Invalid characterset or character set not supported Forgotten Anne...





Forgotten Anne...
November 22, 2018

I suppose I should have seen it coming, and I won't dive too deep now, but it's good. So far. Consistent animation, variable voice acting - how many productions have top notch VA? This is coming from Square/Enix, there shouldn't be an excuse for this. It's a beautiful game, almost lush; the world is written with deep lore and a satirical sense of humour that just doesn't seem possible in North America.

Of course I'm wondering just how predictable it is. I see some of the setups already; a questionable motivation, a naive protagonist... been there done that. That's okay, too, if it's well done - and so far, it is. So here's hoping the rest of the ride is of the same quality.

Meanwhile...

Does it interest anyone else that Intel has walked face first into a brick wall? The last two generations of CPUs aren't new, and the 9th Gens are literally soldered versions of the last gen. I get it: Intel's in a tight spot. EUV lithography isn't ready for prime time yet. At present Samsung is the only company publicly talking about their work on it. There's no easy move here, because they need to retool their entire process - or large portions of it.

I have no sympathy for Intel at this point. They painted themselves into a corner, and so help me if Apple's sluggish approach to hardware upgrades makes just a smidgen more sense now. What's the rush? Impatience, cost recouping, sure - I get it. They're locked in a cycle with billions of R&D invested. It's not as though I want them to fail.

More cores and PCI lanes are crucial for productivity, but as gamers our needs are - shall we say - more specific. While I'm on the topic, I'm of the opinion that the industry is approaching technology all wrong. We need to equalize performance across all components of the PC in addition to reducing how many their are. Competition makes this a complicated proposition, however. Absolutely PC manufacturers and engineers understand this. I've seen some splendid moves in the right direction, and certainly smartphones are the best example of that gap bring bridged.

As for my own needs, I'm still more than getting by with my i7 2600 and GeForce 1030, and my little ol' laptop for writing. That said I game almost exclusively on my Switch now, and at the moment my massive Steam library is irrelevant. How rational is that? It's not, really, except that it's a choice to combat RSI. I plan to pick up a vertical mouse this winter, and yes, I know it's not ideal for gaming either. The Switch is more interesting right now, and certainly gets a lot more attention on HG, at any rate.

I'd like to lay this out: If you're planning an upgrade, what's your timeline and plan?

If not, why?

I have long term plans to upgrade my faithful reclaimed retail HP PC, but they're looong term. This wee beastie serves my needs admirably, and if absolutely needed can suffer one or two upgrades in the interim. I'd like to stay in i7 category performance, though that necessitates spending more than I can afford, were I to build a new machine from scratch. So, it'll wait, but I am watching their next moves like a hawk.

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Feedback
honestgamer honestgamer - November 23, 2018 (10:28 AM)
I think PC gaming gets the most attention on HG, except attention I shower on the Switch. And admittedly, that's a lot of attention because Switch is my favorite thing in gaming right now, but PC coverage still has the lead.

Also, it's funny how almost no one spells "Forgotton Anne" properly when they talk about it. That's an "on" at the end of the first word, which isn't normally the proper spelling of that word. But when you're talking about the game itself, "en" is wrong. Even Nintendo got it wrong in a press email they sent me...
hastypixels hastypixels - November 24, 2018 (12:59 PM)
What are they thinking? They're special? What's it, a title or something? Seesh these people. Okay, flat out - some puns make sense, but I do hope there's a worthwhile payoff for that clever little typo of theirs.

So I take it there's no plans to upgrade any time soon, huh?
honestgamer honestgamer - November 25, 2018 (10:17 AM)
I've had my PC desktop for a few years now and it is getting tired. But I bought a really good one the last time I bought one, and it still does most of what I need it to do without much in the way of complaints. When I do finally upgrade, I'll probably want to spend somewhere around $1200 and do things right again, and I have nowhere near that sort of budget now or in any easily predictable future. So an upgrade probably isn't happening in the next year or maybe more for that very boring reason.
hastypixels hastypixels - November 29, 2018 (11:02 PM)
My little HP Retail is ticking along just fine and is fast as all get go once I threw an SSD into it with its maximum capacity RAM. It works out that it replaced the sluggish six core AMD CPU that was struggling to keep up. 2011 tech still swinging like a champ. I don't see much reason to upgrade, except that I've got this feeling I need to.

You can accomplish a lot with refurbished hardware, especially when you're not using for high definition video rendering - which it does well, but slowly compared to anything new. Which, I should mention is where Intel is stuck. They're quite desperate to produce anything beyond 14nm at this point, and are rumoured to be sliding 10 core consumer CPUs across the table next year to counter the release of Zen 2, which will be running a new 7nm process.

So there's room to breath for us bottom feeders. ;)
hastypixels hastypixels - November 29, 2018 (11:03 PM)
Ahem. Breathe. Yep. It's a good idea to remember to do that.

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