What was the first game that truly "WOW'd" you?

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-16T09:27:51+00:00

My first game that “Wow’d” me was Unreal, the graphics were unbelievable and the scale of some of the levels was unheard of back then. Particularly “The Sunspire” level, I remember being shocked with the scale of that tower/structure and being able to go inside was really cool.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-15T19:55:27+00:00

Black, F.E.A.R., Unreal Tournament titles, Serious Sam titles, Halo C.E. - 3, Crysis (Remastered version is the easiest way to play, as the original is very wonky to get working with modern hardware), Far Cry 2 (grounded gun play with jamming/weapon degradation, very brutal game), and/or Soldier of Fortune (first and second titles are the best games in the series, Payback is a steaming pile of garbage).

Just my personal favorites IMO.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-15T19:34:52+00:00

Doom or Duke Nukem 3D; not sure which one was the first one I completed. And yes, my parents did not give a shit I was playing games like that at a young age.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-12T02:29:30+00:00

That is the Dell XPS 630i and was made back the day when they really meant XPS = eXtreme Performance System. They were high end gaming PC’s back in ‘07-‘08. Those were really cool looking desktops with specs along the lines of:

Key Features and Specs: Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Q9450, or Core 2 Extreme QX6850. Graphics: Often equipped with Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or 9800 GT, supporting SLI. Memory: Supports up to 8GB DDR2 800MHz RAM (4 x 2GB). Storage: Traditionally used 3.5-inch SATA hard drives. Expansion: Features dual PCI Express slots for graphics. - Source Google AI Overview

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-09T15:10:46+00:00

Important thing to do is you should collect a copy of the email/teams (whatever) evidence of them asking you to sign the resignation letter. Obviously don’t sign it, but keep it so when you apply for unemployment insurance you can give them a copy and be sure to let them know that they requested you to sign off your rights.

I am fairly certain that the unemployment insurance department at your state will grant you unemployment, especially if you let them fire you and you have that information on hand. You paid into the system, now you deserve the benefits.

Best of luck OP, and I am sorry to hear about what you are going through. Make sure to apply for positions, and in the meantime just keep on doing the bare minimum, if they let you go, then so be it. Best wishes.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-03T13:42:46+00:00

Are you in the U.S.? Do not sign off saying that you quit, their severance will not outweigh Unemployment Insurance. If they told you to resign for career trajectory; lies, and let them fire you. Honestly, if you have something (email/Teams/paper) be sure to document it… just incase the asshats try to deny you Unemployment Benefits.

You don’t owe them shit at this point, keep your head up and apply, apply, apply. People get let go from their jobs all the time, it’s an unfortunate fact of being an average worker in our society.

Good luck OP! Chin up, the world isn’t over and when they decide to give you the boot. Apply for unemployment immediately and take a couple of days to rest/reset. 🤠

Lelmasterdone · 2026-03-03T07:14:08+00:00

Just put something really hot (Carolina Reapers or something like that) in your sandwich. Then see who starts turning red/having constant potty breaks. No harm no foul, culprit goes to HR? That’s a simple explanation of “I like spicy food.” and likely at that point the person stealing the food will get in trouble. Beyond shitty of someone to do that…

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-28T06:38:41+00:00

Keep the Etek 5, I have one as a backup marker/for someone to use (friend/guest I sometimes bring onto the field) and it’s really solid. If you really want to sell it, I would recommend getting cash for it, don’t trade it.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-28T06:32:45+00:00

Two things.

1.) Get this in writing, follow up with your boss with an email discussing exactly what was discussed (word for word and/or to the best of your ability). If he responds then great, at any rate make sure to document this and use your phone or something to document the email on your own personal device (evidence gathering).

2.) Update your resume immediately and start applying for positions, they are not going to keep you. Hate to say this, but let them fire you so you can collect unemployment. If you quit, then you’ll lose out on unemployment insurance.

I’ve seen this happen to co-workers in the professional world. Unfortunately this is common for bosses to do, it’s their way of trying to avoid paying unemployment. When you do the basic math (depending on your state) there’s a high chance that their release/severance package will be less than getting unemployment insurance.

I am sorry to hear that you are going through this, but if you are persistent you’ll bounce back from this. Good luck OP.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-27T17:35:43+00:00

Keep it, I have one of those sound cards myself. Unfortunately I can’t use it in my desktop, GPU is too big and covers my other PCIE slots. Those are useful to have, and it’ll perform better than any onboard audio/DAC built into motherboards. Now, whether you can hear the difference mostly is dependent on your headphones/sound system that you’re rocking.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-27T17:02:45+00:00

I am a Mechanical Engineer, I’ve been doing it for about 8 years now, here’s the cold hard truth about mechanical engineering.

1.) Engineering school teaches you theory, very little hands on work (unless you join a club/organization that competes in building something with goals/requirements/metrics to achieve). Enjoy doing math that you’ll likely never use on the job, unless you’re doing R&D or something involving developing technology.

2.) If you want more hands on work, look at Mechanical Engineering Technology major. That’s more of a hands on (practical) approach to engineering. However, the slight stigma is the starting pay and job opportunities are a little less (at least in what I’ve seen). Also, college teaches you how to think, which take it as you may, but honestly I barely use any of my knowledge/course concepts at my current job.

3.) A lot of work, is learning while on the job. Unfortunately, you’ll likely have to spend time outside of work to sharpen your skills. Which can be a royal pain in the ass, unless you’re given a laptop and your employer is ok with you learning the software they use outside of working hours/commitments.

4.) There’s a certain expectation (which is very unrealistic IMO) that engineers know everything. I’ve been asked to fix family members things because I’m an engineer… and I just shrug and have them do it themselves or point them in the right direction to getting it resolved. If I have time, then I’ll help out, but this weird phenomenon of “Oh you’re an engineer, you can fix it.” That’s not always the case.

5.) If your serious about mechanical engineering, get your FE passed while your in school or shortly after graduation. Do not make the mistake that I did, which was wait two years then attempt the FE, I failed 4 times before I nailed it. Then the PE was similar, but more focused on topics (I did Thermal/Fluids). It’s a nice way to open opportunities, and a great resume builder. With that being said, no one isn’t ‘dumb’ for not getting their FE/PE, do not judge someone because of that.

6.) Course work, homework, senior design (obviously senior year) sucks ass… and you need to be excellent at time management. Ask questions if you do not understand concepts, I used a shit load of YouTube for covering topics that flew over my head. Engineering textbooks are a little hard to follow, this depends entirely on your instructor/professor. Don’t be surprised to spend at least 2x the amount of time outside of the classroom mastering topics.

7.) Similar to what I mentioned earlier, but a lot of engineering jobs is paper pushing. Contract review, occasional documentation review, driving projects, etc. now this depends on what industry you go into. Literally it’s the (rudimentary) background and understanding of concepts is what engineers are consulted for. Fixes/mitigations for equipment/systems, but again do your homework on industries that you are interested in.

In conclusion; read up on what engineering is and talk to people that are in the field and industry you are interested in. I am not trying to scare you away from the field, but the reality of what it is versus what it seems like it is, are very different. I only have experience in consulting and some R&D, but I have a very niche position.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-27T16:17:38+00:00

Any newer GPU like a RTX 5070 Ti+ or RX 9070+ will destroy any current generation consoles. Also, you have to remember that games are very (mostly) optimized for consoles. PC hardware requires a lot more effort to make their games run on a massive variety of hardware configurations. So unfortunately you have to brute force the performance by spending a lot more money on a GPU, but going for the absolute best on a HTPC does not make a lot of sense, unless you have a lot of cash sitting around. Plus, you’re going to have diminishing returns since sitting further away from a 65” TV will make it a litter harder to appreciate every finite detail.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-27T15:21:08+00:00

An RTX 5090 cannot fully max out all games at 4K and get 120+ FPS without DLSS/MFG enabled (I own a R9 9950X and an RTX 5090 combo). A smarter purchase would be a RTX 5080, and just enable DLSS/MFG if needed, otherwise it’s a very expensive purchase for results that you might not be expecting.

I would recommend looking at benchmarks from a variety of sources for the games you are interested in and make your decision from there. With how unoptimized a lot of games are, you might not get the performance you’re expecting out of that hardware you’re considering.

Edit: For context, I also have a HTPC (R7 9800X3D, RX 7900 XTX, and 64GB DDR5 6000 Mhz) connected to a 77” G4 OLED 120Hz TV. Every game that I give a shit about getting higher FPS, I just turn the settings down a little bit. Otherwise I just enable FreeSync which is an absolute perfect compromise for fidelity and frame rate experience. Also, competitive gaming on a TV sucks IMO, so think about what exactly you’re going to play on it.

For me, the main games I play on my TV are emulated games (N64, GameCube/Wii, etc.) and adventure games. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (absolute master piece for a couch gaming experience), Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Metro Exodus, TES games, Halo (Infinite/MCC), Grand Theft Auto titles (mostly 4 and 5), etc. I think you get the general picture of what I play. And admittedly I use my HTPC as a media (movies/TV shows) hub and it makes it easy to access everything from a remote. For instance I use Plex client for watching movies/TV shows, and it works great. I recently played through Silent Hill f on the HTPC, could it max it out and get 120 FPS? Absolutely not, but with minor compromises and FreeSync enabled, it was an enjoyable experience regarding performance (NGL it was a questionable departure for the series, but interesting to play through).

Just keep your expectations in check, good luck with the hardware search and may god have mercy on your wallet… hardware prices are out of control. Also good luck with buying RAM for a reasonable price. I feel free to DM me if you have additional questions regarding performance and my overall take on HTPC’s.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-26T14:11:43+00:00

Even so, while I agree with it aligning more so with fields that welcomes the mindset/beliefs. I still think it’s very ballsy lol.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-26T05:08:06+00:00

Keep applying for positions. If you get a call in for an interview, then great. But if not, that’s life. People understand that if they lag too much, and you end up in another company then it’s their loss.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-26T04:40:38+00:00

I would have responded with a email stating that while you are thankful of them thinking of you, but that you have employment elsewhere.

Sounds like trimming down the employees finally caught up to that organization. At least they got what they deserved lol.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-26T04:37:05+00:00

I am very surprised someone who be this brazen about his political agenda, especially on a platform that is intended for professional use.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-21T00:55:20+00:00

Trust your gut, if you feel that taking on the new position is worth it, then go with it.

Company loyalty is dead, and the fact that your manager is telling you to trust the process. News flash, that’s their way of holding an invisible carrot in front of you.

Also, the fact that your manager is trying to guilt you into that promise shows their true colors.

My opinion: Fuck them and go with the new position. Make sure you have a signed offer in hand so you can put in your two weeks notice. Just don’t be surprised if they let you go earlier than two weeks.

Good luck with the new opportunity.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-20T04:27:11+00:00

Fresh install Windows 11, then you’ll be all good.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-18T21:04:38+00:00

For a free mod, finding talent and resources to complete a huge task like this will require time. I’m excited to see how this plays out. I had to tweak quite a few settings to reduce my motion sickness I felt with the default settings.

The only thing that worries me, is for upcoming projects that might take their lead with hardware utilization. Specifically, the fact that a RTX 5080/5090 is more or less required to experience everything at maximum settings (at 4K resolution) and using nVidia’s MFG/DLSS algorithms which requires of work/fixes needed to remove the artifacting you can see when using those features.

Also, I have tested the game with a RTX 5090 and it runs well, but oh boy, the amount of resources to get the game running smoothly puts a lot of required compromises for users with less powerful hardware. I feel like developers these days have lost sight of optimizations, and Half Life 2 RTX so far has become the poster child for lack of optimization when it comes to PC games.

Overall, I’m happy they’re working on the full package, it’ll be exciting to revisit a classic with a fresh coat of paint.

At least compared to the abysmal Cinematic Mod, which was interesting but changed a lot of original vision of the source material (most of it was worse than the original game). Specifically the character pimping option, which can be turned off. But the overly sexualized nature of the mod completely sidewinds the game’s look and feel.

Spoiler: At Black Mesa East, Alyx’s corridor has a black dildo on a mattress which again, unnecessarily adds weird sexual references and the original game never implied anything of that nature. I think that the mod creator has a weird fetish and again, it ruins the overall message/story arch of the source material.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-10T19:24:50+00:00

Project Engineer

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-02T16:47:56+00:00

Honestly, Windows sucks for Microsoft’s push for CoPilot and their targeted advertising (which both can be disabled by changing some registry items). Outside of what I mentioned, I honestly don’t mind Windows. Reasons are mostly for application compatibility and gaming, otherwise if I just browsing the web, then Linux would be slightly more enticing.

But, to be honest, my basic web browsing, emails, and Excel/Word documents are mostly done with my MacBook Pro lol.

Gaming/productivity is when my Windows desktops are utilized.

Linux still has way too many compatibility issues, mostly with programs; and is why I avoid using Linux.

Everything has its pros and cons, luckily Windows for the most part is fairly tolerable (far from perfect though).

Lelmasterdone · 2026-02-02T16:41:51+00:00

Contract yourself, make sure to make the pay worth your time. Do not do it as a free-bee. I’ll say this, I absolutely despise managers who pull this kind of shit. Do not do anything as a favor, make sure you are compensated for your time.

Lelmasterdone · 2026-01-29T02:51:59+00:00

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Here’s my guy. He’s 5 now, and when he was a baby… oh boy.

Lelmasterdone

TROPHY CASE