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The console-priced branded Steam Machines are now out in the wild.



To paraphrase the review - The hardware is fine once you understand the limitations compared to a more powerful gaming PC but SteamOS castrates the whole thing. Buy one then wipe the drive, install Windows and set Steam to boot into Big Picture mode on start-up - You'll have a FAR better experience.

... But tinkering with the hardware to such an extent after dropping $500 is exactly what the target audience *doesn't* want to do.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Hmm... yeah it's sounding like there's absolutely no point in wasting money on that when I could just upgrade my PC with that money...


Although, I actually am kinda enticed by all those thousands of PS2 games. But not for $500.

Mods? I don't even play online.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

PCSX2 is an excellent PS2 emulator if you've got a decent (quad core) PC. Seeing FFX at 8 times its normal internal resolution (then downscaled to 1080p, which cuts out jaggies and gives you heaps more detail) makes you appreciate how much work went into the looks of those games, only to have them ruined by low res TVs.

Re: Fallout 4 mods. Any stability issues? There are a few small tweaks to the UI and inventory I'd like to try, but if there's even a small chance they'll fiddle with any quests or cause any issues I'd probably skip them.

And oh man, did I run into some scary stuff last night...

No issues I've seen. Modding in the game is still in its infancy as Beth haven't released official mod tools yet and the Script Extender guys haven't done anything more than announce that F4SE is coming.

Talking of UI changes, I downloaded this mod earlier but haven't had a chance to try it in game yet. For all the criticism Fallout 4 has had, I'd say the mess of a UI is the most apparent now that I've spent time with it. I can see why they kept the Pip-Boy but, man, it's a pain to use.

I've tried keyboard/mouse and controller and came to the conclusion (rare for me with first person games) that controller was slightly better.

Modding F4 is exactly the same as other Bethesda games but there's an ini edit needed before you start. Here's a quick refresher.

Ok, I installed the above mod and decided it wasn't for me. Uninstalled it through NMM and the game wouldn't boot. Don't know if this was a coincidence or the mod/mod manager removed something essential when I uninstalled. Every other mod works, and uninstalls fine.

Pro tip - When something like that happens get Steam to verify your game cache. It re-downloaded 4 files (unfortunately it doesn't say which ones) and the game works once more.

So yesterday I arrived at this tower (looks like leaning tower of Pisa) behind the mental hospital and right around the time the raiders spotted me, I turned around to find a Deathclaw Alpha, and a regular Deathclaw pursuing me. Cue me racing to top of tower, getting the sniper out, the Deathclaws quickly made mincemeat of the raiders then went to hide when I snipered them. Called in Brotherhood of Steel air support, didn't help much, had to use like all my mines to defeat them, luring them to base of tower, was a good 20 minute battle.

The only reason I was even at the tower was seeing it in the distance and thinking, "I wonder what's over there".

Love Fallout 4.

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Bwahahaha.


"The best part was when the buildings fell down."

But seriously, I'm not going to be close to done with Fallout 4 when this comes out in a couple of weeks. I'm just going to leapfrog from one incredible game to another until sometime in late February.

Maybe it's just me, but why 'mod' an existing game? Can't someone just enjoy a game as is? I'll probably get facetious answers but I'm just curious.

This is a strange question to ask, unless you think every game is perfect. Though judging by your effusive response to nearly every high-profile release, I'm not ruling that out.

Anyway, my completely-not-facetious response is that lots of games have significant flaws (clunky UIs, poorly thought out inventory systems, etc.). And even when they don't, lots of games can be played a lot longer after you're tired of them with mods that allow you to play them in new ways. People mod games for the exact same reason that people add features to games in the first place.

There are also lots of cut corners on things like texture quality that need to be made so a game runs well for people on consoles or using less powerful PCs, which can be ramped up for people with more powerful machines.

Not really , it was just a curious question.

Yes, there are plenty of games that have flaws, I just didn't see any reason why it needed to be done, but this explains my question.

If there wasn't a modding scene we'd have games such as the Blade Runner adventure game unplayable unless you've got an ancient pre-XP PC.

If there wasn't a modding scene we'd not have one of the most popular games on the planet in DOTA2 or critical hits like The Stanley Parable.

If there wasn't a modding scene we'd have tons of small developers with big ideas releasing games they can't afford to patch, and those games stay broken.

If there wasn't a modding scene Bethesda would not have implemented dozens (and I'm being hugely conservative here) of mechanics for subsequent games which started off as mods. In addition to increasing the lifespan of their games there's a cold, hard business reason to make their games moddable - If your mod is made using Bethesda's mod framework the company has an automatic right to use the ideas in other games, with precisely 0% revenue going to the creator. Hardcore Mode in NV and Survival Mode in F4 owe their existence directly to the Fallout 3 Wanderer's Edition mod, for example, thus even people with no interest in modding can benefit from a modder's vision.

If there wasn't a modding scene we wouldn't have seen this:



Just don't visit Loverslab. Just don't...

The Macho Man (Ooooooooooooyyyyyyyyyyeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!) mod for Skyrim is hee-haw-fricking-larious.

jrs....mods are for people that don't mind tinkering, i.e. pcmr. I believe we are of the same ilk in just liking to plug and play.

One thing I dislike about mods in my experience is that generally they don't integrate harmoniously with the game: feels like a Frankenstein part of it and are aesthetically incompatible with the rest of the game. But that's my experience with mods from the days when I was a gamer from old games (like Red Alert 2 mods, Total Annihilation mods, Starcraft mods).

I've only played BF2 (2005) as a late comer this year, so I don't know if I'm seeing some feature-replete version, but didn't it basically take everything from the original and just pile more content on top. Playing it with modern eyes is seemed pretty stocked for a game of its age: 1st & 3rd person, multi-vehicle air/land/infantry maps, pretty sizeable campaign, high-player-count multiplayer, instant action mass AI mayhem & co-op, space battles, galactic conquest having yet more maps & army types, ludicrous 'fight the local fauna' mode. Seems pretty solid for the day!

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Properly stoked that Rocket League are sticking with the paid cosmetics free expansions model, and dumping even more this year. I expected the seasonal hockey to be the last of it, but nope, we're getting a giant curvy Thunderdome as well

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

You're not looking in the right places then. I'll only install mods which integrate with (and enhance) the core game. For every Randy Savage beautiful monstrosity there's a SkyUI, probably the best mod I've ever seen.

All the skyrim mods I use are fantastic!

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Speculative, projected, guesstimated, F4 units sold (not shipped) = 12+ mil.



That is unreal. Basically outsold Skyrim in one week.

And Skyrim was a massive success.

Chris, you were wondering what to do with your magazines? You've probably figured it out by now but you can make not one, but two different magazine racks!





I love this 4k Pip-Boy texture replacer.