Ok, EA. I get it. Big company, just released a new game, and your online distribution platform takes more work to push than heroin in Salt Lake City. But come on. The outsourcing couldn't be more obvious if the phone got answered "Thanks for calling the International House of Curry...". The first person you talk to knows roughly enough about computers to know they require electricity. The script following is as blatant as a first grade school play.
Maybe if you had the common sense to not release Origin until it actually works as a Steam ripoff, things wouldn't be so rough right now. Yesterday, one of your "techs" was so moronic I asked if I could talk to somebody who understood third grade English and knew at least as much about computers as me. He didn't know enough English to be offended. I'd rather not be right about that, guys.
So, since I'm sure you're actively ignoring everything coming through normal channels as much as you're passively ignoring this blog, I'll tell you about how broken your stupid shit is here, where there's probably a higher chance of you hearing about it than from your bottom tier, $0.05/hr people.
For starters: There is absolutely zero excuse for requiring me to have Origin AND a browser open at the same damn time to play a game. In fact, this level of incompetence makes the shit in Dilbert sound sane. It was clearly invented by some jackass in upper management who thinks Minesweeper is a hardcore, competitive game.
Next up, we have the fact that Origin doesn't set it's default download path into the drive it's on. In this day and age, that's beyond mandatory, and into "someone should get slapped across the face with their pink slip for getting this wrong" territory. And if you're really going to screw that up, there shouldn't be a bug in the options menu that can make it repeatedly NOT change the filepath to the one the user designates, but indicate it is changed when you hit the install button.
Maybe these issues don't seem huge, but when you can't talk to somebody with a multiple digit IQ score about them, it starts to be a serious problem. In fact, you corporate morons should stop rolling in the money from releasing "Madden Clone Whatever Year" with zero technical changes, and hire a consultant who's actually played a video game in their life to tell you how you're being idiots.
So, on to today's tech support joys. I'm having a stupid software conflict where for some reason various third party voice chat apps don't want to work with Battlefield 3. This game kind of revolves around teamwork in the multiplayer modes, if you didn't know. This is an intolerable problem. Luckily, the guy I talk to comprehends the concept of "Escalate me to someone who knows more about computers than the monkey you evolved from". So he asks me for a DxDiag dump, copy/pasted into the live chat, and disappears, supposedly to escalate me I guess...
Sorry, guy, but your silly little input limit on the live chat means I'd be copy pasting and digging through for the spot I left off for about an hour. How about you take your Ctrl-c/Ctrl-v and cram it, and give me a way to upload that massive wall of text. And while you're at it, can I maybe be escalated in a rational amount of time? I've been waiting over an hour now. Last I heard was... "Amresh: Just copy and paste it ." That was an hour and a half ago at this point. Maybe at least a confirmation I'm actually waiting on a human that didn't fail the turing test? I know there's someone above you who isn't busy, because everyone else who contacted your support already mercykilled themselves after the 73rd bash of their face against the brick wall you call "Service". Cheers. Die in a fire.
Showing posts with label etailer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label etailer. Show all posts
Monday, November 7, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Origin vs Steam, or, What?
Ok, EA, some tips. If you're going to pull all your games down from the best online content provider for gamers, you might want to have a viable replacement. For some weird reason, I don't consider it very good when I get ~70% of the DL speeds I do for Steam. Yeah, it's probably good that more people are looking into digital retail channels for games. Even though something like 0% of us believe that that convenience is actually any more than a weak excuse for pirates, it's still convenient.
But please, do it properly? Another thing. You should probably have a system that isn't clunky, awkward, and stupid to replace the handy Steam client. Hate to tell you this, but centralizing us on a damned web browser, on a site that loads slower than Steam pages, and even forcing us to LAUNCH from the web browser, is kind of annoying. Especially when we have to relaunch the game to switch servers.
I mean, is it really so hard for gaming's monopolistic, monolithic evil empire to hire maybe ONE whole person who actually plays games in some sort of decision making capacity? I mean, this is in the category of idiocy. The only reason people use origin for online purchase at all is because you force us to. Here's a news flash. We like Steam as a whole service, not just as a store. You didn't improve on it, and you suck.
By the way, if you try to take away my access to my games because you don't like this opinion, like you did to the one guy after DA2 came out, I promise to sue you so bad your stockholders mama feels it.
But please, do it properly? Another thing. You should probably have a system that isn't clunky, awkward, and stupid to replace the handy Steam client. Hate to tell you this, but centralizing us on a damned web browser, on a site that loads slower than Steam pages, and even forcing us to LAUNCH from the web browser, is kind of annoying. Especially when we have to relaunch the game to switch servers.
I mean, is it really so hard for gaming's monopolistic, monolithic evil empire to hire maybe ONE whole person who actually plays games in some sort of decision making capacity? I mean, this is in the category of idiocy. The only reason people use origin for online purchase at all is because you force us to. Here's a news flash. We like Steam as a whole service, not just as a store. You didn't improve on it, and you suck.
By the way, if you try to take away my access to my games because you don't like this opinion, like you did to the one guy after DA2 came out, I promise to sue you so bad your stockholders mama feels it.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
AMD Responds to Bad Reviews.
You know, since the AMD FX CPU's haven't been for sale for 48 hours at the time I'm writing this, I have to wonder if they just went ahead and prepared this particular response in advance, since they knew they were releasing overhyped, overpriced paperweights.
But, in the interest of fairness, even though I'm sure I'm the least of their worries, I'm going to show their rebuttal and respond to it. After all, I hate when people can't be objective.
For starters, I'd buy the bit about design considerations based on what users need or will need in the future a bit more if FX was being marketed as a professional CPU, or a processor for college kids, and either way, priced a good bit lower. When you start trying to sell it as a consumer CPU, it needs to not be a step backwards in tasks that they're doing right now. Like gaming, perhaps. Yes, it did well in a few, generally the ones that are designed like software should be these days as far as threading. I don't think any enthusiast will argue against better threading in games. But it doesn't exist NOW, which is when FX went on the market. But frankly, since the majority of games are GPU bound anyway, better threading would only help in a portion of the market.
Generally, I look for inconsistencies when I read stuff like this. Notice, they show exact bench FPS from their tests in BF3. Talking about encoding, they just comment on how well threaded encoding tends to be. Why, exactly? Well, because the FX8150 kind of chills with higher end Intel. Which is soon to be surpassed by better Intel. That kind of sucks for AMD.
Now don't get me wrong, FX isn't technically bad. It's just horrendously overpriced. If the 8150 was at a price point with multi-locked i5's like 2300 or 2400, and the motherboards a bit cheaper, it would be an outstanding buy for several types of users. I could see college students doing video related or software related tasks, and being able to toss those to 6 cores, and do light gaming on another 2. Cheap streaming for E-Sports types would also be plausible.
So, sorry, AMD, but I'm not buying the statement. No, they aren't technically as terrible as they're getting made out to be, but between the hype and the pricing at the retail channels, this is a joke.
But, in the interest of fairness, even though I'm sure I'm the least of their worries, I'm going to show their rebuttal and respond to it. After all, I hate when people can't be objective.
Our Take on AMD FX
This week we launched the highly anticipated AMD FX series of desktop processors. Based on initial technical reviews, there are some in our community who feel the product performance did not meet their expectations of the AMD FX and the “Bulldozer” architecture. Over the past two days we’ve been listening to you and wanted to help you make sense of the new processors. As you begin to play with the AMD FX CPU processor, I foresee a few things will register:
In our design considerations, AMD focused on applications and environments that we believe our customers use – and which we expect them to use in the future. The architecture focuses on high-frequency and resource sharing to achieve optimal throughput and speed in next generation applications and high-resolution gaming.
Here’s some example scenarios where the AMD FX processor shines:
Playing the Latest Games
A perfect example is Battlefield 3. Take a look at how our test of AMD FX CPU compared to the Core i7 2600K and AMD Phenom™ II X6 1100T processors at full settings:
Benchmarking done with a single AMD Radeon™ HD 6970 graphics card
Map Resolution AMD FX-8150 Sandy Bridge i7 2600k AMD Phenom™ II X6 1100T MP_011 1650x1080x32 max settings 39.3 37.5 36.3 MP_011 1920x1200x32 max settings 33.2 31.8 30.6 MP_011 2560x1600x32 max settings 21.4 20.4 19.9
Creating in HD
Those users running time intensive tasks are going to want an AMD FX processor for applications like x264, HandBrake, Cinema4D where an eight-core processor will rip right along.
Building for the Future
This is a new architecture. Compilers have recently been updated, and programs have just started exploring the new instructions like XOP and FMA4 (two new instructions first supported by the AMD FX CPU) to speed up many applications, especially when compared to our older generation.
If you are running lightly threaded apps most of the time, then there are plenty of other solutions out there. But if you’re like me and use your desktop for high resolution gaming and want to tackle time intensive tasks with newer multi-threaded applications, the AMD FX processor won’t let you down.
We are a company committed to our customers and we’re constantly listening and working to improve our products. Please let us know what questions you have and we’ll do our best to respond.
Adam Kozak is a product marketing manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.
For starters, I'd buy the bit about design considerations based on what users need or will need in the future a bit more if FX was being marketed as a professional CPU, or a processor for college kids, and either way, priced a good bit lower. When you start trying to sell it as a consumer CPU, it needs to not be a step backwards in tasks that they're doing right now. Like gaming, perhaps. Yes, it did well in a few, generally the ones that are designed like software should be these days as far as threading. I don't think any enthusiast will argue against better threading in games. But it doesn't exist NOW, which is when FX went on the market. But frankly, since the majority of games are GPU bound anyway, better threading would only help in a portion of the market.
Generally, I look for inconsistencies when I read stuff like this. Notice, they show exact bench FPS from their tests in BF3. Talking about encoding, they just comment on how well threaded encoding tends to be. Why, exactly? Well, because the FX8150 kind of chills with higher end Intel. Which is soon to be surpassed by better Intel. That kind of sucks for AMD.
Now don't get me wrong, FX isn't technically bad. It's just horrendously overpriced. If the 8150 was at a price point with multi-locked i5's like 2300 or 2400, and the motherboards a bit cheaper, it would be an outstanding buy for several types of users. I could see college students doing video related or software related tasks, and being able to toss those to 6 cores, and do light gaming on another 2. Cheap streaming for E-Sports types would also be plausible.
So, sorry, AMD, but I'm not buying the statement. No, they aren't technically as terrible as they're getting made out to be, but between the hype and the pricing at the retail channels, this is a joke.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
First-time PC Builder FAQ
This FAQ is only going to apply after you've picked parts. I'm assuming you're reading this after either asking on your forum of choice, or getting a list from the family member who works in IT and thinks workstation components are good for gaming rigs, and you wouldn't listen to me on what to use anyways. Besides which, picking components is all about deciding what you want out of your PC and buying the best parts for that, which is mostly about prices and benchmarks.
Source X (includes GPU manufacturer) says I need a higher wattage PSU than this, will it work?
Well, I can't answer for any configuration without making one up, defeating the purpose, but keep in mind, GPU manufacturers have to account for all kinds of PC configurations, and low quality PSUs. A high quality PSU in a typical configuration will generally work fine well below the "minimum wattage". Bear in mind, some PSU calculators exist to sell products, and others have to be used properly or they aren't helping at all. Example, the calculator at extreme.outervision.com, used correctly, gives the wattage needed for your PC at full load to hit the load percentage you designate. It doesn't list the wattage your PSU will use under load.
How hard is it really?
Assuming you can read, and have the ability to match rather specific shapes, it's pretty simple. Yes, you need to be moderately careful, but as long as you take your time, read instructions, and pay attention, it's pretty hard to screw up, and moreso in a way that causes permanent damage.
I was installing my Intel CPU, got resistance, and heard a crunch. Did I break it?
As long as you lined up the notches, yes, the weird grindy pressure noise thingy is normal. It's the tactile response version of hearing fingernails on a blackboard, but it's ok.
My PC won't boot, and I'm hearing a bunch of beeps, what's wrong?
Well, the specifics depend on your motherboard, but that's called beep code. If you either look in your motherboard manual, or google your motherboard's model number and the words "beep code", you can find a translation, and it will help you troubleshoot. It's usually a sign you installed something slightly wrong, or have a DOA (Dead on Arrival) CPU or RAM stick, but it can mean other things.
My PC seems to boot, but the screen stays black, what's wrong?
There's several common causes for this issue. One of the more frequent problems is plugging the video cable into the motherboard's video out with a discrete GPU installed. Another cause can be not having PCIE power cables plugged in, or incorrectly plugged in. Poorly installed video cards can also be an issue.
I got my computer to boot, and installed my OS, but now I can't connect to the internet and nothing is working, what did I do wrong?
Look in the box your motherboard came in, and find the CD. You just need to install chipset and ethernet drivers. No big deal at all.
I got an SSD, what should I put on it?
Your OS and anything you want to load at startup. PDF readers and office software are also good, as they tend to load slowly. Games with lots of single player loading time are ok, but multi-player games, there's no real point, as your loading will be restricted by the slowest loader anyways, and he invariably has a massively fragmented USB 2.0 5400 RPM external HDD.
Do you suggest a particular guide?
I personally direct people to the Hardware Canucks video guide. Other people like other ones, but a lot of the other ones I see suggested come from etailers, and I refuse to send people to a resource provided by someone with a conflict of interest.
Source X (includes GPU manufacturer) says I need a higher wattage PSU than this, will it work?
Well, I can't answer for any configuration without making one up, defeating the purpose, but keep in mind, GPU manufacturers have to account for all kinds of PC configurations, and low quality PSUs. A high quality PSU in a typical configuration will generally work fine well below the "minimum wattage". Bear in mind, some PSU calculators exist to sell products, and others have to be used properly or they aren't helping at all. Example, the calculator at extreme.outervision.com, used correctly, gives the wattage needed for your PC at full load to hit the load percentage you designate. It doesn't list the wattage your PSU will use under load.
How hard is it really?
Assuming you can read, and have the ability to match rather specific shapes, it's pretty simple. Yes, you need to be moderately careful, but as long as you take your time, read instructions, and pay attention, it's pretty hard to screw up, and moreso in a way that causes permanent damage.
I was installing my Intel CPU, got resistance, and heard a crunch. Did I break it?
As long as you lined up the notches, yes, the weird grindy pressure noise thingy is normal. It's the tactile response version of hearing fingernails on a blackboard, but it's ok.
My PC won't boot, and I'm hearing a bunch of beeps, what's wrong?
Well, the specifics depend on your motherboard, but that's called beep code. If you either look in your motherboard manual, or google your motherboard's model number and the words "beep code", you can find a translation, and it will help you troubleshoot. It's usually a sign you installed something slightly wrong, or have a DOA (Dead on Arrival) CPU or RAM stick, but it can mean other things.
My PC seems to boot, but the screen stays black, what's wrong?
There's several common causes for this issue. One of the more frequent problems is plugging the video cable into the motherboard's video out with a discrete GPU installed. Another cause can be not having PCIE power cables plugged in, or incorrectly plugged in. Poorly installed video cards can also be an issue.
I got my computer to boot, and installed my OS, but now I can't connect to the internet and nothing is working, what did I do wrong?
Look in the box your motherboard came in, and find the CD. You just need to install chipset and ethernet drivers. No big deal at all.
I got an SSD, what should I put on it?
Your OS and anything you want to load at startup. PDF readers and office software are also good, as they tend to load slowly. Games with lots of single player loading time are ok, but multi-player games, there's no real point, as your loading will be restricted by the slowest loader anyways, and he invariably has a massively fragmented USB 2.0 5400 RPM external HDD.
Do you suggest a particular guide?
I personally direct people to the Hardware Canucks video guide. Other people like other ones, but a lot of the other ones I see suggested come from etailers, and I refuse to send people to a resource provided by someone with a conflict of interest.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Bad Ripoff PC Seller.
Some guy decided to try and advertise on Team Liquid today, talking about his "friend's" hot gaming rigs.
http://jestercreativesolutions.com/gameprotech
I'd tell you to buy Cyberpower before this shit. AMD in this day and age? A 980 BE is in the i5 2400 price point, for 65% of the performance. He sells that with a 6850 for $1200. You can outperform that for $800...
Don't spam a site I hang out on the tech board of spamming ads for SHIT builds at STUPID prices. Dig?
http://jestercreativesolutions.com/gameprotech
I'd tell you to buy Cyberpower before this shit. AMD in this day and age? A 980 BE is in the i5 2400 price point, for 65% of the performance. He sells that with a 6850 for $1200. You can outperform that for $800...
Don't spam a site I hang out on the tech board of spamming ads for SHIT builds at STUPID prices. Dig?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Customer Reviews, or, Stupidity as an Art Form.
So, we've all been there. Looking for whatever electronics or PC components online, at newegg or tigerdirect, and we see something that might fit our needs. Go to whatever search engine floats your boat, and start looking for reviews or benchmarks. Fast forward 30 minutes, for whatever reason, you couldn't find a good review or an unbiased benchmark. Why not just use customer reviews? It's rated 4 or even 5 stars, it should be good enough, right?
Of course, the correct answer to this question is hell no. Absolutely never, under any circumstances should you trust an E-tailers customer reviews on anything. Why? Well, first and foremost, statistical sampling is garbage. People are much more likely to complain than to say something positive, especially when their expectation was "function". Also, when someone does give a positive review, it's almost always going to be a very generous one, usually because they expected it to turn on, and OH MY GOD THE SHINY LIGHTS WORK!
But, you think, doesn't that mean that if it's rated high, it should be even better than the rating implies? Not really, no. Remember, most people only buy new electronics when it's an upgrade. As such, of course it feels faster, that would be the whole point of an upgrade, yes? Hell, odds are good they don't know what component actually matters anyway.
That means your best bet is to search for the people who say they're a high tech level, right? Wrong. Most technically inclined folks think a little too literally, and know that on a scale of idiot to Einstein, they're at best a 3-4/5, and won't put themselves as a 5. Anyone saying they're an expert thinks they are, and those people are much more dangerous to listen to. They're the ones with a metric asston of anecdotal evidence supporting all kinds of ridiculous stories and theories about how things work.
So, what good are the reviews? Well, they're great for figuring out how the unit is most likely to die in the event it does. That can be handy for a lot of things. They aren't any good for determining how well something works, because if someone who knew what they were doing had benched the components properly, you wouldn't be this desperate for reviews, now would you? They're also fairly good entertainment, if you're decent with the stuff, you can sit down with a beer and laugh until you cry.
In summation, e-tailer customer reviews suck.
Of course, the correct answer to this question is hell no. Absolutely never, under any circumstances should you trust an E-tailers customer reviews on anything. Why? Well, first and foremost, statistical sampling is garbage. People are much more likely to complain than to say something positive, especially when their expectation was "function". Also, when someone does give a positive review, it's almost always going to be a very generous one, usually because they expected it to turn on, and OH MY GOD THE SHINY LIGHTS WORK!
But, you think, doesn't that mean that if it's rated high, it should be even better than the rating implies? Not really, no. Remember, most people only buy new electronics when it's an upgrade. As such, of course it feels faster, that would be the whole point of an upgrade, yes? Hell, odds are good they don't know what component actually matters anyway.
That means your best bet is to search for the people who say they're a high tech level, right? Wrong. Most technically inclined folks think a little too literally, and know that on a scale of idiot to Einstein, they're at best a 3-4/5, and won't put themselves as a 5. Anyone saying they're an expert thinks they are, and those people are much more dangerous to listen to. They're the ones with a metric asston of anecdotal evidence supporting all kinds of ridiculous stories and theories about how things work.
So, what good are the reviews? Well, they're great for figuring out how the unit is most likely to die in the event it does. That can be handy for a lot of things. They aren't any good for determining how well something works, because if someone who knew what they were doing had benched the components properly, you wouldn't be this desperate for reviews, now would you? They're also fairly good entertainment, if you're decent with the stuff, you can sit down with a beer and laugh until you cry.
In summation, e-tailer customer reviews suck.
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