Freyar

I've been doing a fair amount of location shots.

The devs are pretty concerned about data-mining on the PC version, so.. like Phase 4, they are trying to hold off on distributing it as best as possible.

Despite the strange limitation for NA users, it looks like the system doesn't stop you from at least attempting to register your pre-order code. (I didn't actually use my code as I didn't want to get it stuck or anything.)

I absolutely love my Core I7-3770k. Just moving to a modern architecture from the older Q9550 CPU was amazing in it's own right. Clock-speed difference was only 200Mhz per core, but all in all, architecture is what it's at right now.

I intend to at least dabble in PvP where and when it's available.

Perhaps it isn't only his choice? (I'm not familiar with his position in his FC or anything, just stating that perhaps publicly not everything is known.) If it was just one or two, I'd not be as concerned about capacity.

That's a decent card. I run a 670 myself. Can't say I like TigerDirect, but everyone has their own stories with them (both good and bad.) 3GB of RAM is a good thing. While most games won't push over 2GB, you'll be set in the future (especially if texture replacements start showing up.)

I've been using either FRAPS, or (with the full client) Steam.

Servers can lock, and I'm betting that they will when 4chan, NeoGAF, Reddit, RPC, and a few other groups all try to join the same one.

Just a question btw, Why is your FC on Gilgamesh if you are so opposed to being on Gilgamesh? He's concerned about how populated the server will be. Major communities all seem to be electing the SAME server.

Thanks for the MSI, I think that answered my question. My CPU was running at 50% and my GPU was slamming 98%+ the entire time the benchmark was running. I suppose that is an easy view of where my bottleneck is. I may wait till I can afford a gen4 intell chip (which would include a MoBo upgrade being needed) for the processor.) Right now I am scoring 4k on the benchmark(with everything running in the background at that.(at max settings) One thing to note is that while everyone who is into benchmarking is running at "maximum" pre-sets, that doesn't mean we'll all be playing at maximum presets. For example, I'll turn on Occlusion Culling and disable FXAA (FXAA mainly for taste, I hate it's blur behavior), as well as turning on LOD (because it's far enough to not be an issue) to also boost performance a little.

Wow... yikes. I figured Gilgamesh was going to have queues during the first free month and possibly onward, but if SE does a population lock, that's going to suck for a lot of people who were planning to play on Gilgamesh after Open Beta/Early Access. They locked character creation on Legacy servers and whatnot early on, so it isn't impossible for them to do so, especially with three (or four, if you include a FFXI players group joining Gilgamesh) major groups joining one server.

660's are the "good deal" at the moment on nVidia's side.

Things like that will always happen, even the other legacy RP server still has some negative impacts from people. But when you turn around and KNOW that two groups that have a fairly anti-rp stance are heading towards the non-legacy server chosen for RP, well.. it'll be much worse.

Both Reddit AND 4chan chose Gilgamesh? Not only will that server lock instant, it'll be hell for RPers there.

I'll be avoiding Reddit's influence.

I'll be trying to put together a PC Villain for the most part, though he won't be overtly as such. Lawful Evil, in such a way that manipulation will be the core of his capabilities. However, one the most difficult things to get over as a "villain" in roleplaying is that nobody wants their sense of agency interrupted by another player. Force tends to be hated, and that makes it really difficult to do anything truly "evil". As far as playing "yeah, that's evil" cards, it'll be rare and fully discussed with the people I'm involved with.

That's the problem I had with it too. It just didn't grip me like Heavy Rain, Journey, or even Deus Ex: Human Revolution did.

Would help to know your budget. Because it's an 1155 socket, you're in a really good place to really go anywhere. The Core i3 series is a dual-core processor, so you can get a huge benefit for getting up to a quad-core setup. (higher end i5's or any i7). When I decided to build my rig, I opted for the i7-3770k simply because I wanted the freedom, in the future, to overclock for longer use of the CPU. Combine that with a good aftermarket CPU heatsink and that would do wonders. It may be overkill for you, but some food for thought. CPUs are expensive to replace usually, so it's best to overspend and eventually replace other components since the CPU is central. GPU wise, you're on the extremely low end for the 600-series family. While power consumption is very low (~60 watts), that comes at a cost of performance, and this is critical for Final Fantasy XIV since it is absolutely GPU hungry. Core i7-3770k 3.5Ghz (Newegg) $319 Core i5-3570k 3.4Ghz (Newegg) $219 (Core i5 variant. Will have less performance, but can be an alternative.) MSIGTX 660 TI (2GB) (Newegg) $284 ----- If you're looking to upgrade SOLELY for FFXIV, I'd run a few benchmarks, likely with MSI Afterburner running to see GPU/CPU usage (you can monitor CPU usage through Resource Monitor on Windows 7) and figure out what features cost more performance wise. Final Fantasy XIV seems to be very GPU intensive, and not that sensitive to CPU (as long as it isn't an old architecture.) My old machine (used this while playing version one, and during open beta for Planetside 2) had massive issues with a whole lot of newer games since it used a Q9550, an old quad-core CPU. The i7 architecture is nice and provides a lot better performance as a result. The i3-and-5 series are equally as good, especially Sandy and Ivy Bridge setups. (Haswell is new, so I can't tell you how those perform.) Performance has improved as the beta for Final Fantasy XIV has gone on, so you'll want to keep that in mind as well. My benchmarks can show that. (Click for Full View) http://gallery.freyar.com/upload/2013/08/05/20130805150329-4368dec0.jpg[/img] Overall, it depends on what you're trying to make your upgrade for. FFXIV specifically? Or in general? You should watch your CPU usage while running the newest benchmark and see how stressed it is, determine if you do need to move to a quad-core before you put the cash down on it, otherwise look at a new GPU that will provide better performance. Also, consider your power supply. With a 640 and an i3, it may not be strong enough to handle higher-performance parts.

I've got EvE Online that I've been playing for a long while. Outside of that, Cube World has gotten a lot of attention from me, as has the benchmarks. I started looking at Star Conflict, a "World of Tanks in Space" if you will (pay-to-win and all). Payday 2's Beta has also been a nice time waster as well.

In order to get early access, you do have to get a new pre-order.

I use Steam with the "uncompressed save" option in another folder.

Pretty interesting to read everyone else's.

Part 1: The Basics Part 2: Growing Up Part 3: Past Influences Part 4: Beliefs And Opinions Part 5: Relationships With Others 53. In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)? Does your treatment of them change depending on how well you know them, and if so, how? 54. Who is the most important person in your life, and why? 55. Who is the person you respect the most, and why? 56. Who are your friends? Do you have a best friend? Describe these people. 57. Do you have a spouse or significant other? If so, describe this person. 58. Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened. 59. What do you look for in a potential lover? 60. How close are you to your family? 61. Have you started your own family? If so, describe them. If not, do you want to? Why or why not? 62. Who would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help? 63. Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who, and why? 64. If you died or went missing, who would miss you? 65. Who is the person you despise the most, and why? 66. Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict? 67. Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations? 68. Do you like interacting with large groups of people? Why or why not? 69. Do you care what others think of you? Part 6: Likes And Dislikes 70. What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes? 71. What is your most treasured possession? 72. What is your favorite color? 73. What is your favorite food? 74. What, if anything, do you like to read? 75. What is your idea of good entertainment (consider music, movies, art, etc.)? 76. Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If so, why? Do you want to quit? 77. How do you spend a typical Saturday night? 78. What makes you laugh? 79. What, if anything, shocks or offends you? 80. What would you do if you had insomnia and had to find something to do to amuse yourself? 81. How do you deal with stress? 82. Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan? 83. What are your pet peeves? Part 7: Self Images And Etc. 84. Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted? 85. What is your greatest strength as a person? 86. What is your greatest weakness? 87. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 88. Are you generally introverted or extroverted? 89. Are you generally organized or messy? 90. Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at. 91. Do you like yourself? 92. What are your reasons for being an adventurer (or doing the strange and heroic things that RPG characters do)? Are your real reasons for doing this different than the ones you tell people in public? (If so, detail both sets of reasons…) 93. What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime? 94. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 95. If you could choose, how would you want to die? 96. If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, name three things you would do in the time you had left. 97. What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death? 98. What three words best describe your personality? 99. What three words would others probably use to describe you? 100. If you could, what advice would you, the player, give to your character? (You might even want to speak as if he or she were sitting right here in front of you, and use proper tone so he or she might heed your advice…)