Hello fellow gamers!
Christmas has come and gone, and on this New Years day I would like to highlight a few things to spend your hard earned (who am I kidding) Christmas money on. All of these items I either personally own or have heard enough good things about to recommend. I would either give a buy now, buy later, or pass on each item. Links are pasted at the end of this article.
1. Nintendo Switch
The hotness just keeps flying off the shelves. But is it worth $300 USD? Probably not if you don't plan on playing the crap out of Super Mario Odyssey or Zelda. The games are there, but a vast majority of the Switch's library is already accessible on the Xbox/PS4 or PC. This leaves the switch stuck in a weird position, I don't feel quite comfortable telling someone to buy the device until more exclusives arrive. I would wait till late 2018 to see how the library shapes up. The hardware is wonderful, and it comes in handy when traveling.
Games worth purchasing: Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda, Golf Story
Final Rating: 8.5/10
2. GTX 1080ti
Nvidia comes to us again with another knockout badass graphics card.
11GB's of GGDR5X, a crazy high core clock and boost clock, and high memory bandwidth allow over 60FPS 4k on most titles. I have been mightily impressed with this GPU. This is coming from a GTX 1080 owner, I think it was worth the upgrade if you plan on playing in 4k. No other GPU even comes close to outperforming this. In theory, you COULD just buy a GTX 1070/1060/1050ti and be okay. What is the point of PC gaming if you just want good enough though? I give this a buy if you have a 4k monitor, or plan on playing a lot of games that are well optimized for 4k such as Destiny 2, Shadow of war, or even PUBG.
Final Rating: 9.5/10
3. Blue Yeti Microphone
Here we have the Blue Yeti, a streamers godsend. I actually used the device to record my audiobook I funded through Kickstarter and the audio was incredibly crisp. What a great value too, because the Blue Yeti can often be found in the just under 100$ range, and often comes bundled with a game such as AC origins to ease the pain on the wallet. The Blue Yeti is a versatile tool, I often use it for in game voice chat, video conference calls, and just about everything else. It also doesn't hurt that the build quality is very "tanklike." It does have a little bit of a learning curve to figure out what settings you should leave it at, but the average tech enthusiast should be able to catch on quick
Final Rating: 9.0/10
4. Determination (Undertale Album)
The next one is a little detour from hardware. This is an Undertale album by Richard EB and Ace Waters. Wow, this is probably the best fan album I have ever heard. The "Red" side of the album features incredible punchy metal guitar riffs of my favorite Undertale songs. The "Blue" side is jazzy and features more piano and experimentation. This stayed in my CD player much longer than it should have. You can buy this at fangamers website. I could honestly fill this whole blog up with Fangamer merch. They have excellent shirts, videos and books about indie games.
Rating: 9.25/10
5. Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament Headset
After many years of searching, possibly my whole life, I have finally coming across a gaming headset I can recommend that isn't too expensive or uncomfortable. This set of cans is truly magnificent. The best thing I can say about this headset is it is perfectly balanced. It wasn't too heavy on my head. My ears don't sweat or hurt after hours and hours of play. I never had to really adjust it, it kind of just moulds to your head. I have not tested the included mic but I'm sure it sounds great! I listen to mostly rock, and the Turtle Beach Elite Pro rises to the challenge admirably, coming in strong. The louder you turn the volume up, the better the sound quality. I'm sure just like every other headset in the 100-200 dollar range the base is probably not punchy enough and the highs will be washed out compared to studio headphones or a good set of Bose over the ears, but hey you can't have it all right? BUY THIS if you are looking for headphones to game with!
Final Rating: 9.75/10
And there we have it folks, happy shopping! If you are looking for games to buy, there are some great sales out there. And might I remind you that PUBG is out of early access, so I am happy to squad up with you if you comment or message me.
Happy New Years!
GTX 1080ti: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1080-ti/
The Nintendo Switch: https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-Gray-Joy/dp/B01LTHP2ZK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1514830701&sr=8-3&keywords=nintendo+switch
Blue Yeti: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Microphone-Desktop-Filter/dp/B01N8SP7XJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1514830732&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=blue+yeti&psc=1
DETERMINATION: https://www.fangamer.com/products/undertale-determination-cd
Turtle Beach Elite Pro: https://shop.turtlebeach.com/us/xbox/xbox-one/elite-pro?gclid=Cj0KCQiA1afSBRD2ARIsAEvBsNmYeAIDegY5kiCQFWPcX7Yd2f8wbSFqxS9n_wQdu4yE46wtOW-2yAcaApUTEALw_wcB