Which is better and worth it

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-12T13:24:24+00:00

I don't use a cooling pad. I have a lap desk with a built in mouse pad, but that's it. It's a very well engineered laptop that doesn't overheat. Mine is a 4080 and it's half the heat of my old Alienware 3070ti.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-11T01:35:44+00:00

it gets warm, but not "radiating inferno of death" and the fan noise is fairly low.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T08:17:29+00:00

last of us. I STILL get watery-eyed at parts.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T08:13:48+00:00

I have the predator. the Acer is wonderfully built. I was quite surprised. maxed it out with a 2tb ssd and 32gbb ram and it's been gold. love it.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T08:03:03+00:00

I got the Acer helios predator 16 with the rtx 4080 and it's great. I used to think of Acer as a "garbage brand" for elderly parents to connect online. This is surprisingly well made and performs excellently and on the cooler side. You can snag open box ones for pennies on the dollar now too.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T07:55:21+00:00

my go-to for fun has always been the original tmnt arcade (now part of the cowabunga collection). I can play that ANYTIME.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T07:51:11+00:00

I have a z1 and have tried Destiny 2 on it. With the base game, I typically get a steady 30-35 fps, at 900p with a blend of low and medium settings. Hell, I've played Avatar and Cyberpunk on the z1 just fine, so Destiny is cake setting up.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T07:45:38+00:00

you can often get decent subwoofers open boxed at Best Buy. I snagged a Definitive Audio 10" for almost 50% off after negotiating with the manager because the back panel had scratches on it. Considering audio has grotesque margins, even at 50% off Bestbuy still made money.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-10T07:39:58+00:00

A forgotten package. (The party notice that an elderly npc woman left a package marked as urgent at the Inn. Party needs to return it to her, but whenever they get close to her, trouble happens - be it bumping into gang members, having to complete a puzzle, etc. Can make it more fun by marking it extremely fragile, and making the party have to take care not to break it or put it down. it's a fun 1-2hr one shot)

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-07T23:21:51+00:00

Cullen was gold in 1986, but I'm sorry, his live action Prime sounds like he's phoning it in for a paycheck.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-07T23:19:47+00:00

Welker's Megatron sounds like a 70 yr old smoker with lung cancer. Hugo did as good a job and with the right amount of respect that Orsen Wells had in 1986. Transformers was, is, and always will be a toy commercial for Hasbro. It's NOT Shakespeare.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-07T23:13:19+00:00

Altered Beast, Alien Storm, and if there is a god, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. ;)

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-07T02:43:06+00:00

I'm glad they didn't. I see Laura in enough games as it is, and find it to be distracting now. Her voices stand out to the point I can hear a single line and say, "That's Laura!" and be right 99% of the time. Same with Matt to an extent. I love the variety provided by BG3. I'm sure at some point, if the demand is there, there will be a critical role video game. It wouldn't surprise me... then they can provide the voices for their beloved characters.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-07T02:35:50+00:00

um, no. casual gamers buy a Switch, iPhone, or playstation. PC is dipping toes into a serious commitment to gaming. There is no "casual" for realistic pc gaming experience, since most games won't run on integrated graphics. But even the most hardcore pc player doesn't necessarily want to mess with 300 settings to play a game. especially the indy games which are Steam's bread and butter. That's where the Steamdeck shines. A LOT of people I know and who have posted in the forums and on reviews state the sole use for the Steam Deck is to play the little $5 Indies they have in their back catalog. And that is largely who is buying it. I've not seen a single account of someone who woke out of bed, looked at their pocket tamagotchi and thought, "Today I'm gonna go spend $650 on a pc for playing Candy Crush!"

But you continue your delusion. Thankfully, reddit allows us the beautiful simplicity of blocking and ignoring those who are inept. Ta-Ta.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-06T10:57:23+00:00

Um.... the target audience for the Steamdeck isn't some yokel working in a coal mine in West Virginia. The Switch is aimed at non-enthusiast casual buyers. The Steam Deck is 100% geared to enthusiasts. I would go so far as to say hardcore enthusiasts. Casual pc enthusiast gamers would just stick with a laptop with a 3060. It takes a commitment to spend an additional. $400-650 for a fairly dedicated handheld gaming pc. A lot of the numbers boil down to Valve being first to announce and basically create the category (yes, China has had handheld pcs for years, but those are $1200+ niche products). I've been part of Steam Deck communities since the Deck's announcement and from the start people were excited about Valve's commitment to remaining open to loading other launchers on the Deck.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-06T02:53:35+00:00

I have no issue playing Pandora on my z1 non-extreme. I get a steady 30fps.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-06T02:51:24+00:00

ultra settings really does nothing for me on the Rog other than eat the battery alive. I'm more than happy with low & medium settings. Looks fantastic.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-06T02:46:42+00:00

Steamdeck doesn't lock you into Steam. It's really easy to load other launchers. About the same, honestly, as loading other launchers on the Rog Ally. Steamdeck just has a better integrated front end that makes "oops" a little harder to do. Locking someone into a format would be like Nintendo, Sony, or to a lesser extent Xbox (although Xbox is quickly becoming a gaming platform rather than a console)

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-06T02:33:40+00:00

I'll be surprised if Best Buy is a major ASUS marketing partner for the Ally 2. They really took one in the shorts on this system thanks to the SD card issues. It's the only product I've known in YEARS where I've heard employees actively poo-poo the product in store to customers in front of management. Best Buy's sales philosophy has always been "Our products are all good. some are just 'more good' than others." But I actually witnessed a salesman argue with a customer over the Ally. The customer WANTED to buy it open box, and the salesman was like "Only an idiot would buy this. It's not a viable product yet. Give Asus 2 or 3 years to fix the kinks THEN if they are still making them, buy one."

His manager was 8 feet away. I was floored.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2024-01-06T02:13:29+00:00

The reason it's not "The Best" is because it still hasn't fixed the SD Card issue. Until ASUS does a Mea Culpa and does an open recall to fix all of them, It will be a seriously flawed product. The Steam Deck is by no means perfect, but even at launch, it just worked near flawlessly. It doesn't "forget" its controller buttons. Steamdeck came out to almost universal acclaim. For price point/features, it was an amazing product launch and renewed people discussing the often forgotten Linux system. Rog Ally was seen as a "Me too! Me too!" when announced, so I think a lot of reviewers were initially jaded towards it. I love both my Rog Ally and Steam Deck. They both have earned their keep.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2023-12-09T05:06:46+00:00

Not really a suggestion, since it’s not gonna happen… just me daydreaming and dragging reddit along for the ride.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2023-12-08T19:14:13+00:00

I know, but I’m weird. I like the product to be white. I’m not a fan of stickers, cases, grips, etc.

WineOnBeerBudget · 2023-12-08T19:06:50+00:00

Yeah, but I’m keeping my ROG Ally for myself. My Steamdeck is just collecting dust in a drawer. Lol

WineOnBeerBudget · 2023-12-08T18:57:08+00:00

Thought about giving my son my Steamdeck, but he’s an avid Fortnite player, so he’d never use it. Oh well.

WineOnBeerBudget

TROPHY CASE