Play, Pause… The War Has Changed
“Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine. Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No one is more deserving of a rest. And all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until… well, let’s just say your hour has come again. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So, wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes.”
- The G-Man
The words were written for me or so it seemed, when after a three month break I got back to my passion — gaming. Except when I did log on, I found that not only had the war changed, the entire world had moved on — in just three months! That is the world of online gaming for you. If you stand still, you’re dead. Even my specially chosen gaming PC seemed inadequate when I got back. So, how do I become the Spartan that Cortana picks once again? Well, life had handed me a lemon, I didn’t want to make lemonade. Like Cave Johnson from Portal 2, I was going to get my engineers to build me a combustible lemon and then burn the competition down.
So, I Built My Own Weapon
To be able to have my own arsenal, I needed to overhaul my computer. I wanted the best gaming PC that money could buy. After all, Mordin Solus did say, “Life is a negotiation. We all want. We all give to get what we want.” Of course, realization soon hit me that I did need to first determine my budget. A little research involving gaming PC experts like Velocity Micro showed me that I could choose anything from $999 to more than $3,000. So, I decided to go beyond budget to check out other aspects.
The Games I Play: My preference in games is what will determine the kind of CPU performance and graphics hardware I would need. My first love is war games, therefore, I know that I need a CPU that is known for its speed so that the AI can be processed quickly, rather than looking for some high-end GPU. On the other hand, for times that I played real-time strategy games, which also I love, I would need a good balance between CPU performance and graphics. If I had a third hand, I would also bring in first person shooter games or anything with a first person element. Here, the value of a high-end GPU becomes important.
Memory: High speed memory is the key. Of course, I would prefer at least 8 GB of RAM, although I have played games like Alien with 4 GB. And then I have a close friend and gaming rival who swears by nothing less than 32GB. It would also be a good idea to check for DDR3 or DDR4 with a quad core memory channel, although PC World says that some dual channel systems can even give peak memory bandwidth of 30 GB per second.
The CPU: So, how many cores does one need for the best gaming experience? Definitely, an octa-core processor would be overkill! I would choose a hexacore processor only if I do other things on my PC, such as video editing and other tasks, to justify this. A pure gaming PC, the kind I need, would do well with a quad-core.
The Display: This is what will make the experience complete. If you can’t really see the excellent graphics that today’s games come with, the whole fun element is lost. Imagine what the game would look like if you had a 1680x1050 pixel, 20-inch display? So, make sure to choose the graphics card as carefully as you would the monitor. However, with the image quality, it is also important to check on the frame rate. Thank goodness for LCD panels. They are affordable and give great color fidelity.
In the end, my friends, I would like to leave you with the words of The Boss:
“I raised you, and loved you. I’ve given you weapons, taught you techniques, endowed you with knowledge. There’s nothing more for me to give you. All that’s left for you to take is my life.”
So, come accept the challenge, take the knowledge and join me in the virtual world.