pc-upgrade
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Wings Over Atreia: Out with the old, in with the new
New year, new rig. Yup, you got it folks. I had the lucky chance to start the new year in Aion with a spiffylicious new gaming computer. As a disclaimer, it is very possible to play and enjoy Aion on lower-end machines; I know, because I have friends who play on laptops (although most do not participate in sieges) and I myself enjoyed the game using my less-than-stellar rig with the graphics set to just one notch below max. However, in order to participate in large-scale PvP and sieges, I was forced to lower all settings to rock-bottom and use shift+F12 to remove all enemy and ally rendering (remember folks, when you do this always have enemy names turned on!). Even with these measures, I would often still have difficulty moving -- not the best situation for an assassin who depends on quick strikes and even quicker evasions. I could still sorta do my job (scouting was best) and enjoy the fights, although I would often find myself dead before I even knew I was being hit. I have experienced Atreia this way for the past year, but there just comes a time in a Daeva's life when you want to participate more fully in sieges -- to see the battles as well as fight. After saving, I came to the conclusion last fall that I was able to go ahead and put together a new gaming rig (and yes folks, a girl can build her own machine!). While not top-of-the-line, it was a still a decent upgrade and would provide a new gaming experience. In true gamer's style, I sat down New Year's Eve and assembled my new toy. So, what difference does the new rig make while playing? Jump past the cut to see what I have pulsing in my case and just how much of a difference it has made.
The Daily Grind: How often do you upgrade your gaming PC?
Well, it's that time of decade again, the cycle that comes around every three or four years when I'm forced to put an aging PC out to pasture. Age of Conan's new Khitai zones have brought my four-year-old gaming rig to its knees and, rather than run around looking at circa-1998 environment textures (and six minute load times), I recently took the upgrade plunge. Luckily, most MMORPGs don't have the stringent hardware requirements that a lot of single-player games feature, and you can generally get away with relying on outdated hardware in our particular subset of gaming. For example, aside from a video card upgrade (driven by the silly desire to play Crysis a couple years ago), I've been playing dozens of MMOs on a PC that hasn't been state-of-the-art since early 2006. What about you, Massively readers? How often do you upgrade your gaming PCs, and has an MMORPG ever driven you to do so?
