Words On Wednesday

I am fiending for a Steam Deck, and I’m not even ashamed about it. Although I have discussed before how there is a time and a place for consoles , I’m finding myself gravitating more toward the idea of PC gaming lately. I’m not saying that I’m done with console gaming; I still think the Nintendo Switch is probably the best gaming console ever made from the perspective of form factor. A single device that can be both a handheld and traditional console is amazing, and my family leverages that capability to great extent. And maybe that’s why I’m now becoming more interested in PC gaming specifically with the Steam Deck. Effectively, it’s the PC equivalent of a Nintendo Switch. It can be a handheld, you can dock it for a more stationary experience, and the OS seems to be very much geared toward browsing a game library and selecting something to play. My aversion to PC gaming traditionally has largely involved the difficult decision between building out a desktop rig and buying a high end l...

After using free forms of cloud storage for several years, I believe it’s almost time that I pay for more storage. With all the options available, what should I choose? I held off for a long time. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back is Google’s decision to make Google Drive files count against user storage. Part of what drew me into using mostly Google Drive was the fact that I could make Google Docs and Google Sheets files with reckless abandon. Now that they count against my quota, that previously unlimited source of storage is going to dry up pretty quickly. Logically, I could continue using Google Drive and just pay for a Google One subscription to get more storage. But really, why should I throw money at something without determining if there are better options. Tons of services provide cloud storage now. I personally have used Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox as well. If I’m going to start paying for a service, I should at least do some research and make sure that I ge...

Shifting jobs again has made me reconsider exactly what I put on my work computer, and whether I truly need a personal computer. Spoiler: yes, I do. Confession: I have used employer-issued devices for personal purposes a lot through my professional career. At one job, I would use my work computer to edit GoPro videos between assignments because it was more powerful than my personal computer at the time. Several times, I’ve used my work computer to make Amazon purchases, or order pizza to pick up on the way home. I figured it wasn’t a big deal. I was still getting my work done, this just made it easier to do some non-work things when I had a free moment. When I worked at RedSail, especially during the last few months, I was doing most of my work from my personal laptop and accessing my work computer via remote desktop for anything that had to be done on the network. After I was terminated there, I still had my personal device, so there wasn’t really any significant shift in my computing...

If you look at my GoPro playlist  on YouTube, you’ll notice that I haven’t added a new video since  23 June 2017 . Honestly, I find that a little depressing and frustrating. It isn’t that I haven’t wanted to add new videos, or even that I haven’t recorded footage to make new videos. It’s that I just haven’t had time to edit them together. Between work, school, raising kids, and writing articles for my side gig, I really don’t have time to sit down and create a video. Looking back, I sound like a broken record because I’ve mentioned not having enough time to make videos before . Still, as much as I love creating content, I have much bigger priorities at the moment. In addition to my lack of time to work with videos, I also don’t have time to learn a new editing software right now. Microsoft discontinued Windows Movie Maker , and if I’m going to learn a new editing software, I may as well go with what a lot of videographers use with DaVinci Resolve. The problem is that Da...

What does it mean to “complete” or “finish” a video game? What criteria are required to say that you beat a game? Obviously, this isn’t a simple question, and there are no definite right or wrong answers. Video games comprise a huge industry, and there is such an immense variety among them that what applies for one game or genre may not apply in the slightest to another. I might be able to “beat” a First-Person Shooter (FPS) in under 10 hours easily, but to say that you “beat” a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) typically implies hundreds if not thousands of hours of work, and frequently means continued play as developers release new content. Are there any hard and fast metrics you can judge this by? Main storyline is obviously a large component for completing a game. Can’t say you’ve beaten it if you’ve never seen the ending of the story. Usually that means you can see the credits, too. But what about games that have extra story content after the credits rol...

“Why would you even get a console?” This is a question I hear time and time again from various PC gamers. You want to know why someone would get a video game console instead of building a gaming “rig?” I’ll tell you why. Console > PC There are quite a few areas in which consoles are simply better than computers for video games. Price One of the biggest reasons that gamers recommend PC gaming over console gaming is the price, but I personally think that console gaming can be much cheaper than PC. For one, the cost of a gaming console can be drastically lower than building a gaming computer from the ground up. The PC Master Race subreddit claims that their “Media Elite” build matches console performance for cheaper, and their “Crusher” build offers better specs for the same price, but they quote the price of a current gen console at $450. The PS4 Pro is only $400, and you can easily find a standard PS4 for $300, sometimes even less. Plus, the prices listed on PC Master Ra...