blu-ray and the capability to write to discs.

Case: Of course the case is up to you, just make sure it reviews well on ventilation and size.

Video Card: If you cut costs on the case or anything else. Then it would be best to get a 560ti, but to check with me on the card itself. Not all cards perform the same as they’re made under different manufacturers. This would be the best future proofing card.

Generation of Recycled Ideas

        In over a decade of game development there has never been, in my opinion, such an epidemic of reprocessed ideas being spewed out for consumers to eat up. While there are the known sequential series like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and so forth. However this concept of continuing to indulge in what works, has gone up and beyond what could be considered literary justice to the existing franchises. Some of the most telling stories are those that end, which is something very human that everyone can relate to.

Naturally there is no need for me to bring up the Halo franchise, or the beaten to death concept of Call of Duty. Personally the nuance of creating an epic, cinematic experience has been lost upon me. Perhaps once upon a time, I could feel awe, or an overwhelming notion of inspiration in seeing something truly grand in terms of visual representation. Now everything is meant to be epic, therefore the scope and grandeur of it has been lost. This isn’t aided by the lack of innovation in storytelling that admittedly has few exceptions to that esteemed list of uniqueness.

If you think this is just inherent cynicism, then take a look at this list of most anticipated games for 2012 on IGN here. Once you’ve personally reviewed the list, you may begin to understand where this criticism of a faltering industry is coming from. When I use the term faltering, I’m not indicating a lack of profit, or some downfall, but rather a decline in exciting new ideas.

One of the most exciting nexuses of innovation is derived from independent gaming. Whether you have Endless Space, Mount & Blade, or countless other games developed by small studios. They’re playing with smaller teams and budgets, therefore are capable of taking more risks. The outdated publisher method that for some reason has been adapted from the music and movie industry has failed to truly profit gaming development teams.

You won’t be seeing many game developers living a six figure lifestyle much like you’d see someone at let’s say EA. Unless of course, you’ve learned to exclude the third party publisher and internally fund your projects. Valve or even the more recent Mojang being prime examples of this exciting feat. So in my view, I do agree that recycled ideas does not equal innovation. It’s appeasing investors in companies with something that is safe and assured to sell. While that is smart business, this is not healthy for an industry that could be considered an art in itself. Once the publishing model is eliminated, then perhaps we’ll see more work that gaming studios would like to release rather than being forced to meet the demands of a calculating businessman.

Then And Now

Well, it finally happened. May 1st is when my partnership application was finally processed through TGN.tv.

It was a rather somber moment for me to be honest, preceded by a sudden feeling of jubilation. I uploaded my first videos on September 3rd, 2011 with my amazing friend Brian (RedWantsCandy). From that day to now, I have 1,310,361 views and 3,013 subscribers. Without any goals or idea that I'd get this far, I kept trudging on. I did my best to provide entertaining content for those who enjoyed listening to me. I'm still a small fry, but that's fine with me.

One thing I learned is to never lose a humble spirit, which I try to apply to every aspect of my life. I know some people who become icons, or assume positions of authority, lose that kindness they may of initially had. I try to respond to everyone, though the volume of people has made that quite difficult.

Now I'm continuing various series, even beginning one with Gondor for Third Age Total War. I tend to revolve my series around mods, rather than playing the vanilla games. It's just my preference, really, but of course I've built a fan base off of this.

I do want to thank all of you for sticking with me throughout this ride. Chatting with me on Facebook or Twitter is honestly is the easiest way to get a direct response from me.

How to install and play The Last Days of the Third Age

How to install and play The Last Days of the Third Age.

Step One: Go to this site.

Click the images for a larger picture!

Step 2: Extract the .rar to a location of your choosing
(Don't have Winrar? Go here)

Step 3: Copy the folder you extracted from the .rar.

Step 4: Find your Mount and Blade modules folder.
(If using W7 and you had purchased it from Steam, then it should be here:
Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > mountblade > modules. If from a different site, it'll be under program files > Mount&Blade > modules.)

Step 5: Go into your TLD 3.1 folder and right click on the ironlauncher.exe, then click 'create shortcut'. Bring this to your desktop. You will use this to launch the game, otherwise you'll get an error.

Step 6: Use ironlauncher.exe's shortcut you created in step 5 to launch the game. Then enjoy the game! Don't forget to thank the creators on their site!